Firefly Weir Got these feelings that I'm tired of holding on

March 2nd; Early afternoon; Mostly sunny; 5° F, -15° C.

Out along the edges of the Scowle, Niles the Dethroned had taken up refuge on the pack borders. Skoll was asleep at this time of day and that meant it was a prime time for the younger Archer-Lyall to think all he'd like and do whatever he could to keep himself moving forward. As much as he told himself that he didn't need Skoll or Morganna, he knew deep down that he did need them and that they were crucial to his survival at this point in his life. He was a widower, once a Leader of a pack, a failed Queensguard, and a forgotten prince whose ties to Torbine seemed lost forever. Castel might have told him that his name and his titles meant nothing; Niles, on the other paw, figured they wouldn't mean anything if he didn't do anything.

With Celandine now in charge as his sister's second-in-command, Niles also found that he was free to do as he pleased - so long as it was productive. He meandered about until his large paws met the frozen edges of the Lagoon, letting the cracking underfoot announce his coming and going. Eventually, he found his way to the Weir; and, where it should have been abundant with the springtime fireflies, the air was simply muted in a dusty yellow glow. His lumbering figure was bowed as he laid down at the water's edge, his ears laid back and his tail tucked close to his flank; he was not the sort of beast that guarded the Scowle but the kind that wept from its penchant for solitude.

(This post was last modified: Mar 02, 2018, 09:52 PM by Niles.)

we can say goodbye, just head home, but if we're going to be alone
Chimera is currently traveling with Niles and may hop into this IC thread!

The meadow had been alluring for what...like half a day before Mari quickly decided she'd had enough. It was hard to resist the urge to march south, as if she was hightailing it out of this damn snowfest, but she stopped herself  before she went too far, got too carried away and instead headed west. It was the season for it, she supposed, but unlike the others - her unseen and imagined rivals-she wouldn't let it get to her head. For she was not like them.

During her time in the Lore she seen a fair share of the south, with all of it's trees and mud and shit but...this place? It was new to her. Her scowl lessened just so as she headed towards the shore, no doubt leaving a stink as she went. From a distance something caught her eye, a weird yellow aura hovered over the lagoon, as though the suns rays had turned to mist. Marisol snorted, thoroughly unimpressed by that line of thought. Who the hell was she, a damn poet? She tutted loudly, her tongue clicking against her teeth as she came to a standstill. She was close to a pack, closer than she would like but their scent was faint-ish, so it wasn't as if she was right on their doorstep wiggling her ass in the air like she was some desperate little-

A scowl tugged at her expression, she was doing it again. Whatever.

It was then she noticed the dark shape laying in the snow, as if he wanted the earth to swallow him up whole. Irritation ran through her as her tail twitched, threatening to lash from side to side at a moments notice. How long had he been lurking, like some creep? She gnashed her teeth ready to spit all sorts of colourful words when she paused, her foot frozen in the air, mid stomp.

Mari knew him, or at the very least they'd met before in these parts...Sort of, there was a mountain in the way, but whatever.

"S'that you, Mr Sunshine?" It was a cheap, shitty name but it was the best she could come up with. After all, he had been anything but  bright and cheery on that rainy, shitty day.

(This post was last modified: Mar 03, 2018, 05:49 PM by Marisol.)

Mari has left Relic Lore. I'm in the process of finishing off her threads, those I don't finish will be deaded!

Niles had been silently trying to console himself - the few dry sobs that had moved him had already gone and passed - when her voice called out to him. The accent and the way her voice had that certain twang to it was unmistakable. She was the woman he had found in the Copse. She was a lot calmer now, or so it seemed, and a part of him hoped that she was not about ready to lash out at the water and cuss it out for something it hadn't done.

The invisible wound in his chest would still need to be nursed and tended to, but Niles sorely needed a break and a chance to focus on something else. Tired eyes came to look upon the dark-furred woman as he simply lifted and turned his head to look at her. He remembered now that she looked just like an Archer: black coat riddled with brown and grey, silver eyes.

If anything, he sighed at her with a shake of his head, the rush of air emitting from his nostrils. So, she had taken his word and gone west. Good for her... His ears lifted a little before craning his head back down. He rested his chin on his right paw, unsure of what to say. They were strangers at best; and, even if he wasn't a Leader now, he was not ready to try and make friends in his free time. Not just yet.

we can say goodbye, just head home, but if we're going to be alone
Chimera is currently traveling with Niles and may hop into this IC thread!

Niles was right, they weren't friends or even anything close to that. But still, she expected a response of some sort, something more than a huff and a look. She scowled, sharp and fierce but made no move to inch closer. She weren't awfully keen on sharing his space so he was welcome to keep his ass parked right where it was.

"What happened to you?" She asked, with no tact at all.

If she had known he was hurting and the reason why she would have cut him some slack. Even she wasn't that much of a dick, but as things stood it just looked as though he was moping, miserable just for the sake of it. As if he knew what try misery was, Mari had been through mounds and mounds of proverbial shit, but was she sitting around with shiny eyes? Hell no. That wasn't to say her way of dealing with grief was any better- anger corroded her insides day in and out- but at the very least she could pretend she was getting along just fine without her sister. This guy couldn't look any more down in the dumps.

Mari didn't give two shits about his problems, but seeing as he had been so nosy last time it only seemed fair to pay him back.

"You get dumped right around spring time huh, that it?" It was a wild guess, little did she know how close she was to being right.

Mari has left Relic Lore. I'm in the process of finishing off her threads, those I don't finish will be deaded!

There is a deer that was killed by a lynx nearby. +10 Health

She didn’t turn around and leave nor did she try and close the rest of the distance between them. Whatever… it wasn’t like he wanted to be coddled and comforted and consoled.

“You get dumped right around spring time huh, that it?”

Niles had to endure the burning in his nose. He had forgotten how nosy he had been when they first met; he actually still wasn’t quite sure what her deal was. Either way, she brushed him the wrong way.

“She died.”

It was blunt - okay, maybe a little too blunt - but Niles didn’t care and he didn’t even look over at her to we he reaction. He could serve a bit of her own brand right back at her. He had nothing left to lose.

He stared at the weir before him, his tone still listless as ever, “And I see you’re still... snappy...” Okay, that was a little lame. He lifted his head in one shaky move, glancing at her now from the corner of his eye, “Come to yell at the trees o’er here too?”

(This post was last modified: Mar 08, 2018, 11:51 PM by Niles.)

we can say goodbye, just head home, but if we're going to be alone
Chimera is currently traveling with Niles and may hop into this IC thread!

Marisol was brimming with a sense of smug satisfaction. She was certain she'd hit the nail right on the head, she wanted to laugh and sneer- oh. Oh shit. Any and all sense of victory dissipated in a mere moment. That was- not what she had expected, at all. What was she even supposed to say? Shows of sympathy weren't her thing, nor did she even think it was worth their time.

So she said nothing, no apologies or 'there there, she's in a better place', she just brushed it off as if she'd never even said such a crude thing. Acted none the wiser and eagerly latched onto his other words. Of course she hadn't changed, nor did she even want to, she was who she was and the world would sooner burn down around her before she changed. End of, book closed.

"'M always snappy. But good luck finding a lady who ain't this time of year." Not like it was her own fault nature thought she'd be a good Mother, that it thought that of almost every damn woman, whether they'd actually be any good or not."They ain't fucked me over yet, but give it time." She said, her lips quirking slightly. She wandered to the waters edge, several feet from where Niles rested and kicked a stone, like she was a pup who couldn't keep still. "It'll probably happen." She eventually said, after all she was always waiting for the penny to drop.

See? She could be civil, sorta.

"Your lot set up here now? Better than the last dump, I guess."

(This post was last modified: Mar 09, 2018, 12:29 AM by Marisol.)

Mari has left Relic Lore. I'm in the process of finishing off her threads, those I don't finish will be deaded!

She said that she was always snappy. Again, good for her... The fact that she practically skipped over his statement that his lover had died could only be appreciated. At this point, he was done with the sympathy and wanted nothing more than to move on. To her latter statements, commenting about how she’d been evading thus far and how it would eventually happen. His eyes lingered on the ripples that the rock had left as it plopped into the water.

“Yeah,” he said quietly, regarding Morganna’s choice of pack territory, “We bid the ghosts good bye and came here. We have some family not far from here an’ I guess it was better than nothin’.”

The corner of his lip twitched as a thought of his parents crossed his mind. He would have asked her about her own family, her parents or whatever, but thought against it. He didn’t want to talk about them. Another glance was cast in her direction but this time he faced her fully - and, this time around, he could smell the musk in her fur. His nose wrinkled, “Whatta ‘bout you? Found a place to settle down yourself?”

(This post was last modified: Mar 09, 2018, 01:37 AM by Niles.)

we can say goodbye, just head home, but if we're going to be alone
Chimera is currently traveling with Niles and may hop into this IC thread!

For once Mari could relate. Not with the family part, obviously, but the moving about, constantly on the run so that the ghosts of her past couldn't catch up? Yeah, that was her life these days.  Aside from the daily grind, the hunt for food, water and a decent place to rest her head that's all there was to it. Simple and boring, day in day out till the months blurred together into a grey haze.

It dawned on her that they were actually having a conversation, speaking back and forth like normal people. It was kinda nice really, yelling at people got old real fast but it was all she knew these days. She'd built her defences so high she had to yell to ensure her voice was heard, that strangers didn't just mark her as small, insignificant.

Marisol shrugged."Haven't tried to in a long time." And then she said something that took even her by surprise. Damn hormones making her all mushy and vulnerable. "I don't think I know how."

She turned from the lagoon to stare at the trees dotted about on the opposite side of the lake. She half wished a branch would drop down on her head and give her something to bitch about, anything but... all this vulnerability.

"You've spoken to me anyway, who'd even want me around long term?" She smirked, as if that was something to be proud of.

Mari has left Relic Lore. I'm in the process of finishing off her threads, those I don't finish will be deaded!

"Haven't tried to in a long time," she answered him. "I don't think I know how."

For Niles, all he could do was, well, empathize. Pack life was all that Niles had ever known. Hell, being out with Castel while they made their way northeast towards Wild Rye Fields and back down to establish Quaking Vale had been unpleasant. Being out beneath strange trees (and, yeah, Niles had to agree with the dark woman now that they had indeed needed a bit of yelling at) and being surrounded by others he wasn't familiar with was mind-scrambling, discombobulating, unsettling. He had always been around family, even now.

"You've spoken to me anyway, who'd even want me around long term?" Niles had to give it to her, she was doing a pretty good job at grounding him in the present and keeping him engaged in conversation. He wiped the expression off his face as he managed to ignore the musk that had settled in his nose. Instincts aside, being his first Heat Season and all, he would never forgive himself if he made a move on her now. He imagined his little ghostly sprite wouldn't either.

"Oh, I can think of a few who would," he commented, following her gaze to the trees before back to where the weir hadn't frozen solid. A smile tried hard to find a place on his muzzle but he wouldn't let it. Castel would approve of her; Niles needed more wolves who kept him on his feet and without any excuse to grow stagnant. "Say," he looked at her now, being done with suspicions and attempts to stave her away. He couldn't even recall her being that small when they first met between the trees. "If we've reached a point where we can talk like this, can I know yer name?" If anything, the smallest detail he remembered from their encounter was that she had called him cabron. "You can call me Niles if ya want."

we can say goodbye, just head home, but if we're going to be alone
Chimera is currently traveling with Niles and may hop into this IC thread!