Yuletide Glow

[Jiyu Simul Stamus]

Music played behind her, fading as she moved further away through the tunnels following the summons of earlier in the festival. Why in the world was she heeding the call of a healer anyway? Their craft was devious, the most dangerous thing in the world was the same thing they used to 'heal' others. Yet, she had to regard the other female convincing herself it was because of the now visible ridges straining against the skin of her spine and the pain they caused. Jiyu would find any reason she could to excuse what she was feeling towards someone else, deny any sort of bond put off it forming and shatter it early on if she could. What was the use of loving them? Those creatures, every one of these animals lived in a different world than her, she was only going to lose them all over again no matter what she did. All those smiles and laughter, when she was part of it everything hurt so much more when she let them do that thing they did with her. Only, what healers did was even more dangerous, they tried to fix things and she was just lucky none of them had ever poked in her mind before.

It was fanastical but she really did despise this meeting place, with the glowing crystals so light and luminescent it was hard to tell where the land ended! More importantly it made it difficult for her to figure out where the water began. Jiyu slipped into the lakes cavern, keeping close to the edge as she used the middle of her tail to carry the wrapped gift having guessed what this was she could never guess why she had gotten something in return for the insane healer. Who would give someone like her a gift?! She purposefully made herself as nonapproachable as possible, but Rosemary never seemed to see it, in fact the healer seemed to see a few things that disturbed Jiyu and made her wonder how the other female could see them. While she had experiance with aura viewing of others? She never used it in the mirror when it had been active years before, she didn't know her's wasn't as dead as the rest of her just drown.

"Sorry I'm late, I had to make sure everyone was drunk on the eggnog first so no one would notice I slipped out." she was the event orginizer afterall, so it made sense not to leave until everyone was too wasted to realize she had done so. Within that cavern? Everyone was safe, tonight. Everyone it turns out, expect for the vizer herself, but of course when had Jiyu ever been safe she was a constant threat to herself and tonight was no different, heart and mind screaming two different things about the cat in front of her.

[ROSEMARY]

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The medic never asked for help; others came to her with their ailments, and she fixed all their wounds the best she could. But she never asked them for help. Rosemary kept them all at a distance – she cared for everyone in each group she belonged to, but she hated the coldness of her own expression and their reception to her. Even her own family forgot and replaced her. Perhaps Rosemary saw a kindred spirit in Jiyu; how the vizier took on every task, no matter how dangerous, with no complaints.

So she waited, by the lake with her little wrapped box, staring out into the water. She heard the water’s call in every drip-drop from the stalactites; it roared louder than any scream. But it felt wrong, without the salt wind in her eyes. Her forked tail flicked as she started to plan her next outing to the sea –

And Jiyu appeared, dead-eyed and ignoring the pain in her spine Rosemary knew lingered there. And there she went again; selfishly thinking of the easiest to run away to solve her own problems, when someone relied on her. Even if she damn well knew that the vizier would demand Rosemary to leave for the ocean at once, if she knew. Rosemary couldn’t tell Jiyu that, obviously, knowing the older woman’s character.

“It’s no trouble at all, I like looking out across the lake,” Rosemary remarked, nudging her box towards the savannah. She saw traces of Jiyu’s waring mind in the woman’s cloudy aura. The smaller eyes atop her head narrowed, trying to focus in on the flashes. “You’re good at planning social events – and everything else you’ve organized,” she added, ear flicking as a loud cheer came from the direction of the party. Loud and far too many people; Rosemary never managed to stay comfortable in that kind of environment. Yet, it wouldn’t seem right to give Jiyu a gift with so many people around – even without her social anxiety.

“I noticed some of the items you kept around… when I visited your home. I hope I didn’t get anything you won't use,” Rosemary added, finding it somewhat… necessary, to explain her choices for the woman’s presents. Snowman wrapping paper aside, she thought the contents would at least appeal to Jiyu’s tastes.

[ rosemary got soft and oil pastels, as well as a few fresh canvases! ]

[Jiyu Simul Stamus]

Snowmen were something she had never particularly gotten to indulge in before due to how hard she worked. Anything childish she had not done with her kids, well she never did it at all. The packaging was rather adorable, though that war rarely the most important part of a package given to someone, especially this time of year. Mismatched optics gazed at the tiny three circled men wrapping up whatever Rosemary intended to give her. Once more she considered the snowmen along the present and how childish they seemed, but it was something she could appreciate. Someone who appeared cold as she was but so clearly was not, actually knew how to reach out and even in mild ways express how she felt about another person. What was this action saying about Rosemary's feelings? Jiyu wished she was able to decipher things like that sometimes but in the end she never was able to figure out things like this. Anyway, enough time thinking, she could do that later when her nap fell through due to flashbacks.

Pricking the wrapping open with her saber fangs the calico carefully peeled it away with her claws to get a good look at what the ocelot had gotten her. "I can use all of it." her voice was cold but at least she managed to run her paw over the canvas and use that same paw to drag the paints closer. While the canvas was easy to use? She was going to need to kill someone in order to get the blood into the paint, it often did not feel right painting without some form of blood to water her paint. "You can have the plants you saw when you came there." she now realized that such an offer was the best way to finally get rid of those terrifying icky things growing in the garden bed and window boxes of her house. Sleeping had become difficult with the plants decaying because she would never be able to care for them, touching those things was beyond her capabilities, one of the few things she would admit to being unable to do. Even putting this together? Had sent far too many flashbacks through her mind.

"It is beautiful. Though I prefer darker waters to look at." while the two of them were in a dark cave the lake itself was softly illuminated by the crystals. "The moon almost gone, on a cliff above a large tree surrounded lake surrounded by open sky." that would be her biggest fondness in location though she did not admit to liking it bringing it up in the current conversation should have been enough of a hint, since she wouldn't often speak nor bring up something irrelevant. "I watched my siblings do those things, they were better." she was just mimicking what she had seen in the past, what she had read in books and hoping no one realized she had no clue what she was doing.

Jiyu looked over at Rosemary again, pushing forward the small box she had gotten to place her gift in she wrapped her tail around her legs to wait for the other to open it. Within the box? Contained a mason jar which was filled with a forth with sand, some crushed up beetles made something that resembled water, broken plants to substitute coral, and several broken pieces of things like ram horns or equine hoofs resembled shells.