'goat' hunter

    daphne had paused after that point in her story. it was… a lot. and she thought that shaggy would think she was crazy when she would continue the tale. and it was a lot to take in. she knew this. but she noticed how still he became, and pulls away from him to get a look at him. she tries to get his attention, to get him to respond, her concern only growing when she can’t get anything from him. then he’s hugging her.     then he says it. her heart sinks. a sad laugh follows.     “ yeah. they were worried. they thought i’d ended up in hell… they don’t know. i couldn’t tell anyone. velma found me wandering around town after i crawled out of my grave. ”

     after how much he had been through? he would never think she was crazy. even if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, shaggy could never say something like that was impossible. but after having seen it-- it hurt, as if he had lived through quite a bit of himself. shaggy needed his mind off it, for the pain to pass and daphne seemed to want to move on too, fortunately for him.

    “ yeah, you’re preaching to the choir. ” which, it’s a detail that she’ll elaborate more on soon enough.      she tilts her head enough to look up at him, eyebrows raised. “ yeah? i’d like to know, if you still want to talk about it later. velma and i followed the original murders and the windsor college murders – until i became part of it. ” there’s a laugh that escapes her at that, shaking her head. “ so i went back to town after that… i had a lot to deal with but, i wasn’t alone. and we had a normal thing – even if that normal was going out to the club, only to have to leave and kill a demon. ” daphne sighed, her chest then heavy. this… this wasn’t easy. “ a few years after i went back to sunnydale, everything went downhill and i… sacrificed myself to save everyone. they buried me outside of town. ”

     “yeah, i-- i need to sometime anyway,” it was better for him to say it than them to just find out one day, anyway. it would be less painful should he be kicked out now rather than later.

     shaggy did listen but. . . before he could even think of a response, he found himself linked with her. there was a lot to take in, a lot to feel and process in a short amount of time and he knew he had to have seemed to still and zone out. his eyes were unfocused, not really responding what to what was around him, shaggy was thankful when he came back from it that it hadn’t been one of the more dramatic seizures.

    there’s a moment, just a moment, where daphne almost questions how he knew that casey cooper was one of the victims. but of course, she remembered how velma told her how there was nation-wide coverage. so much for normal, yeah? daphne sighs and nods after a pained laugh escapes her.     “ god, poor randy! i heard about him from velma after reassuring her that i wasn’t dead. but um, yeah. i got stabbed and thrown from a balcony. guess i must have been a cat in a previous life. ”

     “sometimes death doesn’t stick, i guess.” a weak response because he was desperately trying to figure out what to say. maybe he should apologize. maybe he should stop being a coward.

   daphne leans into shaggy after she feels his arm around her, a sigh escaping her. maybe it would be nice to have someone other than velma know what she went through. have less secrets with her friends…    “ it was chill for a while – kendra and i helped each other a lot and after i graduated, i thought i would be able to go to college with her watching over the town. i went as a film theory major, but everyone pinned me down as someone who’d try to go into law enforcement. i was known as casey cooper there, so a lot of girls called me ‘cici’. i met this kid, uh, randy meeks and i guess he reminded me a lot of one of my friends from sunnydale and — well, we weren’t close. but having film discussions with him was entertaining and it was so much better than just talking about vampires all the time. ”

     the name ‘casey cooper’ did ring a bell, one that was the start of a sick feeling in his stomach that he might have been able to ignore if not for the other name. randy. . . shit. it felt like gravel filled his stomach, a crushing guilt because of course he knew what happened to the poor bastard and it meant. . . she for sure was the other victim to the copy cat.

     shaggy knew he tensed, he couldn’t stop himself. he didn’t know if he should say anything or not, if he should just keep her talking and wait or. . . should he rip the bandaid off now? well. . . everyone always said he was a coward, he was only proving them right.

    daphne had stepped forward to stop shaggy from what he was doing, clear images of angel in the front of her mind. and really, could you blame her? but maybe it’s the look on fred’s face, that showed how betrayed he really felt, that stopped her. she… really had to trust shaggy on this. but she would remain alert in that off something happened.    the moment shaggy was with him, fred had no hesitation in wrapping his arms around his friend. it didn’t last long, fred pulling away from shaggy with a yelp. the sound of his bones crunching as his body changes is something that echoes around the room, and whiskers begins to shuffle under scooby at the sudden noise. it hurt fred, but the pain wasn’t permenant and quickly faded as a new form took place. but fred was terrified, and this was visible in the way his chest heaved.     it looked like it could be canine – maybe feline? it had four legs, at least. a tail that curled tightly around his paws, long and thick claws almost digging into the ground. the monster, whatever it may be now, was trembling. stars seemed to move across his body, splashes of dark blues and purples across what was otherwise a void. and daphne was quick to rush over to shaggy, though not to protect or to harm either of them. but to look closer, and to help shaggy break the circle.

    there was short lived relief before it was ripped away from him. shaggy was pained as he listened to the noises coming from fred, watching his body bend and break. it was up there as one of the worst sights of his life, only because it was fred and he was in pain.

     were it anyone else, shaggy thought he might have been scared to the point of fainting, but this was fred and there was something. . . comforting that he couldn’t place. magnetic. there was a moment for awe as the stars moved across fred’s body before he was swiping at the edge of the circle with daphne. he attempted to break the circle as much as possible without flinging any salt on fred.

    “ oh it was awful, my parents were gonna send me to an institution until i dropped the vampire thing. ” shakes her head at the memory, almost frustrated with it still. at least they’ve let it go now. “ more than that. vampires, werewolves, demons… you name it, i had to kill it. i killed the head demon on prom night. after drowning and being dead for a moment. i thought that… after that, things would go back to normal. visited my uncle over the summer and when i got back, nightmares that didn’t stop. not until destroying his remains. ”    daphne drags a hand down her face. she sighs. “ because i died, there was another girl who came to town, one who was trained just like i was to kill these things. she was more prepared and i guess we helped each other out – i taught her how to be a normal girl and she helped me realize this wasn’t a burden. ”

    humor did fade, taking the cue that this was more of a serious conversation than he thought it was going to be. shaggy moved closer to daphne to wrap an arm around her and offer comfort as he listened, too much empathy both from his own experiences and what he felt from her.

    the comment earns an eye roll from daphne, perhaps even a pout because she’s still not over his question of if it was an accident or not. she might not have known what she was doing back then, but how dare he assume she’d ever burn down a gym on accident.  “ oh i’m sure i did. i killed all the vampires in town – without a thank you. ” she would lean back and get more comfortable before starting in on this story, because it’s… something else. “ changed my name to buffy summers, and because my aunt moved to a new place, no one would be able to question if she was really my mother or not. it was supposed to be a fresh start, no burning down gyms, no vampires — first day at school and i find a dead body wtih teeth marks. ”

     shaggy’s certainly amused about her clinging to that though. what a shithead. well, some things never change.

    non-human. that’s a phrase that makes fred tilt his head to the side, frowning. as though it were on cue, black spreads across his face ( starting at his eyes ), making what almost looks like a starry mask on his face. it would appear that being trapped in the circle was bringing out the monster appearance, though, it would be no surprise that this was also something fred was unaware of.      but he thinks about that more – all the weird things about growing up. the comments about his birth from his “father” and the way that sheriff looked at him. how much trouble he’d get into for “meddling” – and the looks on their faces when he solved the biggest mystery in town, leading to their arrests. it brings a familiar feeling to his face and fred is quick to wipe away the tears that would shine against the stars. “ i didn’t know… i should have noticed. ” the way his voice cracks has daphne moving to shaggy, a feeling of guilt present. he truly didn’t know. from fred, there’s a twinge of betrayal, did they not trust him? 

     he heard velma mutter surprise at the sight of the black spreading across fred’s skin and shaggy felt his knees get weak as his heart rate picked up. shaggy might have made a startled yelp as scooby did when the dog finally noticed fred changing, but there was an oddly calming feeling, almost familiar.

     fred’s voice cracking and the energy he radiated broke what remained of shaggy’s willpower. demon or not, he was still fred. probably the only person that could calm him even at his most scared, the nicest person he knew. was it foolish to move away from daphne? to step into the ring? absolutely. but he was never known for being smart, anyway. shaggy knew touch was one of the stupidest things he could do in the moment, with such a high risk of linking and suffering the consequences, but he needed to offer comfort.

    perhaps shaggy wasn’t wrong to think that. daphne’s expression was unreadable, and fred was not usually the most observant of their group, but he noticed how her hands balled so tightly into fists that her knuckles turned white. she was stiff. details that maybe fred wouldn’t normally notice, but this time he did, and it was so out of character for her that it caused concern. she lets out a shaky breath and looks to shaggy, shaking her head. was it curiosity? she… wouldn’t have an answer for anyone. not… not right now.    perhaps daphne’s reaction is what gets fred to start shaking. how quickly this ray of sunshine seemed to become so cold. was she cold because of him? gosh, why did his chest feel so heavy suddenly? oof. there’s a sharp pain in his mouth. it’s something he doesn’t investigate right away, but would soon discover that more teeth are finding their way into his mouth.     fred shakes his head. “ n-no. am i, um, am i supposed to? i thought you guys had found something interesting and, well. i’m stuck. salt, right? wow. ”

     his hands were moving, itching to fidget just to cope with the growing stress. they were messing with things they didn’t know and they needed to stop but based on daphne’s look all shaggy could do was talk for now. velma. . . velma seemed to be attempting to process this all, shaggy couldn’t imagine that she had enough experience with these things to be desensitized for the most part like shaggy and daphne were.

    was it wrong for daphne to be offended by the question? burning down a gym on accident? who did shaggy think she was? oh… well, okay that’s totally fair. though, she still crosses her arms and makes a face.     “ oh no. no i totally meant to – well, mostly. it was filled with vampires and i didn’t have much of a choice. ”     a sheepish shrug, very much a ‘ well what can you do? ’ look on her face. it is how it be on this bitch of an earth, shaggy. “ my parents sent me to live with my aunt after that. ” 

     well, that was probably fair. he should probably know her better than that by now but you still have to make sure. of course, given the explanation that did make sense, though it seemed like overkill.

     “i’d hope so. arson’s, like, illegal so you’ve gotta make it count.” an attempt at a joke as if half the things he did in high school were legal or worth it.

@cluesfound || serious interaction? i don’t know her