[Open] Pool Party!

[soul_mods]

Characters: OPEN
Location: Shibusen Rec Center
Rating: Gen
Time: March 7th, 3pm until... Question mark?
Description: Relax, unwind, and mingle with your fellow guests at the pool.

Welcome to the pool party, residents of Death City! In the interests of creating a more unified city and fighting force, Shibusen is sponsoring this gathering. Feel free to tag into the three provided sections, or make your own. Come, swim, eat, and have fun!

Comments

[tauborn]

"It's a pool party, Kid! Watch out!"

And that is all the warning Kid is going to get before Takuto jumps in beside him, pulling in his arms and legs for a cannonball.

[perfectorder]

"Wha—"

And he was jumping.

It took Kid a few moments to scramble back out of the way before Takuto hit the water, but fortunately water was easier to move around. That did not save him from the wave of water that spawned from the cannonball, though.

[tauborn]

Takuto bobbed back up to the surface with a laugh. The look on Kid's face had been absolutely priceless!

"So? Was it a ten out of ten?"

[perfectorder]

"More like a five," Kid scowled.

"Your form was absolutely atrocious. The legs weren't even, your head wasn't tucked in properly, the way your arms were wrapped around was completely off—on second thought giving you a five is overly generous."

Yes, Takuto. Kid did just critique his style.

"As for the splash, it was moderate."

[tauborn]

"Then I suppose you can do better?"

He would like to see someone do it perfectly symmetrical, and how is someone with Takuto's hair supposed to tuck his head in "properly?" Takuto had been unaware there was a "proper" way to do that, anyway. Given that Takuto and Kid are both skinny teenage boys, he doubts Kid can get much more of a splash, even if his form is perfect.

And yes, this is a challenge.

[perfectorder]

"I could, but I see no reason to."

Kid sensed the challenge, but he was not going to be goaded into it. It was going to take more than that to get him to pull a silly stunt like that.

[tauborn]

"Well, without a proper demonstration, I'll probably be doing it incorrectly and asymmetrically for the rest of my life." He shrugged nonchalantly. In all honestly, it wouldn't worry him at all if he had lopsided cannonballs.

"It's a cool party, though, Kid!"

[perfectorder]

"..."

No. Not that was a travesty. Completely unacceptable.

He needed to know how to do it properly, dammit. The thought of someone he knew, even if vaguely, unable to perform a proper cannonball—one of the simplest moves of all things...!

So the compliment fell on deaf ears as Kid suddenly gripped the edge of the pool and hauled himself out.

"Move out of the way."

[tauborn]

He felt a little guilty for playing off what really seemed to be Kid's only weakness, but not too guilty, because he was pretty sure they were both going to have a good time. He bounced to the side of the pool, out of the way and watched with an expectant grin.

"So you're going to outdo my five?" he called, teasing.

[perfectorder]

As Kid stood there perfectly straight, he just stared down at Takuto.

"It will be a perfect ten," he merely answered. "Now watch and learn how a perfect cannonball is formed."

It seemed that his sudden proclamation made everyone nearby curious and even more space was made. Which was good because he was going to need a bit of a running start. So with his path clear, he took a few steps back, closed his eyes as if to mentally prepare himself, took a breath, and then—one, two, three, four—

"Cannonball!!"

Yes. Yes he did just yell it out. But again, that was part of the perfect form. And if one were to watch this in slow motion, they would see that in perfect symmetrical formation, as he jumped off the edge, he tucked his legs in and wrapped his arms around them. With his head ducked low, his whole body did seem to look like a perfect human cannonball.

And with a loud and great splash he landed perfectly centered and still in line from his trajectory path. Once he resurfaced, he shook his head to toss the hair away from his face before smirking at the other teen.

"That is how you do a cannonball."

[tauborn]

Takuto watched in something like awe as Kid flew past him and landed in the water with quite a splash. He had to admit that shouting out the name of his attack move made the effect even better.

He wiped a facefull of water away as Kid resurfaced, laughing and then clapping proudly. "Ohhh!! That was really good, Kid!" He bobbed back towards the young shinigami, and then used a hand to send a small wave of water at him. "I lived by a lake and then on an island so I don't have as much technique as you when it comes to jumping in. I guess I'll have to practice before the next pool party, huh?"

[perfectorder]

Kid half raised an arm to deflect the wave, but the grin remained.

"If you ever want to beat me—which you won't."

Yes, he could be cheeky when he wanted to be. But then he gave Takuto a bit of a curious look.

"But did you really live around water all your life?"

[tauborn]

He nodded and replied with a laugh. "Yep. I can swim for hours!" but after the comment he looked a little sheepish. "Not that I'd really recommend that, though. I mean, not in the ocean, anyway."

[perfectorder]

"You must find the desert life quite different then."

He had of course been to the beach and other areas outside of the desert, but visiting was much different than living and growing up in the environment.

[tauborn]

"Yeah, it's always really dry here! Of course, I've only been here in the winter, so...." He shrugged. "I guess it gets pretty warm in the summer, huh? We'll be using the pool a lot then, won't we?"

[perfectorder]

"The summer months can be rather hot, especially during the peak months. But the pool will definitely be in high demand," he agreed.

[tauborn]

He nodded and then splashed the water with something of a pensive mood. After a moment, he frowned over at the shinigami.

"Have you ever been to Japan, Kid?" What might Southern Cross Island be like in this world...?

[perfectorder]

Kid had to think for a moment.

"No, I don't believe I have," he said after a moment. "Maka, Blackਮx;Star, and Tsubaki are Japanese, though." Though he seriously sometimes forgets Maka is Japanese.

[tauborn]

To Takuto, Black★Star seemed the least likely to be Japanese, but whatever.

"Oh. I was just wondering what it was like in this world." He shrugged. "I wonder how similar it is to the one I'm from."

[perfectorder]

"It may depend on the time period," Kid mused. "Though I doubt it would be too different if you are from a similar time frame as this world."

[tauborn]

He bobbed his head and grinned. "The time period seems pretty similar. According to the calendar, I'm from two years in the future."

That's right, Kid. Takuto is from the future. Which seemed pretty cool to Takuto at least.

[perfectorder]

Well it was a bit interesting. Of course his future was different from Takuto's for obvious reasons, but he was always curious about parallel worlds.

"Are there any particular differences between this version and yours? Other than the obvious of course." That is, the souls, weapons, witches, kishin—things that definitely only seemed to exist here.

[tauborn]

"And the obvious would be witches and madness and people who turn into weapons, right?" He splashed Kid with some water, laughing. It all seemed so weird sometimes when he really thought about comparing this world to his own.

"We don't travel through mirrors, either. Magic is the sort of thing that doesn't exist for a lot of people, and for the rest of us it comes in very different forms."

[perfectorder]

"Hey—!" He raised an arm to shield himself from the splash.

He was not too surprised to hear about the differences, but the last part piqued his interest. "Different forms?"

[tauborn]

Takuto shrugged and dropped into the water deep enough for it to come just past his shoulders. "I mean, I knew a girl who some people called a witch--nothing like any kinds of witches here--and she taught me a magic spell once. She said the trick was believing it would work." He laughed, then, because it had been such a weird chant that anyone repeating it usually felt incredibly silly. It took a lot of belief to chant with a face straight enough for the spell to work.

"Anyway, there were some people who had certain abilities--I don't know if you'd call them magical or not, but some of the abilities were pretty unusual."