good isn't good enough

She watched the other work with awe, amazed at how one person was able to get an animal to - somewhat - cooperate with them. She had tried her hand at taking care of wild animals but ended up selling the company to someone with more experience, which was probably for the best. “I’m coming too,” she said, her stubbornness becoming very apparent at this moment. “I feel like I’ve become involved,” she explained - hoping he’d let her stay with him

Macelo chuckled slightly, interrupted only by a minor struggle with the animal in his arms. He was about to point out that they didn’t know each other and this was the very situation he’d heard people in towns were warned about - stranger danger and all - when he remembered that she was a Vampire. Yeah, he was probably more at danger here. “Okay,” he nodded, inclining his head towards the main road. “I have a clinic a few minutes from here. Follow me.”

She had heard a small voice and was trying her hardest to follow where it was coming from. The voice sounded scared and while usually she would ignore it, it was distinctive from a human - or human-looking’s tone. As it grew louder, she turned into an alley and saw someone already there. Sighing, she leaned over to look at what he was looking at. “It’s scared,” she said as she slowly moved forward and knelt down, “I know, he’s big and scary but he looks relatively harmless. I mean I don’t know him, I could be wrong but he seems fine,” she told the raccoon before it slowly came out of hiding. “Long story, I’ll answer questions later,” she said as she turned to the other

Marcelo had already opened his mouth to tell her that ‘yes, he figured, but-’ when she turned towards the raccoon and actually spoke to it. While he could feel the magic coming off of her, he was also very much aware that she was not a druid so the utter success of this endevour surprised him. He could speak with certain animals, sure, but it usually involved transforming into them first. “...Okay,” he allowed, feeling suddenly a little inadequate with his old blanket and broken-up granola bar. “I got the sense it was hurt. Is it?”

Evy takes a second to absorb the information the other druid gives her before acting. There is a brief thought of turning into a wolverine instead, but that is soon discarded because she realizes that it might simply scare the poor raccoon more than it already is. Instead, she chooses to approach carefully, chattering at the raccoon in hopes of piquing the creature’s curiosity just enough to draw them out from their hiding place. It takes her a few seconds to approach, careful not to do it too fast to scare them. Once she is close enough, she darts forward to bump her head playfully against the bit of their head that is peeking out of the trash, and draws back.

It’s enough to draw the raccoon out as she sits back at it and waves as an attempt to distract them from the druid watching their interactions and ready to pounce to get the raccoon to help them. It’s a slow process but she keeps chattering away even after the raccoon is nearly out of the trashbags, waiting for the other druid to catch it.

❀   

If there had been urgency before, there certainly is more now that another person was on the line. While the ratty blanket Marcelo had armed himself with was hardly ideal raccoon-catching material, it at least gave him the pretense of safety. It would have to bite its way through that before it got to him. With the other druid, it wouldn’t have such a hard time. And even if it wasn’t rabid, animal bites always had he chance for serious infections.

So Marcelo didn’t waste time once most of the raccoon had existed from between the trash bags. He pounced quickly, throwing the blanket over the animal and picking it up in the same breath. It was wriggly but whatever was wrong with it had weakened it enough that it wasn’t impossible to contain -- but he still wanted to hurry. The stress would hardly be ideal. “Thank you,” he told the other druid, then inclined his head towards the entrance to the alley. “I’m gonna take it to my clinic to check. Do you want to come?”

-

There had been some fanfare around the other, once, in some sense Mahendra could relate. His parents had thought so highly of him growing up, amazed at all he could do, imagine their surprise when the only thing the chimera ended up being was a monster. Rejected for the role of archdruid, it was a heavy burden to be built up for so long only to be torn down, talented but inadequate. Unique but not unique enough. Mahendra sympathized, he was something of an outcast himself. 

“I’m not familiar with the procyonidae, no,” Mahendra said with a sigh, they were related in a sense to the rodent gene found in the muridae that the chimera could transform into if he wished, but he hadn’t spent any time studying these specific creatures. “Are you studying it?” Mahendra asked, intrigued if the other was trying to broaden his abilities further. 

❀

“No, but maybe I should,” he muttered, shifting in his spot with an old blanket he’d scavenged from the trash in his hands. Since coming to Rome and with it his first big city, he’d shifted his focus towards more domestic animals or at least those who weren’t too out of place in a metropolis. As it turned out, maned wolves were a rare sight on city streets around here. He’d done well with cats since then, but as it stood, that left him more likely to transform into a tiger on the spot than a raccoon. Sometimes he’d wondered if there was even a point to him broadening his abilities since it wasn’t going to get him anywhere but it were moments like this that reminded him that originally, he hadn’t done it for accolades. He’d done it for the good of nature.

“I think it’s hurt. I don’t know whether it’s wounded or sick in some way but I’m gonna take it back to my clinic and check it out,” he explained, shooting  Mahendra a glance. “If I can grab it. Do you think you can move the trashbag while I go in?”

She wondered what he was trying to get his hands on until the ever so familiar sound of a raccoon hit her ears. She wasn’t going to panic, having seen quite a few raccoons during her lifetime, but she was also going to be defensive - knowing just how volatile they could be. Nodding, she noted that the other seemed to really know what he was doing and she quickly followed his orders. Handing him the blanket, she made sure to not make any sudden movements to scare the creature

It wasn’t ideal, he wasn’t going to deny that. He really would prefer to have a cage or a carrier but he hadn’t gone out today specifically for this so he was unprepared. But if he left now to grab his supplies, the creature might be gone or dead and he wasn’t going to risk that. So he took the blanket from her and slowly inched forward. Carefully, he pushed one of the trashbags to the side with his foot. As expected, this sent the animal frantically looking for somewhere else to hide but that was enough time for Marcelo to dart forward and throw the blanket over it. The raccoon was weak but it worked in his favor in this instance as he found the back of its neck through the blanket to keep it somewhat still while he wrapped it up. “Thank you,” he said finally as he straightened, a bundle of wriggling blanket tight in his grasp. “I’m gonna go check it out.”

She had taken to wander the streets of Rome after the events in Halloween, her head full of too many thoughts for her to stand still. Andreas knowing the truth never figured out into her plans, the deaths in the party weighting on her nearly as much if not more. Evy knows that it isn’t her fault, she knows that she couldn’t have done anything to prevent the losses, but it hurt. It hurt knowing that the topic that she has been researching had come back to life and now Rome is haunted by the same sort of nightmares that she had found etched into stone and other places through the years. The frustration is limitless, and the only way to lower it is to take long walks through Rome.

She is walking by an alleyway when she senses a druid, and curiosity pulls her into the space slowly, head tilted as she sees the man squatting in front of a collection of trashbags near the wall. Evy vaguely recognizes him, but she doesn’t know if it’s from the street or from the pyramid. She is about to ask, when he tells her to be quiet. There is a soft snort on her part but she shrugs and nods, before an idea sparks on her head and she winks playfully at her fellow druid before turning into a small pine marten. She then sits, and tilts her head in his direction, as if to ask what he would do next.

❀ 

 Out of all the things he had expected, the fellow druid turning into a marten next to him had not been among is top guesses. He paused, trying to decide how high the chances of this turning ugly were. “It’s a raccoon,” he told her, nodding towards where the barest bit of fur was peaking out between trashbags. As far as he was aware, raccoons and pine martens weren’t native to the same places but he imagined this could still turn into a fight if they weren’t careful. 

“It’s hurt. I don’t know whether it’ll be curious or scared of you but it might be worth a try. If you can get it to come out enough, I might be able to grab it.” He paused, unease still pooling at the pit of his stomach. “But don’t get yourself hurt, please. I don’ know if it’s got anything contagious.”

-

After the senator’s party, Mahendra had done his best to try and laylow. He’d cowered in some basement and run away when he’d been needed, it was easier than facing the truth that what waited within was some monster that Mahendra could not control. There was a simplicity in routine, grocery shopping, work, meal preparation, repeat - though not necessarily in that order. The monotony of this was enough to distract himself from the truth of the matter, Mahendra was hiding.

He opened his mouth to greet the druid, Marcelo, when he was almost immediately silenced. Mahendra hadn’t spent much time studying cats or rodents, but one of the druids he’d killed in the past had. Their habits, their routines, their mannerisms, Mahendra shook the thought from his mind and fixed his position against the wall, arms full of groceries. “Here-” The druid offered as he fished out something appetizing for the critter from one of the bags, “this might help.” He extended the offering towards Marcelo, gifting the other druid with what he could to help his undoubtedly flea-destined endeavor.  

❀

Marcelo could sense the other druid behind him but that could go either way. He hadn’t entirely broken with the others, though he kept more to himself than was the norm. But he was very much aware that his past disappointments paired with his rather nontraditional views didn’t make him a favorite so if he was going to get a lecture, he just hoped they’d let him get this done first.

But, it appeared it was his lucky day. He chanced a glance back when he hard rustling and caught sight of Mahendra, holding out food for him. It wasn’t his favorite way of connecting with animals -- his prideful side said it was the easy way out that he often refused to take -- but in this situation he didn’t have many other options. “Thanks,” he replied, taking the piece of fruit offered and mushing it enough to release some scent before he dropped it a few feet in front of himself. “You don’t happen to be really connected to raccoons?”

She couldn’t help but roam around, finding that the only way she’d truly get acquainted with the city is if she stopped being lazy and actually did a self tour. As she walked, she took in all the sights, amazed at how beautiful this city was and she wondered if she’d ever truly fit in or would she just be considered a tourist for the rest of the time she was here. Seeing someone near trash bags, her curiosity piqued and she found herself nearing him. Before she could say something she was hushed, the bag rustling and her curiosity rising even more. “Okay,” she whispered, “lips are sealed”

He could sense the vampire behind him but he had more pressing issues right now. For all the languages and forms he had mastered, plenty still evaded him or simply hadn’t been on his radar before. Between his focus on local wildlife before and now domesticated animals since his move to Rome, he had jet to figure out how to effectively communicate with raccoons. Maybe that should be next on his level of bigger goals to tackle. “The blanket,” he said, finally turning at least his head to gesture to a stained heap of fabric sitting a few feet behind him. “Can you get it for me, please?”

As someone who’d grown up far away from any large city and spent their first few decades focused on nature, Marcelo had grown used to looking for small pockets of it in Rome. It was easy enough, his body had always seemed to point him into the right direction like a compass. Even if he’d gotten lost in his new home numerous times, he’d always known where the nearest park was, which way to the river. And sometimes, when he felt especially like a fish out of water (ha!), he let his body lead him where it needed to go.

It was because of that that he found himself squatting near a collection of trashbags that hadn’t fit into the dumpster behind them. One of his hands was outstretched towards a rustle in the plastic when he sensed a presence behind him. “Shh,” he said, tone more pointed than the soothing noises he’d made previously, though he didn’t turn to see who had joined him. “It’s not going to come out if you make noise.”