Welcome to Gaia! ::

There were few things that encouraged Shine to crawl out of her blanket fort to tackle The Big Scary Outside World, and she supposed that a knock on her door should be one of those. Maybe someone was delivering some candy. Rubbing at her eyes, she opened the door...but there wasn't anybody there.

"...hello...?" she called, quiet and tentative. When no immediate answer came, she sniffled, eyes watering. Was it a joke? Why would someone joke like that?

She only barely caught a glimpse of the rose when she moved to close the door, and her mood visibly brightened. It wasn't a joke at all! It was something nice! She pinched the note between her claws and read it with the slightest twitch of a smile.

"Thank...thank you, admirer." With great care, she lifted the rose up to her face.

The faint, lingering scent was like a happy little secret. She giggled, just briefly.

Hauling herself out of her fluffy fortress was a little less difficult after the gift Shine had received yesterday. It was a tiny bit upsetting to not really know who it came from, but it was a nice gift nonetheless, and she didn't want to ruin it with anything sad.

Tossing one of her blankets aside, she did her best to be a bit more hasty this time. In spite of her efforts, there was still nobody on the other side of the door. Today's gift, however, brought a barely larger smile. Candied eyeballs!

"You're a...good admirer," she complimented the card, popping one of the eyeballs into her mouth.

She held a look of pure contentment as she clutched the gift close to her chest.

Napping had been postponed today. Instead, Shine waited under the protection of her very favorite blanket with a crooked little smile, still chewing slowly on a mushy remnant of a candied eyeball.

The knock! She fought against her grogginess to make across the room, stifled a yawn...

When she finally opened the door to reveal her gift, there was scarcely half a second between the recognition of cute bear and the hasty motion of the zombie ghoul snatching it up to hold it.

"Fnnkhgh nnnyyyn," was the only semblance of a response that the managed, her face smashed against its plush form.

Shine just stared for a very long time.

Then came the smile, curling up all sloppy, as if she'd forgotten how. A hiccup of a giggle soon followed, a short burst of laughter tumbling after.

When she'd composed herself as best she could, all traces of crying brushed from her cheeks, she leaned forward to tap a single claw against the glass.

Still blinking at stubborn tears, she slowly nodded. She wished that she could give him a hug - she remembered how good his hugs were - but she wasn't good at climbing out of windows. Maybe sometime soon.