Welcome to Gaia! ::

The sun was shining. The birds were singing. The clouds were doing that cute little thing where they form all sorts of shapes like bunnies and marshmellows and cotton balls... and other white, fluffy things.

Yes, today was the perfect day to spend... at a power plant.

Regardless of whether or not it was Akina's ideal way to pass her time, here they were, Brimstone and Akina, walking away from the tall smokestacks of the Aekea Power Plant with a bag full of goodies. Apparently, even power plants have gift shops, and after the meltdown Brim had when Akina even made mention of leaving without a bag full of overpriced crap, the elf was powerless to resist his cries, especially when half of their fellow tourists had began whispering.

The overtime they had paid to the gift shop had yet another consequence; they had missed the bus home. Akina's head was throbbing just thinking of how upset Naraka would be after Akina had promised that she would watch Renon and Jubilee for her roommate. Oh well, there was nothing see could do about it now.

The next bus was scheduled to arrive in an hour, and finding no other choice that would get her and Brimstone home faster, the elf had resolved herself to go make a pit stop at a nearby cafe and pass the time. The head waiter eyed the odd pair warily, but seated them regardless... outside... as far away from the other customers as possible.

But it was just as well. Akina preferred the fresh air, and Brimstone had never really cared for people. Plopping down in a chair, she dumped the bag on the table and raised an eyebrow at Brim. "Think we have enough swag, B?"

The Shattered gurgled in response, reaching a hand towards the bag and pulling out his new red tee shirt with a big atom symbol on the front. Stripping himself down in public, much to Akina's objection, he was dressed once more in just a few moments, grinning like a moron in his new shirt and staring about the Aekea atmosphere.

What a world, what a world. The day had started off relatively normal: Ioyla awoke to a shrieking Ilistala bouncing on her bed, the little Shattered beating Ioyla's head with a couch cushion and demanding breakfast--chocolate doughnuts, and she would expect nothing less from her demonic mother. Ioyla had complied, of course, as she could never say no to the screaming hellion of a toddler she was raising, and when she pulled herself out of bed and shuffled out of the room, down the small hallway, and into the smaller kitchen, it occured to her just then that they were in desperate need to go grocery shopping. Again.

And so, wrestling both herself and Ilistala into the shower, out of the damp towels, and back into clothes, Ioyla had dragged each other out of the comfort of her tiny apartment and into the streets of Aekea. And still, Ilistala was cranky and hungry and making such a racket, screaming and pouting and carrying on like that. Made Ioyla want to just pick up her child and throw her into the ocean.

But she could never do that, no. It wasn't right. Maybe amusing, but definately not right. Nope.

"Aaaaaieeeee!" Ilistala whined, flailing her arms and almost beating a passing child to death. Well, more like almost knocking the child's ice cream right out of her hand. Ioyla ignored cranky Ilistala, instead opting for her first smoke in over three months. She lit the deadly thing with a flick of her finger and inhaled so deep, a good portion of it was already drifting down toward the gum-infested sidewalk like ashy snow.

Ilistala continued to whine louder. "Hungry! Tired! Thirsty! Potty!" Today was definately not the day to piss off Ioyla Infriti.

A caf� was bobbing up and down just over the peak of the hill mother and daughter were climbing. It was a tiny hill, really, hardly any elevation at all, but by the time Ioyla reached the top, she was huffing, puffing, wheezing her own pitiful cries for attention. She pitched her cigarette and lit a new one, and that was when Ilistala saw a dark-dark-dark-skinned boy, about her age, changing his shirt. It struck the little toddler that this kid was weird for getting half-naked in public, but it was even weirder with how he...looked. She suddenly ditched her mother to race over to Brimstone, wings fluttering behind in her artificial gusts of wind.

"SMOKEY!" she howled while closing the gap between herself and Mister Weirdo, and Ioyla thought:

I hate being a mother.

After several minutes without service, Akina had begun to glance over her shoulder so that she might give a passing waiter that you-had-better-come-help-us look, but to her dismay, it seemed as if they were the only patrons seated outside, making them at the bottom of the to-do list. The elf cursed lightly in sylvan, raising her eyes to stare at Brim who had curls of smoke rising from his skin, blending in with the smokey wisps of wings portruding from his tiny back.

"Hot," Brim observed flatly, trying to shake off the smoke from his skin.

Maternal instincts kicking in, Akina got to her feet to open up the umbrella sticking out of the center of their table, adjusting it to cover her little dark-skinned boy. And ever perceptive still, it was her elven ears that first picked up on the mother-daughter pair moving towards the cafe, most notably when the smaller one screamed. A blue eye flickered to watch the flaming orange crest of hair flitting across the street.

Leaning in towards Brimstone, she whispered, "Is this a friend of yours, B?" Of course, the elf couldn't fathom how he could know someone that she did not since Brim was nearly always with her, but in theory, it wasn't entirely impossible. And for a creature so small, Akina was a little impressed with how quickly she seemed to be moving.

Brim response to this strange orange thing was eloquent as ever. "Guh?" Clutching his bag of power plant propaganda, he hopped up into the seat of his chair, pointing at Ilistala and commanding, "NUCLEAR REACTOR WITH TEN FOOT THICK CEMENT WALLS!"

His guardian, who was still standing, concerned for what Brim might try to do here stood dumbstruck by what her son had just uttered. It appeared that the tour of the plant had increased his vocabulary, though Akina still couldn't follow his train of thought. A light chuckle overtook her lean form as she covered her mouth with an open palm, hoping Brim would not realize that she was actually laughing at him.

Ilistala continued to charge at full-speed across the street and down the sidewalk, arms waving and mouth open, screaming, "Ma! Ma! Ma, look! Lookit!" She squirmed and squiggled in her mother's arms, trying to escape, or at least twist herself into a position that compromised both her need to stare incessantly at the dark-skinned boy and Ioyla's desire to escape the embarassing situation with no other damage.

"I'm sorry, lady," the young demon said after Stala silenced herself, indeed staring incessantly at the dark-skinned boy. Ioyla cleared her throat and shifted, awkward, from one foot to the other. "She's bein a big hassle t'day, but she seems to be completely in love with your little...smoke...boy...." She trailed off, cleared her throat again, and continued: "Thing."

A raised eyebrow was Akina's initial response to the MA-audiences-only language that was spewing out of the strange fiery-haired child's mouth, and her next was to lunge her palms forward, slapping them down over Brimstone's ears. But unfortunately for the elf, Brimstone's smokey layer made him a little more slippery than usual and out he flew, climbing higher on the back of the chair.

"Fuuuuhhh...cuuuuccckkkk?" Brim sounded out, narrowing his radioactive green eyes into thin slits. Living in the Tokuwa household, he had been spared most English cursing, hearing only sylvan lightly uttered by Akina under her breath, and was very unfamiliar with the meaning of what this other shattered was bellowing.

"s**t," Akina muttered in sylvan, inching closer to the front of the table should Brim try any defensive action against this little girl. But the blue-haired Shattered didn't making a move, simply staring harshly at Ilistala. He seemed hesitant to get near the Fire Shattered, but her presence seemed to intrigue him. The only other creature he had met that was like him was the fox girl Shauna, and that had been when he was much younger.

Glancing out of the corner of her eye, Akina noticed her young adopted son hiding something with a glint of metal behind his back. Beautiful... she mused, quickly hopping around the table to scoop an unwilling Brimstone into her arms, discreetly taking the butter knife from him and setting it back on the table.

Brimstone fought for his life in her arms, eventually being forced into submission hanging upside down with his arms pinned to his chest. "Oh, it's no trouble. I'm no stranger to dealing with a hassle," she volunteered, tightening her grasp on Brimstone while he grunted and tried to bite her. "And we prefer Swamp Thing," she said with a laugh, tapping Brim on the nose with a free finger.

Blue eyes focused on Ilistala for a moment and then back to Ioyla. "Well, if they are going to fall in love, I might as well introduce myself. I'm Akina," the elf greeted, feeling far more open with this complete stranger than she did with the people she knew and loved. That probably signified something on a psychological level, but the elf was too busy controlling Brimstone to dwell on it. "I'd shake your hand, but I'm afraid I'd never see him again if I let go."

A strong kick struck Akina in the shoulder, cutting her sentence short. She gave one wordless death stare to Brimstone, holding his gaze for a moment before looking back to Ioyla with a smile. "And this is Brimstone." Brim quietly slowed his struggles, though he was too proud to stop entirely, throwing glances at Ilistala.

Ioyla was already beginning to lean forward, wrapping one arm around Ilistala's middle to keep her from falling down on to the sidewalk and slicing the other through her messy brown hair, trying and failing to at least straighten the horrible mess out. When she was finished butchering her hair, she locked her eyes not on Brimstone or Akina, but the butter knife glinting on the tabletop. "I'm Ioyla," she said, hoisting Stala up, her little wings fluttering in Ioyla's face. "And the noisey one here is Ilistala, but I just call her Stala. Or Hey You. Either works fine."

Not waiting for an invitation, Ioyla took a seat at Akina's table, glancing from side-to-side, scoping out a waiter who would probably fail to show. "And uh, don't take any offense ov'r what my kid says...she learns it offa the TV, I swear." She finally set Ilistala down, who curled up in her mother's lap, legs bent Indian-style and her fingers firmly nestled in the tight crook of her knee. Her firey eyes were set on Brimstone, watching his every move, curious as to how this smokey little thing could move. He was so dark, almost like the night, and his wings were so pretty! It made Ilistala almost jealous, with what she had...everyone had better things than her!

"So uh...who's a girl gotta yell at for some friggin service around here, huh?" Throwing all manners to the wind, Ioyla pounded the tabletop with one scrawny fist. "My sister-in-law would like some damn FOOD around here!" She cupped the same hand around her mouth and yelled some more, finally quieting down enough to shift in her seat and grin. "Sorry if I sound like a freak," she stated, "it's just been a super long day, and it's only...what, three o'clock? I really need a car though, I tell you, walkin up these hills's a b***h."

Following Ioyla's lead, Akina also slipped into a seat opposite her new acquaintances, forcing Brim into her lap and forcibly holding his hands still until she was convinced he had calmed down again. "It's nice to meet you," she quipped in formulaic greeting, unable to shake old manners. A stray olive-toned hand raked itself through Brimstone's neon blue locks in an attempt to make him more presentable, though the effect was nonexistant.

Brimstone seemed unphased by his guardian's primping, staring fixedly back at Ilistala. His pupiless eyes searched her paler face, looking for weakness perhaps, though it was undetectable in the swirling green orbs. Akina, meanwhile, pressed in with the conversation, happy to have some company during the wait for the bus. "I also blame the television set for Brim's idiosyncracies. I know he didn't learn about some of the things he spouts off from me."

Before she could say much else, Akina was startled to hear Ioyla start demanding service. Granted, the elf would have loved to have used the same choice words that the demon girl elected to, but it was simply not in her nature to make a scene. Yet, she was exponentially impressed with the effectiveness of Ioyla's actions.

Through the glass panes of the restaurant, two or three waiters and about seven or eight tables of patrons glanced out the window at the strange hodgepodge of creatures dining in the open air. (Or rather, not dining, with the lack of service.) There seemed to be a quiet squabble between an older, perhaps higher-ranking, rotund woman and a much thinner, tall man in about his mid to late 20s over who would have to serve the table. And with a glance of disdain in their direction, the thin man with the terrible blonde dye job began making his way in Akina and Ioyla's direction.

Blue eyes fixed back on Ioyla, and lips parted to respond, "Oh, not at all. I have seen and heard far stranger things in my life." It occurred to Akina that her answer may have sounded a bit odd. So, clearing her throat, she pressed on to move away from her statement. "I understand completely. I just spent three hours wandering around a power plant, only to realize that we missed the bus home and have to wait for a later one. It has definitely been a very long day."

The elf nearly inquired where Ioyla lived for her to make her way around by walking, which was too much for Brimstone though Akina would prefer it to the city bus, but it occurred to her that not only was that a rude question to ask someone she had just met but also a little creepy.

"Oh?" Ioyla began, leaning in closer, genuinely interested in Akina's little tidbits of information. She shifted in her seat again, straightening Ilistala, who grunted and made a move to flail her arms in Brimstone's face--an action that was denied before Stala's chubby fingers were even in the air: Ioyla clapped her hands down over Stala's own hands and gently squeezed her fingers, mumbling, "Don't even think about it."

The blonde-haired waiter was slowly making his way to the table, feet dragging and head low. He had no desire to serve the elf with the glow-y child of smoke, and, what's more, the loud one with the orange-haired child made things even worse. Life sucked.

Meanwhile, Ioyla tilted her head to scratch her neck. "A powerplant, huh?" she quiped, "those're messy and smelly'n stuff. All...industrial." She stopped and put her hand down in Stala's hair, gingerly scratching her scalp, and jerked her chin at Brimstone. "He kinda looks like a powerplant...and I like statin the obvious."

Drawing blue eyes away from the green downcast pair sported by the unfortunate and lagging waiter, Akian refocused on Ioyla, watching her subdue Ilistala's attempt to touch Brimstone. The little radioactive shattered had not flinched as Stala made a move toward him, but instead, narrowed his eyes into slits, watching the fiery shattered all that much closer.

"POWER PLANT!" Brim exploded with sound all at once, eyes going wide. He was still in the hear-and-repeat phase of talking, and only strung together his own sentences when he really wanted something. "INDUSTRIAL!" Akina glanced down at Brimstone, raising an eyebrow at the pleasant gurgles he babbled out of the corners of his mouth at the memories of the Aekea plant they had just left.

"A power plant? Brimstone?" Pondering this, the elf spun Brim around in her lap to face her so that she might better survey him. Sure, the smokey wings, radioactive neon blue hair, uranium eyes, and acidic oozing thing suggested a kind of industrial inspiration, but Akina could not say that her organic child was anything to do with the nuclear physics of a power plant. "He's just unique," she decided at last, excusing his idiosyncracies with an understated generalization.

Eager to change the subject, Akina furthered, "What about the little one in your lap? Ilistala, was it? She sure seems to have a fiery personality."

Ilistala hiccuped when Brimstone ended his strange outburst. "Dusrial?" she murmured, turning her head to search Ioyla's face for answers. When she found nothing but a raised eyebrow, she returned her attention to Brimstone. "Dusrial," she agreed, and abruptly swiped a fork off the table, hurling it at Brim and Akina.

Ioyla made no move to stop the apparent attack on mother and son, as the chosen weapon made only a few feet before clattering to the table. Heaving a sigh, Ioyla shifted in her seat once more, wrapping her arms around Stala's middle and pulling her closer to her welcoming mother bosom. "She's, uh...she's...a lovely child...thing." Ioyla wiped an arm under her nose and continued. "In fact, I think she came from this little glass thinger. I didn't birth her or nothin. Little piece of glass, right und'r my kitchen table. Burnt that ******** to ashes. Ashes, I tell you. Ashes!"

She coughed and wiped her arm under her nose again, twisting and turning in her seat for the ever-elusive waiter and his terrible dye job. "I'm buyin lunch, by the way," she stated, forking a thumb into the air, "my treat on acount'a Stala and Brimstone bein best friends forever."

A small smile crackled at the corner of Akina's mouth as she listened to Ilistala mimicking the erratic speech of her own toddler. Brimstone, on the other hand, kept his eyes drawn, not wanting to put up anything short of a big, strong front, but the sight of a fork flying through the air sent his eyes widening, staring at the silver glint attentively.

The elf in Akina wanted to snatch the fork from the air, but she noted that its trajectory would land it at a safe distance. And that it did, clattering six inches before Brim and sliding close to the edge. Blue eyes flickered back to Ioyla as she spoke, but the radioactive green ones remained on the fork, glancing between it and Ilistala.

"Mine too," Akina quipped to the other mother, ruffling Brim's hair much to his chagrin. But the toddler was still transfixed on the spoon. "A glass shard? Really? That is strange becau---" In her moment of interest in Ilistala and Brimstone's similiar origin of birth, the elf had failed to get her armhold on the little power plant Shattered tight, and Brim was not one to leave this unnoticed.

He was tearing through her arms the second he could, tiny feet landing on the tabletop. Weilding the fork in question over his head, he bellowed, "CHAAAAAAAAAARGE!" at the top of his prepubescent lungs and jumped in an action pose for attack.

The waiter that was sluggishly making his way to the table now frozen in terror, letting out a girlish scream and flattening his back against the glass window pane as he dug his finger tips into its surface as best he could. But little Brimstone never got the chance to charge at whatever he had planned too. That's the downside of having an elf as a guardian. Quick reaction time.

Brimstone was upended instaneously, fork still clutched in his hand. He tried once to stab at the table for leverage, but eventually gave up, as he broke out into gurgled and babbling laughter at hearing the waiter's scream. Akina gave him a scornful look, but could not help from giggling herself as she sat back down with Brimstone. She did, however, manage to whisper, "No more Westerns if you try that again."

Smoothing her hair back down, the elf looked at Ioyla apologetically and mused, "Television!" with a laugh. "And after that, I think I should treat you to lunch. I imagine Brimstone needs a friend more than Ilistala." Feeling uncharacteristically friendly, Akina laughed again, ignoring the still stunned waiter.

It was almost pathetic how slowly Ioyla reacted to Brimstone's attack--being a demon had its perks, but being a demon growing up in a world the exact opposite of Hell had it's negative perks. For example, when Brimstone was charging across the table, Ioyla did nothing more than lean back in her chair, squeezing her arms around Ilistala tightly, as if increased pressure could somehow protect her child.

But it was Ioyla who would, in fact, receive the protection. As Brimstone closed the gap between himself and the Shattered, Stala lept to her feet upon Ioyla's legs, clawed fingers and bared teeth. Looking not unlike a cat on the verge of pouncing its prey, Ilistala hunched her back and prepared to dive-bomb Brimstone if he came any closer. And still, Ioyla did nothing...probably because she was too distracted laughing like a fool at the sissyboy waiter, who was hiding against the window of the caf�.

Finally, after Akina had dragged Brimstone back to his least favorite spot by his guardian, Ioyla returned her own child back to her lap. Still giggling, she flipped Ilistala on her belly, her chin resting against Ioyla's shoulder. "Noooo!" she whined, squirming and obviously unhappy with her new position, but Ioyla ignored her cries. She jerked her head at the waiter, signaling for him that they were both ready to order.

"Yeah, a shard," she finally said, continuing to pay no mind to the griping Ilistala, "it was craaaazy. And--I'm payin, and that's the end of that friggin conversation. I swear I'll come ov'r there'n go medival on your a** if you don't let me pay." She winked. "I dunno how you can go medival, but I'm pretty sure it's scary."

Now significantly disappointed in Brimstone's lackluster behavior, Akina turned her attention over to the waiter, raising an eyebrow and stifling her giggles. Honestly, he had taken long enough to get over there as it was, and now, he was killing more time trying to regain his posture and shake off the embarrassment, though Akina reasoned that would be a lifelong battle for this particular man.

Shard? Check. Baby emerged? Check. Yes, these two toddlers seemed to have eeriely similiar origins. And if Akina's memory served her correctly, which it always did, Brim had also met another child like that. It was a little fox girl named Shauna.

Before she could inquire further on this, Akina was met with a turn of phrase she was unfamiliar with. The elf wasn't sure what it entailed to have someone go "mideval on your a**", but coming from a society where torture was as regular as urinating, it only brought the most horrific and colorful of images parading across her cerebral cortex. So, choosing to play it safe, she decided to concede, smiling humbly and uttering a genuine, "Thank you very much, Ioyla."

Having now passed over that issue, Akina was ready to start in at the origin of these children, something that she had been curious about for some time now. She leaned in toward the table, smushing Brim up against it much to his disdain, and drew her lips in to speak. "Yes, about these shard children," she began with a purpose. "Brimstone also came from a shard that I found in my house one day. I've been searching through my tomes for more information on this phenomenon, but elvish texts have no means of explaining many of the idiosyncracies of Gaia, glass shard children included. You wouldn't happen to know anything more on the subject?"

Clearing her throat, Akina leaned back a little, smoothing Brim's hair and furthering, "I'm only so invested because I have, in my experience, encountered another shard-originating child. She was a tiny fox girl named Shauna. Brim and I were in the park and--"

"Good afternoon, welcome to Le Bistro Cafe located in scenic Aekea. Have you had a chance to look at our menu?" Not only had the waiter finally arrived at the table in a less than timely manner to recite his rehearsed greeting, but he had chosen to interrupt Akina mid-sentence. On top of that, he was not making eye contact with anyone at the table and spoke in such a fashion that sent waves of condescension floating through the air.

And besides... what's so "scenic" about Aekea? It's an industrial town.

Nonetheless, Akina smiled politely, fighting to make eye contact with the waiter who was looking around as if he had a million other things to do. "Actually, we have yet to receive menus." It was then that the waiter dropped his gaze to Akina, though only for a moment.

Wordlessly, he walked back to the menu slots near the doorway, grabbing two and returning to the table. He passed one to Akina and one to Ioyla before issuing a dull, "Well, I will just give you a moment to look at the menu then." Turning on his heel, he began to walk away.

Akina simply shook her head and opened the menu. Her eyes bulged at the price list. Real food would cost an arm and leg... but the tea was reasonably priced. And there was always water...

Ioyla was almost ready to explain the true meaning of going medival on someone's a** (although she honestly had no idea what it meant; likely, she would just make the entire thing up, as usual) when Akina suddenly dipped forward, talking low. The childish side of her mind said, Oh, hey, awesome! Whispering! This must mean secretive s**t! Which was an entirely stupid thing to think. Shaking her head and leaning in close, Ioyla listened with sharp ears to what the older elf woman had to say.

Again, she opened her mouth to retort once both were back to their rightful positions, Ilistala quite annoyed at being sandwhiched between her mother's chest and the table, but the waiter arrived in the middle of what Akina was saying. Huffing an exasperated sigh, Ioyla watched the smarmy waiter leave and return with menus. She snatched it from his hand, making sure to scrape her short but sharp fingernails against his bare knuckles, and leafed through the lamented list, sniffing ocassionaly.

Her jaw nearly dropped right off her head when she saw the prices. "Sweet Jesus!" the demon snapped, tongue burning for , "is you people serious!" Her bout of poor grammar ended once Stala threw the menu down upon the tabletop, beating the pictures of fancy cuisines and delicate hors d'oeuvres.

"French fry!" she suddenly yelped, throwing steely glares and chaotic frowns at the waiter, who folded his arms and rolled his eyes, as if to say, either pay or get the hell out. Ioyla cleared her throat once more and gently pulled Ilistala back to her spot on Ioyla's lap.

"You can, uh...you can get what you want. I'll have a bottle of wine." Ioyla promptly handed the waiter the menu, adding quickly, "And a cup'a...juice. Apple juice." Fearing embarassment for being a poor slob, Ioyla turned her attention on Akina, smiling. "I gots some monies burnin a hole in my pocket, lemme tell you. Some monies!" Such a lie.

The waiter eyed Akina through sidelong glances, perhaps thinking that she could not see him. After ignoring it for what she thought to be more than enough time, the elf finally took an aggressive stance, shooting a fiery look-at-me-like-that-one-more-time-and-I-snap-your-pathetic-little-neck glare squarely at him. He stopped staring.

As if an ELF is the strangest thing he had ever seen in Gaia. Honestly.

Blue eyes reverted back to the menu, pouring over its pages for whatever was the cheapest. Water, again, appeared to be the answer, though she debated getting a sandwich. But in the midst of her internal debate, Akina listened to Ioyla order and her invitation for the elf to order whatever she wanted. It didn't take an empath, which Akina was, to spot a faker, which Ioyla was.

Problem solved.

"I'll just take a glass of water please. And Brimstone will have--"

"Capers." Capers?

Akina stared down at the black blob in her lap and raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "B, you don't want capers. You don't even know what they are!"

"Caaaaay... peeeersss!" he whined matter-of-factly. Again, the elf had no clue how Brim even knew what capers were... maybe he didn't?

Akina didn't have much time to think on this before the waiter interrupted again, saying, "We do not serve capers as an entree."

This was not what Brim wanted to hear. Akina could see the storm welling up in his radioactive green eyes as they began to swirl just a bit faster. Attempting to stop the meltdown, the elf tried to offer another suggestion, "B, look, have something else. You know you love..." What did Brimstone like to eat? In all of Akina's time with him, the elf had never actually seen the Shattered eat. She only ever found remnants of his late night feasts.

So, when Brim launched into his erractic, high-pitched chants of, "CAPERS! CAPERS! CAPERS!" Akina couldn't say much to quiet him. She had no idea what the child ate.

The waiter, on the other hand, seemed to have a solution. "I will bring out a small bowl of capers gratis if you swear to keep the black thing quiet!" In a huff, the waiter grabbed the menus and made his way back toward the restaurant.

Glaring at his back as the waiter moved away, Akina resented how he had referred to Brimstone, but hey, he was giving the little Shattered some free capers, making Akina and Brimstone's meal a total of $0.00. Way to go.

The only thing Ioyla could think of was wow. Wow. This kid Brimstone liked things his way, and his way alone. Laughing, Ioyla tipped back in her chair as the waiter left, grumbling like the a*****e he was. "Aww, don' be upset, Akina my darling~," she soothed, bouncing Ilistala on one knee, "he's just an asshat. I'll make sure t'not leave a tip when we leave." Giggling again, she abruptly stopped bouncing Stala long enough to slam the chair back on all of its four plastic legs, making the table rattle and several customers dining inside to stare out the giant window at the mother elf and mother demon. Freaks.

Ilistala wiggled and squiggled in her mother's grasp, entirely bored with being in one place for such a long time. "Capers!" she squeaked, pointing her hands at Brimstone, "I capers! French fry caper!" She tipped her head back and suddenly shrieked at the dirty gray sky, like some sort of werewolf. Ioyla, quite taken aback by the strange behavior, snuck a confused glance at Akina.

"...so anyways," Ioyla continued, nodding as Stala let another howl loose, "as I was sayin...or, you were sayin, whatev'r. Th'point is this: Ilistala came from a glass shard. I found it in my oven, I put it on a table, it somehow got under th' table, and then, yanno...she burnt the b***h table. But look--she's my little pride'n joy. I don't wanna go investigatin what kinda fate brought er t' me. She's mine'n I love er."

Blushing at her miniture speech, Ioyla decided now was the time to steer the topic in a slightly different direction. "S'like, anyways, you said you met another shard kid thingy? Foxgirl named Shauna, huh? That's real cool, man--I know her, too! She's my buddy Eight's kid. Eight's awesome...she's got like, twenty kids or summat'n of em are hers by blood! Either she likes adoptin babies or she likes stealin em. Hopefully she likes adoptin em, huh?"

The elf had wanted to inquire more about the origins of the Shattered children, but Ioyla's comments ended her confidence on pressing the issue. The demon girl was right. No matter why or how it happened, the point was that it did in fact happen. So, watching the fiesty pair sitting across the table, Akina pushed away her feelings of ambiguity and instead tried to focus on the, uh, joy that Brimstone brought to her life.

Meanwhile, Brimstone surveyed Ilistala with increasing curiosity. Ah, so this one liked capers as well? Plus ten cool points. And for each time Stala chimed in, Brim would respond, "Capers! Yes, caaaappeeers!" His voice was still high in his toddler status and had a whining lull in its timbre that carried sharply across the small outdoor seating region.

"Oh, yes, I do remember Eight as well. It's a confined world!" Akina's attempt at salvaging an age old adage was less than perfect, but she smiled nonetheless, assuming her point got across. Even after being here for a few years, the elf was still adjusting to the concept of slang and adages. "She steals babies?" Akina joked, curling Brim closer to her. "I'll keep that in mind." Winking festively, blue eyes searched again for the waiter as Akina throat was already parched from a long day of power plant touring.

"Brimstone is really my only adopted child, but my roommates have lots of children. They all bonded with me originally, but... well, they chose to realign themselves once they aged a bit. Yurimi is a feral-humaoid child attached to my roommate Calliope, and Naraka, who is closer to my age, has her blood daughter Anarriima and her two angel children Renon and Jubilee. Oh, and I also watch over a girl by the name of Nadia during the summer." Slightly embarrassed by the wealth of information that she had just uncharacteristically rattled off, Akina let a slight blush cross her cheeks as she smiled and dropped her eyes.

Hoping to steer the conversation back away from herself, she glanced back to Ioyla and asked, "So, Ilistala is your only child then? It's so strange how creatures in need of guardians seem to congregate here. Gaia is like a nexus for all the magicks and energies of all the different planes of existance." Or a sanctuary, Akina finished internally for her own personal motivation. Glancing back up, she awaited an answer from Ioyla.

Ioyla cooly listened to Akina speak first of Eight, then her family, and finally her opinion on Gaia. Indeed, it seemed to be a gathering ground for all sorts of magical and strange beings, and it was difficult to know what was going to pop up next. "Yeah," she chirped, eyeballing Brim and Stala with casual interest, "seems t'be a cesspool of the supernatural." The young demon flung her hands into the open air, wiggling her fingers and moaning much like a clich� ghost.

She giggled and bent her neck back, staring fully at the smoggy sky. A flock of birds flew by overhead, most likely crows and seagulls. A bit strange for the gulls, however, since they scavanged the Gambino bay, which was so far from Aekea."No," she answered vaguely after a short pause, "Stala isn't my only one. I got another--well, two others: Calira, who's this lil...bird...fluff...thing, and um, Yeos. Dog girl. Calira went back to the island she came from, and Yeos left a while ago. Somethin about discoverin herself'n true identity. I dunno what!"

"Capers for Stala!" Ilistala demanded, pounding the tabletop like a cranky, hungry baby (an entirely fitting description). Ioyla's sharp hearing could pick up low murmurs coming from inside the caf�: irritated complaints from the blonde waiter, who, apparently, could hear all of Ilistala's shrieks and wails.

"Stop that," Ioyla muttered, hoisting Stala further up upon her lap. Stala grumped and slapped her mother's knee lightly, but did nothing else except continue to stare at Brimstone. Ocassionally her wings would flutter, but nothing more.

"So, um, yeah. I got three but now it's one and it gets so hard sometimes, yanno, so hard cause she's the light of my life'n all that gay stuff, but I can't be takin care of this lil hurricane all by my lonesome. Gets tough!" She blushed herself then, so suddenly revealing personal information and problems to a near stranger. "But it's nothin," she finished weakly, shrugging.

"The difficulty of rearing children translates through all cultures," Akina replied with a nod, tracing her finger across the atom design on Brimstone's tee shirt. The Shattered eyed her for a moment, but allowed her to continue. Secretly, he liked it. It was soothing for the little bugger to feel a matronly touch.

Green eyes seemed to swirl in agreement with Ilistala's demand for capers, pushing Brim to stare at Akina with a hungry glance. Smoothing Brim's hair from his eyes, the elf shot fierce glares at all the staff that passed by from across the restaurant. Her little boy never ate in front of her, and the one time in his life thus far that he wanted to the assholes were late.

Determined not to miss the opportunity to see Brim eat, Akina clenched the arms of her chair, deciding she would give it five more minutes before she ran into the kitchen and relocated their waiter's face up his colon where it seemed to belong.

Lucky for the waiter, his bad-dye-job-self had the wine, water, and capers in hand already and was sluggishly making his way toward the table. He set two glasses of water by Akina and a needlessly large soup bowl of capers (likely to prevent a need for a second trip to the table on his part) in addition to the wine and juice.

Wordlessly, he turned on his heel and left, though Akina did not mind. She would just as soon he not be anywhere near her vicinity anymore. Ready to move the conversation away from the waves of emotion that Ioyla's revealing confession had sent shooting across the table to Akina's empath senses, the elf pulled the bowl of capers close to the center of the table and ventured, "Ilistala may have some capers if she wishes. I very much doubt Brimstone could finish all of these even if he wanted."

If Brimstone had of been paying attention, that statement might have annoyed him, but lucky for Akina, he was busy staring up at the smoke stacks with the kind of hungry stare that a junkie gives a needle three weeks after rehab starts.