Welcome to Gaia! ::

There were suddenly flashing lights and police sirens wailing by as she traversed the length of a sidewalk along a route she was familiar with in this shopping district. Why was she out and about in the city rather than home playing a game right now? Well, for a change of pace, she had decided to play phone and handheld games while relaxing and ambling around in the outdoors rather than staying indoors today. But, it was while walking around half-listening to music through one side of her headphones that she abruptly decided to follow through on a spontaneous idea wherein she wanted a wig to go with the throwback Halloween costume she had worn today after having rediscovered it in her closet earlier and promptly deemed the attire possible casualwear. She knew the exact wig color she'd look for, too, that is if she'd be able to get to the shop she had in mind at some point before this day was through.

A notable amount of leisurely steps later, it wasn't all that surprising to discover that authorities had made quick work of barricading a possible crime scene further up ahead.

And so, rather than reroute into a detour, Haeli decided to cross the street into the park that was actually quite surprisingly less populated than she reckoned it would be. Perhaps the incident across the street spooked park goers into distancing themselves from whatever crime might have transpired where the cops were now investigating.

She was fairly familiar with this park as well and chose to settle herself in a secluded spot for a while that still had a view of the occasional smatterings of on-lookers a.k.a. observant passersby along the disrupted business establishment, police vehicles parked there, the buzz of investigative personnel, and yellow caution tape surrounding the place in the not so, so incredibly far distance but was obscured by bushes and the overhead shade of tree branches. In the immediate vicinity around her, she gathered that she had the area all to herself right now and she was fine with that since it was still early in the afternoon and this was thus an opportunity to game in outdoor peace and quiet here in the park for a while; though the status of the areas across the street from each other contrasting sharply did linger in a small part of her mind as she presently was puzzling through a round of her favorite gem-matching game.

"Did one of those monsters in the news attack that place?" Haeli wondered as she glanced momentarily in the direction of the still visibly present police vehicles in the distance. She clicked to spend another heart on a new puzzle round of play in her app, "I wonder if any of them can pass for a pokemon look-a-like."

She had been able to notice nearby movement. Animal encounters are sure candidates for being in a possible list of stuff she finds fascinating so, without looking away, she watched the feline approach while zipping her phone back into the small bag slung across her from one shoulder. A grin had gradually widened across her features as she stared back at her observer in the process of carefully shifting her position into a still seated position on the bench but now with bent and crossed legs facing that cat with her elbows resting on her legs near her knees.

And then, the cat spoke to her. Haeli's expression morphed into shocked surprise in as long as it took to snap a finger. And suddenly she was swiveling her upper body to reassess her surroundings; and everything was still the same, the lack of others, the police cars in the distance, everything, except that she thought she heard the costumed cat now in her company talk to her just seconds ago.

And now, her confused and amazed focus was trained on him fully.

"Hi," she whispered to him in rather belated greeting while bending her arms resting on her legs up so her chin as well now rested between her curled fingers, her voice just audible enough in the distance between the two of them. This had to be a dream; this whole day probably was all a dream. And she was very curious to see what else will be happening in dream land after this point.

Surprise followed surprise again and again apparently. Also, as far as she could tell, disappearing was definitely not part of her smile's immediate intentions. Additionally, she had leaned forward in short-lived concern and had to be mindful to resist acting on the thought of picking up the cat to cuddle with squeals of gleeful endearment.

Now that the cat had seated himself on the bench before her, Haeli had resumed her seated stance before witnessing the cat toppling back and was mentally calmer she internally hoped.

"Please call me Ella or Karla. I've actually been given more than one first name." She had responded with ambiguousness. Haeli gave her mother's maiden name and the second half of her first name rather than the first half of her first name and her surname which she usually provided when circumstances were non-magical. This magical experience was a first for her, so perhaps this fact is what inspired her to take a sort of username-selection approach. There was that and she had a trust issue she wasn't fully acknowledging to even herself. "I think you're magical, too. And, what's your name?"