<div class="floatleft">(http://www.americanjacketsstore.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Andrew-Lee-Potts-Alice-in-Wonderland-Jacket.jpg)</div><strong>Name</strong>Alfred Birche<br/><strong>Alias</strong>Leshy<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Ghost,  Dark Wings, Midnight Angel (mentioned), open.<br/><hr/>Constantly shifting, seemingly never-blinking eyes floated between Ghost, 'the red-head', and the woman flying above them, who receives a vaguely esoteric gesture that is... probably a good sign.  It's not ASL, or anything of the sort--a bit closer to military hand-code, but bastardized. Basically acknowledging the compliment, and returning it to her. Leshy just wanted to throw out so many different things, not to show off, but to gauge; assess. Who responded to what? And in what way did they respond?<br/><br/>Eyes finally settled on the bird, Night. "Huginn? Muninn? Badb Catha?" He enunciates each of those old names perfectly, flecks and hints of an accent here and there. And yes, he is talking directly to the bird, because he knows that they are very intelligent creatures; plus, he could clearly see, from size alone, that this one was a cut above the rest of their unkindness.<br/><br/>She went one farther than he with the shaking of arms, and he was glad for it; reciprocated. Far too few people practiced such an archaic thing, but there was a certain... nostalgia, he wanted to say, about it. It wasn't so easy to put into words. " 'Tis true. A rare pleasure at that." His voice faded into a lilting trill of approval, and happiness. "Strong grip. That sword isn't for show." He nods approvingly, though there was something in his demeanor that seemed to suggest that he might want to spar with her at some point. In his own way, he was acknowledging her as someone at least on his level, if not surpassing his.<br/><br/>A small shudder passed through him as they eventually withdrew arms. Oh yes, he could feel something exotic thrumming in her. Her soul sparkled with something more, something not truly of this world; and yet, so familiar. "A name is a gift to be treasured, for in the giving of the name, there is giving of power, yes?" He reached out to her briefly grasp her hand, and use his thumb to trace a word on her palm. The gesture is subtle, and should not be observed as anything more than hand-holding. The name he gives her? 'Birch'. That had to hold some sort of significance for her. "Alfred. Do not call me butler." He jested. Though, for those with a penchant for name etymology... Alfred came from Aelfred, literally 'elf council'.<br/><br/>"Oh yes. The expectations of mothers can be... odd." His own mother, being a villain that had desecrated the environment with her rampant usage of elemental forces wasn't always happy with her son's 'teen rebellion' phase being to become a big proponent of the sacredness of nature. Not that he hasn't told her on multiple occasions that it's 'not a phase'.  For the first time, he actually seems a bit uncertain or put-off about mother discussion.<br/><br/>It's not that he hated her, per se. They just had too little in common. He'd drifted away from both of his parents, in the end, though he kept in touch with them as much as a good kid ought to. "Oh, that's just Ghost. They..? Uncertainty. Ghost didn't seem to display any obvious gender roles to him, which is fine. He knew better than to get stuck in binary thinking patterns, he just wasn't sure how best to address them, beyond by name. "They're good people." Well, that's Leshy's impression, at least. One that could very easily change.<br/><br/>The matter of the medallion makes him perk up, and regain whatever confidence he'd seemingly lost. "Marzanna, yes. Queen of Winter, and the Usherer of Death." No grandstanding, no hiding it. It is what it is, and he knew Aislyn would get it. It was his cat-intuition. "I know a lad who met Her once. Maybe I'll share a story with you some time." He winked in a somewhat flirtatious manner. And maybe that's all it was, but perhaps there was something really authentic in this invitation; not just some hormonal dude wanting to bang the sexy redhead. The calmness of the artificial weather, and the artifice of their surroundings, actually had him feeling sexually anemic at the moment.