Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sun watched Kalis walk away with slightly sad eyes. He hadn't meant to alienate the other man so quickly, it made the elemental himself want to withdraw. Carefully he brought his attention back to Owle, however. It would do him no good to balk now when he'd started all this to begin with.

He held his hand out and took hers carefully, studying the bracelet. The object didn't lose it's glow even when he spun it slightly. Sun could sense the magic as being fairly high quality, if a little obscure. It seemed to be the sort that reacted to the right moments.

"I think...that you're right. This will help us open the way, if not exactly where to find the door. But I've got an idea about that as well." He laid his other hand over the first, gripping her smaller hand in his larger, trying to give her comfort, because none of this was going to be easy, and it was his fault.

"This all ties into dreams. The fabric of reality is a little different when a human, or metahuman, is asleep. Doors and bridges can be made," He smiled softly and looked down at the bracelet.

"With the right kind of key, in any case."

The moment Rage entered and had let go of Owle, Slash got up out of his chair and walked towards the exit. He struck shoulders with the tavern owner, a thin smile on his face. "You have some family matters to attend to. Don't let me stop you, little dragon." His words hung in the air as if time slowed down just long enough that he could speak it as they collided.

"Later, jailbird," he said, seeming to wave to Owle as he stepped outside.

Seconds later he was on his cycle, gone off into the city above.

Owle's eyes, too, followed Kalis, but then Sun took her hand, examining the bracelet.

She looked up for a second to see Slash leaving, and worry about the interaction between him and Rage. Then her eyes turned back to Sun, and she nodded, slowly. "When he transported me here...I nodded off to sleep, just for a second...and then when I opened my eyes again, I was here." She thought about it for a minute, then added. "He gave me a shirt, too. Big enough to be a nightgown, really. When I slept in it, sometimes he'd pull me through to the dream realm..."

Her eyes kept glancing to Kalis, even as she spoke. She pulled her hand away from Sun, then Rage spoke up. "Remember those idiot gods? I'm going there again."

She knew he would come, whether she wanted him to or not, but she wasn't about to ask him something that wasn't even her business. She was going for Sun, who was going for Tijae, which just made the chain a little longer.

"Excuse me just a minute," she said to Sun and Rage, and crossed the bar's common room to Kalis.

Without saying anything, without forcing him to make eye contact, she slowly put her arms around him and squeezed tight. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I promised I wouldn't disappear."

He would look up at her, though she might not have been looking back. He slowly put his arms around her without thinking, just looking quietly past her, staring away for a moment.

"I promised I wouldn't disappear."

Kalis jerked visibly, and his eyes refocused, turning back to her. He didn't have a quick response to that, so he only sqeezed a little, rubbing absently at her back with a hand.

"Well..."

He started to smile, a solemn and almost downcast thing, shaking slightly as laughter came on harder and harder to hold in slowly.

"...you came right back, so I dunno if it counts."

And slowly, he started to chuckle, laughter rising a little, an he leaned forward into her, and squeezed tight- the kind of bear hug sqeeze that larger people seemed so fond on using on everyone smaller than them to drive the air out of with those cute little sounds that Owle was almost assured to make one of, being within her element- and let go.

As the laughter slowly died, he still looked serious, but he was at least looking at her, and not a hundred miles away. He could remember that, and he could remember giving her a similair promise. This was their connection. He wasn't sure about anything else about them- or even about himself so much, come down to it- but that could hold true. They had a sort of pact behind those words that he knew she would no more ever allow herself to be the one to break than he would.

It was good. One promise he could keep.

It was one thing to hold on to.

"Ah... well... alright then..."

He looked confused, more than anything, but... it did explain. Didn't make sense, but it explained. He was no more fond of this business with gods than Owle was- though he didn't like their magic or any other doing anything to him if it could be helped either- and a bit less knowledgable in it.

"You had me scared for a minute there. But... I guess it's okay when this happens then? This whole... disappearing to... er... going back to one piece... something..." he paused a long moment, more than a little confused. He'd just sorted through to a really odd conclusion that he'd missed at first trying to take all of that in.

"There's a whole bunch of you running around?"

"Yes, I think I..." and here he was able to make a leap. He hated magic and couldn't understand the simplest of it because it, almost of principle, seemed to break rules, not follow even it's own new set of them. Here he saw a pattern however, and as soon as he could reduce that sparkle and flash into just a machine he didn't have opened up in front of him to learn the workings of from sight, he could make his guesses.

"Because they're far away from each other. They're for performing multiple tasks, and when one's not needed anymore... it goes back to the nearest and there's one less." He didn't exactly have it right, but it was a close guess.

To split oneself to pieces, and take that, to be doing multiple things at once...

Kalis licked his lips and grinned.

I would almost take up such an offer myself.

"Seems like I was right about you, bird," he grinned wide down at her, and placed a rough hand gently on her cheek.

"You're a cute little thing, but-" Kalis lifted his other hand again, laying it on her waist, and drew her head gently forward and turned it upward, just a tad, with his hnd.

"-stubborn and fierce."

The second part he sounded particularly proud of, for lack of a better word for the sentiment.

Never mind the man he didn't know was probably an over protective older brother type or the other people present, or that anyone might be watching, or that Owle had been in all sorts of not necessarily resolved love coasters and triangles that might still carry some risk of going up in flames if just a little spark was provided, he kissed her. Short and sweet, and then let his hand simply fall away unless she prefered to hold it there.

Kalis gave a sloppy sort of wry smile.

"I suppose that depends on your perspective." Perspective, was, after all, what made heroes and villains, not deeds. "But y'give me too much credit. See, you'll find I'm only just doing what I have to." Someone else could be the hero as long as he just did what ne needed to. And right now, come to think of it, they both had something the needed to do.

He stepped away, and leaned himself comfortably against the wall, standing away from the group, only in hearing range, and gave Owle a nod. "C'mon. Don't keep your friend waiting. You're not going to figure out how we do whatever it is we need to with this jewelry of yours by letting me take a look at it," he chuckled.

They all had a roll to play, and right now, he was auxillary. Which was fine. He'd never really wanted a leading part.

Too much flash and glamour.