Deus Ex Machina/Chapter 2

Caeli has spent a bit of time since she saw the Jackal lord, and the confusing cat-lady, taking time to process, and try to find a protective home for her leaf. Next up on her list in a logical order is Fenris, the wolf goddess Balina had marked out. The path to his cave takes her to an area permanently frozen. It's not hard to tell the god's presence, considering the blasting wind, and ice. Blizzard conditions when the rest of the city is in the seventies.

The chill is so intense that even the resistant Caeli finds it uncomfortable, though she seems even more bothered by the ice, which is stubbornly slippery and utterly alien to her; her first steps onto it result in a swift and decisive buttplant, as do many subsequent ones along the lonely trek to the god's den, walking on ice turning out to be rather tricky when high winds are involved. When she finally does reach her destination she hurries inside, eager to find refuge from the terrible blizzard.

Caeli having made it unmolested into the cave is...unusual, but her nature isn't a common occurrence. The inside of the cave is no less chilly, the wind howling through the mouth of the cave creating a large echo. The snow is still blinding, and ice sticks to everything. Entering the cave finally causes some acknowledgement, a group of howls rising up in the echoing cave, and as if summoned by them, shadowy figures fan out around her.

Caeli finds her attempt to escape refrigeration thwarted by both the nature of the ice-cold cave and the appearance of the unusual greeting party; she freezes (metaphorically) in place, and stops sliding forward a moment later, assuming her default nonthreatening stance as she peers at the figures. "Greetings," she offers pleasantly. "I am Caeli. Who are you?"

The response is a growl, the hackles raised on a big wolf that moves into focus. The thing is quite... large, teeth bares, and bears a striking resemblance to Balinawolf, right now to the bloody stump-paw. The rest narrow in, teeth bared.

Seeing that her inquiry has had little success, Caeli stares directly at what is presumably the lead wolf, huge thing that it is. Her wings, previously held tight against her back to ward off the cold, spread slightly in subtle preparation... and she growls, in a way that utterly fails to be intimidating. "Grr. Grrrrr!"

The response seems to startle all the wolves, not...used to this kind of behavior. The big one moves closer though, and sniffs deep at Caeli. Another moves closer as well, the thing having a deep bloody scar around its neck, frozen blood stuck to its blue-tinged fur. The thing is even braver and pushes against Caeli with its nose, right on her back.

Caeli allows the sniffing, and then blinks with surprise as she feels pressure from behind! The robogirl looks over her shoulder, lifting a wing out of the way to get a better view of her 'attacker'; upon seeing the icy blood she tilts her head and turns, reaching a tenative hand out toward the wolf. "Are you hurt?" she asks curiously, awaiting the creature's response to her advances before outright trying to touch it.

The thing huffs at her, finding nothing of interest. No tasty flesh. The other wolves approach again, and the big wolf moves around, and the group begin herding Caeli deeper into the cave. She spots quite a number of wolves, near two dozen of different sizes. One almost looks like it fell in a lake, ice crystals all over its fur, and they seem to be flowing downward to the ground below. It’s a strange bunch of very unnatural looking wolves for certain.

Caeli abandons her attempts at conversing with the animals with some reluctance, but continuing her progress is at least as important, if not more! So onward she presses, taking even greater care not to slip and fall now that she has an audience. The full woofsicle is just too darn shiny and unusual, though - the mecha-girl approaches, surreptitiously reaching out to touch its icy fur in passing.

The one wolf as its touches growls at Caeli, the others keep pushing her forward as the chamber widens. The place reeks of rotting flesh, and the reason is obvious. A mountainous wolf is curled up in the snow, bleeding from a gaping pit in its stomach. It's head is resting on its paws, and its eyes, large black pits stare at Caeli.

Caeli replies to the growler in kind, though her technique hasn't really improved at all since the first attempt. She appears unbothered by the scent, though the apparently wounded wolf's condition seems to leave her concerned; unfortunately, all her attempts to communicate thus far have ended in failure, so rather than speak to the latest and largest in the line of wolves she merely stares right back and gives another cute little growl.

The great injured creature looks at the little robot girl. He snorts in response to the growl. He speaks with a death rattle, his breath coming out in rasps. "You are an odd creature, and your growl can use a lot of work."

Caeli headtilts, surprised at finally being addressed. "No, I am Caeli," she corrects after a brief pause for thought. "And I will promise to work on my growl if you will tell me where I can find Fenris." Her eyes are drawn again to the injury, and she adds, "Your wound appears fatal. May I attempt to heal it?"

His teeth bare and he growls. He clearly does not like being told something like that. He's up on his paws, towering over Caeli. "It will heal!" he announces, as he snaps his jaws. "I have already tasted Odin's flesh in exchange for the wound, and it was worth it."

Caeli fails to flinch, tilting her head back to look up at the great wolf; her lack of apparent fear does not, however, spare her from embarrassment at upsetting the creature. "I am sorry, I did not mean to offend you," she says sincerely with the ghost of a frown on her lips. "You must be very strong to sustain such an injury and recover." A factual observation, nothing more.

The growl changes to a small grin, the creature settling a little from the compliment. "Of course, I am a god eater. I will be the last one alive, as I have survived the Ragnarok, I will survival all these other godlings." And his eyes narrow, "What are you here for, doll?"

Caeli mimics the squint, entirely for the purpose of trying something new rather than with any intent behind it. "I am here to find Fenris," she states resolutely. "Do you think he would want to take my soul? It is very important that I find out."

The ears on the ersatz Balinawolf flick back and forth briefly, and she appears to take a much keener interest in the discussion, as if just realizing that there is talking going on.

The wolves beside Balina look uncomfortable at the change, each looking at her in turn. The big wolf however shakes his head. "You cannot recognize a god looking upon one?" a quick response, and then he leans in and sniffs in deep at Caeli. He draws his breath in. "Your soul isn't much to offer, but why would I say no to add another to my collection?"

Caeli shakes her head innocently, sending her ponytail swaying. "I cannot. It is unlikely that this scenario fell within my original design parameters, so my creators did not see fit to give me the relevant data." She gets a good view up the godbeing's nose during the sniff, but remains stubbornly unexpressive despite the sight, or the words that follow. "You may have any number of reasons to decline," she offers, failing to spot the rhetorical in that question. "However, as long as the reason is not a lack of a soul in the first place, that is not a relevant concern. Thank you for your assistance in this matter; please take care of yourself." She gives a slight bow, her business here apparently concluded.

The large Balinesque wolf's ears flick again, coming to rest against the side of her head. The outright refusal on the strange mechanical thing's seems to help, but there is a definite air of tension. The wolf's body is tensed, ready for... something.

The god growls again, "You offered me your soul. I'm not going to let you just walk away after offering a bargain. Stay!" and at that the wolf pack leaps into action, moving close in to prevent her from leaving.

Fuck pretense. Balinawolf dives in between Caeli and Fenris, snapping at anything dumb enough to come close. "It is not yours to take!"

That frown returns to the android's face, slightly more noticeable this time. "I am sorry, but you are mistaken," she tells the god, glancing down to Balina at her arrival. "Hello again," she greets Balina, extending her wings and giving them a flap, sending pinkish feathers scattering everywhere as she spins, looking for a quick escape route.

The wolf pack turns on Balina. The ice-covered one turning first, followed closely by the one with the bloody neck. The former going for Balina's side, while the viscious one for her neck. Fenris glowers at the insult. "You, you are my pawn. I own you. Stop this now!"

Dropping to her side, Balinawolf attempts to roll away from her attackers, or at least buy a few seconds to appraise the situation. "You are nothing!" she bellows, "An old, dead wolf, too weak to hunt, too stubborn to die. I've bested both of these whelps before, and I'll gladly do it again. The girl leaves intact!"

Caeli is hardly about to leave her lovely assistant out in the cold; an inhumanly rapid mumbling tumbles from the robogirl's lips, and the dozen or so feathers around her react instantly, nanite-warped into the decidedly less cute shape of tiny missiles that hurtle directly toward the bloody-necked wolf, judged to be the bigger threat. In light of the confined space the android opts to leave out the explosives, at least on this salvo.

Balina manages to dodge the one going for her neck, which backs out of the way as a series of missile blasts hit over her. The other though strikes home at Balina's gut, tearing a piece of flesh from her belly. The thing has a gleeful and vicious look as it devours belly flesh. Fenris tries to move forward but appears bound, his strike at the wolf below a large miss as he's halted.

Balina yelps in surprise and pain, stumbling to regain her balance after the assault. All but forgetting her real goal as she dives back into the fray, seeking to take a neck for the insult this vicious, viscous upstart that thinks it has the right to challenge her.

Fenris snaps and growls, like he's stuck on a leash. He's digging into the ground to get at Balina. "You upstart. You think to take from me? You have no right! I own you!"

Undaunted by her spectacular failure, Caeli rushes forward, aiming a tackle at the same wolf her missiles managed to avoid - time to get physical! Mid-lunge she mutters again, and another feather falling from her wing is missilized; this latest munitions rockets in Fenrir's direction, but the understandably distracted robot aims far too high and the (mildly explosive) dart strikes the roof of the cave above the great wolf instead.

The wound around the wolf's neck seems to be dripping more actively. It whines as its clocked fully by the robot, and a stray missile singes its fur, but it manages to avoid the headlock. The thing strikes back going for the belly of the strange automaton, nipping at her flesh, but the lack of blood seems to dishearten the thing, it rears up. A pair of the other wolves leap at Caeli to protect their pack. The rest attempt to swarm the injured Balina.

Balina snaps at the neck of the frozen creature, and she tears a chunk of flesh out of it. The creature instead of bleeding blood, has more water flowing from the open wound, some of it freeing into icicles on the flesh.

Balina swallows almost without chewing, tasting only the faintest of deja vu as she devours her revenge meat. Looking around quickly, she becomes once again aware that, yes, Caeli is still here rather than running, and there are about to be far too many wolves around for her to just break free on her own. With no sane options left, she puts her front paws atop the leaking wolf, and howls. It's a deep, mournful noise, tinged with malice, promises, and warning.

The wolves all stop in their tracks at the angry and mournful howl. They seem unsure what to do, their alpha very clearly establishing dominance but isn't acting like their alpha. One decides to echo the howl, and then another, until all but the injured ones are mirroring Balina. This causes Fenris to go even more wild, he's straining at his bonds thrashing about in a truly insane way, and his rotting wound has begun to bleed heavily, dripping blood onto the ice below him.

Balina has found her center again. The pain of her injury is still there, but barely registers as she steps off of her fallen, frozen footrest, leaning down to whisper something into her ear with a snarl. The other one, this all-too-familiar, mute mutt is regarded with an air of almost complete disregard. Almost. "Down." Fenris, on the other hand is successfully disregarded. If the cowwolf is aware of him at all, she does an excellent job of not showing it.

Caeli absolutely takes every bit of advantage she can get from the distraction, not even pausing to mourn the fresh tear across the belly of her jumpsuit; an inhumanly quick hand plucks a feather from her wing, which twists into a small and very much fully armed missile on its way directly toward the bloody-necked wolf's maw. After a quick attempt to jam it down the thing's throat she hastily scrambles for the exit, igniting the missile and trying not to slip at such an inopportune moment.

The look of surprise on the wolf's face as something is shoved in her mouth. She attempts to try to get whatever it is out, choking, when the thing goes off. The wound around its neck is soon accompanied with a gush of blood, as the tiny missile explodes in her throat, opening her throat to the ground below. It’s all too much and she falls to the ground, bleeding from a real-wound instead of a symbolic one.

Balina's stand causes much confusion among the pack. The creatures seeming to pay their respects to their alpha, but Balina's disregard, and the escaping soul offerance causes him to open into his own mournful, and powerful howl. It dwarfs the shape and shear power of Balina's, and its intent is clear.

With Caeli on her way out, Balinawolf turns her attention back to Fenris' last, desperate gasp. No words, no witty quips. She simply charges her noisy patron, leaping with the intent of making that gaping wound on Fenris' underside worse.

Caeli screens her escape with - what else - more missiles, but is hardly averse to throwing a punch at any other pack members that get in her way.

Caeli flees unmolested, the few wolves that aren't too stunned are too slow to stop what happens. Fenris is ready for the wolf.

Balina manages to narrowly miss her neck being torn off completely, but Fenris grabs her by the tail, severing it as she continues towards his sensitive gut. She leaps at his wound, tearing flesh from it, causing him to shake and howl in pain, knocking her prone. Before she can recover his jaws come down on her belly, and tear her apart.

Balina startles awake, she feels blood in her jaw. Things coming into focus, she's got blood and flesh in her mouth that seem very, very real. And scents hit her, of family, home. She's startled by the pain of being shoved back. She's nowhere near where she was sleeping, she's down in the training area, below her... a headless corpse. She recognizes parts of it... Ilsa. Around her, the room is covered in blood and half eaten corpses.

Balina stops, a large chunk of meat falling from her jaws. Her nose begins running over the body in front of her, desperately looking for clues that tell her that her eyes are wrong. She needn't have bothered; with this much blood, the smell of her and hers is assaulting her so hard that the icewolf is having trouble standing. Bodies are checked, and a mental tally is taken, before Balina darts out of the room and away from the dealership, too terrified to look back.[[Category:[REDACTED] Events]]