He huffs.

"You think I can't distract a hall full of people for five minutes?"

.. granted, that does sound like a pretty impossible task for most people. And yet Fabian scoffs, like she's assuming that he can't do some basic thing here. Like tying his shoe laces.

"Please," he tells her, "I'm a bard."

He's saying it like it's obvious. Which, to be fair, it is in his world. But after a second the young man does seem to remember the same might not go for Rose's world, so he adds-- "You do know what a bard is, right?"

When Rose first mentions that she has met bards - he can hear the capitalization, that's definitely moving in the right direction compared to people who either have no idea or assume it instantly means he does nothing but play the lute or something - Fabian is fully willing to believe they're on the same page here. Maybe Rose is from Spyre too, and he's just never met her before. It's a big place! Not to mention there's plenty of humans around there too, so it's not like her appearance makes it impossible.

But then she speaks on, and..

.. well, Fabian starts looking so confused.

"Pointed shoes?"

He stares down at his - very normal - shoes, like he's now wondering if there's something wrong with them.. The confused look lingers on his face and in his eye when he raises his head again to look at her.

"Why would I need those?"

"That's not-- What do you even think a bard is?!"

Some people would find it easy to tell that she's fucking with him, really. Maybe even Fabian will realize it in hindsight, when he looks back on this situation.

But in this moment? He's way too worked up to look at this situation so logically. It's why he's falling into the trap of reacting to her, rather than just telling her to get bent, which is indeed what a smarter person would do here.

But Fabian is far too stuck in 'defending his honor' mode now.

"Bards are not clowns! They spread creativity! Inspiration! I dance!" He says that last word like it's something very important. Like he's describing some sort of royal duty that keeps a country together, or something along those lines.

At least Fabian doesn't seem nearly as worked up about that idea. In fact, the main reason he still huffs out a pointed-- "Fine!"-- mostly seems to be because he was so worked up in the first place.. If anything, he seems to calm down a little bit when he glances at the crowd of attention he has gathered, stepping away from Rose a little bit, just to make sure he doesn't accidentally hit her in the middle of the dance.

Now that would be embarrassing.

But after he's sucked in another breath, the half-elf truly doesn't hesitate. He just starts dancing - like he thinks there's absolutely nothing embarrassing about doing that out of nowhere. Maybe the confidence stems from the fact that he really does seem good at it. There's something about his dance that seems.. mesmerizing, almost, like there's some sort of magic to it. And that's even aside from him having very technical good form. He doesn't even seem to have to stop and think about his moves, despite this being a very impromptu dance. (It's almost as if he's sparkling a little bit as he dances? Don't think too hard about that one, Rose.)

When Fabian stops dancing a moment later, the crowd they have gathered does seem to have been into it - making sure to stop and applaud for a moment before turning back to what they were doing before. The change is faith, but if Rose is observant enough, she may even notice that the people watching seem just a little bit refreshed. She may even feel it herself, if she has watched the dance - like it took away a bit of her fatigue.

And though he usually would turn to Rose to brag after that, the first thing he instead tells the girl as he steps back over to her is: "I totally wasted your distraction just now, you know."

As Fabian listens to her speak, something changes on his face. His expression was relatively neutral after that dance, but a smile is slowly starting to crack on his face more and more as he listens to her. Like he's amused, or-- maybe a little bit more than that. There's an edge of fondness in that smile that can't be missed.

"Rose," he echoes back to her, before thrusting his hand out towards her for a handshake. "I admit you are rather lucky to have met one of the best bards around. You certainly could have gotten a worse impression!"

Some bards are cringe, Rose. He'll at least agree on that.

"I am Fabian Aramais Seacaster, Maximum Legend! And I must say-- I feel rather lucky for having met you today as well. You remind me of someone from my own friend group."

"Wha--"

As expected, her statement immediately has the obvious reaction. Fabian's jaw drops, even in the middle of shaking her hand, and when they release the handshake he's quick to add-- "No, that's me!"

He's even dramatically pointing at himself with both hands now.

"That's my title!"

Maybe one day he'll figure out she's just messing with him. Maybe. Who knows. At least the offense doesn't linger for too long, since it's fading when he speaks up again.

"I earned that title, you know. I worked hard for it! In fact-- It is only thanks to my natural talents that I got it! It's not just something for anyone."

Even with how worked up he had been only a moment ago, Fabian seems to catch the piece of the pearl with absolutely no effort - like he's doing it off instinct and muscle memory alone. He doesn't even look like he had to think about that one. In fact, Fabian doesn't even mention anything about it. The young man just holds it in his hand as he speaks up with: "Well, maybe the story isn't so long or stupid to me."

Not that he could really judge that. He has no idea what Rose's story is like. What her life is like, what her world is like. If Fabian has learned anything here, it's that everyone's world is so different.

"Especially since your title sounds like my friend's too. She's the Oracle, you know."

A seer, an oracle.. Clearly the same thing to Fabian!

Fabian listens to everything she says - and he's definitely noting the weird, weird way she says it. Adaine didn't really often get like this, but.. he can still kind of see where all of this is coming from.

Maybe that's why Fabian responds exactly in the way he does, not even having to think about what he wants to say before he's already speaking up. This sentiment comes that naturally to him.

"You should just talk about it with your friends," he simply says. That statement might also make him the world's biggest hypocrite in some regards, but.. eh. It's fine. Fabian just wants the best for other people, he can clearly keep so many things inside for himself. It's different! "You would be surprised what they can understand, actually. Isolating yourself isn't doing anyone any good. I mean, who would put their duty before their friends? That is crazy talk."

He huffs a little bit.

"You can go ahead and change that might. It's not that easy to escape this place."

And even though this place isn't exactly incredibly small or anything, it's still not big enough to not see each other around whatsoever. Fabian is pretty sure that anyone who has shown up here for this dumb wizard thing is going to be thrown straight into Etraya, after all. It's how this usually works.

"If you do-- lucky you, really. But if you don't, I suppose I wouldn't mind seeing you around."