Disclaimers: All characters belong to rightful owners.
Story concieved by Lee.


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"Peace and quiet, huh?" Sam chuckled and, as always, he used his sheer will of skankiness to turn even that around. Don't ask how he does it--even he doesn't know. Anyway, nuzzling up against Lukas' side, he murmured to his friend's ear, lips to lobe. "Oooh. I'll give you all the peace and quiet that you can _stand_, Lukie..."

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Stepping back to put some distance between himself and Sam, Lukas shook his head, laughing softly, "With you 'n Kiso locked in together? I doubt that, Sammy... we be lucky if the neighbors don't call the cops on 'count of all the noise you two be makin'..."

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"Hey! Sempai and I can be quiet if we want to be! In fact..." Tipping his head pensively, he trailed off a bit, then, after a moment, he giggled and shook his head. "Okay, so maybe not, but can you blame me? I mean, with a gorgeous, sexy, stunning, hot young man like sempai who _could_ control themselves?"

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"Well, I'd suggest we do teams..." Mune offered as he slid into the booth next to Tesu. Sucking thoughtfully at his soda, he tipped his head as he glanced to the group and he found himself grinning faintly. The other boy, the one with the cactus, seemed fairly normal... well... aside from said companion, but the girl sort of seemed lost in her own world at the moment, not that such things were so odd, really. Shaking these thoughts aside, he shrugged. "Still, that might be a little hard with an odd number of people."

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Sophia smiled slightly at the proposed lineup and nodded, but kept quiet for the time being; there wasn't much to say. As Tesu's other friend-- Dante-- joined them, she blinked up from her milkshake at him.

Oh. The man... seemed pleasant at the moment, but his face was drawn in such hard lines that it would've been easy to be frightened of him. He wasn't angry, but the emotion was probably a very frequent sight on him. *First Lukas, then Alexei, and now this Dante. Everyone's so _angry_.* It was almost funny, but worrying too. Anger to violence was an easy step to take, and she knew it. *I wonder if I'm seeing traces of what's corrupting New Eden without even noticing.*

Still, she kept such thoughts to herself. "We'll manage," she murmured quietly to Dante, then added, "I'm Sophia, by the way."

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Finding himself under the girl's scrutiny, Muneca returned her dark gaze steadily, but he couldn't help but be a tad disturbed by her eyes. Not that they were overly exceptional in color or size or shape or anything of that sort. More, that they seemed so old, so wise, so... knowing, as if she could see into the darkest corners of the mind and just know _exactly_ what you had done, _exactly_ what brought you to this point.

'God, she'll make a great mother someday...' He thought absently, then, a moment later, he shook his head. 'No. That isn't right, either. It's like some wise entity wearing the face of a little girl... and I don't think it can get much creepier than that.'

"Yea. I'm sure you will." Mune agreed readily once he'd managed to bring himself back to the conversation at hand. Banning all his former thoughts, he took a long sip on his soda before trying a faint grin. "You probably know this already, but I'm Dante."

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"Not you, apparently," Lukas chuckled, "but I don't think that's quite it - not that Kiso *isn't* everythin' you just said... But face it, Sammy, you're a case of perennially ragin' hormones... You prob'ly couldn't control yourself with my Grandmaman..."

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"With your Grandmaman?" Sam grinned and, tipping his head back, he tried to make it seem as if really pondering the point. Of course, it was pretty preposterous that he'd actually try to pick up anyone's grandmother--nice though they may be--but, hey, if there were jokes to be played... "Well, you know, she _does_ have that whole Southern charm thing going... and I hear that she wears those knee-highs, too... just drive me _wild_..."

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Tesu's gaze darted between Mune and Sophia as... something... seemed to pass between them. Recognition? No... that wasn't quite it. The two didn't give any indication of having met before, but there *had* been... something... a measuring of sorts, perhaps. Whatever it was, it passed quickly by the time Mune introduced himself.

"..Oh..." Tesu came out of his reverie with a start, "Sorry... Dante... this - as she just said - is Sophia... and that's Alexei..." His lips quirked up in a bemused half-grin as he introduced the final member of their party, "...And Erik I believe you already met..."

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"I guess..." Arvel mumbled, turning scarlet.

Jeremy finally caught Stubby and held the struggling pup close to his chest, "Ok, don't the two of you think we've harrassed the rich, upperclassman enough?" He asked as Sam moved Estelle.

"Noooooo, this is the closest to a date I've ever been!" Arvel whined, "Let me have my delusional fantasies!"

"You know, you should date Lukas, Arvel!" Estelle decided, as though the musicians had no choice in the matter, "Since you're both Southern. He's from New Orleans, though, not Atlanta."

"I was concieved in New Orleans..." Arvel offered, "that's why my mom hates all things Cajun."

"Your mom is hot," Jeremy said, a look of awe on his face. "I would date her."

"I don't want to know about that," Arvel replied, giving Jeremy a withering glare, "she's my _mom_."

"And she's a babe!" Jeremy drooled.

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Alexei creased his brow and muttered to himself, "Bah. We lost again..." He pushed the place mat over to Tesu. "You win," He sighed, "We always loose this game. Sergei was very good at it. He and Erik should have met, that would have been an interesting game..."

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"Well, Lemy, pet, I'll be seeing you," Sui waved goodbye to his whore and strolled off with Nev, "Very well, Nevan it is, then. And what would you care to eat? Anything in particular?"

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"Must be someone else's Grandmaman you heard tell of," Lukas snorted, "*My* Grandmaman wears leather 'n rides a Harley!" His gramma, of course, did no such thing - as Sam, no doubt, would guess. But hey, if they were one-upping each other's jokes, why not go whole hog?

Nodding solemnly, Lukas continued on in the same vein, "Yeah... she one tough ol' biker bitch, my Grandmere..." Cocking his head to one side, he pursed his lips, giving his friend a long, speculative look. "Truth be told, budreau... I think she find you a bit... tame..."

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Naturally, Mune offered his standard only barely polite greetings to Alexei as Tesu introduced him, but he did find himself stopping short as they came to Erik. Blinking slightly, he let faint suprise register as he tipped his head.

Ok. So not only did one of the group carry a cactus around with him, but the cactus also went by Erik. A good tic-tac-toe player, too, on top of everything else, apparently. Lovely, lovely. So, he went from some freak of a businessman to a random freak naming and carrying around a cactus.

"Eric, huh?" He managed in a voice that really didn't mirror his former thoughts all that well as he proceeded to put his foot firmly into his mouth. "So then, this Sergei was, what, a potted spider plant? A habiscus? Maybe a venus flytrap?"

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"No, wherever you'd like to eat is really fine with me." Nevan shook his head slightly as he again offered the elder a wide smile. Still, after a moment, he tipped his head on side and, his tone turning a bit softer, apologetic, he glanced almost shyly to Shittsui. "Just one thing. I know that it's probably a bit of a pain, but I... I'm a vegan so... it... it'd be really nice if we went somewhere that offered something along those lines..."

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"You have weird friends, kid..." Kisoku blinked at Jeremy's mother comment. Then again, he didn't really know too much about what having a normal mother was like. All he really had was Caressa... and she was closer to his age than his father's. "Though, really, I can't talk. My stepmom's a model so I get that whole 'Your mom is hot' thing, a lot."

"And personally, I'm flatted that you'd choose me over Lukes because god knows all that Southern charm is sexy!"

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"Ah, that's such a shame!" Sam sighed heavily as he doubled over as if in pain. His head and arms dangling free, he had to bite his lip a bit as his glasses slipped from his nose to the ground. Still, somehow, he managed to maintain the solemnness of the situation. "I'm not good enough for the World's sexiest Grandmother!"

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Sophia half expected Dante to glower or snap at her for the way she'd been examining at him, but to her surprise he let it go-- though not without a distinct flash of wariness. She knew from very vivid, mostly unpleasant memories that usually that meant the person could guess that her perception was good enough to spot any falsity or dirty secrets they might let slip... except that, in such cases, most reacted by acting very belligerently towards her, both to cover up their own uncertainties and to drive her away before such secrets could be made known. And yet this one, for all she guessed he was certainly fierce enough, didn't. It was odd.

She smiled a little as Alexei conceeded defeat and asked, "Does that mean it's my turn?" She'd have to share her pencil with Tesu, or take Alexei's, but no matter.

As Sergei's name was mentioned, though, Sophia grew thoughtful again. This might be the best way to go about finding out what had happened between Alexei and Sam... if, of course, Dante didn't set the boy off again. She tried hard not to wince at his tactless remark-- after all, he hadn't heard what Alexei had been shouting before-- and tried to phrase it more gently. "Alexei," she asked quietly, "who _is_ Sergei?" All she'd heard before was that, somehow, Sam had been responsible for his death; if the russian boy had actually clarified their relationship in the midst of everything else, she had missed it.

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"I'm Southern, so I'm immune to southern charm," Arvel said, wrinkling his nose, "and my mom is only twenty-six. But she's still too old for you!" He added, directing this comment to Jeremy, "so forget about it!" He returned his attention to Kiso, "Well... you seem nice enough to me, anyway. I... uh... hope you don't _mind_ random strangers sitting on your lap?"

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"Sergei is most certainly not a plant!" Alexei huffed, glowering darkly, "He is our brother and the only person we will ever love!" He petted the top of Erik, leaving tiny drops of blood on the cactus, "but Azazel possessed him and drowned him and we will find all of Azazel's friends and kill Them."

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