Northstar Vale useless, no more i could use

staying vague re: euron/ramsey sunspire thread, will edit later if needed. short sorry!

delight had wondered if all the quiet was a time of sensible peace or just the calm before the storm. not for the first time his anxiety and cynicism is well placed, and not for the first time he wishes mato were still around mentally. he's so not equipped for any of this.

feeling more than a little agitated the morwinyon sets out for @Queenie. she's nothing like mato -- she's too much like him -- but she's what he's got right now, and boy once he finds out the full story is there gonna be words, huh.

As far as Queenie was concerned, everything was just dandy. Being a leader had its perks, namely the right to dominance. At the stand off, it felt so good to be able to stand over everyone alongside the leaders of the other packs, silently telling everyone around them to screw off 'cause the big boss had come along. Yeah, this leadership thing had its perks and Queenie could definitely get used to them.

It seemed that the kindred spirits had the same idea in mind, albeit for different reasons. While Delight was headed one way in his pursuit, Queenie was headed the other with such pride and adrenaline that she couldn't even tell he was upset. Hey! she called excitedly, tail wagging at a friendly pace, Looking for me?

ooc: phone post for speeed
--

"yeah," delight says, his expression dark and serious. "euron and ramsay caused trouble at sunspire -- and what happened, why do you look so pleased with yourself." normally the words would be teasing, and maybe they still are, but his voice is tense as his expression. he is a tightly wound bomb waiting to go off.

It didn’t surprise Queenie to learn that the pack’s newest editions were having some trouble settling in. Had Delight not looked so pressed, she might have prodded further, but she knew better than to jump onto thin ice. What’s wrong with you? she asked, voice only as tempered as usual. 

Jomyo, Kratha, and me, we all helped Sunspire in this big almost fight with Shadow Mountain. I think the what we did and whatever the boys did will cancel each other out.

"sorry," he mumbles, "just frustrated about it." they were lucky to have seabreeze to vouch for them -- hell, they were lucky rannoch wasn't going to hold a grudge --- wait what. 

objectively this is probably a good thing, queenie's news. she's right about sunspire. but. "a fight?" he asks, voice incredulous. "what the hell is shadow mountain? who started it?" delight demands -- unfairly, perhaps, but he does NOT need new enemies added to his plate on top of everything else.

If Delight thought that Queenie knew anything about Shadow Mountain beyond their shitty dispositions, then he was sorely mistaken. Taken aback by his tone, she took one apprehensive step backward and looked at him with a half-confused glare. They did, or Sunspire did, I don’t know. Jomyo was there before me.

Had Cass not been there, Queenie might not have gotten involved at all but alas, she couldn’t risk losing a sparring partner as good as their neighboring merc. I saw the Sunspire wolves and moved in, that’s all.

okay. "okay." he sighs. it is not really queenie's fault that he is having a hard time. unfortunately, she's the one here to bear the brunt of it. "just. i don't want us to have enemies. we shouldn't be getting involved in fights." nevermind they didn't start it, nevermind jomyo was there first -- she's not the one delight promoted. "i know you're all about aggression but that's now how we do things here," he adds with a frown, "it's hard enough without finding out you've got us involved in conflicts behind my back." oof. oh no, delight.

To be fair, Queenie could take a lot. It might not have seemed that way, but in reality, the girl could take a beating, especially from one of her superiors (not to say that that's how she viewed Delight, because it absolutely is not). The issue wasn't even in what he was saying, but in how he was saying it. The two of them knew how to joke with one another, so Queenie had heard Delight's "stern" voice before, and yet in this situation, it was substantially more off-putting.

I wasn't making enemies, Queenie rebutted defensively, I was keeping an ally. It was so like him to be party-pissing-pessimist and she didn't appreciate it one bit. You might not like aggression and you might not like conflict, but not everyone in the Wilds is as much of a peace-fighting isolationist as you are. Don't you want Tindómë to be protected? To have a standing? While this might have sounded like an attack, Queenie's uncharacteristically soft voice said otherwise.

I won't apologize for doing the job you gave me. You knew I was a mercenary and you still promoted me. What did you expect?

she's right, of course, but he can't bring himself to back down. delight feels chafed suddenly by their relationship, his own failure at establishing a precedence of authority -- what a pathetic, weak leader he is, no wonder everything is falling apart around him. he almost wishes queenie were being as harsh as her words suggest she should be.

delight takes a breath, his own words coming carefully, precise despite the impulsion lying underneath them. "i expect you to run things by me before you make decisions with far reaching impacts." for maybe the first time in their relationship, delight pulls rank -- straightens his spine, lifts his head and tail, and fixes queenie with the sharpest look he can muster, normally moon-soft eyes piercing. "but you're right. maybe i should have thought things over before promoting you."

It was a hard shot to swallow, but Queenie's skin was thick. Delight's sharp tongue was taken with an instinctual defense (hackles raised, teeth bared), though it lasted for no more than a few seconds. Soon after the display had begun, it had been replaced with a cold look of null. If this was how he wanted to play, then that was fine; whatever game Delight thought he could win, Queenie knew the rules far better.

Fuck off, she muttered, I'll step down. You don't have to worry about me protecting your pack anymore, since you're so much better at it. Unless Delight had anything more to say, Queenie was done. She'd said her piece and wanted to get as far from the Morwinyon as her legs could take her.

delight flinches, the veneer of rank he'd pulled shattering under queenie's acerbic response. like watching a car crash in slow motion. he knows he'd gone too far but it's too late to take it back as queenie steps down, giving him a hollow, unwanted victory. any other words he might have turn to ash in his mouth, watching her retreating form. 

he waits until she fades from view, curses, and retreats to his solitude. another failure.