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"Um..."

Oliver stares at a section of statues in the art hall. They show a young man in a white Victorian-era military uniform - gold buttons, two silver stripes on the lapel. White flame surrounds him; running from it are red-eyed rats the size of Dobermans.

The young man is blonde. Oliver is blonde. But the young man is far too all American action-hero-ish for Oliver to relate it to himself.

"If I ever looked like that, I'll eat my hat," Oliver mutters, shaking his head in disbelief.

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There's a snort as Leaf stops at the entrance to the art room, ears pricking forward. "Another ape," she mutters, then walks in, tail and ears up as she stalks towards Oliver.

"You are new." It isn't a question; just an annoyed statement of fact. "Who are you? Where are you from? Are you useful?"

Yes, Oliver is new. New enough that 'befriend your new comrades' is easily superseded by a lifetime of 'kill the beastskin!'

He looks at Leaf - then whirls and thrusts his right hand out. White fire grows an inch above his right palm.

...Until the tentacle emerges from nowhere and jerks his hand aside, that is.

"Unhand me--!"

||Violence against crewmates will result in Violations. Violations will result in Punishment.||

Fortunately, Oliver somehow doesn't have the ability to make glowy balls of fire with his left hand. Ambidextrousness isn't part of Godsworn training, for some reason.

"Idiot ape," she grumbles, laying her ears back and exposing her fangs for a moment. Her tail remains up however, flagged into a dominant position.

"Listen to the ship spirit. She will hurt you if you do not. Show some kind of sense, even if you do not gave much."

Oliver continues to struggle, and gets a Violation. He finally grits his teeth and douses the Godflame. The tentacle retracts.

"An ape? Hardly."

"You are a human. An ape." One-Leaf-Ear snorts and sits down, her ears going forward again. "A stupid ape, as you did not submit."

"I suppose I should not expect a wolf to grasp the vast difference between ape and human."

The statues behind him now show Blonde Action Hero Man burninating ~~the peasants~~ a creature both half-man and half-deer.

"I do grasp it. An ape is often more sensible. They know their place in the order of things, and they do not destroy Gaia, either willingly or through ignorance. They do not build scabs or destroy wild places."

Leaf stands up, shifting to crinos and peering down at Oliver. "And I am no normal wolf."

Oliver agrees with that lecture, actually. But his problems with the lecturer persist.

At her display of Crinos, Oliver contrives to look unimpressed, merely folding his arms over his chest and looking up to meet her new height.

"A wolfskin, then." Note: from his tone, this is not a good thing.

One-Leaf-Ear snorts at him again, her fangs showing briefly again. "I am a Garou. I am One-Leaf-Ear, cliath Ahroun of the Red Talons. I do not expect it to mean much to you, ape. But that is who I am."

You know what's a great idea? Staring directly into a werewolf's eyes.

And Oliver's doing that.

Yeah.

The words are unfamiliar, but most skins have a 'primitive' mentality, being part beast. It fits in quite well with what Oliver imagines of skins.

Oliver says through gritted teeth: "I am no ape. I will extend to you no courtesy, dog, that I do not receive."

The Talon's hackles rise and she snarls low in her throat, her claws beginning to clench. "Do not challenge me, ape. You will not win. And I am willing to wait until the ship spirit will not interefere."

It's a Godsworn's holy mission to destroy men that walk as beasts. Oliver has lived that faith for almost two decades.

"I look forward to it," is out of his mouth before he can think twice.

Leaf continues to stare at him unblinkingly, snarling and licking at her muzzle. She's not backing down anytime soon, not unless some outside force forces her to.

Oliver's breath comes a bit faster at the snarling, it must be said. Er, do those tentacles work on nine-foot tall wolfskins?

Oliver lets loose with a Command: DOWN.

Yes, they do, but Stacy doesn't consider snarling a Violation. (Lunging while howling about fomori, meanwhile...)

Leaf's ears, tail, and hackles all remained raised, and her gaze doesn't waver. "Back down, ape."

It would be rather too good to be true if it worked.

"Stop calling me ape."

"Back. Down." She leaned down so she could get closer, shoving her muzzle-and teeth-in his face.

Oliver can't help it; he flinches back. He also begins re-evaluating his stance on names.

Which sounds like cowardice. He keeps his gaze and voice steady.

"I've faced bared fangs before and triumphed."

The Talon's snarl hits a new pitch at the flinch-it's a triumphant sound. "I am an Ahroun. I am a Red Talon. Back down! Now!"

Oliver grits his teeth and continues to stare. "We burned the last wolfskin in the country a hundred years ago! Your kind are dead! Extinct."

Which has nothing to do with what's going on now - but Oliver left rational thought behind a long time ago.

"We are Garou. We survive. Quiet your babbling, ape." With that, she swings her arm around, aiming to pick him up by the back of his plantsuit.

Oliver is at the peak of physical fitness, with years of combat experience. He's still a middle-aged human going up against a Garou in war-form.

Yeah, he gets nabbed.

Without much fuss, Leaf then turns him around and plunks him back down. Eye contact has been broken, and she won, in her mind. She's satisfied. "Now be quiet. You babble too much, about too many idiotic things."

Oliver spins around as soon as he's plunked down.

"Speech is better than-- than the snarls of a low beast!" he snaps, face turning rather pink.

The only response to that? The Talon lays her ears back and lets out a near-roar in Oliver's face-and even without spoken words, it gets across the point of 'QUIET!' well enough.

Oliver was expecting something of the sort this time. He doesn't pull back, though he winces at the volume of noise.

When the roar dies, it finds him quiet. Not because he was told to! Because...um...he doesn't have much to say to her anyway. That's it.

"Stay that way," she huffs at him, her ears pricking forward as she straightens again, then drops back down onto all fours. She shifts back into lupus, shaking herself out.

Oliver responds with an irritated sigh, and turns to leave the art room.

Behind him, the statues show our blonde-haired hero, wiping out an entire murder of crowskins with white fire that shoots from his blazing sword.

She eyes the statues for a moment, ears pinning back as she glances towards Oliver. "Wyrm-ridden?" she asks herself quietly, then snorts, licking at her muzzle.

She'll have to report this to the rest of the group.

Oliver manages to catch the words. He hesitates -she did just tell him to be quiet - but then she did ask a question.

He's still walking to the exit as he says, "Demons."

"I meant you," she snaps, hackling again. "Go."

He flashes her a offended glare - mistaking a Godsworn for a demon, only a beast would think that way - before he goes.

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