Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Alright, I'll come find you," Shun said before looking towards the ones he was with, "Mitsu's here. I'll be back. Try not to hurt yourselves with those toys, Freya."

With that said, he turned away and started to make his way to the outside of the crowd. At least there it should be easier to pick out where the lycan was. Once he was there, he looked about, trying to spot her, adjusting his hat to allow for a little more vision. After a little while, he managed to find where she was, and he promptly made his way over to her side.

"I'm glad you could make it. Happy Halloween," he said softly before giving her a brief kiss, "How are you feeling?"

She had to be a little on edge with so many people here.

Grendel was a little surprised when the ghoul drew his hand closer to herself to place a kiss upon the back of his hand, his lips twitching up higher as his eyebrows raised. "Charmed." He replied to her introduction before his hand was released and he was able to let it move back down to his side, his own gaze still locked on hers as though she were now the only other person at the festival, or perhaps just the only other one worth noticing. Everything about her was incredibly intriguing, and he wished to know more about her. He could still feel the warmth from her hand and her kiss tingling across his skin.

Eye contact was finally broken when her gaze flickered back towards Belladonna, and his own eyes moved that way as well automatically, as though just remembering that she were there as well.

And then all of that was interrupted when some idiot collided into Natalia. Grendel's eyes were already narrowing, his lip already curled back from fangs and a snarling insult ready to erupt from his mouth when the ghoul turned and caught sight of her assailant

And then things just seemed to become incredibly awkward, as Natalia and the new arrival stared at each other, the air between them thick with..something. Longing, perhaps? It was enough to make Grendel want to gag, and he rolled his dark red eyes, marveling at how quickly his luck had changed from promising to terrible.

Well, there was still the bouncing, curvy, petite red head to consider, so he turned his attentions back towards her, letting the others have their..moment, or whatever, moving closer to her side and giving her a small shake of his head and a shrug to show that he was at a bit of a loss, before his eyes swept beyond her, as though searching for something, or someone.

"So, Belladonna..." He asked, gaze shifting back towards her. "You are here alone tonight? Whatever happened to your...zombie." It was hard to disguise the tone of voice he used when saying that word, but he did actually at least try. When the newcomer moved towards her and wrapped his arm around her, his eyes narrowed again and shifted towards the winged boil, one eyebrow rising. At the mention of an LW, he had to begin to wonder if this 'Ren' had more going for him then what first appeared.

"To this day, I'm wary of trains," Nuk sighed dramatically in answer, the effect lost as he grinned broadly, amber eyes glittering mischievously as Sparrow introduced them to the 'cat-boil.' What Sparrow likely didn't know, however, was that they'd met before. Jack had entered Amityville Academy either slightly before or slightly after Nuk himself had, a time when the school hadn't nearly had the same grand reputation as it did now. There had been only a handful of Year Ones at the time, those ready for a fresh start, hoping to build the school from the ground up and prove that Amityville had the best students in Halloweentown. Not that Nuk had ever been classified under that category. In fact, he'd been sent to Amityville because no other school would take him, his record for bullying and skipping class and being in detention preceding him. Which was only made worse by the goodie-two-shoes students he'd encountered when first enrolling in Amity. Jack, however, had always been cool by him. They'd even been partners for one of the few classes Nuk had ever shown up at, although he'd botched THAT class pretty badly, the rather-goodlooking boil ending up hideously deformed for a week because of it.

A fact that the feline didn't fail to mention, after introducing himself to the ghostly ghoul in their company.

"Yeah, I think I failed that class..." the skinwalker mused, tilting his eyes up and to the side as he considered that fact -- he'd failed so many, it was really hard to remember a specific one. Shrugging it off after a second, Nuk grinned toothily at the cat boil, leaning forward a little to elbow him good-naturedly.

"Hey Jack, long time no see bro."

Maya couldn't believe she'd almost missed this! All the sights and sounds, not to mention the crowd of Halloweeners all in one place! She wandered around with her eyes wide, reflecting a curious child far better than the teenage ghoul she really was. If she had slept just one more second she surely would have missed that wonderful buffet, or that gaudy looking house... Which one would she go to first?

She set her sights on the mass collection of food near her, weaving through the crowd with a chorus of hellos and excuse mes as she made her way towards it. The crowd seemed endless, waves of ghouls and boils chatting away, were they all students? She should ask them about Amityville for sure. They might be able to help her get in!

She snatched a plate of food from the table as she searched for someone to talk to, all of it seemingly sweets, since the meats weren't exactly bleeding enough for her taste, and she was halfway into some sort of tart when she saw someone she reasoned she ought to talk to. He seemed kind of distracted after all.

She approached the winged boil with interest, taking note of his robes and eyes. He looked really interesting, if not kind of....drifty. She held out a tart from her plate, offering it to him with a fanged grin. "Hey! What are you? Want a tart? It's sour and sweet!" Maya the conversation wizard. Yep.

Alright, 'odd' was putting things mildly. The air between Ren and Natalia flickered with something and the witch wished she hadn't stopped to chat with Grendel. His greedy gaze had already shifted to the lemur and turned to anger when he saw Ren. Everyone was suddenly so tense that Belladonna almost let herself be swept into the emotion as well. But a blessed break came when the gyphon saw the witch, quickly placing her in the position of keeping things civil merely by letting her be the distraction from that odd emotion between himself and Natalia. A bright smile was his return as she angled her cheek up to him, glad he had chosen to stay near her. Soon enough Natalia swept forward to take the witch's hand, where Belladonna managed to fit in a curtsey before her cheeks flushed.
Natalia thought she had a lovely face? Unused to such a compliment based solely on her and not her clothing, the witch almost lost herself in kirakira'ing at the fellow ghoul.
"T-thank you! But yes, I am a student... I ah, took some time away a few months ago, so that might have been why we haven't met. Oh and Belladonna is um, all of it?" Such attentions from a ghoul was most unusual for Belladonna, that the witch could only stand there with her hand out and try to continue smiling, though she felt silly about her suddenly missing social prowess, and then felt silly about feeling silly. It was enough to drive a ghoul mad!

Yet her hand was released and Belladonna pulled it back to introduce Grendel to the group. As she swept her palm toward him, she realized his gaze had returned to her and she paused to hear his question. It had been long enough that she had no fear of bursting into tears, but honestly she was getting tired of telling this story. It hurt and the question did temporarily sweep the smile from her face. It was unexpected enough that she momentarily looked positively distraught, as though she might really cry before she ducked her head down and forced out a small, if somewhat sad excuse for a laugh.
"He is ah... He's away right now. But I expect him to return... Soon." That was such a lie that the witch felt a bitter taste in her mouth and she tried to quickly swallow for another smile. Not at all was it fair that the vampire had not only honed in on her sadness, but also furthered unnerved her to the point that Belladonna almost considered excusing herself. It wasn't fair that he didn't actually care where Mort was, as evidenced by Grendel's tone and it wasn't fair that she cared so much that she effectively could not find the strength within herself to act properly in public. Instead she turned her face up to Ren, more than wholly grateful for his presence, though her eyebrows still pulled up just the tiniest bit in sadness.
"Yes, how is LW? I hope she and I can hang out soon! You may come as well, but you must let her know that she needs to teach me at least one dance."
Not wanting Natalia to feel left out, the witch turned a much brighter and less sad smile to the ghoul. To the lemur she gave a small bounce and a tiny clap of her hands, as though that could dispel the odd emotions everyone seemed bent on experiencing.
"You are a student too? What year? What classes are you taking right now? And I adore your outfit, off the shoulders is always wonderful this time of year. Wherever did you get it?" Well, that was more like Belladonna! Proud to have effectively barraged this ghoul with questions the witch only tilted her head to one side and waited for her response. Perhaps she should ask Grendel some questions too, or really introduce him to the others... Whoops...
"Oh, this is Grendel. He's not a student at Amityville yet." There, he could fill in the blanks for himself! The witch may have given him a sweet look, but she was still upset at his tone and his derision toward her beloved zombie.

She frowned a little as the two boils turned down the offer. They still looked kind of disoriented... maybe it was better to just give them some time to figure everything out?

Well, if Xiu said so...
She still wanted to help them, but not really knowing anyone or anything all that well, getting herself into matters that didn't really involve her might just make things worse.

When Levi spoke, she turned her attention to her, listening curiously.
Really? Not even half? Wow, this must be a REALLY big place!
The idea only made her more excited. How she hoped she'd be able to come to such a wonderful place again and meet more new faces!

At Demi's enthusiastic greeting, she only giggled.
"Yes, it's really fun here!"

And then Xiu's uncle mentioned scareling pictures and attention on everything else was lost as she looked at Xiu with wide eyes.

SCARELING PICTURESSSSSSSSSSSSS? emotion_kirakira

Malodore felt rather lost in the crowd, but it was nevertheless delighted. It had assisted in true scaring for the first time, and thus permitted itself to truly participate in the euphoric celebration.

Inasmuch as a plague doctor could be 'euphoric'.

It scooped up a modest amount of seed bounty before turning about, trying to locate someone it knew in the mass of monsters. Hm.

((OOC: Yay 6 seeds~ SN: Sosiqui))
Sent