wishing well- disappearance

[deimos]

To find a Brannon:

Step one. Check the local bar. Anyone that knew Samantha, however, knew full-and-well that Samantha Brannon never drank at the bar. She would sit on her porch, or at home, like some Grandma, and drink alone. Well, that's unless someone actually invited her to come over and drink, but that rarely happened anymore. Step two. Now that you're at her home anyways, check her home. Dust clouds hung here and there, alongside cobwebs, but no trace of Samantha. Peaceful, at the moment, it seemed, without her constant whining about her leg. Step three? Run around calling her name. No, she probably wouldn't respond anyways.

So, you assume she disappeared. But normally, no- always, Samantha Brannon left a fight, a clue, that she was gone. She didn't want to go back to the Pitt, nor any hellhole quite like it, without Tanglewood knowing. But this time, Sam wanted them to not know. Sam was gone, no struggle, no note, no nothing. The Brannon had taken nothing with her besides enough food and water to walk, and left in the dim of the night soon after Leroy's angery rant at the Pitt. Where she went, that was the mystery.

But one thing was for sure, the Pitt was not where she was going.

"SPEECH"

♡♡♡
tags

[beck.]

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    She was gone.

    It was over.

    The boy glared at dust-coated floorboards, the porch scarcely used beyond a couple of dragging pawprints. He swallowed thickly, teeth clenching as he debated how to proceed. Yet no matter how many deep breaths he forced into water-logged lungs, how many reassurances he repeated in his mind, he could not stop his freezing blood from rising to his face, chilling further as upset worked through his apparition.

    She was his first real friend in Tanglewood, bonded in torturous hell through pained shrieks and weighted chains, through fire-starting cigarettes and nicotine campfires. She was gone. She left him.

    Why?

    No answer ever arrived. Sickening dread twisted his guts like balloon animals; his skin burned with the cold realization that he was an utter fool. Before Beck could stop himself, globs of oily tears slid down his cheeks, painting over freckles and fur with dark trails of despair as he sniffled pitifully. A bandage-wrapped paw swiped beneath an eye, the old one torn free from his socket by his own claws just for her, only for Beck to glance down at the pitch-black stain dying the gauze and recoil. No... no, he couldn't fall apart now! Not with Moth expecting Selby's precious spawn, not with the forced optimism and amiability he presented. He was supposed to be getting better, not worse! It would all be ruined if anyone saw him like this!

    His rasped breathing quickened and hitched, his bony shoulders hunched and shook. Emotion trumped the frantic rush of thoughts through his skull. Soon the first of many wrenched sobs escaped his shallow chest, his paws hugging his frame in search of useless comfort. Black blood -- no, tears splattered the porch, seeping into the wood grain to forever remain. The little ghost slumped inward on himself, wanting nothing more than to curl up in a sniveling ball and let the world run itself into the ground without him. Legs folded beneath him as he lost the will to stand. His head rested on the deck as he sobbed, the force wracking his scrawny body, straining lungs until he wheezed and gasped.

    Beck collapsed onto his side, his childish tantrum swelling into bitter weeping. Was this the thanks he got? For sacrificing himself to rescue her, for gifting his eye so she could see fully again, for tying the tourniquet around her hip, for letting her burn down his house with a stray cigarette and never once confronting her? He doubted she even liked him. No, she used him just like everyone else! And he went along with it, desperate for any companionship or recognition not in the form of scolding. He trembled miserably, his corrupted tears soaking dark into his skin and wood as though blood and not grief had been spilled.

    At least he had Selby to trust. Nobody else deserved his friendship, his battered invitation to see the weak husk of a child beyond his scarred facade, to his affection and concern. But he doubted he could even follow his wavering laws. Pathetic, so pathetic.

    And so Beck lay lifelessly on the abandoned porch, eyes squeezed shut as he willed the damning tears to cease and as others approached. Footfalls announced an onlooker. He refused to look at whoever it was. His voice hoarse and quivering, he managed to mumble through his sobs, "Sh-she's go-one."

    He never even liked her in the first place.

[wormwood.]

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AURUM

DO NO HARM BUT TAKE NO SHIT !

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Aurum would always remember Sam fondly. For a while, the female had disappeared without a trace after her rescue, becoming a practical recluse after all the agony that she had suffered at the hands of the Pitt. When she had returned, Aurum had been overjoyed, the lion practically rushing over to her as one of the first to welcome her back in, letting her sob and tremble against him in her frail state. When Judith had first arrived in Tanglewood, keen on making his life a living hell, Sam had been the one whi had stood up for him, motivating him to do the same for himself. Without her, he wasn't even sure that he would be where he was now. Without her, he'd probably still be underneath his mother's thumb, still thinking that he was lower than dirt, without a single chance of being anything more. Sam probably wouldn't have realized that she had such a profound impact on his life, but she had. He had considered her a friend because of that, turning to her when he wasn't feeling great and just wanted to hang out for a while. Enjoying watching her and Goldie's budding relationship, amused by the faint awkwardness that constantly hung around the pair. He had even been with her through some of the worst times, holding her close when she had returned to the group and had barely been holding herself together, clinging to him frantically as any sort of sign that she was alive, and that she was safe. They hadn't been as close as Sam and Beck had been, but it wasn't as if she hadn't been a part of his life. Far from it.

Aurum wasn't sure what exactly had motivated him to go looking for Sam. Perhaps it was just because he had seen the look on her face after Leroy's announcement, and had immediately felt a sense of dread fill his form at the sheer sight of it. He didn't want to blame Leroy for all the trouble that had happened already, but he couldn't deny that the change wasn't great, and certainly wasn't considered popular from the get go. Not to mention the fact that no one had been consulted on it, not even he, which was a fact that confused him greatly. Thus far, Leroy had been pretty amazing at effectively communicating things, and the two of them had worked well together because of that. This time? Aurum had been just as blindsided as the rest of them, and had been pissed off to boot. So maybe he had gone searching for Sam so that they could share a drink. Shoot the shit, and complain about the new law in place. However, he hadn't found her at any of her usual haunts, so he had figured that maybe he should go straight to the source. It didn't put him at ease, knowing that she was at her home and possibly seriously upset about the new Pittian thing, but the least he could do was try and help out. His paws and wings carried him there before he knew it, but almost immediately he could tell that something was... off. The air felt thick and dusty, as if the entire house had been torn apart in an effort to grab things and go. That alone was enough to make his heart sink, and that was before he even saw Beck on the porch.

Coming to a landing several feet away, Aurum winced as soon as he heard the sound of the boy's sobs, his ears flattening down against his head. His large paws carefully pushed him forward, one of them even reaching out as if to pat Beck gently... before abruptly recoiling when he realized what he was doing, Beck's devastated voice echoing through the previously silent air. The angel frowned deeply before he spoke, his paws going back down to the ground, "Beck, I... Jesus, I'm..." He struggled with words, before eventually just shaking his head. It was no use. He wasn't the one to be comforting the ghost. He was one of the last people in the world to be doing so. So, instead, he took a few steps away from both the porch and the poor feline collapsed atop it, clearing his throat before he shouted, "Selby! Selby!" He made sure to carefully hold his voice back, not wanting to call with such urgency that the male thought there was a medical related emergency. Aurum just felt like Beck needed someone right now, and it wasn't going to be him. He could deal with his own grief over Sam's departure later, after this was dealt with, even though it felt oddly like his chest was caving in.

( retro to pregnancy / body swap, [member=2072]selby roux ![/member] )

━ I'M GONNA WIN.┆PROUD. WARM. PROTECTIVE. ━