Welcome to Gaia! ::

Being haunted wasn't all it was cracked up to be. There was always someone there who may or may not be watching you pee and no amount of island sun could take the chill off the feeling of an undead passing through you. Besides, all the sun and humidity was not good for Lucy's self esteem. Her hair was frizzy, her skin was burnt and swim suit season gave her imaginary hives. None of this was made any easier by the equally frizzy woman floating over her right shoulder.

"Come, lass. Chin up! Back straight!" Grayson was quite the task master. Which is how Lucy found herself on the beach with a book on her head, practicing her posture in a bikini. She was pretty sure that if a fire engine had parked behind her, all you would see was a floating book.

Isaac was settling into the whole island routine, so to speak. It wasn't very hard: sleep late, wake up, eat food, head to the rec room and basically abuse the poor Pac Man machine in there. God forbid they ever decide to put in Tetris, Isaac would probably never leave. He was having trouble enough as it was prying himself away from the noisy, colorful boxes - but Gabby's insistence (or constant badgering and nagging, either or) had finally managed to get Isaac out and about.

Towel in hand, bottle of sunscreen in the other, Isaac tromped proudly on to the beach and spread his towel out in the white sand. It had a picture of Snoopy on it, and Isaac's own swim trunks were an alarming shade of Pepto-Bismal pink.

"Hey," Gabby said, waving a hand in front of Isaac's face. Isaac glanced up at the ghost floating a few inches in front of him, haphazard grin smeared messily across his face.

"Huh?"

"We're not alone here. Move, I don't wanna deal with other people."

"There are other people?" Isaac squealed, excited. Soon enough a flash of red hair caught his eyes, and pausing briefly only to put a streak of white sunscreen on his nose, Isaac soon dashed over to Lucy's side. "Hi!" he said breathlessly, nearly barrelling into the teen as his momentum carried him farther than expected.

Isaac's approach, while harmless in intent, flustered Lucy to no end. She dropped her book and was just trying to figure out how to pick it up without flashing her scantily clad bottom or boobies, when he nearly barreled into her. Stumbling back a few paces and nearly tripping over the huge volume Grayson made her balance, Lucy blushed a few shades redder, no matter how unlikely that seemed and waved a bit in reply.

Grayson took on the stance of taskmistress, insubstantial foot tapping against the air. "Some people have no manners!"

"God, it's hot..." Yvonne groaned as she adjusted the goggles on her head, the glass faces of which were begin to get noticeably warm under the direct sunlight. Walking along the white-sand shore, the Boston-native, who had stripped down to a nondescript pink halter-top and a pair of tiny hacked off denim shorts, was feeling unusually exposed without her layers of clothing, particularly her oversized work shirt which had acted as her security blanket for the past year.

"Honestly, Yvonne, y'all need to buck up." A breathy, mellow voice floated past her ear. "Ah've weath'uhd days hotter than this in full dress -- that's includin' mah corset."

The dark haired girl rolled her equally dark eyes, although she knew her bond couldn't see. "Uh, yeah, Su. That's how you died. Remember?"

"Ah have asked you to address me by my name, which is Suzannah." The voice cut in quickly, losing some of it's lightness. Yvonne turned around to see the translucent blonde woman put her hands on her hips with an almost theatrical flourish. "How many times do ah have to ask you?" She closed her long lashed eyes and shook her head, as if remembering the good old days when those who dared to come up with nicknames of all things were put to death. "Honestly, ah am fit to be tied..."

Yvonne grimaced and strode a few steps forward, as if she could outrun the ghost. She was still getting used to Suzannah's habit of emphasizing every other word, making her honey voice rise and fall like a preacher giving one continual sermon.

"Can it, already. Look over there." Yvey muttered, focusing her eyes on a dune in the semi-distance where two young people seemed to have fallen into a discussion. The girl bit her lip. She hadn't met anyone else on this island other than her roommate, and it was still open to discussion whether Dusky hated her guts or not.

There couldn't be any harm in saying hello, could there? With that she altered her course towards the other two, Suzannah trailing behind with an indignant. "Well, ah nevuh."

"Sorry," Isaac replied, dipping an awkward little curtsy in Grayson's direction. Gabby just rolled her eyes and floated over Isaac's shoulder, arms crossed over her chest. It wasn't long before Isaac was back to his manic self, turning to Lucy and looking her over. Whatever was scantily clad or falling out was lost upon Isaac, who adjusted his cap on his head and beamed broadly at the redhead.

"I know you!"

"Unfortunately." Gabby added caustically. Her eyes moved to Grayson and she snarled, apparently not pleased with the presence of another ghost. But there was something else - another ghost? Gabby faded from vision only briefly to reappear near Suzannah. "Another!" she shrilled, before drifting mournfully back to Isaac. This was horrible.

"Uh... yeah. We, uh... danced." Whatever paltry command of the English language that Lucy might normally employ, left her as Isaac opened his mouth. Whatever karmic retribution had kicked her puberty into overdrive, also left her tongue-tied and stupid whenever a boy approached. And left all thoughts in her brain somehow tied to them. She was sure she could do calculus, just sure of it. But whenever she tried, all that came out was:

If y = boys / boys(4x+boys) then y to the fifth power = BOYS!

"Bring your arms to the front, dear, and clasp them at your waist. And lean forward a bit. Stick your bottom out a bit, too, dear. No use playing hard to get." Grayson floated down to whisper in Lucy's ear... loudly.

As Gabby appeared out of nowhere, Suzannah tumbled backwards in surprise, ghostly frills and scarf flaring outwards at the sudden motion. "Ah do de-clare!" She cried unhappily as she righted herself in midair, brushing her tousled mousey locks into place as the fellow specter faded from view.

Throwing her wrist to her forehead in dismay, the petite ghost turned eyes brimming with woe upon Yvonne--to see only the shapeless girl's receding back as she continued on stoically towards the others. Unaware of Gabby's sudden appearance and already becoming desensitized to Suzannah's frequent outbursts, Yvonne hadn't even looked over her shoulder.

Suzannah scowled darkly. What was wrong in the cosmos that had saddled her lingering spirit with this poster child for the undernourished and gender confused? This was no way to treat a lady! This was preposterous! And Suzannah was about to open her mouth and give Yvonne a piece of her mind, she was, but before the ghost knew it, Yvonne had opened her own mouth and drowned out Suzannah's first sound with a resounding "Hey!"

She waved a gloved hand towards the other two as she strode up to their side, her eyes darting from one to the other in the slightly awkward pause that followed. "Hey--uh, sorry if I'm interrupting something...?" She blinked as she trailed off.

"Danced, huh?" Isaac echoed, rubbing his chin. He was by no means a "boy" in the typical sense - just some skinny, British man who had ended up with a spook who didn't like him. "I remember! Oh, man. Jeeze." Scrunching his face up, Isaac did his best to try and remember Lucy's name, if he had heard it at all...

Instead, he opted for smiling hugely and sticking out one large hand in Lucy's direction. "Isaac. And Gabby," A jerk of the head pointed out the ghost sulking behind him. Grayson's comments were not lost on Isaac, but he ignored them and instead smiled hugely. Frankly he had no idea what she was talking about.

At Yvonne appeared, Isaac turned to her, smiling brightly as some sort of bizarre supernova. "Hi!" he chirped, beaming. "Not at all - I'm Isaac. And, uh. Gabby's here too."

"Unwillingly." Gabby supplied, sounding miserable.

Lucy held out a hand to Isaac, spouting the one adage she had bothered to remember from Grayson's teachings, "Charmed, I'm sure." Yvonne's approach brought her back to her rambling senses, though the newcommer did make her feel horribly inadequate.

Brushing her fingers through her hair, she muttered introductions.

"Hey, Isaac. I'm Yvonne. And this is Su...zannah." She finished reluctantly after receiving a smoldering death glare. She gave the other, younger girl a friendly smile, indicating that the introduction was intended for her benefit as well. "H'lo. It's good to see some life out here--" She stopped mid-sentence, wondering anxiously if that counted as a faux-pas, considering some of her current company.

Suzannah fluffed herself like a mother-hen, ruffling up her dress and then smoothing it down with great care as she sized Gabby up out of the corner of her eye. She settled on a breathy "You're not the only one," in reply to the first ghost's comment. The remark was generally neutral, granted it was somewhat pissy in it's tone, but it was clear that most of her resent was still being focused solely on Yvonne. The ex-Southern belle cast a withering look at Grayson, but kept her mouth shut. For one thing, there was nothing that jumped out immediately as needing to be criticized. For another, she was hopeful that maybe she could coax the other into some form of commiseration or another.

Suzannah and Gabby's introduction to each other - well, half of an introduction, considering Gabby - was interrupted: unfortunately, the beach was too nice a place for most of the inhabitants not to immediately take up residence there. Lucy's roomie was lugging an old desk she had found somewhere out on the sand, balancing a chair precariously on top of the assorted. She arranged these things quite close to the little knot of people, fixed the sellotaped sign on the desk that said THE DOCTOR IS IN, and ambled over.

She was not alone. A man drifted after her, holding his head. It was because his head was disembodied, but he still managed to do it in a way that looked as though he had a headache.

"Mon dieu," he said, and - "the seaside. How charmingly rustic. I could die."

"Ha ha, joke's on you, you totally already did," said Charlena Jones. "Hey, it's Shrimp Girl! As in the cocktail shrimp. And Isaac and Lucille and Kermit and Fozzie and Ralph. Lu, I got you extra sunscreen, I am a charitable organisation. Boy, it's a party, I never get told this s**t. Too bad I'm in my working hours."

"Yes!" (Charley was exuberant. Bastien, on the other hand, was pretending that he was not, in fact, there. Every so often he gave a sigh of such terrible ennui that he should have won an award.) "I have decided to totally set up my own business. Today is for free. I am a fully certified psych doctor ready to hear all your confessions. I am like the really super-powered love child of a catholic priest and Dr. Laura, you see, born to sit on a chair at this beach. I figure a nickel will be sufficient for my payin' days. Anyway, you'll get it free all the time, Lulu, 'cos you're my roomie and you're only like this big. Hee-eee-eeey, Grayson! Bastien, say hi to Grayson! C'mon. C'mon. C'mooon."

"Charmed, madame," said Bastien, with faint difficulty, and adjusted his head.

The dark-haired girl put herself down on the chair, put her feet up on the desk, and with one hand reached over like a monkey to adjust the other chair (which was obviously for whoever wanted to get her psychiatric advice). "Anyone want to go first? I'm feeling empathetic!"