give me one chance to [...joining...] mend the pain

Freezeframe. A raven flying over the tundra. Frosted tail tips and wing feathers. A speck of white and dark gray (not black) jetting across the frozen sky. Yup. That's me. You're probably wondering how I got in this situation. Let's rewind.

Actually... lets not. Cry's talons clicked together as she focused on her breathing. It was wreckless flying that caused her to crash in this tundra in the first place. The bird huffed, glaring into the frosty early morning. The sun hasn't even risen yet. She was exhausted. Who knew soul searching was so tiring? No one sure as hell told her that. After she was demoted and humiliated, she decided the best course of action was to take some time alone and get used to her new body and situations. Unfortunately that meant a lot of cold nights alone. Fortunately, she knew how to deal with them (her heart was already frozen anyways (or what she had left of one, anyways)). So yeah. Plus five able to bird [sup]tm[/sup] points achieved (does she get a trophy?).

Cry inhaled, flipping herself over and shutting her wings. She dropped like a rock, her tail twisting her face to the ground. She breathed for a few moments before opening her feathers and catching herself. Cry opened her milky blue eyes, staring at the ground as she glided to where she remembered camp being (wasn't this place like... nomadic or something? why did they stay in one place?).

Cry swooped to the ground, unhooking her landing gear, flapped a few extra time for comic effect and touched down (totally not making a bunch of fake air plane noises on the way down). The raven huffed, folding her wings in. She slowly blinked, scanning the area around her. So. Here she was. Her first home in this frozen waste land. The bird yawned, cracking her neck. She couldn't wait to get yelled at. She took a step forward, then two. She shut her eyes, shuffling her shoulders.

Oh honey! She called out, I'm home! How are the kids? Her tail swished, feathers twitching anxiously. She was breaming with nervous energy, ready for a fight. Squirt would probably scream at her. Jacob would give her a life lesson about running away or something. Atbash might be happy to see her, if she was still around. This wasn't going to be fun...

"SPEECH"

Izuku hadn't known Cry very well in the time she'd been there. She'd been snappish and rude to everyone, had definitely screamed at him, and nobody had ... really liked her. Which was really a shame to Izuku -- he'd actually liked the bird. She was like Kacchan in a way, but nice and a lot less likely to kill him for the smallest slight. She'd shown enough soft spots for her to have avoided his list of people to avoid, and Izuku had kind of wished he'd gotten to understand her better before she just sort of .. took off.
He wasn't really expecting her to come back, though. People who left just ... didn't seem to come back. But when Izuku hears Cry's call, the Tenderfoot's ears twitch and he perks up. He recognizes that voice -- it'd been a long time, but a few months wasn't really long he supposes. And Izuku won't deny the relief he feels, or the twinge of excitement as he makes to shove himself to his paws. And regrets it -- he hisses as he habitually places his right paw heavy on the ground and owowowow that hurts. He squeezes his eyes shut for a few moments as he shifts away, and waits for the pain to subside before he hurriedly stumbles over to Cry's direction, tail wagging.
"Cry!" Izuku beams at the raven. He doesn't quite know what to do with himself -- he doesn't want to accidentally set her off, and she seems healthy enough. Fortunately. Izuku was relieved about that -- he's so sick of healing people and medicine right now because he's been reading nonstop about it since he'd heard Jacob stepped down. He doesn't know how to be a one-man medical team, he wasn't made for this life, what the hell. "You're back!! Welcome back! How are you?" He'd probably spin in an excited circle if he could, but that's risky and if Izuku loses balance he's gonna scream. Still, he seems happy enough, kind of bouncing on the one front paw he has on the ground.

☀ what was i worth

Atbash never really saw Snowbound as a nomadic group, and if that was the case, she'd probably end up changing that. She rather liked the territory they had now, and she loved the way Izuku had decorated the camp. It brought this place to life, and it was a much better camp than their old one, if Atbash had to admit.

The sound of a raven caw nearby made Atbash stop in her tracks, her ears pricking. Sure, ravens were common prey, but there was only one raven she knew that could talk. Actually talk, not just mimic words like some ravens could do. Atbash was about to call out to Cry when she heard Izuku's voice, and she followed his voice to pinpoint exactly where he and Cry were at. "Cry!" She purred, her eyes shining as she stared down at the bird.

The raven pretended to ignore the welcoming party, reaching down to preen her left wing. The one that was broken a handful of moons ago (or... was it the right?? she couldn't remember). She blinked, her milky eyes turning up to face the two. She shruged, shuffling her feathers. Who's cry? She smirked, raising a brow, My name is Kailey. Cry is my twin sister. I'm brand new. Well. It technically wasn't a lie. Though, she could consider that name as well as dead. It wasn't like anyone was ever going to call her that ever again now that shes practically rewritten her identity.

she sighed at the thought. Much of her leaving was learning to cope with the fact that she wasn't getting home. She was never going to hear her family voices again or the feeling of a warm window or anything. At least she didn't need to hibernate anymore. That was always the worst (and Ace always covered her in ridiculous holiday knickknacks before she woke up. Talk about rude!). Though... she liked to believe she was over that. Polies were always good at adapting. This was.... She huffed, shivering. This was... her family now. She needed a group in order to stay alive, and if this was the only group she had, it was the only group she had. Adapt, Evolve, Overcome. That was her life motto.

The raven muttered quiet goodbye before turning back up to the two to see her. It was nice to see a colorful face through all the white snow. She dared not speak greetings, as stubborn as ever. The raven tilted her head. Is everyone still alive or do they just still hate me? She mused, raising a brow. These were the only two familiar faces around. Where was everyone?

"SPEECH"

At first, Atbash seemed hurt when Cry claimed she was Kailey, Cry's twin sister, though it seemed that didn't last very long. At Cry's question regarding where everybody was, the Chief looked down at her paws and shuffled them. "There's... not a lot of people around anymore." She admitted, looking back at the raven. "A lot of people seemed to just disappear, and some people were lost whenever our territory was raided by humans." Was Cry even here for that? Atbash couldn't remember. But it hurt, seeing her friends and groupmates just disappear or worse, die from the poison the humans had inflicted on them.

Izuku, of course, is a little caught off guard by Cry's exclamation as well. He finds himself squinting at the bird in near puzzlement. Was it a joke? Was she being serious? Was Izuku's vision bad enough that he hadn't figured it out? Her voice? He's very confused and very concerned. He'd be more stressed about it if Atbash hadn't thought the same, but Izuku's ears flatten for a long few moments regardless.
Then, the moment is gone as Cry asks about the other members. He blinks a few times and shakes out his head as Atbash begins to explain. He doesn't really like thinking about how many people had just kind of .. vanished. How it was basically just him and Atbash as the main crew, and probably Aizawa whenever he showed back up again. If he did. Izuku was awfully paranoid, honestly. Maybe Aizawa had been killed by the illness or something and Izuku just didn't know and he still had the lion's scarf.
"Y .. yeah, it's .. mostly just us," Izuku says softly, wilting a little more and averting his gaze. He misses a lot of people from then, but it's .. fine. Izuku will keep on as he always does. He's too attached to this place to even consider giving it up for much of anything. Honestly, he might even hesitate if it ever came between here and, well, his old home. His old life. He could always just make new friends once it came down to it, as upsetting as it was. Still, he shakes it out after a long few moments, resuming grinning at Cry, though a little more hesitantly. "Everything's been .. a mess, really," He sighs. It's salvageable, at the least. With some work they could get back to where they needed to be.

☀ what was i worth

Cry huffed, opening one of her wings to preen the feathers in stagnant time. The raven blinked, turning up to the two's confused faces. That was a joke, by the way. Everyone took everything she said so seriously. She couldn't take a break, could she? She supposed that was her fault for always speaking in riddles and half meanings. It was hard to interoperate her word as fact or false. She understood, but she had to keep her secrets.

The bird hummed, her emotionless milky eyes scanning over the two's sad faces. People just uped and... vanished, did they? Well. She was happy. ... Of course she was happy! Good riddance! She felt those folks ruined this place more than they improved it anyways. The bird blinked. Though... these were the two happy to see her after all. She was a monster, but she still had feelings... She sighed, shutting her eyes and turning to the ground. I'm sure they'll turn up. She chuckled, giving the two a tired smile, I return from the dead like every week, who says they wont?

"SPEECH"

At least Cry confirmed that what she said was a joke, and Atbash visibly relaxed. She was just happy to see her old friend again, and she was just the grumpy raven she remembered. I wonder how she'll react to the news about Caesar attacking me, Atbash thought to herself, mentally frowning. She knew she told Cry a little bit of her backstory, and she knew she told her about Caesar. She'd probably go try and kill him. The demon mused to herself, trying to turn her thoughts positive again. "I dunno," Atbash responded with a shrug. "Some people don't have reincarnation, y'know? But I'm glad you're back!" She really was. She really, really was.

Izuku wasn't the greatest at catching onto jokes, honestly. Which was, y'know, fine, he supposes. He's not entirely sure if it's his fault, though -- he hadn't really been socialized as a kid, see. Lots of bullying, and whenever people said stuff to him they didn't tend to mean it as a joke. Or if they did it was a really mean joke. Which was probably a big factor in why Izuku just didn't get Cry's joke. Regardless, there's a flicker of relief as Cry confirms that it's just, y'know, a joke.
"Maybe," Izuku agrees with Cry a little hesitantly. He doesn't think they actually will -- in Izuku's experience, once somebody left, they were gone forever. Like, forever forever. Never see them in person again. Cry was just the outlier here, really. .. Okay, so maybe Izuku had some abandonment issues, fuck off. "Though, some of them just kinda .. left," He shrugs. He doesn't want to base this entire encounter around their missing clanmates, anyways. He's mostly just glad Cry's back and all that, let him just sweep everything that's ever happened to him or around him in the past under the rug like he always does. Is it gone? No. Is it hidden? Good enough. "I, uh -- but it is good to have you back!" Izuku decides to change the subject, shaking his head and then allowing himself to grin at the bird some more. No need to focus on other people right now, that was kind of rude, since it was, y'know, Cry's return.

☀ what was i worth