Shadows Over Camp Darkness

No Sympathy for the Devil

Gideon had a moment of pure, giddy elation as her joking boo neigh scared the literal pants off of one of the kids. Actually, she’d simply alarmed a very poorly controlled werefox  into full change. Poor things were always skittish anyways but the Fury knew she wasn’t exactly helping the situation. The Dragon doctor just sighed again, his strange magic calming the room with a gentle breath. Gideon felt the magic tingle at her sense and her internal Fury sneezed as if it were an over strong perfume irritating her nostrils.

“Should I wait outside a little longer?” Gideon asked, noting that her Fury side was starting to settle a little despite her resistance to Draconic Magic. Now was so not the time for a glorious display of sass. Though it was just in Gideon’s nature to nearly skip her way up to the stage that the Doctor was being pedantic on, so that she could sit on it and attempt to look innocent.

The grin on her face was crooked as she looked out over the sea of mostly terrified faces staring up at her and completely ignoring the supposedly calming speech from the Dragon. Lisa was in the back with Xavier and Virgil, all of them shaking as they tried not to laugh out loud at the whole situation. Virgil hadn’t been present to witness the intakes in the past that had found out her heritage right away, but he’d already seen what Gideon was capable of so the trickster figured it out real quick. The sight of her friends didn’t make Gideon smile like she expected, instead of sharing in their laughter, Gids felt that weirdly painful ache in her gut flare up again. She kept it from showing on her face but the Dragon seemed to have a keener eye than most because he breathed the stench of brimstone down onto her. A subtle reminder to not scare the kiddies anymore than necessary. So she toned down the psycho a little and simply waited for them all to be dismissed into the care and speeches of their Senior Councillors. Once again Gideon had Fred Hassleberry, though Gids expected things between them to seem even more awkward than ever after the incident that had forced the repair of the Camp. It’s hard to stay cool with Gideon once people see for themselves just the exact threat level she is.

“So good to see you again Councillor Gideon.” Fred gave Gideon a hug as if he didn’t care how dangerous she could be. And Gideon managed to hold her zap back so the man wasn’t given a jolt of pain and paralysis in reward for his courage. His casual nature with Gideon was actually pretty damn smart as Gideon made the mental jump to why he did it, a show of Gideon’s acceptance despite her nature.

“It’s good to be back Senior Hassleberry. Seems we have an intake that is a wee bit jumpy.” Gideon stated with a smirk.

“Well did you promise to not bite?” Hassleberry immediately asked and Gideon laughed freely. Maybe she had misjudged how he’d behave now that he knew how dangerous she was. Though he had no clue how hard Gideon had to fight the violent urge to zap him that was spawned by being touched.

“I don’t think intake one would believe me if I said that.” Gideon shrugged as if the kids weren’t right there, listening to them.

“That’s because we know better.” The Nightmare interjected. “I told them all what you truly are. Not caretaker but killer. Whatever show you put on here is a hell of a performance but I know the truth. I’ve seen the pure joy you take in killing.” The girl didn’t sound hateful despite her words. In fact they were calmly spoken, like a long known truth instead of a newly kindled passion or fear filled obsession. It was that note of certainty that really impressed Gideon, it meant that the Nightmare was speaking the truth as she saw it. Gids still couldn’t recall why or how though, so she knew that eventually she’d have to schedule a little sit down with her inner serial killer to figure out the missing pieces.

“Everyone knows that there is no Fury alive that didn’t serve. But the war ended years ago and outside of the Maelstrom incident, I haven’t had to kill anyone or anything lately.” Gideon casually confessed.

“Want to?” the Nightmare suddenly became intense, as if this were what really mattered to her.

Gideon felt her Fury shiver at the chance to go on a proper hunt, chase and kill. In a flash Gideon’s vision hyper focused on the Nightmare, the rest of Intake one in a haze of grey that simply didn’t exist for her because they were neither prey, nor threat.

As an Alecto Fury, Gideon could inflict a maddening fear so strong that no Portentum, not even a Nightmare, would be able to resist the frenzy entirely. Then she could rip apart the victim, piece by piece like a specimen under a microscope. Of course this would have been enough, once upon a time, but Gideon wasn’t just a creature out of grim fairytales, she was a bonafide Councillor.

“I’m not a drug addict always playing with the edge of willpower and temptation. I’m Yoda who has long ago learned not to play games. You came here because you keep trying to die Nightmare. I’m not going to be your tool for suicide.” Gideon relaxed and felt the madness of her Furyside back off.

Gideon was a typical, normal Fury; slight case of personality dissonance between her regular consciousness and her inner Fury, rather large scale on the thrill seeking and maybe a healthier than normal dose of self confidence. But she’d still been young when the war ended and she hadn’t already gone berserk yet. So the Dragon had taken a chance on her being rehabilitated. It’d worked on her but she was apparently the odd Fury out in that regards. The last days of the war had been so brutal that it was more astonishing that Gideon hadn’t gone over the edge than the fact that all of the rest her age had. And no one could put their finger on why either. Gideon had been neck deep in blood and gore, quite literally, and yet she’d been a relatively stable and successful convert to normal life. At least as far as Camp life ever got towards normal.

“Over the next six weeks you all are stuck with me regardless of my history, or your own. I’m here to teach you some damn handy survival skills, teach you some effective life hacks and maybe even help you, if you’ll let me.” Gideon pulled her attention off the Nightmare to look at her whole intake. Fred was standing back and letting her take the lead which was fairly unusual, he liked to be in charge normally.

The obese Goblin, Hantu, was staring at her in a mix of horror and hope. Angelspawn was clearly the one watching her because his face was a tragedy of being lost and woefully confused. The rest were a very mixed bag of those same emotions, some with a dash of horror and disbelief thrown in for good measure.

“For this first week, we’ll be concentration on Rule #1. Do not lie to yourself.” Gids tried to pretend that her day was still going smoothly.

“How can you teach us something you don’t believe in doing yourself?” The Nightmare questioned her again.

“Oh little cauchmar, I don’t lie to myself. I very much believe in that rule. But I never promised to be telling you guys all of the truth either. “ Gideon grinned and almost felt Fred Hassleberry groan. “And if you’re all very good, by the end of these next six weeks, you’ll be able to figure out the differences of that all on your own.”

“Like we’re supposed to trust anything you teach us knowing that you lie?” The half bred Elf aimed for scorn and instead hit petulance in her tone.

“Everyone lies, you might as well accept that fact now. Here’s the flat out truth: you are all stuck here for the next six weeks. You’re going to be going through some one on ones to try and help you all figure your own details out. You all also know what I am. A war tested Fury. With six successful years of normal living under my belt. Clearly the system works or else I’d still be a raging psychopath. Sine you’re going to be here anyways, maybe you can see if this place is pure hokum or if maybe it can help you too.” And surprisingly enough, no one had a smart ass response for Gideon. She knew this wouldn’t last long, there was still too much angst and rebellion floating around the group so Gids turned away from them and started walking. They’d follow her to the Intake House eventually and this would be far more comfortable for all sitting down.

But even as she walked ahead, Gideon could feel the Fury inside refusing to settle down completely again. And because she was telling the truth about not lying to herself. Gideon had to admit that a fairly large part of her missed the thrill of the Hunt and kill. But she wasn’t going to go back to that. Especially when there were so many witnesses around.