Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Just for fun: what I had in mind when coming up with that 'Arabic/Middle Eastern' setting.
-> http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e254/Tagis/kuukaku.jpg
Lucind doesn't carry around such melons, though...

-> http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e254/Tagis/orient_clothes.jpg
Lu wears a top similar to Ishida's. Presenting a nice cleavage muahaha...
And don't forget the water pipe! XD))



Of course, she had noticed both of them before. No wonder, with them turning up nearly every day all of a sudden.
In addition...there were a few physical features which strikingly reminded the Half-Siren of...
Well, if it wasn't for these strange similarities, Lucind wouldn't have had a reason to keep an eye on them. Regular customers were good customers, right?

When the winged girl greeted Lucind, the woman lazily smiled over at her, the pipe's tip gently nudging her lower lip. "Hello..."

Kara, sitting with her back to the guest, performed a skilful, flowing and seemingly finger knotting figure on her sitar before holding the last tone, her dark brown eyes wandering up to wait for a sign - while this single tone softly reverberated and rose up to mingle with smoke.

"..."
The faint twitching of one corner of the Half-Siren's mouth was enough to make Kara go on waving strange melodies.

Lucind stood up, stretching a bit and passing the pipe over to Larhien. With a few steps she stood in front of the girl.
"And you are...?"

Lucind's look followed Jean's to shoot a glance at the boy.

"Sure, why not. You directly wanna go ahead or... There's a free table over there..."

The Half-Siren felt this was going to be interesting, reading the girls voice.

Owle almost walked into Vahn when he stopped suddenly in front of the door, muttering a name she didn't recognize as a name. "Huh?"

She looked up at the sun, wondering why it might be making Vahn wig out. Her eyes hurt, reminding her that she wasn't supposed to look directly at the sun, and she averted them quickly. Still, nothing out of the ordinary up there...

The young woman followed Vahn's gaze, smiling at the cat. "Nah...at least not from black cats. I can turn into one, so if I did, I'd always have to be worried about crossing my own path and all that." She knew something was off, the way he was acting. She quickly blamed it on herself. But how...how was she supposed to show him that it was alright? That last night...that it wasn't going to mean she was going to run away from him, or act all weird around him...just cause they couldn't be together, she meant, well...

She wanted to still be...something to him. Even if it was just a friend. And she didn't want him to be feeling god awful around her.

"Heh."

A smile back as she stepped inside. She didn't go too far in, but rather waited for him to enter after her and lead the way. This was his territory, after all...he'd been here before (she assumed) and she had not.

"Me neither..." Owle said, looking around. "It's a nice place." It wasn't that she didn't like reading...it was that books weren't in particularly plentiful supply around her usual hangouts, many of which were located in the middle of forests. When she got a chance, though, she did raid the Barton Town Public Library...and harrassed Truewind, when the wind mage was around.

She expected to sit down at a table, have someone take their order, and have an awkward conversation somewhere during which she would try to make him understand he wasn't getting rid of her, particularly when she knew he needed her help. She was an expert at finding people...so long as it was a case where he only needed to find people, and didn't know exactly where they were but just needed to rescue or stop them or something like that.

She could help him, she was sure of it. Just as long as he would let her. But for right now, she was content to trail along behind him, waiting for him to choose a place to sit.

"Make yourself comfortable," she answered, gesturing towards the free pillow opposite of Larhien.

"Friends, we've got a guest." Lucind made her way back to her seat, carefully stepping over her brother's leg. "This young lady here is Jean." Turning her head to the right, she nodded at the male Siren. "Larhien, my brother. And this is Kara." Both of them politely greeted Jean. Larhien however, didn't pay overly much attention to what was going on, happily sucking on the pipe with his amber eyes half closed, while Kara's dark eyes rested on the girl for a moment before she started re-tuning her intrument.

"Or do you mind anyone else listening to your story," the Half-Siren asked Jean, flicking the end of the shawl which hid her hair over the shoulder.

"Nah, s'alright, though it might be boring for them, and I'm really sorry if it does put anyone to sleep," Jean suddenly looked a little embarassed, before with a soft cough and a shake of the head, she brightened and wiggled her toes.

"Once upon a time," Everyone knew that was the way to start a good story, any proper one that is. The music and smoke curled and seeped into the senses like a drug.

She wouldn't even notice if any others joined them on the rooftop, because now the mood was set. Any wanderers were welcome to listen.

"There was a patchwork boy.

He was a little bit of everything, all put together under the careful hands of a very dedicated doctor. There was nothing inside this boy at the end, he was empty inside. But the doctor was happy, because he had fixed something that was broken.

Everything worked, it all functioned well, no one could tell the boy was empty except for the blank eyes on a peaceful face. He would watch as days and nights went by, in his glass cage. He would watch as the doctors family played and talked and lived together happily, from the corner. No thought of concern entered his head, no motivation to be anything more then what he was.

A simple doll, made of whim and fancy."
She paused at that moment, the beginning of the story laid out for Lucind and company to listen to. She stole a quick peek at Knights out of the corner of her eye, he was paying attention too, which secretly made her pleased, a blush surfacing on her cheeks.

"As often found in stories, things changed one day.

A stranger came to this doctors door. I say stranger, but this is only because he was strange. This man had actually been to see the doctor once before, because he was the one that brought the broken bits to be fixed.

"Doctor, I've come to complete the project." You can imagine his hosts surprise at this.

"I thought it was already complete! Look at him, he's whole, he functions just as he should!"

"Ah, but you see, something deeper is missing, my friend. I need this body to hold the soul that was my son, the spirit of one who is punished."

Well, this obviously didn't sit well with the doctor himself. "Why?" He said glaring at the man. "Why should life have to bow down to you're whim. It could destroy this whole being, this living thing, by placing such a cursed soul within it's mind." The dark man was silent, while the doctor paced. "I asked for no payment for this work, but this...I will ask for payment for doing THIS to my creation."

"Ask what you will, I will grant it if it's within my power."

"I want him BACK. After this...torture you put him through. I want the boy back, so I can fix him again, and take out this," A sneer. "MAGIC, that you seem so fond of." There was a silence from the stranger, he was thinking hard about the meaning of that, and the kind of situations that would bring about a change of plans like that. This stranger had a mission you see, a need for this project to be complete on time. The decision was made.

"Agreed. I will one day, bring him back to you. But realize this," The doctor scowled. "He WILL be differant, and powerful. You will have to prepare for that...can you devote yourself to this task?" A simple answer.

"Yes."

"Then lets begin."

They took the simple patchwork and then with the use of both science and arcane magics, instilled within him a soul born of chaos and fire, but not without cost. The side effects destroyed much of the doctors home, and his family...were never quite the same."
Jean let out a soft sigh of regret.

"The stranger took the boy, but still remembered his promise that needed to be kept. And the boy...the boy lived, he saw, emotions would run through his blood like the sweetest drug, or the deadliest poison, because with each new experiance within this new life for him, the closer he came to having to go back. To face the doctor and to lose it all again."

The little girl chuckled and leaned back, looking at the sky. "S'a good story that one."

And Owle just followed after Vahn, blinking at him when he pulled a chair out for her. She always felt weird when people did stuff like that for her, like she couldn't do it herself...

She was also getting a little worried about this friend of Vahn's. Why did he want her to meet this Siren so badly? It almost seemed like...no...he wouldn't...if this woman was this other person who needed him...did he think he needed to drive the point home? She'd already accepted they couldn't be together, that she had Rafe and he had...someone. She didn't need to see them acting all lovey dovey in front of her!

She sat down across from him, pulling a menu up in front of her to hide the weird looks going across her face. She just hoped he wouldn't notice.

"Heh, you don't need to worry about that...." Owle said, trying to keep the same good humor in her voice as just before. Surprisingly she succeeded, or at least well enough to fool someone who wasn't listening close. "I'm starving!"

Her eyes scanned the menu. Mmm...pancakes...she knew they were no good for her, but this morning she needed comfort food. And maybe a side of eggs...yeah, that's right, Owle, just distract yourself with food.

(( xd Indeed. I'm having much fun having her jump to all the wrong conclusions.))

It would have been really hard for Owle not to notice the waitress's reaction to Vahn. She followed the girl with her eyes, watching as she whispered excitedly to her co-workers, feeling something inside of herself turn on its head as she noticed how all of a sudden these were not waitresses, but simpering, giggling fangirls.

Whenever they looked over at Vahn, they would see Owle staring at them like they had three heads and two purple tentacles each.

Finally, Owle turned away from them, fixing that same look on Vahn. "Did I miss something? Are you a pop idol on the side of being a mercenary?"