Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tawn peered into the main living room, where his mother was talking with Sparrow and Monkey, and coughed to get her attention.

"I''m sorry to interrupt, but I think you have to see this..." Em just furrowed her brow in slight concern- Tawn hadn''t interrupted anyone... ever, she thought. And the look on her son''s face didn''t seem to be entirely characteristic of him. She waved him into the room- and he stepped into full view. It was only then that she realized he held a piece of nursery equiptment- what''s called a ''long tray basinet'', for multiple pebbles.

"Oh, Tawn!" Em cried, momentarily forgetting the concerned look on his face. "Are those the new pebbles? Let me see.." And she rushed forward, putting a hand on either side of the long basinet. But she stopped as soon as she came close enough to see over the ribboned lipped edge. Two of the pebbles had no tails.



"That''s what I was trying to tell you." Tawn said. "I looked at them in their incubators this morning, and something wasn''t right. And I could swear that this one," he nodded to a red pebble, off near the edge, "wasn''t there yesterday."

-flails and forgets about Monkey-
Pepples!
Aww..they''re so cute!
-she shushed, keeping her distance from them-
Tail-less?

Emelyn echoed Sparrow''s sentiment- something about a pebble with no tail seemed... wrong, somehow.

"Are you sure they''re Skull Monkeys, Tawn? Were they found with the rest?"

Tawn nodded emphatically. "Yes- they all have lifesigns. And they were all found, like I told you, except for that red one- I have no idea where it came from. ...Although I could have missed it when I did my tally.." He said this last statement while shaking his head, however, and Emelyn knew that he didn''t believe it.

-Sparrow blinked, then peered over em''s shoulder.-
...The red one..its special, nothings wrong with it, its just..special..
-She smiled at the red pebble-

"Well..." Em said, hesitating, "go ahead and put them back into the incubators. We''ll put them up with the flatsale with the others and..." she paused, seeing a new figure in the doorway. It surprised her, since she so very rarely saw her in the house.

"Pove?"

Pove stepped forward, but didn''t look at Em at all- it was as if she hadn''t heard her. Instead, she came right up to the double-line of pebbles in the basinet, and stared intently down at the six. Her expression was unreadable, and Tawn shifted, a little ill at ease with the strange woman''s intensity.

Before Em could say anything more, Pove did the unexplainable- she reached into the basinet, and grabbed up the cloudy blue, tailless pebble, tucking it under her arm.

"Pove?" Emelyn said again, and this time the blue-hair woman turned to look at Em.

"These have to come with me." She said, simply. Then she turned back to the basinet and scooped up the red pebble with her other arm and walked out of the room, as sure as if she''d never came. The room''s residents watched her go...speechless.

Monkey too had looked over at the pebbles and eyed them with growing curiosity then looked up a little taken aback at seeing Pove. But he kept quiet to not miss anything.

As Pove left he sighed a little. But he had a big smile, the curiosity was visably growing.

-Sparrow blinked, watching Pove go with the two, ''specail'', monklets. She hoped they wouldn''t be hurt or put down for thier differnences. Silently, she scuttled over to stand nex to Monkey.-

Em looked at Monkey, Sparrow, and Tawn in turn, but their faces were as confused as hers- and Monkey''s sported a small, curious smile that was almost as unreadable as Pove''s demeanor.

She sighed to herself, and ran her fingers through the lock of hair that had escaped her goggles.

"Well, Tawn- I guess... you only put those four in the nursery window." She was reluctant to go confront Pove and ask her what was the meaning of what she''d done- perhaps it was just as simple as, she wanted a Skull Monkey of her own, and after all she''d done, giving them her house and becoming a teacher... Em would be glad to give her one. ...Or, two, rather. ...But somehow, Em couldn''t convince herself that it was the only reason (or even a single one!) for why Pove had taken the two strange, tailless pebbles away...

Em had just finished mailing out checks to the companies that produced the machinery for the nursery- Tawn had been rather upset with the previous day's happenings- and so had focused his attention on upgrading. He knew that no one understood what was the reason behind the two tailless pebbles... well, except perhaps Pove, but when could anyone ever get anything out of her? But somehow he thought that of all people, he should know something about it, being in charge of the pebbles and the nursery... it just put a sour taste in his mouth, all in all, to be so in the dark. And his mother could tell that he was bothered by it, so when he came to her in the late afternoon with a list of new orders, she'd just approved them all and sent out the checks, aching pocket or no.

When she walked back in the Hq, there were a number of people in the main living room, and Em sat in her favorite, wine-colored wingback chair, and was just about to put her feet up- when her youngest, Rhea, poked her nose in the door. Em blinked in surprise.

"Sweetie- I thought you were with Milla." The Jivvin came farther into the room, and her voice could be heard in Emelyn's head, quite clearly.

"She told me to come get you. Ms. Pove is coming out of the boat- and something's... funny."

Em sighed under her breath. Not again. She gave an apologetic look to everyone in the room, and motioned to her youngest to follow her outside. As they walked quickly, she whispered down to the little Jivvin.

"What do you mean funny?" Rhea cocked her head- a sort of shrug.

"She's got something with her. And it's..."

The little one didn't have a chance to finish- for right as they were about to open the front door, it swung inwards- to reveal Pove, staring them both in the face.

Pove blinked, and at a glance, Emelyn could see that in her hands... were the two pebbles- but something was completely wrong with them.



But before she could remark on their bizarre apperance, Pove lifted up the blue one. It had a tail, now- although it almost seemed to be... fading out, at its tips.

"I fixed it." She said, "It needs to stay with me." Then she took the red one and held it up to her eye, studying it as if it was the first time she'd seen it. "This one shouldn't have survived. ...I would kill it- throw it overboard. But I don't know if I trust this one at the bottom of the lake..." Then she looked at Em, who had a shocked, pained look on her face.

.."But that's not what you would do. So you take it." And she thrust it at Emelyn.



Then she turned again, and went back to her boat- leaving Em with the inexplicable pebble, and an agape jaw.

Emelyn didn't know what to say- and indeed, she was speechless until after the blue-haired woman had disappeared back into her boat, which was temporarily moored at the edge of the lake. Only then did her tongue untie, and she closed the front door and turned- to see that everyone who'd been in the living room had joined her in the foyer.

"I... well..." she blinked. "I don't exactly know what to say." Or to think. The pebble was different than it was before, obviously- that tail was hardly a typical fluffy skull monkey appendage... and those claws?? And what did Pove mean by 'she didn't trust it', and that it shouldn't have survived? What had she DONE to the pebbles?

"I guess we have another pebble up for sale..." Em said. "But I don't think this little guy would... fit, in a flatsale." To say the least. Whoever became this pebble's parent would have to understand what they were getting into.