Welcome to Gaia! ::

There had been an argument, and Maria had lost it. It had contained words like 'mother' and 'bonding'. It had also, somehow, ended up containing the word 'zoo'. She still wasn't entirely sure how that one had come up. But the conclusion of the story was clear enough, Maria pushing the double stroller through the gates of the zoo, while Laroan gurgled and Nasiir sucked on his pacifier with all the dedication of a priest with a rosary.

She did not want to be at the zoo. She did not care that the birds were chirping, the sun was shining, and the children were running about like monkeys on speed. At least hers were still too young for that sort of thing.

Well, best get the whole trip over with.

"Well, children, what would you like to visit?" She asked, leaning over the stroller to look down at them. They stared up at her with their bright green eyes, and drooled.

Speaking was something she was looking forward to. A creature that could not even communicate was distressing.

Well, no votes on that front. So the tigers it would be. If only because their pen was nearest.

As it was, Maria could usually recognize people she'd met before fairly well. That was especially true when the encounter was a tramatic one, as Maria was one to focus on details. However, when said person's age had moved upward about 15 years since the last encounter, she was a little less quick on the ball.

Karyn was the recipiant of a mildly confused look as Maria tried to place her familiar but different features. Certainly, the woman looked like someone, but she had no memory of who that someone might be. Finally, she had no choice but to admit her own ignorance.

"I'm sorry, have we met?" She asked, irritated her own inability to place the woman.

Nasiir, meanwhile, began to cry. And cry, with Nasiir, meant a sudden ear piercing shriek, which he'd discovered, got his needs met quite quickly. Looking down, Maria noted that Laroan was now sucking contently on Nasiir's pacifier.

Removing it from the girl's mouth, she placed it firmly back in Nasiir's who abruptly cut off his wailing. Of course, now Laroan was looking up at her with heartbroken eyes and gentle tears streaming down her face. She didn't cry, only whimpered pathetically.

Wait a minute, the girl on the ship? Well, this was a change of pace. At least, she wasn't recently dead this time. Maria was willing to see that as a positive change, regardless of the state of the two children in the stroller. Well, provided they weren't dead either. This was to be a strictly non-death outing. For a change.

"Oh." And the tired surprise in Maria's voice was about all the shock she had left for the sort of things that happened in Gaia. A peak in the stroller just about summed up her Gaian experiance. "The children arrived."

Obvious enough, but what else did she have to discuss with this woman?

Laroan, of course, was thrilled. She threw a brief, toothless grin over her shoulder at her brother, before focusing the full force of her charm on the boy who was now showering her with attention.

"Ay!" She giggled at him, the tears that had been present only seconds ago forgotten. Tiny hands reached up, trying for a grip at his fingers.

Nasiir did not quite know how to get back at his sister for that superior grin of hers, but you could bet he was trying to figure it out. His eyes narrowed a bit, and he leaned forward, observing as the curly headed girl played with the others hands, completely oblivious. He wasn't sure how he felt about others playing with his sister, either.

Laroan, unaware of her brother's upset behind her, she did her best to follow the game, gurgling happily and hitting her hands clumsily against his. She wasn't coordinated, yet, but she was willing to try.

Maria too, watched the tigers, one was growing closer to them in its restless wandering, allowing her to admire the golden orange of its coat, and the fire in its eyes. She could admire the logic of such an animal, so clearly made for hunting and catching. Humans were not so logically made, let alone... but nevermind her father's side of things. In sunlight, her insubstantial wings were almost unnoticable.

"My brother suggested it might be good for the twins to be out, but I do not know what good it does them, at such a young age." She looked down at them, quiet for a moment. "Do you know a lot about... who they were?"

As the woman spoke, Maria looked down at the children in question. She could see it in them, even now. Laroan giggling, playful, all her attention on the boy who was playing with her. Nasiir, intense and moody, his eyes on the tiger, as if he enviedits power. Or perhaps it was the creature's power that he envied.

Her questions were not idle. This was important information for the future rearing of the twins. He had been a rebel? It would be education in control for him, and in governence. He would learn to see the flaws in supposed 'new and better' systems. He would learn that there were always flaws. And Laroan, a socialite? She too, would learn of politics, and self reliance. There would be no following siblings blindly, not this time around. They would debate each other, discuss things rationally.

"When we last spoke, you did not know when their powers and memories would return. Has that changed?"

Laroan wanted up now, and it seemed that if anyone was likely to do it, it was the boy. She waved her arms in the air pointedly whimpering a bit.

"Childhood." She'd be prepared for that, then. She wasn't sure how one prepared to ward oneself against the sort of powers these children would have, but she'd do research. She'd figure something out. And it'd be something dependable, none of Edward's silly crystals. Let alone--

Nevermind.

"I was going to take them to the reptile house. Would you like to join us?"

Invited to move on, Maria began pushing the stroller again, inviting an indignant squeek from Laroan when she realized that her playmate was no longer right in front of her, showering her with attention. The reptile house was luckily, not far from the tiger pen, and it was cool and dark inside. Maria paused inside the doors, allowing her eyes to aclimate to the twilight conditions before pushing the stroller open to the first few exibits, mostly containing geckos.

"I appriciate the... efficiancy of reptiles."