Stuff that stabs

As he was pulling apart the laces on his bracers so he could lay them flat, he heard the sound of paws moving through the grass and he looked up to see his sister walking toward him, carrying her own bladed bracer with her. With all the wandering around and traveling Satira had been doing as of late it felt like he was seeing less and less of her, but he couldn't really blame her. Their mother was spending a lot of time with their uncle and her friends and he wasn't exactly the best company so he imagined she was probably enjoying herself much more doing her bouts of exploration and traveling. He did miss all the time they used to spend together and he often thought about the memories of days he'd spend chasing her around or dragging her out on adventures just to give him some happy memories to reminisce on. He didn't have any resentment or feelings about her being more distant. He didn't enjoy spending time with himself so why would she? "Sure," he replied when she asked if she could join him, not that she really waited for a response before she settled in across from him and started opening up the blade on her bracers to clean it.

He looked back down at his work and finished laying out his bracers and took some time just straightening out the lacing, tightening some of the spikes that might not have been put on properly before since he had been so young at the time, and using one of his claws to fix a couple of the lacing holes that weren't quite as wide as the others. It was minimal and ultimately not necessary work, but it was something and it kept his paws busy which was always appreciated. When he had a task or a job to do it helped him keep his mind on that rather than letting it wander and fester in its own issues. That was probably the biggest problem and why he was still stuck in such a state. He kept distracting himself or finding momentary fixes for this darkness that kept trying to swallow him hole instead of finding any kind of real solution or purpose for himself, but he didn't know how to do anything else. He just kept walking in circles and repeating the same things over and over.

Arcturus started feeding the leather laces back through the holes in his bracers to stitch them back together when his sister asked him what he had been up to. His expression didn't really change, but his gray ears flicked and he couldn't bring himself to look up at her. "Oh... you know... just the same old stuff," he replied after a moment with a shrug. He hadn't done anything really of note and it was easier to just deflect her question than admit that he hadn't gone much farther than this from their den in a while besides the occasional outing to hunt. "What about you?" he asked curiously, giving her a small glance before looking back down at his work while he braced himself to hear about her travels and all the things she had seen, all the things that he should be doing that he wasn't.

WC: 1566 / 1500

"Arcturus Citlali Indarra"