Dragoncrest Cliffs This ship was built to last

Set around June 1st

The territory edge had the familiar mark of @Erzulie and @Rosalyn, as well as a myriad of scents by young men which Reyes did not recognize. Their presence made him leery, although for deeper reasons he tried not to dwell on. 

The smell of the outbound tide left a lingering funk in the air which soured his mood a little bit. It was an aspect of seaside living he had forgotten about during his time with the Redhawks. A co-mingling of rotten plant and animal parts baking beneath the afternoon sun. 

Reyes paced the border for a bit. Part of him wanted to push on across those limits and find his parents, another part wondered if he should have howled back in the woods to alert them of his visit. Or the fact he was alive.

After some deliberation he did cast back his head, he did make a summoning call, but he worried all the same over who would appear to him. Pirates, estranged siblings, heartbroken mothers?

snappin this up, but feel free to skip me at any point if I hold it up <3

At first she did not recognize her son's voice. It had been the better part of a few years since she heard it, long and set to wash even the most important details away with the tide. She thought him another joiner, and with annoyance resolved herself to testing him harder than another, perhaps. They did not need more wayward men amongst their midst... if they found no women to counter them, soon they'd lose a number. The pirate knew it took more than this to hold a crew down long.

She might have lost his voice, but she hadn't quite managed to forget his face. As Rosalyn approached, her impatient stride faltered, then halted with shock as she realized who she was seeing.

Despite always believing they were out there, safe and living their lives, she wondered if she would ever grow used to the casual way they'd occasionally prove it. The overwhelming relief... not dead, then... and the immediate hesitancy.

Despite every fiber of her urging otherwise, she approached slowly, and a smile spread across her face despite her careful control. It would break her heart not to embrace him, but proof that he was alive and well had mended it considerably. She'd take the trade gladly. Reyes. It's... good to see you. Not the most heartfelt opener, but her expression told a different story altogether.

very few things could now draw erzulie from her bower. it would be within the next fortnight, her mother's body told the woman, and she stretched, wondering how many children the loa might give her this year.
very few things, save the rough familiarity of another man calling at the borders. the obsidian rolled to her rounded belly and hoisted herself on aching legs, a curse thrumming in her jaws as her stomach contracted in protest.
but erzulie refused to be hampered by her own limits even at the very end of her pregnancy. she went down to attend the call, noting that her beautiful scarred pirate had already come, and the newcomer —
"reyes?" the harlot exclaimed, unable to keep from cutting into and over their conversation. how fine he had become! she beamed at him, noting with surprise that he carried the redhawk scent which had become so familiar to her these days.

The agony of the wait was not lost on him. He paced; wondering what he might say should someone unknown come across him, or how he might confront Nieve, Marisol, or others that remained of his family. Would he be glad to see his mothers - yes, of course! There was an apprehension all the same. Maybe they did not share that feeling. Maybe they had written him off as dead, or had forgotten.

The sound of someone approaching earned a pause in his stride, then Reyes scoured the unknown terrain. The rugged features of Rosalyn's face - bare with emotion as if she had been speared through the heart - surprised him. So did the urge he felt to move close and hold her, as it was something Reyes had resigned to himself as being for his wife alone.

There was a strain to Rosalyn too. Did she hold herself back from violence, he wondered? Perhaps from the show of love and affection as he did. A pity; it was safer for everyone this way.

Erzulie came along next; shining gold and very nearly spherical. Radiant, as always. Reyes noticed the difference in them both - older, more worn, although pregnancy fed Erzulie's glow. He found himself glad that Rosalyn did not share her fate, oddly.

Hey moms, he managed to choke out, looking from one to the other. I mean, grand moms, now, I... guess.

Suddenly Erzulie was there too, with an apparent and easy joy that Rosalyn immediately felt guilt for not replicating. He was home but no longer the child he'd been years before, and perhaps it was something a bit more than consideration that held her back.

Why was he here now?

Years, and to appear now as if nothing was changed, as if he'd just come recently and not been, until then, potentially buried and entirely lost. It was wrong of her, she knew, but suddenly she had nothing to respond with to his greeting. Not even the addition, one that she barely heard.

She would hate herself for this later, but something soured within and she did not press it to withdraw. Instead she herself withdrew internally, newly guarded and allowing her wife to take the first words.

her mouth flew into an 'o' of surprise. beside her, rosalyn's energy shifted into dire spikes that pricked at the edge of whatever happiness erzulie might have had. it was odd to have him returned after months of anger and silence, fragranced like a redhawk and speaking of their grandmotherliness.
she brushed her shoulder along that of her wife.
"tell us about dem, reyes," she invited.
erzulie, despite the cocksure way she stood open her own borders, was desperate to welcome him back, and in this, she hoped her pirate would not think her false.

Rosalyn went quiet. It was Erzulie who burst with appreciable interest, and for a moment the young man was also at a loss for words.

He knew it had been some time. That he was in a different frame of mind now. What should have been a happy occasion was... strained.

Reyes didn't know what to say, so he focused on Erzulie. 

I'm kind of... married, now. To my leader, Towhee. Maybe that would bring a reaction out of his mother.

We have three kids together. Two look... like me, like us, his words were clipped; he glanced to Rosalyn but was stoic, unable to draw a smile to his face as he looked to her for validation. Then to Erzulie, And a boy who looks a lot like you.

Sphyra and Tierra are twin girls. Caracal is our boy. As he named them there was a hint of pride but that was all, as he thought of Marten, and decided to let the dead boy rest.

No amount of regret or remorse could battle the hurt she felt, no matter how much she wished it wasn't so. Erzulie put her to shame with this, asking what she should have, just as Rosalyn knew she would. Her wife had always been a better wolf than she.

So much time lost. Time for him to gain a wife, to have children now. Redhawks that she would never see. She'd wanted this for him, it was all she had dreamed, but the reality of it was harder to swallow. In dreams, she'd never considered the aspect of choice; that he'd decided to form a life away from them, one that he hadn't bothered to tell them of until now.

It should be enough that he was here now. Erzulie was right; there was no point to pushing more when she knew he was not staying. To her credit, she tried.

I'm glad to hear it. She was. And her smile was real, though there was a slight tremor that undercut it. She managed to soften, but the life he spoke of was so far removed from them now that he might as well be a stranger. That you're happy. That was all they could hope for, and despite their best wishes, it had to be enough.

married to his leader, with twin girls and a boy that resembled erzulie. she smiled appropriately, filled with a genuine want to meet these children. but rosalyn felt muted beside her. she supposed it was the nature of things, how an experience could differ, dependent on who had borne him.
reyes would always be her son, but rosalyn was his maman.
"it is pleasing dat you have settled in a place we know," the harlot joked more brightly than she felt. "de redhakws come t'rough so often, we have become familiar."
though she did not know towhee, and instinctively though unkindly of any woman who would be so unknown a wife.
"you be far from dem, reyes," erzulie went on, glibly. "will you be stayin' a bit"?

They seemed pleased for him. Rosalyn less so, which was a surprise that still did not sit well with Reyes; but he could not do anything about that now, he thought. It stung to see the strained look upon his mother's face all the same.

Erzulie's attempt to smooth things over with her light-heartedness was appreciated. Good to know that they were on stronger terms with the Redhawks, too. Had he come here only to face anger and antagonism for his choices, Reyes would have deeply regretted it.

As for staying — If you'll have me. I can stay a day, or maybe two. I told Towhee I would not be long.

He had hoped to spare himself the heartache of seeing them again only to leave, but it was also clear now there was no avoiding such a feeling. He longed for their old home together and the chance to see his sisters. This was not home to Reyes, though. This was a place that they had built without him, much like his relationship with Towhee and the family that came from that.

I do want to ask... If it is agreeable to both of you, if.. you would like to meet the children. Sometime. They are still young so, in the coming months, if they can make the trip...? That had been the goal of this venture after all. Reyes couldn't quite draw his eyes back to Rosalyn, unsure if he could handle the tension that lingered between them right now.

She didn't miss the way he avoided her gaze. A few short years ago this would have had her digging down instantly, trying to root out the cause of the disconnect. That was when he was a child, still close to her, still in need of her support. Now as she looked at him, she only saw an adult. He was a father, a Redhawk (apparently), and fulfilled. All this time she'd worried that she hadn't done enough, that somehow she'd ruined his chances at a future. It turned out she gave herself too much credit.

She didn't like that he'd made them wait so long, but it was better than waiting an eternity. She would like to meet his family, and was surprised to find some measure of warmth in the idea. Even this Towhee, whose name rang a familiar knell to her. Why did she know it? Not the golden one...

It would probably take more time than he had to give to completely remove the awkwardness that so much space had drawn up between them, but most of the tension fell away then. She stepped forward and reached out, extending her muzzle towards his, but not completely closing the gap. She had forgotten a lot of things, but somehow, she hadn't forgotten this.

Please, stay, as long as you like. If I'm to meet them, I'd like to hear about them.

erzulie's broad delight became moreso. "i would like dat very much, reyes," voice blending into the moment her wife stepped forward to seek a new understanding with the child f her body. secretly, the obsidian breathed a little relief. her beloved pirate's retiring and aloof nature had always served her, but erzulie feared this was not one of those situations.
reyes himself, impressive in fealty to this towhee and their brood. a man gone from the side of his mothers, truly. she felt a little ache at that, but knew it was the correct way of things. where she might always see a ruddy little boy there was a grown wolf now, and she must let him live his own life.
"come now. you remember de taste of sea urchin eggs, oui, wouj loup?" she lilted, ready to press upon him the sea's bounty and all the treats she had given them all in their youth.

Mind if I fade here? :)

Reyes didn't know what to expect; he hadn't when he'd arrived, and he certainly didn't presume anything alongside his request. Rosalyn's initial reservation upon seeing him hadn't entirely faded, but she sounded glad with the invitation to meet her grandchildren. Erzulie too, of course.

This brought a smile to his face. He couldn't help it; thinking of his trio of crazies encountering both of his mothers, and them meeting Towhee, sounded idyllic. He didn't think long about the chaos that would ensue with Caracal's entertaining, but crude, antics; or the bickering-play of the twins.

I'd like to hear about them, prompted Rosalyn.

Come now, invited Erzulie.

Whatever misgivings Reyes had felt, whatever tension held between the three of them, at least they could bond over the children. Reyes is soon ushered across the borderline by both women, and while he is careful of how he carries himself he finds it easier to be among them again as the minutes pass.

It isn't quite home, but home wasn't here with them anymore — Towhee and the kids were his home now.