Tom Hanniger Open RP Post

[tom_hanniger]

Comments

[unbreachable]

He'll step on your fucking neck again, Tom. Do not test his patience, he has very little left after that.

"Of course I saw him! Are you kidding me right now?"

[tom_hanniger]

Maybe it's a stupid question to ask but before it seemed like he was the only one.

"Well what do you want me to say?!"

[unbreachable]

He loses patience, and he comes to box Tom in against the counter, picking his way over the broken table.

"I want you," he growls, a hand on the counter on either side of Tom, "to tell me what the fuck that was. That's what I want you to say. The truth, Tom. Tell me the truth." The command is clear, ringing through their sire bond.

[tom_hanniger]

"I don't know!" immediately. Knee jerk. Trapped and looking up at him. The confusion is genuine.

He's so god damn fucking confused, Raleigh this is unreal. He's supposed to be dead and now he isn't and he thinks you're saying he's a vampire or something and now Harry is here and- Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck--

"A ghost? I guess? I think? He was solid when I fought him!"

[unbreachable]

You're fucking crazy, kid. You're fucking crazy and he should've let you bleed out, and eaten you for dinner.

He presses his lips together until they're nearly white, leaning in a little, pressing on the sire bond.

"Tom. Calm down, and tell me how you ended up on my porch, and who the fuck that was in my kitchen just now."

[tom_hanniger]

Then you'd be left with Harry on your own. Wouldn't that be fun.

Tom closes his eyes for a second and thinks, trying to form the words Raleigh is forcing him to say.

Slowly, he tries to explain where he's been. That he went back to his home town. his father died. He needed to clear some things up. Then people started dying, a man back from the dead with seemingly unfinished business. Or maybe a copy cat. That is was impossible to know and difficult to find out with blood all over and the bodycount growing steadily. The stress and fear and not knowing. He was so sure it was the sheriff. He was so sure.

That Harry showed up right as Axel and Tom were arguing their case, Tom get get Axel help and Axel to have Sarah shoot them both and then he- the miner- Harry.. his name is Harry--

He was there, he was right there and Sarah wouldn't shoot him. She couldn't see him-

Axel's words ringing so loudly in his head. Oh he's here. Are you in there, Harry? Are you living inside of Tom?

And then nothing. A pull backwards and then.. haze and pain and movement.. and-

"And then you. Just kill me. Please just kill me."

[unbreachable]

Well. Maybe. If he’d let Tom die at the beginning...

Too late now.

“Jesus, kid,” he groans, dragging a hand over his face. “That’s a hell of a tale. You’re telling me that...thing was living in you?”

Stacker is gonna kill him.

[tom_hanniger]

He swallows and presses his lips thin before giving up and just. Accepting it.

He doesn't have any chance, does he.

"I guess.. yeah. Actually."

He's still figuring it out, this is almost as new to him as it is you.

Though.. deep down.

He's known Harry was always with him somehow. From that very first night.

Tom's just been running so long now, shut down and pushed back and locked up that he hasn't given life to the idea. He couldn't. It was asking for trouble.

"I guess that's what I'm saying."

If ever there was something more depressing.

[unbreachable]

He runs a hand through his hair, running his tongue over his lips and setting his jaw.

God...fucking dammit.

"Okay," he exhales, briefly closing his eyes. "Okay. Alright." He believes you. He saw Harry. He believes you, and he saw him.

"First thing -- are you still hungry?"

[tom_hanniger]

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Which is stupid but also he can't.. quite.. clocked.. the gravity of his own situation. Like he's alive and Raleigh is a vampire apparently but it hasn't quite clicked that he, too, is now a vampire.

Which sinks in right about now.

Oh. Oh fuck.


For a second Tom looks like he might lose his shit again, and truthfully he just might still. But he's reeling and he rolls his shoulders to try to get Raleigh up off him a little. Raleigh the complete stranger. Raleigh his.. something else now.

He looks at the door longingly. He doesn't want to be here. No offense, he doesn't want to be anywhere. He doesn't want to be alive. And maybe longing for death is gross and just too damn bad but..

God he just doesn't want to exist.

"I don't- want to hurt anyone."

As if that's a valid answer to Raleigh's question. And perhaps it is.

[unbreachable]

He backs off, but only a little. He doesn't want Tom to run, and judging by the look on his face, he's ready to do just that. Tom's like a...flighty little bird.

"You wont," he says quietly. "If you stay here. If you run, you'll be wild, and you might. You need to stay...at least until we get you used to it and trained up."

[tom_hanniger]

What choice does he have.

Tom considers it for a moment and lets a breath out through his nose, the wind dropping form his sails.

Flighty bird is exactly right. Or a wild eye hare.

"Yeah.." finally. Working his jaw as he thinks.

"You don't even know me but.. okay."

[unbreachable]

"I just.."

He exhales, closing his eyes briefly.

"You showed up so...hurt. Almost dead. I wanted to do something right for once."

[tom_hanniger]

It's only really then that Tom takes a moment to consider his surroundings. This little empty cabin with blocked up windows. The man inside it all alone.

"What did you do that put you out here alone?"

[unbreachable]

"I got my brother killed."

Matter of fact.

"And my sire...sent me here, instead of killing me. I was banished from the coven."

[tom_hanniger]

"Damn," surprised.

"That's harsh."

And sad. Really sad.

"You're just.. trapped here?"

[unbreachable]

"I dunno about trapped."

But kind of. Sort of. Yeah.

"I get 'food' delivered, but I chose this location."

[tom_hanniger]

Huh.

"More house arrest."

Which is maybe cruel to point out but it's in the spirit of clarifying the situation.

[unbreachable]

"Essentially. Yes. I can leave, but he'll know."

Stacker doesn't control Raleigh - not out here, not like this, but he'll know if Raleigh vanishes into the ether.

"I don't have a trace on me or anything. If I wanted to completely disappear, I could."

[tom_hanniger]

He nods, supposing that's the best case scenario.

Tom's still boxed in by Raleigh and there's a tension between them that he doesn't understand. There's a lot going on inside him that he doesn't understand, either.

And.. yeah he's.. maybe still hungry and definitely still dizzy and totally overstimulated. Riled and ruffled and scared and has no idea what he's gonna do now.

But... Stay here, he guesses. With Raleigh. A complete stranger.

"You get bored out here?"

In your exile.

[unbreachable]

He's given Tom a little space, but not much. Raleigh needs him to calm down and stop trying to flee.

"Sometimes. I think anyone would."

[tom_hanniger]

Something in the back of Tom's head suggests that's a reason Raleigh saved him. And if he got his bother killed.. then maybe for some kind of redemption too. Take a life, save a life.

Well, 'save' a life.

"Well, yeah. There's not much in here, man. You just move in?"

[unbreachable]

He doesn't know your history, the things you've done, the blood on those hands. He just saw someone dying, and he...acted without thinking.

"Huh? No...I've been here a few years."

[tom_hanniger]

Huh.

Well that's. Depressing.

"I'd be going up the walls I think. What do you do with yourself all day?"

Completely alone. That's so.. lonely.

[unbreachable]

Raleigh shrugs, glancing around. The kitchen is barely used, obviously, but the rest of the small cabin is very lived in.

“I read, I take pictures. I draw. I knit. I have hobbies.”

It isn’t that bad. It’s better than accidentally killing people.