Welcome to Gaia! ::

Iorek fidgeted in the backseat of Lillian's jeep as they rolled into the pool's parking lot. Why hadn't it been a longer drive to get here? The large statured raevan sank into the hot leather seat as his mouth collected a sour taste. He had been hoping that the ride to this party would take a while. Long enough for him to gather up some kind of courage. Yet here they were...

The gargoyle glanced over to the glowing numbers on Lillian's car radio. They had reached this place in under ten minutes. No one could feel bold in that amount of time. His bright eyes watched with caution as people trickled out from their cars and into the building that led outdoors to the pool. Even though he ached to see his friends who waited inside, the thought of being by deep water made the hairs on the back of Iorek's neck stand on end.

Maybe they could wait a few more minutes? Perhaps if he stayed really quiet Lillian and Tyson would go about retrieving the swim bags, towels, and the little party gift. They'd forget all about him!

"Come on Iorek! Let's roll out!"

Or not....

Who knew he'd ever come to hate hearing Tyson's voice? But when the child spoke to him in a chipper tone his body began to curse his vocal chords.

Before he could grasp his seat belt to keep him in place the raevan was pulled out into the open world by two pairs of hands. The door shut behind him with a sickening thud.

"Don't you worry, Iorek. We'll just tell everyone not to get you close to the water and you're golden. No use fearing something like this. Now..where did I put the sunscreen?" Lillian told Iorek with a kind pat to the shoulder before she turned her attention to the colorful sun bag on her shoulder. As she pushed things around the bottom looking for the object, Tyson threw the towels over one of his shoulders and began pushing Iorek after Lillian who already started towards the pool house.

"Let's not tell anyone...okay?" Iorek quickly spoke before he and Tyson went into the men's changing room and Lillian hightailed it to the girl's side.

The raevan was met with identical quirked brow expressions from his owners. Lillian crossed her arms over his chest and sighed, "Are you sure, Iorek? It's nothing to be embarrassed about. This is for your own safety. You sink well...like a rock when you're placed in water that's up to my waist."

Even if it was for his own safety Iorek didn't want anyone to know about this little 'handicap' of his. He had the feeling if word got out whenever he was around water he'd be treated like a fine piece of paper that no one could dare to get wet. It'd just be humiliating. Something like this, for his own sanity, was best to keep under wrap.

Yet Iorek quickly nodded, "I assure you I'll be fine. I don't think anyone will push me in. So...can we please keep it quiet?" With a sweet smile added to the plea he received a sigh from Lil but a nod that meant 'okay'.

With that the trio spilt and soon they were out of the other side looking about the pool party with similar grins.

Lillian was off to place the little cupcakes she had bought with decorative seahorses and sea stars on them at the snake table. While Tyson ran, (until the lifeguard blew her whistle at him to make him walk) over to the closest lounge chairs to claim them for the family. Leaving Iorek to float anxiously alone before the pool.

Drowning sounded unpleasant. Varun decided he would try to avoid that in the future.

"Dome'lo?" Varun's eyebrows shot up when Dome'lo botched his name. "No. No no no no no. Varun. Vah-run. Varun. 'Arun? No. Varun. Varun. Yes?" He glanced over his shoulder and nodded to the rabbit Frei, offering her what might be a smile. Maybe. "This? LuLu." He nodded towards her again, green eyes questioning as he added: "Friend?" He couldn't help but be hopeful; their last meeting had left him confused, but she was not a bad Raevan.

He shifted then, floating a bit closer to LuLu as though to confide in her. "Stranger? Is Dome'lo," he informed her, should she had missed the earlier exchange. If the water was the pool...the pool was really a giant bathtub? That was rather anti-climatic. Varun gave a confused frown and looked from LuLu to Dome'lo quite a few times before finally folding his arms over his chest and sighing. "LuLu. Dome'lo. Do what now?" A hapless shrug. He was hot and bored. He had company now, so clearly, they should all attempt to alleviate boredom.

Domevlo could barely keep the frown from his face at the suddenly bombardment of "no" from the red headed frei. Apparently he had pronounced his name wrong but if he couldn't say it right that was simply too bad. "Cannot. 'Arun... sorry learn soon." He informed. It was all he could do not to pout but even Domo knew his name wasn't pronounced right but at least he wasn't making a fuss. Eyes turning to Lulu he nodded a rather guarded expression on his face as he looked her up and down. After a few moments the smile on his lips would shine through his eyes. "Lulu, hokay. Friend yes." Looking between the two then toward the pool the lead frei could only shrug. Should they get in? Sample the water maybe? Moving up to the pool again, Domo reached over to dip his hand in before splashing Varun and Lulu playfully. "Play?"


Thanatos watched his charge carefully not certain the kid should be so close to the water. Didn't lead sink in water? Even unstable lead was lead to some degree right? He wasn't certain of the options but didn't want to deprive the poor frei from having fun. Mint eyes fell upon Kuna with a soft smile. "Well Ms. Kuna its a pleasure. If'n ya don't mind watching the grey kiddo over yonder way... I'm gonna put on my swim trunks. Shouldn't be but a moment." Bad idea, he could feel it but what else could he do?

"Hu Rong Wei, and the more drinks you can offer the better."

Rong Wei had paused in her coming over, to be sure, when she had noticed the large number of floating nightmares that surrounded this pool. She didn't recognize any of them, they were very different from the 'Zul' and 'Xiu' she had come to know, and it was a bit much for her brain to take in. She would think about it all later and probably panic later, but for now if there was anything hard to drink she'd use that as a way to numb it all down. Of course with her luck there would be nothing alcoholic really here, at least nothing of her taste, but keeping her mouth busy with drinking or smoking would prevent her from shooting it off.

"And it has been a while. It turns out my little leave from the casino was a bit more permanent then I thought it would be, so I didn't think I'd ever have a chance to meet you there again. It was Ebony, right?"

The Chinese woman raised her own eyebrow, one not as shapely as the Brit's to be sure, but the idea behind the motion was the same. She really didn't have issues with remembering people's faces or names, it was just a bit more fun to act like she didn't know.

Aphismet smiled at the woman, introducing herself as Hu Rong Wei. Apparently, she and Ebony knew each other? Well, while the two of them discussed something about a casino Aphi walked to the DJ, leaning closer to ask for some rum. He'd add it to the coke and that would hopefully make a proper drink; now that he'd offered, he couldn't just rightly tell the chinese woman to get her own drink!

Aphi returned to the table with a small bottle of the harder stuff, hoping he wasn't interrupting. "I am not sure what you like, Miss Hu Rong Wei, but would a Rum and Coke be alright with you? Otherwise Ebony just informed me the DJ is hiding some of the adult drinks to prevent the young ones from getting their hands on it."

As he spoke, Aphismet spotted Lillian, Tyson, and Iorek entering the pool area. He grinned and waved at them, making a note to go see them later; he had to check up on them and make sure they were doing ok!

Rivener grinned and nodded at the idea. "I'd like that, yes, going to see you with Vyn. Not that it wouldn't be just as pleasant to be just you and me..." Okay, a particularly strong pang of guilt hit him then, dropping his sultriness a few notches. He should NOT be insinuating things in regards to getting girls alone in rooms...

"I will TRY to get a job there," Riv answered with a low chuckle, glad for the change in topics. "I can't really control if they give it to me or not. I think there would be a discount for employees though, yeah... I like their clothes there too. ...What's WHO doing?" Riv glanced over to the pool, spotting a busty blonde in the water tugging at Josh's ankles. "That's your guardian, right? ...Whoa. -b-but not as Whoa as YOU of course," the Sigel quickly amended, tearing his eyes away from the human.

When the man returned with a drink, saying that it sported something other then just plain soda, Rong Wei took it with a quick word of thanks and nearly downed it, ignoring the after wince that came from ice hitting her teeth and cold hitting her stomach. She could barely taste the rum as she swallowed it down, but she wasn't after the taste so much as she was the results.

"Thank you, I needed that. And you said the DJ is hiding the rest of it?"

Her question was light and not desperate though the Chinese woman knew she would be spending a good amount of time drinking fluids. . and they all wouldn't be water. She was about to make her move to go and get another glass when Ebony made a motion towards the Raeven, calling into mind the conversation that the two had shared the first time Rong Wei successfully counted the cards.

"I must admit I'm a little shocked, but they're not the first ones I've seen. Granted I had hoped there would be so many of them, I don't think my mind can take it while I'm sober, but it's interesting to know you weren't entirely lying to me that night."

She clinked her glass against her hip as she tried to think of what to say next, though she was sorely disappointed when her speaking target seemed to pale at conversation and decide that she needed to be elsewhere. A shame.

"Well, that was interesting enough. She looked like she saw something she'd rather not have seen."

Aphismet blinked as Ebony very suddenly and unexpectedly removed herself from their surroundings, heading for her bag to "get sunscreen" or whatever. He was left alone with this new person who, by the looks of things, was intent on getting plastered. Hell, Rong Wei had all but snatched the offered drink!

The woman seemed to mention things casually to Aphismet then, and the white-haired chef smiled slightly. He'd stay and talk, of course, as long as Rong Wei didn't wander off. "Yeah, I dunno what she saw. Nothing here to make her nervous I'd think... S-so you and her spoke about Raevans before? I have one under my care. He's over there, the shirtless flirt with his hands in that girl's hair." He pointed with an unimpressed look on his face, rolling his eyes at the Sigel.

Rivener fidgeted softly at her reminder. Ohhhh, he remembered. He'd not gone because it felt like he shouldn't lead her on anymore since Zul had entered the picture, but... But then what the hell was he doing right NOW? Had he no self-control, to that extent?

Despite all the inner turmoil about it, Rivener's hands couldn't seem to willingly untangle from the kitten's hair. Riv smirked slightly. "Yeah, sorry about that; it never seemed like the right time..." Only mildly was it a lie, he could at least tell himself.

The topic then changed back to the job he'd applied for, then switched to her guardian, then switched again to Eiry. Riv blinked, mildly dizzy from all the things he needed to answer. Clearing his throat, he glanced to the side. "Well, we'll see about the jobs. There's others I'd like more, actually, but it wouldn't be all that bad. As for your guardian, I only ever saw her once from afar at last year's beach party, I think. And Eiry, he's doing MUCH better, thank you." Riv smiled with more honesty at this, losing most of his sultriness for a moment. "He just seemed to snap out of it one day, come to a decision that he wasn't going to wallow and just... was better. Nice of you to ask..."

Only after talking about something OTHER than flirting for a while did the Scorpion find the mental will to pull his fingers from her hair, turning to grab his water as an excuse. "I don't know if he'll be coming... But there are a lot more Raevans for you to meet here too! Ah, see, have you met those three? They're rather new, the lot of them... Domevlo, Lulu, and Varun." The Sigel pointed with one finger from around his water bottle, grinning at the bunny's wide hat. "She's got fuzzy ears like you!"

“I think they would enjoy each other’s company.” Josh nodded and watched as Yuurei tested the water in the pool. He craned his head upwards and was forced to close an eye in order to fight off the glint of the sun. He had said the water was nice. She should have trusted his opinion. The boy did not take it to heart though. Karma had a way of working things out.

“SPLOOSH!”

Yep, there it was. Josh out right laughed when the alluring woman began to fall headfirst into the pool. The boy observed as she was abruptly dunked into the crystal clear water. Golden locks, distraught face, the pair of DD’s… they all disappeared in the churning waves the impromptu dive produced.

Soon, Josh also disappeared into those churning waves.

Karma struck again. The boy emitted a garbled cry as he was pulled into the pool and water flooded into his mouth. He resurfaced after a few seconds and splashed feebly at Yuurei while coughing up a bit of water. “No fair!” He heard a whistle from the lifeguard but he threw in another splash before they could react. He did not need a man in a speedo with a whistle telling him that splashing someone at the deep end of the pool was dangerous. What was the whole point of splashing? To watch them go under!!!

LuLu smiled at two freis and chimed, “Yes, friends.” She then looked down at the multicolored tiles surrounding the inside edge of the pool. The end they were on had big numbers that read 3. The rabbit raevan wondered just what they meant.

She floated a bit further away from Varun in order to examine the water a bit more closely. LuLu’s eyes scanned over her reflection… Probably for more time than what was necessary. She then looked down to the bottom of the pool. It did not seem as deep as the one at home. However, she was not the kind of person to take chances. LuLu’s ears flattened against her head partially due to worry and partially due to the droplets of water Domo had launched at her. “You two swim. I will watch. No water.”