[Hackle raise at the statement; if he admits it to himself, that's exactly what he was. Running scared, the predator that finally ran up against one he couldn't take down, could never take down. Will never be able to take down, because how can you hope to fight something so much older than you are, something born deep in the world's history that has easily spent thousands of years surviving. Something that spent years pulling just the right strings, twisting just the right knives, applying just the right leverage to advance things to one particular point in time. One eventuality. He was never supposed to win. It was always the runt, the bastard had never been unclear on that point. And he'd fought it as long as he could because he'd never been good at accepting defeats he had no say in, but then he'd had it all torn away from him and he still couldn't say why. Because he hadn't rolled over like he was supposed to, because he refused to accept his fate, maybe he'd just happened to catch him on the wrong day but Creed doesn't like not being in control.
Quod eris sum.
Of course he'd been running scared. Anybody would in his position. Nobody likes to be confronted with the fact that they've ultimately got no control over anything. That they're just sliding down a slippery slope they couldn't have hoped to to stop in the first place. One you can see just over the horizon, one that creeps closer every day if you don't keep an eye on it.
One that looks an awful lot like a tiger being put down after it's got the taste for human flesh in its mouth.
But he's too stubborn to ever admit it out loud, and it does him no good tactically to do so; he'd been desperate when he'd let the runt in on the real way of the world for their kind. He's not that desperate now. Not with Romulus who the fuck knew how far away.
For now he only grins wider, at once teasing and challenging, his response a lazy drawl when it comes. As if the news amuses him more than it irritates. Honestly curious, because it's a thread he'll have to tie up, but he has his suspicions. There's one who knows, unequivocally. Would know. Might have spread the information if she thought it necessary, but even so it's a loose end. He doesn't like loose ends, they have a tendency of biting you in the ass later. So he tilts his head in question but doesn't give away that he might know, or at least not in any way that most might pick up on.]
That right. An' where'd you hear that from?
[The wolf could have known. Probably would have smelled it. Iris knows for sure, she'd said as much already.]
I'll grant you I wasn't at my best. Doubt anybody is their first day here.
[He files the nature of his relationship with Iris away for a moment. Think on it for a bit.]
no subject
Quod eris sum.
Of course he'd been running scared. Anybody would in his position. Nobody likes to be confronted with the fact that they've ultimately got no control over anything. That they're just sliding down a slippery slope they couldn't have hoped to to stop in the first place. One you can see just over the horizon, one that creeps closer every day if you don't keep an eye on it.
One that looks an awful lot like a tiger being put down after it's got the taste for human flesh in its mouth.
But he's too stubborn to ever admit it out loud, and it does him no good tactically to do so; he'd been desperate when he'd let the runt in on the real way of the world for their kind. He's not that desperate now. Not with Romulus who the fuck knew how far away.
For now he only grins wider, at once teasing and challenging, his response a lazy drawl when it comes. As if the news amuses him more than it irritates. Honestly curious, because it's a thread he'll have to tie up, but he has his suspicions. There's one who knows, unequivocally. Would know. Might have spread the information if she thought it necessary, but even so it's a loose end. He doesn't like loose ends, they have a tendency of biting you in the ass later. So he tilts his head in question but doesn't give away that he might know, or at least not in any way that most might pick up on.]
That right. An' where'd you hear that from?
[The wolf could have known. Probably would have smelled it. Iris knows for sure, she'd said as much already.]
I'll grant you I wasn't at my best. Doubt anybody is their first day here.
[He files the nature of his relationship with Iris away for a moment. Think on it for a bit.]