Lasairian just wanted to keep the conversation from going into deep and dark waters, because as much as he wanted to learn more from Bel, he wasn't interested in causing discomfort to do so. He was hoping that he could direct the conversation into something that was less bothersome to Bel. Obviously the medical path of conversation did not work for her, but considering what she had said of it, that made sense. Real wounds usually spelled death, and before even that, bans from the pod. That sounded most awful to Lasairian. In a group like that, he would be useless, which was a horrible thought. To know they couldn't even take the time to try.

That could mess anyone up, though perhaps that made for stouter types in the face of all that. Lasairian wasn't sure that was totally a good thing, but to survive, cultures did what they had to do. Under the water was an entirely different world, this was made more obvious by what he was learning. Something that his own would have never been able to thrive within, simply because of the nature of those in the Bheo and just how prone that they were to challenge and fight each other. Lasairian couldn't say he hadn't done it as well, though it was easy enough to put that sort of life behind him now. He didn't need it here.

More time for him to study, to read from the library of magic and medical things to better himself, and time to gather plants and herbs that could be helpful to him. To go out and meet others, learn stories and so forth; whatever would be helpful as he went forward. So far he hadn't gotten a chance to heal anyone, but perhaps that was for the best. Gave him time to learn new things and perfect his skills more. To take time to learn more about how magic worked in this realm, how some ended up gaining it. Lasairian missed his ability to wield such things, and even now still used runes, dormant as they currently were. Old habits died hard.

When Bel spoke, Lasairian listened to her, nodding gently to her words. He understood to a point -- that point being that some things were done in a culture that might not always make sense to others from an observational standpoint -- but he couldn't pretend to understand what it might feel like to live that way. He respected her feelings and the sacrifices she must have made in her life, and did not want to say more that could be upsetting. He certainly did not need her thanks, and felt odd at hearing it, as his kind where he was from were often to do, and did not respond to that.

When she asked if he was a healer, Lasairian dipped his head, "yes, I've had training in it during my youth, and I decided to pursue it as an occupation here. I wouldn't be sure what else I would do without magic, and this helps others. It felt like the best choice for me here," he responded evenly, wondering what it must be like to hear such a thing after the life she had led before. He hoped that it at least gave her a better outlook on how life could be for her here, if nothing else. That there were more options for sickness and wounds, that it wouldn't so often end in loss as it sounded like it did out in the waters.

Peaceful did not always mean the same things to all cultures in its entirety, and Lasairian still saw peace during the squabbles and the violence of the pits, the killing in the forest near the Bheo, because that was what he had been taught peace was. No full out uprising, no creatures taking clear cut sides, no new leadership situations and no all out wars. Yet the culture itself was still about fighting to find a place and rank, nothing could be done about that. Lasairian hadn't seen anything but that peace, though. He had been born after the war that had decimated so many of those who had lived in the Bheo, after all.

And that war had left it's mark, of this it was certain. So many that had died, and many were still rebuilding from it when he was born. Four years later, but to them, it was more like a few weeks, maybe months. Many of those that lived there were long-lived species, after all. Another spot where Lasairian did not quite fit, for he aged more quickly than that, which was probably an oddity there, though so was Kier's choice to have an outsider mate. That had helped push the war along, in a way, though even Lasairian could see the selfishness of the situation; product of it or not.

It had not been a good place to be in, being torn between two worlds and the sensitive issue of his father spending half of the time in the Bheo, and half away from it. Two lives, because the fairy tale of it all didn't really exist. Lasairian hadn't seen it all right off, though he had been able to grasp the fact that things hadn't been exactly right at home, and there were trips to go and visit his half sister with his father and older brother. The whole thing had been a little rough, and eventually it was a puzzle that Lasairian could put together more to look at. Which did not make it easier to see.

Those personal things were what Lasairian could and would talk about, as conflicted as he was about the complicated family dynamic -- how did one really warm up to the fact that they were born out of some attempt of their father to try to rekindle things lost with their mother, and see all the little places in which that had still failed? -- but Lasairian wasn't closed off about that part of his life. He didn't often speak of it, but he hadn't been blind to it, either. No reason to keep hush hush about something that was fairly obvious to anyone he had grown up around though. A good portion of those there had been empaths, anyway.

Not something Lasairian had ever gained, but he had been blessed with a block to that, and could not be read by them. He'd probably lost that here too, though. At least he hadn't met anyone yet here that seemed to be able to read
him that way. Small mercies. Still, Lasairian understood mental anguish, understood a murky sort of past. He had wrapped himself up in those things, and found himself to be somewhat emotionally self-destructive, too. He had tried not to be, but in the end there was a place in his emotions that he simply could not control or apply logic to. It was what it was.

Easier to focus on where Bel was leading the conversation now, as opposed to what was going on in his own mind, thinking of the stuff he shouldn't speak about. Bel was telling him that a healer was a worthy life to pave, and Lasairian nods to this; it's probably the best thing he could do with what he knew, what interested him in pursuing. Then Bel was saying that she found most plants she came across to get to Novus too foreign to be sure they wouldn't poison instead of heal. Lasairian chuckled lightly, "it certainly does take time to figure out what plants do what. I was raised around it, and got to watch another healer work for years to get to this point," he pointed out softly.

Her question as to if he had always inspired to be a healer or something else when he was younger had Lasairian looking thoughtful, then shrugging some, "it wasn't my first thought as for an occupation, no, but it was always something I wanted to be able to do, even if on the side. I tend to get more caught up in learning magic, though I do not currently have any here," he responded evenly. Maybe that wasn't so much an occupation, but it had been what he wanted to do with his life, back when it seemed a more likely possibility for him. Here and now, he wasn't so sure.

At the follow up question, however, Lasairian looked very uncertain, but was attentive enough to what Bel was saying about how her childhood games were. Lasairian could at least say something for that, if not as what she had described. "I wasn't born to this form, so I don't really know how the youth play, but personally we did have hide-and-seek and dares. We would spar to see who was better at that, too. Honestly there weren't a whole lot of children around at any one time. Little ones could be a bit rare in my culture, but they usually take a long time to mature, too," he answered lightly.

He wasn't sure he wanted to explain that his bloodlines were somewhere on the side of endangered after the last war and the toll it had taken on them, all those lives lost to it. Lasairian knew that the different growth rate meant that he was able to jump from one group to another as he grew, finding more of them where he was in maturity the more he grew. "In my culture, things can take a long time to happen. We had a war some years back that wiped a lot of our people out. It shouldn't have happened," he said after a moment, understanding the give and take of information in this way.

If Bel wanted to steer clear of discussions of anything surrounding her past and the home she had before, then of course Lasairian was going to be mindful of that as much as possible. He only touched on such things if she brought them up first, now. Like childhood games; Lasairian wouldn't have asked on it or spoken on it at all if Bel hadn't been the one to bring it up first and ask the questions. Lasairian had learned from asking on the medical things that it might not be such a good idea to dig on all of that. He did not want to upset her.

His own childhood was mostly fine to get into, as much as he might have a few hangups over it now. Nothing that was much of a secret in a place like the Bheo, and therefore Lasairian could talk about it without being upset. At least in theory, since he really hadn't tested talking it all out with someone new before. He couldn't be perfectly sure as to how he might feel about it once it was said. Still, he knew that if it became that sort of issue, the conversation could be quickly dropped. Truly, though, Lasairian didn't think there was much to worry over.

He did not have to discuss Caydren at length, did not have to get in too deeply on anything that might be a sore spot. It might be good for him to talk about a number of other things, however, and so if those came up, he didn't mind glossing over some details and being a little vague just to get the general idea of it all out there. That was, if Bel was any sort of curious on any of that. For now, though, Lasairian felt at ease discussing most of this stuff, and he probably looked as relaxed as he felt. Aside from being concerned over Bel, of course.

Discussing the land and Novus itself was easy enough, though even Lasairian still felt new to it all, new here, he had been keeping busy and trying to learn a good deal about his new home. Because that was what it was now, no way to deny it. A new home. A place where he had settled into and felt right in. At least for the most part. He was still astounded at how well everything seemed to fit, at all the strange ways it felt right to be here, despite the loss of magic and true forms. Lasairian had trouble deciding what form that was, exactly, but had an inkling it wasn't the solid one.

There was nothing but solid flesh and bone to this form, though. No way to float around like before, though Lasairian couldn't say it upset him much. He had barely used that form before, after all. No reason to do so, and it just tended to show that he wasn't the same as they were, the others of his kind. Just a little bit too different, though it was a kindness that through most of his childhood, they did not treat him too overly different. It was only as he grew up enough to want to prove himself that he realized how difficult doing that would actually be.

And it was never enough. It never could be, because effort meant nothing when he was held back simply for what he had been born as. A hybrid, though he obviously looked more like all the others rather than show the less liked side. Lasairian was more like his mother's people, but that wasn't enough. Any little flaw had become a blinding thing among the others, and while he did his best to rise above it, he knew what his limits would always be. It only made him try harder. But here? Here in Novus, there was a chance to matter for those efforts, and that made all the difference.

Lasairian did not want to dwell on it all, because there was no reason to do so. That was in the past and it could stay there. Plus, Bel was saying things that he couldn't help but grin over, amused that she thought she might end up on the wrong 'seabed', but thinking that it would be hard just to land there, since this place seemed quite friendly even across kingdoms. So far, anyway. Lasairian had visited the night court and found them nice enough to even outsiders. He'd quite liked the marketplace, and the reminder of it, though.

More words from Bel and Lasairian laughed gently, "why look for another one if you've already found me?" he asked with a grin, "though I doubt I would feel so inclined to feed you to any kraken, no matter how many questions you ask. After all, I'm always asking questions, so I fully understand," he added lightly, finding it nice to be able to banter like this with someone. So far, there had been many more somber equines met here than ones that were those that he could have a conversation like this with. It made a difference to how Lasairian saw things, too.

When she commented about magic, Lasairian nodded, "yes, like that. Can't say I really used telepathy back then, but there was magic ways to heal, and shifting, portals, dreamwalking, empaths, and all sorts of things. I couldn't do all of those, but I knew others that could. I do miss that part. Being able to do neat things with magic," were his words on that. Lasairian understood where telepathy came in very handy here, why they could be as far as they were with it, and the fact that they would be less so without it. Still, Lasairian yearned for more. He couldn't help it.

When another question was posed, he looked thoughtful about it. What was it like learning magic? How did he begin to explain it? That took a moment, but he just went with it, "it's eye opening and freeing in a way. It opens up so many new things, new doors in life. You can see things that you couldn't before, and there are less impossible things when there's magic. Easier to get to far away places if you have a mirror-portal handy, too," he responded with a far-away smile. Enjoyed perks of another life, but now that was a shut door to him. Though it might not always be.

Getting into the discussion of not having always been in this form, that he had been born in another one, well, that felt a little complex to get into, but Lasairian didn't mind attempting to do so. There was no reason to hide what he had once been after all. He felt no shame in it, just that deep sadness and hurt over the injustice of what was limited because of that hybrid status he'd held there. All of it put together and laid out in words to someone made it seem more complex than that, and in some ways it was, but it was enough to simply give that much of it to make the point.

The thought that Bel was thinking 'frog' and 'tadpole' for how he had changed forms had Lasairian grinning with abundant mirth over the mental image, but he shook his head at that, "no, not quite like that. I did not evolve into this form, I merely ended up with a change in form altogether. The form I was born as wasn't solid, exactly. It was just energy that looked like a smoky shadow. Like the billowing white kind after putting out a fire. With glowy eyes. The others were black smoke and shadow, though. I was just a heavily leaning halfbreed," he explained lightly.

Of course that wasn't all there was to it, but it was the form he was born as, so it made sense to start there and go on. "That was just the form I was born as, and I'm not even going to try explaining that part of it. But eventually we get a more solid form, too. Bipedal, soft, strange compared to these forms. Then there's one more made for fighting, and it's varied from one person to another. Mine resembled a sharp toothed, bipedal lizard," he added. Quite a difference, going to this after having a raptor form and all the rest. But Lasairian was at peace with it.

Having a form like that when it came to sparring had been nice, though. Which would make it rather difficult to have to learn how to fight in this form if ever it came to that. So many differences, and Lasairian would have to change so much on how he thought a battle out, and learn new tactics, forget old ones that could only complicate and confuse him to try here. It would certainly mess with his gut instincts on the matter, and sounded all around messy in all honesty. Lasairian did not need all of that here, he could be good with simply being a healer and living that kind of life.

The subject of sparring being a thing and what Bel said of it made Lasairian nod his head, "considering the dangers of wounds and the lack of magic underwater, it's probably not a great idea to spar too much, I'd think. We had healing magic to help keep things from being lethal. Though we also had a very strict no killing rule." That part needed no further explaining, he didn't think. But the rarity of children among the species made the deaths a more concerning thing, and too many accidents couldn't really be afforded because of that.

The shared raising of children, however, was most certainly something both of them shared in their childhoods. "It was the same for us. We were often raised by several adults. Guess they couldn't be too careful with how few of us were around at any given time." The internal musing of all that didn't stop there, though Lasairian didn't feel like it was a good idea to talk about how close knit most of that group's adults were with one another, nor how blurred some lines got in a community like that. There was still some discomfort in all of that.

One did not tell someone they just met that they had secretly fallen in love with one of those adults, and did not speak on the fact that said adult had slept with both actual parents, and did not comment on said adult being more or less a community bicycle (their words, not Lasairian's). It did make Lasairian's choice to remain a virgin throughout his life a hell of a lot easier, though. Best to just not touch any of that insanity, no matter what foolish spin his heart and emotions were on. Helped that Lasairian had left all of that behind, too. No going back to that emotional type of hell.

Onto the topic of war, as grim as it all was, and Bel was telling him that her people were too busy fleeing predators to worry about fighting each other. Lasairian had to wonder which would be worse, but he certainly wasn't going to speak of such things. It was nice to hear her take on war and how all life was precious, and he had to nod to that. The rules of the Bheo were the same, though there would always be extreme situations, and a leader could still call for war. Yet the last war wasn't begun with a clear head; he knew that much. And as such, it should never have happened like that.

Lasairian hadn't been born at that time, though, and didn't face more than the years after, when there was still much to mourn and rebuilding to do. So when Bel apologized over if the topic was sensitive, Lasairian shook his head, "it's fine. I was born after the war, so I didn't know things to be any other way." That was that as far as he was concerned. He knew that things had changed, but he didn't feel the true depths of those changes for himself. All he had of the before was secondhand stories. He felt bad for the pain of his people over it, but he couldn't feel the sting of it like they could.

Nor could he grasp the pain of the losses that Bel had suffered, hearing not only about the sister but the lost mother, too. Bel leaving the pod after what happened to her sister must have been another difficult loss for the pod after so much already, but Lasairian could understand why Bel had felt the need to go her own way after such trauma. Lasairian did not have any younger siblings, but he did have an older brother. They had been close as children, but Seoras left the Bheo much sooner than Lasairian had. Perhaps it was the mixed genetics that made them more prone to wandering.

Lasairian didn't know what more to say about those losses, and didn't feel like it was his place to bother with it anyway. Instead, he was attentive more keenly to her speaking about what it was like under the water, on how it was like a different world. In a way it was, though. There had to be so many different things under the surface from what it was like on land. So Lasairian nods, interested, and continues to listen. He's silent and thoughtful on the last bit said about it, about the land and if it's like that. He believed that there were such places, yes. But he doesn't know how it adds up to what she's seen underwater. "I might not know what it's like down there, but I believe those places do exist up here, too," he said gently, smiling at her.

While not new to most of the plant life around here, there was undoubtedly a few things that were a little different for Lasairian from what he was used to, what he might have grown up knowing or learning about. It was certainly not the same as growing up under water and then coming ashore like Bel had, but Novus wasn't a place that Lasairian had known anything about when arriving. Being in an entirely new body might count for something on the scale of extremes, though. He had that to deal with, though he felt that he was doing well enough with it, considering he hadn't had anything but a bipedal or smoke-energy form before.

That was something he had to get used to, though maybe having a lack of use of hands or claws in the energy-smoke form helped him deal with the fact that in an equine form he did not have either of those either. If it weren't for the little bit of telekinesis, Lasairian wouldn't know how to manage very well with that limit of no appendages to grip stuff with. After living years being able to and suddenly not, that was a shock to the system. It would have been worse to have no way to really grip what he wanted to hold, aside from using his teeth. And that just seemed like a very uncomfortable task.

Then again, wouldn't that be how Bel had lived all this time until now? She had said that there was no magic like that where she was from, after all. Would it be rude to ask her what that had been like? Lasairian debated it for a moment, then pushed it away. He didn't really need to know, and there was no way for her to have a good judge on the differences of all of that. Maybe a little longer with the telepathy and it would make more sense to ask, see how much she started to rely on the new magic, or how easily she forgot it was there because she wasn't used to it that much yet.

When Bel spoke of it being a good thing that he didn't want to feed the kraken, and the fact it probably would bite at him, too, if he did, Lasairian laughed lightly, "noted. Krakens cannot be trusted at all," he responded, thinking it would be funny to trust such a creature as that anyway, while being a land based critter like he was. Bel might have more sway with a sea creature, but even she seemed skeptical about the friendliness of a kraken, and if anyone knew, Lasairian would believe it to be her. Heck, it might want to eat him for merely offering it Bel to eat, if it was feeling sea-solidarity.

He could understand well that she was eager to see and learn things, because Lasairian was like that as well. He wanted to soak up all the knowledge that he could, and he was working on that day by day. And he was glad, too, that she thought things were much nicer here than where she was from. He was happy for her in that, because with what he knew of her past, she very much deserved to have a nice life here. Hopefully it continued to be that way for her. Lasairian, for himself, was mostly just hoping to not have a bad life here. It didn't need to be great, but he would like it to be knowledge filled!

There was no way to show her those types of magic now, but maybe she would be able to see them done by others in Novus. Lasairian wasn't sure who all had magic, and if any of it was that kind at all, but it was possible. There were so many strange things about this place that he wouldn't put it past them to have it all, somewhere tucked away and out of sight. That was something Lasairian wanted to get to the bottom of, though. A work in progress that he had only just gotten started with, but aimed to spend the rest of his life figuring out. And maybe even acquiring some of it.

The wonders he had seen. Yes, there were those for sure, but he had seen some darker things in it as well. Not all magic was good magic, and even his interest in it was a little darker than his kind liked to see practiced. Not that Lasairian had ever done anything bad with it, nor had he intended any such thing, but he knew what it could have been used for. The terrible things that could have been done if in the wrong hands. That was a line he had been very careful with back then, because he had no desire to go down too dark of a path. He simply knew where his strengths had lay back then.

The questioning of him really changing forms back before coming here had Lasairian nodding his head, then shrugging at the last part of it being scary, "to some, I guess it would be. My people don't have the best reputation, but a lot of it is misconceptions," he pointed out lightly. Onto the question of what was fire, and Lasairian grinned at her, "maybe I can start a small one for you to see; just don't get too close to it, it burns," he responded, looking around for some sticks and such to try to telepathically rub together to create the fire. At least doing it that way worked better than it would have with hands.

Force of mind could be a powerful thing, after all. He floated some sticks and driftwood over, and started to try starting a small fire with it, using the telepathy to create enough friction until it was smoking, then flickering into flame. Small, but it was there, and he looked a little proud at himself when he peered over at Bel. "What do you think? Pretty?" because to him, it was as pretty as it could be dangerous, but he felt that she should be able to know what a fire was. What anything was, really. And if he was able to show her something, then he would try his best to do so.

The angler fish comment regarding the raptor form had Lasairian debating it, finding it probably not all that far off from what it might be like to be face to face with such a creature when not one. Or not able to be one. He nodded to that, "yeah, it sounds about right. Though there were much scarier things back there that the others could turn into," he admitted with a faint smile. Getting used to the sight of some of them was difficult, but after awhile those things stopped being surprising if seen enough. If one lived around that sort of thing.

The idea of having harmed a friend or someone close severely in a way that could be healed sounded just awful, and Lasairian whole-heartedly agreed that it would be a very bad feeling to have. He dipped his head at that, not wanting to dwell on the thought of it further. Easier to think about the group parenting thing, and Lasairian could see why it would work that way so well in the pod. "I think for us a lot of it was for a more tight-knit community. Kept the whole fighting thing from getting out of control too much if you care about those you spar with," he said thoughtfully.

And while there was actually a very big to-do about life-mates in his community too, it didn't hinder sexual interaction quite as much as one might suspect. Yet life-mates were bonded in a very literal life way, so going that far had to be done in a very picky way, because one would fade away after the death of the other, so it was quite the serious thing in his community. They were fueled by energy and magic, so things worked in a less than easy way when it came to those matters. They were long lived enough to be picky there, though.

Wars were dangerous in various ways for that reason as well, but for some, Lasairian wondered if it was easier for mated pairs to die off together after so long being attached. At least there was a peace for those close to the ones dying, though Lasairian had no way to describe the way those passing could send their goodbyes like a whisper in the minds of those left behind. He didn't know how it worked, and had never heard it for himself before. He just knew it happened, and that somehow, it seemed to make it easier for the others who survived a lot of the time.

Lasairian didn't want to continue to discuss war and how it lasted far after it was over, and found it easier to talk about the wonders that Novus might hold out there. Hearing Bel talk of exploring made Lasairian smile, and he understood the urge to go about things in that manner, "if you ever want someone to explore with, let me know if you can find me. Usually Delumine's Library," were his words to her, letting her know where he was likely to be at any given time, if not out exploring for himself. Or merely collecting plants and herbs, which was pretty much the same thing anyway.