Blacktail Deer Plateau different direction

Idk what I am doing with this poor child, but it amuses and saddens me. Obviously, Atticus talking to her is all in her head. OR IS IT? Some folks I wouldn't mind seeing in here: @Blue Willow @Lasher @Saena @Amelie

While Tytonidae's body had grown almost to adult size, there were certain... aspects of her brain that had failed to grow appropriately. Her brain was often filled with imaginary friends, and she had recently found a friend who wasn't imaginary at all (not that she could tell the difference). It was somebody she had known in passing before, but never somebody whom she had felt so close to. Her father had explained that he had bumped his head and changed.

Atticus, her uncle, was her new best friend.

Every day since he had changed, Tytonidae had awoken, practiced her hunting skills (occasionally snatching up a squirrel), and given whatever she had caught to her uncle. He ate in silence, like everybody did, but once he was finished eating, they had lovely, lengthy conversations. They spoke of their family, what would happen when winter got here (if it got here at all... the both of them thought it was a myth), and all the goings on with the pack.

Then there was her father's new lovers, which Atticus had assured her was just fine and dandy. Ty, although suspicious, thought she would give them a shot. They talked about how Saena could be mean, but that she probably just didn't have the same kind of friend to talk to like Tytonidae had. When Ty asked Atticus why he couldn't be her friend, too, he said that he could only be Ty's special friend. When she pressed him for an explanation, he simply said that she would understand in time.

Presently, Tytonidae was waxing on about how complicated her family was to Atticus, who was sitting quietly, listening. He was especially good at that.

There was something very wrong with Atticus. Pura knew it - everyone knew it, but Tytonidae .. the poor girl posesssed mental afflictions to rival her freckled cousin, who despite being slow to process the world around him had a fairly good grasp on reality. He knew now that Junior had disappeared rather than died (though it took him a while to accept that the ears they had buried belonged to some other creature), and that Atticus was sick. Ty seemed to live in a completely different world, where time had long since stopped.

Lately, she had taken to spending most of her time by Atticus. Pura occasionally stopped to watch them, noting the swarthy male's slow, laborious movements and lack of words. There was a glazed quality to his once expressive eyes that made him look a little like Pura, though it was not a parallel that the pup would draw.

Today, like most days, she was prattling away in the grown wolf's ear about something-or-other. Pura edged towards them, watching Ty's animated face as she recounted tales of familial woe to the only wolf that spoke less than Pura did. The awkwardly large pup stopped a few feet away, gaze shifting between Ty's jabbering mouth and Atticus, who didn't look as if he had the capacity to process a single word of what was being said. He certainly wasn't responding. After a while, Pura angled one ear back and focused his attention on Ty. "He can't hear," he told her flatly.

I had a read of what Atticus's symptoms are supposed to be - PM me if this is wrong. :D

From what I understand, if you put food in his mouth, he eats, but otherwise he's pretty catatonic.

"He can't hear," came the voice of Pura, Ty's own cousling. She stopped mid-sentence to turn and face him. “Yes, he can,” she said sweetly with a stern undertone. “and I can hear him.” Tytonidae had learned that she was massively different from the rest of her siblings and cousins, but that didn't mean that she was going to try and conform. Actually, she had tried that, and it had only made her anxious. She had tried to hide everything from them, which had become stressful in its own way.

“And he says that’s not very kind of you.” Ty swished her tail, then returned her attention to the catatonic Atticus. “I’m sorry they can’t hear you, Uncle Atti. It’s just like when they thought Junior was gone. But she wasn’t!” Atticus understood, he believed her in ways that nobody had. Probably because he was going through something very similar himself. Being locked in his body where only Ty could hear him.

I suck.

"Yes, he can. And I can hear him."

Pura's gaze strayed in Atticus's direction - the once vibrant, fun uncle made no move to meet his eyes, or talk, or even blink. The lights were on, but no-one was home.

"He's dead," Pura declared. For all intents and purposes, Atticus was dead - a walking, drooling, eating dead. Fascinating. Dribble began to bead in the corners of Pura's mouth, which he licked away with a few swipes of his tongue. If Atticus was no longer there.. was he sacred? Was he a wolf? His body was, but..

For the moment, Pura pushed Peregrine's warnings aside. "We can eat him," he told Ty calmly. "Because he's dead."

Ty twisted her face into a frown. “I don’t think we should,” she replied, lending an ear to Atticus to hear what he had to say. “He says he doesn’t want to be eaten.” Tytonidae did not think he was dead, either. She wondered why Pura thought he was dead. Maybe because he could not hear him like she did. “Can’t you hear him, Pura?” Of all her siblings, Pura seemed most likely to be able to pick up on his uncle's transmissions.

It was hard to be the only one who could hear Atticus. Nobody else could hear how sad he was. Tytonidae was his only link to the world outside of his own head. She brought him small gifts of food, making sure to bring him different things so he wouldn't get bored.

"He says he doesn’t want to be eaten."

Pura looked at Atticus, who looked as though he were about to drool. Not a single coherent word passed his lips. It crossed the boy's mind that Ty might not be quite 'with it' - which was rather nice, because Pura wasn't exactly well-adjusted either.

For once, he decided to humour his cousin (sibling, really, by this point) - mostly because he wasn't prepared to weather a tantrum. "OK," he conceded, sliding onto his belly next to the their dormant uncle. "What else does h-he say?"

If Pura was able to hear Uncle Atti, he certainly wasn't acting like it. Tytonidae sighed, but she understood. She got that she was gifted in some way that others were not. She could hear and see things that made others seem deaf and blind. Sometimes, the sheer amount of conflicting information between what they experienced and what she did was overwhelming. But Ty knew she must press on.

"He says..." Ty began, lending an ear to her uncle, "that he doesn't want to be trapped anymore, but he can't get out. He wishes you could hear him, too, Pura." A sad smile punctuated this statement, and Ty rubbed her head against her uncle's shoulder to comfort him. He did not respond in any way that Pura would be able to see.

After a few more back-and-forth with her uncle and cousin, Pura eventually left to pursue other adventures.