I never learn
#1
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Ember had been to the city many times, but she still hadn't seen all of it yet. She wasn't even sure if she'd be able to see all of it in her lifetime, it was so huge. Today she was heading toward the business area of the territory, past the old rusty skyscrapers and cafes. She'd been thinking about getting Khaden something in return for the necklace that he had made her, but she had no idea what he liked. They'd been spending a lot of time together...but she had never asked.

It was kind of strange, the way they hung out together. Ember had never had a friend outside of the family, so things sometimes got awkward...but it was also very interesting to her. There was so much that she hadn't had the time to experience in her life. Sometimes she felt like an overgrown pup, still learning her place.



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#2
*too lazy for a table part 2039023592305* Lyrics from here, another epic song.
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_____On a short stint, Laurel had snuck away to the city. But it wasn't because he needed the escape, only because they had run out of booze sometime during the previous night. Whether it was his own doing or some one else (it was easier to blame someone else, god forbid he be the reason they ran dry) didn't matter much; he had borrowed Jasper's wagon and had returned to the souvenir shop where he and Nikita had come across quite a stash in the upper loft. One of the crates gave a squeaky protest as he pried it open with a crowbar, the wooden lid lifted up easily with nails and all.


_____When there was just enough of a gap to grab a firm hold on the lid and pull, he did so, favouring a more hands-on approach at opening things than using the crowbar for everything. The wood was musty and old, though far from brittle as he bent it back, whistling a tune as though he didn't have a care in the world. But the truth of the matter was that he was there because the nightly consumption of alcohol had been more or less a returning staple for him. He could keep up appearances like Nikita wanted him to, but at night a bottle of whiskey made the world seem all right.


_____Not the diseased cesspool it was shaping up to be. Reaching inside of one crate, he pulled gently at the bottles that were packed in tightly, pulling them one by one and setting them on the floor. He had plans to put them in a box to carry down the stairs to put in the wagon, and then simply pull the wagon home. Jasper wasn't going to care that much, he didn't really know the difference between day and night from what Laurel understood. And things had been more noisy than usual, with the screaming and the sounds of rage behind closed doors. It was frustrating for the sick and just plain depressing to him.


_____But away from it all, he was very good at keeping up appearances. So good that a passer-by may have thought him just to be an ordinary looter; someone who was gathering things in order to get by and survive. “I've been leanin’ on you without reason or truth,” were the simple words that he started to sing, uncaring whether or not someone heard him, “and I'm dreaming of leaving my demons… and the first one I'm leaving is you.” Picking up the last bottle he had room to take, the hat-wearing coyote pried the cap from it and haphazardly took a drink.
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#3
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In truth, she was still a little afraid of living in Shadowed Sun. The wolves there were friendly enough, which was more than she could ask for...but something seemed off. They weren't involved with the fighting the way that Dahlia de Mai was, but there was a lingering sense of..."something" that hung around in the air. That something was off. Ember would try and figure out what it was, and then decide what to do with herself. She didn't want to be in a pack that didn't want her, and she wasn't sure how many members they actually had. She'd already been in three other packs before this one, Storm, Labrynth Glen, Dahlia de Mai...and two out of the three were gone. Would this one follow?

The fem came upon the singing coyote after a few more minutes of walking, his voice catching her ears before she actually caught sight of him. She stopped in front of him, moving to the side so that he might pass. There was something about him that she recalled...but last time it had been hard to recognize him. At the last line of the song she grinned. "Now...I know I'm black, but I wouldn't go that far." She knew that it was just the line to whatever he was singing. "Whatcha got in the wagon?" Ember had never seen such things before. Shiny.



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#4
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_____What kind of liquor it was didn't matter too much to Laurel, it was really just the way that it felt sliding down the back of his throat. It was something that didn't taste all that great at times and frankly anything that one tasted sweet and refreshing had gone stale and bad long ago. But that aside, that first swig was the thing that took the bait in his book and a long smile spread the length of his muzzle smoothly. One hand held the bottle while the other put the unopened bottles into the box until the task was done. Then that opened bottle found itself caught between his sharp teeth as he lifted the box and ventured down the stairs, stepping on the door that they had knocked down weeks ago with the least bit of worry that it would go sliding from its jackknifed position.


_____He had no more set the box of liquor in the wagon when someone spoke up from within the store—a voice so familiar that when he looked up he regarded her with nothing else than surprise—and then he smiled. “I don't think I'd call you a demon,” he answered just before taking another drink. “Maybe a flighty little blackbird, but not a demon. The stuff in the box is booze. How's your arm doing after that whackjob sling repair we did?”
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#5
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"I got it looked at. Naniko said the brace did it good, though, that I would have messed it up worse if I hadn't had that immediate help" She rubbed at her cast absently as she spoke. "This is itchier...but I get to take it off soon, I hope. I can't shift back without risking hurting myself. I've never spent so much time in this form" It was actually kind of fun, looming over all of the others in the pack when they were unshifted. She didn't feel like so much of an oaf any more, not after having spent so much time in Twilight Vale. Naniko was huge.

"How have you and Nikita been doing? And the Hollow?" She wasn't sure if he wanted to keep walking or stop and talk. He sure seemed thirsty for whatever was in the bottles, though. Didn't Esper Hollow have safe drinking water? She frowned as she thought over what he'd said before. Booze. Ember had heard of the stuff before, that it could "mess you up good". Why would he want to drink it? "Are you heading back home? Would you mind some company?"



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#6
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_____Recognition turned up in her eyes and it seemed like this time around she remembered who they were. Those funny coyotes that hovered over her for a while and then it had just been him. And then he had gone to sleep and sometime between the late night and the early morning she had come around again and fled. He didn't need to ask why, if only because he imagined it was probably a little weird to wake up and have some drunk of a coyote sitting across a fire from her in a place she didn't know anything about. He was pretty sure if he had been in the same position, getting up and running away would have the first thing to do.


_____“Things are… okay, I guess. We're okay too. Something like that. A couple of folks hanging around are sick so we've been taking care of ‘em,” or really, poor Rachias had been the one taking care of them. Not him, he wasn't that useful. All he did was supply them with food and occasionally water when Rachias was too tied up talking to them. Of course, that was all aside from giving them a place to stay and everything. Nikita had a cold, or so his mind like to argue. There wasn't any way she could have been getting sick like the trio that were already sick.


_____He wrinkled up his nose for a moment at the stirred dust in the air, and then bent to pick up the wagon handle to pull it along. Awkwardly, for that matter, given that the handle was a little short and he was a little bit taller than Jasper, who had no problem whatsoever pulling the damn thing along. Another downed swig, and he shrugged his shoulders loosely. “I was kind of thinking about wandering around some more, so if you want to tag along, I won't object.”
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#7
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"You bet!" She grinned, nodding. Why not? She hadn't seen him in a while, and it'd be nice to catch up on things. She wanted to know every detail about Esper Hollow, about the pack that had helped her out. "Sick with what?" She asked. "I don't know a thing about herbs or medicine or anything...or I'd offer to help you out! And Naniko...Hmm. I can't ask her. Her pups are almost here"

"Where are you headed today? Do you know? Does the stuff in those bottles taste good, or is it bitter?"



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#8
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_____Back out on the sidewalk and the city streets, Laurel meandered with no direction to go. He lived very much in the same way, although lately he found that he was confined greatly to routine and repeated everything. Over and over and over, every day had essentially been the same since everyone had started to get sick. Part of him hadn't even noticed because even after almost five years of straight travel, he had started to slow down in more ways than one. He hadn't entirely recognised that he didn't seem to notice how long he stayed in one place, where before any more than a couple of days and he wandered right out on. Either with the same group or another, it had never mattered. They had all been nameless groups, little gypsy bands that didn't mean anything.


_____“I couldn't tell you what they have even if I had to,” he remarked, not sure if he was ultimately happy with not knowing what it was. “But we've got a few people who are looking after them. Two of ‘em have been staying with us and the other is from Inferni. She's related to them or something like that,” he went on, pulling the wagon off of the curb with a noisy rattle and clunk. Even at that, Ember seemed to be full of questions, but he imagined that was just how he had been when he had been her age. One question after another, never giving much pause to the speed at which they were asked or answered.


_____“I also couldn't tell you where I'm going, I'm just wandering around. Picking up things that interest me. And I don't know if you'd like what I'm drinking either,” this he said with a cracked smile, “but you can try it if you want.” So he held out the bottle he had to her, letting the very last of the liquid slosh around around its dark interior. He didn't plan on really telling her what it was, half expecting her to know and half expecting that she'd take a drink of it and promptly hack it back up. He had long gotten over the taste; he was only interested in what it did for him and the warmth it sent rolling down his gullet.

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#9
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I must be dreaming or we're onto something
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ooc:


I must be dreaming or pinch me to waking
     

"Aren't they afraid of getting sick, too? Are the sick ones too sick to even take care of themselves?" Ember looked at him curiously. She had never heard of anything like this before. Cuts and bruises that needed care, yes. But not a sickness like this. Was it the same thing that Phoenix had had? She didn't know any of the sick ones, but hoped that it wasn't that. Phoenix hadn't been the same after that.

"Ooh, thank you." She nodded and took the bottle from him. It had a certain odor to it, one that she didn't recognize. Ember took a sip from it, then threw her head back. "Arrrgh. This is...I can't even describe it. It's...." She could barely even talk. "And you drink bottles of it? I barely had any!" She looked at her hand, surprised that she was still hanging onto the bottle, with the overload to her senses. She extended the bottle back to him, shaking her head with her tongue sticking out. "Grah."
Table by Tammi!

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#10
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_____“They know the risks,” he answered her, eyeing the cracks beneath their feet as they walked on. “But when you care about someone, you take risks, whether they're necessary or not.” Maybe it was more than care in their case, given that the sick ones were family one way or another, connected through a convoluted line. So maybe it was love, he didn't really know. He couldn't say that he cared what the connection or the reason was, they wanted to help and he wasn't about to deny them that even after he pointed out the obvious—they may get sick too—and that was how he had amassed the small pile of helpers.


_____However, Ember's reaction to the substance within the coloured glass bottle drew a laugh out of Laurel, who took back the bottle and shook his head at her words. “I didn't think you'd like it that much. No one really does when they take their first drink, but you gain a taste for it if you keep coming back to it.” A good bottle of liquor was like travelling in his mind, even if he avoided it for any length of time, it was easy to go back to. “The taste of it doesn't even phase me any more,” he went on to say after a pause, taking another drink.

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