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certainly
It did not matter what Gabriel thought. She was stubborn, and he recognized that in the way she spoke to him. Regardless of what he said or what his opinion was, she would continue on the path before her. Yet she grew agitated when he spoke of the dead man’s children, apparently so. Perhaps she truly held Conor is such high regard that she could not take his life. The Aquila likened it to this—though he certainly would not have felt the same if their roles were reversed. Gabriel above all else believed in blood.
Perhaps, though, she would find her blood elsewhere. Perhaps it did not matter if the blood came from Haku. He considered this idea, letting it go momentarily. An idea came to him quietly, whispered in a voice that he likened to that of a dead man. His eyes turned cold. “Do you want to see what becomes of them?” His voice dropped, coated itself in frost, and spoke of a challenge (and a warning) that he hoped she would understand.
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There was a small pause as Gabriel considered her words – he seemed to be stewing over what she had said, but Tayui could not ascertain what it was exactly that had triggered this. Nonetheless, she was determined to continue and discern what her next move would be. Yes, they did not agree on very basic, intrinsic concepts, but Tayui was discovering that talking with Gabriel forced her to consider things she had not yet thought about. It was good for her, even if it gave her a strange sickly feeling in the pit of her stomach. She felt as though she kept changing her mind throughout the conversation, but she knew she could not have a firm stance on any opinion until she decided what her principles were. Now, she was only just beginning to discover them. The things she did know already, those were what made her and Gabriel clash. At least she no longer believed he was a hero, saviour, or vilified warrior. He was what he was and when she accepted him, perhaps she would accept herself, too.
She refocused her attention when he spoke, quickly noticing his intentness. He was very serious and his voice was low and hard. She inhaled slowly as she considered her reply, and then nodded.
“Yes,” she replied. For a moment, she wondered what ‘they’ referred to – murderers in general, or just Haku? Then she realized her last words held the answer: what became of monsters. Yes, if she were to become a monster, even a small minor monster, she would like to see what he had to show her. She could not shy away from this, especially not after she had begun to think about the possibilities for the future. Perhaps all that was left for her was disgrace; whatever it was, Gabriel would know.
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He had once been called a prophet. He had been called a soldier, a lieutenant—a murderer and a fanatic. Gabriel was many parts of a whole that knew its truth through bloodshed. So he believed that he was able to judge her intentions, just as he had been able to understand and judge Haku. He was these people. He was a wolf, he was a psychopath, he was a killer and he was a beast. He had done great evil, though he knew it to be right. He had done great good, though it had been born out of revenge.
With her answer he rose and led her down the mountain. The path he took was south, towards the forest. He did not speak and did not turn to look at her. They traveled in silence as his feet followed an invisible trail that he had burnt into his memory. The smell of smoke still clung to the forest, disturbed as their paws turned over fallen leaves.
Gabriel stopped abruptly and stared ahead. In a small clearing, one which had not been left undisturbed, were the scattered remains of a monster. The bones that were left were few, for many had been obviously shattered, others thieved away by scavengers. There was no more flesh, no fur. A blackened area marked the center of the clearing, where the shattered remains of the obsidian dagger and a skull lay.
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349.
She followed him as they descended down the mountain, quietly mirroring his movement with her own. He moved with a certain ease that told Tayui he had either followed this path many times or had never forgotten it from the first time. As they travelled farther south, the landscape visibly changed and now most trees were charred, dying, or both. It was an eerie place that reminded her of Âmes de la Mort in Bleeding Souls: both had the smell of death and decay.
When they stopped, at first, Tayui could not discern why. The area looked the same as the rest of the burnt lands and there did not seem to be anything significant about this area. However, as she peered closer, she noticed that the remains of a body littered the area. There were only a few bones now, some jutting out awkwardly from the ground and others casually strewn about, as if someone hoped they might grow a new skeleton with their bone seeds. But it looked like there was not an entire skeleton here, and the thought that there was more of Haku Soul strewn about the lands was disconcerting at best.
Tayui moved closer, walking toward the centre of the clearing. It felt so surreal that she could not tell if she had stepped on a few bones along the way or not. When she reached the middle of the territory, she regarded the skull and dagger with a sneer. So this was where the monster had come to rest. She reached out with a paw and then took a swipe at the skull. She just missed it. She stepped closer, resting her paw on the skull. She tried to dig her claws in, to rip it or break it, but nothing happened. The skull was not as brittle as she would have thought, and clearly, she would not be able to break it just by flexing her paw. She retracted her foreleg, set it back on the ground and redistributed her weight as she stared at the skull. She could not break it.
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The side of his face itched. Gabriel likened this to Haku’s presence not leaving the lands, and set his jaw. He believed that the demon that lived within the beast would not lay dormant for long. It would travel through the blood. Children carried the sins of their fathers, as it had been since Adam and Lillith had made the first demons. A cold wind stirred the tree tops, but it did not penetrate the woods below. The night he had burnt the body, smoke had taken a long time to leave the area. He was glad for this. Solitude had been the only thing he had needed for those three hellish days.
The woman moved as if in a dream. She tried to break the thing. He remained still. Echoing laughter made his ears twitch, but he ignored the sound. The voice was a familiar one—somewhere between his own and Haku’s. His Shadow had truly been far too much like Gabriel to live. By destroying him he had made certain such truths would not come to pass. He had killed Haku for the good of many, for revenge, but also because of this selfish reason. Gabriel opened his mouth to speak, but found he had nothing to offer her, and shut it.
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When she finally accepted that she could not break it — and that at that moment, that was all that she wanted to do — she turned to Gabriel to ask him something. She whipped her head around, then paused, staring at the hybrid over her shoulder. She regarded him silently as she tried to discern what she wanted to say. Did she want him to help her beak it? Did she want something else? She didn't know. She shook her head and turned her attention back to the skull. She took a few steps back and then quickly ran at it, diving on it and biting at the skull with her teeth. She tried to dig her teeth into it and shatter it, but she did not have the strength to do so. Had she been a hyena, she would have been able to shatter it. She gnawed at the socket hole for a few moments before retreating to evaluate her work. There were visible teeth marks on the skull, but she had not broken it. However, her work was obvious. She was satisfied.
She turned to Gabriel, running her tongue along her teeth. They felt strange. This time, however, she knew what to say to him. "Now what?" And this time, she had nothing else to say. She only wondered if Gabriel would know what to do next.
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close soon?
She looked at him, but she did not really see him. Her eyes were cloudy. He did not envy her confusion, her doubt, her fear. He did not remember what those felt like, but a part of him empathized with the emotions. Gabriel had begun changing long before he had killed Haku. Destroying the demon had only solidified things he had begun to realize months beforehand.
In a flurry of motion she was on the skull, trying in vain to break the thing. He had done everything he could think of (including using the dagger, which had shattered when he did so) and still the toothy thing smiled at him. The Aquila had hoped the beasts would take the damned thing, but even they had sensed the wickedness in the remains and left that singular piece behind. Tayui defiled it, but she too, could not destroy it. He smiled ruthlessly.
“Now you know. If this is the path you wish to take, then you know what will come of it.” He spoke as if he too believed this was his fate.
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Sounds good!
His words confirmed his previous intonations: this was what became of monsters, and what would become of her if she were to take up such a path. On one hand, she wanted to stay strong and declare, “so be it,” but on the other, she could not help but consider the effect this would have on her – remaining – family. What would Ocèane do? And Honoré? And of course this went without saying, but what would become of Claudius? He was so much an academic in body, mind and spirit that she suspected he sometimes forgot he was a wolf and a luperci. But she supposed if this was the path she was determined to take, then she would have to bear the consequences. It would take her time to come to terms with this, but if she sought to destroy the monsters to have her closure, she too would take up the mantle as a monster herself. If anything, she deserved no less if she was willing to sacrifice one aspect of her morality for another.
“Now I know. If I am to become a monster, I need to know the consequences, too. Thank you for showing me this,” she replied, gesticulating toward the item he had shown her. In death, monsters became objects and not luperci. This was one of the things he had shown her.
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hurrf gabe is clearly full of good ideas
Gabriel did not say anything. He considered what it had cost to fell Haku—what it had taken from him and from his family. He considered the brother he had killed. He considered his own mortality and the consequences of his actions, but found that they fell short in the presence of the good he had done. Two fires burnt through his memories, and a third, lesser one echoed. The Voice had not spoken to him in years. This did not settle ill with him. After all he had slaughtered a demon in that time. His calling did not need to come from God to make itself known.
He looked into her mismatched eyes and felt nothing. “If it would help,” he finally said. “, you can take it. Take it and burn the damn thing.” Eradicate all trace of the monster from this earth. Gabriel had intended to do so himself, but the body had taken far too long to burn. He could not have waited for the crown.
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Always!! (300+)
She blinked, and then frowned as he spoke, wondering if it would help her somehow. Would taking Haku’s skull really help her? Also, could she carry the skull all the way back to AniWaya? It was a few hours journey if she ran the whole way in her Lupus form, but she could not bring a skull back with her. If her daughter saw her return home with her father’s skeleton, what would she think? It was probably time to tell Ocèane of what she had become, even if she could not bring herself to do it with Claudius. She did not want to scare Ocèane off, but she was so much stronger than her brother.
“Thank you,” she replied quietly. Again, with the thanks. He deserved it after all so she felt there was nothing wrong with the statement.
She turned to inspect the skull. She could not take the entire skull, but she could take a bit of it. However, the form she was in was woefully inadequate. She closed her eyes and focused on a change, letting her body shift slowly into her Optime form. As she considered how she would take the skull apart, her own body’s bones began to shift and change. Once she was done, she was on her knees with her weight balanced on her arms. She leaned back onto her heels and stretched her arms above her head, working out the kinks in her new bones. She examined the skull one last time and set it on her lap. She lifted it in one hand and shook her head; she couldn't bring this back to AniWaya. If she did, she would have to carry it in her arms and walking in her Optime form would take days. She pushed the skull off her lap and began digging in the earth in search of a bone she thought she had spotted a while ago. She brushed the dirt with her fingertips, pausing every so often when she thought she had found something. When she finally did fine a bone, and not a tree root, she dug a ditch around it, working it out slowly. Soon, she had freed a part of the bone and held it up to examine it. She brushed off some of the dirt still clinging to it and stood up, turning around to face Gabriel. She held the bone loosely in her hand, waiting and wondering what would happen next. She suspected she would return home with a parting word.
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reply and close? now hybrid and gabe can threeaaaad 
A part of him was disappointed she did not take the skull. Gabriel wanted nothing more to do with it. He could not bring himself to destroy it. Perhaps he would have to take the damn thing back with him and do something with it. Throw it to the sea, perhaps. Burn it, as he had told her to do. Yet he watched and he remained silent as she changed and scoured the earth for the remains of the demon. The soil-covered bone stood out against her pale fur. He wondered if she felt the same thing he did when he had carried the jawbone to his mother.
Gabriel doubted that. He doubted many people would understand what it was like to kill their own Shadow.
Still four legged, still as silent and motionless as a gargoyle, the dark king spoke. “I don’t want you to come back to this place.” There was a stark warning in his tone. This grave was not meant to be remembered. It was meant to be purged from memory, as was the beast it now contained.
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Done! And yesss time for a dreamteam thread. :B Can they be Team Ramrod?
For a moment, Tayui was offended: was he telling her she could not return to Inferni? The ambiguity angered her, but it subsided when she realized he meant this place specifically. She frowned, wondering why he would want her to stay away. Even though she had no right to be here (this was a favour on Gabriel’s behalf) she still wondered why there was no possibility of return. Even though she might one day with to return, perhaps to spit on Haku’s grave or something equally sentimental, she recognized this was Inferni’s territory and their rule. She had to respect that and she had to respect Gabriel’s wishes. It was only right.
She bowed her head slightly in reply and then nodded solemnly. Whatever his reasons, she would respect them. She could not hope to understand him, but she could at least respect them. She owed him that much.
“I won’t,” she replied. “I hope if we meet again, it is under better circumstances.” Wistful thinking, but it was worth it to have some hope. She did not want to become one of Gabriel’s enemies; she knew what he did to enemies.
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