ooc: phone post for your phone post :p
he shouldn't tread as far as he does but. he doesn't want to be back yet, still feeling raw and roughshod. ah, well, look at him: grown enough to recognize the pack won't crumble without him. maybe a little sad that's the case. (hey delight, how many of your problems are self created?)
he needs to think.
he can't think with all that singing. who's singing? the saturnine knight slows his pace, creeping forward curiously toward the stranger's voice. they're not hard to find: delight chuffs cautiously, hesitant to interrupt their (for he can't quite tell yet their gender) ... whatever it is theyre doing, even as he comes close enough to be seen.
o wow look @ me formatting this finally
The boy allowed his song to fade back to a gentle hum, oblivious to the approaching presence for the moment. A chuff startled Ali from his thoughts, then; a soft yelp slipped from him as he flinched away. Immediately his ears flattened with shame. He turned to the stranger, tail wagging despite his embarrassment.
Oh, hi there.
Alarian tilted his head, ears perked. At first glance, the strange wolf was androgynous-- it reminded him of himself, and he relaxed slightly at the thought. After a couple beats it became obvious to him that the wolf was male. He noted his features with interest; elegant in a feminine way, he thought, and it rather suited the stranger.
He tried to ignore the striking clarity in the dark male's gaze, a sharpness to the twin moons sparking the slightest bit of discomfort. Alarian disliked feeling transparent, but perhaps it was only that-- a feeling.
Ali remembered then what the stranger had stumbled into. Another wave of shame assaulted him, and he found himself speaking again before he could stop it.
Was that, uh, bothering you?
He flicked one ear back, slightly distressed. I'm sorry.
they - he? - yes, he -- funny, delight doesn't meet a lot of guys like him -- he looks rather sheepish and the morwinyon feels momentarily bad for disrupting his weird singing. he glances away, his own face turning embarrassed, a frown gathered in the corner of his mouth.
"nah," delight answers, "i was just, uh, curious. you've got a nice voice." actually, he has no idea if the stranger does or not, he's not got an ear for that sort of thing -- but it seems like the right thing to say to smooth things over. worried that his awkward intrusion will chase the boy away (god he does not want to be alone right now) delight clears his throat, taking a seat. "i'm delight," he introduces, "sorry for, uminterrupting you."
mato had taken him in with his confidence, with his hand extended to pull delight from the horror of his recent history. this boy is not like that at all, and yet he cannot help but be charmed (and well, okay, the compliment helps, it's been a while since he was able to preen his ego and he's always liked it when his name is well met and not instantly mocked.)
"alarian," delight repeats, tilting his head slightly. the embarrassment fades off his face into something sharper -- not mean, intrigued. "i do," he answers, briefly indicating the direction tindome lay with his nose, "a pack named tindómë. what about you?" he can smell the pack on the other (pity, he likes when he can bring strangers home) but it isn't sunspire or any of the others he vaguely scented on his journey to the vale. for a moment delight worries that he's from that group queenie and jomyo and the sunspire wolves got into a fight with, but he quickly shoves that aside -- alarian looks too small and shy to be from some aggressive interlopers group.
and if he's wrong, well. he'll deal with that later.
he tucks 'bracken sanctuary' away quietly, always pleased to learn the name of another pack and to have the chance to gather a little more history. delight's never traveled the direction alarian points (well, he's barely traveled aside from the line between king elk forest and the vale).
all too familiar with looking for someone, he makes a sympathetic sound (a sort of cluck of the tongue) and asks, "what do they look like?" in his experience aksing around doesn't do much to help find anyone, but there's always a chance, and at least he'll be able to keep a look out.
but alarian changes the subject, bringing up something more interesting (sorry) than a missing packmate delight's probably never seen. "a war?" he asks, a little incredulously. they really were secluded if they'd somehow missed a whole war -- but oh, it must've been on the other side of the mountains. "d'you know who was involved?" he thinks to add a beat later, wondering if he's at least aware of any of the players.
oh, a war and some romance. delight listens to the details of both attentively, his gaze keen. moonspear he remembers vaguely, jomyo having mentioned something about their scouts once, and caldera -- caldera earns a rather unimpressed snort from the morwinyon. "i know about redhawk caldera," delight says, deciding he definitely sides with whoever was against them, "one of our founding members resided with them for a time. they suffered a food shortage and chose to deny him the chance to eat because he was not from their bloodline." (that burke's particular telling of the story is heavily biased, of course, does not factor into delight's perception -- he agrees with burke, rest in peace: fuck redhawk caldera).
thinking about it, he wonders if cicero and his boys were involved in this war alarian speaks of. cicero's injuries had been severe and strange, and he'd not investigated deeply into the odd circumstances of their arrival -- but cicero had known burke and malice. maybe they were also from the caldera? if he has a chance, he should ask them about it. (ugh.)
"morningside helped one of ours when she was hurt," he agrees vaguely, "i like them -- it's good to know they moved safely. tindómë is neighbors with a pack as well -- sunspire, they live ... er, in the sunspire. they're great too." and he thinks again of the boys and feels guilty, but that's neither here nor there right now.
clearing his throat, he adds, "i haven't seen anyone like your lennon, sorry." delight can guess at the nature of their relationship (or at least.. alarian's proclivities) based on how he's described him, and he feels another pang of sympathy, though he'd not share why. he does say vaguely, "it's rough," and leaves it at that, hoping alarian gets the memo.
delight's eyebrows nearly shoot off his face they raise so quickly. it's not something he'd admitted feeling out loud, but: "i can relate," he admits, glancing away. his expression turns darker. "our first morwi-- leader -- stepped down right after promoting me. i've kept things together because -- well, because i love him and i don't want to fail him. he's not gone physically, but..."
realising how much he's just said, the androgyne stops, blushing deep underneath his dark fur. "uhhh," he says inelegantly, so so so so embarrassed, ears flat against his skull, "anyway, uh, that is to say, i can relate." good save.
hell.
secretly delight hopes the earth will crack open right beneath his paws and swallow him whole. for a guy who's so prone to oversharing he is constantly, fiercely overwhelmed and embarrassed by it. slowly he looks back at alarian's face, horrified by what he might find there.
well. he doesn't look put off and though that expression skirts too close to pity for delight's taste, it could be worse. "um," he says dumbly, trying to think of a quick recovery -- and then the other throws him a lifeline. he barks a laugh. "not that i haven't thought about it, but i'm not built for degeneracy," the androgyne quips back, making a vague gesture toward his delicate form. "let's go south instead and retire to a beach side estate," he offers back mischeviously, the tension now fully broken.
ooc: wanna fade this one?
--
delight's never been to the beach himself. it doesn't sound all that bad, though, "what's a crab?" he asks suspiciously, his eyes narrowing slightly.
alarian's offer comes before he can get an answer. he thinks for a moment and then shrugs and smiles slightly. "yeah, sure," the morwinyon agrees, his tail flicking behind him. the last time he hunted with a near stranger he was nearly assaulted by a horrible cryptid -- but that was ages ago, it feels like. and truth be told, he wants to steal a little more of alarian's time. "there's plenty by the vale," he says to this affect, "you can come visit whenever, too."