Welcome to Gaia! ::

Severus strolled along the street, not heading anywhere in particular. The wind blew his messy black hair into his green eyes. He frowned and shoved it back, only to have the wind push it right back into his eyes. Muttering about how annoying wind was, Sev looked around for a likely-looking shop to escape into. A curiousities store caught his eye and drew him towards it.
He ducked into the slightly dusty, crowded shop and looked around. There were a lot of different items in the store, all very random. DVDs crowded next to rocks and fossils, giant spiders, clothing here and there, even the occasional body part. Interesting.
Sev spotted a blue-haired woman organizing one particular section that seemed to encompass a collection of dead insects. Or maybe she was just cleaning the shelf, it was hard to tell. She gave him a friendly smile and nod, then went back to her task shuddering ever so slightly.

Severus spent a bit of time wandering through the shelfs. He found everything was organized in a very odd way. You just had to look really hard what the grouping was about. Like the DVDs and rocks, all the DVDs were about rocks in some way.
There was another interesting moment when a giant spider went scuttling off in the direction the shop lady was cleaning in. There was a piercing scream, a loud thud, and a whole lot of crashing sounds. He thought about going to see if the lady was alright, but something caught his attention.

He had arrived in what was probably the magic isle. Crystal balls of colors, tattered looking packs of cards, half-melted candles, herbs scattered around in bundles, stones of all kind, some with weird symbols or settings, tons of glass bottles in all shapes and sizes. All the section needed was a shrunken head and it would be complete!
Sev wasn't much of a believer in this kind of stuff. It all seemed like one giant hoax to him. He wandered through the aisle with a detached interest. Some of the bottles would make nice vases. He shifted his gaze from a rounded rose-glass bottle to a used-looking pack of tarot cards. The top card was The Magician, and featured a pretty-looking winged cat. The whole picture was intriguing to Sev. Without really noticing what he was doing, he picked up the deck. There was a feeling of rightness, holding the cards.

Severus sighed as he stood at the counter, still clutching the pack of cards. He didn't really know why he was buying them, it wasn't like he believed in any of this stuff. There was just something about them though that made him unable to put them down. Specifically the top card, since he hadn't really leafed through the deck yet. The blue-haired lady showed up after awhile, covered in dust and the occasional bug leg, looking quite pale. She assured him that the cards were free, and that he could come back at any time if he had any questions. Odd, but at least the cards were free.
Severus made sure the tarot deck was secure in his pocket before leaving the store and heading back home, head bowed against that pesky wind.

Seriously, How'd You Do That?

Tarot sat at one end of a small table, a plate of containing the remains of lasagna in front of her, wearing an over-sized bright orange shirt. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of the green-eyed man yet. On one hand, he had given her food. On the other, he had made her wear a bright-colored and uncomfortable monstrosity. She would have been more than content to go without it and had tried twice, but the man replaced the offending object and fussed, using words like “improper”, “indecent”, “inappropriate” and a couple other im and in words that were too big for her to remember.

Tarot turned in her chair to examine the object of her musings. He was laying on the floor, arms spread out, staring up at the ceiling and apparently muttering to himself. She was pretty sure this wasn’t common behavior. With nothing else to do she continued to stare, all her focus on the man who was now her caretaker. Out of nowhere a name popped into her head: Severus.

Maybe that was his name, though it was too long for her liking. As Tarot continued to stare at Sev, focusing, and more came to her mind, this time in pictures. It was still Sev, with different settings. He was in a crowded room with lots of people and noise. There weren’t many lights, except for some brightly colored ones over an area where people seemed to be dancing, and normal lights around a giant counter with people drinking stuff of varying colors.

She saw Sev making and giving drinks to people. Some of them would wink at Sev, or watch him as he moved around behind the counter. Something in the picture skipped. It was still the same place, but the people looked different. Sev wasn’t behind the counter either. He was carrying food and drinks to people. Some of them handed him green paper, or tucked it in his pockets as he walked by. Another skip; Sev was on one of three raised bits of floor by the all the people who were doing weird moving things to the music. Sev was moving around a silver pole and taking off some of his clothes while people shoved more bits of green paper at him.

Tarot blinked, and the pictures vanished. She hopped down from her chair and toddled over to the man who lay prone on the floor. He didn’t seem to notice her, even as she crouched next to him and tilted her head to look at his face. Well she'd just fix that! She demanded answers! "Sev, why I gotta wear clothes if you get ta take yours off," she asked.

Apparently Tarot’s question had caught his attention better than her presence had. "What do you mean, I’m wearing all my clothes right now?" Severus couldn’t remember telling Tarot his name either, just that he would be taking care of her. She shook her head, hard enough that her short black hair flopped around her face. "No' now! I mean at th noisy place, wi' all th' people and brigh' lights and funny drinks 'n' stuff."

Sev sat up, eyes slightly alarmed and wary. She couldn't be talking about... "Tarot, what are you talking about?" She sighed gustily. There went the hope her guardian would be smart. "Th' place you go, with the drinks and people dancing and putting green paper stuff in your pockets."

Sev sat up and turned his body to face her, his hair falling in his face. "How do you know about that?" Dark blue eyes met bright green. "Saw it." Sev looked puzzled. "You mean you’ve been there before?" Tarot rolled her eyes. "No, saw it in my head," she said, tapping her skull for emphasis.

Her guardian sat there for a few moments, staring through her while he thought. She waited patiently until he resumed movement again. "How did you see it in your head?" Tarot shrugged, already bored with the questions. "I dunno, i' was jus' there. Wha’s the green paper stuff?"

"Money. You use it to get things." Sev put a hand over his face and rubbed his brow. "The place sounds like where I work at. Don’t tell anyone, ‘kay?" Tarot nodded, her expression serious. She wouldn’t want anyone to know if she worked in a place where they made her listen to loud music and people being loud, or assault her eyes with bright colors!

A thought occured to her. "C'n I make money by takin' off m' clothes?" Hmmm, Sev's face had gone a very interesting color. Like as white as her's then super red. The squeaking noise he made was also very funny. "No you absolutely can not! It's, it's-," Sev stalled, not sure how to explain. "You'll understand when you get older." Tarot tilted her head, looking at Sev. Why older? Why couldn't she know now?

While Tarot stared at Sev another picture popped into her mind. This one was more recent; she was still wearing the horrible orange shirt, but with something tied around the middle. There were in a huge building, with clothes and people everywhere. Sev was holding out a blue shirt that was even brighter than the one she wore currently.

She jumped up from where she was sitting. "Don' wanna go! I don' need more clothes!" Tarot ran off, heading for the big room with the stone floor that had plenty of boxes and hidey holes. Sev stared at her, baffled. He had just been thinking about taking Tarot to the mall to find her some clothes, before it got too late in the day. How was she doing that?! "Tarot, get back here," he shouted after her, rising to hunt down his elusive toddler.

Tarot frowned with intense concentration, pencil in one hand and blank piece of paper in front of her. She had been begging Sev to teach her how to read and write ever since the first bedtime story. He wasn’t much help, claiming he had more stuff to unpack and things to do. He’d teach her later. She wanted to learn now!

It was much harder than it looked, she would admit. The book of stories Sev read out of at night was in front of her, flipped open to her favorite about a boy who found a lamp and got to make wishes! She knew that one the best, so it was her hope that the words would make more sense. But after ten minutes of staring at the page, scanning the black squiggles, nothing popped out at her.

Tarot tossed her pencil down on the table, kicking her feet against the chair legs in a very irritable fashion. She wanted to do this all on her own, but it seemed she would have to stoop low enough to whine at Sev for help. She sighed through her nose and jumped down from the chair to go find her scatter-brained guardian.

She found him in the garage, going through one of the last two boxes left. "Sev," she said, voice dangerously close to that whine she'd promised, "need your help!" Severus looked up from his box, some old photos clutched in his hands. "Later Tarot, I'm busy." Tarot’s faced darkened with a scowl. She stomped one little foot on the ground. "No, now!"

She rarely ever threw fits or made demands, not unless she really wanted something. And she wouldn’t give up until she got it either! Sev knew this,and sighed in defeat, though he couldn't help but be amused at the grumpy-cat look on the toddler's face. He carefully placed the photos back in the box and stood up. "Alright, I’ll get you started." He headed to the kitchen with Tarot right on his heels, in case he changed his mind.

Sev picked up the abandoned pencil and bent over the piece of paper. In his neat handwriting he jotted down the alphabet, both big and small letters, and the numbers 0 through 9 for good measure. Under the numbers he drew small lines that corresponded to their number, so Tarot would understand their meaning. Tarot settled into her chair to watch.

"I’ll show you what the letters look and sound like. After that, you’re on your own until I'm done unpacking." Sev went though the alphabet, telling Tarot what the letters were called and what sounds they made, before heading back to his boxes.

Tarot went back to staring at the book. She picked a couple of short-looking words to start off with, carefully copying them down onto the free space of her paper. Now was when her memory came into play. She matched each of the letters in the words she’d written to the alphabet Sev had made her. There were a few instances when she could remember what sound the letter was supposed to make, or got them mixed up with others.

Most of the words she identified through remembering the story. That way she only needed to get the sound right for a couple of the letters! Soon she could read a few of the words with two to four letters in length. It wasn’t much, but it was a start!

When Sev came back in from the garage, arms full of decorations for the kitchen, Tarot proudly showed off the new words she had learned. "Very good," Sev praised, looking impressed. It wasn’t enough for Tarot though. She wanted to be able to read all of it! The bigger words were giving her more trouble than she had thought they would, after her success with small words. Frequently she had to ask Sev while he puttering around the kitchen displaying vases with dried flowers and small glass ornaments.

"Why’s it so hard," Tarot cried after the fifth time she had to ask Sev for help. It had been going so well in the beginning too! Sev just smiled his kind and amused smile. "It’s your first attempt at learning. You’re already doing so well! Don’t worry, the rest will come to you in time. You didn't except to be able to learn how to read in just one day, did you?" Tarot pouted, one of the few times she acted her age.

"I don’ wanna wait. I wanna know now!" Sev chuckled, which only made her scowl deepen. Tarot rarely threw tantrums, which for some reason made him enjoy them all the more. Yes, it was kind of odd. Shouldn't parents enjoy it when their kids didn't have tantrums? Oh well, it was just another part of their unorthadox relationship. "It’s not something you can have now, it takes time and practice to learn how to read." Tarot just kept frowning at the book. Sev reached over and plucked her from the chair, hoisting her over his shoulders much to her displeasure. "Come on, we could both use a break. Let’s go for a walk. We can get a treat to munch on, and when we get back I’ll help you some more."

"Pu’ me down firs'," came the demand from somewhere behind his head. Sev’s grin just widened a little and he headed out the door, protesting toddler still slung over his shoulder.