Look at this handsome fellow, meandering his way slowly westward like the god damn Oregon trail. He'd seen some caged-up bunnies and had harassed them for a while until their squeals brought out a stern-faced - and tall - male to scold him. Oh god, spare him from lectures of morality. He might have stuck around to poke fun at the prey-lover and nibble on a few of his pets just to see him cry about it, but a peregrine falcon had joined the wolf and divebombed his head. She clearly had air superiority, and after a few knocks on the head he'd figured discretion, for once, was the better part of valor and he'd beat a hasty retreat.

Now his head was throbbing where the bitch of a falcon had hit him with her balled up talons like his poor skull was a duck she was trying to knock out of the air, and Demyan was in a full-on pout. They were just stupid bunnies, why did they care if he chased them? Why would anyone in their right mind keep prey animals around in cages anyway? Muttering imprecations under his breath and occasionally rubbing his head, he went to look for someplace to sulk and all he could find was the low, crumbling foundation of a building. Even that cool metal thing stank of some old codger that would probably conk him on the head with his walker. Fuck, even his sulking spot sucked today.

With a great deal more moaning and groaning than was really warranted, Demyan flopped down on the wall with his legs dangling on either side. Not that it was a particularly satisfying dangle. What was left of the foundation was too low for his legs to dangle properly, so his toes touched easily. Damnit, universe! With a scowl he pulled his legs up slightly so the toes didn't touch anymore, but now they couldn't get a good stretch going on either, so instead he stretched them out in front and behind. Like Superman, yo.

Jupiter had been coaxed awake quite early by his companion. They had new projects to work on and Amadeus wanted to get a jump on the day, but Jupiter, the epitome of a night-dwelling teenager, was as repelled by the morning sun as a vampire. The tamarin had coaxed and threatened to no avail, and eventually he had settled on flinging a turtle shell full of creek water onto his friend's head. The water had worked, Jupiter was up, but he wasn't exactly the most compliant of creatures. With a dismayed Amadeus trailing behind him, the young Imperialis stalked across the Range. The left side of his face was still wet and every breeze that blew across it only heightened his annoyance. He was still going to fulfill his end of the deal, but he was going to make Amadeus sweat for awhile before he caved. A groan caused the boy to grind to a halt. He listened, head canted to the side, and then licked his lips thoughtfully. He wasn't exactly into charity, but he could use a good gawk. Perhaps whoever was dying by the old barn was dying a cool death. He rounded a stand of trees and was greeted by the sight of a large darkly colored male laying on the crumbled brick wall. At first glance the stranger didn't appear to be dying, which, admittedly, was a bit of a bummer. He did look a bit down in the mouth, though. "Wow," he said dryly. "What a long face. Did someone pee on your breakfast or som'fing?" "Jupiter"   "Amadeus" ”You”

His sulk was really building up a good head of steam when it was very rudely interrupted by a youthful male voice singing a sarcastic little ditty - figuratively speaking of course, except the sarcastic part. Demyan, who wasn't particularly a fan of kids anyway, opened his eyes again with a fierce scowl, fully intending to unleash the full force of his cutting wit on the tiny fiend... only his eyes narrowed again immediately as he focused on the other wolf. What in the name of fucking fuck was that little bastard? His scowl was reduced to a faintly suspicious, narrow-eyed glare, but his interest was definitely, well, interested. "Maybe," he sniffed. "What about you, Cupcake, someone push you into a blueberry patch and hurt your precious little feelings?"

The man's expression didn't go unnoticed. Jupiter was used to it. His coloration was rarely glossed over. So, upon taking note of Demyan's wary look, he quirked a brow at him, the challenge in his amused look clear: bring it, grump town. "Har, har, har," he said flatly to drive his point home. "That's so funny. Blue wolf, blueberry patch. The girls must love you, funny man." His expression, like his mood, was mild. Unlike many of his predecessors Jupiter wasn't easily offended. Where they might have bristled at encountering the surly stranger, the young Imperialis was simply intrigued. He was bored and he wanted to be entertained. Assuming the stranger could take a joke, perhaps he'd get a nice little witty spar out of this encounter. "Jupiter"   "Amadeus" ”You”

The boy fired back a salvo of his own, and Demyan moved so his forelegs were crossed on the wall in front of him, leaving his hindlegs dangling. "Might be they do," he said casually, narrowing his eyes at the little punk and leaning towards him slightly. "Might be I don't need to take lip from mouthy little shits who can't even get it up yet." He gave it a beat, glaring at the boy, before leaning back. "Real talk, though, were you actually born that way or is that blue some kind of dye or something? Like some kind of algae paint or something?" The possibilities were endless if it were some kind of paint. Not that his perfect body needed anything added to it - you couldn't improve on perfection after all - but hey, it could be interesting.

Jupiter raised both eyebrows as if Demyan had just told him something shocking and then broke into a shit-eating grin. "You might think you hit me with a zinger, but really," he said saucily, "Alls I learned is that you were a late bloomer." Jupiter eyed Demyan for a beat as he considered the man's question. He wasn't sure if he had an ulterior motive - some zinger primed and ready to go as soon as Jup unwittingly said the right words - or if he was genuinely curious. After a moment he decided to take the man's "real talk" statement seriously. The armistice was likely to be a short one as Jupiter's answer left him open to uncountable criticisms, but eh. "Nah, no tricks. I was born this good-looking." He almost threw in something about his equally colorful siblings, but decided not to give the man more ammunition than he absolutely had to. "Jupiter"   "Amadeus" ”You”