take the path less traveled

[ninazu]

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© lexasperated

I WISH YOU COULD SEE THE WICKED TRUTH
CAUGHT UP IN A RUSH, IT'S KILLING YOU

Ninazu, quite bluntly, thought their blind member needed a bit of help getting to a position where she could properly contribute to the group. They depended on the cycle of violence to maintain their slave trade and obtain resources; as formerly stuck in a damn sand cat body, the erudite knew a thing or two about feeling useless. And, as someone always on the prowl for another healer to take over her erudite duties (especially now that she preferred to focus on her marauder obligations), she remembered Rhiannon's interest in healing. She'd gathered up a few interesting books on medicinal healing written in braille (which had been a fuckton of work to find), and dragged the bag full of them through the camp.

"Rhiannon!" she called out, dropping her bag and looking around. The lioness followed the woman's scent trail here, so she assumed the snow leopard wasn't too far, wherever the hell she was anyway.

[member=3077]RHIANNON[/member]
[ excuse the slightly lazy style lol ]

WRITTEN BY AXIOM * TAGS

© LEXASPERATED

[RHIANNON]

―――― The call for her name was something Rhiannon was now quite used to. Though, she at least had to say she was somewhat glad it was now used in more kindly forms than prior, but the sound of it still made her jolt slightly and disrupt whatever tasks she might have been doing. Did she need help to get into a position where she could contribute? It wasn't that she necessarily needed help, however, it seemed realisitic to assume that it would be much faster to put herself in a position where she would not fall back into being a slave if she had friends and- as much as she would call them 'allies'- on her side. While she did truly have some interest in healing, her knowledge had always been more self-defense based- after all, she had killed her captor, her Master, in order to be free of slavery. Still, she had made no effort to cover her trail, and at the sound of Nina's voice, the snow leopard was quick to turn her path from her leisurely stroll and retrace her steps back towards the woman. "Yes Ma'am?" the answer came promptly, respectfully as she hurried the last few paces, the sand softly shifting beneath her paws as she came to a stop before the woman, doing her best to maintain 'eye contact' in a further show of politeness, even if milky irises were all that would greet Nina's eyes.

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[ninazu]

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© lexasperated

I WISH YOU COULD SEE THE WICKED TRUTH
CAUGHT UP IN A RUSH, IT'S KILLING YOU

As the snow leopard walked over to her, looking at her with those empty white eyes, the lioness’s nose scrunched. The ex-slave faced her the same way when they first met, and while Ninazu felt flattered at the effort – for it seemed the smaller feline put more effort into that with her than with Stryker – it felt more odd than anything else. Social niceties and propriety, after all, mattered very little to the lioness anyway. “You don’t need to fix your gaze on me if you’d rather not. You’ve got the precision to know exactly where my face is without sight – someday it might be useful to defend yourself against someone pretending to be your friend, and it’ll be easier the more your opponent underestimates you.” The lioness hadn’t always been in this large feline body; for most of her life, she lived as a serval and shortly as a sand cat. All of that experience being tiny taught her that battles came much easier when she allowed other people to underestimate her power.

With a sigh, Ninazu pushed the bag close to the snow leopard. The zipper, open wide as a yawning mouth, overflowed with the books. It wouldn’t take much effort to figure out the contents. “Anyway, you mentioned interest in learning to heal, correct? I found these books for you – yes, you can read them, they’re in Braille. Even if you can’t read that now, you should learn. If you want to heal, you’ll need to constantly research knowledge and relearn skills to keep people alive,” Ninazu said, getting to the point rather quickly. She respected anyone that could kill in defense of their freedom, and she’d hate to see the younger woman fail after such a feat.

WRITTEN BY AXIOM * TAGS

© LEXASPERATED

[RHIANNON]

―――― While Rhiannon could not see the scrunch of the woman's nose, the words that followed said enough about what her expression might have shown. Surely, Rhiannon had shown a great deal of respect to the few that surrounded her during her time as a slave, and perhaps it was true that Rhiannon, inadvertantly or not, put more effort into her encounters with Nina, however infrequently they met. The woman was undoubtedly strong, in both mind and body, and there was something about her demeanor that Rhiannon found easy to respect. It wasn't like Stryker, whom for a slave earned respect only because he had the most power and ability to harm you, but it was a choice. A minor choice, to be more genuine to the woman, to not shower compliments and praise because she felt obligated, because she felt something there was to be earned from it, rather because Nina had shown Rhia no reason to not grace her with the minor respects of meeting her eyes or addressing her properly.

"Would you rather I not?" the answer came smoothly, in a silky tone as a light smile touched her lips as she continued on. She did not need to be told the merits of allowing people to think she was meek and innocent, but her words were not to be dismissed, or unheeded, even if the fact had already been considered herself. "Yes, ma'am, but I see no reason to create any... false pretenses with you. You have always been more kindly than many towards me," she answered simply, exhaling slowly for a moment. Rhiannon spent much of her life under some sort of pretense; whether it was kissing up to a leader, pretending she was more incapable than she was, or trying to manipulate herself into an image for others to grasp onto, it was nice to have the rare- very, very rare- moments where her real self could show through.

The shift of something against the ground made the woman's ears flicker softly as she turned her head downwards and gently drew a paw forward to investigate what had been pushed in front of her, nodding slowly at the words that accompanied it as her paw found the open mouth of the bag and pulled out one of the books, gently flipping over the cover as she ran her paw over the braille letters. It was a sweet gesture, though Rhiannon had to only assume that Nina had only gone through the trouble of finding braille-lettered books only so that she did not have to read aloud and teach her relentlessly. While Rhia was admittedly a little rusty with her Braille reading, given she hadn't done so in many, many months, she had faith she'd catch back up in no time. "Thank you, Ninazu. They are very appreciated. You may be assured that I will study them diligently and figure out what I might from them. Though, when it comes to descriptions, I may need your assistance with more physical- tangible- examples," she continued on in a soft, sweet murmur as she carefully closed the cover of the book and neatly tucked it back into the bag for now with all the others. There were many, that much Rhia could tell from the slight brush of her paw against the spines of them, all the knowledge that she would now have to retain within her head.

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[ninazu]

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© lexasperated

I WISH YOU COULD SEE THE WICKED TRUTH
CAUGHT UP IN A RUSH, IT'S KILLING YOU

Surprised, the erudite paused – flicking her fire-tipped tail, she nearly fell to the temptation to laugh. Nobody ever accused her of kindness before; how strange that a former slave gave her that complement. But she knew the irony would be lost on the blind woman, so Ninazu stifled the urge; she hated explaining herself to others, especially when it came to her macabre humor. “I would rather you act genuine with me. Kissing up works on people like Stryker, but I prefer to surround myself with those that don’t sugarcoat their feelings.” Honesty came easily to Ninazu, if only because she disliked the chore of maintaining lies. Besides, she saw intelligence in Rhia when they met – she wanted to either validate or throw out her hypothesis as soon as possible, to prevent wasting time.

And Ninazu saw something else in the snow leopard. A mirror image of her younger self, struggling to find a way to fit in with violent groups back when she lacked the advantage of a large body or useful powers. Healing gave her that opportunity, to rise the ranks with nothing but her knowledge as her asset. Most people lacked the drive and intelligence to do the same – especially if they were gifted in the field of battle, at least in the sort of groups that drew Ninazu in. The lioness had to wonder whether Rhiannon would turn out like that – and, if so, she was willing to help the snow leopard get there to further Ninazu’s own goals.

“You’re welcome – and I’ll help you with the physical examples the best I can, as well. If you’d like, we could visit a few spots in the territory for herb hunting or go back to my laboratory. I’ve got some free time now,” Ninazu suggested with a sort of shrug, her tone offhanded. The lioness wanted to help, but she wasn’t willing to make an intense commitment to tutoring the other woman; mostly because she still wasn’t sure if she correctly assessed Rhiannon’s intelligence and because of the time requirements of her own duties. And she hated doing any job half-assed or promising more than she could deliver.

WRITTEN BY AXIOM * TAGS

© LEXASPERATED

[RHIANNON]

―――― Perhaps the accusation of kindness was far-fetched in a place like the Pitt. Perhaps it was not so much kindness, but respect as an individual. In Nina's eyes, she was not just another slave. She was Rhiannon, a woman who was once a slave, who has some deeper potential, who has something about her that is more than the position that she had been forced into when she had unwillingly joined the Pitt. Yet, the woman's words brought a smile to Rhia's lips, a sharp exhale of a laugh sounding as she nods, "How easy it can be," she relented, gently, casually- they, afterall, had now somehow agreed to be brutally honest with one another - "to praise another, yet in the eyes of everyone else, it is so blatant what is trying to be accomplished..." The real challenge, one that Rhiannon had sought to master, and had much experience in, was creating an image, false or real, that both parties believed. Yet, that would not be something that she would disclose to Nina- allowing her to believe that her manipulation was only upon the surface. Yet, she had lived this long, as it was for no small reason. "You will hear nothing but the truth from me," the promise came regardless, yet promises were always so paper thin. "If it comes to me ever lying to you, then you may do whatever you see fit in retribution," she added casually, her honey-sweet voice singing into the air as she smiled gently.

In the next moment, she softly exhaled as she lifted a paw to rub at one of her milky-white eyes, straightening her posture absent-mindedly as she zipped the bag of books up with care, finding the strap with the edge of her paw as she slung it over her back for now. Was Rhiannon struggling to find her place? She had grown used to the violence and her disadavantages with her blindness; she struggled tofit in the in the sense that she had not, up until this point, even been considered as an individual of the Pitt. Her freedom had been won by no small act, and it was that act that she now had to cement, to prove that she did belong. She was intelligent, sure. Perhaps healing would not be her ticket into her solidified rank, but Rhiannon knew it was presently her best shot. Plus, it wasn't as if she had no experience with herbs, though the healing sort were less familiar to her.

The lack of commitement, too, Rhiannon could understand, dipping her head at the given offer for a moment. If Rhiannon was going to be serious about this- and she had every intent to, she had little reason to refuse. She rose to her paws gently after a moment, nodding again to show her agreement, "It would be appreciated, ma'am. It would be more beneficial to learn if I could see what herbs it was I was reading about. And, of course, to hear your perspective. I'll follow your lead."

//rushed sorryyy

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