Welcome to Gaia! ::

--The Library

Finding a library here had been amazing - if there was one Chin thing had mourned about in the old HQ, is that she never had enough books to read. Now she trailed her fingers along the handsomely cut wood. 'This is heaven.' she thought. No more picking out books to reread, or running out to get something quick and coming back and finding everything in ruins...

Chin heaved a happy sigh and plunked down next to Sabriel, curled up on an armchair that was about 10 times his size. Right. They'd come here to read. Picking a book from the stroller beside her, she spread it across her lap, and tapped him on the top of the head so he'd pay attention.

Sabriel listened boredly as Chin read from Alice in Wonderland. For a while now she'd been sitting him down for little reading sessions, almost none of which made any sense to him. To pass the time, he picked at the bottom of his sweater with his claws so it'd eventually unravel - for the umpteenth time she patiently pulled his fingers away. It was a habit she disliked very much. He waited until she'd gotten involved in the book again before he went back to the sweater.

She didn't know why she bothered, sometimes.

Chin nearly jumped at the unexpected creak, quickly turning around to see who it was. Both person and baby were complete strangers - that was hardly surprising, since she'd only met a few people so far. "Hi!" Getting up proved difficult. She shifted Sabriel, who growled and refused to budge, tried to find a bookmark and failed, and finally gave up, smiling nervously at the pair.

"Neat room, isn't it?"

Sabriel pretended not to be interested, but was really seething with curiosity over the new baby. He couldn't help looking over once or twice. Compared to the other Mishaps, she was really weird. Blue and funny things on her head...

"Nope. " Chin still sounded unhappy about it. She'd learned a bit of the new HQ's layout, but things kept popping up and surprising her at every turn, like this room. Taking in the other two, especially Thylassa, she went to wrestle Sabriel off again so she could get up. He didn't like it - he tried latching himself to her arm with his claws - but she patiently pried him off again and set him back on the chair.

Sabriel blinked at 'Lassa, seeing her eyes on him when he sat back up again. All of them. Wanting to get a closer look, he glanced measuringly at the floor...maybe it wasn't that far...and once more found himself lifted. He made a cross noise, glaring up at Chin as she set him on the floor. Darnit.

Not wanting to lose such a good chance, he set off for Thylassa's stroller.

Chin stuck her tongue out at him before heading over to the pair. "Aww, she's a cutie." she said happily of Thylassa, waving a hand over the baby's head - she couldn't resist, because of those eyes. All the babies here were adorable. (well, excluding one). She must be another Mishap...and maybe even younger than Sabriel?

"Are you guys new here?" she asked, wanting to know rather a lot.

"Oh! It's nice to meet you, Gulli," She wiggled her fingers over the baby again, finding her absurdly adorable, "and Thylassa. Um, you don't mind the nickname, do you?"

A few days ago. So they weren't the newest people any more - that was an interesting piece of news, especially since all the Mishaps Sabriel met had been older. Chin hoped he'd like having someone the same age around. But those poor people...new, and having to navigate through this mansion, practically...

"I'm Chinchillie, but usually just plain Chin - that's Sabriel. We've been here about a month, but it's crazy how much this place changed. It'd be nice if they issued new maps. They must not have gotten around to it." It'd be great if there were new maps sometime soon. Getting lost in here wasn't much fun.

What was that thing next to her? It looked a little familiar...he frowned as he placed it, sitting down beside the newt baby, though not necessarily close. An evil guardian. She had one too. Frowning more, even glaring at the totoro, he leaned in and daringly poked Thylassa on the arm. If it really was a guardian, it'd do something about it.

"Uh, Sabriel..." Chin began, a little worried. The poke was followed by silence, no screaming, so she deigned to keep an eye on him for now. She looked up at Gulli and smiled slightly. "Hey, why hadn't I thought of that? We're lucky, though. Right by the balcony. There's a few other people around, but we haven't really run into many."

Perhaps sensing this, she quickly added, "Maybe I could introduce you to someone who knows the place better, who could show us around?" An idea struck her. "Or we could try and make our own map." she suggested, feeling a little foolish. It sounded like a good idea.

Seeing Lassa's annoyed huff, Sabriel grinned at her. Ha! What a crummy guardian! Emboldened, he scootched closer and reached for the eye not stuck in her mouth, probably intending to yank on it.

"She what?" Thanks to Gullien's comment, she realized what Thylassa was going to do, and found a hand at her mouth - she knew she couldn't stop it, but tried anyways."Sabriel, don't!" she squeaked.

Too late. He ignored her. Unworried by Lassa's threat (she couldn't possibly hurt him, right?), Sabriel closed his fingers around the eye, giving it a good solid yank.

Chin buried her face in her hands, knowing what was coming next.

Sabriel never saw it coming. His mouth opened in a shout of triumph, and was cut off by a faceful of eye-a-pault. Contrary to her previous mood, Chin burst out laughing - she had to stagger into Gullien for support.

"Did you see his face...!"