i will battle for the sun.
#1
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Out Of Character

    However many, I don't care. :3



In Character
    Upon her re-entry into Inferni, Kaena was alive again in a way she had not been since she left. The fire ran through her blood again, she felt it course through her fiercely and make her fingertips and ear-tips tingle, even all the way to the very end of her tail. This place was home, certainly—it was home in a way nothing else had ever been in Kaena's existence, and she had realized it, finally, upon ending up thousands of miles away, unable to find her way back. It was then that the ache had started, and though she had suffered only a minor injury in her leg, with every step she took it had burned and screamed like she was being freshly stabbed.


    That pain was gone, and its scalding heat was replaced with one that made Kaena feel years younger. The hybrid held her head high as she explored the new territories eagerly. They were vastly different from the former Inferni homelands, which were little more than a stretch of beach and a strip of forest. It had been home, though, and Kaena defended it fiercely. They couldn't have settled anywhere else, regardless—at times, the former Inferni had been a weak clan, and perhaps it was only the ocean at their backs that had saved it from dismemberment.


    It was not long before the Lykoi came across the mansion. It hulked up in her view, gray and deteriorated on its exterior. Some of the shutters were falling or had fallen, leaving lighter-colored, fresher paint beneath where they had been for years. The house was huge, and though it had a clear front entrance, Kaena could also smell several well-worn paths to lesser entryways into the compound. She started down the front road, and headed toward the main entrance, though she turned sharply and headed through the overgrown front yard on one of the dirt paths cutting across it. There was a wrap-around porch, though the doorway was locked shut and Kae jiggled the handle only to find it was securely locked. So she turned away, and settled on the step of the porch, her elbows on her knees.


    The sun was setting steadily and the sky had begun to glow, streaking red, orange, and yellow across the puffy clouds that had formed empty threats of rain in the afternoon. They seemed to be blowing out now, retreating over the mountains to perhaps fall on the burned ruins of the old territories. Life would return there eventually, for certain—but it would be years and years before the place returned to its original state, and Kaena knew she would be in the ground long before then. The coyote relaxed, listening to the birds scream at the sun, pleading for it to say just an hour longer. She was far more comfortable at night, having grown accustomed to traveling by it and sleeping during the day during her long time away.

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#2
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Hai! (500+)

........
The dark girl was young, not yet an adult to be true, but it did not mean that she did not find a purpose in life to be a necessity. The more the girl thought about this, the more she loathed her past. Not because of what it had made her become, but because of her fabricated beliefs. Their world had been all about the magnificent family she came from, that she was a part of despite the fact that the wolf was strong in her. Together with age came clearness, and she could not look away from the fact that her father had forged one giant lie that had dominated her life from the moment he had taken her from and turned her against her mother. She had given off the impression that she had taken the news from her uncle with ease, but things were not that simple. She wished things could be black and white, so it would be easier to gain a proper perspective of things, but the real world was not very easy to be involved with.

........
She wondered if her brothers felt as confused and betrayed as she did. Did Jael really want to be here? Halo too had been rather horrible to him in the past merely because the way his appearance turned out. He looked like their mother. He looked like a wolf. Despite this, he had the same genes as the rest. He had just been less lucky. This reminded her of that judging individuals merely because of their appearance and race could actually be a very wrong thing to do. This realization was more an annoyance than anything else. She did not want to consider these things. She wanted to live the dream her father had told her about. There was just one problem; that it had seemingly been all a lie. Gabriel did not even seem to care. He had not seen the doggish leader after she had been granted a spot in the clan. Maybe she had just expected too much.

........
Ruby eyes watched the clouds attempting to imitate her eyes’ brilliant colour from her spot in the window. Things were so quiet here, nothing like what the young Lykoi had expected when she had come to Inferni, full of energy and the need to gain proper life experience the hard way. Eyes sharpened as she saw a figure moving down on the ground. From the short glimpse, it seemed to be another Inferni member that she had yet to meet. The girl moved from the window quickly, awaiting the sound of the front door opening as she casually yet very elegantly walked down the stairs. Nothing happened, and when the girl had her two legs firmly placed on the ground floor and the short time went by with no sound, she felt disappointment take over. Had this only been an illusion?

........
She was about to go and open the front door herself when she hear the sound of a door handle being jiggled. The girl turned around and hurried over to the sound that had been picked up by her oversized ears, but it was again quiet in the large house. She did not know the property well, but she knew the other doorways were. The youth turned the lock around from the inside and heard it click gently. She slowly pushed the handle down and pushed the door ajar, poking a head out to see if there still was someone here. There was. ”Hey there,” the young girl sang out friendly, although there was some detectable uncertainty mixed in there. Why hadn’t the stranger used the front door?

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#3
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http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/ ... tblood.jpg); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:fixed; padding-top:248px; padding-left:25px; padding-right:25px; padding-bottom:10px;">
mall-caps;">Out of Character
    Yee, I am so glad Kae gets to meet her grandbebes!


mall-caps;">In Character
    The edges of the sky were growing darker by the minute, and as Kaena watched for a few moments, she took her pack from behind her and dug her hand in, brushing past a number of objects to the bottom. She felt hard, sharp things there—remnants of the man she'd chased across the country—and then her hand found the tiny metal case she kept her cigarettes in. She didn't have many left, and she had been smoking far less since leaving the Malai Ratree clan. Traveling long nights made cigarette breaks wasteful. She'd survived on just thirty or so since leaving there—and now she was on the last one of Rangi's tightly-rolled brown cigarettes, flavored with a strange spice he had never identified to her and just a tiny hint of marijuana sprinkled near the end of it. He had been adamant about that; though he rarely drank and only occasionally smoked straight marijuana, and never so much as dabbled in the heavier substances that could have been obtained in some of the dingier alleyways of the outpost.


    The cigarette was more than a little stale, and the harsher-than-usual smoke scratched her lungs. It burned fast, and she exhaled a cloud of smoke into the slight breeze. The Lykoi watched it fly away, and after a moment she heard noise behind her, inside the house. She hadn't wanted to enter through the front for that reason—though it wasn't clearly marked as anyone's property, the newcomer didn't want to barge in and startle anyone. She turned her head just as the younger Lykoi's head peeked from around the door. This one, too, was familiar—Gabriel had told her she had six descendents and thus far, she had only met Enigma and Zana. That left four unknowns, and it was likely that this was one of them. Inferni had something above ten coyotes, and if the Lykoi genes ran through seven of them, they were nearly the majority.


    The girl's eyes struck Kaena for a moment—they were that brilliant, deep red of a de le Poer. The girl's face was another ghost of Kaena's past, so vaguely similar yet completely new. The Lykoi placed her immediately—there was no way that this youth was not one of her grandchildren. She had sounded almost anxious in calling out, but there was no anger or fear in her voice—just nervousness. The grayed hybrid studied her for a short moment, red-brown coyote fur tinged with charcoal. She was far too large to be pureblood or even mostly coyote. If her father was Vitium, like Enigma, she was mostly wolf on her father's side to begin with. A fully wolf mother would make her practically a wolf—but the coyote generally sang strong regardless of wolf percentage in Lykoi descendents, it seemed. It helped that Kaena herself had a hefty dose of dog, giving her children and grandchildren an even more unique, exotic appearance.


    "Another Lykoi?" she said with a grin plastered across her face. Her scars wrinkled and the left half of her face did not so much smile as it did grimace, but the light in her eyes displayed her elevated mood well enough. She took another pull of her cigarette, taking it almost to the end. The spice of marijuana hit her tongue and spun into her head, but it was hardly enough to do much more than that. After another pull, she carefully stubbed the thing out on the ground, and flicked it into the bushes. It was all paper and tobacco—naturally, a hand-rolled canine cigarette had no fiberglass filter.

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#4
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Well, I hope Kaena wont mind some worshiping once Halo realizes who she is. O_O (500+)

........
The heavy odour of cigarette hit the young girl in the face, and for a moment she could not keep a disgusted frown from climbing on to her face, but it was mainly due to the element of surprise. The girl’s delicate face smoothed out quickly enough, and her lips parted slightly to allow the majority of her breath be drawn through her mouth instead of her overly sensitive nose. Surely it was only a matter of getting used to the smell. It was the same thing with alcohol. The girl found the scent mildly compulsive, but perhaps the scent would smooth out and signify something luscious instead of bad if she actually began to drink the fire water. Back with her orange knight, it had not been the most wonderful taste, but she believed it was something she could easily get used to.

........
The face of the woman sitting on the porch was not particularly beautiful. Perhaps once it had been, but age and war had marred the woman’s appearance. This was something entirely different from the wolf that she had met just a month ago. The reddish wolf’s face had been disfigured by a great numbers of scars, and Halo had found her quite ugly, at least if she was to compare that wolf with herself. The difference was great. The coyote hybrid’s(it had to be) face was quite something else, despite that her face too spoke of war. There was something more that inhabited that body. Wisdom and age. Every scar could tell its story, and that story would not be stained with unworthiness like the wolf’s scars had done.

........
The girl wondered who had taken the woman’s eye. Halo almost flinched when the older female spoke. Already, the girl felt slightly inferior to the other, as if a natural instinct told her that her place was beneath this individual. The other luperci’s smile was slightly frightening, but it radiated warmth, and kept the girl from flinching a second time. The Lykoi offspring could feel her ruby eyes widen slightly. A revelation was slowly creeping up towards her, but had yet to make contact to reveal its blow. Slowly, the rest of the girl’s body slipped out into the advancing evening air, though her eyes had no interest in the last displays of magnificent colours across the sky as the sun bade its farewell.

........
”Yes.” the dark hybrid could hear herself utter, in lack of anything more intellectual to say. She felt that she was missing out on something that should be obvious. Perhaps Vitium’s daughter would have known who was in front of her sooner if it had not been for the general belief that his mother was dead. Halo’s grandmother on her father’s side would have been around nine, ten years by now, and she knew very few managed to make it to that age, at least if they were as conflicted as the Lykoi matriarch had been. There were many stories about her, but the young girl no longer knew what was a lie and what was truth. Vitium’s words could no longer be trusted. ”How can you tell..” the girl wondered openly, failing to discover some of her own features that were apparent behind the masses of scars and life experience in the other woman.

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#5
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mall-caps;">Out of Character
    Hahah, Kaena? You kidding?! XD



mall-caps;">In Character
    Kaena had dabbled with substances all her life, but she had never taken heavily to any of them. Alcohol had become something of a crutch while she was with the Ratrees, and in her journey home she had not touched the stuff once. Neither had the opportunity to drink presented itself here—Kaena clearly recalled 'Souls as something of a dry territory, with liquor somewhat more difficult to obtain, as there weren't any bars around the corner here. The hybrid considered that a good thing. Alcoholism was not a pretty thing to succumb to, and Kaena knew she was stronger than that.


    The youth confirmed her suspicions, and the grin across Kaena's multi-colored face did not fade, clearly showing off her yellowed, still-deadly canines. The other female slipped out of the house, and came fully into the light. She was not so tiny and petite as a coyote in her body, but a slender muzzle and enlarged ears proclaimed her mixed blood clearly. Her fur was dark, almost black in many spots, though she carried the telltale chestnut splashes of color so telling of a coyote. Her eyes were even more striking now that Kaena could see the rest of her, two intense rubies stuck into the shady mask over her face. The much younger Lykoi asked a question, and Kaena answered by turning all the way around to face her fully, standing up and touching the blood-red star tattooed across the upper part right of her chest.


    The Lykoi matron had established them here—she was the direct ancestor to all Lykois who walked the earth here, excepting her cousin and Zarah's child, neither of whom had stayed for long anyhow. "I know what we look like," the coyote answered, and the hybrid before her was every bit a Lykoi. Her eyes clearly proclaimed her de le Poer blood, tagging her as one of Ahren's grandchildren. "Kaena," the ashen hybrid introduced herself, remaining standing for whatever might come—a formal handshake, a leaping hug, or a screaming match. The grin had finally faltered, the right side of her face beginning to ache with the pull of her facial muscles. mild anxiousness tainting her elevated mood. Zana had been visibly displeased with the elder hybrid's absence; she clearly recalled that from the day she had walked back over Inferni borders for the first time in nearly two years. She wondered if this one would hold it against her, too. It wouldn't have been too much of a surprise, and the Lykoi sympathized with Zana and anyone else who might call her a deserter. Kaena Lykoi was a shirker, and she had left everything behind in pursuit of a monstrosity who hadn't held a fraction of the same love for her mother.

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#6
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Totally! XP (500+)

........
A lingering suspicion turned into the well late revelation when the older woman turned around. The star on her chest was all Halo needed to see to get punched in the face with what should have been obvious from the moment she had seen the elder’s face. Of course. When the woman’s hand rose to touch the blood-red tattoo, Halo wanted to do the same, wanted to reach out and touch her grandmother and her legacy. Instead of doing this the young girl let slender fingers brush over her own skin, right beneath the collar bone on the upper right of her chest. This changed everything. The teenager lifted her gaze from the chaos star to gaze into that lonely gold eye. The girl’s ruby eyes intensified from a sparkle of fire into a large wildfire. The hybrid’s oversized ears folded in a hesitant wave of disbelief before the evidence again turned that disbelief into realization once again. It really was her grandmother. Who would have believed she was still around.

........
If the Lykoi girl had seen Gabriel as a saint, then Kaena was God in all her glory. The dark girl had never bothered much to figure out what exactly her brothers thought of their (believed) long dead grandmother, but Halo had always had an unhealthy obsession with the great female Lykoi. Perhaps this was because Halo was the lone girl and had mainly been raised by her father. The girl’s eyes wandered over the older woman’s body, and the feeling of shame kicked in, as expected. What did Kaena think of her? Although the wolf in her was not as obvious as it should be, parts of the girl still screamed it. She was more wolf than anything else. What would her famous grandmother think of such a dirty granddaughter with the treacherous wolf running so strong in her veins? Halo’s face had not recovered enough to be able to dull down the expressions that made themselves apparent in the hybrid’s face as her mind worked on this unbelievable scene.

........
There was another issue present as well. What the hell was Halo supposed to do now? More than anything, the girl wanted to touch the matron. She wanted to reach out and feel the warmth that she had so longed for. Her hand still brushed the empty spot on her own chest, and her nails dug into the skin, as if she finally realized that there was something missing. A smile finally broke out and settled on the girls lips, and could only bloom to one of her most beautiful and dazzling smiles. These had usually been faked and reserved for those individuals she wanted to attempt to control, but today it was served because an uncommon amount of happiness exploded inside her chest and spread through her body. It was really her!

........
”Kaena!” the girl managed to press out. Her body crouched slightly as if the girl planned to throw herself straight at the much older woman. However, Halo managed to stay where she was, in lack of any good reaction. Instead of risking to do anything that might could turn the woman into a cold version of Gabriel as he had appeared on the borders, the girl attempted to leash some of the overly joyful emotions that rushed through her. Roses bloomed on her delicate cheeks, under the already copperish red fur, thankfully invisible. ”I thought you were dead..” the girl whispered, unable to remove her eyes from her grandmother’s form, her adoration more than obvious.

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#7
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mall-caps;">Out of Character
   We should turn this thread into a thing for this game thing because Kae could be all "I haz stories" for the Immunes thing (she'd be the best veritas ever XD) and Halo could learn Inferni history. It would be epic?! :o



mall-caps;">In Character
    The hybrid knew all about being the lone girl—though she was born with three sisters and no brothers, she was the only one left after a few months, and the only half-brother she'd ever known was a vile bastard. Of all her children, she'd only born seven girls, three of whom still existed in some form. Rikka might still be alive, but she'd wandered far and away and hadn't returned again, and Kaena made no assumptions. Corona was alive, but she had been raised in Chimera for much of her childhood, and Kaena had never been extremely close with the golden hybrid. She didn't know where Rachias was—her coyote daughter could be anywhere by now. There was of course, Maeryn... but Maeryn was long dead, rotted to dust just outside of the old territory. Ahemait was her princess, her closest, lovely daughter—but now even she was elsewhere, drawn away by her own family and her own children, cousins of the coyote before her.


    The youth touched her own chaos star, seared brightly over her own chest. Pride swelled in Kaena's heart, and she recalled reading and listening those old books with their wonderful smell. It was slightly musty and definitely ancient, but it was not unpleasant, and cracking open those frail antiques and devouring the knowledge within them was wonderful. Kaena came to enjoy that smell, spending nights by candles in the Citta Umana, reading and dreaming what to name her demon's children. She had come across the symbol there, eight points extending outward from a ringed center, arrows depicting every conflicting direction. It was chaos, and her breed was chaos—the rose-eyed youth before her broke out into a lovely smile, spreading across her face warmly. Kaena watched it and matched it with a half-effort of her own, the right side of her face too scarred to truly hold expression. It more or less snarled, the teeth half-bared, but on the far side of her face, where the scar tissue was not so knotted and her eye still sat in its socket, there was a grin.


   For all her life, Kaena had struggled with her hybrid blood. She knew Andre was not a full-blooded coyote—he was only a quarter so, and the rest of him was pure wolf. He had told her so one evening in the twilight, walking with her while he explained the Lykoi way, and how he had been exiled for his defiance of policy: his affair with her mother. She was a hybrid and he was son of the Alpha pair, heir to the throne and betrothed to Sabryne Vicis, a full-blooded wolf. They had been trying to breed out the hybrid in their blood for two generations, and Andre would have been the one to almost completely bury the coyote in the Lykoi blood... only he'd accidentally bifurcated the Lykoi blood and created a mutt offshoot, one that would have appalled any of Kaena's living wolf relatives.


   "Good to meet you," she said through her smile. Kaena could be extremely austere at times, but reunions and familial first meetings were exceptions to these rules. The youth seemed overjoyed to see her, and Kaena was quite happy to have such a reaction—she immediately pressed forward and drew close to the youth, pressing her muzzle to the darker coyote's shoulder and inhaling her scent. She smelled clearly of Inferni and little else. Kaena didn't need to verbally express her joy at meeting a family member excited to see her; the inky tip of her tail wavered in the air and proclaimed it for her. The phrase was one she'd heard a lot lately, and each time it wasn't growing easier to hear. She shook her head from side to side, and tapped the freshest scar, the jagged one streaked across her belly. "Not quite." There was actual laughter from her, a sort of strange sound—almost as if it were somewhat rusty from underuse.

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#8
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Yus Yus, I always get addicted to those silly pack games. Oh, and btw, Halo does not have a Lykoi star on her chest (YET!!), but cough cough if Kaena ever would be willing to give her one.. hinthinthintwink (500+)

........
The girl had been on her own in many ways for quite a while. From the moment she had been taken from her ivory mother she had learned to hate her. Despite this, there was always something missing. A woman role model. She had spent many nights yearning to know the women from her great family line. There had not been many (not many that were important enough to be mentioned at least), but Kaena had been the greatest of them all. Most of her father’s stories had a male acting out as the great hero or villain, but none of these had been able to accomplish more than the woman that had created them all. She had lived dangerously and ruled with an iron fist. She was the image that the Lykoi girl reached out to. She had always thought it was a shame that they would never meet. It was no understatement that Kaena’s son, and therefore also the son’s daughter, had underestimated the head of the Lykoi family.

Her gaze traced the eight pointed star on the other woman, greedily aching to have that glistering blood red embed onto her own skin. She wanted to know her place. She wanted to turn the stories into something real. Now, after her uncle’s harsh words, she did no longer trust what her father had told her. It had been a crushing defeat when she had turned up at the borders and been met with harsh words from someone she had been prepared to serve faithfully under long before she had left her small family to seek out the infamous Inferni clan. It was obvious now why Vitium had not gone with them. It should have been obvious back then as well, but they had all been blind. Children usually were. She loathed herself for not figuring this out on her own. She had wanted her uncle to be happy to see her, to know that she existed.

It was a relief to see the open face of her grandmother. Although the other woman’s smile was almost more a grimace than anything else because of her scarred face, she was nothing but beautiful in the young girl’s eyes. The woman’s kind words made the girl’s ruby eyes sparkle with rare warmth. Before Halo was given enough time to lose control and throw herself at the woman, Kaena made the move herself. For a moment the young hybrid stiffened, but it did not take long before she managed to relax and lean her own muzzle against the older woman’s shoulder. It took another moment before she decided to wrap her arms around her father’s mother. The pressure was gentle, almost nonexistent at first. She feared the other female would crumble into dust and turn out to be illusory.

She wanted to be a child again. She wanted to go back in time and show Kaena the first mouse she ever killed. Her first self made necklace. The day she beat up Enigma, all those pretty little memories she had spent without a female parental figure. This did not necessarily mean that Halo and Kaena would be this close, but the girl had no difficulties with letting her mind go wild. It was all just so.. overwhelming. As on cue, Halo’s tail too started waving excitedly, finally catching up with now when there were less chaos inside her. When the woman commented the girl’s words, she drew back just a bit to gaze down on the woman’s belly. The scar was brighter than the rest. She wondered what the woman had spent her latest years on. She had been told that Kaena had forever been loyal to Inferni, and that had to be why she was back.

”Oh..” the girl breathed out. She wondered if she would ever be able to live a life similar to what her grandmother had. So many scars with so many stories to tell. Halo’s body was flawless, without any marks that made her special. Although she knew she was uncommonly beautiful, it was just a hollow title to be called pretty. That was all they saw her as; a pretty little girl with her silly dreams. She did not want it to be like this. She wanted to be a fighter, a protector, a Lykoi not only in flesh and blood and name, but also in spirit and soul. ”You’re so pretty..” the girl suddenly said, letting her fingers stroke a few of the many scars all over the woman’s body. Her finger tips finally found the Lykoi star, and she traced the tattooed skin. ”Did you get most of these while living in Inferni?” Could the stories be true after all? Some of them had already proved to be accurate, but others had been lies.

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#9
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http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/ ... tblood.jpg); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:fixed; padding-top:248px; padding-left:25px; padding-right:25px; padding-bottom:10px;">
mall-caps;">Out of Character
    Me tooooo. xD Oops, I'm sorry. I misread that, then! I suck. But Kae would be wiling to give Halo a tattoo. Apparently, Matthieu taught her, but we never finished the thread. D: And zomg, if Halo can make necklaces, Kaena has a tooth that she wants made into one. It would be a good trade!


mall-caps;">In Character
    Something in Kaena sang; she was too pleased to be so well-received by the youth. There was nothing but wonder in those crimson eyes, and Kaena soaked it all in. She had always been egotistical and she was a very proud creature, though not vain in the least. The silver hybrid was the furthest thing from that—some viewed her scars as ugly, and others saw them for what they were: badges of pride, the indelible marks of warfare. Each one sang a story, each one had flowed blood from her veins and made her just a little bit stronger. There was a hug, and Kaena in turn wrapped her arm around the youth, holding her closer. Her tail wagged wildly at that; there was no animosity between them. This was a fresh slate—this coyote did not remember her from before her long departure. On the contrary, she hadn't even been alive when Kaena had left. It felt good.


   They stepped apart, though remaining close, each one devouring the other's appearance. Halo's fur was a dark red-gold in some places, with deep patches of a darker, ash-gray. She was similar to her father in that regard, but she had her grandfather's eyes. They struck Kaena, and looking at them made her hurt for Ahren. She wondered if Vitium had told her anything about the de le Poer, she wondered if the young Lykoi before her knew any of the legacy behind the twin bloodlines coursing through her. She knew enough of the de le Poer line to hold a deep respect for those who carried it, her own offspring or not. Halo touched her scars, and Kaena almost jerked away—there were precious few who dared to touch her where the fur ended and naked, puckered skin showed through on the other side. Kaena held herself there, showing no outward signs of discomfort, and even the inward ones faded as Halo spoke. The words were something of a surprise, and Kaena almost immediately shook her head, denying the statement though she was grinning awkwardly again.


   Beautiful she was not; perhaps in another lifetime the Lykoi would have been, with all of her slender coyote features, her lanky, slim body, and her long, limber legs. Her mother had robbed her of that immediately, forever marking the hybrid and her long-dead sisters as Cruorem children. Kaena had never identified herself by that name; from the first thoughts she could form she had rejected it, and when she learned her fathers surname she became a Lykoi as easily and smoothly as though she'd been born one. The question also surprised the hybrid, and her own gray hand went to her face, tracing the crescent beneath her right eye. Salvaged had given it to her, though as Kaena remembered, she had done him worse—he'd spent the last months of his life with one eye, as she now walked the earth thanks to another wolf. The youth before her, on the other hand—she was beautiful, and all Kaena would have hoped for in a granddaughter.



    "This one," she said. There were the four thick, jagged slashes over her left shoulder, the tip of the middle-right scar almost touching the northernmost tip of her chaos star. There were four more slashes across the opposite forearm, more widely spaced apart and shallower than the ones across her shoulder. "A wolf gave me this for wandering "too close" to pack borders," she spoke, derision in her tone as she remembered that pesky bastard. He hadn't even smelled of Storm, yet he'd interrogated her like the good pack scout he pretended to be. Later, that same rat bastard had showed up on her territory and hurt her children. But he'd come face to face with more than just one Lykoi that day, and they'd driven him out in short order.


   "Your oldest uncle gave me this." The ashen hybrid hurt as she thought of Kerberos, as she always did. She remembered battling him in the city, tasting his blood and cutting him open. She hadn't intended to kill him; for certain, if she had, she could have—but they'd both walked away alive that day. There were a few more smaller ones, nicks and cuts here and there that she had gained in defense of Inferni, but there were no more of note she had obtained while acting in defense of the clan. "The rest are older than Inferni," she finished. The statement was almost nonchalant, but even through Kaena's lack of eloquence, it held power.

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#10
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Absolutely. Halo makes necklaces and bracelets mostly from her pet rats when they start eat and kill eachother XP but if Kaena just specify how she wants her necklace, Halo can do it. Basically she would do anything for a tattoo from Kaena. (500+)



This day has brought her a new life at sundown. To have gotten hold of such a certainty, that the old woman was real and even alive. It would keep the younger Lykoi going. After a while it was more than likely that she would realize that not Kaena either was entirely what she had expected the woman to be, but expectations always rose higher than what could be given. The woman was real, her scars were real. It meant something. The ruby eyed girl did not fear the day the full realization of her father’s betrayal manifested itself in her, because she was quickly coming to terms with the fact that he probably was not well. Perhaps it was the curse of the de le Poer that had managed to fill him with its black taint. If that was the case, she hoped he would manage to kill himself rather than be killed by others. It would be better that way. If Vitium ever was to dare to show his cowardly hide at Inferni borders, Halo knew that she and her siblings would probably have the honour to kill those lights in their father’s eyes. She could handle that. She would be what her father had failed to be, what he had wished to be. A loyal servant of Inferni.

The girl had been completely unaware of Kaena’s discomfort when the granddaughter’s soft fingertips had traced some of the old battle scars. The girl was able to see the old hybrid in a different way than most others did. Scars maimed the body, stole beauty forever. Shallow as the dark hybrid was, she had surprised herself when she had told her grandmother that she was pretty. She had sincerely meant it. If anything, her body screamed out that the older hybrid had lived a life worth living. Halo did not doubt that it hat times had been a lonely and miserable life, but the woman had lived long and given birth to a whole new family. Despite the fact that Halo had only known this woman for a small moment, she felt a deep and irresistible adoration for the older woman. It felt like she had come to the border a second time and been met with warm acceptance. The worry did not sting half as deep as it had earlier because of Halo’s strong wolf genes. It seemed that the older Lykoi saw her as worthy enough despite that. It warmed. It helped.

The girl’s scarlet eyes went to the four parallel lines on the woman’s shoulder. Her oversized ears flickered forward to listen to the woman’s words, taking in the tones that were used and the odd lack of a particular accent. The explanation sent a shadow over the young girl’s face. It did not matter how old the scars were. They were there. It had happened. If the girl would have allowed her emotions to run completely freely, she would have boiled and eventually managed to get enough fuel to throw herself into a blind rage. There was nothing to be done about the past, but she could hear Vitium whisper gently in her ear, adding similar stories that would serve as nutrition when she would meet her next wolf. They thought they were gods because they were a majority, but they were so fucking wrong. She could never forgive that kind for everything they had done to the girl’s family. The starving rodents in the cages in her room ached to taste flesh as well, and Halo would soon give them blood, flesh and bones.

There were scars that received the older woman’s focus yet no explanation. Halo did not press on. She understood. However, she felt disappointment rip through her own skin when Kaena announced that some scars had even been given by her own kin. The girl let her mind hit the search button to find the name of her oldest uncle. Kerberos. She had not and would never meet the man. It was a good thing. The girl was experiencing something quite new. Feelings similar to that of a Protector’s perhaps. The need to protect and avenge those who wronged those who had her loyalty. The girl only smiled her delicate smile as the older hybrid finished. What Kaena had shared with her was merely the very tip of the giant iceberg. That was alright though. Those memories belonged to Kaena and only Kaena. Halo wondered if she would ever manage to follow in the infamous woman’s footsteps. God, she would try. ”My father, Vitium-“ the girl started, uncertain if the woman had already guessed her sire’s name. ”He was always full of stories, but when I came to Inferni I found out that he is a liar and a traitor.” The girl’s delicate tones included a fragment of that hurt that had come with that realization.

”I’ve heard so much about my magnificent heritage and Inferni, but I do not know what is real and what’s not.” she finished silently, allowing her voice to die. For a moment the girl stayed silent, but then a thought hit her and filled her with regret. ”I’m Halo.” the bright melody quickly added. Better late than never. Halo Lykoi. Those two names sang nicely together. Once upon a time she had gone under the name Halo Soul, but that was a very long time ago. Colibri's family was not Halo’s family.

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#11
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   Hokay, so, for this thread, then, we'll have them talk a little about Inferni history and such, and at some point Kae can be like "I needz a necklace D:" and Halo can be like "I can do that!" and then Kae will offer her a chaos star in return, and we can thread again after this one? :o


mall-caps;">In Character
    She had lost her eye long before Inferni, in a different valley far from here. She'd found one of the alphas of the neighboring packs snooping around in the coyote valley, and they'd battled fiercely. That same wolf who had taken her eye—Kryptic—he had given her that slash on the left side of her face, the largest of her facial scars. Kaena lost her eye, but she won the fight, driving the pack wolf back to his home on the other side of the mountains. They had not given her so much as a glance when she had lurked on their borders, waiting for a scout to approach her. She had been even less accommodating in return, when she served beneath Raptor and Svenlia as the subleader of the Darklands Clan. Zarah had been there with her, but they were merely acquaintences then—it would be almost another year before they met again on the beach after scattering, running like hell from the volcanic fire and lava that had swept their lands.

    The ash-colored hybrid knew Vitium had triplets, and that they had showed up on Inferni's border, but if it weren't for that, she would not have bet that Halo was one of them. Her features were heavily coyote; Kaena honestly would have sooner put her as Samael's offspring than Vitium's, were it not for those de le Poer eyes. The Lykoi nodded, a sour look crossing her face at the mention of her defector son. He had probably told his three children all of his own twisted version of the Lykoi history, painting her as the betrayer for casting him out of Inferni following the mess with that Aremys wolf. Her heart hurt thinking of that day, but there was little regret for her actions. She loved Vitium and would always, but he was a danger to the clan and could not be trusted within its borders, so long as she was Aquila. It was likely Gabriel maintained Vitium's banishment, since he had been witness to his brother's treachery.

   When the youth finished and finally introduced herself, the Tirones' features lit up, and she repeated the name, her voice filled with uncharacteristic adoration. This was her flesh and blood. The hybrid gave her a smile, and shook her russet-splashed head. "Viti betrayed us, yes," she began, reaching out to place her hand-paw over Halo's, squeezing it briefly. "But liar and traitor he was, at least he did not raise you to believe you are a wolf." Halo had known Kaena's name. Halo had known enough to come knocking on Inferni's border with her siblings; Vitium had given her the knowledge enough to seek out her Lykoi family. That was enough. In his way, Viti had taken care to repay the debt he owed Inferni and Kaena.

    The coyote paused, considering. She had perhaps the largest repository of knowledge about Inferni. She had been here since its very beginning, after all, though there were gaping holes in her memory, some half-filled, and others—her most recent excursion—still fresh and shadowy. Part of her longed to write the story down, to put to paper the bloody history that had birthed them. Although the Lykoi had learned to read eventually, she had never known anyone who possessed the skill to write more than a few words or a sentence. "I was a part of Inferni's beginning," she said, her head drifting back to that night on the beach. It had been a crisp, clear October night, and the waves were rocking the beach as hard as they ever had, perhaps aware that something was brewing in the sand just outside of their reach. "I could clear some of the fog," she added, hesitant to disparage Vitium again. She didn't know just how close Halo had been to her father, and how much pain that relationship still caused her.

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#12
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Yush, Yush, would have been awesome. Sorry for the wait btw! (500+)



The girl’s copperish ears folded slowly when the older Inferni member confirmed what Gabriel had told her. Kaena was Halo’s father’s mother, and even she acknowledged it. The girl could see the hybrid turn slightly sour now when Vitium’s name had been spoken out loud. This was how it should be though, and she wondered if she would ever be able to accept it without feeling sadness in her heart. After all, he was her father and he had not been a terrible parent. He had saved them from lives as wolves, but she would obviously not have known what she would have missed out on if she had stayed with her mother. This life seemed much more exciting though, and she would make sure to spice it up soon. Halo Lykoi would also be a name to be recognized. Oh, how she wanted it to be. The dark girl did not know where the intense need to be acknowledged of came from, but she felt a need to defend her title as a member of those magnificent family lines with all those famous and amazing individuals.

The young Lykoi could only nod when the Matron acknowledged that there was at least one thing that had been done right by her dark father. One thing, but not much more. It was a shame, but the daughter promised herself that she would not become a bad apple like he had. However, she hoped that she would hear the full story one day, from both sides. When Kaena paused, Halo stayed silent. Her blood-red gaze slowly traced the grassy ground before it sought after the last colours from the sundown in the horizon.

The girl’s eyes quickly returned to her grandmother’s appealing face. Was that true? Had Kaena truly been there from the start? She felt like a small cub again, snuggling up against her siblings, picking out stories about the famous Inferni and the Lykoi and the de le Poer. The girl’s face lightened up again merely by the thought, and she clasped her hands together in silent cheering when the lovely woman said that she could clear some of the fog. Despite everything that had happened and given the girl doubt in the past, she felt beyond alive now. She had dived straight into one of her dreams. She truly was here in Inferni, and the head of the Lykoi family was treating her like if she actually was worthy of being spoken to. Halo fought the need to let out a pleading whimper in anticipation and agreement, determined not to ruin any positive impression her grandmother might have gotten so far. Oh, how she thirsted after those true versions of the stories.

”I would love to,-“ the girl started, but hesitated when she almost added grandmother to the end of the sentence. Would the older woman see it as rude to call her by a name that could hint that she was old? Did she prefer Kaena? The younger Lykoi was sure it was no big deal either way, but it was to her. She wanted to be perfect, she wanted Kaena to think highly of her. She wanted to be like her famous grandmother. She wanted the scars and the wisdom and knowledge. She wanted to be her.

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Hooray. X3 Noo problem! Halo is cute. <3 And omg massive speech post, but I didn't want this thread to drag on forever.



    There was something amiss living life in another's shadow. Kaena had realized it too late, after serving beneath Zarah as the subleader and quickly abandoning her leadership post. She had given away control of Inferni willingly to Arlo, but she had regretted that brief venture into leadership, and upon her return, sought to carve her legacy in another way: family. In the end, she got a second chance at leadership, and while it was also brief, it had not failed to leave its mark. The borders of the old territories were forever altered thanks to the Lykoi matron, and perhaps this incarnation of Inferni would not exist were it not for her second reign. Satisfied with both now, she was content to cultivate what she'd created and helped to create.


   The youth started and stopped, though Kae didn't know why she had hesitated. Her head cocked to the side and she smiled encouragement at the youth. She was a golden child—readily accepting and nearly reverent of Kaena. Even if she hadn't been so friendly and open, it had always been difficult for her to be angry at her children—few instances stuck out in her mind, and generally, the anger was fast-fading unless the offense was huge. Her grandchildren were much the same, but precious in a far more delicate way. They were the newest generation of Inferni, all of them roughly at or under a year of age, a brood lacking a figure to look up to. Kaena was not their mother, but she could act in her stead, guiding them until they didn't need her anymore. Gabriel didn't need her anymore. Kaena knew that, and that hurt her—but he hadn't needed her for a long time, and she had just been slow to realize it. But her departure was good for him, anyway—it had jettisoned him into the Aquila position, of which he filled with every ounce of his being. The golden hybrid radiated regality, and he was every bit the Aquila Inferni needed.


    Kaena drifted for a moment after Halo spoke, gathering her thoughts. She was not usually one to babble on, and she liked to plan what she said if she knew she had a lot to convey. The thoughts rushed into her head all at once, and it took her a moment to sort through them and decide what she would say. "Inferni started with just me and Yasu Zarah. We had both been members of a coyote clan together before, so when we met on the beach, I thought we should relive those days, and she called together a few of her friends. She lead us, and I was her right hand," Kaena said, remembering that scrappy bunch well—Eclipse, Mune, Riot, and Kesho. They were just seven at first—and their numbers only slipped, adding Arlo while subtracting Mune immediately and Eclipse shortly thereafter, wavering around six before plunging following Zarah, Riot, and Kaena's departure.


    The history of the Lykoi family was certainly interwoven with that of Inferni, and Kaena told the first part of their history with a heavy heart, the hurt in her voice especially apparent as she mentioned Zulifer by name. "I fell in love with a coyote in a wolf's body, and I was to bear his children. A former lover of mine, another wolf, killed Zulifer just days before I had Kerberos and Maeryn," she said. The next part of the story was harsh, and of failure. "Zarah left Inferni, and I lead it for only a short time before my broken heart drove me to leave the clan to her adopted son, Arlo Xyl. In the end, he raped Kiriska, alpha of Clouded Tears, and Ceres Sadira killed him after she died giving birth to Laruku Tears. Inferni was just one coyote when Kidorah happened upon its sands," she continued.


    "She took leadership of the clan, and though our numbers improved, she allowed something of an alliance with a wolf pack that settled to the south, conceding a piece of territory to them in the end. During her leadership, I returned to the area with vengeance on my mind—I wanted the blood of the wolf who killed Kerberos' father," she said, refusing to name Zulifer again. She recalled her time spent slinking on the outskirts of Jaded Shadows, finally plunging into their territory. It was once of the few instances after her near-loss of life on Clouded Tears territory that she had penetrated wolf borders. She had found Salvaged Eternity that night, and both of them had shed blood—but neither had lost ground, and Kaena returned to Inferni, defeated, and joined its ranks once again.


    "I met the son of Chimera's alpha in the city, and he came to Inferni to help raise our eight children. Gabriel and Vitium were part of that litter. Two of our children were killed by wolves before they reached their first year," the ashen hybrid said darkly, thinking of the aunt and uncle Halo would never know—Ikatha and Baneesh. The coyote hurt as she thought of them, wishing perhaps they had been able to keep a closer eye on their children—but with eight highly mobile, quick children, it was difficult to keep an eye on all of them at all times. They managed to slip away often, but usually returned unscathed shortly thereafter. The hybrid sighed, wondering how many of her grandchildren might have perished a similar way had they been so unlucky.


    "Kidorah gave us a hierarchy, but Kidorah's mate, Segodi, took over not long after their children were born and changed it again. He lead us for a while, and the next summer I had Samael, Razekiel, and Ahemait. They're the children of a lying, bastard coyote, Astaroth. He wasn't much of a bastard then—just a liar. I left Inferni to raise them in the city with Molochai, Gabriel's brother," she said, thinking of the time she'd spent away from the clan. It stretched from late summer to late fall, almost three months. "By the time I returned to Inferni, a stranger was leading it—Roane. I told him I had helped found Inferni, and he handed leadership over to me," she said, a grin crossing her face as she thought of that moment. It was a second chance to prove herself and make her mark on Inferni, which was to make Lykoi its synonym.


    "Many of my wandering children returned during this time. Gabriel, Ahemait, Samael, Molochai, Kerberos, and Vitium," she said, the lie about Eris' origin slipping from her mouth as easily as anything. Some secrets were too dark to reveal so openly. So far as Kaena knew, no one else knew that Eris was Salvaged's child, though others might have certainly guessed it by now. Kerberos hadn't returned to Inferni, no—he'd gone to live with Ahren for some inexplicable reason. Perhaps he'd always felt more wolf than coyote, thanks to Salvaged raising him. At least after she'd thoroughly beaten Kerberos he wasn't vicious toward her anymore. He knew enough to respect his mother's raw power, if he didn't love her enough not to kill her.


    The coyote stopped here, taking a deep breath as she considered the next part of the story. She looked at Halo for a moment, speaking to her instead of relaying information. Her single golden eye gazed at the coppery face of the youth, searching for a reaction as to whether to continue or not. "I don't know if you want to hear about your father's exile," she said, shaking her head, her blazing gold eye leaving the younger coyote's face and gazing at the broken cobblestones of the garden path leading away from the porch for a long moment. The tingle in her brain finally evaporated, and Kaena lamented the death of her last cigarette for a brief second.

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#14
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You crazy poster! (500+)




Halo had many dreams and fantasies that she intended to carry out. This was one of the reasons why she had been so eager to leave and seek out Inferni in the first place. Young puppies wanted to be that knight or that princess from the stories. Halo wanted to be that disastrous holocaust that would bring misery to all that stood in the coyote clan’s way. She should have been born sooner and been a part of Inferni in the clan’s more aggressive days. The young Lykoi did not understand exactly how fragile Inferni would be if all the wolf packs were to turn on their group. She had an idea, but she had yet to realize that this could become an actual issue if the coyotes acted with to much hostility. She wanted them all to suffer for what some wolfish individual had done in the past. The girl had silently judged Gael for his determination to seemingly devote his life to ruin his father instead of living a life of his own, but she was exactly the same in that case. She could deal with Vitium’s betrayal in a way that would make the hurt become distant with time, but she was stuck in the track where she wanted revenge and was willing to devote her life to just that.

The girl’s eyes stayed on the lovely Lykoi Matron when the older woman started with Inferni’s birth, and she was delighted to find that much of the story was quite similar to that of her father’s. However, there was a lot of new information to be picked up, and the girl eagerly took in every word spoken, determined not to miss out on a single thing. Vitium had only explained the general history of Inferni briefly, but Kaena willingly revealed more of her story. The girl was grateful beyond any measurement to hear this. Right here and right now Kaena Lykoi was everything that the girl had dreamt of. It was a hard thing to actually realize that this was her grandmother in flesh and blood. The girl was able to grasp that her adoration for the Lykoi woman was already at an unhealthy level, but she could not help but losing herself in Kaena’s story and the life the older woman had lead. It was so much, and despite the amount of hurt the other surely must have experienced, Halo ached to be her, if only a part of her.

The girl’s facial expression changed when the son of Chimera’s Alpha was mentioned. That was Ahren de le Poer, her grandfather. The girl wondered if he was still alive. He was quite a bit younger than Kaena, but she had also heard the stories of the madness that ran in the de le Poer blood. It ruined people. So many of the pillar stone members of Inferni were gone, but they were still here. Only Gabriel was left of that giant litter of eight. She wondered what had happened to the rest. How could wolves kill innocent puppies? She wanted to ask the ashen Lykoi, but remained silent so that she would not disturb the woman’s story. This did nothing to soothe her dislike for wolves. Halo felt resentment make way for something similar to hatred. At a young age, she had been easy to turn bad. Vitium had done a great job there and the more that was revealed the more she hated the wolf kind and her own wolf genes.

When her father’s exile was mentioned, halo’s face grew troubled. Truthfully, she was not sure if she wanted to or not. Perhaps it was for the best to live unknowing of his crime. Would that be fair to Vitium? His blood ran thick through her veins, yet she wished it could have been different now when he knew that he was a traitor. ”Would it do me any good?” the girl wondered openly, following Kaena’s gaze down to the broken garden path. ”If he is a traitor, then that’s what he is, and I will treat him as such.” she continued, her delicate voice carrying the taint of something that had been broken. For a moment the girl hesitated in the same manner as when she had decided to keep out ‘grandmother’ from her sentence earlier. ”I am more wolf than anything else. I despise myself and what I am.” The wolf topic seemed random now when Vitium was the last subject, and perhaps that was exactly what it was. That sentence did nothing good in the open, but Halo just had to get it out, so that she could better cope with that fact. ”I despise them.” she continued, clutching her hands together into two slightly shaking fists.

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#15
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Only sometimes. Like now, when I know I only have one post to do and I had like, three hours to kill before work. XD



    The ashen hybrid had never intended to make a name for herself. When she was young, she hadn't had any sense of the future. She had known she would die at any moment, and she was prepared for it—she wanted blood and nothing more, and even in the murky, thick fog of violence shrouding her adolescence she had realized that was detrimental to her health. Thus, when she began Inferni, she fought less than she had before, and after having her children, there was another sharp decline in the number of fights Kaena picked. Inferni and her family had given her reason to live, and instead of just mindless bloodlust, Kaena had felt something different stir inside of herself. That feeling was family love—a feeling she hadn't experienced since her father's death. Kerberos and Maeryn failed to awaken those feelings in her immediately, but the deep sense of regret upon leaving Kerberos outside of wolf lands had taken hold just afterward, and she had sought him out shortly thereafter.



    She realized her reason for existence, and upon that she found she had a far stronger will to live. She buried Kairo and carried on, leaving behind the self-destructive tendencies of her youth. The hybrid became almost careful with her live, avoiding the fights that were not likely to end in her favor and avoiding packlands unless she had business there. She hadn't stepped foot on wolf territory uninvited since those two Clouded Tears wolves had nearly killed her except to seek Salvaged, and she was unafraid of his retribution. He was too proud a creature to have rallied his pack behind him, as was she—she might have called down all of Inferni on Skoll and that Aremys wolf, but never Salvaged. He was her responsibility.



    Kaena had not thought of Ahren in a long time, but she hurt for him. She was angry that she'd missed him—both of their paths led back to Bleeding Souls, but at different times. They had brushed past each other, perhaps traveling within five hundred miles of each other at one point or another, and she'd missed him. Maybe now that he was older she might have rekindled something with him, but perhaps not. He'd had other children after her, and she wondered what they looked like. Would it hurt to see his eyes of another woman's offspring? The Lykoi did not want to think about it, and she turned to Halo as the youth spoke.



    At her question, the hybrid appeared thoughtful, her brilliant golden eye focusing on the fast-dimming garden before them and the creeping shadows of twilight. A sparse few lightning bugs lit up here and there, but it was early yet for them. The hybrid followed one for a moment, lost in thought, and turned back to Halo, having found no answer for her question. She spoke again, and there was hesitation—something in her was uncertain if it wished to come forth, but after a moment, it did. The Veritas looked at her granddaughter, not so much surprised as she was sympathetic. The hybrid reached out for her trembling hands, gently seizing hold of one of them and squeezing for a moment before letting go. She remained quiet for a minute, wondering which topic to address first—their shared wolf heritage or her father.



    She chose the less hurtful one first, and nodded. "Most of them aren't evil, they're just damn stupid," she said thoughtfully. It was true#8212;if all of the wolves were vile, coyote-killing scum, Inferni and everyone in it would have been long disbanded. But their carefully structured lives, their pathetic system of submissive and dominant display—it nauseated the Inferni coyote, and she understood exactly what Halo meant. "You were given a choice," she continued, her silver shoulders shrugging slightly. "You could have returned home to whatever pack your mother groveled to, but you came to Inferni." There was nothing she could say to alleviate the hybrid crisis; that was an issue she still had yet to quell within herself and there was little in the way of helpful advice she could give.


    "Viti was always strange. He left when he was still young, and he came back with a very strange woman. She was... canine, I think. Big, hulking, and gray—from Africa," the coyote said, her voice distant at first, growing hesitant and uncertain as she tried her best to describe a hyena without knowing what to name to call it. "She walked on Inferni lands before I knew she was Vitium's, and I confronted her like any other trespasser. She had a strange sense of property," the hybrid added, derision growing in her voice as she thought of Serwa again. "She said that land belonged to no one, and I had no right to claim it—things like that. I chased her off, and later learned Vitium had traveled to Africa and come back with her. He left again not long after, and when he came back without her he was... very, very different," she said morosely.



    Kaena considered Vitium, thinking of the child she'd known his entire life. It was strange, having cultivated something to be a certain way and having it turn out exactly the opposite. What had backfired with Vitium so that he abandoned his mother's every word? His other siblings had absorbed her teachings relatively easily, and it seemed the same with Vitium until he went away the second time. He had changed while he was away—Kaena hadn't been able to find the right words for him until then. "My son the coyote left me and returned as a wolf," the hybrid said after a moment. That was the truth—the Vitium she raised was an Inferni coyote until he left for the second time with Serwa, and he returned something entirely different. There was a deep sigh from the coyote, and she shivered with it, her eyes again drawn to the garden sprawl before them. Likely, they had very different ideas of the same man—as far as Viti had gone to betray his family, Vitium was her child, and Kaena had known both sides of him, the loving, young coyote who had peered at her with brilliant eyes. Halo only knew that dark, twisted side of him, the black-eyed, dark-furred monster who had lied to her about everything she'd ever care about.


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This reply sucks, but hey at least I have a fookin smexy table! (500+)

   
Those who managed to brand their names gloriously into the history were special. Perhaps it was basically a sort of jealousy that drove the girl forwards alongside with pure egoism. She wanted to be at least as good as her brother, but she wanted a spot as a soloing star in the spotlight away from its band. Halo did not know the names of those emotions, not truly. Her childhood had not been a particularly pleasant one. Jael had always been the scapegoat because of his looks, while Halo had silently loathed Enigma for some time for having received most of Vitium’s appearance. The girl had yet to find her own life, although she was oblivious of this. Her father’s brainwash was still highly effective and pushed her forwards. This did have some positive consequences. The youth was determined to give her life for Inferni, already now, despite her short time here. She could hate Vitium for that sudden realization of his treachery, but Inferni was real.

   Her increasing dislike for wolves was strange though. Halo saw it as righteous to set her heart aflame in order to let hate devour her if she received proper evidence in first person. However, she was well aware of her grandfather and his family line. It seemed coyote had infested the leading de le Poer members well, but there was wolf in it. Strong wolf. There were other de le Poer individuals without the coyote blood running through their veins. There was something else running through them, something that made Halo want to see them as good enough. Her distaste for that other canine kind would of course wary together with the individuals she would meet in the future, but she wanted to feel hate gnaw on her bones, howling for her to decorate their coats red. Evil or stupid, both could easily deserve hard sentences for what the Lykoi offspring cared. If there was one thing that should be known about Halo was that she held grudges, even when it was not her right to do so.

   Along with her grandmother’s kind words came the feeling that she was accepted here. The Aquila had accepted her despite the percent of blood in her and her family. Hell, even Jael had seemed to get in without any serious issues. Could it truly be that family kept them together in Inferni? The girl believed she knew the main reason why Jael always had seemed to be the bullied child. He reminded both his siblings of who and what they really were if they truly were to open their eyes. Only in the flesh though. Never had she wanted to belong to a place more than here. This was where her blood lived and where outsiders’ blood would die if they were to threaten their home. Kaena’s explanation confused the young girl. She did not understand how such an arrogant sounding wolf could have had anything to do with her father. Why? He had said himself that wolves were worthless and far from valuable enough to keep around as anything else than entertainment at best. How could he have said such things when he had acted against his own family for one of those creatures?

   Had that strange creature from Africa been a wolf? By the sound of that disrespectful behaviour, it surely sounded like one from the general impression she had from their kind. The ending words sent a shiver of disappointment through her, despite the fact that she already knew the ending. The girl’s ruby eyes sought out the darkening sky for an answer, but found nothing. The dark girl could not change what was, only accept it and act accordingly to this. Oh, she would. Her little friends in cages could show her what she so desperately wanted to see. Pain and blood and death. ”Pity.” her voice dully commented on it all. She could not produce true hate for her father, but she knew she would be able to pierce his throat if it had to come to that. It would not shadow her world if her father’s soul departed from this world.

   The girl’s eyes again drifted to that beautiful tattoo, hunger stirring restlessly inside those flaming orbs. Would it give the older woman comfort to know that Halo would be forever loyal to her kin? Halo wanted to see that warmth in the woman’s amber eyes again. ”My heart belongs to my family and Inferni, nothing will ever change that.” the girl said. Her voice was framed with the absolute certainty a young and wilful mind could forge.


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#17
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No worries, I haven't slept in a while and I expect this reply will suck. xD


    There was something in every creature that screamed out for recognition, desperately pleading to be remembered in a world where their lives were all too brief. Each creature had but a short time to carve his or her name into history, and Kaena had chosen to carve hers in the flesh of others, naturally. The hybrid canine generally brought terror and destruction in her wake, sometimes intentionally and often unintended—but trouble had branded her and it followed her like a persistent black cloud, lingering over her ashen form at all times.



    The name de le Poer in and of itself was a thing of power. Ahren had been something faintly magical, Kaena had realized—born of Chimeran royalty and a crazed cult leader, his existence and the existence of his children were no accident. No other wolf family name could subdue the ashen hybrid into respectful wariness quite like de le Poer. She didn't trust the wolves of that clan, no, but she respected them enough to forego hostility when presented with one. She knew them by their red eyes, but she did not know that those flaring crimson eyes were a flaw of the family, and that the truer color of de le Poer was something like a light blue.



    The coyote herself had no idea what in the hell a hyena was, though if she was presented with an image and a name she would be able to correctly identify it. Unfortunately, Serwa was the only hyena—in life or in an image—that Kaena had ever seen, and so her heritage was a mystery to the gray elder. The hybrid had only known that she was a threat wandering on Inferni's soil, and Kaena had done what she did best—that is, chase her off brutally and quickly. Not surprisingly, accompanying her talk of free earth and other such ideals which amounted to hippie bullshit in the Lykoi woman's eyes, Serwa hadn't been much of a fighter, and she was quickly dispatched.



    The young hybrid on the ashen hybrid's story, and Kaena leaned back against the porch, watching Halo's eyes flicker around her tattoo. The hybrid smiled at her words, and abruptly sat up, struck with a thought. Her brilliant sunny eye was illuminated from the inside, burning with an idea. "I think you need a Chaos Star," she said, excitement building in her gravelly voice. She remembered giving Razekiel his on his ninth month, etching the symbol of their family into his skin forever. It proclaimed him a Lykoi as clearly as anything, and Halo might like to solidify her dedication to her clan and prove to any of her dissenters that she was truly loyal to the coyote clan.

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#18
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Again, so so sorry for wait D: Oh, and I kind of 'added' that Halo is wearing a bracelet, just so that Kaena could get an idea of what Halo can do. (500+)

   
If it was in the flesh her own name had to be carved to be recognized in a similar manner to that of her grandmother, then so be it. Although the girl would be fresh for the fight, she had imagined what would happen after she had arrived here. It was in the nearest future she would discover whether or not she had the mental strength to maul and damage other living beings. In theory she was certain she could, but reality was seldom what one expected as long as experience was lacking. The rodents upstairs in her bedroom were not dull pets that she kept merely to watch starve to death. There was a reason why this was. The girl thought herself very clever for thinking of such a method of extermination. She wanted to be able to watch from the distance and hear the screams. She would not chicken out this time when it would really matter. The orange dog hybrid that she had met in the forlorn city to the south had never managed to take her when it was time. Halo had chickened out and run straight for Inferni grounds and not stopped before she had passed the blessed skulls of unfortunate trespassers.

    The sudden idea rolling over to Halo’s slightly oversized ears caused them to instantly fold towards her skull in instant disbelief before she could fully grasp that thought herself. The loudest question inside her mind was screaming ‘why?’. Betrayal in Inferni was nothing that would be looked upon with understanding eyes, and the eight months old girl had never expected to be accepted so quickly. At least not by her family elders. Kaena had seemed to taken a like to her unlike Gabriel, and the girl silently wondered if the older woman’s age and knowledge were tools that could be used to estimate a creature. Many came here to Inferni, but in the longer run most of them left despite their pledge to serve the clan. She doubted that this would happen to her (where else could she go?), but she knew that one could not have many complete certainties in life. Kaena had established the clan, but she had been on and off. There were things that had dragged her away. That was not betrayal though, far from it.

    There was nothing the red eyed girl wanted more than the mark of the Lykoi etched into her skin. That would mean that Halo Lykoi was real and a true member of the Lykoi clan. She would have to earn her own reputation and so on, but this was something that could only be offered by her grandmother. Other individuals would probably be able to create a tattoo, but this was the head of the Lykoi family that was offering, and that made it extremely special. Kaena should be dead, but here she was. Halo found that her current facial expression was shocked, and quickly smoothed out that surprised frown with a true felt smile that seemed to have its own glow forcing its way out from inside. Her ears stayed folded, but more in a strange form of visible submission than anything else. The girl’s dark tail beat steadily against the back of her legs. Halo had always imagined her grandmother as something fierce and strict, and perhaps Kaena was, but that was not at all the impression she had received so far.

    She felt stripped for breath and words, but eventually managed to forge some words nevertheless. ”I’d do anything..” she whispered, bluntly aware that she had a pleading tone in her voice although the opportunity had already been offered. ”What would you like in return?” Normally Halo would have had no issues with just taking it and walk away, but this was not the case with people she both liked and respected. Halo could be a reasonable and kind person if she just wanted to. This was something that would generally be shown inside the borders of Inferni and only to the clan’s members. In general, Halo seemed to be a snotty and arrogant girl, playing on her looks more than anything and looking down on everything and everyone. Halo’s fingers started to play absently with the bracelet on her right wrist, one of the bone ones. Together with bones from tails and parts of spine (just to give a basic difference between the bone pieces so that there would not be a too simple look) there was a small rodent skull hanging towards the underside of the wrist, emptily staring without any eyes.

    It was only one of many. Halo found great pleasure in making ornaments consisting of bones. Usually she made them quite simple, just a thin yet strong thread pulled through the hollow bones of spine and tail with either some additional tooth from larger prey or perhaps a few skulls. However, she was capable of more complicated techniques and alternations. She had spent her last evenings making a necklace. She wondered if she wanted to attempt to dye the bone pieces or not. White and light gray were excellent colours in her opinion, but she did not yet know what she wanted to do with it.

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#19
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No problem! You have a lot of characters anD I know I reply at hyperspeed, so seriously, take your time. xD Plus, boyfriends > roleplaying, almost universally. ;D Unless they're jerks, in which case, they shouldn't be boyfriends, haha!


    The chaos star was a symbol of Lykoi, emblazoned burning red with a thin black perimeter. Kaena had chosen it herself—she recalled during one of the long nights in the city with Molochai and Astaroth's litter, keeping them secluded from the soft, weakening coyote clan. Kaena had long thought the coyotes who ruled between her two separate reigns over Inferni were wolf sympathizers, given over too easily to placating their larger cousins. Then again, Segodi, Kidorah, and Roane had all been full-blooded coyotes in Kaena's memory; perhaps the less social canis latrans simply didn't make good leaders? For all of Kaena's praise of Zarah, she hadn't been an excellent leader, though she had indeed gathered the original coyotes together to create the Inferni clan. That alone hadn't been enough to bind them, obviously, and most of those coyotes had disappeared within six months. Though Kae loathed to give recognition to wolf blood or attribute it to anything good, she did silently acknowledge that the mixed social instincts of hybrids tended to fare better in Inferni.



    Tattooing was a complicated art, though Kaena had taken to it relatively well. It was difficult to procure the items necessary, however, and she knew if Halo wanted her star, both of them would have to take trips to Halifax to find some of what Kae needed. At least after this, she'd have half of what she needed for future ventures into tattooing. Kaena absolutely could not recreate tattoos from memory; even to brand Halo with the familiar red chaos star she required a reference. Neither could she imagine tattoos from scratch; the hybrid woman's artistic ability was next to nil. The young girl seemed shocked, and Kaena's heart seemed to expand even further, love and pride for her family and clan filling her chest. It was a damn shame that nobody had offered these or any of her Lykoi grandchildren chaos stars—at least, Kae hadn't met any with the opportunity thus far. Then again, why would the mother of Vitium's children or Vitium himself want to brand his children Lykoi? The former was a wolf, and the latter was permanently excluded from their midst.



    The coyote woman was surprised as the youth again spoke, asking what Kaena might like in return. The hybrid cocked her head, and almost automatically replied negatively, for she required nothing but the blood they shared to acquire her mark. However, her eyes had fallen on the bracelet on Halo's wrist, made of several different bones. Delicately, the woman's silver fingers reached out, touching it gingerly, as if she was afraid the bones would crumble to dust. They were cool and hard beneath her touch, secured to Halo's wrist. "Did you make this?" she asked, extremely intrigued. The wheels in her head were already spinning, focusing on the pack Kaena almost universally carried with her. It happened she had it with her today, but she withheld drawing out those off-white canines until she learned whether or not Halo had actually crafted the morbid jewelery. It was fitting, however; if they decorated the borders with bones, why not their bodies? And Kae had much the same plan, though she only wanted the one tooth on a string.

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#20
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Nuu, I'm the jerk in this relationship! (300+)

   It was because of the powerful symbolism in that blood red star that caused her soul to claw out after it to make it her own. The girl needed to find a place where she truly belonged, and such a symbol would be the absolute confirmation of her legacy. Halo too had pledged to make herself a name alongside with those most famous of her blood. Enigma and Jael sought their own ways of dealing with what they were and what they had been given, but Halo knew exactly what she wanted. She knew what she wanted her absolute purpose to be, and was determined to pay whatever price would be thrown into her face. The girl was young and knew little about the sacrifices and trials, but she was certain that it would all be worth it in the end. She had never before experienced fear and pain, but arrogantly believed that she would endure every obstacle with brilliancy.

   When the older woman’s gaze fell down on the bracelet that the girl had absentmindedly toyed with, the dark girl slowly offered her hand, more than willing to show off her self made ‘jewellery’. The girl’s mood danced further along on those pinkish clouds of joy and wonder. ”Yes.” the melodic voice sounded softly, though there was a large amount of pride apparent in her voice as well. Now when her mind had been directed to that topic, she instantly started to think of what she could possibly make to present as a gift to her grandmother. The Lykoi offspring tried to remind herself that she should not overdo things despite the overload of excitement in her body. There would be enough time to openly worship Kaena. No use going all out from the start.

T   hose ruby eyes wore the softest of expressions as the girl looked up from her bracelet to the elder’s face. ”I make different things out of bones and all kinds of other stuff I find.” she added proudly, suggesting also that she could use other things than bones. With the right tools, she believed she was able to do anything, although she was not amazing with every kind of material.

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