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Brim shrugged. Were they good? Well, they were fun to eat. That's for sure. "Nice to meet you, Gilles," Akina interrupted, sliding Brim off of her lap and getting to her feet. "You two sit tight for a moment while I go get more food." And try to find a guardian missing a child, she completed in her mind, turning the corner.

Left alone, Brimstone offered the plate of unsmushed berries to Gilles, shaking it for added emphasis. "Gilles, try it?" If he would just try it, then Gilles could decide whether it was good or not for himself.

Green eyes watched curiously as Gilles tried his own smush berry, though there wasn't as much smushing as Brim felt was necessary. Oh well, atleast the other Shattered seemed to enjoy it. "Yeah, sure," Brim chimed after Gilles's question. His response sounded rehearsed, and truth be told, it was more of a mimickry of a frequent catchphrase of Naraka than anything else.

Still, could it be that Brimstone was actually, dare it be said, sharing?

Below the apple tree, Akina had barely a moment to register what exactly the strange voice was saying before she was sneak attacked from the branches above her. She jumped for a moment, but did not shout or run; there was no anger or violence coming off of the emotions of this creature, just... playfulness, actually. Blinking a few times, Akina stared down at Chikara and offered quietly, "Um... hello?"

Brimstone watched the rabbit reject the smushberry, wondering for a moment if he might like eating dirt shoved into his mouth better, but just as the toddler was reaching for a clump, Gilles question snatched the Shattered's attention back. The neon-haired boy sat for a second, mouth open, as he pondered the inquiry for a moment. What did he like to do? "Tee-Vee. And Star Wars. Sky fire. Big lights. Hide-n-seek. Scare the Naraka. Um.... eating capers..." his high-pitched voice trailed off as his list continued. After a short pause, Brim grabbed another handful of fruit, crushed it, and asked, "What you do?" before promptly smashing the fistful of fruit into his mouth.

Akina hopped back from Chikara, narrowly avoiding her swinging arms. Was this girl just a kid or seriously deranged? Opening her mouth to speak, the elf got out a muffled, "Are you ok---" before she was unceremoniously yanked in another direction. Sensing no true hostility, Akina stumbled along with Chikara, wondering what in the world she had gotten herself in to here as they approached another apple tree. "Are we going some place in particular?" she managed to get out between tripping over branches and keeping up with the younger girl.

Brimstone took another smushberry and reeeeally smushed it as Gilles spoke, getting a good bit of it on his face. Clean stuff? Brim did like a tidy space, but he let Akina worry about that. It was just his job to point out what was messy, which always brought on agitated looks from his guardian. "Sparkler?" The Shattered cocked his head to one side, not really sure what that was at all.

Meanwhile, Akina was about to Baker Act the girl before her who seemed to have just made some kind of sexual advance on her. "I, um, think the world is doing alright," she murmured awkwardly, stepping back from the swinging girl. "And I'm Akina. Who are you?"

Fire? Explode? Yeah, it all sounded good to Brim. "Cooooool!" It was probably the first time the young Shattered had ever uttered modern lingo and definitely the first time he had a boyish "cool"-worthy moment. "You have sparklers?" Lacking the syntax of Gilles, Brim felt a little young, but he fought to match his counerparts vocabulary, if he could manage it.

A few trees away, Akina was still being accosted by the very strange little girl. But now, the very strange little girl had a name. Chikara. How... strange. "I can't play right now, Chikara. I'm looking for the guardian of a little boy named Gilles I have just met." The elf straightened up a bit, ready to move on to more adults. This girl here was just a kid, after all, and Akina really wanted to find out who was minus one child. "It was a pleasure meeting you though. Good luck with the, uh, Pastry Girl and Super Muffin and... such!" Smiling as honestly as she could, the elf glanced about the area for any adult standing alone and looking frantic.

Yes, yes, this Gilles would be quite useful, Brim reasoned. After all... he had SPARKLERS! "Let's go now. To house." Getting to his feet, Brim made sure he was completely solid before grabbing Gilles arm and trying to drag him off. Of course, he had no idea where he was going, but by God, if there were fire-emitting sparky sticks, he was so there.

A few trees away, Akina was still trying to find Gilles's guardian when it occurred to her that her search might be over. "You know Gilles?" Was it possible that this child was, in fact, a guardian? How strange, but then again, the elf had encountered much stranger things in her day. "Um, Miss Chikara, are you Gilles's guardian?" Ignoring Chikara's other questions, the elf remained hard pressed to her original task.

Brimstone had been marching at a regular pace down the rows and rows of trees, but at Gilles's words, he froze. The green-eyed Shattered looked over his right shoulder and then his left. Uhhhhh.... crap. "Uh. This way!" Completely clueless as to where they were headed, Brim set off in a random direction, knowing that he MUST be right. After all, his sense of direction was foolproof! ...right?

Meanwhile, Akina was starting to finally make sense of Chikara. "Oh," she said quietly, realizing that this was Gilles's guardian. Well, she was a sweet child, it seemed, but still, very, very strange. "Oh, well, yes, I am friends with Gilles. In fact, he is sitting just over there with my--" Gesturing with her hand, Akina went from relieved to terrified in an instant.

They were gone. She had lost Gilles again AND her own bond. "Oh no. They-they're gone!" Not saying another word, the maternal senses in Akina were flaring up all over as she began to dart through the trees, sensing for Brim.