Fear me or love me

Once the petting was over and he was offered to the tree once again, he leapt to the nearest branch and promptly sat, his legs dangling below. He quickly went to smoothing out his locks, irritably so. Eyes narrowed and ears pinned back at Shade's words, his tail lashing irritably behind him.

"Oh no, of course not," he began while brushing the 'leftovers' off of his hand, "I wouldn't insult you by assuming you to be so simple-minded," he also lied.

He was further convinced of this when the other picked him up. Well, he let him. It wasn't the first time Shade had picked him up, as uncomfortable as it was to be removed from the ground by someone much larger than he was.

"...I'll tolerate this...for now."

Once relatively settled, Coldsnap zoomed in on the image, focused on a tiny shape right above the breast pocket of the woman's coat. He'd already done this before, this was just so Shade could have a better look. Or as better of a look that Shade could get of a slightly blurry company logo.

"It's kinda hard to make out but... judging from the silhouette.. she's probably with Elixr Pharmaceuticals." He paused before deciding he should elaborate a little. "It's a local pharmaceutical company. They're mostly based in Brine. The city next to ours."

He swiped his phone's screen. Now it was displaying a relatively normal vehicle.

He was really studying the image and information he was being given though, trying to imagine how the details of this mystery could fit together.

"Her car as well, hm? On the one hand, that could mean she ran off somewhere herself, but on the other, it could mean someone took her and didn't want to leave a trail."

If someone just wanted to steal her car, there was no reason to do anything to her. If she was jumped while jogging would they have even known to look for the car?

Now, it wasn't impossible that a carjacking could have gone horribly wrong or some mugger was paranoid about being caught, but his gut was telling him something else.

Oh? Why that sigh? Was it bothering Shade so much to shrink?

Ears wilted upon seeing the outstretched digit. Leondas felt his heart begin to pound. His cheeks would have grown rosy with embarrassment had he not been so panicked. He despised feeling so small. For once, he felt like prey - regardless of the other's intentions.

He decided it was best not to push him too much though, so after he had passed his finger across his hair a few times he stopped and held his hand by the tree again, giving him the option to return back to his original position.

🐚 Indie fandomless rp blog for that one guy in a Monster-of-the-week show who's in charge of the monsters ( of the week )🐚

selective 》 fandom friendly 》 oc friendly 》 18+ muns only pls ty 》 pls read rules before following/interacting ty!!!

》 BIO 》 RULES 》

He didn't like that smirk that preceded that question. It was bad enough that this guy could very literally look down on him, he didn't have to be smug about having a better vantage point than he did too.

Oh, and now he had to ask for help too.

"I would like to ask for your help.....finding this missing person." There. That wasn't so hard, was it? He really should start doing that more. It would make his 'job' much easier.

"Let me just..." Coldsnap fished out a cellphone, a hardcased thing with a rubber strap hanging off it, to pull up a picture. He raised the screen up, as high as his arm could.

The image displayed was a photo of a woman somewhere in her 70s, graying hair dyed auburn, oval glasses, broad smile. Nothing out of the ordinary about her. She wore a labcoat.

"I would be happy to help you with that~"

Now the cellphone... Even though he had leaned in closer, that was still pretty hard to see from this distance, especially well enough to make out identifying features on the picture and have it not just look like a generic person.

The solution to that was simple though, in Shade's opinion.

"Not particularly well. Just come here."

He proceeded to just pick him up for the purpose of bringing the phone in his hand closer to his face. Holding him was a lot easier than if he'd tried to hold that phone.

He really seemed like the guy who would do this way more often than most people were comfortable with. Perhaps not out of malice but because he did not cared so much about their opinion... Perhaps both too, who knows.

" It is that simple, yes... And I would have... Even if it might have... taken a moment. I usually come to people I know when they call me... "

Well, as long as those people haven't tried to hurt her or the owls of course. Or someone else she calls a friend. Eule was also not lying when she said she would have come to Shade too.

When the entity spoke again, answering her question, the spirit tilted her head to the side while the owl, that had tried to free her a moment ago, took it's place on her shoulder. It too tilted it's head. He wants to learn more about her?

" What I do? Hm~ I do wander a lot through the woods... Sometimes... I watch people... Othertimes I sing... "

Eule answers while the bird, on her shoulder, eyes Shade up and down.

Admittedly, it did sound easier if she was going to respond, given that grabbing her required him to actually find her first.

Wandering in the woods, watching people... That sounded like a pretty simple existence. One activity did catch his attention in particular though due to having it in common with her.

"Oh, you sing! Now that is something that I would be interested in hearing~"

Was she any good? Well, there was really only one way to find out. But he had a feeling just due to her... mysterious forest spirit nature that she wasn't just going to sound like an average human at a karaoke bar.

" It had not been... clear that you haven't intended that... Do you always... catch someone you were looking for like this? "

She spoke, again with her more apathetic voice. Eule also had to resist the urge to run away now that she was free. To turn into an owl herself and fly off. But she resists. Mostly because she doubted that Shade will let her go that easily. And she would rather not go back into his hand.

" You could have just called me... The owls would have told me... that you were looking for me. Besides... it would be hard not to notice you anyway... "

Even if she couldn't see, his presence was easily noticed. Also because she could feel someone entering the forest. Except when they were able to dodge her detection...

"It depends on the circumstances, really, but you would not be the first." More like it depended on his mood. But she was in good company among people who had been grabbed without warning.

Her assessment that he wouldn't have taken well to her just flying away was accurate. He really wasn't a fan of people just bailing on him when he was talking to them, even if he was the one who forcibly initiated the interaction.

"It's that simple, is it? So you would have come if I had called?" He supposed there wasn't necessarily a reason to think she would have avoided him, but still.

Obviously she saw nothing wrong with challenging the odds. Her insomnia occasionally left her able to form coherent sentences but then it was very difficult to find someone to talk to late at night. This was a unique opportunity for some company.

"Neat. Let me know if you find something cool, I'm always looking for new stuff to read and I bet you can give me some good recommendations."

There was a pause before Rook spoke again, now with quite a bit of commotion in the background.

He gave an amused huff hearing all that commotion starting up. It was easier to laugh at it when you were nowhere nearby. The noise was Rook's problem.

"Enjoy the serenade then. Until next time~" He believed he had found the button and had been holding his finger over it so that he could cut it off with appropriate timing, because that was important, of course.

That encouragement was all he needed. He began to feast - albeit timidly and careful at first. Small bites here and there, lapping up the blood. But the overwhelming taste and smell was enough to drive him into a frenzy. Polite nibbles quickly turned to voracious bites and rigorous tearing. Shade was momentarily forgotten as he lost himself in his meal.

Eventually his feeding would slow, eventually stopping entirely. Bones and other undesirables were left, the body an utter mess once he was finished. The creature sat back and began to groom himself in silence -rough tongue swiping over his bloodied digits. When he did remember that it was indeed a gift, he regarded Shade with a simple, ❝ Thank you. ❞

It was a morbid sight, but he still kept his eyes on the scene the entire time. The voracious ripping and tearing it escalated to was more in line with what he'd been expecting.

His expression was blank while watching it, taking a detached, analytical approach to his observation. At the thanks though, that grin returned to his face.

"You are very welcome~ I do hope it was to your liking~" It certainly seemed like it was, judging by just how much of it he had consumed.