Eriline

The cirque was a fun place. Everyone seemed so passionate, so excited, life radiating off of everyone involved. In a way? It reminded Gillian of her time working at the theater - including the brilliant costumes. Now the theater was no longer her home, her creations meant to be worn anywhere but on stage. And still - maybe, at some point, she could ask for the opportunity to come up with a costume or two for this cirque, if only for a one-time-job.

Right now, however, that definitely wasn’t the reason she had come here. It was the young ringmaster who had caught her eye right from the beginning - she had done her research, thank you very much, and Gillian was entirely too curious not to go and take a look at the boy her cousin hadn’t shut up about. 

Was this any of her business? No. Would she chat Phillip up, anyway? Most definitely.

“-- Hey! The show was incredible”, as soon as she stepped up, reaching out to shake Phillip’s hand as he personally said goodbye to every visitor. Good quality, Gillian approved - polite. And cute as a button.

Ever since Milo had first been able to kiss Moana, it had been ... kind of incredibly hard to focus on anything but the girl. Which .. was turning out to be a problem. Now it wasn’t just the lack of interest that kept him from engaging in his law classes, or yet another still-unwritten story that popped into his mind (this time: featuring the beggar Milo had encountered earlier, who, as far as he could tell, was about to inherit quite a fortune). 

Language & Culture

His father and his grandmother are british. 

Milo spent the first couple of years living in London, before his family moved to America, back to his mother’s hometown.

Therefore he has a bit of a british accent that mainly shows when he’s excited and not paying attention.

His mother wants him to speak ‘proper’ american english and work on overcoming his accent.

Milo’s grandmother wants him to embrace his culture, both british and american

Education

Milo’s mother encourages him to continue studying law, even though he doesn’t like it.

He only started to make his family proud - his mother, above all.

He spends more time sneaking out of his classes and into those dealing with mythology than actually studying law

Profession

Milo has no idea what he wants to do with his life. At all.

Milo spends a lot of time coming up with different stories about people’s lives and fates - due to his ability to catch a  glance at people’s immediate future, there are a lot of stories in his head he’s trying to write down.

Another year later and one of his law teachers is going to call him out on missing every single class and bullshitting his way through all the exams (rather successfully so).

Said teacher is also going to reveal that he found Milo’s notes and, more importantly, some of the stories he’s been working on. He tells Milo to stop studying law, since he’s clearly not interested, and become a writer instead.

Milo’s description wasn’t that far off, that much Moana could admit. Her gaze shifts towards the ground, a smile GROWING on her face. She wish she could outright tell him about that. How the ocean really was that to her, but she wasn’t sure if it was the right time to tell him. But she wanted to tell Milo, and she wanted him to meet Noah too.

Looking up again, a quick glance towards the sea as she lets out a giggle. “It’s not ridiculous, if that’s the word you’re going for.” She looks at him with another laugh. “I actually like that view. But like I said before; we believe that if we take care and PROTECT our waters, that the same will be SHARED with us.” Even if it was more literal in her case.

“Okay, here’s a question for you.” Her hands CLAP together, turning around to face him as she walks backwards. Probably not the smartest of decisions for many reasons. Mostly because if she wasn’t attentive, she’d trip and that’d be embarrassing, but it made her aware of how her heart RACED when all her focus was on him (and if she tripped from that that’d be even MORE embarrassing). She just had to play it cool. Not too hard.

“If you could be watched over by some element, what would it be? Or I guess what I’m trying to say is…” There’s another pause, lips PURSED together in thought before grinning. “If the ocean is my big brother, who would you want to be your big sister or brother?”

That giggle did things to him, really. Did Moana know? Did she even remotely know how she made Milo feel, and how very ... smitten he was? Man, his thoughts sounded like a bad romcom, but ... that was just how she made him feel, really. Milo figured that was what love was, in the end - embarrassing and awkward, but genuine. Real.

He had definitely been a fool for lesser things, in the past.

Milo snapped out of his thoughts once Moana started talking again, and he immediately turned his full attention towards the girl once more. This was such a nice moment, and somehow it was really easy to ... see it from a greater perspective. The way they walked with their feet in the sand, Moana in front of him, walking backwards, the waves quietly roaring by their side ... In Milo’s mind? This was the kind of thing people should write stories about. 

A surprised hum at her question, and Milo had to contemplate his answer for a couple of moments.

“... I want to say air, because ... you know, it’s air. It’s light and free and lifts you up, but ... I might actually go with earth? Keeps you anchored, gives you roots. I think I could use those. Ah, I’m not sure”, Milo laughed, arms now behind his head as he kept his eyes on Moana, making sure she wouldn’t suddenly trip and fall.