It's early afternoon in Viorar (not that it's easy to tell without some sort of timepiece) with the usual foot traffic along the main roads, the mainly-beastmen and demihumans of every shape and size going about whatever business they have. Pale gray clouds blanket the sky, with murkier clouds off in the distance threatening rain. The storm system looked as if it was going to pass by the city entirely, but there were nippy, aggravating winds locally and it had led the more temperature-sensitive residents to bundle up.

A short woman wearing a light blue dress with floral print, dark leggings, and a white cardigan, her red hair done up in a loose bun, steps out of the Lucky 8 super market onto Harvest Moon Alley, holding two large paper grocery bags in her arms that seem to be absolutely stuffed with produce. Hooked around one arm is a plastic bag with a few cuts of possibly-beef that must have originated with a butcher nearby. Still another bag on her opposite arm seems to be loaded down with books, and another with packets of seeds -- various flowers, should anyone get close enough to look and have the necessary familiarity with botany. All this is in addition to another bag over her shoulder that must be her personal effects. Though she seems quite literally burdened, there's a gentle smile stuck on her face and she doesn't seem the least bit troubled by it.

She turns westward to start towards the nearest intersection, and the wind chooses that moment to pick up. The feisty gusts manage to catch onto the cornflowers sticking up from one of her grocery bags, along with a couple of sprigs of spade basil, and send them flying a few feet ahead of her where they tumble onto the road. A hurried Chobin Hood simply sidesteps and ignores the fallen produce, while others continue with their business as well.

"Aw, fiddlesticks."

"Ah, oh no!" came a voice somewhere within the nearest-by of city-dwellers that were opting to go about their merry way in spite of such a tragic stroke of bad luck. "Don't step on it, please! Hang on!" From behind a larger beastman comes a young woman somewhere in her early twenties, golden curls bouncing about her head as she tries to get through and around the people with apparent intent to save the fallen veggies. A long-sleeved, dark blue dress with golden accents billows loosely about her frame in her haste and the accompanied breezes, and the clip-clop sound of sandal-style shoes are easily heard against the footfalls of everyone else walking by. "I'll get that for you! One second!"

The woman swivels around a couple people without being too pushy about it, and plants herself before the dropped produce to pick them up, forcing those behind her to have to go around -her- instead. She shakes each piece a little bit to remove any loose debris or dirt as she picks them up, her expression stern and focused as though it was a super important task she was performing. "Don't worry, onee-san," she says as she collects the last dropped spade-shaped leaf, "if you rinse them off really well, they're still good!" She straightens, carefully cupping the items to prevent dropping them again as she approaches the unlucky shopper, before realizing how overladen she is with her groceries. "Oh, goodness. You've been busy today."
March 3, 2024

The older woman turns sideways as she approaches since her overloaded grocery bags have more than slightly obscured her vision. She doesn't have very long to ponder how she's going to manage to collect her dropped belongings without setting everything she has down before a friendly stranger offers to intervene. "If you would be so kind, that would be delightful!"

Now that she's peering around her oversized armload, her bright yellow eyes with slit pupils and frilled ears will be visible, which might stand out a bit more in any other city but this one. To nearly anyone who's not put off by those features, she looks quite approachable. "Oh, yes. I have a lot of hungry mouths to feed. I may have overdone it a bit, but I just need to get everything to Peaches and I'll be fine!"

The girl does, actually, look a bit surprised when she gets a visual on who she's helping, but it is more akin to a "whoa, neat" reaction than a "whoa, scary" reaction. Without major regards to such a racial difference between the two, however, she instead seems more focused on the over-encumbrance affording the woman and the simple method in which to lift that burden, quite literally. Tucking the rogue veggies back into the like-bag from which they spilled, she attempts to claim one or two of the easier-accessible options from the woman, speaking insistently as she does. "Here, I'll help with that," she says, with cheerful demeanor. "If you really have that many people waiting for you, you'll get it home twice as fast when you don't have to worry about dropping things along the way. Paying for food only to have it end up under someone's boot is a terrible way to shop." Her eyes shimmer as she speaks, as if she were just this radiant bastion of sunshine within the omnipresent darkness that is standard for Viorar, even in the afternoon.

"Oh, you're so thoughtful." The draconian woman beams, not one to turn out help that's freely offered, letting Hikari claim one of the grocery bags and the one holding the seeds. It's more awkward than heavy, fortunately, so the shared load should make it an easy trip for both of them. "I really should have come with a helping hand or two... then again, I didn't think I was going to get sidetracked so many times." She chatters on with a side glance to the newly-purchased books she's carrying. "Lucky for me you came along."

Hikari manages to leverage the weight versus the bulk easily enough since she's only wearing a small white backpack, herself, and happily accepts some of the groceries. "It's easy to do!" she says with a knowing grin. "Look at me, for example! I was just going to go clothes shopping but I ended up saving someone's dinner!" Her dress sways loosely about her frame as she glances down the road one way and then the other. "I wanted to ask if you lived here in Viorar, but on second thought, I guess I would HOPE so, if you were planning on carting all those bags around without help."

"Oh, I don't! But that's what I brought Peaches with me for. I just couldn't bring her into town... she gets too nervous around all the people. I couldn't have her biting someone, or stepping on toes." She shifts her grip on her load until everything is distributed as evenly and comfortably, as it's going to be, and then starts down the road, head turning back towards her new acquaintance. "Maybe we were meant to meet! Some people say it's silly to ascribe divine providence to the mundane, but I think we're guided, even if subtly, all the time. I'm Dain, by the way!"

She blinks in secondary surprise at hearing that this woman does not, in fact, live anywhere closeby and was still planning to carry all these things around by her lonesome in spite of the fact. Of course, she also doesn't know who 'Peaches' is, either. Still! Hikari follows along in step behind her new draconian companion, keeping an eye out for impending foot traffic from other sources so she, too, doesn't lose her charge. "That's possible! There's always a chance that paths cross for a determined purpose. I guess that means that it was important that my mom was late in dropping me off, after all! I might've already been shoulders-deep in dresses by this time, otherwise." Hikari grins to herself, seemingly pleased by this turn of events. "It's wonderful to meet you, Dain! I'm Hikari, and I don't live around here, either! Is 'Peaches' your pup?" The question comes out without any obvious thought behind it, apparently, given the context Dain provided; it seems like that may have just been the first thing that came to Hikari's mind in what she did glean from her verbal assessment, perhaps focused on the 'nervous' and 'biting' concepts, specifically, and not so much on the other facets.

Dain throws another glance back at her young companion after the way she mentions her mother dropping her off, perhaps second-guessing her initial assessment of this one's age. She scrunches her nose at the thought that comes, reminding herself that not everyone is in such a hurry to distance themselves from their roots as soon as humanly (or unhumanly, in this case) possible. All this passes without a change in her generally warm demeanor. "Peaches is my mare. She's very reliable, actually, I've just learned not to put her in more uncomfortable situations than I need to."

She pauses to let a small group of Beastmen hauling crates side-by-side pass by, then continues. "Shopping for dresses, though. What fun! Is it for a special occasion?" She has a very enunciated way of speaking, with each syllable carefully pronounced, but in a way that sounds perfectly natural; as if it were something she had long practiced in.

"Oh! Right, of course." Hikari keeps up pretty easily, occasionally shifting the bags a little this way or that to see around them and not bump into anyone, but otherwise making sure to remain close behind Dain. "In a city as big as Viorar, bringing a a horse into the main thoroughfare would probably cause problems, especially if she is as skittish as you imply." Again, Hikari's tone is well-meaning despite the potential for implicative assumptions, but for all she knew, maybe horses bit people when they were vexed or flustered. "That's a cute name, by the way."

Hikari glances around the edge of one of the bags at the beastmen entourage passing by, looking up toward the back of Dain's head at the ensuing commentary and question that follows. "Uhm, kind of! I'm going to hang out with a friend this weekend and I wanted something nice to wear. Oh, but, uhm..." She trails off a little, as if considering something else to add to that statement, but then grins in spite of herself. "And I like shopping! You never know what cute things someone might put in their window or on their clothing rack when you least expect it."

"Skittish isn't the word I would use. More like... sensitive? Something along those lines." It's stated almost absently, while she adjusts her load, shifting one of the plastic bags that had started to cut into her arm and take a toll on her circulation. "Thank you!"

"That's as good a reason as any!" Her brow furrows a bit in discomfort. She's starting to feel the strain, even if it's more from awkward weight distribution than being overly burdened. It's a good thing Hikari came along when she did! She huffs and brings her attention back to the conversation instead. "But that can get you in trouble too when there's too many cute things and you're struggling to walk away from them," she responds with a grin. "Do you have any pets, Hikari?"

Hikari nods, seeming to manage her load pretty evenly, but then she also only grabbed a couple things, too. "Of course, I get it," she said. "Animals are like people, too. Sometimes they don't like crowds any more than we do, on certain days." She glances off to one side as they actually pass by the store she was planning to go to, first, but knows it will be an easy trek back once she's done her good deed for the day. "I do.. have that problem, sometimes. My mom tends to give a lot of them away, too, since I have kind of a fickle collector's complex. But then my attention span gets compromised and I forget I even bought them in the first place." The direction of her conversation topic seems a little off, but she's jerked back on track at the mention of pets. Fortunately for Dain, the fact that she's walking ahead means that she gets to miss Hikari's expression going really, really sad for a couple of seconds, which is then shaken off with a small frown instead. "We don't right now, no," she said, seeming to try and keep her tone upbeat despite the fact. "Dad and I are gone a lot and that would leave my mom with all the responsibility, which wouldn't be fair."

"We moved a lot when I was younger, too. There wasn't a lot of opportunity for pets because they wouldn't have been able to settle anywhere." Her personal justification for the lack of pets seems extensive for such a simple question, but she manages to get rid of the frown in short order and put back at least a small smile. "What about you, Dain?"

"No pets, unless you count Peaches. Though, I don't really think of her as a 'pet' at most times, to be honest! I see her as closer to a companion. Or a partner..." The way she trails off makes it seem almost as if something was left unsaid, but she quickly carries on. "Well, I keep so busy most days I can't imagine looking after any more. So it's just us."
She glances around to see where the curve in the road has taken them, and notices that they're just approaching the bank on Bright Moon Alley, with the gate just to the south. "Oh, almost there. Holding up okay?"

Hikari considers that statement briefly, having no issues keeping up or managing her carrying allotment. "Oh yes, I've heard of some people like that," she says. "They aren't so much 'pets' as they are extensions of the family, the way that they refer to them." She actually sidles up somewhat on the side of Dain at this time, given that their closeness to the city's gate has lessened the amount of impeding foot traffic flowing against them. A bit of wind picks up, scattering her blonde curls about her face and forcing her to give her head a side-toss to clear away what her butterfly hairclip doesn't prevent in the first place. "All good!"

"Hikari... Hikari..." Dain mumbles the syllables to her name as if trying to discover something in them, or just trying to recall something from memory; it doesn't actually sound as if she's trying to call her, or anything. "Language was never a main area of study for me, but it means 'light', doesn't it? Like that festival." The wind has pulled some of her hair free from the bun and left it whipping in her face. She blows at it in a feeble attempt to encourage it to stop, then tosses her own head.

"Ah!" Hikari squeaks, brightening significantly. "Yes, that's me! Were you there for it, this past year?" She allowed herself a moment to keep the excitement of such a topic from bubbling up too heavily. "There's a lot of people who are like that, so that's understandable. My dad gave me that name because he said it needed to be a reminder that I was a ray of light in his life. He's really pretty great." There is an obvious bubbliness to that sentiment, as if she were recalling a fond memory that went along with it. She found herself grinning at Dain's loose hair and her attempts to bring it under control, knowing pretty well what that battle was like. "Is 'Dain' of a heritage, as well? I'm going to come right out and say that I don't know if I've ever seen someone like you before, but it's hard to bring something like that up as a general conversation piece without sounding rude."

Dain casually nods and beams in greeting as they pass by the gate guards. She has one of those infectious smiles that lights up her whole face. It's hard to tell how the guards are reacting with their heavy-duty helmets, but one of them does give her a nod in return. "Really? No, I'm afraid I wasn't able to make it, but I overheard one of the initiates gushing about it. I had some thoughts of going, but one of the sisters had just fallen sick and without her helping it was all I could do to keep up with everything that needed to be done." She sighs, a little wistfully. "That's very sweet, though. You and your father must be close." Her expression becomes a little clouded with that statement, though it passes quickly. "Hm... not exactly? It's a shortening of a more traditional family name. I'm not surprised you haven't seen others like me, though. My family isn't from Fa'Diel." Though her answer is a bit brief, she shows no sign of offense.

Hikari seems to take a moment to mull over certain parts of Dain's responsive commentary, apparently connecting the dots in her own way. The large amount of groceries in one sitting should have been a giveaway. "'Peaches' isn't a horse, is she?" she suddenly asks, seemingly from out of nowhere. It's not obvious whether she was being modest or dismissive, but she also doesn't comment on her and her father's closeness, either. "Your family sounds like it is very big. Are you the den mother?" The terminology, too, seems to leap in from out of nowhere, as Hikari continues trying to piece things together in her own way. Still, her tone is genuine and jovial, not intentionally trying to make assumptions that would be considered offensive.

"You got me. She's not. She's, I think, the only one of her kind in the Cleft, or at least if there are others I've never heard of or seen them so it was simpler not to refer to her by species." She tilts her head at the following observation that Hikari draws, which brings a slightly bemused smile to her face. Rather than respond right away, she peers into the darkness, struggling to spot the dark feathers in the gloom surrounding them. Raising her voice a little, she calls, "Peaches, are you there? I'm here with a friend!" There is no immediate response, but she seems unconcerned, simply turning back to Hikari. "Well, I would be lying if I said I'd never been referred to as 'the mom friend' before. I seem to have a tendency of putting myself in that role." The woman looks thoughtful, before finally managing to put two-and-two together herself. "Oh! I see where the confusion is. They aren't actually my sisters. 'Sisters' in the sense of shared devotion to a higher power... fellow priestesses."

The sound of heavy footsteps from off to the side of the road can be heard, and a large beast -- no, an avian of some variety -- plods closer to the pair, approaching near enough to be illuminated from the city lights that reach this far. Though covered almost entirely in a dense, dark feathery plumage, there is something almost reptilian, or perhaps draconian about the creature, especially in the horns and the almost snoutlike beak.

"Oh, there you are!" Dain calls to the bird-creature, brightening. "This is Hikari."

'Peaches' inclines her head slightly in a way that suggests comprehension, blinking slowly, turning on the blonde woman to study her closely.

Hikari was still turning the gears in her own head to try and piece together Dain's secrets (that weren't likely intending to be 'secrets', but she was a sucker for self-induced puzzle-solving), and didn't offer a response right away as the woman called for her companion somewhere in which she couldn't see. Hikari shifted the weight of one bag as Dain looks back at her and explains her own situation, which turned a light on upstairs. Oh, those kind of 'sisters'. She understood perfectly once she was enlightened to the notion; even though she wasn't overtly religious, she knew what sects and covens and things like that were. But still, this was an awful lot of groceries for...

...and then her thoughts just kind of ground to a halt as the draco-avian creature plodded forth from the darkness toward the two of them. A reaction of some kind of was obviously necessary, but she couldn't quite find anything outside of generic shock. Really, beyond knowing it wasn't a horse, Hikari didn't know what she should have been expecting. "I..." she starts to say, and then kind of jolts a bit as she realized she was about to drop one of the bags in her awe, clutching it tightly to prevent an embarrassment. Recomposing herself, Hikari stares unabashedly at the beast for a solid five seconds or so before formulating a proper response. "Wow!" she exclaims. "You weren't kidding!" It wasn't exactly the most sophisticated of responses, but sometimes Hikari's mind just fell out of her mouth. "No wonder you felt safer keeping her out here, she'd stand way out among everyone else in there." She beams a smile at Peaches, hoping that the gesture is received at least as well as her incredulous outburst.

And then, something (possibly) startling happens. Peaches' maw parts and instead of grunts, chirps, or any other kind of animalistic vocalizations, she speaks; with surprising ease given the lack of anything resembling lips to aid in the formation of sounds. Perhaps it isn't so surprising, if one were aware of some mundane birds being astonishingly good mimics, as well. "Greetings, young one." Though she has no trouble with the words, the Amaro's speech pattern is ponderous and formal. "I thank thee for assisting my companion. I have oft told her that she needn't shoulder so much of the burden alone, but it seems that my counsel oft falls upon deaf ears."

Dain's lips purse together during the chiding, and she begins to protest when her partner stops speaking. "That's not --" she begins, then cuts herself off, shaking her head slightly, forcing herself to sound chipper again. "Ah, you can just set everything down over here, I'll take care of the rest. Thank you so much!" As she speaks she divests herself of her own burden alongside the road, and then picks one of the bags up and approaches Peaches. The draco-avian, it seems, came equipped with saddlebags, which the woman begins to fiddle with, beginning to distribute the days' haul. She seems slightly flustered, but it appears she won't discuss further about what was just said unless prompted to.

Hikari just... stares. She hears the words coming out of the beast's mouth, but she doesn't hear them. Animals don't talk! Pokemon kind of do, but that's not... "You're not a pet!" Hikari's thoughts suddenly project through her voicebox, not for the first time that day. "You're talking!" The blonde-haired girl looks between Dain and Peaches in astounded bewilderment, even as Dain just goes about the pace of getting her things ready for departure like it was all super normal. She's still holding onto the two bags she'd carried, seemingly missing the cue to hand them over so that Dain could, you know, actually bring them home with her. "No wonder there's no other ones like you!" Hikari's shock gradually turns to excitement, as if she were lucky to even be part of this amazing 'finding'.

And then practical sense settles back in, and Hikari realizes that Dain's already in the process of loading up her provisions for the trip back to wherever it was they came from. "Oh, sorry!" she apologizes, and hurriedly goes to set them down on the ground nearby, barely taking the time to remove her eyes from the fantastic creatures for too long before she's right back there again. It made her wonder what other features of Dain's lifestyle she wasn't aware of but was itching to know, but then, this didn't need to turn into a whole big thing; she was just helping out a fellow shopper. She probably should back off a bit before she embarrasses herself, but something else seems to be poking at the back of her mind as she gauges the split in Peaches' defining features. This 'something else' causes her to frown a bit as it triggers an undue memory, and she abstains from speaking of it at the particular moment.

Something causes her to find her voice despite her desire to abstain, and she looks between Peaches and Dain before settling her attention on the former, curiosity proving too great to hold back. "Did you come from somewhere else?" she asked. "Dain said you all weren't from Fa'diel."

It's not exactly easy to read the draco-avian's face, with her lacking the facial muscles to emote in a human-ish way, and having a mostly-stiff beak. The dryness in her tone and the way she cranes her head to look at the redheaded woman when she speaks is a decent hint, though. "I do wonder what mine companion has said, that thou hast drawn the conclusion that I would be a 'pet.'"

Dain seems unable to keep a grin from crossing her face, bright yellow eyes glittering with mischief, as she tucks a hefty bunch of bananas away in one of the saddlebags. "Oh, don't fuss. I didn't call you a pet. I just... didn't discourage the assumption."

Peaches turns back towards Hikari, ruffling her feathers and forcing Dain to step back for a moment to avoid getting a face full of slightly poofy wings. When the next question is posed, she tilts her head to one side, almost as if considering how to answer. "Our origins are not the same, young one. I am of a place called Norvrandt, though I arrived in this realm many years ago."

Dain pauses in her task for a moment, gently stroking over the Amaro's feathers as she looks in the blonde's direction. Her smile has dropped a bit. "I grew up in Caspia, but I haven't been back in years. My mother, actually, is from Gold City. We used to visit in the summers. I started hating it after the first couple of years. My parents were always so focused on... keeping up appearances. I wasn't ever allowed to play and get dirty as a child would. I had to be prim and proper at all times when there were eyes on me. Can you imagine? I was five!"

She laughs, but all the same there's a pain in the way her eyes crease. She shakes her head, a bit more of her hair loosening from its style. Peaches' feathers have mostly flattened again, so she bends down and picks up what is presumably a slab of meat, freshly packaged, and sets it in one of the bags.

"I was... lonely, a lot. There weren't even any other kids my age I could play with in Caspia. Being so near the beach was wonderful, though. I had no idea how much I'd miss sand between my toes." Another laugh, softer this time, her expression growing wistful.

Though she grinned amidst the banter between Dain and her not-pet, Peaches' comment about 'arriving in this realm' sounded familiar, and she was led to assume that the draco-avian was stolen away from her own world much like many others that eventually ended up here. That at least answered her own question, and she was glad that her suspicions turned out to be wrong, at least. Hikari looks like she was about to say something back to Peaches in response, but when Dain starts to speak, it draws her attention thereto, instead. She actually had noticed that Dain was a bit well-to-do in terms of her dress and appearance, at least relative to most of the other commonfolk bustling about the city, but it didn't strike her that there was an underlying or stemming reason for it. As Dain mentioned her own origins and parental helicoptering, the earlier comment about her sisterhood also clicked in like an adjacent puzzle piece, and she wondered if it was an ongoing heritage thing, in whatever religious capacity they upheld. She'd heard that some sects could be like that, but, again, she wasn't aware enough about any of them to make any guesses here or there.

What Hikari could relate to, though, was the obvious rhetoric behind Dain's words about her pockmarked childhood. She hadn't exactly had a blessed youth, herself, and while her circumstances were likely anything but similar, she knew what it was likely to have grown up without friends or any real social life. She hesitates when Dain stops speaking, fighting with herself on what to say, how much to say, or how to say it without dredging up old memories that she didn't want to relive, or disclosing things that wouldn't have done her any favors, especially to someone she had literally just met. "We traveled a lot, when I was little," Hikari said, repeating an earlier statement she'd made while they were talking along. "I was... an easy target for a lot of older girls, and it was really hard for me to make friends, and even harder to keep any of them." She's trying really hard not to sound sad and just be conversational, but it's pretty much a lost cause. It actually felt kind of nice to be able to get some of this off her chest to someone, for a change. "I never wanted for anything else because of my dad's job, but it was hard not to be an outcast. I pride myself on having been adept at my studies, at least, so that I could grow up to be well-read and help out with my dad's business when I became old enough." She paused for a moment, her eyes glancing between Peaches and Dain. "I... know what it's like. Even if it's not entirely the same. I wasn't able to stay in one place long enough to adapt to anything, but by the fifth time we moved, I think I'd just become used to it." The comment about 'keeping up appearances' nagged at her more than anything else, but was also the one thing she couldn't talk about. Mollianne had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but she was also really good at keeping secrets, so she wasn't worried about it from that angle.

Dain turns her face to look at Hikari when she begins to speak. She leaves the groceries for the moment, choosing instead to listen attentively, as if it were the most natural thing in the world for the two of them to be baring old wounds to each other after having just met. Her smile grows sympathetic, and a little sad. "Five moves, when you were still young, is a lot. You say you were used to it, but I'm sure you weren't unaffected. That can't have helped with the whole 'making friends' side of things, either." Her eyes crinkle with a gentle expression. "Experiences like that leave scars, even if we can't see them. So many people I meet are still carrying a hurt child with them, from things that happened long ago that they weren't able to heal from."

Dain glances briefly at Peaches, who is standing patiently, moving little other than a very slight sway and occasionally blinking. Looking back at Hikari, she taps a finger to her lips thoughtfully, following some train of thought. "Was it for your father's job, then, that you moved so much?" As she's speaking, she kneels down and picks up one of the produce bags, starting to empty the remainder of its contents.

Hikari looks... not well. Dain's words rekindle the embers of a variety of memories that seem to play themselves out directly behind her otherwise-shining green eyes, all the times her actions forced her family to move being at the fore of those. Those experiences did leave scars, and not all of them were completely-healed wounds, either. The draconic woman's words had the unfortunate effect of reopening some of those wounds as she spoke, as the slowly-forming haunted look on Hikari's face would indicate. She wasn't able to respond to the inquiry immediately, seemingly lost in whatever was going on inside her head at that particular moment. And even when she did finally found her words, it felt like her voice and mind weren't on the same wavelength for the latter to communicate properly to the former. She didn't want to talk about it. She shouldn't be talking about it. It might cause more issues for her dad, that he would then have to find a way to resolve because of her. She didn't want to cause her dad anymore grief. She was supposed to be past that.

But this was... such an enticing outlet. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to just... talk, a little bit.

"Sorta..." Hikari eventually responds, a small frown on her face as she watches the groceries continue to be distributed amongst Peaches' carrying capacity options. "But not always." Her mind yelled at her not to do it, and she was known for being a pretty sensical girl, but sometimes the low-hanging fruits were extremely difficult to ignore. "I had... a lot of other problems when I was growing up. I wasn't exactly... normal. Neither I nor my mom." Her eyes flick between Dain and the groceries, as if unsure where she should be looking. "I had temper issues, growing up. I attacked people that got on my bad side. And I hurt some of them very badly. Whenever that happened, we had to move." Her voice audibly cracks at this end statement, but she at least appears to be holding her own enough not to shed tears.

With Hikari now beginning to look visibly upset, Dain makes a point of spending less time looking directly at her. She has found that often, people find it hard to be vulnerable when they're being observed too closely, so now, instead of a steady gaze, she lets her eyes occasionally return to Hikari while she mostly keeps them either on her current task, or on looking at Peaches, as if she's checking on the Amaro's well-being too. She sets a now-empty bag back on the ground, and puts one of the other bags that have been emptied inside of it, but then she stops, kneeling on the ground and folding her hands in her lap, to listen. Though she continues to be careful not to look too closely at Hikari, there's little doubt that she's being attentive.

When the younger woman finishes speaking she allows the silence to stretch between them for several seconds, allowing Hikari to sit in her feelings. No one wants to marinate in emotions like these, but denying and running from them is always far worse, in the long run. When she does speak, it's gently, finally letting her eyes rest on her new acquaintance. "It must have been so difficult for you." She risks stating the obvious, because sometimes those feelings really just need to be acknowledged. "That's a lot to ask a child to deal with." She hesitates for a moment. "If I may... you sound as if you may feel some shame about your actions. But you were a child. You can't have been expected to have perfect control, or to know how to deal with your feelings. It's not your fault that they were too much for you to deal with, and there was nothing wrong with you for not being able to."

She looks down at her hands in her lap, looking thoughtful. "And if your parents moved every single time that happened... you would feel like you were just causing trouble, every time. How could you feel any other way? Even if your parents reassured you, it wouldn't change that. But you know... that was also their choice. I'm sure it wasn't easy for them to decide, and I'm sure they had their reasons, and they believed they were making the best decision at the time. But you were in their care, and it was up to them to make choices about what to do. You didn't force them." Dain looks up once again, and echoes something she said earlier. "It wasn't your fault."

As Dain finishes speaking, Peaches cranes her neck down and starts to gently preen the woman's hair with her beak, apparently content to let the two speak with no interruptions for now.

"It wasn't your fault."

These four simple words cracked Hikari's shell like a hammer made of Nosgoth Obsidian. So many people had told her this, not the least of which were her mother and father, but she knew better. It was her fault. Who else's could it be? But this... this random person, out of nowhere, just a woman on her way back from the grocery store who happened to need helping carrying a-few-too-many bags... was her story intentional? Hikari had jumped on the chance to share similarities because she didn't have anyone else she'd ever been able to talk to, outside of the people who were already aware of and present in her situation, but this was a deeper hole than she ever planned on unearthing.

She was a child. She hadn't actually known any better. It had taken her mom a very long time to get her in a position to be able to control those emotions, to prevent that... other self of hers from surfacing, whenever she just wanted to make a problem go away. And she'd only been able to get a grip on things because of both their unwavering supports. But hearing these words of encouragement from someone she only knew for less than a half-hour's time was just... she didn't have words. And they weren't dismissive. Or fake.

It wasn't her fault. She and her mom had made the people whose faults it was pay dearly for what they'd done to both of them, but it didn't change things. Her dad still took them in, despite the fact. He gave them a home, a life, a reason to exist beyond the lab experiments in a cage she and her mom had only known themselves to be for years, before then. She buried it away, because every time she thought about the utter lack of gratitude she had shown her dad, for what he did for them, it broke her all over again.

She didn't want to remember any of it. It was in the past for a reason. And it wasn't who she was, anymore. But it still hurt. And it hurt a lot.

And, of course, when things hurt, tears tend to follow, whether she wanted them to or not. And that's exactly what happened.

"No... I know..." Hikari eventually says, turning halfwise aside so that her face can't be seen as clearly, and as though the trembling sound of her voice was actually hiding anything from either Dain or Peaches. "Mom and dad did a lot for me. They did... everything for me." She actually laughs, a short little sound, which also cracks as the little droplets escape from the corners of her eyes and make slow, deliberate trails down each individual cheek. "This is really silly, isn't it? I thought... I thought I was just helping you carry your groceries. I'm sorry, I have no idea where this all came from." Her eyes specifically avoid anything except the ground in front of her. "I guess I just... got too much, all at once. Your childhood sounded so much like mine, and then... all of a sudden..." Hikari trails off, letting the thought simply hang there.

Dain allows Hikari the space to finish what she was going to say, rather than interrupt; only when it becomes clear that she isn't going to continue, does she speak again. "You needn't apologize. You've done me no harm. I all but invited you to speak on your childhood, didn't I?" A soft smile still graces her lips, though it's now joined by a subtle sadness in her eyes. Carefully, she rises to her feet, brushing some loose locks of vivid red hair away from her face. "It must have been so painful," she says, quietly, before deciding that it's probably best not to rip open those emotional wounds any further right now. That sort of thing should be explored with someone one has a shared trust and understanding with, not a near total stranger. For now, it's time for comfort and reassurance. "But look at you now. You saw someone who needed help and you didn't hesitate, even without being offered anything in return. It can be easy to retreat inward and avoid the world when we've been hurt, but you aren't. You're vibrant, and I can feel how full of love you are for your family, and I would bet that you don't want anyone to suffer the way you have, and would do a lot to be sure that they did not. That takes strength. Your parents must be so proud of who you grew up to be."

It always hurts, to see others who have what she can never have. Not without giving up every ounce of integrity in who she is. For a fleeting moment, she feels like she's being torn apart inside, and yet, her smile doesn't waver. She's had far too much practice in keeping her dignity and poise, no matter what hurts and humiliations she's suffered.

Peaches knows better, though. The Amaro is looking directly at her, though she hasn't said anything, for Dain's sake, holding her tongue until the woman has a little more privacy. The priestess' secrecy in this area is actually understandable, and is one thing she will never push on.

"Would you... permit me to hug you, Hikari? Do not feel pressured. It is perfectly acceptable to say no." She can feel herself shifting into a more formal speech pattern, habit taking over now that she feels a little unmoored.

Vivid thoughts and memories still continue to circulate through Hikari's mental process as Dain's comforting words mingle with them, and her head raises a little bit when she realizes that the woman is speaking the truth. If her dad had been at the end of his rope, he could have just abandoned her and her mom at any given time, but he hadn't. And there had to have been a reason for that. She did remember, too, all the times he still reassured her despite her fallacies and shortcomings, and even though it stung, still, to know that his life might have been a lot easier without having to put up with her... habits, at the time, he'd stuck it out with her. She knew that now, because she was fully aware of how close she and her father are, at this time. This was probably the reason she opted to keep those memories locked away, because they too-easily overpowered the obvious truth that she was better than who she was in the past, now. The reminders of her mom pleading with her to 'be better than that' on multiple occasions eventually did sink in, after however-many times it actually took to get there, but neither of them gave up on her.

And Dain was right. She didn't have to help with this grocery run. And she didn't even second-guess herself for it, either. Even beyond her parents, Hikari was proud, herself, of who she grew up to be. But she also had an overbearing sense of humility that didn't allow her to dwell on such pride, possibly because of the problems she caused along the way.

Hikari lifts her head the rest of the way, the silent tears having rescinded to a degree that, at least, new ones were no longer breaking free. She didn't really know what it was about this woman, but she couldn't recall the last time she'd met someone with such a motherly demeanor outside of her own mom. Everyone had their quirks, and she was no stranger to this, but that initial feeling that beckoned her to talk, even to someone she'd barely met, much less anyone she'd known for years, was something she didn't think she'd ever experienced before. And she was kind of sad that it would be gone, here in a few moments, when she left to be on her way.

Therefore, when the draconian woman made her offer, Hikari didn't give her an answer. Instead, she turned around immediately and threw her arms around Dain, and the pressing of her cheek against her upper shoulder probably dampened it a bit from her residual sorrow. "I don't know where you came from," Hikari says, her voice a bit muffled, "but... thank you. I think... this was something I've needed for a long time." She is, unfortunately, unaware of the potential for Dain's own emotional predicament, too selfishly wrapped up in her own to have been paying much attention. Not that she'd have been tipped off to it, with a smile like that.

Everyone has their own preferences and thresholds for who and when they want to be touched, and of course Dain would have respected any answer, but in this case, she's actually relieved that it is what it is. The woman quickly envelops Hikari in a warm, reassuring squeeze. Dain might not be in peak physical condition, but she absolutely has a body built for giving great hugs.

She's being a little bit selfish, too, and she knows it. The offer was given as much because of her own desire to be comforted as it was to provide comfort... and Hikari doesn't even know. The thought makes her head swim with guilt. This was manipulative, wasn't it? As the wind picks up again, she sighs softly at her own thoughts, squeezing again and willing them away as well as she can. "You're very welcome. I wasn't sure earlier, but... maybe we really were guided to each other, hm?"

Hikari doesn't respond right away, and it's probably at least a little obvious that she's enjoying the close contact. She was inherently a socialite, or wanted to be, and the week's length of the Festival of Lights was her favorite time for reasons beyond the celebratory atmosphere. Everybody was glad to see her, everybody wanted to be her friend, nobody worried anything about her beyond what they saw during that single, standalone week. It left her feeling empty, every year, when everyone departed and the grounds became empty once more, because everybody was her friend for a week, before they went back to their lives, and she went back to the woods with her mom and dad. In truth, while she was happy to be helping out her dad at the company, she was just-as-happy to be mingling with other employees from time to time while she was there, even if she was just a mascot. Heck, she knew there was only a slim shot that Persephone would even have accepted her request to go hang out on the upcoming weekend, and the positive response she received gave her no end of delight, which is why she wanted to make a good impression; she wasn't exactly a veteran in the field.

So yes, this, right here, was very good for her. "It really feels like it," she admits, after a wordless moment of warm silence. She doesn't seem inclined to want to let go, either, but does so and steps back despite the reservation, just because she knows she can't be as selfish as all that. "But you went through a lot, too, right? Something must have made you who you are, too, to be able to just find poor girls on the street with a youth made of swiss cheese and fill in those holes." She actually grins, just a bit, at her own wit. "Maybe we're all just waiting for the right person to come around, for that reason. From here on out, I feel like I'm going to remember this, anytime I see someone drop something in the street when they're carrying too many things." She reaches up, idly, rubbing the side of her face with one hand and wiping away some of the residual wetness on that cheek.

Dain, for one, is actually more than happy to let that hug last for a bit longer. It's healing, even if she hasn't said anything about what was on her mind. It's with a bit of reluctance when she does finally separate, but she still wears an easy smile.

It would feel... lopsided, to leave Hikari the only one to share so deeply, wouldn't it? Truthfully, she's used to that sort of lopsidedness, but something about this encounter makes her want to say a bit more than she would normally. Perhaps it's the chance element; she might not encounter Hikari again, and she doesn't have the same worries she usually does that she'll let too much about herself slip and someone will learn too much about who she is and where she came from. It's a much bigger concern with people who see her on a daily basis.

Dain giggles softly at that last comment, but then her face grows more serious as she remarks on something that was said earlier. "... I did go through a lot, yes. My parents... aren't exactly the best people, but maybe not for the reasons that you'd think. They loved me, they wanted the best for me, they saw my potential and always pushed me towards it. But I... could not be what they wanted me to be, and they could not accept anything else. It's something they would never budge on."

She looks down, and clasps her hands, twisting them together as her brow knits. It's as open as she feels she can be, and even still, it feels like almost everything she said was full of half-truths. "So I had to leave. And I miss them, still. And... well, it makes it difficult to talk about my childhood, or where I'm from, because I can do neither and feel like I'm being honest and upfront without making a conversation awkward."

Hikari doesn't hesitate to reach out and put both of her hands on Dain's, offering a sincere smile despite one half of her face still streaked with her own erstwhile sorrow-session. "It's okay," she said. "When we grow up, we have to make our own decisions, right? I'm going to be twenty-two in a few months, and I could have moved out to be on my own, if I wanted to. I guess there's a difference because my parents didn't push me to be anything, they just wanted me to..." She trails off, having to fight for a second to find the right word or phrase, but she can't seem to find it, and just gives a short little huff instead, before picking back up. "They just wanted me to know I was wanted, in spite of what I was. It didn't matter to my dad that... I..." She stops again, realizing that she's coming waaaay close to crossing a conversational line that might not bode well for either of them. Awkwardly, she pauses again, and in doing so, inadvertently squeezes Dain's hands with her own.

She frowns, but determinedly. "Things change as we get older, Dain... at least, I think they do. Peoples' minds might not be as willing to change as our bodies and other things do, but maybe it wouldn't hurt to go and talk to them, at some point. Maybe it's easier to talk to adults as an adult, instead of trying to figure out feelings when you're still young." Her frown fades into a little grin. "And this feels kinda weird, since I don't really feel like an adult, on most days. And it isn't something I'm going to insist on, either, because it has to be your choice. And... you know, it hurts to consider, but if they still won't budge, then at least you tried, right? Isn't that all any of us can do?"

Hikari hesitates one more time, wondering if the question she's about to ask is going too far, but decides to go for it. This had been an encounter that they obviously both needed, so why stop short? She could be the grownup, too, if she needed to be. "Are you happy with the way you turned out, Dain?" she asks, gently but firmly. "Because even though I'm not going to claim to know you all that well, I think you're wonderful, and I can't see any problem with the person standing in front of me, right now."

Dain's breath catches in her throat at even the thought of seeing her parents again. It hadn't been a lie, when she said she missed them. She'd just left out the fact that she probably shouldn't. But the idea that they could change, that they would greet her with open arms and changed hearts and apologies... it was such a pretty delusion. Despite herself, she finds tears springing to her eyes, and it startles her enough that she blinks, forcing the moisture to trail down her cheeks in thin lines. She's normally so good at waiting until she's alone to cry. This moment of connection has left her vulnerable, it seems. She smiles through the tears. "I'll consider it," she lies, knowing she cannot, knowing her weakness, her utter inability to find a resolution that will satisfy her. She wants to say more than that, to at least express her gratitude, but the words, for once, won't come to her lips.

The following question is one she really wasn't prepared for. Perhaps she should have been, but the direction this conversation had taken now had her on the back foot. "I..." She pauses at what feels like a fist clenching over her heart, then slowly releasing. "I am proud of some things. There are other things that I would change if I would." Once again, it's as close to the truth as she feels that she can be, but she wants to say more.

Peaches, who has been patiently allowing them to have their moment without interruption, makes an abrupt, loud sort of grumbling noise, more animalistic than speech-like, and then comments, "Excessive modesty is not considered a sin in any faith I have known, but mine companion makes me feel that it should be at times."

This brings a tearful giggle out of the draconian woman. "I wasn't going to outright lie about it," she responds, already sounding a bit better after that moment of mirth. "I have learned to do and be many things that I... was never encouraged towards, as a child. And for that, I am proud of myself."

The blonde girl actually turns her frown upside by a small measure when she notices the tears coming to Dain's eyes, as if it was a visual symbol that she was working in the right direction, if at least from her just-recent experience, anyway. The Upper and Lower Realms both knew that she had plenty she would change about herself if she could, too... at least, things she could've changed, that might've made the road to getting here a lot more stable. But, then again, would she be here, having this conversation and having an opportunity to open up if her life had been perfect, the whole time? The thought hung there, in the back of her head, as she listened to Dain push herself to confirm her own merits, which Hikari knew were there, but felt like the other woman needed to hear for herself, too. It was give and take; Hikari couldn't be told she was actually a good person if Dain wasn't allowed to be reasoned with in the same way.

Her eyes shift toward Peaches as she speaks, and her hands have still not left the older woman's by this time, either. The wisdom that comes forth from this companion feels fitting, though she was arguably guilty of having the same reservations (as was plenty obvious by now). "It's not so different than what you told me, Dain," she encourages. "Even if..." She stops, then, realizing by now that her parents are a sore spot, and trying to figure out a way to tell her what she needs to hear without bringing them up. But sore spots are hard to avoid, and she knew this plenty well enough.

"...the end result is really what matters," she instead says, changing her tune a bit abruptly. "I'm happy with what I am, and it helps that you were the one that brought it up, even though it could have been a much easier road to get here. Peaches seems to think highly of you. I haven't met your sisterhood, but I suspect they are waiting to greet you with open arms when you return with a..." She glances at Peaches for a moment, then back at Dain, figuring she might as well. "...dragon-bird full of food." She grins, this time at her lack of wit instead of any amount of it. "I could have easily turned out to be a monster. I can't know what it was like, growing up without the support I did, but... you could've grown up to be a monster, too. But you didn't. And that's probably why we're both here right now, talking about things that two random girls in the dark wouldn't otherwise have any business doing. I'm... I'm not... philosophical, or even religious by any stretch, Dain, but this feels... like you said. Like a bit more than just a coincidence, you know? Maybe we just both needed reassurance that we're on the right track, and it took a stranger to do something like that."

Even now, it feels conflicting for her to say anything that could lead someone to think ill of her parents. It's such a fine line she's treading. She yearns to be open, to let this moment of connection truly mean something, but there are some things she simply can't say. She'll settle for what she can get. She's grateful for this, this... heaven-sent girl, an actual, brilliantly-shining light in the darkness.

Hikari's way with words draws another giggle out of Dain, briefly, before the turn in subject causes her expression to grow more sober. She could have turned out to be a monster. She doesn't even know how true it is. If the apple never falls far from the tree, what does that make her? She fumbles for some sort of reassuring answer to that thought, but none comes to mind. The best she can do is reminding herself that people are not apples, and she wouldn't think so uncharitably about anyone else, so perhaps she should extend herself some of that grace, for once.

"You're right, of course. Everything we have done along the way has made us who we are." She hesitates in whether to continue with what's on her mind, her eyes drifting away to the side. "Some people consider it... morbid to assign meaning to suffering, but to me I've always found it a comfort to believe there is a grand design behind it all, even when it does not make sense. To believe that everything is part of something bigger, and because we are being watched over, we can know that in the end, it will all turn out all right... that's what lets me rest, even knowing that the world can at times be cruel. Faith is blind, as they say."

Her eyes return to Hikari's, and she giggles softly. "But I think that's enough philosophy out of me for one day. I've kept you away from your shopping for quite a while already, haven't I?

Dain's remark about there being meaning in suffering kind of hits a different pang for her, given how much she, too, had gone through in her early years, even if the situations may have been wildly different (and they may not have been, given that neither of them had opted to be too deeply-specific about their issues; some things were probably okay to be left in the dark, at least for the time being).

Hikari looks almost startled, sorta, when she brings the conversation around and refers to her earlier shopping intent, which she had, actually, completely and utterly forgotten about by this time. There were so many other important things that took over in the short timeframe since they stepped through Viorar's south gate, the premise of shopping for a dress just kind of fell off the grid. And Hikari knows a lot about being off the grid, but that's another story for another day. "Oh, yeah..." she admits, more than a little sheepish, as she reluctantly takes her hands back, only seeming just now to realize just how long she'd been holding them by now. "I should probably do that. I kind of lost track of time, there."

She looks aside at Peaches briefly, offering a smile at the wisdom-infused beast, then returns her eyes to Dain, one other thing still nudging at her, but this thing, at the very least, was something that was much easier to let go of. "You need to go and feed the masses, too, I'm sure," she said. There was a very brief hesitation, and then, "Will I see you again, sometime?" This statement held a blatantly hopeful tone in her voice that was impossible to miss.

"I most certainly hope so!" Dain responds, not needing to put any effort in to bring the warmth back to her voice. "If you know where the Orbonne Monastery is, in Oreyndur Forest, I can usually be found there. I travel... inconsistently, so I can't really give you any sort of schedule there, but there is always a chance I could run into you again out and about. And if not, you can always write!" She brightens considerably at the thought as it occurs to her. "We could be pen pals, if you like!"

Hikari looks like she's trying to remember where she's heard that name before; she'd temporarily forgotten, even though they'd just been talking about such things, that Dain was of a spiritual sort, and inhabiting a monastery definitely made sense, but she didn't recall knowing of or where any of them might be, let alone a specific one. "I'll have to ask and see if maybe my mom or dad know where that is," she said. "I've done plenty of laps around the Cleft with my dad, even beyond all the moving I did when I was younger, but I don't recall that place, specifically." Her smile returns in full at the mention of writing. "I would be really happy if you wanted to do that! Writing is one of my favorite things! I don't... really have a lot of friends, so most of that writing is just in a diary that I keep to myself, but having an opportunity to lend someone else my words would be really, really nice." A brief pause, and then, "Should I have them sent to the monastery in question, then?" The shift in her tone, a light edge of apprehension, makes it somewhat obvious that she was trying to avoid having to ask for Dain's location or address, in case that would have been considered rude. She really is trying too hard, sometimes.

"Yes, that's right! If you address it to the Monastery and add my name - 'D-A-I-N', it'll get to me for sure." She doesn't give a surname, nor indicate whether or not she has one, but then, it stands to reason that she's likely the only Dain there, or for miles around. She seems pretty confident that there won't be any confusion about it, in any case.

Peaches takes this moment to incline her head in a dragonbird approximation of a bow. From her tone when she speaks, it seems like she would probably be smiling, were she able to. "It was beyond a pleasure to make thine acquaintance, Hikari. I will entreat the gods and spirits that this not be both our first and final meeting."

Her first instinct is to reach out and either pet or hug Peaches around the neck for offering such kind words, but she knows the beast a lot less than she does Dain, relatively-speaking, and so holds herself back with a bit of engaged self-restraint. "I can and will definitely do that," she said. "I'm sure my dad, at least, probably knows where it is, he's been to a lot of different places over the years." She thinks for a second, considering the return-trip aspect of things and her own address. "We have a... carrier pigeon setup, since we live on the edge of Faron Woods, not really located near any cities, towns, or landmarks. But if you put the name 'Fukawa' on it before sending it out, it will find its way to us. 'Fukawa Industries' is a pretty big name, and as far as I know, my family is the only one with it, so there shouldn't be any accidental crossovers with anyone else." She seems a little proud of herself, seemingly, like she was glad to actually be part of such a prestigious family. "Worst case is that it goes to my dad's company in Rocket Town, but then he can just bring it to me when he comes home, that day."

She puts her hands together in front of herself, taking on that initial 'proper little lady' posture that she'd had toward the beginning of this whole conversation, and offers naught but the most genuine of smiles at both of them. "Please be careful on your way back. I'm sure I'll have something for you within the next few weeks, at least, and maybe I'll even see you between now and then, if we're lucky. I feel like there's been plenty of that, so far, just today."

"Oh, a surprise? I'll have something to look forward to, then." Dain beams, by now the very picture of cheerfulness, having successfully compartmentalized any less pleasant memories that might have been dredged up, for the time being. "I'm always careful, but your concern is very sweet. Take care of yourself, and I'll look forward to our next meeting!"

She grins at something that comes to mind, and nods, turning slightly to one side as if preparing to depart, but then speaks up. "Let me know whenever you decide to go grocery shopping in Viorar again, okay?" she affirms, with no small amount of cheek, and then proceeds to hustle her way back through the south gate of the city, with just a brief glance over her shoulder as her golden-haired self disappears into the city proper.

Dain looks almost theatrically offended for a moment, going so far as to place her hand over her chest and let her jaw drop for a moment, before erupting into giggles at Hikari's back. "You will be the first to know, Hikari!" she calls, before turning back to Peaches to finish her preparations. The Amaro affectionately runs her beak through Dain's hair, but holds any commentary for now. They'll have plenty of time to discuss anything that needs to be discussed on the way home.