Fic: Self Control
Jun. 23rd, 2022 11:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silbernefuchsTitle: Self Control
Fandom[s]: Masters of the Universe; World of Darkness [for inspiration]
Character[s]: Keldor, original character
Rating: Mature
Warnings: None
Length: 1,914 words
Summary: Shapeshifting lessons on a night out.
After Autumn's-Howl's history lesson, it was decided that, in order to not overwhelm him with so much information, to let Keldor digest what he'd been told before telling him more. There was plenty of time to do that, seeing as how Sophie had—in a gentle but firm way—told him he wasn't leaving the abandoned factory for a while. The danger was still too great, and Odi as well as another from the Burned Oak pack had told her that a hunter cell had just started investigating the deaths of Miro and Amelia.
That bit of news put her on high alert. Hunters were always a problem—not just to werewolves but to all supernaturals, and a high profile case like this would definitely lure them out.
Meaning that it was imperative that the cub keep a very low profile.
And not letting him run loose was a way to do that, while Sophie made arrangements with everyone she knew to do everything that could be done to throw the cell off the trail. He wasn't going to like it, but if he didn't want to become someone's experiment—or worse—he'd have to do as told.
Predictably, Keldor was angry about it.
"I can handle it!" he'd insisted. "I can change now!"
"Out of the question. You still need to be taught how to control it, and hunters are dangerous. Anything that can resist the supernatural is dangerous, and if they catch you I fear what they will do to you. And you really don't want to know what they can do."
She'd left out the part Odi had told her that Randor was a person of interest to the cell. Either as a possible supernatural to study, a source of valuable intel, or, worst of all, a recruit. Keldor had enough to deal with without his half-brother being brought into it. Not to mention how angry he would get.
He'd grumbled a bit, shouted, made impotent threats, then finally accepted it. Grudgingly.
Which meant that today he'd been left with two of the Burned Oak's members as company, while Keldor went channel-surfing through the TV. He'd stopped when he came across one station that was carrying a story about Miro and Amelia. Actually, several stations were, but this particular one was talking about the memorial that had built up near his parents' house, and that plans were underway to pay tribute to the late couple.
People would be coming—from out of state as well as within—to talk about Miro. To eulogise him. About how much he'd done for everyone.
That set Keldor off, and he was now screaming at the TV, clearly outraged over what it was saying.
"'Great man'?" he bellowed, feeling his body start to swell in response to his rage. He was shifting. And the Burned Oaks were trying to get him to calm down, as he was now in Dalu, and the possibility of him going into Gauru and therefore really losing his temper was very real. "If he was so great, how come he never had time for me?"
Tears ran down his furred face.
"I was his son! And he never cared! EVER!"
"Keldor, stop! You'll go out of control!"
"No! I hate him and I'm glad he's dead—!"
He was in full Gauru, now, but instead of being upright and going on a tear, he was being pinned down upon the factory floor by the other two. Also in Gauru. It was the only thing they had that could deal with this.
"You need to calm down," growled the biggest, who was sitting atop the struggling cub.
"I hate him! I HATE HIM!"
"Easy, now. Easy. You've already killed him once," the other added.
"I'LL KILL HIM AGAIN!"
"Keldor please calm down."
Sophie was back, and was stroking the fur on his face to try and soothe him.
"You don't hate him," she told him kindly. "You love him. That's why it hurts as much as it does."
Keldor made a strangely human sobbing sound despite the fact that he was still in the Uratha war form.
"But he can't hurt you any more, and you're with people who do care about you now. We are your family. All of us. The children of Urfarah."
He sobbed. He began to shrink.
So did the others, now that Keldor was beginning to calm down.
"That's better."
He was fully human again, clothes in tatters. Just like the night of his First Change. So were the others, but unlike Keldor, their clothing was still intact.
"The Burned Oak's territory is not far from here. I can take you there so you can practise shapeshifting, if you like."
If it meant getting out of this rusty old box...
"Sure."
But...
"Will I be spotted?"
"There are ways to get there that will not risk you being seen."
Sophie held out her hand. To help Keldor up off the floor.
"We'll go tomorrow."
*********
Not far from the factory was one of the city's larger parks. It was partially wooded in some places, and more open in others. A sprawling, rolling place that covered several acres. A place that was a popular destination during the warm months for families to come to and bring their children to play on the playground equipment or even to get soaked in one of the various splash pads.
In the centre of the park was a massive old oak tree that had been struck by lightning long ago, and had a massive gash where it had been wounded.
It was this tree that gave the resident pack their name, and its spirit served as their totem.
Nobody was around right now, though. It was after dark, and the place was deserted save for Keldor and the Burned Oak pack. No one came here at night, which made it the ideal time for a werewolf to visit. They would not be seen. No one human would witness any of this.
Which was a good thing to Keldor, as the pack had asked him to remove his clothing. He'd balked at first—not because he was ashamed of the way he looked, or shy about being nude in front of others—but because he was the only one there who would be. He had only managed to bring with him a few articles of clothing when he'd fled the scene of his parents' deaths, and he'd already ruined some of them the other day when he'd flown into a rage over being reminded of his father by someone on the TV.
He prickled at the memory. Amelia was worthy of glowing praise, not Miro.
"You're in danger of losing control again," the big man who'd held him down yesterday while Keldor was in Gauru form said.
It was true. He could feel his body respond to his anger in ways it had never done until recently. Fur was growing. Nails were lengthening.
He breathed slowly. Deeply.
Better now.
"We'll be focusing on Urhan and Urshul tonight," Sophie told him, once again using terms he didn't understand.
"What?"
"Those two forms are the more lupine of the shapes you can take. There are five in all, but we'll only work with two of them tonight."
"How do I do take them?"
"By concentrating on them. In time you won't need to; it'll just come naturally. But when you're first starting out, you'll have to actively think about it."
He nodded, feeling somewhat awkward.
"So what do I do?"
"Think about being a wolf." Sophie told him. "Think about what it would feel like. Think about how you like the way it feels. Being wolf is as much a part of you as being human is. If you want to be."
He'd expected it to be easy. Visualising himself running about on all fours.
It was actually kind of hard.
"You are holding on to the idea of you being only human. You need to let go of that. To accept that you're not human. That you're more than human. That you aren't just flesh; you're spirit as well."
He felt suddenly disoriented.
Had it worked?
"You had it for a moment," Sophie informed him. "But you let go too soon."
She paused.
"Try again, Keldor. Focus. Remember what it had just felt like a moment ago."
This time, he allowed himself to relax. To let the sensations come to him.
Was the world really that loud?
Twenty miles away he heard a train rushing along the tracks. Closer than that, the thumping sounds of a nightclub as the DJ went through his set. A couple out on their nightly walk. Another couple who were engaged in...
He disconnected for a moment, and found himself feeling the sharp pains of little rocks and other debris digging into his flesh as he crouched on all fours. Again, he felt a little disoriented as he switched from one shape to another too quickly.
"You'll get used to that."
He could practically hear the laughter in her voice.
"Try again. And just accept that these sounds are a part of the wolf's world. Your world."
Really not wanting to hear what some people were up to, he resisted the change.
"Just try. I know it's embarrassing, but you'll get used to it and be able to ignore it in time."
Well. Here we go.
People did all kinds of things at night, he told himself. And he wasn't out here to listen in on them. He was out here to learn things. Yes, they did many things. But none of them was as wonderful as being a wolf was.
The sounds came back. All of them.
He tried to will himself to ignore them. But that was hard. So he tried just accepting that they were there. He could hear them; hear it all. But it wasn't quite as worth paying attention to as the fact that he could do so many things human beings would never be able to do except in their imaginations.
Or in movies.
"Very good," Sophie told him. "You're getting the hang of it."
He sniffed in her direction. Some of the smells of the pack had changed. They were in their Urhan forms, like he was. Except one, whose scent conveyed her size. She was bigger than the others. Bigger. Stronger.
It must be the Urshul Sophie mentioned.
"Step out into the light, Keldor."
A street lamp stood a little ways away from the group. He stepped out into the light it beamed down onto the ground.
He was a glossy black, and his fur reflected the light with a slightly blueish tint. He titled his head to the side. What did she think?
"You look nice like that, Keldor," she told him. "Now, would you like to go for a run before we try out Urshul?"
Yes, that sounded nice, especially after being cooped up inside a factory for more than a week.
In fact, he was running before he even realised it.
"Wait for us, first!" Sophie laughed, as she and the rest of the pack who weren't already went wolf and fell into step with Keldor; keeping pace with him as he ran through the empty park. Enjoying the way a good run feels to a wolf.
Running like this was enough to make him forget about his father and the dangers he was currently in, for a time...
Fandom[s]: Masters of the Universe; World of Darkness [for inspiration]
Character[s]: Keldor, original character
Rating: Mature
Warnings: None
Length: 1,914 words
Summary: Shapeshifting lessons on a night out.
After Autumn's-Howl's history lesson, it was decided that, in order to not overwhelm him with so much information, to let Keldor digest what he'd been told before telling him more. There was plenty of time to do that, seeing as how Sophie had—in a gentle but firm way—told him he wasn't leaving the abandoned factory for a while. The danger was still too great, and Odi as well as another from the Burned Oak pack had told her that a hunter cell had just started investigating the deaths of Miro and Amelia.
That bit of news put her on high alert. Hunters were always a problem—not just to werewolves but to all supernaturals, and a high profile case like this would definitely lure them out.
Meaning that it was imperative that the cub keep a very low profile.
And not letting him run loose was a way to do that, while Sophie made arrangements with everyone she knew to do everything that could be done to throw the cell off the trail. He wasn't going to like it, but if he didn't want to become someone's experiment—or worse—he'd have to do as told.
Predictably, Keldor was angry about it.
"I can handle it!" he'd insisted. "I can change now!"
"Out of the question. You still need to be taught how to control it, and hunters are dangerous. Anything that can resist the supernatural is dangerous, and if they catch you I fear what they will do to you. And you really don't want to know what they can do."
She'd left out the part Odi had told her that Randor was a person of interest to the cell. Either as a possible supernatural to study, a source of valuable intel, or, worst of all, a recruit. Keldor had enough to deal with without his half-brother being brought into it. Not to mention how angry he would get.
He'd grumbled a bit, shouted, made impotent threats, then finally accepted it. Grudgingly.
Which meant that today he'd been left with two of the Burned Oak's members as company, while Keldor went channel-surfing through the TV. He'd stopped when he came across one station that was carrying a story about Miro and Amelia. Actually, several stations were, but this particular one was talking about the memorial that had built up near his parents' house, and that plans were underway to pay tribute to the late couple.
People would be coming—from out of state as well as within—to talk about Miro. To eulogise him. About how much he'd done for everyone.
That set Keldor off, and he was now screaming at the TV, clearly outraged over what it was saying.
"'Great man'?" he bellowed, feeling his body start to swell in response to his rage. He was shifting. And the Burned Oaks were trying to get him to calm down, as he was now in Dalu, and the possibility of him going into Gauru and therefore really losing his temper was very real. "If he was so great, how come he never had time for me?"
Tears ran down his furred face.
"I was his son! And he never cared! EVER!"
"Keldor, stop! You'll go out of control!"
"No! I hate him and I'm glad he's dead—!"
He was in full Gauru, now, but instead of being upright and going on a tear, he was being pinned down upon the factory floor by the other two. Also in Gauru. It was the only thing they had that could deal with this.
"You need to calm down," growled the biggest, who was sitting atop the struggling cub.
"I hate him! I HATE HIM!"
"Easy, now. Easy. You've already killed him once," the other added.
"I'LL KILL HIM AGAIN!"
"Keldor please calm down."
Sophie was back, and was stroking the fur on his face to try and soothe him.
"You don't hate him," she told him kindly. "You love him. That's why it hurts as much as it does."
Keldor made a strangely human sobbing sound despite the fact that he was still in the Uratha war form.
"But he can't hurt you any more, and you're with people who do care about you now. We are your family. All of us. The children of Urfarah."
He sobbed. He began to shrink.
So did the others, now that Keldor was beginning to calm down.
"That's better."
He was fully human again, clothes in tatters. Just like the night of his First Change. So were the others, but unlike Keldor, their clothing was still intact.
"The Burned Oak's territory is not far from here. I can take you there so you can practise shapeshifting, if you like."
If it meant getting out of this rusty old box...
"Sure."
But...
"Will I be spotted?"
"There are ways to get there that will not risk you being seen."
Sophie held out her hand. To help Keldor up off the floor.
"We'll go tomorrow."
*********
Not far from the factory was one of the city's larger parks. It was partially wooded in some places, and more open in others. A sprawling, rolling place that covered several acres. A place that was a popular destination during the warm months for families to come to and bring their children to play on the playground equipment or even to get soaked in one of the various splash pads.
In the centre of the park was a massive old oak tree that had been struck by lightning long ago, and had a massive gash where it had been wounded.
It was this tree that gave the resident pack their name, and its spirit served as their totem.
Nobody was around right now, though. It was after dark, and the place was deserted save for Keldor and the Burned Oak pack. No one came here at night, which made it the ideal time for a werewolf to visit. They would not be seen. No one human would witness any of this.
Which was a good thing to Keldor, as the pack had asked him to remove his clothing. He'd balked at first—not because he was ashamed of the way he looked, or shy about being nude in front of others—but because he was the only one there who would be. He had only managed to bring with him a few articles of clothing when he'd fled the scene of his parents' deaths, and he'd already ruined some of them the other day when he'd flown into a rage over being reminded of his father by someone on the TV.
He prickled at the memory. Amelia was worthy of glowing praise, not Miro.
"You're in danger of losing control again," the big man who'd held him down yesterday while Keldor was in Gauru form said.
It was true. He could feel his body respond to his anger in ways it had never done until recently. Fur was growing. Nails were lengthening.
He breathed slowly. Deeply.
Better now.
"We'll be focusing on Urhan and Urshul tonight," Sophie told him, once again using terms he didn't understand.
"What?"
"Those two forms are the more lupine of the shapes you can take. There are five in all, but we'll only work with two of them tonight."
"How do I do take them?"
"By concentrating on them. In time you won't need to; it'll just come naturally. But when you're first starting out, you'll have to actively think about it."
He nodded, feeling somewhat awkward.
"So what do I do?"
"Think about being a wolf." Sophie told him. "Think about what it would feel like. Think about how you like the way it feels. Being wolf is as much a part of you as being human is. If you want to be."
He'd expected it to be easy. Visualising himself running about on all fours.
It was actually kind of hard.
"You are holding on to the idea of you being only human. You need to let go of that. To accept that you're not human. That you're more than human. That you aren't just flesh; you're spirit as well."
He felt suddenly disoriented.
Had it worked?
"You had it for a moment," Sophie informed him. "But you let go too soon."
She paused.
"Try again, Keldor. Focus. Remember what it had just felt like a moment ago."
This time, he allowed himself to relax. To let the sensations come to him.
Was the world really that loud?
Twenty miles away he heard a train rushing along the tracks. Closer than that, the thumping sounds of a nightclub as the DJ went through his set. A couple out on their nightly walk. Another couple who were engaged in...
He disconnected for a moment, and found himself feeling the sharp pains of little rocks and other debris digging into his flesh as he crouched on all fours. Again, he felt a little disoriented as he switched from one shape to another too quickly.
"You'll get used to that."
He could practically hear the laughter in her voice.
"Try again. And just accept that these sounds are a part of the wolf's world. Your world."
Really not wanting to hear what some people were up to, he resisted the change.
"Just try. I know it's embarrassing, but you'll get used to it and be able to ignore it in time."
Well. Here we go.
People did all kinds of things at night, he told himself. And he wasn't out here to listen in on them. He was out here to learn things. Yes, they did many things. But none of them was as wonderful as being a wolf was.
The sounds came back. All of them.
He tried to will himself to ignore them. But that was hard. So he tried just accepting that they were there. He could hear them; hear it all. But it wasn't quite as worth paying attention to as the fact that he could do so many things human beings would never be able to do except in their imaginations.
Or in movies.
"Very good," Sophie told him. "You're getting the hang of it."
He sniffed in her direction. Some of the smells of the pack had changed. They were in their Urhan forms, like he was. Except one, whose scent conveyed her size. She was bigger than the others. Bigger. Stronger.
It must be the Urshul Sophie mentioned.
"Step out into the light, Keldor."
A street lamp stood a little ways away from the group. He stepped out into the light it beamed down onto the ground.
He was a glossy black, and his fur reflected the light with a slightly blueish tint. He titled his head to the side. What did she think?
"You look nice like that, Keldor," she told him. "Now, would you like to go for a run before we try out Urshul?"
Yes, that sounded nice, especially after being cooped up inside a factory for more than a week.
In fact, he was running before he even realised it.
"Wait for us, first!" Sophie laughed, as she and the rest of the pack who weren't already went wolf and fell into step with Keldor; keeping pace with him as he ran through the empty park. Enjoying the way a good run feels to a wolf.
Running like this was enough to make him forget about his father and the dangers he was currently in, for a time...
