The Great Escape (closed RP)

[4pawsandatail]

He hadn't really thought about it, the first time he'd done it. He'd been hungry, and he'd needed something to eat and hadn't been able to catch anything the old fashioned way. So he stole it, in the middle of the night, sneaking through the back door of a deli that had been left open during a cigarette break

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[sinfulways]

The light was abysmal but just enough seeped in from odd corners to offer up a dim portrait of disuse, decay, and desperation. It also offered her a glimpse of just what she'd been chasing this entire time and it didn't immediately jive with what she always associated with werewolves. True, the creature was large and had all the important bits - tail, ears, large muzzle that held teeth that could easily tear into flesh - but somehow it just didn't automatically scream 'This is a Killer, BEWARE'.

Greta regretted that her thoughts had immediately turned away from 'kill' to 'pity', to sympathy for the cringing wolf, but it wasn't something she had active control over. She was an emotion driven woman, after all, and instincts honed from these years of hunting with Simon had left her with snap judgments that were usually on the money more often than not. Though she didn't lower her gun or lose any of her aggressive posture, her muscles coiled and ready for fight or flight, she didn't believe this was the dangerous sonuvabitch they were after.

"Well...fuck."

[4pawsandatail]

Honestly, he'd sort of expected to be dead by now. She had the gun, and had it pointed at him, and she totally probably already knew it was him who'd stolen everything, but--

But he wasn't shot yet. He wasn't shot yet and she didn't exactly look like she was going to shoot him any time soon. He was still shaking, ears still pinned, eyes still wide with fear, but he let out a soft little 'aroo?' of question that was probably much more at home from a domestic golden retriever than it was for a werewolf.

Peyton couldn't bring himself to mind.

[sinfulways]

Oh. Oh that was evil. The little shit wasn't at all what the hell they were chasing after, was it? Not when it looked like it was two seconds away from wetting itself and looking at her with abject fear and...curiosity. And that little noise?

Greta fished out her phone and immediately sent a text to Simon to tell him to 'hurry the fuck up' and 'we've got a problem. his name is fido'. She didn't lower her weapon but she eased her grip a fraction to take some of the tension from her wrist. After sliding the cell back into her pocket she glared, ruefully, across the space at the jerk that lead her on a wild goose chase.

"You are a bastard, you know that? You had me chasing you half across bumfuck to catch you and you're not even what I'm after, are you?" She'd laugh at herself later for talking to the animal, but dammit! She needed to vent her frustrations in a more constructive manner because her usual way was to shoot at what was bothering her.

[4pawsandatail]

He sees the gun loosen and he shifts slightly forward, settling down on his front legs, his tail giving a half-hearted little wave. He's--not sure if he's what your after, but, if she was starting to think he wasn't, Peyton was going to go with that, so he shook his head, before laying his chin down on his front paws, licking a bit at one of the scrapes he'd gotten trying to get away from her.

[sinfulways]

That little display seemed to confirm her shaky suspicions and she let out a heartfelt and very unladylike snort of disgust. The gun game down then but didn't get placed in the holster strapped into the shoulder holster she used when impersonating a police officer. Normally she kept it in a similar holster that secured on the back of her belt.

"Dammit. Dammit, dammit, DAMN!" Simon was going to be just as pissed when he got her. This big ole thing wasn't going to be the werewolf that had been killing the people in this little town because if it was then it was the biggest idiot savant in the killing-maiming department she'd ever run across. Idly she wondered if werewolves could have mentally challenged members among their ranks. Amusing thought.

"Suppose I should apologize for getting you hurt then," She replied after a moment, a smile turning up the corners of her mouth. Apologizing to an animal wasn't odd in the least, but apologizing to this one made her feel silly and a lot like she was turning into her batty aunt Lisa. "If I didn't think Si would smack me over the head for being stupid I'd offer to waste bandages on those cuts."

[4pawsandatail]

As she keeps talking, Peyton moves forward slowly, pulling himself forward on his paws before he's relatively close to her, and then he raises his head and licks at her free hand, perhaps in thanks for not shooting him, or something, he's not entirely sure, but he's just--really glad she's on his side, so he'll just sort of press his entire body against her hip, ears finally coming out of their pinned state, large and somewhat awkward on his head. It's obvious he's young, and his tail begins to wag slightly as he begins to lick her hand properly in greeting.

Which is, of course, right when Simon manages to shoulder open the door to the warehouse enough to accommodate his larger bulk and calls out to his partner.

"Greta?! Greta, where are you?"

[sinfulways]

The light was horrible in this place and she'll blame it for her inattention. She hadn't noticed the creature moving towards her until he was almost at her feet and even then she hadn't leveled her weapon at it. It--he just didn't set off alarm bells she knew would be ringing if the animal had been immediately dangerous. And then it licked her. It licked her hand! What kind of unimaginable monster licked a girl's hand and whined, and was generally scared out of its head because a little human was chasing it?

She was a mother fucking sap and it was going to get her killed one day.

"Well, at least I know my death with be by slobber and not snapping teeth," She chuckled, keeping both hands still but smiled down at the thing trying to give her fingers a stinky bath. She'd have crouched down, like an idiot, and reached up to pet the thing too if Simon's voice, and the noise he was making, didn't pull her out of her unhunter-like thoughts. She knew better than the jerk her hand away or make any sudden movements - hello, wild animal at her feet! - but she couldn't help turning her head away from it to look towards where she could hear Si; a rookie mistake that was probably going to get her killed one day too.

"In here, Sim" She called out. "Be careful, though. There's crap all over the place and most of it hurts when you run into it."

[desperatehunter]

Simon made his way carefully through the wreckage that was a warehouse, slipping under broken beams and old machinery. Where Greta was the faster of the two of them, Si tended to be the more careful, more fluid. He didn't rush so much, took his time.

He moved, gun out and at the ready, but he wasn't sure anything could have prepared him for what he saw when he made it to where Greta was standing. She--

There was a damn werewolf cuddled up to her like she was his long lost mother. And she was completely turned away from the thing, throat, chest, sides exposed and vulnerable for attack as she looked back at him.

"---explain,"

[sinfulways]

When Simon came into view Greta smiled and lifted the hand that held her gun and shook it at him in greeting. The creature was huddled in front of her, shivering, and it looked for all the world like it wanted to hide right there behind - in front of? - Greta, like Simon was going to shoot it for being so close but it was too afraid to run for the hills. Or the back corner as the case may be.

"Meet the little wolf that couldn't," She grinned broadly and wriggled her damp fingers at the animal. Simon wouldn't shoot it, not this close to her, so she thought they were both relatively safe for the moment, though she knew her ears were going to be in for it if a flush started creeping up along Simon's neck...which she couldn't tell in this light.

[desperatehunter]

Worse than the flush was the slight tick at the corner of Simon's jaw, that made an appearance only when Greta was being particularly idiotic, and through her choices had put herself in some sort of danger. He stepped forward a half step, eyes narrowing slightly as he looked down at the werewolf, the half-hidden posture, the frightened slant of his ears and the way he kept casting pleading little looks up at Greta. It was--intriguing, but not at all comforting.

"He could be faking," He said slowly, even as his grip on the gun loosened slightly, and the wolf gave a tiny little whine and pressed his muzzle into Greta's limp hand.

"--is he even a werewolf?"

[sinfulways]

Immediately she turned her attention back to the animal pressing against her and made soft noises of comfort, nonsense words meant to sooth but otherwise didn't make a whole lot of sense. She told him it was alright that neither of them would hurt him but that wasn't really the truth. They would hurt him, kill him even, if he turned out he was, in fact, a dangerous animal that needed to be taken care of. Greta had a feeling that the animal knew that.

"Yes, I'm sure he's got that sort of presence of mine to fake being scared out of his mind, shaking and all, but is really luring me into a false sense of security, waiting for the moment he can pounce and rip my throat out." She gave her partner a look that said, clearly, that she thought he was being ridiculous. She doubted the quivering thing could lure a paper bag into a false sense of security much less tear into anyone.

Greta shrugged, "I don't rightly know, but it seems like he understands me - us - well enough, doesn't it? Maybe a shifter or walker of some sort? There's lore on beings that can shift into animals that aren't related to werewolves, right?"

[4pawsandatail]

He'd been well into coming into himself when the second hunter had entered the warehouse and he'd wanted to curl back up and hide in the corner with his tail over his nose and paws over his eyes when he sees the man. The hunter is hard everywhere that Greta was kind and he burrows into the woman as close as he can.

At their questions though, he thinks he might be able to explain some things, and he moves away from the woman, slowly, heading for the cover of a few file cabinets that are toppled over in some sort of haphazard fashion high enough he won't embarrass himself when he shifts.

It takes him a moment, a long moment, before he's anywhere close to able to grab on to his human side, but he finally manages it, and with a sickening sound of bones and muscles and tissues rearranging themselves he's standing on weak legs and giving them both an awkwardly sheepish look from behind the slim shield of metal.

"--hi."

[sinfulways]

Her guns out and pointed towards the squelching crunch of noise, noise that turns her stomach slightly and makes her wince, eyes narrowed and a feeling of betrayal coiling tight and wrong in her belly. She didn't trust the creature, surely, but she felt that there was a bridge for it, a branch extended by way of slobbery dog tongue. It turns out that she was both right and wrong about the thing she'd chased into this dusty and old warehouse.

Greta blinked and stared, long and hard, at the boy that emerged where once a shivering wolf-thing had been huddling and tried very hard not to gape. Her gun was lowering of its own accord since her brain was too busy trying to process what she was seeing to give commands to her arm to stay up. Also, it was unhelpfully crowing that she was totally right about this guy not being who they were after. If that boy weighted more than she did she'd willingly go to church and sit for Sunday service.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, sweetheart," She said, finally. "I'd start before Simon decides to shoot you."

[4pawsandatail]

"Your boyfriend is terrifying," He lets out before he catches what he's just said and flushes, the tips of his ears and back of his neck going scarlet. He shuffles, awkwardly, and bites his lip before he tries again, really just wishing he had some clothes because that would help make all oft his a little less awkward. At least then he wouldn't be talking to a pretty girl in nothing but his birthday suit while her boyfriend trained a gun on him. If someone would have told him this was how his day was going to go this morning he would have laughed.

"Uh--I--well, as you can see--I'm a werewolf?"

[sinfulways]

She wanted to laugh, really, and was having a hard time simply not, and Greta knew that if she looked over at Simon right now she'd lose it. The boy was adorable even if he was terrified and blushed pretty much the same way her best friend did when he was embarrassed. She wondered if looked over - which she was not going to do - if Simon's ears would be just as bright.

"Yet you're not trying to kill either of us and the moon hasn't quite came out just yet," Logically she knew it was there all the time, just the sun hid it from view during the day time and brightened it when night rolled in. That was all beside the point. "Are you quite sure you're a werewolf?"

[4pawsandatail]

"I mean, ah, pretty certain? Got bit and everything. Seems--seems like it goes with the moon like when the full moon is out I can't help but change, but the rest of the time I can sort of control it?" He offers, very pointedly not looking over at the man still holding the gun, even though he could see the twitch of a smile on Simon's face. He--would count that as a good thing.

"If this is about the stuff I stole I'm really, really sorry. I mean, I can probably return all of it. It was--just some clothes and some sneakers and some blankets--"