does it have to be me?

"I am named for a charming flower myself, but I am human as well." She folded her hands before her and smiled. "My name is Jacinthe!"

Her name was Jacinthe she said. His eyes wandered in a brief thought before guessing through a yawn — “Hyacinths? I guess I can see it.”

Her journal entry for the day was interrupted by a person who...Looked like a flower. Their hair was billowed up, in no way she had ever seen before. The corner of the page was dedicated to trying to figure out what kind of flower the lazing figure was meant to evoke.

Were they to wake, they would certainly find her staring intently, chewing on her pencil, and then going back to her doodle.

❛ Les étoiles malchanceuses ❜ —the unlucky stars— ❛ they toy with us so. I have set up a business in the meantime—a shop. ❜

He gestures vaguely in the direction of Archimedes, where Faucher Lace sits nestled amongst the winding streets.

He spoke of a business and while she noted his gesture, her eyes did not leave him. He retrieves a card and she extends a hand to take it.

Elegant and precise.

So this was an offer? — Of work? She could have groaned. It would do her good in truth but it was one she'd have trouble admitting.

The sand finally forms, into a giant sand lizard, no...a lizard made of sand.

"Klay is not simply a human, but my partner." sandlizardmon arrives, finally forming after observing all exists and entrances. "What we seek is simple as well. Power."

Tao was swirling and gathering, but its source weren’t from this stranger himself. The sand took form. Shaping into a lizard that could speak, of all things. She withdrew a step, uncertain. Had she an ounce of her power, she’d flaunt an arrogance worthy of her title. But things felt wrong here and so she’d regard this beast with a wary stare. It spoke and addressed the stranger… Klay - as not just human. Odd, her eyes and senses suggested he was only that. “You want strength because you were weak… that sounds very human to me. Power because you’re afraid…”

Pollen on her hands force her thoughts to her mouth.

“I can’t quite relate. As strange as it is… that’s what makes humans so useful. Your extremes. Your tao is weak, not small, but you probably wouldn’t survive. So maybe this place is better for you. For now...”

"Like animals that they are, it is disturbingly easy to control their very thoughts with few actions. "

Masa almost jumps away from the stranger as she makes her appearance. His upper body does move just a little bit away but otherwise he remains in place staring the stranger in shock.

She leans nearer the window, eyes passing over the baked goods. There seemed to countless. She peers to the man, matching his look of shock with her own of confusion. “They aren’t likely to miss one. If they made all of this, they can replace what you take. How else will you get something from here?”

"Is it so bad, such a life without hassle , without major struggle is not one that people would dismiss. It is a lucky life after all, born at the right time, at the right place..."

❛ But you are trés beau, no? ❜ Very beautiful.

❛ Too much to stay unclaimed. ❜

Looking at the human—being, creature—before him, Cecil stops to shower praise. There is something vibrant about the hair—yellow and an orange that bleeds nearly into red with the fading of the sun. Beside her—him, it—he is almost too pale in comparison: porcelain skin, silvery hair, eyes that always liquid mix of pinkish-purple pastels.

Fiyero had been much the same, a vibrant hue that seeped into his skin, his soul; there is a lack of the bard's easy warmth here however, that tells him to keep his distance.

Naturally, Cecil takes a step closer instead.

She turned to him, lax yet critical. Piercing yellow eyes peering from beneath long orange lashes. She took in the sight of the stranger and was unsure of how to regard him. Something unseen rolled cold within her, as in in warning. Her sight of tao was apparent but unsteady and she had learned before to be wary and very careful of the fickleness of humans tao.

He spoke of stars and she paused. Was it wise to admit that she were alone here? She was almost destroyed the last time she was alone.

✂ "Look at you. The quiet brooding type, standing off to the side all by himself." Was he trying to look intimidating or was he actually that adverse to walking through the crowded streets? Either could have been possible, Riyo wouldn't judge. But it just so happened that she was extroverted enough to strike up a conversation with someone like that. Sometimes people just needed an excuse to socialized.

Well, that and she was a little bored.

“Yes.” He admits to her question.

Although Mélusine did wonder how much that was helping reassure the individual the servant couldn't help but take one of the bloomed red ones out of the vase and offer it up as a gift.

"Still the amount of time you have here is a blessing in disguise. It didn't take too long till I was feeling like myself again. But before that I was always trying to find something to entertain myself. Floristry was one thing I thought about but my mind wanders far too much for it to be something I'd stick with. You understand right? Too many choices, not enough decision making?"

He'd seen bunch of flowers today hanging from bypassers of whom he presumed to be in the same position as himself - kidnapped from other places but perhaps it was a coincidence. Masa doesn't really know - he's got plenty of other things to think about such as his ongoing job search and what to get for breakfast.

By what he deems an impressively large glass window he stares into the bakery, lured in by the scents.

“So get something.”

She replies, an expression curious and yet all the same unfamiliar with the common workings of commerce.

It was a simple answer , though he actually knew not what the reason for such plants to exist. but just because was seemingly the easiest to understand with. Like how companies would ruin a country for wealth, just because. There is no deeper reasoning needed.

Like how people would want godhood, just because.

“What a troublesome answer….”, and it was made apparent by the look on her face. On the island, there was reason. Even if it took centuries to reach there was purpose to even their plants.

“What would be the point then? If you don’t seek truths….going your whole lives knowing nothing at all of tao…” It was the solid and only constant truth Zhu Jin and the other Tensen were cultivated to understand. Nothing of governments, or rudimentary profits, just training and perfecting of tao.

"How unpleasant it could be, if the citizens can never lie to their own government. Or to workers to their bosses, it would be the perfect weapon against falsehoods."

"Or to enemies."

He stands to go a bit further away from the flowers.

A plant with effects on the mind? Her eyes fell to the blooms peaking from the ground and squinted. What hazy shape she could make of it’s tao told her it’s nature was unlike the ordinary. So that was at least a truth. Perhaps he was right.

“I don’t know about governments. Rules of the mainland sound complicated and uninteresting.” A thought slipped from her that she would have sooner kept to herself. She frowns. Preemptively irritated and hoping such a thought didn’t make her out to sound like some kind of fool.

She too steps away from the nearest plant at her feet.

@thustathata 

"Governments would pay so much for an item such as this." with gloves on, he didn't have the excuse of being infected by the pollen but he's still a bit happy. His money seeking ways had limits when logic is involved though.

But wait -

After changing into a more comfortable and exposed outfit for swimming, Promosis was ready for a good long soak. That was...until the scent of the water inside the Water Styx caught in her nostrils. She blinked a few times, and then dipped her foot into the water, just barely though.

After a moment, she pulled her foot out. This wasn't salt water. What a shame. She was hoping for a decent soak in a large body of salt water. She had been looking forward to it.

He’d been wandering for a while and taking mind to avoid whatever residents he happened to find or sense from afar. The tao here felt so muddled, vast and yet hazy. Such were the mysteries of a dream he supposed. He tried for a moment to will himself some Tan, but when the minimum effort bore no fruit he sighed and reasoned some source of water would do in a pinch.

And with some luck, he’d happen upon Water Styx and the relief was immediate. He came upon the waters edge and had begun to slip the ceremonial-like garb from his broad shoulders rather carelessly. Hands were at his waist prepared to drop the rest robes away but he stopped, noting only now the company right beside him with her feet in the water - and he looked at her.

Welcome to sunny Isola Radiale, Zhu Jin!

You’ll be staying in CONDO 416.

You will retain your regeneration, but you will only be allowed to heal minor to moderate wounds.

Enjoy your stay!