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Thali, oblivious to her husband's complaints and logical reasoning, had decided to set up a party in the middle of Barton's favorite park. She had invited everyone--through Jaella, of course. The human GPS was the only one who knew where everyone lived, so Thali had opted to give her the invitations. Having complete faith in her friend, she expected most to show up.

Sammi and Reiya needed the friends. Meeting people was just what the two halflings needed--or so their mother had decided. Sammi had a habit of nicknaming everyone, and Reiya, well, she hand picked who she got along with, and those who she didn't... well, they tended to get a storm cloud over their heads.

"Why doing dis, Mommy?" Sammi asked, tilting her head slightly as she watched her mother get another load of food and set it on one of the picnic tables. When Thali didn't answer, the freckled toddler frowned. She made her way over to her father, who was watching this with an extreme air of laziness. "Why doing dis, Daddy?" She asked.

Ben paused before answering. "Your mother thinks you'll make friends this way." He explained. "It's a bad idea--she shouldn't get so excited about stuff like this. She'll make herself sick."

Thali paused in what she was doing to give a bright smile in Cris' direction. Alright, his hair was pink. The elf didn't like pink--but she would be able to.. tolerate it. She was carefully holding a watermelon in her arms, like one would hold a baby. "I'm Thali, nice to meet you Cristophe. Can I call you Cris? It's no fun calling people by their full names." She bent down to greet Todd, before...

Did he say undead? Undead meant.. well, dead. Undead meant. Zombie! Though it was a little known fact, Thali had once had a run in with one. Of course, that one had been full grown and rather hungry. It had thought a child would make a good meal--and Thali just happened to have been in the graveyard due to a dare. It was an understatement to say she was afraid of them.

"Undead--" The elf dropped the watermelon, it broke into pieces on the cement the tables were set on. She blushed in embrassment. "I'm sure we'll be fine." She said, recovering. "My two are over there." She pointed to Sammi and Reiya. "They're probably pestering their father for sweets, but you're welcome to introduce yourselves to them."

Ben looked up at the sound of his friend's voice, his frown turned upside down and quickly became a smile. "I wondered when I'd be seeing you." He said. "You've gotten everything settled then, no more fighting?" He asked. Then he looked down at Natalie. For the briefest of moments, his smile seemed to fade. Another niece? His expression seemed to say. It needn't be told that he only had one other niece--and no one really counted her.

"Hi Natalie." He said with a smile. "It's nice to meet you. I'm sure you've already met Sam and Rei, though."

Sammi looked up at her father with a frown. "I Sammi." She corrected him. She was obviously used to doing this. Ironic, wasn't it? The toddler who gave everyone nicknames couldn't stand to have one of her own. "Hi Unca Icky!" She said, looking up at Luke with a smile. She got to her feet clumsily, and gave the man a hug.

"Unca Wuke!" So much for pestering their father for "Ookies", both twins adored their uncle, though--they still were cautious about the whole cootie thing. Natalie had introduced them to that concept.

At least the man was dressed normally. Today he a black sleeveless shirt, the toes of cowboy-style boots peeking out from under his blue jeans. He ruffled his hair again, quite used to whatever odd looks he may be getting due to it.

"Sure can. Most people do anyways." he responded.

He didn't much care for his full name anyways...sounded too fancy. But when you let your very French grandmother name you, these things happened. There was a reason he never told anyone what his entire name was. Cristophe Michele Penninger was one hell of a mouthful (plus, who involves the name 'Michele' or any variant in a male name?).

Cris jumped back quickly when the watermelon was dropped, tugging his boy back as well. Todd widened his sightless eyes, turning his head around blindly, little nose twitching. The boy squatted down and picked up a hunk of the melon flesh, promptly jamming it in his mouth. he chewed at it a bit before spitting it back out. Cris wasn't surprised- if it wasn't meat, the boy didn't much care for it. Unless it was Chicken in a Biskit crackers, anyways- but those were just awesome all around.

"Hey, it's okay." he said gently with understanding. Most people who didn't regularly deal with zombies or ghouls or the general nasties he tended to see on a nightly basis tended to freak out about these things. Especially zombies. People saw zombies and instantly began worrying about their brain's safety. "These things can be delicate. He's a good kid." he said, giving the boy a little pat on the head. Todd giggled and gnawed at a teething ring that Cris had given him before they left (hey, if it kept the boy from biting people...).

He knew she probably wanted some space, so Cristophe figured he'd take the opening graciously and move his new ward off to the other man. He seemed busy talking with another pair of children but hey, look- socialization concentrated in one area.

"Thali's over there." he interjected thumbing towards the woman he was just talking to.

He smiled at the man. "Cristophe. But you can call me Cris. Most people do." he said succinctly. When he wanted to, he could be quite good with introductions. But it seemed that outside of work, he didn't put in quite as much effort. "Nice to meet you, Ben."

When the man addressed him, Todd turned his face up towards him. His noise twitched. Since the boy couldn't catalog people through sight, he relied more on sound and, of course, scent. He laughed cheerfully, taking his chew-ring out of his mouth. He backed up a few steps all the same and managed to look adorably shy towards the new introduction. Well, as adorable as a zombie could be, anyways.

"Say hello, pip." he said, using an shortened version of the word 'pipsqueak' as an affectionate nickname.

Todd shifted from foot to foot and then took a few steps in the direction that the man's voice had come from. "Heggo! he said.

Cristophe looked towards the girls, wondering if it was wise to let a zombie go romping free... Meanwhile, Todd put his arms up and began to curiously amble off towards new sounds of soft murmurs and better yet...new smells. He caught at the end of his leash staring and tugging and bit before plopping down and staring blankly ahead with milky eyes. Oh, why were the interesting things always a little too far out of reach...?

Noel had gotten the invitation to the party a few minutes ago. Why it took so long to arrive, he'd never no, but luckily, he lived pretty close by and had the day off, so he prettied up his little darling, ie combed her hair, pinned it back a bit and put on a shirt that wasn't completely covered in glitter, and slipped on a nice T-shirt and a pair of comfy jeans. He took his daughter in his arms and began the short trip to the park.

Alome was not amused. She didn't want to be carried, she wanted to fly there, but until her father cast the spell so she wouldn't go too far, she'd have to wait til later.

Once they arrived at the park, Noel cast a spell then let Alome go roam the area, whilst he traveled over to Thali. Hello, Miss Thali! It's a pleasure to see you once again~ I hope everyone is doing aright~

After being released by her father, Alome fluttered over to where the other children were and glomped Sammi. "Hai Sammi~" She giggled, huggling her.

Cris heard the word 'zombie' and couldn't help but glance to his ward reflexively. Noting that the boy had sat down and was being fairly docile for once (feeding him before showing up probably helped), he looked back over to Thal's direction where she was speaking with a friend. "Actually, they prefer the term 'living impaired' or 'systolically challenged', you know." he said, wagging a finger in mock seriousness. He wasn't offended (really, zombies could be freakin' creepy) but maybe a little humor might help defuse things. It had worked for his other friends...until the kid took the joke a little too seriously. This time, he chose his method of joking a little more carefully.

He smiled at Maru as she came up. "I don't believe we have met. I'm still working on meeting some of the other parents. Networking and all, I guess. " he said. "The kidlet at the end of the leash it mine. Well, sort of. Not genetically but...yeah." he said.

He tugged the leash and little and Todd flopped backwards, losing interest in the children that remained out of reach. He rolled to his belly and clambered upright, following his leash back to his de facto parent and the people he was speaking with. He groped out blindly, patting around the adults' legs.

"Heggo, heggo. I's Todd. I bite." he said, gnashing his teeth playfully and than laughing wildly at the joke.

Cris frowned at the boy. "Todd... he said warningly. He didn't need another biting incident. Not here!

Todd giggled again. "Not w'eally." he amended, popping his chew ring back in his mouth.

"Of course~ It's a pleasure to meet all of you. I'm positively certain That we'll all get along splendidly~" He bowed, smiling a charming grin, before watching his little daughter flutter over to the zombeh boy.

Alome blinked. "Boy's not icky. And lookie! He matches my hair!" She squeaked and giggled a bit, flapping her little wings and stood infront of Todd. "Hai. I is Alome~ What's your name?" It wasn't hard to tell that Alome was Noel's daughter. They had the same polite mannerisms and gentle demeanor.