Moonspear in mountains that are stacked with fear.
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Ooc — Stevie
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#1
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Liffey and Rannoch had planned to do this together - to go to each that they needed to see and speak to them, systematically checking their list off one by one until they arrived here at last. But when it came down to it, Rannoch had taken the brunt of the discussions, and so Liffey took this one on herself - the most important one of all.

@Charon.

She lingered near to the borders when she tilted her head back to call for him. Part of her considered that this would be the most likely to find the alpha. Another part considered that any moment now, the cerberus might be learning of their impending departure and so soon would be descending on her to rip her to pieces before she could take Rannoch away from them. If that happened, she would be glad to be near to the borders where she could more quickly get out of dodge. Not that she truly believed there would be any hiding from them if they did decide to take offense at their departure.

But she shouldn't think about those things now. Her feet were already feeling dangerously cold. She had to continue to remind herself of the reasons that mattered the most in this situation, no matter how selfish they were seemed. And also, no matter how angry and disappointed her friend got with her...
if I knew where I was going, I'd lose my way.
~•~
starboy
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Ooc — Iris
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Ever since they had discussed that they needed to do something, little had happened. There'd been a few awkward run-ins but nothing big had happened. Nothing but the brewing feeling that something was about to happen. He'd tried to shake it off, hoped that it wasn't true, but at this point it would not be a big surprise if he would receive word that something happened somehow.

When the Liffey's call came, he frowned and continued his pace along the borders in her direction. Ears perked forward when he arrived, carrying his body dominantly as he always did along the borders, and he cast her a questioning glance while battling the churning feeling in his gut that something bad was about to happen — a feeling he hadn't been able to shake ever since Alya'd told him she didn't trust Rannoch and Liffey.
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Liffey's nerves were on edge as she waited for Charon to arrive. She kept her eyes glued on her surroundings, watchful, waiting. Her mind was continuously tempted to wander to Rannoch and to Gannet and to everyone else that she cared about that was affected by this, but she tried hard not to let it. It was too hard to think of those things and keep her nerve.

Instead, she thought of her parents, her siblings. She wondered about them and what they were up to. Most of all what they would think of what she was doing right now, and how they would have handled this situation. It was a feeble distraction, but it did at least give her something to center herself on, as well as some standard to hold herself to in this conversation. That was something she'd been missing in the last two, and something she needed desperately if she was going to hold her own against Charon and against her ever failing confidence.

When her gaze landed on the alpha, her heart spasmed with anxiety. Instinctively, she dropped her posture, but kept her eyes on him. There was something expectant about his demeanor, and in the way he held his tongue instead of giving her the friendly greeting he always had. Liffey's heart began to throb wildly as she realized... He knew. Maybe not everything, and maybe not even the most basic of details... But he knew that Liffey was about to disappoint him.

In that moment, Liffey thought of her mother and the thought kept her tears at bay. Her ears slipped back as she took a breath to begin. "Thanks for coming so quickly," she said, smiling softly and briefly, "There's... There's really no easy way of telling you this, Charon; you've been so good to me and to Rannoch. But we've decided that it's time to move on from Moonspear. We're going to be leaving, to find a new home for ourselves and for our family that.. we're hoping to have."

She was hesitant with her words, more careful than she had been with Gannet. Her friend hadn't given her a chance to explain, and so this time, Liffey took care to make it known first and foremost that she and her mate did this for their family. It was true that Liffey was miserable at Moonspear and it was because of Charon's daughters. But if that were it, then she could've found a way to try harder to make amends with them and to find a way to trust them with her own life. But she wouldn't put Rannoch's kids in this danger, if they were to have any. She wouldn't start a family in a place where she felt so tense and anxious all the time. She wouldn't allow their children to be around wolves who thought it was alright to attack, cripple, and hold prisoner the innocent.

But they didn't need to get into that.
if I knew where I was going, I'd lose my way.
~•~
starboy
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Something was wrong, he felt, when he arrived and Liffey instantly submitted. She must be hiding something, he thought. This surely was the culmination of all of the things that'd happened in the past months. He frowned in a glum and dark manner, though it was a subconscious gesture brought on by his thoughts, not something he realised he was doing.

When she said 'there's no easy way to tell you this', he knew that something was wrong. He knew that she was going to do or say something that'd make him sad and angry. He knew that she was going to say something that would prove everything that Alya had said to him, surely.. His heart pounded in his chest as he listened to the rest of it. He didn't understand. Of course he didn't. A family could be had here, as far as he was concerned. Or it could have, if they had asked, if they had thought it through before deciding rashly to leave.

He knew somewhere deep down that it may be for the best, considering the tense situations. It was a solution, in a way. "You could've had that here. Why do you need to leave for it? Prove yourself somewhere else all over again? For what? You haven't even really paid off the debts of the time Rannoch was fed and taken care of under our care. That's a promise you made." His frown continued, though his voice was fairly calm — and calculated — as he managed to keep his cool... for now. "Are you really going to break that promise?" There was a tone of incredulousness to his voice. He had never thralled either of them because he had liked them and Rannoch was Eshe's son... But now he was not so sure if that was a good decision. Not that he thought it would've kept them here now. She looked like her decision was made. Though unlike when Dhole'd told him to leave, a similar wolf with a similar out of the blue decision made, he didn't feel the anger and the need to pin her down. They were afraid of this and now it had happened. It was not as out of the blue as then. He just wanted them out of his life so he could focus on the wolves that deserved his love — his family.

But not before making her see what an immoral and fucking dumb decision she was making.

i figured in one of our next posts, we could incorporate Rannoch's howl for Liffey from this thread? :)
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Ooc — Stevie
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Charon was upset, though she was thankful he didn’t seem too terribly angry. Yet. Her heart began to pound harder as he questioned her. He was clearly offended, but then, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, so too was Liffey.

The Frostfur blinked at the alpha in surprise as he spoke of their debts being yet unpaid. She had never expected that he would feel this was the case. She hadn’t really considered that at all. Both she and Rannoch had worked tirelessly every day to make themselves useful to the pack. What exactly was it Charon expected from them that they hadn’t delivered? 

The topic was a distraction, but she couldn’t help herself. ”I... I’m confused” she admitted, her tone concerned more than anything else, ”You don’t feel that we’ve paid you back for what you did for Rannoch? After all this time?” She swallowed and took a breath, then ”I don’t understand how that could be the case? Rannoch and I both have worked from sun up to sun down every day for weeks now? What is it you feel we haven’t done to pay you back?”

The matter of their need to be paid back for heir generosity also stuck in her craw a bit, but she recognized that they had gone above and beyond for Rannoch when they’d had no obligation to do so. She would always be grateful to them for saving her mate’s life, but there still was always something that sat a little wrong with her about kindness that wasn’t given selflessly, but with expectations. Especially such apparently high ones...

I was thinking the same! Feel free to pop it whenever you want! I’ll look for an opportunity to do the same unless you beat me to it ;)
if I knew where I was going, I'd lose my way.
~•~
starboy
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Perhaps if she'd just said 'sorry, but this is the only way', 'sorry, I'm really sorry we have to leave', or something else to indicate that they were, indeed, being scumbags, then Charon would've just let the whole matter slide. But instead she started to not just defend themselves, she started to say that they were right and that their debt had already been repaid. Throughout every word that Liffey spoke, the dark frown on Charon's face became deeper and deeper as he thought of how little of those words were true.

But then he realised something when she finished speaking. His voice more held back and angrier than before, he said: "I guess Rannoch's life is just not worth as much to you as I valued it at." Staying with Moonspear through winter was a smart move for them, too; and here she was, acting like all they'd done was altruist working-for-the-pack with no pause. "You questioned my decisions about Gannet. Is that what you call loyalty? Is that what you call working non-stop for the pack?" Perhaps it was blown up, this tidbit, as he didn't know exactly what she had said to Gannet about him, but it had been something and she'd seen the way she looked at him when Gannet was around too. "I see the way you look at me lately. You don't respect me, and this... This is just another fucking spit in my face. I was just too blind to see that you'd been doing it all along, I thought we were friends, I thought you were a good person and now it turns out you've been doing this shit all along. What will you do next, huh? Take our other members to find some non-existent paradise to live in because you naively think things're better out there? I'm —" Just at that moment Rannoch's howl sounded to collect Liffey, though Charon didn't quite realise that the howl had been ordered and issued by Hydra. He froze, his words cut off, though merely looked at Liffey after it had faded away, looking like he was still expecting some kind of answer.
783 Posts
Ooc — Stevie
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feel free to stop her or PP her away! <33333 ILU I MISS U BE BACK SOON

Okay now he was angry.

Liffey stared at him, frowning in confusion over his words. He didn’t answer her question, not exactly. But she was able to glean from his accusations what it was he had expected, and where it was she has failed him. She hadn’t considered that repayment to the pack had meant to Charon what it did. And she also hadn’t considered that his definition of loyalty was so vastly different from hers. In the blink of an eye, Liffey suddenly saw a very different man standing before her than the one she had loved. He was not the friend she had know, but just a very small man that wanted control and power and was throwing a temper tantrum now because he’d discovered he had none.

That was not the kind of man that deserved her guilt. Liffey felt it slip away from her as she looked at him. She would reserve it for those that did deserve it - Rannoch, Gannet, Terance and Wraen - those caught in the crossfire of her unhappiness with this pack. Her heart throbbed at Rannoch’s call. She was glad for it. One, it had silenced Charon, and two, it meant all of this mess was almost over.

”If loyalty to you means expecting me to never question a single decision you make, no matter how crappy, then you should just be glad that we’re leaving,” Liffey said steadily, her voice and tone remaining calm instead of matching Charon’s, ”And if your members decide to follow us instead of you, maybe you should consider why exactly that is.”

She paused to look sadly at the alpha for a moment before shaking her head. ”Anyway... I felt I owed it to you to tell you this in person. Take care, Charon. Thank you for everything,” Liffey said just before pulling herself up onto all fours and turning to go. She meant her gratitude, but she knew now that it had likely been wasted. But anyway. Her mate was waiting, and it was time to begin moving on.
if I knew where I was going, I'd lose my way.
~•~
starboy
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Ooc — Iris
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if you don't want an altercation, feel free to just write him missing her and have her skadoodle out of there! ˆˆ

”If loyalty to you means expecting me to never question a single decision you make, no matter how crappy, then you should just be glad that we’re leaving.” That made no sense to Charon, and obviously loyalty meant not questioning your Alpha; that went without saying to Charon, and he was only now beginning to realise that for some weird reason, for Liffey and Rannoch, it wasn't how things were. "You never said anything," he hissed in response, for to him, despite the tension he had felt, they had both remained respectful of him and they now suddenly dropped a leaving-bomb on him. He knew it was for the best, but he could not help but admit that it hurt that it was so sudden — that they'd say and do nothing, and now throw in his face that he was wrong to think that his members shouldn't question his decisions. How the fuck should he even know they were questioning his decisions if they didn't tell him in any way, except on their way out the door?

Soon these thoughts were forgotten though, sucked into the swirl that was caused by what she said next: ”And if your members decide to follow us instead of you, maybe you should consider why exactly that is.” "How dare you," he said in a low voice, accompanied by a twitch of his tail tip as indication of anger. "We took you in, we cared for you, and now you are here telling me that if my members leave, it isn't because you told them to, but because I should've magically known to do things differently while you schemed behind my fucking back!" He didn't know if any of that were true, of course — the 'stealing our members' things had been just an example at first, but the way that Liffey hooked into it and said that it was his own fault triggered him badly.

Midway through her bye-and-thanks-for-the-cookies sentence, just as she was getting up, Charon was fed up — he lunged forward, teeth bared, intending to grab whatever he could but aiming for her face, neck or scruff. Somewhere that would hurt. Somewhere that would humiliate. Somewhere that would make sure she wouldn't forget that if she ever stepped foot nearish to this mountain again, he would come and finish her.
783 Posts
Ooc — Stevie
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I opted for a lil of both :) Last post for me! You can post again or just archive!

Charon shouted at her, but Liffey couldn't find it in herself to care about his words now that she had seen through him. She did wonder momentarily about his own hypocrisy - acting betrayed because she hadn't spoken when simultaneously demanding her loyalty without question. How could his desires even make sense to himself? Was he truly this blind to his own narcissism? Had she ever actually held this angry, sad little man in any sort of esteem? It was too much. So much of her world was shattering before her very eyes. She had wielded the hammer herself for most of it, but she had never expected the rest to come crumbling down alongside of it.

Liffey hadn't seen the attack coming, otherwise she would've moved quicker and maybe been a little less sentimental in her last words. They were still trickling from her lips when her former alpha cried out in rage and sprang. She had barely stood when she ducked away from his attack - quickly enough to avoid him grabbing hold of her muzzle, but not enough that she didn't feel the hard scrape of his teeth against her barely healed wounds. The cut seared with pain as it was torn open again, but it wasn't enough to stop Liffey from propelling herself away from him as quickly as possible. She was not a fool to think she could take Charon in a fight, nor was she angry enough to have any desire to hurt him. All she wanted was to get away from this dark place and its vicious family, and find her way back to peace and joy. To Rannoch.
if I knew where I was going, I'd lose my way.
~•~
starboy
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Teeth grazed across something and he tasted blood though without first breaching skin and fur. Only as she turned away and ran he saw that it was her healing shoulder that he had hit. Charon ran after her a few hundred meters before he finally came to a stop, a dark snarl still wringing his face together and his breath coming out in ragged pants as he angrily stared after her. "I hope all your pups die, you filthy traitor!" he shouted loudly after her but he doubted that she could hear it still considering how fast she was running. Teeth gnashed angrily and only after a minute or so did Charon turn around and with angry pace started stomping back to his mountain, his family — the loyal part of his pack.