thedressingroom | (no subject)

(no subject)

[There's a pile of books beside the beanbag this wolf is sitting in, a collection that seems to dip into some fairly advanced magic. Remus frowns as he flips through the pages. He's decided that he really ought to take advantage of his time here, and this little studying session promises to be the first of many. He seems preoccupied, though, and occasionally stares off into the corner of the room instead of at the pages before him, thinking about all he has to look forward to when he heads back to the cottage.]

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No. It does not stop me from wishing another well, however. [And that smile returns.]

And do you find it likely?

That one may find love? What a foolish question. You've found it, I deem it unimportant, and let us then go on our own merry ways.

As you wish it.

What a disapproving look.

No, not at all. A bit uncomfortable, perhaps. The conversation has become a bit stilted.

I suppose I should not have tried to push you into defending your ideals. All the same, my wishes stand, and perhaps I'll hear of your success with your- ah- self-confinement should we meet again.

You don't need to go, Loki.

Now is that merely courtesy or do you actually like my company?

I said that I wanted to hear your story, didn't I?

Surely those old storytellers have already told and retold them, and others written them down for people like you to search them out?

Would you like to see what the books say about werewolves?

Oh? [A shrug- why not?]

[Really? Remus blinks, but then holds out a hand and one of any number of books on the creatures of his world appears in his hand.]

Near the back. Labeled "incurably violent."

[He flips through to the back, finds the entry and scans through it. It's certainly not an unfamiliar concept.]

Along with feral and out-of-control. Are you sure you're a werewolf?

Positive. Every night of the full moon.

I don't mean to imply that what I become is less horrifying than the picture that entry paints. Those adjectives are... fair.

No, I understand your point. [He continues to browse through the book, though his attention is clearly not entirely on the pages.] So what do you think is different from what those storytellers have to say about us?

Do you ask what I know to be different about myself, or what I suspect to be different about you?

[It takes a moment, but he shuts the book and regards Remus with all his attention.]

You could answer both.

In response to the first...

The assumption is that werewolves, in their human form, retain some delight in... violence that makes them dangerous to be around. That they enjoy "infecting" others. It is also assumed that they are low class, lacking in manners, and prone to... shabby appearances and a variety of diseases.

These last are largely a result of the social prejudice against employing those known to be lycanthropes, or even admitting them into schools. I have no way of earning money for myself - if it weren't for the support of my friends, I would be destitute. If it weren't for the careful secrecy and support of my school's headmaster, I would have had to remain self-taught at home.

Hence the need to run from your world.

I see.

And yet I still fight for them.

There is a war on, and though I try very hard not to think on it, it sometimes comes painfully to my attention that there is no "side" that would unanimously welcome me with open arms. If anything, it is the enemy that professes acceptance for werewolves, though their freedom is the freedom to murder and run wild, which I will never do. I will fight and I will die for a cause that occasionally feels like... a very selective liberty.

I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm saying. It's been a trying day.

I don't understand. You have escaped, you have found somewhere else that will accept you, and yet you return to fight for your oppressors?

What are you trying to achieve?

I am not... I am not the only one who is in danger. Innocent people are dying, my friends are being murdered by a group that believes that all magical blood is superior and must be kept pure. For this cause, they kill everyone and everything in their path that doesn't reflect these ideals.

I will go back, I know that I have to, eventually. I am not a coward. But, yes, I found this place. And I somehow managed to conjure Sirius into it. So I do plan to stay here and enjoy a bit of respite for awhile and hope that it doesn't make me a failure of a soldier.

[Ah. Alright, now he understands- he's met a boy with more ideals than sense, more honour than self-preservation. Not altogether a bad thing, really, as far as things go.]

Better to go into battle well-rested than weary, there is no shame in that. Wars take years. [Centuries to the Aesir, sometimes. But they are mortals, they can't afford to keep a war going that long, surely.]