Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Well, it's not the home-grown stuff you're used to, but you'll manage," I told her, sticking my tongue out at her as I fed her another spoonfull. I knew she was teasing, as she made a hobby out of doing such, so I didn't get too butthurt over it.

So Jude succeeded in being innocuous enough he at least learned a little more about the existing members throughout the evening and overnight. One had a cold. Stay away. A few had really dirty mouths. Provoke at any ripe opportunity once he was 'in'. One had an ill Pokemon and would turn into a blood night for it. Give the poor guy some room.

He kept these notes to himself. There was fun to be had here, but it could wait. Until he had a talk with the leader, he planned on staying harmless and innocuous to all but Blizzard, Freth and their kid.

And speaking of, he wondered when they'd be up. It'd be terribly boring pretending to be a striped afghan for too much longer.

It was Tails that eventually peered over the chair at the prone Jude, and found him staring at a rainbow matrix of gems in his hands. Tails could count no color absent. Or, at least, the colors he knew about. "You really do, like gems, huh?"

Jude startled and almost lost a few of the stones down the deep recesses of the cushion of the chair, and that would have been very disappointing indeed. Instead, with a sigh he sat up and put them back in his pocket. "You scared me, Tails-boy," he said.

Tails couldn't help smiling. "I could never get Blizz to jump like that."

"You call him Blizz, huh? Even though he's like your dad?"

"Um...a guy called Miles said I shouldn't too often because then I'd make Blizz feel old."

Jude laughed. That was sound reasoning if he'd ever heard any. "So is Miles another guy here? That's a really normal name for a place like this."

"No, he lives somewhere else and no one sees too much of him anymore. But I -can- show you someone else to meet, who won't think you're an enemy because you haven't been around."

Jude stood up from the chair and stretched like a fuzzy rubberband, hands high above him. Furret, Tails quickly observed, were secretly really tall when they wanted to be. "You noticed, hm?"

"You -smell- nervous."

"Oh, dear. I swear that's not gas."

It was easy to say that, but the kid had his number. And, secretly, he counted giving up that lapis a good trade for someone to talk to. "So, someone else?"

"Yeah, c'mon. I'll show you. He's busy with something, so now's a good time."

"I -like- that logic," Jude decided, and tail a-wag, he followed Tails out to the training room. He figured if Blizzard decided to play Overprotective Dad to the Cute Kid he had a good alibi. Nothing scared him more right now than a hypothetical ice beam from a legendary hybrid.

Another kid, so Jude observed. One kid was a strange enough sight for a group like this, he thought. But for there to be two seemed like an exercise in keeping eggs whole during an earthquake. "So how many of you kiddies are there about here?" he asked.

"We're the youngest ones. And it's mostly just us. Heeeey, Tristen!" said Tails and proceeded through the door waving. "You wanna meet the guy that cool blue stone belonged to?"

Jude's eyes were wide, but not like he was a deer before the headlights. They were wide because kids usually thought it was funny.

"Tristen, huh?" Jude said, and stared back down at the boy. It was hard to tell who was the younger here, or how they even knew each other. But he grew his rascally grin, then took Tristen in a very exaggerated, whole armed handshake. "I'm Jude. Totally harmless. And is it just me, or is your arm strangely heavy?"

Jude glanced the vest twice over, then tried to take it. Almost immediately, he found himself bent in striped arch. "Whoa," he said, and righted himself so he could lift with his legs rather than his back. His teeth shut like a trap, he succeeded in holding it outstretched on one very shaky arm. "This reminds me of my high school backpack all over again. Are you sure this isn't bad for a kid your age? Who's making you wear this?"

"So you're another of Blizzard's kids?" Jude said, and with a gasp, finally let the vest drop to the floor. "I guess if he's making sure you're okay through this...are there any more of you? He never struck me as someone to adopt one, let alone two."

"We're the only ones," Tails clarified. "Blizz is only cold on the outside. He's really cool when you get to know him a bit."

"If he taught you that one, I suddenly can't find find him as threatening as I did yesterday," said Jude, and donned a very fake stony gaze.

"Huh?" The boy hadn't quite caught his own joke.