Some time ago, in a jamjar far, far away....

[finalizes]

Comments

[liveasmyself]

She huffs, impatient. "I didn't say that these were my choices. I can stand on my own."

"My school... And all the others, I think--they all wanted to teach people the opposite of that. To work together, to think the same way... That's how it always was."

She used to be good at it, even if her mind was always a little too rebellious. She used to be able to hide that under an enthusiasm for their patriotic activities.

[finalizes]

"But they are the choices of your people, so they'll eventually become your choices, too."

That's the problem with humans. Even if some of them might try, they really can't stop being humans and thinking like the humans that came before them. Not in the grander scheme of things.

"And you can work together despite being independent. Especially if you are independent, then you can bring more into the group you're working with that isn't already there."

[liveasmyself]

Maybe it's time to switch tactics. They have completely different pictures of the world; his sounds more like the ideas in countries her counselor had once visited. She shrugs, "Do you get to decide what the adults do in your world?"

Adults, because he looks like he can't be any older than her or Wei--weird as it is to think that the guy who killed her is another kid.

[finalizes]

"I'm an adult." Well, at least within wolf and Garou society. The ID that he uses to interact with humans seems to indicate that he's not of age yet among them, which confuses him - he's as independent as any adult, physically mature, and has enough knowledge to survive alone.

Humans have weird criteria. "But I don't get to decide what the elders do." That seems to at least hold some similarity to what she is talking about, and even if this place is some kind of place that tries to spy on him, that's not particularly new or exciting information. Everyone knows that you can't tell someone above your own rank what to do.

[liveasmyself]

"And we don't get to decide what the government does. It sounds like the same thing." Finally--at least there's a way he can hopefully understand.

She's curious about something else now; she scans him carefully from head to toe. "How old are you?"

[finalizes]

"Six."

He blinks at her.

"Why?"

[liveasmyself]

Ray blinks back and resolves her mouth into a rather stern frown. He's definitely kidding her; her annoyance at that fact meshes with the relative civility of their conversation to make her temporarily forget much fear of him. Right now he's not the guy who killed her--instead he's just a boy fooling around.

"I was asking a serious question! I'm 17 and you don't look any older than me."

[finalizes]

The reaction surprises and confuses him at first. He was just giving a serious answer, after all, and just asked why she was asking... WAIT.

"And you're human and I'm not!" The 'human' sounds like an slur when he says it, not a descriptor.

That's it, isn't it? Everyone seems to always apply human standards when measuring anything, even when they know that that's not applicable. And she should know.

[liveasmyself]

"What?"

And now she's reminded to be scared; not because he says he isn't human, but because of the outburst. She grips the doorway of the shop with one hand, though she doesn't yet think to flee. She's still curious, and what else is she going to do besides try to satisfy that feeling? With her death here and then the times spirits killed her back home, it's not quite the deterrent it once was. At least not until things start looking really bad.

"You're... not? Are you a spirit? I didn't think their ages mattered."

For her, it's easier to believe that an otherwise human guy transforms into whatever the hell his other form was.

[finalizes]

For all he knows, she's correct about that. Spirits seem to be ageless. They can be made to disappear and surely appeared first at one point, but they don't age, and many probably aren't intelligent enough to really accumulate mental age through experience.

But thing is, he isn't a spirit. Well, not really. Partially or something, but his primary and birth body is still physical. It's more like he has a special connection.

"No."

And he's not going to elaborate on that without further prompting, but at least the outburst seems to be over?

[liveasmyself]

"Then what are you?"

Perhaps she needs to give a little to get a little. Slow and contrite, she adds, "I didn't mean to upset you. I really thought you were human."

[finalizes]

...He isn't sure if he should feel offended or consider it a compliment towards his habitualised acting skills.

Or just wonder if she just reacts really weirdly to Delirium. Usually people who stay as in control of their own actions as she did when seeing a Garou's war form remember what they saw afterwards...

"A werewolf."

[liveasmyself]

"A werewolf?"

Well, the wolf part seems to make sense, given the form he had taken before.

"I've never heard of those. I don't think we have them where I live."

Then again, she hadn't really believed in spirits or gods before either.

[finalizes]

"Most humans don't know about us."

Since he still kind of thinks that they're in his home world, he'll just assume that that is the reason why she doesn't know it.

[liveasmyself]

"Why?" Or maybe she means 'how.' To clarify her curiosity, she clears her throat and adds, "...Earlier you seemed hard to miss."

Says the girl who just assumed he was a weird human.

[finalizes]

"Almost all humans don't remember us afterwards when we're in our war form."

And then there's such things as trying to look nothing but human where humans can see you, and covering your tracks where you were seen.

[liveasmyself]

"War form?" So is he a soldier of some sort?

"You seemed awfully memorable to me," she remarks, perhaps a little bitterly.

[finalizes]

"Human brains react to something so scary that it would impact their sanity by forgetting. War forms are scary to them. Most," give him a moment, he's trying to do numbers, "like 95 or 99% of all humans have that mechanism. You just seem to be the 1 %."

[liveasmyself]

She sighs out her words, "I suppose I'm just lucky."

Maybe it would be for the best if she could just forget what she saw--but the trade-off might be forgetting to be wary, and she's not sure if that's a very good idea either.

"Why have a war form in the first place?"

[finalizes]

"Because we're at war." That should be a no-brainer, shouldn't it? Or maybe it isn't. Humans have no idea what battle they are the most dangerous pawns in most of the time, after all. "We're fighting Wyrm and Weaver and their minions to protect the world."

[liveasmyself]

She shakes her head slowly; there's a lot of new vocabulary to pick up. "I've never heard of them.

"We're supposed to be at war too, where I'm from. To take back the Mainland. What're the Wyrms and all trying to do to the world?"

[finalizes]

"The Wyrm wants to destroy everything, and the Weaver wants to stifle everything until it is dead. In the end, their goals are the same.

They say that the Wyrm corrupted the Weaver and drove her insane. Or maybe it was the other way around. Or they were always like that. But as they are now they need to be fought." He shrugs. "Not even to take back much at this point, just to not go down without the best fight that we can offer."

[liveasmyself]

Her attention snags on the mention of not going down without a fight. "You don't think you'll win?"

Strange, to hear it talked about that way. In the Republic of China, the leaders and propaganda always talked like victory was inevitable even if it would take time and blood.

[finalizes]

"My generation is the last." It's that simple, really. Other tribes may survive, but the Talons won't. Not so much because their numbers are down, though that's the case too, but because they are losing Kinfolk faster than it can breed. Where other tribes will be fine because they breed with humans, too, the Talons are going to end when the wolves have been driven into extinction.

[liveasmyself]

"Oh..."

How can they be so sure of that? Does she really want to ask? She decides on a different line of questioning.

"And you still have to fight? There's no retreat?"

If the battle won't be won, why not take the opportunity to run away and establish yourself elsewhere with another life?