Welcome to Gaia! ::

Drywood blinked rapidly a few times, but the rest of his body remained utterly still. His beak opened and he pulled a breath in to speak, but hesitated and closed it again.

What to make of this? Mr Odd was clearly edgy and nervous, and it... must have been something that he - Drywood - had said or done. Everything had seemed to go fine up until a brief moment ago, and yet he was being invited into the white sentinel's territory?

This was not conflict. But then, what was it?

"I..." He hesitantly began, leaning back into a somewhat more comfortable sitting position. "You want me to... come visit you?"

The brown aberrant was so distracted by this unanticipated turn of events that his usual mask faded away: His amiable smile evaporated, his ear tufts relaxed into a near-sleek, and his confusion - perhaps laced with a tiny, tiny bit of something else - was, for once, plainly obvious on his face.

"Would that make things... not so difficult?"

"I... see..." Drywood said slowly, outwardly appearing merely thoughtful. The truth was that he didn't really understand Odd's reasoning at all, but the way that the white sentinel had expressed himself had lead Drywood to feel that he should have understood.

So, he faked it.

"I see." He nodded, suddenly completely back to his normal, cheerfully amiable self again. "Well, of course, I would be delighted to visit you, Mr Odd. Absolutely delighted!" He couldn't remember ever having been invited into anyone's territory like this - at least not for a casual visit. It was both exciting, interesting and somewhat intimidating, but the apothecary was firmly determined to do his best to reciprocate this gesture of social interaction, and clamped his beak around all the exciting questions about medical abnormalities. The effort made his ear tufts twitch for a moment, but he dipped into a slight bow to try to rid himself of the excess energy, and it worked.

Noticing the pile of still-uneaten mice, Drywood eagerly indicated them with his beak. "Oh... do help yourself, Mr Odd, no need to be shy!"

Still trying to temper himself somewhat, Drywood's ear tufts sleeked back in a very natural gesture of meekness as he nodded, but his amiable smile remained in place.

"Yes, yes. I would really appreciate that." He bobbed a little, an unusually talkative gesture of uncertainty, and tried to smile even wider to ameliorate his body language. "If it wouldn't be too much of a bother to you."

Longtail's blunt nose slowly peeked up over the edge of Drywood's sleeping nest. She could tell that her master was uncomfortable. Right now, the only thing that kept her from forcefully driving the white guest out of the master's hollow was the lack of raised voices, but she felt the need to stop sulking and keep an eye on things right now.

Her cold, dark eyes fixed on the white visitor and his portable snack. The slightest indication of a conflict, and she would show them what happened to those who troubled her master.

At the change in Mr Odd's voice, Drywood relaxed somewhat and straightened up. A tightness about the chest that he hadn't even noticed before seemed to release its grip on him, and he straightened up along with his ear tufts.

"Oh," he almost sighed with relief. "Yes, I see. I shall try to remedy that, then." He let out a sudden, brief laugh at his own little play on words and his occupation, hoping it could relieve the situation even further (and slightly surprised at himself for having thought of it). "It will be my pleasure, most certainly." He fluffed himself a little, feeling a sort of contentment that came close to the sensation he experienced when a new concoction had produced a favorable result.

"Yes. I shall stop by your place very soon, then. I will be looking forward to it."

((OOC: I think we can start rounding this RP off about now and set up Drywood's visit (in another thread?). Or would you like to go on for a while longer?))