Redhawk Caldera you can see the foundation slipping down

Takes place after Wildfire has already left. Vague, because I'm not entirely sure what Mags will learn from Wifi.

Although she had planned on bringing fresh, warm meat for the leading pair of the Caldera, the leg of ungulate that hung from her jaws was half-frozen. The doe she had claimed it from seemed to be healthy, other than the fact that she was— well— dead, and while Magpie ordinarily would have sought deeper to find the cause, the matters affecting her sister's claim seemed to be more pressing. She halted at the invisible scent-built fence of the claim, and dropped the meat at her own feet.

She tilted her head and announced her presence; though she was hoping to speak to @Fox or @Peregrine as soon as possible, Magpie did not demand their attendance quite yet.

Just want I don't need: another thread!

An unfamiliar—but certainly not unwelcome—voice rang out for her, and Fox lifted her head toward it. Her (half) sister, Magpie, had come back. Although Fox didn't remember the specific details, she felt like her sister had left on good terms the last time she had been here. Whether or not that was the truth was irrelevant. That was the way Fox remembered it, made up or not.

Fox had taken to eating smaller meals throughout the day, rather than her usual gorging on whatever she could find all at once. The meals, of course, she'd had to catch herself. It was good practice, though every time she did it was a reminder that Peregrine's senses were slowly but surely decreasing.

She arrived to find the green-eyed girl woman with a leg of deer at her feet. "Just couldn't stay away, could ya?" Fox teased, as if Magpie had been gone no longer than a week.

She didn't have to wait long before the fiery woman that was her sister appeared— and when the leader drew close and greeted her, the dark woman's expression turned to one of joy. Grinning, she bowed her head, both out of respect and to nudge the haunch toward her sister. "I thought it was about time I visit," Magpie responded smoothly.

Although she already knew part of the answer, thanks to her run-in with Wildfire, she decided not to launch immediately into the issue at hand— and rather, feign innocence so that Fox could tell her what was going on herself. "I ran into Wildfire on the way," she told her sister, "and it sounds like she's doing well for herself. How're things here at the Caldera?"

The word visit made it clear to Fox that Magpie had no intentions of staying. She wouldn't deny that she wasn't just a little bit disappointed, but she could understand. Wifi's name was brought up, and it wasn't until then that Fox realized Magpie had even met the first litter of Firebirds. Her memory really was a piece of shit, wasn't it?

"Rough," Fox replied simply, not wanting to get into the details, "but we'll survive. We always do." Through thick and thin, Redhawk Caldera perservered. They had been through a tornado, awkwardness, death, birth, and more. Somehow, they managed to keep on keepin' on. "So if you're not staying here, what are your plans?" asked Fox.

Magpie hadn't expected an invitation to rejoin the ranks, and so wasn't disappointed when one didn't come. The edges of her mouth turned down slightly at Fox's respond— a bit miffed that her sister wouldn't divulge more than that. A moment ago, she was determined to press the matter with the knowledge Wildfire had bestowed, but abandoned that line of thought. Fox was proud, and while on good terms, they had never been particularly close.

She felt suddenly awkward, then, for the real reason she had come knocking. It would be simple to abort the mission— to brush off the question with a flippant response— but Magpie desperately wanted advice from someone that was accustomed to this 'stability' thing that was so foreign amongst the Corvidae. "Well, um..." she felt heat flush her cheeks, and chartreuse eyes cast suddenly to the snow beneath her paws. "My second birthday was about a moon ago, and ever since, I've felt... restless." Magpie glanced back up at her older sister, wondering if she'd catch the subtext. It wasn't the sex that was embarrassing for the dark female, though: it was the idea of committing to one wolf, the male gender, forever.

"Oh," Fox replied, perhaps a bit disappointed that Magpie didn't have any grand plans to share with her sister. For some reason, she had hoped that Magpie would bring her news of starting her own pack, maybe finding somebody to settle down with, or something along those lines. Instead, Magpie only stated that she'd been restless.

Maybe if she'd been a little more perceptive, Fox would have noted Magpie's tone, downcast eyes, and general bashfulness. Instead, she did not notice any of that. "Does that mean you're going to go chase down bears like Finley does?" she asked. That was the kind of restless Fox was used to.

She exhaled, frustrated that her sister wasn't picking up any of the hints that she was dropping; and frustration quickly gave way to confusion when Fox began rambling nonsense. "Bears? Wha— no!" Magpie gave the red woman an odd look, any trace of embarrassment gone (not that it would be noticed). "The reason I'm only visiting," she began to explain, "is because I don't want to undermine you, or compete with you."

"I want a pack of my own, kids of my own," she finally admitted, "but I'm not used to staying in one place for very long. And—" her voice dropped to a whisper, and Magpie looked around nervously, "don't you get tired of just Peregrine?"

As usual, Fox had misunderstood the hint-dropping that Magpie was trying to relay. She took everything quite literally, and even then, the Redhawk had a tendency to misunderstand what was going on. Magpie explained (in simpler terms) what she was trying to get across, and Fox's expression went from surprised—that her half sister wanted to chase down bears—to something closer to happy—that her half sister wasn't going to turn out like Finley. (No offense, Finley, but your lifestyle is whack.)

The question poised made Fox giggle. "Peregrine's not my only lover," she confessed. "He is my only male lover, though." So far, Starling was really the only other lover in her life, but their relationship was so exceedingly casual, Fox didn't put much weight on it. "As for staying in one place... it's not so bad. But it is something you'll have to do if you want kids. The wee ones can't up and move."

*resurrects* We can fade it if you want, but I wanted a more substantial ending. <3

Fox's admission was the absolute last thing Magpie had expected to hear from her, and for a moment she simply stared at her sister in stunned silence. Whatever the fiery woman had said after dropping that bomb didn't quite register; Peregrine and Fox weren't the "one true pairing" that the Corvidae had been led to believe? "What does it matter if he's your only male lover?" she blurted, not realizing how that might sound.

She had been raised to believe that love was for anyone and everyone, and Magpie couldn't imagine limiting it to anyone. She had accepted that Fox and Peregrine were devoted to each other, and left it as a difference in culture, but now that she knew this... she was more confused than ever.

Of course!

"Well," Fox said, wondering why Magpie hadn't caught on already. "another male lover would introduce the possibility of bastards." That was not something Fox would tolerate—for herself or anybody else. Even if, for some reason, that happened, she would slaughter them immediately after birth, as she had been taught back home. She knew, of course, that Magpie was a bastard, but it was too late for her. She'd already been an adult when Fox had first met her, and so the damage had already been done.

In her time among the caldera wolves, Magpie and Fox had many conversations— but it was rare, if ever, that they delved much deeper than the surface. They were only half siblings, after all, and much of their lives had been spent apart. It had been clear from the beginning that their childhoods had been enormously different; and while Magpie knew the fiery woman was far more traditional, she was about to be surprised by how traditional that truly was.

"Bastards?" the Corvidae questioned, her brows furrowed in deep confusion.

*drags this thread out forever and ever*

"Like you," Fox said, nonchalantly, like it was never a problem. And really, it was not a problem now. Magpie should not have been born, but Fox couldn't time travel and kill her as a newborn, so the damage was done. Their father, Coon, had created the abominations and failed to "take care of it."

Magpie's mother had been just as at-fault, of course. It took two to tango, and both Magpie's mother and Coon had produced bastards, willingly or not. The possibility of non-consensual sex never even passed Fox's mind.

"Like me?" she queried, just as confused. "What does that mean?"

All Corvidae were bastards, at least if you were going by Fox's definition— but Magpie had never heard the term before. Her immediate reaction might have been more volatile if she had known it was a bad thing. As it was, she was simply perplexed by the turn this conversation had taken. What did any of this have to do with lovers, mateship, and settling down?

"Don't be dull," Fox said flippantly, "My father fucked your mother, and they weren't mates. You are a bastard." She said all this as if it was old news. Which, to be fair, it was old news to Fox. "Look, I don't know how else to put this... but back where I'm from, you shouldn't have been born. But it's too late to correct my father's mistake of hooking up with your mom. I've more or less disowned him, but it's not like I spread it around that he's gone and done something horrible like that. It would ruin my mother if she knew." Seeing as Fox had no issues with her mother, she had no reason to take away her "picture perfect" mate, Coon.

She wasn't sure what to do with Fox's speech— she wasn't offended, but she felt uneasy. It was all so foreign to the environment that she had grown up in, Magpie couldn't comprehend any of it being a bad thing. Or a mistake. Or the problem that her half-sister seemed to think it was. It was ridiculous, but she couldn't help but feel a little self conscious about it all. Fox had always treated her with kindness. Dove, on the other hand... Magpie had a sudden insight into why that particular relationship had been rife with tension.

"That's ridiculous," she finally said after a stunned moment. "Why would you want to restrict yourself or anyone else like that? Love and children and family are the best things in life; the more, the better."

"Not how I see it," Fox replied curtly. "Without two stable parents, children die. Or grow up to be assholes. Just look at Peregrine's former children. There's certainly no guarantee that the parents will stick together, but it's a whole lot more likely if they're together for the long run." Fox also didn't place much stock in blood relations. Family were those wolves who stuck around for the long haul. Peregrine, Finley, Elwood, Eljay, Nightjar: they were family. Wifi to a lesser extent, if only because she was an outsider now. Raven even less so, since Fox hadn't seen her since she had departed. Just because they were related didn't make them family.

But Fox had no intention of causing more of a rift between them. She was bored of the subject. "C'mon, let's go for a walk or something." They could talk of other, less conflicting things.