Welcome to Gaia! ::

"They'll probably have to rearrange everything, considering that we're now married," Earendil chuckled. "We might perhaps have my room, and there are plenty of empty rooms in that wing for Miyuki and Andarien. Everyone else will probably stay in the guest wing. As for Daemon ..."

He turned to look for his grandfather-in-law. "Daemon, will you be staying long enough to require a room?" he asked, just so he would know what to tell whoever ended up arranging everything.

Shiro and Kaito, who had overheard Miyuki's comment, laughed aloud.

"Well, Daemon," Shiro grinned, "if you'd like, since I know you're not that great with some of the languages here and none of these books are written in English, I can put them into my tablet and have Ura reprint them for you in English back in Gaia."

Daemon would probably be giddy when he saw the library, but how much of the lore he would be able to understand was questionable.

Shiro grinned and held up his tablet. "A small handheld computer. Mine is more complex than most. I'm sure you've seen me using it from time to time while we've been traveling."

He wasn't entirely sure just when Daemon had disappeared from Gaia, but judging from Kara's age, it was likely that Daemon at least knew what a computer was and what it could do. At least the basics, anyways.

Shiro laughed. "Those were before my time, sorry. Mine is custom made by Kali and myself. It's touch screen but I don't actually type a lot on it - though it does have an on-screen touch keyboard. It's got built-in bio-recognition software, so I usually do speech-to-text, unless I don't want to disturb others."

He chuckled. "Wait until we're sitting in the dining hall, then I'll let you play with it."

As he said it, they arrived at the dining hall, and Earendil stepped aside to let the others in first.

"It's so different from the old palace," Leilani remarked to Aric as they entered.

Shiro chuckled. "Well, to be fair, most things that are first laughed at end up being quite useful once the bugs are worked out. But I will say, mine is capable of more than most tablets. I get requests from people all over the world for all kinds of software and designs, so it needs to be able to handle anything I throw at it. So far, it hasn't failed me. I've even got batteries that recharge on solar power."

He led Daemon to the nearest table and sat down, then pulled his tablet out of his bag and tapped the screen. It flared to life, and a square appeared in the center of the screen. He pressed his thumb to it gently, and a moment later his desktop appeared - a photo he'd taken of his parents before he'd left on this trip. He tapped a small folder icon labeled BASIC APPS and passed it over to Daemon to play with.

Once the others had gone through, Earendil smiled at Lin and led her into the dining room as well. There was no one in there aside from the travelers yet, and Andarien was waving to them from beside Daemon and Shiro to come and sit with him.

Shiro chuckled. "Ura and Kaito get bored sometimes. Besides, they're mostly educational games, even if they don't always realize it."

He grinned at him. "There's even a video recorder and movie studio, though that takes up a lot of space so I try to keep it for special things."

River was looking around at the dining hall. "It's smaller than the Westland palace," she mused, "but bigger than the Eastland. Do you come here often, Miyuki?"

Shiro laughed. "Daemon," he grinned cattily, his red eyes gleaming with amusement, "when you get back to Gaia, you're going to be absolutely amazed with how much technology has changed since you left."

He pointed to a small circle in the shell of the tablet, smaller than the size of a headphone jack. "There. That's the camera. One of them. There are two more on the back, positioned to take three-dimensional photos, or even three-dimensional videos. It's also got a built-in microphone and speakers, though you can hook it up to regular speakers, or headphones as well."

"Ah," River nodded at Miyuki. "I see. What's it like here? Is it-"

She was interrupted when several people entered the dining hall: first came Reave and Atalya, followed by Tinuviel and Aranxia. A moment later, Regan appeared (seemingly quite hyper, though that was usual for her), and behind her was Luthien.

There were hugs and greetings all around, and a loud shriek of delight (which most people thought was Regan at first) from Luthien when she learned that Earendil and Lin were married, and that they had not only Miyuki, but also Andarien.

"Oh, Lin," she gushed, "I'm so happy that you're finally part of the family! I've been saying for a long time now that it was only a matter of time, and ha! I was right!"

She hugged Lin, then sat down between her and Earendil. "Now," she said, her eyes gleaming, "tell me all about what's been going on since you've been married!"

Luthien's eyes shone, and she leaned back in her chair. "Trust me," she grinned. "I've been waiting a long time for this day. You will not be rid of me until I've heard this very long story."

Andarien giggled and grinned up at Lin and Earendil. "I like her," he confided to them. "She's funny!"