Connor finished welcoming all the new guests and looked around. He'd never expected to see so many novas come for this. Some were here simply for the gathering he figured, not the show, but what the hell, everyone was having a blast.

He watched the band set up, but he had never heard of them. Oh well, so long as everyone has fun... It was then he noticed several black dots further down the beach. He quietly made his way to the eastern "border" of his territory, cold coke in hand. "And so it starts."

He knew that so long as he could get a couple of good people on the outside it wouldn't be an issue, but he knew that with this many novas, especially considering how some of them looked, it could get rough.

"If they don't show proper courtesy I'll just have to handle things." He stood there and watched as half a dozen vehicles stopped maybe a hundred yards from where he stood. People rushed out and began setting up a similar camp to Connor's. He made his way over to it and did his best to keep a neutral smile on his face.

He approached the young guy who was in charge and who already had a camera out. "Nice day for a beach party ain't it?"

The guy turned his way slightly, too busy he guessed, snapping pictures of Autumn and the others. "Hey man it's a public beach we got every right.."

Connor waved him off. "I ain't mad about it man, I understand that much."

"That's good, because we're the first in a very long line of traffic headed down this way. You guys are about to have the biggest crowd on the beach." The guy actually put the camera down. "Seriously man, look at all that hot ass can you blame everyone?"

"Just try to keep on this side of the pole ok? Standard beach courtesy. I ain't gonna rain on anyone's fun, hell there's plenty of beach right?"

Connor's tone wasn't menacing, but he was doing his best to get the point of "stay on your side unless we call to you" across while still being polite. Were he actually alone he'd have put it in easier terms. Stay the hell on this side of the rod or there's gonna be hell to pay. I have enough to keep track of as it is.

Karrie never saw the guy smile at her; instead, she looked up at the man of the hour, and got a shock. Holy crap! What happened to Connor? I'm not sure... what to... god, he's handsome!

Flushing and miserably confused, Karrie shoved the rest of her burger into her mouth and hurried away from the table. She need room to breathe.

Moving out to the water, Karrie watched the low waves roll in. But even here, there were beautiful people approaching, and Karrie remembered her cousin's words, "You should stay in your shop, Debeh-li-zini-yazzie. You're no good in the real world." And her eruption had made it worse.

She scanned around, looking for someone to talk to; her eyes fell on the scarfed man. He looks low-pressure, she decided. Plastering on a smile, she headed toward him.

Bell smiles at Troy's entrance, "I'm good. Oh, Troy, this is Akaisha. Akaisha, this is Troy. He's a good guy. So, Troy, what have you been up... Ummm, excuse me, I'll be right back." He jogs off in the direction that Connor took and eventually catches up to him. "Something wrong, man? Anything I can help with?" he then notices the gathering crowd of people including people with cameras. "Oh, crud." Bell sighs and looks over at Connor again. "Need any help with crowd control? or do I need to chill?"

He waits patiently, watching the band set up and shaking his head. "This is gonna be loud... There goes the peaceful day of just hanging out."

Kara had almost begun speaking to Gabe when out of nowhere a new face had entered their conversation. "Welcome, my name is Alessa Neri, who might you two be?" Her near angelic voice unintentionally cut off Kara.

“Honored to have caught your attention, I assure you.” He said with a perfect smile. “I’m Gabriel Law, and this,” His etiquette, as always, seemed to be on full auto. “Kara B’Nath. It’s quite certainly a pleasure to meet you Ms. Neri.” Gabriel knew she was. She was in the music industry and there were very few people there he didn’t know.

He's already walking back when he sees Bellator coming to meet him. "I think I got a handle on things, though if you want to try your hand on the grill have at it."

He shrugs. "As for crowd control we'll play it by ear. I don't believe it will get too out of hand but if it does I'll let you know. Just kick back and enjoy the party. Hell go swimming with everyone else, I know now that I've greeted everyone I am. A little salt water will work the kinks out and cool me off some." He starts heading back to the encampment and puts his can in one of the bags by the jeep.

"Have fun Bellator, that's why we're doing this."

Kara shut her mouth as Alessa joined the conversation, but she honestly didn't mind. She'd long wanted to meet the young woman since being forced to miss her concert in New York. "It's good to meet you," Kara said, making sure her sunglasses were shielding her eyes. "I'm very sorry I had to miss your concert, too."

"Mr.Law! I should have recognized you, not like your picture is not plastered all over fansites in the OpNet or on the purses of a string of heartbroken girls." Alessa smiled good naturally inwardly sighing at the representation of perfection that was standing mere feet in front of her and trying her utmost hardest to not just jump him in the spot, taking advantage of a hole in her libido's offense she turns to Kara. "Ms.N'Bath, It's ok I understand that other obligations were, hmm, incurred before the concert and that you were unavailable for it, There is nothing to apologize for."

Alessa turned to look at Gabriel again, wanting to once again make contact with those dreamy eyes of his. "But please, I know Connor looks swamped, but if I can help you with anything feel free to tell me!" Alessa inadvertently allowed her Quantum powers to flow a bit, enhancing her beauty for the pair she was talking to.*

[* Alessa activated her Awe Inspiring enhancement, App 5/M-App 2, Seduction 3, Manip 5/M-Manip 1, Charisma 5/M-Cha 1]

Akaisha smiles when she notices Conner growing the tail like he’d mentioned a few weeks ago. She’d honestly forgotten once she’d arrived. The beach was such a scene of captivating people that her mind was racing in a million different directions. When Conner suddenly left to go greet other guests, Akaisha felt herself blush. She didn’t even realize she’d been staring. This was all too much.

Joe’s voice pulled her back to reality when he introduced her to Troy. She looks over at him and smiles, “Its nice to meet you...” she pauses and blinks as Joe suddenly runs off, leaving her and Troy alone.

She shifts a bit awkwardly and looks back at Troy, “So, er, where are you from?”

Troy watched as Bellator ran off after Mech, and felt entirely too awkward about the position that he was left in. He thought about how he was supposed to act, and how he normally acted, and in that second of time, it was an eternal moment for him. He gave her a friendly, familiar smile.

"Hello Akaisha." He said happily to her. "And this meeting is a little more awkward than I was planning" he said with an innocent smile and a nervous chuckle. "I'm from Los Angeles, but I've not been there in several months. How about yourself?"

Bell smiles and nods to Connor, "Will do. Time for me to get back to Akaisha and Troy. I hope she'll forgive me for running off like that."

Bell fades out from sight right next to Conner and fades back in next to Troy and Akaisha, He smiles as he reappears. "Sorry about that. I had something that I needed to ask Connor. Either of you want some soda? Or some food? It smells pretty good."

“I’m from New York, actually. Well, I am now. I grew up in California but when I left for school I really liked it in the City.” She blinks when Joe suddenly reappears. That is hard to get used to seeing but given the setting on the beach it seemed rather easy to accept at the moment.

Glancing over at the food, she gives a nod, “Yeah, that might be good. I am a little hungry.” Before they set off, she looks over at the gathering crowd just off the beach and tilts her head.

“Hey, Joe, what are all those people?"

She was pleasant and certainly sweet to talk to until a sudden wash of energy surged over Gabriel. His body tensed and his own natural defenses quickly exerted control and focused his mind into a weapon. Naturally he fought back with the only thing he had in his arsenal… his ability to inspire Awe.

He knew what she had attempted, but certainly didn’t know why. His retaliation washed over the beach and sent shockwaves as he suddenly became nothing short of a god walking the earth demanding worship. “Ms. Neri, there is no reason for us to play games this day. Please, let us try, for just one day to have a normal time. We all know we are each wonderful in our way, let us not force our egos upon others.” His voice was stern yet carried the tone of pure kindness and sovereignty.

Just as quick as it came the rush of divinity left the area. Having cancelled the effect things seemed to gradually return to normal. “Now, where were we? Hmm?”

[[Willpower to temporarily resist Alessa’s “Awe”. Retaliates with “Awe-Inspiring” and using a polite ‘intimidation’ effect to get the point across that it’s not polite to be juicing other novas at a nova party. 19 Successes total.]]

Connor starts walking to the beach, utterly carefree. His Eufiber reacts to his command flawlessly withdrawing from his torso and leaving him clad in only his swim trunks. His body is fairly lean for his height put he's perfectly cut his body is without blemish. He walks out into the surf and after walking to out to his waist he launches forward swimming out to the second sandbar about a hundred and fifty yards out. His strokes are the long powerful strokes of someone who's swam their whole life. here on this beach he's at home.

He smiles as he makes his way up onto the sandbar, now only inches below the water's surface and lays back, relaxing as the waves roll over him. For a few moments he stops worrying about everything else and relaxes. Everything was going well thus far and he was starting to grow a bit anxious about the show. "I don't think we can get sixteen people let alone sixteen novas into my living room."

Kara was at ground zero for Gabe's 'demonstration' and it was not good. Intense emotions tended to take her right back to the dark room with all the cameras, or the hospital, blind and tongueless. For a moment, she was overwhelmed.

In the distance, she could see him - not that it mattered. She was caught in his web, and now his worship didn't demand vision; all that mattered was his presence. Kara swayed and her arms spread wide, trying to catch herself. A hand caught her elbow and steadied her as the wieght of his personality faded.

Gabe was holding her elbow, looking concerned. "I'm fine," she immediately insisted. "I just need some food. Will you both excuse me?"

"Race you to Autumn; first one to tag her wins!" Evan had shouted as took off running toward her new acquaintance. Missy stood (still glowing) rooted to the spot. She stared after Evan in mute shock.

"Wait, what?" she finally asked. "Do what?" That's just weird, she thought. How embarassing.

Missy followed along, but at a steady walk. She liked the way the sand squished in her toes.

Alessa's world dimmed as Law's quantum infused powers manifested, even for an instant she could feel the pressure of the world on her shoulders. Black tinting the edge of her vision, she could only feel the intense eyes of Gabriel Law belitting her. Egos? What Egos? Did..Did I do something wrong?

Alessa's poor knees couldn't take it anymore, and weakening like she had been kicked in the stomach, she had to muster all of her willpower and mental resistance to just stay up right, with hers legs shaking slightly.

"We...we were going to move to the BBQ Table I think?" Kara had been just as affected as Alessa was, but the fortunate girl had been caught by Gabriel's hand instead of having to hold herself up. The weight of the world lifted as the Gabriel Law switched off his node, and Alessa managed to strenghten her voice once again. "Are you two hungry? Connor was cooking a large batch just before you arrived Gabriel, would you like some?"

I nodded to Motley in agreement. Talking to her was going to be a delicate matter, I could already tell. Either she's been driven insane by her own theophany, or she's wearing this insanity as a disguise to avoid being noticed by the baleful gaze of the insane creator-God. The effect was so complete that I had no way to tell which was the case. Was she good enough to fool Yaldaboath? I have no way of knowing.

Aside from the fact that she was still here and still alive, I mean, and that's not conclusive evidence of anything. By whatever cause her mental processes were now so utterly incomprehensible that it'd be nearly impossible for me to get the information I need without upsetting her.

For that matter, is it even advisable for me to want to do so? If she is hidden in plain sight as it were, then my conspiring with her could draw attention to her, and destroy her invisibility. I've been assuming that it's my mission to remove the poisoned shard from reality and infuse its body with the Holy Plasmate. Am I the tool, or the tool-wielder? Which one of us needs the other to accomplish the divine task?

I must know more.

"She was nice," I said casually. "Can I help you make your sand palace while we talk about lost keys, God, and a notebook? It's very interesting to me."

He could see them. There were a lot of them too. For once in a long time, Oogala felt nervous. There were being much like him, yet not like him. Would they react the same. At this point, none of that mattered. He had made it.

Dustbin puffed his chest outward, to make his lanky African body look bigger than it was. As he got closer, he noticed that there were a few with masks on.

Do they also have the rotting disease? Dusbin said internally, as he stopped and stared at the throng of people. There are more of these 'Nova' than I thought... I must be cautious if I relieve them of their excess belongings. He also watched several young girls in the crowd and felt a rush of excitement. It had ben a long tme since he had satisfied himself.

Suddenly, one of them peeled out of the crowd and moved towards him. Instinctively, panic began to settle in. What did she want? Was she security? Would she shoo him away like everyone else? Oogala stood his ground and waited for her to approach.

Missy's words brought Evan up short. He turned and looked back at her sheepishly.
"Sorry," he said. "I'm not very good at these party type affairs. I thought it was something ... well, never mind. We can walk back if you prefer."
Caduceus waited for her to walk up to him before falling in beside her.
"So, I don't imagine you get to many beach parties in Iowa. What do you like doing to unwind?"

Ravenshire was half way up the beach when the aura wars began. It was all he could do to suppress his gaping-mouth awe of Alessa, and way beyond anything he could muster to not cringe back from Gabriel's display. He felt infinitesimally small and insignificant for several seconds before the aura faded and he was just Gabe again.
Daniel shook his head and headed for the grill. He retrieved his two sausages on buns and retreated a small distance away from the posturing crowd.
I came here to unwind he reminded himself.

The food was excellent with the right smokey flavor. Daniel munched down on his first 'dog' and looked about him. People were indeed gathering farther down the beach and that suggested that the festivities wouldn't last as late as he was hoping. It was too much of the world pressing back in and Ravenshire didn't like that one bit.

He missed Lina.

Karrie had noticed the scarfed man; she now approached Dustbin with a smile. "Hi there. I'm Karrie." She extended her hand as the other brushed her black bangs out of her eyes. I need a trim.

She could see black skin now, but that mattered as much to her as the green shirt. What did matter was the maneuver she completed now; a soft ping that bounced out and back from the dark-skinned newcomer - and from a couple of other nearby novas. I should have done that earlier, she lamented to herself. Primal would brain me for stupidly not checking first. 'Course, he may brain me just for being here.

Karrie pushed the thought of her animalistic associate to the back of her mind and focused on the possible new friend in front of her.

Hero retrieved two plates of BBQ, two forks, and two sodas before plopping down next to Divine. His attention was so focussed on her that he missed the show going on behind him, which was probably all for the better.
"Here you go," he said, offering Divine one of the plates. He found it hard to look at her and her clothing, or lack there off. He switched his gaze out to the sea and he had an idea.
"We could go swimming first instead," Hero blurted out. "The surf look clear and warm and there not too many people out yet and ... you would probably look great in the water."
I can't believe I just said that!
As Hero shook his head, he spied the people up the beach. His mood went from embarrassed to concerned in zero seconds flat. He had thought this was going to be a private party. He avoided the tabloid style of publicity that haunted most novas for a reason, after all.
Damn! he thought.
"We have company," he said dejectedly as the pointed a thumb up the beach toward the gathering crowd of baselines.

As Hero got her food, Divine's attention was wlsewhere. Already she was scanning the shoreline for other potential 'helpers'. It was already bad enough that she could only get a limited amount of coke for the party, she needed coddling.

Sodas! What was this guy thinking? Divine didn't break her smile one bit as she wondered why Hero didn't at least get her an alcoholic drink.

"Thank you." Divine said with a big smile, as Hero sat down next to her. Taking the food and soda from him, she continues innocently. "Didn't you say you were going to get some beer?"

After Hero's tale of Mech not being old enough, Divine realized that someone would have to procure some drink. Who better than her new found friend; Hero, to make the trip.

Divine spilled some BBQ sauce on her shoulder at Hero's comment. She did it purposefully, but wanted him to think it was an accident in response to his comment about her in the water. Sometimes you have to make them sweat. She grinned inside, as she outwardly gave him a coy smile. She turned her head and with her green eyes fixed on Hero's face, she seductively licked the BBQ sauce from her shoulder with her tongue.

"MMMmm!" Divine moaned in plesure as her tongue ran between her lips, removing all traces of the sauce. "I could really use a beer right now. I wonder if there is someone here who would like to make me happy."

Divine looked right into Hero's eyes. "After all, If I'm happy I might just show that someone how great I look in the water without any clothes on me at all."

When Hero motioned towards the Paparazzi, Divine shrugged her shoulders. "They are here for their pound of flesh..that's all. I try to avoid them."

Autumn certainly didn’t mean to turn her flying around into a game, but tagging her as she flew didn’t strike her as all that odd, stranger games have been played after all. So when Evan sped off after her she didn’t think anything of it and simply chuckled playfully and sped off around the area of the beach.

Within a few moments she didn’t even realize that Evan wasn’t after her anymore. She loved to fly and as she skimmed the water with her toes just barely breaking the surface there really seemed to her like nothing could ruin her day. The euphoria of her good time was cut short as she coasted back to Missy where Evan was still trying his best to run his game on her. She doesn’t like boys. Helllloooo. She thought as she grinned to herself.

“Hey,” she floated up and flew around the two novas like a certain fairy in a well-known Disney movie. She wasn’t sure if Missy was angry, glum, or just didn’t feel like running. “Missy, I didn’t mean to freak you out or anything. Or at least, I hope didn’t freak you out. It wasn’t my intention to spoil your fun. Honest.” Her expression went to ‘pouty’ albeit a mock pout in an obvious attempt to get Missy to giggle or smile, or anything that wasn’t so… well… shlumpy.

"She was nice," His Majesty said casually. "Can I help you make your sand palace while we talk about lost keys, God, and a notebook? It's very interesting to me."

"'The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax... Of cabbages, and kings. And why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings.'" Her tone was suddenly quite, quite serious, and a canny gleam entered her eye as she thoughtfully chewed the inside of her cheek.

"Except, you know, that we're a few oysters short," she added quietly, apparently rolling this idea about in the turbulent inner sea of her head. Wavelike patterns undulated and surged in the air around her in deep, translucent blues and greens.

A small shower of sand granules flowed from her drab khaki trousers as Motley suddenly stood and took a few steps backward, away from the half-finished structure. Her bare toes curled into the tiny particles of silica and eroded rock underfoot.

"You're right, though. We should get on with the story, or we'll never find out the ending." Her shoulders rose and fell in a sigh. "I'm sorry the pages are all out of order, but it's the best I can do on short notice."

She held out her hand to him and he froze. Was she really trying to introduce herself to him? What would she do when he shook her hand with his? Would she notice he only had three fingers, one knuckle, and two stubs on his right hand?

She was bold for a female. Where he came from, women were approached by men, not the other way around. In fact, a woman who did what she did, could be whipped for propositioning herself, whether that was her intent or not. These western women are much different from the ones back home, he though to himself, trying to be as understanding as possible.

He gingerly reached out and grabbed her hand, hoping she didn' pull away. From behind his scarf, a think African accent issued. "Me name eess Mikita, Mikita Oogala."

Karrie shook his hand and had to fight to hide her shock. Fortunately, she was pretty good at concealing her words and actions with deceit, and she did a passable job at hiding her reaction to the mangled stump resting against her coppery skin. You've seen worse when visiting some of Primal's buddies, she reminds herself. Hell, Jack's probably uglier than Darth Vader under his gear - all burned and lava-scarred.

Good god, I'm a dork.

"Mikita, it's good to meet you," Karrie declared, nodding. "So are you here for Mech or here for the novas? I know a lot of people seem to be his friend; I haven't heard a lot of them going gagga over the show." Like I did. I'm an uber-dork.

She glanced over her shoulder, sending her black braids bouncing over her shoulders and breasts. "Huh, I don't see him. Oh, well. He's probably getting more food. Say, you wanna get some food? I had a hamburger already, and it was really good. If you don't eat meat, there are some other things, like chips. Someone might have veggies or something if you're a Vegan."

This was so totally different than what he thought novas would be like. Divine was a sexual, independent creature wielding the power of her femininity like a scalpel. He had just enough sense to realize he was totally unprepared for this kind of encounter ... but he couldn't leave.

"After all, If I'm happy I might just show that someone how great I look in the water without any clothes on me at all."

If Hero had been eating, he would have choked ... and probably died happy right there on the spot. As it was, he caught himself pretty quickly.
"That's not necessary," he said softly. "I still need to pay you back for the plane ride down."
Hero stood up and looked down on Divine.
"I'll go get some beers now," and he ran off.
At the first unattached nova he came to he asked about beers and sure enough the stranger had some as well as some useful information about nova ages and the legal drinking age in Louisiana being 18. He went to the stranger's Jeep and took four out of the cooler. He put two back in the main cooler by the grill and brought the other two back to Divine. Settling back down next to her, he unscrewed the cap and handed the beer over.

"Quite alright," I replied to Motley, standing up with her. "You don't need to worry too much about keeping the pages in order." I worried a bit if I was taking on more of a task than I could handle. Translating the Hagia Sophia would be like childs' play compared to correctly interpreting her pronouncements.

"Is that Lewis Carroll she's quoting?" The Gnostic asked me, a slow realization washing over his features. "I think it is."

"Theosophy," I said. If an imaginary light bulb could have apprared over my head, it would have at just that moment. "Although Carroll was to have been an Anglican priest, he was enamored of the unorthodox ideas of FD Maurice."

"Motley could be the living embodiment of the prana," The Gnostic mused. "Wouldn't that be something?"

"If they hadn't been destroyed in the fire, I'd have half a mind to destroy my Stravinsky albums now," I added.

The Gnostic laughed with good humor.

"Motley," I asked, addressing the luminescent girl with a sudden intensity. "Tell me, are you hungry?"

"Oh, naah, it's okay," Missy explained brightly to Evan and Autumn, her voice still resonating with otherworldly eerieness. "I just hadn't expected that. I really didn't know what to expect at all. This is my first nova party. Before today I'd only met one nova in my whole life, so this is all very new to me."

Missy watched Autumn very carefully as she spoke, gauging her response. She knew that more worldy people looked down on Iowans--justly or not--as small-time hicks. She hoped that wouldn't be the case here, too. Missy wanted very much to stay on Autumn's good side, for a number of reasons. Abruptly, she realized that Evan had asked her a question.

"Oh, sorry," Missy said quickly. "In my free time, I kept busy with sports and school, mostly. Of course, now that I'm out of school and I'm a nova I've been doing the municipal defender thing for Marshalltown. It's been a lot of fun so far."

He'd drifted halfway to sleep on the sandbar. This was the life. Then a five-foot breaker roused him from his relaxing nap. It roared down on him totally drenching him and in a moment of weakness he simply reacted. He went metal and there was an explosion of water as the water and sand reacted to his dramatic increase in mass. He sank almost five meters into the sand and water. It didn't stop there. The sound of metal warping and expanding echoed through and over the water as he went fully into his most practiced alternate form.

Giant metallic wing-like thrusters sprouted from his back. Armor panels formed and seemed to slide into place. When the entire transformation was