Welcome to Gaia! ::

Normally Dacj attempted to avoid one Sabra Sabina as often as possible when she was actually inside the Cottage—these days, more often than not the kraken was outside trying to savor every moment of the last vestiges of summertime before the fall came and made her outdoor inclinations much more difficult to bear. But today, she couldn't help but feel drawn to That Woman's library. Maybe it was the idea of trying to find a book to help piece together the things her dreams seemed to be trying to tell her...

She did not enter with a knock—if Shimy was in there, she'd just tell Dacj to get out straight off—and so she was completely surprised to find a man within the study, standing stiffly beside one of the bookshelves that lined the walls and perusing a book in his hands with an absorbed look. He was pretty as a Hyte, too, with hair that started a brilliant orange before darkening to a deep red, and further still at the ends to indigo, but otherwise looked human enough. Dacj froze at the sight of the stranger. He had to be someone meant to get in, right?

He didn't seem to notice her entrance either. Dacj coughed. Nothing. Well, it must be a really interesting book he had there...

“Ah, excuse me. Are you a friend of Shimy's...?” she asked cautiously, tentacles wiggling nervously. She'd be out the door in a bolt if he was some sort of random intruder.

It seemed that she had startled him, the way he gave a little start and snapped the book closed. He stared at her openly, and Dacj felt a little self-conscious at the study, so she determindedly stared right back—mostly at his hair, which was definitely the man's best feature. In fact, it kind of reminded her of something...the C*cktails, maybe? East and Sin had hair similar to his, that changed color partway through...

“Ah, yes,” he said finally, sliding the book in his hands back into the shelf with barely a glance at the books—he kept his eyes on Dacj instead. She kept staring back, trying to place why he (or, at least, his hair) seemed so familiar. “You might call Sabra Sabina and I friends.” He smiled, and Dacj felt her heart skip a beat—he was really rather good looking. Too bad he was a friend of Sabra's...

“Waiting for her while she's off elsewhere?” Dacj guessed, the first to look away as she moved towards the shelves on the opposite side of the room, still vaguely wanting that book she'd come in here for. Not that she knew the title of it, but she had an idea of where it was supposed to be... “Too bad she never lets any of the rest of us know where she's off to.”

“Are you...” The man stopped suddenly in the middle of his presumable question, and Dacj looked back over her shoulder, blinking. He didn't seem to quite know how to word it, so Dacj attempted to finish the question.

“Related? Yeah, by adoption,” she said, shrugging. She figured he was probably fixating on her tentacles; most people did when they first met her. “She's the adoptive mother of my adoptive mother.” It hardly seemed to count for anything when she put it so clearly, but Shimy didn't seem to think so. Even if we're not blood related, we're still kin... Dacj did agree on that much. Eli might not be her biological brother, but they were still siblings.

He smiled again, but this time it seemed a little sad. “That's not what I meant,” he said kindly, and it was Dacj's turn again to wonder who this man was and why exactly he was in Shimy's library. “I'm called Twilight. Your name is...?”

“Tsqali'fhtagen Dacj'hai'gotha,” she replied automatically, brow furrowing. Twilight, Twilight...the color red and the name seemed entertwined for some reason.

“Twi!” A girl with hair the color of a sunset, shifting from light to dark, twirled around with a brilliant smile. “If I'm yours, then, she too...?”

He knew her, Dacj realized—or, rather, he'd known the sibyl. He did not seem to notice that her eyes had gone wide, and merely nodded in response to her name. “The wish of this moment,” he said, still smiling. “Oh, Pallawn...”

The name clicked with the kraken too, but she knew the reason this time. 'Athena Pallawn' was the name Shimy'd worn in her last lifetime. So, for Twilight to know her by that name, he must be from that period of time... Wait, why was he on Gaia at all? Was there something involving the Empire happening? Her worry must have shown on her face, for the man was quick to reassure her. “I'm just here to ask permission for something,” he said, with a soft chuckle. “It's the kind of request that needs to be made in person.”

“Oh? Like what kind of request?” Dacj said, deadly curious about the man more than the deed he was here for.

“Borrowing part of her inheritance, as it were,” he answered easily. “I think she will not deny my request, but it's polite to ask first all the same.”

Dacj pursed her lips to make a face; she rather preferred the opposite. Better to beg forgiveness than ask permission, she thought. And speaking of forgiveness-- “You knew me,” she said. It came out more accusatory than she meant for it to. Perhaps it was just the frustration that he might have more answers than she did...and she did not think he would simply explain things, even if he did have the knowledge she needed. Twilight's gaze searched hers, his pleasant expression smoothing into neutral solemnity.

“Yes, I did.”

“Then...why...?” Even Dacj wasn't sure what she was asking. Standing so close and yet so far away from what she had thought she needed to know...

He was silent for a long time. “Like the other, you love too much, I think.”

“Other?” Dacj leaped on the tidbit like she was starving for information--which she was...

“The firstborn,” he said, eyes growing distant as if remembering something. “She gave you a reputation rather difficult to live up to. But we never—I never...”

If there was a firstborn who'd left a difficult reputation... “I had a sister?” Dacj guessed.

“You had a clan,” he said, with another sad smile. Dacj frowned. That didn't answer her question at all--

“M'lord Twilight, what a surprise.” Shimy did not actually sound surprised, and both he and Dacj looked to the woman standing in the door. She tilted her head to one side as she surveyed the two standing in her library, and then smiled that mysterious smile Dacj knew and utterly despised. “I see you've met our resident kraken then,” she said cheerfully.

“I'll be going then,” Dacj said, edging towards the door. As much as she longed to shake down the tall, striking man for more of her past, she didn't want to stay in Shimy's presence for too long. Familiarity only bred contempt, with her... (or was it resentment? Either way...)

“It was nice to meet you, Dacj,” Twilight called after her. She resisted the urge to look back.