[Edel PRP] Daydreams and Marines (Adi/Arden)

[Meepfur]

"It depends on the god, and the aoide too. Kind of a little bit of everything if they don't have many. They can be cooks, gardeners, babysitters, friends, lovers, priests or priestesses, whatever the god needs."

"I'm going to be a druid," Adi added proudly.

[Tsunake]

That made sense. He could... well, still recall his first 'encounter' with an aoide, one that, though perhaps not unpleasant... A muscle in his jaw twitched as he thought about it, and the soldier had to forcibly snap himself out of it.

"I've never heard of a druid." Arden would admit, though he could hear the pride in her tone. "What does that entail?'

[Meepfur]

Hmm, how to explain it? Adi thought about it for a long moment, then settled on, "They look after nature and help things grow, or heal it if there's something wrong with it. That's kind of the simplest way to put it, I think."

[Tsunake]

His eyes widened a fraction at that, respectful. "...On our home base, there is nothing green growing there. Not like here." A glance was cast around at the riverbanks, the trees, both fruit-bearing and not.

"Always envied anyone who could be a medic." To give life, instead of death. It was a strange concept. But he had always been good at the latter.

[Meepfur]

"Nothing at all?" Adi was stunned by that. Even when Destruction had reigned, even when things had almost come to an End, there had been green things growing, at least in special places like Rio's rooms and Ea's forest. "That must have been terrible."

"I don't know if I could heal people, but I can kind of do plants. Just a little. It's harder than just getting a flower to bloom." That she could do, provided the flower actually wanted to open up. Sometimes they didn't, if they didn't know her.

[Tsunake]

"I never knew anything else." The marine had to smile a little at her incredulity. "It was where I grew up. ...I'd seen pictures of Earth, videos, but nothing real." It hadn't been so bad, not really. There'd been plenty of fauna on the alien homeworlds he'd gotten to 'visit'.

"It's still impressive." Arden said with a shrug. "Is it magic?" He wanted to know, shifting a little curiously.

[Meepfur]

Growing up with no flowers or trees or even grass...that would be awful! She could hardly imagine it. And what would she do all day, besides?

"Mm-hm," she answered, nodding, "It's a kind of magic, but not something you're born with, really. You just learn how to use what's in the earth."

[Tsunake]

"Anyone can learn?" He sounded mildly impressed, though not entirely certain she was correct. "You'd think that humans would have learned how to do that a long time ago..." But if they didn't pay attention, or didn't know what they were looking for, then who knew?

"You said your father was an aoide? Your mother is Love, then?"

[Meepfur]

"I think you have to have an...affinity for it. So maybe some humans could, I'm not sure. I'll have to ask Illisia sometime."

"Well, that part's a little complicated." Adi chuckled. "Rio - that's Love - his host was a girl, Alex, and she fell in love with my dad. Later on, after Rio took over, they stayed separate for awhile and their body was still female, and they got pregnant. They're the same now, though, they have been since before my brother and I were born."

[Tsunake]

That made a little more sense and seemed to satisfy him. More in-tune with nature, huh? There was a mildly curious look at the mention of Illisia, but he wouldn't pry, only doing his best to shuffle away the name for later.

Then came the explanation.

Though the soldier seemed to take it in stride (he'd heard of weirder things), the concept was what puzzled him. "But he's male now? His body? And you weren't affected by the change...?" A brother, to boot.

[Meepfur]

"He is now." Adi nodded and elaborated, "He has been since...hmm, a little while after they took Harmodius' name. He was still a girl when he had us, but it was after he and Alex stopped being separate."

"It's all Kin and I have ever known." The werewolf shrugged. "It doesn't bother us, what happened. It's harder for our dad, though."

[Tsunake]

Since after the whole... Gehenna, or whatever it was. The apocalypse. He assumed that was what she meant, though her description earned a frown. Would it be the same when Bazyli... No, he was quite certain that the god would do everything in his power to make it so there was only one master of this body when the time came.

"I understand." The soldier said quietly, and to a degree, he did. It was never easy to lose someone close to you--and to be haunted by the knowledge that they were still, in some twisted sense, alive and being put to use, even if it was by a deity... It was rough.

"...How did Alex manage to stay alive, even when... when Love took over?"

[Meepfur]

"Because he wanted her to, I think," Adrienne answered. "They were friends, and he wouldn't've wanted to hurt her or anything, y'know? Or get rid of her. He can explain it better than I can, but they were really special to each other."

[Tsunake]

Ah, well. That made sense. Arden might have smiled a little, but wisely chose to keep his thoughts to himself. There was no need to upset Adi any further, but it might have been fairly obvious that he believed he would not one of those lucky few who had been spared. There was no lost love between him and Famine, after all.

"It sounds as though they were happy together." Was all he could offer.

[Meepfur]

"They were," she confirmed with a warm smile. From what Rio had told her, happiness was something Alex had desperately needed, though in the beginning she'd only been looking for a way out.

Adi was silent for a moment, wiggling her paw-toes, then decided, "We should do something!"

Something fun, because clearly Arden needed some.