Featuring: Momiji Date, Mercy Chou, Delilah Harper-Windgrace, Dinah Windgrace, Gunnar Hengst and Yew
Synopsis: As Mercy tries to get a little something to help her from the tanuki, Delilah has some anger management issues, and makes it everyone’s problem.
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EXT - Windgrace Mansion
The statue stood very still against the hedges. It seemed inert, unmoving - or maybe it was just listening to something in the garden beyond and hadn't quite noticed Mercy approaching. The squinting stare from the hidden dragon made its weight known eventually though and the statue's eyes slid sideways to glance at Mercy, the statue itself starting to teeter from one side to the other a bit as if... nervously.
Mercy Chou (gaia.chester): "Oh, it IS you," Mercy said when the statue moved. "I'm so glad I wandered this way. I spent all morning poking about the Seiiki district. I was hoping to look at your wares? I have things to trade though I heard a rumor that's not the currency that you truck in." Mercy bent over a little to talk to the statue more directly, her manner earnest. Anyone looking out of the windows of the mansion across the way, she may have looked halfway to bedlam, chattering at the statue animatedly. "I need something to help me find a boy. Or rather, coax the boy to find me."
The statue made little tap-tap-tap noises as it rocked on its base, trying to pivot surreptitiously toward the garden, then back toward Mercy. Unfortunately it was impossible to be stealthy as a fat raccoon statue when one had given up being immobile... so instead it started rocking back and forth, front to back, until it tipped over backwards into a roll away from the open entrance to the Windgrace's yard so its transformation could go unseen. A little POOF of smoke and the tanuki popped up, much less rotund but certainly no more graceful. He put a finger to his lips and beckoned Mercy closer. "Yes, yes, I can help. Come here!" he hissed and crouched into the brush behind the hedge, jostling his bigger gourd around to tip it so he could dump its contents onto the ground. The silken cloth that drooped out of it unrolled in the grass to reveal a number of items - glass bottles and little trinkets and boxes of ... food?
"Oh, are we hiding?" Mercy wanted to know, lowering her voice to a whisper as well as she followed the Tankuki into the bushes. Mercy wasn't large even in her human form but she didn't exactly blend into the foliage. Just two people from Seiiki, crouching in the bushes and whispering. Nothing to worry the fine mansion owners even a little, surely. "Sorry, I thought you might have been sleeping. I have an older brother that naps like that. Well not, THAT-that. He doesn't turn into a tanuki statue but he does turn into stone to nap. Impossible to rouse but he is very old and cranky. Oh, pretty," Mercy trailed off, her gaze going to the baubles as any good dragon might. Shiny was always better.
Lilah paced back and forth, up and down the lawn, as she had much of the night. Following the other Delilah helping her home she'd managed to bandage her shoulder one handed, and retired to bed. Within an hour or so she was up, however, a tingling in her head. She found herself thinking about what she'd read recently...she'd requested some files from when the Windgrace's had helped fund and found the raising of Callisto island. But what she'd not expected was an extra book, one seemingly slipped in the box by mistake. One that showed that Charles Windgrace has helped fund the hunts that nearly wiped out werewolves in Scotland. He was an enemy, against her. Maybe they /all/ knew...maybe they were ALL against her. Getting her to do their labor, do their dirty work, meanwhile laughing at her behind her back. They thought they'd housebroken her, that she was their loyal servant...no, not even a servant, not even with that much agency. They thought she was a PET, didn't they?! Now, she'd been up and pacing the lawn for hours, the hems of her pants long since covered in grass stains. They were plotting against her...killed her family and then pretended they were a replacement. She'd get them. She'd get them all.
Dinah (dollihead) was going to kill her father. She was leaning on the railing and smoking. She had the plan. She couldn't run it by Dorian..he was too soft. Too gentle. Drystan, on the other hand... he would help her. She knew. She saw Delilah striding about the garden and she watched her the bandage on her shoulder with a frown. She ashed her cigarette over the edge, looking out across the sea again. Father would be visiting soon.
Momiji Date was constantly glancing over his shoulder as Mercy perused. "Yes, we are hiding," he whispered, waving a hand at her as she rambled on and on about her brother. The tanuki could hear... feet on the ground, the wolf's pacing perking his ears. He was on edge, his usual more salesman-like drive to sell his accumulated goods hidden behind the sheer anxiety of something lurking beyond the hedges. "Maaaybe... a trinket? Eye-catching? good to draw the eye in? Shiny things will do that, hm?" he offered, eventually turning back to look at Mercy. "What is this guy like? Maybe he eats well? Maybe something sweet?" Another wave of the hand at his spread-out blanket of things. "But remember. Must have something to offer. Secrets, only secrets," he said and put a finger to his lips.
Mercy Chou (gaia.chester) gave the Tanuki a slightly baffled look at his desire for quiet but nodded. Her fingers reached out to touch the necklace, running her fingertips over the shiny stone. "Hm." She tipped her head to the side, oblivious to the angry wolf pacing the grass beyond. "I don't have many secrets and I'm not sure what they'd be worth. I don't need to wear glasses; I just do it to try and get people at the university to take me more seriously but I don't think it works very well, honestly, but now I've committed. I snuck a dog in and registered him as a familiar but its actually a boy and now he lives with me sometimes, I guess, which would totally get me in trouble if my roommate found out and tattled... I'm actually a dragon. Well, half-blooded dragon. Are any of those enough to buy one of your wares?" Alas, Mercy still hadn't managed to really figure out trade and commerce as she volunteered all of her coin of secrets in one go, much like the way she offered handfuls of actual coin when paying for goods.
The grass was beginning to be noticably tramped down along the path Lilah strode. Occasionally, she pawed at her head, the leftover calm from those she'd met the night before fighting against the rage that bubbled up. They were her family, they had shed and spilled blood together. Drystan didn't know about what Charles had done. Except...except what if he did?! What if their meeting in Austria has been all part of the Windgrace's plan from the start?! These people thought in terms of centuries, what was a lttle over a century compared to this family's lifetime?? She shook her head, no. No, they accepted her...the kids accepted her. Dinah was even accepting her. But...why? Why so recently, after years with the family? Was the ritual the culmination? WAS SHE GOING TO BE THE SACRIFICE? "Nae fackin' way..." she growled softly to herself.
Dinah (dollihead) was unaware of the two on the other side of the hedge, too busy smoking and watching the werewolf in the garden. She hummed, tilting her head as she leaned her hip against the railing.
"Delilah, what are you doing?" she raised her voice only enough for it to carry down into the garden, tapping her cigarette on the edge of the rail, blowing the smoke up into the air, her tone mystified. Was she due for another run into the woods?
Momiji Date flapped his hands as Mercy started rambling, eventually fumbling them out to try and PAP! one over the half-dragon's mouth. "Yes, yes fine! Those are fine!" he hissed. Having heard Delilah's growl as more a... growl than discernible words, the Tanuki was very, very eager to take the little spill of secrets as payment. He sucked in a breath and seemed to... swallow it, as if consuming the secrets spoken into the air. Then he grabbed at a golden necklace and pressed it to Mercy's chest. "Here, JUST what you need, will attract..." he paused, head tilting. "...attention. Absolutely, will get his attention. Maybe... don't put it on yet. Not here. Or do. Your choice," he said, drawing his hand away to begin tucking and folding his silken cloth up over the assortment of things. Delilah's increased agitation was making him reeaaal nervous.
Mercy Chou (gaia.chester) closed her fingers around it, blinking once over the hand on her mouth before offering a muffled, "Thank you?" She pulled her treasure to her chest, fondling the links and the stone but not, thankfully, putting it on just yet. She went to rise from the crouch a little, taking a step back as she accepted his nervousness but didn't share it. Mercy was tiny, yes, but she was still a dragon and she didn't really *have* that sort of prey fear of larger predators. She certainly wasn't used to being seen as anyone's dinner. "Thank you," she said, still keeping her voice down due to his clear nerves but not understanding the source as she began to pick her way out of the bushes noisily.
At the sound of Dinah's voice, Lilah's pacing stopped dead in it's tracks. She was watching her. Plotting against her. Her left arm hung dead at her side. She'd been trying to move it as she paced, and had only managed to soak the bandage through with blood. She wasn't healing. Her wound should have been completely healed by now...they said it would be healed. What's more, she'd healed from worse by this point in the past. Was this the start? First, take away her healing so she was primed to be sacrificed on the weekend? Slowly, she turned, looking up at her 'sister' on the balcony. Her eyes burned with an animalistic fire, golden irises standing out set against jet black sclera. "Wis it ye? Did ye dae it? Or did ye get ma good friend Stan...someone Ah'd never suspect? This how yer plannin' ta sacrifice..." her words cut off at the sound of rustling from the bushes, and then she caught the scent. How had she been so blind?? That shifter...it was here. Letting out a snarl, she began stalking towards the front hedge arch.
[12:07] Dinah (dollihead)Dinah (dollihead) frowned. that arm was hanging strangely. Did she always heal so slowly? the downside of Dinah being mostly ignorant to the scottish werewolf until recently. Her expression became befuddlement against the accusations thrown her way.
"Did I do *what*? The answer is probably no, I've been working." she skulked to the opposite side of the balcony. The woman was in a mood, it seemed. Planning to sacrifice... she paused, then frowned, then shook her head.
"What ARE you doing, Delilah? Stop fooling around. What is wrong with your arm?"
Momiji Date felt the hair on his neck stand on end as Delilah started hurling accusations at Dinah, only worsened by how absolutely un-sneaky Mercy was being about leaving the grassy area. The Tanuki pawed in the air in her direction, hissing some hurried, nearly-unintelligible warning at her until he heard the snarl and sprang up to his feet. He did a few double-takes - at Mercy, then at sweet sweet escape over the rock wall, then cursed in loud and exasperated Japanese. A POOF of smoke and he was that statue again, rolling loudly across the stones and through the archway into the garden in plain view of the mansion's inhabitants.
Mercy Chou (gaia.chester) stared for a moment at the Tanuki just as she walked right into the center of the arch and realized about the snarling Delilah. Oh, there was a threat! That made the tanuki's behavior more clear. As the figure rolled past her, Mercy muttered, "No, no, don't run TOWARD the threat!" Hesitating for a moment, before she stuffed the chain of necklace in her mouth and shifted herself. Clearly they needed their more ferocious attack forms just in case! Mercy seemed to vanish into her clothes into a much smaller lump before a lizard roughly the same size as a corgi darted out of them and went to scuttle up the hedge for the 'high' ground.
Delilah felt as if she were being pulled in multiple directions at once. On the one hand, there was Dinah, the /betrayer/ calling down at her, lying to her. On the other hand, a creature that had been taunting the back of her mind for days. And just for added good measure, a woman...or, no wait, a beast. A little beast. She'd probably been plotting against Delilah as well. They were surrounding her. SHE. WOULD NOT. BE SACRIFICED! Snarling, deep and low, she clenched her teeth, their usual sharpness already lengthening to truly flesh ripping dimensions, her body starting to crack and pop as her skeleton began to stretch and reform, her muscles expanding, red hair sprouting across her whole body. A body that grew until her clothing stretched to the breaking point, and then her wolf was there, out and fierce, even as that left arm remained hanging limply at her side, wounded shoulder ugly and open. As the little statue rolled towards her, she knew that was the most pressing threat, and swiped at it with her good arm.
A tanuki statue was in no way very agile as a rolling ceramic-and-god-knows-what representation of himself. That vicious swipe scratched into it and knocked it sideways into the front of the Windgrace manor porch, a sound like a yelp and like an obscenity coming from inside the thing as it flopped into the grass. The tanuki popped back into flesh-form as a result, a heap of bleeding flesh and torn clothing under that massive gourd strapped on his back. He rolled onto his side, eyes bugging wide as he saw the wolf standing there. "H-Heeeelp - " he squeaked weakly, clutching at the grass in a largely fruitless attempt to drag himself away.
Mercy Chou (gaia.chester) let out a chirp of distress from her position in the bushes. "No, stop! Leave him alone, you bully!" Mercy shrieked in a voice higher than her human one. Leaping off of the bush with her arms and legs spread out, the little dragon seemed like it might pounce but instead caught the air instead for flight as it breathed out a gout of flames that moved like no natural flame should. She didn't want to hurt the were-lady but she also didn't want the merchant to get eaten so her effort was to separate the two with the flame. "He's got food. If you're hungry, eat that!" The way her little paws waved made it clear that it was the hand gestures as well as the sinuous curves of her body that were controlling the flames. Mercy was even polite enough to keep the flames on the stone to keep any grass charring to a minimum.
Delilah expected a sense of satisfaction when her prey fell. There was usually satisfaction when a prey fell beneath her claws, but just felt angry. Angry and pained. Hearing the creature's pained cries as it shifted back to it's previous form, Lilah let out a low growl, and was just leaning in, opening her jaws to finish the beast off when there was fire! Fire in front of her, moving like no fire should move, and she hurried back a few paces. Her eyes moved to the small scaled beastie, the one she'd seen before, as it seemed to dance down on the air, landing between her and her prey. "He IS food!" She snarled at the thing, baring her teeth at her. "Been tauntin' me fer days he has...mockin' me..."
Gunnar Hengst (greg.kotalik) Had wrapped an early morning shift at the docks with the tide turning nothing was leaving or coming for hours at least. Turning up the boulevard he eschewed the cannery, things had gotten weird there lately, even for the cannery. There was scent on the wind as he passed the house on the bluff but not entirely unfamiliar he knew he wasn't the only shifter on the island after all and did not particularly relish getting in a territorial pissing match wit whatever lived up there. He hurried along the sidewalk intent on getting to Murphys for some cool refreshment when the faint please for help and high pitched admonishments and growled replies carried over the wall along with the smoky scent of fire. He looked longingly up the street toward the bar just in sight now and looked down at his feet. "Fuck."
Momiji Date felt inordinately shitty, shittier than even being clawed at by that massive thing could account for. He let out a groan, looking up as the little dragon interposed herself between certain mangly death and his own heap of a self. "Noooo... run run, little lizard," he groaned. He couldn't do... much, but he COULD attempt to make that dragon look much, much larger than she was. He seeded an illusion into the air that made the corgi of dragons look at least as large as Delilah was, if not a tiny tiny bit larger, that adorable face warping into something more intimidating. Moving was certainly out of the question... he was hurt and bleeding from somewhere and that made him feel very much reluctant to do anything else.
Mercy Chou (gaia.chester) was at a bit of an impasse. She couldn't drop the flames and summon something that could carry the injured tanuki without exposing herself to the monstrous wolf-woman. "He's not. That's just his face, I think." Mercy tried, her tone placating as she backed up until her hind claws were prodding at Momiji. She was trying not to hurt him but she didn't dare look back as she tried to find something food like in the parcels he had attached to him to hopefully huck for Delilah. "I think he just has one of those... faces. You know. Resting mockery face. If we give you some food can I take him home? Please?" Sadly, Mercy was unaware of the Tanuki's efforts to make her look more intimidating as she tried to offer something that would let her drag the tanuki somewhere he could mend.
There were too many scents, too many beings trying to draw her attention. They were all around her. And seemed to be all against her. What was more, the small beastie was not a large beastie, larger than her even, spewing flames and looking threatening. What was strange, her voice remained small, her words placating. Obviously, she was trying to trick Delilah. Snarling once again, this time looking up into the face of the beastie, she growled, "Ye cannae fool me, beastie...if yer gonna talk of offerin' food, ye have ta have food ta offer, not flame and threats. Ah dinnae care /how/ big ye get!"
Gunnar Hengst (greg.kotalik) let out a beleaguered sigh as he lost the internal argument that this was not his problem and looked up and down the mostly empty street before vaulting up to clamber over the embankment and low wall crouching at the top of the wall to take in the scene before him with a rough grimace of distaste the dragons demeanor did not match it's size. The shifter was clearly barely in control if in control at all and that seemed a more worrisome condition. He knew well the kind of dumb risks one took when the beast was too close to the surface. "Hey whoa now." he called out as he hopped off the wall and slowly began to approach, hands outstretched and open. His rudimentary command of animals was unlikely to truely effect the ragign wolf but he might at least soothe some of the bestial urges with his slow deliberate will. "No one needs to be eatign no one now." he tried to tone his deep rumble to a soothing tone though he was perhaps too used to commanding for it to be entirely absent from his tone.
Yew || It was the chaos that called to Yewande, bringing her back to the same place she had once haunted, near the burnt-out manse that had long since disappeared. She'd abandoned that haunt, now, but the woman still sometimes wandered along that road, even more so when, in the odd moment or so, something strange and terrible came afoot.
She'd felt the curse that had been spreading through the isle and it made her -hungry-, no less so than it made Delilah. It made her hungry for the ripping of flesh, of the cut of knives forged of hellflame and sulfur, of the feeling of muscle in the beak. She'd not been directly affected by it, yet - but after all, she was reborn to consume and to devour, to offer sacrifices to a deity of martyrdom, to be necessary evil among evil for the sake of the good.
She wanted to consume the curse. Devour it. Burn it for fuel.
She saw the supernatural phenomena as she approached, scarcely hidden from mortal eyes - though of course few on this street were mortal, or unaware of the nature of this world.
Dread seems to seep off the dark-skinned woman, whose skin starts to crackle with tongues of flame in the like of feathers.
She grins at Delilah. The smile is mad, the smile of a creature rather than a woman. She feels it. The locus of the curse, at least for now.
There's a dark glow that seems to cast more shadows than light that gathers in the dark-skinned woman's hands, though her eyes turn to Gunnar and lets out a low groan. "You interrupt? Think it is more fun to interrupt more forcefully, though," she spits out in rapid-fire. "Big beastly one carries the violent curse. Good for eating. Should be torn out of until it is gone."
Momiji Date sadly did not have food out in the open. The smaller gourds sloshed with some kind of liquid inside them but reaching into the larger one only really gained the dragon clumsy clawfuls of that silken cloth. He made a scrunchy face of protest when he felt the claws poking around at him, one hand raising to lazily bat at the dragon's hind legs. "Stoop. Stop, no more! I am not food!" Was he... frightened by his own illusion? Quite possibly. The tanuki curled up into the tiniest ball, letting out a whimper. Fortunately his focus slipped enough for that illusion to drop, leaving Mercy the Terrible revealed again as Mercy the Tiny.
Dinah (dollihead): What sort of utter bullshit was happening on her lawn?
Di had headed inside but the sound of craziness from the front of her house had her stepping out onto the grass, staring at Delilah and then the rest, but then back to big Red again.
"....delilah." She absolutely did not want anyone getting mauled in her beloved garden. "Delilah, this is nonsense. what do you think you're playing at?" she said sharply.
Mercy Chou (gaia.chester) let the wall of flames drop, curling her claws to pull it back as she scrambled back on top of the injured Momiji to cover him with what she could of her small body. "Okay, okay, food. Vendor! Where's the food. She said we can trade food for your safety." Mercy muttered only to briefly stop and stare at Gunnar, her head tipping to the side hopfully and her tail wagged a little at seeing the man she'd gone to the effort of finding the necklace still dangling rediculously from her jaw. "Oh, hello. Help, please? He's hurt?" she said to both Dinah and Gunnar as either seemed better equipped to deal with angry -were than Mercy felt she was.
They were all coming for her, even scrambling over the fackin' walls to get at her now! Turning to the man who'd climbed over the wall, to the woman who'd walked up, she let out a long, low growl and dropped to all fours only to yelp as she put pressure on her wounded left shoulder, the wound jagged by the broken bones sticking through her flesh, her fur matted with blood. But she wasn't prey. Wasn't weak. She could take them, could take them all, even being a limb down. "Ye'll no' get me...none of ye'll get..." And her words paused. Because there was Dinah. Fackin' Dinah Windgrace, the one who /truly/ wanted to sacrifice her to her dark, mysterious beings. "Dinah..." she snarled in a low, menacing tone, "Ye'll no' be sacrificin' me!" And in a flash, she was charging for her sister.
Gunnar Hengst (greg.kotalik) spared a glance for the rak skinned woman who appeared almost form nowhere with a slight frown, "Hey now it isn't a curse she just needs to calm down a bit now." he corrected thinking the woman referred to Delillahs lycanthropy not the actual curse pushing her to such lengths. He continued to approach the wolf slowly and calmly, "Uh yea trying to." he replied to Mercy still focused on the were before him, "Let’s just calm it down and we can go get some drinks yea? My treat." he offered trying still to defuse the situation with his limited diplomatic skills. He breathed ever so slightly easier when the beast dropped to all fours a less aggressive stance, Noting the wounded shoulder he grimaced wounded wolves were unpredictable. "that's it we can just get you looked and an...." then she was charging the delicate blonde woman, "Fuck" muttered Gunnar but he didn't hesitate leaping in not the most graceful flying tackle at the wounded shifter.
Yew scowls at Gunnar as he says it's not a curse. The signs were already all over town, she'd watched the riots in the sanatorium from a perch by a window... She snaps back, saying "Curse all over town, violent, angry curse," she tells him... but then frowned a lot as Delilah dropped to all fours and immediately yelped, limping. Much of the flame, the aura of dread that seemed to seep off her skin, suddenly seemed to vanish, her spirit seeming to dissipate at once into a kind of disinterest. She didn't have much interest in fighting someone who was already severely wounded, it seemed, no matter how hungry the knowledge of the curse made her.
No, instead, when Delilah charges at Dinah, Yew is about to disinterestedly follow through at a blurring pace and attempt a disimpassioned blow to the snout - but instead it's Gunnar who makes the move, and the bird in human form doesn't even attempt to follow through, scowling.
"Want the curse. Don't want fight with injured one. Shout if need help," she spits out, each
[13:49] YewYew word violently blitzing past her lips.
Neither honour nor enjoyment from a hunt like that, after all. She couldn't say that the first didn't factor in at all anymore.
Momiji Date groaned. Survival was important, probably... so he shifted onto a delicate elbow and rummaged around in that massive gourd of his, yanking bout the silken cloth and spilling it onto the grass and stones. It unfurled to reveal the various cakes and food items that he was selling - all of which Mercy had likely just seen when perusing his wares on the other side of the hedge before things went so sideways. The talk of the curse was going in one ear and out the other, primarily because his ears were still ringing from being wolf-slapped.
Dinah (dollihead) had perhaps not thought this through. Delilah was faster, stronger, infinitely more deadly than she was, and from here, she wouldn't be able to get her shoe off in time to defend herself. As the red wolf charged her though, she opened her arms as if to embrace the creature that rushed towards her in teeth and claw. She'd been looking to do this for *years*. And perhaps if she could distract the other woman, the small and adorable critters could get away.
Perhaps it might have been a little suspicious that she let the other Windgrace come at her, but Di had faith that whatever those teeth could do, she'd outlast it, unaware of course of the curse stifling those effects.
Mercy Chou (gaia.chester) grabbed the first food that her claws hit, the onigiri, hucking it towards the fighting wolves before she wrapped her small body around Momiji. She just lacked leverage at the size she was, however, so Mercy shifted back to hands and feet and human parts in between though she didn't put the effort into hiding the pink hair or the horns that she generally had when shifting her body from one form to the other. Her true form, rather than the one she put effort into maintaining for the human's perceptions. Reaching to shift her arms under Momiji she groaned and drug him back from the steps and the battle of much fiercer creatures to where bushes and brick would provide some coverage for the wounded tanuki.
Delilah was fast, unbelievably fast...on a good day. With a hurt shoulder, however, trying to run on four legs threw off her gait, and her aim, and rather than clamp her jaws on Dinah's throat like she intended, her teeth grabbed the blonde's right arm around the bicep. She could take her apart, piece by piece. That was fine. No worse than Dinah had intended for her, no double. Bloody English. Bloody betrayers. They were all out to get her, but she'd just tear them to pieces. Every single one of them! She /just/ had the time to give Dinah's arm a shake, tasting the coppery flavour of her flesh and blood when all of a sudden it felt as if she were hit by a brick wall, her teeth torn free as the grey haired man tackled her to the ground. Snarling, her back claws kicked at the man, but she found herself in an awkward position and couldn't be sure she hit.
Gunnar Hengst (greg.kotalik) slammed into the huge wolf's side, rolling her off the small woman but not in time to prevent the bite. "fuck." he growled as the were beneath him thrashed and clawed at his legs. The claws rent the thick coveralls he wore but the awkward angle and thick fabric protected his skin. He hadn't shifted himself yet but his eyes had bled to an animal yellow pupils blown wide by adrenaline and holding the beast in check. "Settle down no one's eating or sacrificing nothing." he growled pouring his energy into the animal magnatism his bestial nature carried hoping the link might push the angry were to relent in her attacks. "See we got food here." he indicated and took a bite to show it was safe or perhaps assert he aite first. His own control was thin already. He held out the other chunk of onigiri for the wolf as he tried to keep her pinned to the ground until she relented. "LEts put a stop to this now we don't need to make this worse."
Dinah (dollihead) was knocked down with the sharp, shocking sensation of her arm being bitten. She dropped to the ground, gasping, pulling herself back towards the steps, one hand clutched to her bleeding arm.
....why was she still bleeding? that would normally have healed by now, even wounds parted by her ritual blade healing before the blood had struck the upper layers of her skin . There was no way a simple bite would keep bleeding like this. Dinah stood up slowly, her hand trembling and she stared at her own blood on her palm.
"N-nnnnngh....I...I... I'm bleeding... I'm.... I'm *bleeding*... I'm *BLEEDING*!"
Yew || With the revelation that the wolf was injured and would make for neither an honourable nor entertaining hunt, and Gunnar's intervention seemingly enough for the matter - Yew backs away, but not before memorizing the features of those involved. She wasn't entirely certain how the curse spread yet, after all - only that it did, that it spread violently and swiftly. Perhaps she'd be back another time to seek them out.
Momiji Date vaguely registered that he was being dragged away from the chaos. He looked up just enough to see... welp, more combat happening, and gathered his strength to teleport himself away somewhere safe.
Delilah found herself rolling in the grass. For a brief moment, she found herself flashing to her childhood, and the simple joy of being in nature. If not for the pain. And the anger. And the heavy figure pressing down on top of her, trying to make her eat something that *wasn't* Dinah. Dinah, who she could hear whimpering nearby. This was getting away from her. This one was physically stronger than her...but she was willing to bet she was the smarter hunter, so she forced herself to calm. Or seem to calm, at any rate. She looked at the rice ball he held out. She cocked her head from side to side, to get across her intrigue at the item. And then as fast as she could, she snapped her jaws at the onigiri. She'd take a finger or two as well, if she could. As soon as she took the food, her back feet were kicking again, trying to break her free...so she could run around the back of the house, regroup, plan her revenge.
Gunnar Hengst (greg.kotalik) may have been the stronger but he genuinely wanted to end this with less bloodshed so took risks he'd normally not. As her fangs tore at the flesh of his hand his grip loosened and he drew back away from those thrashing feet. He still interposed himself betwixt the wolf and the small woman crouched low as blood dripped off his ragged hand. For the moment she was free but the wound was testing his own restraint and his teeth sharpened as his ears tilted back into points, his already muscular form growing denser and perhaps slightly taller as he snarled, "I'm trying to help you bitch!' he explained in a low growl. He didn't spare a glance at the wounded woman, "They'll do that." he rumbled a reply, "Not sure her origins, holy water, wolfsbane, maybe a priest or holy man." he suggested carefully. "MIght stop the curse." he of course assuming the curse was lycanthropy, not the ghostly curse spreading across the island.
Dinah (dollihead) 's hand returned to pressing her palm against the bitemark. Heal heal heal...why wasn't it healing? Blood had soaked into her dress and was drooling in runnels down her arm to drip into the grass. She took another step back, colliding with the stone of the pillar there. She checked her arm again, muttering to herself. When the silver-haired stranger spoke to her of wolfsbane, priests and holy men, she lifted her head to stare at him, unblinking. Her lips parted as if she were going to speak but she didn't, lifting her bloody hand to clasp at her face.
"H-holy..water." she turned to stare towards the sea. Yes. That would be wise... "I...I will have her *skin* on my bed when my brothers find out.."
Gunnar Hengst (greg.kotalik) looked at the delicate woman bleeding and speaking of greater violence and sighed, "She wasn't right in the head ma'am." he tried to defend weakly, "Probably didn't know what she was doing." He pulled a mostly clean handkerchief from a pocket and offered it to help staunch the flow of blood. "Uh yea those all help sometimes in stopping the spread." he trailed off as his feature slowly returned to rugged and Germanic from semi neanderthal and wolfen." he looked down at his own hand slowly beginning to heal and frowned it wasn't a major injury and should heal faster. Though bites were hard at the best of times. "Uh can I get you to a doctor or ... brothers?" he offered weakly not really wanting to just leave the injured woman but also knowing the line between help and scapegoat up in these mansions was slim to none when it came to pretty english women getting hurt.
Dinah (dollihead) shook her head, eyes wide and looking near-frantic. "No. She hates me. She's always hated me. She's jealous because Drystan and Dorian love me better than her" the words stumbled out of her. She shook her head at the offer of the handkerchief, pressing her own palm to the bitemark again. She shook her head again at the suggestion of a doctor. She didn't have a doctor. Never NEEDED a doctor..
"N-no...no. I need... I need... holy water" she turned on her heels, heading for the wall closest to the sea. Salt water. The sea would cure all ills.
Gunnar Hengst (greg.kotalik) nodded slowly, "Uhm yea... Holy water, or..." he trailed off as she started toward the sea wall, "Uhm Miss, er ma'am?" he asked following a several steps behind, "Er the church is up that way." he gestured toward the town not really wanting to follow her further onto the mansions grounds lest he be taken as a trespasser, "You sure you're gonna be alright?" he called out and looked toward the house, "Hey your lady needs some assistance out here." He called to any servants or residents of the home. "Shoulda just kept walking Gunnar." he laments to himself.
Dinah (dollihead) shook her head as she walked "I don't need the church" she said simply. His calling towards the house had gained the attention of one of the staff, who saw the blood on the lady of the house and immediate chaos ensued inside, the runners dispatched to find Dorian.
"F-fine, fine. I'll be fine, yes. I need... I need" she stepped out of her heels, starting to climb the cobbles of the walls.
"You ha... have been.. very polite, sir." her bloody hand reached up, daubing a symbol on the pale skin of her face. Something that looked almost akin to a triskelion, made of question marks. Silvery eyes blinked slowly and then... she stepped over the wall with a heavy splash into the sea.
Gunnar Hengst (greg.kotalik) was relieved when the household staff seemed poised to intervene. only to grow much more concerned as she climbed the wall, "Oh no no no." he called out and ran in her direction but not fast enough she vanished over the edge and into the waves below. "She ... she jumped." he said in shock and vague horror. He was no stranger to death, but this was different. "She jumped,” he called back to the house, peering down into the crushing surf for a sign of the woman.
Dinah (dollihead) was immediately shocked by the cold of the water, gratefully cleaned of blood and wolf-slobber. As Gunnar announced that she'd jumped, one of the runners darted to the wall too and then ran back to the house.
"We'll deal with it. Thank you," came her panicked, somewhat frantic reply. "She's a strong swimmer. Her brothers will find her, they always do... Somebody find the masters!"
From beneath the water, as Gunnar leaned over the wall, a faint silverish shape that might have been a face if it hadn't been bruise-dark in splotches, and with far too many eyes stared up from the water before *schloop*, straight into the surf and down.
Gunnar Hengst (greg.kotalik) understood being dismissed and nodded slowly glancing at the crushing waves and whatever monstrous thing had clearly just begun devouring what was left of the poor woman. "Right, strong swimmer, makes sense." he stated and turned to go get that drink wrapping his hand in the kerchief he'd offered as he heads for the bar to try to find enough booze to drown out memory of this whole afternoon.