star destroyer

It was minding its own business. Crying above the snow, even. But Astartes stares down at the shaking coyote, perhaps a year old, and sees only the daemon. It's on his territory. He hates it. It tries to draw closer to him for warmth, shelter from the snow, but the great brute rears up, snarls, and charges.

The coyote stumbles back, then flees. But Astartes does not give it quarter. No, he chases it down.

It bowls over. It cries. Astartes does not pause, does not even flinch as he takes the creature's life. Blood stains the snow, and Astartes stands. This lake is his home now, and he's not going to surrender it to chaos. He stands and takes a few steps away from its corpse. But there are eyes on him. He can feel them. His head turns in the direction of the intruder.

Would he need to remain in this mode, the mindset of a killer? Or would he greet this one with calmness, despite the blood on his fur? He waits until they draw closer.
the staff team luvs u

"Peace."

Halt. Hold. Stop. Don't. Etc. Tate was attracted by the smell of blood; a trait he wishes was less than wolfish. He slows immediately, happening upon the scene. Catching the tail end of the 'fight', he finds it bloody and one-sided. The poor coyote didn't have a chance. Did he, though? Did this senseless butcher think to turn his jaws on him?

"I mean you no harm."

And so he attempts to de-escalate best he could. Tate is warily standing on the outskirts of the former assault, his fur spiked a bit uncomfortably on his shoulders. The man lowers himself best he could while still retaining a sense of confidence. Though uncertainness sparks in his grey depths, he refuses to move. A movement could make the other aggressive again.

"I was just looking to pass through." Which was true, he felt. Honest and open. The lake's territory was flanked by thick woodlands, and he had every intention of going through it... But he had smelt blood. Tate thought someone was in trouble, fighting off a predator... It was true and not. Curiosity also killed the wolf; not just the cat.

the staff team luvs u

The star-killer stands silent for a moment, staring down the man across from him. He thinks about the red blood that flows through all creatures. How easily it would be to draw it. He imagines his teeth closing on a throat. He imagines crushing limbs, battering ribs, using his weight to stifle another. There's still blood on his jaws, and he can taste it in the way you can taste strong smells.

His heart hammers.

But this one is a man. A person. Not a xeno or a daemon. He could crush this one, but he remembers his solemn oath. He is no traitor. He simply purges the world of its impurities. And this one is not one of them. He takes a deep breath, then sneezes. The sign that he's not intending to kill this day. "Of course." But there's the body laying on the snow behind him, showing that at any moment, Astartes could.

Would he?

Unless this one carries the filth of chaos or the xeno, he will stay his hand. He has been trained. He doesn't remember the training exactly, but he knows what lessons he learned. Kill that which is not man. Is not wolf. Is not worthy of existing.
the staff team luvs u

His jaw is set in a rigid, neutral line. Refusing to show much emotion, or else he provoked the other. It is all too easy to think that the other man imagined killing Tate in that instant. That silence, that pondering and calculating silence. Unnerving. Tate resisted shivering. He does not display anything but a passing interest to, well, pass by. Once the golden man speaks, he takes it as a sign to make tracks. But he does not move.

"Before I go; would I be able to bury them?"

His words surprise him even. Grey eyes flicker briefly as if doubting his own question. Tate believes every being is entitled to a burial of some sort. Unless the man plans to eat the coyote - shiver - he believes the young creature should have at least some dirt kicked over him. A sign of respect. A passing thought was given, an apology. Tate feels he has to apologize for the actions of his kind. A million questions linger in his mind. Why did that man kill that young coyote?

Some wolves looked down on other species. But coyotes were canines, part of the same 'family' in a sense. He was killing his own. Simple as that, even if Tate wanted to know why. But he was too fearful of the answer. The indifference that could be spoken, his hope for his kin potentially failing. "It's fine if not" he added quickly, shaking his head slowly to the side and back. His eyes never left the other man "where I am from, even a stranger deserves grave soil. But I am not where I was."

He is the first to admit that.

the staff team luvs u

The look in Astartes' eyes becomes cold. "You would commit heresy?" The words come simple from him. In the eyes of those most high, he has done his duty. He has purged the world of another competitor. It was a child, but it would grow to become a pest. Sometimes, the hard things must be done. That's why he must do what the common wolf will not do. It is why he must give hate to the xeno, because the average person is too soft.

He remembers this. They are ruled by their emotions. He glances back at the corpse. It would freeze in the snow, perhaps attract birds. His gaze turns back to the man, cold and indifferent. "I will not stop you. But it is not worth sorrow." The xeno dies. All who exist in the Light are challenging the right of the wolf. "The xeno bleeds for the good of us all."
the staff team luvs u

It was only heresy if he was in the same obviously religious belief this one held so tightly. But he resisted pointing that out. Many devout folks assumed everyone was in their 'cult', never opening themselves up to different beliefs and ways of life. It was almost sad, if Tate could get past the annoyance he felt with it. "It had a breath, it bled, it lived" He begins "my world believed in the dignity of burial for anything that lived" While would fall on deaf ears most likely "even if they would not extend the same courtesy for us."

He made his way to the fallen coyote. I'm sorry he said in his mind, looking over the yearling's body once with an inward sigh zealots exist everywhere, so I now am aware of them. His world had the same religious apostles spouting nonsense and hate. The coyote didn't have to die. It bled red. It breathed. That alone was enough for Tate to believe it had the right to life. 'Xeno' was a term he hadn't heard of — ever. But it didn't matter in the end. This was just a coyote. Hate and ignorance, obsessive belief, caused the death. Not the coyote. It just wanted to live.

After he bowed his head, Tate began to dig. He dug fast and sloppy, unused to making graves. Acutely aware of the other's presence, and how it unnerved him. Finally, he pushed the coyote into the shallow grave and kicked dirt over the youth. There he said, though the archivist in him looked back at the gold man. "You said it was a xeno, but I don't know what that is" obviously "is it something like a demon?" That term was universal.

the staff team luvs u

He watches in quiet disgust. "Those who love the xeno are doomed to transgress," he states, coldly. The scarred earth shows only the filth of the coyote's life. He cannot see how this wolf does not see it. But perhaps he lives in ignorance of the Emperor's ways. All of this... belongs to the God-Emperor. It's all he remembers, that every land is claimed in the name of one kind. One life. One unity.

All others are foul.

"Demon and xeno are not too different," he says with dismissal. "Life that is inferior. Life not worth protecting. You would do well to remember that. They would threaten our way of life. They would suffocate us out of prey. We shall not suffer their existence." He looks down his nose. "I remind you because it seems you live in ignorance. But all things belong to Us. We do not need to ask the xeno to leave our lands. It will be enforced." With a final snap of his teeth, he turns. There is no more to say to a child who does not understand the threat that a xeno imposes. But he could be stopped, perhaps even challenged while his back is turned. Of course, Astartes does not expect that. He is beyond wolfkind; he does not expect his own to turn on him.

Of course, heretics and traitors exist. And he'll destroy them, too. But until then, he's going to give other wolves the benefit of the doubt. That they are too young, too ignorant, to know that this land is already claimed. And all they need to do is enforce it.
the staff team luvs u

Whatever.

Tate was usually in a good sort of mood but this fanatic was making it wear thin. It took a narrow mind to focus on just one belief, one universal 'law'. Ignorance could be bliss, as they say, but that didn't excuse violent behavior. A murder had been committed, as far as Tate was concerned. He blocked out most of the man's words, finding no reason to resonate with them. He had killed something innocent, a poor child, out of some warped belief it was some type of demon.

The fact he justified his actions instead of explaining them caused the young man to believe this one was beyond saving. "You'd do well to remember" he bit back a low snarl as he addressed the zealot "not everyone believes the same as you in this world." Tate left it at that, walking away and more or less throwing the pitiful man words instead of addressing him. He was gone before an action could be made against him. Tate exited the location as quickly as possible.

If he ran into anyone else, he'd warn them far away from this madman.

the staff team luvs u