Welcome to Gaia! ::

Feeling decidedly bedraggled, Tahlia stomped up the last few steps to her level, and rummaged around in her plentiful pockets for her apartment keys.
The weather! What is that saying about March? she thought to herself, going through the five pockets on her wet navy windbreaker. In like a lion, out like a lamb?

"Today was definitely the large, angry lion sort of day." she muttered to herself, puffing her long white hair away from her face, as she tried the hot pink jeans pockets. The jeans were also wet, and contained no keys.
She unzipped the windbreaker, shivering a little now, and anxious to get inside and into a hot shower. The shoulder hugging, green t-shirt had no pockets, so she tried the black vast over that. Nope.

Wait. Tahlia looked down and realized she was holding her keys in her other hand. Letting out a laugh that was both parts relieved and disgusted, she stabbed the lock and let herself in.

The windbreaker was thrown over the breakfast bar to drip on the kitchen tile, and Tahlia shed her jeans as well, plopping them into an empty laundry basket. The two wettest items taken care of for now, she made record time getting to the bathroom, and examined the damage in the mirror.

"Hmmmm." she moaned observantly, biting her lower lip at the birds nest her hair had become. "Thanks a lot, high winds! I really should have pulled it back today."

Turning her head, she realized that some leaves had blown into her hair, and she spent a few minutes pulling them out. The last leaf was a bit odd, though Tahlia couldn't put her finger on why, so she removed it carefully, and placed it on the vanity to puzzle over later.

In the meantime, she shed the rest of her clothes and hopped into the shower.

...

An hour and a half later, Tahlia was dry, wrapped in a warm robe, and she'd thoroughly combed out her hair. Feeling a happy glow that came from being clean, she picked up her dirty clothes, and the peculiar leaf, on her way to start the washing machine.

The leaf went on the breakfast bar, the clothes went in the machine, coffee went into a mug, and Tahlia sat at her little bar, sipping the hot drink and staring quizzically at the leaf.

"So, what's your story, mister leaf? Hmmm? Why are you so odd?" she asked it, running a finger along it's green edge. Wait. Tahlia blinked. That was it, it was green! What was a green leaf doing out in the wind when the trees were only beginning to bud?

The logical answer was anti-climatic. Someone had opened a window and their houseplant had lost a leaf to the wind. Sighing, a little disappointed that her leaf hadn't really turned out to be anything interesting, Tahlia picked up the leaf to throw it away.

And it wiggled.

The leaf wiggled decidedly in a way that suggested it very much objected to going in the garbage. Tahlia dropped it instead, almost along with the coffee mug. She took a step back, and watched warily as the leaf fell slowly to the ground. It landed, and was still. Tahlia crouched down to stare at it. A moment passed and nothing happened. She turned as if to look away and caught a bit of movement at the corner of her eye.

Whipping back to the leaf, she pointed at it as if accusing it of a crime.
"I SAW that!" she exclaimed. The leaf stopped and lay still as if embarrassed at being caught. Tahlia picked it up again, and placed it on the counter.

"I knew there was something odd about you. You wiggled! Leaves don't wiggle normally." she puzzled, then asked. "Are you a demon leaf?"

No answer.

One of Tahlia's eyebrows rose in an attempt to meet her hairline, and she pointed a cautionary finger at the supposed demon leaf.

"I'm watching you, leaf! I'm gonna keep you until I figure out why you can wiggle."

Decision made, she placed the leaf onto the shelf next to the sink, where no errant breezes would let it escape, and hurried off to attend to her computer. She quickly typed in an entry into her eDiary before switching to Maja, and worrying about the new rigging needed for the Jimmy the Dog.

Shouko was uncertain of just how many leaves had blown in during the winter. It seemed that every time she delivered one flower pot, another one appeared. She surveyed the house in front of her - it looked promising - and set the pot down on the steps.

Spring was approaching. She could feel it in her bones. All that was left was for this leaf to bloom.



Please RP planting the leaf to grow it.

"I'm going insane, Kris! I tell you, all I do now after work is rush home to see if a kid has popped out of this flowerpot!" Tahlia exclaimed as she made a tiny adjustment to a keyframe in her animation. Kris was at the desk behind her, and the two were known to carry on conversations all day without looking at each other once.

Kris scoffed.
"Still with the leaf, huh? I don't even know why you believe that note. Have you ever heard of this Shouku person before? I mean, sure, there are strange shops around, this is Gaia after all. But who's ever heard of a kid popping out of a leaf?"

Tahlia could hear Kris typing furiously, and she broke off with a short curse word. "Darn it, I typed what I was saying again!" More typing ensued as Kris started over. Tahlia snickered, and was rewarded with an expertly aimed pirate plushie to the head.

"Pirate Attack! Anyways, what are going to do if a kid does come out of the leaf? Do you have any room for him?"

"How do you always manage to hit me? Well, I've managed to save up enough that buying a bed won't be too much of a sacrifice, and you remember I asked Tim for a raise?"

"Oh yeah, I remember the wild laughter all right."

"Okay, he didn't give it to me right off, but you know he'll eventually give in if I keep asking. And if Jimmy the Dog starts having weird ticks."

"Dang, I can feel your evil smile from over here! Tim doesn't stand a chance!"

"Darn straight!"

Tahlia heard Kris laugh, and then both of them returned to work. Tahlia's minds wandered to the past week. Darner-in-pot wasn't all that different from Darner-as-leaf, except for the watering. He still wiggled occasionally, still green, and still decidedly non-kid like.

Still, Tahlia believed the note's message, and had been trying to plan for a kid, searching through thrift stores for clothing that wasn't for her, for once, and contemplating whether or not she should get diapers. The note hadn't mentioned how old Darner would be, but Tahlia planned to take a trip to this Eden Project place soon, and get a few questions answered. Just as soon as work would let her...

____


That evening, Tahlia went over her checkbook, something she usually left till the last of the month, but her conversation with Kris had awoken a sudden need to plan for the future. Chewing absent-mindedly on the end of her pencil, Tahlia stared at the figures as if doing so would make them change in her favor. With an explosive sigh, Tahlia stretched her back, extending her wings out as well. She looked over to where Darner sat in his pot on the breakfast bar, doing whatever it is leaves do when not wiggling.

"Well, I'm going to have to stop buying clothes and games for now, but I think we can manage, Darner." she said, smiling reassuringly. After tossing her papers into their drawer, she watered Darner, watching with satisfaction as he wiggled happily. Tahlia leaned on the bar, and talked quietly to Darner as she dreamed about the future.