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 Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 11:50 am
The gamma helix was trotting along a well beaten path through the bamboo forest, talking with anyone she found along the way. If she heard a rumor about any sort of danger or important information she would report it back to her alpha in the pack Rising Sun. She always wanted to be a good gamma and serve her Alpha however she could.
She wondered how Joska was doing, his pack lived around here, right? She wasn't sure anymore, she hadn't seen him in a long time now. He ought to have grown into a fine teenager by now. She wondered how he was doing in proving himself to others that he was big and brave. He should certainly be bigger now and after the event with Narcissa maybe, just maybe, he was braver too. She was still proud of him.
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Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 12:23 pm
He was wandering, as always...
Joska was getting a feel for his paws and for being on his own. It was certainly a strange experience and he made a mental note to find Jaden and Lunar to check in on them. Not because he was scared or he missed them, no... It was to make sure everything was alright! To make sure they didn't need his help! Yeah, that was it! Or at least what he told himself, anyways.
He caught a rather oddly familiar scent on the air as he pushed through a stand of bamboo shoots. He knew it... Female... Vaguely familiar...
He couldn't help himself. He stalked slowly and quietly after the scent until a figure came into view. He recognized her blue and green fur in an instant... Sorpresa!
He crouched low and padded quietly in a stealth mode that he was quickly and successfully developing. Silent, slow... And when he was sure he was close enough, he sprang forward.
"SORPRESA!" He practically sang as he landed beside the Gamma.
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Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:38 pm
"Gah!" She fell over in shock and blinked up at the male helix that had scared the wits out of her. She hadn't even heard him! She blinked for a moment, eyeing that very familiar marking on his grey silvery head. It couldn't be...it couldn't! Could it?
"Joska...? Is that you? She asked, climbing to her paws and looking at him closer to make sure she had the right helix here. A sniff brought back his scent, clear as day. "JOSKA!" She butted his shoulder with her head in greeting, tail wagging rapidly. "It's you! It's YOU! I can't believe it but it's you!" She laughed and sat in front of him. "Come, talk to me, we have LOTS to catch up on! You have to tell me everything about your life now. How've you been? What you been up to?" This made her day even brighter! She gave him a look, she had told him he'd be out of the den, and now look! She wasn't surprised to learn that she was right. It had been her last words to him during their last meeting.
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Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:51 pm
The young, gray Helix felt giddy with delight as the Gamma butted his shoulder. His own tail was whipping the air wildly with joy. It had been what felt like forever since he had seen the one who had "stolen" him from his father, all for the sake of the bloody helix they had saved.
He was still a scrawny, runty fellow, but was much larger than he had been since the last time she had seen him. He hated to admit it, but he was still smaller than all of his siblings and that would probably be the way it would always be...
But he had a fighter's spirit, at least he had that going for him.
"Oh, you know. Learning!" He grinned and butted her own shoulder in return. "Left not long ago, to do things on my own!"
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 3:36 am
Sorpresa smiled. "Toughing it by yourself huh? Can't blame you, it's a learning experience all it's own, being alone. I used to be a rogue before I joined my pack. I know how it is." She admitted. "So...what rank you working for?" She asked, she was proud of him no matter what he chose but she still wanted to know what her friend would become.
She would offer advise when she could, she had years worth of experience observing what each rank was responsible for. She wanted to see him reach all of his goals.
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 7:31 am
He couldn't help but to beam with pride as he listened to his old friend speak. His tail had slowed considerably, but there was still a cheery wag to it and his silver eyes practically sparkled with joy.
"You were a rogue? Really? Oh, cool! It's hard, but I like it! I caught my own dinner last night! It was pretty good; a hare with long, floppy ears." He was eager and excited to meet someone familiar. After all, when a chatterbox is left alone, all that chatter seems to boil over later on. He was getting better about it, though. He knew when to stay polite and stoic... But this was Sorpresa! He loved talking to her!
"I'm... I'm gonna be like my father! I want to start my own pack as an Alpha!" So his goals might of been a little high... But he was so sure of himself and his abilities, even if he was just a young adolescent.
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 9:48 am
She smiled proudly, glad that he aimed high in his dreams of the future. He certainly hoped he accomplished his goals. He was like a star just beginning to shine. She thought up all the advice she could muster about the rank. "You need to start meeting a helix of each rank from pup, to alpha, to omega, even a god/goddess. That way you learn about each rank and what each rank does. You need to meet plenty of different helixes so that you gain social skills that will help you to talk with your pack and other packs. You need to know when to try and stop a fight and when confrontation is inevitable. When fights can be stopped you need to use firm tones of voice to show you are in command while still being fair and not too harsh. Fair doesn't mean one helix is happy and the other is not. It means both parties can live with what choice you make in between. Social skills could also help you reason with hostile helixes and possibly diffuse a bad situation.
Leaders must be willing to take the credit when things are good and the blame when they go bad. The helixes under you are not your tools, but your allies who look up to you to help them. You make important decisions that affect their lives. You fight to the death for them if need be. In return they will be loyal to you. You are a team, a pack. Hunt together, play together, fight together. Learn all that you can and become strong." She finished.
"Since your meeting a gamma I'll tell you about my rank. We are respectful and good at following orders. We are given general tasks. Hunt when ordered, fight when ordered, scout when ordered, ect. As an alpha you will be higher in command and many gammas will be looking to you for orders. If they respect you they submit to you like this." She lowered her head, ears, and eyes to the ground, tail low to the ground and partially between the legs. The posture made her seem smaller and less of a threat.
"If their really trusting of you they'll submit like this, especially if they've done something wrong and want to make amends." She rolled onto her back, bared her neck and belly to him, eyes never staring, tail completely between the legs. "The tail can be relaxed and on the ground too if we know your happy with us."
She stood back up and shook herself to shake leaves out of her fur.
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 10:00 am
The usually chatty youngster closed his maw and listened intently. Sorpresa was giving him advice that would be most useful in his future, even if it wasn't exactly applicable just yet. Ever eager, he drank it all in with his ears and eyes. His thirst for knowledge on the topic was insatiable and he wouldn't stop until he was sure he knew all he could to be the best possible leader. He was eager and looking forward to it.
As she said, exposure would be important. Sure, he had a little "mini" pack going on with his family, but that was nothing in comparison to the real mechanics behind a large pack that isn't exactly all blood related.
"Oh, oh... Uh, how do you react to other Gammas, since they ain't above you?" He asked curiously.
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 2:09 pm
"Not all gammas get along per say but no one can really dominate over the other when we're all one rank. That's the alpha's and beta's job. The gamma that tried would be punished with a scruffing and a growl then a forced submission. Gammas treat each other like equals and team players. No one submits to a gamma except pups, teens, and omegas. Teens are usually out of their own so barely even then. Only teens are allowed to fight over dominance within their social order in their quest to gain rank.
"One last thing about alphas, you have to be very protective of your rank. Watch that no one challenges you with defiance and gets away with it or your submitting to them. Someone, somewhere, will challenge you. It could be very outright and clear to see or very subtle and sneaky, a raised head while your not looking, a beta enforcing the rules and issuing commands without your say so. If the pack turns to a different helix for leadership it is hard to get command back."
"The bigger a pack is the harder it is for one Alpha to control, sometimes taking an Alpha female for a mate is very beneficial."
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Posted: Tue Dec 02, 2008 6:19 pm
"Oh, okay. So that's how that works." He mused quietly as he considered what Gammas are to eachother. If that was the case... Then he was pretty sure he understood, now. Oh! There was so much for him to learn!
And he hadn't really even thought about females yet... That would be a whole nother difficult task in an of itself! He would have to find a female that suited him, possibly fight for her to woo her over... Then there would be pups to care for. Just the thought of it was overwhelming for an adolescent who was just barely out of his den.
"Ah... Female... Well, I guess that means I need a mate when I'm older... And not get too many members that I can't keep them in line, huh?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 4:18 am
"That's not the reason you should take a mate. I'm just saying it's helpful to have one when you have a big pack. Definitely make sure you can keep your helixes all in line, too many can create chaos. That's where the tradition began. Where teens go off on their own? It's encouraged not only so you can learn and explore. It also keeps numbers of helixes down within the pack because teens will often start their own packs once they gain rank."
"Don't worry about females, you've got a long way to go before thinking about mates. You need to become an alpha and get a pack first." He didn't need to be courting right now, Joska was just now out on his own.
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Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:22 pm
Girls are gross anyways.
That was Joska's thought as Sorpresa continued to speak. Yup, he was definitely still a young male. Too young to even think about pairing off just yet. That would probably change as he traveled and learned the ways of the Alpha, but until then he was still the young, eager adolescent.
"Oh, okay... I'll definitely remember that!" He scratched at the earth lightly as he watched a small beetle scurry by, but quickly turned his attention back to Sorpresa. If they were already on the topic of mates, he figured he had more to ask.
"So it's okay for Gamma's to mate whenever, or are Alpha's s'posed to limit that or anythin' or what? If the year is bad or somethin?"
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Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:37 am
"That's different for different territories. In the south for example prey is almost always plentiful so you never worry much about starvation however it is good to avoid pupping anytime close to the rainy season since pups can't swim very well when my jungle floods and many would probably drown." She informed.
"Traveling all over the place on scouting missions helped me learn about other territories too. "The west sometimes has long droughts and tough times with food scarcity. However their litters are always huge! They have several pups in hopes that one out of many will survive to adulthood. They don't limit it."
"In the east they are picky about mates, they only want ones that compliment their coloration. Only a few choose love over color harmony. Since their picky about which mate they choose I doubt they need to be stopped from having pups but I'm sure it's probably happened before in the case of prey scarcity. Sometimes it's better to have fewer mouths to feed so that the prey can recover and increase in population again. Keep the adults alive to breed someday when food is plentiful again."
"In the north life is rough and only the strong survive. They don't have as close bonds as others do. They don't help out as much either. Despite having packs it's everyone for themselves. Prey is always hard to find, let alone catch. Their not at all picky about mates. They protect their litters fiercely because pup mortality rates are high. Pups living there may die before they reach a few weeks old. So they choose wisely when to have pups and when not to."
"So I would say it depends on territory and food scarcity weather or not the Alpha limits breeding or not."
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:33 pm
"Oh, okay! That explains alot!" Joska piped up as soon as Sorpresa finished speaking. So the South, pups might drowned in the rainy season... The West and North had food scarcity, but the West is hot and the North is freezing cold.
And the East was filled with pretty helix that mate for color, so there must be some eye catchers out there, not that he was really interested. He had no idea where he wanted to stay just yet, not that he was really pressed to decide right away. He had to learn, first.
"What 'bout Omegas? I haven't even met one before. Can you tell me anything 'bout them?"
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 7:45 pm
Sorpresa shrugged her furry blue shoulders. "Can't say I know much about omegas than the most basic stuff. I don't know many omegas. Their lower in rank than gammas. While gammas are the eyes and teeth of the pack that scout, hunt, and fight when needed omegas are the nurturers. Their not allowed to hunt, some avoid fighting like a plaque and become very afraid in a confrontation. Others are braver. Their jobs are around home base as teachers, pupsitters, midwives, storytellers. They are to be treated with fairness and kindness, their not useless. Sometimes their the wisest one in the entire pack." She acknowledged.
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