Welcome to Gaia! ::

No, of course Peyton didn't need any help dressing. Her style was impeccable. All of this slithered through her mind to the appreciative and approving laughter of her partner. Of course none of it showed on that lovely little face. She grinned at Maebe's compliment, taking a moment to preen in an exaggerated fashion before stepping back and turning to give her friend a better view. "Pretty slick, right?" She took her place at Maebe's side, arm immediately being caught up, and settled her hand on the opposite hip as she looked out at the mostly empty room.

"I'm sure Shy'll show up." He always did. Peyton didn't dislike the boy, she simply didn't understand Maebe's affection towards him. It was mystery.

"Would have to agree on the judgement questioning though." The smile she'd been wearing slipped. "This party is dead, and ugh! No. I wish. Used my last one up with you, remember? Shopping abroad." Her heel snapped sharply against the hard floor. "S'when I got these shoes." She'd cost a small fortune, but were too ******** gorgeous to pass up.

A glance around let her find a clock high up on one of the walls, and she gave a small sigh. "It is still early, hopefully things'll liven up. If not I'm sure someone somewhere will be more then happy to help us have an fun evening."

Nevada lazily gave a look around the room where she was held from, luckily, she was smart about the whole proper dress attire and wore a nice simple dress and leggings underneath.

Her wonderful boyfriend even looked more dashing then her.

"Remember, don't make full eye contact Sol, If we have hunter statues, we have to go back to our bat cave and come up with a new plan." Nevada winked at him, "I wonder what the food looks like..."

Or where Stormy and Pandora was.

"Did you tuck her in?"

A guy looking somewhat like the current Death lead walked in, wearing a rather formal suit that had the strangest looking corsage made entirely out of venus fly traps that looked rather sentient and not exactly picked out by him, and then stopped at the door. He sighed. "And the bedtime story, that one with those what does Mark call them, Jodis or something? I just don't think this reading at a young age new age upbringing is working, but if you say so Clari- I'm just getting a bite to eat I'll be a second I swear."

A couple of Hunters milling at the entrance came to greet the guy, both of them talking something about missions and reports or something. "Hang on a second, okay, two seconds, I got to, um, just hang on-" he absently took both notebooks and signed them with a giant smiley face and a heart -"okay what was that about new age parenting again?"

He would stand in this corner looking very concerned for a while longer.

He was late.

He was late and he'd promised that he'd pick her up, but then he'd spilled his drink over his newly ironed suit and promptly had to change, which meant that he also had to call her and apologize and tell her that he was just going to have to meet her there instead.

He felt like a cad, but them's the breaks.

Fiddling with his tie (which was not the one he had originally been wearing, but he wasn't about to go to a party with a Pepsi-stained tie), Gale hurried along the way towards the event, every now and then muttering a small curse to himself as he fumbled to get all of his clothes in the proper place.

<< Relax. You'll be fine. You look great, she'll understand. >>

Sometimes the voice in his head still threw him off, but Gale managed a wan smile anyway. Thanks Jinhai, he thought, and finally got the tie into place. He slowed down as he reached the doors so that it did not look as though he were out of breath (which he still was, sort of), smoothed down the front of his black suit, and stepped in.

He didn't see his girlfriend anywhere, which was either a very good thing or a very bad thing, depending. Gale squinted around the room and caught sight of a familiar figure off to the side, a cell phone in one hand and a tall blonde woman beside him. Shaking his head slightly, Gale made a beeline for him.

"Dad - " (The term was probably not the most applicable, given the relatively small distance in their ages; but considering it was more of a term of endearment than actual "father," that was beside the point.) " - have you seen Lina?"

-"And I will," Ben answered flawlessly, quickly snapping his hands out of the way of the excitable and bloodthirsty corsage, "after this call." He finally answered his cell phone which had been blasting Hotel California for a few moments longer, though the ringtone hadn't gotten past the lengthy intro quote yet.

"Hey, this is Be- yes that's me. Yes, this is my cell phone." He waited patiently, veering a little away from Clarice as to not incur more wrath, "No, we didn't order any thermo treated light saber science somethings, this isn't related to this whole Star Trek thing going on is it becase-" pause -"Ok. Can you give me a moment, I just need to get your shipment order down and-"

He mouthed a three seconds to Clarice, absently patting Gale's head and pulling the only free item from his pocket - which happened to be a glow in the dark pacificer - and then moved down the hallway to negotiate louder something regarding pricing and location.

Gale's phone went off shortly after.



The game was starting again: the one where the daughter of Death and Mist tried to prove how well she could sneak up on him without getting formal training, and how well she could tweak his brain at the same time. Lina was actually alright with her boyfriend not coming to pick her up, even though it still disappointed her a little; her parents still made things difficult in their parent-y little way, bless their hearts, and for the end of the year, well . . . she wanted things to go nice and smooth, thank you very much.

Plus, this would make for a much more fun entrance. Well, assuming Gale gave the wrong answer.

"Why are you wearing a - " Gale started to ask, eyeing the flower on Ben's lapel with mixed confusion and suspicion; but Ben just reached out and ruffled his hair before walking away, still yammering away on the phone about one thing or another. Gale watched him go, rolled his eyes in exasperation, and turned towards the blonde woman who'd been standing beside him.

"I was," he said, fidgeting a bit where he stood as Clarice's deft fingers shifted his tie. "But I, er, spilled something on it when I was on my way over here." The expression on Gale's face was slightly sheepish. "You haven't seen Lina, have you? I was running late, and I was going to pick her up, but then I knocked my soda over, and then I had to change and then I couldn't find the right shoes, and - "

The phone in his pocket buzzed, and Gale fumbled for it, probably messing up his hair again, since Clarice's hand was still on his head. He squinted at the text on the screen, smiled, and typed out a short reply:



Snapping the phone shut, Gale turned to Clarice again. "What's up with Dad?" he asked, jerking a thumb over his shoulder to where Ben stood. "And what's with the weird corsage thing that's trying to eat him?"