CoR In For a Penny, In For a Pound

Lark arched an eyebrow at Ragenard -- they both knew that answer didn't even halfway cover explaining what he'd asked. "Right..." he murmured. He wasn't going to pry any further, at least when it came to whatever was going on with Ragenard himself. The kid was another matter. Turning to face him as he whined and curled into a ball, Lark couldn't help but pity him. He doubted whatever was going on with him was entirely his own doing -- maybe his own stupidity for getting caught up in it, but nothing more than that.

"Easy there, Beans," Lark rolled his eyes and paced over to grab an old rag of a blanket from atop one of the nearby crates, one that had seen plenty of use preserving a few shreds of modesty and dignity for the cage's occupants over the years. He came back over and tossed it through the bars towards Jimmy. "Here. Now d'you wanna try explaining what the fuck you just did?"
 
Wolf-sick? Yeah, no fuckin' way. But a'ight, old man. Keep yer secrets.

Xandre chose not to comment on it, instead reading over his text. As he replied, he played off of Rage's banter.

"How 'bout a lil column A, little column B, eh? Maybe I'll go dust off Ol' Minnie. Haven't given her love in a hot minute." Ol' Minnie was a turret-mounted chain-fed minigun in her youth. Xandre still hasn't admitted how he got his hands on it, but since then he's outfitted it to be hand-held. At nearly a hundred pounds in steel and hundreds more in lead, not many non-shifted wolves could use it effectively, and Xandre boasted himself as one of them. He could put over 100 pounds of lead down range each second.

As he talked, he responded over text.
Pangolin shit?

Worried so. Not many other heavies I kno of could. I mean c'mon, this some bio-magic shit. Gotta speak to Cathal, this is his side of the streets.

Need backup?


Finally he turned to the elephant in the room. Er, wolf? Fire wolf? Eh, whatever. "Whatever it were, 'e was high as a fuckin' kite while 'e was on it. Street drug I reckon. Maybe--I hope--it was just a side effect 'coz these new-age drugs don't always perform as 'spected. I hope it's that, 'coz if it ain't, some fuck jus' did this on purpose."
 
Need backup?


"Guess we'll find out how much boom our tab is good for," Ragenard replied amicably to Xandre's gun talk. He did not deign to grace Xander with a sly murderous stare for implying he needed backup as he replied to his text however; it would likely be lost on the mad dwarf.

Against Cathal? You know we wouldn't stand a chance; you've seen how quickly he :emoji_evergreen_tree:'s a :emoji_man_dancing:. You just want to ogle his granddaughter some more.


Ragenard's brow furrowed at the mention of Jimmy's state prior to being thrown in the pound. He loomed over Lark and Xandre, lending his presence to the weight of Lark's question as he brooded over Jimmy, but without speaking over the younger wolf's interrogation. His fingers continued to tap away meanwhile:

I flunked out of both biology and magical aptitude, but I've hung out with the druids long enough. You can't get that wildly different of effects accidentally. But this dipshit would make the worst hitter...product test? Where'd you say you picked him up again?
.
 
Beans? Who the fuck is that?

Jimmy was trying so hard to be invisible that he didn't react to anything until the blanket was tossed at him. Snaking a hand out, he snagged the cloth and immediately pulled it over his body. Wiggling around just a little to ensure it covered every inch of him, he finally kind of focused on the three men. Though, the huge guy scared him immensely.

"What are you even talking about? Where am I and why the hell am I naked and in a cage?! What did you do to me?!" Jimmy's question was directed at them all and he groaned as his brain filled in a bit of the details again and he grunted while slowly sitting up.

"Oh yeah... I was shooting fire." He remembered that part, but had no recollection of the store incident.

His attention shifted to the dwarf and he stared at his strange way of talking. What the fuck..? Was he still high or was he dreaming? Biting on his bottom lip, he leaned against the bars.

"Let me go. My... my uncle and aunt are going to be pissed off that I'm out past my curfew." Keeping the blanket wrapped around him, he stood up and paced back and forth. As he moved, he suddenly recalled the night prior to the blackout.

"My friends and I like to do drugs... have been doing them forever and a day. The day my father bit me and turned me, we had hooked up with the Iron Jackals again. They are our primary dealers. Anywho..." Wait! Why the hell did he just give up his dealers?! Oh my god! He needed to fix this!

"I mean, not the Iron Jackals. It was so.e unknown person. They said they had gotten a new drug from an anonymous source and it was supposed to be the best out. My friends got busted shortly after that and when I didn't die or go crazy like my father, I decided to try the drug. Next thing I know, I'm in a cage." He frowned and hugged the blanket tighter.
 
"I think you have worse things to worry about than your aunt and uncle, kid," Lark remarked with an arched eyebrow. He hadn't expected him to spill everything quite so quickly. He wasn't sure whether that said good or bad things about his survival instincts... probably good, considering Ragenard's looming presence over his shoulder. Clearly keeping his mouth shut wasn't his forté, either way.

"Iron Jackals, huh?" Lark folded his arms and shared a glance with the other two. "Sounds like they've been getting their fingers into something new. Never heard of a pill that gives you fire breath before. Or makes you fast as a fucking F1 car. Anything like that been on your radars?"
 
"Yeh vandalized n' tried ta rob Thorje's shop while Lark here was inside, collectin' our fee for preventing 'zactly that sorta thing," he replied, both to Mr. Bean and to Ragenard's text.

"Drugs though, eh? Ain't never heard of no drugs that can do that. Sounds like there must be a new dealer in town," he said aloud, though again it was mostly to Ragenard, but he wanted Lark to hear that as well. "Seems we needta check out the Jackals. They been yippin' at our borders ever since the Rowan shit went down." He made a sound with his mouth, halfway between an exasperated sigh and a grunt. "I was hopin' we'd have a lil' time to lick our wounds 'fore we had to go put some other dipshits in their place. I guess I'll get Ol' Minnie oiled up t'night after all."
 
"Oh it's been on my radar alright," Ragenard replied to Lark alongside a sigh. "You're both too young and they never made it to Lutetia en masse oddly enough," Ragenard added with a significant look at Xandre. "Magic and biology aren't mutually exclusive, and this shit is one of the few things that gets Lutetian customs to call over the nice military chaps and you're never seen again. Illegal doesn't even begin to cover it. More like verboten. I haven't seen the damn things since the war..." Ragenard let out a forceful exhale he hardly realized he'd been holding then contemplated Jimmy.

"These things don't typically work well on our kind," he explained while trying to decide what to do with the pathetic waif before them. "It's almost a waste on a kid like this, I don't get it and I don't like it." He tapped on his phone some more as he continued, and this time both Xandre's and Lark's phones buzzed.

[To: Xandre, Lark] Watch him for an hour or so to see if he spills anything else worth it. Then take him by a drive-thru somewhere before cutting him loose; he's going to be ravenous after the dosing. Best friends act, I want the kid considering informing for us. Plus...I kinda can't blame anyone for vandalizing Thorje's...


"Give Minnie the whole treatment Xandre," he vocalized surly to Xandre's spoken statement as he finalized his text. "I don't know how dipshits like the IJs could have gotten their hands on this tier of shit, but this kind of toy in our backyard cannot stand." Ragenard cracked the cartilage in his neck and was about to say more when he finally lost his mind.

The clock on his phone read '12:00' as the hour struck noon. Like a weather vane turning in the wind, Ragenard spun on a dime suddenly, and faced directly and intently at the pound's eastern wall. His vision swam, and went out completely in one eye as the sun blinded him. Or at least, it felt like the sun was blinding him, but he couldn't understand why he thought that. Because you feel Its warmth and song, imbecile, came the unbidden thought alongside an overpowering urge to smile. Ragenard's eyes tightetned even as a broad grin overtook his features.

"So yeah, no rest for the wicked," Ragenard said with a mirthful tone. "On that note, I need to check on someone. Text me if anything else happens." He waved casually and walked off out of the pound proper and through the warehouse interior. That's a good show. Now fucking move out of here before you get them all killed, he thought as a reasurringly cool calm blanket washed away his panic. He didn't need to understand what was going on, he just knew he had places to be. The sky reflected a ruddy red off his Perrault as he approached it just outside one of the open loading bay doors. An exuberant feeling of excitement propelled him as he cranked it to life. He had to hurry and bathe in the residual energy before...Enough overthinking, let's go, Ragenard thought as he revved his bike and sped off into Lupaix proper.
 
Jimmy shook his head at Lark while also looking around for his phone. They didn't know his uncle and aunt, him missing curfew was way worse than anything else. He was going to pay dearly for it. Maybe if he found his phone and called them. No, texted them. They'd know something was up if he called and he wasn't about to be forced into rehab or jail. This cage was jail enough for him.

"Look... you don't ..." Trailing off at the short bastards words, he grew incredibly pale. No fucking way he did that! They had to be mistaken, right? He had always maintained control when drugged up, no matter what! But, the more he thought about it, the sicker his stomach grew. There was far too many black places in his memory, so maybe he did do what he was being accused of?

FUCK

He was so screwed. His pacing grew more erratic within the cage, especially when he remembered his phone was back at the abandoned house where the group often hung out. Oh, he was more than screwed. It wasn't lost on Jimmy that he narced on the Jackals and they no doubt would be unhappy with him if they found out. They had been trying to get him to join their ranks for a while now.

"The guy who gave it to me might've been lying about who he's with, so... don't be hasty? Besides, he got it from someone else, so ... " His voice was soft and he had stopped pacing for the moment. When Ragenard looked back at him though, he scowled angrily at him and felt his wolf growing agitated. He wanted out of the cage and even as the large fucker left, he kept glaring. He was bouncing between emotions and anger was just about in control.

"Look, I'll pay for the damage or whatever that you've claimed I've done, but I've GOT to go now. You don't understand... I can't be late." Hell, he didn't even know what time it was and that just made him all the more frantic.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top