sixwordstories | (no subject)

[ Just this face. ]

In case you are wondering they don't make wolf saddles.

I can't say I've ever wondered...but that's good to know.

What brought this question on?

That was only one of the questions...

Call it a personal obsession. I just love dogs.

The last time we spoke, you mentioned something about not teling each other everything.

I believe the same goes now, especially if you're looking up wolf saddles.

My life is complicated and full of fantastical things that most would never believe. Things that could get a person killed.

I'm hard to kill, I think I'll be fine.

Out of curiosity, planning to go find and domesticate your own wolf, or are you going to buy a hybrid breed?

I think you can tell what I am not.

...oh no, no. This was research for work.

I think you remind me of an old friend. [ Euryale would be laughing hysterically if she heard him refer to her like that, too. ]

Work. Well now I have to know what you do, it sounds more interesting by far than the bar.

An old friend? I am curious. Tell me more.

I run a very specialized pharmaceutical company. And there are times when I provide consulting on wild animal containment.

Her name is Euryale, and I have known her for quite a while.

Clearly, I am not up on the pharmaceutical trends lately. Where exactly does wild animal containment come in? Are you selling tranquilizers?

Was she human?

We developed a synthetic blood product. That lead to healthcare and military contracts. Which lead to the development of specialized weapons and munitions. Some of them meant to control hard to control, rare animals.

Was, or is? [ The answer to both is the same: no. But Ganymede has known them as nothing else, and he finds the Gorgon sisters surprisingly pleasant company. Then again...he's never wanted anything of them that they were unwilling to give. ]

So...tranquilizers. For something that doesn't respond to ketamine, evidently.

Then we have that in common. Though I am still trying to figure out the best way to explain what I am. It has changed many times.

Lycanthropes, yes. They tend to metabolize medication rather quickly.

Edited 2022-09-23 01:37 (UTC)

Lay it on me, and I'll return you the favor.

Ah, yes. The wolf-men. [ Ganymede seems remarkably unsurprised by the mention of it, as well as the allusion to what Selene is. ]

I was turned by a vampire. Not the sort who are reanimated corpses, mind you. Then I transformed again and was able to go back in the sun again, much stronger. Then I died and was reborn. Still a vampire of a sort but....very different.

More wolf then man, but yes.

[ He nods, and there's a moment before he speaks. ] I was born in BC 4713 by modern reckoning. And...here I still am.

Well, well an older man. [She is surrounded by them lately.] You are not like me, that much I can tell. And I would assume Benjamin was not a popular name when you were born.

Hello?

[Who's this lady? The horned child is curious as she looks over her shoulder towards the computer monitor.]

What are you looking at?

[She's still learning to read, so there are some words she doesn't recognize. Yet, she does recognize the word wolf multiple times on the screen.

One search phrase has her very curious. Ride a wolf? As in, riding on its back? She can imagine that it would have to be a really big one.]

In a manner of speaking, yes. [ She still looks older, but Ganymede has long since made his peace with doing what he can to seem older than he appears. ]

I am not a vampire, or a lycanthrope, nor anything else but a man...though among some that definition may vary. I'm just very old.

[She smirked.] Just very old. Thousands of years old. It is quite fascinating.

To be fair I had very little paart in becoming what I am.

You'd have to ask Zeus about that, and I strongly recommend you stay as far away as possible from him.

I am no scholar of mythology but what I know makes me think that your transition to what you are was not kind.

What could he do to me that has not already been done?

[She looks up and sighs.]

Researching the behavior of wolves.

Kind is not a concept he knows.

[ Ganymede sighs. ] I spent more than a thousand years with him; he is a god, and more than that is cruel, capricious, and powerful. Believe me when I tell you he would find a way.