Welcome to Gaia! ::

She was reaching for her own thermos when he said the word beautiful, which caused her grip to loosen and she stumbled with it. Luckily it wasn't open and she caught it despite the gloves and rolled her eye up to the heavens with a quick sigh of relief. From there she opened hers up and sipped at it.

"It's dark chocolate. I put some ....well, some liquid coffee creamer in it for a cinnamon flavor. Not a lot." She had learned to experiment. This was how she made her hot chocolate.

Her face was completely red, and her chest felt tight and uncomfortable as he continued again calling her pretty.

"Tw-twenty five. I... honestly have no patience for kids. Or their parents most of the time. Ungrateful, spoiled things." American children were so wild. "...I'm not completely bitter. It's coming across that way, I realize. There are things I enjoy. You're probably going to ask, so I like flower arranging because... it's just.. putting pretty things together in a pretty order. ...And there's normally music playing in the house. Classical, pop.. Something new. Whatever's catchy."

"I don't know."

It was a bluntly honest answer. she didn't know at all what she wanted to do. She didn't really know what she was passionate about. Years of depression eats away at ones passions until you feel like every day is gray and bleary. Everything blended together most days.

"I think when I was in school, I enjoyed writing. Things got... pushed aside. I haven't written in years. No ideas even come to me anymore." She didn't even read much more than social media things.

She capped her drink again and stabbed another marshmallow onto her stick, then started with the s'mores making as she held the stick with her knees. Nutella this time, just to try it. "What do people even do? What do you do? You said you were a freelancer. So... Is that your dream job? Is that what you would do?"

Eris would listen to him the way he listened to her. She took in what he was saying, about living out of his car, and her first instinct was to offer the free room in her house. Why was that?

He had to have been doing better now. That's what she was telling herself. "I can't imagine smelling like fries all day." Eris was lucky enough that she had quite a comfortable sum of money if things got to the worst, and the job at the school kept the bills paid. She hadn't ever struggled like this in her life.

"So you want to be a mystery man."

It sounded so simple it was almost childish. At the same time, she understood the appeal. Glancing over at Arnica again with her good eye, Eris had a small smile on her lips again. "That mysterious man who wanders into town and sweeps everyone up in their charm before disappearing, leaving more of a myth than actual events."

Then came the question on what she used to write, and she physically cringed. "I... It was things like time travel romance suspense things. It wasn't very good. I was still in school. I found one of the old journals and I had the reaction of 'I would burn this if I could'. Fortunately I don't know how to contain a fire without panicking about burning the house down, and there are no fireplaces."

If there's any real joy to be had...

The unassuming thought slipped through, but didn't make it to her mouth. Eris just rolled her eye and picked up her hot chocolate again to drink.

"You've got the outlook of a child. Keep hold of that." I hope it isn't taken from you in this war. Eris' voice was full of sincerity for that. Many around her age that had been in the war for this long had her jaded point of view. She was sure of it. Too much had happened for them to stay as happy as the newer recruits. So to see this energy always left her .... well, it used to leave her annoyed. Now it was different. Fondness? It wasn't amusement. She couldn't quite place the emotion of it.

"The thermos... just wash and bring it back to me next time. Maybe another weekend." She wasn't going to set a firm schedule. He had a life outside of this, as did she. But if he wanted to set something...

The voice he used made the corner of her lips curl just a hair before she finished packing up the rest of the bag, making sure things were secured, or at least not going to be loud. God knows she needed her neighbors complaining about noises in the middle of the night.

"I... We could do this... every Saturday or Sunday. It's my available times where I'm out the longest. I still need to do a job, I suppose." Even if she didn't exactly want to. It could be a lot worse, she imagined.

Standing up and stretching herself out, the short Japanese senshi turned to the other. "....I wouldn't mind your phone number. Uh..." Did she give him her phone? How did this work? Eris was confused.

The admission of him having a card made Eris raise a brow, but she accepted it. Black gloved fingers grabbed hold of it and she examined it with her eye before nodding and pocketing it in her skirt. Of course she had pockets.

"....My name is Rin," she said, repaying him with her real name. It felt weird to her own tongue. "I'll let you know it's me, when I contact you." Her lips were curled into a small, little sort of smile. Arnica wasn't an enemy. She didn't think he could be. He didn't seem like the type that belonged on the Chaos side of things, but sometimes you had little choice where you got put in this war. Looking him over again, she sighed and pushed her hands through her hair before looking off in the distance again.

"Until next time, friend." It was tentative, but she glanced back one more time and took the leap with her bag. Off into the darkness she went, feeling ...content. Something she hadn't felt in a long time.