Open Vulpinsula & Surroundings The Changes Upon Us

[Talinn Ryalor]

Talinn paced around nervously as he waited for his wife. They had started their process of reconciliation, slowly but surely, but things were still a bit new, and raw. He knew, of course, it would take a while to repair what had been broken, little by little. When one smashed a glass vase, one had to pick up the glass, and inevitably get cut in the process. He was still in the process of picking that up, before he could begin to piece it back together in the manner of his homeland, kintsugi, it was called. Just like he had repaired his family’s fall from power, he would fix their marriage, and then, hopefully, do what he could to do so with his children. It would just be extremely painful to do so.

Is that not what the Kitsune said, nothing without a price?

As she came in, he saw her laugh and smirk, and his first instinct was to turn around and say something to the affect of “fine then, leave!”, but, after a few breaths, he realized it was the first time in a long time Dusk had genuinely laughed in his presence. Something of the younger, intelligent, beautiful vixen he had married and enjoyed time with before things had gotten so...complicated. It always was.

My pride is not worth hurting her, not after I have already done so much. It’s something I wish you had understood more in life, Uncle. Pride was what killed you in the end, even if I were the instrument. Pride that I have to swallow if I am to secure a safe future for my family.

“Is it truly so bad?” He asked, a little sullen at her reaction nonetheless. “I could always have my personal stylist cut it again like always, but...I am tired, Dusk.” He moved over to sit down on the chair before the mirror, glancing at himself. “It takes effort to go against the grain, and such little things...are they worth the effort, when I could save the energy for greater pursuits...and battles…”

The summons will be coming any day now.

@Dusk Rainblade

 

[Dusk Rainblade]

Dusk felt her smile die away, her face falling into sympathetic worry as she stepped forward to stand behind Talinn's chair. She leaned down, embracing him from over his shoulders like she used to do when they were younger. She recalled so many times when he'd been up late into the night working on his reports, and she'd playfully distracted him that way until he came to bed. She didn't have to wonder what had happened to make them this way; she knew immediately. Still, she wondered if that was her pride keeping her stubbornly in the past as much as Talinn's pride haunted him now. It had hurt her pride so deeply, that her husband would do what he did. It felt like I wasn't enough, she reflected at long last, finally willing to introspect after a decade of willfully holding to her hatred of the todd. I felt that, if I were enough for him, he would never have said yes to her.

That was the pain that clawed at her from within, gnawing upon her soul: the insecurity, the same one that had put her at odds with Tanya for so long. She'd tried to steal away Falun, steal Marie, steal her father's attention back... And yes, if she was being honest, she'd stolen Talinn too, though that was the one secret she would take to her grave, if only because all of the guilt Talinn held would displace upon her with the fury of a thousand suns. Still, for those twenty years he'd been hers and hers alone, and she'd given him the best of herself, her talents, wit, and intellect, not to mention four kits.

Five. She paused in stroking her paw down his chest as that ugly thought resurfaced. They hadn't talked about it since the opera house; it lay festering between them, an open wound that neither would touch lest something ugly come oozing out. She'd spent weeks rehearsing her justifications, practicing it upon Thistle and Kaii, preparing herself to have her shame laid bare between them. Even now, she still didn't feel ready for it.

She gently kissed her husband's cheek, fluffier than it normally was. "You don't have to keep hiding yourself, shaping yourself into what you aren't," she murmured in his ear. "You keep trying to make yourself someone else - Falun, Alexei, I don't know, but it's not you. At least, not the you that I get to see. Maybe instead of trimming it all away, you could just let yourself be for once."

 

[FinnianBrightfur]

Finn grabbed hopelessly at clumps of fur as he rolled upside down again. The ground was full of obstacles and other dangers, and at any moment he could smack his head into something protruding upwards -- a monument, stairs, a fence! Gates, that'd be quite the welt, wouldn't it? But as the ball rolled on, there was a flash of something red, and then the biting on his tail suddenly stopped.

As little as he wanted to be bit again, the poor little weasel might get swept away if no one rescued it. Swimming horizontally through the fur, Finn looked for signs of movement. "'ey! Where'd you go?" he called out, before seeing a little brown wriggly thing. Worming his way closer, the foxkit reached out with his paw, and caught a hold of the small thing, and cradled it close to his chest. "I gotcha~! Hold on!"

Though he wasn't a terrible swimmer, moving through this fur was nearly impossible. But using a modified sidestroke, Finn eventually swam his way to the surface of the sphere. Panting, he held the little beast out to examine it. Curious little thing, Tizzi was! "Alright, you think you can ride on my shoulder so I can grab onto something? Or sit on my head?" he said, catching his breath. "Will free up my paws to try and grab onto something!"

As Tizzi relocated, the pair rolled up across the equator, and eventually became the north pole of the furball. Caught in a corner, the ball rolled along against several buildings, causing the pole to wobble off axis. Several times, Finn tried to catch railings, banisters, and rain gutters -- but they always slipped through his paws. Finally, he caught ahold of a railing, and tried to pull himself free. The static cling was strong though, and the ball simply wouldn't let him go. The mass began to roll away, but Finn held on tight with both paws, trembling as his grip weakened.

"Rrrgfhhh! You better hop off here, little fella... I don't think I can hold on much longer!"

@Tizzi Poof @Cricket

 

[Tizzi Poof]

Tizzi held still at first, eyes wide and body shocked with a... pleasurable...? sensation. Being held. Distant memories of some past life flitted through its mind. A soft, femenine voice. Warmth. Claws lightly brushing ears and fur. A full belly. Softness. Such softness.

The little weasel's beady eyes gazed at Finn through the frizz of the furball and their connection deepened, souls entwining...

Yes, this little fox was both a good hugger and a perfect noble steed. Tizzi tchk-ed with a burbling trill as it climbed aboard Finnian's head and took hold of his ears in each grubby little paw. It would release an ear only to grab fistfulls of thick head fur and yank, or boop a claw into the fox's noggin and scalp, as if inputting commands into some kind of fuzzy console.

Wee! This was fun.

What was this?! The fox-steed was trying to escape? But... the ball was warm and safe!

Tizzi stood up on Finn's shoulders and took stock of the situation in one quick twist of the neck. Back where they'd come, metal stomping sounds indicated the orange firebeast was still steadily and resolutely jogging after them. Slightly off to the side, there was some kind of small lizard advancing at a faster pace. Ahead of them, beasts were still fleeing. And the ball, while slow, was still moving, and Finn's body was stretching, paws clinging to railing, arms at their limit, chest and the rest pulling back into the ball...

Tizzi wrapped its grubby legs and short little tail around Finn's neck, and whispered in his ear, "Is okay... Tizzi help..."

And then it reached out along his arms and pried Finn's fingers free of the railing.

"We go! Pooooof! Bye bye!"

A tiny cackling rang out as they were sucked back into the static, Tizzi once again gripping Finn's ears to guide him.

 

[Eskila]

And Eskila gamely stalked her prey down the streets, huffing. Shield slung over her back, arms pumping, head down, leaping over cabbages - though they seemed less and less now. She was gaining on the ball. So far, no fires. Also, the streets in the wake of it were noticably... cleaner? Apart from the cabbages... Dust and grime seemed to get swept to the side by its passage. It was almost... nice. The Slups behind looked so much different than the Slups ahead.

She saw them then. A fox kit and some brown wormish thing oozing out of the ball to unclasp his paws from the railing he desperately clung to. Then they were gone, and the ball was moving again, faster.

She took a deep breath and urged her stubby musteline legs to sprint, to catch up, to do the one thing she lived for: rescuing beasts and eating spaghetti.

And she was all out of spaghetti.

Somehow she found herself running alongside a little gecko. "Lizard!" she chirped. She liked lizards. They were interesting and, in the winter, about as fast as she was. Except this time she was beginning to pass the gecko, and her instincts told her to slow down so they could run together, but... the other instincts told her to go faster.

"Jump on my back!"

 

[Talinn Ryalor]

“Perhaps you are right, my dearest.” he replied, squeezing her paw with his right one and emphasizing the last words in a soft, loving tone. It was a true statement. She was his dearest, and he had not been lying during the Festival of Sorrows when he said that she was the one he had freely chosen. He had hurt her, and deeply, with the arrangement that he had to make to secure their family’s future, and he had been confused and lost for such a long time, but the incident on Urk, the real, imminent face with death, had brought things into stark relief for him, and what he truly valued.

He sighed, looking at himself in the mirror and reflecting on her words. He had done so much in his life for others, not for the sake of himself. Either for his family or his people. And he had made mistakes, mistakes that had cost him and others so much, in his pursuit of either. Maybe he should just try being himself more-but what did that even look like? He had been groomed to be Falun’s backup since his early kithood, and then he had been forced to do so much to keep his family safe. Who was he?

“I confess, I do not know who that beast is these days. Things were...are... so...confusing...to figure out...and I’ve made so many mistakes.”

He squeezed on her paw again. He had not missed the flicker of worry that Dusk thought she had hidden-he knew her too well. And he knew very well why that was. Neither of them had talked about Mina Rose, his daughter that he did not know that he had. It kept a distance between the two, separate from other things, and one he was loathe to keep there. They needed to be united, unbreakable, before going to Amarone, if they were to stand a chance, and, to be honest, it stung him that she had hidden one of his kits from him emotionally.

“I…” He paused, turning around and looking at her, his pale blue matching up to her green, tears forming in his eyes “Am I such a monster, a danger Dusk? Or am I too weak to protect her, that sending her away was the best option? If you truly think so, I do not blame you for your decision with Mina Rose.”

The tears began to flow harder as his voice grew more ragged. He was far from a sinless fox, but he loved his kits, even if he had not been the best father. The thought that one of them was beyond his protection, outside of the family, scared him more than anything else.

@Dusk Rainblade

 

[Mina Rose Brewer]

A knock sounded at the slightly ajar door to the ruins, and Mina Rose poked her head around it, commenting, a bit redundant and belatedly, "Knock knock." She beamed as she spotted Kaii, and she slipped through the door. She was wearing a nice brown coat, weighted for autumn, that Kaii had purchased for her on a previous outing together. It was sturdy and reliable, which generally complimented the earthiness of her personality. Mina Rose had worn the coat every day since.

The vixen approached Kaii, beaming as she saw his in-process grooming. "Oh, good, yer trimmin' yerself," she remarked, her shoulders sagging in relief. "I was hopin' so." She blushed a bit as she shrugged out of the coat, draping it over her arm instead. It was clear that her heavier winter coat was coming in, perhaps a bit thicker than normal; between that, the light sweater she was wearing, and her general lack of height, the effect was to make her look what her mother would have charitably called 'plump'. "I ain' used t' 'is cold," she explained, gesturing to indicate the curves that the extra fur was only accentuating, "an' I think m' body's overreactin'. Ya reckon y' can 'elp wiv' at?" She blushed, averting her gaze, whether from Kaii's deficit of clothing or awareness that the same would be required of her, she could not say.

~~~

Dusk tensed as, for the first time, the topic of Mina Rose was broached between them. She felt even more wretched than she could have anticipated. Seeing her husband cry - her husband, the unshakable, those whose enemies and detractors claimed that he didn't even have a heart - always filled her from the footpaw to the tip of her nose with roiling, caustic anxiety, as if her spirit were being distilled from her within the vessel of her own flesh. She'd expected rage, indication, acrimony; she hadn't been prepared for the guilt and pain on Talinn's part.

Dusk squeezed his shoulder, trying to let her own pain seep through the gesture. "We're both monsters, Talinn," she whispered. "You know how badly we did with her siblings. I don't know where we went wrong, how we turned those bright eyes dull with pain, but it happened. Maybe it was the world that hurt them, like it hurt us, and we just failed to protect them from it. Or," she allowed, "maybe we threw them onto the pyre and sculpted the ashes into the shape of princes and princesses. However it happened, Talinn, I couldn't do it again. Not to another of my kits. Seeing her destroyed would have destroyed me."

She took a deep breath, trying to calm her pounding heart. "I can't stop you from talking to her," she allowed. "I can't stop you from telling her the truth, or whisking her away to Fyador, stuffing her in a dress, and marrying her off. I just... She deserves to be happy, Tal. I know you have a good heart, I know you want our kits to be safe and happy. Surely, if there's one gift we can give her, it's that."

 

[Cricket]

As she drew closer, prepared to seize upon this wonderful bounty of fur and fluff with which she could line her winter retreat, Cricket became aware of its halted progress. It was checked not by a wall or edge as she had expected but rather…paws? arms? a little face?

Oh. Oh no.

“Finn?!” It was difficult to tell whether her tone carried itself as incredulous, delighted or horrified for she was all three. How in ‘Gates did the todd manage to get himself into every scrape possible for being such a good kit?

Before there was any chance of catching up some little creature, like the spectre of impulsive behaviour made flesh and fur and grease, slithered out from the morass of shed fur to loosen the unfortunate todd’s grip and away the ball went with a crackle.

“Hey!” Again she was off down the cobbled streets in its wake, joined by an older mustelid who seemed tall, friendly and as determined to catch the errant furball as she. Briefly the crested gecko inclined her head to listen to the shout. It was a solid, sensible plan and a kind offer: it would certainly save her short legs. Unfortunately the shout came from an adult, directed towards a teenager who held no trust with anybeast older than herself. For all she knew this stranger didn’t only want the fur for herself but could intend to get Finny into trouble: there was no way she was going to let Finn come to harm on her watch.

“I can run just fine!” she shouted back, putting on an extra burst of speed she’d regret later to try and surpass the sable who had slowed to match her pace. She needed to rescue Finn from whatever else was in that ball. “That there’s mine!”

 

[Eskila]

"Okay," said Eskila, huffing along. She let her legs stretch to their fullest and began to outpace the gecko once again.

Not for long. The ground began to slope. A curve in the street brought the harbour into view above the buildings ahead, a thin line of blue over the drab, mottled colours of the Slups. Eskila realised she knew this street. It was a horrible street, a joyous street. In a few weeks, maybe even days, there would be brown slush-snow piled so high that walking was impossible - at least until enough beasts had slid on their rears enough to thaw the snow to the cobbles again, giving somewhere to wedge a toe claw for the trek uphill.

The 14th Fire Brigade had lost at least two water wagons to this hill, and the previous Captain probably still had a limp. But there were kits in the furball. Doing this was non-negotiable.

"Last chance," she called to Cricket. "I'm going to stop running, it's not fast enough."

Eskila slung her shield off her back and, still running full tilt, heaved it in front of her with a leap, tucking it under her knees. "Sorry," she said to the shield, gripping the inside handle and kicking the street behind her for more speed. She narrowed her posture, musteline body adopting an aerodynamic aesthetic. The weight of her armour would be just the thing to close the distance.

"Wee," she said, without a hint of excitement.