We can't play it safe anymore
#1
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Note to all CdM members, this is an important thread to keep track of! What could be going on?

The time was here. Giselle had delivered into the world their two sons, their first children. He had basked in the days after in the beautiful glow of the mother and children, keeping her well taken care of while they waited to see if the two boys would survive past their infancy into the bumbling months of puppyhood. He watched them slowly begin their lives at their mother's teat, suckling for life as they began to grow day by day. Their eyes had still not opened but it had not even been two weeks since Giselle suffered through labor for them. They yipped and whined and demanded most of their mother's attention, which Silvano was happy to let them have. He enjoyed watching her play mother, for she was truly good at it.


But his was not a happy task today, for he had a purpose in his leaving the room. It was not to hunt or find Giselle something she needed, or the pups something they would need in their fragile state. No. He had had enough. He saw what had happened to the Dauphin, and he thought that he was improving. But it was all just a lie it seemed. He had glanced out the open window to see the Dauphin drinking again. Silvano had grumbled and said nothing, but he seemed to not stop except to sleep for the night. The next day, he had seem him step out to the trees near the Hotel, and Silvano knew what had to be done.


"You," he loudly said, knowing his voice carried through any open windows of the Hotel and the surrounding area. "What are you doing?" His face was twisted into a scowl as he glared at the Dauphin, who only seemed to peer back at him, in surprise at the lack of respect owed him as a high ranking member.

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#2
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so much sad

Ahiga was gone now too. He did not know what he was doing anymore, and the last thread he had to Noss was gone. Noss was gone, the family was gone, and Strel, in a manner, was gone too. The day that the youth left, Strel took to the drink again, foregoing everything he had to numb himself. And he drank so much of his alcohol that he had almost had to find more, but had scrounged out another bottle of rum for the next day. He did not know what he was going to do when the alcohol ran out and he would be forced into stone cold sobriety with all of his emotional baggage to lug around. He had thought Ahiga wanted him around, wanted him to help. He thought he had been needed. But no, the boy as gone, and Strel lost himself in a bottle.


He had gone to bed early and slept late, preferring to keep his brain asleep for as long as he could before facing the world. Tonight, though, he would ration out his alcohol so he could gaze at the stars as they came out before heading to bed to curl up alone. He grinned at the thought of the warm booze pouring down his throat. Yet before he could even so much as sit, he found a voice calling at his back. Strel turned, confused. And then he bristled at the equally tall man, but broad, glaring at him without a single bit of respect in his eyes. "Excuse me?" he retorted, turning to his full height, which did not match the others. His hand was on his hip as he held out his bottle. "How dare you talk to me like that?" he said angrily, his finger pointing at the man. "Who do you think you are? I am the Dauphin!"

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#3
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It seemed that the Dauphin was not yet inebriated, or he had already begun but his tolerance was astronomically high. Regardless, the man bristled at the rudeness and demanded to know where the Sadira came off. Silvano couldn't help but feel energized by this confrontation, standing tall and proud as the other man straightened before him. He had an upper hand here. Silvano was taller and stronger than this thin man, who looked as though he had begun to skip out on meals or had been avoiding them fairly often. Or was he just that way naturally? A bottle was used to gesture at him, which the Sadira found immeasurably rude, especially having watched the Dauphin slowly kill himself since he had arrived. And now it was accelerating beyond anything he had seen. This was not done for him, but for everyone else. Everyone else deserved someone much better than this.


"Of course," said the former Dreamer, letting his fangs show slightly in his canine grin. "I see no man before worthy of respect! You are a waste of a being, and you do not deserve to be bowed to. I will not be humble before a man clearly not my superior." Words designed to sting, to hurt, to touch a nerve where they ought not touch. He gestured to the building behind him, arms sweeping wide. "You lay all your weaknesses on the table for all to see and you expect us to hold you in higher regard? You're hardly worthy of more than a pitying glance."

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#4
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Strel's hackles rose as the man continued to insult him. Through clear eyes he saw this man before him, blood as pure as his own, calling him a disgrace. Where did he get off, this stranger he had only seen around? Was this one of those people that came when the Dreamers broke apart? That's right, this was one of them. One of those former Dreamers. Had he come to usurp his place as the Prince of the Court? Was he hear to deliver unto him a punishment to go along with his suffering? "What did you say to me?" he said, his voice a dangerous low. He had no way to back up his anger though, unarmed and untrained as he was. This man before him was built like a warrior, with muscles to spare and a body not weakened by the consumption of alcohol.


The man continued his insults and the Dauphin found himself bristling more and more as he gazed at the man. But in his heart he knew he was right. This man had a point; Strel had long since fallen from grace and this was only the whipped cream on the pudding. It was all true but he had no heart to admit it to himself let alone to a man who was his minor. He shook his head vehemoutly, growling out at Silvano with a rage he had not felt coursing through his body in eternity. "You have no right to say that to me!' he growled out, gesturing with the bottle at the hotel, where the open window of this man's family was. "You have everything you want, don't you, boy?" he spat, tears threatening to spill at the corners of his eyes. "What right have you to tell me anything, when you have all you want?"

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#5
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He knew it would be impossible to get through to the man, but he had only scarcely begun his attack on the man. Silvano waited as Strel began his angry words, growls and threats empty against him. The Sadira was a knight, born and raised, his blood coursed with the knowledge that he could fight and that he could win. His posture was easy, not on guard at all. He knew he was more than a match for the Dauphin, who was beginning to age prematurely thanks to the drink he consumed on a constant basis. Already thin and lanky, the Dauphin seemed weak and frail. Silvano was strong, young, and unaltered.


I have every right, he thought darkly, watching the man point at his room, where his mate rested with their young sons. Now, Silvano bristled, only at the unintentional threat at his family, though he knew there was nothing the Dauphin would do, let alone could do. He was not one to murder or hurt the innocent but there was a darkness full of pain and suffering deep within him that the man could see boiling beneath purple eyes. Silvano backed down a tad, letting his demeanor return to relaxed and calm. "I have everything I wanted," he said simply, merely mimicking the man. Strel flinched at his words, and the Sadira continued. "But you have a duty to do. When you became Dauphin you knew you were supposed to do your job as best as you could, for all of us. But what are you doing? Drinking for all to see and showing us all you are inept and weak."


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#6
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The redhead flinched back, arm with the bottle falling to his side as he eyed the man before him. He was listening intently, though he instantly looked away as the other man described to him what it was he had done when he had taken on this role. It was not a role he had wanted, partially. It was a role the greedy in him desired, the covetous creature that wanted the power, respect, and attention that came with such an important place. He had wanted to do it for himself, and for Noss, so that he could be someone worth having. But that was all for nothing, wasn't it? He was so lost without the other man, who had clearly taken something vital from him the moment he had left to go home with his sister. He had left that place for him, and then he returned to it without him, because they were not good together.


His fire. That was gone. He knew he no longer had the passion for what he did or what he was. His clothes were an escape, albeit brief. The alcohol numbed him in a way that was sorely needed, but he could not admit that he was selfish. He was. He always was. The green eyed dreamed stared at him, as though expecting an answer, something to refute these claims laid against him. But he would not and he could not, because it was all true. "I did," he said softly, eyes trailing down to the bottle in his hands. He twisted it, eyeing the indecipherable label as he struggled to keep his eyes from swimming. "I did," he repeated, blinking back emotions he did not want. "What do you want?" Strel looked up at the other man, eyes hard and his focus solidly on him. "What do you mean to accomplish?"

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#7
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Silvano had figured that the man would yell some more, deny it all, and order him away. But he was unprepared for the Dauphin to admit to it and so calmly, so fiercely, ask him what it was he wanted here. The former Dreamer simply gazed at the Court's second-in-command, wondering what on earth he could say that would make this all not sound as though he were power hungry. He wasn't, but he was tired of seeing someone so ineffective doing a good job of blundering around. He had his sons to think of, Giselle to think of, and any future children they may have come along way to eternity. He could not let the Dauphin endanger them all with his selfish ways.


He cleared his throat, stood tall to show he was over his shock at the question. He met the lavender gaze with his own hard look, emerald eyes stony as they locked onto Strel's. Squire and Dauphin gazed at one another solemnly for a moment before the Sadira finally answered the questions swimming in the air. "You know exactly what I want." Their eyes did not leave one another, but the shift in power was almost palpable. Something made the redhead sag a bit and shift his weight. "Stand down. I'll take your place," he said loudly, making sure that everyone could hear him, if they were listening at all. "I'll do the job you're supposed to be doing." He felt his heart race at his declaration, knowing that it was now out for everyone. If the Dauphin refused, he would fight the man, which was definitely not something he wanted to do. Strelein would see the sense in stepping down before Silvano would have to hurt him. He hoped so. For everyone's sake.


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#8
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Strelein knew what was coming, but it didn't mean that it hurt any less. He had failed the pack he had lived in since the age of two, for the past three years. He had been here for more than half his life already and he was watching what he had built fall around his ears. Blood rushed into his head, and his ears buzzed unpleasantly as he fought the urge to scream, to cry out, to demand that this man take himself away from here and never show his face before him. But his heart panged for the people he was letting down now, being the way he was. He was letting them all down and he knew it, and they would know it once word got around to everyone else. They would know what a disgrace their Dauphin was, and they would know that he had failed them to his core. A disgrace. That's what he was. A disgrace.


He was the one to take his eyes away from the man, and averted them. Anywhere he wasn't, he looked. "Then I name you Constable." It would be his final act as a beaten Dauphin with nothing left but his life to his name. He was done. "Take your honor and go. You have a family to congratulate you on your success. Now leave me in peace." He turned away from Silvano, knowing that he was relinquishing his title, his hold on what had defined him for a year. He gave him the power he had, and let it slip through his fingers like sand on the beach. "Vigilante will agree with you, if he doesn't already. Get out of my sight," he said roughly, heading around the tree so that he may sit with his back to the Hotel, to the people he had betrayed. There was nothing for him in the future, and he knew what waited for him sooner than he had ever hoped for. Everyone things they'll live forever, but the former Dauphin knew that his eternity was coming to a close. It was a simple matter of when.

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