entrancelogs | Event Catch-all Post

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Event Catch-all Post

Who: Natasha ~~Romanoff~~ Liddell and [OPEN] to whoever wants her in human form or leopard.
Where: Around the mansion and the grounds
When: the duration of the event
Rating: Anywhere from PG to ??? (depending on if she reverts to human on any of you)
Summary: Natasha's cursed with the Spirit of Leopard.
The Story:

[Option 1: Natasha]
Natasha falls somewhere in the middle generation of Liddell cousins and siblings that inhabit the mansion. She's not one of the most social of them either, preferring to be more solitary like the animal spirit she was cursed with. That doesn't mean she doesn't still keep tabs on family members and keep an eye on the happenings around the mansion, just that she's usually fairly subtle about it. For a few years when she was younger, she traveled the world to see what she could see, but in recent years, she's been more than content to stay home, around her family, for whatever she might be needed for. Family's important to her, despite the fact that there's so many of them and she might not be the best at showing it sometimes.

Most days (or nights, as she's known to have a nocturnal streak) she can usually be found wandering, or possibly curled up somewhere comfortable with a book or a companion. If you spot her alone, feel free to come join her or lure her out into into some fun. Despite her occasional aloof manner or cool stare, she does have a mischievous playful side that shows up at unexpected moments.

[Option 2: Leopard]
In a house with so many people inside its walls, its inevitable that sooner or later collisions occur. Natasha's not usually overly worried about this - she understands the need to keep their curse a secret and faithfully endeavors to do so but accidents happen and unlike some of her relatives, she's just as comfortable in her cursed form as she is in her human one.

It's why she doesn't sweat it too much if she does accidentally bump into someone nearby - she's good at vanishing out of sight quickly if need be, and there are plenty of shadowy heights to perch in out of sight. Sometimes this plays out to her advantage, especially if she's feeling particularly bored or playful. Not everyone in the mansion is very good at staying aware of their surroundings when there are predators looking to pounce.

((OOC: This is Natasha's catch-all post for the event. Feel free to pick either option, if you want to interact with her as human or in her leopard form, or even both, if your character's inclined to trigger her transformation in some way. I'm up for anything!))

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He does think himself in the clear, even if his eyes are still on the animal as he makes his way past. He's about to allow himself to exhale, still looking over his shoulder, when suddenly there's a large black paw at the back of his leg, giving him the shock he was so hoping to avoid.

The monitor on his wrist starts beeping rapidly, and he freezes, visibly more worried about that noise than he is with the animal who apparently has taken an interest on him.

Ears twitch forward at the sudden flurry of beeping and the leopard picks her head up off the cushion at last, green eyes blinking lazily at him when he freezes and holds perfectly still. He doesn't seem inclined to continue moving and her interest is piqued now so she picks herself up off the windowseat and pads silently towards him.

The situation looks worse by the second, when the animal steps to the ground and starts making its way in a perfectly straight line towards him. Not much point in being quiet now, though he still walks back slowly, trying to bring his heart rate back to a calm and steady pace.

Provided the supposedly wild animal doesn't attack him, of course.

"Just..." May as well try and talk, just in case this is another of those freak incidents going on. "Let's just go our separate ways. Alright? I don't want to hurt you."

The leopard makes a sound that could almost be counted as a laugh. If leopards laughed. Or if leopards could possibly understand what he was saying at all.

She continued to pace towards him until she was only an arm's length away before sitting down in front of him, perched primly with her tail wrapped around her feet and fixing him with an unblinking green stare. He was interesting. Going separate ways at the moment sounded less so.

Well, it was a shot in the dark from the start. He's not sure if the animal even understood what he said or not, but it sits there, a couple of feet away at most, and he doesn't know if to take that as a good or a bad sign.

He's not so stupid as to try and run away now, but he can't really just stand there and wait forever. So slowly, he takes another very small step backwards, part of his attention on that, part of it focused on lowering his heart rate until the beeping coming from his wrist slows down and falls quiet again.

He's not the only one listening to the faint beeping, although it's impossible to tell, except for the faint twitch of a dark ear. When he takes a step backwards, the leopard mimics the move, following him just that much and keeping the exact same amount of distance between them. Unusual for a leopard, to say the least, but she's curious to see what he will do next.

Because poking at Bruce for interesting reactions is the safest hobby to have, obviously.

He doesn't even know himself what he'll do next. Were he sure this isn't an actual leopard then he'd be a lot more confident about walking away, and the animal's strange behavior almost makes him want to risk it, but he doesn't. He still takes small steps, but the stairs are so far away, as are any doors, that eventually he just stops and, eyes on the leopard, lowers himself to a near crouching position, hopefully looking as unthreatening as possible.

Because it hasn't attacked him yet, so that's got to be a good sign. He just wishes he remembered what's the best behavior concerning wild felines. Usually they just run away from him, but obviously that's not happening here.

He manages to look non-threatening very well, as usual, and the leopard pauses for a moment, still that same careful distance away from him. She watches him with a green unblinking stare, considering, before moving again, pacing carefully closer, her entire posture as nonthreatening as she can make it as well, lazy and languorous. When she gets close enough, she butts her head against his arm, since he's been nice enough to crouch down to her level, and then winds against him, cat-like, a sound that's as close to a purr as she's likely to get rumbling softly in the quiet hall.

He's calmly frozen into place all the while, regardless of the animal looking as unthreatening as a giant feline can. Still, he can't help but be startled when soft fur brushes against his arm, though this time is a motion so slow he manages to keep his heart calm. It's a few seconds of watching the odd behavior that he finally reaches a hand out to tentatively pet the leopard along its back just once, then drawing away.

The leopard gives him a look when he stops, as if to say why did you stop? before sitting down beside him, all calm and sedate. She's still paying attention to the heart monitor, although he's doing a good job at calming himself despite her presence and his control is something she spends a moment to marvel at as she blinks at him lazily, curious to see what he would do now.

Okay, so startling him like that probably hadn't been smart, but she couldn't help but poke at what made her curious.

At least she could get away faster on four legs, if an emergency arose.

...And she had to admit, she was a little tempted to let him in on her secret, since so many of the team already seemed aware of it. Even if she was forbidden.

It only adds to the strange behavior, that the leopard just sits down placidly next to him. It's unlike anything he's ever seen, then again different animals seem to have different reactions to him. He wonders if maybe his scent is calming to this particular one in some way, and he can't help but be amused at the irony in that.

Or maybe it really is one of those people affected by the event. Someone who thinks they're cursed.

He just stays there for a moment, arms crossed around his knees before he offers a hand out tentatively, hoping to everything the animal won't decide to turn on him and try to bite it off. "... you're a friendly one."

Well, that's one opinion, she supposes. Still, his comment amuses her and she's purring again as she butts her head against his hand in encouragement of the petting. Which would probably be mortifying if she were human, but she's a giant cat. And it happens to feel good, so she has no shame in indulging in it when she's stuck being furry. Might as well enjoy the advantages of her curse, since there's not many of them.

It's a little more difficult by the second to be afraid of the animal. With each motion and each purr his petting draws, it seems like the leopard is unusually friendly, and somehow he doesn't find that thought too unsettling. And often it's people he's more wary of, but obviously dangerous wild animals are up there too.

But not this one, strangely. The feline is sweet almost, peaceful, and Bruce distractedly pets its head, fingers curling over the ears and scratching there lightly, only realizing he's doing so when his fingertips are already disappearing through the fur.

Natasha might have a slight weakness for the contact. As a human herself, she rarely allows people the familiarity of too much contact, not unless there's a purpose to it. This, though... Her identity is more than safe at the moment and her feline side is much more susceptible to giving into a little indulgence, especially around someone she trusts - to an extent. He may not know her secrets, but she knows enough about him to not be wary right now.

Besides, he's petting her and it feels good, so she sees little harm in encouraging it. When he continues, she ends up all but sprawled in boneless enjoyment on the carpet in front of where he crouches.

He'd like to say this is the weirdest thing to happen to him in this place, but he really might not be too sure at the moment. Still, it ranks pretty high on the list, and it gets all the stranger with each passing second, especially with the feline's passive behavior to the touching.

Though it's a nice thing, he'll admit. The memory of the Famine event is still fresh on his mind, and right now he's reminded a little of it as he runs his fingers along the direction of the fur, time passing and him getting relaxed enough that he doesn't keep his attention so focused on the leopard anymore - like there's no reason to expect a wild animal to attack him out of the blue. But this time, at least, it's not a kind of impulse he can't control like back then, even if for the most part he was more or less asked by the animal to continue with the petting.

With a pause, and very slow movements, he shifts a little so he can sit cross-legged on the floor, settling into a more comfortable position.

It was easy to lose track of time when she felt like she was melting into a puddle on the rug. Utterly relaxed by the attention - and the relative safety, despite the ways she knew Bruce would object to that opinion - Natasha forgets that she'd been waiting for something specific before he'd interrupted her catnap in the sun. Or how long she's been stuck furry.

Which is why she's nearly as surprised as he is when there's a quiet puff of smoke and his hand is suddenly not stroking dark fur but the warm skin of her side as she's stretched out in front of him.

For a moment, she just lays here frozen, because that had certainly not been what she'd expected and if she'd have thought, she would have rolled herself into him again, changing back in the confusion but as it was, she just blinked at him with wide green eyes for a heartbeat too long before rolling over onto her front. At least the floor offered some modesty.

"Shit."

The moment the puff of smoke clears and he sees who now lies spread across the floor where the leopard had been not a moment ago, he takes his hand away with a shocked hiss like her skin just turned acidic. Her one word drowns under Bruce's own when he finally speaks up, hands drawn close to his own chest and as far away from her as possible without actually crawling away from her.

"Jesus fuck!" he's not big on swears, not really, but the whole situation is so surreal and unbelievable that the word slips past his lips before he even thinks it over. "Natasha?! I'm--"

Then he sits there, for a while unable to look away from her in sheer shock, then something clicks in his brain and finally he realizes she's very much naked across the floor, right in front of him. His eyes fall on the ground to his side, hands held up between them as if to block his own vision further. "God, I... sorry, just." Another awkward moment of silence, then he hurriedly shrugs off his jacket and holds it open towards her. "Here. Just. Take it."

It was a combination of his startled curse and the look he's staring at her with and the entire ridiculousness of this situation that finally breaks through her own stunned surprise. And then her reaction is to promptly bury her face against the carpet and begin to laugh, unabashed and unrestrained, just genuine amusement let loose.

When he holds out his jacket to her, she glances up, tears in her eyes from the laughter, and mirth still lingering still, because he looks so very horrified. Very carefully, so she doesn't traumatize him further, she frees a hand to take the jacket, which is fortunately big enough on her to hide just about everything important.

"Thank you," she manages, stifling the uncharacteristic urge to giggle, despite the look on his face still tempting her to go off again. "And I should be the one apologizing. I usually have a little more warning than that."

He holds the jacket up until she takes it from him, making it a point not to look up, not even when she starts laughing at the whole situation - maybe a little at him too. He wouldn't judge her, honestly, he can only imagine the look on his face right now.

"What's so funny?" But he's chuckling too, though very faintly, and it's mostly fueled by Natasha's own mirth. He still barely spares her a glance, embarrassment clear on his face even when she's already covered herself up with his jacket.

"Ah. Yes, the... curse. Right?" Said with a slightly dry tone, but he's not going to say anything more to it. He knows this is an event, but he also knows that there's no point trying to explain that to those affected. Whatever Wonderland has pulled this time, it has also changed people's memories, so he knows that Natasha thinks she's had this condition all her life, even though Bruce knows very well that's not true.

"Your expression, at the moment," she replies, voice still thick with humor as she grips his jacket around her, angling herself away slightly to hide what that jacket doesn't when she sits up again. "The situation in general. I really am sorry. I must have lost track of time. I usually have.... well. I'm usually more careful than that."

Although apparently he already knows the reason why, so she just dips her head in a nod. "Yes. That."

"Always nice to know my face is motive for laughter," he says with a hint of sarcasm, but really he doesn't mind at all. He can only guess how ridiculous his expression must've looked for a moment there.

"Hey, it's fine. Just forget about it," he pauses as he shifts farther away from her. "I'm more upset that you almost made me think you were going to eat me alive."

"Only when you're caught off guard. Which is a very rare occurrence, you must admit. We'll call it a fair trade for that time you made me think you were going to squish me," she adds it in impish humor, because it's easier to joke about it now, at least maybe for her.

"Besides, you were safe. I just had dinner."

"I could've very well squished you now too," he answers with his own peculiar kind of humor just the same, even if that particular memory, blurred as it is for him, isn't one he's fond of at all. "And I honestly hope you didn't just eat some innocent passerby."

It's clear he doesn't meant that at all. Leopard or not, he knows Natasha wouldn't kill someone just for the hell of it, and certainly she wouldn't eat them when she could find food in so many other places.

"Do you want me to get you clothes, or... walk with you somewhere?" Sitting naked with only a jacket on in the middle of the hallway doesn't seem too pleasant for him, at least.

"Please," she sighs with exaggerated expression, rolling her eyes. "If I bothered to eat anyone, they wouldn't be innocent."

He's welcome to interpret that how he likes, although there's a hint of wicked humor that glints briefly in green eyes for a moment before it's gone again, almost fast enough to miss.

"My clothes are back in my room," she answered instead, letting the subject change, just in case. Carefully, she pushes herself to her feet, keeping the jacket carefully clutched around her for his modesty's sake. "But if you'd like your jacket back, it's not far to walk."

He just smiles at the remark, not giving it much more credit than it's due. He's pretty sure she's just joking after all.

After she gets up he follows suit, still keeping his eyes averted from her until she fixes the jacket a bit more tightly around her. "You can keep it, it's fine. But I can walk you to your room, if you want." He knows Natasha wouldn't have any problems on her way there, and she can take care of herself just fine, but it still doesn't sound too pleasant to walk around half-naked and alone around the mansion.

Event Catch-all Post

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let me know if this is alright? (also oh my god i am so sorry)

This tag is like 10 days old and I am still laughing at it.

oh god so am I lmao

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