[Noah St Cloud]

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[attr="class","Noahpostname"]noah st. cloud

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[attr="class","Noahpostlyric"]Just as a flower does not choose its color,[break]
we are not responsible for what[break]
we have come to be

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The second rabbit Noah conjured was almost identical to the first, unstructured and sort of wet in a way that brought a blobfish to mind. He willed it to disappear, only allowing it to exist for a few seconds more than its predecessor.[break][break]

“Haaah,” he breathed. “You kiddin’? Pets were a HUGE no-no. The house was chaotic enough without an animal running around.” Another animal, he should have said: the St. Cloud kids were picture-perfect in public of course (they hadn't wanted to draw attention to themselves – to their secrets – after all), but at home…[break][break]

He chuckled, shaking his head. His third attempt at summoning was much the same: bright flash, a creature appearing in his hands, still no good, ridding himself of it. Was using the power making his eyes heavy or was it the alcohol in his system?[break][break]

He rolled his head to one side, flexing his fingers as though they had cramped up, before blowing out another breath and tipping backwards until he laid flat on the ground, spread out like a starfish. He frowned. He hadn’t quite meant to do that. The sky was still as starless as it had been when he’d stumbled across Dane, making it as interesting to look at as a black piece of paper. It made him think, though.[break][break]

“I had a puppy at one point. Sort of. Real cute – looked like one of those chocolate Labradors, y’know? But he was probably just a mutt, since I found him in some weird abandoned shed place.” A place he never would have found had he not decided to take a different route home from school; the path through the woods hadn’t been working so well for him. “Called him Brown.” He shot Dane a flat look. “I was young, okay? Don’t judge.” He turned his gaze back to the sky. It was spinning, slightly. Could he see the Earth moving? “But anyway, I guess some good Samaritan must’ve found him and taken him to a shelter, like you’re supposed to do with strays.”[break][break]

It wasn’t true. Even as he said it, he knew that particular theory about Brown’s disappearance was far too hopeful to be realistic. He had his suspicions about the truth – of course he did. When he started coming home later than usual, his cousins had noticed. Teasing him for getting lost, becoming increasingly more accusatory and insistent to know the real reason for his tardiness as time went on. On the day Brown wasn’t in his usual place – wasn’t anywhere – and Noah came home even later than usual after hours spent looking for him, it was their complete lack of comment on his slow journey that clued him in. The seclusion and avoidance that seemed more awkward than mean-spirited. The guilty look on Mary’s face…[break][break]

He snorted. “Believe it or not I had an actual bunny rabbit! For a few hours – but still, I’ve decided that counts. Was’at before or after the puppy?” He narrowed his eyes at nothing in particular, before rolling them and waving Dane off. “Pfft, who knows, who cares. I don’t really remember much about that either. Think I named it after some girl in my class? Took it to the vet. Parents were super pissed about being billed for its treatment and didn’t let me keep it. Boo hoo.”[break][break]

He smiled wryly. “And I was always trying to steal the neighbour’s cat. Never really worked. Scratched the hell outta me.” Had his neighbours called her Mittens or had he named her that himself? He blinked. Why did it matter? Why was he telling Dane?[break][break]

Noah twisted onto his side to frown at the other man, propping himself up on his elbow with his palm against his cheek. “What was the point of the question again? Are you trying to dig into my childhood or some shit so we can get all psychological and Freudian? I know he’s the most well-known but Freud is like, the shittest psychoanalyst by the way. A crackhead and a complete joke. I really wouldn’t look to his theories if you want anything substantial.”[break][break]

Before he could go off on too much of a tangent, he remembered what had led to the pet question without help. Right – summoning animals, better when they were based on a real one, joints… Still reclining on his side, he pulled out his phone and searched Google Images for ‘rabbit anatomy’. “Eugh. Nightmare fuel,” he muttered to himself. Hopefully Hazel wouldn’t see and be thoroughly freaked out by the sight of her own insides.[break][break]

With this in mind he held the phone closer to his body, trying to shield it from her as he flicked through various diagrams and pictures of science-class dissections until he was presented with a normal photo of a wild rabbit, living its best life, and held it up to Dane. “Does this count? Just seeing a pic of one?”[break][break]

He turned the screen back to himself and kept flicking through. “So, if you base things off animals you’ve met, does that mean Snowcone’s basically the ghost of one of your family pets? Don’t you think that’s a little weird?” He sniffed, squinting down at a photo of a half-skeleton, half-taxidermy rabbit. “And is your whole family part of the hunting-Walmart-thing? Mom and sis and all? Or is it a boys’ club kinda deal – daddy and son bonding time with knives?”


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[attr="class","Noahdark2PostTag"]Tag: Dane Wayland

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[Dane Wayland]

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Not for the first time since meeting Nick, Dane had to wonder if he even liked the guy or not. When he spoke too little, it was curious. When he spoke too much, he just wanted him to shut up. He didn't know whether to blame it on the drink — that Nick had had too much or that Dane hadn't yet had enough — or if the other man was just plain irritating after the initial, 'sussing one another out' stage. It was entirely possible, too, that he himself was just irritable and thinned tonight.[break][break]

He nodded his way through the various "almost pets" he'd had as a child — managing to stay interested by only a thin thread after Brown — but, when Nick started on Freud and psychoanalyzing, his eyes rolled back hard into his head. He shuttered them and scooched up so that his back was pressed into Snowcone's side instead of only his head laying against her. He bent one leg close to him and returned Chew Toy to a secure tuck under one arm.[break][break]

"Yawn. I wasn't doing..." Dane frowned and lifted a hand to sift flippantly through the air. "That. Anyone ever tell you you're kinda exhausting?" His frown deepened. The words had hardly left his lips before he pictured Nick's smug little grin and shoulder shimmy as he purred something proud in response. He opened his eyes to look at him pointedly. "And not in the breathless," he raised his voice an octave, blinking rapidly as he tipped his head and mocked in a praising, stuttered whisper, "'Oh fuck, Nick baby, that was so good, when can I see you again' way." The pretending fell aside, his eyes lidding again as his tone returned to something deadpan. "Like the 'we get it, you took a college psych class' way."[break][break]

He dropped his head back on his shoulders and blew a breath through his nose, only to have to lift again when Nick turned his phone screen to him. He squinted at the brightness for a moment, at the very normal picture of a rabbit, then let his gaze flicker to the other man's face as he shrugged a shoulder. "Does it feel like it helps?" [break][break]

Snowcone raised her head at her name and Dane lifted his free hand to smooth through the fur of her neck. "No, she's not weird. Nicky's just jealous, he didn't mean it, pay him no mind."[break][break]

When Nick turned a question back on him, Dane sucked at his lips and looked across the playground, considering. Whether or not he wanted to indulge. If Nick really cared to know. If Dane really cared if he cared. If this whole thing had any true merit to it. Finally, he sucked in a breath.[break][break]

"It's a family thing. Well, mostly." He shrugged. "Mom's the only normal one. Knows, obviously... but..." his mouth tucked as he searched for the proper way to explain. He supposed his mother had always deluded herself just a bit. Pulled the wool over her own eyes. Refused to think what a grisly horror her husband was when he was gone. Her boys, too. How else could she love them so much? [break][break]

She had to think about it some nights, he knew she did. When Antonio was called from her bed at too-late hours. When Dino, still a child, woke screaming from nightmares, scrubbing at his hands and face, and she didn't know how to comfort him. When Dane got into knives and "played" a little too rough. But she'd never looked at any of them with apprehension. Never hesitated to shove his face in his plate when he made a crude joke over dinner. She'd only ever loved them. And how was that possible if she didn't blissfully overlook who they were? [break][break]

"Y'know... pretended Dad was bringing the kids home from normal extracurriculars instead of hunting missions most nights. Took a look at us, dirty and bloodied, and said to herself 'Wow! What a rough soccer practice that must have been!' before ushering us to get cleaned up and ready for supper."[break][break]

She would never know he'd killed Silene tonight. Even if her husband told her, she'd pretend he hadn't. She'd forget it. Be completely incapable of imagining it. The next time he went home, she'd simply smother him in kisses, call him her baby bear, and let him spin her from her feet like always. Blissfully (and imperatively) ignorant. [break][break]

Dane straightened his bent leg; shoving his shoe through the pebbled ground in an attempt to scatter gravel (or at the very least, dust) across Nick's prone form. "But this is boring now. Hey, hey, fuck it — give me the Gift back. Let me summon a three-legged lion and see which of us can run the fastest."

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[Noah St Cloud]

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[attr="class","Noahpostname"]noah st. cloud

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[attr="class","Noahpostlyric"]Just as a flower does not choose its color,[break]
we are not responsible for what[break]
we have come to be

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[attr="class","Noahpostingbox"]

OOC: another anticlimactic mess, again just finishing up the thread lmao sorry[break][break]

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Dane was clearly unimpressed by Noah’s spiel and Noah laughed, unoffended by the reaction. “If you don’t want to know, don’t ask! But sure, fair enough.” He put his phone away so he could brush his hand through his hair, biting his lip as he dragged his gaze over Dane’s frame with exaggerated consideration. “Although, the breathless bit does sound awfully familiar too–” he winked– “and you do sound very cute like that, even if you’re joking. Such a shame…”[break][break]

Still leaning on his side, he snorted and dropped 'the smolder', turning his attention to conjuring another rabbit. This time he based it more on the photos he’d flicked through rather than his imagination, but he got the sense the attempt wouldn't be hugely improved. Dane answered the question about his family as he did so: hunting was a family business, with the exception of his mom.[break][break]

Noah snorted. “It’s not a far stretch. Soccer practice can get pretty wild.” Honestly, the picture Dane painted sounded pretty good. Not the hunter-asshole-dad thing. Just the concept of having someone who was normal, but willing to overlook the blood and bruises, bodies in the trunk… The impulse to suggest that he should hook up with Dane’s mom after his dad was out of commission was a buzzing hornets’ nest that he was burning to kick, but he held back, thinking better of it. Being so concerned about breaking his mom's heart (how sweet), Dane would probably be precious about such jokes.[break][break]

A new rabbit sparked into exist between his hands. Noah lowered it to the concrete and allowed it to hop around, albeit ‘hop’ was perhaps the wrong word for it. It walked (limped?) more like a dog, with a soft, almost unnoticeable sound that was, at once, squelching wet and dryly brittle. He chuckled softly. “Another freaky lil dude. You ever hear about that condition where cats have mobility issues and can’t walk straight? I think if we said it had that, people might believe it.”[break][break]

Dane kicked some gravel in his direction, drawing Noah’s attention back to him. His proposal earned an amused scoff.[break][break]

“Three legs? Easy.” He was already looking for ways to cheat, eyeing the nearby climbing frames and the couple of trees on the other side of the playground. Could lions climb? Could a drunken Noah climb without falling on his ass at least once? His nose wrinkled. “Y’know, even if he’s pissed on account of the whole 'missing a leg' thing, I kinda feel like he’d go after me because I’m not the one who created him.”[break][break]

Self-preservation (previously a fickle, often overlooked thing in Noah’s life – especially when he was drunk) stayed present enough inside him that he reconsidered accepting Dane’s challenge. Though quietly confident he would escape, was it worth the risk? He couldn’t leave Tawny in the world alone. Sure, she would be well provided for and get all of his belongings if he died, but he liked to think she’d miss him. Plus, the night was starting to take its toll. The thought of his bed, soft sheets and plump pillows, was a siren call that was difficult to ignore.[break][break]

“Okay, gimme–” He sat up and reached out for Hazel, carefully taking her from Dane’s arms. He cooed assurances to her as he cradled her to his own chest and stood, and might have straight-up sprinted out of there had he not thought Snowcone would take that as a cue to lunge after him. The strange not-rabbit he'd conjured was left on the ground, wobbling about and aimless. A sacrifice.[break][break]

“Alright, Sass, this has all been very nice but I think it would be better if I just… skedaddled. Hit the sack. Leave you to grieve, or whatever.” It was unfortunate that Hazel would disappear at some point. He knew he couldn’t keep her, but that was okay. She could simply keep him company while he searched for a cab and in return he’d keep her safe. No need for her to become dog chow.[break][break]

Stroking his finger over her forehead, he turned away and began the walk back towards the main road, wobbling a fair bit himself, with a few calls back over his shoulder to the other man as he left. “Thanks for the drink though, and don’t worry, you’ll get your gift back in a sec, then you can run from lions to your heart’s content!” He laughed. “Oh – and drink responsibly! Try to get home before you pass out, ya mess!”



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[attr="class","Noahdark2PostTag"]Tag: Dane Wayland

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[Dane Wayland]

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Dane had kicked the gravel at him in a half-assed attempt to liven things up. To see if Nick even had buttons he could press — he hadn't come across any so far — and then press them. It was the definition of "getting along" for him and had been for most of his life. Pushing his luck, being a general irritation, earning looks and smacks (or even the occasional full-fledged brawl, sometimes with knives!) — it was what friendship tended to look like for him. And it was also probably why he had so few of them.[break][break]

But whether it was the spattering of pebbles itself, the jesting mock that had preceded it, or the "Lion Tag" proposal — it seemed Nick had abruptly had his fill of him. And Dane wasn't unaccustomed to that. He didn't attempt to fight him when he coaxed the rabbit from its tuck under his arm. He simply pulled himself into a sitting and set his mouth; lifting his brow and giving a detached nod. "Yeah, sure. See ya." He watched the other man's wobbling retreat dispassionately, only blinking at the calls he tossed behind him and 'tsk'ing — running from lions wasn't any fun by yourself. [break][break]

Even after he couldn't see him anymore, Dane continued to watch the shadows in which Nick disappeared. Only when he felt the familiar and soothing warmth of his Gift nip comfortingly back into his palms, did he finally drop his gaze to study the hands in his lap. He picked at his fingernails then puffed a breath in his cheeks and reached for the half-emptied vodka bottle. It had been a nice, brief distraction, he supposed. Even if he hadn't been able to keep his thoughts from returning to Silene throughout it. [break][break]

But the silence was louder now. [break][break]

"Alright," he said, taking a couple of generous gulps to speed things up and turning to cast his gaze at the dog still lying behind him. "More fetch?" Reliable as always, Snowcone lifted her head and perked her ears. He gave her a muted, grateful grin and then pulled himself to his feet to amble further into the playground and seat himself on the mouth of a plastic slide.[break][break]

He made bunny after bunny for her, watching her chase them until he'd finished the bottle. Then he sprawled himself upon the springy, mold-smelling woodchips beneath the playground equipment, tossed his jacket over his upper half, and closed his eyes. His last thought before he drifted off completely was almost whether or not someone had found Silene yet. Whether her girlfriend had been woken up, either by a knock on her door, a phone call, or just by the feel of cold, empty sheets next to her. But then he stifled a snort into Snowcone's thick fur as he imagined who would find him in the morning. Maybe he'd get a toe in the ribs by some brave, inquisitive kid. Maybe they'd poke him with a stick, asking boldly if he was dead and then skittering back when he lifted his head to blink blearily at them. [break][break]

But probably not. This neighborhood was shitty. It was more likely a bewildered parent — in the 50/50 chance the kid wasn't just running around unsupervised — would take one look at the shape of him, pull their child closer, and wordlessly start toward a marginally better park. Or maybe he'd get mugged... shanked?... if his guard dog decided to wander off in the night. He let the possibilities (and the vodka) lull him to oblivion, fingers curling in Snowcone's long, fluffy pelt. [break][break][End]

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