Welcome to Gaia! ::

Alex desperately needed a change of scenery. And so, with a thick book clutched in his undead hand, he had made his way outside and towards the Monster dorms. Somebody had told him that he could find a lake near there, and he thought it might be a nice change of pace to sit and read outside of it, enjoying the outdoors and letting himself air out a bit. He was not completely unaware of his horrible stench, intensified by the fact that he almost never changed his clothes or bothered to clean. This would be good for him.

It took him much longer then it should have to actually get to the lake. His slow shuffling steps never did get him where he needed to go in hurry. It didn't really bother him, however. He was pretty much used to it. Eventually though, it's dark shores became visible. With a small smile, he settled himself down on the soft and sandy ground and opened the book up on his lap to read.

Alex was fairly absorbed in his book, so when Chuppi came running along the lake front, he did not even notice...

at first.

But then he was drawn out of his book by sounds. Sounds like heavy breathing and the movement of feet upon a ground. The zomboils attention snapped upwards at once, his eyes focused like that of a predator, one that was used the the chase (not that Alex ever really chased anything, he preferred to hang out around the tail end of the horde).

The ghoul on the beach was one he recognized, and he smiled a little to himself. Chuppi seemed like a sweet ghoul, but Alex really didn't know her all that well, except that she was a friend of Mort's. She looked like she had been busy with something though, so he wasn't about to interrupt her, and was about ready to bend his head down and get back into his book.

And then she started to take her clothes off.

Alex's eyes widened, his mouth gaping open. What should he do?? If he tried to sneak away and give her some privacy, she might look up and see him, and be terribly embarrassed. If he sat here watching what she was doing much longer though, it would be infinitely worse. So instead, he did the only thing he could think of, and began to shout "HEY! Hey Chuppi!" While waving his arms in the air frantically.

Jack be damned, even if it did embarrass her, Alex did not want to end up looking like a creeper in all of this.

Alex had no words. His mouth had gone completely dry, his throat constricting as he rapidly moved his gaze to the ground, refusing to look back up at the ghoul.

She had just gotten completely naked in front of him. He had never seen a ghoul naked in his entire unlife, and now..now there was one standing right in front of him. To her, it might have been completely natural, but to the zomboil? No. Just. A million times NO.

If he could properly blush his face would have been burning red by now. As it was, he did feel the beginnings of warmth creeping slowly up the back of his neck, something he rarely ever felt and only in times of extreme embarrassment. She was continuing to talk to him, and he felt so very rude for not replying, so he gave his voice another try.

It came out a little bit high pitched and strangled, but at least it came.

"I--I'm fine Chuppi!" he called, and then "Sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know how to swim. I could walk around the bottom of the lake, I'm sure, but water and rotting flesh don't really mix well!"

And then something changed. He could hear it in her voice when she began to speak again, and when she mentioned her tail he finally became brave enough to steal a glance up from his book and look at her again. She was in her natural form, which was good, because it seemed much less...intimate? to Alex.

Finally he put his book down, and pushed himself to his feet so that he could shamble across the lakeshore towards the ghoul, an apprehensive smile on his face. "I'm sure you are a wonderful swimmer, Chuppi! If you don't mind some company, I could sit and watch and talk to you while you do so."

That's right, just keep talking and pretend it never happened.

He nodded happily, a warm smile on his face. "That's exactly right! I don't need to breathe. I mean, I can if I want, and I often do when looking for food or tracking something that might make a good meal, but since I'm technically dead..breathing just isn't necessity anymore." His smile turned into a grin, one that flashed teeth.

As she slipped into the water, Alex collapsed to the ground and crossed his legs, placing his book to the side and watching her go under curiously and with a small amount of alarm. She had, afterall, just confessed to not being able to swim well and he was a little worried that she might not come back up again. He could still see her, though, and she didn't appear to be in any sort of trouble. It was with a certain amount of relief that she poked her head above the surface again.

"I've been good! Better since the uh...Christmas fiasco anyways. How have you been?" He inquired politely

Alex continued to watch her, and tried to answer her questions as nicely as he could. He hadn't really thought about it too much, why he sometimes chose to breathe and why he sometimes didn't, so he shifted a little in his spot before answering her question. He maybe hadn't done a very good job explaining the breathing situation.

"I don't need to breathe, because it's not a necessary function for me, because I'm not technically alive. I suppose I still do it without realizing, because I like to be able to smell my surroundings, and it helps when hunting again, because of the help the extra sense of smell provides. I guess I don't even technically need to eat, but I'm almost always hungry anyways, and I enjoy the taste of meat too much to deprive myself of it. I choose not to breathe when it's convenient." He finished, though now that he thought about it more, he realized that he actually did breathe more often then he didn't, even though he didn't need to. Fancy that!

He gave Chuppi a puzzled look as she swam, not sure he quite understood that last thing that she had said "What is mi termo?"

Alex watched her curiously as she submerged herself underneath the water, wondering if she was ok, but seeing her raise to the surface again rather quickly. Her natural form was really quite interesting to watch, and he'd never seen anything quite like it before.

He listened to her account of the broken thermos and nodded sympathetically, feeling like he knew somewhat how she felt. A Christmas ice monster had, after all ruined one of his favorite ties, first by shredding it then getting it covered in glitter that just wouldn't come off. Alex's ties were all precious to him in some way. Never mind that his collection was near 500 now. They were all precious.

All of them.

"Could you not perhaps buy a new one from the maul? Or did this one hold, um..sentimental value?" He felt awkward asking her that, as it seemed like a fairly personal question, but she was obviously quite sad about it.