nexus_crossings | To keep the Wolf from the Door...

There is a predator in your plaza, Nexus. Granted, that's hardly unusual. There are predatory entities of all kinds here, and by and large they've learned to play nice, but this one is very New, and there is something about him that looks exceptionally dangerous.

A massive wolf, he is easily the size of a Midgardian three-bedroom house. His fur is oily black, with highlights of blood and frost that seem to be a part of him. He smells of ashes and death, and the green of his eyes is far too bright, feverish. It's not just that he looks like a dangerous animal, though. His body language, for anyone that knows canines, is tense, fearful, like a cornered stray ready to snap.

Look, he's had a rough day.

The antiviolence field is working overtime on this one, because not only is it protecting the people around him from a sudden lunge, it's keeping anyone from bumping into him accidentally, as if in recognition of his hair-trigger mental state. Even leaves blowing towards him swerve away as if pushed aside.

You know, 'dog' spelled backwards is 'god'.

"What do you do with a broken chain?" Is his question. Yes, he speaks, and his voice rumbles, almost making the ground shiver beneath his paws. "Can you eat it?"

((ooc: Just

coldsong's player here messing around with an MCU iteration of Fenrir, don't ask me where I'm going with this, I'm just going. Please do not pet the doggo, he bites.))

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He takes note of the owlbear cub first. Puppy? No, not a wolf cub, more like a bird with fur and claws. He likes it, though it's so small he'd be afraid he'd hurt it in play. In any case, the sight of it puts a positive tilt to his ears and makes him feel less growly at its companion.

Maybe some small part of his hindbrain is thinking about him, when he was a cub, and Hela. She has a good answer, anyway. "Cram down the throat," he echoes, and barks out laughter. It's not a possibility, sadly, but it's a funny thought. He's not sure what throat they'd belong down at this point. Maybe even his Mistress', and he could never.

"Everyone is dead, but I like the thought."

Chomp knew better than to approach a strange animal, especially one quite as large as Fenrir. But there was still a curious woo as he tilted his head, leaning slightly forward as he sniffed the air inquisitively, wide eyes fixed on the wolf.

Karlach grinned broadly at Fenrir's response and laugh, easing somewhat as he seemed to settle a bit from fight or flight. "Yeah, but it got a laugh out of you, so it works out."

His tail wags briefly, and then he stretches out on his belly, chin on the ground, nose extended toward the owlbear. "I don't hunt cubs, small one."

He seems to have decided Karlach is safe enough to let his guard down this much, although he watches her out of the corners of his eyes. "Laughter lasts longer than vengeance. Yes."

Chomp? Perks up at the sight of the wolf coming down to his level. Or as much as a giant wolf could come down to an owlbear cub's level. Tufty 'horns' perking slightly, he glanced towards Karlach for confirmation, hopping in place a bit excitedly at her agreeing nod. Permission granted from his minder? He eased forward to Fenrir, stopping only once his beak bumped against the wolf's nose, snuffling curiously. From the eager tip-taps of his paws, if he had a tail, he'd be wagging it incessantly.

"Laughter's the best vengeance sometimes," Karlach pointed out, entirely at ease with the situation. Chomp was behaving, Fenrir had calmed quite a bit, everything was going well! "Feels better in the long run too, I've found."

Somewhere on YouTube there is a video of a large dog coming nose to nose with a duckling that bears more than a passing resemblance to this exchange. The owlbear cub gets a delicate lick from the tip of a wolf-tongue, a friendly touch.

The woman's ease with his proximity to her companion has an effect on Fenrir. Acting like friends, not prey, softens some of his crueller instincts.

"I do not laugh often. I was the best friend of Death, until she lost the desire for friendship."

Chomp coos his utter delight at the friendly response, gently headbonking against Fenrir's muzzle in his excitement before gallomping around his like a round, feathery little wrecking ball of affection, cheek feathers puffed out entirely on end in sheer birdlike glee.

It was hard to tell if Karlach could act like prey anymore. That shit got a person in trouble in Avernus, so she'd learned a long time ago how not to look like easy pickings. It was practically second nature to her now, especially face to face with a wolf the size of Fenrir.

"Shame that. You can be friends with us if you'd like. Chomp there already seems to like you."

Parental instinct is almost completely out of his wheelhouse. Fenrir is trained for war and devastation. And yet, this little round ball of feathers hits him in exactly the way a cub of his own, theoretically, would, of he'd ever had one. "I love." He declares definitively, and bonks Chomp gently with his nose as if to encourage the play.

"Yes. We will be friends." He glances over at Karlach curiously. "You are a soldier? A warrior?"

At the bonk, the little cub weebles and wobbles, before gravity takes over and sends him tumbling onto his side and then back with a startled little hoot. It didn't take more than a kick of his little paws before he righted himself again, bounding back towards Fenrir to headbutt his muzzle cheerfully.

Karlach chuckled at the display of baby cheer, settling herself to plunk down as well cross-legged, tail sweeping against the ground behind her as she nodded. "Got it in one! You've already met Chomp there, and I'm Karalch. Our new buddy have a name?"

Oh no. It's so tiny it's still wobbly! He lets Chomp come back and crash into his nose, wuffling soft amusement. "Need to grow before you can hunt anything bigger than mice, little cub. Do you hunger? I can hunt for us all."

He glances at Karlach, to include her in the offer, though he's pretty sure she's capable of hunting for herself.

"Fenrir," he says. "Or Fenris. I am the maw that devours the gods."

Sometimes, anyway. Other times he's apparently a big puppy.

The owlbear cub seemed more amused than anything by his own bumper car impression, chortling in that odd owl-like way of his as he pranced back a couple paces at the assessment to lift onto his hind legs so he could swipe at the air a couple times. Look how big and tough he already was, Fenrir!

"I think Chomp's always hungry to be fair. He's got a lot of growing to do after all! A little hunt wouldn't go amiss, I think!" And it would be good for him- Karlach and the others certainly brought him along when hunting for food, to ensure he could get practice in, but there was something to be said of hunting with someone whose tactics were more in line with what Chomp could imitate. "Bet he'll learn plenty from someone with such an impressive title."

To keep the Wolf from the Door...

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