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“Well, she certainly seems like a lovely person to meet.” Elst loved being around people in love, so to speak, and the dumbfounded glaze over Fao’s eyes represented such love perfectly. He noticed a strange bit of color protruding from Fao’s hood for a quick moment, but assumed it was either some part of his circus garb peeking from out of his jacket, or a certain something else.

A faint jingle of metallic gears brushing against each other issued from the inside of Elst’s coat, the sound of a certain necklace of a certain someone else. As they approached the first greenhouse, Elst stopped for a moment. “Ah, good to be home, so to speak. Aoi, you can come on out now.” The instant he said it, the buttons on his coat seemed to undo themselves, and Aoi lightly stepped out. There was a dark black ribbon loosely looped around his neck, with an assortment of bronze and silver gears affixed to the end like a sort of pendant. Elst hoisted the flower onto his shoulder – one of Aoi’s favorite spots to be- and unlocked the green-paneled glass door to the greenhouse, stepping inside. “Come on in, I have a fresh shipment of daylilies that I’m keeping in here for the moment.”

He showed no real signs of the fact that it was a tad strange to have a flower climb out of your jacket without explanation. He mainly figured that Fao would understand, anyway.

Elst smiled at Aoi's newly-found shouldermate, turning back to Fao with a simple, "Oh, it's fine, I have plenty of shoulder to go around." He laughed lightly at this. Meanwhile, Aoi, an eager look in his eye, shuffled a bit closer to Zia.

My... Purpose? I help with the gardens, with magic that father can't do himself. He aimed his hand at an orange Daylily that sat on a desk nearby in an individual pot. Aoi's hand slowly began to glow a rather wispy deep jade color, and a tiny cloud formed above the Daylily, pouring a small amount of water into its pot. The cloud disappeared, as did the glow around Aoi's hand. See? I also keep him company, we like talking and reading together. I even get to talk with some of the... customers.

Aoi looked around slightly. But only with the ones that are okay with Essentics, like your owner is. One of the customers gave me this last time he visited. Aoi's eyes seemed to beam with pride as one of his delicate fingers tapped at the be-geared ribbon around his neck, producing a pleasant jingling sound. What’s your purpose? Your wings are really pretty, and so are those nice scarves, do you perform?

Elst nodded as he heard Fao. "Yeah, Aoi gets along with others rather well, too. Not to mention, they're probably really enjoying seeing fellow Essentics." Ducking his head under a few hanging displays of succulents, he walked over to one of the large counters, opening a panel inlaid on the top to reveal that it was refridgerated. "This is the greenhouse I take most customers to display the sort of plants I sell, so I keep some drinks and food in here to keep them comfortable. Anything I can get you?"

He laughed as he heard Zia's revelations. "No worries, I understand. Your money lies in getting it from people who deserve to lose it. It's fortunate these days that there are so many people like that around, eh?"

Aoi nodded enthusiastically at Zia. Yes, you're very colorful... the scarves only add to how nice it all... Looks. And... yes, the gears don't... match too well, but they make a sound that I really love. Plus... they're nice and shiny, and they were a gift.

Elst turned, shutting the countertop fridge behind him, and sat down on a bench opposite Fao's, careful not to disturb the perched duo on his shoulder. "Yeah, now that I think of it, Aoi's only seen one Essentic other than Zia, I think, and it belonged to, interestingly enough, a man who tried to kill me.” He said this in a fairly uncaring tone, as if he were discussing what he’d eaten for lunch.

“Yeah, rather creepy guy…His Essentic looked like a machine, acted like one too. He didn’t seem t pleased with me either. What was the Essentic’s name… Crux, it was, he and Aoi had a rather interesting… uh, discussion. I had no idea Aoi was listening so closely when I told him some of Drente’s history, he was quoting it exactly when he and Crux were arguing over the merits of plants and machines…” He watched as Zia and Aoi talked, astonished at how quickly Zia could glean information. “Well, I can certainly agree with Banning on the ‘unusual’ part, that seems to be quite a unique gift Zia possesses. It’s nice to know you’re putting it to such direct use.”

Aoi’s face changed slightly as Zia read his gears. Wow, so you can read things that quickly? That’s… what was it that one customer had said… pretty cool. And those scarves do look at home in a… carnival, they look like, what were they called… Belly-dancing scarves.

Elst raised an eyebrow. “Arrhythmia? I didn’t know you had heart problems…. Aoi’s been a blessing too, as you put it, I’ve realized I love his company even more than the work he does.” His eyes narrowed at the mention of Trystan. “Ah, yes… Trystan and Crux… That was a rather interesting encounter, I must say. Aoi and Crux didn’t seem to mind each other either, they had quite a debate, though.”

As he continued to think, Elst, without realizing it, began to retrace the area where his skull had been fractured by Trystan’s bullet. “Yes… One of my competitors has been taking things a little to seriously apparently, and he hired Trystan to kill me. He blew most of my head clean off, actually. Didn’t kill me, of course, but I must admit, that headache lasted for quite some time.” His hand fell from the fracture line.

“Even odder, we ended up talking for a time, although Trystan seemed to hate me from the start, we both had information the other could use, and we treated each other accordingly. I can’t help but grin, though, at the prospect of him passed out, hung over with a bunch of clowns. How’d that go over? I have trouble imagining I’d ever be able to convince him to do anything social, much less that.”

Aoi nodded. Oh, so he dances too? That’s interesting… he manages to dance well without his heart giving him problems. That must take… a lot of work. His eyes brightened, realizing that Elst likely still had some of the sugarcane candies he so very much enjoyed in one of his pockets. “Oh, there are these candies that father makes, from sugarcane, they’re really nice. Would you like one? He has them in his pockets somewhere.

Elst grinned slightly. “Oh yes, I’m sure the clown-booze is quite unique. Come to think of it, the only way I really managed to get him to calm down was with Vodka that I had been keeping in one of the cabinets.” He glanced over to the nearest wall of the greenhouse, which had several panels of glass that looked newer than the others. “Didn’t stop him from costing me a few hundred in broken glass panels, though.”

Aoi nudged Elst’s neck with a simple request, and Elst soon handed him two of the sugarcane candies he’d been keeping in his coat. These particular ones were honey-flavored. Aoi took them, offering one to Zia. Actually, some of my magic requires a kind of dance, but it’s really slow and fluid… not too much stress on the body like Faolan’s dancing must be.

Elst rolled his eyes a bit, a slight hint of disdain on his voice. "Yeah, I'm sure I'd have plenty of luck with that. He was angry with me the entire time, as I recall, for no evident reason." To break any tension he may have caused, he laughed slightly at his own statement. "Though, I think he just hated plants in general, judging from what he'd taught Crux. Not much I could do, really."

Aoi would have been blushing at that particular moment, if he'd had regular blood to fill his face. He was still quite shy, and the thought of anyone watching his dances flared the ol' shyness right up. I... I... Well, they're for the larger things I have to do, like making... a lot of rain. I guess... I guess I might be able to show you some time, if you really want...

Elst adopted a somewhat thoughtful grin. "Well, I certainly did try with him, but.... Well, he is the one that tried to kill me, not the other way around. It all seemed kind of hopeless." He turned his head to face Aoi more directly, and said, a little more quietly, "Don't let me forget, we still need to water that last section of perennials by the end of the day. Try to decide on which dance you'll be using."

Aoi hung his head a little, struggling with his shy side. Fellow Essentics, it seemed, actualy managed to help him combat his shyness, but he still wasn't socialized very well with those other than Elst, so it was still difficult. Well... Like he said, I... I do need to water those, so... I guess you could watch me, I'll need to...use one of my dances for it...