Welcome to Gaia! ::

It had been an interesting day, one Jesse Wyatt mused as he studied the large egg that rest atop on thigh, the surface peeking out of the water - the contents blurred by clear liquid floating within, as he reminisced over the events that had marked the beginning of his summer.

It had all begun like something out of a bad movie, or television series - or, hell, a cheesy cartoon. Jesse had been perfectly content to get off the plane he’d been on to meet his aunt and drive off to her house, but the Airport had decided to distract him with a large plasma television on the way out of the waiting area.

He’d been peacefully passing down through the shops, whistling as he allowed himself to take in the accents of the people around him - letting the familiar sound of the words wrap around and push out his own native accent. He had paused at the sound of crashing, pushing up the brim of the hat he’d fished out of his carry on bag to slide over a messy blond nest. The vision he’d been met with was that of two women fighting - no, no he corrected himself a moment later as the camera panned out.

Two dolls. They were too tiny to be human. They were both ornately dressed - one with choppy red hair in a latex costume that moved across the field of snow like scarlet lightning, and the other a heavier, slower moving brunette with shoulder-length hair and dark skin, clad in what looked like black leather who defended and countered like her life depended on it. Watching became something like an addiction until the smaller one flung the larger off of the edge and into a pair of waiting hands. The battle then cut out, and went on to talk about something called Angelic Layer - which was, apparently - what they’d been playing, and sincerely offering the viewer a chance to join in themselves by purchasing at their nearest Angelic Layer store.

Which all had incredibly feminine games, he mused - Piffle Princess, Layer Queen… The one nearest him, though, was at least androgynous - Descending Angels. It was at that point his Aunt decided to drop a heavy, gloved hand on his shoulder and arch a brow at him.

“Whatcha starin’ at there, Jesse?” She pondered in a drawl that was too far southern to be native from the town she lived in.

“This game they’re showin’,” he answered idly in a pale mock-up of that accent. “Angelic Layer. Sounds real interesting.”

The woman known as Aileen Silverson blinked slowly, following his gaze up to the television. “That, eh? Oh, well - alotta people are interested in that. The players get real popular and compete all over the world if they’re good enough.” She shrugged, glancing to watch the blue eyes of her nephew glaze over slightly in the tell-tale sign he was thinking hard and fast about doing something mildly dangerous. Not physically, this time at least, that she knew, but dangerous to whatever reputation he held himself to and whatever masculine pride the fourteen year old had developed.

So Aileen smiled, and leaned down to speak into his ear. “I know where one of those shops is near here, do you wanna go?” Jesse glanced up, and offered nothing short of an award winning grin - all teeth and sparkle.

The grin returned as a pale shadow as the young male settled down further into his bath, letting the water rise to his chin before he closed his eyes. The drive and actual buying of things had been a blur. Aileen had promised to set everything up in the living room so they could figure out this angel thing together, but the moment of opening the egg was to be his alone.

It was an odd sort of feeling, the one he got as he sat up, gently maneuvering the egg to the surface to open it. Jesse winced immediately - the liquid that seeped from within was thick and disgusting looking, slimy to the touch as he made to fish the doll from it and let the rest of the egg sink to the bottom of the tub. He’d get that layer and dry it out to set up as a nice little safety carrier for his angel to be, he decided, studying the thin blue thing that rested in his hands. “..She’s real scary,” he laughed to himself as he grabbed a wash rag to clean away to remaining fluid. The bath was quickly drained once he finished, and he set the skeleton of an angel onto the edge of the sink as he dried off and pulled on a loose wife beater and pajama pants, brush his teeth, and head out to the living room with the delicate plastic creation cradled in the nook of his arms.

“Took ya long enough,” Aileen called from where she stood over the equipment that had been set up, looking up from the movie (Bruce Lee, one of Aileen’s obsessions. Sigh.) she’d been watching. A glowing cylinder sprouting from the base lay next to a small computer that hooked into it, currently flashing something. A wig lay next to it - black and long enough to reach the doll’s ankles. That would need to be fixed, Jesse mused as he arched a brow, holding up the doll for his aunt’s inspection.

“Wow, she’s pretty creepy lookin’,” the woman mused, arching a brow. “It says yer ‘sposed to do her hair first. Want me to?” She teased, brow arching. “Judgin’ by you own cut you don’t have much goin’ for you as a stylist.”

Jesse stuck out his tongue as he slid the wig onto the doll’s head, studying it for a moment before offering it out to his aunt. “I’ve got an idea of what I wanna do with her,” he replied solemnly before breaking into a grin. “So make sure to follow my instructions closely, alright?” Aileen laughed as a small pair of scissors were produced from her back pocket, taking the doll from his with her free hand as she patiently followed his instructions. The end result was a simple style - the bulk falling to the end of the doll’s chest section and the first joint in her waist, with bangs cut above where they eyes were meant to go, two longer strands framing her face.

“Cute,” his aunt praised, studying the angel curiously before handing her over. “Now, let’s see.. Where did those directions go. So, ah - .. Oh, here we go,” she mumbled, waving a piece of paper at him. “It says to put her in the glowy thing, and input her parameters, and the color you want her skin and eyes to be… Man, this things real specific.” She frowned.

“I guess it has to be,” the blond laughed, grinning and moving to lightly slip the doll into the cylinder, jumping as she hovered there. “Well, that’s cool..,” he mused, brow arching before he moved, lightly pressing at the buttons. Skin? Golden. A nice light tan to an Asian skin set - like she was an actress in one of the imported movies his aunt watched. Eyes of a violet black to complete the illusion. And then…

“You’re making her very Asian looking,” Aileen noted, a brow arching. “That’s a bit odd of you, ain’t it?”

“Well, if I made her into a Cowgirl or an Indian, that’d be too stereotypical, wouldn’t it?” Jesse countered, glancing up from what he was doing. “Besides, this way if I get all famous, we can be known as the East West Duo.”

“Yer so weird Jesse,” she laughed, shaking her head before quieting to let her nephew resume working.

“And then..,” he mumbled, fingertips hesitating over one of the buttons as he tried to remember where he‘d left off.. “..She’ll be a heavy weight - since I’m new at this, that’ll keep her from getting knocked out too easy,” he mumbled, blinking before biting his lip. “..And I’ll make her a balance.” He nodded, pulling back from the screen to tap the button, blinking at the screen that popped up. “A name..?”

“Min Xiu Ling,” Aileen interjected, causing him to jump and twist his head to study her. She offered a faint grin. “It’s the name of one of the characters from my favorite Chinese import,” she explained, shrugging. “I think it fits, don’t you?”

“..Yeah,” Jesse grinned, lightly typing in the letters, hesitating under the spelling by his aunt. “..Well, that’s done,” he mumbled, nodding and reaching to take the angel into his hands again as the skin flashed that it was done. “..She needs clothes.”

“Well, that’s too bad - we don’t have any, but!” His aunt grinned, digging into the bags to produce a thin square of red cloth, the edge trimmed in gold. “I picked this up at the counter. They’re supposed to be used to clean scuffs off of the skin and what not, but it’ll make a good outfit temporarily, won’t it?”

“Yeah,” he laughed, grinning before moving to take the cloth and wrap it around the slender form, knotting it under the dip in her collar bone.
“Now! Clean all this up, put it in your room, and let’s eat dinner already!” The older woman laughed, grinning vibrantly and clapping him on the back.

“Right, right, Auntie,” he laughed, collecting the angel in the crook of his arm before moving to clean up the station she’d been made at.