Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was sometime in the afternoon, and no one seemed to be around. Curiosity had gotten the better of the young boy Finley as he made his first steps outside the ship. The sun was shining down, and the genome could feel the warmth on his skin. The wind gently ruffled his red hair, and he smiled. He stared in awe at the beautiful wildlife just inside the dome. It was so vibrant and green, and it made him feel at peace. He walked further along, pretty much staring at everything he saw. It was hard not to get distracted by each little thing; the trees, the flowers, the clouds. And by the time he stopped walking, he had found himself near the edge of a large lake.

“Wow…” he whispered, watching the waves from the slight breeze lap at the edge where water met the land. “It sure is beautiful out here.”

As Finley was enjoying himself, he noticed a shadow beneath the water’s surface, just out of the corner of his eye. He squinted, trying to get a better view. It was moving rapidly his way! And as it neared it grew larger and larger in size before breaking through the waves, revealing a humanoid form! Fin was half-expecting a giant fish or something. But no, this was definitely not a fish! As Kanja flew through the air towards him, Fin looked terrified. This stranger was going to land on him! As Fin stumbled backward, he landed on his rear, and flopped onto his back, his eyes clenched shut. “Ow ow ow!” he mumbled. His butt would definitely be sore tomorrow.

He could feel a weight land on his chest. He opened one eye, peeking cautiously to see that sure enough, the stranger was on top of him. In fact, he was pretty close. Face to face even. “......” Fin stared at him, a small blush highlighting his freckles. “Uhhh….excuse me… but p-p-personal... space...” he stuttered, slightly embarrassed.

Whoever this was, they seemed different than the other folks he had met on the ship. But if he was going to try and make new friends he was getting off to a rather awkward, and shaky start.

Though he was a little damp now, that was probably the least of his worries. “P-personal space is uhh..” Well he didn’t really know how to describe it in words. As he tried to think of a way to express what he meant, he found Kanja looking closely at his face. What an intense stare! He found himself turning even redder if that were possible. “Scales? ….”

He thought a moment about it, and realized why the other boy was asking. He appeared to have scales too! Wait, would that make him...a native maybe? Finley was pretty curious now. “I think you mean, my freckles. I guess they are sort of like scales. I’m glad you like them.” It was kind of a weird thing to say, but he didn’t really know how to take the compliment.

He was relieved when Kanja finally moved off of him, and he gave a slight sigh of relief. “Yes I guess you could say I’m new. This is my first time outside the ship. Do you…live around here?” he asked. “What’s your name?”

Finley tried to hide his red face with his hands. He probably looked like a tomato. “I-I can't help it!” he said, “I was just...embarrassed. That’s all!” He looked away sheepishly. But when Kanja continued on about living in the lake, Fin was impressed. That was definitely cool!

Intrigued, he spoke up. “That’s so neat! I’ve never seen a lake like this before. It’s really pretty. Living here must be nice.”

He listened as Kanja told him his name. “My name is Finley. But you can call me Fin if you want to.”

He was quiet for a moment. But then he went on to explain that he hadn’t really met anyone else yet. “You’re sort of my first encounter,” he added quietly. Truthfully he was glad Kanja was the first person he met. After all, he seemed nice enough. Even if he had accidentally sort of tackled him a moment ago.

In the meantime, he decided he'd try to get to know Kanja better. "So what sort of stuff do you like to do around here?" He was genuinely curious. 'What kind of fun and interesting things do the natives do in their spare time?' He wondered.

Finley stared at Kanja a moment, almost as if he were in disbelief. That was pretty fantastic! “Wow! Almost like a fish!” he said, in awe. “You can breathe under water too?!” He was in shock. He didn’t know anyone who could do that. “That’s so neat! I don’t even know how to swim,” he replied. “If I got in the water I’d probably sink like a rock,” he chuckled.

He was slowly becoming more comfortable with Kanja. As he relaxed, he talked more with him. “Oooh outside the dome?! I wonder what that’d be like.” He’d never even considered that was a possibility until now. “That would be really exciting!”

As Kanja listed off all the people he knew, and the things they did together, Finley decided that he must be pretty popular. “You sure know a lot of people,” Fin said with a smile. He was pretty impressed that they were doing things like making drinks from plants, and fishing. Finley had never done those things before, and was intrigued.

“I'd love to try doing stuff like that. I mean, if you wouldn’t mind having me as like..a student. I’m pretty sure it would be beneficial to at least learn to swim. And maybe kinda fun too.”

He moved to stand up, brushing himself off. He was still a little wet. But now would be the perfect opportunity to at least wade in the water, and watch the fish. That would be a good start to learning how to swim. Or at least he figured it would be.

“Maybe we can start slow,” he began, eyeing the water. “You’re sure there’s nothing..dangerous in there right?” He questioned before taking off his shoes and dipping a toe in. The water was nice and cool.

“Heh, true,” Kanja had a point. It was highly likely he was more skilled than a fish. Finley hoped he hadn’t offended him by comparing him to one. But Kanja’s jovial attitude made it appear that he didn't seem to mind.

As Kanja explained about watching the fish at the edge of the dome, Fin tried to imagine what that was like. He pictured standing at the edge of a very large fish bowl….or aquarium rather. Though he’d only read about those. He’d never actually seen one. “I wish I could see that too. It must be a pretty cool view.”

He continued on, “So you sort of dry out then?” Finley asked, at Kanja’s comment about being out of the water too long. “That does sound a bit uncomfortable, being itchy and all.” He bent down and reached out a hand, absentmindedly poking at a floating lilypad. A fish darted out from underneath, catching him by surprise. He let out a tiny gasp, that slowly turned into a smile.

“Really? I’m not the first person to say they’d sink?” Finley found that sort of amusing. Well maybe he’d do a little better than just flat out sinking to the bottom if he really tried! He waded a little further into the water. But not toooo far. “I think you’d make a good teacher,” he added, as they discussed the possibility of swimming classes. “You seem to have a knack for giving others confidence. Or at least….I think you do.” It was indeed true. Just talking for a bit, had put Finley in a far better position than he had been moments ago when Kanja had first flown out of the water at him.

As Kanja proclaimed that he was the most dangerous thing in the lake, and made a playful growling noise, with his hands held out like claws; Finley found himself laughing. He laughed even harder when Kanja realized he wasn’t actually ‘in’ the lake and proceeded to dive in with a splash. “Haha! Okay okay, I’ll go a bit further in then.” He waded up til the water was about waist level so he could still stand on the bottom. “This is actually pretty fun! I should really come out here more often."

He paused, thinking a moment. "Hey...if I do... would you wanna hang out again sometime? I mean not just for swimming lessons but just..in general. Like...we could be friends?" He hoped Kanja would say yes!

He’d definitely be sure to stay in the shallow area, just to be safe. But he was glad he had someone like Kanja to look out for him if he needed it. Finley’s eye’s lit up as Kanja spoke. He was overjoyed at his response! “That’s wonderful” he exclaimed. “My first friend!” He wore a wide smile. It was easy to see that Finley was happy; as he grinned from ear to ear.

He was actually caught off guard when his new friend asked him what he liked to do. “Oh! What sort of things do I like? Hmm,” he had to think about this a bit. He had only woken recently to the world. And of all the things he had tried, he probably found reading and wandering through the ship the most fun. But there was that one place…..

“Well reading and exploring I suppose. The books on board are interesting. And so is the ship itself. Sometimes I just wander around looking at stuff,” he paused briefly. “There is a place on the ship I really like though. It smells nice. Sometimes I hang out there. It’s the kitchen. There’s even books on how to cook and bake things! But finding ingredients isn’t always easy.”

He wondered if Kanja knew anything about cooking. Maybe they could make something together one day! “Do you know anything about preparing food for meals? Or how to cook or bake?” he asked curiously.

“That’d be great!” Fin replied. “I really look forward to it.”

As Kanja spoke of the food back on the homeworld being different, and that his only real experience was cooking fish, Finley was intrigued. He had never really made anything that turned out right before. Even though he followed the instructions in books, if he was missing an ingredient he tried to substitute other things he found in storage. Needless to say, this didn’t always turn out well. He figured cooking fish must take a lot of talent too, especially to get it right each time.

“That’s awesome!” he exclaimed. “Anything I’ve ever tried to make turns out funny usually. But I don’t want to waste food, so I try and eat it anyway.” He made a funny grimace just thinking about it. He had made more than a few trips to the sick bay on occasion for eating his ‘experiments’. “But maybe if we worked together on something, it’d turn out better!”

He laughed a little at Kanja’s comment about boiling water. “Ok, I’ll give you that. Boiling water IS cooking,” he said with a smile. “Tea sounds good too. I’ve never had that before. I wonder what it tastes like…”

He stared down into the water, watching a few more fish dart past. All this talk of food was making him sort of hungry. Maybe he should find a snack back on the ship. But he didn’t want to leave his new friend so soon. So he resisted the urge to eat, and instead waded around in the shallows, asking Kanja more about his life.

As he poked around in the water, he saw something shiny in the muddy bottom. He reached down and pulled up a really sparkly rock. “Oooh! Look at this!” He showed his find to Kanja. He was quite proud of it already, even if it was just a small rock. Maybe he’d take it back to his room and put it on his desk.