Welcome to Gaia! ::

Closing the heavy bound journal, Raife sighed and drummed her fingers absently on the oak table beneath it, squinting her eyes at the leaf. She had it settled comfortably onto a little bed of tissues, having nothing else to put it on. This batch of tissues was dry. The ones she'd wet before hadn't gone over too well with the little leaf. Despite her angry claims that a leaf couldn't be "upset," somehow, the leaf had managed to approximate some sort of abject horror at the water, squirming and inching away from it and hissing wildly.

Hissing?

She had to be going crazy. To imagine that the leaf was taking on animal like properties, or any properties at all besides those of a leaf wasn't right. Perhaps it was time to go see a shrink.

Or maybe just drown herself in a quart of chocolate chip ice cream.

"It just takes a little finesse."

"What?"

"Everything living can be reasoned with, even a full grown tiger. So a leaf should be no problem."

Raife looked up skeptically at her muse as he tucked the leaf in his shirt breast pocket. He seemed assured about this. Well, he seemed assured about a lot of things, but mostly he kept that assuredness to himself. Raife had asked this time however, and he'd taken over in the quiet, firm, accomplished leadership that seemed to naturally exude from him. He would watch the leaf for the day. Meanwhile, Raife would take a rest from chasing the damn thing all over the living room, writing angry, confused journal entries about it, and whining at it in an effort to get it to stay still. In fact, Raife was taking a break from everything today.

Mikhael and Declan were with Trance, picking out the shoes of Mik's choice.

Galen and Moros were respectively sleeping and hibernating of a sort, in some sort of strange recuperative cocoon of blankets and pillows, and would not be disturbed.

The bottle was...a bottle, no matter how shiny. And unlike the leaf, it didn't move.

And the leaf was, as previously stated, with Zeno. The muse.

This break from the action would give her a little time to reflect on this new development. Would she have to always watch this leaf? Would it always remain a leaf? Gaia was famous for turning things into things they were not. If it was going to always stay a leaf, she would have to figure out some sort of new accommodations for it. The little bed of tissues was too easy for it to leave. In fact, so was a cage, or anything designed to keep things in. It was practically two dimensional, and could easily find its way out of anything, if what it wanted was outside.

And it was most lively at night, when she was trying to sleep. This was highly inappropriate of a leaf. Weren't they supposed to react best to sunlight and water? The leaf liked little of either. It did enjoy a good sunbeam on occasion, filtering in onto its little chlorophyll cells or whatever. Raife wasn't a botanist. She didn't give a whit how plants worked.

But this one was curious. Even to her. She tried to think of things to keep the leaf grounded without killing it.

Stuff it in a jello mold? No, too sticky.

A pillow? It'd suffocate in there.

Some sort of leash? How would that work?!

She thought in vain. If only her brain wasn't a piddly small thing, given to sudden, useless bursts of trivia and squealing, perhaps she would be able to think of something...

This one was most special to the young girl and so she was very fond of delivering the message of growth. Indeed this was the strange leaf she had saved from the dog ! Tyyne was moving towards the door quite content with herself and put down a letter, a package of soil and an orange flowerpot as usual. For a moment she pondered on ringing the bell to look at the leaf, but decided against it and turned around to go back home.




[ Please roleplay the planting scene to make your leaf develop ]

"Eh?"

Raife smiled patiently at the confused toddler nestled on her lap. She was never quite as patient otherwise as she was with her oldest, Mik, in tow. She'd had to learn to be so with him.

"We're going to plant the leaf, baby bird. You know, like how you and Trance planted seeds in the vegetable garden?"

Mikhael didn't quite get the whole planting thing yet. He didn't quite have the maturity in brain power to associate the seeds with the little sprouts that were now growing in the garden. Maybe in another year...he grew so fast. But he remembered sticking things in the dirt. Little wiggly fingers reached out for the leaf, eagerly. Raife smiled encouragingly.

"That's right."

The leaf wiggled a commotion when the muse boy reached out to grab it, practically lunging at his fingers. He drew his fingers back a bit, hesitantly, as if the leaf could actually bite him. It seemed to want to. Raife frowned a bit. What kind of leafchild was this? She wondered if once it was let out of the leaf, it would go on some sort of murderous rampage, hunting down her family? Did it EAT feathered things? Would it try to eat Mik? Was it really a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater child? Sighing, she rubbed the bridge of her nose. She was getting a bit ridiculous, as usual. Perhaps the leaf just didn't like little kids.

Reaching forward as Mik did, she waited for a frantic response of some sort from the leaf. None came. It kind of wiggled a bit, but that was the extent of its action. Picking it up gently, she squinted at it, and then pointed to the dirt. "We're going to plant you or whatever now, okay? Attempting a smile, she gestured at Mik to poke his fingers in the dirt and make a hole. The youngster gleefully dug his whole little hand into the soil, creating a much bigger hole than necessary, but that could be fixed. She continued to squint at the leaf, wondering how it felt about being planted.

Wait. Was she wondering what a leaf felt?! This kid was poisoning her brain. She shook her head and smiled wryly.

"Alright, little guy. Into the soil you go. Hope it's to your liking." She poked the leaf into the soil hole, tucking some extra soil snugly around it with Mikhael's help. The leaf wiggled a bit, but seemed to settle down into the material, no longer fussing about Mikhael. Raife smiled and made a show of dusting her hands off, and grinned at Mikhael as he mimicked the gesture. "Well. I'd say we did a good job. Time to water the little sprite, I suppose." Raife wrinkled her nose at the memory that the leaf wasn't fond of water, but honestly. What could a leaf stuck in soil do to her?

Perhaps she would finally get revenge for the three hours she spent looking for the leaf that morning.

Leaving Mikhael with his head propped on his arms watching the pot, she moved to the kitchen to pour some water into a cup to water the leaf. As the cup filled, she wondered idly how exactly a child would come out of the plant. Would it grow and blossom and slowly gain feet and a head and a body? She giggled at the mental image that produced. Hopefully it was something a little different.

She returned with the cup in a minute, pouring it carefully over the leaf. It wiggled futily, thrashing a bit in the soil like an angered....well, an angered leaf. Raife just chuckled and murmured patiently. "It's good for you." She turned towards Mik with a decidedly cheerful smile. It was fun showing up that little troublemaking leaf. "Well. Shall we put it in some sun?"

Mik smiled back and nodded, agreeing mostly for the sake of being two. He followed Raife as she settled the pot on a low ledge, not in direct sunlight -again, something the little leaf seemed not to be fond of- but rather in a low warmth of sun, pleasingly temperate. Standing back, she eyed the pot critically after a moment.

"Good. That'll do."

"Will you please not play with that? Honestly, you're a grown man, and that's not a toy."

Trance grinned at Raife's exasperated, motherly tone, shooting back roguish glee. "I won't drop it. I promise." Raife had reason to be worried. The anxiety of the moment was the leaf c** pot spinning on Trance's pointer finger like a basketball. Raife grimaced.

"I'm absolutely sure you don't think you will, but I, frankly, and with good reason, do not have as much confidence in yoUU HEY." Her voice pitched unsteadily as he tossed the pot into the air then caught it neatly. "Especially don't do that. Gimme that." She jerked it from his hands irritatedly, checking it for cracks. "Last time I let you take care of the indoor plants. It's the garden for you." She shooed him outside, tucking the probably very dizzy little potted leaf under her arm.

Once the troublemaking conscience had been ushered to where he was less dangerous, she lifted the pot up to examine the leaf closer. Aside from appearing a wee bit confused, it was wiggling happily! She frowned and winged an eyebrow. It must have liked the rough play.

"You're a weird one, aren't you?" She couldn't help but smile. With Mik and Dec, who were both fairly reserved, Trance hadn't gotten someone to really roughhouse with, and Cray didn't have a playmate. Perhaps this leaf would produce both. It continued to rock out to some internal music, oblivious to her musings.

Suddenly, an idea.

"Hey, yeah, you wanna rock out? I can arrange that." She smiled and walked the leaf into her bedroom, settling the pot onto a nice windowsil not much different from the one it was sitting on before. Reaching into her drawer, she rummaged around a bit, humming to herself. "Now...I know it's in here somewhe--ahah!" She lifted a cd player, wiggling it a little in triumph. "I knew it was in there. So, what sounds good?" She popped open the player with a flick of her thumb to see what was inside. "Ramones? That'll do, eh?" Snapping it shut, she ambled back over to the pot and fixed the adjoining headset around the pot, with one ear piece on each side. "Comfy?" Without waiting for an answer, she turned the cd player on, setting the volume lower than she'd listen to herself, but high enough that the tunes'd carry through the terra cotta covered soil. "Alright. You chew on that for a bit." Grinning, she flopped over on her bed, listening to the ambient music filtering through the pot. She could just hear it, and from the wiggles-to-the-beat the leaf was giving off, she imagined it was enjoying the music just fine. She was starting to enjoy the little nuances she was slowly learning about her new little friend.

It is already dark outside as the leaf starts to twitch slightly. It's shaking it's tip from one side to another in the darkness. The movement is so strong that even the pot trembles a bit and out of sudden a loud hiss echoes through the air. What's happening ?

As the leaf notices the attention it continues to rattle and hiss even louder. The whole pot is trembling now and close to fall. Out of sudden black fur starts to grow on the leaf and vanishes within seconds just to grow again.

And just now the leaf starts it's final presentation. The sound quickly switches from purring to hissing and the shaking grows wilder and wilder until the leaf manages to make the pot fall down...and break. Accompanied by a loud meow the leaf slides out of the soil and glows in a shocking yellow for a moment before the light fades out again.
Two yellow eyes appear just right where the leaf had been and stare at Raife with anger.