Heron Lake Plateau And the 808 is our drummer.

After a brief visit to the Alpha pair's den, Towhee headed to the rendezvous site where the Blackthorns now headquartered. @Elwood wasn't there, nor were @Cinder or @Tywyll; evidently, their father had taken the boys on a jaunt around the plateau. But that gave the Beta time to sit and talk with @Finley, just the two of them shooting the shit for a while before @Clover and @Fiadh showed up, the former eagerly pressing Towhee to relieve the fight with Screech. When she initially resisted, the yearling playfully called her historian specialty into question, so Towhee relented.

Once the tale was told (not for the first time and probably not for the last, either), Towhee rose and pardoned herself to begin a patrol. As she made her way toward the borders, eyes the color of orpiment rose skyward to scan for any sign of X. She saw him circling over The Roost and unleashed a clipped bark that prompted him to wing in her direction. Happy to see that her friend's flight feathers had fully recovered, she tracked him across the sky even as she arrived at the plateau's base and began to wind dutifully southward in its shadow.

whatever tegan was up to that day was-- as always-- nonya. just know he was by the borders and therefore available to bug towhee. except, for once in his life, tegan actually had some business plans to make. so he was being a responsible and proactive member of the pack. 

what the fuck was towhee even doing? tegan squinted and craned his neck upwards to see X overhead, but god knows what they were up to. deciding he was far more important than whatever was going on, tegan ran to catch up with towhee, kinda from the side so he didn't scare the shit out of her too much. she probably could scent him anyway. "hey! we gotta talk, b," tegan began with a mildly serious tone, despite his incredibly casual language.

Keenly aware of any and all movement—she was patrolling, after all—Towhee quickly turned when she saw a gray blur out of the corner of her eye. She apprehended Tegan with a casual snap of her tail. She couldn't hear his tone and even if he sported a relatively sincere expression, the Beta knew better than to ever take her younger brother too seriously.

"What does the B stand for?" she quipped in reply, then paused for a beat before adding, fiery eyes dancing a bit, "I'm listening. Just make it quick, some of us have work to do."

why did everyone ask that? forfuckssakeit'snotthatfuckinimportantohmygooood-- tegan really didn't have time to get into an argument with towhee on how he shouldn't call her a word that's shorthand for bitch. "buttercup," he lied quickly, and then shook his head, "this is work, towhee, it's actually really important." like really important, towhee.

fuck, tegan should really start acting a little less like a fuckall asshole and like a functioning pack member-- even his own sister wouldn't take him seriously. actually, that kinda stung. he pretended it didn't. 

"it's about moonspear," he added, kind of getting to the point so that towhee would maybe give him the time of day instead of playing tag with her god damn bird.

She rolled her eyes at him in a fond, older sisterly sort of way, well aware of the fib. But her own face grew a tad more serious as she stilled, reading his expression more thoroughly. Did Tegan really have something serious on his mind? Although still dubious—he was probably going to punk her, somehow—Towhee twitched her nose and leaned in closer.

She met his declaration with a loud blink. "Moonspear?" she parroted. "What about them?" Towhee herself had been thinking of their old neighbor lately, Hydra in particular. After moving—and mistakenly extending Screech a second chance—she had come to second-guess her alliance with the obsidian she-wolf. Now, of course, she knew that Hydra had been true all along... at least in any sense that mattered to Towhee. Hydra couldn't know about her doubts, though it made her want to trek all the way back there just to see her friend, apologize and say hello.

oh there we fuckin go, dumb bitch, looking at him like he's a fuckin kid. his face showed his smugness in the form of a small smirk, his nose twitching. at least she was listening to him now, full attention. "yeah," he nodded, letting her know that she had read his lips correctly, and then he switched to ptero so she didn't miss anything. -niamh was helping me practice some recruitment stuff and long story short, we kinda talked about revisiting moonspear and... i dunno, making amends? telling them about screech and all that- he stared at her for a moment, waiting for her to process things, and then added, "i think it'd be good to try, moonspear would be a good alliance to have, especially since gannet is there."

tegan hoped the little shot about gannet helped his own argument. but he shrugged.

tagging @Niamh for reference, feel free to barge in if ur around, tegan will tell her all this if we don't write it out in another thread

He switched to signing, which made Towhee's head tip curiously. After he finished, she squinted for a moment, parsing out what he'd said. She had a few questions, like what did Niamh know about Moonspear? Of course, she didn't mind her friend's efforts to make peace, it just made her wonder. Also, why did they need to make amends? Hydra didn't know about Towhee's temporary distaste and she would never actually mention it. She wracked her brain, trying to come up with a reason behind Tegan's choice of words.

-Okay, jog my memory here: why do we need to make amends? I didn't realize we were in a fight,- Towhee eventually replied. But before Tegan could even explain, she added, -Not that I'm opposed to some ambassadorship or whatever. I don't think it matters if we bother with an alliance; they're too far away from us for any of it to matter. But Hydra's a personal friend of mine and, yeah... Gannet, I guess.- Clearly, Towhee was still irked, after all this time, that he hadn't come home to the Redhawks after healing.

tegan waited for his sister to finish signing, a little discouraged. maybe he shouldn't've said anything. -maybe we weren't fighting-- but like it's sort of been tense, at least in my opinion. after the whole gannet thing but... i guess i'm not the best judge of that kind of stuff.- tegan admitted with a soft shrug. he shook his head again. -they're not that far, tow, just a few days trip, i was right by them the other day just out exploring.- 

-but i mean you're our beta, niamh and i were just spitballing.- he said, suddenly backtracking.

She hadn't even realized she'd gone tense until Tegan's elaboration prompted her to relax a little bit. She wasn't missing anything, which was a relief despite what she'd said. Towhee was back to valuing Hydra's friendship, even from afar, and she wanted to preserve it, so she was glad nothing had happened to bring it right back into question.

-I just don't see any practical use from an alliance with the distance,- she remarked with a shrug, -although that's not up to me anymore. If you two want to go, I can come with you. In fact, I insist, as both a leader and a warrior. I wouldn't mind catching up with Hydra.- And though she hadn't come to admit it to anyone, least of all herself, Towhee had gotten a taste of travel after leaving the caldera, then more recently roaming the wilderness in search of Screech. And she didn't hate it. -But you should run it past Rave and Qui first.-

tegan was quiet for a moment, deciding if he even fucking cared anymore. apparently towhee didn't think this was a good idea so why the fuck even bother. it wasn't that far, ugh. and alliance didn't mean like-- actually he didn't even know what alliance actually meant. it meant friends, right? like if something went fuckall in the plateau they could send someone to moonspear and be like 'hey can u help us pls' and then there'd be help... right? right??????????? 

who cares, it doesn't even matter. 

"right," was all he said, faking a thoughtful expression, "i'll go ask quixote and let you know, tow, thanks." he gave her a quick nudge to the shoulder and a broad smile and then turned and left, his expression immediately falling into something grumpy. jfc, towhee, how dare you disagree with prince knowitall.

She could see that she'd taken the wind out of Tegan's sails a bit. Towhee waved her tail and returned his nudge, her expression saying, "Sorry, didn't mean to." In any case, he readily agreed to consult with the Alphas, then promptly departed, presumably to go do just that. Her orange eyes followed him until he vanished and she found her thoughts turning eagerly to the upcoming field trip. Despite her own Negative Nancy-ness, she was actually excited to accompany him and Niamh on this voyage to see Hydra.

But right now, duty called. Reigning in her thoughts, the Beta resumed her patrol, with X's shadow keeping her company as she made a full circuit of the plateau's fringes before heading back up to The Roost to wait for word from her kid brother.