Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ella stumbled slightly as he pulled her closer, mostly because she hadn't anticipated the movement. Raa was stronger right now. Clear. Present. He was strength, and Ella was grateful for that. She was very not here, and very weak in her current state. Whatever had gotten this quiet boy to behave this way she thanked it. She needed someone to guide her right now, and she was more than happy to follow. She nodded softly as he mentioned breathing, head raising slightly as he mentioned Ava.

Ava would know!

Instantly, relief struck on her face, nodding. Ava was around, she had just been nearby handing out water. She kept close to Raa's side, eyes flicking across the room. Blue. Blue. Blue. Blue! She was there! Ella pointed her finger out towards the back of the room, pressing into Raa to get his attention.

"She's there."

In the panic Yihad had managed to lose Somansh, the litch looking frantically for hus friend in this huge crowd. Hu knew she would be scared, especially with all these people around that she didn't know. Hu had to find her as soon as possible! After a bit of searching, hu noticed her against one of the walls and hugging herself tight, hum suddenly calling out her name and rushing through all the people to get to her. Nothing else mattered at the moment. Not even hus own social anxiety. Yihad knew hu had to get to her an tell her everything would be okay.

Once together again, the litch embraced hus friend and continued to tell her that she would be okay, that everything would turn out alright. Somash was with hum again, and hu knew that was all she needed in this moment of fear.

Momoko just wanted to hang in his room, warm, under the covers while the current headache and sniffles he was spouting (most likely due to a certain Freshling's tricks) passed. Yet as soon as he had managed to snooze off, a caretaker had run in and quickly ushered him out the room with a calm sort of urgency they always seemed to feign. Everything was okay, nothing is wrong, or something of the sort. He’d barely managed to grab hold of his blanket before he was up off the bunk bed and tottering through the hallways in a small group. Once they’d arrived, he managed to find a small chair to curl up in and hopefully nap. Yet the noise of the auditorium only seemed to grow when more and more people arrived, and the incessant chatter of the broadcast just grated on in his already painful head.

Still, he stayed. Curled up in a mess of his blanket, laying awkwardly against the chair. He was almost managing to tune out the noise, his mind slowly jumbling it into a weird incoherent mess. Though when the broadcast went silent, and fell into a mind-splitting scream, he shot up, hands reaching up to pull his ears down and muffle the noise as he franticly looked about for what had happened. That was when his eyes locked onto the television, and the new person who had appeared. Now he wasn’t sure when, but while he was fixated on the masked person, Momoko slid out from the chair, blanket still half wrapped around him and tottered over to the nearest person. He was scared, unusually so, and the shock and confusion was plainly written in his wide eyes.

As the tv image cut out, Momoko snapped out of his wide-eyed stare and finally took notice of the people in the room. With a gasp he skittered away from the person he’d moved to stand by and just began to walk around. Weaving through the legs of the panicked people, looking about for any of the caretakers he’d come to know, but instead he noticed a familiar Freshling hanging about looking almost happy? Why did he have to only know the only Freshling with a major screw loose? This seemed serious, and here was Mr. Crazy sitting around grinning about it. Yet still, fear still tightening his chest he made his way over to the halfling, hoping to find some kind of distraction. “Out of all the places I could be, of course it’d be the same one as you.” He’d huff with a dramatic shrug of his shoulders to try and settle the blanket more comfortably around him. “Stop smiling like that, it makes you look stupid.” Maybe a fight with his roommate would be the perfect distraction.

Well, step one of not looking like a total creeper succeeded. At least, that was the feeling she got. Though she tried to hide the cringe when the fallen jumped. She still counted it as a success at least with her taking her offering. "The evening wasn't great to begin with, but this is just nuts." The goblin trailed off slightly, taking a bite of her own cookie. She didn't want to push her problems onto the girl, so it was probably best she kept it at that. Even with a state of emergency, it wasn't to the point where she should start unloading emotional baggage onto a stranger. She could appreciate a nice chat for the night though.

Turning herself more towards Ruby, she offered a smile as well, though it seemed a bit forced. She was scared and worried about what this night would bring. Thoughts of attacks and monsters flittered in the dark places of her mind and she just wanted to shake it off. "I'm Rica. It's nice to meet you, even with the situation... I love your outfit," though that bat looked terrifying, she had to admit how nicely the leather complimented her...well, everything.

Illya smiled. "It's certainly surreal," she admitted. "Especially since I'm having a calm and collected conversation with someone." Then her smile dropped away and she shifted on her feet. She jammed her hands in her pockets and turned her head so that her face was pointing directly at Fasik. She didn't want anything she said to be overheard, and she didn't want to have to repeat it. She murmured, "A nightmare, maybe. Reminds me also of emergency drills we did in training. Nothing this bad, though--probably that's something for special forces to practice out." She shivered. After tonight, it definitely would be. This would go down in history as something they needed to have been prepared for, if they weren't prepared for it already. She prayed to the nine and to the saints that the military was prepared for it already. She was locked inside, out of reach of any commands, unable to help.

In short, she was useless.

To the military, anyway. There had to be something she could do here, even if she hoped that she wouldn't be needed. In this situation, it was better to not be needed than to be needed any more than a little. "So I guess this feels sort of real, sort of not real to me. I intend to treat it as if it's real, though. Just in case." She looked around. "I'm impressed, too," she said. "And I'm glad--it's good to know that our children are in good hands."

His last question seemed a little...personal...but Illya didn't really see any harm in answering it. "I wasn't at the festival, no," she said. "Haunted Hallows isn't really my favorite holiday. It's all a little too macabre. I was...well, actually, I was here to see about adopting a child," she said. It came out in a high-pitched tone that sounded to her ears a little embarrassed. "I, uh, don't have a child of my own, and it seems as though everyone else does, so I thought...why not?" Her wings twitched. Yes. She actually was embarrassed by that. "I know it's none of my business, but what brings you here? Do you teach here, Fasik?" She tried to shut out the memory of her failed teaching career.

Whoa, what was going on now? One moment, Kingston was enjoying the evening with Vanna, Mai, and Ren, sneaking out of a tent they probably shouldn't have been in, talking about food, the next minute, they were all being herded into the auditorium. A state of emergency? Well that wasn't good! Maybe the kids who were throwing things earlier got out of hand? A riot at the festival wouldn't have surprised Kingston, actually.

As he walked, Kingston somehow got separated from his friends, and that worried him a tiny bit. "Mai? Ren?" They were younger, and Kingston maybe felt a little responsible for them. "Vanna?" Well, Vanna was pretty tall, Kingston only had to look over everyone else's head before finding the chimera. He kept as good an eye on him as he could, figuring Mai and Ren were with him. He did lose sight of his friend when they entered the auditorium though. UGH it was so loud in here. Kingston's ears folded back and he sighed, moving out of the door way so more people could come in and the faculty could put up the wards they seemed to need. He didn't really understand what was going on. Even after the disturbing broadcast, Kingston wasn't exactly sure... what was going on. It was like something out of a movie. Things weren't... well, he really wasn't sure what to think. After a few moments to process what he'd heard, he spotted a pair of familiar wings in the crowd. "Vanna!" He called out, heading towards the elder male. "Hey, you ok? Where are Mai and Ren? They make it in?" He bombarded the other with questions before he heard someone sniffle near by.

Kingston's ears perked up and he looked around. Oh. There was someone hunched down on the floor just a few feet away, and they looked like they were crying. Kingston grabbed Vanna's arm and pulled him over to the fussing junior. Kingston knelt down. "Hey now." He said softly. "What's wrong? Someone step on your tail?" He didn't have a handkerchief to dry this kid's eyes with, so he grabbed his tail and used the fur to dab at the demon's eyes.

Annabelle had set to the corner of the stage, rummaging through boxes and setting out containers of snacks for the other staff to grab and hand out. When someone approached her she perked up, instantly standing and flashing a warm, friendly smile at Kunibert.

"Oh, hello!" Her tail gave one single greeting wag as she listened to Kunibert's troubles. Ah! He wanted to help, great! They actually needed a few helpers. Nibbling her bottom lip, the woman drifted her gaze over the crowd before nodding, returning to the boxes and lifting one rather large one, tearing it open with one sharp claw before nudging it to the dryad.

"There are quite a few freshlings who want their toys, but right now we're too busy to get them. Could you hand these plushes out? Having something to cuddle that is similar will help soothe them as we prepare to create an activity to distract them from what is happening." She paused, standing back up and gently tugging on her sweater. "Thank you, by the way." She added softly, flashing another warm smile before deftly turning back to boxes, returning to her previous task.

Niamh was in a corner, against a wall, her eyes HUGE and terrified. This was... this was horrifying. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know HOW to do anything to save anyone, or help. She was shaking like a butterfly, so much so that her wings were bumping the wall behind her, making a steady ratatatat type noise, and her tail was slashing back and forth. Hadn't the Forest been enough? Why, oh WHY did this have to come now? It was too soon, and she was too trapped.

She suddenly slumped to the ground, landing with a whumph, tears beginning to escape her multi colored eyes. There were only a few ways this could get worse, but she couldn't imagine how. Her life was apparently doomed to a series of terrifying events that came out of things that were supposed to be joyful and wonderful and even FUN. And she didn't know where in this immense crowd of people ANYONE she knew had gone. "No... No please, no more horrible things. Pleeeeeeeeease..." She gave a soft, plaintive cry.