Quote from Mae on February 17, 2024, 3:42 pm

Kratos listened to Saber's tantrum unfold, and still he waited...

*****

Ulric's arms obscured his view as he reached for his head. With the opposite hand on each side of his face, he felt like he had followed the instructions of an airplane attendant in preparation for an emergency. It was a defensible gesture, and he could imagine ducking and covering in like manner. But the point of it as a game was lost on him.

Nonetheless, in good humor, Ulric chuckled and peered at Bianca under his elbows.

"What does this have to do with your family being nurses and doctors?" He asked genuinely.

*****

Meanwhile, Tiffany leaned back into a casual cross-armed stance as she watched the chief.

Ionone had moved at a turning point in the conversation, and for a Kitsune, that must mean something. Tiffany assumed it meant that Ionone had something to say, but she wouldn't know what it was with the grey werewolf listening on.

Quote from Adriana on February 17, 2024, 8:13 pm

Bianca beamed for but a moment; Ulric had gone all the way through with her plot, and yet... the conclusion of it now seemed so silly and childish, if not a little mean.

This was so much funnier in her head.

That Ulric was such a willing participant made her feel worse. The glee visibly melted from her expression, and was replaced with a look of concern, and perhaps even scrutiny.

"Never mind, it's... stupid. I'm sorry." she said, shaking her head slowly and putting her hands in the nooks to Ulric's elbows to draw his arms down from his head.

"Ulric," she said, concerned. "Do you ever do anything because you want to do it?" she asked.

Quote from Adriana on February 19, 2024, 11:27 pm

Chapman listened with one ear towards the cabin with Kratos, and the other swiveling between Tifanny’s company and the woods.

“You have the means to pave a new road from the ruins of the impending collapse…” he said, slowly, as if distracted, “if you can strike where the pillars are cracking. And then put enough distance before the conclusion is reached. Else, go back to tending the swine who profit off you and will sell you for a song when your usefulness runs out, or choose to let Tiffany as we know her die in the mine.”

Quote from Skyelre on February 21, 2024, 2:16 am

The sound of all the beasts aggressive clawing and banging on the floor and the walls could be heard easily not only on the first floor, but the commotion traveled outside as well. After clawing up most of the hallway, the sound of bashing and wood splintering soon could be heard, down the hallway right by Sabers room.

The beast still continued to growl in utter rage even after his destructive wraith had settled. Eventually he turned back towards the stairs, slowly walking down, his black eyes returning to violently giving Kratos death stares.

He barked. " Why have you trapped me here?!" He said in the wolves tongue.

Quote from Mae on March 1, 2024, 10:12 pm

Kratos hadn't moved from his place in the kitchen, sitting on the balls of his feet with his elbows rested on his knees. His bright yellow eyes leveled with Saber. He slowly looked at the door over Saber's shoulder, then he returned his eyes to that hateful gaze. He didn't say it in words, but the meaning was given;

'I have not trapped you. I have only warned you.'

Kratos' demeanor remained calm, and his features placid. Yet, somehow, some way... danger could be felt. Kratos lowered his eyes and gently placed the raw steak on the floor in front of him. Then he lifted his eyes and looked at Saber again.

*****

Ulric watched Bianca's countenance fall as she lowered his hands. His heart sank a bit. He was beginning to see, now, that he didn't have Toby's talent to make her laugh. He couldn't put her at ease like Levi. She couldn't put him to work, like Theo. But she could see through his smile as if it wasn't there. She could find his hidden hurts in few words. She could surprise him, by his own pain, when he didn't know it still hurt. No, none of his weaknesses were hidden from her eyes. And, what was worse, his hurt was hurting her. She could not comfort him. She could not heal him. She was made a stranger by her pain when it perceived his. Ulric was realizing, now, that being hurt could only bring harm to Bianca.

Ulric lowered his gaze to the stream and breathed out a breath. A white cloud formed under his nose and wafted downstream. Then, Ulric lifted his amber colored eyes. The sunlight made his eyes twinkle as the shadow of branches moved on and off his brow. His countenance changed in an instant. He smiled brightly and caught Bianca's hands, they weren't not too far away from his own. Gently he took them, and softly he squeezed them.

"Everyday!" He said, his smile beginning to show his teeth. "This morning I decided to get up because I wanted to see the sky."
Ulric blinked his eyes and glanced heavenward.
"I wanted to roll in a field of wildflowers," he said. His brows turned whimsically. He opened his hands, spreading them in a sort of wide shrug. "I wanted to feel a cold stream on my feet."

Ulric then lowered his chin and leveled his eyes with Bianca. Hinting, if she would see it, her part in meeting his wants even as he flicked his toes up and down in the cold water that ran over them.

Ulric smiled still. All the while, he felt a pressing need to return to the clearing, but still he delayed.
"Bianca," he said. "Can I ask you a question, now?"

Quote from Mae on March 2, 2024, 12:04 am

Tiffany's lips parted. Her arms came unfolded and she stepped away from the wall once more.

How did Argyros know about the mine? Even if its scent was still somehow on her, ten days and several miles later, he would have to know the scent from somewhere.

Tiffany's brows knit together.

"You realize that you’re a liability by now ..."

"... if you can strike where the pillars are cracking."

"Is that how it is," Tiffany said at length. She spoke slowly, carefully. "Have I found something I wasn't supposed to find? And the only way I get out of here is if I play the pawn in your politics? I know Talkane's been looking to get dirt on you for awhile. That's no secret to anyone. All those street fights, and bureaucracy wars... "

In any card game, it's hard to know what the opponent has in his hand. It could be that one bad card could be salvation. Just as easily, however, it could prove the opposite. Tiffany knew there were cards in her opponents hand she couldn't take a gamble on, but the stakes were rising.

"Whatever grudge you and Talkane have, its between you and him. I can't change anything..."

Quote from Skyelre on March 2, 2024, 1:37 am

With the meat on the ground, the wolf was staring at it intently now, the hunger clearly seen in his eyes. However, it could not persuade him to move this time. Those dark eyes shortly returned to Kratos, growing angrier. He was done with this game the giant was playing.

The wolf gave a throaty growl. " Give me safe passage off your territory," he said. " My alpha is in danger. I must return to my alpha."

Quote from Adriana on March 2, 2024, 8:01 am

Bianca had given up her hands to him, and when he let them go she held the wrist of one hand with the other loosely in front of her. She watched Ulric, and the way his eyes lit up in the sunlight. His warm complexion in the gold of the afternoon light was attractive, especially when contrasted with his handsom white smile.

She listened, the space between his words filled with the hush of the stream, and the breeze rustling the needles of the fir trees.

Her eyes dropped to his toes. Ulric always wore his loafers, why hadn't he been wearing them? His feet, like hers, were soft, and she had noticed that he often chose to wear shoes (for many of the pack members didn't, and it stood out).

Had he wanted to go barefoot and split his soles on the earth? He didn't ask for anything, and he followed Timothy into danger out of he goodness of his heart. He seemed to take everything in stride.

All of the things that he said, she noted, was all that there was to be had - there was little else to do except exist in nature. He saw the sky and fields every day, and she couldn't understand how he could want those things after spending months in the mountain. Did he truly find joy in them, in spite of everything? In spite of hunters and mobsters, in spite of bathing in ice cold lake water and sleeping on soil and ferns, in spite of all of the perceived loneliness and exhaustion, both physical and mental?

Her brow knit, confounded.

Still, the words gave her some hope, if finding joy in those simple, every day things could be something he wanted, maybe it could be something she, too, wanted in time. She hoped he was being truthful.

Maybe it was one of those little white lies he had told himself enough times for it to become true, like Bianca's own little white lies of "I'm fine" and "it's okay" when it wasn't (but those hadn't seemed to come true, yet).

She nodded slowly and tried to clear the perplexed expression off of her face, and echoed his words from earlier,

"Of course you can."

Quote from Adriana on March 2, 2024, 8:23 am

Officer Chapman, Argyros, said nothing else in response for a long time. He was alert and continuously observed his surroundings for changes in the atmosphere.

It was both to his displeasure and maybe his benefit that he had been summoned to the mountain this evening, as it had both complicated and perhaps, provided a small advantage for the current manner of politics. Chapman was an opportunist... he would certainly aim reap whatever he might of the situation.

In regards to Talkane, something seemed to come as some surprise to him and his brows raised, and then lowered again critically.

After all, wasn't it the old officers faction that had flushed out a pack of fifty something and herded the majority of them right into the hands of the old Beta for the slaughter only a few years ago?

Yet Argyros was a more tolerant Alpha than Talkane, who would give no mercy to tainted bloodlines, and Chapman's own pack was made up largely of them. They were as detestable to the Talkane faction as impure metals to a jeweler, and the work that Chapman did to polish and refine them went wholly unnoticed.

Mistakes, however... those would not, and he had yet to see the consequence of the recent affairs involving ex-officer Reginald.

"You've always been an actress." he said, nonchalantly.