Sometimes perfect weather just /happens/ on Oahu. Perhaps it's more than just sometimes, really, considering the sort of paradise that it is. Today, however, is one of those picturesque days meant to be printed on greeting cards. One of those days meant for taking pictures with loved ones so you can show them off when you get home from vacation. The sky held a brilliant, lemony, sun that was just climbing its way to the 9am mark, and that sun lit up the vibrant, azure background like a warm flare. Clouds just didn't exist over the Windward Coast today, and so up through the trees there's nothing but a glorious blue field of sky. Shadows seem almost more shallow than usual with the lushness of the leaves somewhat thinned by winter, but the temperature is a fantastic 78 degrees Fahrenheit. Perfect for a daytime walk through the woods or stroll to one of the many swimming holes and waterfalls that can be found along the trails in the Ahupua'a 'O Kahana State Park.
In particular, the Triple Waterfall that marks the end of one of the shorter, but more scaled and decidedly more difficult hikes, seems to be just waiting for people to visit. Water flows pristine into a deep, clear pond surrounded by lush foliage and still blooming flowers that just hadn't gotten the memo about wintertime having arrived to the island. The scent of morning dew having been just finally burned away from the lower levels of the hiking path causes the smell of all those glorious, luscious flowers to fill the air along with the scent of rich, hearty earth and verdant trees. Put simply, it's a downright glorious morning.
Kai decided to go for a hike today and take advantage of the beautiful weather before he has to start work at his new job. He drove his car to the Ahupua'a 'O Kahana State Park, parked it in the visitors lot and went for an early morning hike. Being a bit of an introvert, he didn't mind going on his own to be lost in his own thoughts to recharge his batteries so to speak. He was dressed in a white X-Men t-shirt with the original team members on the front, blue boarder shorts, white sports socks and blue Adidas running shoes. He's also wearing a Seattle Mariners baseball cap on backwards, a black backpack over his shoulders and a vintage Nikon F3 manual camera on a strap around his neck. Coming up to the Triple Waterfall, he smiled warmly as he discovers the beauty of it taking a few moments to admire the scenery and then starts snapping some photos, making sure to get the blooming flowers in his shots when he can.
Lei is lounging at the end of the trail near the waterfalls, the native woman wearing a simple white bikini, taking full advantage of the mild winter. She's stretched out along what is either the fallen trunk of a thin tree, or a fallen branch from a larger tree, one of her arms extended to hold a book open above her so she can read. A backpack is set beside her perch, the denim of her shorts poking out of a half-undone zipper, with her boots beside it. While her attention is largely absorbed in her book, anyone managing to make it through the hike and to the falls at the end does get a glance before she returns to her reading.
Noah make it to the end of the hiking trail, and immediately shouldered out of his rucksack to set it on the ground at his feet. He was dressed simply in a pair of black athletics, a tan t-shirt, and hiking boots. The exhaled a chuckle as he started undoing his boots. "When you said off the beaten path, I was thinking the volcanic beach... Indeed we went for lost in the jungle." The man shook his head as he danced from one foot to the other to peel off his boots.
Molly is out and about, herself dressed in a bikini because... why not? It's Hawaii! Apparently being able to go around anywhere (more or less) without having to wear a parka or carry an umbrella is something for which, for the British woman, the novelty has not worn off. She's not barefoot though; she wears hiking boots up here. There's no getting around not wanting sticks in your feet. Today, the young student has brought her antique camera along as well, with a knapsack to put it in when she's finished; but right now she's busy snapping off pictures of trees, the sky, birds, and plenty of the waterfall.
Bjorn is making his way hiking up the trail. Seems he didn't mind going it alone in the woods, he had several times before, and it seems he's run into people just like those times before so he's never truly alone. Wearing his green board shorts, grey hiking shoes, ankle socks and a Black tee with white letters that say, 'I can't adult today Tomorrow doesn't look good either' he slows up as he spots people before him on the trail and offers a wave and an "Aloha!" to them.
Lili moved up the trail with Noah, looking smiley and happy despite the fact that it might seem a little early to have THAT much of a spring to her step. Her long, thick, dark brown, hair had been pulled back into a ponytail and then braided into a heavy rope that hung down along her spine nearly to her waist in order to keep it out of her way for the hike and whatever else was planned. Dressed for the hike, or at least as dressed as Lili would likely ever get for a hike, she had on a pair of rather brief, khaki shorts that left the majority of her lithe, dancer's legs bare. Of course, she wore some nice hiking boots today, since sandals just weren't the best idea when walking through the woods. For a top, Lili had gone for simple and just worn her pale, melon-green bikini top with a nearly see-through, white tank top over it, probably more as protection for her own backpack straps than anything. When she set the neon orange backpack down next to Noah's, she leaned in and gave him a smiling kiss on the cheek. "I figured off the beaten path could mean just about anything, so this would be nice for a change. Do you want to go for a swim?" The obviously cheerful woman looked around at the other people scattered in the area, then lifted her her arm over her head to wave to seemingly everyone, giving a bright, happy "Aloha kakahiaka!" To possibly every person there, and maybe the waterfall, too.
Enola is also lounging, her bikini is black, and she has on like 10 layers of clear zinc paste to keep her tattoos bright and skin pale. Her head is in Lei's lap as she too has ditched her hiking boots and is reading. Happy to just be out in the wilderness relaxing and spending silent time reading.
"Totally worth it." Isaac exclaims as he rounds the last crest on the path to the waterfalls, the words coming out with a little panting of breath and perhaps a touch of sarcasm but that might just be his British accent. Who he is saying this to is not clear but he does manage to smile as he takes a moment to breathe and take in the sights.
Clean shaven and with his hair slicked back, he's not quite dressed for a trek through the jungle and has a small rucksack on his back and is holding a steaming travel mug of coffee in one hand. He's wearing a garish Hawaiian shirt that he has left open, revealing the chiseled muscles underneath. Beige combat trousers with multiple pockets are held up by a dark belt that is almost obscured by the various pouches that are attached. He is wearing good hiking boots but that is more because that is what he usually wears than any intent on his part.
Isaac spots Noah up ahead and calls out. "Aloha Noah!" Waving, he takes a closer look around to see if he spots anyone else that he knows. "And Aloha Lili!" That component of the niceties dealt with, Isaac turns his attention to his coffee, taking a large sip as he starts to look for a spot to sit.
Amid the others enjoying the pool and it's glorious, morning air, two figures came into view at the top of the waterfall, on a nice outcropping that looked almost too ideal for cliff jumping into the waters below. The man was tall, cut like a creature meant to move lithely with much in the way of power in his limbs, and seemed perfectly comfortable revealing that fact as he wore nothing but a pair of white swim trunks that looked more like the wide version of a speedo. Even from the distance, his gloriously thick, somewhat longish, blonde hair shimmered almost golden in the sunlight.
The woman with the man in white was a little older, probably in her mid-40s at least, judging by the slips of silver that ran through her darker brown hair. She was likewise dressed for swimming, wearing a one-piece suit in teal that was cut somewhat matronly, displaying almost as little skin as possible for a one piece swimsuit to display. The juxtaposition was so strongly obvious that she stood out almost more than the delectably put together man she was talking to. The two of them did seem to be talking, in fact, closely. Not yelling, but they were making hand motions to the water, to the sky... perhaps the woman was a New Yorker, or at the very least of Italian decent, because she used her hands quite often to try to make her points more emphasized. All the while, the man in the white swimsuit just seemed to smile patiently, and continued to speak, without the need for large hand movements.
Loa dropped Lu.
Loa dropped Harmony.
After Kai has finished snapping off several more scenic photos with his camera, he takes a break from photography and glances around at all the other people in the area. First he recognizes Lei and Enola, giving them a little wave if they look in his direction. "Aloha." Is all he says to them not wanting to disturb them further if they are sharing an intimate moment. Next he spots Lili with Noah, whom he recognizes from the Paradise Cove Luau and gives them a polite smile when she walks by. "Morning and Aloha. Beautiful day for a hike. How are the two of you doing?" He also gives Issac a polite nod, since he's just joined Lili and Noah. Of course easily spots Bjorn, whom is hard to miss since he's practically a giant and gives the man a wave. "Hey Bjorn. How goes? You passed out there at the beach the other day." He also gives Molly a polite nod, recognizing her as well and gives a thumbs up as he points to her camera. "Nice, vintage like mine." But then his attention is drawn to the blonde haired man and the woman in white, who have appeared at the top of the outcropping on the waterfall. He puts his hand over his eyes to shield them from the glare of the sun and squints a bit. "Huh, that looks like a real nice spot up there and I bet I could get some great shots from there too."
Lei glances away from her book as others make themselves known, though pays little attention after that. Though eventually her attention is pulled away by movement she catches in the corner of her eye, prompting her to look toward the waterfall and the two atop it. After a couple moments watching the vigorous arm movements of the woman as she speaks she turns her attention back to her book, though she does take the chance to switch arms, letting her now resting arm drape across Enola's torso.
Molly flashes a grin at Kai, "Thanks, you have a pretty cool little machine there too." She waves to other people she knows, and to people she doesn't because hey, it never hurts to be friendly. "Yeah, that looks like a pretty good spot up there. I wonder where the path is?" The young student pushes her glasses up her nose, and lifts her camera to have a look through the lens, for a bit of magnification. "...Hunh. You know, I normally don't have any interest in anything that doesn't have breasts, but that guy is pretty hot, I must admit." She zooms in on the pair just a little more, and... well what the heck, she snaps a couple of pictures off. It's only film, right?
Noah's lips pressed into a thin smile as he offer Isaac a hybrid wave-salute. "Aloha, Isaac." Noah looked back to Lili, "Oklahoma has beaten paths than this island. This place that has to consider tourist-caused erosion, Lee." The man moved his hiking boots beside his ruck, then dug in it for a bottle of water and a large beach towel. "I could swim or lounge, really it's up to you. I could with lounging while watching you swim, because who wouldn't." The corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk as he offered a nod to Kai. "Aloha. Doing good except for my heart rate, at the moment. How are you doing?"
"Yeah just was such a comfortable night I guess I just was too relaxed Kai. For awhile anyway pesky Sand fleas made me pay for it though." Bjorn makes his way up to the water taking his hikers off. It seems he's ready for a swim. Looking up he frowns, a pensive look. "Hopefully that isn't who I think it is." If he ever saw those people at Halloween again it would be too soon. Maybe it's just someone who looks like him. As he didn't have a camera to really get a good look he just went about taking his shirt off revealing his own muscled self. Glancing up again as the socks come off he frowns, yeah he doesn't seem thrilled.
Lili turned her million watt smile to Kai, and then past him to Molly, and gave them both a nod. "It's absolutely a gorgeous morning for a hike, and a great day for a swim! These are exactly the kind of days where it pays to not have a boss that's watching to see whether or not No'ah'uh and I are actually in the office." Lili gave an impish little grin as she slanted a glance over to Noah and then winked to him. "The brilliance of being my own boss is that I can even drag my favorite people out with me on hikes to beautiful waterfalls on days where a ton of other people are stuck cooking on the concrete downtown." As Lili pulled her tank top off over her head, leaving her upper body in just a simple, almost comfortable looking melon-green bikini top, she turned toward the sound of Isaac's voice, waving to him with her hand while her face and arms were still covered, before she pulled the shirt the rest off and dropped it to her backpack. "Isaac! I haven't seen you in what feels like forever, how are your uh... plethora of tiny lights working out for you? Everything you wanted them to be?" She grinned, almost coyly, like she was quite obviously speaking in code to the man, before her attention was taken by the massive form of the arrived Bjorn. "Bjorn! Hey man! This reminds me of the first time I met you, down at that other little waterfall." She chuckled happily, then promptly and rather abruptly sat to the ground to undo the laces of her boots, somehow managing to work her long legs around to the point she could get them free of the footwear and socks. "I'm gonna go jump off the cliff, ku'u lei, so if you wanna watch, and just cheer me on, I'm good with it. Or you can come with me. I'm good with that, too." Lili glanced up at Noah and grinned as she set her boots and socks next to her day-glo orange backpack.
Enola wiggles her toes and manages to look upside down at Kai when he waves and waves back. She easily returns to her book and smiles snuggling down a bit more when Lei's arm drapes over her. She doesn't mind cause it isn't as if she's going to have her 'tan' ruined. She enjoys the day and her book and the 'quiet' even. She looks up past her book to at least see that there might be splashes happening and does seem to mind that at all.
Isaac finds a nice little spot to sit in, a large boulder behind him with grass underneath providing both shelter and shielding him from the sunlight. Slipping the backpack from his shoulders, he opens it and takes out a towel and a few other items. Setting the towel on the ground, he takes a seat and lets out a long sigh. He offers little nods and waves to those he sees, the coffee doing wonders for his mood apparently. He spots Bjorn and blinks a few times. "There must be something in the water around here." Taking another sip of his coffee, he grins as Lili replies. "The LEDs? Oh yeah, they're great. They really brighten up the place. Thing is, I left them on last night and I ended up waking up super early, you know how it is." Grinning, he settles back against the boulder to enjoy the view.
The two figures at the top of the waterfall were still talking, but they had moved a little closer to the edge and the woman was peering over it like she was studying the water. She kept nodding as the man was speaking, then turned to face him. The man in the brief, white shorts spread his hands a bit, as if he were making an offer. Or perhaps just offering a hug, even as he cocked his head to the side and stared at the woman in the one-piece teal swimsuit. They stood that way for a few long moments, the woman just looking at the briefly attired young man with her as the waters continued to fall with their soothingly steady crash into the pool some 15 feet below them.
"Thanks, Molly. Is yours a Nikon or Canon..." Kai replies to the young student but then when she starts talking about how hot that dude in white is on the outcropping he realizes that maybe her attention is elsewhere than nerding out over cameras. "Huh? Okay...I'll take your word for it. He certainly looks like he works out a lot, I'll give him that." He glances at his own arms, which are fairly muscular themselves but he's no body builder like that dude and nods to Bjorn with a grin, "Yeah no problem buddy and uh...who do you think that dude might be up there?" But then Bjorn is taking off his shirt, revealing yet another muscle bound heavy weight and he lowers his arms to his sides since he's probably a middle weight at best. He glances at Molly, "Hey if you want to go up there, I'll go with you and we can try to get scope out a good vantage point for photos." Although, he does hesitate before making his way up there as he wants to hear what Bjorn has to say first. Ya never know if your walking into a trap before listening to people's knowledge on things. But then his attention is drawn to Lili, who's smile was brighter than the Death Star explosion. "It certainly is miss Lili and you've just made this day even brighter with your positive energy. But when she pulls off her top while speaking to the other's, he turns his face away from her to not accidentally stare as his cheeks redden a bit and addresses Molly once more. "Lets just hear what Bjorn has to say before we head up there." He then glances up towards that outcropping once more and decides to bring his camera up to his eye to snap a photo of those two as well, since it does make a pretty picture.
Kai also adds to Noah, "I'm doing great thanks. Enjoy your swim if you guys are going in for a dip."
Lei closes her book, marking her page as she does, then gently pushes Enola's head away so that she can sit up. Now closed book is transferred to her backpack before her back arches in a languid stretch. She glances up at the top of the fall again before she turns toward Bjorn, easily picking the big guy out among the others. "You know," Leilani comments, her tone fairly dry. "Every time I run into you I always end up having to wash the taste of something horrid out of my mouth. I get that it's been all of twice, but if this is the third... Well, you know what they say about how many times it takes before it's enemy action, yeah?"
"Canon, naturally." Molly grins sideways at Kai; there's no body out there that's gorgeous enough to distract Molly from nerdy things. Well, no *male* bodies, anyway. "And sure, let's go up there afterwards, yeah?" She snaps one more picture of the pair, before letting the camera hang from the strap around her neck as she turns to listen to what Bjorn has to say. "You've encountered those two before, hunh? Are they bad news?" She rests her hands on her hips, hooking her thumbs into her bikini as she does. "Though I mean, really, you'd think the middle of broad daylight with lots of people around would be a poor time to be starting something." The young woman pushes her bangs out of her eyes, as she squints at Lei and perks an eyebrow upwards; but that's not for her to comment on, so she doesn't. "Uhh... so uhh, yeah. Should we be staying away from 'em?"
Noah breathed out a chuckle, "I think you're missing the other part about being the boss, which is when you take everyone out of the office to go on a hike, the place is empty. Too many of those days and you'll end up with an out of business sale." He shook his head, pulling his t-shirt over his head and setting it on his ruck, then picking off his socks as well. His eyes moved between Lili and Isaac, settling on Lili, "That's... Great that you're... Concerned with his LEDs... Guess it's good to save on energy with the amount of time ACs run..." The man shrugged his shoulder and made his way down to the lowers pool to test the water.
Lili snickered as she pushed to standing, her hands moving to undo her shorts simultaneously. "That's the problem with those bright little LED's, Isaac. They can do wonders for your spirit, but they can seriously injure your sleep habits if you forget to shut them down for the night and leave them blazing." Shimmying her hips a little, Lili managed to divest herself of her shorts, which were promptly set onto her backpack with the tank top, and left her lower half clothed in the matching, melon-green bikini bottoms that went with her top. The only break up in the melon green color seems to be a purple palm tree image on the front of her right hip. Inclining her head to Kai, Lili gave him a grateful half nod. "Mahalo, Kai. I like to think that all you need for a good day to be better is the smile that shows the rest of the world just how good the day really is." She winked to the blushing man, then Lili motioned up to the top of the falls with a flicker of her fingers. "I'm headed up to jump off, if you guys want to come with me. I've climbed up there so many times I definitely know the easy way, so you don't have to climb up the rough way with your cameras." Lili made the offer of a guided, easier climb to the top of the waterfall to Kai, Molly, and Bjorn before she let out a bright laugh for Lei's words to the big man. "Oh man, Bjorn. I guess I'm lucky, I've only ever had good tasting things in my mouth around you. Let's agree to not end up eating whatever you've fed her?" Lili grinned and motioned to Lei, giving the other woman a playful wink. Moving toward the waterfall, Lili stopped to give Noah a kiss on the back of his shoulder, then skirted around the basin of the pool, headed toward the easier side to climb up, giving time for anyone that wanted to follow her to do so. "Nah, No'ah'uh, we're too good about forwarding our phones." Lili seemed amused by this, as if they may have even brought them along in their packs.
The frown deepens as he looks at the two up on the cliff. "It's hard to say definitely, but it looks like the guy I bumped into on Halloween. If so I'm sorry for that lady... And if he tries to get you to stare into any mirrors.. hell pretty much probably safe to do the opposite of whatever he suggests to you." Bjorn sets his wallet and keys on his pile of other clothes, and hops into the water at that, which since he's at the edge of the pool he may potentially not go very far down into it.
Isaac is idly paying attention to the conversations that are going on around him, listening with half an ear as Lei makes a comment towards Bjorn. Raising an eyebrow, he turns his head to regard the hulking man-mountain. "Dude, pineapple juice. Just saying... you'll get less complaints!" He turns his attention to the top of the waterfall, frowning for a moment as he starts to wonder what everyone is talking about. "Noah? You're not jumping as well? Come on, I've been dying to see you in speedos. Also, energy conservation is everybody's problem, more people need to care dude." As he says this, Isaac puts on an exaggerated hippy accent, flashing a smile at Noah as he does so.
Enola sits up and stretches when she's ousted from Lei's lap, and she looks to Bjorn and smiles giving a little wave. Of course she's just gotten lost and had bad luck with ghosts around him which is... every day so no real change.
Up at the top of the waterfall, the woman dressed in the teal, one piece, swimsuit finally nodded to the younger, blond man, and seemed to shrug her shoulders. Whatever had been a discussion between them before seemed to be over, as she no longer waved her arms around, and didn't seem to be quite so animated.
A moment later, the obviously younger man reached out, wrapped his arms around the woman in teal, then pulled her close to lay a kiss on her. It wasn't just a simple kiss really, and it seemed to shock the woman enough that her arms fell slack and her knees gave out. Luckily, the young man in the white swimsuit caught her easily, and continued the kiss for a few more moments. Strangely, as they separated, the light seemed to shine rather brighter between the two of them for a moment, like a solar flare against the lens of the camera, only visible to the naked eye for anyone that managed to be looking up at the two figures at just that moment. Then, the man in white helped the older woman in teal to stand back to her feet, giving her a satisfied, wide smile that was clear enough to be seen even from far away.
"Canon, nice but not as good as Nikon. Ha, just kidding." Kai grins and gives Molly a wink, patting his Nikon gently after letting it hang on his neck from the straps. He blinks after Bjorn's comments about the blonde man on the outcropping, "Oh, I see...well thanks for the info and I'll be careful about the mirrors thing. Well, lets go up there and check things out. If what Bjorn says is true, that lady might need our assistance but if everything's okay then we still get our photo ops." He glances over at Lei, quirking an eyebrow slightly at her comments to Bjorn and rubs the back of his neck. "Don't worry Lei, I'm not even going to bother to say stay back, I've got this. Nobody ever listens anyways and I'm hoping you won't have to get a bad taste in your mouth, since there may not even be any issues that need that kind of resolution." He nods to Lili, keeping his eyes on the back of her head as she leads them up the pathway towards the waterfall outcropping. He motions for Molly to follow in behind him and says, "Dude just kissed her silly...Oahu seems to have this effect on people I guess." He shakes his head and follows after Lili as fast as he can to get up there and mutters under his breath, "Better not be any freaking merfolk around here."
The sun blazes overhead in the clear blue sky.
Molly perks an eyebrow upwards, then grins at Kai, "The best camera is always the one you're most comfortable with. Or, so I'm told, I haven't been able to devote as much time to actually using a camera as I'd like. More often I'm on the other end of one, when the occasion arises that I get to be involved. I really do enjoy modelling." She takes the time to swap out her roll of film while she speaks, popping the new one in and then, well, what the heck; she looks up and snaps a couple more photos of the couple up above. As fortune would have it, at the precise moment when the light flares between them the shutters of her camera are wide open and take in the entire event. "...Hunh. Well, I'll have to check that out later." She lets the camera hang in front of her belly once more, before she nods to Lili, "Alright then, lead the way." She bobs her head to Bjorn, "You coming?"
Noah let out a laugh, "I have mixed feelings about call forwarding. The point of people not being in the office is not having to answer the phone. I feel it's ultimately breaking down the system." His lips pressed into another smile as he waded out into the water without temperature hesitation. The man shook his head at Isaac, "Not making jump pay anymore. Besides, this is the better side to seeing the facial expressions as people jump down." A quiet chuckle slipped from him, "The brownouts on this island are some of the most entertaining times on the island. Too many LEDs and we may stop having them." He kept away from the falls as not to be in the way of falling people, electing to go with a calm swim.
Looking to Molly at her question, he looks at the cliff some. He looks back up at the couple and says finally, "I'll just swim down here for now. Go have a good time. I did enough high diving in the services, even if the water is warm and comfortable here instead of frigid and ball shrinking." He places his arms on the sides and lowers himself down into the water, watching all the others as they go to do their dives, or pictures, or whatever they need to climb the cliff for.
Lili glanced back behind her and flashed that wide, happy smile to the people following. Leading the way, the lithe, leanly muscled dancer took her entourage up the side of the cliff, a direction that could almost just be hiked up, with only a little bit of scrambling over a jagged rock or two. It didn't take all that long, either, and Lili was at the top of the 18 foot tall waterfall. Once there, Lili turned and offered her hand to each person that followed, helping them up over the last lip of the climb. "I hope you guys love this view, I think it's amazing. Just don't fall over with your cameras, you know?" She walked a few feet to the outcropping that the blonde man and the woman in teal were standing on and flashed the two of them a brilliant smile. "Aloha kakahiaka, you two. Are you jumping? I don't want to cut in line." She motioned to the edge, since the woman and man were fairly damn close to it when they'd had their little impromptu, knee melting kiss. Moving a little to the side of the apparent couple, Lili waved down to Noah, Isaac, Enola and Bjorn, before blowing them all a big ole kiss.
Enola leans back to look up from where she's been 'sun bathing' by which she lays in the sun but has on so much clear metal paste on her skin that the UV avoids her.
"Yeah, I'm quite happy where I am thank you. Also, it's not just the faces, it's the funny noises they make when they realize they're still falling." Isaac nods and grins to Noah, turning then to watch the steady procession of people making their way to the top. "That and my breakfast would get wet, can't be having that." Breakfast now on his mind, Isaac reaches into his pack and takes out a brown paper wrapper baguette and a jar of honey which he opens and places to his left. "The view is quite something though." Isaac says, having to agree with the others... he probably isn't talking about the waterfall though.
Up at the top of the cliff, the man and the woman seem to be talking quietly, and greeting the new arrivals. From below, it's easy to see the man is motioning for the woman in teal to jump into the water below, giving her a wickedly sure of himself smile. The woman seems to be hesitating, and keeps peeking over the edge, like she's judging the distance. Apparently even the mind blowing kiss hadn't made it so she was just going to jump off.
Up at the top of the waterfall, Lili, Kai, and Molly are privy to the conversation between the two people. The man's voice is rich and delightful, like touching something sleek and soft, but it's rubbing along you at the same time. "I can promise you, it's already set. Go ahead and try it. Jump. You'll see. Everything I promised is real."
The woman seems to be doubting, and her voice is a bit more... aged. Like she's been talking in front of people for decades, and it's left her with a sort of contralto with a hollow edge to it. "Are you absolutely sure? After just that? That's all it took?" The woman in teal looked back at the man in the white suit, as if gauging his honesty.
Enola runs off to check on Lei wherever she went and if Lei comes back she gets lost somewhere silly bad penny.
Kai grins at Molly, "Very true and it's not the camera, it is the operator that takes the photos. Oh your into modelling? That's great, you've got the look for it and you might as well use it. I'm lucky just to get my photo in a high school year book." He quirks an eyebrow slightly when Molly says Hunh, "Oh you got something good? I must have missed it..." When Lili leads them to the outcropping, he is blown away by the breathtaking beauty from up there and finds himself bringing his camera up to take pictures but lowers it, remembering his priorities. "Thanks Lili and the view is awesome just like you said." He then looks over at the blonde haired man and the teal swimsuit lady, as Lili speaks to them overhearing the conversation that they had between each other as well. Patiently, he waits until Lili is done talking to them and interjects, "Oh, hi there just some friendly neighborhood tourist with a camera wanting some photos." He then looks over at the lady with a concerned expression saying in a gentle voice, "Is everything alright? I can see that your nervous and if you don't want to jump that's okay. How about you stand back away from the edge, let Lili here go first and see how you feel afterwards?" He holds out a hand towards the lady in teal for her to take it if she's so inclined but keeps the blonde man in his peripheral.
Molly grins sideways at Kai, "Well, I'm not exactly a professional, but I do when someone's paying. Or I just sit still sometimes at the University for the life studies classes and get pictures drawn or painted of me. It's a lot of fun, I highly recommend it." She pauses, and ahems softly, "As long as you don't mind being naked in front of a bunch of artists, and a teacher who's trying to coach them on drawing... well, you." She stops at the top, and puts her camera to work taking a couple pictures of the view, before returning her attention to the matter at hand. "Hey... yeah, if you're not feeling comfortable jumping, lady, don't jump? Nobody'll think less of you, and I'm sure you're... boyfriend, is he? Just guessing?" She shrugs her shoulders lightly, "I'm sure he won't mind, right?"
Noah dipped his head into the water, coming back out to wipe the water from his eyes. Smiling, he offered a wave to Lili up top. He nodded to Isaac, "Yeah, but the noises you get from the top or bottom, the face expressions are bottom only." His eyes moved back to the top and called up to her, "I think you're good with half a dozen swimmers, gravity does most of the work anyway!" The man exhaled a chuckle and continued to lazily swim in the pool beyond.
As the others get ready up top to do the diving thing, Bjorn rests comfortably in the water, merely waiting for the show to begin as it were. He waits a bit to see what the lady in Teal does, but as her and Lili are up there and it looks like at least /one/ of them is ready to dump he cheers and claps in encouragement.
Lili looked over at the man and woman on the ledge near her and nodded. "I can go first, that's not a problem. I'll show you, it's deep enough and it's a ton of fun. Plus, you have a whole cheering section down there, and plenty of good guys in the water that will help you if you need it. Lots of good people around today." Lili winked at the woman in teal, attempting to help her feel better, before she glanced at the tall, blond, man and offered him a grin. "Not that you don't have a really nice cheering squad of your own, of course. But sometimes, you need someone at the other end when you're landing far away just to make sure you feel good to go." As the woman in teal stepped back from the edge of the naturally created platform, Lili stepped up closer and lifted her arms over her head. Letting out a vibrant cry of excitement, Lili leapt forward into the air. She didn't do anything really fancy, but she also didn't seem to have any trouble at all with the height, and she was still smiling when she landed into the water, feet first, without any excess flailing. A couple of moments later, she came back up, and waved up to the top to encourage the woman up above to come on down. "The water's AWESOME!" She called, then spun around to give Bjorn, Noah, and of course Isaac huge smiles, her cheeks a little lit up with the speeding of her pulse and the rush of adrenaline through her body.
Isaac watches with interest as the human lemmings make their way to the top of the waterfall and lets out a laugh as he watches Lili make her dive. Raising a hand to scratch at his ear, he nods to Noah. "Not enough funny noises mate, I'd file a complaint!" There does seem to be something else going on at the top of the waterfall but he can't hear much from where he is so he sits back to relax, putting his food to one side and laying down flat with his hands crossed at his waist. "Give me a shout if anyone belly flops. For the moment though, I'm just going to bask for a while."
The blond man seems to watch with interest as Lili took up position at the edge of the waterfall and then leapt without any compunction. The grin on his lips as he peeked over the side to check on her was one of decidedly less than wholesome thoughts, and it was easily visible as he looked down into the water, fearlessly standing on the very edge of the ledge above. "Nicely done, miss!" His voice was decidedly nice on the ears, warm and almost touchable, even with him calling down as he was from almost 20 feet up. He turned then and talked to the woman that was standing there with him, motioning for her to head to the edge.
The woman in teal finally moved to the edge of the rather perfectly created diving platform, then took a couple of slow, steadying breaths. The woman stared down at the water and waited, but once Lili had swum far enough away, she closed her eyes and clenched her hands repeatedly. When she jumped, it wasn't with any words, but a scream of terror as she threw herself off the diving ledge and out into the nothing below. If people had been looking to see a little fear on faces, now was the time, because as the woman in teal hit the water, she was flailing and kicking her arms and legs, and created what looked like quite the painful splash.
After she leapt off, the man in white moved to sit on the edge of the ledge above, his legs dangling over, as he leaned and watched the water. A smirk rested on his lips when the woman seemed to stay down under water.
Up at the top, it's easy to hear the blonde man telling the woman just to jump. Just to trust him, and that everything he promised is true. She doesn't talk this time, and when she does jump, the guy doesn't seem at all surprised, nor does he suck in his breath in some sort of shared pain for her landing. He literally just watches.
Kai blinks at Molly when she mentions modelling nude in public. "Uh...yeah, that's not for me and kudos to you for being able to do that." He then hears and watches Lili's excited scream as she dives off into the waterfall pool below. "Wow and I thought Daredevil had no fear. Good for her and she's a really good diver." He says aloud but then turns to see that the lady in teal did in fact jump before he could convince her otherwise. "Uh...oh wait, drats...is she okay?" He peers off the ledge to the pool, seeing that Lili is alright but heard the lady in teal screaming when she leapt off into the water but can't see her now as she was still under the water. He turns to the blonde haired pretty boy, giving him a rather stern expression and folds his arms over his chest. "Hey, that wasn't cool and she was pretty scared if you hadn't noticed? What's your problem anyways? You kiss the poor lady, then convince her to jump when she didn't really want too and now your ogling some other guy's girl..." He shakes his head at the man but is keeping his cool for now.
Molly shrugs her shoulders, and casts a wink at Kai, "Anyone can model nude in public, you just take your clothes off and sit still. I used to think I couldn't either." She lifts her camera to take another picture of the view, but before she can get around to it first Lili is jumping, and then the woman in teal. "...Hold on, is she okay?" She dashes over to the edge and leans over for a look; she stares down at the water where the woman has not yet surfaced. Then she turns to the man in the white shorts, and her eyes narrow as she scowls. "You wanker," she snaps. "You, you..." she lifts a hand to point a single, accusatory finger at the man, "I'm going to expose you for what you are." Just as soon as she figures out what he is. With that she turns and hurries off down the path, to go see if the woman needs help.
Noah smiled as Lili came diving down from the top. He swam a bit closer to Lili, keeping his distance from the immediate drop zone. A chuckle came out when he saw Lili's face, "Your adrenaline junkie is showing I think." The man looked thoroughly amused as he glanced up to the woman in teal screamed on the way down, but winced at the impact. "That one may have hurt a bit..." He continued to wait for the woman to surface, moving to get a vantage on the woman under the surface of the water before looking back to Lili, "Alright, she moving so there's no need to play lifeguard at the moment." He grinned, "You're going to jump again, so I won't tie you up."
Seeing her hit the way she does, Bjorn grimaces. "Shite..." He starts to wade out toward her but then Noah mentions she's fine. He looks back, but then looking down, she does indeed seem fine. Still, unless she's used to holding her breath, Bjorn submerges himself under the water to make his way over toward her, just in case. He doesn't move to grab her, but stays close just in case surprise turns into something worse.
Lili giggled happily as she swam toward Noah, her dark blue eyes glimmering with elation. "That was so fun, baby. Was that the lady up there I heard?" She turned and looked around, curious as to where the lady was. But when Noah looked down through the water and seemed to spot her, Lili relaxed just a little bit more. Swimming a little closer to Noah, Lili splashed him a touch as she swooped over and gave him a quick kiss, still grinning her face off. Then she turned and started toward the edge of the natural basin below the waterfalls, heading toward the path up the side again. Because you better believe she was going for another jump. And Up she went! As she passed Molly on her way down, Lili gave her a huge smile. "You should come jump with me, it's so fun! And the water feels great today." Lili's preternatural cheerfulness certainly hadn't waned in the onslaught of adrenaline, in face, the chipper Hawaiian seemed ever more peppy now than she had before. Like someone had shot nitro into her jets.
The blond man wearing a white swimsuit, also known as Lu, slowly turned his head and looked up at Kai, eyebrows raised incredulously. "Man you are holier than a nun, you know that? I'm pretty sure that whatever business exists between the woman and I is our own, and not yours. And I'm also pretty sure that there's nothing at all wrong with taking a moment to appreciate one of G-d's beautiful creatures as she takes on a cliff that makes most men weak in the knees. Either you're blind, or maybe a unich if you hadn't noticed her." Lu motioned with his hand down at the water below him, and gave Kai a an incredulous expression before he turned a rakish grin to Molly. "Oh darling, expose me all you want. I've never been shy." He watched as she stormed off, taking a moment to stare firmly at Molly's bikini clad form before he glanced over at Kai. "Oh, sorry, is that one yours? I mean, I could pay for the viewing, but it seems like they're really giving it away for free." Lu waggled his fingers a little through the air, like he was making light of the fact that he was getting something he'd normally pay for, entirely for free. And it was oooooh such a wonderful treat for the blonde man, as he sat giving Kai his smug smirk.
The woman that had leapt off the cliff after Lili was still under the water. She seemed to be smiling widely, and as Bjorn approached her, the teal-clad, slightly older woman waved to him like they were standing on a sidewalk passing one another. She even opened her mouth to talk, then seemed to laugh, when she realized she was still under water. There was no panic there, even as that realization kicked in, she simply maintained that strangely happy smile, and waved to Bjorn again when the oral Aloha failed her.
It takes quite a bit to get Kai pissed off but if the right buttons are pushed, even the most stoic person can lose their shit and when it happens, it ain't pretty. As he listens to Lu, his calm expression begins to fade and his face starts getting red but it ain't from shyness. First his neck tenses up, then his jawline and the red rises from the neck to fill his entire face as the man moves from disrespecting Lili to Molly. "Listen to me you pompous ass piece of shit! I'm only going to say this once, I don't know what your fucking problem is because I have no beef with you but now you've gone and made this personal." He takes off the sling around his neck that is attached to his camera and puts it down beside his backpack that he has slid off his shoulders to place on the ground beside him away from the ledge, not taking his eyes off Lu when he does this and then walks closer to the blonde haired man waggling his fingers in the air with that smug look. "If you open your mouth one more time and disrespect my friends again, we are going to have ourselves a very big problem. Do I make myself crystal clear?" Kai's fists are clenched, the veins in his forearms are almost popping out and from the expression on his face, he's one very serious pissed off Acupuncturist.
Molly stops on the way down as Lu speaks to her, and looks over her shoulder long enough to snap "You'll wish you were hiding, by the time I'm done with you, buster. And you can stare at my ass while I'm on the way down this path all you want, but guess what; I'm gay, and you're certainly not my type." She grinds her teeth and shakes her head at Kai, "Don't punch him, it's not worth it yet." She stalks off down the path, and nods once to Lili as she passes her on her way back up. "Careful, that guy is a real wanker. The one in white, not Kai, obviously." She carries on down the path and heads off back the way she came. "I'm going to go develop my picture," She grumbles to herself.
Noah continued to look are the woman in the water as he accepted the kiss from Lili, and his expression became increasingly confused. "Yeah... I'll come once the landing is clear of..." The man held to an expression of someone attempting to do calculus in their head, glancing at his wrist for the watch that wasn't there. He slowly headed to the edge of the water, "Lee, I know the big guy with her, but if she starts sucking in water, things can go bad quickly, and it's not like we have a road for the ambulance to arrive on, you know?"
She seemed to almost be breathing underwater... which, stranger things have happened, but if she's just in shock that means she'll be drowning soon and that's not good. Bjorn doesn't know if she knows sign language, and he only knows basic gestures his military uses, nothing official. And as such he's forced trying to mimic a communication to get her to get out of the water. He points to her and him, and gestures with a thumb out of the water, and then points up and makes a gesture of someone diving down there between them. Then he offers the lady a hand, a pleading look as he floats down there. At least it wasn't pool water so no pesky chlorine to hurt his eyes. But he hoped that she'd take his hand and get out of the bottom before things went from bad to worse potentially.
Lili blinked at Molly, looking a little surprised. "Oh, Ok." She nodded at the other woman, then turned to look back at Noah as he called out to talk to her. "If she has a problem, I can call for a Life Flight. Is she OK?" Lili looked down the path back to the water, then up toward the jumping area, and as she was closer to the jumping area, she hurried that direction, coming up on Kai squaring off against Lu, who was still sitting leisurely on the edge of the ledge. She blinked again, then looked at Kai and raised her brows. "Kai? Brah, just ease up. You don't wanna do fightings up here on top of a waterfall, man. I promise. That's how bad skull injuries happen. Even worse than when someone wipes out on the coral, because at least the EMTs can get to the beach real easy, you know?" Lili managed to be a little convincing, but maybe it's the fact that she's still dressed in a bikini, completely wet from head to toe, and maybe even still a little jacked up on adrenaline, but it's not quite enough to completely calm the man. Maybe take the edge off. But not sheath the knife.
Lu took a slow, steady, breath, then pushed himself up to standing in a smooth, easy motion that belied his height. As he stood up fully, he was decidedly a few inches taller than Kai, and didn't feel the need to move away from the edge of the ledge he'd been sitting on. Molly's words took his attention for a moment and he glanced back at her, grinning rakishly all over again. "If you make me thoroughly wrung out to the point I wished I was hiding, I would applaud you, little... girl?" He made the last a question, before Lu let out a rich, dark, burst of laughter, and then turned his attention back to Kai. Of course, Lili came up to the top of the cliff, then, and Lu simply cleared his throat, grinning slanted and entirely too knowingly at Kai. "She's right, Kai. You don't want to fight up here on this cliff. You probably shouldn't fight me at all, because I will ensure you are blind, unable to speak, and unable to do more than hear only ringing in your ears for the rest of your life. I'm not offering to fight you, I'm simply letting you know what will happen if you attempt to fight me." The voice that left the man's mouth wasn't sarcastic. It wasn't angry, it was almost bored. Quiet. Filled with a slow outpouring of strength that Kai could actually feel marching up his skin, along his arms, over his shoulders. The slight glow that started in Lu's eyes was likewise quite obvious to Kai.
The woman in teal under the water continued to smile at Bjorn, but did reach out and accept his hand. When she did so, however, she didn't start kicking toward the surface of the water. Instead she pulled herself closer to the big man, until she was in range to kiss him. When she did, she blew air into his mouth, clean, sweet air, fresh like Bjorn had taking a breath from above the water's surface. It only lasted a moment, but it refreshed the air in his lungs entirely, and when the woman in teal leaned back, she was laughing underwater, delighted, as she squeezed Bjorn's hand.
Kai doesn't back down from Lu when he rises up to his full height, looking up at the man and staring at him defiantly as if daring the blonde haired pretty boy to throw the first punch. Through his rising rage, Lili's presence and words have gotten through to him, past his burning ears and into his brain. His jaw clenched tighter when Lu's threatened him with what he would do to him if they did fight. The quiet strength that emanated from Lu's words battered into him like a physical wound causing the nails from his clenched fists to draw blood. Blinking, closing his eyes for a split second he's able to draw upon lessons learned from his youth, his martial arts training and Taoist teachings that lashing out in anger is not a solution, it is a reaction and that isn't who he is anymore. He takes a deep breath, then exhales slowly and opens his eyes looking up at Lu then slowly unclenches his fists, while consciously relaxing his jaw and body. Imagining the negative chi, being expelled with each exhale and glances towards Lili, "Your right." Without another word, he turns exposing his back to Lu and picks up his camera as well as his backpack, slinging one over his shoulder then the camera over his neck. He silently thanks Obi-Wan and gives Lili's forearm a gentle squeeze in thanks as he passes her on his way down the path back towards the pool, then goes to find a quiet place to meditate away from everyone and further reflect on what just happened.
The sands of time were getting to Noah at this point, and the man shook his head. "Nope, that does it, she's high or something." The man dove back into the water and started free styling to where the woman was at the bottom of the water and swam down to her and Bjorn. Maneuvering around her, Noah slipped his arms under hers and kicked off the bottom to bring her up to the surface. Breaking the top of the water, Noah took another breath. "Drown on someone else's watch..."
Bjorn wasn't one for accepting random kisses, so it caught him by surprise. But as he found he got air he blinked, stunned. He went from a stunned look as he was holding the ladies hand however to shock as a Noah was suddenly there hauling her to the surface, and so he went to the surface as well. Blinking the water from his eyes, he was about to say something, but what do you say to what /that/ was? And so he just gives a final look to the lady to make sure there's no other ill effects and then looks up the cliff to see if the douche bag is still up there, and to see where everyone else is at.
Lili let out a slow breath and nodded her head to Kai, offering him a wide, sweet, smile as he chilled out and finally gathered up his things. Once the man was walking down the path, Lili looked up at Lu and narrowed her eyes a little. "You know, you're sexy and everything, but you should work on the whole... easy on the nerves part. Easy on the eyes is great. Easy on the nerves is better." Stepping a little bit to the side, Lili took two running steps and leapt off of the cliff, heading down into the water below, where people were, yeah, but the direction she'd jumped put her way out in the center of the pool below the water falls, instead of in the normal landing zone. When she hit, it was with a bit less grace than she'd managed the first time, but she'd decidedly been going more for distance than flare. Lili didn't stay under the water for long, and quickly started kicking over toward the side where Noah, Bjorn, and the lady in the teal swimsuit were gathering at the edge of the pool.
The sound of intensely masculine, shiver inducing, laughter could be heard from atop the cliff as Lu watched Kai leave, and then watched Lili leap off of the cliff side into the water below. He stepped to the edge of the cliff himself, almost looking like he'd follow, before he gave a half-assed salute mixed with a wave to those below. There was a sound, like rustling wings from hundreds of birds, and then the man in the white swimsuit was simply gone. One moment there, the next, simply gone. No splash indicating he'd jumped, no sound of falling. Lu just wasn't there anymore.
As the woman in teal was pulled up to the surface of the water, she sucked in a deep breath of air and let out a little sound as she started laughing all over again. It took a moment, but she finally pushed out of Noah's arms and got herself pulled up onto the side of the natural basin that formed the pool under the waterfalls. "He wasn't lying. It works." She started to laugh again as she got to her feet, then pressed her hands to her chest and nodded to Bjorn and then Noah. "Thank you boys. You've earned a merit badge, but I'm perfectly alright. I'm going to be perfectly alright for quite some time, now." The woman in teal turned and started off down the path toward the entrance of the forest, away from the pool of water and the waterfalls above it. She didn't seem to be walking like she was inebriated, but she randomly burst into happy, bright, laughter as she walked along.
Noah kicked towards the shoreline as the woman slipped out of his grasp. His face went back to that of complete confusion when the woman spoke. Really it was horrifying confusion as he swept his hand through the air, "What the hell is wrong with this island?" Noah shook his head, blinking a couple times before clearing his throat. "Yeah... You're welcome I guess?" he offers to the woman in teal before looking back up to the cliff to Lili as if she had an answer to something that he couldn't form into words.
A sigh is given as he heads back to shore. "Not as bad as the last time as far at things go, unless he did it and made her pay a terrible price for that..." Getting out of the water, he moves to put his shirt on, not caring that it gets wet, and then puts his hikers on, socks going into his pocket as he's still soaking wet. He says to Noah, "She could breathe under water. It's not the weirdest thing I've seen here, unfortunately." A sigh and he gives a smile, albeit weak to Lili and a wave to the both of them, before starting down the path as well. Seems dear ol' Lu ruined the day.
Lili finished swimming over to the edge of the pool, in time to see the woman in teal walk away sounding like a happy camper. "That guy up there kind of seems like he rubbed Kai REALLY the wrong way. He had big juju, too, I could feel it walking across my skin." Lili let out a soft whistle along with a shudder and looked up, blinking as she noticed that Lu was no longer atop the cliff. "Huh. Ok then, he's gone. That's good, it means I can just go back to having a good time and get some nice swimming in." Lili chuckled and moved over toward Noah, reaching out to rub her hand along his shoulder softly. "You want to come up and jump with me this time, or you gonna chill out down here a while longer?" Turning toward Bjorn, Lili lifted her hand and offered him a wave, along with a warm smile. "I'll see you soon, Bjorn. Take care, neh?" Worry creased her eyebrows together, before she turned and looked at Noah, curiously. "Wait, did you want to leave? We can, if you aren't feeling like hanging here. But... everything's gone. We can just chill and enjoy the day now." She shrugged a little, Lili apparently already having moved past the weird. Because this is Oahu.
Noah stood there, blinked, then gave a slow nod to Bjorn. "That would explain how she was going for the world record and all..." His eyes shut tight for a moment as he attempted to sort his thoughts. "I think I can make that leap... Breath underwater should be acceptable in my world." He took a cleansing breath, and offered a nod to Lili, "Yeah, Lee, if you want to keep jumping off the rocks, we can jump off, because that's normal." The man let out a dry chuckle, "It should be fine, I'm not okay with people embracing the weird when there are people around, because it ends up causing panic, and I try to save the drowning people that aren't drowning."
Lili chuckled softly and came a little closer to Noah, waggling her brows. "You're so awesome. And I'm sure she wasn't trying to create panic. I think she just sounded really happy. Let's go have some fun, though. This is our hookie day this week. And next week you get to choose. So today... let's go have some fun together, ku'u aloha. And now, we know that if we see the dude in the white speedo show back up, we leave. Cause that's just gonna put a downer on everything if he shows up twice." Lili winked to Noah and leaned in to kiss him softly on the mouth, not splashing water up onto him this time. Afterward, she got out of the water entirely and started back up the cliff, because Lili was obviously going to be jumping off that thing over and over until someone distracted her or said 'when'. Or maybe til she got hungry, and it was time to eat.
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