Gotta Get Out (OPEN)

[Greg Mackenzie]

Like most kids his age (or at least, most kids he knew), Greg lived for the summer. Lack of school aside, everything was just beautiful over the summer. The warmth of the sun, the ability to stay out so late ‘cause it didn’t get dark until past 9pm, the freedom to just go out in shorts and a tank top. It was amazing.

Greg took advantage of the wondrous sun to finally get out and explore Pilot Ridge. Despite arriving more five months ago, he never really went further than the mall and the lake – he just didn’t have enough free time back then, and well, he didn’t see the need to since it’s cold there’s really not much to do. That, and walking aimlessly ain’t really his thing.

But then the penny board he asked from his dad finally arrived two days ago. Just in time really. Now, he can explore the town without much effort, and just sit on the sidewalk to tan the day away when he’s done wandering aimlessly about the place.

After two hours of exploring, Greg decided it’s high time to take a break. Settling on a sidewalk bench near the top of a hill, he happily licked the honey blue cheese/sea salted chocolate rosemary ice cream he bought from a local ice cream shop. His board was on the sidewalk, held in place by the pressure by his feet idly swinging from side to side.

He was just about to finish the honey blue cheese scoop when his phone buzzed. A rather hilarious text from his best friend back in Banff. He laughed a little too much that he swung his legs up, unintentionally sending his penny board down the hill. “Holy shit! Omg look out!” he yelled as he ran after it.

[Andreas Pruitt]

Andreas was jogging up a hill as per his workout schedule when he heard someone yell at him from the top of the hill. When he looked up he saw someone running towards him they looked somewhat familiar, maybe he had seen him in one of his classes. He suddenly felt something hit his shin causing him to trip. Andreas tried to stop the fall by changing his form, but this caused him to land directly onto the penny board that had hit him. As he finished changing he shook the dizziness he felt whenever he changed into his polecat form. As he looked around he noticed his was moving extremely quickly down the street when he looked down he then saw that he was riding the board, which was still picking up speed, down the hill towards a mail bin. As the board continued picking up speed while heading towards the bin Andreas's last  thought before the board hit the bin was, "Whoever did this was going to have hell to pay." As the board hit the bin Andreas flew head first into the bin knocking him out cold.

[Greg Mackenzie]

Of course this would happen the first day he got his penny board. With his luck, it’d veer to the road on the way down the hill and be crushed under a ten-wheeler. Fuck life really.

He was running after his board, ice cream cone still on his right hand – cost him $7 for both scoops and the waffle cone, of course he’d try to get his money’s worth – when he saw the whole thing unfold in his eyes. From the seemingly familiar man unaware of everything, on how the board hit his shin, how he was replaced with what seemed like an ugly ferret, how the ferret was on the board, and how his board survived (miraculously) by colliding to a trash bin. Hard.

Oh, and the crash inadvertently threw the weird animal inside it too. Shit.

He slowed down to a jog and grabbed the board with his free hand, leaning down to look at what seemed like an unconscious beast inside the trash bin. He’d pick it (or should he use ‘him’, given that he was a man before the whole thing?) up, but it might have rabies, and American healthcare was the shittiest it could be so he’d rather not.

“Are you dead?” Probably the stupidest question to ask, but hey, it’s better than nothing.

[Andreas Pruitt]

Andreas woke dazedly inside the trash bin from the sound of the boy's voice. He had landed on his back onto a old Taco Bell wrapper that still had some cheese and other leftovers all over it, as he rolled over he saw the boy looking down at him. Andreas hissed at the boy when he saw him still angry over being hit by the boy's board. He thought about changing back to a human but he realized he would be standing in a trash bin completely naked, something he definitely didn't want. While he looked up at the boy he attempted to demonstrate that he wanted to be lifted out of the barrel.

[Greg Mackenzie]

Well at least the ferret woke up, angry at it was. (Greg didn’t know the difference between a polecat and a ferret, unfortunately). It made the boy wonder: if say a shifter was slain in its (should he refer to them as “him” or “her”?) shifted form, would the assailant be tried in manslaughter or killing an animal? And since shifters can come in all shapes and sizes and animal killing laws seemed to differ depending on the conservation status of the animal in question, that would give all sorts of loopholes, wouldn’t it?

Note to self: do not get into law.

Though the ferret still seemed agitated, he seemed to be calming down significantly from before, which was great. It could just be Greg being a little too self-conscious that it was actually a human being and not an animal, but he could’ve sworn the ferret seemed like it was telling him something.

Would telepathy work on him?

The boy tried to reach out, to read the ferret’s mind, but came up empty. All he got was a sleazy thought from a forty year-old man about a girl in her mid-twenties that passed by his auto-repair shop.

“Umm, you have to be a bit more, well, explicit if you want me to understand you,” he said, looking down and trying to be as nonthreatening as he could. He wasn’t sure if shifters understood human speech when shifted, but he could hope. Else this might turn out to be quite the long afternoon.

[Andreas Pruitt]

Andreas stared up at the boy in anger, he had figured out where he knew him from, he had seen the kid at Hammel in his PE classes, and maybe during one of the basketball team's practices he'd seen when was walking out of the school. It didn't matter he was still stuck in a trash can because of this kid, he put his claws against the wall of the bin and tried to climb out but he the bin wasn't full enough for him to reach the top, when he eventually dropped back down he looked back up at the kid for a moment before he jumped up trying to grab on to the kid's shirt, but he missed the hem of his shirt by an inch and barreled into the wall of the trash bin tipping one of its sides off the ground for a moment.

[Greg Mackenzie]

“Woah there Papa Bear!” shouted Greg as he took three steps back. He almost got nicked by the ferret, and while his claws didn’t seem poison-tipped or anything, he’s pretty sure it still would’ve hurt. Scars on one’s face would never be sexy. Unless you’re Kenshin Himura, that was. (So he had a childhood crush on a cartoonanime character. Sue him).

He was just about to ask the ferret to calm down and he’d help him out when it became a bit more erratic, toppling the trash bin itself. “Damn boy,” he said as he let the ferret walk out before putting the bin back. (He’s just going to pretend the litter that went out due to the toppling didn’t exist). “You ok little guy?” asked the boy, squatting so he as close to eye level with the mammal as possible.

Then he realized that the man/animal might still be angry at him. And in its feral mind, it might chew his face off. “Oh shit,” he said taking a step back and putting his board on the ground, “You’re not going to kill me yet are you?”

[Andreas Pruitt]

Andreas looked back at the boy and shook his head to indicate that he wouldn't kill him... yet. After that he had looked back up the hill and searched the sidewalk for his clothes, as he spotted them he had ran back up the hill and bit his pants and dragged them with his teeth to an alley, once there he switched himself back to a human being, as he shook the dizziness that he felt whenever he changed forms he hid behind a dumpster that was against one of the buildings, once there he pulled his pants on and walked back towards the street where his shirt was.

[Greg Mackenzie]

Greg let out a sigh of relief when the ferret didn’t attack him. He wasn’t sure how fast the little critters can run (he figured they’re pretty quick), and if a penny board can save him from such an attack. It didn’t help that he wasn’t all that familiar with this side of town, so he could potentially end up in a dead end.

Death by a little mammal. Wouldn’t that be something.

He noticed the animal grab a pair of pants and run back to the woods. So his clothes don’t go when him when he shifts? Well that’s mighty inconvenient. Seeing what he thought was a relatively suitable shirt that went along with the sweats the ferret grabbed, Greg walked over and grabbed it. Save for a few pieces of soil stuck on the side and a wet patch near the hem at the back (must’ve landed on a puddle), it was still pretty clean.

“Huge apologies,” he said to the half-naked man, “So did not intend for things to go this way. Please don’t kill me.” Of course the man wouldn’t kill him (unless of course he was a psychopath; and he might seem crude, but he didn’t seem like the trigger-happy type), but Greg figured it’s just prudent to remind the man that murder was punishable by law.

[Andreas Pruitt]

As Andreas grabbed his shirt from the boy he said in a Welsh accent, "Don't worry I won't kill you. I'd just like to know who you are," he bent over slightly and looked down at the boy in front of him closely before he continued, "you seem very familiar. What's your name?" As he asked the question he had put his shirt on. He had started to remember seeing this kid around the school, doing what exactly he couldn't remember he just knew the boy had been there before.

[Greg Mackenzie]

Greg took a step back as the man loomed over him. He tried his hardest to understand where the man was coming from, but geeze couldn’t he give the little boy a break? It’s not like Greg intended for him to trip over the penny board and send him into a wild ride to the trash bin.

“And why would I give you my name? Are you like a child smuggler or something?” To be honest, the man’s scarier now that he’s a tall hulking human being than a small ferocious rodent. He took a quick breath and went inside the man’s head, not enough to know all his secrets, but just enough to get a glimpse of, well, who he was. He was asking about Greg after all; the boy wanted to know if it was safe to answer him or he should start running.

“I’m Oriel. Oriel Vanguard.” No hate to the boy, but hey, it wasn’t like they were friends either anyway.

[Andreas Pruitt]

Andreas leaned back after the kid said his name and smiled briefly at him as the kid asked if he was a child smuggler before he said in an amused voice, "Actually I'm a teacher, and I asked what your name was because I've seen you around the school I work at. Now Oriel, I'm wondering why your board came rolling down the hill and smashed into my leg." He had said the last sentence in a annoyed voice as opposed to the one he had been speaking in just moments earlier. Andreas hoped the kid had a good explanation or there might be a few extra push-ups for him to do when he came to his next athletics class.

[Greg Mackenzie]

Ahh. He should’ve known.

Thank goodness he gave Oriel’s name then. Whew.

Greg tried his hardest to hide the haughty smirk that kept on creeping on his face and put out a façade of fake fear and anxiety as the man spoke. Couldn’t get him to find out that Greg gave him the wrong name after all. The fact that he seemed to be taking it in stride meant that he was no telepath or lie-detector and as long as Greg stayed away from his classes (Did he have him for gym? He couldn’t remember), he was safe.

“Do you want the actual answer or an embellished one? I’m down to give both.” He enjoyed this. Taking someone else’s identity. Who knew it would be this exciting? “Actual answer was a friend sent me a text about his exploits with another friend last night with very graphic detail – and I mean very graphic – and I laughed and accidentally kicked the board.” Every moment was gold – like taken out of a sitcom really. He wished he was there with Harrison to see it. “I could whip up a more manly answer so you won’t feel too too bad for slipping on a rogue board if you want.”

[Andreas Pruitt]

Andreas smirked slightly at the kid's answer before he leaned back over him and said angrily, " Listen kid I don't care about your friends text what I care about is the fact you weren't aware of what you were doing and you sent me into a trash can and got me covered in rubbish, and quit acting like a cheeky bugger, you should have been paying attention to what you were doing." He wasn't in the mood for any of this, and this kid was definitely in trouble for sending him into that trash can all he needed to do was think of a suitable punishment.

[Greg Mackenzie]

Seemed like he really pissed the man off. Which wasn’t exactly a bad thing in Greg’s book. He wasn’t really into pranks or acting like a smart-ass – at least to adults or those who had authority – but since they weren’t exactly in school grounds and the man didn’t exactly have jurisdiction over him at the moment, it was just too precious not to. And ‘sides, he wouldn’t exactly send Greg to detention for causing him to trip and be thrown in a trash bin right?

“Look Mr. – ” It dawned on him that he hasn’t really gotten the name of the ferret-man yet. He could dig into his mind, but that would be way too much work. Hopefully the man wouldn’t notice. “I’m sorry ok. And ‘sides, you weren’t exactly paying attention to what you were doing.” He shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes playfully. “So let’s call it even and no one at school would ever have to know. Deal?” With a huge smirk on his face, he extended his arm out for a handshake.

Was this how power felt like? ‘Cause it felt might good.