yet another spooky jump in

(I'm not sure if you were aware of the character I painted Maddy as but the reason she wasn't questioning everything Mouse and Daxter did when they got to the dorm was bc she was dead.I was either planning to have Daxter wake up and figure it out or have him go out and get called or something and be informed that way.If you're gonna throw your child(ren) in with him it can work either way depending on of they're in college with them

(Pft don't sweat it. I've had short replies before too. As long as I have enough to work with, it's good.)

Norman raised his brow, leaning forward across the table he sat at, head tipped to the side as he studied the strange man. ”No, not yet at least,” he responded steadily, eyes narrowing. Not only was this man definitely far from home - Norman assumed - but there was definitely something off about him, he could smell it wafting across the street like the reek of a fish market...maybe that’s why it was called “fishy” when someone was acting suspicious, because as everyone knew: suspicion smelled eerily similar to frozen dead fish and swarms of smelly fishermen by the seaside.

What an awful stench.

Leaning back in his chair, Norman kicked a leg over the other, arms folded neatly in his lap as he looked the man over. ”So, what are you doing here? Forgive me for saying this but you don’t quite seem like you belong here, do you? I’m assuming you’re new, aren’t you? Judging off of your messy hair and stained clothes, I’m guessing you’re either having a really bad day or you don’t have anywhere solid to live yet, isn’t that right?” Norman paused again to lift his head up, giving the man a sly look. ”Though it could be both, you look like the type of fellow to have a lot of bad days,” he deduced dryly.

Maybe he should’ve left his work at home instead of puzzling together a stranger on the streets, but it wasn’t his fault, this guy had caught his interest, he was different, unusual, suspicious even, what was a Norman supposed to do? Completely ignore him like a normal person? Pfft, please.

Gifti — Amber
Gifti could only imagine the emotions going through Robin’s mind right now. She was about to look through the folder that held the information on her grandmother’s death, and the shape-shifter was sure that couldn’t be an easy thing to handle. He didn’t know how close she had been with her deceased family member, but he was sure it would be hard to handle something like this no matter what. He knew that if he was in Robin’s shoes and looking through a file about his lost loved one he wouldn’t know how to handle himself.

...Would they have anything on his sister’s death here? Surely they would, her demise had been enough to raise the attention of police personnel after it had happened. It had been ruled off as an animal attack, a monster attack, but there could be so much more to it that Gifti wasn’t even aware of. He had been there when it happened, had heard his sister’s screams of terror and pain, had been there when they grew softer and softer until there was no more. But he kept rubbing. Instinct had told him to run, and he had. Sometimes he regretted that decision. If he had stayed with her, if he had turned to run the other way, then maybe, maybe she would still be alive.

Gifti wasn’t even aware that he had stiffened a hand up into a fist until he was snapped out of his thoughts by Robin’s voice. He shook himself free of the thoughts that had been swarming his mind, taking the file from her with a nod. ”On it,” he murmured, voice soft in fear that if he said something too loudly it would give away that his words had been wavering.

With file now in hand, he opened it up, scanning over the opening page that mentioned the officers that had been there on her case and how she had been found. Interesting, the shifter thought to himself as he read the part of her having been found in the woods. To anybody outside Echo Ridge that would probably be shrugged off as the elderly woman getting confused and getting lost outside before succumbing to the elements or whatnot, but Gifti knew that more than likely wasn’t the case here. This had typical Echo Ridge paranormal activity written all over it. Beyond that though there wasn’t anything that caught his interest until a few paragraphs in when something made him take a second glance at what had been written.

After a second he finally found his voice again. ”What did...what did they tell you happened to your grandma? Like, her cause of death.”



Time —
Relief visibly washed over the young man when he was told starin wasn’t illegal. He didn’t know what he would do if it was - probably start apologizing profusely or something of the sorts if that had been the case. But that wasn’t, and that cleared his mind and made him feel a lot better. He still shouldn’t have been staring, he knew that much, but he hadn’t meant anything of it. At the very least he hadn’t been trying to be rude.

That relaxing relief was only short lived. Before Time knew it he was being asked question after question, and while he could keep up with each one he couldn’t swallow down the worry that crashed over him all over again. This time it was different from the worry of doing something illegal. This time it was a worry that maybe he had somehow given away too much already. Time didn’t think he had said much, but maybe he had let something slip without realizing it. Then again, the other guy had said nothing about Time verbally letting something slip. Rather, the redhead was pointing out everything wrong with his clothes and the way he looked right now. Usually he wasn’t this much of a mess. Typically he kept himself fairly clean and decent looking, but as of lately that had been hard to accomplish given his current situation. Cleaning up was hard to do, and he at least had been lucky enough to snag a hotel room with a shower last night, so while he wasn’t as dirty as he could be, he still wasn’t the cleanest.

Realizing he had been quiet for some time, he quickly found his voice to answer back. ”I’m just...just passing through. I’ll be here for a week at most, so I don’t really need a permanent place to stay.” He wasn’t directly answering some of the questions, but he was still answering them nonetheless. He didn’t want to exactly say he had nowhere to live when technically he did. He could always just go back home, he knew he would be welcomed back, but that wasn’t something he wanted to do. He wasn’t trying to get back home, he was trying to get away from it.

Yup, that sounded about right. Of course they would have given Robin and her brother that sort of explanation. It made sense considering nobody would want to be tasked with trying to get people who didn’t live in Echo Ridge to believe in monsters and ghosts and cryptids, and nobody would want to admit to all that stuff crawling around their town, but it felt wrong in Gifti’s opinion to hide the reason behind a family member’s death. Of course, he couldn’t say anything against the police and their report to the twins right now considering where they were and who they were with, but he’d probably have some words to say about it all later. Chief Galil wasn’t exactly watching them, she looked to be filling out something on the computer beside the desk they were sitting at, but he didn’t want to chance anything.

”It doesn’t seem like she froze to death at all,” the cat shifter started. He looked over the file again, collecting his thoughts before letting them out. This was a tricky subject, he knew that, and he didn’t want to slip up and say something that could upset Robin. ”According to this…” He paused again, not sure if saying all this would be appropriate here. What if Robin got all emotional? Nobody enjoyed getting emotional around strangers, but then again, Chief Galil was a cop and had probably seen it all. She wouldn’t bat an eye at somebody getting emotional over their grandma’s death report.

Deciding he would go ahead and say it here, he focused on the task at hand. Learning the truth was what Robin wanted in the first place. ”They found her face down on the ground, and when they turned her over they noticed her chest ripped open and her heart missing. There...there wasn’t anything else missing or noticeable about her body, but they did apparently find pieces of fur nearby. When they checked it out they couldn’t identify it, but the closest match was coyote.” As he finished up the summary of what he read he turned to look at Robin, preparing himself for how she may react to all of this now being out in the open.

//Sorry! I'll try to write today! ^^" The twins are brand new characters so I'm still having trouble figuring them out... I think I'll shelve 'em for a bit and go with some others. The twins can always pop up again later-

"It doesn't seem like she froze to death at all."

Robin paled. That was exactly what she was fearing. Her death hadn't been an accident or natural causes. The young woman wasn't sure what to make of that yet or how she would explain it all to her brother. The shifter paused for a moment. He was trying to spare her feelings. The young woman appreciated that, however she was also wanted him to be honest with her. He had to be if they were going to find out what happened to the elderly woman. Taking in a deep breath, the woman listened as Gifti began to describe what the file read.

Face down...Heart missing...Fur nearby...

The redhead squeezed her eyes shut the more the shifter read. She didn't know when he had stopped. She was focused on the details. The young woman opened her eyes and quietly readjusted her glasses. Robin was numb. She should've been angry. She should've sobbing at the news. But she wasn't. She felt nothing. After a moment of sitting still, the redhead slowly nodded.

"Any...Anything el-else?" As she stared at Gifti, her mind wandered to Sparrow. How would he react? She wanted to protect her twin, save him for the horrors of the discovery. However he also had a right to know. This was his grandmother too. And if whatever took the elderly woman also did something with the foulders at the house, they could be in unspeakable danger.

-0-

"Cool, cool, cool. Good to know." Sparrow nodded. So there were ghosts in the area. It made sense considering the paranormal happenings of Echo Ridge. If there were werewolves, shifters, witches, and vampires, there was bound to be spirits. What Jack was saying about he sources also made sense. An item that connected someone in life would lead them back to the world.

Sparrow nodded as the man continued on. He wondered if they could see those things from the window of the home. Ut was close enough to the forest and secluded from the rest of the houses on the street. The young man smiled. Robin would love hearing about his discovery thanks to the customer. The pair had reached the ratchets.

"Here we are." He simply said. After a moment of silence, he spoke up again.

"So with ghosts, do they talk? Do they tend to be malevolent or are they more neutral or do they tend to be good? Have you ever communicated with one?" Sparrow felt a little bad that he was spitting so many questions out at once. However he was quite curious about other things Jack had to say.

Perhaps it was because he was a supernatural being, basically just a cat with an extra form, Gifti could pick up on the way Robin was feeling, or rather, the lack of how she was feeling. He couldn’t pinpoint any exact emotions, but he could only imagine how all of this was coming to her. This was her grandma he was talking about, and her death, the true cause of her death, had been hidden away behind the false pretense of a natural death. In actuality there had been nothing natural about her demise, and Gifti couldn’t begin to understand just how shocking all of this could be.

The crack in her voice was obvious. Gifti wished that what he had found had proven that what had happened had been natural, that Robin’s grandmother had been found in the woods after a confusion spell and simply froze, but that wasn’t the case at all. He hated it. He hated it for the young woman that he was starting to form a fond friendship with. He hated it for Sparrow too, knowing that he would have to be informed of these gruesome new details as well.

”There were no signs of any humans being around when it happened, just the fur and an animal trail that investigators ended up losing.” He shifted through the pages a second time, going over everything to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. ”Nobody seems to know what really happened, that it was some monster. But what kind…?” The shifter shook his head. Sometimes a werewolf would tear out hearts to eat, but their kills were a lot bloodier than just an opened chest, and the creature’s fur had been more coyote-esque than wolf. Gifti drew out a breath of air. Once again it seemed like with more answers they got the questions only doubled.

No rush! I hope your driver’s test went well o:

(I passed with a 79! Thanks for asking.)

(Thanks! I was so happy when I passed. Also, I don'tmean to brag but my parallel parking was so good. One of the other instructors complimented me on it after the test was done.

(Aw lucky. It was that diffcult, thankfully, but doing one less thing is always good. Also happy Halloween~)

(Mine wasn't too fancy either. I mostly drive through a neighborhood, which was good. Way less chaos and things to worry about.)

(Yeah. I had also taken it twice before, which helped.)