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© MADI

For some odd reason, young Coldblue is among the first to happen across the strange boy at the border. Most mornings, the seal lynx savannah cat can be found in a deep slumber. Blue is not a morning person, a fact which can be discerned from the half-lidded eyes and disheveled fur--he still looks amazing, though. Even when he is barely awake, he is beautiful. Well, that is what he thinks about himself, at least. Regardless, the youth is only functioning this early because he finds it difficult to sleep while Goldie is injured. And if he stays seated for too long, the worry and the fear begin to build up. So he takes a walk, and if he can something as minimally productive as chatting with people at the border, then that's even better.

The walk is more enjoyable than the boy expected, honestly. A cool morning breeze laden with the aroma of the sea ruffles his fur and shakes the trees, their leaves seeming to whisper as they rattle and shake. His paws seem to sink into the fertile soil with every step. Coldblue wanders for quite some time, lost in his thoughts, before detecting the scent of his father nearby. As much as the child claims to dislike his father, Blue cannot help but investigate what his dear ol' dad might be doing in the jungle this early in the day. He accelerates into a trot, gracefully navigating through the dense foliage in spite of how he grimaces whenever a bug or a twig falls on him as he passes. Nasty, filthy nature. So dirty. Bleh. It does not take him long to locate the Captain--he can see the tips of Pincher's ears over the brush. "What are ya doin' out here, Da--" he begins to say as he closes the last bit of distance between them, only to be interrupted by the older male's gleeful words directed at a stranger only paces away.

It seems that the boy nearly addressed Pincher as "dad" in a rare display of the true affection Blue holds for his father, but it immediately crumbles away as the boy recognizes the affection written across the doberman's visage. Coldblue's tail lashes as he regards this "Reus" person with piercing blue eyes. He feels a bit threatened by this newcomer, perhaps due to his belief that Pincher shows other people more affection than his own son. If that were true, the reason would be that Blue chooses to put up a wall between himself and his father, but the boy's feelings are a bit more complex than he is emotionally mature enough to understand. "Who is Reus?" he asks, sweeping his gaze over the aforementioned male with guarded curiosity. Who is this person who so easily wins his father's affections? Blue is okay with Goldie getting all the attention from Pincher because she is his sister and she deserves all the love and praise. But he is not so accepting that a total stranger can come in and immediately knock him from second to third.

Amazingly, Coldblue has managed to keep his tone civil and mildly curious. He is doing his best not to appear envious, though anyone who knows him well enough can spot the emotion in an instant. Blue arranges a lazed smile upon his handsome features, allowing himself to adopt a somewhat pleasant and mostly lazy facade. "My name is Coldblue Roux," the savannah cat introduces with a polite nod. See? He isn't upset at all. Nope. Nada. He is simply introducing himself to the person who so obviously possesses Pincher's affection. It is the nice thing to do. And Blue can be nice when he wants to be. Whether or not it is genuine is another question.

Another bengal? The ocelot flicked her forked tail as she walked over, a bit of a guarded expression on her face - like Coldblue, she didn't know the entire Roux family, and found herself frustrated with how many random relatives she didn't know showed up. For, obviously, this Reus was a Roux in some way; the bengal body and Pincher's familiarity made that obvious.

Sensing something is off with her nephew, the witchy woman walked over to stand beside the kid. Not close enough to touch, but close enough that if he wanted support he could easily get it. "Rosemary Roux," she murmured, ears twitching as she appraised this apparent Roux with her four eyes.

[ muse no ]

She blinked, and he said at least five words; the stranger certainly lacked anything but energy. Denny? Stolen bandanna? Her top-right eye slid to look at Pincher, curiously waiting to see his reaction to all this. "No, I believe his name is Pincher. Unless he's been lying to the rest of his family," she retorted coldly with her second sentence pointedly directed at the doberman, growing a tad annoyed at Pincher and all his secrets. The pale ocelot hated being the last to know anything, and this apparent brother that knew more about Pincher than herself caused her quite a bit of internal conflict. Given her ability to read aura and tone, she already surmised that Reus believed he was telling the truth; which meant either he was delusional or something else was afoot with Pincher.

Sighing, she restrained her gloomy thoughts a bit; besides, she held a lot of secrets as well. No point in telling everyone her family tended to suffer from hallucinations, depression, and other unsavory things. And why bother telling people she could read the words they spoke, their tone providing the colors illuminating each letter? Rosemary already accepted that to be a hallucination, a likely indicator she inherited the 'insanity genes' from her mother's side of the family.

"Though I believe we are half-siblings, as my mother couldn't possibly give birth to bengals," she added, with almost painful normalcy. How doubtful telling anyone her mother died would yield anything useful, after all. From her mother's genetics and the family coven she grew up in, the pale ocelot already knew that she probably was one of the odder Roux family members. At times she felt more like an outsider than anything else, and the sudden appearance of another bengal-Roux certainly made her feel as though she was the outsider she believed herself to be.