Hushed Willows Boob Physics? Get A Real Life, America

@Okeanos

brilliance doesn’t really like the cold weather but it doesn’t completely suck. her thin form doesn’t do much for holding heat but he’s managed to quickly grow in a thicker coat on the cusp of winter. a few good days of decent nutrition does the trick since she’s been back. in her time of recovery, she learns they are not near the boulder anymore. they’d all moved—well, most of them—and started over somewhere else. at first, she worried solomon might try to go back but she’s certain they’d been lost enough it would be damn near impossible and it hadn’t been that far from the willows she’d lost her.
 
or she thinks, anyway.
 
anyway.
 
she’ll find her way back.
 
brushing it off, she wanders rather aimlessly through the willows to stretch her long legs and fight off the growing boredom of not having someone to boss around anymore.

i had most of a post written and then i lost it >(

by now he really should just leave the other puppies alone. he's fine just sticking with ibby after all even if she's been a little tempermental lately, and eleuthera and seamus are fine too (he thinks of them as siblings, just not siblings he's super close with). but something makes him want to try and... make mali and brilliance at least see he isn't their enemy -- he's a good boy! he wants them to be happy!

it's something to do anyway. and okeanos is curious. he doesn't know much of what happened, only that for a little while brilliance and the other one he never talked to, solomon, were gone, and now brilliance is back. the boy thinks its a little unfair how much worse the other litter has had it, comparatively. sure okeanos and ibby and his lot were put through chaos in their moving, and he misses papa as much as anyone, but he's still got his mamas and no one yells at him or nothin'. brilliance and mali just seem so sad, he thinks, underneath their bluster.

so when he sees aforementioned spotted girl, okeanos does the not-so-smart thing and beelines for her. already he is beginning to dwarf the other children, taking after his papa in size, but he still slows and lowers himself a little warily as he approaches, as if expecting her to try and take a bite out of him. despite this he makes his voice cheerful as he talks: "hi brilly, what are you doin'?"

she doesn’t really know why she doesn’t like the puppies. one day they weren’t there and then one day they were. and somehow, she’s reminded of them just when she’s forgotten about them. delight promised that he wasn’t gonna be their daddy too but somehow they’re still here. they moved with them. they’ve forgotten the boulder and moved with the one lady she doesn’t really know. he’d asked her to be nice but that was before her mom had come and gone again and everything seems to reset.
 
the other puppy, the one with the stupid name (they all have stupid names, really), comes up to her already being all chatty. ugh.
 
“don’t call me that,” she demands but doesn’t slow down to talk to him. “you call me…” she pauses and smirks. “princess. you’ll call me princess brilliance.”

she doesn't immediately yell at him which he takes as encouragement, even if she doesn't stop walking. okeanos picks up his pace to follow her, a puffy, overly large shadow. a friendly smile curves his mouth as she speaks, amusement bubbling from his voice. "silly, that can't be a nickname, it gots too many sylly-abels," he explains, "like my name is oke-anos but everyone just calls me 'oke' 'cause its shorter. i'll call you princess if ya want, though," he adds, then quickens his pace 'til he's walking beside her. "so whatcha doin'?"

okeanos argues with her about her name. she almost snaps back at him to correct him but she’s made some kind of progress. princess. good. it has a nice ring to it. she doesn’t care about girly things or having a crown. instead, she enjoys the power that comes with it. like her mom.
 
“nothin’,” she says and turns away from him, going back about her business whether or not he follows. maybe she’ll find some use for him but otherwise she can take it or leave it.

brilliance -- or, uh, princess -- doesn't yell at him again. she doesn't exactly answer his question either, but he takes it as a sign of improvement and cheerfully creeps closer, following at her heels. he figures it's useless to ask again what she's doing so he instead just tags along, figuring he'll find out eventually, though he does offer "it's kinda pretty here," in a rather shy voice, hoping she'll at least talk to him a little.

“yeah,” she starts, “i guess.”
 
it’s not the bolder, she’ll give it that. it wasn’t a great place from what she could remember. she was in trouble a lot and the other puppies invaded their space more than they do now.
 
brilliance glances over her shoulder to see that he’s still following and probably isn’t going to give up. how much can she explain that she wants to be left alone? ugh. she turns back and keeps going, weaving in and out of the willows’ arms, feeling the leaves brush over her speckled back. if she could find mali, then she can get rid of okeanos but there isn’t a single trace for her to hang on to.
 
suddenly, as if her feet have caught on something, she stops and turns around to look at him.
 
“why do you get to have two moms?” she asks, strains. why can’t she just have the one she’s meant to have?

her i guess is better than an insult, so he'll take it. he hums, doing his best to keep up with her (not really realizing she's trying to ditch him), and opens his mouth to add something else when she turns suddenly. okeanos stops short, his mouth closing with an audible click at her question. (if i'm remembering correctly) it isn't the first time the imbalance has been brought to his attention -- he knows he's lucky in a way that the other puppies aren't, it's why he's trying so hard to .. be their friend in the first place. 

"i don't know," okeanos says honestly, a small frown turning his mouth. "mama and mama oly are.. they've always been together?" it isn't, he knows, a very satisfying answer, but it's the truth. the world is exceedingly unfair at times and he's been lucky enough to only have to deal with a little bit of it. moving around all over and leaving papa behind was hard but he still has his mamas and ibby and even ellie and seamus too. quietly he says, "m'sorry your mama isn't here too," though he suspects that she won't be happy with him no matter what he says.

somehow, okeanos seems a little sad and his answer falls short. she roll her eyes, annoyed, and glances away. it’s not the answer she wants. in fact, there probably isn’t an answer she does want so the other child is set up for failure. brilliance sighs, then, and stifles back a sob while she turns away. “it’s not fair,” she mumbles. she can go back to her original plan and get rid of him but what’re the chances of that? she doesn’t need a pity party because she doesn’t have a mom and she doesn’t want him rubbing it in her face that he’s got two, let alone two that are… together. another foreign concept she doesn’t understand either.
 
brilliance sucks in a breath and stops, again, turning with expectation to still see him following behind her. “i’m hungry,” she says instead. maybe he can be of some use where he’s previously lacked.

it's not fair.

better than being yelled at, though he lowers his head a little, apologetic. "it isn't fair," okeanos agrees, speaking with a surprising amount of clarity for his age. nothing that brilliance and mali have been through is fair... and neither is what okeanos and ibis have been through, uprooted and shuffled around. but at least his family is tightly knit. at least he's loved in a way that makes up for the uncertainty. a little embolded, he adds, "adults aren't fair," the most rebellious thought he's ever spoken aloud. he doesn't blame mama for any of it. it's just how things are. brilliance turns to face him again and he perks up a little, unsure, at first, what to do with her statement. "we could get somethin' from the cache?" he offers -- he's not too good at hunting on his own just yet.

adults aren’t fair. she snorts. ain’t that the truth. it’s not fair her mom left not once, but twice. it’s not fair she came back at all or that they’re here following wolves she barely knows. it’s not fair she has to share attentions with the other puppies that get all the love and care from their mamas and she’s only lucky if she gets to see her pa that day.
 
“okay,” she says, slowly turning to look at him. she doesn’t know where that is so she stands there, staring with expectation for him to take her there.