--! Into This Ocean [OPEN]

[¿℟ᵿҝɸ]

Palais

"The forest alive, with leaves, and bone, and hair.
Give the animals their whale."

It was like this place survived outside of time. The rhythms, fluctuations in traffic detonated by the amount of earth that was present in the stagnant air, though the bodies themselves changed, the faces didn't. The captors, with their stoney facades, mirrored the very walls which funneled throngs of perspective owners and future sklavin, unchanged by the suffering around them. The unlucky souls whom the gods had evidently long abandoned were brushed around, husks of what they once were or could have been. They stood by, watching, waiting, vultures for any scrap of hope or light that may have sunk down to their level. She could see it in their eyes, the ravenous desire for someone to come along and tell them that time existed beyond the vacuum of this place. Unfortunately, Palais was not the savior for them today, for today was her day to be judged.

Black paws absorbed the contours of the clay soil, analyzing each imperfection, and placing each detail within her endless memory.She did the same with the appearance of the wolves guiding her up her rocky path. One was a maned wolf, like herself, only with the correct colors in the right places. She always had an odd fascination with how members of her own breed should look, considering she looked so vastly different. The other was some conglomerate of hair and bulk who looked more akin to an oversized dust-mop than an actual canine, but who was she to judge.

Just as Palais was peering out at the world, it was doing the same to her. A giant off-white maned wolf was hardly common place, even in the context of the auction rock. She could feel their eyes burning against her pale fur, something that she had become immune to over time. The dominors were obviously sizing up her worth, where as the sklavin were merely searching for something outside the suffocating sphere of repetition. As she walked forward she climbed up, reaching the pinnacle of her auction rock journey. There she was above the crowd, for all to see. The maned wolf in front of her spoke up, addressing any perspective new masters.

"Next up we have a real treat for you, today only, A rare sooth-sayer, blessed by the supposed gods of these lands. If you want proof, just look at her pelt-- a white maned, possibly one of a kind. . ."

The male continued his sale-pitch, making Palais seem more valuable than she might actually be. She never stayed at the rock long. Her appearance and rumors that clung to her expedited her stay and made her a wanted sklavin to any dominor. She was rarely mistreated once masters learned she had worth beyond just a visual symbol and pretty face, though some of the brutes who had owned her had been abrasive. Some even lashed out when her advise or "foresight" wasn't just how they wanted it. Still, she never let these mortal hindrances impact her. No matter what was to come, she would face it with the same analytical precision as she would any other.

OOC;; Open. Too lazy to get table coded now. Might edit with it later, but now... CBA.

[Ϻinέrvă]

Kronos

<sup>Kronos wouldn't call himself superstitious. He had seen enough of the world to know that a wolf's fortune depended on the strength of his will and the cunning of his mind, not the whims of so-called gods. The idea that they were all bobbing helplessly in the rolling sea of fate was a ridiculous idea. Kronos's world centered on his control. What meaning did his power and hard work have if he could not control his life? A ridiculous idea, for sure.

And yet--and there came the tiny prickle of fear that he tried so hard to suppress--if there was some force guiding them all, if the future could be witnessed . . . . Kronos watched the pale wolf before him as the auctioneer spoke. A light haze of clouds blocked the sun from truly shining, but the female's pelt glowed eerily in the light that managed to get through. Thoughts began buzzing through his mind like flies. If he could predict his enemies' movements, if he could know about disasters before they befell his pack, he could pull his underdog pack to the very top of the power hierarchy. As he considered this, the slave stood there quietly, looking almost like a goddess herself against the dirty browns and grays of the Rock.

The auctioneer finished his speech, the silence harsh after the soft drone of his voice. Many masters looked uncomfortable, as if the female was an embarrassing blight on the land. Some were even leaving, their bodies carving a path through the crowd. However, others were not so repulsed. Those with white pelts seemed particularly interested, perhaps fascinated that such a color could appear outside their own breed. Kronos knew he would have to act swiftly to obtain the slave, but he would have to proceed carefully to prevent a clash with one of the other dominors.

"That's a special slave if she can do all you say she can," Kronos called out lazily to the auctioneer. A few masters chuckled, catching his mocking tone. Kronos sidled closer to get a good look at her, trying to keep from looking too interested. He stopped in front of her, an amused expression on his face. "Tell me, slave, do you see me claiming you in the future?"</sup>

[¿℟ᵿҝɸ]

Palais

As the auctioneer's words were obviously a bit hard for some members of the audience to swallow. Palais didn't blame them after all the exaggerated claims and usage of vocabulary descriptions the brute had been fed to say. True to the form of salesmen, what the male said wasn't entirely false, but not completely accurate either. He was playing semantics with a crowd that didn't care for his games and the migration of some prospective dominors to other locations gave a clear sign of which words fell on deaf ears. She was almost glad his speech had this effect, for now it was less likely she'd be placed with a master who only wanted to hear his own wishes spouted by a potential soothsayer. That sort of ignorance was one of the few things that ate away at the usually unemotional fem. As the movement in the crowd died down a new voice filled the air.

"That's a special slave if she can do all you say she can,"

Palais caught the disbelief in the male's voice as a few members of the gathering chuckled in response. She felt a faint inkling of a smile turn up the corners of her black masked maw, agreeing with the brute's tone choice. Had she been on the opposite side of the glass, on the outside looking in, the words the auctioneer had said would have been taken with no more than a grain of rice.

The brute who spoke up before had placed himself in front of her, giving Palais a clear visual to match a voice to. He was, for lack of a better term, huge. Not many wolves were taller than a maned, and even then not by much. His dark brown frame gave him at least a head length of height above her, not to mention his sheer bulk probably made him weigh twice her own. However, the ivory hued fem wasn't intimidated by his size, rather, she was intrigued by his presence. Her bi-colored eyes traced the outline of his amused expression with equal curiosity. She shifted her study to a less focused vision as the male spoke.

"Tell me, slave, do you see me claiming you in the future?"

She couldn't help but to allow her own face to reflect her entertained feeling, even if it was just a faint trace of change. They always asked the same sort of questions, as if the future could hold only one set of yes or no solutions. The simplistic mindset even the most intelligent dominors had of the possible events always made Palais smile inwardly. To her, it was almost an adorably child-like assumption, but then understood how they could think so. They probably never had the chance to see another outcome; to have pondered the 'what if's' after seeing the 'what'. This dominor's question was likely not one of single-stranded potential, rather just a toying rhetorical phrasing of what he thought was to come. Palais responded in a calm and even tone that tried to conceal her light amusement.

"If I said yes, you could leave, and the stream would change its course. " She pretended to pause and think for a moment. "Only if you step across this threshold would I be yours."

The slight rhyme was intentional. If they wanted a fortune-teller, she'd conciliate them with the full package deal, cheesy wording and all. She knew that phrasing only amused the simple minded masters, and at times irritated them when they never caught on, but it seldom seemed to irk the more advanced ones. Palais just sat back and waited for whatever was to come.

[Ϻinέrvă]

Kronos

<sup>The eyes that stared back at Kronos were startling. The mismatched colors, along with her odd coloring, gave the impression that she had been patched together out of spare parts. Yet her gaze was intelligent and amused. Kronos wondered whether she had guessed his little game or if she just enjoyed playing the part of a fortune-teller. The former would be very unsettling. Kronos did not like meeting wolves who could out-think him. Granted, he still had his brawn, but superior strategy often surpassed sheer numbers.

"If I said yes, you could leave, and the stream would change its course. Only if you step across this threshold would I be yours."

"Clever girl." Kronos said this quietly, abandoning the booming voice he had used previously. This slave was beginning to unnerve him, which only made him want to possess her all the more. Keep your friends close, and all that. The best way to control fear is to control the thing you fear.

"I'll take her," he said to the auctioneer, once again with a careless tone. "But if I find your advertising to be false, you and I might need to have a chat." He paired his words with a smile that didn't quite take the threat out of them. Kronos had no intention of returning the slave, but why not let the slimeball sweat a bit?

He circled around the slave until he stood on her right side. He pressed against her to urge her forward then began to move himself.

"Let's walk and talk."

He paced himself to keep her head near his shoulder and began to steer her away from the pack of dominors.

"My name is Kronos and the pack you have just become a part of is Groavche." He angled his head to look at her white pelt. It wouldn't stay so luminescent in the mud of his territory. "I hope you're not too concerned with staying clean."</sup>