Welcome to Gaia! ::

Played by Mystaira: Lesley Isiah Burris - This man reminds you of a lost baby bird. He has wide eyes the color of smoke. His silky, curly, red hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a crown. He is very tall and has a feminine build. His skin is dark. He has a weak chin. His wardrobe is elaborate, and is completely blue.

Played by Silver_tigress18: Cassandra Mendoza - This woman puts you in mind of a playful puppy. She has hooded blue eyes. Her fine, curly, brown hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a dragon's scales. She has a leggy build. Her skin is pale. She has stubby-fingered hands. Her wardrobe is revealing and complicated, with a lot of violet.

Played by TanuKyle: Misty Natasha Mann - This humorous lady has hooded brown eyes that are like two splotches of mud. Her fine, curly, yellow hair is medium-length and is worn in a bizarre style. She is very short and has a slender build. Her skin is china-white. She has a strong chin. Her wardrobe is strange.

Played by Yvessa: Winifred Parker - This friendly lady has narrow red eyes that are like two rubies. Her luxurious, straight, orange hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a tangled bush. She is short and has an hourglass build. Her skin is china-white. She has an upturned nose. Her wardrobe is mysterious.

Played by chenabby: Dwight Rodney Buckner - This generous man has deep-set eyes the color of varnished wood. His luxurious, curly, jet black hair is worn in a style that reminds you of a pair of wings. He is very short and has a graceful build. His skin is black. He has a weak chin. His wardrobe is revealing.

Played by Nikiana: Del Efren Wilkins - This guy puts you in mind of a flutering butterfly. He has wide blue eyes that are like two sapphires. His thick, wavy, beige hair is neck-length and is worn in a practical style. He has a masculine build. His skin is china-white. He has prominent cheekbones and a pointed chin. His wardrobe is impractacal, and is mostly gray.

Played by yamikisa: Krista Tia Mcbride - This girl puts you in mind of a clever fox. She has wide black eyes that are like two windows on the midnight sky. Her luxurious, curly, black hair is medium-length and is worn in a bizarre, attractive style. She is very short and has a leggy build. Her skin is chocolate-brown. She has prominent cheekbones and bushy eyebrows. Her wardrobe is complicated and attractive, with a mostly yellow color scheme.

Orinbar has backup hair gel in his pocket, but he doesn’t have an extra book to read.

Pity, he thinks, because it looks awfully boring out here. He glances at the communicator, and then finds the nearest human. “You can hold this,” he says, indicating it. The ‘+ w+’ on its screen looks like it’s mocking them.

He eyes his group critically. There are seven humans: none of them look like they're interesting. He doesn't care about them, really, so long as they're good at helping his expedition along, and that they don't spend too much time fooling around instead of helping to locate and attempt to translate the books they will eventually find. “Now,” he says. “My name is Orinbar. As in the first successful ferric hybrid at the Labs, yes.” Clearly he expects everyone to have heard of him. He probably isn’t actually a celebrity around the Labs, but the people who’ve heard of him have probably primarily heard that he likes to hog the restroom in the morning, and the library the rest of the time. “As you are already aware, you have been selected for the honor of assisting me on a thorough expedition through the…er, through the planet.” Orinbar reaches up and adjusts his hair so that its fine point becomes an even finer point.

“CaTDOS mentioned a search for new species, and, being the cleverest Tekimi at the Labs, I have already devised a method of seeking a new species out.” He takes a breath. He pronounces CaTDOS by spelling it out, C – a – T – D – O – S. To tell the truth he isn’t sure how he’s meant to pronounce it, but he manages to string the letters together quickly enough that he should sound like he knows what he’s saying. “Extensive studies have shown that all civilized species keep written records, and even uncivilized species manage to devote time to looking their best. Therefore our best bet is to search out the written records, as well as plant species that could possibly have been cultivated for cosmetic purposes. Specifically, I believe that plants that could have been cultivated for the purposes of elegantly styling hair are the most relevant to our search.”

He’s already absolutely certain that the human adventurers are hanging onto his every word, so he whirls around and cocks his head at a random bit of jungle. Ugh. He’s only just remembered that he’ll be traveling away from civilization. Well, it’s for the best if he’s going to be finding books. And hair gel. He really thinks the Labs could do with a better-quality supply, and species of plants are still new species. He’ll get double the time tokens, he hopes. He flicks an invisible speck of dirt off one of his shiny yellow scales absent-mindedly, and adjusts his glasses. Those trees might have some potential…is there sap on them? Probably not sticky enough, he muses.

“Follow along, now,” he comments breezily, not bothering to glance back. “Feel free to introduce yourselves to each other, but mine is really the only name you need to know.”

(Unfortunately for his team, the weather’s pretty warm, which means that Orinbar’s probably going to be talking a lot this trip.)

Del was beginning to think that perhaps he'd dressed in the wrong attire for the day. That jungle looked as if it would shred his fluttery grey chiffon shirt, which of course was left unbuttoned to show off his nice chest. He'd frowned at the red shirt he'd been handed to wear and had shoved it into a pocket of his pants.

Bit full of himself, their leader was. Del took a moment to tie his own hair back with a length of silky fabric, quickly jogging to keep up with the yellow leader. He spared a quick glance for the idiotic looking guy who'd gotten stuck with the transmitter. Hopefully this guy wouldn't somehow manage to get them all killed...

His attention back to Orinbar, Del tried to keep up.

Dwight found himself taken aback by the tekimi leading them. He was rather... focused on himself, it seemed, and selfish, and seemed to think that everyone would know him, though Dwight had no idea who Orinbar was, at least not before he introduced himself.

He was also, to put it mildly, not amused at how he'd treated the poor other helper, but at least the female was being helpful. He stepped up beside the two and smiled. "Hey, Lesley, Misty. I'm Dwight Buckner." He nods his head, dark hand patting him on the back very gently, even if it was awkward reaching up that tall. "I can take it for you, if you like," he murmured, totally ignoring the fact that the split in his shirt was pulling back over his chest, revealing more of his gentle dancer's build. His long hair was getting in the way, though, and he was finding himself wishing that he'd brought something to tie it back.

Live and learn, he supposed. "At the least, we can stay together and keep each other company, even if our leader doesn't have a desire to."

Naturally, Orinbar was the first at the scene. This was because he was the best, being a ferric hybrid. (He didn't stop to think that he might have arrived first because he'd started off first, or because the members of his expedition were a little reluctant to follow him, after first having met him.) And of course he'd found something useful. Ha. He knew all the other tekimi would be jealous of his clearly superior skills.

It wasn't a river of hair gel, though, which was a little disappointing. He stepped a little closer to the river, kneeling with a delicate grimace. Ugh. Well, at least he could make the humans wash his pants when he was done. What were those silvery things in the water? Could they be sources of quality hair gel?

Perhaps. Perhaps they could.

He frowned, though. There was no way he was going in there. "Humans!" he announced, more than a little arrogantly. "Try to catch one of those silvery things. Meanwhile, I will head upstream in search of the water's source. You can follow me when you're done." Perhaps there would be something a little more conducive to hair gel creation up there. Or something like reeds. Hadn't papyrus been made from reeds? Yes, it had. And if he found the local civilization's store of papyrus...why, his heart jumped at the thought. Beautiful, glorious books!

Luckily for the humans, Orinbar's reverie meant he was a little slow at wandering off.

[[ rolling for finding water source; humans are being directed to catch silvery flecks! ]]

Del was convinced his leader was a complete idiot. Though, at least birdbrain there had found some water. He made his way to the bank, scanning over the river. Yeah, sure... fetch the silvery things while their goofball of a leader stayed high and dry.

Glancing back at the group, Del spotted a woman with a net. Ah, at least someone in their group had brains. He put his own pack down to dig out the net within, carefully casting it into the river.

Lesley smiled nervously at Misty and Dwight, flushed slightly with his pitiful-ness. "I s-suppose I will hang on to it..." He nervously fumbled with his clothes looking for a pocket to keep the communicator safe. Maybe it would act as a good luck charm and keep him safe... Or it might work the other way around since it was so casually discarded by their leader. "Company is g-good. I'm glad I d-don't have to do this alone."

Eyes opened wide at the sight of the river, the silvery flecks made it look so mystical. Feeling slightly panicky at their leader wandering off up the river and unsure of how to proceed, Lesley watched the others take out nets to try to collect the silvery things. He should probably do the same and set about getting out a net to put in the water, though he hoped he wouldn't drop the communicator (or himself) in the river while he was at it. "I hope I'm doing this r-right..."