The Beach, Saturday Afternoon

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

After his usual run (maybe a little longer than normal) and usual amount of coffee (borderline caffeine overdoes levels), Tony came to a stop on the beach for some relaxation time. Well, something like that.

He flopped down on the sand, hands back to brace him in an upright position as he watched the waved roll in.

A guy could only spend so much time sublimating his rich, orphan angst working in the lab before he got this weird craving for that mysterious orb in the sky that illuminated the world. Whatever it was, it looked 'shopped.

[[Open like a beach!]]

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[ultron_junior]

It wasn't the right beach. The sun was different, and of course it was facing the wrong direction entirely. But on a sunny day, a beach was a beach, and Victor could even forgive it for being the Atlantic.

He slowed his walk a bit when he spotted Tony, but ultimately shrugged and kept moving towards him. Not the guy from home, not really. Anything more than that, they could talk about later.

"Hey," he said, flopping on the sand a companionable distance away. "Anything interesting going on?"

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Victor," Tony said, nodding at him in lieu of a wave. "Not unless you count watching waves interesting."

[ultron_junior]

"Not unless there's nothing else to do," Victor said. "Though sometimes there's something to be said for trying to be zen."

For ... about 10 minutes.

[longislandiceme]

Bobby waved at the new-but-somewhat-familiar-face. "Hey. Victor, yeah?"

[ultron_junior]

"That would be me," Victor said, blinking a bit. "And you're Bobby? I saw you in that teamwork class."

He seemed just the tiniest bit extra-enthused by the introduction, yes. But Bobby hadn't said anything about being a mutant in class, so jumping up all OH HAI YOU'RE AN X-MAN might have been a bit ... odd.

[endsthegame]

"I'd forgotten how much the beach attracts people, especially newcomers," Ender commented, done now with catching up with Tony. "Unless you're a late-returning student, in which case I apologize."

[ultron_junior]

"I'm from L.A.," Victor explained. "If I don't get to the beach every couple weeks, I self-destruct."

Never mind that he considered playing on his laptop a fine use of the beach. The important part was that the sand and water were there.

"And yeah, I'm new. My name's Victor. Hi."

He glanced the other boy over, but felt no sense of recognition.

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Well, Fawn was here, Tony had made her feel a little bit better about so many people around, and she was pretty sure she recognized at least one other person, at least a little bit.

"You're the boy from the bus here," Fawn noted, tilting her head at him as her brain searched her memory, "Victor, right?"

It was a big step for her, talking to someone, but the nervousness of starting to twitch or hyperventilate lead to an adrenaline rush that allowed her to pull it off.

[ultron_junior]

"That would be me," Victor confirmed. "And you're Fawn."

She looked a bit less likely to sink through the floor than before, he thought.

"Good first week?"

[longislandiceme]

Bobby wasn't generally a beach person- had been, as a kid, but his father's influence, for all that their relationship was somewhat repaired now, had soured him on that regard. But he was a "wandering around aimlessly when filled with restless energy" sort of person, and sometimes those wanderings brought him near the beach.

"Look at you, all not spontaneously combusting," he teased, wandering over.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes I see the light of day," Tony protested. "I even tan."

Liiiiies.

[longislandiceme]

"I'll believe that one when I see it," Bobby said skeptically.

[endsthegame]

"Bobby," Ender greeted him. "Up to great good, I take it."

Sure, they never really talked face to face, but he lived with Ben. He'd been treated to his fair share of stories.

[longislandiceme]

"When am I not?"

Uh, when you were encouraging Ender's boyfriend to do things like cover an entire parking lot in Doritos? How about then?

[endsthegame]

Well, Ender was just coming off bringing lunch to his sister - and he'd decided a walk to clear his thoughts wouldn't go amiss. Oftentimes, the beach was abandoned around this time, and while he'd discarded his raft some time ago, the walk was still relaxing in its own way.

You know. If someone else wasn't stinking it up with all his ennui.

"Tony," he called.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Ender," Tony called back, waving over at him. "Here to enjoy nature?"

[endsthegame]

"Here to take a walk," Ender said. "The nature is just a fortunate benefit." He tilted his head at Tony as he approached. "Same for you, I assume."

[myownface]

Nice day, and a weekend at that? As if Sparkle was going to let himself sit inside all day staring at the walls or whatever. They were on an island, and the weather didn't suck, and while he was going to save any bored, kind of stupidly amused notions of skinny dipping in the Atlantic for another time, the beach seemed like the place to be.

And not just for himself, apparently.

"Tony! You look like you're like two steps away from sending out messages in bottles begging for rescue or something."

Or was that the way people always looked when they were watching the waves roll in? Sparkle didn't exactly have experience with that.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"I'd spell out 'help' with drift wood first." Or find a cave. And a box of scraps.

[myownface]

Crazy what could be done with those, wasn't it?

Sparkle would probably just stare at them and then try to assemble them into something that looked highly inappropriate. Because crude dick-sculptures were always funny, shut up.

"Well, yeah, if you want to be practical about it," Sparkle decided, flopping down to take a seat in the sand as well. "And I guess there's always those... what, big bonfires? Smoke signals? Or you could just use your phone. Even if that does kind of ruin the whole castaway thing you have going here."

... The one that Sparkle had just decided was going on, here. Out of nowhere. That one.

[endsthegame]

"On a scale of one to ten," Ender said conversationally, "How sarcastic will you be if I ask you if you're new?"

Let it never be said Ender didn't know his audience. Or had his own special version of senioritis by now.

[myownface]

"Probably about a seven," Sparkle decided after a few moments of thought. "So how about you just don't bother asking, and I'll tell you I'm pretty much fresh off the boat anyhow, while pretending I said something properly full of attitude since I'm in a good mood and all."

He was on a beach. See? See him on the beach, Ender?

[ultron_junior]

Victor smirked over at Sparkle. "I think the beach is a little crowded today to play deserted island."

[yinandyango.livejournal.com]

Fawn supposed she couldn't complain too much; she'd gotten through a good portion of beach without running into people and managed to avoid anything but nature for most of the morning. She liked that about the island; there was so much more nature here than in New York. It was when she started heading back that she'd run into problems, of course.

She kept her shoes off and in her hands so her toes could dig into the sand as she walked by, wondering if she should say hello, or just keep her head down and walk by and hope no one noticed her.

[hoorayimrich.livejournal.com]

"Hey," Tony said, nodding in her direction. Because he was polite like that. And this beach was a total sausagefest.