Welcome to Gaia! ::

As Dio rushed toward one of the aisles, Algie was in said aisle dealing with a quite a minor emergency but it had started up innocently enough. He'd discovered this bookshop on the internet (having college age employees garnered certain elaborate advertising advantages) after having visited every store listed in the yellow pages. One would think that with a vast library he'd always have something to read but the man sometimes just loved the smell of parchment and old things. It took him back to his own days of youth.

The ease of the trip lasted until only a few moments before. With a stack balanced on one arm and a few tucked into his armpit, he'd been making his way to the chairs in the front of the store when his opportunistic feline companion, Fizzy, decided his pocket was not as appealing a perch as the top of his head was. Bloodstone, recently becoming a free floating wisp lazily moved upwards to observe the curious cat. Fizzy found the funny floating stone to be something she could attempt to play with and thus the emergency began.

Algie now stood with a fluffy cream colored kitten leaping and crawling across his face, Bloostone's wisp darting away from the curious paws (while also teasing the cat with it's whipping shadow tendrils) and a stack of books now teetering to fall to the floor.

"Help?" It was more of a helpless yelp than a cry for assistance and was uttered at the pinnacle of his loss: the painful second the books slid from his grasp and hit the floor in a cloud of dust and the crumble of old paper.

Algie's glasses slipped down to the tip of his nose and his vibrant green eyes caught sight of the helpful new fiend. He immediately could tell what he was, even with his limited experience. Despite his predicament, he was rather pleased and excited to just run into one like this.

"Well trouble sort of came to me." He smiled, readjusting the books that hadn't fallen. With his free hand he swiped the kitten off of his head. She squirmed and still tried to catch Bloo in her paws but finally gave up when Algie gave her a stern look. They'd been together for years and she knew she was in trouble. He dropped her into the pocket of his jacket and she sulked, her tiny fluffy head hanging over the pocket's edge.

Bloo spun away from the kitten as soon as the new fiend appeared. It shone with interest, his shadows whipping gently around him like green and red fire. If it could be taken aback, that was the stone's reaction to being called 'little one'. Though it wasn't meant to be offensive in anyway, it seemed the stone knew that it was older than Dio (at least in so much as being a fiend). Bloo quickly was over it though and hovered closer to Dio's face, it's fire-like shadow aura coming together to form intangible tendrils that waved at the other fiend.

"He's supposed to be calming." Algie laughed and finally had regained his composure. "Well he apparently used to be calming. Not so much anymore. I'm Algernon."

He held out a hand to the fiend and cast a charming smile. He had a deep gentle voice and a clearly British accent. He was reminiscent of a professor or a librarian in his apparel and demeanor. "You can all me Algie if you'd like."

Despite the wisp's rather troublesome actions, his shadowy tendrils emanated a sense of calm that Dio would feel when he brushed his fingers across them. It was something that the wisp had no control over and seemed to be a natural ability.

"I'm always glad to meet new bonded." Algie smiled at the fiend's enthusiasm for books. "We may be looking into similar things! I myself was looking into ancient religions and people. Bloodstone seems to have a strong attachment to religious texts." He found it strange since the stone had also seemed to influence him into violence.

"I do, in fact, have a rather large library! I own a book store back in my home town." A wand slid into his free hand from his sleeve and with a flick a droplet of water seemed to gather at the tip. When the droplet broke free it seemed to change into a business card, fluttering on the air. His contact information was scrolled in golden ink.

It followed with his home address on gaia as well as the address of his store, which unfortunately seemed to be in England and Gaia certainly had no 'England'.

"Any fellow bibliophile is welcome to visit our home, right Bloo?" The wisp spun slightly and shot back toward's Algie. It settled on his finger, much like a ring, but when it wrapped his fingers in it's shadows it took on the appearance of finger armor. "He's started to do that a lot lately. Pardon me if I seem rather uninformed about him. My daughter left rather unexpectedly and he and I were bonded in an emergency situation. He was a child but the stress of the soul bond being severed has reverted him back."

Algie finally accepted the stack of books, readjusting perfectly without a cat fight happening on his face. "I've been told the same thing about talking." He was already enjoying Dio's company. "Though I tend to ramble and sound like I'm lecturing. I happen to know Hawk.. though not very well. He was the fiend of my son-in-law before he.. Well you probably know all about Wren and Halo disappearing? She's my daughter." Maybe he was too young.

Algie nodded his head towards the front. He'd wanted to sit and look at these books but he felt like he was interrupting the young fiend's shopping for himself.

Algie chuckled as Dio's excitement grew. He hadn't realized wizards were so popular. At home dedicated wizards were found to be eccentric, odd and often a bit dull to talk to. "Athan and I come from different paths but I suppose we are a bit similar." Algie didn't know much about Athan's particular branch of dark magic though.

"I'm sorry, I haven't." He'd not even heard of them before in his reading. "Perhaps you need to look in slightly more specialized bookstores? I will remember the names though." If it was coming from a fiend, it was probably worth remembering. "May I ask what you know of them? I am curious myself, having not heard of them."

Algie was intrigued by Dio's arm once he'd had a good look but was distracted by meeting Merci. Her fox-like features made him think of his grandson Lafe but the woman's nonchalance, poise and style reminded him of his own daughter Halo. Needless to say he already liked her.

"Oh no, not at all!" Algie sat the books on a table and accepted her help with them. He shot a dagger stare towards the lazy college student behind the counter who was fully wrapped up in tweeting or twatting or twittling on his phone, whatever those kids did on those things nowadays. "He's a bit of a pleasure. I don't meet many young people interested in books. You are lucky." Algie gave Merci a charming wink. "Try having a teenage, boy crazy, mall obsessed girl at home. My credit score is screaming at me. You want to trade? I'll take your boy anyday!"

At mention of his wisp he held his hand up, showing her Bloodstone settled on his finger. The shadows, shaped like armor, made his finger look somewhat like a claw. Bloo did detach though and drift around Merci. If a stone could be scrutinizing, he was, but it was only a moment before his examination stopped and the shadows flickered and waved at her.

Algie was interested in what the boy spoke of but did, in several slight pauses, open his mouth just to have Dio continue on. He was hardly annoyed and gave up until Merci had interrupted him.

"I am honest when I say that if you'd like to get him out of your hair at any time, I know I am mostly a stranger, but you can have him come by my home. He could probably spend hours in our library there. Also we've had 2 fiends in residence, though now there is only Bloodstone. My son-in-law was Hawk's Eye's bond so perhaps he may find things stashed away in our collection that I just haven't found." The Alisari actually sounded very interesting and he was intrigued by Dio's ability to 'talk' to stars.

"I doubt Bloo will be quite like this fellow here." Dio would find that the books on the table were large tomes on varying religions, including some interesting expositions on King Arthur and Robin Hood. There were also quite a few written in Arabic mixed in with books on Islam. Several were religions that had only been mentioned in myth and thus Algie was hoping to see if any had a grain of truth.

"Bloodstone seems to have a temper. Either that or he feels the need to smite evil. He's been influencing me to be.. well very unlike myself." He didn't want to saw violent and scare off some new friends. "I'm rather unsure what to expect when he takes a physical form. He had been a child before and apparently was very zen. I don't think I will be so lucky."

Bloo clearly was right there but it only glinted mischievously. It's shadowy aura flared proudly for a moment, with a green and red flame-like appearance.

"Well I don't really know anything. Wren and Halo had to go away for a while. It seems it would be dangerous for their fiends, so they stayed behind and rebonded. Don't you worry about these things though. You seem to have a very secure life." It was basic information, no details.

"Hawk will share with you what he knows, if he knows more, when the time comes." He knew that if Hawk had any familiar aspects of Wren's personality, he would not want to be pressed for information that he wasn't willing to share. "That is also how I got Bloodstone."

He didn't press the matter more. The young fiend may not want to know the painful details of Bloodstone's past, how the fiend had almost died due to the chaos and danger that came with being bonded to his daughter, who was also soul-mated to Wren and now suffered because of it. Better he enjoy his life with his bond and not wonder 'what-if'.

Algie settled into another wing backed chair, the table of books between he and Merci. He picked them each up, scanning through them with amazing speed and separating them into two piles. All the while he continued his conversation. Bloodstone detached from his finger, hovered about his hand for a moment, and then zipped off to follow Dio. He kept pace easily, but of course was silent.

"It's the hazards of having children, fiend or otherwise." He smiled over his glasses at her. "I have two daughters. Thankfully both grown now. As children they were very competitive and Halo was especially inquisitive. Sneaking into my things. Drinking potions because they 'looked pretty'." He chuckled at the memories of his little girls.

"Is he your first?" He meant child of course. Even if they didn't spring from your loins, it didn't change the feelings you had for them.

"More family though, is always a pleasure. At least your lover can be with you. I myself am a long time bachelor." It wasn't far from the truth and despite being a rather handsome middle aged man, he had been alone for many years now.

"She's called a few times.." He smirked a bit. "The truth is that we were apart for many years. When her mother and I divorced Halo was a teenager and sort of went her own way." Part of that way had been summoning and soul-mating to a demon, Wren. Algie hadn't rebuilt their relationship until more recent years. "I have a feeling of where she is. I am sure she's safe." He sifted the books and his 'reject' pile was much higher than the keepers. His mouth twisted downward in disappointment.

Bloo hovered above Dio's hand but was only there a second before he spiraled around the other fiend's arm. He seemed to be admiring the star maps there, and wanted Dio to know. Bloodstone seemed to give off a calming cool aura whenever he neared close enough. He then mimicked Dio by drifting up to the spine of a book and flicking it's tendrils against the spine in observation. There was equal measure curiosity and showing off in the wisps actions.