[private] trying to find a better way

[aureus]

Aureus

oh, these wings, they flicker and my feathers stir
'til I'm an ancient soul in a cascade world

He smiles at that, a little self-deprecation still showing in the tightness at the corner of his mouth, but his amusement at her otherwise completely lighthearted. She would like his sister, he decides, and not only because everyone liked his sister. (His sisters, he reminds himself now, always forgetting that it was no longer just him and Asena in this world—not now that Barley exists. His luck, the next would be a girl too and he would forever be the only boy in the brood of children. Just his luck indeed.)

His attention comes back to her though and his eyes widen just slightly. “Wow,” he breathes, wondering what it must be like to have gifts like that. “I don’t have any tricks at all,” his lip quirks. “Not unless you count glowing,” he shrugs, not minding his rather plain existence. If he could heal a little quicker from long journeys or if his skinned knees closed up faster than normal, he certainly had never noticed. “My fathers have all kinds of tricks though. One can paint illusions so real you would swear they were real.”

He is struck by a sudden pang of homesickness as he glances back to the star.

Astrum spins again, dipping down to nearly touch the fan’s nose before spiraling away.

It surprises a laugh out of Aureus, unused to watching his star companion be so playful, and he has to force himself to look away from her—to engage in the conversation, even when every introverted bone in his body struggled with it. “So what brought you here?” he questions, thinking back to if he had ever met someone who was not from Beqanna. “What even exists outside of Beqanna?”

and I'm quick with the bullet when it comes undone
I got a head like a turret with a mouth for a gun

@[Anuya]