ghostwolf | Hound of the Baskervilles

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[phdr]

Hound of the Baskervilles

Two months ago, during the time when the different worlds converged, the tiny Lacie encountered a very large wolf. One month after receiving that negligible cut to her palm, she turned into a little black wolf puppy for a night, and wasted no time sinking her fangs into Kevin's hand when he tried to pick her up and keep her out of trouble.

Tonight, there are two wolves in the Baskerville House, and they've pretty much figured out what's going on.

Lady Shelly and Oswald agreed some time ago that Kevin would make a pretty good wolf, if it came to it, and he really can't help but feel like someone is laughing at him over it. His two stints as a bunny rabbit did not prepare him at all for walking around on four legs -- walking, not hopping -- and having a mouth full of huge teeth. He keeps tripping over his own feet, getting confused as he tries to sort through all the sounds and smells, and earlier his long tail got stuck in a door. It would be easier if he were a pup like Lacie, loping about the house and crawling under the furniture, but as a full-grown werewolf Kevin is huge, four feet tall at the shoulder and heavier than he is as a human. Finally, after spending half the night trying to endure the house, the white wolf ventures outside in an attempt to get used to this new form. After all, given that the Brat has turned for the second month in a row, it looks like he's probably going to be stuck with it...

When not at home with Glenwald and company, Kevin can be found wandering through the streets he often haunts during patrol, enjoying the late-night solitude of the mansion's gardens, or perhaps even sniffing about at Lady Shelly's house, just to make sure nothing suspicious is going on nearby. Hopefully, he'll be back at home safe and sound before the moon sets. If he isn't, somebody gets to deal with a mortified and very naked knight, who will proceed to sleep in their house for two days and then eat the whole pantry for breakfast. Ah, the noble life of a werewolf!

[

fallingbackup wearing his shiny new coat, if you will. Due to busyness, there is no post as of yet for

bittybratty's first transformation, but I will link it here whenever something is backdated. Slow, late, and backtags welcome as always!]

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No? The part of Kevin's personality that finds it amusing to be contrary thinks otherwise. The wolf lays down, watching attentively to see what sort of face Gilbert might make when he realizes the "pup" is going to directly disobey his every plea. He wonders how long it will take him to catch on. Especially if he won't look directly at the wolf, to notice the red eyes.

It wants to take a nap now? Damn it, maybe he's doing this wrong after all.

Okay, new approach. Gilbert puffs out his chest and brings his arms up, trying to appear much larger and intimidating than he really is.

"H-hey! Get away from there!" he yells a little louder, making exaggerated shooing motions with both hands.

Pfft, now he looks like the giant chicken trying to establish its dominance over the Jabberwock or something, that time she'd put one of her hammocks too close to its coop. It had failed. The wolf's mouth splits into a doggie grin, and his tail wags a little. So preciously useless, Gilbert, honestly.

Laughing at him. The wolf is laughing at him. Why this. Why is this his life...

Slowly he puts his arms down and then drops down to one knee a few feet away from the poor pooch. One arm draped over his knee, he finally makes eye contact if only so he can glare at this damned thing and let him know through sight alone that he's no amused by--

But that shade of red is familiar...too familiar. He startles a bit and continues staring, as though he expects the wolf to answer the question that he's fighting to come up with in his mind.

He has two intact eyeballs, Gilbert. This is not rocket science. Kevin yawns at him, lazily exposing teeth, and contemplates whether the effort of stealing Gilbert's hat would be worth the dramatic overreaction. Maybe after he knows for sure Gilbert recognizes him.

It shouldn't be rocket science, and yet.

But it finally occurs to Gilbert after staring at the red eyes and white hair long enough. He remembers back to his own time spent as a frog, Gilbert's stint as a cat, the numerous times that Break has changed into a bird.

Of course the Will wouldn't be done with any of them yet.

"...Kevin?" he guesses, keeping his voice low as if he's embarrassed to be heard. Which he is. What if he's wrong and someone overhears him giving wild animals names, his reputation will never restore itself.

Kevin sits up again, tail swishing, ears forward. He almost grins again, but instead, he waits to see how Gilbert will react now that he's got it. Although the knight has settled into a rather fine mood as the evening wears on -- perhaps a side effect of his wolfy brain -- he is still Kevin, and this is still Gilbert. Depending how he takes it, this could be incredibly awkward later on.

Still thinking of stealing the hat, though. It's just right there.

Okay. So it really is him and he really is a wolf.

Okay.

He can accept that. It's not the first time that it's happened and definitely won't be the last. But it does mean that he's now officially down one patrolling buddy for the foreseeable future, and that frustrates him enough to sigh and let his head slump forward in annoyance. Why this, etc.

The hat really is just sitting there on his head. While he's not paying close attention. It's a crime not to take it, honestly.

"I guess we need to figure out a way to communicate, then...until the Will changes you back. Ah. Do you know how it happened?"

Oh, he knows how it happened, alright. Lacie's fault, as usual. Ah, but he's had his form changed by the Will before, too, and this isn't the same thing. He could just wait until he changes back and use words to explain, since it's not like it'll be all that long, but...

Rising to his feet -- with Gilbert kneeling, he dwarfs him, like this -- Kevin pads away, moving silently past the trees until he gets to a place where they can easily see the sky. There, he sits down again, and turning to Gilbert, he lifts one of his front legs to paw at the general direction of the moon. It's in its last quarter now, rather than the full moon so typical to the legends, but maybe Gilbert will still be able to make a connection between wolves and moons anyway.

Or not. Patiently, Kevin watches him, and also the hat. Kevins and Breaks are not always very good at being patient, but when they want something enough...

He looks up to where Kevin is pointing. Stares. Contemplates. Looking like he's trying really fucking hard to figure it out. He also remains standing as Kevin comes to a stop, if only because there's no way that any Break-shaped living thing is going to be taller than him if he can help it.

But after another couple of quiet moments of pondering what he's talking about, it's pretty clear from the look on his face that he has absolutely no idea what the wolf-man means.

"Um...something in the trees...?"

Gilbert, you are so, so lucky that Kevin still has far too many tiny dignities to ever use his own ass in an attempt to convey the word "moon". Or yours, for that matter. Instead, with a grunt, he sits up on his back feet the way dogs do when they beg, and stretches that front paw over his head as he waves it again. Higher, Gilbert. Look higher than the trees. Look at the sky.

Slowly, his head tilts back further, further, and further still until he's nearly looking straight up. A quick glance to the left and right. Stars, clouds, wind, the moon, birds. Ah, maybe that's it.

"A bird? A black winged Chain?"

Look at how clever he is. Just look.

...yes, Gilbert, Jabberwock bit him and now he's doomed to frolic around as a very large puppy every month. Kevin huffs a no, and then he really just can't stand it anymore. His patrol buddy is tilting his head back, the hat's gonna fall off any minute now anyway, he's having Break urges, he just -- he needs to take the hat.

Bouncing up, the wolf gets a hold of the brim in his mouth and yanks it right off, trotting away. After he's got a bit of distance, he turns, tail wagging a little as he deliberately taunts Gilbert with his stolen prize. He'll figure out a way to communicate later. For now, this is much more important.

What the--

His hands go to his head, grasping both sides of his ridiculous, curly hair as he twists around to yell, "My hat?!" Is this really Kevin after all?! This is a Break tactic, definitely! The mature thing would be to stop and demand that the wolf bring it back right this instant, but he goes for the far less mature route.

He sprints after him, arms flailing.

"Give it back!"

Ironically, because this is Kevin and not a Break, this tactic almost works; the trouble with carrying things in your mouth is that if you grin too much those things are liable to fall out. He almost drops the hat, because that is freaking hysterical. If he were human, he'd probably be having a gigglefit right now, which has certainly been known to happen but is still pretty rare. The last time had been concurrent with not sleeping for three and a half days, actually.

On some level, Kevin is aware of this. He is aware that he is acting like an idiot himself, and that being so silly is unbecoming of pretty much anything that has long-since grown into adulthood, and that he is not in his right mind at all. But he doesn't have complete control of his wolfbrain yet and the wolfbrain thinks this is all a grand hoot, so he's off like a ~~MAGICAL FURRY SHOOTING STAR~~ shot through the night -- and once he starts running, he realizes how great running is, and doesn't stop. He'll have to slow down eventually to keep the game up, of course, but the grounds are huge and he's a great big white thing. It's not like Gilbert will lose him.

More importantly, Gilbert will not lose the hat. It is too important, thus the satisfaction in stealing it in the first place.

He's lucky he's in good shape, because he takes off running after this damned wolf at full speed, stumbling awkwardly over holes in the ground and twigs and rocks and whatever obstacle is in his way to win his main objective. To take his hat back.

"Kevin I'm serious, cut it out!"

Yeah, no. Kevin runs until he comes to the areas of the garden that are most twisty and turny, full of hedges, difficult to run around in properly. Only then does he stop, turning to let Gilbert catch up, tail wagging obnoxiously. This is an amusing game. He doesn't get to do things like this with the tiny Gilbert. He's seen the poor thing subjected to the Lacies once or twice, even when they weren't trying to be awful, and he has a feeling any kind of game would just make the kid cry.

That said, wrestling with the big Lacie earlier was pretty fun, since he actually had a chance at winning this time. But Lacie fights dirty. Kevin wonders idly if Gilbert would actually bother to try at all, and if he did, how honorable he'd be about it.

Sadly, this Big Gilbert looks about ready to cry too. Except his teary face looks more hilarious than depressing, easier to laugh at than to wibble at. Tiny Gilbert has the bonus of being cute, while Fail here is just pathetic and pitiful. Because this is a hat. It's not like it's a child, but one would think it was for all the fuss he's putting up right now.

He catches up easier than most people would. Being in shape and going after something that he cherishes, he's giving it his all.

"Be careful with it, don't bite down too hard--!"

Fear not, Mister Gilbert; just earlier tonight Kevin was carrying a squirming puppy around in those teeth and she's none the worse for wear. The hat is fine. It's just being held as a hostage while Kevin kneels down in a play bow, ass in the air and tail going nuts, an invitation for Gilbert to try and take it away from him. That's all.

(If Kevin is lucky this part of the night will, for the most part, be a blur in his memory later on. He's never going to live his puppy side down.)

He's starting to seriously doubt that this is really Kevin. Even as a dog, Kevin wouldn't just toy with him like this. He has to at the very least be closer to a Break, or at least one of the Kevins that enjoys watching him suffering through teasing, because he is suffering watching his hat undergo such torture.

Though, if he thinks about it he'll recall the time he was a frog and magically knew how to swim like one. But that's another thing he's working on repressing, so like that connection is going to be made at a time like this.

As soon as he's close, he does just as Kevin is trying to get him to do. Edging in close, hunched over with one hand out like he's going to try and snatch it when he gets close enough.

"Just...drop it........drop it already!"

The majestic beast waits patiently, hindquarters twitching as he tries to keep himself from not tearing across the lawn again. This game is a fun game. Gilbert is easy to play with! Kevin watches him intently, waiting to see if he'll dart forward to grab the hat. When he does, Kevin will --

-- wait. The hell is that? Something's moving over -- the wolf stands up suddenly, ears forward and tail stilling, and does indeed drop the hat. There's a thing. It's a pokey looking thing but it isn't a porcupine. It's like -- is that a hedgehog or something maybe? Holy shit! Kevin sees Gilbert all the time; random wildlife is way more interesting. He trots over to investigate, game utterly forgotten.

For the moment.

Stupid majestic beast you clearly don't understand the precious cargo that you're carrying...! But hey, what does it matter if he's finally got his hat back. It's too dark to see if there's truly any damage done to it, but Gilbert still kneels down to the ground, picks it up and dusts it off, holding it up to look at it this way and that, making sure there are no holes or obvious marks.

It kinda smells like Wolf!Kevin saliva though, so he's not exactly keen on putting it back on his head just yet...

For now he simply sighs, stands up and grasps it in one hand as he turns to follow the manwolf. He's got more yelling to do, of course.

"Kevin! You can't steal people's clothes just because you're suddenly a wolf!" He frowns and remains a few steps away. He'd done some pretty odd things when he'd suddenly become a frog, maybe Kevin just couldn't help it.

"This had better not happen to you every time you sneeze like with Break and that bird..." he adds, mostly under his breath. How many more people will be taken by this curse. How many.

Yeah, well, at least Raven was probably the one to cook whatever it is he ate tonight.

Generally, Kevin ignores him in favor of the hedgehog. But his hearing is excellent enough that he catches the mutterings, and that gets his attention. (Good thing, too, because he was probably about two seconds away from spines in his nose.) Turning over his shoulder, he eyes his patrol buddy, ears swiveling back and forth as he thinks. Then, he tries one more time to explain, waving his paw at the sky again.

The moon, Gilbert. Look at the moon. It has nothing to do with sneezing, and he actually feels a bit of sympathy for whichever Break that is, because changing from man to wolf hurt like hell, and he can't imagine transforming as often and unpredictably as for a sneeze... On the other hand, he doesn't have much sympathy, because Breaks are assholes. Let's be honest.

He's still gesturing at the sky and Gilbert still doesn't get it. The clouds, the sky, the moon, the stars, darkness. None of these things are really striking a close chord with him, so he sighs in annoyance and rubs at his forehead with one hand while the other still grasps tightly to his hat.

"Don't worry, you'll turn back eventually. Everyone does."

Though he assumes this is just normal transformation and not something that he could potentially read about at the mansion's library.

Well. Kevin can't really roll his eyes as a wolf, but he can roll his head. So he does, and resumes following the hedgehog, for the moment. What he doesn't realize is that he'll have his voice back soon enough. He hasn't been paying attention to what time it is, or the fact that the moon is setting.

If Gilbert wanders away from him, he'll follow. He's had enough time to himself tonight. Now he feels like being companionable, and it's kind of nice, getting out of talking back by not being able to speak.

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