Stavanger Bay She wants to bury me in Austin under Uchiko

For the babes @Isengrim & @Whiskey

There she goes again, and like every other time Julep is left cold and bored. Why she had to leave them there alone so many times was still a mystery to the fired-kissed daughter, who had come to realize that the world around her was way larger than what she'd thought she could reach before opening her eyes. Her sight was still blurry, yet the light and forms around her had started making more and more sense. There was a mom shape, there was a dad shape and smaller shapes that she would learn to call siblings. The smallest one was often merely a hindrance, but the other two were more close to a challenge.

But today was not a day she wanted to spend trapped with her competition in there without mom, no, she wanted to see where the light was coming from, and what even the strange sounds she sometimes heard coming from the outside were. So she got her poofy ass up and started wriggling her way away from the nest. She was so determined man, I'm telling you... But she didn't notice the huge wall (actually just a little slope) that she had to climb to get out of there. Her first step was firm on the ground, taking her one step higher; but the next one was a complete failure. It slipped up, sending her face down to the ground and pulling a painful yap out of her. The next attempt went exactly the same, and so did the next three. That was when she realized she simply couldn't do it, and the crying began.

isengrim had slept through Doe's departure, for it was not in his nature to find her presence necessary beyond the occasional Milk Detail: if she was not doing her duty, she was not of use to the pup. that's how conceited Isengrim had grown in his scarcely three weeks of existence.

he hadn't noticed Julep's departure either, but the ruckus she made doing it forced him to sit upright in a sleepy stupor. he shook his head slowly, his listless ears flapping against his cheeks in a strange dap-dap-dap noise. he paused, squinting a half-blurred eye: noise? sound?

he shook his head again and the noise returned - it took him a full minute before he registered that the noise was coming from his precious auds -- and even then, he wasn't Einsteinian enough to make the brilliant connection that the noise was of his own doing. he did, however, notice Julep's sniveling and set off to investigate.

it took him a few minutes to find her, for his progress was impeded often by the wall he could barely see. when he found her he tried to plop himself upon her with a hearty gurgle: "ommmmmmmonooooo-iiiiik." after all, her noise was a thing that needed quelling and Brother Grimmy was here to quash it.

Julep did not realize that her noisy nature was bothering her brother --- no wait... She just didn't care. The redhead hadn't been calling for him at all despite what he seemed to think, and his approach, although unavoidable, was least welcomed. He was determined to smother her with his weight to shut her down, which only fueled the firehead's wailing. His assassin performance was going poorly, he was sloppy at best, but he sure posed a challenge for his smaller sister. She yipped and yapped loudly as she kicked her way away from him and back to the wall. There she placed her paws on the slope once more, struggled to settle, and resumed the pitiful singing with even more passion than before. It worked wonders, she'd realized, inducing a certain magic that would get her just the thing she wanted from her mother. Crying was, by then, her most powerful resource.

isengrim wasn't good at subduing his sister, and she was not good at being subdued: it made for a pitiful combination.

he struggled after her, but was quickly buffeted aside. with a loud growl he sat on his rotund little backside and sulked, his deep blue eyes furrowed by angry eyebrows. not to be outdone by julep he set up his own small symphony of growls, yells and yips. if he threw enough of a tantrum, maybe doe would pay attention to him over his loudmouth sister. one could certainly try.

She could feel it, the magic of her voice was starting to make an effect, and she put every ounce of passion in her song to make sure Doe would give her what she wanted, which to be completely honest Julep did not even remember at that point. She just wanted her attention, and even if she didn't remember why, crying would always bring good things. But only if she was the only one crying. It had become apparent that whenever Isengrim joined her chorus, Julep's price would come decimated, so she obviously did not want him ruining her magic.

She silenced, looking at the blur that was her brother for a moment before a tiny little growl was cast in his direction. He was below her, sitting while she stood against the wall, and he looked like a hella good target from up there. Paws as large as her very face were flung his way in an attempt to silence him. A puppy attack. And as instinct instructed Julep's mouth sought to take grip on her brother's face/ear/neck/paw/butt/anything she could to silence him.

isengrim was pouring his head and soul into his soulful song when suddenly, a ballast-load of paws descended upon him. struck by surprise and dumbfounded isengrim crumpled like a hollow sack of parchment paper, his symphony coming to a resolute and sudden crash.

it took him a second to realize who the perpetrator was (and during those seconds, julep's tiny teeth found every inch of his body) but when he put two and two together (a painfully slow process) he surged from the ground with all the inspired revolt of an uprising against some beleaugering and evil tyrant: and that tyrant's name was julep.

"AUAFFUHG" he bellowed in his pup-voice, trying to grapple his sister's legs as she pinned him to the ground.