Welcome to Gaia! ::

He had much better things to do than leave the house, but Shouhin but being a stubborn old goat today. Maybe he had been trapped up in his dojo for a bit too long, but he still have to practice every day. Then Sah pointed out that he wasn't really training no more than cutting himself cause his mind wasn't focused on what he was doing. Sighing heavily, the boy paused in mid step and looked down at his heavily bandaged hands, flexing his fingers slowly and carefully. They were healing as they should, but it was stiff to move them too much. Another sigh left him as he looked up at his big brother Mouu, who had decided to come along with him today. Noticing that he had stopped, he looked down at him, just waiting for him to speak up first. "Are you okay with coming with me?"

"Hmm? Oh sure! Tigg's asleep and we do gotta see if Yuhin's stationary came in or something. I don't mind coming out with you today, Jiro. How are you feeling?" He knew his kid brother was out of it with Khia moving away and everything, so the boy felt rather out of sorts. Khia was his best friend, after all, and though the boy had other friends, he just sseemed closer to Khia. Probably cause they were both violent or something, Mouu didn't know. He just thought they were amusing to watch. Pushing open the door to the shop, he let him wander in first. "We shoulda brought Luc along.. maybe he could have used an outing..."

"But he's gone out shopping with Kali.. there would be no point to it, ya know?" Snickering, he went and found a place to sit down and did so.

Silent walked the sidewalk quietly. It had been ages since she came to the shop. It didn't feel the same anymore. And surprisingly, Angelus wasn't on her arms like he normally would. Looking behind her, she watched the small Tale take his steps.

Angelus walked with a confidence, which was a definite change from the person he used to be. The scars are still evident on his neck, and the memories still fresh, but he learned to put that all behind him. It was time to move on. His blood tingled for an unknown reason. Jiro. He could feel the other tale. Ever since the exchange of blood, he wasn't the same.

Silent finally made it to the shop door and slowly opened it. Angelus followed suit.

"So this is the place?" Redish grey and gold eyes were fixed upon the back side of the Stationary Shop.

"Mhm."

"This is where you were BORN."

Bi-colored eyes shifted to her brother, "yes, mr. lava lamp incubator."

Fai grinned and poked at her gently, "I didn't mean anything by it," glancing around he blinked, "how do we get in?"

"Front door," Aido replied and stepped forward heading along the small alley like way that tracked around the shop to the main street. It felt so odd being here with her, now older, brother instead of her mother; though Chao had promised to meet them at the store later. It felt weird being there at all, there wasn't even a guarntee anyone would be there or that the shop would even be open....

Fai glanced to her and rolled his eyes, first she'd been all restless and ready to go, now it looked like his sister was having second thoughts, how silly, "you have your 'what if' face on Ai, stop worrying about nothing," grabbing onto her hand he quickly led them up the steps and pushed on the door, smiling triumphantly as it opened and the tell tale bell jangled softly as they entered.

Silent was about a foot away from the open door. Thank goodness it didn't hit her. She turned around to see who entered. Brown eyes blinked in confusion and then a smile came to her lips. Aido. " Long time no see."she told the other Tale.

Angelus also turned around to see who was here. He wasn't expecting Aido to come. Not at all. His own brown eyes looked up to his friend in awe. How long had it been since he saw her last? It was so long that he couldn't remember.

" Aido." He whispered her name. He said it clearly but quietly.

Aido's eyes caught Silent's for a moment before darting to the floor, where Angelus stood near his mother. Eyes suddenly bright she darted foward, dropped downwards and hugged her friend fiercely, "Angelus!"

Fai smiled, very pleased with the sudden change in his sister. Coming here had been such a good idea. Smiling to the woman he tilted his head, "hello there Miss," he greeted warmly.

Silent's mouth hung open and then closed. " Well. That was a decent hi. I guess." She chuckled. Her brown eyes went to the male. He didn't look very familiar. She offered her hand. " Hi. I'm Silent. And you are?" she inquired of the newcomer.

Angelus nearly lost any breath he could have used. His wings flapped incessantly.

"Aido... Can't... Breathe..." He hoped she would get the message. He really didn't want her to let go. He missed Aido soo much, but he needed air to talk to her.

"She's spent a little too much time inside I fear," Fai nodded solemnly, he'd said she needed to get out, what, over a week ago? Silly people, never listening to him. Turning back to Silent the redhead grinned, "my name's Fai, her," he gestured to Aido, "brother, it's nice to meet you miss Silent."

Aido blinked and promptly loosened her hold on her friend, slightly redcheeked, "sorry," she muttered, tugging on her scard in embarrasment before grinning at Angelus again, too excited at seeing her old friend to stay embarresed for long, "I just haven't see you in so long. I missed you."

Silent nodded in understanding. " Angelus hasn't had contact with anyone other than myself and his family at home. He needed to come back and by the looks of it, it was a wise choice." She could already tell that Angelus was warming back up to the old ways. Her brown eyes went back to the boy. " A brother? No offense, but Chao never mentioned you. I know her brother Rico, but not you." She didn't want to seem rude, but she was a little lost right now.

Angelus chuckled as she released her hold on him. Within a moment, he had her in a hug. It was only fair. " I missed you too." He didn't really use his telepathic abilities much. Every once in a while he did, but he slowly grew accustomed to talking verbally with others. He slowly let go and looked at Aido. " You're big." He chuckled as he took in the form of his friend.

Today was truly one of the best days of Smerdle's life. Sylvester wasn't sulky or running a fever, nor was he a Crazy Nutjob. Smerdle was so thankful, in fact, that when Sylvester suggested they go to the stationery store, she had agreed even though she had other things to do. Like shop. For food. Oh well, they would just have to get a pizza tonight.

Sylvester hopped along in front of his mother, oblivious to the fact that he had been a Crazy Nutjob at all. He felt great, Morry was being quiet for a change, and he was going to play. He arrived at the door and pushed it open slowly.

"Hey!" he said, without looking around first to see who was there.

Smerdle followed a few steps behind, catching the door when Sylvester dropped it. She waved a bit at the older people in the room before sliding over to a brightly colored shelf to look around.

Fai tilted his head and nodded slowly, he didn't think his mother had even been down to this shop in the time he'd been alive, "Oh yes, uncle Rico is Aemu's mom but I'm her son and, well, I'm something of a recent addition to our family really," he scratched the back of his head and vaguely hopes his mother would arrive soon, it felt weird having to explain his exsistence.

Aido smiled and buried her face in his hair as they hugged a second time, smiling at the warm feeling that unfolded in her chest as Angelus said he'd missed her.

As he let go she sat back on her heels and lokoed down at his comment of her growth, "yes, I suppose so," she looked down back to her friend, "but now that I'm bigger I've gotten to explore more on my own." She paused, "it's much more lonely, exploring on my own. I miss our explorations."

At the sudden greeting she looked up and over to the door and smiled to the newcomer, "hello there."

Silent nodded in understanding. " Around Gaia, one always has a recent addition to the family. Well it was a pleasure meeting you. Have you been around for a long while then?" she asked curiously. She nodded to the woman that stepped in briefly.

Angelus cocked his head to the side. " Explore on your own? We did that anyways with eachother." he chuckled. " It's no fun to explore on your own though." he sighed. He missed their adventures.

Black wings ruffled in curiosity as a newcomer stepped in. A Tale from the scent of it. Angelus' brown eyes scanned the newcomer and then he looked to Aido. " I don't know him." he whispered. Was he gone for soo long that there were more Tale's he didn't know about? Most likely. He watched in observation.

Fai shook his head, smiling when Silent didn't seem too weirded out at his recentness, "I haven't been around long at all, only...a little over a month I think."

"We should go exploring again sometime soon," Aido replied with a determined nod and an excited smile at the prospect before turning her bi-colored eyes back to Sylvester, "I don't either," she whispered quietly in return but dove into introductions anyway s her attention slipped back to the new Tale, "I'm Aido and this is Angelus, who're you?"

Eyes. On him. Sylvester had forgotten how weird they made him feel. He involuntarily shrank back a bit before stepping forward, which resulted in kind of a wacky shuffle.

"Hi, I'm Sylvester," he said quickly to the girl who had addressed him. He watched her for a second, or rather he watched the halo float above her head. Ooo. He couldn't exactly make out their whispering, but that hardly mattered. The girl, Aido, had said something about exploring!

"Have you been? Explorin' I mean. All the other kids I met here do too! I..." He had been about to launch into a story about the time he had spent with his new dream friends, but he had promised them he wouldn't. Plus, Mama was just right over there and Sylvester was sure that she would take him to the doctor again if he mentioned having dream friends at all. He scratched his neck and tried to look innocent, hoping they wouldn't ask about his own adventures.

Aido began to fidget slightly as the new Tale's, Sylvester's, gaze latched onto her halo, just like everyone seemed to the first time she met them. The circlet drooped momentarily before perking up again as Sylvester asked about exploring and even began to launch into his own story about his exploration.

Smiling as she followed along she tilted her head as he suddenly stopped but tried to pick up the conversation again, "it's nice to meet you Sylvester. I love to explore, espically since Gaia's so big and crisscrossed, it's like even if you explore someplace once there's new things if you go back a second time."

Angelus watched on as Sylvester, the animal like Tale, and Aido conversed about exploration. He stepped forward, tired of being the shy one. " Why don't explore upstairs?" he added in. He remembered the last time Aido and himself went upstairs. That was pretty fun. Memories of the backyard ruled out the Shop's garden as a different means of adventure.

He gave a slight bow to the Tale in greeting. " I'm Angelus". His wings raised up in the air and flapped. A black feather fell from the movement.

"That's so cool. I wish Mama would let me go all kinds of places like that."

He turned toward the winged Tale. Cool! "Yeah, let's go!"

"Be careful," Smerdle said distractedly as she continued to browse.

Sylvester nodded to no one in particular. "Can you fly?" he said to Angelus. He had never seen another Tale fly, though he assumed Tybalt probably could.

Angelus smiled and with a burst of his wings bolted through the air. He came back around in front of the Tale and hovered a few feet above him. " Would you like me to carry you or would you rather follow?" he asked the Tale. He used to hold Aido under her arms and fly with her, but that was when she was a kid like himself. Not anymore.

Sylvester's eyes widened considerably at Angelus' awesome flying capabilities. But, they scared him a bit too. "That is so cool," he breathed. "I... I don't think I want to fly though," he added. He hoped the other boy didn't think he was too much of a wuss. "So, what's upstairs?" he asked curiously.

Angelus smiled in understanding. His brown eyes went to the stairs that led to the second floor. " Last time I remembered we found some interesting rooms." Flying took little energy now. He had enough endurance to fly the whole time if need be. He looked back at the Tale. " You still want to go?"

"Yeah." Sylvester nodded and smiled. He glanced at his mother, looking to see if she was going to butt in, but she seemed preoccupied with the different kinds of paper. Grownups were weird. "Let's go."

Angelus nodded and easily flew up the flight of stairs. He effortlessly lowered himself on the top of the steps. He didn't want the other Tale to feel left out. Looking from left to right. He wondered which corridor they should go down. " Left or right?" he asked Sylvester.

Sylvester hopped up the steps after the flying Tale, excited to be on an adventure.

"Hmm. Left," he said. It looked slightly lighter, after all.

Angelus nodded and started his way down the left corridor. He walked slowly and cautiously. God knows what lay behind the many doors. As he walked, his fingers trailed along the wall. Lifting his nose into the air he sniffed to see what kind of scents lay before them. So many. But he couldn't make out what they were. He looked to Sylvester.

" You've never explored before?" It didn't seem right not to go exploring.

"Just around my house and yard a little," Sylvester said. "Mama's scared stuff'll happen if I'm alone other places and we don't live around other people." Even as Sylvester said this, he knew it wasn't true, but he couldn't think of why. Oh well.

Angelus listened to the Tale. "Silent lets me wander off on my own. We own a lot of land at home and plus the beasts of the land no better than to do anything to me or else they have to deal with my mommy. And they don't like an angry mommy." he commented. His eyes fell upon a cherry wood door. The knob was too high. He looked to Sylvester. He was taller than Angelus. Crouching on all fours Angelus looked to Sylvester.

" Climb on my back and open the door." He instructed the Tale. Angelus was curious to see what was behind the door.

"'Kay." He had never climbed on anyone's back before, but there was a first time for everything. Gripping the door frame, Sylvester rested the toes of his right foot gingerly on Angelus' back, careful not to step on his wings. He took a deep breath and hoisted himself up, turning the knob with ease. As he clumsily jumped off of Angelus' back, he accidentally pushed at the knob on the way down. The door creaked open wide enough for a kid-sized head to peek through.

((-kicks gaia for eating her post, saluts silent and jumps back in-))

Several yards behind the two Simple Tales the shadows quivered and Aido's head poked through, halo dim as her eyes swept over the dark hallway. Having lost the others in a moment of distraction she hoped they would be around here and smiled brightly as she caught sight of them.

The shadows twitched back into place as she pushed through the threshold, feet sliding onto the floor silently as she turned and quietly wandered down towards the others, looking over the doors they passed. For a moment she considered sliping back into the shadows and poking around on her own but-! No! Group exploration! That's what she'd missed. Focused again she quickly moved to crouch behind the two, watching what they were doing but keeping quiet, not wanting to mess up whatever concentration they might have needed.

Angelus nearly fell on his stomach from the weight but quickly scrambled to stand on his two feet. A scent in the air caught his attention. Looking behind him, he fell backward in shock causing the door to open all the way. Aido nearly scared him to death.

" Aido! You scared me.!" He said to his friend. Brown eyes went to Sylvester. " Are you okay? What do you see?" Three pairs of eyes looked into the newly discovered room.

"Sorry," Aido replied, grimancing, but glad that Angelus didn't seem hurt. She leant forward, "what's in there?"

"It's pretty dark," Sylvester said, after assuring himself that Angelus was okay. He was kind of scared of what was in there, but he didn't want the others getting hurt either. Definitely not. He inched inside, using the tip of his nose to flick on the lightswitch. He turned around slowly, back to the wall.

"Whoa."


The room was engrossed in light. " What the?" He couldn't believe it. What would a nursery be doing up here?

He looked to Sylvester and Aido as if they held the answers.



Aido blinked and sat back then shrugged casually, the nuresery made a bit of sense to her, "well, Linny and Khia both live or at least lived here at one point, right? Maybe it was their's, or Linny's sister's or someone's...."

"Yeah." He hadn't known Linny when he was small enough for a nursery, and he didn't know Khia at all, but Aido's idea seemed like a good one.

Since he was already inside the room, he walked in a bit further, half expecting something to pop out at him.

Angelus walked deeper into the room. A wooden rocker rested next to a wooden crib. It was simple. Not too extravagent. " Makes sense." In a corner Angelus found a couple of wooden blocks. He wondered what else the room had?

Aido stood and followed quietly, running a hand over the top of the wooden cribs, quietly remembering her old crin [and the many times she'd escaped from it] and idly wondered if her old friend had once slept here. Which reminded her...she still hadn't given him her gift.

Giving the crib one last look, and quietly vowing to either drop of Linny's gift or track down her friend and give it to him personally, she continued to wander about the room.

While everyone appeared and roamed about, Mouu had been looking for Linny. So far he wasn't seeing him and he frowned lightly as Jiro wandered about. While the boy was off looking bored and distracted elsewhere, Mouu watched him in concern. Lately, a lot of things had been happening to the boy.. Kali had told him about finding him on the roof with Khia.. supposedly Jiro had been carving symbols into his own legs using a chopstick.. why was unknown.. but Khia found him and helped him. Which was good.. but he's been more withdrawn and testy lately. Though Mouu didn't like to pry, he was half tempted to. As other Tales came in and then wandered elsewhere in the store, he blinked and looked at them heading upstairs. "Jiro.. aren't those your friends?"

"Hmmm?" Turning away from what he had been looking at, he noticed someone heading up the steps and he shrugged. They weren't his friends, he supposed. He didn't talk to anyone much on a normal basis but whatever. "I guess... why?" Seeing how Mouu seemed to get a bit too pleased, he feared as he came closer. He knew there was a reason to it! Sighing as he found himself getting pushed towards the stairs, he grumbled as he got the hint. "Fiiine >>" Though he didn't feel like it, he wandered up the steps, muttering how mean big brothers..

Sylvester had never really been small enough for a crib, but he was still small enough for toys. He approached a stripey jack-in-the-box and crouched near it, turning the handle quickly. When it popped open, an old-looking piece of paper popped out along with the required poofy clown head. Sylvester opened the folded paper only to find... nothing on it. How disappointing.

Angelus watched as Sylvester opened the Jack in the Box. He somewhat jumped in surprise but was glad no one else noticed. Looking around the room he found a small writing desk with a bookcase. Walking over, he climbed upon the chair and reached for any book within his reach.

" The Stinky Cheese man?" he said aloud. What kind of title was that for a book.

Blinking Aido wandered back towards Angelus, peering over his shoulder at the book, "'The Stinky Cheese Man', sounds very... odd," she concluded lamely, not sure how else to peg the book's title. Idly she looked over what else was on the table but nothing caught her eye.

With a shrug she wandered over towards the closet, peering inside, looking at the various older baby supplies that were kept inside.

Sylvester pocketed the blank piece of paper he had found as he stood and joined the other two Tales.

"Stinky Cheese Man?" He couldn't read English, but the picture on the front of the book was enough to make him laugh anyway. He heard a faint chuckle, but assumed it was Angelus or Aido.

Angelus didn't need to turn around to know who was in the room with them. He hadn't seen the other Tale in a long time. His own negative feelings about the Tale long since vanished after the incident. He wished to make amends one of these days but Jiro was stubborn. It might not happy today or tomorrow, but Angelus hoped soon enough. His head turned to look at the boy.

" Hello Jiro." There was no animosity behind the tone, but gratitude that the Tale joined the small exploration.

Aido did turn at the slight chuckle, blinking as she noticed that it belonged to Jiro before smiling tenatively, she never had figured out where exactly she stood with the other Tale, and waving a hand in greeting towards the other Tale.

"Hello Jiro," she greeted warmly.

Well.. there went that cover. Ah well, it wasn't anything bad. His eyes rested on the three there. Angelus, Aido and Sylvester. When it came to Angelus, his hatred and anger towards the other Tale had disappeared the longer he remained in his home. Actually he had no problem with him anymore.. but he was a stubborn mule and he wasn't exactly sure how to make the first step in showing that he wished to 'mend bridges' with him. Aido... before, he would have just ignored her. But he had spent a lot of time in self reflection and realized he had been rather babyish in his behavior towards her. It was in the past. It was done. It was over. Stop thinking about it and let it die.

Sylvester he didn't know all that well, but he did remember him from some part. Probably Huni's party. He had spoken to him about that odd thing called a TV, that he actually had to look up as soon as he got home. Allowing a smile, not a calculating, mean or cold but an actual smile, cross his lips, he pressed his hands together and bowed before them. It was his way of apologizing to Aido and Angelus and showing respect to all three of them. "Hello, Aido. Angelus. Sylvester. My big brother told me you three were here..." He then looked around. "Is this an exploring adventure or something?"

Oh hey, it was Jiro. He hadn't seen all that much of the other boy, but he did remember that he had felt a lot dumber than the older Tale. Sylvester nodded in response to his question and waved briefly in response to Jiro's bow.

"That it is." He responded to the question. His smile mirrored that of Jiro's. Hopping down from the chair, he walked towards him. He handed the book to Jiro. " Honestly. What do you make of this?" Angelus couldn't figure it, but Sylvester was right. It did have a funny picture on it. A gingerbread man, but made out of stinky cheese. Brown eyes looked to Aido and Sylvester.

" What do either of you think?" It was now the small mystery among the nursery room.

Aido smiled and her halo glowed softly at Jiro's reaction, feeling some of the nervous tension that had begun to build fall away. She nodded politely to his bow before glancing back to the book in question,

"I don't know. It seems a bit creepy though," she eyed the little cheese man on the cover warily. An animate little man made out of cheese was both bizarre and a bit frightening a prospect to her. What if people tried to eat him? Or he wanted revenge on them for eating his cheese comrades?

Looking down at the book curiously, he held it and turned it over, curious if there was anything on the back. After he found nothing to suggest anything, he turned it back to the front and studied the cover. "It's a rather strange sounding book.. could be about a demon or something like that." A gingerbread man made of stinky cheese? Was it a twisted nursery rhyme or something?

"Maybe we should read it or something?"

Walking cheese men meant one thing... magic. Magic was awesome.

"Yeah. Open it," he urged.

Angelus looked back at Sylvester. An idea came to the Tale's head and for some reason became overly excited. His brown eyes went back to the book. " I guess it won't hurt to read it. Aido, will you read it?" he asked the eldest of the group.

Aido pursed her lips, releasing the bit of shadow she'd quietly gathered from the fold of her long sleeved shirt back to where they came from, having been quite prepared attempt to strike any Stinky Cheese Men that decided to come out if one of the other Tales opened the book.

Glancing to Angelus she nodded a bit, "yeah, I'll read it," taking the book gingerly from him she opened it a bit more, making sure nothing was going to pop up and attempt to...well, eat them or something (she was never, ever agreeing to watch a horror film again if this was how it was going to make her think afterward.)

Glancing about she moved to a more open space and sat down, opening the book fully and glancing at the picture inside. She waited a moment for the other Tales to move closer then began to slowly read its contents.

He had no issues with handing the book over to Aido. It was best to let the eldest of them to read it aloud, though he was curious if anything would come out of it. If it did, he wanted to stab it with a chopstick to see what exactly it was. If it was real or just magic. Really good magic... Moving over with her as she found a place to sit down and knelt next to her, his robes shifting around him as he tried to look at it more closely. The words were weird to him. Probably English.. gah, he still couldn't read that well yet >>.

Sylvester gathered closer to the other Tales and peered at the book. He had never been too interested in reading himself, but being read to was all kinds of cool. He shifted so he wasn't sitting on his tail anymore and waited for Aido to begin.

Angelus also joined the half circle and sat close to Aido as well, making sure nothing would jump out. He let out a sigh of relief as only words appeared on the pages. Angelus sat back and listened the story that would soon come.

Aido took a deep breath and began, voice a bit weak but steadying and gaining a bit of confidence as she went on and stopped stumbling, she didn't exactly have a large amount of practise with reading aloud either after all. Rather early on a dark eyebrow rose as she read about the birth then adventures of the Stinky Cheese Man to their small group.

Several minutes of reading later she read about the Ogre who seemed not to care about the Stinky Cheese Man's stink and ate him anyway and finally stopped as the story ended, blinking and looking at the other Tales for reactions.

This story started off rather weird to him. About a piece of food that walked and talked? A bit disappointing to say the least, but the adventures were slightly amusing.. or maybe he was just morbid and horrid like that.

But then the story was over. Ah, that sucked. Aido had a nice reading voice too. With a slight wrinkle of his nose, he tilted his head a bit more. "Well.. it wasn't about demons or anything.. and it was kind of morbid.. but it wasn't anything bad..."

Smerdle had come looking for Sylvester several minutes before the story ended, having decided that pizza for dinner wasn't such a good idea after all. She found the children easily since Aido's voice carried down the hall, but Smerdle waited there until the story was done before stepping into the doorway.

Sylvester had enjoyed the story immensely, but in order to seem cooler, he nodded. "I wouldn't eat a cheese man," he mused as Smerdle came into his view.

"Hey kid, we've gotta go," Smerdle said.

"Aw, mama."

"Sorry," she said. "We can come back soon."

"Okay." Sylvester stood and waved again. "Nice to meet you guys," he said to Angelus and Aido. "Bye," he sighed, including Jiro this time, since he had met him before.

Angelus waved goodbye to the other Tale. Angelus scrunched his eyebrow's in wonderment. " The ogre ate him? Wouldn't the stinky man be too skinky for the ogre?" Angelus couldn't believe that such a rotten dairy product got away with so much stuff. He deserved to be eaten by the ogre. That was his philosophy. It was a tad morbid but entertaining none the less.

Aido waved to the departing Tale, "bye Sylvester, it was nice meeting you!" she called with a smile before turning back to their group and to the Cheese Man's story.

"Yeah... it wasn't bad. Though it'd be really weird if a cheese man actually came to life," she mused quietly, looking to the ceiling pensively at Angelus' statement, "well... maybe the ogre was even more stinky than the Stinky Cheese man and couldn't smell him over his own stench so just ate him and was done with it?"

"That would be rather strange indeed. But if one did appear, I would rather it be one that smells good so he can be eaten or something..." Waving goodbye to Sylvester and wishing they had more time to talk more, he scratched at his cheek rather lightly in thought. "Or maybe Ogres just aren't picky about eating things.. and he was starving and decided he was just something to eat."

Angelus nodded. " Either way, the stinky man was eaten and the adventure ended. But personally, I would never eat a stinky cheese man if I was starving. Blegh!" Angelus made a weird face at the prospect of eating stinky cheese. Thank goodness that he didn't rely on human food to live. It was nice to consume once in awhile, but it did himself nor Silent any good. He looked out towards the door. " Anyone else want to do something new?" The story was good but Angelus like to be active. He couldn't stay in one spot for too long.

"Maybe..." Aido murmured before perking up at the prospect of doing something new, "yes, let's do something new," she replied eagerly and stood, streching a bit before crouching back down, "what new thing should we do?"

Looking up at them as they talked about doing something new, he didn't have anything against that and he pushed himself up smoothly. "Sure, what can we do?" Looking around this room again, he tried to figure out what they could possibly do. "Are we going to continue looking around here?" Since he was late, he had no idea that they had pretty much only done that.

Angelus shook his head. " I recall claw marks along the walls down the other corridor. You remember Aido." That was from one of their first explorations. Back when she was a child. " How about we find out what made those marks?" he asked to the two.

Aido nodded lightly, "yeah, I remember those." She considered this for a moment, feeling something nudge at her memory before brushing it off, "yeah, that sounds good."

He had no ideas what they were speaking of but he thought it sounded interesting. "Claw markings? Then let's go find out who or what caused them then... it sounds like it'd be a fun mystery." Jiro actually looked rather eager to try out this adventure.

Angelus nodded his head and made his way out the door. He looked towards the opposite corridor. The marks were still there. Evident as before. He walked down the hall toward the markings. Bringing his hand up he felt the indentations in the wall. Lowering his noise he sniffed to see if any scent still stayed. Odd. He smelled almost familiar yet not. He couldn't put his finger on it.

Aido quietly followed Angelus down the hall, running her fingers along some of the higher claw marks, digging them gently into the grooves. The shadows laced gently around the digits, their whispers floating through the back of her mind as goosebumps rose along her writ and forearm, but all she got was a vague sense of familarity and old sort of feeling from them.

As expected, she could still do squat with tracking and the Shadows, wonderful. With a sigh she pressed the shadows back into the grroves, watching them flit back into place before she looked down to Angelus, "what do you think?"


He followed them quietly a bit, pausing when he saw the claw markings. For a moment his golden eye flickered red a bit before he reached out and touched them himself. Such deep claw marks... he couldn't have... but why? It didn't make any sense. For a moment, he felt a sense of worry before he pushed it back. No way.. he wouldn't think about it right now. Not til he spoke to him again. The smell he picked up was too strong, no matter how slight it was.

As his fingers dragged over the deep grooves, an odd onyx and ruby ring seemed to flicker and pulse on his left hand, middle finger. "Hmmm..." Though he could speak his mind on it, since neither had asked for his thoughts, he just kept quiet.

Angelus froze. He was feeling emotions. Emotions that weren't his own. He looked to Aido. It wasn't her. Realization struck. Jiro. He looked to the Tale. Something was wrong but he was being quiet about it. The transfussion. Feelings were felt. Angelus shook his head to rid himself of the emotion. "What the?" he whispered to himself. Confusion was evident. He looked to Aido, answering her question. " They seem familiar but I can't put my finger on it. They've been here for so long."

He looked to Jiro. " What do you think made these?" A gut feeling inside told Angelus that Jiro knew. The emotions that came from Tale didn't mean nothing.

Aido gave her friend a curiously concerned look as he froze and glanced to her, but didn't comment on it, instead she nodded, "that's what I felt too."

Her attention shifted to Jiro and she tilted her head, halo glowing softly, maybe Jiro got a different feeling from them? "yeah, Jiro, what're your thoughts on them?"