[private] I saw a shooting star late last night

[lilliana]

Leonidas brightens just for @[Agetta].

(Though he is mindful of glowing too bright; he has no intention of blinding the lovely feline basking beneath his light.)

Lilliana casts a quick look at the star before dipping her head in greeting towards the shifter. "And you as well," the Taigan says in return. The etiquette of manners seems far more familiar to her than this melancholy she has been carrying. It's easier to follow along with the protocol of polite conversation. But Lilliana has already shared her darker thoughts - ones she has never voiced out loud - and it feels foolish to go back.

Agetta doesn't know Lilliana. She doesn't know that the chestnut imagines that she should always be hopeful, the smiling face to greet visitors at the Taiga border. She is the one who is supposed to her children and grandchildren at ease. Lilliana sometimes feels trapped into being some kind of figurehead for her home and family; how does she tell them that she feels like she is always spinning? What kind of leader does she make if she doesn't even know what direction she is headed?

She knows that she shouldn't look at the waves with such longing.

The feline shifter doesn't know this about Lilliana, though. Maybe she imagines that Lilliana does this often. Maybe she doesn't consider what she does at all. But the chance encounter between the pair feels rather... relieving. She doesn't have to be anyone other than this version that Agetta had stumbled across. "Well, thank you for being a friendly stranger tonight."

Part of her is tempted to ask what drove Agetta into the water.  But Lilliana has never wanted to pry and she is always cautious when it comes to the personal experiences of others. She glances out to the ocean again before looking towards the spotted cat, flicking an ear in her direction. Her companion is smiling and offering an ear to listen if she wished it. Leonidas draws closer again before hovering behind Lilliana (though he occasionally floats down towards Agetta's spotted tail to admire it, beaming silver-blue with appreciation).

She frowns when glances out to towards the waves again, debating on what (or whatnot) to say.

"I lost my daughter here," she finally decides and shares quietly. A topic as deep and dark as the lonely winter night around them. "I don't know why I came back," she says, feeling a seething rush of anger, and quickly stomps it down on the frozen beach. "It almost seems unfair how much can change and then you come back to a place like this," Lilliana steadies herself, "places like these that never seem to change at all while everything else does."

But such was life. It was rarely fair, especially in their world.

"Can you shift bigger ears?" she dryly jokes to Agetta.