ATBASH CIPHER

is someone else in me,
waiting to break free?

bio | female | hailcaller [leader] of snowbound

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With his recent depression-fuelled inactivity and anxious actions, you’d think Wendell to bid not to clock in to his old home’s shindig. However, it was quite the opposite.

Wendell missed Snowbound, now more than ever. The wolverine yearned for the crumpling of its signature frigid powder beneath his paws, wishing for snowflakes to tickle his warm snout once again. The niveous valley was not his current dwelling, but it was where he believed he had belonged the most. The comfort of people of whom actually possessed the ability to relate to you, it was missing in Sunhaven, be it on fault of others not willing to acquaint themselves with him, or his lack of trying to do so himself. Inexplicable, yet significant, sparks of memory kindled in his fire-pit mind, a hypothetical projector playing a slideshow of recollections on some screen. The wolverine could recall his first night here, how the sheer sight of snow had bewildered him beyond description. He managed to memorize the flavours of juice that Cry had brewed up.

Wendell recalled the very evening when Stryker marched into the grand hall, dragging along Atbash in a fashion similar to a ragdoll. That same night, he had been electrocuted by some wizarding Pittian, and was almost mauled to death by some jet-black reptilian before being spared.

Said night was the last he’d ever spend in Snowbound.

With great hope, perhaps a few friendly faces yet remained; he had recognized his old leader’s figure from a distance (that currently was conversing with a smaller mammal). Simply spotting the outline of her figure overwhelmed Wendell with a bittersweet brew of nostalgia and guilt. Such brew had been concocting in the hearthkeeper’s esophagus for the past month, and it bothered him oh so greatly. The only cure for it would be to converse with those he’d left behind, settle a score which he saw as important.

Shooting his Helion a quick glance in recognition before doing so, Wendell tread anxiously towards Atbash, and, unbeknownst to him, a rabbit-bodied Nui. What was Atbash’s opinion on him, he wondered? Did she see him as a coward? Did she simply not care? Would she desire to lay her eyes upon him once more, even after his escape? Only time could tell - in about two minutes, hopefully. "Doing nicely, Ms. Atbash?" he’d inquire, his sole, teeny sliver of confidence making it’s way through his throat.

"On cue, boss?" a knurled voice quipped, the second Tangler making his appearance nigh pronto following the icy Samoyed’s introduction. The tall mutt tailed his General by a few metres for the majority of the trip here, scarcely catching up to him moments ago. Just a hot week prior, his paws had experienced firsthand the discomfort of Pittian sand in between those soft pads of his, and tonight, it had been the polar opposite - the irritating, scrunching grit of snow. By that episode, and additionally getting terrified half-to-death by his own steamy breaths, this eve was not an ideal one. If Tanglewood’s purpose was as a retreat for those who desired isolation, then what was the purpose of having the Tanglers traverse to another group’s land for some social gathering? Leroy was not a fan, not because of any anxiety of sorts - by all means, he was a people’s person -, but due to the people involved. Things could get especially fucked if that one sap who lost his leg showed up, or worse, if those buffoons from the Typhoon dropped by to pick a fight. Hence, he stuck close to his leader, taking a non-insulated seat of his own; if stuff had gotten out of hand, Morgan could make people’s eyes explode out of their heads... that was, of course, an option.

Nothing crazy had happened as of yet. There were some strangers about, that one-eyes chick from earlier, and, optimistically not the sole other Tangler to attend, Morgan. ”Anything interesting eva’ happen at these things?” he’d his ask his upper out of boredom, for if the answer was no, Leroy could be considered as good as gone.

DELILAH EVERGARDEN
TANGLEWOOD — MEDIC — FEMME — TAGS

© MADI