OOC: Longness is not a problem with me, you'll see that sometimes my own posts will get long as hell. SSWMWC:540

Mars had found himself going out to Halifax this afternoon because he was in need of a few things and Halifax had more things than the old town of Thornbury as far as things to scavenge. Mars was needing new fabrics, for a dress he had been planning on making for his friend, Orin. He thought about a pink dress that was almost princess-like for the writer since she did seem like such a little princess to him at times. Hell, the first time the two met, they had played where she was a princess and he was her knight in shining armor, so why the hell would he not have the idea of a princess for her? He also needed some white fabric for another pair of pants that he would be working on for himself. He also needed enough white fabric for a jacket that he would want to make for himself as well. The wolfdog had come on foot this time around, simply because he was going to be pulling his sled here and there and he didn't need the assistance of his steed, Vox.

Old red harness hugged the secui man's form as he pulled the sled behind him over the snow and dirt. The man had been finally able to be comfortable in his secui form, since his fur had finally decided to flourish and give him some of that great warmness that everyone else's coat had been prepared for. It took most of the winter for Mars' winter coat to actually realize that now was winter and now he would need that extra fur to keep him warm. He'd make it as fast as he could on his feet to the deadened city of Halifax. Tri -colored fur stood on edge as he had walked on the snow, making the hulking secui wolfdog look slightly bigger than he was. His tail that sat over his back made him look as if he was an important figure for some pack, even though he was nothing but a lowly Musician. His ancestry was to blame for the tail over the back thing. Mom actually used to beat him when he had his tail like his father's ancestry, like the wolf that he was.

He moved quickly over the terrain, trying to waste no time dillydallying around. He needed to find things and they needed to be found quick so that he could be home before Bartholomew thought it was nice to take the body out to the middle of nowhere like he had done a few days ago. The secui man had gotten to the city by dusk, which had taken him longer than expected. He sighed lightly and he slowed himself to a walk for a good while of walking. Eventually, there would be the presence of another, a dark colored male, much like the one he met when he was out on a ride with Vox. Larkspur was that man's name, but this man, he smelt different. He also was solid black while he remembered that Larkness was black with some white on his face, blonde ends on long dark hair. This man was different..He smelt funny. Hello.. the quiet man spoke to the optime coywolf.

OOC:

Mars was normally dressed, being naked was not a sin, no, but he was rather comfortable with himself when he was in clothes simply because he had scars that he never liked to really have to explain. The heart and the carving of his own name in his skin were the two he was most worried about, so he kept clothes on to hide them. When he was in secui form, or in lupus form, he couldn't move efficiently in clothes so he simply did not wear them, at the cost of having to be exposed to whoever came along and looked at his back and wondered in their head why there would be a heart of all things carved into his skin. After all, Sky had been curious enough to even ask about that heart there. There was no love in carving that into his flesh, his mother only wanted him to think that pain was love. Pain was not love. Love was kind. Mars knew this.

The voice was enough to tell Mars that this was a male, and the stench of male came off of him. Mismatched ears sat high on the wolfdogs' head, as did his tail stand high on his back. He came off as proud, but he was raised like this, and he more than likely would become submissive quickly. He had been trained to be proud, but submissive, simply because his mother never wanted him to look as pathetic as he was. She was obsessed with appearances, and Mars was the object of what she obsessed over, this is what she had made of a man. Then she let him walk the world without a purpose other than to exist. We'll see how well that works out in the end of it all. Mars had stopped walking towards the man when he was about ten feet away from the other, Mars being a cautious man, especially when the other man had weight and height on his side in his Optime form. Mars would also have a hard time getting away if he tried to run simply because of the sled. Mars gave himself room so that he wouldn't have to worry as hard.

You smell different...Where are you from? the man asked, cocking his head lightly to the solid male that was close enough to the wolfdog. Mars flicked his tail over his back lightly and looked at the other with his icy steel eyes. My name is Mars. Who are you? Mars asked, tossing his large cranium at the man, curiosity getting the better of the wolfdog. He found it interesting that he met wolves out in Halifax at night like this. Just standing here in the darkness, or riding their horses at night like he. Who were they all, and why did he keep on meeting them here? Were these dark wolves a sign or was Mars just crazy? Mars was definitely just crazy, just to let you know. He just forgot that he was insane sometimes. After all, he never really knew about being normal.

OOC: I have 11 days to finish sswm. Thanks for spreeing with me. I really need it <3 Good luck on your end! Also, just so you are not confused, Bartholomew is not visible to Itzal.

The other man had been as secretive as the artist that stood there. Mars looked at the shadowed man, his fur as black as soot, eyes as bright as the full moon. His mouth let out words, and the Russo man watched and listened. His ears stood tall on his head and his tail still was curled over his back to suggest what he was mostly besides him being wolf. The other spoke of being from a place called Inferni, and him being the newest member of the pack. Mars searched his memory to see if he had ever heard of Inferni. He hadn't found anything in his head so he shrugged. Never heard of Inferni. Where is it? the man calmly asked the other, cocking his head to the right. Mars also had heard, of course that the man had said his name. Itzal. It was quite interesting, exotic. Mars liked the name to say the least, but of course, he was so quiet and reserved that he wouldn't say anything about him liking it.

Itzal went on to ask Mars what he was doing out here and with a sled. Steel eyes moved to the sled to a moment and his tail swished in the air for a moment as he thought about what exactly he was looking for. Anything that he needed really. He didn't really go into these things completely prepared, only with an idea of some things he needed. If he ran into some other things, there was no doubt that he would take it along. He thought of specifics for a moment before his steel eyes would look back at the bright eyed, dark-furred man and he opened his bi-colored lips to speak again. I'm looking for some fabric....Brought the sled to carry more things. the man spoke simply, shrugging his wide, secui wolf-dog shoulders. His icy steel eyes were on the other man still though, wondering what he was doing here. He probably was here for the same reason, for it was a common reason to be here, as in, it was common for others to be here to scavenge what they can from the old human ruins. You? Mars asked, tossing his large husky head to the other before he had noticed something flash up in the corner of his peripheral vision. His lip twitched because he subconsciously knew that it was Bartholomew making this part in time not only Mars' memory, but also Bartholomew's memory. This was what made things hard for them both to inhabit the body, simply because Bartholomew interacted with Mars all too often. Mars' eyes flashed at the wolfman that was not there, this Bartholomew man that always stayed within his Optime form. Mars then let his eyes look back at Itzal, and Mars' tail swished back into it's curled position on his back.

Bartholomew stood there with his hands crossed, his steel eyes peering at this situation. A grin held on his face as he looked at the Infernian man. Pitch black fur and bright cat-eyes. Bartholomew saw some mix in the lineage of the male, but the differences were too small for him to figure out exactly what was mixed with the man. Bartholomew was actually curious as to what the man was, and if he knew what Inferni was, then he would know, but sadly, neither Mars, nor Bartholomew had heard of such a place..

What are you? Bartholomew's curiosity was too strong for Mars to resist asking..

OOC:

The dark man had spoken again to Mars, telling him that he had not heard of the pack until he had come across it and joined it. That's almost the way it was for Mars and the Court, when he had lived there. He also knew that his father was there, so he had a reason to join. When his father left, Mars lost the reason to stay (since he and his brother did not have a close relationship) so he had left when Orin had given him a reason to follow along to D'Arte. Mars nodded his head to the man, but said nothing, for silence was common with the man who knew to be silent when not spoken to. His mother always taught him to be silent, and even though his mother was not around, he never figured it out mentally that he was free of her and her influences, so he was stuck being the way he was. Maybe one day he'd be like Bartholomew and loud as hell. Who know's what will happen with Mars. There's two ways, even though things looked good at some point, there's always the part that could make him get worse. All he needed was a little nudge and he could be sent over the edge. Mars was asked by the man where he was from. The quiet man looked at the other and slowly thought about if he was going to speak. In the end, he opened his mouth to speak and actual words came out. Cercatori D'Arte. It's a new pack to the southwest of here. voice was cool and quiet, almost mumbled.

His reasoning for knowing how to walk around with a sled would be because his mother, being full husky, and her family and pack being mostly huskies, and them being strict on breeding meant that tradition was going to be set in stone there. Mars learned from his mother, along with his full blooded half siblings who were loved more so than mottled Mars. Mars was forced to do the grunt work on the sled while his brothers and sisters got to do things in teams and go on bigger adventures. Mars was never allowed to go out on a run with his siblings. It was a big no-no, and momma would abuse him if he tried to run off with them, or even if he thought too hard about getting his harness on and running out with them. His mother was big bitch on camps pretty much, and what she said, Mars did in fear of her beating the shit out of him later, which would happen anyways because Mars would mess up something else. He never was good enough for Lyndi. Mars was nothing but a male to Lyndi. He was no God, no planet. He was nothing but a male. Nothing. For all she cared, he could not exist. She hated Mars. He was an abomination because of his blood.

Itzal asked Mars if what he did with fabrics. Mars did lots of things with fabrics. The current objects that sat secured in his sled would be clothing that he found and tailored and sewed himself. I make clothes, tailor clothes. I also make blankets and stuff. Depends on what fabric I have. I can also knit things. the man spoke, calm as always. His icy eyes still sat on the man, and for a moment, he got tired of just standing there where he was. He would take a seat right in front of his sled, his tri-colored tail would lay flat against the ground and the man sat there as tall and straight as he could, making him look almost show-dog like, like he would know what that means. Either way, he looked very professional looking at the moment before the other man would continue to speak about what he was doing here. Figures, the man was just wandering away from home. The man was like Bartholomew, always wanting to get away from where he needed to be. Speaking of Bartholomew, the bastard still was standing there, listening to the other man, waiting for him to answer the question he wanted to know. Mars looked nervously at Bartholomew though, and his lip twitched again at the invisible man, and he gave a snort to him. Steel eyes would move back onto bright cat-eyes that the other man had. Mars wondered what the man was thinking about since he hadn't looked like he was all there really. It made Mars' head cock to the right, and a pierced eyebrow to rise at the man. It'd take the other man another moment to actually answer the question he had asked, and once he did, he answered the question beautifully, saying that there was some coyote in there. Mars hadn't seen so many yote hybrids 'til he came here. Oh. I'm mostly husky. The rest is wolf.. the man returned the favor by answering an unasked question.

You do anything special? the man asked. Damn Mars, what's with all the vague questions?

OOC: n/a

Mars was unaffected at the fact that the other man had actually heard of his pack. He shrugged his broad shoulders yet again when the man had told him he heard of the pack, and that he had heard of it from Sky. It was the same Sky that Mars had to save from the middle of the forest one day because she was lost. Sky had been a rather nice girl, and Mars and her had gotten along pretty well, she even let him give her some help with heating up a nice bath for her since her pelt was all dirty and whatnot since she had fallen out of the tree she had climbed, as well as the fact that she had been bleeding for some reason. Mars had forgotten the reason why, or he had never asked what had happened to her, instead he just helped since she was a packmate. Whichever one it was, he didn't know, nor did he want to think that much into the adventure too much. She's nice. I know her. the man spoke, nodding his head, his voice quiet as always, calm still as well. Mars caught the man with a smile on his face, Mars himself did not smile, rather he kept his mouth twisted in an unemotional mask that he had put up. This man was a stranger, he deserved no smile. Not from this actor. The other man also showed Mars his piercing that he got from Sky. Mars hadn't known that Sky knew how to to piercings, but that was an interesting thing to learn from this man about Sky. It made sense since she did have a few piercings herself. Mars, himself only had his eyebrow pierced from when his father had met him and wanted him to fit in with the rest of the Russos. Too bad Mars had been reclusive and only met one other Russo besides his father, which would be his half-brother, Anatoliy. Mars needed to make it an adventure to visit his brother in the Court. Interesting. the man simply spoke, nodding his head again, voice calm still, almost uninterested even though it was very interesting to him.

Itzal went on to speak about the clothing and how he needed a pair or two and that he would be interested in hiring him if he was looking for business. Mars let his jaw drop slightly for a moment before he thought hard about doing this. This would mean that he would have to find some fabric for the other male. Mars would also have to take the man's dimensions so he would know how big to make the clothing so it was not too tight or too big. The sitting secui had thought about it pretty hard, wondering what he could possibly want from this other man. A mismatched ear had fallen back on his head for a moment as Bartholomew had approached Mars and whispered words into his fallen ear. Comeon Mars, you know you want to. He could have something that I want... the male whispered the words into the ear of his lower self. Mars' lip twitched at the thought of doing something strictly for Bartholomew. I could use the business, but I need to know what I'm getting in return. the man simply spoke, wondering of what material possessions that the man might have, or what services he could provide. I also would have to measure you. the man added, pausing again before he had another thing to add. Also gonna need to know what kind'f pants you're wanting and what color. That is, if you have something worth it. Mars did things for trade all the time, but if you wanted something done for free, you were going to have a better chance at Bartholomew doing it for you. After all, Bartholomew had dressed an entire woman just because he liked her enough to do so.

Mars noticed that this other man was quite the talker. Everything that Mars said had a whole paragraph spoken back. Mars didn't mind it, he guessed, it was just that Mars was a much quieter man then the other was. Itzal spoke about how he had heard that huskies were good working dogs. This was true, which was why his mother had put them all through so much shit, as to keep them from being annoying and destructive. This was how Mars knew as many trades as he did, as to keep him out of trouble, even though he was always in trouble with him mom anyways for just existing. Itzal asked Mars if the cold bothered him. Strangely, it did if only because his coat had only recently started to become thick. Since he lived in the south, where it was hot even in winter his coat was thinner than it was before he had moved up here. His fur only just recently got to where it was thick enough to not bother him as much. No, the cold it pretty refreshing actually. he lied, a faux smile playing on the actor's lips. The smile could be mistaken for a real one if you didn't realize that it was in fact, forcefully put on his face.

Itzal moved on to speak about what he did that was special. Tattooing and basically being a ninja. Mars could imagine that man being a ninja. Paranoia popped in his insecure mind, knowing now that the man probably could kill him in an instant. Both of his mismatched ears fell back on his chocolate head. He took a deep, slow inhale of oxygen before he got up onto his feet again. He stood there with his tail curled over his back yet again. I'm not too much of a tattoo person. Bartholomew was. That was the reason he had so many of them (only four) and Bartholomew had come to an agreement with Mars that he would not get any more tattoos. Agreements only worked with Bartholomew 30% of the time. It wasn't a good thing that Bartholomew was indirectly meeting this man. Can you skin pelts? Mars asked, trying to find something that the man would be able to do for Mars for this to work.

OOC: sorry for the wait.

Mars was not quiet and secretive because of the fact that things were taken away from him, just simply because he was beaten into a silence. When he used to talk as a pup, he was beat, so he learned not to speak unless spoken to. Mars just simply never grew out of not talking, and even though he could freely talk, he was so used to the silence that it was normal to him, and it was expected by him to just be silent most of the time. He kept secrets because he didn't want to be judged nor did he want to be known about. He didn't want to be exposed for what he was, a bi-polar emotional wreck that should just be dead by now, but for some reason he was still around. Since he'd been here, no one had become as close as he had people back in California, which was a relief in some ways because he didn't have to worry much about Bartholomew talking to his friends when he wasn't around. When the man spoke about his packmate, Mars simply nodded. She was pretty nice, from what he could remember, but he had only seen her once, talked to her once, so as far as first impressions went, the woman was nice, he figured.

It wasn't long before there was talk of the tailoring again. The man told him that he'd pay in whatever way he could. Mars would need some time to think about what he would need the man to do, or what he could trade for the pants that he had just told Mars that he wanted. Two black jeans. Jean material was hard to find as well as the color black, but Mars luckily did have some fabrics back at his house that would work for the man's jeans. Mars nodded his head again. I don't have my measuring tape with me right now, so we'll have to meet up somewhere at some other time to measure you. Mars was quick to speak to the man, telling him what was up with the whole measuring thing. You can either come to Cercatori D'Arte or I can come to Inferni, but the only thing about this is that I have no clue where Inferni is. the man spoke to the other, pointing out that Mars had no clue where the clan of coyotes was. Much less would he know that his kind, since he was not any coyote, was not welcome there, and there was probably a good chance of him being attacked at the borders when he would be going to find Itzal to measure him. Mars was ignorant to the fact that the coyotes were not on a good term with the wolves, so he was in the dark about all the stuff that had happened most recently and what had happened in the past between Inferni and Dahlia. He sorta didn't care either, but it would probably be a good thing to know so he could be on the watch for aggressive coyotes. He didn't know anything about the 'yotes and he didn't care, but he should have been warned at least. It was the right thing to do for the artist.

Itzal went on answer Mars' question about skinning. The answer was not one that was favorable to Mars, for it was one of the only things he could think of that he really could use at the moment. He didn't want to make jeans just for some shitty skins that the man could have skinned better than the other. Mars was asked what was needed to be skinned, and Mars shrugged lightly. I'm just trying to figure out what we can trade. the man spoke, shrugging his shoulders yet again. The secui man had taken a seat again, finding himself stuck here since the other man wanted to trade for things. I don't know. If you haven't practiced it, then I'm probably better at it than you. the man had spoken to the other, shaking his head lightly before he had looked to his right, mismatched ears turning to the right with him as he listened for something that had hit the ground in this dead forest of old buildings. Maybe you could dry some meat for me, and trade me some food for the jeans. Mars suggested, at this point, just trying to find something within the man's forte.