Recognizing Darkness

Recognizing Darkness
Date of Scene:	12 August 2013
Location:	Traverse Town - VALKYRI HQ / British Countryside
Synopsis:	A frustrated Hati decides to start Percival's training, introducing him to ways of recognizing darkness when he encounters it.
Cast of Characters:	Hati, Percival

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Hati has posed:
There is a new member of VALKYRI these days. Having been a 'lone wolf' for many years, it doesn't come naturally to Hati to share her living space with anyone. Getting out of the dusty ruins that were once her home have done wonders in helping the usually reclusive wolf-girl with actually being more social, but she still acts like a wolf in many ways. My space, your space, my side, your side. VALKYRI might have a 'share and share a-like' attitude, but the wolves are still quite territorial.

So, she's claimed one of the beds, although what small amount of her things she's brought still remain in two oversized dufflebags or strewn over the bed and a small table she's set up nearby. The wolf-girl has stolen (possibly literally) a cubicle wall from somewhere, and is currently using it to separate her space from others. Sprawled across the bed, amongst her junk, is a quite large doberman, his head on his paws, tail swishing and thumping up against a wall.

"Damnit. Why isn't this working?" Hati growls to herself, and then chucks a potion out into the main room, nearly missing a chair as it clatters onto the ground. The glass must be pretty strong, as it doesn't break, but it does send a colorful array of blue potion spilling out, decorating the floor. "It should /work/." She rants, and then grabs a dusty book from underneath the dog's butt, stalking out into the main room with a scowl as she flips pages.

Percival has posed:
The eternal umbra over Traverse Town always toyed with his internal clock.

Sometimes it caused him to oversleep, other times it caused him to undersleep(He kept a good store of coffee for those circumstances), and yet others it caused him to fall asleep at inappropriate times. The worst was when he tried to transition to it from another world in which he was awake during daylight.. However he had to admit that Traverse Town did have certain upsides to it, even if night felt unnatural here. The nearby beach made for an excellent training ground and that's where he'd been for a good portion of the night, on a secluded corner of it.

It was difficult to inadvertently cause terrible destruction through misfired magic to shaded sand and dark water. It also made for a wonderful view. And the training was... calming, especially given what was required to draw forth the hidden potential within the blade. He hadn't had any 'lapses' since his return. Once he was finished, he started his way back down the streets of Traverse Town. While he could have glided back, walking on cobbled streets was still a relatively new experience, and gave him time to think.

When he returned to VALKYRI, his first thought was to head for the kitchen, if not for the commotion he heard in the living area. He didn't really think much of it, as it was likely a spirited conversation, but it was still worth checking out. And so after a time there came the telltale clacking of talons upon the wooden floor as he looked at the cubicle with a light sense of bemusement. The gargoyle didn't need much space on his own typically, he just roosted alone on the rooftop usually, and left his collection of books inside.

He steps up to the threshold of the cubicle, makes a sort of an /ahem/ sound, before knocking very gently upon one of the walls. "Good evening Hati. Do you need assistance with anything?" His gaze looks pointedly over to the Doberman, as he makes a friendly gesture his way. "I don't believe I've met your friend." While he sees the spilled out collection of potions and his first instinct is to bend over and clean them up, he also knew very well Hati's territorial instinct from their first meeting. He decides not to touch her stuff without permission.

Hati has posed:
It's the dog that notices Percival first, his tail thumping louder, causing the bed to shake and dislodge a few things as the dark canine gets to his feet, heading over towards the entrance. No one here was a threat, so there's no growling, but he does wiggle around as if this is the most amazing thing ever! Dogs, go figure. "Garm, Percival. Percival, Garm." She introduces the two with an off-hand swish of her hand, and the doberman barks in response, then gives the gargoyle one of those dog looks that seems to say: Treats?

The wolf doesn't seem to care about the mess, but she tosses a towel down over it, unconcerned with actually cleaning. She just claps her book shut, then shoves it onto the bed where the dog had been laying. "Unless you happen to know the recipie for a sleeping potion that works on werewolves, I don't think you'll be of much help." Hati does look tired, and she runs a hand through her hair with an expression of frustration.

"If I can't find a way to get some rest soon, I'm going to try the frying pan method." She's probably exaggerating, but the dark circles under her eyes suggest that the wolf-girl is having troubles in that department. "Long time no see, though. You haven't hit me up for that training we talked about, or have you decided to give up on that?"

Percival has posed:
"Always nice to meet another friendly face, Garm." A hand finds its way to the doberman's head, as he strokes it with his palm. But sadly, no treats. He hadn't anticipated a canine resident. Fortunately he was a rather excellent cook so.. that can always be remedied in relatively short order.

He gives her an affable look, before shaking his head, "Alchemy isn't exactly my strong suit. And by that I mean that I wouldn't know the first thing about it. Neither is magic yet, even though I'm making.. progress. I require a rather specific focus for that. Now if you want to try pharmaceuticals.. well I still have some pills left over from when another member of VALKYRI was having trouble sleeping." Nevermind that he actually took them without a prescription. Not his fault that the laws don't apply to Gargoyles, and he did pay for them!

"Well the frying pan method is always effective but.. it leaves much to be desired upon awakening." And then she mentions that, and his gaze looks reflexively over towards the rough oaken scabbard he'd crafted for the rapier. He'd basically tried to ignore it since his return... so much ignoring. "No, I haven't given up. I've just been.. busy. A journey to Atlantis took up a great deal of time.. then a few mark hunts. So any aid would be appreciated."

Hati has posed:
The dog just continues to look up at Percival expectantly, at least until Hati nudges his face with her hand. "Quit begging. You've been fed." She glances at the gargoyle, "He's not used to other people being around, and thinks he can get extra food by being cute. It's certainly effective." The dog sits down then, though his tail still waggles. "Don't let him fool you, he's a guard dog, when he wants to be."

"I'm not sure how well human drugs would work. That's the problem I'm running into with the potions in my books. Wolves have a weird metabolism, and that means we burn the stuff off before it can work for very long." She sighs then, leaning back on the cubicle wall, which doesn't seem like it wants to carry up her weight, although it holds for now. "I probably need to bite the bullet and just talk to Faruja, get it over with."

Her eyes follow his towards the infamous sword, then she looks back at the russet gargoyle, mismatched eyes curious. "I suppose I've been busy, myself. Trying to save a mouse from himself. I've got time now, though. It'll give me something to do. It's either that, or head down to that camp and bust some undead heads together." She mutters something in her breath about 'sharing the spoils, pssh'.

Percival has posed:
The Gargoyle gives Garm a bemused look, "I know of the ferocity of his breed. They were common on my world as guard dogs. I'm not fooled, especially given his name." The look promised that he might slip him an extra something every now and then. He was fond of dogs after all.

He's given pause at her statement that it might not work as well, stroking his chin, "Well the initial dosage could be upped, and you'd be less likely to fall prey to the side effects given your metabolism. It's just a thought. I'm not a physician after all, most of my clan was just trained in the basics of human medicine and emergency care." His expression does change when she mentions Faruja to a concerned one, his hand falling from Garm's head back to his side "Yes the TDA.. did mention something of problems with Faruja and his church. They just offered no specifics other than a cursed stone." And fencing a goblet, but he wasn't even going to go there. "Was everything resolved? Do you need any help with that?"

He takes some time to mull the choice over. Bashing undead heads would be fine training after all but.. no, if he was ever going to get over this, then he needed to stop ignoring the problem. After a time there's a sharp, yet slow exhalation of breath, "Let's get it over with. I'm as... calm and centered as I'll ever be, so the timing is perfect."

Hati has posed:
"He survived Negaduck, so I'd say he's pretty tough." She never did find out what happened to the rest of the puppies that the evil duck had pup-napped, but figuring that she had seen dogs at the Shard Seeker HQ now and again, it seems like they were rescued as well. "He only goes into that mode when he's working, though. Not much point here. Besides, I don't want Avira kicking me out because my dog bit someone."

"We'll see. I generally try to avoid human drugs. I'd rather craft my own potions. At least then I have some idea of what actually goes into it." From the look of her make-shift labratory behind her, the wolf is quite adept at potioncraft, although things seem in quite a state of disarray at the moment. Maybe it's exhaustion, or a new place, or simply the chaos in her own mind making it hard to focus.

"What little I understand if it is that there was some demon inside the stone, and it tried to posess Faruja." She closes her eyes, clearly not enjoying dredging this up again, "They planned on killing him so he could become an avatar of the demon. We stopped it, but... I'm not really sure the cost. I'm not sure if he'll ever believe that his own Church worked against him. I'm not even sure if he hates me for working with his enemies. It's a mess."

Her eyes flash open again when he mentions 'getting it over with'. "This isn't something you do once and you master, Percival. Darkness is a constant enemy. It lurks in the darkest parts of who you are." Hati knows this, all too well. "Come on, then." She walks out into the main part of the VALKYRI hall, with Garm trotting along at her side. "I'd rather not do this here, or even in town. There's enough people afraid of the darkness to make it troublesome for me."

She takes a dagger from a set of double sheaths at her back, then traces a pattern in the air. After a moment, it opens into a dark portal: a passageway into somewhere else. "After you." The portal, should he take it, would lead into a dark forest clearing, a place that must be somewhere near the British countryside.

Percival has posed:
"Avira kick him out?" He tilts his head to the side, smiling, "More like that she'd just admonish him herself. She has that gift. I sometimes jest that Maira and her should hold a duet to charm the beasts of the wilderness." A hand is held against the side of the cubicle, idly, as he considers, "Understandable. I'm not even certain the humans who create them know what all is entailed in their creation."

She relates the tale on Faruja, and one of his hands clenches, even though his face looks calm. Unfortunately that's the hand on the cubicle wall, and suddenly she has a sharp gouge in that place. He removes his hand sheepishly, "Sorry. But I started to learn that Church was bad news the moment I found out about their...inquisitorial division. That was an unhappy experience. I can only hope that he sees sense."

He puts up a hand though when she starts to lecture him on his comment, "It was merely light flippancy. I don't expect to this to be easy..." He'd have to be the greatest of fools given his experiences with it.

Hati leaves the cubicle and creates a corridor of darkness. He stares at it for a time. His expression bland and neutral, but before long he strides through it without giving her a notion of what he's thinking. When they arrive at dark forest clearing, he crosses his arms, gazing about to take stock of his surroundings, "How very fitting..."

Hati has posed:
"Well, it'd be kicking us both out. He's mine, so he goes where I go." Luckily, Garm is reasonably well behaved, which means that he probably won't have too much trouble. "I've had bad experience with packs. As much as Avira's wolf enough to be an alpha... I don't trust alphas that much, either." She murmurs, laying her own hand over the dog's head. "It'll take some getting used to."

Skoll had an easier time of it, as he never realized the cruelty of their father, not until recently. Hati has trust issues... along with a horde of other related and unrelated issues that make her a difficult person at times. She's gotten better, though. The wolf eyes the gouge in the wall, then looks at Percival. She doesn't seem particularly bothered about him damaging that, but things that actually /belong/ to her, might be problematic.

"Well, he's still with them, so take that as you will." Hati explains, shaking her head. "For all I know, I'll be on their wanted list alongside Beoulve. So much for love..." The wolf huffs, tail drawn back. This is clearly what's been bothering her. "I don't want to think about it anymore. It makes me miss the Shadow Lords' memory charms. At least then I wouldn't have to remember it."

The wolf pops out a moment after him, the portal sliding shut behind her. "This is a clearing near my home. My old home, anyways." She motions the dagger that she still holds Northward along the tree line, where the tip of a set of ruins can still be seen. "It's safe enough here. No one comes in these woods. No one dares to risk the wrath of the werewolf that prowls here." Her expression shifts into a feral sort of grin.

"So, you want to learn to protect yourself from darkness. Is it the darkness that attacks directly you're fighting, or the sort that creeps and crawls and stalks your feet?" She starts to walk around him in a circle, her hand sheathing the dagger, looking him over with an appraising eye. He's far taller than the small wolf, and it looks almost comical for her to be circling him as if he were prey.

Percival has posed:
"I doubt she would kick either of you out if he did...but let's hope it never comes to pass that he bites anyone here anyhow." He doesn't comment on Avira being the alpha wolf around here. It may be true, but he didn't exactly ascribe to a pack mentality himself.

"That is a pity... as for Beoulve, I've never met the man. I've heard one of Faruja's rants on him but... to me, a heretic is just a person of a dissenting opinion. And a dissenting opinion is often healthy for the group as a whole." There is a short pause at that, a low rumble entering into his voice, ".....We'll see. He has more sense than we often give him credit for, it's just that one often has to dive down into a well to find it."

Once they arrive in the clearing, he listens, then grins in reply, "A fierce protector of this forest? I don't doubt it."

He considers her words for a time, eventually patting a hand against the oaken sheath the rapier rests within, "There's merit to calling it both. The darkness in me is more the sort that takes hold of the heart. I think what this does is.. there is a spirit within that quickens when it feels negative emotions from me and makes it manifest as a cover of darkness which blankets the area, and attracts the Heartless. I haven't experimented with it overmuch for.. obvious reasons." She circles him, and he doesn't comment, his eyes just follow her even if his feet are rooted in place.

Hati has posed:
Strangely, Garm does not follow either of them through the portal. "So long as no one messes with my stuff, I'd say we're safe on that matter." The dog hadn't been given any special command to stay behind, but often, wild animals tend to have an aversion to darkness. Like so many of the elements, it is something that lesser creatures tend to treat with some reverence, even if they couldn't hope to understand why.

"I'm a heretic, by all rights. I don't believe in his prophet, or the teachings of his world. I was raised to honor the great ancestors and the spirits of the Espers. It's a simplier way of looking at the world. It doesn't require churches or priests." The wolf crouches then, touching the grass, running her fingers through it. "Every breath I have is a blessing, and that's enough."

In truth, she isn't trying to convert him to her way of thinking, simply to explain how different it is. Maybe she and Faruja wouldn't have worked out, anyways. Damnit, why did he insist on intruding on /every/ thought.

With a small growl, she pushes back to her feet again, continuing her slow tread around the clearing. "Those with darkness can control the Heartless. If you manifest it, they'll come looking to you for instruction. It's a powerful tool for those willing to dabble into it, but one that can easily overwhelm you. You still have a heart, and they want it, never mistake that." She pauses then, tail swishing, "I've never heard of such a thing, but anything is possible. Perhaps you had some seed of darkness put within you long ago. If so, it's a small miracle you're sane to stand here today."

Hati raises an eyebrow on the unscarred side of her features, "So you have both darkness within, and from the outside. It's probably best to start with darkness from others, though. It will give you an idea of what it feels like. How to recognize it. How to resist it..."

Percival has posed:
"I guess that makes me a heathen then. As I don't believe in anything that he does." His wings shrug off his shoulders just slightly before coming to rest back there. "As for my beliefs.. well I'm finding lately that spirituality has a lot more to do with a certain point of view, rather than any rigid doctrine or faith. However one experiences it might be as equally valid as how I do."

As for the rest of it, he listens with his arms crossed. "I'd rather not learn how to control the Heartless. It's not a tool that I wish to make use of..." And then his features break into a macabre smile, "...and trust me, I'll never forget that that is all those creatures desire, the light and hearts that dwell within others."

There is a soft chuckling, as his eyes close, then another low rumble as he speaks, "Well sometimes I do well upon the topic of whether I am sane or not. I certainly can't vouch for my sanity. But if there is darkness in my heart, then it is safe to say that there was some event that put a seed of it there."

He listens again, before eventually nodding to her, "That... is what I would prefer. It would be a more.. controlled exercise. And I'd prefer to learn how to recognize and resist it externally before I try the very dangerous act of learning to resist what lies within."

Hati has posed:
"He's never spoken ill of me for not believing the same. I don't know why. Maybe he held out some vain hope of converting me to his way of thinking. Who knows." Hati's ears dip again, just a brief sign of her troubled inner emotions. Learning to love is a difficult thing for someone who has few memories of positive things, and even those are overshadowed by darkness.

The girl shakes off her own thoughts like a wolf getting rid of an itch, "Even if you don't want to control them, there are uses to making sure that they don't flock to you every time you lose control of yourself." Hati notes, aiming a clawed finger at him. "Imagine you do that right near someone you care about. There /is/ someone that you care about that the Heartless would love to get a hold of, isn't there?" Her question seems pointed, as if she already knows the answer. Yet, how could she?

Her eyes seem focused on him, but then her hand reaches for the dagger again. "Sit. Close your eyes. I want to see how close one of my dark wolves can get to you before you notice it." Assuming he'll do as instructed, Hati begins to trace the shape of a Wolf in the air. Just like when she created the portal, it seems to create something out of darkness alone. From the symbol which glows in the air, a single wolf appears, although it looks more like liquid fire than a true creature. It seems made up of purple and black flames and piercing red eyes.

Percival has posed:
"He seems to.. well, exclude all of his friends from condemnation. Perhaps because he is holding onto that hope. Or perhaps for another reason, I don't know him well enough to judge." And while he wants to comfort her when he sees her body language become sorrowful, he doesn't know her well enough either, and leaves her his personal space. All he does in return is give her an empathetic look, within his eyes.

When she speaks more upon the Heartless, he looks at the finger pointedly. His eyes narrow slightly, but he doesn't comment more on it. As for how she knows? Well it is VALKYRI, there are a lot of females, and Maira is prone to gossip, it isn't much of a stretch in his mind to figure out how she might know. And while he might grumble just a little, he doesn't deny it either. He just lets out a sound which might seem like, resignation, "Very well."

When she reaches for the dagger and instructs him on the matter, he seats himself, on his knees, settling backwards, with his eyes closed. He catches only a glimpse of the dark wolf before his eyes are closed. And then he just tries to.. /feel/ sense it. And it's position. At first it's more trying to rely on scent and hearing but then he realizes that is likely in vain, and instead just tries to sense it in the air, sort of like trying to feel sunlight, or the lack thereof.

Hati has posed:
"I wish I knew him well enough to say for certain." Hati admits, and for just a moment, there is a softer expression on her features. The part of the hard-edged girl who was willing to risk everything for someone she loves. Like mist in the morning, it vanishes as quickly as it had come and the wolf's gaze hardens again, mismatched eyes focusing on the task at hand. There would be time to worry about possibly failed relationships later.

"Some people can inately sense darkness. For others, it has to be learned. Once you know what it is, you can feel it when it manifests itself around you, or within you." Hati explains, bringing the wolf around at a distance, keeping it away from Percival at first. The creature moves with no sound or scent, as if it were little more than an illusion rather than a living creature.

"For me, it's like a tug, or an itch. Subtle sensation that you could altogether ignore if you weren't looking for it." The wolf's voice continues to explain as the darker entity draws closer, step by step, the wolf moves, prowling towards Percival's back. "Once you know the darkness in yourself as intimately as I do, it resonates, but even for someone who hasn't gone as far into the abyss as I have, you can learn to sense it."

Percival has posed:
He really doesn't have any more words of comfort to offer on Faruja. He just hopes that the Burmecian makes the right decision in this case. The right decision being the one where he doesn't smack sense into a full-fledged knight like it was beaten into him.

The Gargoyle's expression screws up uncomfortably as she continues her lecture on the darkness. And he doesn't appear to feel anything at first as the wolf is put through the paces. Just the soft breeze on his skin. The redolent scents in the air. Nothing that would give it away.

It continues pacing and growing closer, and his expression looks uncomfortable. Not because he can sense it, but because he's having so much trouble doing that.

It is perhaps only a few feet behind him when hackles raise on the back of his neck, when it becomes like she states, something between an itch and a tug. And then he states in a sotto voce, "Behind me, isn't it?" He doesn't look, for effect's sake, just waiting for confirmation or denial.

Hati has posed:
"You're trying to hard." Hati states, crouching down so that she can run her fingers through the grass. The wolf is a creature of simple things, and the pleasure of dew-laiden grass on a moonlit night is something she treasures as highly as others would a favorite posession. "It isn't a door you can break down with brute force. It's a whisper you hear from the other side, in your heart, even with the door closed." Her analogy probably doesn't make much sense, but the werewolf sees the world in strange ways.

It's a few seconds after Percival first notices the dark wolf that it blows a breath onto his neck. "Better than some. I've known a few who wouldn't realize it's there even if it was sitting in their lap. There are far too many people in this world who just go along their day to day without realizing there's anything else out there."

The wolf shifts from behind him, brushing along one arm, then sits right in front of the gargoyle. "Get used to what it feels like to have darkness this close. Memorize those subtle signals your body is using to tell you that something is wrong. Listen to your instincts. When darkness comes to attack you for real, it won't sit at a distance like this. It will come with fangs out."

Percival has posed:
Percival was tempted to state back to her, Do or do not. Thank you Darkness Yoda but he ultimately decided against being snarky to the prickly Werewolf. The analogy really doesn't make as much sense to him, maybe because he didn't put too many ears against doors to eavesdrop on what was going on on the other side, but he tries.

When she responds to his sensing it, "Well, had you tried a few months ago I might have been one of those people sitting there chagrined with a shadow wolf in their lap. I don't know if it has anything to do with magic but.. I was so inept that I had the magical ability of a soggy cheese sandwich, much less the ability to sense it coming my way."

There's a quiet rhythm to his breathing as he sits there and just tries to memorize 'how it feels' but it's difficult, the sensation is already gone with his concentration broken, and he's having to try and resense it. It takes him some time to just locate that /feeling/ once again, and just to try to memorize that niggling sense of 'wrongness' in the air.

Hati has posed:
Alas, Hati probably wouldn't have gotten the joke even if he had made it. She missed out on a lot of things, including the age of modern movies. She'd spent years with dusty books and physical training where more normal people got to do things, like having friends and growing up to be something other than a souless tool of the Shadow Lords. Even without him commenting, though, she knows the concept is out there. How do you explain something you just /feel/?

"You'll have to excuse me if I don't make complete sense trying to explain this. The darkness is a bit different for everyone, how it manifests, how it feels. I only know what I experienced, and even then... there's gaps." She points at her own head, then shrugs her shoulders. "Memory charms do a number on the worst events of your life. It's a good and a bad thing." Right now, there were some good reasons why she might want that oblivion again, but the wolf's eyes are serious as she watches him.

"I don't know that that's true, though." She's referring to his own appraisal of his abilities. "There's a sort of magic in what gargoyles can do naturally. Stone sleep has amazing healing powers, and a gargoyle's ability to fly could be considered a magical feat as well." She smirks then, the expression quirking her lips. "There's magic in simple things, Percival, and I'm sure it's in you, as well."

With a movement of her hands, the wolf backs off again, "I want you to practice this first task. When you're out and about, try to take a moment and see if you can read for darkness around you. If you see Heartless, try to see how they feel, because they're different then my magic. Every Shadow Lord will feel different. You just have to keep your mind open to the signals you're being given."

The wolf walks over towards her, and Hati reaches out, scratching it beneath the chin as if it were some real creature. "Next time, though, I will want to meet this monster inside you. The only way I can learn about it, is to see it with my own eyes."

Percival has posed:
"No it's alright I'm just..." His expression grimaces at that, it seems like any lapse in his concentration and the feeling disappeared. "...I'm just trying to latch onto that feeling, and it's just.. not sticking immediately. It comes and goes with my concentration."

She listens to the rest of her explanation on magic, nodding slightly, "Sometimes we take for granted the magic in the mundane. It's just that it was not very common on my world, unless you stick to the legends of the Third Race...but you are correct."

Once again he nods, he can certainly take that /homework assignment/ and implement it since the Heartless were literally everywhere, Shadow Lords less so, but they'd show up sooner or later. He opens his eyes though on the last comment, and in a very calm voice states to her, "You will not like him very much I fear. Even a beast knows to flee when it knows fear, knows pain. It knows nothing else but to fight until it either kills, or is put down."

Hati has posed:
"It will take time. Whenever you'd like, I can summon one of these for you to practice with so long as you stay within headquarters." The wolf sits before its master. The creature doesn't seem to have a true mind of it's own, but there are those moments where she interacts as if they were real wolves. Then again, perhaps that is wishful thinking on the part of someone who clearly has lost much of what made her a wolf in the first place: her pack. "But your best bet will be to figure out how to experience the sensation in the real world."

In the still of the night, Hati's ears swivel to familiar sounds, seeming perfectly at home in this dark place, filled with it's strange sounds. When her mis-matched eyes find him again, she shakes her head, "I've seen the darkness in myself, and it isn't a pretty thing. I attacked my own brother because of it." Shame shows in the flit of her eyes, glancing away into the night.

"Short and simple, I don't need to like that part of you, I just need to see it and understand it so I can try to find a way to help you tame it. I can't do that with rhetoric. And trust me, I have a back-up plan if it comes to that." She reaches into the pocket of her jacket, pulling out what looks like a syringe. "It's tranquilizer enough to turn a full grown eight-foot werewolf into a weak puppy. I don't think it will have any trouble working on you." Of course, that begs the question of just /why/ she's carrying around enough tranqs to take down a decent sized elephant.

Percival has posed:
"I'd appreciate that, if nothing else it will give me more time for practice before I try it on the Heartless." He watches how she interacts with the shadow wolves, but doesn't comment, merely tilting his head slightly to the side as he considers the display.

He doesn't seem.. out of place truly anywhere where night casts its shroud, but still, this place is not familiar territory. As she confides her shame in him, he closes his eyes, a rumbling in his throat as he states, "I've.. done many things that I was ashamed of as well, in that state. The darkness is never a pretty thing when it takes hold of a person. Perhaps one day I will be able to forgive myself fully. But this is an important step in that process."

He watches her take out the tranquilizer, and nods. He doesn't argue that point, he just hopes that it will indeed be enough. "Good. I hope it won't be needed." He doesn't question why a werewolf would be carrying around tranquilizers. He figures that it was... something that she found necessary in the past.

Hati has posed:
With this first, brief lesson finished, Hati gets to her feet. The wolf she had summoned vanishes into little more than vapor, and soon enough, she's making that rune in the air again, the one that opens the portal back to the VALKYRI headquarters. "This will take you back." She looks out towards the woods. "I think I'm going to stay here for now. Make sure Garm doesn't eat anyone while I'm gone."

The wolf girl takes a step away from the portal then, sheathing her dagger. "We've all done things we regret, Percival. I think part of having friends is... figuring out how to get through that together." It isn't that she knows that much about friendship, but she's starting to learn. "Goodnight, Percival." She offers then, her own eyes aimed towards the moon above.