Everything got annoyingly serious lately. Tense, ah, that was the word.

That weird, smelly lady that Ma said was a slave was gone now. She'd been gone for some time. Imp hadn't the chance to really play with her but that was fine. Slaves were supposed to be ignored and, like, harassed... Or so the rumor went. He didn't really care to do that though, outside of a little playful fun. He was still a kid. He wanted to have fun times, not boring adult times.

But even Imp could feel something changing. Something... not right. He walked out of the den that Pa and Ma shared, blinking his eyes against the dim light of the evening. He couldn't sleep. Maybe Ma would be around later to re-tuck him in. Imp noticed she left a lot before 'bedtime' cause of her weird light sickness. He secretly was thankful he didn't inherit that. Imagine being... confined.

To the night only? Boring. Everyone was in bed. Everyone was sleeping. Imp would have nobody to play with. He stifled a big old yawn, refusing sleep. His eyes drooped though until movement caught his eye outside the den. He bristled, trying to appear big and scary. "Who's there?!" he demanded.

"he speaks"

The pallid yearling had waited until the sun was nearly set before he headed out. The partial blindness that came with sunlight, as well as the sunburn, well.. he couldn't be assed to brave it. He just kept up his mother's schedule and ran some patrols at night. Which meant that when he decided to go pay her a visit at the den where he'd been born, he'd meandered over there around the time that the sun had sunk below the horizon while its last rays danced across the bruise dark sky. He'd just missed her, her scent was fresh on the wind. Out earlier that usual, and sometimes she stayed out until the sun was almost fully up. Kali's death had messed her up, and he wished he knew how to fix it all. He hadn't known the heir well, but she was still his sister. So he'd mourned like the rest, and wished that his mother hadn't been forced to feel that pain.

Lurking near the outside of the whelping den, he caught a pitchy young voice piping up to make a ~very serious~ demand. A wry grin toyed at his rosy features as the lanky youth lowered his skull to peer into the mouth of the den with his dark eye- still better suited to catching little details while the sun was setting. "The boogeyman, of course." he growled quietly, ivories flashing in the low light as he fought back laughter. Why ignore the perfect opportunity to freak out one of his younger siblings?

Speech

Perhaps it was ignorance or perhaps it was so damn obvious. Imp puffed himself up, even more, rising to stalk. He was more or less jump-lunging at the other boy, mad that most of Recluse's kids felt it funny to piss him off. "You aren't!" he protested. One could even call it brave "you look like Ichor - like a lot!" And Imp remembered Ichor too, who was definitely not a boogeyman! "why does everyone have to tease me?"

He murmured the last part. Imp didn't feel sad about it. He didn't care, he was trying to make some bonds here and nobody seemed to bother him outside of his own blood siblings. Ma and Papa were there, always supportive but... Not anyone really in Habari was, other than them. "You're one of my brothers" he returned to the conversation after sulking a bit. He stared openly at the bigger wolf. Thank goodness it wasn't Widow he had a thought. "but you aren't Ichor, so who are you?"

Asking indirectly for a name here. Any name to add to the plethora of Recluse kids.

"he speaks"

The palpable frustration was just as satisfying as outright fear, because it meant that this littlest sibling had a backbone. The mock lunges that punctuated the accusations of bullying brought a grin to his chiseled features, and his mottled banner wagged lightly at his heels. Alright, maybe it was time to ease of a bit. And the little one was right, he wasn't Ichor. Close enough, though. He dropped onto his rump and then lowered himself onto his elbows to peer into the mouth of the whelping den. "I'm Viscera," he rumbled with a small, cheesy smile. "Ichor is my twin brother." he added, if only just to explain why he happened to look like a scaled up version of the sharp, chaotic gremlin that haunted the pack lands.

"I think I missed your litter's naming, what's your name?" he asked in return with a little tilt of his head. Crossing his paws over one another at the wrist, he idly traced thoughtless patterns into the loose, sandy soil with his talons. Maybe he could convince the kid to ditch bed time and come toss stuff into one of the lava floes for a little while. Might as well snag some sibling bonding time where he could, right? Surely mom wouldn't mind.

Speech

A twin? That sounded cool. He stared with a furrowed brow. "Nobody else looks like me" Imp proclaimed, uncertain how to respond "and everyone else is different, except you and Ichor" He almost hoped that Viscera and Ichor had a good bond if they were going to share the same looks! "I think everyone else doesn't wanna look or be different. Widow said being different was bad. So... is being a twin bad?" They were the only twins to his knowledge, so they were different "I dunno, I like being different."

He shrugged little shoulders before Viscera asked his name. He had stopped jumping at the boy before he started to talk, and now he sat casually in front of him. "Imp" the other son began "you're nicer than the others" Imp pointed out "they put up with me. I know they're teasing me, but they don't think I know!" Apart from a little tease at the beginning, Viscera had been patient and almost kind. He puffed out his cheeks, frowning through it "do they not like us?" He asked Viscera boldly, wondering how his littermates were being treated.

Mama and Papa always found time, but... The others?

"he speaks"
2/3 - met new wolf