Welcome to Gaia! ::

The punk reaper stepped out of the building, yawning loudly and stretching his arms over his head. He looked half asleep--but his hair was perfect, barely ruffling with the wind. He had heard it might rain that day, so he'd used the extra strength hairspray. For a moment he paused, frowning slightly and looking around for a long moment. Then he started walking down the path, his hands shoved in his pockets, as if he was up to nothing wrong.

Did he have classes today? Did he care? Nope, he thought, pulling a caramel apple from one of his pockets and biting into it. Then he paused, looking around again.

Huh...

Strangely, Roch stopped right in the middle of the road and started digging through all of his pockets. He pulled out one thing that glinted in the sun, then shoved it back into the pocket. He pulled out a sheet of paper from another pocket, then shoved it back in as well. Then he dug deeper, pulling out a plastic bag full of colorful items.

Seeming happy with what he'd just found he turned off the path and headed for a water fountain, crouching down beside it to start up the water faucet on the side. He placed a balloon on the water faucet and filled it with water, tying it off when it was full and repeating the process a few more times with more water balloons.

Then he stood, holding the waterballoons in his arms and looking around.

There was a poof of smoke, and the boil was gone from sight, leaving the mermaid to wonder what was going on--until something hit the ground a few feet in front of her, blowing up and splashing water. "Want to tell me why you're followin' me?" Roch's voice came from above, in one of the trees. "Who are you?"

"Well... jack," he said, dropping down from the tree and heading for her. "Ummm... lake?" he asked, leaning down and scooping her up. She wasn't as heavy as Danny, he figured. But on the other hand it was pretty impossible to piggyback her like this, wasn't it?

He started jogging towards the lake, carrying her in a princess hold. "Maaan, I left three waterballoons up in that tree... remind me to go back to get them, would you?" he asked, not mentioning her idea of "getting to know him" just yet.

The lake shimmered in front of them soon enough and he headed for the edge--cursed, and walked into the water. "There we go, that better?" he asked.

On a good note, she definitely wasn't a hunter, he thought.

He cursed and unzipped his vest abruptly, tossing it onto the shore. "I ain't--jackdammit," he complained, "I'm not a great guy, Amphi. I'm not even a good guy more often than not. And don't go thinkin' that I sang to you to get you to like me or anything--I did it to keep you from knockin' me off. Were you in the horseman trials?" he asked her. "Cuz that's how my team won. I had the mounted course, had to ride a surly old mountain goat. And to keep him from tossing me," he said, holding his arms out, "I sang to him."

He gave her a shameless grin, falling back in the water and floating. "It didn't mean jack in the end, though. Here we were, one of the winning teams, carrying our shiny medals as if they meant something, and all we got was one of our best defenses against the hunters killed off practically. I'm not someone you should be followin', I'm not someone you should repay, either. Hell, I'm the one that got you in this mess, remember?"

He was grinning, turning in circles as he watched her sing. She was cute. She was... one of those type, he told himself sharply. The type he definitely should avoid--one that was probably best friends with Lizzy and Xiu and those type of innocent ghouls that probably had a ton of family back home ready to lynch any stupid punk from the wrong side of the street for talking to them.

"Amphi," he said when she was finished. "Just because a guy can do something talented doesn't mean you should like him. Some of the most talented guys I know are complete bastards--and I happen to be related to them." He made no mention of his guilt, though, that was something he was still dealing with.

He started sloshing his way up to the shore again, standing there dripping for a long moment before dropping onto the ground and hauling off his soaked metal toed boots. "Look, you're cute," he told her. "A LOT of guys are gonna take advantage of this habit of yours if you ain't careful. Singin' ain't that hard. Especially for guys that were born with an instrument in their hands, practically."

Well... crap, he thought, holding onto her. He wasn't that great a swimmer, that was for sure, and she was coming on really strong-- "Just friends?" he asked. "That's all you're askin', right? We see each other in the hallway, say hi, ask how things are goin', then go on our ways sort of friends?" He could handle that. That was pretty much what he had with Xiu now, but less so.

"Or are you tryin' to be one of those friends that comes over in the middle of the night and curls up on my bed, watchin' stupid movies till you fall asleep? Or are you tryin' to be one of those friends that get pissed at me for not askin' you out to dances and leave me when I ain't gettin' down on one knee, swearin' my eternal love?"