Welcome to Gaia! ::

Feathers remained puffed out as Tybalt took measure of Vidya. She was nearly as tall as he was! Though he couldn't really tell much else through all the clothes she was wearing--what WAS she wearing? It looked like a bathrobe over something...something foreign. He didn't know what it was, other than a very loud orange. Somehow, it went well with the blue and white of Vidya's hair and skin, like a fire to counter all that water.

His wings lowered to settle against his back, and he smirked as she revealed that he was the first aside from her family to see her like this. Well, that was as it should be! He should know of any changes in his crew, especially if they include growing out of babyhood! His cocky grin only grew as she clarified her "soft" comment. Of course she meant soft like that--he was soft in no other way, certainly.

"I've been well, Viddy...better now, o' course. I must say 'm rather...pleased ye've grown. 'Twas gettin' a bit borin' totin' a toddler 'round, ye know? An' the faintin', could've lived without that, too. A sign that ye were about t' grow, most likely." He vaguely remembered odd things happening to him as well before he had grown, though he had never fainted. Even if he had, he wouldn't have admitted to it--it was such a girly thing to do! "I must say, ye look rather good now." A compliment, from Tybalt? She must have looked fabulous to warrant such a thing--and to him, she pretty much did.

"Aye, 'twas. An' I know ye didn' mean to," he admitted, grin falling to be replaced by seriousness. He had worried the same thing--why would he want to be captain to a crew of babies?--so this was a most welcome sight indeed. Now if only Donny and...what'shisname, Sylvester? They needed to grow too! And they needed a ship, which was part of what Tybalt had been working on. He chanced a sidelong glance at his pad of paper, unfurling a wing a little in order to hide his nudging it to the side. He didn't want to have to explain to Vidya what he was doing...not yet, anyway. It would be a surprise, should he choose to do it.

He moved to stand beside her as she turned to survey the backyard, looking it over himself with disinterest. It was vast, dotted with trees here and there and covered with lush green grass--it was fall, but no one had told it that. It would wither and die when it was damn good and ready to, screw this "seasons" crap. The yard wasn't fenced in in any way, but it was clear where the House deemed the property ended and the wilds began: the neatly-trimmed, healthy grass turned yellowish and unkempt, and the trees were larger and wilder, growing in number further back. Tybalt had never really cared before, but he supposed it did have a hint of beauty. Of course, wherever Vidya was...he gave a mental shake of his head, extending his wing to encompass his first mate.

"'S not bad, I 'spose," he replied halfheartedly. "So how's it feel t' be grown?" he asked, interested. He hadn't asked any of the other Tales his age about the difference between infancy and childhood, and Vidya's transition was new enough that he thought she would have answers. "Are ya adjustin' well?"

Tybalt was not a person who cared about such things as beauty beyond the realm of jewels and other such shinies--the bounty of such that nature provided was lost on him. He didn't think he would ever understand why people would care so much about such temporary things. Flowers would wither and die and the turning of the leaves came only once a year; why not have something pretty AND permanent? Vidya was a girl, however, so it was forgiveable. His head tilted to look at her as she faced him. The beauty she had walked the fine edge of his somewhat unrefined tastes, teetering between pointless and priceless...although he didn't exactly know that's what it was yet.

His feathers ruffled instinctively as she toyed with them, the outstretched limb tensing as if it meant to withdraw. Tybalt didn't think he'd ever quite get used to people touching him, not after a long-ago encounter had spoiled him to it. He had learned then that people couldn't hurt him if they couldn't touch him, so he had gone out of his way to avoid physical contact, going so far as to lash out at those who dared to touch him uninvited. He hadn't meant to bring on Vidya's touch with his gesture, but...he found he didn't mind so much. It felt almost pleasant, and...he could trust Vidya. More than anyone else, he could trust her.

Tybalt almost didn't hear her words, so lost was he in thought. He smiled at her a bit as he listened to what she'd had to endure so far. "I'm sure ye'll get th' hang of it, sooner than later. It didn' take that much time th' first time 'round, did it?" He forgot, sometimes, about her disability. The signifigance of Vidya's blind left eye hit him then, harder than it ever had before, and his smile turned a bit grim. Some things never change...

"Thatta girl, don't let anythin' get ya down. 'Specially not somethin' ya can't help." He nodded as if in approval before reaching a red-covered hand up to brush ever-growing locks of multi-colored hair out of his face. Where was his hat? "How it felt?" Tybalt paused as he considered his answer. "It felt...awkward." It was as much of a concession to the discomfort as he would voice. He would never admit to anyone, even Vidya, that the sudden and rapid growth of his body was excruciating, far worse than any pain he had yet lived through.

Tybalt sighed quietly as Vidya's sky-colored fingers toyed with his feathers. Surely this must be how housepets felt when rubbed behind the ears! Why didn't he like this again? Though his distaste of physical contact was always prominent, the event that had caused it was often buried under more important thoughts. Far be it from him to ruin a relaxing moment by thinking too much, in any case. This would be an act reserved solely for Vidya, he decided--he certainly couldn't trust anyone else this much. She knew what it was like to have feathers, and she was loyal and harmless besides, so he figured he was safe.

Putting faith in anyone, or more to the point, a girl? Tybalt had certainly come a long way; no longer was he an island of one, not as long as he could call Vidya "friend."

He was drawn out of his thoughts by Vidya's reply. "Ye best be," he mock-growled, sapphire eyes almost warm as they fixed upon her. "I've plans fer us now that ye're no longer a babe." Well, not in the toddler sense, anyway. Oh, the trouble they could get into! Their options doubled--Tybalt certainly couldn't accomplish much with a baby--and he was already contemplating their first act of piracy. Inle would kill him should he get caught, he knew that, and he also knew that Enoh and Nio wouldn't be too happy either (he didn't care about them; was he worried for Vidya's sake?) so they had to start small. Tybalt had been successfully picking pockets since he had been allowed out on his own, but he didn't think such things were neccessarily right for Vidya. Hmm, this would certainly bear more thought.

"Oi, you try bumbling 'long with these big feet, eh?" he teased gently, raising a foot. The long, talon-tipped toes flexed and curled before settling upon the deck once more. At Vidya's question his gaze turned towards the yard. What to do, what to do...oh! He had a great idea! Gently, he pulled his wing away, beckoning with a sneaky grin and a wiggling finger for her to follow him as he hopped off the deck, foregoing the stairs. "C'mon. Hope yer not afraid o' heights!"

Tybalt turned his head to glance back rogueishly at her as he started walking away, towards the unseen barrier that divided the property from the wild yard behind it. "Plans like ye'll see. That knowledge'll do ye no good now; I'll tell ye when there's a need ta." Multi-colored feathers ruffled and smoothed in a rippling wave with impending excitement. He wanted to put off telling her as long as he could--he knew her good nature might very well overshadow the pirate within her, and he didn't want to risk it if he didn't have to.

"Good, 'm glad. What I've got t' show ye wouldn't be hardly as nice if ye were," he replied mysteriously. As he crossed the invisible threshold his wings folded tightly to his back. There were more trees here; many of the branches were bare at this point in the season, and he didn't want to snag a wing on any of them.

Naked branches bobbed in a sudden gust of wind, shaking dead leaves from their perches to rain down upon them as they walked. The trees thickened into small stands before thinning as they had close to the property, and luckily, Vidya's curiosity was about to be sated.

It was neither cliff, nor plane, nor crow's nest of any ship that Tybalt was heading towards, but a huge tree that stood in a bare circle of field, as if the other trees didn't dare to come near it. It towered over the rest of the trees in the area, easily several times larger in height and width than much of anything outside of the cities. The wood looked smooth, as if the bark had been stripped, but in reality that was just the way the tree grew--one would get no splinters from this monster.

Tybalt smiled as he strode towards it, bending at its base to pick up a long length of thick, coiled rope. It was obvious from that and the various scars and scrapes in the side of the tree that he had been here before--usually he flew, but he had tied a rope to a high branch, a tool for when he needed to push himself physically. It was no easy climb with those wings of his, but it was all part of the challenge. With a smile and a flourish, he held the rope out to Vidya. "Ladies first."

Tybalt wouldn't have even considered asking a normal girl to climb this tree, this haven of havens--but Vidya, he had learned early on, was no normal girl. What normal girl was a pirate, or blue, or...or put up with him? No, Vidya was something else. Different. She wouldn't have been his first mate otherwise, and he was confident that she could handle the climb.

Well, not completely confident. That was why he was a mere yard or so below her, to catch her should she fall. His wings flared every time it seemed she might fall. Though he knew that if he caught her, he'd fall too, there was no way he wouldn't try to prevent it. Climbing the beast was signifigantly easier for him, he realized, not just from experience, but because of the talons that dug into the tree's bark. That and he had two good eyes.

"Nah, just till ya run outta rope! Not far left now," he called up. The branch the rope was secured to would easily hold both their weights, and why shouldn't it? It was easily as thick around as one of them!

Tybalt felt somewhat proud that his newly-grown first mate had managed to make it all the way up the tree, but it was certainly no surprise. Her gasp was lost on him as he too levered himself onto the branch, electing to sit on it rather than straddle it--anything else would mean sitting on his tailfeathers, or at least parting them, and that was never comfortable. His wings settled tightly to his back to insure that they wouldn't disrupt his balance too much, and he nodded, smiling slightly.

"Aye, I do." The tense set to her body and widened eyes were not lost on him, and he chuckled internally. "But not fer th' thrill o' th' climb--fer th' view, instead. Look," he said, reaching out to turn her face to the side. Tybalt had learned early on that this particular spot afforded a wonderful view of Gambino's bay, and today was no exception; the sky was clear and there was no humidity to cloud the air. Instead, an uninterrupted view lay below them, full of ships and buildings made tiny by height and distance and the bay that turned into the endless sea, made into a liquid gem by the light of the sun.

Tybalt may not have had much fondness for nature's beauty, but he loved the sight of ships and the sea for what should have been obvious reasons.