Redhawk Caldera BoomwakitaWAAAaaaoooo wawawawWAWAWA.

if this isn't okay, feel free to delete :)  @Peregrine lyrics © Ylvis :P 

Fin of course had heard of what had befallen Peregrine from her mate just after it had happened.  She of course had felt terrible for her alpha, but at the same time she couldn't help but be repulsed by what her mate had described.  A glob of brain goo spilling out of his eye like a loogie?  FUCK.

But as gross as it was, Peregrine was still one of her best friends and though she worried as she approached that the alpha might do a repeat and spit another glob of brain booger out of his eye socket just to annoy her.  It was for that reason she left her @Elwood Jr - her willing companion as long as he was carried part of the way - with @Raven as she stepped towards the bush he had decided to use to shield himself from the sun and lowered herself to her belly.  "Asshaaaaaat," she crooned into the branches at him.

On a scale of 1-10, how drunk were you when you made this post? :P

P.S. He lives out in the open, so we'll pretend by "den," you actually meant "bush"!?

Peregrine had wedged himself beneath a bush at the edge of the rendezvous site in a mostly futile effort to escape the August heat. Despite his discomfort, he somehow managed to fall into a doze, though he jerked awake immediately when a voice hissed the word asshat from a few feet away. Although only one of his eyes really worked, they both glared at Finley.

"What do you want, dickbreath?" he mumbled at her, tugging himself free of the bush to stand beside her. Various sticks, leaves and burdocks clung to his black pelt, so he made a point to shake it off in Finley's general direction.

I'ma go with 'plenty' :3  Also, for the record, I looked up the lyrics to this song and this was totally one of the lines lol

He was not exactly in the best mood, which was understandable.  Fin wouldn't be too pleased if she had gone through what he had and lost her sight because of it.  Any other wolf would have been sympathetic and respectful of their healing alpha's feelings.  Finley was not much like other wolves, though.

"Just wanted to see how you were doing, Mr. Grumpybutt," Fin replied with a grin after shaking off what he had just shaken off, "Well, I lied.  I mostly wanted to see if you sneezed out the part of your brain that was good at foul-mouthed comebacks.  Eh?  Eh?"  She reached a paw towards him to bat at his shoulder, hoping she was succeeding in her attempts to be obnoxious/lovable and funny aka flovable.

"I didn't sneeze it out. It came out of my eyeball like some sort of alien slug, I'm told," Peregrine replied dryly. "Are your ears working? I just told you your breath smells like a bag of filthy cocks. Talk about foul mouths," he quipped, his tone still wryer than usual. But there was a hint of a smile in his eyes and at the corners of his mouth. He found pity repugnant, so he appreciated the Beta female's crude approach more than he could say.

"I'm glad you came by, penislips," Peregrine said after a moment, stretching again and then taking a seat. As was becoming normal for him, he turned his head sideways to focus his right eye on his visitor. "Wildfire mentioned you want to take her on a field trip sometime soon. Where do you all plan to go? I know she's been running around the nearby territories a bit but I assume you two intend to go a bit farther...?" He didn't like it but he also wouldn't stop it. He just wanted to be informed.

There was a bite and a bitterness to his tone, but his words brought a grin t her face even so.  He was still the same old Peregrine - crass, sarcastic and good-humored.  A little brain snot coming loose wouldn't change that, even if it changed his physical abilities.  

His retort made her laugh, but she said nothing to combat it.  When he referred to her as 'penislips', she canted her head and screwed up her face as though offended, though the smile never left her eyes.  He brought up Wildfire then and her demeanor changed somewhat.  She was fond of her goddaughter and was more thrilled to see she had taken to Outriding than she often let on.  "I thought I'd find a nice cliff to drop her off of," she jested nonchalantly, noting the hint of disapproval and concern in his voice, then gave him an actual answer, "There's a cool waterfall I found once that I promised to show her, on the other side of the mountains, South of the Plateau."

A little fib.  In truth, it was right next to the Plateau, but she was well aware that grumpy, overprotective Alpha-Peregrine would not be too keen on the idea of her taking his daughter to his enemy's backyard.

A waterfall? Perhaps because of Finley's glib remark about throwing Wildfire off cliffs, all Peregrine could think was dangerous, high and slippery. His lips pressed together, then parted when she mentioned the plateau. His jade eyes narrowed, blind one included. He didn't like the sound of that at all. Protests rose in his throat, though he bit them back. He trusted the Beta female to look after Wildfire, though in reality, his daughter must also learn to take care of herself. The Firebirds weren't babies anymore. They were closer to adulthood than infancy.

"It seems Wildfire's been getting on with members of the plateau," Peregrine mused wryly, once he could think of something not-so-negative to say. "She's pretty much befriended Dante. She's even run into Saena. None of them have done anything to her either." He was glad that nobody had been so petty as to take out their anger with him on his innocent children, aside from the infamous Junior, of course. But she had just been wired wrong. "She looks so much like her mother, yet their personalities couldn't be more different, really," the Alpha found himself musing in the next breath.

That made him think of something else. "Speaking of the kids, I was thinking about training Nightjar to take my place one day. Fox doesn't seem too hot on the idea, though, because of his ear." He snorted lightly. It was still a bit of a sore spot, though Peregrine had since cooled down and tried to gain a better understanding of his mate's perspective and misgivings. "Maybe the whole idea of an heir is stupid to begin with," he muttered, having begun to doubt the whole idea himself a little bit.

Fin could tell Peregrine wasn't overly pleased with her plans.  She waited for the lecture to start - the warnings that she was being a reckless dumb ass and if she wanted to get herself killed go ahead, but leave Wildfire out of it blah blah blah.  She'd heard it all before, and it was for that particular reason that she so rarely shared her plans with others before she acted on them.  It was also why she so rarely planned at all.  When things just sort of happen, you can't really be blamed.  Well, not as easily anyway.

But, Peregrine held his tongue, and instead moved the conversation along to talk about his daughter's friendship with the Plateau wolves and even her older sister.  Fin quirked a brow in surprise, but it lasted only a moment as he commented about how different her personality was from Fox.  "She is a very sweet kid," she commented, "I'm not surprised that they wouldn't refuse her friendship - she doesn't have an evil bone in her body, despite my attempts..."  Another flash of a grin.

The topic shifted again, and Fin found herself pondering this new idea.  She had never really thought before of who would take Peregrine's place as alpha after he became too old and crotchety for the job.  She supposed now that she thought about it, she would've assumed that sort of thing would have happened naturally - whoever was strong and capable enough to step up just would.  "Well I don't know about the whole ear thing," Fin said with a shrug, "But I don't see any harm in giving him some learnin' on leading a pack and shit.  His ear has never stopped him from kicking ass and taking names, which he's been doing pretty darn well since he was two months old."

"I know, right?" were the first words to escape his mouth after Finley offered her opinion on the matter. "He's already accomplished for his age. His ear has never held him back before. Why is she letting it hold him back now?" As much as he had weighed Fox's perspective and come to terms with it, there was still a part of him that was still stuck on the whole idea.

"You know..." he thought aloud, his voice trailing off for a few beats before he picked up again. "I wanted to make an occasion of it. Select him as heir, announce it to the pack, all that... Fox asked if we could do it in secret instead, not even tell him about it. I wonder if there's a compromise in there, though. I can tell Nightjar we've been thinking he'd make a good leader and that if he's interested, we can do some special training with him. No guarantees, though. Do you think she'd be okay with that?"

Of course, he would have to ask her (and would), yet Peregrine suddenly felt hopeful about the whole thing again. Sure, it wasn't as grandiose as his original plan but seeing as he and his mate felt so differently, this was a good place to meet in the middle, he felt. If Nightjar didn't measure up in the end, there was no harm done, really, because none of it would be a guarantee. Although Peregrine didn't have a doubt in his mind that Nightjar would rise to the occasion spectacularly.

Fin turned her head away nonchalantly to watch the kids playing together, but no sooner had she done so that Peregrine was jumping on her last words eagerly.  Apparently this was something that was really bugging him, for her pursued the conversation with another onslaught of commentary.  The Blackthorn turned her eyes back towards him and listened quietly as he rambled, even though it was a topic that... kind of bored her.  But!  She was such a great friend, she paid attention.  And even responded when it became her turn to talk.

"I'm sure you guys could find some middle ground there," she replied with a light shrug, "Ceremonies and fancy, special announcements don't really seem like Fox's thing.  She seems more of a... just let things happen kind of lady.  When it comes down to it, there's probably a lot of value in teaching all of the kids how to how to do leader stuff.  You never know what life might bring them.  I mean.. Have you met me?  No way my parents ever thought I'd end up where I am, but they taught me that leadership crap anyway."  She paused for a moment before grinning, "At least.. I think they did.  I vaguely remember a comment about making good choices or some shit."  She chuckled gently at her own joke before finishing her thought, "Anyway, if you approach it from that kind of angle, I bet she'd be cool with it and you can both kind of get your way.  Her more than you, though, 'cause.. y'know.  Us bitches always win."

Finley seemed to think it could work out well, though she did close on the note that Fox would always win in the end. Peregrine smirked faintly, cheered by the conversation. On that note, they had been serious long enough. He knew he must be boring the Beta female to tears, though she was being a good sport. He would have to let them both of them off the hook.

"Well, now that we've gotten that out of the way..." he drawled after a moment, "what's good, ax wound? Where's your mini-me anyway?" It wasn't often that he saw Finley without Elwood Jr close by her side these days, though Peregrine couldn't have guessed which one was more attached to the other.

Whatever happened, Fox and Peregrine had always found a way to meet in the middle.  Fin had heard about all of their arguments - the little quibbles and the blowouts.  It was a perk of BFF status with the alpha female.  No matter what their conflict, they always walked out of it stronger than ever.  Even when Peregrine had almost gotten their little girl murdered, they'd found a way to forgive and move on.  Fin wasn't sure she could say the same of her own relationship, but fortunately she and Elwood were so easy-going that they rarely had any issues and when they did, Elwood was selfless enough to admit defeat when Fin was too stubborn to do so.

Peregrine seemed to think they'd exhausted the topic, which Fin was happy to agree with.  Any conversation that didn't involve sarcasm and jesting was one she wasn't overly eager to continue.  Her ears twisted as he asked about Eljay and she canted her head.  "He's right over..." she started, turning to gesture over at the field where she'd left her son to play with Raven, slowing as she didn't immediately spot either of them, "there..."

Alarm rose in her and she jumped to all fours and strode away from the bush.  "Raven!  Jay?" she called, gazing about with a frown until they came scampering into view from around a small hillock.  Her tail wagged gently to see her little one bouncing after his older, way more graceful cousin.  He appeared to be breathless from laughter and perfectly not-injured, so Fin turned back to her alpha as she dropped onto her haunches.  "I'm such a good mom, never out of my sight for a single second..." she said with a grin, mocking herself, and then giving Peregrine a stern frown, "Elwood never hears about that, got it?"

It slowly dawned on me that Raven and Elwood Jr were meant to be nearby. Oops!

He saw Finley stiffen the instant she rose onto all fours and began calling not only for her son but for his daughter as well. This confused Peregrine, though only for a split second. She must have enlisted the elder pup to watch the younger. Sure enough, the two burst into view, laughing and out of breath. The Alpha male's lip twitched. He had seen his girls play with the pack's youngest member before but this was the first time he thought, She'll make a good mom someday. As soon as the thought popped into his brain, he blinked.

Giving no indication of his sudden mix of emotions—he had already bored Finley to tears regarding Nightjar and he wasn't about to start on the girls too—Peregrine cracked a grin at the Beta's comment. "Your secret's safe with me, scrotethroat. But if letting your kids out of your sight makes you a bad parent, then..." Peregrine made a low whistling sound. "I'm forever doomed to be a really half-ass dad," he quipped. It was one of the first times he was able to crack a joke about his condition.

It took Fin a moment to get it.  She gave him an appreciative smile and turned to look back at the kids as they stopped a few yards short of their parents to inspect something they'd just found in the grass.  She tilted her head curiously at them, and then finally burst out laughing as her brain clicked what Peregrine had just said into place.  She turned back to her alpha, shaking her head.  

"You so silly, Pear-Bear," Fin chided with a grin.  It was a decidedly less vulgar of a nickname than what they typically used, but it was a bit sickening in its level of cutesiness.  "You want me to grab you anything before I take off?" she offered, her gaze lingering on a very wide yawn that just caused her son to topple backwards onto his haunches.

Finley didn't immediately react to his joke. He opened his mouth to tease her about being a total numbskull when she belatedly burst into laughter. He grinned at her instead. Although they were always the butt of one another's jokes, he really couldn't say how much he appreciated Finley's humor right now. It had really helped him feel a bit better today.

It seemed Elwood Jr was in dire need of a nap. Peregrine didn't blame him. He imagined running around in this heat was exhausting. "Nah, I'm good." If he needed anything, Raven could give him a hand, especially now that she was about to be free of her young charge. "Have a good N-A-P-T-I-M-E," Peregrine said, walking over to give Elwood Jr a quick bump before deciding he would resume his own nap beneath the bush.

As though he knew what they had been discussing, Eljay came toddling wearily over.  There was a breathless smile still fixed upon his sweet little face, but he was clearly ready for a break from all the fun.  Finley grinned down at him and placed a kiss upon his crown.  Peregrine declined her offer, which the beta was actually rather grateful for.  While she wouldn't have minded grabbing something from a cache for him, Eljay likely would have been quite displeased to have his naptime put on hold.

"You too," Finley replied, "I'll be seeing you."  A grin flickered across her muzzle before she leaned down to scoop her son up on her jaws.  He was getting a bit big for it, but she was well aware that he was likely not in the mood to walk on his own.  With another nod to her alpha and a touch of her nose to Raven's, the Blackthorn headed off for home where it would daddy's turn to amuse their little one once he awoke from his nap.