Welcome to Gaia! ::

Zelynity was glad to hear that the woman didn't mind Rocky as he could make some interactions quite difficult. Still, she couldn't resist the urge to tug at his leash and try to contain his excitement. It wasn't very often when he got to come out and meet new people, after all. Oh, Angela had a cat! Even better! She reached down to rub at Rocky's head to keep him slightly more calm as Angela stood up. It wouldn't be too great if he were to knock her back down, especially with the evening she had already had with the bird and all. "Thanks for the heads up. I'll learn to stay away from that guy." She looked over at Javor and the surrounding people near the bonfire. Was that girl homeless? and was anyone watching that child? Oh goddess, that just looked like something she did not even want to be a witness to.

She turned back to smile at Angela. "Oh, sorry. I don't think I told you my name either. Zelynity Niami!" She pulled her hand out of her pocket to shake. "Oh! Yes. I usually do landscapes with pastels, but I occasionally take the time for oil." She stuffed her hand back into her pocket and nodded quite happily. Ah, it was so nice to be able to talk about something that didn't have to do with relationships or kids or just general old boring-ness. She glanced down at the paper that Angela had been working on out of curiosity. It was a real shame that it had gotten ruined, she really wanted to see what this girl could do.

______________________________________________

Beatrice's eyes became a little wide as the woman began to scream, thankfully it was to her sister. It was a little startling, to say the least. But then the woman had the decency to apologize, so that made up for all of it! "Oh, you're fine." She nodded and swayed a little on her toes. "The bar, yes. Actually you can baaaarely see it from here." She turned a little and pointed off to the direction of the bar. "That big building there? With the lit sign you can kind of see? That's it. I'd really love to go with you, but I promised my niece that I'd meet up with her when it was closer to midnight and it's probably getting pretty close. I hope you have a great time, though! If you see a big brown-headed doofus and he tries to hit on you, just ignore him. He's pretty harmless. Though, you could probably get him to buy you a drink." She laughed before waving to the woman and her sister and walking back towards where she had split with Lyra.

Where could that girl have gone? She checked the clock tower and noted that there was some time left, so she guessed she could just take in the scenery for a little while.

______________________________________________

Lyra knew when it was time to leave things be and the second a wife popped up was precisely that time. She did, however, stay long enough to get a good look at what he had to put up with. If she knew what was good for her, she would wipe that scowl right off of that pretty little face. Too bad Lyra had agreed to have a civil evening with her aunt. She generally wouldn't be above throwing down right here, right now. Lyra smirked at the question Anna asked. Was she just here to raise her leg and mark her territory? Resisting the urges, she played nice and smiled when the man said her name, oh how she loved how he said her name. Was it possible to love it even more now that she knew he was married? She was sure that she had seen a wink, but she had been trying to pay more attention to the wife than him so maybe she was just wishing. Either way, she couldn't just leave without making sure she had made some sort of impression on him and the little ho.

"Once you start to miss me, you should stop by the bakery." She rubbed her hand gently down his arm before looking over at Anna and giving her a wink. She really wished that she could stay and wait for the reaction, but it seemed like it would be more dramatic if she just left on that note. So, she turned on her heel, making sure to blatantly look Michael over once more before walking away.

Now where was Bea? Ah, there she was! With a smile, she stepped into place next to her aunt. "Hey!"

River paused momentarily to assess which of the tall man's female companions were his wife, and for a split second she was truly at a loss. Then she realized -- da-doy, River, so close-minded! Who says he just had to have one wife? So silly, and she called herself an adult! Shaking her head and chuckling at her own simplicity, River seized her wife's hand and took off at Michael and Anna, just as the blue-haired wife left. Well, that simplified things a little bit, right?

"Good day, tall sir!" she greeted Michael with a sloppy salute with her free hand. "My name is River, and this is my wife, Zhi." Cue late night shopping network hand gesture towards Zhi, so smooth. "I hope we are correct in presumating that you are married-folks as well?" She beamed at Anna. No one was an A+ woo-er like River was! "We were wondering if you and your wife would like to be friendly with me and my wife," she winked, and waggled her elbow towards Michael. "Any of your wives, the pretty blonde one or the blue one who just left, we're not picky." She grinned at the two before looking at Zhi with an enthusiastic 'I did good right? Praise me!' expression on her face.

---

It was all developing so fast! One minute, Jeremy was looking at the weird staring kids, next thing he knew, his mothers had left him alone with them, and they had been joined by two more teenagers! He recognized Alec and Amie from school, but that was the extent of his knowledge. "Hi," he greeted them simply, giving an unsure smile as they talked about ogres. Mathew didn't seem to give them much thought, though, so he decided not to either.

"Wait, you've really gone in the mines?" Jeremy replied with what might have been hushed reverence. The mines were notoriously dangerous, and even River, who had very different standards of dangerous than most mothers, said he'd be better off staying away from there. "Do your parents know?" The moment it came out of his mouth, he realized how lame he was sounding, and his ears turned pink. "I'm Jeremy. Jeremy Park." He continued, hoping he hadn't embarrassed himself too much with that question.

---

Rory smiled at the mental image of Usagi and her sister and mother spending the holidays together. It was a nice image, that sort of happy familial domestic scene. It had been a good number of years since he had anything like that. Chuckling at her confession, he nodded sympathetically. "Same here. I remember one year I swore I would be more organized, but by the third day I had already lost my house keys in all the clutter. Took me two weeks to find them again," he laughed. That had been one of his loftier resolutions, to be sure; usually he settled on things a little more feasible, like practicing the cello more or finding a long-term employee at the museum -- was that how he had ended up with Xochi?

When Usagi asked about his own resolutions, he paused thoughtfully before answering. "Oh, lots of things, this and that," he replied vaguely, still pondering how much he should say. "To put it simply, I'd like to make some changes in my life," he continued, looking towards the fire and the figures frolicking around it. "I turn forty-two in the Spring, a change has been rather overdue. Typical bachelor things can't last forever!" he chuckled merrily. He flexed his hands to keep the blood circulating in his fingers, then ruffled the hair on the back of his own head. "Speaking of which..." He shifted his weight anxiously, and he resisted the urge to busy himself in something trivial and interesting, like the contents of his pockets or a twig on the ground. "...I've been wanting to ask you something." Scratch cheek, push bangs out of eyes, wonder if shoelaces were too loose, don't want them to come undone while talking and then trip and get hurt and -- "Would... would you like to get dinner sometime?" Once it was out, all of the pent-up anxiety went with it, manifesting itself in pure babble. "Not like that last dinner!" he hastily corrected himself. "No suspicious lasagna, but like... a proper restaurant, with a menu, and professionally prepared food, and lighting, and.... cloth... napkins..." Ah, he was losing it. "That is, if you want. If you don't want to, that's fine. But if you do, that'd be..." Finally, he realized that he was rambling, and he quickly cut himself off before he could say something really stupid.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Mitsukai," Eva said. "Evander Rosenthal, though most people call me Eva so that's what I'm more likely to answer to. And no, I wouldn't say I'm really all that new. I guess I've been working a lot lately and haven't gotten out much. I mean, it's pretty easy to sit down to work on one little thing and before you know it, three days have gone by and you can barely move because you've forgotten to eat...."

He gave Mitsukai a sheepish smile. "Then again, that's probably just me."

"Soooo. This is a pretty nice party. Are festivals always like this?

**

"Oh, I'm not much familiar with working with pastels but I also occasionally work with oils," Angela said. "Though this time, I thought a watercolor travel kit would be easier to set up here." She glanced toward the bonfire where some very suspicious activities were definitely going on. She decided to ignore whatever that was about and keep scratching the excitable dog behind its ears.

"I didn't foresee the pigeon though," she laughed. "In any case, an oil set up tends to get a lot more attention since people instantly notice the easel and I don't completely mind an audience but it gets a little nerve wracking so they're usually confined to the studio at my house. Anyway, do you display your works anywhere? I mean, it doesn't seem like there's really a place for them. But back in my home town, there was a little florist that had a small art gallery attached..."

She laughed at her friend's story, "I wish Mitsukai would make a resolution like that and keep it," she laughed again. No matter how much Usagi tried to tidy up the house, the younger girl just came along and disorganized everything again! Of course, Usagi couldn't say that she herself was too much better, but at least her room was somewhat tidy! And hey, the floor could be seen, that was a good thing.

She listened to Rory as he began to talk about his own resolutions for the new year. Changes? What could he mean by that? "Like wh-" Oh, "typical bachelor things" of course. What did that even mean anyway? No matter that though, did that mean he planned on changing his typical bachelor status? Perhaps it was selfish of her to think so, but Usagi secretly hoped not. It wasn't only because of her feelings, but if Rory found someone what if he stopped being friends with her? Well, at least her friend would be happy... She continued to run a similar string of thoughts through her head until Rory addressed her again, "Y-yes?" what could he possibly want to ask? "D-dinner? With me?" Did he mean like a date, or was this just another friendly dinner thing? Oh, but he did mention cloth napkins and those were awfully fancy for something as simple as a friendly dinner. She didn't want to read to much into it though! Was her face red? It was probably red. Great, just great. "Um, yes! Dinner would be nice," she managed to answer him out loud. Did that come out okay? Oh, she hoped she didn't sound weird or over-eager.

----------------------

"Nice to meet you too!" she smiled again. She would continue smiling as he explained his not being new, but she didn't want to seem creepy, so she settled on the occasional reassuring nod instead. "I think it's just you," she laughed after her blunt statement. "What do you do for work?" she couldn't help but wonder after hearing him mention it.

"Oh, the festivals? Well this isn't much," she began, "The real fun on New Year's is over at the bar, but this is okay." she explained. "As for the other festivals, they're pretty fun most of the time. If nothing else they give me an excuse to miss work most of the time, and it helps my sister get out of the house too." At mention of Usagi she stole a glance over to the other girl. Good, she was still talking to Rory. She also looked pretty flustered about something, so that most likely a good sign too. Go Usagi! she mentally cheered her sister on. Maybe something would finally happen between those two.

Javor was shocked when Izzy was shoved into the fire by Sani. He was such a bright child, with a bright future! Sadly, fish-girl pulled the hobo out of the fire and left her gasping on the ground, slightly more charbroiled than she had been before. Though he supposed it did serve her right, for cooking his bird.

Still, he was a doctor. He lived for things like this.

Before anyone else could react to the partially cooked young girl, Javor pulled a doctor's bag out from...well...perhaps it's best not to ask where he pulled it from. But he did produce one as he knelt beside her, beginning to administer first aid. He also pulled out his trusty pager (he'd finally figured out how to work it!) and buzzed for an ambulance which arrived promptly considering that they didn't exactly have far to drive.

Soon enough, the hobo was on a stretcher, being carried off to the clinic, while Javor barked orders and insults to the NPC paramedics.

The lot of them hopped into the ambulance and sped away to the clinic (where they arrived in a few minutes and Izzy was treated for her burns and most definitely did not die a horrible death or anything of that sort).

[Javor exits]

**

"I own a large research company," Eva said. "Mostly we focus in the area of medical research and bio-engineering but we branch into other areas as well. Sadly, as the CEO, I don't always have as much time as I would like for the more hands on aspects of the job. But I don't mind it too much. In the end, my teams are still doing a lot of fantastic work."

"What about you, Mitsukai? What do you do?"

The festival, he agreed inwardly, certainly seemed fun. More or less. Most people were just talking quietly in small groups and..."Oh dear..."

was that someone being carried away on a stretcher?

**

"Well if you get that set up, let me know," Angela said. "I might be interested in..." she trailed off. "Private investigator?" she asked, perking up. That sounded...fun. "Really? What do you do exactly? As in, you know, what sort of things do you investigate? Do you get a lot of work? on an island like this?"

Though regardless.....

She smiled slightly. "That seems like it would be a rather fun occupation." An artist and a private detective. Angela really liked this lady.

Sounds of cheering and celebrating were soon heard by the cowboy's ears. What the h-? Whatever was going on just up ahead seemed to have attracted quite the crowd. The grip on Namine's reins tightened to where Ash's knuckles began to turn almost a white hue. Tension built in his body the closer he and the two animals approached this lively square. Soft clicking echoes of horse hooves were easily drowned out by chatter and laughter of all those gathered for the special occasion. Obviously Ash had no idea what today was, so he was feeling a bit out of the lope with such festivities.

As the countdown reached '0' and good cheer spread throughout, the newcomers to Nirvani approached from behind this mingling crowd. Tugging back on the reins he slowed Namine' to a halt with Okami barking and bounding around like a playful puppy. At least someone seemed to be taking in the festive mood to heart. However the cowboy peered around anxiously, hazel orbs trying to take in every detail around them. Yet if suddenly started to feel overwhelming and brought on a rush of dizziness. Hints of sea sickness from before weren't helping either. "Heel, Okami. Don't be goin' too far yet..." Ash whispered under his breath. From the corner of his gaze he saw those beady eyes peer up in understanding. But all these scents and sounds were so tempting to explore. Okami whimpered a plea to his master.

{exit town square}

Zelynity nodded to let the girl know that she would definitely be the first person called in the event that she worked some sort of art place out. She would have to really think about that one. Maybe Jacob could pull some strings. Everyone loved the priest, right? She smiled at the change of the girl's voice. She even had a lot of questions to ask about the job! This was very exciting, she just loved to talk about her job. "Well, we get all sorts of calls ranging from the average people to the Sonatas themselves. Sometimes we're even asked to help the police with investigations that need some more expertise. There isn't all that much work, but we do stay busy. We sometimes take the downtime to research our own cases. Currently, I'm trying to uncover the culprit of the kidnappings that were experienced by some of our residents." Maybe it wasn't good to divulge that sort of information to someone she didn't really know. Though, she found it hard to believe that this nice woman would have anything to do with those kidnappings.

It seemed like Angela was pretty interested in this line of work. Maybe she'd like to know that there was an open position? Zelynity thought for a few seconds before deciding if she really would even want to work with this woman. Of course she would! "You know, there's actually an open position for Junior Detective. You'd get your own desk, gun, and disguise. All paid for by the business." She was about to start into her big spiel when the fireworks began and her attention was drawn away. Ah, it was such a lovely sight. Sadly, the end of them meant that it was time to get home. There was work to do in the morning. Though, she couldn't leave without finishing her little spiel. "If you're interested, you should apply! I'd love to have you. I've found that people with a good eye for art are much better for this type of job." She grabbed for her wallet and pulled a card out. "Here's the number for the office." She pointed it out before flipping over the card and jotting down her own number. "And this is my personal line." She handed the woman the card. "Happy New Year! I'm really glad to have met you and hope to hear from you soon!" She smiled and tugged on Rocky's chain before heading towards the exit.

______________________________________________

Beatrice & Lyra sat on a bench chitchatting about simple things. Lyra occasionally adding in some judgmental words about the imbeciles standing near them. Beatrice frequently correcting Lyra's language. Once the fireworks began, they were silenced as they watched the beautiful sight. Once it had finished, it signaled their time to leave. The two girls stood and walked out together, continuing their chat about how Lyra needed to act more like a lady. How was she ever going to get out of the house if she had that sort of attitude? It was then pointed out that Beatrice had never made it out of the cabin, and she was in a much worse time in her life. This statement, of course, rendered the older woman silent and the walk home was quiet and uncomfortable for the two of them. What a way to start a new year!

______________________________________________

Keegan had been staring up at the sky long before any fireworks had begun. His attention was drawn back down to earth when Sani came back to his side. What was that smell? Had Sani been standing too close to the fire? He reeked of smoke and would need a bath before the night was through. Considering it was already midnight... they were probably not going to have a very good day tomorrow. A cranky kid was perhaps the worst kind of kid, only bested by a stinky kid. Once the fireworks had finished, he scooped Sani up and placed him on his hip. "Happy New Year, Sani." He said in a rather blank voice as they started their trek homeward. "You smell like s**t. Burnt s**t."

[EXIT EVERYONE]