Ouroboros Spine this place

Wanted to reply to this in a bad way so I'm keeping it vague because STILL IDK. Ilu, though!

His words were not meant to be a barb, but they still stuck him in the way one would. Though he retained his stoicism, he found himself lowering his gaze uncomfortably for a moment. He understood where Viggo came from, but he didn't like it. Then again, he reckoned that he wasn't supposed to like it, as no goodbye was ever easy, and he had said plenty of them over the years. In that moment it was about as sapping to him as seeing Sitri turn in for the kill on Ptarmigan, and it drained him considerably to compare the feeling to this.

“But you do have a place here,” he said, finding resolve to run on. “We're family, and family always has a place with one another.” He too knew that some few others would not be so accepting of Viggo, but the way it was they weren't too accepting of Mordecai either. For a moment he considered asking to go with him, but instead he found himself voicing another route altogether. “I want you to stay, Viggo. If I have to take control of the Spine, then I will. I don't intend to let these jokers run us all into an early grave, but I can't do it alone.” By the time he had reached that conclusion, he felt his own strength in his tone.

And he knew what he was asking of Viggo, knew that the wolf he viewed more as a brother than a nephew could tell him no and walk away. If it came to that, Mordecai knew he could not stop him, just as his father could not stop him from leaving. “I'm asking you to wait this out a bit longer, maybe longer than you want to. But if worse comes to worse, I'll come with you. We'd both have better chances at survival, and I know some places we can go,” he went on to say, thinking of Verrine in the Bay. He had no idea if they found themselves ousted if the Bay would take them in, but he thought of Thistle as being reasonable. Verrine would vouch for them as well.