( he's silent a time, just working on what knots he finds in her muscles with a firm, gentle pressure. he's thinking, not quite certain yet if he wants to commit to the telling. finally: )

The Lakota used to keep something called 'winter counts'. It's a record from snowfall to snowfall of any major event that happened in the year. Pictographs on buffalo hide. It's kinda where I got the idea, except it's not events so much as people.

( it's something he's never actually... admitted to anyone. in a way, he's still enough of an outlier to the culture that it feels like an elder could at any moment tell him he's comporting himself against their morals and values and culture even if he knows he isn't. impostor syndrome at its finest. at least he knows it. )