Redsand Canyon fenestra

there are some as of yet unannounced plans in the works >.>;; but i felt ICly this was important to do. rounds last 5-6 days or when everyone posts. for the purpose of this im assuming everyone tagged is present unless a post isnt made <333

that morning the imperator called the soldiers to the forum.

@Towhee, @Glaukos, @Kallik, @Maxim, and @Arsenio were expected to appear. germanicus did not summon killdeer or tierra. they were too new to the ranks to give their opinions on so heavy a matter.

the eagle waited while they settled.

"i have called you here to discuss diesel. she was for a time a part of the auxillia. she was gone for some time and i consider her militarily to be a deserter. she gives the reason for her long departure to be this time of the year." kallik and glaukos had been present for all of that meeting, and towhee for part of it.

"diesel brought back with her valuable information regarding our enemy, the saints, which appear to have taken up new residence back in the tuktu hinterlands. but she was also assaulted on that excursion by one of their members, which she says has resulted in a pregnancy."

by the gods he did not like discussing such things.

"she has been demoted to plebian. i have informed her that her children cannot be born into mereo." already they were looking at a surplus of tiny mouths. "i would like your votes, as soldiers, to allow her to stay or to vote for her exile. remember that she deserted the soldiers' ranks. this is not a time for commentary upon her choices or her status. i am simply not in the business of sending those so unfortunate to live a rough life alone, not without the input of her peers."

"and i further would like your votes as to whether or not we move upon the saints." his yellowpaint eyes were hard.

ultimately the imperator would decide on both counts, a weighty responsibility. but today was a moment for the fighters of mereo to speak.

Her heat only lasted a handful of days and felt like nothing more than a light spring fever. Just to play it safe, she kept close to her quarters and made the most of her time with Maxim. She itched to get back to business after that, though Towhee reminded herself that she would soon be facing a demotion.

Nevertheless, she was included on today’s agenda. She sat ramrod straight beside her partner, eyes focused on the Imperator’s lips as he addressed them. Towhee’s thoughts meandered down a dozen different paths regarding Diesel’s situation. She frowned to herself, unable to think of the beast as a fellow wolf, which complicated matters.

Germanicus’s final remark made her eyes flash. That was also a thorny issue but now there was an additional layer for Towhee: she was hopefully expecting. She had to consider her pups, as well as the others born in Mereo. She doubted Germanicus would allow her to go, though this meant every pregnant she-wolf in Mereo would instantly turn into this:



Her jaw tightened as she glanced at Maxim beside her. She could rear a litter without his help, but what about the others? And even if she could, it didn’t mean she wanted that outcome. She’d grown fond of the dude and looked forward to the experience of parenting with him. It would be awful to lose him and anyone else in Mereo. Was it worth the risk to eliminate the threat?

Towhee did not speak up yet, still mulling seriously, taking the time such a weighty issue deserved.

Kallik responded promptly to the call, taking a seat near Towhee but greeting no one. He was on edge; As their pups grew within Aquene, so did her vulnerability. Now the added drama of Diesel and whatever crap she had just brought to their doorstep caused more anxiety—he was surprised he had the capacity for more since he felt pretty maxed out already. But anxiety always finds a way. 

The imperator called them to here to decide her fate, it seemed, as well as to weigh in on whether or not they should move on the Saints now that they knew where they were. 

He wanted to kick Diesel out on her ass right now. He was having a hard time not being angry that she had left Mereo during her season instead of trusting them to keep her safe. He agreed with the imperator that she was a deserter. If we are going to kick her out to deliver her children, then why allow her to stay until then? he asked. She will just be using our resources when soon she will not be able to contribute. If she had been a loyal member of Mereo, then he would happily pick up her slack while she was indisposed, but she was a deserter. He found it difficult to have sympathy for her. 

The decision to move on the Saints was a little more difficult for him. His gut said that they should; they had the element of surprise and the advantage of trained soldiers. But leaving now would leave the civilians without their protection. That meant his wife, the matrona, and Towhee would be here, pregnant, without their most experienced soldiers. Aquene's psychopathic ex was still at large, and leaving her here to go to war made him feel like the punishment boulder was sitting on his chest. They were soldiers, though; this was their purpose, and allowing his fear for his wife to make this decision for him felt wrong. 

We have the element of surprise if we act now, the scutarius pointed out, sharing his earlier thought with the group. Without knowing how many wolves they have been able to gather, I feel like it is an advantage we should consider carefully. Tension found its way into the muscles of his jaw. I think we should take care of them now and be done with it. Then they could return home with the knowledge that the Saints could no longer terrorize anyone.

maxim's work had consisted of...towhee, mainly. her heat had thrown a hitch into plans but he had welcomed it with constant companionship. their partnership sealed with her season's coming and going.

but they were both soldiers and calls were made for them.

it would be hard to hide the soft frown that etched onto his features. admittedly this frown was only for the discussion of moving into a war. he cared little for the woman who was spoken of, she may have been a peer at one point to the soldiers around him, but she had not been a peer to him.

exile, he exhaled without a second guess. there was no time for that, kallik raised a good point. why keep her if they already planned to be rid of her kin?

besides, more pressing things lingered in his mind.

do we plan to send every body we have? who is to say they do not expect us too, if they got one of our own?

The soldiers often spent their mornings together under the guise of training drills or patrols, but this was the first time in a while Glaukos was really paying attention to the conversational part of things. He held little to no opinion of Diesel. She had been a warrior among them once, with an abrasive attitude and one of the ugliest, malformed bodies he had ever seen. They weren't friends - and with her desertion, now they weren't even soldiers together.

Kallik voiced his feelings on the subject followed by Maxim, who was short and sweet about it. Glaukos was silent with Towhee but he didn't have to think about his own answer - he didn't see the point in this discussion at all, and had little to contribute until absolutely necessary.

She made her choice. Kallik and I were punished for leaving Mereo once ourselves, and Diesel was punished in her own way by abandoning us for the same reason. It wasn't entirely the same but to Glaukos he saw little difference. They had pushed a stone around for their punishment; Diesel had been assaulted and all the time wasted on her own training had amounted to nothing.

Her existence alone was an insult to Mereo. She is not one of us. Her choices, and the consequences of those choices, should not be placed upon us to bear. Exile her and her ill-gotten spawn.

It was the most he had spoken in weeks.

kallik presented reasons for war.

@Towhee did not speak. 

the sentiment was against diesel. germanicus nodded. 

his opinions remained withheld. his eyes fell upon the praefectus. he would not make his decision until she had spoken.

The others cast their votes. Towhee did her best to catch their words, wincing a little at Glaukos’s merciless take in particular. Even if leaving was considered a crime in Mereo—and she wasn’t sure she agreed with that entirely, though she certainly understood the sentiment—no one deserved to be assaulted. It made her think of Raven and Titmouse, even after all these years, and her mouth soured.

She thought of another memory involving Raven, one she’d pondered when discussing Aquene’s unplanned pregnancy. Although Towhee hated the thought of killing innocent puppies, these weren’t just a surprise, they were the result of rape. They were abominations. Especially since she still didn’t think of Diesel as a fellow wolf, it made it hard for the Praefectus to feel too much sympathy for these unborn.

You could let Diesel stay and punish her just like you punished Kallik and Glaukos, Towhee thought aloud. And cull her young, she added, feeling a twinge of distaste at her own words. She reminded herself to think of her own offspring, Ruenna’s and Aquene’s too. They absolutely deserved to be prioritized over… mongrels.

That was one issue tackled. What should she say about the other? Before Towhee could speak to it, she realized Germanicus hadn’t answered Maxim’s questions. She played off them with one of her own: What information did she give us, exactly?

end of pack meeting @kallik @glakuos @maxim @towhee <3 feel free to post having ur wolf exit if u want! ill archive in a week

"she told us the location of the saints. apparently they are back in the hinterlands, bordered by forest. it is nyra and another man, perhaps more. they seek to rebuild, and i have little faith they will not come here in an attempt to retake what they believe is theirs."

towhee's pronouncement sounded far harsher than anything yet uttered. germanicus squared his shoulders. "i do not believe i have the penchant for such culling." and neither would it be something he allowed practice of in mereo.

his gaze rested on maxim. "they will expect an attack. it would take nearly every soldier of ours to ensure that the element of surprise remains on our side."

germanicus paused for a long moment, sweeping them all with his eyes. "diesel will be exiled. it will fall to her to decide what the fate of her own brood will be." deserter or not, she had suffered enough physical violence.

the imperator stood. 

"you are dismissed. i will seek her out now."

Diesel had given them the location of their archenemies. Towhee was still absorbing this information when the Imperator refuted her suggestion about the mongrel’s offspring. She nodded, not particularly surprised and possibly even a bit relieved, and said nothing.

Germanicus told Maxim and the others that the Saints would surely expect an attack. He said they would need all of their might in order to ambush them. Towhee frowned thoughtfully. No matter how many they sent, there wasn’t going to be any element of surprise at this point, was there? They would need enough trained soldiers to simply overwhelm them.

Her lips parted to mention this and discuss logistics. Towhee didn’t think they would have enough brute strength, especially since she couldn’t go herself. But before she could speak up again, Germanicus declared his decision regarding Diesel and dismissed the troops.

Towhee dipped her head to him, then gave her partner an inscrutable look before taking her leave.