Welcome to Gaia! ::

Alto nodded ferociously as Freya pointed to herself. He thought it was pretty obvious it was for them but maybe she wasn’t used to giving presents or something. Alto didn’t know much about his friend so he just answered. When she smiled he almost wanted to do a some victory dance. It only took him several minutes and some of his money to get a skyfish but he managed to at least get some of the mood lifted.

He however was supposed to be the rock or at least trying to be friendly support so doing silly fist pumps was out of the question. He did however blush when she thanked him. It wasn’t as if it was really a big deal. He was good with skyfish and getting skyfish and his friend was in distress, wasn’t it normal to help others out. To cheer them up? Well it was to Alto.

“Its no problem. I hope they’re a good color.” Ugh and now he wanted to face palm… who said things like ‘I hope it’s a good color’? He hung out with cirro way too long. However apparently the familiar shop keeper thought it was cute, and gave him a ring for a good deed or something. It was pretty cool colors so Alto wasn’t going to think into it too much.


Suijin blinked and wondered if wandering over to this side of the table was the best thing. He really didn’t mind being used as a shield he hadn’t been kidding. After all it was nice to have some sort of interaction, not one that was tinged with sympathy because he was the kid whose parents got killed. Still he had grown anti-social due to the lack of well just hanging out around people. So to say that he wasn’t utterly surprised he was now getting dragged off would be an understatement. Weirdly enough was the fact that he felt no urge to shrug off the bakeneko’s hand off his wrist.

“Alright, yeah the game stalls look like they might be a bit fun. Everyone’s telling me I should try to personalize my room more.” Suijin decided besides who was he to damper some one’s excitement. What he didn’t expect was to be claimed as the 100th visitor to a stall and to be handed a plushie… festivals were weird.

Anchriesel came to the prom dressed in a splendid orchid waistcoat, his hair and fur shining bright. This was the day. It was a big day--it was a very big day. Today was the day he would go to prom with Ganymede, and hopefully teach the arrogant Geist a very painful lesson about tormenting people less than himself. Chries had been planning this for a long time. He approached Ganymede with a smile on his face and his hands behind his back. "I see you've made a friend," he murmured. He pointed up to the aetherjelly, then slid his hand out from behind his back to reveal what he was holding back there: a purple flitterrat he had gotten for Ganymede especially. While waiting for Gany to notice, he looked around, and was rewarded by someone buffeting his face with a soft yellow duck. "Ow," he murmured. But he took the duck and stuffed it in his bag before Ganymede noticed (hopefully).







Callessa paused in their wanderings. Somehow, her hand, the free one, was wrapped around Eidil's hand. Funny how she hadn't noticed it, and funnier still that now that she had noticed it, she had no idea what to do. She smiled without really knowing why. It was another second before she realized why she had paused. "Hey, recognize this song?" She grinned at Eidil. It had been just a few summers ago, when they were both tiny freshlings, that they had sung this song to each other all summer long. They had slipped each other notes during class with the lyrics written on them, goading each other into helpless giggle fits in the middle of lectures. She always associated it with Eidil now. "Would you care to, um, dance with me? To this song?"



Melisara had not been expecting Maria to come up to her from behind, so her first response to her girlfriend's arrival was a mild squeak. But she didn't need to turn around to see who had lain their bare arms around her shoulders--she could tell that just by the voice and by the way a calm had come upon her the moment Maria's presence had touched hers. Sara's arms shot up to clasp onto Maria's arms. She pulled the hybrid against her back, enjoying the feel of her girlfriend against her. "Ah thought you were the stars of our trio," she murmured. She took the necklace gently from Maria's fingers and laid it on her own throat. "It's beautiful, Maria! Thank you." She turned around to wrap her arms around Maria's waist. "You're always the sweetest, y'know that?" From this angle, she could better see Maria's dress. It was beautiful--and very Maria. "You look too pretty, Maria! There ain't a flower in all of Below as pretty as you are tonaght."

Someone tapped her on the shoulder. It was a vendor offering a variety of rings and necklaces. She first looked over the lockets--but none of them quite matched Maria's dress or her complexion. Maria was a dream in teals and greens and silvers--three colors that did not appear in tandem in the selection. Instead, she selected a teal-and-pink ring--the pink was pale enough to pass for silver. "For you, mah moon and heavens," she murmured, and slid the ring on Maria's fingers. "Shall we steal the nahght together?"

Trinket given to Maria!







Francesca picked up the ball, weighing it carefully in his hands. This time, he was going to throw it good and true, not just skim the top like he had done last time. He looked up at the green alicorns. That was the goal, right there. He just had to get one. He threw the ball with terrific force, and this time it landed true--it hit the bottles and knocked them over, splat! Well, okay, more like bongping! Either way, he got what he wanted. He grinned up at the game keeper and pointed at a green alicorn. "The green one, please!" With prize in hand, he turned away, only to feel someone's hand on his shoulder.





Fenaret sighed. Yep, that was his little brother for you--always running off without regard for others. It was Fena's goal to break his brother of that habit someday. "Frankie, please wait for me." His brother indeed stopped and waited while Fena threw. He deliberately aimed badly. He didn't want another plushie from this stand, after all, but he wouldn't say no to a bit of candy. Indeed, he was rewarded with brightly-colored candy floss. "Okay, now we can move on," he laughed.





Eidil noticed that she was holding Cal's hand--she had been the one to grab it in the first place. She stopped now to listen to the song, and a flood of happy memories came over her. "Oh wow, yeah, I remember this song! I remember we got into so much trouble with our teachers when we started singing during class. Oh, man." She bounced from foot to foot, listening to the beat. "Yeah, I'd love to dance with you!" Without further ado, she pulled Cal onto the dance floor, and with their bouquets crumpled in their purses, they began to shimmy along to the beat.



Sound Lee was not surprised when his friend accepted his challenge. He figured that it had a lot to do with what Vederat liked to do--he didn't like competition, but he liked practically any game that had to do with water. Lee could appreciate that, even if he and his best friend had different opinions on which type of water was best. Sound Lee preferred salt water, the roar of the ocean, the pull of the waves; Ved preferred fresh water, the glimmering of scales, the swish of reeds in the wind. There was a poetry to both. But poetry or not, Sound Lee won again. He hesitated--should he give his prize to Vederat, who hadn't won something from here yet? He looked over at his friend, silently imploring him to answer the unspoken question.





Vederat lost again, but he shrugged. Stuff like that happened...besides, he had way more plushies than Lee did. He had like, five--he hoped to get more, there were rumors of a skyfish plush game out there--but Lee only had, with this new addition, three. "Nah, you won it fair and square," he said. "You deserve to have another one, Lee." He smiled as his friend picked out a duck. He had been expecting another seal, but hey, ducks were waterborne, weren't they?

He started when someone tapped him on the back. It was the game keeper, offering him some cotton candy. "That was very sweet of you," she said. "Here, have some sweets."

He gasped and took the candy. "Thank you!" he squeaked.





Zalir watched a few more runners go through the obstacle course, all the while zey ran through the few stretches zey could remember from PE. Stretch the legs, stretch the arms, um...stretch the...shoulders? Knees? Those were about all that zey could remember. Alas. Zey sighed and entered the line again, waiting for it to be zeir turn to run the course. Finally, after about fifteen minutes of waiting, zey reached the front of the line. Zey set off at a somewhat ponderous pace, avoiding each obstacle with care. Zey weren't the fastest, not by a long shot, but zey were surprised to see that zey had finished the course before the other runners. Zey blinked. Was being careful really all there was too it?

"Congratulations," the maze keeper said. Zey offered a bag to Zalir--one with the beautiful blue jelly.

Zalir smiled and blushed. "Th-thank you! Um, have a nice day?"

That was about all zey had wanted to do today--zey were tired and panting after running the course again, and about ready to curl up with a book. Zey slipped the new jelly in zeir bag and returned to zeir dorm.





Quilo shook his head. "No, no, it would be no trouble at all, Ella! I'd love to help you out. I mean, if you ever need any help, all you have to do is ask me. Uh, it's kind of like that old saying, isn't it?" Suddenly, he realized he was in too deep. No. No talking about burying bodies when you were at prom with your best friend who was rapidly evolving into your first crush. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear...how could he stop? Well, he could just, um...stop...? So he left the question hanging, and instead latched onto a subject, any subject--it would be better than making a macabre joke. "Yes! Darts. Darts sound really good right now!" His face was hot, and he was aware that his face was also glowing a bright gold color. It was the way her face lighted up when he offered her a ring, he decided...it was just so happy, and maybe a little relieved? And overall, it showed that he had made the right choice in offering her a ring. He decided to be a little bolder this time--he offered her his arm to the partner darts. "Please show me the way, madame?" He giggled. Was that wrong? The giggling, or the madame, or the arm, or--?



In the end, Evelyn had had to spend the day with her little brother. Her parents wanted to dance (how a Naga danced, she was mildly curious to see), and that left her with babysitting duty. Of course. Mind, before she could object, Da had given her a look. A look that said, "When we imbued Darryl, you said you wanted a little brother. Now you have a little brother. Get on with it." She sighed and took her brother's (slightly sticky) hand. "Come on, let's go find my friends."

Her brother followed her (reluctantly, it felt), as she pulled him along through the crowds. Talya should be easy to find--all she had to do was find a freshling dressed in a fancy dress. This was exactly the kind of opportunity that Talya lived for: an excuse to dress as fancily as she could. She couldn't see her friend in the crowd, though, and Darryl was tugging her hand towards a booth. Evey sighed and followed him. They might as well play while looking for her friends. The game her brother chose was a ball toss game. It was like a beanbag toss, but with balls--and with a tilted series of hoops to throw into. Evelyn took the first turn and won a small prize. She looked over the options and squinted. What could she take? Her eye was caught by a bunch of neck ribbons. She smiled. They were exactly the kind of thing that Talya would like. Let's see...Talya would take the pink one, so she'd ask Lillian to take the orange and yellow one (Lillian was probably the only person any of them had ever met who didn't have a favorite color). Which meant that Evey should take the blue one! That way, they could all match.





It took some searching, but Lillian spotted Evey at last. "Found her!" she said to Talya, and after waiting for Talya to put the aetherjelly back in her purse, she dragged her friend along to the ball tossing game. Talya began to outrun her when their friend came into sight. With a wild whoop, she glomped onto Evelyn and held her in a tight embrace. Lillian hid a giggle at the sight--Evey flailing, Talya clinging on tightly, Darryl shaking his head and glaring. She caught the demomera's eye and showed him her smile; she found Evey and Talya as tiring as he did. And they were--at least for the shy and retiring Lillian. But just because a person made you tired didn't mean you couldn't love them, and Lillian loved her two friends to bits.

He returned her smile with a scowl. She shrugged and picked up a ball from the counter to toss. That was Darryl for you. Her toss won her a choice of prizes. "What should I get?" she asked the other girls.

The question broke up the hug fest as they looked up at her. "I picked a ribbon," Evelyn said, holding her prize up. "I figured you two would want some, too."

Lillian nodded. Blue for Evelyn, pink for Talya. So she would get the orange and yellow one. She tied it around her neck and stepped aside for Talya. "Your turn."





Talya was too delighted to see her friend for words. But she nodded in approval at the ribbons--they were very pretty. Nonetheless... "No, I think it's Darryl's turn." The Demomera had been glaring at her from behind his sister ever since her arrival. She'd met Darryl on a few occasions--he didn't like her. In fact, so far as she could tell, Darryl didn't like anyone. Still, fair was fair, and there was an olive branch to be stretched out here. "He was here first."



Darryl sighed. Evey's friends just kept...barging in. He wasn't sure if he liked any of them--he really wanted to hate Talya more than anyone else, but she kept being too nice to him. It was hard to hate someone who was nice. And Lillian seemed to understand how exhausting the other girls were, so in spite of cutting him in line, he found he couldn't hate her, either.

He'd just have to find some reasons to, then. He sighed and picked up a ball. He threw it, and his aim was true--he hit the middle circle. He nodded. Yes, good. He had won. And his prize was a stuffed animal, too. Mutely, he pointed to the purple one. That was just the one for him. Purple wasn't his favorite color--it was his second favorite--but it was his favorite color for stuffed animals. Since Evey kept picking all of the blue ones, he'd had to pick purple just to...well, to continue the theme she'd picked for him before he had emerged, but also so that his stuffed animals did not get mixed up with hers. Sigh.

Damn. It seemed that Ganymede had noticed the plush he had tucked away. Ganymede was...sensitive about plushies. Some people grew out of them, but some people, such as Anchriesel, never really grew out of plushies. They were cute, and they were soft, and they were cuddly, and they were so much fun to squeeze and hold and enjoy. So why all of the annoyance at getting more?

It was just another thing that Chries disagreed with Ganymede on. He would just have to live with it. Or something. Especially since another plushie had come flinging out of the air to hit Chries on the back of his head. He looked around to see if someone had lost it by accident, but there were no cries or shrieks. Someone must have brought a plushie cannon. They should probably ask Ava to ban those or something. He stuffed the new plushie in his bag with the first one. He watched the expression on Gany's face. He was smiling, happy--happy at the rat, but he didn't seem so happy at seeing Chries come in. Of course, Ganymede didn't like people, did he...

He took the necklace with a smile and put it around his neck. It was beautiful, if nothing else. "Thank you," he murmured. "That was very thoughtful of you, Ganymede."



In response to this post.





Melisara was having a wonderful evening with Maria, dancing and playing games together.



Quilo continued spending time with Ella, unsure about what he was doing, but certain that he wanted to be with her. A plushie hit him in the back of the head--oh dear. The cannons were back--and he offered it to her. "Um, you still like pink, r-right?"

Raniol picked the whack-a-mole game carefully. He was pretty sure he could win this game, and anyway, it looked like a lot of fun. How often did you get a chance to play a game like this? They didn't have them in arcades anymore, after all, hadn't had them since they were both little kids...heck, since Sara had been a little kid! Niol whacked away merrily, racking up enough points to win a plushie. He waved it in his brother's face. "Three dan, one more t' go!"





The song had ended and Eidil's hand was folded into Cal's once again. "Where should we go next? Maybe look for Mys. Grey's guess-a-thing?" She knew even before she asked that Cal would accept. They both loved that game--it was how they had met their science teacher, long before she'd ever been hired. They'd befriended the Chimera then--and they'd continued to be friends well into her employment at the Academy. Besides, Mys. Grey's booth almost always had familiars these days--often even Fluffbugs, Cal's favorite pet.

Mys. Grey had set one up as usual, with a variety of boxes on the table. The Chimera had smiled at them as they approached and offered Eidil a box first. "Well, what do you think?"

Eidil smiled. "It feels like cotton, but it's a lot lighter. Is it a bunch of seeds?"

Mys. Grey nodded. "Very good! How about a locket for a prize?"

Eidil nodded and picked one up from the selection their teacher offered them. "Thank you!"





Callessa loved this game--and she was very good at it. She eyed the Fluffbugs in their cages at the back of the stall and put her hand in the box. She grinned--she knew what this was! And the more accurate she was, the more likely she was to win a familiar. "It's a clump of yarn--wool, I think...?"

"Wool, you know," Mys. Grey said. She swept a hand towards the fluffbugs. "Which one strikes your fancy?"

Cal bit her lip, trying to choose. "Um, the blue one? Blue ones are sort of hard to find in a nice, true blue..."

Mys. Grey nodded. "Blue it is, then!"

Darryl rolled his eyes at Talya's suggestion. Sure. Fine. Try to make him feel better. Whatever. When it was his turn to play again, he shook his head. Thankfully, his sister responded by taking his hand and leading her friends onward.



Vederat led Sound Lee onwards to the next stall, which was a beanbag toss game. Pretty simple, really--and they both did well, well enough to earn plushies. Ved took a yellow one--he hoped he would find some more in "his" colors!





Sound Lee played the beanbag game alongside his friend--he picked an orange plush. Hey, it was different, wasn't it?

ninja

Kiessi continued listening to the music that was playing as they started to sew some ends of a plushie they had been working on. They knew it was probably stupid to be working during a celebration, but it wasn't like they had anything better to do at the moment.



Kiessi Points (Junior): 147




Pandora swayed gently to the music, humming a tune along with it, giving away that she actually had a nice voice. When she opened them she was a bit surprised to find someone hand her a plushie before walking into the crowd to hand some more out. She thought it was kind of odd, but she would definitely add it to her collection.




Pandora Points (Senior): 190