Heron Lake Plateau Bad company

Well it was sorted.  They'd managed to run the other wolves off in a completely stupid altercation that had Colt immensely irritated.  Why were they so damn gung-ho to fight for this scrap of land when they hadn't been for the last one? And moreso, why pick on the kid who had just been trying to make his own way?  His soft spot was in part their conversation way back; Screech had taken his advice, and now was out again.

Mostly it was Towhee.  It was obvious she had no control of the majority of the pack, and she had too much reliance on her hawk.  So he sought out @Quixote, hoping to have a chat.  "Hey," he said, if and when he found him.  Cutting straight to the chase.  "I need to say something to Elwood.  Will you back me up?"  He figured his friend would, but he would go regardless.

Apparently there were limits to Quixote's liking of pups.  Maybe it was because they weren't actually truly pups any more, but his patience had outright snapped.  Towhee had vouched for those (if not physically, then surely mentally still) children, and they'd poured gasoline on a fire!  Why had he believed her?  Why did he bother?  He wanted to kick the snot out of that little punk but who knows, given the fight it's very well that could have already happened courtesy of one of their opponents.  He wasn't going to act on it anyway.  Happily, someone else was in charge of the hellions.

He'd done his best to avoid the fight, both via diplomacy and outright trying to get away from a conflict he had clearly decided wasn't his.  Hell, was this even his pack any more?  They'd gone from a mediocre situation to now this disaster after a maybe questionable decision to move and an ill-advised approach to dealing with conflict.  He was utterly unimpressed with everything, boiling inside and wondering whether he should just state his dissent and go elsewhere, even though he had no idea where that might be.

His prowling about like a caged animal was thus interrupted by Colt, who was a much more welcome sight than Quixote's own mind, Hey.  Yeah.  Sure.  There was no hiding what kind of mood he was in from those clipped words. He didn't even know the reason, but if it was just about anything regarding that.. whatever that was, Quixote was likely along for the ride.  There was just so much wrong about it that he'd back up anyone speaking against it.  Colt being his friend was just a bonus -- at least then he had someone to stand by if leadership as a whole failed to live up to expectations again.

Now there was a bro.  Didn't even need an explanation, just willing to go along for the ride.  "Thanks," he responded, noting the foul mood and not going much more into detail.  Seems he was having a little better day.

He turned and went to seek out @Elwood where he knew the father and Finley had set up shop.  If he didn't find him, he'd call, but he figured that his brother in law would be around.

Anything would be better than letting the bad ideas that filled his head to continue to fester, to bloom into what couldn't be or what shouldn't be.  There were so many options, some worse than the rest, about what he should do.  He, perhaps wrongly, didn't care for the means as long as the end result was good.  It would be good to see where the betas stood on this matter, though.  Did they support this or did they now regret their decision to put Towhee as a leader? Did they regret the move?  Perhaps that information would help him prune to his true options.

Colt had been less willing to give Towhee a chance than Quixote, so perhaps this had been enough to prove him right.  Or maybe Colt wanted to speak about how to retrain the piranha-like youths.  Maybe repeating his thought that they should have moved on.  It didn't matter.  Anything he said would be a stage for Quixote to expand on if it was necessary.  He followed along.

:o

Elwood was indeed near the makeshift den that he and Finley were calling home (whatever that may look like once we make up some details). While Fin and the puppies napped inside, he was reclining a few feet away, lying in a sphinx-like position with a watchful eye roving his surroundings. Although the confrontation with Titmouse had been settled, he was still wary in this new area.

He spotted Colt and Quixote from a distance as they approached across the expanse of the plateau, and straightened slightly to greet them. ”Fin’s napping with the boys,” he said once they were within earshot, assuming that Colt was there to see his sister.

Colt nodded as he walked up, then followed with a shake of his head.  "I'm here to talk to you, actually," he began, glancing back to where Finley apparently was.  Hopefully she wouldn't hear.  Actually, maybe it wouldn't be all that bad if she did.

"You should be leading.  I understand why she stepped down."  He got why she wouldn't want the job; he didn't frankly understand why anyone would want that kind of responsibility harshing their life.  "I don't get why you did.  And it's obvious despite your opinions," he indicated behind, "the rest of the pack isn't feeling the changeup."

That was an assumption.  Really, Colt was only sure of his own feelings.  But from the way the pups failed to respect Towhee, and Quixote's mood of late, it seemed likely the group was not the unit they'd been under the older and more experienced leaders.  Their input hadn't been received and he wasn't much a fan of executive decisions, glad as he was to live with them occasionally.

"Hell, she can't communicate with half of us.  She relies on that bird to know what's going on where she isn't.  Without it, there's no calling her."  He kept his voice level; it was his own frustration speaking, not anger with Elwood, who Colt had found he rather liked.  Guy was too good for his sis, that's for sure.  He should be in charge.  Not second to Towhee - same standing, same pull, and same say in pack matters.

Colt's speech was indeed a good intro to his own concerns.  He focused on the physical, while Quixote was just his standard 'plz no more endless war' self, I'm more concerned with her choices.  The hell was that?  She stressed to me how it was a familial pack, the tone was acidic, mocking of the word.  And why wouldn't he be, after what he saw? Is it familial for her to threaten to kill her brother and for him to basically threaten to kill her right back? What even was that?  But that was just the tip of the iceberg, the one most easily mocked.  We leave one place because she doesn't want to deal with Blackfeather and now, that -- that very well could be the start of an equivalent, here.  Hell, maybe we should have stayed and seen who their new boss was, at least we wouldn't have had to walk all the way over here to immediately fall into that metaphorical pit again.  Did Quixote want to stay and deal with this?  Was he just attracted to every disaster of a pack that existed in the world?

He seemed to have been willing to stop there until he remembered something, and in not quite as sharp of a tone since he was genuinely perplexed by it, continued, And she hates the idea of adding outside wolves to the pack as far as I can tell?  Do you agree with her on that? I mean when I joined I know things were pretty well locked up because of the war, but it's over now, has been.  There he just wanted to find out whether he was far off base on trying to recruit.  It had seemed like a good idea, Colt had even agreed.  But if he was going to be the odd man out for the rest of his life here (especially since Sebastian seemed to have not joined them) why was he going to bother?  If he wasn't going to ever be allowed to get near what his daydreams of a 'normal' life might be, why did he stay?

The two males closed the distance between themselves and Elwood, and as soon as their paws came to a halt they began talking. Elwood listened as both Colt and Quixote expressed their concerns with Towhee's leadership and the decisions that had been made as of late. His brows drew slowly together, but he held off on speaking until they had both said their piece.

Quixote seemed especially disgruntled with the move and Towhee's fight with Screech, among other things, and Elwood couldn't help but feel defensive over the young Alpha. Yes, she was inexperienced, but the choice to move away from Redhawk Caldera hadn't been hers alone -- and that, he felt, was the most important thing for him to express to his packmates.

"I understand what you're both saying," he replied, glancing between the two. "Yes, Towhee is the Alpha -- but Finley and I still serve as her Betas, and she consulted us about leaving the caldera. We agreed with it, so we are as much at fault as she is. As for what happened with her and her brother -- no one could have predicted that, but it will be taken care of, and at the end of the day, it's better than living next door to a bunch of murderers." Again, his gaze shifted from Colt to Quixote and back again. "I don't plan to force her to step down. I think it's better that Finley and I continue to coach her so that she can learn and grow as a leader. If you don't agree with that -- I can't change your minds, but I can ask you to give her a chance."

Colt's brow lifted as Quixote shot off after him, impressed at the tirade.  His own notes had been on the things he felt were important downfalls, things that couldn't be learned.  Admirable as it was that she was trying, Colt just couldn't sort it that a wolf with such a fundamental shortcoming could be leading them.  An alpha who couldn't communicate with the pack over distances, or even very well in the short range, was a liability.

Elwood didn't seem to see this, though.  He backed her, addressing mostly Quixote's comments, and Colt's ears tipped back a little.

"Without the bird, how do we call her?  How does she call us? Know what's going on in the territory?"  He countered, sticking by his own points.  There were things that Elwood and Finley couldn't do for her.  There could be a full scale assault somewhere and unless she was there to see it she wouldn't know.  "Look, El.  I like you.  And I love my sister.  But I think you're making a mistake."

He shut his mouth after that, his tone serious but still friendly.  He needed them to know he thought this.  What they did with it, well, that he had no control over.

It wasn't just Colt who had a few questions skipped.  Was it because he agreed that strangers weren't to be trusted?  Elwood seemed to focus on the wrong things overall from his perspective about the things he did say too.  Quixote was very unconvinced.  Was Elwood just too close to her?  Couldn't see the problems, unwilling to fix them?  Was he even actually coaching her or was that just an excuse to try to erase blame entirely?  How long were they supposed to wait?  For her to screw up something that couldn't be fixed?

Quixote didn't have a problem with either Elwood or Finley.  Or thought that was the case.  But maybe he actually did.  Leaders were always a disappointment, so maybe this was just the wool being pulled out of his eyes.  The reason he hadn't irritated the anarchist was because he didn't really do his job to begin with.  Maybe too many kids around to distract him?  Ugh.

What else could he do?  Apparently, Quixote had nothing else to say if the only answer was going to be dismissal and was keen to just let Colt speak.  You could claim the rant had taken it out of him, but from the slow drop of his head and tilt of his ears it was more likely he was just resigning to being frustrated and sulky.  Nothing was gonna change.

While Quixote didn't seem to have anything else to say, Colt persisted with making his concerns known. And Elwood couldn't deny that his worries were valid; Towhee's disability made her different from the others, and it did put her at a disadvantage in some very important ways. He didn't necessarily have an answer for Colt's specific question about contacting Towhee in an emergency. However, he did know that she had been working hard since she was a young age to prove herself, and in his eyes, she had done so many times over.

His expression darkened at Colt's frank conclusion. He didn't think it was the Blackthorn's place to judge, but bit his tongue in that regard. "She may not be able to hear us, but she knows what is going on at all times. She spends more time patrolling than anyone else, and she stays in touch with Fin and I. We've made it work so far, and I think we can continue to do that -- but not if we don't support her," he replied. "Mistake or no, she's the Alpha."

They could continue to argue their points if they wanted -- although it didn't seem like Quixote had much else to say -- but they wouldn't get a different reaction from Elwood. He would stand by his word, and while he would never say it out loud, they did have the option to leave if they were that unhappy with the situation.

Elwood's irritation seemed to grow with Colt's frank opinion laid out, but hey, those who didn't complain didn't have the right to be unhappy, yeah?  So long as he was living here, he'd let them know what he thought without being shy, and if they decided not to take his usually sound advice that was their prerogative.  Now he just had to decide if sticking around Finley and the fam was worth putting up with Towhee as alpha.

He wasn't sure.  He was pretty peeved she'd been promoted off the cuff without any input from the pack, and he still felt she was less fit.  "Training" was all well and good but why couldn't she train alongside?  Colt wasn't saying she needed to step down.  He was saying that Elwood needed to step up to fill the hole he saw.  They needed a sound and capable alpha.  

But it was clear to him, as it was to Quixote, that Elwood had on blinders and wasn't hearing the full of what was being said.  Not mollified, but resigned, he nodded.  "Alright."  He'd said what he came to.  If Quixote was ready, he'd step off.  He kinda wanted to chat with his friend before they laid the matter to rest.

He'd hoped at least for some sort of nod that yeah, those were problems and Elwood would have a chat with her.  Maybe actually help her out instead of... whatever.  Early semi-retirement?  For all the calls of them needing to support Towhee, Quixote believed she was being neglected by the ones who were supposed to help her.

Leaders were scum.  If they weren't bad, they were lazy.  Maybe some were both.  It was a fact of life he'd learned to live with, and so it would continue here.  He'd try to fill in gaps as long as he remained, but it left him questioning if that was the best idea.  Maybe it was better if he let it all fall apart.  See how happy they were if Towhee's lack of diplomacy and Elwood's lack of response blew up in their faces.

Quixote looked to Colt.  Yeah, he was ready to head off, and if they were going to talk more, he'd be up for that too. At least for a while.  He did rather want to go mope.

Exit Elwood! :)

And that was that. Although it was clear that neither Colt nor Quixote were happy with Elwood's responses, they dropped the subject and seemed ready to depart from his company. There wasn't much else for him to say, either -- there was obviously no pleasing either of them, and he wasn't going to bend over backwards to change their minds.

So with a nod that sufficed as means of farewell, he left the two subordinates to their own devices.