Post by Joliette Thorne on Mar 6, 2011 9:37:19 GMT -5
Lucien was a hooded heap of glum leaning against the fortified walls of the Temple of Three. He still wore a bandage over his brow, though its white cloth was now stained and loosened, half-hanging over one eye. He looked for all the world like a beggar-boy, miserable and dust-smirched, throwing loose bits of cobble at the glossy, half-tame pigeons waiting for a feast of church rice.
Lucien said to the birds, "It's alright for you lot, isn't it? What would a pigeon ever worry about? "
Lucien threw another cobble at a pigeon who chose that moment to coo loudly. It gave an indignant squawk, shedding feathers as it flapped away.
Lucien said, "Stupid pigeon."
Lucien was obviously not in the finest state of mind.
Cerinii had been wandering around Cenril, mostly for the fresh air and exercise. She'd been given a telling for sitting in her study for far too long. Her cane gave a gentle swing with every step. She noticed a beggar like boy, tossing stones at birds. Of course, she had no pity for the birds. They were sort of like rats with wings, these types. Always filthy and carrying who knows what! She lofted a thin, obsidian brow speaking to the beggar like boy. "It's not alright for them if you're tossing stones at them, is it?" She tilted her top hat, grinning wryly, "Would you enjoy stones being tossed at you?"
Lucien paused, as though giving her question serious thought. Finally he shook his head and set down the cobble he'd intended to toss at another 'sky rat', sighing morosely. "You're right, ma'am." Glancing up at the extremely well-dressed source of this wisdom, he felt a little ashamed of his own ragged gear and hastily brushed what he hoped was the worst of the dust off his robe. "I'm just..." another sigh. "...I don't know what to do, is all, about this problem I have. I guess that can make a person act mean, even if they aren't usually." And to prove it, he fished about in his pocket for the remnants of a sandwich he'd eaten that morning, tossing crumbs to the bobbing-headed birds.
Cerinii smiled, approaching the lad to sit down next to him. She let out a sigh, as she sat down next to him which may have made her sound like some old crone. She eyed him, nodding in agreement. "Problems do tend to cause ein sort of.. personality change. Even in the best of us." She smiled warmly, "So, what is this problem you have hm?" Her cane having now settled across her lap.
Lucien hesitated again, not wanting to burden the avian with his problems. But he really didn't have anyone else to talk to about it, not anyone who didn't want to drag him home, where no solution lay and angry parents were probably not in any great need to hear of this latest development. "I have eight eyes," he blurted, "And I don't why I have them. Everything's been weird since I got sick and Dad brought me here..." he waved a hand toward the Cathedral. "I had the strangest dream, and then I woke up back home with these." He tugged the bandage on his brow down. Sure enough, six beady black eyes stared back at Cerinii, set above and to either side of his regular, human dark ones. Lucien dropped the gaze of the latter to the cobbles, while the others continued to stare, unblinking. "I've also been craving ... odd things." He may as well fess up totally, while he was on a roll. "Insects, mainly."
Cerinii couldn't help but look a touch bewildered and excited at the idea of additional eyes. When the bandage was tugged, she breathed, 'oh mein Gott' with surprise. Her hand itched to reach up and inspect them. She whispered, "You sound like ein spider." She paused, speaking up, "Were you bitten by anything?"
Lucien blinked, each set of optical organs taking its turn to do so, and flinched back from her touch. "Bitten?" He said it quietly, thoughtfully. "I don't.. um." He thought back to the tiny spider. He was pretty sure it hadn't bitten him. "I don't think so." Lucien reached up to re-fix the bandage, his sleeve falling back to reveal an odd antler-shaped scar on his forearm, while peering at Cerinii intently. "Do you think that'd have something to do with it?" Even while he spoke, the pair of eyes on either temple quivered and sank into his head, leaving two lumps that would subside into smooth, tan skin.
Cerinii withdrew her hand, murmuring, "Even in the dream?" She shrugged her shoulder, "It could have some involvement. But these sort of developments always have some kind of cause, to be the reaction. They don't just sprout over night." She smiled softly, "It could be ein good thing, mind you."
Lucien gazed at her, now with only six eyes... no, four… two more had sunk back into his skull already. He rubbed idly at the place where they'd been, then his fingers would grope the skin there, finding nothing. "Good thing?" He couldn't imagine how. "Hey, have some these.. gone away?" The nearly-adult youth looked on the verge of tears, but held them back, because boys don't cry and all. "I just wish I knew what was happening, and why." A pigeon, encouraged by Lucien's sudden flip to the side of kindness, fluttered down to perch on his head. Luc was too dismal to shoo the thing away, and so it squatted, cooing softly, hoping for another bit of sandwich.
Cerinii nodded, "Ja. Some have gone." She smiled warmly at him, "Well, it could be good in the sense that it may come in handy. Who knows what else you might develop." She had seen the sadness in his expression, but she did nothing. "I know. It's confusing, I bet." She sighed softly, "I wish I could help you, actually. But I er.. I work better with metal, rather than these biological things." She paused, metallic digits rubbing her chin in thought. "You need to think of when this started. The possible causes..."
Lucien's features showed a mix of startlement and relief, the latter emotion due as much to his extraneous eyes vanishing as having somebody to talk to. His gaze fell upon her metal limb, curious, while he finally shooed the bird away. "Okay." His brow furrowed in thought, lips compressing while he concentrated. "It started.. after the eel bite.. and dad brought me here, and I had that weird dream. And then I was home, and my head was bandaged. I don't remember much, I'm sor... aagh!" The last exclamation was accompanied by a spasm of limbs that might jostle the kindly avian some. "Ah! What the hell..." Luc seemed to buckle over on himself, arms writhing in his attempt to reach his own back. "It hurts..." he gasped. As he bent, Cerenii might see his robe forming weird lumps that moved of their own accord. "Please.. tell me what it is, what's happening? I hope it's not more eyes!" Those lumps were growing larger by the moment, tenting the fabric of the shirt below his cloak, which suddenly felt excruciatingly tight. "It hurts... please. My shirt's too tight..." Indeed, it was stretched so far that its neckline was cutting off his breath.
Lucien dropped 1 shimmery grey feather.
Lucien shed a few more then, out the bottom of his shirt.
Cerinii nodded with interest as she listened keenly, "An eel bite? How peculiar." She paused, "What happened in the dream..? Who's your father? Maybe I can speak to him, see if I can be of any assistance." She set her hand on his knee, as if to reassure him but then he had spasmed. She was familiar with spasms of her own, but they typically incapacitated her. She noticed the tightening of the shirt, the lumps forming and moving. "There are lumps - they seem to be moving." She grabbed the neck of the fabric tightly, "I'll buy you ein new one." She muttered, "Maybe ein better one." As she tugged harshly, hoping the fabric would give way under her titanium grasp. She needed him to breathe, and to also see what these lumps were.
Lucien said, "My dad.." and winced, whatever was occurring clearly causing the youth no lack of pain. "... he.. uh..." Didn't like his name spoken aloud. But Luc was desperate, and had to assume he'd be forgiven, just this once. "Captain Leo, of the Eternity. My mum's Joliette Thorne." He didn't really expect her to know them. Luc drew a deep gulping breath as the shirt tore open and the pressure eased somewhat. "Hey thanks," he said, and tried to sit up again. Only he couldn't. What the...? Acting as barrier between Lucien and the wall behind him were a couple of mangy-looking winglets, as a half-grown chick might have - if it was a very large chick - flapping feebly while Luc craned his head about to try to glimpse the cause of his discomfort. On sight of the winglets, he made a choking noise. "What. Are those." he said, and turned back to Cerinii, the color draining away from his cheeks.
Lucien added, "And please... please don't tell my dad."
Cerinii nodded at his words, mumbling, "I'll be having words with them, young Herr. See if I can be of any assistance." She smiled warmly, "Mein plea-" But then she saw the tiny wings. Like a baby Avian. Or at least, a very mutated one. She murmured, "Those are.. wings of ein youngling." She breathed with excitement, "You are fascinating, young Herr."
Cerinii added, "I don't think there's much choice. You need help."
Lucien said, "Wings." His tone was flat. "I have.. wings." He blinked again, with the one pair of eyes he had left, the other having disappeared entirely. "And don't tell my parents, they'll freak out." To put it mildly. Craning again, he spotted the wings which obligingly spread open to their full span of only a few feet. "The dream.. " He was speaking in a manner almost as mechanical as Cerinii's arm, being in a remnant of pain and not a little shock. "I talked to God. Or, one of them. But I don't remember much. It was only a dream." The scar on his arm was more visible now, more livid in color, as if it held its own heat. Which really, it did, itching like crazy. Luc scratched it, more miserably than ever. "I'm a freak, aren't I?"
Cerinii seemed to be nodding a lot today. But she didn't want to scare the boy by coming across as negative and all doom and gloom. She murmured, "Ja, you have wings. But you cannot hide this forever. Und if your parents freak then it assures something, that they care about you. They must fear for your wellbeing, nein?" She had experienced an uncaring family back in the days of her youth, which were so long ago now. She smiled warmly, "Und what did you two talk about, hmm?" She asked in a hopefully pleasant manner. She eyed the scar, gesturing to it, "How did you get that?" She added quietly, perhaps soothingly, "Nein, you're not ein freak. Hell, you're something magnificent. I've never seen this before, but it's amazing." She grinned wryly, "Und that could just be mein own twisted perception. But still, that means it's nothing negative to someone eh?"
Lucien found her tone, if not all of her words comforting, and seemed to calm a little as she spoke. "Listen," he said, his voice hoarse. "I'm already a disappointment to them." He thought of his father, the way he barked and glowered. His mother, fussing like a hen over a wounded chick. "I couldn't bear it if they knew..." That he was even more odd, now. Tears stinging his eyes, he swallowed hard to make them go away and failed. While a fat drizzle of saline ran down one cheek, he went on, "As for the dream.. my arm was hurt, bad. You could see all the insides, it was gross. And Mahri healed it, in the church, but I was.. I wasn't..." he drew a deep breath. "I was dreaming, talking to someone I couldn't see, about taxes mainly. But its said something about fate. And then..." Lucien shook his head. "I don't know." His wings drooped, as did his head. "How could a dream make this happen? How can it make a scar look like..." Luc paused, and said suddenly, "Forest. Lord of the Forest."
Cerinii shook her head, "They care, is all." She smiled softly, "They just don't know how to show it right." She paused, listening to him until he had stopped. Mahri had tried to take her life before, and she admired her for that fact. The skill and tact she had used to trick the Avian. She had used her thumb to wipe away the tear, mumbling, "Lord of the Forest?" She added, "I have never heard of such ein thing, but you make it sound significant. What happened, who is it?" She asked gently, rushing for an answer but not wishing to scare him.
Lucien scrubbed further evidence of his misery away with sleeve and once more shook his head, chalk-white hair falling over one dark eye. "I don't know, 's just what the voice said, in my dream. I think." He made another awkward grope behind his back, succeeding only in pulling a feather loose, and winced at the twinge of pain when it tugged free. He'd bring the feather forward and stare at it. His face went slack, so obviously an expression of thought that Cerinii may well imagine cogs turning in the youth's brain. "The spider. In my shirt," he muttered. Eyes like wells of night glanced up again, meeting Cerinii's, wide and filled with an unnameable expression. "It was in my shirt. I don't know how long... but it was before those.. eyes..." He handed the feather out to her, his fingers trembling slightly. "What sort of feather does look like, to you." If anybody was going to know, he figured, it'd be somebody who flew about a lot.
Cerinii eyed the feather that he had pulled out. It was new, freshly grown. Hence the pain of pulling it out, it wasn't ready to leave. She lofted a thin brow at his ramblings of a spider in his shirt, before having the feather handed to her. She took it carefully, fleshy fingertips running over it to examine it. "It's ein pigeon feather." She then looked him over, a sudden revelation dawning. "It would appear to me, that you are.. absorbing.. the characteristics of the creatures that touch you."
Lucien's jaw hung slack for a moment, while he absorbed Cerinii's words. "But how...?" Not that he expected any answer. Shirtless, he struggled to his feet, the fledgling wings already losing their waxy look and gaining the fullness of adult feathers. They'd flex in and out as he stood, torso and neck twisting this way and that as he tried to get a really good look at them. "This is... " What was the word for it? "... weird." He glanced toward the church. "I thought the fellers in there might know something. But I don't want to go in, now.." His lips curled into a wry smile. "Maybe they'll just think I'm one of your kind and not a.. " Freak. The youth held out his hand, and then thought better of it in light of the avian's theory, retracting it again. "Thanks, Miss. I'm Lucien. Maybe we can talk again? Just.. I need to go now, and think about things."
Cerinii shrugged her shoulder, "I don't know. It needs further examination und studying." She rose to her feet, eying his hand with a chuckle. "Ein pleasure to meet you, Lucien. I am Cerinii, proclaimed mad scientist at your service." A tilt of her top hat. "I'd be glad to speak to you again, sometime. Until then, you take care. Watch what you touch, alright?"
Lucien nodded, and managed a more genuine smile. "Will do." Then shook his cloak out, draping it over the wings, once he figured out how to make them fold. "And thanks again."
Lucien said to the birds, "It's alright for you lot, isn't it? What would a pigeon ever worry about? "
Lucien threw another cobble at a pigeon who chose that moment to coo loudly. It gave an indignant squawk, shedding feathers as it flapped away.
Lucien said, "Stupid pigeon."
Lucien was obviously not in the finest state of mind.
Cerinii had been wandering around Cenril, mostly for the fresh air and exercise. She'd been given a telling for sitting in her study for far too long. Her cane gave a gentle swing with every step. She noticed a beggar like boy, tossing stones at birds. Of course, she had no pity for the birds. They were sort of like rats with wings, these types. Always filthy and carrying who knows what! She lofted a thin, obsidian brow speaking to the beggar like boy. "It's not alright for them if you're tossing stones at them, is it?" She tilted her top hat, grinning wryly, "Would you enjoy stones being tossed at you?"
Lucien paused, as though giving her question serious thought. Finally he shook his head and set down the cobble he'd intended to toss at another 'sky rat', sighing morosely. "You're right, ma'am." Glancing up at the extremely well-dressed source of this wisdom, he felt a little ashamed of his own ragged gear and hastily brushed what he hoped was the worst of the dust off his robe. "I'm just..." another sigh. "...I don't know what to do, is all, about this problem I have. I guess that can make a person act mean, even if they aren't usually." And to prove it, he fished about in his pocket for the remnants of a sandwich he'd eaten that morning, tossing crumbs to the bobbing-headed birds.
Cerinii smiled, approaching the lad to sit down next to him. She let out a sigh, as she sat down next to him which may have made her sound like some old crone. She eyed him, nodding in agreement. "Problems do tend to cause ein sort of.. personality change. Even in the best of us." She smiled warmly, "So, what is this problem you have hm?" Her cane having now settled across her lap.
Lucien hesitated again, not wanting to burden the avian with his problems. But he really didn't have anyone else to talk to about it, not anyone who didn't want to drag him home, where no solution lay and angry parents were probably not in any great need to hear of this latest development. "I have eight eyes," he blurted, "And I don't why I have them. Everything's been weird since I got sick and Dad brought me here..." he waved a hand toward the Cathedral. "I had the strangest dream, and then I woke up back home with these." He tugged the bandage on his brow down. Sure enough, six beady black eyes stared back at Cerinii, set above and to either side of his regular, human dark ones. Lucien dropped the gaze of the latter to the cobbles, while the others continued to stare, unblinking. "I've also been craving ... odd things." He may as well fess up totally, while he was on a roll. "Insects, mainly."
Cerinii couldn't help but look a touch bewildered and excited at the idea of additional eyes. When the bandage was tugged, she breathed, 'oh mein Gott' with surprise. Her hand itched to reach up and inspect them. She whispered, "You sound like ein spider." She paused, speaking up, "Were you bitten by anything?"
Lucien blinked, each set of optical organs taking its turn to do so, and flinched back from her touch. "Bitten?" He said it quietly, thoughtfully. "I don't.. um." He thought back to the tiny spider. He was pretty sure it hadn't bitten him. "I don't think so." Lucien reached up to re-fix the bandage, his sleeve falling back to reveal an odd antler-shaped scar on his forearm, while peering at Cerinii intently. "Do you think that'd have something to do with it?" Even while he spoke, the pair of eyes on either temple quivered and sank into his head, leaving two lumps that would subside into smooth, tan skin.
Cerinii withdrew her hand, murmuring, "Even in the dream?" She shrugged her shoulder, "It could have some involvement. But these sort of developments always have some kind of cause, to be the reaction. They don't just sprout over night." She smiled softly, "It could be ein good thing, mind you."
Lucien gazed at her, now with only six eyes... no, four… two more had sunk back into his skull already. He rubbed idly at the place where they'd been, then his fingers would grope the skin there, finding nothing. "Good thing?" He couldn't imagine how. "Hey, have some these.. gone away?" The nearly-adult youth looked on the verge of tears, but held them back, because boys don't cry and all. "I just wish I knew what was happening, and why." A pigeon, encouraged by Lucien's sudden flip to the side of kindness, fluttered down to perch on his head. Luc was too dismal to shoo the thing away, and so it squatted, cooing softly, hoping for another bit of sandwich.
Cerinii nodded, "Ja. Some have gone." She smiled warmly at him, "Well, it could be good in the sense that it may come in handy. Who knows what else you might develop." She had seen the sadness in his expression, but she did nothing. "I know. It's confusing, I bet." She sighed softly, "I wish I could help you, actually. But I er.. I work better with metal, rather than these biological things." She paused, metallic digits rubbing her chin in thought. "You need to think of when this started. The possible causes..."
Lucien's features showed a mix of startlement and relief, the latter emotion due as much to his extraneous eyes vanishing as having somebody to talk to. His gaze fell upon her metal limb, curious, while he finally shooed the bird away. "Okay." His brow furrowed in thought, lips compressing while he concentrated. "It started.. after the eel bite.. and dad brought me here, and I had that weird dream. And then I was home, and my head was bandaged. I don't remember much, I'm sor... aagh!" The last exclamation was accompanied by a spasm of limbs that might jostle the kindly avian some. "Ah! What the hell..." Luc seemed to buckle over on himself, arms writhing in his attempt to reach his own back. "It hurts..." he gasped. As he bent, Cerenii might see his robe forming weird lumps that moved of their own accord. "Please.. tell me what it is, what's happening? I hope it's not more eyes!" Those lumps were growing larger by the moment, tenting the fabric of the shirt below his cloak, which suddenly felt excruciatingly tight. "It hurts... please. My shirt's too tight..." Indeed, it was stretched so far that its neckline was cutting off his breath.
Lucien dropped 1 shimmery grey feather.
Lucien shed a few more then, out the bottom of his shirt.
Cerinii nodded with interest as she listened keenly, "An eel bite? How peculiar." She paused, "What happened in the dream..? Who's your father? Maybe I can speak to him, see if I can be of any assistance." She set her hand on his knee, as if to reassure him but then he had spasmed. She was familiar with spasms of her own, but they typically incapacitated her. She noticed the tightening of the shirt, the lumps forming and moving. "There are lumps - they seem to be moving." She grabbed the neck of the fabric tightly, "I'll buy you ein new one." She muttered, "Maybe ein better one." As she tugged harshly, hoping the fabric would give way under her titanium grasp. She needed him to breathe, and to also see what these lumps were.
Lucien said, "My dad.." and winced, whatever was occurring clearly causing the youth no lack of pain. "... he.. uh..." Didn't like his name spoken aloud. But Luc was desperate, and had to assume he'd be forgiven, just this once. "Captain Leo, of the Eternity. My mum's Joliette Thorne." He didn't really expect her to know them. Luc drew a deep gulping breath as the shirt tore open and the pressure eased somewhat. "Hey thanks," he said, and tried to sit up again. Only he couldn't. What the...? Acting as barrier between Lucien and the wall behind him were a couple of mangy-looking winglets, as a half-grown chick might have - if it was a very large chick - flapping feebly while Luc craned his head about to try to glimpse the cause of his discomfort. On sight of the winglets, he made a choking noise. "What. Are those." he said, and turned back to Cerinii, the color draining away from his cheeks.
Lucien added, "And please... please don't tell my dad."
Cerinii nodded at his words, mumbling, "I'll be having words with them, young Herr. See if I can be of any assistance." She smiled warmly, "Mein plea-" But then she saw the tiny wings. Like a baby Avian. Or at least, a very mutated one. She murmured, "Those are.. wings of ein youngling." She breathed with excitement, "You are fascinating, young Herr."
Cerinii added, "I don't think there's much choice. You need help."
Lucien said, "Wings." His tone was flat. "I have.. wings." He blinked again, with the one pair of eyes he had left, the other having disappeared entirely. "And don't tell my parents, they'll freak out." To put it mildly. Craning again, he spotted the wings which obligingly spread open to their full span of only a few feet. "The dream.. " He was speaking in a manner almost as mechanical as Cerinii's arm, being in a remnant of pain and not a little shock. "I talked to God. Or, one of them. But I don't remember much. It was only a dream." The scar on his arm was more visible now, more livid in color, as if it held its own heat. Which really, it did, itching like crazy. Luc scratched it, more miserably than ever. "I'm a freak, aren't I?"
Cerinii seemed to be nodding a lot today. But she didn't want to scare the boy by coming across as negative and all doom and gloom. She murmured, "Ja, you have wings. But you cannot hide this forever. Und if your parents freak then it assures something, that they care about you. They must fear for your wellbeing, nein?" She had experienced an uncaring family back in the days of her youth, which were so long ago now. She smiled warmly, "Und what did you two talk about, hmm?" She asked in a hopefully pleasant manner. She eyed the scar, gesturing to it, "How did you get that?" She added quietly, perhaps soothingly, "Nein, you're not ein freak. Hell, you're something magnificent. I've never seen this before, but it's amazing." She grinned wryly, "Und that could just be mein own twisted perception. But still, that means it's nothing negative to someone eh?"
Lucien found her tone, if not all of her words comforting, and seemed to calm a little as she spoke. "Listen," he said, his voice hoarse. "I'm already a disappointment to them." He thought of his father, the way he barked and glowered. His mother, fussing like a hen over a wounded chick. "I couldn't bear it if they knew..." That he was even more odd, now. Tears stinging his eyes, he swallowed hard to make them go away and failed. While a fat drizzle of saline ran down one cheek, he went on, "As for the dream.. my arm was hurt, bad. You could see all the insides, it was gross. And Mahri healed it, in the church, but I was.. I wasn't..." he drew a deep breath. "I was dreaming, talking to someone I couldn't see, about taxes mainly. But its said something about fate. And then..." Lucien shook his head. "I don't know." His wings drooped, as did his head. "How could a dream make this happen? How can it make a scar look like..." Luc paused, and said suddenly, "Forest. Lord of the Forest."
Cerinii shook her head, "They care, is all." She smiled softly, "They just don't know how to show it right." She paused, listening to him until he had stopped. Mahri had tried to take her life before, and she admired her for that fact. The skill and tact she had used to trick the Avian. She had used her thumb to wipe away the tear, mumbling, "Lord of the Forest?" She added, "I have never heard of such ein thing, but you make it sound significant. What happened, who is it?" She asked gently, rushing for an answer but not wishing to scare him.
Lucien scrubbed further evidence of his misery away with sleeve and once more shook his head, chalk-white hair falling over one dark eye. "I don't know, 's just what the voice said, in my dream. I think." He made another awkward grope behind his back, succeeding only in pulling a feather loose, and winced at the twinge of pain when it tugged free. He'd bring the feather forward and stare at it. His face went slack, so obviously an expression of thought that Cerinii may well imagine cogs turning in the youth's brain. "The spider. In my shirt," he muttered. Eyes like wells of night glanced up again, meeting Cerinii's, wide and filled with an unnameable expression. "It was in my shirt. I don't know how long... but it was before those.. eyes..." He handed the feather out to her, his fingers trembling slightly. "What sort of feather does look like, to you." If anybody was going to know, he figured, it'd be somebody who flew about a lot.
Cerinii eyed the feather that he had pulled out. It was new, freshly grown. Hence the pain of pulling it out, it wasn't ready to leave. She lofted a thin brow at his ramblings of a spider in his shirt, before having the feather handed to her. She took it carefully, fleshy fingertips running over it to examine it. "It's ein pigeon feather." She then looked him over, a sudden revelation dawning. "It would appear to me, that you are.. absorbing.. the characteristics of the creatures that touch you."
Lucien's jaw hung slack for a moment, while he absorbed Cerinii's words. "But how...?" Not that he expected any answer. Shirtless, he struggled to his feet, the fledgling wings already losing their waxy look and gaining the fullness of adult feathers. They'd flex in and out as he stood, torso and neck twisting this way and that as he tried to get a really good look at them. "This is... " What was the word for it? "... weird." He glanced toward the church. "I thought the fellers in there might know something. But I don't want to go in, now.." His lips curled into a wry smile. "Maybe they'll just think I'm one of your kind and not a.. " Freak. The youth held out his hand, and then thought better of it in light of the avian's theory, retracting it again. "Thanks, Miss. I'm Lucien. Maybe we can talk again? Just.. I need to go now, and think about things."
Cerinii shrugged her shoulder, "I don't know. It needs further examination und studying." She rose to her feet, eying his hand with a chuckle. "Ein pleasure to meet you, Lucien. I am Cerinii, proclaimed mad scientist at your service." A tilt of her top hat. "I'd be glad to speak to you again, sometime. Until then, you take care. Watch what you touch, alright?"
Lucien nodded, and managed a more genuine smile. "Will do." Then shook his cloak out, draping it over the wings, once he figured out how to make them fold. "And thanks again."