A Rude Awakening

A Rude Awakening
Date of Scene:	11 December 2012
Location:	Bramble Woods
Synopsis:	As Manhattan goes dark, Skoll manages to escape with Avira to the wolf's den in Bramble Woods. Hours later, they wake up to some heart-wrenching realizations, from the destruction of a world, the loss of friends, and the mutation of Avira.
Cast of Characters:	Skoll Ulfang, Avira

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Skoll Ulfang has posed:
After the gate opened within that wolves' cave, the heavily wounded werewolf and the mutate come tumbling through. With his entire body, Skoll protects Avira from harm, bringing her head to his chest until finally he ends up laying beneath her as he 'rams' backwards against the wall and his head hits off of the back of it. He looks absolutely terrible. Wounds across his entire body, one eye entirely gray and scarred, his tail caught dangerously between himself and the wall, and his legs unable to move. Yet his arms remain strong somewhat, holding Avira against him - ignoring the fact that she's changed. Who knows if he can even see her.

In that moment, as the gate is forcibly shut behind him, the beast breathes out a single breath, and then tilts his head one way lazily as he finally falls unconscious. He needs not fight again. Avira is safe. He can rest now. And so his arms slacken a little, the large werewolf hand behind her head no longer forcing her against him... as the wolves awaken.

They whine and make little worried sounds as they move to investigate the two, nuzzling against the both of their hands and trying to sniff them. Some of them go out of the way to start licking the wounds of these two, while some of them remain behind. While the recognize Avira's scent, some of them are simply... afraid of her. Afraid of what she has become. She no longer reads to them, as their friend. Her form speaks of something that is beyond their ability to handle...

A predator's predator.

Avira has posed:
Avira herself was also heavily wounded. The battle in the Labyrinth had not gone as well for her as some of her fights have. She was barely conscious when she witnessed the light of Manhattan fade completely. That trauma, plus the travel through the dark corridor, had finally been the straw that broke the camel's back. Avira is limp in Skoll's arms when they appear in the wolve's den.

For now, her pack will not have much to fear from Avira. She is inactive. Unconscious, as she lies curled against the werewolf's chest. Time passes and it is the gentle licking of her wounds that makes her come too.

Her whole body aches. Everything felt wrong. Heavy. Off-balance. Groaning, she starts to shift, sitting up and blinking blearily. A clawed hand reaches out to pet one of the wolves nuzzling her with concern. As she does, she sees her hand, which is now large and covered in thick black fur.

Memories come flooding back to her as she stares at her hands. "...no..."

Manhattan, destroyed, "...no..." Her friends in the TDA, gone. "Nooooooo..." she wails in anguish, the noise turning quickly into a howl that seems to make the very ground vibrate with her sorrow. Tears flow freely from her eyes now.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
When Avira awakens and begins to move, Skoll stirs beneath her. A few of the wounds have healed, but his eyes are still quite damaged. Some of the marks of the battle have dried up, but the feathers that normally draw attention to his ears remain destroyed by the battle. He slowly opens his eyes, feeling pain aching everywhere. They're gray and dusky, showing that the beast cannot see. Yet he doesn't seem startled, like this has happened before.

"Avira?" The beast whispers, reaching a single hand out towards her. She is still against his body, so he knows she's there. The hand finds her shoulder, and gently covers it. The little cries and wails from her... they ache his heart. His lips are set to a crease and even though his eyes are quite damaged, he can still express sorrow within them. He hasn't noticed her change yet, he only knows that she is sad... it must be because the world had fallen. Her world.

"I'm sorry..." He then whispers. "I tried to fight on... but there were too many." Clearly, he blames himself. "Please..." He then whispers, "Forgive me." His other hand reaches out, moving towards her face and finds her cheek - and touches against the tears that trail down it - rubbing them away slightly with his large thumb.

Avira has posed:
Only when Skoll begins to move does she notice, -really notice- just how wounded the werewolf was. Granted, she might not be that better off, judging by how much pain she was still in. His eyes looked glassy, almost like he was dead...or blind, she realizes. But Skoll is not panicking over this.

But this is only noticed in a fleeing few seconds. Her grief and despair were overwhelming.

He grasps her shoulder and she flinches. There's no armor there for him to touch, only the thick muscle and fur left by her transformation. He can feel her whole body shudder beneath his hand as emotion slams down upon her again and again over what just happened. She tries to speak his name, but it keeps coming out choked and malformed.

It was more than her world, as Skoll would soon discover. "S...yo..you..." Forgive him? She would thank him for fighting to the end. Thank him for pulling her to safety as the darkness consumed Earth. But the words don't come out right now.

To him, her face would feel oddly familiar, and not in the human way. It was like touching the face of another werewolf, felt as he brushes away the tears.

As she faces him, her other hand roams over her own body, feeling her own face, her shoulders, her back. "Y...you..." she struggles to get words out between her cries, "...can't see..."

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
The beast continues to lay against the wall. By any logical sense, he should have moved his legs by now - even just a twitch. But they haven't moved a muscle. But the rest of him moves, quite animately at that. His ears twitch and even his tail finally is broken out of its uncomfortable position. She can probably tell how his expression changes - the way his head tilts. He's confused. He knows that this is Avira, he can tell her voice, he can tell her behavior. He knows it's her... but...

She feels different. Her body, it's not... right. Muscle is thicker, and... fur? The girl shudders beneath his touch and he dares not even speak inth at moment. She tries to say his name - that simple name - Skoll - but she fails. The hand against her face travels further, feeling how it has warped... changed. That expression of confusion grows surprised, then worried. "You...?" He asks her. His hand travels a little down to her throat, carefully feeling the way her muscles run, before moving it back to her cheek. His other hand, which had been on her shoulder, moves down along the side of her body to her leg - so it may rest there.

She then points out that he cannot see. He shakes his head. "I can't. It's red and black and washed out..." He whispers, before lowering his head a little and leaning in towards her, trying to /sniff/ her. To make sure it's her. "You... you are like me? But I thought your world didn't... you can't be..."

Avira has posed:
Why /wasn't/ he moving his legs? Had they not healed yet? She knew Skoll did have those abilities in him. Maybe they were still working. He had just fought off all those trying to end her world. He had failed, so clearly a number was done to him.

Avira watches him, noting these things, remaining focused on his glassy eyes, almost as if she was trying to see herself reflected in them. What DID she look like right now?

Clearly like a werewolf if Skoll was mistaking her for one. But some things weren't right-wings, for one, and she could feel hard spots, like scales, under her chin and neck.

Grief wracks her mind again as she remembers more details from last night. She remembers looking up into Will's face as she fell before him, squirming with pain, only to find cold eyes glaring back at her. She remembers Riku.

Skoll is allowed to feel her out and confirm the suddenly very alien body that Avira was in command of at the moment. He'll notice that she's trembling-upset and afraid of all that's happened.

"I'm s...s...o so...sorry.." she murmurs after he admits he cannot see. "I...no, it can't...it doesn't...not like..."

Oh no. That moment in Sevarius's labs. What Brooklyn had told her-that he's seen people become mutates in Sevarius's hands. She does smell slightly different, but that base scent of Avira-ness is still there. "I'm not... I'm...I'm a monster.." A monster who couldn't protect her world from the darkness.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
She can probably tell. That completely human, yet regrettable mistake Skoll makes as he continues to touch her and finds those alien parts of herself. The creases of surprise that form on his face, and the stalling of fingers as... something comes up. Did he find her disgusting? Did he hate her form. That expression of his is so immensely hard to read with his eyes like those - so grayed out - dusky and barely able to reflect much of another right now. His body trembles a little. Slowly, his body is healing. If she waited long enough, she might notice how one of the wounds on his face is literally closing as she watches him. It's freaky to watch. Unnatural.

The creature however, firmens his grip on her shoulder for just a moment - just as she begins to tremble. He tries to be a strenght to her in that moment, even though he can smell that she's different. That her body has... changed. It reeks of monster. His nose crinkles up. And there's something far worse. "The Dark... it has touched you..." He whispers, his brows furrowing into a serious look.

"Oh Avira... I'm so sorry..." He whispers, even as she appologizes to him. The beast tries to raise his head, to 'look her in the eyes'... even though he can't see her. His stare, vacant of true sight, doesn't look right... like he's looking through her. Like he's looking 'away' from her. He remembers his anger with Will - Loki - he remembers literally grabbing his head and smashing it against the ground before moving on to break LEXUS and his Identity Disk.

Yet then she says those words. She's a monster. The beast instinctively growls at her for using that word. "No more a monster than I - in that world." He tells her. He can't see though. He can't see all of her right now. And his hand has stopped wandering... like he's afraid to 'see' what else had happened to her.

Avira has posed:
Her current form could easily be described as an affront to nature. While she has not seen it herself, what she imagines is not far from the truth, based on what she can feel. His roaming hand start to make her uncomfortable, especially as they slow upon features not meant to be on humans. Pointy, furry ears, not unlike his. That tail, which certainly was not that of a wolf's. It was far too thick at the base and scaled on the underside.

His face shows little reaction to all this, which is what Avira has been watching. She gets a great look at him healing on the spot in between spacing out in shock over what just happened to Manhattan.

Then he speaks words that bring dread to her heart. She had suspected such a thing had happened with this mutation, but to know that he can smell the corruption on her was upsetting. Avira shivers and hangs her head. "It hurts to have it there." she says quietly, eyes angled up at him. She turns her eyes away soon enough, unable to withstand that glassy stare for long.

Much to her surprise, he growls at her, and she startles, squirming backwards. It's not lost that he's stopped feeling around too. Shakily, she manages to stand, and the wolves around them back away as a result. "You're a noble werewolf. I'm some dark-infested...thing."

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll's expression changes again when the girl suddenly backs away after speaking of the pain. He knows that pain, and it hurts to hear her express it. "I know it hurts... and... I won't lie to you in saying that the pain goes away." He hadn't told her yet, had he? That he'd realized that mind-control? That he knew he was being... manipulated? That the darkness in his heart wasn't strength, but something being forced upon him. Not too unlike her...

Only she didn't know how to stop it from growing. "Don't let it grow, Avira." His eyes follow her position by the movements she makes and the words she speaks. As she backs away further, the werewolf reaches for her... but he doesn't get up. His legs don't let him. They're still not reacting.

A noble werewolf, she calls him then. And herself...?

"Avira..." Skoll whispers her name, his expression turning sad. But he doesn't know what to do. He can't even solve his own darkness - doesn't know how to cure it. And if he dared to get closer to her... then what? If he dared getting closer to her, maybe the Gaudium Lords would grab her and have him kill her! Just like in that nightmare!

Still, he can't just let her walk away with that feeling...

"Avira... you aren't what you look like. You are who you are inside. I am a werewolf... but my nobleness..." He touches his heart with one hand, and with the other reaches out to try and touch her hand - even if it's just the back of her hand. Anything. He can't see her though - he can't aim very well. "My nobleness lies within my heart."

Avira has posed:
That's definitely what it sounds like to her, which contrasts strangely with his angry growl at her phrasing earlier. What else would 'we must heal your body' mean? (Well, maybe the removal of darkness.) "What...what are you talking about?" She'd never really suspected, except for that one moment of anger.

She doesn't break away from him, her eyes shutting at the thumb. Tears soak his finger as he does this, the girl having never stopped crying from earlier. She just ceased to sob. "I hadn't even thought about that." she whispers, clearly still hung up on her own world's destruction.

She's shocked when he pulls her down and hugs her close. Sniffling, she buries her head into his chest. At least he would help her go back...or try, if he wasn't being leashed by his lords.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
The beast pulls most gently on her arm and reaches his other hand to her face if she'd let him, rumbling deep within his chest. "But we must heal this... we must heal your heart... and this body." From a distraught person's standpoint, he might as well be telling her that he won't accept her as she is. Still, the beast wants to help her. "But... I can't. I am trapped within darkness myself. A creature like me could not hope to bring light back into your heart." He whispers...

Still, his thumb rubs along her eyes. "And I don't know about the others. Many of them are new to these worlds. They won't know what to do when they will see you like this..." What if they think her a monster? What if they just attack her before she can tell them that it's her - Avira? The beast has nothing to mark her... to identify that she's Avira under all of that. The beast continues to look upon her in sorrow... but does try to draw her back down to him...

This time, in order to hug her to his chest - if she would let him. If she'd not misunderstood and thought he were rejecting him.

Avira has posed:
He hadn't told her at all. Sure, she suspected something was up with Skoll, ever since that red flash and irrational behavior when she spoke about Kaze. But he hadn't displayed such since then and Avira had spent some time with Skoll since then. And yet she still had no idea about his 'lords' or his control.

Wouldn't that make her safe?

Well not by Skoll's nightmare standards. "H..how?" she says bitterly,"How, especially now." Indeed, after all of that, her willpower was sapped and her spirit was...broken. She'd never be the cheerful girl she was, not for a long while.

He looks so sad and she's not sure exactly why. He reaches out and takes her own hand, able to find it after a bit of blind flailing. "I hope you're right..." she whispers, tears starting to form in her eyes, "I've never had to deal with Darkness like this before."

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
The beast's chest rumbles beneath her ear as she lays against him, and the beast lowers his head to touch his chin to the top of her head. He's simply being protective of her - blaming himself in part for this. Had he seen that Will was such a threat... he would ave stopped him. And he'd not been there when... whenever this happened - the source of Avira's mutation. Still, he doesn't touch the rest of her. He just keeps his hand against her cheek and the other on her hand.

The beast slowly calms down. "I can't see right now, and it will take a while to heal." He then whispers. "But your friends should see you as soon as possible. You should not wait in trying to heal this form of yours." Skoll continues to warn her, and it almost seems like he won't answer her earlier question. In fact, he grows quiet for a little while longer. He doesn't want to say at first... but then... after some long moments of thought... he finally breaks the silence;

"I am not certain... but the darkness within me... it corrupts me. I am not sure where it comes from, but it could cause me to hurt the people I care for. You..." He starts, "Zia... Reize..." Friends? Was that really all she was to him? A friend?

Avira has posed:
This is such a bag of mixed signals here. But this physical comfort could easily be explained by how upset she has become. Who wouldn't comfort a distraught woman, even if she did look like a horrible beast lie this? She's appreciative of the contact at least, calming ever so slightly.

"I..I will go to them." Surely her friends would understand, right? Surely they will know it's her, even with this unnatural and alien darkness inside of her. At least they were in agreement that she couldn't remain like this. Especially since...well, Skoll hadn't showed affection to her before. He certainly wasn't now. She might be just a friend, but...she was alright with this.

She looks up at him, a bit of fear in her eyes. So that one time, "...you haven't hurt anyone yet, have you?" Well, he did come close. But he pulled back.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
The beast slowly averts his eyes - even though he can't see her. "I... I've hurt people before. For the sake of the Gaudium Lords. I don't know if I did the right things then... not to mention - maybe I've simply forgotten -- or made to forget." He sounds uncertain. "There's blank spots in my memory. But... I know I've done terrible things in the past." He turns his head again. He's ashamed - so very, very ashamed of his own deeds and darkness.

"They stood against the Lords... so I was sent to 'subdue' them, I think." 'I think'. He's not even sure. The beast shakes his head. "You're not safe with me. Since Manhattan, the darkness within my heart has deepened. All those Shadow Lords. And then that man - LEXUS... that immense amount of darkness he shot into my body." The reason he was so wounded right now. The creature's ears flatten to his head. He's clearly worried.

His ears then perk. "But no... this moment - it should not be about me. I'm worried for you - Avira. You're a good friend... I want to help... but I'm afraid..." That's right. The big monsterous werewolf, with all the scars and the blind eyes... is afraid. Of what? Of /her/?

Avira has posed:
As if the horror of losing her home and appearance wasn't enough. All her reasons for watching Skoll in the first place-he suspicion of his abilities. The way the Heartless avoided him. Her need for instruction had been a means of monitoring him but since then it had turned into so much more. It had turned into friendship...and Avira thought something more, but it clearly wasn't the case. Not with what she's hearing now.

This is the first time s he's heard the phrase Gaudium Lords. "I don't even know who they are." she whispers softly, "How can I be a threat to them? How can I be a threat to... " anyone. She couldn't protect her world. She couldn't stand against the Shadow Lords, even while she fought with all of her heart. "Because of LEXUS, I have darkness in me..." she murmurs.

She nuzzles his chest, shaking her head as she does so, "Don't be afraid of me. I would never...I would never hurt a friend. I don't want to anymore."

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll is a creature that has always sought to find signs of the Golden Wolf he so desperately chases amidst the chaos of his life... it was his way of keeping a grip on himself. After all, he'd always thought himself the last of his kind... yet he'd never stopped to think of looking deeper into the whole Golden Wolf thing. He'd never though that he might already have met them. Instead, he is always looking... always looking... but never finding. The beast turns his head to meet 'gaze', staring at her just as she considers the fact that they are 'just friends'. The beast looks at her with worry and rubs his thumb along her cheek once more. "Cry no longer, things will be alright." He whispers.

The beans then shifts his head and leans his forehead against hers for just a moment, before retreating again. An intimate gesture amongst humans perhaps - a motion of comfort amongst his. "You don't know who they are, and I believe it best you don't find out." He tells her. "You could be a threat... if you take away my darkness. They... they want me amongst their ranks. And you like this... they might desire you too now..." He whispers.

The beast then growls as she says 'LEXUS'. "I bit him fiercely... yet he still stood... but I think I may have learned of his weakness... /maybe/." He's not sure. Things were a haze of anger at that time. The creature then shakes his head. "I am not... afraid of /you/, Avira. I am afraid of what I might do to you. That I might deepen your darkness." His large wolven hand moves to her chest and rests over where her heart lies.

"That my darkness might infect yours... chain it and make it so that it becomes forever trapped there."

Avira has posed:
@emit There's a distant look in her yellowed eyes as she considers their relationship between each other, though not one that Skoll could readily see right now, given his condition. He seems to be staring at her, though, which is a little unsettling with those blind eyes of his. Just what was he expecting to see?

Her wipes her tears away once more, encouraging her not to cry, and she swallows. "Then say no more about your lords." she says quietly, letting out a small whimper as he suggests they would make a minion out of her now too in her current form. "N..no, it can't be possible, I'm not as strong as you."

He places a hand over her chest and she grits her teeth. "This Darkness and your darkness..." she says, that hint of determined Avira, the Avira he is far more familiar with rather than upset, mopey Avira. "..are going to have to contend with my light first."

Indeed, the light was still there inside her. That indominable willpower. The reason she had not succumbed to the darkness entirely and become a shadow-type Heartless. How long could that light hold up, though?

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll can't help but have a small smile appear on his big maw... it looks weird... like a wicked grin almost. You try picturing a werewolf smiling! There's a sense of 'weirdness' about it. Yet still, he smiles... he grins. After all, as she'd spoken those last words, he'd been reminded of what this girl was truly like. "That's better." He whispers, patting her chest with that hand and then retreating it to his lap and leaning his head back to the wall.

"But... you would be surprised how strong the darkness can make you - Avira. There is a reason the Shadow Lords have all that power. They aren't to be triffled with - because of their darkness. And this new form of yours... I can't see it... but I can smell predator on you. You're made to kill now." He pauses, and then adds... "But you mustn't give in to that desire, if it comes up Avira. You mustn't kill."

The beast then tilts his head to the side. "The Sorceress... Valencia, I believe her name was? I think she is the best to help you first." He explains. "Stay away from people of darkness at all costs." Even now... he takes up the role of her instructor. Her teacher, if you may. A role he feels 'safe' in, during a lack of knowing anything else. His head then tilts to 'look' at her again.

Avira has posed:
Weirdness indeed. Now Skoll can stop patting her there-sure, it's mostly to get at her heart but still! He was likely oblivious to any lack of protocol.

Skoll brings up a good point, though, and Avira shudders. She'd felt the urge already. She wanted to tear Riku apart for what he did to her world and, more importantly, to Will and Mercade. "...I'll try not to."

Valencia is filed away for later. She would be a good person to talk to for this. As or avoiding people of darkness...well, easier said than done. Especially if they were seeking her out, as she feared LEXUS might do.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
"Now... you should go. You should find your friends. Maybe make them meet you somewhere away from other people - send them a message with the Ma Belle..." Skoll whispers. "Give the wolves some time to get to know the new you as you walk out of here... and no matter what, don't go into any dark portals such as mine." The beast then looks to the 'exit' of the cave. Somehow, he knew where it was. He motions towards it. "Go on. I will need a long time to heal, and I can't help you any further than this." The beast shivers a little. "Get help soon..."