Welcome to Gaia! ::

The sun had finally set, the last tendrils of gold retreating back beyond the horizon. The field had already been carefully cleared of any excess brush and debris; wouldn't want anything being caught by the wind with the fire going, after all. The fire was already started and burning, the flames dancing and skittering across the pile of wood. Around the area, picnic tables had been set out and benches were arranged around the fire. Nearby, the food table was arranged, Darcy placing the last tray of hot dogs among the other foods: sausages, marshmallows and other s'mores ingredients, cake, cookies, cupcakes, hamburgers, and a colorful assortment of soft drinks and juices. And water, but that was the boring option.

"Happy birthday to me, I am turning three~" The purple haired teen trailed off into giggles, pulling the marshmallow she'd been roasting and blowing out the small fire that had started on it. Still giggling, she nommed on her marshmallow; nothing was better than ooey-gooey sugary numminess. Well, there was one thing: friends! And soon, everyone would be coming, and then they could all have fun, and it would be awesometastic! She was sure of it. This was going to be a spifferific party.

Aaron sat by the fire, tossing in a few logs and boards here and there to keep it going. He glanced over at his sister, who was still fussing over the arrangement of the food. "Darcy, it looks fine." he said, for what had to be at least the fifteenth time that evening. He smiled lightly, shaking his head before standing to his feet and stretching. The guests could arrive at any time now; couldn't just sit around like a lazy bum, now could he?

Darcy rolled her eyes, fiddling with a plate of cupcakes. "I know, I know." she said, chuckling. It didn't matter how it looked; she was bored out of her wits, waiting for people to show up. Sighing, she scooped up a cupcake, fiddling with the paper at the bottom. "How long you think they're going to take to get here? A party's not much fun without people." she pondered, glancing back to her brother.

Out a way's away from the fire, the youngest of the Azoulai family were situated in the grass, playing with fireflies and stargazing. Well, trying to stargaze, but the clouds kept interfering.

Even though Howl wasn't supposed to be around Darcy (he had told himself this, to attempt to keep himself from causing more trouble), it was Jaella's birthday. And every year, Howl brought the purple haired gps a special gift. Last year, it had been something along the lines of a teddy bear. This year it was something far more unique; something far more powerful. Howl had made it himself. Well, he had enchanted it, anyway. It had originally been a faux diamond necklace, but the teenager had enchanted it so it changed colors on command--or depending on the wearer's mood. Not to be mistaken as one of those cheap mood necklaces that changed colors due to a person's body temp; this necklace radiated light of each color. It would become any color Jaella so chose.

As long as it was an actual color. If she wanted something like 'super duper rainbow purple!' it would not happen.

But naturally, if she asked for something like 'dragon green', it would. Howl made his way over to the birthday girl, beaming at his friend. "Hey, Jae," he greeted. "Er, sorry about the cat thing...I brought you this. Open it! Open it!" He thrust the gift into her arms. "Happy birthday! You know, I said this last year, but you get even more beautiful everytime I see you. Are you sure you wouldn't like going on a date with me?"

So saying, he wandered over to Darcy, not even waiting for a response from the birthday girl. He smirked at the older girl (though she looked about the same age). "Hello, Darcy," he greeted, offering her a quickly summoned rose. "The sunset doesn't hold nearly as much beauty as you do." Of course, he was lying through his teeth. He hated Darcy with a passion; but all in all, she was still a girl, and when there was a girl around, he simply could not resist flirting.

From inside the rather large box Howl'd given her, a shadow burst out. "Pu?" Puff greeted Jaella, before waving his feather duster at her. "Pu pu pu uff! Puff!"

Katia and Dimitri didn't know who this 'Jaella' girl was. They'd never met her in their lives; so, when the invitation had appeared in the mail, there had been a lot of argument on whether or not they would go.
Viktor recognized the last name on the invitation as that of the strange girl who had thrust Dimitri upon him, and insisted that they stay home, lest something happen to them. Of course, Katia had seen the words 'marshmallow' and 'bonfire', and would not be deterred from what she wanted. Dimitri didn't care either way; even if Viktor had told him he was not allowed to go, he would have taken off in the dead of the night anyways.

Luka was as excited as Katia to go, zipping around the house and chirruping as he tried to tell Viktor how fun it was going to be. Of course, as usual, nobody understood the hodgepodge of syllables he spat out, and so his opinion did not matter.

Katia did, however, manage to convince their father to let her go. And she even convinced him to go with them.

So, carrying a brightly wrapped box filled with tubes upon tubes of glitter glue (Katia was convinced that any girl in her right mind would adore such a gift) they made their way to the large field. Viktor was wary, but unable to deny Katia what she wanted. He was, after all, wrapped around her little finger.

Dimitri hurried ahead as he saw the flames, a grin breaking out on his face.
"Oh, cool! Check out how big it is!" He said, skidding to a stop at the edge of the clearing to wait for his father and sister. Katia giggled as she walked up, looking around.
"Which one do you think is Jaella? I want to give her the gift!" It was wrapped in pink and purple paper with a large violet bow on top of it; really, it was a ridiculously large bow, almost as big as the one Luka was wearing around his waist. He seemed to think that the ribbon counted as 'fancy clothing', and was zipping around Viktor's head and playing with it.

"Lu! Lu, Ja!" He chirped, and Viktor scowled at him.
"Are you ever still?"

Luka didn't respond, though, spotting Puff already. With a squeal of delight, he zipped over, and Katia yelled, following.
"Luka! You aren't supposed to go attack people! Luka!!!"

Meanwhile, another family was entering the large field, albeit with less chaos. Adam was happily trotting next to his mother, his tail contained in it's customary bandages. He also had a gift for the girl, wrapped in orange paper. Because really, orange was the best colour. What was inside wasn't orange though. His mommy had picked it out. It was a bunch of sparkle jelly bracelets, but Adam didn't much care about what was inside of it. He just liked carrying around the small orange box.

Eve, used to attending parties, had decided to attend the party by herself out of the need for space from her family. Though her mother had been around her more than usual, the ragdoll decided to let the ex-assassin relax. Also she was unnerved by her mother lately.

She wasn't used to her mother actually turning jobs to spend time with her though it was welcomed. She carried a long box wrapped with rose paper and a big black bow. Herion flew above her, holding a very small box. He only knew the two boxes went together. Still, Herion was a bit nervous, especially around other shadows. Something his host had noticed and suggested that he just be himself when trying to make friends.

Eve looked for the table for the gifts though that thought changed when she saw Katia and her family. Herion spotted them too, but decided to stay away to avoid Luka.

Jaella turned, smiling brightly at the wizard. "Hi, Howl!" she chirped, hugging him as if nothing had happened. "Oh, don't worry about it! It's fine. Oooh, what is it, what is it?" The girl was all excited; nothing was more alluring than a closed box with something in it. But, before she could have the pleasure of opening the box herself, what she assumed was her gift popped out. "Aww, he's adorable!" she cooed, hugging Puff. "Thank you, Howl!" She didn't notice the necklace in the bottom of the box yet.

Jaella turned her head, smiling and waving as a new guest showed up. "Hiyas!" she greeted, smiling and waving to the Cth’fht’nagl family. "My name's Jaella; glad you could come! " She grinned, shaking her head. "No, it wasn't a mistake. I like inviting new people so they can have fun here too! Thank you for the gifts! Um, Momma can tell you where to put them. She then grinned, clapping her hands together and giggling. "Thank you! And yup, there are s'more making stuffs over by the other foods. Help yourself!"

The birthday girl's ears twitched, the sounds of more people catching her attention. She looked up at the other two families approaching, grinning and waving to the other people. "Hiii!" she called out, dragging the word out into two energetic syllables.

She then smiled as she was approached by a little girl, sweet as a candycorn. "Aww, thank you!" she said, accepting the present. "I'm positively, absolutely sure I'll love it!" she affirmed, her head bobbing up and down in a quick nod.

She blinked, looking over at the shadow that had just flown over. Aww, wasn't he adorable! And look at that cute little ribbon!



Darcy blinked, looking at Kiri and the odd little shadow-thing on his back. "Oh, hey! Welcome to the party." she greeted, flashing a polite smile. "Oh, just set them-" She glanced around, suddenly realizing that she'd forgotten a table. Again. Oh crap. "Um...set it on the bench over there. We'll designate that as the gift table...thing." Green eyes narrowed as Howl approached, arms immediately crossing. "Oh. You came." she said, the word you spat out venomously as if it were a despised curse.

"Jae, that's not your present, that's Puff... my shadow. Let's see if he didn't eat your real present..." Howl reached into the box, beaming at his purple haired friend, and pulling out a necklace. "Here it is! It's magical," he added, knowing the teenager with the five year old mentality would find the necklace fascinating. "I enchanted it so it changes colors; whatever color you like, at any time. It glows, too. I didn't think you liked the dark, so it shines in the dark--or anytime you want it to, really... You can play with Puff though! He's not your real present. Leyla has something for you too, but she wasn't able to come. She and Devin caught some kind of cold, but they're getting better! Don't worry," he figured once he had said Devin and Leyla would be sick. "Dad and Aunt Thali are taking care of them," he added as an afterthought. "Dad says happy birthday, by the way. He misses you."

Howl couldn't help but smirk at Darcy's reaction. "Oh. I came," he said, in the same tone. "Good way to greet your future husband, love. I know you've missed me during our time apart. Did you think I would forget you, on Jaella's special day? I brought you a gift, as well. And I am supposed to deliver greetings from my pesty cousin Reiya. She says; hi. She also said something about the necklace you gave her--not quite sure what she said. I've forgotten."

Puff flew over to Luka, leaving Jae to hug his fellow shadow. Hey! Look! It would be fun to cause trouble here! There was all sorts of things they could do! "Pu! Pu! Puff!"

“Well Happy Birthday Jaella, I am Vilyum,” he replied. He then introduced his daughters, pointing them out as he went. “That is Áróra; right there is Luska; the one with the two fuzzballs flying over head is Melody, and the cat-taur is Olivia.”

They then all made their way to the table to set the gifts down. After piling them there, Olivia headed straight to the food table; she salivated as she eyed all the goodies. She wanted something to eat. It hadn’t been that long, but it felt like ages since she had a bite. Looking back and forth to see if anyone was watching, she grabbed two cookies and snuck under the table to eat.

Luska didn’t really know anyone and felt kind of uncomfortable being there. After she had set her gift down, she headed towards an empty picnic table and sat down to play with her plush tiger, Sunny. Waving her hands about, she made him walk and twirl across the table; that made her smile a bit. She really enjoyed using her puppetry magic.

As soon as Melody set her gift down, Raspberry flew off. She took off after him, running amongst the tables. “Hey! Get back here!” she exclaimed after the ball of fuzz. That was so unlike him, running off like that. Blueberry on the other hand, was in hot pursuit of her.

Áróra charged over to Jae after setting her birthday gift down, she wanted to meet the birthday girl and everyone else.“Hello! I’m Áróra!” she exclaimed for Jae and anyone who happened to be standing nearby to hear, a wide silly grin on her face. Vilyum had already introduced her, but she still felt it was necessary.

Eve smiled when she heard the familiar voice of Katia and turned towards the girl as she ran over. She was glad to see the other girl though she looked for Luka for a moment, remembering that Herion had been upset after they came home from the craft store. She didn't know why Herion had been upset.

"I'm all right, Katia, how are you and your family?" She nodded, "Yes, I got an invitation." She glanced towards the bench where most of the presents were going.

Eve looked up at Herion and offered up the box she held, "Please take this and your box to the bench over there."

Herion chirped in greeting to Katia before taking the box from his host and flew over to the gift bench though he glanced towards Puff and Luka.