Welcome to Gaia! ::

Xiu opened her mouth to respond to West, but she never got the chance. Like the others, she found herself soaked to the bone by the Selkie's attack, but she didn't even have much time to dwell on that before a large, three-headed dog suddenly jumped at them...

...And began to wash their faces with its tongue?

Fortunately, the baku didn't seem at all alarmed. In fact, she was laughing, arms over her head in a futile attempt to protect herself. When the heads finally settled down, Xiu reached out to the one closest to her, giving it an affectionate pat on the head. "Hi, there!" Did she know who the three-headed pup was? No. At least, not until Demi actually spoke.

It was then that she paused mid-pat, staring at the middle head blankly for a second before she managed a quick recovery. Resuming her pats, she beamed at the canine. "Safe and sound, Demi?" It looked like most people were relatively unscathed, thank goodness for that!

Learning that the awful not-candy machines hadn't done anything to hurt Rain brought a smile of relief to Shine's face. She'd seen what one of them did to the pumpkins in the patch, and the voices had said such awful things. Their ability to smash and crush and break with ease was really scary to a zombie.

"Um, okay. Don't remember, but...hurt Sammy, and." She pointed to her jaw. In spite of the rainbow hues that blanketed her, there was noticeable purpling where the bone had broken and set back into place. "And the not-candy machine...made me ugly. And killed pumpkins. I left. But...everything is okay now." It was rare for the shy zombie to speak more than a sentence, but Rain didn't make her feel nervous about speaking. Just another kind of nervous that she couldn't quite place, a feeling higher up than the tummy-worms that happened when she had to talk to strangers.

She leaned into the other ghoul, walking alongside her as they approached the other zombies.

Oh, Jack. They were looking at her like she'd done something bad, and though she couldn't remember hurting them...her eyes darted from one to the next, only feeling comfortable enough to introduce herself when she was satisfied that she hadn't ripped into them.

"Shine. Hi. Thank you," she said, looking down at her feet, then at Rain's. She spent the next few moments wiggling her toes and making little globby sparkle-snow shapes on her friend's shoes, hoping that the others wouldn't be mad at her.

Oh Jack that face. Sammy frowned now eyes going soft dimming slightly as she watched the younger ghoul look so confused. "It's really... it really isn't that complex or hard. I just... I love Siddie, and I protect her." She flexed her left arm. "It's really nothing special don't get so upset about it..."

With a squinted eye, she looked over at the place where the impending wave was. She was sopping wet, but luckily it seemed as though her tail had been spared.

The water wasn't helping her whole "freezing her butt off" thing. For everyone who was freezing out here, she was freezing three times more. At least, that's what she selfishly told herself. Biting her lip, she rubbed her arms, but it wasn't really helping. Not to mention she was standing in a puddle of more water thanks to the melted snow too.

This whole thing sucked.

She hung her head a bit and then headed back to where Roch and Taryn were, because she wasn't really sure where else to put herself. "Uh. Sorry about that," she said, looking at her lantern wearily, running her fingers over the edges slowly.

"I'mconfuuuuuuused." Sibyl whined, watching the hand come toward her. Her first instinct was to throw herself at the dark ghoul and bury her face against her. HUGS. SHE LOVED HUGS. Was this why they liked ghouls? So they could have All The Hugs?

West didn't hit Demi. He pulled his punch and stood there while the ghouls calmed the pup down, an impressive frown spreading across his face.

Why?

Why was this happening?

He supposed he could reluctantly admit it was good that no one was dead. Yet. West crossed his arms against the chill that had finally began to seep into his skin and stared straight ahead at nothing. :[

Poor Sibyl. She must really have been sheltered - maybe even more than Siddie had been. "It's okay," Siddie said, and impulsively pulled the little selkie into a hug.

Be prepared for anything, be prepared for anything, be prepared for anything. Could one even be prepared for when a rainbow hued zombie ghoul came flying at you with her claws poised and ready to rip apart your chest?? Alex would have stumbled backwards, but Mort had his shoulder in a tight grasp, so instead he reached out his own hand to clasp around Mort's arm, his grip tight upon the other zomboil. His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open in horror, but just as one long and dangerous claw barely touched the surface of his skin...

The witch ghoul suddenly stopped, backed off, and ran towards somebody else. "HOLY MOTHER OF JACK!" He gasped, his body deflating slightly as he continued to keep an eye on the zombie ghoul. "I knew some zombies could go fast..but that was just..." He had no words. None. He looked over at Mort, eyes still wide, and all he could do was laugh, though it was clearly nervous laughter. "Remind me never to shout at a sad looking zombie ghoul ever again."

When Chuppi approached (he only recognized her from the school play, and had never really talked to the short little ghoul) he released Morts arm, and gave him a light pat on the back, and gave the ghoul a small and slightly uneasy smile. These events were turning him into a nervous wreck!

He kept an eye out for Mitzi, though the way she had huffed off earlier, he wasn't too sure she was going to rejoin them or not. He still wasn't sure about her, but he did feel a little badly after all she'd done for him.

And then the two zombie ghouls approached. It was nice, being in such a large group. Especially one made up of three other zombies! It reminded him of being home, and was mildly comforting. "Alex. Um, I mean, Alexander Van Rotte" He answered the first ghoul to speak, deciding to offer her his full name as she had offered hers, and holding out his own glitter covered hand towards hers. Under any other circumstances, he might have eyed the two ghouls appreciatively, as they were fine looking zombie ghouls indeed. And they were both obviously quite athletic, which he found incredibly intriguing. As it was though, he could only give them both a small and weary smile. "It's nice to meet you...both of you." His gaze shifted to Shine. Even though the witch zombie had given him a good fright, he somehow felt bad for her. She was obviously just as stressed out over this entire situation as he was, but had just reacted in a different way. She looked genuinely upset at the moment. "Hey, it's ok..." he said towards her "No harm done, see?" He pointed to his bare chest, which was still just as covered in glitter, and with not a mark on it that wasn't already there before.