Aberrant: 200X - International Party

[Adrian Moss]

Everyman looks to Vixen,

"Live a little. You work very hard in a very demanding line of work. Relax and enjoy the almost PG moment," he says in a calm, quiet voice barely above a hoarse whisper.

"It isn't like a nova game of water polo will come up every day."

Everyman made no indication that he would be joining.

[Contessa]

The silence was deafening as the young woman's head rested softly against his body waiting for him to say something... anything... but it never came.

She sighed as Einherjar and the others started getting naked and diving into the ocean. "Well, people are getting naked, that's my cue to leave," she patted him on the chest as she pulled away. Her voice was soft and carried a tone of disappointment. "See you around, I guess."

Quietly she walked away from the silent young man and back towards the dining hall.

[Doctor Aeon]

By some trick of fate, Doc Aeon manages to catch the beach ball. This it, to say, it his him squarely in the face.

"Ow!" he explains around his silly grin. He tosses it toward Jael, throwing it a bit high. Perhaps he wants to get a better glimpse of her sky-clad body. Perhaps he's just a klutz with no throwing arm.

On deck, next to Ruysei, Vixen, Keiko, and Everyman, a Doc Aeon can be heard to mutter,

"I'm so dead. Doomed to whisk off into the quantum nothingness into which all things must fall. A Matrixed Lifeform gone before my time,"

he looks down at his watch,

"Which should be in about six and a half hours."

The keener eye can see three Doc Aeons coming around the boat from the front. Stealthfully (Yeah right!) the pick up a chair and sneak off with it.

Meanwhile, at the Cool People's table,

"What makes you come here and put yourself through all this, Caitlin?" Doc Aeon askes. "To measure up your power and your morality against these other Gods - I mean god-like, yet flawed beings seems so ... I can't find the proper word."

[Vixen]

Vixen watches Einherjar rise out of the water, and then fall back in. She blinks two emerald eyes. "Whuh."

"Ah - right, yeah. They'd respect it. But see - I'm not so sure I would be, if I joined in. No, I'll pass for now. I'll do it later. So!" She turns to Everyman, Keiko, Aeon, Ryusei, and anyone else present. "Tell me about what you all do."

[Adrian Moss]

Everyman chuckles.

"Let me see. What can I tell you that isn't covered by an NDA. I'm not married. I work in the security field. I'm underpaid, under-appreciated, and I love my job - which I can't tell you about."

"My employers don't even want me talking about who I work for."

He points to his mask,

"I even need to keep my features under wraps, in case someone tracks my activities. Really a pain, but is an unsafe world."

"Tell me something interesting," he says tilting his head slightly in Vixen's diretion. "Tell me what you do. Be as precise, or vague, as you like. I'm here for the conversation."

[Vixen]

"I'm a scientist. I work for Project Utopia in their biological sciences division. I live in Addis Ababa, which has turned me into a werewolf that only gets fuzzy at night when it's not blazing hot, and I monitor the terraformed ecosystem to see if there's any short term or long term problems. It's challenging work. I'm never bored."

[Adrian Moss]

Everyman's shoulders shrug, but his head maintains the same slant.

"What kind of problems would you be looking for. I've read up a bit on original goals for Project Eden. I always found the detail they went to to establish insect populations into the various strata. Heady stuff. Way beyond my pay grade, but I'm sure its right up your alley."

"So, as a biological scientist, do you also cross-reference your work with the weather system disruptions that have been cause by the increase in the albido caused by all that flora?"

If possible, he looks a bit embarrassed by the question.

"A hobby of mine is studying how novas change the world. Many of us in very small and nearly unnoticed ways."

[Vixen]

"Well, one recent problem we had was a reduction in the local bird population, leading to an increase in various vermin, insects and rodents. It turned out that the birds were eating dung beetles instead of other kinds and getting sick from the... dung, to put it bluntly. That one was tricky to solve. Needed to breed a lot of bugs. And yes, cross-referencing with climate change scientists occurs all the time. It's essentially a new ecosystem. We need all the information we can get. Operation Eden is ongoing, and if all goes well it could be the prototype for extra-planetary colonization."

[Adrian Moss]

"Wow ... I had heard rumors about a joint UN/Project Utopia mission to further examine Mars with the hopes of colonization, but I don't know to what stage it has been developed. If it's not too much to tell, have you been asked to look into that kind of ecosystem transplantation?"

"It would be facintating if that was the case. Nothing like the work I do. I feel positively boring now."

Everyman leans against the railing,

"Tell me more ... please."

The mystery man seem definitly interested in what Vixen is talking about. He has enough scientific knowledge to make him an educated layman, but he's not in Vixen's league. He is gamely trying to keep up.

[Vixen]

"Just rumors, I'm afraid. No plans on the horizon. But if people ever DO decide to set up a colony or terraform a planet, the research we're making now will be the foundation for it. But no, if there's people out there looking to move to Mars I'm not one of them. I'm not bored with this world just yet."

[Tomas Saint-Etienne]

He lay on the bed for a little while feeling his two lovers as they resumed their games with Daniel, all the while his shimmering eyes studying the ceiling overhead.

How strange that I attract hostility and fear so easily. These novas, so different from each other, yet all so different from me. Even Shae has less of an issue being accepted... He rolled off the bed to his feet, stepping lightly over to the full length mirror on one wall. Iridiscent eyes gazed back at him from a face that was perfection itself, neither male nor female but rather a spellbinding combination of the two. Full lips over a slightly masculine jaw curved in a smile that was the downfall of saints as the young Terat truly studied himself. For he had realised with a start that his knowledge of how he looked came from the minds and reactions of others - he had never really examined himself this way before.

This is what they see... he pondered himself, noting the inhuman calm of his luminously pale face, the dancing shimmer of his green eyes. No wonder they are afraid, that they suspect and shy away. My humanity was torn from me before I was ever a nova. And now I am a dark dream, a desirable nightmare. An affront to their need for control over themselves. It was not a lament, merely a statement of fact, a cold assessment of what he had observed. Perhaps I should let them know me somewhat, as Contessa has started to. I did not use any of my gifts on her, after all. Our talk was pleasant... despite her open-hearted view of things. It must come from being loved by her family. He smiled at his reflection, a genuine smile that lacked his usual dark humor. I wonder if I would be like her if I had known such a family before I erupted. He shrugged lightly, running slender hands through his wealth of fine black hair, noting how effortlessly it fell into place. Probably. But I did not know such love.

The beautiful monster turned away from the mirror with another shrug, his smile deepening. I won't hide down here, no. Let them see me, let them know me. Let their bias fall upon me like rain, and slip from me as easily as a snake's skin. They are not my prey as humans are, but nor are they in any position to render judgement on me.

No one is.

He moved towards the door of the cabin and exited, walking upstairs to the dining lounge. He saw Contessa as she, too, entered the large room, her gait pensive. He wondered what she was thinking, but first had another person to speak to. Catching Contessa's eye, he smiled warmly before angling towards the table where a few novas yet lingered, including the one he wanted to speak with. This time his face was calm, his eyes focused. There was no deliberate attempt to seduce, no pretense of vulnerability. Despite the fae beauty that he could not hide, there was on show the strength beneath, the force of will that had kept him alive through trials he doubted any of them could truly understand.

"Hello again." The voice was soft but strong, a light tenor that was satin and honey. But that could not be helped any more than the ethereal loveliness of his features: he was what he was, after all. Eyes the shimmering green of a snake's scales gazed at Fianna from across the table, neither challenging nor deliberately attempting to ensnare as Tomas stood there. "I feel I owe you an apology from our last meeting, and an introduction that properly befits one nova meeting another." He extended a pale hand across the table. "I am Tomas, and I am sorry for my previous conduct in Central Park."

[Caitlin Kieran]

Originally Posted By: Doctor Aeon

Meanwhile, at the Cool People's table,
"What makes you come here and put yourself through all this, Caitlin?" Doc Aeon askes. "To measure up your power and your morality against these other Gods - I mean god-like, yet flawed beings seems so ... I can't find the proper word."

In spite of herself, Caitlin grinned as she tilted the glass up to her lips, enjoying the taste of the dark liquid within.

"I hadn't thought of it as a competition, Doc, but I suppose it could be taken that way." Leaning forward to rest her elbows on the table, she cradled her glass in her hands. "It's kind of a weird environment, for me. I mean, super powers or not, I'm still me, still my parents' daughter. I still like to play with my dogs, go for long walks, and sleep late in the morning. Some of these people..." She shook her head, taking another long draught of Guinness. "I dunno. Like you, for example. You can invent things that could destroy the world. That's a lot of responsibility, and it bothers me that someone a little greyer on the ethical spectrum thinks they're entitled to do that just because they can. Not just novas, strictly speaking, but you have to admit we..."

Her voice trailed off as Tomas all but slithered up to her table, and she found herself caught for the briefest of moments in the luminous, seductive trap that his emerald eyes held.

"...have a greater potential for trouble."

Nuh-uh. Not again. So help me God, you try any of your shenanigans here and I'll swap your teeth for your testicles.

Her jaw tightened, and as she calmly, smoothly clasped his hand, the pinpoints of her pupils expanded. Eyes like sunlight on leaves darkened as she held his gaze, and the easy smile she'd offered Doc Aeon only moments before grew taut.

She wasn't even completely sure why she hated him so much, but the fact that she did was undeniable. The very fact that he'd even approached her made something in the back of her head scream for violence, but... Why?

Very, very carefully, she placed her glass on the table. There was a tremor in her grip on his pale hand, a faint twitch that betrayed her anger as clearly as anything else. It might as well have been stamped across her brow in bold crimson lettering.

"Tomas," she repeated in a low voice, straining toward a sense of calm she obviously didn't feel. "Yeah. I remember you."

[Tomas Saint-Etienne]

He gently shook her hand once before his slender fingers slipped from her grasp. He was fascinated by her antipathy for him: it was almost an instinctive hate that the young empath had to struggle not to return. His eyes narrowed a little as he resisted the urge to pre-emptively defend himself, and he slipped into the seat across from her with an almost weary grace, folding his hands together on the table with his eyes still on hers.

"May we speak plainly? Nova to nova? No tricks or deceits. No glamors or enchantments. I..." he pondered his next words for a moment. "I am curious why the sight of me disturbs you so. I played a foolish child's game on our last meeting, and you are quite within your rights to distrust me for that, but this... it seems almost as though I have done you some great affront merely by Being." He tilted his head slightly, the perfect brow furrowed in mild but genuine puzzlement.

[Caitlin Kieran]

The copper-haired nova exhaled sharply through her nose as he took his seat, watching him warily.

Well. Isn't that the $64,000 question? So, go on. Tell him, that little voice in the back of her mind urged.

She licked her lips, tension radiating off her in nearly palpable waves, and sighed.

"Fine. You want me to put it into words?" At his nod of assent, she frowned and finished off her drink. She'd need a lot more after this. "The best way I can describe it is that you triggered something. I don't know what that 'something' is, exactly, but whatever you did the first time I met you, it won't go away." She spoke slowly and seriously, forcing herself to keep her part of the conversation as quiet as possible, because she knew how crazy it was going to sound. "I hate you. I don't just dislike you, or distrust you."

She leaned forward slightly for emphasis, her eyes still fixed on his.

"I. Hate you," Caitlin whispered, sounding almost as startled at the admission as the raven-haired boy looked. "Enough that I would probably kill you, that just knowing you would be here made me taste blood. I hate you enough that just seeing you talking to Contessa made me think of..." The college student hesitated and shook her head, finally looking away before mumbling, "doing really horrible things. Worse than killing you."

She wanted to go over the table, to lay bare the white bone beneath his pale flesh and crimson blood, but she hooked her feet over the metal support of her chair instead and drummed black-clawed fingertips unhappily on the tabletop.

"So, there you go," she sighed. "You make me homicidal, and, no. I don't know why."

[Tomas Saint-Etienne]

"Thank you for that." Tomas nodded respectfully. "In our first meeting, I have to say I did nothing superhuman to you. I merely sat beside you and put on an act." He smiled a trifle bemusedly. "That's one of the reasons it fascinates me: your hate."

He stood up. "I am no threat to you, or to your charge. But then, hate is not a rational reaction. So I will leave you alone and attempt to stay out of your sight." He gave her a slightly wistful smile. "Pleasant day to you, Caitlin."

With a nod of apology he turned and walked away, a slender boy beautiful beyond measure, his face thoughtful as he moved out of the dining area and onto the sunlit deck.

[Doctor Aeon]

He glided over to the table like some serpentine God of Chocolate Sensuality. Doc was floored, dumbstruck, and slack-jawed all at once. A little voice - the voice of reason and sanity in his taint-riddled mind - pointed out,

So, this is what I missed in high school, being ignored by the beautiful guy while he hits on my woman. Well, the woman I was hitting on first ... talking to first. That and wedgies.

Doc's tiny mind observed Caitlan's reaction and while he was utterly powerless to assist her, he did applaud from the safety of the sidelines. Then he got the gist of her words. She was going all Species I and II on his ass!

Yeah, but she's cute and talks to me.

The Presence left and the tension diminished somewhat with him. Doc reached out and touched lightly Caitins hand.

"Don't let him ruin the time for you, Caitlin," he whispered. "We were having such a good time. At least I was. I hope you were."

Now I'm blathering.

He removed his hand before she could take it off.

[SalmonMax]

Keiko, having been hanging on Vixen's words, pipes up when a silence falls over the group there.

"I'm a journalist. A reporter, actually. Investigative reporter. I'm sort of just starting out though, so I don't have any really cool stories yet. At least none that you'd probably believe."

She shrugs.

"So I guess most of you guys know each other, huh?"

[Adrian Moss]

"First time outing for me," Everyman chimed in. He knew that the kid wasn't aiming the questions at him, but that was okay. Her being a parasitical reporter was less okay. Why on earth did she want to become a bottom feeder?

The masked man shrugged slightly. She was most likey someone they would want to watch from here on out; just dumb enough, and high powered enough, to be dangerous.

It was a pity. She was kind of cute in a cloying - annoying kind of Japanese school girl kind of way.

Of course then he was talking to a Furry.

[Tomas Saint-Etienne]

"I believe I know only Ryusei." came a smooth, honeyed voice that could only be described as 'silken'... if one excluded the phrase 'hubba-hubba' as a proper adjective, that is. Tomas stepped into view, his glittering green eyes and black hair vivid against the pale translucence of his skin and loose cotton garb. He nodded politely to the Japanese youth, his angelic features composed in a faint smile.

"The rest of you, I don't think I've had the pleasure." he uttered softly, extending a slim hand to the person nearest to him as he addressed the group. "My name is Tomas."

[Caitlin Kieran]

The green-eyed boy's departure was as frustrating as it was abrupt, and she couldn't shake the feeling that it was deliberate, that he'd intentionally come over, riled her up, and then walked away. The temptation to leap on his back as he retreated surfaced briefly, but (thankfully) faded as Doc Aeon touched her hand.

"I won't let him ruin it," she replied, forcing herself to smile. "Besides, we're on a party boat, not running around in some Kipling-inspired jungle fantasy."

Unfortunately.

Okay, stop it. Seriously. So he's a pretty fey little boy who likes to play head games. Big deal. It's not like you've never seen one of those before. This whole, "I'd really like to squeeze the blood from your heart like a bunch of overripe grapes" thing really has got. To. Stop. You're being irrational.

There was a sullen, moody curve to her downturned lips for a moment, and then she sighed.

"Sorry, Doc. Really. He's just one of those people that gets under my skin, for some reason."

And I'd love to get under his.

[Adrian Moss]

Everyman felt his skin tingle in the way you feel right before Mama beats you for touching yourself.

"Everyman," he said in a forced, steady voice. This Boy was a Mindbender. The Agent in him could feel it. To not give in to one's own dark passions around him was almost irresistable. Fortunately his Mama had beaten him alot. Girls, her booze, a Wednesday, or just because. You learn to resist a lot that way. You learn to keep things close in.

"What brings you here today?

Why have you come over here? What's wrong, all the pretty girls say no.

Everyman felt triumphant.

[Doctor Aeon]

"Doctor Aeon,"said this clone. "The pleasure is ours."

He extended a hand to the handsome boy. It was only polite.

His emotions were complex, but there was an undercurrent of parental concern and duty/caring. Who it was aimed at was anyone's guess.

At the table,

"I wish I could do something about that," he said with a guarded grin. "Put up an 'Icky' barrier to keep out creeps, or set back the clock so that would could just avoid him through forethought. I'm sorry this place hasn't been more fun for you. Anything me or some of my kin can do?"

His grin got wider,

"We could juggle plates for you? Considering we've never done it before, it should be loads of fun."

[SalmonMax]

"Tomas!" Keiko said happily, reaching over to shake his hand in turn. "Toe-moss. That sounds French. Are you French?"

He did have a sort of vague Mediterranean accent, she decided. Sort of like that guy in the Prince Caspian movie. And he was better looking, to boot.

"I'm Keiko. It's very nice to meet you, Tomas."

[Tomas Saint-Etienne]

He smiled back at Keiko as he shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you too. I understand a fair few of us have met already in the OpNet chat area where Ryusei proposed this idea. But not all of us used our true names there. I know I didn't" He smiled, letting his fingers slide from Keiko's hand, trailing tingles of warmth across her skin as they did so. "Ryusei, Fianna, Contessa I know from there. Anyone else?"

[Warren Verona]

Novas were gathered now on all the decks, most he'd never seen before, some he recognized. With his plate balanced carefully in his palm he plucked various finger foods from it as the refreshing sea air brushed his cold, lifeless skin.

So much drama unfolding all around him it was like a symphony of pathos for his soul to feed from. Quietly he stood and an joyed his meal, the physical and emotional.

[Vixen]

Vixen's hair stands on end as pheromone levels spike. Oh, he's handsome. Oh, is he ever. Mitch, you're the best man I've ever met but even on your best day you could not catch up with this one. "Uh, Roxanne. Richardson. Doctor Richardson. Call me Roxanne. Or Vixen."

[Caitlin Kieran]

Laughing, Caitlin shook her head at the blue-eyed Doc Aeon.

"Juggling plates? Tell you what. I'll take a rain-check on that. C'mon. Let's get some fresh air."

Saying this, she pushed her chair back and waved him along, heading out onto the deck. She scrupulously avoided the cluster of novas surrounding Tomas, biting back a sharp comment as she passed, and instead walked to the opposite railing.

"You know, this is the first time I've ever actually been out at sea. It's beautiful, isn't it?"

She smiled over her shoulder at the only-slightly-mad scientist before returning her gaze to the waves rolling endlessly across the horizon.

[Doctor Aeon]

He looks at her as she turns away and sighs.

"Yeah, its beautiful."

"This is my first time out to sea as well. I've been on the Mississippi a few times."

Doing a really awful Mark Twain immitation, he continues,

"I say now, it is the Mother Rivah. It flows from the headwatahs in Minnesota to to Nah Orleans, city of Sin, Vice, and everything Pleasurable in the Wohld."

Doc clears his throat.

"Clone #4 does it better, but we liked the river boat and the river we traveled on. You get to see the marshes and the heron's in flight to their nests at sunset, fladhing white againt the red sky."

"Beautiful."

"I would love to the Amazon sometime before its all gone. There are severl thousand species of poisonous insects and amphibians. I wonder if their is an medical application for those?"

"Beautiful," he says one more time before leaning against the railing and looking overboard a the wake.

"I hope we see some big fish,"comes the child-like voice within.

[Caitlin Kieran]

Caitlin bit her lip as Doc Aeon casually mentioned the "thousands" of species of insects and amphibians. Well, at least he's interested.

"Actually," she began slowly. "The Amazon rainforest accounts for about thirty percent of the world's species of plants and animals. A single square mile can have up to fifty-thousand different species of insects alone, and those are only the ones we know about. I mean, if we've actually identified that many, even knowing that so much of the ecosystem has been destroyed, can you imagine how many more we missed? How many were lost before we even knew they were there?"

She turned, leaning back against the railing to address him as she warmed to her subject.

"We've got this huge, irreplaceable wealth of information and potential scientific and medical breakthroughs, and every day, more and more of it keeps vanishing. You know, last year, they found a species of ant in the Amazon that's one-hundred and twenty million years old? Can you imagine that? We're talking about a single species that's existed there since the Cretaceous period. It blows my mind to think about it, and the fact that there's so much left to find, and so little time to do it."

[Doctor Aeon]

"Maybe I should go down there and get a river boat - less of an impact on the area. Only the isolation worries me. I've done things ... made enemies that wish me harm. If I was have an unfortunate accident ... well Carbonel time for a few people."

"Still, looking in the streams and waterways for parasites, digging under trees for termites, these are the things that make research fun. To many scientists want to re-discover things, instead of discovering them."

"I won't miss my lab, and I can cover a lot of ground on a given day," he grins, "and I eat for one!"

"I don't know if I'll get used to the rain," he says with mock-seriousness. "It is a RAIN forest after all. I like my rabbit slippers after a hard days work, don'tchya know? Being all wet ... well, wet rabbit has a smell, even if it's faux-rabbit."

[Tomas Saint-Etienne]

"Roxanne or Vixen it shall be." Tomas smiled at her and took her hand in a gentle shake. "A lovely quantum expression you have there. If you were silver-furred, I might be fearing for my heart and sanity." The young man couldn't be older than 17, 18 at the most, but his air of calm and self-possession was uncanny as his shimmering gaze met Vixen's and he smiled slyly.

"So what are you a Doctor of? Assuming, of course, that question has not already been done to death this early in the gathering."

[Warren Verona]

He saw her from where he stood in the throngs of novas that had arrived for the free food. The red haired Irish beauty he'd met long ago.

Met? Oh what a crock... he sat invisible in the shadows like a pussy afraid that he might orgasm on her if he walked up and said 'hello'!

Okay, fine. The red haired Irish beauty that he had watched creepily, like a little Emo baby, from the shadows when she had show up to get concert tickets from him almost a year ago.

Yeah, that's about it. Heh, Emo...

Even the narrator of my life is against me...

Oh, shut up. So she's here, go say hello. The darkness on the edge of his sanity chided at him. C'mon chicken shit.

He didn't take much convincing, Revenant had been pondering how an apology would go if he ever met the lovely woman again. His lack of social graces instilled a type of cowardice within him and the night Caitlin had come to pick the concert tickets he'd offered over the op-net he'd lost his nerve and simply watched her arrive and leave.

I suppose an apology would be the respectful thing to do. He pondered for a moment as he discarded the plate he was carrying. "Well, here goes..."

Casually the Death Nova waded through the people to where she and Doctor Aeon were discussing... something about rabbits, how they smell when wet, and bugs. Although the Doctor was present, Revenant didn't acknowledge him with a nod or a greeting; the Doctor wasn't the reason The Revenant had approached.

"Pardon me, F-Fianna?" He stammered only once as he built up the nerve to address her but managed to collect his thoughts. His voice was low, barely a whisper among screams to heard amidst all the people conversing around them. "I've been meaning to apologize. I am Revenant and I should have greeted you properly the night we met."

[Caitlin Kieran]

The first thing she saw, writ large across the pallid nova's chest, was TITS OR GTFO.

"Um, hi," Caitlin blinked, startled out of formulating what was about to be a lengthy and impassioned response to Doc Aeon about biodiversity and the value of field work in a typically research-oriented area of science.

"I don't think we ever-"

She remembered, suddenly, the frigid station and the cryptic instructions she'd been given for a few concert tickets.

"OH!" she exclaimed loudly, her expression shifting from 'confusion' to 'surprise' and then 'indignation' in a literal eyeblink. "You're The Revenant. Where the hell were you? Do you have any idea how creepy that place was?"

Not that it doesn't suit you, she snarked silently.

"This is Doc Aeon. ...Or, one of him, at least." She shook her head, still having difficulty wrapping her mind around that fact as she watched other Aeons moving to and fro about the boat. "Apology accepted, by the way."

[Warren Verona]

Well that was pretty easy. He thought. All this time he'd been beating himself up over nothing.

"Well," He nodded to the Doctor, at least the one here anyway, a bit shyly and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "That's all I had to say, really. Good to meet you two, I guess."

[Caitlin Kieran]

He's so... Boring.

A nova who resembled Sweeney Depp on steroids somehow ended up sounding like a thirty-something basement-dwelling middle-manager, all social awkwardness and propriety. Except for the shirt, of course, which now looked less humorously shocking and more like a cry for help.

"Hey. I wanted to say thanks for the tickets, by the way," she smiled, trying to inject a little more life into the conversation with her enthusiasm. "Awesome show, seriously." She kept glancing at his shirt periodically, wondering where he got it, or why he'd even bothered wearing it. Judging by his posture as she looked him over, it probably wasn't something he bought for himself. He just didn't have the confidence to carry it off.

"I screamed so much, I literally couldn't say a word the next day, and every muscle in my body ached. I was way better off than my friends, but it got pretty wild. We all had a blast!"

[Warren Verona]

"Cool." Was about all he could manage. Revenant possessed the social capabilities of a statue: he looked great in a room, as long as people just walked past him, pointing.

He shrugged nonchalantly, his voice still nothing more than a macho emo whisper. She seemed alright though and deep down, despite not being able to adequately express it in words, he was glad Caitlin had a good time.

"Glad you had a good time." Oh, where do you come up with these turns of phrase you Machiavelli, you! He ignored the taunting, and pressed on. "I doubted the guys I took them from were going to go, so I suppose it worked out well. So, uh, you're welcome."

[Caitlin Kieran]

Ugh.

If there was a spectrum of emotions inspired by people, Revenant would be at the absolute opposite end of Tomas. He wasn't just bland. He was painfully bland, and it was all the more pathetic because he actually seemed sincere.

It was supposed to be a party, right? And considering that there were people skinny-dipping off the side of the boat, a little misbehavior couldn't hurt. Right?

She glanced down at his shirt again.

"No," Caitlin repeated. "Really."

Tits or GTFO. Right.

Mischief danced in her eyes as the young Irish-American lass grasped Revenant's wrists, and pressed his palms firmly against her chest; his hands obscured a significant portion of the ivory Guinness logo on her t-shirt, distorting it further as the cotton stretched.

"Thank you," she repeated with a grin.

[Warren Verona]

With his hand cupped firmly to the beautiful nova's chest Revenant's mouth opened slightly as if he wanted to say something. "Uhhhhhhh..." Was all that formed.

Customs are strange in International Waters. He thought, trying to get a grasp on the situation... a different grasp on the situation.

ARRRRRRRRRR! Came a loud cry from the back of his mind.

The hell...

I dunno, just seemed like the right thing to say.

Whether she intended to catch him off guard with her little prank, or whether it was how she genuinely thanks all her mysterious concert ticket benefactors the undead novas wasn't sure. So he stood there confused, unsure what to do next.

The thought of removing his hands from her perfect breasts didn't seem to register, and for once, his Shadow wasn't to blame.

[Eingar]

"ARRRRRRR!"

Einherjar mock-roared in response to the faceful of water Jael swept into his face before starting after the giggling woman who, let it be noted, might not have been swimming altogether as fast as she could. The other novas in the game laughed as the large blond Elite grabbed the girl's shoulders and hoisted her up and out of the water to land with a splash ten feet away. She was still grinning as she surfaced, and Ein laughed back.

He was having fun, but damn was the water chilly. A Pacific beach in high summer this wasn't. He caught the ball as Ivana threw it to him and lobbed it high over Jael's head to the Doc Aeon clone who was frantically waving his arms and shouting "Me! Me! Over here!" The strange little man would likely have drowned if it hadn't been for his water wings, and Ein just shook his head good-humoredly at the sight.

[Vixen]

"Uh, biology and zoology. I like animals. Obviously. And no, I haven't been asked too often."

He's so calm. It's like talking to a lake.