Welcome to Gaia! ::

We see in dreams the shadows of the Ancient world, that died before the people of the Earth had drawn even a single breath. They spill, sometimes, into the waking world, roaming as phantom beings of no real substance. And they take in those moments and feelings which are strongest, and make them their own to carry for eternity.



Taped to the door is a notice messily scrawled in purple ink:

There is a dim light flickering inside, and the girl can see it vaguely through the traditional-Japanese paper doors. There is a bench on the porch like the sign said, highly polished and looking antique, with deep purple cushions on either side.

The house, on a whole, looks very traditional and slightly intimidating in its mystery... she wonders what drew her to this place, and takes a seat on the bench, noticing the dim flicker of what looks like fireflies in the garden.

The night is cool and lively with the chirping of crickets in the bushes around the house, and a light breeze plays with the girl's hair. The light coming from inside the house casts shapeless shadows at her feet, and she shivers involuntarily, pulling her legs up onto the bench.

She sits there for what seems like hours, simply staring at the light of the firefly-things in the garden, and so the sliding of the door is sudden in the accustomed stillness of the night. A girl much younger than the blonde stands in the doorway, eyes glinting claret in the light illuminating her from behind.

"Oh.... did I Call you here?", the girl asks, looking a bit surprised.

The blonde on the bench looks lost for a moment before replying, "No, I don't think so. I don't think you ever called me at all." There is a pause, and then she supplies helpfully: "My phone service isn't working very well, lately."

"Oh," the girl in the doorway says, not seeing how this has anything to do with Calling. "Okay."

"I'm Cerena," the sitting girl says, dangling her legs off the bench and giving an experimental swing.

"I think I knew that," the claret-eyed girl replies thoughtfully. "But I'm not sure. Would you like to come inside?"

Cerena seems to consider this for a moment. "Okay," she says, and jumps off the bench, following the other girl through the door. "What's your name?"

"I'm don't really know. I think it was Chai, once," Chai says, closing the Japanese screen door behind them. "It's not important. Would you like some tea?"

Cerena wonders why this girl doesn't remember her own name, but thinks maybe she's suffering from amnesia. Instead, the blonde replies, "Yes, please."

They drink the tea in relative silence at the kitchen counter. After they're done and the cups are sitting clean in the sink, Chai asks Cerena if she knows what an Anima is.

"No, I don't think so," Cerena answers her politely. "Isn't it the feminine inner personality of a male, according to Jungian psychology?" She hasn't taken classes in a long time, and hopes her memory serves her correct.

Chai seems to ponder this. "Maybe," the young girl says. "I had an Anima once, though, and I'm not a male. Maybe we're thinking of different things."

"It's very possible," Cerena acknowledges, and offers to help Chai find out for sure.

10-23-2005 || Mordavrin's Ecstasy and FelineOddity's Optimism lanterns have arrived! Also, a Halloween event might be coming up...?
8-20-2005 || Custom auction with art by Kheleksul!!!Link here
8-17-2005 || Secrecy, Revenge, and Guilt are here. Stuff... is gonna happen. Hopefully. Probably.
5-11-2005 || Eccentricity -- Kiri -- is here! Expect a whole domino of growings to follow! Oh, yeah, and uh Cerena's like the new RP or co-manager or something but that's not important. <3
3-27-2005 || Chai updated graphics stuff! Yay! Now... to finally grow Eccentricity. ;__;
3-19-2005 || RAIFE is your new thread whore...I mean..manager. Direct all questions pertaining..thusly. <3 Have a nice day.
3-08-2005 || Vanille_Chocolate, Asahi Kumoru, and Raife have won the writing contest! Congratulations.
2-26-2005 || Ballentine's lantern is here!
2-21-2005 || Guild has been set up! Lurkers, stalkers, and owners alike are all invited to join! Link here.
2-20-2005 || Shukumi is the new mailing list manager! Let's give him all a round of applause. On another note, the writing contest thread is now created, but still being set up, and the cert contest has ended at 3:00 PM EST!
2-20-2005 || NOTE! I am currently hiring somebody to manage the 40+ people mailing list for the shop. I will type up the newsletters, but you are responsible for sending them out, because the admins disabled the mass mailing through friendslist feature. If you want pay, that can be negotiated, too. o-o
2-19-2005 || I'm holding a cert contest for a premade Anima here!
2-16-2005 || The thread is founded! Welcome! More to come.

about the "memory" of each anima__.

(For clarification purposes, the concept/type/inspiration of each Anima shall be referred to simply as "memory". So, for example, an Anima that is based off Chaos will have its memory as "Chaos".)

The memory is the feeling/idea/event that the Anima absorbed as a soul when it was wandering through the world. After Aether, the Ancient world, was consumed, the souls became like empty shells because there was nothing from which they could draw power. Neither Chaos or Creation existed in the void after Aether.

It was only until Pandora created the New world, that the souls could finally retain some semblance of their former selves. This they did by taking unto themselves those moments and feelings of the New world which were closest to their previous existences.

All aspects of the Anima are influenced by the memory which it absorbed.



of Chaos and Creation__.

As the Anima grows, it must draw power from either the essences of Chaos or Creation. Chaos stems from the Goddess Infinity and Creation stems from Pandora. Depending on the alignment, the Anima's powers will either be mainly positive or mainly negative in nature. For example, the memory Change under Chaos would inspire changes for the worse, while Change under Creation would cause things to change for the better. Though the Anima may draw on the essence opposite theirs, it is extremely difficult and does not always work.



about their powers__.

The magicks of Chaos and Creation flow unhindered through the Anima, but cannot be tapped at will. The less experienced souls may either release their powers without control or not have access to them at all. On a similar note, souls that are empty and without a memory are completely unable to channel Chaos or Creation.

The nature of an Anima's powers depends on the memory which it harbors, and will either be mainly negative or mainly positive when used, depending on the alignment the Anima has chosen. Chaos will cause the powers to be only negative or harmful in effect (such as Solitude influencing others into thinking they are alone, or Eccentricity causing totally unnatural and potentially dangerous phenomenon to occur). Creation will cause the powers to be positive and helpful in effect (such as Solitude helping others by isolating them and giving them personal space, or Eccentricity making much-hoped-for miracles happen).




accessorizing__. CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE




familiars?!__.
These are probably minor souls that got attracted to the powerful magicks of the Anima children. Some familiars come with the Anima when it is born into the physical realm, while others are attracted later on in its life.

Familiars come in all forms-- from humanoid to animalistic to spirit-y-- and they grow along side of the anima. For example, when the anima goes from child to adolescent, the familiar also grows.

While it appears alongside the anima in the main cert, it also has a mini-cert of its own. An anima and its familiar can be owned by different people, but they have to be constantly interacting because of their close relationship.

Further information is unavailable at this time.



the quest-giving fairy__.

Do you do pet trades? Yes, of course, but as I stated in the rules post, I will do them only for the pets I really want. Sorry to support Breedables eliticism! ;;

kan i haff 1?! No, win it from a contest or auction. I'm not giving you one just 'cause you asked.

How long does it take you to draw one of the pets? Depending on the individual piece, it can take me anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours. I spend the least time on sketching and the most on inking, I think.

Which program do you use? I use Adobe Photoshop 5.5.

Do I have to keep a journal for my Anima? Yes, you do. If you have an alternative, then please bring it up with me, I'd love to hear new suggestions.

Can they breed? Not so far, but I'm still planning that. I'll keep you all informed. It's not like any of the pets are old enough to breed, anyway. xD;

Can I be on the mailing list? Just friend "sleepswithbutterflies", and you're done!

Can we be affiliates? I'd much prefer to be the one asking you that, but I guess there's no harm in trying. I reserve the right to decline you, though.

So. How does your Anima choose their alignment (chaos/creation)? As your Anima grows, its personality and decisions will affect which alignment it falls under. You will receive a quest when your Anima is around child-adolescent that will officially determine its alignment, though! :O More information will be available for you when you reach that stage~

Their "Memory" is like their background story? Well I guess you could say that. ^^ It's the event/moment the soul saw and absorbed when it was wandering through the world. :O

When do I get to name my Anima? When I give you teh naming quest. :B

When is the next distribution event?! If you don't see it on the main page, then ask in the thread and somebody knowledgeable will answer you.

I still don't understand this "memory" thing!! That's okay, I'll use Solitude as an example.

Say Solitude, when it was still living on Aether, was a lone-wolf type figure. Then Aether was destroyed, and the soul of Solitude wandered around until the New World was created. It traveled around the new world until one day, it saw a little girl sitting in a basement, crying because she was alone. Solitude, remembering it's past life as a lone wolf, decided to remember that specific girl and how she was feeling alone. Then when it became an Anima child, it was influenced by it's Memory, and so became a lonely girl. Get it? XD;

Do you need any help? Well... no. I enjoy working on the anima art, and since I have both Raifie and Cere to do my dirty work, I don't really need anything else. Only thing might be, uh... drawing a diagram of the house. But since the description is already so confusing, I guess I'll have to draw it myself. xP;








custom forms__.

DO NOT FILL THIS OUT UNLESS YOU HAVE RECEIVED A CUSTOM ANIMA.


DO NOT FILL THIS OUT UNLESS YOU HAVE RECEIVED A CUSTOM ANIMA FAMILIAR.

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<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v693/gorachii/gorachii_vdayava.png" align="left">
__Gorachii
In charge of art. AND DAMN COOL. Busy as hell. Don't bother her, dammit. heart

She enjoys talking long walks on the beach and likes eating fortune cookies. She one day aspires to be like Piffy. 8D



<img src="http://peyo.gaiaonline.com/gaia/members/ava/e8/fc/4a445e07fce8.png?t=1115587898" align="left">__Cerena

Cere the magnificent, eater of worlds! heart She's your friendly neighborhood GM and in charge of making Chai do all the draw-y things and making the people do all the write-y things. Otherwise her only job is to stand there and look pretty.

She enjoys conversing with flamingoes and sledding on penguins. She loves Chai and Koyuki. She one day aspires to be Queen of the World.



<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v54/Raife/raifeavatar.gif" align="left">
__Raife
Your friendly neighborhood threadwhorefunkymonkeyanimajunkie. In charge of keeping Chai in tip-top shape with regular doses of monkey sex!

She likes sandwiches, pie, and the right to take pictures of hot guys she doesn't know. Oh, and esoteric literature. She aspires to one day be Elvis Presley. Or, atleast, be like David Foster Wallace.
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