* RAGEBORN

you're just heavy on my mind mechanic and bloodmoon werewolf abigail baudelaire.

[baneofw0lves]

WHO SHOULD I SEEK? be my light in this eternal darkness

( aurora perrineau / is 32, appears 32 / she/her ) lost in her own ruins -- she built them brick by brick -- i can see ABIGAIL BAUDELAIRE at the RUSTY DOG again. i met one of her brothers recently, and turns out she is the middle child. oh my, who would have thought. THE WEREWOLF has been stuck in this damned town for all her life. why does she not leave, you ask, and i ask myself the same question.

darkness, it absorbs you, and it never quite leaves you. can you drown in the darkness, if it is only dark enough? -- tw cancer, violence

Mirrors, as enchanted as they might be, are the closest personification of a curse Abigail has ever met. The house she is raised in is loud, in a much less enchanting way. Suddenly, it's terribly quiet, and the mother she could ask the most important question of them all: Who am I?, is gone.  

So Abbie settles for a different kind of strategy, a different kind of spending time. School, and supposed peace of mind. The peace of mind is a lie -- a rumor, whispered around the city as she passes by. Look at her hair. Look at her. She's his kid. But there is only one thing: too much anger, directed at all the wrong faces. Her fellow students, when they mess up, her father, when he doesn't.

Darkness, though, is her ever-staying friend. There's no magic in her life, nothing that she can unchain, like some others around her in this entirely magical town. Abigail learns her own magic, which is lying. The twisted words slip from her lips as easy as every other, no matter if they come regarding sneaking out, or eating the last piece of cake. One after the other, her family members cannot escape their curse. While she tries to prepare, she fails like a madman, protecting her son from the creature of the night that gets to her and almost rips her to shreds. Leo survives, and so does Abbie, but at what cost?

In a world of fire and fuel of hatred, Abigail always feels like she is being left in the dark.

[baneofw0lves]

( @roman-werewolfy -- forest early afternoon )

She smells the alcohol before his signature scent even hits her nose, and Abigail is an immediate goner. All the stored, pent up anger morphs into a ball of distress inside of her chest, and it pops open with a loud peng, releases itself into her brain and within seconds, her cheeks are covered with angry tears. "They're gone, and the only thing you can think of is your stupid liquor?" Her hands come in contact with his chest and she pushes him back. Quite obviously, he's in the forest, searching just like she is, and not exactly doing nothing, and still. "You're just like Sam. Or should I rather say, Sam is just like you? Whining about some objects lost, when it's real people that should matter the most?" Abbie shakes her head, violently, "I've been searching everywhere since this morning, the school, the- the park, the city, his favorite stores, he's- he's nowhere!"

Desperation seeps through her tone and Abbie has to force herself to take a deep breath before she becomes fully incapable of breathing. She needs something to hold onto, something that keeps her steady, and her only options are a tree or her father, so she opts for the latter, wraps her arms around him tight, sobs echoing through her body. "I'm so scared, Dad.", Abigail croaks out, "So fucking scared. I don't know what any of this means, and what it means for him. I just don't get how he could... how he could get out of the apartment, I... I was there the whole time, I..."

[baneofw0lves]

( @blankspaceforbadthings -- the forest late afternoon )

Fury is still bellowing through her bones, and were she a fire, she would devour the whole forest now. Arguing with her father and her brother in one day is not uncommon, but paired with her son and other brother being missing, it is a whole lot. Nothing has been able to calm her down so far, but there's a stranger in the distance who's face she can pair a name to, heard at the city hall. Harlow. The scent of magic is unmistakable, a witch, in the woods -- no uncommon sight, either.

"Hey." Abbie's voice is calmer than she expected it to be, and the immediate relief sends soft shivers of exhaustion down her spine, exhaustion she hasn't allowed herself to feel in the last few hours. "Do you happen to have seen a kid around? Short, around seven, wearing his jamas ? Maybe something else. Looks like me, kinda. Curly hair, just light blue eyes." Abbie sniffs the air, noticeably, not caring if they figure she's a werewolf, "Or some big buff guy who looked lost? Anyone, really?"

[baneofw0lves]

( @sammybfree -- in the forest early afternoon )

Abbie doesn't register herself thinking about the action, and she doesn't really feel it when she does it. It just happens, before she can think twice. Her palm whacks the side of Sam's face so hard it leaves an imprint, and were it not for her mastered self control, her claws would have stung his skin, too. Rage bellows through every single cell of her body, and her dark eyes morph into something golden and glowing. "Repeat what you just said one more time, and I will punch you into oblivion, Samuel." The words are rather spit than said, and she's foaming at the mouth -- a true wolf, and whoever turned her, must have been incredibly proud at this sight.

"Dare to compare our missing brother and my missing son to your stupid necklace one more time, and I will make sure you are the next to disappear." There's only one younger werewolf nearby, and Abbie throws a glare in her direction that has her rushing to get away from them, further into the forest, before she turns back to Sam. "How miserable you must be to think of an object first. My SON is gone! OUR brother!" She's yelling now, loud and clear, "Anything else to add, fuckface?"

[baneofw0lves]

( @blacksheepfms -- the hide and seek mid day )

"Oh, fun. Northern forest. Great." Every time Abigail panics, she rules it over with rudeness and anger. Perhaps it's a bad habit she picked up from her father, perhaps she has just been like this since birth. Her son missing is a definite reason to panic, at least there's that, but then again -- her son is missing. Fuck. The meet up point for her search group, group number two, is not that far away from where she is currently standing, and she spots someone vaguely familiar, a young woman that smells like death, decay and rotten bones. A vampire. Nice. A vampire, a merman and a werewolf go into the forest. Ha, ha. Speaking of the merman, he is nowhere to be seen, and so Abigail makes her way over to meet Maia by one of the makeshift signs on the wall, that reads a wonky two, which looks more like a.... well, question mark?

"Hey." While Maia smells like the typical vampire, Abigail is sure her scent is just as sour, with how distressed she is. "I'm Abbie.", she greets, harsher than she intended to, and she forces herself to take a deep breath, swallowing down her nervousness and anxiety, "Sorry, it's- It's just that my kid's gone missing, and I'm freaking the fuck out." He's everything I have. Funnily enough, Benji hasn't gotten back to her texts, and she hasn't met any other family member yet, which makes her think they are all gone, too -- god fucking knows. "Always something up in this shitty town, right? You can never get a single peaceful week."

[lostyourvoicedarlin]

If there was anyone whom he had missed more than anything in his life, it had to be the woman standing in front of him. The years had been an eternity of aching absence, a self-imposed exile born of a choice he had come to regret with every single breath. Her very presence, illuminated by the soft light of the sun behind her, was a physical shock. He saw her, and for a fleeting moment, all the noise and chaos of his life vanished, replaced by a perfect, painful stillness.

But then he saw it—a cold, sharp flicker of anger in her eyes. It was a look that didn’t just scold him; it sliced through him, a stark reminder of his greatest failure. In those days, a lifetime ago it seemed, he hadn't fought for her. He had given up on their love, convinced that a monster like him—a creature of the deep with a lineage to spread across the sea—didn't deserve her sunlit beauty. He had let his family and his fear dictate his destiny, and in that moment, seeing the ice in her stare, he realized he had been a fool.

She was even prettier than she was back then, had matured more, he could see that. The girlish softness was gone, replaced by the striking contours of a woman who had faced life's hardships and come out stronger. Her shoulders were set, her chin was high, and the fire in her eyes, though painful to him now, was a testament to a spirit he had once loved more than his own life.

He tried to speak, but the words were a foreign concept. "Abi—" The sound was a strangled whisper, as if the air had been sucked out of his lungs, leaving him to gasp and flounder. The mermaid was drowning on the land, ironically enough. "Abigail, what..." he finally managed, the question hanging in the air, full of how, and why, and you're here.

She didn't flinch. She just held his gaze, her voice low and steady, a stark contrast to his own frantic state. "I live here, alone," he said, "I broke contact with my parents."

A slow, bitter realization dawned on him. He had to, he knew. After they broke them apart, after the families had engineered their separation for their own selfish, political reasons, he finally understood. He had been nothing but a tool to them, an asset to be used to spread his linage across the sea and cement a fragile truce. He had been a pawn, and in his self-pity and misplaced sense of unworthiness, he had let them take everything from him. The anger in her eyes now met the cold, hard fury building in his own heart. But his fury wasn't for her; it was for himself, and for the family that had cost him everything.

He took a step closer, to her. As if wanting to make sure she was really there, and not another taunting dream to feed his inner desires. He had never loved anyone after her, had been a ghost of the past ever since he left her. and then he did the unthinkable, he pulled her into his arms, taking in her scent.

"I missed you-" He whispered with a broken voice, and oh god he had missed her so much.

[baneofw0lves]

To her very own surprise, Aries smelled different to her. She knew her senses had changed once she had become a werewolf, but she didn't expect their first meeting to smell this intense -- but then again, she hadn't expected to meet him again at all. She thought he would be buried away beneath the waves, and a part of her wished it was, given her heart started churning the second she realized that he truly was here at this beach, talking to her like no time had passed, even though he certainly looked like it did. Abbie had to admit that he grew from being a boy, into a dangerously handsome man, with eyes like the ocean that captivated her just like the first day they met.

A carbon copy of Leo, except for the curls he had inherited from her. The same eyes, the same boyish expression, the same exact face. Frustration started seeping into her bones, morphing into serious distress. "You broke contact with your parents." The woman's eyebrows are still furrowed and in an attempt to keep her voice neutral, a tint of hope manages to sink through. "And you moved back here." For me?, the question lingers in the air, but she knows it's stupid to think like that, given years had passed and he had likely moved on. He didn't have a carbon copy of her running around his apartment all day, one that bugged him with random questions such as why is the sky blue? and when can i see my uncles again?

In some moments, she can deny the changes her body went through. In this moment, she cannot. Because when he pulls her into his arms and tells her he missed her, a flips switches inside of her, and Abbie pushes him away with a surprising amount of force. "Oh you missed me?", she snarls, "You miss me now, when it's convenient?" She knew that was not the truth. That he had been influenced by his family, but Abbie hadn't forgotten about the hurt that had put her through. "It's been almost seven years, in case you haven't noticed. Seven years without a single word from you, and you think you can just come up to me and say you miss me?"

What's incredibly frustrating is the fact that she did miss him too, in the end, and that her body longs for him like it has never before. Breaking apart the hug must have been the hardest decision of her life. "I missed you for seven years and did not hear a single word from you."

[baneofw0lves]

( @roman-werewolfy -- Roman's place mid-day )

The soft smell of motor oil still clings to Abbie when she parks her car in front of Roman's place, and seconds later, when an energy charged six year old busts through his front door, the smell hasn't faded, but is replaced by the gentle hint of alcohol. Damn her werewolf nose and therefore her lack of a chance to miss out on such things. Leo is bouncing like the floor is a trampoline, curls like hers wafting around. It's no mystery who his father is if one looks at him, and remembers her last and only ex, Aries, with his intense eyes and gorgeous features. Of course, Leo remains oblivious to Abbie's distress, and throws himself at his grandfather instead. "Hey, old man.", Abbie greets him, placing Leo's Spiderman themed backpack on the ground next to the door, "I brought you your favorite descendant."

Leo's clinging to his grandfather's leg, nose buried in the jean fabric. A faint smell of salt and ocean sticks to him, like it always does, curtsy of his merfolk father. "Come on, Cowboy. Give him some space to breathe." The nicknames slip out like they usually do, a habit Abbie has picked up from her very own father when she was younger. Leo gives a noise of protest and raises his arms instead, yelling a soft and light, "PICK ME UP!", at Roman instead.

[baneofw0lves]

( @sunshinebenjamin -- Benji's apartment late, in the evening )

The TV is running, a kid's movie playing. Leo is sprawled all over Benji, only his feet in Abbie's lap, stuck in such a deep sleep that not even his favorite movie can get him out of the trance. At some point, Abbie leaned up against Benji as well. Her heart is aching for him in a way she never expected, fueled by hatred for the supposed love of his life and the hurt she is making him go through. "He looks a lot like his Dad.", Abbie mumbles, slightly frustrated, "Not like me at all, which is not fair. I went through 27 torturous hours of active labor and nine months of throwing up at the mere mention of milk products." Abbie brushes her fingers through Leo's soft, dark curls. His green eyes are closed, his tanned face buried in Benji's shirt.

"Thanks for watching him the other night." She leans forward and picks up her glass of soda -- given she still avoids alcohol like it's the plague, in favor of their father. She drinks a few sips and puts the glass back down, leaning right back into the position she was in prior to leaning forward. "He loves you a lot. I think you may be his favorite uncle, but no promises."

[baneofw0lves]

( @lostyourvoicedarlin -- the beach late, in the evening )

Soft wind brushes through her hair, salt air circulates all around her and sand hits her face every few seconds. Of course, everything here reminds her of him. When her friends asked her to spend the evening at the beach she agreed, bringing a salad to eat and some wine to drink. Eventually, they left, leaving her behind to watch the sunset and the soft waves with her glass of wine and a bit of leftover food. She enjoys the solitude and the night without her kid around, which she has handed into Benji's loving hands, knowing that he can use the distraction and that the lovely six year old is a good for that. Still, her heart is heavy tonight. Something is in the air, something that even her wolfish nose cannot really define.

Then, he appears. Like a mirage, a hallucination or perhaps, a nightmare come to life. The bane of all her secrets. Aries Silva, as he lives and breathes. Abigail scrambles up from her blanket, completely baffled, stares at her ex-boyfriend (the father of her child) and blanks. There's not really anything she has to say. She's angry, confused and relieved at the same time. Angry, that he dares to show his face. Confused, because her heart is speeding up like crazy. Relieved, that he is alive and seems to be well. "Aries.", she whispers, her hair flying into her face, "What are you doing here?"