#✧ ▌ in character : d'lhen tia.

[crystalmarred]

The melody carries a little, as it is made for only one. The humming that follows, soft underneath a hat that tilts just a bit too much. A smile, true and pure — eyes that lock onto one from afar, though it tries ( to no avail ) to appear elsewhere.

Fingers pause, strings silence, and a chuckle that explodes, sending forth rosy cheeks. "I know you're looking Birdie, you don't have to be shy. I wrote this one for you, you know~"

UNPROMPTED ⇢ @diademreigned

It's a pleasant tune that finds it's way through the air to D'lhen's ears, to make the tip of them twitch in delight at the familiarity of the melody. Though the song was new, the fingers that plucked at the instrument's strings were all too familiar for how many times had they been set upon his heart's strings instead?

From the start, A'aven's talents had been startlingly apparent. Bards were common enough, but it'd be an insult to call this man anything of the sort.

D'lhen had, after all, sought out this spot more than once entirely because of his skill in music. Whatever could be better to settle down with when reading a book besides beautiful music?

Haven had not noticed it, he was sure. Not at first, at least. A man as withdrawn and almost abrasive as D'lhen, t'would be hard for anyone to assume that yes, he had come to this spot in particular to enjoy music played by a man with a sweet smile and a gentle demeanor.

But he had. And he did, even still, though now he had learned to tuck himself away, hidden and unseen to escape golden brown eyes, for Aven had long since learned to tease.

A laugh slipped from his lips, bidden by Haven's words. These days, the sound tasted like Aven's own laughter, sweet a sound as it was.

"And whatever makes you think I'm being shy?"

It's uncharacteristic, how quickly Aven is able to draw a smile from him. Blue eyes squint near the corners of his eyes, giving away how right his Haven is, as he always is.

"I hadn't realized you were..." D'lhen paused, stopped and considered the phrasing of words his heart could not capture, could scarcely comprehend. "It suits you more than it does me, don't you think?"

Sweet, beautiful, just like the man before him and nothing like himself at all. Conventionally attractive, certainly, but the rest...? D'lhen was under no illusions, but it was hard to ignore, difficult to deny when Aven was so graciously offering the song to him like a gift he had not known he wanted...

[crystalmarred]

short starter for @oathofpromises ;;

Disapproval. That is the easiest shade to read in the complicated twist of emotions visible in the crease of D'lhen's brow or his pursed lips. Though conventionally quite attractive, the man before him reeked of a man barely put together and D'lhen was not like his cousin. He was not like D'tykha who would find empathy in the face of whatever tragedy might have given rise to this man's nature.

Blunt was D'lhen's way. Forward with little care if it bothered the people around him. He cared little for sparing people's feelings, lest they were his partner or the baby cousin he'd recently reunited with.

So absolutely no one ought to be surprised that when he approached this too-tall man that he had yet to formally meet and asked, "Are you the one sleeping with my cousin?"

[crystalmarred]

There's the sound of shuffling down the pathway of the Last Stand. The sound of skittering right behind.

The sound of a chair screeching, someone sitting down, and then a nervous clear of the throat.

"D'lhen?" Tykha mumbles, folding his legs under the table before he leans down, plucking something from the ground and holding it up. "What do you think of Marv?"

UNPROMPTED ⇢ @diademreigned

It was an unusual sort of familiarity that he and Tykha shared, despite only recently becoming acquainted in Tykha's eyes. D'lhen had known him at a glance, where D'tykha had been entirely clueless as to D'lhen's very existence. A bittersweet moment, to be sure, but not one he took to heart beyond the relief that he yet lived after all these years of separation.

It came as some small surprise that D'tykha approached him with no hesitation until it came to the clear of his throat after he took the seat across from him.

But when he managed to get the words out, they were... certainly not what he'd expected.

"Marv?"

D'lhen repeated the word—the name, more specifically, of the creature D'tykha now held in his hands.

"He's smaller than most dodos at adulthood," he said, matter-of-factly. "And I would presume he's an adult, since you've had him longer than a few moons."

A pause as he set aside his book and pushed his glasses higher on his nose to take a better look at the creature.

"Most dodos are a great deal larger, so it makes sense he'd be more of a pet."

Dodos were often used for food by a great deal of people and his lacking size certainly made him a poor target lest someone was on the verge of starvation.

"They're sacred animals to our tribe, though, so it's fitting you're caring for one. Why do you ask?"

[crystalmarred]

— massaging their shoulders ( Avelhen )

MEME ⇢ @diademreigned

The afternoon had been, for the most part, the picture of relative normalcy. D'lhen had spent the greater part of the day in the Studium where he'd assisted with studies and theses, as mandated by the occupational contract he was under with the Studium.

It was the sort of thing he enjoyed, even if there were often times that might not seem the case. When he assisted the Studium attendees with their studies, he often learned a great deal about things he otherwise had not been inclined to seek out. It was certainly one way to expand the scope of one's knowledge.

That did not mean it was always pleasant. Sharlayan was the city of scholars and thus prone to all manner of debate and a clash in opinion, even academic ones.

Some days, such as today, left an exhaustion that settled deep in his bones, yet left him so on edge that sleep proved impossible.

Evidently, Aven had noticed as much—or perhaps he had noticed when D'lhen had at last pulled himself from bed when sleep wouldn't take him. He'd stepped out of their shared room and found himself nestled down in a chair with a book, reading by candlelight. His eyes burned with the need to sleep, yet the shake of his leg and tenseness of his shoulders made it apparent no such thing would come to him.

Exhausted, he didn't hear the approach of someone behind him until hands slide onto shoulders. D'lhen jumped, startled by the sudden touch as he jerked his head up—

"Haven," D'lhen breathed out, as a familiar calm washed over him. "Did I wake you?"

Aven was gentle in the way he turned him back t'wards the table he was sat at, the book he had already set down on its surface.

A smile lit his face as Aven's hands started to move against his shoulders.

"Whatever are you doing?"

The words were punctuated by a little laugh as Aven started to massage his shoulders all things. A breath of laughter touched the shell of his ear, made it twitch.

"You're tense, Birdie..."

A hum slipped from his lips, the curl of his lips still apparent as it ever was in A'aven's presence. It was hard not to find happiness in the things that he said, in the way he made obvious his affections. They did not fit together on the surface, but beneath what seemed apparent, they slotted together so perfectly in ever way.

"It's difficult not to be..." he said as a sigh fell from his lips, bidden by the press of fingers against his muscles. "Did you know we had an associate professor of aetherology prone to aether sickness? The man wants to study aether currents. He wanted me to approve his request for a gleaner with a proficiency in fishing."

Which was, admittedly, not that difficult to come by, given the beneficial properties of many fish.

"Just looking at my summon seemed to be enough to make him queasy."