<A> More Tough Love (Xun/Elik/Adi)

[A Wandering Esper]

To say that Xun Jiang had no bloody idea what was about to happen would be an understatement. No, what was about to be unleashed was perhaps the last thing he could have expected.

The Dragon King did not have much planned for the day, beside perhaps hitting the market to visit Rou and Neith later on, and then watching over Forge's gem in the evening. For now, through, he had settled for a quick swim.

He had not come to the pantheon in such a long time, and it made him definitively uncomfortable to be there - even more so with what he was about to do.

He really, really, really wanted to go back to bed, so to speak.

"You said that door, right ?" He stopped before the one bearing a large tree. That... looked oddly like Teldrassil, actually.  

[Meepfur]

"Mm-hm, that's the one," Adi confirmed with a nod, giving Elik's hand another squeeze. He could do this! And maybe they would get really lucky, and everything would go off with a minimum of strife.

A girl could hope.  

[A Wandering Esper]

"Right..." Oh, he did not want to do it. He did not want to do this at all. His body language all but screamed that fact. The dragon was the last person he wanted to see, much less have to talk to.

But apparently this was the only way he could be left alone, so he rose his fist and knocked.

It was Aysu that answered the door, through with mild surprise - Adi certainly did not need to knock to come in, especially not since their masters now effectively lived together. Through her companion certainly made some sense as to why she did. "Good evening." He looked... familiar. And well, a night elf to boot.

Wait... Could it be ?

Uh, okay, that was a little freaky. The man that answered the door looked kind of like a night elf that had been bleached in the sun or something. "I need to see Xun." Because my aunt won't leave me the hell alone until I do.

Maybe he'd be lucky, maybe miracles did exist and the dragon wasn't home. Preferably somewhere off-world with no mean of contact. He couldn't be blamed if the god wasn't in there, right ?

....This was bound to be... interesting to say the least. He could tell. "Certainly. Follow me."

...Miracles did not ******** exist.  

[Meepfur]

"Hey, Aysu!" Adi said cheerfully, tail wagging in greeting. "This is Elik." Although he seemed to puzzle that out on his own just fine, you were supposed to introduce people, right?

She looked over to the night elf and smiled reassuringly. This had better go okay, or she would feel really really bad.  

[A Wandering Esper]

"Well, it is a pleasure to meet you at last." Aysu nodded his head. It was truthful. The wayward son was something his master spoke to him quite often... But if the son would finally sit and listen, would the mother find the words to make him understand ?

Well, there was only one way to find out. Just like Adi, Aysu was hoping there would be the least strife possible.

He had just risen from the lake and gotten clothed again when the form of the three could be seen in the distance. Thankfully so, because that would have probably have made an awkward moment look even less awkward.

Still, Xun Jiang had been shaking his mane dry - well, as dry as one could could get it to be - when he finally noticed exactly who was coming to seek him out. And he was quite certain his brain skipped, as he froze, blue eyes wide.

Yep, he had not damn idea what Whisteria had been up to.

It hurt to look at him. It really did. The Dragon looked too much like Illisia, but the face was all wrong... To say nothing about the extra appendages. The clothing... helped, actually. It was strange, bright colored silk and wide-legged pants that his mother would have never worn.

But he could not take it any longer, and he looked away. "Apparently you've got things to say. And Whisteria won't leave me alone until you're allowed to preach to the choir." He gritted his teeth. "So. Talk, before I change my mind."  

[Meepfur]

It was a little odd, to be around as, well, back-up, instead of to visit. She would usually have skipped in and chirped some happy greeting, but even Adi was pretty aware that that was not the appropriate way to go today. Still, she did flash Xun a little smile, half-hopeful and half-apologetic. Maybe they should have warned him first...oh well, too late.

For now, the werewolf simply nodded and twined her arm with Elik's. Supportive girlfriend mode!  

[A Wandering Esper]

Aysu, for his part, had done what he needed to do. It was in the two's hands now, and he knew better than to intrude now - perhaps he would return and spend time with Adi once the conversation was over, but for now he would do his beast to keep Lindita from trying to listen in.

This was part awkward and part surreal, truly. To be honest, he had not thought much about what he would actually say to Elik if he managed to corner him. Well, while the Dragon King had not been the one to corner his son, the druid was still sitting here, looking at the grass like it was the most interesting thing in all Creation.

This was awkward, to say the least. But then, what did Ti Lung have to say, beside the truth ? "Elik. Look at me."

He waited. The night elf did not move, and he sighed. "Very well, then." This was not going to end like the last time, if he could help it at all. Elik was not leaving this room until he had said what he had to say. Xun Jiang was no long the confused, newborn being that had failed to prove his point the first time.

Now, if anything, he liked to think he knew who he was now.

"You see things as black and white... Complete finality. You certainly have always been quick to jump to conclusions." Xun Jiang ran an hand through his mane, still struggling to word himself. Adi had lived it once in the form of her mother becoming Rio. Glyph had lived the gem to rebirth experience, and could at least visualize it.

"As with anything in life, there are choices to make... Mostly on the god's part, I will admit."

Elik could not help his snort. "And did she knew about those choices first hand ?" His fingers laced to Adi's, more so for his comfort than her own, he had to admit. It was his stubbornness at work - the simple idea that he could be wrong was enough to make him bristle.

To the Dragon's benefit, however, he did not take the bite. "I knew exactly what I was getting into, and what the outcome would be - no matter what happened, I would never be the same again." And that was true. Even Tian Yue, who was more host than the Tien Lung of old, was not Crispin, and would never be Crispin again. To be honest, Ti Lung was not certain where exactly he stood in that balance. He had met gods that had taken their hosts in a similar way.... But he was more Illisia than most of them were their host. Perhaps he simply had no other choice but to be, thanks to what had happen in the first, botched rebirth.

"Now, you have two choices." One feather-like eyebrow rose. "Either you can let me talk, or you can keep interjecting little quips like these and drag on what is an obviously unpleasant experience longer than it need to be."

Damn. He'd half expected - and half hoped - that the Dragon would bite. But instead, he had simply disarmed him in a way only his mother had truly been able to do - as long as her own temper had not been roused, at least. "Fine." He grumbled.

Xun Jiang - 1, Elik - 0.  

[Meepfur]

Really, this was pretty much all Xun's to handle now; Adi had what most would have considered the easy part, just being there. Except it wasn't easy! Adi and being quiet, being passive, didn't go so well together, and it showed in a slight fidget. But this was important, and she couldn't interrupt - even though she wouldn't have been snarky, she needed to let Xun talk, too.

When she felt Elik's fingers lace with hers, she leaned towards him a bit.

And waited. Waiting was so hard! Especially when you were worrying, too.  

[A Wandering Esper]

"Well, then." Now that it looked like there would be no further interference, Xun Jiang continued on. "Like I said, there are always choices to make. My choice was to take what was offered to me. Some might say it was fate, or destiny perhaps. But I simply knew that had to do this. I knew that I would never be complete if this did not happen." It might have been fate or destiny if Illisia had been his first host. Hell, maybe it was fate even now. As far as he knew, that one god was not present for him to ask.

"There are likely as many possible outcomes as there are deities being reborn. But what I have done is a little different than the norm, as far as I do know." Deities rarely discussed their host freely, he had found. It was a sore spot, and the Dragon King could understand why. To some, it was an annoying hindrance. To other, taking a mortal's life was something they would have preferred to avoid. "Two halves form a whole. Others have done this as well, through perhaps not to the same degree that I have. I knew I had to be a different god than the one I have been before. It was something we both knew all along, but only truly voiced later on. I knew what I was doing, and I was perfectly fine with it. The moment I laid eye on the gem, I knew that I was mean to be one half of that whole. It took me longer to understand that consciously, but I always knew."

He reached out to Elik, forcefully tilting the druid's chin to make him look to his own face, his own eyes. Elik surprisingly offered little resistance. "I know this is not easy to understand, Elik. I struggled to understand it myself, until the moment where it actually happened. And honestly, I would rather that you never have to figure it out with such certainty."

"Isn't that a little hypocritical ?" There was surprisingly little bite in that statement - Elik had noticed that he would be hard pressed to get a rise out of the Dragon King without going further than he wanted to go in Adi's presence. And as Xun Jiang talked, he was forced to admit that there was a truth to the soft, soothing voice. It was evident that the Dragon believed what he was saying, at the very least.

And part of him wanted to believe... If only so the pain, and the ache, would be gone.

"Probably more than a little." That statement, it seemed, had not earned the druid a proper rebuke like the one before. "But I will not hide behind a fake display of perfection. I am not perfect. None of us are. If we were perfect as mortals believe us to be, then we would never have died to begin with." Xun Jiang released his hold on Elik, and was pleased when his son did not look away.

"That is the jist of it. I am not the Illisia you have known all your life, but I am her nonetheless. That is fact, and that will never change, even if you try to deny it." The dragon folded his hands into his lap. "What you decide to do with this knowledge... Is up to you. I would rather not lose you, but I understand that you might look for things in me that might not be there anymore. If you wish for me to let you be, then I will. You cannot ask me to ignore your existence completely, through. If you are in danger, I will interfere. I will not leave you to die simply because you do not wish to acknowledge me."

He looked at Adi, who was surprisingly quiet and patient, and yet obviously nervous. The match was a good one. The werewolf might be young, but there was so much they could both learn from one another. "If Adi ever needs my help, I will give it. Same with Whistera, with Aska, with their child. WE are family, and you are all precious to me. You will always be my son, Elik, even if you would rather not be. And this cannot be taken from me."

"This all seems so impossible, through." Elik sighed. "After what I've been told... That the god takes their host and that was that..." But it was hard to deny it now, even if he had to be forced to swallow his pain and listen to it. The god sitting in front of him was now less monster and more of an enigmatic creature - for all that the stillness and calmness was foreign, the passion behind the words was familiar.

And it would only be painful if he let it be so. Could he accept that Xun Jiang was Illisia, and yes at the same time was not ? Being alive but radically changed certainly beat not existing at all.

"I don't know what to think about this. I don't know what to do." He shook his head. "...I don't think I've known what to do ever since I first saw that gem, and realized that I was losing..." He hesistated. "...You."

It was an improvement, at least.  

[Meepfur]

Heavy emotional things were really not the werewolf's forte. Oh, she was all for feelings~!, sure, but she didn't have a lot of experience with the really deep, complicated stuff. She did have some conflicting feelings about the god-host situation at times, but even then...they were pretty well resolved when it came to Xun and Illisia, and it hadn't taken particularly much to achieve that. Youth yet gave her a certain simplicity to her views and experiences.

Consequently, certain aspects of this conversation were fascinating, and Adi looked deeply thoughtful in addition to slightly nervous. Was this what it was like for Orin? Mention of her name pulled her back, though, and she smiled - more brightly this time.

"Sometimes you don't have to know what to do," she observed.  

[A Wandering Esper]

"...I really don't know what to think about all this." He finally admitted. "I've always known what I wanted to be and where I wanted to be before now... It's..." Disconcerting, to say the least. "Im not sure how you can be so certain of it."

"I lived it." Xun Jiang nodded. "It helps. There are certain things you cannot truly understand until you've lived through them." He smiled then, and could not help but be amused by Adi's words. Unlike Elik, he knew how young the little girl was... Since he knew when the gods had started to be reborn - which was fairly recently still. And she understood things his son did not understand in spite of his long life. Or perhaps because of his own life.

A good match, indeed.

"Adi's right, you know. You do not always need to know what to do. Sometimes you just need to feel it. Instinct will tell you if it it right or wrong." Elik had his place here - weither or not he would be personally involved in it. Glyph could use someone well versed in the druidish arts, the place Illisia had first been meant to hold. If not, there were other gods. Or no god at all, if it came to that.

"You are a druid. You should know that. Or did that lovely lady on your side tame you already ?" He smirked. Perhaps he was pushing his luck. Perhaps. But Elik's reaction - the one of instinct - would perhaps be most telling on what ground they would be on for the time being.

Oh, he was being schooled by a dragon now ? But he had to admit both Adi and Xun's points were valid one. And well... his instinct was telling him one thing.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, old man."

One long, feather-like eyebrow rose in mock-affront. "Old man ? Your father would have handed you your a** if you had ever called him that." It would have been hilarious to watch. But as it was, the Dragon King was too amused - and glad - do do so himself.  

[Meepfur]

"Oh, he's not tame yet," Adi assured the dragon with a giggle, pulling a little piece of foliage from his hair and waving it for emphasis. She hadn't quite finished de-scruffing him earlier, since she'd gotten sidetracked first by the news that Whisteria was having a baby, and then by the seriousness of the discussion. Not that he would ever actually be fully de-scruffed, or that she wanted him to be.

The werewolf felt like she'd been holding her breath, and that she could finally let it out. Things seemed like they were okay!  

[A Wandering Esper]

Elik blinked a bit when a leaf was pulled out of his hair. How did that get in there ? Well, pretty easily, probably. "And you would not ?" Poor Adi. This had more or less devolved into an experiment in boundary-pushing.

But it could have easily been worse, given the tempers involved. It was good that both of them had settled on the responsible adult route.

"We have company." And the Dragon was fine with having Elik think Adi had been the only thing to save his a** for the time being. There would be more than enough time for family bonding later on, once the grounds they were both standing on would not be as sketchy as it was now.

((And that's more or less all I had planned. XD We can fade it there with them staying and chatting, unless you'd rather get going. Would probably be more fun to start a new rp with 90% less AWKWARD through. xD))  

[Meepfur]

"I still count as company?" she chuckled a bit, tail waving behind her. Granted, it was just fine with her her, since she didn't really want to witness dragon versus druid, thank you. It was much better if everyone just got a long!

((Fading works for me! biggrin ))  

[A Wandering Esper]

"Apparently." Elik said, with a faint chuckle.

Oh, Adi would probably witness dragon versus druid eventually. Be it sparring or just messing with each other, night elves had always been quite physical. If a good smack on the back of the head did the job, then why not ?

At least she was unlikely to see any serious fighting, at least. "Do you two want to stay a little longer ? I can show you this place, Elik. Or cookies could also be a possibility..." That was just baiting Adi, and he knew it.

((And thar. :>))