Ocean watched as River walked off, mixed emotions swirling around in her chest. She heard someone call for shots and excused herself from her discussion with Marlen- not particularly feeling like having conversation after River’s accusatory looks and tone. She grabbed Ace’s jacket from where it sat across her lap and stood up, aiming to use the restroom for a minute before coming out and finding River once again, but more commotion by the bar stole her attention. Various gasps and chatter spread around the area and Ocean turned to see what all the fuss was about. A woman sat on a table, legs spread and a mop of messy hair that she recognized had his head between her legs. Ace’s jacket felt hot in her hand and confusion knotted its way into her stomach lining, along with… disappointment?

Her face heated up with embarrassment over the spectacle and she dropped Ace’s jacket onto the seat she just vacated. Ocean turned away from the scene and made her way to the nearest bathroom which happened to be in the main hall. She hadn’t taken Ace to be the kind of guy to do something like that. Sure, he had his quirks and he had that ‘bad boy’ vibe that River most definitely wouldn’t approve of, but being someone’s sex toy and publicly? It put a bad taste in Ocean’s mouth and she wasn’t entirely sure where she stood with Ace. He was friendly, flirty, and seemed genuine. Ocean liked Ace and wanted to get to know him better.

Shame replaced the confusion as she stared at herself in the mirror of the bathroom. Little strands of her hair had come loose from its updo and her cheeks were slightly rosy from sitting so close to the bonfire, but all she could see was a gullible woman who lived under a rock her entire life. She felt stupid that she pegged Ace as someone she could get along with. Not romantically, she wasn’t looking for that, but as a genuine friend she could confide in. Someone who understood and empathized. Ocean heard and felt the water in the pipes around her creak, like they did earlier in the day when she got flustered. She took a deep breath to keep them from exploding and turned the faucet on, running her hand underneath the cold water. It cooled her off and seemed to give her the energy she needed to go back out there and ignore everything that she saw. She’d leave Ace’s jacket where it was on the chair- he’d find it eventually- and she’ll sit down and socialize with anyone who decided they wanted to talk to her. Or she’d find River.

Ocean left the bathroom feeling less embarrassed, but more closed off than when she first originally showed up at the party. The bonfire seemed just as enticing as had before, so she made her way back to it, opting to sit as far away from Ace’s abandoned jacket as possible. Ocean glanced around to see if Ace and that woman were still going at it, but they were gone and Ocean felt something akin to frustration bury itself into her chest. New faces since this morning were littered around the activity fields and Ocean realized with a pang that she was more alone than ever- even with all of these people around her. Even with her brother here. Her eyes spotted him talking to Iliana and a part of her wanted to go and say hi, but she didn’t. River needed to make his own friends without her interfering.

A few moments passed of her just people watching and being lost to her own thoughts when a guy she hadn’t seen today sat down a few spots away, nursing a plate of food. Oceans' stomach grumbled a bit at the sight of the food, and she realized she hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. ”The crowds too much for you? I’m not much of a solitary person by choice, but there’s something calm about being by the fire and removed from the chaos, don’t you think?”

She fixed her eyes on the guy sitting next to her and apologized internally for seemingly interrupting his train of thought. He froze for a second before meeting her eyes and chewing in thought. It was silent long enough to make Ocean slightly uncomfortable and she was about to apologize for intruding (especially after telling herself she wasn’t going to mingle anymore for the evening), when he gave her an answer.

”It’s a lot of new for one night. Might as well start a fresh year as well.”

Ocean raised her eyebrow at his reply and gave him a grim smile. ”You’re not wrong. I only got here this morning and all I’ve seen so far is a few friendly faces, chaos and public indecency. Definitely not my scene,” Ocean studied the way his shoulders maintained their awkward rigidity and she was stricken by familiarity in the way he held himself in such a public space. He was clearly trying to find somewhere to blend in with the background and avoid socializing. She was like that for a long time growing up, especially after her water incident at her public elementary school. ”I’m Ocean. Did you get in earlier this evening?”

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Location: Table near the bonfire
Interactions: Sylas, Blair (@Mjolnir)
Mentions: River, Heath

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Location: Bar
Interactions: Trinity @xNocturnax, Marlen @Blizz
Mentions (in his thoughts): Bax, Andy, Blair, Anissa

“Yeah, here, let me show you,” Idris tracked the small woman with his eyes as she flanked around, and shifted his focus down to the map with a neutral expression on his face. This should be pretty easy. “Okay, so.” Idris prepared himself for everything. “See all these blank squares?” So far so good. He looked at the blank squares and nodded as she continued. “They stay empty until someone physically touches one here on the map or directly on the big board over there, I think.” Idris’s eyes shot over at the ‘I think’ and he silently began to panic that the magic was going to do something that she had not intended. Who was this woman? “The name appears simultaneously in both places, so it’s essentially a real-time, magically linked database except with no servers or lags it seems because, you know, magic.” The woman had him back. The skill she displayed in the application of the magic, the innate knowledge that seemed to flow forth from her mouth, and the fact that Idris was ‘getting’ it was testament enough to her talent as an instructor.

“Watch this,” with pleasure, Idris thought as he crossed his arms and grinned. He watched her finger as it brushed across the map right over an empty square, causing a rippling shimmer to spread across the map. Eventually, a name, ‘Rae Kowalewski’, appeared on the map and for some reason this revelation caused her to blush beet red. “Whoops! Didn't mean to actually claim that one. See?” Idris chuckled at how this confident woman had become demure all over the display of the magic systems. Yet her eccentric nature did much to dispel the initial thoughts about this camp. He had thought he was walking into a place filled with holier than though pricks who abused their divine lineage. She was distinctly human, and that put Idris at ease. “Self-correcting. Very… user-friendly interface.”

“Your turn. Just touch an empty one you like.”

“Okay, ‘Rae Kowalewski’," Idris said with a smile, though he did slowly say the last name as he was unsure on the proper pronunciation and a slight tinge of doubt crossed his mind after the word hung in the air. Instead of sitting in the silence, he looked towards Rae. “I am," Idris paused as he looked towards Rae, and then back towards the map, pressed down on Cabin 41, and watched as ‘Idris Orion Abbasi’ materialized next to the cabin. As he looked at his name on the map he realized his cabin was nearby, and his eyes darted to see if he could spot it.

"Congratulations," the other camper spoke up pulling Idris’s focus back onto the group.. "You’ve survived your first Rae Kowaleski tutorial rambling, I’m Wes," Idris scrambled to extend his fist to greet the man. Was this how all demigods greeted each other? He would need to remember this. "If you’ve guys got this under control, I can always head back." Idris followed his head and looked towards the party. Nope. No. Not a chance. Idris would not be going to the party tonight. "Don’t know how much help I can be when you have a map."

“The map is very useful," Idris chuckled to try and ignore the sight of people drinking and having fun. He didn’t really know what to do now, but he figured he would ask one final question. “Should I have brought a sleeping bag? Not sure what the inside of the cabin will be like. And I haven’t really done much camping before."

Marlen Ross Child of Apollo * Bar

”My dad had a saying… a philosophy, if you will. You see… all of us are playing the same game, sitting at different tables with the same dealer. We get dealt our own cards. Some hands are good, some are bad, but you can’t change them out.”

”But the game always ends the same. You can play it safe, keep from taking risks. Bet the minimum, don’t get greedy. You might outlast a lot of players that way. But that’s not how the game was meant to be played.”

Marlen took a contemplative sip from their water bottle, while this guy startled rambling about life and poker hands. The longer they listened, the more a smirk grew on their face, which quickly became a full-on grin. This guy got it. Life was too damn short to hedge bets and sit on the fence. Marlen learned that a long time ago, back when they were a kid- Just fucking do the things that are worth doing. That's why they're never easy.

"Just looking to enjoy my night without ruffling any more feathers."

"Yeah... Reasonable, I think," They commented, without even reacting to the cigarette smoking being blown around. "I remember being... seventeen, scared of the world and not knowing which was was up. You'd think having a god hanging over your shoulder makes taking risks easier, turns out they don't really help much when they just want you to figure that stuff out yourself." One time, they nearly got kidnapped off the streets because a cop really didn't like that Marlen had said they didn't have a home, despite toting a guitar around. The only reason they weren't arrested then are there was because no one thought Marlen's gangly ass would have smacked the living shit out of the man with it, ran like hell and throw a pan flute in another direction to cause a noise that distracted the son of a bitch. What was the point of life if no one was going to live it?

"But..." They turned around, back to the bar, and looked over at Trinity who had chimed in. "How many people just got here, and are doing... That?" They nodded their head in the direction of Blair, who had just been getting busy as all fuck right in front of the gods and everybody. "I mean, Apollo sure never told me we were getting up to that on night number one. I was just telling some stiff fellow how I didn't know there were this many of us on the whole planet. You'd think they're trying to do something about that up on the mountain." Marlen wasn't convinced there wasn't something in the wine and vodka and whatever the fuck else was up on the shelves. Hell, maybe Dionysus was here tonight and had a bet with Aphrodite to see who could cause as many unintended pregnancies as possible or some shit.

It seemed a bit weird when the gods had siblings of their own. Zeus and Hades were brothers, weren't they? Were they all just going to segregate based on that, and wear badges or something to denote that?

Or maybe tomorrow, everyone would stop trying to fuck everything that moved. Maybe.

"It's not like we're in a crazy sex cult or anything, are we? That'd be pretty weird... Anyway, no hangovers for me, thank you very much. Name's Marlen, cool to meet you both."

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Veronica was still feeling a little giddy from her two shots as well as the easy conversation between her new friends; even more so that so far neither had been looking at her the way most people did if they were around her long enough. She tried so hard to suppress her abilities, but they usually wormed their way out sooner or later, not helped by the darker, mischievous side of her that wanted to be worshipped.

She pulled her focus back to the present and away from the downward spiral of her internal thoughts, looking from Sofia over to Anatoliy before speaking. ”Of course you can join us, we’ve both invited you to anyway, so don’t worry. But thank you for enjoying our vibe.” She gave him a glowing smile and blushed a little at his compliment, before taking another slow sip of her drink, savouring the coconut flavour. ”Our plan for tonight is to look out for each other and just have fun, isn’t it, Sofia? And hopefully make camp a little more welcoming, though I think the general idea is to train us up for...” she paused and vaguely gestured at the air above her ”something? I didn’t really want to come here either, but Mother insisted.” Her voice had hardened a little as she mentioned Aphrodite, showing a clear bitterness aimed at the goddess despite her otherwise light and warm tone.

Veronica shrugged a little before spinning round and walking around the bar, and in the direction of the food table. She was wondering what would be available for them to eat, and whether there’d be anything picked out for each of them in particular or if it would be a random assortment. As she walked, she kept glancing over her shoulder to ensure that the other two were still with her, as her inner voice began whispering doubts about their sincerity in enjoying her company.

Having reached the table, she turned and gestured towards Anatoliy ”I’m glad there’s someone else who plays guitar. I sing a bit myself as well.” putting her drink down, she picked up a plate and began to pile up an assortment of food, looking over at the other two to see what items they were also getting. ”Do you play an instrument or anything, Sofia?” She glanced at Sofia, with another smile, while nodding over at Anatoliy’s guitar.

”I was going to ask what you play, but maybe once we’ve got a table, you could show us?” As soon as the words left her lips, she felt a momentary panic of uncertainty as she’d noticed that Anatoliy appeared to be weary when speaking with them; likely from whatever had already happened to him today, but she was worrying over whether she was making things better or worse for him. ”Or not!” She hurried to add to her suggestion, trying to fix things that may not even have been broken. ”I was just curious, and you don’t need to play anything if you don’t want to. We’d all be eating our food anyway...” Her head drooped a little as her voice faded towards the end of her words, feeling self-conscious as her skin burned bright crimson.

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While Morne was continuing to lay it on thick as far as Fiona was concerned, even if Nelly was taking it in her stride, she couldn’t help but admit that he was almost tolerable when he wasn’t trying to butter them both up. Though perhaps tolerable was perhaps a little too generous for someone whose voice made it sound like life was distracting them from being a foppish layabout.

Though at his mention of loving a little fire, she felt herself stiffen for a moment before her head gave a slight twitch and her expression flickered through an uncertain mix of emotions. She tried her best to hide the discomfort with another sip of her drink before she cast an uneasy glance over towards the bonfire at the edge of the party, where others were huddled.

She gave Nelly a nod as she spoke of her own schooling "I’ve nay idea what the hell a GED is Nell. School was weird, Da would’na have it, see, so we got some teach out every few month from the Government, check where we’re at. Outside that, it was whatever the family taught you, you learned or could find out. Often we’d be nicking books and like from markets or libraries or whatever we’d barter for.”

Looking over at Morne after he’d been dismissive of his own education, she tilted her head to one side before asking him a question "So, other an doing ‘whatever the fuck you want’, was there anything special you wanted to do with ya life?”

Fiona followed along as Nelly proceeded to point out those at Camp to Morne, though she almost choked on her drink when he turned back to them and labelled the main three as cunts. She fought for breath, while trying to stifle her laughter but it ended up coming out as little more than a wheeze before she was able to breathe again enough to respond. "That's one way to describe them, though you might not want to say that too loudly.” As soon as she’d finished, she pressed her hand over her mouth as she continued to laugh, her voice almost silent while she kept her eyes half closed in mirth.

Morne had then gone into a story of someone he’d worked with, though Fiona was sure everyone knew people like that just as much as those who hadn’t pulled their own weight. She remembered plenty of both from back with her family as well as places she worked since leaving home, though she did think Morne was most certainly more in the latter category. And while ‘a bit of fun’ could be anything, she knew it fast became disruptive if that’s all they did, which felt like where he’d take it given enough freedom. Even if not letting them have music on during closing up at the end of the shift sounded unreasonable, Fiona did wonder what exactly it was he’d done to Katie that he’d called ‘fun’.

"Hey Morne, if you want, I can try introducing you to people. Sadly I won't know all since a lot of the campers here are new ones. More than double than what it used to be it seems, right Fiona?"

Fiona nodded in mute agreement to Nelly, even if she had a sinking feeling of what the future likely held, namely being dragged around the camp for awkward introductions with people she already knew but had barely interacted with or strangers who would end up avoiding her just the same.

‘We can leave the table and mingle with some more people. Sounds like a good time to me and Fiona definitely should join us,’ Morne looked at Fiona ‘ You definitely want to join us. Maybe we can get up to some mischief and mess with people? Anyone you don’t like?’

She’d already resigned herself to her fate by following along in Nelly’s wake, despite her own plans for the evening. And while Morne’s repeated invitation felt more like a command than an offer, which rankled her, she glanced at Nelly before biting back the vicious retort that was bubbling to the surface and instead settled on rolling her eyes in exasperation before standing up to look down at them both. Hopefully, whatever mischief he was planning would be far more entertaining than his company had been so far tonight.

"Less o’ the Jedi mind tricks, eh? You sounded like a cheap tricks magician me da would have given a good hiding for scaring the kids.” she sighed and drained what was left of her glass before placing it gently back onto the table. "I’ll be back in a sec, right?”

Fiona walked, mostly straight over to one of the other occupied tables, namely the one that she’d been stealing glances at for most of the evening, which was thankfully well out of earshot of where she’d just come from. "Hey, Duke,” She leant forward, so her head was resting on his shoulder with her face down "Nell’s forcing me ta be sociable with a new kid, save me at some point...” She mumbled against his jumper before raising her head. "Please? Oh, hey, Sloane.” She pulled herself back to a better standing position, having completely forgotten that Duke hadn’t been sitting alone. Now that she remembered the other girl was there, she continued by including her in the conversation "Sorry for interrupting. Feel free ta give him a hand rescuing me if it comes to it. See you two later,” she made to leave, but paused for a moment, having just spotted Rocco lying across their feet. "Or three, as that’s a sweet looking dag you’ve got there, Sloane.” giving them a wave that was half salute, she spun a little unevenly on one foot and went back to join Nelly and Morne in what would probably be far more social interaction than she’d been prepared for tonight. "So, where first now, Nell?”

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Ocean let out a sigh- almost sounding childish to her ears. “You’re right. You’re dad sounds like a smart guy. There are all kinds of weirdos out there and there’s almost always a lesson to be learned,” she let herself feel validated for a moment. Her thoughts were interrupted by a laugh and she turned to face Pallas, a smile spreading across her own lips. Laughter was always infectious. She felt the pressure to laugh build up in her chest and she gave a light chuckle of her own.

“Take it how you will. He’s a good guy and he cares a lot about those he’s close to, but he can be overprotective and an asshole. Like, sixty percent of the time. I’m just saying that some friends- someone who isn’t his little sister- would do him some good!” Ocean pushed the hostile looks she and River exchanged earlier back into the dark recesses of her mind. She was glad she didn’t tell him about Ace and she was sure he’d be glad to see that she didn’t have his jacket anymore.

Ocean found her mood had improved significantly since talking with Pallas. He was friendly and observant. Sure, a little closed off, but wasn’t everyone here? Ocean felt a little resentment towards Poseidon build up in her gut- not that she didn’t have any before. The one person she wanted to be genuine friends with and he was Athena’s kid. Ocean had been made aware long ago of Poseidon and Athena’s rivalry.

Ocean didn’t really care of the rivalry between their parents and really didn’t want to enforce the warning Poseidon instilled within her before she left for camp. They weren’t their parents, not in the slightest. Even when their parents wanted them to be like them.

"Athena's offspring will be there, along with my brother's spawns. Watch yourself around them. They all have reasons to come for me... For you and your brother. They may try to usurp River, but he is blind to such things. It is up to you to watch his back and observe what he could miss,” Poseidon told Ocean as she polished her trident, making sure not a speck of rust or sand remained on it.

Ocean felt her smile slip off her face for a moment as she remembered the words Poseidon lectured her with. Truth be told, while she mostly listened to her father, there were times she didn’t and ‘rebelled’ against some of his orders. Like when he told her she didn’t need friends since they were a distraction to her training. She had deliberately ignored him, but surely paid the price for it after.

He had pushed her training to the max as punishment, leaving her too exhausted and drained to even think about disobeying his orders. However, despite the possible consequence looming over her head if she were to befriend anyone her father deemed a threat, she found she wanted to ignore his orders once more. But how un-lucky (or just pure naivety) would it be if she were betrayed later on by another person she considered a friend? Poseidon’s warning would still linger in her mind, but for now she’d play nice and attempt to be friends anyways. She turned her attention back to Pallas when he spoke more of his name.

“Pallas is definitely a statement. A dangerous name to be announcing everywhere. I can see why you’d go by Paul instead,” she brought the smile back to her face, not letting her depressing thoughts ruin her newly improved mood. Pallas continued to ask about her parents and Ocean laughed again at her mom being referred to as a hippie.

“Mhm,” Ocean nodded to confirm Pallas’ question. “My mom wasn’t the most original when it came to naming her kids. Doesn't help that she’s a surfer. A… hippie surfer,” Ocean added at the end, her smile turning into a small smirk. Pallas had a smile of his own on his face and Ocean could tell it reached a little deeper than the last one he used. His eyes held a small sparkle and the skin around his eyes wrinkled slightly. She felt pleased that he seemed to be enjoying himself as well with their conversation.

“So, are we supposed to ignore each other? You know, because our parents hate each other?” Ocean felt her stomach start to flutter with nerves over potentially making one of her first friends at camp (or potentially one of her first rivals or enemies if their parents were to be believed, but Pallas didn’t seem like the type. Plus, she didn’t know what Athena was like). It’d be disappointing, in her opinion, if she, Pallas and any of the other Athena kids couldn’t be acquainted. Especially if they got along so well.

“I just think we’d get along swimmingly.”

Ocean blurted it out before she could stop herself and she felt her face grow warm from embarrassment. If she had kept her mouth shut, Pallas would’ve had a less awkward time telling her he didn’t want to be friends. She shifted her eyes away from Pallas’ form and looked towards the ground. Maybe she could… just melt into the grass and dirt. Like a puddle. She cursed her lonely, anti-social childhood.

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Location: Bar
Interactions: Forest(@NoriWasHere)
Mentions: Tapeesa, Leo, Anissa

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Location: Near Camp Entrance
Interactions: Wes (@Mjolnir), Idris (@NoriWasHere)
Mentions: Trinity

outfit(minus the glasses and camera)

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"Hello Tapeesa" Leo replied with some warmth and shook her hand firmly. Watching as she still kept dancing to the beat, to a degree, and felt good because of the pleasantness of her voice. In comparison to his calm voice. "Nice to meet you, and about dancing." Leo had to admit when he approached Tapeesa since she was alone on the dance floor. He did not think about actually dancing, even though she was on the dance floor and dancing. While Leo can dance, it is not the best since he has little practice and few opportunities to actually dance. So when asked if he wanted to dance, Leo spoke the truth.

"I can dance with you if you want." Leo trying to not sound a bit nervous. "It may not be the best, but I can dance." Saying it with some confidence, but it was more for show, and he was willing to dance if she still wished to.

"I was more seeing if you wanted company or not since you were dancing by yourself," Leo tried giving a soft smile. "If you want company, then you have it, and if you want to keep dancing, then I will as well. Or we can do something else if you want?" Leo saying it with a calm but hopeful tone. Since he would rather not dance and do something else. But this is up to Tapeesa and not him. Leo just hopes that she is perhaps tired of dancing, and they can do something else. Though maybe this will be the night he will have a chance at dancing in public, and maybe it is passable to people.

Still, Leo had to admit that Tapeesa looked a bit cute, and her welcoming smile made him feel warm. But should he say something... no, not yet. He decided in his head, looking for a girlfriend is not on his mind right now, at least not on his first day of being at camp. But maybe down the road and he wants to see first how his first meeting with Tapeesa goes. Maybe good, maybe not so good, but so far. He has not had trouble this day, and maybe this luck will continue tonight.

Even if his dance skills are not the best, Leo might as well have some fun before training starts tomorrow, and there are other stuff to do if Tapeesa does not want his company. So Leo waited for Tapeesa's response and will see if he will actually dance tonight or not.

Interact - Tapeesa@Mjolnir | Mentions - N/A

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outfit

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Sofia had a smile on her face when Anatoliy agreed to stick with them. Another friendly person to add to their group. A win in her book, and it is always nice to have a posse going at a party. Even if she is still new to these people and to camp as a whole. So far people she has met have been nice to her. Both new arrivals and old campers. Though she still needs to meet more of the campers and Mason, her half-brother down the road. Still, tonight has been good so far, despite a performance of the sexual kind with two campers she does not know. Sofia hopes that this is not a common thing here, but with training starting tomorrow. Maybe it will stop or at least be more private after tonight.

Sofia took a sip of her drink, enjoying its taste as it passed her tongue and down her throat. She was happy that Veronica also agreed to have Anatoliy join them tonight. Sofia liked Veronica despite a minor negative when talking about their godly parents. Sofia is giving Veronica the benefit of the doubt that she was not at camp when Hades did his messed-up stuff. So Veronica just did not know, or maybe she is being too serious about the subject. Sofia did not know, but the campers here are okay with her half-brother, Mason, being here, so at least she knows the same can apply to her. Unless she somehow messes up, which she doubts she will do.

"Yeah," replying to what Veronica had said. "That is our plan tonight, and so far it is going well." Which when the topic of training sparked some waryness in her. "I heard the point of camp was to train, and the camp's new leader wants to start training tomorrow." She sighed, "Train for what I do not know but I was told to come here to stay safe, and my mother wanted me here, so here I am." Though Sofia might not have come if she knew the purpose of the camp was just to train demigods and not to be a safe haven for them. But she is here now, and she might as well see what camp life is like before she makes plans to abandon ship.

"I do not play an instrument or anything." Sofia replied to Veronica, "Kinda bad at the attempts of playing them, but I have thought about maybe trying the guitar one of these days." Sofia gave a weak smile. While she did enjoy music, wanting to play them was another matter, and while she did try to learn some instruments. Sofia was not good at it, but despite it. She would be willing to try again, but maybe with a patient teacher.

"That would be nice if you want to play something with your guitar, if you wanted to, Anatoliy." Adding on to what Veronica said and noticing how her skin turned red after backtracking. Sofia felt a bit bad for Veronica, who might just feel like she was asking Anatoliy something he did not want to do. "How about this, since we are getting food? We get some food, grab a table, and after we are done eating. We can find somewhere away from the bar, and maybe you could play us some music if you want, that is." Sofia emphasizing the if part since she does not want Anatoliy to do something he does not want to do.

"Otherwise, there are other stuff to do, like ice skating, sledding, and other stuff. We can find something to do besides eat and drink." Sofia again took another longer sip of her drink. "So you two like this idea, or have something else in mind?"

Interact - Veronica@Fabricator, Anatoliy@The Savant | Mentions - Mason, Blair, Ace