ic Tropical Getaway (IC)

[Thevshi]

Rai Ki Wai Estate   

Wakaya Island, Fiji

Saturday, February 17, 2024, 9:00 AM local time

 

With the recent cold weather and just all the various pressures from school and other things, Lawrence Harrow had figured a change of scenery was in order, someplace warm and sunny. Which, of course made him think about a weekend trip to his parent’s estate on a private island in Fiji. Naturally, a weekend in the South Pacific would not be nearly as much fun alone, so he had invited several of his friends and other Claremont students he had gotten to know best during the first half of the year. So, plans had been made for a weekend there during the third weekend in February. And so, the group of teens had gathered in the main quad at the start of the weekend with their bags, still not entirely sure how they were going to make the trip to the South Pacific in just a weekend (never mind getting back). Once everyone had been gathered, Lawrence provided the answer, as he created a temporal portal and led everyone into it.

 

After stepping through, the blond teen found himself in the familiar setting of the large balcony next to the pool at his parents' compound. Stepping away from the portal to make room for everyone else to come through, the teen turned and looked back with a wide smile. Lawrence was dressed in a pair of board shorts and a T-shirt, with aviator sunglasses.

 

"Welcome to Fiji!" He said as everyone stepped through, and he closed the portal behind them and then gestured around them.

 

The air was already at least a warm seventy degrees and getting humid. The groups of teens were standing on a massive wooden deck, with several small tables and chairs scattered around it. Palm trees and other plants were part of the landscaping around the deck, and a long pool stretched along one side of the deck, separating it from a large, two-story building. The upper floor of the building had a covered balcony that stretched around the visible exterior. Off to one side, a smaller building was connected to the first by a covered walkway. All in all, it looked like a high-end resort.

 

The other side of the deck, opposite the pool and large building, ended at a railing, that overlooked a hillside that went down from the deck into jungle below. A little way down the hill was the ocean, clear blue waters that stretched out as far as could be seen, with several other islands visible nearby.

 

"So, this is obviously the deck and pool." Lawrence said before looking toward the house. "Ladies, as arranged, tonight you all have the main house pavilion and the two guest suite pavilions on the opposite side." He said, pointing towards the large two-story building near them. "The boys and I will crash in the three bungalows that are just a little way down that path," he said pointing off to his left while facing the main house.

 

Turning again to point to the right of the main house, toward the smaller building connected by the covered walkway. "As my parents requested, please stay out of the master bedroom pavilion. And, please try not to mess with any of the security systems, if those get set off, my mom will be here in like two seconds." The blond teen then turned and walked over towards the railing of the balcony. "Down below is a tennis court, which is lighted if anyone wants to keep playing tonight. Down the hill is a private beach, and we have windsurfers, boogie boards and surf boards and other water stuff stored down near there."

 

Turning away, he faced the group once more. "The staff should not be bothering us this weekend but have stocked up the kitchen with plenty of premade food and stuff for us to cook on the grill out here. So, we are all set."

[The Sailor]

Torpedo Lass II

Mizuki smiled, knowing she kept Lawrence's surprise with his portal a secret. She stretched out with the large backpack on her back, filled with her costume and gear for it, as well as some emergency rescue stuff in case a distress call came out in the area. As for what she was wearing though, she was wearing a sailor collared swimsuit and a deflated red snorkeling vest under the collar. Her deck shoes scuffed on the wood of the deck for a moment transitioning from the cement of a Claremont Quad to warmer conditions. She also had one of her yellow life raft container bags with her, that she used for lugging around extra stuff. "Oh other water stuff down at the beach? And here I brought extra floaties and towels and such for everyone." She said with a laugh setting the large bag down with a thud. "Even brought a raft we could chill on like a floating dock. If ya'll are interested I could set it up with an anchorage. It'll only take about 5 minutes. 20 person life raft. Surplus. Already tested it out and it works just fine."

She adjusted the white baseball cap she was wearing on her head. She was indeed filling the role as a old sea salt... then again she was sort of hoping of spending time on a boat... but this was acceptable too. "Never seen Fiji... closest I ever got was Pearl..."

Edited January 27 by The Sailor

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

"Wheee.... Pool!"

 

Baz had been wide eyed in the journey. He spent his entire life in the Americas, and now he was in Fiji. 

 

His jaw was dropping so far below his head he couldn't engage in his normal blurted gabble. But a pool?

 

A pool was fun!

 

He discarded his cheap sunglasses (which he needed, due to his rather light sensitive eyes), and, dressed in swimming trunks only, took a mighty cockroach leap into the pool. 

 

SPLASH!

 

Baz flailed around in the pool, somewhat stunned by his bellyflop. He could swim, he could hold his breath. But he swam like a brick that had taken a post graduate course in brickness. 

 

"Help! Help!" he coughed, splashing about in the surface. 

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

Stepping through the portal, Parker stares wide eyed around, before focusing on Lawrence. "The last time you asked me to step through one of these it went to Midtown. When did you get this good at it?" 

 

Lawrence had said it would be hot, but even then, Parker is still wearing his jeans and a jacket over his t-shirt, though he is already pulling off the jacket.

 

Fiji. He's been here before, but not here. Even for what Parker is used to from his parents, this is really nice. 

 

He is about respond to Mizuki when Baz goes running off and then dives into the pool... and is promptly reminded that he can't swim.

 

Parker is gone in a moment, disappeared to above the pool and holding his hand out. "I got you!" he shouts to Baz, and he shifts the distance between Baz and the bottom of the pool, pushing him up and out of the water. Then, the distance between Baz and the pool deck, decreasing it, bringing his friend down, before quickly checking on him.

 

Not that he would even know how to start checking Baz's vitals...

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

Lawrence turned to Mizuki with a grin as she mentioned an inflatable raft to set up as a floating dock. "That sounds great Mizuki, thought shouldn’t be too much trouble to anchor, there is a reef about fifty meters out and it is fairly shallow between there and the shore, the deepest being fifteen to twenty feet deep. If you wanted to go put bags in the house, I can show you the way down."

The blond teen looked over to Parker as the other teen asked about the improved range of his portal. "Just practice increasing the range. Last weekend I used one to go back to my father's family home in England and have tea with my grandmother." Lawrence replied, before Parker was distracted by Baz's antics in the pool.

[The Sailor]

Torpedo Lass II

 

Mizuki facepalmed. "Baz... that's it... you're getting swimming lessons once we get back home."

 

"First rule while we're here... if baz is within 5 feet of any body of water here outside of a shower or bathtub, he wears a life vest." She says, kneeling down next to Baz and Parker. "I know some good first response stuff... mom made sure of it if I ever went with her on one of her oceanographic research trips. Thing is I've never tried to help a human/bug hybrid."

 

"I think he should still have arteries going up the neck like we do."

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

Bazz coughed up water. 

 

"What? What-pff like I need swimming lessons. Did you see that leap? It was awesome!"

 

He coughed up some more water. Not just from his mouth. 

 

"Besides, one my many amazing cockroach powers is holding my breath! I was in no danger at all, if I remembered to hold my breath. And if I totally wasnt drowning and panicking, even if I looked like it, because that would be uncool. And we all know I am cool, right?"

 

His antenna trembled and he scuttled his gaze left and right. 

 

"And well done Parker, you passed my amazing pool lifeguard test that I had totally prepared for you in order to make you look cool in front of all the chicks, right?"

[Poncho]

Michael had not been wearing a swimsuit to prepare for this trip. It was still cold! He's not immune to being cold! He was wearing a very sensible jacket, slacks, and pull over. He was also carrying both his and Carmen's bags, because this was the coming out party of Claremont's newest couple after a very exciting Wednesday earlier in the week.

 

The first weekend after agreeing to be a couple, and it was a 'high-stakes' vacation to Fiji with a bunch of classmates, including some upperclassmen and the rest of the Study Group. Michael hadn't even told his parents or brothers he had a girlfriend yet and here he was announcing it directly to everyone here by showing up carrying Carmen's bags and holding her hand.

 

He very politely walked hand in hand with her through the portal and was rewarded for his sensible clothing in the winter by walking into the warm Fiji air and decided in that moment that whenever he hung out with Lawrence, he was going to always be prepared for any condition from now on. Dang Speedster/Teleporters. At which point he realized that he wasn't really sure how far Lawrence's powers reached. And then he watched Baz jump into the pool and start to drown before Parker pulled him out. Another guy with some way way impressive powers. And all he had was his charming good looks. Well, whatever. He was on vacation, so he was not going to be spending the entire vacation running his brain at full speed and agonizing over minutia. In fact he intentionally suppressed that in that moment, sending that excess energy elsewhere and just thinking like a normal person.

 

"...So, what do you want to do first? It seems like Baz isn't dying." He asked Carmen.

[MoonSimply]

Carmen was the opposite of Micheal in being hot, feeling right at home in the tropical island sun. Sure, she was some cat creature, but she was one from Puerto Rico, used to the island and its climate, even if this island was a world away from her homeland. Lawrence's portals had not been the first one that she had gone through, still feeling rather strange after going through one as her heightened senses had to quickly adapt to her new environment. Carrying the few bags that Michael wasn't carrying for her, it would soon subside as she got her bearings again, stepping on the wooden deck and feeling it underneath her feet. 

 

She wore no shoes, bare foot already and dressed rather simply with faded and worn jeans, alongside a shirt with the commonwealth flag of Puerto Rico on it. Underneath, she had her bathing suit on, saving it for Michael to see first, smiling happily. It wasn't typical for her to look like this, usually looking rather dour and our neutral, like she didn't belong. Now it was the opposite, happy and content, if not excited, "You wanna get something to eat, we can go to the pool afterwards?"

 

Both Michael and Carmen had only been together since Valentine's Day having barely been able to do any couple related things together outside of seeing a late screened movie that same day. So likely to many around them, the seeming pairing could be rather out of the blue and strange knowing how Carmen was. Had she been replaced by some alien?

[Poncho]

Michael liked her being happy. He generally enjoyed when people were happy around him, and the fact he was, even slightly, the cause for Carmen to be happy and cheerful instead of dour and withdrawn. It's entirely possibly there were other reasons, but if he was a part of it, he was glad about that.

 

The heat, however, was a bit much for winter clothing, so he actually had to stop for a moment and pull off his jacket and shirt and stuff them into his bag. He could change to a swimsuit later, but he was gonna be shirtless then too, and this at least got the heat off him for a bit. Since his supersuit was a full body affair, it was the first time he had aired out the body made by relentless sports practices that had continued even when he had to leave all his teams to join Claremont.

 

"Food sounds good. But any grilling should be done tonight, and maybe by someone who is better at it than me." He said as they wandered away. "We'll have to put the bags away at some point too, Lawrence was nice enough to put all the boys so far away, it seems. I may have to sprint all the way down and back. But it'll give me time to change." He was actually talking slower than usual now; something Carmen could easily pick up. For someone who always was running around at 120%, he had ratcheted himself way down to actually relaxing for once, instead of being wound up tighter than a spring. When they got to the kitchen, he grabbed sodas and sandwiches for them both.

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

Rot wasn't immune to cold. But she did have a tendency to disintegrate herself out of her parka by late afternoon. So she kinda just got used to being cold. Like now, shivering in a two-piece version of her disintegration-proof super suit in the New Jersey winter, clutching her duffle bag suspended from a smoking chain.

 

Her attitude improved markedly as she stepped through the portal into the tropical warmth. "Bula! That's how you say hello in Fiji, according to Google. You know what, Lawrence, of all the random teleportations you get me into, this is by far the best. Ooh, ooh, let's go snorkeling! Right after someone, like, teaches me how to swim . . . "

 

Consuelo watched as her insectoid friend Balthazar managed to not quite down himself in the pool. "But maybe, uh, not Baz .. . ."

Edited January 29 by Huckleberry
Without the "a" at the end, parka is just park

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

Lawrence gave Consuelo a small smile as she commented about how this was the best place so far that she had gotten teleported to by being around him. He of course did not mention that this had not been a random teleportation, feeling it was best to just accept the compliment. "Your welcome Conseulo, though, it is still early in the morning, going to get even warmer before the end of the day." He replied with a smile. "And we do have plenty of snorkeling gear which we can get out and down at the beach."

Glancing around to see others staring to settle in (and noting Michael and Carmen walking hand in hand into the main building towards the kitchen), the blond teen disappeared in the temporal distortion that indicated he was using his powers. A few moments latter reappeared again, this time without his bag (presumably dropped off at the bungalows he had mentioned).

 

Looking at Mizuki once she had gotten back up from checking Baz, he gave her a smile. "Did you want to drop anything off in the main house before we head down to the beach to start setting things up?"

[RocketLord]

Spaceman

 

"Yeah, sure. You're incredibly cool. That's obviously why you did that, Baz," Parker says, as he stands up now that it's clear that Baz is alright, and offers his friend a hand. "But really, man, let me know ahead of time when you need me to pull you out of the water, alright?"

 

With Baz fine, he takes a step to the side and reappears next to Lawrence and Mizuki, where he had dropped off his bags before rushing to get Baz out of the water. Michael, Carmen and Consuelo are there now. "Mizuki, I'll be happy to drag Baz along if you're serious about that swim class."

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

Baz coughed up the last of the pool water from what was, loosely speaking, his lungs. 

 

"Right, snorkelling next! Thats the one when you have a tube in your mouth and go diving, right?" he asked, mimicing holding a tube as if a dog was holding a bone; quite the wrong way. 

 

"As for swimming, who needs to swim when you can dive as awesome as me, right?" he added, doing a 720 flip in the air. There was some merit in what he said; on land was about as agile as they came. 

 

"And what's for dinner? My internal nuclear fires don't run on water, you know!"

 

He paused. 

 

"Or wait... maybe they do? But I am hungry all the same!"

[The Sailor]

Torpedo Lass

 

Mizuki rummaged through her bag as Baz talked. Gave her some inspiration.

 

13 minutes ago, Supercape said:

"Right, snorkelling next! Thats the one when you have a tube in your mouth and go diving, right?"

 

"Snorkeling is pretty much staying on the surface and looking down. Checking out the scenery below." She said, before tossing Baz a spare snorkeling vest. it was a bright fluorescent yellow color, practically a neon green, quite visible. "That should fit you easily. I always carry a backup of any personal kit... Just blow it up and you'll float like a cork, but you can look down at everything. You can let the air out pushing down on the mouthpiece on the mouth inflation tube. Although I'd wager you'd wanna do that on shore."

 

"As for swimming lessons we can do that back home. Wanna make sure I got a controlled environment. That and the Doom Room can simulate any environment at sea, too. Safely. Perhaps others can join in if they wanna see how bad it can get out there... You will NOT like being on a freighter when a rogue wave comes outta nowhere."

 

She smiled before turning to everyone. "So... should I start setting up my... or I should say OUR little island?"

Edited January 29 by The Sailor

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

"Oh, okay . . . " Consuelo seems pretty bummed that she isn't going to learn to swim today. But then she perks up. "Well, I guess I can pretty much just fly through the water anyway. I might come down to the beach in a little bit, but first, I'm just gonna, like, enjoy being actually warm for a minute. The sun feels so good!" Consuelo stretches her arms out to maximize her exposure and turns her face up, closing her eyes. "Yeah, that's the thing. Someone remind me why we live in New Jersey again? I can't seem to figure it out, like, just at this moment."

 

She spins in a slow circle and lets out a sigh. "Yeah, you guys go ahead. I think I'm gonna chill with Bernie up here by the house for a little while."

[The Sailor]

Torpedo Lass

 

Consuelo was acting slightly odd, but then it dawned on her... "Actually before we start breaking up... how many of us are non swimmers? Might... be important to know. Worse comes to worse I could do a few lessons here... simple basics. The beach has a lot of shallow water to work with. With such a large group we can pretty much spot for each other while I show a few things that might help. Never know if being confident in the water will become an important asset."

 

She knew people might be a bit reluctant to admit. "Besides... worse comes to worse it'd be an excuse to enjoy the beach for a couple of hours before we start queuing up the grill production."

 

She smiled. "Any takers?"

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra "Carmen"

Carmen would follow Michael to the kitchen, both of them still carrying their bags for the weekend. It was fortunate for Michael that she relatively packed light save for one that he was carrying that carried the bulk of her clothing. All she had was a small bag of what personal beauty products and clothes she carried and books for homework purposes. Of course, them both being super powered with beyond normal human strength meant that such wasn't really a problem for both of them. 

 

Sodas and sandwiches weren't what she expected to eat on a tropical private island, but she wasn't complaining. Food was food, and these sandwiches even pre-prepared were good, very good. And so, Carmen enjoyed her lunch with her boyfriend for the first time between the both of them, "Once were done, I'm gonna explore around the island a bit, have a little hike. Should be nice. You don't have to come," she says after finishing her soda. Some sort of weird apple flavored one with a funny name, "I can meet up with you later if you'd like. Go for a swim?"

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

Lawrence grinned as Baz was soon back on his feet and up to his normal antics. As was typically the case, Baz was quick to recover from any setback and just as exuberant and overeager. "Well, learning to swim probably would not be a bad idea Baz." He said as Mzuki began trying to get a gauge on who might have problems with swimming.

"I am going to head down to the beach and start getting things out, or we are never going to get set up." The blond teen told her with a small grin, before starting off toward one end of the deck, and the stairs that led down to the hillside below and the path which would lead down to the beach. So far everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, which was exactly what Larwrence had hoped for.

[Kaede Kimura]

Blue Bolt 

 

Vueriz had been tricked, lied to, led astray. Bamboozled even. She was sure her evil classmates were plotting her death. And maybe her Universal Translator was in on it too. 

 

She refused to admit that she had failed to put context clues together.

 

'Oh, this weather is miserable.' They said, she agreed. 

'I know let's go to Fiji! It's much nicer there! The climate is balmy and there's not a cloudin the sky. ' They said, she thought that nice clear weather sounded great, with a nice temperate climate. 

'Where is Fiji? It's south in the Peaceful Ocean.' That sounded great, maybe it was near that continent she had heard about 'Opposite to the Bear', where the temperature was a nice -34°C, rather than the rather warm single digits that Freedom had been getting.

 

How wrong she was. 

 

She realized her mistake when she stepped through the portal and felt the heat despite her crop top and shorts. It struck like a sledgehammer to the skull, a few tears leaking from her eyes from the shock, where the Hydrogen Fluoride quickly evaporated.

 

Quickly she directed her sky board over her head to shield her from the sun, also running over to the water, although instead of jumping in she hesitated, having seen Baz' reaction. Was this too a trap? A hellishly hot bath in which she would melt away to nothing? Swallowing her pride, she went to the host. "Is there a cold storage? With ice?" She asked Lawrence, dejectedly (not pathetically thank you) cowering beneath her flying machine. "Lots of ice?"

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

"Really?" Consuelo responded to Mizuki's offer of swimming lessons. "That would be totally cool! Just give me like, twenty minutes to bask in the sun up here and warm up first. Oh hey, Vueriz - glad you could make it! Isn't this great? Is sun bathing popular on Planet Zir . . . uh, Zirconium?"

[Poncho]

12 hours ago, MoonSimply said:

La Puma Negra "Carmen"

 

"Sure. I'm not much of a camper or climber, so please, enjoy it to your heart's content without me slowing you down." He smiled. "Maybe in the spring it warms up back in Freedom we can go out to Wharton and camp for a few days. Just us and the woods, and you teaching me how to be a real explorer." He took his own soda and looked at the bags.

 

"I'll zip mine out to the bungalow and put yours up here, and then probably go flying for awhile around the island, or stick around near the pool. you're ready to go swim, come get me and we can go to the beach or stay at the pool." Then he leaned down and kissed her cheek.

 

"See you later~. Be careful." Then he sped off.

[Thevshi]

Timeout

 

Lawrence had not gotten very far when Vueriz had come up to him to ask about cold storage. The blond teen stopped and looked down at the small alien as he listened to her. "Cold storage? Yeah, there are refrigerators in the kitchen and a walk-in freezer that is part of the pantry in the main house. I can show you where they are." He said as he turned around and started back towards the house.

"Are you okay Vueriz?" He asked, concern evident in his voice as Consuelo came over to ask the other girl if sunbathing was common on her world.

[The Sailor]

4 hours ago, Huckleberry said:

"Really?" Consuelo responded to Mizuki's offer of swimming lessons. "That would be totally cool! Just give me like, twenty minutes to bask in the sun up here and warm up first.

 

Mizuki smiled. "Alright, I'm heading down to the beach to set up stuff. Shouldn't take long, the stuff I got either inflates on it's own or takes 15-20 seconds with my battery powered pump. Also got some solar panels if people wanna charge up their phones or whatever." She said, tossing one of them on a table nearby. "I'll have a couple others set up. Can't miss 'em. I'll be setting up, meet down at the beach in..." She looked at her watch... "...an hour. I'll give some pointers."

Mizuki crouches down after adjusting all of her bags, puffing up her snorkeling vest in case she misses her mark. Luckily with all her bags being waterproof they're also airtight. So she won't sink... not that things matter for someone who only breathes as a social construct. "Off I go!" She leaps, landing on the beach cleanly. After setting her bags down she grabs the raft and starts swimming out with what looks like some rope and a heavy weight. She lets go of the raft and deflates her vest enough to be pulled down by the weight and sets it down, holding on to it tying one end of that rope to it, then swims up, her vest now able to send her to the surface. Spitting out some salt water she pulls on the string on her raft and it explodes into shape in a minute's time, a bright yellow, lots of stenciling of where the rope ladders were for boarding. Definitely looked military surplus. She tied the other end of the anchor rope to the raft and swam back to shore where her bags were. "That should keep it in place."

She put her hands on her hips. "So glad I got some prior warning about this trip... gave me a ton of prep time."

[Supercape]

Gamma Buzz

 

"Ahoy they, partner! I'll lend a hand!"

 

A three fingered, half cockroach hand to be precise. 

 

With a leap, a bound, a hop and a sprint, Baz followed Mizuki. "Let me know what kind of moral support you would like! I can emit harmless non-lethal radiation at will! Bzzzt! Pow! Zap!"

 

He fired a few radiation beams from his eyes (into the sky) to illustrate the point. And to release some pressure. The nuclear fires in his thorax were building up. Maybe the excitement, the adrenaline had accelerated the nuclear reaction within. Whatever the case, he had to release the energy, or something rather unpleasant would happen. Not all radiation was harmless and non lethal. 

 

"See! And I can almost swim, too, if that helps! At least, I am very good at leaping into the water, and thats the important part, right?"

Edited February 1 by Supercape