Welcome to Gaia! ::

The news has been slow at catching on, but it seems that now people all around the world have been keeping an eye and an ear out for these so-called Song children. There have not been nearly an public reports, simply rumors so far of the general locations of where the phenomena has hit. And what a surprise it has been for those rare special people who have found themselves in possession of one. To those unsuspecting victims, a strange invite has now been sent out to each of these households. Within the invite are two plane tickets and a letter. It is sealed in a beautiful creme envelope that has found its way mysteriously slipped under your door. The letter reads in child-like neat handwriting:

"It's about time you all get to know each other a little better, don't you think?
It's like one big happy family almost. All across the world.
This is your chance to say hello, so don't miss it dummy parents!

Love,
Dela Phra

P.S. Tom's Restaurant on the corner of 112th Street Broadway. 4 o'clock on Tuesday."

A closer look at the plane ticket tells you that you're off to New York City. If you so choose to attend this kind and unsettling invitation. Bring your child to such a large city far away from home? Or decline this rare opportunity to meet others who can relate to your predicament? Whatever the choice happens to be, the date of the flight draws nearer and nearer...


Some info:
The area is a quiet, peaceful place just a few blocks away from Columbia University. It is for the most part a normal diner type place.

OOC: Please do an intro post of receiving the letter, contemplating and preparing to leave for the trip if you join. Your second or third post should be arriving at the meeting location.
All intro posts are due by the 17th, do not make any posts involving arriving at NYC until after the 17th.
Owners who fail to post their intro by the 17th will be no longer eligible to participate in this Event.

Post Order:
ikshiva
Aced Desire
Kaithala
Shnazz

New York?!

With a huff, Elissa shut the door behind her, "Machk! Jay! I'm home!" Making an attempt to leap up the stairs, she ended up - instead - face planting into the ceramic tiles.

From around the corner, she heard a stifled laugh before Jay came around the corner with Machk in his arms, "Nice bail, fool!"

Jay was Elissa's brother-in-law. Well, not technically, because Tyson died before they were to be married, but he was her younger brother none the less. He was also Machk's uncle and the first person to meet him.

"Shut it, kiddo." Elissa collected herself and walked up the stairs, "So." She started, "Guess who's apparently going to New York?"

Jay stopped, "You? Do I get to take Machk then?!" A huge smirk crossed his face and Elissa had visions of Jay teaching Machk how to play Halo on the Xbox.

"No, Machk and I are," They traded; letter for bear.

As Elissa rocked Machk gently in her arms, Jay read the letter, "Is it legit?"

Elissa shrugged, "I don't know." She stopped, "Facebook'll tell me, though!"

Jay nodded, "Yeah, they're good for that. But what are you going to do if it is legit?"

Not answering him, Elissa went to go upload the page and sure enough, James had questioned about it. Well, if it wasn't legit, at least she'd get to meet James and his little deer girl, right?

Leaning back in her chair, Elissa looked up at Jay, "Legit, broseph."

Jay shook his head, "Machk'll need a passport, babe."

"s**t."

She had picked up and put down the envelope several times now. Still completely put off by the idea, but thinking about that small group of people on Facebook that she was now tied to whether she liked it or not... She had to consider it with a new decision to make.

She had asked her brother's opinion. And he gave her a vague nodding off in which clearly stated that he wasn't sure what she should do exactly. It left her at a very difficult standpoint. He offered to go check it out for her and call her to let her know how it was going, but knowing him... He wouldn't be able to resist socializing with the group. Especially if there was a good looking female there. Oh how would she be able to face her other Facebook groupmates again if they were ever to have that kind of first encounter with her brother...

She really hated the idea. She really despised the prospect of falling into a trap. But it seemed like this one was unavoidable.

Sohne had still yet to ... Emerge from his orb. She was beginning to feel worried about him, and perhaps being around others like himself would give him the confidence to be born too? Perhaps she was just being silly thinking like this. But either way, it seemed to be a confirmed thing that she would at least walk by the restaurant during the appointed time, or before... She had to see for herself while not endangering her own child's welfare. The day was drawing nearer...

Less than a week until a certain bomb was definitely going to go off. Whether they were all preparing for it or not. It seemed out of their hands really.

She wasn't worried. She was going to stop worrying. Now.

Or maybe tomorrow...

Tom's Restaurant. Corner of 112th Street Broadway. 4 o'clock. The words ran like clockwork through his mind, but he had written it down as well. Twice. One copy in his wallet, one in his bag. Not that he was worried... much. Not really. Really. His gaze moved down to Aya who he had perched on top of the trolley holding their luggage, and he felt his stomach tense.

Okay. So maybe he was a little nervous.

He had planned this for too long, really. He had reread facebook, had wondered if he should have printed it all out to reread, had wondered if he should have booked an extra ticket for Julia. Or Antoine. He had taken Hui's train of thought to heart as well, dressing Aya in a round rimmed floppy hat that dipped coyly over one eye and was decorated with a gigantic pink ribbon. It was straw, or something. Maybe super straw. And her dress was long enough to hide her tail, and she wore cute little white socks. No shoes though. No, that was too much for him. Just a little bit.

God he really wasn't ready for this.

Coming through arrivals, he looked down at his watch, frowning. Did he have enough time to drop his things off? He had made reservations at the nearest hotel for two days, not knowing if someone else would provide lodging, or not. He could always extend the booking, or find somewhere else. Or maybe he should go first, be first, at the restaurant. See whoever else, keep an eye on the door.

Do recon.

This trip was going to age him. Seriously. And he wasn't even through the airport yet.

"Crap..." Kai fiddled with her make up pots once more. God damned expensive child! She'd had to go out and purchase a whole new set of powders and concealers so she could work on covering up his bruises. Fair skinned little brat! And it didn't help that he couldn't sit still for any length of time. They were about three quarters done and had an hour left before they were due to leave for the airport. "Sit still!" Kai growled at the young boy, a tactic she didn't want to use but the only one that ever really worked with him. Immediately his back hunched and his ears drooped. Quickly Kai took the window of opportunity to add some more concealer to his bruises.

If she did say so herself he was looking almost normal. Well as normal as one can get while looking like he did. The trip to the clothing store had really failed. Originally she'd planned to just cover up his wolfish nature but he'd promptly put a stop to that by tearing the hat she'd bought to shreds and crying loudly when she'd stuffed his tail into a pair of pants. Soooo, she did the next best thing... She played the eccentric child/parent card and decided that she'd "dress him up" as a wolf... Now he had pants on but his tail was hanging out over the top and wrapped around his waist was a hank of rope. Since it ran below his tail it looked eerily like she'd just put on a fake one. She'd fashioned a head band to go around his ears, and by cleverly draping his hair over some of it, the effect was akin to him wearing a set of fake wolf ears. She'd put some socks on to cover his feet but there hadn't really been a way to do shoes. There wasn't much she could do with the eyes but she had picked up some kiddie meds that caused drowsiness so hopefully he'd sleep the entire time.

Finishing her final touches with the make up she closed her containers and dumped the lot of them into her make up bag. She'd need them in New York no doubt. "Okay now no fiddling with any of this s**t or I'm going to be seriously pissed off." She reminded her boy, not like he could actually understand her words. She carried her make up kit into her bedroom and tossed into her open suit case. Closing that she did one last mental check list....
Nope, it was time to go.

"Alright punk, we're going on our trip now, soooo..." She reached into her messanger bag and pulled out the kid meds. "Open up." It was a bit of a struggle but she eventually got him to hold his mouth open. Dropping one of the dissolvable tablets into his mouth she hoped that it'd do it's work. "I don't think New York's ready for us..."

((I'm ending here so that I can get this out there so everyone else can post.))

The hotel first, then. To change clothes, to freshen up. He hadn't been this nervous when he had met with the initial investors for Zuma, nor when his pet project had opened to the public for the first time. Still...

"Aya, do you think a tie would be too formal? Maybe jeans instead?" he looked over to where the child sat on the king sized bed, her expression one of ironic amusement. "No, you're right. Nothing too formal..."

Still. Maybe he'd take a tie with him anyways. Just in case.

His phone rang lazily, some flirty jazz tune that was new to him, and so he picked up automatically. "James Fulton."

"You don't know what to wear, right?" Antoine's voice at the other end was filled to amusement. James wasn't even going to bother asking how the man knew. "Jeans, James. Don't be so uptight. But I'll give in and let you wear a proper shirt, okay. But don't... you know. Match with Aya. That's just creepy coming from you."

James scowled at the phone. Creepy? Aya was dressed in a cute little robin egg blue dress, and if he _happened_ to own a shirt in the same color, it was a good thing, wasn't it? It was cute!

"James."

"Fine, fine, no matching clothing." he relented. Well, it was fine. He had a darker shirt in his luggage anyways, and besides-- it was a nice contrast with his baby girl. (... he wasn't going to mention he had bought her a little white straw hat with a ribbon that matched his new shirt...)

"Are you going there soon?" Antoine sounded worried, anxious, and James smiled. It was good, talking to someone who felt the same way.

"A little bit earlier, if I can. I'll make it in time if I leave in a little while, but I bought my laptop, so I'm going to catch up on some work before heading to the restaurant... it's not too far from this place, which is great." he looked down at his watch. The concierge had agreed to call him a taxi an hour before he was due, so everything should go according to plan.

"Don't scare away the other parents, James." Antoine warned, and James grinned.

Sure. As long as they didn't scare him away first...

"Ughhhhh... long day..." Kai groaned as she dumped her suitcase onto the bed in her hotel room. It had been the closest hotel to the meeting spot, and to Kai's mind the shorter the trip between places the better. If her return trip was going to be ANYthing like the hell on earth it was getting to NYC, she'd rent a freaking car and DRIVE all the way back to Washington.

First, she'd suffered the strange and sometimes threatening looks of the fellow flyers. It was only by the heavens smiling on her that she didn't get "randomly" chosen for a more careful inspection. Somehow she was sure they'd have some questions for her about Vitaliy if they'd taken a closer look. In the strange miracle that is life, they managed to make it out of Seattle without much fuss.

The layover in Chicago however was an entirely different matter. By the time the plane had touched down, the kiddie meds had worn off and Vitaliy was being his normal skitterish self. Snarling one moment while curling in his mother's arms the next. Of course in the short half hour lay over he'd need to use the rest room... something that they hadn't exactly gotten down to a science yet. And as Kai wasn't exactly sure as to how to put diapers on him, they'd been... experimenting with ways of it working. The method of choice at the moment, she holding him over the toilet and praying to god that his aim was decent. Well that had been... a close call to say the least. As was their dash to the gate for boarding. Fortune smiled again as they made the last call.

Fortune did NOT smile when they were seated next to handsome man who didn't seem to mind staring at Kai's breast. What she thought would be a nice trip with a hot guy to talk to turned into a nightmare. About 10 minutes into a deep conversation about the merits of cartoons, Vitaliy being his normal spiteful self took a deep breath and clamped his little fanged mouth onto Kai's hand. She swore, he bit harder, and the hot guy requested a different seat. F-a-i-l-u-r-e.

So after a quick bandage job, feeding her child some more pills, and a little sulk at the lack of hot male companion. Their trip from Chicago to NYC went off without much a hitch. It would pay well to remember that putting some Dimmu Borgir on headphones for Vitaliy had an odd calming effect. A happy trick to save for a rainy day.

Kai had a feeling, glancing down at her bandaged hand, the day probably wasn't going to get better.

"You don't want to do another round of the neighborhood, do you?" the driver's voice was skeptical and James grinned a little bit sheepishly as he shook his head. He had been early. Too early, and so he had asked the driver to circle the neighborhood a couple of times. A bit excessive perhaps, but it helped calm his nerves.

"No, it's fine." he checked his head. Still absurdly early perhaps, but he was doing better. Besides, wasn't twenty minutes almost respectable? "We'll get off now, then."

He looked over reassuringly at Aya, who seemed to find this all very amusing. Or maybe she found her guardian amusing. Paying the driver a little bit over to compensate with his ridiculous whims, he carried Aya out of the cab, looking up at the restaurants facade.

Casual. So jeans had been the right choice, then, rather than the suit.

"We'll go in, meet everyone, have fun, then go home and crash alright Aya?" his grip on her tightened as he adjusted her hat, stepping into the restaurant as if this was going to change his life.

Alright. So that was just a little bit over the top.

Choosing a table by the window where he could keep one eye on the door, he sat Aya down across him and looked around. It wasn't that busy, and he was a bit disappointed to find that there were no children present.

"I'll have a coffee." he ordered, frowning. "And an apple juice for the young lady."

Aya looked up, and cooed.