nobody knows who I am

[VALE]

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Weakness never sat well with the witch; other people abused any power and that came into their clutches, as though the world needed blood to grease its wheels. Vale saw that firsthand as a human. Becoming an animal only served to reinforce the observation. The strong ate the weak — tigers and jaguars needed meat, making what once was a metaphor very literal. That scared her, not that Vale ever let anyone know what freaked her out.

But she couldn’t deny to herself that fear claimed a dominant position in her mind. When she started rising early to practice stalking and taking down prey, Vale hadn’t been blind to her own emotions. But when the fear drove her to practice fighting for self defense, she felt something else stir behind all the restless feelings. Real power, not that fake shit that her stalker chased, coursed through her.

Fire burned within her — and outside of her. The witch hurled a literal fireball into the ocean, watching the bright flames whither and die after mere milliseconds airborn. She scowled, starring at the crashing waves meters below her paws. Perhaps practicing on a dangerous cliff face was a poor decision, but she only felt the fire burn when something stronger than the fear and anger pushed her forward.

Not adrenaline. Dispair, maybe? No. Growling in frustration, the jaguar’s nose flung burning embers with her huffy exhale. Go figure, the only power she got in this world was as wild as herself.

[member=3063]ORPHEUS[/member]

[ORPHEUS]

[align=center][div style="max-width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: arial; font-size: 9.5pt; line-height: 1.4;letter-spacing:.1px"]The strong ate the weak. Orpheus wasn't sure how he felt about that — in the literal sense, he finds himself hating the idea that someone's diet affects their morality. Metaphorically, he's... seen it both ways. The strong did prey on the weak, sometimes, but there were also just as many people willing to protect those in need of it. His own dad had been proof enough of that. Brigand had died trying to keep him safe, he'd seen other good people suffer too. Perhaps his experiences had just been more varied than Vale's — he's thankful for that. Not that everything had always been sunshine and rainbows. His parents, his dad, everything that came after; it's all been one kind of hell after another with the smallest pieces of hope sprinkled throughout.

Being here was good for him. Sort of. It helped him understand that there were other people with kind intentions, and that together they could keep each other safe. It reminded him that he could trust people. Kids were cute, guys were... right he can't really call them cute, but close enough, and Vale was in a category all of her own. She wasn't a cute kid or a cute guy, but Orpheus still found her intriguing. Christmas had been a weird time for him; he'd heard that she enjoyed her present and that was enough. Aside from that, he wasn't too familiar with who she was as a person.

Today seemed to be the day that he would learn more. He had been exploring more these last few days, trying to get a better feel for the world around him — he hadn't really been expecting fireballs. The lion pauses in the middle of his stride and withdraws slightly, eyes tracing the path of the embers she huffed out. Powers were unfamiliar to him, and that makes him a little wary. Not scared, though. After a moment, Orpheus takes a few more steps closer and then laughs, the sound friendly instead of derisive. "You're not mad at the fish, are you?"