Welcome to Gaia! ::

Although these streets were still rather new to Nina, she was adapting to living here with relative ease. Already, she was remembering where certain shops were established and beginning to grow a fondness for others, but there were still a few places she had not yet ventured.

It was a muggy day -- warm, though mostly overcast. Ephron was beginning to wonder if it was actually going to start raining, but shrugged it off, seeing as the clouds hanging overhead didn't seem to be heavy with water. The weather also did not happen to disrupt anybody else's routine, as the streets were just as busy as ever. The man even heard Nina huff a little in agitation over how crowded the sidewalk seemed to become in certain areas. Was there anywhere they could go that wasn't so lively?

As they passed by a window, the pale-shining sun caught the surface of some object on display. Nina hesitated as they passed, once the light wasn't interfering with what she was looking at. Oh, a mirror, she determined silently, standing still as she tried to read what the large sign said above the doors.

Ephron turned back, curious as to what caught Nina's attention. Following her gaze, he read aloud, "A magic shop?" Well, it didn't seem to be as busy here as it was elsewhere... "Nina, did you want to check this place out?" She glanced up at him, but didn't really give a verbal response before leaning forward, toward the doors.

Unfortunately, Ephron didn't exactly read the entire title of the shop: Frank's Magic & Joke Emporium.

It was a stroke of luck that the merchandise for pranking was further in the shop, or Ephron may have been tempted to head back out into the bustling streets to avoid any... future mishaps. As it was, Nina's attention was grabbed by the magic tricks the employee was demonstrating almost immediately. A wide grin spread across her face in delight, and she nearly ran over to the table to get a better look at the next trick that was to be performed, especially when the other spawn child seemed to almost be inviting her over.

Ephron followed suit more slowly, finding it fascinating that Nina took to the place so quickly. Maybe she was encouraged by the fact that this other child was so enthusiastic as well. Maybe Nina had been to a place similar in the past, before she came to stay with him. Or... He stopped himself. Funny, trying to decipher a child's thoughts when, oftentimes, they did things on the spur of the moment.

After the next trick was completed, Nina stared, wide-eyed. "How'd you do that!?" she gasped. Surely, things didn't just reappear out of nowhere, right? She turned to Ilyrosa, asking, "Can you do magic, too?"

Nina herself hadn't been exposed to much magic in her short lifetime. There was always the random accident at the facility, but usually her view of such happenings were obscured from her view. They weren't going to let her roam so freely around the place when she was so prone to losing her temper! Her time with Ephron had even less exposure to magic, as the man... well, let's just say he would have immediately flunked out of anything that had to do with magic or strength.

The spawn child found herself giggling excitedly as she watched Ilyrosa perform a trick of her own. "That's so cool!" she gaped, snatching up one of the pompoms after the trick was finished, partially to make sure that it was just a regular pompom, before setting it back on the tabletop.

"Ily... Ily..," Nina attempted to repeat back, but the letters of Ilyrosa's name were put together in a way that she hadn't encountered before. She pursed her lips for a few seconds before she answered with a smile, "I'm Nina! Is it okay if I call you Rosa?" Ephron perked at this -- was she actually making a friend? She hadn't actually given anyone a nickname before, at least from what he had witnessed.

Continuing, Nina leaned against the table, "Can you show me how you did that? Or is it a secret?" She was hopeful, but she also knew that some people liked to keep such magic tricks a mystery to the audience.

Even though it had now been confirmed that it was alright to call Ilyrosa by a nickname, she still made a mental note to learn how to pronounce her full name in the future. After all, it wouldn't be right to have a friend and not be able to say her name, wouldn't it? A giant grin made it's way across Nina's face at the thought; it made her realize that she wasn't as lost in this world as she believed.

She watched as the other child showed her the trick again, her eyes fixed on the gestures that she made in an effort to memorize the moves. When Rosa was done, Nina paused to look at all the materials on the table's surface before moving to pick them up once more. Frowning slightly, she attempted to mimic the magic trick that was just shown to her, but ended up fumbling and dropping the cotton ball through her taloned fingers. She laughed, "You make it look so easy!" At least she wasn't an impatient child.

Nina looked curiously around the room's shelves, taking note of all the magic kits and props. "It's okay if you can't show me more. I can always ask that man to show us more, right?" She smiled, but Ephron took note that said man probably had to go back to managing the shop -- his expression looked as though he was realizing how pressed for time he had become.

With the compliment came a surprised glance from Nina. It was a first for her, and she found herself fidgeting slightly. Not due to uneasiness, but for a bewilderment on how to answer it. She gave a small smile and replied, "Thank you! I like your tail!" It was a start, at least. She didn't have a tail herself, but she had noticed that many other spawn that she had seen had one. Rosa's, however, was decorated with trinkets, which is something that caught Nina's attention once she noticed. "Are those beads?"

Nina attempted the trick again, though her mind was a little distracted. She was tempted to ask if Ilyrosa could teach her how to do the magic trick well, but she wasn't sure if she would ever see the other after today's visit. Glancing up, she also took note to how irritated her guardian had seemed to become with being in this place so long -- there was no telling how long they would be staying here, either.

Again, she fumbled with the tiny colored cotton ball, and managed to skewer it on a claw. That... was unintentional. "Guess I'm going to need to practice, too," she snickered, "I hope I can be a fast learner, too!" She hadn't really tried many hobbies to date, so wasn't positive how diligent she would be on the matter. Scrunching her nose, she firmly declared to herself that she would learn this magic trick.

As Nina watched as Ily waved her tail, her expression turned to awe as her down-turned ears twitched to the ghostly sound the trinkets on her friend's tail made. "You mean you just grow the jewelry?" she gaped, "That's so cool! They look really pretty!" Nina had come to develop a soft spot for beads in her short time with Ephron.

Glancing back at Ilyrosa's trinkets, she pondered for a moment what it might be like to always have the jewelry attached to you, whether you wanted it or not. It seemed that Rosa didn't really mind them for the most part, but she could see them getting in the way if one wasn't careful. "At least you won't lose them!" she stated optimistically. People have been known to lose so many things when they went to bed wearing something so removable. At least, normally removable!

Nina's eyes seemed to sparkle with mischievousness when Ilyrosa mentioned the back area. "Really? We should check it out!" she stated, excited to find out everything one could find in a place like this. That and, of course, pranks were always so much fun to pull off, especially when a person deserved them.

She moved away from the table a bit and turned toward the aisle leading through the entirety of the store, but was halted before she was able to get much further than that. She glanced curiously up to Ephron, whereupon he was shaking his head. "I don't think that's a good idea," he stated, obviously not as delighted about the matter as Nina was.

Scowling, she stared back at him for a few seconds in defiance. When that didn't work, with a swift motion, she swung under his arm and took a dash down the aisle. "Meet you down there, Rosa!" she called back, expecting Ephron to chase her down a bit. It didn't matter; she wanted to see the back of the store!

"What?" Nina called to Ilyrosa, not sure she understood what the other spawn child was talking about. However, she barely managed to get the word out of her mouth before she saw the blur arrive alongside her, proceeding to take her for a ride before Nina even fully comprehended what was happening. Her stocky feet couldn't keep up as she found herself hopping instead, allowing Ilyrosa to do most of the legwork. Once the confusion faded, only a giant grin remained; this must have been what flying felt like!

Ephron found himself standing stiffly, staring in bewilderment in the direction the two kids ran off. After a moment, he turned to look at Damon and pointed in the direction the two kids were last seen, but was unable to make a very... thought-provoking comment, "That... was fast." Brilliant use of the obvious. Well, he wasn't in as much of a rush to catch them now, but was worried about what they may come across.

Nina squeaked when the whoopee cushions slid to her feet on the floor. Glancing curiously down at them, she noticed that one in particular did not appear as flattened as the others. Smirking, she stomped on the slightly-inflated rubber bag, promptly needing to smack her hands over her mouth to keep from bursting into a fit of giggles at the pathetic sound it made.

Just then, Nina's eyes found a spray bottle of silly string, among a number of other assorted spray bottles. Snatching it from the shelves, she skimmed over the words that littered the label and smiled. She scanned the shelves all around the two of them before her eyes landed back on Ilyrosa. "You think we could try any of this stuff out?" she asked, wanting very badly to press the button on the silly string bottle in her hands, among other such fascinating products in this section. If she had known the word "raid," she may have used the word to convey what she really wanted to do.

Nina examined the spray bottle, turning it over and over in her hands. She could pick up some words, and the little exclamation mark that appeared on merchandise that one had to be careful with, but there was too much of the long, scientific wording. Nina began to lose interest in trying to figure out the label, as well as patience.

She was about to pout at the comment Ilyrosa made about it not saying that they could test it out, until a thought graced her mind. Slyly, she noted, "Well, it doesn't say we can't either, does it?" Despite this train of thought, even if the silly string bottle's label had stated that it shouldn't be tested, Nina probably would have ignored it anyway out of sheer curiosity.

Complying to Rosa's cheering as well as her own mental parallel, Nina pointed the top away from the both of them and pressed the button at the top. A rush of string sprung out, catching Nina off-guard as her arm snapped backward, releasing the button. She stared at the shelves across from the two of them, now decorated in a colorful spider-like webbing, before she started laughing. "That's so cool!" she managed to say, turning back to all the other gadgets that were displayed on the shelves in the back of the store. "Let's see what else this stuff can do!" she giggled, excited, wanting to know what everything else in this particular section was capable of.

Ephron, meanwhile, smiled sheepishly at Damon's irritated comment on Ilyrosa, replying, "I'm sure she must be! Quite a handful, aren't they?" He brushed his bangs back with a hand in emphasis to the statement -- it hadn't taken him too long to figure that out for himself! Nodding, he agreed to Damon's statement. "Or worse," he added, already being able to imagine the destruction the two of them could cause in such a compact area.

He jumped as he heard the two spawn giggling from the very back of the store, and immediately feared what they may have gotten in to. "Ah, and I'm Ephron," he replied with a slight wave (a handshake currently would have been too inconvenient). "By the sound of it, we should hurry," he confirmed, making his way to the back of the store quickly, but cautiously.