Cave Rave

[noonelaughed]

It seems like it's been forever since Chris has been to a real, proper blowout. There aren't exactly any clubs on the island for this sort of thing, and the last time Chris had any kind of party in his own hut, it'd taken him fuckin' ages to properly sort out the damage. As it was, he was still finding brownie crumbs and other people's coats when

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[lucked]

It was amazing, how much more rapidly Claire's thoughts came to her when completely sober. Even with the music pounding into her ears (and indeed against her sternum too, it seemed), Claire's eyes lit up with recognition as soon as they fell on Arya, and then quickly moved onto alarm as they noticed her dipping into the water without taking off any of her clothes at all. It seemed like something that a person under the influence would do, and Claire was pretty sure that wouldn't mix too well with water.

She was also pretty sure that she wasn't strong or persuasive enough to coax Arya out, once in. Which mean that Claire would have to join in if she wanted to stand any chance of keeping Arya from going under at some point, if the drugs and alcohol took her further than she'd planned.

Eyes wide with alarm, Claire still managed to get a smile on her face as she approached the side of the pool, just about ready to kick off her shoes and try to casually slip in. Then she remembered her dress"Oh, god," she muttered to herself. "I knew I

[lonewolflives]

She floated under the water, feeling it around her as a solid presence, looking up at the refracted images, watching one in particular at the very edge of the pool glitter and shift. Then she rose up, sliding through the water to the surface and laughed aloud as she broke through and it magically resolved itself into...

"Claire!" she said, putting her palms flat on the side and pushing her arms out straight, arching her back to look up at her, still rest of her still in the water. "Your hair is glowing. C'mere."

[lucked]

"Iii'm pretty sure that my hair's as it always is," she said doubtfully, although with a hint of a laugh.

Claire's weight shifted from one foot to the other as she peered down at Arya, smiling, though only with some effort. Licking her lips, she tried to force herself into making a decision faster, checking to see if anyone around was watching, looking for a spot to shuck her dress without notice. Because it was a nice dress. And nice dresses weren't handed out all too often by the clothes box, so it seemed a shame to waste it on a brief dip in the hot springs.

"I'd better not regret this, I'd better not regret this, some high... person had better not take this dress when I'm not looking," she muttered to herself, quickly unzipping the dress and stuffing it behind a nearby stalagmite, shivering before she dipped down into the water and offering Arya a shaky smile. "Okay, I'm here. So, um. How are you?"

Being one of the few sober people in such a crowd was awkward, to say the least.

[lonewolflives]

Arya slunk back into the water, going completely under for a moment and then resurfacing beside Claire, putting an arm halfway about her, crooked to pet her hair.

"So it was always glowing?" she said, lifting her fingers to see if the glow transferred.

Which it did, which was lovely. "I'm good," she said. "I'm grrrreat." She glanced down at herself. "I left my clothes on. Oops."

[lucked]

While she blinked first at Arya's approach, cheeks going red for no good reason at all as Arya put an arm around her, the next thought which came to mind was wondering if this was how Mr. Muggles felt whenever people tended to dote on him and ruffled his fur. And that drew a laugh to Claire, giggling as she always did, before the joke had even sunk in for anyone else. "Um, yeah," she managed with a nod, her eyes slightly watery for trying to hold back from further laughs. "Yeah, always glowing. Let's go with that."

Amusement quickly turned into alarm as Arya peeked down at herself. Shaking her head, Claire's hand broke through the surface of the water, though she wasn't sure what for. To forcibly keep Arya from completely divesting in front of everyone?

"Leaving your clothes on's just fine," she insisted. "Don't worry about it, it's... probably more convenient, now when you pop out of the water you won't even have to towel yourself off or anything."

[lonewolflives]

Arya pursed her lips, working this through; truth be told, it seemed a lot of effort for little result, although she'd reconsider if the place started warming up.

"Smart," she said instead, letting her head tilt back and rest on the side of the pool, tilted sideways in Claire's direction, her mostly intact braid falling down and floating on the water, causing the scintillating lights reflecting off it to split off and, to Arya's vision, float upwards.

She swatted at one of them, and said, "You did, though- are you having a good time, I didn't ask. Are you?"

[lucked]

Claire watched in bewilderment as Arya started batting at thin air, before she waded over to the side, leaning back right next to the brunette. The question was a bit unexpected, Claire expecting something more along the lines of being asked to dance underwater, or being told to let herself go a bit more, anything like the last time she'd been with Arya at a rave. Instead, she was asked a question that set off a slight twinge of guilt in her heart, because ultimately, she was lying to a whole lot of people those days.

It only made her smile stretch wider, though. A girl could learn a lot from her father.

"Yeah, definitely," she breathed with a quick nod. "Definitely having a good time. I mean, we've got enough chocolate here for me to be totally bouncing off the walls for a while, so there's that. What about you? Did, um. Did you come here with anyone?"

[lonewolflives]

In other times, in other circumstances, Arya had a fairly good sense of when people were lying; she'd been taught. But then, she'd never learned all the tricks, and plenty of people were good enough to slip things by her.

And certainly right now she was in no state to catch anyone out on anything, shifting slightly to lean against Claire when she moved.

"Me? No," she said, letting her hand fall back to the water and rise and fall with the lapping waves, caused mostly by the motion of whoever was elsewhere in the pool. "I came here with me, and then I lost track of her." She laughed again. "Who else would I bring?"

[lucked]

Keeping from asking about Arya's girlfriend was a very close thing. Claire had never really asked much about the other girl in the picture, figuring that it was probably best for everyone involved (indirectly or otherwise) if she didn't try to approach Arya's girlfriend. Any sort of contact risked letting secrets loose, and Claire didn't want to be the hook that tore a relationship to shreds. But then it struck her how last time, even under the influence, Arya had at least been able to acknowledge that she had a significant other, and faintly realized that kissing Claire just then probably wasn't the best idea. Given that Arya didn't seem quite as gone now, it didn't make sense for the girlfriend to go unheeded.

Maybe they'd broken up.

Laughing again to cover up her unease and shock, Claire shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. I still stand by the fact that you could have pretty much have your pick of a lot of people on the island. But there's nothing wrong in attending stag, either. That's what I'm doing."

[lonewolflives]

"Baratheons are stags," Arya said, dipping her fingers into the water, then lifting them up and watching the water drip back into the pool, flicking them to generate different patterns. "It should be attending wolf. You can, too, you can be an honorary wolf. Awooo."

Her pick. She didn't know how likely it was -- the old refrain, that was Sansa -- but she supposed she'd never tried. Maybe she should, and simply see what happened. There was a lot she hadn't done, and who knew what could happen at any moment.

[lucked]

All things considered, Claire should better remember that Arya's from a completely different world than her own, not even sharing the same countries, the same culture. This isn't like Mary Jane, who comes from a world where people take their powers and turn into vigilantes, but instead differences only tied together by the fact that they can fortunately still communicate (sometimes Claire wonders if that's the island's magic at work too, the majority of people on its grounds speaking English). Mentally noting to ask Arya later on what baratheons are, Claire's thought process is completely derailed as the other girl starts howling.

Her palm flies straight to her forehead.

"Oh my god, you did not just howl. You didn't."

[lonewolflives]

Arya grinned loud and bright, eyes tracing what was, to her, still a visible trail of the motion Claire's hand had just taken. She waved her hand vaguely through the course it had taken.

"I did just howl," she chirped. "Wolves howl. It's how they know where their pack is."

Maybe they just all needed to howl louder. Maybe she'd try that.

[lucked]

If it weren't for the fact that Arya had told Claire about the wolves before, the blonde wouldn't have understood that the meaning was literal. She wanted to hear more about the wolves, but Arya didn't seem to be in the shape for it, so she simply leaned back in the water, shaking her head lightly.

"Well, I'm not really capable of speaking to wolves," Claire said with a laugh, "but I could try speaking Pomeranian with Mr. Muggles. It'd be mostly yips instead of howls."

[lonewolflives]

Arya ventured a yip.

"It's not as good," she said. "Dogs and wolves don't get on normally, but you'd never know it from all the dog-wolf puppies. You could fill this pool with 'em. Swim around in puppies."

At which point she dissolved into laughter at her own idea, or what had been originally but now seemed foreign enough that she could laugh at it.

[lucked]

Claire bit on the tip of her thumb, peeking over at Arya, half-wishing that she could have a glass of beer. Relax a little. Arya was one of the people easiest to be herself around, as Arya never seemed to judge in the way that most people did. Or at least, Claire was inoffensive enough that she didn't pull any triggers. Struck with a sudden thought, her grin widened.

"So it's like... one hundred and one dalm-oceans," Claire nodded quickly, her face all smiles, until she couldn't hold out anymore and burst into laughter, dipping under the surface of the water to hide the flush of her cheeks.