2018.09.13 Task 1: Sacrifice
| Task 1 - Sacrifice | |
|---|---|
| Faith Seeks Aleksandr's Wisdom | |
| IC Date | September 12th, 2018 |
| IC Time | Evening - Post Fight |
| Players | Aleksandr, Faith |
| Location | Shrines of the Fallen |
| Prp/Tp | none |
| Spheres | Gaian Garou |
In the area below, the cubs and cliaths train to work together against the massive Wendigo Ahroun. Faith is not only sitting dutifully some feet below the lupus, but she is actually watching the battle. Her eyes track the movements of the war forms, one watching her watch the fight, might be clued in to the idea that this is actually the very first time she has ever seen Crinos fight. Ever. Her hands remain on her lap, and her attention on each and every blow. There's no dire expression of concern over wounds - perhaps she was listening to how the fetish worked. Or Maybe she just doesn't care. She will of course, respond, if any garou or kinfolk signals for her attention - but otherwise, she is absolutely focused with sharp eyes.
The silver wolf is stoic and straight sitting in the back of the Amphitheatre. Should he be joining the other three in attacking the Elder? Maybe. Dragomir did not specifically order him too, though. Thus he sits where he is. Some Warriors fight and learns, others watch and learn, to their strength. If anyone knows Lights-the-Darkness, he is a thinker, through and through. Measure twice, cut once, as the saying goes. Careful, considerate. Wisdom is what one aspires to when you are of the Crescent Moon birth. He watches the fight barely moving, eyes following the action, the enhanced eyes of the wolf. He doesn't give Faith any more attention while the fight goes on, but then maybe the wolf never will. Maybe he feels the burden is on the kinfolk to approach him if she wants something from him. That would seem very Garou and very Silver Fang like at the least.
And approaching in the nearly empty amphitheater, sitting feet below him, and then waiting, to either be acknowledged or not, is what she has been taught to do by her mentor. There are no words until after the fight is over, and then once acknowledged (and should the Silver Fang turn to leave without acknowledging her she will do this of her own accord as he is leaving) Faith will turn to be on her knees, facing the lupus rather than with her back to him. Keeping her eyes down she will say softly, respectfully, "If you would find my humble request to be worthy of your time Lights-the-Darkness-Rhya, it would be of great help to me to discuss the sacrifice you have wisely suggested with you."
Lights-the-Darkness acknowledges her, he acknowledged her when she sat down, if it is to say, he acknowledged her by looking down at her. The wolf is hard to read for those that don't know him. But when the Amphitheatre quiets, the fight ends and people start to move, he can't be sure if Faith wants something or does not, so he does turn to go. That is when she gets his attention and spins back, lupine body bending to make a half circle back. The wolf watches, unaware if Faith can understand him, but he does recall her saying she was 'normal' kinfolk once. He remembers a lot. There's a long, silent consideration, as if deciding whether she is worthy of his time. Whatever sways him one way or another, the wolf ducks his head ever so slightly to her request. He motions from her with his head, to the exit and then back. One could assume he is telling her outside, or somewhere else.
The young woman rises slowly to her feet, tucking in to follow at a close but respectful distance. Once Aleksandr has acknowledged her request, and granted it - she does not look behind herself at the others. Not her mentor, nor the cub. She follows the Silver Fang in silence. Her footsteps quiet and soft.
Rather than to the graves, the wolf doesn't just lead her outside to the fires, where anyone might go. Nowhere at the Caern is terribly private, but he takes her to the Shrines of the fallen, rather than the graves. There is usually peace there, and he must pick it for a reason. Enough anyone that they might be hardly interrupted and perhaps that is for her benefit than his because doing this publicly might server her right. He doesn't change though, stopping , sitting on his haunches and looking up at her expectantly once they arrive. Perhaps he is going to make it as difficult as possible on her.
The kinfolk takes to her knees once more, kneeling in front of the lupine, hands to her knees and head bowed. She seems to pause, and think for a moment before she speaks, "Thank you Lights-the-Darkness-Rhya." That's a good start, right? A slow breath through her nose, and out through her lips.. there's nothing about this that seems to come easy for her. "The sacrifice made isn't only about hurting me, but repairing, or building, the defenses of this place, the people who have made this place, in a way that honors Eye-of-the-Storm." She leaves off the honorific, having checked again with her mentor, but then pauses, and says, "Eye of the Storm-Rhya." Since, you know - he's not here and Aleksandr is. She's struggling, but the attempt appears genuine. "I don't know how to even begin. I can sell the space I have, but that would hurt the nation, not give to it. I can quit my job, but my place there has aided in covering the veil and exposing wyrm minions. I value my place as his student above almost all else, I almost died to hold it. Do you believe I would benefit the nation to renounce his protection? I'm afraid to make another stupid decision in a hurry to fix everything. Please help me?" She raises her eyes only to the front paws of the silvery white wolf, trying very hard to hold back any show of emotion.
Lights-the-Darkness listens, the wolf watching and waiting as she speaks. Does he still deem her worth her time, maybe, though it takes him quite some time after she is finished to move or take action. Finally, he resumes, with relative ease, his natural from of homid. Standing then. Looking down at her, dark eyes regarding her again in silence. He doesn't respond to her, perhaps the way she is expecting. "Do you know what -rhya means? What it's significance is?" Arms cross over his chest and with her kneeling, he stays standing at his full height, preferring to look down at her. He seems like he can wait all day for an answer, but that seems to be all he wants to know for now.
She answers softly, eyes shifting onto the gaze at the feet of the man-form that now stands over her. The kinfolk does not lift her head, nor does she raise her voice more than a decibel or so, just enough to reach his ears with that respectful tone. "It is an honorific that is way of showing respect to those above us, as the Litany says we should." Her answer is short, but to the point. She sounds to be certain indeed of what she believes the syllables to mean.
"I am not Eye-of-the-Storm-rhya, but my father would say, if someone deserves your respect when they are present, do they also not deserve it when they are not?" Aleksandr has clearly been taught differently than Dragomir teaches and maybe he's explaining that, in his own way. Maybe he's looking for an answer to that question too, of what she has been taught, hard to say. Hs brow raises slightly, he still on this point rather than what she has asked about. Strange.
A silent nod of her head is followed by a pause, as if uncertain if that was only a rhetorical question again. Those bite her in the ass every time. The kinswoman takes a slow breath, and then she adds, "It is disrespectful for me to not obey your teaching in your presence, unless Eye of the Storm Rhya is present, like any other orders given in time of war. One does not question the ranking garou present unless there will be a clear and present danger to the Caern.. and even then one like me, without years of wisdom, is ill equipped to raise such a question, Lights-the-Darkness-Rhya." Another pause, and she adds, even more quietly, "Please correct me if I am misguided, again, Sir."
"I am testing your ability to think, Faith Donahue, you are still allowed that, are you not? To think? There is a far cry from thinking and expressing your thoughts. Something few know, or have learned. Your possible future mate included. It is not enough to learn, you must also process what you've learned and consider it. That does not mean you go against your teachings. I am not asking you to disobey Eye of the Storm-rhya. You must, of course, listen to his teachings, he is very wise. But no one accepts everything they learn without consideration, no wolf follows blindly." Aleksandr clears his throat. "What will my correction do, as you have stated, you must not question Eye of the Storm-rhya and he is your mentor. I just wished to hear your answer." He doesn't suggest whether it satisfies him. "Listening has far more benefits at time, than talking. I learn much." He starts pacing around her, circling her like a predator might. "In your case it seems, you decided to follow your own thoughts rather than Eye of the Storm-rhya's, so it is curious that now you are so staunchly against it. You seem very capable of thinking on your own, for better or for /worse/."
"I once called your words wise, I was obviously mistaken. You and the cub are perfect for each other, as I once believed. You two should be a great disaster for each other." He shakes his head and sighs. "You asked me a question and I ask you one in return. Sacrifice is always personal. It is always something we don't want to give because we hold so tightly to it. I do not know you Faith Donahue or what you hold dear, so you must decide how best to make amends, as we all do. Because no one, not the cub and not Eye of the Storm-rhya know you better than you do. Know your hidden depths. But know that if it is not a sacrifice to you, it an empty gesture. Perhaps you might fool everyone all the same, but honour is not just for the spirits to judge, it something you live with. It is your own. So when this is all done, you ask yourself if you can live with yourself. Do you have honour? It is a question we all ask ourselves." He stops his circling, purposely behind her. "What sacrifice you need to make is up to you. But it must transcend you, serve the Sept, serve the Nation, and it usually hurts. But this is the only way to prove that you are sorry, that you are worthy. Unlike what the cub believes, words are never enough, only actions speak. SO think, Faith Donahue. What would hurt to lose, but also server, also prove that what we are, what we fight for is more important than you? This is the only way to learn the lesson you need to learn."
The girl remains seated, thinking, her hands on her thighs as she continues to stare at the ground where the cliath stood. Her fingertips clip at her pants, scratch, clutch, relax. Her breathing is tight, like the knot between her shoulders. "He gave me no orders regarding avoiding the bastet. He specifically ordered me -not- to allow them to be antagonized further. I did choose. I did decide. The choice, the decision was poor, it was unwise. It was ..a human decision. Not a kinfolk's decision." As she speaks those words, she reaches into the pocket of her patrol fatigues and withdraws her wallet. "I made the choice based on how I was raised, to address things directly and on my own. Apart, separate from the nation." From the wallet she takes a photo, the sort that one can get at a WalMart or Sears photo studio. There are seven children and two adults, amongst them a set of twins, one of the boys is older than Faith, but the photo was taken of her easily less than two years ago. She is wearing an LAPD uniform. "My family left the nation. I was raised with seven of my siblings, two of them were trueborn and given to the sept. I was dropped off on Eye of the Storm's doorstep just about seven months ago. I saw my first garou just weeks before that." She leaves the photo on the ground in front of her as the wallet is pushed into her pocket. "I love my family more than anything - I keep saying I chose the Nation, but yesterday that's not how I behaved." She doesn't say more, not yet. She's staring at the photograph. The words have pushed toward a thought, but she hasn't said it out loud.
"You did not believe your presence. Your choice to tell them they were wrong about things would not antagonize them further? I believe that would go over the same amongst humans, as well." Another heavy sigh from Aleksandr, continuing to talk from behind her. Maybe eh prefers that. No telling whether he even looks at the photo she produces, though he doesn't take it from her. "That is a problem, you are either apart of the Nation or not. It seems you have chosen, part, so you must always think of others before yourselves. Tell me, do you think my treatment of the cub was for my benefit or his?" A brow raises, but she can't see that either. "Because he thinks, I am quite certain, it is simple Silver Fang pride." He shrugs, again, unseen and walks back around to the front of her. "My point is, the only way you can be truly sorry, is to give of your own volition, choose your own punishment because it costs you and you know it. Prove not only to everyone, but to yourself that the Nation means more than you do. This is true reflection of what needs to be done. That is my Wisdom to you."
"No, the bastet believed I was accusing one of their own of rape.. and by clarifying that accusation was not made, it calmed things, Sir." She sounds as sure of this as she did of what the term Rhya meant. "But it wasn't about them. It was about my behavior, being what I thought was best, and not considering what my place was in the conversation. When I'm in uniform, I behave as a police officer should. But when I'm not.." she answers, still looking at the photograph, "I sometimes behave as a kinfolk, and I sometimes behave as I would have a year ago, when I still thought Nation was a shorthand term for a bunch of overgrown dick-wagging-werewolves with nothing better to do than boss their human pets around." The young woman reaches up to push a piece of hair from her face. "You taught him a lesson to help him. I acted out selfishly and without consideration of the meaning of my mentor's words, his honor, or his wisdom." Faith settles her hands on her thighs, and then says softly, "I will take this to Eye of the Storm Rhya."
"When I am a wolf, I behave as if I am Garou. When I am in homid, I behave as if I am Garou. When I am in our war form, I behave as if I am Garou. This thought does not alter by what skin you wear. Think on this Faith Donahue." Aleksandr continues to look down at her, watcher in her kneeling positon. "Perhaps if this is not so, then your role as a police officer does not serve the Nation as you think." A cutting remark, but it's clear everything he is saying is meant for her to consider, to think and reflect on. There's a long pause as she speaks negatively of the Garou, but he does not comment on it, lips thinning outside of her view. "Sometimes might is right. The wolf knows this." A small sigh. "No, I did not teach him anything, I believe him incapable of learning, but I am not his mentor either. I wished for him to understand our ways, I am still unconvinced he does. The same for you. It is one thing to kneel and to prostrate yourself as you do now. It is quite another to understand what you are and why you do it. My father would say, if you were truly sorry for your actions, Faith Donahue, you would not have done them in the first place. Consider that. Consider what matters to you. Consider what the Nation means to you. Pride is a terrible thing. And is the human saying goes, it always cometh before the fall. I will leave you with this. What you do with it, is yours. The burden is yours, not mine. The wolf learns and adapts, or it dies. That is its life." With that Aleksandr starts to walk away already changing into the form of a wolf.
