Ankyra Sound if i told you what i was, would you turn your back on me

Pantaleimon's settling in Ankyra Sound was going alright, though rocky. She had met various wolves, and the culture was not much different from that which she was used to. She was nobody here, like she was used to; but a part of her just didn't want to accept that. She remembered when she had played with Galateia, Psykhe and Sao when she was young; she remembered how they had all been equal then, that short span in time. Until Galateia had explained to Pantaleimon why she — why he — was different.

What a cruel joke for life — for Mother Sea — to play on her. Maybe it was that Mother Sea wished for her to be a Consort instead of a Siren... But if that was true, then why did Pantaleimon feel so much like she was meant to be a Siren?

With those sad thoughts, Pantaleimon scoured the beach in the morning, hoping to find pretty ornaments along the beach. She saw some washed ashore seaweed and nuzzled her muzzle underneath it, scooping it over her head so that the seaweed dangled along her shoulder. Pantaleimon nuzzled the seaweed in place so that it looked better and wouldn't fall off, and continued to search the coastline for treasures; hopefully some shells or such that she could use to decorate the seaweed with.

Jumping in!

Early morning. Bright white light poured into the male's quarters as the sun broke away from behind the cover of the clouds. Shadows danced on the dark clay floor of the den and onto Reek's face as he slolwy stirred from slumber. Five more minutes... damn nature. The ragged wolf squinted as he rose to his paws, knees shaking under the little weight he had. He was the last male left inside, all the others had gone to do their duties for the sirens. How droll...

Reek pawed the sleepy crust out of his eyes as he awkwardly hobbled on three legs toward the den's opening. Stumbling once, but he caught himself with the wall... or really, he fell into the wall. Depends on how you look at it. Making his way outside, the bastard's eyes locked with the water. The sight of the beach was one he'd never get tired of, no matter how long he stayed in Ankyra.

The white male, the other new arrival, paced back and forth on the beach while looking for bits and bobs to adorn himself with. Pantaleimon... Pantaleemon? Pan? Fuck it... Pants. Remebering names wasn't the highest priority on the bastard's short list of duties. Reek couldn't quite bring himself to understand Pants' strange obsession with adorning himself with the objects he found on the coast, but to each his own. The bastard watched on as he carefully as he made his way down the cliff face toward the other male, lightly chuffing to announce his presence when he got close. "How you holding up Pants?" Reek tiredly chortled. He silently hoped his nickname for the wolf would stick... he quite liked it. "Nice... um, seaweed you got there," he continued, motioning to the pile of kelp hanging suspended from the white wolf's shoulder.

When she heard the chuff, Pantaleimon startled and nearly threw the seaweed off her shoulders. However, she recognised the voice to be one of the other males, so she did not worry too much then. He might not understand, but he would less likely challenge her desire to wear decorative gifts of the sea in her fur than a female. Pantaleimon smiled, although it was a thin, melancholic smile that betrayed how at unease Pantaleimon was.

"Pantaleimon," she corrected gently, unaware that Reek had picked a nickname rather than completely forgotten what Pantaleimon's name was. "Oh!" Pantaleimon exclaimed when Reek mentioned the seaweed. "This here? I was j-just, uh, collecting it." That probably didn't make much sense, since Pantaleimon had picked only the prettiest piece of seaweed she could find, rather than piling bundles of it on her fur; there was loads lying around the beach, but only one piece dangled around Pantaleimon's shoulders.

The bastard's brow furrowed. A collector? A collection of what? Seaweed? And why that one? Why not any of the other deposits of kelp strewn across the beach? How was this one special? Questions fired through the bastard's head, one after the other. The idea of collecting seaweed bewildered the ragged wolf. The kelp that washed up on shore didn't really have a use, it's just kind of... there. "Whatever floats your boat, Pants," quipped the bastard with an awkwardly lopsided smirk.

The nervous wolf's thin smile looked out of place, like a banana in an apple basket. His mask was slipping, and the poor wretch looked broken. The culture here was hard on a man; the work was thankless and the reprimands were frequent. But, Reek refused to let that get him down or damage his pride. The bastard would bend, but not break. Pantaleimon, on the other hand, appeared to have broken a long, long time ago; pride bruised and battered. Individuality scorned. "I'm relatively new here too Pants," started the ragged wolf. "I came here a few days before you did. If you need to talk some things out, or like, vent to anyone, I'm all ears." He cocked his head as he spoke and shifted his ears toward the nervous nelly, ready to listen.

It looked as though Reek did not fully understand what Pantaleimon meant, responding as though she meant she was collecting it for herself. "I..." Pan began to explain, but then decided against it. It did not matter, really. It was better this way, anyway, in a world where Reek would not second guess Pantaleimon gathering seaweed and other sea treasures to drape her own fur with, so long as he did not tell any of the Sirens of it. Pantaleimon had yet to find out what they thought of that sort of behaviour, here.

Since he did not speak the language of the ocean, Pantaleimon had already guessed that Reek was probably no a wolf of the sea; not originally, anyway. "How did you get here?" Pantaleimon asked. "I - I m-mean, uhm... You're not - you didn't grow up with the N-Nereides, did you?" Hopefully he wouldn't take offence in the awkward manner she brought her words. In Pantaleimon's experience, there were different kinds of Consorts: those like Spyridon, who kept to themselves and generally listened to and followed the Sirens because they did not know better or because they felt it their path in life, and those who were bitter and frustrated and would do anything to gain an inch of respect or rank in the Sirens' eyes. Which one of these Reek was, Pantaleimon had yet to find out, and that made her nervous.

The nervous nelly began to speak, but he quickly decided against it after uttering his first word.  Understandable.  The two barely knew each other, and Reek could recognize his apprehension in divulging personal information to a stranger. Instead, the white male redirected the conversation back to Reek.

"Oh, thankfully no," lightly chortled the bastard in response to Pan's question.  "More than likely, the Nereides would have culled me as a pup."  In his youth, Reek had been the insubordinate sort with a heaping disdain for authority.  But, as the ragged wolf entered adulthood, the flames of rebellion had burned down only to the still smoldering coals, slightly glowing with a silent bitterness.  "No," continued the loquacious wolf as he turned toward Pantaleimon. "I'm from a place far, far north from here.  Some place the pink skins call Or-rey-gon, and I belonged to the Whiteriver Pack.  My situation was... complicated at best, but long story short:  I left, and that was the best decision I've ever made."  The details were unimportant and for another time.  The only thing that mattered to the bastard is where he ended up... and moving forward.  "Wandered for a while, did some soul searching, and ended up here.  That's about it Pants... What's your story?"  He added, tone dry and matter of fact, pushing a paw into Pants' unadorned shoulder.  

Pantaleimon did not really understand what Reek meant when he said that the Nereides would have probably culled him as a pup, but she did not ask. She wasn't entirely sure what he meant by pink skins, since Pantaleimon had never dealt much with the humans, but decided to let it slip, as Reek told Pantaleimon about the area that he was from. Pantaleimon had only ever lived in Sirensong Cove, so she did not know anything about the area he was from; the area and pack names didn't ring a bell.

He did not elaborate on his situation, only that he left. Pantaleimon respected Reek's privacy and did not ask about that which he did not elaborate on; Pantaleimon knew all about having dark secrets and circumstances that no other might have guessed.

Pantaleimon, though she should have expected the question in return, felt caught out when Reek asked about her own situation. She liked to avoid talking about herself, and it had been some time since she had been alone with another male and was able to speak somewhat freely; especially when it concerned a male that did not grow up in Nereides tradition. "Oh, I, uh... I'm not as interesting." Pantaleimon smiled meekly. "I was born along two s-sisters in a Nereides pack. I stayed there until, well, th-they, uhm..." Pantaleimon looked away, feeling flustered. "Th-they had no use for me, so I... I was told to go here." Pantaleimon did not think that Ankyra Sound would have more use for her here, but at the very least she would be safe for a while, and had Reek and Spyridon, too. Pantaleimon looked at Reek, silently inquiring if he wished to know more.

Reek listened intently as the flustered wolf spoke of his background within the Nereides.  They were a strange bunch, this lot.  An odd culture, centered around some sort of enigmatic religion and atypical social structure. Though the ragged bastard wasn't the type to concern himself with gods or religion, the culture in itself intrigued him.  Surely, Pantaleimon could have a lot of vital information to teach.  The language barrier between Reek and Spyridon had made things especially difficult in learning the do's and don'ts of Ankyra Sound, leaving Reek to have to wing it, and the ragged wolf believed directly asking one of the more well versed sirens may be too bold... they weren't really one's for talking.

They had no more use for me. "Ain't that a bitch," he jested with a crooked simper.  "Some family you got there bud."  Though Reek understood, and even mildly accepted his place below the sirens, the fact that the males were traded about like property disgusted him.  The ragged wolf scoffed at the thought.  He was far too prideful for that.  Thankfully, the Siren Queen's bastardization of the culture of the coast seemed a bit more... welcoming, if that could even be said.

"Do you ever miss it?" The talkative bastard inquired, wishing to know more. "Home."  

"Yes, well..." Pantaleimon mumbled, not sure how to respond to Reek's disrespectful mention of his family. Pantaleimon knew that he did not mean it poorly, however; it was a culture thing, she had learned over time. She had simply been born into the wrong culture, as a male. "I guess I was born into the wrong b-body to be a Nereides." Pantaleimon smiled a watery smile as she looked at Reek and thought to herself, Moreso than I could ever explain in words. Perhaps if she had truly felt like a male, she would have fled; it was only her desire to be close to Mother Sea and all of her rituals that kept Pantaleimon in place. Sometimes she closed her eyes during the rituals and pretended that she was a part of it, of this Siren life, rather than floating like a ghost, an empty shell, on the frays of it.

Reek then asked if Pantaleimon missed home. The question clearly caught Pan off guard, for she did not know how to respond right away. She wasn't really sure if she missed it. If anything, she mostly missed being a Siren, but that was something she could never obtain. She did not miss the disapproving manner that Oreithyia, her own mother, looked down on her mirror image, her only son, for he had been born a male, nor did Pantaleimon miss the respect that her sisters received that she did not deserve in the eyes of the other Sirens. "No," Pantaleimon said eventually, a word that came paired with an apologetic look, even if she had nothing to be sorry for towards the other Consort. "Do you plan to, uhm, s-stay?" Pantaleimon asked and looked at Reek, curious if he intended to stay here to serve the Nereides, or if this was just a stop along his road until he found something better while he received shelter and food.

Born in the wrong body?  Reek shot the flustered wolf a quizzical glance.  Surely, being a male in the company of the Nereides was less than ideal, but to make a statement like that would require a serious lack of self worth, an absence of pride. Pride was a trait the bastard held near and dear to his heart, and to see the other male so broken spurned a rare sense of compassion out of the thick-skinned wolf.  "No Pants," objected Reek softly. "Be proud of who you are.  I mean, shit — there are things we just can't change.  This is the hand we're dealt, friend... all you can do is play it or fold."  The bastard cracked a thin, toothy smile toward the other consort in hopes that it would help quell the flustered male's underlying grief.  "They can't take that from you... dignity.  That's something that's yours and yours alone."


Pantaleimon's question about the bastard's decision to stay didn't come as a surprise; it was only a matter of time before it was asked.  Reek had put a lot of thought into the notion of staying.  "I think i'm going to stick around, for a good while at least," Reek began.  "I'm a grown-ass man and it's time for me to settle down and put down roots.  I know it ain't perfect, but I know where my bread is buttered, and staying here beats the shit out of starving."  Staying, seemed the only rational choice for the slight wolf.  The road was unforgiving, and Reek had no intentions of going back to living on his own.

Reek's compassion and warmth was heart-warming, though Pantaleimon did not know very well what to do with it. She was not used to compassion; she was used to just being a Consort, just being not good enough. Pantaleimon did not know how to deal with anyone telling her that she needed to be proud of who she was. Pantaleimon looked at Reek with an uncomfortable expression, grateful but unsure how to respond to his kind words. "Th-thanks," Pantaleimon muttered in the end, unable to find more or better words.

It was almost a little disappointing that Reek might not stay around forever. Pantaleimon was not sure how long she would stay here, but there was nowhere else for her to go. If he was only here for food, then Reek would probably not be around for much longer, Pantaleimon reckoned. "Oh," Pan quietly said in response, not sure how else to respond. "S-so it was a coincidence? You're... You aren't here because of Mother Sea or Mother Moon?" They were the reason that Pantaleimon was still around, that she could not leave the Nereides culture behind, for it would feel like betrayal, despite the uncomfortable situation that they had put her into this life with.

"I wouldn't say coincidence," the bastard confessed, "but it sure as hell wasn't a plan.  Ending up here was more along the lines of a happy accident." Stumbling upon Ankyra had never been a part of the gaunt wolf's plan.  Though his desire to settle and put down roots was growing fast as he matured, his desire to wander was usually overshadowing.  Finding a pack was on the bottom of the starving wolf's priorities, instead he only worried about his next meal and finding temporary shelter from night to night and day to day.  It was a boring existence, but Reek made it work.  It's monotony was a strange comfort.  But, now that he had stumbled upon a pack, the ragged wolf couldn't wrap his mind around the possibility of ever going back to the wild and it's droll tediousness.  That would be just too boring.

Reek's brow furrowed quizzically at the mention of the Mothers.  It seemed like every conversation in the Sound had something to do with them, yet, in the short time Reek had spent with the Sirens he had learned little to nothing about them.  Their deities had a vagueness about them.  "I'm not religious," he remarked with an uncomfortable expression.  "—I don't mean to offend," he quickly amended. "It's just not my thing." 

It sounded like Reek was mostly here because he needed food and shelter. It was hard for Pantaleimon to understand, for all Pan had ever known was the Nereides life and she felt too tightly connected to Mother Sea and Mother Moon to turn her back on them, but she was intrigued by this outsider. The fact that he was very different from her interested Pantaleimon. Maybe there were things she could learn from him and his strange ways.

"Oh," Pantaleimon answered. Pan considered that maybe Reek thought not to be religious, but had been guided here by Mother Sea and Mother Moon. She was not certain, though; considering her own hardship, Pantaleimon was never sure why Mother Sea and Mother Moon did things as they did. A small, daydreamy smile encroached Pantaleimon's face, however, for the first time since her arrival upon Ankyra Sound. "Do, uhm... Do you want me to teach you the language of the sea?" Pantaleimon had noticed Reek had trouble with it when Spyridon spoke in the ocean's tongue; since Pantaleimon had been raised with both the common tongue and the ocean's, she figured that she could teach Reek as best she could, for she was determined that Reek's present and future were meant to lay in Ankyra Sound, among the Sirens, aligned with Pantaleimon's own.

The bastard's dark face lit up with a nervous excitement at sound of Pantaleimon's proposal to teach him the language of the sea.  The language barrier had been a factor that had caused much division between the gaunt wolf and the rest of the pack, effectively partitioning him as an outsider. Though, he had often tried to listen intently to the language, to pick up on it's nuance on his own, but the task had been too difficult for the aging wolf, who was well past the days where one could pick up a language easily.  

"Shit —"  he began with a wide, toothy grin; one like a child, given a toy to play with,  an expression filled with bewilderment and wonder that the bastard hadn't felt since he was a pup.  "You'd do that for me?  That'd be great Pants!  When do we start?"  The bastard nearly jumped off the ground in excitement to begin learning. His tail swished back and forth in a breakneck flurry. He was more than ready to make the first steps into becoming a legitimate member of the sound and not just some wandering rogue with nowhere to go. Reek was ready to take that plunge.

using google translate so excuse any language fails if any people-who-know-greek read this :p maybe we can fade this soon with language lessons? :3

Pantaleimon smiled softly when Reek was excited to start learning about the language of the ocean. It made Pan feel like she had some purpose to being here, rather than being an empty shell, a ghost, just drifting along the Sound without making a good contribution. Pantaleimon's tail beat a few cheerful wags, something that had not happened in a long time, while she considered where to start when teaching the ocean's tongue to someone else.

"Η μητέρα της θάλασσας," Pan started. "It - it means 'mother sea'." Then Pantaleimon realised that perhaps more practical, day-to-day use words were better to teach first, such as a greeting or farewell. "καλημέρα," Pantaleimon said. "It means 'good day'. καλημέρα." Pantaleimon watched Reek to see if he understood what she was trying to teach him.

Gotcha gotcha! Last post from me!

"Η μητέρα της θάλ-θάλασσας," the gaunt wolf repeated clumsily, tripping and stumbling over each syllable as the words fell out of his mouth like a hockey player's teeth.  "Mother Sea."  It may have not been the most practical phrase to begin with, but Reek still chomped at the bit to learn all he could from the other male.  Reek shot the other a quick, prideful grin over his, albeit small, accomplishment.  It was a start.  

"καλημέρα,"  he imitated, this time with much more confidence than before, though the pronunciation was still strained and difficult.  "Good day!."  He repeated the phrase over and over in his head, committing the utterance to memory.  This one was far more practical than the other.  The bastard beamed in triumph over the basic greeting.  "What else you got?" He added with excited curiosity as to what else the other consort would teach him.

i'll archive, thanks ^^

Pantaleimon nodded in approval as Reek repeated the words that she had spoken to her. "Good, very good," she murmured, feeling useful for the first time in a good while; maybe in ever. Excitedly, Pantaleimon continued, "Okay, so now we'll go onto 'how are you'," not even noticing that the tremor in her voice was non-existant as she taught Reek about the language of the ocean. For a while longer, Pan continued to teach Reek, and she would continue to do so if Reek wished to, glad to be useful for the pack and the Sirens.