Blacktail Deer Plateau Light up your wildest dreams

set after this thread. hoping for a @Rosalyn or @Erzulie

Following his parting from Ying, Aningan set to searching for one of two wolves; he found himself looking for both at once, figuring he could question whichever he found first. He had so many questions to ask—so much so that he overwhelmed himself, still trying to wrap his head around what happened. What are we now? was at the forefront of his mind, begging to be answered—but the Inuk could not answer it himself. All he could do was search, frantically and desperately, for someone that would have the answer.

Rosalyn was easy to find, though whether she had answers was yet to be seen.  She and Erzulie had discussed... things (vagueeee) but none of that was apparent as Aningan came.  When the time was right, he'd know.

It looked as though he came with questions of his own, and Rosalyn stopped, appraising him with affectionate curiosity. He seemed a little out of sorts.  Aningan?  An invitation to speak what was on his mind.

the boy's haunted trajectory was not lost on the healer. she tracked him with ear and with eye, sweeping to her mate's side as they both regarded him with a warm curiosity. aningan seemed very out of sorts; she waited to see what he would say.

When he sought one, both appeared; this made him glad, convinced that their minds combined held the answers to everything. But this hardly dawned on him, too flustered to even properly greet them. Rather, the first thing he blurted out ended up being, “What are you two to each other?” Family, he told himself—but he knew that wasn’t the entire truth. There was more to it than that, more than what he could fully understand as he currently was. But he wanted to understand—and the need to do so drove him to ramble on.

“Ying and I got into an argument… I think?” There was shouting involved, so it had to be an argument, right? “We were talking and then she got mad at me. Then—then she started saying she didn’t want to be friends with me, that she wanted to be more. But what’s more? Is it just family?” But if she wanted to be considered family, why didn’t she just say so? “She mocked me and said I wasn’t nice!” Repeating it aloud made it hurt all over again—was he really not nice? He tried to be nice.

“Everything I said was wrong,” he muttered. “Until I said we could be like you two—then she didn’t seem angry anymore. But I—” Was he being foolish? It sure felt like it. “I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what I agreed to!” Strangers, friends, family—those were the only levels of social construct, as far as he was concerned. Nothing else existed, nothing else that he was aware of.

As Aningan opened, Rosalyn was baffled into silence.  What were they? Then he continued to explain why he was asking such a bizzare question, and the pirate felt more and more like laughing.  As she'd feared... naive and easily used.  Rosalyn couldn't think Ying's affections were real.  She was climbing the ladder and using all avenues available.  She was impressed, but annoyed.  She could say she didn't like Aningan being used, but truthfully, she didn't like the manner in which she was apparently bypassing them to  enter the alpha's sights.

We are wives, she said, careful to keep her tone level as she cast a significant look at Erzulie.  Do you not know what mates are?  He was old to not know, but it explained a lot of his reaction before.  Another complication... he'd agreed to an act that now, if he chose this path, he might not be able to perform.

unlike her amused but forward-thinking wife, erzulie's voice smoothed into a velveteen bevy of laughter. she simply could not stop herself, but swept immediately to the boy's side to soothe any hurt she might have caused. "ma pauvre douce," the harlot purled. "dere is a lot of explaining to be done, i t'ink."
a virgin! such a pure little stripling! and to think of what they had asked! she almost wanted to laugh again, curl outward with giggling that she pressed down into her throat and did not let out. 
"mates means that rosalyn be my wife, an' i be hers. wives means,"  and here she glanced to her pirate with a heavy look weighted by a deep and salacious amusement, then back to aningan, "that we be givin' each ot'her not only love, but all kinds of pleasures. do you understand?" erzulie gazed up at the tall befuddled boy, feeling herself inch-long into the brisk, educational tones of a madame.

Rosalyn was the first to speak, answering his question but also asking one of her own. Wives he understood; it took him a moment or two, processing the word and translating it back, but he did understand—to an extent. Mates, however… mates was not something he had a word for, able to relate it only to pack mates—friends and family. He thought to share this but was kept from doing so by the sound of laughter, forcing his ears flat with embarrassment. Her approach to his side helped brush off whatever shame was felt but, still, he was at a loss.

“I remember what a wife is—annak. The uppik told me but…” he frowned, struggling to find his words. “I didn’t know about mates. They’re not the same as pack mates?” Different from friends and family but more than a stranger—more than the former titles, too, perhaps.

Erzulie spoke of love being given but the comment further added brought his brows back together, eyes flitting back and forth between them—and then they shot up with surprise, as did his ears, the latter he could feel burning. “Like… like pakik?!” he exclaimed, a noticeable rise in the tone of his voice at the word. “I don’t… know what it is in this language. I wasn’t told.” Truthfully, he hardly knew about what went on between wives; Aningan left his own family at an early age and his primary teacher became the uppik—the owl whose return was yet to be made following the storms. But that was hardly on his mind presently, overwhelmed by what he was told—and by the realisation of what he did.

“I don’t think I want Ying to be my wife—mate?” he decided, shaking his head. “I don’t want to do… that… with her.” The thought alone made him nervous beyond words—besides, he agreed to father their puppies already and felt bad even considering partaking in the same act with someone else.

Rosalyn met Erzulie's look with one of intense amusement, but to her credit she didn't laugh.  Not the same as packmates oh sweet simplón!  

She didn't know the meaning of the word he said, but she kept her silence as Aningan revealed what she'd figured to be true.  Erzulie was obviously the better suited to this instruction - the pirate didn't have the patience or subtlety, for all of her amusement.

poor child, poor child.
aningan explained that which he did know, and what a gap of wisdom had not been imparted to this boy by the aforementioned uppik.
the harlot, unsure of what the young leader meant, took it to be a teacher of some sort. had she been aware that aningan had been receiving the delicate details of an education from the beak of an owl, it would have been her turn for scandalized response.
"you do not need to do it wid anyone if you do not like," the jezebel assured. ying would make a pretty wife for aningan, or perhaps would have; he did not seem ready.
"here it be called 'sex,' and it be what makes little ones for de pack. dat is what rosalyn an' i asked you," erzulie explained gently, two-toned eyes searching aningan's handsome face for any latent confusion she might untangle.

That he needn’t engage with anyone that he did not want to was great to hear, yet he was still troubled. “But if I agreed to be her mate, won’t she expect that?” he asked, brows essentially permanently scrunched together. That was what he agreed to, wasn’t it? Indirectly but… still. “Can I… Can I take it back?” he asked. “Will that make her angry again?” He didn’t want to make her angry—he just wanted her to be his friend, to fish with her and have language lessons, like before. Anything else just felt wrong.

Erzulie continued to explain, giving a common word to match his own, and reiterating the details of what he agreed to; he felt more embarrassed than ever, more so by the interaction as a whole, rather than the mention of making little ones. “So… so sex is pakik,” he repeated. “I know pakik—no, uh, sex—makes children.” Reproduction, although not spoken of in-depth, was at least glossed over by his dear uppik; it went hand-in-hand with their language lessons and explanations of families, why there was a difference between mother, sister, and aunt (unless you’re a Melonii). A shake of his head followed after, joined by a repetition of, “I don’t want to make children with Ying. I just want her to be my friend. Why doesn’t she want that?” That the question was not one to ask them, but Ying herself, escaped him.

Rosalyn shook her head.  So timid!  It's better to make her angry than to be with someone only to make them happy.  Selling yourself in such a way was no better than giving another, both unacceptable.  Just tell her you did not know what it meant.  She of all wolves should understand that.  

She gave a small huff of a laugh, then fell quiet, letting Erzulie field the second.  Ying and her sisters had met patience in all their attempts to learn to speak here.  The least they could do was extend some courtesy back.

"women, when dey are ready to carry children, come into season. you will know what it is. you will not be able to resist," she purled softly. "perhaps ying means to prepare for dat time, misread your interest." he was innocent then, for even she had noticed the intimate regard the young woman had shown the leader.
a pause. "but it also means she trusts you, aningan. dat is somet'ing dat is very good, even if she only wants to be your friend." so odd, speaking such things aloud. explaining the difference in dynamics. she had never considered herself a good teacher, but perhaps some lesson could be taken from this.