Welcome to Gaia! ::

They arrived on the island in a flurry, and it felt like dissipation but distinctly less unpleasant. It was the rearranging of being, the transporting from one place to another, a displacement in space itself.

They arrived in a room with a portal, the walls stretching high above them. A lighthouse, perhaps? The air was warm in an awful way, and immediately, Aleria hated the heat. It sunk into their bones, and the normally sluggish veins began to kick up a fuss, grumpily pressing their distaste into the demon's mind.

"Is it always this...warm?" they asked, lip curled instinctively. Releasing Otto's hand, Aleria removed their coat, folding it over one arm.

"Shall we walk?" they said, quite seriously offering Otto an arm to take, should he feel like being a gentleman.

Aleria gave Otto a suspicious glare. "Is that your nice, or mine, boil?" the demon asked, their tone light and teasing. They let the hunter boil take the lead, as this was his home and sanctuary. One visit in the midst of an assault hardly left a lasting impression.

"That is acceptable. Precautions are a worthy cause. I have no intentions on lashing out at anyone on my own. Are there means to protect me, if someone were to initiate a dispute?" Aleria was careful to not yank Otto's arm up too high, given their height disparity, and ducked through the door, careful to clear their horns.

They were quiet, for a time, before finally asking a question that had been on their mind for some time.

"Do all hunters have such a short stature?"

"This is acceptable," Aleria mused, tapping their chin with their free hand. They waved at any other Hunter boils and ghouls that they saw, smiling and ensuring they showed their teeth, as it was the polite thing to do.

"Well, that is a comfort, even though I have little regard for my safety. While any altercation may be painful, when pushed to the brink we merely dissipate, as you are surely aware. I would reform close to home, but that would defeat the point of this excursion."

Aleria almost stopped short as the boil trained them with a ferocious glare. Indeed, the harshest one they had seen from him. "I am sorry," they said, trailing behind Otto, setting their coat down upon a table. "It was not my intention to cause distress upon your gruesome." A hint of nervousness trickled into their demeanour, as they toyed with the base of their horns, their smile wavering.

Humans were so strange. It wasn't as though Aleria had implied he was weak, merely...pint-sized.

"I have heard of some, but it is rarely dramatic. Everything fades, with time, even us," Aleria quietly replied, but they knew it was not the same. Humans were fleshy bags of meat, delicate and sinewy and weak to everything. Hunters were stronger, but that did not make them immune to the dangers of their lifestyle-- with the look on the boil's face, that much was clear.

Aleria took a moment to unbutton their cuff, rolling up their sleeve, and held the thin appendage out to the Hunter boil. It was thin, and was cold to the touch much like a chilled cadaver might be. Upon its attachment, they held out their arm to inspect it in the fluorescent light, much like they might do with a bracelet encrusted with jewels.

"It is passable," they say, nodding once with finality. "Is there much else I might need to do?"

Why was Sam calling him Honey? He was in trouble, right?

Yep.

Otto stared flatly at Sam as she prattled on, Otto's mind starting to haze over with distracted thoughts to keep from taking in the full blame of getting too ahead of himself. But, on the plus side, Sam would handle it and all he had to do was be her coffee b***h for a week.

...wait how was this any different than usual? Oh well...

"Yeah yeah sure sure.." He waved a hand at her, following after her once she headed back inside. Otto waited for her to talk to Aleria and leave before approaching her again. He got her set up with the special collar.

"Sorry bout that. S'true though. Powers out for the upteenth time. s**t always goes wrong here. So.. want a grand tour?"

"Fear? No. We ran on uh.. a dude.. or two... well our power source kind of went MIA after they escaped so.." That totally explained it all. He coughed, and rubbed his neck. "It's a long story. We're running on fumes of backup sources until we get back our main power source."

"Uh.. yeah. Merlin and Excalibur." Otto stared back, blue eyes staring absently upward. "They're like... ancient. One of'em went super evil and nearly killed the world. The other dude seemed pretty chill."

"S'alright. It ain't really your problem. Just makes s**t more difficult to get done 'round here." Otto turned, trying to remember where it was Aleria was allowed to be led. "Try and enjoy it here while you can. I dunno when I can bring ya back for another visit."