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There was some guy over there retching, and Noah shrank into himself even more. Was it that kind of party? If he stayed, was he going to be expected to have alcohol? He didn't like the taste of beer, and he didn't know about hard liquor, and, and -

An odd sound caught his attention and jarred him out of the increasingly panicky circling of his thoughts. He looked up the beach and spotted Jan, in his unmistakable sarong and bracelets. Okay, he'd only met the guy once, but that was way better than never, and Noah scooted over towards him. "Hey, hi, nice to see you, I got my weapon," he said, and held up his left wrist to show off the rusty-looking chain wrapped around it by way of proof.

Lazarus started a low, rumbling grumble in Noah's head, and Noah jumped a little. Laz?

I SMELL SOMETHING.

Oh my god don't you dare start that I swear to god I will throw you into the water if you start barking now.

Laz rumbled rebelliously, but he wasn't barking yet.

Al was out for a late stroll when he heard noise ahead and slipped warily into the fray. His first instinct was to look for food, after that he intended to hang back and look for familiar faces. He couldn't find any grub though, not even MRE's. He wilted with a pout. There were several faces he'd recognised; one young, one old, and several in between.

None seemed hostile.

He decided to approach Noah first, "Hey man. What's going on?"

When he saw Al, Noah relaxed a little more. Two people he knew, in a sea of unfamiliar faces. A small sea. More like a lake, or a pond, but still, lots of people he didn't know, but two he did. "Hi Al," he said, smiling nervously, and held up a glowstick. "Check this out, they've got a whole box!"

He smiled proudly at what sounded like praise from Jan. "Oh, he's a cleaver. Um. Zombie dog, he said," he answered, giving the choke chain on his wrist a slightly unsettled look. There were too many people around, and so far when he'd asked about weapons being creepy, the answer had been no, so he kept the question to himself.

Al flashed Noah a confident smile. Nuru was already wrrrring angrily in his thoughts. He knew jacking well... "Hey Noah, how's Laz?" That train of thought fell short as he stared at the glowstick. "Woah man, where?!"

He looked around when his gaze caught Lawr, "Hi Jan! How's um... the...," he went to gesture nervously at his watch when he realized it had now spread into daunting metal talons. .... the hell? Nuru's growling intensified and Al felt a distant pulling. Nuru had to protect. Protect from the others. His stuff, his, his master, his human, his food, his love, not theirs. Never theirs.

"The everything is wonderful." Lawr replied to Al with that same forceful friendliness, as if enormous, lethal looking talons were exactly what he'd wanted for an early Christmas present. Who needed hampers when you could have weapons capable of severely injuring yourself and others? He hated weapons, idiots fought, idiots made themselves a target, not the truly smart like him. He'd never had to fight in his life, he made people beat themselves up, made them give him what they had so he never had to steal. This was awful.

When Noah described them as cool, he wanted to cry, to just burst into tears, yes it was so very in to have your soul, everything that you were chained to a thing that wouldn't stop snarling wildly, that wouldn't stop, wouldn't stop anything at all. The only thing that would make it stop would be to do as it wanted, and there was no way.

"Butch is barking quite a bit!" he said. And it was an understatement. "Or was." He had been barking, now it was a mad, ragged scream and he wished the thing had vocal chords to tear under the strain.

Al broke away the moment the glowsticks were properly pointed out. It didn't take him too long before he returned looking like a party store rummage sale. He was certainly... glowy.

He smiled amiably at the others. "Nuru isn't barking yet, but he's coming very... um... close."



"Um. Do words shouted in short loud bursts count as barks?" He was starting to think they did, they hurt his head all the same.

"I heard there was a way to make them quiet in our heads for a bit..."

With his offer of cigarettes towards Jack rejected, Finn simply shrugged and pulled one out for himself to light up. Before actually igniting his lighter, however, he had another look at the...chemicals? That the princess and her companion were mixing, wondering if there was any danger of flammable gasses in the air, but then you know, remembered that there was a giant bonfire nearby and stopped being an idiot and lit his damn cigarette.

A very long inhale was taken, the taste of the foreign cigarettes he'd gotten before the portals closed strange but their affects the same as any other, hitting him with that sweet calm that he so craved. This was his first of the day, and a long day it had been. The first drag provided a certain familiar lightheaded rush, though it quickly faded, and all the while he just smiled in his cool and calculated way, taking in the sights as several more began to emerge from across the sands to congregate.

He leveled that smile on Mimsy, who was acting as sweet as ever, like candy.

Like a candy princess. Wait, she even had sciency looking flasks in hand. Candy science princess?

Finn's smile grew at the thought. Too bad she seemed to have her sights set on that hulking mammoth man he'd met on that volcano, or he might have given hitting on her some serious thought.

Or, you know, if he hadn't told himself a million times he wasn't getting involved with anyone on this island. Unless it was special circumstances, of course. Relationships just got messy, and one night stands didn't work very well when you would likely have to see them every day afterwards. Ya, enough thinking about it, and time to be sociable.

"It's been great, princess, though I wouldn't mind a few adventures off of the island as well." Really. Seriously. He'd been here two months straight now and save for The Tear, hadn't gone anywhere. As for the gardening. "Maybe once the portals are back up we could go on one together? And ya, I've been checking in. Saw some progress. It's nice to see hard work come to fruition."

.....Oh my god, was that it? Was that really all he could think of to talk about? This place was sucking the mojo out of his seriously. He needed to somehow compose himself, to get back into the game to---

The sound of somebody squealing his name from across the sand had him turning, eyebrows raised, he caught sight of a certain cutey, which once approached he reached over to wrap one arm around and brought her in for a quick squeeze before relinquishing and taking another drag of his cigarette.

"Abbi." He gave her his wolfish grin. "Don't think for a second I endorse you being here, or that I will be sneaking you any sips of alcohol." Because no, you. He was not going to see you stumbling around drunk and falling into a bonfire to become an actual flame princess. Just no.

Leaning down towards her, he whispered conspiratorially to her after Mimsy--he knew she had an actual name, and wow, it was a weird one, and he actually preferred princess--introduced herself.

"She's a science candy princess." And then he gave the young girl a wink, because she knew what he was talking about and would totally catch the joke.

Anyways, it seemed that more and more were beginning to arrive, and those that knew each other were forming groups. There was the mammoth sized man, the pink haired guy, that other tentacle watcher, and a few more that he didn't recognize.

And then there was Nevada. Was she looking this way? Finn gave her the most sardonic smile he could muster and a small flip of his hand that might have been considered a greeting.

"Jack." He said to his friend, who was still standing nearby, as he continued to stare towards Nevada, making sure that anytime she looked over, she would see him watching her. "Jack I just remembered something that I think you might like to know."