Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ara glanced sideways at Toxic before the family came in. "Not one big happy family," she corrected quietly. "You, me, your brothers, we're a family. These are-are strangers that we're meeting for the first time." Her voice caught a bit when she thought of the harsh truth of what her family was now, but didn't let any of it spill over.

She smiled a bit shakily at Odi when he came into the clearing, her eyes immediately drawn to her children. She drew a sharp intake of breath. No doubt at all that these were her children.

She had expected no less than the coldness of adults meeting a stranger. To say that she was surprised that one of her daughters came right up to her and nuzzled her would have been a major understatement. She wasn't really sure how to react to any of it, still so overwhelmed.

Toxic cocked her head to the side to look at Ara, nodding. Finally, she whispered in a low voice: "Good. Because this is my family. Not some strangers. My brothers and you are the family I want." Was she admitting her attachment to her mother and brothers for once? This was rare, and honest. One could tell if Toxic spoke the truth by the lack of overly used sweetness. She herself wasn't sweet, so often she had to compensate for such lack of kindness by adding layers of it when tricking another. People heard what they wanted to, and often fell for it.

However her tone was low and calm, perhaps a little irked. She spotted one of the females approach Ara and rub against her, not giving this so much as a notion and instead protectively watching her brothers when the vixen approached them. When she raised her paw over the males tail her tail lashed to the side once, a low grumble coming from her chest. Good, the paw lowered.

She snorted when her brothers spoke, rolling her eyes. "Perky, I'd like to see that." Her eyes locked on a male that spit out some nonsense to Ara about her finally having interest in them, already targeting this male. So, he'd be the one that would give everyone a hard time. Good to know.

Then there was the vixen acting rather demanding about the boys pretending to sleep. So, another vixen that would give trouble. All three seemed to have issues. Heh, Toxic wasn't perfect either. She finally flopped down on her stomach, relaxed, and yawned, silently still near Ara and content with not moving. She would watch the three news kids.

Astrea wasn’t one for talking or outbursts. Her comment about them faking sleep was not something she would normally do but she supposed the stress played a part. For now she was perfectly okay with staying silent and letting Gem and Ransom do all the talking. She didn’t like being around strangers even if they were somehow related to her.

Plus the others would say pretty much everything needed. However when Introductions went around she took a sigh and figured she could speak up one more time. “Astrea” and that was all she was saying on the matter. Hopefully they would guess that was her name. Now it was back to staying as far away as possible without making it seem like you wanted to be anywhere else, which wasn't entirely true. She briefly wondered if she was the eldest out of the whole group or just her siblings

Ara smiled in an understanding way at Astrea and Ransom. "My given name is Aracelis," she said. "I don't know if your father told you that or not. Everyone calls me Ara though, for everyday use." Yes, she could totally understand how they felt. It was one thing to be a mother, and another to be a Mom.

"As for taking an interest in you," Ara continued gently, eyes traveling between her three missing children, "I have always thought of you. Perhaps it might not seem so, for I stayed here rather than go out looking for you." She smiled ruefully. "I was scared. What if I left, and Odi suddenly returned with you? Something like that, it seemed the greater of two evils. I always believed your father would return here someday, and I'm sure we all wish it had been sooner."

Ara looked over at Odi, making sure he knew she wasn't blaming him in the slightest. Odi would have gone to hell and back to save his family, and whatever reason he had to take so long to return had to have been a good one.

Odi gave a grateful sigh as he heard Ara talk. He was so happy she was willing to take him back. Even better she loved her missing children. A small sick feeling creeped into Odi as he knew Ara children didn't actually know his bloody and aggressive tendecies. Maybe they could be avoided.

" I agree with Kaleth and Toreth. It would give all of us a chance to get to know each other." He said looking at Ara to see if she agreed. As he watched her a gentle smile appeared on his face and was wondering when they could get private time, he had so much to ask her.

"he told us to call you mom or mother." Gem said casually as her eyes drifited to the boys. They just seemed so diffrent from her siblings she grew up with, she wanted to get to know them more so much. Toxic however she didn't like. Something about her seemed so fake, so dangerous.

"Mom...is it true their are giant monsters in the ocean that tried to eat dad?"

Astrea blinked once and stared at her perhaps younger brothers, seriously they wanted to go climbing up a mountain for bonding time. Sure if it was a leisurely climb but strenuous one often focused on pushing them selves upwards rather than get to know the foxes around them. She quickly memorized their names just in case she saw her family ever again although she did have to wonder what was running through Ara’s mind that she named her child toxic. Perhaps it was a self made nickname or something. She just nodded and looked over at her twin and young sibling. It was true dad had wanted them to call their “mother” Mother or Mom but it just didn’t sit right with Astrea, she didn’t have a mom she had a biological stranger so the vixen that shared some of her patterns would just have to do with Aracelis, if Astrea ever deemed to talk.

Ara looked reproachfully at her boys. "Maybe not a strenuous climb," she corrected, "but a walk would be nice. It's always a little easier to talk when the body has something to do, I've thought."

She looked around the little clearing at all her family, and mentally sighed. With all the tension zinging around between her children, anything to make talking a little easier might be a good thing...

Before Odi could make a reply to Toxic's request he listened to what Ransom had to say. Well he was atleast making a attempt now, that was all he wanted. And best of all it actually made since. "That's a good idea Ransom," he said smiling at his son. As he turned his attenction to Ara he gave slight tilt of his head. " so why don't you take mine on your walk and I take yours?" He questioned before turning to his boy twins. "Prehaps we could spar later if you fancy yourself a warrior...well your my son so its in you. And maybe we could hold a discussion later?"

"You two should spend time around Astrea." He said with the hope they could get more emotion out of her. The way she acted so quiet made him worry about her so he always tried to get emotions out of her.

Finally he gave a warm smile at Toxic. She obviously didn't know her biological father history, if she did Odi would be expecting less sweetness and more distance. "I would like to, how about later? I would love to get to know my other daughter more."

Gem let out a small sigh as she listened to the conversation. No she didn't mind the boys or mom. No it was Toxic, she seemed off and she knew Ransom could also tell. She gave a sideways glance at her younger brother that showed her approval for a moment before falling back on her mother.

"Good" she said after her mother had declared the walk and casually went to sit at free side and laying her head on her shoulder. Gem was affectionate if she believed the person deserved it and she thought her mother did. That is if Ara didn't prove her room.