Week 1 Mingle;

[omnivoracious]

❤ Week 1 Mingle

Welcome to a new week, lovebirds! Monday dawns gray and misty, and it's actually not long before a thunderstorm rolls in! You can, of course, kiss dramatically in the yard in the rain and risk getting struck by lightning-- or you can stay inside, cuddle in the conversation pit, USE THE GODDAMN BOOM BOOM ROOM or do anything else until the storm blows over by the evening! Don't worry, the rest of the week will be bright and sunny and beautiful!

There's also a new section of the house, weirdly enough! There's a bright turquoise door located near the bedroom and opening it leads to... a massive indoor pool. The water is a pleasant temperature, there's a hot tub, there's an assortment of flotation devices for those of you who might have trouble swimming (tubes, life vests, boogie boards, pool noodles that can also be used to wage Deadly Combat if you are Sara and Kasque or Jeritza or anyone else ready for Violence). And if you somehow didn't pack a swimsuit because why on earth would your canon let you have one--

Worry not!! There's a rack of swimsuits in every size you lot could need! The catch (or not): they're all sexy. Like. Barely there sexy. Impossibly adhering to you sexy. Shoelaces would maybe cover more sexy. Absolutely great to play Chicken Fight in sexy. You get the idea.

Anything having to do with being able to write is still also Not Present.

Enjoy!!!

Premise ❤ FAQ ❤ Rules ❤ Truth Booth ❤ Locations ❤
Profiles ❤ Permissions ❤

Comments

[corporative]

That’s an interesting design choice. I’m no engineer myself, but we don’t have anything like that on Gaia.

[Splashed, he seems unbothered.]

Aviation isn’t our forte. We thought about sending a man into space once, though.

[firesinthesky]

I'm sorry, space? You mean out into the stars?

[ That sounds absolutely wild. ]

Why didn't you?

[corporative]

That’s right. Beyond the Planet, into the stars. To see what other resources existed in the unknown.

[He takes a drink, a little contemplatively. It is a shame that it never got off the ground—literally—but Shinra had many irons in the fire and never put all its eggs in one basket.]

The program’s very first launch was a failure. Funding was pulled soon after that. Not my decision, though. Personally, I think it would have been worth at least a second try.

[Not like the department doesn’t still exist. Give Palmer something to do other than clutter up the boardroom.]

[firesinthesky]

That you can even treat something like going into space so casually is baffling to me. Such a thing would be unheard of in my world.

[ No one has apparently described to her recent events on Hydaelyn, but it's fine. ]

Tell me, do you have magic as well, or only fanciful technology?

[corporative]

It’s unheard of in our world, too. It’s not like we’ve succeeded, and there’s no point in lauding a failed attempt.

[Somewhere, poor ol’ Cid Highwind curses into the void.]

We do have magic, though people need a conduit to use it. They’re round orbs of crystallized Mako. We call it materia.

Should have brought some with me and I could have shown you. A thundaga in the pool is fine, right?

[He jests, of course.]

[firesinthesky]

Now you’re just splitting hairs.

[ She doesn’t even know that the technology for space travel exists in her world. That Rufus’ people can even make the attempt is impressive on its own. ]

Huh. We have materia as well, but you don’t need it to use magic. It sort of… gives a little boost to what folk can already do. Magic is done through the manipulation of aether instead.

I haven’t tried, but I’d bet I can use the aether here just as well. And I won't use it to fry everyone in the pool.

[corporative]

[Another shared concept? Interesting. Weird. Maybe not as jarring as sharing the name of a gaudy amusement park, so it’s noted but not remarked upon for now.]

Are you sure? We could both get out of the pool before you cast it, and then that’d narrow down some of the matches we’d have to worry about.

[HE’S NOT SERIOUS but clearly finds himself amusing]

[firesinthesky]

No, no, that won’t be necessary. I can use water just as well as lightning.

[ They’re not in the deepest part of the pool, so she can easily slip out of her raft to stand. Even with as high as the water is, it looks comically shallow with her in it. She sets her drink in the little cupholder on her raft and pushes it to drift out of the way. ]

Now, I’m no mage, so the way I cast might seem a bit unorthodox. Rest assured, most magic users wave around staffs and mumble pretty incantations.

[ That said, she begins forming a rapid series of signs with her hands. The aether here thankfully responds as well as it would back in her world, and when she forms the last mark, she brings her hand down on the water’s surface.

Which in turn causes a geyser of water to erupt from under Rufus’ raft. ]

[corporative]

[Well, whatever reply he had on his tongue is absolutely discarded for the surprised noise--even you listen hard enough--that escapes him as his raft flips over instead. And what a display; her "magic" geysering up beneath him, lifting him in the air like the world's smallest fountain, before he overturns and lands in a splash. His drink is lost to the waves made, plastic poolside glass floating away...

Rufus emerges from seconds later, his bangs stuck to the side of his face, hands coming up to push excess water away from his eyes. A piece of blond hair sticks out, comically, and it takes a whole second for him to reset into his usual unruffled demeanor -- despite actually having a ruffled look.]

I think I prefer the pretty incantations.

[firesinthesky]

[ She’d been wondering if it was possible for Rufus to look anything less than perfectly put together, and it seems she has her answer. He pops up out of the water looking disheveled and startled and perhaps a touch indignant. It’s a very good look on him, she thinks to herself, and even the eventual smoothing of his demeanor does nothing for his hair sticking out at all angles.

Pardon her while she just cracks up laughing. ]

Oh, I’m sorry. [ She’s not. ] I couldn’t help it.

[corporative]

[Oh, ha ha. Very funny. Rufus rarely gives a slight against his pride a pass, though the sting is a small one, given that it's all fun and games.]

And just when a man is trying to enjoy himself in the pool, you have to go and do something like that.

[He pushes his hair back again, trying to salvage his usual slick-backed style but managing only minimal success. There's little to be done about fully soaked hair, and he'll have to make a fine effort of washing out the chlorine scent.]

If I did the same to you, I'm sure you'd appreciate it about the same. Why don't we give it a try?

[firesinthesky]

You were the one talking about slinging levinbolts around.

[ A fountain of water is by far the least harmful option.

Every time Rufus tries and fails to put himself back together, Blaze laughs a bit more, her grin hitching wide enough to make her cheeks ache. ]

Oh, I would love to see you try, in fact. Come on Rufus, get me wet.

[ Phrasing… ]

[corporative]

Come on, you think I'd really fry someone in here? [He'd only do it to his enemies!] I feel like I've given you the wrong impression of my character.

[That phrasing, though. As if Rufus isn't going to latch onto it. He treads a little closer, eyebrows rising.]

Oh, I could do that without the need for a pool.

[firesinthesky]

[ No, she doesn't think he'd actually do it, but the fact that he thought it was funny in the first place... sus.

Blaze likewise arches a brow, one hand coming to rest on her hip while the other reaches out to flick at a wayward bit of Rufus' hair. ]

Is that what you think? The drowned chocobo look isn't doing you any favors.

[corporative]

[He tilts his head slightly to avoid the droplets, which land on his chin instead.]

And whose fault is that? Anyway, no one’s ever called me a ‘drowned chocobo’ before — and some people like the more disheveled look, I hear.

[No, he does indeed look like a drowned chocobo.]

Though if it’s that big of a dealbreaker, I could always use some help toweling off.

[Teasing, but also testing. How’s her reaction to that, he wonders?]

[firesinthesky]

I you could see yourself, you'd find it a perfectly apt description.

[ But, she will concede that the disheveled look is pretty good. She just won't give him the satisfaction of doing it out loud. ]

Which is it? Are we getting wet or drying off?

[corporative]

[Rufus knows he looks good! The state of his hair is irrelevant. If he has to thank a parental unit for something, it would be the genes.

Maybe it’s with this inherent confidence that he can quip back just as aptly:]

Who says we can’t do one and then the other?

[firesinthesky]

[ Just don’t go growing a weird mustache and we’ll be fine. ]

You’ve yet to manage the one, Master Shinra.

[ She leans over a bit, putting herself at his eye-level, a crooked little smirk on her lips. ]

Can you even handle me?

[corporative]

[Please... he would never make the same mistakes. Though Rufus' lips quirk at that title a second time.]

Give me a chance, and I can. I'm not just some delicate flower, you know. Or have you already written me off in that department?

[firesinthesky]

I'm merely wondering if someone like you likes to be in charge in every facet of his life.

[ There's already something wicked in the way she smirks at him, but it grows a bit sharper at the edges, her voice lowering into an almost conspiratorial whisper. ]

Because I would love to give you a reason to remember my name.

[corporative]

Oh, I do. It takes only an extraordinary personality to convince me otherwise.

[His own grin widens, becomes a little more lopsided. While she whispers, he speaks with confidence, despite how much they've discarded pure subtlety for now.]

You might convince me to let you take charge, for just a little bit. But you'd better make it worth it.