built my house out of sails and wood.

[fidior]

Who: Edward Little & Konstantin Veshnyakov + you!
What: plotted threads with Jhey's boatman & spaceman
When: the months of August, September, & October
Where: various places in Milton / possibly Lakeside

burned it down and it's gone for good

Comments

[friendsfordinner]

What the hell is this? Rolling over? Baring your throat? What sort of coward's move is this? And acting subservient as well, before that? Hickey's mortally offended. Shows how useful Crozier's lieutenants were! Shows how Crozier can't see what's useful, more willing to put time and effort into these useless men than someone who actually takes initiative!

Hickey trots over towards Little, standing over him and looking down at the man. He moves his head down and opens his jaw to place Little's throat between his teeth. But Hickey doesn't do anything. He doesn't bite down, he doesn't rip his throat out, even though he's very tempted to do so, one more obstacle out of the way, one less thing to worry about. This is just a power play. Just a move to show Little that in the grand scheme of things? He's nothing.

Hickey lingers for a moment, teeth brushing against Little's jaw, before he steps back, not leaving a scratch. Instead, he just fuckin' tackles the wolf again, trying to push him into doing something. Come on! You're no fun if you just roll over and accept it!

[fidior]

The other wolf is going to kill him... He realises this, and though it isn't acceptance, per-say, it's something he isn't fighting against. He's just sort of struck numb and dumb there in the snow... breathing strained when the other wolf leans over him. He feels those teeth brush the fur of his throat and he whines again, expecting to feel a surge of pain, hot blood pouring.

When it doesn't come he has about two seconds to be shocked, before there's another sudden, rough shove against his body, and the black wolf rolls over onto his back a bit, shocked.

Stop being mean to him! You're just tormenting him...!

But despite Little's lingering human mind just kind of shutting the fuck down (as it is wont to do), his animal brain does have instincts, and something kicks in, even if just a little. As the other wolf shoves him, suddenly, his jaw snaps back a little — not making contact with Hickey's fur, staying inches from it, but his teeth do snap.

Quit it!!!

[friendsfordinner]

Haha, there we go! Something's in there. Something's working. Something's making Little actually retaliate, making Little actually do something that's not just rolling over and taking it. Which is good.

Hickey bends down, tail wagging, body language bright and open. There's nothing combative about his aura, nothing that seems ready for a fight.

Come on, idiot. We're playing. Do something!

And he attempts to tackle Little one more time.

[fidior]

What's with this guy?? Little's lingering human mind tries so desperately to hold onto reason, to make sense of this so that he stays safe, but his wolf mind knows behaviour. And the other's is clearly no longer threatening at all — now playful, excitable, all wolf grins and tail wags.

As a human, Edward Little is able to staunchly deprive himself of having any fun at all. But as this? The wolf in him wants to enjoy itself, to be free — and to have a friend. It's drawn right to that concept and to the open invitation given by this other wolf that's established its dominance — now that's out of the way, we can have fun together!

So this time when Hickey tackles him, Little actually responds, scrambling back with an unexpected swiftness. No matter how heavy and sad he can carry himself, the wolf is agile when it wants to be, long legs moving so that it doesn't get the brunt of the playful attack, and can counter it with a silly display of striking back a bit, mouth parting into a wide grin as his body nudges against the smaller wolf's.

Though he's still more shy than the other, lifting a foot to almost experimentally paw at Hickey's side, tail perking up juuuust a little — We're playing??

[friendsfordinner]

For once, Hickey's dog brain and his human brain are in agreement. Of course they're playing. If this is Little, then it's another tally in Hickey's column. It's another creeping little thought in the back of Little's head, another thought that Cornelius Hickey can't be that bad. That Hickey can't be the monster Crozier claims he is. That Hickey has a few valid points.

Dog brain just wants someone to run around in circles with, to wrestle and to play, to boss around now that they both know Hickey's the boss. This wolf will do just fine!

As Little counters him, a big dumb dog grin spreads across Hickey's wolf face. His body language continues to radiate openness as he paws at Little with a bit more force. Obviously we're playing!

And he'll attempt to just body-check Little.

[fidior]

The more he interacts with this smaller, teasing wolf, the more he begins to realise that he truly does know him. (It takes Little a bit longer with these things... he moves on a slower speed in all regards...)

The bullying followed by playful instigating... the smell, feel of him. Fortunately, the wolf in Little's head has taken over more by this point, so that he isn't immediately freaking out as it truly sinks into place that this is Mr. Hickey. Is it a bit weird to be grinning and playing with him right now like a couple of overgrown puppies? Probably! Is he able to make sense of why it's weird? Not right now! He's finding himself more and more delighted by the prospect of actually letting his hair down for once, of leaning into the freedom that this form allows him. Of doing dumb dog things.

Which is to say that this time when Hickey pushes against him like that, Little growls low in his throat: not a threatening or aggressive sound in the least, just silly and playful. His body wiggles around, tongue lolling as his enthusiasm becomes something even he can't suppress, and he falls to the ground, rolling onto his back, mouthing at one of Hickey's legs to try and drag him down too.

[friendsfordinner]

This is perfect.

There's so much to being an animal that Hickey loves, but won't admit. Society is just constrained by so many rules. Unspoken morals preventing people from living their best life, plans and ideas and ways to make things better, all ground down because that's just not the way things are done. Because it's morally wrong. Animals don't have to worry about that. As a wolf, it just matters who he is. What he's doing. What matters is the here and now, how it should be.

As Hickey's drug down to the ground, he tries to roll in a way where he'll hit Little. It fails, however, leading Hickey to land on the ground next to him. But that works just as well, as he reaches over to try and mouth at Little's paw.