Redhawk Caldera Dance, Dance

For Finley, hope you don't mind this being a pre-planned meeting. I've written too many generic "FitzDutiful happened to be here" posts haha. I can change it if there's anything off though!

With a big yawn, FitzDutiful arrived at the meeting location and wondered exactly what he had been called here for. All he knew was that Finley, a rather high ranking female wolf, had requested he meet her for some purpose or another. He had an inclining that it may involve something to do with his counsellor trade, he had made it quite well known that he wanted to work towards his trade and he wondered if maybe his Gamma wanted to assess where he was with that.

To be honest, he was more hoping that it was to do with this trade. As much as he tried it was hard getting to practice this. Unless someone had an actual problem there wasn't all that much he could do. Except maybe explain his understanding of it. After all, by explaining what was required of him as a counsellor, surely that showed he was understanding his job in this role?

Either way, the midday sun was just on the verge of setting as he sat at the destination location and awaited Finley's arrival. As he waited, he was extremely thankful that he had chosen to go to the Firestone Hot Springs that morning. It had been nice to get out and see more of the surrounding area that day.

― Thread title, song by Fall Out Boy

There were a lot of things about Fin that probably could do with some psychiatric analysis. Her obsession with risk-tasking, her intense need to be the center of attention, her inability to trust or commit to a relationship, and bizarrely crippling fear of moths--I'm sure any one of those characteristics would have given a therapist a field day. But no, Fin did not seek out the pack's aspiring counselor for any help with her character flaws--after all, in her opinion she was flawless--she was looking for advice on how to quit worrying about something she'd spent far too much time thinking about.

When she came upon him, she chuffed gently to him to announce her presence, her tail wagging steadily. "Hey! Thanks for coming," Fin said as she stepped up to the man. She paused then, not completely certain how this was supposed to start.

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Do you want to update this to present time and move this thread to RHC or are you okay with it being older and just wrapping it up asap?

"No problem!" Duty responded to Finley with a tamed amount of joy in his words. He had no idea what she was wanting to get advice on and the last thing FitzDutiful wanted to do was appear too happy when the actual problem was severe. "How can I help you?" he asked.

As he waited to hear the problem, Duty took a moment to assess the wolf stood before him. She was quite a small wolf, almost dainty, and was obviously feminine, even without catching her scent. Finley was quite a pretty wolf with her shades of black, grey and white complimenting each other, even with a slightly tattered ear, and brown eyes that seemed to request him to pay full attention to the words she had to say.

Thread moved and timeline bumped! :D

Fitz (was it Fitz or Duty? Somehow Fin had trouble calling him "Duty"... giggle...) seemed to be an amiable wolf, and trustworthy. It was for these reasons that she had sought him out as opposed to others in their newly budding pack. Peregrine she knew would be understanding, but he'd also be a dope about it and feel guilty, as what troubled her had been in some obscure way caused by the move to the Caldera. Fox... Well, Fin really liked her. Not in any sort of romantic sense, but in the BFF way. There was friendship between them, Fin was very certain. But she wanted the girl to be her best friend, to adore her like Fin adored her. The only way to manage that was to be as cool as the fiery wolf. And being cool meant not whining about stupid crap. Bitching about it, yes. Whining about actual problems, no.

Finley's remaining close friends had stayed behind at the Plateau when the four of them had left, and therein lied the problem... "Well, I've been feeling kind of like crap about a couple things since we left the Plateau," she explained, frowning slightly as she tried to string together the words, "A couple of packmates I was really close to decided not to come, which I can understand for one because she's really quiet and reserved and I can tell she's not really one who likes change. But the other... He loves adventurous crap like this. I don't get why he wouldn't have wanted to come. I assumed he was just being an ass, but..."

Fin paused, biting her lip for a moment as she struggled again with what to say. "...he hasn't showed up yet." She searched the counselor's face wonderingly. When she'd first realized the olive-eyed wolf wasn't going to be coming with them, she'd been hurt and angry, taking it as a personal rejection. She'd then later decided he was just being a dick and just needed to do some things before he joined them. After all, it just didn't make any sense that he wouldn't follow her. But now, time had passed--too much of it--and she hadn't seen any sign of him. Those initial feelings were creeping in again, and she did not like this feeling that she somehow hadn't been good enough for him, that he didn't want to be around her. That he didn't... whatever...

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FitzDutiful listened carefully to what Finley had to say and took her concerns seriously. Fitz had not really had chance to get to know the other wolves around the Plateau and so there had been no conflict about his movement to the Caldera, others he knew, from his conversation with Fox, had not been so unencumbered. His impression had been that a lot of the wolves hadn't liked her as a leader (crazy as it seemed) and hadn't respected her authority enough. He wondered how to phrase it.

"Can you think of any reason why he wouldn't want to come? A loyalty to Willow or a dislike to a pack member who was coming here, perhaps?"

FitzDutiful had often found that when talking to others, especially about their insecurities, it was better to let them come to a realisation by themselves instead of telling them that a certain way was the right answer. Most of the time they knew the answer they just needed to accept it or get confirmation that their actions wouldn't backfire horribly.

Finley considered his words thoughtfully. She bit her lip as she pondered Finn's ties to their other packmates, but found herself uncertain as to what they were. She supposed it was possible he was more attached to the wolves who had remained at the Plateau than to those who had gone, but that in itself caused another sting of pain since it meant she mattered less to him than others. Jealousy suddenly gripped her heart at the thought of him with someone else, and she frowned at the simply fact that she even was jealous.

"I don't know, it's possible he likes the wolves at the Plateau better," she replied with a meek shrug. Fin shut her eyes for a moment as hatred for everything she was feeling consumed her thoughts. She hated feeling vulnerable and helpless. She hated feeling jealous. She hated hurting like this because it meant someone else was more in control of her than she was.

"I just want to get over this crap," Fin said after a moment, opening her eyes again and looking at her packmate, "I want to forget him and let it go and just.. get over it."

FitzDutiful felt suddenly sorry for his pack mate. It was suddenly so obvious how upset she was about said wolf not coming with them to found the new pack. She had mentioned that maybe it was because he liked the wolves there better but that seemed to make her more upset and Fitz instantly wondered whether this male was more than just a friend.

Finley said she wanted to get over it, to let it go and her sadness seemed to be almost anger if her language was anything to go by. "Why don't you go see him?" FitzDutiful asked, almost cautiously, "Then you can ask him, find out for sure, rather than second guessing yourself. Then, if you want to, it'll be easier to let him go."

Go see him. It was the simplest and most obvious answer possible, and yet it was the last one Fin had wanted to hear. She peered at her counselor reluctantly, her warm chocolate eyes full of sad. "But then he's gonna... look at me..." she whined, "...with his stupid face that's all.. stupid."

She heaved a sigh and frowned at a stick lying near Duti's paws. "Can't I just hire an assassin to go murder him?" If he were dead, it wouldn't be a problem anymore. Not that she was seriously considering that or anything.

Ah yes the stupid face. Fitz nodded as Finley mentioned this. "Of course! I'd forgotten about his stupid face that was bathed in stupidity." Out of all the counselling FitzDutiful had done lately this was definitely the hardest. He was a straight forward wolf who stated and did the most obvious thing, the best thing. It was a case of what made sense with FitzDutiful. Now he was dealing with someone who didn't seem to want any fix for her problems.

He hid all these thoughts from his face as Finley mentioned hiring an assassin. With all seriousness FitzDutiful answered. "Of course you could. The downside with that, other than I have no idea what Perry and Fox think about murder, is that you won't ever get a chance to tell him how stupid his is."

Maybe that track would help her.

Wanna wrap up? :)

Her counselor's response made a small smile crack across her muzzle. Fin lifted her gaze back to his face, which was watching her kindly. She realized that she was probably making his job difficult, but she found she had little else to turn to. Peregrine would laugh and Fox would tell her to go ahead with the assassin. ....She totally should have talked to Fox.

"It would be nice to tell him he's stupid," Fin admitted thoughtfully. Maybe she did need to go see Finn, if only to tell him that he was a stupid jerkface and that she was better off without him. Whether or not Fin actually believed those things was besides the point.

Fading to black

FitzDutiful wasn't wholly sure he had helped Finley, though he had definitely counselled her maybe nothing will have come from it. She seemed to be thinking that telling him how stupid he had been was a bonus which probably meant the assassination attempt was over and there was no fear for the guys life. Not that Fitz really thought that the suggestion had been serious, but truly one never knew.

"Hopefully you'll get the chance too." Fitz replied with a smile, before changing the subject onto other things. Sometimes it was best to just let the problem be and let it stew for a while so that when you came back to it, a lovely meal was waiting.

So it was that the two talked for a little while longer about other things before FitzDutiful headed to his den for the evening, happy to have helped his pack mate in some way.