Advice from an Unlikely Source

Advice from an Unlikely Source
Date of Scene:	18 December 2012
Location:	Traverse Town - VALKYRI Headquarters
Synopsis:	After having her brain addled by an overgrown pot, Hati has time for a word with Avira, only to give the mutate some unlikely advice.
Cast of Characters:	Avira, Hati

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Hati has posed:
It had been a sorry showing in the sewers beneath Traverse Town, but perhaps much of that could be explained by the fact that Hati had a trying few days since the fall of Manhattan. Certainly not as bad as someone turned into a flying wolf-lizard-thing, but bad enough. What certainly would become clear, though, is that this wolf is not like her brother. Where Skoll would shake off an injury and be back in the action in a matter of hours, if not minutes, the smaller wolf had remained blissfully unconscious for quite a bit of time after the fight. Maybe her brains had gotten rattled or something?

In either case, that is where Hati is the next day, laid out on a cot in the VALKYRI headquarters, looking a fair bit more peaceful than she had the previous day. While it might have been a stretch to imagine that little girl from Skoll's memory as the one with the mismatched eyes and scarred face that went into battle - this one is closer. Her eyes move behind those lids, following something that isn't happening in the real world. Then, in a quick motion that seems to come out of nowhere, she bolts upright.

The expression on the girl's face is almost pleading - not something one would normally expect, but there it is none the less. She has one hand outstretched, eyes wide, as if she were reaching after something that had just escaped her fingers. "Wait." She calls, but it's no use. The real world and all the pains that come with it push back in on her consciousness, and Hati groans, leaning forward and pressing her head to her hand.

Of course, the wolf is oblivious to anyone around who might hear or see her actions. She's not quite fully awake yet.

Avira has posed:
Following that fight (and the dragging out of Amin Damoola along with it), Avira had Hati brought to the VALKYRI Headquarters. Previously it hadn't really been much of a base since the group did travel a lot. Lately it seems Avira's taken up residence here since she didn't know how she'd explain her mutation to Clan Dagda. The interior of the building is messy and the top level is clearly made for sleeping or meeting in. The basemet...

...Hati should stay out of the basement. That's where Valencia's lab is.

Since bringing Hati back, Avira's been in and out, busily attending to a multitude of things from being chased by some mysterious servant of the Gaudium Lords to kidnapping Morrighan. Even this stronger, darkness-tinged form could tire out.

It is by coincidence that Avira is here, at this precise moment, when Hati finally awakens. Found sitting in a chair at a table not too far from the cot, Avira's ears perk at the faint sounds of movement, followed by the werewolf's single word.

Pushing herself to stand, she walks to the slowly awakening werewolf and looks down. "...finally..." It was not lost on Avira that Hati doesn't seem to have Skoll's quick regeneration abilities. Funny, that-the whole time she had assumed that it was a werewolf trait.

Hati has posed:
At first, Hati doesn't say anything, but she tenses, her body immediately reacting to the strange surroundings and the voice that only tickles at her more recent, brain-addled memories. The wolf is in motion, jumping from that prone position into a crouch atop the cot as she looks towards Avira with those mismatched eyes. Her head tilts, ears perking upwards, and then the reality of what happened comes flooding back.

With a growl, the wolf raises a hand to her head, "Did anyone get the number of the Pottery Barn bus that hit me?" Apparently, she's spent some time on Earth to pick up some of their strange sense of humor. "I feel like someone played Yahtzee with my head." With a wolfish shake, she manages to regain her balance and then settle herself at the edge of the cot, moving one leg down, and then the other.

Without her jacket on, it's easy to see the scars that mark her left hand and forearm. They're the same ones that are visible up and down her left side when she's in wolf form. Hati's nose twitches, blinking towards the wolfish looking form of the bone-wielder. "Probably a good thing it's you that's here anyways. You were the one I was tracking in the first place." She tilts her head left, then right. "Though the change in appearance from the first time we met threw me at first. Not sure which I prefer."

With another small groan, the wolf shakes her head, still trying to clear the cobwebs. "I assume we won? Otherwise I'm going to have to waste a few days getting revenge for Kat's sake."

Avira has posed:
The sudden movement puts Avira's fur on end immediately and her tail lashes back and forth in agitation. In spite of this, Avira doesn't go for her weapon or try to strike out at Hati. She does, however, remain standing where she is, looking down at the werewolf. "You've been out for over a day...are you-" she's about to ask 'feeling any better' but Hati answers that one right away.

The mutate turns away for a moment and grabs her chair, dragging it over. "If it makes you feel any better, the culprit has been smashed to pieces."

Casually, Avira crosses one leg over the other and threads her claws together. "Tracking me? Why?" Avira looks thoughtful, "Is it because you smell Skoll on me?"

A toothy grin overcomes her face, "We won. Everyone is fine. That man...Amin...somethingorother...he's been taken care of and the various personal affects returned." Well...what they could identify as property of other people was returned. It's tricky to do that with mounds of munny. "Hungry?"

Hati has posed:
The fact that she'd been bested by pottery certainly doesn't sit well with the wolf-girl, but it's just a minor irritation. With the man responsible taken care of, she doesn't have to go off on some rage-driven spree to prove that she's strong. Maybe just a bar fight or two, with a couple of big burly men left feeling inadequate afterwards, that sounds like a plan.

The prospect of food has her stomach growling, but Hati just licks her lips, then shakes head. "I'll hunt later." She hesitates, and then tilts her head again, still trying to make sense of the changes in this woman before her. "A wolf hunts their own kills, and shares with thoes of their pack. To share from another's bounty is a sign of great trust." The words aren't meant to be harsh, but this wolf does think more like her natural counterparts rather than a human being. Perhaps Avira's own knowledge of her wolf pack might help in that regard. "My thanks for the offer, though."

The wolf reaches up, testing the motion in her arms by flexing one shoulder. She's bruised, but nothing too terrible, it seems. "I didn't recognise the smell at first, you carry others with you on your scent as well, and it masked it. It's stronger now." Her nose twitches again, and the wolf takes in a great breath of air, letting it out again slowly. "There's the darkness, too. That's a new addition, though I'm not sure if it suits you."

The last time that these two had met before their adventure in the sewers, Hati had been trying to find out more about the Shard Seekers, and it had irritated her to be denied at every turn. This time, she has more direct intentions. "Are you his mate?" She asks directly, still looking a bit puzzled by the prospect.

Avira has posed:
"You sure?" One of Avira's eyeridges lifts at the obviously growling stomach that seems to be vocally protesting Hati's refusal. "You've been out for a while. So you're probably hungry."

At the explanation of hunting and sharing, she pauses. Interesting-yes, this put into words behavior that Avira experienced while in her wolfpack in Bramble Woods. "Well you did participate in that 'hunt' we just had. So any food I've bought with the money from that mark would partly be your bounty too, wouldn't it?"

Silence falls over Avira as she brings up the smell of Skoll upon her. Avira's thoughts go back to that night in the cave, spent curled up against him. Then the morning after where he felt her to 'see' her new form. The very thought makes her flustered-no wonder she smelled like Skoll! "It doesn't. That darkness shouldn't be there." Avira says quickly, moving to stand. She walks away...if only to go to a haphazard heap of boxes and dig through them, pulling a package of jerky out of them.

Hati asks that question and she drops the package. "W..what? No. We're just really close friends."

Hati has posed:
It isn't often that someone turns wolf logic back against her, and Hati sits there, looking puzzled with one ear up, and one tilted to the side in such a clearly quizzical expression that it might be humorous. "I... suppose." Blink. "I would have thought that Katyna would have been glad to make off with any munny that I wasn't there to take. She's a bit... impulsive." Clearly, those hints within the tunnels that this wolf is friends of a sort with the Ember Knight hold true even now.

It's almost impossible to smell the jerky through the packaging, but the wolf watches the mutate's movements as she goes to fetch it. This is a strange sort of beast, and it seems put together strangely, like someone jumbled up animals and redistrubuted the parts. She's still watching when the package gets dropped, and those mismatched eyes blink again, "Oh." The idea of being 'close friends' seems not to make too much sense to her, but how long had it been since she actually had a friend? Katyna might be the closest she has.

"I was wondering if you might be 'her'." Hati takes a slow breath, "We've both been searching so long, I wonder if we'd even know if the wolves passed right in front of our noses." This part is said like an aside, something that perhaps she wouldn't understand. Then again, if he'd chosen to share the story with this girl, then maybe she would. "I can smell other wolves on you, too. I wonder what it is that makes you like wolf-kin."

Hati looks down at her bare feet, then leans over the edge of the cot to find her boots. Like most werewolves who are prone to the change, she wears relatively little that can't be replaced, but the boots seem to have lasted a few battles before now. "You're afraid of the darkness, aren't you?" This one is just full of questions today, it seems.

Avira has posed:
"Then we are in agreement." Avira says pleasantly, all too happy to retrieve something to eat. Hati here made a good excuse to open up the package for the first time. Of course she was to share, but Avira wanted some of this stuff too. "Well it is true that Katyna was quite eager to claim the munny, but I too had my own share." Pause, "..sounds like you two may know each other."

She picks up the package once more, hearing Hati's slightly confused-sounding 'Oh' at her reaction to being mates with Skoll. (Or rather, not being mates.) "There isn't mutual affection." Avira explains, "That needs to happen first before I go mating with any guy. Or else the relationship doesn't work out."

Gah, what a time to ramble about self-help-book (literally!) relationship advice.

"...'her'..?" she starts, only to have her eyes widen in realization just as she tears the jerky bag open. Her new strengths makes such a task a little tricky as she overestimates the amount needed. The plastic tears completely in half and pieces of dried meat fly all over the place. "I don't know." Avira says honestly, "If I was his Golden Wolf...would he know?" She crouches and starts gathering up the jerky. "The way you say it make it sound like he might not."

Or he could just be flat out blocked by the control placed upon him. The strange woman she encountered in the sewer seemed aware of the Golden Wolf thing too. Slowly, she shrugs, "I learned how to understand them, I guess." Avira's certainly a lot more calm than when Hati first encountered her in Fluorgis. Quite a lot had happened since then.

Finally, she offers jerky to Hati. Hopefully she won't mind if it's been on the floor! "...I'm afraid of this darkness in me."

Hati has posed:
As her stomach gives a second audible rumble, Hati puts a hand over it and growls back, looking down as if her own body had betrayed her. The second offer isn't denied, though, and her nose natural twitches with the sound of the packaging being crinkled. "We've trained together. She's a capable fighter, but I'm better." This doesn't sound like boasting, or misplaced pride. "I wasn't focused in the tunnels. One of the best ways to rattle a wolf is to overwhelm their senses. I won't make that mistake twice."

One hand reaches up as the bag gets torn, catching a piece in mid-air and then chomping off a piece. She isn't moving from the cot just yet, since her head is still swimming in that uncomfortable way every time she moves more than a little. "So you're not interested?" It's an assumption, but it's as good a guess as the other way around for all that she knows about these two. "I wouldn't know, though. Can't say that's a forest I've wandered through."

Hati picks up on the way that Avira repeats the word 'her', and then her suspisions are confirmed when she asks about the wolf. "So he has told you the story, then." Only a few days ago, she had shouted at Skoll that the Wolves of the Sky didn't exist, that they were a myth. She'd been so angry in that moment, betrayed by everything, even Serrak's promise to take her memories away so she wouldn't have to face them. "It's not as straight forward as just trying to find a golden-furred werewolf. Although our father thought so. The wolf can be anyone, from anywhere, of any race."

She pops the last bit of her air-jerky into her mouth. "The stories were never very clear about how we'd know if we found them. They were only clear that if we don't find them, we'll be forever trying to find them until the end of our days, or the end of the world. I suppose Skoll has longer to search than I do. No one's really sure how long he'll live, but he'll certainly outlive me." She smirks, but it's the sort of sad gesture of someone who might have once been jealous of such things, but has given up on that.

Taking another bit of jerky, the wolf toys with it between her fingers, "Is it your appearance that frightens you, or what lies within?"

Avira has posed:
"...really now?" Avira sounds pretty intrigued, "Katyna has showed herself to be a pretty competent fighter." More competent than Avira...she thinks. In a matter of experience this was the truth though Avira had come a long way towards hiding her novice origins. At the same time, with that in mind...boy, no wonder Hati is so worked up about getting knocked out like that in front of Katyna.

A piece of jerky is stuffed into Avira's mouth ands chewed as Hati considers Avira's stance with Skoll. It isn't until she's swallowed does she offer some insight, but first prefaces it with: "I'd like it if this remained between the two of us but...well.../I'm/ interested, yes. But I'm also not a werewolf. So...honestly. It's complicated."

Nevertheless, onto the legend: "He has told me. I too thought at first it meant another werewolf...and with your world destroyed, that he'd never be able to find it. He also seemed to think that the Golden Wolf could be anyone." She shrugs slowly, "Do the Golden and White Wolves know who they are?"

Silent again, Avira thinks back to the second experience in the tunnels. With that woman assaulting her and calling her monster. "It's what's within." she looks over at Hati. "I'd like it if that was not shared with other people either, especially Katyna. I don't want to worry her."

She tilts her head at Hati in a very doglike gesture, "Earlier you made it sound like your reunion with Skoll did not go well. What happened?"

Avira has posed:
The entire building and surrounding area also rumbles a little bit, as if there were a nearby earthquake. It only lasts a few seconds before it passes, though Avira did seem to notice it and makes a face.

Hati has posed:
Hati is quiet for a time as she searches back within her own memories, closing her eyes as she tries to find the right words. Her mother was the storyteller - the one with the skill to entrance others with her voice. When you have two young pups to care for, it is a quite valuable ability to have. On the other hand, there are those moments where it's clear that this wolf has no such grace with words. She hasn't had the practice at conversation that most people have by her age.

"I can't speak for certain when it comes to my brother, but I can tell you that it doesn't matter to me. Human, werewolf - what face you wear doesn't mean anything to matters of the heart." She looks towards Avira then, as if she were looking through her to the human she had once met. "It doesn't change who /you/ are that you wear a different face, nor me or Skoll when we are wolves." She shrugs her shoulders. "I think he would prefer it to be a female, though, his Golden Wolf. I could care less one way or the other if I could just find them."

Like in that moment when she'd woken from the dream, there is just that barest hint of longing there in her voice, but it is shaken quickly as she turns back to answer the next question that comes. "I don't think so, but everything we've ever heard is just our mother's stories. He might know more than me, though. He lived in the pack longer than I did." The wolf breaks a piece of the jerky in her hand, fiddling with it rather than eating it. Thinking about the Wolves always made her unsettled. "She always told us to chase with our hearts, not our feet." With another shrug, Hati dismisses such matters. What does she know of love, anyways?

Hati rumbles, almost at the same time the world around them rumbles, but she hesitates in that moment, then looks back, "I'm not the sort to go selling secrets, so you're fairly safe there. I can tell you one thing, though. Darkness exists in every heart. Shadows pass over even the most pure. It exists in me, and it existed in you before this." Her tail twitches once, thinking of that feeling of standing at the edge, wanting to let herself fall to the anger and the darkness and become... whatever it is that it willed her to be. "Cling to those you care about, who care for you. Even in the darkest of places, they'll be the light to follow."

It's strange wisdom from the girl who considers herself on the side of the Shadow Lords, but perhaps it wasn't Skoll that had been her reason for wanting to find Avira. It sounds like /this/ might have been the real raeson. Still, on matters of her brother, Hati chuffs and turns her head away. "My brother is a fool. A well intentioned fool, but a fool none the less. Probably not a good idea to try to force me to stay when I was already angry. He always saw the best in things, and I always got the shadows." She laughs in a sort of bitter way, "Golden boy and his Sun-wolf, and I'm always the night and the moon."

She looks around the room then, pushing to her feet to get a feeling for what the rumble had been. "Perhaps I'll show you my skill sometime. A fellow wolf is always welcome to the hunt." Avira may not be wolf by blood, but her ties to Skoll, and to her pack make her close enough to be accepted even by this one as wolf-kin.

Avira has posed:
Avira falls silent, this sort of...conversation largely unexpected from Hati of all people. It doesn't matter to them, does it? So was Skoll not REALLY disgusted with her new form as she had feared that night? "I...see. I didn't know. With the other species and..yeah..." she sounds awfully awkward all the sudden!

Was that longing she heard? Hard to say, it's gone so quickly. It wouldn't be a surprise since Skoll longed for his Golden Wolf so badly. Maybe she longed for her White Wolf?

'Chase with our hearts, not feet.' Well his heart had not been pursuing hers so...

"The darkness hadn't been this bad before." she says quietly, watching Hati with those dark eyes of hers, listening to her words about the darkness and...having others serve as her light.

"You sound so bitter about it." Avira remarks neutrally before her ears flick, something buzzing in the VALKYRI linkpear. "Ah...thank you, Hati, perhaps you should show me sometime. I'm sorry, I need to go, Maira needs my help-"

Right away, Avira rushes out of the headquarters.

Hati has posed:
So much for trying to speak from the heart. The wolf so rarely sits down and actually has conversations, since the darkness inside her makes her far more apt to get angry and lose control. Still, there is probably mroe there about how she views the world than she's told to many, and the response to it is one that leaves her still standing there, ears ticked back.

At least she had tried, first with Faruja and now with Avira - grasping for something to hold on to. The darkness is winning, even in her own heart, and as the mutate rushes out to save her comrade, Hati is left to her own devices. "I suppose it's time to hunt, then." She growls to herself, reaching for her jacket, which had been haphazardly tossed down by one of her rescuers. She slips it on, shrugs into it, then marks a rune in the air, drawing forth the darkness to open that portal to anywhere.

She still had to meet with her brother, but first the hunger needed to be satiated, and the confusion in her mind needed focus. The clock keeps ticking down, even as she steps through to those hunting grounds beyond.