Welcome to Gaia! ::

The hustle and bustle about campus was getting, if anything, worse. Like a disturbed anthill, or like a bucket of rats in a rainstorm, the residents of the Academy, students and staff alike, were growing crazier and crazier by the second. Their entire world had been upturned--Grimm were alive! Grimm were here! And not only that, they'd brought a whole new race no one had ever heard of before! And the result had been, at first, joy at the return of kin long thought lost to time, tempered only slightly by the worrying words that came from the shaman's tongue. And now, scarce hours since the strangers had arrived, the people of the Academy were in righteous uproar, as though they'd been stung by something they thought was a butterfly.

Yes, people were getting angry, and why? Because the new Grimm had asked the old Grimm to go with them back to their homeland. And why should they not? It was their home, the center of their culture and their beliefs. It wasn't hard to see why they would do this. And yet, everyone was upset because of this. Apparently, not all Grimm wanted to go home, which was a strange proposition in and of itself. Why not go home? Why stay here? Home is where your people are! Ustule really didn't know what to think. Because as much as she'd thought that, she'd spent an educational half-hour in the courtyard with the younger members of the delegation. Many of the Grimms at the school had actually rejected their kin. Apparently, they thought that Grimm traditions were...what, precisely? Non-inclusive? One boy had complained he wouldn't be able to pass these mysterious "trials," and yet the other Grimm--the one from far away--had said he could choose his own trials. And then he had been accused of not liking blind people, or something like that.

Anyway, there were a lot of people pointing fingers and calling each other kidnappers, and it just wasn't a good situation at all. Ustule sighed, clutching her revenant to her chest as she wandered through campus. Classes had been suspended today, and it looked like they would be suspended tomorrow. With most of the day gone to panic (and an afternoon nap for the pink Litch), Ustule was left just roaming aimlessly around, wondering why no one wanted to go home.

Lerin knew she wasn’t like a lot of the students that had come through or where currently attending the academy. She and her twin sister had been awakened and grew up surrounded by other Fallen. They had grown up loved and surrounded by their culture and when they finally became old enough they had transferred over to the academy to learn more about the world and about different cultures. It was here they had meet all sorts of different people and grown close to them and their world had opened up from a tiny little sphere that consisted of just them. So Lerin wanted to be supportive and let her family understand their roots as well. However another part of her was angry. They were taking away her family and those that she had let into her little them sphere.

It didn’t help that her anger was even more fueled by the fact that they scared and worried her precious people who didn’t want to go with them. She had reluctantly let Seth go get Allie help earlier, because Allie truly needed to get out of that room and get help. So she was being a bit more snappish and somewhat clingy around Frostbite not wanting to even let him down from her hold, although she had because she didn’t want to be suffocating either.

She wondered if she would have felt this way if frost had really been imbued from the three of them. However it had to mean something that she had gotten separated from her class and out of all the soul stones in the wilds come across the stone that would awaken into Frost. Ah well these angry thoughts weren’t going to get her anywhere and it was only a matter of time until she faltered and Frost picked up on them if the little boy hadn’t already. She needed to get back to Allie and show her and Frost that if they didn’t want to leave Lerin was going to make sure that no one took them by force.


"Lets get back to Mama Allie, and maybe see about going out for a run later huh?" she asked still staying close enough that she could just grab frostbite and high tail it somewhere if she needed to.

Seth trotted along looking for either of his girls. He'd left Lerin and Frost to go find Allie, only Allie wasn't at the nurse's station anymore, and when he'd tried to go back for Lerin and Frost, they weren't where he'd left them!

He sighed and looked around. If he were a Grimm where would he be? He backtracked a bit and started off towards the seating area that was around one of the dorms not far from the nurse's station. He had forgotten about it originally figuring that Allie would make her way back to the auditorium, but maybe she'd had to sit down? It was as likely a guess as anything else and he picked up the pace.

Allie just continued to sit, thinking of all of the things that had happened. The Grimms, the possibility of being stolen from her home, the Nixie, that strange boy...She just didn't know what to do. She fussed with her hands a little, trying to keep still and just be at peace with the world, but the peace never came...Instead, more quiet thoughts, still hazy from the effects of the medication, came up behind them. What if they took her by force in the middle of the night? What if they took Frost? What if they hurt Seth and Lerin to take her or Frost? She bit her bottom lip, ears folding back as she tried to silence them. They weren't going to! They couldn't! They'd be safe and sound and happy and--!

The voice of a small freshling made her almost jump as it brought her back to reality. Her eyes, still wide with fear, softened just a little as to not scare the small Litch. Slowly, she took the flower, claws running over the petals carefully. "It's a forget-me-not..." She murmured softly, holding it back out to her.

"Mama!" Frost called, pulling away from Lerin's side and bounding torwards Allie. He skidded to a stop in front of her, front paws on her knees and tail wagging hopefully. "Are you feeling better?" He asked before looking at his mother's companion. It was an all pink litch. Frost couldn't recall if he'd ever met a litch before. Oh. Wait. Uncle Morin, duh.

Funny that she wasn't in class. Frost wasn't because he was called to the meeting, but there should still be classes at this time, shouldn't there? "Hi, I'm Frostbite. What's your name?" He asked with another tail wag. He'd been taught to be polite. And, for whatever reason, the question 'what are you doing here?' was just not polite.

A forget-me-not. There was a flower called something like that back home, but it was a white flower. This, then, must be a different flower with the same name. Since the Grimm was holding the first one she'd picked, she plucked another one from the ground. "Eet ees a very pretty flower," she said. "I hwander eef eet does the same theengs the one beck home do? You see, the flowers back home, they grow wherever they cen. They represent a connection to people who are very far away." It was actually rather more complicated than that, but Ustule wanted answers, and this was the only way she could think of to ask without upsetting the already-upset looking adult.

But before the Grimm could answer, several other people arrived--a Fallen, a Baphomet, and another Grimm, this one about her age. She blinked at her peer and tilted her head. He was rather forward, wasn't he? "I em Ustule," she said simply. Normally Ustule was a very polite child, but the arrival of these new strangers burst open a dam inside her. She pointed to the adult. "Hwhy is she ahpset?" She looked up at the Baphomet. "I cennot enjoy theese day. Everyone ees ahpset. All of the Grimms end their kin. Why is this? You heve found your people, end they are inviting you beck to your homelend. Why ees theese a bed thing?"

She couldn't stop talking now. "I would geeve enything to see my homelend again! End you are just throwing yours away?" Tears were flowing openly from her cheeks, attracting the attention of her revenant. "Why are you throwing eet away?! I don't ahnderstend!"