Welcome to Gaia! ::

There was little doubt in Isadora's mind that this was precisely what she should be doing this day, for today, she had decided to give herself a little self-prescribed rest and relaxation down by the boardwalk in Camphoreon City. As of late, there had seemed to have been no downtime at all for the doctor, and so she made a point to find a day just for herself so that she could [hopefully] have time to clear her head and take her mind off of work, among other things...

A smile lit up the woman's face as she aimlessly walked and wandered on the boardwalk. A slight breeze, cool and salty from the ocean, ruffled at the edges of the pale lavender sundress that Isadora wore, and remnants of sand from the beaches were brushed aside by her dark brown sandals. Her light seafoam-green hair was pulled back into a small ponytail, leaving only her bangs to be swayed by the increasing wind. On top of her head was a sandy colored sunhat, tied with a ribbon on the brim. This hat, however, was currently no longer on Isadora's head, having been blown off by a sudden gust of wind. A split second passed before Isadora noticed this and groaned in annoyance, stopping in her tracks and turning around to retrieve her lost item.

"Gah... dammit, get back here," she said to the hat, as if it would suddenly resist the wind if given the command. This, of course, was not the case, and the wind continued carrying the hat away from Isadora as if it were a naughty child absconding with a forbidden piece of candy. The woman heaved a sigh and tried to run after the fleeing hat, but to little avail.

"...Dumb hat..."

Small, billowing piles of sand were kicked up by Isadora's sandals as she tried to run and catch up with her hat, which was by now quite a ways away. Alas, she was not nearly as quick and agile as the wind was, much to the woman's irritation. She took great care in attempting to dodge other boardwalk-goers, only fumbling once when she nearly ran over a small child of about six walking along with a very melted ice cream cone in his sticky little hands. "Sorry," she yelled over her shoulder back to the little kid and his mother, the latter of which looking rather disgruntled at nearly becoming the proud owner of a kid-pancake.

Ahead of her, Isadora could plainly see the hat drifting lazily on the breeze. A short way further, though, she could see the figure of a young red-headed man. Quick as a wink, he snatched her runaway hat out of the air, but when he did, Isadora could see a twinge of pain running through him. Blinking, she quickly ran up to him, chest heaving as she caught her breath. Now that she was closer to him, she took a cursory glance-over of her hat's rescuer. He was somewhat short, about as tall as Isadora herself was, and he had very long red hair. He was rather well-built, she couldn't help noticing, and his arm was, shockingly, in a sling. Suddenly remembering her manners, Isadora smiled at the young man.

"Ah, thank you so much for getting my hat! I swear, I thought I was never gonna catch that little bugger, heh." Isadora chuckled a little bit, brushing back a stray bang from her face. Her eyes gravitated back over to the sling, and a look of slight concern shone on her countenance. "Are... Are you all right? You aren't hurt, are you?"

Isadora gratefully took back her hat from the mysterious young man before her, replacing it on her head and making double-sure that it was secure in its position. Once she was satisfied with it, she let go of it and held her hands loosely behind her back. From the young man's tone, she could tell that he was chiding her for losing her things, and that rubbed her the wrong way, but she knew that he was right, so she smiled politely. "Of course. I shall be sure to."

She blinked at his irritated response to her perfectly reasonable query, the lowered her eyebrows, frowning at his tone. That was rather uncalled for! Who exactly did this kid think he was? Isadora huffed and crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking at the young man from above the rim of her glasses. "There's no need to be so snippy. I was only concerned for your well-being, but apparently that's not appreciated. I'll be sure to keep that in mind next time." In reality, she wasn't too worked up over it; it was true that she should have gleaned automatically that, since his arm was in a sling, it should, in theory, mean that he was hurt. But... Still. She got caught up in the moment.

As she began to turn to leave, a sudden thought struck Isadora. ...Hadn't she seen this young man before somewhere? She couldn't for the life of her think of where she might have noticed him before... Perhaps she just saw him earlier today and just ran into him coincidentally? No, that wasn't possible: she would have most definitely remembered that hair if it was just that recently. Did she somehow see him in the HQ? ...No, no way. That'd be too much of a coincidence to be possible. "Do... I know you from somewhere? I feel like I've seen you before, but... I just don't know," she said, shrugging her shoulders.

The young man's response to her question was much less than satisfactory for Isadora, and so she frowned slightly, brow furrowed in thought. Her periwinkle eyes looked the young man up and down, examining his appearance for any clues as to where she might have possibly seen him before. Besides the hair, the sling, and his almost piercingly green eyes, she found no noteworthy features of him that stood out in her memory.

"Hmm... Perhaps I was just mistaken. My eyesight isn't the best, either way, so I might have just been thinking of somebody else. Ahh well..." she said, sighing lightly and shrugging her shoulders once more. "...No harm, no foul, right? Although, I must say, this isn't the most conventional first meeting I've ever had with someone. I suppose the least I could do is properly introduce myself.

"My name's Isadora. And you are...?" She politely smiled as she gave her name to this stranger. There wasn't anything wrong with a simple exchange of names, especially now that they've had more than a few words exchanged at this point in time. It would be downright rude to do otherwise. In the back of her mind, though, Isadora could not help but wonder how old this young man was, and where he got off acting so high and mighty.

"...Asch, hmm? That's a very... interesting name. Either way, I'm pleased to meet you, Asch." What a strange name, Isadora thought to herself. It sounded almost... foreign. Of course, there was every chance that this man wasn'r from Kodo at all, so she shouldn't have been so surprised to hear it. Still though, it piqued her interest a bit.

"Then again, I'm sure there aren't many people out there named Isadora, so... I guess you could say that we're both kind of unique, yeah?" If she didn't know any better, Isadora would have thought that honey was dripping from her words, they were so sappy! Inwardly, she cringed as she heard herself. She couldn't help wishing that she was at least somewhat decent at one-on-one social interaction. In the office, she was perfectly fine with talking to people - it was her job, after all - but just when it came to just chit-chatting, she definitely had a lot to learn. ...She needed to get out more.

"You know, I don't think I've ever seen anyone with hair and eyes like yours before," she observed casually. "That's not to say that I dislike it, though. Does everyone in your family have hair like you do?" Her words might have potentially been taken as prying, but she was genuinely curious. If he didn't want to tell her, he didn't have to. Hell, either of them could have left minutes ago. What was stopping them now?

The long pause between her question about Asch's family and his response did not go unnoticed to Isadora, and she automatically filed his reaction to the question away in her mind. There was a definite hesitation to his words, perhaps from some painful memory? Maybe he wasn't on very good terms with his family? Was he estranged from them? The endless possibility of theories piled up, and Isadora itched to pry and hopefully learn more, but she knew she couldn't and she shouldn't. She wasn't a doctor right now, no matter how much she might feel like one. Right now, she was just talking. And that was all right.

Isadora was pulled out of the turbulent sea of her subconscious by Asch's remark on her own hair. She chuckled and ran a hand idly through the seafoam green bangs hanging in front of her forehead. "Yes, actually. Kind of hard to believe, I know, but that's just how it is. Got the color from my mum, as I recall." This last statement was spoken without so much as moment of thought before-hand, but as soon as the words came out of her mouth, Isadora could feel her shoulders and arms tense. She maintained a pleasant smile, but her eyes had turned hard and cold as she glanced off to the side, speaking softly, as if it was almost to herself. "As far as my father is concerned... Well, who's to say?"

Indeed, this was turning out to be quite an awkward conversation and interaction altogether, and Isadora was starting to wonder how much longer she could stand to just be here and let the silence between the two strangers linger and fester into some grotesque, ugly swamp beast. Weird and slightly disturbing metaphors aside, she was quickly becoming weary, and her feet itched to move on and leave this uncomfortable encounter in the past. Luckily, that moment seemed to be drawing nearer by the second, as it seemed that Asch had no more to say after his final patronizing comment [which, needless to say, really ruffled Isadora's fur] and he began walking away.

A moment passed, and Isadora heaved a heavy sigh. Finally. That seriously could have gone a whole lot better than it did. Hopefully, there would be no more trying interactions like that for her today. With her free hand, she brushed back her bangs and began to walk in the opposite direction of Asch. With any luck, she wouldn't have to worry about any more strange conversations with him again. After all, he was a total stranger that she had only ever seen today. What were the odds that they would run into each other another time?

As she meditated on this thought, Isadora continued walking... until she stumbled on a stray rock and nearly tripped. As she regained her balance, she loosened her grip on her hat just enough to let it be swept away by the thieving wind once again. She groaned loudly in exasperation and turned around to see where her hat had been taken to, and she was shocked to see it heading right for Asch's figure in the distance. From her vantage point, it seemed almost as if the hat would bean him right in the back of the head. "...Crap."

As soon as the hat hit Asch - squarely in the face, no less - Isadora's own hand hit her forehead. Dammit, she was such a klutz! Curse her and her clumsiness! She hung her head in embarrassment as Asch begrudgingly walked back to her and handed her back her hat for the second time today. She was sorely tempted to comment on how much her hat must like Asch, considering how it seemed so drawn to him, but she held it back. Now was not the time.

She weakly took back the hat, trying very hard not to make eye contact with Asch. She knew he must be fuming inside, and she didn't really blame him. He could have been a little less sore about it, though. "...Thanks," she said sheepishly, a faint blush of shame coloring her cheeks. "I'm... I'm really sorry about this. This doesn't happen often, I swear. Heh..." Her voice trailed off, once again lapsing into the awkward silence she had gotten accustomed to when talking with this young man.

"... I could make it up to you somehow," she offered suddenly. "I don't know how exactly I would do that, necessarily, but..." A little voice in the back of Isadora's mind heavily doubted that Asch would want anything to do with her at this point, but she might as well try to make amends.