[PRP] Gotcha (Rabbit/Nev/Sy/???)

[Smerdle]

"Benben!"

Sy's voice was mostly excited, but it was the hint of alarm that had Rabbit bolting next door to find out what was wrong. What he saw surprised him, even though it shouldn't have. The sirens' room was wrecked again, the first such incident in a month and a half, but this time their trap had been sprung. They'd finally caught the son of a b***h. Rabbit grinned.

"Look!" Neverain was smiling too, which was nice to see following Pax's funeral. The cage at the center of their room was eerily silent, but that might have just been because of the sheet. They'd rigged it up to cover itself once something was caught, just in case the creature had hypnosis powers or mind control, but it was possible that their caution had just caused the thing to fall asleep.

"Uncover it!"

"Yeah, just... stay back." If the creature hadn't reacted to their stage whispers by now, it had likely never been asleep in the first place.

Ashdown Whaler

 

[azuredreams]

The creature, it turned out, was not really a creature. At least, it did not look like one (it was more like a mass of living shadow that was) - once uncovered - started to shake and rattle it's makeshift cage.

Then it started to cry. The noise was painful to hear, as if in their minds, and a lot of it was a disjointed mess of playplay caught bad bad bad.

It became clear, very suddenly, that perhaps this was it's way of calling out for help.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Both kids covered their ears, though their excited smiles remained through the horrible noise. Rabbit gritted his teeth and knelt by the side of the cage, squinting at the shadowy shape. It was kind of amazing that they had built something that could contain it, to be honest.

"Shhhh." He tried to shush the thing in a soothing way, but it might have come out a little sharp. "Hey, um, are you lost? We can help if you promise to stop coming in here and wrecking everything." Rabbit honestly doubted it could understand, but it was worth a shot.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

The panic rose, so did the mental screeching. The shadowy thing had pressed itself back away from the make-shift trap, a steady mantra of bad bad bad on repeat.

At least, it did seem that it understood Rabbit but at the same time it did not seem to really acknowledge him or the squeeps.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Let it out!" It might have sounded sympathetic on paper, but Sy was still grinning as she said it. "So we can follow it!"

Rabbit wasn't sure he wanted to follow the thing anywhere, but he shrugged and moved to lift one side of the cage. "Help me!" He might have said it a little louder than he needed to, the screaming in his mind making him underestimate his own vocal volume. "Maybe it'll point its nose somewhere and we can follow it that way!" He didn't want to let out a thing that had taken them so long to catch without a very good reason.

"Nose?" Nev asked, moving to pick up the cage's other side.

"You know... face... or something. Maybe it's got fingers in there."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

The moment the cage was lifted up, the shadows started to rattle around and shake. The noise got louder and this time sounded very much like crying. Except that the moment that there was a chance for it to run, it did, the shadow darting across the floor and into a dark corner.

A breeze blew in through a window and it was moving towards that- or so it seemed.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Nev dropped the cage once the creature was out. Thankfully, it didn't hit anyone's feet. He started to creep after the shadows, his colorful tail spread in a wide plume behind him.

"We could corner it?" Sy said, sounding unsure. If it was making for the window, one of them should probably be outside to box it in from that angle. "I could..."

"No no no no, stay inside," Rabbit said. "I'll catch it if it tries to leave." He left the kids alone, rushing into the yard to stand under the window.

"We don't want to hurt you," Nev said, still moving slowly toward it.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

The shadow backed into a corner, the mental noises it made falling silent. There was a wary sense of being watched that settled upon both Nev and Sy.

It was Rabbit that would discover something else entirely. Out in the yard, in the shadows of the house, were a pair of luminous white eyes. "Noble Vaughn," the sweet voice greeted, though was not visible within the shadows.

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

The sirens went silent and still, watching the corner as hard as they could. They could hear their father outside, but they had a job to do in here.

"Y...es?" Rabbit squinted at the space around the eyes, trying to make out some sort of corporeal form. "Gloom? Is that you?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Yes, it's me." There was a swish of a tail in the shadows, those eyes - higher up than they usually were considering Gloom lived on the ground - glanced towards the open window. One of those eyes closed as the mental screech got louder as the sirens, despite not moving closer, were too close.

"I heard the commotion," he said, "and came."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Yeah. Commotion. Do you know what it is? I think it's been trashing my house." Was Gloom... floating?

"Be quiet, Sywyly muttered out of the corner of her mouth, still not moving. "You're being a big baby."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Being told to be quiet just made it get louder and Gloom made a noise that, instead of a chitter, sounded like a sigh.

"It's calling for me," replied Gloom, "because it's shadows- my kind of shadows." As in the living kind, the kind that had sentience, though nothing like what Gloom was obviously. "Is it alright to come inside? I can talk to it and find out why it's been bothering you."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Sy winced and sighed, taking a step back. "Fine. Whine all you want."

"Dad?" Nev asked, his simple query carrying much more than it seemed to. What's going on? What should we do? Are you staying out there forever? This is weird.

"Yeah," Rabbit said with an accompanying nod. "Sure. Go on in." He gestured at the window. "Or come with me if you want to use the door." He hesitated for a moment, in case Gloom wanted a shoulder ride, then circled back into the house.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

The whining continued, reaching a fevered pitch.

Gloom, it seemed, did not want a shoulder ride. Instead, a shadowy form bled from where he was and into Rabbit's own shadow. "I'll go in with you," he responded. "It's polite."

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Rabbit grinned in spite of the situation, in spite of the screeching in his mind and another trashed room. Gloom was awesome, okay? He led him inside and back to the kids' room, keeping his distance from the corner once they got there.

"There you have it," he said, loosely waving an arm. "It's all yours."

azuredreams