Duskfire Glacier dynasties and dystopia

Meerkat's attention fixed on Ensio when he spoke up first. Expecting to hear his opinion on Lane's suggestion to hold a vigil, what actually came out of his mouth hit her even worse than Arius's confession. Properly stupefied into silence now, Meerkat tried to internally grapple with this information. Tzila had not only told her son she would kill herself, she'd done it right in front of him? W h a t ?

Once more, Lane moved in to provide comfort while the kids' coach stood there trying to make sense of what she'd been told. Meerkat would've liked to say that seeing Lane falling into the role she should have taken motivated her to get her shit together, but it didn't. Luckily, the Alpha female was quite adept at taking the reigns here, offering her condolences to the boys and, in the next breath, telling everyone she should make the funerary arrangements.

She did have the presence of mind to return Arius's smile, her brown eyes following him as he moved away to patrol. Meerkat's attention then quickly cut back to Ensio, right as Lane said her name. She was quick to nod, realizing she must find her voice before the second son left the scene too.

"Yes," she practically choked, "just let us know if we can do anything else..." The memorial was a good start, though the Duskfire boys would surely need so much more than that. And she was meant to be their coach and their counselor. She'd sought them out for this very purpose. She wasn't doing such a great job at either role at present, though to her credit, the things they'd shared with the two women today were indescribable, unspeakable...

Once she wrapped her mind around what she'd heard, Meerkat would hopefully come up with some ways to support them. In the meantime, she thought about offering to help Lane make the arrangements. But considering how poorly her attempts at gathering the pack for fun had gone, Meerkat didn't dare try touching something as important as the Alphas' memorial service.