Noctisardor Bypass Do you have a name? Or can I call you mine?

bc WHY NOT.  I'm not gonna call this joining because I have no clue if they'll let him in lmfao

Zaney boy, someone wants you dead.  Who the fuck did he piss off?  Huh?  Zane glared at the sky as he shivered, then continued to plod along.  The doc had patched him up but he was still a bit of a mess, and these injuries had put a real damper on his hunting prowess (which was considerable, of course).  Damn that bitch.  He stood by the turkey comment now more than ever.

It had gotten so cold that he had a hard time feeling both his ears and his nose, and that meant real trouble if he failed to find someplace to hunker down.  Course, I'm in the middle of butt-fuck NOWHERE.  He grumbled, swatting at the snow in front of him.  All around?  Nothing but fucking meadow.  How was he supposed to survive a storm in a meadow?

The cliffs ahead were his only chance, but of course, they were claimed.  Fucking hell.  He sooo wasn't enthused about joining a pack and having some dude constantly dick-measuring him.  Fully aggrieved, Zane reluctantly called out for an audience with whoever the fuck owned this place.  Well... whatever.  Living was living.

His mother had left abruptly, with Vex on her heels. Haunt had been first out. There was no preparation there. Great. So that probably left him attempting to hold things together? Why was this happening again? He had other things he needed to do with winter turning rough -- this was gonna stress him the hell out, dammit.

But maybe they'd come back? He was already heading to the borders about the time when the howl came, so he had to adjust his path to go there. Probably wouldn't be long, at least. But Warlock wasn't one who enjoyed border interactions nearly as much as his mother. To him, it just seemed iffy. Strangers were dang weird.

Maybe it was unfortunate that being tall and having long legs meant he got there before the strange man got bored and wandered off. So he actually had to do this, huh? Since he was still at a distance, War took in a deep breath, steadied his nerves and tried to put on his best imitation of his mother's mannerisms. He wasn't a leader, but this was his home, and by pitching his ears forward and squaring his shoulders, he could at least show that much. As the gap closed, he spoke, Hey! This is Legion. What are you looking for? Which sounded a little dumb, admittedly, but again, he kind of slacked on these lessons.

Oh shit.  This wasn't just a dude who came walking up... this was a small dude.  Like, a kid.  Hey, kid.  I'm lookin for the leader here?  Zane smiled what he imagined to be his most endearing look... and what ended up likely looking nothing short of condescending.  I was trying to find a place to hole up for the winter and this one looked mighty cosey, specially considering the whole lot of nothin around everywhere else.

Probably not his best move, essentially indicating that he had no other options and had settled here by default.  But hey, what's a guy gonna do?  Lie?

That took brains.  And Zane here defaulted lazy honesty.

Warlock was tall, but that was about it -- he didn't have the impressive aura that either of his parents had. He was more like this one kid from the player's band class who was 6'7" but could blend in with a crowd like he had scifi stealth technology. Not to mention, he certainly wasn't the youngest wolf around, so being called a kid when he was well over a year earned a frown. Maybe it even helped him a bit to not be excessively nervous like usual.

He tried to channel at least some of her seriousness, though he probably would have had an easier time acting like Terance -- but he was a memory not quite so fresh in his mind these days, That would be my mother. So perhaps he'd not call him a kid again. Though in the same instant, he was also not yet saying that she wasn't here right now. Do that later. I'm Warlock. And if you want to stay here, then tell me what you're good at and stuff that might impress her. I can also answer any questions you might have about the pack, if there's anything you need to know. That at least sounded right for a border-person to say, but he could be wrong.

Ah, of course.  The sell.  Zane nodded, though a little less than fully ecstatic about this.  Solid.  Alright, my dude, some notes.  Hunters don't get much better than me, and I have a hell of a bite.  You see these?  He indicated the wounds that he'd gotten.  Got these defending a defenseless chick from a dude who woulda totally fucked with her shit, yeah?  Nasty piece of work, but I sent him packing.  Too bad she wasn't lookin for Mr. Right, but hey, I didn't need payment.  Zane smiled, the picture of a gentleman in his own mind.

Most of that was complete bullshit, but he delivered it with the gusto of a guy who wished with all of his heart it was true.  This was the reality he was totally content to run with at the moment.  So if you got a pack, I tell you, you cannot miss the chance to have me in it.  Fuck, that was too far, wasn't it?  Look, whatever.  He was cold, he was hungry, and he needed a place to crash.  He'd do whatever the hell they needed him to do so long as they let him sleep not in the middle of a god damn ice field.

This guy was maybe.. A bit much? Warlock blinked. War himself was pretty meek, Arbiter was basically  rock, and this guy was perhaps more of a raucous creature than Brou. Well, uh.. What's your name? He kinda left that out, War had introduced himself after all. But if all his hype was actually real that didn't sound too bad. 

He also didn't seem too interested in what he was getting into. But maybe that was only an issue because Warlock knew what his mother was like. New guy didn't. My mom, Arbiter, is the leader here. She's big on people being loyal -- or at least keeping their word on stuff. And wants people to to improve themselves while they're here. Especially since it's winter. She's not a person you want to disappoint. She's pretty tough. He hoped it was clear that was understatement of the year there. That was at least what he was attempting to do. He'd bring up that she wasn't here next -- assuming that didn't scare him off.

Oh, shit, right.  Zane.  He left off the surname, as usual.  Always felt a little stuffy using it, and besides, who'd know his dad around these parts?  It had been ages since his parents were here.

Oh, sure, yeah.  Loyalty, improvement, all that.  You got it.  Look, you got dens, yeah?  Because it's lookin nasty as my grandpa's...  yeah, out here, and I'm not big on freezing to death.  He checked his phrasing because 'alpha's kid' flashed red in his brain mid-sentence, but otherwise he was golden.  That was his only condition, and if they felt like he could rock it here (course he could!) then so long as that was set he was in.

Well. That was about all he could ask, right? Zane seemed to be particularly impatient about it all, but maybe Warlock was partially not-rushed because he knew he could go and find somewhere safe to get out of the weather. How long had he been out here? Actually, let's ask, How long have you been traveling? It was a much more casual question.

But there was still business stuff. Arbiter should be back in a few days, he hoped. It wasn't like they were given much in the way of a timeframe here. All he heard was a howl or two, it didn't come with much context beyond that. She'll want to talk to you then. That's what he did before, at least. Hopefully she'd be back soon though, because he didn't want to have to do this regularly. That was his mom's job. I think I know of a few empty dens that might be available. AKA storage places he had tried out and decided against. My suggestion? Hang out and be low key until then, hunting for yourself instead of taking from caches if you can. It'll go over better. And Warlock could check on that at least. If that all sounded good he could lead Zane to where he might find a spot to hide.

Perfect.  Can do.  If he could lie low through the snow, that bought him a little more time, even if Warlock's mom decided to chuck him in the end.  No harm, no foul.  Hunting on his own was kinda rough since that was one of few pack perks, but hey, couple more days wouldn't kill him.  He hadn't exactly been lying about being a dab hand at it - wouldn't have survived the last 4 years if he was.  

Now that that was settled and established, he was okay to answer the more casual questions.  If they'd turned him out from the offset he'd have had a shorter time frame to get an alternative lined up.

Few years, actually.  Joined a pack here and there, but I got a preference towards leaders who aren't constantly on my dick for shit that isn't my fault.  Specifically, dudes who couldn't handle some healthy competition in their ranks.  Look, he wasn't after their rank or anything, but if a chick liked what they saw, how could he help that?  Never had a non-dude lead before, it's got potential.  He was so tempted to ask the question 'is your mom hot' but he'd hold off.  Kid wouldn't probably give him a straight answer anyway.

C'mon then. I'll show you where. He was mostly just hoping that he wouldn't regret this later. He had though that before, though, so nothing special about Zane either. He started leading him towards the nearest mountainous... thing. Cliff? Oversized hill? Whatever it was. Those. It would be a bit of a walk, but not too bad.

So, meantime... Uhh. Would Arbiter go after him about stuff not his fault? Maybe? What counted? He was regretting letting him in now, just a little. But maybe it was just hyperbole. The comment about having a woman leader being promising also got a weird look from him, It makes a difference to you? Unsurprisingly, Warlock hadn't been in any other packs. He figured that was obvious. Okay, Kaertok had been a leader for a while too, but Warlock had pretty much just taken offense to him being himself rather than anything else. He was just a bad person from War's POV.

Zane followed somewhat lazily.  Well, yeah.  Guys tend to get real crazy about a dude who just wants to be friendly, right?  And they always gotta swing their dicks around.  Feel like a chick would at least have the smarts to recognize a stand-up guy when he comes knocking.  Zane replied conversationally.  

To him, the entire thing made perfect sense.  It didn't cross his mind that said 'chick' would likely need a level of respect he'd hereto never shown a woman save his mother (maybe?).  If it had, he might have been less comfortable opening his yap so wide.

It didn't seem to ring true with Warlock. The only person he'd really had issues with was Kaertok. Warlock was not a fan. But just the same, that didn't seem to align with what Zane was saying. I guess we've maybe just met different types of people. With a shrug, in fact. I've met jerks who are jerks but that's about it.

Either way, it was probably easier to talk about the den things he knew about. if Zane looked closely he could probably spot the one War was about to mention in the distance -- a dark blot in the snow where the shadows filled, I know there's one like.. Shallow overhang that is just up ahead. You can't dig it out deeper though, it's all rocky. But I know there's a few other small caves nearby too, I just don't totally remember where they are exactly. I tried to find a place last year around here, but these ones were probably ok to stay out of the weather, but weren't what I was looking for. So his quest for a place to store his stuff had at least been kind of useful. He just wasn't sure how many of them were hidden by snow now.

we can wrap this one up here!

Kid was young, maybe even too young to get the lowdown on what Zane was diggin towards.  He opened his mouth to explain what he meant... but then thought better of it.  He didn't really feel up to explaining the birds and the bees right now, plus upside meant Warlock definitely wasn't presenting much competition in that department then.  Score one for this place.

Score two was apparently incoming.  Sounds like a good backup then, but don't mind if I take a peek around.  No use digging himself if someone else had done the work already, and a snug cave sounded far better than a rocky overhang.  I'll let you know if I find a few, if you want.  That was unlikely since he planned entirely on stopping soon as he hit number one, but who knew?  Maybe there was some cave-huddle or some shit like that.  

He'd stick around for an answer on that, then split off his own way and find somewhere to hunker down and (attempt) to warm up.

Who knew if Warlock's sense of den would end up matching what Zane was really wanting. Well, you're on your own for that. But you can see the overhang I mentioned just ahead. If you do need anything else you can just let me know. He was the responsible one, after all. Better him than some others. But either way, there it was. After they split, War was off to do his own thing.