Stavanger Bay Ain't no love when the wicked run

set almost directly after smokie thread<3

It had been a good many years since Rosalyn had been this upset. She'd begun to let her guard down, and as a result, Smokestep's words had cut to the bone, right to the core where that scared little girl still lurked, locked away beneath a learned veneer.

Stupid. Haven't you learned?. She lay in the lee of the shoreline cliffs, near the edge of the territory. She didn't want to risk running into one of them. Family. Even the thought of it gave her a sour feeling in her gut. She had thought the code set; crew was family. But apparently here, blood ran thicker than water. Such ties were a thing Rosalyn had never had claim to, and they weren't something one could want and obtain. So the idea drove her wild with envy; that Sandpiper and Smokestep could share a bond deeper than that of normal crew, one that she could never hope to surmount or ever have, made her unreasonably upset. It had been a vain attempt, but she's swum with the sharks anyway, and she felt their teeth profoundly.

Now, the damage done was likely irreparable. She had said a good many things, and none of them were things she wished to take back. He, too, much that she could not forgive.  She should run, like she always did when things got too hot. Find a place where she would be appreciated and perhaps she could even call the shots. Start up a crew of her own. She took a beat to think on it... but only a beat.  Because there was only one problem with this plan, but it was a dealbreaker; it meant that they won. If she left, Sandpiper moved back up, and things settled in as if Rosalyn had never even set foot on this ground. She wasn't conceited enough to deny that.

She let out a breath, and most of the fire that had been holding her up doused.  Smokestep had neither chased her out nor taken the place she had earned; she wasn't sure what he expected, nor what these next few days would hold as a result.  Just that she would stay, despised by whoever might choose to do so, until they either saw the worth she knew she had or finally made up their damn minds and forced her out.  Her ears tilted back... history had taught her the latter was more likely.  Only time would tell.