Welcome to Gaia! ::

with
Selee Tra`viel, Near Tra`viel, Nyx Tra`viel, Brie

played by
xx Aps and Yushika

status
Done

Some backstory for Kiyomi and Selee

Kiyomi has gotten both Near and Nyx to try swimming, but she’s never been able to convince Selee to do so yet. Maybe the open ocean’s not for her, but she’s sure her friend would enjoy swimming on occasion. So one day Kiyomi asks Selee to follow her and see someplace special, and brings her to a series of tide pools she enjoys visiting at low tide. There’s a large variety in depth to them, from ones you can wade in to ones deep enough to dive into and swim around in. There’s all manner of life inside these pools; little reefs of coral, colorful fish swimming around, crabs scuttling across the sand and starfish and shellfish clinging to rocks. Shells dotting the sand and little anemones waving their fronds. The water is so crystal clear that you can see everything, and each pool is a piece of beauty. Selee finds the pools fascinating and lovely to look at, but despite their still surfaces and lack of currents she’s still reluctant to get in the water. When Kiyomi promises she’ll be there the whole time, and she’ll even teach her how to catch fish out of the pools, Selee finally agrees to go swimming. She took to it better than she expected to, though it’s still not something she thinks she’ll ever do for pleasure; diving under the water, in particular, will take a lot of getting used to! She didn’t manage to catch any fish in the deep pools, but after a bit of practice she found a knack for scooping fish out of the shallow ones. Her cat genes, she bragged, proud of her catches. After hours swimming both girls were quite happy for the meal, and left the pools just as the tide began to turn.

As spring turned into summer, Kiyomi figured it was finally time for her best friend to meet her father. She gathered up Selee and they tracked Chase down on the beach, staring out over the waves and strumming his guitar in contentment. Kiyomi raced forward to meet her father with an enthusiastic hug, and just as enthusiastically introduced Selee to him. Not giving them time for more than a time greeting, Kiyomi plunked down and requested her father play a song for him. Chase obliged with a tune he’d made up that morning, inspired by the sunrise and the way it lite up his mate’s fur. Kiyomi, for the first time in Selee’s memory, was sitting completely still with a peaceful look on her face. Well, almost completely still; Selee got dragged over to Kiyomi halfway through the song and found herself being used as a snuggle buddy. Not that Selee minded. The music was gorgeous, and she was very happy to have someone to snuggle back as she listened. When the last notes of the song shivered in the air there was a moment of stillness, then Chase launched straight into a new song without prompting. This one’s tempo was different though. With an energetic whoop Kiyomi shot to her feet, pulling Selee up with her and suddenly wiggling around in a way Selee hadn’t seen before, but looked very fun! She copied Kiyomi, and then started moving around on her own as she got caught up in the energy of the song. Chase played several more songs for the girls to dance to, each one a little different but all inspiring movement. Finally, laughing and exhausted, the girls flopped down on the sand and begged Chase for a break, which he gave them with a laugh of his own. They spent most of the day with Chase, Kiyomi catching up with her father and Selee getting to know the man who raised her best friend. It was clear to see where her love of life and ocean had come from. And also another love, newly discovered; her love of music, which Selee found she shared much more easily and comfortably than Kiyomi’s love of ocean.

The seasons turned, and summer faded into autumn. With it came Selee’s favorite holiday, Halloween. Just as Kiyomi has whisker her around before, now it was Selee’s turn to claim her friend for a day! They did a little bit of everything. First they went to a farm to go through a corn maze and pick out pumpkins to carve, which they took to Selee’s home and promptly did. Kiyomi’s carving was a bit rough; you could see where she’d hadn’t been able to make up her mind whether to have her pumpkin grin or grimace, so it was doing a little bit of both. They set the pumpkins outside to have candles inserted in them once it got dark, then went back in and toasted the seeds they’d collected and dusted them with some spices. Scooping their treat into a bag to munch on on the go, the girls were off again to a local fair that had been set up. They enjoyed a variety of common rides, though there were a few that were holiday-based. A hayride, tossed in a cart of fragrant hay and eating their pumpkin seeds while they went through a park that had been done up for the holiday. It would be spooky after dark, but for now it was tons of fun to see! There were a couple haunted houses, some more cutesy and fun and some echoing with screams. They tried one of each type, and while cutesy wasn’t as exciting as scary they both agreed they’d had enough excitement for the moment. As the sun began to set and hunger kicked in, they realized their snack had worn off a long time ago. They made rounds of the carnival booths and tried their hands at bobbing for apples, or at least Kiyomi did, and she came away wet and victorious with two apples somehow speared into her mouth. They also bought cotton candy and roasted ears of corn and went back to the hayride with their food, this time to enjoy the spookier ambiance with gloom setting in. One more creepy haunted house, then the girls ran back to Selee’s place, chatting about their good time, to lite the candles in the pumpkins before trick-or-treaters started showing up. Both were a bit too old to go themselves, but they spent a fun night indoors. Selee made a yummy pumpkin pie, which they sat down and sat while watching The Nightmare Before Christmas, occasionally pausing to hand candy out to those knocking on the door. And when the pie ran out and the children stopped coming, they ate the rest of the candy! Once The Nightmare Before Christmas was over they put in a few scary movies and had a fine time jumping and screaming off their sugar high, though perhaps the movies were a bit too scary; Kiyomi didn’t want to walk home in the dark alone and asked if she could spend the night, which Selee was more than happy to agree to. She didn’t want to be alone either!