Welcome to Gaia! ::

Aquinas peered into the room around the edge of the door, with only his hair and bright green eyes visible behind it. Satisfied that Locke was, in fact, not in, he straightened, brushed invisible bits of dust off his perfectly tailored jacket and strode into the room. Glancing over the room, he noted that Locke was obsessively clean-- except, apparently, when it came to paperwork, as his eyes passed over a handsome wooden desk upon which were piles and piles of paper. Strolling over, Aquinas casually flicked his eyes over the papers, registering that Locke was also much more boring than he had realized, until his eyes locked onto a file with a small heart crudely drawn on it. He picked up the slim file and opened it, smiling. That had been too easy, really. Closing the file and replacing it, being careful not to knock over any papers, Aquinas left the room, making his way to where he now knew the Tabula were residing. Stopping in front of a non-descript door, he cleared his throat and knocked lightly.

"Tanee? Are you there? I've got a surprise for you."

"Of course! I mean, I said I did, and so it would be horribly rude of me to not really have a surprise for you. And I'm not a horribly rude person."

Aquinas grinned in response to Tanee's cheerful demeanor. As he took a look around the room, he noted... an awful lot of pinkness. Making a mental note that this one apparently liked pink, he offered his arm to Tanee.

"I seem to recall that I made a certain young woman a promise a while back. When you're ready to go, I'm going to take you to see a friend of mine. I think you'll like her; I'm certain you'll like her."

She was so sweet when she wasn't pouting at him, or making him feel guilty, Aquinas thought.

"My friend is very nice. She's actually a very important person of Odisse, so you must remember to be very polite and act nicely towards her. She could also turn you into a toad if you don't." Aquinas smiled cheerfully. "Let's head out then, shall we?"

He led Tanee down the hall, passing by the other Tabula's rooms until they both reached a larger, more ornate wooden door. Aquinas pushed it open with a light touch and they found themselves on the edge of the courtyard. He continued walking along, out of the courtyard and into a quiet, tree-lined street closed in by magnificent, towering buildings.

"It's a bit of a walk, but it shouldn't be too much trouble!"

"Oh, I can believe that. Hopefully you'll stay that way."

Theron... which one was that, Aquina wondered. He hadn't quite gotten the hang of telling the Tabula apart yet. He wondered if it was the snotty one. He toyed around with putting that one and Zoude in a locked room together in his head until Tanee spoke and his attentions turned back to her.

"Aquinas... sometimes likes walking. In this case, Aquinas likes walking, because he has a lovely companion on a warm day. In other cases, Aquinas does not have quite so wonderful a companion (Aquinas' expression darkened as he thought murderously of Zoude) nor quite so wonderful a day (it darkened further as he remembered when he and Locke had found that blasted ice Tabula)."

As they continued on their walk, they emerged from the trees and entered a bustling square, where people of all shapes and sizes and colours were traversing the handsome grey stones of the square, crisscrossing expertly between momentarily appearing holes in the crowd.

Aquinas pointed to an imposing structure that reached into the sky on their left. "That's where we're going-- the Aashraya. Looks weird, doesn't it?"

((I'm imagining a Dravidian-style thing-- see here.))

He sighed. Only a Tabula could be so naive. He was never really the type to get attached to anyone or anything, but he found himself wanting to make sure that this Tabula was... doing alright. Feeling happy. Protect it, or some other equally nauseating thing.

"Ah, that it is. And filled with lots of stuff. Lots of stuff that you are not to touch. Mehndi will no doubt reiterate the warning, but I thought hearing it twice would be better than hearing it once."

Hearing her question, Aquinas faltered, finding himself rather at a loss for an explanation. Tabula were a relatively new phenomenon, and the only ones he knew to exist resided in Locke's wing of the Palace. "Well," he began, "you could live in houses if you wanted to. But all the Tabula I know live in a special part of the Palace, which is, in my opinion, quite a bit better than a mere house. Don't you agree?"

He led Tanee around the edges of the square, not sure if could manage to go through it with another being in tow. The Aashraya loomed larger as they got closer. Aquinas wordlessly pushed past groups of apparently colour-coded people and climbed onto the first step of the ornate entrance to the building.

"Yes, Mehndi is Aquinas's friend. She's also the boss of the entirety of the big building." Aquinas smiled placidly at Tanee's obvious joy at seeing colour.

Again with the questions he didn't really have answers for?

"Ahh... that's just because Locke is no fun. You'll have to show him sometime why colours are so wonderful, Tanee. I'm sure you could convince him." Oh, that was not very nice of him, but just imagining Locke's face...

"Do you know anything about magic, Tanee?"

Aquinas raised his eyebrows. That was distinctly not what he remembered Mehndi telling him. She'd been the one to instigate their visit today, as he'd completely forgotten about Tanee and her flowers due to a certain young woman in a red dress and the thrill of that pursuit.

"Tanee... doesn't have magic? Are you sure?"

At Aquinas's question, the heavy door to the imposing building slowly swung forward, and Mehndi stood in the doorway expectantly.

She was tall, almost as tall as Aquinas, and her dark skin gleamed in the sunlight. Jet black hair fell down the length of her torso, and she swung it back to get it out of her way.

"You are going to come in, aren't you?"

What old lady?

Before he had time to think anymore about strange old ladies that Tanee had stealthily met, Tanee was sidetracked by the appearance of Mehndi.

Mehndi looked delighted at Tanee's interest in her hair. She laughed; a clear sound that was reminiscent of tiny bells. "I simply don't cut it. And how does your hair," she paused to take a lock of Tanee's snow white hair in her own dark palm, "get so perfectly white?"