Welcome to Gaia! ::

It seemed like every week there was someone new joining daycare, or someone graduating out to the next level and starting school. Grayson was soon destined to become the latter, but with his time remaining, he still had plenty of opportunity to meet some the newer arrivals at the center. He knew what it was like to be in an unfamiliar place and not know anyone in your surroundings, so the moment he set eyes on the little unicorn boy, Grayson happily ran right over and stuck out his hand. "Hi!" he said, smiling broadly and radiating nearly as much sunshine as the unicorn toddler, "I'm Grayson!"

Grayson naturally thought the opposite thing, and offered, "You can call me Ace if you like. That's what my fa calls me. He's a pilot, and he says that's what they call the best pilots. Do you have a mom or a dad?" It was presented as an either-or choice since so many of the children around here had single parents, as Grayson did, but at this point Grayson would not have been surprised to learn Bal had two moms or two dads or maybe even some sort of parental council to guide him through life. Grayson had learned better than to make too many assumptions around here.

"Naw, I like to swim!" said Grayson happily. Because his father Landor didn't know how to swim, Grayson had mistakenly come to the conclusion that pilots were people who didn't swim.

Against the backdrop of happily screaming small children, Grayson offered his hand to Bal again, as escort this time. "I can show you 'round! There's lots of toys and games."

"This is the main play area," said Grayson, who by this point had every cranny and nook down pat. He pointed to the various corners. "That's the puzzle wall, and you can take down any of the big puzzles or the games if you get a grownup to help you. They hafta make sure people don't eat the game pieces. That's the beanbag lounge!" Just another corner, really, but with plenty of big, brightly-colored and patterned beanbags for sitting on, and a bunch of little beanbags for the beanbag toss. It was a popular hangout, more for the seating than the athletic aspect.

Grayson steered Bal towards another corner. "Here's the big toy chest. They have all sorts of stuff in there! The best are the plastic toys. They have trucks and zai... music stuff." Grayson's foot caught a wooden block. "Oh, and we have LOTS of blocks. They're everywhere." Wooden ones and plastic ones in evey color imaginable. Mostly contained to piles or stacks, but a few stray ones like the one Grayson had kicked.

"Sure!" agreed Grayson (who so far seemed willing to agree to anything). He happily plunked down next to the nearest pile of unclaimed blocks. He used his bigger size to reach out and sweep some of the scattered blocks into the main pile for Bal's benefit. "Whaduyou wanna build?"

"I like that," said Grayson in admiration. Skytoucher. It sounded straight out of a fairy tale. Had he been familiar with skyscrapers, he might have known what exactly Bal was referring to. Instead, Grayson pictured something akin to the Tower of Babel made from blocks. He picked up a nice green block with the letter T on it.

Grayson, in a moment of genuine confusion, asked, "What colors was it? How tall were the people that maked it?" He discretely started adding a few blocks around the base of the structure for support, since if he just kept piling on blocks up top, the skytoucher would soon reach a point where Grayson's height would give him an unfair advantage. He wanted to keep things fair to Bal. (It did not occur to Grayson that a solution to this potential unfairness was all of eight feet away in the form of a chair.)