Persuasive Techniques

(October 24th, open to Angel and myself for some conversing and such)

It had taken him a while but Scamp had finally found out that Angel was back in the heros camp, he had also found out that she had taken Patch with her. This simply would not do. So he had spent a while trying to find her, then he watched over her for a little while to see if the suspicions and rumors were true and his eyes saw the truth. She had brought Patch with her into the heros camp. She still trusted his murderer.

So he went to her tent, after finding out which one she had moved into of course. Scamp walked towards the pom mix with a stern look on his face, small scowl appearing on his maw. He didn't want to be angry at her, really he didn't, she wasn't the cause of his anger. Patch was. But he just couldn't hide it as this point. 

"Angel, I think we need to talk." Scamp started as he walked up behind her, he had to use everything he had to convince her that Patch was still no good. "Why did you bring him with you into the heros?" Scamp asked first, his body standing tall and his head tilting slightly to the side as he asked her the question he badly wanted answered first. Why on earth did she bring that murder into the heros camp? 

Oh, wonderful. First Buster, now Scamp... it seemed that Angel's past had decided it had left her alone long enough and was now dead set on catching up with her. The pomeranian didn't even look up as her half-brother pushed his way into her tent. This was the absolute last thing she needed right now, and the only thing she could imagine that worse would be explaining to Patch himself just what had gone down between her and Buster two nights ago.

That was about why she was currently in her tent; she was avoiding the dalmatian, though she knew there was no way she could keep this from him forever. She should tell him sooner rather than later, she knew that, but the courage to do so was proving particularly elusive at present. How did someone break this sort of news to anyone, much less one's own lover? And what would Patch think of her when she told him? He would be disgusted with her, she was sure. Hell, she was disgusted with herself, with what she'd done. Maybe Scamp would get his wish and Patch wouldn't want anything more to do with her after this. As much as the idea of that tore her up inside, she wasn't sure she'd blame him.

"You really know how to pick your timing, Tenderfoot," Angel didn't bother to hide her sarcasm. Scamp couldn't have chosen a worse time to approach her of he'd tried. "We couldn't have that this conversation three days ago?" Then she'd at least been feeling somewhat good about herself, she might have been able to handle this. As it was, she hadn't despised herself as much as she did now since before she'd met the mutt who had changed her life. The same one, in fact, who was standing behind her right now.

Angel sighed softly. She ought to pretend everything was still alright, at least for Scamp's sake. In spite of their differences of opinion of late, he was a good guy, and she really didn't want to burden him with her current problems. "It was that or let him get eaten by Queen Nala gone crazy," she replied shortly, sort of hoping that Scamp would take the hint. Though knowing him, he wouldn't. "When she drove us out of the jungle, there was nowhere else for either of us to go."

Scamp titled his head to the side as she responded, he knew how to what? Had something happened? Three days ago? "What happened three days ago? Why would that make this any different?" Scamp asked her, not seeing her reasons behind this being a bad time to talk to her. She seemed really at the end of her leash, ready to have a go at him. 'Maybe this wasn't the best time.' Scamp thought to himself, almost regretting his decision to come and talk to her. But he still really needed to talk to her, timing regardless.

When Angel did answer his question he kept his head tilted, and a clear look of confusion slid onto his grey features. "You were driven out of the jungle…by the queen…okay" Scamp said shaking his head, he was going to have to let that one go. "But surely you must know what the heros think of him, he's a traitor Angel, and a killer. I'm surprised he's lived this long." Scamp said with a slight hint of sarcasm sliding into the end of his tense sentence, but it seemed forced and came out sounding more like he wasn't happy that his killer had lived this long. Well he wasn't but he hadn't meant it to sound quite that way.

Scamp's eyes looked away from her for a moment and around her tent, Patch wasn't around. "Where is he anyway?" Scamp refused to say his name, he couldn't bare to let that name roll of his tongue. "Is he out stabbing someone else in the back? Or planning my second death?" Scamp was in a mood now, annoyed that she had let him live, annoyed that she hadn't left him for dead in that jungle. Away from the heroes, away from him.

Angel seemed to wilt under Scamp's harsh tones. One would hardly expect it of her, but somehow, even now that he was her brother, Scamp's opinion mattered to the pomeranian. Feeling the force of his anger directed at her hurt, and for a long moment, Angel stared at her paws, silent. What could she say? She believed that Patch honestly had seen the error of his ways, but there was clearly no way of conveying that to Scamp. And she had to admit, she couldn't really fault Scamp for feeling the way he did; were she in his paws, Angel was sure she would have felt much the same.

Didn't make her feel much better about it, though.

Finally, she replied. "What happened three days ago? I ran into Buster. He... gave me a hard time," she finished simply. No need to go into all the details. Scamp didn't need to know exactly what had transpired between the two of them that was making her feel so awful - not until she reached the point where was no way to avoid it.

"Look, Scamp, I get that you hate Patch, but after that I'm not up to dealing with this right now," she stated, her tone making plain the fact that she was being short with him. Hoping he'd get the message, but not at all confident that he actually would. This was Scamp, after all, and he could be fairly clueless when he wanted to be. And in the strangest way, she didn't really want him to leave; she just wished he'd stop talking about Patch.

Scamp saw her air of confidence shatter as he snapped at her, but he didn't let that get to him much. It did seep into him a fair bit though and made his dark mood shift a little. He let out a small sigh, "Sorry Angel, I…" His apology stopping when Angel mentioned that it was Buster's fault that she was in a bad way, suddenly a deep frown let itself into his jaw. A small snarl tearing through his throat at the mention of his name.

"What did he do to you? Tell you?" Scamp asked, fur pricking up with anger, "I'll get him for you. Yeah, that's what I'll do." Scamp told himself as much as he was telling her, getting some revenge on Buster might get Angel back onto his side. Maybe she would see that he was just trying to do what would keep her safe, make her happy.

But when she continued his inflated ego took a slight dip, "But I…I just want to do what's best for you, and he is NOT what's best for you." Scamp grumbled, his fur still standing on end. "You didn't answer me either, where is he? I thought that the spotted murderer never left your side." Scamp asked again, he wanted to know where Patch was, he needed to know whether he really had to watch his back in case Patch was about to kill him again.

"Scamp..." Angel couldn't help but smile softly at the grey-furred pup's determination to get back at Buster for her. She'd been hurt - not physically, but the principal remained - and his only thought was to make it better for her. This had been part of why she'd fallen for Scamp in the first place. Before she'd known they were related. But she also shook her head. "Do you really think you're a match for Buster? I couldn't live with myself if he hurt you if you were taking him on for my sake.

"But thanks," she amended, wanting to let him know that she appreciated the sentiment.

Her expression turned sour again as Scamp proved himself completely unable to drop the subject of Patch. What could she say? She loved Patch, but she didn't expect Scamp to accept that as an argument of any type. "Can we agree that whatever else Patch is, he's an awful liar? If he had an ulterior motive here, half the camp would know it already." Angel didn't think that was an exaggeration; from what Angel had seen of him, Patch couldn't tell a decent lie to save his life, and truth be told, she liked him that way. It lent him an endearing sort of innocence. "Whatever you think he's planning, he's really not sneaky enough to keep it a secret."

Deciding she'd left his question unanswered long enough, the pom added "But I've been avoiding him for a few days, since Buster. I just don't know how to tell him that..." she cut herself off abruptly, having already decided not to burden Scamp with that.

Scamp was proud of himself for standing up for Angel, and even if she didn't want him to he was going to go after Buster anyway. Teach him a lesson. "Of course I'm a match for Buster, I have already died once, I've got nothing left to lose." Scamp said lowering his body into a pouncing position and wagging his tail, and he believed every word that came rushing out of his mouth.

Finally she answered his question, but it only lead to more questions. "Tell him what?" Scamp asked, getting himself back into a standing position and waiting patiently for an answer. If something was wrong he had to know about it, there was no chance that he was going to let her keep him out of the loop anymore, not now that he was back from the dead.

"Just be careful, tenderfoot. The last thing any of us want is to lose you again." Still, Angel was touched that, in spite of all their disagreements this war, Scamp was still willing to risk his life on her behalf. Though, really, she supposed what had gone on with Buster had been her own fault as much as his. She had been the one to give into his wiles even after promising herself that she wouldn't. She could have walked away, avoided all of this, but she'd stupidly let Buster lure her in again...

And now she was just paying the penalty for that.

"Tell him what?"

Angel visibly winced. She'd been trying to keep Scamp out of this, she really had - honestly, she doubted he'd react much better than Patch - but Scamp was in a persistent mood today, and trying to dodge his question would be more trouble than it was worth. And he'd find out sooner or later, anyway. The smaller dog swallowed hard once, then again. She was so ashamed of what she was about to say, of admitting it to anyone... of what she'd lose if they knew. Scamp, Patch, her family, any of them. They'd ditch her in disgust, and they'd be right to, the pomeranian thought miserably, before steeling herself. Just go for it, she chided herself angrily.

"That I'm pregnant," her voice was low, weighed down with and she didn't look at Scamp as she spoke the words, staring instead at the far wall of the tent. She didn't want to see the shock, the horror, disgust, betrayal that she was sure Scamp would be regarding her with. She lowered her head, her posture instinctively slipping into a submissive crouch. She'd never before been afraid of what Scamp thought of her, but this... how could he accept this? What would he take her for?

Finally, it occured to her that she'd better clarify before Scamp started wondering. "With Buster's pups," she added with the utmost shame and bitterness. "He talked me into it... I hated him, you know that, but I could never resist his advances, even back in the Junkyard. I-" she blinked furiously as her eye misted. "I'm such a disgrace," she whispered. She was sure Scamp had never realised just how deep Angel's self-loathing had gone, but he was certainly seeing new depths to it now.

Scamp rolled his eyes, "You aren't going to lose me again, I'm not going to run straight into the arms of death again" Scamp smiled but rolled his eyes again, he didn't need her to be worried about him. "What could possibly go wrong?" He asked with a cheeky grin, he was quite pleased with himself at this point. Unknowing of the words that were about to hit him, then they did.

At first he didn't know what to say, but he could feel a massive feeling of rage flowing into his body. "What?" Was the first word that made its way out of his mouth, then all the thoughts hit him. "Who...?" He started and tried to form another sentence but it died as she almost completely answered it. 'So that's why she's been avoiding Patch.' Scamp thought to himself before her next sentence had a chance to smack him in the face.

Scamp didn't blame Angel, how could he, he loved her so much. Even now that she was his half-sister he still loved her, not as her lover anymore but as her protective brother. A snarl had started to form on his muzzle, now he definitely had to go hunt Buster down, take a few of his trusted friends with him, and make the junkyard king pay for what he had done to Angel.

"I'm such a disgrace,"

Scamp visibly snapped out of his thoughts, "What?!" He snapped, "Oh no, no, no you're not. This is Buster's fault not yours Angel, and you are not a disgrace." Scamp couldn't even understand how she jumped to that conclusion, this single thing could not make her a disgrace. This single action couldn't mark her soul forever as a disgrace.

Angel couldn't bring herself to look at Scamp. The fact that he was defending her from her own accusations... it almost made her want to fall in love with him all over again, despite them both knowing that ship was long gone. It had been so many months, she'd forgotten just how much he'd cared for her, and she for him. She blinked her good eye repeatedly until she was sure it was dry again, before raising her voice once more in explanation.

"You don't know how it always was between us, Scamp, back in the junkyard. We never went so far as to mate, not before, but he'd lure me in... And I'd go along with it. He could seem irresistable those times. I hated him, hated myself for it..." she blinked fiercely again, still determinedly staring in the oposite direction to Scamp. Unable to meet his eye, regardless of whether she'd see judgement or compassion there. "When I left the junkyard with you, it boosted my self-esteem so much that I thought I'd risen above that. I always said you were better than the rest of us there; I thought under your influence, I'd become someone better, too."

She felt sick, to think how much she'd let them all down. Scamp's family had given her another chance, and true it had lasted this long, but in the end she'd just gone running back to Buster again. "I was fooling myself," she finished miserably.

( I feel like I could be writing about Terezi's kismesis with Gamzee here... new headcanon, I think; Angel and Buster must be caliginous towards each other... and if you don't read Homestuck, don't worry, you won't understand what I mean by that ^^")

Scamp couldn't help the darkness that clouded his features, he was not happy. Patch was no longer his primary problem, Buster was. "You are not fooling yourself. You are better. I can see it." Scamp's strong words rose up as his body did, standing tall and proud. "He is the problem, there isn't anything wrong with you. If anyone needs to pay for what has gone down its him. Not you." Scamp huffed, he was angry, not at her, of course not at her. But it was his job as her half-brother and friend and ex-lover to protect her, and he was going to do that. No matter the cost.

"Where did you see him last Angel?" Scamp asked, eyebrow raised. "I'm going to track him down. Then I'm going to do what I should've done long ago. I'm going to make him pay for all that he has done to you, to us, to everybody." Scamp continued, voice growing with a needed sense of revenge filling his body. He was going to find Buster, and Scamp was going to make him pay. A dark cloud of hate rolled over Scamp as his mood continued to darken, he patiently awaited Angel's response.

She could hardly believe it. In fact, she couldn't believe it. Here, she'd allowed herself to slide back into what she had been, the girl so desperate for affection that even Buster's would suffice, yet instead of berating her or being disgusted with her, as she was sure he rightfully should have, Scamp was...

Angel stared at her paws, fully aware that she didn't deserve any of this compassion from him. Yet here he was, prepared to do everything he could to avenge what she'd lost at Buster's paws. She was terified for him - yet at the same time, didn't think she'd ever appreciated him more. Finally rising, she turned to face him for the first time since he had entered the tent, her single eye shining with unshed tears of gratitude.

"Thanks," she managed, her voice cloudewith emotion as she looked at Scamp, but still not quite meeting his eye. She'd been sure he and everyone else would reject her. She still feared how their sisters or Patch would take the news, but... she still had one friend, and to Angel at that moment, Scamp's devotion to her meant the world.

"It was in the grasslands," she replied to his question when she felt able to speak evenly again. "But that was two nights ago, and I didn't see where he went, after..." she trailed off momentarily. "I think I passed out after we'd... and when I woke up he was gone."