Burnin' Up

"Wow...it's hot." he said, trying not to glance up at the sun.

"I wonder if I chose the wrong place to live...eh."

He pulled on his light cloak that shielded him from the sun. Checking his hands, they only had turned slightly mushy, not melted. He had to find a colder place. He darted into the shade of one building. The sun's brightness didn't help at all with camouflaging himself, so someone must have spotted him. He sat there.

Sniffing the air, it smelled quite putrid. Of all the places to take refuge, one near trash wasn't the best. He might have to wait all till afternoon. He covered his nose with his cloak and his fingers, breathing in the sweet sickly smell of chocolate.

Although he thought he smelled good, it was common sense of him not to eat himself.

Besides, resisting the temptation to eat himself was better than smelling awful smells of garbage.

Emphadon had made a habit of coming down to the Violetshore area on, at the very least, a weekly basis. The salt concentration in the river, though present, wasn't quite enough to suit his tastes. Truthfully, he was beginning to regret choosing Rioton as a home over Violetshore, but he didn't trust that mayor enough to leave him to his own devices.

The golden scales on Empha's fin receded into a pair of legs on his command, and he left the river behind on foot, a pair of orange swim trunks serving as his only article of clothing. He'd learned last week that it was a much wiser idea to climb the stairs down to the ocean rather than barrel over the Violet Falls. That particular venture had left a nice kink in his neck for the following 3 days. He did bring some of the river water with him, juggling it over one hand as he motioned it to run between the fingers of his other hand.

Emphadon stopped, however, catching a whiff of something on the air. Chocolate? He looked over in time to see a man running to one of the houses of the district. Empha raised his arm, dropping the water he'd been manipulating and allowing it to soak his arm. He then changed direction and moved towards the man. Better make sure he belonged here.

Daryk turned at the sound of sloshing against the ground. A figure seemed to be approaching him. After all the effort he went to getting to Silveredge Island to avoid people that tried to eat him in the first place, some lunatic would show up.

He sighed. He stayed still behind the trash can, hoping it would mask his chocolate-y scent. He was thinking about darting out from his cover, but it would make him look more suspicious, probably be more likely to be chased after, and he'd get melt-y from the sun.

For a guy made entirely of chocolate, decisions were complicated.

Empha's nose scrunched as the smell of garbage mixed with chocolate reached his nose. There was definitely a person there... hiding behind the trash can...

Emphadon continued his approach despite the smell. The scene itself seemed rather suspicious to him. What reason would a person have to sit next to a smelly trashcan?

Once he made it, he look over the trash can and down at the man, a single eyebrow raised in a question. "Sir..? Is there any particular reason why you're hiding behind a trash can?"

He glanced up. The man seemed harmless, for the time being.

"Well, there is. You see..or you've smelled already, I assume...I'm made of chocolate. I don't wish to dwell around the sun for too long, and this place seemed like a good resting place, since it's in the shade and all..." He said, trailing off, staring at the figure.

"And you? What's your reasoning of coming to Violetshore? Also why have you come to Silveredge, for that matter?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in response.

He kept his hand held over his nose, but kept glancing at the man.

"Aren't you disgusted by the smell...?"

"Chocolate?" He had smelled the chocolate, but he hadn't expected that to be the reason. "You're completely made of chocolate?" Maybe he was a citizen then.. It seemed the strange only seemed to get stranger around here. Perhaps Cupido was right in using the term "creatures" after all.

Now Empha, was suddenly concerned for the man's well-being. If he was made entirely out of chocolate, then what was keeping him from melting? The weather was rather warm today. "If you wanted shade you could have gone to the meeting hall. It's probably a cooler in there.. and the smell isn't as foul either." Finally overwhelmed by the smell of garbage, Empha covered his nose with a single hand.

Emphadon released his grip over the bridge of his nose only long enough so his speech wouldn't become distorted. "I was almost the district leader for Violetshore. I have a rather.. inbred connection to the ocean, but I settled for a district further upriver so I could be closer to the town square." He seemed to intentionally leave out an answer to the man's second question of why he'd come Silveredge to begin with. If the man pursued the issue further then he may answer, but otherwise no.

"Uh..Yeah...I'm pretty sure I just stated I was made of chocolate." He said, thinking the other was asking questions before feasting on him. Although, it's next statement contradicted that.

"Ah...I should've thought of that...Although, I kind of retreated here on short notice. More like...I had to get my body temperature lower, and fast. I'm somewhat new around here though, and I've forgotten my map...So, perhaps you can show me to the meeting hall?" he stated, his voice sounding nasal because the smell was getting rather atrocious, and he resorted to pinching his nose. Except, after he let go, his nose mostly welded slightly closed, since it was a bit melted and liquid. He sighed.

"Ah..." He glanced at the man. Daryk was pitying him a bit, but didn't dwell on it too long. Emphadon wasn't Violetshore's district leader because...he(Daryk) was?

"Well then...let's go to the meeting hall, eh?" Daryk flashed a halfhearted smile, not too keen that this man would become a good friend; after all, Daryk assumed he stole the other person's wanted position.

(I don't know if that's just Daryk's thoughts, but Empha was there before Daryk. If he really wanted to be the leader of Violetshore he would have been. Just letting you know X3)

Empha raised an eyebrow at the tone in the man's words. Excuse him for finding the fact that this man was made entirely of chocolate to be a bit strange. He shook his head slightly though, not wanting to dwell on it.

Emphadon look out into the district, pointing an index finger in the direction of one of the buildings. It was the largest in the district. You really couldn't miss it. "That's the meeting hall. It doubles as a public cooling center so you're free to go there at any time if you need to cool down."

Empha walked around the trash can, keeping his index finger and thumb clenched at the bridge of his nose. He look down to Daryk and offered his free hand to help the man up.

((Daryk doesn't know that, he's a dummy /shot))
Daryk took the other man's hand, and stood up, whilst draping his cloak around him with his other hand.

He glanced around the edge of the building. The largest building, was the meeting hall, apparently. How had he missed it before?

Daryk gave a halfhearted sigh, then glanced back at Emphadon.

"Thank you."

He was about to dash to the meeting hall, but then turned back around.

"Ah, may I know your name? I should like to become friends, or acquaintances that is. You might consider this meeting to be quite peculiar, though." He smiled.

Empha pulled up to help the man to his feet then proceeded to take several steps away from where he'd been sitting. What was in that garbage receptacle that made it smell so foul? He precariously released the grip on his nose only to find that he could still smell it, however he kept it unpinched.

Emphadon watched after the man, returning his smile once he turned back. He didn't judge Daryk to be a particularly bad person. A bit strange, but not bad. "Yeah, it was a bit out of the ordinary, but I'm beginning to learn that not much here is really all that 'ordinary'." He gave a slight chuckle here, before beginning to follow after the man. He seemed to take the whole situation rather lightly. "I'm Emphadon."

"Well, that's Silveredge for you," Daryk said gruffly, "Since we've all got a little bit of 'weird', someone who was 'normal' would be the weird one. Being 'normal' is an allusion, after all."

"Daryk's the name. Melting, sadly, is my game. In this weather, apparently."

He strolled towards the meeting hall as fast as possible. Perhaps he shouldn't have stopped for introducing names, since his hands were getting closer to becoming liquid.

By the time he reached the meeting hall's doors, his hands rendered useless. They weren't liquid, but were too molten to hold a grip on anything. He was in the shade now, but while still in the shade, it would take too long to wait for the chocolate of his hands to cool down.

"Emphadon...Would you kindly open this door...?"

Empha gave a slight, not entirely following what Daryk was saying about normalcy, or lack thereof. He had no trouble keeping up with Daryk's brisk pace, being that they were both rather the same height. This observation actually surprised Empha. He rarely came across people that were about as tall as he was.

Emphadon nodded in acknowledgment of Daryk's introduction. "That would be burning for me." He scratched his shoulder.

Empha noticed the viscosity of Daryk's hands as they reached the meeting hall. At his request, he reached for the handle of the door. A bit of cooler air could be felt as he opened it, and the door led into a fairly large main lobby with two separate seating areas on either.

Daryk darted inside the meeting hall, taking as large of a breath of fresh air as he could, and then exhaling rather quickly.

"See, this is my kind of place. There's a reason I love the winter."

He felt his hands getting cooler quickly, and began flexing his fingers back and forth in response.

"Life's a box of chocolates...I believe I've heard that somewhere. Sadly for me, this is life, as a box of chocolates, basically." He sighed.

"Well, Emphadon, I'd like to become companions. On one condition: Do not attempt to eat me or taste me in any way. Perhaps you may meet those requirements?"

Emphadon gave a light chuckle at Daryk's enthusiasm. "Maybe you would have been better off in Earthstone then. It's always relatively cool up there. What brought you to Violetshore, anyway?"

Empha kept his smile, but didn't laugh at the chocolate man's joke, finding it to be almost morbid in style. He did, however, laugh at the man's standards for friendship.

"I'll resist the urge. Actually, I've never even tasted chocolate before." Empha wasn't much a fan of land food. He'd tried some, of course, but had never gotten around to chocolate before.

"Ah well, I figured it'd be easy to cool off due to the water nearby...It's the exact opposite, though. However, I'm quite comfy here, if it weren't for the hot sun beating down every day." He flashed a reassuring smile at Empha.

"Never tasted chocolate before? Good. You don't want to. Not this particular chocolate-man, at least. In the case you decide to eat one of my 'relatives', I won't oblige. Feel free to give it a try."