Coconut Grove i blew out my flip flop

Setting this a couple'a days out. Goofiness incoming!

Whatever the outcome of her recruiting efforts, Bat eventually returned to the grove. As soon as she crossed over the borders—nice work, bruh, she thought as the markers hit her nose—she raised her voice and shouted, "@Tristan! Tristan! Boy, do I have a funny story for you..."

As soon as he appeared, Bat bounded up to him, greeting him with a friendly headbutt before exclaiming, "I met the coolest guy while I was out shopping around for members. His name was Jimmy. Fuckin' Jimmy." She couldn't say why the name tickled her funny bone so badly.

"Anyway," she continued after giving Tristan a moment to react to that, "we struck up a convo and then he started singing a fuckin' song to me. It was about this place called Margaritaville. I asked him what that was but he didn't know, he just came up with the song out of his ass, I guess. But I really liked the sound of that, so I was thinking..." Here she paused for effect. "Pack name, maybe?"

he appeared quickly, because he was nearby doing something or another (idk) and trotted up to her pretty readily, tail wagging. no no!! you gotta hear --! tristan said, effectively interrupting her -- though she kept talking, cutting him back off, and caught his attention pretty quickly. 

what the fuck?? said the young adult in disbelief, to which bat replied anyway, i met that guy -- we struck up a convo -- and did he tell you-- singing a fucking song -- at this point tristan was losing his fucking mind, very visibly dancing in his spot with excitement. he made a noise that resembled nothing comprehensive and nodded very quickly until she finished speaking. MARGARITAVILLE, he bellowed in obvious agreement, looking like he might shit his pants. fuck you!! that same dude was here and said the same shit to me! where'd you see him?? tristan asked, tail wagging that he and bat had had the same dumbass idea -- somehow!

"No shit?!" was the only reply Bat could come up with when it appeared Tristan had also met this Jimmy fellow. She squinted at him, wondering if he was pulling her leg, but why would he? In any case, he looked so genuinely excited, it must be true. "That's crazy," she said with a loud huff of laughter. "Cool guy, right? I tried to get him to come back here with me but he said he was on his way further south, to even warmer climates. Said he's going to eat some cheeseburgers in paradise... whatever that means..."

After thinking aloud, she realized she hadn't really answered her friend's question. "I ran into him on the other side of the bay." Since there were several of those along the coastline, she pointed to the one nearby, forming the eastern border of Coconut Grove. "Where did you see him?" Maybe he'd wandered through the grove on his way south along the shoreline. It was totally plausible and it meant she'd probably met him first, not that it mattered.

"So, Margaritaville?" she prompted with an eager glint in her silvery eyes.

tristan's tail was a-waving as she spoke, but he head eventually shook. ain't no need to go south -- paradise is right here baybeeee, he said, leaning to press his forehead to hers playfully for a second. when she told him where she had met that guy, tristan merely pursed his lips and furrowed his brow, trying to decipher a timeline for all this. 

nah, that was definitely a fuckin ghost, he said with incredible certainty, tail still flicking. though, his thoughtful expression wavered as a smile broke onto his face. yeah, margaritaville. what else did he say to you? cause that ghost was fuckin reciting some sort of voodoo shit to me and i low-key fux with it. he straightened up, puffing out his chest a little bit. listen -- listen -- are you ready? bat -- listen -- another shift-wiggle to sturdy himself and brace for the impact of his own profound statement... and... 

deleon, announced tristan, looking quite proud as he gaze down at bat.

She blinked when Tristan declared that Jimmy must've been a ghost. He'd seemed real enough to her, all the zaniness aside, and she wasn't sure she believed in things like revenants. But she didn't feel any need to refute her friend and, anyway, he didn't give her a chance. He agreed to the name, then went on to tease her with some other stuff Jimmy had apparently dropped on him. What a character!

But after all the "listen!"s, the word that dropped from Tristan's mouth was a little anticlimactic. "Deleon...?" she parroted with another loud blink. "What's it mean?"

i dunno, shrugged tristan pretty quickly as bat questioned it, still standing tall but now with his tooth caught on his lip so looking much less impressive than prior. he kept calling it like a remedy or something -- medicine, maybe? but it was serious beach vibes. imma name all our ranks after them. he reemphasized himself with a little foot movement, deleon, he repeated.

She bit back a laugh at his answer (or was it the sudden appearance of his snaggle tooth?). He explained that the word had a beachy vibe and who was Bat to argue? She had come up with a shortlist of things they'd need to do in order to officially establish themselves and ranks were on that list. She knew many packs used standard hierarchies (Redhawks, for instance) but both Drageda and Firebirds (not that she'd been part of the latter) had been very custom.

"I'm coo' wit' it," Bat drawled. Ranks that somehow suited their laid-back vibe would be ace. "Did he drop any other weird words on you? We'll need more than just the one," the yearling teased. "Unless you wanna be like Seahaven," she tacked on thoughtfully. Rokig hadn't said there were no ranks, just that everybody was equal, so same difference.

yeah he knew em all, i made him repeat em so i'd remember em, he replied, tail still swinging. at her mention of seahaven, tristan looked a little confused. what...? what? he asked, brow furrowing, how does that even work? in no world could tristan imagine being named alpha and all the other wolves also being alpha. or, maybe they were all named like... well fuck, he literally didn't even know. maybe they all had the rank wolf. heh. that'd be amusing. his tail kept waving.

what else do you know about them? he asked, exercising his right to information as fearless deleon. see? it already sounds good.

Evidently, Jimmy would not only inspire the pack's name but its rank structure as well. Bat sorely wished he'd come here to live with them. Maybe if he was a ghost like Tristan thought, he would come back and haunt them...

"They live on the plateau over yonder," Bat said, pointing again, this time at the rise on the other side of the bay, across the plains. "Their leader is called Rokig. He said that everyone gets a say, instead of the leaders just calling the shots. It's cool in theory, not sure how it'd work out in practice." Bat shrugged. "Might fit us, though, if we intend to keep up the easygoing ambiance?"

tristan flicked his tail as he listened to what his companion was saying, nodding thoughtfully but eventually moving to shake his head. nah -- we're easy going but we're not weird. besides, i don't wanna take anyone elses idea, he shared with a flick of his tail, i'll figure out a good ranking system for us -- i think i remember everything that that ghost told us. yeah, tristan was definitely set on it being a ghost. 

he side eyed her. you think you can find anything else about that pack, rouge? he asked with a toothy grin and a quirk of his brow. hey, just trying to help a sister with her trade. we gonna be chill -- but you bet your ass we're gonna know all the fuckin secrets of these wilds. that's our one up -- we get everyone so comfortable and unafraid and then HA! black mail. well, tristan had no reason to blackmail ... but maybe they would! either way, bat would know him well enough to know he wasn't being serious, just goofing off a bit.

Bat shrugged a shoulder in reply. She wondered if she would form stronger opinions once they got going or if she'd want to stay hands off and let Tristan steer the ship entirely. Right now, their pack was more hypothetical than anything else. Maybe once it became more real, she'd feel more invested in its shaping.

Although he didn't want to borrow their ideas, he wanted more more intel on the pack she'd mentioned. "I know a little bit about it," Bat said, "but I can find out more, scope out the other packs in the area too, if you want." She laughed at his japes about blackmail, taking them as just that: jokes.

"I'll actually head out again soon, maybe find some actual recruits and not ghosts and ghost towns," Bat mused in the next breath, running her tongue over her teeth as she thought of her foray at the bay. "Hey, think I could find that Breccan guy again? I bet he'd fit in with us."

you do you, boo, tristan returned with a few nods of his head, though his actual answer was yes please do that it's good to know what's around us. to bat's next comment, the newly crowned king of the bay (kinda) grinned widely, nodding again. yeaaahhh! we're gonna be filled to the brim in no time no doubt! he chirped, but when bat mentioned breccan... the hypocrite got a little weird twinge in his stomach. like, it was okay when he wanted to invite breccan along, but now that bat wanted to... hm. what was that? jealousy? no no no no. not possible. 

tristan merely kept smiling. yeah! he said he'd be around the coast or something, didn't he? he asked, but tristan actually didn't remember shiiiiit.

"We told him we'd be around here, so he said he'd drop by again in a few weeks," Bat recalled, wondering about the odds of bumping into him again. It probably wouldn't happen just by chance alone, though if she went looking for him, maybe she'd come across him again.

"Meantime, I'm gonna grab some grub and catch some winks. Coming? Or catch up later?" Once she had her answer, Bat moseyed off to scrounge and then relax beneath a palm tree.

yeah, chirped tristan, leaving the breccan thing where it was, le'ss go eat. he gave her a sharp nudge to the shoulder and moved forwards alongside her, off to go get some new digs to gnaw on. and then NAP.