Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cole had finally escaped from Cassi’s grasp. She had been a bit overbearing lately, taking him to different café’s and stores where she would then proceed to ignore him and flirt with all the guys. Cassi had been distracted by something; Cole hadn’t bothered to take notice. Cole looked around for a place where he could escape the sun. While there was a cool breeze coming from the north, the sun, much like Cassi, was overpowering him. He wandered over to the play structure and climbed up to the highest tower. He always enjoyed looking on things from high, just simply observing. He watched as all the other kids ran around, making noise, screaming and laughing. But rather than join in, he sat in the shade of his tower.

He played with the holes that were in the mesh that made up the great metal structure, all the while thinking about what piece of jewelry he was going to ‘borrow’ from Cassi today.

Meanwhile, Cassi was on the other side of the park, looking for Cole and getting, surprisingly, frantic.

“Cole! Cole! Where the hell are you? Cole?” Cassi went running around the park, looking for her lost child. She almost broke her ankles three times, which is a low number when considering she was wearing 4 inch black stiletto heels paired with a tight black leather skirt that left little to the imagination. The wind was whipping her blonde hair into her face, hindering her vision.

After running around for a good ten minutes, she became exhausted. She sat down at the nearest bench, as she caught her breath. “Damn, I really need to start working out or something, I wonder if there’s a gym nearby.” She muttered to herself while leaning down to take of her heels and give her perfectly pedicured feet some air. When she sat up, she noticed a vaguely familiar face.

“Do I know you?” She sweetly purred at the man, cocking her head to the side in a flirtatious manner. Despite her earlier distress over Cole, it didn’t stop her from being herself. She stared at him inquisitively, her eyes big, and her eyelashes fluttering every couple seconds.

While Cassi was shamelessly flirting with yet another man, Cole remained in his high tower. At first he paid no attention to Kaydence, it was only until he saw the glint from her silver flute that he became interested. Shiny things in general always grabbed his attention, but pair that with a musical instrument and he was hooked.

Cole stood up and brushed off some unseen dust off his black coat. “You were at my house.” Cole called out to Kaydence. “You’re flute is very shiny.” He walked down from the top of his tall tower to be on the same level as Kaydence.

“Mother won’t let me bring my violin out in public. Says it makes me look stupid.” He grumbled playing with the worn out sleeves of his coat. Cassi had tried countless times to get him to wear something else, but he refused every time. He still preferred his simple grey pants and plain white shirt. His features were back into the scowl that he normally wears at the thought of Cassi making him leave his precious violin behind.

“My name’s Cole, what is your name?” He said in a very forced formal manner as if he was reciting something that some one had trained him to say. He was half rolling his eyes while he pronounced each syllable slowly.

A slow smile crept onto Cassi’s porcelain features as she watched the man in front of her stumble his own tongue. The was nothing more enjoyable to Cassi than making a man look like an a** in front of her, well, there was one other thing…

At this thought Cassi’s eyes wandered farther down. Her silver bangles glistened in the sun as she raised her arms to shield her face in order to get a better look at the man. “Yeah, I know you, you were at the mansion weren’t you? Right by the creepy music room. God I hate that part of the house. I avoid it as much as possible,” she trailed off, suddenly losing herself in the memories her encounter with the room.

As quickly as she fell into her introverted mood, she quickly snapped out of it. “Here, sit down, I don’t bite, unless you want me to,” Her voice dropped into one promising intrigue and danger. She patted the seat next to her quickly as she crossed her legs, kicking her heels underneath the bench.

She closed her eyes and let her head lull backwards facing the bright sun as the wind continued to play with her long gold hair. A thought of Cole flitted across her mind for a moment, but seducing the man in front of her quickly pushed all thoughts of her, son? Yeah, we’ll go with son, aside. He was an independent kid after all; he could take care of himself.

“Beautiful day isn’t?”

While Cassi was trying to make a new bedmate, Cole was trying to figure out what to do with his new playmate of sorts. She was the first girl other than Lynett that he had met, and Lynett didn’t count because they lived together.

Cole let out a small snort at Kaydence’s comment about his mother not wanting the violin to be broken. She barely cared about him, why would she care about a ‘junky old piece of wood’ as she once called it. “No, I think she just likes being mean.”

“Do all girls curtsy?” Cole blurted out as he watched Kaydence dip into her second one. It had been something that nagged at him since the first curtsy, he had seen a lot of girls do it, well except his mother, but she never wore long enough skirts to do it.

He slowly started to turn and walk back to his shaded tower when he heard Kaydence’s soft voice saying something he barely caught. “Um…” Cole never knew what to say when some one complimented him, especially when it was a girl.

So he changed the subject instead. “Do you play the flute or just hold it ‘cause it’s shiny? I do that with Mother’s bracelets. She has so many of them and they sparkle so I borrow them for a while. She always gets really mean about it. She doesn’t like me at all.” He shoved his hands into his pockets before looking out and watching all the other kids run around chasing each other.

A small mischievous glint entered his eyes as he spied a forest. “Wanna go an adventure?”

Cassi smiled softly at the awkward movements of the man she was trying to seduce. A part of her was starting to feel a little guilty. This man obviously didn’t have the greatest social skills and she was pulling out all the stops.

“You have to be one of the sweetest men I’ve ever had the honor of meeting! Most men by now have done away with compliments like that!” Cassi smiled, and not a lecherous smile like before, just a smile. One that reflected the simple joy she received from that compliment.

“You don’t have to be so shy! I won’t do anything you don’t want me to!” She scooted closer to Tynan until her bare legs ghosted against the fabric of his pants. “By the way, I don’t think I caught your name? Or if I did I can’t seem to remember it at the moment, want to refresh my memory?” Her voice had an edge of daring to it while trying to remain sweet and friendly.


Cole was starting to get fidgety. He didn’t normally stay and talk with people on his on free will. He enjoyed his alone time. Cassi would call him antisocial, whatever that meant, he would think, but he just considered himself a very private person. Cole made a note of Kaydence’s insecurity over his question about curtsying.

“No, I didn’t mean it was bad, just curious, boys don’t curtsy.” Cole’s face scrunched up in an almost pensive way when he said that. “We would have to wear dresses, blech.” He stuck his tongue out in disgust at the thought.

“I’ve never been to a symphony, Mother listens to music called techno.” His nose wrinkled as if he smelled something unpleasant. “I play my violin all the time!” There was not a trace of humility as Cole talked about his skills as a violinist. “I’m good too, I can play all sorts of songs, mother buys me sheet music whenever I give her back some of the things I’ve stolen, unless she’s really upset at me…” Cole’s voice trailed off as he thought of all the times Cassi had been upset at him, which was a lot.

“Um…” Another compliment froze Cole once again, he didn’t hate them, but they made him feel funny on the inside and he would rather not feel funny. “Come on! The trees are over there!" He made a motion for Kaydence to follow as he raced to the wooded area. “Let’s see where it ends!”

Kaydence was nice and Cole wanted to share his adventures with someone for a change.

“Tynan, that’s an interesting name, where’s it from?” Cassi loved to hear about name origins, she loved the stories behind them. This may of course be because of the rich story behind her own name.

“I’m Cassiopeia Palmer,” she held out her hand for a handshake, extending her bangle-clad arm out to the man beside her. “But honestly, call me Cassiopeia, and I may have to kill you, it’s just Cassi, Cassi, nothing more and nothing less.” Her face and tone were completely serious rather than her normal cheerful disposition.

While growing up, her full name had received taunting from her fellow classmates, and Cassi was not a woman who forgave lightly. “My mother named me after her favorite Greek myth and constellation, if you believe it, my middle name is Artemis.” There was a trace of bitterness in Cassi’s voice as she spoke of her mother’s naming habits. Her mother had only died 3 years ago and it was still a rare memory for Cassi. Before she got to nostalgic, Cassi shoved her mother’s memory out of her mind and focused back in on Tynan.

He had a pleasant face, she decided. He wasn’t the type of man she normally went after, but a bit of variety always helped. That, and his stuttering was absolutely adorable. There was a type of charm about him, a quiet, awkward charm, but a charm nevertheless. She stared for a few moments, until she thought of something to say.

“So how’s your brat?” Her tone was back to being playful and friendly.

Cole was enjoying talking to Kaydence about his violin, it seemed like a good topic for the both of them, seeing as they were both very passionate about their corresponding instrument. “Yeah, I do the same thing, but Mother said if she had to listen to me play all the time, I was at least going to play real songs. So I gets sheet music. It’s fun ‘cause you almost have to be carfuller and then you ‘member them and people can hum along to the songs you play ‘cause they know them too!” Cole’s grammar went down hill as he spoke faster about his music.

“Now hurry up! There’s a lot to see!” Cole tightened Kaydence’s grip and pulled her as he broke into a jog. He continued to drag her deeper and deeper into the forest until he reached an ancient looking rock wall. “Wow, I wonder how long this has been here!” Cole let go of Kaydence’s hand and jumped up on it and took a few tentative steps on the uneven rocks.

“I love the outdoors, music sounds better when there are plants around. Come on, let’s follow the wall!” He walked forward a few steps before turning around to make sure Kaydence was still following him.