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It was one of those days in which Lethe found herself with nothing to do, and such was her will to perform everything with the passion others claimed she lacked that she had decided to do nothing as hard as she could. It was a nice day for it, at least -- though it was breezy, a mild bite to the constant wind, the sun was out in full force and so were other people.

When this happened she usually told her guardian she was going for a walk, first stopping at a local pub -- where people gathered after the sun went down to forget the course of the day -- for the latest gossip and a lemonade. And after making sure she was completely slathered in the strongest sunblock she could legally acquire and some random pair of designer sunglasses she stole from her aunt's half of the house was perched firmly on her nose, she wandered. Although she was never quite sure of the directions, the destination was always clear: she wanted to go places she had never been, desperately turning her gaze over details that remained permanently branded into the backs of her eyelids.

When some hours passed and she got tired -- as she was now, so she stopped by a bench under a furiously flowering tree -- then she would simply sit for a while, legs primly crossed at the ankles and fingers loosely wrapped around the chill cup of lemonade and tangled into the deep blue of her ribbons. And with her back very, very straight, she immersed herself in the memories of others.

They were usually not very hard to find. People had grown out of the habit of hiding them well, carried them in the wrinkles of their expressions and the invisible weights of their limbs. There was a young woman who passed by, hurried and exhausted, with the acrid scent of burnt things with no names caked beneath her torn nails. Lethe, knowing loss in a simultaneously ancient and shallowly prissy way, could not find it within herself to be interested and turned her gaze into the crowd, searching for something that might break her unshakable boredom.

The River Fa'e had been inspecting each passer-by in turn, waxing poetic in her head about whatever crime she imagined each one to be guilty of -- well. People had had many, many years to reincarnate, she was sure that at some point pretty much everyone was guilty of whatever arson or murder or theft she was pinning on them now.

There was one figure in particular though -- kind of short, certainly lanky, wings and interesting sorts of skin colors -- that she was very certain had killed people. Killed people and eaten babies. Just something in the way.. his hair spiked up. Right. It was a very interesting color too, bright blue, contrasting the red of his hands, which, now that she thought about it, was sort of reminiscent of...

"Naolin?" Lethe called out suspiciously to him as he drew closer, gripping her lemonade between her knees so she could reach up with her now-free hands to slide the sunglasses up onto her head. It was a little more obvious who she was now that her clear, pupil-less eyes were unobstructed; the white capris and random blue flowery tank top were not exactly extraordinary, and certainly a far cry from the usual heavily laced dresses she normally wore. Her hair, usually painstakingly brushed and perfectly curled, was haphazardly thrown up into a bun to keep it off her neck and out of her face.

The River Fa'e immediately opened her mouth to retort, quickly realized she had no idea whether what he'd said was really a compliment or an insult, and finally shut it and settled for giving him a wary glance. He approved of her wardrobe -- well. That was a start.

His settling onto the bench was met with similar silence; well, what did she expect? She supposed the best situation would have been some exchanging of greetings, establishing that yes, she did still exist and still dressed very fabulously. Not that she minded company necessarily, but he wasn't at all like he used to be (an unfortunate side-effect of being a Fa'e, apparently) and hadn't shown signs of wanting to associate himself with her before. Perhaps he really was impressed with her choice of clothing.

Nodding to herself, Lethe obligingly glanced back towards the meandering crowds of people. "It's just a game I play sometimes, by myself. I suppose.. certain things leave impressions on bodies? Because they are physical objects like any other, and when exposed to certain kinds of extreme situations, memories are imprinted like.. fingerprints. But on bodies, it tends to be scars, marks, it depends. Normally I have to touch, like connecting..."

She wanted to say 'underskin river to underskin river', but knew after a year and a half of speaking near-fluent English that this wouldn't make any kind of sense. "--Well, but sometimes if I concentrate and the memory is particularly prominent, whether it's recent or just really mentally scarring, I can see without having to touch. Those I can't see, I just make something up." She shrugged, allowing a few moments of silence to pass before turning her gaze to Naolin.

"...What about you? Can you see anything?"

Lethe didn't have to look again to know she wouldn't see anything. The knowledge did nothing to help her swallow the lump of frustration that surfaced in the back of her throat every time she was forced to turn away an opportunity to show off.

It was not as if the situation had to be written off as a total loss, however; she tilted her head to get a better look at him, gaze thoughtful as if searching for something. Finally, she shook her head. "Fa'e have always been better at... well, many things. Keeping 'clean', in that aspect, is one of them. I'm not exactly sure as to the reason -- I suppose it might be because we haven't been here as long as most humans; you wouldn't exactly expect a human two-year-old to have anything worth showing off. Or maybe because of other interference, or because physical imprints -- like our memories, when we were reborn -- are sealed off."

She shrugged and looked away; only a small twist at the corner of her lips revealed anything about her thoughts on the matter. Gradually she found herself relaxing too, though (it was nice to talk to someone who spoke to her on -- well, her level, and not just as if she were merely a child or a slightly unnerving pale girl.)

"I'm not very skilled at reading people otherwise," she admitted suddenly, "Unfortunately most of what I do now is experimentation and guesswork. It's easy enough to be crude to someone who's crude themselves, but... That doesn't work so well when they're damaged enough to loathe themselves, and anyone who acts like them by proxy." Remembering a certain mildly unstable catgirl, she pinched the bridge of her nose and winced. "I suppose one gets better with practice? Unfortunately, not many people are even worth trying to get into the heads of -- and Fa'e doesn't seem to have very many enemies beyond those made in individual past lives, so..."

She wasn't exactly asking for a full-scale war. But Airi had been purposefully vague about exactly why Lethe, of all dead things, was selected to win the grand prize of being dragged kicking and screaming into a silly human-shaped body. And maybe she was just getting bored.

'Such large disturbances in dead or mostly dead'... What a funny way of phrasing things. But Naolin's words did not ring untrue to Lethe, who had also spent many sleepless nights wondering the implications of her rebirth. Fingers tangling into her ribbons, she briefly considered sharing her own thoughts on the matter -- but ultimately decided against it; her feelings on the subject compounded mostly on her own perceived weaknesses, and unlike Naolin, and Fa'e like Naolin, Lethe was more powerful now that she had two legs with which to move around and a tongue with which to speak. She resented it, yes. A river was not a human. A river was not even human-shaped, like gods were.

And a river was not a god.

She carefully unwrapped her hands enough to be able to grasp the cup and took another sip of her lemonade, watching her companion gesture grandly and making no efforts to break the ensuing pause herself.

'What are your thoughts on Airi?'

She straightened immediately and turned to face Naolin; the immediate eye contact was enough to make her want to shiver. She surpressed it (he's just a silly boy, he doesn't know any more than I do) and momentarily wondered where to even begin.

"I suppose, what you said just now, about a 'smoke screen'... I'm not sure if you know, though lady Airi--" the title was habit by now, "--has made no attempts to hide it. She brought the Fa'e into existence to help her with Chaos." A pause. "Not the abstract idea, the personification of the phenomena... I assume. He's a friend of hers, I guess, and was sealed away for attempted destruction of the universe. She thinks this is a mistake -- that is, that he wouldn't normally do that -- but not being powerful enough to face him on her own, she started to call to beings like us for help. I'm not sure if she always intended for us to arrive as babies, maybe that's the only way she could summon things people no longer believe in, but here we are."

Somewhere along the way, her voice had lost the inflection of someone telling fond stories of a friend, and had become flat and slightly monotonous as if she were merely giving a report. She stopped, no longer smiling, to figure out how to best word the next part, and continued.

"I trust Lady Airi, myself. I do know she's not telling me everything, and I realize further that you have no reason to believe me, but I honestly do not think that there is any maliciousness in her or her methods. However, as a fellow Fa'e, it is a little unsettling that she is Fa'e herself. She has not told me this, but I assume so because she has a Guardian like we do, and fades when her Guardian is gone, like we would." Her eyes narrowed, lip curling up into a sneer, but it was only for a brief second, a flash of some emotion she could not suppress or perhaps did not know she had.

"She is undoubtedly very powerful, as her blood runs through our bodies now -- perhaps even more powerful than we know. Maybe this means she could manipulate our given bodies like puppets." Another pause. No one had really asked this of her before -- Morty himself merely assumed she was brainwashed of a sort. Maybe Naolin, with his ambition, would understand the usefulness of having Lady Airi herself as an ally.

"I don't know if she's a god herself, or if she has a past life. Maybe. But she's also a lot like..." she momentarily struggled in her streams of thought to find a good way to put this, "...Like... How I was before. The creator of us all is a lost little girl. She feels, and she's as powerful as she is, and she's lonely. And I honestly don't believe now, though I could be wrong, that there is any particular purpose in why she brought us back to the realm of the living. She said herself that it is our guardians who pick us, she has no choice in the matter. She's blindly grasping at straws, not even knowing that we will help her, even offering us the choice not to. And it's so... so......" In Lady Airi's memory, she wanted to say 'sad', but in Naolin's presence (and finally betraying her physical age), she said: "Stupid."

"I agree," Lethe said with all the clunky finesse of someone not used to actually agreeing with anyone, "'Anchored' is an odd word -- fitting, but considering the circumstances... From what I've observed of guardians, at least, they're all ordinary people. My Cerena, Dustin's Arrien... Odd, yes, varied, but none with the power to call to gods -- and in my case, mine didn't even know who I was until I told her, and I suspect she still doubts my veracity--" She abruptly cut off here, hoping the ending didn't seem too unnatural; she pretended to be distracted by a particularly flashily-dressed passerby, following the motions of the flamboyant young woman with her eyes and turning her head to watch her eventually disappear into the distant throng.

Speak what she might about guardians, of Lady Airi, of other people's chess pieces. It was simple strategy: don't point out the flaws in your own moves and strategies to your opposition (or, more childishly, that she was so beneath divine status as to have family issues. Maybe she would tell this to Xo, because she was a Best Friend and that's what girls of their age did, and only because Xo wouldn't know a sheep when she saw one, much less a potential exploitable weak point in another person. And maybe, once upon a time, to Naolin -- back when he still liked dolls and practically radiated sunshine on his own. But not now, and not to this scary-older Naolin, who had the hungry look of someone who thought.)

Realizing she was going to have to close this thread of conversation and start a new one somehow, and not noting how dark her own thoughts had become since starting a conversation with the other Fa'e, Lethe muttered quickly, "I know you can change your guardian. I've seen others with new ones."

Airi's power or lack thereof was a welcoming change of subject, so she gestured vaguely with one hand, "Like I said, she is still very young. Like us, she may not even have unlocked all of her potential." The subtle hint that Airi perhaps only 'apparently' trusted her either flew over her head or was purposefully ignored -- she was too busy throwing a concerned look in Naolin's direction when he burst out laughing to formulate a proper response anyway.

Pawns. Chess pieces. The game of Fa'e: use or be used. Unprompted, common chess maneuvers began surfacing rapidly in her thoughts, memories of manuals she had rifled through -- for a lack of anything else to look at, not for any particular appreciation of the game. "Pawns who survive to the end get to be something else," she pointed out unnecessarily, and perhaps entirely missing his point -- for all her carefully hidden apathy, Lethe could not necessarily be said to be jaded, at least not yet, "Rooks. Bishops. Something better. You just have to wait, and be smart. There's no other way to become a Queen, after all, when you're not already born into it."

She let out a 'hmmm' as she thought of what else she knew of Chaos, raising her gaze to the sky in thought as she sifted through memories. "Not much, I'm afraid, on my end. I'm supposed to talk to Riven -- well, I was supposed to talk to Riven about Chaos, but I never managed to track him down and lady Airi has gone into hiding. I would say to talk to Morty, but he's mentally incapacitated." A beat. "Again. Doesn't remember. I do know that Chaos is purposefully attacking us, though -- the earliest I've personally witnessed being at Prom two years back. Lady Airi was worried Chaos would attack Morty in an attempt to get to the gem that was her guardian, and I think she was right; I guess Chaos is attempting to get to Lady Airi directly, harm or destroy her even, but I honestly don't understand why if she's trying to free him. Maybe he intends only to continue the work he started of destroying everything, and figures he doesn't even need to be free to finish. Or maybe... something else. Maybe he wants to recreate himself as a Fa'e, leaving his former self as a husk, regain all of his former power and glory without us figuring out who he really is, and destroy Life As We Know It then."

Hey, it had come up more than once on some of her daily soap operas. If she were Chaos, that's what she'd do, anyway.

"Indeed it would," Lethe agreed again, a shallow but genuine smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, her gaze unmoving from the crowd walking the streets in front of them. It would seem, perhaps, that she had a different motivation for people-watching than anyone would easily catch on: unfortunately, as busy as the River Fa'e knew Barton would be, it was of all the wrong sort. Vampires with shocking pink hair and multiple piercings, people dressed in such a way that the amount of clothing they were wearing could almost be said to be negative, fairies and half-elves and all with shallow, shallow lives...

She honestly didn't know what her preferred guardian would be like. She had assumed that when she saw her (and it was always a 'her') she would just know, because while it definitely wasn't going to be True Love, it nevertheless had to fall somewhat under Fate. Surely she was Meant To Be with someone a little less... empty than her current guardian.

"He's purple," she said absently, "Squiggly. Spirals, I mean. No legs. Riven's nice, but like all older Fa'e, he runs in different circles." Even the mention of Chaos wasn't enough to bring her attention fully back -- she met his eyes when he stared at her, out of habit of meeting the rare eye contact anyone made with her -- but unable to pull her thoughts from all that remained unsaid between them, she eventually looked away again.

She played with a curl of her hair, a throwback to the Innocent Little Miss Curious persona she usually adapted with people of Naolin's age and ambitions, and finally replied, "I hadn't thought of it that way before. It makes sense though -- I don't know if you could call 'Fa'e' a race, but there is some connection between us, regardless of ethnicity or history, whatever connection it is that makes us look at each other and say without question, 'You're one of us'. I had always assumed lady Airi had nothing to do with his imprisonment, but if she had brought back some of the Ancient powers -- and we are to be guilty by association..."

Her previous smile widened to a grin at '********', and mentally she tucked the word away to be brought out at an appropriate occasion. She offered nothing more beyond that, even if what she had already said was only a slightly fancy restatement of Naolin's own theories. In fact, given that her expression was rather blank -- her grin faded after only a moment -- and nothing had changed in her posture or movements otherwise, she didn't even seem worried.

This changed the moment Naolin uttered the t-word. Her legs paused mid-swing; she brought them up to the bench, carefully folding them beneath her on the bench as she turned to fully face him. She briefly considered throwing her lemonade cup away as she no longer really wanted to be holding it, but there was no trash can around and tossing it at someone as they walked by (though entertaining) was more dramatic than was necessary. She settled for placing it down in front of her, resting the nearly empty cup against the bench's back so it wouldn't tip over, and returned her hands to her empty lap. "No," she said flatly.

And then: "That assumes I trusted you before. You were happy and small-minded -- in that power and questions of true divinity held no real place in your life -- and there was no reason for me to distrust you. But I know powers and memories don't really surface at that point of a Fa'e's life, there was no real point in me explicitly giving you trust anyway; you had no use as an ally, at that time, and Xo hated you. At most, I could only hope that your memories of pleasant encounters with me would find me at least in your favor should you ever make something of yourself."

Hades, this was hard -- not so silly as soul-baring, but as far as she knew no one had ever figured out her motivations or machinations on their own. Granted, she learned over time that her unfamiliarity with humans and emotions had made her... clumsy, at best, at really manipulating anyone to get what she wanted, but... This was honestly a dumb thing to do. The best thing would have been to have said cheerily, 'Yeah, of course! Silly.' and laughed it off. Better to be thought stupid, as tired of it as she was.

"Well, you asked," she muttered a little defensively, more to herself than to him. More loudly, she continued, "Obviously, you're closer to 'something' now. I don't know the extent of your power, so I can't comment on that, but your thought processes certainly don't benefit a human. You speak to me not as a child, but as a fellow ancient power in an uncomfortable position. But, if anything, this makes you more dangerous; the fact that, when I first saw you, you only wanted to poke fun at me only proves that your child-memories have very little hold on you now, so I don't really have affection of any level or familiarity, and being that I am small and still only a child and have my hands tied up, I am at every disadvantage except to make you think that I know things you don't."

She had to stop to take a deep breath; speaking faster than her mind could keep up made her words slightly stilted and awkward, as what made sense in the original ancient Greek she thought in didn't necessarily translate directly into English.

"...It's not that I suspect you will betray me. I don't think there's anything you could betray me to, outside of outright killing me -- which would be a mistake, by the way, my death would be avenged by other Fa'e. That you might try to use me for your own self-betterment, if you found a way? That's a possibility I give to anyone, and I don't begrudge them for it. Because... Well..."

She sighed, deeply frowning and frustrated, and sought relief by glaring hard at the ground. It was at times like these she wished she were older, less hungry, more powerful, more able, anything to feel less like a stupid little girl and more like herself. This wasn't all she had to say, but to continue would be to venture into unknown and possibly dangerous territory. At this point, she wouldn't be surprised if Naolin didn't burst out laughing at her if she had finished with 'I would'.

If there was one thing Fa'e weren't known for doing, it was talking about their feelings. And troubles. Lethe liked it better that way, it was hard to figure out the right things to say to people -- she wasn't miserable, anyway, and had better things to do than feel sorry for herself. "Anyway," she finished hastily, "I don't expect you to trust me either. I have to keep certain charades to make other people think that I am a hundred-percent-trustworthy at all times, the sort of charades that wouldn't work on you now -- but give me enough time, and I could figure something out."

There were other factors involved too -- she didn't think Naolin was a blabbermouth, not like once-stupid-Morty, but he obviously didn't approve of Airi (and probably not Xo, for that matter) -- so it would be in her better interest to pretend she wasn't that involved with them, and vice-versa. There were things she was still leaving out, though: why would a river uninvolved with any of these ancient politics bother with them now? --But Naolin ventured nothing as to why he was looking for power now, even though, being a teen, it should be coming in now in spades. She had just spent an awful lot of time effectively monologuing and giving him half a dozen reasons as to why 'trust' would not work here... Unfortunately, the only people she could relate to as 'friends' were those who were less powerful than herself, and even more unfortunately, they would eventually grow out of it. Lethe could not.

"Mmm." The talk of Xochitl was received in comparative serenity -- she expected as much, knowing well that her best friend did not think fondly of Naolin: it would be odd, in Lethe's way of thinking, if such feelings were not returned. It was interesting to hear Naolin's side of it, though. She would have to tread carefully through this: she intended to be as honest as she could, if only because lies were harder to keep straight among many people (something she'd learned with the Morty Catastrophe), but it was important that she not say anything that could be used against her. The most dangerous thing to do would be to come in between these two, as volatile as they both seemed to be.

"Sometimes, I feel she does not even think of herself as Fa'e, to be honest. Which is nice, sometimes, to just step away and not be entangled with Who-We-Were and What-We-Might-Be, but I suppose it could be mere avoidance..." The thought that Xo might not trust her enough to tell her everything came as more of an upset than the previous one of Airi, and she reflected this by wincing visibly. "I guess so. Maybe she really doesn't know yet. There's natural variation among Fa'e.... I suppose."

--Anyway, best to speak of other things. She stretched her arms up above her head, restlessly, as the natural light washed over the tree above them and shrouded her in shifting shadows. After a moment, she uncurled herself and resumed her former position on the bench. Enemies? Hm. Interesting. "No, of course not -- I see no need, at the moment. As long as our goals aren't revealed to directly contradict one another," and judging by his various reactions to the things she had said, she didn't think this was really the case, "I see no reason why we cannot be allies of a sort. Not close ones, not without trust, but you do have my respect..."

Which was arguably hard to get, now that she thought of it. Lethe played nice with a lot of people, but that didn't mean she wasn't mentally berating them, or rolling her eyes at them when their backs were turned.