Something something Red Talon cub

[zita]

Some things to understand about Night Hunter:

• He was born into a pack of wolves and lived as an ordinary wolf for two years before he shapeshifted/got adopted by other werewolves. As such, Night Hunter may be psychologically/emotionally a young adult, but he has only been around for a very short time and has had very little chance to form perspective.


• In addition to everything else that comes with being a werewolf, he's just been handed a brain-explodingly long theoretical lifespan (for a wolf) and he is struggling to get his head around how time works.


• Before shapeshifting and finding out what he was, it was very troubling to be figuring out that he was the smartest wolf in the pack and a kind of "smart" that none of the other wolves could aspire to or understand. In a way, feeling totally swept up by a ton of werewolves that are smarter and have more answers is a huge relief.


• Night Hunter is kinda weird. He avoids eye contact because what's wolf-polite and what's human-polite doesn't line up. He comes across as pretty deadpan because he's not used to the whole human facial expressions thing, and spoken language is complicated enough when you're not a former wild animal learning that tones of voice mean things. Watching deal with sarcasm and slang is like watching a horse try to climb a tree. He's also just kinda intense because he is constantly trying to figure out what's going on around him, and extremely invested in puzzling out what you're saying to him and why. And honestly, a lot of that is because he's pretty at sea among homid werewolves and anxious about what might happen if he screws up too much.


• Hunter's a Red Talon, which comes with some obvious questions about how he personally thinks about humans. Mostly, he is where he is because the Red Talons are his family and he trusts them when they teach him things, but he's not really a zealous human-hater. Hunter is curious and cautious by nature more than he is reactionary, and he's young and full of questions. For his own part, Hunter knows he has very little experience with humanity and is still gathering data before he can form his own judgments. He was asking questions that troubled his elders back home, and not quite satisfied with their answers. To non-Talons, though, he will get defensive and turtle up behind the platitudes his sept taught him to shut down these arguments and get other werewolves to leave them alone, even if he doesn't totally believe in them himself. He's afraid of being seen as unsure or vulnerable, surrounded by outsiders as he is now, and being challenged about fundamental parts of his beliefs makes him just want to defend what feels safe and familiar even if he's nurturing private doubts. Overall, he'd rather avoid an argument and is not likely to take it to the point of a fight. If someone is patient and approaches him in a way that doesn't trip his threat response, they might get some insight into this potential for a crisis of faith.
  
  If you think of a kid raised in a pretty insular and strict community with no opportunity to be independent or really strike out of his comfort zone before moving away to college, that's a lot like where Night Hunter is right now.


• Speaking of faith: Red Talons have some different variations on their origin mythology floating around, but the main one states that the problem with humans is that they are prey creatures falsely elevated by the Wyrm to being predators. To be a predator is a kind of sacred thing that Red Talons believe requires an inherent understanding of the balance of the world, but humanity (never being intended by Gaia to be a predator) was never gifted that understanding, and that is why they have run rampant. Many Red Talons believe that the creation of shapeshifters was due to trickery by the Wyrm, such that the noble predators would be corrupted by human influence. The human mind is a treacherous part of the self that can easily lead them astray, but also a necessary tool in a war the wolf heart alone cannot win. Red Talons don't like to deal with the emotions and abstract thinking they see as coming from the "human mind." They stigmatize these, which leads to a lot of internal anxiety for a young werewolf full of questions and feelings who's just trying to be good and do right. Night Hunter is no exception, and as a young Ragabash (with some social permission to ask more questions and push more limits due to his auspice) he's pretty much always on board this struggle bus.


• Night Hunter is bad at socializing on human terms, but he is social. He's a bright-eyed, curious young werewolf who genuinely likes being around others, basks in companionship, and loves trying to figure things out (and having friends he can share theories with.) It's just he is totally out of his depth and the fear and discomfort of the situation, combined with socialization barriers that trip up any cub raised by wolves, makes it not immediately obvious that these things are true. As his list of liked people and grip on communication grow, he'll get to be a little more himself.