Welcome to Gaia! ::

Elst nodded a bit. “I only say it because it’s true.” His face remained cheery as a mild acrobatic feat was performed on his chair, listening to the man’s next comment. “Holidays? Sounds interesting, I’d forgotten how culturally unique the carnivals tend to become. What holidays did you have In mind?”

Aoi watched Zia’s expression, pleased to see it had liked the candy. “Yeah, I thought I’d lose my love for these things when I hit Alter, but I guess not. A sort of half-smile crossed his face as he thought of an overly-insect-like human, as he popped one of the candies into his mouth. “Yeah, I didn’t figure she’d turn out too insect-like or anything, I’m just hoping she has easily clothed features, unlike my hair, which it a tad petally. I guess I’ll just have to wear a hat or something. I mean, interesting features are fine and all, I mean, you mange to keep your wings hidden in public, she just doesn‘t seem to be the kind to enjoy being all wrapped up, you know?"

Elst took a somewhat larger gulp of the beer, watching its golden color reflect through the glass from the corner of his eye. “Ah, those are good names, really unique, yet not strange sounding. Always nice to have some meaning behind them, too.” He half-closed his eyes as he thought about Fao’s question. “Hm…when he changed? It was…hm, I’m having trouble keeping track of the time…Earlier today, I think? I had that Shade kid over, the one from Banning’s party thing, because he wanted to check out the Nursery. They managed, him and Verdant, that is, to convince Aoi to show them one of his dances. It was turning out exceptionally well, the dance, and before we even realized, there was a much larger figure doing the dancing. It was a mixture, the dance, of getting the plants to open up, and getting it to rain, and when he stopped, and all that green misty stuff cleared, I realized I had an Alter. Weird, huh?”

Aoi kept quiet as he listened to Zia’s explanation. “Hm, yeah, that makes sense… I was just kind of thinking a liking of candy would kinda fade a little as I got older… I guess not, though, you must be right… He watched as Zia somewhat mirrored its owner, he himself stretching out a little in his own chair. “Yeah, I kind of lucked out with my hair, I might just take to wearing a scarf or something over it… I shed petals every now and then, actually, even the occasional sprig of some herb r another, but nowhere near as constantly as your molting. Guess it’s just to keep me smelling like this stuff… But hey, there’s an idea, I guess it’d probably work if I said I was in costume to promote the Nursery… Good idea.”

He reached in his shirt for a moment, grabbing the long end of his ribbon and pulling it out. “Hm, maybe this’d work to cover my hair? Not sure if there’s enough of it though…And hey, I guess this goes to prove what you said about still liking what we used to, I love this thing more than ever since I hit Alter.” He grabbed another candy, popping it in his mouth. Stawberry, this one….

Elst closed his eyes for a moment, thoughtfully, before reopening them and replying. “Well, they certainly sound like names you’d want to have fit, with new beginnings and the like…I guess we can only hope they will, though I think we can trust your intuition either way.” A blonde eyebrow cocked as he heard about Zia’s shift. “Wow, quite the way to stand up for oneself, pretty brave when it’s going against a Combat… Why was the dragon getting all uppity like that, do you know?”

Aoi continued to hold the ribbon in his hand, one of its many gears pressed between two fingers fondly. “Yup, the very same. I don’t even know what got me so hooked on it in the first place, even…I’ve always just liked having it around. I’m just lucky it was so big when I got it, it certainly doesn’t seem so huge anymore…Did you stumble upon anything like that when you were a Proto? It was those cool scarves you always had, right?”

Elst looked down for a moment. “I wasn’t really referring to a class issue, really, that hadn’t quite occurred to me… I was just thinking, that, what was his name, Kyru’s a Combat, meaning he’s very strong, specialized in, well, combat. It was very brave of Zia to stand up to him like that." He cleared his throat. "It and Crux are together, though? Good to hear, I must admit, especially because Zia‘s bound to give Crux a taste of a lot of emotions I‘m sure he doesn‘t see too often in Trystan…I mean, Trystan just doesn‘t seem to me like the kind to show any softer emotion that easily, I‘d figure his opponents would try to use it against him.” Stopping a moment, he reconsidered his words. "But, I could be mislead here... I didn't see him at his best. You'd probably know his... happier? side a little more." He finally finished the beer, placing the empty bottle on the coffee table before reaching for another. He paused, however, stopping rather sharply as he heard the next question. His eyes sort of widened, confused, but relaxed as he figured out the question. “Huh? Oh…No, we’re not together or anything, he actually lives in an apartment complex some distance from here. He just works here, spends a lot of time here because he loves the environment.”

He stopped for a second, to grab that beer he’d been eyeing. “As for me though I’m not…What’s the common term now? Gay? Although I’m not technically the other way ‘round either. At core, I’m really just an overgrown weed, I guess. From what I can tell, I can’t even feel love, but believe me, I‘ve tried.” He opened the beer, not quite taking a sip just yet, trying to maintain his relaxed grin, despite the spiking pain that his own words sent coursing though his body. Ohoho, this definitely hit a nerve quite hard, though he didn’t blame Fao at all. In his mind, it was his own fault anyway. Okay, time to change the subject, he didn‘t need to go bothering his friend with his troubles… He laughed a bit, that‘d hopefully cover up his little slip-of-emotion earlier. “Did it seem so strongly that way, though? Doesn’t bother me, of course; just curious.”

Aoi’s eyes fell to Zia’s scarf. “Oh, yeah, you certainly do… Sorry about that, I seem to pay very little attention to people’s clothing, lately; I like to look into their eyes, their face, it tells me a lot more about them. It actually took me a second, when I first saw you as an Alter, to even notice you had wings. I know, it sounds bizarre…But hey, can’t deny, your eyes are particularly interesting.” He gave a slight nod before looking back to the candies to find another flavor to try. A subtle detail; he'd not broken eye contact even once while speaking this entire time. “You want another of these? There’s a lot of different ones.” And, sure enough, eye contact was restored.