Hyperion was trotting down the beach with a singular question on his lips. He ran from person to person, or person to persons - he feared no rustling bushes - and asked his question with the sort of intensity that most wolves found immediately off putting. Wolf after wolf turned him down and he couldn't understand why. It was such a shame too because it was a great question and he loved sharing. That was his singular purpose here at this party. To share. Or to take depending on how you looked at it, but he liked to think of it as sharing.

Seizing upon the small, lonely-looking pale woman, Hyperion made a beeline for her. He skidded up to her, his white toes disappearing in the black sand, and fixed her with a wide-eyed, innocent look. This was his moment. He was going to ask his question. Slurring a little, he said his favorite words of the night, "Hey, wanna see my shark?"

Her family had grown distant from one another over the years, partly, she suspected, because they all had such diametric views on whether or not Aurielle was their cousin, in addition to simply having vastly different interests. She knew no one was budging on the first, but maybe if she showed a little interest in what her siblings were doing, they'd spend more time together again. To that end, when Caelia had wandered off with Justice and Domari, Viviane had steeled herself and followed. They were probably going to the battlefield since they were all warriors. Surely a healer would come in handy after their spars.

But she was mystified to find that they weren't going to the battlefield, and started to get a little uncomfortable at the idea that maybe she was going to be intruding on something private.

And then she stepped out onto the beach, and her bewilderment shot up to new heights, to be joined slightly thereafter by complete and utter dismay. It appeared to be a party, full of wolves she didn't know, and some of them seemed to be... doing very inappropriate things that had her swiftly averting her increasingly wide eyes and blushing hotly. She didn't immediately see Domari, Justice, or Caelia, which on the one hand was a relieve because it meant maybe they weren't here at all and on the other hand made her even more uncomfortable to have stumbled upon the party.

She was relieved to be able to jerk her eyes over to the wolf bounding up to her, but then her breath caught. He was... he was beautiful, like flames rising into a night sky. She was, in fact, so struck by him that it took her a moment to process his words. "I... a shark?" and just like that she was back to bewilderment. "You have a shark?"

Hyperion was certainly living up to his nickname tonight. Drinking had a tendency to make some wolves sleepy, but not him. No, it took his typical excited energy and ramped it up to ten while just about obliterating his attention span. He was a bundle of energy with the braggadocio of a seasoned casanova and the focus of a toddler on a sugar high. Seeing that he had the woman's attention, Hyperion fixed her with an earnest look while leaning forward excitedly. Was he in her space? ...What was space again? Did these questions even matter?

He nodded enthusiastically. "I have a shark! I'll show you!" A fantastic idea struck him then. She was small and he was pretty big, which meant she'd take ages to keep up with him thanks to those tiny little legs. Why not do away with all that waiting and simply carry her to the shark? It was a brilliant plan! They were practically besties already so he wasted exactly zero thoughts on the fact that she was a stranger whose name he didn't even know. Nope, he simply went in for the kill, aiming to shimmy under her and heft her up onto his back. If she didn't manage to get away from him in time he would take off bounding down the beach.

He was, she noted with the part of her mind that wasn't completely overwhelmed, practically vibrating in place as he got right up into her face. Luckily she didn't have much of a personal bubble, though her green eyes nearly crossed trying to keep him in focus and she eased back on her hindquarters a bit to politely put a little bit of breathing distance between their noses. "Uhm... sure? I've never seen a shark before..." He was already in motion, whirling about in a bewildering swirl of flame-colors amd then suddenly he scooped her up onto his back. Viv gave a faint wide-eyed eep but had no time to protest before he was off running, and she clung desperately with all four legs clinging to his sides to keep from sliding right off into the sand. She had never been... well... literally swept off her feet before, and she was having a bit of a hard time processing what all the overwhelming... everything that was going on, so all she could do was cling like a little gold-and-white fluffy burr to her flaming night colored steed and hope that he wasn't going to just plunge them both straight into the ocean to meet his shark.

Turned out running while balancing living cargo on your back was a bajillion times more difficult when drunk. His mad dash to the stashed shark was filled with lurching, stumbling and many, many tail windmilling, leg flailing saves. If asked he would have credited the near misses to the woman on his back. It was all her fault for being wobbly and had nothing to do with his foolhardiness. He was a master of reckless abandon, after all. Had it down to a science or something.

When at last they reached the shark Hyperion slid to a halt and very nearly fell over it. His forelegs slammed into its back and its top fin slid between his front legs to rest cock-eyed against his chest. Grinning proudly even though she couldn't see his face, Hyperion gestured grandly at the beast and bellowed, "My shark!" He glanced over his shoulder for a reaction while swinging a paw down to slap the beast on the rump. He swung too wide and just clipped it and, feeling that wasn't good enough, his head snapped around so he could aim better. His face scrunched up slightly as he focused and then he swung, slapping the shark squarely on the end that could broadly be described as the rump. Beaming broadly he twisted around to look at the woman again. All of this happened fast enough to make him a little dizzy.

"Isn't he great?" he enthused. "Or she, I dunno my boy sharks from my girls sharks but," he used a paw to roll the shark towards him so he could peek at its belly. "That," he said, his eyes on a fin that Viviane couldn't see unless she walked around the beast, "Could be a penis so I'm gonna go with boy shark."

The flame-colored male's lurching, flailing progress across the sand nearly flung Viviane from his back multiple times, and frankly he wouldn't be far off if he did attribute his stumbling to her wobbling around. She'd never ridden anything before and not having hands it was more than a little difficult to keep her balance with any success. It was not only the only ride she'd ever had, but it was the wildest. When he gave one last bounce forward and then stopped she really did nearly go right over his head and barely caught herself with a shocked yip. She didn't quite trust her legs right then to hold her if she slid down from his back, so she just cautiously raised her head to peek at the huge fish - and then promptly had to catch herself with another squeak when he swatted at the fish's rump. Despite the crazy circumstances and the distraction of clinging on with the odd man's wobbly movements, she did peer at it with fascination. She'd never seen a shark before, after all, and it was not much like she'd imagined it, yet at the same time quite as intimidating as you'd expect from a fearsome ocean monster. But... something about it was so pitiful, washed up on the shore to be ogled by wolves. Was it... even alive? Her steed twisted back to enthuse about the shark, then gestured at something she couldn't see and declared it the shark's penis. Viviane couldn't help it; she immediately flamed red beneath her fur at the male's words. "It's - it's... uhm, he is a fantastic shark," she stammered, blushing harder at her own embarrassment. She couldn't say that a handsome stranger had ever said 'penis' to her before. A night of firsts apparently. "Is it dead?" she ventured to try to cover her mortification.

Hyperion nodded once firmly in agreement when she said it was a fantastic shark. It truly was. Way bigger than his first one and more menacing too. Not that Herbert hadn't been great. He had been. He'd been so great in fact that this big guy was named after him. This shark, he'd just now decided thanks to the penis revelation, was Herbert II. Or Junior. Ah, yes, Junior! He liked the asymmetry of it; the second, bigger shark being the junior.

When the woman asked if Herbert Jr. was dead Hyperion whipped his head around to stare at her aghast. The speed with which he turned caused - what felt like - the world to lurch and he had to catch himself before he tipped over. "No, he's not dead! Look at him!" Hyperion gestured wildly at the shark. "He's great, he's even smiling, look at him." For emphasis Hyperion slapped a paw down on the shark's side and gave it a friendly shake. In response the shark wiggled a little, its mouth making desperate gasping motions.

Hyperion glanced back at Viviane again, this time taking it slow so the ground wouldn't go all tipsy on him. His tone boastful, he said, "That's probably the booze making him all smiley. Him and I have been sharing drinks." Like Herbert Sr., Herbert Jr. had been treated to every drink Hyperion could get his paws on. Also like Herbert Sr., Hyperion hadn't known where to pour any of it so Herbert Jr. just got a liberal dousing over all of his upper body orifices. One of them had to be right, right?