FNG [Party, Dustin]

[Dustin]

The food situation didn't sound as bad as Dustin knew it could be, but still, he wasn't looking forward to it. At least they would already have a place to stay. It had taken him quite a while to find the half-demolished basement he had set up shop in before.

"No, not much of a history buff," Dustin finally replied. "Especially the really old stuff. Recent history... Well you can't really deny that it is interesting."

"But mostly I think it was the teacher. Seiya taught the class and he wasn't really very approachable. At least I didn't think so. I liked the morphing classes much better. The teacher was younger than I am so he was pretty easy to get along with. I learned some tricks too. Or at least, I learned how to learn the tricks."

[Adrian]

Adrian let his feet hang out in the water. It was freezing but it was a pool and he hadn't seen one in a long time. He leaned back on his hands and let his mind wander a bit. He would never have thought he would be where he was today. But since he tended to go where ever the wind blew him that wasn't such a surprise. What was surprising was the reality of everything around him.

When he was growing up he'd known that he would survive anything that was thrown at him. He'd never stressed that much about getting good grades or getting a job. Humanity had been here for a while and there had always been things to do, work to do, food to eat. He would get by in the world one way or the other.

But even his flexible attitude had received a bit of a wake up shock when the planet had been invaded. As easy going as he was he still found time to wander at the impossibility of the situation they were in now. Below his feet was a forty foot deep pool outfitted with underwater obstacles in order to train humans that could morph into sea creatures to fight aliens. That just didn't happen in the world that had existed five years ago.

He shook his head and pulled his feet out of the water. He hadn't come to the party exactly prepared for the temperature. When he thought pool party he thought summer. But the inside of the pool room was the same temp as the rest of the Bladeship, which made sense since it was all under the same life support system. And the cold water actually made the pool a bit chilly. Which meant walking around in some swimming shorts and nothing else wasn't all that comfortable but it wasn't that bad.

He made his way toward his new faction leader and one of his fellow recruits. He'd been given his assignment yesterday along with everyone else and he'd thought it best to try to find his future leader at this party and at least introduce himself. He only hoped the conversation didn't go on too long or that she would be interesting if it did. He had no intention of wasting one of his last free days planning missions. He knew how crazy the world was outside of these walls, or at least, how dangerous it was since it was crazy all over. He appreciated his peace and he wanted to make sure he enjoyed every minute of it.

"Is this seat taken?" he asked politely, coming up to the table and putting a hand on an empty chair.

[Suji]

Suji smiled when he talked about tricks. A long time ago, she might not have thought that "tricks" mattered -- they sounded too much like "luck", and you couldn't count on that to save you. Now, however, she knew better: sometimes all that kept you alive was knowing a good trick or two. Cleverness was a lot more useful than sheer firepower when it came to being an Animorph, because no matter how strong you thought you were, the enemy was almost always stronger.

"You'll have to show me a few sometime. I'd be interested to see what they're teaching all you whippersnappers." Suji half-smiled to show that she was joking, but she really was interested. Having a knowledge base of a lot of techniques was every bit as important as having a balanced pool of morphs.

Suji turned towards Adrian when he approached. Adrian was very different from Dustin, as far as the report went. They both had quick minds, but Dustin was supposed to be more methodical. That, and Adrian had been described as "bordering on hedonistic." Definitely a curious trait, but more importantly, something that didn't immediately fit the lifestyle devoid of luxury that Animorphs tended to lead.

"Nope, go ahead," she replied, gesturing for him to take a seat. When he did, she reached out a hand to shake his. "Glad to meet you. It's Adrian, isn't it?"

[Dustin]

Dustin smiled at Suji's response, but he wasn't sure he woul be able to show her anything specific. There was a reason he wasn't the teacher here. But he supposed it wouldn't hurt to try. What's the worst that could happen? Failure?

Before he could think of anything else to say or ask Suji, Adrian came over and asked to sit down. Seems I'm not the only one who wanted to talk to the new faction leader today, he thought to himself.

Dustin hadn't really gotten to know Adrian very well during his time here. In fact, the only one he had really gotten to know much at all had been Jullian. But now that he and Adrian would be in the same faction, he supposed it would be a good Idea to get to know him better too.

"What's up?" Dustin asked. Regrettably, he couldn't think of anything better on a moments notice.

[Adrian]

"Ah, yes ma'am," Adrian said, taking her hand with a smile and shaking it before sitting down. "As for up, nothing in particular," Adrian said, turning to Dustin. "Just wanted to introduce myself in this relatively relaxed atmosphere," he said motioning towards the party that had finally seemed to really get going once the music started.

A few people were dancing but it wasn't really that type of party. Most of the people were mingling and chatting, enjoying the Academy's rare splurge of good food and relaxed atmosphere.

Adrian eyed the food table and wished he'd brought a plate of goodies over here. It would have required standing in a pretty long line but it may have been worth it. "Either of you tried the pool yet?" he asked.

[Suji]

Suji looked back over to the pool. "I haven't. I hear it's pretty cold. No one seems to want to stay in for very long." Which was a shame. Then again, the shallower areas seemed to be fairly popular. They must have been warmer. "What about you? I know it didn't open until after we got here, so I guess you haven't had any classes in it, but has it been popular?"

She thought maybe it had to be, given that Adrian was actually wearing real pool-side attire. Suji was in a morphing suit, though it wasn't her standard one. It cut off at the knees and didn't have long sleeves, but it was still closer to real clothes than a bathing suit. Not that she knew how one would even go about getting a bathing suit under these conditions. Swim trucks were one thing, they could be made out of a lot of stuff. But female swimwear was a hell of a lot more tricky - and that wasn't even counting if you were going to try to get a matching bikini set.

Maybe in Miami, she thought, snickering internally. Yeah. Because she wouldn't have any more important things to do, or anything.

[Dustin]

"I haven't gone in yet either," Dustin said to adrian. "And yeah, it's pretty cold right now. It would take your body a while to get used to the temperature, but I don't think you would freeze to death. I could go grab some towels though if either of you want to try your luck?"

Dustin looked between the two of them and half stood up, ready to go or sit back down. He didn't really feel like swimming by himself, but if the other two wanted to go for a dip, he would too. If not, he would just keep acting as an off-duty lifeguard. It was a pretty easy job with so few swimmers.

[Adrian]

"Popular?" Adrian looked over at the pool. Talking about it had certainly been popular lately. Many of the engineers had spent a lot of time bragging about it and Adrian had gotten an earful about it one night after taking a particularly attractive one back to his room. But the pool itself had been off limits until recently and it was taking longer than expected for the temp to average out so Adrian didn't know many who'd made use of it.

"Not that I know of. This party is sort of a grand opening for it I think." He glanced over at Dustin who was standing half in and half out of his chair. He looked a bit too high strung for a party but maybe it was a side of effect of being around their faction leader. "I'm fine for now," he said, glancing at Suji to see what her answer would be.

[Suji]

Suji looked over at Dustin, and motioned for him to sit back down. "Thanks, but don't worry about it." She was only half paying attention though, as she watched Drake walk in with one of his new faction mates. Then Alain walked up to them. Of course Cassie hadn't assigned Alain to her faction. It was the smart thing to do, even if you didn't count the fact that they hadn't spoken since Alain had left her sitting in the engine room.

Pushing back against those thoughts, she turned to Dustin. "Actually, why not. It's not like I'll get another chance, right?" She found herself suddenly wanting something to do, other than sit around and wallow in the fact that everyone she knew in this war was going to another city without her. And if she didn't occupy herself, that was exactly what would happen. It'd already started, and Suji was pretty good at the brooding thing. Better to kill it before it became too much of an issue.

[Dustin]

Dustin sat back down and tried to get comfortable again when both Adrian and Suji decided they didn't want to go for a swim. But it wasn't long before Suji changed her mind. Almost instantly Dustin was standing up again. "I'll be right back then." He excused himself and went to grab a towel or two.

After a brief scan of the wall surrounding the pool, Dustin spotted a wobbly card table with some towels sloppily stacked on top of it. He made his way through the scarce crowd, grabbed a couple, then headed back. "I brought some extras in case you change your mind," he said to Adrian. Dustin himself had decided to go for a swim since his new faction leader was brave enough to risk the freezing waters. "Shallow end or deep end? Oh, and freshwater or saltwater?"

[Adrian]

Adrian continued to lounge in his chair but he watched his new faction mates with an interested eye. He followed Suji's glance to the door and wondered what had led to her change of mind but didn't jump to any conclusions. He had never really been interested in finding answers or ferreting out other people's secrets but he did like to observe what was going on around him. There was no telling when a bit of information would come in handy later so he just liked to hold onto things even if he wasn't exactly sure what they meant or how they may fit into a bigger picture.

He watched Dustin with the same level of neutral curiosity and thanked him for the towel when it was handed his way. "I may join you after all," he said, changing his mind. The water wasn't necessarily more inviting than it had been a moment ago but he'd decided spending time with his faction mates-to-be wasn't the boring official duty he'd feared it might turn into.

[Suji]

Suji felt a little guilty when Dustin jumped back to his feet. It was an observation she recorded to herself: she wasn't positive if it was just his nature, or if he was trying to make a good impression on his faction leader. Either way, it'd influence the process of assigning missions and orders later on. Part of her regretted already thinking of other people like this, again, but it was a small part. Ultimately, she would have done it if she was a faction leader or not.

"Freshwater, I think. It'll be the most like a pool, and I haven't been in a pool in years. Thanks for the towels, by the way." She took them from him, and set them neatly where they'd been sitting. "And deep end. I mean, if you're going to go, you might as well go all the way, right?" Suji said with a wry smile. "If it's too unbearable, though, I'll let you guys know." She walked over to the water's edge, and without much ceremony, hopped in with her toes pointed straight down.

She sank quite a ways, and the chill of the water had not been an overstatement. It was pretty freaking cold -- not hypothermia-inducing, but certainly not as pleasant as the tropical waters she'd swam in a few weeks ago. Suji kicked to the surface; her morphing suit had leggings to it, at least. It took a show of willpower to keep her teeth from chattering at first, and she took a few strokes to warm her body up.

"It's not terrible but, let's just say, I'm sure we'll find better in Miami." Suji ducked back under the water and smoothed her hair back before coming up again.

[Dustin]

Dustin followed Suji to the pool, careful to keep a respectable amount of distance between them. He was also glad that Adrian had decided to join them as well. If he was going to get to know people in his faction, it might as well be all of them. Not everyone was here, but two was better than none.

Suji jumped in and came back to the surface. "It's not terrible but, let's just say, I'm sure we'll find better in Miami," she said. And Dustin wasn't the least bit surprised. He had already dipped his toes in earlier, so he knew how cold it was.

Even so, he put his arms into a point above his head and dove in. He angled himself so that he would glide across the water just under the surface. When he lost most of his momentum he angled back upwards and broke the surface. "Whoo, you weren't kidding! Brr." Turns out it was even colder than he remembered, but at least his wetsuit was keeping in a lot of the heat.

"Okay, Adrian. Show us what you got," he called back to the shore.

[Adrian]

Adrian followed them over to the pool and watched Suji jump in with an appreciating eye. He smiled a bit when she came back up before turning his attention to Dustin and watching him do a pretty graceful swan dive, especially considering there was no diving board.

Adrian picked up the towels they'd left on the side of the pool and moved them back from the edge a bit so that they wouldn't get wet when the water inevitably sloshed over the side and then walked back to the edge. He felt around with his bare feet, trying to decide if it was too slippery to try anything fancy. There wasn't too much water on the surface of the side but if he slipped trying to do something foolish, not only would he make a bad impression, more importantly, he could seriously hurt himself. So he let go his idea to do a flip into the water and just jumped in though he did allow himself a canon ball. Considering he wasn't that big there wasn't much of a splash and he opened immediately once he was under the water so that he wouldn't go too deep. It would only get colder the deeper they went.

Adrian kicked back to the surface and broke it and shook the water out of his eyes. "Well this is terrible," he said, beginning to shiver and kicking away from the side hoping to get a bit more acclimated to the water. "Jesus, this is the coldest water I've ever been in. There has to be a way to heat this up. Maybe they can point that damn canon down and boil the pool before a party next time."

[Suji]

Suji snickered at the thought of using the dracon canon to heat the pool. "Not sure you'd want to swim in that. What it didn't evaporate, and in the saltwater pool you'd end up with with a concentration of salt so high that it'd practically be the Dead Sea." That, and she remembered the last time she'd used dracon weapons on water. On a Yeerk pool in fact, and she'd recognized that this was an old, re-purposed pool. It hadn't been a great experience.

"Then again, it is pretty cold." Suji turned on her back, floating for about a meter before righting herself again. "I hear they Empire is doing some kind of construction off the coast of Miami. We might need to get used to some swimming. Maybe some proper water morphs. You've got some kind of shark, right, Adrian?"

Also a thing for her to think about. A saltwater crocodile was a pretty formidable creature, and it could hold its breath for over two hours if it wasn't exerting a lot of energy. But she didn't have anything that could actually breath water, and that worried her. It hadn't seemed like an issue in any of the factions she'd previously been a part of.