[Seeing Ayaka so well prepared for some star gazing warms his heart -- but also makes him feel a little bad that he had another reason for inviting her out here beyond simply looking at the stars together. She was one of his dearest friends back in Teyvat, someone he felt he could trust whole-heartedly -- something that's carried over to this world, as well.]

[And yet despite all of that... she really didn't know anything about him. Maybe it didn't bother her? Or maybe she just thought it wasn't her place to ask? Aether never really talked himself very much. And for the most part, that suited him. There was no need to delve deep into his past -- because he only ever lived in the present. Every day was a new adventure, and he knew he'd never be staying in any one place for very long anyway.]

[But this world changed that. And since realizing just how little he shared about himself, he decided to change things, little by little. And tonight, he wanted to change that with Ayaka.]

I come to Nara pretty often, actually. It's one of my favorite cities in the West -- no matter how much I explore, I feel like I discover a new path to walk every day.

[He points upward -- the meteors haven't quite started yet, but the ring around Gaia is ever present, glittering far brighter in the sky here than it does in busier cities like Kyoto.]

And look-- you can almost see the different parts of the ring out here. It's hard to see normally, but it's actually made of large stones packed tightly together. There's even an old folktale that they used to be a chain of round moons -- circling the planet like a ring of pearls.

[His inner nerd is showing.]