(Open) Between the velvet lies

[Drogon]

Dio was beginning to show signs of satisfaction. Good. Aang planned to continue on like this, getting as much information out of him as possible before the end of the party, and if such a thing were to be possible, it would be through pleasing his host. And, as such, Aang had been given a run-down of Darkshire from the point of view of one who HAD been turned away at the door, much like he himself nearly had, and R'texum before him knew he surely would have been. That much, he wholeheartedly believed - the citizens of Darkshire were very much xenophobic of anything that seemed remotely non-human. Of course, surely there was more of a reason behind it than JUST a powerful religious leader. Though that could certainly be one factor, surely something had happened in the past that could cause such a hardy little town so much fear. "Look, I know how much Darkshire hates... Er, your kind, but there HAS to be a good reason for it, right? The only way a religious leader of that sort could have taken hold of the place is through fear, and for that they had to be afraid of something outside of the walls of the town. Which means either the undead did something terrible to them at one point, with or without Dracula, or something else entirely instilled this hate in them. So, which was it?"

Enough about Darkshire though, there was a bigger task at hand. As Dio went on to explain the thanklessness of the task and his own goals, Aang dismissed them with a handwave. "I don't care if there's a reward of any sort or not. And anyway, you can't do it by yourself. They'll all know you had help, and if anyone asks, I won't hesitate to tell them I went along with it."

Suddenly, there was a new face looming over the both of them. Jumping, Aang turned his head up to an uncomfortable angle to purview their listener. Aang knew not his name, only that he was overly tall, had matchingly poofy hair and bird mask, and wanted to help fight the Tarrasque. Aang perked up at this news. The taking down of a building-sized beast would prove to be no easy feat regardless of its nature, and more early subscribers to the "Hunting party" as it were might be a good assurance plan. Though, as Dio seemed to plan to put out his plan to the rest of the guests at the end of the party, it was perhaps less than necessary.

When it had been just him and Dio at the table, Aang had at least been somewhat justified in sitting with his chair facing out towards the dance floor both to watch the entertainment unfolding before him and as an easy escape route should something go wrong. Now, however, with a third party present, he was forced to reluctantly turn his chair around to face the center of the table, and Dio.

"First of all, I'm still down with taking down this monster if it'll help the people of this land, so if you have more to tell me, go ahead. Past that, though, I'll be making my own decisions about my path, and who if anyone to side with in this dreary place." At this point, Aang was acting as flippant as he could force himself to, although it was making him anxious just thinking about the potential results. A reaction of any sort from Dio, or even the new bird guy, would be more telling than anything they'd said so far about their true intentions, and he hoped to force one out. "I have things to do in other verses too -"

But before he could finish his sentence, he was stopped abruptly by the firm and enticing scent of the tea being placed before him. He felt like he knew someone... No, SHOULD know someone, someone strongly associated with that scent. He was strangely calm for just half of a second, before snapping back to reality. "... You know." But this was delivered with less gusto than the statement it had been attached to. Something had detached him from reality for a moment there, and now he had to find out what it was. He took a sip of his tea. Delicious, and it put him at ease instantly. But somehow, he'd already known it would.