Tristain
Cub
"Monsters are as Monsters do. Am I a Monster?"
Posts: 170
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Post by Tristain on Jul 10, 2009 21:34:50 GMT 1
Hmm... well, that was a more full answer. If only this didn't feel like such a battle.
"They said... they said that I wouldn't really understand 'till I'd experienced it. I wouldn't understand the Wyrm, understand the tribe. My purpose. I was kinda learning enough to be ready to learn what it reveals. What other tribes are there? What tribe are you?"
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Post by Danny on Jul 10, 2009 21:55:28 GMT 1
"They are right about that, I suppose," Danny said. "The first Garou who sought to understand the Wyrm descended into its lair, they danced the black spiral, where they were corrupted and driven mad by what they saw. They called it insight. Insight that compelled them to destroy their brothers.
I am a Silent Strider. There are many other tribes, I could tell you about them, but you will meet some of them soon enough. It's better for you to form your own opinions, than to adopt mine."
He glanced up at the sun. The girls were running late. "What kind of banes did you perform chiminage for?" he asked.
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Tristain
Cub
"Monsters are as Monsters do. Am I a Monster?"
Posts: 170
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Post by Tristain on Jul 10, 2009 22:04:15 GMT 1
Well that ended that.
"I don't remember the names. Some sickly green fire spirit, a skeletal rat and a... ball of anger... that smelled of mustard."
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Post by Danny on Jul 10, 2009 22:09:15 GMT 1
"What did they ask you to do?" Danny asked. He stopped to watch Tristain again as he asked the question, and seemed more interested in Tristain's reaction than his actual answer.
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Tristain
Cub
"Monsters are as Monsters do. Am I a Monster?"
Posts: 170
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Post by Tristain on Jul 11, 2009 7:41:52 GMT 1
Tristain looks down at the floor. "The first one wanted me to burn someobne alive. But Jess persuaded it that someone's pet dog would be enough. The rat-thing got me to burn down a doctor's surgery, and the last... thing," he pauses a moment. "That one wanted to ride me. Killed six people and never even changed up." He shudders again with the memories. The screams; the wet snapping sensation as his impossible spirit-driven strength snapped bones beneath his hands; the horrified, terrified faces.
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Post by Danny on Jul 11, 2009 19:54:06 GMT 1
Danny watched him as he recounted his chiminage, but didn't say anything about it. They were already beyond the whole why did you do it question. Danny wasn't sure he would ever get a satisfying answer to that.
"You cannot undo the things you have done," he said simply. "But you can hope that you live long enough to make up for the suffering these actions have caused. Only you know the extent of that suffering, so only you know what it will take. That is, if you intend to make up for it."
That last bit might not have sounded like a question, but it probably was. Danny was watching him again the same way he always seemed to when he was asking a question.
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Tristain
Cub
"Monsters are as Monsters do. Am I a Monster?"
Posts: 170
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Post by Tristain on Jul 11, 2009 20:00:28 GMT 1
If it was a question, Tristain doesn't reply. He's torn between wanting to run and to stay. He does want to make amends, if that is indeed possible, but isn't yet sure that this Garou Nation is the place to do it. Is killing these people's enemies really a way to make amends for what he's done? Their words sound reasonable, honourable, in much the same was Jess's did. Still, if they could get this... taint off him, so he's not marked as a Spiral, if they can teach him to better survive, he can at least give them a chance to show their true colours.
And the quiet, dark part of his voice reminds him that treating him like shit hardly marked them as bad people. Just sane.
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Post by Danny on Jul 11, 2009 20:03:35 GMT 1
Time passed, and Danny seemed to realise that Tristain needed a little more of a nudge.
"You might as well tell me now," he said. "Your choices might be limited, but you still have a choice."
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Tristain
Cub
"Monsters are as Monsters do. Am I a Monster?"
Posts: 170
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Post by Tristain on Jul 11, 2009 20:09:00 GMT 1
Tristain looks up at Danny. "I want to make amends. If I still can." He doesn't say the rest, doesn't say that he doesn't yet trust these Garou to be any less bloodthirsty and evil than the Spirals. He's tried being open with Danny once already.
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Post by Danny on Jul 11, 2009 20:34:33 GMT 1
The small deception, no matter how subtle, did not seem to be lost on Danny.
"But you do not want to do it by taking your place in the Garou Nation," he said. "You don't want to do it by fighting the ones who drove you and others like you to unspeakable acts."
He seemed disappointed. "There is no redemption for you out there. There is no cleansing, no safety, no atonement until you face judgment. Your crimes will haunt your soul and torment you beyond death.
"But I can't convince you of your purpose or your duty. You must find it yourself. All Garou know at heart why they were created. If you want to run, then we can't help you. You might as well go now, before the girls show up. I am sure neither of them will extend you the courtesy of giving you a headstart."
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Tristain
Cub
"Monsters are as Monsters do. Am I a Monster?"
Posts: 170
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Post by Tristain on Jul 11, 2009 20:56:11 GMT 1
Tristain shakes his head. Danny was perceptive, he has to give him that.
"My place in the Garou Nation?" He snorts. "You're sounding awfully like Jess, you know."
"I don't know anything about you except what you've chosen to share. And until I know... how can you expect me to just accept that you're the good guys?" He takes a breath, wondering if the different words will get his point through to this guy. "I'm not running. I'll give you a chance to show me you're real if you give me a chance to show you I am. But I'm not signing my soul away to you just yet."
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Post by Danny on Jul 11, 2009 21:11:10 GMT 1
Danny raised his eyebrows at being compared to a Black Spiral Dancer. His voice did become harder after that.
"I am giving you a chance," he said. More than most of his Septmates would. "You have told me the worst of what you have done. You have given me a reason to distrust you and to fear you. What reason have I given you to distrust me?"
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Tristain
Cub
"Monsters are as Monsters do. Am I a Monster?"
Posts: 170
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Post by Tristain on Jul 11, 2009 21:18:28 GMT 1
Tristain closes his eyes. How could he get this guy to see?
"It's not so much what you've done as what they've done. I've seen what people who consider their cause righteous can do. I want to trust you. I want you to be these.... knights in shining armour you want me to see you as. But I can't blindly trust words. Not any more."
He tries another tack, reversing the older Garou's question, opening his eyes to ask. "I've risked my hide pulling one of yours out from under that Spiral. What have you done that would make me trust you?" Even as he tries, he can't hide the desperation from his voice. This guy's not going to let the point lie, so Tristain needs to make himself understood, but he's flat out of ideas how.
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Post by Danny on Jul 11, 2009 21:41:41 GMT 1
"You left the others and came to us," he said. "Now you expect us to prove to you that we are the good guys. You are judging us on the deeds of your former friends, yet you expect us to judge you instead on your one redeeming act, when you have spent the past year running. And yet, I am prepared to do that."
He let those words sink in, wondering if Tristain had any idea how they sounded. "You trusted the wrong person. That was your mistake. You let others tell you what is acceptable rather than your own sense of right and wrong. Don't blame it on the rest of the world."
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Tristain
Cub
"Monsters are as Monsters do. Am I a Monster?"
Posts: 170
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Post by Tristain on Jul 11, 2009 21:49:58 GMT 1
Tristain shakes his head and falls silent. Partly because too much of what Danny says is true, and partly because every time he gives an honest answer, he's getting attacked for it. He was wrong to offer an explanation it seems. Too keen to trust, to open up to these people. Too eager for acceptance, once again.
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