Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ding-ding-ding!

Buzz-buzz-buzz!

"WINNER! WINNER!"

"YOU CAN DO IT, TRY AGAIN!"

The noises of the machines were everywhere, accompanied by painfully flashing bright lights and the shrill squealing and shrieking of excited (and often frustrated) children. In short, it was nothing less than complete torture for Jadyn - and the coolest thing that Phoebe had ever seen. The hybrid child looked around wildly, her head turning in every direction as if she were trying to take in every single sight at once. It seemed as if she'd already had twenty barrels of sugar-loaded sodas and carb-loaded pizza-slices, but the pinkette hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning, which contrary to appearances had been simple scrambled eggs and toast, with only a glass of apple juice as a sugar-provider.

Why, again, had Jadyn decided to drag her hyperactive child here?

"Oooooh, J-Mama! Look at that dance game! Can I try it? Can I try it? Pleeeeeeaaaase? I'll beat the high score and win the best prizes and - and I'll givey ou one J-Mama so you don't have to play!" Phoebe pleaded and offered at the same time, her long ears twitching as she wrung her tails in her hands, bouncing back and forth on her feet and leaving small scratched on the flooring as she did so.

Giving a little wave, Jadyn adjusted her sunglassed and took a seat at one of the pizza tables, grabbing a book out of her purse so that she would have something to do. She looked at her almost-twitching child and grinned a bit, before shrugging and opening her book. "That's what we're here for - go to town, Pheebs," she said, watching her child race off to the games and making sure she wasn't looking her way before subtly inserting some earplugs into her ears and turning to her book. Maybe this time she wouldn't be leaving the place with a headache.

Meanwhile, Phoebe stalked the dance-time machines and watched some other kids practicing on a few, before spying the nearest unoccupied one and pouncing onto it, her toeclaws making a 'screeeeech' sound against the metal as she landed. The words "ARE YOU READY?" flashed up on the screen, and Phoebe took a deep breath, readying herself for whatever was to come.

"READY" flashed the sign, and Phoebe dug her feet in, her toeclaws scraping the paint off of the pad and causing small sparks to shoot up alongside them.

"SET" the sign read, and Phoebe tensed, moments away from taking the dance-queen crown away form whoever held the title on this machine. . . but as the "LET'S DANCE" flashed, she was hauled roughly away from the machine by an irritated-looking staff member, who scowled at her, pointed out the damage to the machine's floor, and told her in a no-nonsense tone to find some other games to play.

Crushed and disappointed, Phoebe thought about kicking the teenager in the shins. Knowing that her J-mama would be mad at her for hurting someone, though, and that she really didn't want to hack the guy's leg to the bone, Phoebe simply huffed and moved away from the dance machines, giving them one last longing look before she wound more deeply into the depths of the games, looking for something that seemed even half as interesting.

Looking around, she spotted a bunch of busy and active kids, including. . . wait, that kid looked odd and cool - in the same kind of way all the spawn looked to her eyes. Maybe. . . well, maybe she could do something here, after all.

Jadyn almost purred as she read a particularly .... interesting... passage in her book. Okay, maybe this wasn't the most appropriate book to be reading in a children's restaurant, but hey, it was entertaining! She was fortunate in the fact that not many people could tell when a dark elf was blushing - and in the fact that the only others over here were bored parents keeping half an eye on overly-energized children who were zooming around like they'd all consumed a gallon's worth of soda pop in the last ten minutes.

Phoebe spotted the younger boy - spawn, she was sure of it!- smiling at her, and gave him a little wave. "Hi!" she chirped, the sting of being ejected from her favorite game not entirely gone, but put behind her for the moment at the prospect of meeting a new person. "I'm Phoebe! What's you're name? What's this game like? Is it any good? Does it give you prizes?" With every word that she spoke, her feathered tail twisted behind her, and her ears flicked as she followed the sounds of the games going on around her.

Her strangely pink eye kept going all funny on her, but she ignored it in favor of conversing with the new person in front of her.

Jadyn paid no attention to the others around her - in fact she was completely lost in her own world, enjoying the situations in the book far more than her physical situation. Why wasn't there a Darcencio in her own life?!? It just wasn't fair.

Phoebe watched as the ball landed in the five-point hole and clapped excitedly. "What a great throw! Can I try?" she asked, privately convinced that she could do even better, but she'd finally begun to learn that it wasn't always best to voice such feelings, since it upset other people and made them not want to be her friend.

Jadyn's ear twitched - somehow she'd heard that chuckle, even past her earplugs. Pulling one out, she turned to the source of the amusement, a nearly invisible flush still on her face. "Is there a problem?" she asked, an eyebrow arching as she waited for a response.

Phoebe returned the boy's pointy-toothed smile at her with a -less pointy- smile of her own, and took the ball, trying to roll it up, managing to get it in the one-point ring, if no better. "Oh. . . guess I'm not very good at this," she said with a frown, hating to admit her faults even as she did it. "My name's Phoebe," she offered after a moment, handing one of the balls to the other kid. "What's your name?"

Phoebe clapped excitedly and twirled around on the spot. "Congratulations, congratulations!" she cheered, before reaching over and patting Church on the head."My name's Phoebe, can you show me how to play this?" She asked, turning a dazzling smile on the younger spawn. "I don't get to play the dance game that I really like, so. . . . maybe I can like this game instead!"

Jadyn scowled and resisted the urge to throw her book at the ogre's head - or something a little sharper and pointier, that unbeknown to her daughter she kept hidden under the sleeves of her top. "Yes, I am. And your point would be?"

Phoebe nodded and giggled. "Okay," she said cheerfully, then patted Church's hand and shot him a winning smile, adding, "Maybe you can show me some more though? So I can do it better next time I try!"

Jadyn grumbled something in dark elvish under her breath, and shrugged. "There's not much to tell from my end, I've been living in Gaia for a long, long time," she said. And it was true - she didn't actually even know just how long she HAD been living in this part of the world - or where she'd been before, if there was a before. Good lord, maybe she was getting old - never mind that she was barely out of her teens, elf-wise. She still felt an ancient on most days.

"Yeah, please," Phoebe said, clapping her hands for the toddler - whether this game was really that hard or not, he was definitely proud of himself, and she was having more fun watching him be proud than bragging on herself, for once. this was particularly amusing since little Church wasn't even a pride child - she would have been able to tell that fairly quickly, she thought, but he was definitely a spawn of some sort.

Jadyn nodded thoughtfully. "I own a bookstore; it's got a couple of different entrances - er, locations you could say."

"You're really, really good at this," Phee cheered, clapping her hands for the toddler. He was so proud of himself, and her own sense of pride flared in response. Pride was never a bad thing, in her mind. "So, do you get any prizes for a game like this?" she asked curiously, tail swaying back and forth as she watched Church score again.

"Yes, yes, I know all of that," Jadyn said idly, waving a hand around in boredom. "Which makes me wonder. . . why exactly are you here? I'd think the monotony of this place would tire you soon enough," the dark elf added glancing around at the overstimulating environment.