Welcome to Gaia! ::

The sun’s brightest rays beamed down from above, despite the chilly air. All was very bright, yet heat did not quite accompany it. However, moisture had certainly left the land. Humidity near zero, the sun had managed to seep off whatever cold water had been in the air or otherwise, lip balm at the ready folks.

Meanwhile, this had kept Aoi quite occupied for most of the day. Plants had this odd tendency, a tendency to like water, you see, who would’ve guessed? The flowery Alter had just finished putting the bamboo grove under another typhoon, the damn things were constantly in need of water even on regular days, and this did not help. A visit to the fruit grove was next; he’d noticed the more a plant bore, like thicker leaves or fruits, the thirstier they were.

He finished that particular section, gave the nut-bearing section a good saturation, then moved on. Next was a favorite of his, the herbs. They too bore nutrient rich leaves, fruit in green, thin form you might say, and that took hydration. Especially the succulent ones, the aloe and such, it wasn’t air keeping those leaves so plump. He begun yet another rain dance, form twirling as he listened to music spouting from the earbuds he wore, a haunting lilac vapor trail dragging along and forming lines in the air from the violet sealing magic glowering upon his blindfold. He often used simple cloaking magic, to hide it and make it seem that his eyes were in perfect working order, to avoid scaring customers, but he was not dealing with customers right now, no sense in cloaking it.

As the rain clouds began to form, and unleash their aqueous bounty upon the countless rows of herbs both mundane and exotic, this particular Essentic was blasting quite the Source output due to the exertion. Nothing like being a living signal flare every now and then~

The air soon began to bear a soothing, mint-menthol scent, a menagerie of pleasing fragrances from the herbs all around. Rather matched Aoi's own scent, come to think of it.

Ah, cooking…it was a habit Elst often took on, though baking was more prevalent, so many uses for the exotic flavors the nursery’s bounty offered at his disposal. Hard to resist putting them to good use, he figured. But this was irrelevant; cooking was not what currently occupied him. He instead was now sorting through records of sale to prepare for tax times; he was a bit early, but had nothing better to do as he manned the Lobby’s front desk. Rather dull, most would find it, but Elst was fortunately quite the odd case; this did not bore him at all.

The crisp, cold air was not bothering Aoi at present; his magic could keep him well warmed via heated mist surrounding him. This was not even necessary, much, anyway, seeing as the bright sun allowed him to take in extra heat and energy. Always nice things to have.

He did not sense the other Alter’s Source output nearly as soon as Uzi had sensed his, for he was displaying a much higher output due to his current magic, and nearly all of his ability to detect Source had shifted into his telepathy anyway. The instant the huntress entered the Nursery’s gates, however, her presence was immediately known to him. He adopted a somewhat questioning expression as he read her name, a trait people rarely hid in their thoughts and thus an easy thing for him to detect. Uzi? How strange, he’d read a memory from Orpheus, of a massive cat-proto by that name, could this be coincidence?

That possibility was soon vanquished as he read a bit further and finally detected her Source, and thus her Essentic nature. As he turned to spot her, it became apparent that the Essentic in question was no longer a proto; he could not see her due to his blindness, but could sense her humanoid form. Aoi left the rain clouds to function on their own above the herbs. Drenched in the crisp scent of the watered plants yet barely wet himself, he strolled over to where the apparently wary Alter stood.

“Oh, hello, welcome to the Elysian Gardens. M’name’s Aoi, is there anything I can help you find?” Not bothering to conceal his blindfold for now, a friendly smile was evident. “It’s rare I meet a new Essentic, I thought I’d gotten to know most all of us in the newer generation at least.”

Aoi himself could not see the paper recording Uzi’s list, but could easily enough detect her intent, and the fact that she was holding it. He found that people’s actions, things they were wearing or holding, were often on the outermost clouds of their minds and it was very easy to simply find out their appearances and such from their own thoughts.

He listened as she described a small aspect of herself, a simple nod acknowledged that fact. “Ah, I don’t blame you…kinda hard for me not to be though when I need to work with customers.” An accommodating smile accompanied this. “And if you could just read off what you need, I’d appreciate it, not exactly built for reading at the moment.” A light laugh. “Of course, if you just thought them that works too, I can pick up stray thoughts, as odd as that sounds.” He admitted this casually, calmly, nothing to worry about here.

Behind him, the rainclouds slowly faded into the air.

Aoi listened calmly as the low growl cut the air between the two Alters, picking up every mental broadcast of threat and intimidation. “No worries, I’m not gonna go digging around in your brain or anything. You’d think if I wanted to do that I wouldn’t mention it to you…” His smile remained upon his face. “And if you killed me here it would be a bit…public, don’t you think? Anyway, I don’t pick it up from people, they throw it at me. It’s like yelling in my ear. You can easily just think things out and that’s all I’d hear, anyway...”

Aoi turned towards the herbs he had finished watering. Her camouflage wasn’t making her any more difficult to sense, and he couldn’t detect the color change anyway, so he began walking towards them, expecting her to follow and deciding to ignore hostility. No use being invisible near those who can’t see…

“So, mind reading off the list for me? I can probably remember them after that and I’ll take you to the plants so you can choose what cuts you want. Would you like the entire plant, or just cuts, by the way?”

Aoi calmly listened as the herbs were read and the passive hostility was thrown off. Even when actively trying not to read her, her utter disregard for his life was quite easy to detect in the air, almost like a taste in its strength. He wondered, sometimes, just what would happen if someone killed him. What would Elst do? Aoi knew he tended to just…lose himself with the right trigger but…was Aoi himself one of those triggers? And even if he kept logical, rational, who knows what lengths he would go to; his brain never really knew the ‘stop’ function very well.

Of course, there was always the concern for Uzi, here; if she killed someone in public, she’d be investigated, too, as an Essentic. Not good. It was odd, however; this Essentic seemed so very different from the others…her mentality, mannerisms, social prerequisites, all different. Oh well, though, hostility was nothing new to him; he’d felt it off of many a mind before.

Anyway, enough thoughts of that; let us try to keep friendly despite our counterpart having other intentions… “Ah, we have plenty of those, want separate pots, or all in the same one?” Smiling slightly, he lead Uzi into the herb beds as he spoke, hands carefully feeling through the herbs to find the best plants, the ones most mature and ready to yield what Uzi would need. They were each in their own small, plastic pots, ready to be transferred if needed. As he walked, he took hold of a small plant cart, placing the potted herbs in it as he chose them.

Aoi smiled, quite aware of his being watched as he went through the rows, picking up the occasional herb as he went. He only stopped once, as one of his miniature rainclouds let off a small boom of thunder, to more willfully dispel it into the air.

Her careful observation of him made him think...claws, camouflage...and from what he learned from Orpheus, she was a Combat Essentic. Was she perhaps a huntress? Aoi himself had always wondered what such a survivalist's life was like, that of the hunter. Perhaps she could teach him... "So...are you maybe Uzi? I've heard of you from the others, or at least thoughts of you..."

Aoi noticed the movement of Uzi's ears from behind him; a great benefit of his second sight over usual vision was the fact that it saw in all directions. There were many, many drawbacks, but there were pluses too.

"Sorry about the noise, I've been trying to get them to quiet down..." He carried on down the row, picking up a few more pots. "I was wondering...if you don't mind me asking, do you hunt?" He was truly curious, now, the life of a survivalist sounded so interesting...