Welcome to Gaia! ::

Dear journal:


Orion came to sleep with me the other night because he had a nightmare. It was a bit weird and he drooled on me but that's not the really bad part. he told me what he dreamed about and well I don't know how to help him.

Before today I didn't know much about the trip he'd taken on that airship. Just that he was gone a few days, never reached the jellyfish and dad had to go rescue him. Sometimes he'd talk about how he learned sailing terms and to tie rope knots and stuff but then he'd go all quiet and not talk about it to me. I think dad and Emily know what happened but i never got the real story.

Today though he told me, there were bug that ate most of the food so they had to go hunting really soon into the trip. He told me that he wasn't strong enough to actually hunt so he had to help clean up the food when it came back and it was all warm and bloody when he skinned it. I don't know why he didn't just come home then.

Anyways that wasn't the worst part, they were just about to head into the desert when one of the guys went all crazy and jumped right off the boat after some sort of magical moth. The kid, Red was his name, is still in a coma because of how he landed on the trees. I don't know if that's better than being dead or not.

Orion just started having nightmares about it though and swore that when he woke up he could see Red in his room so he came to sleep with me. I hope a ghost or something isn't really haunting him because you can't fight ghosts without magic and i don't have any.

I can't do much for my brother cept let him sleep with me and tell him it will be okay. Maybe I guess I could take him to the hospital that Red kid is at. That might be weird though and make it worse. I'm not sure what the best idea is and I can't even ask grown ups about it either.

Maybe I'll call Tori if he doesn't mind her knowing.

~ Carina

Seated comfortably in a new computer chair Bastion smiled softly as he placed his fingers on the home row and began working on a personal journal entry.
http://i52.tinypic.com/v6281x.png

October 13th, 2010;

Halloween is quickly approaching and despite being a grown man I couldn't be more excited. Perhaps it is just my inner child speaking but there is something uniquely magical about this time of year that has nothing to do with free candy and being on Gaia. Either way I intend to celebrate as I always do. Orders have already been sent out to the staff on what needs to be done to get the Manor appropriately decorated both inside and out.

It's a little frivolous I know but I think Carina and Orion will enjoy it. Things inside are more tasteful, starting with a changing of carpets and furniture to more fall colours. The chandeliers get swapped out for black wrought iron ones that hold magical candles. They provide ample light, are spelled not to catch fire and save on the electric bill. The atmosphere they create is dark but not dreary. Over the years I've found that neither myself not the staff feel too overwhelmed by the changes made indoors. It's not a haunted mansion inside just a manor decorated festively for the season. A little extra work to get into the spirit of things.

Outside thought is admittedly another matter. We do get plenty of trick or treaters around these parts and I like for them to find this place exciting to come to year after year. There are tons of decorations surrounding the place and leading up to the front doors. It's meant to be a right experience for them, complete with sound effects and special lighting, so that when they finally get up here to claim their candy it feels like a reward.

I still need to decide what candy I'm giving out this year and pick up the pumpkins to carve in a few weeks. Until then though I'll focus on getting the kid's costumes and making sure the rest of the preparations unfold as they should. I want their first Halloween with me and perhaps their only one as children to be special.

Bastion Revington.

Multi pov

It had been back in February when Bastion had brought Carina and Orion to Greenbelt farms to see the petting zoo it boasted. Both his children had been younger then and excited for the chance to get out of the house and do something new together. They'd also had a chance meeting with another of Orion's kind though unlikely they'd run into another herald today.

Still it was sort of nice to be back here, even if Bastion was still not entirely comfortable on a farm. They hadn't really taken a family trip in a while and while he was doing his best to not utterly ignore his children Bastion could tell there was resentment at times when their want and need of him conflicted with his work schedule. It was not easy to balance his job and being a decent parent.

Today though was for them, ok and for him but it was still a family thing, he'd asked them to come along and help pick out the pumpkins that would become the jack -o - lanterns he'd line the driveway with for Halloween. Normally the man just ordered the pumpkins from a nearby farm and had them delivered to the manor, this year though he wanted to include Orion and Carina in the act of picking them out, something they could all do together.

" Just stick a ribbon on the stem or shell of the pumpkin you want and then look for another one." He explained as he handed out two pre-prepared packages of bright blue ribbon with sticky backing; not dissimilar to what one used on Christmas presents." Once you're out of ribbons you can go pet the animals or play in the corn maze while the farm hands and I load the pumpkins into the van." The regular cars and limo not really being suited to transport like this Bastion had opted to drive the only SUV he owned instead.

Orion nodded " Okay I'm going to go pick out some white ones," he chirped with a slightly rustle of his papery wings before taking off towards the smaller section of the pumpkin patch that featured the rarer white pumpkins.

" I claim the giant ones," Carina shot her father a cheeky grin before taking her package of ribbons and stalking off in the direction of the largest gourds the patch had to offer.

Bastion shook his head and sighed slightly, so much for picking things out together. Perhaps, he mused, while digging out his own ribbons, he needed a different tactic. He was sure they hadn't grown beyond spending time with him yet but maybe family activities were no longer interesting to them. Or perhaps he'd misjudged the type of activity to choose by making them think they should compete to find the best pumpkins.

Whatever the truth was he'd figure it out another day, today Bastion was just going to go along with things.

~

Carina, now finished placing all her ribbons, was a little surprised that Orion was opting not to venture into the corn maze with her. This sort of thing was his element and while she wasn't likely to get horribly lost without him it was still a bit weird to be going in alone. Although, the girl mused, she did plan to cheat a little and use her powers to draw a map on her arm so she could keep track of where she had already been, spending forever accidentally backtracking could get really frustrating and embarrassing.

A few minutes later the redhead was deep within the large maze. Tall dried stalks of corn towered over her and prevented Carina from seeing anyone else in the maze or seeing where each diverting path lead her. That was the point of course but it was a little unsettling when the wind picked up and Carina couldn't be quite sure of what she heard. Was the rustle to her left corn stalks rubbing together or someone trudging their way towards her? Carina had been through a lot of strange and unnerving things lately and this was just another to add to the list.

Still, as she forced herself deeper into the maze, attempting to find her way out, Carina found herself less tense and breathing easier. She knew she was safe here and while she had jumped when a fat , grey furred rodent, she hadn't been able to tell if it was a mouse or rat, scurried past it hadn't been the sort of scare that left her confused or her mouth tasting funny. Although she was going to insist her father wash the pumpkins before she touched them again.

Carina wasn't quite like most of the kids who traipsed through corn mazes giggling and chasign each other but she was still having fun. She could still enjoy trying to navigate the labyrinth based on guesses and foots prints in the sort of those who had come before her.

~
While Carina went off to try and navigate the corn maze, Orion headed towards what remained of the petting zoo they had visited in early spring. There were of course no baby animals there anymore, as they had grown up over the summer and early fall like he himself had. Still the herald found a few of the friendlier former lambs had been penned up to be fed and petted as well as the nearly full grown spring calves.

There was something the blond couldn't explain about why he enjoyed petting the animals. They were warm and soft but also smelly, and dirty. They weren't as smart as some animals he knew either, still Orion found some sort of comfort in letting his fingers trail over their fleece and hide. Maybe because he had met Michael here or because he knew these animals weren't going to be shot at?

Whatever it was about them that soothed the herald also made Orion smile, even when the sheep nibbled on his new winter jacket. Animals were simple things and right now for Orion, simple was good. He probably could have navigated the twists and turns of the corn maze faster than his sister but he'd resisted the challenge. Somehow here with the smelly breathed calves and play biting sheep felt like the right place to be.

~
By the time the ribbon marked pumpkins had been carefully loaded into the back of the van Carina and Orion had returned to Bastion's side. He smiled down at them as he pulled the top of the van's hatch down. "Alright we're done here, what do you say to stopping for some fudge on the way home." The twin grins that sprouted on his children's faces was all the answer Bastion needed.

It looked like he'd found something they could do together after all.

"Ampharos is ugly compared to it's pre-evolutions, but it learns better moves faster." Ai frowned , the android girl's currently blue eyes flicked between the console in her hands to Carina's face as she spoke. The girl's voice was flat as she stated a fact but her eyes held a spark of questioning in them.

Carina though wasn't quite sure how to respond to her cousin's question. To be honest she wasn't really sure how to respond to Ai at all, they'd only met briefly before and each encounter with the small not quite human girl was unsettling. The way Ai's eyes changed colour signalling a change in personality, the way she was so small but so smart and most of all the way she seemed devoid of attachment to anything made Carina uncomfortable.

It wasn't that her cousin was evil or mean just distant in a way that made her skin crawl a bit. Sometimes she felt as if Ai wasn't really looking at people so much as just seeing them as things that were around. It was weird to listen to her talk about her guardians as if they were nearly strangers, she knew them really well but Carina couldn't detect a trace of love or affection or admiration in the other's voice at all.

Nell and Colin were nice people and Carina found them to be a great aunt and uncle respectively. There wasn't any reason she could see not to like them. Her uncle was musician and even now when her life was going through so much upheaval and everything wore on her he could made her smile with a little tune. He'd even let her draw a random little score for him to play on her arms and made it sound good!

Ai though, Ai just said he played well and that she wanted to learn someday. It was like she couldn't really music music or express how it made her feel or pride she might feel in her guardian. Carina didn't quite know how her cousin could live like that.

"Would you keep the Flaffy or let it evolve?"

Carina was drawn from her wondering thoughts back to the question at hand. Did aesthetics matter over functionality? In the real world things that worked better and faster were a must for the curio, but in a game it was harder to say, especially when there was more at hand than just one thing working. " I dunno I guess it depends on the rest of my team and if I'd need those better moves sooner instead of being able to wait?"

Ai gave a soft almost mechanic hum as she nodded slowly and returned her gaze to the little handheld system.

Her part over Carina smiled a little. Ok Ai was odd and too smart sometimes but for the moment she had just been incredibly helpful. It had been nice to be able to help someone which what was to them a serious dilemma without it having to come back and haunt her in some way. It was a small thing but it was enough, at least for that moment to make Carina grateful for the fact that her cousin existed and that she was the way she was.