Ankyra Sound some truths we only see in the corners of our eyes
i'm a hold my cards close, i'm a wreck what i love most
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#1
All Welcome 
 

And just like the fledgling cowbird drums out the fledgling sparrow out of its nest, Caiaphas was drumming Lusca out of hers. 

She nourished her growing brood and shortly after, with nerves whet on maternal desperation, slipped from their sides to seek out Caiaphas -- expecting at some point to intercept the Siren Queen on her rote upon the battened path leading to the den.
Ghost
in time you'll taste all the salt in my lungs
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Ooc — lauren
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#2
o sup

the siren queen had spent nearly all of her morning trying to rouse some sort of game for lusca; unfortunately for the sylph, trying wasn't doing -- and she returned to the den devoid of any supplication. while there was no love between the pair, caiaphas knew the importance of keeping lusca healthy -- it secured her children a future. children that caiaphas considered entirely her own.

she was surprised then to see a dark shadow dart from the den -- was lusca already calling upon their treaty? drawing forth a stony expression, the salt wretch strode towards the mother.
this house was my flowered heart,
but my petals have fallen.
i'm a hold my cards close, i'm a wreck what i love most
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#3
>:)

Perhaps she was the ungrateful wretch. Perhaps Lusca was merely bounden by self-interest -- she was so unaware of how the sootfaced coywolf begrudged her ability to bear. She thought only about herself, and how her image in her offspring's eyes was being compromised by Caiaphas' overinvolvement with the little ones.

It didn't take long for the two female's paths to intersect, though it rarely did. Lusca halted before the surprised woman and lashed her tail, gaze forbidding. "I want you to stay away from us." She said, perceptible nuances of her tone belying how hard she'd tried to harbor poignant emotion from throttling her voice.
Ghost
in time you'll taste all the salt in my lungs
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Ooc — lauren
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#4
she had expected lusca's barbed tongue, or some icy-bladed wit -- but the umber female uttered neither. instead her voice was begotten with steel, coldness -- the lantern glow of her orange eyes wrought with forbidding command. caiaphas was shocked in the manner of a reeling drunk, momentarily displaced by the fierceness of the little mother's injunction. hurt flooded her countenance and knit a worried line on her brow; her heart sunk in her narrow ribcage.

but in moments it was lifted by flushing rage that coursed her frame. rage that she could take this away from her -- anger that she could so much as stand before her with a single demand after all caiaphas had (wrongly) done for (and to) her. her tail lashed and she lifted her slender muzzle, jutting her jaw in challenging defiance. "fuck off." unlike lusca there was no thinly veiled attempt at reining in any sort of emotion; caiaphas had laid her writhing hate bare for all the world to see.
this house was my flowered heart,
but my petals have fallen.
i'm a hold my cards close, i'm a wreck what i love most
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#5
Caiaphas took no measures to conceal her devastation as it immersed her every feature before turning into rage like a switch, culminating in a single, impotent command: fuck off. In that moment Lusca became conscious of the fact that she was in possession of something most valuable to the witch -- and more importantly, that she had something to hold over her head. 

Realization visibly and in a manner not unlike the light of heaven whelmed her expression. A rictus grin unfurled upon her gums, her mind's turbines falling to the darkness of childish ridicule. "Jealousy does not become you." She said. "It is so unbecoming, in fact, that nobody will stick around long enough to give you what you really want. A family, right?"

"Couldn't even keep Vlad around, and he smells like piss. What does that say about you?"

Teeth clicking and snapping in a bid for retaliation, Lusca lowered her head and gritted them into a scissor bite. "I'm telling you again to back off." Her tail thrashed at the end of her like a matador's taunting muleta. They need me to live, and you need them. What's your move?
Ghost
in time you'll taste all the salt in my lungs
2,045 Posts
Ooc — lauren
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#6
lusca's tongue barbed her, as it usually did. caiaphas might have been clever, but she was no match for lusca's cutting wit -- in many ways it was lusca that was the wolf, and caiaphas the child. she snarled, her lip curling back in spite. "fine." she conceded -- not because she was cowed by lusca's physical prowess, but because she was too stung by the woman's words to offer a suitable rejoinder. besides, she needed lusca -- at least until the pups were weaned.

with a contemptuous look at the wolf she backed up, swinging wide and making for the shore. she'd be angry for a time, sure, and she'd envision a thousand ways to kill lusca, of course -- but she would never do it.
this house was my flowered heart,
but my petals have fallen.