Stop Standing There [Tovah/Morgon/Open]

[Haley]

She felt as if she were preparing for a war.

Slick with sweat, Haley came to a stand still, her chest heaving beneath her black leotard and leather armor ensemble. Her mouth hung open, each desperate breath crystallizing the air before her and hazing her vision. In an effort to compose herself, the woman drew her body into an erect position, sucking in air deeply through her nostrils and releasing it slowly between her lips. It helped ease her lungs, though they still gasped for air, forcing Haley to once again revert to breathing in and out of her mouth. She raised a hand to push back the few strands of blonde and pink hair that had wafted loose from her severe ponytail, scraping sweat from her brow in the process. Already the salty liquid was beginning to freeze, pricking her skin and sending shivers down her spine.

Haley took a moment to shake out her limbs; the weakness perpetrated by the insane workout she had just put herself through was invited, but always left Haley feeling vulnerable despite the sanctity of her surroundings. Though she had purposely set out to exhaust herself, the Nimbus distinctly hated any form of weakness, so she was glad that none of her enemies were around to witness her slightly stumble as she made her way over to the thick wool blanket tossed over a nearby concrete bench. Akuji, who had been keeping the item warm with his own body, removed himself from it as Haley grabbed the item and wrapped herself in it completely. Relief flooded her flushed face. Haley dropped down onto the bench, the blanket clutched tightly around her small frame, and Akuji invited himself up beside her, leaning against her to help ease the tremors that ran through her body. While the cold was never normally a problem for Haley, the frigid air combined with sweat-soaked clothing and exhausted muscles thoroughly chilled her. She would return to normal soon, but until then, the woman was grateful for Akuji’s warmth.

It was a quiet morning on the isle, with only the sounds of nature reaching Haley’s well-trained ears. It wasn’t unusual – the island was rather big and the few inhabitants it housed were also obligated to attend to their own home courts. While Haley never went out of her way to avoid anyone on the island, the days in which she actually held a conversation with someone were surprisingly few. The little Nimbus didn’t mind this – she was a solitary creature by nature, often choosing the companionship of both Akuji and Nanrina over her peers.

The peace that the isle had brought Haley did nothing to ease the anxiety that riddled her frame. She still rarely slept, the dark circles under her eyes camouflaged with a bit of glamour. Her workouts and training had intensified a hundred fold, the little Nimbus often working herself beyond her threshold of exhaustion. And the time she allotted for recuperating was spent in research of the Drow. While these habits had been originally spawned out of desire to protect her new charge, Haley soon realized that there was a deeper, subconscious meaning to her actions - she was preparing for war. Whether or not this war would come was unclear to her, but Haley couldn’t help but feel that something was amiss, something was coming, a force that the faerie themselves would be incapable of dealing with. Mortality.

The sound of footsteps broke Haley from her thoughts. The woman made no move to view whoever approached her from behind. The weight of the steps paired with Akuji’s casual glare meant that the person was, at the very least, not considered a threat. One hand extracted itself from the warmth of the blanket so that it could shift the wool item from the rest of the marble bench, exposing room for the fae to sit – a silent invitation.


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[ooc: I really hate this post, but I'm struggling to write for some reason this morning, and I promised you a thread -.-]

[Tovah]

Haley was a force of nature. It was not the first time Tovah had thought so, perched here on the sill of an ancient window, her feathers inflated to stave off the cold – Nightingales weren’t much for Winter. She had alighted here in the final moments of her mentor’s practice, unwilling to disturb the Archon’s trance-like movements, to tread the imagined battleground. Would her friend decapitate her in one practiced slash, imagining a Drow in her place? Tovah did look like a Drow, a little...though not as much as her mother. Ironic, that the hunters would so resemble the hunted. Nevermind that everyone was eternally uncertain which was which.

A sweet trill left her wooden lips, condensed like opium smoke, echoed and grew quiet. It pleased her to be a part of nature herself, indistinguishable from any other obstinate bird cheering the winter world with song. Sometimes seeing Akuji made her wonder if a companion wouldn’t be better, but then she would recall the blissful feeling of flight, or the ease with which she could disappear in a wood, and feel grateful. A Nightingale would not have been able to defend her. And there had been many times when she had needed defending.

Tovah dropped from the sill like a stone, silently exploding into a much larger creature as soon as her feet struck snow. Her customary cloak of mottled, silvery fur enveloped her, looking colorless against the striking heat of her skin and hair. The curly, cropped style shone violet and bronze in this sharp light. She approached the bench, footsteps crunching, and flashed a brilliant smile at Akuji’s automatic scowl. Her smile transformed a face troubled constantly by sadness; on the Isle of the Eloquent, she was barely recognizable as the same faerie that haunted the Unseelie halls like the ghost of shame. Haley shifted without looking at her, and Tovah hopped up onto the bench like a bird, perching with her legs folded beneath her. She gave her sweaty friend a stern looking-over.

“I am very glad my sense of smell is frozen,’ she remarked grimly, then smiled, quite unable to feign disdain for long. Her hands found her wineskin beneath her cloak. She extended it toward the Archon, in offering. “I was practicing yesterday. I shot a target, right in the center. But only because I was pissed off.”

Ugh it's so short. I'm sorry.

[Haley]

There was only one faerie that Akuji did not greet with a threatening growl - and that was Tovah. Although he regarded her with the same customary scowl he gave every faerie that occupied Alanor, his lips did not upturn, nor did his ears flatten against his head. Haley’s complete and utter acceptance of Tovah had trickled down to Akuji; if his mistress trusted this girl beyond all others, he would follow suit. The absence of his growl was enough to solidify Tovah’s presence in Haley’s mind before the girl perched herself upon the bench. Haley’s statuesque façade momentarily crumbled in favor of a brief smile – a genuine look she offered few. Her head rotated so that her blue and green swirled hazel eyes could take Tovah’s jolly appearance; a sight more definitely welcomed amidst the fog and snow of Alanor’s winter.

”Really now?” Haley chuckled lightly and ran a hand across her forehead to once again sweep away loose strands of hair. By now the sweat beading the skin exposed to the elements had dried sufficiently, but the rest of her clothed body was not fairing as well. She would definitely need a change of clothing, but Tovah’s appearance kept her firmly rooted to the bench. Haley slipped her petite hands from beneath the blanket to accept the wineskin offered her, dipping her head lightly, ”Thanks.” She unscrewed the cap and took two generous gulps as Tovah related her tale. One hand wiped her lips rather roughly as the other held the item back out to Tovah, ”That’s great.” The praise was elevated by the genuine enthusiasm veiled beneath her words. In normal circumstances, it would have taken much more than a bullseye to prompt praise from the cold-blooded Nimbus. However, she thought of Tovah like a sister, and Haley was aware of just how dedicated the young Unseelie was to her studies.

As warmth finally settled into her frame, Haley allowed the blanket to partially droop around her body. Her bracer clad arms sought fresh air, one reaching to wrap around Akuji and draw him closer to her. The dog objected very little, nibbling briefly at her shoulder as she shifted him from his otherwise comfortable position. The other hand reached to draw out the ponytail her long blonde hair was confined to, allowing it to cascade down across her shoulders, a single kink where the ponytail holder once was the only upset. For a moment it appeared as if Haley intended to bypass the rest of Tovah’s words, her eyes now turned outwards across the terrain. She was silent, her breathing gradually growing shallower until it once again reached its original speed. Only then did she speak, ”Explain.” It wasn’t entirely rare for Tovah to be angry, but Haley was curious as to what had triggered the mood.

[Tovah]

Tovah resisted the urge to pet Akuji, as Haley took her draught. The scowl he gave her was as close to love as he would ever get to anyone other than her mentor, she knew, and even Haley’s relationship with him seemed to waver between compassion and cruelty. Maybe if she just gave him a little scratch behind the ears...but surely that would result in the loss of fingers. She continued to smile at him, instead.

“I was practicing in the woods, and this Sidhe appeared out of nowhere. It wasn’t really a good reason to be angry – he turned out to be different than I expected – but it just grated me that I can bet on one turning up when I don’t want company.” Her smile faded. She cradled the wineskin, feeling its weight shift back and forth between her hands. It was almost warm, from being protected in her cloak. “He thinks I should try for the throne. I’m still not sure why...he didn’t know me at all before we spoke. How can anyone throw in their support for people they don’t know? It was the same with Cel, and look how that turned out.” She took a sip of the wine, turned to search Haley’s face for a reaction. “I don’t know what to think when perfect strangers tell me I should be their Queen. I am afraid to agree with them. To agree seems so egotistical. But everyone that’s after it wants it for themselves, and I can’t agree with that, either.” She returned the wineskin to her cloak with a huff. This was a train of thought she frequented, and it always made her frustrated. Every solution presented a catch twenty-two. Her fingers worried the lip of her boot, pulling a loose thread out of its stitching. When she had finally worked it free, she rose suddenly to her feet and stepped into the hard-packed snow of Haley’s sparring ground. The surface was slick and glossy.

“You’ve never told me about Annette. Is she a good Queen? Whenever I study, it seems the Fae are plagued by their monarchs. All those wars...”

She twisted her heel and began a controlled, slow spin on the ice, her arms held out like wings. A shine of ice melt marked her path – a mirrored circle carved by the light friction of her boots. She extended her leg and twirled slowly to her left, then stopped. The world around them was perfect silence.

omg that was effing terrible. I am sorry.