Hushed Willows oh lord, how it gets me down

set during the yule... for @Ibis and @Okeanos, if you both have time (: just while terance is in town.

the yule was a wonderful time to catch up with wolves that terance hadn't seen in a while -- olive, delight, valette... just to name a few. and, of course, seabreeze and his two children. he felt he didn't have nearly enough time with them, however, so when the crowd thinned and wolves began to head home and head to sleep, terance sought out his children-- and perhaps @Seabreeze, if she was around. 

the stars were out tonight, a surprise to the stark man-- the winter season had covered them so cruelly the last few days. @Treason was... somewhere, truth be told terance never questioned her when she left. he knew she'd be back, and he knew that she knew that he wouldn't leave her-- and that he had things to do. if she came around, though, he wouldn't send her away. after all, if she was hounding for children he ought to see how she behaved around them.

The girl had not been home for very long before the Yule celebration broke out across the territory, which was invigorating but also overwhelming. Ordinarily Ibis would have been trying to meet all these strangers and try to be the envoy out of all the children, try to ensure a good experience while supporting her mom - not that she had ever been to a party before, of course. These were speculations. She wanted to be useful, attentive, the good little host - but after her adventure outside the willows, Ibis found everything too stressful. All she wanted was some cuddle time with her family (all of them! Even that angsty buttface, Mali).

When the hubbub began to die down, bodies slipping away to find quiet spaces for sleep, Ibis was still very awake but she was thankful for the lull. She was wandering among the trees when she saw him - this dark figment illuminated by a misty grey haze, starlight on ice, silver switches of willow hanging around him. At first Ibis wanted to think it was daddy - they looked like daddy - but a part of her heart had grown frigid to the possibility that she'd ever hunt him down. Maybe it was a ghost. 

Either way, she was slinking through the trees towards him as if charmed by a spectral force. She stopped and watched him for a moment before offering a cautious, Daddy?

@Okeanos is still welcome to join <3

she was quiet and cautious in her call, but terance expected nothing less from his little bird. he turned, spotting her paleness among the trees. a deep smile pressed to his features, his tail waving at his hocks. "hey, little bird," he called out to her, feeling relief that his daughter was safe and present. he was worried he wouldn't be able to see either of his children on this trip.

but here she was. 

he approached her, hoping to pull her into an embrace if she would so let him. ah. how he missed her so much. both of his children. he wished they were a bigger part of his life, so desperately. but it was not meant to be.

"do you want to stargaze with me?" he asked her softly, green eyes finding the ocean blues of hers. they were certainly her mothers eyes. he smiled at her, ears cupped forwards.

since ibis' return okeanos has kept his distance from the other kids, both because he never wants to let his sister out of his sight again and because, well, you can only get yelled at so many times. it doesn't mean he's given up, per se -- brilliance is still kind of his friend at least -- but he's re-prioritizing. for okeanos, the yule party is a blur of noise and bodies, anxiety-inducing, though as long as he's near his family it's tolerable. 

he's drowsed off by mama when ibis drifts away; when his eyes open to find she isn't there, he panics for a moment, until her scent, still present in the scene, reassures him she's still here. still, nervously, he tracks it until he spots her and: 

"papa!" okeanos chirps, tail wagging. oh! he'd not realized papa was here, and wasting no time, plunks himself down on his other side. he'd heard the question directed at ibby but figures his answer isn't necessary -- instead he grins at his sister, feeling, for the first time in a while, completely at ease.

Hi sorry I didn't see these replies, I suck!!

Ibis wanted to be indignant, obnoxious, spiteful - because she was still hurting after her failed effort to find her father - but as soon as she heard him say little bird the ice that had begun to form around her heart was cleaved away. Then there was Okeanos, rushing to his side, so mindlessly happy.

Feeling a confusing mess of emotions, she looks to the sky when he prompts her with the question - the invitation - and swallows a lump in her throat, but it doesn't help. Her stomach is a knot. Her attention drifts back to her father and then to Okeanos, who holds her attention for a long moment, before Ibis decides to slink in close beside him. Let him be the buffer between herself and her dad, because she doesn't know how to process his being here. Not after everything she went through in trying to find him.

She is happy he's here, but she's nervous too.

okeanos materializes soon enough, coming and plopping himself down beside his father almost immediately. terance smiles, warmer than he had in a while, and pressed his nose to his son's cheek. he was grateful, in this moment, for the boy's warmness. it had not been so the last time he was here. 

ibis, however, was quiet. she stood and stared, appearing nervous, for some time. but she came, eventually, for a reason terance was unsure of -- she looked so uneasy, he was convinced she would run away from him if anything. he offered her a smile, his tail tapping against the earth. let her warm up to him again. "the day you were born," terance said to them then, eyes trailing up to the sky, "there was a constellation in the sky -- called gemini." 

terance himself was a taurus, and he wasn't that well versed in the actual meaning behind all that. he just knew about the stars and about the planets. "do you know about gemini?" he asked them.

sensing his sister's nerves, oke scoots a little closer to her, resting his head atop her dainty crown. the difference in their sizes becomes exponentially apparant by the day -- okeanos is a big boy, taking after his papa, soft and pleasantly round. despite this he moves with a gentle caution, offering, hopefully, a reassuring weight for ibis. 

papa asks about gemini. the boy tries to trace the shape of it but isn't sure where to look. he turns his gaze to his father curiously, eyes bright, cast blueish in the starlight. "uh-uh," he says, "where's it?"

She approached slowly and made a point to settle in beside Okeanos, pressing her chin over his shoulder until he shifted to look at the heavens and she felt her balance shift. Her eyes slipped up there too, but briefly lingered on her father's face while he was distracted. She traced the shape of his eyes in her mind, the contour of his nose, and wondered if her brother would grow up to look the way he did; whether he noticed her watching or not, soon enough Ibis was letting herself be swept up in the lesson. The stars were bright overhead, and soon she began to trace the same shapes in to them - perhaps thinking that if she etched her father there, he would always be watching.