The Floodlands You never go to parties.

All he wanted to do was go find out what happened to Colt.  Apparently he was going to find out, but it was also seeming more and more like he'd accidentally lit his life on fire and then fed it through a wood chipper, and all the destruction had just happened in the last minute and a half.  And to think, he'd been quite happy with how things were going a couple hours ago -- stuff finally seemed to be getting in line. It all sounded like some kind of joke -- a twisted take on his comments to Colt.  Oh yeah, maybe Towhee'd crack and then someone'd do something!  Or to go back farther, oh I know, set her up with someone that could help her out as leader!  Ha ha, yeah, that's funny, knock it off this was not what he meant at all and the second was definitely seeming more and more no bueno.

But what had Colt done?!  How did a conversation that might have just been kinda bad ended as foully as it sounds it did?  What did he do?  Surely if he just spoke out and asked for changes, that shouldn't have gotten him kicked.  Maybe demoted if he was especially snarky about it.  If he'd been level headed and Towhee had gone nuts, wouldn't she be more obviously unstable?  Something happened that wasn't what Quixote predicted the script would be, and that made him concerned.  Obviously he hadn't been mentioned, but he also wasn't going to throw Colt under the bus -- if he could fish him out of the wheel wells, he'd try.

There was also the problem that it had pretty much been carved into him to do what the leaders wanted because that meant you lived.  As awful as they often were, you did what you had to, undermined them if you'd get a better result and wouldn't get caught, and life moved on.  You didn't lie unless you had to, because it'd come back and bite your damn head off.  Omission was always the best option.  Um.  Maybe I guess?  He was figuring that maybe Towhee was trying to do something like shift gamma into a leadership rank?  At least with his perspective, if she was determined to stuff him into a title that was where he'd be fit, barely having a voice but maybe having enough of one to clean up whatever messes got left.  If she was thinking the alpha male slot?  Hadn't even crossed his mind as a viable (or smart) option.

But then there was Colt.  He drew in a breath, held it, exhaled as his ears folded slightly back on his head, and finally decided to take a risk. Hell, it might mean he wouldn't feel obligated to take on additional responsibility.  Uh.  Yeah.  I talked to Colt about it after the fight. And to Elwood before that but shhh, omission,  Like finding someone to help out with diplomatic stuff or whatever else since it kinda seems like Finley and Elwood are being kept pretty busy trying to corral the kids. AKA the adolescents and their behavior, since the little ones weren't really any trouble yet.  He'd tried to decorate that line with an awkwardly bemused smile, but he was nervous -- but thankfully about something he wasn't hiding.  At least he didn't have to fake his genuine confusion and concern at how wrong things had gone, He said he wanted talk to you about it.  But what happened?  That shouldn't have been a.. er.  'Whackass' conversation, as you said.  He wanted to impress that it had probably been some great miscommunication -- that Colt most likely had the pack's best interests at heart, whatever he did.