Suffocate your own empire

@Vivian

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 Her travels took her southward, stepping lightly through the woodland. There were strange red flowers and the Bacchus woman looked up at them, blinking at what some might call pretty.

 It had been a long time since she had figured anything was especially pretty. Even those who put on their faces, groomed themselves well, and walked with confidence... they were not pretty. They were despicable caricatures of true wolves. Sinners and she was the devil to deal with them and make them atone.

 Though... she had done a shit show of a job making anyone atone. Always seeming to catch more than she could handle, she found herself lost. Alone, she could not do it. She regretted leaving the man, Draco, alone those months ago. Had she decided to remain with him, would she feel better about herself? Would she and he be able to hunt down the sinners and bring them to judgement or would she be twisted with cowardice like she had with the men in the plains, who looked upon her with disgust even as they were marred.

 She sat with a huff and began to lap at the water, looking as harmless as a monster covered in more scars than fur could.

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There was a godforsaken bear-zombie-ghoul-thing next to the river as Vivian herself approached it, a little out of the way of the territory she usually frequented but not so far away she couldn't book it home without dying of exhaustion. 

The doe froze, not even allowing her tail to flick up in alarm, barely permitting herself to breathe through flared nostrils. 

The scent, however, was not ghoulish at all. It was a wolf. The weirdest wolf to walk this world or any others, she was sure, but definitely, without doubt, a wolf. 

A living wolf, drinking water just like Viv herself intended to. Something, or someone, had done...that...to the poor creature. "Are you alright?" She murmured. They seemed like old wounds, but still, she couldn't help but be concerned. And a little horrified. More than a little horrified. And extra concerned, as, when she calmed, Vivian remembered where she was, who she allied herself with, and what this wolf looked like. 

Not good. Not good, at all. "I cannot offer aid, I apologize. Nor do I know the packs beside my own well enough to know where else to direct you, if aid is indeed what you require." You shouldn't be here. She thought. Both because she suspected the wolf was probably supposed to be dead, and she didn't know how they were alive, and because the wolf was as pure an alabaster as their kind could get, aside from the scars carving gory canyons through flesh.
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 Out of the fairy-tale like landscape popped up a deer. Andraste eyed it passively, her belly still full of the similarly brown prey she'd consumed earlier. This previous prey was her favourite meal, with the deer before her being second or third. She licked her lips of watery drops anyways, not too concerned. She wasn't in the mood for hunting, so she was more curious than anything.

 Until the meal on hooves started talking.

 Her face twitched and she sat up, staring at the doe. It was a strange accent, the deer had, but it was speaking her language nevertheless. “Uh, yeah?” She was still blown away by a non-paw'd prey thing talking to her and asking her if she was alright. Did she look alright? No, she looked like she'd crawled out of her own grave... which, granted, she had.

 “Wait - your own? You got a pack?” She blew some leftover water from her nostrils. “Or do you mean a herd?” She tilted her marred head, raised a scarred brow at the herbivore before her. She was pretty sure she'd heard deer groups being called herds before, so to hear one calling it a pack was bewildering.

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Apparently, the wolf was alright indeed. Vivian was grateful for it, if still a little horrified. She wouldn't exactly call that 'alright' even if everything was technically healed. But she wouldn't judge. Or, well, she would judge, but she would never voice those judgements. She was a lady of class, don't you know. 

"I am a Divine of the Elkshire pack near here. I do not lead them, I merely ally myself with them and..." She considered saying most of their interests, but there was no point in that, really. Showing unity was the wise direction to go in in this encounter. Truth was a privilege few were permitted to have revealed by the doe. "Their interests. I live among them and with a herd of elk that wanders their territory. They are wolves like you."

"Well...not entirely like you." She fell thoughtful for a moment, mulling whether generosity was really wise in this case. Vivian didn't just give things out for free, but neither did she wish to see her own pack harmed by what was so obviously a ferocious warrior, nor did she want to see the wolf before her encounter any more violence than what they may seek out. "I must insist you not seek them out. They will not favor you."
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 A Divine? Andraste considered the term, collecting it for her own uses. It was pretty presumptuous but the white witch wanted to know more.

 After all, what sort of pack had deer in it? Or rather, what sort of pack had a herd of elk and deer puttering about as allies? They were merely food, were they not? Just as the weak and frail were food for herself, useless among wolf kind. Warrior or not, a wolf was simply a body to be consumed if they were felled - and the white hound did enjoy consumption. “What sort of interests would a wolf pack have that deer would align with?” she mused aloud, a question for the doe. Settling back onto her haunches, she began to lick water from her paws, rubbing her marred face with it once it was saturated enough.

 Then her eyes rested on the doe again.

 She spoke of the wolves not favoring her, but why was that? Were they so offended by scars and the evidence of a destructive lifestyle that they would chase away a wolf who could clearly protect them? The doe couldn't know about her darker desires or taste, for while she might have a faint hint of blood about her breath, she kept herself clean enough that evidence of her crimes should have been masked. “Why would they not favor a warrior such as I?”

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What interests, indeed. "My role is Divine." She reiterated, thinking the reasons pretty obvious. Still, she patiently explained. "I am gifted with the ability to speak their language by the High Elk." She gave an arch of her brow. If the wolf was smart, she might realize the doe was feeding her a line. If not, well, she could believe that Vivian believed it if it suited her. She didn't much care either way. Truthfully, Vivian wasn't sure she did or didn't believe in the Elkshire's religion. She walked a fine line between skepticism and an amount of belief that shocked even she. "I am holy, for my speech, and as such, I am protected by the Elkshire pack."


The wolf confirmed she was a warrior, and Vivian offered a small, respectful dip of her head. She had no quarrel with the porcelain color of the wolf's coat, and she had been taught to respect those who made it their career to master the art of battle.
"White marks are evidence of sin. A pure white wolf: irredeemable in the eyes of the High Elk. Be careful, warrior. Religious zeal is a most lethal motivator for violence. I...am a peaceful sort, myself. I would like to avoid a potential conflict." Peaceful sort, she was not, but it played oh-so-perfectly into the idea that she was a harmless, fragile doe.
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 Andraste looked at her incredulously. Even though she hadn't met deer that talked before, trying to make one into a god or an angel or whatever just pissed her off a bit. “So you're saying you're some sort of god for being able to talk?” Guess what sweaty, I can talk too, you're not special. “Or what, that High Elk is your god? Elkshire's god?”

 She smirked. “Pretty nice set up, being all holy and stuff. Does that make them less likely to eat you or more likely to make you some sort of sacrifice?” She'd known gods. Rather, she'd known wolves who pretended to be gods, dancing about all willy-nilly with their nuts out acting like they could do anything and nobody else could do squat about it. They could say "You get to die because you looked at me wrong" and "You and you have to make babies and be a pair now even though you can't stand each other."

 They could walk off, abandoning their believers without so much as a glance backwards.

 Pretty nice set up.

 The doe spoke of sin and Andraste couldn't help but laugh. “Sin?” She cackled, leaning back into her haunches. “Missy, I've seen sin. I've been through hell, so I got sent here to devour the sinners. Make 'em pay for their sins and face judgement.” She grinned, shaking her head, “An elk doesn't get to decide who's a sinner among wolves.”

 I do.

 And whether or not this deer was as peaceful as she said, the fact that a deer got to decide whether a wolf was a sinner or a saint based on fur colour? That pissed Andraste off. Of course, it didn't help that she was the pinnacle of all that the deer and the deer-loving pack would despise.

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