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"Hey, guys, I've got someone I want you to meet," Adrian called out through the hallway of the eastern wing of Kanth's mansion, where he and his ever-growing family had taken over most of the rooms. The owner of the house, Kanth, hadn't been around very often to voice any disapproval, so he'd just gone ahead and cleaned out whatever rooms he needed and moved their contents into other spare rooms throughout the house.

The little ones tumbled out of his bedroom, first. He always let them sleep in there until he decided that they were old enough to have rooms of their own. The boy behind him hid behind his guardian's legs, peering out at them shyly. One appeared to be a shark that was... hovering in the air; another was a small, white and blue, fuzzy creature with a skull on its head; there was pink and yellow animal with large ears and a long tail; and finally, a bright, gold-colored egg with shimmering butterfly wings fluttered along with the pack.

A fifth creature, not nearly as young as the others, also stepped out into the hallway from the bedroom, looking rather bored and uninterested in whatever Adrian had to say. He appeared to be some sort of lion-deer-snake-hybrid-thing.

"Hana! Kaleb!" Adrian called out sternly, "Now, please!"

"ALRIGHT," was the impatient screech from behind one of the closed doors. It opened quickly and out stomped a tiger-like girl in jeans and a dark colored tank-top. Her eyes were blazing and her face bore a sour expression as she crossed her arms and glared at Adrian.

The young man sighed, glancing at the other closed door. "Kaleb~" he repeated, and one of the little creatures -- the golden egg with butterfly wings -- bumped purposefully into the door, as if knocking. The egg ducked away as the door swung open, revealing a pink-haired young man with brown dog ears and a tail. He blinked at the menagerie gathered out in the hall, looking rather confused.

"Come out here for a moment, please?" Adrian nearly begged him. The youth rolled his eyes but complied, stepping outside his bedroom.

"Okay, now that I've got you all out here," the guardian said, grinning, "I'd like to introduce the newest member of our family, Malachite." He stepped aside, leaving the green-haired kiddlet standing there in full-view of the others.

"You brought home another one?" the one called Kaleb groaned, narrowing his eyes at the boy.

Malachite went back to clinging to Adrian's leg as the young man replied, "Nope! Malachite is one of a kind!"

The cat-girl rolled her eyes, turning to head back into her room without another word.

The yellow and pink creature stepped forward, sniffing at the new boy cautiously. Malachite blinked at her and Adrian gently ruffled his hair. "That's Alfie," he said, gesturing to the creature, "she's a Jivvin. And the blue one over there," he pointed to the one with a skull, "is Schye, but he's shy around new people."

To demonstrate, Schye just backed away a bit from the new-comer, hiding behind the lion-deer-snake-thing.

"That's Cyrus," Adrian continued, pointing to the creature Schye was hiding behind, "and he's a Chimaera. Don't worry, he's pretty harmless."

Cyrus gave a shake of his head, his mane ruffling and his snake-like tail flicking proudly.

"Let's see, who else," the guardian took stock of whom he'd introduced and whom he hadn't. The egg floated over and down, balancing on Malachite's head. The boy blinked up at it, trying not to move his head. "Ah, yes," Adrian grinned, "that's Haruki. He's a tsubasa. And the shark-girl over there," he pointed, "is Mackenzie. Hana just went back into her room; it'd probably be best to avoid her. Kaleb is the boy over there."

The pink-haired youth gave Malachite a quick V-sign, saying, "Don't come in my room; don't touch my stuff; don't bother me." With that, he, too, went back into his room, shutting the door behind him.

Malachite heard his new guardian sigh again and looked up, displacing Haruki who fluttered in mid-air.

Adrian looked down at him with a smile, "Don't mind Kaleb and Hana. They're big kids and not used to taking care of little'uns. Maybe they'll loosen up after you're here a while."

The boy nodded a bit, starting as Alfie licked at his hand, her tail wagging playfully.

"In the meantime, I guess you can hang out with these critters," Adrian said, watching as Cyrus headed back into their bedroom, and turning to the door next to Kaleb's. "This will be your room," he said cheerfully, reaching for the handle and pushing the door in.

Malachite peered inside, stepping towards the room cautiously. It had a nice, large bed, as well as a bureau and a desk. The floor was made of polished hardwood, though there was a round rug in the middle of the room. There were two windows in the farthest wall, covered by pale green curtains that reached the floor.

"I'll have to get you over to the mansion so you can play with boys your own age," Adrian was saying as he stepped inside, moving to open the curtains and let the afternoon light in. "If you find anything you'd like to decorate your room with, let me know, and I'll put it up for you right away, okay?" he asked, turning and giving Malachite a smile.

The boy just nodded again from where he was standing in the doorway, patting Alfie on the head. He turned to watch Haruki and Mackenzie fly around in circles in the hallway, playing tag with each other. It was a strange new family, he decided, but it was his new family. And that was all that mattered.

"See? There's one for me, and one for you," Adrian explained, showing Malachite the two notebooks in his hands. They appeared similar, the covers of both books decorated in swirls of light blue and green, accentuated with glitter.

"Ohh," Malachite said, taking one of the books when his guardian held it out to him. He liked the way the cover shone when held in the light just right.

"You can write whatever you want to in it," Adrian continued, "I won't read it and no one else has to read it if you don't want them to. I'll write about you in my own notebook, okay?"

"Okay," the boy nodded, smiling softly.

It took a moment for the violet-haired guardian to find two spare pens, and he handed one over to Malachite. They sat together on Adrian's bed, opening the covers of the notebooks and pausing as they thought about what to write for their first entries...

Not too far between the GCB mansion and Kanth's mansion, where Adrian and Malachite Karlet live, stands a playground of sorts for the children of the area to gather and play. There are several swing sets, including a separate tire-swing, as well as a jungle gym, and another large structure for climbing on with several slides. There are a few conveniently placed benches around the area for tired parents to sit and watch their children.

It's a beautiful summer day that doesn't deserve to be wasted indoors, so Adrian and Malachite have wandered down to the park. With a gentle nudge from his guardian, the green-haired boy walks over to the structure, climbing up it carefully and peering over the walls at Adrian. Adrian gives him a smile and a wave and Malachite smiles back, heading for one of the slides.

Shielding his eyes from the sunlight, Nothing arrived at the park a short distance from his own humble abode, a relatively small place when put next to the number of mansions nearby, glancing over the playground. Darting ahead of him, Tristin was grinning broadly, looking about for what he would do first. Spotting another child already at the slides, Tristin decided on the jungle gym, climbing up the first few bars hastily. Chuckling at his child's energy, Nothing lowered his hand from over his eyes and wandered to a nearby bench, keeping an eye on Tristin as he pulled out a wide-brimmed hat, tugging it onto his head to block out the sun in his eyes.

Hearing another child coming up behind him, Malachite glanced over his shoulder quickly before ducking into an enclosed tube-like slide, sliding to the bottom and hopping off, tripping a bit and falling on his hands and knees into the woodchips that lined the play area.

"Ouch," Adrian said with a cringe, starting to head in Mal's direction, "you okay?"

The boy nodded, getting up and brushing himself off. He'd know better for next time.

"Okay," Adrian changed directions, sitting down on the bench next to Nothing while Malachite skittered off to hide under the structure, peering at the blue haired boy through the small holes in the plastic-covered metal that made up the "floors" of the jungle gym. "It's a nice day out today," Adrian said to the man beside him, trying to make conversation.

Grinning at the other child hiding under the floor of the structure as he flipped to hang upside down from the bars, Tristin waved quickly to him. Pulling himself back up quickly to sit on top of the bar he had been hanging from, he slid off to land on the ground, stumbling but catching himself before he fell. Nothing grimaced slightly as it looked like Tristin might fall over, smiling once he regained his footing.

"Yeah, it's a pretty nice day. Bit too bright, though. Like it when there's a bit of cloud cover." Nothing chuckled as Tristin skittered over to the structure, peeking under the floor at the emerald-haired child, still grinning. "But the kids seem to like it. Mine pretty much dragged me out here."

Malachite shyly blinked at the other boy who waved at him. As the boy made his way towards Malachite's hiding place, he ran out from under the structure and climbed up one of the ladders to the next level, putting himself above Tristin. The green-haired child giggled cutely, ready to duck down another slide if the boy climbed up after him.

Adrian nodded, keeping an eye on the two boys. "At least the breeze is a nice change," he said as the wind stirred his hair, "it's been too hot to go outside much, lately. I promised my boy, Malachite, that I'd bring him here when the weather was good."

Tristin smirked as the other child climbed back on top of the structure, recognizing the need for a chase. He ran around the structure to the nearest way up, pulling himself onto the platform and ran after Malachite, giving the structure he was on another quick once-over for all the ways the child may flee.

"Oh yeah, the weathers been quite hot, hasn't it? Tristin never seems to care though, he's been wanting me to take him all kinds of places recently. Think he just wants to get away from the family for a bit." Nothing chuckled softly, keeping an eye on Tristin to be sure he didn't get too into whatever game the kids may be playing. "Maybe needs a bit of a rest from everything that goes on around our house. Always a great bit happening around there."

Malachite squeaked, heading back up to the top of the structure where the twisting tube slide was, ducking inside and holding himself in place in the turn, where the other boy couldn't see him. He waited quietly, listening to see if the boy would follow him down the slide.

"Mm," Adrian nodded again, "I know how that is. Malachite likes his siblings, but some of them don't return the sentiment." He shrugged, stretching and placing his hands on the back of his head, fingers lacing together. "I figured he and I needed some time together, anyway. At least here, he has a chance to meet some other kids."

Smiling now, Tristin hopped up to the top of the structure, grabbing the plastic above the slide to swing himself into the tube, heading down it faster than if he had just hopped in.

"Well, most of my kids get along well enough. Trist's kind of a mediator for the ones that don't. Thought there's not much that can keep one of my kids from trying to 'splode the more excitable one. " Nothing nodded slightly, trying to supress a yawn as he also strecthed, rubbing softly at his shouldersas he settled again. "Trist's just happy to meet new kids, it seems. And my hubby needed some time alone to work. Certainly hard to write when your kid's wanting to get out and bounce about."

Adrian smiled at him. "I suppose it would be," he said, "I'm a fisherman, so I don't have that much of a problem. The kids usually stay home and I pray that the older ones look after their younger siblings." He looked up as he heard a commotion coming from the playground.

Crying out as he was kicked in the side, Malachite tumbled down the rest of the tube, toppling out and onto the ground, staring at the sky dazedly.

"Oh, dear," Adrian said with a wince, waiting to see if Malachite would pick himself up this time.

Nothing smiled back at him. "Ah, a fisherman? Bet that's nice. Relaxing? Well, the kids about my house are all rather small, so we need someone around to watch after them.Though our resident lemur isn't too bad with them." Nothing chuckled, addressing the other resident of the house as such. He cut himself off as he heard the cry from inside the tube, watching as the two children tumbled out of it a moment later. "Oh, my..."

Nothing rose from the bench just as Tristin pulled himself up again, looking down at the other child, kneeling down. "Hey, you okay? I'm sorry..." Tristin mumbled apologetically to Malachite.

"I wouldn't say it's that relaxing," Adrian said dryly. "It's frustrating when most of your catch is just trash that people've thrown into the lake."

Malachite whimpered, his face crumpling in pain as the shock wore off. He rolled over, getting his knees under him and placing one hand on his head and the other on his ribs.

Adrian stood and made his way over to the boys, kneeling beside Malachite. "Let me see, babe," he commanded softly, lifting Mal's hand away from his head and gently touching the swollen bump there. He then did the same thing with the boy's other hand, lifting Malachite's shirt to check his stomach. "Just a few bruises," Adrian said, running his fingers over the boy's ribs, "nothing broken. You'll be okay." He gently ruffled Malachite's green hair.

Malachite whimpered softly, clinging to his guardian.

"Hey, now," Adrian hugged and released him, "go back to playing. He didn't mean it."

The boy nodded, staring at his feet. "I-... it's okay," he managed to say to Tristin quietly.

Tristin watched as Adrian checked Malachite. He chuckled uneasily as he heard he was pretty much okay. "Again, I'm really sorry... I get worked up at times." Smiling slightly, he leaned down to look up into Malachite's eyes. "Are you feeling too bad? Can sit down, if you want to..." He nodded before straightening back up, still smiling.

Nothing stood a short distance back as Adrian checked his kid over, chuckling softly when he heard he was fine. He stepped up behind Adrian quickly. "Heya bud, I'm sorry about that. He's used to playing with one of my other kids. A frightfully energetic one." Nodding, he looked over Malachite. "Don't think he'll be hurting too long, though. Shouldn't really take long for him to be feeling better."

Malachite shook his head slowly. "No, I'm fine," he insisted, blinking at Tristin's eyes. They were an odd color, but not unpleasant to look at.

"Don't worry about it, you two," Adrian waved a hand dismissively, "he's fine. Kids get hurt all the time and bounce right back after it." He stood to his feet, giving Malachite a nudge. "Go play with your new friend, okay?"

Malachite blinked owlishly at him. "Okay..."

(( In progress... I think... ))