A familiar face, a familiar place - Printable Version +- 'Souls IPB Archive (November 2007–October 2012) (https://soulsrpg.com/ipb) +-- Forum: Dead IC (https://soulsrpg.com/ipb/forumdisplay.php?fid=110) +--- Forum: Dead Topics (https://soulsrpg.com/ipb/forumdisplay.php?fid=21) +--- Thread: A familiar face, a familiar place (/showthread.php?tid=267) |
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- Skoll - 11-16-2007 [html]OOC name: Void IC name: Skoll email: aldonwoodridge@yahoo.com Luperci?: Yes Age: 6 Well, I remember this place, Skoll thought drily, thoughts drifting back to his fight with Gibraltar. It was ironic, he thought, that the third alpha he'd seen--the one who he thought he understood best--would be the one he'd butt heads with. I was too proud...and he was too paranoid, the warrior thought as he approached that familiar borderline. It seemed to Skoll that the alpha had a penchant for exiling those who didn't show absolute obedience to him. The bronze male--who had operated mostly on his own without any complaint from his leader up to that point--was not accustomed to kneeling before such accusations, or simply swallowing the lack of faith Gibraltar had shown in him when he leveled that accusation in front of the eyes and ears of Skoll's peers, and the people he protected. Slander was sometimes a killing offense, back in the fierce cold of his homeland, it was a tool to demean and dishonor an enemy or a victim, and physical retribution was an understandable reaction. Still...if he had learned anything in his time with Storm, it was that his morals from back home, away from 'civilized' packs, did not often hold sway here. Even where he came from, the packlands belonged to the alpha, and unless he wanted to challenge for ownership(which was not an acceptable practice here for obvious and sensible reasons), he should not have acted the way he did. The politics of the region were alien to him, they always had been, and sometimes it was off-putting. When the social climate had changed, and the coyotes of Inferni were gaining land and power, he had felt the compulsion to get up and act. To this day, he had trouble understanding why those who felt similarly were so few. Enough of that, though. I'm tired of being portrayed as the villain. If the wolves here won't take a stand on their own behalf, who am I to step in for them? I tried to rescue a little girl, succeeded, and punished a few coyotes on the way out, receiving extensive injuries in the process...and I was cast out at a word by our enemies. All in the name of politics...my honor, my pride, attacked in the name of good relations with the enemy. Next, I track down these new cultists, and how am I received? As a villain! The very people they victimized stood in my way in their defense! 'The devil we know to the devil we don't' they said. Well...I'm tired of trying to use my skills for the good of strangers. Enough is enough. He had decided to find himself a patch of easily defensible land, somewhere north of Storm, where his enemies would be unlikely to discover or come after him. He would do his best to hunt on his own, maybe he would find some other wolves...the fact was that he was unlikely to last long on his own. Food wasn't as easy to come by outside of the packlands, and he wasn't known for his great hunting skills. Being too active also wore him out more quickly than it used to. He had taken a lot of abuse in the last year or two. Suddenly, he noticed something different in the air. He had come right to the border of Storm territory, he had run into the first mark. Shifted as a were, carrying all of his packed away wargear in a deerskin sack around his hip, he knelt down to get a better take on the scent. This isn't Gibraltar... [/html]- Phasma Kiles - 11-16-2007 [html]
- Skoll - 11-16-2007 [html]Skoll was broken from his reverie by stern words and a stern look from a wolf he had never seen before. Looking up to her, he quickly averted his eyes. These weren't his lands, and despite the fondness he held for them, they never had been. He could consider the border his own once, but in truth, it had always been Adreon's, or Gibraltar's. Here he was, now a stranger at what he had once considered his own doorstep...he could understand her suspicion of him. The fact was, he looked like more trouble than most of the people he fought against. He had wondered several times if in fact he wasn't more trouble and more dangerous than they were. His most recent experienced suggested that this was the case, but at the same time his heart could not accept this. He had always tried to fight with honor, and he had always fought to defend or to avenge. Surely there had to be something to be said for that? "My apologies ma'am, of course you are correct. Forgive my short-sightedness...I fight for a living, and sometimes my cautiousness impedes my manners. I did not mean to come so close to your border so outfitted." He took several steps back, lifted the sack from his body, and laid it down against a tree. With that, he began to reverse his shift, opting to be as small as he could before this new leader of Storm. He didn't think she was the alpha, but by her posture he assumed she was of some status in Storm. As his body began to shrink, his bones cracking and muscles slithering into new arrangements, he wondered who exactly this was? He had never seen her before, though her smell wasn't necessarily unfamiliar. It was a scent he'd picked up somewhere before, maybe from Inferni's new acquired territory? No...he couldn't tell, and that was a big jump to make. He'd do better to learn from her directly at some point, if he was interested. If he ever saw her again, that was a big variable, as well. "There isn't much I can do to fix the scarring," he said apologetically. "This is about as unsuspicious as an old beat up wolf like me can manage. Still...it troubles me to hear of the child. Whose was it?" It occured to him that he had forgotten something very crucial, and that he needed to go through necessary channels to be courteous to this wolf. "Forgive me, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Skoll. I lived here for a time, but that was a while ago."[/html] - Phasma Kiles - 11-16-2007 [html]
- Skoll - 11-16-2007 OOC: I apologize for the length, I didn't mean for it to come out this long. IC: Skoll's eyes widened fractionally. That was a lot to take in all at once, and for a moment he was silent. This was the alpha of Syemv. No, this had been the alpha of Syemv. That meant that Syemv had dissolved. He wondered if any of his friends had decided to stay here after that, if they had joined other packs, or simply gone away...Fenrir forbid any of them going after Inferni alone. He had told one or two of them that he wanted to start a resistance of some sort, but he had grown wiser since then, and knew that no such effort could really succeed unless it was headed by a leader who they trusted and who had been directly involved in the first place. This was the leader that he had been indirectly disappointed in...but was it right to be disappointed in her when he had never even gone to the trouble to learn her name? That was history now, though, and he would have to either let it pass, or let it drive him insane. They had their reasons...he had friends from Syemv who he knew would not forsake their values...if Inferni's actions against them had gone unrevenged, he would just have to assume that there was a reason they could not be. It was easy--convenient--to blame their leader, the wolf before him...but that didn't mean the blame was rightly placed. Inferni was not an easy target, and no doubt was more suited to battle than Syemv had been. Politics as they were...it was entirely possible that this wolf had been left out to dry the very same way he had...by people who didn't want to mess up their political standing. She had gotten that scar somehow, after all, it was likely in a fight with the canines who had taken her territory. Considering all that, he would withold judgment(for all his judgment was worth) until he knew her, if he got to know her. The second piece of news was just as jarring: Phoenix was alpha now?! What had happened to Gibraltar? He couldn't see that wolf giving up power, not after some of the ways he'd abused it, in the bronze wolf's eyes. Something must have happened. Still, Phoenix was the leader now...it made sense, he had been second in command when Skoll had been exiled. It followed that he'd be next in line...and he was a father! What a surprise that was, and Iskata was his mate. A more dire piece of news came with all of that, though. Though the wolf had hit a strange string of luck after Skoll had departed, one of his children was missing. It was while his mind was racing, digesting all of this, that Phasma addressed him directly. "My, that's a lot to take in all at once," he said, eyes still open a bit wider than before. "I'm sorry to hear about that...in light of a missing pup, all of Phoenix's other successes don't matter a bit. I am aggrieved." He organized his thoughts, seeking for the best way to sum everything up to the new Gamma of Storm. "I was exiled by the previous alpha, Gibraltar, for getting into a fight with some Inferni coyotes. I tried to save a little girl, Iskata's daughter, to hear it told, from an adult coyote. His older brother and two kids showed up to join the fray. When it was all said and done, the young'uns got hurt, and the coyotes blamed me, instead of the older brothers who I would guess had been charged with watching over them. They complained to Gibraltar, saying I'd come across their border and attacked their children, and when I didn't accept his allegations kindly, he insisted I pack my things and leave." That about summed it up, he guessed. "As for today, I'm back from a minor quest, and I figured I'd just pass on through Bleeding Souls and see what friends I could along the way. There were Storm wolves who didn't agree with Gibraltar's decision, and I've had people come out to visit me on the border before. I was just noticing that Gibraltar's scent no longer marked Storm's edges when you found me lingering at the border. I apologize for my lack of tact...looking the way I did and shifted and all, I wasn't thinking." - Phasma Kiles - 11-17-2007 [html]
- Skoll - 11-17-2007 OOC: Take your time, you don't need to get on this immediately. I'll try to keep my replies to a reasonable length. IC: Skoll wasn't certain of just how she had taken his version of what had happened. Her tone had changed a little, but she hadn't immediately rebuked him or sent him off, so he supposed that it was a good thing. Besides, if he had heard of someone else hurting children, he'd be leery of them, and cast doubt on their words. He regretted what had happened, but he didn't think he'd had a choice. The two adolescents had been out there to kill him. He couldn't hold back for long against four adversaries, but he had tried, hadn't he? He wouldn't have hurt the two youngest had they left the fight when he told them to...in the end it was his life against theirs, and he wasn't about to die just because the coyote queen's spawn felt they had the right to kill him and the right not to get hurt in return. They chose to participate, their siblings chose to let them(or knew that they couldn't deter them), and Skoll had done what was necessary to leave alive. He would need to keep reminding himself of that, as long as there was doubt in the hearts of others. Still, it stirred up a well of emotion and resentment each time it came up, or each time he had to explain it. "After everything you've told me, I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak with Phoenix, provided he isn't busy. I would offer any help I could in retrieving his daughter, if I can be of any help at all. I thank you for your courtesy to me, also. After arriving as I have, and knowing the conditions of my exile, many would have turned me away already." He didn't know her, but he could already tell that she was less hot-headed than Gibraltar had been...he hadn't even waited for his Wahrer's side of the story before accepting the coyotes' words as truth. Gibraltar had helped stabilize Storm in a time of need, but he could not forgive that insult to his integrity...the fact that the alpha had a good name and people would put stock in his opinion only made life that much harder for the vagabond warrior, who would like to visit his old home without that old cloud hanging over his head. - Phoenix - 11-17-2007 [html]
- Phasma Kiles - 11-18-2007 [html]
- Skoll - 11-18-2007 Skoll was usually rather perceptive when it came to reading people, it was part of what had kept him alive so long--being able to read opponents. Still, it had been a long time since he had seen Phoenix, and his attention was focused elsewhere, missing Phasma's look of discomfort. A slight smile came to his face, for he was glad to see a familiar face as well, but the news of Phoenix's daughter(who he had never so much as smelt before) was enough to suck the cheer right out of the reunion. He was a fighter and a tracker, he wasn't sure of what help he could be, but he would offer it nonetheless. "The feeling is mutual, Phoenix. It's hard to believe that the awkward youth I remember in my first pack hunt grew up into the alpha I see now. You've come far, my friend, and made more of yourself than I have, in a third the time." Skoll had worked hard to be a good warrior, and trained his nose well to make tracking HawkWind easier, but he had never come close to being leadership material to anyone, alpha, beta, or gamma. He had also never been a father. Life wasn't going to bear with him forever, especially not in his line of work, and there were many facets of wolf-life that he had not been successful in. For all his age-bought wisdom and well-recited beliefs, he would do well to take a page out of this younger wolf's book. I doubt if that path is even open to me anymore, he thought, dismissing the subject. "As she says, Phasma has been kind enough to share this ill news with me. I would offer any help I could, I've offered my talents to strangers before and since my stay in Storm, and I can certainly do the same for a friend." He wasn't certain that it was appropriate to ask to be allowed back into Storm...he'd have to work up the nerve to do so, at any rate. As Phasma had guessed, the idea of rejoining had already crossed his mind, he missed his border and guard duty, but it wasn't a decision to rush into. Especially not after everything that had happened already. - Phoenix - 11-18-2007 [html]
- Phasma Kiles - 11-18-2007 [html]
- Skoll - 11-18-2007 Skoll's solitary ear swiveled to follow the Gamma as she quickly made her way out of the situation. She was troubled, possibly by the prospect of him joining. It was troubling, but he knew to expect it at this point. A simple twisting of the truth could go a long way. It was hard to believe that anyone would take the coyotes seriously after everything they had done, but then again, it was possible that she--maybe even Gibraltar--had feared that Skoll was like the coyotes he had fought with: heartless, bloodthirsty, ambitious and vengeful. I am vengeful, he thought before he could stop himself. I enjoy a good, close fight, and kill so often that I'm as good as bloodthirsty. His ear fell in temporary shame. Damnit. "I...didn't necessarily mean that. I think we can guess how Phasma Kiles feels about the prospect, though. I don't want to cause you trouble, Phoenix, especially of the political sort, which I don't understand very well." Would the other Storm wolves react this way? His name had been sullied, and it seemed that there weren't many ways of clearing it. The fact was that the coyote kids had been hurt, and he had hurt them, but he wasn't the one who had put them in harm's way. No group as ambitious and violent as Inferni could expect to have borders safe from retaliation, letting their kids linger there was pure carelessness, and assuming that their group could rightly expect peace from their neighbors was utter hypocrisy. He had told the fools as much after the fight, but they had plugged their ears and hurled threats and obscenities at him, refusing to learn from their mistake. But I still lost it...I still berserked, and I didn't mean to. I was trying to hold back because of the kids, but I was going to die, and the pain...the adrenaline...I couldn't hold it off. That was my failing alone, and not something that I can blame the coyote parents and siblings for. "If you think she'll ever be alright with it, I'd be glad to take up my border again, under that restriction. Still, she's your Gamma, her consent on the issue is...if I know anything about politics, desirable at the very least, necessary at the most. People like me...I think we scare people like her, or maybe most people, period. If she truly is the former alpha of Syemv, she's seen fighters before, and what just a few allowed Inferni to do to her homeland. Look at how easily Gibraltar turned his back on me, despite my years of service...I may be driven by different motives, but I doubt that most can tell the difference between those lunatics and someone like me. Hell, sometimes I wonder if there's any profound difference at all. I can understand if she's apprehensive about me." He sighed a little, and smiled. "Listen to me being pretentious, figuring it's all about me. Maybe she just has something important she forgot to do." For some reason, he wasn't really confident about that. Still, there were more important matters at hand. "Phoenix, whether you choose to accept me or not, I'll still be willing to help you get your daughter back. I'll do anything I can, even if it's just sitting back making certain it doesn't happen again." - Phoenix - 11-18-2007 [html]
- Skoll - 11-19-2007 The bronze warrior frowned at the news of the Omega's daughter, Firefly. Jealousy played a role there, he was certain, but for Phoenix to already have no hope meant that it had happened a while back, and given that it involved two people whose smells were completely alien to him, it was unlikely that he had much to offer the aggrieved father. This land...it was plagued by internal strife...by familial terror and dysfunction. In some ways, this place was infinitely softer than where he'd grown up, and it seemed completely terrified of the idea of violence...yet the price it paid for these came in myriad tribulations that he had yet to see anywhere else. One child kidnapping another from a parents new mateship was a massive crime and extremely serious in most places, not perhaps a killing offense, but an exiling one. Here, it seemed to bleed into grey beside all of the other wrongs the wolves were doing to one another. He had never seen anywhere else that had such prevalent rape. Murder, he supposed, wasn't too unusual an occurence on his travels, though. As Phoenix voiced his concerns about the warrior's past interactions with the dog clan, Skoll was reminded of other situations like this one. As it is I dunno what I’ll do if they come here lookin’ for trouble all at once. For just a moment, Skoll remembered the cultists skulking over the the Place of Lightning and Thunder border, steel weapons glinting in their hands as he lay in wait, axes in his own, anticipating the clouds passing over the Le Soleil in Teh Sky so that he could make his first strike. He blinked the memory away as he felt a twinge in his left forepaw, a physical reminder of that night, one of a few. "You should know that I can protect myself, Phoenix. You think those murderers went to Gibraltar instead of trying to kill me directly out of civility? They avoid me now because they've tangled with me before, and they don't fancy their chances. One or two might prefer words to bloodshed, but if it were feasible to get rid of me permanently, you know the rest would have tried." He didn't know Gabriel personally, nor any of the others he'd seen or fought. Never the less, he had seen how the Lykois treated obstacles to their desires, and he knew that if he were a weaker dog and they'd wanted him dead, they wouldn't have gone to Gibraltar, they would have gone for Skoll's own throat. "You do have a point about them coming up here en masse, though. I killed nine wolves in a night once, four them I took all at once, but I would be lying through my teeth if I said that was typical of my abilities. There is definitely call for careful planning, especially if your Gamma is so uneasy about it." - Phoenix - 11-19-2007 [html]
- Skoll - 11-20-2007 Skoll frowned. Phoenix had kids...kids who needed protecting. the Land of Wuffluvers wanted his head, or at least the presiding family did, and might come to take it if they knew where to find him. He could protect himself usually(assuming that he was vigilant enough to avoid letting them get the drop on him...an ambush of two would be dangerous for him, more than two and his chances of survival would drop sharply), but his protection was not better for the pack than simply passing under the radar. The coyotes were a bloodthirsty bunch, and the wolves here didn't have the right mentality to band together against them. Skoll and Phoenix certainly couldn't stop all of them on their own, it would be...more political...to ignore their notice for the time being. The bronze dog's somber expression softened somewhat, before turning his amber eyes to Phoenix. "Well, then you'll just have to not get into a war with the Land of Wuffluvers, then." Skoll offered a slight smile, before he took a breath and went on. "I spent two and a half years in the Place of Lightning and Thunder repaying the pack for kindnesses to my ancestor, VoidFane. I risked my life for this pack, because unknowingly, it might have been doing the same by harboring him. He asked me to repay them, and I feel that I did. When Gibraltar let me go, I felt free for the first time in a long time. I miss that border, I miss that feeling of belonging somewhere, but I've been a nomad for a long time, and I had missed that too." The ragged thane turned his gaze out, surveying the land outside of the Place of Lightning and Thunder. "Truth is, I came here to visit, I was surprised when you invited me back. I'm not sure I'm ready, and with Miss Kiles and the coyotes to deal with, I may be a little too much to deal with right now anyway." He closed his eyes and flicked his right(and only) ear in a wolfish shrug. "Besides, I don't have to be a part of the Place of Lightning and Thunder to watch after it. Do you see those woods out there? Where Chimera used to be? I'll be there if you need me. I have all the gear, training, instincts, and experience I need to take care of myself. The clan won't be able to use me as an escuse to come after you or your kids, and if they find some other reason, I'll be within howling distance. All the benefits of the old Wahrer with none of the drawbacks." He smiled to indicate an attempt at humor, but he knew that Phoenix had a lot of concern rushing around his brain. Perhaps the older dog could assuage that some by his refusal to rejoin. - Phoenix - 11-20-2007 [html]
- Skoll - 11-21-2007 "Don't worry, Phoenix," the older male laughed, "Don't think I've forgotten about the last time you helped me. If you can fight...Glaesring, was it? I won't hesitate to call you the next time I'm outnumbered." He broke his smile for a moment, thinking that this might cause more concern than relief. "I'll do my best not to get outnumbered, though." Still, there was no reason for any of the coyotes to hear about his reappearance. Without a border to watch, it was entirely possible that he might even manage to lead a peaceful life here, daily training aside. "I would like to see Iskata as well, not to mention your kids. For the time being, though, I think you need to calm your Gamma, and I need to find a place to put my gear for the night. Come the morrow, I'll find some place more permanent to reside within the woods. Somewhere where the prey is lazy enough for me to catch them on my own, and I can lay my head down to sleep each night without worrying too much about cultists and what not. My good ear will still be listening out for your call, though." With that, the bronze warrior turned back to his gear, and began the shift necessary so that he could carry it. His stay in Bleeding Souls would be less familiar, but excitement could be found in the change. Tomorrow was a new day; without a border to attend or a cult to hunt down, he had no idea what it might bring. |