Welcome to Gaia! ::

Estra hummed and cooed and sang little drifting snatches as she fussed happily around the bubbling pot. It had never boiled so full before, nor had she ever bought so many potatoes and carrots and leeks at a go – a little taste…more salt – and the kind grocer had not only given her a discount, he had thrown a spare bushel of thyme into her basket. How delightful! The fragrance quite filled their little abode; how she hoped the simple dinner would please their guests!

And, oh, the guests – the events of the night before, secret passages, blood-splattered men, and all had rather melted into a blur for the absent-minded dove by now, a hazy barely-recollection tinged with fear, but the promise of guests still rang in her mind. Only dear Talulah had ever visited their clocktower before, how nice it would be to entertain more, just like the dinner parties some recipe collections had spoken of! Though…Tali, where was she? Estra had hurried to her usual haunts to invite the goldfish girl over, but she had been nowhere to be found. The only thing she could do was carefully affix the customary orange handkerchief to the window, that Tali might know she could definitely drop by for dinner tonight and –

The door creaked open, and here was Vlad now. What a strange question he asked! But, of course, "Yes!" she smiled.

She nodded enthusiastically, wide beam almost bursting at the seams.

Having spent the last night securely attached to the somewhat unwilling side of Faris, the goldfish had mostly recovered from her ordeal the night before. It was no longer a raw, terrifying wound in her heart. As the morning had come she had chosen to put it from her mind and had spent the day pushing in on the lives of the various City People she knew.

But now the deep dark of night was approaching and Talulah needed to be with someone special, she needed to see Estra. She couldn’t be alone. Not now. She might start to remember.

Even if there hadn’t been the orange handkerchief in the window it wouldn’t have made the slightest difference to Tali as she rather ungracefully collided with the door upon her arrival. That was her version of a knock and the only warning before she let herself inside (oh thankyou for not being locked door).

“Estra!” She called out brightly, her anxiety levels instantly dropping. The goldfish looked as cheerful as she usually did, but tonight she held a cloth wrapped object close to her chest (the knife which she hadn’t seem able to get rid of throughout the day) and she may have just checked if the door was securely closed behind her.

"It's you again," Vlad said, a little less derisive than usual - he couldn't quite be all that indignant when this gathering was thoroughly his fault. "I don't want you dancing around in here tonight. We'll be talking about serious things. If that's a tambourine or something," he eyed the swaddled bundle, "I swear I will put it out of its misery."

"Stay the night?" she cried, delighted, "oh, yes, Tali, how wonderful!" Be-pepper shaker'd and be-ladled as she was, she nevertheless threw her arms around Talulah and squeezed. "I've missed you too, and - yes! We are going to have guests! Well,"
she quickly added, catching sight of Vlad's increasingly impatient face, "it's not really a party."

Never one to turn down a hug, Talulah wrapped her arms around Estra and squeezed happily. Once she had at least half detached herself from her friend, she licked a bit of the stew off her arm that had fallen from the ladle during Estra’s exuberance.

“Serious things aren’t any fun.” Talulah protested loudly, before changing the subject entirely. “You’re such a wonderful cook Estra! Let’s add more pepper!”

She peeked back over at Vlad when he once more questioned her cloth wrapped item, which had been clamped securely against her chest by one hand since she got there. “It’s nothing interesting. I found it.”

"You have a severe misconception of what 'serious' means," Vlad grumbled, unimpressed. He was even more unimpressed by her uncharacteristic secrecy in regards to the item she clutched so close - but he would never show himself to be interested in anything at all, much less pursue the topic. If Talulah was so irrational as to lug something that she was reluctant to reveal about (very plausible), then she could keep it to herself. It was probably something else awful like castanets or a cowbell...well, the more she kept that under wraps the better, even if there was bound to be a commotion about it sometime during the night.

His unending disdain of dance and music and everything was interrupted by the loud thwock - which for a moment, Vlad's paranoia thought was some cult member caught up with them - then a timid little knock, whereupon he realised that whoever was at the door wasn't one, because no murderous cultist would knock on the door. Glaring at the 'busy' pair at the stove (that was way too much pepper), he sharply turned and unfolded his arms, swiftly strolling to their door and pulling it open to find a colourful young lady behind it, looking rather wide-eyed and helpless.

Oh brilliant, another idiot.

"Yes." He snapped, and relented, since the entire night was his fault (honestly, it was like purgatory for what had to be a multitude of sins for him to deserve this), "...come in."