Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was certainly far cooler in this place than outside, the air conditioning and closed atmosphere leading to a rather more pleasant feel. The addition of the music helped to soothe Jymei's rather frayed nerves.

It had been...difficult lately. Her father had attempted to bring her home, and she had, of course, been forced to refuse. She could hardly leave Kaoni with anyone, nor could she take him and attempt to explain. It was all the fault of her idiotic brother: just thinking of how he'd given her that single pocky as a taunt and how it had turned into a small boy sitting naked in her hotel room caused her stress level to rise to a point she'd prefer if it did not pass. After all, stress was bad for your complexion, and where would she be if she did not have her appearances?

She glanced to her side at the young child with chocolate-brown hair and eyes. At least he was well behaved...as he was now. To be sure, having a child spontaneously generate from her sweet guilty pleasure was surprising and harrowing enough, yet she could hardly have gotten one that was more...normal. Or at least passable. No, her child had many issues, not the least of which his possession of multiple personalities. She attempted to keep him in the calm, well-behaved one as much as she could, yet it was difficult.

To add to her issues, Kaoni was far from the only child to appear as such. He often wished to join the others for some sort of nonsensical child's entertainment. Yet most of these, if not all, were of a far lower class. She could hardly be seen associating with people! The appearance of the pocky child had made a life of ease and comfort into one of annoying difficulty.

Kaoni, meanwhile, watched the group preform below. Their position was, of course, in a VIP box, and their seats were therefore fabulous. Why seats were better for a performance involving only sound, he did not understand, yet that did not stop his enjoyment of the symphony.

Kaoni sat nearly still with his hands folded in his lap, garbed in a suit and looking both mature and adorable. To be certain, he was not going to act as his hyper self, and as for the others...it was foolish to even suggest. As his mind rode with the music, however, he found his gaze wandering over the other, lower customers, picking out a few and inventing stories of their lives based on their appearance. With a slight effort, he wrenched his attention back to the numerous adults and their instruments.

Despite his efforts to remain attentive, Kaoni felt his gaze wandering once more. Music was hardly something he enjoyed: he preferred a quiet room and a book, or studying a foreign language. Music...made him tired. Tired made him inattentive. He could feel his other selves clamoring in the back of his mind, longing to get out though they did not even know they were being repressed. It was an annoying feeling, yet one he was used to. And he could hardly let Kaoni-kun roam free in such an environment: no doubt massive physical and social damage would be caused and he'd never be forgiven by mother.

He glanced to his side at the platinum blonde. He knew he inconvenienced her, made her life difficult, and no doubt his own would have been much simpler had he not come in, through her, to wealth. Yet he would not release what he was given, and despite the apparent lack of parental love given to him, he cared greatly for the young heiress he saw as his mother. So he could not...would not let Kaoni-kun be. To remain awake, he allowed himself to glance over the people once more.

His gaze was caught by a flash of blue. The colors were unusual...as was the shade of the hair. Certainly not colors one would normally choose to go to such an occasion. And the one wearing this clothing appeared no older than himself. While not the only ones, there were hardly many children present. And, from this child, a vague sense of familiarity...and a vague hint of an enchanting aroma.

Kaoni could not long resist. His wandering eyes had fixed on a swatch of vibrant blue hair, a wave of a sweet aroma, and from then it was too late. He was simply not assertive enough, unlike the others. And, before Jymei could stop him or even notice the change despite her own lack of interest in the proceedings on the stage, he was up and running, as children often do, but as the well-behaved Kaoni-san never did. He was Kaoni-kun now, and after the scent.

With little regard to the audience further than to run into things rather less than usual and therefore be a good deal less noisy, he honed in on the position of the blue-haired boy. He pushed right up next to him and grinned widely. "Hi, I'm Kaoni!" he introduced himself, entirely forgetting the fact he was standing in the midst of an audience to an orchestra, after having pushed his way through, and speaking in his normal tone and volume. "What's your flavor?"

Jymei, of course, could hardly let her indignation at the behavior of her charge show. And she certainly could not chase after him. From her vantage point where she was sure she would not be identified as being with him, she watched his antics with an inward sigh of resignation. Her chocolate boy simply could not be controlled.

"Hi Mani!" Kaoni responded with a giggle. "Cider?! That sounds tasty!" The hyper child, of course, would hardly used a quiet voice, yet he somehow contrived to be completely unable to hear the shushing of those around him. "Mani! Mani! Let's play!" The chocolate pocky child's face was lit up with a pure and innocent grin of someone quite oblivious to the trouble they'd be in later. Instead, he grabbed on to the cider boy's arm and began to attempt to tug him up.

"Papa?" Kaoni looked curiously at the human male beside Mani. To be sure, he knew the concept of fathers, and knew other pocky boys often had one, but he only had Jymei, a single heiress in her early twenties, as his caretaker. "Hi!" He said to Shun with a large smile. "I'm Kaoni! I'm chocolate!"

The chocolate boy was pleased to have met and made a new friend: he did not get the opportunity often, and for some reason he didn't understand certain other pocky boys seemed rather frightened of him. Katashi, to name one...

"Yup. I'm here with mother. She's....back there!" Kaoni made a vague gesture behind him, but showed no concern over pointing her out specifically. "She brought me here...but..." The chocolate boy glanced at the seats surrounding them for a moment. "Sitting still is so boring!"

"Neh...the music is pretty but...You can't move around much!" Kaoni glanced at Shun, then behind him. "I don't think she's looking for me. I'll have to find her eventually...but..." For once, this young and hyperactive personality did not have his usual tone. It was wearier and, while not quite to the level of his more intelligent self, somewhat more knowledgeable of the ways of the world. The moment passed, however, as soon as it had arrived. "So lets play until late!" He smiled widely at the cider boy.

"That sounds fun! We could explore! It'd be like we were adventurers in a story!" His face, always smiling, broke into a conquering grin of the triumphant hero. He could imagine the epic saga: two boys alone against the world, with shadow monsters attacking them and him fighting them back with a simple wave of his sword. He imagined himself rescuing the other boy as if he were the captured damsel in distress (in this image, of course, Mani wore a dress). A dragon could hardly even attempt to stand up to the fury of two brave knights! He hardly ever got the occasion to play with other children, much less other pocky boys, and was not just satisfied with imagining: he had to do something!

His smile turned to the blue pocky boy, happy that Mani was eager as well. Hardly managing to constrain his excitement, he bounced up and down as he grabbed Mani's hand and dragged him away from the seating. Once they had reached the stage area, however, he paused, hesitant. He did not know his way around the stage at all, and wasn't quite sure where they were supposed to enter to begin their exploration.

"Let's pretend this is a great, dark forest!" He exclaimed in a burst of inspiration, and immediately in his gaze the simple stage before him changed into a land of wonder and mystery. "We've got to figure out a way though...but we can't be eaten by the monsters!" He indicated the rows of adults that watched them disapprovingly, though instead he saw them as scattered groups of ravenous wolves and giant spiders, of feral gryphons and creatures unknown and unnameable.