[color=silver] [center][color=white][sub]___________________________________________________________________________________________[/sub][/color][/center] [sub][h1][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/MTNbUrP.png[/img][/center][center][color=black][b]A K A I A[/b][/color][/center][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5333243][center][color=bca346][b]A K A I A [/b][/color][/center][/url][/h1][/sub] [center][sub]The Crow's Next · Morning · Mentions [@DreamingFlowers][/sub] [color=white][sub]___________________________________________________________________________________________[/sub][/color][/center] Love. Longing. Gratitude. Hopelessness. Happiness. It was becoming harder to tell if the thoughts and feelings in her head were actually her own. Emotions crowded her limited headspace, fighting each other for attention and bubbling to the surface like the air being pushed from her lips. Meanwhile, even submerged in the heated water nearly up to her nose, Akaia could still feel a lingering warmth pounding her cheeks. Residual embarrassment from having Poppy peel away the curtain when Akaia was mid-strip. She hadn't always been like this either. At a time she could still think back on, she wouldn't have cared if she had been caught naked, here or in the wild, but her time with the group changed her. Nothing was more evident of that than the very bath she was in. Where once she would have had to wash in a river or lake, constantly on alert for the inevitable who or what might happen upon her, now she sat complacent but safe in a basin, watching bits of lemon peel float lazy circles around her. This was her normal now. Water that smelled nice. Water that [i]felt[/i] nice. Clean clothes waiting nearby and food in her belly. A family. She started drawing them in the mist around her, pondering perfectly memorized features and matching each face with their name. Some of the group she barely knew but for those with whom she'd spent much of her life, they elicited a specific emotion or word. Erik was 'bright'. Lysa was 'smart'. Ajax was 'safety'. Cerise was 'love'. And then there was Poppy... Poppy was an image. A fuzzy picture of fields she couldn't place and faces she couldn't name and feelings that- [center][i][color=lightcoral]...Wash your hair...[/color][/i][/center] Akaia nodded at the stern phantasm. Expelled air became violent bubbles on the surface of the water as she exhaled, took another deep breath through her nose and dunked her head. [center][color=white][sub]___________________________________________________________________________________________[/sub][/color][/center] A Sidhe found herself in the strategy room ahead of the group on notice from Licorice. The crow had kept a close watch on final preparations while she had been getting herself ready and overheard Erik's mention of a plan to meet before their departure. Now, freshly bathed, fed and somewhat recouped, Akaia felt as ready to go as she possibly could considering her recent travels. She'd even changed from her usual attire, thanks in large part to the luck of Poppy picking out exactly what Akaia had intended to wear. The well-worn wrappings and loose outer fittings had been replaced with something a little more fit to her figure while still remaining flexible and somewhat breathable. Dark jean pants traveled down the length of her leg and fed into a pair of cognac leather high-top boots. She had on a plain off-white shirt worn under a tan poncho with a hood that could be pulled over her head not unlike her shawl before. Black leather gloves kept her hands and fingers protected and provided her a firm grip on anything she intended to climb while her mask hung loosely around her neck. On her person was her satchel, four small cylindrical objects strapped to the outside of her thigh, and a network of tubing threaded easily through the layers of her wear that fed from the mask to the two tanks on her back. Perched happily on her shoulder was her crow. Beady red eyes stared at the map on the table alongside it's master and every now and again it would cluck something at her to which she would nod a reply. [color=bca346]"Mistle...P-...P-...pro-vision-all..."[/color] The grip around her staff tightened. [color=bca346]"...[color=DE3163]Government[/color]."[/color] [/color]