Silver Creek holy motherforking shirtballs

Maybe it’s foolish to leave her pack so close to winter, maybe it isn’t. What is foolish, Sunflower has decided, is that she definitely should not have headed north. As exciting as it is to have a new adventure laid out before her, she isn’t sure she made the right decision to go this way. She hadn’t known what was going to be ahead of her and she is often tired, a little thinner than usual—even if it’s only been a few weeks since her departure—and it would be easy to turn around and simply go home. But she doesn’t. She made the decision. She’s gonna stick to it.
 
Sunflower meanders her way through the creek, poking her nose here and there as she searches for the trail of something to eat. The forest she moves through offers no consistency in trees and by the time she stumbles across the creek that is frozen in some places, she feels the fatigue of winter settling in. And it’s only just beginning. She tightens her jaw a little, straightens out her shoulders, and moves to the bankside to drop her nose for a drink of water. The chill runs all the way down into her stomach and she trembles briefly, then shakes out her fur, and continues making her way on her Big Adventure.

224

it's been a hot minute since delight slipped down to the silvery creek by the forest - the last time he was here, uka'd still been around. he hates to admit how much that particular disappearance stings - nearly as much as trajan (or, if he were being completely honest, slightly more, because what's a protagonist without a good foil?)

but the tide seems to be turning in tindómë's favor for now. he hadn't really being trying to recruit anyone but it seems his desire to hide out in the sweep away from the happy cloud surrounding brienne and mato worked well in his favor anyway. it's ... a complicated feeling, being rewarded for being too cowardly to deal with your feelings, but also, he'll take it. and jomyo and matteo both seem a good sort. their numbers are still small, sure, but it feels more stable and new faces give delight something to do.

which is not go look at the silvery water which reminds him of the silvery prince but look it's been a weird, weird week. dramatically the vailë makes his entrance with a big sigh, flopping against the side of the riverbank - and then jumps up with a strangled yelp as he realises he's not alone. not that he's complaining but why is the hinterlands suddenly crawling with wolves? the androgyne's fur is still fluffed up, his voice a little strained as he says, "uh, hello, didn't see you there."

Distracted with her own thoughts, she also doesn’t notice the other wolf plop down on the ground up ahead until he yelps in surprise. Her ears fold back against her head and she jumps back, too, refocusing her attention on her newest companion. Sunflower hasn’t run into many wolves since leaving Junipero but it does not surprise her to find someone. It does, however, surprise her to be startled so easily. Her brows bury deep between her golden eyes and she awkwardly laughs, brushing off the explanation that he hadn’t seen her.
 
“I didn’t see you there either, sweets,” she tells him with a wave of her tail and with laxity in the rest of her posture. The last thing she needs is someone to be upset and difficult with her, even if she would likely hold her own. “Guess I’m just a little lost,” she adds with an indifferent shrug, hoping it calms him down enough to smooth out his fur and slip from flight or fight mode. “Are you from around here?”

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wholly embarrassed by his reaction, the androgyne takes a seat and lifts his head, determined to appear to have a shred of dignity left. the woman doesn't seem bothered by him in the least - he can't help but jerk slightly at the pet name (sweets?) (sweets!), but she's non-aggressive and his ruffled coat slowly smooths back down. well, as much as it ever is, honestly. "uh," he says, still caught up on sweets, "what? oh. yeah." 

he gestures toward tindómë with his delicately pointed snout, and looks back at her. "how about you?" he asks. "been a lot of lost folks lately," delight adds - a little unnecessarily, given how helpful to them these lost folks have been, but. it is weird.

Things quickly smooth out for the better and a lopsided smile forms on her features, followed by a slight tilt of her head. She seems to baffle him somehow and her smile turns into a grin, watching as he points in an unfamiliar and unexplored direction. Her bright eyes follow the gesture as if she knows exactly what he’s pointing at but there isn’t anything but more trees and the rest of the creek. “I guess I’m not really lost. I wasn’t going anywhere in particular,” she says with an indifferent shrug of her left shoulder. When she pulls her attention back to him, she notes how dainty he seems but she likes his colors most of all. “It was just my time to move on,” she tacks on a beat later.

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he's still off balance - not that it's ever particularly difficult to throw him off balance but it doesn't mean he likes it. the wisp frowns slightly, something of a sulk lurking in the lines of his mouth and the depth of his eye. the woman does not antagonist him further (yet) and so the sulk remains tucked away but ready to spring forth at any given moment. oh, delight, so predictably saturnine.

the woman - he notes her eyes have an interesting pattern to them, absently - does not give him much in the way of detail, but then again, most don't. "it's getting colder," he says, giving her a sideways look. "where're you moving on from?" the vailë - no, nénar, he corrects himself - doesn't have enough to go on to extend tindómë's welcoming hand, but there is potential and he intends to follow it, especially if she doesn't have any plans of her own right now.

Ever since her departure, she has only run into a handful of wolves but it has been days since she’d seen another. This little cutie has been the first in days and he’s already stumbling over himself. A smirk works its way to her features and she shifts her posture a little, stepping closer and settling down on the ground. Her tail thumps on the ground a few times before settling in next to her.
 
“It is getting colder,” she observes, feeling the chill more and more each day. “I come from a little place southeast of here and I guess I was dumb enough to go north, instead of south,” she says with a snort. “Anything good for me out here, shug?”

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i was dumb enough to go north instead of south, she says, and delight stares. "they're opposite directions," he says, a touch rudely in his incredulousness - not reading the tone at all. she calls him another weird pet name, one he's never heard before - oh, man this is getting to be like uka except slightly less offputting, probably because uka had all the charm of a dead fish. (okay, that's a little harsh, he'll admit, even if he hates the fact that he misses the guy). thrown off as he is, he doesn't get the impression that she's being condescending, so he's willing to overlook her, um, proclivities as they are. for now.

"my pack is close by," the androgyne says to answer her question, though he's keeping it vague for now. "tindómë. what's your name?"

They’re opposite directions.
 
Sunflower stares at him a few seconds before she snorts, then chuckles, and bellows out a laugh. Oh, lordy. She tries to rein it in and it takes a second, almost missing what he says next, but she stifles back. “I’m just kidding,” she says, waggling her eye brows a little to exaggerate the joke. She chuckles quietly to herself. “But uh, my name is Sunflower. I was born in a place called Junipero Hills. It’s long behind me, though. I’m far more interested in Tindómë.” Her voice doesn’t change but her interest is spiked if only because he’s entertained her so well so far. “What I lack in sense of direction, I make up for in some pretty kick-ass other ways.”

125

delight has gotten many reactions to his bluntness - usually offense, occasionally incredulity, but laughter is a new one. he blinks at her owlishly, confused and more than a little unsettled. she's gotta be making fun of him, right? but she doesn't sound malicious, and he pouts at her with a muttered "hey..."

it's not a very good joke, he thinks, but she gives her name and he lets his pout frown smooth out into a more neutral expression. well, neutral for him. "ookay," the nénar says, straightening up slightly, "my name's delight singing-sunlight and i'm nénar, one of our leaders." saying it out loud is surreal, but he's compartmentalizing that particular issue right now. "we're a pack that revolves around trades, so -- what are these kick-ass ways of yours?"

Delight—he introduces himself—isn’t very pleased with her and for a moment she thinks maybe she’s overstepped. Maybe her laughter had been too much but she hadn’t realized he had been so serious, either. She pulls it back a bit and licks her lips, but he continues on with his relation to the pack with a word she doesn’t know. He even inquiries about her skills and so hopes that’s a good sign, at least. He still wants to know about her and so a smile reforms on her features and she sits down, hoping to make herself more comfortable and not so… whatever made him shy away.
 
“Well, I’m good at hunting but I guess a lot of wolves are,” she pauses, and thinks about other things she’s pretty good at. She doesn’t mention direction or scouting when she’d played the joke a moment ago, easily shrugging it off. “and usually I’m good at cheerin’ wolves up. And I’m cute, so,” she tells him while her smile widens, hopeful it’s enough to win him over.

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something about her is oddly... charming? delight can't put a paw on it, because normally this sort of behavior is very off-putting to the easily bothered boy, and he feels prickly but not in a way that makes him want to bite back. more like... he wants to keep an eye on her to see what she's doing. or something. it's weird.

hunting, sunflower offers, and cheering wolves up. with a pang he thinks of brienne. it's not.. he's relucant yet to think she's abandoned them the way uka and trajan did. especially not with - well, her and mato, but ... actually, tindómë really is in some need of some good cheer. "being cute isn't a skill," he can't help but say, his tone devoid of any true bite. "but i guess you can stick around," the nénar tells her, the corners of his lips twitching faintly - it's possible underneath the snark he's genuinely teasing, here - "since you seem so eager about it. like i said, we value skilled members -- we also share our forest with the king elk and his cow. he's not to be hunted or bothered - we respect him, he respects us." sort of, delight adds mentally, his eyes bright as he watches for her reaction - it's hard to tell beforehand who's gonna be weirded out by their god-creature and who's into it.

“Bein’ cute is totally a skill, but you should know that, huh?” she tells him with a smirk, though she half expects him to rescind his invitation into the pack. She listens to the rest of what he has to say, about some elk that lives in the land they chose. It leaves her with some questions but they don’t feel too urgent. Besides, she can’t hunt an elk on her own and if the others don’t, there isn’t too much to worry about. “I promise not to eat the elk, sweets,” she says in a scout’s honor type fashion. Sunflower falls silent in the next beat, letting sweet Delight lead her home.

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the androgyne squints at her. "um," he says, still squinting, feeling himself blush as he processes what she says (and bristle slightly, harmlessly), "i'm - i'm not cute." he isn't cute. he's handsome. he's been over this already with -- it doesn't matter. sunflower's fine. delight marvels at his recent talent for acquiring strays every time he dips past tindómë's borders (quixote and screech notwithstanding) and turns to lead her back into the forest. "i'll give you the tour," he says, glancing over his shoulder with the barest hint of what can only be described as a 'smirk', "our alpha is called morwinyon, his name is mato. you'll meet him sure, i'm soon." it feels a bit weird to be doing this without him here too, but - he can now, that's kind of the point. and he's sure they'll bump into the silvery prince on their way through the forest anyway. his tail tip swishing behind him, delight takes them both home.