Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Wow, the grocery store and your school are both so close! Talk about a good location." The shy little imp then asked him if he was in college. Verdant chuckled and shook his head. "No, but I'm old enough to be enrolled. I'm not quite smart enough to be in school, though, so I sing. It's my one real talent, aside from being able to crack a walnut with my as-" Verdant decided not to finish that sentence around this kid. That'd be a horrible idea!

"Uh, anywhoo, I perform at small venues and cafés around the city. It pays pretty well, but I'd stay in school if I were you. You know what they say: Knowledge is Power!"

"Oh? You'd want to go to one of my performances? That'd be so cool!" Then Verdant remembered what happened the last time he took a new friend to one of his concerts. E He'd tackled his ex-drummer, stained his favorite stage outfit, and accidentally made Ellandra cry. Not exactly his best night. "But maybe it'd be best if I gave you a private show. Then again, I don't have my guitar on me... but maybe someone in your apartment complex has one?"

Verdant didn't want another new friend to deal with the same crap that Ellandra had. It was his fault, but she was probably still blaming herself.

"Aw, shoot! I was really hoping to play "A Siren's Soliloquy" or "Anna Molly" for you! Well, if you aren't busy tomorrow, you could come over and I could play for you. It's better for me tomorrow 'cos my apartment's an absolute mess." Verdant grinned deviously and said, "Plus, maybe you can distract the landlady before she tries to force anymore bittermelon casserole down my throat. I nearly died the last time she made it."

Verdant was surprised that Shade had asked to hang out at his apartment. They'd only just met, after all, and Verdant was older than the impling by at least five years or so. Still, it's not like Verdant was some horrible, slimy teenager-eating monster in a corset and red pumps, or worse, an ephebophile! Verdant cringed at the word; the matron of the youth center he'd grown up in had warned everyone of the dangers of *****, *********, and ephebophiles.

"They look like ordinary people, kids, and they will take advantage of you at any opportunity!" Then she cried "BOO!" at the top of her lungs and scared everyone off to bed. Her approach to nurturing was... different.

"Say, while I think of songs to play, is their a band or artist that you prefer?" If they were going to be friends, Verdant would need to know what kind of music Shade liked. It was a good way to keep the conversation going too!

"Cool! I can't wait to play for you. I would have just invited you to a concert as my guest, but I learned my lesson the last time..." Verdant wasn't going into details and wasn't entirely sure why he let that slip. He wanted to talk about it, chat with Ellandra and find out how she felt since then, but he hadn't gotten the chance to see her again. Well, at least he knew where her apartment was. "Anywhoo, I'll need to stock up on snacks and the like; the frat boys clean me out every so often."

Verdant smiled when he heard Shade's response to his question about his music preferences. "I'm no fan of rap myself. I mean, it used to be good, but mainstream rap is far too materialistic for my taste. An annoying bass line coupled with lyrics about "da chronic and da hoes" just does not cater to me. Give me lyrical complexity and throat-lacerating screams over rap any day!"

Verdant and Shade walked into the brick apartment building and headed towards the elevator per Shade's request. Verdant wasn't up to walking up three flights of stairs at the moment anyhow. They waited for it to descend, then hopped inside when the doors slid open. He let Shade push the button for the thrid floor; Verdant was likely to press all the buttons for the fun of it.

"Yeah? That'd be really nice of you, but bring it in a duffel bag; if the frat boys see them, they'll be gone before you even get to the door. Seriously, they'll be on those chips like Pamela Andersen on a skeezy drummer!" He snapped his fingers to emphasize his point. How he did so while holding onto his parasol was a mystery to him, but it didn't really matter.

He grinned at Shade's agreement on rap. With a nice dose of humor lacing his voice, he said, "Thats like saying Prada's are just shoes, or vodka's just a morning beverage." He wasn't sure about the vodka, though. That was just what his landlady said that whenever she caught him in the mornings. "Rock still has a lot to do with sex and drugs, but I find that it's done in a more tasteful fashion than rap."

Verdant waved off Shade's comment on the messiness of his apartment with a parasol-weildeing hand. "I'm sure I've seen worse- far worse. One time, I had a gig at this Goth venue on the other side of town. I was really sweaty and smelled like death, so I was going to use the dressing room shower. I walk into the bathroom and close the door. The light's off, so I turn on the light and screamed like a woman. There were cockroaches covering every inch of the damn bathroom. When they all crawled down the tub's drain, it was like watching the paint on the walls get sucked right off. It was so horrible. I think one of them uttered something anti-semitic!"

The imp and nymph walked through the apartment door and into a small kitchen. It was quaint, cute, and way bigger than his; it was probably a lot better stocked as well. Verdant set his bag onto the kitchen table next to the bag Shade had been carrying. He saw the plants in the living room and was just about to hover over them with glee when Shade thanked him.

"Oh, it's no problem! To help those in need is what I live for. Plus, it was fun talking to you- Whoa! What's that thing connected to your T.V.?" His eyes grew wide with curiosity as he eyed the video game console from the kitchen. He'd never seen a game system before; Matron Sandy said that video games were bad for your brain cells and that reading was more entertaining anyway.

"I didn't say anything to the guy. I didn't even play for him. I kinda just spent the night in the fetal position in my hammock." Verdant poked the strange device connected to the T.V. Shade then told him what the device was- a video game console! He looked at it with childish awe and beamed at the impling. "I've never even seen a video game system, let alone played one. What kind of system is it?" He didn't even know why he was asking that. It's not like he even knew about any game systems. Hell, he thought an X-box was a dirty word referring to a lady's naughty parts. When it came to music and rock, Verdant was a vast well of knowledge. When it came to video games, he was worse than a "noob".

Verdant turned to face Shade so quickly his neck cracked. "There's a PS One? Whoa! So, then that means this one is, like, upgraded? That's amazing! Technology and I don't usually get along too well; it's one of the reasons I've never played video games. I have a hard enough time trying to program my VCR." Were VCRs obsolete? He had no idea, but he'd gotten it at a yard sale for real cheap. He'd also bought some movies, but they were all in black-and-white, were in a foreign language, and involved talking animals. Suffice to say, he didn't really watch them all that often.

"Oh, I've heard of RPGs! That's, that's when you play as a warrior and go around beating up monsters to get gold and drop-items, right?" He had recently read Final Fantasy for Complete Morons a few days ago at the library; one of the frat boys needed help getting past one of those ULTIMA things and Verdant had let him borrow the book. Speaking of which, that douche still had it! "Not to impose or bug you or anything, but... do you think I could play one of these 'RPGs' with you?"