Welcome to Gaia! ::

The house itself looked like a typical suburban house on a typical suburban block. There was a lawn that stretched to the sidewalk and a driveway that led to a 2 car garage. The windows and door were simply decorated with seasonal wreaths and a small bin of firewood sat beside the front door itself. The house clearly had a large back yard full of trees that seemed to thicken into forest at some point. Of course along with the simple suburban lifestyle came the simple suburban neighbors, in this case a rather pinched face woman who looked like she'd swallowed a lemon. She trimmed her hedges a few doors down and nosily examined the visitors without a word but with plenty of disgusted looks.

When Merci knocked the door almost immediately flew open. The girl in front of them was voluptuous and stylish. Her white hair had been styled and her large pupil-less blue eyes grew large in surprise. On her top she had an empress style blouse showing her ample bosom and her legs.. well her legs were that of an octopus and she skillyfully balanced on her tentacles. She clearly was on her way out when they arrived.

"Oh my god!" She dragged her eyes up Dio's form. "You are so cute. OH MY GOD ARE YOU A FIEND?" Beside her bangled wrist a stone also hovered. She grabbed Dio by the hand and pulled him in the door. Algie of course would not want his guests manhandled this way but he had no such control over his young ward.

"I have lava stone!! Umm though I don't think it's gonna be quite like you.." The heart shape wisp would eventually be a sprite but no one could quite get a word in about it. Even Dio would be washed away by her enthusiasm.

"I'm Hela.. Algie is like .. I dunno my mentor or something. He takes care of me. Isn't he totally the best?!" She flipped her hair with her hand and finally seemed to notice Merci. "Ohmigod are you this guy's mom? Awesome! So nice to meet you! Hey, Algie is single.. wink wink.. just saying. Haha!"

From inside the house (though they had yet to get through the entry hall) Algie's voice could be heard. "Hela?! Where is my VISA card?"

"Ummm YOUR GUESTS ARE HERE!! GOTTA GO!!" She winked at both the guests, grabbing a small handbag before she (pretty quickly for someone with tentacles) zipped out the door. It closed behind her and left the pair in silence.

As it always was with wizards, the interior of the house was amazingly mismatched from the outside. The decor was definitely a mish mash of history mixed with magic. It seemed more like a manor house inside, rather than something a simple soccer mom would live in.

Footsteps were heard ahead and Algie's voice was closer. "Hela? My credit card?" Algie immediately flushed when he saw that his guests were already arrived and that they had clearly run into Hela. "So sorry about her.." He rubbed his head and smiled. Bloodstone immediately floated to Merci and Dio, waving his smokey tentacles in greeting.

Algie laughed at Dio's enthusiasm but then immediately turned beet red at Merci's comment. "I ah.. "

He whipped straight around, composing himself from the embarrassment. "Hela seems to think I am lonely." There was nothing forlorn to reveal him to be so, just a statement of fact. But it did seem to be a rather large house (on the inside) for just he and Hela. Of course as with most households on gaia, there were quite a few smaller or less human residents.

"Let me give you the tour. At least on the way to the library.." He cleared his throat and faced them once more, putting out an arm to lead them out of the entry and to the left. Off to the right was a tv room, if they looked. The large screen TV looked modern and out of place amongst the wood paneling and the classical paintings. It was blaring some hard rock music videos and a tiny silver person on the table (no bigger than 5") seemed to be screaming along with it. Algie flicked his wand towards the room and a bubbling shimmer seemed to enclose the door, muffling the noise. "That's Gallium there in the TV room. Library is this way."

"Here is our family. Well some of it." He chuckled. The left hand hallway was wide and dotted along with family pictures. If they had never seen Halo and Wren before, they would now. Wren with dark (and sometimes auburn) hair, horns and bookish glasses but with the obvious look of the fae. He had been Hawk's original bond. His wife Halo bore quite a resemblance to her father Algie with dark hair and eyes, the same nose, but wearing a lot of jeans, leather and with an entire arm covered in tattoos. One family portrait had the couple with four young boys, all strange, but all theirs. There was even a strange portrait that looked a lot like Algie but with a smoother youthful look. The largest difference in this portrait and the man before them was the devil-may-care expression and obvious ego to match. It winked at Merci, as enchanted paintings did, and flashed a dashing grin.

"Here we go." Algie seemed oblivious to his portrait's flirtations and motioned them into the library. This room, just on it's own, seemed to not match even the entry hall. It was large but cozy with ample seating. Shelves lined every wall and the closest to the entrance were clearly the books that meant most to the family. Algie had moved some of his personal collection in and expanded the space a bit when he moved in so it was much bigger than when Halo and Wren left.

"Can I get you anything to drink or eat?" He'd left a pile of books out (but also left some on the shelves, knowing that Dio would prefer to discover them on his own) and hoped the fiend would take a look at them first. "Tea perhaps?"

"Oh that's perfectly alright." Algie smiled and waved his hand dismissively. "Anyone with that much appreciation is a wonderful house guest!"

He motioned for Merci to follow him, only a little more down the hall to the kitchen. It had large windows looking into the back yard. A stream ran through with a medium sized pond and a small, messy and untended garden. He'd never been good with plants so it looked a bit like a tangled mess dotted with the last of the seasons tomatoes. The kitchen itself had an island with a few dirty dishes and a tipped over empty box of sugar cereal.

"Hela again.." he groaned. "Teenage girls never change. Tea?" He was feeling inclined, hence the trip to the kitchen. He readied a pot of water and set it on a burner while also gathering his preferred type of tea from a shelf.

"Do they eat?" The fiends. Bloo had yet to grow so he had no idea.


Bloo stayed with Dio as he examined the books. The wisp did his usual thing, drifting about and lapping his smokey shadows over Dio's wrist. He started to drift further, attempting to catch Dio's eye to show him his own section of the book shelf. It was something he didn't like Algie to go near but so far had no trouble letting Hawk see. Perhaps the wisp had special trust in his shadowy brethren?

The shelf was full of religious books some very ancient and strange. Perhaps the teen fiend could find some use in these. On the shelf as well was a jade figurine of a lion that emanated an offensive darkness. It was something that had plagued Bloo in his first incarnation and that he had conquered and sealed. it appeared to be an asian style dragon encased in european style armor. Bloo himself seemed a bit proud, glinting as he drifted over the shelves, showing off slightly for the other fiend.

(( Bloo's encounter with the nightmare demon in case you are curious XD ))

Algie got tea cups out of the cabinet and prepared them as they waited for the water to boil. "Oh a Medusa? We have a few down in the dungeons." He fixed his glasses again. "Not real dungeons.. more like a basement. Wren and Halo are an interesting couple." He waved his hand. What his daughter did was sort of filed under 'don't ask don't tell'.

"I believe we have 3 or four living together. They seem content with one another though. Don't cause much trouble. Come and go on their own." He finally was able to lean back, preparations made and waiting just on the water. "It's funny how everyone comes to this place," he meant Gaia, "from so many different backgrounds and get so drawn together." He gave her a smile, reassuring as he noticed her furrowed expression, no matter how brief. "I get very sentimental quickly. It's an old person thing." He laughed.

The wisp made a challenging lunge at the figure, as if to say he could take it in a fight, but then just went back to showing off his things. There was a small box that Bloo seemed to hover in front of defensively (don't touch!) as well as a beaded bracelet that looked like buddhist prayer beads.

There was a collection of scrolls pushed off to the side. They looked like they were asian but the style didn't match up with any normal human asian country. One scroll showed an epic ancient battle, the art was beautiful, but more to Dio's liking would be the sky above the battle. While only a backdrop, it was perfectly depicted. Amongst the stars strange gods did battle above the mortals beneath them. Whether the gods were imaginary or real, it certainly was interesting to look at.

"I have heard that before." Algie shook his head as if it were a bad thing. The water started to whistle so he talked while he worked on making them each a cup. "Honey? Sugar? ..umm Splenda?" A new thing for him clearly. "Also milk or cream if you prefer."

"We all have our pasts and some are more shocking or traumatizing than others. I wasn't always such a nice guy." She'd seen his portrait of course. "Many years and a lot of what most people call 'therapy' got me where I am now." Wizarding thereapy was not so much like regular psychology but Algie wasn't trying to go into some sob story about his past, or perhaps he didn't want to admit just how bad he had been when he was younger. "I think it's natural and good for us to change and sometimes love is the only catalyst." He gave her another encouraging smile. "If you are comfortable telling me things then feel free. I won't tell a soul!"

Bloo definitely wanted to share the scrolls with Dio. When the teen asked if it was okay Bloo darted back behind them and pushed them as much as he could. They weren't very secure and fell from the shelf. When the largest one hit the floor it unrolled to reveal the beautiful battle scene beneath the stars, complete with elaborately designed and strange gods.

Algie prepared both of their cups quickly before handing Merci hers. "I seem to do a lot of picking up after my children and cleaning up their messes." He scratched his hand through his hair, a slightly nervous gesture that just seemed to fluff up his greying cut. "But in a way that is also my redemption. Their messes are my messes because of how I left them. To be honest Merci, I was a very bad and neglectful father for a very long time." There was definite regret and sorrow for it in his bright emerald eyes. "I feel as if their disfunctions are in part, my fault. Taking care of Bloo is just another step towards fixing things. But, so far," he changed his expression to a smile, "it's been a pleasant sort of redemption."

With the tea made and distributed he was able to lean back against the counter, one hand easily slipped into his pants pocket and the other holding his tea cup. "The photography is something unique to my particular culture I suppose. Magic.. you know. I think, with the photos, it has to do with the cameras we use. There are definitely enchantments though. You'd be surprised how outrageous a 2 dimensional counterpart can act. They even get into one another's pictures." He shook his head. "I've realised how nonsensical my world is compared to others." He laughed again. "I come from a very bizarre and eccentric society, in retrospect."

Bloo seemed pleased that Dio liked the scroll and spun slightly. He was very active today and surely would be exhausted later, but much like a child he would keep going full force until the last second.

The wisp drifted along the shelves, away from the central reading area. As the room stretched it seemed even bigger than it had before. Every once in a while between shelves there were portraits of strange demons, angels, faeries, wizards and strange historical scenes. Each portrait seemed stranger than the last. Not all of them moved and some seemed to not be photographs or paint, but something magical. Bloo sailed past all of them to a narrow shelf with a single recliner and side table in front of it. There was a photo in the frame of Halo and Wren, each with a child fiend. Bloodstone was there in a child form, bald with glowing red eyes and stoic expression. Next to Wren was a child Hawk, not yet blind from his battles.

The wisp seemed to 'sit' on the top of the picture frame but his shadows seemed to motion and point towards the shelf in front of him. These had been Wren's books and as he was best friends with Reyna and had a bit of a rivalry with Athan, perhaps there was something of help amongst them.

Algie chuckled. "Feel free to take it with you. Just no spilling on the books." He gave her a wink and led the way back to the library. "Bloodstone will probably be worn out by the time you leave. I've noticed how much more active he is whenever there is another fiend around. I'm sure he can't wait to develop a little more. I'm afraid my daily routine may be a bit boring for him."

They came back into the library to find that the fiends weren't exactly in the same spot that they left them, but further down.

Bloo was pleased that Dio was pleased and his shadows rippled across the picture he sat on. It wasn't clear if the wisp was really aware that it was him in the picture, nor if he'd known what particular book Dio would find. It seemed to have just been an instinct of the small stone, one that ended up paying off.

"Find something?" Algie talked loudly down to the teen as he and Merci approached. He was impressed with the delicacy and reverence that the fiend had for the book he'd found.