yet another spooky jump in

Gifti nodded when Sparrow brought up the fact that he had work the next day. ”Yeah, Robin mentioned that earlier. So maybe the day after tomorrow would be best.” Besides, he and Robin were planning on taking a visit down to the police station tomorrow, so digging through the storage unit was out of the picture for them as well. Gifti has no idea how long the police station trip would take, but he was planning it to take a few hours, perhaps even longer if they were able to dig up something really interesting and out of place. He was curious to see what the police might have on their grandma’s death if anything at all. A part of him did hope that her passing was just due to what had been reported - natural causes - but in the back of his mind he also knew the chances of something natural were low. Whatever happened, Gifti was curious to find out.

The shape-shifter was brought out of his reverie when Sparrow spoke up again. He glanced up once having snapped back to reality. ”Well, we ended up finding something that only lead to even more questions than answers,” Gifti answered. ”There was something in one of those pictures… I’m not even sure if I can even explain it properly. My guess right now is some sort of werewolf, but…” He trailed off, the image of the blue eyed beast flashing in his mind for a brief moment. He stifled back a shiver that wanted to run down his spine. ”You’ll have to look at it for yourself and then read what was written about it. Like I said, I’m not even sure I could explain it.”

Attention back on the bullets, Gifti couldn’t help but narrow his amber gaze. He didn’t mean for such a shift in mood so quickly, but he hadn’t expected Sparrow to pull out silver bullets just like that. ”Silver,” he replied with a nod toward the bullets. ”Just as bad for shifters as it is with werewolves.” While he would look at them, he wasn’t about to touch them. He really wasn’t in the mood to feel the burning sensation that silver produced.

What Sparrow found next was rather interesting as well. He looked it over for a moment, noticing the piece of iron with wood around it and the silver mirror. ”Could be for quite a few different things.” Unlike pure silver, Gifti could handle iron. He didn’t have to worry about that like he did silver. ”Iron doesn’t necessarily kill a lot of things, but it can be used to weaken the power of something. Witches, for example. Iron can dull their powers.” Iron was a good tool to have for hunting down malicious witches among other creatures. It didn’t kill most, but it could give a hunter the upper hand in a difficult chase for sure.

(a late reply since i was walking into a store when i sent that post earlier)
thanks! i keep going back and forth about what i want to do with her so it might be a little while... maybe sometime during the next day of two (in rp). that sounds cool though! 

and ok!)

Time — --cato phoenix
The young man nodded when asked if he was new to the town as well. This was his first time here in Echo Ridge, and he wasn’t entirely sure how exactly he felt about it just yet, but none of that mattered. It wasn’t like he was going to stay for long, just a few days, a week at most, to get himself rested. After that he would be on his way to the next town, then the next, and the next, and so forth. He didn’t plan on staying in places long.

As the girl explained everything she knew about Echo Ridge, Time stood there, giving a small nod of acknowledgement as she spoke. Time felt like he should be worried about everything he was hearing from the girl, but the talk of deadly monsters that came out at night didn’t startled him as much as it probably should.

”That’s a lot to take in,” Time commented after a moment of just standing there in silence after the girl finished her explanation. ”Do you have a place to stay?” It was an odd jump from his comment to the question, but Time couldn’t help himself as it slipped off his tongue. ”I mean, if it’s so dangerous to stay outside at night…” He glanced up at the sky, the sun’s light trickling away. ”Shouldn’t you be inside?” The question could easily be thrown back to him seeing as he wasn’t inside either, but Time wasn’t worried about that. If he needed to he was sure he could sneak inside a hotel room or something. And if he ended up having to stay outside during the night he was sure he could take care of himself. While he wasn’t fond of some of the stuff he knew, Time did know how to fend for himself if it came down to it.



Gifti — Amber
With their plans for the next two days pretty much figured out, Gifti focused his attention on what he had discovered in the files earlier with Robin. Thinking about that creature in the photo still made him uneasy, but he wanted to know exactly what it was. He knew he didn’t know about everything that was out there, but it was bothering him that he, a supernatural creature himself, couldn’t pinpoint quite what that monster had been. ”Could be a shifter,” Gifti agreed after Sparrow brought up that possibility, but that didn’t seem to settle right with him either. ”Werewolf, shifter, it was certainly canine in nature from what I could tell, maybe you can think of something when you get the chance to look at it.” That was when a hint of humor glinted in Gifti’s eyes. ”But of course, it’s like every other photo of the supernatural or paranormal - blurry and hard to see.” Now that was something Gifti couldn’t explain either, how monsters had the innate ability to make even the most steady of pictures blurry, but that’s just how it was.

Back to the silver bullets, Gifti shook his head at the apology he was given. ”It’s fine, you didn’t know. I’ll just pass on holding them.” Sure, the bullets were cool in their own way, but that didn’t mean the shifter was going to risk himself some injury just to get a closer look at something he knew was bad for him.

On the other hand, iron was something he could handle with no problem. He nodded to confirm what Sparrow asked, chuffing softly in faint amusement. ”You seem to know a lot more than I would have given you. You’re right about the fairies, they aren’t a huge fan of iron. They don’t seem to be a big fan of much of anything outside other fairies, really.” That was a creature Gifti knew some about, but he had never actually been able to really get to know any fairies. He had met one or two over his lifetime, but the interactions were short lived and over before they even began. That had left him with the thought of fairies being a bit rude and short in patience for creatures outside their own species, but who knew, Gifti could be wrong about them. Maybe he’s get the chance to change his opinion one of these days.

There was a wide array of possibilities on the identity of the creature in the photo. Sure, Gifti was expecting it to be a sort of werewolf or shifter, but for all he knew he could be way off. It would be best to look into it more and get insight from other people regardless if they knew a lot about the supernatural or not.

”I plan on contacting some werewolf pals of mine,” Gifti explained after Sparrow went on to mention Robin’s prowess in studying and research along with his wondering if maybe it was something entirely different from a shifter. ”I found an entry that talked about the creature in the picture, and eventually me and Robin, and you if you’d like,” he doubted Sparrow would want to be left out, ”are going to look through to see if we can find other entries about it. The one we found mentioned it being the second run in, so we know there was at least one more.” The shifter was sure Sparrow would want to know about all of that, about all that they had found and what they planned on doing with the information. Sparrow was apart of this mystery just as much as Gifti and Robin were, and letting him in the loop was of the utmost importance.

A smile pulled at Gifti’s lips and he let out something of a purr as Sparrow mentioned knowing more than he thought. ”See, this stuff isn’t all that hard, and it makes a lot of sense once some thought is put into it.” Honestly the shifter was proud of the two come to think of it. Today had not been how any of them thought it would go, that much was obvious, but both Sparrow and Robin were taking all of this and making it their own. Not many people would handle this as well as they had.

Taking the bag he had been handed, Gifti carefully opened it up and looked at what was inside it. Gently he let the tooth slide out of the bag and into the palm of his hand, amber eyes narrowed with curiosity. ”An interesting looking tooth…” He murmured more to himself than anything before glancing back to Sparrow, curling his hand around the tooth to keep it secure. He was about to ask what Sparrow had found in the next bag when footsteps echoed into the room; Gifti turned, smiling in a warm greeting as Robin entered the room with some sandwiches. ”Welcome back.”

”Oh yeah, if it’s a werewolf they’ll know it,” the shifter answered with confidence. They would know all about other werewolves a lot more than Gifti would, and even if it was some sort of different breed or subspecies or something of that nature they would know. Gifti believed in his wolfish friend’s’ abilities to identify creatures even he didn’t know.

Sparrow was making a lot of good points as he continued to speak. The more they knew the higher the chance that they would figure out what was going on in and around the town. They would also be closer to figuring out what was out there and what had happened to the twins’ grandmother, and Gifti could perhaps then figure out what had happened to his own twin sister. ”You’re right. With all three of us together looking over everything, we can find missing pieces somebody else missed. We might just be able to pull this all off,” Gifti mused, a spark of his old enthusiasm and optimism shining through.

The tooth was now on the forefront of Gifti’s mind. For all he knew it was simply the fang of a vampire or werewolf, nothing entirely exciting, but it did have a peculiar shape to it, something that didn’t quite match a vampire but didn’t seem all that werewolf either. Honestly he was probably just letting his imagination get the best of him, especially after seeing that photograph from earlier. The tooth was probably nothing special, but he was still going to hold on to it for a little longer, give it another good look after a moment.

The shape-shifter’s attentioned landed on Robin for a quick second before it was back on Sparrow and what the other man had found. ”Can you open it?” Gifti asked slowly, wondering if maybe something was kept away inside the box.

Arlo watched his reaction to her explanation. He didn’t seem to be too alarmed by the information, she hoped he believed her at least. She didn’t want to find out that someone else has been killed when she’d had a chance to do something about it. She nodded in understanding when he replied, feeling a bit relieved. It was true, it was quite a lot to take in, especially to someone unfamiliar with similar things, but at least he hadn’t told her she was crazy and walked off like she’d kind of been expecting. 

At his question, she glanced back down the street. It was a good question, one she really should have been asking herself earlier. “Well, I uh...” She paused, thinking of an abandoned building she’d seen awhile ago. It was a possible option if she was unable to find something better... and if she remember where exactly it had been. Why hadn’t she written it down? She was a little irritated with herself about that- she really should have had a more reliable back up plan. “I’ll figure something out.”

Honestly, Arlo expected that she would be able to handle the creatures is necessary, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be stuck out in the open, waiting for them when she wasn’t sure what she would be dealing with. “Guess I wasn’t planning things very well,” she admitted with a sort of awkward laugh. More like not planning at all...

(sorry if this is a bit messy, I wanted to try to get a reply up before dinner)

Gifti — Amber
Despite the tooth being interesting, Gifti decided he would worry about identifying it later. At most it was just a chipped werewolf tooth or something like that, nothing of true importance. It was just a tooth in the end, what could a tooth help them with? So rather than focus all his attention on the tooth, he put his attention on Sparrow and the box, wondering what could be inside it. For all he knew there was nothing of interest in there either, but it never hurt to try and open it to see if there was anything at all inside.

As the twins carried on their own conversation and attempted to figure out how to open the box, Gifti found himself lost in thought for the time being. He knew he was getting himself into a lot by being here and helping the two. He could have just stayed as a cat for the entire time and stuck with his original plan of sneaking out and running off before he was made into some house pet or, worse, taken to the shelter. A shudder ran down his body at the thought. He had sworn he would never end up in a shelter ever again, it had been like jail but for poor, starving animals. Luckily he had been able to get himself out, making a daring getaway when a worker had come in one morning to clean out kennels. Freedom had never tasted so sweet after that little incident.

But enough of that.

He was brought back to reality when a click echoed faintly within the room. He perked up, looking over at Sparrow as he brought out a golden band that resembled a sort of snake. He cocked his head as he looked it over. It was honestly a stunning piece of jewelry, but when dealing with the supernatural its beauty could be deceiving. ”Could be some sort of charm,” he murmured after a moment, lost in thought as he looked it over some more. ”Something from a witch or enchanter.” It seemed harmless, and Gifti wasn’t getting any bad vibes from the piece of jewelry, but one could never be too sure when it came to things like this.



Time — --cato phoenix
If he was being honest he found it a bit odd that the girl didn’t have a place to go. She had mentioned being new to town as well, but with everything she knew of the place it seemed like she would have thought about finding somewhere to stay for the night in advance. Then again, Time knew nothing about this girl and she could have had bigger things to worry about than overnight shelter when she had come to the town. And he couldn’t say anything about it, either, considering he was in the exact same boat as she was.

Based on the way she spoke she didn’t seem all that comfortable with the thought of staying outside, or at least, that’s how Time was interpreting everything. He was probably assuming and was way off on how she really felt, but his mind was set on her not wanting to stay outside if she could help it, and even if he had no idea who she was there was a small part of him that wanted to at least help her out and get her on the right path to finding somewhere to stay. He very well wasn’t the one to go to for help, but he wanted to at least try.

As if something out there knew people were still milling around outside, a faint howl split through the air. It sounded far away, but the sound itself brought a chill through Time. It was sharp and high-pitched, overall just an eerie noise that didn’t belong to some normal dog.

Looking back to the girl with his mix-matched gaze of one green and one blue eye, Time softly asked, ”Maybe we can find some place together? I mean, staying out here alone probably isn’t the smartest move…” He looked around where they stood. Nothing was out of the ordinary, but that howl still echoed in the back of his mind like some sort of frightening memory on repeat. ”Oh,” he quickly breathed, realizing he had yet to introduce himself. If the girl decided to tag along with him, she would probably want to know his name. ”I’m Time, by the way.”

At this point Gifti was keeping a close eye on Robin as she examined the golden snake band. He couldn’t be sure if it was some sort of charm or hex or anything of that nature, but he didn’t exactly feel comfortable in believing it was harmless, either. There was just something about it that made him feel restless, like he couldn’t trust it.

For a brief moment he payed mind to Sparrow, listening to the other man read a note that was mostly unintelligible but got a dire point across.

Without a word he went over to where Robin was, reaching a hand out near her to snap his fingers in hopes of grabbing her attention. ”Robin, hey, Robin.” He snapped his fingers a few more times before motioning with a quick flick of his free hand toward Sparrow. ”Get the box ready. Once we get this away from her I don’t trust leaving it out.” The band came with a warning, and seeing Robin getting so deeply intrigued by the golden piece of jewelry was a bit worrying. Maybe she got this way over any piece of jewelry, Gifti couldn’t be sure, but with how Sparrow seemed to even be a bit worried the shape-shifter didn’t want to risk anything bad happening.

Yeah, he didn’t like this. He didn’t like this at all. Gifti could tell that something wasn’t right with Robin, and he knew it had to be because of the bracelet. Whatever spell or curse had been placed upon it was not a good one, and the last thing the shifter wanted was something to happen to Robin that could potentially harm her or worse, and no telling if the hex was permanent or not if exposed to it for long enough. There could be a wide assortment of problems the bracelet would cause, and if Gifti could avoid all of them then he’d be pretty content.

He couldn’t stop himself from letting out a faint growl when he wasn’t able to direct Robin’s attention away from the presumably cursed piece of jewelry. ”Hey, Robin,” Gifti tried again, words harsher than they had been the first time he tried grabbing the young woman’s attention. For a second he wondered if he could just reach out and grab the band out of her hands, but a logical voice in the back of his mind told him that probably wasn’t the best idea. That felt like something that would have to be a last resort if they couldn’t get Robin to naturally snap out of whatever kind of trance she was in at the moment.

Gifti looked back over to Sparrow for a moment, nodding to show he noticed that he had readied the box while at the same time silently sending a question of “what should we do” to the other male. Whether or not the silent question made itself clear was another question in and of itself, but Gifti wasn’t sure what exactly he should or shouldn’t do in this situation, and he for sure didn’t want to somehow make it worse by making the wrong move here.

While he couldn’t quite pinpoint it, there was something about this new woman that had caught his attention. She knew so much about Echo Ridge despite mentioning she wasn’t a local, and she seemed lost all the while seeming to fit right in. It was all just a weird combination for Time, but he wasn’t about to question it all. He had his own secrets and he’d allow her to keep her own. Besides, he wasn’t here to pry, he was here to try and offer her help by finding her and himself some place to stay. Surely there would be a hotel or something that would let them crash there, and if not, he knew how to subtly break into places if absolutely necessary. He hated that and didn’t want to do that, but if push came to shove he had to go for drastic measures.

After hearing that howl, Time had to be honest and admit that he was somewhat on edge. Well, he was constantly on edge really, but that didn’t matter. The howl at least put him a bit more on edge than usual, and he was ready to try and be of some help to somebody.

He nodded in response to her words. ”I’m sure. It’s the least I can do.” And probably the most he could do in his current situation, but Time didn’t want to exactly point that out right now.

Hoping she would tag along and follow, Time started walking deeper into the town, pausing ever so slightly in his steps when the young woman gave her name. ”Catherine’s a good name,” he complimented with something of a half-lipped smile that was almost too small to even notice. With a name like his he had no right to judge somebody else’s name, but Catherine did have a nice ring to it. It seemed like a peaceful name, and if there was one thing Time cherished it was peace.

Gifti could feel the tension rising as both his and Sparrow’s attempts at snapping Robin out of her trance failed. It was thick and uncomfortable, and the shape-shifter wasn’t fond of the uneasy feeling that was clawing at him like an angered beast. If they couldn’t figure out how to snap Robin out of then something terrible could happen. He didn’t know what sort of hex has been placed on the bracelet, but whatever it was it wasn’t favorable and Gifti didn’t want to sit around and wait for it to claim Robin as a victim.

Just as he was about to rack his brain for something else that could possibly get rid of this trance, Sparrow made a move. He would have never thought of tickling himself, but it was certainly worth a shot. Something as intense as that would surely knock Robin back into reality - granted that the hex wasn’t so powerful that even just the most minute of hyperfixations could completely wrap a victim’s attention in its grasp. No, don’t think like that, Gifti mentally scolded himself. Surely if their grandparents had ran into something that dangerous and powerful they would have rightfully disposed of it.

Robin dropping the bracelet was a good sign, and Gifti felt some of the tension leave his body as the charm was kicked to the side. Not wanting to keep the thing out any longer than necessary, Gifti skipped the niceties of welcoming Robin back to reality and jumped straight to going toward the bracelet, careful to not give it direct eye contact. ”Sparrow, do you have the box ready? I’m going to grab this thing and as soon as I have it it’s going back in.”

Gifti nodded when he heard Sparrow's breath of relief. He remained silent and focused, though, as he took the box from the other male, securing it in his grasp to make sure nothing allowed for it to fall or slip out of his hand for some reason or another. He couldn't chance the risk of the bracelet entrancing him. After seeing what it could do to Robin after she had only held it for a minute, the shifter didn't want a part of that.

Glancing at it long enough to put it inside the box, Gifti quickly put the hexed piece of jewelry away, locking the box just as quick as he had put the band inside once Robin had slipped the note cards inside. "Honestly, if we can get somebody to destroy it that might be best," Gifti pointed out once he was sure he had securely locked the box. "If this got into the wrong hands..." He didn't finish the statement. While he hadn't told Sparrow about his and Robin's theory on somebody having gone through their grandmother's stuff, he was sure that Robin would at least understand what he was implying with his statement there. Just because the twins lived in the house now didn't mean whoever could have gone through the files - if anybody had even done that - would quit trying to get their hands on anything they could.

(If I had the ability to change anything in time without causing a ripple it'd be to destroy all ideas revolving around homework and algebra

[[ Arlo/Catherine || Feathertalon ]]

Once again, Time was right. It was a very weird combination that even Arlo didn’t quite understand. She was glad that he hadn’t questioned her about why she’d chosen to come to a place like Echo Ridge without plans though. Maybe there would be a day when she felt comfortable explaining it all, when she actually knew how to explain it all, but not yet.

As she watched Time start to walk further into town, she found herself hesitating, one hand twisting her locket on its long cord. She hoped she wasn’t making a mistake- either in following Time or maybe even in coming to Echo Ridge at all- but after one last glance toward where they’d heard the creature’s chilling howl she finally started after him.

There really was no getting around the fact that she needed a place to stay, and honestly, though she’d been traveling alone for quite awhile and often told herself it was better that way, she did kind of like the idea of traveling with somebody else again for bit. Like she’d noticed earlier, the strange energy of the town made it feel sort of familiar to her and she had a feeling that eventually that same familiarity would bring to mind things she would prefer to keep herself distracted from. For Arlo, it had had always seemed easier to do that when others were around. 

Her own tiny smile returned at his compliment, just a bit more noticeable than the first time. “Thanks,” she replied softly. “Time’s pretty cool too.” Arlo- well, Catherine- considered asking if it was a nickname, and if so, if there was a story behind it, but chose against it. Instead, after a brief pause, she returned to the topic of finding somewhere to stay, removing a tattered, folded paper from her messenger bag. “I have a map, but it’s really old so I don’t know how useful it would be to us.” And it would probably be a bit hard to read with stopping by a street light.


Just after reaching the end of her sentence she thought she heard another distant howl. Was it same creature that they’d heard before, or another one? She couldn’t really tell.