text, @TARANTO, day after the saloon fire

[heavyhitter]

hey guys guess what: blankets!!! me and TF to the fucking rescue, we rustled up like 40 of these bad boys
super cozy, some nice patterns. one of them has a robot wolf on it
it was also all entirely legal

they're ALMOST free, all you gotta do is tell me a story then come get one (i'm by those spiky ass fat plants that bleed if you knock them over)

also since i have 40 and there's more than 40 of us, i guess also pick someone to get cozy with

Comments

[dishearten]

does looking out for myself not count?
and you'll have to battle my brother for that spot, if you're quite insistent on it.

[heavyhitter]

your brot

oh the wolf
he's not ACTUALLY your brother-brother, right

[dishearten]

as close to a brother as I've ever had.

( this sorta thing happens when you're raised by wolves, Ramir, ok )

[heavyhitter]

alright but you didn't both come out of the same vagina right
i'd have a lot of questions if you did

[dishearten]

family doesn't have to be decided by blood.
wolves took me in when I was small. adopted, if you will.

[heavyhitter]

trust me, i know
but oh my god, seriously? how old were you?

[dishearten]

hard to say
walking, talking? but young enough I don't remember anyone but the wolves.

[heavyhitter]

hey does this mean you can howl

[dishearten]

I think anyone can howl, it's not a difficult sound to achieve

[heavyhitter]

yeah but we can't do it RIGHT, and i bet we sound like dumbasses to wolves

[dishearten]

give it a try and see what happens.

( howls were infectious. even if they came from humans and sounded silly. )

[heavyhitter]

oh my god no he's gonna think i sound like an idiot
do you WANT your wolf to think i'm an idiot

[dishearten]

does that sound like the sort of thing I'd suggest to you?

( he actually wants her to think about that. Hopefully she knows him well enough that she already knows the answer. )

[heavyhitter]

who knows you're a suspicious man

anyway fine i guess gimme a sec

[ And in about a minute, from somewhere in the hobo campout zone, there are two shitty (but enthusiastic!) wolf howls, because Ramir made Sigma do it with her. What a good, obliging soul. ]

[dishearten]

( oh yeah he's super suspicious. so irish and sheriffy, who does he think he's fooling?

he waits as commanded, and when the camp is so small he doesn't need to guess what he's waiting for when he hears it shortly after. amusement is foreign to him these days, so who is to say if he laughs or not? Nobody is there to hear it.

except his brother, of course, who bolts up at the howls and delightedly answers in kind. there's something beautiful and harrowing, about the cry of a wolf. and if his human follows after, well, who gets to judge?

except for like all the people trying to sleep but whatever they're having a moment )

apparently you're not as bad as you thought. howls are even more infectious than I realized.

( bc that was def 2 human howls that set them off. sigma for bf of the year. )

[heavyhitter]

[ aw yeah score they got a howl! two howls?? somewhere, a camp away, there is a righteous high five. ]

aw right yeah!
we might've been shouting "hey i'm an asshole" "hey me too" but you guys were fucking into it

[dishearten]

you weren't
perhaps our next lesson will be howls with a message, and not just shouting nonsense

( seeing as he speaks animal now, however bizarre that is. he could even do it!!! or maybe not, because it's kinda hilarious. )

[heavyhitter]

ok i'm just gonna say that lesson better be in a soundproof room or it's gonna be REALLY embarrassing

[dishearten]

I'm not sure we have an excess of soundproofed rooms, but out of earshot is likely possible.

[heavyhitter]

yeah great just walk us out into the middle of the forest in the dead of night to howl, that's definitely perfectly fine
people do that all the time

[dishearten]

I suppose this is sarcasm, but for the record I don't find anything particularly strange about it.

( YOU WOULDN'T YOU DUMB WOLF MAN )

[heavyhitter]

well that kinda goes without saying doesn't it