Neverwinter Forest Who sits by the window will one day see rain
1,397 Posts
Ooc — Jennifer
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#1
All Welcome 
Edit to tag peeps just in case anyone wants to snag it! @Okeanos @Ibis @Cam
But if someone else not from the proto-pack wants to join, feel free to assume Mal is at the "borders" in your post or will be there soonish.

He slept better now that he knew other wolves were around that he could theoretically trust.  Theoretically, in that he still didn't know if he trusted them, but they hadn't given him a reason not to... Yet.   But accepting their presence didn't mean that he had to stay right up near them all the time either.  Okay, there was Cam too, but Mal was more uncertain what to do with the kid around than anything -- and going to return the pup to his birth pack wasn't going to be high on his list of things to do any time this decade.  Mal didn't have a den or anything, so he'd been nestled at the foot of one of the many trees through the warmest hours of the day, but now as evening was starting to slowly creep towards the present, Mal started to walk his way towards the edge of the territory.

Mal definitely seemed to be done with the whole wandering thing.  Being located here gave him something kind of routine, but he was also really bad at following it.  His movements were unpredictable in that his schedule would be completely on its head one day in comparison to the next, but hey.. He was young.  He still had to learn.  About the one thing he hadn't done was recruiting.  It'd probably go awful, but he should probably figure it out soon enough.
and i'm wondering who could be writing this song?
209 Posts
Ooc — mercury
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#2
he'd steadfastly refused to go home. he didn't want to. there was nothing there for him, after all. lana and ziggy were always doing their own thing, khali seemed overwhelmed with grief, and everyone else ignored him. without mummy, it wasn't worth it. he didn't expect ibis and okeanos to understand—

but mal was a curiosity to cam. he watched the young man from afar quite often, trailing in his pawsteps, tracking his behavior. he was intrigued by the blunt, unappreciative way he spoke of elysium, so different from the pretty picture everyone else had painted. why had mal's experience been so different? why had his own?

today, he was brave enough to emerge from the shadows, falling into step beside mal with a small whuff. 'llo, mal, he greeted, casting his verdant eyes up toward the other's cheek. what're you doing?
1,397 Posts
Ooc — Jennifer
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#3
And Cam was the one who joined him.  Mal was a little surprised that he didn't seem to have permanently attached himself to the more Elysium-friendly pair -- that had been what Cam had been used to, right?  He wasn't clever enough to figure out why, particularly, but wasn't going to argue about whether or not Cam should stay or go.  Do whatever.  It was a pretty good law to live by.

Going to go check the borders and stuff.  Which sounded just kind of weird on its own, so he added, If this is gonna be home, I wanna know who's around.  And keep 'em out unless they wanna join us too.  It at least had sounded reasonable to him.  Even though Elysium didn't really care other than to try to use borders to fence in the children, instinct told him to greedily claim what was his.  Mal's innate distrust of just about everything meant that he wasn't going to just happily let someone waltz through... Though honestly he wasn't sure what he'd do if someone did act a bit too bold.

Mal shrugged.  You wanna do something?  If Cam was staying, then they needed to make sure the kid was taken care of and stuff.  Not that Mal was exactly the world's greatest father figure or something -- hell, he thought of himself as probably an awful brother at this point too.  Just garbage all around, woo!  Still, Mal would do his best.
and i'm wondering who could be writing this song?
209 Posts
Ooc — mercury
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#4
that sounded reasonable enough. cam hadn't seen the bear that had killed lily and ariel, but he knew something had happened that shouldn't have. and if keeping all that kind of evil out of the forest would prevent another tragedy, he was all for it. he nodded, squaring his shoulders and padding with more purpose beside mal. it took him a while to register the question, and when he did, he shot the older wolf a blank look.

erm. . . he trailed off shyly. no one had ever really asked him that before—not like that, at least. he'd always just done his own thing or tagged along with somebody else's plan. he had no clue how to respond. what did he want? how could he put any of it into words?

grimacing, cam shrugged and turned his eyes to the path ahead again, falling silent for another long moment. tell me something new, he said, at last, his tone sincere. he loved learning new things when he could inveigle another wolf to teach him; perhaps mal was up for the challenge. cam was ready for most anything (or so he thought).
1,397 Posts
Ooc — Jennifer
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#5
Blink.  That was kind of a bad question to ask someone with as questionable education as he had. Um.  Like what?  I dunno if I'd know anything you don't already know.  I had to learn stuff like hunting on my own. Okay, he had a little help and the fallback of him being 100% ok with taking from a pack he didn't consider himself a member of.  Only other thing I've got is like.. Trips and stuff.  What he saw.  Not that Elysium people seemed particularly willing to hear it, given Ibis's reaction.

Either way, Mal's ears tipped back slightly as he tried to think of what might be of interest.  What did people learn besides how to survive?  Could figure out people's names or something but that was only useful while they were around.  Those who were there and gone probably didn't stick in his memory very long.

But Mal could do a bit of both.  Point out some stuff he learned about the way that might be useful for the kid.  And then of course warn him about the shores and how little he trusted the wolves there.  Inland was much better.  The psychos liked the sea.  Chances were Cam would be the one to get bored and wander off... Mal wasn't the best at being social.