Hushed Willows I don't know. I'm just making this up as I go along!

I know I still need to reply to the other thread we have but I feel like we need something for all this...madness, too!

Given that Banner had talked to Mordecai it seemed stupid that he hadn't yet, but then, this whole thing seemed as stupid as it could be to him too. Stark took a moment to try and track the male down, but, his scent ran all over the place and Stark was more concerned by the moment for what was going on in the packlands. He tilted his head back, calling for @Mordecai and hoped that he wasn't interrupting the male at all. 

His dark coat meant that he stuck beneath the trees, but he had been close to the borders - trailing the freshest tracks he could. He wasn't sure if the male was even around, honestly, but, there was a part of him that was hopeful he hadn't taken off yet. 

lmao, at least all the ducks are in the same pond, right?? so maybe they aren't swimming in a line... >_>;;

Stark was lucky—Mordecai hadn't just set off. But he had been on the verge of pushing his way to the south. He was running out of options and paths to take to the north and west. If he couldn't have made some of the higher passes then he doubted Pippin could and with the rain having washed out many of the trails he had longed to follow, all the weary father had to go on was directional guesses.

Of course, the thought did occur to him as he had paused to half-listen to Stark's call that maybe Pippin would try and make his way back to the Hollow. It had been a pressing consideration that had come to him maybe the day before, but he had whisked it away with other anxieties as best he could. Still, Mordecai was not blind to the fact that his children wanted to go home, and they didn't mean to the cavern which housed the bulk of the subordinates and their leadership.

But he snapped back to reality long enough to answer Stark, pulling him towards the borders. He would not go back to him, feeling defiant over the notion that he was being interrupted. Banner must have found him and spoke to him and just how it made him feel was as mixed as the feelings he earned from idling on the proverbial doorstep.

There was an answer fast enough and Stark didn't hesitate to head towards it - not seeing any sort of defiance, but, just feeling like meeting in the middle was the fastest way to get everything taken care of. Normally he would have greeted the male with the wag of a tail, but now all he could muster was a quick nod towards him, his ears curved towards the male and his eyes sweeping his figure - trying to look for any injuries. "I wanted to try and get this all straight - All I got from Octavia was a garbled sort of mess and I haven't seen her since." He said with a frown. "I checked on Harlyn, but that was awhile ago too.." It was a bit of a ramble, but, Stark wasn't really made for this sort of thing. 

He wasn't the type to go to the source usually. It was go in, guns blazing, move first and plan later. He wanted to check on them all, playing damage control was going to end up giving him grays...."Is everyone okay?" He asked quietly, and he hoped for good news. He wasn't naive, however, and he knew that if things had been good he wouldn't be in the spot he was in presently. 

There's ponds, sure, but I feel right now like I'm herding cats - and that's skipping all sorts of analogies, there!

maybe they're tiny mice that are running everywhere, idk; i always picture a cage of them being knocked over and a ton of them being all "freedom!!1" when shit goes sideways irl haha.

Soon enough, the dark figure of Stark emerged from the cover of the willows. Mordecai could not pull his gaze from him, examining him much in the way that Stark did him. Only it wasn't for injures that Mordecai watched for, it was some telling sign that he was about to receive more bad news. But it wasn't bad news that came from those dark lips, but more of the same he had picked up from Banner. Confusion, concern—evidentally whatever notions he had thought would follow Tavi running away from the scene with her child were unfounding themselves.

"I'm assuming that question is rhetorical," he answered dryly, feeling his brow furrow. An uncomfortable feeling burrowed itself in, finding its spot somewhere between all the other unpleasant sensations that had roosted. He was left wondering if Stark hadn't encountered Banner and had no idea what was going on. "If you want to know what's going on, then you'll have to come along with me. I'm not wasting any more time when I need to be looking for Pippin." The words he found himself choosing were just as dry, but they were decisive. He lingered for a moment before turning away from the dark-haired wolf, and started off towards the slope leading into the valley.

Well, it answered his question in a round about way, Stark hadn't heard an update on Harlyn but he found something more concerning. Pippin - shit, that must have been the puppy that Octavia had called out. He gave a sharp nod and quickly fell into step, looking at his Delta. "Where have you checked?" Stark had a passion for scouting, he knew of a few places he could pass the word along - but he hoped it wouldn't come to that. 

He felt his stomach coil considerably to know that the child had been missing and the pack wasn't out looking for it. They should take better care of their own. They needed to do far more about it than they had been. "When we get back, I'll talk to the others. See if we can't get more people searching." There wasn't a question there, he'd do whatever it took to bring the boy back. He wasn't responsible but it was becoming clear that he was one of the few trying to fix things. 

"So far, to the north and west into the mountains," he said as they set off together. "The rain we've had over the last couple of days has ruined most of the traces I could find of him. I didn't want to leave Harlyn when he first took off, not with Tavi being the way she was." He took his chances including her into that conversation, knowing full well that Stark was closer to her than he was. "I couldn't have been sure she wouldn't have done anything else," and that had been the truth of it.

Rounding past a rocky outcropping, he felt the temperature gradually even out. By now, the greenery that had been scarce upon his discovery of the Keep was lush once again. It wasn't the pre-summer sort of lush, but it was getting there. The rain had no doubt played a hand in that; if only it had worked that way for him in finding Pippin.

since Banner had told him about Pippin he'd made it a point to find Mordecai as soon as he could - he didn't want to cause alarm with the puppies so he hadn't gone to Harlyn, he didn't want to disturb her either. He felt a sense of panic rise up in him, listening as Mordecai pointed out he'd gone all over the earth in the hopes of finding the child. "I had no idea what all had happened." He lamented quietly. It had been so long after the incident when he'd even found Octavia, and he understood Mordecai's predicament. 

"I've never seen her like this." He said quietly, and there was a note of uncertanty to his voice. He was young, but he was willing to do whatever it took to make things better. "Grace has ties to some other packs, I can ask her to get the word out. Hopefully we'll bring him back quickly." He couldn't say home and wouldn't dare. All the hopes they'd had for peace, for the pack to be the family it had been dreamed of, well, that had been shit on hadn't it? "I'm sorry about all this. I know I can't do anything to change it, but, I'm sorry."

Stark's words echoed what he had already heard, that Octavia had never been the way that she had become. Mordecai didn't know what to make of that, only knowing that it did seem she had become night and day with how she had been just a few weeks ago. He spared the thought to wonder what had changed when he was caught off-guard by the offer to have other packs look. His response, though initially silent, showed briefly in the way he bristled uncomfortably along his hackles.

The apology almost went to a deaf ear, but he understood.

"Is that wise, to involve the other packs?" he asked, rather than turning against it. Had it become that necessary? He didn't think so. "I've heard that around here they aren't particularly friendly." But even that had come from Tavi herself and he questioned it in the same stroke. He had already begun to question so many other things when it came to the Keep, perhaps from the moment he had found himself realizing that they were all housed in the same cavern.

He pressed on. "I do have ideas about where he could have gone, but I won't spare looking anywhere that I can. I don't want the one place I overlook to be where he's been all along." And it had been with rising certainty that he had wondered if Pippin had gone home, back to the Hollow, or at least somewhere in the direction towards it. He hadn't been to the north, though Mordecai had not pushed out as far as the coast. Instead his was a widening circle, no doubt pushed wider with the others that had come to join in.

Stark honestly didn't know but he was more interested in bringing the golden boy home than anything else. Stark sighed softly, giving a little shrug. "I don't know any of them, 'cept Donnelaith out by the shore. They'd be friendly at least - their leader Lasher was kind to me when we met." And it just reminded him how caught up in the Keep he'd become that he didn't even both to go see the man like he'd promised. He needed to. "I could go scout the borders just in the interest of meeting the leadership and go from there." He offered. His goal was to bring the puppy home and reunite the family - he didn't truly care at what cost. 

Stark nodded as Mordecai expressed his concerns with not checking everywhere. "I'm all ears on where to look. Truthfully with the famine I stuck around the Keep mostly, I probably won't be that much help other than just another nose out there. I can't stand the idea of just sitting by idly though." Stark explained. 

every time i see stark's title, that part of the movie plays for me. i loved that scene (and the ones thereafter, especially with the kid!!) so much -- "that could be the name of my autobiography" -- lmao.

Lasher's name may as well have sucked all the oxygen out of the air for a moment. He was thankful that his own reaction was contained, his stoicism left intact long enough for them to brush past it. But it was another distraction adding into the growing pile of distractions that were there. Mordecai knew nothing at all about Donnelaith other than what Stark just supplied him, but the pieces were falling in as far as what he could add to it. Hadn't it been mentioned before? Larkspur's friend that he hadn't meant?

He throttled the rush of wonders that tempted his curiosity to ask more; he had to focus. There was more to think about than what Lasher was doing out by the shore, especially, or at least presumably, with another pack. He stumbled through the continuation of their conversation, doting more on the keywords that jumped at to him. Mordecai needed to fill in the blanks, and did so.

"I wouldn't expect you to," he murmured at first, almost absent. "But the one place I can think of where he may end up, if, when he gets there, is the Hollow," and without consideration to finish, "our home." Even in the span of time that his family had resided within the Keep, it was hardly home. Harlyn had tried, but it was evident in the way the remnants of their pack had abandoned them (though in reality, they had not, he could not avoid the sensation creeping in), and the way his children felt.

"But if he retraced the way we came to here, he's out there and not on a direct route."

They hadn't exactly taken the path of least resistance anyway — Warbone had stumbled across them.

the real title of IM3 was basically 'Tony Stark desperately needs a hug'. But Harley was awesome, I'm disappointed he hasn't been in any of the following movies!

Stark wasn't upset by any delay in their conversation or any struggle that Mordecai had in focusing on him. No doubt the male's thoughts were a million miles away and he was focused more on Pippin than anything. Stark didn't begrudge him that. He wasn't even upset. He nodded when Mordecai pressed on, thoughts of the dark male and his forest shoved back to the back of his mind again as he fixated on the task at hand. Stark glanced over at Mordecai as they moved, lip between his teeth for a moment. "He'd probably need to rest frequently, from my understanding the Hollow was a ways away." And if he remembered right the last few times he'd seen the child he had looked exhausted. 

It made Stark's stomach turn a little, and he hoped that the boy had found someone's kindness - he knew Silas had started working at hunting, but it didn't mean that Pippin or Larkspur had done the same. Exhaustion and desperation might make Pippin even more frantic, and that would have spelled out even worse fates than he had been anticipating. "Maybe he's trying to follow the same way back then - at least it's something familiar for him." Stark thought it sounded like the best idea. 

ikr! im3 was the last movie i think i actually went to a theater for, too. everything else i've just bought or rented. >_>

He nodded again—the Hollow was quite a distance away. Of course there were no guarantees that Pippin had gone there either, but it was still a likely outcome Mordecai was hoping for. He would not think of the worst outcomes, at least not so early into things. He had worked himself into knots already, ever stretched so thin between trying to aid Harlyn and care for the two children they already had. Though thankfully, he had to admit he was glad that all of his children were old enough to at least fend for themselves if they had to. It may not have been perfect, but he thought that maybe it would tip the scales in their favor.

"He's also hurt," he went on to say. He debated how to put it, but ultimately came out with it. "Tavi got a hold of him, before she took off. I'm not sure how bad off he is, but..." He trailed off, bobbling his head as though it would suggest he didn't know what to say. Pippin had been able to run away, sure, but adrenaline was a peculiar thing. It had been the sort of thing that had fueled Mordecai on more than one occasion, though his scuffles had been far and few in between. At least when he had been caught in the crosshairs of something out for blood, he had been in decent shape. He had the wounds to tell the stories for him. Pippin did not have that luxury.

If the situation hadn't been so dire the Beta would have stopped in his tracks at Mordecai's statement. He let loose a low growl, not in anger at the male, but he was clearly upset by what he was told. "She what?" He hissed through clenched teeth, tail lashing behind him. "I...I had no idea." And how could he? All he'd heard was an offbeat explanation of what had happened and he couldn't exactly go to either source right now - and Mordecai was present. That was about as much as he'd get from an actual witness. "I'm sorry." He grit it out again and tried to hold back some of his disgust. 

Who was the woman he loved? If he could call it love, because it felt like who Octavia was was slipping through his fingers day by day. She wasn't the person he'd met months ago, the woman he'd spent nights curled around, the mother he'd obsessively fed and let his own health decline for. Stark frowned, moving as effectively as he could while they tracked the puppy. "Something has to change." He said quietly, almost so low it might not even have been noticed. 

That a puppy was hurt and missing - and no alarm had been raised. It was just another entry to the list of problems. 

His relevation to Stark must have been a sword that jabbed down deep; he heard the growl, the hiss of words, but did not hear a note of disbelief echoing in the statements that came to follow afterward. Could it have been that even Tavi's second-in-command had his doubts? It was apparent now that he was acting as their sole leader with Harlyn otherwise laid up. Yet he apologized again and whether or not it was more out of his own sympathy or pain or simply trying to apologize on Tavi's behalf Mordecai did not bother to ascertain.

His own thoughts were muddied and locked so deep in a mire that dwelling on much more than his present objective would have made it all go circular. It was a drain to a rabbit hole of other unpleasantry that he didn't dare circle or follow. Not yet, anyway, as nothing had pushed him so far that he delved down into his own despair and bemoaned because he was beside himself. No, his steps and direction were as determined as the words he found himself speaking.

"Something needs to," and whether or not he would find himself reaching after anything was about as up in the air as everything else. He had no desire to find himself in some higher echelon of ranks. Mordecai was just as apt to package his broken family up and take them back to the Hollow as he was anything else, at least that was the thought he had entertained in rest. But he did not seek to make enemies out of the aid he found himself receiving, and lingered to accept what help he could get while it was there.

He was tempted to ask Stark what he planned to do about all of it, but didn't.

this is rambly because i am full of go-go to write for mordecai hnnngggh

The male's response was simple as could be. He would make it happen. He owed it not only to the Ostrega's but also to Tambourine, to the Keep itself. He'd make things right again and he wouldn't let anything get in the way of the pack's safety and health. Stark nodded as he looked over at Mordecai, swallowing thickly. "We'll fix things." He promised, because he'd turn the pack around. 

It was a lot to take on all on his own but Stark wasn't alone. None of them were. That was a mentality that had to change among the Keep's members to ensure that the Keep became stronger and fully reached it's potential. "Tell me some more about Pippin." He asked, hoping to understand some more about what the puppy might have been thinking of and why he'd gone where he had gone. 

figure close it out since I took so long!