FREAKY___OPEN!

[Sivoncé™]

The healer's den was a gravestone in itself.
Or at least, that's how Phobia saw it...Phobia saw a lot of things like that, though. Her wide, yellowed moonbeam eyes twitched as they studied the seemingly dusty clefts where the former herb healers had stored their herbs. They once healed the sick in here, she recalled, so I suppose it makes sense that the sickness only grows in their absence... Sick was a good word to describ the frail shell of a pack that constituted the Destinians. Sick in mind, sick in heart.
Raffa was the only one who had an inkling to what the world was truly like -- he saw behind the curtain drapes of the facade, the stage. We're supposed to run away together someday, she remembered, though her mind held little interest. He, like others who'd tried to plac their paw of her unsettling demeanor, hadn't spoken to her recent;y.
Phobia padded forward to investigate the dreary, vacant den.
"So much for being strong again," she muttered, recalling Fireflight's latest motivational speech. Just figures...all it is is figures. Figures of speech.

[Njack]

Banana grinned, padding into the herb healer's den. "Cool! Is this where they keep all the herby stuff?" He was talking mostly to himself, because his vision hadn't quite cleared. Or something, obviously, because he hadn't seen Phobia yet.

Or maybe his excitement just overpowered all his senses. Banana bounded past Phobia, still not even noticing her, to sniff at a bundle of... something on the ground. "What's this do?" He beamed, poking it with his nose.

Was he even allowed in the herb healer's den? The thought never crossed his mind.

[Sivoncé™]

Ignorant child, Phobia groaned and hissed inwardly. She spoke no words to Banana, only watched him through cold, cynical eyes as he batted at...something on the ground. Probably dried leaves or crap like that. She cleared her throat loudly, boring her eyes into Banana's back.
"Is there something you need?" Her voice was cool and steely, perfectly composed in a formal presenation. She eyed him with a calculating stare. What can I do to use this situation to my advantage? Giggling to herself, she remembered the one and only time she had attended a training session. Oh, yeah, that went well! Well, at least I learned something from that waste of my time...
Maybe she appeared friendly to Banana now. Good, good. Easier to hunt the prey that stumbled blindly after you, thinking you were a friend.

[Njack]

"Oh! Hi!" Banana made a huge grin, then bounded over towards Phobia. "I didn't know you were there!"

He stopped in front of her, tail wagging. "Who are you? Are you a neophyte too?"

His tongue hanging slightly out of his mouth comically, he waited for an answer. Of course, he hadn't quite answered the question, but he wasn't the best listener, anyway.

"Did you see all the stuff over there? There's like, herbs and stuff!"

He asked a lot of questions, too.

[Sivoncé™]

Taken aback, Phobia merely blinked at the overhyped neophyte. For a scant moment, the thoughts of a somewhat normal wolf broke through: Who is this wolf and where did he get the wolfnip? But then the insanity thing got in the way again...

"You're in a stone chamber with a bunch of shriveled, dead leaves, kid. Shriveled and dead just like the herb healers that used to live here," she snarled bitterly, glaring at Banana with cold eyes. "You're playing in a literal gravestone. The Destinians will never have another herb healer, don't you know?" A tickle of amusement fluttered in a stomach. They'll all be diseased on the outside, just like they are on the inside...

Poor Banana would probably get messed up, hanging out with the insane girl and all...

[Njack]

Ah, but we are all insane in our own little way, are we not?

Like, insane with HAPYNESS! *cough* Excuse me. Serious business mode now.

"Silly, they're not dead!" Banana stuck out his tongue at her and pounced on the leaves. "They're just pretending! I did that once, you know, and the other wolves said they couldn't even tell! Can you believe that?"

"And whaddya mean, there won't be another herb healer?" He tilted his head. "I mean, couldn't I be a herb healer or something?"

He slipped on a slippery leaf and landed on his stomach, his legs splayed comically beneath him.

[Sivoncé™]

Poor, ignorant little worm...

"In theory, you could be an herb healer....but you'd need to become an herb healer neophyte and find someone to train you first. Oh, and Fireflight would have to approve of it. Of course, she would probably love you for volunteering. Nobody else will..." She eyed him silently for a moment, watching his theatrical parade with intent interest. "So, are you serious about this, or is it just a rhetorical thought?" Destinians having an herb healer would change things...should I tell Raffa? It seems like he would want to know, not that I know anything about what he's up to anyway. Stupid boy didn't even look for me after he tried to profess his understanding of my nature....
Even in thought, Phobia was not a Destinian.

[Njack]

(Heh, I don't think it's good to have more than one herb healer at the moment.)

"What's that mean, rhetethoricaleth?" Banana's tongue tripped over the words slowly. "That's a funny word."

"I dunno." He tilted his head again, this time to the other side, and his tongue protruded slightly out of his mouth. "I mean, whoa! That means there can be a herb healer!" He grinned.

He stopped, suddenly deep in thought. This was a new one. I mean, thought wrinkles even appeared. It was like, OMG character development right here! Cough. Sorry, please continue, Banana.

"Umm. Me be a herb healer? I dunno." His tail resumed wagging. "I could try, though. And maybe if another wolf does herb healer, then I could help them!"

He grinned once more, those often unused thought wrinkle lines returning to their normal inactivity.

[Sivoncé™]

(Whatever you want If Banana tries, though, maybe it won't work out as planned...you could use this however you want to )

Huh. False alarm, I suppose. I really need to stop grabbing at every lead I see -- most of them are flimsy half-truths. Ah, well...he'd probably end up poisoning someone, anyway. Seems like he's more of a puppy than a neophyte. He seems to like the idea of healing...but he'd get bored with it...or so it would seem...
Phobia eyed him, still speculative. She ignored his words altogether. "So how old are you, anyway? And you never said your name...?"
Yes, let my put a name to this...strangeness.

[Njack]

(Ha, I'm no good at plotting. :

Banana giggled at Phobia's question. How it was funny, I dunno. But he thought it was funny. "I'm Banana! Who are you?" He wagged his tail, then trotted, or if we may continue the horse metaphor here, more like galloped around Phobia, turning dizzy circles under the stone ceiling.

Coming to a sudden stop in front of Phobia, he spouted, "Ooh, ooh! No, wait! Let me guess! You look like a... Shoelace? Umm... Spinach? Palm Tree? Dandelion?" He scratched his head with his paws, trying to figure out a good name for the wolf that was in front of him.

"Grass?" he finally spat out, looking somewhat silly. No, wait, he always looked somewhat silly. Scratch that.

[Sivoncé™]

Banana? What the heck is a Banana? His Mom probably didn't love him enought to give him a real name, just like my twisted, sick excuse of a family. Guess we have more in common than I thought. Maybe an ally? He's kinda naive...but hey, he could come in handy, couldn't he? He probably thinks we're friends now, so it'll work out real nice... She offered him a strange curve of her lips, which looked more like a crooked grimace than a smile, but Banana would no doubt be fine with the gesture. "My name is Phobia," she barked. She wrinkled her nose as he listed off his ponderings. The strange, saner part of her curiosity got the best of her. "Grass...how do I look like a grass?" Or a Dandelion for that matter? Maybe they tampered with his mind, too...
A strange, foreign warmness spread through her limbs. Just like me...only I'm aware of it and he...doesn't care.
A small, sad voice in the back of her mind wondered if Phobia would be able to not care about her damaged sanity, either.
But then the monster shoved the small voice away in favor of the louder, hysterical ones.

[Njack]

Banana blinked at her, then returned the smile with a beam. Okay, same thing. "Phobia? Whazzat mean?" He tilted his head again. He'd probably get a crick in his neck one of these days; either that or the narrator'd get killed for not having any good body expressions to use. "Oh, and you look like a grass cuz your eyes are green! Like grass!... Well, maybe like seaweed..."

How did Banana know about seaweed?

"Whee!" He jumped on her tail, then fell off.

[Sivoncé™]

She opened her maw and shut it again, closing the door on her rambling words. It sounded like...like a compliment. Standing there stupidly, she merely blinked at Banana in shock as her disintegrated mind tried to comprehend the idea. Barely aware of her own breathing, she continued to blink back at Banana with void, dulled eyes... She could've gone on forever, staring at the space above Banana's head until she bore holes in the stone cavern, former house of herbs and gardeny things. But then---
"YEEOWWWWCH!!!!"
Banana held her tail captive save for a second, but she toppled to the hard, frozen earth anyway. Her eyes squeeze shut as her lungs puffed out a windblown breath. Snorting, her eyes searched for the culprit.
"Are you trying to provoke the beast, kid?"

[Njack]

Banana scrambled back up from his rear ended position on the floor, and blinked innocently at her. "What beast?" Oh, by the way, it's rear end as in he was sitting on his rear end, not as in he was in a car and then he rear ended another car and... oh, forget it.

"Your tail's fluffy," he offered, grinning. "I mean, like a dandelion pillow! Ohhh!" His eyes lit up. "Maybe that's where I got Dandelion from!"

[Sivoncé™]

She disentangled herself from hyperactive Papaya -- or whatever his name was -- and began to slowly tread backwards. Whatever ideas she had of Banana now were dashed as he pounced about in his lively fashion. Okay, I may be sufficiently crazy by crazy wolves' standards, but what the hell is with THIS guy? He's more than messed up, he's just freakishly evil. Evil, yes, that's what he is. That's the only logical explanation for someone so sickly awake and bouncy! Bouncy...hm...I wonder if they played with his inner workings a bit, unwound a few key vessels. Huh...probably wouldn't take much, would it, to totally invert the lupine form? Took less than a moon for me...Enough of this!
Her green eyes turned to a fierce, toussled forest in a storm. Her claws rapped the ground with mounting impatience. Behind her, her tail was a coiled whip, ready to strike in a blink. Snarling through bared fangs, she threatened his venemously, "Do I look like a soft and fuzzy dandelion to you, Fruitface?"