Unleashed: Reimagined Tails teaches Gadget from @eloaholiveira's Freaks au and Nick from @e-dragonic's Being Mobian au (and Unleashed: Reimagined Chip) Sign Language.
He had mentally drifted off mid way through his session with Ms. Ebony. He couldn't focus on anything properly after this morning, waking up smeared with dirt and... possibly-
<No, It wasn't.>
His sister had woke him up early, saying that some monster had crept in through his bedroom window last night... but he'd DEFINETELY remember something like that. He thought she was joking but then he saw the dirty prints across his room floor and all over his bed...
Anita wanted to tell Mommy but he swore her to secrecy about it. He didn't know what was going on but he didn't want to throw Mommy into a panic. He did his best to clean the floors and his bed before she woke up. She hadn't said anything...but he didn't know whether he did a good job or she hadn't noticed yet.
He was still trying to piece together in his head why he was covered in dirt this morning...
Had he sleepwalked...?? He heard that was a thing.
But he's never done that before....
He tried to recall last night but couldn't ...remember much. He remember felling awful, getting water, bumping into Anita... he leapt out of his window for some reason... then... nothing. He could only assume he climbed back into his room and went to sleep... but it didn't explain the tracks and the mess he was in...
so what happened last night...??
"Nicky!" He jumped as he was snapped back into reality.
Ms. Ebony looked at him with concern, " You did it again... Did you even hear my question?"
His eyes fell to the floor, shamefully, " Uh, no. Sorry."
She sighs, " It's okay. I was asking about your glasses. You're not wearing them. Did you you forget them at home?"
"No. I just... don't need them anymore...." He muttered slightly.
She raised a brow, " You don't need them???"
"Y-Yeah... I can see surprisingly well now actually." He explained, "My Mommy scheduled an appointment with Eye doctor in a couple of days to really see if I don't need them anymore..."
"I see... " There was a moment a quiet, " ... Did ...anything happen last night for you? Word on the vine people heard howling from the woods. The police are thinking of doing another search of the Woods because of it..."
" No, nothing happened." He answered.
What else could he tell her? That besides the big blank spot in his memory of ever falling sleep last night, he didn't noticed anything?
She lets out a breath, "Okay... I'm sorry for scaring you with my vision yesterday. I've had them since I was kid and always felt that if I had a bad vision that I should do something to prevent it ... ... But some times no amount of nudging can change what is destiny..."
Nicky thought about the vision, <I didn't leave out the house by nightfall... I left it during nightfall. Then I ended up covered in dirt and... and blood.>
What happened last night?
The bell rang. Nicky winced.
" Have a good lunch, Nicky." Ms. Ebony waved. " Oh. Send my condolences to your Class. I heard about what happened to your class pet. Poor thing. I can't imagine what could have gotten to it. "
Nicky only nodded and left out the office but as he walked down the hall. He carefully reached into his pocket and glanced down as he partially pulled out a small cat bell...
"I see... Amelia was like your shield, wasn't she? She protected you. She made you feel strong." Ms. Ebony hummed, "But without her, you feel like you've lost your protection... ...and more."
Nicky frowned, gripping the hem of his stitched up sweater.
He was quiet, glancing at the painted wall. He had been quiet most of this session but Ms. Ebony somehow manages to say what he didn't like she was reading his mind. She was nice, lends an listening ear, offered advice...but the kids around school, and even some Teachers, mutter about her being a bit weird.
But he didn't care.
If anything he wanted this session to end as soon as possible. He was so ready to go Home right now.
After the Incident and spending a week and a half in the hospital, he felt better then ever...besides his intensified senses causing him to have an minor headache by the end of school.
But now, day by day, everything began to get overwhelming. The World was too loud and too ...smelly. Little things annoyances left him utterly frustrated. He wondered if the flu he had before was coming back...
"Nicky!" Suddenly he was snapped back to the real world.
"H-Huh??" He sat up abruptly.
"I called your name three times, Nicky. Is something still on your mind?"
His eyes fell to the floor once more, wondering what to say or if he should say anything at all.
"You know, I may not be a Therapist but School Counselors are held to the same code of conduct. Anything you say won't leave this office." Ms. Ebony nudged.
There was a lingering moment of silence between them before Nicky spoke.
"... I...I haven't been feeling well... N-Not just mental but...physically...."
Ms. Ebony raised a brow, sitting up more straight in her chair with interest. "Physically...?"
"...It all started after the incident. After I got home from the Hospital... I felt great... like it didn't even happen...but also... I -I started to hear things I should hear. See t-things I shouldn't see. Smell things I-I shouldn't smell..."
He took a couple of sniffs, "... You had coffee along with a toasted sausage, egg and cheese sandwich...."
Ms. Ebony had to do a double take, brows furrowing, "I had that... hours ago."
"See! And then there's the dreams...!" He gripped the hem of the sweater tighter, " I keep having this dream... of waking up in a misty forest...and seeing this-this creature?? I don't know what it is... It used to be this vague blob...but now it has more of a shape... it ... it sort a looks like a...a-"
There was a sudden thud that caused Nicky to jump as Ebony suddenly shot up in her seat causing it to tip over. He looked at her and noticed that how her whole body stood ridged, fur bristling as she had a distant gaze in her eyes.
"Ms. Ebony...?" Nicky sat there for a moment while she stood there so still he wonder if she was still breathing. He was about to get out of his chair when she suddenly gasped, almost lurching backwards but just barely managing to catch herself.
"Ms. Ebony, are you okay??" He asked worried but also a bit spooked by what just happened.
She blinked a few times, rubbing at her temples, "Y-Yeah, I just..." She glanced at Nicky before striding over to him and kneeling down. She had a serious look on her face as she gripped his shoulders, gentle but firm, " Listen, Nicky. Tonight, you must LEAVE your home by nightfall. Do you understand? Do NOT stay in there. "
"I-I don't... Why???" He asked, panic in his voice.
"I don't know! I don't know... I was - I was looking in through a room window and I saw you in bed... and something else in the corner... I could make out nothing but its gleaming eyes... Then blood began to pour out from the window ..." Her hands fell as she looked away, " ... I've never had a vision that strong before..."
Ebony glanced back at Nicky to notice the utterly terrified look on face, " Hey hey hey... It'll be okay. Listen... My visions aren't always correct... I could be completely wrong and nothing will happen."
"B-But something could happen." Nicky whimpered. Ebony gives him a comforting hug, "The future is never set in stone. Things can always change."
The Lunch bell then rings and Nicky winces at it.
"Looks like our session is done." Ebony said, standing up and smile, "Have a good lunch, Nicky."
"Thanks..." Nicky slid out of the chair and walked out of the room, an unease feeling settling in his gut at the ominous vision...
(Introducing this AU's version of Ebony, she's Nicky's School Counselor and a Mystic. Think like a diet Witch. She can't tap into Chaos and utilize it but she does have some tricks up her sleeves. She has an affinity towards things like Tarot Cards and getting the occasional vision.)
"W-Wait! Waaaaait!"
Nicky wheezed as his two friends ran ahead of him. He wasn't the best runner and his asthma didn't help. Winded, he stumbled through thick undergrowth, his face getting smacked by the occasional overgrown weed until his foot caught on a jutting tree root.
Nicky fell face-first into the ground with all the grace of a sack of potatoes. He could hear Jon and Amy skid to stop as they heard him fall.
"Nicky, are you okay?" Amelia asked as the two walked over to him.
He slowly picked himself up, seeing the grass stains on his favorite red shirt, " ... Y-Yeah." He sniffled lightly.
"... You're not going to cry are you?"
"No!" Nicky swiftly answered, swiftly standing up. He's been called a 'Crybaby' since Grade school, that name didn't need to follow him into Middle School as well! Though he knew Anton would just cook up some new name to call him...
"It'd just a fall. I-I'm fin-"
"Shhh... Guys, do you hear that?" Amelia pointed out.
The three soon went silent, surrounded by the nocturnal sounds of the dark Woods for a while until Nicky began to hear it, just barely out of the range of his hearing.
Music.
"That's music!" Jon exclaimed.
"We're getting close to the Big Kids' Party. Come on!" Amelia ushered as she and Jon started making way towards the faint sounds of partying teenagers.
Nicky followed them after with hesitant steps. That uneasy feeling in the pit of his gut hasn't gone away...
"I have been giving it thought... You deserve better in your teachings… Living like a Loner is not appropriate for someone as young as you… We should be amongst our kind… And I know only one place…"
So they had to leave Tangle behind.
Where they were going to was a place she couldn't come even if there was a longing look in Whisper's gaze.
They went to Whisper's home, her Birth Pack called Black Alder. A Pack settled deep in a Boscage, where the Flora and Fauna were wilder and dangerous.
As they stood before the Wild Werebeast Pack, Whisper lied. Telling them that he was a Pup she found in the Woods with no parents or guardians in sight. She knew her Grandmother, the Dominant of the Pack and a avid spurner of anything Mundane, would not allow him in if she knew he was a Cub as already being Outsider was enough to get him some scrutiny from her. But being young gave him enough leeway for her to accept him in on one condition:
He will learn their ways, live like they live but, in order to do that, he discard everything Mundane, even his own name.
He felt like he should have balked at this, at the very idea of discarding everything, even his own name that his Mother gave him but...
He only nodded.
He couldn't find a reason not to agreed. He still doesn't remember what happened that night, just the feeling that he did something really really bad. Something that not even a million sorrys could make better...
And why should he go back to people who either hated his guts or avoided him like he was the plague?
To a place that would never understand what he had become now...?
He has nothing to go back too...
And that day on he would be called 'Pup' till he had gotten his Wolf name, his new name.
There was a lot of days where he found himself crying at the end... as life out in the Wilds was a lot harder than his life back home. He got up early and went to bed late. His education came from the stories and lessons from Russet. And he'd be lying that to himself if he didn't miss his old Home, miss his Mom and Sister but he couldn't go back...
And if it wasn't the crying, it was the nightmares reliving that night that woke him with a start and brough him to tears.
Whisper - Whispering Strike was her full name - was always there to comfort him and over time he began to view her less as a Friendly Stranger and more like a Big sister. Her words could be cold ...but her heart was warm. Her Training was hard and difficult but not impossible, especially as he began to accept what he was now...
There was no Cure after all. There was no way to regain what he had lost so he won't bother try. Instead, he did his best to devote himself to the Pack and his training.
Whisper's teachings went beyond physical, but mental as well.
<<You must work on your confidence... Your meekness will quickly send you to the bottom of the hierarchy here - you'll be eating other's scrapes for the rest of your days. And no little brother of mine will be eating any scraps. You're strong, Little Brother.>>
"...I don't feel strong."
<<You are... Just standing here in front of me... after everything you've been though shows it more than enough. In time you'll show that strength to everyone.>>
It reminded him of Amelia. Just as sure. Just as inspiring.
He had to get strong, not just for himself... but to protect those around him.
