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Whether or not fairies were real was certainly an academic point, but at this point Allarian was uninterested. After all, he'd never seen one, nor heard of anyone having seen one, nor any evidence of one. He'd always been a very tactile Soquili, and without cold hard evidence he wasn't going to be very interested in anything. Until he had seen, heard, smelled, touched, or tasted something that was undisputably fairy-related, he was firmly in the skeptic camp. Not so when it came to his beloved creepy-crawlies, though. They had always held a fascination, even an allure, for him, and never once had it occurred to him to consider any of them 'icky' or a thing to be feared.

The singularity of the idea was probably obvious, given the puzzled expression on his face as he slowly replied, “Icky? I don't think I've ever met any creature I would call icky, or anything similar. Spiders themselves are rather elegant things, don't you think? They're so graceful in their movement, whether spinning, trapping, or just walking. And they're certainly very useful, what with their consumption of excess flies. I spent a whole summer once when I was a youngster keeping tabs on some of the local spiders, they were quite fascinating! Perhaps you should consider spider watching sometime; it might just be that you're unfamiliar with them that causes you to be nervous.” This last was tacked on in a what he hoped was a suitably kindly tone, having realized he was, once again, running away with the conversation. “Sorry, I'm just very enthusiastic on the subject. Even walking into spiderwebs doesn't bother me, but I might be the exception. That, and I'm very used to observing them, so I don't usually end up passing through them...”

Birds were much less interesting, himself even less so by association, but he was doing his best to rein himself in. He'd never made much of a case study on birds, but he was familiar enough with the basics.
“I think you get scraggly and it affects flight if you don't keep yourself in order. But I don't think it would get tangled...I've never let my own go that far, but the stiff structure of feathers seems like they would resist tangling.” He glanced at his wings as he spoke, spreading them out and extending the feathers so Nymph could see for herself how solid the shafts of each feather were. “Breaking seems more likely than bending. But do you have to do much maintenance on your wings?”

For himself, Allarian could have kept going on spiders for a while longer. It was much easier to discuss interesting creatures than himself, and he found it utterly shocking how uninformed and fearful Nymph seemed to be about their relatively benign physical charictaristics. What he would prefer to do was find a spider and have Nymph observe it carefully so she could overcome her anxieties, but her willingness to change the subject forced him to acknowledge that was an impractical idea. A pity, because spiders were so very useful and interesting.

Then again, Nymph herself had some very interesting characteristics, and, as he had observed earlier, she was novel and unique. He could watch spiders at any time, he only had the present to learn from Nymph herself! He just had to remember that this was a conversation, not an analysis, so he had to try to be as accomdating to her questions as she was to his...even if hers were about his relatively uninteresting appendages!

"The feathers themselves don't have much in the way of feeling, although they transmit sensations to my wings. If the feathers touch something, I can feel that in the wings themselves. But they don't really have anything in the way of nerves, so it doesn't really hurt if the feathers break. I try to avoid that soert of thing, though, because then you have to let them grow back. And pulling a feather out of the skin is a bit painful." This was accompanied by a rueful smile; when he was younger, he'd experimented with his feathers by pulling a few out with his teeth. Needless to say, that had been a one-time experiment.

Furling his own wings, he leaned over to look at Nymph's. "Interesting...is the 'powdery stuff' a constant covering on the wings, or does it wash away? I wonder if it's a protective coating of some sort...maybe a waterproofing? Or something to protect the wings from tearing?"

"That's right, they're kind of like hair in that respect. I guess I never really thought about it in those terms, but it's a pretty good analogy." Allarian glanced at his wings thoughtfully at that, mentally stowing away that particular comparision for sometime in the future. After all, a Soquili who spends his life expounding ought to know how to expound in a way other Soquili can actually relate to! "I guess it just goes to show how uninteresting I find myself that I never thought about it before." He actually chuckled at that before turning his attention back to her wings, nodding thoughtfully at the 'powder.'

"May I take a closer look?" He was getting better at this 'manners' thing, actually asking permission rather than just getting up close and personal, but it was obvious the asking was a hard thing for him. Even as he was asking, he'd taken one step closer, curious to closer examine the surface of the wings. He knew that in moths and butterflies, the wings were covered with tiny irridescant scaley bits, and he would think they were present on giant versions of the wings as well. The only odd thing was that the scales weren't bigger themselves! "I won't touch, I promise."

Spending his entire life being obsessed with insects and the like had definitely had its drawbacks for Allarian, the glaring omissions in his social behavior being only one of the many. However, it was a lifestyle that also had its advantages; for example, it is doubtful there were many Soquili as patient, as gentle, or able to remain as motionless for even of a fraction of the time Allarian had learned to be. When dealing with tiny fragile lifeforms, every motion, every sound had to be considered in a new light. He prided himself on his consideration of his tiny subjects, and how he managed to interact with them (for the most part) without ever hurting them.

Nymph's permission meant he was firmly in 'naturalist' mode at the moment, and he was gentle in both his steps and the speed her brought in his nose to inspect her wings. They looked so very fragile, the last thing he wanted was too move too quickly and cause damage, after all! Bringing his nose so close it was almost touching her wing, he examined the surface with rapt attention. They were so delicate, so insubstantial and frail looking, yet he had seen her lift herself up with them! Remarkable.

Carefully, he moved around to Nymph's other side, examing the backside of the wing he had just been studying and taking note of the tiny scales. It was rather remarkable; the substance appeared to be basically identical to the 'scales' on the wings of the butterflies he'd seen, without even being adjusted to scale! Although the wings were obviously much larger than the butterfly wings, the scales themselves were so tiny...

Although he had permission, he couldn't bring himself to touch the wings. His 'hands free' approach had stood him in good stead for so long, it seemed unnatural to break it, even with permission!

Letting out the breath he didn't even know he'd been holding, he stepped back and looked back at Nymph's face, breaking into a pleased smile as he did so. "Absolutely fascinating, thank you!"

Even the way Nymph fluttered her wings was fascinating, Allarian thought as he observed the little 'welcome' flutter. He'd never seen a butterfly or moth make such a rapid little motion, although he had noticed them slowly opening and closing their wings at rest. Perhaps it was an element of the larger Soquili wings that they were able to withstand an action the smaller wings would collapse under? Or perhaps butterflies and moths were just less likely to feel the emotions that would make a Soquili flutter their wings rapidly?

All of these thoughts passed through his mind before being catalogued away to review at another time. Obviously he needed to make a further study of butterflies and or moths, and perhaps a further study of butterfly winged Soquili. Assuming he could find Soquili who weren't too put-off by the concept of being a case study...

He was abruptly brought back out of his scholarly thoughts by her comment on his uniqueness. For a second he blinked at her, wondering what he'd done just then to cause such a comment when he'd thought he was managing to follow all of the expected social niceties. Then logic pulled through, as it often did, and he laughed as he realized how much his own thoughts must prove his weirdness.

"It's ok, you can say I'm weird. My brothers have always said that, and more. I'm an odd duck, apparently." He smiled sheepishly at that, shrugging his shoulders in a 'what can you do' sort of gesture. "It's just the way I am, I guess. But you've been very...gracious, and I appreciate that." That was true; it wasn't often that other Soquili were so patient with his little idiosyncracies!

Allarian couldn't help but laugh at the mare's logic, both in her dissection of 'embarrassing' behavior and in her categorization of herself as 'big.' It was funny to hear a mare so much shorter than himself categorize herself as 'big,' even if she was comparing herself to her own kind. After all, she was the first butterfly Soquili he'd ever met, so he had nothing to compare her with. Maybe butterfly Soquili were naturally smaller than any other kind? That would make sense, if one considered the sizes of animals whose traits the different breeds of Soquili mimicked. Birds were larger than butterflies, period.

Well, not including hummingbirds, and some species of butterflies who were at the extreme end of bug size...aaaaaaaand, he was mentally digressing. Again. No wonder people thought he was touched in the head sometimes!

He chuckled again, this time in the semi-awkward manner of someone who realizes they've made themselves silly. "Well, it would sure be nice if some of the other bug-lovers out there would be more obvious about it. It would be great to be able to talk about ants and bees and moths with someone who actually cares about them like I do!" Oblivious to how that comment could be construed as an insult, he continued on in his earnest way. "And thanks, Nymph. I don't think I could ever be anything except me, me is so odd from everyone else. You've been very nice for putting up with me all this time, and answering my questions so nicely."

Being a wind and having sturdier wings, Allarian didn't have to deal with the same flight complications as Nymph. However, the night was a challenge for him to deal with all the same, because the lack of light meant he couldn't see the bugs (and they tended to get inactive all the same). Fortunately, there were moths and fireflies to enjoy, because he had spent so much time in conversation with Nymph that his ants would have to wait until another day.

Though the time had been by no means wasted; he considered his (almost literal) run-in with her to have been very informative, and pleasant to boot! "Indeed, it has been a most enjoyable and informative interlude, Nymph. I enjoyed our chat, and I appreciate you answering my questions and letting me examine your wings. Perhaps we'll have something more of interest to share next time we meet."