CANDY CORN GALA • sitewide social gathering

A solemn moment of peace and drinking was quickly interrupted by the somewhat annoyingly loud and pitched voice that seemed to echo through this place more than it should have, even forcing the girl's animal ears to twitch a number of times in discomfort. Furthermore, there was a good moment when she was just simply staring into the crowd with a dumbfounded expression as she saw Jiyu being tickled by another being? Well... she certainly was social, wasn't she? So much was to be expected from a role model like her. With a sight and after wiping the theoretical sweat drop over her head, she once again indulged herself in the drink, only to blink and see something a little bit unpleasant on the other end of her table. It probably wasn't really noticed by anyone, but blue ethernano that could be barely sensed started gathering over one of the free chairs and soon took on a very familiar shape of the true Eden's goddess called Aurora. The girl that spoke in Leila's head not too long ago was not thusly sitting comfortably on the other end of the table with one leg over the other, her left hand supporting her face as she leaned to the side with a wicked smile. It was a little annoying, but there was a good number of summons in Leila's possession that were powerful enough to force open their gates and enter this realm on their own accord and sometimes even against the summoner's wishes. Among them was Lisette, Yuki, Libra and finally Aurora, who was arguably stronger than Leila herself. At least when it came down to the pure amount of magical power in one's body and the fact that she was the person who created Gardens of Eden.

"Don't you hear? She's calling you. Are you sure you shouldn't go greet her, maybe pull her down onto the ground and tear that awful dress from her? If I recall from your memories, she never wore more than-"

"It's fine. A little bit more, and the stench will stick to me for the rest of the evening. She hates it."

Interrupting her goddess, Leila would answer as she looked down at the glass of whiskey in her hand, tilting it to the side and back few times to force the liquid from its static state before drinking another dose of it. From the point of an outsider, she probably appeared as an alcoholic to a degree, considering she already finished one glass before. There were many feelings inside of the girl that she still had no hold of. Feelings that made her unsure of her own path. And there was a good chance she would never really figure them out, as emotions were extremely complex things that often had no concrete solution. Whether that would drag her to the bottom forever more yet had to be decided.

"Not when the smell is on a certain wild animal, apparently. You've still not figured out what happened to him, have you?"

"No. And frankly, I don't quite care. Dead or just running away, the matter of the fact is that not many seem to even remember him at this point. My connection to Eden might have been restored, but I'm still far away from having enough power to face something strong enough to cause that."

The smile she carried not long ago quickly transformed into an annoyed sigh as the goddess started looking around and quickly grabbed for a plate that held a chocolate cake on top of it. It looked like even a being that could be compared to a celestial spirit had an appetite when it came down to delicious looking meals. Well, that much was quite obvious, considering Leila was eating on regular basis and their origin was exactly the same. Though as she was moving it toward her, she noticed something different that captured her attention even more. What she moved right in front of her was a chocolate pizza. A sight that made the Eden's caretaker move her plate of finished melon slices to the side, as she was probably done eating for at least a little while.

"Earthland is quite strange, isn't it..."

Despite the strangeness of it all, Aurora would still try to enjoy the chocolate meal as Leila watched her with clear uninterest in her eyes, but had lack of better stimuli that she could turn her attention to. Despite this being a very social event that many mages went to, no one had actually tried to approach the snow white girl. Which was also something that she had honestly anticipated. After all, that was the nature of not only humans, but all creatures holding some intelligence and living in a society similar to the one found in this world. People would be in groups, divided. That was because everyone was simply far too different from one another. Those that were too different could never truly agree even on the most basic of levels, thus creating conflicts. As a result, groups of people that were alike would be formed. People that were capable of harmonically interacting with one another rather than barking at each other all day long. People like Leila were exempt from these groups. An eternal wanderer with no true home, she was capable of interacting with almost anyone who was not outright evil and trying to take away her life, but at the same time never remained long enough to truly grow and create any meaningful bonds with others. Of course, there were also exceptions to this, as there were to absolutely everything else. Few rare individuals that managed to stick around just long enough to make her feel anything warm inside at all. A good number of people had someone like that, as could be easily confirmed when the girl glanced to the side, spotting a newly arrived mage resting in a lap of another being. They were bonds much stronger than your average friendship.

Finishing the second glass, Leila would sight and rub her temple a little bit. While she expected that no one would really try to interact with her, she also didn't expect this party to be so stale for her. After all, it was themed like this and delivered in the most suspicious of ways. It all screamed... well... not boring. She had almost given up the anticipation of anything at all happening as she prepared to stand up and head for the main entrance when she noticed a slight change in the lighting of the room. Now that she became an avatar of the wild, boasting a number of animal traits, she also became much keener and sensitive to even the most subtle changes around her. The flames above and everywhere else started flickering and dancing much more feverishly than before. And yet, there was no true wind that would cause this, despite the presence of at least one fairly powerful wind witch in the room. It was a first sign of many that actually convinced the female to sigh once again and remain in place as she reached for another slice of the orange melon to bite into, continuing to watch her goddess across the table who was rather struggling to keep all that chocolate in her mouth and atop the food rather than on her clothes. There was something rather charming about a seemingly omnipotent being, at least to some extent, who wasn't quite able to grasp even the most basic concepts of the world due to her lack of interaction with the world itself. In that sense, she was almost like a child who was just learning the basics of staying alive and continuing to exists in this realm of reality. It almost made the white-haired witch chuckle, though she restrained herself for the sake of not agitating Aurora. The last thing she needed to happen was a scene and fight between them breaking out.

Though she did not have to entertain herself with these thoughts for all that much longer. The flickering was consistently growing stronger until it all finally peaked. And what she assumed to be the twist of the evening finally started happening, as she started to focus her gaze at the sparks forming on the stage for everyone to see, a grand performance to set terror into the faint hearts of meek mages. Even the Eden's goddess noticed it, trying to lay the rest of her unconventional meal back at the plate and turn around as she wiped chocolate from her lips with a napkin. What started to follow was a scene not all that impressive, as both of the females had seen much more grand performance than this one. At least until Leila realized something, standing up so quickly that the chair she was sitting at until now was flung back and toppled over. A stage that was large and positions so that anyone and everyone could see it, no matter where they were. Not to mention the effect of it all in itself, the flames were probably enough to draw anyone's attention, even the most absorbed mages here. Quickly scanning the air with her emerald green orbs, the girl had confirmed her worry as her hands placed on the table tensed up, her nails leaving almost claw-like marks on the wooden furniture due to the force applied by her. Everyone had their own weakness, though not everyone was affected equally by their shortcomings. Someone like herself would take measures against their own weakness and not be affected by it as much. However, she knew someone who was quite the opposite, unable to even bear the sight of flames even more than the smell of alcohol. Knowing that and not being able to see her right away set the panic mode into active.

"And now you're interested. Are you sure you're not little too kind to be the Guardian of Eden? Not to mention the number of people here. Stick to your plan, someone else will help her soon enough."

Not replying to the goddess, Leila would walk straight forward, easily walking through the table of organic material as if it was not even there the same way she arrived at this party, heading into the crowd. Her summon spoke the truth, even if she did nothing, most people here were kind and even if they were not, they would not dare to do anything to a passed out person in such a public area. Someone would help her sooner or later. And perhaps someone already had done so and the girl herself was late due to her hesitation. But she just couldn't shake that feeling in the back of her head. As seemed to be the theme of tonight, she sighed and closed her eyes while continuing to walk. Smells, sounds, magical signatures. She could sense it all. And knowing all three that she would make, it was no hard task to pin point the exact location where Jiyu was. It did not take long at all to finally have the other girl in her vision, though at that moment, Leila froze completely. There was someone else, a boy that seemed to be examining her. A multitude of different thoughts ran through her mind in an instant, theorizing who he was and what exactly did he want to do. Of course, all of that dissipated into nothingness the moment he walked away as if nothing was wrong. He noticed but didn't try to help her at all? Gritting her teeth, the Eden's caretaker would regain her composure and simply walk over to the passed out girl, looking around and making sure everyone's attention was still turned elsewhere as the crowd surely started talking, and probably mildly panicking, about the fact that they were all locked in here and no type of magic would seemingly be able to help them get out of here. Though that was secondary at the moment.

Leaning down, Leila would pick up her friend, placing one hand beneath her knees and one on her back. If there was one perk to the Inugami being about as big as a child, it was that she was all the easier to carry even for someone like this white-haired maiden. Not wasting any time, she would turn around and start walking back with her to the place where she was sitting before as inconspicuously as she possibly could in this situation, not exactly having any desire to appear as the person who made her be like this or had ill intentions. Putting her unconscious body onto one of the chairs while sitting next to her, she sighed in relief. All of this would be probably quite the surprise to the tiny mage once she actually wakes up. In fact, that was something Leila decided to try and help with. Rolling her right sleeve back a little bit, she would grow out a small purple flower out of her hand, one that had special properties. Its smell was capable of waking up people even from the most deep of sleep. Though if it would work on a being such as Jiyu, that she did not know. Still, she tried to place the flower into the black-haired girl's hair and leave it to do what it was meant to do. In the meantime, Aurora watched it all and chuckled as the sweet moments unfolded right in front of her.

"Aren't you a doting friend, rescuing the damsel in distress. Really, how can someone like her be working as a mage? She even ran away back while we were searching for the Heaven's forge just because I took over your body and said few mean things to her~"

Leila decided to ignore the goddess' words and instead just moved the bottle of whiskey from before to the side. She probably had enough drinking for tonight due to this happening. Which was a little frustrating as the stress of them being trapped in this place with no way out and a passed out friend right next to her only made her want to drink all the more. If the option was there, she would have probably downed the entire damn bottle right this moment without even caring if she was seen as a heavy drinker by others that were possibly looking at her during that moment. But... she had to hold her mind pure and focus.

The girl took a good bit of care while transporting her unconscious friend, but it appeared that someone noticed after all. Well, it was to be expected with so many mages present in the hall. She would have needed an actual cloak of invisibility if she hoped to silently transport Jiyu from one place to another like that. It was not exactly the best of situations Leila could have found herself in, but she was ready to improvise at least a little bit. Though, on top of the fact that someone approached her, it was actually someone she knew from the distant past. Very distant in fact. She had barely recognized the boy, but soon recalled her first trip to the Divide Island. Back then, she was going on a hunt for a famed pirate treasure. She had thought that she was gonna be alone for the entire time until three other people joined, this boy was one of them. If she recalled correctly, his name was Mura Kensho, a swordsman of kinds. At the time, it also seemed that he was communicating with spirits that were either part of him as whole or part of his magic. Now it made senses why he approached her asking the question he did rather than questioning the fact that she carried another guest who was seemingly sleeping over to here. If he had the power to commute with souls of the deceased or had the ability to see souls in general, then he would have recognized the Eden's guardian even when her appearance, smell, and magical energy completely changed. In a sense, that was quite a terrific ability he had there. One that would make it nearly completely impossible for anyone to hide from his leering gaze.

"Greetings. Long time no see, Mura Kensho. You don't have to be alarmed, I have things with miss Kazehime fully under control. There are quite a bit of people in here, the humid air probably got to her. I assure you that she'll be fine in no time at all."

Saying that the girl would run her hand through the snow-white hair again, a pleasant scent of vanilla wafting through the air as she did so. It became the natural smell of her hair ever since the appearance change. Or maybe it was just the fact she usually bathed in the sea of stars present in the Gardens of Eden. The water there had plenty of unusual traits that even she had to yet discover. On the other end of the table, it seemed that Aurora became quite amused by the swordsman's arrival, eyeing him thoroughly.

"Mura Kensho was it? It's quite the pleasure to meet you, sir. I hear that you're one of the first people that worked with Leila over here as she started her career of being a mage. To think I would meet such a legend here, it's quite the bliss~"

It seemed that the goddess started becoming bored again and decided to tease the poor youth. To the Eden's caretaker, it was obvious that the goddess couldn't care any less who worked with her other half as long as they would not hold her back. So the chance that she would suddenly start being interested in such things out of nowhere was pretty much non-existent. Still, it was probably good that his attention would be removed from Jiyu until she would wake up and handle the situation herself, if she would even be capable of something like that right now.