it took too long }} horn growth

[Alexandre]

— alexandre f.m.r

As the world continued on, Alexandre was still living in a funk. He had yet to reach clarity and to see the reality of his fate. As Alexandre rolled over in his blankets and pressed his head into the soft, feathery pillow below, a silent grumble of pain left him. For some time now, the child remained within the Jungle Temple to recover from his capture. Reluctant to accept help, he only made his situation worse. Even so, with every day that passed, the feline was beginning to feel alive. To truly accept who he was.

A groggy cry left him as he began to sit up from his makeshift bed and roll onto his feet carefully. The male wearily walked off his covers and onto the firm ground of the temple, looking around for anyone. Orange eyes surveyed the area. 'No one?' his thoughts rang. Not even Roan was currently present to his surprise, but he didn't mind. It meant his brother didn't have to keep an eye on anyone, since no other patients were present, and could do other important things. Perhaps even relax. Satisfied by the peace, Alexandre moved his paws out forward and stretched appropriately with a yawn.

Colored paws sauntered forward towards a bowl in the corner. Droplets of water lined it's sides as he approached with his head lowered and tongue prepared to lap at it's surface, only to pull away upon seeing his reflection. The tip of orange horns were beginning to breach the back of his head and were visible when he turned his head briefly to the side. Alexandre's eyes briefly turned back towards the temple, looking for anyone to confirm, only to find himself alone still.

Returning his gaze to the liquid, he lowered his head and raised a front paw to lightly scratch at the horn's surface. Claws slowly slid underneath his skin, poking at the root. Pain shot through his head and his paw shot back onto the floor, determining it was still growing. Alexandre briefly narrowed his gaze. "Wild," came his soft whisper. The paw briefly returned to his head, only to continue prodding and poking at his new set of growing horns.

// the boy is gaining a second set of horns that start at the back of his head and curl upwards to the top of his head <3

[VAYNE CIPHER-VANTAS.]

[glow=white,1,400]LIKE WE FORGET WHO WE CAN TRUST ! — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

Vayne had been there when Alexandre had been brought home, though she wasn't entirely aware of her adoptive brother's feelings towards her. She felt bad for him, knowing that he had been stuck in the Coalition for such a long time, by himself. It must have been awful, She heard nothing but bad things about the Coalition, especially after the events of Ravenwood stopping by.

"Alexandre? You around?" Vayne called for the draconic feline, her ears pricked for any sign of her brother. She hadn't seen him around the beach lately and eventually had been informed that he was staying in the Jungle Temple. Which made sense, given how he had looked when he came back. Vayne padded through the Temple, still looking around for Alexandre, before finding him peering into a bowl. "Hey. You feeling better?" She called out to him, but didn't approach. She didn't really know how he felt about her and was a bit wary. Not to mention, she didn't really want to step on his toes and over-step any boundaries more than she probably already had.[glow=COLOR,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

[roan ;]

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Things had been rather quiet in the temple as of late, something that Roan was grateful for – if only because it kept his mental health somewhat intact. The presence of Alexandre – and on occasion Danny – wasn't a big deal to the soothsayer, the feline having grown used to company within the temple a long time ago. Despite his initial coldness towards his half-brother, the medic had somewhat warmed as the other had remained within his domain. Or really, as much as Roan could warm anyways. He still had the social skills of someone trapped in a bunker for most of their lives. Either way, he had made his attempts to chat idly with Alex, taking care of the other as he did with all his other patients. He also tried his best to fill the other in on what had happened while he was gone, although thankfully there weren't any massively major events. Vayne's adoption was a pretty big deal, at least when it came to their family, but Roan had adapted to that fairly quickly, and figured that Alexandre would as well. After all, it was hardly the first time either of his mothers had taken a child in.

Even though he was feeling more settled than usual as of late, Roan still occasionally found himself needing time away. Most of the time, when he did need this, he would head out and go look for herbs, refilling his stocks while also getting himself some fresh air. He had actually been doing this when Alex had woken up, and he found himself returning only shortly after Vayne arrived. He stepped smoothly past the young girl as he headed into the temple, offering her a stiff and slightly awkward nod in greeting as he passed. He had been planning on heading straight back into the actual herb stocks section of the temple to deposit what he had picked, but he found himself frozen when he spotted Alex. The other had a new set of horns growing in? That was... well, new. The other draconic feline didn't seem to be panicking or flailing about in pain, though, so that was a plus.

After hastily moving to shove the herbs he had gathered in the back, Roan returned, heading over to Alexandre's side. He muttered as he inspected the other's new additions, sounding vaguely impressed, "Well... those certainly grew in fast, didn't they?" His tone was then vaguely scolding as he continued, although significantly less harsh than others knew he could be, "And stop prodding at them. You'll make them ache even more as they come in. In fact... I should grab you some poppy seeds." With that goal in mind, the medic moved once more towards the back of the temple, figuring Alex would be occupied enough with Vayne's arrival. There would be more time for him to inspect his brother's new horns soon enough.

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[Alexandre]

— alexandre f.m.r

Pointed ears rose away from the back of head and turned at the sound of Vayne's voice. At first, he didn't respond. Alexandre was still indifferent about her. His parents couldn't manage to grab him from the Coalition of the Condemned for two months, despite their efforts, but still managed to adopt... her. The replacement. The thought made him sick. He tried to avoid the subject as much as possible. Jealousy would get the better of him though. As her call rang out again, her words were interpreted as bittersweet in his head. Did she really care? Had the bitch grown jealous that the original returned?  Unbeknownst to him, Vayne's concerns were genuine.

With a subtle scowl, his eyes lifted away from the water's reflection and settled on the smaller feline. An unwavering gaze watched as she shuffled over. Reluctant to respond, knowing his physically state was improving, but his mental doing otherwise, he merely offered a curt nod. "Better," he rumbled back. 'Better than you, at least.' Orange hues slowly began to travel along her silhouette, narrowing at the small details and flaws in her figure. Tufts. Dirt. White that was stained yellow. Disgusting. His gaze moved upwards. "I see you're doing well." His tone was sweet, but his silver tongue said otherwise. She would never know that though.

An interruption came. A break in the tension gladly created by Roan. Alexandre's head followed Roan as he moved inwards to drop his stash off and offered a firm nod as he came to a pause. "Late bloomer, I suppose," he snidely remarked. "I would have never noticed this early if it wasn't for the delicious dogwater." A cheeky smirk curled upon his maw. His brother didn't respond in regards to prodding at his horns though, knowing that it was better not to argue with Roan. "That would be nice." Maybe he'd learn more about herbs while he was here. Roan was very informative about what he missed. Maybe he'd be willing to spare some knowledge about medicine and elixirs as they sat around staring at the cobblestone walls.

[VAYNE CIPHER-VANTAS.]

[glow=white,1,400]LIKE WE FORGET WHO WE CAN TRUST ! — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

Vayne was, ironically, a mindreader - but she knew better than to go trying to reach into everyone's thoughts. She learned how to control it, and how to make sure she didn't unknowing accidentally try to break into someone's mind. So Vayne couldn't hear Alexandre's thoughts and opinions on her and she was too naïve to notice the hatred behind his words. Alexandre being silent but calculating didn't mean much to her; she just thought it was how he was, not that he was studying her to possibly knock her down. She didn't know he was studying her flaws.

"I'm doing fine, yeah!" Vayne chirped in response, clearly not picking up on the underlying tone Alexandre had. "It's good to see you doing better. I'm sorry if I, like. Triggered bad memories when I asked what happened originally." Back when they first met. She hadn't realized that asking what happened might push Alexandre back into when he was within that corpse. Whoops. Mentally shoving that thought away, Vayne quickly went on, "Momma Diya and Roxanne are relieved you're back, y'know." As if that wasn't obvious. Alexandre was their son and they had gone off to rescue him themselves, of course they were relieved. Vayne was just... trying to make conversation honestly. It was hard coming up with something when this was an adoptive sibling that existed but you've never met before. Wasn't a lot to 'catch up' with.[glow=COLOR,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

[ROXANNE R.]

Ah, would you look at that!

All of her kids were present and having a conversation amongst themselves how nice. The captain would walk over with both of her ears perked forward immediately noticing that Alex's horns had grown did a smile form on her maw "Well, would ya look at that! You got some bitching horns, sweetheart." She could say that around him right? They weren't that small anymore but she supposed that she should tone it down ever so slightly, just as long as she didn't say anything like baller or radical or outta this world, dude, she should probably be fine. A cool mom. Or rather an okay mom, yeah, that one sounded a bit more appropriate. She wouldn't destroy her self esteem by aiming for mother of the year cause that was not happening.

A soft snort escaped her as she got a closer look before gently nudging Alexandre as genuine concern filled her mismatched gaze "Feeling better, pequeño?"

[daniel]

It had been...almost a month? Something like, that Danny had stayed in the temple. Not because he was just so enthralled by Roan and the sarcastic commentary that the Soothsayer never seemed to be out of, but because he had his throat pulled clean open. Y'know, that? Not exactly a wound that healed in a week. Granted, he'd been doing generally pretty good as far as healing went, even on the brink of freedom, bailing from the temple and never looking back. However, feelings of being trapped by his injuries aside, and missing the places he normally slept, Danny had silently grown a sudden interest in Alexandre, the things he had heard about the son of Roxanne and Diya were...really fucked up, actually, but in a sympathetic way. He hadn't actually made an attempt to talk to the guy, despite wanting to against the pathetic wails of his anxiety, which was pretty much expected of him by now. Either way, he was glad that Alex was doing significantly better.

Now, Danny hadn't actually been in the temple when Alexandre woke up and observed the new horns, he had been out. Wrestling with the waves of the bay in an attempt to continue his physical training without too much strain, a habit he'd picked up some time ago. Not that he would ever show up to the temple with wet fur, he was certainly already dried off by the time he had worked up the courage to return, though fur messy as hell and carrying the scent of the ocean. He just needed poppy seeds or something, anything that would curb the growing pain in his neck again. He wasn't nosy, he had no initial interest in staying and eavesdropping on the conversation, although, seeing his fellow temple prisoner- uh, patient, the wolf did raise his brow in surprise at the better state Alex was in, moving on from starvation to just simple horns growing in. And see, unlike Vayne, bless her heart, Danny could pick up on underlying tones, he was rather good at it. What else was he going to do in all that time not talking and overanalyzing every. little, thing? In fact, he couldn't help but squint subtly for a moment, [b][i]attempting to lightly thunk Vayne on the back with his tail.

"What's it feel like?" Danny asked curiously, the presence of the horns sort of overriding the nagging in his gut. Yeah, yeah, big scary crowd, shove it. He must have been having a better day, but he couldn't even seem to enjoy that, huh?

[glow=black,2,300]— ❤ —[/glow]

[roan ;]

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Much like Danny and very much unlike Vayne, Roan was able to pick up on the tones in people's voices. After all, it was part of what he had been trained to do as a medic. He needed to be able to pick up on the little changes in people, especially if they weren't willing to be upfront and honest about things. As a result, the soothsayer couldn't help the annoyance that spread through him as he heard Alexandre's words, rolling his eyes in response. Was the other really still stuck on this? He really needed to get his shit together, or else he was going to get a fairly sharp talking to from either Roan himself, or Roxie – depending on if the medic talked to her about it or not. Either way, when he returned back over to Alexandre's side, he swung his tail a bit roughly towards the other's shoulder. As he did so, he muttered out in a tired and vaguely annoyed tone, "Watch it. Here." He made it sound as though he was talking about the "dogwater" comment, but the action very clearly had a double meaning. Either way, he placed a few poppy seeds in front of his brother, motioning for the other to eat them. He didn't say anything more about the little jab at the other, not feeling the need to – he had no time for petty drama, especially when more important things were going on. Hell, Alex had more important things to focus on, like his recovery.

With the poppy seeds dealt with, the siamese then sat back down nearby, looking over the small horns that had grown out of Alexandre's head. He muttered as he inspected them, his tail twitching behind him, "...It'll be interesting to see how they grow. Depending on how they do, it could end up being an issue. Never want two pairs of horns getting caught up in each other." If that ended up being the case, though, the horns could always be filed or cut down with a bit of effort. Roan had seen his mama do it to her own horns several times before, usually right around when there were a lot of kids around, and she didn't want someone getting seriously hurt. Silently, the meeic found himself glad that his own horns were hardly ever an issue. While yes, the ends of them were sharp, they were generally in a position where they wouldn't poke anyone except for him, if he happened to lay the wrong way. That meant that, thankfully, he didn't have to worry about any young patients scrambling around him and managing to hurt themselves on his horns. He also didn't really think he'd be growing a second set anytime soon, considering he was long past his period of growth, and he didn't really want a second pair, either. Too much hassle, at least to him.

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