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Marissa shuffled around nervously. She was positive everyone would love Oqaia, but it was always an anxious task, welcoming a new member into the household. She was pouring punch when people began to arrive.

The first she noticed was Latpas, peering in through the window, whom she hadn't seen in awhile. Marissa scampered to open the door. "Lattie! Long time no see! Come in, please- and hello there, Kitter. How are you?"

Next was Kit. "Hey babe, welcome, I'll have to take you up on that offer of tea, Cole's here for Looly to play with...Hi Huni! Welcome, come on in, refreshments over here...Oh!"

She had almost forgotten. "Everyone, this is Oqaia, my new house-mate."

She grinned at all the attention, but the various blank-eyed stares of the infants or the howls were a little much for the muse. She felt a strong desire to have large, poofy sleeves... and wondered which of the surrounding infants/mothers were imposing that desire on her. She tucked away the feeling, knowing that if she dared go to sleep or enter a dark room, she'd come out with the damnable puffy sleeves. Oqaia grinned.

"Nice to meet all of you. ...Although I'm sure I'll forget all of your names." More people were filtering in, and she turned to greet them, too.

((A little while longer- I'll give someone else the chance to come in before I godmod everyone in here. ^____^))

((((aaaaaand... godmoded. ))))) mrgreen

Everyone was there. Oqaia looked around at the number of people and their very special children, feeling- as she always did in the presence of a crowd- the desire to be any of a million things at once. ...And still with the puffy sleeves. What is WITH these people, she thought with a laugh as she bent down to greet the boy.

"Hello Luel," she said, and reached out to shake his tiny hand when all of a sudden... the lights flickered, and went dead.

Oqaia had only lived there for about a week, but something told her that it wasn't too unusual for the old house to do what it pleased. She put her hands out, only realizing after they were in the upright 'stay calm' position that no one could see them through the blank darkness.

"Everyone stay calm. The generator will probably pick it up soon enough."

As if on cue, the lights sprung back into action. Oqaia turned to finish her greeting... but the little boy was gone. She looked puzzled, wondering where the boy must have run to, scared in the dark. But then she saw something that made her think that maybe... he hadn't run off.

Noi, who had been strapped into her stroller... was also gone. The straps that had been holding her in were still tightly fastened, but inside, no little girl remained.


Note: You cannot find your infants. They have disappeared. Aka, no going 'look, he's under the table'. ^_^*bwa ha ha*....

Latpas' mouth dropped open when the lights blinked off without warning, partly because she was about to greet Marissa's new housemate, and partly because (and she wouldn't admit it to anyone) she was terrified of the dark. A cool voice spoke, but she was too busy clutching Kitrye for dear life to hear what was being said. When the lights clicked back on, she found that her eyes were squinched tightly shut, but maybe no one would notice.

And they probably wouldn't. The general gaze of the room was centered on an empty stroller, and a vacant spot on the floor. Her mouth crept open again -- she seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Hadn't there been two Souls there before? ...where could they have gone?.. she wondered nervously, and shifted Kitrye into a firmer hold.

Marissa barely flinched when the lights went off. She was used to that sort of thing happening in the Gallery, and waited patiently until the lights came back. They did, just as she had faith in them to do, and shook the peculiar feeling that had crept up her shoulders. "No like," Cole burbled unhappily.

Marissa was about to give a cheery collooh callay to the inhabitants of the room, but stopped dead when she noticed Metanoia and Luel were no where to be seen.

"Oh...no..." she muttered, barely audible.

Oqaia blinked her eyes back at Kit, but she shrugged. "Um... no. He disappeared. He and... well, the one in the stroller," Oqaia said, not having been introduced to Metanoia yet, "maybe they wandered off when the lights went out." She looked at Marissa, who had an inexplicable expression on her face.

"Maybe we should spread out and look for them..." she said, feeling that desire as being overwhelmingly pressed on her by the parents in the room. She, personally, didn't speak with much urgency- mostly because she didn't see what the big deal was. As a muse, her children disappeared often- she'd not seen her son Ormel or Bross in weeks. But as muse-children, they would likely pop up again sometime soon- and likely with someone new. So Oqaia was a bit baffled to be standing in the middle of all this worried chaos.

"Here, why don't we all split up- maybe into twos, so you can watch each other's Souls... and then we'll find... uh oh.." The lights flickered.

"Grab hold o' your Souls!" She cried, almost like a carnival barker, as the lights went dead... again.

When the lights came on, mere seconds later, one parent stood with empty arms, clasped around air as if to keep it from moving. Oqaia bit her lip.

"Sorry, Memory," she said. Celestyn was gone.

Kit flinched in a sort of whole body shiver, and got back up to her feet, although not before picking la lune up. She absentmindedly crossed her arms as her brain slowly ticked over assessing the situation, cuddling the spherical la lune against her chest.
Her thoughts were rudely interrupted as the lights flickered, her brows furrowing as a burst of light shone out for a final time and then ceased to work at all. "Well, Luel's not a speedy walker to say the least so he ain't gone far," she began, "and Noi, well she was in her pushchair, not even I can undo the straps on those." Kit sighed deeply once again, panic slowly washing over her as the lights flicked back on and the words of 'Sorry Memory' from Oqaia echoed in her ears.
Her head spun to look in the direction of Memory "Three gone?" She resumed biting her lip, "Definitely sounds like a good idea to split up and look," she nodded confidently although talking through clenched teeth, trying to reassure everyone but more-so just trying to reassure herself.
"I hope he's ok.." she muttered finally, slumping back against the wall, staring blankly at the floor beneath her.