ArchivedLogs:Full Plate

Full Plate
Dramatis Personae B, Hailey, Rasa	2014-07-22 '
Location <XS> Lake
Bright, bright, bright; the lake glitters wide and expansive here, stretching off into the distance. Sunlight, moonlight, starlight, it catches them all. Lapping at the rocky shore, its deep waters are frigid in winter and cool even in summer. A stone pier stretches out a ways into the water, wide and smooth, though often icy in winter. The water teems with life nevertheless, home to myriad species of fish that provide for ample fishing or just lazy watching on a slow summer day, for those who want to take a boat from the boathouse out to the center of the lake, or perhaps lounge on the pier and try their luck. Out by the lake it is beautiful, a drift of breeze off the water cutting the late-afternoon heat down into a pleasant temperature. Sunny skies overhead, birds chirruping in the trees nearby. B doesn't seem to have gotten the /memo/ that it is a glorious day, though. The tiny blue sharkpup is down on the pier, expression clenched into a /deep/ scowl. Ze hasn't been a /frequent/ face around school, not /in/ classes this summer and with a home and a job in the city to keep hir away from campus -- but ze and hir twin stop by once or twice a week to visit with their friends here and to /hunt/ out on the grounds. It's possible that latter is what B /has/ been doing. Ze's dressed in a pair of denim short-shorts, one leg plain red and the other checked in black-and-red; ze used to be wearing a pale red t-shirt, too, but the t-shirt has been removed, set down beside hir. The discarded shirt (and hir shorts as well) are rather /liberally/ splattered with blood, sticky and still drying, the metallic tang of blood heavy in the air, too. B, for hir part, is surrounded by a tiny /flock/ of shiny metal dragonflies in various colours. There's a tablet computer on the rocky pier nearby hir -- B isn't looking at its /screen/ but instead at a holographic projection it has superimposed over one of the dragonflies. Nearby the lines of text in a (also holographic, floating in the air beside the shark-kid) terminal window are changing as B fiddles with something in one of the robots' bodies. Hailey is as usual shadow walking around the campus. Testing out her powers carefully with a little hum as she shifts here and there. She did get assigned detention for a week but she was able to get a pass for a little bit. She's flickering by the lake at the moment and sees the two. She takes a quick look around before heading over near the two. The sun is waaay too bright to shadow walk over and it's even too bright to not make the fair skinned Hailey not grumpy. She smells of high grade sun screen and she has much of her visible skin covered by a long sleeved school uniform and long striped socks. As soon as the last class lets out - or well, let's be honest, a few minutes after the last class has let out, as sometimes running to fetch supplies is the very next step -- Ahem. Sometime after classes have ended, Rasa emerges from the school and breaks into a run, heading for the lake as fast as hir legs will take hir. Ze is a reddish mud color today, looking a bit dried out, all things considered, but ze neither flakes nor breaks like mud might. Hir skin is just this baked, earthy shade. Clad only in a pair of boys swimming trunks and a band across hir chest for modesty, ze plows hir way across the grass at break neck speeds with a towel in hir hand until ze stumbles near Hailey, "Hey!" slowing down as ze turns toward the pier and the figure there. Ze skids to a stop at the smell, made worse by the hot weather. "Something break?" Hailey jumps back crossing her arms over herself to try and block the runners attack before stepping away. "Hey yourself!" She huffs and adjusts her outfit, looking obviously uncomfortable in the bright sunlight. She grumbles a little and steps a little closer. "So what are you up to over here alone?" She asks with a little tilt of her head, tugging at her sleeve ends before shaking her hear out. Obviously her skin covering clothes didn't breathe very well, the pale girl looking quite uncomfortable at the moment. "My /brain/," B answers hir roommate, not looking up from hir robot dragonfly. "It's probably nothing. Just a small bug that -- probably won't even /matter/ I just. I'm kind of /insane/ paranoid right now, you know?" Ze lifts a hand, scrubbing a slightly damp palm across hir face. "Like if /anything/ goes wrong it could be -- it could be horrible. Dusk says I'm overthinking." Hir face finally turns up towards Rasa, skin a little too pale and a little too cracked in the summer warmth, despite the puddle of water on the rocks around hir that suggests ze's /frequently/ been dipping into the lake. Hir nostrils flare at Hailey's flickering approach, nose twitching at the new scent in the air and then wrinkling in sharp distaste at the strong scent of sunscreen. Huge black eyes shift towards the girl, head tipping faintly. "The lake's nice," ze offers, "if you're not a fan of the hot." Hailey nods a little as she looks over at the lake. "Uh... we don't have like... a kraken or something in there do we?" She hasn't been at the lake before and looks pretty skeptical of the water. She frowns and looks the other two over as she tugs at her shirt sleeves again. "I'm also not sure it would be okay for my sun screen, and I lack a suit." She rambles off a few more excuses, giving a little gaze at the ball of flaming death in the sky, then it's reflection on the water. "Do people come here often?" Rasa isn't a running attacker. Ze just happened to stumble a little in Hailey's proximity. Ze looks a little confused when she replies gruffly, but shakes it off as B draws more of hir attention. "I don't think your brain is broken. Seems like worry is a perfectly logical response." Ze plops hir towel down in a clean spot and inhales deeply, stretching out some of the stiffness that accompanies hours inside. "You could go in with all of your clothes on," ze recommends to Hailey, turning to give her a little smile. "I'm going to tell B to, in a minute, as hir clothes are kind of... well, blood and sun are a strong mix. Some people probably like them." This draws hir attention back to B with a slightly larger smile. "Taylor's the closest we have to a Kraken, and he's a sweet heart. So..." B's lips curl up in faint amusement, eyes shifting down towards the water. "Kraken? Only when Taylor's swimming," ze answers Hailey -- pretty much in tandem with Rasa's similar response about the tentacled student. "/I/ come here a lot." Ze looks back down to hir project afterwards, closing up a panel on the dragonfly's smoke-black body. "Oh --" Hir cheeks darken abruptly and ze shoves hir bloodsoaked shirt off the rocks into the water where it ebbs and floats up against a pillar of the pier. One fisted hand circles over hir heart in quick apology. "-- No I think my brain is broken from staring at code too long. The worry part is probably normal. It doesn't matter how much planning gets planned, I can't shake the feeling half of everyone I love is about to die." Hailey shrugs a little "I'd rather not soak my clothes through..." She looks at the water again with a wince from the bright pain to her eyes. "I think I met him when I first came here, not quite what I'd call a kraken." She nods a bit before flipping her hair a little bit before rolling her shoulders slowly with a little groan from the heat beating her muscles. "Hmmm, so you can build things? Could you make me something so I can use my shadows more? When it's bright like this it's kinda crippling." shr frowns "Why not? The dorms are right there? You can change afterwards." Rasa shrugs at Hailey's concern about wet clothes and moves to settle down into a sitting position next to B, reaching out to wrap an arm around hir shoulder. "You should take a break from code -- unless it's helping you cope with the worry. I... can see getting lost in that as an alternative." Ze wets hir lips before looking over and up at Hailey again. "How about a really big umbrella?" B leans into Rasa's arm, tucking hir head for a moment against Rasa's shoulder. Hir eyes close, the long sets of gills down hir sides slowly rippling open. "Yeah. Yeah, a break wouldbe good. You want to come swim with me? I -- Dusk's probably right we're probably good I just. I want to cover /all/ my -- I mean if anyone dies because I missed a close-paren somewhere I'm going to --" Hir words trail off into a completely /blank/ look, eyes opening a little bit wider as ze looks up at Hailey in disbelief. Hir mouth opens and closes very much like one of the fish ze so resembles. It takes a moment for hir to even /find/ words in the face of this request, but once ze does ze is very quietly polite about it. "Ah -- I don't. Quite know what you'd mean by that?" There's a cautious puzzlement in hir tone. "I'm not sure what sort of device would help use /shadows/ and -- and besides, I /kind/ of have a lot on my -- plate right now?" It's /possible/ that hir puzzlement is because all the talk of people dying might have made it /obvious/ ze has a lot on hir plate right now. "But -- maybe later on when I have some. Brain again I could try to -- well. I actually don't even have the slightest idea what would help with shadows, though." Hailey nods a little bit before adjusting her outfit just a little bit. She runs her fingers through her hair again before huffing a little, the summer heat making her hair slightly damp as she shakes her head out a bit. With a little nod she looks back towards the school. "I think I'm going back inside, it's not quite my place out here right now." She huffs again as she flicks her wrists a bit. "I'll see if I can write something up for you later when you have a bit more space in your brain." she smiles a little bit. "You can't take all that respons-" Rasa pauses in attempting to console B to wrinkle hir brow, hir skin turning darker as ze listens. Hir lips press together into a straight line and ze inhales deeply through flared nostrils. There's a slight nod and a squeeze of B's shoulder before ze opens hir mouth again. "Ah. Okay. Have a nice afternoon." Jaw works out in the silence that follows before ze squeezes B's shoulder again and rubs at hir own eye. "Ah. Um. Huh." There's another moment before ze glances over at hir roommate. "Swim?" B blinks up at Hailey again, the faint puzzlement blossoming further into confusion. It's only when Hailey smiles that the confusion clears away, an answering smile spreading warm (if carefully closed-lipped) across hir face. "Okay," ze agrees easily, "Later, then." Ze nods to Rasa, bonking hir forehead lightly against Rasa's shoulder -- and then just wriggling a little backwards to simply /topple/ off the edge of the pier into the water. Hir answering: "Swim!" comes now from down below, a webbed hand beckoning Rasa to join.