Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Okay," Lethe said after a moment, temporarily off-put by Aurelius' complete and utter lack of interest in anything she had said. Well. Well. It was her loss anyway--but how often did anyone get to meet one of the underworld rivers in the flesh?!

Not even an acknowledgement, wasn't she owed at least that? Her companion did not so much as blink. Once upon a time, Lethe could have taken her soul. This was worthy of at least a little awe, she would settle for that!

Lethe edged nervously after Aure to the table, eyes unblinkingly trained on the other girl's back. NOTICE MEEEE, she would have screamed if it were socially acceptable.

She slid into the seat she had claimed with her coat, still mentally beaming all sorts of commands at her (CLEARLY INFERIOR FOR NOT BEING IMPRESSED) new friend, but thankfully having lowered her gaze to their food. "Leaves?" Lethe said a little doubtfully, looking forlornly into her basket for the presence some other foodstuff -- anything that made more sense (and looked more appetizing.) So this was truly how little Aure thought of her, to feed her leaves.

And, in a leap of conversational logic only understandable to Lethe, she then said, "So what's an illusionary anyway," her grudge only vaguely apparent.

Lethe waited a few moments after Aure had consumed her first leaf to make sure that there were no drastic side-effects. Mimicking the other girl's gestures, she carefully picked up a leaf from her own basket by its stem between her pointer finger and thumb, twirled it once, and gingerly bit into one of its points.

Well. Well. It wasn't bad. She chewed thoughtfully for a moment, swallowed, and downed the rest of the leaf in a matter of seconds. She was eating leaves. This made absolutely no sense.

"It's fine," she said as soon as it was gone. She dabbed her fingers gingerly on a napkin before shaking it out and draping it properly over her lap. She was picking through her basket for another leaf when she finally remembered the conversation.

"Oh. Well, Fa'e... We're all different. We are things reborn, I think, not just things but things with power. Like.. Like Gods. I was -- am -- the Underworld River, Lethe. None of my other friends know what they are yet though." She shrugged one thin shoulder. "I think one of them is Godzilla."

"It was a joke," Lethe said thickly. Unsure of how to more properly explain this -- or even follow up at all -- she promptly stuffed an entire leaf into her mouth and, turning slightly to face the wall (so as not to subject Aure to her rude-mannered eating), chewed bewilderedly.

Finally she swallowed and turned back to face Aure, deciding to pretend the joke had not existed at all. Xo would've found it a little funny, Lethe thought grumpily, knowing it was just as likely that her best friend would've made fun of her too. "Yes, please," she said at last, holding up her half-empty cup.

"So," Lethe said suddenly, slamming her cup back down, "What do you do exactly? You know about me now, but I don't know about you. I know you are an -- an illu--sharany thing --" It was just so much that she didn't know how to pronounce it correctly, as that her thoughts had suddenly become so disjointed that her words had no choice but to follow suit. "--But I don't know what and -- and hey, you don't believe me, do you? I am a River! I can show you."

So she unwrapped her ribbons a little, just enough so that her fingertips began to lose all pigment and became definite liquid, but not enough that they would lose shape and she would spill herself over the table. Then she wrapped herself up and, when her hands properly solidified, held out her cup again.

Well. Well, yes. It was rather neat, wasn't it? Slightly dazed and suddenly feeling much less boisterous, Lethe calmly rewrapped her hands and folded them neatly around her cup. "Yes. If I do not, I --" do not turn into a puddle! "Revert completely to my original state: water. You are fireproof? What prompted that discovery?"

This was not really a bad state to be in, this calmness in the face of everything and using big words and sipping her soda with her pinky delicately raised. It was much easier than being annoyed at Aure's complete and total indifference to everything she did.

Two, thought Lethe, no longer even in the presence of mind to be sulky about this, can play at this game.

"Reincarnated? No. I am--" she hesitated here for a split second; though her expression betrayed no uncertainty, she nevertheless was suddenly forced to reevaluate what she had learned about her siblings versus what she thought she'd known: "--the only one."

It took her a few moments and a few more sips of soda before she finally managed to force out, "I think. I only know the ones in close proximity to me anyway, the ones that were fed directly by the Oceanus in the underground. Oceanus flowed through me too, but I was not connected to anyone."