Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Thank you!" Lazarus replied a little shyly as Tariel innocently complimented on the shaved ice. "D... do you want one? Maybe I could make you one!" he continued. That way at least he have something to distract himself with, still sticking on the previous idea of distraction to stay calm. He absolutely don't want to fall back into staring at her boobs again.

His eyebrows raised a little when she referred to Kyou as 'God' though. "God? If you're referring to that fella with the awful hair, which is named 'Kyou' by the way." he said skeptically. "Yeah I know him."

As Aphi came up to talk to Kyou, he realised he had never really talked with Aphi before. He saw him several times in a few ocassions, like during the owner party and the birthday party, and he knows Aphi is Chloe's new boyfriend. But to actually converse together, not once.

"Hello Aphi!" he said warmly, "I'm glad Rivener is doing well with you!" He scanned the festival grounds as he spoke and found Rivener in the refreshments booth, nearby Lazarus and Tariel. Lazarus averted his gaze when Laz realised he was looking.

"And it's a pleasure of mine to be judging the Cook Off with you!" he spoke excitedly, not wanting that little gesture of Lazarus's to ruin his mood. There are delightful food to be consumed! Giving Aphi a little encouraging pat on the back, he said cheerful and eagerly, "Why don't we start our judging then?"

Jae whirled around hearing a voice calling out to her. "Oh yes, I'm quite okay!" she smiled. To be quite honest, she had been through worse situations. She rubbed her hand gently, easing the pain.

Walking over to the young teenager, she cocked her head in curiousity. "The sign over there says that these chimeras are up for adoption...how does that work?"

The sticky sensation caused by Niksia's choice of cook off entry refused to go away. She could feel it stiffening her gloves, making holding her bag from the merchandise stall an adventure she hadn't been expecting. She had the brains to remember not to touch her hair, waist length locks of hair and stickiness were not a good mix, but it meant flicking it out of her face instead when it insisted on being unruly.

Carefully picking her way through the crowd, trying not to spread the taint onto any unsuspecting souls, Niksia headed back to the refreshment stand in a moment of genius. Quick and easy way to get water? The risk of having to pay for the privilege was worth not having to resort to more extreme cures.

'Ugh.'

There weren't many things that Niksia disliked... Well, many things worth mentioning in public. Apparently being dirty was high on the list.

With bag held at bent arm length and balloon still going strong at her shoulder, would it ever have the decency to pop, she addressed the general area of the refreshment stand. Oblivious to anyone wanting to stand in line, like normal people do, she flicked dark red hair from her eyes for who knew how many times already and managed a nearly threatening look. Nearly, looking like you were disgusted at yourself always ruins it.

'Water, please. Extra if you can get the purse out my bag without enjoying the feeling of melon. Another if you can guess where I think a seed managed to go.'

Niksia smirked back at Rivener, fully aware of her appearance compared to their last meeting. She dropped the bag at her feet and flicked her fingerless gloves off as she sighed happily, the bucket was just what she was hoping for. The gloves were dipped and swirled in the chilly water, before being lifted out and flicked to remove the majority of water from them.

'You know, I paid good money for gloves I could do this to. I am so glad I did now.' Niksia punctuated her statement with a limping waving glove, before lying the pair on the counter to dry.

'I had an unfortunate incident with a wayward melon, couldn't see the error of his ways, so I had to deal with him.'

Amusing herself as she spoke, Niksia dipped her lightly scarred hands into the bucket and started to sweep the residue from her arms with handfuls of water. The possibility of her scarf being hit by juice was being considered as she continued her unlikely tale.

'Got a bit messy at the end, but I think I won.'

Smirking again, she lightly dusted the front of her scarf with water and wiped the lower half of her face with a wet palm.

Listening to Rivener's reply, Niksia had to admit he was sharp. No pun intended. He had realised she was joking, which was a relief, her sense of humour was questionable at best. So she nodded amusedly to herself as she took took the paper towel stack from Rivener and started drying various still damp body parts.

'Very good deduction, I decided it might be interesting to try the cook off. The issue was I don't cook much, certainly not enough to impress anyone.'

Niksia checked here and there, making her balloon bob erratically, to make sure she was reasonably dry and melon free. The paper towel was used to punctuate, as she still seemed tempted to hang on to it.

'So now there is a rather questionable looking melon sitting out waiting to be judged. I hope they look after it.' She tilted her head quizzically just then.

'Aph? Bless you, not that I can talk. A judge? I don't ask for favours, or I would.'

Laughing faintly, Niksia apparently decided she was dry enough for the time being.

Jun cracked up as Natsuki completely put him to shame. Well, actually, the b-boy in him was telling him to bring it on, but he was too busy laughing to really care. Gently taking the foil-embossed card he smiled at her, blushing a little, "I see! Well, I'm sure Jae would love to stop by. She loves little cafes."

Nodding with Natsuki's suggestion, he turned towards the cook-off area, her stomach wasn't the only one making noise. "Do you have an entry in the cook-off?" He was curious to see what would be there at the cook-off.

Looking down the list of names, Jae felt somewhat sorry for the winners of the demon sheep. Terribly sorry, actually. But, somehow, her name was there next to 'Fox Fish'.

"Oh! So I get to adopt a Fox Fish?!" she exclaimed gleefully.

Though Jun was with her now, she lived by herself in an apartment most of the year since both he and her brother were usually off in Korea due to their band. This was exciting! She had always wanted a new pet!