Hound of the Baskervilles

[ghostwolf]

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!]

Comments

[retraced]

Gilbert has an idea - somewhere in the part of his mind that isn't panicking - of what's going on here, but it's overshadowed by, well, the panicking part.

He barely gives notice to the fact that Kevin is shrinking and falls down to one knee at his side.

"Hey! Kevin?!"

[fallingbackup]

The transformation is gruesome to watch, really. Fortunately, the knight curls in on himself as he becomes human again, so Gilbert will miss the worst of it. He'll see the ears travel downward to their proper place, the way claws melt into fingernails and the way fur disappears beneath pale skin -- raw from the abuse of changing, but the damage fades quickly.

He won't see the awful grimace on Kevin's face as his muzzle shrinks back into his face. Or anything else of major importance. There's not a stitch on him, once the fur is gone.

Every line in his body is stretched tight with pain, and though it seems to ease once the knight is fully human again, it leaves Kevin exhausted. With another awful groan, he plops onto his side, bumping up against Gilbert's knee. Eyes half-closed, he breathes heavily. The sun is completely up.

[retraced]

Somewhere in between oh and shitshitshitshit lies Gilbert's real thoughts on the matter. His and jerks back away as the transformation starts, and he leans back on one foot to give Kevin space to flail about as needed, though he doesn't run away. As soon as he slumps back down and the worst of it seems to indeed be over, Gil hesitantly reaches out for him again.

"Kevin...?" he says as he puts a hand on the man's shoulder.

[fallingbackup]

"Nn --"

He'd been about to drift off; at the touch, he stirs awake again, and his eyes attempt to focus. All that's in front of him is the cabinet, but though he's human again, his senses are still more acute than they used to be. Though Gilbert spoke hesitantly, Kevin can hear him loud and clear. The smell of the cigarettes the man smokes -- it's stronger than it should be, and the knight knows immediately who is touching his shoulder.

Kevin doesn't jerk away. If anything, he relaxes a little. The simple comfort of not being alone is welcome as the aches begin to fade. Exhausted, his thinking is muddled, but one thought occurs to him, and he latches on to that thought.

"...werewolf. Gilbert," he says at length, voice slurred; his human tongue feels strange in his human mouth. "Pointin' at -- the moon."

1/3

[retraced]

2/3

[retraced]

"I knew that."

3/3

[retraced]

Of course he knew that, because suddenly it makes perfect. Sense. Except that Kevin has never been a werewolf, he's pretty sure. So this must be a new thing, maybe even the first time that it's happened if he hadn't thought to mention it previously. At any rate, he can't just lie here on the floor in the state he's in.

Quickly, Gil takes off his jacket and drapes it over the man.

"Are you okay now? Can you stand up?"

I lol'd

[fallingbackup]

"Mrrr," Kevin answers vaguely. After a moment, he realizes he's just made another wolf noise, and clarifies, "That hurt."

Even so, he attempts to sit up, push himself into a seated position. The jacket starts to fall from his shoulder, but he catches it at the last second. His hair is a tangled mess, and as Kevin sits there and contemplates his general state of being, he suddenly starts to nod off. When his head dips forward, the knight jerks awake again, and muffles a huge yawn in the collar of Gil's coat.

"...mmph," he concludes when it's over, squinting.

takes a bow

[retraced]

Oookay, he's clearly not going to stay awake and is probably still achy. It's to be expected after all the running and...eating and scratching and other doggy things. Gil is quick to catch him by the shoulders and help him sit up as he contemplates his next move. If Kevin can't stand, he'll have to carry him. It wouldn't be the first time, but it would be the first time that he hadn't been wearing his own clothes.

Dilemmas.

Maybe if he just waits another second Kevin will get some more strength back.

[fallingbackup]

Alas, Kevin is a Break deep down, and Breaks don't ever do what Gilberts want them to do. Kevin responds at first by simply leaning back against the support of Gil's arm. Then he sliiiiiides along it, landing against Gilbert's shoulder with a thump. If he were fully himself at the moment, he would never, ever do something like this, but as it is he's only about thirty seconds away from being completely out cold, and so his thoughts are something along the lines of, is not fluffy pillow, but will do.

-- except then he thinks of something else, and reaches up to tug Gil's cravat.

"Tell -- go tell Glen where I am," he says, and then ducks his head for another yawn. "My Glen. He worries."

[retraced]

While that's all well and good, he's also not about to just leave Kevin here unattended while he goes to talk to the man who he once shot in the head and then failed to apologize to later. But it's either that or pick this guy up with nothing but his jacket draped over him.




Nnngh-

After another few seconds of deliberation, he sits up and readjusts the jacket over Kevin's shoulders, doing up the button at the top to keep at least some of it closed. And he files this act under another one of the many, many things that Kevins and Breaks will forever owe him for.

"...I'll just take you home."

[fallingbackup]

"Mrrrr."

The one and only thing that redeems this situation at all is that Kevin does not actively snuggle the man. Well. He sort of nestles in the jacket a little. But that's different. There is no snuggling to be had. Not even a cuddle, really.

Instead, he announces, "You smell like rain and smoke," which is probably just as bad. Then he's out, sleeping against Gilbert's shoulder, and he isn't going to wake again for something like a day and a half. If nothing else, Gilbert will be able to get him home without enduring any snide comments or sulking.

[retraced]

If he were less mature he might say something along the lines of, you smell like a face full of turkey. But it's good that he's not less mature, because Kevin wouldn't have heard any of it anyhow. Another sad little sigh and he adjusts the man in his arms, rises up to his knees and slings him up onto his back. He's just as light as Break, just as easy to carry.

He just needs to be careful that there's no. Slippage.

That being said, off he goes to deliver this precious werewolf cargo to his proper sleeping quarters.

YOU RANG?

[redstainedking]

When Gilbert arrives at the house there would be the screech of the Hippogriff alerting everyone within hearing distance of his arrival. From its perch atop the roof.

Well then.

If no one in the house had been awake, they certainly would be now.

HURRO

[retraced]

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT.

Gilbert hesitates at the gate, tightening his grasp on Kevin and he turns to the left and right and then forward again. If something is about to attack, he'll have to drop the man right here. If it's another werewolf he's going to punch the Will of the Mansion in the face so help him--

HEWLLO

[redstainedking]

"You may as well bring him inside, Gilbert." Standing at a recently opened front door, looking like he had been up for hours already. A few figures moving behind him, a few clearly irritated at the sudden wake-up call.

"Hippogriff won't pounce from the roof top."

[retraced]

Damn it Glen stop sneaking up on people!

Even though you're just standing in the front door.

That totally counts as sneaking up on someone...

Gilbert locks eyes with the man, holds that gaze for another few moments. It's an ache in the back of his head every time he does so, but he forces himself to continue staring back at that familiar face that begs shrouded approval. Finally he swallows, readjusts Kevin on his back and starts for the door.

"Sorry to intrude," he mutters, as politely as he can manage. "He's okay. He just needs to...sleep this off."

It's a long story Glenwald, are you ready for this?

[redstainedking]

The gaze is held, nothing given or taken audibly since the man rarely has much to say; or so much as twitch a smile or frown. "I had wondered if he would wander back, Lacie missed her playmate." What?

Still, he stepped away from the front door and left it open, "The gate isn't locked, you can bring him on inside without any trouble. For the time being he can be set on the couch." Why does it sound as if this was normal? What is even wrong with this man?

"I hope he didn't give you any trouble," from inside the house why did he just walk off, "Lacie has taken up the habit of chewing on anything she can get her paws on during this time, and I don't know if Kevin has the same habit or not."

[retraced]

What is wrong with this man, indeed. What is wrong with anything that he just said. The answer: all of it. Apparently this was just a Thing in this household now. Great. Now he'll have to go to the library and find a book on werewolves to make sure that he hasn't been turned as well, somehow. Though he's pretty sure that there had to be more involved than feeding him meat and carrying him home.

Gilbert opens the gate, walks up to the entrance and drops his eyes politely (self-consciously) as he follows Glen inside.

"How long has he...been like this?"

[redstainedking]

"Ever since Lacie bit him, after this city merged with that other and returned to normal all over again."

Well, as normal as this fake city could be. That had been a while now, hadn't it? Or maybe it hadn't been long at all, Glen was losing track of time lately here and there. He couldn't much help it these days, when they began to run together.

He glanced back towards Gilbert, the door closing behind him once he entered the house, "There was apparently a werewolf there, and out of fear the small Lacie managed to get a scrape from his fang when he picked her up in the form of a large wolf."

[retraced]

Ah, yes. Gilbert remembers that world well. He just hadn't been sure that anything had carried over from that one into this one. For someone who patrols and protects the city, Gilbert is always the last to know mostly everything.

His legacy.

"I see..." he says as he moves to set Kevin down on the couch. But before he can do so, he first asks, "Do you have something for him to wear?"

[redstainedking]

Glen paused for a moment, glancing towards the stairs--

"There should be something in his room, then again he has been borrowing my shirts at times..." This is what his life has become; if it isn't Jabberwock stealing his coats, it was Kevin stealing his shirts.

[retraced]

"He's...um."

Gently, he starts to set the man down. It's pretty obvious even with Gilbert's long jacket on that he's got no pants on.

"Do you mind dressing him?"

[redstainedking]

"That tends to happen." He knows what you are trying to say, Gilweed. There's a possible familiar shadow before there's a pair of pants and a shirt handed out of it, along with the grumblings of an irritated Chain from the kitchen.

"I don't, I did help take care of him when he was ill."

How was Gilbert going to get his coat bake without causing Kevin to flash the room?

[retraced]

The answer is: he's not. He's going to stand up, politely look away, and wait for Glen to hand him his coat back. Maybe go chat with Raven. Anything but look down at naked, sleeping Kevin.

"Thank you..."