This Beast Bites

[Devyn Solway]

Charity Legrange, Guy Legrange's daughter, and now Devyn's new trainer. She didn't even understand why she needed a new trainer. She didn't want one. She had Guy for months and they worked out better then all of her other trainers over the years. Now she was handed off to the man’s daughter and Devyn could not help but be angry at Guy. He was supposed to be there for her but in the recent months he had been so busy and not really around. She could not go to him for advice or help over the things that had been bother her and now when she had been scheduled for another training session, she didn't even have him as her trainer anymore.

"This is bull." Devyn growled out a little as she walked to her training room. She knew she get over it soon enough since it was Guy's kid. She was just not happy about the fact that yet another person that she cared about was leaving her. What was the point in caring about anyone anymore? She didn't know and it just made her hate and feel trapped in her darkness once more. I never slept with anyone around Guy's height before, and I did hear she is pretty young. Devyn thought to herself as she walked. Perhaps she could turn this around and have some fun. Didn't hurt to flirt with Guy's daughter.

Unless he was one of those kinds of dad, but Devyn didn't think so. After all she had never once heard about Guy having a daughter. She pushed open the door and went into the training room, unsure if she was early for once. She tended to show up late to these occasions, but she had not exactly slept last night at all so had been pretty much been doing a verity of things since last night and most of the day.

((Tag:Charity Croft))

[Charity Croft]

This was one that Charity's dad had quite purposefully insisted on her taking. He apparently wanted Charity to personally handle most of his actual students, and he said that Devyn in particular could actually benefit from Charity's way of doing things. He'd then handed over Devyn's file and essentially wished Charity good luck.

So she gathered up things and prepared a training room. Guy had already gone through the basics and endurance runs, from the looks of the notes. They'd apparently focused on honing in skills and doing basic drills. However, Charity could see specific notes regarding Devyn's emotional and mental condition, not to mention suggestions that she seek out professional help, and even some that said that perhaps she was near the point of outright incarceration.

At last Devyn finally arrived, and Charity looked up. "Hello there, Devyn! I'm Charity," she said, her voice cheery. She bounced up and smiled. "And it looks like I'm going to be your new trainer now. Don't worry," she gestured toward the file, "Mr. Legrange gave me all the notes on what you've covered and--" and the girl's power was just... not good. Charity stared, blinking. Devyn was barely in control, if Charity was reading right, and she usually was. It was less that Devyn put control of her ability and more that she let it control her, feeding on all those dark emotions.

"Oh boy," said Charity, unable to stop. That was gonna take a lot of work.

[Devyn Solway]

Devyn knew she was on thin ice in terms of what the school could very well have planned for her if she acted out with her power again. It’s not like anyone got hurt, it was more so people got scared and things around the area was broken. Plus that had happened like twice and the rest of the time she was just staying in her current form and testing the lines. She had gone through her rebellious teen phase early on in her life and now it was more so an ‘I just don’t care anymore’ or perhaps an expert would say it was Devyn’s way of asking for help without saying anything.

She didn’t care what the details where behind it, she just wanted…something. Her new trainer was already in the room, sounding super excited and…well she was hot. Devyn always thought Guy had this rugged charm to him but she didn’t think he had the genes to produce the beauty in front of Devyn. Charity was also a lot taller then what Devyn was expecting and wondered how that gene worked as well. “Hi Miss Charity…nice to meet you.” Devyn said as she could not help but her eyes to drift over the woman’s body for a moment. Once she got to take in the view for a moment she refocused what Charity was saying to her.

Devyn eyes looked over to her file when Charity gestured at it, wondering what was all written down in there. She could probably guess a few things but still the mystery of what else could have been in there was enough to keep her staring in the direction of the folder for a while. Not long enough however because there was a babe standing in the room who was her knew trainer who said ‘oh, boy’. “Oh boy, what?” Devyn asked with a small level of concern in her voice. Did she see a spider on Devyn or something or was she remembering something in the file. Devyn looked over herself first just to make sure there was nothing on her.

[Charity Croft]

Miss Charity? Well, Charity supposed that was acceptable enough. It was certainly better in many ways than being called Miss Legrange. Sometimes Charity still didn't reply to hearing her name said like that. Though hearing her name and the greeting didn't quite stop her from gaping at her new student. Nor did it apparently stop that note of trepidation from creeping into Devyn's voice.

"What?" Charity repeated. She smiled. "What nothing! Oh boy, it's glad to finally get to meet you in person!" Because no way was Charity going to do absolutely anything to disturb Devyn's emotional well-being. She definitely couldn't do anything against a giant shadow wolf, and she seemed to recall this girl having taken down SPECTRE agents. Charity definitely didn't have that kind of training. At all.

"How about a hug?" she said, extending her hands, her smile widening to almost panic levels now. "You know, I hug everyone! Well, all my students anyway. It's just... to show that you're in a safe space," she gestured at the area around here, "this is a safe space, Devyn. You're safe here," and Charity moved toward the girl, her arms extended, her smile threatening to start hurting her face.

[Devyn Solway]

Devyn had called her Miss Charity because it would have been too weird to call her by her last name. She had Guy as a trainer and while Charity was his daughter, it still just didn't sit well in Devyn’s mind that she had been handed off. Having the same last name made it slightly better, but it still made Devyn feel uneasy. That uneasy feeling got worse as Charity seemed to start panicking a little at Devyn's question. What had Charity read in the file that was making her panic, or at least seem like she was panicking?

Was this some kind of trap? To lure Devyn in, distract her, and then the next thing she would know was that she was waking up in some kind of lockup. "Meet me in person..." Devyn said as she took a small step back away from the other woman and in the direction of the door. She still faced Charity head on and while she liked to hold her ground, she didn't really like the idea floating around in her head that this was a trap. Then there was a question about having a hug, and then words about how Charity gave all of her student’s hugs to show them they were safe. Devyn was feeling less safe now.

"I know it’s generally a safe place...I usually feel safe anywhere on campus. Someone with my kind of power does not really have much to worry about besides what the school has in store for me." Devyn said as she moved to take another step back. "Are you afraid of me?" Devyn asked, unable to help herself. The words just slipped out of her mouth; and while she normally said that line with more flirting to it and to tease someone, she actually was serious this time. Did Charity fear her? The person that was supposed to be her trainer and the daughter of Guy...how did they feel about her?

[Charity Croft]

Wow, was Devyn acting all edgy and stuff. Charity was tempted to point that out, but she had a feeling that it wouldn't make anything any better. "Uh, yeah," she said, rolling a shoulder back to where she kept the files, "since I had a bunch of files on you and people talked about you and stuff?" Didn't Devyn realize that of course they'd give her trainers information about her? To make sure that they knew what they were walking into?

And more guarded behavior. Charity supposed she couldn't expect much better, and she lowered her arms, though she sighed as she did so. The question had her eyes widening. "What? No, well, not really," she winced slightly. "It's more your power," she pointed at Devyn, sort of drawing her shape. "It's all set up to your emotions and it's one of those that can really take control of you, and it's... you ever hear that story about the two wolves we've all got inside us? The good one and the bad? And everyone always asks which wolf is gonna win? Well, you've, like, been feeding this wolf or something and it's just coming off you in waves."

Charity frowned, suddenly wishing she had an empath or maybe one of those freaky people that could outright manipulate emotions. Yeah, that would definitely be nice right about now. A tazer wouldn't hurt either.

[Devyn Solway]

"Right, I get that. Just didn't think anyone would be excited to meet me with what is in that file." Devyn explained. She did get that other trainers would share information with one another so they were prepared for what they were going to deal with. She even figured that Guy had told her about how she had gotten close to attacking her father several times when they were training and when he put a stop to her rampage in the library. Devyn didn't relax but she didn't back off anymore and just sort of hold her ground.

Her green eyes did grow a little darker for a split second but she took a deep breath and kept herself at ease. When the hands went down a part of her regretted not taking the hug. She wanted to be hugged, to be held, and to just feel like someone cared. She just didn't know this woman and what she wanted or what her plan was. Charity said that she was not really scared of Devyn power, but that was not an outright no. Devyn kept her gaze on the woman as she went on to try and explain what she was feeling about Devyn's power. She looked away near the end and slid her hands into her pockets as she gave a small shrug.

"I've had a...not so fun past few months so yeah, my power is a bit unstable." Devyn admitted and then let out a sigh. "Sorry if that is scary for you or something. You don't have to be my trainer if you don't feel comfortable around me. No sense in dealing with me if you are worried about me mauling you or something." Devyn said. She could not promise she would not since she did not know the woman. She didn't have a bond with her and thus could not promise she would not harm her. The woman seemed nice however, so she didn't think she would hurt her.

[Charity Croft]

Yep, definitely tied to emotions and definitely having a lot going on there. Weird, usually the younger teenagers had more emotionally turmoil. What had happened in Devyn's file? There was something about her acting up and Charity seemed to recall reading something about... ah, Devyn mentioned the past few months being difficult, but that just had Charity nodding.

"Actually, you're probably going to go on a rotation. Sometimes having different trainers work different aspects of your power will help. Like, there's this one shifter that will probably help you a lot in expanding your power and stuff. I'm gonna be a lot more help with control and figuring out how to get this to work for you," Charity frowned, looking at Devyn and studying her. Bend shadows to her will, and that often got tied to emotion.

Still, Charity couldn't quite tell for sure what that would do to someone's emotions. "Uh, did your, what did you call it, not so fun months come with a lot more power use?" Charity tilted her head. "'cuz your ability would cause some negative emotional feedback, right...?" She wasn't nearly as good at side effects as other parts of a power, but Charity was pretty confident in that assessment.

[Devyn Solway]

"A rotation?" Devyn asked, making sure that she heard right. Sure it made sense to pass students around to best let them have a chance to work with the different aspects of their powers. For those who were like Devyn who basically had two powers. Shadow manipulation and beast mimicry or something along those lines. She just knew how she was with and without her power. She didn't like the idea of being passed around like some orphan, but it was the schools choice on the matter so she was going to deal with it. It was probably for the best that she stopped getting attached to people anyways, so she could stop hurting.

"Alright. I'll give it a try." Devyn said as she gave another small shrug. She didn't understand how this trainer was going to help her get control over her emotional issues. Unless she knew how to go back and time and stop the bad things from happening or getting Devyn out before she fell in love, she doubted anything would get better. She didn't care anymore in all honestly. She was fighting but deep down she was so consumed by her own darkness that she didn't see the point to keep trying to fight it. Her mother had been right all along, she just needed to accept it and be done with it.

There was a question then that had Devyn tilting her head the other way as she thought on it a moment, confused. "Yeah, I would say it did. These past few months I have used my power for a lot of things that I normally would not and have lost control a lot." Devyn admitted as she thought back to how she kept waking up in her shadow beast form in the middle of the night. There was also that fight she got into to protect Andrew where she used her power. Normally she just used it for intimidation, but she had actually hurt people while shifted, which was something she didn't really do.

Except with the whole SPECTRE event, losing control, and attacking everyone around her during that whole issue. "Right...I do get, I guess you could say depressed easy. The whispers get louder than too when I use my power when I'm upset." Devyn said, trying to explain it the simplest way she understood it.

[Charity Croft]

Charity nodded, reconfirming that there was very likely to be a rotation, especially with Devyn, but likely with a wider range of trainers. It had been one of Guy's ideas: let people develop the relationship but also spread around the training, get different viewpoints on the same situation and what have you. It did appear as though that would be the situation for Devyn. She seemed willing enough to go along with it.

Head tilting... and then Devyn admitted to having used her ability a fair amount in the recent past. She lost control quite a bit too. That had Charity nodding, nodding and wondering if she shouldn't try and find some sort of side effects specialist to bring in for a consultant. She knew the school had them, after all. Devyn kept going, even talking about...

"whispers?" Charity repeated, her brow furrowing. She studied Devyn further, her eyes narrowing. "Your ability's... shadow manipulation, isn't it? Transformation based shadow manipulation... you shouldn't... why would you... when do you start hearing voices? Do you..." she leaned forward, whispering: "Do you hear them now?"

[Devyn Solway]

Devyn was a little iffy on the whole being passed around, but she would do it. Not like she had much of a say in the matter. She could either show up and deal with whatever they wanted her to do or not show up and do her own thing. She liked training to get better with her power so likely was going to show up no matter what. Of course she was still going to do her own thing as well because she was used to self-training and figuring out her limits as well. It was mainly in the woods where she was a bit freer to harm things and do as she liked.

She answered Charity’s question as best as she could, giving details even that she thought would help. She didn't really see any of it as a big deal since it was something she had dealt with before, but it was just a little worse this time. She did find it funny in a not so funny way that she was hurting more than she was when she lost her dad. Or perhaps that was a lie. She still hurt over her dad and always kept a hold of the ring that belonged to him. So desperate to keep that form of connection to someone that had loved and cared for her. She needed it so bad and yet every time she was so close to having it, things went bad.

Charity then seemed concerned when Devyn brought up the whispers, something she didn't tell too many people but there were some who knew about it. She could not help but to chuckle at how Charity was acting with the whole whispering thing. "Promise I'm not crazy...well not completely." Devyn teased, giving her trainer a wink. She did figure she best exampling so Charity didn't actually get truly fearful of her. "It’s more of a psychological thing from what I have been told. When I use my power there is that whole small battle between me and animal me for control. When animal me starts to surface more in my mind, I start to hear whisper. Typically dark and depressing things that I have heard from others before." Devyn explained and gave a small shrug.

She had gotten pretty good at ignoring them in her other form. It was more so that she was choosing to not ignore them in both forms and was starting to think they were all true. She was a monster. Not one would ever love her. She was going to die alone.

[Charity Croft]

As Devyn explained, Charity pursed her lips. She worked them slightly, mulling over what Devyn outlined for her. At least this she could handle and analyze: not only her power but almost two decades of using it really worked in moments like this. "You're probably tapping into a more primal, animalistic part of your brain when you do the whole shadow thing," she said, gesturing sort of around Devyn. "It's probably your ability tapping into those urges. We've still got a lot of the same brain chemistry our ancestors had, after all, and it's likely that your mutation is using that somehow. Buuuut, the good news is that your, like, modern brain could probably be buffed to be able to take it over."

Charity paused, mulling over how precisely to do that. The easiest route would be to definitely increased Devyn's own mental capacity, and training, obviously. Guy had already put Devyn through quite a lot of training as it was, the notes said that. Charity didn't see any real focus on Devyn's emotions though.

"Meditation!" she chirped, snapping her fingers. She nodded and pointed to Devyn. "We so need to get you into meditation! And maybe we can hook you up with a training partner who's good at controlling it, has some kind of flow or something," Charity nodded, then moved to pick up her school-issued tablet, thumbing through files quickly, trying to see if they had any students in their database who qualified.

[Devyn Solway]

Charity seemed to understand what Devyn was getting at. At least Devyn hoped she was because that was the best way she could explain it. It only happened when she started to use her power and was close to losing control. Now she was more so telling herself the things the whispers were telling her, so in all honestly she could not say for sure if the whispers were not talking to her right now. It was in the back of her mind, but she didn't hear them as loud as she normally did when she lost control over her power. She looked at the older woman as she went on to explain why Devyn was likely hearing voice and how said voices were probably the more primal, animalistic part of her brain. "That explains certain urges I have." Devyn muttered out, mostly to herself as she thought on it.

That made sense, Devyn had a feeling like that part of her brain must have been larger or gained more control over her in the recent months. She just felt so many emotions all of the time, each clashing with one another, and causing her to just remain in that dark part of her mind. Even her thoughts went past being just dark to outright dangerous. Of course she was not going to tell Charity any of that because she didn't want people thinking she needed to be locked up right now. She could think bad thoughts, but that didn't mean she was going to act on them. If she had, well certain people would be dead or injured by now.

"If I get this buffing, will if effect my power in a negative way?" Devyn asked. Her point being was she didn't want to put away that animalistic side if that meant it was going to make her weaker. Devyn looked at Charity like she had said something crazy when she brought up meditation. Did she really think Devyn was the meditation type? It would likely result in her falling to sleep than anything else. "I don't really do meditation, unless you mean naps. I'm good with naps." Devyn pointed out, but she was not outright saying now. She was just pointing out that it was more than likely going to be a challenge for her to do this meditation thing.

[Charity Croft]

Yes, Charity's intuition/theory did explain urges too, which only further confirmed her guess. Everything there certainly tied together well, almost too well. Charity felt her confidence growing with each passing second. In fact, she even had an answer for Devyn's worried question: "Well, it's more likely that you'll gain more control. You might see a momentary dip while your body's adjusting to the situation, but you shouldn't lose any power or anything in the long term. It's more important that you get this under control anyway. Not like you'll be fighting or anything."

Though that had happened in the past, and Devyn had participated. Charity didn't like to think about all the people out there that truly hated them, all the regulations and such that were sure to be coming. Charity was smart enough to figure that the only reason they hadn't gotten further regulated was because of some slow-down in Washington.

Speaking of slowing down: "Meditation's great for helping you control your mind and emotions," Charity pointed out. "It's going to take a lot of practice and stuff, but it could definitely help with your issues and all." Charity nodded, then chewed her inner cheek for a bit, trying to think of the best way of getting Devyn set up for it. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to try yoga?" Because of course Charity had looked up local yoga studios when she'd arrived.

[Devyn Solway]

Charity's answer did make Devyn feel a little bit better, at least enough that she was a little bit more willing to give it a try. She could care less about control if it meant that she was going to be weak in the long run. She didn't want to be weak. She was not going to tell that to her trainer however, that would not be smart. The statement about how Devyn would not be fighting anything had Devyn just looking at her, unblinking for a moment. She wondered if Charity knew about the whole SPECTRE attack. How Devyn went out for revenge, lost control, and the only thing that had ended up stopping her was a large piece of shrapnel breaking past her shadow barrier.

Then how she woke up with a new scar to her collection and to her now ex-girlfriend, who then confessed that she, loved her. All of those thought flooded back into Devyn mind at once at just the mentioning of Devyn not having to fight. Her fist clinched as she closed her eyes for a moment to keep the inter turmoil settled at least enough to not start having shadow moving around the room. Anger was more so feeling her at the moment than anything else, but she was able to settle herself enough by doing her usual closing of her eyes and taking a deep breath. She opened them and looked back at Charity when she started speaking about meditation once more.

"Heh, I'm willing to try things that will help with my issues." Devyn said as she started to walk around the room a little. She was already feeling worked up still even with having calmed down. So she was walking around, to help have something to half distract her while they talked. She didn't mean to end up basically circling Charity like she was prey, but she was basically doing it unintentionally. "Yoga?" Devyn asked, making sure she heard right. She pictured Charity and woman in tight yoga pants and could not help but to smirk a little. "I could give it a go. I'm sure I would enjoy the views." Devyn pointed out, her smirk hinting to that more 'flirt' side of her.