Stavanger Bay don't ever tame your demons

sorry about the wait on this. :c also, your post is lovely! :D <3

 

Arturo's teeth gritted slightly as Jagoda, with a lack of manners that reminded the gangster of Skellige — if there'd been any doubt of their relation to one another in the gangster's mind it was gone — inquired rather bluntly as to what had happened for Arturo to put aside his aspirations. Admittedly, the gangster was a prideful beast and admitting that he had lost the territory to a tiny family whom had made their nest there when he'd been out exploring simply because he had been away for longer than he should have was not an easy thing for Arturo to do. He had fucked up and the consequence had been there to greet him when he'd returned to his Isle. “I see lack of manners runs in the family,” The coywolf mentioned casually. Admittedly, Skellige was getting better — or perhaps Arturo had simply stopped noticing and taking offense to it.

If one of Arturo's Family talked to him like that they'd find sense knocked into them, possibly in the very literal sense; but Jagoda wasn't family and aside from Arturo's remarks, as to which he remembered saying something similar to Skellige when they'd first met, there wasn't much he could do about it. Arturo hesitated, trusting few in his life besides his Family and the sea titan, but he supposed if he managed to rid himself of the sea witch that he would like to take back his Isle and build his empire there it was worth knowing what Jagoda would be fighting for. “I was gone for a week, maybe two, scouting out the territories in the Hinterlands around the Isle I had claimed for my pack. When I returned a small family had greeted me with hostility and acted as if they'd already claimed it. As if the Isle belonged to them.” It did not. It does not. A tight roll of the gangster's shoulders was given to dispel the tension of ire that had pulled his muscles taunt. “I pride myself on knowing when to pick my battles. Skellige offered to go to war with me, but now is not the time. Some day, I will reclaim my Isle but not now.” Especially not with Riptide inside his head like some sort of determined parasite. Riptide set him back that much further but Arturo took things one day at a time.