Welcome to Gaia! ::

A growl rose from Tobias' throat. If not for Arc's hand squeezing his, they would have set off an anger of Old Tobias proportions. She smiled at him as he answered him though. Her cheeks had grown pink and rosy. Tobias himself could feel his cheeks grow warm. What was with him these days? What had this girl done to him? It felt strange for him to be so moody. All these different emotions were sort of new to Tobias.

He kept his eyes forward, not paying attention to the many stores and shops filled with clothes and such. He really didn't care about those things. Arc did though. She always made sure she was dressed properly. That wasn't really her fault though. Back at the labs, she usually didn't like the clothes she had to wear. Arc was right. They had stores though. They just took what they wanted though. Arc wanted to go inside one of them, but denied it when Noah asked. She knew they had no time.

Cat pointed at Tobias, saying that he'd be the one in charge of money. Not true. Tobias had no idea how to use the stuff. Tobias could count yes, but he didn't know that money needed to be counted. Hm. So Sora got all those clothes that the nurses snuck in for Arc. Tobias wondered every once in awhile where they all went. He just assumed her father destroyed them all. Then again, he wasn't one to waste perfectly good clothes. "No. I'm not the one should be in charge of the money. I don't know anything about it! You should do that, Cat," Tobias offered.

Before Tobias knew it, Arc's hand was slipping and was out of his grasp. He reached back for it, Noah and Sora pushing her in the direction of the store. Then he thought, 'Arc deserves something nice. Something to at least remind her of her first time out of the labs.' A faint smile appeared on Tobias' face. He nodded at Arc, assuring her that it was ok if she wanted something. The girl had done everything, including giving her life up for them. He'd sit outside in the warm sun. Since he had some sunglasses, he could enjoy the sunlight a lot more.

Tobias watched as all of the girls, plus Noah, entered the store to shop. Hopefully they wouldn't be inside for too long. They still had somewhere to be. But right then Tobias didn't mind it too much. He soon realized that he was alone with Alphonse. There was a choice to be made. Either be nice or keep ignoring him. At first, it seemed he was going to stick with his plan of ignoring him. That is until, the boy bent down and created a bench from seemingly nothing! There was a brilliant flash of blue light that accompanied it which amazed Tobias.

The bench now sitting there as if it always had been, Alphonse took a seat and offered Tobias a seat as well. The choice had to be made now. Sit or stand. Tobias turned towards the bench, not sure if something was going to happen if he sat. He'd never seen anything like this. He honestly didn't know that alchemy could do such things. In the labs, they only knew that they could do things that not many others could.

Finally, Tobias sat. He'd made his decision. Trying to get along with Alphonse was best for everybody. Even if it was only for a short time, he could at least make Arc proud. Tobias said, "U-Um...I'm Tobias. But everyone just calls me Toby. I'm sorry I was mean to you. I've just been that way for as long as I can remember. There was a time where I was that way towards everybody. Even Arc. So....don't hate me." Tobias sounded horribly childish. But it was all he could do really. Taking his sunglasses off, Tobias raised them up in the air, turning them in every direction. Every little detail interested him.

Noah felt himself get pulled back by Sora. “But look at that!” he said, pointing at the changing rooms. “It’s like little rooms! I just want to go see!” he whined.

“Oh trust me, you don’t want to go in there,” Cat laughed. “That’s where people change to see if the clothes they want fit them,” she said.

Arc looked back at Cat, “They get undressed in public?” she sounded embarrassed at the thought.

“Uh, not like, in front of people. They close those little doors and get changed. Don’t worry, they have locks on them,” she smiled, forgetting their ignorance of the outside world.

“Oh God…” she sighed. “I thought this place had no since of decency,” she laughed nervously. “Oh! That’s adorable~” Arc said, looking at the top Sora had pulled out. “I wish I could wear it. But, you know….it reveals so much…back,” she said, trying to get her hint across. Arc was restricted to clothes that covered her back well. Though she’d tied her wings down well, it would seem odd to see a girl with a harness or bandages on under clothes.

“Oh, this is cute,” Arc said, picking up a black dress. It was very pretty to her. But again, it showed to much of her back.

“You know, Arc. You could just wear that when we’re alone, or when we walk in a place with no people,” she told her.

“Hmm….that’s a great idea! But what is this tag here with numbers on it?” Arc asked Cat, looking at the price tag curiously.

“That’s a price tag, it tells you how much money you nee to give the person to take it home. This is pretty cheap, which means it’s on sale. You should get it. Everything here is on sale, so you should just go ahead and have a frenzy!” Cat laughed.

Arc smiled wide, handing Cat the bag of money, “I have no idea how this stuff works, so you just take the paper and hand it to who ever!” Arc said, running off in a direction in the store, Noah chasing after her. Cat could only laugh at her for how she was acting.

Doll again stared on blankly, “Why is it that what you use to cover up your body is so important? The important thing is that you aren’t nude,” She said to Cat.

Cat looked down at Doll, a little sad. “Well, we like to take pride in ourselves, right? Wearing nice things means we like ourselves enough to want to feel pretty,” she tried to explain to the emotionless girl.

Without missing a beat, “Pride doesn’t make since. We wear clothes so we are not naked, which protects us from the environment. To wear something labored over to look appealing is a waste of time,” she said, almost in disgust. Well, at least that’s some sort of emotion.

Arc on the other hand was having a ball looking at clothes. The thought of having a choice was overwhelming. “Oh look at this! This one is lovely! Sora, this would look wonderful on you! Noah, come here so I can see how this looks on you!” she kept saying. Her arms were slowly being filled with clothes for herself, and the others.

Cat looked at Sora, and burst into laughter. She was like a child in a candy shop. “Well, it’s a good thing this is full of cash…or we’d have a problem,” she chuckled.

Tobias was so glad that Alphonse wasn't mad at him. It reminded him of Arc. Nothing he did made her mad. Nothing made her stop being his friend. At this point he couldn't say the same about this strange boy. But the fact that he didn't take it personally put Tobias at ease. A sigh of relief passed his lips. Through the window, Tobias could just barely make out Arc and what seemed to be Arc. She darted back and forth from here, to there. He stopped playing with the sunglasses long enough to listen to Al say that he knew someone like Tobias.

Who could it have been? He would probably never know. But it interested him nonetheless. Not wanting to be nosy, he simply listened as Al mentioned that he was different just like them. "Hmm..." Tobias mumbled. He didn't believe that. No one was as different as him and his family. Then he said the oddest thing. "There was even a part of my life that i didn't even have a body of my own...." That made no sense to Tobias whatsoever. "What?" he asked not understanding him.

i think everyone died :c
crying

((Sorry, we’re aren’t dead. I’ve been a bit…busy over here ^^; ))

Arc looked over at Sora, seeing the dress, “Oh that would be perfect for you! We could pull up your hair, and get it out of your face to show off that beautiful face of yours,” she smiled, lacing her fingers together. She ran over to Sora and begun picking things out for her as well, “Hmm….perhaps we should try something simple, yet elegant!” she beamed, holding up a simply white dress to Sora, taking a hat of the rack and placing it on Sora’s head. “Well you look just darling dear. That’s it, we’re getting this for you!” she said, adding it to the pile of things they would be getting.

Cat began to laugh, “Wow…you two are really like mother and daughter for sure,” she said with a smile. Cat could remember what it was like shopping with her own mother when she was younger. They’d start off with shopping for her mother, and it always turned around to be shopping for Cat. Arc was sort of like Cat’s mother in a way.

“You think so?” Arc said, sounding pleased. Arc looked and smiled at Sora, placing a hand on her head, “That’s because I am her mother!” she beamed.

“And she’s my sister!” Noah giggled, hugging his sisters leg. “And so is Doll!” He said, looking over at his sister.

Doll said nothing, but observed the shop, “We should leave soon. Tobias and Alphonse are waiting for us.”

Arc sighed, “Don’t worry, Doll. I’m sure Tobias hasn’t eaten him yet,” she said, holding up a dress for Doll, “Yup, this is coming along with us too,” she said.