Welcome to Gaia! ::

A small purple child entered the building, hand in hand with a tall red skinned teenager. The broad shouldered young man wore a black turtleneck and khaki pants, the child dressed in bright green and yellow. The winged girl wasn't officially invited in the same way her companion was, but she was friends with someone there and he was sure no one would object to the presence of his sister.

Bailey spotted Francine and Archie at the pottery tables in the back and walked over to say hi to them, leading his sister along.

"Hallo Arch', Franny. How goes?"

Two Rivers wasn't all that difficult to find via transit, but being in the company of a little girl and a decorated platypus really didn't help make the trip go any faster. Alaina was ready to snap at the next person to make a fuss about the jinglebell collar or the double ribbon leash or the fact that her daughter is a strange little thing to be parading one around. Lucky for them, or even for her, the woman's temper has begun to simmer off since children walked into her life.

Elly and Adelaide walk nicely into the hotel, mainly due to the fact that Elegy has already learned that her platypus friend can't walk as fast as she can skip, and thus running ahead with the leash in hand is indeed a bad idea. And so, the little criminal allows her smiley platy friend to dictate the speed upon which they enter the party.

"Where we go now, Mummy?" Elly asks, trotting forward still, but craning her head around her very puffy and very pink jacket, only to get a face full of fuzzy hood liner instead. She scrunches up her face as it tickles her skin, and squirms a little at the feeling.

Alaina holds out her hands behind Elly out of precaution and fear that the toddler will tangle up in the ribbon and topple over. It's things like these, premeditation of worst case scenarios, that has kept the porcelain child out of the ER many times over. "Just keep walking forward, hun," she instructs, warily bringing her hands back to her sides as the toddler seems to sort herself out.

Adelaide slows down, and Elly stops to scoop her up into her arms. "Halloooo!" she shouts, trying to find life that will respond to her call.

"I hear an Elly!" Ebony squeaked happily, and quite quickly was gone from Bailey's grasp to rush back and find the pint-sized princess.

"ELLYYYYYYYY!" the purple girl called as she rushed over to see the child and her platypus. "What a cute pet!"

"Hi, Hi Ebby!" Elly greets with a big smile. Her voice reveals that she's just getting over a cold. "This is Adelaide! See, see Addy? This is Ebby!"

The platypus seems anything but interested in things above her eyeline. She darts around in semi-circles before Elly holds up her upper body and forces the animal to wave to her friend. "I just got Addy! She's so pretty! You look pretty today Ebby!"

Alaina, for the life of her, cannot understand why on earth the girl in her care is so ridiculously social. Not particularly antisocial herself, the woman just never found herself instantly connecting with people like her daughter, never mind remembered everyone's name and such, like a directory.

Elly, her arms already halfway around her platy, stands up and clutches the animal to her chest. "Is Bailey, is Bailey here too?" she asks eagerly, leaning on the sides of her feet in a way that children do when standing in one spot for too long.

"That was my sister, Ebony." Bailey explained, wandering over to take a seat by Franny. "Cha working on?"


"oooooh, how pretty." Ebby reached out gently and pet the platypus's soft head. "Hello Addy."

"Thankies. You look really nice too." the purple lust spawn agreed before answering the important question at hand. "Yes yes, Bailey is here today. He's in the other room. Come say hi, Elly."

"Okay!" No need to tell her twice! She wobbles forward a few steps with Adelaide in her arms before thinking better of it, and setting her down to walk on her own. Both are happier for it. Elly twists and beckons to her mother to follow, smiling wildly with a big arm gesture.

The woman snorts under her breath at the toddler's classic enthusiasm, yet complies, stepping forward just enough to satisfy the criminal toddler of her mother's following. Elly springs forward, and, lucky for the platypus on the other end of her ribbons, the animal too finds a burst of energy to be able to keep up with the pace.

"Absolutely nothing of real importance. Trying to get Kahlua to leave the house, keeping an eye on Absinthe, that's about all. Well that, and I've been trying to learn to play guitar but I'm still trying to learn to read music." the red teen answered, sheepishly playing with his ponytail. "And yourself?"

Elly lets out a shrill scream, standing on the spot and releasing the ribbon leash. Alaina's heart jumps into her throat before the toddler trails off the scream into one revealing pleasurable surprise, not pain or fright, and charges forward at Bailey's legs.

"Baaaailey!" she cries, hugging him around the thighs. "You're so big, again! Why you always getting so big, Baaailey? You're so big you, you can squish me!" Her lip juts out in a pathetic little pout, and her icy eyes gloss over with tears.

.Ebony spotted the falling ribbon leash and took ahold of it before Adelaide could escape in Elegy's distraction. However, unlike her playmate, the purple spawn was a lot less rambunctious and was willing to let the critter roam, so long as she was safely monitored.

Bailey, meanwhile, was startled and surprised by the hug from his little blonde friend. "I dunno why, Elly. I just keep growing. And anyway, I wouldn't squish you, you're too cute." the boy said and leaned forward, carefully lifting the minute girl into his lap the rest of the way and giving her a hug.

Elly sniffles acutely, mostly convinced. Of course he wouldn't squish her, not on purpose, anyway! She saddles up against her friend's chest and wiggles her arms around his torso, pressing her face into his shirt and closing her eyes. So big, and she's so little! If he's too big, he won't be her friend!

"No more getting bigger without me, Bailey," she scorns into his shirt, giving him a squeeze.

Adelaide wanders first in a circle, and next toward the roller rink. Shiiiiny. She waddles here and there, trying to find something of interest at her eyeline.

Jamie wheeled himself into the building slowly, over time the young child had gotten used to being confined to the chair but it still wasn't always easy maneuvering especially not in a place that was built for people who could walk. Still, he smiled as he spotted Elly, the energetic young girl whom he'd read a story to once. She seemed occupied though so Jamie directed himself towards the skating rink, the area with the most open space.

Following quietly behind his child Dare watched Jamie closely. The man felt awkward having not been out socially in quite some time.

Bailey smiled gently and pat Elegy on the back. She was a lot like another little sister to him at this point, and he half considered her his first little sister since he'd met her before Ebby came along. "Don't worry, I won't. Not till after you're bigger again." he promised, giving her a friendly hug.

"Anyway, I have to be this big. My little siblings are all getting bigger and so will you! Things will get confusing if my little brothers and sisters are all my age." he teased.

Ebony, glad that her brother had had her wear shorts under her skirt, decided it would be fun to drop down onto all fours and skuttle after the platypus, looking at things around the creature's eye level as well.

Adelaide seems to find this a very amusing game, and so, quickens her pace, chasing Ebby like a puppy would try and initiate a chasing game.

This seems to soothe the toddler quite a bit, and, like a switch, she's back to happy again. She beams up at him with those tiny pearly whites and rubs her wet eyes with her sleeve. She's quickly getting hot, and though her little winter outfit is indeed cute, it's also very insulating. She unzips her jacket and wiggles out of it, still atop Bailey's lap, making amusing faces as she does. Her left wrist gets caught, probably on all those plastic bracelets, and she impatiently shakes it to try and get her hand free.

Boom

Crack

Sizzle

A flurry of lights and sound set off in the corner suddenly--apparently the girl with the smug grin had snuck in unnoticed and set them up there. Grinning, Ajiiel looked around for anybody she knew...and spotted Bailey, surrounded. Well, that was allright. She'd just entertain herself by herself! She still had a few other treats tucked into her pockets. They could wait until later, though. Her adoptive mother would be coming in at any second to look for her.

Quickly--before any of the staff at the rink had time to realize who must've set them off, she headed over to the skate rental booth and snagged a pair, sitting down next to Bailey (oh all right, she couldn't resist at least saying hi!) to put them on.

"Heya!" She gave the older boy a smile, distinctly ignoring the girls clustered about him-- they weren't -shiny- or terribly interesting, as far as she could tell.

Bailey carefully held Elegy's hand still and helped her remove the jacket cuff that was stuck. "There you go." he told her with a grin before turning to smile down at Ajiiel.

"Hey, how're you doing, Ajii? Having fun with explosions?" the boy teased warm-heartedly. It was obvious on his face and in his tone that he was just being friendly and joking around with the girl, no harm or insult intended. "My Mom could show you a thing for two about making things go boom later on. She mentioned she might follow us here."

Ebby giggled and chased the platypus right back, the two of them going around in a circle for a bit. "Silly Addy."

The rather delinquent girl grinned,
"S'that right? Shiori won't let me mess with anything more dangerous than cherry bombs," she unlaced the shoelaces of the skates, "But what she doesn't know can't hurt her..."

As if summoned by her words,Ajiiel's guardian walked into the room, cast about calmly before her eyes settled on the girl, and then relaxed visibly, noticing no harm had been done to any one or any thing. She knew better than to bother reminding Ajiiel she was not to run off by herself in public-- the girl listened even less when around others than she did while alone.

Smiling, she noticed the rather shy duo of Dare and Jamie and headed over to them,
"Hello there, I'm Shiori and that is my...charge, Ajiiel," she motioned to where Ajiiel was making even more a point of ignoring Shiori than she had the girls and sticking her foot into the skates.

It's a good thing Bailey did it for her, for if she had been left to free her arm by herself, Elly would have been in that jacket all day, especially after the light show of the newest visitor. She sits, gape-mouthed, and is very impressed that the new person also knows Bailey. Everyone knows Bailey!

She falls silent, a rare occurrence for the toddler, and hugs Bailey with her jacket between them.

Adelaide lets out a sort of growl and nips harmlessly at Ebby's heel. All it does it graze her bill against the girl's skin, more like tickling than anything. Addy scuttles ahead, grinning maniacally.

Ebony giggled and scuttled right after the speedy little critter. This was fun!


Bailey gently pat Elegy's head. "Yeah. If you happen to be outside or in the fish tunnel later and spot her, ask her and she might give you some tips." he commented quietly to Ajiiel.

Jamie smiled nervously at Shiori , it was always weird when adults took interest in him. " I"m Jamie" He moved a hand from it's corresponding wheel to reach for hers. It was polite here to shake the hands of strangers.

Dare's orange eyes brightened at the company " I'm Alisdare or just Dare for short." His looked over at Ajiel " You have a spirited child." The man was thankful Jamie couldn;t get into any real trouble quite yet

Shiori gave the man a sardonic grin, shaking the offered hand from Jamie
"You have -no- idea," she assured him, "What did she do now?"

Ajiiel finished putting on her skates, winking at Bailey,
"I'll have to keep that in mind..."
She was interested in Jamie, however. That wheelchair -was- awfully shiny. Besides, she was curious if the boy would be able to skate somehow in it,
"I didn't do -anything-, Shiori," she assured her guardian, lying expertly, "Can you skate in that?'

Dare laughed softly at the girl's lie but chose not to really turn her in " She was just being, well a kid I suppose, nothing much." He didn't remember being nearly that lively when he was young but then again he'd spent most of his time around far more crazy children and he'd been the voice of reason.

Releasing Shiori's hand Jamie nodded " It rolls fine on anything flat." With the roller rink just being flat concrete there wouldn't be a problem for him. Still, the boy looked down a bit jealously at the girl's skate clad feet. There was no way he could cram his feet and roots into anything like that.

Ajiiel grinned, "Awesome!" she grabbed the handles on his wheelchair and pushed it forward, trudging her way towards the rink proper,
"C'mon, lets go!"

She had plans, but they could wait. This wheelchair was fascinating, and she wanted to see what it could do. The kid looked like he'd let her get away with it.

"Ajiiel!" Shiori called after the girl, knowing she'd be ignored but wanting to make the attempt anyways,
"You can't just drag people around like that! You should've asked him if he -wanted- to go skate."

The girl turned around, sticking her tongue out at her guardian,
"He wants to skate! You can tell! Don't you?" she asked, not stopping as she pushed him forward.

Jamie was startled by the girl's sudden command of his source of mobility. " I can roll myself" he said softly, not denying that that he wanted to skate but not wanting to feel like he had to be pushed .Certainly the wheelchair moved faster when pushed and there was a great deal more that could be done with it by someone older and stronger than him. Still, Jamie wasn't a complete cripple and it was weird being pushed when he didn't need to be. Not that his sister Brianna wasn't known for doing the same thing.

Dare just shook his head " Very spirited and don't worry too much about Jamie. if it starts to overwhelm him he'll let us know." The boy was the quiet sort but easy enough to read if you knew what to look for.

Ajiiel grinned,
"Let's see how fast you -zoom- over the skating rink" She shoved the wheelchair over the edge of the rink and started skating, pushing it before her. The wheelchair zipped around, but Ajiiel-- being a pilot in her previous life-- had no difficulty keeping up with it. In fact, she rather seemed to enjoy the challenge of keeping it going as fast as possible without Jamie falling out of it.

"'m Ajiiel, by the way," she said as an afterthought,
"You?"

Jamie clutched tight to the arms of his wheel chair. Just becuase his roots often entangled themselves in it's workings each day didn't mean he couldn't get thrown from it. Besides he was being driven by a girl who threw explosives. Still, as the second past and no harm came to him Jamie couldn't help but grin, this was fun with the world whirring by and the girl seemed to have intentions of letting him get hurt.

" Aijiiel is pretty" he replied " I'm Jamie." Thinking about it the former doctor noted that their names shared many similar letters.