"Right..." Arete stares at Iollan for a moment before nodding to herself and continuing to sweep.

GalaxianExplosion wrote:

The angel barely raises his brow. It's not often that an inside joke is taken literally. Plus in his view, the other is taking books like he's buying groceries.
A kindred spirit? Perhaps? 
"I'm enjoying the detour, though I do believe I would have had an aneurysm without similar experiences in the past." 
The response can be considered truthful, but it's mostly meant as another humorous jibe.  

"That must be difficult," Iollan acnowledges. "I'm Iollan. I've volunteered at a few libraries before, but not enough to understand the flow of things...I don't want to get in the way of your work more than I already have, but if you could please be kinder to your boss, I would be very grateful. I hear narcolepsy is quite difficult to live with." 
Supposedly, he can take the strange power dynamic in stride just fine, but he doesn't let go of topics quite so easily.
Slightly pausing, he adds, "And it's no issue. I wouldn't expect you to introduce yourself under these circumstances, to be honest. The past few moments have felt somewhat chaotic."

 

"I completely understand." He nods in response, then continues browsing. He's collected quite a few books by now, more than someone of his stature should be able to carry. Maybe it's a trick of the light, but he seems a couple inches taller than he was before.

He looks over at Echo and smiles. "I already have! You have a wonderful library here." He strolls over carrying his stack of books. "How long have you been in business?"

The man laughs. "Very true! If you've been around so long, I'm quite surprised I haven't stumbled in earlier." 

The man nods. He then realizes what was said a couple sentences ago. "Wait, millennia?" He looks at Echo inquisitively. "You wouldn't happen to be immortal, would you?"

"Oh, fantastic!" He says enthusiastically. Then his skin melts off.

His human form falls away into nothing, revealing a blue-skinned thing with tentacles for hair and three red eyes. He also gains approximately two (2) inches of height.

"That fairly well sums it up!" The man is as chipper as he ever was, and the skin on the ground simply dissolves into nothing. How considerate of it. "It's been ages since I've spoken to someone so long-lived. Exactly how long have you been alive for? Are you a god or just plain immortal? Is this your domain? How did you get to be immortal?" And so on.

He continues talking animatedly as Echo approaches him.

"Is your friend over there the same? How did you two meet?" etc. etc. etc. He's getting a bit caught up in his own excitement.

 

The man claps his hands together. "Splendid, splendid! Truly fascinating!" He extends a hand towards Echo. There's a mouth on his forearm and an eye on the back of his palm. The mouth is smiling ecstatically, or at least it seems that way. It's hard to tell.

"I'm Axel, and- oh." He seems to notice for the first time that he is no longer a small human. 

"M-my apologies, I can get overexcited sometimes." He morphs back into human form. "Tends to destabilize my me, and well, you saw. In any case, it's an absolute pleasure to meet you. It's very rare for me to encounter other gods on my walks, so it's always a happy day when I do."

He re-extends his hand for a handshake.