Know It All [currently closed]

[Ash]

They were an odd pair to see, shuffling across the fields and trudging to the tops of the hills. It was an absolutely peculiar sight to see, a border collie mix would appear to be normal, especially on the islands. They were supposed to be here, they were exiled here, after all. It wouldn't be odd if it was only the border collie climbing steadily, but the Fiji Island Iguana that sat, watching the world from her back would be enough to make many other creatures due a double take, and maybe look at them a little oddly once they managed to take notice (and they believed the ones that didn't notice to be hard of sight, because black, white, and brown was a great contrast to the green coloration of her friend).

Andrea's gait was easy, despite the added wait on her back (and the lizard claws digging into her back). They had months of cooperation and adaption on their side. It was almost second nature to the odd pair these days. "So, how do you plan on finding your way back?" The lizard asked, looking at the back of the dog's head with a look that was a mix of bemusement and uncertainty. "If I'm guessing correctly, Candra, you doubt my ability to find my way back. Do you doubt my ability to find my way back? It's been a good few months. I do know my way around." Andrea responded smoothly, leaping forward and causing her passenger to nearly lose her grip on her back. Andrea chuckled softly as she felt the iguana's claws scramble to find their grip again.

It amused Andrea that her lizard (and soul, technically) had not suspected that she would get a reaction of that sort. Candra was practically an embodiment of all of her own wittiness, sarcasm (and cleverness, of course). "And now you plan on killing me? Have you not noticed that you actually need me?" The lizard retorted with a glare at Andrea, managing to keep her balance as the dog shook with laughter, "Yes, but I can fend for myself. I'm not a clumsy pup anymore." She responded with a nod of her head, turning her head so she could almost grin at the lizard. "I'd beg to differ. You've nearly gotten us killed plenty of times. On the other hand, I have saved your butt a number of times." Candra retorted sharply, she loved their banters. It was a good way to pass time, after all. They tested each other, they could torment everyone else later with all of this practice.

"I pull my own weight!" Andrea protested with another leap, only this time Candra stayed fixed in her place, refusing to give the dog the satisfaction of causing her to fall. "Hey, mutt? You hear that?" Candra spoke once more and they halted, listening for the approach that Candra had indicated.

[QUIRKY TEA !]

Mississippi, a Mirembe scout, had entered the Bohale lands. Her eyes were focused on her own feet, where a dead bird lay. She was having trouble with getting into it, because at that moment, the hunger in her belly was not the only hunger in her body. She also desired to rip, shred, destroy, look for more birds, more prey, and didn't care too much about eating. She just wanted to kill. It was at this moment that Missy couldn't decide whether or not she should go and eat the bird, which was nothing more than a fat crow. Near her, moving with a swaying step, was her soul, Tennessee. He cocked an eye at the bird that looked similar to he, but turned his beak toward, Missy. "I say eat it," he said in his rough voice.

"But," Missy protested, with exact, clipped words, "it ain't just about... you know, eating it, Tenner." Tenner was her soul's nickname, mostly due to the fact that she tended to pronounce his name Tenner-see. Drop the last syllable and you get Tenner.

The raven fluffed up his hackles. He tended to try to steer her away from the side of her that loved a bloodbath a bit too much because that was what she wanted. He offered a task, as he was wont to do. "Pull the wings straight out."

Missy grinned. Okay, this could end well. She jumped to her feet and took the wing gently in her teeth. She pulled it from the crow's main body, which revealed the anatomy of the wing, the loveliness of it all. The black female then glanced the the raven that walked around and investigated her completion of the task he had given her. Really, this was her idea, but Tenner was glad to bark some orders at the dog once in a while. Especially when she needed it.

"Now, eat it, right from the chest, pull the breast meat out, and make sure not to spill too much blood," he said gently. This really was a protocol that Missy herself had developed, but at this moment she was feeling weak.

The dog took her teeth and pulled firmly at the bird, breaking the skin, scattering the feathers, but all in all, doing it all with a near-surgical precision. She started eating it, but her ears pricked. In her focus, she had lost all sense of the environment, which made her easy to approach. Afraid, she jumped up and guarded her still unfinished meal.

"Hey, cool it, girlie," Tenner warned. But then, even he was taken by the rapture of the moment. Missy's eyes glinted with a special kind of insanity as she searched for the dog. She wasn't avoiding conflict, now she was searching for it.

However, she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the other dog. A border-collie mix. Tenner caught up to her, a frenetic, but he cooled down faster than Missy, who was still raring to go. However, he still felt the hunger for violence, too.

Missy started breathing heavily, a bit panicked. "No!" she said and shook her head. Her body remained tense, but she was clear-headed enough to do the impossible task of socializing, but only just barely. There were things that she knew and protocols that had to be done since she was a stranger and this wasn't her pack's territory. A scout, that's what she was, yes. Missy gulped a wad of saliva and licked her nose. "Okay, okay. I'm, uh, well. I'm Mississippi. Scout for Mirembe." She slurred her pack's name into a one and a half syllable utterance, sweetened by her accent: Southern-ish, but one couldn't pinpoint what place exactly.

[Ash]

Andrea remained frozen as she swiveled her ears slightly, her nose twitching as she picked up the slight tang of blood. That was curious. She hadn't really noticed anyone hunting while they were on their way up the hill. Of course she had been too busy bickering with Candra to pay the kind of attention that she should have been. They really need to get this fighting thing together. It wouldn't do them any good if they ended up joking around and then had someone sneak up on them. That would just ruin all of their fun. At least this time Candra had noticed it. She might not next time though, Andrea could see where she was coming from. Andrea needed to rely on herself more often than she currently did.

Andrea pricked her ears (at least, more than they usually were) and tilted her head slightly, as if in consideration when the black female, who was apparently called Mississippi, introduced herself and stated that she was a scout from the Mirembe Pack. The younger female had heard the name of that pack mentioned in fleeting voices in her pack. And mentioned (barely) by Candra. Andrea's eyes shone with curiosity and sarcasm as she nodded to the other female. She hadn't yet met any dogs other than the dogs that were within her pack, and they weren't exactly all that open with her. They were probably surprised. A pair of sarcastic beings come into a not so sarcastic dwelling, there's probably going to be a change. They just didn't like sarcasm.

"Well, I'm Andrea, and this, also known as my irritating little friend, is Candra." She said with a cheerful grin to Mississippi. Candra's tail swatted her ear, "Unfortunately, this clumsy pup is my ride. I'm stuck with her."

"You can probably tell, since we're on their land and all, but we're from the Bohale Pack." She said, with a slight apologetic shrug, as if she was trying to apologize for stating the obvious when Mississippi could probably figure that much out by herself. "What brings you out here? Do you have some sort of important life or death message that you need to deliver for the sake of saving all of the packs?" Andrea asked with an enthusiastic, sarcastic tone, adding a grin in for effect. "Excuse her. All of this fresh air is going to her head." Candra muttered, flicking the dog with her tail.

"Ow! That hurts!" Andrea protested, eyes flashing with sarcastic anger. "Well, then stop fooling around, not everyone appreciates our sarcasm." Candra retorted, glaring at the back of Andrea's head. "Fine then, you little bugger, I'll just converse politely, and with all boring tones." Andrea replied, dropping into a boring drawl with a ruthful, sarcastic smile as she finished speaking. Candra just shook her head in response to more of Andrea's sarcasm. The other beings would just have to tolerate it. If Candra couldn't control her, no one could.

[QUIRKY TEA !]

Introductions were exchanged, though Tenner cleared his throat to cue Missy that yes, she forgot him. The black and white mixed breed dog nodded toward her soul, a raven. "That there's Tenner. Well, Tennessee." She said, her words had a slight twang to them, though her stance remained guarded. Mississippi and Tennessee. Like Andrea and Candra, they made quite a pair. Missy kept herself distanced from the other dog, afraid that she might be triggered into insanity.

She was a bit weaker at the moment. It was what her brother Latch would call a bad day. It was a day when the blood pounded in her ears, when the call of insanity made her feel like she was bursting at the seams. She didn't have a message. She was simply scouting, gathering intelligence from the other packlands. She knew her brother's pack was a lot more lax about having others running through the land. Like him, she never understood the concept of "this is my territory and nobody's allowed on it." If the eating's good, then you go there. Doesn't matter where it was. Besides, they could always just take from the other lands as much as they took from them.

Missy tilted her head. "I didn't know that we needed a message to enter the land." She didn't mean for her tone to be snarky. She genuinely didn't know, but her coldness gave her words bite. Tenner made a small noise, which made Missy realize the sarcasm in Andrea's words. "Oh. I get it now. A joke." She wagged her tail slightly, but was embarrassed that her brain was so addled with the hunger to destroy that she hadn't noticed something as obvious as the sarcasm dripping from the Bohlale female's voice.

Aware of the sarcasm, it allowed Missy to be a bit more appreciative of what this dog had to say. Overall, Andrea was a rather nice dog to be around. The mixed breed only wished that she could say the same about herself. She was going crazy.

"Excuse her," Tenner said calmly.

This break allowed for Missy to disengage, find her sanity again. She tried to push back the bloodlust, forcing herself into tics, counting moments arbitrarily, but maintaining some system. "One, two, three, four, five..." She shut her eyes, her numbers labeling how many times she wagged her tail.

The raven watched his Missy idly, the wave of violence pressuring him as well, but as always, he did a better job containing himself than she did. It was probably because he was a reflection of the shard of Missy—the one that didn't deny that part of herself, but accepted it. He turned toward the dog. "Yeah, we're a bit crazy," he said casually. "But isn't every dog in this place?" He tried to pass off this as something that every dog did, lessen the implication that his Mississippi was sorely handicapped by how much she controlled herself. Then again, it didn't bode well for Mirembe to send a dog that was a little off into strange lands. Then again, nobody sent Missy. She was just having a bad day.

[Ash]

Andrea tilted her head curiously as Mississippi introduced the raven as Tennessee, or Tenner. That must have been the other dog's soul, then. It figured, the small animal that always hovered around the dogs that she had met, at least this far, had actually been the dog's souls, and therefore more of a comrade instead of a potential pest, or meal, of course Candra acted as both a pest and a guide to Andrea at times. They didn't exactly have the definition of an easy relationship, either, considering they were both witty and humorous, they butted heads more than both due to this fact. But, then again, best friends had their own fights with each other, too, so it wasn't all that out of the ordinary, she would guess. Everything like this had at least a slightly logical explanation behind it. And when it didn't, well, she'd much rather not explore too much into things of that sort.

The younger female tilted her head when Mississippi didn't seem to hear the sarcasm that dripped from her words. A smile blended carefully across her face, though, happy that the other female had finally recognized her sarcasm, she hadn't exactly tried to hide it, but it must have come out a bit oddly if Mississippi hadn't been able to understand it in the first place. Andrea just blamed herself and her odd sense of humor on the brief stretch of uncomfortable silence.

"Of course." Andrea murmured with an arch of her eyebrow when the raven, Tennessee, asked her to excuse Mississippi. She didn't quite comprehend what was happening as she began counting, her eyes closed, and the weight of the lizard on her back kept her from commenting, as well as Andrea's wish to remain hospitable.

Andrea tilted her head as Tennessee commented about himself and Mississippi being a bit crazy. She tipped her head again as he asked, in what seemed to her to be a nonchalant manner if everyone in this place was to be considered a little bit crazy.

"Absolutely, we're all been just a bit crazy one time in our life." She replied evenly with a slight nod of her head to the raven, "You should have seen her when she was half starved and delirious. Not a very pleasant companion." Andrea shook her head slightly, mostly in embarrassment. She knew very well that she had hit that point not so long before she had arrived here. Being on death's door gave you a new perspective. Mostly, though, it just made Andrea understand a bit more and accept a bit more. And to also, of course, strive to make the most of her life that had seemed so short back in those delirious weeks.

[QUIRKY TEA !]

Andrea seemed to rather easily accept Missy as she was. That left her as a potential friend, a prospect that was rare enough for the usually nonchalant Tenner to take note. Even Missy, in her compulsive counting fit, could tell that perhaps today being a bad day didn't mean that it had to end terribly. Perhaps at the end of the day, she wouldn't be alone and would have gained one more friend. Hopefully. Tenner glanced at Missy, as if to tell her that he was thinking the same thing. It was a rare dog that took completely no issue with Missy's behavior.

Then again, Missy was not at her worst. She was, at the moment, desperately trying to bring herself back from the brink, find some semblance of normalcy. The counting could barely keep her mind off of the desire to just take Andrea's jaw in her mouth and wrench it so that she would break that lurcher's muzzle and then start her work. Dangerous work, deliciously violent work. The thought of blood on Missy's white paws. Her imagination was vivid enough that the mental image of it put a small smile on her face. No. Keep counting. Keep counting. She had to force such sinful desires away.

The images started to fade, but the desire was still there, tinging her normal personality, which was that of a proper, polite, albeit socially awkward dog. Her ears were pinned backward. She pricked them forward, straight and tall. Fantasy would have to remain as such. Andrea was far too kind so far to deserve what Missy wanted to do to her. And, in her heart, Missy didn't want it done to her. Her brain kept begging. She stopped counting aloud. She wanted to try to do something impossible today, if only because the moment presented itself as too good an opportunity: She wanted to socialize.

She twitched. She felt her head keeping track of her tail wags, which had slowed a bit, showing that she had settled enough to return to Andrea, Candra, and of course, her Tennessee. The departure had been necessary to maintain herself. To keep herself from tearing Andrea asunder.

"Missy's back," Tenner said with a caw and then flew up to land on her back. He was a glossy blue-violet black and it made her sun-tinged fur look almost like a true dark red. Missy returned, a shy and worried smile on her face. She stood back, almost afraid to rejoin them completely, mostly because she wasn't sure how stable she was. She was still counting, a little preoccupied, which would make her seem scatter-brained when talking with Andrea. However, she wanted to make this one sentence count.

"I heard you have some first-hand knowledge of what it's like to be... lost." The euphemism was there. Lost meant not all together there, which in turn meant the word that Missy hated admitting to: Crazy. "I suppose mine is like a hunger, too."

Random-bred mutts of a rich and intelligent ancestry, plagued by a fundamental flaw in temperament. It was a tragic situation, perhaps.

[Ash]

Andrea attempted to keep her focus on other things, as to appear more respectful, and not trying to appear disrespectful by staring and trying to figure out what was going on. She wouldn't want someone to be staring at her as if she were mad if she ended up having some sort of episode, or something of the sort. She wanted to just be nice, for once, instead of chasing everyone away when she used a bit too much sarcasm and annoyed the ears off of everyone that she ended up meeting. Andrea's mother had raised her right, and she wouldn't try in the least to appear, or even be disrespectful to Mississippi. Sometimes you just ended up they way that you ended up, and that was just that, it didn't change a thing about your personality, or how easy it was to get along with you. Andrea wasn't one to judge another dog all that easily.

Andrea's eyes immediately flicked back to Mississippi from roaming the area around them when Tennessee said that Mississippi had returned. Andrea wasn't able to exactly interpret that, but she didn't really try to delve into what the raven actually meant, either. She simply accepted the fact that they probably had secrets of their own, and like herself, they would probably keep their secrets to themselves.

This could be said to be the first time that Andrea actually didn't try to figure everything out around her. It was more like Andrea respected their privacy, which she did. She didn't want to annoy everyone. She already annoyed a majority of her pack, if they listened to her long enough to even get annoyed. OK, so maybe she needed to put limits on how much sarcasm she used, but, really, some of her pack mates judged who too quickly. Andrea didn't want to be that quick to judge, she wanted to actually understand the dogs that she talked to, not just pick at their faults in her mind, or fight with them. It was just plain disrespectful to end up doing that.

Andrea nodded her head slightly when Mississippi commented about having heard that Andrea knew what it was like to be lost. Andrea herself could barely remember it, she just remembered not feeling herself, mostly giving up, until Candra had come along and, more or less shocked Andrea into getting off of her butt. She knew she shouldn't, wouldn't give up though, even if she scarcely remembered those starving days. "I might not completely remember them, but I guess I, sort of, remember them these days. Some days more than others, though." Andrea replied, giving a slight nod of her head as she finished speaking.

"I highly doubt I've ever been through the same thing you go through, but, I can imagine, to an extent, at least."

[/b] Andrea added evenly, giving a slight shrug of her shoulders. Her ideas of what it may be like where slim a doubtful, but it was still more than nothing, after all.[/blockquote][/justify][/size][/blockquote]

[QUIRKY TEA !]

Missy nodded. Her eyes had that far-off look to them, as if she was barely there. But that was because she was busy. Her mind was full of thoughts of things she wanted to do. Of the best and worst possible ways to kill Andrea. Killing dogs was the best thing to do since they all got their souls. You could kill the dog and then watch the soul wither away and die. Or you could torture the dog until he hit the very brink of death and kill his soul. Those were fun times. Missy only knew of them because she had done them herself. It was because of her past sins that she tried so hard to keep her head above the water; she didn't want her insanity to suffocate her.

"Huh?" she said, but then all that Andrea had said caught up with her. She had half-listened most of the time, but when she thought back and pieced the parts she remembered together, she formed a whole, cohesive sentence like magic. "Oh. Yeah, hard times are hard to remember if you were feeling weak." Missy let slip a tiny piece of the violence that lurked underneath her skin. "Fun times are easy to remember, though." The words were innocuous enough that Andrea could not have possibly known their implications but Missy knew that the thoughts that went behind them weren't. Missy went flat against the ground, hiding her eyes with her white forepaws. "I'm insane; I'm insane; I'm insane; I'm insane," said over and over in a mantra. Her sudden change in position caused her soul to flap up and then have to resettle himself on her back again.

"Missy, girl..." Tenner said, soothingly, walking toward her neck, touching her ear softly with his beak.

She turned her head toward her soul, her brown eyes were wide. "I did that... not in my head. Right?"

Tenner nodded solemnly.

She sighed. "Lordy, am I touched in the head," she complained and it came out in a whiny tone, and then she finished it with a nervous giggle. She needed to be friendly again. She didn't want Andrea to think poorly of her. Perhaps a compliment would do? A compliment for Andrea's patience.

"Andrea... when I was a young'un, I knew of hard times too." She looked over her shoulder, towards Tenner on her back. "Hunger and also of freedom." Missy, being six years old, had much more wisdom and experience than the young Bohlale Hunter. She spoke, her words starting slow, but winding up and going faster toward the end in the rising anxiety of the moment. "Growing up, I lived in a pack, like a band of gypsies. We took and stole, and got hungry sometimes. We danced and had fun sometimes, too. Me and my brothers and my sister. And the lame dogs were okay because they were usually the best storytellers. And the crazy dogs were okay because they were usually the best hunters. And..."

Tenner grunted, cuing Missy to get to the point. "I reckon what I'm saying..." her twangy words came out all in flurry. "You seem alright. You'd make a right fine gypsy."

Dogs who didn't care whether you were put together backwards, as long as you were in the family. Dogs who hardly cared about territories and dogs who know that bonds lasted as long as you wanted them to, then they broke off. And everybody had a chance to be great. And when the end of your life came, you were regarded highly in the twilight of your years, celebrated for the stories you told. Missy felt that, since Andrea hadn't run off yet, and stuck it out, was patient, and non-judgmental, she'd make a fine gypsy.

[Ash]

Andrea honestly couldn't tell whether or not Mississippi was thinking, with that far out look in her eyes, or possibly even plotting multiple manners in which to kill her, Andrea thought, with a cold, chilling, sense of humor. No one could plot murder for you and yet act so kindly, without betraying any reaction for the sort to you. No, a dog that wanted you dead would show it, in one way or the other, they wouldn't just act like they liked you for the sake of keeping up their appearances. No, for an assasin that would be a just plain waste of time, she thought, giving a slight twitch of her ears as a nearly invisible implication of the humor that she held, concealed within her multy colored head. Her thoughts roamed, to irrational lengths as she consider many things that very well were not even possible, or just plainly too unreal.

Andrea gave a sharp nod of agreement when Mississippi said that times when you were weak were the hardest times for dogs to remember. She should have thought of that sooner. It made absolute sense to the younger female, how could you pay attention when you yourself were just withering away? Would she have even wanted to remember those days? Probably not. But the fun times, she had to agree, you tended to remember those more than the days that you spent doing nothing. Though sometimes those memories could sliip away, she supposed.

The tri-colored female's eyes widened in surprise and shock when Mississippi droped to her stomach and began chanting that she was insane. Andrea just couldn't see Mississippi as such, for the most part, it didn't make all that much sense to her. Sure, Mississippi had zoned out for a few moments, closed her eyes, and counted, but any dog could do that, it wouldn't make all that much of a difference. Andrea just couldn't pin Mississippi for being the type of dog to be insane. Not at all. It was disrespectful to the older female to even let the very thought worm it's way into her mind. No, Andrea didn't, couldn't, wouldn't believe it.

Andrea nodded carefully when Missy said that she had had hard times as well when she was younger, Andrea could picture that, she had barely understood how to handle herself by herself at the time that her mother kicked her out of their den and into the world to fend for themselves. It made sense that other dogs would have expierenced that as well when they were younger. Not everyone was just up and ready to leave the den when they were supposed to.

Andrea blinked widening brown eyes when Mississippi began explaining her history, about the dancing, gypsies, stories and such. It sounded amazingly fun, for the most part. She grinned when Missy said that she would make a good gypsy. "Thank you." Andrea murmured softly to the older female. It touched her a bit, even if it was such a small compliment. "You seem quite alright too," Andrea replied with a cheerful grin.

The words Andrea spoke were sincere, she hadn't quite met a dog who had tolerated her this much, her and her sarcasm. Missy didn't just blow them off either, and they had had, and were having a civilized conversation with each other. It was much more than she typically ended up conversing with her pack mates. She enjoyed not being judged due to her youth, and the fact that she was seemingly reckless nature with her boundless energy. Or her over use of sarcasm in many situations. It was nice for her to just be able to talk and have a friend in this moment.

[/blockquote]

[QUIRKY TEA !]

Both dogs had their deficits when interacting with other dogs and it seemed that because they shared this experience, they were far more forgiving to what they could take. Years of misunderstanding and intolerance had taught them to be sympathetic instead of forced them both to be cynics. Or, rather, their lives could explain why they were this way. Andrea was young yet, her naivete had not yet shriveled up into distrust and pessimism. For Missy, her upbringing, that of a Gypsy, had been too wild and free to force herself to hold faults to other dogs. So, Andrea through her lens of youthfulness, saw Missy as nothing more than an odd dog. And Missy saw Andrea's sarcasm as nothing more than a quirk of character, to be enjoyed as a part of her.

Overall, Missy was happy to have met Andrea, even though today could be called a bad day. She still felt the hunger to destroy clawing at her brains and felt that the best course of action was to leave this female, but Missy and, consequently, Tenner as well, knew that it was a great accomplishment to leave a good impression on Andrea. That was what the black and white mixed breed hoped to do. Just leave a good impression, good-bye, and go into a private place to control her insanity.

"Or, you can tell the truth," Tenner suggested, softly. The speed of Missy's thoughts, the feel of them, he had them going through him. He knew her intention and his suggestion was something that Mississippi had never considered doing often. To open up and reveal this dark piece of herself, it was something heavy, ugly, something that made friends go away. However, Tenner had a sort of wisdom that Missy possessed as well, only he had a smidge less caution than she. He trusted that Andrea was too naïve yet to hold Missy's faults against her, to understand the gravity of such a dangerous mental condition.

Missy gulped. "Well, I'm not all right. And you can't tell me otherwise 'til you know why I say I ain't all right." She had lowered her head pinned her ears back. She sat and her tail went still. Her eyes peeked up at Andrea. "I'm insane," Missy began and wanted to end it there, but it was something that Andrea had heard before. The Mirembe scout knew that she needed to explain herself further. "Well, what I'm aiming to say is..."

"She wants to kill you," Tenner said abruptly, coarsely, but he got to the point. A typical raven. Missy shot Tenner a dirty look. She had wanted to break it gently to Andrea.

"Let me explain. I ain't a bad dog," her soul's summation was much too insensitive for Missy's taste, she wanted a chance for Andrea to like her. Missy wanted to say the truth and be redeemed. "I really like you, honest, but from the start of my line, a bloodlust has crept up in my family's line. A broken sanity that keeps a steady beat, a sharp desire that has us hunger for violence, enjoy bloodshed. It's a dark, dark burden. We all have the same hopes, dreams, and wants... as the normal dogs do. Family, friends, a place in a good pack. That sort of thing. And... we try to stave off the need to kill, to see blood and guts spilled on the grass, paint our fur..." Her eyes glazed over, her imagination gleefully running with that picture. She shook her head to shake the thoughts out.

"But I control myself. I count things, focus keenly on controlling everything. It's how I manage. My brother is better than I am, he's an Alpha and nobody can tell he's just as crazy as I am." A touch of jealousy colored her voice.

After her confession, she sighed. "You can mark me evil now. Abandon me." She felt a small glimmer of hope that Andrea would accept her anyway, see how hard she tried and decide that being crazy isn't at all bad if you try hard at keeping everyone and everything safe around you. That hope was all over Tenner, was what made him coax Missy to share. But really, when it all came down to it, because Tenner was a piece of Missy, that hope wholly belonged to her as well.

[Ash]

Andrea's ears pricked as she faintly heard Missy's raven companion, Tennessee suggest that Mississippi tell the truth. Her ears gave a slight flick and her head tilted in her confusion, she wouldn't think to ask why, she was almost positive that she would end up finding out what they were talking about. She had a nagging piece of curiosity digging in her head, but she didn't want to annoy the older female by questioning her about a conversation that did not, technically involve herself, even though Andrea was standing right here. It wouldn't be right if she stuck her nose in business that her nose didn't belong investigating.

The younger female arched an eyebrow slightly when Missy said that she wasn't all right and repeated what she had said earlier, that she was insane. Andrea still didn't see it, but Mississippi had told her to not tell her otherwise until she actually heard the whole story, and so the younger female did just that, she seated herself on the grass and pricked her ears to listen to what the other female had to say to back why she thought she was insane. Andrea would hold her tongue until Missy finished speaking, she owed her that, so it wasn't that much of a decision for her to obey. She respected the older female.

Andrea's eyes widened in shock as Tennessee spoke for Missy, saying that the older female technically wanted to kill her. She, herself, had not seen, or had at least refused to see any of the evidence of this, actually. Of course, if they were admitting it it had to be at least a fraction of the part true, if anything. Maybe they just used wrong terms. Andrea couldn't tell, but she didn't shift from her spot sitting in the grass, continuing to listen patiently.

Andrea nodded evenly in contemplation and agreement when Missy said that she wasn't a bad dog, the younger female could tell. She obviously would have figured it out by now if Mississippi was really all that bad, they wouldn't have had a civilized conversation if that had been true. Instead they would have been at each others throats in some sort of fight.

She gave a slow nod as Missy explained it as a blood lust that had gradually crept into her family's bloodline. She tilted her head once again in contemplation when Missy said that they were normal dogs, under it all, with their own hopes, dreams, and families. Andrea could understand it, every dog had a family, even if they didn't have pups, or a mate. They had siblings, parents, other relatives.There had to be always someone, even if you didn't really truly know them, only knew of them.

Andrea witnessed Missy's eyes glaze over as she spoke and she realized, through her calm, concentrated mask that this must have been what Missy spoke about. Of course, she wasn't acting in the manner that she was describing to Andrea, at least, not yet, apparently.

Andrea nodded in understanding when Mississippi explained how she coped - by counting things. That made sense, it would be a steady beat, and you would have to concentrate on it well. She tilted her head in confusion when Missy stated in a jealous tone about how much better her brother was at controlling his need for blood lust. And then the older female told her that she could leave, and mark her as evil.

"First of all, I don't understand how you think your brother is so much better than you, you just handle things differently. I'm not the same as any of my own siblings, I can tell you that. We're all quite different."

[/b] Andrea commented rather evenly, giving a contemplative tilt of her head, not quite understanding why Missy would be all that jealous of her brother.

"And why would you think I would abandon you? Evil implies wreaking havoc on everyone you come across, and so many other evil things. I don't see that."[/b] Andrea added, murmuring the last party of her statement evenly, yet softer than the rest. ""Plus, you have to be really worthy if someone decides to tell you something like this. That means you can't just up and run away when they finish telling you."[/b] Andrea said, finishing her reply with a sharp shake of her head and tilting her head once more in curiosity. She didn't quite see how Missy would believe her to be so cruel. You couldn't just walk away from a dog who just told you something this big that you would not go around telling every dog that you met. [/blockquote][/justify][/size][/blockquote]

[QUIRKY TEA !]

Missy felt like she had surrendered herself to Andrea's judgment. She had revealed the darkness with her—something she didn't do lightly, but it was to Tenner's insistence, which really meant that it was something she wanted to do, and the desire to do it stemmed from the fact that there was a hope that maybe, Andrea would accept her anyways. She had been too shameful to gauge the young dog's reaction, though Tenner's confidence had Missy feeling a little better. The raven looked fiercely sure that this day was going to end well. And ending well meant that nobody was going to die.

This was a secret that, once shared, usually ended up with her life falling to pieces. Dogs would push her away once they knew the truth, especially if she told dogs that weren't fond of her. Perhaps Andrea was a litmus test of sorts, to see if it was possible for a dog to accept her. There had been other dogs like this Border Collie mix who had heard the secret, who accepted it. But that was because they didn't understand what Missy was talking about—the darkness of her condition. How dangerously insane she was. The pattern was the same, the dogs would coax her to lighten up, stop being so obsessive-compulsive, and meek little Missy would try it out. And then, she would kill them, not on purpose, and when it was all done, their deaths would have been so terribly cruel that she would feel a great calm wash over her, peace for weeks

When Andrea spoke, Missy could only feel relief. Even if the outcome could end in a deadly way, Andrea had accepted her and that was a small victory to celebrate. Perhaps it was Missy's gypsy roots that made her able to think in this way, but quickly she flickered back to cynicism. Each wold from Andrea stank with naivete. She didn't know what she was saying was inherently good. She didn't know understand the difference between a dog that was put-together enough to lead a pack versus one who could hardly do her duty as a Scout. However, loneliness was Missy's biggest fear. She wallowed in it for so long that, even if there were risks, a friendship with Andrea seemed too enticing an opportunity to pass up because at least she understood that she tried hard to contain the bloodlust, control it, keep herself safe.

Cautiously, Missy said, "Thank ya." She didn't want to seem too gracious, as if to be desperate, even though she really wanted a friend. However, this could be a beneficial friendship. Because Andrea was outside the pack, that meant that Missy could keep herself away if she felt that she wasn't in a safe mood, when the desire to kill would run hard and fast through her veins and felt like lightning in her heart.

"A family secret, but now it's yours as well," Missy said. Latch's pack operated such that those who were extremely close to him: His mate, his family, best friends, they knew the secret. It was one that took a long time to reach and a lot of trust for him to say it, though closer dogs would suspect a truth like it. Missy felt that she gave the secret too easily, but she also thought that perhaps the reason why Latch was so successful was because he had dogs to lean on if he had messed up. Dogs to snap him out of it if he was feeling himself giving in to his broken instincts. Now, Missy had a confidant. Perhaps, Andrea would pull through in the worst time.

The black and white mutt lowered her head, bowing it in the way that her old pack used to. It was a tradition that Latch's informal pack did—the way they showed respect. "It's from the pack I grew up in. Means... that you are a good, strong dog, worthy of respect."

Perhaps Missy was clinging onto the fact that Andrea would make a good gypsy. However, her brother made one too, and she didn't want her new friend to think poorly of Latch. "My brother's a good dog, too. He's better than me. I can't use his strategy to cope. I can hardly make buddies. But it isn't that I hate him for being better. I'm jealous is all. So jealous that I left him and ran with another pack because I couldn't stand it. He deserves his pack, I think."

Tenner nodded softly. He had gotten his Missy to open up. To gain a new friend. Although he knew that that meant that she would be a little more dangerous, it also meant that she'd be a little more happy.

[Ash]

Andrea gave a sharp nod of her head her head when Mississippi thanked her for what she had said, causing her ears to flop slightly. She wasn't all that sure what Missy was thinking of her speech there. Maybe a bit nervous, in the very back of her head, about what the outcome would end up being if what the older female said really was true, not that she doubted her. Would she end up shredded, right where she stood? Could she even run fast enough? Could her long, sight hound like legs, even carry her away from this situation fast enough if it ended badly? Not that Andrea was even sure how it could end in that manner. Why had she even let her thoughts move to this matter?

Andrea trusted Missy enough to at least try to hold back and not, you know, actually attack her. But Missy had proven herself. So how did Andrea even have the right to let a thought of doubt to fly across her mind? Mississippi had just divulged all of this to her, so she deserved the benefit of the doubt. More benefit than doubt, though.

Andrea gave a nod when Missy said that it was a family secret, and now it was hers, too. "And no one will here it from me!" Andrea replied, her tone showing a more serious tone than sarcastic. The younger female wasn't going to give away Missy's secret, she wouldn't dream of it. It wasn't her own secret to share, anyway. She wouldn't want her secrets slipping out, either, just by gossip.

Andrea tilted her head in curiosity when Mississippi bowed her head to her. But, she came to understand it when the older female explained that it meant that you were a strong dog, and worthy of respect. Andrea waited for a moment before bowing her head in the same manner to Missy. In her belief, the older female did demonstrate those traits, even if she, herself, did not believe that she had those traits somewhere in her, or even deserved it.

Andrea gave a nod as Missy explained about herself and her brother. To the younger female's ears, it sounded as if they had a rather difficult relationship. Or just a misunderstanding. Andrea herself couldn't tell all that easily. She herself hadn't had contact with her own siblings for a long time, so she wouldn't be one to judge anyone on their relationship with their siblings. She didn't have the right to.

"I would understand that he deserves his pack, if he would be trying so hard to appear like all of the rest of the alphas, I guess." Andrea replied, giving a slight shrug of her shoulders at the last part. She didn't quite know what words to use to describe Mississippi and her sibling's predicament with their tempraments.

[/blockquote]

[QUIRKY TEA !]

Missy watched as Andrea bowed her head in the same way. Perhaps it did take a certain strength just to keep from tipping over and losing her sanity, but it was a strength that Missy had no pride for because even then she seemed weak. Weaker than Latch, Brass, Madi, and the rest of her family. She only wanted to keep her family at bay, so they wouldn't know how much she hated their success. That wasn't what a good sister did: Hate her family's success. She should be proud. And, even though she was, she couldn't stay when envy commanded her feelings towards them. She had run away from them, for goodness' sakes! She left them and now she brought this lonely, terrible existence unto herself where she'd have no ear to lend a listen to her problems. Well, at least she had Andrea as a confidant to keep her secrets. That was reassuring.

But she didn't want Andrea to see her as a Saint. She wanted the dog to know how much she had failed at keeping herself together. Not to pity her, but to understand. The head bowed in respect, Missy felt that she didn't deserve. "Don't do that," she drawled softly, in a defeated tone. "I'm a good dog, but I'm not a great dog." She looked to Andrea but the drumming of insanity seeing the collie mix as an object of torture; it made her eyes crazed, fierce. She spoke slowly, calmly, as if not to trigger anything. Tenner fluffed up his feathers, keeping quiet. This was Missy's moment and he knew the rising pressure. He hoped she didn't need his help.

"I can't... I can't..." she started breathing faster, panicking a little. She started tapping her paw on the ground, counting awhile, scraping at the grass with determined claws. Under her breath, you could hear the numbers, mumbled with desperation. She needed tasks.

"Lay the grass flat, Missy, a few blades at a time," Tenner said.

She complied, pacified for the moment. Her few friends in the pack didn't understand how much she needed this, but even they would sometimes give her useless things to do to stave off her panic. Tenner was always there to supply something for her, probably because he felt the push into insanity as well. Missy carefully placed her paw on the grass and pressed down to lay it flat. She continued doing this as she started speaking again.

"I can't have your respect when I'm considering ways to kill you," Missy said, softly. "Today is a bad day, for me. Not the worst day I've ever had, but still a bad day." She shut her eyes as she remembered that Andrea might not understand her family's shorthand for describing what she was feeling at the moment. "Some days are like, I can hardly keep myself together. That's a bad day. But there are good times too, sometimes. When I don't feel... like I have to try as hard." She looked up to Andrea. "When Latch has a bad day, he can still pretend to be normal. When he has a good day, he is a great dog to be around, too. But even on good days, I mess up." Missy pinned her ears back. "Meet my brothers and my sister in Hlengiwe if you want to see what I mean. They can pass for normal."

Missy was still laying the grass blades flat and had flattened a sizeable area, like a giant pawprint that said a stranger was in Bohlale. "But look at me. This is what I do." She said, still focused on her work. "I can only feel gladness that you have accepted me for what I am. I hadn't had that for a long time." Though Missy wanted to warn Andrea away, she wanted the dog to stick by. She considered the Bohlale Hunter to be a friend, or at least hoped that they would get there. Eventually.

[Ash]

The younger female nodded evenly when Missy told her not to bow her head at her, tilting her head when she said that she was a good dog, not a great dog. Andrea knew the difference, obviously, but it must have been much more important to the older female than she had first guessed it to be. She didn't see how it could be such a big deal, why Missy didn't simply accept it as some sort of compliment rather than acting as if she wasn't worthy of anything of the sort. Even Andrea didn't think anything, or anyone could be all that bad. Her only guess was that Missy judged herself much too harshly, or just differently, but she only bit her tongue to keep herself from ending up insulting the older female.

Andrea glanced up the hill as Missy began counting the blades of grass once again to calm herself. She didn't want to stare, or gape in some sort of surprise like the half of the dogs would end up doing, she was almost positive. So she focused her eyes elsewhere, still. Denying herself the chance to witness what Missy had explained only moments earlier. She believed the older female, but that still didn't mean that she had to bear witness to all of this. She refused to. She could do with the knowledge of the fact that it happened, but she wouldn't do with her reaction now with what actually happened those moments she cast her eyes away.

Andrea turned her head back towards Missy and blinked when she said that she couldn't have her respect when she was thinking of ways to kill her, "There's a difference between thinking and doing," Andrea murmured in response to Missy's first statement, arching her eyebrow slightly. Andrea nodded slightly when Missy explained that a bad day meant that she could barely hold herself together on bad days. It sounded horrible, if she could barely control herself. Andrea wouldn't like to end up in that situation. She wasn't even sure how she, herself, could possibly even handle herself in that type of situation.

Andrea nodded slowly when Missy explained that her brother could hold himself together, even on a bad day. The same with her other siblings in the Hlengiwe pack. She didn't understand how Missy compared herself to her siblings, when she doubted they were all the same. She would expect them to handle everything differently, personality wise and all.

The younger female nod, she could understand this, it was what Missy lived with all the time. Andrea just accepted it, it wasn't as if anything could, or would change. She just accepted the older female for who she was. Missy had, after all, accepted all of her sarcasm without making all that great a deal of it. Andrea's muzzle turned into a smile when Missy said that she was happy that she had accepted her for who she was. Andrea couldn't imagine that no one had accepted Missy for who she was.

"I'd think you're lucky." Andrea murmured, giving a slight shrug of her shoulders, "I haven't seen any of my siblings in a year or so. And only because anymore time hasn't passed." Andrea added evenly. Sometimes, she wished she wished that she saw her siblings a bit more. But, those other times, she was happy that they are away, "I only say that when I'm nostalgic, though. I don't like to complain. And I like being on my own, when I'm not possibly starving to death." She said, adding the last part with a broad grin, the sarcasm seeping back into her voice, as she tried to lighten everything a bit.

[/blockquote]