Chinook Coulee ghost in your house, ghost in your arms

late evening | chinook coulee | Broken Clouds -13 ° F, -25 ° C

All of him ached something fierce that evening. In far too much pain to let sleep claim him and yet too tired (and too stiff in the joints, really) to consider a vague wander. Which meant he sat like a stone statue on the edge of creek. Head hung like his eyelids as he bobbed in and out of some aware consciousness. He would have never stooped to call himself vulnerable, but he had become very much that.

Until he snorted loud enough to startle himself upright once more. It would be a woozy sort of look that settled across his old features. Orange eyes squinted as his bad vision tried to spot someone to blame for such an awful sound.

He'd never admit he startled himself.

walleye cannot travel through mountains
and will travel normal terrain at 1/2 speed

@Marian so you are aware or if u would also like to join azra here

Being on his own so much Azra had forgotten that staring was not considered polite behavior. However, when he had softly stepped into view of this upright, sleeping old man he could do nothing but watch. Quietly, Azra had sat down. There was a solid distance between the two: Azra, a healthy —plump, possibly—wolf in his prime; and this narrow, boney old man with a winter coat that looked much more fitting for a sunny August afternoon. He seemed dead tired, but not dead. If only because the dead would not have remained upright like that, though the weight of sleep seemed to pull him down deep, deeper.

Lightly, the old wolf was snoring until finally one irregular snort seemed to drag him out of whatever dream or death-lite he had been inhabiting. He shot back upright and Azra drew in a quick breath. "Ho, there," he said simply. "Evening." "I wasn't spying on you," was maybe closer to what Azra should have said.

He had not expected to hear something in all his mindless squinted staring back. Maybe the words had been what he needed though to make shape of something else here. Youthful and lively, he thought in a rather miserable internal voice. Granted almost anyone seemed to be youth to him these days — even his children all grown with their own children.

"Lil' late for a cubbin'." He deeply hummed in response and tried to blink some vision back into his currently blurry view. It would have been nice to have had a clearer image of who he was talking to. Maybe this someone would remind him of somebody else he knew. Then he could prattle unrelated things at the stranger here. Fun!

(This post was last modified: Feb 05, 2021, 02:50 AM by Walleye.)

walleye cannot travel through mountains
and will travel normal terrain at 1/2 speed

"Bitch." Marian muttered to herself as she trailed after Azra, having lost sight of him a little while ago. He hadn't done anything to earn the insult, rather she just liked how the word rolled off her tongue. Swearing was cathartic yanno? Like the forbidden fruit she just wanted to keep on crunching.

It wasn't too hard to catch sight of him again, especially since he'd come to a stop and was gawping at a crusty old stranger. Not unlike the look he'd first given her. Wow, now she didn't feel so special. Way to go Az. The old dude in question was more grey than black, thin and wiry, his eyes still a little droopy from his evening nap. Marian wrinkled her nose, thoroughly unimpressed. She'd seen her fare share of old geezers back home and from the sleepy drawl of his words he didn't seem like he'd be much for conversation. Unlike yours truly.

"Why you lurking on the elderly hm? She asked Az with a not so gentle shoulder bump. Served him right for rushing on ahead.

Just as the old-timer's cloudy orange gaze landed on him, Azra twitched. He thought he heard a noise behind him, thinking it might be Annie and one of her choice swear words. He hadn't exactly run off on her, but they occasionally got a good mile between them when Azra would stop to consider this snowdrift or that oddly shaped branch and ended up wandering off in a completely different direction.

"A... a cubbin'?" Was that what he was? Or was that what he was doing? The boy was not familiar with this language. Before he could even step forward, though, Annie did appear. He had indeed been right about her swearing behind him. The accusation stung about as much as the shove, which seemed unduly rough for this time of night. "I, I wasn't lurking!" he cried in his defense.

"I was just... uhm. Cubbin." Whatever that meant.

Two cubbin’!

Admittedly this was far more excitement than he had hoped for this evening. Especially as one brandished enough flair to call him elderly. Which, while an entirely fair assessment, did sting some. However he could find it in him to dryly rumble with laughter at the other one’s flare of defense.

”You were cubbin’, eh?” He started with a snort that sounded similar to the one that had awoken him in the first place. ”Mean to tell me you planned on bein’ a nosy thing at this hour? Chewing up sticks or bones?” All very cubbin’ things to do in his eyes, having half-assed raised a few of his own.

walleye cannot travel through mountains
and will travel normal terrain at 1/2 speed

Marian looked back and forth between crusty Mcgee and Azra, her brows so deeply furrowed that her face was a near spitting image of her own old man. She tipped her head to the side a little, lips parted only to click her teeth closed when nothing that was being said computed in her mind. Were she a computer an error exe would be flashing before her eyes. Does not compute. She pulled in a deep breath as she stood a little taller, as though being closer to Heaven would help clear her mind. It did not, of course it didn't.

Her grin was wide and toothy, too much tooth really.

"Cubbing. Does that mean fucking? Are we talking about sex here?"

Nasty, filthy old man. And that Azra was being a nosy thing at this hour? Hmm...maybe lurking was the right word to describe him. Degenerate seemed pretty fitting too. Oh what had she, a pure and innocent soul, gotten herself into? Alas she ought to have shielded her eyes and ears, valiantly defended her honour as a fine maiden but who gave two hoots? Not Marian. But what of Az huh? She'd never pegged him as that kinda guy but maybe his air of innocence had all been an act, maybe he'd pulled the wool real well over her eyes.

"You nasty." She concluded, her gaze burning and judgemental. Mostly Az, the old man was mostly safe for now.

Eh? "I mean—" but he felt silent, unable to really attest whether he was cubbin' or not at this point in the conversation. However, he soon learned: it meant being nosy and chewing sticks or bones. Azra's face seemed to fold in on itself, his uncertain, pursed lips underneath uncertain, smooshed eyebrows as his yellow eyes darted left and right, to Annie, back to the elder. Sticks and bones? This sounded like the sort of thing an actual cub, a pup would do when they were teething. Sure, Azra loved to relax with a good stick now and again but it was not his constant motivation in life or an activity he practiced regularly.

He couldn't think of a single time an adult had tried to hint that he was up past his bed time. "Uhm, beg your pardon. Just how old do you think I— "

"MARIAN" he exclaimed, her name captured in one swift inhale. "Oh my god!" Just where had she reached this conclusion? He had said sticks and bones! Bones! What had that anything to do with... with sex. His stomach lurched painfully at the thought. "What's gotten into you? No. No. He just... I think he just thinks I'm a puppy." The last bit was a hushed, urgent whisper.

Where the teens (he had decided from such topics they could not be cubbin’) exploded into their own conversations, Walleye simply repeatedly wheezed out something close to laughter for a man of his age. It was easy to be deeply humored by such bluntness from the newer one. A good thing to see in the youth of today.

It would be with a slow, achy shift that he sought to stand up. A lurched motion to say the least as his joints fought against the action entirely.

”Oh, you’re no cubbin’ with that talk.” He settled on with a slight shake to his head. Perhaps that would put their awful, corrupted minds at ease. If they even heard him over their own chatter.

(This post was last modified: Feb 06, 2021, 09:18 PM by Walleye. Edit Reason: who let me type )

walleye cannot travel through mountains
and will travel normal terrain at 1/2 speed

Azra wheeled on her, old geezer forgotten, as he stared with eyes so wide they looked as though they were about to pop out of his skull. She took a step back, a little startled by the severity of his outburst as her ears flattened horizontally, reminiscent of times when she'd been scolded for stepping out of line in some way or another. For a moment she wondered why he was getting so prickly and defensive about it but... Oh. Well. Whoops?

Well she wasn't gonna apologise since in her mind she hadn't really done anything wrong, it was a major over reaction if she'd ever seen one. Even the crone there was shaking his head. And why'd he have to go and word it like that huh? All accusatory as though he was somehow better than her, her brows pulled tight as she shifted her stand, shoulders tense tail stiff. The wolfish approximation of crossing her arms across her chest.

"Well maybe if you didn't just ditch me I'd know what's going on too."

She harrumphed and held her head high, only to set her gaze on the old coot next as he stood there, looking a little wobbly with old age.

"Who're you anyway?"