Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ways away from the refreshment stand now, Ebony finally stopped to note her location within the overgrown mass of hot, sweaty human and non-human flesh. Her nose crinkled again much like that of a rabbit, course this wasn’t a cute sort of cringe, it was the kind she made when an unpleasant thing or idea occurred to her. This one being the thought of how dirty these people would become after being out all day in the hot sun and then it crossed to her self and how she too would become filthy. Sometimes her phobia of dirt would sneak up on her like that of a sneaky mosquito of which she’d have to acknowledge then let go as there was nothing she could do about it at the moment.

To take her mind of it, Ebony watched the bidding war that was going on with the new person on stage, some vivacious red head. She had to admit, of course only to herself, that the girl had style as the bids got higher and higher. It was then that she was reminded that this was a charity event after all. Taking it all into account, with the numbers of those two auctions and whatever the refreshment stands where pulling in as well as the other booths…this lab was sure to be sitting on a good chunk of change by the end of the day. Dark thoughts crossed that ever-calculating mind of hers as she licked her lips. ‘Do I dare? Too many people, yet that makes it even more likely for anyone not to notice. Course it would be somewhat amateurish of me.’ A sigh left those lovely lips as she took a drink from her water. ‘Suppose it’s not really worth it then.’ Lost in her thoughts, Ebony wasn’t paying all that much attention to where she’d stopped to watch the auction and then in turn to think. Though no one seemed too upset of having to maneuver around her as nothing was said.

Rivener, seeing that Vyn was quickly becoming the center of attention, had done his best to open up communication between Gage and her. He'd probably be less of an obstacle for the green frei if he left him here... Hopefully he'd take the lead and talk. "Just say hi," he whispered to his radioactive friend as he left.

He floated out of the throng of people, breathing a sigh of relief once he was free of that crowd. There were a LOT of people here. He sighed. People who would no doubt need refreshment. For a moment Rivener pondered letting Bard handle the booth while he himself escaped to somewhere less busy, but he decided against it. After all, his booth neighbor was someone Riv wanted to be next to as much as possible.

The Raevan floated back to his booth, noting the small line of people. Bard seemed to have done well. Rivener also noticed a Raevan at Laz's booth, one he'd never met before! She was black and golden, claws, silky hair. Riv paused. She was beautiful! He frowned a bit, wondering what she was doing with Laz, leaning close like that, but it was none of his business. He turned his eyes instead to Bard.

The purple-haired man was busily flirting with a guy who sported beads in his hair. Smirking, Rivener approached his booth again and floated over the counter. "Bard," he said, hoping he was interrupting something, "it seems you didn't make a mess of things. Thank you for keeping an eye on this place for me, but I'm back now so you can go back to the other side."

The Scorpion purposefully didn't mention the reward he promised, wanting to see if the purple guy would bring it up.

Ashlynn lifted her head from the roses finally and glanced around. A little giving in to temptation wouldn't hurt her... So she plucked a rose from the cluster of them, one that looked still healthy and unwilted, and dug in the pocket of her lab coat for som money.

Then she seemed rather at a loss. Who did she give the money to? A strange motion at the refreshment stall caught one yellow eye and she turned to watch, eyes narrowing. That man moved as though he was floating... and when he moved to the other side of the stall, her eyes widened and a smile pulled at her lips. Yes... he was floating! Her first sight of the infamous Raevans. Fascinating.

His make up was so very odd... just an upper torso and arms, looking as though someone had unraveled his bottom half. She was tempted to go over and investigate closer, but her clenched hand reminded her she still held a rose as one of the thorns pricked her.

"s**t!" She gasped as she loosened her hold, switching it to her other hand while she sucked at the blood that welled up. It hurt... but not something she couldn't handle.

Richard was kept busy as the Alex and Jun went back and fourth between growing bids for Natsuki. Finally, after it felt like an eternity, a winner was found and Richard couldn't have been more delighted. Even though it seemed like Junsu was being egged on by his "partner-in-crime" Jae, the announcer still proclaimed him to be the winner of the bidding war. Afterall, Jun had reached the maxium bid of two-hundred dollars.

"My good man! Congratulations! You have outbid that marvelous women there and will now have the pleasure of having Miss Natsuki be your date for today!" The young man announced, pointing to Jun and grinning as though he was the chesire cat.

Quickly, Richard's eyes darted back to Miss Natsuki as the women wobbled under the intensity of the summer heat. Clearly the sun had sucked away her bubbly energy to leave in it's wake a women who was rather weak in the knees. Without any further daudling, Richard, with Natsuki's best interest in mind, took her arm gently and briskly led her off the stage. Of course he made sure to motion at Jun, pointing to the back of him, indicating without words where he could find them.

Anyone with a brain could see that Natsuki was roasting as the tempature only climbed higher with every second. Thankfully the bidding had ended so Richard had the wonderful excuse to escort Natsuki off the stage and into the shaded back.

"Miss Natsuki, you were great out there!" Richard told the young women, praising her for her bravery as he remained on lookout for Jun. "You're sweating up a storm though! You can change now if your dress is too hot for you...umm..I'm sure there are an extra set of clothes around here that you could dress yourself in. Some shorts and a tee shirt will most definitely cool you off."

The sound of Richards' smarmy voice could have not come at a better time. Concealing her face with the fan, Natsuki leaned heavily on the auctioneer's arm, forcing her stride to remain as elegant as possible. Once they cleared the threshold of the stage and decended the steps, she slumped in a chair. Where the heck was We'rika with that water? she thought, too exhausted to say anything. As Richard prattled on, giving her advice and a plan of action, she cafe owner, stripped off her soaking wet gloves, dropping them without a second thought.

Throwing her head back, she pulled defiantly at the three closures at the top of her dress, first the collar and then the two fastening her top closed. She didn't care who saw her backstage. Cooling off was priority numero uno. Staring at the backstage canopy, her gray eyes slipped in and out of focus. Normally the champion of maintaining appearances, Natsuki looked more unhinged than disheveled. A gun metal colored, lace strap remained where the cheongsam covered her shoulder. Beneath it, her porcelain skin was splotchy and red.

Hearing the top bid was set at two hundred dollars, she felt a bit cheated. One because she felt that at 200 a pop, the Lab would be auctioning dates until they were old and gray, and two, had she collapsed from sunstroke, her hospital bills would cost infinitely more than that. Exhaustion kept her from spitting any nasty comments, but she knew her time before the winner's arrival was short.

"Stall the winner. I refuse to be seen like this," Natsuki wheezed, yanking the collar of her dress tot he side, then down her arm, and exposing her torso from the waist up. That was as far as redhead would get until her energy returned, or someone helped her out of her clothes. Aside from the red patch near her shoulder, her skin was flawless. She lazily raked her copper layers back, using the sweat to mat it in place, as she wrapped it into a tight bun. When she finished, she pinned it in place by leaning back agains the beam her chair rested against. Natsuki was miserably hot, yet she looked like a Greek statue after a the morning mist. "I have clothes, but he must wait."

Rivener smiled his usual sultry smile to Bard. This purple-haired man was wise, showering Riv with so many compliments. The Raevan tilted his head and practically purred. "You're welcome to stick around, then."

The Frei wondered why the other man was suddenly escaping. He seemed like a very shy one. Rivener offered him a melt-your-butter smile as well, nodding. "It's good to know," he answered to the guy's words. "I'm Rivener, by the way."

Lastly, he turned his gaze to the tux-wearing Werika, looking him up and down with a lifted eyebrow. "Why are you dressed like that? Aren't you warm? and it's not really your usual style, if you don't mind my saying. You wanted something to drink, then?" he added, reaching down and getting an ice-filled glass, pouring in some water. "Here, this'll make you feel better for now," he said, offering the glass to Sev's keeper. "So, whaddaya want?"

At the touch on his arm, Bard's green eyes slipped to look over at Lucado, though his gaze only lingered for a moment as he smiled wide and gave him a nod. "It was a pleasure meeting you as well. Perhaps later we may get together and explore the event. I confess myself that this is really the first thing I came upon and I've spent all my time here so far," he said kindly before turning back to Rivener with every expectation of the man to be leaving. Not that Bard wanted him to feel like he had to leave, but he wasn't going to fight with him to get him to say.

Lucado was nice enough, but too shy for Bard to really get all that interested in, especially when there was a certain Raevan to watch. The man tried his best to not let some silly love-at-first-sight looks spread on his face, but no matter how hard he tried there was just a hint of that look in the wide smile upon his lips.

The smile, amazingly enough for it was already quite wide, spread just a bit more at Rivener's words. "Are you sure? You might not be able to get rid of me later if you go giving me permission to sit here and oggle at such a treat," he half cooed, half murmurred. Standing up a bit he stretched, glad that he was out of the shade of the stall and able to soak up the heat of the sun upon his bare skin. He could have purred if he'd been part cat instead of satyr.