Chimera Fields a crime so old as the sky and bone

As the topic became known to Rian he felt an unbidden surge of joy that was immediately tainted by an uncontrolled anxiety spike. Leave, now?! He sucked in a trembling breath and his gaze flitted towards Rannoch. A part of him knew it would take something just short of a miracle to get Cypress to commit to the ideas he'd introduced during their last conversation, but he hadn't expected his grayscale cousin to return, especially when it was most convenient for all of them. Rian's gaze lingered on him as he tried to sort through his jumbled thoughts and draw upon some sort of solution, but all he could come up with was that he felt vaguely insulted.

It took him a moment longer to realize Rannoch had (intentionally or not) taken up a dominant stance, and that didn't settle well with Rian. There was no point in squabbling over it now, but he would remember that later. He pursed his lips and straightened his neck a bit before returning his attention to Cypress. The prolongued moment had gone on long enough—too many months had come and gone with no progress. Rian O'Malley was many things, but he was not a coward.

"Yeah," he confirmed softly as his ears quickly switched back, then up again. "if that's still alright."