Welcome to Gaia! ::

Okay, so I've got the forum set up for us. Do you want to start, or shall I? And how do you want to start? At what point? Is this after the series, or at some point during it? Or is it more like filler, outside the timeline.

Sure, if you'd like to start us off, feel free. I'm good with either of those timelines, though I do like the Zanpakuto arc a lot. Any ideas about how you want to begin things with our characters? Ikkaku and your character certainly know each other already, but how do we work Kiki and Byakuya/Ichigo (whichever you decide you'd rather play) together?

That works fine for me! She's moved over to the 7th to fill their empty 4th seat, she was with the 4th division for a long time before that. She graduated about the same time as Rukia and Renji and that academy class, but now she's a good bit closer, being with the 7th division. You want to start then, or shall I start with her getting settled into her new room?

Moving was much harder than Kiki had expected it would be. Then again, she had at least a dozen boxes and two small wagons of things that had been, until today, crammed into a small officer's room in the 4th Division barracks. Unohana-taicho had been sad to lose so gifted a healer, but Kiki was far more than just a healer; it was important to have combat trained medics in all the divisions, just in case things happened. At least that was how Kiki chose to view it. She was unfailingly optimistic about things, and was quite looking forward to getting to know her new squadmates. It was a little awkward, being just about the only female in the 7th Division, but half of the division were her drinking buddies anyway. That was bound to make things less awkward.

"You don't have anymore boxes do you, Kiki?" The bald headed man cut a glance over at his friend, eyes narrowed slightly. "How the hell did you cram so much stuff in that little barracks room??" Ikkaku was nothing if not blunt about the sheer amount of crap that Kiki had enlisted he and Yumichika in moving for her. Granted, she was paying for the drinks and food tonight, and she had carried her fair share of stuff, but still! He could have been sparring with Iba or Yumichika, or picking fights the other divisions. The brown haired girl grinned over at him and tossed her braid over her shoulder, hefting the last few boxes and carrying them into the much larger barracks room in the 7th division's officers quarters. The 7th wasn't as large a division as the 4th had been, but they also didn't double as anything, so the layout was more open and spread out. It was pretty laid back and relaxed, which suited Kiki right down to her toes. She turned to grin back at Ikkaku, who was grabbing the last few bags out of the cart.

"Nope, that's everything. It's so much bigger than my room back at the 4th!" She put her hands on her hips, looking around the spacious bedroom, the small connecting office and the private bathroom. An accommodation made because of her being the only female in the division, but a welcome one nonetheless. Already the bathroom was decorated in bright green and yellow cartoonish frogs, she was in the process of hanging up her clothes in the surprisingly large closet, and her corkboards of pictures and keepsakes were already being hung with a discerning eye by the most flamboyant member of the 11th. Yumichika glanced back over his shoulder at her, holding three or for little penny nails between his lips as he hung a large framed photo collage of her mother and father, her friends from Academy and a few of the drinking party members.

"You'll need to at least clear off the bed first, Kiki-chan. How are you going to make a beautiful debut to your new squad if you can't even get a decent night's sleep?" It was amazing how intelligible Yumi could be with a mouthful of penny nails. Kiki grinned at her friends and swept the boxes of books and knick-knacks off of the bed and onto the floor, flopping backwards. The feather-browed man rolled his eyes and smiled at his friend ruefully. "Utterly irresponsible, aren't you? Have a little grace and elegance. You're out of the 4th now, and even if you DID turn down our suggestion to join the 11th..."

"Ohh come off it Yumi-kun! You know I'm not battle crazy enough to hang with you boys! Even Ikkaku-kun knows that!" She glanced over at the bald man who was reassembling one of her many bookshelves. He looked up at her a moment and grunted, shaking his head. He couldn't argue with that. Kiki was too laid back to really get as worked up as most of them did. Yumichika was pretty calm, and Ikkaku himself was downright lazy, but Kiki just didn't have that killer instinct. She loved a good spar, and was as willing to dive into a brawl as anyone, but it was all good-natured fun to her. A split lip or a bloody nose was no big deal, but she just didn't have it in her to kill. He snorted a little and shook his head, a faint smile on his lips. She was a soft touch. Shame she wasn't ever serious about anything except for being completely unserious. Made for some pretty epic pranks though. That time she tied the inflatable sheep to Renji's ponytail had made for some of the biggest laughs they'd had in years.

He was brought back to reality as Kiki crouched down beside him and began sorting out books, putting them into piles. Huge piles, filled with manga from the living world, cookbooks, books of poetry, books on art, on history, on philosophy and science. Books about horses. Books about horseradishes. Books about different countries, about myths and legends, fairy tales. About the only thing she had more of than books was food. THAT had been fun, trying to figure out a way to plug her microwave and fridge up in here without blowing the circuits. The 12 Division had put the whole of Seireitei on a power grid, but they were still working some kinks out. The girl had clearly spent far too much time in the living world. She already had more souvenirs than most other shinigami collected in their lifetime. Peacock feather fans from India for Yumichika, bottles of real agave tequila from Mexico for him, books, DVDs, video games, Hot Pockets, stuffed turtles, a bearskin hat from a member of the Royal Guard in England (how she got that, he didn't even WANT to know!), her room was just one big tourist trap for the world of the living. Dresden dolls, sombreros, silk fans, Mardi Gras beads... Sometimes he wished she'd just open a shop and be done with it. How she managed to fit it all into a small barracks room in the 4th, he couldn't figure. And how she was going to fit MORE things into this room, he didn't even want to contemplate.

Kiki smiled fondly at her friends and shook her head, trying to sneak her little kim-chee fridge over to hide it in the corner. It was probably closer to a few years before she could request another assignment in Seoul; fortunately she had managed to get a few good kim-chee recipes before she left. Sometimes she wished she could be stationed in the living world permanently. But then she'd think about all of her friends and realize that, as good as the food and the books and the amusement parks and zoos and camping was in the world of the living, everything she loved was here.

"I'm gonna go make sure my old room is swept and mopped! Once you get done, head on to the noodle shop! I'll be there soon, and don't worry, the booze is on me!" She grinned brightly and turned to head out the door.

(It isn't the size of the post, it's the quality! Don't worry, you're doing great!)

Ikkaku and Yumichika watched the exchange between the stiffly formal captain and their squadmate with an expression of exasperated amusement. Sym was on "Mission Hug-possible" again. Ikkaku had to admit, it was pretty impressive, the list of people she'd managed to snuggle in the Gotei 13. Managing to hug the Head Captain was a serious accomplishment, but Ikkaku personallly was more impressed with the fact that she managed to hug the clown faced freak of 12th Division without getting poisoned, dissected or experimented on. That had to be somewhere up there with attaining nirvana and walking on water, in his opinion.

Yumichika shook his head as he watched the exchange between Kuchiki-taicho and Sym-chan, knowing already who would win that battle. Kiki was going to be hugged. It was like death and taxes; inevitable. He looked around the room critically and sighed. "That woman needs to have some serious redecorating. How can she get any meaningful rest when everything she has clashes so horribly?" He eyed the big stuffed pig pillow resting on her bed, the purple and orange psychedelic daisies of the throw pillows nowhere near matching the dark blue and silver of the bedspread, and how she thought this combined in any way shape or form with sheets emblazoned with cartoon ponies, he had no idea. It was giving him a headache just looking at her bed. "Ikkaku, we need to leave. My fashion sense is tingling." He sighed, rubbing his forehead. The bald man rolled his eyes, giving a small "tch" but complied.

"Let's head on over to the noodle shop then. We can get a headstart on the drinking. Kiki'll be along soon enough. She'll probably invite Sym along and I'll end up having to push her out of my lap again, just like the last division party." Yumichika smirked to himself, deciding not to mention that Ikkaku hadn't exactly been complaining when their bubbly squadmate had situated herself in his lap last time, nor the fact that Ikkaku's ears were starting to turn red.



Unknowing of the snuggly doom awaiting her, Kiki headed back to the 4th Division barracks. She sighed a little, smiling a bit sadly. She'd been with the 4th ever since graduating; it was part of who she was, her purpose in life. Ohh, she appreciated Unohana-taicho's advice, and certainly agreed with her that she needed to branch out and discover her other talents and abilities but...closing any chapter of her life was always a bittersweet moment. Stuffing her hands into the pockets of her pants, she barely noticed herself passing by the gates of the 6th Division, lost in thought. Things had been so quiet for so long, she'd never thought much about her place or role in the Gotei 13. She was a healer. Then when that Ichigo kid (what a cutie pie! Talk about devoted!!) busted up into Soul Society to rescue Rukia, and Aizen defected, taking Tousen (no big loss there, he was a stick in the mud anyway!) and Gin (shame about that, he was great fun at a party), everything had gotten suddenly very real. She'd had to care for injured people before; she'd even had patients die on her. But it was different seeing friends laid up in the medical division because of treason, betrayed by the people they trusted and loved the most.

She shook her head, sighing a little. She was getting old, obviously. People only sat back and reflected on things like this when they were getting on up there. Suddenly, the skin on her arms and the back of her neck prickled, feeling the reiatsu in the air as two very different but quite potent spiritual presences came flying towards her. She turned to see what was going on, wondering what on earth was coming her way.

It was, Kiki decided, an especially perplexing situation to find herself in. Watching the running kido battle between a young 11th Division woman and the stiffly regal captain of the 6th Division, she had to admit that counterattack-by-hugging was definitely a strategy the Academy had never instilled. From the gobsmacked look on the captain's face, it was effective. Hmm. She'd have to keep that in mind next time she found herself in a drunken brawl. Hugging. Who knew?

She didn't have long to muse on the subject before suddenly the young woman who had been wrapped around Kuchiki-taicho like a mink stole was now doing a very good lamprey impression, latched onto HER with a fierceness. Kiki didn't mind, and grinned down at the girl as Kuchiki pulled her new fashion accessory off of her. "Ne ne, Kuchiki-taicho! Hugs are always welcome! Thank you for your attempts on my behalf though." She bowed quickly to him and then turned her attention to the girl. "So, mission accomplished then, huh? Well done. And you did it while evading a captain. That takes some serious skill set, kiddo. I'm suitably impressed." She grinned and offered her hand. "I think you can let her go now, Kuchiki-taicho. Objective attained and all that. I'm Shineiki Kietsu, but just call me Kiki. The rest is a mouthful." She glanced back at the dark haired nobleman and inclined her head once more. "I'm just heading to the 4th to make sure my old rooms are cleaned up before I hit the noodle shop. I'm meeting Ikkaku and Yumi there, so if you want to come along, I'm happy to have you." The invitation was obviously there for Sym, but if the formidable Kuchiki clan head chose to come as well... Well, suffice to say, he was handsome enough that she wouldn't kick him out of bed for eating crackers, that was for sure!

Had they been anyone but the 11th Division's resident sake-sinks, they'd be a lot more than three sheets to the wind by this point. However, there were certain things the 11th prided itself on. Being tougher, strong and crazier than any other division in the entire Gotei 13 was of course the main one, but being able to drink any other shinigami under the table was pretty high up on the list as well. So when Sym showed up at the noodle shop, the party was already underway. Renji hadn't shown up yet, having been left by Kuchiki-taicho at the division office to finish up some work, Matsumoto-fukutaicho was decidedly flushed and had managed to get a good amount more noodles down her cleavage than into her mouth (her own mistake - going for the sake first before eating to let the noodles soak some of it up) Kira still looked like someone had kicked his puppy repeatedly but he didn't seem AS sad with the telltale pink cheeks and nose of alcohol consumption, and Kyouraku-taicho was pretty much the senior drinking coordinator for the entire Gotei 13, so all anyone had to do was crack open the seal on a bottle of sake and he was there, like some alcoholic Superman, able to hear the opening of a liquor bottle from apparently anywhere in Soul Society.

Ikkaku looked up at Sym and grunted at Yumichika, nudging him not so gently. "Budge up there, Kiki invited her." Yumichika cheerfully complied, and Ikkaku scooted over to give Sym a seat. "So ya found her before Princess Kuchiki could stop ya, huh? Was it worth it?" Ikkaku snorted into his sake. It was a damned good thing for her and anyone she might one day be romantically involved with; all this random hugging had desensitized her functionally insane father so that he wouldn't go into a frothing rage the moment his daughter got a wild hair up her a** and decided to settle down with someone. It still bewildered him somewhat, the knowledge that Zaraki-taicho had a kid. What a revelation THAT had been! Yachiru had been the one to break the silence after that announcement, cheering for a new sister and had immediately demanded that they go torment Kurotsuchi-taicho together, in the name of building family bonds. Or something like that. Ikkaku had heard "Bozo-face" "sister" and "now", and that was all anyone in the 11th need to hear coming out of their fukutaicho's mouth.

"Kiki-chan is very huggable. And Sym-chan does it so beautifully." Yumichika sparkled brilliantly and Ikkaku rolled his eyes a little. "Che. Shaddap, ya freakin' fruitcake and give her some booze and grub!" The black haired fifth seat slid a bottle and a large bowl of grilled beef and spicy noodles her way. Ikkaku turned his attention back to his bottle. "She ain't gonna invite the princess, is she? I swear to God, if I have to get drunk listening to Kuchiki yap about how uncouth we all are, I'm gonna choke him with his own intestines."

Yumichika shook his head and smiled. "Kiki's party, Kiki's guests. I don't see any reason she'd invite Kuchiki-taicho though, except out of pure politeness." The violet eyed man looked at his bald friend a moment and sighed, scooting over a bit more and clearing off two places at the big table for Kiki's inevitable arrival, another stray (this one probably a bit more refined than the others, what fun THAT would be!) in tow most likely. It was inevitable. The sun rose, the grass grew and Kiki was chronically incapable of not being friendly, even to pretty, prissy princesses who probably didn't deserve it.



Kiki looked at the 6th Division captain with an expression of bemused curiosity. Remember him? He was a captain of the Gotei 13. He was the clan head of one of the four great noble houses. He was the subject of much giggling speculation and wistful sighs at the Shinigami Women's Association meetings. "Eh? Remember you? Kuchiki-taicho, I see you at least once a week around Seireitei! I might be a little slow, but I ain't that dumb!" She laughed cheerfully, rubbing the back of her head, a bit sheepish at how very stupid and scatterbrained she must have made herself seem at some point for him to question her ability to remember someone so very...memorable. She gave a rueful inward sigh. Memorable was merely a nice way of saying "sinfully sexy and capable of making a nun feel squidgy inside". Not that she was going to feel all squidgy over Kuchiki-taicho. A little ditzy and scatterbrained she might be, but she did have a sense of self preservation, thank you VERY much, and besides, Kira-kun had the fragile emo wistfulness down pat and could look far more sexy doing it than she could.

"Oi! I gotta check my old rooms and turn the key back in to Unohana-taicho! If I don't hurry, my promotion party's gonna end before I even get there!" She hesitated, looking up at the black haired captain a moment, biting her lip just a bit. She didn't think most of her friends were the sort to run in Kuchiki-taicho's circles, but...well... it would be impolite not to...

"Would you like to come to my party, Kuchiki-taicho? It's not too big, leastaways it shouldn't be..." She trailed off a moment. Ikkaku, Yumichika, Renji would be on his way, Rangiku-chan, Kira-kun, Hisagi-san hadn't left the 9th yet, last she'd heard...and of course Kyouraku-taicho. She hadn't invited anyone else, but that didn't mean that the wandering party animals of the Seireitei wouldn't find their way in. No one that Kuchiki-taicho had any severe problems with that she was aware of.

Still, that question jangled at the back of her mind. "Shineki Kietsu, do you remember me at all?" he had asked, so very solemnly. Then again, he WAS Kuchiki Byakuya so everything he did was solemn and regal. It was the sort of question a person asks someone they haven't seen in a long time. But surely Kuchiki-taicho had seen her around Seireitei; she'd spend years at the 4th Division after all and had graduated from Academy the same year Rukia-chan and Renji-kun had. Not that they got to hang out much anymore. Which was a shame, Renji had always been the most fun to prank when Rukia was helping out. Was there something else she was supposed to remember about Kuchiki-taicho? She hated the thought that she might be horribly rude, having forgotten something important, and it made her a bit nervous. What was she forgetting?

Ikkaku wasn't sure why, but he was a bit miffed. Watching Rangiku dump sake down Sym's throat, while amusing on anyone else, just made him grit his teeth a little and down another slug of alcohol. "Hey you guys, watch it! You know she can't hold her booze for s**t!" The last thing he wanted to do was have to carry her back to the division office and risk having to explain to Zaraki-taicho why the girl was naked, covered in soy sauce and singing "Bohemian Rhapsody". Again. He'd barely escaped with his life last time that happened, and only because Yumi had distracted the captain with fruit cups and let Ikkaku get away.

Yumi smiled over at his friend and then glanced at Sym, red faced, swaying and covered in the noodles that she had attempted to clean off of Rangiku. The strawberry blonde woman was clutching the younger girl to her bountiful chest and rocking back and forth, a slight hiccup escaping every few minutes. There was a conversation going on about what the true plural of the word "platypus" was, and it was getting just a little bit dirty. (Which was pretty much a guarantee whenever Kyouraku the Lech was involved.) The feather adorned man glanced over at Ikkaku and shook his head a little boozily. "I'll carry her back this time if you go buy taicho the fruit cups."

Ikkaku just grunted and took another swig of sake.

Kyouraku smirked a little at Sym being cuddled so furiously into Rangiku's prodigious chest and leaned back in his chair, glancing over at his best friend. "Oi, Jyuu-chan...when do you think someone is finally going to notice the rare and delicate flower that our Sym-chan is and snatch her up, mmm? We must make certain that only a truly deserving man is so blessed with her tender feelings." Ukitake sighed a little and smiled, shaking his head.

"I suppose that we should start making a list then, yes? That would be the most logical way to approach it." If Sym was listening (and conscious after Rangiku's sake-shotgun shenanigans), she was sure to be turning even redder. Which Ukitake wasn't exactly sure was physiologically impossible. He glanced at the assembled group of people, perching his chin on his hand and thinking it over a moment. "What about Renji-kun?"

Kyouraku snorted. "Absolutely not. His tattoos, while attractive on some people, make him look like Yachiru-chan went after him with a permanent marker. Next."

"How about Iba-fukutaicho? He's a good man."

"Have you taken a look at the man lately? Good man, but utterly unsuitable for a lovely young woman in the flower of her youth. I think Iba-kun would agree with me."

Ukitake pondered a moment longer. "Ayasegawa-san?"

Kyouraku just snorted a little. The speculation regarding the 11th Division's fifth seat led most to think that if he was batting for anyone, it was going to be the home team.

Ukitake smiled. Point taken. "Yamada. He's gentle and very kind."

Kyouraku made a face. "I think she's taller than he is. Not to mention, 4th Division/11th Division romances rarely work out. Could you see Hana-san managing to make it through meeting her father? No, that'd be like feeding a puppy into a wood chipper. I'm not that cruel."

Ukitake was glad no one was sitting in front of him, because a sake-bath wasn't the best use for good alcohol. Puppy in a wood chipper... best description of Yamada Hanatarou meeting any girl's father he had ever heard. Damned fine medic though. "Alright, well what about Kira-kun? God knows he needs cheering up."

Kyouraku sighed. "Too much of a project for Sym-chan. We're looking for her a lover, not an episode of Extreme Makeover: Lieutenant Edition." He didn't like the 12th Division captain very much (to be quite honest, who did?) but he had to admit that getting cable in Seireitei made the clown-faced creeper more acceptable in polite society.

"Hisagi-fukutaicho?"

"Abandonment issues. Just like Kira, he'll cling waaaay too much. Besides, he's either a super perv or super naive. Or is no one going to mention that innuendo tattooed on his cheek?"

"Omaeda?" They both shuddered.

It appeared to Ukitake in a vision of golden light. Or that might have been how the lamps were appearing now with the haze of boozy blurred vision around them now. Still, it was a fantastic idea! "Madarame! Hell, why didn't we think of this before?? They're in the same division, they get along already, he's not going to spend more on makeup and clothes than she will, he's tough and very powerful and he's the perfect kind of crazy for Kenpachi's daughter!"

Kyouraku pondered this a moment. "He's not stupid, but he does love fighting. They're already friends, it wouldn't be too much of a push to get it to go further. Kenpachi won't kill him because if he does, Ayasegawa'll quit in protest and the man needs someone who can write legibly to file reports. I think we may have found a winner!"

The two elder captains turned and smiled at the bald headed third seat wickedly. Yumichika glanced up from his bottle, feeling a faint shiver go down his spine, like someone walked over his grave. Looking around, he saw the decidedly wicked smiles of the 8th Division and 13th Division captains directed at his best friend. Nudging an exceptionally sloshed Kira a moment, the feather-browed man never took his eyes off of the two grinning men.

"I hope Kiki gets here soon. I feel a disturbance in the Force."

It was a little awkward, walking towards the 4th Division with Kuchiki-taicho. Kiki felt very grubby and uncultured next to him, sweating and covered in dust from all the cleaning she'd been doing. "So um...how's Rukia-chan doing? Haven't seen her around much lately." She attempted to make small talk, but she wasn't exactly sure what the 6th Division captain talked about except honor and pride and such. "Heard some people from her division say that she might end up being a permanent liaison to Karakura. That'd be kinda cool, I think."

She glanced over at him furtively, chewing her lip, a pensive expression on her face. She didn't hang with captains much. Least not very noble, proper, non-alcoholic captains. Well, and Ukitake-taicho, but then again he was everyone's best friend. Kinda like Unohana-taicho. Captain Mom and Captain Dad. And Yamamoto-soutaicho was that grumpy, angry grandpa who always got you socks for Christmas and told stories about how hard things were growing up and how easy all the little whippersnappers today had it comparatively to when HE was little and they had to wrestle mastadons for food, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Okay Kiki, that wasn't very nice.

... Probably true though.