Noctisardor Bypass Oh no, I've caught the BEES

Backdated like half a month, gee Bryn. XD Sorry it be lame-o

She felt like she had to keep a closer eye on @Brouhaha still. Though as far as Arbiter could tell, whatever murderous things had happened had petered out, giving the young woman a little bit of leash so soon probably would result in her going completely crazy. And so, Arbiter kept an eye on her. She'd been up to all sorts of nonsense, not all of it pleasant.

Hm. Well, Arbiter had come from the borders, and Brou hadn't been at the section she had just patrolled, so at least for this particular instant, she hadn't tried to breech security. So what was she up to? Well, better find out. She pointed her paws towards a likely haunt and traveled that way through the snow.

Wait wat, no. MANIPULATE TIME MOAR ON MY BEHALF, I DEMAND  XD
Hehehe, no, thankye mom!  ;)  As a reward, I give you...this brat.  Oops.

Brouhaha was in a sulk. She'd been hearing about all this MURDER and MAYHEM for freaking forever, she'd've sworn, but had yet to see hide nor hair of it and in the meantime was still being expected to stay put at home behaving and everything. Uuuugggghhh! Her brothers weren't being kept nearly as much of an eye on, to add insult to injury. Brou had been venting her feelings at all this monstrous unfairness by furiously digging a hole to China in one old den's corner. Among other...creative endeavors.

By now her excavation project had reached some impressive dimensions, and she'd even created a little mostly-hidden room in one part, just past the sharp turn and blind corner portion. But she didn't want to stay down in the dark and dust forever, and so with a liberal smear of dirt across her nose she emerged once more into the watery winter sunshine, blinking as her eyes adjusted. Her formerly-airplaned ears perked up and her tail started to lift as she spotted a figure approaching, silhouetted against the white groundcover, but her ears and tail flattened right back down in disgruntlement along with her drooping head as her attentive nose identified the figure at the same time her eyes adjusted. Oh. She'd seen far too much of this wolf's face in recent history. She'd really hoped it would be someone more exciting. And, y'know, less rules-y. Booooo! She barely made any effort to inject any enthusiasm into her voice: Oh. Hi, Mom. But she did restrain herself from actually grumbling aloud. At least for now.

It was probably a good thing that Arbiter had dismissed that location she was digging at as unfit for her own habitation or she would have been particularly unhappy at Brou's renovations. Look, she didn't trust the girl to do architecture, that sounded like a recipe for collapse. Or maybe it would flood. Arbiter wasn't gonna try and find out.

And that was about when her daughter poked her head out like an oversized gopher, So what are you trying to do here? she mused. It seemed awfully lot like digging for the sake of digging, and that wouldn't really help her progress in life unless she was hiring herself out as an expert ditch digger -- and that wouldn't exactly help them find food or protect the territory. She came closer, taking a couple of more hesitant sniffs in her direction to make sure she didn't smell too awful from some horrible science experiment in process.

...oops I think I forgot which thread was the dirtnosed one but too bad I'm too lazy to go change it right now kthx  :P  Might possibly edit if I get around to it...otherwise I guess your daughter's just an inadvertent semipermanent brownnoser, haha.

Brou's expression soured a little further yet as she took note of her mother's gingerish sniffing. Oh come on. Brou's fur-dying experiments hadn't been that bad, surely! And it had been at least a week since she'd applied that one skunkflower thing! Was she never going to live that down? Sheesh.

'M just digging. What's it look like. Brouhaha's normally cheerful mien stayed pulled disgruntledly to one side, and although one ear flipped upright to follow Mom's movements the other one stayed grumpily put. She added in a discontented mutter, 'S not like there's much else to do around here since I can't even go anywhere... It was readily apparent however from her demeanor that this was not in fact a problem she was optimistic that her mother was likely to help solve. Far from it: Brou figured Arbiter was way more likely to insist to her daughter that it was sit still and be lectured time again, for no good reason whatsoever. Brou did quickly cast her mind back over the past few days, but couldn't think of anything in particular she'd done wrong... not that that necessarily would keep her from the lash of the leader's tongue, harrumph. At least Arbiter didn't seem too mad right off the bat today...

Because with the squinchy wrinkling of her muzzle it was starting to itch a bit, Brou swiped her left forepaw across her snout a few times, trying to wipe all the dried-on dirt off of it since it was now starting to be a bother. What a pity other irritants in her life couldn't be removed nearly as expeditiously or easily.

Oh no, the poor child was bored due to her mother deciding she should stay alive rather than risking being murdered. How awful. Her reply was just as calm as it always was, You could train to fight or practice hunting. Your brothers will happily do both. Well Spook might not be so useful on the whole fighting thing, he was far too defensive to be much use. Or I could. What will continuing to dig do for you? It wasn't like it was a skill that had to be finely honed, nor was it one that was frequently used. There were many other things that would be a better use of her energy -- unless she wanted to be named Gopher or something. Maybe temporarily if she kept this up.

Arbiter took a few more steps forward towards the excavation site, peering inside. A couple of sniffs to confirm that for whatever reason it didn't match what she was going to eventually need. Then she looked back to her daughter, Did you ever really meet Pheiros, or did you scare him off so he only speaks to Spook? He had different interests, so there was also the possibility that the other wolves in the pack might have other ideas to keep her occupied... She just needed to not smell like a rancid pile of who-knows-what, and not freaking out the meeker sorts would probably help as well.

Brou rubbed a little harder at the bridge of her nose than was strictly necessary, squinching her nose up and working her jaw in exaggerated fashion as she attempted to more fully decrustify the thing, and to vent her feelings a little in the process. Her mood was not especially improved by the remark about your brothers; ugh. THEY weren't spending all day every day being told that invisible murderers with glowing red eyes and venom-dripping ten-foot fangs were lurking around every corner in wait for them and thus themselves being forced to sit around here, at home, doing absolutely NOTHING interesting.

...okay, maybe that wasn't quite what Brouhaha was being told, either, but if you asked her it was pretty darn close.

In any case, despite the little dig about her loathesome overprivileged siblings, Brou had to hide the small flicker of interest that sprung up in her blue eyes. Much as she truly hated to admit it, even to herself, Mom kinda did have a point... Digging wasn't really getting her anywhere, and to be honest Brou had been at it for long enough that the shiny shellac of entertainment value had started to wear thin. Fighting or hunting or something did sound a lot more fun. But she was wary of overtly displaying too much enthusiasm, too suddenly, lest this at some future point be leveraged against her. Um, she said not-quite-flatly. I guess. I could do somethin' like.

Mom was inspecting Brou's earthworks. Brou squirmed and flipped her tail around to the other side of her body, delicately sitting most of the way down as she wrapped said tail around her feet. The name Mother offered up gave her pause; she cocked her head a little and had to think. Vague bell rung but when had she last seen that guy? He probably had better things to do and places to be too, she thought to herself rather grouchily, mood taking another dip. ...Eh, I met 'im, awhile back... real briefly, with some rotten fish on his breath. Guess he's been too busy elsewhere to stop by and say hi if he's been hanging out with Spook, though. And gee, goody for him if so. How come the boys all got to go running around getting into trouble and having fun while Brou was freaking stuck here, anyway?! It was SO not fair.

Well, it was a step above complaining. So perhaps the suggestion had actually made contact with her brain in there. Perhaps you should. You might find it more interesting than this. She fully turned away from the hole then. Almost certainly. Would the threat of something interesting bribe her into acting more like an adult? Sometimes she had to wonder. At some point her children would actually act somewhat like they were supposed to one way or another.

But her daughter seemed to be a tough case. How had Arbiter failed here? Was it just adolescence making her seem far less serious than she might have otherwise been? Time healed most, but not all. Why had the difficulties they'd both experienced not taught her to be responsible yet? He also has gone hunting -- perhaps you could ask to join him. There are others in the pack that you could work with beyond him, too. Brows raised.

Bleh, may edit this later if I get around to it, idk. Wanted to get something up at least for now, though  <.<;;

Brou knew perfectly well that a baited trap was being laid before her, here... but she was bored, dangit, and resisting seemed rather futile. At least on some level. I...guess. I mean...I could. Her tail started to unwind itself from its unhappy curl a little as she restlessly got back onto her shifting feet. Her pouty mien contained a trace of real anguish as she fretted aloud: But if I go hunting, what happens if the prey goes beyond the borders that I'm not supposed to cross? Ugh, it's not fair!

Brou lowered her eyes even as a flash of resentment passed behind them. She scuffled one upraised forepaw into the dirt, abstractly doodling shaped furrows she paid little mind to with her dirt-encrusted black claws. People wanna take the boys along because they're allowed to go places and do things that I'm not. How lame would it be to hang out with Pheiros again only to have to hang back at the borders like a child, or worse yet to have to remind her brothers of the extra restrictions that had been put upon her? Seriously uncool.

Brou always seemed to make things someone else's fault. It was childish. Maybe that was the thing. Still needed to actually grow up -- but that was what her lack of proper name said anyway. She was not an adult to Arbiter, but how did she cause her to grow? There were some things that weren't taught to her.

Instead, she watched. Not all of prey wanders. And we are not in the famine now. There are things to follow, things to learn from, not all rabbits, but deer and the odd moose. But if you don't look, you certainly won't find. Your brothers are curious, they get invited because they ask, or at least because they put themselves out there. Let's be real, Spook never asked a thing, he just showed up and gave people puppy eyes. Pike made demands. So what do you want to do? They weren't trapped in a den -- the territory was large, she was fencing herself in, mentally if not physically.

Eh, think this post's good enough to run with too, now...finally. @.@;;

Brou had a similar doubtful inkling about her brothers' supposed "asking" to go along with others anywhere, but more inchoate and likewise unvoiced. She did scrunch her face up in a mixture of distaste and doubt both though before it relaxed back into a simpler (though slightly wistful) frown.

Not all of prey wandered? Well that sounded like a dumb cop-out to her ears. Brou made a face again as she considered this. Whaddaya want me to do, hunt slugs? But she knew she wasn't going to get away with so little. She'd been asked a question, after all. Hunching sulkily in on herself some again, she answered in a bit of a mutter, What I want is to leave the territory...! A fresh flash of resentment scorched across her eyes before dying back down into a quieter colder smoldering. But I guess I'll see what sluggish things there are to hunt around here instead, rather.

[ooc]We could probably wrap this one up pretty soon anyway maybe? XD

Yeah, Arbiter wasn't about to just go give in to her daughter's whining. Boo hoo, Arbiter wanted her children to be safe. How bizarre and unfair. So, her response was sort of a disapproving boredom, That isn't an option right now. Learn some patience. 

Oh yes, slugs. That was totally something she brought up. Perhaps Brou had a much more limited scope in the world than she thought. There were things out there, but did she ever look? As I mentioned, the hares usually don't travel far. Or you can find yourself some sort of snack-sized rodent. But if you just keep sitting around digging holes, I think you'll find Spook above you in ranks before you know it. If that didn't inspire her, she didn't know what would. There wasn't too much else to say beyond that, and she was keen to continue on her own little quests.

Ppprroooobably
Here, have another lameass placeholder post I'mma edit, though, in the meantime, because I r sllloooowww! Agh >.<;
—'S at least mostly done now, I think. This absolutely does not look like it had (apparently) a whole half a month's worth put into it but sshhhhh >.>

Brou growled grumblingly under her breath, very very quietly. Patience could go take a long walk off a short cliff if you asked her. Patience, puh! And worse yet, the idea of her brother outranking her. Yeah no, that wouldn't do.

On the other paw this notion that hares didn't go anywhere either struck Brou as pretty dubious too. What ever were those miles-long legs and blazing speed for if not to go galumphing all over the planet at whim? She wasn't going to outright argue with her mother on the matter, though. And in any case, even if Brouhaha was skeptical about the specifics Mother's general principles being putting forth did kinda have a point: this dirt-digging was quite literally going nowhere, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to see what slower, fatter rodents might be in residence in the area instead. But it wouldn't do to give in too obviously or too quickly on the suggestion, now would it... ...I guess I can look... Maybe the mice are out stirring, or something. It wasn't quite possible to entirely dampen or disguise the spark of interest alighting in her eyes now, however, despite her still-grudging tone. Her tail even started to unconsciously kink itself upward just a teensy bit to match. And her mind was obviously already starting to wander ahead in anticipation: All right. Fine. I'll go look and see then, shall I. Fine.

We should totally make new threads, think this one is at a wrap! :P

But Arbiter was just about to the point of heading of to do other things. There wasn't much more to say -- either her daughter would become a useful member of the pack or she'd just linger around and do, well, nothing. Her choice, pretty much. Arbiter had done what she could to teach her and inspire her to be productive, but the fact her daughter was the only one who seemed unwilling to take up the mantle of responsible adult was pretty much just a failing on Brou herself.

So, she stretched, and looked farther afield, plotting her trek across the territory. More to search. Then back to her daughter, Good. I'll look forward to seeing what you are able to do. It should be a more fulfilling use of your time anyway. And if there really wasn't much more to say, then that was pretty much that. Off to other things.

Sounds about right to me! ;) Or at least all these things seem to make sense at 2 am; we'll see how they look in the morning.
To the archives with it!

Given a choice between po-tay-to, poh-tah-to, Brou quite obviously chose useless spud, despite being well past the stage where she really should have been a more useful participant in pack life, as her mother often noted. Perhaps the loss of her father was stinging a little more distractingly than she'd like to admit, not to mention all the still-too-recent upheaval with the pack itself, even if at this point it might mysteriously seem to the reader like Brou was just willfully punching random buttons on her malfunctioning time machine and hurtling blindly about whence they took her. (Not that her author would ever do such a terrible thing.)

Brou made a face at the future trophies Arbiter hoped to award, or, rather more likely, the smoldering criticism of Brou's admittedly quite lackadaisical hunting and scouting reports yet to come. But whatever: that was a concern for another time, and right now Brou was having more trouble suppressing the fresh spark of enthusiasm for all the fun she was planning to have shortly. She didn't want to make it seem like she liked her entrapment however, or give the impression she was still a witlessly easily-fired-up pup. So she nodded in a grave acquiescence to her mother's parting words, and as she turned to jog away she waited until she was out of sight to allow the temporary fresh skip to her step emerge.