Pool Pool Pool

[all_wound_up]

Who: Everyone!
Where: Hinoto-Ri Public Pool
When: The weekend of June 7th-9th
Summary: We have a pool now!  Summer fun for everyone!
Warnings: Probably none.

[It's summer, and what would summer be without a pool?  Well, thankfully for the good citizens and Visitors of Hinoto-Ri, the public pool is finally open for business!  With three different pools, a snack bar, and plenty of space on the grass for playing frisbee or just laying out to get some sun, there's plenty of summertime fun for everyone!  There are also a number of pool toys to use, ranging from basketball hoops and plastic balls, water noodles, boogie boards, and just about anything else you can think of.]

((OOC: Open log!  Everyone just tag around at your leisure!))

Comments

orly

[themortalhalf]

He doesn't doubt it—though he has to wonder just how much his other self had to put up with for sixteen years. He's beginning to get a good idea.

His steady, exasperated stare doesn't fade away as he lets Minako take his hand. It quickly morphs into an equally exasperated grimace when she canonballs into the water, and he blinks away the fringes of pool water that reaches them as he plucks her towel off the gate.

"I hope she at least looked."

She'd be all right, sure, until the moment she wasn't.

[greatseal]

Minako only slightly reacts to being splashed with water. They're going to be swimming in it soon enough anyway.

"Come on, Senpai! I won't race you, but we're already falling behind..." Leave the towels and come dive in.

[helenchanter]

A few seconds later, a very please Miki who was in no way hurt from running or cannonballing rose up from the water surface.

"Yeah come on in! The water's just the right temperature." To be honest, just the very idea of seeing Shinjiro in a public pool, even if it's not the same one that she knew, is a feat that she realizes can only be accomplished thought the power that Minako wields. It's not like she will say that out loud, of course.

[themortalhalf]

Shinjiro would like to think that, one of these days, he'll eventually reach the point where he'll be totally immune to any of her ridiculous social overtures. But if she can get him to wear a goddamn butler outfit in Tartarus, she can get him in a swimsuit and (probably) into a public pool, but it doesn't mean he's not going to try for the dryer route. Or at least lean wistfully in its direction.

He'd rather just watch the two of them from a safe distance, and wait for his skin to burn. He can do that just fine. He's all ready mentally picking out available lawn chairs from his line of vision. He didn't need to "dive in" and butt shoulders with the hundreds of other strangers who decided to invade the pool today.

Instead of speeding up, kicking off his sandals, and leaving his things to the edge of the lawn, he lets go of her hand folds Miki's towel before taking hers and folding it. "Go on. I'll go put these away."

He probably should put their things in a locker, but at the very least he can at least put everything on the lawn out of everyone's way. ...And maybe surreptitiously snag a chair.

[greatseal]

It's not difficult to read his intentions, but Minako actually doesn't comment on him. She removes her own sandals and turns to the pool. "Okay... We'll be waiting for you, Senpai."

This isn't his comfort zone. She won't push him into the water, literally or figuratively. What she will do is extend the invitation, and wait until he comes around to accepting it on his own. She knows he inevitably will.

[helenchanter]

Exactly. It was only a matter of time. Minako might know the best ways to get him to do things, but Miki had known a version of him for years. This Jiji might not be the same one, but their personalities were very alike in many ways.

He'd come through. Meanwhile, she had other ideas with the other SEES female member.

"Minako-senpai! Do you want to have a diving competition? We can make him judge!" It wasn't a true trip without a Sanada contest at something, it seemed.

[themortalhalf]

And he felt the looming inevitability. Even Shinjiro has the sense to know it's probably only a matter of time before he finds himself elbow-deep in pool water, because apparently his stubbornness can only go so far before cracks start running through it.

He gathers up Minako's sandals while he's at it, turning his head sharply when he overhears Miki's comment. He doesn't get what it is with Sanadas and competitions—why does everything have to be a contest? It ain't like life is out to challenge you at every turn—but he hopes it'll one day be ironed out of them so he and his deceased iterations can breathe a little bit easier.

But he'll seize an opportunity while he has it, and takes their things and sets them besides a vacant lawn chair. If Minako's going to just go along with Miki's idea. He might as well sit down.

[greatseal]

"Sounds good to me!" As if she would have said no. "What kind of competition, though? Grading on our form, or seeing who can pick up the most things from the bottom of the pool?"

By now she's reached the side of the pool. Instead of canonballing in like Miki, though, she sits down and slides into the water. Shinji doesn't need to be splashed again (or well, right this second.)

[helenchanted]

"Let's see hmmm...." she pouts her lips, putting one finger while thinking, the other arm holding the side of the pool's wall. "Well since you two are daaating," (she really did raise the sound of her voice a little higher there "I think you'd have an unfair advantage when it came to form! Even my greatest dive will mean nothing if you give him a little wink. So let's throw a bunch of rods down there and see how many we can pick up!"

Heh heh heh heh heh....this is going to be great.

"Jiji can count and tell us when to go and make sure neither of us are cheating!" Because like either of them would cheat at this sort of thing, look she just wants Shinji to look at them okay.

[themortalhalf]

Shinjiro's neutral expression flattens into an almost-scowl.

He's not that biased, Miki. He's perfectly capable of making rational, unbiased decisions. He isn't going to just waive away his autonomy because a pretty girl winked at him. He's got more sense than a teenage boy whose hormones are doing the both the feeling and the thinking. Honestly.

...Though he'll be damned if he knows anything about form. However, if Miki was just going to canonball it, he'd count her attempt as probably a lost cause. Miki hasn't exactly proven to be a master of graceful subtlety either. She's like Akihiko on that one, so if that counts as "bias," so be it.

"Do want you want."

Though if Miki could read his mind and Shinjiro could read hers, they both would come to mutual agreement that him not looking at anything or anyone in particular is the last thing she should be worrying about. He's seeing plenty because he's not blind. The only "problem" he sees is that there are other men around, and hell knows what's going on up there.

It's like her wearing that sorry excuse for (not) battle equipment in Tartarus.

But he refuses to think about that and make any comparisons between the two.

He'd rather not need to get into the water to cool off his head thanks.

Just swim along and go fetch your pool toys. He'll be in the chair, keeping it company.

[greatseal]

Those other men can look all they want. They aren't hurting anyone. At the end of the day, he should know there's only one guy here whose gaze she thinks matters.

Minako grins and pushes off towards the opposite edge of the pool, where a bucket of various objects like diving rings and rods are sitting. "Then you're on!"

She retrieves the bucket and starts to pull it back towards the deeper end. "Senpai, can you throw these in for us?" It's a completely innocent request, of course. It'll be much easier for him to throw them, since he's not already in the water.