Once Twice Thrice Again

[Roxanne]

The demoness just watched as Aria fiddled with the hair pin. It wasn't really obvious that she was using magic, just the slight initial glow and flare in eyes. She listened as Aria explained what she was doing and what happened, frowning only slightly at the mention of her ex boyfriend and father. She nodded when the girl admitted that the tree was an accident, that seemed to fit with what little she remembered about the way Aria used to be.

Laughing as Aria announced she'd burn her hair, Roxanne just shook her head. "That's unlikely. You're not the only one that has learned better to control your powers," she said lightly, "But thank you for adjusting it." she added.

The suggestion that they move locations was a wise one and she nodded in agreement, flying off briefly once more to collect her bag. She never liked it to be too far from her as it held all her possessions and provisions. She came back and hovered over the make shift camp as Aria cleaned up. Aria's next question caught her a bit off guard and she flicked her tail briefly. "I'm a mercenary, of sorts. The human was going through some hard times. People didn't like her, didn't trust her and she couldn't handle it. So she gave in, to me." The demoness informed her, her voice filled with a dark pleasure.

[Aria Wurud]

Aria collected Roxanne's cup and placed it in her bag; and with that she had broken up camp. She shouldered her pack and pulled up her hood on her cloak. She looked up at Roxy and waited for her to collect her things. While she waited Aria couldn't help but smile.

"I would be disappointed Roxy if you hadn't improved. Although I'm sure you have collected far more experience then I have. Those corruptors had been the most excitement I have had in a long time."

When Roxy returned Aria started walking in a random direction; yes she could transform and fly along with Roxy but that would be a bit of a hassle. Considering she would have to strip to avoid tearing her clothes or transform into something smaller then figure out how to carry everything. After hearing Roxy's plight after she had left caused Aria to frown. It saddened her to know her friend had gone through those tough times alone....but that was true for all the people she had left behind while she went and lived in paradise.

"Unfortunately trust is not a thing that comes easy to people in hard times. Fortunate that she had another self to fall back on. It saddens me how ever that she was broken down to that point...I should have told her about the magical properties of that gift sooner... However then again her giving into you was a good step forward...perhaps she needed to get to that point"

For someone who was in their right mind talking about oneself as two would seem odd. But out of anyone Roxy could have talked to Aria was the person to fully understand a split. So Roxanne would receive no judgment from her.

[Roxanne]

The demoness smiled at Aria's offhand compliment. "Somehow, I doubt that," she replied simply. She flew along behind Aria as she walked off in a seemingly random direction. Roxanne was only barely hovering above the ground as they went about talking like crazy people.

"Perhaps that would have made some difference, if you had told her sooner about the hair pin. It's a little late now though. I'd like to point out though that giving into your inner demon is never a good point to reach. Make no mistake, I'm no different than other demons. No different than my father or her ex boyfriend," she replied a bit maliciously.

[Aria Wurud]

"Really now? Is it so hard to believe I haven't had much excitement in the past few years? Right before we parted ways I remember I mentioned to you I had found my father....turns out he's a very overprotective type and was tired of me giving him heart attacks. So alas off I was put in this tower, protected like a precious flower!"

Aria sighed very dramatically only to crack up laughing; honestly it was nothing like that.... She had been allowed to roam free and terrorize the inhabitants of the glade. Aria shrugged when Roxy told her giving into her inner demon wasn't a good thing.

"Giving into you was giving up her fear of you; she was scared of this side of herself...so reaching this point meant at least half of you accepted the whole. To not be comfortable in yourself can certainly lead to an unstable personality....as I'm sure you know. But your lumping humans and demons into a black and white category; personally I don't believe any race is black and white. Every race has their good and their bad mirroring the face that every one of us has a good side and a bad side. While I do not know your father, I did know that even Dante had his good side. I still hold that belief even after he did this to my face. ...he feared accepting the good side however and rebelled against it."

She rubbed the marred side of her face; the burns had been painful...But she knew Dante was violent and she continued to stick her nose into his business...pushing him to accept a side of him that he feared. She had been overbearing and meddlesome. Roxy could very well turn and do the same to her one day, at least this Roxy could... It was just how things were. Aria chuckled.

"Another example; going by your view on demons I'm your exact opposite, a race that is suppose to stand completely against everything demons stand for...or at least that's how it is viewed. But I enjoy a good fight along for the next, heck I bury dead bodies in my flower pots....great food for the plants you know. Not exactly the light in which you would hold an angelic being in now would you?"

She couldn't remember if she ever did tell Roxy what she was...well at the time she had met Roxy she was pretty sure she had been half human at that time.

[Roxanne]

Roxanne shrugged, it didn't really matter to her one way or another if Aria had been bored. She continued to mostly just listen as the other girl went on about how everything wasn't black and white. That was true enough, she supposed and she nodded slightly. "Well, when you put it that way.." she muttered, trailing off.

She watched as Aria absently rubbed her scar. Roxanne didn't remember how she got and she eyed the mark curiously. Aria's next statement distracted her though and her eyes widened a bit. "Bodies in flower pots? Angelic being? What do you mean?" the demoness asked, "Just what are you?" She wasn't sure what she thought Aria was, but it certainly wasn't that.

[Aria Wurud]

Aria nodded of course she was right in that aspect of things, one could come to the conclusion by simply stepping back and observing it from an un judgmental eye. Aria did notice Roxanne staring at the mark openly; when she had first gotten she had been quite ashamed of the eyesore it presented. Though she was at the age where she felt awkward in her own skin to begin with...as the years passed no longer did she feel awkward and became quite comfortable in her own skin, scar included. Granny Ai had offered to mend her looks long ago, and more times since then but one cannot erase the consequences of one's actions. The scar had been a consequence, and one that she would keep. Her aquamarine eyes sparkled in amusement.

"If you're curious about the scar I don't mind people asking"

She chuckled however at the shocked look on Roxanne's face. Come to think of it Roxy was the first person she's actually told what she was....Garrett already knew....perhaps he knew before she did. So the shocked look defiantly was a delight. She let out a sigh of pure enjoyment as she soaked in the expression.

"I will never get tired of making people make that face... "

She laughed when she got drilled with questions, the bodies in flower pots was the first one.

"Well I certainly couldn't have taken them out of my room and dragged them through the city, they were heavy enough to lift into the pots.....That and it would raise questions. Secondly I certainly couldn't have them rotting in my basement...so I put them in large flower troughs and planted a nice garden on top. It was a wonderful addition to my room; although it did smell a bit odd for a good couple of months...however certainly not as bad as it could have been."

She nodded to herself, her explanation probably raising more questions than answering them. Then the just what are you question came up and she paused to think about it.

"Well...it means I'm a cat, a dog, a dragon, sometimes a owl or even a mouse...Sometimes I grow feathers other times scales. Whatever suits my need or mood. It means I speak more languages then any mortal can comprehend or know. It means I am a child of the earth the sky and the sea; my homes are in any of these. So I suppose the easier question to answer is what am I not?"

Another slightly insane giggle left her lips, as she began to hum her small tune.

[Roxanne]

Roxanne laughed a bit. It was odd to her that the girl wouldn't mind her asking, so the demoness chose not to do just that. Instead, she directed her comments about the flower pots as it was a most confusing explanation. "I suppose that makes sense, of course dragging them through the city would be inconvenient. But, why did you have dead bodies in your house to begin with? Did you kill them?" she asked, puzzled and intrigued by this apparent angelic being that had dead bodies in her flower garden.

Aria's answer to her question about what she was didn't answer anything either. All Roxanne gathered was that she was an angelic being that apparently could shift forms, so an angelic shifter? A sort of demi god then? "Who is your dad? I have no memory of you telling anyone," she asked, seemingly random.

Hearing her admit to knowing different languages reminded the demoness of the incident at the springs. "What was that at the springs, when you were arguing with yourself in a strange language?" she questioned. The more time she spent around Aria, the more she questioned the girl's sanity. Perhaps she was the next Caster.

[Aria Wurud]

Aria scratched her head; she really never had to explain it to someone who wasn't there before. That and Grandpa Lee Lee never did ask what that funny smell in her room was when he came to talk to her that night.

"While my body count of humans that I have killed is only down to two, it is not the two that I happened to bury. And frankly the ones I did kill were completely accidental; two guards that I had eaten alive by a swarm of rats...messy business; happened just before I met you I believe. Lost control of my powers I did."

That memory obviously still bothered her slightly, but it had been the turning point of understanding that her powers needed to be explored and mastered. But that was getting off of the question Roxy had been asking.

"But the bodies your asking about happened to be ones that I found; they kinda did themselves in. One of them happened to be the body of the man that lives inside my head. He was bothered that his body would be left for the rats and other scavengers, and the other body was his brothers....he didn't really care what happened to that one but why take one when you could take both."

Yep that didn't sound insane at all; she could feel the amusement from 'the man in her head' radiate forth. When Roxanne changed the subject of asking who her dad was, Aria beamed.

"Sand! The one who ran the Library that we first met in. Bel the scrawny librarians boss...As for who I told...I really didn't tell many people. A couple of people close to me found out on their own....but I think I verbalized it to very few. I was still getting use to the idea that he was actually alive and around, it was a bit of a shock to find out myself considering I grew up on the streets"

Aria laughed when Roxanne asked about the other language, she hadn't even realized she had been arguing with core out loud.
"Actually no, that was me arguing with the man in my head. But the language you heard is the one we're speaking originated from. It's the old tongue of Nova spoken centuries ago; my father made sure my education was quite thorough and learning the ancient language happened to be on the list of things I should know. Quite frankly if I so chose I could probably make a decent living off of translating the ancient language alone....not many people know how to speak it. But that language has nothing to do with what I am; but if you really must know what I am is what is called a Phioric Angel. We are a nature based creature with the ability to speak to beasts. This ability in some cases extends to being able to transform into the animals that we love....however most of the time we lose ourselves to the mindset of the lower life form. So I would imagine there are only a few of us that were able to return to a humanoid state...I haven't met anyone yet that was like me."

She often wondered how many Phioric angels there were...

"The last of my species was supposedly seen centuries ago....and what I know of them is actually very little. Perhaps its something I should be more curious about..."

[Roxanne]

Roxanned noticed a certain shame at the admittance of having killed a person on accident and she laughed cruelly. "I get paid to do that on purpose. Sometimes, I do it just for fun," she mused. Then listened as Aria explained more about what happened and what she was.

Part of Aria's information was interesting. She was some sort of Phioric angel and she could speak an ancient language. All that about dead bodies in the flower pots...still reasonably believable to the demoness. But having a man trapped in your head? That was just nuts. She just smiled a bit at the part where the Librarian was her dad. Now that she thought about it, there was a certain family resemblance. Still, the girl was clearly insane.

"What do you mean, the man living in your head? How is that possible and who is he?" she questioned, obviously in doubt.

[Aria Wurud]

Roxy's opinion she knew would differ on the morality of killing what to her were probably innocents. But as a mercenary she would have to harden her soul to such a thing...and perhaps took enjoyment out of the accomplishment. So at this subject she would let their opinions differ. When she asked more about her consistent companion Core, Aria thought for a moment on how to explain.

"He's just a man who happened to be very competent in the weapon he used; his soul was trapped into the sword you saw me use at the springs. The one you saw me take from my back; when I fuse the sword into my back, instead of occupying the sword he occupies my mind. Consider it sort of like the split between your human self and demon. However in my case he truly is a completely separate person. He's a very sarcastic lot and likes to point out the obvious and we're consistently arguing who's language is backwards. I hear him clearly enough that I often forget others can't."

She smiled; it was a crooked smile but it was the sort of smile that could often be found on her face.

"Do you know how hard it is learning with your sword master living in your head."

She scratched the bridge of her nose; it was probably time to change subjects.

"Changing subjects what's the most annoying part of your new found powers; personally mines the fact when I transform, my clothes don't with me. It's made for a few awkward situations."