All welcome to Anathema members only; because this takes place underground, people who are from outside of the pack aren't invited.
Word Count → 230
Returning from a frosted, salty swim in the sea, the coal-coated brute found himself aimlessly staring into the nothing of the general common room. Ravesque was not one for idle action — it was pointless to merely sit with no purpose once one could truly work in the world — but he'd found himself losing the present for the past as days went by underground. The cavernous expanses of the Voodoo Queen's kingdom reminded him frequently of Jaded Shadows an, subsequently, Fatin Kali. It was strange, to be in Naniko's home with idle images of the fire-haired woman dancing in his mind. Fatin had been so long ago; how many women had he had since then? Counting would have been pointless, as the only physical memory were those of his children.
A heavy sigh was released from dark jaws, one massive hand falling to his undefined hip as the other ran through a tangle of dark locks. The Tribunal had made things far easier; living for himself was, for the most part, ridiculously hard to comprehend. Maybe that was why he'd followed Naniko, bringing his children from the ruins of his home and into the ruins of another — for the simple guidance. His weight was pushed to the ground with a dull thund as he sat, crimson eyes closing to the world while his ears stayed open. Home was strange.
ooc: Hope you don't mind some father son time / Word Count: 510 (5 points)
It hadn’t been too lonely for the past couple of days in the young black wolf’s life. He had met others and even shared a meal with his mother. Although he wanted to spend most of his time focusing on his duties, he needed a bit of time to himself. While normally he would have wanted to leave the pack and go to Dahlia de Mai to look for Melee, it would probably be better for him to spend some time in Anathema and meet up with members who were not related to him, though that didn’t mean he would find a relative and spend time with them if he wanted. Scorpius closed his eyes as he sat up and stopped staring at the ceiling. He really needed something more to do in his life. Perhaps some of the other members would be able to help him with this and find him some sort of hobby. He soon stood up on his back legs and began to make his way out of his section of the cave. It was nice to have his own place. It gave him a sense of responsibility. He stretched out his back as he made his way out to the common area.
The male soon came to his destination and noticed another black wolf there with ruby red eyes. He knew this older male well. It was his father, Ravesque Acidic. It had been so long since he was last seen by his eyes. He began to make his way over to the larger wolf and he straightened out his clothes. It looked like he wasn’t doing much so he was sure he wouldn’t mind if he was interrupted by his son. ”Hello Dad. It’s been a while hasn’t it?” Scorpius moved to one of the walls and leaned against it as he crossed his arms. He began to look over his father’s figure and gave a small smile. He still looked like he was doing well in taking care of his half siblings. ”How are the others doing? Hopefully not giving you too much trouble.” He remembered that his father had come to Anathema with his half siblings and was living with them. He wondered how he still felt about Naniko and the young male. Would he be proud of his attitude and the results of the teachings his mother had brought on him? Only he could wait and see.
He paused for a moment to wait for Ravesque to reply to his questions. He could feel the cool air of the caves sinking through his fur. It was nice to have some clothes to wear while he was in here, but out in the summer heat it wouldn’t me smart. He soon rubbed his hand over his mask, sure it would be one thing his father would notice. It was not like it was an easy thing to hide anyways. He lifted it just a bit to get a small itch on his face and then placed it back in place.
His moment of rest and relaxation was broken by another presence; the familiar scent shifted the air, changing the image of the lost fire fairy into the cold, snowy Queen. His eyes didn't need to open for him to know the one who stood before him: Scorpius. The young man's voice only served to cement the fact. Hello dad, so easily sad, caused the crimson eyes of the Acidic to return to the world; they met with the smaller version of himself, his only son with the winter woman. It wasn't all the same, of course — Scorpius' face was marred by the presence of white, something to hide the truth of something else. Ravesque didn't bother to ask.
With a grunt, he rose to his feet, looming over the younger man with all of the intensity of an apathetic monster. Scorpius had certainly grown in the time Ravesque had turned his head away; already rising into the world of an adult, leaving behind the rest of his siblings. Of course, Jackson and Agony were growing as well — it was something not unnoticed by the man, who was waiting for a time when he would be his own person again. Children had bogged him down, causing his life to toss into a world of semi-calm and order. Before them, he had been a free-roaming man.
He released a sigh. "A while. Has it? Some days I don't keep track of time." His words were spoken with an odd, baritone drawl that suited the hulking brute; pauses between words and sentences offered his brain time to process, and process it did. "They're fine." He couldn't rightly say no trouble at all, as being a father would always be trouble. A large hand stroked his chin as if in thought. "Don't ever become a father, kid; it's more trouble than it's worth."
So sorry for the wait Kiki / Word Count: 513 (5 points)
Scorpius kept his relaxed manor as he watched his father’s actions. Judging from the small snort that he emitted, he could only assume that his father must have been doing something when he came by and spoke to him. He was soon on his feet, towering over his son. His eyes gazed up to him as he looked over his father. His appearance seemed to have changed since he last remembered seeing him. He had braids in his hair as well as a new decoration on his chest. It wasn’t exactly appealing to the young male, but he was not one to say anything. He didn’t really care much of what his father did, so long as it wasn’t against the Anathema laws. He kept his arms crossed as he never removed his eyes from Ravesque. Perhaps it would not be quite the bonding time that he had expected.
The black male narrowed his eyes as his father began to speak. Had his mind been shut off since he last saw him? Could he really have been this blind to the world around him? It was like he didn’t even bother to care. As much as he wanted to talk to his father, the way he was acting, he was slowly beginning to regret his decision. Ravesque then told him that his half siblings were doing alright. It was good to know that his extended family was having a good life here in Anathema and was sure they would do well in the ranks. Perhaps if they had some guidance like he had from his mother, then they would do even better. He gave the tall black male a small nod as he got off the cave wall. He wanted to hear more about his half siblings, though he was sure he would bump into them around the pack lands, so there was no need to ask anymore about them.
Ravesque’s next statement gave Scorpius a bit of a surprised face. He began to stroke his chin as he spoke. Don’t ever be a father?! What was this? Did he really believe that? His half siblings were around his age and would be considered adults shortly. Was it really that much of a bother to the black wolf. He gave a small growl to his father. ”Really? They don’t seem like that much trouble to me. Jackson is very nice to be around and I haven’t really been with the others, but I serious doubt that’s the right word for it.” He gave a small sigh, though kept his displeased look. ”That’s a shame though, I was hoping to be a father one day. If children bother you so much then don’t have any more.” He stood next to his father as he gave a small snicker. ”You know if you get on Mom’s bad side, we could stick you in the care taker ranks and have you watch over our pack’s future pups.” He was sure that would be a good thing to avoid if children were so much trouble.
Side note: Ravesque has had his piercings since the cult, so he would have had them throughout the entirety of Scorpius' life. Probably the same with his hair.
Word Count → 437
He did not try to explain his slow-working mind to his son — Scorpius was far younger, and therefore had no reason to know — though he openly admitted to lazy days and absence of time. When living underground, it only made sense; there was no sunlight to help guide him through the days, and they all seemed to blur together. He didn't leave the caverns frequently. Darkness was a life he understood well. His mind had adapted to being a creature of the underground. The loss of time was simply a rational side effect — the sun guided the daytime, the moon guided the night, and in the haven home of Anathema, shadows enveloped both. This was how it'd been living under the Tribunal. It was almost how it'd been within Jaded Shadows. He was not unused to the darkness, but perhaps Scorpius was too young to understand such a thing.
The surprise that wrote itself across his son's face at his words left the large Acidic vaguely confused. The growl was met with a lift of his lips, briefly baring faintly stained teeth in an act of aggression; defiance was not something Ravesque was often met with, certainly not from his boys (Agony was a different story, with her obsessive need to clean herself and domineering attitude over her siblings). But the response made his surprise clear: the fact that Ravesque encouraged an absence of children was displeasing.
Laughter escaped him, rumbling and deep laughter. "To be fair, Scorpius, you're all young. You don't know what it means to be a parent, or how difficult it is." He held four years experience over his son, and who knew how long it would take for the marred boy to find a female? As far as Ravesque knew, there were no prospects for the d'Angelo. All he saw as far as women around the dark, smaller version of himself was Naniko.
Another laugh rumbled forth at the boy's words about avoiding his mother's 'bad side'. Something sparkled in the Acidic's crimson eyes. "You say we as if you have the ability to stick me there; I'm glad to see naivety doesn't fade with adulthood." In truth, Ravesque did not find children distasteful — after all, he had nine of them. He rubbed at his chin thoughtfully, giving a misplaced grin as he continued to speak. "I can give your mother something you can't, Scorpius; I don't think I'll get on her 'bad side'." He scratched the thick mass of dark mane that fell along his back, staring into the darkness around him as the air fell silent of his voice.
Scorpius paused as he looked to his father and stopped growling. There really was no reason for him to continue on. He mearly wanted to show he found a bit of annoyance in the wording that his father used when he mentioned not having pups. He kept his arms crossed, though relaxed his mood and returned the calmness that was once in his ruby eyes. His gaze remained on his father as he waited to see his reaction to the way he acted to his comment. His eyes widened as the tall black male began to laugh. That was not exactly the reaction that he was expecting to get from his father. What’s so funny? Ravesque began to speak, saying that he had more experience and that the black male was much too young to worry about pups. It was true that he was much younger than his father, though he liked to have a plan for the future. He already had a female in mind, though it would only make him happy if she would want to be with him.
The young wolf continued to stare at his father as he let out another laugh. He began to speak once more as this time towards the comment her made about sticking the tall male in the care taker ranks. He was sure that even if the pack wanted to, they wouldn’t be able to do that. It was meant to be more of a joke, though his ears moved a bit back to his father’s comment about his naivety. Not exactly what he wanted to hear and again not exactly the reaction he was expecting. Scorpius watched his father rub his chin and give a grin. He remained silent as the tall male spoke. His eyes narrowed to his words. Perhaps there was some truth in that seeing as Ravesque and Naniko were together once. Even with that fact, he was sure it would be possible for his father to get on his mother’s bad side. Once his voice fell silent, it was his turn to speak. ”That may be true Dad, but I can do just as well as you can to make Mom happy. You’ll see. I’ll make her proud as well as make this pack proud of me. I’m sure that’ll make her happy.” He puffed out his chest a bit as he spoke, confidence behind his words. He was sure that would show his father too.
Scorpius paused as his father’s eyes began to stare into the distance. He crossed his arms and flicked his tail gently. ”Something on your mind Dad or are you simply bored?” He took some strands of his hair and began to straighten them out. As he flung them back behind his head, he took a seat where he was. He was getting a bit tired of standing. His legs crossed as his rear touched the cool ground. His ruby gaze returned to his father as he waited for him to reply.
Malice was not something to be felt by the large man, but only when faced by an equal sense of apathy, and this was not something he received from his son. He made a silent note to speak to Naniko about curbing her child's inability to offer miniscule respect to his elders. In the eyes of Anathema, he was no longer a child, and Ravesque expected the boy to act like the adult he now claimed to be. Wisdom was found in age and experience. Wisdom was respected. The Tribunal had been wise, and they had been respected. But as Ravesque smiled and laughed at the boy's arrogance and pride, the cogs of his mind worked. His children, Jackson and Agony, they were no handfuls. They showed respect, even if it was minor forms.
His mind turned off as Scorpius started to speak and words came in short bursts only enough to get his point across. There was no response as red eyes focused on the darkness before him, absent until his son's voice called him back. Simply bored? The man snorted. "I'm never bored. It takes emotion to be bored, boy." Another rub to his chin from a heavy hand and he mulled the prior words of Scorpius over in his head — it wasn't until after the Seere had sat himself down that his father gave a reply. "Pride will get you nowhere. Your mother is happy to have you here, but you can't do much more than that; no one can. Naniko D'Angelo is a woman hard to please." His weight dropped to the ground opposite his son, red eyes closing comfortably. "That's why I prefer to sleep with her; it's just easier to keep her happy with minimal effort on my part." This was a truth he was not ashamed to admit. He wasn't lazy. It was far from being lazy. Keeping Naniko happy was simply a task that could be one of two things: easy or difficult. He chose easy.
Scorpius, while relaxed, now contained a more serious look on his face. He was taking his father’s words and was not exactly please with them. He would have thought his father would have been more proud of his son for the adult he had become and the pride he was taking in the pack and trying to make his mother happy with him. At times he closed his eyes and stared at the ground, thinking of Ravesque’s words and how to reply to them. His eyes once again moved back up to the black wolf with deep red eyes as he began to laugh at him again. He could not stand the way his father was laughing at him. At least his mother didn’t drag it on like this, and that was more so from her humor in finding pain in others. He crossed his arms as he gave a small growl. ”Stop laughing at me.”
The young male paused for a moment as his father seemed to continue to focus on the darkness around him. What was the point in doing that when there was someone here to talk to. He then began to speak again, claiming that he was never bored and that it took emotion to be bored. The small black wolf paused for a moment to think about these words. ”I don’t believe that. I really doubt it takes much to be bored.” The tall male began to rub his chin again. He seemed to be returning to his own inner thoughts. As he waited for his father to speak again, he crossed his legs and adjusted his mask a bit. He sometimes found the mask to be a bother. He emitted a soft sigh before turning his attention back to his father and what more he had to say.
Scorpius felt a little offended by his father’s words. Since when was pride such a bad thing. He thought in this case he was trying to make his father proud of him, but instead he just seemed more disappointed. The other thing was saying there was nothing else he was able to do to make his mother happy besides him being in the pack. A small growl passed his lips as his father sat across from him. ”What makes you so sure of that statement Dad? How do you know there isn’t more that I can do for Mom to make her happy and proud of me?” His father began to speak again and choose his path to making Naniko happy. The young male crossed his arms and kept his eyes narrowed. He did not think his father was thinking about this right. He gave a small snort. ”Sounds lazy to me. How about instead of that you pull your weight in the pack to make her happy. You sure don’t seem to be doing much right now.” The male was actually contributing to the pack and making maps for his mother. He wondered if his father could do as much as him.
He ignored his son's request for the laughter to cease, but it stopped on his own as the conversation continued. As infuriating as talking to the boy might have been for others, Ravesque drank in his words with apathy, listening and turning over the sentences as he formed responses that made sense to him. Though he was not a quiet man, he was a slow thinker, always trying to ensure the words he spoke were everything he wanted them to be. He didn't expect his son to understand — he was proving to be an idiot of the most extreme sort, something he hadn't seen in the rest of his or Naniko's children.
A grunt left him as he acknowledged what his son was saying, a marker before his words decided to come. "You don't have to agree, boy." It was a simple response to something he found distasteful, disagreeing and giving an alternative opinion; why not simply let it go? In the red eyes of the Acidic, words were not always a necessary thing, and he expected others to think the same way. Those who talked too much ran the risk of revealing too much — a dangerous habit in any world. But he didn't stay silent. Instead, another small growl escaped the smaller version of the hulking beast, setting his father on guard and causing the muscles in his jaws to lift in a silent, warning snarl. He had already shown he wouldn't tolerate disrespect from the younger man. Of course, rather than continuing with disrespect, he simply receiving whining — how typical, that he questioned what Ravesque knew.
"You're a kid — you think you really know your mother the way I know your mother? You think you're smarter than I am, huh?" The words were laced with acid, a biting tone that lashed out at his son for questioning him. He'd known Naniko for so long...he couldn't remember the first time his eyes had found the white-clad body of the D'Angelo amongst the slimmer bodies of other women in the cult under the Tribunal, but he had known then that he wouldn't let her leave him forever. And now someone questioned what he knew of her, and he grunted out frustration as he formed more words. "I've watched your mother for a long time, Scorpius — if you believe she's not proud of you now, then she never will be."
He leaned back against the air, stretching out his legs as he studied his son in silence. More criticism from a boy who hadn't yet found a place in the world. "It's too bad your brother's stunt with the fire didn't kill you — it would have saved me a headache and your mother months of suffering an idiot." The words were cold, harsh, but not hateful. His eyes maintained their half-lidded gaze, staring without shame into the similarly colored eyes of the boy in front of him. Had Harlowe done the right thing? It didn't matter now, not with Harlowe did, but what would life be like without what was growing into a bratty young man? He snorted. "I pull my weight, even if you don't pay attention. Go back to your maps. Your time with me is up."
Scorpius could tell as he watched his father that he was being ignored. It was not like he cared much anoymore. He was not enjoying being around him anymore. His eyes had been narrowed on the tall black male and he could see anything he was saying was filled with emptiness. His father grunted to his remark, reply back with his own statement. It was true that he didn't have to agree, and he didn't really like the way his father was acting. It was a time like this that he wished his father hadn't returned to Anathema. Perhaps it would be better for him to stick closer to his mother and his half siblings. At least he seemed to be having a good relationship with Jackson. Perhaps he should spend more time with them instead of the one standing before him. It seemed like relations between father and son were not what he planned.
His father began to speak again about him and his mother. He was still not pleased about this topic. He sometimes liked to think he knew more than his father and acted as such. He sure seemed to believe he was smarter than him too. He knew what he needed to do for his duties and was responsible, which he could say was the same for his father. He didn't seem to be doing much and wondered if he would ever begin to focus on his duties to the pack. He began again, speaking of his pride. He was sure his mother was proud of him, though he wanted to show her how much he could do for her and the pack. He didn't mind the fact that he wanted more pride out of them to show his worth. He turned his gaze away as he huffed. He could think what he wanted, though he remained the same.
Scorpius' gaze shot over to his father as he seemed to now be supporting his half brother's stunt of pushing him into the fire. He growled angerly. How dare you! Some father he was. The fire of hate burned in his ruby eyes as he stared at his father. The black male as his father told him to go back to his maps. He scratched his claws against the wall of the caves before passing him. He paused as he was behind the taller male, not even looking to him. "Mom doesn't deserve someone like you." He moved back to his cave and went back to his work, something that would actually be useful to the pack. He studied the maps that he had made and his mind blanked back to the taller male. He couldn't help but push his claws through the paper. He sighed as he set them aside and just laid down. He was too angered to go back to his work. Perhaps he would just be able to sleep it off. Hopefully the next day would be better than this one. What he had hoped to be a good time turned into a bad one.
/ Word Count: 510 (5 points)
