hydroblade

Aelita Toussaint | The Brotherhood — Povtoryeniye mat' ucheniya

[aelitatoussaint]

DOSSIER : AELITA NIKOLAYEVNA TOUSSAINT

Brotherhood Hunter — Professional Figure Skater — Twenty Two Years of Age — Bisexual — Born; Izmir Turkey — Sagittarius —Adventurous & Impulsive

Born to a family of monster hunters, Aelita was raised under watchful eyes and rigid timelines. She began ice-skating at a young age, and what began for her as a hobby was actually a way to ensure she had a solid foundation of discipline and athleticism for the rigorous training that would meet her in her adolescence. When she reached thirteen, she was enrolled in the prestigious Yearwood Academy, an exclusive academic institution that had long served as a front for Brotherhood recruitment. It was here she would be pushed into the Academy's strict regiment of classes that instill the sort of physical acuity and mental critical and quick-thinking required of hunters. Aelita resented her parents sending her to Yearwood at first, wishing to focus more on her ice-skating, which she viewed as her own personal calling, but being excellent at improvisation, she quickly found a way to bend her circumstances to her benefit, leaning into the physicality of her chosen art and blending it with the training the Brotherhood gave her once she was selected from the ranks at Yearwood. As a result, Aelita had not only an excuse to travel the world, competitions giving way to the perfect chance to study creatures of the night across the globe, but a method by which to make her entire body into a weapon. By seventeen, Aelita was an World Champion. By nineteen, a Gold Medalist. Aelita is now 22, and having finally earned the ink on her shoulder-blade, she is sent to Port Leiry to mentor under Aurelia Kennedy.

HEADCANONS: 01 Aelita's mother and father are still actively hunting, and actively watching her career. They are both proud of her, but also very exacting and hold high expectations. 02 Many people describe Aelita as cocky, though she would use the term self-assured. She does what she does for the love of the game, and simply doesn't entertain the idea that she isn't giving her all. Mistakes do not generally phase her, and she is a master at improvisation. 03 Aelita makes use of bladed boots during combat; to most people these might seem impractical, but they are of bespoke design and she has trained extensively with them. 04 Aelita's friends can call her Lita.

CONNECTIONS: TBD;

[flashfanged]

She chuckles softly and nods, dark eyes watching Aelita's movements, pondering when the best time to move would be. There is no rush. They're alone. No one in sight. And there is no panic in the woman's movements. "That's the usual way of things I suppose." She agrees. When Aelita turns back to her she sits up a bit, still unmoving with a soft, easy smile on her face.

Patience.

She reminds herself even as the sound of blood rushing through veins sounds in her ears. She's so hungry, the pit of her desire building steadily the longer they do this trivial dance.

'Don't frighten her, that will make it taste off. The chemicals.' She reminds herself. The uptick in her lips grows a bit at the mention of handling the cold well. "Only for show. Possibly trying to impress." It's clear that the slight flirtation is merely just a playful thing and nothing full of expectation. When Aelita mentions leaving she stretches a little.

"I should probably do much the same, mind company a bit longer?" Slowly they get up, making a show of stretching her arms over her head and then taking a step closer as she slips her hands into her pockets casually.

Patience. Getting her to agree will make it sweeter. She just smells so — good, and Madison is so terribly hungry. Always so hungry. Always so empty. Patience. The voice in her head is getting duller and she doesn't realize she is taking another step forward, speed and length of legs making the distance shrink.

"I could walk you to your car." Her voice has dropped, taking on a silky tone. "I wouldn't mind it." Another step, she's close enough to make eye contact, pupils blowing and contracting, words velvety. "Just a little taste first. No need to struggle, stay right where you are and be quiet."

[aelitatoussaint]

It's a little too late, by the time she realizes what exactly is going on - Madison steps around her somehow, and it's that quickness that tips her off - albeit after the fact, as words sink in and dull the strength in her body and mind. Her head swims, her thoughts of protest dead on her tongue.

Verbena, is the first thought the crosses her mind. If she doesn't die here, Aurelia will never let her hear the end of it.

But there isn't any struggle, just... surprise. It's important not to panic. They teach you about this- compulsion is only as good as its word- you have to begin thinking in rules- strict things. Struggle, stay right there. She can't move, she can resist this Vampire's advances. But thats it. She leans away - enough that the rules are bent, not broken.

Be quiet. No talking then, or shouts for help. Her hand's in her bag, and it's rifling around quietly - there has to be a loophole somewhere.

[majagrim]

"The way." It is not for Maja to interfere, she supposes. Not without a reason to snip the timeline and reattach it elsewhere. It's the same principle as when her lives are cut and restitched, she comes back either side of the pauses where she simply does not exist. Blank spaces in her lives; if one travelled through time, to one of those moments, there would be no Maja. But the ice skater doesn't appear to have a way to use those sharp blades at her feet to weave and stitch herself choices, or happenstances. Musing, she smiles — clarifying: "And I would have sat and watched. Not stood."

Maja would not have said philosophical, but maybe it is, to the skater.

"I care for your beauty," That's worth something. She licks her lips, cold and frostbitten. Shrugging, casual and free-spirited. "And maybe I believe in your skill to never let the ice crack at all."

Her eyes follow the skater, as she unlaces shoes, and trades out her bladed ones.

A foot gently carves a trough out of the snow, just to see how clear a rune might be made, since they talked vanishing acts. But she pauses, to ask about what exactly the queen of the ice sees, compared to Grimhjarta: "And what is that, vibe?"

[aelitatoussaint]

She can't help but laugh at the cocky candor this girl possesses - honestly, it's kind of doing it for her. It's enough to make her laugh, just the same as what Maja says next is enough to make her flush - something that makes her grateful for the cold that's already pinked up her cheeks and nose.

She looks up, and once again can't help the smile the- what, praise? -brings her.

"Gothy, morbid, you remember suicide girls?" Nobody ever remembers suicide girls. "Like, I bet you own a human skull or a pet raven. Or both."

She stands, slings her skates over her shoulders. "I'm Aelita."

[artistryawry]

"It wasn't like that before the storm, but yeah, people either stay home or go from home to their favourite business and back again, I've noticed," Thao answered with a small smile, knowing that she had been doing the exact same.

She thought for a moment, recalling where she would go for stuff like that before the storm, but maybe now... now she'd suggest somewhere different. "I met a woman who works at a nice-sounding place, Satin Caberet. We could go there?" Thao suggested, "I'm sure it'll have the heat turned up too."

[aelitatoussaint]

Aelita tips her head and suppresses a laugh. "Isn't that a strip club?" Her smile's wide and her cheeks are just a bit more rosy at the implication. She supposes there could be drinks at a place like that.

But then something ticks over in her mind - Satin Cabaret ... Kanemaru clan hotspot.

I-is she being hunted?

That's exciting.

"Uh. I mean-" She sneers, a bit churlish. "Maybe. Should probably grab a shower first though." She shoves her hands in her pockets, pulls her phone back out. "Maybe another time then? With ample time for preparation?" She lifts her phone, for the woman to put a number in, if she likes, and inflects a level of playfulness, to sell her pretend ignorance.

[braverycursed]

As it moves closer the shimmering seems to solidify, becoming more solid by the second until a face she sees every morning is looking back at her. She wants to lunge, mentally tells herself to move but her feet are planted to the snow covered ground. She feels the dread seep through her bones. It brings back images of a snarling maw, amber eyes, and spittle.

Move. Move. Michelle, fucking move! She hears herself echo in her mind. "Move." She grits out under her breath to herself, lip curling as she lets out a snarl half beast and half man. Then her body is in motion, all five feet colliding into the thing's form at the waist as she barrels into it like she's seen the football players do during practice. She shoves upwards and away with the tackle, using the sudden movement to knock it off-guard, even as her body trembles in fear of what it is, with what she's come in contact with, with the frigid feeling as it's semi solidified form meets her skin and saps the remaining warmth from her. It's enough to throw it back into the snow. Her breathing is ragged, not from just the exertion.

Every breath feels like jagged glass and as whatever it is starts to shift back up, she swallows down a mouthful of frost and launches into it, shoving them both further into the bank as they start to struggle in the slush and powder. She can only hope this distraction is enough to get the other woman out of here. Fuck her sense of barreling into her own doom for a pretty face. For another heartbeat. Another life. She can't get a good enough grip on it, like it's covered in oil. Despite its appearance it slips through her fingers like rushing water. But still she tries. The only time it seems fully solid when it lands a hit in her own form. And it's fucking strong.

[aelitatoussaint]

Aelita watches the thing tangle with he girl, and she doesn't know what to look at first - the strange haze of mercury threads that seem to quiver and quake as it copies the other girl curve for curve and shape for shape, or the girl who rears back like an animal, snarling and growling.

She does know this: she's not gonna run away.

Not really sure what she is gonna do either, but she has to do something. People in the city have been vanishing - vanishing in weird patterns that don't make sense - at first she, like many others, had thought it was the storm, but as she sees them wrangle eachother, she's starting to realize that the storm has just been hiding something.

A set of ice-skates whip themselves upside the silvery creature's head, knocking its gibbering, desaturated form aside, but it only seems to aggravate the thing long enough for it to backhand her, sending her flying a couple dozen feet back rolling through the snow.

[codie-mohren]

Codie pulls her knees up to her chest to conserve the warmth that her body should be emanating, and sniffles a little. "It's gorgeous, honestly." But she gives the woman a smile because talking about home is both a treat and a curse.

"Home's back east - Appalachia. We moved around a lot, but mountain folk. Grew up in the woods, 'swhy I like 'em here." The mountains here are much younger, sharper - but the trees all speak the same language in the wind. She looks up and feels their silence as the ice weighs them down. It's depressing, how empty the world feels now.

"You ever been over there? All sortsa things lurk in the hills."

[aelitatoussaint]

"Naw, never been over there, but I like Mountains," she offers. "Grew up around them too." If you could count Yearwood Academy as 'growing up' so much as 'being weaponized'. "Prefer lower altitudes though, you know?" She motions to the frozen pond. "They're pretty though."

That last bit of what she'd said though, that lingers. "What like boogeymen?" She says it like she hasn't seen trees pull up their roots and try to crush her. Like she doesn't think she's already talking to all sortsa things.

"Need a ride?" she offers. It's cold, and she likes walking around in it obviously, but it's neighborly. Also recon.

[devilsvenom]

"Big angry tree just about sums it up, yeah." Annalise chuckled, shoving Aelita back playfully as they walked through the woods. She knew why she had been paired with the other; she had something to prove, and Kennedy hoped putting Lis with someone like Lita would bring out that drive in her that had once existed. It still did, but only for the right reasons. Could The Brotherhood deal with that?

"Hack, slash, and spray is the name of the game then?" Plus, try not to get sideswiped by the tree or dragged down into its roots and suffocated, but that didn't need to be voiced.

[aelitatoussaint]

"Yep." She affirms Lis' questions, as if she's a huge effortless master at hunting this kind of stuff.

There was a bit of a competition blooming in her mind here. Was Aurelia vetting her for something? She had no desire to be a teacher or a mentor or anything like that, so why did she suddenly feel so threatened?

===

So. Big Angry Tree might have been an oversimplification.

The forest is alive with an orange glow. It turns out lighting an angry mobile tree on fire is incredibly effective, but it also tends to, you know, make it more mobile.

It reminds her of the time her dad had taken her hunting. An instant kill is possible, but not often the case - it had been pretense for teaching her to track. To follow faint signs through harsh environments. Suffice to say, though, if Lis had trouble following the trail here, it was time to hang up the hunter title.

The blood rushes to Aelita's head, the brambles that have her hanging upside down from the shrieking thing's limbs feeling dangerously close to crushing her ankle. She'd be humiliated if she weren't busy trying not to pass out. Her blade is a few feet out of reach, pinched in another limb of the flailing creature, and she feels the heat of its burning bows overhead and underneath threatening to roast her alive.

How had this gone so pear shaped so quickly?

[drownholywater-kennedy]

Aurelia's jaw clenched at the question, the only give away that she had heard the question. So simple in how it was asked but Aelita might as well pointed a loaded gun directly at Aurelia's chest. She finished bandaging the minor wound without answering the question. Letting it hang heavy between the two of them. A slow sigh.

"No. I joined the brotherhood later." Aurelia pulled out her own gun, closing her eyes as she began field stripping the piece. Letting the familiar motions and sounds of the metal carry her through the pieces. "I was a marine before the brotherhood." It felt important to explain, why doubt and hesitation had to beaten out of a hunters body. "I was coming home from my last tour. I came home to my children dead, and the vampire that did it covered in their blood still sitting in my home. I hesitated. I saw the familiar face the monster wore, and I waited to pull the trigger. She got away. Not longer after my brother in arms introduced me into the brotherhood, and I've devoted myself to it ever sense" at the end of the story aurelia set her gun on the table. Stripped and reassembled in the time it took to push out the words through gritted teeth.

Aurelia looked at Aelita, studying her face with piercing eyes looking for whatever her reaction to the story might be. "Why do you hunt?"

[aelitatoussaint]

She wasn't expecting all of that.

She doesn't know why she wasn't expecting that. It's not like they didn't spend time hunting down things that could hunt back. A deer, a rabbit, a fucking marlin - those couldn't hold a grudge. Those couldn't track you down into your home and bite back.

It sucks all the air out of the room for a minute, because Aelita doesn't really know what to say. Or know if she even should say anything. Her brows are furrowed, in equal measures of frustration and empathy and guilt. Aurelia breaks the quiet thankfully, offering something a bit easier to respond to.

Because I have to is the initial thought that forms in her head. Legacy. Her parents. Expectation. What she says though is "To protect people." It's bullshit too. It's the pretty lie she's cooked up to justify the truth.

[braverycursed]

"I'm pretty — light on my feet." The pause isn't meant to be there, you couldn't just come out and say something like 'Don't worry, I'm a werewolf. It makes me pretty agile.' after all. She chuckles and gives a nod. "You must really love it to do something like that for so — " Her words cut off this time for a completely different reason, something cracking in the distance has her ears perking, the hair on her arms bristling, even with the slight burn of frigged air she can smell something. Almost familiar but not quite right.

Dark eyes glance over the other, for all she knows this woman is defenseless, and sure she risks some level of exposure. Maybe though if it is something dangerous she can blame the extra strength as an act of adrenaline. She licks her lips, body still as she keeps listening. Letting her senses do the work. The left flank, whatever it is, it is coming from the left. It's subtle the way she shifts her weight. The way she turns though, the way she moves to block is clear that something is happening.

"Pack up faster." She mutters enough for the skater to hear. There is another snap, she barely suppresses a growl, a natural protectiveness washing over her. Sure they were strangers, but if whatever this was meant harm, Mitchie wouldn't stand idly by. She wouldn't run. Then it breaks the trees, it looks like a person, but not. This time she does growl lowly. The thing looks like that…uncanny valley thing everyone is always talking about and despite the dread that fills her she takes a step forward.

"Stay back, alright?" It makes a noise, something that sounds like a warped version of her voice like it's practicing her timber.

[aelitatoussaint]

She's midway through packing up when the girl's aura seems to undergo some sort of shift - something Aelita notices in the way she goes quiet, tenses up.

She feels it in the air next - as if the world had grown suddenly colder. Aelita follows the girl's glance towards a copse of woods on the edge of the pond, where something seems to shimmer in the space between the bare trees before a moment of stillness makes her hand creep towards her bag as every hair on her body stands on end.

The thing that comes darting out of the darkness is odd. Humanoid, mostly, but with whirling tendrils at its edges that seem to fray the air around it, like scissors cutting through space. It's shape is nondescript enough to be confusing, as it passes over a patch of ice and seems to glide with no effort over it before it begins rushing through the snow as it hits land again, barreling towards them as the girl steps in front of her.

It clicks with her in the moment - some of the rumors going around, talking about something that moves through the air like a school of glassy, see-through fish. She couldn't have imagined what it actually looked like, though, and the sight of it, freezes her in place, her spine siezed with a sort of fear she's never known before.

[flashfanged]

She gives a nod of understanding. How many times have people assumed they knew her based on a movie, a show, some offhand interview? Hell their streaming gave people some form of entitlement to her life. "I can relate to that. I'm hardly what a screen would delude someone to think." A soft chuckle and another nod.

"I've been thinking of branch out to short form, but I prefer having control over where people watch. No shade though. I know it works." And they did, but a tendency to make things more complicated and an almost unhealthy amount of pride kept them from engaging. She studies her face, her name, seeing if she can place her. Quiet as the rolodex in her mind swivels through. Mm…nope, definitely a new acquaintance.

"Alita is a pretty name. Mine, sadly, is a lot more common. Madison. It's nice to meet you." They shift, long limbs coming so she is arched slightly, curled like a cat studying its prey as her elbows brace on her knees and her face pillows in her hands. As if making herself seem more fragile, less intimidating.

"I find comfort in the solitude. And it is really gorgeous out here, even covered in white. Not a lot of snow back home." They drawl and offer a friendly smile. "It is pretty cold though." A lie, she hates lying, but necessary evil and all that.

[aelitatoussaint]

Turning and starting to pack her things, she hums and nods as she listens. Some sort of content creator. Kind words. Sweet-sounding. Aelita ponders possibilities as she bundles, binds and knots.

"Thanks," she says, smiling as she's bent over. "My mother gave it to me." The woman shifts, and Aelita feels the moment shift too; something keeping her from settling into the ease meant for these sorts of single-serving conversations with strangers.

"It is gorgeous," she agrees. And then she nods at the observation.

When Aelita stands, slinging a heavy pack over her shoulder, she regards Madison with her head tilted slightly to the side, affecting a casual stance. "Yeah? You seem to tolerate it pretty well." She pauses there, off the ice, skates replaced by winter-ready boots.

"Well," she says. "I'm ready for some hot coffee and an even hotter bath. Maybe I'll see you around town, hm, Madison?"

She turns to go, down the path, towards where her vehicle is.

[drownholywater-kennedy]

It was achingly familiar, the routine of training. Another fresh faced hunter eager to prove their worth who would likely die on the claws of some nightmare in the next year. Aelita Toussant was different from the average trainee that Aurelia had taken under her wing. There was a drive, a fire that burned behind her eyes that gave Aurelia pause. "Jammed is the most common." Aurelia moved from her watchful perch, moving silently forward to grab Aelitas wrist, pulling her hand out of her mouth to inspect the wound herself. The older hunter let out a small tisking sound.

"The average muzzle velocity of a 9mm is 1,050 feet per second. In 2015, the fastest spin in figure skating was recorded at 342 Revolutions per minute. You're a smart girl. You should be able to tell me which one is faster. " Aurelia let go of Aelitas wrist before moving to a small first aid kit on the back wall. " Vampires get stronger with age. If you're close enough to stab you will likely already be dead unless you're dealing with a fledgling."

Aurelia began to systemically bandage the wound, her keen eyes focused on the slowly dripping red liquid, her frown deepening. The marine didn't bother to warn Aelita before applying the antiseptic .

"You'll be doing this blindfolded eventually. " Aurelia looked up from the wound to Aelita. "All your weapons need to be an extension of your own body. There should never be doubt if the bullet will fly when you squeeze the trigger. When there is doubt that is the moment the the enemy will strike. "

[aelitatoussaint]

So, she has google. Cool.

It's a petulant thought that Aelita wouldn't dream of letting escape her lips. Aurelia is tough, strict, and, sometimes, mean. But she's met meaner, crueler mentors - strangely none of whom had the justification of life or death behind their intensity. So as Kennedy plucks her hand from the succor of her tongue, she lets it happen, and lets her bratty comment die in her mind.

It's true that she's gone up against weird creatures in her life - but never a fully fledged vampire, at least not on her own. She's staked one before, watched it crumble into nothing, and there was that tree thing she'd taken down with Halstead a few weeks before, but Aurelia is right - she doesn't have the experience that her mentor had, or her parents. She has the ghost of experience - second hand witness testimonial.

She winces at the antiseptic burn, but her expression softens when Aurelia follows up her curt facts with something encouraging. She nods at the sentiment. Extension of your body, purposefulness and intense, yadayada. It's true even if it's stuff she's heard before. Aurelia has a convicted intensity that she finds respectable, even if she's afraid to fully let herself show that respect.

"So like- you been at this your whole life?" It's a roundabout and less loaded way to ask are you like my parents? Does Aurelia live breathe and eat this sort of stuff? It's something she's clashed on before - the question of devotion to a cause.

[majagrim]

Maja cannot help the spark of surprise on her face at the skater's sudden shift. Intensity behind the statement; she cares about the people. That's the real tragedy. Such a pretty thing, queening over the ice sympathised with the way of the world. It does not change, because she closed her eyes and hoped those gone would come back.

Maja would like to understand that.

“Why?” If the woman dropped through the same mirrored crystal under her feet, Maja would likely watch it happen. She would not report it, or offer a hand in the water without reason — and whoever she is, would bloat and be discovered as an ugly corpse when the frost melted.

There’s always passing comment about staying safe, but she’s heard plenty in the course of wishing for a vanishing act. In every town, city or village. Whether in the circus, or in the street. The world did not care for lost causes. She recalls that one flatcapped man outside a florist, once said he’d like the President to vanish. Would that actually matter? Even a big name, with big people. In a big house.

They all bled the same.

She’d been right to assume that Grimhjarta’s respect does not offer free branches to all. No apology needed. “I think if you fell, and this ice cracked.” She could test the theory, if she wanted — with a snow-drawn rune. “It is simply the way. You were then meant to go under.” Maybe for something higher; a purpose greater than herself. More tragedies — even if this was hypothetical.

A smile, as white as the snow. “A waste though. Such beauty.”

[aelitatoussaint]

Aelita's features pull into a tight, surprised smile, and she offers a shrug of her shoulders. Why? She could reflect the notion back. Why not?

Her skates leave the ice, onto the security of terra firma, and she plugs along the snowy shore. "If the ice cracked, and I fell in, and you stood there and watched, and somebody else happened by, and pulled me out? Is that meddling in the great plan or is that just... the way? Maybe the caring is the way for some people."

Her features light up at the compliment, and a smile splits her features, tongue pinched for a moment between her teeth. "You always this philosophical?"

Aelita bends down to clear a bench of snow, to switch out of her skates. "Really lends to the whole... vibe you've got going."

[braverycursed]

"Well if you know ice, I'll take your word on the safety aspects." She muses with a friendly smile of her own, hands slipping into the pockets of her joggers after cutting off the music in her ears completely. "I've only skated in rinks back home. I'd give my self a ranking of — hmm — just above toddler." She jokes with a brief bashful duck of her head.

Standing still the cold does settle into her more, though natural warmth does stave it off a bit. Her head gives a quick nod, and the toe of her shoe scuffs the frosty ground. "Yeah. Helps me clear my head. The challenge with the current weather makes it a little more fun too, I think. I got yelled at for risking running the college track."

For someone who fought to face things head-on, it had always been a bit of a joke how obsessed Mitch was to the art of running. Marathons. Track meets. Miles. Hurdles. If it involved running she was there. The burn in her legs, the strain in her thighs. It was addicting. "Have you been skating long?" A beat and a soft amused huff. "Sorry, that was a dumb question."

[aelitatoussaint]

"Better be careful, then," she says with a churlish wink - if this is just a girl on a jog, the risk involved there is worse than Aelita cracking ice. The tattoo etched into her skin would - mostly anyways - save her. There'd be humilation, sure, but she's fallen in front of thousands of people in her life. You just get back up. "Easy for the weather to creep."

Then, like she'll take no arguing, she starts packing her things in. The question brings another smile to her features.

"A little while," Aelita says - with a tone that begets the truth is deeper. "Just most of my life." It's not judgy, or mean, or snide; just matter-of-fact. Aelita bundles her kit.

"Careful you don't slip though! They aren't icing the sidewalk much."

[ethanxxparkinson]

Ethan walked closer to the bodies, frowning as he squatted down towards the ground. His eyes flickered towards the gun, then the bullet holes that were in each of the bodies. Blood caked their clothes and the floor -- having pooled out onto the ground. He wondered if the two men had died from the bullets, or losing too much blood. His eyes dragged towards the werewolf. Or maybe it was the type of bullet that was used?

"Hard to say, considering where the two ended up." It wasn't unlikely, of course. But he wasn't exactly an expert in deciphering such things. His main talent lied in shooting and not missing. "If our hunter did shoot him first, why is there no defensive wounds? Where's the struggle for the gun? Because those two shots--" He motioned towards the hole in the werewolf's chest and one in the neck. "You and I both know that's not enough to put one of them down. Not immediately, anyway."

[aelitatoussaint]

"Hm."

The Fellowship guy's right - if its the hunter's gun, it's likely the bullets are silver. But the hunter's got one in the head. Without the tapes to see who went first things get complicated. "Assuming we should get somebody to clean this up before the locals get involved? Limits our time - who knows how long before somebody wanders in here once the sun's up."

Aelita's a hunter, not a detective - she can trace a werewolf, or identify a vampire's bite. This CSI crap though? Not her bag. "So if it's a setup, who set it up?"

She ducks by the other one's side, eyes where a test-drip of had burned the cold dead skin. "How many werewolf packs are there in town here, do you know?"

[devilsvenom]

The blonde grinned as the blade was handed to her, looking it over, "Definitely more my style, thanks." Her weapons were harnessed, her tools strapped to her so they weren't knocked out of her hands when the fight went down.

"Oh, so lovely." At least they were bundled up as much as they could be as they started the hike into the woods. It was bitingly cold, the wind whipping through the trees to lash out at them through any gap it could reach them from. Annalise hoped that this storm would pass soon; she didn't do well with the cold at all, and it only made their job harder.

"Have you gone up against them before? You seem pretty knowledgeable." Or perhaps it was all the training she'd missed out on that was to blame for her obvious lack of knowledge.

[aelitatoussaint]

"C'mon, it's good for you." Still, Aelita slows up so she's not too far ahead of Halstead.

"No," she answers. "But I went to a school - a special one." She shrugs. "Not exactly the sort of thing you can do labs for though, no?" A wide smile cracks her features before she offers a playful shove as they trudge along. "Loosen up - nothing to it."

Probably. Maybe.

"Only heard about them - bigger thing in other parts of the world, but it seems kind of straight forward yeah? Just a big angry tree."

[artistryawry]

"Gotta say, I like the cold. Don't get me wrong, the summer clothes are cuter, but I like the brisk air and the way it wakes you up like nothing else does." She felt like it put things into perspective, and whilst the cold no longer posed a danger to her, even this cold was still brisk enough on her icy skin.

"I can tell, yet you make it look effortless." Thao complimented with a smile, clearing snow off a bench and taking a seat, looking out over the ice.

"I'm not that new to town, and even I'm still doing that. I haven't been getting out as much as I should have." She admitted with a chuckle, though there was a sadness to it that she tried to hide. Thao needed to get out there, make some friends of all varieties, she knew that, but it was easier said than done. She trusted enough to make acquaintances and be friendly with people, but actually making friends was a different thing entirely.

[aelitatoussaint]

Aelita catches the compliment, and repays it with a smile and another wink. "Who is? Been here a handful of months and it's turned into a ghost town."

Literally, in some cases.

"I'm getting ready to pack up; won't take more than a few minutes - you know anywhere to get a night-cap? Could warm us up."

She doesn't have much to do anyways, and it's too late for anything terribly kid-friendly, and if she knows one thing about this town so far, it's that you can tell a lot about somebody by where they go for night-life.

[codie-mohren]

"That's what I was thinkin' too." The cold was too much to bear on a good day, but it's just lately it's bringing her further and further down. She wipes at her face with the back of her sleeve, cuddling down into her jacket. Codie for sure could have sworn that wolves weren't supposed to be as susceptible to the cold like this, but she doesn't want to question it. Questioning magic often leads to bad stuff, and bad stuff she does not want to invite.

"Recs kinda depend on what you've already seen, but I like it down near the coast some. Buncha caves and stuff. But my favorite - when it's not all ice - is deep woods. Relaxin'. Reminds me of home, some, y'know?"

[aelitatoussaint]

"Honest? Haven't seen much." A tiny lie - Aelita's not a homebody but she hasn't made a point of it to be tourist, and again - the weather hasn't exactly been conducive to frivolous exploration either.

Caves and stuff though - that reads as a red flag. Anywhere else, sure, this hayseed sounding chica might just be some cute girl come down out the holler, but in a town full of witches and werewolves? Caves is suspect, homesick or otherwise.

"Never been one for the forests and the trees-" she admits, smiling all the same. "But I've seen postcards - maybe this place can convert me once it thaws."

A gap emerges in the conversation, and Aelita reaches into her things and pulls on a downy, heavier coat. "Where's home?"