Nano. RolePlay

Rappel du premier message :

CONTRAT DE NOT'RP !

- Statut du RP : privé
- Type de RP : FB fin 2007, près d’un an après l’arrivée de Katja dans la Confrérie.
- Tour de jeu : Mey - Sip
- Délai maximum d'attente de réponse : 1 semaine
- Sauts de tours : 3
- Autre : English :)

This is a terrible idea, I’m definitely going to regret it.

Except that this thought was about as improductive as the first 17 times it had crossed her mind, so Katja resolutely ignored it. When Dalton had first suggested to go to the swimming pool, she had agreed without a second thought. She loved swimming and she already spent a lot of time at the pool as a lifeguard. Except Dalton wanted to go there outside of the opening hours. During the night. She was so getting fired if her bosses found out. Well, at least this pool was small enough not to have things like cameras and other devices that would make it much more difficult to slip in unnoticed.

Why had she agreed again? Ah yes, because it was almost Dalton’s birthday and it worked well as a present. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder as she stripped to her swimsuit if she wasn’t making a terrible mistake. If she got away with this, she would have the proof that she had a guardian angel somewhere.

Sharks? Wha... Whatever. As long as it meant he wouldn't try to take a dive in the sea before he was capable of it, the reason didn't matter. Ideally, Katja would have taken things slowly and not started someone on diving who had only barely managed a breaststroke-ish thing. But there was no way she'd convince Dalton to wait, was there? "We'd better go to the deep end for that. I wouldn't want you to hit your head."

Yeah, any more brain damage and I might start to behave like Foxxi. Is it mean to diss your little brother if he's not around to defend himself? Probably. But is it still mean if you scream from the rooftops how much you love him on a daily basis? Still probably yes. Alright, any pointers? he asked while standing in front of the diving board.

HRP:

"Poor Foxxi." Alright, Katja wasn’t always kind with her siblings. That’s what they were for. "Don’t start from the diving board." She climbed out of the pool to act out her explanations. "Stand on the edge, bring your arms together above your head, then lean forward so your hands point at the water. When you’re ready, jump into the water. Try to make your hands hit the water first, then your head, and so on. Once you’re fully in the water, turn to the surface and use your hands and feet to push yourself up." With that, she dived and resurfaced a little further. "Your turn, I’m watching." In case he tried to drown himself again.

HRP:

Watch and admire how he fails three attempts at diving in a row. The first time he just jumped into the water like an arrow with his arms up in the air, the second time he lost his nerve and ended up cannon-balling (again) and the third he landed flat on his belly. That shit hurt. Ow, okay, what am I doing wrong. My head won't go in first.

At least ensuring Dalton didn't make a one-way trip to the bottom kept Katja busy enough to prevent fits of laughter at his increasingly desperate attempts to dive properly. Well, prevent most of them anyway. When he failed his third attempt (ow), she got out of the pool again and kneeled on its edge. "Maybe you're subconsciously trying to spare your head. It's hardly natural to dive head-first, so I'd say you have a good survival instinct. Try from a kneeling position, don't jump but let yourself fall hands- and head-first into the water." She showed what she meant, then returned to the edge to guide him into the water as he tried.

She knew just how to stroke his ego. Instead of telling him he looked ridiculous at his attempts at Diving 101, she had told him the fact he was failing was most probably due to his superior sense of survival. He liked that. Alright. He was standing on the edge again, jumping up and down (someone should tell him it's dangerous to jump on a slippery surface), readying his limbs and his head for the ultimate diving attempt : number four. I'mma do it this time.

"When you're ready." Katja, for her part, was in the pool, holding onto the edge. With one hand, she guided his hands until he was in a position that wouldn't (or at least shouldn't) make him repeat his last painful not-dive.

Was there a term in professional swimming that was slightly akin to "goal" ? Just asking cause though he could up his game in the "graceful jumping" department, he certainly took his first real dive. Cue the applause, please !

Once she had made sure that Dalton had not only dived in, but also gotten his head back above the water, Katja flashed him a bright smile. "Well done! Seems like you’re getting the hang of it."

I still don't think I'm ready to swim without supervision or in shark-infested waters, but at least I won't look like a total moron next time I'm invited to a pool party. His grin was as wide as his face.

"I wouldn’t recommend shark-infested waters to anyone", Katja laughed. Not that sharks were all Jaws-like monsters that attacked everything they saw… but it was generally good survival instinct (or simple common sense) not to get too close to any super-predator, just in case it was the one out of n that would attack humans.

Thanks for doing this. He swam over to her with only minor difficulty to keep his head above water. Crawl would have to wait until he mastered the breaststroke. Maybe another day. Night. Day or night. Both.

"That’s what friends are for. Or family." She was starting to get used to thinking of the Brotherhood as a second family. An odd family where people had strange shapes and colours and sometimes broke into public swimming pools for clandestine swimming lessons, but a nice family. She wanted to say something too, but couldn’t find anything that wouldn’t sound sappy.

Cool. Since we're now officially family, I suppose I should thank you with a late-night burger. Is it just me or does swimming make you incredibly hungry ? Dalton could always go for a burger, but this time he felt like he could actually use the calories.

"Swimming does burn a lot of calories. I wouldn't say no to a burger. But we should get those back where they belong if we don't want people to become suspicious of what happened here tonight." She made a broad arm movement that took in all the kickboards that were floating randomly on the water.

It'll be done in the blink of an eye ! Okay, maybe not a blink. It had been fairly easy to teleport the boards into the pool (large recipient and all) but he could impossibly teleport them into the neat stacks they were in before. But even though the heap was quite chaotic, at least they were all in the same place, right ? Good enough ?

At least the teleportation had saved the time for gathering all the boards? "Close enough." Katja nonetheless climbed out of the pool and walked over to the heap to rebuild the stacks with the routine moves of someone who’d done it often. "There, no one will know we’ve even been here."

Right. Cause this place has no security cameras, right ? We did check for that, didn't we ? Let's be honest. It wouldn't have been the first time that Dalton had overlooked a teensie tiny detail like that after the facts.

"It doesn't. I work here, remember? I would know." There was no way she would even have considered breaking in for a nightly swim otherwise. As Dalton had rightly pointed out, both of them had a tendency to stand out in crowds.

I remember. He headed back to the changing rooms to get out of the swim shorts he stole especially for this occasion and back into his normal outfit. Same as usual ? he asked when they met up at the pool entrance.

Katja too changed back out of her (not stolen) swimsuit. She hid her still glowing hair beneath her hood until she was clearly out of the building. They had done all they could to avoid raising suspicions, it would be silly to be spotted now. Once outside, she hesitated a bit, but then resolutely pushed her hood down. If she was going to embrace her odd hair, she might as well embrace all its forms. "You're the burger expert, you choose." After all, she'd chosen the swimming pool.

I think the usual might  be closed at this time. We'd probably have to find a drive-through like McDonalds or something. And to be in a drive-through we'd need a car. And for a car we'd need a license. And a car. He paused. Ok, how does a hot dog sound ? I know a guy that sells them this late. We might get food poisoning, but they're worth it.

Food poisoning, huh? Between that and sneaking into a closed pool, it was the night of taking risks. She might as well embrace it. "If you're still alive to tell the tale, I guess the odds of living through that food poisoning are good enough."

Don't think he didn't notice her efforts of keeping her hood down. He saw. Of course he saw. Hard not to see glowing hair. He was simply smart enough not to give it too much attention. People tend to become overly self-conscious when put on the spot (or he did at least). For sure ! He walked her to the nearest subway stop. Subway is faster, but we can also walk. Less public scrutiny. Her choice.

"I'm in no hurry, I don't mind walking." And yes, public scrutiny did feature into her preference. That, and avoiding being stuck in a closed space with who-knew-who. Not everyone would react well to a purple demon and a human glowworm.