Welcome to Gaia! ::

♛When it came to his reconnection to arts, it was still a stingy feeling to hold up a brush and use the things his father taught him, and even more to use the tricks his mom passed out to him. Unfortunately to them, he became a reclusive man focusing on gaining wealth on the low rather than selling what he knew how to do out there. To her comment on his hobbies, the man merely nodded and continued to listen to her introduction, quite curious to hear what she had to say. It was all good and well until she came to a brief pause and explained the fact she was also a shinigami, the grade A greatest human fear incarnated, saying it all as if such a thing was just regular day to day stuff. For Hikaru, probably was normal as she was the entity every second of her existence, but it became a stunning surprise to Vermont, as he made a 'not bad' kind of expression towards her for a second. "I should've gone to Beluga if I had known a shinigami would be serving, doesn't feel like a regular thing to do, ya know? But nevertheless, pleasure to meet you, true honor" ,he spoke sincerely, as maybe it wasn't a big thing for her, but in his eyes, her very existence was an immense thing to cope with, considering all the people he knew, including his own parents, had to face one of her kind before crossing over. If he wasn't so level headed, probably would've freaked out, and also if he hadn't met other supernatural beings before. Less and less it felt usual to be human in the world.

Then, as his focus shifted to the other female, he began to wonder again if there was a reason for her whiteboard usage. Shrugging it out as he thought she was most likely just mute, Vermont figured it would be rude to make any references to that, directly or undirectly, so he merely leaned closer towards her board to read well the information she had written there. As he came to the middle of his reading, there was a slight chuckle from his part as the man found quite funny how she seemed to be shy but was already challenging him to a race. He would take that challenge no problem, considering his confidence in his training regime and overall speed, few humans could outright make him go serious. Continuing on, having now completed his reading, his eyes rose from the board and kept the gaze on her face now, "half siren? Not quite fair there, imagine the leg strength you must have on you for a race" ,after saying this, the male looked over to the side and rose an eyebrow, still maintaining the general neutral expression, a defining detail of his personality, "For a regular person it ain't fair, good luck leaving the smoke I'll leave you on" ,returning to look at her, there was a small but noticeable curve on his lips that vanished as he went back to his 'regular' humor and continued talking, "Welcome to the city, Mi-Yeong, take it easy on our low lives" ,the male spoke ironically referencing the fact she had straight up beaten the thug a time before, but kept the poker face despite the joke.

As his gaze went towards the bartender that approached with 3 shots of whiskey on their direction. For the moment, Vermont had yet to notice it was for them as he had failed to see the siren order them, and his mind was processing a few things. He was human, not that deep into going into people's lives besides his curiosity in learning random things, so it was still a tiny struggle to really accept the situation he was in. Plus it was quite the temptation to ask Mi-Yeong about her voice, considering she was half a siren and those were known historically to have the most seductive of voices of all, but then again, even if she was mute or just hiding her voice from him, didn't feel like it was a rightful action to go around and ask her, perhaps if they bumped into each other in some other occasions and developed a better friendship. Still, this was her first day there and had already gone through a lot, along with how she would need to get used to all the offerings of the city. It was a wild place, even in the reality of a reclusive and disciplined man like him.

Rising both eyebrows, he watched the bartender gently place the 3 shots in front of them. At first Vermont was confused, but as he looked around to the girls and noticed the siren already rising a glass, understanding came fast. Upon reading the words she had made on the board, he took hold of one cup and kept it high for the cheers. " Besides feeling like drinking with a siren and a shinigami is somewhat of a special moment, I really don't feel like watching over another drunk in my dainty bar" .♛

♛Listening to their conversation in a relaxed posed, just sitting there enjoying more of the shots being brought around, there was the concern in soon stopping them from coming his way, it wouldn't be long before he started losing his bearings and getting tipsy. There was the worry in saying something too blunt to the too, so while a new shot came, he was just focused on making it the last one. It was then that a sudden new voice emerged and the first thought to race through his mind was that the drunkness was far stronger than he was actually feeling and now the whiteboard was speaking the words written on them. Before losing his damn sanity, Vermont looked back towards the girl and just observed as the previously mute Mi-Yeong spoke clearly, leaving aside her trusty board. Silent, he just watched, and waited for her to notice, as her logic was probably not at its best shape seeing how the alcohol had managed to get a good grip on her control. Leaving that for the moment, his eyes shifted to Hikaru as her voice came his way.

With light nods as Hikaru began to answer his question, Vermont listened to the simple reason she gave and then paid actual attention to the fact both seemed to come from oriental grounds, a tad of a contrast from his european roots that he found nice as it was always good to get into connection with a different culture, no matter which one. "Well, the city has plenty of curious things to offer, no shortage of interesting spots" ,Although his words were sincere, there was still a bittersweet feeling to it as his home was located in a dark part of the city, and the things he had seen were quite crazy. Human, but crazy nonetheless. One example would be the miracle of a mute talking well enough to the two of them, as Mi-Yeong herself began to explain her reasoning for coming to Soleil, keeping it simple but leaving a lot for the interpretation with the part mentioning her previous place of living was too much to handle. People had all sorts of pasts, so just like about her previous lack of speech, Vermont would keep his interests quiet about that. The wait on whether she would explain about the voice exposure kept him from making any comments about her other answer, as there was certainty now that she had noticed the slip up from a strong face palm she made a minute before. As the siren began talking, the obscure male lightly shook his head and waved his hand in a manner of 'don't worry about it'. Having done that, his eyes would aim at hers back again, "It's all good, mate, I was sure you had your reasons to keep the voice a secret if you weren't a mute. A siren without a voice ain't the usual thing, y'know... But in any case, glad to see you have a voice, and that you're sharing it with us, honored to talk to ya" ,talking in a way to perhaps sooth her nerves after having the cover blown, Vermont kept his usual cool and just allowed her to recover, with the water by her side. Maybe he should also get a glass, the burning sensation was still strong and there was that inner energy of the alcohol working its magic in his system. He had great resistance, but he was not made of stone.♛