THE HAND THAT FEEDS ☆ friendship bracelets

[wormwood.]

[glow=#000,1,400]MY MAMA SAID THAT I'M NOT LIVING RIGHT. YOU RAISED A LION, MAMA, I AIN'T LYING, MAMA — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

Friendship bracelets were practically a universe cliche, but it wasn't as if cliches didn't become that way for a reason. The particular reason for this cliche was the fact that making friendship bracelets was a simple and fun activity that would – hopefully – would bring people closer together. The reason that Wormwood had decided it would be a good activity was actually for two reasons. Firstly, Worm had recently learned that Roy hadn't exactly had a very relaxed and nice life up until now, and probably hadn't had any sort of chance to enjoy his life as a child thus far with silly pointless activities like this, and that made Wormwood's heart hurt, honestly. It reminded him far too much of when he had been a child, and the only childish activities that he had been able to enjoy had been when he and his brother had fought tooth and nail so that he could do something fun, and he didn't want any kid to have a childhood like his. However, thinking about his brother reminded him of the second reason that he was hosting this little distraction, which was because the group had seemed to be in quite the down mood lately, Wormwood included. Whether it be all of the people who had been injured, all the people who had been taken, or all the people that were sick, there were plenty of reasons for why Tanglewood as a whole wasn't in a particularly great mood lately, but Wormwood wanted to try his best to bring the group together and cheer them up.

It had taken quite a bit of effort to set it up, but Worm had eventually managed to pull a folding table out to the edge of camp – between the area where he knew Roy liked to hang out, and between the main area of the group – and had said it up with a wide variety of different things. These things included various strings and beads and different kinds of fabric and trinkets, and Worm had made sure to grab different adhesives like glue and tape, and had even managed to drag out an old ragged book that had a section on how to make good friendship bracelets. He wasn't going to make anybody specifically follow any directions, but he figured that if people needed some more instructions, they could try reading the book – or rather, if they needed to, they could ask him to read it for them, since he knew there were still plenty of his clanmates that still had no idea what the various loopy symbols meant. It was disappointing, but plenty of them didn't really care about actually being able to read, and preferred instead to just either find their information otherwise, or use somebody else who could figure it all out.

Quickly shaking his head to clear out his thoughts of how disappointing his reading class had turned out, the lion carefully set out the last of the supplies before hopping up onto the nearest porch, clearing his throat and raising his head to call out in the most jolly and least devastated voice that he could manage, [glow=black,1,400]"Hey, if anybody wants to make a friendship bracelet for anybody else, then you can come over here! Thought it might be fun...!"[/glow] Even as he said it, he could hear how absolutely childish and ridiculous it sounded in his deep and rough voice, but he steadfastly ignored that, reminding himself that he was doing this for the good of everybody. It was far better for everyone to be focusing on carefully weaving together little fabric bracelets instead.of focusing on the dark and wavy clouds of dread that he could swear seemed to be swarming over Tanglewoof these days. He had already been feeling quite a bit of anxiety and apprehension before they had gone out on the raid on The Pitt, but things had somehow managed to get even worse, and the entire thing made.him feel quite exhausted and nauseous quite often these days. This was really one of the only things that he had thought would be pretty fun as well as relaxing that they could all definitely do, even if some of them would need help thanks to less than ideal limbs.

[fulzanin]

[align=center][div style="width: 55%; text-align: justify; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 1.4;"]Creating things for other people, Feza felt like she did that often enough. She threw endless parties and festivities for her clanmates. Her antics were always present in an attempt to cheer people up. She constantly crafted monstrous party favors and flung them about, a giddy grin always on her face. She liked making, creating, doing. It was what the snow leopard did day in and day out.

Her paws carried her over, and a thoughtful expression was on her face. 'Friendship bracelets', she had heard of those before. Feza had thought about the items once before, but had been held back from making them. There was one reason, one strong reason for why the vibrant, mutated feline hadn't tried to make a friendship bracelet prior. Feza didn't think she had any actual friends. She felt deep down that she was utterly despised, especially by the lion that was hosting this friendship bracelet creation session. What an odd concept to her, to be nervous as she came close to eye at the materials provided to create the bracelets.

"Do you, do you have any glitter glue?" Feza asked as she had immediately walked over to the fold out table to eye the materials. Of course she had asked about glitter glue, to her it was the ultimate crafting and binding item. She had glitter glue on all of her projects, even when it wasn't being used to bind two objects together. The snow leopard winced at the nervousness of her tone, face scrunching up for a moment. A wary glance was given to the lion hosting the event, and her blue gaze swiftly dropped back to the items used to craft the friendship bracelets.

The snow leopard was happy that she had previous experience with creating items akin to a friendship bracelet. Necklaces and other random trinkets- even her wind chimes had been made in the same style as she was mentally picturing the bracelet being made. She knew how those were made, she had prior experience. She question on her mind remained as to who she was going to give this to. Feza knew she truly didn't have anyone to give the item to. Maybe she could hold onto it. Keep it for when she did have friends- when her party throwing finally worked in the manner desired. Feza pawed at one of the regular canisters of glue, a small mumble following suit.

[spacexual]

i heard you were looking like the moon — tags

Many individuals did not get to see Roy. He remained in the marsh, keeping his fire away from where it could harm others, and keeping his surroundings exposed so that nothing could ever sneak up on him. He'd not gotten to participate in much of anything revolving this new home, and he was not sure if he ever would. Perhaps it was better off that way, though. The weapon had never seen so much life before. Every day was something new. It let him take in more things at his own pace, at the very least. Seeing the inside of forests, towns, junkyards, islands, deserts, and whatever else the world may provide, could just very well overwhelm him.

He laid upon a rock, staring at his surroundings silently, when he hears Wormwood's call. His ears swivel towards the sound, and he does not approach immediately. He is not so sure he's invited to whatever this may be. But, the sentence captures his curiosity, along with the colors.

What was all this? The burning tiger looks around the various decorations with a head held low. "What are?" the boy would question softly to the announcement of friendship bracelets. He had never read anything about those before, he doesn't think, and neither the doctor nor the other had any mention of such a thing. He was familiar with the idea of gifts and jewelry, but he'd never heard the term Wormwood spoke of. The flaming boy stands a bit farther off from the lion and leopard, watching cautiously as he awaits an answer.

[wormwood.]

[glow=#000,1,400]MY MAMA SAID THAT I'M NOT LIVING RIGHT. YOU RAISED A LION, MAMA, I AIN'T LYING, MAMA — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

The first one to arrive to his little event was, unsurprisingly, Feza. It wasn't particularly surprising considering how much the leopard enjoyed everything to do with decorating things, having fun, and making friends – despite the fact that it seemed as though Feza wasn't actually doing particularly great with the whole making friends part of that. Especially not with him, given their past history of him snapping at her and absolutely losing his shit. He always felt bad about it in the aftermath, but he didn't particularly feel the need to apologize directly to Feza because... well, she really did annoy him. He couldn't say that anything he had said in the past hadn't been true, because ultimately it had been. Thus far, her two little adventures into annoying the entire camp – her kazoo class and the whole windchime debacle – had done nothing to him except prickle his pelt and made his blood run hot because of how absolutely annoying as shit it always was. When she approached, a large part of him wanted to immediately go to the bitter and cynical asshole answer – see? This is how you host an event, Feza. You just host it at a decent time, and you don't do something so heinously loud that the entire camp wakes up to their ears bleeding – but he held himself back, knowing full well in the back of his mind that he had been being cruel enough to her lately because of his own problems. His emotions were an absolute mess lately, and that had led to him being harsher than necessary, and he knew it.

So, instead of the immediate recoiling reaction of anger and bitterness to Feza that came to mind at first, he forced a small toothy smile to the leopard and rumbled softly as he pushed forward several canisters of glue that he had gotten after a bit of searching, [glow=black,1,400]"I do, but I only have it in one color, which I'm sure that is child's play to you."[/glow] He winced at the slightly sarcastic undertone his voice seemed to unintentionally take, and he shook his head a little bit at himself, internally punishing himself for the fact that he couldn't even manage to get out one friendly sentence to Feza without it sounding like some thinly veiled threat or sharpened jab at the party throwing female. He wished that he could just use his usual friendly tone and genuinely mean it, but lately every little movement and every word that fell from his lips seemed vaguely forced – forced to push through the worry, forced to push through the sadness, forced to push through the pain that was echoing through his mind eternally lately – even when he was being entirely genuine and trying his best to hold things together. And if this little event wasn't a sign of how much he was trying to hold things together, then he wasn't sure exactly what would show it.

After dealing with Feza's arrival, he looked up when Roy arrived as well, and a genuine grin came to his face as he saw the boy. He couldn't really help it – despite himself, he for some reason, he felt a connection to the younger male, and found that he wanted to protect him and make him feel happy, exposing Roy to fun activities that he might've never experienced. He wasn't sure why it seemed so evident, but it was pretty clear to him that Roy hadn't had the happiest life ever in the past, and he highly doubted that the male had ever had the fun of arts and craft in his life before, so he was glad that Roy had actually heard his call and arrived. It seemed that his suspicions had been confirmed when the tiger arrived and asked what exactly was going on, and what they would be creating. Chuckling softly, the male dipped his head to Roy before he began to explain, his tail flicking excitedly from side to side as he smiled at the tiger, leaning against the table that the supplies were on – although not leaning his entire weight against it, since he didn't want to break shit, [glow=black,1,400]"Friendship bracelets? They're bracelets that you make out of stuff like this that you give to people that you care about! Friends, family, anybody that you love! They're meant to represent your deep bond with that person, and you can make them have whatever patterns or things on them that you want. They're pretty fun to make, if you want to try. I know that the flames might make it a bit hard, but I'm sure we can figure out a way around it with just a little bit of effort, you know?"[/glow]

Pushing forward a few of the different supplies he had, he moved over to Roy's side and tried to begin to show him how he could twist things together with his paws and mouth. He could feel the heat coming off of Ray in waves, but he steadfastly ignored it, a crooked little grin on his face as he began to demonstrate for the other male. If he was being honest, he really liked teaching others things that they would enjoy and find fun, and it seemed as though Roy needed fun in his life. He couldn't imagine that the other male was feeling particularly loved while he needed to stay out in the swamp to prevent himself from setting everything on fire, and Worm wanted to change that. He wasn't sure why he wanted to try so hard to make Roy feel welcomed and like he had family here, but perhaps it was just because Worm had such an awful childhood of his own. Sure, Roy wasn't entirely a little child, but still, he was more of a child than most of the members of Tanglewood were, and because of that the lion wanted to make sure that Roy had a pleasant experience living here. Although honestly thus far it didn't seem as though the tiger was really living in Tangle, given his current situation of hiding out in the swamp. Worm could only hope that pretty soon they could figure out how to make it so that Roy could actually live in one of the houses in camp.

[spacexual]

i heard you were looking like the moon — tags

The tiger listens closely to Wormwood's response, seeming to pause as he states something in particular. For anybody you love.

The boy frowns, tensing. What if you're not loved back, or they're gone, or you're unsure of love at all?

He watches the rest of the explanation, blinking quietly to himself. His paws shuffle as he thinks.

After thinking for a little bit, silently, he comes to a decision. "Can make for anyone? As many I want?" he asks quietly, looking to Wormwood with a gentle gaze. The boy stares at his body, sighing quietly as he tries to hopefully make his flames die down a bit - or at the very least move them to his back. And, with a little concentration, he is able to transfer anything pulsating from his paws more towards the upper part of his body, so he may at least reach out and hold onto things. He scooted a bit closer, grabbing a pawful of strings to twist.

He has no family, no true friends, and the one person he's trusted is long gone. Voices tell him of his mistakes. He knows he is insignificant now. But, that doesn't mean everyone else was - even if he did not know them. He wants to make one for everyone.

[wormwood.]

[glow=#000,1,400]MY MAMA SAID THAT I'M NOT LIVING RIGHT. YOU RAISED A LION, MAMA, I AIN'T LYING, MAMA — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

Wormwood watched as the flames licking over Roy slowly moved backward in order for him to be able to perform the task at hand, and a soft smile came to his face as he nodded slowly to Roy. He rumbled softly as his tail flicked from side to side, a sense of warmth passing through his chest and down through his limbs at the fact that the young tiger seemed so interested and delighted in Worm's silly little activity, [glow=black,1,400]"Yes, you can make one for anyone, and as many as you want. If we run out of supplies, I'll even go and get more so you can make more if you want."[/glow] Faintly in the back of his mind, he was aware of the the fact that he was probably spoiling Roy at this point, but he really couldn't help it. The younger male was most of the reason that he had hosted this little event, and seeing Roy pleased with the prospect of making bracelets for everyone here that he knew made Wormwood feel incredibly happy and he found that he wanted to put a smile on the tiger's face more often. A faint smile came to his muzzle as he pushed one of the bowls of supplies faintly forward so that it was easier for Roy to get to them.

His attention was then pulled away from the young tiger by the approach of V, someone that the lion hadn't seen around too much and didn't know greatly yet. Still, she was a member of Tanglewood, and he felt the same degree of caring for her as everybody else he did in the group. Because of this, when he saw the tears faintly rolling down the female's cheeks, he froze up and frowned a bit in worry for her. Still, he noticed the pain in her eyes and the way she seemed to be steadfastly ignoring the crying that was going on, so he ignored it as well, offering her a small and comforting smile to try and communicate that she had others who cared about her here. Sure, he didn't know her that well yet, and he certainly didn't know why she had showed up to the bracelet making event so upset, but he really didn't have a leg to stand on if he questioned her. After all, just a few days ago he had collapsed in the middle of camp, just sobbing his eyes out over everything that had been going on without much of an instigating act besides just a little tumble onto the ground. He was pretty sure that most of the time now he was wound up so tightly in his own tangled web of emotions at the moment that it was entirely possible he could end up crying right now if someone just said the wrong thing. He of course wasn't hoping for such a thing, but he he was just being honest with himself over the pain he was feeling so often these days.

Gritting his teeth, the lion shook his head to get rid of the warring thoughts within his brain, the mix of excitement and strange sorrow causing him distress at what was supposed to just be a nice and friendly event to bring the group together. After taking in a deep breath to even himself out, the lion nodded to V and let out a soft pleased chuff before speaking, [glow=black,1,400]"Yes, of course you can make one as well, miss V. This is an event open to everyone, and if you've got somebody you want to give a bracelet to, feel free to give them one... even if you don't have anybody in particularly in mind, you can always make one for yourself. A little bit of self love, you know?"[/glow] He joked softly, trying to lighten the mood from the oddly somber cloud that had fallen over it since V had arrived. He knew that the other hadn't been around for long yet, so he couldn't really blame her if she didn't have anyone here yet that she wanted to give a bracelet to. After all, if he was back in the days of the Pride, then he definitely wouldn't have anybody else that he would have wanted to give a bracelet to after spending a lot of time making it. But things were different here, and there were many of his clanmates – in fact, practically all of them – that he would gratefully give a bracelet to, just to see their smiling faces. It made him feel quite similar to Roy, whose sentiment to give one to everybody was practically identical.

Turning to look at the table, he pushed some stuff towards V before moving to grab some things for himself and begin twisting differently colored strings together. He wasn't exactly sure how it would look yet, but... he knew he was going to make one for first: Red. The male had been missing now for several days, and every evening that passed without the gorilla returning made more and more concern fill the lion's entire body, distracting his thoughts and driving tears to his eyes even when he had been feeling fine just a few moments before. As he began to twist strings of black and red together, his eyes seemed to gain a far off look, thinking about the pain that Red could've possibly been going through. His own eyes began to sting with unshed tears, similar to the ones that had been occupying V's eyes briefly, but he swallowed down the lump in his throat and focused on the elaborate task he was doing with his paws and mouth. There was absolutely no way that he was going to cry right now, especially when he had to be a comforting presence for everybody else here, especially V. She had seemed quite caring thus far, and he didn't want her to have to deal with his emotional problems so soon, or make Roy feel bad.

[RED]

[align=center][div style="text-align:justify;width:55%;font-family:verdana;"]tracks from the pitt :itsallpainfullyreal:

[fulzanin]

[align=center][div style="width: 55%; text-align: justify; font-family: verdana; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 1.4;"]Feza's ears slid back at the tone of sarcasm that was given to her. Feza didn't really grasp sarcasm, just like how she didn't grasp the concept that her antics were entirely fruitless in the eyes of most of her peers. They were her way of life, they were what she had to do. It was how her mind worked, it was how she behaved. The sarcasm made her recoil, and her expression flickered into a bout of confusion. She snagged the one container of glitter glue and some of the other materials.

It was true that such a thing could be considered child's play to Feza. Her constant antics made arts and crafts tasks incredibly easy for her to do. The snow leopard used teeth and claws to open the container, and swiftly set to work. Of course she was too absorbed in her antics to engage in the social aspect of the friendship bracelet crafting, to do what she had been striving so hard to do. The opportunity was here, and her obsession with her task meant that Feza didn't notice in the slightest. Her mind was absorbed with what she was doing, who she was going to give this to, what colors to use, where to put certain things.

Feza had paused for a moment, her claws sheathing as she looked over her progress of the bracelet. Lots of glitter glue, she'd practically coated the base of the bracelet in such. "I could..run and grab more supplies from my house. It's got lots of supplies for arts and crafts," she offered, her hearing barely having caught the mention of having to fetch more supplies. "More glitter glue," Feza muttered under her breath, head lowering back to her task.

Who was she going to give this to? Feza didn't know. Perhaps she could keep it to herself- self love, as Wormwood had said. She didn't particularly like jewelry though. It was strange and foreign and reminded her of some uncomfort that her mind refused to be able to identify in full. She'd find someone to give it to. Her blue gaze lifted again, looking over the other Tanglers that had come to the event. Maybe she could make one for all of them. A friendship bracelet crafting bracelet..thing. It had sounded better as a vague thought, and when she tried to iron it out even Feza thought it sounded a little silly.

Yes, she was naive enough to not realize how much her antics annoyed her fellow Tanglers. It was not enough for her to be able to grasp that she truly had no friends here. Feza's head again raised, snagging another item from the table. She needed more glitter glue, the snow leopard thought. "Does anyone else need more glitter glue? I'm gonna go get more glitter glue." She said, raising up to a stand and flicking her tail off to the side. "Hey, Wormwood, what's your favorite color?" The snow leopard added on, although it seemed more so as if that was simply a thought that had manifested verbally while she squinted. Likely trying to remember where the glitter glue was even kept in her home.

She still had yet to explore her home in full, too busy with more important activities such as this one. It was clear where Feza's priorities lied: in parties, in arts and crafts. She didn't note how the other's present barely seemed able to hold together. She couldn't. Her mind was too wrapped around the half made friendship bracelet that rested near her paws, absolutely slathered in the one color of glitter glue.

[wormwood.]

[glow=#000,1,400]MY MAMA SAID THAT I'M NOT LIVING RIGHT. YOU RAISED A LION, MAMA, I AIN'T LYING, MAMA — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

Wormwood blinked and looked up as Feza shifted, turning to return back to her unusual home in order to get more supplies for their fun little activity. He shook his head in response to her question about needing more glitter glue, but then blinked in surprise when she asked him what his favorite color was. He blinked a couple of times, his mind stuck in thought, before he rumbled softly as he looked down, his face faintly burning in embarrassment at the fact that he had never actually really contemplated the question before, [glow=black,1,400]"Ah, oh! Uhm... I suppose that my favorite color is gold, if you can believe that..."[/glow]" It felt a bit silly to say, considering that gold was the color of his own pelt, along with the splashes of red that covered him, and it felt sort of narcissistic. But honestly that wasn't why gold was his favorite color. Rather, it was because gold had been a very important color back in the pride, and in all of his stories. Gold was the color of loyalty and royalty, and considered to be almost holy in reverence. Because of that, he enjoyed choosing gold as the color of most things around him, and it was definitely a favorite of his, and had been for many years. However, perhaps that would change one day when his memories of the pride finally faded.