ic Werewolves Are So Hot Right Now [IC]

[Gizmo]

Set immediately straightened up, smoothing and eyebrow with one finger and stepping forward with a pronounced swagger. "Truly, why would you not?" With a burst of genial laughter he slapped the nude teen on the shoulder. "I jest, I jest! Tis ever a pleasure to meet part of the community in the flesh, hah! And worry not about all of..." The godling made a vague gesture that took in all of the skinny youth's form. "...that. A few years, some cardio-- swimming, mayhap? Parkour! Parkour tis very in right now, eh?"

Sekhmet made a pointed sound that was less clearing her throat than it was growling menacingly. "Ah, indeed. Harken, my friend, you seem a good sort but you know my stance on trolls in scribes' clothing and attempting to maul random business persons be passingly trollish. These stunningly attractive ladies have too called your accessorizing ability into question," he added with a nod to the belt in Temperance's hands before raising a hand to one side of his mouth and continuing in a quiet, conspiratory tone, "Actual cannibalism be a poor way to draw attention, believe me."

[GooseInduced]

Skaere just blinked, watching as water splashed over the unconscious boy, then the interaction between him and Set. Their exchange made something in her memory click. Set was that hero that went around posting on twitter and all that… She had heard of him. She’s wasn’t the type to really follow that sort of thing, but everyone had at least heard of him.

 

Looked like she met herself a genuinely famous hero…. Though the term ‘hero’ was a little loosely applied here. He seemed more like a god or demi-god to her. So she wasn’t sure where in the spectrum of things Set and Sekhmet fell.

 

When Set mentioned the ‘stunningly attractive ladies’ Skaere couldn’t help herself. She shifted closer, growling low in her throat as her already bright green eyes glow with a supernatural light. She bore her teeth a bit, letting some of her disapproval show through. She didn’t appreciate this kid going around attacking people and making her kind look like mindless killers.

[trollthumper]

"Cannibalism? What..." The boy on the ground twitched in fright, as if realizing something horrible. His hand instantly went for his mouth, as if feeling around the lips and chin for traces of something red and dreadful. His tongue likewise seemed to be making the rounds of his teeth, conducting an intensive search for terrible leftovers. "Oh, God, did I...?"

"No, you didn't," said Temperance. At least, not tonight. "Do you remember nothing of the last few nights?"

"Last few... I just got the belt yesterday! This was my first time trying it on!"

Oh. Crap. If he was telling the truth, then there were a few options. Either there was some other strain of killer wolf-beast wandering around downtown Freedom, or somebody was selling in bulk. "All right. First of all, did you make this belt yourself?"

"If I could, I probably would've expressed my true self long ago. I..." He looked over to Skaere. "I'm sorry, it's just... it's cool to be standing in front of someone who's done it. How did you? Was it hard?"

[Gizmo]

"Aha, well, blessed and most shiniest Ra knows I be the last to discourage someone from forcibly dealing themselves a new hand from fate's dispassionate deck," Set began, placing and arm around the gawky teen's shoulders and snapping the fingers of his other hand. Immediately the godling had become a perfect double for the wolfskin belt's owner including a total lack of clothing, albeit with the lean, muscular physique of an underwear model, a completely flawless complexion and noticeably more generous proportions. "Even so," he continued in what the awkward young man's voice might have sounded like after considerable work with a vocal couch, "I equally speak from experience when I say accepting objects of mystic power from strangers be an open call for all manner of troubles." His elder self had typically been the gift-bearing stranger in that scenario but the advice was still sound.

Sekhmet grew visibly more and more annoyed as Set went on until finally she let out a loud growl and stepped forward, her head replaced by the visage of a scowling lioness as quickly as the shorter Heliopolian had shifted his shape. "RrrraAWR! Enough!" she snarled, pointing an angry finger at the still nameless youth. "Thou claim kinship with wolves, mortal? Little wonder thou lost control, a misshapen, mindless lump of cheated flesh! Rrowww, a domesticated, berry-gathering, herd--"

"Hold, Sekhmet!" Set interrupted hotly, back in his customary bronze skin and brick red dreadlocks as he stepped around to place himself between the irate goddess and the target of her anger. "You are being extremely cispredator normative. Tis no way to hold a productive discussion and in truth I expected better from you!" Hands on his hips he gave her a stern look of disapproval, standing on the toes of his sandals so as to come closer to looking her evenly in the eyes.

The warrior deity scoffed. "The herbivore be qualified to interject, now?"

"Oh, here we go!

[GooseInduced]

The young man's response made Skaere's hackles stand on end. Her shoulders tensed aggressively. Herr narrow lupine eyes glowed an eerie green. Anger boiled up inside her to the point that she barely noticed Set, even when he turned into the young man's duplicate. She took a heavy step forward, ready to bare her teeth and put this stupid kid in his place.

Only Sekhmet's rage was let loose first and it made her posture reel back. She listened to the lion-headed warrior roar and let loose on the guy. Due to the way the pair spoke, Skaere wasn't always sure what they were saying. She caught the gist though, she thought.

When Set and Sekhmet turned their eyes on one another, Skaere stepped up to the youth. Her big clawed hands reached out while he was distracted and gripped both of his arms at the bicep. With the strength her form allowed, it was easy for her to lift him up so that the two were eye level.

"I did not choose this. You are stupid if you think I did. What do you think would happen to me if people knew what I was? My ability isn't something temporary granted by a belt. I have control of myself. You could have killed someone! Would have eaten that man if we hadn't stopped you!" Her voice was deep and growled, anger radiating off of her in waves as the glow of her eyes intensified. She hoped to scare this stupid idea out of him.

[trollthumper]

The young man cringed under Skaere's verbal assault, seeming very, very small for someone who claimed such a strong kinship with predators. "Please, I'm sorry!" he said. "I just wanted to run free, you know? I just spend every day feeling confined - by home, by school, by this city, by everything! For once, I... I just wanted to run wild, be liberated..."

"Well, it seems you managed to achieve that," said Temperance. "And now here you are, in a park, violating public indecency laws. You might have chosen a better place to explore your inner beast." She tried very hard to avoid whatever weird political debate Set and Sekhmet seemed to be having, and just wanted to focus on the particulars. She knew there were shamans, practitioners who invited spirits into their service, and perhaps into their body. But at least they seemed to have some preparations made ahead of time. They didn't leap onto the third rail, like this kid had. "So. It appears that you've made my associate angry. I think you have some experience what an angry werewolf is like, having been behind those eyes. If you wish to calm her down, you might tell us where you got this belt."

"It was this guy... Craig, I think his name was. We met on a message board, we'd been talking for a while... we met at the Starbucks at 3rd and Morley, I handed over the cash, and he handed me the belt. He told me he lived nearby, but..."

"Well, that would require trusting someone on the Internet." She turned to the others. "It may be the best lead we have. Set, you know your way around tricks. Any insight into the bindings on the belt?"

[Gizmo]

"I'm on the Internet," Set objected with a frown, his voice a little strained as he struggled against the headlock Sekhmet had him pinned in, forcing him to bend almost horizontally from the waist.

The goddess snorted, ignoring the hands trying to break her hold while she placed her free hand on her hip. "The point tis thereby proven, methinks."

"Hilarious," Set drawled flatly, his head briefly taking on the narrower shape of his black furred pseudo-canine persona and slipping through her grip. Jumping back a step before she could catch him again, the godling shook out his brick red dreadlocks as he resumed fully human form. "Moving on, wolfskin belts be traditionally nothing but infernalism and Faustian bargains and so on but those are largely Germanic tales and truly everything be witches this and devils that there." He sniffed haughtily as he pulled out his smartphone once again; as a god of darkness and chaos he took some umbrage at the habit some storytellers made of associating practically everything with the so-called Prince of Lies. "Regardless, our young exhibitionist tis himself no more a magister than a bodybuilder. Hm... Mayhaps, though, you might tell us more of the '#beastdreams' hashed-tag... did we never get your name...?"

[GooseInduced]

Skaere, surprisingly, had very little she wanted to say on the subject or to this young man. His mindset was foolish. If he sought freedom, liberation, there were better, easier to access ways of doing it. She would know. Most of her young life had been spent 'on the wild side'. She rarely slept before dawn, spent every penny on partying every way imaginable instead of the necessities in life. Truth be told she remembers only bits and pieces, a cloud of constant inebriation hazing over years of her life.

 

Still, it was safer than turning into an out of control beast. At least her destructive tendencies had been turned inward. She thought it funny that becoming a 'monster' was what saved her. 

 

What this belt did though... it sounded unnatural. A bastardization of nature. 

 

"This belt does not grant freedom. Even if it did, you remember nothing of it. Is that worth the price of the lives you could have taken? Tell us everything you know." Her voice is level now, almost eerily so. Whoever was handing out these belts needed to be stopped.

[trollthumper]

"It, it's Ryan," said the young man, now feeling even more conscious of where he was, what time it was, who he was talking to, and what he wasn't wearing. "As for '#beastdreams'" - he actually said the "hashtag" bit - "I don't know where it came from. The first post I saw it on had a lot of notes, and I didn't read them all the way down. But I know the people who reposted it..."

He ran off a long list of unlikely handles, all of which Temperance jotted down. She might not know how to track the users back to their precise locations in Freedom, but she had an idea that Set could likely pull off that mischief. "Anything special about this Craig?"

"Older than me - thought he might be in college - brown hair, brown eyes, kinda under 6 feet... stubble, musk --"

"Okay, that may be enough. Let me guess - wolfy musk?"

"Kinda. Bit of a... whiff of something under that. Couldn't tell what, 'cause of all the coffee. But he really smelled like he had the wolf on him."

Oh, because this needed to be creepier. She turned to the others. "I think we may have a trail. If that scent's gone from the Starbucks, we can always try these Tumblr handles." It was then that Temperance realized that her line of detective work was very, very weird.

[Gizmo]

Set spent the trip to the coffee shop tapping away at his smart phone, following up on retweets and threads of comments while frequently stopping to take photos of himself and the others, adding clever captions as they occurred to him. Sekhmet caught herself growling under her breath in Ryan's direction a few times but resolved to set aside her annoyance with the mortal youth at least until the larger issues were settled.

Reaching the door, Set reached for the handle before noting the sign taped to the inside of the adjacent window, proclaiming that customers required both a shirt and footwear or else be denied service. Pursing his lips and tucking away his phone, the godling shrugged and snapped his fingers with a flick of his wrist. The seamless transformation into female form paired her red-embroidered shendyt, subtly altered to better flatter hourglass curves, with a matching front cross halter that wrapped around her slim neck while leaving her shoulders and upper back bare. Taking a moment to gather her brick red dreadlocks together with an ornate golden circlet, she gestured with her chin for the rest of the group to go ahead. "What shall everyone have? The first round tis on me! Skaere, oh feral fighter, you strike me as one who favours chocolate and banana muffins!"

Ignoring the question, Sekhmet narrowed her eyes and sniffed the air experimentally. If there was any scent of their quarry lingering in the area, the goddess was confident she would be able to pick up the trail.

[trollthumper]

Temperance was going to say something about canines and caffeine, but she realized that if a mystical process could turn someone into a gigantic apex predator, it could probably account for a cup of coffee. That, and it might be... speciesist? Something-something normative, like Set had said? She lighted on a word her dad had used to describe getting the wrong idea about spirit politics - "assumptive." Quite assumptive.

In the meantime, she would make do with Set offering to buy everyone drinks, her mind coasting over the fact that he made a surprisingly dashing woman. "I'll take an ice blended," she said. "Peppermint mocha."

Ryan was there with the group, and the mere mention of ice provoked a shiver. Realizing that no one had thought ahead to bring spare pants, and that he could help to identify the individual handing out the belts, they'd swung by his apartment to get him a change of clothes. Of course, the fastest way to get there was on Temperance's ice sled. She'd lent him her coat - on several conditions involving proximity of cloth from "parts" - but even that could only do so much.

Sekhmet, meanwhile, dealt with the riot of smells - such sweets, in such combinations, paired with steaming milk and burnt beans. But, yes - there was that scent of wolf. Not quite a vital, flesh-and-blood wolf - no, this was the smell of butchered and cured wolf. It was in many places and went off in many more; the stalest scent was a mere fragment or two, maybe a week and a half old, whereas the freshest was a day old if that. There was something slightly rotten under it, too, like old eggs...

[GooseInduced]

Skaere wasn’t sure how well this was going to work out. There was no way they were going to let her into a coffee shop. There would be mayhem. Even as she walked down the street with her allies, people were looking their way and steering as far from them as possible. She can’t blame them. Who would want to get close to an almost seven foot tall werewolf?If she wasn’t said werewolf she would definitely have ran in the opposite direction. Moving in a group did help a bit. Sort of. It’s not like she’s the only super powered one in the group. She was just the only one that stuck out like a sore thumb…. Make that the only inhumanly shaped sore thumb since Set was looking rather human at the time.

Still, shirt and shoes were the least of her problems. She couldn’t shift back to her human form and protect her identity. It wasn’t an option. However, while turning into her wolf form was an option it wasn’t a good one. Despite losing her ability to speak, it was also difficult to do. Besides, they weren’t going to let her into the coffee shop like that either.

However, Set’s comment did lighten her mood considerably. “I should probably wait out here but… I would appreciate a muffin if you are offering Set.†She gives a grateful wolfy smile. “You called it. Chocolate chip muffin? Please?†It's awkward but Skaere decided to find a spot next to the wall outside, crouching with her back to the wall.

[Gizmo]

"Consider your every baked good related wish granted," Set promised Skaere with a deep bow that placed her facing away from Temperance, flourishing with both her arms. She turned as she straightened and flashed the elementalist a grin of perfect white teeth framed in full lips painted the same rich brown-black as her eye make-up that was every bit as infuriatingly charming as it was on her male features and several shades past merely friendly. Stepping through the coffee shop door with equal measures of sashay and swagger, she joined the line on waiting customers, causing a murmuring stir as she brought up an app to allow her to pay using her smart phone.

Sekhmet, for her part, studiously ignored her charge in favour of concentrating on tracking their quarry. "Rrr... The stench of ignoble death hangs upon the air here. Dried meat and spoiled eggs." A few of the patrons on the patio shifted uncomfortably in their seats as her search brought her closer to their tables. The goddess looked narrowly at the youth they'd found with the wolfskin belt. "Any power granted to thee came not from within, whelp, but was stolen from the rightful bearers."

[trollthumper]

At this point, Ryan wasn't even offering protest. Between the rampage, the nudity, and the ice sled, he'd had all sense of fight taken out of him. He merely just observed everything as Set took to the line and Sekhmet sniffed the air.

"All right, so we've got a good idea that he did a lot of business here, and that he carried a strong stench with him. Now, I suppose, we need to figure out where it goes." Temperance turned to Ryan. "Which table did you and Craig sit at?"

Ryan pointed to a table in the corner. As Sekhmet got closer to the table, she could realize the various scents were not just diffused - they led to here, and went from here. Craig must have been a creature of habit... or it may have had something to do with the fact that it was the most isolated table in the shop. The fresher scents would likely be strong enough to track...

[Gizmo]

Without warning, Sekhmet stretched like a sprinter taking their blocks in a motion that ended with a full grown, tawny lioness padding across the coffee shop's floor and sniffing about the table their morose would-be werewolf had indicated. "Snnf, rrr... The hidemonger's stench tis strong enough to track," the goddess informed Temperance, her feline mouth showing rows of intimidating teeth as she spoke.

Ignoring the waves of commotion brought on by her companion, Set gathered the tray of caffeinated drinks and the paper bag of questionably priced baked goods from the counter and walked calmly out the front door back onto the patio. Rooting inside the bag, she produced a chocolate ship muffin larger than her fist and presented it to Skaere. "Tada!" Setting it down on the closest table atop a napkin, she leaned against the wall next to the lupine heroine, tilting her head so that her ponytail of gathered dreadlocks swung to one side. "Would you be offended were I to ask to feel your fur? Seems potentially quite rude but tis so fluffy!"

[GooseInduced]

It may not have been peak hours for the coffee shop, but being downtown Freedom City meant that there was never a shortage of people. Skaere got more attention than she wanted as the werewolf sat outside the coffee shop. Some people saw her and stopped, they would rather cross the street instead of walking anywhere near her. A few people had made to walk into the shop, before they stopped dead in their tracks and practically ran in reverse.

“Oh come on! This is Freedom City! Am I really the weirdest thing you have seen all day?†She just rolled her eyes as she shifted against the brick of the building. Her furry shoulders rose with a deep breath before she pushed it out with a long sigh. She probably shouldn’t expect people to be friendly with a werewolf.

Her mood perked instantly when the door opened. The smell of chocolate, sugar, coffee and peppermint wafted in the air and threatened to bring a smile to her wolfy face. Especially when Set produced a rather sizable chocolate chip muffin that she had a very good feeling had her name on it.

“Hmm?†She looked from the muffing and back to Set, brow a little furrowed. She felt a little stuck on the question. Her gut reaction would have been NO but… well he/she did just buy her a muffin so…. “Uh… sure. Why not.†She pushed herself up to her feet, holding out a furry arm for Set to examine.

[Gizmo]

Set wove the fingers of both hands through the fur of the proffered forearm without any further prompting, making an appreciative sound in the back of her throat. The godling's touch was light and nimble, easily moving through the honey hued locks without becoming tangled. After a moment Skaere realized she was following the contours of the werewolf's dense musculature. "You must have beautiful hair in your human form," she observed, eyes flicking briefly up to Skaere's mane. "Tall, as well, aye? You're doing quite well for one who did not come by shifting by choice." The tone was different from the godling's earlier effusive complements, sounding somehow older and more world-weary while still encouraging.

Mentioning her new friend's involuntary transformation aloud seemed to abruptly make Set aware of the looks the other patrons on the patio were giving them and more importantly Skaere's annoyance with the less than positive attention. Releasing the werewolf's arm and taking a step back, the godling made a show of looking her up and down as though considering an outfit someone else was wearing. Then with a languid stretch Set's form distorted, growing several inches while an extended snout and curly red fur sprouted across her bare arms and stomach. In moments she had adopted a slightly shorter, slimmer approximation of Skaere's hybrid form, her shendyt and halter having accommodatingly grown to match her increased size. Black tiger-like stripes cut eye catching swathes through the red and encircled her eyes. She grinned toothily, exposing elongated canines. "Be honest, do I make the look work?"

[trollthumper]

Temperance walked out just in time to find two werewolves comparing fur tones, which, even in Freedom City, was not exactly a common sight. She watched for a few seconds, just sipping on her peppermint mocha as the lupine beauty contest continued. "When you're done getting your fur did, Set," she said, "I say we go find the wolf den."

The scent trail was relatively easy to track, once picked up, even through the haze of exhaust and other urban scents. It grew stronger, even - the scent of tanned wolf leather grew like a knife, cutting at the senses. And so did the sense of rotten eggs...

Eventually, the trail led, as it often did, to an abandoned warehouse. Here, the scent was a good deal stronger - and less dead. It smelled like a wolf den, complete with the mingling scents of musk. But piercing through even that was that rotten egg smell - but now that they were close to the source, it could be read for what it was. Brimstone.

"All right," said Temperance, "how do we want to handle this?"

[GooseInduced]

Skaere blinked, her posture straightening a touch. If there wasn’t a layer of fur over her face, Set might have noticed her blushing. The contact felt weirdly intimate and Set seemed to see a little more than the werewolf was comfortable with. Though the mores she thought about it, Skaere realized that Set would gain nothing by outing her. Even if somehow she could see through the fur and to the person beneath, this god or godling or whatever Set was, she had nothing to fear from her.
“Ah… yes.†She nodded her wolfy head once, eyes narrowing in a gesture that showed she might be catching on to just how insightful Set was. “Taller than you, I believe… I may be well adjusted now but, that wasn’t always the case. Making the best of it I suppose.â€
 
Skaere cocked her head to the side when Set stepped back. The werewolf looked on, almost dumbstruck as Set’s form changed yet again. This time morphing and altering to resemble a feline version of her.  â€œHonestly… I approve. You look awesome.†She returned Set’s smile with a toothy one of her own. “Though I’m still taller.†She smirked.
 
Temperance’s interjected reminded the werewolf where they were but she couldn’t help but retort. “You’re just jealous.†Her straight face didn’t last though and she found herself laughing, snatching the muffing off the table and chomping on it as the three of them followed after the scent.
 
She wasn’t much of a tracker in this form, but she knew what scent they were following: rotting eggs. It grew stronger as they walked, eventually making her nose scrunch. It made her grateful for finishing her muffin quickly.

“I’m not much of a tactician. My plans usually involved bust in and see whose home… though I imagine that might not be the best course of action here.â€

[Gizmo]

"Oh, do go on," Set practically purred as she preened under Skaere's complimentary assessment, giving the werewolf a coy shove in the shoulder. The godling didn't bother trying to not to beam at her new acquaintance's improved mood even if the coffee shop's patio had almost entirely cleared out by the time a second fur covered monster had appeared. Set was acutely aware of what it felt like to be the odd one out and was glad to offer a show of shapeshifting solidarity. Besides, she did look awesome.

Still in her quadrupedal form, Sekhmet gave her charge a flat, disparaging look that bared her teeth momentarily but with the foul scent of their quarry in her nostrils she had not time to waste on arguments over the liesmith's antics. "Sometimes a girl simply cannot be bothered to shave her legs, dearest Temperance," Set tossed off with a shrug before throwing an arm over Skaere's shoulders and taking a quick snapshot with her smartphone. Pleased with the results, she made use of her borrowed lupine traits to catch up with the lioness' sprint through the city.

"You always bring us to the loveliest locales, oh radiant opal," Set muttered out of the corner of her snout as they surveyed the warehouse. "I quite favour this 'busting in' plan, however!"

Sekhmet snorted, rearing up on her back legs and sliding back into her humanoid appearance, if only to save herself some of the rancid aromas wafting all about. "Agreed. Fell sorcery shall not be tolerated under the gaze of an Eye of Ra!"

[trollthumper]

"All right, that appears to be at least 3 to no greater than 1 in favor of smashing the door down and making a good mess of it," said Temperance. "And I can't say I argue."

One hectic barrage of icy death later, the chain lay on the ground. Whatever faint smell had hung about the place washed over them as the doors creaked open, like walking into a sun-baked abattoir. Temperance tried very hard not to gag as the mixture of sulfur and wolf... please tell me that's just musk... washed over here. Once the initial assault of smells had died down, however, it was safe to enter.

As with many such warehouses, the place was darkened, cavernous, and looming. To Temperance, there was just the darkness - and the sound of growling in the distance. To Skaere and Sekhmet's eyes, however, there was the impression of shapes like hanging curtains strung from cords - and to Sekhmet's ears, the aggrieved growling of wolves, less out of anger and more out of fear.

And to Set, the whole tableau was clear. From the cords strewn between the support columns were hung the great pelts of wolves - some shaved and tanning, others still clad in fur. At the far end of the warehouse, partially obscured by the pelts, sat six cages, three of which contained pacing wolves. And at the center of the room, in the midst of a bloody sigil, lay a primitive workbench, a row of belts laid out upon it.

[GooseInduced]

Skaere had been surprised when Set reached an arm over her and snapped a photo. It was so out of nowhere that she was pretty sure the whole thing turned out dumb. Though she looked down at the phone and showed Set smiling wide and Skaere looking just... well, intimidating. And awesome. That'll do.

 

It left a small smile on her face, one that didn't clear until they were standing outside the warehouse. Her wolfy head gave a single nod at the approval of her companions. "Alrighty then."

 

Soon enough the four of them had relocated to the entrance, Temperance blasting the lock with ice before the door was shoved open. The smells that hit her nose were almost overwhelming. "Oh... ok that's... a lot of wolf smell." Skaere held a clawed hand over her nose as if to block some of it.  "I mean, I know I'm a werewolf but I really hope I don't smell like this."  Her green eyes squinted as she stepped over the threshold, struggling the make out the exact shapes in the darkness. She could hear the beasts growling and the scent of wolf really was   everywhere. As if it were all around them.   "Anyone got a light? I don't like the smell of this and don't wanna stumble into something awful."

[Gizmo]

"You possess a delightfully peaty musk," Set assured Skaere from somewhere to her left in the darkness, the godling's voice carrying a tense strain that undercut the pithy words. "Bracing yourself might be wise, however. Sekhmet...?"

The shadows of the room were abruptly pushed back from the group as a disc of sunlight sprang into being just behind the goddess' head, a radiant halo that transformed the impenetrable darkness into midday. "Rrr... Butchery and rancid magics!"

"Aye," Set agreed darkly. At some point since entering the warehouse she'd resumed her human form. "Mayhaps it would be best were you to see to the prisoners, She Who Mauls," she suggested, indicating the caged wolves. "Your gift with animals outstrips my own. Those sigils seem a better focus for my attentions."

[trollthumper]

The caged wolves responding to Sekhmet, non-verbally growling for a second as if catching the scent of some large predator - or some cat. After they saw the great goddess, however, some part of their primal brains realized what they were dealing with. They leaned down paws first, as if in supplication - or doing a trick. "Not killer," said one of them, quick to yip. "Not prey. Not pack. You smell... different. You help?"

Temperance, meanwhile, was drawn to the things in the shadows. They lurked on the edge of perception like the stalking beasts of the woods, but none of them looked large enough to materialize and screw with their day. But there were hints to them - the glint of a knife, the scent of stale blood - that indicated they had fed on what happened here, and whatever they'd eaten, it had been quite bitter indeed. And Skaere, waiting at the door, could pick up a shift in the aroma of brimstone. Almost as if the sulfur was being freshly burnt...

[Gizmo]

Set studied the inscriptions carved in the workbenches with some disdain, crinkling her nose as she ran her fingertips over the troughs in the wood. "Literal devils? How gauche." There was little mistaking the magics for anything other than infernal, textbook Faustian bargains designed for mass productions. She'd honestly been hoping to find something a little more subtle; what she saw in front of her was no doubt effective enough to snare many a mortal but there was an element of impersonality that bothered her on a professional level.

Sekhmet made short work of the locks on the wolves' cages, freeing the wary, mistreated beasts. "Stand," she instructed them when the pack bowed in their four-legged manner, in no mood for worship for once. "Free of thy prisons, thee be hunters once more and ma'at shall be served. Show me the one who has trespassed against thee."