IT'S A LONG WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE RIVER.
So the day was here. At long last, after many years wading through the stagnant freshwater and the mud born from the rains of the swamp, each meeting prior long behind her, the branches of the willows swayed in the breezes that carried her to this place. She had faced atrocities she wished not to speak of, endured hardships that broke far too many. Even faced the grim reaper head to head, and revived when Tanglewood was on the brink of collapse. Destruction. And she emerged from the depths of the swamp like she had a new purpose, to recover what she had lost in a moment's notice. Was this it? If Tanglewood was to go, to fade into the shadows of the trees one day, was it her duty to lead them to a quiet resting place where no one could ever think to touch them again? A macabre thought, imaging the loss of your own group, but shots had been taken at the rag tag group of misfits, and once that truly was all they were. Godspeed, Beck, wherever you were.

Beck, Morgan, Crow, Leroy, Aurum. Even Vigenere, though the man had awoken from his dirt sleep after all.

"You're late, Arrow." The woman said to herself, looking up at the sky. She had left her home, her children and her girlfriend to rest for a few more moments if they chose to. Her girlfriend, the fire that kept her warm and the mother of her children. The former Luminary, yes, but perhaps leading truly was never meant for Elsweyr. She was strong, yes, powerful and maternal, but this was never a position that was traditionally held by those that weren't rabid bastards. No offense to the few exceptions. A long exhale left her, feeling it in the deepest parts of her lungs, like releasing far too much stress that had been settled in her ribcage like blackened tar. Green eyes settled on the statue, the crumbling figure looked far more intimidating today than usual. A grin threatened to crawl up to her face. This was it, this was big. Shouldn't one feel worried about fucking it up? Was she so content with fate? Let it be, she supposed.

There was a very quiet rumbling of the earth, one might hear it if they were quiet enough, a small stone vibrating nearby. The plants within the soil themselves seemed to twist, pulling themselves forward. Grasses and flowers and winding green vines emerged from her place, crawling over the base of the statue by the corners, she felt something new in her bones, like the swamp itself resided there. Powers, finally?

If she was in charge now, did that mean she needed to learn some manners at long last? Nah. "TANGLEWOOD! ASSES 'ROUND THE STATUE, DOUBLETIME!" She still got it, yelling and shit. Granted, she did cough a little after all her calling, it's been a while hasn't it? She'd give them time, wouldn't want anything to be missed, eh?

// permission given by rhos just in case

EVERY OCCASION HAS ITS DISCUSSION—


hearing the shout from her other mother he raised his head wiht a confused frown. curse words? not in my tanglewood! hopped up, raced out the house and skidded to a stop next to her. "watch your language, mother.." he chided jokingly, touching her side with his tail and sitting down, surveying the clearing.


—AND EVERY GENERATION HAS ITS MEN

"SPEECH"

Huh, weird; Vigenere could have sworn that Elsweyr had called a meeting not to long ago. Although, he supposed, there hadn't really been any sort of announcements then. With a flick of his tail, Vigenere came over and sat next to his sister.[glow=COLOR,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

IT'S A LONG WAY DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE RIVER.
"You'll be hearing worse from me in the coming days, buddy." Arrow responded affectionately to her son, a little bit of remorse at the fact, but there was only so much she could hide or push down. She wasn't very good at manipulating her own personality. As the members of Tanglewood gathered, she assessed the damage. A feeling pricked at her gut, a feeling that said the news might not be accepted with open arms by some of the gathered. Ah well.

"Glad to see you all alive and well! Mostly. You're probably wondering why I've gathered you all here today." Her grin twitched at the corner of her mouth, patting the statue. It must have been weird, a new face and new voice calling shots, where was Elsweyr they probably wondered. Boy oh boy. "Truth be told, lovelies, our dear and beloved Elsweyr has stepped down, removed the crown and passed it to yours truly. Leadership is hard, it's a burden. She deserves her rest, no? Any offhanded comments and I will personally gut you like a fish and hang your entrails over my door like Christmas lights. Kidding! Or not. Moving on, Moth is also gone. That's a problem. She leant me her shit, don't go in her house no more, and any injured and sick will see me until I can find someone more suited for the job. I'll hold a little thing for the interested, rest assured. But be warned, I really love me a good bone saw." Arrow raised a brow, checking for any aforementioned looks, letting the news sink in a little more. A power shift was no easy business. She'd been there, alright.

"Now, on to the juicy business. The shit y'all want each month. Starting off, swamp news, we've been slacking on our own god damn traditions. I know the takeover was rough shit, but you really wanna lose what makes us Tanglewood, huh? You wanna live in a puddle instead of the swamp? Most of y'all haven't even done the real shit! And that makes Arrow sad. When this month turns over, some of you, maybe all of you- minus Vigenere, you old son of a bitch, you- will be doing a fucking mask ceremony, you hear me? You are going to brave that fucking swamp and when you come back I will personally hand you a mask of your choosing. I'll drop all the deets when the day arrives, but be fucking ready. SECOND! I want my fucking cute title badges back. Not a single god damn title has been distributed in front of everyone in what feels like a hundred thousand years. Next meeting, some of you are getting some fucking bling." Was that it? Arrow thought to herself, as far as the reinstated traditions went. A paw tapped her jaw in thought, as if she forgot what she meant to say mid-sentence. Probably did.

"Oh! Promotions! Shadow Regent, now that I'm in charge. Atbash, you've been hangin' around fuckin' everywhere and I want you to step up as my second in command. Although, you might not like this next bit of news, Lemon Puff." But it had to be done. And she, at the least, was excited.

"Now, the BIG shit, ding ding ding! You know what I hate? Laying down, bellies to the sky for the next passer by to point and laugh at. Tanglewood has and always will be the shit. Boy, you shoulda seen this place back in the day. We didn't rely on nobody, and we caused shit on a level unparalleled. Real ruin-your-day like. We rolled on our own, didn't play nice. And we're going back to that life. I'm cutting ties, we're sailing neutral out of this shitstorm. No gods, no kings, no allies. 'Least not until a new common enemy rears it's ugly head, but treaties are temporary. Swamp life is forever. No bad blood to the pirates, but this is our way of life, ain't theirs. And SPEAKING of LIFE, ours has been ruined and fucked over time and time again by those good for nothin', dry skin havin' ass desert fuckers in their stupid ass little hidey hole. Peace treaty fucking over! No more playing nice with the God! Damn! Pitt!." Arrow rammed her paw against the statue, a small piece of it falling from it's crumbling state and hitting the ground with a thud. From amused to annoyed to enraged, all within 10 minutes or so. She had a lot of pent up anger, rage, and malcontent, too much that was never addressed nor was it avenged. She lost her fucking leg for this, she lost her fucking mind for this. "I should have never let Aurum, bless his soul, get talked down to prevent this war. They hate us, we hate them. With our last known ties to the Pitt gone, I want you all, children and injured aside, to fucking raise hell. Put the cottonmouths in their beds, stick the bugs in their prey, make fucking smoke bombs to lop at 'em, I don't care. We're a bunch of swamp dwellin', gator killin', mud and grime covered sons of bitches and bastards and it's about high fucking time they learn who they're fucking messing with."

"Meeting fucking dismissed."

TL;DR SUMMARY:
- [member=597]ATBASH CIPHER.[/member] can step up as Shadow Regent
- medical tryouts will be held soon! keep an eye out
- mask ceremonies and titles have been reinstated, thread also to come soon
- Tanglewood is now totally neutral, Typhoon is no longer an ally
- The Pitt is full blooded enemy, TW members are encouraged to pull some nasty ass pranks on them, harmful ones encouraged! As tradition

EVERY OCCASION HAS ITS DISCUSSION—


// I LOVED THAT SO MUCH HKSFGHSDFGLSDFD

he blinked back up at his mother, flicked an ear in half-understanding. how much worse could 'asses' get? then his maw fell open as curse upon curse tumbled from the maw of his mother and he pressed his paws against his ears, waiting for the silence to finally settle. "ma, you- the language-" he stammered, blinking and shaking his fur out, skittering to the side as a piece of the statue fell. "i want a promotion too.."


—AND EVERY GENERATION HAS ITS MEN

"SPEECH"