Seaside Moors Our mind is not where it should be

Rosalyn had looked for Raleska in the time since but had been unable to track her down.  Frustrated, she'd waited for the girl to return, but the Pirate cursed as she heard a howl on the wind.  A summons for Winterbane.

It wasn't a challenge, but still... Rosalyn slipped intently towards them, wondering.  She did not doubt her wife and her own plans, but if she had to fight Raleska on them, the aim would be harder.  Did the girl have a liking for Winterbane?  Was the claim her own idea?

A million questions, all spurred, all to be answered as soon as she caught @Raleska alone.

Raleska rarely visited her den these days, but as she returned from her palaver with Wintersbane she was surprised to find Rosalyn there. 


Lurking, maybe? Raleska turned her head to the side, studying the expression of her surrogate mother carefully. Hi, Rosalyn. Raleska ventured, her ears turned to the side as she curiously waited for Rosalyn to speak.

feel free to wait until that thread concludes!

Raleska seemed surprised to see her.  Rosalyn smiled, but there was a tension to her... an undercurrent of energy that hadn't faded since her meet with Erzulie.  Raleska.  

She didn't plan how she'd approach this, mainly because she had no reason to assume she'd need to be persuasive.  She hoped that still held true.  Erzulie and I have decided it's time to take Rusalka's fate on ourselves.  He won't last the month, and we will not bow to him.  Past time, truly, but she did not regret the chance they'd given Aningan.  He'd done well.

We wanted to know if you would take the children somewhere, just for a short time.  Safer to assume the worst than be proven it later.

As expected, things were underfoot. In very little time Rosalyn laid open what was on her mind. While many details were missing, Raleska could speculate on what it was her surrogate dams intended to do.

Anything for Rusalka -- Raleska had always admired that about both of them. Where her true mother had been single-minded and hellbent on one strident purpose, Rosalyn and Erzulie were the dual-pointed spear -- they thought in tandem always, and had many years of experience backing them.

But, taking the children... Raleska stirred uncomfortably. That meant she would have to spend time with him -- and her -- the discomfort was plaintive on her face. She supposed there were worse sacrifices to make than to endure the existential and unwavering guilt that barraged her any time she looked at Valravn or Regin. "What is it you're planning to do?"

Rosalyn wondered at the discomfort.  Perhaps Raleska truly did want Wintersbane on the throne?  She was disappointed a moment, but pressed on.  She knew that there would be no turning aside, not now.  She and Erzulie would not submit to another man.

She'd let the other woman argue if she wished, and hope it was merely hesitance at being sent away.  We will confront him and ask that he step down.  If that does not work, we will make him.  She replied, lips lifting on this last statement.  And if that does not work, we will form something new.

The last part was the largest.  It had come to both of their attention that much of their trouble late had been the feeling of nothing about this home being theirs.  Forming something new would destroy that which Raleska had grown in, but it would give them all something to strive for.  She watched for a response carefully.

If Raleska was as smart as she believed herself to be, she would have blurted everything then. Cleared the table and cleared her chest. Her conscience would have to wait.

"He is not going to step down. He is proud." Raleska surmised, equal careful in her response. She had her own designs -- and stupidly, she had not considered the other moving pieces on the chess-board. "You will have to fight him or run him out. I talked to him right after he overthrew Aningan. He wants to fix Rusalka." Raleska, every bit Caiaphas' daughter in many ways, kept her cards close to her chest.

"Where will we go?"

Selfishly, Rosalyn had an answer, but she did not know if it would hold.  The bay... the place where she and Erzulie had begun.  But when they'd moved here, they'd decided to start over in a place with no history.  She could not take the easy answer without first considering what those who would follow them felt.  

Then first we will fight. Rosalyn said, and she gave Raleska a small, wicked smile.  She was confident in her and Erzulie's ability, and despite her age, she was a formidable wolf.  She might not have much in the way of formal training, but she had not lived a life of violent strife for nothing.

I do not know.  The coast, of course, but we would need to choose a place together.  She added.  She'd like Raleska to have a voice in that, if it came to it.  Even now, she thought... perhaps a move would not be the worst.  She thought of Regin's words.  I want to be closer to the sea.

Maybe the reason she'd lost it was because here, they were in limbo.  They kept it at arms length, as though fear drove them to avoid her.

Suddenly, Rosalyn wondered.  Do you see anything in Rusalka that needs fixing?  she asked, still of a mind that perhaps Raleska agreed with Winterbane.  She'd posed this question to Erzulie, and now would know what others thought.  Perhaps they could build something that was not only the wives', but the family's as well.

Then first, we will fight. That earned a smile in return, though Raleska's was not so sheathed by malice. Her whole life had been fighting for scraps -- why would this be any different?

The two of them against Wintersbane -- ah, she felt sorry for the prideful man. He might find that Rusalka was more than just women to be pushed around.

Relieved that Rosalyn wished to stay somewhere along the coast, Raleska considered the matriarch's question in a solemn pause of silence. She didn't like many territories. She hardly liked it here at all. That wasn't a secret; since they'd moved here, Raleska had spent more time outside than within. Partially due to her dislike of the Moors, and partially due to the fact she still could not face her children. Rosalyn and Erzulie's children.

"I told Wintersbane we should move." Raleska opted for full transparency. "He offered me a position besides him as leader, I declined. I don't want to lead. I want Rusalka to survive. And maybe someday, to grow. We can't do that here. I would want to see us move -- I know there is no love for the Sound, but it was structurally very safe. Either that, or the cliffs.

The only thing I would change, is we should stop fuckin' letting men in. They fuck up everything and then leave us with the mess."

Rosalyn listened and nodded.  Both held history... but she had also spent enough time in both to know they were defensible.  Drageda is long gone, and the shadow from the cliffs. To claim it would ensure that.  But the sound... if it means something to you.  Rosalyn did not want to slip into Caiaphas' footsteps, and she had never seen what the siren loved so fiercely about that place.  There were more beautiful coastlines and more bounteous claims.  

If we allow them in, they will know their place.  Rosalyn replied, with an appreciative growl of agreement.  Those that don't we'll turn out.  Miranda and Aningan were perhaps exceptions, ones that were growing more and more rare as time passed.  There will be no challenges to our claim, not unless the pack decides we are no longer fit.  A leader on strength alone was not a belief Rosalyn had ever held, and she hated the revolving door of challenges as long as she'd been a part of this pack.  The job of choosing who to lead was with the crew, and unless they mutinied, that choice would hold.  To do otherwise was just to invite dissent and betrayal.

Raleska was silent, musing over Rosalyn's words. The Sound did mean something to Raleska -- but, what ever hold it had over her was impossible to explain. It was more than a home -- she wouldn't even call it that, for it lacked the safety and warmth one associates with a home.. Rather.. it was something else; cold and incredibly familiar. Something deeper, a part of her the same way her childhood was.

She ignored the uncomfortable twisting of her mind. "I just know those two best, as places that are more defensible than here." In her own strange way, Raleska didn't want to see the Sound claimed. There was a superstitious belief, ridiculous as it may seem, that the Sound was an entity -- a malevolent and uneasy ghost that slept fitfully. One she did not wish to wake by bringing activity to its depths. "No more challenges?" Raleska inquired, solemnly realizing that perhaps, this was the end of her mother's vision. Caiaphas had been dead a long time, but the pack remained -- the last of her legacy before it too faded into memory. Rusalka was the last piece of Caiaphas alive that Raleska had to hold on to.

Why did she keep holding onto it?

"Alright. I'll take the children." Raleska didn't promise she would be nice to them, and it wasn't hard to catch she was uncomfortable with the prospect of babysitting children she'd happily abandoned. "Tell me when."

Tomorrow.  It should not take long.  Rosalyn was not insightful enough to guess the source of Raleska's discomfort, but she seemed ready enough to do as asked.  She was confident in their ability to cast him aside - she need not keep them long.

What she said of the places was true. Practically, Rosalyn leaned towards the cliffs.  She had never liked them looming over when they lived in the sound; and the place reminded her of another.  What had the name been, of her first claim?

None that bypass the crew.  Rosalyn replied, curious if she would be grateful or bothered by this.  Thinking strength is all a leader needs brings a type of wolf I'd rather stop at the borders.  The crews she'd truly loved in the past had been cooperative, and made up of wolves willing to work to lift the pack together.  Despite the title, if a Pirate were worth their salt, they knew what family meant.

Tomorrow. Raleska shifted uneasily, but placed most of her discomfort somewhere in the Vault where she wouldn't think of it until it really mattered. Kids. She could watch kids. It'd be fine. She wished she had a place alongside Rozulie, fighting for what was theirs -- but Raleska also recognized that sometimes duty was not glorious.

Sometimes, duty meant babysitting.

"Alright." Raleska repeated, readying herself. While part of her would be sad to see that culture of Rusalka change, the truth was she'd have followed Rozulie to the ends of the earth and back, and she'd probably do anything they told her to -- even if it was something horrible or unpalatable. In that way, Raleska was very much forged in undying bonds of loyalty for them. "I'll come by in the morning, and take them. I'll pretend its just a scouting mission, or something. What will the signal be, your howl?"

Aye, either way.  They'd howl in victory or they'd sound a summons to their defeat.  If the latter, they could determine what the next steps would be together.  Surely he won't be stupid enough, Rosalyn thought, but she'd known men stupider who wore similar veneers of strength.

She stepped forward, pressing her cheek to Raleska's with a small smile.  This was serious, but it was also for the better, and she didn't want to seem so grave.  Don't let Solaire boss you around too much; she's a horrendous Bos'n.  Rosalyn jested, stepping back and regarding Raleska with affectionate gratitude.  Thank you.

<3

Certainly when it came to men, stupidity knew no limits. A twist in Raleska's gut -- a nameless emotion she suffocated instantly under Rosalyn's touch. Be strong -- brave -- pretend you didn't do something unspeakable, terrible, to those children --

She pressed back in a fleeting gesture, her smile sad but knowing. "I'll do my best -- she's a good kid. Has good parents." Raleska wondered how differently life would be if sh-- no, another thought plunged deep into the Vault.

Raleska began to stir, ready to make her leave. She would dread morning, but no matter what, she'd see Rosalyn through.

Rosalyn allowed her to leave with just a parting smile and a nod at her words.

She did wonder what more was going on with Raleska, and why she seemed so on edge.  She'd noticed that the true mother was distant, but she did not judge it.  There was a time she'd wanted nothing to do with children and was glad to bear the role.

She just had to trust, if there was more to be said, Raleska would bring it to her.  Until then, she could do nothing; she wasn't at an age where she could read minds just yet.