The whole meeting with Ryder had gone extremely awkwardly, in Vigenere's mind. The kid had come to visit family here in Tanglewood, but didn't seem to know who exactly he was looking for. That is, until Ryder brought up someone named Ophelia and Leroy got pale at the mention of her. It wasn't hard to connect the dots after that, though it was a bit awkward once Leroy connected the dots himself.

The smell of smoke in the air and the cackle of fire made Vigenere's skin crawl, and the savannah's fur subconsciously prickled at the scent, trying to figure out where it was coming from. He limped as he followed the scent, eyes narrowed, before he reached the area where Ryder was making s'mores. Upon realizing that the fire seemed to be relatively controlled, Vigenere sighed and visibly relaxed. He slowly went to sit next to the canine, trying to give him an encouraging smile. "How're ya liking Tanglewood so far?"[glow=COLOR,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

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[div style="width: 300px; max-height: 100px; height: overflow; overflow: scroll; padding-bottom: 5px; margin-top: -5px; font-family: georgia; font-size: 8pt; color: #152232; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: justify;"]He kept fancying that Ivan was absorbed in something — something inward and important — that he was striving toward some goal, perhaps very hard to attain.

Ivan relied mostly on his nose for understanding his surroundings. He caught a strange scent in a passing breeze quite suddenly, like sugar and fire blended together. Those normally aren't things that are put together. He glanced down at his wearied paws. It wasn't like he was going anywhere in particular anyway. He needed to find some way to drag himself out of his slump. The feeling of unproductiveness was eating him alive.

Thus, he switched his internal navigation to follow the scent, quickly realizing he wasn't the only curious cat. He gave a sidelong glance and subconscious lowering of his head to Vigenere, turned to Ryder. This was a newcomer, one that had some striking resemblance to Leroy. Having not attended Ryder's joining, his lineage was unknown. However, he looked to be quite agreeable from the smile on his lips but Ivan did not have a clue as to what he was doing.

"I don't think we've met, I'm Ivan. I'm Selby and Mo-" He flinched. "Selby's son, if you know him. Er, anyway, what are you doing to that stick?" It smelled edible, but Ivan was known for his notoriously bland taste in food.

Aurum had no especially strong feelings on Ryder or his lineage, to be honest. He had thought it to be pretty entertaining when Leroy had awkwardly stumbled through the paternity situation with his apparent son, but other than that? Aurum formed opinions on others over time, and not just because of their parentage. Just because Leroy was his father didn't mean that Ryder would turn out to be anything like him, after all. Not that it would've been a bad thing if he did, considering Aurum worked fairly well with Leroy on the whole. However, this was the perfect opportunity to learn about Ryder on his own, shoving aside any preconceived notions or curiosities about how he had come about. He was just another newcomer, same as any of the rest of them. Well, perhaps not exactly the same, considering this newcomer had sweets in the form of the s'mores that he was currently making.

At first drawn over by the sweet smell of the s'mores and then by the joined smell of Ryder, Aurum found himself moving over to Vigenere's side, watching the flames before them slowly blacken the marshmallow Ryder was holding. Wrapping his tail slowly around his own paws, the proxy muttered softly and simply, "Hello Ryder. Decide that you were in the mood for some sweets?" It was hardly the most enthralling conversation starter, but hopefully it would kick things off to learn more about the kid.

[div style="text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; text-shadow: 0px 0px 2px #1B1B2F; font-size: 24px;"][color=#44437F]— AURUM