8367/Vampire Training: Hungry Like the Wolf

Vampire Training: Hungry Like the Wolf
Date of Scene:	22 October 2021
Location:	The Gardens
Synopsis:	Lydia gets in touch with her inner beast. Woof! (Also there's a drive by by Maddie)
Cast of Characters:	Lydia Dietrich, Raven Darkholme, Madison Evans

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Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Now that Lydia has settled into the daily routine of vampire life and has gotten used to her new state of being, she called Hatshepsut up to the Asteroid to continue her training. She decided that the best place to learn how to shapeshift was out in the Garden which would give them enough space to work, and besides... there's nothing that beats the view of the earth at night.

"I think I've got the basics of vampiring," she's telling her mentor and sire. "Feeding for the first time was an experience," she says with a chuckle. "I turned Mystique into Jello. I think she's addicted to the bite, now."

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Hatshepsut once again uses Ritz services to get to the asteroid, and presents her with a gift of Egyptian pastries upon arrival, then heads for the gardens to meet Lydia. She was getting more and more comfortable with this interplanetary traveling, though the asteroid wasn't quite a planet, it was close enough.

Hatshepsut offers Lydia a charming, knowing smile. "You poured on the 'please do not let it hurt' the first time, correct?" she asks, then chuckles softly. "The bite can be very addictive to some, though I have to admit I think it is more you and the bite, than the bite itself."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia gives Hatshepsut a wide grin, "I did. I figured out how to dial it down for the others who wanted me to take from them directly. Dialed it into 'warm pleasant glow' for them." Her grin grows wider as she leads her guest to a nice open patch of grass. "She is at that."

Now, down to business. "So with these transformations. I take it they're more mystical in nature? Will I have to worry about my clothes at first?"

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Hatshepsut finds a nice clear area, no plants too close, then removes her shoes as that makes walking in grass so much easier.

"Your clothing will shift with you," she explains, then also removes her trench-cloak and lays it with her shoes. "It is mystical in nature, using the blood in your body as the power source, but it changes your body entirely. It is not an illusion, you are literally changing from a human body to a wolf body."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
"Neat," Lydia says, still grinning. The prospect of becoming a wolf is exciting! "I've noticed that if I push myself beyond just normal operating, I get hungrier faster," she says. "I hope this doesn't take up too much blood. I have somebody on stand by if I really need it but I hope I don't have to."

She takes her place standing in front of Hatshepsut and shakes her hands at her sides, trying to get rid of some of the nervous energy and excitement, so she can concentrate. "How do we begin?"

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Another soft chuckle is offered from Hatshepsut. This was a bit amusing to her, watching a fledgling Vampire learn the tricks of the trade, and the silly worries that they have. She knew to Lydia that mattered, but to the former Egyptian Queen, that sort of worry was no longer present.

"If you need blood, you can have some of mine," she states first, stretching out her body as if she's getting ready for a dance recital or something. "Your supply line is still being established, mine has been there for thousands of years. I say this because, it may take a bit more blood than you expect as you learn, but you need not worry, as they say, I got your back."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia nods and starts mirroring Hatshepsut, stretching out her muscles like she would if she were working out. This is a good way to relieve the nerves, too. "How long before things start settling in?" she asks. "I mean, I know I've theoretically got forever, but I'm just curious about the timeline. Are we talking months? Years?"

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Once she's got Lydia stretching, Hatshepsut walks closer to her and watches. "What things settling where dear?" She asks, noting how Lydia moves. "Tell me, is that merely the motions of what I did, or do you /feel/ the blood flowing through your veins as you do it? Can you feel the power in the blood, calling to you, as if it yearns to be something more than power in the blood? Listen for it, you can almost hear it if you try."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
"Uh..." Lydia says stupidly. "I was doing it because I thought you were limbering up, so I should too." Her lips thin into a line of frustration. "I mean, you were talking about my supply line still being established. I thought you meant...." She shakes her head, realizing her misunderstanding. "Nevermind."

She has to admit that, no, she /doesn't/ feel the blood flowing through her. At least not right now. She closes her eyes and concentrates. How could the blood be flowing through her when her heart is so still? It's not like she has a pulse that she could follow like when she was alive.

"I don't...." she begins hesitantly. This isn't like the wellspring of her magic, where things come easily to her. "I don't think I feel anything," she admits. "Maybe I'm still too new?"

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Hatshepsut lays her hand on Lydia's shoulder. "The stretches help our bodies get that blood flowing, just as it would help a living body get oxygen through them. It is a good practice to get into really, as it will help you to eventually feel the power in the blood. I realized," she frowns alittle here. "That I forgot to teach you the first and very basic thing your blood can do, and I think it would be a good thing to start teaching you how to feel the blood."

Stepping back from Lydia she gestures to herself. "You see that I am pale now, looking much like I climbed out of a mortuary drawer and came right up to the asteroid." She concentrates a moment and Lydia watches her pale skin turn slowly back to the natural olive tan of the Egyptian people, looking very much natural and normal. "Your blood can, for the night, make you appear as a living being once again. Concentrate, and remember what it was to have warm skin. For you, that should be easy."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia nods. This is something that she definitely needs to know how to do. Being clocked as a vampire as soon as she walks into a room was getting dangerous and limited where she would go.

She flutters her arms and hands for a second, once again settling her nerves and she closes her eyes. Think back to when she was warm. It wasn't that long ago, and yet it feels so far away. Still, she thinks of a warm shower, and how her skin and muscles felt afterwards. She thinks of blushing, how her cheeks flushed with warmth. She even thinks of how after sex, her how warm and content she was.

She brings all these feelings to the forefront, and tries to let her nervousness go, to relax. Nerves tend to constrict things, to make the muscles tighten up. That's the last thing she wants to do right now. So she goes still, and does some mental exercises to help her relax, so much so she simply stops breathing.

She wills her skin to darken. She takes the cue from when she wills her partner in feeding to feel pleasure. It's different than the kind of internal muscle that she's ascribed to her mutant power, and it's different than the will that she uses when she brings her magic to bear. This one is more personal, tied into... something inside her. Another source of power. Could that be the blood that Hatshepsut was talking about?

"How am I doing?" she asks with her eyes still closed.

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Hatshepsut runs her hand over Lydia's cheeks with a smile, "You are doing /very/ well Lydia!" she chimes proudly. "Remember the green that was your glow as well, it will all return, step by step, and in time you will be able to just will it and instantly you will be 'alive' again."

She walks slowly around Lydia, "Deep inside you is a well of power, not merely your magic, but the blood itself. You consume the blood of the living and inside of you it is transformed into a powerful tool that not only allows you to exist, but also enables some of the most powerful magic in existence. In time, you will be able to combine your magical methods with the power of the blood, and then you will be unstopable."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia's eyes open and she takes a look at her bare arms. They're no longer deathly pale, but have taken on a more ruddy hue. Still paler than what she was looking like while she's alive, sure, but she no longer looked like a corpse. She just looked like she hadn't gone out into the sun in a while. "Neat," she says.

She looks over at Hatshepsut and nods. She wasn't really looking for unstoppable, really. That kind of power scares her, frankly, which is probably a good thing. She just wants to be strong enough to protect her friends and family, all three sets of them.

"Blood magic is pretty potent," she comments. "I imagine a being being fueled by it would be moreso."

Raven Darkholme has posed:
She runs her hand over the skin on Lydia's arm, then once again Hatshepsut smiles. "Very nicely done, Lydia. I think you may be a natural at this," she offers, then once again steps back. "Think of this. You can work magic and cast spells, build wards... now imagine if you did all that using the power from the blood as well. That is the sort of power you will have some day, but one step at a time."

"You wanted to learn how to become a wolf, and I think you are beginning to feel the power in the blood or you would not have been able to change your skin," she gestures with her hand to the skin, as if Lydia didn't already know it. "That is the same sensation you need for the change. To be honest, the change may not be a wolf the first time. We all have a specific animal that is completely natural to us, for me is it a feline. Yours very well might be a wolf, but either way, once you can change even one time, you can begin to alter which animal it is."

Closing her eyes a moment, she ponders a moment then ahs softly as realization of how to do this dawns on her. "You felt the blood, reach in and feel it again. Find it and nothing else, and once you think you have it, use it to will yourself into a wolf. Think of the fur and fangs, think of hunting your prey, the predator nature that is the wolf."

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia nods and closes her eyes again, going deep within herself. She has to work to push aside the sources of power she's familiar with. The warm amber glow of her magic, the soft green glow that she still associates with her mutation. It's hard because these wells are familiar to her like an old comfy pair of pajamas.

It's hard to set those aside, and it takes her a while to do so. At first she's just looking deep in her heart for something, but since she doesn't know what she's looking for she doesn't find it. At least, not at first. That's when the idea strikes her to kind of reverse engineer it. She knows the feeling of her blood that's feeding the skin to make her look more alive, so she takes that feeling and traces it to the source.

What she finds surprises her. It's indeed within her heart as she had thought, but it's totally unlike her other powers. This one is cold, red, and /hungry/. Once she finds it she's surprised that it wasn't more obvious to her before. This is where all those predatory urges come from. This is the beast that dances in the back of her brain that urges her to keep feeding even when she's full. To be jealous over any who would look at her mate, to protect her and snarl at any, 'MINE!' This is where the anger comes from, and now that she's identified it she can draw on it's energy.

All in all she's been standing there, unmoving and still, for about an hour before she ventures into this power and draws up the bestial nature of it. She imagines a wolf, much like Rahne's wolf, but the one that comes to her is black and lean, with red angry eyes. Her blood approves. She puts some of that power into that imagined form and finds herself falling into it... literally.

Her attention is snapped outwardly as she falls flat on her muzzle, completely unprepared for the transformation. It takes her a moment to regain her bearings. She was spending so much time inwardly that it seemed like the outside world was but a dream. But now it's hard to ignore the fact that she's scrabbling to right herself on four paws instead of two feet.

"I did it!" she wants to shout in excitement, but it comes out as a joyous yip, and she feels herself wagging her tail, which is a most unusual sensation. She twists herself around to look at it and it stills. Hunh.

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Hatshepsut had come prepared, knowing it would take time and that Lydia would need silence. So for that hour, she had sat in the grass reading over information on her tablet, and on occasion checking on the progress. Although Lydia was the first fledgling she herself had ever trained, she was not the first that she had known. She had honestly expected to be reading over files on her tablet for a good three, four hours, so when around the hour mark she heard the yelp, she instantly looks up.

"Well, well, well," she postures as she sets the tablet aside and stands up. "Look who found her inner wolf... and far quicker than I expected you to."

She walks over to the Lydi-wolf, taking one trip around her before reaching down to run her hand down her back. "A complete success," she says sounding surprised, as if she expected to find a missing leg or something of that nature. "I knew you were talented Lydia, but I had no idea... none, that you were this skilled. I should have known. Go one, run around, find your legs."

Madison Evans has posed:
    It's just about at the time that Hatshepsut issues this suggestion, and one Madison Evans emerges into the garden, eager to explore and enjoy the view. There's an eager bounce in her step - and she even wore a shirt especially fitted to the occassion. It says 'Ceci n'est pas une lune' and shows and image of a moon - that glows in the dark to reveal the Death Star.
    Look. It amuses her to wear it on the Asteroid, which is also - obviously - not a moon. Let the kid think herself clever.
    She starts making her way towards pond to sit, and relax, and maybe throw a few pellets at the koi - unaware of any potential trouble in her future.

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Red eyes follow the ancient vampire as she takes a tour around the wolf, her ears standing at attention. When the suggestion to just run around and enjoy herself is given, Lydia gives her a nod, and takes a few tentative steps forward. The cadence of walking on four feet is different than it is walking on two. Balance is handled by the tail instead of swinging arms, and that alone is an unusual sensation.

Soon enough, though she gets her feet underneath her and she picks up her pace into a trot, and then she digs her claws into the earth and goes full out into a run. It's a joyous feeling running like this. Different than running as a human. It feels faster, more dexterous, as she starts zig zagging her way through the trees.

She's so caught up in the joy of it that she nearly misses the scent of a new person in the gardens. A girl. Instinct takes over as she slows down to approach the koi pond to see who's there. There's somebody intruding on her territory! Head lowered and hackles raised, she approaches Madison with a deep throaty growl.

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Hatshepsut is dressed as if money was no matter, high fashion goes casual. A pair of pale grey woolen slacks with a narrow black leather belt, a soft blue silk shirt with sparkling buttons down the front and on the cuffs. Although her shoes lay in the grass not far from her, they are Italian leather pumps, protected by the black trench-cloak she always wears. Not having expected anyone to visit while she was teaching Lydia, the Italian Countessa is no where to be seen, instead she is herself. Long flowing black hair with bangs cut straight across her forehead at the eyebrows, deep olive tan skin that seems to shimmer as if gold had been added directly to her skin, and around her head a beaded and gold headdress.

Watching Lydia's slow start, she remembered fondly her own first steps as a cat, but does not share how she ended up face first in the sand. Lydia did much better than she did in that regard, but her eyes shift immediately to the new presence in the room. Without meaning to, instinct really, her entire body goes tense and guarded.

"Hello there," she offers softly, pouring on the charm. How quickly the mask slides into place.

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison was almost to the pond when two things happen - she hear's a voice, and a growl.
    Naturally, it's the growl that catches her attention first. She turns towards it - eyes going wide as she backs up towards the pond. Would she be safe if she jumped in the pond? Could she throw the dog? (It looked too heavy...) Maybe her best bet was trying to jump into a tree? Crap crap crap... "Nice doggie... Good doggie... Hey, is this your dog?"
    Maybe her mind tricks will work on a weak willed animal where they fail on people?
    "You want to go chase your tail," she intones solemnly, waving one hand through the air.
    Please let it work please let it work please let it work...

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
In Lydia's mind the feral beast has taken control and Lydia's more rational mind is wresting it back. This is just a kid, dammit! We /do not eat kids/. That's when said kid tries to Jedi mind trick her. This is not the reaction that the wolf was expecting and in it's confusion, Lydia finally takes the helm. Did she really just try to Jedi mind trick her?

In a flash a decision is made. Her tongue lolls in a lupine laugh as she starts twisting about, chasing her own tail. This is probably the /wrong/ thing to do, but you have to admit that this is a too good of an opportunity to pass up.

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Hatshepsut was just starting to walk toward the lake, her intend to keep Lydia from eating the child, when the Jedi mind trick is employed. At first she has no idea if it actually worked or not, but a sweep of senses outside the normal realm tells her that Lydia's mind is still her own, just wolfie.

"Actually no, the wolf is her own," she offers as she approaches, but stops before getting too close to Madison. "That is to say she is as much her own as any person. Do you think you could perhaps make her stop chasing her tail?" Yes, Hatshepsut has decided to play along.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "It worked?" Madison asks in a stunned voice. "It worked!" she immediately crows on the heels of her question - before literally jumping into the air, pumping her fist vertically. //Yes//! "I finally did it!" She bounces repeatedly on her toes, and even does a little dance, turning in a full circle herself - she can't believe it finally worked!
    "Oh. Yeah, um... right," she finally says, waving her hand in the air again before saying imperiously, "You will sit."
    That accomplished she asks the obvious question. "What do you mean - her own wolf? It's a wolf, not a dog? But someone must be taking care of it. How did it get onto the Asteroid? ...or does it live up here and like... eat the squirrels?"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia obediently stops chasing her tail and sits. Inside she's laughing up a storm, which of course translates to the wolfy lolling of the tongue, which is now coming out of the side of her mouth. Cute! If only she could talk.

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Hatshepsut would really like to laugh right now, but she keeps that simple smile on her face, the mask of charm and elegance as she walks over to the wolf.

"You can speak normally," she says to Lydia in Hebrew. "Just have to focus."

Looking back to Madison now she say in English. "You assume that was you see is a wolf and a woman beside her, but sometimes what we see can be deceiving. The squirrels of the garden are save and sound, we use wolf chow."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Oh," Madison replies after Hatshepsut's 'explination.' It clarifies //nothing// for the girl. "What we see is deceiving?" she repeats uncertainly. Then she asks with suspicion in her voice, "Is the wolf an illusion?" She reaches out - her hand half expecting to pass right through the wolf before- nope. Landing solidly on top of Lydia's head. "It's a real wolf!"

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
Lydia glances up at Hatshepsut quizzically. She can? How? No, wait. Nevermind. *shrug* Magic! Her eyes go squinty and she works her jaw, trying to will herself to speak. On the outside it might look like she's chewing on an invisible stick, though.

"Rarrowwoww... harrrowww... herro... hel.. hello!" Then a hand goes *plap* on her head, causing her ears to angle downward. "Hello. Yes. How do you do. The wolf is a witch who is practicing," she says, her voice coming out a little gruffer than what she would normally use. She decides to go with the witch angle instead of admitting that she's a vampire. It's not /entirely/ a lie.

Raven Darkholme has posed:
There Lydia goes again, making Hatshepsut proud. "As I said, deceiving," she offers to Madison before smiling.

Other than the children at the coven, she hasn't really been around that many children, especially those without knowledge of what she was. Madison wasn't someone she knew, but she was very obviously a younger teenager. She also didn't know if Lydia knew her, so for the moment she was letting the wolf remain the center of attention.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Whoa! Wait- what?! It's a talking mutant witch wolf?!" The mutant part is assumed. This is the Asteroid - Madison was pretty sure that everyone here (apart from herself, //obviouslly//) was in fact a mutant. "That. Is. So. COOL! O. M. G., wait until I tell Theo and Pete and Irie and Dyani and Emma and Aiden and Cam!" She's back to bouncing on her toes - and in fact, abruptly the girl turns to start running off towards the lift.
    She intends to go tell Theo - RIGHT. NOW. Koi can wait! This is so much cooler!

Lydia Dietrich has posed:
"Yes, I'm a mu-" Lydia is cut of by the sheer exuberance of Madison. She's about to speak again when ZOOOM! there so goes.

"I have no idea who that is," she comments to Hatshepsut.

Raven Darkholme has posed:
Hatshepsut opens her mouth and closes it again because Madison is just gone, not there, poof.

"I suppose that answers if you got the license of that energic truck or not," she comments quietly, watching as Madison just disappears toward the lift.

"Looking back to Lydia, "That was very interesting, but I will assume she is a friend of Theo and Pete and Irie and Dyani and Emma and Aiden and Cam."