Welcome to Gaia! ::

It had taken all of Hartley's considerable will to get Viviane to remove her scarf and yellow sweatshirt. They had so long been a part of her outfit that she was unwilling to part with them, even with the weather getting increasingly warm. That lead to concerns on Hartley's part, mostly concerning whether or not her strange little centaur girl could get heatstroke. What would she tell the hospital? "I'm sorry, my centaur passed out. Can you send an ambulance?" Uh, no.

Finally, Hartley had won. Now Viviane was standing with her brown arms folded across her chest, looking distinctly uncomfortable in her pale blue shirt. Hartley happened to think it was a rather cute little shirt, but that could have been because she bought the clothing to begin with. It matched the shirt that Viviane had 'come' with, so to speak. Besides, blue set off Viviane's white horse legs.

"Look, don't you want to play in the park? It'll be fuuunnn," she wheedled, trying to get Viviane to come out from the back of the station wagon Hartley had taken up driving. It belonged to her roommate, but Morgan didn't seem to mind her borrowing it. It was the only vehicle Viviane could really fit into. There were distinct disadvantages to having the legs of a horse, and fitting into a car was one of them. But Viviane was just too strange looking for Hartley to feel comfortable walking her about, and this park was relatively obscure. It wasn't that she was embarrassed of her charge- far from it. She just didn't want people to point and stare, or worse yet, mock Viv. The poor little thing was so fragile!

"Viv, look at the grass! It has flowers and clover!" It was a last ditch attempt, but Hartley wasn't throwing in the towel just yet. This was her ace in the hole. Viviane loved, for whatever reason, to eat grasses and flower, especially clover. It probably had something to do with being part horse.

With obvious reluctance, Viviane emerged from the back part of the car, stumbling slightly as she did so. Her legs still weren't entirely steady, though they grew stronger as every day passed. "The grass... it's so tall!" she cried out, and then ran forward with joy and abandon.

Holly loved a good competition, so long as she was the winner, and Nyx was usually willing to play along. However, when the girl picked hide and seek as the game for the day, Nyx failed to accound for the fact that half of her was green, perfectly blending in to most of the blooming foliage around the park. So, for a change, it appeared that Holly was winning all on her own, and that perhaps she was a bit too good at hiding. By this point, the navy-toned woman had become concerned that some giant half-bird had run off with her adopted child. After all, this was Gaia: weirder things had happened.

However, without the context, it seemed somewhat out of place for a grown woman to be strolling the park all on her lonesome, scouring the ground and the trees with worried glances. She half-jogged out to the open fields, where she could see other children frolicking about--but there was no black half-pony in sight.

Just about then, a particularly tall patch of grass let out a shrill giggle and moved. Nyx turned, her ears swivelled forward, and with a haphazard grin she walked towards the area, her steps slow and smooth. Gradually, the squeaky laughs increased in both pitch and volume, until with one quick movement the woman scooped up the caterpillar into her arms, twirling her around once for good measure.

"I'm a good hider, aren't I?" Holly giggled, grinning with her trademark dimpled smile. "Aren't I aren't I aren't I???"

"You about scared me to death," responded Nyx, holding her newfound daughter close. "Next time, if I say 'you win', you just need to come out, okay?"

"Ooooo, people!" Holly shrieked, attempting to wriggle her way free. Once away from the restraining arms of her mother, she bounded over towards a man and a grey blob of a person, who seemed about her age but not nearly as attractive.

"I'm Holly," she said to the blob with a precocious smile, twirling the end of her ponytail with a finger. Suppressing a giggle, she leaned forward and tapped the boy on the shoulder, letting out a squeal of excitement as she did so. "Tag! You're it!"

Perhaps Madeline was feeling a little sad that her eldest son is already old enough to drive a car and stay out late. Or maybe she holds some sort of regrets for not spending as much time as she can with Taig when he was little. Whatever the reason, it's only her and Dai out in the park today, strolling along at a leisurely pace, Dai's hooves clip-clopping on the pavement to kill any stealth the pair might have as they round the corner.

"Look!" Maddy urges, jerking Daimhin's beefy arm in her excitement. "See? There are always mothers bringing their children here. I knew this was a good idea."

Dai looks up at his mom with sad eyes, and sighs quietly to himself, staring at the pavement in front of his hooves as he walks. Whenever his mum brings him to one of these things, he always finds himself in the awkward situation of having to talk to strangers and pretend to make friends, and be nice.. all that stuff.

As they close in on the group of similarly partly animal toddlers, Dai hopes that these children aren't too forceful or hyper or mean.. He approaches with a furrowed brow, a slight pout, and a downward gaze just ahead of his path of walking.

Holly looked with wide eyes at the horse girl, first because she had been tall and now because she wasn't. It never occured to her with any seriousness that she could have been the cause for the girl's fright, but nevertheless she said, "Sorrysorry!", ever so certain that her reassurances would comfort her. She pouted, trying to show that she did truly understand, but her attention was broken by the declaration of someone else being 'It'.

"Aaaah! He's It! Run away!" She said with a laugh, squirming away from the horned boy with a wide grin on her face. It wasn't that she didn't want to be friendly: she just didn't want to be 'It'. After all, being 'It' was a social status killer among toddlers and young children: it sent everyone else away, and Holly certainly didn't want that.