No bench polishers here (informal pack meeting!)

The first to arrive was Asvor who greeted him with a playful question. Tyrian's lips parted in a wry, toothy grin and he shot back cryptically, "Oh, just a few somethings." He made a note to send Asvor somewhere extra special. She was trustworthy and clever, and if she wanted interesting he could give her interesting. He had the perfect challenge in mind for her and that thought was enough to make him smile to himself.

He was still smiling when a sour looking Ares arrived. Tyrian quirked a brow at his nephew. Had it been, say, Jupiter, Tyrian would have immediately chalked the low demeanor up to a hangover or something along those lines, but he wasn't sure what to make of Ares. They weren't as close as he would have liked. The young king made a mental note to try to fix that and then raised his voice in a greeting to Ares. "Ah, Ares, glad you could join us."

Chaos was next. As per the norm he was upbeat and teasing. "Oh you know," Tyrian replied quickly and in as flippant a tone as he could muster. "World domination via the sheep trade and piracy. The usual."

The rest filed in with nary a word and each received a nod in greeting or, if the personality in the spotlight was the kind he could have fun with, a raised eyebrow. When it was clear no more were coming Tyrian got down to business. "Right, well, thank you all for coming. If you're like me the routine of pack life can only sustain you for so long before it gets monotonous and you need to do something else as a bit of a palette cleanser. So I am proposing just that; a brief change of pace to keep us sharp." He dipped his head and pursed his lisp for a moment as he considered his next words, then added, "Now, what I have in mind isn't just a game or training. Everything we do is for the betterment of Fireside - no? - so there is purpose to these missions. Some of you I'm going to send out to spy on our neighbors. Others I'm going to send to look for prey animals for us to consider adding to our flocks. And everyone will be given something to do here at home to help us prepare for the raids I have in mind."

He settled down in the long grass and fixed a squinty, scrutinous gaze at those gathered as he made up his mind. "The first mission is going to be to gather intel on our neighbors. I want you to pick a fight with some of their wolves. Don't take on the whole damn pack; I just want you to get a taste for what they're like. And don't just run up and pick a fight and look all suspicious-like neither, ehkay? Be clever. Fabricate a reason for being there. Have a reason for fighting. Feign stupidity if you have to." He crossed his forelegs and sought out the eyes of the fighters. "I'm going to send you in pairs. Balian and Talon you get Lirim. Torrent and Asvor you get Winterfell. Chaos and Ares you get Armada. Approach alone or approach together, do whatever works best for the situation you fabricate. This is dangerous business, I know that, so if any of you object to this mission speak now. If you choose to go and things go south...know that if I haven't heard from you in 2 weeks Fireside will come looking." Hell yes he would feign innocence and use them as an excuse to raid.

Tyrian turned his attention to the remaining wolves then. "Darya and Mint, I have something different in mind for you for your first mission. I'm not too familiar with Auster. I want you to take some time to go down there and get a feel for the land. Find out what kind of useful plants grow there. Prey animals too. Bring me anything you might think Fireside can benefit from." He wanted hides of unusual animals, rare herbs, anything they thought might benefit the pack.

He eyed the fighters again. "You may have noticed not every pack is being looked at and that dear Jupiter didn't get a target. There's a reason for this. I feel I have enough information on Abaven and as for Valhalla, Jupiter assures me he knows all there is to know about it. Which leaves Aerie and Ashen. There aren't enough fighters here to go around once so some of you are going to have to go to two packs. Any volunteers? I need three; one to go with Jupiter to a pack of his choosing and the other two to go to the remaining pack."

OOC: next round I'm only looking for volunteers to go to the last two packs! It's first come first serve; fastest to post gets them, only reply if you're volunteering. Ah, and there will be another round after this for Tyrian to give everyone their second assignment. If I've made any info mistakes (skills, intentions, etc.) in the post above that don't make IC sense please let me know and I'll fix it!