Welcome to Gaia! ::

Okay...once again, my tests proved bad. crying Oh Gods I hope I'm not mortally wounding these guys!! Please don't hate me...I'm horrible with tests. I freak out, man! I-- *is smacked by Aki* .....Thank you.

Okay, so...here's what I've found out so far about these blooms (their likes, anyway):

????:
Likes rock/dance music
Likes moonlight
Likes cold air

Merrimack:
Likes classical and some jazz music
Likes flowers/trees

...Wow. sweatdrop I must suck. Well, today is a new day...so, a few new tests!

I got this idea from Puchiko: a cloth test. However, this will be difficult since my blooms don't seem to like water...anyway. I hunted through my closet for that box of scrap material I had, and took some a couple. I won't try too many, as I don't have THAT much time to wait inbetween each test. Just maybe...five. Is that too many? ....Nah.

I had Chibi Neko help me, since Ares still isn't back yet. Gods I hope she'd okay. sweatdrop I got around to asking Puchiko if she knew anything about Ares at the moment, and she didn't...I'm worried. sad Happy thoughts...happy thoughts!!

Chibi Neko helped me with the cloth test, as she's about 1/8th my size and has better hands for something like this. I may have gentle hands, but I wouldn't be able to wrap these blooms in anything. sweatdrop

I got a couple of other ideas as well. So ???? seems to like the cold...I placed the bloom in the freezer for a little bit, and then the refridgerator. Since it doesn't seem to be affected by darkness, I figured that would be okay. And thinking about it, I decided to test Merrimack for something else I wish I'd thought of in the past: metals and time.

Getting metal shavings was a little difficult, but I managed...I'll just use tiny bits of metal dust on the petals and see what happens. That way, it'll be easy to brush off if it didn't like them. (I did this while ???? was in the freezer.) After putting ???? in the fridge, it was time to test...well, time. I love magic sometimes...

I tested haste, at first. Of course, this is slightly difficult, because I had to be able to make it so the test would not affect the blooms actual time...only my own. So, I guess in a way it was a test of speed...but hopefully this will work for time as well. It's been so long since I've run that fast...I managed to make it from here to the Haven in about 30 seconds. And that's normally a 5 hour walk from here. eek I protected the bloom, of course, so the speed wouldn't rip the poor thing apart. I also tested slow. Gods, this was difficult...but I was able to manage. But given, it being so long since I'd used either of those, I was rather tired upon getting back home.

After a long nap, I decided to stop by the shop with the blooms. Not much went on there...just some sappy feien love. sweatdrop I wonder if Ares and Arturo are that bad? ...I won't spy on them, though. Ares is an adult now...she has her privacy.

Gods, what a day. It's a full moon out tonight...I bet ???? will be very happy with that. On a side note, while I was out I got a nice bouquet of flowers, and put them in a vase...next to the flower Arturo gave to Ares several weeks ago. (Which is still alive. I can't believe the care Ares gives that thing! O.o) I placed Merrimack on top of the bouquet...I hope it likes that.

Ares finally came back! crying And she has a tail! eek ...And...she seems to have changed quite a bit. sweatdrop

~~~~~~~~~~

Ooo!! What a nice surprise!! I come home from school, and there was a little feien waiting for me. ...Well, kind of waiting. I first only saw Ares, sitting on the desk, holding her head as if she were in pain. ...Then I realized she was actually covering her ears, and meditating. Now why would she be doing that?

Then, I saw the reason why. She was zooming around EVERYWHERE!! After several stops and squinting, I think I got a main description down...or at least, what it looks like to me, since the colors were all blurred at first: feather wings (this was a given, because I noticed a few small red and black feathers floating about in a couple of spots), squared markings, somewhat pale skin...there's red and black somewhere...and black hair. Oh, and female. Okay, so at first it wasn't all that great of an observation...you try looking at a feien who wouldn't sit still, and was literally asking about every single object within the room.

This lasted for an hour, I swear. All I could do was STARE, dumbfounded. Finally, she stopped in a red and black blur, right in front of my face. She looked at me, I stared at her more, and eventually she smiled and stated her name. Tahki?? Where did she come up wi--wait, that was a name I had considered while she was in bloom stage. Blayde-kun helped me...he said it was Algonquin for winter. That suits her, right? She seemed to like cold things... Well, anyway, now that I got a better look at her, I realized she was partially opposite of what I imagined someone liking cold would be: red and black feather wings, red and black squared markings that didn't cover too much of her body, pale-ish skin, gold eyes, and black hair with blue streaks. Tied up in two, tight buns...much like a Chinese hairstyle. My goodness...she may be pretty, but DAMN she has a lot of energy!! Maybe I shouldn't have played all that dance music...

I've also noticed that not only is she a curious little bugger, but she has a very short attention span. Seriously...Tahki was blabbing on about how cool everything looked, even though she didn't know what it was or what it did, and then noticed something she hadn't seen yet, zooming straight to it...only to find something ELSE and zooming over to that. ...Oh Gods, help me. crying

~~~~~~~~~~



~~~~~~~~~~



~~~~~~~~~~

Tahki...is quite the handful. Why couldn't she be more like Ares??? The yellow paint was very hard to wash, but I managed to get most of it out...though, her hair is now stained yellow for a while, and the glitter seems to be...stuck. It'll fall off it eventually, right? Her hands are another story, however. I remember Luca's...glitter "accident." I wonder...will it fall off, or is Tahki another destined "glitter feien?" No matter...it's kinda cute, actually. Not the paint, but the glitter...it seems to suit her. I just hope she doesn't decide to make a mess everywhere...

I've also noticed that...she stops doing the things she's asked not to do. Interesting. Ares had asked (or rather, told) her not to paint Merrimack, and she stopped trying. I asked Tahki not to pull on the cerebri's ears, and she hasn't since. Hmmm...obedient little one, isn't she? No complaints on my part, at least. Now that she's done with everything for the day, she decided to make the windowsill her sleeping area, so that she can see the moon. My, she really likes the moon...

I got a new pet today... whee I couldn't help myself. Meet, Sasuke...the pixacat.



He...seems to ignore me. sweatdrop

~~~~~~~~~~



~~~~~~~~~~

Mrrr. I've been sleeping most of the day, so that I wouldn't be tempted to play with Merrimack while Ares was gone. I'm not sure why, but she said something about leaving for a while, muttering something about needed to relax a bit. She asked me to watch over Merri and make sure Tahki didn't get to it...but Tahki had left on her own not long after, so there wasn't anything for me to watch. Right? Right. So, I figured a cat nap was in order, as I didn't get much sleep last night since I was finding all my fragile objects around the house and putting them in a much safer place: the closet. I mean the one that Ares and Tahki aren't allowed into. Yeah...they'll be safe in there...yeah...

Well, I slept pretty much through the whole day. One of my domos must have been mad at me or something, because Mizuhi decided to sneak inside the house and chomp down on my hand. That HURT!! Unfortunately, I had kinda...screamed my feral scream...so it was much louder than it would normally have been, and different in general. I hope I didn't scare Tahki if she was back...which, it turned out I did. My ears pick up even the smallest sounds...I heard a sneeze coming from my room and decided to check it out, because I'd hate to see Ares or Tahki get sick. Lo and behold, I AM A FOOL!! My Gods, I should have kept Merri with me...damn it! Whatever Tahki did, she got Ares' magic glitter ALL OVER Merrimack. So now it's...very shiney. Aaaarrrg, Ares is gonna kill me!! I know it was an accident (and I know Tahki was sorry for it, because she was trying to clean it up before I got in there...she was also covered in glitter, needless to say)...but still. I wonder if this will affect Merri at all when it arrives...?

Ares yawned softly as she glided into the shop, not spotting the group near the window at first. Landing on the counter, she stretched her arms a bit before turning to face the shop, her three eyes looking about. Her tail curled up a little, and she spotted only familiar faces today.

Smiling slightly, she took flight again, making her way over to the window.

Strong arms caught her around the waist and she received a kiss on the back of her neck, right under the jaw and ear - a feien hotspot. "Evening," Arturo purred silkily into her ear.

Ares blushed softly, easing into his arms a little. My...that was certainly a different feeling. Much different from the other tingling sensations she'd felt from kisses...this one, however, she very much liked.

"Hello," she said softly, her red lips still in a smile.

Arturo's arms tightened slightly around her waist as he rested his chin on her shoulder. "I haven't seen you lately," Lately being only a few days, but they felt much longer to Arturo.

Ares ran a finger up his arm, still being so much shorter than him, her hands folding together behind his neck. "I'm sorry...perhaps I have been spending too much time with Merri..." she said softly. Which, was more than likely true. This was the first time since she'd gotten back that Merrimack wasn't with her.

Heiko blinked and snapped out of her sleep-like trance. She looked around, noticing one new Feien she did not know..and Ares in Arturo's arms.
She slowly stood once more and rubbed her eyes, stretching her wings. She blinked again, just now noticing something...her eyes quickly darted back to Ares...She had grown! And she was rather beautiful. Heiko looked towards Nero...then back at Ares and Arturo..and it all clicked in her head.

"Good evening Ares.." She smiled, but took flight and hoved for a moment, thinking it was time to go home in a moment.

Ares turned, smiling to Heiko. "Hello...it's been a long time," she said softly, waving a couple fingers still behind Arturo's neck. "Heiko...have you met my son?"

Her tail curled a little, pointing towards Nero.

Arturo smirked, letting his fingers trail lazily up her stomach before tickling her slightly. Chuckling, he ceased his assault and reluctantly let go of Ares, moving to hover in front of her. "And how is Merri?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Oh, he seems to be fine...no better, no worse, it seems," she told him, holding her stomach where he had tickled her. She ran a hand through her short blue hair, resting that hand on her neck. "I'm going to start backing away, though. So that he's not...too clingy?"

Heiko smiled, nodding. "Yes..it's been a while."
She blinked, her thought was right.."I indeed have. He's very pretty..and very polite. He has been raised well."

Ares smiled slightly, hugging Arturo gently. "And that's all thanks to this one," she replied to Heiko.

Arturo nodded towards Heiko, a bit upset that she was interrupting their moment. Then again, they were somewhere public. "Indeed. I've been raising Nero. Though he's a good child on his own."

Heiko nodded at Ares,"You both must be very proud. Also..I am assuming you have more children..or no? I bet they are as beautiful, if not more, than Nero." She looked to Nero once more, smiling. The combination of Ares and Arturo was wonderful.

"I don't think any of them could be more beautiful than Nero," Arturo said, his eyes sliding over to his son. Almost unconsciously, he slipped his hand into Ares'.

Heiko smiled, nodding at Arturo. "You're right.."
She looked down and sighed, then looked up towards the clock.
"It's late..I should be heading home now... Congrats to both of you on the children. I cannot wait to meet the others and see how beautiful they are."
She bowed her head and hovered a bit higher, drifting slowly towards the door. She passed all the Feien and turned to face them.
"Goodnight Ares, Arturo, and Nero.." At that, she quickly turned and flew through the door.

Ares blinked a few times, her tail curling slightly, gripping lightly onto Arturo's hand. "I think the three of them will be equally beautiful..." she said quietly.

She waved her free hand to Heiko, wishing her a silent goodnight.

Arturo watched Heiko go, then turned to Ares, offering her one of his rare, seductive smiles. "Just like their mother," he purred, brushing his fingers down her cheek. He added, more seriously, "I've missed you."

Ares smiled, leaning her head into his hand slightly. "And I you...I feel that I don't see you often enough."

Arturo led Ares over to the window sill and sat down, pulling her close to him. "I know," he said, almost sadly. He stroked her fingers softly and gazed at her with serious yellow eyes, intense as ever. "I hope to remedy that." Leaning forward, he placed a finger under her chin and tilted her head up, kissing her warmly.

Ares blinked a few times, not quite expecting this. She kissed him back, however, blushing slightly. Though, she wondered if it was appropriate to be doing this where they were, especially with younger feien so close by.

Arturo pulled back reluctantly and smirked. "Not the time or the place, hmm?" he said, as if reading her mind.

Ares smiled slightly, nodding. "Perhaps I'm what humans like to call, "old fashioned" when it comes to something like this," she said calmly. "Perhaps...we could go elsewhere..."

Arturo smirked. Standing, he motioned for her to follow and dived gracefully out the window.

And of course, Ares followed behind.

Arturo paused for a moment just below the window, gazing quietly at the sky above. Checking over his shoulder for a moment to make sure Ares was following, he shot up towards the roof, landing carefully upon the slope. He waved for her to come up.

Ares blinked a few times, stopping abruptly upon seeing Arturo dash towards the roof, and quickly followed after. Had she had claws on her fingers and toes, she'd probably look like a gargoyle because of her tail, especially in the darkness of the night. Landing next to him, her tail immediately began to move about, helping her find her balance.

Arturo gently took her hand in his and nodded his head upwards. "You can't see the stars as well here. Too much light. Where I'm from, we were in the middle of a forest. If you went up past the trees, there were stars everywhere." He snorted briefly. "One time, three friends and I stayed up the whole night, counting stars. We dozed off after we got to 1,551." Arturo sighed, not quite understanding where this bout of nostalgia had come from. Turning to Ares, he offered her the charming smile he so rarely showed everyone and shrugged. "I'd like to take you there some day."

Ares smiled, looking up towards the sky for a moment. She remembered how Aki used to sit with her on the roof and point out constellations to her, since the stars could be seen so well where Neko lived. Gripping his hand lightly, she nodded to him. "I would love to go with you, Arturo. It's where you used to live, am I right?"

Arturo nodded, then laughed. "New Milford, Conneticut. Outside of a sleepaway camp." He stared down at his plastic rapier and continued, "They had a fencing instructor there. He'd give lessons every day for two months - I'd watch every lesson. I'm a metal feien, so making myself a rapier wasn't hard, and I'd spar with my friends to get better. But then they started dying off. So I snuck into the counselor's cabin and stole his book on fencing." A rueful smirked crossed his lips. "And then I started to teach myself."

"How did you manage to steal the book...?" she asked a bit curiously. All this talk about the older feien...it reminded her of a question she'd been meaning to ask. "Arturo...can I ask you something?"

Arturo ran the back of his longer fingers down Ares' cheek. "Anything, love," he muttered.

Ares moved her head slightly, to rub a little more against his fingers. She closed her eyes as she thought, her wings folding down over her bare shoulders. "I'm curious. The feien from before...did they have a ruler of some kind?"

Arturo nodded. "There was a council - the High Council. The wisest and most powerful feien were the Council members."

"The wisest and most powerful..." she echoed softly. Of course, she knew she'd never be powerful. But...maybe wise? "Sometimes I can't help but wonder what it was like to be from before," she said softly.

Arturo snorted, but he smiled. "We lived in colonies. There was some contact between colonies, but for the most part we were on our own. Took care of one another. There wasn't all this... animosity, like there is now. I mean - yes, there was. But I suppose it wasn't as obvious." He leaned back on his elbows and pulled his ponytail over his shoulder, the white hairs tipped in black glowing in the moonlight.

Ares moved a little closer to him, reaching up a hand and touching his hair lightly. It was quite beautiful, to her, seeing it glowing the way it was. "Are we the only ones left, Arturo? Or are there other feien still out there somewhere?"

"If there are, they're probably dying," Arturo snorted. He reached up and held her hand against his chest, squeezing it slightly. "Corvus is the sole means of maintaining our species for now. It's not such a bad thing, really." he said, shrugging. "I mean, yes, it's sad. But at least we're not extinct."

"Yes," she admitted, leaning over and snuggling against him a little, leaning her head gently against his shoulder. "It's hard to imagine what things would be like had nothing been done. Aside from...everyone being gone."

Her tail curved up slightly, tickling Arturo's knee unintentionally.

Arturo jumped slightly at the contact and bit down on his lip, stifling a groan. He had no idea whether Ares had done that intentionally - but either way, he didn't really mind. Smirking, Arturo wrapped his arm around her waist and chuckled, rubbing her bottom lip with the pad of his thumb. "I suppose we should focus on the here and now, then?" he purred.

The tip of Ares' tail flicked a little happily, her red lips curving into a slight smile as she felt that tingling feeling again. She kissed his thumb softly before replying, "Yes, I have a feeling that would probably be better."

Arturo laughed and let his thumb trail up her cheek, following her jawline to that small space where the ear met the neck. Rubbing it softly with his thumb, he smirked lazily. "It's nice to be alone with you."

Ares took in a quick breath, closing her eyes at the touch, feeling her cheeks burn with blush. "Yes...I don't think we've been alone for some time now," she replied softly, sighing a little out of pleasure.

Arturo chuckled again and drew his hand away, patting Ares lightly on the cheek. "Tell me about Merri?" he asked, smiling.

"Mmm? You asked about it earlier," she smirked, opening her eyes halfway. "I would hope it's still fine."

"I mean... what have you found out?" Arturo pressed the palms of his rough hands together and smirked. "Anything about his personality? Or her's, I suppose."

"So far, it likes classical and jazz music, and wool," she replied, leaning back against the roof. "Oh, and that he likes me." She couldn't help but giggle a little bit. "Otherwise, I know nothing else..."

"However, I get this strong feeling still that Merri is a boy."

Arturo raised an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"Neko said it was something called a "woman's intuition"...I only think that way because the bloom resembles you so much," she explained. "Of course, I could be wrong...a refined woman would like classical and jazz...I suppose the wool throws me off a bit, as I heard men tend to wear that more than women."

Arturo chuckled and flapped his miniwings with excitement. "I can't wait until they all bloom. I wonder if they look anything like Nero?" He tilted his head in thought.

"Well, if they don't look like him, I say they'll all certainly be as beautiful," she smiled, closing her eyes for a moment. A part of her wondered if any of them would have a third eye like hers.

"Of course," Arturo chortled, kissing Ares softly. "My love, they couldn't be anything but."

"You're right," she smirked, kissing him back. "With attractive feien like us, I wouldn't expect anything less."

"Mmm, and so modest," he teased, flicking his head to push his bangs out of his eyes.

"But true, nonetheless." She rested her hands on her stomach, looking over at him, having leaned back against the roof. "Or am I wrong?"

Arturo shifted so that he was laying on his side, elbows resting against the roof. Resting his chin in his hand, he stretched his arm across the distance between them and drew patterns over Ares' stomach. "You're the most beautiful creature I've ever seen." he said, voice completely sincere.

Ares smiled slightly, trying to ignoring the ticklish feeling of him drawing patterns. "Hmmm...does that mean I can get away with calling you the most handsome?" she asked.

Arturo chuckled and scooted closer to Ares, draping his arm over her waist. "Only if you feel it's true," he purred, kissing her nose.

Ares couldn't help but giggle slightly. She usually was much calmer than this, but she felt a little strange tonight...not a bad thing, really, but it was a little new to her. "I certainly do, Arturo," she said softly.

Arturo carefully drew a bit closer, chin pressed against his chest so he could look down at her. Smirking, he leaned his mouth close to her ear and asked, "Do you need to be anywhere any time soon?"

Ares' red lips curved up into a little smirk, her eyes closing halfway. "Not until I want to go back home," she whispered.

"Good," Arturo smirked, pressing his lips against Ares'.

Today was quite eventful. Before the others awoke, I went to the Pixapet shop to see if I could get a little surprise for Tahki and Ares (Tahki wouldn't stop talking about a little tiger another feien had, so I thought I'd see about getting her a pet). They had the most adorable tiny leopard! I just had to get him for Tahki...he's a jumpy little guy, though. Hopefully he'll get along with Tahki...


While at the shop, they were holding a raffle, so on a whim I decided to participate. Now, originally I had only gone to get a pet for Tahki...Ares would get one when Merri arrived. Well, turns out I was one of the four winning tickets for the raffle. So, Ares got a little sheepdog...he's quite cute, actually. He's black...and looks to be a guard-dog. Perhaps he can protect Merri...?


While I was there, I donated a little for a good cause, and got a little cat for myself. She's so cute! She suits me so well...


Off to home I went! And boy, was I in for a big surprise. Merri was there! He's so gorgeous! So precious! Absolutely stunning! ....And he hates me! gonk As soon as Ares mentioned my name to him, he cowered and hid from me like I were about to eat him or something. I'm not the pleague, damn it! crying I'll never do an experiment again! gonk ...At least on the feien.

~~~~~~~~~~



~~~~~~~~~~



~~~~~~~~~~

Today was pretty quiet around here. I woke up this morning and found that Ares was gone. I've decided not to ask about it anymore, since I can't keep a very good track on her lately...I trust her enough to come home when she's ready to. Though, it does make me wonder if it's because of the sudden new member of the house. For people who know me well enough, you'd know that there aren't very many male ANYTHING that live here...there's no real reason for that, it just happened. Most of my celestrus are female, most of my cerebis are male to balance that out, an even number of sphrions, and the domos have no gender. And then there's my many female spirits, and only two males amoung them. ...Needless to say, my home is ruled by the female gender, and it wasn't my fault that happened. Perhaps it's the fact that we're sharing the house now with a much bigger male...as in, taller than me (though I can't say he's taller than Juubei). ...Well, okay, so that's not saying much since I'm rather short, but hey. Juubei isn't around enough to count. And I just realized I'm rambling.

So anyway, I'm going to back off Ares a bit, as Tahki is the one that needs the most attention. She likes the others a bit too much, and it's already getting on their nerves. This is almost as bad as when Kori (my butterfly puppy spirit) was always running around hugging everybody. Every two seconds. I made the suggestion of going to the shop, and she immediately thought I was asking her to find Ares. So while Merri was still sleeping (he...seems to sleep quite a bit), she abducted him and took him along. Kicking and nearly screaming. Okay...so now my feien are all out for the day. Perhaps this could be a good thing.

It took me a while to figure out that even my spirits were gone. All eight of them. ...What's going on here? Is it "leave Neko alone" day today? The cerebri were actually behaving, the celestrus were even staying in their new room. Even the domos weren't sneaking in today! (I found out later that Juubei played a big role in all of this. He noticed I was getting pretty stressed lately, especially during his lessons with me, and went as far as asking everyone to let me have peace today. To let me relax. Oh Juubei...I owe him big time, that's for sure.)

For the first time in probably two months, I was allowed to spend a quiet, stress-free afternoon and evening kind of by myself. I can't exactly do anything about Domonic, but I don't really have to worry too much about him; he has the hardest time talking to any woman, friend or stranger, and can't stop blushing when around them. It's...cute, actually. However, not the kind of guy I'm looking for. Maybe spending some time with me may help him... Needless to say, we didn't talk too much.

The others came back pretty late. Ares returned maybe a few hours before Tahki and Merri, and the spirits were already sleeping when I went to check up on them. Maybe I owe EVERYONE...hopefully, I'll get more days like this without someone planning it.

~~~~~~~~~~



~~~~~~~~~~



~~~~~~~~~~