Heron Lake Plateau i'm headed DOWNTOWN

mom come comfort your sulky child @Finley

tegan was still pissed as a motherfucker. he had decided many days ago he hated towhee with his whole being, she was just totally uncool, and like, was such a vibe killer? U G H. 

maybe tegan was just 'at that age'... but either way, his personality did a whole 180, leaving the usually boisterous and outspoken young male to be silent and sulky, hanging around the outskirts of the territory and avoiding his older sister at all costs. he'd even missed easy. he had to hear it from eljay. which, well, he appreciated, but still. that blew. 

so he just sulked. maybe he was patrolling? or maybe he just happened to be along the borders as he pouted-- and he just happened to pee on a bolder. whatever, it wasn't like he cared.

For as many kids as Finley and Elwood had to corral daily, it was a wonder they were actually interested in making even more. The drama that budded from their cross-wilds move seemed to calm in some ways, but was clearly still simmering in others. She hadn't been too involved in Tegan and Towhee's little spat, but it wasn't hard to tell that her son had yet to let it go. She had hoped that he would with some time, but either her hope had been in vain or she was just too impatient to wait it out any longer. In any event, she sought her boy now to try to check one less conflict off of her list.

"Hey you!" Fin called as she spotted him ahead of her. She was moving slow again since the ache in her hip had returned thanks to the journey, so she once again was attempting to get him to slow so that she could join him. Assuming she succeeded, she moved up alongside him and prodded his temple affectionately with her nose. "I've never seen someone pee so sad before," she commented wryly, lowering her head so that she could peek at his presumably downtrodden face.

tegan dropped his leg, ears and head perking as he turned to see his mother. dark nose twitching, tegan regarded her quietly for a moment before ducking his gaze to press his chin against his chest as she pressed her nose against his temple, his earsears falling. "i'm not sad, mom," he insisted, mad all his family thought he was some sorta crybaby. he wasn't!!! towhee was just a bitch! he raised his head to look at her, head tilting gently to one side, a frustrated whine escaping his maw. "towhee's been really outta pocket lately, and why does she hate outsiders so much? did someone do something to her or is she just-- a ... a uh... a bitch.." he asked, the last part coming out really quietly-- like he was trying to ask permission to say the word before he actually said it.

Ah, wrong tactic. Fin frowned at her son's grumpy retort, though she raised a single eyebrow to show her skepticism. She wondered why they were so uncool with being sad, never once pausing to realize how she had rejected that particular emotion almost her entire life. When he looked at her, she could see the frustration in his expression and gave a soft sigh of defeat. She was not going to ease him out of this funk with jests and prods. They were gonna have to real talk.

"Let's get one thing straight first off, buddy," Fin said more sternly, "Towhee is your sister, and your alpha. You and your siblings need to learn that an alpha is to be respected, not called a bitch and not disobeyed. You've been lucky enough to grow up in a pack where your family has run the show all your life. You talk about your alpha like that in another pack and it could mean your life."

She paused to give him a significant look, hoping he understood. She had been in packs like that before - plenty of them. It was not lost on Finley that the Redhawk Blackthorn conglomerate was a rare breed of wolf in that they didn't command respect as intensely or unforgivingly as others of their kind. Though she desperately hoped that none of her kids would ever leave her, she knew the chances of them one day ending up in a pack like that were pretty good. She would not let them be unprepared for the reality of their species.

"And you need to cut Towhee a little slack here," she said, a little gentler this time, "She's new to this alpha gig, and taking on the relocation of an entire pack is not an easy feat, even for us seniors. It's a lot of work, a lot of stress and a lot of uncertainty. All three of us have an entire pack full of wolves to consider, and two of them barely a month old. We have to keep everyone safe, and sometimes that means driving out those we don't know and don't have the time or the luxury to spend learning to trust outsiders, especially coming off of a war and into a forced relocation."

She frowned softly, hoping that he might understand a little better based on her words. She was well aware there was a 50/50 chance of that or him rebelling angrily against anything she had to say. But Fin was no stranger to poor odds. She actually was used to operating under far, far worse odds than that.

as finley was speaking, tegan made a quiet "well," as she mentioned towhee wasn't to be called a bitch. as in, 'well maybe she shouldn't be such a bitch then.' but he let finley get all her lecture out or whatever-- trying really hard not to zone out cause he had a decent amount of respect for his good ole mommerz. "i know that," he said softly, looking at finley apologetically, "i met morningside's alpha-- i was real angel, if you met that guy he'd compliment you on having such a respectful, handsome son." maybe not but... maybe. he forced a toothy smile, but he was still pretty meh feeling. 

but... "still," he said with frustration, "it wasn't like some cockass stranger was rolling through our territory-- we were outside the territory! and easy was so respectful, and my friend, i trust her." why wasn't that enough?

She could see the protest in her son's face, but he did well enough in holding it back until she was finished. Fin listened as he replied, talking about angels and alphas and cockass strangers. She had no doubt that Morningside's alpha, and every other alpha (except Towhee) would sing her son's praises to her if given the chance. Tegan was very charming and lovable when he wanted to be. He was also a rebellious little schemer. Which was also very charming and lovable to her, but she was his mom - it was her right to adore every characteristic of her children.

"Towhee's dad once had to kill his own daughter because she tricked him into letting her close to his new litter, which she proceeded to try and murder right under his nose," Fin informed him, sugarcoating the truth only in that she didn't describe the decapitation, "An alpha can never be too careful when it comes to trust."

tegan fell silent as his mom spoke. yeah but... for once, he maybe didn't have any solid arguments to use here. he understood, i guess... 

"well, i wouldn't try to hurt cinder or lil t," he assured his mother, even though finley probably doubted he ever would. it was just way too much effort, and even though tegan was always down to scheme... it held a lot of political weight and tegan didn't have time for that. "am i gonna be ungrounded soon?" he asked hopefully. there was a lot of the territory to explore but tegan could bet there were packs nearby!!! and he wanted to go check out the surrounding territories. and then he was quiet for a minute, cause he realized he kinda wanted to hear the full story so he could tell it later, it kinda sounded badass, but he wasn't sure if finley would tell him or not. adults always had this tendency to not wanna tell stories like that to him, for some reason? like he wasn't mature or something? whatever gave them that idea was beyond tegan.

but it was worth a shot... tegan added with a sweet, toothy grin, "can i hear the whole uncensored story please mom?" and then with added sweetness and quick little taps of his tail against the ground. "please please pleeeeeeaaassee?"

Tegan seemed to take something from the story, though Fin wasn't totally sure if it was the right thing. In either case, the matter of his disobedience to Towhee seemed to be settled. For the moment. She smirked at his question about being ungrounded and gave a shrug. "That's up to your alpha," she replied, "It's her rule you disobeyed, and she's the big boss now. Good luck to you there."

When the conversation moved forward, she gave her son a suspicious frown. "Now what makes you think there's an uncensored version?" she questioned, a smile unfurling across her lips that revealed there totally was one. She supposed he was just used to there always being one, but she still wondered.

tegan didn't respond, but his brow furrowed as he thought long and hard about how to approach towhee. there was probably no way to do it without being a little shit. so, he concluded, it looked like he was just gonna have to be a piece of shit to her as always. 

it was the most logical decision, towhee, sorry bout it. 

mom insisted that there was only a censored version, but she looked sus asf, so tegan scowled, giving a little half-growl. "cause you're cool-- not on that lame-boi shit!" he insisted with more little wiggles of his rump. come on mom! pull through!!

There were a lot of things that came out of her son's mouth that she did not at all understand. She never asked, knowing it would ruin the illusion that she was totally hip to his jive. Instead, she just made up her own interpretations and just rolled with it. "Cause you're cool-- not on that lame-boi shit" she simply pared down to being "You're cool, not not cool", which was accurate. That or Tegan was trying to tell her that he thought boy shit was lame, which made her cool becasue she wasn't a boy. The former seemed more likely.

"True enough," she replied with a smirk, "Well, Peregrine had had a strained relationship with his daughter, Junior, for the entire time that I knew him. I don't totally understand why, though I'm sure it had a lot to do with him hooking up with your Aunt Fox and leaving our former pack to make a new one at the Caldera. But in any case, it was a couple of months after the first firebirds were born - Raven, Wildfire and your cousin Nightjar - that Junior showed up on the borders, claiming to want to visit and make amends or something. Peregrine was a dumb ass and believed her, so he brought her into the territory and took her to meet the kids. Once they got there, she attacked Wildfire and mangled her throat up some. Luckily she didn't actually succeed in killing her - We all jumped on her and got her away from Wiffle and then Peregrine ripped off Junior's head. Which killed her."

That last part had probably gone without saying, but Finley liked to be clear.

"holy shit," came tegan's response, his ears pricked with much surprise and shock. that was fuckin wild, but also like... kinda dope. actually, hella dope. "that's hella dope," he clarified, tail wagging at the thrill of the story. he was glad nothing like that ever happened here(foreshadowing), cause he totally wouldn't be as heroic as mom or uncle peregrine. 

"i understand," tegan then said with a small frown, "i guess, i still think towhee was too mean to easy, but i get it."  at least there was some form of it, even though tegan was stubborn as ever anyway. "i'm gonna head out, i got important stuff to do, but thanks for talking to me mommerz," he said, leaning in to give finley a quick kiss on the cheek and bump to the bottom of her chin. and then he was skrt skrting off into the distance.

wrapping up sine finley is PPC <3