Welcome to Gaia! ::

Time to look far....blend-in-able. As much as he hated it he was aware his beautiful pinstripe suit had been a little....foretelling, he wasn't exactly stealthy in it. Fortunately that shopping trip had provided him with a far more....subtle attire. Instead of his fabulous suit, Miache had donned far more....common attire. A pressed white and light blue striped shirt, a sweater vest in his appropriate colour, and black jeans. He had popped a fedora atop his head for good measure, better obscuring his face, ,and the tie with his symbol was tucked behind the vest. Miache lowered his thick shades to glance around the room, eying all the gifts. He puffed his chest already able to tell his was BY FAR the most aesthetically pleasing. Perfect. Although.....he had to admit there was a gift that caught his eye. ...held by the yellowblood no less. A shame she was already engaged in an exchange. His eyes fell instead on the only other troll not otherwise engaged. Well....might as well follow suit.

"Good evening," he said, offering a polite half-bow in greeting. "Might I interest you in partaking in an exchange?" he added, lofting his red package in a most tempting manner. The other blueblood had a rather tacky looking parcel.....but so be it, he didn't mind. He'd already accepted that no other gift would look as astounding as his own.

It'd been hard for Nucleo to come back after getting Elidae's name wrong and then being overwhelmed with the sudden crowd last time. He liked being social and meeting new people but after screwing up something so stupid his confidence had been shaken. It'd been all he could do to nod and smile politely to Autumn and her friend before they'd been ushered out of the shop. The greenblood took the chance to glance at the strange greenblood with markings around his eyes in curiosity before heading out to continue shopping with Amonee. The atmosphere of the entire shop had changed with that troll had entered, especially Elidae's enthusiasm. Whoever they were, Nucleo was intrigued and a little jealous.

But now he was back with Amonee again and ready to participate. It would have been rude to stay away and not try to apologize after the game. When it came time to select a present, he'd gunned straight for the bag with the face of his favorite movie star. She was an up and coming actress but so beautiful and expressive! Every move she made was like art on the screen. He knew Amonee would pout if they didn't manage to get the bag to bring home with them.

"Ah! I'm Nucleo. Nice to meet you too-" A pretty looking seadweller approached him and startled the boy. She seemed much better mannered than Frossa, who he was keeping an eye on occasionally at the party. At least she had been until she'd swiped at his bag!

"Hey! This is mine!"

Azrael had wondered if maybe something he said had bothered Elidae in someway. She seemed a little bit. hmm, he wasn't sure how to explain what he saw. As she left Kursha and himself toenter the crowd, the young troll's face fell to one of contemplation. He looked over to Kursha and shoved his hands in the pockets of his parka. He wasn't sure what Kursha was trying to signal, but the reason for his presence had left and now he had to leave. He would probably try to engage the greenblood in conversation another time. He opened his mouth to say something along the lines of, 'nice seeing you again,' instead, what came out was something more like, "Well, that's that... see you tomorrow, I suppose," and then he left into the crowd. Whether the greenblood heard him or not didn't matter. He still had some shopping to finish and then he had to head home as soon as possible. He had two things he needed to finish before the next evening, no time to dawdle.

---the next evening---

The young blueblood had been turning the gift in his hand to get any hint on what was inside the colorful package. He'd somewhat zoned out on the rest of the trolls in the room. Did he want to keep the colorful package or not. Azrael was snapped out of his trance by a fellow blueblood. He felt slightly tense and straightened up as the other blueblood approached him. "Salutations," he said robotically in response with a tilt of his head acknowledging his fellow highblood. This was followed bu a look down at the rainbow package in his hands then at the red one the other blueblood had. "Perhaps," Azrael replied neutrally, his interest was piqued through the sheer force of his curiosity, "Why do you want this one?" He had already decided to trade, but, he wanted to know a little bit about this troll. Just a little bit about his personality would be a nice trade in return for the gift.

Engrav had been told very severely not to peek. He'd tried to sneak a glance when noone was looking and been smacked on the head for his efforts, so He'd satisfied himself with guessing. The bag he'd received was heavy and gray. And had a bunch of pink tissue paper. Didn't smell funny or anything, but he didn't trust it.

Wait, was it ticking? That sounded like ticking.

Oh gog, Engrav thought it was ticking. He juggled it from hand to hand desperately, glancing to see if anyone would take it from him.

A fluttery troll came up to him and offered to take it off his hands, and he jumped at the chance. He tossed the dangerous box into her waiting arms and accepted her replacement quickly. "Yup!" he yelled, maybe a little too loud. "I sure am good at solving puzzles! Like what's in that box, for example!" Engrav paused for a second. It seemed like a shame to let another yellowblood get blown up or imploded or disintegrated or whatever followed ominous ticking sounds from a pretty box with a bow. "You should probably try to get rid of that box real soon. Like right now! Or whenever. But probably quickly! Just a thought. You seem nice though. Good to meet you. Also, bye!"

Engrav slooooowly backed away from Autumn, keeping his eyes on the red box with the bow. What a weird fluttery troll. Now he wondered what was in his new present.

Wait, was it ticking?

"Ah, I see,"" Azrael briefly looked around the room with a flick of his eyes, it seemed that lots of trolls had already started taking gifts to one another. He brought his attention back to the troll in front of him "I suppose you saved us both in that case, I was wrapped up in thinking about something else entirely," He held out the rainbow colored gift to the other blueblood. "No, I'm not particularly attached to this parcel, I was just curious about you is all," The young blueblood flashed Miache a friendly smile and held a hand out for the red gift he had. This other blueblood did not seem like he was going to get absurdly violent or unpleasant over the gift. This lead Azrael to feel a little less wary. "Actually, there is one in particular that I rather like," Azrael said gesturing towards a redblood with a light yellow bag, speckled with stars and stuffed with peach colored tissue paper. Was that tissue paper? Well whatever it was, he found it really cute color wise!

Was that an offer to give Alifax the parcel? Yes, was the answer. He didn't actually care much about the gift (for himself, anyway), or about actually keeping the promise, but the sooner he could get this over with, the better.

Still. The demand did give him a bit of pause. What did being a friend to this guy entail? He could visit him with his weapons in hand and well-equipped to deal with the lusus, and then later when Frossa came by she'd be adequately prepared - assuming she was even interested in this guy. Well, if he was going to keep complimenting her she would probably be very interested in him, he thought - and then he abandoned it, because he needed to reply, obviously. "What exactly," began Alifax, looking the littler troll up and down. "...do you mean by coming over?" Obviously Alifax's first instinct was to just say yes and, uh, not come over. But it'd be nice to be able to vet this guy, or something, before he got his paint-stained hands on Frossa. And it also might be nice to get him on Alifax's side, if he was actually dangerous. Which - he wasn't dangerous now, but his lusus might be, and the same went for his future self.

[+] Kursha Vidari

Curious.

Kursha studied the purpleblood, surprise masked by a lazy grin. With the pretentious and downright moronic attitude she had shown him back at the gala, he had not expected to receive such civility. Maybe a snide remark or two, and a reference to her blood hue, but certainly not a request. Though she still lacked proper fear of him, she at least kept her tongue in check. It was a start.

A part of him wondered however, if there was some kind of trap. He had threatened to crush her throat after all. That was not an easily forgettable event. He knew if it had been him who was pinned to the floor, boot against his neck, he would seek vengeance no matter what. To let his guard down around her would be dangerous. In this particular case however, an attack seemed unlikely. If he pawned off the gift to someone else, she would have missed her target. It was too risky. So, not a trap. Perhaps she merely wanted to make amends.

“Sure. Why not?” Kursha said with a shrug. “I don't really care either way. Catch.” He tossed the pink box over to her. After a pause he continued, “You sure there's not just something in there you want really bad?” His grin widened.