it's my party, I'll cry if I want to

He absently swung his heavy skull up and to one side when he heard his name spoken aloud, and spotted one of his nieces- cousins? He really wasn't sure how to address the other yearling-adjacent members of his family. He flashed a small, lopsided smile at her. "Oh, yeah." he drawled quietly, bobbing his head- more to himself than to her. As she settled down to his side, he mindlessly tracked the movement of her limbs to mirror his own lazy sprawl. "Thanks for coming all the way up here," he said, pleasantries falling from his maw reflexively after an evening of being polite and friendly with his family. "are you enjoying the party?" he asked next, mercurial gaze flicking up to her delicate features to see how she responded.

The yearling's broad paws worked away at the growing mound of dark sand, shaping into a rounded hill. With one of his toes he carved a winding path down one side, from top to bottom, for its imaginary inhabitants to traverse towards the sea. A small furrow of concentration formed between his ivory marked brows, as he resumed the gradual accumulation of sand on the unmarked side of his little castle. "Feels like a thousand years since we were pretty much littermates, huh?" he chuffed softly, though the little grin he wore didn't reach his eyes. He'd spoken before he could really consider what he was talking about, and then he regretted it entirely. They'd been practically siblings because his mom was dying. Best not to think about that, it was supposed to be a happy night. Downcast gaze caught on the upturned edge of a mussel shell sticking out of the sand, and he scooped it up in a broad paw to wedge upright into the crown of his soon-to-be masterpiece.