Okay okay, one more. Carver and Dot are two of the rare non-Houndour kids that Valnix has adopted, and thus notable for that alone. Carver plays an important part in Valnix' redemption, while Dot came later after he'd re-settled (and is thus one of the youngest in the group). Dot was originally designed by Night-Chimeras-Cry on dA, and said art/design can be found on her Toyhouse page!
Description: Jared witnesses a little something he shouldn’t have, and ends up in debt
Triggers: Kidnapping tw, gun tw,
It was a situation Jared had never been in before. Watching a person be snatched off the street was just not anything you would have been ready for in your life unless you’d had a pretty unhealthy upbringing. The following decision was perhaps not the smartest he could have had either, but no one would ever mistake the nymph for someone with more than a very select few brain cells working at a time. His feet hit the concrete hard as he followed the car, sprinting down short cut after short cut -the kind you learned when you were a truant in your youth. While he didn’t think to call the police perhaps about what he’d seen, he did think enough to not want to be seen easily and recognised by the snatcher. So his glamour changed slightly. He gave himself brown hair and eyes, his face shape shifting to be slightly rounder. Spotting the car having stopped he skid to a halt and dove behind a bush. Watching through the branches at what was going on.
Dot didn’t usually take jobs like this, but she needed the money. She had spent way too much money this month on her friends doing stupid shit. She was the driver and the handler for a kidnapping job. Someone who owed money to the wrong people, Dot hadn’t asked for too many details when it came to the job. As they pulled up to the warehouse, Dot popped out of the van, and told the other two with her to bring the crying man inside. After he was settled in, she sent the other two off to go grab whoever they needed to finish the job. She was working on a research paper with the soft sounds of sobbing around a gag in the background.
He lingered in the shadows, and watched the initial van to warehouse exchange although unable to hear exactly what was being said. Jared wasn’t the law, but he didn’t think clearly enough to call anyone else. He couldn’t make out anything when they all vanished into the warehouse so -once two of the captors had driven away again Jared figured he’d try his chances getting closer. Should he free the person? Did he want to be involved? Honestly he hadn’t even known this warehouse existed. And he was yet to realize he should call the cops -not that it would have helped as he was one of those locals who didn’t know street names and could only tell you directions from landmarks or lefts and rights. And that wouldn’t help the cops much as he’d taken a few back alleys to keep up. The nymph peered into the door, his eyes catching sight of the tied up individual, and then landing on the last captor left. Direct eye contact in fact. “Shit.” he took off like a shot.
Well, that was unfortunate. Witnesses weren’t exactly in the plan. Sighing, Dot snapped her laptop shut and stood. She wasn’t exactly in the mood for a chase, her hangover throbbing behind her eyes with every move, but she moved. She wasn’t going to fuck up this job over some random. Calling out as she ran, Dot hoped a threat would be enough to stop the dude,“Stop running and I don’t shoot.” The gun that was on her hip gleamed in the light. She was gaining on him, she hadn’t run all through high school and college for no reason. She might kill him either way, but if she didn’t have to deal with cleanup that would be a plus. Maybe she could even get something out of it.
The nymph was trying to process what he’d seen as quickly as he could, but it turned out running through very uneven terrain took an awful lot more brain power than he was used to. Jared placed his feet as well as he could but it didn’t seem to do him any good, he stumbled often, and his sharp ears could hear footsteps catching up. He was no made for this, the ‘dangerous’ things he encountered he tended to stand his ground with, running didn’t really solve anything with his kids. But people were different, it was never a safe bet to know what their nature was. At the threat of a gun he did stop, he stopped dead and turned with his hands up. “Don’t shoot!”
Huh, it worked. Thank god. Dot had been ready to face the grim reality of having to call someone to help her get rid of the body. Little blessings, she thought as she pointed the gun at the man with his hands up. “Come on, dude, let’s go back.” She’d deal with him by the warehouse so she was nearby the captive. “I’ll deal with you there,” She approached him, keeping a close eye on him as she walked. “What did you see?”
He wondered if he could overpower her in the moment that she gestured him to move back towards where they’d come from. But Jared had never used his full strength on a person before, he didn’t know the limits people could take. He kept his arms up as he started to move with a resigned expression. It was his reality now, he was now in the same boat as the other kidnapped person, only worse was that he was likely expendable since he wasn’t the target. “Does it matter when we’re headed back there anyway?” he wondered aloud before cringing, he didn’t want to be so rude, especially in such risky company but he was having a hard time focusing on his mouth with the gun in his direction. “I mean, I swear not a lot!”
“Yeah, it does,” Dot answered, annoyed. She’d keep this one in the back if he hadn’t seen too much. If he was just a nosy dude who was looking for fun that would change things too. “Well, not a lot, is still some.” She considered the situation for a moment as they walked. She had all the power here. “So, why shouldn’t I just shoot you and get this over with?” She asked. She didn’t want to deal with that, but she sure as fuck wanted to remind him that he had to give her something good to get out of this.
Jared grew a little frantic the closer to the warehouse they got. For some reason the closer the building became the more he felt like he was walking to his death. What use would this person have of him? None. In fact in every movie he’d ever seen of this same scene the witness was most likely to be shot for the shock value for the other captive. His heart sped up to unnatural speeds and he stopped at the door to look at his captor. “Fuck please don’t shoot me, I have kids at home! My kids need me, they have no one else to care for them!”
He had kids, how tragic. Dot rolled her eyes so hard her headache got worse. “Who will feed your poor children without you. Don’t look into random fucking warehouses then.” She waved her gun around a bit,“I’m asking you one more time, why shouldn’t I just get rid of you? Make it something that will help me. I don’t give a fuck about sob stories.” If he mentioned his kids again, she might just shoot him in the foot for fun.
Was Jared too proud to get on his knees and grovel for his life? No. However, if she wasn’t into sob stories he doubted that would win him any points with her either. Not that his admission of having dependent animals that needed him was a sob story in his eyes. He just didn’t want to leave Nell or Alcher a mess to care for. He had so many new critters on the farm lately he didn’t even know if he could house them all peacefully yet. So he changed tactics. His heart hammered still, but he tried again “I don’t have money, but I do have contacts, I have products, I have services to trade for my life. I…..I could owe you one...I could promise to owe you something?” It was dangerous, but the situation felt like it was getting a little fraught as she didn’t seem to be wanting to barter for long.
A promise. Dot's face broke into a shark smile. She had only recently found out about promises. Now, this was better than she expected. She had assumed she would be getting a few hundred dollars and maybe something cool from this. A promise was much more important to her. “Oh, I’ll take a promise. That means you’re Fae huh?” She asked, knowing that if he was just some human, that promise would mean nothing. “You’ll owe me anything I ask from you?”
Jared was sweating, as soon as she asked for clarification of what he was he knew he’d made a mistake. But at the same time, her knowing was surely the same sort of danger as if she decided to shoot him now. He was gone either way if she wanted rid of him. A promise might buy him time before she rid herself of him, so he had that lovely thought at least. “Yeah I’m fae. I promise-” he swallowed nervously. “I promise to owe you a favour whenever you ask me, in exchange for letting me live.” perhaps his wording would help him. Maybe it would stop her eliminating him later. He could only hope, he was truly confused about how fae promises worked himself.
Dot hadn’t thought that much would come from this job, but oh how wrong she was. This was an excellent outcome for her. A fae owed her now. She was sure that she would use him for something very fun. “I’ll take it,” She told him gleefully. Waving the gun at him, “Alright, you get to live so get out of here and don’t tell anyone shit.” As long as no one found out that he had been here, she was golden. What a fucking delight of a day this had turned out.
She felt her eyes growing heavier and heavier the longer she slouched over the book. Before, when her eyes had been black as night and sharp as knives, she would never tire or strain to understand the written word. The emotion behind it was a stranger to her, but the knowledge? Tiaret could absorb it like a sponge. Now... how did humans do this? Spending hours upon hours straining their eyes to read such tiny words. She had once enjoyed reading. Writing and entertaining were the few things she thought mortals did quite well and she took advantage of it often.
Perhaps she should have taken a break, given her feeble body some reprieve. But the demoness inside of her, whatever was left of that version of Tiaret, was hungry for the knowledge she sought out. She wanted so badly to be rid of the vulnerable body she now wore. She would shed it like a snake sheds its skin and revel in her renewed power. The idea was salivating. For now, however, she was forced to settle for mediocrity and tedious tasks to recover her life.
She stood from the table, not caring about the glares she received when the chair screeched loudly against the floor. Tiaret waved at them with an innocent smile, picking her books up loudly before she turned to find another that might have helped her in her task. The aisles seemed much too long as she scrolled down them, tired and lethargic from the day. Her tired eyes darted along the titles, hoping something of interest would jump at her. She reached out, intending to grab a book when a hand touched the same spine that she had. Her gaze followed the hand, up the arm, until she was looking upon the face of a woman. She blinked at her. What was that word that humans used? It was supposed to be polite, almost apologetic, but not quite. “Excuse me,” she said, the word sounding foreign on her tongue. She didn’t want to start a fight, not in such a dull place where anyone was bound to show up. “Did you need this book? I’m afraid we might have quite a predicament.”
Austin tied Ringo up out front and the German shepherd happily waited as he headed up to Dot’s front door. When his old friend opened the door Austin smiled brightly, holding out the coffee to her. “Alright I brought coffee for you, donuts for all of us, and two stuff puppies for the cutest twins in town. Tell me I don’t have terrible timing.”
