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Who: Rowan, Rhys, Dair, Nell
Where: Somewhere in an overgrown park in Gambino
When: Afternoon
Weather: Windy and mildly chilly, autumn is coming!!!

Nell wrapped her sweater a bit more firmly around herself her feet stamping idly on the ground as she sat on the bench. Summer was barely over and it was already too cold for her, and she had spent most of the morning thinking about how nice it would be if it were to magically warm up again. Dair, however, seemed to be quite pleased about the turning of the seasons, a fact that Nell regarded with much suspicion. She had a feeling that she was going to get dragged out into the cold much more often than she thought was necessary in the near future.

Not fair. But after watching Dair putter around the rather wild-looking park, clad in a new giant sweater, she couldn't find herself to be too upset about it. She might have to borrow some of his quickly growing stash of cozy clothes sometimes, but she'll live.

Probably.

Dair, meanwhile, was slowly making his way along the path, floating slowly from tree to tree. At each tree he would stop, place his hands on the trunk, and just sit there for a few moments with his head tilted towards the tree as if he were listening to something. And down the path he went, sometimes ducking to get to the second layer of trees off the path, but he seemed to be making sure to get to each tree he could easily reach.

This end of the park had been understandably less busy than the other parts that were a bit more well manicured, and the last person he had actually seen was Nell. So he was quite surprised when he heard someone speak, having been a bit too absorbed into what he was doing to pay much attention to what was around him. He flinched slightly, his hands scraping against the trunk as he turned quickly around to face whoever it was.

For a second it seemed as if Rhys was able to hear the trees himself, as the rustling of the leaves and sound of the wind seemed to turn into murmuring whispers, but things turned back to normal when Dair relaxed.

"They're mostly complaining about having to go to sleep soon," he said, giving a trunk a fond pat. "Their leaves will start to change soon."

Dair shrunk back slightly, frowning at the shriek. Well. That was certainly not the most enthusiastic greeting he's ever had. "I can see perfectly well," he said sullenly, his shoulders hunching up a bit. He was finding the more he went out that his eyes seemed to be the the main thing that tripped people up when they first saw him. In his opinion the lack of a lower body or the branches growing out of him were a bit more noticeable but there you go.

"They don't use words, really. Just feelings,"' It was hard to describe them to people, while he could understand them, a good chunk of what they felt didn't really have any human equivalents.

He looked up once again with a start at the approach of another person, one that (presumably) knew the younger child he was talking to. He inclined his head in a greeting to each in turn as they were introduced, giving them a small but (hopefully) friendly smile. " It's a pleasure to meet you both, my name is Dair."

The woman's greeting was a bit surprising to say the least, but aside from tensing up a bit he didn't move until she had backed up. "You are with the Lab as well?" He sounded a bit surprised at this, a bit unsure if it was normal to keep accidentally running into people from the same community or not. But it was a good way to meet people, he supposed.

"Oh! No, my guardian is back on the path," a twig-like finger pointed behind him to where Nell was hanging out on the bench. "I could introduce you, if you wish?" The finer points of any Lab-related things would probably go over his head, anyway, he hadn't been around long enough yet to really know much about it in depth.

"Do you have a Raevan...?" he glanced behind them, almost expecting someone to come floating out after them. At this rate it seemed like he'd be able to meet most of the Lab by just wandering around the park, which all in all didn't seem like a terrible idea.He floated a bit closer to Rhys, frowning as he bent forwards to get a better look at what the boy was holding. It didn't seem terribly familiar, but he picked it up to look at it a bit closer.

"I don't think I haven, but I could try looking?

Nell, meanwhile, spotted the two new people talking to Dair, and with a start she hopped off the bench and hurried over. "Hello!" she sounded cheerful enough and had a smile on her face, but she glanced between the three of them, edging a bit closer to Dair and raising her eyebrows questioningly when she caught his gaze.

"It's certainly a pleasure to-" she was taken a bit off guard at the rather friendly greeting, but she picked up her sentence with only the smallest bit of hesitation. "Meet you both! I'm Nell! You know, I've been running into more people from the Lab than I would have thought possible," she said with a laugh as she followed her back to the bench, after Dair gave her a small nod and a brief shooing gesture.

"A raevan of your own! That's great! Do you mind me asking what their essence and soul are?" Her cheeks darkened slightly at the compliment and she picked at the hem of her sweater, a cheery yellow to contrast with the somewhat dreary weather, with a quiet 'thanks'.

Dair watched quietly while the boy examined his hand, not seeming to have felt the knocking too much. While it certainly was much harder and stiffer than skin, it didn't sound as hollow as wood would have. "I can try? Do you know the name of it?" After a quick scan of the area he started to drift over to a nearby tree, glancing back at Rhys for his answer.

"Magic, huh? Seems to be popping up in my life more and more often," she said with a laugh. At the mention of the essence, though, she let out an appreciative "Oooh", though she didn't seem quite as awed by the soul. "A cockroach?" Her nose wrinkled slightly at the thought, though she quickly tried to school her expression into something a bit less judge-y. "Certainly sounds like an interesting combination! I'd love to meet them when they arrive."

Nell glanced over at Dair, humming under her breath contemplatively. "His soul's an oak tree that got struck by lightning, I kind of wish we lived a bit closer to one of the bigger forests since he likes them so much, but," she shrugged with a sigh. "And his essence is a cursed hag stone? It's um. It was interesting to have around, that's for sure," she laughed, though it sounded a bit forced and higher pitched than it should be. Needless to say she was glad that Dair seemed to not be as overzealous with his powers as his essence had been.

"Gambino pur...ple....heart..." He repeated the name absently as he turned to the tree again, one hand reaching out to rest against it lightly. He was quiet for a moment, his attention clearly elsewhere until he realized that there were a couple of questions that he had been asked.

"Oh. Um. A few weeks," His fingers tapped an uneven rhythm on the bark as he frowned, though it wasn't quite clear if it was because of the tree or Rhys' other question. "I'm not really sure, I haven't tried to do much aside from," his free hand gestured vaguely to the tree.

"What can you do?" His head craned around to look at the boy curiously, awkwardly twisting in order to keep his hand against the tree and not poke himself in the eye with one of his branches.

"Not really, no, but it would be nice if it was spread out a bit more evenly," she said with a laugh. Perhaps the universe saw her completely ordinary normal life up until this point and decided to make up for lost time. It was quite a lot to take in all at once, and she was grateful that she was able to at least metaphorically tread water than sink. "They aren't that much different than human kids in that aspect, aren't they?"

There was a quiet noise of agreement from Nell, though she took a moment longer than necessary to answer the question. "Not sure how, or why it was cursed, but mostly it made me see and hear things? I haven't seen him do anything close to what the stone did, but he's still young I guess, so it might be a bit too early to tell."

Dair nodded absently, seemingly intent on whatever it was that he was hearing from the tree. But Rhys' comment about his abilities pulled his attention back. "The moon?" His eyebrows furrowed together slightly as he looked up towards the sky. "What do you talk to the moon about? Also I don't think the trees would like to move around much." He pointed further into the trees, past where Rhys was looking.

"There should be some over there..."

GlassKitteh