Redhawk Caldera Spin
612 Posts
Ooc — Jennifer
Offline
#1
All Welcome 
He'd been ready to go out on another adventure for the day on his ongoing quest for new members, but when he dragged himself out of his den only to find it was snowing again.  What the heck.  Winter, end already.  Even if it was spring enough for the pups to be born -- which he notably kept well away from so far, though if there was a celebratory howl or something, he'd have participated.

Right now, though, he was keeping close to home and towards the edges.  In fact, for once Quixote was doing something that actually resembled a proper patrol around the territory's borders.  It wasn't something he had really taken up to do on his own before, and likely was some kind of nervous making up for being way too much of a coward to get anywhere near a leader's newborn pups.  He'd have been even farther away if he didn't feel like getting trapped in a real snowstorm.

Nah, just time to amble along the borders and see how good of a job Towhee had been doing with them.  Ok, sure, the rest of the pack probably helped but she'd always seemed to be wandering them, so scents had said since day one of his arrival.
112 Posts
Ooc — Kim
Offline
#2
Orca much preferred patrolling with someone -- especially Towhee -- but when she found herself without a partner that day, she still resigned herself to take a quick turn around the borders. While she would have much rather been checking on Finley and the newest Blackthorns, she recognized that the little family needed some alone time. So she trundled through the snow on her own, her head tilted towards the sky to watch the snowflakes spiraling down.

Truthfully, she wasn't paying nearly as much attention to the task as she should have, but she did pause here and there to mark the territory. When she did finally tear her gaze away from the clouds, she was thankful to spot the dark form of Quixote ahead. She didn't know the burly male all that well, but she hastened to catch up with him all the same.

"Want some company?" she asked in a cheerful voice as she approached, leaving small pawprints in her wake that looked ridiculous in size next to Quixote's larger ones.
612 Posts
Ooc — Jennifer
Offline
#3
He assumed this would pretty much pass uneventfully.  Snow would fall, he'd wander along, eventually get bored and go take a nap or something.  That was basically what happened all the time, right?  It wasn't like any of the pack members had attached themselves to his hip -- the closest who'd done so was probably Colt and both of them were independent enough that it wasn't like they needed some other dude around to keep each other company.

He was pleasantly surprised when someone he wasn't too familiar with showed up to join him.  She was Towhee's sister or something, right?  Part of the main family in some way, that much he was sure.  Either way, Orca was on the list of "people he'd seen around but never actually really talked to" list.  He'd spent so much time absorbed in self-inflicted solitary confinement in one way or another that it was kind of unsurprising.

Quixote wagged his tail, 'Yeah sure, feel free.  It's not my normal thing -- more of yours though, right?  He still considered himself pretty garbage at the whole being friendly and not a sarcastic ball of whatever, so it was probably a kind of awkwardly-spoken question but eh.  He did his best. It'd keep him from annoying anyone too much before he got to know them and it was good practice for trying to recruit people later.
112 Posts
Ooc — Kim
Offline
#4
When he welcomed her to join him, Orca moved to fall into step alongside him. Her gait was quick and her strides were short, propelling her forward at almost a jog to keep up with the larger male. As he asked her about patrolling, she gave a soft chuckle and nodded.

"Kind of. I mean, I kind of do a little bit of everything -- I like to help out wherever I'm needed," she explained. "So I don't exactly think I'm great at patrolling, and I think if something bad happened, I would kind of be in trouble -- but I do my best," she concluded with a shrug. She knew that she needed to hone her skills and nail down a trade sooner rather than later, but she hadn't quite been able to make a decision just yet.
612 Posts
Ooc — Jennifer
Offline
#5
She was quite different than the young alpha, that much was certainly clear.  She seemed to be more like what he was expecting all the wolves here to be like, especially in comparison to his birth pack.  Less pointy, more agreeable.  But maybe that was just her not being leadership reflecting well in his eyes.  I'm still not quite sure why I haven't done so before now.  All the scouting for the war and a little wandering around to see if anyone nearby would make good recruits.. Just never thought about what was back home, maybe?  He had no clue if that was actually the case.  But it seemed pretty reasonable.  There was also the question of whether he really saw this as home.  His pack, certainly, but home was an entirely different beast.  Perhaps he was getting near there, but some of his hopes would soon be crushed, making him reconsider.  For now he was in a more positive worldview.  You'd think that all the fighting stuff I'd spend more time at the borders, but maybe I'm just a wierdo.  A weirdo without the rank to accept people, so maybe it wasn't so weird.  Hell, he was just rambling, wasn't he?

He'd be lord of the awkward, for a moment, though.  And though I know you probably heard from Towhee someone that I exist, to be all proper and whatever, I'm Quixote.  If they'd talked in passing it hadn't really been much of a conversation, and given how often Qui had been gone, it wasn't going to be more than that.  But he wasn't going to go out too far on a limb assuming everyone remembered every name of the full pack roster, let alone what wolf was attached to which name.

Social skills of a prince, this one.
112 Posts
Ooc — Kim
Offline
#6
She shrugged her shoulders as he debated aloud as to why he didn't often find himself patrolling the borders. It made enough sense to her -- he had been busy with other things, especially since he had helped with the war, and it sounded like he had plenty of other things to do to help the pack. "It's nice to meet you officially, Quixote," she replied with a smile and a laugh as he introduced himself by name.

"I'm Orca, just in case you weren't sure. Towhee's sister," she added, although she suspected that he had at least heard of her, just as she had heard of him. "Anyway, it's a lot more fun to have someone to talk to out here -- at least, I think so. Since it's not your favorite thing, what do you like to do?" she asked, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.
612 Posts
Ooc — Jennifer
Offline
#7
Yeah, nice to make it official, Quixote said with a dip of his head and a grin.  It's pretty much all family here for you, huh?  Must be pretty nice.  A not-so-dysfunctional family would have been a great way to grow up, but he'd been dealt a different hand of cards.  The occasional hints he'd see from others' lives looked good from the outside, at least.

Though he paused to investigate a scent, he verbally continued with a sort of awkward laugh, That's kinda what I'm still trying to figure out, actually.  Pretty much was all that kind of thing before this, no choice.  If the weather didn't look like garbage, I was going to go try to do some recruiting, get better at talking to people, blah blah.  First thing I thought of at least -- dunno what to do with more freedom.  Mostly it had been because if he could prevent Towhee causing a diplomatic incident, maybe it'd be a good use of his time.  Badmouthing the alpha to her relative was like a double bad idea though, so naaaah.  Not sayin' that.

He started moving forward again.  The scent had just been a deer that had ambled through.  Not a threat, and old enough it probably was't easy food either.  Maybe next time it wandered through the territory.
112 Posts
Ooc — Kim
Offline
#8
I'm the slowest, lol, so we can start wrapping up if you want!

At the mention of family, Orca nodded. She had enjoyed growing up in the company of the Blackthorns and Redhawks, and although some of her own littermates were gone for one reason or another, she still had Towhee and the rest of her kin.

Quixote then spoke of trying to recruit new members. She didn't have the negative reaction that Towhee might have; she had never really shared her sister's disdain for outsiders, although there was a certain sense of wariness. But Quixote had been an "outsider" before joining their pack, and he was a prime example that they weren't all bad. "Yeah, I'm not sure how many loners will be out and about but -- it's worth a try, right?" she said with a wave of her tail.
612 Posts
Ooc — Jennifer
Offline
#9
Sounds good to me!  Sometime in the next round unless you just wanna fade with them discussing stuffs.

Well, so far he hadn't had much luck finding anyone out there that seemed particularly promising.  Yeah, if there are any, just gotta make sure to snag the useful ones before some other pack does.  He was kidding a bit, but at the same time, hey, Quixote wasn't gonna complain if people found their lives elsewhere.  So it went, after all.  Then I gotta make sure they're the sort the leadership will like, eh?  That was the other thing that had him thinking.  Towhee was probably a tough customer and he was kind of doing things of his own, so...  Hopefully he'd just be able to swing any potentials past the betas.  Probably better luck there.
112 Posts
Ooc — Kim
Offline
#10
*fades* :D

"True," Orca replied with a chuckle, catching Quixote's drift. Towhee wasn't easily impressed by outsiders, although she knew that Elwood and Finley were usually a little more lenient. That was how Quixote had come to join them, after all.

With easy conversation flowing between them, they continued their patrol until parting ways a short time later.