[Sorrow] [Adamidas] She's listening. She's paying such close attention that it seems almost strange, and it's intent and it's intense, and she doesn't look away. She doesn't want to turn away just yet. Instead, she is focusing. The stories, the Eddas, the Aesir. It all flies over her head for now.
When we win, Kora says. And Adam's eyes are alight. She listens when she hears her speak of her mother, of her travels to Europe, of her history. It's in her blood. It's what she is.
"There is a difference between helpless and weak. The helpless are, obviously, incapable of protecting themselves for various reasons. They are too young, they are compromised, they are outnumbered. The weak are weak of their own volition, because they are actively refusing to better themselves or actively avoiding bettering themselves. The weak are leaches, the helpless are allies waiting to happen.
"Again, only a misguided one. Some of the older members of the tribe may think this, but realistically Fury kin are our kin because they are strong and they are capable. A simpering, broken male can't protect our children and isn't worthy of fathering a future generation."
"I was given my name, because my sister Hera gave me that name," she starts.
"A Black Fury's Rite of Passage consists of three portions- a test of your judgment, to prove one's worth as an avenger; a test of vision, which is usually a spirit quest or a riddle, and ours was a pretty lengthy trek into the umbra to go track down some wounded epiphling; and a test of fury, which is a test to see if you own your rage and how you handle yourself. The purpose of it being structured this way is so that the elders know what we are strong in and what our weakenesses are.
"I went through my rite of passage with two other Furies- Hera, who was an ahroun; and Mary Martin, who was a philodox-" which sounds remarkably like the last pack she was with "-and during our test of vision, something went wrong... and, well, a lot of septs aren't a big fan of sending your cubs off into a situation where you could potentially die horribly, but... well... Gaia's Light didn't quite have qualms with that, and I don't fault her for it. If you are strong, then you will survive, and if you are weak then you won't.
"It wasn't that Hera was weak, not by a long shot... if anything, she was the only one of us that didn't have her head in the clouds or didn't spend her entire life on the brink of frenzy. You gotta understand, Mary was an angry girl, and I've lived my life so incredibly doped out of my head it's not even funny. I've been on aripiprazole, quetiapine, thiothixene, molidone, Haldol... the moments leading up to my change, my Foster parents thought I was losing my mind, because I was. Apparently, telling people you're hearing things and all you want to do is eat raw meat and you're starting fights when you're normally a nice little girl.
"But Hera died protecting us. Hera died giving us enough time to run away, because if we hadn't we would have died. And she died for us... but we didn't... run. We ran, but we ran, used the environment, and killed the corrupt spirit, and we killed it. and when we came back... we brought her body back, and the Master of Challenges told us that we had failed. And told Hera that she was sorry that her sacrifice had been for nothing.
"And Mary-" she laughs at this, it isn't a laughable offense "-frenzied. Lost her shit, and I remember shifting, and holding onto her, and getting torn to shit until she calmed down. And Gaia's Light pushed, and she pushed, and she tried, and I don't know if I was tired or worried or what... but I didn't frenzy, and she told us she'd lied and that we passed. And Hera named us."
She's quiet for a second... and it lingers.
"What was your Rite of Passage like?"
And... a little quieter... a little more... personal.
"What was your father like?"
[Sorrow] "I never knew him," Kora says, with a quiet twist of her elegant mouth. There's something wry to it, some old twist there that does not entirely breech the surface of her expression. She's seated now, hands on her thighs, thumbs turned inward. Her hair is pulled back from her features, but it gleams with a life of its on in the moving light of the fire kept burning by the Guardians both for warmth and as chiminage. "There's a rite we have, Fenrir - a Rite of Heritage - to determine a bloodline, to discover that lost history, yeah? And after Edinburgh, I was sent to Vindur und Ringing, which is way out in the North Sea. We say Hjaltland. The Fianna call them the Shetlands.
"The Sept was small - just Fenrir and the odd visitor - way to the north east, this series of islands called the Utsker Skerries. So isolated that the kin there still speak this old - well, old Norse language that is otherwise dead as a human tongue. Close enough to Icelandic that you can get along, but - " a twist of her shoulders. " - yeah. So, the Ritemaster did the rite and discovered my father's name. He was a modi. Still a cliath when he died."
A brief exhale, narrowly propelled through her nostrils. "Like Joe," she says, thoughtfully, eyes far away. "Near as I can tell it was a one night stand. He died a few weeks or months later, never knew.
"Li's dad was different. I never knew him either, but he survived, came back to Linus sometime after I left home. Took him away."
She's half-ready to tell the story of her rite of passage. Except: not yet. Soon enough. Instead, a flickering glance back to the young Black Fury. "What about you? Your folks? That shit with the doctor during the Rite of Spring, I never really understood that. Did they do that to you?"
[Adamidas] "So... this is new for you. You didn't grow up with this and..." she can't put words to it. the Fury looks at Kora, and it's become storytime. She's trying to understand. The fact that they're divulging so much. They're talking about this, they're learning things. They're learning about the tribes from a case study. Going from the specifics and moving out to the general. Learning and hearing about places she's only heard about.
Kora's been somewhere. Seen her people. Seen her physical homelands, whereas the Fury has only traversed the spiritual. Deposited spirits to their front door.
"Tell me about Joe," she says. She sees Kora's far away eyes. She goes on and talks to her about someone that Adam only barely met once. She's met Joe in silence- has the cardstock notecards to prove it.
But they aren't talking about Joe now. They're talking about her. They're talking about spring.
"I... it's weird. My dad died before I was born, and my mom was a philodox. I was with her until I was five and... things happened... and she died. So, I went to foster care. And I got adopted by the Carricks," she might be down on herself once upon a time. Kora remembers a terrified girl from spring, but there is no fear there. Nothing of the sort. Instead, there is only acceptance, "my adopted family is human."
"They didn't know, so... when I started getting close to my first change... twelve, thirteen, they thought there was something wrong with me. So I went to the doctor... a lot. According to the medical records, I'm a paranoid schizophrenic, and things got bad enough that they didn't know what to do, so... I went away for awhile, and I lived at the hospital. Fury kin broke me out and I went to stay at the sept after that."
She actually smiles, but it's sad. Genuinely sad at that.
"They didn't know, and looking back now, I realize that. And, if they didn't love me, they wouldn't keep looking. They did their best. And I think... that if they knew what happened when I was there, they never would have sent me to the hospital."
A beat.
"There are a number of garou that look at what they are as a curse instead of a gift. I've never understood that."
[Sorrow] TRANSCRIPT
to Sorrow
[Sorrow] ZE PAUSE.
When we win, Kora says. And Adam's eyes are alight. She listens when she hears her speak of her mother, of her travels to Europe, of her history. It's in her blood. It's what she is.
"There is a difference between helpless and weak. The helpless are, obviously, incapable of protecting themselves for various reasons. They are too young, they are compromised, they are outnumbered. The weak are weak of their own volition, because they are actively refusing to better themselves or actively avoiding bettering themselves. The weak are leaches, the helpless are allies waiting to happen.
"Again, only a misguided one. Some of the older members of the tribe may think this, but realistically Fury kin are our kin because they are strong and they are capable. A simpering, broken male can't protect our children and isn't worthy of fathering a future generation."
"I was given my name, because my sister Hera gave me that name," she starts.
"A Black Fury's Rite of Passage consists of three portions- a test of your judgment, to prove one's worth as an avenger; a test of vision, which is usually a spirit quest or a riddle, and ours was a pretty lengthy trek into the umbra to go track down some wounded epiphling; and a test of fury, which is a test to see if you own your rage and how you handle yourself. The purpose of it being structured this way is so that the elders know what we are strong in and what our weakenesses are.
"I went through my rite of passage with two other Furies- Hera, who was an ahroun; and Mary Martin, who was a philodox-" which sounds remarkably like the last pack she was with "-and during our test of vision, something went wrong... and, well, a lot of septs aren't a big fan of sending your cubs off into a situation where you could potentially die horribly, but... well... Gaia's Light didn't quite have qualms with that, and I don't fault her for it. If you are strong, then you will survive, and if you are weak then you won't.
"It wasn't that Hera was weak, not by a long shot... if anything, she was the only one of us that didn't have her head in the clouds or didn't spend her entire life on the brink of frenzy. You gotta understand, Mary was an angry girl, and I've lived my life so incredibly doped out of my head it's not even funny. I've been on aripiprazole, quetiapine, thiothixene, molidone, Haldol... the moments leading up to my change, my Foster parents thought I was losing my mind, because I was. Apparently, telling people you're hearing things and all you want to do is eat raw meat and you're starting fights when you're normally a nice little girl.
"But Hera died protecting us. Hera died giving us enough time to run away, because if we hadn't we would have died. And she died for us... but we didn't... run. We ran, but we ran, used the environment, and killed the corrupt spirit, and we killed it. and when we came back... we brought her body back, and the Master of Challenges told us that we had failed. And told Hera that she was sorry that her sacrifice had been for nothing.
"And Mary-" she laughs at this, it isn't a laughable offense "-frenzied. Lost her shit, and I remember shifting, and holding onto her, and getting torn to shit until she calmed down. And Gaia's Light pushed, and she pushed, and she tried, and I don't know if I was tired or worried or what... but I didn't frenzy, and she told us she'd lied and that we passed. And Hera named us."
She's quiet for a second... and it lingers.
"What was your Rite of Passage like?"
And... a little quieter... a little more... personal.
"What was your father like?"
[Sorrow] "I never knew him," Kora says, with a quiet twist of her elegant mouth. There's something wry to it, some old twist there that does not entirely breech the surface of her expression. She's seated now, hands on her thighs, thumbs turned inward. Her hair is pulled back from her features, but it gleams with a life of its on in the moving light of the fire kept burning by the Guardians both for warmth and as chiminage. "There's a rite we have, Fenrir - a Rite of Heritage - to determine a bloodline, to discover that lost history, yeah? And after Edinburgh, I was sent to Vindur und Ringing, which is way out in the North Sea. We say Hjaltland. The Fianna call them the Shetlands.
"The Sept was small - just Fenrir and the odd visitor - way to the north east, this series of islands called the Utsker Skerries. So isolated that the kin there still speak this old - well, old Norse language that is otherwise dead as a human tongue. Close enough to Icelandic that you can get along, but - " a twist of her shoulders. " - yeah. So, the Ritemaster did the rite and discovered my father's name. He was a modi. Still a cliath when he died."
A brief exhale, narrowly propelled through her nostrils. "Like Joe," she says, thoughtfully, eyes far away. "Near as I can tell it was a one night stand. He died a few weeks or months later, never knew.
"Li's dad was different. I never knew him either, but he survived, came back to Linus sometime after I left home. Took him away."
She's half-ready to tell the story of her rite of passage. Except: not yet. Soon enough. Instead, a flickering glance back to the young Black Fury. "What about you? Your folks? That shit with the doctor during the Rite of Spring, I never really understood that. Did they do that to you?"
[Adamidas] "So... this is new for you. You didn't grow up with this and..." she can't put words to it. the Fury looks at Kora, and it's become storytime. She's trying to understand. The fact that they're divulging so much. They're talking about this, they're learning things. They're learning about the tribes from a case study. Going from the specifics and moving out to the general. Learning and hearing about places she's only heard about.
Kora's been somewhere. Seen her people. Seen her physical homelands, whereas the Fury has only traversed the spiritual. Deposited spirits to their front door.
"Tell me about Joe," she says. She sees Kora's far away eyes. She goes on and talks to her about someone that Adam only barely met once. She's met Joe in silence- has the cardstock notecards to prove it.
But they aren't talking about Joe now. They're talking about her. They're talking about spring.
"I... it's weird. My dad died before I was born, and my mom was a philodox. I was with her until I was five and... things happened... and she died. So, I went to foster care. And I got adopted by the Carricks," she might be down on herself once upon a time. Kora remembers a terrified girl from spring, but there is no fear there. Nothing of the sort. Instead, there is only acceptance, "my adopted family is human."
"They didn't know, so... when I started getting close to my first change... twelve, thirteen, they thought there was something wrong with me. So I went to the doctor... a lot. According to the medical records, I'm a paranoid schizophrenic, and things got bad enough that they didn't know what to do, so... I went away for awhile, and I lived at the hospital. Fury kin broke me out and I went to stay at the sept after that."
She actually smiles, but it's sad. Genuinely sad at that.
"They didn't know, and looking back now, I realize that. And, if they didn't love me, they wouldn't keep looking. They did their best. And I think... that if they knew what happened when I was there, they never would have sent me to the hospital."
A beat.
"There are a number of garou that look at what they are as a curse instead of a gift. I've never understood that."
[Sorrow] TRANSCRIPT
to Sorrow
[Sorrow] ZE PAUSE.
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