The aroma of heated charcoal fills the air. Soon the sound and smells of grilling meat will join it. Next to the grill is one cooler filled with the raw protein while off to the side are several tables spread out with condiments, plates, plasticware, and buns. A little closer to the pool but still not right next to it are set the chairs where people can sunbathe if they so wish. Even though a person can still see and hear what's going on over in the pool area, there is enough distance to allow at least some privacy for conversations.

"Hey beautiful. Decided to catch a few rays?" Luke asked with a grin as he walked over and gave Raina a quick kiss before settling down in the chair right next to her. "It's good to see some of the busy ones finally taking a break." He observed as he glanced over at where some of the others had gathered near the pool, "Streak's been busy with who knows what and Ghost has been so wrapped up in her new business. If she doesn't learn to relax more she's gonna overload before she's thirty."

Scanning the area, Luke waved to another young woman who was already sprawled out sunning. He didn't remember seeing her before so that meant an introduction was in order.

"Hi. I'm Luke and this is Raina. Are you new here?" He asked with as friendly a smile.

Mettaliar had been playing Sublime for a while and needed some other tunes to play. Earlier, he had overheard some people talking about his playing, which made him nervous. He had always been shy of his playing, always assuming that it was under par at all times even if those around him would compliment him. His theory was that if he continually put himself down he would be forced to strive to be better. The majority of his skill came mostly off of hours of practice due to disappointment with his playing. These practices would often lead to very painful and sometimes bloody fingers. He didn't mind. Bloody fingers healed, scars formed, everything would return to normal. In time, he knew he was improving yet he just refused to believe he was. Maybe he was a great guitarist. Who knows. Anyone but him, that's for sure.

It was suddenly he heard the familiar words to a song he heard a while ago. He processed the words in his head until he came up with a band he knew quite well. Journey. The band was legendary in Mettaliars mind and he knew a few of there songs, including the one the man was singing, "Anyway You Want It." As soon as the guitar part of the song came in, he played the guitar interlude as if they were performing together. He played the next palm muted chords that followed and nodded his head along to the beat of the song. It was quite an enjoyable song, and deffinatly a kind of song he wanted to have performed instead of strictly Sublime the whole time, as fitting as it was.

He looked up at who had been singing the song, and he could see that was the cook. He had seen the man around a few times, yet did not really know his name. The name Sam was thrown at him, yet that surely wasn't his mutant name. He apparently knew a lot of people though, and maybe could know enough to help him with something. He decided to keep playing for a while and wait for him to finish cooking to approach him. He wouldn't want to bother the man cooking his food after all.

The twitch of the spatula and the quick hiss of a burger on the grill added to the sound of Sam singing and now the sound of a guitar adding to the Journey’s greatness. Sam let out an appreciative nod and a grin as he flipped a burger. As he came to an end of the song well the part where he forgot the ending lyrics Sam was cut off as his face was drawn into Arielle’s for a kiss. All Sam could do is blink for Arielle’s lips were already on his before he could say or do anything. He blinked and looked down at her and then looked around then said, “What?”

Another blink a shake of the head and Sam was looking down to the foods on the grill. Sam’s face lit up in a smile as he spotted Ghost in a bikini talking to the man who introduced himself as Alec. Sam didn’t get a good read on him, which was unfortunate for it seemed he had caught Ghost’s attention something he was going to have to tease her about some other time. Back to the important matter Sam continued to flip the burgers and roll the dogs till the first batch was near ready.

Looking up Sam grinned to see Marley’s large frame in a swimsuit. The massive giant was already intimidating to some in normal clothes now that the behemoth was in a swim suit Sam didn’t want people to cause a mass panic so with large hand wave Sam called out to Marley, “Hey big guy! Good to see you!” turning his attention to the kid who played along with Sam’s singing, “How about a hand?”

Pointing to the buns off to his side Sam smiled and added, “I offer to grill but no one offers to help with the buns.” With a laugh Sam smiled to the guitarist and said, “My names Sam,” he set down the spatula in his left hand as he extended his right into the direction of the kid and continued, “Haven’t seen you around here before are you new to the mansion? Today is a great way to meet some new people.” With his left hand Sam flipped another burger and made his way to the cheese for the burgers.

Mettaliar continued playing guitar even though the singer of the song was too busy with other things to keep singing, also seemingly not remembering the ending words to the song as well. One glance over to the cook let him see that he was busy with other things... such as girls in bikinis. He smiled lightly continuing to play the song through and letting the cook continue on with his business of cooking and seeing women in bathing suits kiss and talk to him. Mettaliar chuckled lightly at how the cook acted through all of this, being bombarded with people introducing him to others and seeing some of the girls' bathing suits. At least he kept a friendly attitude, yelling at one of the guys who seemed quite large greeting him. Seems like a nice enough guy. Would be nice to talk to him.

Suddenly he heard the cooks voice being projected in his direction. He looked over as the man asked if he could help set up the buns for the dogs and burgers. Always obliged to help, Mettaliar nodded his head and put his guitar down by the chair and got up. Walking over he chuckled lightly at his remark about no one helping him with the buns. He nodded his head in a agreement; it always seemed to be that everyone wanted to be cook or not work by the grill at all. He noticed the man, who introduced himself as Sam, extend his hand towards him. Instinctively Mettaliar reached his hand out and shook his before going back to preparing the buns. He listened to Sam a bit more before answering back.

"The names Mark, but people know me better as Mettaliar." He looked down getting everything ready so Sam could quickly move the red meat and hot dogs to their desired plates where they could be enjoyed. Mettaliar blushed when Sam asked if he was new. Far from it. "No, I'm not new. I actually came here about... maybe two, two-and-a-half years ago?" Mettaliar stopped and thought about it. Had he seriously been there for that long? It seemed like a lot shorter than that. Then again, of the two and a half years, how long had he actually STAYED at the mansion. That was a complete guess to him. "Yeah, I've just been gone for a while. Been just walking around." Mettaliar knew he sounded REALLY weird at that point, yet he couldn't really go into detail about what he was actually doing. He decided to go off topic and try to change the subject. "Yeah, so what about you? How long have you been here?"

New faces seemed to appear every minute and keeping track of all the people there became more and more difficult. As Fade introduced herself as being one of the old X-Men and a new guy walked in and claimed that his name was Alec, Alexandra watched with the corner of her eye the dessert table where a strange shadow appeared and disappeared, each time bits of the desserts she had brought vanishing. Turning her attention to the people she was being with, she waited for a pause in the chatting then coughed to get the attention on her for a few seconds. “For those who don’t know me, I’m Alex, nice to meet you all.” her eyes moved from Fade to Alec and Deathstar then to the people she already was familiar with. “And now excuse me for a bit, I think someone is stealing desserts.” she added as she took a slight jokingly bow then skipped to the dessert table which was her responsibility.

A few moments later the thief was caught and identified under the persona of 5 years old shadow teleporter Shawna Crown who had been challenged by her friends to come and retrieve from the pool party some of the contents of the desserts table. The other kids were caught red handed somewhere on the other side of the mansion while eating too and minutes later Alexandra ended her scolding with a stern look on her face and a ‘You could have asked nicely.’ . Gaining a promise that it won’t happen again and letting them keep the bits that Shawna had retrieved, the molecule manipulator sighed and dismissed them then walked back to the pool area.

The familiar figure of a spotted red head girl appeared in her view and Alexandra waved a hello. “Hey Kasumi, looking good.” she said with a smile and winked at the girl as she walked by. The smiled widened once more as she saw the cat lady Sara from the Full Circle, whose tail she had saved, dressed in a deep red swim suit. “Hey Sara, no tail problems today, hopefully.” she teased.

Her eyes scanned the crowd searching for new additions to the pool party, moving from a person to another and lingering a bit on –cough-Sam-cough- the hot dogs. Frowning at herself Alexandra took off the cover up and finally revealed her swim suit. Grabbing her bag she retrieved her towel and tan oil then dropped it next to the chair and seated her self in it.

As she was oiling herself and watching the skin glistening in the sun light, the scene that unfolded itself after the arrival of the one that proclaimed herself ‘the water queen’ grabbed her attention. The impulse to get up from the chair and pull Sam from the claws, errr-nails of the woman was strong and hard to resist but the molecule manipulator managed to do it. She frowned at herself again, what was wrong with her and dropped the sunglasses on her nose with a huff. She couldn’t help herself to cheat and look again, this time disguised by the glasses and of course she forced herself not to admit that she suddenly felt calmer when the scene between Sam and the ‘water queen’ repeated, this time with Streaky-boo. Much happier, Alexandra continued to put tanning oil on her body.

Alec decided to give himself another mental smack for thinking earlier of not coming at the pool party. Although wandering around the mansion was a great way to meet people, a party, and especially a pool party was by far the best. Smiling again at Fade, his eyes turned back to the others, and nodded at Sam’s comment about not being able to shake hands. “Nice meeting you.” he said then turning looked around to the others. “And everyone else, of course.” For the following moments he fell silent, just analyzing before engaging a discussion with any of them.

As the girl that introduced herself as Alexandra left to catch the desserts thieves, he grinned and let out a small laugh. “Go get them tiger.” he said in a jokingly tone then turned his attention back to the discussion. But being in a house full of mutants he couldn’t keep himself focused for too long. The appearance of the cat female clad in a swim suit made his eyebrow to raise and just as he was thinking ‘Cats can swim?’ Sam spoke the words out loud. Well, they probably knew each other because he wasn’t sure how the cat lady would take the comment coming from a stranger. Instead he smiled and scanned the appearance of a new man. Just as he was trying to get his mind back on the talking, the appearance of yet another young lady who proclaimed herself as being the water queen not long after arriving. Yep, pool parties.

A female voice interrupted his glance at the girl and Alec turned around and quickly gave a scan to the girl. Final conclusion: that woman looked as if she had walked from a movie, complete with a large straw hat and large lensed sunglasses. “Hi. Yeah, I’m Alec.” he said his lips taking the shape of a smile as his eyes gave a quick scan to the girls behind Ghost. Somehow, he got this slight impression that this girl wasn’t here because of her own will. More like paying back a favor to the teens that soon enough he found out they were named Madison, Oliva and Chloe. Followed by an invitation to see a movie in the girl’s hall someday. Although he did feel the need to let out a laugh at this situation, not one that happened everyday, he might added, he kept his face composed and waved back to them. “Nice to meet you all. And yeah, of course I’ll see a movie with you.” He gave one of his charming smiles to the three girls, Alec trademark all on it. The movie day probably won’t happen seeing that the girls were still hiding behind Ghost. But if they did decide to actually talk with him, Alec wouldn’t have refused seeing a movie; he was the kind of guy that did everything possible to be friends with anyone around the mansion.

The charming smile had its effects on the three females as he gained a ‘really cute’ title before they vanished away. Alec watched the three teleport/skitter away and he turned to the Ghost with pink cheeks and grinned and leaned forward. “I do wonder what kind of favor they did for you.” he whispered then returned to his previous position, the grin turning into a smile.

Dominic had never really been a big fan of large social gatherings and even as a young child being forced to attend birthday parties, he would more often that not stray away from the group and choose to be alone. He just never really felt comfortable in big crowds, but he figured that since he lived at the mansion now, it was important to be more open and sociable and what other way to do so than at a pool party. Woot.

The blonde walked on down from his room, out the mansion and over to where the party was being held. He sported sea turtle patterned blue swim trunks, matching awesomely with his blue eyes, a white tank top, white and blue flip flops and a pair of white sunglasses. He had to have the sunglasses. I mean, by default, he was already chick magnet because he was a Johnson, but the glasses added an extra bad ass cool factor....as long as the didn't mind the turtle print swim trunks. Then again there was no need for anyone to be hatin' on his trunks in the first place. Dominic could smell the the aroma of the burgers sizzling on the grill and he more than ready to sink his teeth into one. That was until he noticed who was doing the cooking.

"Damn it..." he sighed knowing full well Sam wouldn't let him sneak one before everyone else. Even if they weren't done all the way, it really didn't bother Dominic. After all, this was the kid who on a daily basis had cravings for raw meat, tuna, acorns, flies....ect. Getting on his hands and feet, the 16 year old prowled through the people stealthily like a cat, ignoring any bizarre stares he would gather from others. He stayed low hiding on the other side of the grill to keep out of view of Sam who was busy kissing up on a hot brazilian chick and then talking to some guy with a guitar. Brother distracted, it was his chance to snag his meal. It was a bit of a trait for a Johnson to more often than not unintentionally make a fool of himself, often at the expense of his own pride and well this would be one of those moments. The blond boy shot his hand up in haste to grab a burger. Oh yes he got his precious burger...and a nice burn on his hand to go along with it.

It was a reaction and little Dominic Johnson jumped up holding his hand in excruciating pain with the other, all the while dropping lovely commentary to go along with his pain. Mostly screams and dropping the F bomb, a few S bombs and screaming the lord's name in vain, you know...the words that usually get people's attention when you shout them at the top of your lungs. It was a nice entrance indeed.

Arielle smiled as Shawn had returned a kiss to her cheek and laughed as Sam blinked at her, clearly taken off guard by their kiss. She really did loved her boys and always found it fun to mess with them. "Hey Mar Mar!" she waved to Marley after he addressed her. "Lookin good. I love those trunks," she added with a wink. It seemed that all of her friends were attending this little shindig, and a lot of new faces too. It was time she went to go and mingle a bit. Though before she left, she was caught off guard by the yelling of profanity coming from the person behind the grill.

"Well...I think besides looks, I can start to see similarities between you and your brother. Both of you sometimes lack common sense and have an awful habit of making asses of yourselves..." Arielle sighed while shaking her head at Dominic. "Anybody here got any healing abilities?"

Well apparently it was a surprising thing to see a cat woman in a swim suit. Sara fought the blush she felt forming on her nose as she looked around. Maybe it would have been better to just attend this little party in her usual cloths. Long pants, and some sort of old comfy top Sara thought as Sam spotted her, along with who knows how many other faces. At the whistle he let out, Sara instantly lost that battle with her nose, and the fleshy area darkened into a blush.

“So cats can swim? Guess I have to see if you’re as fast as in the water!”

“Yeah. Cat’s can swim but this one isn’t planning on it for today.” Sara said trying to smile and shake off the thought of the not so attractive wet look. Sara’s sight shifted and there was Shawn apparently being entertained by her as well. “You know you people would be just as amused with me if I had arrived in normal cloths.”

"Sara... you're looking sleek as always."

Now there was the voice of someone who knew how to give a compliment… even if he couldn’t really see her. Sara felt Luke’s sonar sweep over her and her ears flicked back for the brief moment. “Thank you, Luke. See that’s the way you greet a lady in a swim suit.” Sara stuck her textured tongue out and Sam and Shawn.

"Watch yourself guys. She is a friend after all."

Sara smiled and her attention turned to another familiar face. Her friend from the book store opening.

“Hey Sara, no tail problems today, hopefully.”

“The day is still young.” Sara said with a shrug. “At least I don’t plan on finding trouble today, but when does one ever plan on finding trouble.”

The grill was starting to make Sara’s mouth water, and despite the smell of the food, she resisted the urge to just grab a burger when it was cooked rarely. However a familiar figure making his way to the grill on all fours didn’t seem to be having any luck in the ignoring cravings department. Sara could have just reached out and stopped him from grabbing the meat, but the fact was she didn’t think someone without a healing ability was going to be so stupid. Turned out Sara was wrong in that department as he started cussing and yelling and holding his hand.

“Speaking of trouble.” Sara sighed. “Dominic seems to get into as much as I do.” Sara stepped over and reached out to grab his hand so she could look at it herself. “I heal but unfortunately the ability only works on myself. If someone has a bottle of aloevera, for sun burns, that will help.”

“I do wonder what kind of favor they did for you.”

Ghost pushed up her large lensed glasses to make sure her eyes were hidden from Alec's observation. She'd been found out. "They cut up my old swimsuit." Her tone held every ounce of seriousness. A simple matter of fact because if she'd had a choice... the scuba suit would have been it.

Well, Alec seemed nice enough. After the girls were gone Ghost relaxed a little, but not much. She was still showing undoubtedly the whitest belly on the East coast. "You know you don't have to do that. I think just talking to you will have them happy for weeks." Ghost put her hand to the back of her hat to keep it firmly on her head as she looked up at Alec. There weren't too many men she had to look up to with her height. "But it was nice of you to accept anyway. And.. really nice to meet you too."

A certain Marley had caught Ghost's eye and one of her more devious schemes started hatching. "I'll see you around, nice to meet you... uhm.. again." Hadn't she already said that? Oh but she felt guilty for bailing on him. Ghost waved and trotted over to where Marley and Sam were. "Hey Marley!" She wiggled her fingers and chewed her lowere lip as she tried to think of a good way to phrase things. "Nobody's in the pool yet, and you're a big strong guy..."

Yeah... there was no good way to suggest this. "I think you should toss someone in the pool! Maybe Raina... or Arielle... well, I can leave the victim up to you, but the point is -- we should get the party started! No one's gonna actually swim without someone going into eh pool first, right?" Of course she was right. Ghost nodded smartly to herself, winked at CS and trotted off on her merry way to the pool area.

((OOC: Switching to the other thread now! <3 <3 <3))

One thing Sam loved about the single slices of cheese was the lack of the over used joke ‘Who cut the cheese’ or any variation of it. Even with a secluded child life like his had heard the joke so many times he couldn’t count it. Placing the singles on the burgers only after removing them from the plastic wrapper Sam rotated the last of the hotdogs and continued to listen to Mark. “Long time to walk Mark, been here almost a year now, they got me on so many odd jobs here it keeps me from wondering myself though.” Thinking of the first time he walked upon the gates of the mansion Sam became lost in thought only to be reminded that it was the past by the smell of burning flesh.

Not entirely surprised that his brother burned himself in the process Sam sighed and aimed his hand towards his brothers general direction and said, “Keep your hand on it till the burning subsides, don’t, put it in the water it is a bad idea…” Looking back to Mark Sam sighed again and handed off the first few burgers, “The curse of the younger brother.” He said it but he didn’t feel that Dom was anything like a curse. Sure, Dom could be nothing but trouble but he was still Sam’s flesh and blood and Sam enjoyed having him around, he at least knew he wasn’t alone anymore.

As Sam continued to hand off dogs and burgers to Mark something caught his eye. It was subtle at first but now that he thought of it more the more he wanted to turn his head fast enough to give him self-whiplash. Trying his hardest not to turn his head he looked through the corner of his eye and smirked slightly as he spotted Alex in her swimsuit. Feeling the blood rush to his face Sam sighed slightly trying to cover up his face turning read and said, “Think there is such thing as to much grilling think after this batch is over I’m going for a swim…”

After the grill was clear Sam looked at the pile of dogs and burgers with a satisfied grin on his face, “Order UP!” Sam yelled though out the party signaling that the food was ready to be consumed. Puffing out his chest slightly showing off his apron slightly he patted Mark on the back and said in mock old school voice, “You’ve done god kid real good, but as long as I’m around you’ll only be second best see?”

An opened book was laying in her hands. Its title was ‘Angels and Demons’ and it was a book of one of her favorite authors, Dan Brown. The book was new, as the molecule manipulator hadn’t had the chance to read it ever since she had bought it from Ghost’s bookstore. Or better-said, re-read it. Although for others who were looking she seemed to be caught in the text, Alexandra was actually using the book as an excuse to pay attention to her surroundings without being noticed. Her leg bent a bit as she turned the page and her head turned from the reading position to a straight one.

Nothing major had happened while she was sunbathing and pretending to read, just the usual chitty-chat and laughter all around. Just as she was preparing to return to her reading stance, a string of the f and s words could be heard above the general noise. She didn’t need to look to know who it was, in the past weeks she had grown used with hearing this voice. Dominic. Of course, trust Dom to get himself into trouble. Her eyes moved into his direction to see what has happened this time.

It wasn’t long until she managed to understand what had happened and the first idea that came into her mind was to give Dom the same lecture as she had given the 5 years old Shawna a few moments ago. Sighing, she took off her sunglasses and grabbed her bag. She had to help him. Although she wasn’t possessing any healing abilities, aloe vera or such, she was the infirmary assistant and it was her duty to assist him. Rummaging trough the various contents of her bag, she grabbed the tub of Silvadene and got up. Good thing she had listened to the doc and took a few things from the infirmary to be prepared if any situation occurred during the party. Situations like Dom stealing burgers and getting himself injured in the process.

Her legs carried her across the area to the freezers where she took two bottles of water. She moved further after retrieving them and when reaching her destination she planted her feet into the ground and waited for Dom to stop cursing.

Her head followed Dom’s hand movements trying to get a glimpse at the injury. It looked slightly ridiculous but after a few moments she managed to see what Dom was complaining about. It wasn’t that bad, just a minor damage to the epidermis and although the pain was intense it wasn’t excruciating so Dom should have stopped by now.

Taking a deep breath, Alexandra finally spoke. “Dom, I am the Infirmary Assistant.” Good. Tell a person you are qualified first then try to work your magic. “I’ll try to fix you up, okay?” She slightly raised the two bottles of water in her hand. “I need to pour water on the injury to clean it up and it will also soothe the pain.” She raised the other hand where the Silvadene tub was resting. “And this will help the healing.” She paused for a moment to watch Dom’s reaction then spoke again. “All I need you to do is to hold your hand out and I’ll do the magic, okay?” the last remark was followed by a smile and a wink.

Mettaliar nodded at Sam's remark about having a long time to walk. It was indeed a long time. He knew that Sam probably thought he was crazy or something, yet he didn't mind. He knew there was method behind his madness, so why justify yourself to others? As weird as even Mettaliar thought that sounded, it was the only way he could think at the time. He just couldn't trust going off on a rant about his past and the reasons why he left. Besides, the food was being cooked! Best not distract the cook with nonsensical tales of the past that probably wasn't of any concern of anyone.

As he was about to comment on Sam's history and odd jobs, he saw a hand reach out over the grill. He widened his eyes and was about to reach out and stop the hand, yet was too late. The hand was pulled back quickly and was followed by a long array of swearing and obscenities. He stood still and watched as the other guy held his hand in pain. Compelled to help, Mettaliar started moving closer to him until he caught sight of a lady walking over to him instead. While moving back over to his position near Sam, Mettaliar still kept a slight eye on him, listening to Same explain that he was his brother. Mettaliar nodded. While being an only child himself, he saw through friends the troubles of having younger siblings. Things like this make me glad I'm an only child.

After catching Sam looking at the lady that came over to help his brother, he saw that he had finished up all the burgers and dogs. After helping him set up the plates and everything, he carried a few of them over to the table and set them down as Sam alerted the party of the news of food. Mettaliar put everything down as Sam patted him and proclaimed a pretty nice old school accent. Mettaliar chuckled at him and nodded. "Of course!" Remembering what Sam had said earlier, Mettaliar quickly thought of a question before Same had the chance to leave. "Say, Sam, before you go I was wondering if you could tell me what kind of 'odd jobs' you did? I mean, the only people around here that get jobs around here are... well, I think you know." Mettaliar was sure he was part the X-Men. It was best just to make sure that he was, though. Would be awkward to accuse him and be wrong.

Ok, so Dominic got what he deserved for having attempted to pull a stunt like that. The teen held his tongue, choosing to deal with the pain in silence so he wouldn't draw any more attention to himself. That was until he saw Sam finish up the grilling and started handing away the yums yums. After that, Dominic had started to whimper softly. It became sort of a habit he had picked up from Sam's puppies after having spend so much time playing with them and then again, it was in his DNA literally.

Dominic's eyes lit up as he was once again in the presence of Circe, the goddess of molecules...and working that bikini very hard. He couldn't help but wonder if he'd get another topless show like before and his face was blushed with red thinking about it.Infirmary Assistant? HELLOOOOOO NURSE! He thought about Alexandra in a rather form fitting white nurse outfit, stockings replaced with fishnets and her bust out of display. He though about getting himself hurt more often now. The taint and influence of Sam had officially begun to run it's course through the younger Johnson brother.

"Alright," Dominic nodded holding out his burned hand for nurse Alexandra to tend to.