victory_road | [closed] May Catch All

Grant looks up when he hears Shrike speak up outside the safe room - and, while he can't exactly give a verbal answer, he can try and confirm somehow.

So he answers with a whuff, hopefully quiet enough not to be too startling without being too quiet to hear clearly. He scratches gently at the door a couple times before stepping back, leaving room for Shrike to come in.

Of course, Shrike should have thought of the fact that Grant couldn't talk. That was part of the whole thing, wasn't it? But it hadn't even occurred to him until, well, there was a distinct lack of a voice in response. He really should have thought of that.

In any case, he's pretty sure that wasn't an angry or negative sound, so that's probably a yes, right? Hopefully it is, because Shrike's going to act on that assumption and let himself in. He's not really sure what he's expecting, even after heari

"Oh!" He's a little surprised, but not afraid. No more than his usual nervousness around people he doesn't know well, at least. Shrike's not particularly intimidated by animals, even ones larger than he is.

"Um, hi."

He already said that, didn't he? He really needs to work on this socializing thing...

Grant sits down, his tail thumping gently on the floor, as Shrike steps into the room.

Admittedly, he's... a little nervous, being seen like this by someone who he doesn't know as well as he does most of the rest of the group. But he certainly hasn't gotten the impression that this kid is at all dangerous - if anything, Shrike seems even shyer than Grant himself was at his age.

Which only leaves the risk that he'll be scared of Grant.

Which... would arguably be the worst possible outcome, actually.

But-- well. There's only one way to find out, and Grant can't imagine it would be reassuring for Shrike to be hearing all this werewolf stuff while Grant refuses to let him know how that actually works.

...Just to be sure he's not at all intimidating here, Grant lies down with one of those quiet, big-dog huffs, and a little nod of his head. Closest he's got to a "hi" in return.

'Dangerous' is a tricky term. Shrike did manage to survive by himself in the middle of nowhere for several years, and is strong enough that he's accidentally injured other people before. To say nothing about the amount of things he'd broken when he was younger and lacking in fine motor control. But on the other hand, those incidents were exactly why he acquired the habit of being very careful, and keeping his hands to himself as much as possible, as he's always hated seeing other people hurt, let alone being the one responsible for it.

And of course, on weekends like this he's keenly aware all that strength is returned to him, so he's being extra careful. No recklessly slamming a door shut behind him, for example, instead taking the time to gently close and latch it.

Which is to say, Shrike definitely means no harm, at least. Rather, he only keeps a slight distance ought of concern of how he might react to sudden movement, himself. He's used to being around Pokémon, sure, but this is a slightly different situation.

"So, um, it's really just you, but turned into an animal...?"

Shaping magic isn't unheard-of in his world, but it's typically the domain of fay creatures. And typically, the rare unlucky human who winds up transformed tends to stay that way, not going back and forth as Grant had explained.

Grant tilts his head in thought, then whuffs and nods again.

Strictly speaking, it's a bit more complicated than that - but the intricacies of lycanthropy aren't something he can really explain in this form, for... a couple reasons. For one thing, that sort of thing is difficult to communicate when he can't speak, and... for another, complex ideas tend to get a bit fuzzy in this form-- harder to grasp. It's not that he doesn't still know the things he does about magic - or anything else - or that his intelligence is really effected; his thoughts just end up too scattered, pulled every which way by his senses and emotions.

For now, the important thing is that he is still basically himself.

That does more or less answer Shrike's question, at least for the time being. Any details can be explained later if needed. For now, he's mostly just a little fascinated by this. Hopefully Grant won't take offense, Shrike certainly doesn't mean anything by his interest!

"There's stories about fay turning people into animals--because they can use shaping magic--but I think if that happens a lot of the time the person thinks they're an animal too? But people can't just turn into things on their own..."

Not usually, that is. Shrike isn't educated enough to know the possible exceptions and the nuances of why they're exceptions, in any case.

He's also probably rambling a bit. Is that rude? He hasn't stopped to think about whether that's rude. But on the other hand, it's maybe a little possible that the fact that the person in front of him is currently, well, a dog, as opposed to a human, might be taking a bit of an edge off his usual shyness. Just a little.

As Shrike talks, Grant listens patiently, still lying on the ground with his tail sweeping back and forth behind him.

He can clear up any questions Shrike may have about how this does work after the fact; for now, he's fine with just letting him ramble. It seems like a good sign, compared to how closed-off Shrike has been when they've spoken before.

Shrike lacks enough self-awareness to put a name to it, but there's definitely a certain... something about being around someone else who's also a bit different from normal humans, somehow. Shrike's case might be a little less extreme, no full transformations or anything, at least, but it's also rather visible all the time. Hence the habit of keeping himself covered, even as far as obscuring his face as much as possible. So the hood continues to stay on for now, even if he's a bit less shy than usual.

"Oh! Are there things you like to do like this? I mean--you can't do a lot of the stuff you usually do, right?"

Lack of proper hands and all.

Grant tilts his head, whuffling quietly as he considers that. Then he walks over first to the punching bag set up in the room, bumping it with his nose - just gently, in this case - and then to one of the thick ropes secured to the walls, which he picks up in his teeth to give a quick, demonstrative tug.

...Then he walks over a pile of pillows and flops down. Sleep doesn't always come easily when he's like this, but it's still nice to have somewhere even just to try to relax.

That all makes sense. At least, Shrike thinks he gets what's being communicated. He could be wrong, but there's no way to really tell right now, anyway.

Still, there's something about that which stands out to him...

"Things you can do by yourself?"

He noted that all appears to be stuff set up to not need--or even really allow for--having another person involved.

Grant pauses, considering that. And... he nods.

That is true, he guesses, even now that having people visit on a night like this is more of an option.

That's certainly interesting. Or at least, the matter now has piqued Shrike's interest, as his mind turns these various pieces of information over. Maybe it's his own experience of spending so long avoiding interacting much with others, or maybe just coincidental insight, but he can't help but ask the obvious followup:

"Do you not want to do things with other people like this?"

Another moment while Grant figures out... how to answer that.

The problem is, it's a bit complicated to communicate succinctly without being able to speak; it's not that he doesn't want other people around. It's just that he hasn't historically thought of it as... well, safe. He's getting more used to the idea these days that he can spend time with other people in this form without being a risk to them, but twenty years of being told otherwise make it... difficult.

So, instead of giving an effective answer, he mostly ends up whining quietly and sort of stepping back and forth.

Did he say something wrong? Shrike has no idea what to make of that reaction.

"Ah, s-sorry! I shouldn't ask things like that?"

He can only assume he said something wrong.

Grant hurries to answer that with a shake of his head and a little whine, reaching out a paw to ever so carefully pat Shrike and very deliberately wagging his tail. It's fine, he promises - but he can't say that, either.

He's starting to suspect he'll have some things to clear up in the morning. Maybe trying to interact with people like this was a mistake, after all.

Edited 2023-12-01 00:55 (UTC)

The communication is certainly a bit.... iffy, but Shrike doesn't really mind the tedium of it. Or to be more accurate, he's somewhat oblivious to the fact that this is probably quite tedious. He's far too curious to think of minor things like that, even if there's still the ever-present worry about saying or doing the wrong thing.

Which, speaking of, at least that does clear things up a bit, even if Shrike has no idea what the prior response was supposed to mean now. And is still a little unsure if he should ask more.

"Oh... What do you want to do?"

He tilts his head one way, then the other. Then he walks over to a sizable rope chew, picks up one end gently in his mouth, and holds it out as if to offer the other end to Shrike.

Tug-of-war seems like something he can be careful enough with not to be a safety risk, right?

"Oh! Yeah, that should be fine."

His enchanted hood of course obscures his expression, but he definitely sounds happy with the idea. Of course, he'll probably have to hold back (at least, he thinks), seeing as it being a weird weekend means he has his normal strength back. Which, well, is quite a bit more than one would expect from someone his size, to put it mildly.

It does not, of course, occur to him to question whether Dimitri ever mentioned this little fact about him to the rest of the group.

Grant waits patiently for Shrike to pick up the free end of the rope before he starts pulling... very, very carefully.

Because, no, he has no idea; as far as he knows, he's just making sure not to fling a teenager across the room.

Shrike is, naturally, likewise being very careful. What if he pulled too hard and the rope caught on one of Grant's teeth or something? So he tries to gauge things as best he can, pulling only a little bit harder than he feels it pull back, if he can.

Not that it's particularly obvious that's what he's doing, of course. Probably the only real indication to an observer might be that he doesn't appear to be putting that much effort into it, perhaps.

Now, that's interesting. There's a bit of tension on the rope, of course, but Grant can see as he glances up at Shrike that he's not really... trying.

Hmm.

He'll give it a little more pull - not much. But enough that the average adult would probably have some trouble. How's that going to go...?

The suddenly stronger pull on the rope does catch Shrike a little by surprise, though not by much. He's quick to tighten up his grip and respond in kind, in any case, albeit maybe pulling actually a bit harder in return by accident.

Since while this is enough to require him to put some effort into it, it's certainly not the limit of his strength by any means.

[closed] May Catch All

looks great!!

sorry Grant this kid is still terrible at being social

tbh grant has NO room to judge, especially given how he was as a teen it's all good :'D

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I giggled as I was writing this, look at these two dorks

same... they're TRYING

attempts are being made...!