[html] With arms wrapped tightly around the large pot, Jasper made his way beneath the evening sun, having already traveled a great distance from where his new pack had settled down. In the pot, sloshing around as he walked, was his first attempt at making stew on his own, without his father's guidance. The food had cooked for a good portion of the morning and now that it was luke warm, the pot cool enough to carry, Jasper was on his way to take it to his father, to see if he approved. If Ahren found it to be decent enough, Jasper was going to volunteer himself to be the Chef in Esper Hollow, as it was a hidden passion of his, especially when it came to making stew.
On the way through the woods, nearing the camp that his father had been staying, Jasper stopped a moment to readjust the large pot on his arms. It was as it sloshed around inside, and while he peered in at it, that the urge hit him. Carefully, he hung his head over the edge, tongue snaking out in an attempt to snag a piece of deer that had settled at the top. With various failed attempts at getting it and his frustration growing, Jasper finally dunked the edge of his muzzle in, snapping at it until he finally had it. It was a wonderful little tidbit for such hard work, he decided, and removed his head from the pot.
Stew dripped from his muzzle the whole way until he finally reached the empty camp, settling the pot on the small fire to rewarm and wiping the remnants of his 'taste test' from his mouth with his arms. "Dad?" He called out loudly, turning away from the fire to begin gathering a few bowls.
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They had a strange relationship, he knew, and it was probably why he was content to not think about it most of the time. There were too many questions to be asked and too many uncertainties he simply didn't want to deal with . As long as neither of them were willing to talk about it, it would likely remain that way, but he didn't mind. They only seemed to meet on occasion, with coincidental rendezvous at dawn, at twilight, in the dead of the night when it was too cold to feel. And that was okay. Laruku knew where he had camped, but rarely ventured into the area, just as Ahren probably knew his usual haunts, but rarely sought him out. It was enough to know that he was there. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he might have realized that the denial was obvious, but the last thing he really wanted to think about ever again was love. The world didn't amount to much in the end; indeed, it was probably better if they just remained the way they were, whatever they were.
It was unusual, then, for the scarred, tawny male to be in the area -- another incidental thing as he certainly hadn't planned on it. And he thought about turning away before he intruded on the clearing, but there were footsteps and a voice that he hadn't heard in a while. Naturally, he could have still walked away, but something smelled good too. He made his way towards the fire and managed a vague smile for his friend's son. Hey, Jasper, he greeted easily enough, What's that?
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[html] "Daaaaaaaaaad?" Jasper called out yet again, words much more drawn out than the previous time. The thought had crossed his mind to start yelling grandpa, or geezer, something to the 'old' effect. Certainly it would have made his dad pop up, if only to give him a good smack on the back of the head. Jasper placed to two bowls near the fire, rummaging around this his father's things until he found a large ladle and a few spoons. He was used to eating with utensils now, whereas before he would have just likely stuck his nose right in the bowl to slurp it all up in one go. With all of the other items gathered up in his arms, Jasper made his way back over to the fire, dropping the ladle in the pot and the spoons in each respective bowl.
It was about that moment that a voice came, practically making him jump, and Jasper turned his head to meet the other male. Laruku, his father's close friend. Fortunately, Jasper didn't know exactly how close they were. "Dinner!" He stated cheerfully, because he knew, very vaguely, that Laruku wasn't likely to be mean to him. "I wanted my dad to try it but I guess he isn't around.." The younger male plopped himself to the ground, giving the stew a quick stir as it began to bubble up once more. "You can try some though?" It sounded more like a question than an offer. "He taught me how to make it and I wanna make sure it's good."
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Even when Acid had led him out of the valley, Laruku had never really traveled that far from his homeland. He had never crossed an ocean, and he had never met anyone that didn't at least know where 'Souls had been located. As such, he had never really picked up many of the more humanized mannerisms that other more traveled wolves might have. He liked to read and any idiot would prefer a bed over the dirt, but he had never really tried cooked meat, much less acquired a taste for it. So maybe he regarded the stew with a bit of feral suspicion -- after all, why mess with something that was already perfectly good as it was? Though not necessarily opposed to trying new things, the smell was probably the only reason he considered it at all.
Yeah, I haven't seen him today, he said of Ahren. He stared at the bubbling liquid, strangely aware of the fact that if the conversation didn't turn to food, then it would stay on Ahren. And Laruku didn't want to think about what they'd done last the last time they'd seen each other, so he hesitantly took the ladle from the pot. I've never had cooked food before, the hybrid admitted, making a slight face. What's in this? He held the scooping instrument up to his face and sniffed it, still wary.
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[html] Laruku turned Jasper into a chatterbox. o.o
Jasper wasn't at all surprised that Ahren wasn't around or hadn't been seen. His father has always struck him as someone who didn't sit tight in one spot for very long, someone who needed to be out doing something. Jasper, on the other hand, was often content with laying about and wasting the day away, moreso recently than before. "That's called stew.." He said with a nod, not sure if the fact that Laruku hadn't ever had cooked food before meant that he didn't know anything about it. "Dad used to make it when we were growing up. It made the house smell really good and got me out of bed most of the time." That was one of the good memories from back then, one that Jasper was still clinging to, despite the fact that he could no longer smell the stew to trigger it.
"This one is deer meat, potato, carrots, celery and rice." He had one hand up, counting the ingredients off on his fingers. The younger male sniffled once, bringing his hand up to wipe at his nose before dropping it again, watching Laruku. "My..mate.." It was still odd to say. "And I found some of his old friends. They made a little pack to the west of here, so we're staying with them. They're calling it Esper Hollow." He reached for the bowls then, taking one in each hand and holding it up toward the older male. "I was gonna offer to cook for them so I can help with something, since I can't smell anymore, so I wanted to see if it was good enough."
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Cooked and it had vegetables in it. His frown deepened slightly now that he could pick out the chunks of orange and green floating in with the meat. Still, venison was a rare treat considering he could probably count the number of times he had hunted with another person on one hand. After taking another light sniff, Laruku slurped up the contents of the ladle in one swallow. The warmth of the stew was very different from the warmth of freshly killed meat, and there were a lot more flavors than he was used to. But it wasn't bad. No, it was actually pretty far from it. The hybrid licked his chops and spared Jasper a small smile, Not bad.
His tattered ears perked slightly at the rest of the other's words, and for some reason, he couldn't help but laugh a little. Oh? You're in a pack and have a mate now? That's good to hear. For some reason, Laruku didn't even pick up the male pronoun Jasper had assigned to his mate. Ahren had admitted to him his homophobic upbringing though, so maybe he was just pointedly ignoring any references to the subject. His mind did many things on its own, after all. You can't smell anymore? What happened? Laruku knew he was living a rather isolated life now, but it still felt strange to not know about all the things that had happened to his friend's son, his once packmate.
He took another spoonful of soup.
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[html] Bi-colored eyes sat carefully on Laruku's face, lips growing in to a rather faint smile at the reaction given to his food. Jasper would never take it lightly though, only because sometimes he thought that others were nice to him because they felt they had to be. "Laurie says I can do anything I want to but I think he says that because he's being nice.." He offered quietly, brows furrowed in thought. It would be hard to convince Jasper that he was only saying it to be nice for sure, but sometimes he wondered. The young de le Poer wasn't as oblivious as everyone might have thought he was, he knew how different he was from most everyone else.
"Yah, it just stopped working." Which sucked, but it was amusing how long it had taken him to figure it out. "We think it was right after the fire but we didn't figure it out until a few weeks ago. I couldn't smell what we were cooking." Jasper sniffled again, bringing his arm up to his face to wipe gently at his nose. The younger male hesitated a moment, unsure of his own words before even speaking them. "Uh..are..you okay?" Eyes drifted from Laruku for a moment, staring down at the ground. He wasn't sure he was supposed to ask and felt a little bad for not asking sooner. Then again, he hadn't really seen his father's friend without his father around before. He would have felt like a nuisance trying to ask when they were spending time together. "From the fire, I mean.."
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Well, the hybrid started, I think most people can do anything they want to, but wanting to can be harder for some more than others. Indeed, motivation was what killed most ambitions, far-fetched or not. The hybrid could relate all too easily to that fact, and was still a far cry from whatever inspiration he had known as a child or as a yearling. Once upon a time, he had wanted to change the world, or at least the small part of it he had inhabited. It was a waning dream; more and more, he believed that the world could not be changed, but if he dug deep enough, there was probably still a part of him that believed that anything could happen. Someone just had to have faith in that, even if having faith was the hardest thing of all.
Laruku winced slightly when Jasper mentioned the fire and suddenly felt guilty that it seemed that both he and Ahren had suffered a disability as a result of it. Meanwhile, he had made it out more or less the same, and he had been the only one that hadn't wanted to leave in the first place. He presumed that the young cook did not know that he had tried to die in the fire and did not know any of the number of things that had been wrong with him then and now, so he wasn't quite sure how deep the question of whether or not he was okay should be taken. He shrugged, I'm okay, he answered, I wasn't injured. Life goes on. Sorry about your sense of smell though -- it must really suck. He couldn't imagine how it could have taken him so long to notice considering how important their sense of smell was. Then again, for someone with such a humanized upbringing, maybe it really didn't matter after all.
He picked up one of the bowls Jasper had laid out and began filling it with soup. Anyway, this stuff really is pretty good. You should be proud of yourself.
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[html] Laruku's words made Jasper pause a moment, lost in silent thought. It made sense, at the very least. Still though, it didn't make him believe any less that sometimes people were nice to him because they felt they had to be. He was indeed a bit more fragile than most of his siblings, or anyone else that he had met before for that matter, but it didn't mean that he needed to be patronized, even if they didn't intend for it to be like that. "I don't want them all eating nasty food just because they're to nice to tell me it's bad." He frowned some, hoping that the older male would understand. If anyone would be brutally honest with him, it would be his father.
"It does kind of suck though." He nodded at this, recalling the fact that he could no longer smell the stew as it cooked or the fact that it was dangerous for him to be out by himself sometimes. "Laurent doesn't like me to go out alone since I can't smell when someone is around." Why that would be dangerous, he supposed the other wouldn't understand, unless his father happened to mention a few of the things that had happened to him lately. "At least we're all alive though." Which might be somewhat odd coming from him, at the very least. "Even if dad looks creepy with his eye now." He shuddered some at the thought, though the feeling was replaced with something else entirely. A very thin smile grew on his face at the older male's words, shrugging his shoulders in a suddenly embarrassed manner. He was certain Laruku didn't understand just what the compliment meant to him. "Thanks.."
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He laughed, I don't think you'll need to worry about that. Even if they don't tell you, you can tell from their faces if they think it's bad. Laruku had always been rather blunt and tactless; even when the chronic silence had gripped him for the long stretch of months leading up to the fire, he had often said too much too quickly, without thinking about who he might offend. Or maybe he had known and tried to pretend he didn't. He hurt people too easily and too often. But Rachias had decided to at least pretend to forgive him, and he was grateful for that.
Well, you can still hear, can't you? I guess it's something you'll have to get used to. He passed Jasper the first bowl he filled, and then proceeded to fill a second. Somehow, he doubted that the boy's father would be back any time soon, but if it was within a day or so, there would still be leftovers. You should get him an eyepatch, he said, trying to humor the other while fighting a frown. It was his fault Ahren had lost vision in that eye, just as it had been his fault Tsunami had lost his. Directly or indirectly, he always seemed to bring unreasonable pain to those he cared about. He expected a voice to tell him that he should leave then, but the inside of his head had become eerily silent. Can't convince your old man to join you in your pack?
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[html] Ahren had made him liver once, which Jasper had attempted to pass off as something completely disgusting. It had been hard to make the faces though, when the liver was so good, he supposed it went both ways then. "I've gotta learn some other stuff too, then." He said after a moment. lifting one hand to scratch idly at the back of his ear. Stew was his favorite meal by far, but subjecting them to it over and over again didn't seem like the thing to do. Learning would also be hard since he could no longer smell herbs so well, he would actually have to cook them together and taste instead of trying to smell them and assume that they worked well with each other.
"If I did that, he'd be a pirate." He laughed quietly, considering this fact in his head. At least then he wouldn't be able to see the creepy eye. Jasper reached for the bowl then, muttering a quiet "Thank you." as he pulled it toward himself, finally picking it up in to his hands. "Well.." He started quietly, gaze dropping to the bowl of stew. "I haven't really asked him yet.." It had been the first thought in his head when Laurie had proposed they join up with his friends, was whether or not his father would be able to come. "I dunno. I don't think he'd really want to." Because he would've already been looking around for a pack if he wanted to join one, wouldn't he? "He doesn't seem like to others much either, even though I think they might get along. Even if he did want to, I don't think he'd do it just because of me." Ahren didn't work like that.
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What's wrong with being a pirate? he wondered, finally setting the ladle back in the pot and taking the second bowl for himself. He'd only ever met one self-described pirate, but he hadn't been himself at the time and preferred not to think about it. Just like he didn't think about the fact that Tsunami had also chosen to go with an eyepatch; the grey wolf's injury had been considerably more gruesome than Ahren's though. After all, his had actually been violently torn apart whereas the blonde's vision had slowly faded as the cataract grew. The end result was the same though, just as the beginning reason had been.
Well, if he wanted to, then he'd do it for himself, right? No harm in introducing the idea to him. With diminished depth perception and a reliance on the bow and arrow, Laruku would feel better if his friend had a pack to support him. The hybrid himself could still manage well enough on his own and had plenty of other reasons for having declined the invitation to join a pack both Conri and Iskata had offered to him. He hoped the conversation didn't lead to Jasper asking the same.
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[html] "I rode with pirates to follow dad over here, sorta." He said with a nod. Had they been real pirates though? To Jasper, they were just traders going from dock to dock to trade supplies to take back home. "They're a little loud and they drink alot. I mean..he could drink with them just fine, but they're really loud. He'd probably smack them all before anything else." In his head, at least, that was how things would turn out. He didn't really imagine his father fitting in well with pirates. "If he had a patch it might be hard not to laugh at him though, then he'd smack the back of my head." He frowned some then, looking from the bowl to Laruku and then back again.
After a quiet moment he reached for one of the spoons, immediately shoveling a scoop of the stew from his bowl in to his mouth. It was a tedious task, scooping up such small bits to be able and eat, and after a while he simply dropped the spoon back to the ground. Ears slipped forward to listen to his dinner companion, nose stuck down in his bowl and tongue reaching for whatever he could find. "He'd probably go if you went.." He spoke in to the bowl, quiet and frowning slightly. That was the train of thought of a young man who thought his father didn't quite like him though. Everyone was better when it was in Ahren's eyes and, even if Jasper didn't know the depth of their relationship, he knew that they were close enough. "You should come see one day." He lifted his face from the bowl finally, taking a moment to swipe the remnants of stew from his lips with his tongue. "Laurel has a funny hat."
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Laruku laughed at the idea of Ahren slapping around a bunch of pirates, though it wasn't all that hard to imagine. So smack him back, he'd deserve it. Predictably, Jasper did exactly what he didn't want him to: suggest that the hybrid also come. Perhaps he should just be flattered that so many people had come to him and asked, but he wished they wouldn't. He didn't like having to make up stupid excuses as to why he couldn't go, why he wouldn't, why he was terrified of the prospect, and why he had spent his last few months in Clouded Tears terrified of the everything. There was too much blood on his hands, on his muzzle, in his head. But how could he explain that?
He frowned slightly and sighed. Maybe I'll come visit, he said in a way that he hoped didn't sound like a promise. Laurel does have a funny hat, the hybrid added. I met him in a bookstore.
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[html] lawl -didn'tknowKiriansweredthis!-
"So smack him back, he'd deserve it." Jasper eyes went wide at the words and he froze in place. For a moment he could only stare down in to his bowl of soup, but eventually those eyes turned to Laruku. There was a certain look on his face, something along the lines of "I hope you were joking." Jasper knew that he would never live through laying a hand on his father. No one would, at least that was what he thought. Had Laruku hit his father and gotten away with it? Is that why he suggested it? Jasper was still for a few more moments, considering his own thoughts, and finally decided that Laruku likely hadn't done so. He didn't seem the type and then, even if he was, he doubted his father would have stood for it any ways.
"It's kinda nice there.." He admitted finally, as she shock and awe of Laruku's words finally wore off. Of course it was nice there. Jasper hadn't had a home since the fire, he was always used to being around a ton of people, even if he kept himself away from them all for the most part. At least there was someone normally around. Esper Hollow was better for him in the sense that they all seemed just a little bit odd and, he thought, because of it they didn't really ever notice the odd things about him. "Laurie built us up a shack there. Maybe I can ask dad to come have dinner one day." It was a sly sort of thought, perhaps. "That way it'll get him over there to at least check it out some?"
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lol, this thread is old. You made me look up Laruku's oldshit threads with Ahren. This one was freakin' cute, even then! XD
In fact, Laruku had hit Ahren before, but only because the blonde punched him first, thus deserving it. But he was surprised he remembered that incident at all. It had been a long time ago, a part of that past where so many other things had happened; it had been a quiet night in a church that no longer existed, burned down by a different fire than the one that had consumed their home. The hybrid found that he was uncomfortable with the fact that he remembered it, a night otherwise buried in other memories of the time, almost exclusively centered around someone else. He had cared then, too.
But Laruku shook it away and had another slurp of stew. Sounds like a plan to me, he said with a slight nod. I wouldn't worry about it too much. Finishing his bowl, the coyotewolf stood and stretched, Thanks for the meal, Jasper. Good luck with your dad. I'll see you around.
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