Welcome to Gaia! ::

"She's a young woman." Alg's voice took on a slight growl, "A young woman who made a choice. Someone who has bloody parents-" His voice had risen a moment, pointing outside, "-who I'm sure would appreciate you implying that their child is an ancient being. I'm fairly sure her mother remembers giving birth to her."

Alg had seen her memories, seen her in other's memories, felt her connections to the people she cared about and her conviction in her choice. She may have always made the choice, time and time again, but she was always herself - a person - when she did it. The implication that she was anything less than a human being made him genuinely angry.

He huffed, "I sure as hell hope they haven't let you talk to those kid's families."

Yes, he was possibly a bit fond of Heliodora, and a bit defensive.

"You're missing the point." Algie shook his head, still not commenting on what the other was picking out. Let him find her something on his own.

"Humanity is the point. Any of us are one decision away from being Heliodora." He shook his head in disbelief, "She was someone's student, someone's daughter not very long ago. to assume otherwise is degrading and rude."

The bookshop owner moved along, back towards the front of the store where he would ring up whatever Shun finally settled on.

"I'm hardly going to recommend you speak to anyone if you can't even acknowledge they're a person." What were any of them at this point? They had powers. The could do things. If they didn't have their judgement and humanity, what did they have?

"Semantics," Alg huffed, though to his credit he wasn't exactly running Shun out of the store. The quiet calm of the other, while not doing him any sympathetic favors with the shop owner, kept him from getting any more upset. "Have a little care in how you speak then, from now on. People in this city are close to these things. She was a girl- she was a student- and before you were here she was walking these streets and going to school and coming in here to buy books."

She wasn't some lofty being to some people, she wasn't some immortal pillar of the otherworld, that was simply something she became. And if and when the cycle restarted, another Heliodora would be a girl and choose the same path - at least as far as he'd been lead to believe.

Alg hadn't rung up anything yet, hands pressed to the counter in a tense lean, which eventually sagged and sunk back to his heels, "I apologize," only for getting snippy, not for what he said, "We've been very close to this."

"So why bother?" Unfortunately for Shun, unless he walked out, he was at Alg's mercy so far as conversation when so long as he didn't ring anything up. "If you don't actually care. Unless I'm also reading 'emotionally distant' wrong."

Wasn't some level of emotion or drive required in police work? To care? To want to help people?

Alg lifted a brow and pushed his glasses up his nose, "Or is the thought of powers just too alluring?"

"How do you even know what's what? And what do you plan on doing?" Alg wasn't actually being discouraging, he was curious. There were quite a few people reaching out and doing their best but Algie was beginning to wonder if there were 'sides' or 'wrong and right' to this at all. To what end were they doing any of it, especially when they were clearly locked into something beyond their control.

The older man shrugged, "What are we taking care of exactly?" Was it the kids? Was it the enemy? Was it magic as a whole? Because every turn, every bit of information they received, seemed to confuse more. "People are people, powers or not, which means they are easily misled and prone to mistakes. How do we even know what the truth is?"

Alg straightened, holding up a hand to clarify, "I'm not trying to discourage. I'm just not sure anyone has the truth.. and we're taking the word and advice of bias sources."

Alg opened his mouth, but then closed it. he wasn't exactly comfortable sharing his thoeries or opinion with the young policeman. Having a drive for the truth was one thing but no one quite knew what it was.

"The magic was leaking before us, as far as I've understood. I'm not sure if stopping it is possible at this point, but I wish you luck." Jeremiah had told him that Shun had developed powers, that he was now among the ranks of those who could find their way into the other world. He wondered if everyone in the town, at some point or other, should it all come pouring out- would they all end up powered? "I've been told that the more we're told, the more we find out, the more we're doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past."

The older man finally picked up the scanner and scanned the first audiobook, "What are your powers, if you don't mind me asking?"

It had been an idea he pursued as well until he'd been informed that the more information he was provided the more likely they all were to mess things up again. Of course Sunny had told him, showed him the deaths, but he had new ideas about what was right and what end they were bringing themselves to.

"Not so shabby." Alg chuckled, "I've recently begun to float myself." A quick glance around, coast clear, and the man seemed to rise higher and higher, though not above the counter. Of course he had some more small abilities but not much he could show.

"Have you tried anything on the other side?"

"A little over three feet and it starts to become difficult to maintain and go higher.." He drifted back down, feet seemingly hitting the floor again. "Not really sure what triggers any of this. It may be environmental - or perhaps just involvement triggers more. I'm not exactly brimming with magical powers," like Jeremiah, "but they seem to increase with time."

He had the strong desire to 'think fast' throw a book at Shun to further demonstrate more of his powers but the idea just made him smirk a bit, and he declined.

"Heliodora should be able to help you a bit with magic," If he was polite with her, "So there is that. Though from what I've hear it relies heavily on pop culture references and magic words." His brows lifted, "I'm not joking."

He rang up the last items and and total popped up for Shun.