Welcome to Gaia! ::

James was at the beach to make a feeble attempt at being social. His interactions with the volunteer Yahya at the animal shelter had given him back some of his confidence. He'd been little more than a hermit, outside of going to work, since his adventures in space and figured that the city wide beach party would be the perfect way to slide back into a sense of normalcy.

And maybe he'd get some material he could use for writing. God, he hadn't written in months. He really needed some kind of distraction.

He had a couple of mixed drinks, followed by a beer or two, by the time the fireworks had begun to go off which left his inhibitions far behind him. It was then, as he stumbled across the sand barefoot and only in dark blue swim trunks, that he spotted and recognized the purple haired boy Prosper.

"Ooooii!" He called waving his shirt at the boy as he skittered over. "I remember you!" He cooed practically prancing right up to the boy. "Prosper right?"

As Dustin ordered a round of three mojitos for him, Porsha and Venice, a familiar face caught the corner of his eye. It was Prosper DuBois, down by the beach. Oh man, he hadn't seen that kid in months, not since the whole identity-swap that changed the entire course of his life. Prosper was an old neighbor and family friend of his, back when he was Dylan, although Dylan and Prosper never exactly got along. Mostly cause Dylan was just as much of an a*****e as ever.

"Hrmph," Dustin scoffed as he was handed the drinks, making a note to himself to maybe swing by the old neighbor's place and check in on things. He hadn't returned "home" in a while.

He brought the three mojitos back to the girls with a devilish grin.

"Mojitos, ladies?" he asked and offered one to each, taking a glance up at the fireworks. "Looks like the show's begun. Should we move this party closer to the shore?"








"Van?" Ricky questioned with delight as his hulking arms wrapped around the girl tight and spun her around in a massive bear hug. "Aw, man, well I'll be...I haven't seen you since, erm, we got all nekkid and went skinny dippin'. Good times."

He placed her down to take a quick look at her body. They should go skinny dipping again, he thought. Hell, he was halfway there, still without a shirt. And the ocean was just a couple of yards away...his empty, one-track mind started to drift off into fantasy before snapping back to some semblance of reality. "What've ya been up to?"

Oh, Lord-of-Good-Manners help him. Some person was yelling at him, and waving their shirt, and practically prancing right up to him. Prosper stilled on the beach, signalling for Ralph to keep his distance when James approached, and forced his expression into a polite smile. It didn't quite reach his eyes.

"That's my name, yes," Prosper nodded, and thought that this man must have recognized him from some magazine. His mother had, after all, arranged for several photoshoots. Prosper didn't have time to read magazines, but he'd seen the pictures. He knew how memorable they were. Even if he did say so himself.

"Do I... know you from somewhere?"

Something about James was eerily familiar, but Prosper couldn't quite place his face. Two years had passed since their rendezvous in space. Prosper liked to pretend it had all just been a part of some horrible nightmare.

He happened to glance in Dustin's direction, and noticed the other boy looking at him. Prosper cringed inwardly and motioned, with a little wave of his hand, for Ralph to stand in Dustin's line of vision. Ralph obeyed.

Despite his foggy brain, James was acutely aware of the oversized man lingering just yards from them. He made a mental note, though it was quickly discarded, to clean up his act. It lasted all of two seconds before he slung an arm over Prosper's shoulders to whisper something in his ear.

"Yeah, from space," the young man mumbled pulling away with a large grin plastered on his face and laughter spilling from his lips. "Y'know," he continued, words slurring together, "after the space whale and with the zodiacs?" It was vague enough that if someone who hadn't been through the events in space they would think he was talking about a tv show or something.

Or that's what his drunk a** told himself.

"It was an adventure."

Oh, it was an adventure.

Lila raised her eyebrows. "How recent are we talking? You might know my sister better than me," she laughed, leaning back.

"Mmm, I frequent the mall enough - we should frequent it together sometime. Shopping's always more fun with company, don't you think?" Sure, it was a little forward, but Lila liked to cut to the chase. Besides, going to the mall wasn't exactly a marriage proposal - it wasn't even necessarily a date. (It would be a pretty awesome date, though. It'd be nice to have a date at the mall that wasn't with some boy complaining about being her pack mule.)

James didn't miss the way Prosper's cheeks flushed when he draped his arm around him. Nor did he miss the way he seemed to tense when he mentioned the space thing. His large goofy grin faltered and he found himself frowning. He should have expected such a reaction, it was normal. Typical.

But he had been hoping to be able to talk about the whole thing. It had been heroic, both his death and his activities as a ghostly figure, but still a bit traumatizing. He couldn't blame the boy for lying but he wasn't just going to stand there and take the lie.

"It's hard to forget purple hair," he commented carefully, eying the boy. He slung his shirt over his shoulder and a hand found his hip. "I also distinctly remember teasing you about cobwebs and cleaning."

He wasn't going to let this go.

Arian laughed "There is quite a bit of rain over that side" he agreed. "Especially the drizzle kind."

He might have said more, but at that moment the fireworks started with the whizzing of what sounded like a catherine wheel, his head tilting skywards in time to catch the red and green from one of the first fireworks.

"Yes that sounds good" he agreed quietly, with a smile at Orah's question as another firework, this one red and gold went off. The firelight was a bit in the way here. Further down the beach the glow wouldn't interfere.