ArchivedLogs:Predatory Natures

Predatory Natures
Dramatis Personae Aerin, Shane
In Absentia	2014-03-30 some making up
Location <XS> Lake
Bright, bright, bright; the lake glitters wide and expansive here, stretching off into the distance. Sunlight, moonlight, starlight, it catches them all. Lapping at the rocky shore, its deep waters are frigid in winter and cool even in summer. A stone pier stretches out a ways into the water, wide and smooth, though often icy in winter. The water teems with life nevertheless, home to myriad species of fish that provide for ample fishing or just lazy watching on a slow summer day, for those who want to take a boat from the boathouse out to the center of the lake, or perhaps lounge on the pier and try their luck. Aerin is sitting out on the lake's peir, it's quiet out here, and the weather is turning to spring so it isn't as inhosipitable of the last leavings of winter. She has her bare feet in the water, swishing them back and forth as her tail lays out lazily upon the wood. She has a bow in her hands, and a thin rope tied to an arrow next to her. She shoots at an upward over the lake, pulls it back in with the rope, pulls back and shoots again. It /was/ quiet out here, at least. From the water there's a ripple, far off and unobtrusive at first and probably not easily noticeable. It vanishes, reappears a little closer, vanishes again. But then there's an abrupt /splash/ just beside the pier, thin blue arms and flat webbed hands reaching out of the water to grab hold of the stones. Shane /starts/ to pull himself up out of the water in a quick flex of lean-elastic muscles but stops, halfway up, only shoulders and half his chest out of the lake when he notices Aerin sitting there. "Fuck." That is the first thing he says, black eyes narrowing as he lowers himself slowly back down. And second: "You know you can get expelled for carrying arrows outside of supervised practices." Aerin ears twich a few times as Shane approaches, she has the sense someone else is approaching, but can't pin-point it. There seemed to be something off in the tranquility of the lake. Still, she jumps a bit at the suddeness of the arrival. "Ah's figured ah'd find yae' here." She holds out the arrow, which has a rounded rubber tip instead of a standard one. "Ah'm usin' these rubber arrows, figured they'd be alright since they aren't lethal. Ah' want tae' practice..because ah' want tae' compete in archery. Ah'm nae' sure they'd let like mae', an obvious mutant compete with humans though." She stands up, holding the bow in front of her by the base with both hands. She dips her head, bowing a little. "Ah' owe yae' an apology, and ah'm sorrah." "Oh. Rubber." Shane relaxes visibly at this, though there's still a little bit of a wary narrowing to his eyes when he looks at Aerin. The wary narrowing morphs into a slight surprised widening at her apology. There's a brief momen longer where he stays tense, but then all at once relaxes to just cross his arms against the stones and rest his chin against them. "Oh." At the sides of his neck, his gills flutter quickly, and then press down flat. Though he doesn't actually /say/ anything else directly in response to this apology, a smile stretches across his face a moment later, quick and relaxed-friendly despite its abundance of very-sharp-teeth. There's a relaxed ease to his tone, too. "Competing does get hard. None of the high school sports /officially/ have banned us from it but they'll put up a big fuss anyway, especially if they think it's -- totally unfair. Like if I joined the /swim/ team I think they'd pitch a fit. I'm on --" He hesitates and then amends, "-- /was/ on the fencing team here. And they freaked the fuck /out/ but we're still allowed to compete in the end. Once you go professional, though --" He shrugs a shoulder, a little disgruntled. "I don't think they're big on mutants in Real Sports, yeah." He eyes the bow curiously. "Are you good? My brother and I were in archery club but I suck /balls/." Aerin nods softly, sitting back down with the bow on her lap. "Yeah..ah' was pretty good b'fore. Learned from mae' brothers. But since th' mutation..ah'm much better. Everything is sae' much more honed. Tighter. Ah' can feel..hear, ah' can /sense/ sae' much more now. It's powerful, and sometimes it overcomes mae'. Slipping her feet back in the water, she kicks them a little. "Ah' haven' been mutant long. Truth is ah' was jus' a small town girl close tae' her brothers on a track nae' really destined tae' go anywhere. Maybe get knocked up, married, who knows. People don't get too far out of Keady usually. Ah' was thrown intae' a pen with wolves bred faer' fightin'. Tha's when mah' mutation came. Ah' transformed intae' a huge uncontrollable wolf and escaped. Ah' was like this faer six months, and ah' forgot who ah' was. Ah' changed back after ah' bit through mae' captors. Ah' got tae' strike back, but ah' don' really remember. Ah' keep wondering if it was satisfying..ah' think it would be...but ah' dun' know. Ah' spent some time in Keady, but it's nae' the same. Ah'm not. Ah' dun' feel like a girl, ah' feel like a beast. Ah' cling tae' bein' a girl but..sometimes it feels sae' far away. Ah've never been around sae' many people in the city. Do they point? Can yae'..feel thier hatred on yae?" "Wolves?" Shane's head tips slightly at this information, his hairless brows rumpling. His teeth dig briefly against his lip, and for a moment his expression slips into one of soft concern. "I was born like this," he tells Aerin, "so I don't know if I can really relate to -- having to adjust. But I kind of spent a long while pretty feral. It -- it gets hard, doesn't it? To have to -- learn. How to be a person again." His eyes briefly close, gills fluttering quickly at the mention of the city. "They spit on you. Attack you sometimes. And then some days it's just fine. I guess. Well -- it's never really just /fine/. People talk. And stare. And point. But you kind of learn to deal with it, I guess. It's harder," he admits with a peek open of eyes and a crooked smile, "when you can /hear/ all the whispers really well." Aerin moves her hair from her right ear, revealing a human set. "Ah' hear everything..two sets o' ears. And yae..You just wan' tae fight. It makes it hard tae' stay in one place. Ah' grew up in mae' town sae' it was easier than being with strangers. Familiarity helped. But ah' can't imagne living this way since th' beginnin'. Must be rough." Putting the bow aside she hops into the water with a 'sploosh!". Wading over, she rests on her front against the rocks near where you are. "In a way ah'm better off than yae' are, your always outed, ah' can hide tae' an extent. But ah'm more human lookin'. That has it's downs too. Ah'm nae' quite fully accepted intae' freak world, or normal world." Shane tips his cheek against his forearm, eyes directed towards Aerin. "I don't know," he says with some amusement, "I think you overestimate how accepting the /freak/ world is. A whole lot of /human/ looking mutants don't want anything to do with people like us, either." His eyes blink, one clear pair of membranes and then the outer blue lids. "Living like this since forever is -- strange? I don't know. It's probably kinda the same deal, right? A little bit easier in some ways than you have, a little bit harder in others. There was never any adjustment. But I never really got any kind of --" He shrugs his shoulders uncertainly. "My birth parents freaked the fuck out so that was. Never cool. Is your family alright with you?" Aerin shakes her head, kicking her feet a little to stay in place. "They are..unprepared. Mother n' father are away most th' time workin'. Mae' brothers and ah' are rather uneducated and troublemakers. Kind o' hard tae' be the sweet younger sister when a wold bigger than yaer' pickup truck rips intae' people in front o' yae', and then becomes yaer' sister later. We were all..unprepared. Unprepared faer mae' being a wolf, and coaxing back tae' human..and them tae' take that journey with mae'. Ah'm a predator nae'. Ah' can feel it. Ah' can sense it, ah' crave it. Ah' want tae' be th' alpha inside..and thae's never been in mae' nature before. In a way it's like everyone ah' knew is let down by mae' transformation. Ah sae'..ah'm a wolf, this is who ah' am. Jus' like yae. Yae' blue. Is what it is. Yae' dun' like it, go sumwhere else." "They okay with you being here, at least? Maybe it'll take them a bit to come around. It's -- probably hard watching your sister eat people." Shane's voice skews slightly wry on this. He tips his head, glancing across the lake towards the woods and then back to Aerin. "Being a predator," he says with a very sharp flash of sharkteeth, "isn't all bad. Just have to learn when to let it go and when to rein it in. But there's woods that -- well. Do you like to hunt? I mean, /without/ the bow and arrow?" Aerin sighs softly. "Ah' dun' really like tae' admit it but yes. It's primal, and it jus' feeds mae'..feeds somethin' inside o' mae. Mae' parents are okay with it. Mae' parents don't know how tae' handle it. Mae' brothers are..upset. Mae'..ah' jus' feel kind o' lonely. It's strange out 'ere too. Ah' came across someone who changed, was talkin' tae' a tree guy, and then there was somethin' about a guy named Hive, talkin' tae' this girl..man. Ah' dun' know, think mae' senses were screwin' faer' mae." "My twin and I hunt. Around here. Small things if we're alone. Deer when we're together. You should come," Shane invites. "Sometimes being primal isn't so bad." His eyes close again at the mention of the tree. "/That's/ Jim. Our apartment exploded and he almost died. He's healing now. I hope. And yeah it's strange as fuck around here but /you're/ strange as fuck and /I'm/ strange as fuck so why shouldn't everyone else be?" His lips twitch upwards. "Your senses aren't screwing with you. Hive's a telepath. He talks in your brain." Aerin mmphs. "Well, ah' dun' like it. Peoples in mah' brain. And Jim didn't seem very happy. Or Hive. Or, ah' dun' know. Ah' jus' stumbled upon someone else trying t'wake up Jim. Pretty strange around 'ere. Some girl dressed lik' a whoore touchin' on mae' ears thinkin' they were phoney? Ah' took her tae' the visitors desk.". She flips around to lay in the water on her back. "Ah' talked tae' yaer' brother y'know. He says people dun' take yae' seriously b'cause yae' curse all th' time. He's right yae' know. A troublemakin' girl lik' mae' yae'd expect it from. Nae' bright, nae' real ambition in life. Ah' know it's hard nae' tae' be angry in th' lots o' life we've been dealt. But 'yae seem more brainy than most sort." "Can't imagine either of them /would/ be real happy. Like I said, explosion. Blew up the whole fucking building. My home's gone. Hive's home's gone. Jim's mostly dead. Fuck is there to be happy /about/?" Shane shakes his head, and frowns deep at the mention of the girl touching Aerin's ears. "-- sucks. Hopefully they shooed /her/ the hell off." His brows raise, smile returning at the mention of Bastian. "/Pfft/ B's got all the damn brains in the family. Took 'em in /his/ half of the egg. All /I/ got was fashion sense." Not that it is relevant here in the water. "But if people have a problem with the word fuck they can take /that/ and shove it, too. There are so many better things to get uppity about." His eyes fix back on Aerin curiously. "-- You must have /some/ ambition in life. I mean, what do you want to be doing ten years from now?" Aerin shrugs her shoulders "Isn' it safer 'ere in this place than in an apartment? Especially if people are blowin' it up? As faer the girl, ah think she was visitin' someone." She exhales softly. "Ten years? Ah' dunno. Never really had a life plan. Jus' followed mae' brother's around mostly. Ah' was fairly pretty, sae' ah'd jus' use mae' cuteness tae' get out o' trouble. Now..it'd be nice if ah' could know ah' don't transform intae' big wolf and eat people. Or at least be able t'change back if ah' do. Ah' miss mae' less complicated life. But tae' be honest, never thought about mutants. Anything like that. It just..didn' really come up." "Sure, it's worlds safer here. Doesn't mean people are still going to be /happy/ about losing their homes /there/." Shane shrugs a shoulder, pushing back away from the pier with a slow stretch of arms, his hands still gripping the rock. "Well." He tips his head back up, eyes fixing on the grey sky overhead thoughtfully. "This place can help you with the control part of that. But figure out what the hell you want to do with the /rest/ of life, that's probably still just gonna be on you." Aerin sits up and perches half in the water on a rock, her long hair floating in the water, but her tail lifting above it. "Well th' world is a whole lot bigger than ah' ever knew, and ah' feel like ah've been thrust out intae' it. It's difficult because ah'm afraid. It scared mae', and that's when people lash out. Ah'd like tae' do something where ah' feel significant. Like..something that matters. Nae' jus' piddly things, jobs 'ere and there. Mae' community has loose ties tae' th' IRA. If ah' didn' come 'ere, ah' probably would've ended up in thier control. They cleaned up after th' mess ah' made. Mae' be a mutant, but Irish take care o' Irish." Shane's teeth bare in a sharp bright /grin/. "So stop being afraid," he answers her promptly, as though it were that simple. His shoulders roll in a lazy shrug. "So what, you want to go home and be a terrorist? I've known some pretty awesome terrorists. -- What /matters/ to you, then?" Aerin shakes her head "Nae..ah'm nae' IRA. Ah'm still sortin' what's important. Ah' could say things, or focus..but th' truth is ah' dun' really know. Things ah' liked b'fore..boy chasin'..trouble makin', mischief...these things don't appeal as much anymore. Ah' suppose love is something. Ah' want tae' feel love, or maybe it's acceptance. Ah' don' really care if people accept mae'..ah' am what ah' am. But there's somethin' tae' say about closeness of those whom yae' love. Ah' think yae' know what ah' mean with yae' brother. Mae' brothers and ah'..ah' feel thier love, but in it ah' feel pain, fear, rejection and seperation tae' different levels. They'll come 'round, but ah'm nae' thier lil' sister anymore like ah' once was. Our roles have changed. It makes mae' feel a lil' wistful at th' things ah've lost. But it's a new beginnin' 'ere, more than it is an end. Ah'm putting tae' rest who ah' was sae' ah' can embrace who ah' am nae'." She grins slowly, revealing her own toothy cainines. "Y'now..maybe ah'll come pee in yaer' lake jus' tae' mess with yae'..unless yae' think yae' can catch mae'!" "Yeah --" Shane's voice is softer, his smile a little warmer. "/There/ is one place I'm /definitely/ fucking lucky. Really doesn't matter how much shit the world flings at us, I've /always/ had B. And always /will/. If there's /one/ thing I've been /real/ damn sure of it's having love, there. -- I hope your brothers will come around. But the other thing I've learned being here is that not all family is just blood. So whether or not you get back what you had with them -- maybe you'll find something here for you, too." Her last threat just earns a quick bright laugh. "It's a /big/ ass lake. And I hate to break it to you, but I've already peed in it like a million times." His arms leave the wall to stretch languid-slow. "And I dunno. I'm /pretty/ quick." Aerin shakes her arms "Ewww! Ewwww! Ah've got lake-pee on mae!" She stands up, using her sharp nails on her feet to hold herself in place on the rock. "Things can't go back tae' the way they were exactly. Ah' cannae' go back home faer more than a visit. It'd be..weird." She bends at the knees to kneel down. "Sae, Blue..are we square, you n' ah? Ah'll probably get bossy from time tae' time, but..it's jus' in mae' nature now. Ah' dae' promise ah'm naever gonna cut someone like that. But if yae' ever see mae' change intae' mae' wolven form..then run. Ah've got nae' control." "There's like a million fish in here the whole /thing/ is probably lake-pee, man, where do you think fish pee?" Shane grins up at Aerin on the rock, drifting a little closer in the water and offering a webbed hand out towards her to shake. "We're good. And thankfully," he adds lightly, "I run hella fast." Aerin peers at the hand, and closes her eyes. Her ears, hair, and fur changes to brown, and her nails receed to about an inch out. Her tail seems to shrink a bit as she focuses intently on making her mutant nature recede. Of course her feet's nails retract too, breaking her brace. She reaches out and takes the hand, shaking a moment before she slips off the rock with a small surprised shriek and falls backwards into the water. Shane shakes Aerin's hand quick and firm -- he's still hanging /on/ to it, then, when she slip-tumbles backwards. His eyes open wider but mostly all this elicits from him is a sudden burst of laughter. He pulls forward at the hand he still holds -- despite his diminutive height and deceptively slim-looking build it's easy to /feel/ the inhuman strength in his whipcord muscles as he pulls Aerin up to loop an arm around her and lift her back out of the water. "/Now/ you got fishpee /everywhere/, wolfgirl." There's laughter in his tone as he moves them both back closer to the pier. Aerin doesn't have a very good sense of balance, as it seems way off. "Faergot about those..Ugh. Fishpee." She opens her eyes and She gets here legs down beneath her with the help. "Yae' jus' lovin' this aren't yae?" She lets out a gasp, and her body changes back to normal within a few seconds. "Nae' easy tae' do that.." "Loving it a /little/ bit," Shane agrees cheerfully, releasing Aerin once she gets her feet back under her. "You should probably go dry off before you get hypothermia or something though. 'less you want to turn into a wolfcicle." Aerin stands up and shakes her body, wringing out her hair and sending water everywhere, especially from her tail. "Yae..probably. Ah' can get back pretty quickly though. Thanks fae'r th' hand Blue. Yae' mi' want tae' check on yaer' Jim freind though. Strangeness goin' on there." "Hmm. Yeah. I'll stop by. /After/ I find my twin, anyway." Which -- apparently Shane is on his way to do /right/ now, because with one last bright grin to Aerin he turns to vanish, disappearing under the water and taking off in a lightning-quick streak of blue headed deeper into the lake.