Welcome to Gaia! ::

Milo blinked as Samantha took his hand. "Really don't want to be in costume." he said after a momentary pause. He then glared at his twin, ripping the ridiculous looking ears off his head and chucking them at the boy. Now he looked like a butler rather than a rabbit. Oh, he'd get revenge on his brother, just wait!

Matthias nodded, smiling at Sammi. "Hello, Samantha." he greeted formally, bowing slightly. "I apologize for our lateness. It will not happen again." He glanced around before taking a place by the wall, silently watching the party as he enjoyed the ambient energy in the room.



Aesica reached out to her pet, silently asking to be picked up before she did something to her mother she'd regret later. "Look ridiculous." she complained, frowning. She glanced over to the silver-haired girl, her gaze bored, before looking back to Loki and Howl. "She right. Romantic love is only in books. And Howl came from a book, so that explains it." she said, shrugging. She then looked down, noticing a familiar stitched-together girl. "Hello, Eve." she greeted, offering a small wave. No fair! She'd grown, too! And here Ae was, still stuck in her tiny little infant body, unable to walk. Ugh!

Stasia smiled as the little blue boy attached to her leg. "Oh no! A big, bad wolf! Whoever shall save me?" she said, giggling as she reached down to ruffle the little guy's hair. "I missed you too, kiddo. You been good for you dad?" She then looked over to Eve, smiling. Aww, it was the little ragdoll-girl-thing from the grocery store! "My, my, look who's grown!" she said, grinning at the red-haired child. "Haven't seen you in a while."



Jeron laughed out loud as he was hugged. "Irae!" he greeted, just as enthusiastically as the little vocaloid. He then giggled. "My name Jewon, silly. Not masuta." he said, laughing. "Missed you too. I get come to party! Mommy let me come with Miss NumNum!" Oh yes, he'd declared his neighbor that; she was yummy! Of course, it was highly unlikely she appreciated this, but oh well! "We play!" he declared, grinning behind his plastic visor.

Sammi nodded. "You look good, anyway," she said, with a hint of a blush crossing her cheeks. "Want to do something with me? Play some games? Maybe get something to eat?" She hadn't let go of his hand. "I made some cookies, if you want." She pointed to a table clothed in vinyl. Looked like someone had a crush; and she wasn't at all trying to hide it, either.

Reiya tapped Eve on the shoulder, after having greeted the arriving guests. Devin had abandoned her to greet his mother, it seemed. She'd have to instill some manners into her youngest cousin. "Hey, let's play bean bag toss. Maybe Loki and Aesica will join too," she suggested, looking at her cousins. "If you get the bean bag in one of the castle's windows or it's door, you win a prize."

~~~~

"Sorry, Milo," Loki said, giving his brother a smile. Or it may have been a smirk. Samantha liked Milo, hm? Interesting. That'd be handy knowledge when need came for blackmail. The fae frowned as he took Aesica into his arms. He looked quite sulky, in all honesty. "How can you not believe in love?" he asked. He only had to look at his parents to know that it did. "I know it exists, especially in the real world," he argued. Did this mean he wouldn't be getting the happily ever after he'd been planning with her since well, before she was born?

He sighed, and gave Aesica a look of pure resignation. "Fine. If you don't believe in love... It doesn't matter."

Risa went to join Matthias, smiling. "Nice costume," she teased. "I wonder who you're supposed to be." She took Matth's hand. "I have something to tell you later. In private." She leaned up on her toes and kissed his cheek. "I'm glad you could make it."

~~~~

"Courth!" Devin assured his mother with a smile. "I alwayth good! But Daddy been bery thick," he told her, as if she might not know. "Howl and me takin' care of him! He not 'llowed leave hith bed. But he do it anyway, cauthe he'th naughy. Howl and me gonna thtart givin' him time outth!" He lowered his voice to a whisper, and added, "Howl thayth no more milkthhaketh if he bad. Then Daddy be good. He luvth milkthhaketh."

Howl frowned at Alome, and turned away from her. Ugh, girls always thought they knew everything! Of course, if it had been Sophie, he would have quite possibly enjoyed the argument. "You sound like a Sophist," he complained. "Bad things happen so you can appreciate the good," he said firmly. "If all anyone experienced was happiness--if kittens and rainbows were all they ever saw, they might start to doubt their reality. Troubles shape us. They strengthen us. They make us see what's truly important." A vaguely wistful expression crossed Howl's face. "Love exists. I've experienced it, and not even the fear that you may never see your loved ones again can take it anyway."

He paused, and turned back to face her. A thoughtful frown had taken the place of the annoyed one he'd been wearing only a moment before. "How can you say love doesn't exist? You're too young to have even thought you were in love. Have you really been so unlucky in life to believe that romantic love doesn't exist? I think you are taking out your anger for your sufferings on romantic love. Clearly you've never seen what it is in it's truest form, because once someone does, they cannot possibly deny that it exists. Besides, only the broken hearted deny the existance of it, and they do that as a case of denial." Love, not exist? The idea was laughable. Pathetic, even if he tried to analyze her reasoning. He knew it existed. In Ingary, in Wales, on Gaia.

A Sophist? A SOPHIST! Alome's eyes burned brightly with rage as she drew her arm back. The next thing she knew, her fist had made contact with something soft and fleshy, and it stung, turning a bright shade of red.

"Now you look here, you spoiled, pompous, bogus excuse for a so called boy, you have no right to lecture me on anything!! What do you know of Suffering!! What do you know of how the world TRULY works?! You've simply lived in a fairytale your whole life, a book in a world that doesn't even exist outside of three novels!! You live in a play world where magic and princes and all sorts of crap takes prominence over everything else! How would YOU know anything outside of your little bubble?"

She couldn't bring herself to say anything else, for her voice was beginning to crack. This was ridiculous! All this happening over some stupid Letter! Without another word, she lifted her dress and stormed out of the house. Screw this! She didn't need to be here! Her house was just down the street anyway!

Noel wasn't in the area. He had slipped out into the back yard, and smoked a cigarette. It wasn't the normal one, this one was filled with a combination of special herbs and spices that could keep him solid in this world. Alome was fine, for she was born here, but without the special smoke inhaled into his body, he'd vanish in a couple of hours...

~~~

"Jeron ISH Masuta!!" Irae giggled in such an adorable manner. He chuued the Armor-covered cheek that belonged to the one he held most dear.

"We pway!! We pway and I win pwize for Masuta!!"

Sammi had been about to lead Milo to the cookies when she heard a smack. She turned and winced, shaking her head in the direction of Howl. She had never known Alome to be violent. What had gotten into the girl? Why was she suddenly a bully? From what she'd heard of their conversation, Howl had been genuinely trying to help. She took a cookie from the table and offered it to Milo. "Here," she said. "That girl's a bully... Hitting him just because he believes in love. I believe in love," she added, glancing at Milo in a tell-tale way.

"Really? Let's go th--" Reiya paused, staring as Alome left the house. "So much for best friends," she muttered with a shrug. "Come on, Eve, let's get Loki and Aesica before someone else starts to argue..." So much for having a nice party where everyone got along, she supposed. Now to make the best of the mess. She offered her hand to the toddler, before noting that Loki looked unhappy. Strange; normally Loki was at the top of the happy chart. "Hey Loki! Ae! Come play with us." She gestured to the beanbag toss over in the corner of the room.

~~~~

Risa nodded, "I'll go help Howl," she muttered, walking over to the wizard. She studied the boy's cheek before tutting. "You'll have a bruise," she muttered. "She was pretty harsh on you, you alright?" Poor kid, having his reality shaken like that. It wasn't his fault he came from another world.

"I'm fine," Loki said, forcing a smile for Aesica's benefit. "I've decided not to believe in love either." He knew it wouldn't last long; he knew he thrived on love. He knew he wouldn't be able to deny the connection he seemed to have with Aesica for more than a day. "Come on, let's go play. I'll win you another doll to be Dolly's friend, alright?"

~~~~

Howl put a hand to his cheek in surprise. His eyes narrowed; normally he wasn't one for conflict. In fact, he avoided conflict at all costs except when it came to arguing with Sophie, which was usually for pure amusement purposes only. If he had had a heart, maybe her words would have affected him more. He had thought she was a friend. Clearly he had been mistaken. Sullenly, he watched her leave, before nodding at Risa. "I'm fine, Aunt Risa," he muttered, embarrassed. He hadn't had enough time to do a preventive spell. He knew a bruise would be developing later.

He sighed and went over to Stasia and Matth. He wrapped his arms around his mother, and hugged her. "Don't bother. She's not worth it. She's not worth it at all."

Devin had pulled out his wooden sword. His golden eyes were locked on the backside of the running butterfly-girl. "Thee hurt Howl," he growled. "Thee hurt Howl! I hurt her!" And so saying, he started to charge. That was, until Thali caught his hand.

"I don't even want to know what she'd do to a little thing like you," she muttered. "Let's avoid conflict, shall we, Dev-Dev? Let's make cookies or something. You can take them home to your Daddy later."

Tishsighedand looked at her watch as she came to bring the k ids to this little party - they were running very late, and it all had to dowith the fact that Luvvie couldn't decide what to dress up as. Well, that and the fact that Axel refused to dress up at all; it had taken an army to wrestle him into his costume for the party - the redhead was currently wearing a Little Jack Horner costume, much to his chagrin - complete with a plum stuck to the thumb of his right hand, and he glowered fiercely at everyone around him.

Half-hidden behind her mother, Miri walked in her Snow White costume, her mask taken off and left at home, and a bright red ribbon tied into her pale-as-moonlight, shoulder-length white hair. Normally shy even with her mask, Miri practically cowered behind Tish, her ruby-red eyes wide with fear against her snow-pale features. She had wanted to dress up, to be pretty - maybe people would be less afraid of her this way. But she hadn't counted on being so very, very scared. She knew she looked creepy with the mask - was she worse or better without?

Luvvie, meanwhile, skipped about in her swan princess costume,wings a-fluttering as she bounced around, chattering gaily about what she expected to see at the party - until she caught sight of Howl, that was. Then with a joyous cry of "LINDSEEEEEY!" off she rushed to him,tackling him in a hug that was like to break bones if her ability had been activated.

Unfortunately, Alazne seemed to be missing out on everything, at least in Yoichi's mind. The little girl stayed all curled up and hiding as people arrived, seeming to have more fun being all tucked up against her older brother. Then again, maybe it was the tickling that was being done to get her to come out that she was having so much fun with, or the fact that no matter what he tried, Yoichi seemed completely unable to get the girl to crawl out of her little hiding space.

After what seemed like an hour, the Eilian teen managed to get his young sister out from her tucked-away spot against his chest, but it was hardly his doing that caused her to peek out. It was a sharp, loud noise, one that Yoichi knew well from his own life as well as the lives of many of his brothers, and it had ruined more parties than he'd ever been to. Actually, it had also ruined a majority of the parties that he had been to.

Alazne peeked her head out at that sound, frowning softly as her grey eyes readjusted to the light, looking around to find the source of the noise and squeaking in surprise. That was Alome! She knew that one!! Jumping up and off of Yoichi, she drew her toy rapier dangerously before charging forward and off, between all of the people at the door and down the street, after the pale-haired girl whom she'd met all those months ago, who'd grown many more times than she had, not that it changed anything in Lazzy's mind.

The little 'prince' chased after the girl for a moment, stumbling over the too-big boots more than once before finally reaching Alome in her big, pretty dress, reaching out to tug gently at the bottom of it. Lazzy wasn't sure why she went to see Alome instead of the boy that had gotten hit. It just... didn't seem like a thing that one of her friends would do, so she needed to make sure that Alome was alright and not crazy or anything. Besides, a lot of people were staying to see the boy who got hit, right? Somebody had to care about Alome!! "Hey, 'Lome? Whatcha so on edge 'bout?"

It was completely and totally Echo's fault that they were all late to the party. Every ten seconds, it seemed, he would either find something wrong with his costume or something that could be improved on it. As such, it would then need to be fixed, and considering that all of his father-figures were very much father figures, Matthew being the closest to a mother-figure, stitching something or hemming something or any other kind of patchwork tended to be an all-day job, and that was when they were really getting the hang of it.

Finally, however, the lot of them had left, with Echo happily bouncing in his car seat, a big smile on his face. He was going to the party dressed up as Aladdin. Yes, people had tried to tell him that it wasn't really a fairytale, but the recently-grown boy really couldn't care less. His only, neverending argument was 'but it's my favourite'. Because, after all, it was his favourite.

"Riff-raff, street rat, I don't buy that~! If only they'd look closer~" the toddler sang happily to himself, surprisingly on-key as he stuck his tongue out at the boy in the carseat next to him, who much more properly fit the idea of the street rat, but was instead all dressed up as The Genie, both of them the Disney movie versions, and both of them extremely excited for their first real party.

Peony winced silently as his son sang out happily. Not that he was off-tune, not even an inch, but the number of times that he'd heard that stupid song... It was only great parental love that kept Peony from destroying all copies of that stupid movie. It didn't help that Echo had insisted on bringing along his mangy friend, who'd thought it had been a brilliant idea to become blue by practically taking a bath in blue paint. Getting that cleaned up had only taken an hour...

At least they were almost there. Peony tried to gather up what remained of his patience as he parked, none of which was helped by Ellery's joyful - and completely off-key - addition to his friend's song, sung at twice the volume, of course. "WOOD DEY SEE A POOR BOY, NO SIREEEEE~" Peony snarled silently as he helped the two boys out of the car, taking an OCD moment to adjust some minute aspect of Echo's costume and wipe some blue paint off of his carseat before sighing and smiling tiredly at the two. "Well, shall we?"

"YES!" was Ellery's enthusiastic reply, and before Peony could stop him, he had taken Echo's hand and dragged him off towards the party, singing terribly for all he was worth. "WULL ALI BABA HAD DEM FORTEEN FEEVES, SHEZZEDEEDEE HAD A FOUSAND TAILS!" Giggling, he urged Echo to go faster. "C'mon, slowpants 'Laddin! I betcha all de good foods gone already!"

Echo giggled at his daddy's fixing of things and squealed as he was pulled along after his friend, running as fast as he could to keep up with him, which was much easier since he got bigger. He laughed happily at his friend's inability to sing, and added his own line to it. "Master, you're in luck, 'cause up yo- Heeey, it's not all gon'na be gone already!!" he whined with a pout, chasing after him and near barrelling the boy into the house, nearly missing someone who ran out. He looked around, where it looked like something bad had just transpired, and smiled brightly, waving at all the angry-looking people gathered around. "'Lo!!"