Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cocoa couldn't help but get a little flustered at the mention of being hit below the belt, hoping that would never happen. He'd seen it done to someone else, and boy... that sight was NOT pretty.

"It's kinda weird," he said, trying to think of how Jack might have fought dirty. Was he like one of those street style fighters? Using things like knives to take people down? Or was he like Demare, who not only talked big, but used anything and everything he could get his hands on to fight with? Idly, the fox decided he didn't want to know. "Ever since I started going to public school, I'd been getting bullied by the most random people. Jocks, jealous guys on the team... I even got bullied by a group of girls once because I didn't want to sit with them at lunch. Do you have any idea how creepy it is to be followed around by a group of 12-year-olds that want to braid your hair just because it's a little long?"

Maybe that was the downside to being so smart. Going to a school with much older people than you.

"YEAH!" David cheered, not hearing a word Cocoa had said. He flexed his lack of muscles, trying to be all manly. "I'mma sock it to 'em!! That'll learn 'em!!"

Evie seemed to be a great ego boost. He needed to keep her around!

"We should throw balls at 'em! 'ight in da..." He thought about the word for a moment. What did they always say on TV? "...nuts!! Brin' 'em down, yo! It'll be like... a new game, yo! Make us strong'r, too."

The drinkable didn't see the look on Cocoa's face, thinking he was doing something good. The fox, however, was about ready to flick him. David tapped his fists together in excitement.

"Whadda ya say, Evie? Ain't nothin' to it! We could be like... Cocoa's attack unit! Defenda's o' da homies!!"

Oh gods... Those roleplaying games were starting to have an affect. This new sense of justice might be going a bit far.

"Y-you don't have to do that, bro..." Cocoa stammered, his ears folding back against his skull. How embarressing...

Cocoa couldn't help but snicker, trying to keep in his own laughter. That girl... He was beginning to realize that she must have given Jack about as much trouble as David. Perhaps all the Drinkables were like that... Maybe it had something to do with them being so much smaller than everything else, making them see things much differently.

David blinked a few times at Evie, blushing slightly. Was she... was she WORRIED about him?? This only added to his tough guy act, and his ego. Somebody else actually cared!

"Don' worry 'bout me, sweetheart!" he said with a grin, giving her head a light pet. "I can take care o' myself! But, I promise... no gettin' hurt in fights."

"I wonder if that's even really possible," Cocoa wondered allowed. "I mean, I know they can BE hurt with their physical bodies, but... I can't help but wonder if there is a limit considering they're techincally still liquid. Can they change their physical attributes to defend themselves when needed?"

The fox proceeded in reaching out to poke David's blue bare belly, but the little hands caught the finger just in time. Granted, the small boy's strength was nothing compared to his own, but he knew better than to embarress his friend in front of a girl. Then again, the drinkable had his own way of doing stupid things on his own, as he began to slobber all over the finger as punishment for trying to poke him. Boys will be boys.

"It would be kinda neat, I think," he decided. "Wouldn't you think so?"

"Really?" Cocoa couldn't imagine dragging a cup of liquid with him everywhere. "I don't think Mom did that. I think she just left David alone, but made sure no one tipped him over... Then again, it's not like she had the time to take him anywhere back then."

"Ha ha, yeah... She was always so busy," the drinkable remembered, thinking back to his first few memories. The cat woman was nice, but it had quickly become apparent to him that she already had her hands full. He was lucky that Cocoa offered to help her out by agreeing to take care of him.

Glancing over to Evie, he smiled, but at the moment his attitude seemed different. He wasn't playing the cool cards anymore, and he was talking mostly normal. (At least, as normal as HE could be.) It was hard to tell whether or not it was because he was being more natural, or if it was due to the fact that he was thinking about a sad past.

"Mm, yeah! I got a lot of brothers and sisters," he shrugged, sinking down into his bottle a little bit. He dropped down to as much of a sit that was possible for him, his knees sticking up out of the blue liquid and his arms drapping over the back of his "throne". "You should meet 'em sometime. Cocoa's siblings are the best, especially... Tea and Mocha would really like you!"

"We have a really big family," the fox explained, his ears perking up a little bit. "I have two real sisters, and then a lot of adopted ones. Neko kinda enjoyed taking kids in that didn't have homes, despite how little room we have in the house now... She thought that everyone deserved to have a family, and that no one should be alone. Domonic kept telling her there was too many people, but she didn't listen..."

He frowned slightly. "Now that she's gone, Domonic wants to move everyone to another house. He said we don't ALL have to go, but Tea and Mocha are going, and so is Sora."

David didn't want to think about it. He hated the idea of moving, and really didn't want to go, but he also didn't want Cocoa to be unhappy.

"What's yer family like, Evie? Do ya really have a marshmallow fo' a brotha??" His "playa" mode seemed to be returning.

Feien... Oh! That's right! The connection finally clicked in Cocoa's mind, remembered the photos of flowers and fairies he had seen. He wasn't able to meet any of them, unfortunately, but his mother had told him stories about them.

"They're... pretty like flowers?" David decided after thinking about it for a moment. They certainly didn't smell like them, but he thought just about any girl was beautiful. "Not sporty, though. Most o' them don' play where I am much, so David's da only one who's got my back. It don' help that I'm one o' da smallest residents, prol'ly. Get overlooked an' all."

"We have a couple of pixies, but they don't like David much," Cocoa chimed in. "One of them's really frilly girlish, and the other's just... very spunky. She's about as hotheaded as he can be, so they hate each other's guts."

"Who ya callin' a hothead?!" the drinkable protested, sinking into his cup a little bit. "SHE started it! I was jus' playin' an' she had ta mouth off at me..."

"You turned on the TV at 3am, David," the fox child reminded him. "You woke us both up. You get cranky too when someone wakes you up early."

"I was havin' trouble SLEEPIN'," he whined, recalling the terrible pain he had been in when that happened. "I thought it would help take da mind off o' the aches. Anyway! What kinda stuff do ya do with yo brotha, Evie? It's gotta be nice havin' someone your size around, yeah? He don' play basketball?"

To David, that was some sort of crime.

David knew exactly what she meant by being freed from the cup. It was hard being contained all of the time, and there just wasn't as much freedom as being outside. He could only dream of the kinds of jumps he could make if he were able to leave his liquid cage. Not to mention the places he could go.

"Ya could!" the blue boy cheered with a smile. "Ya could stop by some time an' see 'em! 'Cept... most everyone'll be movin' soon..."

"If we plan ahead, I could get them to come visit us at the house," Cocoa explained. "Domonic won't deny them coming over to see us, or we could even take Evie and Mr. Jack to their house."

"Ooooo, yeah! They have a much bigger place, too!" David gushed, clasping his hands together. "It's got dis game room thing dat's FULL o' fun stuff! Video games, table top stuff, even dis really cool virtual game!"

That was music to David's ears. Quickly, he turned to Cocoa and looked up at the fox with large, orange, pleading eyes.

"CANTHEYCANTHEYCANTHEY?" he blurted out hopefully. Had he been a dog, and a tail, it probably would have been wagging wildly.

Cocoa blinked a few times, laughing nervously. Oh crap... he hadn't meant right away. But hearing Evie asking so cutely, and then David giving him the puppy eyes... Maybe it wouldn't be TOO bad. Everyone was fairly busy with the packing, anyway, so they could stay down in the basement where they'd be out of the way. There was plenty to do down there anyway, and not everyone would rush the poor girl drink at once.

"It shouldn't be too much of a problem," he finally caved, flicking his ears a little bit and scratching a finger against his cheek. "I usually stay out of everyone else's way, anyway, and Domonic probably won't complain since you're an adult, Mr. Jack. Do you like games, too?"

"Dis is gonna be sweeet!" the blue boy cheered, getting all excited. At the house, he could show Evie how to play basketball SAFELY.