lap five // day 198 (open)

[amphibian]

Who: Aoi and anybody!
Open: Open!
When: Day 198; late afternoon/early evening.
Where: At Aoi's new pool.
What: THERE'S A POOL HERE! A POOL!!! A POOL!!!!!
Format: Action tags, please!
Warnings: N/A, probably

THE POOL'S HEEEEEERE!

[—is what everyone is going to hear as Aoi sprints across the Bastion. She flings her sweatshirt off, leaves it on the ground as she goes, and launches herself through the doors of the new building not far from the forge.

Anyone nearby will hear a resounding SPLASH through the doors, left wide open, as Aoi cannonballs into the deep end of the pool, shorts and tank top and all.

If anyone checks in on her, she's swimming rapid laps from one end of the pool to the other down the middle of the center lane, pausing at the ends every now and again to laugh, absolutely delighted, and wave at anyone who's shown up.] C'mon in, the water's fine!

Comments

[ourlegends]

[ Tirtouga's learning, at least. He's been around the humans at the daycare center enough to understand ... a little bit. But not much.

So, Aoi is met with a very confused stare before the pets start up again. Pets are a good thing to focus on. ]

[coolerthansora]

[Aoi might notice that the water does basically NOTHING to that hair of his.]

It- smells different from the ocean, though.

[blackblooded]

[Crona flinches back like maybe Aoi's about to pull too hard and send the meister tumbling into the water. But then that doesn't happen.]

I... um... [Crona nods, then starts tugging at shoelaces. Shoes off first, then socks. Then Crona sits on the edge of the pool by the shallow end, feet dangling in the water.]

[amphibian]

[With a cheer, Aoi backs up to make room for Crona to hop in. They don't, but feet in is a start!]

C'mon, c'mon! With your feet wet already, you might as well just hop right in, right?!

[blackblooded]

[A deep breath, and Crona pulls off the big black jacket. The meister's got on a pale blue blouse and a bright striped Ura skirt, and when Crona carefully slips into the water with a startled gasp, the skirt billows out around the meister. It's all very dramatic looking.

Crona looks positively frozen. There's a moment where the meister's shocked expression is about to either break into tears or laughter, and Crona chooses a little choked laugh, before hands go up protectively to cover Crona's expression.]

[amphibian]

[Aoi doesn't respond right away, just waits with wide, expectant eyes for Crona to decide on a reaction and give her something to work with. Her expression splits into a bright beam at that tiny laugh, and she giggles, delighted, as she wades towards Crona.]

See! Look at you! A little cold, but it's fine, right? [Lightly, she taps her fingertips to Crona's hands, trying to take their hands without prying them off their face.] Once you get used to it, it's real nice!

[blackblooded]

[Crona's hands come down, and go to Aoi's. Aoi's hands are much much warmer than the water. The meister is smiling (and blushing slightly).]

It's nice!

[amphibian]

It'll be even better when you get to float around in it! [Letting go of Crona's hands, she flops backwards into the water with a mighty splash. When she rises, laughing, she smacks at the water to splash Crona again.]

[blackblooded]

[Crona gasps, then smacks water at Aoi in return.]

[amphibian]

[Oh, it is on now. She's been perfecting her splash technique for years; the splash that results from her swiping her hands through the water in Crona's direction is nothing short of a small wave.]

[blackblooded]

[Crona gasps, jumping back and tripping on those heavy skirts and falling completely backward. Oops, the meister's completely underwater. After a few moments, Crona comes up sputtering.

Then, before there's any chance for Aoi to react, Crona splashes Aoi. The meister has absolutely no skill with splashing but there is an attempt to copy Aoi's movements and get something like a wall of water.]

[amphibian]

[When Crona goes down, Aoi lunges forward to haul them up—only to dive straight at the water flung at her.

Her giggles are sputtered as she backs up, but once she regains her balance and her breath, she starts flicking splashes at Crona in rapidfire succession.]

[amphibian]

[Pets pets pets! The pets keep up for a few moments longer before Aoi suddenly backs a couple of feet away. There's a mischievous little glint in her eye, like she's starting to scheme—but first she has to figure out if Tirtouga's going to follow her.]

[amphibian]

As many as're interested! There were, like, almost forty people on the first swim team I joined, 'cause it was co-ed, but only fourteen on my old school's girl's team. But each meet has so many events and you gotta pick who does which ones!

[daughterofursa]

Events? Isn't it all swimming?

[amphibian]

Well, yeah. But there's the freestyle and backstroke and breaststroke and butterfly in twenty five and fifty and a hundred and two hundred meters, and then medleys where you switch up the kind of stroke being done after a certain distance, and there are individual medleys and relay medleys...

[daughterofursa]

[Zuko kind of stares at her for a moment.]

...I didn't know there were that many different kinds.

[blackblooded]

[Crona's giggling too now, and doing everything possible to splash massive amounts of water in Aoi's direction. There is officially a water battle going on in the shallow end of the giant pool.]

[amphibian]

[Her ponytail is as perky as ever, too; they can be the weird hair club.]

'cause it's not saltwater! And it's chlorinated to keep it clean, of course.

[coolerthansora]

[Roxas doesn't know this is a weird hair thing. Can't everyone's hair defy water and gravity? He leans back, swimming leisurely away from the wall.]

What's chlorinated?

[amphibian]

It's...y'know, like, a chemical or something that gets put in the water, and it kills germs. So the pool stays squeaky clean!

[amphibian]

We're definitely gonna have to teach you, then! Everyone's got their specialties, but it's good to be well-rounded, right! Oh, once we've got those covered, we can do less common stuff like the trudgen and the sidestroke...

[has the regret set in yet, Zuko]

[daughterofursa]

[No, not yet. She's still working through confusion.]

You should probably stick to the basics for a while. I can't be the only one who's never heard of those.

[She knows freestyle and something like the breaststroke, but not by those names.]

[coolerthansora]

Oh...

Germs are what make you sick, right?

[amphibian]

Yeah. You must come from some way far-off past, right?