Welcome to Gaia! ::

*looks at Amy a bit sheepishly* It's the other way around. My teacher keeps tabs on me. I came into my power at an early age and they are concerned about that it might be too much responsibility for me to handle. But whatever. I have power, but I just don't have the thousands of years of experience to draw on like they do. I can do things, but they can explain the finer subtleties of why it even happens.

*she thoughtful expression crosses her face* You may be right about uncle's feelings on magic and I might have misinterpreted things a bit. When I think back on it he does seem to have some affinity for magic, just whenever it came to him being a power user he didn't quite like the idea. Maybe he doesn't hate it so much as he is afraid of having that responsibility. As it's said, "There are those that do what they can with what they have and those that have power and always fear it may not be enough." He definitely strikes me as more that latter type. He's idiotically simple though. He just needs a cause and somewhere to focus his strength and his doubts will vanish, but that's easier said than done.

I don't have the ignorant mindset that fear is a bad thing and needs to be erased completely. Quite the contrary. Fear has it's place in showing us what our true priorities are. I can appreciate you caring about his well being. When the time comes we need to have the resolve in our hearts that what we're doing for him will better him as a person. When the seal is broken, the time for doubts will be long past. This is a delicate surgery. Any hesitation may alter his life in ways we can't comprehend. My interest in releasing the seals is more academic. To understand more about magic, I would cut uncle's living soul from his body if I thought I could learn something, but he's turned out to be far more fascinating a subject alive.

cat_stare Do we really have to tell him were going in person? *she shrugs* Fine fine, but we shouldn't tell him anything about trying to break the seals just yet.

cat_blaugh *she threw her arms around Thistle and cuddled her* If you keep this up, I may just take you home with me.

((She gets to show off more than a couple things here. One is that she is more than willing to flaunt her talents. The other is that heaven help the person who arouses her curiosity. The mad scientist in Kaori is poking through again. emotion_kirakira ))

Thistle whinnied with laughter as Kaori hugged her and she flicked her tail happily. "Visit lots!"

Amy wondered how old Kaori was. She looked young, but she obviously wasn't young in human terms, but her teacher thought that Kaori was too young to handle all her power. She wasn't sure she knew Kaori well enough to ask her her age, though. Some people were very sensitive about that topic.

She agreed with all that Kaori was saying about Kai and magic. She also thought it was a good idea to be completely in the moment and act with certainty when Kai did release his seals, although she hadn't thought of that before. She didn't think about how her uncertainty and fear could negatively affect Kai. She was so glad Kaori was here to help with all of this.

"You're right. I need to act with certainty when we're at the moment that Kai releases his seals. It won't do anyone any good if I'm doubting myself, especially Kai. When we get back, we'll have a lot of planning to do. Hell, we're going to have to take a couple weeks and do planning for this excursion, too."

She nearly faceplamed when Kaori said that she was only interested in Kai because of his seals and would cut out his soul for the sake of knowledge. Kaori's facade of indifference to her uncle was pretty humorous. She put on such a big show, but she was pretty certain that Kaori loved Kai.

She nodded to what Kaori said about not telling him what they had been discussing about his seals right before he came walking around the corner. The sudden appearance of Kai made Amy jump in shock and cry out softly.

"Woah! I didn't know you were here already, Kai. Well, it saves time that way..."

When she looked at him, she saw that his defined abs were showing. She couldn't help but stare for a few moments before she managed to break her focus and shake her head.

"Uh.. oh! Yeah, I have something I need to tell you, Kai."

Amy stood up and walked up to Kai. "Kai, Kaori, Thistle and I need to go someplace for a little while, hopefully not long. Long story short, Thistle and I ran into Miro at Aqua Springs the other day... literally ran into her, actually. Well, she got to talking about other pegasus she had seen on her home planet, and she had even seen creatures like Thistle! She had a cloak made out of the wings of one of them! It had to have been an adult with how big they were. I'd rather not go into detail about how she got them..."

She shivered slightly at the thought and then quickly moved forward. "I didn't know if we'd ever find other creatures like Thistle. I have to go and look for them... in Miro's home world. Miro said that I need a dark elf with me to travel there. Kaori's going to come with Thistle and me. I would have asked you, Kai, but... I care about you so much, and I know how magic is behaving around you right now. We can't risk that in this new world. You're going to have to stay here. I'm sorry."

She looked at him, pleading with her eyes for him to understand.

Amy's eyes had widened at Kai's comment about climbing into her bed. She actually liked that idea... a lot.

But before she could respond, Kai continued, and what he said next nearly broke Amy's heart. She looked back at Kaori, gestured for her to stay right where she was, and followed Kai into his room. She had expected yelling or arguing. This was worse.

"Kai, you are not useless, and I'm sorry if that's how I made it sound."

She grabbed his hand and pulled him closer to her. She looked up into his eyes and cupped his face to make sure that he was looking into her eyes.

"You are far from useless. It's just that your seals and their affect on magic are a little unpredictable right now. We can't risk something bad happening or someone being turned into something while we're on another planet... or dimension, or whatever this place is. I know you agree with me on that. I would love to have you go with us, but it's just not an option this time."

She smiled softly, encouragingly. "And while we're gone, I was thinking that maybe you could do some research on your seals and your other half. Kaori just told me that her teacher... or teachers, whichever... are still in contact with her. I thought it might be a good idea for you to talk with them. That sound okay? You'd be doing your own thing while we were doing ours."

Amy caressed his cheeks with her thumbs.

Amy shook her head. "You're not being a jerk about this. A lot is going on right now. There's been a lot of change recently. We're both still getting used to all of this. You have to be easier on yourself while I have to do the same with myself. It's hard for people like us to do that, but I think that being together is helping. We're helping each other, and we see the best in each other."

She wrapped her arms around Kai's neck loosely and rested the side of her head against his chest. She sighed softly when Kai said that he wondered if some of his disappointment was in not being the center of attention. She honestly hoped that wasn't most of it because Thistle was an attention seeker, too. She couldn't deal with two individuals that would get upset at not getting attention.

"As for attention... I hope that's not the case. I can't keep up with someone who wants attention all the time and gets upset when they don't get it. It'd be too tiring and emotionally draining. Besides, being in a relationship is more like a joint unit, I think. What happens to one person also happens to the other. There's not a whole lot of room for individual attention seeking, if that makes sense. You've got to be more concerned about the other person and your relationship than seeking out instant, individual gratification. That's just my assumption, anyway. I haven't seen many relationships succeed... if any, really. I guess I'm basing this on what I would want in a relationship and what I think a successful, healthy one would be like."

Her gaze wandered down to Kai's exposed abdomen. She trailed her fingers down Kai's chest and brushed them along the exposed muscle.

"Please don't do all your inner reflecting on your own. It could get very dark, and I'm worried you'd get into a very bad head space if you locked yourself away until we all got back. Self reflection is good, especially for what you want to do, but I also know how you feel about your other half. I want you to go out and interact with others while we're gone, too. Don't just sit and let the negative emotions and thoughts fester."

"You could come into the living room with me and Kaori and help us plan the trip. While we're doing that, we could also talk with Kaori about how to possibly get in touch with her teacher... or how to be in the right place at the right time for him to run into you."

Amy smiled and nuzzled the side of his neck. When she spoke, her lips brushed along the skin there. "I would actually prefer you do that rather than just sitting here by yourself and thinking. I think you need to think about things like you said, but I'm glad you probably won't be alone all the time while doing that. Just make sure you save your absolute skimpiest outfit for me when I get back."

She leaned back and smirked up at Kai. "You sure you don't want to hijack me for a few minutes right now?"

Amy giggled against Kai's lips as she thought about that night at the bar. She pulled back just slightly and responded. "Why you're right, I have. You know, one might say that I should be jealous and want you to only show your 'special outfit' only to me, but I also like you showing off... What a dilemma."

She pulled Kai closer and kissed him deeply for a few moments before she whispered against his lips, "I think this will be one magical journey you'll like. No side effects are possible this time."

She nipped on his lower lip lightly.

Amy jumped slightly and quickly turned toward Kai's door when she heard someone call out beside it. Her cheeks blushed bright red when she saw Kaori there looking quite embarrassed. She couldn't be as embarrassed as Amy was right now.

Amy pulled back from Kai slowly and ran her hands through her hair as she chuckled slightly. "Uh, well... yep. That was awkward. Maybe we should continue this later?"

She reached forward and lightly tugged on the corner of Kai's jacket while willing her cheeks to stop blushing.

Meanwhile, Thistle had been napping lightly on Kaori's lap on the couch when she suddenly got up and went somewhere. She was a little jarred at suddenly being woken up, so she didn't see where Kaori went.

When Kaori came back, though, Thistle situated herself beside Kaori and softly sighed as she closed her eyes again.

"Is okay...."