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Rivener barely spared a glance for the doctor, until the man began squeezing at his stinger-wings. He then darted a cold glare at the man, but let him go about his business. Once Tsu was done, Riv flexed his wings, the needle-tips feeling tender. He turned his attention to the other Raevan and smiled, trying to forget the unpleasantness. "I think swimming will be fun! And, we don't have to worry about drowning since we can just float out of the water." He thought a little to himself before continuing. "I suppose there are other things to do at the beach that I've never done... seeing as I've never been there. Maybe we can build a sandcastle, and look for seashells that have the seasounds inside?" Riv hopped off the exam table and smoothed out his ribbons.

"Where did the others go?" Riv asked.

Aphismet had followed quietly, and listened to Dr Tsu's words carefully. He kept his gaze on his shoes. A puzzled and shameful frown played on his features. "That's the thing, I've never met this Dr Kyou. I honestly don't think I'm a very good guardian. Everyone I've ever met pretty much tells me that I need more confidence, but I c-can't help being the way I... *sigh*... I'll do as you s-say. I'll try to tr-trust Rivener more. He... He just scares me. He's poisoned me before, and he has poisoned innocent bystanders simply to get to me... I-I don't know how to act around him."

The man rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be burdening you with my em-emotional issues." He smiled sheepishly. "Forget I said anything. Let's go to that beach, the Raevans seem quite ready to go. ...It's strange, I don't think Rivener has ever behaved so decently with another Frei."

Rivener was startled to hear that Zavier had never built a sandcastle. That was, like what, one of the top three things to do at the beach! Riv blinked at his friend and asked in a puzzled tone: "Well, what HAVE you been doing at the beach, just floating around?" The Frei was then interrupted by the good doctor, and was forced to listen. He smiled as Tsu told him he was perfectly well; he mistook it for a compliment. The other statement was a little more out of the ordinary. Rivener frowned.

"Why would you need to know what's on my mind?" Rivener asked, although he was more interested in going to the shore than knowing the answer, right now. He was already floating towards the door.

Aphismet nodded to everything Tsu said. Of course Aph knew he needed to work on his self-confidence, but that was always easier said than done. "What's Sleipnir?" Aph asked, never having learned the intricacies of such mythology. "And he doesn't look very, erm, stormy... You seem to have taught him very well already. I-I admire that." The man smiled and followed, hoping that Tsu's advice would help him get to know Rivener better.

"I don't find that boring at all! I'd really like to know what a-all the Raevans are made from, it's interesting to, em, to see what parts of them look like what... L-Like Roux, he's some kind of ice thing, right? And Vyn is a flower? And Gage... Well, I don't know what he is." Aph wondered out loud. The green one didn't look like anything Aph knew about...

"As for questions, I, uh, I can't think of anything in particular right now. I-I mean, well, maybe you can answer this: I-If Rivener is made from Cuddles, how come he doesn't seem to like me? Cuddles always liked me a lot, especially for a scorpion... I was able to pet him and he wouldn't even try to sting me. But Rivener..." Aph let it hang, darting a sideways glance to his Frei.

Rivener's lips drew into a knowing smile. Having watched so many television shows, Rivener was an expert at reading people's emotions. He was easily able to tell that Zave had thought of something that made him a little uncomfortable, and taking the context into consideration, Rivener assumed that the other had thought something along the lines of "Homigod I can't believe I just said something so intimate to this person I just met."

Love at First Sight, perhaps?

Rivener had to play it cool for now, let the other become so attracted they could barely stand it. That's normally what the script continued on into. He'd have to act like he hadn't noticed, also. Rivener so enjoyed acting! He put on his friendly face again, not hard to do when he actually liked the other, but harder now that he knew there might be feelings involved.

"Feeding grounds? What do you feed on, the sea?" Rivener gave the other a look, seeing lots of blue... perhaps Zave was made of some kind of ocean essence? "And I'd like to talk to Tsu about my mind-things. No one ever asks me how I feel about things, or what I like." He frowned slightly. "Aphismet pays more attention to his job and his painting than he does to me. Do you know how that feels? You must, since your guardian has to pay attention to all these other things, too."

"Well, at least you have a reason why he might not be paying attention to you; there's all these others. Aphismet doesn't have such an excuse, there's just me." Rivener almost pouted. "Pah! Let's not talk about unpleasant things. Let's go build that sandcastle!" Rivener floated towards the door hurriedly, waiting for Zave to follow and open the door, leading the way to the seashore.

Aphismet sighed. Of course, that was just the problem; he hadn't CHOSEN Cuddles for anything, it had been a mistake... He didn't want to bring that up, however. He'd sound like a broken record. Aph just smiled. "S-so things might... might change? Later in the erm, experiment? I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm going to try really hard and do my best to be a good guardian, b-but... Cuddles might still be in th-there?"

Rivener rolled his eyes. "He has work, and then when he comes home he paints. He talks to me once in a while, he doesn't ignore me completely, but most of the time he leaves me alone." And they were back on the same old subject. "Can we PLEASE not talk about Aphismet anymore? It's annoying. Wow!" the Frei exclaimed as he spotted the sea. It was not a sunny day, and so he didn't get the full "sparkling waters" effect that the sea normally offered, but he was still impressed. A storm was brewing, so winds were picking up the waves high, and dashing them on the cliffs to the west. "This is Awesome!" Riv added, grinning. He floated down happily and plopped himself onto the sand, immediately pulling it to him and trying to form it into something like a castle... It mostly just made a big mound.

"Oh," Aph said, following Tsu and the Raevans outside. "Um, right, right, I didn't mean erm... *cough*" Aph really felt like an idiot now. He was always whining about something, wasn't he? This was a fact he was painfully aware of.

Tsu obviously wanted a change of subject, but Aph had absolutely no idea what to talk about. Opening his mouth for a minute before letting out any kind of word, the man must have looked like quite the fool. "Looks stormy," he finally said. "Is it really safe for the Raevans near the waterside? I mean, for yours probably yes, since it's made of the stuff, but erm... I mean, will Riv be okay?"

Aph listened to the explanation and had to admit that Tsu was right; Riv could fly, and would be much better at getting himself out of dangerous situations than Aph ever would. The guardian smiled. "Right. He'll be fine. Zavier sure is a nice young man... Err, young Raevan. Very kind. I'm sure he'll keep Riv safe." He didn't add that he thought Rivener was often too self-centered to really notice what was going on around him.

Rivener was tilting his head at the sand mound, analysing what he'd done wrong. He saw sandcastles all the time on TV and they all looked much better than this. Still, even a mound of sand was entertaining. "Yes, I learned about them on TV. There was even a show on the discovery channel once, about a sandbuilding contest. People had made all kinds of things out of sand, not just castles. There were dragons, and statues of people... It was really beautiful."

As Zavier mentioned something about the waves, Rivener finally looked up and saw what the other was talking about. "Hm, I don't think it would be a good idea to go swimming today, after all... Maybe next time." He floated up and away with his new friend, looking at the ground and picking up interesting things to use on the next sandcastle they would build. "I can't see any of the really big ones that have a curlicue... Do you see any? those are the ones we have to have if we want to listen inside them. Ohh, this is a shiny shell! It'll go on top of the biggest tower in the castle." Riv turned over the shell in question, smiling. "Are we far enough to build the castle?" he asked, turning around and glancing at the sea.

Rivener blinked at the moat-building idea. Of course all castles HAD to have a moat! How could he had forgotten that?! With a smirk, Riv floated over to Zave's side and began helping him to dig, using one of the seashells he found as a makeshift trowel. It was surprisingly effective! "You should take a shell too," he offered the other. "It'll go faster!"

Rivener, while he was digging, was already making plans for how he was going to make this new sandcastle better than the last one. "Last time the sand kept falling over, and it's hard to get it to be straight... I think we need help to make the walls more square-looking. We should look for some kind of driftwood or something that we can use to push the sand into place. That ought to make it solid!" Riv nodded.

As they dug their trench, new seashells and bits of oddities were showing up in their wake. When the moat was almost done, Riv and Zave had amassed quite a collection of items to use on the castle. Even a few tiny, sea-buffed pieces of broken glass! This would be a colorful castle indeed, Rivener thought with a smile.

Rivener considered Zave's suggestion as he piled the glass bits off to the side. A quick glance down revealed the moat they had built, and the wetter sand they'd revealed under the first layer... It was more like mud. He smiled.

"You're right! It'll work much better, I'll bet! Let's dig some up and start the castle."

Taking his seashell, Rivener started digging a hole after he'd patted down a nice section of sand for them to build on. Soon, a treasure trove of moist sand was ready to use as building blocks for their castle.

"What shape should it be? I don't want to make a boring square... How about an "H" pattern? Or a "O"? Or maybe even a "Y"! What do you think?" Rivener was really getting into this. He was grinning widely as he pushed sand onto the building space, getting ready to form the basis of their art.