there is a voice that does not use words. listen:

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tiny post for @Tiberius ♡ other tags just for reference!

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gone was she from her mists threaded through with late lilac-scent; gone from her wood-violets and their dark green leaves; gone from the little blossoms called innocence, and those such who were near personified in the forms of her three daughters. one might have been of her blood, but the others were just as precious, just as savagely loved. so it pained her, as it always did, when she left them  –  left them in the care of @Astier as she followed the words of the frostclaw to seek out the sprawling, hallowed garden mentioned. left them, for now, and set out into the sharpness of blue morning with the current of the early sun washing over her longing.

it is quiet here.
and it was good.

she is loathe to speak; to break the silent, guarded reverie. so instead the nightingale allows the garden to draw her into its abundant arms, the strange delight of all the flowers of this northern corner filling her nose and mouth and throat as she pushes through fronds, scuffs over pebble and bits of ice.

she would find what she needed here, indeed;
would return to her daughters when it was found.[/narrow]
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^^

Perhaps it was the only fate that he would find common ground on; coming across wolves of ethereal white who looked to be like a dream in a world they did not belong. Decorated in the colour of fresh snow, she did not stand out in an obvious way but in a way that he had to blink once and twice to realise that what he was seeing was not an image from above but a wolf. It was not Reiko, his nose had established that pretty early on. Though she was built like her, that was for sure -- all little and delicate looking, like a strong wind could blow her away like a feather of a dove. Tiberius' tongue stretched out across his lips and rolled over his nose as he wondered if he should turn around and walk away.

Very little time had he spent building bonds because he had been building up the scents, keeping himself worked. He supposed with Reiko he had a good companionship and perhaps even Izumi, on a stretch, but aside from that Tiberius, despite his attempts at socialising had very little success in trying to be... normal. Would it even be wise to strike up conversation with a creature outside of Shiroshika? She wasn't the type he was looking to recruit, that was for sure and she was to be gone in the wind soon after he were to talk, anyway. No friendship to strike here yet he found himself treading forward on thick paws to take himself closer to the woman in white.

He did nothing to hide his approach, not wanting to surprise her from behind by suddenly speaking up. Beneath his paws the snow crunched, the stones moved and Tiberius' fiery depths rolled to the sky once as he told himself that despite how tired he was, he had to maintain an air of attempting to be of normal Shiroshika traits. "Ya lookin' fer anythin' specific, luv?" Tiberius rumbled, supposing that even if he was not worth the effort for friendship, he could at least send a woman some help along the way. ^^

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[narrow width=800]"a good man, for one,"  came quick the airy, absent reply; and though she remained turned from him, bent over the current work she toiled with, one would have to be deaf to miss the smile that hedged her words. the first bundle of myriad plant life and mallow root being set aside, it only crescents further along her mouth as she finally turns to her newest company. looks upon him with an unblushingly merry eye and a raise of dark brows. within him there seemed a thing so held-back, right from the start; so it was without fear and all intrigue that she couldn't help but likewise approach him.  "might you be such a one?"

he seemed it  –  and in her mind, she meant it truly.

not a fool was the nightingale, though she might seem very like one, in instances like these: striding up all bold fascination to a stranger who could, if bloodlust he so chose, very well rent her from sternum to navel. but she stood before him with a laugh for the west wind on mocking, unmalicious lips and stared right into those jacklantern eyes.  "i was looking for bearberry,"  said she liltingly, taking in the dark everything of he,  "but i did not expect to find such a host of so many other things 'ere. this would not be my first time by a glacier, but it is for one that is so ..."  a pause, looking now all around,  "plenty."

what was it, if anything, that he was looking for?[/narrow]

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She was a peculiar thing, he decided, as she offered a quip and continued doing as she had. She was being playful, he noted with a narrowed stare and Tiberius shifted on his paws as he wondered if he had the energy in him to be overly social. "Aye, ya an' many others," Tiberius rumbled, his fiery gaze not leaving her. Just because she was as pretty as a dove did not mean that she was to be underestimated. It seemed that with everything going on, Tiberius held little trust for anyone that he did not know. She turned to him after she finished with her loot, keeping them at her paws as her silver gaze landed upon him.

Despite her literally looking at him, Tiberius felt watched by more than her eyes. He shifted, clenching his jaw as he watched her and he found the similarities to Reiko almost strange but there were stark differences. The pink of her nose, the silver ghostly gaze, the wispy look to her fur. She seemed almost like those fairies he had heard stories about upon his travels, like a woman born of fantasy. Her question through him and Tiberius felt his blood roar to life in his veins and he resisted the urge to look away from her, the question heavy despite her perhaps not understanding the severity.

"Dependin' on who ya ask, m'sure," Tiberius grunted, his lip twitching as he looked to steer from the topic. He had tried, terribly hard to hold back his instincts as to do as Reiko had requested -- diplomacy, first and foremost and his darkness, though clawing at his skin, remained underwraps. It wasn't that he was a beast of cruelty, but it was tiring to keep all of him in check all of the time. The man wanted to do right by Shiroshika but found himself more often than not, exhausted for the ways he acted. For the way he tried so hard but got not far at all.

He took a moment to appraise her once he seemed to turn his brain back on, noting that when she had approached him, she had approached him enough that he could realise just how short she was. A little thing, really, and he found his lip twitching as he made an active effort not to snort. Bearberry, he caught before she halted her words and he couldn't say with any certainty that he knew what the fuck that was. He supposed, though, that judging by the loot he had seen at her paws that she had been on the hunt for plants. He shrugged, "sum things like ta grow in tha cold, luv," he knew that much, at least. "Even thrivin'," he thought back to the laugh that had left her lips and shifted, feeling that it hadn't been at his expense but just something she did.

Tiberius could not help but appraise her, finding that she seemed just so fucking dainty and delicate but knowing that it was the delicate ones that you had to keep an eye on. He had been around women enough to know that they did not need to be big hulking monsters to be capable yet he could not sense the danger from her as he had from others. She did not wish to harm him, poison him with her herbs but instead, she seemed to genuinely want to talk. He felt almost dirty, for being this close to someone so pristine and delicate, tainting the air around her with the likes of him.

"Wha' 'bout ya, darlin', ya thrive in tha cold?" Tiberius drawled, eyeing her as he tipped her head to more of her eye level, not hiding the curious expression that crossed his marred features. Eh, he wasn't one for mind games often but even he could ask in a round about way if she planned to stay in the Tundra. ^^

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[narrow width=800]she'd take him up on his suggestion, surely, if she'd known who to ask. as it was, however ... where was the delight in such a thing, if said discovery wouldn't be left to her own devices? standing before him  –  a great thing of a male he was, as they all seemed to be  –  she feels enormously small, if something like that could ever be felt. what she does not feel, beneath his lamplight study, is soiled. looked upon with the glint of lesser-than disdain that those knotted with old-pink scars  ( that she had once shared in as well, once upon a time )  and made with battleforge bodies often seem to think.

from the likes of him, the lack of it is a thing appreciated; the least she could do in return was to not press further.

she lets him regard her, though; her lips thinning together with poorly-veiled amusement as she bares the tender white of her ever-aching, once-wedded throat that only seemed to draw itself inwards even more. it wasn't often that she preened under the close eye of another; but in this moment he reminds her of the star of her dawn, of her warlord, where blue had become and would always be her warmest color and just as he cannot seem to turn from her, she cannot resist what stirs low within her and draws an errant tremor down her silver spine. all that she should not ever have felt for any but her melitse — darling and yet has since felt, fallen into, and indulged, gorged upon all the same.

"i am kuunhekku — moonglow,"  leaning his way and away, argent eyes searing boreal-bright,  "and the cold thrives within me."

and she had not, as of yet, found one who could again raise her into the stars; where she would herald some name on spent lips so far up to where her gods might hear, and know that she had once again bound the northron of her soul to another who was just as deserving. ... but the fairylight hopes that she never does.

thus far, none could compare.[/narrow]

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