[Another AIM RP to archieve :B]

Me11:50:14
White wings fluttered about as the femme made her way toward the HQ. This time she came with a curiosity wanting to be dissolved. A few nights ago Sigurd had mentioned casually meeting Seiji the other night. He didn't go into the details, and she did not bother him for them. Either way, she was on her way to inquire about those details now.

Mau12:13:36
Seiji hadn't made his way to his tree just yet - instead he was inside the gardens. Seated by a small pond, his sword layed in front of him, he was for once unaware of his surroundings. His grandfather had taught him meditation at a young age, and he enjoyed the quietness of mind it brought him. The downside, however, was the depth of his concentration. Little could disturb him now; from the wind, to the sounds around him... to another kitsu sneaking up on him?

Me12:16:49
Her maw turned into a small frown when she didn't see him up in his usual high ground. This was the place she's seen him at, and she didn't really know where else he could be. If she were a little less prideful and more honest to herself, daresay she felt rather disappointed he was not there. She enjoyed his company as well as talking to him. The wings on her back gave a few more pushes as she made her way around the HQ building, searching for this companion of hers.

Mau12:22:25
The small pond was easy enough to find, but yet tucked at the back corner of the gardens and so rarely visited by others. Like his tree, it was a good sanctuary for him. The silence was unbroken by any other creatures. This made it easier to retreat into his own mind and go over recent or past events.

Me12:24:18
Upon entering the gardens she easily spotted the green armored male sitting by the pond. Yet she made no effort to move closer to him. His concentration seemed intensely concentrated on other matters aside from worldly things. So as a kind gesture she landed softly in her spot and merely sat there observing him. He really was quite the odd one.

Mau12:33:08
He had already been there for some time when the female landed near him, and it wasn't long before his eyes opened again. He blinked. Apparently, he had company. "How long have you been sitting there, Lenneth?"

Me12:35:49
When he moved she knew he was already aware of her presence there. Giving him the usual cool look she answered, "Not for too long. Just long enough, you could say." She gave a soft nod as a courtesy bow as usual. "How long have you been there?" She asked in return.

Mau12:38:02
His ears flattened slightly as he glanced towards the sun. "Since the sun was over there." One paw pointed towards the east, near the horizon. "What do you mean, just long enough?"

Me12:40:04
He had been sitting there for that long? The sun was no longer in the east anymore. As it normally would it was heading west. What was he doing sitting there for that long? Honestly, the more she observed the more strange he seemed. "Just long enough means what it implies. Just long enough." She answered honestly. To be honest, she wasn't really sure how long had passed since she sat down watching him.

Mau12:41:59
How odd. As he reached down to regain his sword and replace it at his side, he gave her a questioning glance. "I had many things to think about today. What brings you this way?"

Me12:44:14
Interesting. So he had been sitting there thinking? From his answer it would really seem he had quite a load of things to think about. She played with the idea that he was pondering the meaning of life in his mind jokingly. It wouldn't come off as too surprising if it was him, though. "I am merely out on my usual nightly stroll. Several nights ago my son briefly mentioned you. It has caught my interest since."

Mau12:45:15
Seiji nodded, and smiled. "Yes, we had a long talk." That talk was one of the things he had revisited today, more out of curiousity than anything else.

Me12:47:19
Sigurd wasn't one to lie, so she knew he spoke the truth. Though he didn't say much, and Lenneth didn't ask much of him in return. She figured if he wanted to talk about it he would've. Whatever he spoke about of his own will was far more comforting than if she forced it out of him. "He did not speak of much when he mentioned it. It was more of a casual mention than anything else." But she wanted to know what they spoke about. Probably a little more than just swords, she assumed.

Mau12:48:30
"You both seem to enjoy keeping to yourselves."

Me12:49:21
She laughed slightly at the statement. He learned most of his traits from her, for better or for worse. "As do you."

Mau12:50:31
"I have very few friends here to confide with." He frowned lightly. His friends from the old world had not followed him here - and Seiji was not a social enough being to go out and actively seek companionship.

Me12:53:18
She didn't really have...friends until she came here. They were companions with the same objective, at most. But no one she really confided in the same way with her true friends here. "If you wish to confide with someone you must do so yourself. No one can force you to speak to them about personal affairs. I believe if you open up to others they will naturally be drawn to you."

Mau12:56:31
"Your son sounds like you.. he advised me to go there." He pointed towards the HQ, then shook his head. "I am not sure I want to. For now, your family's company is enough."

Me12:58:51
She sighed slightly, "He takes after me quite a bit. Sometimes it is slightly irking as a mother as most of the things he does seems as if I were doing them myself. That boy needs to open up more." Her head followed his paw directed at the HQ. "I can see why he directed you that way. It is a friendly place full of friendly faces. I have no doubts one day, soon enough you will wish to expand your company to others."

Mau1:19:52
"Yes, perhaps eventually. That is what I told him."

Me1:20:54
"What else has he told you?" She questioned curiously.

Mau1:22:09
Seiji crossed his paws and gave her a thoughtful look, then nodded to himself. "Not much, really. He did tell me a bit more of your sister and what happened. What he knew of it, anyways."

Me1:24:20
She told him a great deal about her sisters and their past. Of course, not even she knew of everything that involved the two of them. And naturally there were things she left out either on purpose or merely because she forgot when she told Sigurd the stories. "I see. What of your family, then? I have yet to learn about them. It only seems fair since you know all about mine now."

Mau1:42:16
"My family...? Hnn.." He paced a few steps, thinking, then turned back to her and sat. "I was raised mostly by my grandfather. He is very strict, and follows the old ways. I learned the sword from him. My father married into my family, to continue the line. He works outside our house. My mother and grandmother take care of the house. I also have two sisters, Yayoi and Satsuki."

Me1:45:06
"They sound like a loving...normal family." Hers was anything but normal. Both her sisters were Valkyries. They weren't even really sisters by blood...She wasn't entirely how that made them sisters since none of them really got along with one another. Especially Hrist, who would put everything out of the way to server Odin. "Your sisters...What are they like?"

Mau1:46:18
"Yayoi is older. She is very much like me - she speaks in the old way." A small frown flitted across his face before he continued. "Satsuki is two years younger, and she is very.. different."

Me1:48:24
She was curious as to why he frowned when he spoke of the elder of the two sisters. "Why do you frown when you speak of Yayoi? And how is Satsuki different? I assume she does not speak in the old way."

Mau1:50:13
"No, she does not. Her interests lean towards going out with friends and going to clubs. As for Yayoi.." Again, he frowned. He loved his sisters dearly, but still, Yayoi's actions when they were children had led to no end of trouble for him...

Me1:51:32
Satsuki sounded more liberal for sure. Lenneth wasn't really familiar with these so called "clubs", but she understood they were probably teenage girl places to play with friends. "As for Yayoi?" She questioned curiously.

Mau1:53:07
Seiji sighed. "When I was younger, I was often sick... my parents.." He faltered. Very few outside his family knew of what had happened to him as a child. "My parents dressed me as a girl. Yayoi 'helped' in her own way. She treated me like a doll."

Me1:56:22
She tilted her head slightly to the side out of curiosity. Dressed up as a girl? The Valkyrie didn't really understand how that would help with the sickness. He came from a different culture, though, so perhaps in that culture they believed in that sort of things. Where dressing them up as females would somehow chase away the evils within the body...or something? She wasn't really sure herself, as she was half too busy trying to suffocate whatever laughter tried to emerge. "Is it something from your culture to dress up as a female to cure the sickness?" She questioned honestly. His culture was rather...interesting.

Mau1:58:19
"It is believed the evil spirits will not go after females, as they are unimportant as far as carrying on a family line." Males stayed in the family home, females married out and went to their husband's home. There were some exceptions; such as when his grandfather had failed to have a male heir and had adopted his son-in-law to carry on the line.

Me2:01:11
"I see. It makes sense, as the belief that females were deemed less important was the same in my world as well. With a few exceptions, of course." One of them being Valkyries. They were all females, no exceptions there. But perhaps aside from that, females were deemed less worthy than males. After all they would take on their husband's names, no longer keeping their own.

Mau2:02:30
"Such as yourself?" From the way she acted, and carried herself, he could tell that much.

Me2:04:31
"Yes, or Valkyries in general. All of us are females. While we work under Lord Odin, we are still fairly important in the grand scheme of things. After all we are the ones who gather him his army." She nodded. With the job came confidence, of course. Without it how would she be able to keep soldiers in line? Those at the top had to be ruthless, or else they would be taken advantage of too easily.

Mau2:06:10
"It is strange, isn't it?" For such a powerful male-dominated society to place little importance on females, except for a rare few.

Me2:07:52
"It is, for the most part. But I have encountered few cultures where females are the dominate gender. Those kinds of cultures are also strange, but in a different way." Perhaps a slightly more...scary one in some aspects?

Mau2:09:36
"Such as the amazons of ancient Greece? That was a very strange culture." Seiji enjoyed learning about new places, and when he had the time he had devoted it to reading. He was nowhere near as well-learned as his friend, Touma, but he knew a fair bit.

Me2:11:13
"You could say that, yes. Though I was speaking of the modern human culture. Many countries now are still male-dominated, but subtly run by women." Lenneth had done a fair bit of reading herself. Even if she didn't Sigurd would often tell her about what new things he learned.

Mau2:12:02
"Yes, I know. The more western countries, correct?"

Me2:12:58
She nodded. Even if the men were considered "head of the household" they were still weak against the women's will. Lenneth found that rather odd, personally, but it was a different culture with different rules.

Mau2:15:12
His grandfather ruled his household, but Seiji was already seeing the pattern shifting between his own parents. One day, his mother would be the one in charge. This didn't seem to faze his father. "Would you like to take a walk with me?"

Me2:16:20
Well, this was a rather surprising turn of things. The socially awkward male asked her to walk with him? Heh, it was like watching a child grow, almost. "I would be glad to."

Mau2:18:40
Seiji paused. He wasn't quite sure what had compelled him to make that offer. Not that he regretted it, as he did enjoy her company. It was getting late, and he had planned on heading back to his tree. "Really? Is there anywhere you would like to head towards?"

Me2:20:13
The confusion had infected the both of them. If he wasn't sure she sure was hell wasn't sure. She enjoyed his company as well, otherwise she would've already left him far behind. "Not particularly," she shrugged.

Mau2:21:17
He chuckled, then went to stand beside her. "Let's take a walk through the gardens, then?"

Me2:21:53
"After you, then?" She held out a paw politely, allowing him to walk first.

Mau2:22:53
Shaking his head, he paused. "Ladies should go first."

Me2:24:53
She hesitated for a moment, unsure if she should walk first or not. It was nice and polite of him and all, but she really wasn't sure where they were going. A destination would have been nice. Plus if she just stood there arguing differently the two of them would never move from their spot. Dipping her chin slightly, she bowed a little in thanks as she stood up and began.

Mau2:25:50
He followed beside her, nudging her slightly towards the right-hand path. "There are some lovely gardens back this way."

Me2:28:06
She didn't understood why if he knew the way why he didn't just walk first. It would've been easier that way. "Alright." She made her way in the direction he intended as best she could, making sure her pace was just fast enough for him to be next to her without making too much effort in the walking department.

Mau2:29:25
After a few more gentle nudges, they arrived at a walled garden that Seiji had discovered not long before. It was a rose garden, mostly, but there were patches of other flowers as well, with a small pond in the center.

Me2:32:01
It was a beautiful garden indeed. Simple, yet classy at the same time. Even though Lenneth didn't have a particularly high interest in flowers as most females did she enjoyed the serenity of the place at the very least. "This is a rather nice place."

Mau2:33:13
"I enjoy places like this - it is very serene.. I should use this place for my meditation, next time." He led the way towards the center of the garden, where there was a bench for sitting.

Me2:35:35
"Indeed. It seems secluded enough where not many will pass by even in midday" She followed his lead, but rather than sitting on the bench she chose to sit next to the small pond. There was no real need for a bench, as they weren't really...humans. Plus she rather enjoyed the softness of the grass over a hard piece of wood. Most of her body was covered in hard materials, no need to add on extra ones even if only temporary.

Mau2:39:52
He had not been sure of where she would prefer to sit, but was almost relieved to see she chose to sit on the ground, and he sat next to her. Like her, he also preferred the ground to the hard bench.

Me2:42:01
She stared into the pond shortly after watching him sit next to her. The moon was reflected in the center of the pond, only moving ever so slightly due to the ripples. "I wonder if there are fish in this pond?" She wasn't sure how deep the pond was, but she imagined the surface would freeze over during the winter.

Mau2:44:27
"Yes, I believe so. Would you like me to find out?"

Me2:45:56
She was slightly afraid of answering "yes". In worst case scenario he could very well jump into the pond to catch a fish, though she doubted he was that extreme. "Only if you wish to."

Mau2:47:24
"It could not do any harm." It almost made him wish Shin were here. Shin could find out if there were fish with just a touch of the surface. Edging his way towards the pond, he dangled one paw in.

Me2:48:40
Good thing he didn't do as she feared. She would have laughed, for sure, but also thought of him as more crazy, odd, etc. Her eyes were concentrated on the surface on the water, waiting for any sign of a flip of a fin or tail. "Anything?"

Mau2:55:50
"I believe so.." Slowly he edged his paw further in, until he finally touched bottom. It was a shallow pond, after all. Soon he felt small nibbles on his paw, and he quickly withdrew it, shaking the water off furiously. "There are fish in there."

Me2:58:07
Rather curious. He didn't have to dip his paw too far into the pond for him to reach what seemed to be the bottom. How did they survive in the winter? "Interesting...Thank you."

Mau2:59:37
With one paw he slapped at the surface of the water, then retreated back to where she was sitting. "Such ponds are common in my land. They are filled with koi."

Me3:01:28
She never had the time to sit down and observe these cultural things. There was a land fairly similar to his in her world. She only had brief interaction there before she gathered a few souls there, but it was a country filled with many different traditions. "Koi are the name of the fish?"

Mau3:02:41
"Yes. They are about this long," He held up his paws to show their size. "and they are usually white, gold, and black."

Me3:03:57
Oddly colored fish. Most of the fish she saw didn't have such vivid colors. Usually just the dull grayish black as usual. "I believe there was a country very similar to yours in Midgard. I did not have much time to observe their culture, though."

Mau3:05:02
"Really? That is interesting."

Me3:06:37
She nodded, "I was only there for a short time. The girl's soul I gathered from there wore a strange robe full of many colors. The sleeves dangled. It appeared rather hard to move in." To Lenneth the kimono seemed uncomfortable because it seemed restrictive.

Mau3:08:01
Seiji blinked. "A robe of many colors? With dangling sleeves?" He tilted his head, wondering.

Me3:09:53
"Yes. It was similar to a dress. It cut off about here at the ankles, " she gestured horizontally with a paw. "The sleeves came to about here at the wrists, and dangled with extra fabric to maybe about the chest area?" She tried her best to mimic the cutoff lines with a paw.

Mau3:10:34
"Did it look like this?" Grabbing a stick from the ground, Seiji drew a rather crude drawing of a kimono in the dirt at their feet.

Me3:11:26
She tried to imagine it best she could with his little drawing. It was a little while ago, so she didn't have a particularly fresh memory of it. "Yes. It was fairly similar to that."

Mau3:12:36
"Oh.. I believe you took a soul from my land, then.. The people of my land wear those style of clothes. For the women, they are elaborate kimono in many colors and several layers. Men also wear something similar, but it is lighter, and does not have so many layers."

Me3:15:00
"When I saw her I thought it odd she wore such clothes. It seems fairly conservative, but also restrictive at the same time unless you wanted to seem 'unlady-like' by exposing more than you should?" She was used to the European style of most everything, honestly. Those kinds of places were the ones she visited the most. She only visited his land maybe...twice?

Mau3:16:18
"In the past, it was to cover as much as possible. Now, it is to honor the past. Though people do not always dress in such clothes now - mostly they wear western-style."

Me3:18:41
Tradition was a bit less emphasised in western cultures. They adapted to the times rather fast and with smaller rejection in comparison to other cultures. "I see. I imagine it would prove difficult to dress in those every day."

Mau3:19:39
"You would get stared at, at the very least." Even his grandfather had given up on wearing yukata on a daily basis, and Seiji wore them rarely.

Me3:22:24
"Not surprising. It seems something to dress in only for special occasions now? Though Sigurd did speak of small groups of females who dressed in those often as part of their job?" She forgot the name as it didn't roll off her tongue easily. "From the pictures they had carefully pinned their hair up in odd circular shapes adorned with beautiful hairpins. They were supposed to entertain in those, I believe he said?"

Mau3:25:11
"I take it he has wandered that way more often? Women who entertain that way are called geisha. In the past, they entertained the nobility. Nowadays, they entertain businessmen and tourists."

Me3:27:13
She respected them as it was their jobs, but it was still slightly baffling how they could walk normally dressed up in those clothes. Not just that but the sandals they wore were rather tall, too. "You have an interesting country."

Mau3:29:02
"I suppose to those who did not grow up there, it would seem quite strange. To us, other countries are strange." He smiled. During his travels he had seen far more strange things than could be found in his country.

Me3:30:24
"I suppose the same could be said for all foreigners no matter the place." Westerners would find Easterners strange and vice versa. They both had different ways of doing things. Lenneth was simply exposed to more western-style cultures than eastern.


Mau3:31:33
"Yes, more or less." He stifled a yawn as he spoke, for once trying to not let Lenneth see it.

Me3:33:08
"I suppose we can discuss this another time as well. The time is rather late, so I should be heading home now. As always, it was a pleasure to be in your company." She nodded before getting up to her feet.


Mau3:34:48
"I will see you again." He got to his feet as well, and offered her a slight bow.