all the king's horses | open, weekly task

[wormwood.]

☆ HUNG PICTURES OF PATRON SAINTS UP ON MY WALL TO REMIND ME THAT I AM A FOOL. TELL ME WHERE I CAME FROM, WHAT I WILL ALWAYS BE: JUST A SPOILED LITTLE KID WHO WENT TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL —

Aurum had never really thought much about his own development when growing from a young cub into an adult lion. It just hadn't been something he had worried a lot about, considering he had bigger things to deal with, like taking care of a sick brother and dealing with an abusive mother. He had definitely noticed when major changes had taken place, like when his mane had first started to really grow in, and when he had begun to grow even larger than his father had been, but stuff like baby teeth falling out? That hadn't been of any concern to a young Aurum, who had never thought twice as his fangs fell from biting into something tough. When he had finally gotten his adult set of fangs, they had certainly been useful in intimidating his enemies, but it hadn't really been anything for him to get overly excited about. Then again, Aurum very badly wanted Ivan and the boy's siblings to have a far better childhood than he and Poetking had ended up having, so it only made sense that they'd have more time to worry about the little things. Ivan hadn't been born to abusive parents, and he wasn't dealing with his home being in an all out war, either. He had plenty of time to just think about the little and the big things, including his teeth falling out as he grew older.

However, that didn't mean that the proxy had ever expected Ivan to start collecting his own teeth. Aurum knew plenty about collecting things, having been friends with many that collected little trinkets and being siblings with Moth, whom he knew to collect little cute things on occasion. Hell, he even collected things. However, he collected items considered to be normal by most to collect. He had some art that he liked, a couple of trinkets from his travels between the Pride and Tanglewood, his enormous book collection... he had all of that, but he had nothing as strange and slightly unnerving as teeth. So, when Aurum looked up from where he was sat on his porch when he heard Ivan fall, the tigon found himself freezing, eyes widening a bit. What... the hell. Moving over slowly, the angel watched as his nephew frantically tossed his own fangs back in their container, and Aurum could hear Alaric's curious voice just a few feet away. After a couple of moments of inspecting the situation, the proxy finally found the motivation to speak, glancing between Alaric and Ivan, "I... very much hope those are your teeth, Ivan. That's what they are... right?" That seemed like the only logical explanation for the little fangs, unless they were also his siblings' teeth as well. He just desperately hoped Ivan hadn't been collecting them from smaller prey animals – he really didn't need his nephew becoming Caustic 2.0.

[div style="text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; text-shadow: 0px 0px 2px #722227; font-size: 24px;"][color=#c16f78]— AURUM

#psychosocial.