esp_dragon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
esp_dragon) wrote2010-11-30 06:37 am
esp_dragon) wrote2010-11-30 06:37 am
Searching
Fandom: Original
Summary:
The world of Torpin is open, dragging in Others from different worlds. The majority of them are monsters, prone to violence. There are some, however, that are not, and are able to live amongst the human population, if allowed to. Marland should know; he's one of them. His job is to hunt and stop the Others that seek only to destroy what's around them. On one job, a human Other drops through a portal, an event which Marland has never heard of happening before. And that's not the only thing different about the human...
Rating: M
Notes: Contains swearing.
Any questions or clarifications, just ask. (Unless it’s, you know, plot-related. XD)
As for the italics thing, I'm going for if the word's in caps, then chances are, it's supposed to be in italics. Similarly, if there's words encompassed by -' '- , then whatever's in between them should be italicised.
Genre: Urban fantasy
Word count: 1,968
Total word count: 58,280
Status: Work in Progress
They didn't have to wait long for Laris and Nav to arrive, Nav's eyebrows somewhere in the sky when he got out.
Laris, on the other hand, was looking at Marland. "Shit, Marland," he said as he came over, "we thought you'd DIED."
Marland blinked at him, ears slowly going back in confusion. What? Why would they think – oh. The last time they'd called it in, they hadn't waited for them to pick it up. "I'm not."
Laris snorted, shaking his head. "Yeah, I can see that." He glanced over at Nav, who looked like he was considering using the pole to poke the Other. He rolled his eyes. "Anything about this one?"
Marland shrugged. "A sort of shapeshifter. Nothing else apart from that."
Laris nodded slowly, as he took a closer look at the Other. "All right – here," he said after rummaging around in a pocket.
Huh. Two envelopes. "Thanks."
They waved goodbye to each other and continued making their way to the shop. They might actually make it before the sun rose.
He glanced at Shodin, who, other than looking a little pale, didn't seem that bad. Shodin threw him a smile when he saw him looking.
"I think my body's mostly learned that it's okay to use magic now."
It also seemed like he was getting used to using it offensively as well, and not just calling it. "Yeah," he agreed. He still had the problem of being briefly blinded every single time Shodin used his magic, but he could still hear things coming at him, so he wasn't completely defenceless during then.
A blustery wind blew by, and Marland brought his wings in close to him. The temperature had been dropping quickly and steadily the longer they stayed out, had already been pretty cold when they'd first stepped out, and he grumbled, trying to make sure his wings could be as warm as possible. Which wasn't much, seeing as they seemed to be engineered to let cold slip in easily through the folds.
"Marland?" Shodin was looking curiously at him as he pulled in his wings. "What's wrong?"
"'S getting cold." It was the start of autumn; it shouldn't be like this already! But the weather was never that constant on Torpin, having some really warm days in the last month of the year, and having flurries of snow in July. Still, there was usually a vaguely followable pattern to the weather.
Shodin had his hands deep inside jacket pockets, his shoulders hunched over when the second wind blew around them. Marland blinked when he saw a bit of white float down from the sky.
He glanced up, not entirely believing what he saw.
But he'd seen it correctly – it was beginning to snow. It was light, tiny little pieces so far, but that could change far too quickly.
His ears flattened and he stifled a whine. Fuck. Marland HATED the cold. He couldn't do anything to warm his wings and at some points it just felt like he was carrying giant blocks of ice attached to his back. Ugh. At least they were close to the shop now. They'd be inside for a while, and maybe the weather change would be over by the time they came out again. Doubtful, but it could happen.
"Snow…?" Shodin had his head tilted back up at the sky, a hand outstretched.
"Yeah." Well, least he wouldn't have to explain it to him.
Shodin sighed, his breath curling in front of him, and then turned away, glancing at his wings. His eyes then widened. "Oh. Your wings-"
"'ll be fine," he said grumpily, bringing them in further. He really didn't want to give Shodin something else to fuss over.
Shodin's mouth twitched, his eyes curving as he smiled. "We should probably hurry anyway," he said as he dug his hand back in to its pocket and started moving again.
Marland rolled his eyes. Shodin had something else to fuss over. Great. He moved to catch up with him, keeping an eye on the weather. It didn't look that bad, not yet; he just hoped that it would stay like that until they got home.
* * *
Ugh. Marland shook his head, then started stiffly beating his wings as soon as he stepped in to the flat, dumping the shopping on the floor. His wings were shivering, each movement an effort to make. No, the weather didn't stay light, and it seemed like it had waited for them to step out of the shop before it started unloading every bit of available snow the clouds had on their heads. He was wet, frickin' FREEZING, and he could feel the water in his ears. Growling, he shook his head again. It didn't help. It felt like it moved, but that was probably his imagination.
And now, because the flat was warmer than outside, he could feel his wings reacting painfully to the sudden change in temperature. Fuckin' great. He could hear the wind and snow through the window as it blustered around, even with the water in his ears.
Shodin had hung up his jacket and pulled out his hairband, running a hand through his hair and shaking it. Water went flying with every shake. Sighing, Shodin headed off somewhere while Marland was still grumbling and trying to get the water out his ears.
"Here."
Turning his attention away from clearing his ears, Marland saw that Shodin had brought over a pair of towels.
"Thanks," he grunted, taking one. He flapped his wings a couple more times, getting rid of as much excess water as he could. After sitting down on one of the kitchen chairs, Marland extended his right wing around him and began drying it properly.
The membrane was sensitive at the contact, but not enough to make it flinch away. Marland would hear Shodin scrubbing at his hair.
His wings had to be absolutely massive, didn't they? Most of the snow had melted in to water, so it ran off fairly easily. Didn't help about the cold though. Their size was the reason why he didn't bother drying them when he got out the shower, because they took so damn long and it was awkward to do.
"Need help?" Shodin asked when he was finished with his hair.
Marland looked across at him, ears forward. Shodin was walking towards him, towel still in hand, his hair looking messy, but mostly dry. "What with?"
"The back of your wings."
He'd forgotten about that. Normally he'd throw over part of the towel to get that side, but that didn't have any finesse to it; most of the time, he ended up missing the spot that he'd wanted to hit, or he just couldn't reach in to the crevices.
"…Yeah, okay."
Shodin beamed at him.
Marland watched Shodin get closer, turning a little more in his chair to give Shodin better access. Shodin paused only for a second before he began drying Marland's wing. He did he gently, without any rush to it, almost like when Shodin brushed his own hair.
Marland waited a few seconds, just in case Shodin changed the way he was doing it, but he didn't, so he started working on his side again. After a short while, Shodin started humming. Marland glared darkly at him when he recognised the tune: the annoying quiz show about general knowledge with the host who had a grating voice.
Shodin blinked when he noticed him doing that, the tune trailing off slowly. He chuckled when he realised why Marland was glaring at him.
"Do you want another song?"
Marland rolled his eyes, snorting and focusing back at the task on hand. Shodin would end up humming again soon anyway, even if he stopped right now, and it would end up morphing in to the same damn tune as well.
Eventually, Marland's wing wasn't as wet or as cold any more (at least on his side) so he started on his other wing.
"Marland?"
He grunted, ear turned towards Shodin.
"Could you turn around please?"
Right. His left wing was focing the table. Marland turned to let Shodin dry his other wing.
His wings had mostly stopped tingling by the then and his right wing definitely felt better.
Marland finished first, so with nothing else to do, he listened to the snow hitting the window and Shodin's humming. He was amused when he realised that Shodin was merging two tunes together, starting with one, and ending with another, before he started it all over again.
"There," Shodin said finally, stepping away. "Done."
Marland brought in his wing before he flapped both of them. They moved a lot easier, and he could feel the blood pumping through them.
"Thanks."
"No problem," Shodin said as he headed to the shopping bags and started to unpack them. "So," he said, holding up food packs, "time to eat?"
Marland nodded, head tilted to the side, one ear twitching down. "Yeah."
He didn't get why Shodin suddenly BEAMED at him when he did that, but he shrugged it off. He hardly ever got Shodin's drives and motivations, so this was nothing new.
* * *
The snow went on and off for the rest of the night, and Shodin spent most of it at the window, a chair pulled up beside it, watching the fat flakes drift down in strings of white. Marland watched them too, further away, on the far side of the table, but he lost interest eventually, not quite as captivated as Shodin was.
He'd also watched Shodin at the same time, wondering about his memory problems again. If Shodin had grown up on Torpin, then he'd now about snow, but then again, he'd pretty much had to relearn everything, so maybe apart from motor skills and language, everything else had been wiped clean. Or it could have been that it'd been a while since he'd last seen it.
The snow also carried on for the next few days, mostly snowing in the mornings and stopping by the evening, as far as Marland could tell.
He'd refused to go out during that time, and the only reason why they were leaving the flat now was because they'd run out of things to eat and stuff to drink that wasn't water. Unfortunately the snow hadn't melted in the streets that much, and Marland eyed the ice with distaste.
Drawing his wings in, for what little use that would do in the long run, Marland began trudging through it, his claws out for extra grip. Shodin followed him carefully, his shoes crunched with every step. He was wearing the new jacket he's gotten the last time they'd been out, just in case. Marland wished it had been a whole lot later before Shodin had needed to use it.
Marland's breath froze in front of him every single time he breathed, and his ears were down in a vain attempt to keep them warm.
At least it wasn't snowing.
Of course, they were only a few minutes away from the shop when Marland heard something running through the snow, too fast and light to be a human, and it sounded like it had more than four legs, so it probably wasn't native to Torpin either. Was there a new portal opening every hour or something? It was starting to feel like it was every single time they went out they stumbled across an Other. Before, Marland had to actively search to find one, taking hours before he got on the track of one. He wasn't going out as often as he used to before he'd met Shodin – which made that worse in some cases, when Marland thought about it.
Unwillingly, Marland lifted his ears and listened for what direction it was going in.
Summary:
The world of Torpin is open, dragging in Others from different worlds. The majority of them are monsters, prone to violence. There are some, however, that are not, and are able to live amongst the human population, if allowed to. Marland should know; he's one of them. His job is to hunt and stop the Others that seek only to destroy what's around them. On one job, a human Other drops through a portal, an event which Marland has never heard of happening before. And that's not the only thing different about the human...
Rating: M
Notes: Contains swearing.
Any questions or clarifications, just ask. (Unless it’s, you know, plot-related. XD)
As for the italics thing, I'm going for if the word's in caps, then chances are, it's supposed to be in italics. Similarly, if there's words encompassed by -' '- , then whatever's in between them should be italicised.
Genre: Urban fantasy
Word count: 1,968
Total word count: 58,280
Status: Work in Progress
They didn't have to wait long for Laris and Nav to arrive, Nav's eyebrows somewhere in the sky when he got out.
Laris, on the other hand, was looking at Marland. "Shit, Marland," he said as he came over, "we thought you'd DIED."
Marland blinked at him, ears slowly going back in confusion. What? Why would they think – oh. The last time they'd called it in, they hadn't waited for them to pick it up. "I'm not."
Laris snorted, shaking his head. "Yeah, I can see that." He glanced over at Nav, who looked like he was considering using the pole to poke the Other. He rolled his eyes. "Anything about this one?"
Marland shrugged. "A sort of shapeshifter. Nothing else apart from that."
Laris nodded slowly, as he took a closer look at the Other. "All right – here," he said after rummaging around in a pocket.
Huh. Two envelopes. "Thanks."
They waved goodbye to each other and continued making their way to the shop. They might actually make it before the sun rose.
He glanced at Shodin, who, other than looking a little pale, didn't seem that bad. Shodin threw him a smile when he saw him looking.
"I think my body's mostly learned that it's okay to use magic now."
It also seemed like he was getting used to using it offensively as well, and not just calling it. "Yeah," he agreed. He still had the problem of being briefly blinded every single time Shodin used his magic, but he could still hear things coming at him, so he wasn't completely defenceless during then.
A blustery wind blew by, and Marland brought his wings in close to him. The temperature had been dropping quickly and steadily the longer they stayed out, had already been pretty cold when they'd first stepped out, and he grumbled, trying to make sure his wings could be as warm as possible. Which wasn't much, seeing as they seemed to be engineered to let cold slip in easily through the folds.
"Marland?" Shodin was looking curiously at him as he pulled in his wings. "What's wrong?"
"'S getting cold." It was the start of autumn; it shouldn't be like this already! But the weather was never that constant on Torpin, having some really warm days in the last month of the year, and having flurries of snow in July. Still, there was usually a vaguely followable pattern to the weather.
Shodin had his hands deep inside jacket pockets, his shoulders hunched over when the second wind blew around them. Marland blinked when he saw a bit of white float down from the sky.
He glanced up, not entirely believing what he saw.
But he'd seen it correctly – it was beginning to snow. It was light, tiny little pieces so far, but that could change far too quickly.
His ears flattened and he stifled a whine. Fuck. Marland HATED the cold. He couldn't do anything to warm his wings and at some points it just felt like he was carrying giant blocks of ice attached to his back. Ugh. At least they were close to the shop now. They'd be inside for a while, and maybe the weather change would be over by the time they came out again. Doubtful, but it could happen.
"Snow…?" Shodin had his head tilted back up at the sky, a hand outstretched.
"Yeah." Well, least he wouldn't have to explain it to him.
Shodin sighed, his breath curling in front of him, and then turned away, glancing at his wings. His eyes then widened. "Oh. Your wings-"
"'ll be fine," he said grumpily, bringing them in further. He really didn't want to give Shodin something else to fuss over.
Shodin's mouth twitched, his eyes curving as he smiled. "We should probably hurry anyway," he said as he dug his hand back in to its pocket and started moving again.
Marland rolled his eyes. Shodin had something else to fuss over. Great. He moved to catch up with him, keeping an eye on the weather. It didn't look that bad, not yet; he just hoped that it would stay like that until they got home.
* * *
Ugh. Marland shook his head, then started stiffly beating his wings as soon as he stepped in to the flat, dumping the shopping on the floor. His wings were shivering, each movement an effort to make. No, the weather didn't stay light, and it seemed like it had waited for them to step out of the shop before it started unloading every bit of available snow the clouds had on their heads. He was wet, frickin' FREEZING, and he could feel the water in his ears. Growling, he shook his head again. It didn't help. It felt like it moved, but that was probably his imagination.
And now, because the flat was warmer than outside, he could feel his wings reacting painfully to the sudden change in temperature. Fuckin' great. He could hear the wind and snow through the window as it blustered around, even with the water in his ears.
Shodin had hung up his jacket and pulled out his hairband, running a hand through his hair and shaking it. Water went flying with every shake. Sighing, Shodin headed off somewhere while Marland was still grumbling and trying to get the water out his ears.
"Here."
Turning his attention away from clearing his ears, Marland saw that Shodin had brought over a pair of towels.
"Thanks," he grunted, taking one. He flapped his wings a couple more times, getting rid of as much excess water as he could. After sitting down on one of the kitchen chairs, Marland extended his right wing around him and began drying it properly.
The membrane was sensitive at the contact, but not enough to make it flinch away. Marland would hear Shodin scrubbing at his hair.
His wings had to be absolutely massive, didn't they? Most of the snow had melted in to water, so it ran off fairly easily. Didn't help about the cold though. Their size was the reason why he didn't bother drying them when he got out the shower, because they took so damn long and it was awkward to do.
"Need help?" Shodin asked when he was finished with his hair.
Marland looked across at him, ears forward. Shodin was walking towards him, towel still in hand, his hair looking messy, but mostly dry. "What with?"
"The back of your wings."
He'd forgotten about that. Normally he'd throw over part of the towel to get that side, but that didn't have any finesse to it; most of the time, he ended up missing the spot that he'd wanted to hit, or he just couldn't reach in to the crevices.
"…Yeah, okay."
Shodin beamed at him.
Marland watched Shodin get closer, turning a little more in his chair to give Shodin better access. Shodin paused only for a second before he began drying Marland's wing. He did he gently, without any rush to it, almost like when Shodin brushed his own hair.
Marland waited a few seconds, just in case Shodin changed the way he was doing it, but he didn't, so he started working on his side again. After a short while, Shodin started humming. Marland glared darkly at him when he recognised the tune: the annoying quiz show about general knowledge with the host who had a grating voice.
Shodin blinked when he noticed him doing that, the tune trailing off slowly. He chuckled when he realised why Marland was glaring at him.
"Do you want another song?"
Marland rolled his eyes, snorting and focusing back at the task on hand. Shodin would end up humming again soon anyway, even if he stopped right now, and it would end up morphing in to the same damn tune as well.
Eventually, Marland's wing wasn't as wet or as cold any more (at least on his side) so he started on his other wing.
"Marland?"
He grunted, ear turned towards Shodin.
"Could you turn around please?"
Right. His left wing was focing the table. Marland turned to let Shodin dry his other wing.
His wings had mostly stopped tingling by the then and his right wing definitely felt better.
Marland finished first, so with nothing else to do, he listened to the snow hitting the window and Shodin's humming. He was amused when he realised that Shodin was merging two tunes together, starting with one, and ending with another, before he started it all over again.
"There," Shodin said finally, stepping away. "Done."
Marland brought in his wing before he flapped both of them. They moved a lot easier, and he could feel the blood pumping through them.
"Thanks."
"No problem," Shodin said as he headed to the shopping bags and started to unpack them. "So," he said, holding up food packs, "time to eat?"
Marland nodded, head tilted to the side, one ear twitching down. "Yeah."
He didn't get why Shodin suddenly BEAMED at him when he did that, but he shrugged it off. He hardly ever got Shodin's drives and motivations, so this was nothing new.
* * *
The snow went on and off for the rest of the night, and Shodin spent most of it at the window, a chair pulled up beside it, watching the fat flakes drift down in strings of white. Marland watched them too, further away, on the far side of the table, but he lost interest eventually, not quite as captivated as Shodin was.
He'd also watched Shodin at the same time, wondering about his memory problems again. If Shodin had grown up on Torpin, then he'd now about snow, but then again, he'd pretty much had to relearn everything, so maybe apart from motor skills and language, everything else had been wiped clean. Or it could have been that it'd been a while since he'd last seen it.
The snow also carried on for the next few days, mostly snowing in the mornings and stopping by the evening, as far as Marland could tell.
He'd refused to go out during that time, and the only reason why they were leaving the flat now was because they'd run out of things to eat and stuff to drink that wasn't water. Unfortunately the snow hadn't melted in the streets that much, and Marland eyed the ice with distaste.
Drawing his wings in, for what little use that would do in the long run, Marland began trudging through it, his claws out for extra grip. Shodin followed him carefully, his shoes crunched with every step. He was wearing the new jacket he's gotten the last time they'd been out, just in case. Marland wished it had been a whole lot later before Shodin had needed to use it.
Marland's breath froze in front of him every single time he breathed, and his ears were down in a vain attempt to keep them warm.
At least it wasn't snowing.
Of course, they were only a few minutes away from the shop when Marland heard something running through the snow, too fast and light to be a human, and it sounded like it had more than four legs, so it probably wasn't native to Torpin either. Was there a new portal opening every hour or something? It was starting to feel like it was every single time they went out they stumbled across an Other. Before, Marland had to actively search to find one, taking hours before he got on the track of one. He wasn't going out as often as he used to before he'd met Shodin – which made that worse in some cases, when Marland thought about it.
Unwillingly, Marland lifted his ears and listened for what direction it was going in.
no subject
Ahahaha. He must have been worried!
Huh. Two envelopes. "Thanks."
Paycheck? :O And one for Shodin too?
"I think my body's mostly learned that it's okay to use magic now."
Ah, that sounds good. :3
He still had the problem of being briefly blinded every single time Shodin used his magic
So not a very good combo, getting momentarily blinded by your partner. XD
He glanced up, not entirely believing what he saw.
Is it...? Ahahaha! It's snowing! You are certainly god of Torpin. =P
Marland HATED the cold. He couldn't do anything to warm his wings and at some points it just felt like he was carrying giant blocks of ice attached to his back.
Awww. I thought snow was supposed to make people feel warm and fuzzy, but yeaaah, snow doesn't sound good for Marland's wings.
And now, because the flat was warmer than outside, he could feel his wings reacting painfully to the sudden change in temperature.
Ouuuch.
Shodin paused only for a second before he began drying Marland's wing. He did he gently, without any rush to it, almost like when Shodin brushed his own hair.
Cuuuuute.
After a short while, Shodin started humming. Marland glared darkly at him when he recognised the tune: the annoying quiz show about general knowledge with the host who had a grating voice.
LOL! I was thinking, humming! And then, what, quiz show! Oh Shodin. What the heck are you humming? XD
Was there a new portal opening every hour or something? It was starting to feel like it was every single time they went out they stumbled across an Other.
I think they are meeting a lot of Others. Certainly every time they go out... except for times when Shodin goes out alone. =P
no subject
Yep, paycheck. ... XD Hadn't thought of that - Laris was giving Marland the payment for the last Other as well, that he hadn't picked up.
XD It iiisn't a good combo.
\o/ It's pretty awesome having that much influence on a place, and if I want something to happen, then I can make it so! :D
*facepalm* So did I; then Marland started complaining again. But, for Marland, the whole drying scene is kinda his version of a fluffy winter scene, because he's let someone get that close to him alongside having contact with him (not exactly physical, but there's touching), and he's not worried or on edge or anything!
♥ It iiis.
XDD
I... actually hadn't thought of that. XDD;; Er, there's a lot of other people out at the same time, so they're the ones getting chased about. Plus, there'll be more hunters out doing their job during the daytime too.
no subject
Haha, that's fluffy for Marland? I guess it is...
Ah, I guess since Shodin was out in daylight, there's less chance of getting attacked by Others?
no subject
X3 It totally is. There's no flailing or edging away or even grumbling! \o/
Yeah. Quieter and less people chasing them. Plus, easier to hide for a few of them.