EXT- Windgrace Manor and beyond
Dorian had been back from his journey long enough to get a haircut. The beard remained, though it was more scraggly and less full than his brother's. He had done very little apart from spend time around the house with his family and the bunnies, or with his horse, and swimming since he returned. Having recently seen that his sister and the baby were in need of nothing, he'd stroll through the front doors, intending to putter around, at the most. Doing an informal patrol of the yard would suit him, it was an accustomed activity, as he wasn't in charge of magical protections of his home, the least he could do was contribute to physical security by putting an eye on the environs.
He was whistling a tune as he ambled, as was his wont. This time he was aiming at recreating the opening lines of Rhapsody in Blue's horns, one of his sister's favourite pieces. The notes reached all over the scale so it was an ambitious goal, but he the tune was stuck in his head since he'd tried walking the baby around to it, hoping the kid had something akin to his mother's taste. At least the opening melody repeated enough for him to get that part reasonably right.
ᴄᴀᴇʟ: The bunnies were all huddled in their hut, from the lack of them ambling about the gardens. In front of the hutch crouched a figure both familiar and not, the same winding black tendrils and darting eyes adorning his arms and the same toothy grin on his face. It didn't quite reach his eyes anymore, not the two that sat below his brow and the asymmetrical fringe of black hair dripping with red at the tips. The look itself would be familiar to Dorian too, considering his recent acquaintances.
Hunter was not menacing the bunnies. He simply crouched, bunny-like in stance, and rolled a little wooden chew wheel into their hutch for them to bop lazily back at him. The whistling perked his ears and he looked up for a moment with the eyes that dotted both arms and his torso, following Dorian's movements out of the house. "Song for the gof'nn," he remarked with a tilt of his head and a twitch of his grin. "For the Dinah child. Will you sing others, for the others?" Considering how quiet the Yog-spawn had been lately, it was the most he'd spoken to Dorian or any of them at once since the infant's birth.
Dorian set eyes on Hunter at the exact moment that he spoke. Before that he'd been looking straight ahead and scanning the other direction. So he wasn't exactly startled, but he did blink a few times while he was understanding who he was looking at. His head canted to the side in the doing, upsetting his hair less now that there was less of it atop his head. It was a few heartbeats before his expression from a quizzical one to a bright smile, and he'd move toward Hunter, staying a few paces away as if afraid he'd be skittish, and holding up his hands to be seen as not doing anything suspect. He didn't want to seem the least bit threatening on the approach, given how glad he was to hear that voice again. He'd jovially and warmly respond with surprise keeping half a laugh in his voice, "Others? Hahahahaha... By the gods, Hunter... you look--well.... you look different than I remember. But you look good. How do you feel, old pal?"
He'd ultimately end up bent down on his haunches so he wasn't lording over the other guy but could look him in the eyes.
ᴄᴀᴇʟ: Hunter pivoted and slid backward a half step - if step was an accurate word. He slid more than anything, his body moving with fluid bends rather than solid humanoid motions. He did not stand, instead looking up at Dorian from closer to the ground. "Old pal," he repeated, mimicking Dorian's voice. Hunter bent his head to peer down at the rabbits with the two 'human' eyes. Reaching out, he began playing with them again, prodding the little wooden wheel back and forth until one wandered out to flop against his facsimile of a boot. "Not family, anymore?" he asked after a long pause.
Some of the eyes in Hunter's arms had half-lidded or closed entirely, peering inward or at other things unseen. He made a noise like grinding teeth in his mouth until the bunny flopped against him and he stilled himself to reach a tendril down and pet it gently. "Dinah has child now. Born of her bthnknythgof'n as the others will be. Of her blood, of your blood. She is f'halma."
Dorian donned a tunic he'd gotten when he was away with his usual trousers and dress boots. It all facilitated remaining crouched, loose enough fitting as it was. When he saw Hunter seem to shy away, he'd not approach any further, leaving the guy his space, though he watched him play with the bunnies who were at ease, numerous eyes notwithstanding. Though there was one thing he had to correct immediately, it was the first thing to tumble from his lips, "Of course you are family. I just don't know what to call you. I think you know more than I do, so maybe Uncle?" He was grinning when he finished offering that exchange, he'd not felt like an uncle, nor a parent to Hunter. A fond cousin was the closest he had, though he didn't like many of his cousins half so much as he did the being in front of him. Even if he didn't understand some of the impossible words the other spoke.
"In all seriousness though, Hunter, you are one of us. You don't have to stay out here, unless you want to, you know? You are welcome inside. We have couches and beds aplenty. You know Sato too, don't you? He is a friend." He didn't explicitly ask about why the guy looked like someone else he knew, but the resemblance had come to mind enough for him to mention it.
ᴄᴀᴇʟ: Dorian's answer comforted the squiddle. His smile widened again a bit, relief almost palpable in the relaxation of what amounted to muscles in his face. "Hunter," he supplied when Dorian expressed an uncertainty on what to call the spawn. "That was chosen. It was chosen the first day." He pulled the bunny into his lap and curled up, less a crouch and more seated on the planks. "Was not able to help. To protect. Had to be saved," he said quietly. Inky appendages off his arms poked at the house and in Dorian's direction. "By you, and family, and the Saah..." he trailed off and his face scrunched up. "Saah-toh. The Saah. I know. He is friend, not friend. Family, not family."
Hunter leaned forward suddenly to peer at Dorian's face, too close for comfort, lacking regard for boundaries. "They hurt. Rent body. Mind. Bad pain. Wore... the faces. Dinah's face, Dorian's face. Drystan's face. Hurt while I wore the faces." He shook his head, sending little red droplets onto the wood. "Can't wear the family face."
Dorian agreed when he spoke his preferred nomenclature and repeated it after him, "Hunter." He nodded solemnly in understanding that it was preferred. When he took up a bunny and more of a seat, Dorian did the same, easing back onto his rear end, putting his elbows on his knees while he listened. While he finally understood why the face had changed. Before he even realized he had, he'd raised a hand up over his heart from the emotion the understanding stirred in him. An instant flaring of rage over anyone hurting one of his own, but it burned out quickly given there was nowhere to turn it. Hunter didn't need that from him. It was too late for that. But what he could offer, he did, in a low murmur, "I am so sorry, Hunter. I wish they'd taken me instead. I am sorry that I didn't protect you from them. I am sorry that you had to suffer, just because you took up with us. I am sorry that it took us so long to get to you. I--" he trailed off, shaking his head. He ultimately had to wipe at his face. There wasn't actually a tear that fell, though his eyes had brightened that way for a moment while imagining what Hunter had explained, while remembering the echoes of his eldritch kin's torture, but he tried to swipe away the self-loathing which also was not helpful.
He concluded with an admission or two, "I have imagined finding you sooner, a hundred times. But I didn't. And I am sorry for that. We can't ever let something like that happen again. It was too terrible to bear having you apart from us as you were. We're gathering our strength now, so we can do better."
ᴄᴀᴇʟ: The swells of emotion were not lost on him - not because Hunter was particularly good at being an empath but because he had too many eyes to really ignore the tells in Dorian's face and body language. He slid across the planks and wrapped his arms around the other man, the bunny for a short perhaps alarming moment seeming to disappear into Hunter's abdomen before popping right back up unscathed atop his head, as if the squiddle had simply moved him to a more comfortable spot while he hugged his adoptive mother's twin. "No sorry from Dorian," Hunter replied. "Other'yar - other times, I am still taken. Other times, saved me sooner... there will always be those times. But this one, we are here and safe, in this time. I like this time." He cracked his grin at Dorian before lowering his voice, as if telling a great secret. "Sometimes. When the bunnies make a mess. I put the mess on the Max part Dinah kept. It helps."
Dorian held Hunter when he was embraced, throwing his arms around the lithe squiddly torso and his chin over the shoulder. He was the sort of person who gave himself to his embraces, and Dorian felt no need to pull away quickly out of some sense of stiff-upper lip bearing among family. After that moment had passed and Hunter had explained what he did about his little brand of seeking revenge he laughed without expecting it or the reemergence of that very Hunter grin in that moment, so that the sound rang out from him in a couple of barks before it carried on in less vocal fashion.
Once he sobered from it, he had what he thought was a bright idea, and voiced it, "Then I know just what we might do. When you're ready, we're going back to that place and pissing on it. It was already half a ruin when we left it. What do you think, you want to go tear it all down, then piss on it?" He had only considered for a moment the fact that maybe the physiology was different, but he also felt very certain about the satisfaction possible in such a potential coup de grace.
ᴄᴀᴇʟ: At Dorian's recommendation Hunter's eyes, all of them opened and lit up with a spark of mischievous glee. He rose up, bouncing to his feet and nodding his head enthusiastically. The poor bunny atop it bounced around a bit before Hunter could think to snatch him up and settle him back into the hutch with his fellows, a safer place for him all things considered. "YES. Yes, let's go!" Hunter agreed. He was already jumping from the porch before waiting for a response, the faked human form bubbling and contorting until spines and horns and thick skin erupted from the boyish body. Hunter stood there in the grass in all his beastly glory when he was finished, his great maw letting out a snicker that sounded too young and impish for his current look.
The poor staff in the gardens and yard paused in their activities. They hadn't seen Eldritch beasties about since Dinah had summoned her many helpers in search of Max and Hunter being so very close and so very loud was startling. There was no menace in the squiddle, though. When he came back to the porch and reached to snatch up Dorian in his maw it was with the distinct purpose of tossing him up onto his back for easier travel.
Dorian watched Hunter light up at the notion and was relieved, since he had worried that maybe it was yet too soon. His smile broadened out into a toothsome grin not unlike his fellow's. That grin lingered until it dropped into o-shaped awe at the transformation. He didn't shy from the maw, despite how fearsome it was, even though Hunter rushed at him and snatched him up. After stiffening at first he'd sling his leg over and take hold of a horn-looking protrusion like it was a saddlehorn. He was laughing as he did this, and shaking his head at how few friends he had that could mount, murmuring just loud enough for his immediate company, "This is going to be excellent. I am so glad you wanted to go. And on the way back, maybe we can stop at the yakitori stand. They make these grilled chicken bits and--well, you'll see."
Once he was sure of his balance, he'd wink at the staff staring on, so they'd know everything was in order, despite appearances to the contrary, perhaps, from where they were standing. Turning his attention to Hunter again, he'd speak directly mind to mind, <"Do you know the way? I can show you if you don't.>" He'd show an image of the direction he thought they should go after passing over the thought.
ᴄᴀᴇʟ: Hunter snickered, evidently somewhat pleased at the reactions of the staff and of Dorian himself, especially when the latter settled in from surprise to joy. "Yakitori," Hunter repeated, the voice coming from the depths of his throat more of a hiss and a sizzle than a bellowing roar. The thought brought on another little bubble of excitement in the Yog-spawn's mind. Once Dorian connected to speak to him he bore, for the first time, the cacophony of chaos that sat in Hunter's own. Voices and whispers, songs and music of all kinds, background noises like dozens of rooms overlapping with all their conversations. He could feel Hunter receiving the information he gave even amidst the chaos.
He set off at something like a gallop, off toward the trees despite Dorian's directions. Once they hit the treeline it became clear he was moving to the forest for cover rather than travel, for once they were hidden a sickly warping sensation came over them both as the only warning Dorian would receive that the squiddle was about to teleport them most of the way there.
Dorian chuckled at what yakitori sounded like coming from such a voice. It wasn't the strangest word he'd ever heard Hunter utter. The sheer amount of information, the roar of sound that the other guy was always hearing made him close his eyes while he tried to focus on tuning it out in favour of awareness of the present in one reality, which he was more accustomed to. He shook his head and held on firmly, instinctively getting low and leaning into Hunter's back as he set off at such a pace. When Dorian felt the sensation that was to precede an even more unconventional means of travel, he asked, "Are you-- is everything quite alright?"
He'd found himself also instinctively brushing a hand over an approximate shoulder muscle he was near to, the way he did when he was comforting Irene. Or Dinah, for that matter. His sister needed far less reassuring than his horse did.
ᴄᴀᴇʟ: Hunter responded with little more than a giggle. His body became fluid again, seeming to envelop its rider and twist about until they seemed to slide from their current location and in between molecules of the air itself. In the few seconds before they reappeared Dorian was bombarded with the things roiling about Hunter's mind. Beneath the enthusiasm was a simmer of anxiety, a glimpse of the fear that the squiddle felt at returning to the place. There was rage and anger, pain and regret. It swelled up once they appeared there again in the brief moment where Hunter saw, smelled, felt the place of his torment.
In an echo of a screeching cry Hunter tore into the place, claws slashing at the walls and the ground, teeth tearing at whatever came near. When they were finished the place was little more than a wreck covered in ichor and spit and blood, some of it no doubt from the two sacking the place in the throes of emotion. Hunter did not stop moving until he had exhausted himself and collapsed on the outside, humanoid and dirtied in the grass. He still couldn't bring himself to wear the Windgraces' appearance, not so close there. But he felt better, lighter and that was easy enough for Dorian to pick up on even without psychic ability.
"Yakitori now?" he breathed. It wasn't a request. He threw himself around Dorian in an embrace before spiriting them away to Seiiki where the food stalls would find themselves in danger of being emptied out of goods before the evening was over.