An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/?
Fandom: The Quarry (Video Game)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Ryan Erzahler/Dylan Lenivy, Max Brinly/Laura Kearney, Abigail Blyg/Emma Mountebank, Jacob Custos/Nick Furcillo, Everyone but Radioheads is minor/implied
Characters: Ryan Erzahler, Dylan Lenivy, Kaitlyn Ka, Jacob Custos, Nick Furcillo, Emma Mountebank, Abigail Blyg, Laura Kearney, Max Brinly, Dylan Leviny's Cat
Additional Tags: alternative universe, Established Relationship, Autistic Ryan Erzahler, Amputee Dylan Lenivy, Horror, Ghosts, POV Alternating, Might get a lil spicy at some points but no outright porn, A bit of smut as a treat, Schrodinger - Freeform, Mystery, The Quarry kids channeling the Scooby gang, Haunted apartment building
Summary:
"Freaking the hell out is my right as an American." Dylan pointed his index finger and planted it on the table.
Ryan flattened his lips together, feeling the urge to argue rising. "Ok but you don't actually believe it, do you?"
***
Ryan and Dylan are moving in together and they found a place that's completely perfect. So perfect they're surprised no one else snatched it up before they got to take a look at it.
Ryan figured it was luck. Dylan isn't so sure.
AND THUS the beginning of my Haunted Apartment Radioheads fic. I'm gonna have fun with this. I needed something long term to work on between all the smut and drabbles.
My love for The Quarry was inevitably gonna combine with my endless obsession with the zombie apocalypse genre. Nothing hits harder for me than the raw horror of the world falling apart from the inside out and getting ravaged by monsters with the faces of your friends and family, so this is just an AU prompt I've been plaguing myself with now I'm forcing on everyone else.
Some mysterious virus is turning people into zombies. The government knows about it and were concealing reports of the zombies from the public so they could do their bullshit. The government of several states with major cities is doing classic evil government things and snatched up "significant/indispensible persons" days before everything fell apart.
They went to universities and essentially kidnapped smart people. Though they refer to it as "salvaging" like they're resources. Mostly medical and science students and if there's any room on the transport vehicles, they grab the athletes too, the most physically fit young people. Keeping them safe with a goal of salvation and restoring humanity one day.
So Dylan winds up swept into this crazy military base. None of them have a sense of humour and absolutely none of them care for his nervous charm and jokes.
They grab Laura too. Vet students count as medical. She's like a bull in a pen, she's not putting up with being literally kidnapped but there's not a whole lot she can do to resist.
Dylan and Laura being smart bros. It's all I want. They connect on an intellectual level as well as a deeply sarcastic one.
They play detectives and sus out this fucked up place where the people running it have all these plans to rebuild humanity, plans to go and scoop up more important people.
They go to settlements, bust down the gates, take anyone useful and leave the rest. They have job allocations and full-on like, breeding match-ups as well. There's no elderly or physically disabled people in the whole place.
Our duo is like; "This place is absolutely fucked, we gotta go." Luckily for them, the super safe secure military base inevitably falls to a hoard because it's run by myopic idiots. However not before their snooping got Dylan bitten by a zombie the military people were experimenting on.
He gets his hand cut off and when the place gets overrun, Dylan's still recovering from the realistic side effects from having your hand removed and losing a lot of blood. He's halfway to comatose in the medical ward when everything goes to shit and Laura can't do anything to get him out.
She tosses supplies and anything she can gather up and spare, into his ward and barricades the door, leaving a scrawled note that says "I'll come back - Laura" she figured all she had to do was wait for the hoard to move on so she could get back in and get him but there wasn't anywhere safe nearby to use as shelter.
So she fled a bit, then a little bit more, until she realised she needed help to get back in to get Dylan and any of the others who were taken that survived. And as the already massive hoard combined with the hundreds of people in the base, Laura knew she had to get the fuck away. Especially when the hoard started moving in her direction.
She tried to do a big ol' circle back so she could turn around back towards the base but miss the hoard and not just attract their attention and she runs into Ryan! Dylan's very angsty, angry boyfriend, traveling with a family of rednecks Chris, Travis, Bobby, Kaylee and Caleb (Constance and Jed absolutely beefed it and/or refused to leave their house).
Ryan doesn't start off angry but he gets angry when she tells him what happened. Ryan and Laura just have to argue all the time, it's important to me that they kind of hate each other. But it progresses from regular hate to hate in a sibling way.
So she tells him about Dylan but the time they makes it back to the base, he's gone. But so are the supplies so they have a slight hope that he's ok.
So Ryan's absolutely pissed because from his point of view, she put Dylan in danger, got him bitten, then left him behind and now he's either dead or out there alone. She's like "fuck you loser you don't know anything, also if we're talking about boyfriends have you seen mine?"
ENTER MAX. Who was on a quest for his beautiful gf and ran into Emma and Abi two girls who totally-arent-in-love. Just a couple of gal pals. Max accidentally male-wifes his way into helping them realise their feelings for each other.
They eventually link up with Jacob, Nick and Kaitlyn who were on a camping trip when everything got fucky and straight up didn't even know anything was wrong until they tried to come home, their phones reconnected to signal and they got a million texts and notifications all at once. But they had a big ol' van and a bunch of useful supplies.
None of them had any idea about the government scooping people up but Max was loveable enough for all of them to be roused into action by his cause.
They came from the opposite side the hoard was on, so they didn't even run into it. But it takes them a long while to find the base (like the entire time Dylan and Laura were there) and find it after it's been overrun.
They totally cannot get in. There's still way too many zombie people in there and no visible living ones. Max is distraught but is convinced he saw some "intelligent movement" inside the base.
Cut to Dylan who had a Rick Grimes moment, waking up weeks later, alone in an empty ward. He makes use of the supplies and the note but knows he absolutely cannot stay here, at least not in the med ward. He gathers useful medical stuff and skedaddles.
There's no one else alive, all of the terrible army people are dead but so are the people they took. He does some big-brain moves, a distraction here, some mildly successful stealth there. He attaches a fkn knife to his stump. All with his panicked narration/monologue to keep himself somewhat sane while he's by himself, surrounded by zombies.
Dylan's breaking out right as the crew is breaking in. Dylan gives Max the note to prove he knows his girl and the crew does a whole heist situation to get as many supplies out of the base as they can, into their van before they leave.
I haven't really thought about how they find eachother but one idea was that the crew finds a settlement that lets them in and they become a part of that community. I like the idea of a community inside a mall. All the shops are like little flats for familes or roomates and it's basically a mini city inside a mall.
Meanwhile Laura, Ryan and the Hacketts are typically unfriendly to anyone and everyone and are just this crew of badasses with just so many fucking weapons. They're a well-oiled strategic machine that nasty people think they can fuck with but are quickly proven wrong.
While they generally refuse to interact with any other survivors, (it's mostly Travis making these orders to keep them all safe because he doesn't trust anyone, for good reason.) Ryan and Laura do try to talk to (interrogate) anyone who might know where their bfs are. Eventually, probably Kaylee, gets severely wounded. Laura can help her a little but they're forced to find a settlement to save her. They find the mall, there's this whole moment at the gate where the guards are like "You guys look nasty idk about letting you in." But are eventually swayed by the dying girl.
Cue the double reunion at the gate. And then probably more post apocalyptic politics happen. Just imagine the stares air disbelief as the gates open and eyes meet. So romantic so heart felt bark bark I'm done now it's 2:42am
Dylan and Ryan Ghost hunter AU being locked in an abandoned building for a night 👻👻
bonus: Kaitlyn works the camera
"Are you with us now in this room?" Dylan asked, voice echoed in the abandoned, old, brick building that was once a high school in the '50s.
"Do you exist?" Ryan asked with the spirit box in hand, voice deep, deadpan, and unamused.
"Don't invalidate the ghosts, man. That's not cool." Dylan shoved him playfully and Kaitlyn huffed behind them, her eyes rolling. She doubted they'd have any usable footage if these idiots didn't knock it off.
They continued walking through the building, Dylan trying to probe the 'ghosts' while Ryan held the crackling spirit box. There was a whole lot of nothing, until they ended up in a what was once the school cafeteria.
It was a few degrees colder than the rest of the building, which wouldn't have been super noteworthy, except something started to spark over the spirit box. "Ki..."
"What the fuck?!" Dylan flipped out for a moment while Ryan and Kaitlyn quickly shushed him.
"Ki...ki...ki..."
"K-Kill?" Dylan gulped.
"...k-kiss..." The spirit box echoed.
"Well, you heard the ghost, c'mere." Dylan stole a kiss from a bewildered Ryan and it was silent for a moment before the box crackled once more.
Okay, hear me out, what if Abi was still infected at the pool house? How do you think that would go down?
God that woulda been so cool. Obligatory "SMG robbed us of..." Comment but SMG ROBBED US OF INFECTED ABI.
I'm gonna write this out a little bit like paths in the game 👀
But oh boy. My first thought is; double werewolf mayhem. Abi fails the first qte where she can get bit so she and Nick turn within a few seconds of each other in the pool house.
In this scenario; [if Dylan has one hand or is uninjured/uninfected] Kaitlyn or Ryan takes the shot to get one of them but double werewolf definitely would end with one of those three getting bitten.
If they fail the qte there's another grievous injury or maybe even death.
[if Dylan is infected] he can protect Ryan and Kaitlyn from the double werewolf by standing in front of them. He probably works it out the same way he does later in the game. Kaitlyn (or Ryan) messes up the shot, so Dylan jumps in the way like the impulsive babe he is. Nick and Abi run into the night.
If Abi gets bit a little later at the end of her running away scene; her turning is a bit lagged. She shoots Nick and he turns but then Abi turns when Laura shows up. She tells the story or maybe it gets interrupted by Abi turning. Maybe there's a Qte from Ryan to prevent Laura from killing Abi with the silver.
Ignoring their canon storylines for fun 😌 Maybe Laura can die here if Ryan refuses to shoot Abi and if that happens, Ryan takes Dylan and Kaitlyn to the Hacketts house to find Chris. There's an opportunity for one of them to stay behind (potentially with Emma) and the other (your chosen love interest) to go with Ryan.
Additionally Laura can shoot Abi and kill her and this would lead to the outcome of Ryan Kaitlyn and Dylan telling Laura to leave, so she goes to the house on her own.
Maybe depending on dialogue one of them would still go with her. Probably Kaitlyn. Maybe Ryan. Maybe Dylan if he has both hands because I can see him having the argument "yeah I'm mad she killed Abi but there wasn't any other option" he's the understanding type afterall.
Full headcanon mode now. If there's some way to actually save Nick so Abi gets bitten instead of him; Everyone is immediately put off by her acting weird because it's so severely out of character. I think their situation would just get reversed. Nick's doting on Abi and trying to look after her and then when she turns she tries to, or successfully kills him.
Although I don't think they would have ended up in the pool house because Nick wouldn't have pushed her into the pool. But what if Abi turns when they're out in the middle of the playground area by the pool, Werewolf Abi chases Nick, he falls into the pool and they discover the water aversion that way.
Cue all four of them standing in the middle of the pool while Abi stalks around it until Laura swings by to help. There's an option to say something to Laura before she shoots. If you speak up, Laura shoots a regular shot to scare her off. If you say nothing, Abi gets killed by the silver.
Then this adds the potential for Nick to be around and useful during the second half of the game 😌🤌
Nick offers to go with Laura to help cure Abi if she's alive. But if Abi died he would stay back with the others.
I'd love to think Nick goes out to find Emma and Jacob but Kaitlyn would probably get him to stay put because they're safer together. Also self indulgent but Nick doting on his bestie Dylan. Plus Kaitlyn having to put up with both of them. I'm trying to decide if any of them would stay behind on the trip to the scrapyard. Unless Emma is there I don't think so.
[If Dylan is infected in the scrapyard] it's super hard to keep both Nick and Kaitlyn alive. There's a mini werewolf fight where there's so many opportunities for sudden death between the both of them (or Dylan too if Kaitlyn has a silver bullet)
I also think there's an opportunity for Nick to get infected by Abi or Emma or Dylan because then that helps him out in the lodge or potentially sets up the final girl business for Kaitlyn because we gotta keep that in.
I'm gonna have to stop there because otherwise I'll keep going. I stg I could write an entire alternative path. Several of them. And I'd enjoy it.
Dylan and Emma arent the only ones who were faking it. Ryan's appeal is an optical illusion. He's just hot enough that his loner persona makes him seem desirable because you assume it's by choice, but he's actually just a loser who doesn't know how to talk to or connect with people his age and he hopes no one notices.
Domestic Radioheads because I've got no self control
Ryan buys plants but Dylan's the one who ends up taking care of them
Ryan cooks most of the time and Dylan knows how to cook very specific meals.
Dylan's more likely to drive them places so Ryan can zone out in the passenger seat
They go to bed at 1am at the absolute earliest.
At first Ryan's not a big pet guy but then he becomes more obsessed with Schrodinger than Dylan is. He always comes home with new toys, beds and outfits.
Ryan steals Dylan's shirts and hoodies. Dylan steals Ryan's accessories and cologne.
Ryan undersold how bad he was with tech because Dylan is constantly fixing his shit. Just constantly.
The price is letting Dylan cuddle him whenever he wants. Dylan will envelop Ryan in his long limbs and Ryan has gone from putting up with it to loving it
I imagine whenever they host a party, Dylan is the perfect host and Ryan is just watching like a hawk for anyone messing with their shit.
Ryan said I love you first after Dylan remembered some obscure detail about him no one else has ever bothered to remember
you don't have to answer this if you're not comfy but I was curious about your opinion.
I know you made a previous answer where you said you personally hc Dylan as gay or biromantic but I was curious about how you feel about dylab bi/pan hcs in general?
I just see alot of people saying "Dylan is gay don't portray him otherwise" and tagging Dylan in posts like "when female fans erase a gay males sexuality because they're attracted to them" posts and was curious about your stance. Sorry I said curious alot
I've not seen a lot of that but I'm not surprised it exists 😅
I'm glad I didn't come off that way in my last ask! I said alot about my personal viewpoint but that in no way dictates how other people hc him! I'm a multi gender loving person myself so I always love people portraying my faves in that way even if I don't myself 🥰
My opinion?? Idk people may disagree but if Supermassive games hasn't outright said "He's gay" I think his sexuality is fair game y'know?
I understand the view of "erasing a character's sexuality" ofc but since it's an unconfirmed sexuality, that argument falls kinda flat. It's just two headcanons battling it out yknow? I'll stop saying y'know now.
Honestly if the headcanon bothers you, the block button exists. People writing Dylan exploring his sexuality is totally harmless. He's not a "gay icon" character by any means.
And him being gay gets in the way of my sporadic kairylan obsessions so we know my stance on it anyway lmao
Okay but thanks to your tiger shark merman Nick I cannot stop but imagine a Jacob/Nick AU where he finds out about Nicks secret and instead of being a weirdo about it or telling others- which Nick feared - he keeps it a secret and just is a big supporter of him QwQ Constantly asking if Nick needs something specific, offering his bathtub if he feels like stretching out his fin etc
Oml that's the cutest. What is it about mermaids that just make for the perfect romance tropes.
Jacob going down to the beach one night to have some alone time. He sees that hot life guard down on the end of the pier and considers trying to talk to him then suddenly he dives into the water and doesn't come back up.
Jacob PANICS. He's like "oh no he's hit something underwater or passed out oh god-"
He runs over to where he jumped in and looks around and when there's no sign of him, he jumps in and comes face to face with with shark boy.
Jacob's freaked out for like five minutes but promises he won't tell. Then he realises he can use this as an excuse to talk to Nick all the time 😇🥰
I really like all the ideas you have for the Quarry gang in different AUs, like the superpowers or lingering werewolf changes.
But if each one of them was a different mystical/paranormal creature in hiding, who do you think would be what? Like maybe Max and Laura would still be werewolves, but we could have a vampire, harpy, kelpie, mermaid etc.
Can either be classic monsters or mythological creatures in hiding.
Thanks for the awesome content!
HERE WE GO
I apologize for how long it took me to answer this I rly needed to think about it.
I wanted to stick with a kinda spooky theme for all of them while also picking things that I felt matched with their vibes but I'm so happy with these.
Almost all of these creatures murder people for fun but we're going Teen Wolf style where these funky kids are doing their best not to murder anyone because they don't want to, also they're in hiding.
Also turned this into a full-on story Au. Apparently I can't help myself.
👇 The Quarry counselors as mythical creatures in hiding 👇
Max&Laura
I love the idea of them still being werewolves. And I love the headcanon of them being a cryptid hunting duo even more and I think that's where they all meet in this universe. I say that like I have the ability to write a fanfic. I do not. But I'll obsess anyway.
They're both werewolves, though they look more furry than the game designs. Still big and freaky but not as gobliny
They get paid to investigate "mysterious deaths" typically caused by creatures posing as humans. They probably get paid by Travis who's just a human cop who knows that monsters exist and hide among humans and needs a way to get rid of them without seeming like a crazy person. They hunt down said creatures and that's how they meet the others.
They're all innocent but Laura and Max need to scope out their vibes before they can find the things actually repsonsible.
Emma
Emma was the first one I thought of because there's so many hot monster ladies who kill men and she just has that vibe to her, but also I was looking for a real specific energy for the love of my life.
Lamia in Greek mythology are half snake half women who eat kids. They also seduce men and convince them to give them their kids and then kill the men too. They're known to pose as performers to get attention and scope out vulnerable targets and lure them in with their ethereal beauty.
They're basically spicy land mermaids and that's on being hot. Though they're technically a type of demon. Like I said, hot.
Some stories pitch them to have mind control abilities as an alternative to seducing their victims. They can also straight up induce fear to make people leave them alone or just outright scare them to death.
They can shapeshift to change their size to be like an eight feet tall monster snake lady and also shed the snake skin to just be hot human ladies. They can see into the future and they practice witchcraft 😌🤌💕
Emma is just the local beautiful woman™. She definitely still has a YouTube channel or a Tiktok account and sometimes does her scarily accurate tarot card readings. She just lives her life doin whatever because it's pretty easy for her the hide. She travels a lot because she wants to see what the world has to offer but this makes her suspicious to the lil hunting duo who assume she's roaming around leaving bodies behind.
Laura and Max find her minding her own business. Maybe she did kill someone but if Emma was killing anyone, they definitely deserved it.
Abi
For Abi I almost went with something cutesy but I was also leaning towards something ghosty related because of how much contact she has with Eliza in the game. I just wanted her to be powerful but completely unaware of it, like it was something dormant she had to unlock and I actually had two that are basically the same thing but with very different aesthetics.
Banshees are fairy/spirit ladies who appear when you are close to death. If you can hear her wails it means someone you know is going to die or you're going to be in danger sometime soon.
Dullahan's are also fairies and are also omens of death but they're headless (lol) and ride around on horses holding their magic heads that can see massively long distances. Both are rad but I'm sticking with Banshee for now which is also a Teen Wolf thing.
She can disorient you with her scream and deafen you if you're close enough. Tinnitus all around. They also have visions of the future. (blygbank fortune teller duo)
Eventually she works out how to see and talk to ghosts but for most of her life she's just plagued with confusing dreams and gets weird feelings in certain places that later turn out to be haunted, and around certain people who end up dying shortly after.
Abi doesn't know about her powers she just thinks she has the worst luck. Every now and then, she'll go somewhere and she'll see someone get hit by a car or spontaneously have a heart attack. She aimlessly goes for walks and always ends up near where an ambulance is parked in front of someone's house or on the side of the road. Because she's always around the scenes of crimes, Laura and Max think she's their target but they eventually see that's not the case.
She's subconsciously using her powers and I think Laura and Max are the ones who tell her that she's a banshee when they realise that she's clueless and definitely not a serial murderer.
Ryan
For Ryan I was thinking along the lines of mythical creatures who kept to themselves/had some kind of camoflauge or shapeshifting abilities but most of them were tiny chaotic creatures or things that seduced humans to kill them and none of that matches up with Ryan
Then I read about djinn/jinn/genies and they seemed more like what I was looking for.👀
They're typically reclusive, only interacting with humans they deem to be wise/intelligent enough to offer their power to. They're antisocial and picky about their company just like our good good boy.
But more specifically I was thinking Ryan would be a half-djinn. Since Djinn are invisible, wispy beings with god-like powers associated with demons since they can possess humans. But their offspring pass as slender, pretty humans. Which is kinda boring but I think his eyes glow and he gets all these coloured tattoos all over him if he's in his djinn form 😌🤌
Their powers are limited to shapeshifting and psychic-like abilities where they can make humans hallucinate, experience false realities and basically just mess with their minds in general. They can also see into or interfere with humans dreams like Djinn. But Djinn cause sleep paralysis and try to possess sleeping humans.
But since Ryan canonically has one (or two depending on your hc) absent parents. It matches up with a human getting down with a potentially evil being and having a funky magic baby.
Ryan mainly uses his powers to avoid people. He's not out looking to make people go crazy by breaking their brains, he just doesn't want to be cornered into a conversation with an acquaintance when he's trying to do his grocery shopping. So he'll do some minor mind-fucking to make them forget they saw him.
It also makes it SUPER hard for Laura and Max to find him. The first time one of them try to approach him, he instinctively makes them forget him because he's too shy to talk to strangers and then they have to start from square one again. Then they come back and accuse him of messing with their brain and he gets nervous, so he messes with their brains again.
Djinn also have the silver weakness and can be killed or trapped inside anything made of silver. So there's something in common with Laura and Max. Also it's super funny to think about them trying to get proof that he's a djinn by using silver while trying to not touch it themselves.
Dylan
I really wanted something intelligence or music related for my sweet boy and as I was searching GUESS WHAT I LEARNT
Sirens! Were originally! depicted as half-BIRD MEN! Who hung out on big rocks in the middle of the ocean and sang or played music. The stories varied between them doing it to cause mischief and get sailors killed or lost at sea. Or singing to warn sailors travelling through fog that were was stuff to hit their boat on or that a storm was coming. Then later they added lady sirens (or stories with lady sirens got more popular) and stories of them exclusively trying to lure sailors in with their voices to kill them started up. Then they changed it to fish people, then some boring asshole decided that it was just female sirens who lured men to their death. Probably some lame ass who didn't want to be lured to his death by a hot man. But I'm not a coward so I'm going with the OG lore.
The idea of Dylan with wings does in fact, make me go feral. Maybe he just has wings or maybe he gets feathers on his arms and bird feet when he's not in human form but either way he's ethereal. He has super soft hair. Beautiful bird boy.
He uses his charm powers mostly for his own gain, occasionally to help his friends out. If he gets lonely he'll go somewhere and hum or whistle a song and people will immediately come over to him and talk to him 🥰 He makes music and anyone who hears it feels compelled to reach out to him in some way. He has used it to get money many times and he'll do it again. But he doesn't make people fall in love with him because that's where his morals kick in. He doesn't use his powers to kill people, he just likes the attention. Because you can't convince me that if Dylan had the ability to make people pay attention to him, he wouldn't abuse the hell out of it.
I imagine that creatures with mind control-esq abilities are immune to his charm and he gets real mopey about it. Not because he's run into a potentially dangerous creature but because he got rejected and he's not used to that.
I think he singles out Max and lures him in because he's smart and figured out Max and Laura were tracking him. Cue Laura going to save her bf and her and Dylan recreating that picture of the cat with the shit-eating grin surrounded by knives (Laura's holding the knives)
I have another similar one for Dylan but Sirens are more noteable so I went with that.
Kaitlyn
I wasn't sure about Kaitlyn. My only prerequisite was that it had to be dope. I wanted to find some way to make her a dragon then I remembered wyverns were a thing and I saw stars.
The difference between dragons and wyverns is that wyverns are smaller and bipedal. They still walk on their hands and feet but they have hand claws instead of four legs. Some of them breathe fire, others have some kind of poison smog breath or spit acid. I can see Kaitlyn's bite and claws being poison when she's not in human form.
She has three forms. A human form, a half wyvern lady form and a full on wyvern. They're smart and like collecting/hoarding things. They're independent but inquisitive and like learning about human things which works with their interest in mechanics and engineering 😌🤌
She minds her own business and rarely goes into creature mode. She's a human 99.9% of the time because she's a responsible, tax paying member of society who doesn't feel the need to randomly use her powers for any reason. But when she does use it you better make sure you're on her side because she'll whoop your ass.
I'm also obsessed with Kaitlyn and Dylan being winged buddies. I think they met from Dylan luring her in when he was bored and once it wore off, she decided he was funny and harmless enough to not immediately kill. Now they're besties, They have to be besties in every au, I don't make the rules.
Laura and Max are real careful with tracking her because they know how tough she is and I'm debating whether they even tried to do so or not. Kaitlyn could definitely immediately tell they're werewolves and vice versa. Their animal instincts clocked each other right away. I think Kaitlyn went to them to find out why they were following her and then probably helped them find the real culprits after she scares the shit out of them.
Nick
I wanted SOMEONE to be a water dwelling creature and I had good arguments for most of them. I almost made Ryan the merman but I eventually settled on Nick.
My final decision was ultimately based on Nick being an adorable Australian shark merman since Australians are all about the beautiful beaches and swimming and the coral reef and all that good stuff.
Specifically he's a tiger shark, they have stripes down their sides, they're a little stupid and they're entirely food motivated. Like they'll swim through disaster weather just on the off-chance they'll find dead things to eat when every other species of shark swims away from the area for safety.
There's a bunch of different stories about merfolk and what they're capable of in terms of shapeshifting but I'm going with the style where they can either have the half fish body or human legs whenever they want. They can live on land for as long as they want without it affecting them physically but they do feel an urge to be near water. Which is why I think Nick is a lifeguard in his spare time. He just has the vibe of those handsome, charming lifeguards.
There are stories about how merfolk would innocently try to take humans they liked to their underwater kingdoms, which resulted in the humans drowning or their lungs crushing from the sudden change in pressure because they swim down so fast. Which is so bimbo/himbo of them tbh but it makes sense they wouldn't know humans can't breathe in both air and water like they can. But that's why Nick's a lifeguard because he's well aware these humans are fragile and they need a lot of taking care of.
They can read minds which is how they talk underwater but Nick knows not to pry. He's polite. Living on land gave him human etiquette.
He has a set of human teeth and a set of pointy shark teeth that he can retract and he's real strong. Similar to the werewolves, he can smell blood and it can potentially send him into a bit of a frenzy if he's hungry or you just catch him on a bad day mentally. Luckily he's a generally happy boy and doesn't have a lot of bad days but when he has a bad day, it's a real bad day. (Future cryptid friend group HC is that Dylan or Emma have to calm him down by charming him before he goes rabid and tried to eat someone. Same with the werewolves.)
Laura and Max absolutely hate this job because it's entirely water based. The dude is constantly in and out of water and covered in water. In the end, Max literally just walks up to Nick and chats to him about the weird deaths in the area and Nick is SO friendly and helpful and after half a conversation with him they know he's not the culprit but they DO wanna hang out with him.
Jacob
I was at a loss for Jacob, I truly just had no idea he could be. We don't have any info about his family dynamics or his interests that could spawn some train of inspiration in my head like the others do and this was sixty percent of the reason it took me so long to write this.
He has a similar energy to Abi where he just doesn't know what's going on most of the time so I played off that. Eventually I decided on him being a mythical creature by proxy. As in, he's possessed by something that turns him into a monster.
Y'all heard of a show called Teen Wolf?/sarcasm
There's a being called the Kanima which is a South American myth that involves a shapeshifter in the form of a were-jaguar. It's known as a demonic spirit that brings misfortune to everyone it's near. If you're out in the woods and you keep experiencing bad luck; tripping, stuff from trees falling on you, getting attacked by animals, it's a sign that the Kanima is after you.
It has the power to posses humans or animals and it's stare can drive the recipient insane. They have a paralyzing poisonIt can't fully suppress the consciousness of the one they're possessing unless they're asleep or knocked out. The spirit is only released if the one they're possessing dies and I think this is the final chapter in this little cryptid hunting story.
Jacob went out for a walk one day, was even more unlucky than usual and didn't come home. Kaitlyn and him are definitely still friends in this universe and she started getting concerned/suspicious when Jacob popped up the next morning acting like he didn't know what happened the previous night.
Her instincts are telling her something's wrong, she calls Laura and Max and they also can't do anything. When the Kanima reveals itself they can't get close to it because if the stare and the poison. Not only that, everything goes wrong, their car breaks down, they hurt themselves in ridiculous ways, all because of the Kanima. Kaitlyn can fight him but her poison doesn't work on him and the stare would make her go crazy.
They end up calling all their new friends to see if any of them can help. Abi's new to this, she might be able to help but she's ready for combat. Nicks strong enough to fight it and would love to help but one look from the Kanima would make Nick go into a frenzy. Dylan could pacify and lure him in but he absolutely does not want to get close to it because he'd get messed up by the poison and the stare.
At the end of the day Emma and Ryan are also demon-esq and they're the only ones immune to the poison and insanity stare. Emma pacifys him while Ryan roots around in his mind to essentially disable the Kanima so it can't take control of Jacob anymore.
Now Jacob just has the strength and speed of the Kanima. In Teen Wolf it's like a gross lizard thing but when I look up were-jaguars, they're just these big ol' hell-demon-cats so that's what he can turn into because that's sick. Parkour time for this lad.
