Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Why, Mommy?" Evelyn whined as Niki led her into the room. She tugged unhappily at the worn shirt that she was wearing. This was not as pretty as Reign's old dresses! Why did she have to wear Ala's old stuff?

Niki sighed. "Because art can get messy and you don't want to mess up some of the pretty dresses, do you?" She gestured to the tables where the paints and other messy things were set out.

Evelyn sighed and headed towards one of the empty tables. That kid looked really busy at his table, so she'd just find a different one.

"I know this is a little different than how we normally spend our days, but I think this change of pace will be good for you," Higashi addressed Laerad, who huddled close to his leg and had clutched on to it for dear life over the duration of their trek to the Eden Headquarters. He knew the little one wasn't very receptive to new faces, or even his face, for the yew still regarded him with an air of aloofness, but when it came to traveling wherever there were people involved, Laerad clung to his guardian like lint. It made walking a little harder for Higashi, but he rather enjoyed the times when his toddler actually could rely on him for something...even if that meant acting as a shield to block him from the outside world.

At the very least, Laerad trusted him enough to protect him, and he supposed that's what mattered at this current stage of his development. However, the Eden needed to interact with others of his kind; his guardian found it to be a vital part of his growth. And so he resolved to introduce Laerad, if forcedly, into "society". He figured an art class would not only be a perfect starting experience, but it could also showcase any talents his child might be hiding.

Leading him to a table close to the other children, Higashi pointed to all the essential tools of the trade needed for creating...some semblance of a primitive work of art; in other words, a masterpiece to the eyes of the young creator. "This looks fun," he smiled encouragingly, "I think even I might join you."

Laerad, his bright red eyes widened in alert, refused to emerge from behind his guardian's leg. What was this strange place, and why did his guardian take him here? Was it some sort of punishment for...whatever it was he did? He did nothing wrong! Strange instruments were littered on the tables. He had used something thinner than the chunky, block-like things scattered all about, and he wondered if the two objects were related in some way. The yew child blinked a few times and observed the others. They looked around his age, and they were weird...kind of like him. No, he shook his head dismissively. Not like him. They were scary, and didn't have branches growing out of their heads. But part of him felt some sort of connection...But he still wasn't going to move from his spot.

"Laerad," he heard his guardian say soothingly, "give this a chance. You might wind up enjoying yourself." He pulled back a chair before giving the leg his toddler grasped a small shake. After glaring slightly at this disturbance, Laerad finally released the tall man's leg and scrambled to the seat. Fine, he huffed silently, sitting hard on the plastic chair. He'll try this punishment his guardian forced him to partake in. But he wasn't going to like it. No. Not one bit.

Mort had watched as each child entered the room; he didn’t know any of them so far, and they all left him alone to his work; until Nahuel showed up.

“Hey!” Mort said with a huge goofy grin--Nahuel’s energy was infectious. “What’s up!”
He turned to look at the other child the spotty boy had addressed. “I’m Mort, who are you?” He asked cheerfully.

Finn had no intention of talking to anyone else. Other people were scary, and he wasn't exactly a fan of being scared. The little deer boy simply squinted his eyes and concentrated very hard on what he was doing, each stroke of the crayon producing a dark streak of color. "No need to press down so hard," Auska murmured to him, earning a pitiful look. "Er...well...if you want to you can...it does make a pretty shade," she amended her statement quickly, not wanting to upset him. Now with free reign to wear down the crayon quickly, Finn went about his business a little happier.

Well, until a familiar face settled in at his table. Finn blinked large eyes at the other, giving a timid smile. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to talk a little. Nahuel had been so nice that time at the pool, defending him from the mean girl.

He wiggled in his chair slightly, about to say something when the other boy spoke up first. Finn flinched slightly and settled back down, staring at Mort with increasingly large eyes. "Um...I'm Finn," he tried to remember not to mumble, if only because Mommy was right there watching him and she didn't like when he mumbled. Auska gave him an appreciative grin and, as if sensing his thoughts, slipped away from the table to give the boys some privacy. Finn would probably be a little more open now that he knew someone else at his table.

"And a'course I 'member you," he smiled a bit at Nahuel, fingers clutching at his green crayon. "What'cha doin'?" Finn wiggled in his chair again, scooting forward to give room for his tail. When he'd settled back he'd nearly crushed it against the back of the chair, and that was...less than comfortable.

“Okay, Finn.” Mort smiled at the timid child. “What are you drawing?” He gestured to the little boy’s crayon streaked paper. “It’s got a lot of cool colors in it.” He glaneced at Nahuel’s paper, then frowned,

“I though pyramids were sand-colored, and more pointy?” He asked, wondering what the other boy was doing with all that brown on his paper. He looked back at Finn and shrugged, he had a feeling that Nahuel rarely did anything by the normal standards. Instead, he picked up his abandoned crayon and resumed work on picture, allowing Finn plenty of time to work up an awnser.

"A pyramid?" Finn repeated what he'd been told, giving the watercolored paper a squinty-eyed scrutiny a few moments. A pyramid...was supposed to be pointy on top, right? Not...blobby. The deerboy blinked and shifted his gaze to Mort as the other voiced the thoughts he'd had. Finn marvelled at the other briefly, wondering where he got the pluck to say things like that to people - Mommy had always told him to be nice to people, and he didn't think telling Nahuel that his pyramid didn't look much like a pyramid was very nice.

But that thought ended when he realized that he had been asked a question, nearly lost during the boy's scrutiny of the sort-of pyramid. Finn gripped his crayon a little tighter and glanced down at his paper and the streaks of green and brown, yellow and red. He didn't remember using the brown crayon, but there wasn't much of it on there, so he'd probably grabbed it on accident before realizing the color he actually wanted was the green.

"Dinosaur," he stated towards Mort, still staring at his picture. It...kind of resembled a dinosaur. There was a definate head, body, tiny arms, tail, huge yellow wedges (they were supposed to be spikes) and something that was probably a tree. But all in green, save for the bit of brown that defined the eyes and claws and teeth, the yellow 'spikes' and the red...sky. Yeah, Finn had done a red sky, and only he really knew why. Probably something about lava, even if Finn was too gentle of a kid to think about lava and dinosaur death. To him, dinosaurs still existed in his mind. "What're you making?" It seemed to be the question of the evening, really.