#cagedfreedom

Ever since the ball, where he'd very obviously cuddled up to and flirted with Uriah, in front of everyone there, where Uriah had been more then happy to flirt back and make implications that could not be mistaken, where Uriah had then turned around and handed himself over to be arrested and thrown in a jail cell, Deidara had been in a foul mood.

He'd avoided everyone he knew, and those that knew him just well enough that they might do something awful like check on him, and had taken his anger out on the furthest reaches of the Isle where he was not likely to be disturbed but by people, only by things that would oblige him with a fight.

Here he'd been, all but hanging off Uriah for everyone there to see clear as day, being flirted back to and getting his hopes up, and the guy goes and pulls that instead. Stood up in favor of going to jail.

He's just mad about that, not worried over the niggling fear that, when they can't kill him because he's an Echo they'll just spend the time torturing him instead. Or stung because he actually likes Uriah and wants his attention and there's a void he'd hoped the other man might fill a little bit. He's only angry and spurned and it has nothing to do with any attachment.

But once he works off the anger with explosions and punching holes in trees, he has very little to do that will help with the other parts of it that he's absolutely not feeling. And Deidara is not someone who is known for being a coward or indecisive.

So it's no surprise to him that he ends up silently walking up the wall of the AIPD building in the shadows of night, carefully keeping himself hidden from the stupid police androids. He pauses outside the window where he can sense Uriah's strange not-chakra energy, slipping a small clay lizard inside to scope it out and get the man's attention. It sticks to the wall as any lizard would, and climbs down to scamper into Uriah's field of view. Hopefully he's not asleep, or he's getting a clay lizard to the face.

Nonexplosive, lucky for him. As someone Deidara actually likes, he's not likely to blow him up for funsies.

.・゜-: ✧ :- Gaia had met many faces, and seen even more places. Throughout her travels, she had come to marvel at the fact that there were so many who seemed to care very deeply for her speaker. It was... touching, as she would put it.

The concept of this fondness was lost to someone like Gaia who, up to this point, would have never known what it was like to be human at all. And in some ways, she still didn't understand. Or rather, she could not understand Lilith's desire to shed it.

Lilith was as much of a human as any being that Gaia had come across. Not all were human of course, but they experienced trust and love and free-will. All of those things were a part of Lilith too. That's why she existed, after all. To be the bridge between the human and the spiritual. It was not something to be discarded like this.

Gaia knew she was running out of time. Even though many had spoken to Lilith thus far, the creature seemed hellbent on succumbing to Gaia completely. Gaia still fought against her, but it may not be enough soon.

and even still , the fodlan light approach with her hands empty. by all accounts and measures , she showed herself defenseless.

". . . but i would say you've been difficult to keep up with as of late," she continued. then , softer: "i don't come to you on duty. i just want to talk."

It was a pretty late night for Donald to be out and about. He'd run out of food for Lune ( his new duckling ) so was trying to find just one store that would have what he needed for her.

But that was kind of unlikely at 1am. So he was taking a stroll too. The summer night air was pretty refreshing on his feathers. He'd often taken these kinds of walks back home. It helped calm him down.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw some movement. It was intriguing to him, so he walked up to get a slightly closer look. He recognized the appearance pretty quickly, gasping in shock.

˗ˏˋ 💜 」 —— " get over here , you . " claws steal the glass in uriah's hand , throwing back his drink of choice as if she could taste . performative drinking was one of her many talents . she even simulate the way the throat moved as it swallowed .

with his drink out of the way , there would be no other excuse, " you're all mine . ♥ "

and without the decency to ask , evelynn tosses his drink aside and drags him out to the dance . she's bored , and sure she doesn't care much for music . . . but she loves the discomfort of a hot , sweaty dance .

「𝔟𝔞𝔫𝔤 𝔟𝔞𝔫𝔤!」- People had been coming and going from the fields for hours now as the Fanalean residents and others from Arcanus City, Echos and native people's alike, all came, had their fun, and moved on to other activities. This included the farmers and their farm hands, many taking turns in rotation for making sure that everything was going smoothly, helping where help was needed, or selling their own wares to commemorate the start of spring. The sky was clear and air was crisp, still slightly chilly but not as bad as it had been during the winter season. All sorts of flora was budding and blossoming anew while those creatures who slept through the dreary months began to rouse themselves back to life.

Right now, dressed in a casual pair of jeans and a white button up, Vash was grinning ear to ear as he was surrounded by people talking and watched over a number of people picking from the many strawberry bushes. Several children were full of dirt, finding it more fun to play in the soil than to collect the ripe red fruits.

Vash was more than glad to see everyone enjoying themselves. However, something caught his eye enough to turn his head. He had just heaved up a crate full of the berries and was walking it over to a long table that had been set up with various boxes and bowls of water for washing and packaging when he noticed one man just milling about. He wasn't sitting in the field or any of the provided benches, he wasn't perusing wears or in the field picking berries, he didn't seem to be sipping any drink - the guy just seemed to be observing. Not like that was a crime or anything, but…

Well… sticking his nose where he didn't belong was one of the things he did best…

The Plant wandered over to the other man, the crate heavy in his arms as he held it by the handles on either side. He smiled. "Hey there friend, ya need some sort'a help?"

Maybe he was lost or looking for someone. Intuition told him the guy was probably an 'Echo', like he was.