Welcome to Gaia! ::

All of the rose’s attention was fixed upon the ethereal raevan’s words and she drifted in a half-daze to her own place at the table, lapping up the information that the boy provided on her friend. Unfortunately it seemed as though Eiry also hadn’t seen the green skinned recently either, though it was interesting to know that another plant raevan was so close friends with Gage despite his burning touch. In fact it was heart-warming almost to know that the green skinned youth defied his destructive nature to persist in being friends, it made Vyn recall his gentle demeanour and consequently raised a new pang of desire to see him again... If she recalled correctly Ethan had a list of the details of other raevan owners, perhaps she could get him to contact Julian – though she was unsure how Ethan would react to the wily and rather snappish guardian. Shuura had always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with him...

“I miss him too Eiry-kun.” She added the prefix on a whim, finding that it suited him and his boyish playful nature. (The suffixes she knew were used sparingly, as she found it a bit awkward to refer to everyone with them.) “We also spoke a lot... Any worry or matter that I wished to discuss I knew would come out whilst speaking with him. He was a good listener.” Her black eyes were filled with a form of sadness as she realised just how long it had been since she’d spoken to him and unfortunately her mind formed a melancholy reason why there had been such a long quiet period... Maybe the masked frei simply didn’t want to talk to her? This disheartened her somewhat, but the shadow quickly dispelled the gloomy thoughts. She was confident that it must be a cause of fate, after all, Gage probably didn’t even know about her move from Shuura to Ethan. Even if he wanted to contact her he probably couldn’t!

At Aphismet’s compliment, Ethan’s chest quite literally puffed out with pride. He was glad that the penthouse’s decor was impressive and the furniture was being marvelled at; he even smirked slightly at Aphismet’s slip of the tongue regarding the cost... It had cost the fortune that the man suspected, however the impression that it made on his guests was worth every last coin of gold. Hopefully the cuisine that they were about to consume would be equally as impressive.

As if reading his inquiring mind the door that led to the kitchen swung open on well kept hinges to reveal a smartly dressed pair of waiters bearing three plates. The servers places the plates, fitting to the setting and stylishly shaped into triangles rather than the usual circular plates one would expect, in front of the diners and started to make their way back to the kitchen. However, as Ethan was given his plate he smiled warmly at the man. “Could you tell the chef that if possible I would like him to prepare an extra portion for one of my guests? It need not be large; he only wants to sample the food. It would be much appreciated.” The waiter agreed politely to pass on the message before following his companion back into the kitchen.

When that was done Ethan beamed at Isikoro and Aphismet, gesturing to the starter before them. It consisted quite simply of wafer thin slices of pink uncooked Italian ham, wrapped around breadsticks. “Prosciutto and grissini. Enjoy.” He stated, lifting the outside set of silverware and beginning to sample the delicacy quietly pleased with how appealing it looked on the plate. Hopefully his guests would enjoy Italian cuisine as much as he did.

All traces of doom and gloom seemed to be chased away from the table as Rivener made his suggestion, although, it wasn’t only the promise of communication with Gage that changed the topic of conversation but the impressive arrival of the food too! Vyn knew that Ethan had splashed out to leave a big impression on the other guardians but she couldn’t help but wonder, what was the point of all the showy performance Ethan had arranged? After all, they never usually ate like this. More often than not eating was a casual affair, even a big shot businessman like Ethan appreciated a t.v dinner in front of his favourite show. However, questioning Ethan would no doubt undo the grandeur he was creating and thus Vyn kept her tongue and instead regarded the human guests as they looked on with awe.

Intensely pleased that the starter was going down well Ethan was not too disgruntled when a sharp buzzing disturbed the peace. He tutted to himself and promptly extracted the mobile, flicking up the razor thin screen to inspect the caller identity. If it was an unimportant client he would simply reject the call and make a note to ring them back the next morning. If it was someone of great importance he was sure his guests wouldn’t mind him slipping out of the room for a brief exchange in words... Curiously, it seemed to be the latter. Flashing in neat font on the screen was ‘EMERGENCIES, LAB’. Ethan had entered the emergency LAB number when he had received the number sheet after Alex had dropped off Vyn, he hadn’t however expected to use it and much less to be phoned by it. For that reason he coughed and murmured his condolences before getting down from the table and answering the call...

Vyn was slightly confused at Ethan’s abrupt leaving. She had been expecting him to remain at the table and put the call on hold for now. After all, he’d put so much effort into the event so far that it seemed peculiar for him to dash off...

However, the man was not gone long and as he walked back in his expression was gaunt. Something spine chillingly numbing had been said over the phone by a frantic male voice...

“Gage is dead.”

Isi had finished his meal, feeling more relaxed and happy than before. the food had done something to alter his mood, give it a fluff and a pat so that the boy was feeling quite dandy. Eager for the next part of the meal, Isi hardly paid any mind as Mr. Blake excused himself from the table. These things must be regular a flitting thought had told him, he was, after all, an important man. Wiping his mouth with the napkin, Isi leaned towards his brother to catch what the chef was saying. He had given a smile, opened his mouth and inhaled, when Ethan had reentered the room, bringing with him a darkening of atmosphere.

"Gage is dead."

Eiry stiffened. "Gage...?"

Isi wasn't sure if he heard the man right. Blinking stupidly, Isi leaned back and tried staring at Ethan. Perhaps he hadn't heard correctly. But upon swinging his gaze around the room to collect the disgruntled and surprised faces of the other table members, Isi knew that it was true. A sudden grip tightened around his stomach, pulling it deep down into his legs, emulating a gaping pit and the boy struggled to speak.

"W-what!?!" His own rasp added to the chorus. But before he could speak again, his ward exploded.

"NO!"

Eiry, while the others reeled from surprise and shock, had been the first to quickly register this announcement as a fraud. It had to be a lie. It had to be a trick! A cruel joke, a tease! Ethan knew that they were looking forward to talking with Gage. He had to have overheard their eager planning and see their hopeful faces! He was playing a trick on them, it had to be! The frei felt his chest suddenly contract upon itself, his shoulders tightening up near his neck. His face pulled back into a scowl, and with a belligerent nature unbecoming to the childish raevan, Eiry slammed his fists on the table and launched himself at Ethan.

He grabbed a hold of Ethan's expensive shirt and balled it in his fists, so that when he glared at Ethan, his red eyes trembling between anger and fear, he was only inches away from his face, framed by the ethereal fire of his wings, "THOU LIEST! Jestering monkey, thou liest! Gage cannot be dead! You're cruel! CRUEL! To say such things! You must be lying! You must be playing a trick and I am the best of them! I know tricks and lies, I know jokes and pranks! I KNOW THEM. Gage cannot be dead! You're lying!"

Startled by his raevan's sudden outburst, Isi stumbled up from the table, scrambling to get out of his chair, "Jesus! Eiry! Stop it! Stop!"

Rivener was as shocked as Vyn, sitting there staring at his cutlery with lips parted. The world was utter chaos around him: Aphi was shocked, Eiry screamed and threw himself at Ethan, Isi was trying to remove the minty frei from their host, Vyn was sobbing...

"Eiry, you're upsetting everyone even worse," Rivener spoke softly, pretty sure he wouldn't be overheard. It's not like he could get up and bodily pull the frei off Mr Blake: Eiry's intangibility made any physical restraining nigh on impossible. All they could do is try to talk him down from his hysterics, and Riv couldn't see that happening either. He just frowned at his plate, getting angrier by the minute. He knew no one here earned that anger, he shouldn't lash out at them, but-... but Eiry's screaming was REALLY getting on his nerves... And Vyn's sobbing was grating at his patience too... And the humans were all flailing about like chickens with their heads cut off, with the glaring exception of Ethan Blake who remained level and civil as always, calmly asking the ghost-Raevan to let him go.

"...Home," Riv mumbled. "I want to go home." They had no place here, after all. Not now. Vyn needed to be alone, to digest this, and Rivener knew that while he should be strong and try to be consoling, he was much too upset to be of any help. Already his ruby eyes were rimming with tears: he wanted to get the hell out of here before he began crying. He didn't want anyone to see him cry. He'd do that alone, in his room.

Aphismet had gotten to his feet to try and help Isikoro remove Eiry from Ethan's person before the businessman filed Assault charges on them. "Eiry, come on!" Aphi called, wrapping his hand around a pale green bicep and trying to tug the frei off. "Come on, let go. We'll go home, okay?" Aphi said softly, hearing Rivener's quiet request.