each moment holding its breath ._. joiner

[LETHE ELD-CIPHER]

what better than the vaugue embrace

Set territories were such a weird thing. He'd seen a couple species with specific territories, although he'd typically never stuck around long enough to try and grasp it. They would typically stay within the confines of the land that they claimed, which was odd to Anthemtalon. Sure, he was no where near maturity in manners both mental and physical, but wouldn't an infinite territory be far more productive than being locked to a small area? Infinite area being patrolled sounded exhausting though, and it made Anthem want to lay down and take a nap right then and there. Wandering around aimlessly had to be like having an infinite territory size, right? Such was the thoughts that lazily passed on through the komodo monitor's head as he waddled along.

His jaw released the chunk of carrion he was carrying, letting his tongue flicker forth. Definitely another group's land he was getting close to, if the similar smells in a far stronger sense were presenting themselves. He stopped, body lowering to the ground to rest. More of a flop than anything, tongue flickering forth again, head then resting against the ground. Anthem had been wandering all day, and some rest sounded wonderful. Rest always did, especially after he'd spent so long lugging this piece of food around for whenever he got hungry next. Sunlight was supposed to help speed the process up if what he'd heard was correct; however speed and Anthemtalon never were two words that could ever be put into the same sentence.

Long tail curled, a tail that helped him seem older than he really was. Apparently he was 'too big for his age' which, frankly, Anthem found to be stupid. Sure, he had an easy time snatching and scavenging kills, but he was pretty sure others did too. Probably. That was some churning thoughts, and those were exhausting, and Anthem yawned and stretched his jaw again. Claws settled over his meal for a moment, before he sluggishly snapped he food up and began to move along again. Sure. Walking into a clearly scented border probably wasn't the smartest idea he'd ever had, but if he didn't cross it he'd be fine, right? What groups did to outsiders, and groups in general, where rather lost to the komodo monitor. Grunting, lifting his body back up off the ground to begin moving along again. Maybe if he found a nice rock in the process he'd get another nap in.

[APHRA CIPHER .]

[glow=grey,1,400]I'M IN THE BUSINESS OF MISERY ! — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

Growing up near The Typhoon and within it, Aphra was used to the border and territories that was around the island of Beyond. She didn't mind it and instead, believed it was a good thing. Too many people in one place could be chaotic, in more ways than one. The scent of carrion alerted Aphra to Anthemtalon's presence, at first thinking it was her father who was stopping by. Caesar was exiled from the Coalition, but if he was here to visit her or to ask her to do a favor, she absolutely would listen to him, even if he wasn't allowed to be here.

Suffice to say, when she found a large lizard lumbering about instead of a bright neon colored pelt, she was disappointed. Aphra watched Anthemtalon for a few moments before she leaped out of her hiding place and attempted to bat at ANTHEMTALON, claws sheathed (for right now at least). "Hey now, big fella." She spoke, not entirely sure whether this species was intelligent or not. "You're in the Coalition's territory. You have a name?"[glow=COLOR,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

[trojan g.]

[align=center][div style="max-width: 415px;text-align: justify;font-family: times new roman;font-size: 10pt;line-height: 116%;text-indent: 35px;"]The smell of rotten food was something that Ruven wished wasn't familiar to him. Having been with two parents that didn't really hunt very well for the first five months of his life made it so he knew the smell, and he knew it well. He didn't know how they had survived up to the point that they had, but he didn't pay it no mind half the time. Although he would have rather eaten food that wasn't spoiled and on the verge of molding and having little 'friends' inside it, he made it work, he survived up to this point.

It seemed as though he wasn't alone in smelling it though, for when Ruven had come upon the smell at last he saw Aphra there with a weird lizard thing, talking to it. Ruven hadn't fully made his opinion on Aphra yet, considering he didn't know her too well, but talking to a lizard seemed to put her opinion lower on the list. "What're you doing?" The child would ask, head tilting to the side as he pad forward, looking towards the white feline before looking down at the komodo, "It's carrying around food... that's weird." Usually animals just up and ate it, not carried it around wrapped up.

[LETHE ELD-CIPHER]

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Anthemtalon, frankly, hadn’t ever gotten into a fight before. He was more than happy to waddle his sluggish body on away from conflict than try and use his claws and size for anything other than having the strength to rip food off a meal. He probably could throw his weight around in a fight, but having the energy to do that? Just thinking about it was rather tiring, and it easily was dropped from conscious thought.

A grunt came when Anthem was touched, batted, and slowly his head swung around while dropping the food he had been lugging around. Territory. His tongue flickered out for a moment, trying to figure out if he had or hadn’t crossed over that borders line yet. Probably. Or he was close enough for it to be considered in the territory. Territories, so odd, which was why he never bothered to make or uphold one. All that work? It sounded utterly exhausting; yet again, nearly everything did to him.

“Anthemtalon,” was the sluggish, slow reply that sounded like it took all his small brain’s power (and then some) just so say his name. Tongue flickering again, head swinging around to see a smaller creature toddling over. Able to speak as well, and speaking things usually weren’t food. He’d never been hungry enough to eat something that spoke to him; and that was why he was lugging food around, anyways, because hunting a brand new meal would be way more tiring than carrying this meal around. If he was to be annoyed at being deemed nothing more than a mindless lizard by a child’s words, there was not a hint of malice or a change of his stature other than lifting his head up a little to look at whom he was speaking to. “Or Anthem,” the Komodo monitor then added after a lengthy pause.

Finally he sluggishly turned his head away from the one that had batted his scales, not seeming too offended at the clawless attack, to instead look at the other creature. “Small-tiny,” Anthemtalon then grumbled, and tried to recall when he’d been that small. Couldn’t have been too long ago, considering that he was still pretty young. Why was this one so small? Anthem’s jaw settled and a claw scooted the carrion he’d been carrying forward. “Food yes grow.” An attempt at an inquisitive tone was made, but not exactly able to be managed. “Territory group life try, mhm.” Another nudge of the rancid food forward, and Anthem’s tail lethargically swung behind him in an aimless fashion.

ANTHEMTALON [] komodo monitor [] tags

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[APHRA CIPHER .]

[glow=grey,1,400]I'M IN THE BUSINESS OF MISERY ! — ｡+ﾟ.[/glow]

Aphra was preparing to bolt whenever Anthemtalon started to turn to look at her, but realized that he was probably too sluggish to do any sort of damage to her - or so she believed. Aphra's ears flicked in irritation as Anthemtalon responded, his words coming out slow and drawn out. Great. She didn't have time to wait on some dim-wit to try and figure out his thoughts for an hour.

Aphra's lips curled as the strange reptile offered Ruven the carrion he had been carrying. "I don't think he would want that." It looked nasty and her tone portrayed her disgust. "If he wants food, he can get something fresh for himself." She side-eyed the child for a moment before looking back down at Anthem. "You want to stay, then?" She wanted a clarification. "I guess you can." Although I personally wouldn't want such a sluggish liability in my group. "I am Aphra Cipher."[glow=COLOR,1,400] ━ ✧*:･ﾟ[/glow]

[trojan g.]

[align=center][div style="max-width: 415px;text-align: justify;font-family: times new roman;font-size: 10pt;line-height: 116%;text-indent: 35px;"]When words began to spew from the creature's mouth, Ruven made a small noise and jumped back, confused. He'd never seen a creature like this one talk before, so it was odd seeing it. When Anthemtalon offered the boy the food - if it could be called that - that he had been carrying, he would shake his head for a moment, paw motioning towards Aphra. "What she said," He would begin, nose wrinkling for a moment as he thought about the taste of the food that was being shoved his way. "I'm full anyway, already ate something before I started exploring." It had been nice getting to eat fresher food for the time he'd been here so far, and he didn't want to upset his stomach by eating something that was already seemingly dead for the second time. "And my name's Ruven, guess you should know my name since you told us yours..." He wasn't too sure what he would call Anthem, but he'd figure that out later.

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The other didn’t want the food? Well, Anthemtalon hoped he got some bonus points for at least offering; not that his concept of ‘bonus points’ was all that great. A slow and sluggish nod of his head eventually followed once understanding of the situation was reached. “Oh. Okay.” More food for himself, which was the entire purpose of him lugging this chunk of food around for as long as he had. Was the issue with it that it wasn’t ‘fresh’? Apparently that mattered; at least in this scenario. A chuffed noise sounded, like the lizard’s verbal attempt at a shrug. Anthem trying to shrug would probably wind up with him flopping down (uncomfortably) onto his belly.

“Stay, yea, yes,” Anthemtalon garbled out after another long moment of processing time. A blink (if it could be considered that as Anthem lacked eyelids) and another flicker of his tongue, claws gently tugging the chunk of carrion back close to himself. “Aphra Cipher,” he stumbled along through repeating the pronunciation, head then swinging around to the other one present. “Ruven. Names nice. Food nice too. Not sure wrong with.” Another shrug mimicking noise, deciding that while he was standing around and talking he might as well sit and talk, and allowed himself to slowly come to rest on the ground.

“Big territory?” He wasnt sure how territories worked, or the groups that patrolled and lived in them. Patrolling sounded utterly exhausting, and he yawned and gave his head a small shake. “Smelled away, mhm.” Lengthy pause, easily a common situation when the lizard’s small brain was wracking and trying to piece together words to use to convey what barebones, basic thoughts went on in his mind. “Stay nearby?”

ANTHEMTALON [] komodo monitor [] tags

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[angelembrace]

"they flip the siren, hit the lights" ✭ ── Unlike Aphra, and perhaps unlike Ruven, Angel was more than fascinated with the large reptile that stumbled upon the lands they called home. He wrinkled his nose a little at the scent of carrion, yes, but that was mostly just instinctual. He had never seen such a creature, or one that feasted upon what was long dead either.

Drawn over by the scent of decayed flesh and the voices of his group mates, Angelembrace approached with widened eyes and an expression of intrigue. ”Anthemtalon....that sounds so tough! What’s meat like when it’s not, well, fresh? Is it good?” The cub squeaked, perhaps asking too many questions right off the bat, but he didn’t mind the time it took for the lizard to answer. He could wait all day for the words to be strung together. ”Sorry, my name’s Angelembrace, or....Angel, if that’s too long.”

[rhosmari]

What a strange scene she had stumbled upon. Her blue and red eyes narrowed as she focused on the creature that was muttering and grunting. Had with him rancid and old food no one would find appealing. Even with what she ate she was above eating rancid food. The large reptile was definitely not something she expected within the cold and frozen land of the Coalition. Perhaps their thaw had something to do with that? Regardless the leopardess jumped down from the tree that she had been resting in. The slush of snow and ice crunching between her toes. Shaking herself the woman would make her way over, observing the gathered group. "We do live nearby but it is...temporary. We have done fixing up to do." Would the lizard even be able to help? A grin pulled along her jaws then as she beckoned with a tail.

"I'm Sojourn by the way. Your new leader and I do expect you to be able to help around here." The territory was harsh enough and who knew if a new snow storm was coming for them or not. With a light turn she eyed Ruven, checking he was okay before motion for everyone to get back to their temporary camp grounds.

[Cosmic]

Huh. He hadn’t seen a monitor in such a long time, but it wasn’t a surprising or unpleasant sight. In fact, the creature was a breath of relief to the rather large hybrid, who casually strolled forward, holding all of his reptilian tails high as to not accidentally touch anyone with the toxic chemicals they secreted. He didn’t enjoy the fact that he himself was so poisonous, but he could at least find some kinship with this Komodo dragon.

“Welcome to the Coalition.” Devraj said, taking a moment to try and get the lizard’s attention to show them something. Tugging at the corner of his mask, his own monitor lizard tongue flicked out briefly, tasting the air before he put the covering on properly again.

“My name’s Devraj, it’s nice to meet you, Anthemtalon.” If everyone was so concerned about the reptile being able to pull their own weight, Devraj knew he could try and find a job the other could do so they could stay. The hybrid was much more creative and intelligent than others gave him credit for, and this was one of the times he wanted to use it for something good.

“If you need help at all, I can assist you, or one of my groupmates can as well. Just let me know.” Giving off the best, friendliest demeanor he could, the draconic kitsune would sit back and observe the crowd gathering around Anthemtalon, a bit amused by them all.