Shadows Over Camp Darkness

The last time that Gideon had done the cooking over fire lesson, she'd been confident and arrogant, all while enjoying the experience. Right up until a can exploded and she'd ended up with shrapnel in her leg. This time she watched the kids more closely, not trusting them at all and her instincts demanding that she keep an eye on the herd. It bothered Gids that should couldn't help but think of them as helpless livestock, even though a couple of them were predators too. Just lower in the hierarchy of brutality.

The urge to pace around her Intake like a soldier marking perimeter had Gideon picking her feet silently across the autumn blanketed grass, the crackle of fire almost soothing. Last year the kids had rebelled, this year one of them did something much worse. It's not often that someone attempts murder in the first few days of Camp. Not entirely unheard of though, just not a common occurrence. They were in the midst of cooking cans of beans, hot dogs on sticks and the air was filled with the stench of singed everything when the sparks of flames suddenly engulfed the Fury's forearms.

Gideon stumbled backwards with an alarmed shout, the fabric of her jacket providing a moment's protection before it became fuel, too much for a simple stop, drop and roll to help quell the flames. The singed metal smell was grossly overwhelmed by burned fabric and scorched hair. Gideon quickly wrapped herself in fire blanket, spells reworked just this morning ensuring that the flames died immediately. Even as the Fury saved her precious skin, her snarl unleashing a zap that flattened her Intake and even covered several yards into the trees around them. Her arms under the blanket stung, making her want to whimper and vocalize the pain but there was no way she would show that kind of vulnerability right now. Gideon used her training to lock the pain away while she functioned.

One of the benefits of the new and improved Punt was that the moment there was a surge of emotional fear from the Intake, the onsite security staff was altered to what Intake needed help and where they were. Even if that wasn't the case, Gideon knew that her startled should was loud enough that the other Intake in the forest would inevitably have heard it. That meant help was almost immediately on hand, Lisa running to the site and giving the Fury time to confront the would be killer.

She dropped the fire blanket and crouched over the weakly flailing form of Mardrom and snarled directly in the girl's face. The Fury felt her eyes bleed black and the humanity of her face slip in her anger. "Any particular reason you tried to kabob me Nightmare?" Gideon had to resist the urge to sink claws into flesh and let her zap writhe through the suicidal girl.

Mardrom stared at Gideon with an insane look of hope in her eyes, entirely lacking in fear. She wanted Gideon's worse without ever understanding just what it was the Fury could do. We've broken this girl beyond self preservation. Mardrom gasped, trying to reply and voice ghosted from the intensity of Gid's earlier zap and kept soft with the Fury's close proximity. "I just wanted your anger. I didn't come here to get better, I came here to end." the Nightmare sounded far too at ease and Gideon desperately wished she was in better control of herself. But the pain and adrenaline stole away restraint.

Instead Gideon let her darker aspect bleed through her even as more witnesses arrived. "There are things I can do that take a very long time, will not kill you and will make you beg for a mercy that doesn't exist. Keep that in mind when you think to provoke me." The Fury felt her zap start to reach out for those moving closer to her even as the child under her claws started to show her proper understanding of the threat with a long delayed fear.

"Councillor Gideon." The Dragon called out, voice calm even as Gideon felt the others all react fearfully as well. The Doctor was keeping a lid on their panic but the Fury knew she could take it and make them hers, drive even the Dragon into madness so she could Hunt. If he tried to use his magic to calm her and try to control her right now, she might just go ahead and let loose to prove a point.

"Don't try it. We both know how it would end." Gideon growled out and saw the Dragon really LOOK at her. He was long accustomed to seeing her as the child soldier that had come here for rehabilitation that he often forgot to see her for the creature she was evolving into as an adult. "The Nightmare set me on fire to try and get a response from me. She got one." Gideon forced herself up and away from the still twitching Mardrom. The rest of Intake 1 was starting to stir as well, the med mages already hovering close to try and tend her burns. But they stayed that little bit back until the Dragon gave the subtle go ahead nod.

Normally Gideon refused help from the staff medics, relying instead on her own skills or the self taught surgery talents of her friends. But burns are not something that can be treated with duct tape and rubbing alcohol. Thanks to some of the particulars of Gideon's training, she had an intimate knowledge of how effective heat and fire is at causing pain, so she appreciated the professionals. The best that they could do was slather some ointment on the burns and binds then against infection. Part of the restrictions were due to Gideon's natural resistance to Portentum magics and the rest simply because she refused to be drugged or dragged away. Even hurt, or maybe especially because she's hurt, Gideon's instincts dug their claws in and refused to leave her kids behind. Not yet at least.

"Councillor Gideon, I'm assuming responsibility of this Intake for the rest of the day. Please take the time to recover from your injuries." her Senior Councillor, Hasselberry, commanded. Her gaze slid from his face to see the Dragon's subtle head shake. He was denying her permission to go run and Hunt in the forest.

But with the unknown creature that had visibly attacked the Intake 5 House, the Doctor wasn't letting anyone wander around alone. It made the Fury want to howl but she fought the urge. Now was not the time for disobedience. Too many had seen her threaten the Nightmare. "Yes sir." Gideon even managed to make her tone sound calmly accepting as she turned away from the group. Rage broiled under her skin, only aggravating the burns on her arms, so she used well known breathing techniques to calm herself as she walked towards the main facility.

Anyone else would have missed the Loki moving parallel to them in the forest, but Gideon knew Virgil was there long before he stepped into proper view. She'd reclaimed her human face but her eyes stayed Fury dark, revealing the sparks of energy that gave away Virgil's presence. He wasn't a threat but it still made Gids curious as to why he was here now.

"I heard you were hurt. Anything serious?" Virgil asked.

"Nothing that'll kill me princess." Gideon replied with the sarcastic nickname she'd labelled him with last year.

"Gidster, I'm your boyfriend, you don't have to sass me to prove you're a BAMF. I'm more than aware of it." Virgil smirked at the Fury and Gideon grinned back at him. In all honesty, Gids still wasn't used to the concept of boyfriend, but she liked the companionship and all the other perks too.

"I've got some burns that'll heal up without too much obvious scarring. The arms are going to be a mite bit tender for the next while though. I'm going to have to rethink several lesson plans now. If my little Nightmare is hell bent on getting me to kill her, and willing to assault me to do it, I need to curb the more dangerous lessons." Gideon felt a sigh in her chest at that acknowledgement.

"Gideon, Virgil, a word please." The Dragon appeared out of the darkness and interrupted the guard and the Councillor.

Gideon caught Virgil's gaze, then slid her attention back to Doctor Cyr. She hadn't had a one on one with the head of the Camp yet, and she'd just given him a boatload of attitude minutes ago. This probably wasn't going to be a fun talk. And now she was starting to twitch as the adrenaline from her attack wore off. She tried to hide the small spasms from sight and followed in the Doctor's wake, ready to deal with whatever the Dragon threw at her now. Or at least she thought she was.

He brought them into his office and just regarded Gideon in silence for a long, agonizingly awkward moment.  She stood at attention, knowing a spot inspection and review when one came up and breathed in her face. "I was going to tell you this at the end of this Intake but I think it would be best for you to hear it now."

Ominous. We are being dispelled. Gideon kept the thought from showing on her face. She had no clue what to do outside of working at the Camp. It had been bad enough to head that her friends wouldn't be back next year, but somehow so much worse to realize that what had essentially been her home for the last six years was rejecting her too.

Unaware of the turmoil his words had stirred in the Fury, Doctor Cyr continued. "You are at the age where we can transition you from House Councillor to Senior Councillor. Seeing how your Intakes have responded to your techniques has proven you're a capable rehabilitator but there is the fact that your heritage interferes on a frequent basis." he cleared his throat. "That's through no fault on your behalf, I am aware. The best solution is to assign you a House Councillor that is familiar with you to make a buffer for the Intake, while still allowing them to benefit from your knowledge and experience."

Gideon felt her head tilt to the side as she adjusted to the news. It was only slightly insulting and Gids had long ago learned to discard her ego, she was too pragmatic for that. Since she could just accept it, something occurred to her. The Dragon had requested Virgil's presence in case she'd taken the news badly. He'd wanted someone in the room that Gideon would probably hesitate to hurt. As if the Punt wouldn't do that for him. Wait... "The Punt never reacted to Mardrom trying to turn me into a sparkler." As a Fury, Gideon had been able to work around the Punt last year. But she'd still felt it react to her and the things that'd happened to her. But there's been absolutely nothing from it today. Not a quiver when Mardrom covered her in fire, not a quake while Gideon threatened the girl with torment.

The Dragon nodded solemnly. "This advanced form of the Punt would be intolerable towards your presence. So we had it reworked to ignore you entirely."

Gideon smirked, understanding coming immediately. "You used some of my blood from the battle with the Maelstrom. Makes sense, I spilled enough of it that some had to be viable. A lot more than you'd need to power that kind of reworking. So I'm guessing the rest is saved somewhere special, to be used only on the off chance that I go Ravening and you have to try a Death spell on me."

Virgil's eyebrows danced in his hairline, shocked at her accurate deduction and the Dragon just blinked at her. Gideon was always so careful about policing her blood, given the opportunity. She was a creature of insanity, chaos and death, it would be irresponsible to be careless with that much power. But during the fight with the Mael, Gideon had used her blood for death sigils, and had been severely wounded in the fight. She had expected to die, which left very little time to care about the blood she'd been spilling freely. Of course someone had taken advantage of that fact. The Fury kept to herself the fact that she could reclaim that blood with ease, it helped the others feel in control so she allowed them their ignorance.

"You know that means that some Furies could potentially walk through the Punt without repercussion?" Gideon felt obligated to point out. This was one of those things most beings were unaware of when it came to Furies. They all shared some genetic relation, although not in a straight forward mother/daughter/sister dynamic. Instead, when a Fury died, their bones were taken and the marrow used to help biomagically engineer the next generation of Fury. And that was just the bones. There was no way Gideon was going to try and explain what happened with the rest of the Fury dead.

"Excuse me?" Dragon Cyr suddenly loomed. The thing about Dragons is that they're perfect Neutrals. THat made it very easy for Humans and Portentum to forget their danger, especially in one like the Doc that liked to wear his human guise. Without changing shape or even moving, the room suddenly filled with the sense of his true proportions, the air stirring with his not present wings. But Gideon just ignored it, holding her own violent display back by force of discipline.

"By using my blood to spell the Punt, you accidentally left a hole in it that any Alecto Fury can walk through. There are only 30 of us, and of those I'd say a small handful that are wandering the world without keepers, so we should be fine. But it's a hell of a risk." Gideon skipped over a longer explanation.

"Would you know if another Fury came in?" the ever practical Virgil asked.

Not if they're better than we are. Gideon knew that was the honest answer and yet she didn't say it. "If you have another Fury on the grounds, I'm certain the screaming and dead bodies will be a clear giveaway." the sarcasm was obvious. "What are you going to do about the Nightmare? She's going to keep trying stunts like today."

Doctor Cyr exploded out into his full Dragon form, suddenly filling the spaces of the room with his body and the stench of sulfur, brimstone and magic. Gideon hissed and hopped backwards, body instinctively going full Fury to handle the Dragon's rage. But he wasn't angry. Instead the move had been very deliberate, a tactic that forced Gideon to release some of her pent up aggravation and self. Her zap sparked in the air and twisted around the massive form of the Dragon, drawing out his bellow of pain but Gideon dropped it and struggled to once again force her homicidal urge away before she could do more violence.

"What the hell was the point of that?" Gideon panted as she crammed her inner darkness back into it's ill fitting box.

"To remind you that you're a Fury who has found a way to be capable of more than just a killing machine. The Nightmare will not get the best of you. Even burned, exhausted and off guard you manage to control yourself." the Dragon complimented plainly. "We haven't seen another like you yet, but that doesn't mean we won't. Would another Fury like you be able to slip through the Punt and not go on a rampage?" he turned back to the matter at hand.

"They don't have to be like me to resist. We're taught to resist when needed." Gideon growled back. Her voice still shaded by her Fury just under the surface.

"How do you teach that?" Virgil asked, voice strange due to his nearly crushed position in a corner.

"We're locked into a hole in ground the size of a cargo crate. The bottom is a metal grid over hot coals which heat up everything. There is no escaping it and no relief from the hot air pressing around you or the pain coming up from your feet. It's never enough to kill us, but it will inevitably push a Fury over into pure instincts. We can rage, we can fight but there is NO escape. We must endure. Until we can be both full Fury and calm enough to not rage, we stay in the cage." Gideon explained simply. "It is a necessary stage in our development as soon after that the real trials of being a Fury during puberty hit. If you think a full Fury with training is bad, you've never known the horror of a Fury going through the first growth spurt. It's....messy." Her admission was met with stunned silence. This was another one of those things that Gideon would normally have kept to herself; it revealed how little 'normal' her life had while growing up. "If there is another Fury on the grounds, they'll eventually come to me. It's coded into us to be drawn together. But if she's old enough, it'll take a while.  The best I can do until then is show the kids how to defend themselves." The looks in Virgil's and the Dragon's eye held far too much sympathy for the Fury's liking so she simply left, unwilling to be pitied.

There was no need for it, until the war had ended and she came to the Camp, Gideon's past had been the best at making sure she was prepared to survive. She'd never known life could be anything different than that anyways. A part of her actually kind of missed it. Life had been brutal but at least it had made sense.