11-17-2018, 11:49 PM
One of Tanglewood's claims to fame besides pollution, mutants and bad health care -- unfortunately not a joke anymore considering the lone medic's murder -- were the array of hunting traps riddling their border, snares and nets tediously camoflauged with groundcover. An odd twinge of memory recalled the commonly uttered words of the swamp-dwelling rogues to newcomers, warning to watch their step for the noose of a snare or the steel teeth of a leghold. A grimy feline known only by a simple name was to blame for his malicious creations, paranoid and defensive instinct scattering his handiwork throughout the territory. Centuries of perfecting his sadistic craft after observing the occasional hunters skulking around his forested hideaways, Beck was adamant in checking set traps on a daily basis, resetting or replacing or repairing whenever needed. Sometimes nothing had triggered any trap to close around them, sometimes whatever was caught escaped, leaving bloody tufts of fur behind, but on the best of times, he would catch Audrey III an easy meal in the form of mangled prey.
"Why sho-ould I?" a rasping voice cooed from the shadowed cattails, belonging to two disembodied eyes that burned like fiery will-o-wisps into the blurred figure of his fresh catch, eagerness soaking his stuttering words. He always enjoyed it when they were still wriggling for their lives -- was that bad? Ugh, maybe, but whatever. The poltergeist limped into the hybrid's view, twirling in an impulsive circle before abruptly shrugging his shoulders and clicking terribly sharp teeth at the same time. With a sigh of poorly-hidden relief, Beck sneered up at the dangling creature, taking notice of the blended features of both a primate and a canine. How interesting, how amusing! "You'd ma-ake a good, good addition..." he mumbled out the side of his unscathed cheek, thinking aloud as he pictured the resulting mount from skinning and stuffing the trespassing oddity. A gauze-bound paw absentmindedly found its way to his teeth as he began to gnaw on his arm in thought; fortunately, the boy was unable to draw blood thanks to fraying bandages. As exciting as it was to fantasize about the opportunity of adding an unnatural cross between a monkey and a mutt to his currently small taxidermy collection, he was sentient given the fact he could speak... Beck wasn't entirely fond of being scolded or yelled at or even punished by clanmates seeking higher numbers for their dwindling family, and skinning a possible joining animal would presumably earn all of the above. But the hybrid would be so cool as a stuffed trophy! Still dragging his razor-blade teeth along his bandaged arm, he narrowed his eyes and wordlessly stared up at his catch, thankfully keeping his morbid thoughts off his tongue and out of the air as he struggled to decide whether to free the monkeymutt or not.
[align=center]»――➤"Why sho-ould I?" a rasping voice cooed from the shadowed cattails, belonging to two disembodied eyes that burned like fiery will-o-wisps into the blurred figure of his fresh catch, eagerness soaking his stuttering words. He always enjoyed it when they were still wriggling for their lives -- was that bad? Ugh, maybe, but whatever. The poltergeist limped into the hybrid's view, twirling in an impulsive circle before abruptly shrugging his shoulders and clicking terribly sharp teeth at the same time. With a sigh of poorly-hidden relief, Beck sneered up at the dangling creature, taking notice of the blended features of both a primate and a canine. How interesting, how amusing! "You'd ma-ake a good, good addition..." he mumbled out the side of his unscathed cheek, thinking aloud as he pictured the resulting mount from skinning and stuffing the trespassing oddity. A gauze-bound paw absentmindedly found its way to his teeth as he began to gnaw on his arm in thought; fortunately, the boy was unable to draw blood thanks to fraying bandages. As exciting as it was to fantasize about the opportunity of adding an unnatural cross between a monkey and a mutt to his currently small taxidermy collection, he was sentient given the fact he could speak... Beck wasn't entirely fond of being scolded or yelled at or even punished by clanmates seeking higher numbers for their dwindling family, and skinning a possible joining animal would presumably earn all of the above. But the hybrid would be so cool as a stuffed trophy! Still dragging his razor-blade teeth along his bandaged arm, he narrowed his eyes and wordlessly stared up at his catch, thankfully keeping his morbid thoughts off his tongue and out of the air as he struggled to decide whether to free the monkeymutt or not.