[ Hikaru's gaze slides away and Josh looks on, his own focused as if by simply looking at the younger(?) man, he might solve the puzzle that's been nagging at him ever since he'd watched him storm off, the echo of Brig's words -- harsh and blunt and painful in their truth -- still there in his ears.
He lets a few minutes pass, gives the conversation pause, if only for the moment and rests his chin on the heel of his palm, free hand taking out his Vice-issued mobile phone for him to poke through.
Eventually, though, he looks back up. And just like that, it clicks.
He's remembering that one day Inquisitor Aria Skye talked them through he subject of spirits after they'd all come in to see the big white wolf that sat in quiet attention at her side. One of the younger kids had been unable to resist asking, his hand shooting up, eyes wide in wonder--
Teacher Aria, is that a werewolf?
Um, no, sweetheart. Werewolves can't have children with their own kind. Or the resulting offspring ends up like White Walker here, a spirit child, and werewolves kill those on sight.
--and suffice to say, that had set the tone for the rest of the day.
There had been questions then, and a segue into why the Changing Breed could reproduce where werewolves could not ( they had a Changing Breed in class, a quiet little boy with too-large eyes who occasionally couldn't help the urge to snatch up the wayward flying insect who wandered in through the open windows ), before Aria went into the place of werewolves in the world as guardians of the Spirit Realm and why that was a pretty big deal.
Spirits all have bans, she'd gone on to say, and the stronger the spirit, the stricter the ban. They'd been shown then, how White Walker could not act unless it was in Aria's defense, and true enough, a ball of paper had been lobbed at the wolf by one reluctant volunteer and all White Walker had done was blink back, head canted to one side. When a second ball arced Aria's way, then and only then did they see the wolf move.
Not all bans are like this. Some are silly and others are harsh. Josh hadn't given much thought about the brief flicker of sadness that had crossed the inquisitor's face, had shelved it aside as she went on to tell them all about one particular demon whose ban was to rhyme out everything that he said.
But he hadn't known about Hikaru's connection to his instructor at the time -- now though, Josh knows better. ]
no subject
He lets a few minutes pass, gives the conversation pause, if only for the moment and rests his chin on the heel of his palm, free hand taking out his Vice-issued mobile phone for him to poke through.
Eventually, though, he looks back up. And just like that, it clicks.
He's remembering that one day Inquisitor Aria Skye talked them through he subject of spirits after they'd all come in to see the big white wolf that sat in quiet attention at her side. One of the younger kids had been unable to resist asking, his hand shooting up, eyes wide in wonder--
Teacher Aria, is that a werewolf?
Um, no, sweetheart. Werewolves can't have children with their own kind. Or the resulting offspring ends up like White Walker here, a spirit child, and werewolves kill those on sight.
--and suffice to say, that had set the tone for the rest of the day.
There had been questions then, and a segue into why the Changing Breed could reproduce where werewolves could not ( they had a Changing Breed in class, a quiet little boy with too-large eyes who occasionally couldn't help the urge to snatch up the wayward flying insect who wandered in through the open windows ), before Aria went into the place of werewolves in the world as guardians of the Spirit Realm and why that was a pretty big deal.
Spirits all have bans, she'd gone on to say, and the stronger the spirit, the stricter the ban. They'd been shown then, how White Walker could not act unless it was in Aria's defense, and true enough, a ball of paper had been lobbed at the wolf by one reluctant volunteer and all White Walker had done was blink back, head canted to one side. When a second ball arced Aria's way, then and only then did they see the wolf move.
Not all bans are like this. Some are silly and others are harsh. Josh hadn't given much thought about the brief flicker of sadness that had crossed the inquisitor's face, had shelved it aside as she went on to tell them all about one particular demon whose ban was to rhyme out everything that he said.
But he hadn't known about Hikaru's connection to his instructor at the time -- now though, Josh knows better. ]
You've got a ban.