ukan | IC CONTACT

[Continued from here]

I don't know about the vampires here. Except for Godric I don't have much to do with them. I imagine many of them wish they could also go back to being the dominant predator... who wouldn't? Humans aren't in any rush to give the land back to the tigers.

I think Nadja is a loose cannon. I think her husband would rush in to back her up even if he wouldn't instigate. But I believe Godric has lived long enough that he's tired of the violence.

I've provoked him here and there, Anita...I had reason to want to know what his temper was like. I can tell when someone is beginning to think about lashing out. Whatever he's really here for, whatever deal it is--I don't know anything about it. But he's disgusted with Nadja's behavior. I can promise you that much.

"Of course he is. It makes him look weak."

She leans back, hands holding her mug. She's not explaining this right, she's sure, because Lark is smart enough to get it.

"Say he is hoping for a peaceful situation. That doesn't mean he wants it for the benefit of everyone. Vampires are fine with peace, if it benefits them.

I don't think you aren't skilled at reading people. You're a wolf and a lawyer. But old ones have had a long time to learn how to play the long game."

He shakes his head slightly. "Everyone here has an angle, not just the vampires. We all want to survive, we all want to go back to our lives, and if we can manage it, we want to go away from here better off than when we came. What that looks like is different for everyone; if we're going to stay ahead, we need to figure out what that actually is for people like Quill and Nadja. Everything we knew from home may not apply, and it's risky to put too much weight on past experience here."

"It's more risky to think the lion won't eat you, just because it's in a zoo."

"What are wolves like, where you're from?"

She blinks, because the question seems to come out of no where. A sudden sharp left turn.

"They form packs. Put a lot of their group structure into dominance, unlike real wolves. And there's a heavy influence of Norse mythology on their pack hierarchy. Why?"

"In my world, we were created by indigenous Americans thousands of years ago. We were created to be their warriors, until they turned on us and all but eradicated us. Since then, we stay quiet. We fight each other, we don't worry about dominance because we only need a girl to anchor us and a leader to guide us--assuming there is one smart enough. We take on humans on the fringes of society to keep our ranks up. We thrive on the black market. We fight, we hunt, we recruit and we fuck until we all burn out early in our lives." A pause.

"Except me. I found a philosophy, a religion, that dates back almost as far as the first wolves. And because of it I've outlived the other wolves, and I've started bringing us out of the gutters and into something better." He looks at her a moment. "Do you believe me?"

"It's a long way to go for a lie."

It's not a yes. Because she can see the answer for the pitfall it is.

"I'm glad you found something that works better. I really am. But you found a unifying basis for a very specific group of people, that it directly applies to. Would you apply it to cats, or snakes, or bears?"

Edited (Too eager to hit post) 2021-05-10 23:59 (UTC)

"If they were sentient, and if they could understand the importance of it, I might." He frowns slightly.

"Godric isn't driven the way I am, Anita, and I realize that. He doesn't seem to want to unify his people; I don't know that he could anyway. I don't know enough about vampires to guess how they'd react. My point though, is that it only takes one person to have desires different from the group. You don't have to trust vampires. I'll never ask you to, not with what you've seen. I'm just asking you to entertain the thought that he might not be just another version of what you know at home."

She sighs, and is quiet for a moment. Then she shakes get head, just slightly.

"I can't make you that promise, Lark. I just can't."

She sounds tired, more than anything. It feels like she's been having this discussion for far, far longer than just the passed few minutes, and it's exhausting.

"Tell me about the vampires you know at home? The ones you know by name." Not the ones she's had to execute, but he'll ask about them later, when she doesn't look so worn down. Right now he just wants to understand better.

Anita goes still, her face closing down as she forces it neutral. Blank face is something she learned in years working with the police. She's gotten pretty good at it.

She doesn't want to talk about this.

"What do you want to know?"

"That," he says softly. "I want to know what you were just thinking." A blank face doesn't hide heartbeat, doesn't hide the subtlest chemical traces of stress or fear or anger or sorrow. "But I don't want to know it if you can't talk about it."

"Just because you want to know something, doesn't mean you get to know it."

It hadn't been fear. Not exactly. Panic, yeah, the creeping prick of grief, under that. Which she's shot down hard, and anger comes in it's place. Anger is fine. Anger is better than every other emotion. Anger is her best friend.

For a moment he doesn't answer, just watches. He knows. And he isn't prying, just waiting to see if she pushes him further away.

"You're right. And I'm sorry if I've made you feel cornered. I don't want anything you don't want me to know, Anita."

But he is beginning to understand anyway.

They end up waiting each other out. It's good that Lark says something first, because she'd have sat there, until she'd worked herself into a good, cold rage.

But he backs off. Apologizes. And that cools her off enough.

"I don't need fixing, Lark." She says it carefully.

A soft sound, almost a chuckle. "If I've given you the impression that I think you need fixing, I'm doing something very wrong. I consider you a friend, not a project."

"Good. Just so we don't have any misunderstanding."

And that's the second person who's said they consider her a friend. It's a lot, and it feels too fast.

"I don't make friends this quickly. It's hard to trust it. Especially given everything. Just... give me time."

She says it, because she does like Lark. He's been the most honest person here, and he's trying to shoot straight with her. That at least deserves a little leeway.

"I understand." He really, really does. "I wasn't a different person when I got here. But I didn't have friends. I didn't make them; I made allies. I made pawns. Like an asshole." A small smirk. "Over time I learned to trust my gut a little more. I still suspect most people are opportunists, but around here- it's different. At home, people instinctively fear me or hate me. Or both. So here, it's easier for me to give people the benefit of the doubt."

A pause, a frown. "Which doesn't mean my experience is universal. And I don't expect it to be."

IC CONTACT

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Dw didn't send me this notif

It's been doing that and I am not amused with it X(

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