deercountry | September & October Catch-All

Wait, what? [ In an instant, Tuck's hand shoots to the pouch at his waist and finds almost nothing left. ] Fffuuuck! That's all I had left! This day suuUUUUuuccks!

[ His bellowing outburst peters off into a petulant huff as brown eyes stare down at the sand accusingly. Hard to stay mad, though, when his friend comes over beside him, the musty smell of his hair a natural balm on his wounded pride. ]

I'm sorry! I didn't mean to clog the toilet again. I tried to pace myself!

The desert? [Saxsice makes a face, crouching down a bit so she's eye-to-eye with Slipper, letting the wolf sniff at her hands -- and the corndog.] That must've sucked. Way too hot for someone with so much fluff.

[That comment gets a toothy, bemused grin.] Yeah? Maybe we knew each other in a past life or somethin'.

You clogged the—? That's the third time this week. Tuck...

[Vyng siiiiighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. ]

Look, we'll take care of that later. It's fine. That's not what I was asking about anyway.

She was well-cared for. Lived in a palace and everything, like a pony-sized princess.

[The term "Frozen North" didn't seem to elicit any real reaction from her. So she's probably not from their world. Still, Vyng watches with curiosity as Slippers gently presses her snout against the woman's palm.]

What's your name? I don't think we caught it.

"I meant the needlessly convoluted part," he clarifies.

Wizards back home were notorious for creating complicated systems nobody else could hope to maintain without their help. That's why society fell into ruin after the Exodus — with broken technology scattered across the land, and turf wars being waged inside shopping malls.

"Anybody can be an absolute asshole, you're right. Power-hungry people are everywhere. You've learned your school lessons well."

Ahahah. Lucky shot...

[Which probably isn't what somebody wants to hear right after having a bottle of water kicked off their head? But, seriously, they could have gone so much worse.]

Maybe all that yoga is paying off.

Repede yips something like a laugh, looking over at Yuri, who still looks bemused by everything that's happening here. "He is trying to bond with you over being excluded from our conversation."

It's something Yuri would do. Even though he pretends to be a loner, he needs people, people and animals, to thrive.

Repede turns back to Vyng with a little bob of his head. "And you have your sister. My partner and I don't need to communicate like this. Sometimes, he's stupid, but mostly he understands."

[ Flynn looks up, a little startled at how astute of an observation that is from someone he is sure he's never met (he remembers something on the little device, though? A worried face?)

The loneliness presses cold fingers under Flynn's necktie and he shivers. ]

I— no, you... aren't wrong. There is plenty to worry about, after all. But I really am fine. Or, I will be fine. Eventually. I'm sure.

Are you, though? [Vyng skeptically narrows his eyes.] Are you?

[That shadow has got to be the worst backseat driver to have hanging off your coattails. This guy needs to open up, or else...well, Vyng isn't sure what or else means in this case. But it can't be good.]

Look, you barely even know me. You don't need to act tough.

Sometimes I cry in front of strangers too, and then I tell them my problems while they give me a haircut. It's fine! It's fine to not be fine.

It may be a fact of life that fish don't want to be seen with anybody who A) has teeth and B) is also bigger than them. But that doesn't make this kid's sea life any less lonely, as far as Vyng is concerned.

Without the ability to summon fins of his own — or even make basic conversation beneath the ocean's surface — he's not sure how much good he'll be as company. That enthusiasm is contagious, though.

Vyng's own expression brightens, and he nods. "Sure!"

Impressive save, bud!

[Vyng enjoys a sparring partner who rolls with the punches and keeps him on his toes. As Mako's stance solidifies, Vyng mirrors that grin and lets go of the other man's hand. He rolls into a half-crouch of his own.]

Quick, another!

[Full-blooded elves (let alone an entire elven community) changing themselves for anybody is hard to imagine. Mainly because it would have been unheard of in the spaces Vyng grew up around. But this man's elves descended from birds, so...they're clearly dealing with a different animal. Literally.

Still, Vyng can't quite hide the skepticism on his face when Illarion describes their heroic deeds done in the service of mortals.

Not that he doubts Illarion's sincerity. People generally don't charge into conflict and "die in droves" for something unless they whole-heartedly believe in it. But he's seen tapestries depicting the wizards' war, of fragile woodland creatures marching alongside elven armies painted as shining stewards of the earth who save the day when humans, halflings and orcs need their wisdom and skill.

Maybe Vyng wouldn't have grown up in a post-apocalyptic world — where people wage turf wars inside shopping malls because they have nowhere else to go — if elves had truly been the heroes they believed themselves to be.

But...different world, different peoples, different problems. Vyng doesn't voice any of his doubts. They come from a very personal place.

So he sets that aside when trying to understand where Illarion is coming from.]

Okay. How did you change yourselves, then? And why? Besides the fact mortals kept asking you to die, I mean. You must've agreed to all that for a reason.

"I don't know. Could be worse, I guess."

Mainly because "I broke my ability to shapeshift into animals" isn't a great conversation starter. Neither is "I miss my kid" or "I'm worried about my best friend slash life partner", apparently. Each of those circumstances are complicated in their own ways, knotting up in his chest as a tangled mess. It's difficult to tell where one clusterfuck of feelings starts and the other ends.

Vyng can't find the words to talk about it, let alone in terms another person could understand.

But he senses plenty of other things going unsaid on Willow's end too. It's probably not just him.

"Do you have any friends here?" he asks instead.

I'm sorry! The food in this town's giving me the worst constipation!

[ It's a painful process for all parties involved, okay?? But it's not Vyng's real concern, and Tuck has the decency to look contrite when he kindly directs the conversation away from his deadly shits. ]

I fucking hate this place...

There's a tea for that. We'll get those bowels moving, pal, don't worry.

[But now they're at the crux of the matter. Sort of. They're getting somewhere, at least. Vyng lets out a breath. His eyes are still fixed on the thin line that divides water and sky.]

It's not Crystal Bay. That's for sure.

Oh, okay! [ says Orpheus, brightly, taking the water bottle when it's handed to him and carefully balancing it on his head as instructed. It takes a tiny bit of adjustment to get it to stay, but he's got good posture and manages without much fuss. With that, he stands as still as he can manage, watching Vyng curiously and without any apparent trepidation. Obviously he knows what he's doing, right? So it's perfectly safe. ]

It's not even Mudlark! [ And, boy, was that place a hell hole. But at least nuts deep in swamp and mud they had all been together. His fondest dreams hadn't been granted and then cruelly snatched away from him. ]

But you're fitting in just fine...

[ It's not resentful, but it's clear Tuck is envious and a little bitter it isn't weighing his best friend down the way it is him. ]

I've had more time too, Tuck. To grieve. To feel all of it.

[While Tuck was living his best life in Makaal, Vyng was forced to come to grips with his broken shapeshifting ability, the stone-cold possibility of losing both Billie and Tuck forever, and the existential angst that comes from watching your skin fleck away along with the Dream.

It was a rough summer. But contrary to the old saying, time doesn't heal all wounds.

You just learn to live with them instead.]

I still miss him. You know that, right?

Friendship is a far happier topic, for both of them, hopefully. There's no shortage of people Willow has come to consider friends here in Trench, and even some she would consider family as well.

"I do, yeah," Willow answers with a nod. "No one from home, but most of the people I knew from Deerington are here. I live with some of them in a big place in Gaze - Ozpin and his people, if you know who they are."

She counts herself lucky that, while there's some people who don't seem to have made the journey across the ocean that she knew from the dream, the ones she's closest to all seem to have arrived safely.

"You? Are any of your friends here?"

[ He knows that, intellectually. Tuck, in his heart of hearts, would never question Vyng's love and dedication to their family. But, but, what he knows and what he sees are not fitting together the way he expects. ]

So why isn't my flower pretty like yours?! It looks like a fucking loser!

I wouldn't wish this away.

[No hesitation. No pauses. Just a simple answer, spoken with as much surety as there are gray clouds above them.]

Turtleduck.

[ He gets the game now, at least, and Vyng's really coming along on the bending front, which is impressive. It took Korra forever to learn how to airbend, but then, Vyng's a lot more... floaty than solid, aggressive Korra was back then. Vyng and air make sense together. He even looks like he should have wind around him at all times, with all that hair.

And it's kind of nice to know that Mako's world is going to live on with someone else, even in this tiny way. ]

Luca lets out a little happy sound. Of course, he can clearly see that Vyng doesn't have fins, so he knows Vyng won't be as fast as him. He's also noticed that Vyng can't really talk down here, but all that's fine. This is the first time he's even been able to swim with someone with gills where he didn't have to worry about them running out of air, so it's still more than he had before. He playfully darts in a circle around Vyng before swimming off, heading deeper into the water, though he stops after a short while to inspect his surroundings and wait for Vyng to catch up.

Oh, you're a lucky girl, aren't you? [Saxsice beams, curling her fingers a little to let Slippers fully sniff her palm, then stroking up over the wolf's chin and around to her ears.] Do you like ear-scratches? I know I do, there's always that spot you can't quite reach, huh?

[Then she blinks a couple times, before flashing an apologetic grin.] Whoops. Forgot my manners. Saxsice King, pleased to meetcha.

"...I hope I don't get like that."

Oscar said, a sour frown on his face at the very thought of potentially becoming more like Ozpin. The fact that the various adults in his life had already felt like they needed to ask exactly who was talking before he left Remnant was uncomfortable enough. Having had friends in Deerington call him on not being himself had also been frustrating.

Not for the first time, he was glad that the merging between their two identities had halted. But, there was no undoing what had already been done.

He huffed at the thought, and recollected the multiple adults with too much power that he had met even before he had made the transition into the Dream.

"It's not just school lessons," He sighed. "Sometimes, the most well meaning people can be the cruelest. One day, that person can give your team a big cake with lots of sprinkles... and then the next day list you wanted for treason."

Broken technology and turf wars inside shopping malls would have been a breeze beside some of the chaos he had witnessed in Remnant. Turf wars inside shopping malls at least sounded entertaining.

September & October Catch-All

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gather 'round, friends!

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A

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