Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was beautiful. The sun was out, shining down on the vividly colored tents and booths, glinting off the metal and plastic of the rides. The sounds of garish carnival music, barkers and children screaming and laughing with delight filled the air along with the most delectable of fatty and sugary scents. The carnival was in town, and Robbie and Charlie had decided to take Anise and Touda!

"I wanna go on that one!" Anise bounced up and down, pointing at the carousel. The little pink all-you-can-ride bracelet bounced with her. The carnival had a reasonable variety of mediocre rides including a miniature roller coaster and a house of mirrors. Standard fare but to the little girl it looked like heaven. "And that one too!" She added excitedly, pointing at the giant moon-bounce castle. Touda was perched on her shoulder, his tail wrapped around her neck in a stranglehold while she jumped up and down repeatedly.

"Lets do the castle first." The mononoke decided. He didn't have to wear a bracelet, because nobody important could see him. For some reason not having to buy two passes had seemed to please the brothers Harte a great deal.

"Yeah! Castle!" Anise streaked towards the moon-bounce while her guardians followed at a more sedate pace.

Only moments after Carmel and Jordan were deposited in the bouncing castle Anise arrived, panting, and showed the attendant her wristband with an air of inflated importance. At the attendants nod, she clambered on in.

Of course, she wasn't alone. There were two other little girls already in the castle and it was lucky for her that Anise was distracted enough not to sense the electric hatred in the air. Instead, she was trying to stand up while Touda tried to knock her down in his enthusiasm.

"Bounce!" The mononoke ordered imperiously.

"Bounce!" Anise agreed as the motions of the other two girls knocked her off balance and on to her butt. "Hi!" She said by way of introduction.

Blinking, Anise gave the two a rather baffled smile. "I'm Anise!" She stated. "Nice to meet you!"

"Stinky shorty." Touda snorted with amusement. "I bet the short one would win in a fight anyways."

Anise narrowed her eyes and frowned, pretending to ignore Touda. "Why are you fighting?"

Boogered? Bunny? Anise blinked. "That? Thats Touda." She said negligently. "Boogered?" She asked, searching for clarification from whoever was willing to give it.

Touda looked at Carmel, tail swishing from side to side. She was definitely looking towards him but he wasn't sure she could really see him. So for good measure he screwed up his face and stuck his tongue out at her. Just to find out. "Biiiih!"

"You're rude" Responded Touda with a little grin. Deviling girls was, he had discovered, more fun than almost anything else. He swished his tail and walked over to Carmel, sniffing her daintily. "But you smell good."

"Boogered?" Anise repeated with a frown, not liking that nobody would answer her question. She looked from Carmel to Jordan, her lower lip extending in a small pout. It wasn't worth a full-on tantrum yet.

That girl had just put her finger in her nose! Anise stared at the lumpy little treasure that now rested on Jordan's fingertip with a mixture of fascination and horror. She was pretty sure you weren't supposed to put things up your nose. "Does it tickle your brain when you do that?" The little brunette asked Jordan, her face wrinkled up in fascinated disgust.

Touda rolled his eyes at Anise and jumped a little when Carmel sneezed. "I smell like science lab." He informed her. He didn't particularly like that the medicinal, antiseptic smell sometimes clung to his fur but there it was. He wound around and between Carmel's legs, letting his tail rub against them like a cat would before leaping onto her shoulder without warning.

Touda rubbed his head against Carmel's hair. "Maybe your smell will rub off on me." He suggested. Shoulders, after all, were the best place to be. And he tended to enjoy girl shoulders. They were softer. And they smelled better.

"It is pretty gross." Anise agreed, bouncing along with Jordan. Somehow, the grossness didn't seem to bother the little girl. Maybe it had something to do with extended exposure to Touda. Or maybe it was just growing up in the lab.

With a valiant attempt to not gouge Carmel's shoulders with his claws, Touda wrapped his tail around her neck to hold on during the mad bouncing. "Whee!" He half shouted, half laughed, nearly falling off as they spun around.

Anise frowned a little, she didn't have much. "I have.. my cot." She thought a little harder, then her face cracked into a grin. "I have two daddies and Touda. I live in a science lab." She added. "Touda is sitting on her head." She added, nodding towards Carmel. "He's real." This was said definitively.