Welcome to Gaia! ::

Yes, a talking leaf was certainly not what Alphonse was looking for when he decided on a walk earlier. But what can you do? Nothing but to go along in this crazy, crazy world. "Hello, Miss," he said in his usual restrained manner to the stranger who had just arrived and was now huffing and puffing, with a gentlemanly nod and smile accompanying. "Would this happen to be your..." Alphonse frowned as he looked for a word to use here, and finding none that would fit in the occasion, settled for the first one that came to mind, "... leaf?" The question had sounded weird in his head, and it sounded even weirder when he posed it out loud. But Alphonse was going to make do; strange situations called for strange responses after all.

Albert, on the other hand, was leaning increasingly closer to get a better look at things. Seeing that Auri had things under control, he reasoned that he had nothing to worry about. But just the same, he turned timidly to Cira and murmured, "Careful. Leaf mad?" The leaf looked certainly mad to him, the way it was bouncing up and down.

With a critical eye Auri watched everything going on while she tried not to be bothered by the leaf dropping onto her face. When she noticed Kimi run up to them, she blinked a bit. Didn't she know her from somewhere? She could have sworn they'd met before, but it'd been an awfully long time ago hadn't it?

Both eyebrows managed the shoot up then when the leaf suddenly became... still kind of leafy, but more Wethkin-ish then leaf-ish. Aah, now she understood, and a soft smile crossed her face as the 'leaf' "apologized" to her.

"That's alright. As long as I get to call you leaf-boy from now on." She grinned a bit, shaking her head slightly before glancing at Kimi. "Didn't we meet before, a long time ago? I think I came into the shop once to ask about Cira and what she eats. She gestured to the little sunshine Wethkin, who'd stopped advancing to peer curiously at what was going on.

Cira was mildly surprised to note that the leaf was not actually a leaf, but another Wethkin! Wow, they certainly were congregating towards each other these days, weren't they? Not that that made her unhappy, but it could get a little overwhelming.

"Wethkin." She said back to Albert, just in case he couldn't see.

"I'm Kimi," Kimi said, and then turning to Auri: "Yeah, I do remember you. Sorry about him, he's a little... exciteable."

Nicco floated over towards the other Wethkins and introduced himself.

"I'm Nicco," he said, showing off. "Now, I know I may look pretty different than you all now, but one day, you'll grow up to be just like me. Not as cool of course, but pretty awesome in your own right."

"Nicco!" Kimi hissed. "That was rude!"

"I told 'em they'd be awesome in their own way," Nicco whined. "It wasn't entirely rude."

Nicco was not being purposely irreverant to the feelings of the other Wethkins. He was just mischeivous and liked to stir SOMETHING up every now and then... mostly every now....

Alphonse could have smacked himself on the head when Nicco proclaimed his greatness, and more importantly implied the future greatness of Albert. Alphonse could have smacked himself. But he didn't; that would have been rude. Nor did he groan, though he felt one coming up from his chest. The young man knew he should have stayed inside today.

Shifting awkardly on his feet, he continued to mumble something that had the slightest resemblence to, "A rock star is a very fitting profession." The utterance was accompanied by a weak smile; god knows that Alphonse knew nothing about being a rock star, only that they were loud and caused him unneccessary headaches.

Albert, on the other hand, was fascinated with the new Wethkin that had just joined them. "Nice you meet you," the little Wethkin nodded politely, and tried his best to use correct 'human' grammer. "I'm Albert."

Albert was likewise not easily stirred up, less so than Cira probably, but he did possess a healthy amount of curiosity, fitting for any growing Wethkin; this curiosity, furthermore, was now unleashed.

"How d'you do that?" He was refering to Nicco's leaf trick. Albert tilted his body slightly; wouldn't it be cool if he could grow up to do that too? It looked terribly fun to Albert at any rate.

Auri watched the Wethkins for a moment closely, studying them. She was surprised by Albert's use of the English language, and she was starting to worry again. Cira had been through so much that she assumed she wasn't able to pick up the words like her friends had. Her sentences still tended to be broken, to the point, and coupled with coo's and her own little words that didn't make much sense to her guardian. Cira appeared to be out of danger now, as far as the depression and quiet thoughtfulness went, but Auri realized she still had quite a way to go.

She turned her mind to pay more attention to Kimi and Alphonse, nodding her head quietly at them. "Yeah, but I imagine they'd have to use really big screens so that the audience could see him, assuming his audience believed." She grinned lightly, imagining a large group of teenagers being confused because they couldn't see their performer. Maybe they'd only see a tiny floating guitar.

Cira was fascinated with Nicco, he didn't look at all like Toki and Regen, but those two certainly had more feminine characteristics then Nicco had. And his relationship with his guardian interested her too. Once more it was different from the others she had seen.

She also marveled over his used of his powers, would she get powers like that? Maybe she'd be able to create beams of light, or warmth, or something. Who knows?

"Rock star?" She asked quietly, not having a clue what this rock star was. Was it another type of Wethkin? A combination of earth and cosmos of some type? Needless to say she was completely inamoured with the idea.

"You don't know what rock stars are?" Nicco asked. "Oh, you poor, deprived children!"

Nicco was raised on The Ramones, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Eric Clapton, The Doors, Led Zepplin, you name it. He could not comprehend how other Wethkins had no idea what rock was, or what a rock star was. He was appalled.

"It's only the grestest thing ever!" Nicco explained. "You get to rock out on your guitar, have lots of screaming fans, and you get your own ride at Disney World!"

He made that last part up, but he figured if Aerosmith got their own ride, he could too.

Kimi sighed.

"We might be here a while..." she said.

"Mweeee! Come fastur!"

"Coming as fast as I can, Taki. And stop calling me Marie. Call me Mommy." panted Marie in a tone that didn't reflect the excitement her Wethkin's had. Taki didn't seem to mind--or rather, she didn't seem to notice. Leave it to Marie to promise Taki a trip to the park and then leave her money at home so they couldn't use any means of public transportation. Of course, they could have just went back home and got it, but that would take too long. And Marie had broken too many promises lately to take Taki another day.

So they walked. Marie was grateful for the cool weather. In summer she probably wouldn't have made it.

Taki squealed as she dropped down to the ground and started running over leaves, rocks, the path, leaving a trail of moisture behind her wherever she went.

"Park!" she cried joyfully. "Park!"

Despite her less-than-ecstatic mood, Marie couldn't help but smile slightly at the sight of her little wethkin, pleased so easily.

At a slight distance, she saw a group of people. Taki saw them too, aparrently, for she floated upward and flapped her little wings as hard as she could to reach them. Marie wanted to run after her, but the people probably wouldn't be able to see Taki, and if they could that probably meant that they would have no intentions of hurting her. And if they couldn't, well, Marie didn't want to look like an idiot chasing after an imaginary creature. So she contented herself with walking as quickly as possible to keep up with the wethkin. As the people came closer into view, Marie noticed smaller, even tiny figures close to them. Marie raised an eyebrow quizzically but said nothing, trying to concentrate on her little Taki.