Xaviers!

Tereza is in the sauna, trying to relax. The students who had been here when she'd arrived had departed quickly, suddenly uncomfortable with the presence of a major predator in an enclosed space, even if they couldn't put their finger on that being the reason. She's stretched out on her stomach on a towel on one of the benches, arms under her head and eyes closed. With only a towel around her waist, the entirety of her back tattoo was visible, the flowering plants of the hidden icy valley looking especially vibrant.

((Open))

A pair of legs — criss-crossed by old white scars and bristling with dark stubble — pass through Tereza's field of vision. A familiar scent of another canine curls into her nostrils as her still-human ears twitch faintly at the sound of bare feet on tile followed by the bench across from her creaking faintly from a weight settling on it.

Tereza's eyes open briefly, a flashing bit of gold in the steam room. Then she closes them again. "Isolde," she says as some sort of greeting.

"Surprised to see you here," she says with a huff. "Won't you melt?"

"Won't your fur get all poofy?" She retorts. "Things have been... things lately."

"They certainly have," she mutters with a faint snarl.

The door opened again and there was a hesitation as another predator suddenly sniffed the room and then stopped short of entering.

“...are things going to get...weird...if there’s three wolves in tiny, hot room?”

"That entirely depends on whether you intend to poke the other wolves," Tereza says, one golden eye opening even though she knew who it was.

"Oh, are you a wolf?" Isolde asks, cocking her head at Steph as her nostrils flare.

"Did she slip up and bite you?"

Poking then? That sounds like a lot of fun actually...

Shut up! You've had your way a lot lately

She turned to Isolde, flashing a nervous smile, "No, no...Just a mutation...I'm not... interrupting anything am I?"

Tereza lifts her head just enough so she can gesture with one hand. "Stephanie, this is Isolde. She's the one who bit me. Isolde, this is Stephanie. She's one of the students here. I think Isolde was just about to say why she's in a foul mood."

"Am I, now? You seem fairly sure of that."

Stephanie finally stepped fully into the sauna and closed the door behind her, taking a seat on a bench not yet occupied by the other women. She was silent for the moment, not quite sure this was a great idea.

"Well, I thought we were pack. Are you retreating back to that lone wolf business?" The eyebrow of the open eye lifts.

"I don't know, are you going to say why your wolf is riding you this hard?"

"How do you know it's not the wolf you're talking to?"

"I'd be surprised if you'd picked up that trick."

"Oh?" She gives a half smile, showing mostly canine.

“Maybe...I..should go,” Steph said hesitantly, her wolf very much wanting to come out to play with the other two, and her human half wanting nothing of the sort.

"If you think there's about to be a fight, don't worry about it. If I wanted to fight her I wouldn't do it here."

"As it is, she just might be cleverer than she looks," she smirks back.

"Thank you, Isolde. That almost reached an actual compliment." She looks at Stephanie, "If we were about to fight, there would be a lot more fur for starters. Stay."

Stephanie squinted closed her yellowing eyes and took several steadying breaths in and out.

“Sorry...I...she’s...excitable. Not used to having others like her around still.”

"You're acting like you're afraid of her."

"Not everyone has had several hundred years to get used to having an animal in their head, Isolde."

"If you run from a wolf, it's inclined to chase."

“Shifting hurts, and being in a hot room covered in fur sounds awful,” she replied. “And yes... I’ve had...like three months to get used to this.”

"So you think being a wolf is a shape that you wear?"

“I...don’t know?” she replied, unsure of herself.

"A wolf is something you are, whether you have a pelt or not."

"Says the woman who thinks 'kill something' is an appropriate form of therapy."

"Was I wrong, then?" She cocks her head. "Or didn't you try?"

"I found something better... and more socially acceptable."

“...getting laid honestly seemed to help me a lot.” she replied, cheeks reddening.

"Oh, so the wolf came out to play for that?" She smirks.

“No!” she reddened even more. “I...she specifically went away so that I...could...you know. But...I...I guess she was sort of still there...”

"Otherwise, why would that satisfy your wolf?"

"Because we occasionally like our other halves to be happy," Tereza says, eye closing again.

"Oh you're the expert now, are you?"

"Expert? No. Just making a guess based on my experience."

Stephanie nodded bashfully in agreement. “Suppose you’re both right...just not used to being...quite so impulsive sometimes.”