Paradise Falls see what's in reserve

Backdated to 2/1. All welcome to anyone at any point, otherwise this is a conversation between Chan and Magg.

Chan couldn't ignore what his gut was insisting any longer. His niece's broken leg had never improved in function, and it was time to accept that it likely never would. All that had changed was the swelling dissipating altogether, and by Magg's reports that hadn't done much to lessen the pain she experienced. He brought her medicine that would help numb some of the aching, but there would be an extra step today. They needed to talk about it, she deserved to know.

Still he hesitated a moment, hovering in place and clearly feeling uncomfortable.

"Magg... we're, reaching a limit here..."

How to even say it? Was there a way to soften such a blow? Chan cleared his throat, tried to gather some strength and seem confident and reliable. Needed to show her that even if this was not what they had wanted, there was still a way forward. That permanent disability would not stop her from still living her life.

"It's time we shifted focus. From trying to change this, to learning to cope with it."

(This post was last modified: Feb 27, 2024, 09:59 PM by Atara.)

Magg was always most irritated when her uncle came to tend to her. For one thing, it coincided with the herbs in her system wearing off, and so her pain was usually at its greatest. Every check up was also a reminder of how little progress was being made, both with her injury and in getting word to the Cove. Those two things bothered her the most.

He was about to leave, and she had been mulling over whether or not she was in the mood to question him again on why a messenger hadn't been sent, when he caught her attention by acting off. Hovering, like an intruder who knew they were unwanted. When he finally spoke, his words caused her features to scrunch with confusion and irritation both. The fuse was officially lit.

"The fuck is that supposed to mean?"

Chan knew this wouldn't be easy, but she was quick to remind him of just how poorly it could go. His ears swept back a touch, sympathy strong in his chest. As with every time he'd ever tried to help someone and failed, he felt responsible for this outcome. There was much he had learned, but he still was not a practiced and formally trained medic. If she had been under her mother's care instead, maybe things would be completely different. Now, it was too late. He swallowed before continuing, throat thickening with the desire to block off the awful words coming up.

"When a bone breaks, there's only so much time to treat it. Because you had to use your leg, and for so long..."

Her patience was wearing thin, he could hear it; a soft growling in the base of her throat, the sharp and hateful glare of her brown eyes. She blamed him too.

"It's not going to get better, Magg. This is how it has healed, and this is how it will stay."

(This post was last modified: Feb 14, 2024, 03:34 AM by Chan.)

He seemed to think she needed context, when what she'd asked for was a straight answer. Magg's anger prickled and swelled, and she was having a hard time not interrupting him. Her chest rumbled subtly like a motor, gentle and warm, fueled by flames that could quickly get out of hand. Then he spat it out, and everything seemed to stop for a moment.

She heard a buzzing sound that muffled everything else. Disbelief lined her features, but she knew it was true. Had known, for weeks now, but there'd still been a small chance she was wrong, a small shadowy nook for denial to hide in. Chan's words burned it away.

"... you don't even know what you're doing, do you?"

The words were soft but taut, malice thinly veiled beneath each syllable.

"I told you I needed my mother and you said you could help and you LIED!"

Her voice escalated into a scream, gunpowder ignited.

(This post was last modified: Mar 02, 2024, 01:58 AM by Magg.)

As much as he wanted to be strong, he couldn't bring his eyes to meet hers. They looked to the side, avoidant, brows leaning together. Chan could not blame his niece for her rage and vitriol. She hadn't even reached adulthood yet, and she was having to cope with the loss of full mobility. There had to be so much going through her mind and her heart, and for a moment he thought that maybe it was best if he just called for @Galen and left the two alone. It was certainly the company Magg would prefer, but... the boy was just another kid, and he was her uncle. Even if she hated him, even if he felt like a constant failure, it was still his onus to to help her as best he could when her parents couldn't be here to do so themselves, not turn tail and run.

"I can't imagine how much this must hurt, Magg. I am so sorry this happened to you, but-"

She would cut him off there, yelling so loudly that he saw no use in even trying to over talk her. His ears clamped down against his nape as he simply bore the gales of her outrage.

WELCOME TO MIDNIGHT MASS.

---

How could anyone miss it?

The voices raised and her ears stood tall, then swept to the side. She skulked along the tall trees as if she might melt into shadows. Isla had not aimed to hide herself, it was just second nature to stick to the darker parts of the forest. Especially when she recognized these two in a way that made her gut curl and wriggle inside.

Yet hatred was delicious to her and the anger that fumed in great roaring sounds from Magg towards Chan offered sickly delight to the young Valle.

She doubted she was hidden anymore, unless they were truly transfixed so surely on one another, and there was an uncertain edge to her stance. Here to stir the pot and continue strife. She had worked as a guardian under Jethro's exchange, but now she was a knife without a handler. Prepared to be wielded, to be jabbed into flesh.

Magg need only say the word and Isla may play guardian for her too.

Again he just stated the obvious instead of actually helping, empty words that wasted air, making each one a slap in the face. Magg didn't want to hear it, didn't even try to hold herself back. Of course he didn't know what this was like, all he'd ever lost was a tiny bit of his stupid, useless tail. 'But.' 'But.' She wanted to sink her teeth into his face.

"IT HURTS A FUCKING LOT ASSHOLE," she roared, voice tunneling through her throat with such force it hurt, "IT-"

but then there was Isla, hovering like her sister's ghost behind Chan, and it made her voice stick in her chest. Magg scowled deeply and toothily then, all the other ways that her Uncle and his new pack had failed her and her parents thrown in her face once again. Her tail arced high over her back and her hackles stood on end.

"I'm not the only failure of yours that you're trying to hide from my dad, though, am I?" her words still seethed despite lessening in volume, poisonous in their intent, as she motioned with her muzzle toward her agemate. Jethro and Flair and Finley should have all known how important all this was too, but Chan had actually been a part of it all, was supposed to be blood. His betrayal was the worst.

(This post was last modified: Mar 02, 2024, 02:10 AM by Magg.)

Magg stopped abruptly, and Chan's eyes lifted in confusion. She was staring at something beyond him, and so he turned to look, immediately understanding once his gaze found Isla's dark form. His head and tail both dropped, along with his mismatched sights.

"Isla..." he greeted quietly, uncertainly. He of course knew she had been with them for a while now, but had the thought of interacting with her was nerve-wracking. Not only had he not been able to save her sister, but he had failed to keep her safe as well. It wasn't her fault that she had run, it was the Cove's fault they hadn't been there to catch her, to support her through the trauma of what just happened until her father could. Instead she had ended up on her own, and still had clearly not been able to return home for one reason or another.

Magg began speaking again, and while Chan wasn't certain of her exact point, he did not bother to argue. They both had a right to be angry with him. For now, he would just wait until she'd gotten it all off her chest.

(This post was last modified: Mar 02, 2024, 02:18 AM by Chan.)

Like a panther, she stalked and watched.

Addressed by one and used as a prop by the other. Isla seemed all too content to play her role here now. Weaponize her. She craved it, it had been like a switch had been flicked. Let her be the gasoline and she could burn up the three of them whole.

The salt in her wounds from Magg's words only propelled her desires to be here like a ghost, a haunted memory.

Did the Falls know what Chan had seen in the mountains? What had happened to children under the watch of the Cove? She did not place the blame solely upon the man here but...if he was the only one present to carry such a burden.

Finally her voice in its unused husk broke free.

"A nasty thing, for everything to haunt you."

She blinked pale blue eyes.

He just cowered. Like he was admitting to it all, which meant to Magg that he knew he was doing everything her father would have begged him not to and still had no intention of changing course. She swore her blood was boiling. If @Matos ever...

Isla spoke, the first Magg had heard her voice since they were children. Distinct from Sephrina's, and menacing rather than conspiratorial. She had risen gradually in posture, and now began to carefully lift herself onto three paws. Pain shrieked its way through her leg for it, but the adrenaline of the spat she was in helped her ignore the searing. It seemed they were two against one, and the chance to be allied with the other girl rather than opposed was an opportunity she would not pass up. It egged her on further, lent her even more audacity, eager to be her fire.

"You wanna hide from him that I am here and need him, that someone is out there trying to pick Cove wolves off, you want to hide whoever that pup is when she needs him, and you wanna hide that you know where Isla is after what you said her dad wanted? What else is there, Chan? What else are you gonna fuck up for us when we turn our backs?!"

He still wouldn't look at her, or answer, or even turn and try to leave. The glint in her eyes turned dangerous, desperate to turn the knife deep enough for him to react, for her to be able to see that he was really suffering even half as much as she was.

"We'd all be better off without you. You know that, don't you? I think an eye for an eye would really make the Backwater feel better. What about you, Isla?"

(This post was last modified: Mar 20, 2024, 12:48 AM by Magg.)