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+---- Thread: Whisper Marsh if you love me (/showthread.php?tid=11785)
RE: if you love me - Tomen - May 16, 2016
He just stood and stared, the concern slowly slipping from his expression as he realised that his father was okay. Just a little bruised ego. Slipping comfortably back into dull neutrality, Tomen watched Rook nurse his sore forehead, saw those two-coloured eyes seek out his own. There were two kinds of pain evident in them. Had he felt... something, anything more, he may have needed to steel himself against the discomfort of seeing that, but numbness was powerful; Tomen felt victimised and isolated and frustrated in so many equal measures that it was easiest to just push it all away, and with it, everything else.
Rook tried his best to reach out. He was met with a stone wall, as his son stared sullenly back at him, unable to repress the rising bitter thought of why now? Tomen tried to push it down, to ignore it, for he could feel his anger boiling away somewhere deep down and if he wasn't careful, it would spill over - and he didn't know how to handle it. He wasn't used to feeling like that, to letting it out anywhere other than in total private. He even bit it back when talking to Prudence.
...even if it's me you're frustrated with, angry at, concerned about... The hint of a sneer dirtied his expression as he listened. Sure, Tomen, you're the one who is uncommunicative, you're the one with secrets, you're the one who wasn't able to keep his family together like he was supposed to. You're the one who talked so grandly of passing down the pack to your son one day, and then fobbed it off on the unrelated next-in-line when you got bored of it, or it got too hard, or whatever. You're the one who needs to open up more. You can talk to me, Tomen, but like hell can I talk to you.
No. He had to keep it down. Forcibly cutting that line of thought shut, he lifted his chin a little and gazed evenly at his dad. A few seconds passed, and then he shrugged, as though it were no big deal, as though Rook were blowing it out of proportion.
"Sure." Turning away, his paws sought out that path he'd been on before this whole uncomfortable situation, wanting to leave it all behind.
RE: if you love me - Rook - May 25, 2016
[dohtml]
A stone wall, indeed... It was rather with a sore sort of hope that Rook had expected his only son to give him the feed back he wanted: understanding, consideration, or any sort of sensitivity to his words. He knew this look. In fact, he easily recognized it after being quite familiar with it over the previous year. This was the look he was given by @Quil when she had first started to suspect her mate's budding relationship with @Veho, this was the look his father gave when his thoughts escaped him for the briefest of moments, the expression that @Jaysyek wore when Borden was not "all there" or when she had resigned to having time for herself... He should have known and he shouldn't have been hurt by it all, but as sensitive and tender as he was, Rook had already been affected. The least Tomen could have done was tell him more than just: "Sure."
Bi-colored eyes watched as the dark near-yearling turned away and Rook's heart could only ache. Perhaps the boy was an improvement in this line of Lyalls. When Rook was younger he was either absolutely pleasant and downright turbulent (not in a "prone to throwing tantrums" kind of way, but those in Renegades Reach knew that Jaysyek was perhaps the only one who could calm him down from his "I feel everything" fits). The older Lyall remained in his place, seeing after his son as he left deep footprints behind. He would give Tomen his space for as long he needed it, he was sure. He had been in that place before and knew what it was like. If anything, he could only hope that it was phase and until then he could only just "be there."
Still unable to gain his bearings in his snow-blanketed surroundings, he sighed as his gaze dropped to Tomen's prints. In his head, he counted for what seemed like a long time then began to trace his trail step for step. Eventually something would have to be familiar and he could find his way back to a piece of Grizzly Hollow where he could hide.
(Fade.)