Upon arriving at their destination, Leon scanned the room carefully, noting the new arrivals. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he walked over to the table laden with sweets, pastries and candies. His mouth was watering by the time he sat down and he reached for a pretty lilac pastry shaped like a cinnamon bun. There was a very light dusting of green sprinkles atop the white frosting and Leon didn’t even think twice before taking a big bite out of the delicacy. It was just as good as the best cinnamon buns on earth, and the rest of strange lilac bun disappeared in exactly four seconds. Surprisingly, he found himself reaching for another one, despite the fact that he had never really had a particular liking for any flavor, be it sweet, sour or spicy. Though he had eaten half a giant cotton candy stick, the pastries just kept on going in. 

By the time Leon had stuffed himself with around a dozen or so pastries – and he had branched out just for research purposes, trying out a coiled noodle-like thing and two slices of glowing rainbow cake – quite some time had elapsed and as he looked up, mouth full of mini crown-shaped biscuits, his eyes landed on the Queen of Delirium herself despite his intentions on checking out the new arrivals. 

[i]’Funny how I think of them like a new line of clothes,’[/i] The thought crossed his mind for a split second before his eyes took in the crown on the Queen’s head. It was gorgeous. Elegant, regal, fabulous and above all, shiny. The crown-shaped biscuits he’d just swallowed didn’t even hold a candle to the beauty that was on the Queen’s head. “Shiny!” He exclaimed. “Damn, the Queen’s got style. It’s fabulous.” What he was even talking about would be an enigma to the others but he didn’t bother explaining himself as he scrutinized the crown further, as much as he could from such a distance. It was something he could definitely see himself wearing and the temptation to ask the Queen if he could try it on was alarmingly strong. But no, that wasn’t right. Could you ask a Queen if you could try on her crown? Even if he could, he put it off for later, as she seemed busy with a messenger bearing a scroll.

The ruckus from the rest of the humans made him turn towards them and after a moment of contemplation, he resigned himself to socializing once again. It hadn’t struck him earlier how strange he looked, like a hermit hogging everything in sight – which, unfortunately, he was. Leon stood up, despite his regret of leaving the majority of the delicacies behind, and scooped up a handful of the crown-shaped biscuits before making his way towards the newcomers. He stood on one side for a while, munching on a biscuit as he looked the newcomers over. 

The very first person he noted was… strange to say the least. Hair so bright and pink it nearly reached out to strangle his eyeballs. Upon closer inspection, Leon could make out the person’s abnormally tall stature, a good 5 inches or so taller than him. And that wasn’t even the beginning. A disproportionate body structure, with legs so long they practically went on for miles. Leon had never once in his life seen a woman so darn tall and [i]unusual[/i]. But who was he to judge? He was the one with feathers dangling from his earlobes. 

The second one was rather hard to ignore, creating a commotion so noticeable that Leon’s attention immediately shifted towards the shorter, blond male before he was even done observing the pink-haired lady’s mannerisms. The blond man’s aggressive personality was the first thing that stood out and despite his height, Leon had to admit that he was fairly intimidating. [i]’Maybe I’ll avoid this dude for the time being…’[/i] 

With great difficulty, Leon tore his eyes away from the male blond and turned towards another guy, this time a dark-haired one that was quiet and seemed studious. Leon knew not to judge by looks but it seemed this guy was dead serious and not much of a joker. It somewhat added balance to their already mismatched group, people he couldn’t even describe accurately.

The last newcomer was a somewhat red-haired girl. Leon couldn’t exactly place the color and as a result spent the majority of his observation time trying to place the shade of her hair. In the end, it amounted down to strawberry blonde. A few brief seconds of looking her over didn’t give him much information about her personality and Leon still stood there, somewhat to the side, a tad frustrated at the fact that he hadn’t even gotten their names matched to their faces. 

Once again, the name-to-face game started. Lesley, Riley, Vincent and Inadi. That’s what he had heard, albeit somewhat absentmindedly, while he had been stuffing his face with cake. Lesley was a girl’s name, or at least the version used to spell girls’ names, and it seemed a better fit than Riley. The pink-haired lady seemed more like a Riley and so the blonde girl was probably Lesley. Leon’s eyes glanced at the two males, wondering who was who. In the end, he decided to leave his options open but referred to the dark-haired one as Vincent and the blond one as Inadi for the time being. 

And, it was about time he’d introduced himself. No doubt someone would find it creepy, him standing there for several long minutes without saying or doing anything. A practiced smile came upon his face and he bowed a little, saying, “Hello, my name is Leon Elliott, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I hope we can get know each other well!” The words came out automatically as he had, after all, said them around a thousand times or so. 

He hadn’t been able to catch the Queen’s announcement about whatever they were supposed to be doing or their next mission, but he did notice the pretty amulets. But by that time, several of the others had already gone up and picked theirs, leaving a smaller amount left to be chosen. Leon hurried up to the box after Leila, swallowing the last bits of the crown biscuits. 

Leon immediately knew he would have no problem carrying the amulet around, even around his neck for the whole world to see, because they were all gorgeous. One particular amulet caught his eye more than the others and it seemed to be calling him, making him gravitate towards it particularly strongly. It was of the same shape and size as everyone else’s, but the interior was filled with… something. It wasn’t quite a liquid, yet it wasn’t a gas, but a beautiful, shimmery silvery-blue substance that slowly fluctuated inside its glass prison. It had an airy quality to it, yet it shimmered and glowed. The top and bottom were encased in bright silver accents that swirled elegantly, much like gusts of air. And even inside the gem itself, if one observed very carefully, it seemed like gusts of wind were forming a storm of some kind. 

“…I want this.” He reached out and grabbed the pretty trinket and held it up to the light, fascinated, not noticing the rather strange feeling spreading through his hand and down his arm. Only when it seemed a light breeze was ruffling his clothes did he notice, and that’s when the air suddenly increased in speed and pressure and it rapidly surrounded him, swirling around him like a mini-hurricane before exploding outwards. It didn’t seem to be the limit of this ‘power’ of his, as the amulet’s substance had only drained a little bit and the Queen’s crown was simply a little bit askew on her head. 

Suddenly, he felt the overwhelming urge to do something irrationally stupid, yet he wanted it so, so bad. He looked around for a second, looking anywhere and everywhere but the Queen before the words simply spilled out of his mouth and he blurted, “…Can I try your crown on? It’s fabulous.”