Rot my teeth.

[Anzeh]

Aeon Gunner was in Tooth Sweet.

She would never, ever admit it, but she had a really bad sweet tooth. Gunner couldn't resist the call of the sweets that lined this little sweet shop. Well, maybe not SMALL sweet shop. No matter when she went here her eyes always got bigger than her head. She wanted to stuff her mouth full of lollipops and devour the heads of every chocolate bunny shoulder she lay her eyes on. But she would never admit that. It was a guilty pleasure.

With her headphones on, she couldn't hear much of anything going on around her. Now that she finally had some money to spend, she couldn't wait to spend every cent on tooth-rotting sweets. The unicorn thought she had a right to do this so long as no one was wise to her gender. Otherwise, people might think that it was sad for a girl to buy candies for herself.

At that off-topic thought she shook her head and lightly reprimanded herself. Since when had she ever cared what people thought of her? She never had. It didn't matter.

"Believe in memories to resurrect me
Besieged by falling dreams, hold them tightly
Adorn my wings to thee, and use them nightly."

She sung quietly. Although her voice was rather unisex, her singing voice was the line between alto and soprano, a rich orchestrated voice. That was why her lips rarely ever made words to music. If someone heard her they might catch on, and that would be no good.

Remembering this, she sucked in a deep breath of air and hoped no one had heard while she browsed chocolates. Chocolate was her favorite type of sweet.

[Oren]

Shoutoku walked around the isles of the candy store. He regretted that there was no better place for him to buy this present. It wasn't like Kendryek would actually eat anything that he gave him from this shop, but hey, it was worth a shot, right? They hadn't seen each other in how many years? He hadn't kept track, but it was an extremely long while!

Sighing, bored already with this candy-choosing game he was playing, he ambled along, isle after isle. There was nothing here that Kendryek would like! That is, nothing he thought the large dragon would like. After all, taste change and it had been a while since they had seen each other. Things had probably changed quite a bit since then.

"One... Two... Three..." he counted his steps in threes, every third step going another number up. So, technically, he was taking nine steps for every count to three, and every nine steps he would look at the shelf to see if anything remotely interesting had shown itself. After a few more minutes of this, he had almost given up. In fact, he probably would have left the store shortly after if not for a small sound his sensitive ears picked up. Someone was singing. A girl was singing, if he wasn't mistaken. Her volume wasn't loud, but with his ears, there was no way to miss such a different sound.

It was simply beautiful. There was no other way to put it.

His head unconsciously tilted to the side, catching all the sound waves this girl was giving off, from the rustle of the candy in her hands to the light tap her shoes made as she moved. There she was! Only a few isles over! He looked up and saw her, his eyes sharpening and making note of every single aspect of her.

Its a good thing these shelves are short... he mused. He wouldn't want to be drawn in by a siren's song, and he could tell one of those from their eyes. It was just something about the eyes that always gave away which creature they were. Others weren't as skilled as this, but his eyes were special. They were a hawk's, and that was all that needed to be said.

This girl was a unicorn. A pretty one, at that, but he wasn't one to like girls. Sure, he found some of the pretty, and an even fewer amount of them he viewed as cute, but he couldn't even recall particularly liking one of them. He wasn't sure what it was, but he wasn't one to get into relationships... with male or female. He was disgusted by the homosexual. It sent shivers down his spine. They were very messed up people.

He slowly walked toward her, keeping with his little pattern but speeding up a little, taking his steps a tiny bit faster and barely even looking at the shelves. He wasn't sure when she was going to leave, and he did not, under any circumstance, look like he was interested. He did, though want to compliment her voice. Beauty was something he simply could not ignore, and this girl hit the nail so hard on the head that the sound still rang in his ears. She wasn't singing now, but it didn't matter. The few words she had would be burned into his memory for a while to come.

Finally reaching where she was, he pretended to be interested in a small piece of candy and he picked up off the shelf. He leaned against the shelf, making sure they weren't facing each other. That would just make him flustered, make his feathers ruffle, if one didn't mind the pun.

"You have a rare voice," he said as if it was just a regular, every-day compliment. "Many would envy it, and some would even kill to eliminate the competition... though..." he paused and looked at her from the corner of his eye, a small smile gracing his lips, "what chance would they have of winning anyway?"

He wasn't typically one for charming, but that wasn't his intention here. She deserved every compliment she was given when it came to her voice.

[Anzeh]

The young unicorn was staring glancing between two pieces of chocolate. Both were milk chocolate, and both contained nuts. She wasn't allegic to nuts, in fact, she loved walnuts and pecans. But she couldn't choose between the two. One package was the good old-fashioned bar of chocolate, and the other was in the shape of a bunny in a vest or something with a little pocketwatch sticking out of a pocket. The bunny cost more, but after some thought, they both contained the same mass of chocolate, one was just in a bunny shape.

As much as she loved to gnaw at the ears of the little chocolate bunnies, she didn't want to spend THAT much more to pretend to eat a little woodland animal.

Especially since she did count as a woodland animal.

With a subtle shudder at that thought, she slid the bunny back with the others of his kind.

Pulling down her headphones she fished unto her pocket as she began to smell something. She only smelled things like this when there were other mystical creatures skulking around her. Then her nose practically burned in warning, trying to explain that there was trouble afoot.With a heavy sigh she let her hand drop and her head went back so she looked at the ceiling, an over-the-top show boredom and maybe dislike.

Of what, she wasn't sure.

Maybe interactions in general. She had only wanted to come into the store and buy some yummy chocolate and indulge in it on the way back to the campus. Gunner had no intentions of making new friends or allies, at least not right now.

When the person beside her made the compliment to her voice, she couldn't help but glance over to see who was beside her. He looked to be maybe 17, and he had a distinctly asian descent. He had dark hair and dark eyes, and smelled painfully like a griffin. That was something she hadn't smelled in a while. There were surprisingly few of them at Chimera Academy.

"Oh, thank you." Gunner said, her eyes returning to front facing even though she had already picked out what she wanted to eat and rot her teeth with. It was strange really--he appeared to be school-aged, but she had never seen him around the academy. Perhaps he was one of those kids who weren't enrolled. Yeah, that made sense.

"Uh, my name's Gunner. Aeon Gunner."

[Oren]

Shoutoku noticed her dislike and smiled to himself. "Your welcome. I give compliments where they are deserved." and never when they're not he added to himself. Flattery was never ever ever something he would purposefully take part of. Suck-ups were helpless people who's survival depended on the satisfaction of those 'higher on the food chain'. One such as Shoutoku would never stoop to such... filth.

"Nice to meet you, Aeon Gunner. I am Soga Shoutoku. Call me Soga. You are one of the academy's students, yes? I think I read your profile a while back. You've been attending the school for almost six months and you're taking Latin. Strange languages always stick out to me..." He smiled, knowing the reaction he'd probably get. She'd think he was a stalker. Poor, misguided thoughts. He was nothing of the sort! He was a griffin! He found enjoyment in learning and retaining information! This was why he was at the school in the first place! He'd had all the teachers before and most of them at least thrice. But, that was the life of a griffin for a short time, at least. One had to learn as much as they could while they were still young!

Holding up a small bar of chocolate he asked, "Would a large, white dragon eat this?"

Oh, the joy of playing with people's minds! It was the most entertaining this he had done all day! That actually wasn't saying much since he had only left the school for the first time in a very long time. So long, in fact, that he couldn't quite remember what he had done the last time he'd graced Colleger Town with his presence. But, it was all due to the fact that Kendryek would soon catch on to the fact that he was here. It wouldn't take long for that over-perceptive dragon to sniff him out.

"You see..." he started to explain, "my cousin and I didn't leave off on the best of terms and I would rather have a gift than to meet him empty-handed. My only problem is that this, besides that jewelry store, is the only place in Colleger that sells items suitable for presents."

And so ended the muddled part of the conversation. He frowned at the piece of candy. Such a disgusting little thing...

[Anzeh]

"Pleased to meet you Soga. You can call me Gunner." She said, tossing the chocolate between her hands and thinking idily. For some reason, she didn't feels as flattered by his compliment as she thought she should have felt. Gunner thought that maybe she should chuckle nervously or something, but that was stupid. She felt the need to run around in disorganized circles, just left her mane fly as she ran as fast as she could through walls of foilage and greenery. That sounded heavenly, almost as heavenly as the bar of chocolate she was now playing solo catch with without even glancing at it.

Her hand froze mid-throw as he recited information about her. A deep scowl caught on her face before wiping away and dropping the chocolate back where she got it and picking up a similar bar that was slightly bigger. She hadn't noticed it there before, and she'd decided that she wanted this one more than the one that she'd been playing with. Sure, she thought Soga was something of a creep now that she knew that he knew exactly how long she'd been at the academy and what language she was taking when she'd never seen him before in her life.

And, as the thought had come to her not much earlier, she had never seen him around the academy despite the age he looked.

The age he looked.

He was probably older.

Gunner glanced over to the small bar of chocolate in Soga's hands and made a slight face. She didn't like that chocolate very much. Most of what was over here, in fact, was the cheaper indulgent chocolates. If he was trying to find a gift for someone, large white dragon or not, this wasn't exactly the best place to do it.

"Well... if he was buying it for himself, I doubt it. If you want to get him a present, they have a wide selection on the other side of the store." the unicorn responded without missing a beat. She didn't even bother to explain how she knew this. Gunner didn't have to explain herself to him. In fact, the boyish female didn't have to explain her reasoning to anyone. She placed both hands on her chocolate, not really paying attention to the music still playing from her headphones.

How did I become so obnoxious?
What is it with you that makes me act like this?
I've never been this nasty
Can't you tell that this is all just a contest?
The one that wins will be the one that hits the hardest
But baby I don't mean it
I mean it, I promise

Da da da-da da
Please don't leave me
Da da da-da da
Please don't leave me

Absently, she began to sing along with the song. Realizing she was singing again she bite her lip and scolded herself. After she had finished screaming at herself, she turned around towards the other end of the shop where she had indicated there was another selection.

"I can show you if you like."

[Oren]

Shoutoku smiled at her, watching her react exactly as he had thought she would. She was probably paranoid now. Though, she still answered his question and even gave a suggestion. Hmm.... maybe she wasn't paranoid. That was something new. She was probably the type that didn't care. Those were always interesting people.

She almost dazed for a second, singing with the song that was playing in her headphones. The lyrics were interesting, but they had a certain way they spun which made him want to memorize them. Whoever had come up with the lines sure did know how to use words. It probably wasn't their first song and definitely wasn't their last.

Just as soon as she had started, she stopped. She seemed to scold herself before turning toward the section she had suggested. At her offer, he nodded.

"That would be nice," he chuckled. "I don't buys sweets often... not for others, and I rarely come to Colleger, so I don't quite know my way around all the shops."

As they walked back, he closed his eyes and focused on the sounds she made as she walked. Memorizing a person's walking patterns was something he did anytime he met someone new. That way he could tell who he was talking to even before he saw them. It tended to freak people out, but he enjoyed that kind of stuff. It was like being blind, except his eyes were so much better than almost any other animal on the planet. He would sometimes pretend to be deaf, only relying on his eyes to tell him what others said and what was happening around him. Sometimes he would pretend to be blind, closing his eyes and relying completely on sound to inform him of his surroundings. Sometimes he would pretend to be deaf and blind at once, testing how well he could cope without his most powerful senses. It was all good fun, messing with his skills, testing them to their fullest extent and farther.

Opening his eyes, he blocked out all other sound, ignoring it for the time being. He watched her walk and the manner in which she did so: another defining feature. Now he should be able to pick her out anywhere, just like every other person he had ever met. He could now tell her from a distance, from out of sight, and when she walked by. It was all so confusing how he did that, and he never ever payed attention to how everyone walked at one time. That would be so very loud and ever more annoying! No, this was if he ever, for some insane reason, needed her. He was sure he'd only ever need her if a teacher asked, but hey, it was nice to be able to find someone no matter where they are.

They arrived at the section and he started paying attention to sounds again. "Thank you," he said as he picked up a small item. He still wasn't sure if any of this would do, but it was worth a shot. Kendryek was picky in this area, wasn't he? Then again, maybe that was Charles. He might never know. Kendryek was too polite to correct him even if he was picky.

"Oh, by the way." He looked up at her. "What was that song you were singing a second ago? It had good lyrics..."

[Anzeh]

Gunner never really went over to the other side of the store unless it was really to indulge herself or spoil herself to no end. Why else would she buy expensive-ish chocolates for herself? It didn't make sense. So this side she was much less familiar with. She wasn't a large white male dragon so she wasn't sure of how much help she could be.

Not to mention that all her mind wasn't at the task on hand. She was fighting the urge to sing any more. She had already slipped up twice, and lucky for her they had been mild slip ups, but someone had heard her. There was a tear in her almost seamless facade. That was no good.

The unicorn looked upwards at the towering shelves and scanned them for something she might like. She wasn't sure if the dragon would like anything she liked, but she had tried a lot of what was here. So much in fact, she was almost completely sure that her blood had become 70 percent sugar or worse.

Something caught her eye. It was a red box with a gold ribbon that looked like a present. She wasn't sure what was inside, so she walked closer, reaching above her head. Even so, it was just out of her reach, and a frown tugged at her lips. Her form lifted up a little more as she got on her tip toes. Still her fingertips barely brushed it.

Another displeased scowl etched onto her face and she lowered herself and jumped up, grapped it and pulled it away, landing on her feet although the slightest bit off balance. Once she regained herself she checked what it was and nodded. They were some delicious assorted chocolates in the box, many of her favorites and some she'd never heard of.

"Uh, here." She said and handed over the box. "I don't know if its what you're looking for, but..."

Already the music from her mp3 was changing again.

"The song I was just singing is called Please Don't Leave Me by P!nk." Gunner said, a little embarrassed at having such a girly song on her mp3, especially sandwiched between Periphery, Linkin Park, Fort Minor, 3 Days' Grace, and Breaking Benjamin.

[Oren]

Shoutoku looked up just in time to see her jumping for a red box. It wasn't heart-shaped or anything, and it didn't look too decorative. The gold ribbon seemed appropriate enough. Even though it was chocolate, he knew Kendryek wouldn't misinterpret the gift. Besides, he was probably gonna say something like, "I couldn't find anything better" before giving it to the dragon, so it wasn't a worry what it looked like. Come to think of it, it didn't really matter what it was, either. He could really get his relative anything and it would be fine. Then again, Kendryek could typically tell when someone took care with what they did. Maybe it did matter...

Oh well. This would do. He had just spent thirty minutes looking around this place to find something decent, so it wasn't like he hadn't put thought into what he was doing. That should suffice.

He shrugged, deciding to mess with his words a little more. "I'm not sure if this is what I'm looking for, either." He laughed at his sarcasm as he turned his attention to the box. "But! I think this will work." He smiled at her, waiting a second to see if she caught his humor.

He really did enjoy messing with words and how people might take them. There were so many ways to say so many things it was amazing! And! not only that but there were so many languages out there and each one had so many words that meant so many different things and it was just magnificent they way it worked!

Wait a second. He was acting like Kendryek again! Oh, that wasn't good! People always compared them, and it was just plain annoying! Everyone he knew that also knew Kendryek would always say that he had a love for words like that scaly lizard! Just because Kendryek was older he got to be the 'standard' that all his relatives were compared to! Couldn't they just understand that he was a griffin and it was natural for him to love words and books and the such? Couldn't they see that Kendryek was the one at odds? Dragon were supposed to be wise, sure, but the griffins were the bookworms and authors! Why did no one ever see that?

Taking a deep breath, he hoped to calm himself without looking too flustered. Taking a pen from his back pocket, he wrote down the name of the song on his hand. Snapping back on the cap, he nodded. "Thank you! It seems to be a good song!"

He started walking towards the check-out line before turning back to Gunner. "If you're done, you wanna check out?"

[Anzeh]

Gunner rolled her eyes at the other's little joke. She caught it, sure, but the humor excaped her. Was it really so hard to just say what he meant instead of being all dodgy about it? What was so hard about that? Nothing really! Nothing was hard about that at all. People just liked confusing her and each other. It was a goal for everyone--to stump other people and your friends, to make them seem stupid and yourself seem smart. That was the reasoning behind it, and as far as she was concerned there was no other real reasoning behind it.

Then she was shocked from her thoughts when he said that the song she had told him about seemed like a good one. The unicorn felt as though she should alert him that the song was sung by a girl, but she decided that there was no reason. After all, not everyone was as gender conscious as her. Gunner knew one or two people who didn't even pay any attention to gender. It was just something else. All they saw was people.

How they managed that she would never understand.

Soga began to walk away and turned back, asking if she was ready to check out. Aeon was caught off-guard by the question, something that would never happen if they were on the field of battle, and nodded wordlessly, trotting behind him. The time came for her to buy her chocolate and she bought it, getting back her change and nodding politely to the checkout girl.

The unicorn hadn't bothered with a bag--she was unwrapping the chocolate before they'd even walked out of the shop. Once back into the open air, she placed the chocolate between her teeth and tightened her jacket around her being. There was a slight wind that whipped her ponytail back and forth, then back again.

[Oren]

Shoutoku smiled slightly as they got in the line. After all this time at the school he had never really found anyone he particularly... well, liked. He didn't like her in the "She's a girl and I'm a guy" sort of way, but just as someone that he could probably get along with decently. He hadn't really tried to make many friends but he had no reason to. He still had no reason to, but hey, why not? Even though there was no reason to make friends, there was also no reason not to.

He paid for his box and wrapped the plastic bag's handles around his hand. He chuckled at Gunner as she instantly dug into her sweets. If there was anything valuable he had ever learned about women was that you never ever got between them and their chocolate, no matter if their 'chocolate' was just sweets in general. They walked out of the store to a slight breeze. He sighed. It was later than he had thought it was. How long had he been in that candy store? It wasn't that big, was it? Oh well. Lost time could not be regained.

He leaned against the brick outer walls of the candy store. "And now I have nothing to do..." he mused to himself, knowing that Gunner would hear and probably say something about it, whether it be a suggestion on what to do or an affirmation. Then he remembered why he never had friends. He would say random things so that they'd hear it and answer him. He would say it just so that they'd respond. It was stupid! Stupid stupid stupid! It so very selfish and immature! It was so very annoying and made him mad at himself. Deciding that he wasn't going to do that this time, he stood up straight and said, "Anything you wanna do once you're done eating? Since you've been here for a while, you probably know that the school has some superb campus grounds! There's probably a ton of things to do as long as you have a friend!"

It was amazing how many different things the school had to offer. Even more amazing, and extremely annoying, was the fact that you could do almost none of it alone. Well, it was possible to do alone, but it wasn't fun. Fun... that was a word that had escaped Shoutoku's vocabulary. Although he was a double English Major, he still didn't quite understand the real meaning of fun. Fun, to him, was an emotion others could feel by being around their friends and playing games with them.

Their games weren't the kind of word games he often played, though. His 'fun' came in manipulating words, in seeing just how well he could get the words to flow. It was absolute brilliance sometimes, but others the loneliness of his 'lone wolf' lifestyle got to him. He'd find some excuse, like he had today, to visit the town or have interaction with people.

Now, though... he might have found a friend...

[Anzeh]

Wind whipped at clothes and hair and nibbled evilly at the exposed skin on her face and hands. Gunner couldn't take it. She had been born and raised in a warmer, perhaps even a tropical climate. She couldn't deal with the cold, even though she'd been here so long. Even now, though the other kids walked about in short sleeved shirts even though there was a blizzard warning, She never left the castle without a nice thickish jacket to protect her from the frigid wind. With the chill she look around and stood on the other side of Sogam letting him be her protection from the wind.

All the while she nibbled at the chocolate between her hands, looking up and around her blankly before wrapping up the bar and sticking it in her pocket for the time being. Now she merely stood there, leaning against the wall, Warming her hands with her sweet chocolate flavored breath. It was almost funny how that worked. Almost.

Soga said he was bored, but she merely nodded. She had nothing to suggest for him to do for his boredom, so Gunner just leaned there in silence until he said something else. And he stood up straight so she ha to stop leaning against the wall because all the cold air was coming through now.

"Hm? Oh, I dunno. I was just going to do some meditations and a little training. That's all. Nothing really interesting..."

Looking towards him to see if he knew what she meant, the young 14 year old sunk down onto the ground with one leg slightly out further than her other one. Gunner's head lolled against the brick as she thought and considered all sorts of things. But none of them were interesting, so back on her feet she went. She tried to remember the cycle she was learning. It was a fairly simply cycle, but one she kept having trouble with.

Without moving her feet she did the motions of the thing with her arms. Block, block, block, block, turn, block, punch, block, punch...

[Oren]

Shoutoku smiled to himself when he noticed her trying to use him as a shield from the cold wind. He himself wasn't too comfortable, but there was no way in heaven or on earth that he would admit it. His being uncomfortable wasn't something he shared. Not to anyone, anytime. There was a line, though. A thin line, but a line. It spanned the distance between uncomfortable and painful. To him, something painful could be doing something like standing too close to him while facing him. It was so very annoying that he couldn't help but correct it. Anyone with OCD could relate. There were things, like dull pencils, that they just couldn't stand! For him it was close proximity when face to face and other such things. It was just so... aggravating! Why in the world did people do that to him? They would stand so very close and then they'd stand right in front of him and he would try to stop it, but he always lashed out at them. It was so hard, oh so very hard!

Pushing the thought away, he took a calming breath. Everything was fine for the time being. No one was in front of him, so that was good. There would only be a problem if Gunner suddenly decided to stand in front of him. He didn't think that she would. She had no reason to.

Wait. Had she just said 'meditations and a little training'? She... she fought? Did she? That would be wonderful if she did, but... she really fought? He decided to ask. "You... you train? Like, in martial arts or something? Really? Can I join you?"

It would be quite something if she was talking about what he thought she was. He did like his martial arts. He'd been taught by the best. His master had trained for over 500 years when he took him on as an apprentice. Of course, Shoutoku was nothing in comparison, but no matter how much effort you put into it you would not be able to top 500 years of experience in five years.

He looked down at her. She had sunk to a sitting position and looked bored. Well, that would change if she was talking about fighting! Today would be a good day if that's what it was. She stood, obviously bored of sitting. She tried out a little sequince of punches and blocks. He chuckled under his breath. She was definitely different. She was more like a boy, which Shoutoku quite appreciated. Guys tended to be more rough and a little too untrusting. Girls, on the other hand, were often naive and tended to be a little too soft. In her case, or so it seemed, she wasn't too soft or too naive but not too rough and the little bit of untrusting she probably had wasn't a bad thing.

"No, no," he said. "You messed up slightly." He repeated almost the same exact steps, just changing them a little bit. "See? It's block, block, block, turn, block, punch, block, punch, block. Always end with a block, whether the sequence says to or not."

[Anzeh]

"Yeah. I mastered Aikido and Judo already and just started Karate a few days ago. My dad was less like a dad and more like a mentor. There wasn't a single day I didn't go to sleep aching after I turned three."

She couldn't be sure why she was telling Soga this, but she felt like it was okay. Gunner always tried hard when she was learning a new martial art because she never knew when it would come in handy, another thing that was beat into her by her father. From the moment she was born, she always felt like she was some sort of disgrace to him. Like he only wished for her to go away, to stop existing to him and his world.

So he taught her to fend for herself and she took it up, always trying her hardest, working to see that gleam of love and pride in her father's eyes. Even when she sunk into dreamless sleeps with her knuckles bleeding and hurting in places that didn't exist, she never saw that gleam. Never.

He probably never forgave her for taking away his wife.

Jolting out of her reverie, she turned to him with a slightly forced smile on her face and resuppressed that memory. No memories more than 4 years old, that was her golden rule. Anything else was too far in the past, too painful. As far as she was concerned, her life began when she came to les Etats-Unis four years ago.

"Oh?" She asked, looking a little sly. "You fight? Well now, that's interesting. If I didn't know any better I'd think you planned this entire thing." Gunner shook her finger at him, as though punishing a bad child. Her smile had, at some point, lost its force and became a genuine, kidding smile.

When Soga went through the same sequence she'd just attempted to do and stated that it always ended with a block, Gunner nodded. She didn't scowl or get upset at him. Aeon didn't see the point in that. After all, he was right. Once that lesson had been committed to memory, she went through the cycle of punches, blocks, turns, steps, and kicks once more. It was only the first cycle, and she had just about mastered it a couple days ahead of schedule.

Once she was done, she came out of the stance and swore. "Crap. Messed up on number 15." Fifteen had been a punch, and she'd blocked. She was concious of these things--how else could she train alone and still get better and better? It was normal for her to create enemies using her glamour and fight against them. Doing this, Gunner saw her weak points. Her faults, And she trained and trained until the weak points vanish.

Silently she nodded. Gunner didn't know what she was nodding to, but she nodded anyway.

[Oren]

Shoutoku nodded as she explained. It was definitely a shortened version, but he didn't really care about the specifics. A overview was fine. Anything more for the moment would bore him. He didn't know her and her past was of no interest to him. That was sort of how he had been raised. His family was odd. They were... well, just like hawks. They loved their solitude, silence, and personal space more than anything. Although they were griffins, their attitude mirrored a bird of prey's almost perfectly. They were slightly more sociable in the sense that married couples actually stayed together the whole year long, but other than that his family was more reclusive.

Though it wasn't time to ponder his strange family. She seemed slightly bitter about her upbringing. That wouldn't do. No, that wouldn't do at all. If she was in a sour mood she wouldn't want to fight, and that would mean that he would have a very meaningless day... again.

Putting previous thought aside, he said, "You've mastered them both and started learning another? That's really impressive! Oh, and, don't judge your father too harshly. I'm sure he loved you the best way he knew how. What you have to constantly keep in mind is that you don't know the motives of a person you don't know. If he was as distant as you made it seem, then you two didn't know each other very well. You can not tell the actions or intentions of someone who is distant, you have to get close. Getting close may cause you to get burnt, sometimes in more ways than one, but in the end its worth it." He chuckled. "That actually applies to fighting too. If you're always hanging back, you'll never win the fight because you won't be able to tell what your opponent is going to do next. You run the risk of getting hit by getting close, but if you win, its worth the risk!"

Taking a deep breath, he suck his hands in his pockets, leaning back against the wall. He nodded, signifying that she should lean against it as well. If she was going to use him as a wind blocker, he might as well do it willingly.

"Yeah, I fight. My first master is the best martial artist I've ever met. I could introduce you to him sometime if you're interested. He's a nice guy. Old, but nice, and when I say old, I mean, he's.... at least twenty times older than myself. He's probably mastered all types of the art, and I've never once seem him lose a fight. He'd be the ideal teacher, though I believe he picked up a student recently... if not a student than a sparring partner, but hey, when it comes to him, it's not that much different. Well, either way, are you up to sparing together? You look like you don't do that often."

[Anzeh]

Aeon looked over to Soga and resisted the urge to smile with pride. People always said that it was amazing that she had learned so many fighting style s and then could go one to learn another. But then again, there was a reason behind it.

Gunner’s reasoning was that since she knew so many arts, that she could make a whole new art out of them—string the good about all the arts she knew together and create the perfect art. There was a reason she was so good at school: she was the great Synthesizer.

A self-glorifying name but one that never failed to ring true if you’d seen her fight—she was more often than not using multiple arts at once, so seamlessly put together that it looked like its own art by itself.

“Ah I knew why he was the way he was. I don’t blame him.” and that was all she said about that. Gunner didn’t blame her father. She knew that he’d only done it because he knew that she was going to venture into the world all by herself with no one to defend her. So her father taught her how to fend for herself. She practically raised herself. She was her own independent country. Not depending on anyone to save or support her. She was no Cinderella, no Snow White or Sleeping Beauty waiting for the revitalizing kiss of a prince. Indeed, she actively searched out her prince, but because she wanted one. She didn’t need one.

Yeah. It’s always worth it. Always. Whenever she got close she always got hit once. But only once. After that she’d figured it out and went with the flow. Made it her own.

A chuckle came from her form “Well, you got me there. I definitely don’t spar with others. When I do, it’s hardly a good fight—I’d be better off just sparring with trees.” As Gunner said this, she stretched and reached and loosened her body. If Soga could fight well, then this friendship was already off to a great start.

“But you said it yourself. You had a great master. Lets see how good you are.”