Welcome to Gaia! ::

The human world was an interesting place, full of sights and sounds and smells that Taima wished they had time to explore. Even limited to the path Selene had led them on offered an intriguing peek into the petri dish that was humanity, and Taima stared openly at the people that hurried by them, wondering where they were going and what humans even did at this hour. Soon, it was just the class group walking down the street towards the brightly lit theater, and Taima had run out of things to distract her from Nukpana's question. It wasn't a bad one by any means, merely difficult to consider. She shrugged noncommittally, allowing the ambient noise of the city to settle between them as her thoughts turned inward.

Normally, Taima would have jumped at the chance to seek out the unknown--but this was a completely different situation. She had more of an emotional investment in this than just knowledge for knowledge's sake. The ones they had shared the dream with were close to her in ways Taima could only identify abstractly: they existed, they ran deep, but as long as the people on the other end of that bond were unknown to her, they were ultimately harmless. Did she want to know the others? Yes, in an academic sense; she wanted to at least know who they were. But none of them were those people. The potential for emotional injury--to say nothing of outright disappointment--was higher than Taima felt capable of dealing with. Although she couldn't explain why, the memory of the entire experience, disturbing as it had been, was something that she wanted to keep safe and unspoiled.

Still, it would be nice to know. "They'll be different," Taima replied eventually. There was neither censure nor encouragement in her tone; she could just as easily have been talking about the weather. "They won't be the people we remember." Despite her feelings towards the others, she had certainly wanted to distance herself from herself after that farce of a life. "It's just something to keep in mind--now and if we ever do come across any of the others."

When they finally reached the theater, Taima found herself more interested in the human in the box than in the ticket and strange paper currency Selene handed to her. She paused in front of it, her head tilted to the side as if she was watching an animal in the zoo. It only seemed to know the one trick--receive money, make change, produce ticket--so Taima mentally labeled it Homo sapiens inferior and followed the class inside.

It was almost disappointing to see that the inside of the theater looked similar to any of the ones in Halloween, with the obvious exceptions of movies and snacks being advertised. She wandered up to the concessions counter, shaking her head at Nuk's question. "I don't know how I feel about eating exploding food here. These look interesting, though," she said, looking down at the racks with the various candies. The brightly colored boxes were certainly appealing, but gave little hint to what was inside. Taima brightened as she found a likely choice, picking up the box and putting it on the counter.

"Hey, human worker drone," she called to a completely unenthusiastic employee in an ugly uniform that was made worse by the various food stains on it. The ghoul--at least, Taima was pretty sure it was a ghoul, it was hard to tell under that unfortunate shirt--rolled her eyes and took her time getting to the counter, merely raising her eyebrows in expectation. "Is this candy made with real people?" The ghoul gave her a blank stare in return, and Taima huffed a sigh. Clearly, these particular humans were dumber than normal. "It says Mike and Ike on the box. Is this candy made from them, with real Mike and Ike and," she checked the box again, "five fruit flavors?"

The overworked, underpaid, and utterly apathetic movie theater employee rolled her--his? its?--eyes and replied, "Yeah, sure, why not."

"Excellent," Taima said, putting the strange green currency Selene had given all of them on the counter. After taking her change, puzzling as to how a single bill of currency could yield a return of so many more bills and coins besides, she followed the class into the theater, taking a seat in the back row and saving the one next to her for Nukpana. After an awkward moment where she forgot she could actually lean back and not have to worry about pressing against her wings, she settled comfortably into her seat and watched the previews.

She laughed (at the idea that humans could fly, let alone in a suit that wasn't technologically possible), she cried (no, she didn't, but she laughed some more as humans got swallowed by the ground), she marveled at how limited the human mind must be to consider this quality entertainment.

The latest trailer had a lot of fire, and snow, bleh, but a lot of fire. Humans either really liked fire, or were really afraid of it, possibly both. But Andrew really liked that fire was a big thing for humans.

Lots of guns and things too.

Suddenly Olivia seemed a bit... scared? Andrew frowned and touched her shoulder. "Hey it's ok." it suddenly occurred to him that the fire was the problem. "It's just a movie and even if there is a fire. I'll take care of it, alright? I won't let it burn you." he meant his own too. Really. Andrew brushed some of the popcorn off her and settled into his seat leaving a hand on her shoulder. It was ok. Maybe he shouldn't be touching her, but he wasn't on fire now.

Flick. Flick. Flick. Popcorn kept hitting his head. Gabby finally tore his eyes away from The Rocks abs to look at Efflo, but his expression said it all.



He nuzzled his head against Efflo's shoulder and then kissed it, before paying attention to the - awww, the trailer was fading.. and now he was sad.

He chuckled softly, bending his head to kiss Gabby's head. "Don't get too used to it," he said, smiling at the look of disappointment on the boil's face as the trailer ended. Even if Efflo worked out for days, he didn't think he could ever achieve that sort of look. He was stuck with whatever little muscle the glowworms could allow him to grow.

Pulling the glasses from where he tucked them in his pocket, he actually listened to Selene for once and put them on. He looked around, feeling a bit like a bug. Why did they need glasses to watch a movie?

Efflo blushed, hastily focusing his attention on the screen, worried that if he didn't that they wouldn't end up watching any of the movie. He couldn't help himself when Gabby said things like that.

In attempt to be good, he watched the opening of a movie for a few minutes, but before long Gabby was whispering in his ear again. Efflo glanced curiously at Andrew and Olivia, then back at the dragon. He mouthed silently, "How?"