+ Brave • Creative • Loyal • Passionate • Protective • Sincere +

= Blunt • Grounded • Perceptive • Sarcastic =

- Abrasive • Secretive • Tempered • Stubborn • Territorial • Volatile -

A short-tempered and stubborn woman comes to mind when one describes Viola at first glance and they would be absolutely right. Her ire rages first in the forefront and persists long with spite fueling it further until she can better contemplate it on a better time. She has a protective mentality with those she holds dear and close, but regularly keeps a distance from others so to anyone daring to breach that barrier is an opening for her to bare fangs and claws. It can work well with allies at the best of times and be detrimental at worst of times to those she sees as an obstacle. She’s abrasive with her actions and words, but that’s where her true passion lies. She either goes fully in or not at all and her bite is worse than her bark. Despite that, she is more discrete regarding her own personal feelings and easily bottles that away when approached. She does not trust easily, least of all anyone with prying eyes and ulterior motives to use it against her.

Viola does have her own merits, being a faithful friend once someone passes through the barbed wire and thick fence she’s built around herself. Years of disappointment have worn her loyalty down to a rare item to entrust but once given it's there for good. She does care a great deal and will go out of her way for someone she views as part of her own and responsibility. Even if she's terribly blunt with the individual, her intent is never without sincerity in mind. The same attribute shines very well in her artwork and her hobbies, solving puzzles within her hands or viewing the big picture. Especially when she’s calm, keeps a clear head, and focuses, her realistic and grounded mentality helps her creativity to find solutions in the long run that others would often miss.

The Short of It (TL;DR)

Grew up as the second child of two in a pack of werewolves that feared of overhunting but allied themselves with the local Native Americans. The alliance soon gets testy with the wars in the 1800s coming through and they were forced to pick sides or perish. Brother flees, Mom dies, and Viola is left caring for her father as the acting adult of the two while they travel to safer were-folk communities. Along the way she finds outside teachers to learn the things she was stunted and deprived of, such as shifting and hunting, and finds a passion in painting that brings her father out of his moods when he sees her artwork. Her brother comes back into her life around the same time her father is mysteriously killed. So she goes with her brother as he’s the only family she has left and learns he’s in a gang of his own as boss. She joins the lifestyle relishing in it as an outlet for her anger over father's murder and rises through the ranks as his left hand, all the while hoping to find resources to find justice not for his killer but for the people in the past that had sought out her pack.

The closer she gets to Levi the more she finds out secrets he kept from her including killing their father in cold blood, which he claims was all for her sake. They fight. Constantly. Until she and a friend rise through the gang and take it over under her brother's nose, disband it after yet another throwdown and travel across the US for years finding a safer place away from him and mostly to find themselves as their own people. Soon Viola and her friend begin to drift apart and she begins to unwind and back to her artwork again. Artwork becomes therapeutic as her new outlet and throughout her time she grows into dabbling with tattoo art, all the while hopping towns. Making connections, burning bridges and the like. She's finished up her 5th trial of tattoo interning just as she's settling into Saint's City, becoming neighbors to faces one familiar and one new.

A Tale of Two Wolves

In the 1800s, Viola lived within a pack community that integrated themselves with the neighboring tribes that saw the werewolf pack as a means of protection from bigger monsters for the humans while the werewolves saw this as a means of cover against human hunters that didn't know them. For extra precaution, Viola's own family was kept relatively small as a result of not drawing too much attention but she was more than content with having just her mother, father, and an older brother. It helped with keeping the family’s facade, but it brewed a deep hatred within her brother at their parents. Their vast age difference meant Levi was taught all the things that most Werewolves should be learning at a much earlier age: After his first full moon he’d been on his first hunt, had his first kill, and eventually could scare even the humans in the neighboring villages alone. By the time Viola got older, she couldn’t do any of those things beyond slight shifting mishaps between her features and moon-attunement. Yet despite this she still idolized her brother for being so advanced while Levi only saw pity in her for being so stunted. On top of this he was discouraged from seeking outside teachers at the time with the fear of being caught, which only added fuel to his fire. The wolves were here first, the humans shouldn’t force their hand. So he fled while Viola was barely towards her pre-teens, leaving her confused but understanding of him wanting to make something of his own self. To follow the lessons of werewolves of long ago and bring that culture back in full force. Viola felt a sense of duty to her own pack and the tribe and remained where she was, with her mother's words helping to comfort her that she'll come into her own and her father's advice cultivating with what they could work with right now.

It stirred a curiosity within Viola, who never had the chance to meet other werewolves outside her own small family, of what they knew of their heritage and stories to share. But at the time contact was forbidden and Viola made due with the stories of her father and the teachings of her mother. But those days wouldn't last very long for the very very small family. Not long after Levi left did wars come settling in with the roaming English settlers from the East and upset Spanish explorers from the South. The tribes were pulled between both ends of which side to join and once more they called upon the werewolves to join in on their stead. The werewolves however, were hesitant to join in the fight. Growing accustomed to their hiding lifestyle there would be certain liabilities that could cause them to be discovered. Most werewolves began drawing themselves further away while others began to be drafted, pulled into the settlers' side of a human war since if the tribes could do it, then so could they. Others planned on fortifying their numbers, banding together and attacking for their home or die fighting honorably. Viola's family thought more on escaping this conflict instead and made plans to run further Northwest but those plans would be laid rest.

On the Run

Another war for the humans waged again, this time between the territories splitting between the valley leading into the south american territory, the humans grew more frantic for their aid. Searching for any wolves hiding among them that they began slipping old trade secrets of wolfsbane tea to test. By their logic, anyone found in a deep sleep from the deadly brew they could throw into their growing army and hope for salvation. Viola’ thankfully was already well on her way of leaving the grounds she grew up in for another land territory, but she and her parents were consistently side-tracked by wayward humans begging for assistance. Some they were able to slip away from, others were persistent in following her and her parents, and at one point a stalker managed to separate Viola from the duo, forcing her to try out a “Trick” they learned. Viola’s mother was quick to find her, pulling her away before the human could make a bigger scene to alert his compatriots that she sacrificed herself in order to protect her husband and daughter. Viola fled along with her father, using the ample distraction as enough time to run as far as they could and waited out for the bravest third member of their dwindling family, but it became apparent in two weeks time that their family dwindled down to two. With a heavy heart and heavier burden to keep their family together, Viola urged her father to keep going though the loss of his wife and mate took a toll on his mental health more than Viola wanted to mourn the loss of her mother. Weeks of on the run would go by for them and Viola could see her father was slowly withering further away from her, that she stuck close to him always, diverting his attention before he would spiral further into his moods. One of them had to be the adult and the leader now, and remembering how much her mother would wisely advise her and her brother it was best to be resilient than powerful, So Viola all but dragged her father along in their travels, as they made their way up north.

Thankfully their hardship did not end in vain, as members of their pack community were there waiting for them and made kinship with the local shifting werecats, werebears and were-coyotal.

With this fresh start into the community they were able to be their true selves, Viola flourished in her own right. When she wasn't taking care of her father in their new home away from prying eyes, she turned to the teachings of the forest and openly embraced the new sites they came across. She didn’t want to forget her mother’s face, her father’s smile, or her brother’s voice, so Viola took to creative ways to keep those memories alive. She painted the places they came across, mountains, trees, the water and birds above. She wasn’t very good but seeing their travels represented in a way that her father could stare into and reflect, it seemed to do the trick of bringing him out of his depressed stupors.

Sometimes she’d find him smiling again like he used to when she was younger, “You have the same eyes as your mother,” he’d tell her on a good day, “She saw the beauty in the world around us even if everything going on was anything but.” It was the little things like his words and his willingness to follow her lead that made Viola grow into a more confident woman, taking up the responsibility mantle whenever they settled down into a more hidden Were-Community and speaking for their household. Soon her father, coupled with support from Viola and the local Weres, began to come further out of his depression, all the while Viola took to using outside teachers for her shifting changes. Unable to shift into her beastly side, she thrived using her natural wolf form to gain the advantage in running in the fields for the freshest catch, so that she didn’t mind too much how much she was missing out on the upright form she could shift into. Two forms were fine, and two forms were all she needed. One night while she was out, she came across a rogue werewolf in his upright form. Watching him carefully and keeping herself well hidden, she trailed after him night after night to the different human villages he preyed upon with other upright wolves, hounding them down and terrorizing the area. To Viola, she found the unprecedented murders strange and unnecessary, but no sympathy for the humans like the ones that forced her family to come out of hiding.

Thankfully humans didn’t live as long as werewolves did, and just as they were slow to age, they were also seldom to forget of that betrayal.

Family Ties

The familiar scent of her brother she’d long thought had left them all behind also resurfaced fond memories, that Viola didn’t hesitate tracking him down into a corner--though it’d seem that he might’ve just led her somewhere to think she had. Levi revealed himself to her and the reunion was a joyous one, the older brother leading his ragtag gang from town to town looking for her to join his crew. Serving only themselves and their kind, allying with other Weres when deemed necessary, they had no reliance on the humans ever again. In turn, Viola recounted the days to Levi since the moment he left, but he seemed less enthused by the fate of their parents. Viola had yet to mention her nights of trailing the group quietly to their father so she assumed bringing her brother back to meet him would be a welcomed surprise. But when they arrived at the small house, the father was nowhere to be seen. Broken furniture greeted them, with claw marks and blood, the evidence of a struggle that transpired inside and nobody left behind to confirm the worse. Upset, Viola turned to her brother, leaning to the only family she had left and went with him into the night.

Family was enough to convince her and family was what kept her by Levi's side for the longest time, running across the country with his pack. Viola fell from her artwork, fueling her hurt and bitterness from losing both parents into the thrill of the hunt and the rage to protect the pack. But while she found a new passion and drive in his gangs, she hadn’t realized how much time made her and Levi so distant from each other.

Though their kind aged slowly, their decade apart in age might as well have been centuries with how much Levi seemed to keep Viola at arms length. He still viewed her as the same girl from a century ago when they were younger and always told her she wasn’t ready for the truth of the world yet. That she needed more time with him and his crew to be well prepared for it all. It was evident to her and everyone else that he was undermining her by purposefully leaving her in the dark and to do the jobs he assigned for her with guards nearby that Viola felt all of this to be a scheme for large things at play. She'd do her own digging and over the years of finding herself thriving in the small organization, Viola realized she was just another one of Levi's workers. That the closeness they once shared was all but forgotten, becoming his right hand in name alone but not a family as they used to be. The years she spent with his crew were not found in vain; She made new friends, learned to fight properly and cultivated what true skills she had beyond her wolfish instincts that by the time their crew made way into back into the newly formed state of Arizona, she could leave them properly and make a living on her own.

That was when everything hit the fan while telling her brother the news. In their heated argument, it was let slip that he orchestrated the murder of their father years ago and would’ve targeted their mother too had the humans back then not murdered her first. He did it all for her, Levi tried to sweeten his reasoning, that their parents and the humans were holding them back. In an outrage, Viola flew herself at her brother, finally shifting in her upright form and the two went into a full battle in his office. He had years of practice in his form, something that gave Viola at a disadvantage and he ripped open old scars in their fight, creating new ones along her back while she scarred his face for good. However, a small part of her hesitated in the few final blows, unable to kill the only family she had when Levi called in bodyguards from outside of the office to take her away. The gang members for one reason or another were more loyal to her brother’s mindset than her own and with Viola now severely outnumbered, she was immediately beaten for her disobedience and kicked further down the pegs to learn her place.

Viola saw more ugly sides to the gang after their “discussion”, seeing the more harm that her brother was installing into the world more than the good he so claimed, she carried out her orders but would force herself to bite down her displeasure. She continued to grow as well-seasoned muscle, hardened now by the injustice she saw within the gang and outside of the gang, even towards cities that held Weres that didn’t align her brother’s views, but it was all Viola could do to bide her time in waiting. She wasn’t strong enough to beat him at his own game, nor was she strong enough to push back their family ties in order to not hesitate like he did when it came to forcing their hand. She only knew she was faster than him when it came to running, and her words-while not painted with full pleasantries to sway a crowd, seemed to resonate with lower ranking members that agreed this life wasn’t the one they signed up for. She could cut right into the core of the soul and right to the point, and it was then she decided to turn the tables onto her brother’s own head.

Starting a revolution within any gang without any slipups was a hard enough feat on its own, let alone the gang that belonged to her only living family. But Viola was stubborn. Levi wasn’t the only one who’d made connections through transactions over and under the table, and a like-minded individual, a Jackalope named Jason, who’d been with the gang slightly longer than Viola had, was more than eager to help tear the establishment down. His vocal mimicry skills and her speed made their double-duty work of sabotaging pins of placed strikes much easier, and their collaborations of well placed stories and bringing in a few more underlings they could trust into the plan, all made their work on the outside to the higher ups look more professional. Any laundered money would come up 80% of the count, the 20% pinned on another gang, and the other gang would be tipped to any muscle coming to collect their cut. Viola once rose through the ranks yet again, now keeping herself more collected around her brother and keeping her words curt to plausible truths or lies by omission. All so he could trust her and she’d play him at his own game.

Then during one fatal gangs upon gang street war, Viola finally made the striking move to turn the gang over on his head.

Running Once More

The plan was more simple than the execution and it all required the crumbling of a bridge. Using procured resources from a freelance IT Hacker they hired for a job in the past, Viola and Jason planted the seeds of a crumbling establishment to take down the extra bodyguards in place. The snipers from above and to set the downtown sub section ablaze. They parted ways once sirens hit the night, but Viola remained behind for one last unfinished business.

She found her brother within the smog of his empire crumbling around him, caught him by surprise and stole the fitted glove of silver claws he used before in their first fight to mark her. . Now without his advantage, they were on equal ground again with her having the experience of fighting stronger foes and they beat each other senseless into the night, until the sirens grew louder and Viola ran from the scene when she made sure her brother couldn’t immediately stand to chase after her. Jason was waiting for her on the outskirts of town, and with the procured funds they built together from their moonlighting work, began traveling across the US to take the time to heal and see the world with fresher eyes

Fresher eyes and ears placed behind them, since Viola knew with a heavy guilty heart she still didn’t kill her brother, just beat him long enough for them to escape.

Jason didn’t blame her for it, but Viola could tell it made his rabbit senses more on edge whenever they stayed in a city for far too long and Viola got testy around other werewolves that reminded them of her brother’s smell or his intimidating aura. Still, it was enough to make the scenery around them to stir up nostalgic feelings for them both, pushing them more closer with shared stories that they could bond over now instead of having a common evil to defeat. And within time, as with all things, they dated for awhile, practically bound at each other’s hip. But that moment of peace wouldn’t last forever either, realizing that being around each other romantically stirred up old wounds that didn’t heal completely and their friendship being more important to them first and foremost, Viola was the first to break things off. It was after a stint in the Louisiana Bayou, just after crossing paths with a tricksy ghost that Viola didn’t want to lose Jason so easily with him so near but wanted to keep him at a comfortable distance and remaining friends would help navigate the weird mess of feelings their shared past held over them both.

There was a promise to remain in touch with their familiar old code names for each other and to look out for another would they ever be in the same town at the same time. All with the underlying knowledge had either of them seen Levi again, to alert the other.

Third time could be the charm to end things, or, as Viola hoped to herself, Levi ended things off by himself.

Onto a New Beginning

Over the passing decades, Viola took a long time to heal and an even longer time to forget the emotional ties she left behind, forcing herself to make ends meet even at the risk of illegally hunting where she could. She went to art school again, finding an interest in tattooing alongside her love of painting as the body was just another canvas to be explored. Adding personal touches to the scars she collected over the years, tattooing them into a bigger artwork piece that became a profession for her to make ends meet. She was still on her edge being on her own, but now without the need to look out for someone close to her and just for her own back, she slowly came back into her own.

Still guarded as hell, but more open to the world around her, She visited old grounds where she grew up, living amongst the Navajo Nation again to refreshen her skills and relearn the teachings from her youth and whatever scribbles she picked up during her early days in the gang. The Were Community reestablished nearby the same territory and she remained with them for a time, taking up tattooing internships while seeing floating pieces of her artwork passing through local art museums and galleries. The world outside changed but it was comforting to Viola that some things stayed the same.

Once she felt antsy and thought she overstayed her welcome, Viola went on to roam the states yet again. But not before catching wind of a new city settlement taking in new citizens from all walks of life, supernatural, angels, demons and even humans. And named Saint's City no less. All She found it eerily too coincidental of this codependence lifestyle coming to light as she was just getting herself to feeling better living around humans, but she figured it was a place for a new and better beginning.

Far away enough from her old stomping grounds, the lingering memory of Levi, and a place to perhaps call home.