Of Wolf and Machine[Selenus]

The silver light of the full moon illuminated the festival bellow, the night was just as lively as the day, the naked apes were commemorating something called Halloween... The Wolf couldn't care less about it, of course, the night was perfect for a hunt, yet it had to watch over this festivity by demand of the Wild Spirits, it didn't understood why but if they wanted, there must be a good reason behind it. The Wolf wandered through the festival while avoiding direct contact with any of the naked apes, it knew it's kind was feared by them, as a skilled hunter remaining out of sight proved to be easy. Everything was so uneventful and quiet the Wolf questioned if he had heard the spirits right, but then another "creature" caught his attention.

"What is this mockery?" It was one of the human's creations, yet it had the form of a wolf. Overtaken by curiosity, the Wolf simply dropped its cover to approach the odd creation, most people gasped and stared in surprise while others simply ignore the presence. What purpose did it serve? Was it reverence or a form to mock his kind? "What are 'you'?" Sköll spoke to the metal 'wolf' standing right before it.

It had been some time since Selenus had sabotaged Newmand and Shunnosuke's date, and it hadn't been that much time since Selenus had begun to regret doing so. He knew very well, even while he was perpetrating the action, that it was a childish and selfish thing to do; he just didn't particularly care. Now that he had had time to cool down and think their situation through, however, care had started to rear its currently ugly little head into Selenus's mind, and he hated every single goddamn part of it.

Selenus had, for the most part, wandered about the festival, carefree of whether or not anybody saw him. This wasn't Endymion, after all, there were no cadets to bother him (despite what he told Newman as an excuse to stick by his side). Call it lethargy or guilt, but it was a lack of motivation to do much else that relegated him to quietly strolling through the festival's less populated areas. Though he had nothing to fear for the moment, Selenus still preferred solitary, calm spots as opposed to the sress of being sorrounded by a multitude of people (Even if the sounds o crowds soothed his mind). Unfortunately for him, in a multidimensional fair that covers time and space, there was apparently no such thing as a place without people.



Along with the rest of the present crowd, Selenus turned to look at the non-human newcomer. A wolf of unusual size and, of course the most glaring difference between it and a regular wolf, the ability to speak. It was just barely taller than Selenus, yet Selenus was longer. A demon, perhaps? He doubted that the powers controlling the fair would allow hostile demons to enter, and he doubted it would be possible to sneak into an infinite realm, either.

Selenus sighed. "If you're looking for life stones, I'm out of them. If you're hellbent on it, there's a stand sellng them half a kilometer that way." He said, as he used his tail to point towards the location where he remembered the stand he saw to be. Before he could exit, however, the wolf demon asked him what he was. "What am I? I should be the one asking that question."

"The stones do not interest me, machine." The Wolf replied, its eyes were fixated on Selenus as it walked in circles around the ASSW before it stopped in front of him, after taking a better look the wolf concluded it was designed for combat. "I am wolf, you are a creation of the naked ape that mimics my kind, why? What is your purpose?" Sköll let out an angry snarl, The existence of Selenus angered and confused the wolf at the same time, it was not the ASSW's fault however, the apes were the ones responsible for this insult, perhaps the machine was the reason the spirits wanted it there.

So it wasn't interested in negotiation? Then what exactly was it bothering Selenus for? Selenus wasn't entirely unfamiliar with friendly demons - though he wasn't exactly an expert either - yet this specific demon sounded like the absolute antithesis of friendliness. He assumed that by "naked apes" he meant "humans". "If you really need to know, I was made for hunting out specific prey, but I've put that role behind me. I wasn't about to keep following the orders of some military general with complete disregard for the ego that came along with the brutality factor." That was the summed up version of it. Though he had a purpose when he was made, he now rejected ulterior purpose in favor of a calm (Or at least, as calm as possible) life.

The angry snarl that followed wasn't exactly the warmest of possible greetings. If the demon wanted to throw down, Selenus was confident that he and his Personas would be more than enough of an arsenal to deal with one measly aggresive demon. Regardless, Selenus would keep an open mind and a neutral stance, yet a Retrieve_Weapon command at the ready. "What about you? What's a demon doing all the way out here?". At this point, most of the bystanders had lost interest. A fair of literal infinite possibilities was a much more promising tourist attraction than a dog and another slightly shinier dog.

A former hunter that denied the purpose imposed on him by the humans, while he respected that, why a predator would completely forgo the thrill of the hunt was beyond him, perhaps this machine was closer to the apes than the wolves. "You don't bow to them like a pet, at least... Still seem to lack the instincts." The Wolf appeared to be more calm now, at least Selenus existence didn't bother him as much, it still distrusted it however. In hindsight, copying wolves was one of their lesser crimes.

"I'm no demon, i am wolf, the Wild Spirits stole the ape's gifts to aid me in my quest." It would explain in a confused tone, despite what Sköll claimed Selenus was right, the wolf was indeed a demon, it just lacks the understanding of it's true nature. "The spirits say my name is Sköll, they tell it is a name humans used to fear in the past. You lack the instinct or a soul, i do not expect you to understand it."

"The instict"? This demon was either short on standard terminology, or he was aware of something that Selenus wasn't. The relaxation of its stance did not go unnoticed by the robotic wolf, however, he couldn't help but notice some distrust still apparent in its body language. At the very least, it seemed to have established non-tense conversation grounds. Selenbus would remain silent, as he had no comment to make on part of its latest words.

It wasn't a demon? No, Selenus knew a demon when he saw one, and what was in front of him was definitely a demon. Though it would be worth pointing out that a demon with identity problems was more than a novelty to Selenus. Despite this, though the demon in front of him was non-aggressive, it didn't exactly seem like the sort to take kindly to being challenged about its core beliefs.

"The spirits"? Selenus could not handle another shift in the identity of the highest power. First it was world leaders, then it was Isla, then it was Lucifer/YHVH, and now there were animist spirits? He couldn't help but chuckle in his own mind. "Trust me, I can understand. I've been faced with much worse surprises. As for a lack of instict... if what you call the instict refers to brutality, I disposed of it because it was too dangerous. I was made specifically for the purpose of killing whomever I was told, and I ended up hurting innocent people against my own decisions. Being feared is not an unfamiliar subject to me." Though he usually wasn't one to indulge people in the specifics of his past, Selenus didn't take kindly to entities he had just barely met challenging him about his understanding of being feared.

The machine appeared to be bothered with killing, Sköll was puzzled by it to say the least, Selenus either really lacked the instinct or he took other lives against his will. Whatever the case, the wolf could tell Selenus carried the weight in his shoulders, and it wanted to know more about it. "You refused to follow the human's order and freed yourself, i respect that." The wolf said, almost in a solemn tone, and with it's ears lowered a bit. "However a hunter that is out of touch with their own instincts will grow weaker, you must accept it as a part of yourself. Your problem is not the instinct, it's the humans manipulating it in their favor." The Wolf decided treat Selenus like a fellow hunter for the sake of argument, Sköll still saw him as a soulless creation of the naked apes.

Selenus silently pondered what Skoll told him. It seemed as if regular reasoning was not going to work with someone as animalistic as this demon, so Selenus decided to take a slightly different approach to quenching its desire to know more. Namely: Speak in its own figurative language. "While it may be true that I may grow weaker as a hunter in the absence of the instinct, and that the problem isn't the instict itself, but rather how easily it can be abused, the fact remains that as long as it can be abused it's my duty as a hunter to lay it down. Every time I attempted to regain the instinct and use it for noble purposes, someone has found a way to twist it to create violence. Unnecessary violence that destroyed without opening any new doors or preventing other worse destructions. Perhaps one day, when I've rid the world of ways to abuse the instinct, I will gladly take it back into my soul, but until that day comes to reinstate it into my being would be nothing short of selfish. If it meant protecting the innocent from meaningless violence, then I would gladly give up all of my strength until I were unable to lift a single paw." The most recent example of how things ended badly when Selenus followed his original instincts, though not particularly the most iconic, would be the would-be destruction of Newman and Shunnosuke's relationship. It paled in comparison to a great number of other examples, however.

"If you don't mind me asking..." Selenus began "Why did the spirits summon you here? There's not much prey to find, unless you count the humans as prey. I would assume any hunter worth their salt wouldn't dream of assaulting a human while millions of other humans were watching, no?" Though Selenus spoke of assaulting a human as if it was something benign, he was ready to take Skoll down at the first sign of trouble. For now, however, Skoll would enjoy the benefit of the doubt.

Sköll tilted its head, surprised at Selenus changing his language, the explanation was more detailed and said in a manner it could understand better, but probably not in the way the robowolf wanted, it just confirmed(In the wolf's mind at least) that the problems were the humans, not the instict, and the machine was too scared and overtaken by guilt to see the real problem... Not so souless as the wolf had assumed but perhaps too human, the instinct was lost in this one. "It is a fair reason, i suppose..." It gave up on the conversation, they weren't going to reach a consensus any time soon.

"You misunderstand me, machine. I only hunt to feed or to defend the Wild." Those two "rules" were simple, yet both had their own implications. The apes are too dangerous to be prey and with all the things the ingest their meat isn't desirable... Unless an individual is actively harming the Wild, i'll not go after them. Even if most humans lifestyle harms the Wild indirectly, they should be educated, not hunted. As for my presence here, they simply told me to watch over it, i do not understand why but hey know more than me."

At hearing this, Selenus's guard lowered. It was nice to hear that Skoll didn't have any intention to harm humans. Well, innocent ones, at least. "I see... then we have no quarrell. I must comment though, don't you think it would be a bit of a hard undertaking keeping watch over a festival that literally stretches out to infinity? The spirits must've at least provided you with a way to cover as much ground as possible, right?" If there truly were animist spirits, Selenus would've thought they'd be smart enough not to send a single individual to patrol a literal infinite fair. "I'd offer to lend a paw in your quest to maintain order, but I feel I've caused enough trouble already."

"They just told me to watch over it, seeing how peaceful this place is, i believe i am not here to protect it, perhaps they wanted me to observe the apes, i don't have the chance to study them very often." The wolf replied, most apes he came across were frightened by his presence, the ones present in this festival however didn't payed much mind to him or the machine at all, as if they were used to creatures like them. "Trouble?" The wolf appeared to be confused, as much it thought the existence of a wolf machine was wrong, it knew Selenus was talking about something else.

"You referred to me as 'demon' earlier, why?" Sköll was no normal wolf, but demon? The thought of being connected with those creatures caused disgust on the wolf, most were just as excessively destructive or bent on ruling everything as humans, only a few it met shared its goals and thoughts.

Speaking in Skolls much more formal (if a bit oudated) vernacular seemed to be speeding things along, so Selenus figured he would continue to speak as such for the remainder of the conversation. "Well, I have no business questioning the reasoning of such forces, so I'll refrain from prying on that subject any further." He figured bringing the demon's beliefs (or sanity, for that matter) into question could not end in any other way than horrible. At Skoll's questioning of trouble, Selenus mentally grimaced. "This human, a friend of mine who saved me from other humans that were trying to wipe my memories and use me as a tool... he was having a romantic outing with another human, whom he was courting at the expense of my pride and my time. He wanted me to apologize to his lover for being distrustful of him, and I, feeling betrayed, pretended to assault his lover and made it look like he set the whole thing up, so as to ruin their romance. I say trouble because... looking back on it, I may have been to hard on him. Him being blindfolded by love is nothing new. Perhaps a simple chastising would've been enough."

"I assumed you were one, since the only sapient species I know of are humans, psychorobotics and demons... and you didn't look like either of the first two." If there really were any other sentient species... Selenus would believe them when he saw them or proof of their existance. "If you insist that you are not a demon, I will simply take your word for it." Again, questioning such core beliefs was never a good idea unless one had a very thorough plan of argumentation, which Selenus did not.

After Selenus had told his little tale, the wolf lowered his ears, bared its teeth and snarled in anger. There was just so much wrong about that, all the problems boiled down to the apes need for control and prioritizing outsiders over your own "pack" "Romance, yet another stupid concept made up by the apes, just sounds like a way to slow down the reproduction... Though that doesn't seem to stop their kind to spread like cancer." The wolf paused for a moment, while he would never advocate for extinction of a species, surely if more than three fourths of the human race died out that would be a relief for Mother Nature and spirits. "You two weren't acting like a true pack, he ignored your thoughts on this 'date' and you took harsh action in response, you both should resolve this somehow." For a species with the gift of language, they don't seem to put it to good use and settle down their differences through it and instead just harm each ohter.

"I can a sure, i am no demon. They are spirits of destruction or control." While Selenus was not wrong, Sköll simply didn't know about his true nature and refused to be associated with such creatures.