Welcome to Gaia! ::

Caitlyn couldn't help but let a small sigh escape as she stood there (figuratively speaking, since she had no legs), observing a small patch of concrete as many other freshlings buzzed excitedly around her. This was supposed to be a really fun activity; one of the caretakers had brought a bunch of freshlings a stash of magical sidewalk chalk that would withstand the tromping of feet and the artistic nightmare of rain for at least a few weeks, and everyone around her was busily covering the blank and boring space with colorful decorations of flowers and rainbows and what looked like little pink vespercats dancing in pools of lemonade.

She looked down at her own contribution to the giant chalky mural: a dancing skeleton drawn with purple chalk and lined with white highlights. She had tried to emphasize the details, and even put a white dot for every tooth in the grinning mouth. But just like the living avoided the concept of death, the other chalk drawings were well clear of her drawing; perhaps because once the other freshlings had noticed what she was drawing, they had given her some.....space.

She sighed again and tried to ignore the others' avoidance as she reached for a stick of red chalk, almost seeming to pulsate with magic, and started filling in the eyes. If nobody wanted to look at her happy, dancing skeleton anyway, she might as well make it look mean and scary.

Caitlyn had just put the finishing touches on the scary red eyes of her once-happy skeleton and was contemplating putting a dollop of orange in the center of each eye for an extra scary effect when a sudden commotion caused her to look up with a start. Another freshling, one she hadn't seen with the group yet, was careening towards her in a ball of flying limbs and what appeared to be some kind of cape. He stopped rolling right in front of her and for a second she just stood there staring; she did like the outfit he wore.

His joke about flying did cause a small smile to tug at the corner of her mouth, though she didn't quite think that it warranted a full-out guffaw. Still, who was she to judge? She saw his eyes move towards her drawing, and inwardly steeled herself for the look of shock or the hasty excuse to suddenly be somewhere else. Her eyes widened as instead of being scared, the other freshling reached out to touch it, as though in awe of her choice, or maybe the subject itself.

She found her own head tilting to the side. "You......like skeletons?" She suddenly shot out her hand and offered the red sidewalk chalk to him. "Do you want......to draw him a friend?"

Caitlyn couldn't help but grin a tiny bit at that. "You don't have to be good; just interested in what you do." She had always felt that was the strongest bit of advice she had ever been given; it had come from a single caretaker who upon discovering her passion for the macabre, had actually encouraged her to turn it into something more. She felt a little guilty now that they had vanished into the crowd of faces that comprised the many different caretakers for the freshling groups. Well, at least their words had been remembered.

She smiled again as she observed the jack-o-lantern. "That's okay; people trip a lot. Well, I don't as much, because you know....." She gestured vaguely to her tail before suddenly turning to Kalek with wide eyes. "Did you know that some early jack-o-lanterns had candles in them made from parts of people? That makes them a whole lot scarier, don't you think?" She suddenly cleared her throat and looked as though she had said something really embarrassing. "S-sorry; I hope I didn't scare you or anything." She took the preoffered hand and hoped he wouldn't pull away. "I'm, Caitlyn; it's very nice to meet you."