Ankyra Sound i aim with my eye

@Firefly keeping it vague so u can decide where they are in the pack

there had been a few too many changes in the pack for illidan to keep his head on straight. he truly wasn’t even certain who had claimed the alpha role. all the while, he had debated whether or not it was in his best interest to take it himself. he wondered if he would have been capable against rosalyn or firefly. he wondered if it would cause a rift between him and them even further than his words might have.
 
the young man sought out the scarred figure of his friend. he wanted to speak to firefly before making any sort of decision. he wanted to see if he could share his thoughts first, get them out of his jumbled mind so that they could make sense to someone else. more than this, illidan wondered if his own mother would find joy or disappointment in his attempt to lead her pack.

The pack was growing; they had new mouths to feed and soon, more would be coming. It was with a renewed sense of purpose that Firefly scouted the coast of their claim — eager to uproot anything of interest that would be valuable to Erzulie, or edible to Grezig, or just generally useful to the lot of them. He wasn't having much luck. When he spied Illidan coming up alongside the surf towards him, he welcomed the break.

Illidan had a purposeful gait, and seemed to be hunting for something - and when the pair locked eyes, Firefly felt his guts knot with a strange sensation. He wasn't sure what he felt in that fleeting moment but it was gone as soon as the distance between them was closed. Sensing that something was on his mind, Firefly focused his attention on his friend and said, Hey - you lookin' for me?

there he was, the ghost realized with a quiet breath that left his lips. he moved to close the space between them as well. the length of his limbs made short work of that distance. once he was closer, firefly inquired as to whether or not illidan had been searching for him. the dark-hooded wildling nodded his head and offered a half-smile. “yeah, how’d you know?”
 
u can’t rush perfection, java…
 
behind him, he could hear the sounds of the waves as they met the shoreline. there was a sense of peace over the sound without the drageda wolves overlooking them. illidan wondered if firefly was even aware that their neighboring pack had all but vanished overnight. “they’re gone, you know…” he muttered in a gravelly voice. “i went up there a few days ago and it’s completely empty.”

He smirked; it had been a while since they'd spent any time together and it was nice to see him -- uh, no homo though, obviously. Just a nice bro-themed walk on the beach. Fully platonic. Absolutely straight as an arrow hangouts between two attractive, virile young men.

They're gone, you know.. Illidan mentions and looks askance at the cliffs, directing Firefly's attention towards Drageda; he is surprsied to learn of this, and it shows plainly on his scarred face. A part of him is pleased because it means the kids will be safe, they'll all be safe — but he has a warrior's heart, and finds himself ultimately, disappointed at the loss.

I can't imagine Caiaphas had that much of an impact, it isn't like she killed their leader — oh, he remembered hearing of their alpha vanishing, or dying, or something of the sort. Maybe things just fell apart, as they sometimes did. He looked upon the cliffs with a newfound appreciation at that point - I guess they couldn't handle us after all. A win is a win, I guess.

no, even illidan did not believe that his mother had impacted the cliff wolves into fleeing their claim and vanishing in the wilds. the dark-hooded youth believed that caiaphas was capable of incredible things, but she had been injured just the same in her assault on the drageda warrior. they would not have been too concerned with her ability to spring back and attack the rest of their group. still, he could not help but to wonder if they thought that the rusalka wolves posed a threat to them.
 
“yeah, it’ll be nice not to have them there… we might actually have a chance at some peace,” the wildling remarked to firefly in a quiet tone. his life had been so full of turmoil that he was not certain what kind of a man he would be without it. there was some amount of fear at the idea that he had no grasp of who he was, and that fear was strong enough that he would never have shared his thoughts with the man next to him.
 
“what’s happened with you being alpha? what’s been going on?” the ghost finally asked, turning his hawkish gaze to the sun-touched male.

The sense of relief was temporary; soon enough Illidan brought what really plagued his thoughts to the forefront, and Firefly wasn't sure how to respond. He had explained himself as best he could to Erzulie but was full of doubts at the time, and hadn't reached any clarity since. But he felt he owed his friend an explanation — all the turmoil of the past few weeks felt as if it centered on himself, his poor decisions, and his inflated ego. Now that he had been knocked down again, he felt more like himself.

He sighed, grimacing slightly as if the topic was causing him a little pain. Well, I'm an asshole, that's what's happened. I found out that Rosalyn had stepped down from the position I gave her and uh, I kind of lost my shit on her. Said some stuff. So she put me in my place, and --- I guess took her rank back in the process. It was a mess but it was his mess, and he felt he deserved all of it; I'm better off away from leadership - which I expect you'd agree with, considering my stupid solution to Drageda was to hide the women. Cringe.

he wasn't really prepared for the honesty that flooded from his friend. illidan watched him with an intense expression. his ears were drawn forward to eat up every word that was offered. through all of it, he held his tongue and did not say anything in response to the scarred man. he had plenty of thoughts that were racing through his mind. the intricacies of leadership had all but passed him by, and still the young ghost did everything that he could to maintain his position and to do what he was supposed to.

“i mean, your suggestion was just your attempt to do what was right. you shouldn't beat yourself up too badly for it,” illidan then assured the sun-touched man. then, his brow creased and he cast a thoughtful frown toward the ocean water that lapped on the shore. “whatever we do, we should decide on it together,” he added in a softer voice. it was in this moment that illidan thought of erzulie, and his stomach crinkled inside of him with a peculiar feeling.

He didn't know what to say at first, and sort of scoffed as Illidan did his best to assuage his guilt (if that's even what he was feeling; Firefly wasn't even sure). The somber look that his friend gave to the sea was soon matched by his own gaze at the great blue expanse, and his one good ear turned when he heard the boy speak further. That's the problem with Rusalka, he murmured in response, we are a group of hot-heads that act without thought or compromise. Communication isn't our strength, but maybe when the kids come — maybe they'll all unite behind the next generation and start acting like a proper pack, a family. On that note Firefly's thoughts were distracted by a sudden idea: We don't treat one-another as family but we should. What if... What if we could convince everyone to become a family? Take a shared name, if only for the symbolism. He smirked as he said this; it was a little far-fetched to him, as if a little bit of pageantry could unite them in time for the births — but he looked to Illidan with wonder in his eyes, curious to know what he thought.

illidan didn't like to admit that there were problems with rusalka. he wished he could continue to live in a state of delusion where they were never at fault, but he had learned those lessons long before that point. life had a very distinct way of warping around different personalities. firefly was right in that they had a group of wildfire wolves underneath them and it would be difficult to lead them without their pride and anger reflecting in such things.

“perhaps we just need the right leaders,” illidan mused quietly, his gravelly voice filled with a questioning tone. he really could not have said with certainty what would have made their situation better. “but you have to admit, our ranks have never been fuller and that is promising enough. it must mean we are doing something right,” the ghost then added with a sly smile.

as for changing their names to a collective one, he found the idea interesting. there was something almost romantic about the idea of all of these strangers coming together and sharing that one thing – the unbreakable bond – in spite of their differences. “i don't know if we'd be successful at convincing others to change their names, but you've got the right idea,” illidan said with a flashing smile and a bright spark to his yellow gaze. “we need a way to bring everyone together. we need to show them that we're a family as well as a pack.”

He was shot down on the idea, but not maliciously. It felt right to have the group unite somehow; Illidan voiced a similar sentiment and in a way, agreed, but together they'd have to find some other way to accomplish it. Firefly nodded as he listened, understanding and not holding the refusal against his friend — and he stopped mid-motion to smile and blurt, What about a party? I mean, we haven't really stopped to appreciate everything that's been going on. Rusalka moves at such a crazy pace, I think we owe it to ourselves to step back, have a breather, and look at what we've accomplished.

He could see it now: a clearing in the black pine — no, the beach! Some rarely-used section that could be cleared up, food strewn about, wolves romping in the water and everyone making a day of it. Drageda is gone, we're about to have kids roaming the beach, and our ranks have stabilized. I think its worth a celebration, eh?

illidan waited patiently and quietly as firefly shared another idea that had come to him. part of the young ghost had felt bad because he believed he had been shooting down too many of his friend’s ideas as of late. it wasn’t in his nature to outright disagree with someone, but it was a habit that he had been realizing was incredibly useful to him… so long as he did it sparingly. it was the last idea that firefly had suggested that really seemed to spark interest in the wildling.
 
“that’s a great idea,” he remarked in a pleasant tone. even the glimmer of his yellow gaze seemed to spark to life with the premise of it. then, with a thoughtful expression, illidan focused on the ground beneath his paws. “what if we waited until rosalyn and erzulie have their kids and they can move out of the den? when i was just a pup, my parents did that for me on this very same beach… and it was,” he stopped dead in his tracks. there was something about divulging personal details about his life that had struck a peculiar chord with him. he didn’t feel comfortable with it. those memories were sacred to the child who had lost his father and had believed his mother to have fallen to the same fate.
 
“it was really nice,” he finished with a thin smile and a soft nod of his head. “i think if the kids could join, it might make it all the better. plus, it’ll give us time to plan for this.”

He smiled as the idea came together, and nodded. Waiting sounds good. I'm not sure if either of the women would willingly go along with taking on a collective name like that either, so it might fall through at the first mention. But it would make him feel more like a part of things; Firefly just wanted a family, and after shaking things up so much, deep down he just wanted things to calm down and for everyone to unite. Sharing a name and becoming cohesive - a family unit - would do just that.

When Illidan went ahead and spoke of his own family, his parents and his upbringing, Firefly was quiet. He wished he could remember the little things. There was a dark look on Illidan's face as he tried to come up with the right words though, and as he spoke it seemed like he was holding back - but Firefly wasn't going to push him. I agree. Maybe by the time they're born I'll have convinced Rosalyn and Erzulie --- of something, I dunno, he shrugged. It's gonna be weird when they're born; I can't imagine being a dad, but I'm kinda.. Excited. Excited, afraid, who could tell the difference?

it was sad that time would have pulled firefly away from the pack and set him out on his own. sad for illidan to imagine rusalka without the sun-touched figure. of course, he did not know anything about the future or what would change. in that moment, the young ghost believed that they were truly doing good by creating these moments. he felt as though he actually belonged to something that was bigger than him – something that actually mattered. time could take that away too.

“i think you'll be a great father, firefly,” the dark-hooded beast remarked in a genuine tone. he dipped his head downward and offered a smile. “your children will be fortunate to have such a strong family. hopefully it will make all the difference for them.” he could not help but to think about how different his own personality would have been if he hadn't lost his own father. they were thoughts that always seemed to prick at the back of his mind.

The sentiment that Illidan voiced was not something that settled well within Firefly; he heard the words and smiled, gaze glimmering briefly as he looked at his friend, but inevitably he looked out to sea and tried not to think too much about the future. He liked where he was, right this moment. A piece of Rusalkan history; a man who fought for what he wanted, who lived however he felt. A conqueror of women. Loyal to so many, trusted by so few. He'd erred as the leader of the ragtag group but he had learned a lot too, and while it had felt like a terrible mistake to fight Illidan's mother — now, standing with his friend upon their shared beach-home, everything felt good, like he belonged right where he was. Except for the vague nagging feeling that something was changing, that uncertainty, like a storm was pulling closer and closer to shore — Firefly felt right.