Wolf RPG

Grimm emerged from the team-building exercise as a freshly branded social pariah. There was no mistaking Finley's expression. Somehow, she had found out, and lacking any other explanation, Grimm assumed that Elwood had told her as part of whatever heartfelt confession had brought the lovers together.

Technically, it wasn't her fault. Technically. But life was not lived according to technicalities, and the burning shame of inadvertent villainy drove Grimm underground. Not literally, of course - she chose a spot on the opposite end of the mountain to the rest of the pack and settled there to consider her very limited options.

It was nearly morning when she finally settled down to sleep on the forest floor.

Magpie didn't know much about the other tensions that had infiltrated the caldera— she was selfishly focused on those that impacted her, like Peregrine's displeasure, or the way she had butt heads with Finley, and the weird limbo she found herself in with Dove. Two of those three, at least, seem to be mended— or on their way there. In the span of about five minutes, Magpie had discovered that she had a second half-sister here, and had gone from disliking her, to almost making her a friend, to losing her completely at the actions of Peregrine. It wasn't enough time to truly form any kind of deep bond, and Magpie wasn't sure she cared that Dove seemed to hold a grudge against her... but Dove was family, and the yearling held family above everything. It was a conundrum.

Instead of dealing with it, the yearling decided to put it off. That had worked out in her favor at least twice before, and it was the easiest of her options. But whether she would admit it or not, that whispered in the corners of her mind. She had woken early today, to stretch her limbs and found herself beneath the canopy trees— maybe the same side her den is on, or maybe a different forest, Emalee isn't really sure— and nearly tripped on the dark form of the female that had skipped her turn in the pack bonding game of yesterday. She yelped as she pivoted away before contact, her wounded ankle jarred in the process.

Her sleep was deep and dreamless, and it wasn't until Magpie had already tripped and narrowly avoided a fall that Grimm jolted awake, unfolding with the speed and drama of an exploding firecracker.

"Jesus!" she yelped without knowing why, landing on splayed, quivering legs after a sky-high leap of terror. The bear population of the Caldera owed her one after semi-successful poisoning of one of their own, and it wasn't a 'one' of the good kind that they owed. But Magpie wasn't a bear - that much was plain to see. Grimm settled clumsily on her rear, breathing hard. "You're from yesterday," she puffed, inspecting the injured girl with curious eyes. "What're you doing here?" As if 'here' was some prison for misfits and lepers, and not just a perfectly serviceable part of the forest.

The sleeping form yelped a curious word, but her tone indicated it was some sort of exclamation— similar to "shit" or "holy crap", Magpie surmised— and jumped impressively out of surprised. Magpie was sitting by the time the stranger landed, tending to her injured ankle and eyeing the dark female with a bit of a glower. The yearling had no inkling of why everyone else was so disgruntled with her, but guessed it was for the same reason she was— that the dark female had interrupted the turns in their bonding exercise yesterday. Still, it hadn't blown into a full-blown-Magpie-grudge yet, and the yearling supposed most of her pack mates had brushed it all off by now.

So, why was the female acting so... guilty and exiled? "Um," she said, maybe a bit suspiciously, "I was just going for a walk. What are you doing here?" Her question's toned mimicked that of the strangers: a bit accusing, as if this section of the forest had some sort of entry requirement that Magpie didn't meet. Even if the yearling held no grudge, she definitely had this pack mate pegged as rude, considering her first impression had been less than... impressive.

It hadn't even occurred to Grimm that skipping turns had been rude - Finley had stolen her focus, and even if she hadn't, "first wins" was a difficult mantra to reform.

"Just.. hanging out," she replied, noting the suspicion with which the other wolf eyed her. The look made Grimm's skin crawl - but not knowing why she was under scrutiny was worse. Out with it! "What'd you think of that game?" she ventured.

"It was a pretty big mess," Magpie told the other flatly, still not understanding how someone could be so oblivious. "It might have gone better if everyone stuck to their turns," that she said a bit accusingly, eyes intent on the other to gauge reaction. "But it was nice to hear everyone being so... nice, I guess. Shit's been weird around here."

The Corvidae, though wild and unconstrained, had never experienced quite so much drama or tension as Magpie felt in the caldera. If it weren't for Fox, and her own determination to make things "right", the yearling would have booked it long ago.

Grimm stared at her, incredulous. "Wait, what? That was why everyone was so pissed off?" The dark wolf's mouth tightened into a hard knot, but her eyes made it plain that she was holding back laughter. "Are you serious right now? I thought it was.. well, never mind." No need to drag anyone else into her ongoing drama with Finely and Elwood. Grimm shook her head, chest shaking with a few breathy giggles that she had not managed to suppress. "Don't you think that's kind of hilarious?"