Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kimiko sluggishly dropped into bed. The day had been exhausting for her, running all over town for groceries, and other essential products. Of course, Miyu had been there as well, but four hands aren't that helpful when it comes to 15 bags of groceries and a cranky baby. She looked to her journal and yawned, she could suffice a small entry before bed. Pulling out her pen, she wrote in a shaky and barely legible hand.



Yawning again, she closed the journal with a snap, picking up the remote and turning on the TV. Turning off the lights with a flick of her hand, she crawled beneath the sheets and numbed her mind with Saturday night cartoons.

The glow of the television was the only light in the room, other than a few night-lights, as she had a small (large) fear of the dark. The volume was turned low, and the light cast by the TV cast a long shadow on Kimiko's face. It was midnight. ((Gaia time sure moves fast, eh?))

The air was filled with despair. It was nighttime, yet the moon and the stars were not out. Perhaps they were scared; Kimiko could sense an ominous feeling in the air. The fog was rolling in; how she hated, yet loved the fog.
The girl stood in a graveyard, leaning against a cast-iron gate. She was not in her usual outfit, the one of sickenly cheerful colors and lace, instead a dreary priestess robe. She hummed a melancholy song, which was oddly familiar, yet not.
Glancing down the seemingly endless rows of tombstones, she felt compelled to move. And so she strode down the cobblestone path lightly, glancing at the blank headstones which she passed. Something made her stop dead in her tracks, and she glanced up.
Two shadow-people were staring down at her, watching her with their non-eyes. How that was, she couldn't explain. They were tall, yet not-so-tall; one was a child, the other an adult. They both seemed familiar--as everything else did--and Kimiko wanted to scream.
But she couldn't.

someone help me please

The two seemed to engulf the light from the sky (there was light, even though the moon and the stars were hiding)

and
they
let out a terrible
SCREAM.

They filled the sky with their nothingness,

emptiness,
darkness,
despair,

until nothing was left. And the nothing-Kimiko shrieked.


Kimiko woke up in a cold sweat. The glare from the television was a bit bright for her, and she squinted, reaching out her hand to turn the lights back on. The mind-numbing TV was relaxing for her, and she sank back into her bed, listening to the sounds play softly.
Unbeknownst to her, another one was having a bad dream as well.


It was spring. She could tell; the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and the petals rained down on them like a light morning shower. The princess--that was Mayu--meandered down the cobblestone path and to the garden. Her two fans swung at her side, held in place by her sash, the color of lovely roses,

carnations,
FLOWERS,

red. The kimono itself was a light pink, with a lovely pattern of cranes taking flight. It had been her favorite outfit, the edges were slightly torn from being worn so much. Of course, the was never self-consious about her appearance, it had just been her favorite for the color. Anyway, enough about that.
She sat down by the lake, tossing a few crumbs into the water which she had salvaged from lunch. The swans crowded around her hand, nibbling on the scraps of bread greedily. Laughing lightly, she got up and managed a twirl before falling into the pond. Well, that was a bad thing to do. She had never learned how to swim.
Mayu fell deeper and deeper, her sight slowly diminishing until she was out of the sun's reach; total

complete
ultimate

DARKNESS. And then a hand reached out of the sand and dragged her down.

The sound of crying filled the house.

The dreams had come again last night. Probably nothing, Kimiko sighed as she carried a basket of laundry to the washing mashine. The tala ran around her in a frenzy, almost causing her to trip over her own feet. Meanwhile, Mayu was out on her own adventure . . .


Crawling around merrily, Mayu proved a hard one to catch. She had been crawling around upstairs and now into the living room, and Miyu struggled to catch her. Laughing with delight, she narrowly avoided the silver-haired one's grasp, and continued her journey to wherever it would take her that day.


Oh right, need to check the mailbox; the mailman's come by already. The girl sighed again -- she had been doing that a lot lately -- and finished loading the machine. With a twist of her hand, the washing machine started to hum. Kimi walked to the front door lazily, scooping Mayu up as she passed the pink one by -- leaving Miyu in disbelief, I might add -- and stepped outside. Breathing in the fresh air, she half-walked, half-skipped over to the mailbox and opened it with a creak. Nothing. She sighed and walked back to the house, almost overlooking the letter again. However, Mayu giggled and made a grab for it, which turned her attention to the envelope on the doorstep.

Picking the letter up, she walked over to the sofa and sat down, placing Mayu beside her. She yawned and looked over the envelope again, then placed it on the coffee table. She would deal with that later.


Mayu made a grab for the remote and clicked the TV on, cooing at the familiar theme song of her favorite cartoon. She sunk back into the couch and watched as the mesmerizing pictures went by.

The sound of laughing filled the air. The unlikely duo -- in this case, Kimiko and Mayu -- were sitting outside, watching the fireflies flitter away into the moonlight. The water beneath them shuddered; they were sitting on the edge of the koi pond. Behind them a light was lit, and Miyu peered out the curtains curiously to see what was going on. Spying; not a very polite thing to do, but it sure was fun. The silver-haired girl chuckled to herself as she walked back into the house. Maybe there was something new on television that would boost her spirits.

Mayu hopped up and took a few baby steps before stumbling back down; she had done that a lot lately. She would learn to walk soon, Kimi reckoned, and she pulled the babe up with one arm.

"So . . . What do you want to do to-night, Mayu?" The girl asked, looking down at the baby with a smiling face. Mayu gurgled in return, and pointed toward the house.

"Alright, back to the house it is." Kimiko said, and stood up suddenly. She hoisted Mayu up with her arms and marched back into the house stiffly. The unceremonial ending to the night was almost comical, and the duo had to, at the very least, snigger at the way they had exited.

Shoving Miyu over--she had been sprawled on the couch, staring at the television with a blank face--and taking her seat on the sofa, Kimi placed Mayu down on the floor, and began her daily reading again. She had taken an unusual interest in alchemy lately, and had become more and more absorbed in the books from the study. She usually brought two or three down to read while watching Mayu play, and more rarely, a whole stack. Peering over the top of the book, the girl smiled as she watched Mayu play happily with her bunny plush, then returned to reading her texts. As they say, history always repeats itself.

Mum had become obsessed with those books lately. Al-ke-mie? The syllables rolled over Mayu's tounge as she tried to babble it out. Ah well. If it made mum ahppy, it made Mayu happy as well. Rolling over to lie on her back, the babe squealed with delight as she held up her bunny plush. How captivating those ears were! So fun to chew and pull on. They were almost as good as a pillow. Almost.

Well, what to do now? She had gotten bored of both the bunny and the assortment of coloured pillows scattered about the floor, and crawled around looking for something to do. Of course, there was not much a baby could do on a night such as this. Well, time to cause some chaos.

The peaceful night of reading and numbing minds on television was put to an abrupt stop by the sound of wailing. Kimi was immediately drawn from her book, and snapped it closed with a clap. She picked up the fussy baby and rocked her around, in hopes that she would quiet down. It was unusual, she said to herself. Mayu was usually not a fussy baby. So why the sudden change tonight? Maybe it was the full moon. There had been a full moon out tonight. She sighed and started singing a lullaby, one that flowed steadily into her mind. She had not heard it before, but it flowed from her lips easily. Strange. Maybe she would be able to persue a career in songwriting in the future. The simple thought made her laugh, and she sat back down on the couch, still rocking the crying child. She had quieted down in the last few minutes, and had even started bobbing her head in sync to the melody.


Well well, a game. This may be of some interest. Mayu yawned, and blinked up at Kimiko sleepily. There was something about sad lullabies and being rocked back and forth that made one sleepy . . . Zzz.

Kimiko snapped the journal shut and ran down the stairs two steps at a time. Running into the kitchen, she began grabbing items from the refrigerator with a sort of clumsy grace . . .

To challenge the sun.

A dusty library brought coughs to the girl's throat, threatening to drive her apart. The air was stale with a dampness lingering in the air, and it was quite obvious that the room had nto been visited in a long, long time.

A beam of light slightly illuminated a section of a wooden bookshelf, and the girl wielding the flashlight waved away dusty cobwebs and sent spiders scurrying back into their holes as she made her way over the ruins over to the lighted area.

It had been just a few days ago when she had brought up a page of conspiracist theories, that a secret library was hidden beneath the collapsed Sayaki mansion. Kimiko had scoffed at some of these statements at first, but quickly found an addiction to them and began avidly reading them over and over. Finally, she had to see if the library was there for herself.

What had piqued her interest in the subject was the mere fact that it related to the Sayakis, the family that had disappeared without a trace just a few years ago. It seemed that misfortune was doomed to befall all of the rich families in Gaia, and they were no exception. There were Gambino conspiracists, Von Helson ones, so why not the Sayakis? The name brought the Japanese girl some odd comfort as well, and she had thrown aside her duties to persue this hidden library, even one which very well may not have existed.

But it did.

Kimiko had to squint in the faint beam which the handheld flashlight gave off, but had found a book of interest quickly. It was, in actuality, around five books. Or maybe ten. Plucking off a slightly damp book off of the shelf, Introduction to Alchemy, the girl directed the beam to the tiny words on the page she had flipped open to and began to read.



A glint came into Kimi's eyes, this "alchemy" seemed rather interesting to her. She began to scan the shelves of the same bookcase, and picked out several other books pertaining to this curious subject. Her arms loaded with books, the black-haired girl made her way back up to surface level and into the sunlight.

Alchemy, huh? She wasn't sure quite what it was, but she did seem to feel some connection to it. She would have to do research on this when she got home.

It was.. cold. Not a brisk chill, but a deadly, penetrating cold, the types of which cuts straight through one's jacket and deep into the skin. And on that day, Kimiko was not in a good mood.

"I .. AM COLD." The girl stormed through the house, grabbing all possible sources of warmth she could find. Her attempts were futile.

Meanwhile, the baby and the silver-haired child were huddled upon the couch, buried in the colourful blankets they had managed to salvage from their own bedrooms.

"Better off than Kimiko, I suppose. Don't you agree, baby Mayu?"

The baby mutually agreed.

"If I may .. Why don't you just TURN THE DAMN HEATER UP?!" Orphne scowled, halo bobbing frenziedly above her curled horns. The tala was not at all amused by the situation, her usually calm personality fired up to match her element.

"'Ey! Don't swear in front of the bebbeh!" The girl clapped her hands over Mayu's ears, letting out a small huff at the aggravated tala.

"I'LL SWEAR WHEN I WANT TO SWEAR, FILTHY HUMAN!" The tala snarled back. A small glass figurine shattered upon the coffee table behind her.

"Gwah!" The baby exclaimed, peering out from under a cover of blankets. This was going to be interesting.

"OKAY, okay, I've turned the heater up!" Kimiko slid in from the kitchen as the two were neck-and-neck. The tala and the jumi both relaxed as the sound of warm air rushed in from the vents overhead.

"Now, for another matter. Where the HECK are our Christmas ornaments?" The black-haired one waved her arm at the walls, now completely devoid of holiday decorations and other such things.

A few mumbles were scattered here and there as the dysfunctional family put their noggins together to figure out a plausible reason for the disappearance of the delicately hung decorations and things that they had so painstakingly put up a few nights before.

"Maybe the Christmas fairy took it to get them polished!"

"There are no Christmas fairies, idiot."

"There aren't?"

"No."

"... Then who took the ornaments?" The girl sniffled, looking about her. It was too late to buy new decorations, the stores were bound to be sold out by then.

Mutters went about the room again, it seemed like Christmas was truly ruined. Shuffling into the kitchen, Kimiko pried through the pantry and dug out some baking ingredients. "I'm still making cookies for Santa ..." She sighed, though her heart was crushed at the theft.

The rest of the family scattered to their own niches, though they were obviously affected by the break-in as well. Their normally upbeat moods were suppressed, leaving an air of gloom around the entire house.

There wasn't anything that could save the Christmas spirit in the Misaki household now.

--------------------

A man with blue-streaked hair trudged slowly on the sidewalk with a large tinkering bag of ornaments. He had stashed the Christmas tree and wreaths in a hidden back alley, and would return for them later. Why did he have to be the one to steal the Christmas ornaments from the family? They seemed like a happy bunch, and it was Christmas, for god's sake! Sighing, the young man found a bench, and although the seat was packed with snow, sat down. He hated to be the one to ruin the happy mood.

Shifting in his blue sneakers uncomfortably, he looked up and leaned back in his seat, watching the endless snowflakes fall continuously. His sharp mind was formulating a brilliant plan. Dashing back to the secret alley he had happened upon earlier (Hermes the swift, they called him -- he arrived in 3 minutes flat) and stashed the ornaments alongside the tree and wreaths he had placed down earlier. Now, he just had to find an open supermarket ...

--------------------

The cookies came steaming out of the oven and onto a plate. Kimiko placed them on the coffee table to cool, and sank into the sofa with a frown. Mayu crawled up to her and gave her a big hug, then resumed her chewing on the already-soggy cushion which she was carrying. The black-haired girl smiled, giving Mayu's hair a ruffle. Clicking on the television, she began to watch a Christmas special on the comedy channel. The day ahead of them was going to be a long one, indeed.

--------------------

Hermes walked out of the G-mart, whistling happily. The plastic bag in his arms carried a full Santa suit, and his face showed the delight of a child walking out of a candy store with full arms. He didn't have to take the blame for ruining the holiday spirit, cheers for him!

He really did love the way his mind worked sometime, however ADD it was. Now, he just had to find some way to keep himself busy until nighttime! Checking his watch, he noted that it was 11:00 in the morning -- great. He had seen a toy store somewhere around there, the consoles they put out for people to test were always fun to play around with. Maybe they would even have a copy of Animal Crossing!