Welcome to Gaia! ::

“Sambal, specialty of the house,” Amon declared with a smug face. “Consisting of ground chili and some other stuff, like garlic, lemongrass … But mostly chili really. The mean kind, ‘bird’s eye’ I think it was.” It had, admittedly, been sheer sadistic mischief which had made him place it with the other, more harmless sauces.

“Are you alright?” he asked, amusement eventually giving way to mild concern. The effect the sauce had taken on the middle-aged wizard had been rather spectacular, much more so than it had been the case with Miranda or Anais. He wondered if that stuff could possibly kill someone. Nah, probably not.

The elf had seen the man flailing around after his encounter with something no doubt spicy. Probably a little too spicy for his liking given the look on his face. She noticed Amon take the man inside the house. Hopefully he would be alright, with no harm done more than a burnt or numb tongue. Sure a numb burnt tongue is no fun, but it was certainly better than being sent to the hospital.

Ah ha! Mistalina had finally spotted Nephrite still caught up with trying to catch a little shadow in her hands. She slipped by the folks at the grill with a whispered 'Excuse me.' before making her way over to the green shadow. "I'm sorry to distract you from your little friend there Nephrite, just wanted to say hello."

Spotting the new comer strolling towards her the cat-girl furrowed her brow and cursed the fact that he was down-wind of her. She focused and tilted her head catching the scents off the grill, sweat of human and.... other.

Feeling nervous she could feel her little hairs rising off her neck and arms, a hum in her ears, she shifted and wrapped her silvery tail about her waist. She flashed a pointy toothed grin and swiped a glance around as the glitter of orange wrapped in shadow rushed the new male.

Nell moved forward extending a shadowy tendril as though sampling the new comers, hesitated, sensing her foster mothers discomfort, caved and retreated to the woman's shoulder.

"Oh.. Indeed." He fanned himself a bit, unbuttoning the top button of his shirt. "Well jolly good then. Very uh.. spicy. Not one for spicy food myself. I enjoy a good curry once in a while but.." Algie finally managed a smile. "Don't fret over me. I'm fine now. In fact I'd like to socialize." He waved Amon off. "Oh.. and I brought you some wine." He motioned to the gifts he'd arranged on a table.

Bloo had been worried when Algie reacted so badly. He definitely hadn't seemed to have known that the food would do that to his bond. He definitely wasn't going to follow Tek for the moment.

Algie headed to the outdoors and took in a nice breath of the fresh air. It helped him immensely and he was already feeling better. He was finally able to really look out at the gathered crowd. He barely knew where to go first! Dio and Merci were here and it had been ages since he'd last seen them. But Jasa also caught his eye and he was curious about how she was doing after their last meeting.

"Jasa!" Algie waved and shot her a smile over the crowd. He wondered where little Ruku was? He had no idea that the grilling fiend was who he was looking for. He didn't know about the growing!

“In that case, you should come over for dinner some time. I make a wicked good curry,” Amon said. Wicked being the keyword here … “I promise to tone down on the chilis and the other hot spices,” he added, but not without crossing his fingers behind his back. He meant the invitation, though. Nephrite didn’t eat, after all, and it was no fun to only ever cook for only himself. Plus, Nephrite would enjoy the company, she seemed quite taken with Algernon and little Bloodstone. Maybe they could set her head right about rights and wrongs, as he apparently had failed in that regard.

He nodded when Algie announced he was going to socialize, and momentarily glanced at the wine bottle the wizard indicated. “Thank you.” The label design was none he recognized, so he didn’t know if it was actually any good. Considering Algernon’s distinguished manners, however, he strongly suspected it would be. Something to share with Reyna at a later time, maybe. Where was she, actually? Just as usual, when he thought of the silver-haired demoness, his current train of thought almost immediately derailed, and – just for a moment – he idly wondered if anyone would notice the two of them go missing for an hour or two.

Probably by the time the house goes up in flames and an ambulance needs to be called.

He frowned, forcing his thoughts back on track. He should take a cue from the wizard – had he actually just invited a wizard over for dinner? – and socialize. He was the host, after all.

He stepped out, enjoying how the cool nightly breeze made his dark skin tingle, and looked over his guests, vaguely amused by how diverse they were – both guardians and their fiends. Plus the two random guests.

Elves, demons, catgirls, kitsune, wizards … Gaia at its finest, really. Neither vampires nor zombies present though (and he was rather grateful for the latter), werewolves he wasn’t entirely sure about. Unless it was a full moon, you could never tell with the werefolk. Some of the faces were vaguely familiar from the occasion two years prior, when most of the guardians and fiends had worked hand in hand to relieve the two shop owners from the petrification curse which had been cast upon then.

Amon frowned momentarily. Come to think of it, he had never really received a satisfying answer as to how that had come to happen. Or just who would be out there to harm the two as that ‘Doran’ dude apparently had been taken care of.

He stepped down the stairs, checking if there was anyone who’d seem particularly ‘lost’ or out of place and seeing none. That was fortunate. Especially Dio and Miranda looked like they were meant for each other.

Joining the small group which had gathered at the grill, he overheard some of what Anais and Merci were saying. It seemed the kitsune was just about to give yet another person the Shadow Fiends 101, just as she’d done for him two years prior, something he’d rather appreciated. It made him vaguely wonder, however, just how often she’d done that already.

“Want me to take over again?” he asked, both Rhys and Ruku, actually. On a BBQ, the best place to socialize, in his humble opinion, was the GRILL.

Merci shifted to the side so she wasn't in the way of the men and their cooking. Barbecuing was an art and she wasn't about to get between anything male and hot coals. "I'm surprised you haven't seen them before if you're looking through the glass at the store all the time. I know that there are at least two of them in the shop almost all of the time. For the record I agree with you about the jewelry. Reyna is a true artist, and does some of the moze quality work I've ever seen" Her tail ticked behind her lazily, "But as to what they are? The best answer I've ever gotten is that they are spirits, or souls, that were displaced from their bodies. A collection of creatures and people, that are trying to survive I guess."

Dio watched Miranda for a moment and then he drifted closer and held his arm out so she could see better. If she continued to look, his arm is completely accurate. 'Yeah, don't let her scare you to much. I think she likes startling people, but she's not so bad.' The fiend reached a finger out and brushed his finger along the rather active shadows that surrounded Rutie, 'Mmm I don't know how I know. They just feel like a boy or a girl. Well except for Tek, Tek is definitely an it.' He turned to look at her, only one of his burgundy eyes visible under the waterfall of colorful hair, 'You make jewelry too? Like Auntie Reyna?'

Sulfur's black tendrils reached out and wrapped around one of Miranda's fingers. Though in her curiosity the flames that licked around her dimmed a bit. Her interest didn't last long, and soon she brightened back up, the fire burning higher as she floated back over to Dio started rather slowly circling the wisp that settled on his arm.

The older fiend glanced a Sully and he made an odd tsking sound. 'Play nice.'

"Thank you. You look very pretty tonight too." The elf smiled. It wasn't often she got compliments, but that was due in part to running a boarding house full of college age students too wrapped up in themselves. "I brought something for you, a little gift to say thanks for helping me find the motivation to get out of the house finally. Sorry, I didn't wrap it." She removed the hair comb from her pocket and offered it to Nephrite. "Hope you like it."

"Ah, thank you." It certainly sounded rather complex and strange but who was she to judge. She had certainly come across her share of the weird and wonderful in her lifetime. And these people, guardians, were helping the souls. That was a good thing. "Thank you very much. I was feeling a bit like I'd gatecrashed a secret society or something. I don't think Nephrite was supposed to invite me. Still, I'm glad she did."