The Storm Heads Gather

The grey of the clouds above melded with the tides of the sea, and amongst the torrent pillars of black and green. These were the isles she knew her friend had decided to stay and make claim, though she doubted they would truly need much guarding. From the sandy shores across the bay, these islands appeared uninhabitable and unfriendly, something she was still coming to decide for herself as well.

Once more she pulled her body out of the sea, clambering onto the black rock to shake her fur with a huff. Of course, her friend would take to the sea to settle, but did she really have to find an island? Either they would have to work out some sort of halfway meeting point or she would have to get better at swimming

---

+1 Disco Point

---

the staff team luvs u

[sfont=El Messiri]^^

He remained along the beaches. Uncertain as to why but something called him here - to keep wandering the rocky and sandy shores until something would pique his interest. Maybe that female wolf would return to find him here - maybe... or maybe they were lost forever now.

The rhythmic flow of the ocean beating against the shores, rubbing the jagged stones into smooth rounded pebbles over time. Even stones were not safe from the harsh waves as given enough time, they too would be eaten away by what seemed to be so gentle on his toes. So soothing as the salt water rinsed away any grime gathered on his feet during his travels. 

In the distance the rising stones erupted from the sea salt shores, shrouded in the spit brought up with the ocean's tide. Within the dark stones someone came out of the ocean itself - a woman he had met briefly not too long ago along the shores further south. The nameless man's chewed off ear flickered as he pondered over calling out to her again.

^^[/sfont]

---

+1 Disco Point

---

the staff team luvs u

The island's reaches were just as dark and foreboding as the beaches along the mainland, something cold and unforgiving, but by now the shadow knew what laid within. A hidden gem was nestled in the birth of the island. Its core surprisingly lush, though sparse making the jagged rocks of land somewhat more reasonable to claim. It was this heart that she desired to seek out, sure that her friend would lay within the thinly sprouting forest.

No more than a few steps were taken on the rocky shore though before her eyes caught sight of the white blight that marked the rocks. He was large and imposing, though on a second glance she realized she recognized his scars. He was the man from the other star-lit island's shores. “She drag you out here too?” She gave him an almost judging look, though it wasn't intentional. More or less, she was just surprised the ocean didn't claim him with how heavy he probably was.

She couldn't recall much of the man from before, but she did not forget his claim. He had met a Vandrussel, and while it seemed like a coincidence then, now she knew it to be her friend. Given this was Venny's soon-to-be island it was safe to assume he too found his way back to the sea dragon.

---

+1 Disco Point

---

the staff team luvs u

[sfont=El Messiri]^^

Pieces of him still floated around in the nebulous. Away from his grasp as his mind floated around aimlessly with no purpose. The man existed and that was it. There was no complicated details to distract him from the reality that he was faced with, and his attention was solely on the dark woman he had met once before in this life.

The ocean's call filled the silence between them, and for a moment their eyes met and ears pulled forward to catch her sharp words. She? Who had dragged him here, was this being the feeling that kept him tethered to the shores? “Who is this she?” His mind didn't put two and two together that she spoke of the woman he had asked her about not too long ago. It was safe to say that the man with no name was not one who took it as a habit to assume anything at all.
 
“Is she the one who keeps me returning to the shores?” Was it some kind of mystical power that chained him? 

^^[/sfont]
the staff team luvs u

The shadow raised a brow as he questioned her back. It was a valid question at first, but then he spoke like he had been tethered here. “Venny?” As far as she knew her friend was not the kind to force others to stay against their will, in fact, she almost preferred no one visit other than the need for more members.

A pack could not consist of one wolf, she needed a community...but if it wasn't her then why had he also been called to these shores? “Uhh...I don't think so, but she also said she was drawn here. Maybe that's something to work out with her?” Could it be possible the island really was some sort of ancient? Had he heard the call of dragons too?

the staff team luvs u

[sfont=El Messiri]^^

She spoke of a woman named “Venny”, was that the short way some would call Vendrussel? The woman he had met the first day of his “birth” here in these lands? If so, had he finally found the “pack” he had somehow lost after the desert? “Vendrussel?” He had to confirm his suspicion.

“Maybe. Were you drawn here too?” How could a place call to them the way it seemed capable of? Was it just them? Why? The man with no name may be an empty shell of what most seemed to have, incapable of remembering much or having much of a personality of his own - but he knew when something felt strange.

Abnormal.

Mystical even.

^^[/sfont]
the staff team luvs u

“Uh...yeah?” He was the one that had mentioned her before but maybe he had been wrong about their connection. “You were following her, right? Or looking, whatever.” She shrugged as she turned to the rock. She hadn't really been pulled here she more or less just followed Venny until her dragon radar went off.

“No I just followed Vendrussel. Where we are from we believe in the ancients and she believes to have received a calling from them to settle. She is claiming these islands and hopes to grow a pack of her own.” She was just the support. Though...she couldn't help but look back to him with a suspicious squint, “Wait, were you?”

the staff team luvs u

^^

[sfont=El Messiri]“Trying to.” He felt it was right to just wait along the shores and see if she would eventually find him. Like some lost child at the grocery store - except he wasn't crying and seeking out strangers to help him find the lost woman. He would ask, and move on to the next as he wandered aimlessly along its shores.

At least the woman confirmed his suspicions that Venny and Vendrussel were indeed the same individuals. Meaning that he had finally found where she was wandering off to earlier when they met. By some random act of fate, they had found the same shores. At drastically different paces, but at least in the same place at the end. 

His pack, he hummed to himself. Pleased with this finding. Wait, this one also said she followed the dark woman. “This means you too are a part of my pack.” "My", he meant "hers" since he was in no way leading anything - but as a collective one would suppose. 

“Yes. I followed Vendrussel just to find myself here before her... So I waited her arrival, to find me again.” And here he was, strange, yes, but it really did go over his head as it simply didn't matter enough for him to find out how the hell it happened.[/sfont]

^^
the staff team luvs u

Her ear would flick at his short answer. Somewhere along the lines he had gotten horribly lost to end up...well where they first met. She hadn't known how far they traveled beforehand, from the sandy reaches to the pull of the tide, but she supposed in the end it didn't really matter. He was here now and that's what mattered, right?

“Well you found her.” Or her land at least. Venny wasn't here but she was lingering somewhere surely. Sometimes she ran off for a few days, probably to explore what laid beyond the mountains, but she always came back. “Yeah, except it's not yours.” She still didn't even have a name to his face and she certainly wasn't following him. “But apart of the same pack, yes.” Or so she assumed. There had been plenty of mentions to her faceless followers that supposedly followed at a slower pace.

It seemed that in the end, he did not hear the call that pulled Venny here, he was just a lost straggler which...she expected to be honest. Had he heard the calls of the ancients she would have questioned just who exactly he was. Even she hadn't heard it and she knew more than most people in this land.

the staff team luvs u

[sfont=El Messiri]^^

He found her, good. Well... sort of. Even he was aware that Venny wasn't here, here perse but somewhere here and he would see her sometime soon. Curious eyes looked around where they were, low-key trying to memorize this place should he find himself tossed to the opposing side of the map again against his will. Here he would return to. The shores, the rocks that look like the terrible back of some sea beast.

She corrected, the woman without a name snapped back at him to make clear what he already knew. “Yes, it's what I said.” He was almost confused by this. Of course this wasn't his, that they weren't following him, but he was a part of it. As one unit. And so, he was they, they were him. They would move as one just as the ocean would with different shores. Different faces but the tides were all the same.

“Who are you, other than just packmate? Name?” He would do his best with the little knowledge he had on how to deal with this. How to "meet and greet" despite how awkward and uncomfortable this all was. If she was to be a part of his pack, their pack, then he should know at least a little about her right? At least attempt to.

^^[/sfont]
the staff team luvs u

The shadow could only raise a brow as he corrected her back. Maybe she had misunderstood. The way he spoke almost seemed like a language barrier, though the question then was what did he speak? “まだ数ビートオフ — Still a few beats off” Her native tongue came easily as her tail flicked at her haunches. Rather he understood or not didn't really matter given it was an offhand comment, but it was at least a way to poke some theories.

“I guess you don't remember then.” Their meeting had been brief, but she was sure she had given her name in passing before. At least Aso was going to but that thread kinda died out so Noki can decide if he's just being dumb or if Kei is being an ass. “It's Kei. I don't suppose you remembered yours this time?”

the staff team luvs u

[sfont=El Messiri]^^

Her native tongue didn't click within him, no familiarity or understanding on the strange dialect that went in one ear and out the other. Unbothered by whatever she would say as he didn't understand. So why linger on it? He'd give a dismissive flick of the ear and swiftly move on as she did.

Don't remember? Now Noki took some time to think about how this would go, who was being the ass or if Aarkron was just being a meathead who forgot. Two toned eyes swayed off to the side and up as if to think of their previous meeting. If he could remember any details at all. Nope, maybe she did introduce herself then but it was in one ear and out the other.

Or maybe it was because her name sounded like a curt response which seemed normal coming from her... "k". Could have been an easy misunderstanding too. “No, still wolf. Maybe one day it'll come to me.” A pause in the beat of his train of thought. “Or call me whatever.” He'll respond to possibly anything at this point until he remembers something.

^^[/sfont]
the staff team luvs u

Honestly if there had been a camera she probably would have started into it unimpressed by now. Before she wasn't sure what this guy's deal had been, but it's becoming more clear that he's just daft in the head. It only made her wonder how useful he'd be within the pack, but if he had any skill behind his muscle then he could be stupid all he wanted so long as he wasn't dragging the pack into it.

“You really can't think of anything better than Wolf? Alright, fine, Whatever it is.” But...literally. Literally whatever. “So you're staying. What do you do? Can you fight?” He better be able to with the scars and the muscle. If he landed them from tripping on a rock and running away from real warriors she'd be pretty disappointed.

the staff team luvs u

[sfont=El Messiri]^^

The humor behind her choice of words had gone completely unnoticed to him (but not to Noki, she giggled). He couldn't really see a problem with what they called him, why 'wolf' was so bad since both 'K' and Vendrussel had the same reaction to it. With a callous shrug of his shoulders, he wasn't about to fight about it or ask why it was a problem. Honestly, he didn't care. Not in a rude attitude sort of sense, more or less... like how a breeze didn't care for the weeds that bent to its will... and he was the weeds. Mindlessly moving with its pull.

“Probably?” Even he wasn't certain as he looked down to himself. Muscular and larger than the others here, especially the females around... not only was he tall but he was much 'beefier' than they were. “I haven't fought, not that I know of... But maybe?”

^^[/sfont]
the staff team luvs u

Probably.

Probably?

“So you remember nothing.” He couldn't have given how he looked at himself. It was almost as if he was a stranger in another's body. “What's with the scars?” Maybe he wouldn't remember any training or insignificant daily life, but something that scarred you...that was something to remember. If he had no answer for that too then there was really nothing else to ask.

Maybe he was just a hunk of meat wasting space and resources. She wondered what Venny had seen in him, though she could only hope she was wrong. “If you can't do anything then you better start figuring out what you can do. This isn't a place for mooching.”

the staff team luvs u

[sfont=El Messiri]^^

What's with the scars? She asked, and in response all he would do is shrug. As if he knew, didn't he already respond that he didn't know much about himself? What would more questions do for him other than just come up empty-pawed until something came to him over time?

To her next words he scowled. Insulted by how little she thought of him just because he didn't know much about himself it didn't mean he was useless. “I'm not a freeloader.” He knew that much. For now he had only just found them, on his way to find Vendrussel - he was not just lounging on their beaches enjoying this... "dapper" weather. 

 “Are we done here? I would like to find Vendrussel.”

^^[/sfont]
the staff team luvs u

The longer this dragged on the more Kei found herself annoyed. He too seemed frustrated by her assumptions, but it wasn't like he was offering much to correct her. If he wanted to prove otherwise all he had to do was say something more than a sentence or just run off and do it already. Seemingly done with their little chat, he asked if he could leave to which she now had little to say back.

“Tch.” Real show stopper Venny. “Whatever, figure out a way to contribute and I won't have a reason to think you're out to be one.” It wasn't the fact that he hadn't done anything yet that annoyed her, it was the inability to answer a simple question aside from a shrug or an I don't know. This time not waiting for a lack luster answer, the shadow turned to retrace her steps elsewhere where she too could go be useful.

the staff team luvs u