Flurry waited just until it was clear her father was getting up to do other things before she bound to her paws and approached him, keeping her voice lower as the rest of the pack filed out from the meeting. "Dad!" Okay that wasn't so quiet but her next words were. "I was hoping I could ask you something... A uh... A question about uh... Leadership?" She still didn't exactly know how to express that whole thing yet. Heir seemed so fucking formal and she was also aware she was about to kind question him and his decisions and she wanted to avoid making him defensive, she honestly and truly just wanted to understand his thought process... She settled before him, hoping he'd be able to tell that she was hoping to have this conversation without everyone else lingering around. She was at least conscious enough to not question him in front of the others, especially when one of them was the man involved in her question who clearly had about as much control over his emotions as a newborn child... She didn't exactly feel comfortable around him...

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code by Cloudy

Updated 01/13/23: I am currently on indefinite scarcity, please be patient and don't remind me of missing tags right now.

With the meeting done and over with, Gil felt... better. Glad that he was able to voice some concerns and also hopes. Jack and Flurry were both stepping up. And though there were some questionable younglings that he still needed to address, it would come with time. Before everyone could fully file out of the room, Flurry came bounding over. His brow quirks slightly as she asks to speak privately. The raised brow lowers to slightly scrunched as he wonders what she could possibly want to speak about. Gil nods slowly and responds with a quiet grumble in his throat as he stays sitting where he is. Watching the last of the pack leave the room, he waits another minute or so before turning to Flurry.

"There is no need to be nervous," Gil starts as he looks at his daughter carefully. He can tell that she is uncertain about whatever topic she's about to bring up. "If you wish to lead one day, you will have to grow comfortable speaking about things that can make your belly upset," he says as he offers her a paternal smile and reaches out with a paw to bump her on the shoulder. "So, what's the question?" Now he is curious. It must be something serious if she wanted to speak privately.

"speech"

He was right of course but that didn't make Flurry feel any less nervous. "Kinda figured we'd all rather I didn't do something that could be seen as questioning you in front of that lot." She said, jerking her head towards the direction everyone had filtered out of. "Which isn't what I'm trying to do for the record... I have a question but I really just want to understand your reasoning, not to push back on it or anything..." Was she stalling? Maybe a little bit but she wanted to make her intention clear to him. "Guess I'm just wondering why Ignis is kinda gettin' away with ignoring your orders. I saw the chunk he took out of that Armada woman." Now that the flood gates were open all the words were tumbling out, one moment she'd been awkward and quiet and now she could hardly get herself to shut up. "I know you trust him, wouldn'ta made him your Provoker otherwise but... I know our relationship with the Armada is already on thin ice and I can't imagine any of us want a war on our paws and I don't know, he just seems uncontrolled to me, a little too eager to go overboard and- I'll be honest, he scares me."

There it was. Most of the time he was whatever, honestly before she'd decided she wanted to step up she'd hardly given him consideration but now that she had to look at everyone around her and really consider them there was something in him that set her on edge... She wasn't some shrinking violet, she wasn't adverse inherently to violence but the way he went about it struck her as too much. Like he was eager to hurt others that bad. When they weren't on the battlefield he seemed... fine? But she had to admit she couldn't shake the way he'd looked during the fight and it made her unsettled. "I trust your judgment I just... Wanna understand." She needed to see what Gilgamesh saw, because if she didn't all she'd ever see was the liability.

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code by Cloudy

Updated 01/13/23: I am currently on indefinite scarcity, please be patient and don't remind me of missing tags right now.

Unsure as to what Flurry wanted to speak on, Gil settles back into a sitting position. Still facing her, but with his back and side facing somewhat toward the fire. As he aged, he noticed how his body tolerated the cold less and less each year. Once comfortable, his ears perked to tune in to her rambling words. Stalling? Yes. That was fine. Better that she get adjusted and practice with him before she steps up one day. If she stepped up one day. No use letting her think she'd get it that easy, right?

He watches her, expression placid, unmoving, as she speaks through her emotions. Gil can tell her mind is racing, trying to find a way to say it without... upsetting him. At first, Gil wondered if she really was pushing back on his decisions, but would he be a real leader if something like that upset him? He wanted his pack to stand up to him, to speak their minds, to tell him when they thought he was wrong. In the end, it would make him a better leader. So, he continued to listen until her words finally dribbled to a stop. One brow raises slightly as he inhales deeply and exhales in preparation to explain himself.

"It has been made clear that ones who wish to seek their own trouble will answer for their crimes. So if Ignis wishes to," Gil pauses as he tries to find the right way to say this. Before Modesty, before the pack, before his pups, he had been... similar to Ignis. Eager to punish. Eager to hurt others even when they didn't deserve it. Now that he had a family and a pack to look after, he didn't get that luxury anymore. "Enact violence when I have said otherwise then he understands I will, quite literally, throw him to the wolves come judgment day," he stops to assess Flurry's reaction.

"Our relationship with the Armada can be repaired if I wanted it to be repaired, but frankly, I don't wish to be cohorts with wolves who enjoy beating up pups," his lips crinkle and teeth grind together as he is reminded of Azure's violence upon the beach. On how Sirius had easily stabbed Deluge. Wolves who would assault puppies were weak. "So if I am being honest, I do not mind if Ignis is a tad more violent with them. They cannot be trusted. When we go on other raids, I will be more... cautious on how he acts," Gil explains himself so that Flurry can understand where he, himself, stands among it all.

"speech"

Flurry took in her father's words earnestly. Y'know fair enough on his end, anyone looking to go to a place she maybe thought was too far was dancing on a fine line at their own peril. She could accept that. She nodded thoughtfully, clearly storing that away somewhere but otherwise accepting of his response. Things to consider, things to simmer on and know for the future. It's his words on the Armada that give her some pause, not about Ignis' behaviour with them, that at least tracked but something else. Something sticking in her craw. She remembered the beach from that day, it had been... Well, in hindsight, wild. Had anyone ever told Sparrow's kids about it? Not the time for that thought. No it was something else, a connection she had made even as a child but she hadn't done more than notice the similarities it was only now as a young adult with a better understanding of things that it was piecing itself together in her mind.

"What happened between us and them?" She finally asked. "I remember noticing that one asshole who'd tried to attack Sparrow when she'd been giving birth smelled a hell of a lot like the woman we'd had in the boat for a while but- Well fuck me, I'm realizing now. That that was not exactly a willing visit. We had an Armada wolf captive." It wasn't an accusation exactly... It was more a putting together of cause and effect. "Is that what started it? Or was that just retaliation for something else? Or was that retaliation. Where did it start?" And where will it end? Nothing as drastic as the attack on the beach had happened since, but Deluge for all her bitching about being stabbed was not comparable... But why had she been stabbed? Was she the only person who could see how quickly this could get nuclear? Over what? She hoped it was a good reason.

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code by Cloudy

Updated 01/13/23: I am currently on indefinite scarcity, please be patient and don't remind me of missing tags right now.

Flurry's question has Gil pausing. Memories flood him from before she was born. From the time he first met Sparrow. That had been years ago now, but he had known from that moment that Sparrow and the Armada were rivals. Where it had started before that was actually unknown to Gilgamesh. So if it had not been for Sparrow and Hanako's tumultuous relationship, Gil's only reason to despise the Armada was for their treatment of his offspring. Which the thought alone made his fur bristle. He keeps himself settled though as Flurry's realizations come to mind and he has to look away for a moment. In a sense, Hana had been a captive, but she wasn't... mistreated. No one had ever been mean to her. Okay, that was a lie. He had perhaps been a little vocally rude, but no physical harm had ever been laid to Sparrow's... mistress. That damn whore.

He finally shifts his gaze back to flurry as she questions him. Once he is certain she is done verbalizing her thoughts, he begins. "Tensions between the Pirates and Armada happened before my time. Sparrow would be the only one who can answer that question," he pauses before he begrudgingly says what he is about to say. "If it had not been for Azure attacking Deluge and Sparrow on the beach that day, we as The Raiders would have no qualms with Armada," his teeth clench together as his lip pulls up in a grimace. "That is to say, I am not fond of the Warlord or his family. They have shown they are willing to harm those that cannot defend themselves and that to me cannot be forgiven or trusted," Gil is firm in his words as he watches his daughter. Would she approve of this answer? Or would she have more questions?

"speech"

If there had been even a shred of doubt about Flurry's sudden realization it was put to rest by the way her father turned away, about as good an admission of guilt as she'd ever seen. That didn't do much to help settle her worries much. It felt like somehow they'd found themselves in a big old game of telephone and by the time she was joining the original message was all but impossible to decipher... She didn't like it, she felt like she was missing vital information, and how could anyone make good decisions like that? She frowned but let her father finish in silence.

The warlord or just one wolf? No doubt that bastard that had kicked Deluge wasn't anyone she could consider good but in all her run ins with Armada wolves since they'd been courteous if not a bit tense. Hell the purple girl had been down right friendly. Her father gave her one example of one wolf, and wasn't it possible that his actions had not been condoned at all? She didn't want to keep pushing it right now though, clearly she needed to get more information, she needed to talk to Sparrow, trying to figure out what exactly had happened before she started judging either the former king or her father too harshly, but yeah it was fair to say that she failed to see how one man meant an entire family were all worthy of derision, let alone the knife's edge it felt like they were all dancing on. Finally Flurry nodded. "Thanks, I got a lot to think on. Maybe do some sleuthing." She stood to leave, flashing her father a wink and a grin to cover the uncertainty blooming in her... She just wanted to feel like she knew what was happening.

-Exit Flurry-

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code by Cloudy

Updated 01/13/23: I am currently on indefinite scarcity, please be patient and don't remind me of missing tags right now.