Heron Lake Plateau machines just got workings, and they talk to me

Raven's shock and anxiety had been so powerful that she hadn't had the emotional capacity to dwell on the parts of this whole situation that made her angry, but Quixote summed all of them up pretty well himself. Later, when the dust had settled somewhat, the anger and bitterness would come to the fore of her thoughts in force. But for right now...all she could do was reel and try not to fall down.

"Actually, yes," she cut in after his comment about being ignored. "Finley did ignore me. I might as well have been a fly on a pile of raccoon shit for all the attention she paid me." Truthfully, the one she was angriest with in all of this was Finley. She could understand Towhee's position, sort of. The girl had been pushed into leadership too soon, without enough experience or wisdom. She'd given her best, but after fumbling the ball at the goal line a few times, she'd had the sense to realize she was in over her head. Raven couldn't fault her for that. But Finley's behavior really was inexcusable.

Okay...nevermind the earlier thing about not being angry just yet. Raven was mad.

"...leading wasn't on my list of things to do, was it on yours?" Quixote asked, and she shook her head emphatically. "Nope," she answered, and it was the truth. She was perfectly content with her place as delta in the pack -- high enough to be respected by all, but low enough to avoid dealing with the hassles of leadership. She would have been happy to continue being the crazy plant lady, with all her weird concoctions and her herbs. But now this had been dropped in her lap, and she wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

Taking a deep breath, she glanced at his face for a moment before her eyes wandered out toward the jagged peaks in the distance. "I'm afraid that if we turn it down, though, the pack will break apart or, worse, someone even less qualified than us will end up in charge." Redhawk was already sort of a dumpster fire, she felt. How much worse would it get if, say, Eljay got it? Or Clover or, heaven forbid, Tegan? Not to mention that if Screech got wind of instability in the leadership, it would leave things wide open for him to take control. She grimaced at the thought and, unsavory as the whole idea of alphaship was to her, the thought of what could happened hardened her resolve to do her very best.