IN A SPIRAL OF ANTS / skipping stones

DEAR FRIEND as you know,  your flowers are withering
your mother's gone insane, your leaves have drifted away.
but the clouds are clearing up
and i've come reveling, burning incandescently,
like a bastard on the burning sea.

YOU'RE JUST LIKE YOUR FATHER,
BURIED DEEP UNDER THE WATER.

Funny, that Aphra would be first to approach the female in her activity. What came next was predictable, to be expected. And the female didn't seem to mind it all too much at this point, sticking to her task, allowing others to make their own comments. The outburst from Keona was surprising - she knew the small dealer had more than enough power to fight, but she didn't expect her, too, to lash out at Aphra in Goldie's defense. It was almost endearing, they'd know each other their whole lives, but didn't talk much outside of business and general public interactions. Still, the tigress keeps focused on her activity. Aphra's opinions had never much mattered to her in the first place, and while she was usually one to fight back regardless, today she didn't feel like it. Didn't desire feeding into the female's need for attention, good or bad.

The others, clearly, were speaking enough to fill that necessity anyway.

The more family that did approach, the easier it felt to breathe. The distraction felt easier. Lawkit's shelter under her wing would cause her to shift, pulling it closer. "Is' an ancient time-waster known as skipping stones," Goldie answers Seapaw first, offering a slight tease at the edge of her tone. Then, was her aunt asking how to do it. "Jus' gotta throw the rocks a certain way," she answers lightly to Roxie's question - the type of rock mattered too, but she wouldn't bother mentioning that unless someone tried to throw a pointed rock expecting it to bounce. "They need t' spin when you throw them, n' keep 'em as flat as you can." The female explains further with a nod.

[div style="font-size: 11px; color: #008ab5; font-family: georgia; text-align: center; line-height: 100%; word-spacing: 10px; padding: 3%;"]ϟ    ϟ    ϟ
[i][b]whose side are you on? [color=#008ab5]what side is this anyway?
put  down  your  sword  and  crown,
come  lay  with  me  on  the  ground.
you come beating like moth's wings, spastic and violently,
whipping me into a storm shaking me down to the core.