[HH] Howl (Rep + Nukh)

[Baneful]

He took haunted house duty for the danger, that was what it boiled down to ultimately. Sitting down in the dark looking out on ocean on underwater duty wasn't dangerous, nor was sitting in the jungle all day. Generally the island was so safe that any of the other duties it afforded were tedious at best. Boredom in Rep's mind was worse than death, at least death was relief. It was a well known fact that the haunted house was dangerous, a living entity wrought of twisted corridors and a beating creaking heart of rotted wood. He moved through it and he was not afraid. Because deep down, beyond the self doubt and uncertainty he was a predator and he feared nothing but inaction.

Since the incident with the crowns he'd dwelt on many things about the dream world, and to this day still encountered that other self - the man he'd titled Blue - in his dreams. And yet for all the introversion and thought, all the chewing himself to ribbons like an animal with stitches that felt wrong and alien, he was none the wiser. Those who had been with him in that place of neon and lavishness, the ones who had been physically present - they remembered - and that made sense. But it had been the individuals like Melvin who remembered despite never being present at all that had begun to raise questions in his mind. Did it mean everyone had been a fragment or reflection of a creature in this world? And moreover, did that mean they too remembered what happened?

It drove him mad to think there was someone or something out there who remembered him in ways no creature had any right to, a twisted effeminate queen of infidelity who could flout relationships at whim without fear of reprisal.

Tracey crooned in his thoughts, and he dismissed him.

It wasn't jealousy, it ran contrary to his nature. But he had always wanted to know, and perhaps that too was why he found himself here so often, a sentinel of these dusty corridors simply waiting for the house - that entity he was sure he could feel sometimes in the shift of old velvet curtains and the husk of old long dead plants reaching forever towards water on windowsills - to give him what he wanted.

It was quiet today, in the open courtyard he had found himself in once again, the strange fog about the place obscuring the sky overhead, if there was even a sky. The grass was dying, but so was everything here. He inclined his head up and inhaled, damp and ratty stone always reminded him of home.

 

[x_Nata_x]

For Nuk, stumbling onto the Haunted House hadn't been intentional.

~~~

The monster dorms were completely quiet, not because it was the dead of night -- it wasn't -- but because all the other students were at class, diligently working on whatever mindless, pointless assignment that happened to have been handed out that day. All of them, save one. Sprawled out on his back against the black bear pelt which acted as his blanket, Nukpana stared blankly up at the ceiling, glowing amber eyes fixated on a singular point on his ceiling where the paint had begun to chip away from a crack which spidered from one of the corners. Surrounded by the mess of dirty clothes and crumpled papers, the rag-tag skinwalker looked right at home, tattoos and scars and ripped jeans reflected back in the carelessness of his dorm. Around the door handle, a pair of girl's panties dangled precariously, like a trophy of some conquest. The light bulb in the generic, standard-issue ceiling lamp had long since blown, but even if it hadn't he wouldn't have used it; except for a small sliver, the entire window had been haphazardly covered up by what looked to be the blanket that had originally been on the dorm bed before he'd come along.

From beneath a pile of clothes shoved off in one corner, his skelephone started to ring, the high-pitched trill muffled. Nuk didn't even bother to look up, letting it ring until after several minutes, it finally went quiet, letting the silence take over again.

The minutes ticked by, the skinwalker laying completely still on the course, dark fur, until finally, with a deep, restless exhale, he lifted his head, tucking his shoulders as he sat up, swinging his legs around to set his bare feet down on the carpet. In an instant he was up, agitation coiling the muscles of his shoulders tightly beneath tanned skin as he stalked pointedly towards the door, a deeply-set scowl etching hard lines into his face. As he crossed the room, Nuk paused only once, his eyes flickering to his computer chair, where his newest pelt lay draped over it, hesitating for a few long heartbeats before he snatched it up, slamming the door hard behind him, the sound of bones crunching and sinew ripping as he changed forms.

~~~

He'd tried really hard not to be obsessed. In fact, when he'd awoken from the disturbing dream, he'd firmly shoved it completely off his mind, refusing to even mull over the set of alternate memories he'd acquired through that nightmare. But an entire life was hard to forget, especially when the littlest thing would invoke emotional responses, responses which weren't his. At first, it was little things: the flash of a laser pointer or a vibrant blue barrette. The sound of a trash can being knocked over. But quickly, very quickly... things started getting out of control. Soon it became things he encountered regularly. The chinking of glasses. The smell of cigarette smoke. Any and all alcohol. The pelt he had no recollection having acquired.

Redheads. By far, redheads were the worst.

And it all went downhill when he ran into Taima. He could have accepted the strange feelings; he'd been under a lot of stress lately. Leaving his pack, seeking sanctuary at Amityville, struggling to reconnect with friends who were now two grade levels ahead of him. He could have accepted that he subconsciously wanted to escape, trade his life for something else... or some crap like that. And maybe, just maybe, he could have learned to accept that he had some very... faint... feelings of homosexuality, represented by a random redhead. It even made sense -- hadn't he killed him for it after? No homo was something he said himself. But then he'd met Taima, someone who not only had he never met before, but who had shared the exact same dream. And he couldn't ignore it anymore. What had started as an annoying afterthought became an obsession. It haunted him. More and more he wanted to be a tiger instead of a wolf, trading speed and agility for the heavy, powerful intimidation.

He just... needed to get out of here. It didn't matter where, he didn't care, as long as it was outside and it wasn't here.

The further he got from his dorm, the better he felt. Little by little, the tension in his shoulders began to ease, muscles uncoiling slowly, body relaxing. Gradually, his breathing evened out again; he hadn't even realized he's been gritting his teeth until his lips curled back over the large, sharp fangs, fur along the bridge of his nose smoothing. The trees began to grow denser, and Nuk finally slowed his angry stride, his stalking becoming more of a lumbering, until finally his pace could hardly be considered walking at all, shoulders swaying as he meandered forward. Instead of pointlessly moving, the skinwalker let his eyes drift over the foliage, hardly visible through the fog which had inexplicably picked up, forming a curtain. The air felt different... diluted, almost, a mixture with something else that could have been described as 'brackish' if it had been water. It wasn't until he'd reached the haunted house itself, tall and worn and foreboding, unkempt courtyard sprawled ahead of him that he realized how far he'd actually come.

The black tiger paused at the edge of it, where the skeletal trees ended but the dead brown grass continued onward, contemplating turning back when he saw it.

It.

Him.

Flaming red hair. And a coat, a white coat lined with fur, a white coat emblazoned with a gold emblem which branded him as something to be despised. As if he didn't despise him before. Didn't hate him for taking advantage of his uncertainty, making him feel something like... ... just something before revealing that it was all a cruel, sadistic trick, disgust bleeding through even as he impaled him with shadow claws, spitting his last whisper to him like he was something vile.

...or... not his... not... him... but... ...

Inexplicably blue eyes flashed as he stared at Rep, pupils narrowing to slits as the black tiger strode out further into the courtyard, charcoal stripes a deep rumbling growl echoing in his chest. Once again bones snapped and joints popped, the sound of skin tearing echoing a little off the walls of the haunted house, until Nukpana was once again in his student form, still stalking towards the redhead.

"Of course." He let his voice echo as the growl had, low and gravelly and loud enough to be heard. "******** a good distance away from Rep, Nuk sneered, his amber eyes sharp and unforgiving. And hurt. "You'd have to be a hunter to kill someone you just <********>, wouldn't you?" he continued haughtily.

He was being antagonistic. But the real Nuk was a lot less passive than the one Rep had encountered before. And he didn't give a s**t whether he pissed Rep off.  

[Baneful]

For Rep, considering where to go next in life had never been a case of logic - instead he was a creature of raw instinct - his entire life to date had been one long sequence of hunches and impulsive decisions. But sometimes you had to think before you acted and - presented with a figure right out of his strangest dreams, it was one of those rare occasions for him. He’d hoped for the longest time that Nukh had been just that a dream, a creature Harrison thought up that had simply gone awry. To have dreamed him would be to be capable of dismissing the memories that still lingered; the vivid warmth of his skin as he kissed it, the thrum of power in his body taut with need and the sheer pinnacle of control he’d felt making him his. All of those things were tied to shame and a stark reminder that with so much reliance on instinct it would be all too easy to repeat the actions of his blue self, that all it would take would be one slip, one mistake and he’d be lost.

Weakness was not an option; he treated this encounter as he might treat a stare down with a wild animal, becausethat was what it was. If there had been one thing he’d learned in blue kingdom, it was that the man before him was not what he seemed. He felt so used to anticipating his shifting shape that even the nuanced differences in appearance between his blue kingdom appearance his his current one didn’t phase him.

Deep down he imagined he’d still taste the same.

He stared, brilliant blue eyes calm and keenly amused as he let the skinwalker rant. And he watched, careful and attentive, listening once again to instinct and feeling out the division in his very sense of self. It was strange to be pulled in two directions at once over an individual, on one hand there was the revulsion and anger that was truly him, the vicious desire to eradicate this particular reminder of his weakness from the earth again and again until he could crush his very essence in his hands and be rid of the problem forever. On the other hand there was that part of him that was Blue, lust that twined up with callous amusement, a curious desire to tame, to teach and to assess. There had been something else too, something he wanted from this man, more than his body.

He smirked, a tug of expression that chased the calm from his gaze. “Naw. That was just for you. You were special.” He snarled, “I’d have done the same if I’d met you before I was a hunter too, the coat’s a trophy, no an excuse. I ******** hate faggots, and I hate adulterous ones most of ******** all.”

The tension in his posture seemed to melt away as he looked Nukh over, raking his body with that same intense appraisal the other him had used back then, lazily judging him as if sizing up a slab of meat for the table. Want and hate twisted together into a dark and toxic abyss the way they always had with Sasha and he felt for a moment that same dizzying suffocating sensation he only experienced when cliff diving, he didn’t know where the surface was, and he was swimming for his life.

Despite the tempest underneath, his exterior was calm. When he spoke it was a slow and measured snarl.

“Bristlier I see.", he chuckled "Shame its too ******** late for that - I’ve already seen what’s underneath. I've been inside you, and what's inside is weak.”  

[x_Nata_x]

The calmer Rep seemed, the angrier Nuk became, fingers curling into white-knuckled fists. The fact that he seemed entertained by his derision made it worse, every muscle coiling again, rippling like it might tear at any second, ready to change forms again right up until the point the hunter spoke. That caught him off guard.

You were special.

Of course, Rep hadn't meant it that way. The redhead hadn't even said it that way, nothing about his voice or demeanor suggesting something other than contemptuous mockery. He knew that, and yet still, Nuk was physically taken aback, one foot sliding behind the other to steady himself as he jerked away from the hunter a little, as if Rep had burned him. He might as well have; for a second, surprise and uncertainty smoothed out the aggression in his face, his hands unfurling immediately, steadying himself. For that brief moment, the skinwalker looked confused, his eyes widening a fraction before his brow knitted together, pain clear in the golden regard that for that second didn't look molten, didn't seem to be burning, clear as citrine.

It had been special, for him. Not his first -- there had been a slew of encounters before it, rough, back-alley pawing and hot, muggy breath against his neck --but it had been the first time he'd accepted it, instead of hiding behind hostility and denial. Rep's eyes on him had been more than heat and pleasure, although there had been plenty of that; it was the thoughtfulness, the pause of consideration which had made him stumble out of his chair, the sensation that he saw through him, into the inner turmoil and uncertainty. Here was a man who understood, and for once, for the very first time, he hadn't had given himself up to it, following him into the bedroom like the dog he was. He didn't shy away from the hands that roamed possessively over his body, nor the lips which found all the right places to touch, the feverish panting and electric urgency so much more intoxicating than the crystal blue drinks in the room downstairs...

Something boiled in the skinwalker's gut, hot and vile like acid, and he clenched the muscles suddenly as if he were going to retch, the real Nuk forcefully rejecting the memories. Every inch of his body crawled in disgust, less so because of the large, rough hands he could practically feel against his skin, but because of the longing that accompanied the memories. It was pathetic. But if there was any silver lining, it was that with that revulsion, the anger came back in full force, bringing back the fire and the cockiness. He was glad for it; he gripped it like a lifeline. This was him, not a dog in the rain but a wild, angry wolf, and he had no connection to Rep at all.

Lips curling back over canine teeth, Nuk sneered at him, tossing back his head to laugh mirthlessly, undeniable ridicule in the sound, growling through his smirk. "Aww, I'm touched. Right here," he replied in a smug, gravelly tone, grinning morbidly as he grabbed his crotch through his jeans, "I always knew it meant somethin' to you, Precious. 'N I gotta admit, you sure did make a real pretty queen."

The disgust was boiling away. In its place, all that was left was a certain contempt likely not so different than what Rep felt himself. The redhead was the image of his weakness, everything he despised about himself; nothing the blue kitsune had said made any difference now, no amount of reconciliation able to stand up to seeing the hunter, face to face with the physical evidence. It was like a slap in the face, and right now he wanted more than anything to wipe that amused expression off his face.

Taking a slow, cocky step forward, Nuk tilted his head a little, chest puffed out as he looked Rep up and down. "You're a piece a work, you know that?" he said, finally, after a few moments of thought. The closer he came, the more hostile his body language, his voice dropping lower, "I bet you get off on killing, you sick ******** then, because he wanted to hurt him, he pushed it too far, wandered a little too close, close enough he could have reached out and touched him.

"What does Harrison think about that? Huh?" he murmured under his breath, meeting Rep's eyes, "Or did you kill him too? Jizzed all over his face while he laid there dying?" Lips curling a little further, he reached down again to makes a lewd masturbatory gesture, his eyes mocking.

He didn't know what he hoped to gain from this. It would just end the same way as it had there; pride boasted he could take him, and pride was louder than reason, but reason was still there, tugging at the back of his mind, saying this was beyond stupid. What did he want, to kill him? He'd lost before, he'd probably lose again, although this time he had the comforting of knowing he'd merely dissipate.

No, that wasn't it. For some reason, he just... needed... to keep him from walking away. Just a little longer, he needed to indulge.  

[Baneful]

Nuk’s instant of hesitation had not gone unnoticed by Rep, despite all his other flaws, all other slights against his intellect and self-control, he knew how to watch. People said he didn’t care about other people, and were always surprised to find the contrary was true, he cared and cared deeply about what they felt, what hurt them, what got under their skin. The main issue was that he cared, not for their welfare but as a weapon in the perpetual war of rank and dominance. He wasn’t sure what had thrown the skinwalker off his game for that moment, but it gave him confidence this was a battle he held the upper hand in.

The vitriol and hate that practically radiated from the other man held a wild sort of interest for Rep, hatred for him was as good as love, the threads one interwoven so effortlessly into another, interchangeable all his life. The words themselves were razor edged and crude, along with the gestures the other man levelled his way and were it anyone else Rep might have lost his composure and lashed out to try and pin them in their place. But with Nuk, he felt that control had long been established, even if it had been in a dream world. He made no attempt to move away as Nuk edged into his personal space, simply tensed up slightly - letting the violence coil in his muscles. Even the things that should have stung - like the comment about Harrison’s death – simply stowed themselves away in the darkness of his mind like slow burning fuel for his hatred.

Those blue eyes - somehow madder here in the real world, a deep seated sort of brokenness that jangled on the instincts but was undefinable in human terms - lingered defiantly on Nuk’s crotch, retorting with interest rather than disgust before flicking back to his features. Rep chuckled sadistically, his voice a gravelly purr. “And if I ******** said I did get off on it? That I got off on killing you, feeling your heart stop by my hands after you so ******** willingly gave it to me? Then what? Would you let me kill you again like a good pet?”

Holding out a hand, he looked for just a second like he might reach out for the skinwalker, before summoning Tracey in a flash of shadow through the fog. He rested the axe on the ground but made no further violent advances, the gesture simply a statement and a promise of what he intended if the altercation went further than words.

“What’s it to you what I get off to anyway?”, he drawled “For a monster talking such a ******** big game, you think a lot about my d**k. Everything about you says hate, but I bet if here and now, if I wanted you, I could ******** have you. And you'd come for me, all over again.”

x_Nata_x

 

[x_Nata_x]

This was wrong. Everything was wrong; this wasn't the way he'd imagined it would go, all those nights when he'd laid awake in bed, staring at the crack in his ceiling, imagining what it would be like to meet the redhead that he couldn't stop thinking about. He'd played it over countless times in his head, what it would be like to meet him, if he existed, replayed it over and over until he got it right, until he knew exactly how it would happen. Ironically, where it would happen was the only thing he hadn't imagined; being the slow, rather unimaginative student he was, the skinwalker wasn't all that creative in that regard. But that part didn't matter. All that mattered is what Rep would do. And that he could see clearly. The shock in his eyes when he saw him. They way they would bicker, throwing angry jabs at each other, like they had the first time they'd met. They'd each try to get the upper hand, both of them angry about what had happened. And then they'd fight, ruthlessly, like animals, maybe until one of them dissipated. But maybe not. Maybe after he'd worked out all the resentment and yes, betrayal, they'd ... talk. Maybe they'd be...

But Rep wasn't getting angry. He wasn't even a student.

That knot welled in his stomach again, a dark, sick ball that churned in his gut, solid and burning like acid, and again he felt like retching, the sensation of total physical rejection rising in his throat. Clenching every muscle in his body, Nuk swallowed thickly, keeping it down. This wasn't the way it was supposed to happen. He was good at this; in fact, getting under people's skin was the only thing he was good at. He wasn't even particularly good at fighting. But being mean, getting people angry, that he had a special gift for. It'd made him the perfect bully to wimps and punks alike, and it'd gotten him into countless scuffles for saying far less than what he'd spat at Rep. But there he was, hardly any space between their bodies, and the hunter just stared at him, watched him mime the action of jerking off, not only unbothered but amused, his eyes lingering on the skinwalker's crotch with an expression he could see but couldn't read.

It made him so irrationally angry. It made him want to lash out, kick his teeth in, grab him by that flaming red hair and drag his face through the dirt, until he was either angry or dead but definitely not laughing.

Nuk had all but resolved that this was going to end with him beating the hunter's face in when Rep lifted his gaze back up to meet his, ocean meeting amber. And for some reason the skinwalker had to stop, a little bit of that anger turning into fascination. Even though they weren't his memories, he remembered Rep's eyes with a far too intimate clarity. These... weren't quite it. Close; they were the same color, brilliant and beautiful and impossibly blue... but where they'd been smooth before, there was something always wild about them now, the surface sharp like fractured glass. It didn't quite throw him off again, but it gave him pause, distracted him for a second as he tried to read them.

Rep's stabbing comments brought him back to the present, that smug purr a deep rumble he could feel reverberating in the air, the skinwalker's muscles clenching again as he listened, fascination gone. The appearance of the weapon was like a threat, and Nuk took it like one, a growl starting to bubble up from the back of his throat even though the redhead continued talking, continued to ram those shadow claws into his torso, stabbing him over and over with the words that rolled effortlessly off of the hunter's tongue.

Stop it. Stop knowing these things about me.

Curling his lips over his canines, Nukpana snarled, jerking his body forward a step, his body almost connecting with Rep's as he got up in his face, gold eyes burning with rage. "I ain't your goddamn pet," he spat, the sound of skin stretching and bones groaning as they started to snap and rearrange as audible as the curse. At the last second, the skinwalker pulled away, stalking away from the hunter a good few paces. And then he began to pace, back and forth like a caged animal, desperate and frustrated and trapped, like he couldn't make up his mind. There was an internal battle being waged, two very strong halves of himself tearing into him, ripping him to shreds like Rep's words had been a piece of meat tossed between two tigers. Back and forth back and forth, until he finally whipped around, practically lunged back at the hunter, fisting the front of Rep's coat, twisting the material and dragging him closer by inches, his fingers crushed in the fur by his throat. He was close enough that Tracy's blade bit into his flesh, stinging a little as the sharp edge traced a line of bright red in his skin, a drop of blood welling slowly to finally trickle lazily down his body. But Nuk wasn't paying attention to that. He was paying attention to the blue, the unsympathetic shards of glass.

"I trusted you."

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Control. He had it in his claws. The man was dangerous, exquisitely so. He remembered the tigers in blue kingdom, dangerous creatures with capricious moods. Even Mass for all his affection could turn in a heartbeat, you could never underestimate, you could never forget the respect. Nuk was all of those things and more besides, the very quintessence of a predator. To conquer him again was to conquer the wild, something he sought to do as his very speciality.

Rep didn't resist the hands on his coat, the proximity of the skinwalker. In some ways it was exactly what he wanted, close the distance, close enough to smell, close enough to feel the heat from his skin, to all but taste the anger and hatred. He could bask in it, a black and primal loathing that ran as unchecked as the breeze. He kept his breathing steady, his expression that smug and arrogant mask, his fear shield would protect him from the initial strike if the other man tried to hurt him.

"No, no you aren't my pet. I don't keep pets." His eyes were half lidded with something between sadism and lust. "I like them wild." Taking a slow deep breath he daringly reached out to trail his fingertips through Nuk's hair, his voice a low and husky purr. "I did what I had to do to set you all free."

He leaned forward close to an ear, his voice fading back almost inaudible. "You needed me."

x_Nata_x

Sorry about that delay! Bloody notices I stg.

 

[x_Nata_x]

In his peripheral vision, the skinwalker watched Rep lift his hand from where it had rested, gold eyes locked with fractured blue as fingertips brushed the side of his face, carding effortlessly through the long, dark hair which framed one side of his face. Where the redhead had touched, an electric sort of fire prickled against his skin; even the heat so close to his body was almost intolerable. But he didn't move to brush him away. Calloused fingers continued to slide lower, until they reached the wolf tooth and leather thong wound loosely at the base, providing the faintest resistance before it fell easily into Rep's waiting fingers and leaving the black locks to fall back against his shoulder, loose.

Nuk continued to meet the hunter's cold, hard stare, until Rep leaned forward even further, his breath hot as it fanned against his ear.

He had never let anyone but women be so intimate with him. Ghouls who slid their hands delicately up his chest, traced the tattoos winding down his back as they leaned in close to whisper teasingly against his ear, far too close to what Rep had just done. He'd beaten the s**t out of guys for far less, but now, standing there, he felt helpless to stop it. It was all he could do to keep from moving closer, as if there were ropes wound about his body, twisted around his arms. A wild animal hopelessly tangled in a hunter's net.

What did you do to me?

Fingers still tangled in the fur-lined coat, Nuk tilting his head a little to reciprocate the gesture, baring his teeth as he brought them close to the redhead's ear, his growl a low, tight, frustrated rumble under his breath. "I've never felt less free in my life."

Letting his fingers unwind from the crushed material, when the skinwalker leaned back there was a subtle, yet distinct change in the way he eyed the redhead. Something far more resolved, as if he'd come to a conclusion with such deadly clarity. Dangerous. Lowering his eyes to the front of Rep's coat, he gave him an idle lookover before returning his gaze back to the crystalline blue, the corner of his mouth curling in a crooked smirk. "Better watch out, Hunter," he rumbled in a gravelly tone, an undertone of a threat thick in his voice, "You're dangerously close to where people like you go pop."

Walking two fingers up Rep's bulging biceps, Nuk accentuated each of the words 'people like you' with a tap of his finger, echoing the same boldness Rep himself had displayed in his arrogant caress. The hunter would regret playing this touching game with him; there was something like addiction in the skinwalker's eyes, drunk on the sensation of pushing this encounter too far. In fact, he was counting on it. Perhaps not now, perhaps not today, but one of them would snap, and everything would collapse like a house of cards.

The only way he would be free was to kill him.

But not yet... not yet. Not when the blood singing in his veins was so... good.

"N we wouldn't want that, right?"

Bane

SORRY I SUCK, I swear to god I have been SO EXCITED about this rp, I have not lost interest, other things just happened to come up orz

 

[Baneful]

Rep's body shivered as he exhaled, the skinwalker's words touching upon some primal satisfaction in him. He was close, close enough to sink his teeth in the Sun hunter's ear, but Rep was not afraid. He was more ******** exhilarated than he'd been in a long long time. He felt powerful, he felt confident and almost invincible.

He felt Blue.

Eyes dark and heavy lidded, he let the other man touch him, unbowed and defiant. "You are closer to the edge than me, monster." he said and the grin spread again.

"Wouldn't we?"

It was a dangerous, intoxicating game and he didn't want to give it up. He would have to, there was no resolution here but combat, no way out but to go tooth to tooth the way they had in blue kingdom, tangled up in memories of neon lights and gritty streets. But perhaps it could be put off, perhaps the game could endure, mature like a fine ******** wine the way his hatred of Sasha had over time.

"I might. Part of me wonders if you'd taste the same or if you'd just taste like the nightmares and nothing you are ******** made of."

Not a fragment, but he'd never consider him real.

x_Nata_x

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