Blackfoot Forest Downtown

Open to anyone! Probably about 2 days or so after her discovery thread.

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Emily's time in the Rosings had thus far been short but very informative. Aaron had achieved his ultimate childhood fantasy and sat on his little throne built on romance and chivalry. He was respected, and the women here fancied his dandy ideas of voted pairings and lesser sex...but the unit itself seemed thinned from the scents she caught that no longer belonged to anyone within the ranks.
 
She woke to a blissfully sunny day that urged her to take a few stiff, wobbling steps outside her new den. Though no longer mere breathes from demise she was hardly in any condition to take off on her own; the notion of being a prisoner due to her own weakness soured her mood considerably.
 
A bird trilled and she tilted her head back to spy the subtle shape of it up in the canopy above. "Lucky little shit," she murmured with uncharacteristic bitterness staining the edge of her voice. A velvet tongue unfurled to cast itself along the bony tops of her forearms, picking away the grit and grime that clung her to dusty pelt, and she flicked a single audit backward as she detected the flutter of wings upon the avian's decision to take flight. Lucky she thought to herself with much softer whimsy.

wanted to join this anyway, but i have to join since downtown is hands down one of the greatest songs ever.

He searches for Emily with his ears held stiffly upright. He had missed her so much since they had parted, and he could hardly believe that she was here again. He follows her scent, eventually finding her among the trees-- staring at a bird and fussing angriliy at it. It did not take him by surprise, she had always been somewhat fiesty. 

"Emily," he says quietly, his tail wagging as he greeted the sweet girl. "Please, you must talk to me. I am nothing but delighted to see you again-- by why have you returned? Was Marcus not the man he claimed to be?" He steps towards her, frowning with nothing but concern and care for his pale sister. Aaron never did like to pick around the subject, he dove straight in. You'd get things down quicker. 

Ahaha I can sling Macklemore rhymes like nobody's business!
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She and Aaron had always been close - he fed into her self-inflated ego after all - but there were some tales she was not yet ready to tell. Rather than rebuff him with her typical coyness she shook her head - No he was not - before sighing and turning her eyes upward to peer upon her beloved sibling's face. "He loved me," she said with what sounded convincingly like disinterest, "and then he didn't."
 
Sensing that her hard headed King might find her answer dissatisfactory she reached out and delicately tapped the tip of her nose to his. "I will speak more of it," she said softly, "when the pain of it fades." When I can speak of it without crying like some loon the femme thought dryly. Hunger was the Devil's work. It had taken that beautiful soul she'd called Marcus and turned in him into...something that she was not aged enough to give a name.
 
"Will I cause trouble?" she asked suddenly without breaking eye contact with him. "Your followers...surely they are apprehensive to have me added to their care."
 
It wasn't certain that she'd leave even if he was to admit she was a burden...but she'd sleep better knowing the truth instead of pondering it over and over in her head.

"Of course," he dips his head to her with respectful understanding, then moving forward to nudge her cheek softly. "I would never force you to tell me anything you did not want-- but you know how much I worry," he adds, a wry smile coating his mouth. The smile fades, however, as he looks out into the dead forest, his ears flicking. 

"The pack does not feel you are a burden-- you are just as weak as some of us," he tells her, but he worries she's smart enough to see through his white lie. In an effort to combat this, he sighs softly. "Hosannah will come around, I am learning much about her still. It seems she is slow to trust, I'm sure she's had a rough past," he adds.

Though she was beyond smart enough that Aaron's lies were practically translucent the she wolf had enough common sense not to call him out on it. She made a mental note to decline too many medicinal offers in the future - lest the supply be wasted on her petty aches and pains - and thought to herself that she might wander to a nearby lake as soon as she was able. Perhaps the fishing skills she'd polished before the Great Fall would prove of use in these dire times.
 
Hosannah can bite me she joked to herself before giving her muzzle an idle shake. This was not the home she'd grown up in...it would take time to test the waters and decide which personalities were pliable and which of them were more literal. For all she knew Hosannah was the type of gal to take up such offers gladly; it was not a far-fetched idea in this world of famine for one wolf to feed upon the other.
 
She flinched at the memory.
 
"Tell me," she started up in an effort to distract her tepid thoughts, "who among these girls is a rival for my brother's affections? Surely you've begun to settle." Amara's introduction had not had a good opportunity yet being that Emily's scattered mind had required great rest up until this point. She watched her brother with teasing eyes and flashed him a smile...eager to hear that between the two of them at least ONE of them found happiness.

The man grins, rolling his eyes and letting out a playful growl. "You just can not mind your own-- can you?" he teases, but does not actively avoid the question-- he has no reason to avoid the question. Amara was the woman of his dreams, and he'd fought hard to woo her. He felt he'd earned the right to flaunt his wife with all the glamour in the world-- if only she'd let him be so pompous about her.

"I have settled with my co-alpha, Amara," he tells her with a smile, his tail tapping gently against the ground. "She was the petite copper woman who brought you herbs when you arrived," he adds, hoping to jog her memory.

"And why would I ever mind my own around you?" she questioned with exaggerated innocence. Aaron had always doted on his younger littermate - her gender had been a great influence of his tolerance - and Emily had never grown to question that such was as it should be. No matter how hard she pushed (and damn could she push sometimes) he always withstood the storm, praising the delicacy of her femininity, and she in turn had always yielded to his general greatness in comparison to her.
 
"She's very pretty," she praised with a nod of approval. Truthfully appearance was important to them both when it came to partners. She looked at her brother then and gave a devilish grin, "Too bad she end up settling hard on you."

Aaron growls playfully, his tail thumping against the ground as he shoulder her softly. "I doubt you could find a woman that would be disappointed about being my wife." He looks off into the dying forest for a moment, his tail still waving behind him. "If we are being honest though, she is one of the most gorgeous women I have ever met," he says, grinning devilishly and beaming. "Not the blonde beauty I had always wanted, but more handsome than I had ever dreamed."

She clicked her tongue in playful disproval toward her brother's choice of words. "Dear Aaron," she said as though narrating an omnipotent point of view, "girls, women especially, don't typically like the word handsome as their descriptive traits." She canted her cheek with a plucky grin and added, "They like to hear 'Oh you're as pretty as my sister!'...trust me. Mu-cho panty drop." And a laugh, probably her first earnest one since the Exodus, fell past her smiling lips.

Even though Emily was probably right, Aaron had taken a liking to the world handsome long ago. He'd decided it was very gender neutral, and had no problems switching it between a man and a woman. "Emily, you need to be more mordern, women can be just as handsome as men and-- might I add-- I am having no problems with the panty-dropping part of relationships." He grins, his eyebrows wiggling playfully at his sister and his tail thumping in the dust behind him. "I pray-- however-- that you can not vouch for that first hand-- hmm?" he adds, his voice a tad more serious now.

"Pure as the driven snow," she said with a small rise of her brow and the most delicate sniffle of disproval she could manage. "I don't suppose you know of any handsome Devils that might attempt to woo them off me though? It's been a long while since someone's tried complimenting their way into my good graces."
 
Pure bollocks of course. She'd had her flag captured within the couple of days that followed their first birthday. It was a stellar life lesson: don't try to discard your tender virginity a few yards from the pack's camping site where you can't even curse to yourself when the real deal started. The conclusion had settled her into the dirty flirty zone; she wasn't beyond a quick fling in the bushes anymore (and she'd curse if she wanted to dammit).
 
But Aaron, in all his sentimental regard of having a baby sister, was in no way prepared to learn of the dubious deeds she'd preformed away from his tender eyes. And she had no intention of letting him discover otherwise.

The man raises his eyebrows, his lips turning up in a smile. Of course he believed her tail-- she was after all his sister, and she was as perfect as any woman could get. He did of course notice her tendancy to beg for attention from any male she met, but to him that was how women were supposed to act. After all, women must find the man to take care of them. 

"I couldn't quite answer that," he says, frowning. "Our best male is taken, and our old beta appears to have stumbled across hard times. His wife as dissappeared... I'm not positive he's up for grabs just yet," he tells her. "The pack is pretty bare lately," he adds, looking into the forest. 

Getting a super quick post in for each character so I don't dream of being deleted like I did last night haha! Will be back to normal posting tomorrow!
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"Maybe when the spring blooms again there will be more," she said in what was in an optimistic manner that was uncharismatic of her. Whether she was indicating more men to fish among or simply trying to bolster her brother's confidence went unsaid. A small grin perked on her lips as she wondered of the beta who was suddenly without a wife; she couldn't say that she wasn't curious about the male that was with wife.
 
But her days were not entirely sent scheming of ways to sever bonds. She looked to Aaron and growled at him in an affectionate way before nipping gently at his cheek to garner his attention. "You've done well here by the way," she spoke with tangible pride. "You became a King after all!"

"I can only pray," he tells her, and smiles. For the life of him, he cannot remember if Emily had worshipped any Gods. He was always so silent about his own-- he never really pinned it down to a single God. His beliefs pulled from religions that he'd encountered everywhere he travelled, and the only solid belief he held was that Gods ruled in the heavens above, so he prayed to the heavens. He does not ask, instead moves on to the next topic she presents.

His chest puffs gently, and he grins cheekily at her. "King of flowers and foxes, I suppose, but indeed I have," he tells her, his tail thumping softly against the ground. He pauses and studies his sister for a moment. "Emily, you know I know your way of life, but I must ask..." he pauses, picking back up with different words. "As mentioned our Beta has fallen from his rank-- do you care for that rank at all?"

"Ah," she said in a way of self correcting herself. "A pretty King I see. Oh well. Different strokes for different folks." A smile beguiled the mocking connotation of their back and forth exchanges.
 
But when asked of rank the playfulness of the she wolf's demeanor was promptly placed aside. "I am not," she said decidedly. "I hardly know the people of your ranks and I'm still a tad traumatized from my adventures...I would only reflect poorly on your abilities to choose leadership." Though frowning her words came from a place of calm, unwavering honesty. She was not fond of holding power but was even less fond of disappointing her brother; however she was wise enough to know her own limits in the situation.
 
"I will work harder than usual though," she promised with a firm nod. "I will gain knowledge of your people and the lands we live in. I think I would like to be a Scout." This last sentiment ended with her looking curiously at Aaron's face. "Are you in need of one?"

"The prettiest," he quips playfully, his tail wagging behind him. 

He then dips his head to her. "I figured as much-- but it never hurts to ask. And do not peg yourself so low, I would not have asked you had I thought you to be a poor leader," he adds, but does not push the rank onto his sister, he merely reminds her of how highly he thinks of her. He then grins, rolling his eyes. "Work harder than usual? So out of character... But I am not complaing, I am elated to hear that, Emily," he tells her, his tail wagging still.

"Scout? I suppose I should not be surprised considering our journey, but I have wished to take on that trade on a number of occassions... I have just never had the time. You are welcome to pursue that trade, and any other one your heart pines for," he says, rambling slightly. "When you set out, I recommend going west. There is a pack northeast of here that does not like us."

"Words hurt," she said with a feigned pout toward her brother's jest. But it was a self pitying gesture that she could not maintain for long; it was moments later that she tilted her head curiously at immersed her attention to the tale of a pack who held them no favor.
 
"What caused the rift?" she asked. Emily, with all her negative traits, was surprisingly adept at mending the broken bonds between parties. Whether her secret ingredient was her smooth speech or the primitive use of her body she'd never know...and it was with honest conviction that she hardly had the interest to find out.

"Hm," Aaron hums gently as he studies his sister before shrugging. "When I first came to the Wilds and began to round up recruits for Rosings, I came across a beautiful wood, filled with trees that were bound to blossom into lovely pinks and reds during the fall. I thought it fit the packs ideals perfectly. I believed it to be far enough from any other packs-- across a river from most-- but a pack from a Maplewood disagreed. Their leaders were Reek and Seana, and they chased us from the territory before we had fully settled," he explains, hoping not to drone on. He found it unfair, considering he was far enough away, but not everyone shared his opinion. "I assume they are still at the Maplewood, but I have not heard or seen them-- I do not venture far to find them."

Territorial disputes, especially wherein the loser settled elsewhere, were hardly worth the effort of resolving. But if tensions further hindered them - competition for food or the bullying of fresh members that wandered too close for example - then it was entirely worth seeking peace between the two groups. "Perhaps I will wander out that way," she speculated thoughtfully. A quick glance at her brother was married with a reassuring smile. "When I am better...and times aren't as hard. If I can establish what is important to them then we will be better equipped to mend the differences between us. An alliance is worth a lot more than a frail truce."
 
Ugh, she thought to herself. She sounded like their Mom just then.

Aaron listens, studying his sister calmly. He eventually sighs and shrugs, looking away. "If you feel you can change their minds-- I suppose you are right. Whenever you do decide to go, make sure you bring someone with you... I feel it would be much safer," he tells her, glancing back at his sister with a small smile. She'd just arrived and already she was thinking of venturing off. He understood, but was sad all the same. 

Fading here (feel free to reply or simply archive)! They'll need another one here shortly!

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His blessing of her plans was reluctant at best but Em was not one to pursue total praise. She was unmoved by his mild show of disinterest and neglected the baiting of his words...instead reaching up to nibble along the caramel hairs of his cheek in a sign of affection. "Worry not, Brother," she said while limping forward toward the den. She looked over her shoulder and smiled at him, "Your sister will live another day. But not without her required quota of beauty sleep."
 
She'd yammered quiet enough; the weight of the world felt like it straddled her shoulders. With a soft chuff of goodnight she disappeared into the darkness of the den and was soon back in her deadman wonderland...the ghosts of Marcus and his Exodus waiting eagerly to show her the path of terrifying enlightenment.

"Sleep as long as you need. You are welcome to my den until you find one of your own-- there are plenty of fox dens you can make larger," he tells her, nudging his sister affectionately on the cheek. "Find me if you need anything, sweet Emily," he adds, smiling. The large male turns and heads into the woods, pleased that his sister is once again part of his life. 

<3