cahooted | [PSL] You put that urban fantasy right back where you found it (for zunesareawesome)

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[PSL] You put that urban fantasy right back where you found it (for zunesareawesome)

Flynn doesn't get involved.

Not anymore; there had once been a time where he had been involved in many things. Wonderful things, adventurous things – but that time was long gone, that life lay behind him now. It had ended when he had convinced Simone to let him stay with her, to bite and turn him. He had looked forward to a lifetime, no, countless lifetimes, with her, spending eternity together. Had been ready for it, or so he had thought.

After three days, three frightening, wonderful and confusing days with Simone, it had ended. Kubichek had not been killed by the grenade (of course not, that wasn't how vampires died, they should have known, stupid, stupid) and he had come back for his revenge, taking them by surprise. They had defeated him but it had cost Flynn dearly.

Now Simone is gone (forever) and Flynn is more lost than ever before in his life. He has taken refuge in Simone's old hideout, living off the remaining blood bags and postponing finding another place to live that isn't full of painful memories. He has secluded himself in here and here he will stay.

Alone.

He can't go back to the Library, he knows he can't. He turned his back on it and maybe he deserves the earth-shattering loss and loneliness of his rash decision; he has eternity to brood over that question. Part of him wishes he could see Judson and Charlene, just one last time, but he knows he wouldn't be able to face them after letting them down like he did. Sometimes he feels like he's catching Judson out of the corner of his eye, in a mirror, a movement of a reflection that can't be Flynn's, but when he looks there's nothing.

Flynn spends the days reading. About vampires, mostly, trying to catch up on his new existence. Most of the nights he spends reading, too, and really, if it were up to him he would never leave the apartment. But spending all his time reading also means he has to go out from time to time to find new material. Tonight is one of these nights and he already regrets it.

They're werewolves, he's pretty sure. It's like his gift to read people has been transferred to the supernatural and he can sense what these creatures are, can see it in their movements, feel it in the air, he just knows. They haven't changed form, only partially, their eyes gleaming in the moonlight, feral and dangerous and... mean. They have circled someone and Flynn can tell that this someone is a werewolf, too. A werewolf that the others don't seem to like for some reason. At all.

Flynn knows bullies when he sees them. They take their time, circling their victim, sometimes attacking for a punch or a scratch or a bite. Flynn pulls a face as he watches from the shadows of the trees before turning his back on the scene. Whatever. This is stupid. It's not his problem. He will seek out the trader he is supposed to meet for a stack of rare books, go home and hate life. Or unlife. Whatever he is supposed to call himself these days. 'Idiot', maybe. Yes, he thinks he'll go with that.

Flynn doesn't get involved, not anymore.

He makes it two steps back into the underwood, trying to ignore the snarling and growling, before he slows and stops. He closes his eyes, exhaling sharply at the sudden fear of a decision already made, before he turns and, with a gust of a dramatic whoosh ports himself forward and onto the clearing. He miscalculates and stumbles on a stone but thankfully for him the werewolves are too busy with their prey to notice his little mishap.

Or... anything about his dramatic entry really as nobody has even noticed him appear. Well, that was a colossal waste of time and energy? The old-fashioned way then.

"Hey! Leave him alone!"

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Peter would have probably lost it to the wolf again if his wolf knew how happy that made Flynn. He just wants to be your best friend, buddy!

"Well, I mean, if you're not used to being around...uh..." he didn't want to say big animals, but. "Critters, you wouldn't have known. Did you grow up with a dog?" He grinned, though. He liked to work out, and it was something of a point of pride that his wolf was big and muscular. "Was I really buff? I mean, as a wolf. Can wolves be buff?"

"Cool! Research!" Peter gets up, ready to follow him around like an eager puppy.

Really not that much behaviorally different than he was when he was covered in fur.

Edited 2018-02-04 14:31 (UTC)

"No, I never had a dog. And yeah, you were. About this big?" He held up his hand to indicate the height. "And definitely buff. I don't know how buff werewolves can get, so I can't say if you were buff for a werewolf but you were definitely buff on a general scale of... buff-ness."

Or something like that.

Flynn led him over to the table with the stack of books already piling up. He slowed briefly when they passed the cupboard hiding away the freezer with the blood bags but passed it. He did not want to do that in front of his guest if he absolutely didn't have to. Peter would probably take a shower or go get more food or do something that should give him an opportunity to feed.

"Do you want to help me? That might speed things up."

"Dude, that's awesome! Could you get a picture or video of me the next time it happens?" Because surely he's going to be around when it happens again, right? Buff werewolf needed to be recorded.

Peter doesn't notice him slowing briefly, and goes to sniff (literally, sniff) at the books. He's been catching himself doing that more often than not, but the more he's been accepting the wolf in him, the more things like this happen.

"Sure! Just point me in the right direction, bro."

The idea of taking pictures of the giant werewolf in his living room made him chuckle. "Sure. I'll see what I can do."

He tilted his head at the sniffing and his eyebrows rose slightly but as long as Peter didn't drool on or chewed the books they wouldn't have a problem.

"Alright, let's start with gathering some info." Flynn grabbed a stack, pushing it over at Peter. "You find anything on werewolves just slip a piece of paper in so we can cross-reference it later."

"Yes!" This was going so well. He finishes his cursory sniff inspection--nothing at all to worry about here, just books--and he takes the new stack that Flynn pushes over to him, lifting a particularly hefty tome and half-dropping it heavily onto the table.

"Right! Cross-referencing! I'm gonna reference these books so much. I'm gonna gather the hell out of this info!"

Enthusiasm? He has it, new friend! Much education that involved research, he does not! What does cross-referencing even mean? Whatever, he'll just do the paper thing.

Flynn chuckled at the enthusiasm and particularly the expressions. "That's the spirit."

He was soon engulfed in his reading, flipping pages and muttering quietly to himself. Sometimes he, too, slipped a piece of paper in one of the books so he would find the sections faster. But over time his focus waned and he felt his eyes wander back to the cupboard then and again. Unwilling to give into the unnatural demand he buried himself in a new stack of books, taking one of Peter's from time to time to look what he found.

"Hey, uh, if you're hungry or anything, you let me know, right? I tend to forget these things."

Peter looks up from scouring through some giant dusty book, fighting the urge to fall back asleep because some of this was just SO BORING, but Flynn's question brings him back to alertness.

"Wh...hungry? Oh yeah, maybe in a bit. This is just really interesting." Or not. What is all this about moon cycles and ancient lore and...boring. Where was that one book about how werewolves hunted, that was cool...something in Peter's bleary observations clicked. Flynn looking back towards the cupboard occasionally, then asking about...

"Are you hungry? 'Cause if you need to go out and do your thing, go do your thing, bro."

"What?" Flynn blinked, caught with a deer in headlights expression, then quickly brought his hands up. "No! I don't do that. I don't do the thing, I, the blood bags? I have them here. But I don't have to eat. I mean, I do have to eat, but I don't know if... you know."

He waved his hand around, trying to find the right words to say. Or rather, finding different words to say for something that was just so difficult to talk about. Was there a way to make it sound better than it was?

"It's just... it's not nice and I just don't know if the wolf is going to like it...?"

Or if you are. The last day had been surprisingly nice and Flynn found that he suddenly hated the idea of a look of disgust or apprehension on Peter's face.

Peter simply looks sympathetic. His brows furrow, and he can sense the unasked question. Not only the wolf. Himself as well.

"Dude...look, if it's somethin' you need to do, you'd best go do it. Besides, I..." he played with the edge of one of the books. "I think I've hunted before, too. I don't remember, but I woke up with...um. Well, evidence." He made a gesture that indicated he'd gotten a mess all over himself. He was never one much for hunting when he was an ordinary person, and looked grim at the mere thought of it.

That gave Flynn pause. "I'm sorry." And he really was. He hadn't considered that Peter might have had to deal with... these aspects as of yet, new as he was to the whole wolf thing. But it made sense; he had already told him about the transformations he had no memories about, really, Flynn could have guessed that hunting and feeding had probably been part of it.

"I didn't think of that. Maybe we can find you... I'm sure we can find a solution for you, too. Get you things from a butcher maybe?" Wow this was awkward to talk about. "Hey, if I can do it without hunting I'm sure you can, too."

"It's..." Well, it wasn't really fine, but there wasn't much he could do about it. And then he makes a face. "That's probably a good idea."

"Wait, you don't think I'll have to eat raw meat as a person too, do you?" If he was going to be able to remember being a wolf, but that also meant he'd remember...hunting and feeding and...yeah. He rubs the back of his head.

"How do you do it? How did you get used to it?"

"I don't think so. I can still eat and drink like a normal person, even though I don't need it, so you should, too? But, I don't know. If it's anything like... my thing I'm pretty sure you're gonna know."

How did you get used to it? Flynn drew up a book as if to study it because this was venturing into very uncomfortable territory. "I didn't. I'm not." He shouldn't say that, should he? He should tell Peter it would get better, easier, he would totally get used to it, there was a way, everything would be fine.

"I hate it." Or maybe he could just let opinions and emotions bubble up that he had kept bottled up for way too long, sure, that works too.

"I hate that I want it. I hate that it tastes good. I remember how the thought of blood used to make me gag. I remember looking at blood bags when I was still human and wanting to throw up, I-I remember that?" He flipped a page, almost aggressively when emotions threatened to take over. "I don't wanna hurt anyone."

"I hope so, cause that would suck, otherwise. But I mean, the only time I get really hungry is around the full moon. But like, not necessarily for raw steak or anything. Pizza was fine. So much pizza." That was expensive. Maybe hunting would be cheaper?

Peter's brows furrow when Flynn suddenly admits to something that...it looked like he'd been keeping that in for awhile. Peter looks sympathetic, and nods after he says his piece.

"I...I get that. I totally do. That's a raw deal--no pun intended." He looks back down at his book. "I don't wanna hurt anyone either. That one time, when I woke up all...y'know. For a second I was afraid I might have...eaten somebody. Like the Big Bad Wolf in fairy tales, right?" He tries to crack a smile but it fades quickly. "It wasn't, it smelled like deer, but I was just lucky. It could have been someone, maybe. The wolf wouldn't care if was really hungry, would it? I mean, I don't know, I hope not. But...it's straight up scary and I...maybe we can help each other like this? I keep an eye on you and you keep an eye on me so we won't hurt nobody."

Edited 2018-02-15 09:36 (UTC)

Flynn listened but it was the last sentence that really brought things to a stop. There was so much in that offer that he didn't know how to answer to. Help. Sharing. Companionship. And just like that, in between the lines. Did Peter even realize what he was saying? The magnitude of it?

He kept flipping through the pages and after a moment he realized that for some reason he was feeling better. Maybe he shouldn't because it meant there was someone else who had the same horrible problems he had. Then again it also meant there was someone else who had the same horrible problems he had. Someone who understood. Someone who could keep him in check, like Simone had.

His lips curled into a tentative smile. "Yeah. I'd... I'd like that. I think."

Peter grins in return. "Good. Team-ups are always good, right? Kind of like superheroes? Except we're not saving people from supervillains, just ourselves."

Actually that was a terrible, sobering thought, and he trails off, before coughing.

"Yeah, so. If you ever need to like, hunt animals, I bet I could bring you a deer or something real easy."

It was going to take some getting used to this was his life now.

"I don't think animal blood works on me." Which is just as sad as everything they have just exchanged and Flynn grimaces.

"Do you think we need a team name? Because I don't know about you but I've been in these situations and people ask you hey, who are you?" He drops his voice dramatically, emulating one of the wolf jerks from yesterday. "And you never know what to say because what can you say? There's not much you can say because..." you want to say 'I'm the Librarian' but you can't "... you have to say 'I am Flynn Carsen'? And it's just not... Like, I am okay with my name? Really, I am, it's just, it's not a very scary name? And people look at you and you're like what, it's not like I grew a new name with these fangs?"

Where was he going with this?

"Maybe we should get a team-up name. Something cool. To keep the jerks away."

"Really? Aw, man. That's...too bad. That makes...things a bit harder, don't it?" Peter huffs, trying to think. That just made his diet super limited and maybe that's why vampires were always after people cause they could never get a good supply thing going? At least in the movies. "I guess I could help you raid blood banks...would it be weird if a wolf raided a blood bank?"

And then he gets excited. GASP.

"A team name? DUDE! That's a frickin' awesome idea!" If he'd had his tail, it would be breaking the sound barrier right now. "The Librarian doesn't sound scary at all, nope. Maybe...maybe Team Awesome? No, definitely not scary enough, but we'd be cool if we went to watch a football game or something and got into a fistfight with some drunk guys. Let's see...Team Deathpunch? Fangs and Friends? Nope, that sounds like a cheesy Saturday morning cartoon."

He pauses. "What's our job? Like, what do we do? That'll help."

"I think it would be weird it anyone raided blood banks. And you know, you wouldn't have to do it in wolf form?" Just. Just a suggestion, Peter.

Flynn's face falls flat at Team Awesome because, just. No. But he can't help but laugh at Fangs and Friends. "Our job?" A job. Flynn didn't have a job ever since he gave up his last -- first -- one and went into recluse. When Peter asks him he realizes just how much he has missed having something, anyting. Having a purpose.

"We could stop other vampires and werewolves from... being jerks. You know, terrorizing humans, trying to take over the world, that sort of thing...?"

It feels a little like a light version of what he did before but hey. At least he has references?

"Then...how'll you get your blood?" He's concerned, but he snorts a second later. "But it'd be funnier! And totally baffling. They'd be so confused."

Peter brightens, that sounds like a fantastic idea. Considering how terrible it's been for him on the other end of things, to save other people from...dealing with all that? He's so down. "Dude. We'd be like superheroes. We have superpowers. They could make a comic book of us! I call dibs on the color red for my costume. And sunglasses. Red sunglasses."

A pause. "We could call ourselves the Guardians."

He furrows his brow. "Is there... a particular reason for the sunglasses to be red? And why would we need sunglasses? I can't go into the sun."

Then Peter makes another suggestion and Flynn freezes at the name. "The... Guardians?"

"Because red is an awesome color, and red sunglasses are both cool and slightly intimidating? And--" Okay, yeah, he didn't think about that. "People who wear sunglasses at night are even more intimidating. It's like--hey! Those guys are wearing sunglasses and don't need to! Better not mess with them!"

"Yeah! Because we're guarding...I don't know, other people? It's easy to remember. We can walk up in some place and be like, 'hey. We're the Guardians. And now you're about to have a really bad day.'"

Look, Flynn, sometimes life just needs to be more like bad 80's action movies, okay?

"Night." Flynn looks at him. "A really bad night. Still can't go out during the day?"

But okay, he gets Peter's point. He thinks. Sunglasses could be intimidating, he guesses? Flynn doesn't know if he wants to be intimidating or if this is the way to go on about it but Peter seems to know what he's talking about. He guesses.

"... I've never been a Guardian." It feels weird, using that word. It feels weird, thinking about using it for himself. He isn't supposed to be a Guardian.

Maybe Judson and Charlene would hear about it. Two Guardians, keeping people safe in the supernatural world. That... would be nice.

"But then if the night becomes our new day, then it still counts, right?" His head hurts trying to keep track of this.

"Me neither," Peter shrugs. "But I think it sounds pretty cool. And we'd be helping people, which is awesome." He rubs the back of his head before taking out a new book and looking through it.

"I've never really thought about like, actively helping other people much before. I mean, I just lived my life normally, y'know? But now, after seeing...all of this? And how awful this supernatural stuff can get and how innocent people can get hurt? I don't think I can look the other way, ever. Not when I can do something about it?"

A pause. "This sounds really corny."

Edited 2018-02-20 09:31 (UTC)

There's a pause on Flynn's end as well. "You're right. It does sound really corny."

After a moment his face breaks into a smile. "I like it."

"Good." Because the last thing he wants is to sound completely uncool, bro. But it's just them, and if Flynn likes it, well. That's good too.

"We are officially a superhero crime-fighting team."

He thumps his fist loudly on the nearest pile of books. "And we're gonna kick some serious vampire and werewolf tail."

A pause. "Do vampires have tails? I mean, if you turn into bats? Do bats have tails? Did I ask you that already because if I did, my bad--"

[PSL] You put that urban fantasy right back where you found it (for zunesareawesome)

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cw blood/gore

cw blood/gore

cw blood/gore

cw blood/gore

cw blood/gore/cannibalism-ish? Do werewolves count as cannibals?

cw blood/gore/werewolves... eating people idk what does that make vampires, liquid diet cannibals?

Re: cw blood/gore/werewolves ...specialized cannibals?

cw blood/gore/werewolves ...specialized cannibals.

cw blood/gore/werewolves \o/

cw blood/gore/vampires \o/

cw blood/gore

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