oh no! / joining

[alaric g.]

    The marsh stunk.

    That was the first thing that Alaric noticed as he stepped lightly across the damp earth under him. The scent invaded his senses, causing him to turn up his nose in disgust. "What kind of animals would want to live here?" the feline wondered aloud, stopping for a moment to examine his surroundings. Light was scarce in the swamp—glancing upwards to prove that was unnecessary. Nevertheless, he cast his icy blue gaze upwards, but only a singular stream of light was able to filter through the twisted crown of foliage far above his head. It was a wonder that some cantankerous creature hadn't attacked him in the darkness.

    Water was clearly abundant in the weald. Miraculously, Alaric had managed to stay mostly dry by stepping only on the gnarled roots of the trees around him. Despite this, the humidity in the air made him feel thoroughly drenched. It was disgusting, quite frankly, or at least he thought so.

    Cautiously, Alaric ventured on through the marsh. He walked aimlessly for a few minutes, and at some point he decided to take a break on the twisting roots of the tree that he had stopped on. For some reason, he found his eyes drawn towards the tree. On it was a strange symbol carved into the bark. A straight horizontal line, with two shorter vertical lines scratched on top. It was a curious symbol, he thought, and it was too fresh to be from an ancient civilization. Perhaps it meant that there was intelligent life nearby. He had no earthly idea what the symbol could signify, but if it meant that there was someone or something out there... Well, maybe seeking them out would be a good idea. He figured that the chance of being killed by whatever group lurked nearby was pretty low. Perhaps, even, he'd be able to find a home among them. He hoped, at least.

    With a newfound diligence, the tabby pressed onward. As he progressed, he noted that a few traps began to appear; snares here, nets there. The further he walked, the greater their frequency. Alaric kept a wide berth from each of them, bar the few close calls he had here and there. It could be assumed that their increasing rate of recurrence meant that he was getting nearer to the place that the group called home. This was further evidenced by the gradual replacement of the swamp's stench with an unfamiliar scent.

    Unbeknownst to Alaric, he had ventured onto Tanglewood territory.

♔ don't do love, don't do friends

[Ivan]

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He kept fancying that Ivan was absorbed in something — something inward and important — that he was striving toward some goal, perhaps very hard to attain.

— Бра́тья Карама́зовы

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Truly it stunk.

It was the reason Ivan usually didn't wander too far into it. Nothing good happened there. The marsh itself was an unpleasant smell for Ivan, mores because his nose was prized over his eyes. He had also met nothing but foreigners in the marsh, big cats and jaguar cubs that made the thin black cat choke on his bile upon scenting them. Nothing smelt as good as the library, or the homeliness of the town. He was born and raised there after all. Caustic was a particularly awful scent but Ivan had noticed of late he was beginning to tolerate it — which was not something to be proud of, in his view.

So there was really no reason for him to be here, but he was still irrationally angry about the Typhoon cubs painting their trees. The young cat had decided to take on this enterprise on his own decision. He furiously scrubbed at the purple-toned bark, muttering, "It's blue, it's blue." How could he not realize that nobody else saw the world in the way he saw it?

His large ears swiveled to the left as he heard the unmistakable sound of someone approaching. His nose curled up, realizing he was downwind. If the weather had worked in his favor, he would have sensed Alaric sooner. Ivan hopped off the bark and glanced around. He spotted the gray tabby and parted his jaws. It wasn't a fishy Typhoon scent, he couldn't tell who this person was from. Ivan began to run to catch up, his paws crunching over dead leaves and making the weird sucking noise when he accidentally stepped in a marshy area, usually he was good at that. He slowed to a trot and abruptly cut off Alaric's journey inward.

This cat was young, but certainly not as young as Ivan. Ivan was beginning to look more like an adult cat thankfully, his kitten fluff was going away, but he was still that. A kitten. "Where do you think you're going? This is Tanglewood." He stated, an accusatory tone stinging his words.

[toboggan]

The regular flow of joiners sort of diminished as of late. Odd, it was, to not have a new face show up on the border every other day - though, to be fair, Leroy rarely ventured out that far to greet joiners anyway. Ever since assuming the role of general, the wolfhound saw his need to patrol the territory's outer reaches as unnecessary. Conducting patrols was a job for the guardsmen and chasers, not the leader.

Nonetheless, Leroy found himself straggling off in the direction of the region's outskirts. Why, exactly? He received intel pertaining to a particular group of mischievous youths, and how they made the decision to demonstrate their artistic prowess by decking the surrounding trees in a blanket of vivid paint. Up until today, he hadn't seen the young Typhoonites' damage; but upon the sight of the trees, which surely sustained a good amount of harm from the colourful chemicals, the canine's neutral expression shifted into a grimace. In fact, he was just about ready to return to the town and order Feza or Beck or another one of those impish types to return the favour. But, in the apex of his chocolate eyes, he saw two figures: one of Selby and Moth's kin, and a stranger.

The hound encroaches, keeping his figure obscured in the surrounding thicket. He is interested in how Ivan would handle this encounter, as he hadn't personally met the feline, and thus, hadn't the slightest clue in regards to how the child's mind worked. As the tyke spews defensive scurrility at the outsider, Leroy couldn't help but break into a smile. At that point, he emerges, and offers a half-apologetic half-facetious glance towards the grey tabby. "What he said," the male's gruff voice adds, flicking his noggin in Ivan's path. It wasn't likely, but the general hoped that the young cat's opposing attitude did not deter the foreigner. "My name's Leroy," he continues, "and I run this place. Who are you, where are you from, state your business, et cetera."

[alaric g.]

    The tabby's onward progression was marked by unusual sights. Some of the trees, he noticed, were of an unusual shade; purple, blue, yellow—the rainbow was apparently no stranger to this forest. Alaric briefly wondered if he had consumed a mushroom or two somewhere along the way. He shrugged the thought off, certain that he was intelligent enough to not do something so stupid as to eat a random fungal growth along the way. However, if the colors weren't some sort of hallucinogenic effect to due a drug, they must have been yet another sign of a group nearby.

    Alaric's suspicions were confirmed when in front of him stepped a kitten spouting some defensive, accusatory nonsense. He regarded the child with the same seemingly uninterested blue stare that he had looked upon everything thus far with. Tanglewood? thought Alaric upon processing the kit's words. That must be the name of this group, then—or perhaps the name of this forest?

    He opened his mouth to respond to the tyke when from the underbrush a hound appeared. His gaze flicked to the dog instinctively. So the child is not alone. Presently he analyzed the hound, noting that he carried himself perhaps more regally than the child did. Was this person in a position of power, then? Alaric would not know for sure without asking. The apologetic glance from the stranger did not go unmissed, but neither did its flippant undertone. The tabby began to speak again, but was once more interrupted. So the stranger's name was Leroy, and he was, in fact, in charge of... what was it the kitten said? Tanglewood?

    "My name is Alaric," he responded after a moment. Not seeing the need for frivolities, Alaric responded thusly: "I'm not from anywhere that you'd know of, but I mean to join your group." His gaze remained on Leroy, as he figured that the leader's approval to join would carry more weight than a child's.

♔ don't do love, don't do friends

[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 —

New faces in Tanglewood had begun to become less frequent as of late, but Aurum couldn't say that he was particularly disappointed by it. When Tanglewood had been at the peak of popularity, it had been difficult to keep track of every face that had come in and out, and the proxy was sure he wouldn't have been able to keep up with them in his current pregnant state. With things having slowed down, it meant that he was able to take a bit more time to get around. Besides, the angel knew that very soon there would be even more young faces around in the form of his new cubs, and those faces would more than likely be enough for him for quite a while. However, this didn't stop him from patrolling the territory as usual, determined to get out of the house until the very last day he was unable to, which seemed as though it was approaching fast. He might've reacted to dismay toward such a thing earlier in his life, but now he knew that finally being confined to his house would not only mean the cubs were soon to come, but he'd be able to get back to his usual lion body very soon. He missed it, as well as the strength he had felt flowing through his form when he was in it – it was his birth body, after all, it made sense that it would feel comfortable.

For now, however, the tigon arrived a few minutes after Ivan and Leroy, drawn over by the scent of the pair along with a third, more unfamiliar scent. Coming up beside Leroy, he offered the canine a nod in greeting, before he turned his attention to Alaric. The tabby hardly seemed hostile, and hadn't reacted negatively to Ivan's rather blunt demands to know what he was doing on their territory, which was definitely a positive in the proxy's eyes. Offering Alaric a warm smile to welcome him in, Aurum rumbled from the back of his throat, "Hello there, Alaric. I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be let in, so welcome to Tanglewood... I'm Aurum. I'm the proxy, second in command here under Leroy. If you have any issues at any point, you can feel free to come to me." He cocked his head to one side, glancing at Leroy questioningly, wondering if the leader had anything to add on – or wasn't alright with Alaric joining, for some reason. Aurum doubted that would be the case, but he wanted to maintain a united front with Leroy, especially given the recent issues they'd been having ever since the whole Pitt debacle.

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

#psychosocial.

[CAUSTIC.]

Caustic did not mind Tanglewood's swamp. While it was disgusting on all fronts (normally, he would not mind. His old gear was the proper personal protective equipment to keep him safe), it was home to him on two fronts. To be clear, Caustic would never call Tanglewood itself home. He would never allow himself to. Calling Tanglewood home meant he was comfortable here, that he had settled in, he was staying. Caustic did not want to stay. The wolf knew that being trapped here shortened his life exponentially, and while he and his lab partner danced the lines of death and Caustic felt most alive when rapidly approaching his death- this was not how he would go. Dying here, as a wolf in the basement of a broken house in Tanglewood meant he had failed on all counts. He failed as a scientist, a genius, himself. Worst of all?
It meant he would have failed Octavio. The speedster was doomed to outlive him, and Octavio would die alone.
Such thoughts... bothered him more than it should.
He tried to distract himself the same way as always- other work. Another rabbit, carefully asphyxiated to unconsciousness laid inside the bag around his neck. This was his seventh test subject, and his tail wagged at the thought of the delightful experiments that lay ahead. It was a distraction from the portal maker, he knew, but working on the device for too long had caused him more frustration than results. Caustic's ears perked at voices, and he cringed at the thought of having to... interact.
Just stay under their noses.
He left his test subject under a bush nearby, and the wolf emerged from the foliage, letting a cloud of green gas escape from his mouth. Caustic's eyes glowed through the smoke, as it temporarily obscured his own face until it settled, wrapping around his cheeks. His shoulders heaved for a moment, coughing as he approached from behind Ivan, looming over the kit.
He didn't feel the need to say anything. All the appropriate questions had already been asked.

TAGS • PLAYLIST • PENNED BY OWLIE

THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY OUT

© LEXASPERATED

[alaric g.]

    As more and more creatures emerged from the brush, Alaric slowly began to realize that there were likely more creatures lived in this group than he could have expected, and quite a wide variety too; hell, in front of him now sat a kitten, a hound, a wolf, and... something that looked like a tiger and a lion combined. The tabby could always inquire about the stranger's species, but he didn't really care all that much.

    The tabby's gaze flicked to the newcomers as they approached. The first, whose species he was unsure of, seemed friendly. His words of welcome were, well, welcoming, and the smile that the stranger—er, Aurum—offered seemed warm enough. As for Alaric, he did not summon the energy to return the smile. "Thank you," he replied, dipping his head slightly to emphasize his words.

    The other stranger's appearance was a bit more intriguing, if only for the noxious green gas that he exhaled. Alaric's expression did not change, but he was definitely more intrigued by this creature than the others. The satchel around the wolf's neck was interesting as well.

    Having briefly analyzed the wolf, he allowed his gaze to return to the leader and the second-in-command. "Thank you for the welcome, again," he spoke.

♔ don't do love, don't do friends