Cerulean Cape i'll savor how this emptiness defines you
ᴋɪʟʟ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄᴏɴsᴄɪᴇɴᴄᴇ
66 Posts
Ooc — Rhys
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#1
All Welcome 
he jetted back across the coast in the way he had come, this time trying to say out of a strong easterly wind that seemed intent on fucking his day up. the conditions had dropped to near white out again and he had frankly lost track of how many days he had been at it along the coast. a handful at best, maybe a week, who knew.
it was exhausting, and the weather was starting to try and really wear him down. it drove him into the cape thinking he would find some rocky outcropping to bed down against while the worst of the storm ravaged whatever it pleased, but he couldn't see shit in front of his face. his nose was pretty useless in the wind and with all the saltwater, and eventually if not inevitably he ended up trailing the sandy coast where the water could not quite reach him.
the roar of the ocean crashing was not as violent here as it had been elsewhere along the coast he had scoured, but it was still pretty rough. the chop of the seas, the absence of the gulls crying in the gale; it was pretty damn bleak. his pace had dropped to a bedraggled sort of walking, and soon he pinned his ears back to shelter them against the downy hairs at the top of his head.
but for real though, would it ever stop snowing?
he had considered venturing inland but didn't think it would do him any good—the snow was probably ten feet tall and would swallow him whole. but on the last clear day they had where it wasn't completely awful, he thought he had seen distant mountains.
should've gone there, he had lamented in thought.
❝The object of the superior man is truth.❞
-Confucius
124 Posts
Ooc — summer
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#2
mama had talked about snow before, but seeing it now was a whole new experience. though nüwu was unaware it rarely came down this hard, but it coated everything, and it seemed only to be shrunken towards the shores where the waves licked it away and brought it back to water. and so nüwu clung to the ocean's edge, even when wandering near the island- because she was afraid to get lost in the white, delving too deep inland. it was that fear that lead her to another near the shore, and when she first spotted him nearby, she marveled a moment at his features through the icy wind- large ears, a sharpened snout. he didn't look like the island wolves, though she knew too little of coyotes to understand that he held coyote traits, and assumed he was merely different. hello- but the wind drowned out her quiet voice, and she tried again, louder this time: hello stranger!
ᴋɪʟʟ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄᴏɴsᴄɪᴇɴᴄᴇ
66 Posts
Ooc — Rhys
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#3
behind him, a voice called out.
"aw fuck," he murmured into the wind, his own voice barely registering in his ears. he stopped long enough to peer behind to realize just how close the other was... but she was young. young like that other one, the stutterbox from the river... but younger. there was still something soft and childish in her features that he seemingly lacked now, not that he considered himself an adult.
his eyes narrowed to slits as he scrutinized her.
was she alone? seemed like it.
"what do you want?" he called back at her, though not quite at a yell. the wind would do some of the work for him, maybe... no, wait, fuck. he was standing with the wind in his face, so good luck to her then. maybe her little ears worked better than his for all he knew.
❝The object of the superior man is truth.❞
-Confucius
124 Posts
Ooc — summer
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#4
his response was a hum of noise under the wind, and took a moment to register in her ears as she tried to piece together what had been said. it was vague, but she thought she'd heard it. with his gaze on her, she pulled closer so that she might not have to worry about the noise of the wind so much, what do i want? she repeated in clarification, unoffended, nothing! actually, that is false... maybe a stranger's company. she considered this, more for herself than him, with the way she furrowed her brow in thought.
ᴋɪʟʟ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄᴏɴsᴄɪᴇɴᴄᴇ
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Ooc — Rhys
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#5
oh, great, another one of those instances where he found himself stumbled upon and apparently the target of well intended conversation... in the middle of a snowstorm straight out of hell—which had clearly frozen over for this place.
"uhhh yeah you don't want my company," he said as she drew closer, "i'm bad news buddy." you know, the whole vicious ugly looking coywolf mutt thing or whatever he was often labeled as.
the weird thing might have been the last thing he remembered being called. but he had been called worse and truthfully stranger was about as generic as it got.
"what the hell are you even doing out in this? don't you have a home or something?" was it a rite of passage around here for yearlings or something to go out in the blizzard and maybe go back if they survived it? the commonality of it all wasn't lost on him even if he didn't quite get the reasoning yet. or maybe they were all just a bunch of really hardy or really braindead animals because he was out in the inclement weather too.
❝The object of the superior man is truth.❞
-Confucius
124 Posts
Ooc — summer
Away
#6
bad news? are we not all a little bit bad? nüwu wondered to herself, though she spoke it out loud. certainly, even the ones nüwu loved had their 'bad' moments- haoming and her bad attitude, mama and her judgements. at what point do you think your bad crosses a line? she tilted her head, unphased by his next questions too. yes, i live on the island, but the world was calling me, so i came, nüwu murmured, and turned to look back across the waters, wondering if she might be able to point out her home to him.
ᴋɪʟʟ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄᴏɴsᴄɪᴇɴᴄᴇ
66 Posts
Ooc — Rhys
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#7
her first question stumped him. not that he didn't understand what she was driving at, but he had never put a lot of thought into whether or not they were all inheritantly bad in some way, shape, or form. the second one only furthered his stumped nature, but it was soon swept up in talk about her being from an island.
island? there's an island? he was dumbfounded now entirely, his brow furrowing and his eyes trying to pierce through their hazy, snowflake-laden surroundings to find such a place. he couldn't see it, he hadn't seen it, even when things had been clear.
i think you're pulling my leg, lakhos decided. i haven't seen an island anywhere.
❝The object of the superior man is truth.❞
-Confucius
124 Posts
Ooc — summer
Away
#8
the weather was too foul to see anything upon the sea, and the girl turned back to him as he spoke. a shrug. it is okay if you do not believe me; it is hard to see it now. but there is a island... you could come see it, when the weather is not so bad. nüwu didn't fully understand the whole concept of 'strangers aren't allowed in pack territory'. based on his attitude, she wondered whether he would accept such an invitation anyway. but if you visit you can't let mama see you, she won't like it. the little scientist offered, feeling it was right to warn him. why did packs feel the need to chase everyone out? she didn't understand a lot of what the adults did.
ᴋɪʟʟ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄᴏɴsᴄɪᴇɴᴄᴇ
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Ooc — Rhys
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#9
lakhos made a face that was hard to describe but in its essence it flashed doubt like a poorly lit neon sign, flickering in and out like it simply took too much willpower to stay on properly. he blinked very much in the same way, trying to process all that information in one go.
right, he commented offhandedly. okay, so mystery island obscured by the mist and snow and sea salt spray that apparently he could go visit so long as he was completely stealthy about it.
yeah, that sounded like a big ol' trap.
did they all think he was stupid?
i'll... keep that in mind. guess your mama must be real mean though. but then again, if her mama had a whole island to herself then she probably had to be—but wait, an island? how the fuck did they even get onto dry ground without being swallowed by the sea?
the thought went pinballing around in his empty skull, but the question didn't go flying out of his mouth because it didn't hit the corner like a windows screensaver from the nineties. the timing just wasn't perfect.
❝The object of the superior man is truth.❞
-Confucius
124 Posts
Ooc — summer
Away
#10
he didn't seem completely convinced, but she wasn't gonna bother him about it more. instead she wrinkled her nose a little at his comment about mama, frowning slightly. i don't think she tries to be mean, nüwu defended weakly, she's just different. it felt wrong to talk about mama behind her back, and she momentarily thought that this stranger was a little clippy to be calling someone else mean, too. but that thought felt wrong too, and she shooed it away. she looked back to him- with his large ears, his tiny figure that matched her growing one. a new curiosity, why do you look... different?
ᴋɪʟʟ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴄᴏɴsᴄɪᴇɴᴄᴇ
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Ooc — Rhys
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#11
she was just different.
well that made sense, he thought. after all, they lived on an island and everything lakhos knew about islands—however small, to be fair—was that they had water all around them. and this was the middle of winter, jam packed with shit weather and freezing temperatures that made living on an island all that more...
he couldn't think of the world. not necessarily stupid, but stupid. he tried to avoid being wet in the winter and yet it had happened a number of time already and he hadn't died from it. he still had all his toes too. if he could master not freezing or being frostbitten to death, then apparently so could they crossing whatever length of water they had to.
so the island, if it did exist, couldn't have been too far out to sea. right? right. and in those moments that he took to justify the notion and make it a reality, the girl had singled out his own appearance in one fell swoop.
um, he drew out, because i do? is this a... rhetorical question? she was young and that was her saving grace from something too terribly scathing—she at least had the smarts to realize that he was different from her, which was a step up from everyone else that had lumped him in with being distinctly one thing or another.
it was possible she had never seen anything like him, but lakhos had fallen into that trap a couple of times to know to be wary of the question, and choosy of the answer that he gave in response. they may have been of similar size, but she was still very much all wolf and he... well... he was very much not all wolf.