AM I DUMDFOUNDED WHEN I SLIP 》JOINING

[COSMIIX]

God had a plan for everyone.

Or that was the bullshit that Stark was told over and over again, clearly, "God" was cruel enough to keep him on the damned earth that he woke up within each morning and night, his first breath and last would be here. Despite everything and the several times that he could've died, it didn't happen. "God" had yet to smite him and that fact alone was beginning to irritate the mutt as he woke up in his home only to sit up letting out a soft breath watching it turn into a plume of ivory due to how cold it was. The canine tried not to dwell on these thoughts for long as he began to prepare his morning coffee, a frown on his maw as he sat down idly by the machine waiting patiently. It was the same routine for the past few months, over and over again. Stark felt that it was starting to get tiresome yet he didn't do anything different, his movements robotic in a sense as if this usual routine was programmed into him.

He didn't ever expect anything different in that cottage of his and whenever he did go outside there was a lot of snow that he would move away. That kept him entertained for a few good hours though everything seemed trivial and meaningless, that familiar, tired frown that pulling at his lips. But when he was finished shoveling away the snow, he would return into the warmth of his home to drink a mug of coffee. He supposed that this was fine seeing as he had a pretty comfortable lifestyle as of right now, he wouldn't change that for anything though it did get... Very tiresome. Stark found himself reminiscing often about the days he had been a leader and responsibilities that constantly kept him busy, he sorta wished for the day it would happen again. It would give him purpose or that's what he hoped anyways, since staying in one place was beginning to drive the workaholic insane.

One morning when he did wake up, Stark would lay there not bothering to get up for his coffee or push away the snow. He began to question what he was doing now and what would be the outcome of it, eventually, drinking too much coffee will give him a heart attack but there hasn't been anything spectacular to trigger that. "What am I doing wrong?" He asked no one in particular though it broke the silence that once surrounded him, his eyes were half closed. He would stretch out a paw in front of his face looking at all the scars only to murmur in a quieter voice "Why am I still here? Everyone I loved is dead or gone... But damn it all, you have outlived them... For some cruel fucked up reason." A soft chuckle left his maw before letting the paw press against his face and he'd grit his teeth unsure of what to even do or think. He was running out of ideas and that was unusual for him. "I've done it all... Just let me die already," He breathed out not realizing that his eyes were stinging as tears began to form.

Remember when God had a plan for everyone? Yeah, just so happened the big man got one after all these years.

Stark would feel his body flinch feeling the ground beginning to shake after a thunderous roar broke the silence, he immediately rose to his paws with alarm painted onto his face as the fur on his body began to rise. He would wipe away his tears in a rushed manner with a paw and pressed both of his ears flat against his skull "What the fuck was that?" He stood up and backed away from his door as the earth began to shake, Stark watched as bits of his cottage began to drop onto the ground in front of him. He needed to run and get out... Yet he was frozen in place. He could feel his breathing growing fast, the tears returning only to drop onto the floor, and his body began to tremble. His gaze began to get hazy remembering this too clearly. The nightmare. The reason why he refused to sleep. He thought he had been somewhere safe. It was a shame that he was ultimately wrong.

Everything began to crumble and all he could do was hunch over, curl into a ball as he violently shook trying to catch his breath. It would be over soon, wouldn't it? That's what he thought until spikes of jagged earth came from below, the canine moving away just in time only getting his cheek grazed and blood would drip from the wound. He was cornered and his panic only got worse, he wanted it to all stop. So many castles built on sand and now, they all came crumbling down before his eyes once again. He didn't have much time to process it all when a piece of his cottage came down and struck him on the head, he fell to the ground with a yelp and laid there as blood slithered down his eye. His gaze growing dark until he fell unconscious.

He had gotten up with a groan and a paw touching his head to feel the dry blood that was above his eye, a soft sigh leaving him slowly, Stark would grit his teeth as he began to rise from the ground but the weight of his broken home was weighing down on him. A closed space. He could feel his heart beginning to thump loudly in his chest, his breathing still quick but Stark shoved himself forward feeling a loud yelp leaving him. The canine had managed to break free but a large shard of glass stabbed his side, he didn't seem to care at the given moment. He hunched over before dragging himself out feeling the blood spilling from his new wound, Stark coughed quietly "I just have the shittiest luck... Don't I?" He was unaware of how long he had been out but when he glanced over at everything, it was in ruins. The Elysium was gone.

"Looks like I'm moving again," He wheezed out shaking his head to the sides, he rested his chin on one of his legs still processing everything that was happening around him. A dense chuckle left his slightly parted jaws "Good thing I don't gotta pack anything..." He never did like packing when he moved from one place to the other, Stark rose to his paws ignoring the pain that was coursing throughout his body. He didn't seem to have anything to help bandage himself up at the moment so, he decided to remove the shard and pick around the shambles of his home. He managed to pick out the sight of some cloth quickly wrapping it around his wound, now, it was time to make the journey and find a new place to stay. He was a man with plans but it seemed that he would be going through this blindfolded but that's how life had been for the most part, a snort leaving him. It was time to leave whatever had been left of the Elyisum. 

"So goodbye yellow brick road..."

☆☆☆

"Oh for fucks sake," The malamute grimaced as his paw sunk into the mud that he was treading over, he couldn't help but feel frustration yet he was aware that this would be temporary until he found some solid ground. Stark stopped at the border at last only to start shaking the mud from his paw, disgust apparent on his face but he had heard that this place had a town. Maybe he could find a home here or at least, stay here until he found a place more suitable to his tastes. "Welp, it could be worse. This is nothing," The canine mumbled to himself as he found a large tree root to sit upon while he tried to think of what to say.

After all, first impressions were everything weren't they? Eh, he didn't give much of a shit at the given moment... Since well, he looked like he had been trampled by a stampede of buffalo. "Hello lovely swamp dwellers," Stark finally called out with his tongue swiping over his powerful jaws, his eyes half closed as he sat there with tail wagging weakly behind him. He hoped that an ogre wouldn't come out and chase him away, he had traveled so far "I'm here to join if possible." An exhausted grin stretched over his maw.

[SirDio]

The hybrid was learning the layout of the swamp to make sure they wouldn't just slam into a tree trying to talk with someone. Underneath a tree did they lay, resting after a heavy headache hit them. DeepBlue's ears pricked to the pickup of a new aura, one they had never seen before. And a voice they had never heard. Standing up, the nearly blind hybrid started for the newcomer, stopping when they were a few feet from Stark. "Hello. Aurum needs to say if you're allowed. But You don't seem too bad." They opened their eyes for a moment but shut them again, a groan leaving their mouth.

[color=#cee6ea]"Speech"

♥ I'd just want your heart. ♥

— Reggan

[Grimm]

[div style="margin: auto; max-width: 475px; padding: 5%; min-height: 20px; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 17px;"]A plan.

Some viewed it as necessity to make so plain an epithet more grandiose, imbued a concept crafted from belief with something more. Maybe such was simply the way of life, the mundane tiresome for how the flare is easily stolen, routine enacted on the basis of muscle memory. The decoration allowed meaning, permitted more.

A reason for this existence they were all a part of, single strands in the woven tapestry.

Fabrications it all, the words a collection of sound given meaning, the notion superior another over all, their intervention the ripple in the pool, discarded the mundane with the twitch of a muscle. Hazey grown all, closer drawn until contact may be made, reality bending about that which tread the hardened soil. Among them gods, taken and shaped once incomprehensive title until it may easily adorn gilded skin. So too the angelic and those opposing, the once constricting limitations pressed beyond for expectations grew.

What might be a God, and what might be deemed the supposed machinations leading to the divine insistence of a pre-destined path, compared to them. Nothing, in truth. Uncared for religion, evidence enough contrary to the notion, the pages ravaged and torn, spoken of only in dismissal. Maybe it was rooted within some truth, the pretty monikers they bore no trivial trinket, none capable of saying. Within mind of the child there was no such figure, or the depiction proved a falsehood too difficult to swallow, and that proposed simply was a case of foul luck.

Unknown the cause which drew canine forth through swamps dense, thickened the heavy slurry of sodden earth largely unaffected by the winter that cast a frost elsewhere, of note only the chill. Such he experienced, the breeze a murmur speaking inaudible cantations through rattling branches, sourly wished for forgone covering. He knew a stern talking to might await him upon return, though from a good place overly so the protective drive of Aurum where came to his large brood, and thus wished to be prolonged the time of said return. All the same displeasure was worn rather clearly, soft cream visage overtaken by severe frown, broken at times as lips trembled. Hushed the click, teeth parting and coming together over and over again, momentum halting to rub a paw along his leg.

This, too, came to an abrupt stop, however, the call one distance stole from, words difficult to decipher from the natural sounds of the swamp. No other rose to meet it, at least within first moments, worry ignited as the voice was deemed forgein dwindling as the moments passed. It seemed no combat would be necessary, replacement for prior alarm a curiosity further fanned with answering call, supposedly spoken of his own father. Begun again his moment, his own traversal staged along aerial roots that acted border to the deeper segments of mud, still a mess Salvia as the figures entered his field of vision.

Strangers both, which sought audience an unknown easily rectified if ventured simply to ask, though on such his tongue was held. Brief the grind of teeth into the muscle, pondered his words as the distance closed, releasing as he spoke, soft and unsure his tone. "If you are here on official business you'll need to speak with my fath-the luminary, otherwise I guess welcome, though can I have your name, it is uh…" Into silence his voice trailed as the correct word slipped his mind in that moment, annoyance slowly overtaking his countenance. "Darn it I messed up." Murmured this last comment beneath his breath, vision that once moved between both dropping to his paws.

[trojan g.]

[align=left]there's a chip on my shoulder *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

It seemed as though a new face showed up each week at the border of Tanglewood, and although Moth wasn't complaining about that - they could use all the help they could get in reality - she knew that it would get harder and harder to keep track of all the names that she had to learn. Moth wasn't always the best with names, but, so far at least, she had seemed to be able to keep track of the majority of those she had met, especially if they were within Tanglewood. "Hello," The jaguar would speak, offering a smile to the other. "My name's Moth, I'm the reaper of medicine around here."

She didn't know how often it was that others would know the names of different ranks for each group had their own, but it had always seemed as though Tanglewoods was one of the easiest for her to remember. Being the reaper of something meant that there were other things underneath that, so, hopefully for now she wouldn't have to explain what the different ranks were, though she'd be more than willing to discuss it later if need-be.

Waiting for an answer from Stark, the female would sit down quickly, making sure to keep an eye on the two others that had been already part of the group, she would continue to speak. "Welcome to Tanglewood by the way, if you need anything please let me know. I can show you where our camp is at, or if you're hungry or thirsty I can help with that too."

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*  and it's big as a boulder

[wormwood.]