Welcome to Gaia! ::

Lethe obligingly paused to peruse the contents of her unconscious stream of thought for words that started with the letter 'l'. It was unfortunate -- though only sometimes -- that such things were not easily referenced: having never thought of such things before, words and the letters in them, she had no immediate memories to turn to. Instead, she thought back to all the conversations she ever had, and all the words she ever spoke, voices whirring by on high-speed as she hunted for certain sounds and lip movements.

After a while, it occurred to her that remembering documents she had glanced at would be a better way of doing things: though illiterate at the time, she could easily summon a freeze-framed picture in her head, remember the way the texture of the meaningless paper felt beneath her fingertips, the splotches of ink she now knew as letters.

Then, slowly and evenly, she began to write her list, with very little recognition of what she was actually writing, inscribing a column beneath her name.

"letter
labtebricole
last
library
lock
lost
liar
littoral"

A sudden, unexpected noise made her pause in between the letters of "lysimeter", and she glanced up at Tzao to find him chewing. Which was only a little jarring, because she knew neither of them had ordered anything to eat. But that was easily explained: something in his pocket, or his sleeve, or... Her gaze fell on his tea mug.

She began shifting in her chair uneasily, wondering -- suddenly -- how much denser human bones could be said to be in comparison to ceramics. "Um... Is that good...?"

"Well," the River Fa'e began, unsure if she should comfort him or quietly fake a heart attack so as to be very quickly surrounded by adults. But as much as she mentally floundered in the wake of hospital shows and anatomy documentaries, she could not think of a single thing to say to someone who apparently ate things that were distinctly Not For Eating, and so she fell silent again.

...But Tzao didn't mean her any harm: at least, he had never set any precedent to make her think he was willing to do such a thing. It was true that he had shown the ability to, but if this was the case, then marking him as an enemy or a target was not the most efficient way of handling this. If anything, she had to be nicer, now, so as not to end up on his list of Potential Snacks.

So she finally ventured forth, in a tone braver than how she really felt, "It's okay. Sorry, I didn't mean to make you embarrassed. Fa'e can do weird things, don't they? I mean, I know one who talks to rocks. So eating things -- like rocks -- isn't that bad. Actually," she continued, relaxing now that she was being more honest, "You just surprised me, that's all. I didn't expect such a thing from you, as you don't seem to have the teeth for... great.. powerful biting."

She had no idea how to describe such an ability, or what its use would be, and she was almost tempted to ask him what other things he could eat. But he already seemed off-put, so hoping to distract him so that he wouldn't think about it more (or try eating the mug again, it made her teeth hurt to bring up the memory), she returned to her letters. "So, you read letters different depending on which other ones they're paired with, right?"

"Hmm?" Obligingly she tilted her chin up, following his gaze first to the food items at the counter and then at glancing back at him, noting the returning smile. She was honestly not very hungry, but if he was, then who was she to refuse? That he seemed to be motivated by food was something to keep in mind -- and food, at least, was very easily produced.

Especially for someone who apparently ate anything.

"Sure, that sounds great," she acquiesced with a similar smile, neatly placing her pencil down next to her paper. "Ummm.. hm. Whichever one is your favorite, I'll try one of those... I don't really have a preference." This seemed like a good chance to segue into other things; as much as she was enjoying the lesson, she was also curious about Tzao himself, his life, his former life, the usual... She wasn't sure if it was the way he used his language interchangeably with English, seemed so calm and serene, ate cups, or that she was interested in Lost Children (and he had to be one, grown up on 'another world', as novel a concept as it was, because there was no way he could have made it to teen without her ever even hearing of him), but there was something undeniably... intriguing about this one.

He was not flashy. Neither in looks, nor in personality, though the biting thing was a little startling. Perhaps it was just a general 'feeling', which was odd in itself because Lethe generally didn't get feelings.

Navigating her ribbons, she reached with both hands into the bag and rooted around for the treat. Withdrawing it, she remembered just in time that it wouldn't be appropriate to make a face; but he had said pastry before, and this looked like a... flaky bread thing. Lethe didn't particularly enjoy bread, its spongy way of absorbing moisture from her mouth, and she was certain she would not enjoy this flaky bread thing.

But one must suffer for their art. Beaming him a grateful smile, she brought it to her lips and forced herself to part them, meet the crispy shell of the pastry with her teeth, and then slowly to close them until they met in the middle of something thick and pasty and probably unpleasant. Slowly she drew the rest of the croissant away, neatly severing her small bite, and with mouth closed, grudgingly chewed once.

It was moister than she expected. And sweeter, and -- and chocolaty-er. "This is good!" She burst out in genuine surprise once she had swallowed, and set on the rest of it with gusto.

"Hey, so," she began smoothly between bites, "If you don't mind me asking... Where do you come from, anyway? You are a Lost Child, right? So you're not from Gaia originally."

"All-consuming?" For the first time, Lethe was struck with something like deja vu. It was not that she could not remember such an epithet being used before -- she wasn't sure anyone could forget such incidents, those black things that spoke in not-quite voices and smelled like static and all such other sensational impossibilities -- just thinking about it raised goosebumps on her arms. But the Thing That Ate, and the thing that lived in the bottom-less bottom of the very deepest, darkest depths of the hell she had once resided in, and this, this funny-shaped boy creature in front of her with gentle smiles and soft hair...

It wasn't possible. It just didn't match up. Other things could be all-consuming too, couldn't they, without being a part of that Thing That Came Bumping In The Night And Ate People And Later Ruined Laser Tag? It was the not-knowing, that she could remember what she did but never bothered to expand beyond that, that bothered her. And there was still a current of doubt (she didn't want to call it fear) that swum in her consciousness though, that didn't help by the way he continually chewed and swallowed mechanically: hunger, of any kind, was dangerous. This she instinctively knew, not as a River or a Fa'e but as a living, breathing thing.

She forced herself to exhale and smile, brushing crumbs off the table with an apparent absent-mindedness. "Ahhh, my mistake. I only assumed, because I like to think I've seen and met almost all the Fa'e to be found here. So, you know? You've been through the experience that tells you what you were." She didn't want to pry. Well, no, that was a lie: she didn't want it to be obvious she was prying. "...Before you knew about Fa'e, then, that there were others, what did you think you were?"

Hunh... interesting. It didn't quite answer her question the way she wanted it answered, but then again, she was not quite sure what she was expecting. A conspiracy? The existence of a sudden third party? Proof that Airi's blood wasn't the only thing that could drag a thing kicking and screaming into a mortal body?...

"Anh? That is odd. Guardians are weird, though, or at least the idea of..." She gave her forgotten lemonade a strong stir, enjoying the sound of the melting ice clinking against the sides of the glass. "..When I spoke to Lady Airi, when she was not hiding herself away so thoroughly, at least, she had said that guardians choose their Fa'e. Not the other way around. Yet, for the most part, guardians seem to have little in common with them, little belief, little ability and little reason to... reach out to us the way they do, that makes us reborn."

It was something that had been bothering her for a while. Delicately she fished a piece of ice out of her glass and slipped it into her mouth, numbing her tongue for a moment before she bit down on it. She noted, distantly, her own sudden interest in chewing on things, but dismissed it. "What is your Guardian like? Sometimes there were those who hung out at our headquarters without being a guardian, out of interest, or something similar. Maybe she already knew of Fa'e in this way, but when she found you, thought she would protect you from certain influences? Maybe she had a bad experience with another Fa'e."

In fact, some were downright rotten. Like Silver -- giant walking carpet who wouldn't know how to play his part as an informant in a James Bond movie, and probably had never even seen one, because that was how lame he was. Lethe had no doubt he would terrorize a guardian-to-be. This was far more appealing than the other obvious thing, that his guardian had thought to protect the Fa'e from Tzao.

...Though maybe that was on purpose? Maybe Tzao meant to get in on her good side, was purposefully so nice and so kindly weird, and offered to teach her to read and suchlike, so that she would not suspect him. While such a conclusion was very easy to reach, and it would be even easier to simply accept -- yes -- Tzao was definitely a supervillain in disguise -- it was oddly one Lethe simply didn't want to make. Supervillains had be treated in certain ways, with loathing and either fear or pity, and Tzao... just...

Clearly further research (ie: stalking) was required. "Where do you live now?" Lethe finally asked, under the beatific aura of curiosity.

"Yes," Lethe chirped, sitting up very straight in her chair and unable to help herself from giving Tzao a slightly puzzled glance that, with eyebrows crooked and gaze soft, might even have qualified as worried. "You have my number, so we can set up a second later?"

Normally this was the point where she would have pressed as to what was wrong, but he seemed to be doing something of the teen equivalent of a potty dance and Hades knew Lethe would never interrupt that. It still intrigued the young Fa'e how much more there seemed to be to this Tzao besides the tranquil serenity he seemed to entirely be before.

"I'll practice on my own," she added quickly, not knowing whether this would allay any of his nervousness or not but obviously hoping this would garner some approval at least.