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    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura


    [private]  putting roots in my dreamland
    #1

    Every time Avelina wakes and finds the blinking gold of her firefly friends, she smiles. She is still not used to their constant presence - there is a small part of her that still expects to wake and discover this is a dream, but she doesn’t.

    Summer stretches out before her, filled with sunny days and warm nights. This afternoon, however, is grey and there is a drizzling rain that drives her into the forest for shelter for both herself and her firefly friends. Although they seem to put up with more than most insects, the kind girl does not intend to test their boundaries more than absolutely necessary.

    Besides, there is something pleasant about being in the woods while it rains. She inhales deeply the rich scents and a smile that is never too far away brightens up those soft green eyes.

    She has not yet come to fear the shadows (or anything, really) and does not think anything of wandering deeper - exploring stretches unknown to her with her halo of firefly light keeping her company.


    avelina


    @[isakov] <3 it's short but it counts!!
    Reply
    #2
    throw me in the water, don’t think about the splash i will create
    leave me at the altar, knowing all the things you just escaped

    He believes that it must be fate that pulls them back together.
    Because they had met in the meadow and now here she is in the forest.

    It is the fireflies that catch his golden eye, draw him further into the underbrush. He has always been so intrigued by the things that make their own light. A curse, perhaps. Some kind of defect in the hardwiring of his brain.

    And yet.
    The fireflies draw him back to her and he recognizes her with a sort of breathless wonder, his gaze softening as he remembers. Remembers what she had admitted to him in the meadow, what she had told him about the quiet and her mother’s sadness. And he feels some distant pang in his chest as he studies her.

    They are older now than they had been then, if only just barely. There is enough of a difference that he takes note of it, but does not dwell on it.

    Avelina,” he murmurs, tilting his head a fraction with a slanted smile. He speaks her name as if his tongue had been made to curl around its shape. He reaches out to her then, without hesitation, and gently bumps her shoulder.

    Here I am, ruining your quiet again,” he continues, something vaguely teasing in his tone. “Though you have new friends, I see.” He nods then to the flurry of fireflies that hover around her with that same soft smile.


    isakov



    @[Avelina]
    Reply
    #3

    Although she wasn’t, technically, alone in the shadows (with her fireflies always with her) she is not left to wander for long. Her expression blossoms with excitement when she recognizes who it is approaching her, and her fireflies lift off of her mane and flurry about her in a shifting halo as though they can feel the excitement too.

    “Isakov! It’s so good to see you again.” She says it and means it, means the smile and earnest tone with which her voice forms his name and she touches his star-touched skin with the softest of brushes from her muzzle.

    Like touching the night sky.

    Such fanciful thoughts are utterly brushed aside when he mentions her fireflies and she laughs in her gentle way. She is dazzled by his return into her life. “Aren’t they pretty? I thought they were a dream when they first showed up.” A few of the fireflies venture out far enough to dance around Isakov. They suit him more than they do her, she thinks - as though they are little stars orbiting him.

    “They’re very quiet friends, though. Unlike someone else I know.” For a moment after those words have left her, her expression falters because she’s afraid he won’t see this for the gentle tease that it is - and an embarrassed smile spreads in place of the shimmering one that had been there seconds before.

    avelina


    @[isakov]
    Reply
    #4
    throw me in the water, don’t think about the splash i will create
    leave me at the altar, knowing all the things you just escaped

    He will not always be a soft thing, Isakov.
    The world will eventually sharpen his edges and he will inevitably fall victim to the darkness of his magic.

    But here, in this moment, he is more prone to kindness than to cruelty. The malice that lives inside him is still just a rumor, a thing that sneaks up on him so rarely that he can almost ignore it altogether.

    Here, in this moment, he smiles softly and lets himself be surprised by her delight. (Someday he will not be so surprised, he will come to expect it and it will be a dangerous drug.) Her delight deepens his smile and he exhales an abrupt rush of air, something like a laugh.

    She touches him in return and the soft velvet of her muzzle spurs a tremor down the length of his spine. (Someday he will not be so affected by these things, but he is still good now.)

    Their focus is shifted rather abruptly to the fireflies dancing between them, though, and he follows one with his gold eye as it breaks free from the others and approaches him. He can feel it tangle itself up in his mane and he takes great care not to shake it free for fear that he might injure it. “Are you telling me they’re not a dream?” he asks, returning his gaze to her face with another slanted smile.

    And he laughs at her teasing, a genuine sound that springs up out of his throat before he has a chance to stop it. He shakes his head subtly, still mindful of the buzzing firefly in his mane. “I can see why you would prefer their company,” he murmurs.

    isakov



    @[Avelina]
    Reply
    #5

    Avelina feels a small flicker of worry in the pit of her stomach for the firefly that settles into Isakov’s mane but it’s not hard to see the care with which her friend moves and a few other golden lights settle nearby the one tangled. She’s not worried about what Isakov might do to the new friend he has made - just that it may never emerge again. But, perhaps, that would not be such a terrible thing. It did suit him, those lights in his mane, after all - just as she suspected. She’s not sure if his question is rhetorical or not but she answers anyway in her sweet voice. “If they are, it’s a good dream I do not want to wake from.”

    He laughs at her teasing and it eases her concern over whether she had been too unkind. The sound of his laughter sends warmth through her and the fireflies around her head dance a little more excitedly in response to this sweet flush.

    “I never said I preferred them.” She responds in a soft voice, though her eyes sparkle and her smile brightens once more. She ducks her head slightly, just for an instant, but it’s not long before her spring-green eyes are on him again.

    Why would she ever miss out on a second of looking at him?

    “What have you been up to since I last saw you? Any adventures?”


    avelina


    @[isakov]
    Reply
    #6
    throw me in the water, don’t think about the splash i will create
    leave me at the altar, knowing all the things you just escaped

    He has so little experience with dreams he would not want to wake from, but he can see how this would be one. They are like stars pulled from the sky to blink gently amongst them and he cannot help but feel a little rush of pride when several more settle into his mane. As if they have chosen him as something worthy.

    And these are quiet, innocent, soft moments. These are things he will remember when he is older and there is no room left for moments like these. Life will turn him into something he does not want to be and he will have no choice but to let it. But for right now, he is happy and glad to be with a friend who laughs so sweetly.

    He studies her briefly when she says she doesn’t prefer them and, had he been serious, this would have been enough to send his heart skittering wildly. But he had only been teasing, it had only been a joke, so he merely smiles and nods. It is a compliment, he knows, and it still means something to him despite his heart’s lack of reaction.

    He cannot tell her what he has been up to, he understands that. He cannot tell her what he has discovered about himself. Nothing good will come from it and he makes no effort to show her either. Instead, he reaches out to bump her shoulder gently, still wearing that smile. “There have been a few adventures, sure, but I’d rather hear about yours.

    isakov



    @[Avelina]
    Reply
    #7

    A little laugh escapes Avelina, but whether it’s nerves because of the bump on her shoulder or the idea of her having any adventures, she cannot say. Either way, the warm flush she experiences is pleasant. And she feels perfectly happy and relaxed in the company of one of her dearest friends.

    “My adventures! Oh, I’m not brave enough for those. My life would make a very boring story to someone like you, I think.” And she does not say this with any sort of self-depreciation nor is there even a hint that this might bother her. It doesn’t. Avelina never had to make peace with the fact that she was destined for a quiet life because she never had qualms with that. But she was, at her roots, a quiet girl - and Isakov, beautiful as he is - crafted from the very stars and galaxies themselves - was surely destined for far greater things than she’d ever be.

    Though, maybe, she wouldn’t mind having a little bit to say, just to be able to entertain Isakov with more than how she had discovered the fireflies would dance along with her singing.

    She searches her mind for something even remotely interesting while her eyes continue to shine, and then finally she has it. “I’ve been practicing my shapeshifting, though! Getting pretty good at it... though the last time I showed it off I got into a bit of trouble.” Avelina can still feel the terror of having Skandar's teeth close around the delicate neck of the swan she had been displaying. A shadow falls across her smile just for a moment but she recovers quickly, soft green eyes bright once more.

    avelina


    @[isakov]
    Reply
    #8
    throw me in the water, don’t think about the splash i will create
    leave me at the altar, knowing all the things you just escaped

    Someone like him.
    He wonders what she means by that, if she has deduced something about him that he had not meant to show her. There is nothing all that interesting about him, he doesn’t think. Nothing about him that makes him any more prone to adventures than anyone else.

    Perhaps she is just being kind.
    Letting them both believe he’s something that he’s not.

    The only reason his life is not boring is because of some encroaching darkness he has had to learn how to try and control. It makes him uneasy and he hopes his discomfort doesn’t show on his face lest she think that she is somehow responsible for it.

    I don’t think I’m that interesting,” he murmurs with a strained, self-conscious smile.

    But every ounce of his discomfort dissolves as she mentions her shapeshifting. His expression brightens and he lifts his head, golden eyes ablaze as he studies her. Had he known that she could shapeshift? He tries to dig back in his memories but finds himself distracted by the thought that something bad might have happened to her.

    He reaches out to tentatively bump her shoulder again, still grinning gently.

    Can I see?” he asks, “will you show me your favorite shape?

    It makes him nervous to ask it. Like it’s some sort of test. Like he’s worried that she won’t trust him enough to show him. That maybe she thinks she’ll run into trouble with him, too.

    isakov



    @[Avelina]
    Reply
    #9

    She disagrees with his murmured statement but does not verbally argue the point. There’s something about her gentle smile that would say it enough, maybe, though she wishes she had the words to explain to Isakov how he dazzled her so easily. Perhaps then she could make him believe it too.

    Avelina is nervous to share her shifting but it is also very easy to convince herself that Isakov is not the same as the last galaxy-decorated boy she had shown it to. Isakov would never hurt her. He was one of her first friends and there is a gentle love in her heart for him, for the way he had come into her quiet life and disrupted it in the best way.

    She feels encouraged by his gentle touch and she would never risk hurting his feelings by refusing. So she swallows her fears and smiles brightly, doing her best not to let any of her fear show though her words are quiet “Of course.”

    Avelina steps back, something of an apology in her gaze when she does - she doesn’t particularly want more distance between them but it seems prudent. She forgets why the shape of the black swan had been forefront in her mind and in a swift movement, she changes into one - her white-tipped wings spread wide before she folds them against her side. Her soft green eyes remain the same as ever, though, and they watch Isakov carefully now for his reaction as her nerves flutter through her.

    “What do you think? I'm not sure it really suits me but... maybe a little more than the panther I sometimes use to climb trees.” She laughs a little, though it's a nervous sound.

    So effectively soothed by her faith in her friend, she’s also forgotten that her scars are most obvious in this form. Where Skandar had bitten this slender neck is obvious - no longer covered by a mane as they form a gap in the black feathers.

    avelina


    @[isakov]
    Reply
    #10
    throw me in the water, don’t think about the splash i will create
    leave me at the altar, knowing all the things you just escaped

    It is seamless, spectacular. He has never seen anything like it.
    And, although she had wedged some space between them, he cannot help but take a few steps backward in surprise, his gold eyes wide with wonder.

    Could he have guessed at how wonderful it would be?
    He had adored his dear friend before this, certainly, but he can physically feel his adoration for her deepen as he takes a cautious step toward her in this new form. As if he is not certain that she will be the same Avelina, though the eyes are still the same pale green. Though she laughs and it is still the same sweet sound, she speaks and it still sounds like poetry.

    He tilts his star-strewn head and smiles something lopsided as he tentatively reaches for her, touches her fine head so gently that he barely touches her at all. Exhales the softest breath he can manage before he draws away again, afraid that he might harm her. He has so little experience with birds and the long, sleek neck looks so fragile.

    I think it suits you perfectly,” he murmurs, smiling still. It is a beautiful creature, though he doesn’t know if he’s allowed to say this. (Strange, he thinks, that he should wonder these things.)

    It is then that he notices the evidence of the trouble she’d encountered and his brow immediately darkens. His pulse quickens and his nostrils flare. He reaches for her again but does not touch her, stops himself short and swallows thickly. “Who hurt you?” he asks, uncertain what he’ll do with the information should she feel comfortable enough to provide it.

    isakov



    @[Avelina]
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