Welcome to Gaia! ::

“You’re dumb,” Jasper murmured, affording only a momentary glance away from his preoccupation to stick his tongue out at his guardian. Orestae, much like Jasper, lay sprawled out on one of the coffee shop sofas, though the object in her hands was a smutty romance novel rather than Jasper’s thought-provoking Rubik’s cube. His fascination with puzzles was both a gift and a curse. While Orestae was delighted that the raevan had found something other than destroying her home to preoccupy himself, he exhausted the puzzle books and brain teasers more quickly than she could find new ones to replace them with.

“Yeah, well,” she murmured in response, just in time to see Jasper click the last blocks of the puzzle into place, “We aren’t all harboring the soul of a few thousand year old puzzle master. Now shut it so I can read about men and women doing the sort of things you can’t do because you are a floating torso.”

“If I had to guess, you’re harboring the soul of a four year old,” he murmured sullenly, clicking the Rubik’s cube back into chaos so that he could solve it again.

“I miss it when you couldn’t talk.”

“I know.” Jasper smiled, enjoying the usual repertoire with the cantankerous woman. He glanced at her iced caramel macchiato, sighed, and popped a small battery into his mouth from his Pikachu pez dispenser. It popped and fizzed enjoyably, like Pop Rocks and soda.

Stae loved her coffee, but much like Sevilin, Jasper abhorred it as yet another reminder of things he could not have, use, or consume. It was like… boots. Or pants. Or pornography. Jasper sighed, once again solving his Rubik’s cube with a series of fast clicks. He tossed the toy onto the coffee table in front of him and lifted his gaze to observe his surroundings.

The place was far more crowded than it had been when they had arrived that morning. The line now stretched back to the door, filled predominantly with sharp suited businessmen or acne faced emo kids. Jasper wrinkled his nose at one particularly unattractive girl whose arm bore a series of Egyptian hieroglyph tattoos. He rose from the couch and floated towards her.

“Excuse me,” he said, tapping her on the shoulder. The girl turned his way, and Jasper reflexively shied away. He had never really grasped the idea of social niceties, and thus didn’t bother trying to mask the grimace that crossed his face, “Do you have any idea what your tattoos mean?”

The girl sighed, flipping her home-dyed pink and black hair out of her face with a toss of her head. Jasper really wished she wouldn’t do that. At least the sheet of fading pink hid the mountains of whiteheads from view.

“Duh,” she snorted. Her breath smelled like coffee, “They mean beauty, dreams, life, and art!” She pointed to each as she spoke, and Jasper did well to hide the majority of his laughter. “What are you giggling at?”

Or maybe he didn’t do so well.

“Someone lied to you,” he said with a catlike grin, prodding her arms sharply with his index finger. “You see, this one is the symbol for ‘myself’, this last one means ‘crocodile’, and this one,” he prodded the center symbol, “represents a mating ritual. So, if I may ask another question, did you bang the croc before or after he ate Captain Hook’s hand?”

Her response was lost on Jasper as he threw his head back in laughter, noticing Sevilin only when he was attempting to wipe fake tears from his eyes. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You mean lie to me about my tattoos?” The girl said with a pout.

“No,” Jasper amended, “But hey, it’s just not my place to judge if you like rolling around in the Everglades- Hey!” The raevan’s short attention span was suddenly taken up by the presence of another floating torso, to whom Jasper floated. “Heeeeeeey.”

Jasper’s jewelry was something of an obsession. There were many reasons for that, but really it all came down to vanity. Jasper mirrored Sevilin’s smile. It was so rare to find another raevan, though this one seemed to lack the chestpillows that had made Dayo so captivating. Though his hair was equally pretty. Enough so that Jasper felt the need to reach out and touch it, which he did with a soft, “Oooooh!”

“Jasper!” He replied, still grinning like an idiot. He was easily able to ignore the enraged grumbling as the shop’s patrons grudgingly comforted the now-crying emo girl behind him. While he was well aware that they didn’t exactly have genders yet, Jasper was usually able to tell if a raevan would grow up to be male or female. However, this one eluded him. It was pretty enough to be a girl, but lacked the telltale funbags.

“She’s fine,” Jasper murmured dismissively, “I think she’s just sad because she’s ugly.” Then again, who wouldn’t be? Jasper, like the culture from which he rose, held beauty in high regard. Which was probably why he couldn’t stop thinking about how much he wanted to braid the other frei’s hair.

“Not yet,” he laughed in response to the question, “But give it time, and before you know it I’ll have my very own pyramid!”

Stae glanced up briefly from her book. Oh, good. He had a playmate. And since he couldn't knock anyone up, she resumed reading under the assumption that they could not cause any trouble.

Stae preferred a method of absentee parenting, as was evident by the absence of attention or interest as Jasper cast a doubtful glance her way. “For all intensive purposes,” he murmured, lifting one hand to meticulously adjust his headpiece, “I might as well be.” Jasper winced slightly as the espresso machine roared to life, combining the grinding of coffee beans with the loud whoosh of stem being blasted into milk.

“Hey, kids!” One of the patrons behind them murmured angrily, taking a moment away from talking on his hands-free headset to settle the boys with an angry glare, “Move it or lose it! I’ve got business to do!”

“The line is over there, jackass,” Jasper pointed towards the line of people winding around to the opposite side of the bar, “Though let me profess my most extreme and sincere apologies at delaying your progress for that underground child porno ring you’re probably running out of your mother’s basement.”

Typically a rather sociable person with his own kind, Jasper had substantial impatience with quick tempered humanfolk.

“So, Sevilin!” He practically beamed with joy as he returned his attention to the frei, returning his hand to casually stroking his hair. So pretty. “What are you doing here alone? I didn’t think there were that many absentminded guardians letting us just float about!”