blood we drunk, flesh we ate

Summoned.

Pulled from the pith of her unrest, the grueling monotony of her return to Amaryllis, in which she has dined lavishly in the tropics of the western shores - her ear has been pricked by a word, by blood, thrumming and hot and perpetually f u r i o u s. Dieudonné. Estranged, tied to an elsewhere fare untouched by what she deemed Amaryllisian softness, she has kept to the transplanted uncomfortability of vagrant life held fondly over her return to Wolfbron; a shameless choice, even when conjured by a Wolfbron pup. Its resonance is distant familiarity - she has a mind, at first, to ignore it. A flick of the ear, a long, languishing stretch, and a small curiosity for the audacity, before she can be assed to make the small journey.

She's late. Fashionably so.

Iseult moved to the commotion with grace, poise, the rolling machination of svelte muscle, effeminate brawn; athenian architecture in feline mettle. Lethality. Guiltless still that she has not returned her allegiance to their home, their home, a nest emptied of her precious chatons, no Judas, no Eurielle, no Ruth, no Iseult. They have spread their wings to chaos elsewhere, grown madmen with their own beautiful wants, lusts, hungers.

Those who are here cannot hold a candle to the passion she held for her little niece and nephews, though her eyes spark amiably at the sight of @Apollinaire her rabid cousin, flashing a toothy grin of remembered ruin. A shame to see that she has missed some of it - her gaze lingers a moment to observe that he is missing a part or two, and she would be sure to approach him another time for the updates of the brawls she's lacked since leaving.

Oooh, problème— she cooed, finding @Krueger in the rubble of skirting, her gaze darkening with the impish stretch of cruel amusement. Trouble, indeed. He appears fiendish, perfectly smug with himself, lingering on the edge of their occasion with all the basking arrogance of a devilish prince. Her tongue clicked against the back of her teeth, sweeping smoothly to his side. Vous avez l’air affamé! she fretted, beholding his monstrous delight.

But you cannot have a true Dieudonné reunion without utter chaos.

Her skull snapped back around as she watched two young women debate the manners of theft, attempting to drag away the carcass of a hare from @Vermier. She could only guess the disgruntlement that would come of the act, the impending clash of greed that would erupt - or perhaps the male would settle into his place, relenting his snack to the giggling fiends. Iseult grinned maliciously, easing back on her haunches with an eagerness to watch the show.

It is interrupted, however, by the High Sovereign herself. @Amara stepped in dangerous proximity of the two feral creatures, daring to steal the piece back. A growl rumbled in her throat as she watched, her eyes narrowed, chin lifting as light passed sharply over her regal features. Her last memory had not been so fond - the terrible restraint she faced in returning a babbling brat on the doorstep of entitled Crusts, watching as the Wolfbron Sovereign endured their arrogance. My, how she wanted to rip, to devour their foolish cub and drink the blood from her mother's open throat. To leave the Andal worm on the Oasis's threshold. To remind them why they do not cross Dieudonné.

How Iseult has always despised 'standing down.'

Ce n’est pas non plus le vôtre. she sneered, her voice draconian and clear, full of fire and smoke and cruelty, long wisened to the knowledge that Amara was not of her blood. Outside of the Bluffs, she is held to no courtly obligations than that fury boiling in her very own veins. The swarthy depths of her eyes ventured from the Wolfbron Queen to the young creatures at her sides, then swept their dagger-vehemence about the party of waiting Dieus. Where was the young matriarch Baphomé had pointed out? The youthful creature who hadn't even headed the pride? Où est Cassine? The hardness of her tone rang of its own opulent demand, seeing not hide nor hair of the thing.

French: Oooh, trouble. / You look famished! / It is not yours either. / Where is Cassine?

@Tripfire @Ludivine @Léontine @Elaine

that was a core of the innocent hate _{BG — ART — CODE}

made with gunmetal bones and wolf's teeth
a warrior, a soldier

All at once there'd been silence. Darkness. Death.

He'd been flung into a stasis, of sorts, a suspension between half-dead and half-alive, neither feeling or unfeeling, neither breathing or breathless. Kieran could tell there was nothing here. He could not see his paws in front of him, could not hear the steady beat of his heart thrumming through his ears. He could hear only his thoughts, echoing against what seemed an endless abyss; and yet, he did not fear. He did not feel lonely. Even as his last brutal moments replayed over and over again in his head, each time grew less painful, the sting of his wounds long absent and his guilt not quite so intense. This is death, he had finally considered, bereft of all emotion except its cruel acceptance. I am dead.

And then, there is a light. Blinding, bursting forth from some small corner of that ceaseless darkness and suddenly overcoming him. Kieran let out an agitated growl, a paw reaching upward to try and shield his eyes from the piercing glow, but nothing expelled from his lips. A sudden wind whirled about him, howling in his ears its brutal cacophony. The chaos that unfurled around him felt as if it would tear him apart, and it nearly had, but then all at once it stopped. He could feel the heat of the sun upon his back, and hear the slurry speech of voices in the distance. The loud wailing in his ears began to subside, and their hurried conversations turned louder, and angrier. Kieran's paw lowered, and as he blinked his eyes open against the bleary and bright sky, he could see the sand through the ethereal glow of his foreleg (one, that he noted with certainly, no longer seemed as impaired as it once had been).

This is...death? he wondered, his gaze narrowing against the bleary blight of the Badlands, barely catching the form of amassing silhouettes against the too-bright horizon. Their words began to register, the intensity of their air electrifying. He begins to stride forward, the ease with which his paws seem to glide with each step disorienting, new. He could walk as he once had but did so effortlessly, without pause, without breath. And as he nears, he pauses—can they see me he wonders, but his near-boyish curiosity is quelled when he spots those familiar faces among the sea of strangers. @Vermier he notes first, surrounded by wolves with threats on their tongues; @Apollinaire lingers by their herald, @Louve; and last, his gaze falls upon @Amara, standing boldly beside the Hollow's King against their opposition. Their family.

Où est Cassine?

Furious eyes find the form of @Iseult with haste, a surge of emotion bursting forth where once it had been fettered in that endless oblivion. Frustration spilled in each word, hung upon the fringe of his growl; anger at his death, anger at the idea their Matriarch, too, had been lost in his absence, anger at himself. Anger at his failures. Kieran knew only what he knew to do best: To act like he had never left at all.

Comment ça, où est Cassine?

In her wake he’d follow. Watching, listening. Gathering what he could from the strangers ahead. Earned of the name, and emboldened by this truth.

His chin could be held high, young as he were. Not cowed, not a servant nor pet. Flail as he might against such notions. Trailing in @Iseult's steps he came, with those eyes so bright and filled with want. A secret hope held to his chest their father might follow, as if that softened beast knew the might Pythios knew to reside in his aunt’s breast. As though, his sire were anything but a wraith, a failing of embers and glamour. Still held in that nursling perspective that those that came before deserved reverence without proof. Still, bound to untested veneration of those that walked before. Excited by the summons, by the lead he’d follow—stirred in growing passions seeing the faces revealed as he approached. Wit escaped him, and instead the boy remained quiet; taking in the exchanges, falling short of joining the congregation and not yet joining their numbers as his aunt had. Instead, holding it’s borders; eyes trained upon here.

A brewing within rose; hearing heat to her words. Subdued, yet invigorating. It lay a glittering sound – cacophony bottled in aristocracy, in poise fashioned in the manner belonging to a queen. The sins of flesh on her breath, vibrato in the air filling it with the tantalization of sin and hunger. A muted warning, which the boy would relish. Drinking of it, filling himself with the spreading tension. Expectant of a show, of a display; he fixed himself there to her presence. Eyes gleaming, keen and burning as igneous as they were. Collecting from the well of her exchange some knowledge that things weren’t as to be expected, as to be shared by his father’s lips. And then—an apparition, one that he’d hold fast with his gaze.

And the name again—Cassine.

One whom was decidedly absent, and leaving the gathering bereft of order. It would seem their arrival was nothing less of an omen; darkening a moment of good tidings with threads of discord, of uncertainty. A stormcloud, in need of the sun to devour the dark with something fresh, invigorating, uniting. The boy held back, instead, kept his eyes to his aunt; to those in her orbit, to those in the peripherals of her being.

The eager boy, the best son, willing to do as what was needed. Hungry for approval, starved of appreciation—and all the more willing to do as what was asked, of what was needed and expected.

Content Warning for bad language.

The mountain had worn his self-proclaimed exile around him like a cloak, masking his identity, suffocating his heritage, until a summons he could not ignore permeated the fog of his solitude. Xavier had not heard that voice in quite some time, and it resonated in his chest in an uncomfortable and unavoidable way. He could run from his past no longer – and so he would come to face it, finally.

It was both the distance and his jagged gait that delayed the giants approach; his ears twisted within the confines of his dark mane, catching the accented edges of his kins conversations before they came into his sight. And when they did, the mountain would move slowly into their midst, stoic in his expression as his pale eyes shifted from face to face from the lowered position of his skull. His attention lingered over two of his sisters and his mother as he wondered what was going on – but he did not waste time using his voice; he knew his place in the family would be decided shortly when the plan was either revealed to him or he was banished from them. But he had answered the summons, as he was bid to do.

Xavier may have been complacent in waiting had the voice of his father not permeated the conversation, the sudden and disorienting familiarity causing the giant’s attention to pivot sharply in the direction of the source. Pale eyes latched to the ghost, no - idol - as shock pushed ice through his veins and returned memories of his fathers death to the forefront of his thoughts. And yet, here he was. What the fuck? He looked back to his sisters and mother, searching their faces for answers to the four hundred thousand questions that whirled through his mind. He did not like this instability - the uncertainty of Cassine's whereabouts, this manifestation of his father (was it even real?), and the tension that rippled through the crowd of his family.

Art by Dawn, table by cala

So many unfamiliar faces had gathered here. Too many beasts that had not made their way to the Bluffs stronghold. So why were they here? Clearly they hadn't been called to join as they were all outside of the Bluffs. Family gatherings were never an affair without some sort of chaos on the horizon.

Ole glanced among those gathered and could find nowhere he felt to belong. His patron was surrounded and so he couldn't take up post by his side as the minion was like to do. Someone else pointed out that Cassine was missing and so that link was torn from him as well. He had no strong connections here, nowhere he felt to fit.

Of course that was mostly his fault as he had never really branched out. Instead he always stayed off at the back and waited for someone else to tell him what to do. He acted often enough as if he had no mind of his own. But what use were thoughts for men?

Eventually Ole just settled off somewhere at the back on the family gathering in a spot all by himself.

Waiting was always the hardest part. Patience did not come naturally to the young Heiress but was instead something she had been working to master. Practicing schooling her features in to a more carefully crafted expression so that she might more successfully rise to the top.

It was not an easy thing for one so driven by bloodshed.

@Elaine is first with a grin that is both knowing and something more. There is the slightest hint of a promise, there, that has the mottled girl flexing her claws against the stone. Louve does not relax as more appear, but instead grows more and more on guard. @Vermier is second to appear with a tasty treat, but even this does not hold her focus for long. @Tripfire is little more than a stranger, yet, but she gives him a quick look all the same. It is her intent to greet them all, to seek eye contact if only for a fleeting moment.

Acknowledgement was key, here; Louve wanted them all to feel the certainty that she felt, hoping that it would convince this chaotic family that this was the best move to take.

A small commotion erupts near Vermier, drawing her attention for a longer stretch of time. @Léotine is a stranger to her, looking to snag a meal from Vermier. @Ludivine is only slightly more familiar, but Louve hears the 'tutt tutt' in her voice and assumes that the first girl is thus related. Another Dieudonné, then, and she trusts that Vermier can handle this little disruption without her interjection.

@Krueger's appearance briefly cracks her facade, the faintest narrowing of her eyes and clench of jaw an indication that she was less than pleased to see him here. Ah but she hesitates, wracking her mind as she tries to put together the pieces of his identity. He had spoken their language, after all, and so maybe...

Louve scowls as she decides to leave him be for now, though her gaze slips to @Apollinaire and she flicks her eyes from him to the other male a couple of times, hoping that he would pick up the message. Keep an eye on him was the silent command, before she watched the arrival of her mother.

Once more she was on edge, unsure how @Amara would take to this summons. Shockingly her mother does not even spare her a glance, focusing instead on the small disturbance around Vermier. What the bloody hell was she getting at? Did she not think Vermier could handle himself? And for that matter why was she bothering to step in on his behalf? A small growl rumbled in her throat as she fought the urge to snap at her mother right then and there. There was no need to get involved in petty squabbles when Louve had called for them -- did her mother not care for the reason?

@Iseult's arrival intrigues her, the flow of french from a too familiar form giving the young wolf pause. Once upon a time she had played a dangerous game with her sister, when they were mere babes in the forest, and yet she had not forgotten the face of their target. While Iseult had clearly not been fooled by the poor little children she at least had not torn them to shreds, a fact that Louve considers a win at this point. When she settles near Krueger her suspicions of him being family are cemented in her mind, no matter how it annoys her that he had not said anything before.

She asks about Cassine and this seems a prime time for her to finally speak; her jaws part to do so and then snap shut just as quickly.

Because if she was not mistaken that was her father that had just appeared. Her very dead, very eaten father.

Louve freezes, her heart stuttering in her chest, watching him with a myriad of emotions swirling in saffron eyes. He rises with anger and she barely resists the urge to bow before it, to bend to the earth and prostrate herself before the one she had always seen as true Dieudonné. No matter that she had never truly forgiven him for leaving them.

"Elle est partie." She is gone. Finding her composure she draws herself up, sitting straight and proud before the many who have come. More than she had expected, more than she had imagined. The swell of joy she felt at seeing them all was... unexpected.

Her words are loud, a thunderclap among the gathered, raised enough to be heard over the other murmuring voices. Now that she has begun speaking she gives only a passing glance to the last that have arrived, the young @Pythios and the more familiar @Oleander (a good hunter, he was). "Cassine est partie." Keeping her voice raised enough to be heard, sweeping her gaze over the crowd.

It passes over him at first and then skips back, shock registering clearly on her scarred face despite her best attempts at remaining unruffled. @Xavier was the last she had expected to see and it is all she can to stay in her place and not rush to him. He looked well enough, healthy and strong, and she half-wanted to tear in to him then and demand answers for his absence.

"Je m'appelle Louve Dieudonné, fille de Kieran et Amara Dieudonné." My name is Louve Dieudonné, daughter of Kieran and Amara Dieudonné. Her voice is unwavering, exposing the confidence that she shoulders so easily. "Notre famille a été dispersée. Nos liens se sont affaiblis. Nos traditions prennent la poussière." Our family has been scattered. Our bonds have weakened. Our traditions gathering dust. Would they argue? Would her words create an uproar? Would they come together, then, and call her a blasphemer? Louve did not expect them to, but she rises to her paws all the same, standing tall.

"Je vis pour servir Dieudonné," I live to serve the Dieudonne, a small pause, looking from one to the other in turn, "Je le ferai en tant que votre nouvelle matriarche." I will do so as your new matriarch.

Mic. Drop.

OOC: Verlain gave us permission to skip Vermier for now, and assume he gave up the bunny and is watching quietly.

Her lips quirk in response to @Léontine's quick course redirection, feigning politeness as a thin veil to her once more seeking to yank the morsel from the brute's grasp. Another glance in @Vermier's direction is offered, though there's no further reaction from Ludivine — if this family is as bestial as they claim, then he should have no issue giving food to the superior gender, no? It would be gentlemanly of him, and her tail lashes in expectation.

What she doesn't expect is to suddenly be bulldozed to the side — shoved, as though nothing more than an unwanted carcass. A vicious snarl rumbles in her chest as she stumbles to the side, venomous glare thrown in the direction of the offender — ah, she knew her. The oh-so-great queen of Wolfbron Bluffs, who hadn't lifted a paw since the pride meeting to further welcome the younger Dieudonné woman into their midst. Now here she was, demanding Léo's share of the meal? The audacity rumbles through her entire svelte frame, fur standing along the wicked length of her spine.

The world deafens around her. A ringing in her ears, thumping to the beat of her heart. A violent roar within her mind is almost deafening, silencing everyone else as her vision focuses on her new prey. @Iseult's words, @Kieran's appearance, @Louve's announcement — none of it registers for her. None of it persuades her to do otherwise.

She simply acts on feral instinct.

She lunges for @Amara's side, the one closest to her, and she attempts to savagely sink her fangs into her right ribcage. Weight distributes to her remaining limbs as her left paw lifts, attempting to carve claws into the weak point between her opponent's hipbone and the bottom of her ribcage. She's out for blood.

Ludivine vs @Amara
Dominance — I of III

Hits

Rolling 5d20: 10 + 1 + 4 + 2 + 8

Dodges

Rolling 6d20: 2 + 14 + 12 + 18 + 5 + 8

Luck

Rolling 5d20: 13 + 18 + 20 + 4 + 2

ooc. verlain said verm was going to give up the rabbit so i rolled w that :>

@Vermier, wisely, backs away - and leontine smiles broadly, swinging her gaze across him to where ludivine sits. her claws drag the rabbit closer and just as she slings her head down low, there comes an... interruption. an interruption in the form of a dark, star-covered woman. she shoves in bodily next to her sister, shoving the fluffy woman aside. as the young dieudonne watches her sister stumble aside, snarling in outrage, her body stills. her claws snag in the rabbit fur even as amara reaches to jerk it towards her with a bold statement: not yours to take, the woman states.

but she cares little for the rabbit, now.

her claws slacken, pupils dilating to swallow her bi-colored eyes. from her hunkered down position, she watches beneath her mohawk, lips peeling back from white fangs to offer a guttural snarl. all thoughts of talking leave her, of any sort of feigned politeness swallowed by the single act of touching her sister with her unworthy fucking paws. they lock eyes, and she smirks broadly. and even as her sibling is reacting, leo is thinking. when ludi goes for amara's right side, leo waits for the count of two before she responds.

leotine uncoils from her prone position, jaws opening wide as she lunges up at amara from where she'd been hunkered down over the rabbit. her open jaws attempt to slam into her face, just at the top of her nose, in an attempt to sink into her tender nose. her weight remains on her haunches, forepaws light on the ground so that her left paw can simultaneously swing up to try to hook into the flesh just behind amara's right ear.


léontine & @Ludivine vs @Amara
for dominance
1/3
Hits:

Rolling 5d20: 8 + 18 + 6 + 5 + 19

Dodges:

Rolling 4d20: 5 + 3 + 11 + 18

Luck:

Rolling 5d20: 8 + 20 + 10 + 9 + 13

_{BG — ART — CODE}

Vermier was the first to arrive and settle in. Once a common male in her life, she hadn't seen him in some time. A newer face in Tripfire was next, her mother seemed connected enough to him but she didn't know much about him. After him, strangers walk in and Elaine lifts herself to her paws. Her icy gaze picking each of them apart as she watches them pick on Vermier like it was their right. Who the fuck did they think they were? Qui sont-ils? who are they? She whispers toward her sister. Elaine had a small memory of one but the others she didn't know. The family had been within the Bluffs long enough that one only needed to ask a living soul and they would be able to find them and yet they stayed away. They did nothing to help the family but now they show up and act like they have proven themselves to anyone. Apollinaire arrived and settled in right away with what seemed to be little care about the others.

Their mother arrived and moved in to protect Vermier? Didn't she hate the male? She narrowed her eyes slightly as she tried to work it out, was it just because he was family? They had been around each other the longest out of all the family members was that her way of showing him some respect. Vermier seemed to slip away, willing to give into the unknown females like the spineless male that he was. He didn't even know if they were family or not. They could just be some random lionesses who got stupidly brave. Coward. Another female showed up, a small memory flicked in her mind but nothing that she was able to place as the lioness had asked about Cassine. Someone she hadn't seen in a long time now, along with Bee and Echo. They had all left.

Elaine said nothing, leaving things for her mother or sister to answer since her place was to lift the family up. Not lead it. She wouldn't have been able to focus on an answer anyway as the sight of her father arrives out of nowhere. She quickly glances toward @Louve to make sure that she was seeing this too and it seemed that she was. His anger seemed to boil over and Elaine didn't know what to do with anything that was happening now. Her icy gaze was filled with mixed emotions and bordered along the edge of breaking. Few knew what went on in her mind, she didn't speak enough to let anyone in and it was unlikely to change now even as her features twist in a mix of awe and grief.

Another arrived but didn't earn a look and then another and the winds pulled his scent to her and was the only reason she broke her gaze from her father, unaware that her mother was being attacked as she looked toward her brother. When had she seen him last, before her father's death. A quick sweep of the lands around them find that the pale vision of her sister wasn't there. They wouldn't be the four of them again and she didn't know how long her brother would remain around them this time. She didn't know why he couldn't stay but he seemed to be filled with a wandering spirit to stay with them. Her sister's voice pulls her back and she takes a small sidestep toward her as she looks at her mother who was being attacked. The hell?

She listens as @Louve goes on and explains why she had called them here. So El had been right. Her sister wanted the family's highest spot. There was a tug to go help her mother to do as she would do for either of them. The dark lioness had led the family, kept them together for so long and given them a stable place to grow up and thrive. Without her steadiness, would Louve even be able to stand her now and demand they all follow her? No. The cloudy princess looks toward the scuffle and with a sharp growl. Fais-les t'écouter soeurn. make them listen to you sister Her sister had spoken and whatever petty feelings got hurt didn't mean anything to Elaine when it was clear that the family needed leadership. She glanced toward her father, would he step in, could he? Was there anything that a dead lion could do but some great jump scares?

Art | Table Code | background

Amara's sharp gaze was on the lioness in front of her but @Iseult's question about Cassine caused her to look up and away from the now pissed-off lioness. Cassine had always struggled with the role she was handed when they returned from the North. The younger lioness had big paws to fill and not a proper role model for teaching her. Amara didn't know enough and had hoped that Cassine would have been able to find someone else, another family lioness, to teach and guide her but that didn't happen. She was left to figure it out largely on her own and it didn't work out. She was about to answer when something caught her attention and shock covered her features. @Kieran's voice fluttered in as if he had never stopped drawing breath into his lungs. In her shock, she forgot about the pissed-off lioness around her until she felt claws slicing into her flesh.

A roar of pain left her as she goes to twist toward @Ludivine, her gaze sweeping toward her as she looked for a target. @Léontine sprung into action and caught the side of Amara's face and back of her neck. The attack from either side caused Amara to stumble slightly and her paws to get tangled up in Vermier's body. Her focus was broken as her mind was still locked on her dead husband being there and she could have sworn that she caught sight of her son as well. Had Louve been able to bring them back from the dead with her call? Unlike the other two, Amara was tuned into her daughter's voice and caught the words that were spoken. Just as she had thought. Amara tripped forward off Vermier and stumbled toward the ground, barely able to keep from smacking into it. She pushed herself up and attempted to remove herself from the hot-tempered lionesses range. Vermier didn't seem to care enough so let them have the rabbit.

Amara moved toward her daughters, the blood from the other two dripping down to the badlands ground. Amara's gaze was circling between her husband, her son who looked far more alive than her husband but likely just as dead, and her daughter. Each of these needed her attention but she didn't even know where to start. The dead could wait. Her full attention shifted to @Louve, while she had stood in her way of leading the pride. She wouldn't stand in the way of her taking the lead of the family. Amara didn't have a claim to it, she wasn't blood but she also didn't know how all these strangers would take to this. Would they need Louve to draw blood and end a life? She had never seen anything like this and with several unknown newcomers, Amara wasn't sure what would come of things. Amara had noted the lack of arrival by Hazrin and made a note to visit him once things were settled here. If @Louve looked, there was a look of pride in her mother's gaze as she waited to see what would happen next.

Amara walked away from the fight/forfeited/lost/whatever you want to call it.

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