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yayy, exciting. XD. 434 words, coming posts on my part will surely be shorter.
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Alexey had said Princess was here. Tokyo couldn't believe it, but the faint wisp of a familiar scent around the area and the fact that Alexey had had no reason to lie to Tokyo meant that... Well, she didn't know what it meant. She hadn't found her daughter, yet, if she was truly in the area. And maybe she was just imagining the scent, with wishful thinking. But the potential of it being true still lurked in the shadows of her mind. A series of dark areas impossible to avoid in the natural train of thought, the small face of her daughter popping up uncalled for in any moment of reflection.
It was one of the most frustrating things Tokyo had ever experienced. If Princess were really here, this endless drawing out of their encounter only served to build up the tension. If she weren't, then this was all some sort of cruel joke. The light colored female walked wearily out of her den near the coast. She should probably walk inwards towards the forest, wander the land as she had been doing so for the past few days. But she was sick and tired of always looking. It took too much out of her, and she was more discontent than she had allowed herself to be in a long while. Because the easiest way to get over something was to decide it wasn't worth dwelling on, but the problem was, this was!
This was important. This was... her child. The good one. The one she missed. Although, a little part of her missed the four dead ones, too. But never the boy. And it was only Princess! Which means she must have forgiven her mother, which means she must have been betrayed by Buttface, and was back on her mother's side, and understood why Tokyo had acted the way she had. It was only for their own good! The boy was a terrible influence. It was written all over his face, all over his fur. It was warm, but Tokyo shivered at the ghost of Raphael springing to life old memories.
So instead, Tokyo walked down to the beach. She wasn't shifted, and the sand felt nice crumbling under each step of a paw. She stopped right where the sand got damp, digging out a quick, shallow hole and curling up in it. For once, she wasn't even worrying about the sand getting in her fur, wasn't worrying about whether her fur would be any less shiny. She was just trying to enjoy the heat, and the sun, and the sound of the waves gently lapping.
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312 words. ^^ Yay, family!
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She had met briefly with Cmwfen, and just as Alexey had said, the female had been able to give her an affirmative of her mother’s presence in Dahlia de Mai. It was a scary thought that she was so close to finding her mother, and it had succeeded in subduing her normal behavior, keeping her withdrawn from everyone. It had been different when it had been a “maybe,” but now it was a “definitely.” Tokyo Chance was in Dahlia de Mai, and possibly looking for her, if Alexey (or Cmwfen) had vocalized the young female’s newly found presence in the pack. Where are you, Mother, she wondered.
The sand smelled differently than the grass elsewhere in the pack, and along with the sand was the scent of the ocean. Princess wasn’t sure, exactly, how she felt about the smell, but she knew it was a mental diversion. It was the shape along the water’s edge that she wasn’t sure about. “M. . . Momma?” she asked timidly, forcing her small paws to move closer to her mother. “Momma, it’s me. . . Princess.” As if it wasn’t already obvious. The folium had to be honest with herself in admitting that she was nervous. What if her mother hated her now, after she had run away with Buttface and left her all alone?
Taking another step closer to Tokyo, Princess almost whined with longing to run to her mother’s side. She had wanted to be angry with her, had planned to confront her loudly and with a lot of anger, but now that she could see her mother. . . All of her conviction was gone. Every ounce of anger was ripped away from her body, like the white fluff from a dandelion in a gust of wind. All of it was gone in an instant, stripping her naked and completely exposed, figuratively.
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Whenever Tokyo left her hope flare up too high, whenever she dared to think that perhaps maybe her daughter had returned to her, there was one thought that kept dimming her excitement. If Princess was really here.. why hadn't she just howled? The light colored wolf had not strayed from the lands since Alexey had given the news - and thinking back, not for a while before that. The pack lands had more than enough to keep Tokyo amused and happy, for the moment at least. After all, that was what howling was good for.. avoiding the sort of tiptoe dance around the territory, circling and circling but never closing in on the wolf that was sought. Of course, Tokyo could have just as easily called for her daughter, but the little spider spinning webs of doubt along the back of her skull refused to allow the three year old to fully believe that Princess was around until she saw the proof with her own eyes.
And with thoughts like these, it was no wonder that when the young form appeared out of nowhere, whining her name, she couldn't help but dismiss it initially as a figment of her lazy state of existence, teetering on the border of sleep and the dreams that came with it. It was only after a few more moments of consideration, when Tokyo realized that this puppy before her was not the typical shade that lurked her dreams, that she realized this was real. As quickly as she was lurched back to consciousness, Tokyo took her sweet, careful time in standing up, slowly, as if terrified that a sudden move would.. what? Spook her away? Draw the truth from the mirage, cause the coloring of two generations, daughter and grandmother, to fade into mere cruel configuration of sand and dust?
In the process, she identified the key differences. This puppy.. Princess - it was it was it was - was bigger. Like, much bigger than the three month old child that had ran away. Her colors had deepened from the puppy fuzz; her fur was longer, some. She was pretty - Tokyo recognized with pride the best of her own facial structure. Now that Princess' colors had settled, more, it was easy to see the subtle differences between Ophelia's fur pattern and the child's. It didn't bother Tokyo much at all, though, as none of the differences could be traced directly to Raphael - if they came from him at all, it was some distant relative that was absolutely irrelevant to her nightmares.
Tokyo shook herself lightly, dislodging the majority of the sand. She didn't know exactly what to do. If she was shifted, it was definitely a hug that was called for, but had she really so quickly slipped back into the more humanoid patterns of life here in the South? Princess looked so distraught, and it tore at her mother's heart. She stepped forward, bridging the distance, and nuzzled the young girl's neck gently. "You came back to me." Almost breathless words; a hint of disbelieving lurked as well.
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324 words. I don't know how Tokyo will react, but if she'd push her away or anything, feel free to do so.
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Almost immediately, Princess flinched away from her mother’s touch. It was a reflex, and her distance was minimal, but the action was clear. It lasted only a moment before she leaned back into her motherly stiffly, but she could feel her resolve crumbling. It would be better to get it over with quickly, and then figure out if her mother still loved her after she asked her about her siblings. She hadn’t thought about what she would say yet, though. “Hi, how are you, why’d you kill my three siblings, and why were you mean to my brother?” certainly wasn’t the way Princess wanted to go about asking, but if the words came out bluntly, she didn’t want to worry about it. Either her mother would love her again, or hate her.
“Momma. . . Momma, I have a question,” she whispered, keeping her muzzle pressed into her mother’s warm, comforting fur. Blinking away the potential for tears, her breathing ragged, Princess mumbled something incoherent into Tokyo’s fur before realizing it wasn’t understandable. “Momma, how come you tried to kill all of us? And why didn’t you love Buttface? It made him sad, and I was sad, too. I love you, Momma, but how come you did that?” It was a hard thing to ask. Princess only wanted her mother’s approval and love, not to make her angry or hurt her.
Truthfully, she was also a little afraid that her mother would become so angered that she might react violently. There was nothing in their past to suggest that she wouldn’t. After all, she had killed three of her own pups in anger. What was to say should do something similar now? Princess didn’t even know her mother. What had Tokyo done after Princess and Buttface had left? Princess wondered if she might have just come here, not caring about her pups running away.
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Kk. ^^. Sorry for being slow compared to yer speedy replies, I'm making this a priority thread but it's almost finals week so all my replies are being a few days slower. 534 words.
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Princess flinched at Tokyo's initial touch, and the mother couldn't help but wonder what she'd gotten into exactly since running away. Because her flinching must be a result of painful experiences with touching since she left...It couldn't be because of Tokyo's own actions, she'd never hurt so much as a hair on her daughter's head. So she assumed someone must have hurt her, and indignation rose strong and sour in the back of her mouth - who dared to hurt her daughter, her Princess. But before she could broach the issue or even find the words to bring it up, the young girl muttered something into her fur.
Perking her ears, she heard the questions that she had forever hoped she would never have to answer. That was the problem with caring about people - they held you accountable for your actions, and it mattered. You had to answer them upfront. She couldn't just spin a lie about how 'oh no, you must have heard wrong, I would never have done such a thing!' Not to a witness of the crime. Tokyo could still.. make up an elaborate story that exonerated her from all guilt. Maybe. This was an extended, long-going situation; simple snapshots of violence, bad-temper, and thievery caught by strangers were so much easier to write off to circumstance.
She was tired, and as easy and habitual as it was for her to concoct fabulous lies, there was nothing springing to mind and tongue. So she did what she usually didn't, and spoke something actually resembling a censored version of the truth. She spoke wearily, turning her head away from Princess so she didn't have to stare down the weight of her past.
"Your father was a bad wolf. He hurt me, and it was cause of him that I lost Champ - this wolf I loved very dearly, who was my best friend in all of the world. But Champ got very upset that I was having puppies, and he left me because of you guys. I was very mad and very lonely one night, and I thought maybe if you went away Champ would come back. It was wrong of me."
She even took some blame onto herself - this was something, after all, she felt she had done wrong. They existed, if few and far between. The difference between Tokyo and most wolves, though, was that she carried very little guilt on her person. She did something wrong, yes. But worrying about it, dreaming about it wouldn't change it, so why bother dwelling? Occasionally old ghosts would spring up, but far less than one might suspect for someone with her particular array of crimes. It was a lot to say at once, so she didn't touch on the question of Buttface yet; maybe it would be too much to swallow for Princess to return to that latter question, but it was unlikely. The problem of her son seemed very much simpler to deal with anyway; after Princess understood the situation the puppies had been born into, she would see clearly why Buttface had been a terrible kid. He was a tiny, furry, handy version of Raphael for Tokyo to lash out at.
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It's cool, no worries. :3 I don't mind waiting. My week is pretty full - work, graduation rehearsals, and then graduation on friday. My class sucks. I'm so ready to be done with them. D:
542 words.
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It wasn’t the explanation that Princess had been hoping for, though she didn’t know what, exactly, she had wanted to hear. Maybe a constant stream of apologies, and perhaps some tears. And Tokyo hadn’t even said anything about Buttface. Princess had been hurt by her mother’s explanation at first - Was this Champ guy really more important than her own pups to Tokyo? If Champ was so important to Tokyo, and she to him, then why couldn’t he accept her puppies, and try to help raise them? She didn’t know the whole story, by far. But Princess thought he might have been able to raise them with Tokyo, and even pretend that they were his own. If they’d done that, Princess would have had a daddy, and they could have even been a happy family, all four of them together!
Princess took a step away from her mother, looking directly at her mother’s paws with her ears pinned back. “Momma. . . I want to be mad, and I want to hate you. I don’t want to love you, ‘cause of how you treated Buttface. I love my brother, and I want to hate you. How come I can’t hate you? How come I still love you?” she asked quietly, her breathing ragged while she tried to compose herself. After vocalizing those thoughts, Princess didn’t think that Tokyo would take too kindly to them. What mother would want to be told that their only daughter loved them, but didn’t want to love them? It would have had to be a great blow, to realize that, while she was loved by Princess, Tokyo wasn’t someone the puppy wanted to love. And there was certainly a difference.
Tokyo still hadn’t answered her question about Buttface, and it was grating on the young female’s nerves. Under other circumstances, this reunion of mother and daughter could have been a heartfelt moment. They could have rushed to each other, told each other how much they had been missed, and then lived happily together in a den on the shore (going by Cmwfen’s explanation of Tokyo possibly having taken up a den on the shore). “But how come you were mean to Buttface? I don’t. . . I don’t understand,” she muttered, angry with the lack of an answer. Unfortunately, this was no the happy moment it could have been; Princess was trying to sort out her feelings, and goodness only knows what Tokyo was thinking about her daughter’s words. It probably wasn’t very good.
“But. . . I had to find you, Momma, and I looked all over the place. I missed you, and I really wanted to know all of this,” she added, clarifying that she hadn’t only been looking for her to be with her. While Princess and Buttface were now separated, Princess didn’t want Tokyo to have any misconceptions about her daughter. I didn’t come find her for her. I came to find her for me, and for Buttface. I just hope he finds me again. . . I don’t want to go wandering around again in search of someone, now that I’ve found Momma, she thought, unhappy with the idea of leaving now that she had found whom she had been looking for.
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ah yeah graduation practices suck >_>; 501 words
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Tokyo was hurt, at first, about Princess not wanting to love her. Was she really that mad at her mother for her actions? Why did it matter so much? Tokyo had admitted she had done wrong. She had raised the two surviving puppies. What else could she have done? It wasn't fair for her daughter to treat her like that. She deserved love unhindered by whatever reservations the little girl had. She was hurt, at least, until she rationalized it. The important thing to latch onto was that Princess did love her. And actually, the fact that she still loved Tokyo despite her own wishes showed just how deeply ingrained the affection must be. So instead of anger, she felt pity. A pity that her son had wrecked such havoc with the girl, had made her believe she shouldn't love her own mother. Tokyo's hearing was as selective as she wanted it to be. All that she decided was worth digesting from Princess' final statement was that she loved her, reaffirming the mother's conviction that it was actually impossible for her not to.
"You love me because you know I'm right." Tokyo said simply. "Your brother looked exactly like your father. A miniature replica of Raphael. He was going to end up just like him, if he wasn't taught to be respectful. I did what I had to do." Although now that her past had caught up with her, she did regret her choice of name. Not out of any actual guilt for the destruction of a child's self-esteem, but mostly because it was sort of awkward and embarrassing to explain away. And now that Princess was here.. Tokyo shifted uncomfortably. As great as it was for her daughter to come back, she felt a brief momentary pang that the action had happened. She was settling in so comfortably. There were some genuinely nice people in this pack, wolves that she actually even got along with.
"And you're living proof that I was right. You're exactly like the grandmother you take after. Remember all the great stories I've told you about Ophelia?" Tokyo said softly, aching to close the distance between them but not wanting to see her daughter back away again. The silence hung heavy, and the older female broke it carefully with a warning. "You can't tell anyone about this. Not about Buttface. Not about your other siblings. They won't understand the situation. They don't know us. This is family business. If you tell anyone, I will probably be chased out of this pack. Maybe even killed. They have a different sort of culture, here. You don't want that on your conscience, do you? The death of your mother?" She wasn't entirely sure of the accuracy of her threat, but what Tokyo was sure of was that she did not want word leaking out. And the best way to guarantee that her daughter would not speak was to impress upon Princess the severity of the situation, fabricated embellishments or not.
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511 words.
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She felt a familiar pull as her mother brought up Ophelia. Princess didn’t recall ever having met her grandmother, but she knew how her mother felt about the older female, and it was, in her eyes, an honor to be compared to her revered grandmother. Going on that bit of information, Princess couldn’t help but see the logic in her mother’s mistreatment of Buttface. . . No! her mind shouted. She didn’t want to see that twisted logic. She had come to Dahlia de Mai to find her mother, and her original intent had been to do so with extreme anger. Her resolve had faded, and now all Princess had to hang onto was the fleeting thought of her brother’s hurt, showing strongly on his young face.
Eyes widened at her mother’s warning. Tokyo didn’t seem entirely afraid, but Princess had been affected in the best way possible by her mother’s warning - She was absolutely terrified that her mother would be taken away from her so soon after they had been reunited. “N-no, I won’t tell anyone,” she stammered. “I asked ‘Lexey and Cmwfen about if they saw you or Buttface, but I didn’t tell either of ‘em how come I was looking for you, or anything about him,” she added, worried that she may have already said too much. What if that was already too much, and Tokyo became angry with her for even telling the Acer and Adonis that she had a brother. What if it was already too much to have told them that she was Tokyo’s daughter? What if Tokyo hadn’t wanted anyone to know about even her?
Now that she had asked her mother about their past (even if the answers were strange, but logical), Princess didn’t know what came next. Was she supposed to go find somewhere to live, or was she supposed to stay with her mother? If Tokyo had wanted to keep her a secret, then it wouldn’t make much sense for her to stay with her mother. She supposed that, if that were the case, she could try to find Alexey again and see if the older female had any suggestions, since Princess would need someone to look after her, unfortunately. She didn’t even know how to hunt properly - how would she keep herself alive? Surely she could be taught, but that was completely and entirely besides the point. She didn’t want to have to take care of herself, all by herself.
Pouting, Princess looked up at her mother. “What do I do now, Momma? I only came here to find you. . . But, I don’t want to leave,” she added, reiterating the fact that she still loved her mother. If she didn’t, then she wouldn’t have had a problem leaving her mother’s side. Tokyo was surely going to pick up on the implication, Princess was certain. But what came of it was going to be important. Her mother would either turn her away, or welcome her with open arms, now that talk of Buttface and Raphael was finished.
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306 words. maybe one or two more posts and we can call this thread done? ^^;
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Two people knew her son's name. One wasn't a surprise; Tokyo had, after all, encountered Alexey up north near the dock and spoken with her. It was how she had known Princess was around. At her daughter's agreement to secrecy, Tokyo praised the child. "Good girl." She paused, thinking. "You probably shouldn't talk about Buttface to many more people, either. He's gone now, and it's just us, the way it should be, we should leave him in the past.." Princess had been asking the Dahlian wolves if they had seen Buttface? Was he following her to his mother? "Why were you looking for him? Is he coming, too?" If he was, Tokyo had to find him first. Had to scare him away. Had to feed him lies of Princess' loathing of him, to save Princess from his influence. She finally had her daughter out of his corruption; it would be terrible to lose him to his lies, his slander, his evil again.
Tokyo beamed at her daughter. "You can stay with me, of course, darling. My den is just a little ways east of here. The coast is beautiful, and I've been learning how to catch some fish. They're very tasty and much more fun to hunt, I'll catch you some or show you how later tonight if you'd like." She was blathering, a little, but she was almost giddy in her excitement over this reunion. Her mind flitted back towards the book in her bag, back at the den. Champ's diary. It would.. help Princess understand, some. But her daughter, for all that she looked so much older than Tokyo remembered her, was still so young. Too young, probably, to read the diary. Especially the later entries; Champ got somewhat explicit and vicious in his anger towards Tokyo.
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Sounds good to me. ^^ One more for you, perhaps, and we'll be done?
308 words.
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“Well. . . No. Buttface isn’t coming. . . But we got separated when I wanted to find you, and he didn’t want to come, so we argued, and I was hoping he’d come anyway,” she explained, although the explanation was weak. It did make Princess feel terrible to promise never to talk about him again, but she couldn’t help it. Standing before her mother, the pup would have promised anything if it meant that Tokyo would love her. Perhaps she wasn’t meant to be with her brother, if he was as deserving of his punishment as Tokyo had implied in her explanation. Maybe Princess was just so much better off staying with her mother, and forgetting about Buttface entirely. Deep within the very depths of her mind, she couldn’t help but feel badly for telling herself to forget Buttface. It was for the better, though. . . Wasn’t it? Tokyo said it was, so it had to be, Princess decided. Her mother knew everything that was important.
Her expression brightened at her mother’s enthusiastic words, and she almost danced in her spot. “Thank you, Momma! It’ll be like before, only. . . Just us,” she faltered, remembering that she had promised not to bring up Buttface again. Mentioning the past was similar, and it would probably make her mother angry - something Princess absolutely did not want to do. Cmwfen had mentioned that she thought Tokyo had taken up residence along the shore, and Princess was very pleased to find that the Adonis had been correct. “Cmwfen said you lived there. Are there really fish? Big fish, maybe?” she inquired, her tone earnest. “And you could really teach me how to catch ‘em?” Her voice was filled with awe. . . Her mother was awesome, she had decided. Tokyo was even more than awesome. She was amazing.
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yup yup works for me!  . 258 words.
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Tokyo was glad to hear that her son wasn't coming. If her son and daughter, close as they were, fought badly enough to go separate ways, then Buttface probably wasn't going to show up. She'd keep an eye out, anyway, but she was fairly satisfied with concluding that he was gone. Princess almost slipped and spoke about Buttface, but instead of her near miss disappointing the older female it pleased her. She was watching her words - she was trying to do good, and in this situation Tokyo could appreciate the effort. It showed she really was learning from her mother's words, and she felt like she was full to brimming at pride over her beautiful, amazing perfect daughter.
"Yup, just like before, but better." She shook off some of the more persistent sand. "The shore is the best place ever. I spent a lot of time growing up on a shore sort of like this. There are tons of fish, but you have to be very sneaky to catch em." She licked her daughter affectionately, and bounded off a little towards the water, enthusiasm having pumped her veins with adrenaline. "There are some big fish I can show you how to catch, but some of the fish are so big, there are even some creatures bigger than wolves!" Tokyo had read about it. And once, she'd seen a pair of dolphins or maybe whales (she didn't remember the difference, not really) splashing through the waves. It was really rather exciting, but also sort of a little scary.
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