Welcome to Gaia! ::

DO NOT ROLL UNTIL LAZ ICly EXPLAINS THE RULES. MY BAD

Xiu had to admit that he was surprised and a little intrigued when Lazarus made the sudden call, inviting him and “a few others” to an afternoon of quiet socializing. For a moment Xiu was worried that it would be yet another lab event (he was quite sure that he was not prepared for another one just yet) but was assured that it was not.

As it turned out, it was indeed a small gathering of raevans. Cesc was a welcomed and familiar face while the other Sigel was one Xiu had not met before. “Pleased to meet you, I am Xiu and you are…?”

At Lazarus’s question, Xiu turned his gaze towards the newly opened box of …stacked sticks. He had seen it advertised on television before and knew the general mechanics of the game but had never played it.

“It certainly looks fun. How will we play it?” Xiu asked.

In all honesty, Cruz hadn't been sure what to expect when he first received the invitation. It was far from the norm for him, others he had yet to meet making the first move rather than Anita arranging things for him or taking charge himself. The prospect sounded like a lot of fun though, especially in the wake of stress from the essences going missing. Still, if he had to be honest with himself, the croc was a little wary on the choice of location soon after the event.

Seeing Cesc there was a pleasant sight and helped him relax some in the face of their locale. It wasn't meeting new people that made Cruz anxious, far from it; he loved seeing different faces and making new friends. He grinned pleasantly as Xiu introduced himself and extended a hand to the white sigel. "Cruz. Nice to meet you, S-syu?" The pronunciation was a little difficult for him, with those reptile teeth; he winced slightly in apology but was certain he would get it right after practicing a few more times.

He craned his neck to peer at the tower as they were all prompted and shook his head when Lazarus asked. "Heard of it." There were vague memories of commercials but little more. Board games and things like this weren't common in his house compared to video games, of which there was an over abundance, but Cesc put forth a full ringing endorsement that made the crocodile raevan eager to begin.

Xiu smiled as he shook Cruz’s hand, taking note of the other’s interesting features as they often provided hints to a Raevan’s origin. From what he could make out, the fins on Cruz’s back might possibly imply that he was aquatic? And those teeth, they definitely had a carnivorous feel to them…

Apart from outrightly asking Cruz about his fel essence and soul (which perhaps should be saved for a time when they knew each other better) Xiu decided to leave it at that. After all they were raevans and that was camaraderie enough for him.

Taking a seat beside Lazarus, Xiu nodded as the rules were explained and was surprised when Lazarus added his own take to the game. “Are you sure this would not be something you’d regret later?” teased Xiu as he watched Lazarus stack the first block.

Jokes aside though, the idea itself seemed pretty ingenious and Xiu could appreciate that.

“I will go next!” volunteered Xiu, raising his hand slightly.

Selecting a middle piece quite close to the top and stacking it beside Lazarus’s, Xiu was thoughtful for a moment. “Since we are on the subject of forests…I saw this website dedicated to nothing but pictures of treehouses; honestly, some of the designs shown were fantastic,”

Grinning a little sheepishly, Xiu laughed. “I spent close to two hours just browsing the pictures and thinking how splendid it would be to vacation in one,”

The rules seemed simple enough. Cruz listened to them with an eager smile; he loved games but this was certainly a new one -- he liked the twist, as well, considering there were two people here he didn't know and one he wished he knew better. It seemed like a pretty good deal. He had to laugh at Cesc's playful chiding, as well, to which he stuck his tongue out as though he had every plan to do just that (he didn't).

With each pull of a block, Cruz locked his eyes to the tower. Every slight wobble made him tense with a child-like apprehension and each time nothing fell he found himself sighing and smiling. He listened intently to all of the details, though he found himself in mild disagreement with Lazarus about the smell of Gambino; he couldn't ever imagine getting sick of smelling the salty ocean air, it was his home all his life too but that was exactly what it smelled like to him -- home. Cruz chuckled at Xiu's confession partially out of interest and there he had to agree, vacationing in a tree house sounded awesome.

"Can I have the link?" Cruz asked Xiu with a curious grin. Cesc's answer, too, made the croc ponder. He never even tried communicating with crocodiles before but the thought almost made him want to hit up the zoo or aquarium soon to give it a whirl.

Cruz reached for one of the blocks and, while he didn't hold the tower, he did keep a hand on the edge of the table to ground himself. His tongue stuck out in concentration, Cruz paused with every motion which made pulling the block out an arduous process but he succeeded and, with just as much caution, placed it on the top of the pile.

He sat back, thinking. "Ummm," Cruz placed a few fingers over his mouth, his eyes drifted toward the ceiling. Like Cesc, he wanted to at least partially follow the theme but the croc never had much exposure to forests before. "Oh! I've never gone camping. Anywhere but not in the woods, either. It sounds kind of fun, though." He knew Anita would be less than thrilled to do that considering the bugs.

Xiu pondered Cesc’s words. Barton was a fairly quaint part of Gaia and there certainly were forests around. Perhaps it was worth some research into the availability of treehouses. When Cesc mentioned seeing other white stags though, Xiu was surprised. “You were hoping that they would talk to you?” the Sigel asked leaning forward ever so slightly with interest. “Considering how rare they are, I am amazed that you have spotted two of them,”

Grinning at Cruz, Xiu nodded “Sure. It is called, pardon my language, ******** Yeah Treehouses on tumblr. You should definitely check it out when you have the time,”

At the mention of hiking trips sans floating, Xiu stared curiously at Lazarus. He had always wanted to know what it felt like to have legs. “Why? Are legs truly that cumbersome? Rivener seems…to think so. If that is the case, I am quite happy with my current state of being actually,”

And in no time at all it was his turn to select a block once again. Giving the tower a thoughtful look, the Sigel decided to be daring this once and chose a side piece from the bottom of the tower. Gently easing the wooden block out, Xiu then stacked it onto the top of the structure.

"I would love it if my guardian could come along but I am afraid that she is often busy," said the Sigel softly. "I worry about her sometimes,"

"Besides, she's not into the outdoors at all," said the Sigel quickly. "All the bugs and leeches and things like that,"

The name of the website earned another laugh from the croc, but more than that was Xiu's politeness regarding it. He knew there was a time and a place and an audience for cursing, he hardly ever did it despite his family and those extended being more liberal with it, but it was so rare for him to see someone apologize so earnestly for it. Cruz found it endearing and wondered what <******** yeah tree houses" might have sounded like coming from someone just as polite if not more so; what would Ethiriel sound like if she cursed? At least the site was easy enough to remember.

As conversation turned to hiking, turned to legs, Cruz murmured uncertainly. It felt like only a short while ago that he settled into having a longer body, and it was compared to how much time he spent as a frei by comparison. As far as raevans went, he wondered if he was the youngest one here. Hiking in itself didn't seem like a bad idea, though, especially somewhere that didn't have spooky fel essences. And Xiu's guardian, too, held a touch of familiarity from her description. "She sounds like 'Nita," he chuckled, "she doesn't like the buggies either."

It was his turn once more and, like Cesc, the croc wasn't being especially choosy about where he picked blocks from. "Hiking sounds cool but not sure I want legs yet," Cruz admitted with a grimace; he laughed while setting the next block atop the tower and paused with his hand out of the way once it was laid flat to make certain it wouldn't topple. "But um, kinda like Cesc's question, I've been wondering for a while..." Cruz lowered his voice and leaned in towards the table with one hand up near his face as though he were imparting some great secret to Lazarus. "...is it weird having a butt?" This was surely a question only a valsaros among them could answer, as anyone else was so used to having a butt that there couldn't possibly be anything strange about it to them. Cruz only knew that, at least to humans, butts were simultaneously hilarious, attractive for some reason, and also gross -- it was such an odd combination to try and wrap his head around.

Maybe that wasn't much of an admission, at least by this game's standards, but they did learn something about Cruz despite -- that he was confused about the buttocks -- so maybe it would fly on a technicality.

“Maybe it is because bugs are weird creatures close up. And they can get pretty close up when they are flying around erratically,” postulated Xiu with a chuckle. “Yeah, I can see why our guardians might not like that,”

Smiling sheepishly at Lazarus’s comment, Xiu nodded. “Understood. I’ll keep that in mind,”

However, the talk soon shifted to how it felt like being a Valsaros and Xiu found himself both intrigued and mortified. Especially when the subject came around to urinating, defecating and the general acceptance of butts. “T-That sounds like quite a lot of functions to carry out,” said the Sigel awkwardly.

When Lazarus cryptically mentioned about his front though, Xiu refused to take the bait. There was a reason why humans covered themselves up and considered it impolite to walk around clothless. And the thought of Lazarus possessing something “weird” in front was…

Torn with curiosity but bounded by reservations, Xiu quickly turned his attention to the wooden blocks before him. Picking up a centre piece, Xiu placed it on the top of the Jenga tower. “Am I…the only one afraid of what it takes to induce growth in a raevan?” the Sigel asked quietly.