ArchivedLogs:Swimmingly

Swimmingly
Dramatis Personae Lia, Kaine	15 February 2015 '
Location <XS> Pool – B1
Like any indoor pool, the room is lined with tile and smells faintly of chlorine, the rippling water occasionally casting wavy reflections across the walls when the sun shines through the high, narrow windows at just the right angle. Unlike many, the facility is respectably large, of Olympic length and of sufficient breadth for a respectable number of lanes, with an array of retractable diving boards set up at the deep end. In the pool, there is a pair of very small, pale feet. They are all that is visible above the water, nearer the shallow end. As they work their way up to even shallower water, they slowly grow calves and knees. Then they slip under the surface as their owner flips about, finally bringing her head up to suck in a deep breath of air. Lia's ash-brown hair looks far darker for being wet, tied up in an appropriately ballerina-tight bun on top of her head to keep it out of the way. The spiderwebbing of scars over her body is a great deal more obvious in her plain navy swimteam suit than in her winter clothing. She blinks water out of her eyes, just spinning in a slow circle with her arms out because she /can/ and the movement of the water is pleasant to watch and feel. Kaine is just heading out of the locker room, his hair is in a bun similar to Lia's for the same reason, but he's also wearing a tight looking rubbery half mask with a few holes to allow breathing. Other than that he's only wearing black and white board shorts, one of the few times he really exposes his swimmers build and webbed toes. It's about the time that he takes a seat on the edge of the pool that he notices Lia, who gets a wave. "Hey again, Lia." Lia startles a little at the voice, having allowed herself to become absorbed in the quiet of the empty pool, far more used to it being full of people and bustle and practices. She continues her turn to face the voice. “Oh, hello.” Her hand gestures to the lower half of her face. “You have a thing like a doctor.” Something in that statement furrows her brow faintly. "No, the chlorine in the pool hurts my gills is all." Kaine explains gently. "Best to keep them covered, I don't heal like some of the people here, and it can make me sick." He lets his feet rest in the water lightly, though it slowly creeps up his legs, halting at the edge of his shorts. "The twins swim in...but they like the lake better. It does not have the chemicals. They have all-over gills." Lia traces a hand along her neck and down her flank. The girl's hands pat at the surface of the water once they reach it. "Not frozen in here, though. Much better for swimming just now. Usually have to go fast-fast all of the time for practice. Not now. Get to play. It is like flying." "I like the lake better too. Was there earlier, but with the wind it's kind of chilly right now." Kaine nods slightly, slipping off the side into the pool. "I wouldn't be allowed to compete, like the twins. I'm too fast." “They said probably not to go outside today,” Lia agrees at the mention of the wind. “You can practice and play, though. Just not enter the meets.” She plays her hands through the water, dipping up and down. “They just want to make it not impossible for people who do not have the same mutations.” Kaine nods slightly, the water in his hair rising off in small droplets and raining back into the pool. "Yeah, I won't turn down an opportunity to swim. Probably going to spend a good portion of my time down near the lake when it warms back up." “It is nice.” Smiling, Lia slowly leans back to let herself simply float on the surface. “I am supposed to swim with B when it gets warm enough. Probably I will have to wait a lot longer than they will for what /is/ warm enough. I could always put a doll in the water, but buoyancy is different for different materials. It could be problematic.” "Likely. Shane was swimming the other day. But he was wearing a few layers." Kaine agrees, dipping under the water. He doesn't come up where he went down though, instead surfacing on the opposite end of the pool after only a few moments. His stroke back to where he started is a lazy one by comparison, taking a bit longer to make it back over to Lia. "Should race the twins sometime, see who's faster." "I know sometimes there are times it gets cold enough that they do not go. When it is warm, they will stay out in the lake a lot. I heard they lived in the ocean once. They are fast-fast. Lots of practice." Lia moves her limbs just enough to start herself on another slow spin, this one facing the ceiling. "I do not know if I swam before I came here. Not as fast. I race with Lyric instead." "I know I didn't. I'd have gotten hypothermia." Kaine says with a slight shrug. "Well, probably not when my first mutation happened. But I never thought to try it." “I thought you liked cold?” Lia questions with a head tilt that may be less effective at expressing inquisitiveness with her horizontal orientation. “Most people do not live in the ocean.” "I do like the cold, but it can still get cold enough that I don't like it. Like the wind out now is cold enough I'd definitely need a jacket." Kaine rolls his wrist a bit as he speaks. "I lived near the ocean. Up in Alaska. It got really cold there." “Ah, okay. That is far away.” Lia has slowly drifted her way to deeper water. She slides under for a moment just to tumble and twist a few times before she comes up again. “Did you come right here from there? Or was that a long time ago?” "I came here from there." Kaine nods. "Miss it a bit, but not the people so much. They didn't really care for me once they found out I was a mutant." Lia treads water steadily now that her feet don't properly reach the bottom. “They did not know? Were they different before?” She seems legitimately curious. "I had friends before. They didn't know, because it wasn't anything obvious then." Kaine explains. "But I mutated again." He motions towards the mask on his face and then his hair. "And they treated me differently. Fear, anger... Not positive why. It's not like I changed, really. Same person they knew." "It is good to have friends. It is less good that they stopped being friends. You can have more friends here, though. There are many people to be friends with. B and Shane say that some people still treat them different for looking different. But it is not like outside." Lia stops speaking long enough to glide a little closer. "Many people have trouble with different. They do not like it. And change. They think it is harder than staying the same and they do not like that, either. I like different. Different is pretty clothes and faces, and all kinds of things to eat, and seeing more than the same walls over and over. And changing means finding new things. And learning things. And that when things are bad-bad, they do not always stay that way." "Unfortunately not everybody sees the good or potential in different." Kaine agrees with a nod. "And some people will. It's an unfortunate part of being different. Part of the reason I don't like going into New York often. But I'll have to get out and have a look around eventually.” “I do not go out very often. Only with groups when they go out. I am not good at...out. I never lived out there and it is very confusing alone.” Lia twirls her fingertips through the water. “I do like to explore it, though. It is new and different and exciting, too. I just send dolls and leave me here. That way I cannot get hurt.” "I always like seeing new things and meeting people." Kaine agrees. "May have to wear a mask like this and gloves in some neighborhoods though. Don't care for getting into fights too much." The water around him swirls a bit at that statement. "But I will if I have to." "It is fun! You should talk to Rasa. Ze does lots of make-up. If you wanted to go out and look different. Ze does that sometimes. And knows lots about pretty scarves and gloves things, too!" In her excitement, Lia lifts a hand and the wrinkling of her fingertips catches her attention. "Oh, bother. My fingers are all pruny. They say when that happens I have been in the water too long and I should get out. I should shower and then maybe it will be lunchtime!" The hand lifts further to wave, again excited over the thought of food, before she darts over to the ladder to climb out. "Don't really want to cover my gills with anything." Kaine says before nodding towards Lia. "Alright, take care!" His gaze moves around the pool before he simply shrugs and moves to get out as well, almost all the water on him making it's way back into the pool. “You, too. Don't forget lunch! The food here is awesome.” Lia /starts/ to run toward the locker room but then stops and deliberately slows to a walk. Probably that's another rule that was drilled in at some point.