Hotaru
nothing's fair in love and war
Ru retracts her hands immediately, certainly no expert on comforting people and unwilling to imitate expertise when all it can do is harm. Emotions are not the heart of the Valkyrie. In her own breast, perhaps, she is an emotional thing. Driven by base desires, easily crippled by emotion, all because she never learned to touch it freely, let it roam or see the skies. Always locked down, always controlled, a facade more than a freedom. It has cost her so much, that control. But looking at Maea now, bloodstained and reeling helplessly in the grip of her own heart, Hotaru is grateful that she cut hers out long ago. As Maea transforms, Hotaru hangs back. Human, womanly. A hand comes idly to clasp over the marks in her wrist, but only because she can't imagine what that extra sensory cue must do in a predator's body. It would be easy to transform herself in tandem, but that would introduce the Attuned bond, and frankly Hotaru isn't sure Maea can handle that. So instead she sinks gracefully to her knees, the happy lightness of the joints there now something to be regretted, and keeps her own side of the bond firmly mute. "It's okay. It's easier, as an animal. Just breathe, take your time." Words are far from elegant; disjointed, trying for comfort and finding only factual rote responses. Not that she hasn't hidden in her own animal forms before for this exact reason - there is simplicity and calm in the mind of the beast, even when it is your own. And maybe, hopefully, that is exactly what Maea needs.
