never over - o, joining

[THEM]

[align=center][div style="text-align:justify;width:55%;font-family:verdana;"]Ranks. That was supposed to be an easy question, but Kaz at that point had known of Tanglewood's mere existence for all of two days, and thus was a little lost on most practicalities. He's aware of Leroy, he knows that much. He'd seen the leader at the most recent meeting, talking about death-undeath and immediately jumping to a discussion of clan infrastructure and promotions. He was a man of action and quick decision. He knew of... Wormwood, who had possibly taken on another name that he wasn't made aware of at the meeting. The lion was more or less unknown to him at this point, but the meeting had made it clear that he was worthy of a battleborn position. But other than that, Kaz was a little lost himself.

"Er," he doesn't really bother, this time, to hide the slight cringe that curls his lip as the spider crawls forward to inspect him. Kaz doesn't step back, nor does he break the careful eye contact he's made with the arachnid's many-eyed gaze. His expression flattens back to a careful neutrality. "I'm a little new myself, so I apologize for not knowing as much as I ought to. Leroy is our General, the chief of command around here. That's our Captain -" he tips his jaw towards the winged lion off to his side, "And I've seen multiple medics in Tanglewood besides Moth, if that's your area of interest. I'm sure they could use a... Hand." Ha-ha, a pedipalp joke, spiders had eight legs and... Yeah, maybe it wasn't the best time. Kazuhira's a little defeated at this point - the initial hey, what the hell has waned into something more of a dull discomfort - so he sighs, takes a seat. "Where are you from? I've never seen a spider like yourself before."

[ABATHUR .]

Abathur let off a small grunt, moving around and under the wings to inspect them further. "Interesting. How recently did wings grow in?" he asked, the very peak example of someone who doesn't know how to deal with other's personal space, as he reached out his pedipalps to feel the limbs himself. Feeling was important to him, something that dominated most of his sensory information, so the act was one of pure curiosity from his point of view - although it was possible that his actions could be viewed in a less charitable lens. Not that he could do much to them; he was rather lacking in grand physical strength.

Wings at an adult age... how peculiar."Major physical developments in adult life, unusual... did development of wings coincide with significant life event?" He mused, almost to himself. His new hypothesis was that this subject had undergone some sort of stressful situation, which had increased other hormone production and perhaps started another miniature pubescence. If that was the case... well, Aurum would certainly be a far cry from an African lion.

Moving back to Miller, the spider found himself less enthralled. The male had a sort of disgusted look on his face, which he found rather rude - although he did push it to be neutral at the end, so perhaps he, too, realized it was impolite. Not that Abathur cared much about policy; as long as he wasn't being lynched, he was fine. "Hrm. Interesting. Why does subject have such authoritative body language despite newcomer status?" Subtlety was not one of his finer touches. At the very least, though, he was entertained - anything that he could ask a question about was something that truly fascinated him, that made him push and ask more and more questions, so he was quick to forget any rudeness, especially after being asked something himself. "Born in neutral territories. Did not know parents. Lived alone for substantial time, but gained affinity for knowledge. Satiation of curiosity required travel, so wandered for some time. Chased out of most clans self visited." He left his sentence dangling, unfinished, though the unsaid words were obvious -  so this hospitality is unusual. It didn't add a whole lot, but perhaps it explained his peculiar vivacity right now.

In the spirit of being a bouncy ball, the arachnid moved his attention and body back to Aurum, facing him head-on. "Any other important information about ranks?" He asked, perhaps the most reasonable question of his yet.

tags - "speech"

[wormwood.]

i was born, on the highway, in a train wreck

with a heart, that was beating, out of my chest

Aurum wasn't sure if he was beginning to feel more annoyed or uncomfortable by Abathur's strange and invasive circling and questioning, but either emotion probably would've worked. A small frown came to his muzzle as the spider reached out and touched his wing, the large limb twitching slightly and feathers spreading out in response. Part of the lion wanting to snap at Abathur for the invasion of personal space, but a larger part of him just wanted to be polite and keep the peace. After all, Abathur sort of just seemed like a strange guy in general, not to mention his status as a new member of Tanglewood... it wouldn't exactly look good for the Captain to be ripping his head off just for a stray touch. So, instead Aurum took a deep breath inward before answering, his voice a soft rumble as he pulled one of his wings away a bit, "Erm... not very recently. A few months ago, I think? It's been a while since it happened. I've gotten used to having them, so..." He awkwardly shrugged his shoulders as the wings settled against his spine once again, not really having a concrete answer. At one point in his life, Aurum had been counting every day that he was in Tanglewood, desperate to get out and leave, but... that wasn't the case anymore, and it felt like time just went flying by now. When Abathur asked if the growth of his wings had coincided with anything important, Aurum struggled to think of an answer, both because he was very uncomfortable and because he truly couldn't remember, "...I don't quite remember. I think my Mother had just joined the group at the time? I never had a very good relationship with her... but I don't think that caused my wings to grow." The arrival of Judith in Tanglewood had certainly been a very stressful situation for Aurum, but it had ultimately ended up being a good moment, since he had stood up for himself with the help of Sam... he had really been coming into his own, but it didn't feel like that would cause something like wing growth, would it?

Aurum watched for a moment as Kaz and Abathur interacted, holding back a snort when Kaz was caught off guard by the questioning. It seemed as though Kaz was just as confused as Aurum was, at least as to why he had been asked. It kinda hurt, hearing Abathur say that Kaz had a more authoritative attitude than he did, but... it was sort of true. Aurum had a tendency to be more warm and welcoming rather than authoritative. Still, he found that he didn't mind it being that way. His attitude didn't change his rank or the knowledge he had, and when Abathur turned to him questioningly, he found himself smile. Tail flicking back and forth lazily, Aurum rumbled to the unusual new spider, "Well... Miller was right. Leroy is our General, and the one who runs everything around here, and I'm his right hand. Technically there's a rank above me known as Proxy, but we don't have one right now due to a very recent leadership change. Our medical team is split into two, with one medic being the head medic known as the sawbone. There are also chasers, which are our stepping stone rank, and guardsmen. They're who I'm the captain of, and they're in charge of welcoming in joiners, hosting events, guarding, all of that... that's pretty much it." All in all, Tanglewood didn't exactly have a huge amount of ranks, but that had never been a problem in the past, and Aurum found he liked it that way. Even if sometimes it seemed like they could use some sort of "party thrower" rank exclusively for Feza.

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