trans_9 | I told you I knew where it was!

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I told you I knew where it was!

(OOC: This isn't the "official" weapons and possessions thread, Kelly asked Bella where it was and Bella decided to lead the way.)

Bella arrives in the lockers at an easy jog. Considering the person following her is Kelly, it shouldn't have been even close to a challenge for her to keep up. Bella doesn't care, they're here and that's what matters.

"This is Weapons and Possessions," she says. "New things are close to the front. Things further back belong to those who still sleep. At least, that is what we think. The ship moves things when new ones wake."

Nothing's really catching Bella's eye, or she'd totally waste a violation on something more impressive than this hatchet. Sure, it might help her assert her dominance over Sawyer that she took something he considered his, but there has to be a better weapon for her to carry in Crinos form.

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Bella snorts. "You are welcome for this. For now, crew is my pack. But I disagree. Humans, durable? Wolf is durable. Wolf has honor. Wolf runs miles in a day. Wolf hunts, wolf kills, wolf feeds pack wolf sings for pack and wolf protects pack. Always pack. Humans... no pack. What is there if there is no pack?"

This is about as talkative as Bella gets. This means something to her. "Wolf dies, there is always pack. Pack goes on forever. What does a human have?"

Kelly's expression hardens for a moment before she schools it back to neutral. "Making sweeping generalizations about a person, a potential enemy force especially, is dangerous. Humans have done great things together. Judging the many by the deeds of the few is a foolish mindset."

She likes to talk, this one. "Everyone, wolf and human fight for something they believe in. When they die, that thing is left behind. Who's to say what's right or what's wrong to fight for? You fight because you believe, that's enough."

"Few?" Bella growls. "My kind are few. Garou is few. Wolf is few and dying. Men kill the wolf. Kill the pack. Kill the pups. Kill the trees, and the prey, and make the water run foul. Man is many. Cities. So many cities, so many places that run thick with Weaverstink and blood and filth." She gives her head a vigorous, frustrated shake, it's a wolf gesture in a human body and it looks weird. "Human is not my enemy. They are the Flock. Garou protect them, as long as man does not threaten Garou. Man does not know what walks in the dark, what we hunt and what we kill so that it does not kill him and does not kill wolf."

"I do not fight for what I believe. I fight for what I know."
Bella's voice is sharp with a dignified, stubborn defiance. She believes this, believes it as deeply as she can believe anything. "The Apocalypse comes. The Wyrm rises. When it has, I shall be ready. My pack shall be ready. My Tribe, my Nation, my kind shall be ready. And we will fight it. We will give our teeth, our claws, our lives to it. And if we lose, we lose all. Wolf. Man. Garou. All that matters. That is why I fight."

And to judge from the fire in her eyes, she dares not just Kelly but anybody to challenge that.

Kelly straightens up to her full height, her expression remains placid and her voice calm when she speaks. "Exactly what I said, few. Not all men kill your kind, not all men hunt your prey, and not all men need your help. We never asked for your pack's protection. We got by just fine on our own. We have our own protectors, that's what I was made for. That's what I almost died for. Throwing all men together and saying we are all the same is bigotry. And where is the honor in that?"

"Then you'll lose. It's the belief in something that makes you fight past your abilities. That's what I was taught." Kelly remains passive, loping easily alongside the girl. "You fight because you were ordered to. But until you believe in the fight you'll never win. And like I said before, man doesn't need you to protect him. He's done a fine job of protecting himself all these years."

There's a slight shrug from the SPARTAN. She doesn't really care.

"Maybe not where you live. Maybe not. But in the place I was whelped, this is true. I have seen. Good man is so few, so few. Like wolf. Dying. Man is different. Wyrm twists him and feeds on him."

"Man never asked for Garou. Garou always was. Gaia made us for this. We hunt in dark places where man cannot go. We fight things he cannot fight. That man does not know us means we do our work. I am young, but I know this. In my Rite I fought Fomor that were feeding on human whelps. The Get of Fenris took me because I fought well. I showed honor. Whelps should not die, it is wrong. But man cannot fight Wyrm. Cannot smell it, or hear it, or see it where it breeds and grows. That is for Garou."

"Why would I not believe in something that I know is true?" she asks, genuinely puzzled. Bella's feeling up to changing again, but she decides not to for now. It might be taken as an aggressive action, for all she knows, and she doesn't want to pick a fight. It's... impolite, maybe. She's starting to get a better sense of what is and is not okay with these human packmates.

"I think you're going to have to explain to me exactly what this 'Wyrm' is."

"So what are your kind? Some sort of protectors created to stop a force from destroying humanity? If that's so, why not make yourself and what you do known to them. Humans are not always understanding, but a great majority of them would at least accept the existence of your kind and welcome any assistance you could provide. Why skulk in the shadows and let your people slowly be killed off?"

"Knowing and believing are two different things." Knowing Kelly, and the situation being as it is, it's probably safe to say that she wouldn't take that too well. But she wouldn't be the one to attack first.

"The Wyrm is my enemy. Our enemy. It is the destroyer of all that is good. It kills and breaks and burns. It is everywhere." It's not a very clear description, but Bella barely gets all this spirit stuff on her own anyway. There's an anger in it, though, a zeal that isn't entirely unlike that of the Covenant.

"Not all humans are good. The Wyrm rides them. The Weaver rides them. To be open to them is to lay us bare to attack. We fight from the shadows. Our enemies fight from the shadows. Leeches and worse things, too."

Bella gives a short exhale through the nose. "I see no difference," she says. "If something is true then why would I believe in anything else? If I know the truth then I believe it."

"And humans can't see it? Only your kind can?" Kelly doesn't remark on the fanaticism she picks up. The Covenant were enemies, flat out. Bella's given no reason to suspect her. Yet.

"If humans are killing your kind anyway the tactical decision would be to reveal yourselves and form some sort of alliance with the humans who are willing to help you, is it not? Not all humans are ridden by the Weaver, or the Wyrm correct?"

She shakes her head. "Having the knowledge and having the belief are different."

"Not only my kind. Other changers, too. They are few now, if they are not all dead. Bear. Raven. Lions and tigers and great cats. Crocodiles. Gaia's children all. The Wyrm is seen sometimes. Not often in the real world. Twisted beasts, broken men. Bodies that are wrong. Minds that are wrong. Monsters," Bella says. She knows very little of the other changers, and has never seen any before. In fact, the odds are she never will.

"They do us little harm. But if they knew of us, they could be used. They are too many for us. Garou are strong, but man is many."

"Word difference is not important to me. I am wolf," Bella says, dismissing it. Her temper's fading again, easily.

She nods. It would make sense that there are other animal changers after all.

"The Wyrm could take the ones who knew about you?"

She shrugs. "Think about it."

"A pack is only as clever as its slowest member," says Bella. "That is why wolves do not tolerate the weak. There are many stupid humans. Many. It is..." She thinks. Very hard, clearly having to draw something out of memory. "My Alpha had word. Lowest..." Bella gives her head a shake, and growls once. "Lowest common den... not number... Nomm..inator. Lowest common denominator. He said. I think that is whay I mean. Long word I do not know."

Bella looks at Kelly, she seems faintly amused. "I gain nothing from it," she says.

She nods. "Lowest common denominator. I can see how the weak link would affect the safety of your pack. There must be an alternative to keep your kind from dying off, however."

That gets another shrug. "If you say so."

"The end times come," says Bella. "We do not need much longer. Elders say the next generation of cubs will not grow up before the Apocalypse." She seems very untroubled by this.

"I do say." She nods. "I am going back now," she adds, and starts shifting. Bella doesn't need to cross all her forms again to go back to her native shape, the shifting finishes quickly with less change in size. She picks up her axe in her teeth again.

A pause. "So let me get this straight, humans are killing your kind. But you aren't worried because the end of the world is coming anyway?"

She nods. "I can't help but say that I like this form of yours as well."

"Not many humans hunt Garou. Most cannot stand the sight of the war form. It gives them maddening fear. No, Wyrm agents among the humans hunt us. Time is short. The Elders are wiser than I, I follow them." Bella, as long as she believes in the competence of those in her command, is a good little pack wolf.

She nods again. "Is better for a fight," she agrees heartily.

She nods. "Well that makes some sense, I suppose."

"I doubt you'd find yourself in a position for that here, though. Most of the crew seem complacent enough."

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I told you I knew where it was!

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