Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was late. Late being that sunlight was gone, not that it mattered a lot given the thick fog, but, Solia was heading to an older boy’s dorm room.

At night.

Something Israfel didn’t think about until she was on her way. The siren had her stopping in the middle of the hallway, confused as he went on about protection charms and if she was going to see a boil, she would need them. When asked why, the siren in her skull gave a snort.
‘Ninja Pumpkins, duh!’
She also was not sure what that meant, but okay. She’d get those protection charms...

LATER. Because she had promised Lex back rubs and Lex was a sweetie. He was a flirt, but she was 99.9% oblivious to it all, mostly because Solia never thought about that unless it was other people flirting with other people. So his offer for backrubs was taken at face value. As back rubs. Dressed in her PJs, a shirt and sweat pants, (and mismatched socks), she found his dorm room easy enough, using the tweet to remind her what room it was.

Bouncing on the balls of her feet, she knocked on his door, all smiles.
Back rubs yay!

Backrubs and all Lex had to do was ask. Solia thought nothing of them, and whenhe opened the door and gave her a hug, she was all smiles, returning it with as much strength as she could muster.

Which was akin to a toy Pomeranian while Lex might as well have been a mastiff, (only she thought him a bit more scraggly because of his not beard beard). She was not strong in the slightest. Plus over a foot shorter than him, she couldn’t do much besides hug. “I’ve been good! It’s been weird? But not a bad weird. I mean… Israfel had been helping me with everything and some of the death hunters have taken time to explain to me some of the duties. Mostly I’ll be running paperwork around and sorting information. A few guys said I would have ‘little death’ duties.” She made a face at that.

“I think I know what that means and I think if they ask I will tell them I have other work- Oh Lex did you know that they have a huge library here? It’s all about myths and past information and monsters- I’ve already got a few book and-“ She stopped her chatter. “It’s been a longgggg day. And twitter is… interesting. I’m a bit surprised we have it! But I am here for back rubs!" She would question jokes about little death duty, but not back rubs. It all boiled down to how it was phrased.

She eeped at being picked up. Clinging to him on instinct. This is why tall people infuriated her. They could move her around like a small animal. And oh god why did they like to pick her up and remind her that she was short oh god oh god oh god why. Lex pls. Set down, she let go of Lex slowly, enjoying the feeling of sweet ground. Yes, she missed you ground. But her minor shock at being picked up left as Lex went right into conversation.

“Grunt work is not so bad. With all the running they’ll be having me do I’ll get better at directions and faces and names. Not to mention I’ll be able to keep up with my routine. Beach runs are nice, even with all that fog.” She smiled before looking him up and down. “Well you don’t look the most official yet, but I bet you’ll make a great life hunter! You sound like you like it already with all those runes.” Which reminded her she had no idea how they worked. “I also have no idea what minipets even are but I will just assume they are for science. I mean we have portals, and we both past testing- Maybe you will be a part of the aperture research that develops the gravity fall boots or portal guns. Unless they already built those. Either way minipets I will just assume are science.”

Science.

A tap to her chin, she sat down on his bed, legs crossed. “Lore is useful. Israfel had me check out books on Sirens, and it was kind of amazing. He’s not sure which flock on file is the one he came from, but there was loads of information missing about how flocks work when there is a male. Well, even if male is kind of subjective.” The bird in her brain had given her new meaning to the term gender fluid. Falling backwards then doing a odd roll on the bed she smiled. “Are you just always this nice? Or is this some plot of life versus death?” That would have been funnier had Solia known the fact the division leads hated each other.

She hummed from her position on his bed. “Languages are hard in general. I know latin which..helps with some? French is special in it’s own way but English is by far the worst. How I learned latin was by doing fact associating. For words I had trouble with I would take a fact and use the word in it so the fact still made sense and I could pick out what the word meant. They’re no real easy way.” She huffed, crossing her arms under her head. “Maybe that is what you should invent. Not gravity boots. A way to input languages right into our heads.” He moved around, and from laying down, it was hard to see him while talking to him. "I think they were long fall boots anyway." Solia's dork was showing.

“Gryphons have royal attributes. King of the sky and the king of the land all in one. Human royals used it in heraldry for centuries. They were one of the symbols that lasted past their original mythos and were used in a better light than many things from before the rise of Christianity. What probably kept them thriving was their use as symbols of nobles. I mean, if you were a peasant and say the symbol of your king or lord you might get afraid.” She was spouting off things she knew, and probably had she known, not helping Lex and his weapon get along ego wise. “I know they extend around the Mediterranean and some parts of western Asia, but the further east and south you go the more the myth vanishes or is altered. Personally I wonder more about the heraldic qualities.”

A happy sigh as he began to rub her back, she smiled, relaxing. “You’ll make a good life hunter okay? When people doubt you just prove them wrong. If you’re playing at subterfuge though shouldn’t you be with me? Death is all about the mind games apparently.”

Solia was not one to think about every action she did. So when Lex massaged more, she made various sounds of happiness. Sighs and tiny moans of bliss. This is why back rubs were so good. She might have turned into Solia putty if not for a thing called skin and bone.

"'S not cheating if nobody says it is." She might have used that excuse once. If the rules didn't say so, then... maybe. A snuggle further into his bed, Solia giggled. "Mhmm.. stories of gryphons being arrogant and generally haughty exist by the dozens. Often their pride would lead to their own destruction, much to the parallel of how commoners would uprise and overthrow regencies."

Compliments and back rubs, Lex was indeed, the best. "Thank you. I like fact gathering. I'm not very good at much else." The question about perfume had her pause. "Hrm, a bit. I put some on a few hours ago. Why? Does it bother you?" A sliver on concern. She didn't want to set off allergies.

Why did back rubs have to feel good? All relaxing to the point you wanted to just curl up and fall asleep? Solia was very close to wanting to do just that, even if it would mean she’d have stolen Lex’s bed. He could steal her own in revenge. But no, she wasn’t allowed to sleep. After he finished she had to return the favor.
“Mm Regal needs to be nice I think. He was being rude earlier right?” She vaguely could recall the twitter conversation. “I mean, you’re new, he can’t expect you to be perfect- Oh oh okay maybe perfect with back rubs but those aren’t part of training so they don’t count.” More contented little wiggles and sighs, she went slightly limp at that point. Solia putty.

“Life sounds nice. But how do I make people feel good? I haven’t even given you a back rub yet.” Speaking off, she was really going to fall asleep at this rate. She slowly propped herself up. “You keep going I’m going to nod off. You’re turn.” She smiled, tilting a bit to actually be able to see him.

Israfel was busy making happy coos in her head. Solia was happy and thus he was happy. Plus she was much calmer than before.

She huffed. “Well a real Regal and noble gryphon would be above petty insults as I understand it. Maybe he’s just intimidated by the fact he picked a gentleman!” She beemed at Lex, only to jump a bit at the touch. Just an accident. It happened. She trusted Lex because thus far? She’d yet to see a reason why not to trust him. Israfel didn’t even think about the touch, just humming in her head and telling her to be gentle and be mindful of her nails.

Shirt removed, she smiled, still thinking nothing of it. No she was thinking more along the the lines of “God, yet another reason why I hate guys. You can just take off your shirts in public and relax. Girls? The closest we can get are tank tops. And going without a bra. But that is just asking for trouble in public.” Her hands started at the base of his spine slowly moving up towards his neck. Small circles with her fingers. Work up, then work back down.

“Thank you though. Most people have been saying I’m too optimistic, but… I don’t get the point of being down. If you focus on the negative, it’s not going to make things better you know?”

A pause. “I do have a place to talk. Everyone does. If he wants to silence, maybe he’s just afraid of the truth hrm?” She gave a small wiggle on the bed, hands finally reaching Lex’s neck. “Oh um, I can massage you head too if you want? You hair isn’t long like mine so it won’t get into crazy tangles.” She kept to his neck, waiting for the answer.

He might not have been able to see it, but Solia was smiling. “It’s not a matter about being happy either. It’s more a matter of thinking. If you think about all the negatives of what we’ve signed up for, you do nothing but put yourself in a place that doesn’t have much hope. I want people to be happy and I’m always willing to help others be happy. But in the end, even if they are not happy, so long as they can see that not everything is so bad, then right there, they have a key to finding their own happiness. It’s hard to find a reason when you’re surrounded by negativity sometimes, so… just have to push past it.”

She gave him a small poke in his side. “Part of why I like you already! You aren’t letting things get to you, and that is a good thing. You could be acting really depressed, but you’re not. You smiling and looking to what we’re doing in way that shows it’s not that bad.”