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((Lorenzo and Vesna -> Entrance --> Outdoor picnic area / Cesc, Henry, Xiu, Laz, Claire))

"Vesna, slow down, you'll tire yourself out!"

Lorenzo had to admit that he was a little bit more worried about tiring out, himself. Vesna was practically dragging him by the cape. Even though she had been more amenable to staying inside since he had arranged for people to visit her more often, when she had got wind of the Lab's flower viewing event, what with her newfound and baffling appreciation for anime, there was no amount of convincing that could keep her at home.

And maybe it was for the best, Lorenzo reflected. All the tests that had meant to see how fragile she was as an undead raevan had come back strongly in her favor, and by now it was more his own anxiety that he would let her run wild and hurt herself that kept him advising caution. Vesna had known what she wanted since her second week with him, and although he had wanted to ease her into being alive, maybe now was as good a time as any to take the plunge and socialize her fully. After all, there were familiar faces here, and plenty of raevans like her. It would be a good transition for her.

"Da-aaaad, you're so slow!" Vesna teased. She wanted to get to the party as fast as possible in case Lorenzo suddenly changed his mind and told her they had to go home. She floated right into the outdoor cafeteria, gasping as she saw the cherry blossoms. "It's just like in anime," she whispered, grabbing Lorenzo's arm as he skidded to a breathless stop.

"We should get food and greet people," Lorenzo said, but by the time the words had left his mouth, Vesna was already floating up higher to look at the cherry trees, phone in hand to take pictures.

"My followers are going to love this!" she shouted down to Lorenzo.

He rolled his eyes and shouted back a futile "Be Careful!" She either hadn't heard him or was pretending not to, so he turned around and looked for people he knew. The prospect of company eventually lured Vesna down from any kind of dangerous antics. He saw a blonde woman who looked familiar and he grinned. "Claire!" he called, heading over to the group. As he arrived, he saw another familiar face. "And Cesc! How are the necromancy lessons going?"

((LuLu --> Entrance --> Picnic area // Vesna ))

The Lab always sent postcards and flyers for their gatherings. As a testament to their thoroughness, the fridge in her household was covered in a layer of the colorful invitations. LuLu would always save the date in her phone's calendar, but finding the time to attend was a whole other matter. Fortunately, the stars had somehow struck the perfect alignment to make her schedule free today.

LuLu donned an airy summer dress for the occasion. When the snow from winter melted a month or so ago, the sigel had wasted no time in tossing away her coat and gloves in favor of swimsuits and chiffon.

The rabbit glanced around at the faces in the crowd outside. Some were familiar, but many were not. The sigel smiled to herself. It was astonishing how the Lab was constantly growing. With so many new people to greet, it almost made her feel like a frei fresh from the tank again. Now would be a perfect time to catch up with old acquaintances and also see what new surprises had developed.

LuLu floated over to the first of many unfamiliar attendees. It was a frei with blue hair and striking eyes. The sigel greeted the young girl with a chime in her voice, "Good day Miss." She bowed her head and the angle allowed her to catch sight of a bunny keychain hanging from the girl's cell phone. It was nestled among a few other characters LuLu could not place. "How cute." She pointed to the trinket.

((Vesna-- Outdoor Picnic Area / Lulu and Aadhira | Lorenzo -- Outdoor Picnic Area// Henry))

Vesna looked up, startled from the serious business of choosing the correct Instagram filter to complement the seven nearly identical pictures of cherry blossoms she had already taken. "Oh, thank you!" she gushed, turning to look at the person addressing her. Her eyes widened. "Oh my god! You're super cute, too!" She fumbled with the charm and got it off the phone, handing it to Lulu. "Do you want it? I have, like, tons." She shook her phone lightly by way of demonstration and the charms knocked up against each other cheerfully. "Dad gets them for me, bu-uut now that he says it's okay for me to go out more, I'm going to go choose a bunch on my own and I won't have to try to make him let me use his credit card to order them online or anything."

She stuck out her free hand cheerfully and added, "I'm Vesna! Nice to meet you!"

Now that she was paying attention, she saw that while there were still mostly humans around, there were actually quite a few raevans. A few were talking to Lorenzo, and there were some floating around outside already. One seemed to not be attached to anyone, and she waved at him as well. "Hello!" she called. "You can join us, if you want!"

_________

Lorenzo took Henry's hand and shook it firmly. "Lorenzo Fisch, licensed necromancer," he introduced, purely out of habit, then winced and amended, "I mean-- Vesna's guardian, the rusalka frei." He gestured over to where Vesna seemed to have been lured down from the branches of the tree, sure enough, by the prospect of meeting people. "I would call her over to greet you, but I'm sure she'll be by soon enough."

Cesc== outdoor area | Xiu, Claire, Laz, Lorenzo

"I have been, as matter of fact," laughed Cesc at Laz, and he gestured at Xiu even as Lazarus was already looking that way. It was still sweet, he thought to himself, to see how the two looked at each other. "I don't suppose Xiu's told you how intense the classes we're taking are."

He opened his mouth to say more, but people were filtering in, and almost immediately Claire was beside them, introducing herself. Cesc's expression brightened further as he saw the woman, and he waited until she had a free moment to exclaim: "Hey, Claire! Good to see you, how have you been? Destroyed anyone else at snowball fights while the snow was still around?"

The stag was absorbed in his conversation with Claire, and so it took him a moment to realize that someone else had spoken to him-- by the time he turned and registered Lorenzo, Henry was already speaking to the man. He smiled and gently touched Lorenzo on the elbow to acknowledge him, and waited until he was finished introducing himself to add: "Loving the lessons, Lorenzo, thank you. I have some questions for you sometime about it. Do you think I could call you? Oh-- oh, and congratulations! Vesna-- oh, and Lulu, hey, wow!-- she looks really vibrant! You did really well by your client, by the looks of things."

((Cesc==outdoor area | Claire))

Cesc whipped back his head toward Claire as the latter part of her sentence filtered into his brain, his eyes rounded and his smile open, amazed. "No! You, too?! Spring really has sprung!" He floated a little closer to her, peering over her shoulder curiously. "So it's a him, is it? Let's see him! What's his name? How long has he been home?"

(( Yves & Yuri --> Arrival --> Outdoor Area ))

As they wandered out toward the picnic area, Yves couldn't stop fussing with the hem of his shirt. He bit his lip and looked left, right, trying to find a familiar face, but many had already arrived and the thought of bravely busting into a group was... daunting.

He also had to be watchful of the newest member to his family, a wolfish Raevan who floated next to him; shoulders back and eyes wide and alert, Yuri was taking in the landscape and crowd with extreme interest. His skeletal-printed hands didn't know what to do and he found himself trying to catch the cherry blossom petals that floated about. Like Yves, he was feeling a bit anxious, but also excited.

"Lots of people," Yuri said, and his ears twitched back just a bit. He held up a cherry blossom and showed it to Yves. Yuri had taken to floating at a rather impressive height, surpassing Yves' own height and easily towering over the guardian. Yves didn't know if it made him feel more secure or if he just felt more comfortable that way, but he didn't question it.

It just sucked to have to look up to talk to a newborn.

"That's a cherry blossom," Yves chirped, a broad smile forming. "And... oui, there are many people here today. It's nice, though, isn't it?" He took in a deep breath and struggled to maintain his smile, hands on his hips. Was it working? Did he look confident and comfortable? Inside, he was kind of scared, but that would go away, right? Yuri watched him and then mimicked the pose.

"Yes," he responded, turning his head this way and that to try to see who all was there. There were other people just like him. He considered, fidgeted in place; then he crossed his arms and wavered a bit, unsure. Yves nudged Yuri's ribs gently with his elbow, startling him out of his thoughts.

"Do you want to say hi?"

Yuri tucked in his chin and frowned, suddenly shy. Yves gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. "It's okay. No rush, Yuri."

((Lorenzo-- Outdoor Area / Claire | Vesna-- Outdoor Area / Yves & Yuri))

"He certainly looks sweet," said Lorenzo, who had all the ability to read living people as a dog had to speak French, but was perfectly willing to accept that Claire's raevan would be exactly as warm and inviting as she seemed. "And I see that he looks quite young! I'm so glad all your child preparations paid off."

He looked back at Vesna. "Well, she's certainly not what I expected," he admitted. "But I'm glad of that, in a way. She's far more energetic than most of my clients though, so she's been causing chaos in the office. She calmed down after she found the internet, but she's been excited to come out and meet people for a long time. I was worried about tiring her out, a normal undead person would still be adapting after a month, but so far, so good." He smiled wanly and crossed his fingers. "She'll be glad to meet Lorin, I'm sure. She's constantly pestering me to bring more people home for her to meet." In fact, she had said that her friend quota for the day was at least ten new friends. Even thinking about it made Lorenzo feel tired. He only played an extrovert professionally.

------------------------

Vesna squinted over to where Lorenzo was standing, having noticed that quite a few members of the group were pointing to her and turning to look at her. Now that she was paying attention, she thought she heard her name as well. Worrying that Lorenzo might be working hard at embarrassing her, Vesna blushed and moved to listen in, but remembered she was in company. She cast her eyes about for something to distract herself from the glances, and saw a new pair enter the outdoor area. The raevan immediately caught her attention, since he seemed to have fox ears or wolf ears or cat ears, just like in anime. But then the guardian struck a pose, and after a moment, the raevan mimicked it. Vesna laughed with surprise, and covered her mouth when it was a little louder than she intended. She waved at the pair of them and called, "Hi! You look really cool! You can join us too, if you want!"

She glanced back to Lorenzo's group, where his attention seemed to be on someone else's phone, and let out a small sigh of relief.

(( Arriving -> Ian - Picnic Area / Justin & Cruz ;; Eden - Picnic Area / Vesna, LuLu, & Aadhira ))

Though Eden was by no means shy or a home-body, Ian had had a bit of trouble convincing her to leave the house today. But as soon as he'd mentioned a cherry blossom viewing and that Vesna would probably be there, he wouldn't have been able to keep her inside if he'd tried. The nymph had put quite a bit of effort into getting ready, carefully selecting an outfit for the weather as best she could, and doing her makeup with surgeon-like precision.

When they finally arrived at the lab Eden was out of the car before Ian had barely even taken his seatbelt off. She zoomed on ahead of her guardian, amid quiet calls of "be careful" and "don't eat anything complex!" She vaguely heard his sigh as she made a beeline for the trees, spring-green eyes stretched wide in wonder. Though she knew what she was made of after some explanation from Ian, pictures on her phone couldn't do it justice. The blooms were such a vibrant yet soft shade of pink, arranged in clouds on the trees that looked so soft she might be convinced to lay in them. Snapping a few pictures, she adjusted the neckline of her chiffon cardigan and glanced around.

Almost immediately she spotted Vesna, with her dark blue hair, but she wasn't alone: There was what looked like a rabbit raevan -- older, like Cesc -- and another very blue, very dark raevan with her. The rusalka was waving to someone else, but Eden wasn't interested in that right now. She drifted over toward her friend and immediately linked their arms, beaming brightly. "Vesna! I'm so glad Lorenzo let you come-- isn't it beautiful?" Dark-winged eyes shifted to the others and her bright grin softened a bit but was no less inviting. "Oh I'm sorry-- I'm Eden. And you are..?" She took in the rabbit's fashion sense (not unlike her own today) and the boy's dark skin and bright, bright eyes, the latter holding her attention for much longer. The cherry blossoms wound through her half top-knot shifted, adding a few brightly-colored flowers to match both of them: small daises and a small blue hydrangea.

---

Meanwhile, Ian lagged behind and watched as the bubblegum-pink raevan floated on ahead. He should have known she wouldn't stick around for long, but could he blame her? Lab events were always a sight to behold, especially from a human's point of view.

As he scanned the area he saw quite a few faces he recognized and sighed in relief. There were a few new faces, particularly a wolf-like raevan who was currently floating much higher than the others, but he would get to know them in time. For now, familiar faces would be best. He offered a few polite smiles and waves to those that noticed him, but made his way over toward Justin, whom he spotted sort of off by himself. Cruz was there, however, and Ian smiled at the both of them. "Hey guys, good to see you. Cruz! Wow, look at you!" He beamed, noticing a distinct stretch of stomach that hadn't been there the last time he'd seen the crocodile. "You look great!"