Curiosity leads to mischief *Gaius*

[GAIUS FULGUR MORA]

The boy began walking in the direction of his mother's shop, only a bit left of the direction he was heading, though he had no destination in mind. He turned with the curve of the fountain, so as not to seem like she was putting him out of his way. He could go for a good cup of tea anyway.

He thought about his own hobbies and what he wanted to do with his life before answering Alina's question. "I want to code video games. That's what I've been going to school for, but even if I'm not gonna make music for a living, I'd still like to keep doing it for fun." He kept a medium pace; most of the time, his long stride made his pace a bit quick for people, and stuck his hands halfway into his pockets. It was a nice day, he thought contently, and there was no reason to rush.

"You play games?" He asked Alina curiously. He straightened the straps on his backpack, eliciting a swat at the back of his head from Umbreon. "Gah! Sorry li'l man," he murmured, scratching the nape of his neck. The cat poked his head out of the pack, watching silently as people went by, as if to say You'd better be sorry.

He turned down a side street in the direction of the park, sidestepping a man jogging in the opposite direction. Now that he thought about it, he hoped that Marcus was upstairs in his room; He always harassed anyone from the Academy with questions and scared them off. He didn't mind it most of the time, as he didn't really like a lot of people at school. In fact, he often got his brother to come down to the shop when he was at the register in the summers for that exact reason.

"It's a bit of a walk, yet. Let me just warn you, my mom's... unique. She treats everyone like family as soon as she meets them, but then that's why some people like coming to the shop." He always thought it was odd for his mom, a Thunder, to act the way she does. Most were kind of reclusive, like him. He supposed it was the way she was raised. Growing up in a small town in Georgia, where practically everyone knew everyone made it hard to be an introvert, he supposed.

[ALINA RAE LEXUS]

Alina fell in next to Gaius, just a bit behind him as his legs were MUCH longer with hers, and even with her abnormally tall shoes, she still couldn’t quite keep up. But she was like a trusty little shadow, falling in the ranks behind the leader. She wasn’t one to EVER be a leader – maybe Gaius was actually quite good at it. If the Winds ever suddenly had to re-elect another leader, another ‘head’, Alina would hate for it to ever be her. No, she’d cry for every other wind’s sake. God forbid that ever happen. She was just glad he had agreed to take her – she had nothing else set for the rest of the night except dinner at Carson’s, and that wasn’t until much later. Gaius was being a wonderful host, she was quite glad of that. Her brows raised, looking at him slowly in surprise, ”Really? That’s wonderful. If I were any good at that, I’d like to do that too. I can only draw and paint, but anything that has to do with computers is beyond me.”

[/color] But that was okay. Because she didn’t really need to be TOO tech savvy to have her own design line. She could hire people for that. She smiled, ”Well of course. No one is making you give up a hobby you like to do. You can do and like both. I think it would be horrible to pick one thing or the other to do with your life. I don’t know if I’d ever be able to do it.”[/color] Just the thought of being stuck doing one thing for the rest of her life kind of freaked Alina out. She needed some consistency, but she also needed adventure. That was important.

”I do. I mean…not really the violent ones but. I like Sims, and I liked the game Fusion Frenzy for the Xbox, do you remember that? That was a fun one. And Mario’s fun.”[/color] Though honestly it had been a while since she had just sat down to play a game. She always got distracted or forget her main goal. Alina giggled slightly as Umbreon expressed his distaste in the fact that Gaius shifted. Leave it to cats to speak out about things they didn’t like. As Gaius side stepped, Alina was a bit distracted, and she ran right into him. She burst into giggles, moving aside, ”Sorry.”[/color] She smoothed her hair a bit, following after him, just nodding a bit, ”That’s alright, I don’t mind walking.”[/color] Alina grinned as Gaius described his mom, looking over at him a bit, ”She seems like she’d be a lovely woman. I mean…I don’t know what you mean by treats you like family, but I guess I’ll see, hm?”[/color] Seeing as her mother…wasn’t ever a mother to her. She thought a bit, ”Do you think she’ll like me? I mean, I might just buy all of her teas. I’m not even kidding here. That and…what element is she?”[/color] Alina knew winds were neutrals, but she wasn’t feeling very good about fires at the moment. And she wasn’t sure what Altair might’ve said about her either. She just really hoped she hadn’t put a dent in the ‘peacefulness’. She bounced a bit, thinking and looking to Gaius. ”Do you like me?”[/color] She meant as a person. Leave it to Alina to ask a question like that.[/size][/blockquote]

[GAIUS FULGUR MORA]

Gaius nodded as Alina explained what games she played. He understood her position. A couple of people he knew wouldn't touch the overly violent games, but preferred games like Portal. Sims was one of his own favorites as well. Yeah. Mario's classic. I like the Sims too, but some of the other ones I like... Let's just say they're not for the faint of heart," he said, grinning.

"Oh, trust me, she'll like you. Odd thing is, she's a Thunder, like me. Hardly acts like the stereotypical 'Shocker' though. I think it just comes from her upbringing. Hard to be a recluse when everyone in town knows each other. He explained, voicing his thoughts from earlier. They turned the corner at a pharmacy. He could see the shop about two blocks down, and he was starting to hope, again, that Marcus was out of the house, or at least bogged down in his Xbox upstairs.

"Do you like me?"

His mind took a moment to process the question, and for a second, his heart skipped a beat in surprise. What did she mean by that? Did he like her, or like her? Don't kid yourself, man. You've just met, he thought to himself. Still, when he tried to reply, all that came out was a n unintelligible "Uh..." He shut his mouth and composed himself. "Yeah. I like you. You seem interesting." He said. That was the right thing to say right? He felt like somehow, that sounded pretentious. Gah! Oh well. Alina didn't seem like a person that was easily offended.

[ALINA RAE LEXUS]

Alina smiled a bit. She could never play Portal – she was sure it would bore her to tears. She had heard about the new Bioshock game coming out – though she didn’t really know the back story to it. Anything that made her cry wouldn’t be a winner. Games that were so realistic you forgot it was a game were always kind of scary to her. She got sucked in, and that was all the same with movies and books too. Though she never had luck with books – if she could stop the words from dancing all over the page, that would be better. Perhaps if there was a book she REALLY wanted to read, someone would read it to her…or she could find it on a CD or something. They still did things like that, right? She hoped so. ”I love Mario…Yoshi and Toad are my favorites though. Though I know picking favorites are kind of bad…when it comes to people and characters. Right? Maybe just people?”

[/color] She looked up at Gaius lightly. She was rambling again, but that was just how her mind operated. She had to get it all straightened up the way she knew how. She laughed a bit, ”I love Sims. I like making their houses and choosing what they look like and what they wear…though the playing part gets kind of boring unless you turn on free will. Then it’s always better.”[/color] Leave it to her to like the creative aspects about it the most. ”Well then there are plenty of those kind of games for you to choose from.”[/color] She grinned up at him. It worked out perfectly.

Thinking a bit, Alina had to ask, ”Why would anyone try to fit into a stereotype? Stereotypes often aren’t true anyway. She can be free to be who she is without having to fit into some neat little category people make up because they’re uncomfortable with people who are different…”[/color] Alright. She didn’t know where THAT came from. Maybe just because she didn’t fit a stereotype and she had seen people freak out about it. She didn’t understand why people thought it was so important to label people. Labels were for cans and containers. Though she had to laugh a bit, ”Shocker. I’ve never heard that before. That’s cute.”[/color] Honestly, Alina hadn’t tried to put Gaius under a spotlight or make him at all uncomfortable, the question had been completely innocent and had really just slipped out. Though it seemed like he had to think about it. She wasn’t sure how to feel about that, but she just waited, letting the breeze play at her hair lightly, watching him. Interesting. She had heard that before. It always meant different things to different people. She looked up at him a bit, skipping over a crack in the sidewalk and asking lightly, ”Is interesting a good thing?”[/color] She’d be a bit disappointed if he said no. But she couldn’t change what people thought about her if she knew she had been herself the whole time. ”So you’re allowed to bring Umbreon into the shop?”[/color] She just wondered, was all.[/size][/blockquote]

[GAIUS FULGUR MORA]

"Oh yeah. Shocker." Gaius bowed his head, a little embarrassed. "I sorta... Have my own nicknames for each element. Shocker, Hothead, Green Thumb, Water Nymph and erm... Airhead." He listed. "I sometimes come up with different ones, but those I've used the most."

He grinned goodnaturedly at Alina "Yeah. Interesting's a good thing," he said with a chuckle. "And Mom's okay with this little guy, long as he doesn't get into anything."

He stopped at the door below a hand painted sign with the words 'Anne Marie's' in bright yellow. Through the glass panes in the front door, one could see a large, warmly lit room with a bar at one side and restaurant booths at the other. Wooden shelves lined the wall behind the bar, packed with dozens of large labelled tins and a chalkboard menu. Along the back wall were two unmarked doors and a stairwell which led up into the apartment and more shelves, on which stood electric kettles and teapots for sale, in case a person wanted to make their own teas at home.

"Hm," the boy mused, "Nobody's at the counter." He pushed the door open and a small bell chimed above the doorframe. Almost as if summoned by the chime, a woman stood up from behind the counter. She looked to be no older than her mid-thirties, with long auburn hair tied back into a ponytail, vibrant green eyes and a barista's black apron over her blouse.

"Welcome to Anne Marie's! I'm Anne Marie, how can I help- Oh. Hey hun. Didn't expect you back 'til dinner. And you brought a friend," The woman said in a light, singsong voice.

"Hey ma. Just came for a drink. This is Alina, he said, taking a seat at the bar. "Alina, this is my mother."

Umbreon hopped out of the backpack onto the counter and sat on the edge, watching the proceedings.

[ALINA RAE LEXUS]

Alina shook her head as Gaius seemed embarrassed. She actually found the fact that he gave people nicknames to be rather cute. She found a lot of things about Gaius cute, but she would keep her comments to herself. She shook her head, ”OH no…no. I’d love to hear.”

[/color] She’d thought so, at first. She should’ve remembered that elements DID have their biases against other elements…she just didn’t really think hers would sound…the worst. Honestly, she kind of thought the water elemental’s name was the coolest. Water Nymphs were supposed to be beautiful. Alina almost wanted to be one, but no, she could never be something as awesome as that. Green thumb was just kind of honest and true. And so was hot head because Alina had never met a fire who wasn’t. But Alina didn’t really think Winds were…dumb. Maybe just her. She kicked a pebble with her shoe lightly, taking a breath, ”I suppose for Winds, we aren’t really that cool to have such a great name. We’re just kind of…there.”[/color] She nodded a bit, keeping her eyes down, ”I see…”[/color] She kept her attention on the walk. She would, after all, have to figure out how to get back to Carson’s from where she was. And lord knew, she was always bad with directions. She’d probably end up lost – it was just her way.

Though Alina relaxed a little when Gaius said interesting was a good thing. She had hoped so. She smiled just a bit, ”Well that’s good to know.”[/color] Her eyes traveled over the building, taking in all the detail. It was a very pretty little place, Alina was sure had she discovered it herself and wasn’t going to be introduced to the owner that she would’ve stayed to draw things there. She could see, in the future, if she didn’t much up first impressions, that she would be there quite a bit. She looked up at Gaius as he seemed confused, ”Is that unusual?”[/color] She jumped, startled as someone magically appeared from behind the counter. She smiled a bit. Gaius’s mother kind of reminded Alina of Disney’s Belle. Alina was sure that would be a compliment, but you never knew, with people. She blushed a bit, nodding her head and sitting with Gaius, speaking to his mother lightly, ”Hi…it’s nice to meet you.”[/color] Alina commended herself. So much meeting of new people all in one day. She smiled to herself as the cat made himself right at home, reaching over gently for a menu so she could look over all the teas being sold. She was sure that they would be able to tell her what was the best thing to get, but her mind was ALL over the place right now, trying to take everything in. ”Gaius and Umbreon have been…”[/color] She took a breath, shifting on the seat to get comfortable, ”showing me around, I might be moving here soon and he mentioned here and I just HAD to come. It’s a charming little place…”[/color] And she meant what she said, very sincerely.[/size][/blockquote]