Here be Dragons (Monster Hunt, Arc/Lani)

Zoe had already answered her door, while the chakram girls were still scrambling to make their way to answer. What Candace and Glyndwr would find would only mess with Aurora suspicions more. Apparently, they had room service covered, and this meant that it was just going to be... delivered to them. They had their pick of options, however, and anything they didn't want could be offered to the others or brought back to the kitchen, as it remained covered until they unwrapped the dishes themselves.

Glyndwr looked between the person delivering the food and the delivery itself a couple times, sighing, before looking back to Aurora. "I don't know what's going on, but, like, are we taking some of this, or..?"

Candy does as Candy does, however, and as Glyndwr was figuratively scratching his head she was looking around what was being offered without any qualms. She'd even try to get Rogue involved in it.

Zoe had already taken some food, as evidenced by some extra things being on the carts. The chakram girls were also now looking at the options to decide for themselves. Rogue, behind his girlfriend, grumbled and walked over, eyeing the food. If Zoe had taken some then she knew it was safe, but Rogue had also forcibly built up immunities to various things, so he wouldn't have cared much for himself. With a sigh, he joined her, taking a plate and drink for himself before making his way to the not-quite-kitchenette inside. It at least had a table area for them to eat at.

Aurora ran a hand through her wild hair. With a sigh and a nod, she proceeded over, grabbing way too much fruit as well as some substantial food for herself. "I'll call the school." She told him, not seeming bothered enough to suspect anything threatening, if nothing else.

With Aurora taking some of the food, Glyndwr also picked out a dish for himself. "Be nice to at least know who's doing this," he said to Aurora after he returned inside. 

Even if Candy had picked up her own meal before Rogue did, she still ended up seated at the table before Rogue managed to amble his way over.

The assassin was mumbling something at her about moving too fast. Perhaps some of his issue was jetlag itself; he opted to take a shower after eating. That should at least start to wake him up more and set his mind on straight. Still, he ate mostly in silence, responding whenever candy seemed to seek some sort of conversation from him.

Aurora nodded her agreement, but nonetheless focused on eating. They had skipped lunch after all, so they needed to make sure that there was at least one meal in their systems. Hardly had she finished however before she moved out to the balcony area and called up the school, the old fashioned way; there was no need to talk to Death or Kidd themselves about something that could easily be trivial. After getting redirected a few times, she eventually got ahold of one of the teachers that was handling the office work for the day. There, she was only told that one of the Institutes sponsors was specifically funding their trip, "due to the potential danger of the mission and the number of monsters involved." No one could offer her any more than that, not even a name.

Candy was bothersome at times, but at other times she knew that her energy was just not something everyone could keep up with. She let Rogue eat at his own pace, without making him have to focus on more than one thing by striking up a conversation. 

Food was certainly welcome after having had skipped a meal, though perhaps making sure that no more meals went by them was for the best even if it was an anonymous sponsor that was providing them. They'd need to keep up their strength as much as possible, since the person on the phone did have a point.

Rogue at least seemed to come more alive with food in his system, and had his plate and utensils stacked neatly in the center of the table before getting up. Stripping by the bed, he casually he know that he'd be taking a shower, if she needed him. Hopefully, that would be enough, otherwise he was going to wake up way too early tomorrow from all of his sleeping. A message pinged on both of their phones from a group chat with Zoe, reading, "Done eating. Going with the girls to the pool." He didn't check his own message, still undressing and half-planning what he was going to wear to bed.

"I don't remember doing a mission specifically for the Institute before," Aurora said finally, fidgeting with her phone before tossing it on the bed. "I suppose this is normal enough. They tend to try to keep things more secretive, so lettings monsters run amuck can't be good for anyone..."

Candy, after she was done eating, flopped onto the bed to rest for a little while. She had been on her phone when the message came through and she read it out loud to him. It started up a few wheels turning in her head. If it was there... "I'm debating if I should go down and join them..."

"Well, at least we know more or less what it's from, now," Glyndwr said, sighing and shrugging. He was personally not involved with the institute at all. This was the first thing that they had ever asked of him, and that was as a joined request to boot.

He cocked a brow, looking at her, halfway out of his underwear. Looking down, he noted the swim trunks he'd brought, just in case --- why in the world did the girls always insist on him bringing such things? He couldn't wear his mask in the water, and Zoe never let him bring his full suit. 'Too skintight' she told him. That was the point but it somehow made him less self-conscious. "Do you... want me to join you...?" He asked, unsteadily, unsure of himself or the question.

Aurora shrugged, agreeing in the whole but still feeling odd about spending anyone else's money. She'd been in a likewise state when Joseph had taken her and Lily to the mall and let them go on a spree. Most of what she came back was sweets, though Lily had talked her into a few outfits for herself. The Boyd girl still felt guilt for it, despite everyone's insistence that it was fine.

Candy looked over from her phone and at him, smiling a little. "I would like you to, but whatever you're comfortable with," she said. She looked back to her phone for a brief moment, apparently finally making a decision, as she went off to go dig around in her bag. 

"I guess they just really want to get rid of those dragons, then," Glyndwr said, not nearly as bothered to have someone comp him a nice hotel and some food, but still unsure whether the only reason for the treatment was that the benefactor wanted the dragons gone and to treat their hunters. It was only a niggling feeling, mostly spurned by his lack of knowledge on the Institute and it's operations, that he soon easily pushed to the back of his mind. "I'm kind of bored," he finally said.

Soon before Candy sent Aurora a message about the rest of the group's current pool-going status.

With a defeated groan, he kicked his underwear free and pulled out the swim trunks. If anyone else showed up at the pool he would probably drown himself. He wanted one of his face masks, Death damnit! Still, he relented to what Candy wanted to do; exercise and water would still wake him up.

It was about this point of her and Glyn's conversation that she received the message, turning it to show him. "Do you want to maybe take a dip?" At the question, she suddenly remembered the cruise they'd taken, and her face flushed. Oh, that was so long ago, now.

Having found what she was looking for and having gotten done with sending Aurora her text, Candy stripped to then replace her clothing with a swimsuit. It was a somewhat frilly, colourful, perhaps even childish one; with her stature it wouldn't be all that unusual if it actually was aimed for a young teen at best. "Aurora might be coming, so that probably means Glyndwr as well... Is that alright?"

The memory similarly came to Glyndwr. It was a good time, if ignoring the hurtful feeling that being away from Yurio caused back then. It was good, then, that he was just fine now. He stood himself up. "Sure," he said, going to dig through his bag, hoping that he remembered to bring some trunks.

Another dude would be just the sort of thing that would help him, and being with Candy had eased up his issues with women over the years. Of course, if anyone but Candy or possibly Zoe got too close to him then he might just go into a panic attack. One day, Zoe always asserted, he needed to go to therapy. They don't make therapists for assassins. Finally nodding, he moved to try to do something with his hair. He hadn't cut it in a while and it had gotten fluffy again. This wouldn't normally be much of an issue... unless it got wet. Which was the exact problem.

Even if he hadn't, she'd packed one of his older pairs with her swimsuit, just in case, for specifically this reason. Glyndwr was more often than not all work and little-to-no play. Aurora was almost the opposite, and would be more so if Candy and Glyn hadn't balanced her out as much as they had. Pulling on the one ---barely one --- piece suit she'd gotten the previous summer, she handed him the back up trunks she'd packed, smiling gently at him.

Candy happily clapped her hands together at Rogue's agreement, then noticed that he was messing with his hair. She went back to her bag again and produced a couple of hair pins, both for herself and Rogue. She first went over to him and reaching up while smoothing his hair down tried her best to place them strategically so that he didn't end up with hair all over his face. 

If Glyn did pack swimwear, it was buried enough that just putting on the ones Aurora handed him was much more efficient. He gave her a smile in thanks and went about changing into the trunks she gave him.

Rogue gave a sheepish smile, leaning down to make things at least a little easier on her, in theory. In the other room, Aurora beamed and went to tie her hair back. Outside their door, Zoe came knocking, the chakram girls in tow. They'd at least try to wait on everyone.

After being finished with pinning up Rogues hair, Candy did the same for her own, though it took more pins considering that she had considerably more hair to deal with. That being done she almost ran straight out with Rogue in tow, but at least had the thought to detour to the bathroom to grab some towels at the last moment. 

Glyndwr, despite usually being one for constraining his relatively lengthy hair, didn't seem to be bothered enough at the moment to do so. Checking back to make totally sure that Aurora was done changing, Glyn answered the door.

Aurora was merely digging through towels by that point, so it was more than safe. Zoe answered the door with a pleasant smile, and each of the chakram girls peered over at them from over opposite of Zoe's shoulders, all happy, eager smiles. Siofra, the girl with long, green hair pulled into a ponytail, whirled when she heard the other door open. Skipping off to the other couple, she left Kira and Zoe to talk to them.

"A-"

"Are you ready?!" Kira piped up, Russian accent almost hidden but not completely, before she could get the words out, resulting in a raised eyebrow pointed her way. She didn't get sheepish, beaming even more, now.

~

Siofra was grinning at them, in a surprisingly simple, though a bit low-cut one piece that hugged her curves but revealed nothing. "So you talked the recluse outta bed~?" Unlike Kira, she hadn't bothered to work on making her accent understandable. It was Irish, so mostly it only really thickened if she got too excitable in some way.

Opening the door to find all three of Rogue's weapons there, even if one of them did immediately leave, was one surprise. He expected Candy, perhaps, but not quite this. Then, expecting Zoe to be the one to speak left him just the tiniest bit startled since it was Kira that very suddenly did so before Zoe had the chance. "Uh, yeah, I think," he said.

Candy, toting towels in one hand and Rogue's own in the other, shook her head at Siofra's question. "It was a happy coincidence that he happened to be out of bed when I told him that I'd like him to come along."

"Ooooooohhhh~?" Siofra began to tease, the implication obvious, though she was shot immediately down by a hard glare from her sister. Giggling mischievously, she excused herself to pop back into her and Kira's shared room, grabbing towels for themselves. They had both forgotten and were reminded by Candy's presence of mind. She grabbed an extra from the bathroom for Zoe, despite the fact that the woman didn't look to be in swimwear.

Kira was still grinning like a cat that ate the canary when Zoe finally started to speak again, stepping aside to let the other couple out. "Sorry for the barrage."" She apologized swiftly, remaining all smiles and light-hearted nature despite this.

"Are we all ready, then?" Aurora asked, mentally chiding herself for willingly letting -- and even joining --- the group swim so shortly after eating. She was probably going to mostly relax in the shallows, herself.

Candy had no time to either quip back or deny before Siofra was dissuaded from further comment to that effect and Candy, entirely unaffected by it, dragged Rogue outside properly and locked up after a little fiddling with the keycard. 

Glyndwr smiled at Zoe and shook his head as he went out into the corridor. If he either didn't like to or didn't know how to deal with energetic people then he never would have been able to last so many years dating Aurora.

Kira and Siofra joined hands as everyone began to file out, leading the way with strangely some of the best senses of direction in the group. They didn't seem to be looking up at signs or anything else, but managed to guide them all down to the indoor pool without a hitch or wrong turn. Rogue, for his part, was focusing primarily on standing up straight as he walked, not trusting slouching to not just put him right back to sleep. Aurora, trusting everyone else, walked backwards in front of Glyn, trying to talk while Zoe took up the rear.

"Do you want to check out the spa at some point?" She inquired, since the amenity was covered by the room costs anyway and they'd likely be here for a little while.

And it was a very good thing that the two were good with directions, because for Candy it was a miracle that she hadn't gone missing somewhere along the way. It was probably due to Aurora that she managed to last until graduating in the Academy.

Glyndwr, half focused on what Aurora was saying and half focused on making sure that Aurora didn't walk into anything as she perilously walked backwards. "We can check it out if you like," he said, not terribly drawn to such things but easily convinced if it was Aurora asking.

Aurora had turned around and fallen into step beside him, beaming, when that conversation had ended quicker than she'd expected it to be. She almost thought that she would have to convince him of it, but he'd seemed more than content to go along with her suggestion.

Hardly had they made it past the glass walls and doors before the girls tossed their towels on a chair and jumped straight into the deep end, hands still clasped. It appeared that no one else was using the pool at this hour, likely due to how recently dinner had been had. Still, the pair were happy to take up as much space as they liked, splashing each other relentlessly. Somewhere along the way, Kira had pulled on a pair of goggles, of note mainly because she usually wore glasses. Aurora set her stuff on another chair before easing herself into the pool from the shallows, eyes following Glyn as she waited for him to join. Rogue, for his part, was too busy trying to cover his face with his towel, while Candy still hadn't pulled it completely out of reach. Zoe merely fixed the girl's towels and set herself up on the water's edge, folding her legs under her and closing her eyes to focus on the world around them.

Glyndwr took hold of Aurora's hand when she finally decided to stop walking backwards, at least until they had reached the pool area. 

"You're going to waterboard yourself, dummy," Candy said, chiding, as she did exactly as expected and snatched the tower from his hands, then matching him right over towards the shallows. She made sure to toss his and her own tower somewhere and keep note of the location as best as she was capable of.

Glyndwr had no reason to hang around once Aurora deposited what she was carrying and quickly joined her; not quite as expected, though, as he made the decision to get the acclimation over with quickly. Finding a place where he'd be mostly submerged he took a step forward and slipped in without much of a splash, only making his way to Aurora after that.

Hardly had Candy stolen away his one means of face-covering before Rogue made a dash for the deep end, jumping in without a word and sinking to the bottom... overdramatic as always. Nearest to him, now, Kira and Siofra laughed, dodging the splashing and shaking their heads as they looked to Zoe. Without being a meister, she hadn't developed her chakram abilities like Rogue had, but if she was close enough, she could at least sense his, even when they weren't normally noticeable. She hadn't flinched, so the pair opted to assume that everything was fine enough.


Aurora shook her head, making her way more slowly to Glyn. Acclimating wasn't the most difficult thing for her, but she'd at least wanted to make sure she wouldn't slip and fall into the pool. That would be rather embarrassing, to say nothing of the inevitable pain of cooking her head on concrete.