She couldn't do it. Flurry had faced down her two biggest fears at the same time and she couldn't fucking do it. She'd retreated and for a time had drunk herself into unconsciousness the moment she was awake and aware again. Grief couldn't find her if she was never awake.

And then the world had flipped again. Her father was alive. But the experience had told her one thing. One important thing. She'd been right. Flurry had only been trying to stop this very thing from happening. Had been trying to stop grudges and built up anger turning into a loss of life.

She knew if it ever happened again, real or not, if she ever believed again for a single moment that someone she cared about had died because they couldn't stop kicking hornets nests she'd not survive. The only thing left to do was to leave. It was the only action she had left strong enough to make her point.

And it hurt. Never taken seriously, her fears never given the weight they should have and she knew even when she'd been proven right they never would. It would never fucking end. Flurry couldn't do it anymore. She'd not been lying when she said she loved raiding, loved being a Raider... But not when the cost was this high. If her warnings, her fear, her anxiety were only ever going to be scoffed at and ignored them she couldn't stay. If everyone was willing to keep putting themselves through this then clearly the problem was her. It was going to suck. But she couldn't be complicit in this. Not anymore.

Flurry was just barely sober. Having drunk enough to take the edge off her hangover and dreading what would happen when her easy supply of drink would be gone but she owned it to her parents to be taking this seriously. Which is what she was doing. She made her way somberly through largely unfamiliar lands and deciding this was a good a spot as any called for them both. She'd speak with her siblings and a few choice others after this but she wouldn't share this moment with anyone but her parents. She knew it probably wasn't a good time but she had to do this before things got worse, her mother was pregnant again (or had she popped already? Flurry really wasn't able to keep up with current events right now) and... Her father was recovering still and from the few whispers she'd picked up since returning to the waking world for any substantial period of time, something about him was different. And she wasn't, and maybe that was also the problem. She just couldn't seem to change.

- | movement | speech  -

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.

Modesty was halfway through moving skins down from the treehouse to the newly excavated den near the base of the tree they had claimed. As expected, Kenway's cattle dogs had made short work of expanding what had probably once been a badger sett. It had multiple entrances, little chambers that could safely house pups, and plenty of room for Modesty, Gilgamesh and Jael. The dogs had done a wonderful job of shoring up any weak spots and renovating the space to suit it's new purpose and larger inhabitants better. The two girls had even happily snatched up the pelt she was moving and took it into the den when the summons came, tails waving with joy at having a job, almost as if they were telling her they could handle it, and she was only in the way.

She sighed and stretched before setting out, heavy belly swaying as Modesty made her way out to the Moor where someone was calling for her. The scent of freshly turned earth clung to her pelt and exhaustion etched every inch of her frame. This was the worst part of pregnancy, the sleepless stretch before birth, where breathing was a challenge and the additional pressure on joints made moving far or fast a challenge. It was more a waddle than a confident stride that bought her to her daughter, rump falling against the ground as she finally reached her, sliding down to her elbows, adjusting her belly as she reclined amongst the browning heather. An apologetic glance and a brow arched in question. She barely had the breath to ask what it was her daughter needed, but she was here and willing to listen.

"speech"

Move, walk, patrol. Keep his body moving so his muscles wouldn’t deteriorate. The pain that emanated from his ribs was ignorable for now, but if he pushed it too far, he would have to stop. But he didn’t want to. Keeping his distance, keeping the border safe, being in the silence. That’s what he wanted. What his brain itched for every morning when he awoke.

Indeed, Gilgamesh was different.

He didn’t know it, but also did at the same time. Something inside him told him to quit it, go back to normal, but there was something else there holding him back. It was the call that rings out that brings that tiniest of sliver of his old self back toward the surface. Flurry, yes, one of the first. One of the ones that tried. Tried what? To save them? To be better? He couldn’t agree with that completely.

Instead of dallying on the thoughts riddling his mind, Gilgamesh moves through the moor with ease. Paws pressing down upon dewy heather as he approached Flurry and an exhausted looking Modesty. Coming to take a seat beside Modesty in an upright and rigid position, nothing like how he used to sit, he looks to Flurry with stoic expression and curious eyes.

“Yes, Flurry?” He questions.