Welcome to Gaia! ::

If anyone noticed the shadow in the corner of the food court, no one mentioned her. She just sat, eyes closed, a burnt little skeleton propped up in the corner. Around her, life flitted and floated about, her attention dancing from conversation to conversation. A mother and daughter discussing blossoming womanhood late to arrive. Two boys laughing about a teacher who lost her temper. A young man trying to woo his lady friend who had no interest in him. Streams of consciousness that she dipped her toes into just long enough to feel the chill before she pulled her feet out and tucked them back under her. A way of living without having to exert the energy to actually live, she supposed. It suited her.

So, with eyes closed and spirit still, Gisela slid from pocket of sound to pocket of sound, trying on lives like pairs of jeans. They fit her all in their own ways; the snug seams of the lovers, the comforting cut of a mother's embrace, the familiar wear of friendship. Different lives made for different weaves and materials and Gisela rubbed them all between her fingertips, leveling in the feeling of the fibers. She slipped her bone-fine legs into each pair and looked at herself in the mirror from all angles before sliding them off and moving on to the next pair. All from her seat.

But then Gisela came to a pocket as still and silent as her own. Bright blue eyes slid open to investigate the source of the silence, the cacophony losing the tenuous order she had crafted and crashing in on her life a wave. She could feel her nerves fraying as it did so. For a moment, Gisela sat, trying to gather herself and her scattered mind before she moved. Breathe in, breathe out. Exhale and inhale. Breathe in, breathe out. Exhale and inhale. Just like Doctor Montag had taught her. It was a long moment before she finally rose onto shaking legs and moved, joints cracking from stiffness.

It wasn't long before Gisela found the stillness. A woman with cotton candy hair sitting by herself. When Gisela found her, she was lurking along the periphery, trying to become the shadows against the walls that other bodies threw. Everyone else had a wave length. Everyone else had a sound and a motion but... not her. This one seemed strange unto herself. As still as the little shadow herself, perfectly content on her own. That wasn't something Gisela happened upon all that often... she was drawn to it. Something new something... interesting.

She edged closer, perching on a chair like a little bird on a chair about ten feet behind the woman. She couldn't see her face, so there was no way to know what she was thinking but... Gisela still felt compelled to try and untangle her mystery.

The woman didn't move, which suited Gisela just fine. She did, however, sense something change in her. She knew Gisela was there, or at least she knew that something was there. But she didn't move. Gisela was suddenly struck by the memory of a nature documentary that she watched once with her parents. A gazelle heard the footfalls of a lion and suddenly froze in place. Was Gisela the gazelle or the lion?

She chanced a closer vantage point. One table over, now about five feet away, she continued to sit and watch.

What was the point of this, Gisela suddenly wondered. What was her goal by doing this? People weren't generally very keen on being watched like this. In fact, they generally detested it. But the stillness in the sea of sound still drew her closer. Like an anchor in the harbor. Something upon which Gisela could moor herself... is this was the longing for a friend felt like?

"Everyone else is shouting," Gisela finally stated, her voice a weak and reedy sound amidst the crashing waves of conversation. "But not you. Why aren't you shouting?"