The Tangle but it was met with some disdain

set after ingram leaves grimnismal, but not before he gets to EWF. 

he had not trailed wylla long before he lost scent of her, and frustrated, he doubled back. the arc she made had been confusing -- first she had gone south, and then, she had gone north -- he could only assume she was in the most bewildered of states and worry grappled his heart.

he was not the greatest tracker, and as he labored in vain back and forth along the rim of the tangle, he considered his expedition might be fruitless. fraught with despair he decided he should turn back to where her scent was last -- a ways away from here, but it would be a start.

B) *pretends blix's timeline makes sense*

normally blixen channels her anger into her work, finding outlets for her pent up frustration in patrolling and sparring. and it'd worked at first -- but she's still, she realises, angry at mother for her part in this, and she doesn't know how to  handle that. is she even allowed to be angry at mother? her poor mother who went through so much (who is the reason blixen even became a guardian, is the reason furi was even brought to drageda in the first place) -- all the same she did something to make furi not love her anymore.

she can't face the idea of bringing it up. she can't face anything, so she does something she almost never does and slips from drageda's borders with no real direction in mind. she avoids the coast (grimnismal too close for comfort -- as much as she'd love to get a little fighting action in, she's not about to cost nomi a strategic victory by offering herself up as a martyr). so into the tangle it is, half hoping she'll run into furi, half hoping she won't, redirecting her heartbreak into an easier-to-manage irritation at the tangle's treacherous layout.

and then she smells him. blixen knows nothing of the friendship between her ex and this boy, and probably for the better -- all she knows is he's one of them and he's a shitty boy and an easy target. her lips curl in a snarl as she moves towards him, not quite as deadly graceful as she'd like (stumbling over vines does sort of dampen the effect). "you," the gona calls, voice rough and mean, "what are you doing here?" even if he's not technically close enough to drageda to be trespassing, she doesn't care. she needs an outlet, and here one is.

ingram rn: https://media.giphy.com/media/xU9TT471DTGJq/giphy.gif

ingram had only gone a few feet back in the direction of grimnismal when the instinctual feeling of being watched washed over him, cold and unfriendly. he felt an icy wave trickle down his spine as he looked up, suddenly presented with two furious amber eyes. for all the spirited fire that licked her frame, there was not a single drop of warmth in blixen as she approached in a predatory prowl.

ingram froze as the callousness of her words hit him. wylla was forgotten as he backpedaled into the prickly brush that was somehow far more inviting than conversing with the firebrand before him. half-heartedly he waved his tail, though his ears remained flat back as he cautiously answered with honesty: "my sister's missing."

she wants a fight and she expects ingram to deliver. instead she gets him beating a retreat into a thorny bush (which would be funny if she were in a better mood), what she takes as attempts at placation, and -- his sister is missing.

her posture hardly changes, though the corners of her lips slowly turn back down, not quite releasing the snarl but lessening it. fuck. she does understand missing family members better than most. "ugh," blixen says, less to him and more to the world (all she wanted was one little fight!) "that isn't my problem," she says, pauses, and groans, "i just wanted a fight right now." not that she couldn't still instigate one, but he looks... a little pathetic. not like a fun target. she glowers at him, clearly blaming him for not being what she needs right now despite his own woes, and snaps, "which way did your sister go."

ingram was seconds into considering diving straight for the thorny underbrush, so cutting were those keen amber eyes -- he did not want to find out if her teeth carried with them the same complimentary sharpness.

he saw her lips perceptibly shift - not enough for him to abandon his escape plan, but enough for him to stay there a moment longer. and then she exhaled -- ingram's ears gently lifted, but then fell again as she said it wasn't her problem. rude, he wanted to say, though his teeth remained clenched and his shoulders hunched - surely, he better get going now.

but then blixen said something even more confusing -- a fight? why? ingram's brow knotted and his ears eventually lifted from their flat-lined placement. more vexing than wanting a fight was the fact she almost seemed to concede in light of his troubles; it was all ingram needed to summon a worried grin and reply -- "i don't know, i lost her scent back there." he motioned back towards the barrow fields with a thick limb and then continued: "i'm not a good tracker... why... why did you want a fight?"

tension lingers between them but the urge to blindly throw herself into the fray has passed. she's not a bitch, she's an honorable warrior. kicking someone when they're already down is just, ugh. not on. unfortunately.

when she speaks, the words come out in a whoosh: "my girlfriend dumped me." with a huff she throws herself into a sit, abandoning the pretense of aggression for now. "and usually, you're kind of a jackass, which is why i dont like you but i thought, like. i need a distraction, so, can't you just be a little rude to me so i can beat you up a little?" she gives him a nearly pleading look, oblivious to the inanity of her ask -- c'mon, do your fave enemy a solid, ingram.

he was positively relieved when she sat her very intimidating self down, though the news she shared troubled him. he wasn't aware she was furi's interest, and vice versa, but he believed they shared a commonality and stupidly he blurted out "hey, me too!" as if it was a good thing to be dumped -- in ingram's eyes, it wasn't exactly, but anything to get blixen to stop staring him down with those hard-as-diamond eyes, right?

"a while ago, but still." he continued, though as blixen almost pleaded with him to be a jack-ass he rolled his shoulders again and scrunched his brow as he thought of how to placate her need for fighting. killing something, maybe? just preferably not him?

"umm.. okay." he said, squinting at her as he tried to find some fault to pick at, or something to elicit a response (don't worry, he was very prepared to run). "you... you have scary eyes...?" in the end, he couldn't do it -- mostly because even though she was in essence an enemy, she hadn't done anything to him -- and wylla's absence was more concerning to him presently than picking fights with the neighbors.

although blixen would never admit it, her actual knowledge of ingram is limited. looking back on the incident he hadn't been the one to instigate (even if he should have turned arrille over in the first place), and he'd brought rose to them... 

no, no, fuck this train of thought. she squints at him, trying to figure out why he sounds so happy about being dumped when she feels as if someone has taken out her heart and smashed it into a billion pieces and left her behind as a hollowed out bitter husk. maybe it's a boy thing. he agrees to be rude and she nearly weeps with joy, so glad to have something to hold onto and be angry -- oh. uh.

"thanks?" blixen says, a little caught off guard. is that supposed to be rude? it is, if anything, a little flattering. "i said rude, but -- oh, forget it." he's useless. she's hopeless. desolate, she stares at her paws, unable to hold on to her precious anger any longer without something to direct it at. "you got dumped too? what did you do?" she asks belatedly, if only to confirm he was dumped because he was a stupid jackass and not at all because he is anyhting like blix.

blixen's hefty squint was enough to wipe the foolish grin from ingram's face, though faint traces of it still clung to the corner of his lips. stupid as it was, he hadn't been able to insult her properly -- mostly because other than the fact she was clearly born on the wrong side of the cliff, he didn't have much of a problem with her.

bit by bit, he was beginning to realize she said girlfriend -- and while the connection was slow to form, it did bridge tenuously in his mind. furi liked chicks too, didn't she?

he scrambled to answer, having been sidetracked by the not-so-sudden realization. "i picked my family over her." he said simply, looking to the ground with sudden solemnity. "what about you?"

she's expecting something like "i'm a dumb boy" or "she got tired of me being a dumb boy", something she could get behind easily. his actual answer surprises her. 

blix frowns, frustrated that she gets him, annoyed that she even has to say this (but the girl does not have a stitch of deceit in her). "that's stupid, she shouldn't have asked you to pick." her voice is blunt. nothing matters to blixen more than family -- or, well, drageda, but those are one in the same. if furi'd asked her to choose between nomi or her... she doesn't even want to think about it. furi wouldn't do that, anyway.

of course he turns the question back around, and she huffs, looking away. "i don't know! she got upset that i told my mother we were together, i think? and said a bunch of stuff about not being ready whatever that means." furi's explanations still confused her, only adding to her anger about the issue. if she'd said "i just dont like you that way", well, that'd suck, but at least it was something she could parse. but.. not ready? not ready for what? theyd barely even done any real.. couple-y things. ugh. "dating," she declares vehemently, "is stupid."

ingram's eyes lifted only for a moment, catching the frown that crinkled blixen's fiery features. he looked away quickly, not wanting his curiosity to be mistaken for anything else -- and when she declared her opinion on the matter he nodded dully. it was stupid, and he agreed -- though he would have never said such things to chusi, particularly not in the moment.

blixen's huff, departing from her thin features with a plume of frost, caused ingram to look up again and he saw within her commanding gaze for a moment the confusion, the vexation -- possibly even the ache -- these sorrows he knew well. he hadn't really understood what she meant by not being ready, and still hadn't truly cemented the connection between furi and blixen. or rather, the prior connection -- considering this one seemed quite kaput. "agreed." he affirmed, though blixen's fierce statement evinced the slightest of humored smiles. "you're kind of funny." he said with a sway of his tail, the grin still hanging off of his lips. "maybe she just needs time to sort through her feelings?" ingram added in cautious afterthought, wondering if the tincture of time would be enough to reinforce whatever shaky conviction blixen's girlfriend possessed.

she keeps waiting for ingram to prove himself to be the pathetic jackass of a boy she doesn't like, but he's... surprising. she still doesn't trust him as far as she can throw him -- and if she knew of his illicit friendship with furi it would be a whole thing -- but somehow he's maybe not as bad as she'd initially thought. he kind of reminds her of bobby of all things. it's unsettling.

"i am not," blix says, affronted, even as her expression relaxes slightly. ingram's suggestion -- well, it isn't -- furi is sort of... she does the thing with the many feelings that blixen doesn't really get. it's not entirely off track. "...maybe," she allows, "she's sorta... complicated. it really felt like the end though." miserably the gona slumps, adds, "like, will your girl come around eventually, d'you think?"

girls - complicated. who would have known?

ingram scoffed a little - not at blixen, but simply at the statement -- it was true, and he understood it -- they were multifaceted, layered things, and no matter how much the boy learned he'd never truly understand how women -- or even, individuals for that matter, worked. not for lack of trying - he just didn't possess the mental faculties for such introspective examinations.

but blixen did -- ingram could tell she was sharp as a whip, and he slyly studied her features as she spoke. when she asked after his own girl his lips pursed and he offered a small shrug. "dunno. i'm not gonna chase after something that left me. if she comes around it'll be a day late and a hare short." 

those were tough words to come out of his mouth, and he said them with far more conviction than he felt.

blix isn't stupid, but she certainly isn't as introspective as ingram gives her credit for. his words are met with a soft snort -- a little jealous of his seeming detachment. "all i wanna do is chase after her," she admits, "cause that's worked every other time we've fought, but..." she's too hurt, honestly. their previous fights have been fights, fueled by blixen's tendency to put her foot in her mouth and furi's -- well, furi-ness. this wasn't a fight. this was furi deciding something, like always, and running away, like always. even blixen can see that trying to chase after her now will just make it worse.

"furi's just like, i don't know," she continues, sighing. "i'm probably just gonna be single for the rest of forever, i think."

furi. well, that certainly cinched it for an idiot like ingram, who had only barely entertained the idea it was furi they were talking about. he swallowed, trying to conceal any recognizable emotion. somehow, he didn't think blixen would like him more if he revealed he had been holding council with the emotionally laden furi.

as much as he wanted to hear more about furi, to explore this avenue, he knew it would not be right. firmly, he anchored his mouth shut on that subject.

"that's chicks, man.." he offered lamely and entirely half-heartedly -- he didn't believe it, at all. "being single is not so bad." ingram added, wondering if blixen believed him at all. in an effort to lighten the mood he shifted upright and for the slimmest second, met her fierce gaze. "i mean.. if you want to not be single.. i might know someone available." he winked, and then very quickly leapt back -- just in case her laughter came in the form of teeth.

her eyes narrow sharply at his comment -- really, boys -- only to snap wide at his joke. his joke? please be a joke. the wink cinches it -- she bursts into laughter, full bodied laughter at the idea. her? and a boy? ingram, no less? imagine how that family meeting would go: hi i know you didnt like the last one but how about this nerd who's literally an enemy of ours (well sort of it's complicated). 

"gross," she says around her mirth, still giggling, "but thanks, i needed a laugh." she still doesn't feel great -- furi's still -- but, but. in the moment she thinks she feels better, and for that she rewards her strange frenemy with a smile. it's all a little overwhelming, the way this conversation ended up going -- so with nothing left to say, she leaves him teeth-free for another day.