Yaugur System Mingle

[padadin]

Who: EVERYONE
Broadcast: If you want!
Action: Of course
When: 6/23 to 8/5.

[Welcome to the Yaugur System, where everyone will want to join the most important activity here:



KITE FLYING!

...what do you mean, there's something more important to do? Oh yeah, the mist. Sure, have fun with your despair hallucinations, I guess.]

Comments

[sandywolf]

Werewolves are allergic to basil. Just like vampires are allergic to garlic. Both things that Italians seem to be overly fond of in their cuisine.

[Which is not very subtle.]

[universal_charm]

_{[ He takes a moment to think about that, his eyes flicking back and forth towards the clouds as he considers this. ]}

Right, I kind of have to ask - why basil? Or garlic? I never understood that. They're just herbs.

[sandywolf]

I wouldn't know. Simple biology, I think. Nature has a way of balancing things out. In a way, we have the potential to be superpredators. It would be unfair if we didn't have any weaknesses. So we can be hurt with silver, or basil, or sunlight.

[And yet here is Lyall, out in the daytime.]

[universal_charm]

I suppose, but other predators in the world don't have weaknesses like that - natural wolves, sharks, bears, tigers, and the like. Maybe it's like how chocolate and onions are poisonous to canines?

_{[ It's a curious thing, and he would like to know more, for sure. Curiouser and curiouser, as they say. ]}

[sandywolf]

It could be.

We are also susceptible to silver, of course. that seems to be a common point in all werewolf stories. Vampires also have an intolerance to citrus fruit on top of garlic. And all supernaturals dislike tobacco as a rule.

[universal_charm]

Really? Citrus fruit? Are there any foods vampires can eat? You made it sound like werewolves are pretty restricted to raw meat, too. And it's for the best you don't like tobacco. Fine enough smell, but overall it's not very good for anyone.

[sandywolf]

Vampires do not eat, no. Some of them like sampling food for the taste, but they spit it out afterwards. Their systems cannot digest it at all. Blood is the only thing required for their survival, biologically speaking, just like raw meat is for us werewolves.

[Let him remind you of a small fact, Kirk.]

We are technically dead. Dead bodies cannot digest food. Just like they can't reproduce.

[universal_charm]

So, obligate bloodivors and obligate carnivores? Interesting - that the process that changed you would be do drastic with its changes.

_{[ He raised a brow at Lyle. He had several questions branching off that statement, but he would start with perhaps the easiest. ]}

So why is it then that vampires cannot eat anything, but werewolves have to eat raw meat? Consuming the meat would suggest you are digesting some part of it, no? You're deriving some nutritional value.

[sandywolf]

The only answer I have to this is that we are different species. The consumption of meat probably comes from the fact that we are at least partly animals. If you want to see it that way, it's not us eating the meat, it's the wolf.

[universal_charm]

_{[ Ah, there was a question he had not considered. He tilted his head slightly. ]}

And how do you see yourself? Are you and the wolf two separate things, or are you one, or something else?

[sandywolf]

When you are newly turned, we like to say that you need to meet your wolf and accept it. It very much feels alien at first, like a different entity. It takes time to learn to control it, too. Pups tend to change involuntarily at times, and that's why they are closely monitored.

When you get to be as old as I am, though, the wolf is very much a part of you. You simply grow closer to it. Some very old wolves are more wolf than human, but there aren't that many. I must be one of the oldest in Europe now.

[universal_charm]

_{[ Fascinating. Truly. It sounded like a symbiotic relationship, but not quite. Maybe it was. Perhaps there were changes to the brain during the process. But such quests sounded rather intrusive, to Kirk, and to much like he might treat or look at Lyall as a scientific curiosity. He wasn't. He thought of Lyall as a friend, who was scientifically fascinating at the same time. ]}

One of the oldest? How old are you?

[sandywolf]

Hmmm...

[Give him time to think, Kirk. he's pretty much lost exact count, to be honest.]

Probably four hundred and seventy. Give or take a few years. I'm not quite sure what year I was born.

[universal_charm]

_{[ There's an obvious widening of his eyes at that number, and definite flinging of his eyebrows up into his hair line. ]}

That - is definitely not the number I was expecting.

[sandywolf]

[Lyall's smiles are rare and you need to deserve them, but this deserves one.]

Really? What were you expecting, then?

[universal_charm]

_{[ He chuckles. ]}

Well, by your physical appearance, somewhere around my age - your thirties or so. If I go by stories? Close to a hundred, perhaps. Almost five hundred? Definitely not the number I would have guessed.

[sandywolf]

I was a little under thirty years old when I was turned, I think. And as for my actual age... as I said, there are very few wolves that get there. Most Alphas don't. Too many challenges and fights means they usually get killed before then, and those who don't tend to go... bad in the head.

[He will say that very flatly like he hasn't had a front row seat to just that for years.]

Loners also tend to live longer. Wolves that are strong enough not to live in a pack.

Biffy is barely fifty now. Probably the youngest Alpha I've ever had.

[universal_charm]

So the aging process ceases when you're changed?

_{[ Again, another fun fact. So that meant something had to be happening on the cellular if not molecular level during the change to slow the natural body breakdown that much. The mental breakdown did not surprise him, though. Most living things just weren't meant to live quite that long, especially not beings that had, at one time, been human. ]}

The psychological issues I can understand.

_{[ He rested his chin in his hand, considering Lyall. ]}

Do you remember? When you changed? Is it something you commemorate or is it just something that happened?

[sandywolf]

Yes. It's the same for vampires too.

[usually, it's the eyes that betray supernaturals. And the deathly palor too.

It's actually quite nice to have someone asking questions and be genuinely interested.]

Given the high casualty rate, a successful turning is cause for celebration, but we don't have anniversaries or anything of the kind, really.

I remember my own, of course.these things tend to be memorable.

[universal_charm]

Will you tell me about it? If it's not something you like talking about, I understand.

_{[ He shifted and began to work at the soil again, though it was clear he was still listening. ]}

[sandywolf]

It's fine. It was a long time ago.

[Honestly, he has mostly forgotten the bad parts.]

What do you want to know?

[universal_charm]

_{[ A shrug that melded with the motion of tugging out another plant. ]}

Whatever you feel comfortable telling me. How, why, how you felt about everything.

[sandywolf]

Well, it was the fifteenth century. I don't have that many memories of my human life left because it was so long ago, but we were poor. And entering the service of a local werewolf pack was a good way to get fed regularly. And being offered the bite was an honor, and given the life expectancy at the time, it was a lot better than what most people's lot in life, even with the high casualty rate. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have made it much further than forty or fifty even if I was lucky.

[So, yeah, he didn't really have any lofty ideals about becoming a supernatural creature. Mostly, it was survival.]

I would have refused, of course. At the time, King Henry had already concluded treaties with vampires and werewolves regarding their integration in society. But oce it was offered, I didn't really have a reason to say no.

[universal_charm]

From the sound of it, it was the logical choice. A gamble, sure, but if you succeeded - like you said - food, a long life, some level of comfort. Don't take it and, from what I know of 15th century life in England on Earth for those not of a noble class? I think fifty is a very generous estimation of life expectancy.

I probably would have made the choice you did - to take the bite.

_{[ He raised his arms up and linked his fingers, cracking his elbows and the top of his spine. ]}

[sandywolf]

The turning itself is... well, I wouldn't recommend it as any kind of entertainment. Mostly, it involves your throat being bitten and basically bleeding to death. It takes hours. And Alpha has to do it, and they will keep biting and licking the wound close and biting again... it's a grueling process. Once you are successfully turned, your body will basically heal the damage on its own.

And then you need to learn to control the wolf.