Welcome to Gaia! ::

((clambake: A seaside party or gathering, especially a noisy or lively one.))

The harsh sun, unforgiving in its own way, beat relentlessly down upon the sand, waves, and two unfortunate individuals, one of them almost completely bald. Wotcher, stumbling clumsily through the white sand, found himself pondering exactly why people actually wanted to come to this rather realistic version of hell. The only relief, if ‘relief’ is what it could be called, was an almost laughably small breeze.

Cradling Pell in one arm and a bagful of the usual beach-going necessities in the other, Wotcher finally halted, surveying the stretch of sand before him. Yes, this spot would do nicely. Or rather, Wotcher was too lazy to search farther. “Okay, Pell, I’m going to put you down so I can spread out the blanket.”

Pell, happy at the prospect of finally being out of Wotcher’s arms, laughed cheerfully as Wotcher set her down. However, as soon as her bare feet came into contact with the sand, she let out an instant cry of pain. The sand was hot! Wotcher, seeming to think that she had said “Now!” simply stated “Hold on.”

After what seemed like ages to the poor mango-child, Wotcher finally smoothed the blanket out to his liking. Almost falling onto the blanket, Pell began to smile once again when her feet felt relief, free from the sand. Now that she was on the blanket and pain free, Pell allowed her natural curiosity to take control, the petals of her flower-like ears stretching with all of the new sounds. The sound of waves breaking upon the shore and the cry of gulls, Pell found herself grinning at it all. Maybe this beach place wasn’t too bad.

Digging into the bagful of beach goodies, Wotcher's hand eventually resurfaced, an unopened package of chips held in its grasp. "Alright, let's get this party started!" he said to no one in particular, since Pell rarely, if ever, listened to him. Pulling open the bag of chips, Wotcher handed a small chip to Pell before turning to look at the ocean, to see if there were any sailboats or...whatever.

It was then that Wotcher saw it. It was only a basket, and after all, it certainly wasn't unusual to see trash floating in the ocean these days, considering the all around laziness of the world. Squinting against the light, Wotcher attempted to peer at the basket again. ...Wait, was there something in there? Something moving?

Choking down an icy surge of terror, Wotcher hastily climbed to his feet, once more stumbling through the sand, toward the tide line. "Um, stay there, Pell! And cry out if you get attacked by crabs or sea lions, or something," he called over his shoulder to his charge, who merely gave her Protector a dubious look.

Wotcher's first, rather idiotic thought as he saw Crystal rise from the beach was that Cthulhu had finally come to kill him, the "baby in a basket" trick being a ploy. But, wait...of course, this wasn't Cthulhu! This...whatever was most definitely female. Wotcher's second, and his opinion, more realistic, thought was that Cthulhu's wife had come to kill him. Oh s**t.

As the girl neared Wotcher, he faintly realized that he should run. Or at least try to protect Pell. However, his legs seemed to be suddenly suffering from paralysis. His vocal cords were too, for that matter. His eyes, thankfully, seemed to be working fine. So, that baby wasn't fake...

Only when Wotcher heard the accented greeting did he finally find himself able to walk and talk again. "Um...Hey...thank you. Uh, do you want some, uh, chips?" Abruptly turning around, Wotcher headed back toward his blanket, the chips, and Pell, the horror-filled expression on his face now replaced with a dumbstruck one.

Jan has actually not come equipped with her constant playmate, Anne, the guitar, and was instead wearing board shorts, that came to her mid-calves, pantherclaw necklace dangling against her chest. Her bare chest. That's right, the girl wore swimming trunks as a bathing suit, and that was about it. Why? She didn't have any breasts yet, so what was the point? If she'd still been a toddler, she'd be completely nude, but Indu had vetoed that one.

The heat didn't seem to bother her and she strolled down the beach barefoot, gaze distant as she stared out over the water. She had a relatively small dark green satchel with her, more like a knapsack than anything else, one strap hanging effortlessly on a shoulder. It contained a number of things, including a towel, hooded zip-up vest, sketchbook and notebook, and several snacks for her day on the sands.

It wasn't hard to find Wotcher, Pell, Crystal and Pouple. Mainly because there was no one else on the hot, somewhat private stretch of land. It was also easy because Crystal was rather unique in appearance.

Although she'd met Pell before Pouple, she knew the squid boy a bit more, and as was her custom, politely greeted the adults before dropping her knapsack in the sand and giving all of her attention to the babies. To Pell, she held out her hand, in the same greeting she'd given before, before offering the deaf boy the same gesture, letting him copy Pell.

"'Lo there ya two. 'Ow goes et?"

Crystal was quite content with the matter. A fond wave was passed towards Jan, before her attentions settled upon the stranger. Odd man he was! Were all of them quite so jittery? That mattered little, for even if he were afraid of her – it would not be getting him off the hook so easily. Without so much of a passing thought for his reaction, Crystal grabbed his hand and shook it a little. “My name eesh Creestal. Plessure tu meet you!”

Pouple was a bit more polite than his caretaker. Curious little hands reached out to greet Jan and bring the comfort she offered close to him. If he could speak, the things he might say! If one had just the right kind of imagination, the child almost seemed to do so just by looking at you. It very well might be something like ‘Hello, I missed you, where have you been? And oh!’ The last part being in accordance as Pell reached out to touch him. He clung to Jans’ hand a little bit more, unsure yet whether or not this girl would offer the same nice feeling of touch.