Welcome to Gaia! ::

Pales blinked and stared at Kiv as if she was slightly crazy or had gone momentarily blind. Unless he had suddenly grown Jedi powers he hadn’t known about and she had. Quietly the man slipped past the feral masked woman and turned his body in such a way he could use his hand and twist the handle of the door and open the body. Lightly squishing Kaveri against the door while doing so. He picked the side with Kaveri because she didn’t have a ‘tail’ of leafy things hanging from her rump.

The door slid opened and he nudged it the rest of the way with his foot, “There we go,” he uttered somewhat gruffly. He was in a mildly bad mood mostly because Kiv was rubbing off on him.

Kaveri, much like Vana was actually having a pleasant time. Patiently listening to the birdsong of her playmate and seeming to quite enjoy it even if she didn’t understand a single ‘word’ of it. Every now and again, like a good audience member the naga-child would clap and giggle almost as if on cue.

"Ha! There, see? Someone's here!" A triumphant sort of a bristle, exclaimed before Kiv had even gotten both feet in the door. It hadn't taken her more than a moment to spot out the stranger near the door, and the robed woman had singled them out in an instant. Eying Beatz over from behind the fierce wooden mask she wore, Kiv's posture, as wildly expressive as it ever was, slipped into a slight hunch of displeasure. This was someone that she did not know... and whoever it was, they reeked. It wasn't a smell that the woman was familiar with, and therefore, it was one she found inherently distrustful.

Reeling in her enthusiasm immediately and inching with possessive ferocity to the immediate vicinity where Pales stood with the children, close enough even to brush sleeves, she gave a long, narrow look to the female stranger and said nothing.

Of far less discerning tastes was the grassy-haired girl, who looked in immediate admiration to the source of the new and happy sound that had greeted their arrival. Wriggling and rustling and kicking her legs in a clumsy maneuver to get a better vantage point, she looked at the big-eared child with curiosity, her cheerful smile slipping to a more timid expression of her fascination.

Now this was something you didn't see every day. Beatz reached up to remove her head phones, brown eyes fixed on the strange robed woman. The badger cook had seen many strange things in her time on Gaia, where there were more species and more hybrids than you could count on both hands. The thieves' guild also managed to attract some rather shady individuals, of various backgrounds and magical abilities. But this one... Beatz could not say she had ever seen anything like Kiv before. Regardless, the feral behaviour was familiar enough. There was distrust, but not fear, as though this masked woman knew as little about Beatz as the badger knew about her.

For a moment the cook simply watched, as though waiting to see if Kiv would become aggressive. It seemed that neither the strange lady nor her counterpart were about to do anything, so Beatz decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. "Yeah, there is someone here. I'm guessing you don't work here though? Was hoping to meet someone who did."

The ratling blinked at the rather enthusiastic greeting from Kaveri, before launching into his own chatter of squeaks and chitters. He supposed he could show off the things that Quinn had taught him about mimicking sounds, but he wanted to talk at this point. There were so many people! It was very exciting.

Pales sighed as his single eye gazed up toward the ceiling as if seeking some sort of intervention. Since none made itself readily apparent the man stepped forward children in either arms. He seemed capable of balancing the girls on either hip with either arm wrapped protectively about them to prevent falling.

“Excuse my companion. She is a little rough.” He interrupted trying to cushion the blow of Kiv’s abrasive nature. “Neither of us works in this shop,” he said wearing his best smile. “We were wondering if perhaps we could get someone to watch the girls here while we go out to investigate something.” Pales could never bring himself to tell a full lie, but at least he could puff it up with half-truths.

He continued on, “Is that child yours or are you watching it for someone?” Pales asked it was almost like a clarification of Kiv’s question-statement.

Kaveri seemed pretty pleased with both expressions and levels of impressed both of the other children gave off. Though now she fell silent to listen to the fuzzy child continue about its squeaking and such. Those were almost as fascinating as her playmate’s birdsongs! This other child must be investigated further!

(Sorry, was busy going PoliSci crazy yesterday!)

... Since when do I let him speak for me?! Oh no, no. This was not how things were managed. Not around Kiv. She did not ask for Pales to correct her for her attitude. She liked her attitude perfectly fine, thank-you-kindly, and she had communicated precisely what she'd wanted by it! If she wanted some sniveling, unpredictable man-creature to dictate her words and meaning for her, she would tell him to. Until then? She spoke for herself. She did that quite well. She did not need help.

The only, ONLY thing keeping her from demonstrating her displeasure to her unlucky companion was the fact that there were other matters of greater importance to be addressing. But the scathing glare she shot in the one-eyed man's direction would be sufficient to inform him that his lapse in manners had not passed her by, and it was only the fortunate moment he had chosen to do so in that kept her wrath in check.

"We are well met." Her voice seemed to be trapped in a permanent growl now, draining a notable amount of sincerity from her words- but at least she wasn't outwardly expressing any lingering hostility now. "I am Kiv. My pup is Vanaja of Lesidhe. This-" she pre-empted any introduction Pales might have planned with a sudden and unnecessarily dramatic extension of one arm- "is my pup's playmate, Kaveri of Naga. And this is my pup's playmate's sire, Pales." There- spoken in the proper pecking order, as it should be. Behind her mask, Kiv was smirking, absolutely certain that the insult would not be missed.

Having been listening very carefully to Kiba's sounds, Vana licked her lips and wondered over what she'd heard. Chittering was very different from the noises she typically came in contact with, but the sounds certainly had seemed important enough to the rat-child, so maybe it was worth trying for herself. Wiggling her mouth around, she vocalized a masterful chitter-squeak combination, shifting her head back and forth like a gentle metronome as she recited.

Whatever was going on between Kiv and Pales was better left to them as far as Beatz was concerned. She didn't go meddling in other people's affairs unless it concerned something of hers. The power struggle – if it could even be called that – would be dealt by those two in whatever manner they thought was best. The badger cook hardly needed to get involved. It seemed like the one-eyed man wasn't going to start something with the masked woman, which meant the conversation could continue as normal.

The woman, who Beatz now knew as Kiv, had a bit of a strange way of naming off her companions, but the cook took it in stride. She assumed the second bit after the of represented some sort of species or clan, though it could have been a title. The latter was less likely simply because Kiv did not give herself a title if the names had been one. Things seem to point towards clan, however the badger had heard of neither the Lesidhe clan nor the Naga clan. Then again, she had never seen a plant girl or a girl who appeared to be half snake.

With all the names given, Beatz gave a distinctive nod. "Pleased to make your acquaintance. And indeed, now we are not quite so stranger-like to each other." Her previous offer still stood, however it would be up to the two adults to decide what they were going to do. The cook didn't mind watching two extra little ones. Much better than teenagers, in her opinion. Babies didn't go running about causing unnecessary mischief.

Kiba was in awe of Vana, brown eyes staring at her intently as she recited what he had said. He had never met another one his size who could chitter! This was clearly a day of greatness! Could this other one with the funny tail-bits do it too? "Brrrrrrrrtuh?"

Pales grunted a bit and adjusted his grip on the babes. “Settle down, both of you.” The one-eyed man said in a surprisingly firm tone. Giving them both a stern stare for a brief second and then looking back at Beatz with a cheerful smile.

Kaveri took the hint and settled down for the moment hanging there limply like dead wait as her small face tilted up to look over at Kiba. Her head tilted side to side and she took in a breath and attempted to copy the sound, "Brrrruuuu..." her tail twitched a bit where it hung as if a sign of her concentrating. "Brrruuuuuuutttt..." Again she tried and it still didn’t sound right. Certainly she was not as talented as Vana at mimicking but still she wanted to try. "Brrrrrrtuhhh!" That sounded just about right. Kaveri grinned in satisfaction.

Pales nodded, "We shouldn’t take long at all. I’ll even pay you a bit of money in compensation of your time if you’d like." The one-eyed man was going to over up money for both children in return if Beatz wanted it. After all it was not fair to make someone give up their time for children that aren’t their own.

After the offer was made he let both children down on the floor. Kaveri laid belly-first on the ground and blinked in surprise. She had gone a little quiet and waited and her patience was rewarded! How novel that idea seemed to be. That must be locked away for later use. For now the snake-tailed child began her wiggling and squirming across the ground toward Beatz. The babe used her tiny hands to pull her way over while her tail wiggled and pushed against the ground. It was her way of crawling. Obviously the child feared no strangers.

Vana, on the other hand, was sat upright on the floor carefully for her to choose her own method of self transport.