what a strange being you are / private

[Luca]

Any sort of attention was good for Luca, who had been deprived of it for basically his whole life. When he remembered being locked alone in that cold, dark room, even the memories of his beatings were pleasant ones. Perhaps further on in his recovery he'd be able to understand that good attention was better than bad, but he wasn't quite there yet. He hadn't quite connected the dots yet, but he was close to understanding that good actions were more likely to get people to stick around. His acting out drew more attention in the short term, sure, but it only pushed people away in the long run. If he wanted a more reliable source of comfort, he would have to start improving at a much quicker rate. It was hard without a teacher, though. He missed having Shininglight guide him on what was and wasn't socially acceptable. With his upbringing it was hard to tell black from white sometimes. But now Shine was acting all weird, like he barely even remembered Luca. It hurt too much to look at him, let alone ask for help again.

Luca stared into Junji's eyes as their gazes met, pink clashing with that calming ocean blue. People always said that eyes were the window to the soul, and Luca found the statement quite accurate. Over the years he had grown pretty accurate in picking out other people's emotions. The eye contact was gone as quickly as it came though, giving the canine little to no opportunity to glean anything interesting. With a quick word Junji was gone, heading towards the foliage of the jungle. Luca's ear flicked as he watched, his eyes lingering on the feline's rump for a second before he tore his gaze away, heat creeping onto his cheeks. He took the time alone to let the breeze calm him down, trying not to focus too much on how pretty and how kind Junji was. Innocence and kindness were always sure to lure Luca in, and the angelic sage seemed to have both in excess. He had to remind himself to hold back a little, though. It was the intensity of his affection that had scared away most of his partners in the past. Apparently, randomly declaring that you love someone five minutes after meeting them wasn't the right way to go about it.

Luca perked up a little as Junji reappeared though, wriggling slightly in the sand. His eyes fell on Junji's newly equipped supplies, the smell of flora washing over him and slightly calming the ever-stuttering beat of his heart. "S'all good," he said in response to the angel's warning. Everyone had to start somewhere, and there was no doubt that Junji would take better care of Luca than the hellhound took of himself. He watched curiously as the water encased his wound, watching particles of sand swirl out of his flesh. The sound of his name drew his attention back upwards, breaking his trance-like state and bringing his focus back to Junji's face. he had never been too good at talking about himself, but if that's what the sage wanted to hear, he'd be happy to provide.

He hummed a quick note, glancing off towards the ocean while he thought. "Well, you already know my name..." That was usually where you started with things like that, right? "I'm the youngest of five children, but I haven't really talked to my family in forever. I grew up in a church, but it wasn't really a very good one, so I ran away and I've been wandering since. Um... I like baking an' soft things an' cool weather, but I hate storms an' being wet. Out of all the places I've stayed, the Typhoon is one of the best, I think." he seemed lost in thought for a moment, as if trying to think of anything else that he could say about himself without sounding like too much of a freak. He seemed to come up blank though, because then he turned to look back at the feline. "What about you? I'm not very interesting to talk about, y'see."