Heron Lake Plateau i'm stunting on everybody

tegan suddenly had a bone to pick with 400 different wolves, staring with fuckass towhee. it was easy-- more specifically niamh-- who had set off this anger, but tegan was gonna take it out on towhee because she was the first person on his list. he had a list of wolves and a list of demands, and tegan was gonna fuckin bitch his way through them. towhee, he had decided had the most power in this situation... even though she'd dropped her rank. so, besides good ole' mommerz, tegan was starting there.

demand one-- take tegan more seriously.

because, okay, yeah, fine, i get it-- he got it-- he was such a whackass. dude did the weirdest things and said the strangest phrases and maybe it he didn't act like it but tegan was really hardworking. he went on missions for his packmates all the time-- he was a god damn red hawk ambassador! he was such an asset to the pack and no one could deny it... and so what, one wolf he recruited ran off. who gives a fuck, plenty of wolves came and left all the time. just because  it was tegan who had been nearby, easy-- blackbear, whatever-- hadn't gotten into the back. that's discrimination and tegan was fuckin whacked over it.

demand two-- tell tegan why you chose niamh over him.

and don't laugh at him, okay, it's a very reasonable question and tegan doesn't really like handling emotions so just to ask outright and get rid of the emotion altogether seems like the best way to handle this. 

demand three--

actually! fuck this! this is stupid, tegan hated having emotions, it seriously damaged his street cred. fuck this, tegan actually wasn't gonna demand anything, in fact, he wasn't gonna tell towhee anything was wrong. he had a much better plan.

he tracked down his cousin with angry eyes, ears pressed to his skull. he found her scent by the borders, as usual, and took off after it. overheard, X flew, signaling to the angsty little blackthorn that he was on the right path. but hey, he was the world's best scout, why wouldn't he be on track for success?

The excitement of her partial recovery had tempered by now. With no further progress to stoke the fire, her hope burned down to a cinder: dwindling but alive. Towhee was trying not to let frustration and impatience take hold. She needed to focus on the bright side. Every time her mind threatened to blacken with dark, dreary thoughts, she looked pointedly at her toes and wiggled them. It almost always brought a smile to her face, a break in the proverbial clouds.

She had just run through this very exercise during a break in her patrol when movement caught her attention. Towhee sat up straighter and watched as Tegan stomped onto the scene. He looked angry, which baffled and intrigued the mercenary. She blinked loudly and canted her head, scanning him from head to toe before urgently signing, -Tegan, what's up?- She rose onto all fours, made uneasy by this uncharacteristic shift in her younger brother's usual temperament.

ha! she noticed! both him and that he was upset! good! tegan hid a smug smirk. 

he turned his head, plopping himself down a few steps away from her, tail flicking with agitation. of course, he knew if he spoke towhee wouldn't be able to read his lips. so, head still turned away from her, tegan signed, -just taking a break from all the hard work i do for this pack- he told her pointedly. tegan worked hard. it had been a big character development, tegan had gone from 'NO RESPONSIBILITY' to 'oh i'm only doing it because it's fun' to 'i am an asset to the pack and i want to help'. not that he cared about rank, still. but it felt like no one noticed-- or, all his dedication went undermined by the small mistakes he made. 

-how's niamh?- he asked her, taking a moment to shoot a look her way. and then his nose twitched.

this, tegan, is why no one takes you seriously. you bafoon.

The smirk relieved some of the tension coiling in Towhee's gut. She couldn't even begin to guess at the source of his irritation; it was so unlike him. But when he responded, she quickly cottoned on to what might be afflicting Tegan. She licked her lips in bemusement. It was tempting to poke fun at him, yet Towhee sensed that there was some serious butthurt here and she shouldn't treat it too lightly.

With that said, she couldn't resist replying, -I don't know. I'm Towhee, not Niamh.- She looked down at herself as if to double-check, gaze rising to his face again. -You'll have to ask her.- With slightly slower, more thoughtful movements, she said, point blank, -You know, I don't think I've ever seen you worked up before, Tegan. Tell me what's put a bee in your bonnet and maybe I can help. I promise I'll only give you a little bit of shit for it, whatever it is.-

UGH. why did towhee have to be so forward? tegan grew agitated by her question, and accidentally shot back sharply, "well you walk around with your heads up one another's asses i figured you'd know!" and then, regretting it because technically towhee hadn't done anything wrong, tegan swiped his tongue over his nose to cover up a little bit of embarrassment. he backtracked. -i just mean you guys always hang out- he signed, gaze narrowing a bit, -sorry.- 

well, now that'd he'd been an ass tegan figured he'd just fuckin own up to his own stupid angst. 

"i'm frustrated, towhee!" he said, switching again from ptero, "and i dunno if it's my fault cause i feel like for once i'm not fuckin doin anything wrong." he groaned, hunching over and pressing his chin to his chest as he thought about what to say to towhee. after a few heartbeats of looking like he'd gone through a garbage compactor, tegan straightened back out.

"what am i doing wrong that makes no one take me seriously? is it just how i talk? is that it? does everyone just think i'm a kid, or something? am i not working hard enough? do i fuck up that often? " answer the dood, god damn it!

She couldn't hear the heat behind his words, though she could see the signs of vehemence as he spat them at her. Towhee's ears tilted slightly backward, more confusion than offense. When he signed an apology an instant later, she was mollified. She was actually sort of glad for the outburst, as it gave her a true sense of Tegan's dour mood. Despite his earlier smirk, something was sincerely bothering him.

Towhee didn't even have to urge him to get it off his chest. She followed closely as he vented his frustrations. She had suspected it might have to do with Niamh's recent promotion into her vacated seat. It looked like she wasn't wrong. With that said, he made no further mention of the newly appointed Beta, a fact which she noted silently.

When he appeared to be through, Towhee reached out a paw to clap against his shoulder. -I'm glad you came to me with this,- she signed first and foremost. Although it was so tempting to tease him, she managed to keep a straight and sincere face. -I'll take you seriously. But,- she continued, pausing as she pondered how to phrase her thoughts tactfully, -yeah, I think of you as one of the least serious people in this pack. I don't think that's a bad thing. And I definitely don't think that your casual personality and being a hard worker are mutually exclusive either.- Here, she switched to speaking, "Even at your assiest, I know you're a dedicated member of this pack," because she didn't have a sign for "assiest."

Towhee gave Tegan a long look before concluding, "Didn't I even once mention that I could see you as my fellow Beta? I stand by that, even if I'm not one myself anymore. Anyway, what prompted this, Teg...?"

but this had nothing to do with promotion-- tegan could literally be the lowest rank in the pack and he wouldn't care. hell, the only reason he ever liked having a high rank was to hold it above his siblings heads. but lucca was gone. fiadh was gone. and clover was so distraught by fiadh's disappearance that tegan wasn't even sure she cared what he was doing anymore. of course she did, but tegan was entitled to how he felt. but, no, if towhee mentioned niamh's rank tegan would probably just make a face.

his lips pressed together tightly as she spoke, trying to take her words and let them mean something to him-- but somehow they felt empty. tegan was the least serious in the pack, but he was hardworking. and no, he didn't think they were exclusive to themselves, but then why did he feel like everyone kept treating them like they were? his nose scrunched at towhee, but a small grin played at the edges of his mouth. "i can't remember but-- you know i'd be a dumb-stupid beta," he told her, using dumb (in this case) as a way to describe stupid. it was so stupid it was dumb. get it? got it? good. -i work my ass off in all the ways i'm supposed to but i'd hate being a beta. i'm good here in the middle ranks.- not that she was offering but... tegan clarified anyway.

-do you remember easy?- tegan asked her, grin turning into a broad smirk, -the friend i ran off to go see before we moved to the plateau.- if her name didn't ring a bell, the memory surely would. it was one of tegan's proudest (and stupidest) 'pranks'. -well, she stopped by. she goes by blackbear now... wanted to join. niamh wouldn't accept her, and kept saying it was because my judgement wasn't the best-- cause of that wolf i recruited way back when who left. she wouldn't even hear blackbear out, kept calling her a liar.-  well, that was mostly the story. tegan cut out a few of his rowdy comments and paraphrased and... what not, but when it boils down to it, that's what happened anyway. 

he shrugged. -niamh told me i could go get her and have her complete a task for reentry but... only after she bullied easy out of the territory. i went and chased her down but she didn't even want to be a part of the pack anymore.-  his brow furrowed. his gaze had fallen down in front of him after a while, and he eventually blinked and looked back up at his sister. "like, i told her i got it, she's got a new rank and a reputation to look out for, and i do get it, but am i taken so unseriously that my good word about someone discredits their whole fuckin... being??" tegan had had a while to think on this. even after his mission to the sound, it bothered him. at least now he'd gotten so riled up he'd let it all out. sheesh, that shit had been bottled up for a while.

 

She huffed a laugh at his comment, covering her mild surprise. If this wasn't about the Beta rank, Towhee's suspicions were wrong. Now she was more curious than ever. Luckily, Tegan unloaded some more without any particular poking or prodding on her end. Once more, Towhee stilled and "listened" astutely.

It was very likely Niamh had mentioned this altercation to her in passing—it struck Towhee as vaguely familiar and it was just the sort of thing her Person would likely have divulged to her—but she couldn't recall any particulars. In any case, she heard him out in full before she deigned to comment. Actually, several beats of silence passed in contemplation as Towhee considered the information.

"Niamh said, verbatim, that you have bad judgment?" Towhee wanted to know. Her lips pressed together for a moment before she added, "What prompted her to think Eas—Blackbear was lying?" She needed a bit more detail here.

-i can't remember- tegan said stiffly, ears flicking. well, he could, kinda. he knew that she actually said 'it's not that i don't trust your judgement'... but that was like a big red flag for 'BUT i don't trust your judgement'. at least, that's what tegan heard and that's what he took to heart.

"imma keep calling her easy," tegan muttered, cause blackbear was too big a change. and it's not like he'd ever see her again anyway. not in the plateau, anyway. -she said she was from a nomadic pack, and that her dad was blind and she was his guide. but also that her dad was the alpha-- but he didn't go blind until later in life after he'd already taught her everything she knew- tegan explained, and then shrugged -and niamh found that hard to believe. plus she thought i was calling her easy-- like slutty, but i wasn't, it's just her name.- with a quick, sideways glance at his sister, tegan added. "you can't call girls slutty to their face." or ever, tegan, but i can't remember the last time this boy was entirely PC anyhow, so i won't argue with him. 

he added anyway, -kidding...-

There wasn't much Towhee could do with that, so they'd just have to let it go. He did provide significantly more detail about why Niamh had accused Easy of lying. The former Beta's face scrunched. If anyone should be able to afford the handicapped the benefit of the doubt, it should be Niamh. Towhee found it hard to believe that her Person would take the stance Tegan described, though she figured she was missing some crucial "you had to be there" context clues.

Towhee began rolling her eyes at his closing comment, though she remembered and stopped herself. She wanted Tegan to know she took him seriously. And though she didn't think she was getting the most objective story here, she did sympathize. "I'm not sure why Niamh treated Easy the way she did. But I can see why you'd find it frustrating. And why she'd rethink joining after that." Hell, Towhee was sort of surprised she'd be interested in the first place, considering this wasn't even the first time she'd been bullied away from the borders by a Redhawk leader.

"I know Niamh's a good person. I know you are too. And probably Easy is as well. It kinda sounds like a lot of miscommunication happened, though I can't really say, since I wasn't there. I wouldn't put too much stock into the whole thing though. You might be right that Niamh is taking her new rank very seriously—with the best of intentions—and that has nothing to do with you, at the end of the day. I mean, didn't you recently become a legit ambassador? Doesn't that say a lot more about your capabilities than a single shitty encounter at the borders?"

towhee could've rolled her eyes-- tegan liked to get reactions like that. expected it, even. that wasn't what he meant by taken seriously... just, from a diplomatic standpoint, he didn't wanna be looked at as some fuckass kid-- because he wasn't, he was a full member of the pack who carried more than his own weight. but, he couldn't read her thoughts so he didn't say anything. oh well. 

"she said two strikes was probably enough," tegan added in response, shrugging his shoulders again, "i don't blame her. she only came back for me." and i let her down. 

and then tegan's face scrunched up a little bit, cause towhee was so wrong! "there was only miscommunication cause niamh was interrogating easy and not really listening to me-- and the only reason niamh was so hard on her to begin with was because i said i wanted her in the pack," tegan said, catching towhee's eye with a firm and narrowed gaze, "easy had all the qualifications to be in our pack but because i said that i knew her, and easy said she was my friend, niamh questioned her harder since the one time i recruited anybody she left." 

"and yeah, i guess," tegan muttered in regards to the ambassador thing, but like... that doesn't mean anything. that wasn't an automatic switch that said he had to be taken seriously. and then he looked away, cause he was still frustrated. -if i ever see sapphira again imma fuck her up.-

Wolves left all the time, much to Towhee's distaste, and if Niamh truly held that against Tegan, Towhee was in agreement: that wasn't fair. She made a note to bring it up to the new Beta sometime. It still sounded like a whole bunch of misapprehensions, though she didn't mind defending Tegan, even against her very own Person. Mostly she just wanted to set the record straight, for everybody's sake. Recruiters were not indefinitely responsible for the wolves they brought to the pack. Maybe Niamh felt differently. Towhee didn't mind mediating to clear the air between two of her favorite pack mates.

She didn't let onto all of these inner thoughts, though she did say, -I'll talk to Niamh about all of this, if you'd like.- She didn't say that she would be speaking to Niamh regardless, though Towhee wanted to know how Tegan felt about it. -You vouch for the wolves you recruit, that's all. Whether or not they end up as quality members is entirely on them after that. Neither you or Niamh should treat it like a personal failure if one of your recruits doesn't work out.-

"You should be proud," she said aloud in the next moment, now offering Tegan's shoulder an affectionate, sisterly punch. "Now you can go around telling everyone you put the 'ass' in 'ambassador.' Butt, seriously..."

tegan rolled his shoulders. -if you wanna- he said, because on one hand he wanted them to talk it out, but on the other hand he and niamh had kinda discussed it and also he didn't wanna look like a big fat loser baby. -don't tell her i was all frazzled, though, i gotta image to maintain.- or, what was left of his image, rather. -we kinda talked-- kinda. i don't know if it helped any, she sort of apologized, but also that's when i found out about the judgement stuff. so, i dunno- he added with a frown. 

towhee gave him a playful shoulder punch and made a really bad joke, but tegan snorted anyway, leaning in to a short lil embrace. "thanks, tow," he said after he'd pulled away, "i am pretty jacked about it." he rolled his shoulders, all this emotion stuff was making him antsy. he needed to go do something that didn't involve telling your sister-cousin how big a crybaby you were.

She smirked fondly when Tegan 'fessed up to being proud. "As you should be," she responded with a sage nod, only to still and squint. "Wait, doesn't jacking mean you—you know what, never mind. Good job, though." Towhee offered another pat.

"Now if we're done talking about you," she quipped teasingly next, throwing a soft elbow his way to make sure Tegan knew she was only giving him that little bit of shit she'd promised, "guess what." Without waiting, she planted her butt on the ground and used her left foreleg to hike her hind leg into the air so that her barely wriggling toes were thrust right into the yearling's face.

"maybe that too," tegan shot back with a shrug. who's to say what he can and can't do in his free time. as long as he locks the door...

wha--" but before tegan could finish, there were some fuckin feet in his face!! GROSS! oh wait... "wait-- yo! no way, bitch, that's awesome," he chirped, his tail beginning to wag. "since when?" tegan asked her, head tilting to one side.

You get #1200.

Towhee snickered at Tegan's knee-jerk reaction. She set her leg back down but kept gazing at her toes, which she wiggled a bit longer, just because. She hadn't missed her younger brother's question, so as she admired her own squirming digits, she replied, "Maybe a week or so now."

Finally, she let her toes rest and looked up at him properly. "I'm hoping it keeps improving but I'm not really sure what to expect." She shrugged her white-streaked shoulders, acting a bit cavalier about it when, deep down, she yearned for further progress. Only time would tell.

"I need to get back to my patrol. I'll catch up with you later?" Or he could come along, though Towhee doubted Tegan was up for that brand of boredom. "See you around, ambassador." She made a very rude sign indeed as she said "ambassador," then shot Tegan a shit-eating grin before turning away to resume her usual route along the borders.