Dead Empress Backwater elephant in the room

Vayko’s recover had been fairly efficient, though it had added a few new scars to the collection that had started the moment he had chosen to escort Vanadis to her family… a decision he would come to regret for the amount of blame he seemed to shoulder for her disappearance, as if he had not done everything in his power to find her and bring her home to his cousin. He was no monster. He did not revel in the pain and sorrow that his cousin experienced day after wretched day…

His cousin was the closest thing he had to a brother, to the deep bond of family… Sharlee as well though they had not interacted much if at all since he had returned. Another elephant he would need to address.

He was doing his due diligence, hunting to fill the caches as much as he could, ensure that Clover had as easy of a time as possible when it came to the children she carried, and so no one in the pack need to hungry. They were his family, apart from perhaps the slimy Halex, whom he found himself avoiding while he prepared his own revenge.

Vayko Valle

Eros hadn't wanted to cross paths with his 'uncle', but he also wasn't willing to bend around Vayko's presence. He had a contribution of his own for the pack's stores, and wouldn't go out of his way, prolonging that, just because someone he didn't much like was around. Still, he didn't have to be warm and welcoming either. He didn't give the man a single glance when he came into view, walking past wordlessly with a raised and bristled tail.

He went directly to the frequently turned earth at gnarled roots, and began to pull it away. From his jaws hung a marmot, plumped greatly by all of the spring growth and swaying with his movements.

Vayko had known that his nephew and Eros’s friends had returned, but he himself had been preoccupied in his recovery and Clover’s pregnancy to pay much mind to them. His focus was on the pack, which is what it should have been all along instead of going with Vanadis on her adventures. It would have certainly saved him much grief if it had been.

He caught Eros’s scent vaguely through the smell of hare that flooded his nose due to the limp creature hanging from his jaw, depositing the creature as he saw Eros with a marmot, a soft smile on his features for a moment before it faded at seeing the bristling tail. “Eros?” There was a questioning to his tone.

He, for one, did not understand. And even if he had known what Eros was so cross about, he would not accept it. He would not be a punching bag for the Valles to take their anger out on just because they had been unluckily separated by a storm.

Vayko Valle

Eros?

He stiffened, ears swiveling backward toward the other Valle. The teen had hoped the encounter would be brief and wordless, but it seemed Vayko had something on his mind. The confusion in the older wolf's voice irked him, but for the moment he gave the benefit of the doubt. That whatever he wanted would be quick, superficial.

Eros dropped the carcass and looked over his shoulder, practically glaring. A staccato "what?" left his lips, and that was all the other would get for a response. His anger with Vayko was clear in the details of his demeanor, nostrils flared and tail bristling further, but for now he didn't see what good a tongue lashing would do. The man knew his trespasses, didn't he?

What he hadn’t expected was the harsh glare that came from his mouth and sharp retort that merely have him raising a brow, taken aback but remaining the usual calm and collected that came from the moments where he wasn’t flying off the handle.

“What is with the attitude?” He couldn’t help but gruff as he set the rabbit he had in his maw at his feet and found himself looking for some answers in that regard. “I have not seen you in any real capacity since my return. I thought we could catch up.” He stated simply, peacefully in his own way after his gruff counter to the boy’s attitude.

Perhaps he was in that angsty teenager phase… the one that Vayko himself had been in when he had first arrived to the Lore.

Vayko Valle

No, Vayko was instead clearly surprised. Eros found it frustrating, fighting off a growl that wanted to start building deep in his chest. He was still shy of adulthood, taught to know better than challenging an adult, especially one that had (on and off) once held the position of leader. That didn't mean he wouldn't speak bluntly, though.

"What do we have to catch up over?" he asked with a scoff, fur still raised with agitation.

"My dead sister? The missing? Archer whoring himself out? You fucking my mom? You letting my other mom die?"

His tail had begun to curl high over his back as his anger came out, but he forced it back down and gave a sneer instead.

"I'm good, thanks."

(This post was last modified: Jun 26, 2023, 08:04 PM by Chan.)

The agitation on his features, his rage at the world that radiated off of him… it reminded him scarily of Vayko when he was Eros’s age, his face leveled with emotion as the boy snapped out at him. He did not, for a second, believe that Eros’s anger was truly with him in this, not even as he sneered as his tail curled over his back with aggression.

And he would not let the boy get a rise out of him as he might have once, a frown finding his features instead.

“It’s a start.” He stated simply as he looked at him. “I’m sorry I couldn’t find her… when we got separated by the storm, I tried and tried, but I failed.” He felt he owed Eros that, just as he had given such an apology to Viorel upon his return to the Backwater. He had risked his life, multiple times, in an attempt to keep Vana safe.

“And I’m not just fucking your mom, Eros… I love her, care about her.” He would correct him in that regard too, setting the record straight. “You’re angry… I understand that, you’ve been through so much, but you’re letting it consume you, Eros.” That much was obvious just from the short interaction between the two of them, and from Vayko’s own experience of wanting the world to burn because of his shitty circumstances.

Vayko Valle

Eros was expecting Vayko as he'd been before returning from that fated trip. Instead the other Valle remained calm in the face of the younger wolf's anger, doling out answers and then his own accusation as though he actually gave a shit. By the end his hackles were raised again, tail stiff with rage. He thought maybe he would have preferred his Uncle make an ass of himself than this new... charade.

"I don't believe you."

The words were seething and pointed. That was the issue, he supposed. The events he'd assumed in his own mind felt far more likely than that which Vayko had laid out, and that was all they had, wasn't it? Just his word, and the clues cut into his dial. Those were what damned him in Eros' eyes.

"All you've ever done is failed. A snowstorm didn't give you those scars. You know what I think? I think things got scary and you fuckin' ran and left Mom to die. I think you ingratiated yourself to Ma because you know there's no other reason for you to even be around. And you have to have lied to her too, because there's no way someone like her could ever love who you really are."

(This post was last modified: Jul 31, 2023, 04:18 AM by Eros.)

In that moment, he wondered why he had ever bothered coming back at all… perhaps it would have been better for all of them to believe that both he and Vana had died… perhaps he might have been able to find the coastline, or a pack, or raise his own instead of living in the depths of the Backwater that had quickly become an amassing shadow to his cousin.

Eros’s words were meant to sting, and yet he found himself with a strange amount of apathy. He should care, because the boy had been through so much… but who hadn’t? Eros had never been abducted from his home… Vayko’d had his mother abandon him too… he’d lost people too.

“Believe what you want, Eros.” He would find himself stating instead, turning away from him. It was clear to Vayko there was no relationship there left to salvage… just as he wasn’t sure there was one with Viorel either. He'd been maimed attempting to protect Vana... he'd almost died from starvation in his search for her. Eros wouldn't know that because he had been safely tucked at home where the biggest tragedy had been trusting another pack with his siblings...

If it weren’t for Clover, their children… for Shar’s children who needed him… he’d already have been gone again… but he would endure it, for them, for their sake. Because they deserved better than the shitty attitudes they were surrounded by.

Vayko Valle

That seemed to do it. Rather than continue to try and defend himself, the other wolf disengaged. Ran away, one might say. Eros watched him go with flat features, hackles and tail calming the more distance was between them. Hopefully, it would stay that way- Vayko knowing better than to bother Eros with pretending there was no bad blood between them.

He turned back to his work.