[Flashback] Love Burns (Ignotus)

[Gale Austin McCenry]

Gale looked at the Nuit blankly for a few moments as he called him brave. Gale had never considered himself brave at all. He'd freak out if he saw an animal larger than a big dog. Okay, horses don't count really. However they do make him nervous. Yeah, yeah, he was 13. So what? People can have their fears. He used to know a kid who was afraid of the dark still. He never sees him around anymore. Wonder why. Anyway, being called brave was like telling him he was a knight in shining armor. Gale relaxed a bit at this compliment.

"It's nothing." He told him. "Just a girl I like."

[Ignotus Everto]

The Nuit chuckled softly and nudged Gale with his elbow, the sound seeming to create a faint sense of connection between the two. Just a little push to get him talking. "Well, go on then! Is she pretty? Did she smile at you yet? What does she look like?" A grandfatherly smile completed the picture. It was all a facade of course, but who would notice?

[Gale Austin McCenry]

Gale raised an eyebrow at the man as nudge him and asked about Hana. "That's none of your business." Gale said frustrated.

It seemed like the teasing wasn't going to stop here. Gale put his hands in his pockets with a face that had confusion and irritation written all over it.

He nudges him away but then asks questions. Where they rhetoric questions to tease him but the man simply wanted him to walk away or was he actually interested? Gale had no idea and he would only care if he wanted to know more about the situation. It would be a bit awkward for Gale if he did though. A man with a mustache, that's at least twice his age (Gale didn't want to assume he was older then he really was since some people look older then they were) and he wants to know about his love life. Oh yeah, not creepy at all.

[Ignotus Everto]

Ignotus rolled his eyes. "Fine. I just saved you from a beat down, and I just wanted to help some more, but if you'd rather flounder alone, be my guest." It was simple work to induce a feeling of guilt, and even simpler to imply that talking was the proper thing to do. It wasn't that he was particularly interested in Gale's life, or even in Gale himself. He just liked to think ahead. In a handful of years, this boy would become a man. A man who could become useful. Ignotus would still be there, and still be much the same. It was only good sense to plan for the long term. It was only a smart investment.

[Gale Austin McCenry]

The boy looked at Ignotus with the same look as before but he thought about the man. He was curious about him and why he helped him in the first place. There were plenty of other people who had worse problems then a boy getting teased about a crush. He also felt sort of guilty about being so rude. He did help him after all. He only asked a simple question. But it was his personal life and he didn't really feel comfortable explaining it to a stranger. Not at this point at least. Maybe after getting to know him or something.

"Why did you help me? It's not like they would have done anything but try to embarrass me." Gale questioned. If he was going to say anything, he had to know this first.

[Ignotus Everto]

Ignotus rolled his eyes. "If you were lucky. I was your age too once. Kids in my day were a little... vicious..." being a sickly boy in Zeltiva meant getting a lot of flak from the sailors' kids, mostly in the form of cuffs and kicks. He could do little in those days, but now... Well, now he was the one sending them scurrying for their mothers. He had gotten involved for an excuse to set a bully's hair on fire, but he wasn't about say that. The Nuit shrugged, "I suppose I didn't want you to have it as rough as I did, at least today." It was amusing how simple it was to slide a suggestion into his words: that he was looking out for Gale. Seeds like that barely did anything at first, but always blossomed so beautifully later on. Being nigh impossible to detect didn't hurt Ignotus' opinion of them either.

[Gale Austin McCenry]

As rough as he did? What happened to him? Gale thought for moment, his expression softening a little. So he helped him so he didn't have it rough like he did.....That's new. Not like, completely new. He had his mother and a few friends who looked out for him but a stranger? That was something different. He suppose not all tourists were scoundrels or "bad guys". That was always his impression at least.

"Where did you grow up then?" Gale questioned.

Gale was now more curious then angered now. When he was curious you could get him to do anything. And with the fact that he helped him out made it even easier. Another factor is that he was a pretty foolish boy. Gullible more accurately, which made it easier still. He held his hands in his pockets as he looked at the Nuit for a response.

[Ignotus Everto]

Ignotus chuckled, "I grew up in Zeltiva, same as you. I was just a little bit scrawny, and living around sailors' kids..." he shrugged, "Not being able to haul fish apparently made me an acceptable target. Taught me an important lesson on the role strength plays in our lives. The weak inevitably, invariably, get ground under the heel of the strong. It's vital, then, to be the strong. How to achieve that... Varies, from person to person." the Nuit said thoughtfully, "I chose magic." He wasn't entirely sure why he was spilling his dogma to this brat; perhaps he hoped to make an impression on the young mind. Perhaps he just wanted to say it to someone. Perhaps he was simply starting to ramble. Whatever it was, Ignotus let the words stand on their own, confident that Gale would accept them for what the wizard thought they were: concrete fact.

[Gale Austin McCenry]

Gale looked at the Nuit as he told his brief tale. Since he stated it, the moral was clear, even though he didn't really needed to have it be stated. But why magic? Magic is so....Weird. Is there a better word for it? Perhaps there was. But Gale didn't ever wanted to get involved with magic since things often got messy quickly and bad things happened... From what he heard. He didn't feel like getting caught up in it all.

"So you helped me to teach me this lesson?" Gale asked questionably.

He was warming up to the stranger but he still had doubts about why he helped him. It wasn't really a big deal for a stranger to help out a kid was there? Unless they has some new season resolution or something. Or had some old memory that was triggers. Well...That might have been the case actually. He did say he was picked on. But was it that important of a memory that he would prevent others from having the same fate for once? If that was his goal then there were other places to do that. Places where kids had even worse stories and such.

Oh for crying out loud, why was he thinking about it so much? It was a one time thing and he should really be heading home. He decided he would leave once he got a response.

[Ignotus Everto]

A shrug. "I just don't like bullies." A noble character was the undertone of the statement. Just a little nudge in the right direction. He wasn't really manipulating Gale. He was just helping him get past some knee-jerk prejudice. Really, he was doing a good thing. Ignotus yawned and stood up. He wasn't really tired; Nuit didn't sleep. But he had some children to hunt down and silence, and it wouldn't do to delay that much longer than he already had. He waved lazily to the boy at his feet. "Well, I really should get going... That was a nice little chat..." the Nuit paused and frowned faintly. "I'm afraid I don't know your name." Assuming Gale gave his name, he'd lay a hand on his own chest and bow his head with a grandfatherly smile, "I am Ignotus." And with that, he'd stroll down the beach until the sea mist swallowed his silhouette.