BACK'S AGAINST THE WALL ☆ warm bath

[roan ;]

Many things plagued Roan these days, although he kept most of his worries to himself. In the past, the sage may have turned to his mama, or even his younger siblings, when he was in a time of need. After all, they were family, and he could always trust them. However, as of late, he had begun to feel more cut off from others, retreating more and more into his shell as a result of his job as sage, and the stresses it put him under. He used to have Ahab to turn to, but the other had disappeared as well, leaving the draconic feline, for the most part, alone in his struggles. Even worse, more and more injuries had begun to pop up in the Typhoon, driving him crazy and pushing him further towards some kind of inexplicable breaking point. He was holding on, but he didn't know for how long he could keep it up, and there was no way he was going to risk lashing out at his family again. He knew that he needed to do something, even if he had little idea of what, or how. He didn't want to do anything drastic, as much as his mind seemed to be screaming at him that it was just a great idea. He honestly wasn't sure if that was a result of the ghosts that haunted him, or just the stress that he was under.

So, instead of making a decision that he couldn't undo, Roan had decided to do something that could be much more relaxing, and a lot less worrying. With all of the recent injuries he had been treating – especially Ament's rather unpleasant infected ones – the sage had noticed that his usual neat and clean cream and blue-grey pelt was beginning to get... stained. Stained a rusty red color, with the blood of his patients. The realization had made him wince, forcing him to take a deep breath in through his clenched jaws. He had made some attempts to simply clean himself the usual way, but most of the blood was caked on, and he was hardly in the mood to go and hack up a bunch of hairballs. So, he had decided to take a proper bath. Not only that, but a nice, relaxing, warm bath. The kind that would make him forget about his worries, if only for a little while. The process of putting it together was a bit of a hassle, considering he had to find himself a wooden tub, a pot to put a bunch of water in, and make himself a fire, but he had done it regardless. It would be worth it, if he could actually get some time where he wasn't on edge.

Thankfully, it wasn't too long after he had gotten the fire started that he was done, left with a wooden tub of nice, warm water, just the perfect size for him to bathe in. He waited for it to cool down a bit before he stepped in, letting his relatively small form sink beneath the surface with an audible ah. Once he was practically laying in the water, he set his chin on the edge of the tub, allowing his mind to wander for a bit. He knew that eventually he would actively have to try and scrub the blood off of himself, but for now he just relaxed, eyes half-lidded and content. Of course, he hadn't really been subtle about what he was doing, what with the fire and all, so anyone could've found their way to where he was, relaxing casually near his treehouse home.

[glow=#D15540,1,000]" stay by my side, high or low tide " ♡[/glow]

[Grimm]

[align=center][div style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11px; width: 310px; text-align: justify; line-height:120%"]Beneath the delicate illusion of poorly constructed recollection of a pleasant and joyous time that laid to rest among the dust. Of this she knew, bore the quiet ache of rebuilt memory hastily pressed into the spaces it may find no easy home, yet on carried the want of it. Had she been of a sound mind the lunacy behind such actions may have been found, rose hued the glasses through which her life had been perceived. Or possibly deeper may she had dug, a hole within which frantic haste made a prison all her own.

Possibly it was such, the fond desire for days past within which tentatively claimed their youth, that drew her forth. Upon paths unfamiliar tread she of ivory and rose, low the bent of head as lower lip was worked over. Many the times he had come to her, tended the minor and major that adorned skin within aching memories framed in scar tissue, yet a notion distant her own arrival. Of course she had known of his move, absence noted among even the daily activities of the Roux home, something within her rejected the notion of visiting, however.

"Roan…?" Curiosity cast a gentle lilt to his name as it fell from her tongue, the crackling of low flames allowed to die as he tended to his own comfort drawing her eye. Twisting and dancing those tongues of flame, mesmerising for a time before away did her attention skip, stepping closer as the surroundings broke up into a kaleidoscope of colour. Among them oddity the tub, dark against the lighter tones of backdrop, within the soft cream and grey drawing a fond smile upon her lips.

Closer did Eulia walk though her chosen stop was still a distance that allowed Roan his space, settled for brief moment before the slide of her forelegs finally lowered her belly to touch the ground. "I did not think you could relax, I almost miss the sourpuss." Amusement touched her words and finally a realisation silenced her tongue. He is so small. Indeed, time had done as it may and though he was her senior the difference was all too clear. Dark the cloying want that dug into her throat once more, a time where all seemed well gone and yet sought with dying desperation, a cough briefly clearing her throat.

"Are you…" Brief the lift of paw, waved about as mouth worked over air, lost the words that may impart her meaning. Too much had he gone through, the pulsing ache of her shoulder and that of outstretched forelimbs speaking of only a small part of his work, alone in a manner he should not have been. "Do you need anything." Settled upon the throw away question, the true meaning of it apparent in imploring lilac depths, hopeful the curl of a smile worn against pale countenance, yet to him would she left it. Had he desire to speak of his issues so be it, she may act a shoulder as best she may, but to pry was not within her.

[Luciferr]

JAIME ROUX

"vengeance is just hope with a history"

one of Roan’s current problems wasn’t very far away - he’d noticed Lia wandering and decided to follow after his sister for lack of anything else to do (and that he did want to spend more time with his siblings) unless he wanted to be stuck in his own head worrying about his current scale growth.

He padded up beside Lia, idly bumping into her lightly as a show of greeting - careful not to jab his newly grown scales into her before he nodded to Roan - he’d help too if his big brother needed it, Jaime likes to think he was very good at helping.

tags - penned by LUCIFERR

template by orion

[roan ;]

In most cases, Roan would've been more than a little pissed off by the presence of others while he was trying to relax. Ever the walking contradiction, the sage found having other people around to be both a great joy and a horrible burden, and it seemed to switch rapidly which of those was true at a given moment. Most of the time, it was related to whether or not those around him were his patients. In this case, one of them very much was a patient, and one a former patient. Despite this, they were also both family, and Roan simply didn't have it in him to be aggravated at family. Especially not when it was his younger siblings. Although they had all grown apart as the months had gone on and they had begun growing, Roan didn't consider himself to be any less of a big brother to them. He still felt very protective of both Lu and Jaime, as well as the rest of his siblings. It was sometimes hard to feel too protective of Trygve, considering the other had a tendency to act like the big brother all on his own, but the siamese liked to think he managed. Even when all of his siblings were physically bigger than him, he would always think of them as little ones, at least in his head.

The male chose to address Lu first, considering she was the first to approach him. Roan had been utterly and completely relaxed, his chin resting lazily on the side of the tub, when Eulia's words reached him. At first, he didn't even open his eyes, just giving a little flick of his ears to show that he was listening. A slow bubbling laughter left him as he shifted a little, glad to hear his sister joking around, "Don't worry, I'm sure that the sourpuss will be back when I have to return to my work." After all, he couldn't just relax in his little handmade hot tub forever. He still had Ament to deal with, not to mention any other injuries that popped up in the time between now and when he went to sleep. The thought made him wrinkle his nose slightly, a faint sigh leaving him with a heave of his lungs. Thankfully, Eulia was around to once again distract him, her soft and hesitant words causing him to finally open his blue eyes. Smiling reassuringly – and a bit tiredly – at her, he purred in a soft tone of voice, "...I'm okay, Lu. I've been a little stressed out lately, but I knew what was coming when I became a sage. After all, I wanted to help others, and I'm doing plenty of that, so who am I to complain?" He knew that there was much more to it than just that, but he didn't have the will to deal with that right now, not while he was supposed to be relaxing.

Turning his gaze towards Jaime next, Roan waved his tail in greeting to his younger brother, his eyes lingering briefly on the scales adorning the other's form. He knew that Jaime's nod was meant to tell him that the other was around to help, but the sage couldn't help his curiosity, and worry. So, instead of focusing on himself, he found himself muttering a question to Jaime, head tilted, "...How are you doing? Those scales haven't been bothering you anymore, have they?" It was a bit awkward, asking medicine related questions while he lounged lazily within a warm bath, but it was certainly more relaxing. He felt less like he was drowning in stress, at the very least.

[glow=#D15540,1,000]" stay by my side, high or low tide " ♡[/glow]