Welcome to Gaia! ::

Following the newcomer's idle remark, there isn't very much in the way of silence before a voice near the counter answers cheerfully, "You prolly could!"

It is an odd voice, feminine and richly textured, with something of a rattling catch in every other word; as though to confirm any deeply mired suspicions, the young woman crouched some distance from the door sniffles like a foghorn, before sneezing magnificently. "O-oh geez -- sorry!"

Allergies. Can't live with 'em; can't medicate yourself to death to kill 'em.

The speaker appears, at first glance, to be... a girl in a tutu, with scarves and bandanas aplenty, and everything but those voluminous skirts in varying shades of green. A second glance only confirms the first glance, and throws in a bit of visible nonsensicality for good measure.

(There might be a snatch of beige fabric somewhere in those skirts, but who can tell?)

Well, someone certainly fell down the rabbit hole.

She is crouched before a low, squat table, evidently dragged into the shop -- or maybe fetched from some distant closet; she helpfully lifts a plastic teacup by way of greeting, the handle of which is stuck around her pinky finger. "Don't suppose you wanna join a tea party?"

"Ah, yeah!" Io smiled slightly nervously, stroking Cynder a bit. "She was a gift from Kanth... so I haven't been here before. Name's Io!" She adjusted her glasses, blinking as she turned storm blue eyes back to Kat.

"As far as a tea party's concerned... got any French vanilla?" And there was the trademark hybrid smirk-grin of hers, gracing her face with a familiar ease. "A hot drink's prolly not a bad idea for allergies... though I'll warn ya that I'm extremely picky about my tea."

"Kanth?" Dani repeats the name curiously, shaking her head slowly. "I'm afraid I don't know that name. Ah, well, though. It's great to meet you, Io! This is Minnie, since I was rude enough not to introduce her the first time. Who is your Velveteen?"

Even as she speaks she sneaks past the woman, waving for her to follow as she looks down at the table with its obnoxiously low stool. "Uh-huh. Um. By any chance, do you have any extra seats around? We might be more comfortable moving to the couches, I think there might be a coffee table over there that could prove more comfortable for all of us..."

And then come the accusations, to which she lifts an empty hand in a vague attempt to fend them off. "Oh, come on, Kat~ I wasn't that late. Besides, I was picking up a present for you."

As though to prove this point, she removes the heavy bag from her back and riffles through it, removing a large box of chocolate, a few boxes (previously opened) of assorted teas, and what appear to be individually wrapped chocolate truffles. She went all-out. "Check that for your French Vanilla."

"A character in a comic series," Kat repeats slowly, rocking back on her frilly heels and regarding Io with keen interest. "What series? What character, for that matter? I'd like to know how people've been inspired by me~!" From the tone of her voice, one might assume that, had she been standing, there would have been a theatrical pose to go along with those singsong words.

"And you should be very, very frightened," she goes on with a flourish, flexing one arm as only an insane ballerina can. "MOOHAHA, and all that. Be afraid. Moohaha. ...Right, moving on."

There is barely time for Kat's beady little mind to process the presentation of her gift before this new acquaintance has snatched away a packet of tea; she's feeling much too amicable to squawk and fuss as she would have ordinarily, however, and she simply accepts the packages and bundles, nearly swooning.

"Oh, Dani! You shouldn't have!" But that doesn't stop her from spilling the boxes -- ever so considerately -- across the surface of her squat little table and pawing eagerly through them, examining labels and decorations and squealing every now and then over a particularly appealing ribbon or wrapping. "Really, you shouldn't have," Kat mumbles meanwhile. "How'm I gonna repay you for this, huh? Huh?"

Minnie's attentions are more or less simply endured, although she lowers one absent hand to flick that glimpse of beige fabric deeper into the frightening depths of her skirts. "Probably my Velvet," she answers, while her thoughts are very obviously elsewhere. "Hold on, Minnster. 'Oi, Io," a distracted wave of one hand, "you wanna start making the tea, go ahead; the pot's over on the counter with sugar an' stuff..."

And then up snaps her head, as something her friend has said many minutes prior finally makes it through the tangle that is her mind. "Extra seats! Coffee table! Couches! Again, you offend me. Does your snidity know no bounds? I brought this table just for you. Traditional, like." Kat sniffs, and taps the teacup on her pinky finger against the wood.

"You probably don't want to know. Trust me on this one," Io chuckled at Kat as she pounced on the materials for her tea. The cup was done in record time, with the bag brewing for just the right amount of time, just the right amount (four and a half heaping spoonfuls) of sugar added, and just the right amount of cream (enough to fill the cup until it was the tiniest tremor away from spilling over) all mixed meticulously in.

Glancing down at the tiny bear, Io couldn't help but smile at the request. "You want to see her? All right, but watch yourself - she breathes fire, and not always literally either." She uncoiled the plush from her neck, setting Cynder down next to Minnie.

"At least that's how I remember Cynder when I made up stories about her as a kid... she was a bit of an acquired taste as a friend, well-meaning and capable of searing diplomacy, but often a bit snappish and harsh. Still truly wise and kind, a good giver of advice... was a more western styled dragon though... um... I'm babbling, aren't I." Io was truly curious to see if Cynder as a Velveteen would be at all like the dragon who inhabited her thoughts when she was ten. Of course, most of her memory of such was a fuzzy mess anyway, so any bits and pieces she pulled up tended to get strung together in some haphazard manner as her mind tried to make a convincing character out of them.

In other words, she didn't have much of an idea how accurate she was being. But Io was eager to care for the little plush and see the results created by it, no matter how they turned out.

"Uh, anyway, I guess this is kind of a dumb question, but you've got a Velveteen too, Kat?" Io gave her a curious, perk-eared "I wanna see!" look, that trademark childlike glimmer in her eyes finally fluttering to the surface.

The figure by the door started to sneak quietly into the shop, tugged forward by curiosity. Anyone Io was talking to had to be interesting, right?