Welcome to Gaia! ::

Theresa had stopped listening a while ago. She'd finished the Snickers and had moved on to the bag of the crunchy things that her brother had given her. She'd successfully opened the bag by mimicking Kerana's action with the Snickers wrapper. She smiled proudly and wasted no time in grabbing a handful of the contents and shoveling it unceremoniously into her mouth. When she had finished the bag to mouth transfer of all the tips, she actually felt a little sad. It was then that she took notice of her hands. Her fingers had a few remnants of melted chocolate and were dusted in salt and crumbs from the potato chips.

She ravenously began to lick and suck on her fingers and palms in order to attain the last remnants of flavor. She was in the process of licking the webbing between her thumb and forefinger when she noticed that everyone else had gone quiet. With her mouth still suckling her hand her eyes panned the room. Everyone was looking at her. She didn't particularly care for being the center of attention. Her eyes darted back and forth twice more, and then she finally took her hand out of her mouth.

"What?" she asked with a tone of annoyance. She wanted to go back to licking her hands and getting more flavor.

"Strange....the salt comment worked before."

"Have I ever killed innocents?" Legio asked before he sank through the shadows going back to Valhalla. There was a pile of Daedelus corpses waiting for him. He was going to consume that before Fenris wanted to talk. It didn't take him long for him to find it. To....prevent a potential commotion he stayed in the shadow realm and simply consumed from underneath the shadow of the pile.

Theo was about to correct that Theresa was one of the 8 when Rydia and Alec did already did, He did notice both Trinity's and Gidget's reaction but ignored it for now. Only raising a brow at Gidget's response. She wanted to be the one to tell Trinity and she did.

Then the attention shifted towards Theresa. Theo didn't often interact with Ako. Could barely remember the last time but he did agree with him. It still didn't sit right with him that she was chosen. Though he did chuckle a bit.

"Theresa.....don't do that. I know it's good but there's more food to go around. " Theo said and sighed afterwards. "Come on...let's go watch your hands" He walked her over to the sink, showed her how to wash her hands and dry them afterwards.

"I'm glad it's not one of the future kids. They've had enough s**t to deal with already."

Trinity frowned at Alec’s premonition that the eighth one was Liv.
rolleyes Not only she’s immortal… now she’s one of the eight (sigh) this day gets better and better.

While Theo was showing Theresa to wash her hands Trinity got a better look at the girl. She looked different than when she last saw her. She knew of the girl's ability she had to face them first hand. "Not to alarm anyone, but don't let her jovial appearance fool you. I have faced her first hand in combat and she is a worthy adversary. We're lucky that she decided to leave Eclipse’s team and joined us. She helped in addressing the head cutter that took out a lot of us. She did this by absorbing materials and shifting her arm with ammo of that material. lt was bad when she was using mithril, she really hurt Sil at the time."

“Now that Damien has made the connection I wonder what she’s capable of now.”

Gidget nearly crushed Kerana from the scare she got. She yelped and looked toward the source of the bang. Her eyes widened with a combination of shock and curiosity. She let go of Kerana and slowly made her way toward the sculpture that used to be her industrial sink.

"Unreal. But she shouldn't be able to do that. The sink was made of stainless steel, an alloy. Her file said she could only absorb and repurpose naturally occurring metals and stones. I guess this is the answer to Trinity's question."

Gidget kneeled down beside Theresa and placed a gentle hand upon the child soldier's head. "You didn't do anything wrong, sweetie. I mean...I would prefer my sink wasn't warped into cheeseburger, but I remember what it was like when I first got my powers. I think we can all agree that it's scary at first, but we're here to help you get a grip on them. Okay?"

Ako watched silently as Gidget comforted the little gun girl. He smiled adoringly as he thought about what his future with their family would be like. The word still felt a bit foreign to him, but the more time he spent around Gidget the more familiar it became.

The fur on Rydia's ears and tail ceased to stand on end as she took several deep breathes to calm her nerves. "Okay! That's it! I think I'm done with shocking revelations and surprises for the rest of the day. If one more thing comes up that upends my world view, or nearly gives me a heart attack, I'm going to lose it."

"Well then, Princess, I guess you've gotta go get it back"

Out of the darkest corner of the lab approached Fenris stepped Fenris. She'd decided it best to remain in her wolfish state. Since she couldn't rightfully say she was either Freya or Okami she opted for the combination of both.

Rydia shot up from her seat and exclaimed, "Aunt Freya! Er, Okami?! But why do you...oh. I think I stood up too-"

She promptly plopped back down on her seat and held her head in her hands. The infinite eye's gaze into Silhouette's past was still taking it's toll.

Fenris rolled her eyes and blew air through her lips. "Pft...Royalty."

She turned her gaze to Trinity and smiled just as she had the day before in the realm of the dead. "Hey Trin...sorry I scared you."

Alec awkwardly smiled as the people around him were becoming content and happy with new connections and reconnections. But then his smile began to melt away. He could feel something was amiss. No, not really amiss as much as wrong.

It had returned. The thing that removed the dead bodies from the battlefield. The thing that had devoured the bodies of Valhalla's defenders and innocents before he and Kerana could save them. The thing that was born the same day Alec was reborn.

Alec shuddered and walked up to Kerana. "Kay, something's come up that I need to address. Maintaining balance and all that. But, I'm not sure if I'm able to get too far away from you yet. Since some of our powers are opposite of each other, do you think you'd be able to grant me a sort of 'hall pass of the living?' Y'know, like how I gave everyone a 'hall pass of the dead' yesterday."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leo and Dawn were helping the childcare staff hand out sandwich rations to the kids and doing their part to keep the younger newcomers from their time calm. A small amount of the present day kids were gravitating toward Dawn's naturally bright demeanor. Leo was trying his best to help while maintaining what he felt was a professional attitude. He didn't dislike children, but he never quite knew how to handle them. That was especially true of the tweenage girls, and a few boys, that were entranced by his boy-band worthy appearance.

The staff looked up, smiled, and nodded to Cassandra as she entered. They were deathly afraid of her when she first offered to help with the kids, but she soon became one of their favorite volunteers.

"Kids, look who's come by to say hello!"

Heads popped up and turned. Smiles, cheers, and arms rose in excitement.

"Cassandra!"

"Hi!"

"You came back!"

"Of course she did. No one can stop Wonder Woman!"

The one's that knew her and trusted her swiftly lost interest in Leo and Dawn. They ran and clamored around Cassandra. They kids from the future that were old enough to know Cassandra's name, but hadn't yet gotten to know her, watched her carefully and stayed near Leo and Dawn.

Leo and Dawn, meanwhile, eyed Cassandra carefully. To them she was one third of the horror that threw their world into chaos and ruin. They could plainly see that she wasn't the raging juggernaut she was described as in their time, but they weren't ready to trust her completely just yet.

Trinity nodded at Gidget's observation. Her attention was drawn away from the special moment Gidget had with Theresa, there was something in the shadows. To not draw alarm she took a defensive stance but a subtle one to not draw too much attention. Her eyes were focused on the corner where it was coming from This... cannot be Eclipse, no... this is... someone else.

Since Fenris was composed of a pile of Valhalla's dead Trinity could not recognize the signature. In the previous battle with Eclipse there was so much going on that sensing Fenris got lost in the shuffle. If it was Freya, in her original body she would have no trouble sensing her, yet Fenris is not quite Freya and not quite Okami. Perhaps if it was Fenris before she was devoured she might have been sensing both of them at the same time but since this was afterward she was pretty much a new being in the shadow realm, whom she would have to learn their presence, their "shadow signature" as she had referred to it at times.


Trinity let out a sigh of relief as soon as she heard her voice. She did wonder how she was standing here in front of them all, among the living. She was wondering this when she saw her taunting Eclipse like old times in the last battle. Part of her really wanted to ask but another part felt like it would cause her to disappear. Without another moment of hesitation, she hugged her tight. After their battle with Eclipse, she wasn't sure when or if she would ever see her again.

Fenris took a second to look down at Trinity before she wrapped her arms around the girl. "I know. I know." she hummed. "I was scared too."

Rydia looked up at Fenris and asked, "I don't understand. I saw his past. He devoured you. How are you here?"

The wolf looked to Rydia and said, "You aren't wrong. I was devoured and dead. He spat me out earlier today just to ******** with Eclipse."

Ako was silently aghast as he watched Rydia and Trinity interact with a six foot tall pitch black werewolf as though it was a regular thing. He shuffled over to Gidget and tapped her on the shoulder in an attempt to bring her attention
to the absurd situation.

Gidget silently held Theresa to her in order to give the girl a moment she desperately needed. The little gearhead had recognized what sounded like Freya's wolf self and turned her eyes up to Ako. With a sly smile she shook her head and whispered, "Don't worry about it. She's like family to me and Trinity."

Alec smiled gently and shook his head. "It's alright. I know you did your best. I'd ask you to come with me, but there're too many things that could go wrong. I'll be okay. Just...y'know, don't freak out if I drop off your radar for a bit."

"Besides, you're gonna have your own hands full."

He waited a beat and the nodded in the direction of her phone.

Kerana's phone buzzed and dinged twice. Two messages had been sent.

Valhalla Medical Department ~ ATTN: Kerana Carter. A patient [Lokelonni Eleilya Soichi] has regained consciousness and requested to speak with "the fox girl who brings life." You're the resident that most closely matches her description. She has stressed that there is no hurry in the matter, but that you may like to know more about something called the "boon of life."

Resident In-processing ~ ATTN: Kerana Carter. A new arrival and freed Daedalus prisoner has submitted the name [Raina Carter]. Records indicate a match to the name you submitted as your biological mother. She has not been informed of your status as a resident as of yet per Valhalla's confidentiality and resident safety protocols, but has made inquiries regarding your status as a resident. Please contact us at your earliest convenience regarding the matter.

"Huh...going full on...FMA. Well guess that answers that question" Theo responded. Then....something he didn't see coming. Theressa somehow recognized Gidget.

Then....more stuff happened. As it somehow always does. Running a hand through his hair he sighed.

Freya didn't look like she usually did. He knew of Okami but nothing like this. Theo was unsure on how to react.

"Look, I am...glad I suppose that you are back from the dead. But.....can we really trust you? You were....spat out by that thing. You're not the same as you were. I saw your ******** soul after we took down Crosis. Do you even have that? Don't wanna be the bad guy here but I need to ask. Don't want you to suddenly getting hungry and thinking that we are looking like a snack."

Meanwhile Cassandra gave as many children a hug with a warm smile.

"Of course. You think anything can keep me away from all of you?" With easy she lifted a few of them up before putting them down. She looked over at Leo and Dawn. This was the first time seeing them but she knew about them. Alexavier is quite the chatterbox after all and it's hard to keep anything secret with him around.

"Thank you for helping out. We all appreciate it. Even if some of these rascals don't say it."Cassandra said as she caught one of the running kids, lifting him up by the shirt and put him down on her other side.

She extended her hand to them. "Name's Cassandra. My brother already spoiled to me who you all are. I keep telling him to stop prying but it's in his nature. Psychics, I tell you...."

Legio remained in the Shadow Realm to feed but had now sank a large portion of the Daedelus corpses into it. It made feeding faster and a lot more direct to pull them in. It invigorated him. It didn't occur to him before how....famished he was. Losing a large portion of his biomass due to recreating Fenris and then fighting her.