Puppy Eyes Who: Alarie and Svathe When: Anesus 2, After meeting (around 8:30?) Where: Within the Castle (in the hall?)
As much as the Lykos would have liked to tarry around the meeting hall to snap at Gochin or Remy, the fact that tonight was the night put previous enmities on the back burner. Svathe had singled out his mark, the pup called Alarie, and now it was only a matter of time before he moved in. He had caught her speaking with a blood-sucker -- another first year, at that, and one about as servile as one could get without sinking to Kierban's level. Blood and feeding; Vrykolas went against every law of nature save perhaps ticks and lice. He wouldn't be surprised if they went under Tick's protection in the afterlife, if they were given auspice at all. Didn't the lot of them kill themselves anyways? Barbaric.
Whatever the case, he waited patiently through Alarie's little talk, picking up on their conversation, waiting until she was alone. He didn't need the Vrykola (or anybody else, for that matter) to get in his way.
Soon after the two were done, Svathe followed the human out of the main hall. When they'd reached a relatively secluded area, he gave a low growl; 'Turn around,' he didn't say. He wasn't planning on pouncing her out of the bushes. She hadn't discerned herself as proper game yet, for all that she was related to the hopelessness that was Harlan. He could be fair.
Alarie was blissfully unaware of being followed at all. She was generally aware of her surroundings, and those in it, but her mind was bursting at the seams from her talk with Paziter since she left the main hall, and she heard nothing but her own thoughts until the growl pierced through even her deepest concentration. She was irritated with herself when she jerked in surprise, and turned around to see where the noise had come from.
And there went her heartbeat again, picking up pace. Traitor, she accused before turning completely to face Towering, Intimidating Hot Guy. Bad News guy. Confused, and a bit curious, she stared at him expectedly for a second before arching a dark eyebrow. Why was he growling at her? "Is there something you wanted?" Her voice was steady and clear. There. She could talk without gibbering or drooling all over herself. Just because he was... really well built, didn't mean she had to revert to being a total girl about it. Hormones, that was all. Pah.
Svathe regarded the girl with a grin of challenge as she turned and cast her eyes on him, impetuous as any freshly arrived human. If she thought her heart was a traitor, she had worse to worry about... hormones worked as much like a billboard to Lykos-kind as they did internal regulators for their owners. He'd crossed his arms over his chest, the scars over his forearms prominent against darker skin. "I thought I'd track you down and do you a favor," he began, inflection on the haughty side of neutral. "Only one favor, because you're new and so obviously oblivious to the way that things work here that it hurts, and because you smell good, human or not."
Stepping forward, he uncrossed his arms and brought one of them up as he leaned over her, as if to brush her hair with the backs of his knuckles. "Around Lykos, you don't go staring at somebody unless you're planning on getting the shit beaten out of you. Maybe you can tolerate a bite from a blood-sucker, but you don't want one from our kind." would she comprehend right away, or would he have to demonstrate?
She smelled good? Was that a compliment? Was she that pathetic? Ugh. Of course, she didn't have much time to consider that because he was suddenly very much in her personal space and she wasn't all that comfortable with it. Her heartbeat shifted into a nervous rhythm, but Alarie, for her part, did not flinch when he lifted his hand to her. Instead stared at him, lips slightly parted as she digested what he was saying to her. No, definitely not a compliment. It sounded vaguely, or not so vaguely, like a threat. Was he serious? Someone she'd never even met was giving her warning about her staring at him? She hadn't even stared all that long!
And then Alarie tried really hard not to laugh at how silly it seemed to her. She tried really, really hard. She even bit her lip and pulled it between her teeth before the giggle bubbled up in her throat and escaped. Goddess, and she knew it was a bad idea to find it funny but she couldn't help it. "Really? You've seriously followed me out here to get in my face because I looked at you?" Amused, she put a hand against his chest to push him away from her, but he was pretty solid, which in turn forced her to take a step back instead. She didn't like him being so close, despite her reaction, but she kept her voice light regardless. "I'm not a lykos, so I don't have to adhere to your rules."
Maybe not necessarily just because she'd looked at him... but it was as good a point as any. Knowing that Alarie was Harlan's sister helped; he wanted to see if it was as easy to make trouble for her as it was for the invalid. When she shoved at him, smarming off her pert little retort, Svathe very nearly changed the hair-tugging gesture that he'd been going for into a slap, but that would require lunging forward, and in the moment that he took a step forward, he had enough time to rethink the attack. Instead, he grabbed for her wrist. "Don't get cocky because you've got your precious human 'leaders' and an older brother to back you up, in this place we all have to work together; you'd do well to know what's going to get you through the next six years without a broken nose or worse. Pup." The last was accentuated with a shove on his part, for if he'd caught her wrist, he now had let it go again.
He was doing fairly well for himself, if Svathe did say for himself. Two years ago he would have leapt on her and beat her until she had no fight left in her. The human was good practice.
Grey eyes narrowed at him when he shoved her back, and she stumbled twice, nearly falling to the floor, but maintained her balance. It always pissed her off how easily people underestimated her because of her petite stature. Her heart was pounding now, and certainly not because of her hormones this time. She fought off the urge to rub at her wrist and glared with every ounce of fury she had in her.
Who the hell did this guy think he was? Who the hell was anyone to think they could push her around? Just because he was a hairy beast she was suppose to be afraid? "I don't need any leaders, or my brother to back me up," she snapped and then straightened, taking a breath to calm herself. She was trembling she was so angry, but she refused to let that show - outwardly anyway. And then she smiled, even though now the gesture was icy and condescending. "How about we compromise? You stay out of my face and I'll be glad to keep from looking at yours. Dog." Alarie turned and started walking away quickly, wanting to run back to her room and lock the door, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of seeing that.
The fact that Alarie was so very intimidated was almost her saving grace, for Svathe was going to allow her to saunter off and relax for a day or two before, perhaps, setting one of the pack on her to test her. But then that last word was spat, that 'Dog' and the Lykos couldn't resist.
He lunged after her, making to grab at that long hair to tug her back. Now he was well and truly growling, the noise somewhat tainted, coming out of a human-form throat. "What I'm saying is that you're going to be having a hard time staying out of my way, or anybody else who you've gone and pissed off without even realizing it, you little bitch," he snarled. He certainly wasn't going to change his habits for a brash creature like Alarie, but if he taught her to duck her head and stay low when he or one of his was in the area, all the better.
There was sharp pain, and a gasp at her lips when he grabbed her hair and tugged. She didn't try to jerk away, because she knew that would only make it worse for her and she didn't feel like losing a fistful of hair. Asshole! Alarie hissed through her teeth and forced the words past her lips. "I've managed... to piss you off because you're... an overly sensitive arrogant asshole!" And he really wasn't endearing the lykos species to her at all by manhandling her. Alarie swung her fist up to beat at his face, even if she didn't do any damage, it still felt good to pound at him. "Let me go before I scream!"
The blow wasn't enough to jar the Lykos -- he'd had much worse -- but it was enough to get a snap out of him. The fact that she would scream, however, was enough to make him release his grip on her. He had only wanted to bait her, he didn't want the entire compound coming down on him for it... which, judging by the way that this encounter had gone, she very likely would, if she knew what was good for her.
Svathe wasn't pleased; he had set out on this little adventure to play cat and mouse, and she was taking things very poorly. Humans were such barbaric little things... they had no sense of what was game and what was seriousness. The Lykos forced himself to calm down, though he was still grinning, still wanting to club her for being so incredibly dense. Instead he rubbed his jaw, feeling the bruise that was already rising there. The girl had strength, even if she looked like nothing at all. "Fine," he told her, his voice deadpan, but only because he was forcing it that way. "You wanna go walking around in your little bubble of pretentious unenlightenment, you see how far you get. In the mean time, I'll see you around." He did kind of like her, for all that she was acting like a spoilt brat. She might be worth playing with over the coming months.
The Lykos held up a hand, indicating that Alarie was free to go. He couldn't have let her stalk off of her own accord... for some reason he seemed to need to think that he was the one doing the dismissing, and not the other way around.
"Pretentious unenlightenment? Is that how you enlighten people who merely look at you?" Alarie breathed, taking several steps back from him once he let her go. She had the urge to just... kick really hard between his legs and ask him how that was for enlightenment. Alarie resisted though, pleased enough that he rubbed his jaw where she'd hit him. That was something. Though what was that hand thing? Was his dismissing her? This whole thing suddenly felt incredibly bizarre and surreal. Alarie reached up and smoothed her hair down, not lingering where it still throbbed. "You think I'm the one who's suffering from the lack of enlightenment? You are so... so... stupid. I'm surprised you even know words like pretentious!" There you go, Arie, you tell him. "You want to know why I stared at you?" she spat, beginning to walk backward to put distance between them. She wasn't comfortable turning her back on him just yet. "You think it was because I wanted to what, challenge you or something? Are you that dense? Are you that oblivious? You stupid...ass! You...horrible... arrogant... " Stupid mutt! She sputtered a bit more, realized she was only making it worse for herself by spewing forth everything in her mind before giving up, huffing and then giving him the one fingered salute before she turned and ran off this time. If she heard him coming behind her, she'd scream. Oh yes, she'd scream so loud the bloody windows would shatter.
This time, fortunately, Svathe didn't follow after the pup. The insults she'd hurled at him had been mild in comparison to the blasphemous 'dog' mentioned earlier, considering that he'd been called stupid and arrogant and pretentious and a whole slew of worse terms many times in his past. Alarie was riled and at this point he knew that he wasn't going to get anything clear out of her, and besides... letting her stew for a while would make their next encounter more of a laugh.
That's what the Lykos told himself, anyways. He was also aware that calling attention on himself for harassing a young girl would lead to a lot of trouble that he didn't want, and knowing that he'd botched their meeting enough to cause that kind of attention was something that he just didn't want to think about. If he'd had Luci or even Bell find a way to convince Alarie to go on a walk outside, on the other hand, they might have made some progress.
No... Svathe was trying not to rely on pack. This encounter just reinforced that he was in real need of practice. He'd been too long lording over his few recruits and letting them do all of the smooth talking that now he was on the other end from where he started. Alarie seemed like a good gauge. She would be good practice.
As she turned to run, the man gave a snuff, turned and went his own way. He had other things to worry about than obnoxious first years... and tonight, they'd probably all have a chance to gather again. Who knew what half past midnight would bring.