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"Oh...well, okay," was all the she-devil said, face screwing up in utter confusion. She lingered by the doorway, orange eyes flicking back and forth like a cornered animal. Where she would have leapt at the chance at any party (with booze), ever since Ritsu entered her home she just felt...

Thin. Stretched. Used. She didn't want to drink, she didn't want to party. She wanted to sleep in most days, spend time on her porch, and take the occasional trip to Father James' church.

She supposed waking up next to Ritsu the day they formally met - he had been in his monkey form the entire time; she had taken him to bed with her - was a slap in the face. She had mistaken him for someone else. Someone...she wanted.

"Jocelyn...I'm going to go," she called to her newest child who seemed otherwise occupied. With a small noise, something like a sigh and a murmur, she slipped through the door whilst people continued to trickle in.

Jocelyn, on the other hand, was fascinated by the floating ribbons, more so than the party, in fact. With one hand she pushed her hair back and threw the teddy over her shoulder to get a better hold on the boy's ribbons. She walked before him again, leaning in to lace the blue one with another crossing his front; she seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself despite his somewhat...obvious discomfort.

Looking up and tilting her head, she made to answer but let out a sharp cry instead, narrowed eyes shooting wide. Her head snapped in the direction of the sound system, gaze becoming as murderous as a child her age could look - she managed it surprisingly well, actually.

However, realizing her outburst, her round face colored a faint pink in utter embarrassment as she tried to regain her lost composure. She hated being startled like that.

"Stupid...noise...thing," she muttered through barely parted lips, her shoulders coming up sheepishly. Looking back to the pink-haired child she wiggled her nose and sniffed, fingers tightening around the blue ribbon. She really should have let go, but she liked making people uncomfortable...sometimes.

"Well my old lady's house is full of kids...just none are my age neither. The're all little or too big -- "

"Buububububu!"

Joce's head snapped towards Karma, sheet of white gold hair flung to the side at her movement. She stared at the smaller child and unconsciously shuffled closer to Asrafel, eyes narrowed. What did he want?

"What?"

Asrafel noticed the guardian leaving, and he turned to Joce to try and mention it to her, but the capture of a second ribbon made his breath expel. He winced and tried to gently pull the ribbons out of her hands, every so often letting out a whimper of discomfort or a giggle of ticklishness.

Talk about having your man by the puppet strings.

When the music system had blared, it had not only hurt Asrafel's ears, but also the ribbons that Joce had involuntarily clenched. A little whimper left his lips as she tightened around the blue one, which compensated by drifting away from anything important so as not to hurt him. It wrapped around his middle instead, loosely hugging the boy's lithe waist.

He tried to listen to what she said, but-ow the ribbons really didn't like to be played with this much against-ow his will. If he had allowed or asked for it, sure, but..

Oh look, there's Karma! He turned his head and grinned down at the boy, though his grin faltered for a moment as his peripheral vision registered Joce's proximity.

Gee she was close.

---

Jada continued to hand out the slips of paper and pencil to anyone who didn't just take it themselves, looking as though she was quite content with busy work. She saw Marcus' mother out of the corner of her eye, and beamed a grin at the woman, waving softly. A small part of her heart bore the tiny hope that perhaps Marcus had come with her, but she knew better. This wasn't his kind of thing.

Still, it was only natural that she would hope.

"HALLO." Donny cried out to the woman, giggling softly as he showed off his top hat, in which there were now already a couple of pieces of paper. He cuddled it, looking much like a candleholder clung to it's candle.

"This is mine." He proclaimed proudly.

Calumet spotted a flurry of movement just ahead of him, and curious as always, he went to go check it out. Oh, it was ribbon-boy again! And he had some friends, a white-haired girl and a long-haired toddler. What was the little boy doing? Was it some kind of game? Intrigued, he crawled over to the girl, open hands batting at her other leg. Cal wasn't quite sure what the point of this was...but it was fun!

Inle, beer finally in hand, had wandered over towards the raffle table. Managing to scribble Cal's name on a piece of paper, she dropped it into the hat, chuckling at Donny's antics.

Chikara walked into the Benedict Center with a large bucket of margarita mix underneath her arm. She had seen the party balloons from the grocery store across the street, and what the hell? She was bored, and it said that walk-ins were welcome, whatever that meant. How did you walk into a birthday party anyway?

However, as soon as she entered the Benedict Center, she was confused. Why were there a bunch of small children running around...and was this lime-and-strawberry margarita mix an appropreate gift? Should she have brought...milk?

Rather confused, she skirted around until she found a table, and placed the margarita mix on a corner. There seemed to be a crowd of people hanging around this poor, naked, pink-haired boy covered...sorta...in ribbons, which really wasn't that odd a sight, when you worked in a bar, but he looked a leeeeettle young for that sort of thing. Also, there seemed to be a great excess of...unique characteristics to these people, especially since several of them had tails and ears that were not usually found on human bodies. She clutched the pendulum - which served as a necklace - in her hand tightly, and wandered over to the raffle table, where she placed a hand on a woman's shoulder. The woman, who was holding a beer, didn't seem to notice, so Chikara said, "Eh, hello? Are you...do you know what's going on? I just saw this place off the streets, and I thought maybe I should bring something in, so I bought margarita mix, but there are all these little children here, and maybe that wasn't such a good idea... Do you mind?"

Jocelyn's reaction made Chuu realize that it was rather noisy and a bit stuffy inside the Benedict center. And then she heard a bit of thundering outside... it was raining. It would be soooo refreshing to go outside right now, if even for just a little bit~...

"I'm going to go outside and get some fresh air, but I promise I'll be back soon~!" the child said just in case anyone was listening. She then left the room- she would be back sooner or later. Maybe with treats.

Adonis gripped the hat tighter and nodded. "Yes. Hat thiefu. Dey want my hat, but ish mine." He looked around with an exaggerated glare, before looking back up at the woman again.

"Mebbe I show you why when the raffle is over." He whispered up to her, trying to be secretive and failing miserably at it.

---

Asrafel couldn't help but notice that things were slowly turning against Joce, and he bent down to pick up Karma in his arms, to try and help the situation. Sadly, when he stood back up, he just barely heard Joce's final words, and he turned to see the sheet of blonde hair pass him by as she stormed off. He choked out a small 'Wait~' but it was drowned out by the blaring music. His brow furrowed in creases, and the face that normally held such a bright and bubbly grin now housed a deep pout.

So much for making friends his age..

It hurt more than usual, for some unknown reason, to see her go. He wouldn't run after her, because she was clearly upset, and he had the distinct feeling that if he tried to console her he would only make things worse. What's more, if he did go after her, he had a feeling there would be a troupe of foot-fisting babies following his footsteps, and that was the last thing she needed.

So instead, Asrafel clung tightly to Karma, and shifted down to flop on the floor after his ribbons stretched enough to cover where he sat. He reached out and stroked Calumet's hair softly, but the painfully sad look on his face wouldn't go away. In fact, it was only getting worse.

Asrafel looked like he was going to cry.

"Yes, there's a whole bunch of it over there, next to the snack table..." She glanced at the woman again. "So...there's no problem? That's good, because I was worried that -" Her voice trailed off and she blinked. "...what was I going on about? Oh, sorry. I must have forgotten again! Silly me! I'm so bubble-headed sometimes! Hey, whatsyername? I'm Chikara, but you can call me Kari. Oh, and is there any vodka to mix the margarita mix in? I think I forgot to bring some, which is pretty stupid, even for me..." Chikara smiled happily and shook Inle's hand - the one without the beer - esctatically. "So it's a party? Whose party? Are they here? Can I stay? Should I have brought more alcohol?

Chikara jumped up and down with delight. "Oh, that's GREAT! You're so resourceful. I don't know why you need to carry a bottle of vodka around, but hey!" She placed a firm hand on the woman's elbow and dragged her - literally - over to the drink table where she deposited the margarita mix. "Now, Inle, should we mix it in the bucket so people know what it is, or just stick it in one of these little bowls?" She smiled expectantly at the woman, until a thin frown played upon her mouth. "...why do you have all this dip, but no chips?