The Pool; Friday Morning [ 06/05 ].

[a-demosthenes.livejournal.com]

Valentine figured she was pretty good at hiding the fact that she'd been pretty disquieted over the last few days. She had multiple theories that easily explained it well enough that she could shove it aside and not directly approach the topic. She was good at that, avoiding something until she was sure it could be useful to her. But the fact that she couldn't quite piece together how what she was feeling could be useful to her lead her to wanting to step back from it all for a moment.

She decided to go down to the pool, figuring it would be quiet in the morning, and she could just sit a while, thinking, comforted by the water and what water meant to her now. She considered ducking into town to pick up a swimsuit that was a little...more interesting than hers, basic and functional, but then settled on the fact that basic and functional was all that was needed. Anything something more interesting would accomplish would be to draw attention to certain aspects of herself...

...and she wasn't quite knowledgeable enough about those aspects to go flashing them around for other people to see, really. That's why she was here now, in the morning after her class, sitting at the edge of the pool and watching her feet trail through the water, enjoying the isolation of the big empty room and thinking about isolation in a lake basin on a raft.

It was a good way to kill the morning hours.


[[ open pool is open! ]]

Comments

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"Does it involve you trying to drown? Not a big fan of that," he said, releasing his hands...until she tried to drown herself again.

[glacial_queen]

"Not that you know of," she said, looking innocent.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"Okay, let's try it, but if you start drowning, I'm going to rescue you."

Jack just twinged a bit, wondering if the spell would let the person see underwater. Oooh, that'd be interesting.

[glacial_queen]

Karla laughed. "Never mind," she said, "I need to do a lot more research and planning first."

She paused, then flushed. "But you're very sweet to worry," she said softly.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"I'm just a sweet guy," he winked.


[sorry, back at home now.]

[glacial_queen]

"I've noticed," she said, flushing. She found herself drifting even closer to him, letting the pool's small current carry her. "I should do a few laps!" she said hastily, determined not to let whatever-this-was rule her the way it had been. She turned around and dove neatly into the water, cutting through it quickly.

Sheer determination could be a powerful force, especially when backed up by stubbornness, pride, and a looming sense of possible embarassment.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

Jack ogled a bit. "Why do they keep running away?" he asked himself.

Maybe she'd come back or something?

[glacial_queen]

Karla swam back after five or so laps. "I don't like whatever is going on here," she said, grumpyfaced. "It's stupid."

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

Ogle. Ogle. Stare. Wha? Oh, right, conversation.

"What's stupid?" He leaned against the side of the pool, all glisteny muscley.

[glacial_queen]

Stupid glisteny muscles. "This," Karla snapped, gesturing to include the pool, the other students, and those damned muscles of his. "Have you really not noticed anything odd recently? No weird feelings?"

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

Flexy shrug. "I've notice that I'm feeling a lot better the past couple days, and people are more friendly," he said with a grin. He was enjoying the past couple days.

[glacial_queen]

"Stupid males," Karla muttered. Then more loudly: "Well, some of us are probably experiencing a slightly more intense effect." Probably because males were practically like this all the time anyway.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

Well, duh. "More...intense?" he asked, head tilted. "You okay? You need something?" he offered, moving slightly closer.

[glacial_queen]

Karla backed up accordingly. "No, I'm...dealing. But it's kind of a lot to deal with at once. Hence the swimming. See if I can't work off some of this...excess energy."

"Don't you listen to the radio?" she asked.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes. Why, is there something I missed?"

...yes, he is that clueless.

[glacial_queen]

Karla face-palmed. "A little bit, yes. Maybe you should check out the podcats sometime." She wasn't sure what a podcat was, but Dinah listened to them sometime, or so she claimed. "Catch up."

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"Hey! No drowning!" he said as she facepalmed. "I will. I usually do it about once a month or so, more if there's something interesting."

[glacial_queen]

"Not drowning!" Karla said. "It's interesting. You should catch up. You've even been mentioned."

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

That perked him up. "Me? They've been talking about me? What're they saying?"

[glacial_queen]

"You'll have to listen to find out," Karla said, not telling him that she barely understood most of the broadcasts anyway. There was usually a lot of rum involved.

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"Okay, I will," he declared. "And I'll find out what they're saying about me."

[glacial_queen]

"Do that," Karla said with a smile. "Though, right now, I've got a few laps to do."


[Good place to end the thread, yes?]

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

"I will, next time I'm in the room and thinking about it. Heck, you can even drop by!" he said.

He grinned at her. "Shoo. Go do your laps."

[Fin! *bow* :D]