Welcome to Gaia! ::

Araran was quite surprised by the child’s reaction; the smaller figure opened the door then slammed it in his face shouting something in a different language. He blinked, pondering what he could’ve possibly done wrong. Had his glamour slipped and startled the young boy? He checked but found nothing amiss; his faerie features were covered entirely and any normal mortal would see nothing. He had little time to think of a reason for the child’s strange behaviour as an adult opened the door again, apologising profusely about the bad behaviour. Araran adjusted his expression into a forgiving smile, covering the bewilderment. ”Do not worry. I shall put the incident out of my mind.” he spoke politely, as he stepped into the hallway. ”It was very pleasant of you to invite myself and Rioge here to come bathing with you.”

The boy also startled Rioge, but he quickly forgot as they were invited inside. He’d never been inside a mortal’s house and was intrigued by many of the things inside. Even the light bulb hanging above was fairly new to him. There appeared to be another child in the hallway, presumably another Ashe, and Rioge waved at them, beaming happily. ”Hello, nice to meet you.. My name’s Rioge. What’s yours?” He introduced himself, focusing his attention on the other Ashe rather than the adults. His Daddy liked talking to them and he could only speak with older people he was comfortable with, and he didn’t know them at all.

Rioge nodded at the other child, he wondered why the boy had stormed off to the toilet. He hadn’t understood the foreign words any more than his guardian and he was clueless to what to do. ”Maybe he needs the toilet?” he suggested. It sounded silly but it was the only logical explanation that sprung to mind – why else would somebody run into a toilet? Mystified he smiled sheepishly at the other boy who hadn’t revealed his name yet. Are you looking forward to swimming?” He asked, changing the subject from the boy in the toilet.

When he’d heard that they’d be going swimming he’d been ecstatic – he loved water and had been eager to swim for a while now but had never had the chance as his father didn’t seem to be overly confident or willing to going swimming and so this opportunity to go for a dip in the lake was to be taken without a doubt.

Araran smiled at the other woman who’d introduced herself. ”Hello. My name is Araran, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He adjusted his backpack slightly – it was newly bought for the trip and it contained his and Rioge’s also newly bought swimming stuff. Water fae swam naked much of the time but Araran had doubly checked to see if humans did the same and luckily found out that they didn’t and had swiftly purchased the required gear. ”My son and I need to change into our ’trunks’. Where would you like us to do that?” He asked, turning back to the owner of the house and gesturing to his current clothing, indicating that it obviously wasn’t suited to swimming.

Mir smiled, the expression more than a little embarrassed as she listened to the melodrama, but Julien's face was completely serious as he heard the words. Before Felicity could move forward, he turned to look at her, his pale blue eyes solemn. "I think something's really wrong," he said softly, silvery brows drawn together as he chewed his lower lip. "Maybe I can try to talk to him for you?" Before Felicity even answered, he was turning back to the bathroom door, knocking lightly on it. "Toulouse? It's Jules. Can I come in please? Just me, okay?" he called out, falling silent to wait for the hoped-for answer.

Mireille turned to look at Felicity, shrugging hesitantly. Jules was a cuddly sort, yes, but she'd never seen him like this before, really, had never seen him so worried about someone else. Then again, on reflection, she realized she'd never really given him much chance to be worried, wanting to keep things happy for him.

Felicity sighed, watching the two go through the door to the downstairs. The were gone, finally. No she could get down to business and find out what exactly was going on with Toulouse.

“I don’t think anything is wrong with him Julien.” Felicity said joining the boy by the door. “I wouldn’t worry to much about him. Toulouse is always having kittens about one thing or another. He’s probably just having on of his tantrums again. Did you hear that Toulouse?” Felicity demanded rapping on the bathroom door. “I think that you’re having an unneeded tantrum.”

“I don’t have fits of temper woman!” Came Toulouse’s muffled reply from the other side of the door. “And another thing, I don’t think I want to see you right now.” Felicity shrugged and went back over to join Mir. Whatever was wrong with Toulouse, he would get over it eventually.

Toulouse could almost feel the girl shrugging through the wood. She would be doing that up and down wiggle of her shoulders that meant nothing and everything all at once. It irked him to no end and he scowled harder even though he knew no one would see him.

It was then Toulouse heard Jules ask to come in, to talk. Toulouse thought about if for a moment. It would be a prime opportunity to see if the boy was really like himself or just like all the others. It would be an enormous relief to find that he wasn’t the only one born under…special circumstances. It would be nice to have a kindred spirit. Still, he didn’t want Felicity sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. He wanted her to like him, but he wasn’t about to tell her the rest of his horrific secret.

“You can come in Jules.” Toulouse replied hotly, scurrying over to the door. He unlocked it had peeked through the crack. “But you have to stay out peasant.” This was directed at Felicity.

“Whatever you brat.” Was all Felicity said.

Toulouse opened the door wider to allow Jules to come in.

“Oui, company mon amie would not be unwelcome. More importantly though, I wanted to ask you something…something that I didn’t want les filles to hear. Don’t be frightened if what I ask you strange. Please, I beg you to answer as truthfully as you can. My very sanity hangs on the balance.” Toulouse clasped Jules’ hand in his own, giving the boy a half wild, half pleading look. “How old are you?”

Felicity sighed disconcerted. She had a feeling this would happen. She just knew that Mir probably thought her a careless and unfeeling beast for treating Toulouse the way she did. It was just so hard not to.

“Toulouse has these little fits daily. They happen so much that I hardly notice anymore. At first I tried to help, to figure out what was wrong, but he just pushed me away telling me it was ‘no business of a peasant’.” Felicity gazed steadily at Mir hoping she would understand. There was something going on with Toulouse that he wasn’t telling her. Felicity wasn’t stupid and even though she didn’t know the entirety of Toulouse’s situation, she knew enough to be curious and want to more to at least try to help him as best she could. Maybe Mir could help too?

“Mir, can I ask you something about Jules?"

Taken aback, Julien just blinked at Toulouse for several moments before tilting his head a bit. "A few days. I haven't been counting since I came out of my egg," he finally said, shrugging and patting his free hand over Toulouse's clutching ones. "I don't remember anything before the egg, but I remember all the light Mireille gave me while I was in it," he added, hoping that might help Toulouse. He didn't look frightened at all, despite the way Toulouse clung to him. "You came from an egg, too, didn't you?" he added gently.

Biting back her instinctive response of Felicity's explanation, and completely oblivious to the two approaching, Mireille nodded. "Of course. But I don't know everything, Felicity. I may not be able to answer." She paused, then added, "But if I can't, you should ask him. He'll tell you if he can."

Julien watched Toulouse in concern, reaching to hold the boy's arms with a gentle, hopefully comforting grip. His eyes held soft sympathy, searching Toulouse's face for several long minutes before offering soft words, his voice pitched low enough for only his frantic friend to hear. "I know who I am," he said, voice certain. But taking pity on Toulouse, he added, "But I don't know who I was. Perhaps I'm not meant to know." Odd, that even now, there was no fear in the words.

"Murdered?" Mireille gasped softly, jerking around to stare at Felicity. "But... what... how... how do you even know?!" she finally managed. She was beginning to feel like any handle she might've had on the situation was being blown to smithereens. "Does he know?"