Welcome to Gaia! ::

Algie was disturbed by the note he'd received on his front step. Part of it was that the handwriting looked familiar, something from the past that was fogged over in his memory. The other part of it was that no one with malicious intent should have been able to get to the front door itself. Yes, there were ways around such wards, but the fact that he suddenly needed them scared him slightly.

He took his daily walk in a haze. It was a balance between being hyper aware of every face that passed by and being oblivious, looking through and past things, because he was stuck in his own thoughts. Algie was not usually so careless or scattered brained. Even his stubble looked a little unkempt and his hair stuck up with stress.

Bloodstone, of course, had sensed it in his bond and did his best to soothe him but the stone also did not seem happy with the man's mopey attitude. Algie had noticed the wisp growing stronger by the day and with the sudden mystery in their lives, Bloo seemed positively energetic. Algie tried to urge his wisp to stay closer to him. He remembered Merci talking about floating precious gems and how they could attract unwanted attention. He had never felt it so strongly as he did right now.

Bloo zipped down the street, familiar with the route that his bond took on his daily walk, and stayed just out of Algie's reach. The wizard's green eyes stayed pinned on the stone expecting at any moment for some horror to leap from an alley with greedy, grabby hands. Of course no such monster came but with a sudden turn, Bloo zoomed off of the main street and down an alley. Algie sputtered and turned down the alley, forced to adjust his ambling pace and jog.

"Bloodstone!"

Bloo paused a moment, letting Algie gain on him just a little before, almost joyously, zipping off down another unfamiliar city block. Algie jogged after, his face creasing in worry but mostly with annoyance. The wisp was trying his nerves!

Just as soon as he was close, the wisp slipped through a business's door to his left and Algie just grabbed the knob and stepped inside. He stood there, panting slightly (waaaay out of shape) and looking very annoyed. Thankfully Bloo had stopped right inside the door but the wizard, too annoyed to look around, simply chided the wisp.

"Do NOT do that again." He didn't raise his voice but did sound very, VERY disapproving. He was English after all!

"Bloodstone!" Algie tried not to exclaim too loudly, but his stern 'father voice' wasn't working very well.

Bloo would not allow himself to be overlooked for very long and had darted towards the new man but as if recognizing something in him, he stopped abruptly in front of his face. Unlike with other fiends he did not get close or caress him with his shadows. He just hovered and 'stared' at the other.

"A lost child is not far from the truth.." Algie seemed very exasperated and moved closer. He reached out gently for Bloodstone but the wisp drifted lazily out of his grasp every time he attempted to grab it. The old wizard very quickly began to feel foolish in front of this man. "I am so sorry about this. He's rather exuberant today. I didn't mean to burst in here like this.."

Algie glanced around at the simple layout and realized very quickly, now that he'd bothered to look, what they'd entered into. It was no wonder that the wisp was so insistent. His brilliant green eyes were keen, even despite his very careless looking appearance on this particular day.

This dojo's owner seemed very together, clean and neat, and it only made Algie feel all the more awkward to have burst in looking as he did!

"He's actually more of a baby.. Well actually," Algie straightened and bookishly fixed his glasses. "more like an old soul trapped in a 'baby's' body." He even finger quoted.

Bloodstone did, slowly, rest on the man's palm but he kept his shadowy tendrils to himself. They remained as they would when the wisp was still, licking upwards like a combination of smoke and fire, a mix of dark green and red with an intangible nature.

"He's rather good at soothing stress.." Algie didn't necessarily share that the stone's rebellion was merely exacerbating already existing and unrelated stresses. "He has a very soothing aura." But the other man could probably already tell. Algie wanted to introduce himself but felt like there was something going on between Bloo and the stranger and he didn't want to interrupt it.

"Yes, a soul in a stone. A magic I am entirely unfamiliar with though I am trying to.." Algie stopped his ramble before it started. Clearly this man was not afraid of magic but the aim of his inquiry seemed unclear. The wizard relaxed but upon slipping his hand into his pocket he once again encountered the note that had agitated him so much to begin with. It sent the long-buried feelings of paranoia back to the surface. What if this man wanted the stone or wanted to study it? He didn't look harmful but you could never tell.

Algie internally kicked himself. He'd sort of spaced out and all of his thoughts had only been negative, rude and very very unlike him. He snapped back into reality pulling his hand back out and away from the offending note.

"I don't know much about him. It's a bit of a complicated story and much too long," and personal, "but I do know he seems to be very fascinated, if not a natural, with all forms of fighting. He also has a fascination with religion." Algie wiped his hand surreptitiously on his pants as if wiping them of something awful, before he fixed his glasses again and offered his hand out to this new stranger.

"I'm Algernon. This is Bloodstone, clearly. He goes by Bloo." Algie offered that natural, easy smile of his that seemed to light up his emerald eyes.

Bloo, upon the introduction, finally felt that he was allowed to pursue his investigation of the stranger. It was like a switch was pulled and he went from being being still, almost reverent, to his shadows playfully whipping out around him to explore the man's hand.

"A pleasure to meet you."

Something about Basir put Algie on edge. It wasn't a bad feeling, but it was like he needed to be on his toes, for good or bad. He half expected something to happen when he shook the man's hand but it was nothing more than a normal handshake to Algie.

Bloo deftly played amongst the man's fingers and his shadows whipped about with surprisingly deliberate movements.

"I am not certain." Algie squinted a bit as the thought had honestly not occurred to him. "We are soul bonded so I suppose it's possible..." But the wizard's face revealed that he was not entirely comfortable with the stone making choices about what he 'needed' to learn.

"May I ask what exactly you teach here? You do teach, correct? I was a bit of a teacher myself for a while but not..." He waved his hands, indicating that fighting and dojos had nothing to do with it.

"Used to giving orders, not taking them.." He commented with a smirk as they discussed teaching. He'd just noticed the man's oddly colored eyes. He wanted to ask if they were natural but couldn't find it to be an appropriate moment for such superficial concerns. Instead his gaze lingered there just a moment, thinking it through, before he looked away at the surroundings once more.

"Well you have a beautfiul dojo.." As much as Algie loved his stuffy studies full of books, it was always nice to find a quiet place with open space and simple but tasteful decor, "but I am not sure if martial arts are really for me. I am so out of shape and it's been years since I did any fighting.."

Of course he had let it inadvertently slip that, yes, this stuffy bookworm was at one time a fighter. Of course his build alluded to it and he'd never let himself go too much as he couldn't stand the sight of himself with a belly, but he'd always preferred that people thought of him as more of a librarian or professor than ex-military.

Bloo didn't want to hear that Algie was uninterested. As fun as shadow boxing (get it?!) with Basir was entertaining, making Algie stick around just a little while was more important to the wisp. Bloodstone zipped to Algie's hand and wrapped around his finger in the usual way, like shadowy armor. Once settled he used his tiny shadow strength to just continually tug on Algie's hand, an attempt to show that he wanted him to stay.

The wizard nodded in agreement as he chuckled at his adamant fiend and with his acknowledgement Bloodstone stopped tugging so hard and simply laid rest for a moment.

"Tea?" One of the few things that always kept Algie in place was tea. He loved all kinds of tea from all over the world and just the mention of it would make him stick around. It would also help him forget the horrid note he'd recieved.

"That sounds positively delightful. It is rather chilly..."

He tugged lightly on his scarf and made some attempt at straightening his disheveled hair style. Once Bloo realized they would be staying for a bit he dislodged from his bond's hand and started to drift around the room. He was exploring as far as he could, attentive to the details.

"Well tea happens to be the magic word with me." Algie gave a revealing smile, almost embarrassed to admit his weakness. "I'm sure whatever you have will be wonderful." And keep him satisfied long enough to keep Bloo happy.

Bloo found the training dummies the most intriguing it seemed. He butted against the face of it, acting like a tough guy, before circling it with flailing shadows.

"How long have you been on Gaia?" Algie pushed his coat aside to slip his hands into his pants pockets, relaxing just a bit. "I have been here a few years myself. I suppose I don't venture very far from my normal routine though, or I would have seen this place before."

At any other period of his life this place may have gained interest from him, enough even for him to stop by, but his recent stresses made him almost unaware of the world outside of his very secluded bubble of every day activities.