Welcome to Gaia! ::

The girl beamed, quickly slipping in the spring and sighing. Since she sat in enough for the water to be at her shoulder, it didn't touch her short, ruby red hair, which came about an inch above her shoulders. "I'm Andi!" she said, grinning at the two of them. She smiled- she was making more friends! She lowered her head until it covered her chin, and she blew bubbled in the spring. She brought her head up and laughed, and then looked up at the both of them. "What're your names?" she asked them kindly, tilting her head to the side. It seemed just a little odd that she was by herself- she was only six, after all.

Rachel turned to the girl too, nodding and smiling. "Nice to meet you, Andi," she said politely. "My name's Rachel." She briefly wondered why the girl was just out wandering around without anyone supervising her, but if there was one thing she'd learned during her short time at Ria, it was that everyone could take care of themselves in one way or another. If she was here alone, it probably meant she was more than sufficiently equipped to defend herself.

Blinking a little at Nobara's comment about flower arranging, Rachel wondered why she was keeping so quiet about it. Flower arranging was a great hobby - she'd picked up her love of flowers from her mother, and always liked having plants around her room. "If you want, we can go to my room sometime and you can show me what you can do with flowers," she whispered to Nobara, not wanting to embarrass her in public. "I'd really like to see it."

Pulling back from the whisper before she really had a chance to get flustered or anything, Rachel quickly segued into the next topic of conversation. "So... more about me... Let's see. I've never really liked guys that much. With my appearance powers, it's kind of hard to tell whether they're genuinely interested in talking to me or if they're just charmed by the power," she said, turning up her nose at this. "So I've sort of just always avoided them. It didn't help having a playboy older brother who could make the ladies drop like flies, either - he sort of became my model for all boys my age somewhere along the line, I guess."

Even saying all of this, there was no way she was going to admit to Nobara that she actually really wanted a boyfriend. She put up a good front most of the time, but the truth of the matter was that she really didn't know how to talk to guys at all.

Turning a slight red at how fast Rachel accepted her hobby, she then smiled softly, unlike herself completely. Her old friends had always laughed at her about that... and here she was, belting it out like she was on some sort of truth potion, and Rachel just acted like it was no big. Like it was cool. That was something that she certainly couldn't get out of her mind.

Then switching to the dreaded 'boyfriend' topic, Nobara groaned and looked up at the sky, nodding every once in a while when she agreed with what Rachel was saying. "Boys are so stupid." She said almost angrily as she splashed the water, drops splashing up onto the cement. "They always go for looks first, and base everything off of what they see. It's like... when they see a hot girl, I HIGHLY doubt that they're thinking how much they want to have an intelligent conversation with them. You know what I mean?" She said, grinning over at Rachel once more.

Truth be told, Nobara hadn't ever really had a boyfriend... there was that one time with Kuro, but she totally shoved him off like it was nothing. Maybe she was too immature for a guy, maybe she wasn't ready to date... maybe she just didn't want to... too much pain was involved. And there was always that constant doubt that the one she liked would leave her completely. That was the only negative thing about her, she thought...

"Yeah. I totally want a boyfriend... but I'm just too damn feisty, I guess." She said, sighing lightly and looking up at the sky once again. Then coming back down to Earth, she smiled at how innocent Andi seemed. "Hide and seek... that's always fun!" She said, scooping up the girl and holding her, smiling lightly. "A playboy... yeah, that's it, Andi. You see... they like playing games with only girls. I don't know why, though." She gave an awkward glance over to Rachel, one almost mixed with confusion. Where... was the mom, in that case? Just letting her kid wander around like it was nothing?

The truth couldn't hurt... even if it was a white lie...

Rachel turned a little pink at Andi's question - thankfully, Nobara skillfully handled the answer for her, and hopefully in a way that would satisfy the young girl's curiosity. Sighing a little and sliding back into the water, Rachel nodded back at Nobara.

"Yeah... that's what I hate about guys," she remarked, dipping her mouth just below the water and blowing a few bubbles before coming back up. "I think I'd want a boyfriend that I could just talk to about my interests, without having to worry about whether he's staring me in the face or... well... somewhere else." She grimaced a little, remembering some of the guys she'd run into back when she was still living with her family. Splashing some water out into the middle of the bath, she shook her head. "Oh well. I'm sure there's someone out there for both of us," she said, glancing back at her friend. "I'm just not really in any big hurry for it to happen, I guess."

She then turned her attention to Andi, smiling. "That sounds like a fun game!" she said, laughing a little. "I hope you have fun at your big party tomorrow... it sounds like your mommy is working very hard to make it a lot of fun for you."

Rachel thought to herself for a moment, making a fist and squirting water through it while she contemplated something. Then she nodded to herself, her eyes lighting up just a little. "We should have a party after the star test," she said, turning around to Nobara with a smile. "A big victory party." She nodded at this, totally confident in herself and her ability to win for a change. Nobara seemed to have that effect on her - it was strange, but not entirely unwelcome. "It might be kind of a small party, though..." she said, rubbing the back of her head and glancing away. "I don't really know too many people aside from you just yet."

Ears perked all he could hear was something about boys. Ugghh wasn't there anything interesting to do here? Letting go he hopped back down as he sat down and began to think.... nothing came to mind. Feeling another breeze of wind a quick shiver went down his spine as he found himself jumping back into the water with a splash. With nothing to do he frowned as he decided the other side was alot more interesting. Sighing he something finally came to mind. Concentrating and squinting his eyes his mechanical arm slowly began to change as the rest of his body did as well as he slowly began to shrink limbs growing smaller, hair receding, and black fur sprouting everywhere. After a few moments it was done and he had changed into his kitty like form.

Meowing happily he quickly scrabbled up along the wall bounding onto the other side as his metallic paw landed on the floor with a clack. Glancing about he spotted various people.

"What to do now", he thought to himself as his new form left him incapable of proper speech.

Nobara looked at her quizically, almost insane, as she raised an eyebrow. She was following the conversation pretty well... but when she stopped in mid thought, there must have been something up. Maybe... she didn't want to participate in the test? Maybe she was forcing it upon Rachel, when she really was despising the fact... that she would have to fight? It was a bit hard for Nobara to figure out, but she figured that Rachel probably didn't want to meet new people... because of her power.

Maybe I'm being too straightforward... maybe I should have thought that she didn't want to be in the test with me... Frowning to herself, she rubbed the back of her head, and waded in the water a bit, sighing lightly. "Rachel... if you think I'm making you do this... you don't have to... but I really wanted us to get closer..." This wasn't really Nobara at all, but she had to get the point across that she DID want to be friends with her, and that she didn't mean to cause her any stress...

" You can always talk things out with me, I hope you know. I'm not telling anyone."

Prancing about in his kitty form he wandered about the hot spring area. With a sharp pinging sound as his metal met rock. Running around once or twice, he didn't bother to keep count. He spotted a small feather, not knowing how it even go there his neko heritage began to sneak up on him. Waving his tail about wildly he stared at the feather. Perking his ears he readied for the pounce as he watched it land on the water causing small ripples. Bounding from his perch on the edge of the pool, it was only then that he had realized that he was over the water. With only time to hiss in the sudden realization he fell into the water with a splash. Surfacing he paddled his cat like arms wildly finding it hard to swim he decided there was no other option. Closing his eyes his body slowly began to grow as the fur began to disappear and his hair regrew rapidly as his arm changed back to it's normal form. Somehow his swiming trunks also reappeared thanks to a permanat spell he had someone cast on him some time ago.

Surfacing again he spat out water that he had swallowed in his panic. Meowing unhappily he quickly stood up brushed away the hair in his eyes.Shrugging he quickly rose from the water returning to the mixed side where glissa and lucresdia were. Scrambling over the wall that divided the areas he fell down in the other side with a splash as he blew bubbles in the water again as he paddled back over to his allies.