The Sunspire it's sexist, but it's about friendship.

Once upon a time, Liffey was hungry. And she kinda wanted to cry. Nothing bad had happened to her recently. No one was bullying her or not inviting her to their parties. She hadn't lost a loved one or experienced a recent failure. Unless the actual reason for her desire to cry in that moment counted as a failure - but I don't personally think it did. But in Liffey's addled-by-pregnancy brain, it definitely counted. It counted something fierce. I mean, how could it not? How would you feel if you were hungry, achey, growing fat by the freaking second, and you couldn't for the life of you remember why you were wandering around your territory?

Man, I take it back - she's such a failure. Even I want to cry right now.

Liffey dropped suddenly to her haunches to give herself a moment to breathe and to think. She knew when she'd left that there was a reason for her to go out that afternoon. She'd wanted something... She had been compelled by some great need for... something... Her stomach rumbled, and Liffey groaned in frustration. If she wasn't so freaking hungry, she could think straight and figure out what she was doing out here, searching for... Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh life is too hard sometimes.

Let's face it though - she'd never been a stellar hunter to begin with. Even when she knew that's what she was doing.

yes plzzzzzzz bc liquid time says I can do this ok

Thank bob and everyone else, her tongue was back to normal!!! No more sounding like a complete weirdo for her, and she was ready to chat the ear off of about anyone who would listen, she was so happy about it.  

Unfortunately for Liffey, she was the one thing around loud enough to be noticed.

She heard the groan when she was heading back to she and Wraen's sleeping nook to take a nap.  Or talk to Wraen.  Or do something else equally funtimes.  But now she was distracted, and the source of the noise wasn't someone she had met yet.  She needed to meet most everyone actually! 

"What's up?"  She asked curiously as she approached, then got on to the introductions because she definitely knew her manners.  "My name's Maia, new here!  Well, sorta new.  I've been here a week or two but everything went a little crazy so I guess we haven't met yet! Are you ok?"

Liffey stared at her paws as she racked her brain for an explanation. It seemed the harder she tried to come up with one, the more the possibilities drifted away from her. If only her stomach weren't churning so terribly. Gods she needed to eat. But what if what she had needed to do was more important than eating? Where would she be then? Chowing down on a rabbit when suddenly Terance appeared out of no where screaming about how Rannoch had been eaten by a mountain lion because she hadn't marked the Southern border like she'd been supposed to? Then she'd be all sobbing her heart out with a mouthful of rabbit. No one needed that in their life. And I certainly don't ever want to write about it.

Unfortunately, that thought simply brought her even closer to crying. And more unfortunately, that's when Maia arrived on the scene. Liffey looked up from her paws and turned to face the approaching wolf, her eyes wide and confused and brimming with tears. She caught bits and pieces of the words, but her focus had shifted abruptly to the churning of her stomach and the threat of tears. The girl ended her onslaught of verbosity (is that a word...?) with a simple question, to which Liffey waited about ten seconds to respond. When the time came, her answer included no verbosity (I've declared it to be a word), but only a sudden lurch forward and heaving of bile onto the bright green grass before her paws.

When her only answer was to barf right in front of Maia, the girl's nose screwed up with an emphatic "Ew, gross."  She didn't leave, though, instead grinning.  Gross she didn't mind, not one bit.  She wasn't her sister, scared off by a little throwup, oh no!  

"Really, though, you ok?  Better out than in if you ate somethin bad!"  She wondered if maybe she could get something for the other woman, but waited to see if she would say anything.

It took about fifteen seconds before Liffey's stomach was empty. And it was another sixty seconds before she finally managed to cease her dry heaving. Tears were streaming down her cheeks by the time it was over, and her legs were trembling fiercely from the effort of holding her upright while she was tossing her cookies all over the Spire. She was panting heavily when finally she looked up again, licking her lips to clear away bile and saliva.

"I'm sorry about that" Liffey commented as she dropped back onto her haunches, shifting so her big belly sat more comfortably before her. "Ugh, these things just make me feel so terrible all the time..." She glanced down at her stomach, feeling miserable as she warned them, "You little jerks better be real freakin' cute..."

Maia just stood awkwardly back a bit as she finished, not really sure what she could do to help but unwilling to be that rude and walk away.  Much as she wanted to.  Wow this was gross.  But she could handle gross.

What was she talking about?  What better be cute?  No way she was talking about poop right?  Because that would be weird on a whole nother level, and she wasn't hugely into it.

"Yeah," she said, laughing a bit to try and cover the fact that she had no clue what Liffey was talking about.  She hadn't hung around Osprey much when she was pregnant, and she wasn't old enough quite yet to have had that chat.  "You... uh.  Sure you don't need anything?"

There was some notable confusion in the girl's tone, even as she attempted to laugh her way through it. Liffey raised her gaze, finally attempting to actually see her companion for the first time. She... didn not know this girl. But that shouldn't be at all surprising, seeing as the young Blackthorn was incredible self-centered in spite of her seemingly affable personality. She smiled at the offer, though she did wonder how much sincerity there was in it. After all, Liffey often found herself offering whatever she could for the chance of escaping an uncomfortable situation. Maybe she ought to demand food in an effort to give this girl the opportunity to run like hell away from her for a little while.

"No, I'll be fine," she said, "Unless you have some way of getting Rannoch's pups to grow up quicker so I can get them out of me now instead of later." Liffey smiled, hoping her comment would serve to inject some mirth into this conversation while also better explaining what exactly was the problem.

"Ohhh, I thought..." ok, no, it wasn't important what she thought.  Because what she thought definitely wasn't what Liffey said, and that meant it was definitely dumb and didn't need mentioning.

So she abruptly switched, going full on social mode, which likely wasn't much better.  "I'm Maia! I don't think we met yet.  Terance and Wraen's sister."  That would explain why she was here maybe.  "Youre gonna have puppies? That's so exciting!"  For her... Maia wouldn't be caught dead with them.  But she assumed it was exciting!

feel free to post again or archive <3

Liffey felt her stomach churning again as her packmate responded. She tried to pay attention in spite of it and was rewarded with intrigue. "I didn't know they had a sister," she said in response, quirking a brow. She slammed her eyes shut in the next second as Maia exclaimed about her pregnancy. She wished she could share the enthusiasm, but at that moment, she just wanted to be done with all of it.

"Yeah, it's a real.. blessing," she moaned, lifting her head to offer an apologetic, strained smile. "I'm heading back home, otherwise I'm going to end up giving you an encore of that show I just put on," she said, excusing herself before turning ad heading back to her den. Maybe Rannoch would be there and she could ask him to fetch her some food. She was awful hungry, come to think of it.

As far as first impressions went, this one was a mess.  Fortunately, as long as no insults were thrown, Maia was pretty incapable of thinking it a bad one.  Even if the whole pregnancy nausea thing escaped her and she was wondering where Liffey had found what she had eaten to make her feel so sick.  It would go number three on Maia's 'spots not to visit' list, right below a certain cave on the shore and anywhere involving fire.  Her parents had given her enough stories to have a healthy fear of it even without seeing it herself.

"Uh, ok."  She watched her go, slightly concerned, but then shrugged it off.  She was the leader right? She wanted something she asked, so probably she didn't need anything from Maia right then.  Cool.  Sidestepping the vom pile, she continued on her way.