Hunter (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
badbutsadboy) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
metalogs2022-12-27 05:13 pm
badbutsadboy) wrote in metalogs2022-12-27 05:13 pm
Point and Click
Who: Hunter badbutsadboy and a few others.
What: Hunter fucks around and finds out
When: About a week after his running away post.
Where: Jason Todd's Safehouse over the bar
Content Warnings: Gunshot wounds, blood, harm to a minor
Then.
It was going as well as it could at first. As in, he hadn't been dragged back to the school and he wasn't dead. But he was tired, he was always just a little cold, even with his tent and sleeping pad and little heat orbs. The distant rumble of the subway going over one of the bridges woke him up every so often.
Then there was the...scuffling outside the tent. That he knew had to be rats. They tended to scatter anytime he unzipped it. He stored his food somewhere separate, safe from them, in weather proofed containers hidden on the outside edifices of some of the high rises, tucked behind things like gargoyles that window washers wouldn't look behind. Annoyingly distant, so he had to make sure he ate everything he wanted before settling in, but he had less fears about the rats with wings chewing through his containers than the rats without wings, so it was better they were somewhere up high.
He at least had been left alone so far. One major advantage to having Flapjack to get into high places that couldn't be climbed to. Good ol' reliable Flapjack, who'd agreed to this plan from the beginning, despite Hunter telling him he'd stay in the nice warm house with the fake family if he really wanted it. Flapjack was able to get him up and over barriers to places that most humans could get to. That's why he'd been able to camp out on the abandoned third floor of a factory, where all the ladders had rusted and fallen away, limiting people being able to reach it.
So he'd been safe so far, but cold. Hungry for something that wasn't protein bars and peanut butter and tuna packets. Starting to feel grimy. Hygiene was NOT easy like this and he knew he was going to cave soon and go get a shower at Jason's and wash his clothes. And he would not stay, he told himself. Even for comfort and warmth, he wouldn't stay because he needed to not be all in on trusting someone when there might be something they're hiding...
Besides, this wasn't all that different than his time on the run from Belos. That was slightly more harrowing, given he sometime'd had to shelter from the boiling rain until he made it to Hexside, and known he was almost certainly being hunted. The Emperor's nephew had enough credibility that warnings about Belos' plans might be taken seriously. So at least he was less mortally terrified every waking moment.
Mostly just...bored. He couldn't even fool around on his phone when he needed to save the charge. Maybe it was his boredom that had him perking up at the sound of loud voices not too far away outside. The voices sounded angry, one sounded scared.
He crawled over to a window, low to the ground, and peeked out through the broken panes, Flapjack on his shoulder. The bird was smart enough to duck his head down, too.
"Sorry, Benny, but the Cassowary wants you to pay what you owe."
"Look, Mr. Wise, Kevlar, I swear, I'm good! I just need more time!"
Hunter rolled his eyes. He wasn't such a naive idiot to not know people like this existed in any world. Two bit thugs that, unlike some others, truly deserved their place in the Emperor's dungeons. Probably dealing with some kind of internal crime-based conflict.
Without his authority as Golden Guard to intimidate them with, he didn't even think about interfering. He could phone in the details to someone to look into later. Someone with better resources. As long as it stayed at just making threats or even just punching the guy once or twice, he didn't need to interfere.
"That was an awful lot of merchandise you lost us," said Kevlar.
"I was just doing my job, okay. I'm a cop! I wasn't the one that found the warehouse, I just got called in as backup!"
So, a guard then? Wow. Extra scumbag, dealing with the criminal element on the side. That honestly meant nothing positive about his general virtue, too, either. In fact, that could make him an even worse person, the way some of the Emperor's coven were the worst people imaginable. Look at Kikimora.
"Still owe us a lot because of how much you lost at the ponies, too, Benny," said Wise.
"Please. I'm working on it. My kid's sick. The chemo alone -" said Benny.
Probably a lie. It'was probably just an excuse. Besides, who would bring up their innocent child to some toughs that might threaten them just for the mention?
Still...that meant a potentially traumatized child, hearing the news daddy wasn't coming home. Possibly a sick one reliant on his income for medicine. They didn't have healing magic here and the absolute barbarians in charge of medicine charged an obscene mark up of snails on it.
"Maybe you should've thought of that when you were at the track," said Kevlar.
"I stopped gambling after her diagnosis but -"
"Then maybe you should've thought about saving something for a rainy day before starting," said Wise.
"I just need more time."
"I think he's not getting the message, Kev."
"I think you're right, Wise."
"Wait wait! Please!"
They grabbed the man and pinned him to a wall, pulling out a knife. One of them started wrestling with his hand. It was clear they were possibly going to cut something off of him.
Hunter rolls his head downward, in a "staring at the Titan beseeching it for strength" gesture, thinking to himself, Of course it's in the alley near my hiding spot. Of course. He nodded at Flapjack who transforms to a staff in his hand.
Even if it was some low lifes terrorizing another low life, he could't just let them chop off fingers or something. The idea of letting someone face that kind of brutality and having to listen to it rubbed him the wrong way. Besides, it was just two idiots with knives, who hadn't shown a single sign of any powers. What was the worst they could do?
Now.
He almost can't work the window open, but is able to hook the bottom with Flapjack's beak and pull just enough to get it up. He outright falls through the opening, landing on the floor and drags himself across it. Inside. Into the warmth. Into the heat that he knows he needs to survive shock. After he's stopped, Flapjack starts panicking, flying right into his coat to pull his phone out of its inner pocket for him, with his beak.
He was lucky he wasn't altogether that far, especially since he could only hold onto his staff with one hand while flying over.
Gasping ragged breaths, he turns on his side. The bandage of magical vines is holding but he doesn't know how long it will, and he knows he needs more pressure. Biting back a scream as he does it, he rolls onto the upper part of his left arm, using his body weight to add even more pressure to the wound, cutting off circulation with his body in place of a tourniquet.
"S'kay, Flap. S'fine. Jus' need - jus' need t'..."
Flapjack gets the phone into his hand, even figures out how to swipe off the screen lock. Hunter fumbles with it with bloody fingers but his vision was already tinged around the edges. It starts fading to black. He's clumsy enough with his phone on a good day, with both hands. Pulling up the contacts to dial is hard to do, on his side, with only one hand and the screen now smeared with blood.
He fumbles, starts to feel himself fading, struggles to breathe faster, because even though nothing is wrong with his lungs, he feels like he can never catch his breath. He knows he's in shock. He's been in shock before. A few of his witches' duels hadn't gone well, especially early on.
His last thought is a perplexed:
I wonder why there isn't a way to dial a whole phone number with one button...
And then he stops, and the phone slides out of his hand, the screen flat on the floor where even Flapjack can't mess with it. His eyes roll back into his head. And he's left on the cold floor, breathing shallow breaths as Flapjack trills with wild-eyed terror, desperately tugging on the phone to turn it over to try to work the buttons and struggling to get a grip, or flying over to his forelock and yanking to wake him up.
He doesn't wake up. Crimson slowly pools around him.
badbutsadboy and a few others. What: Hunter fucks around and finds out
When: About a week after his running away post.
Where: Jason Todd's Safehouse over the bar
Content Warnings: Gunshot wounds, blood, harm to a minor
Then.
It was going as well as it could at first. As in, he hadn't been dragged back to the school and he wasn't dead. But he was tired, he was always just a little cold, even with his tent and sleeping pad and little heat orbs. The distant rumble of the subway going over one of the bridges woke him up every so often.
Then there was the...scuffling outside the tent. That he knew had to be rats. They tended to scatter anytime he unzipped it. He stored his food somewhere separate, safe from them, in weather proofed containers hidden on the outside edifices of some of the high rises, tucked behind things like gargoyles that window washers wouldn't look behind. Annoyingly distant, so he had to make sure he ate everything he wanted before settling in, but he had less fears about the rats with wings chewing through his containers than the rats without wings, so it was better they were somewhere up high.
He at least had been left alone so far. One major advantage to having Flapjack to get into high places that couldn't be climbed to. Good ol' reliable Flapjack, who'd agreed to this plan from the beginning, despite Hunter telling him he'd stay in the nice warm house with the fake family if he really wanted it. Flapjack was able to get him up and over barriers to places that most humans could get to. That's why he'd been able to camp out on the abandoned third floor of a factory, where all the ladders had rusted and fallen away, limiting people being able to reach it.
So he'd been safe so far, but cold. Hungry for something that wasn't protein bars and peanut butter and tuna packets. Starting to feel grimy. Hygiene was NOT easy like this and he knew he was going to cave soon and go get a shower at Jason's and wash his clothes. And he would not stay, he told himself. Even for comfort and warmth, he wouldn't stay because he needed to not be all in on trusting someone when there might be something they're hiding...
Besides, this wasn't all that different than his time on the run from Belos. That was slightly more harrowing, given he sometime'd had to shelter from the boiling rain until he made it to Hexside, and known he was almost certainly being hunted. The Emperor's nephew had enough credibility that warnings about Belos' plans might be taken seriously. So at least he was less mortally terrified every waking moment.
Mostly just...bored. He couldn't even fool around on his phone when he needed to save the charge. Maybe it was his boredom that had him perking up at the sound of loud voices not too far away outside. The voices sounded angry, one sounded scared.
He crawled over to a window, low to the ground, and peeked out through the broken panes, Flapjack on his shoulder. The bird was smart enough to duck his head down, too.
"Sorry, Benny, but the Cassowary wants you to pay what you owe."
"Look, Mr. Wise, Kevlar, I swear, I'm good! I just need more time!"
Hunter rolled his eyes. He wasn't such a naive idiot to not know people like this existed in any world. Two bit thugs that, unlike some others, truly deserved their place in the Emperor's dungeons. Probably dealing with some kind of internal crime-based conflict.
Without his authority as Golden Guard to intimidate them with, he didn't even think about interfering. He could phone in the details to someone to look into later. Someone with better resources. As long as it stayed at just making threats or even just punching the guy once or twice, he didn't need to interfere.
"That was an awful lot of merchandise you lost us," said Kevlar.
"I was just doing my job, okay. I'm a cop! I wasn't the one that found the warehouse, I just got called in as backup!"
So, a guard then? Wow. Extra scumbag, dealing with the criminal element on the side. That honestly meant nothing positive about his general virtue, too, either. In fact, that could make him an even worse person, the way some of the Emperor's coven were the worst people imaginable. Look at Kikimora.
"Still owe us a lot because of how much you lost at the ponies, too, Benny," said Wise.
"Please. I'm working on it. My kid's sick. The chemo alone -" said Benny.
Probably a lie. It'was probably just an excuse. Besides, who would bring up their innocent child to some toughs that might threaten them just for the mention?
Still...that meant a potentially traumatized child, hearing the news daddy wasn't coming home. Possibly a sick one reliant on his income for medicine. They didn't have healing magic here and the absolute barbarians in charge of medicine charged an obscene mark up of snails on it.
"Maybe you should've thought of that when you were at the track," said Kevlar.
"I stopped gambling after her diagnosis but -"
"Then maybe you should've thought about saving something for a rainy day before starting," said Wise.
"I just need more time."
"I think he's not getting the message, Kev."
"I think you're right, Wise."
"Wait wait! Please!"
They grabbed the man and pinned him to a wall, pulling out a knife. One of them started wrestling with his hand. It was clear they were possibly going to cut something off of him.
Hunter rolls his head downward, in a "staring at the Titan beseeching it for strength" gesture, thinking to himself, Of course it's in the alley near my hiding spot. Of course. He nodded at Flapjack who transforms to a staff in his hand.
Even if it was some low lifes terrorizing another low life, he could't just let them chop off fingers or something. The idea of letting someone face that kind of brutality and having to listen to it rubbed him the wrong way. Besides, it was just two idiots with knives, who hadn't shown a single sign of any powers. What was the worst they could do?
Now.
He almost can't work the window open, but is able to hook the bottom with Flapjack's beak and pull just enough to get it up. He outright falls through the opening, landing on the floor and drags himself across it. Inside. Into the warmth. Into the heat that he knows he needs to survive shock. After he's stopped, Flapjack starts panicking, flying right into his coat to pull his phone out of its inner pocket for him, with his beak.
He was lucky he wasn't altogether that far, especially since he could only hold onto his staff with one hand while flying over.
Gasping ragged breaths, he turns on his side. The bandage of magical vines is holding but he doesn't know how long it will, and he knows he needs more pressure. Biting back a scream as he does it, he rolls onto the upper part of his left arm, using his body weight to add even more pressure to the wound, cutting off circulation with his body in place of a tourniquet.
"S'kay, Flap. S'fine. Jus' need - jus' need t'..."
Flapjack gets the phone into his hand, even figures out how to swipe off the screen lock. Hunter fumbles with it with bloody fingers but his vision was already tinged around the edges. It starts fading to black. He's clumsy enough with his phone on a good day, with both hands. Pulling up the contacts to dial is hard to do, on his side, with only one hand and the screen now smeared with blood.
He fumbles, starts to feel himself fading, struggles to breathe faster, because even though nothing is wrong with his lungs, he feels like he can never catch his breath. He knows he's in shock. He's been in shock before. A few of his witches' duels hadn't gone well, especially early on.
His last thought is a perplexed:
I wonder why there isn't a way to dial a whole phone number with one button...
And then he stops, and the phone slides out of his hand, the screen flat on the floor where even Flapjack can't mess with it. His eyes roll back into his head. And he's left on the cold floor, breathing shallow breaths as Flapjack trills with wild-eyed terror, desperately tugging on the phone to turn it over to try to work the buttons and struggling to get a grip, or flying over to his forelock and yanking to wake him up.
He doesn't wake up. Crimson slowly pools around him.