Jade Fern Grove find what you love and let it kill you

A "pack" meeting! Required for Tortuga members <3 @Ocra @Xan @Kessa @Akirea @Vihaan @Elora Round 1 ends October 10th! Short posts are fine, Srir has a lot to cover lmao.

Sriracha's wandering was now done. Peace had been offered to and accepted by all nearby packs, and he felt that it was finally safe to move forward. There was no threat from their neighbors, and so he had secured the safety of the wood. He pushed through the ferns to the center of the territory where the willow bent over a stream.

Their numbers had grown from when he, Xan, and Ocra had first settled in the wood. They had grown strong, but he feared that there was no friendship to hold the pack together. He knew each of the wolves, but did they know each other? And so he called them, each of them, to the willow tree. There he would take stock of what skills they possessed and would ensure that they were all (at least) familiar with each other's name.

The vixen was wondering the woods, absorbed in retracing the names of the trees in her mind as she passed each one. Most she could remember, like the sturdy trunk of the occasional oak yet some where unfamiliar, or simply still clouded from memory. Since her episode of lost dignity and veiled sanity, her babbling and barbaric melodies had ceased, replaced with the occasional muttering of names as she paused underneath the boughs of a flowing giant, its silver-dusted leaves trailing almost to the ground. Hmm. A strange sight for the recovering wench. She spent a fair few minutes of thoughtful silence as her cogs whirred, yet a sounding cry from not far off saved her the trouble. 

Her limbs carried her almost instantaneously to where Sriracha stood, the faint gurgling of water adding to the clearing's peaceful feel. "Racoon!" she greeted, her voice a harsh bark as she skulked the sidelines, her wary gaze switching from left to right as she assured herself nobody else was here.

He hadn't intended to stick around for very long, not when there were adventures to be had, and things to eat and monsters to battle, somewhere out there. But he'd lingered. Maybe to get a good look at Sriracha's booty, maybe just because he'd become contented by the idea of having company after such a long time on the road — either way, he was here. And when the summons rose up for him, Vihaan responded with as much gusto as he could muster.

It wasn't much.

What really revved his engine was the call for one Elora. While the spaniard summoned multiple wolves, and Vihaan among them, he heard the name of his sister and thought, what the heckle-deckle? Because, lets face it, Elora isn't exactly a common name. With a great deal of interest in seeing if this stranger was indeed his sibling, Vihaan got to his feet, did some quick stretches, and finagled his way to where the call had originated.

And oh, what a surprise! He saw her first from the back and initially did not recognize her; then, as Vihaan started prepping one of his state-of-the-art pickup lines to sling at the well proportioned female figure standing right ahead of him, he clued in. Her voice wilted any desire he felt to make nice with a potential fling, which was a good thing as Vihaan was not at all supportive of incestuous relationships.

ELORA! He blurted, half-shout-half-cheer style, and rounded upon her position. She seemed rather interested in Sriracha, which would've set the boy's brows a wigglin' if he hadn't known better. Hey bish, what're you doing here?

The new, unfamiliar scents that could be found around the territory had told him that they were growing, but he’d yet to officially meet any of the newer members. If anything, one might say that he’d been intentionally avoiding them. While that might have been the case, he’d never admit to it, mostly because it didn’t seem to be that important. Xan wasn’t one to run blindly after social interactions, and had been turned into something along the lines of distrustful since having been attacked. Unless it was clear that he could easily overpower a stranger in a struggle, he was wary of them. Having not seen any of the newer recruits, he knew not how they looked or what could be expected from them, and so avoiding one-on-one interactions had been his best bet.

When Sriracha had called for the lot of them, he’d been hesitant at first, but had eventually given in. He wouldn’t be alone with strangers, he’d be in a controlled environment, watched over by someone that he was slowly, but surely, beginning to trust. Still, once Xan had arrived he’d not approached the unknown duo, having instead chosen to situate himself just close enough so as not to raise any eyebrows. His gaze flickered over to the pair every now and again, but he’d offered neither his name or even a greeting, focusing primarily on the masked male—or at least he was trying to.

She arrived with much a limp and a somewhat arming ly teetering gait, body still recovering from her losing battle with a cliff. Her eyes sought out the others, she settled a distance from them, rather awkward in the fact that she knew one of them. Silence and fleeting smiles whenever someone managed to make eye contact,  but mainly awkwardly sitting in the corner were her main activities.

She felt a lot had happened when she hadn't been looking so when Sriracha made the call for them, she felt slightly lost. She'd healed well enough from her shoulder injury that it did not cause problems but she had other things to attend to. Something was wrong with her sister than she hadn't been able to figure out but that didn't leave her incapable and she noted the scent nearby as she approached. Sriracha's was obvious, as was Xan's, and two that she thought was unfamiliar.

But the sudden, gawking, shout of, "Vihaan?!" left her before she could compose herself long enough to figure out why they were all together.

Next round ends in four days! October 14th, ya'll.

Slowly, all but one of them arrived. He was pleased to see even Akirea limped her way to the meeting, and frowned to see that Kessa had not come. Then he realized that he was an absolute idiot. Of course Kessa wasn't there, she can't have heard the call. There were far more pressing matters at hand than one wayward deaf wolf. There was a chain of wolves arriving and recognizing each other. First Vihaan exclaimed at Elora, whom Sriracha knew as Cotillita. Then, not long after, Ocra arrived and did the same at Vihaan. You guys know each other? he asked Ocra, whom he trusted to give him the straightest answer. 

Once things were settled with the sudden reunions, I'm glad to see you're all here, he said. Except Kessa, who's deaf and can't hear when you howl for her. But she's nice. You'll meet her eventually. Which is why I wanted to call you here. I know all of you, but I don't think you know each other. So I want to go around and introduce ourselves. After that he would share his intentions for the pack and the results of his scouting.

Her mood had been focused upon the striped quarters of Sriracha's form as others drifted onto the scene. To be truthful, the wench still had some reparations to complete; many memories she did not wish to recall did not surface in amongst her present thoughts, spare those featuring the pale pelt of her younger sister. It would take time, but the healing vixen was driven to heal what bonds she had broken since her departing.

A loud bark tore her focus off of the kind sir and onto a rather enthusiastic fellow with a pelt of earthy reds and browns. "Hey wha-" she cried, back-pedalling as fast as her shaky legs would allow her to. "I.." With a confused and rather startled expression, she sought the russet fur of Racoon. So many things going on at once, she wondered if perhaps it had been a mistake to appear at the gathering.

A pale figure approached the two from behind, one so familiar the wreck could almost cry out with relief. "Ocra," she croaked, refusing to recognise the boisterous brute and instead look upon her kin with an expression quite alike to "please, I'm not ready" before lapsing into an estranged silence as Sriracha began to speak.

Like the mumbling shard she was, Elora would avert her gaze rather awkwardly to her paws as she awaited the introduction of others. Clearly she had no intent on speaking first to the crowd.

The instant that Elora's eyes landed upon him, he felt a strange sense of otherness. She either didn't recognize his ugly mug or she was playing hard to get — except not the actual "hard to get" — oh you know what I mean. There was shock and awe there. Mostly shock, actually.

And then she was looking beyond him as if Vihaan was just a figment of her imagination or some shit, and bringing everyone's attention to Ocra? No, you dweeb, I'm --

Vihaan?! someone shouted, and cut him off. Usually he'd be all-for hearing ladies call his name, but this entire situation was so confusing that he simply whipped his head around (and stared slack-jawed at) his little sister.

You too?! What the hell, man! He was happy to see her. Very happy, in fact. The phrasing could've used a little finesse, but he was grinning at Ocracoke and sliding up next to her, bumping shoulders and being all buddy-buddy, as if this was a family reunion and not a Big Important Meeting.

When Sriracha began to talk, Vihaan's attention was still fixated upon both of his siblings. He looked from one to the other, beaming like an idiot, and didn't bother hiding the wag of his tail. He sort of wiggled all over, really. Whatever Sriracha was saying was going in one ear and out the other, because all Vihaan wanted to do was talk to his family.

And then Sriracha got to the whole first day of class garbage, and when given the prompt to go around and introduce ourselves, Vihaan was the first to announce: My name is Vihaan! This is my little sister Ocra, here she earned a shoulder-bump whether she liked it or not, and then he shot Elora a look that indicated she was next — but he held his tongue when he glanced at her, swallowed his indecision, and looked at Sriracha.

I like star-lit dinners, long walks on the beach, and bouqets of flowers to line the floor of my den. Following this he gave an enthusiastic wink at Sriracha, and then finally shut the hell up so that someone else could talk.

When Ocra arrived, his attention had been drawn to her. He’d looked her way and acted as if he might approach, only to have stopped the moment she’d looked to one of the strangers and announced a name that he’d never heard before. Of course, this led to him looking back towards Sriracha and shutting his mouth, more or less ignoring the family reunion going on beside him. His lack of enthusiasm hadn’t ended there, either. As the masked wolf spoke, his brows had pinched together, uncertain of how he felt towards the idea of introducing himself. Was it important that he do so? Before he’d left the woods, he would have been the first to throw out his name, and then he’d have insisted that everyone memorize it. Now, however, all he wanted to do was focus on those that he’d known longer, and then ignore everyone else; it was a desire that he knew wouldn’t come true, given how close it seemed as if they were all meant to someday be.

The first to introduce himself was Vihaan, who’d even shared with them all the fact that he was related to Ocra. Despite the relation, he didn’t feel anymore inclined to warm up to the other male than he previously had. Xan knew the female but he didn’t know her brother, and she wasn’t yet trusted enough for the latter to be liked simply because of shared blood. Knowing that he’d have to at least try to get along with him, however, his gaze had been directed Vi’s way throughout the entirety of his introduction.

Deciding to get his turn done and over with, the albino spoke up at last as he’d said, “My name’s Xan.” There was a momentary pause before he’d added, “I’m a warrior,” and then he was done. Feeling as if he’d said enough, he’d glanced around to see who might speak next, that way he could watch them as they did so.

A lot happened all at once that made it difficult for Ocra to even begin to process. First there had been Elora, who took some convincing to know it was her and now Vihaan stands before her, just as confused but just as chipper as she remembered. She blinked a few times to look between her two siblings until Vihaan nearly blindsided her from the right. It hadn’t been a rough bump of his shoulder but enough to startle her back to attention and fumble an attempt over her words.

“What is…” she pauses, directing her gaze to Sriracha. She wanted to feel anger and throw the blame his way—which, he really ought to have told her about the new members—but how was he to know who they were? Either way, she feels something close to anger; irritation or frustration, maybe, but it was far too overwhelming that she completely missed what the Mexican man had been saying all along.

Her gaze shot from one to the next as the spoke before she realized she’d either missed the spotlight entirely or they were just moving along.

sriracha is annoyed but i'm not! he'll probably try to do another meeting soon, so keep an eye open for that. Meanwhile, feel free to keep this going if you want!

Though Xan and Vihaan had played along, both Ocra and Elora had ignored the prompt in favor of their reunion. Sriracha watched the back and forth. He was surprised, delighted, and quite annoyed all at once. For though he was thrilled-and shocked- that Ocra, Elora, and Vihaan had found each other, he was annoyed that they had to meet here and now. That providence would have it so that they reunited now only further served to irritate him, for it showed that they were truly a scattered bunch. They were all wolves that lived in the same forest, the same pack! How they had not met yet just showed how important this meeting was.

Was, past tense.

It seemed unfair to tell them to shut up, though the beast in him wished to do so. But he was civil, civilized. It only seemed fair to give them their time, time he would want if it was him and his siblings. (And oh! wasn't it so cruel to see one's friends come together with their family and find oneself bereft of the same joy?) Alright! he cried, mustering up all of the bravado he had (which was quite a bit) to catch their attention. We're gonna do this again later. I expect everyone to be there. In the mean time, you kids catch up, he nodded to Ocra and her siblings. And no one is allowed to hunt big game in the northern stretches of the maplewood to our North. Otherwise, go crazy, just don't fuck around with other wolves' borders. And with that he stepped away, soon to catch Xan for their private word. Sriracha out.

Awkward and silent was she, silent on the outskirts of the meeting while everyone seemed to greet one another as old friends. Her eyes flicked briefly to Sriracha once or twice, and perhaps a faint plead could be seen in their depths. She felt horribly out of place, and felt that should she open her maw naught but mumbled gibberish could come out. 

Her face burned beneath her fur as she took her leave quickly when Sriracha did, leaving the others to catch up as they may and spiriting off into the Grove again, as gracefully as one could hobble.

She didn't have to wait long as her time for answers ended, Sriracha spoke up again with irritation in his voice. Her ears fell back against her head and she looked away, feeling like she'd hit a brick wall with each emotion coming to a standstill. She wanted to feel angry for Sriracha and his disrupted meeting and happiness for her siblings and further confusion by both of them. When Sriracha was gone from sight, she glanced to the rest of them. It's the first time she really noticed Xan and she frowned an apology in his direction with slight shrug of her shoulder.