But the ice is not pure in all places, it is not always thick enough to maintain the monstrosities that dwell beneath. While he places his layers upon them, his emotions twist and scream beneath the surface and, sometimes, manage to break free-- usually when he is under considerable stress and the thoughts weigh a little too heavily on his fragile mindscape. When any emotion does take a grip upon him, he ceases to be the calm, cool, and collected knight that he was and becomes little more than a beast, seeking only to feed whatever demon has broken out. And when one emerges, others take their turn as well and he can spend many months in the grip of terrible lust, hatred, anger, hunger, greed, or fear. The demons are weak on their own and can be controlled by outside forces; resourceful enemies may spend time chipping away at the ice, then bind his emotions to their own desires. He becomes little more than a puppet until he can break the chains and repair the damage.

It takes time for his higher self to bury the emotions; he cannot kill them because they are integral to his existence, even if they are destructive. If one emotion dies-- killed by another entity outside of his mind, for instance-- he will fall into depression; if they all are slain, he will die. It takes time to recover from such a loss and emotion is not something that can be conjured overnight. The easiest way to resolve the problem is to siphon feelings from others, to borrow indifference and layer it upon his own unsettled personality, to steal strength and turn it into a frozen barrier.

And that is part of why Ranshee and her pack appealed to him. A diversity of personalities, of open minds; from them, he can 'suck' emotions into himself and reinforce his icy shield with their borrowed strength. In particular, Ranshee's raw and simple emotions provide enough for him to stay stable for a long time. He is a psychic vampire of sorts, reflected by his remarkable skill with psionic abilities, and while he can siphon strength from others, he can also manipulate them. With a few careful touches and tugs, he can incite powerful emotions in people, to the point of driving them insane, or making them addicted to his sheer presence. He rarely uses this ability, however, as it often triggers a riot within his own mind; such manipulation is limited to necessity.

Some might even say he's a master manipulator by necessity; he will take forms that are appealing to his targets, or he might conceal himself to simply observe before striking out; in either case, he finds any way he can to continue keeping his inner emotions, the demons of his soul, satiated so that they do not try to escape. Of all he has met, however, only Ranshee seems strong enough to actively help him without his needing to resort to vampirism. Her leadership alone is enough to keep most of his howling inner-self from breaking free; by the same token, she might well drive him into a frenzy for the better of the Pack. He is quite a useful tool in that regard....

Vandila'an Hunt - Glosch Hunt - Slithern Hunt

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