Poolside: OPEN THREAD

[Cannonball]

"Uh...sure, Paige..." said Sam, scratching at his head thoughtfully as he watched his cherished baby sister skitter away with the uber-buff winged guy.

Wearing nothing more than a tiny red bikini.

A muscle under his right eye went briefly into an involuntary spasm and he couldn't push back the thought that the bottom half of the bikini had been little more than designer dental floss. Still, it was entirely possible that he was Jumping To Conclusions, something that Sam Guthrie did where his family's wellbeing was concerned.

Try not to think about it, Sam, he told himself sternly. Ya just got here. Don't start a fight with her before y'all have even got a room for the night.

With that thought in his head, he headed back round to the front of the Institute and stared for a long time at his broken car. Then he got his holdall out of the boot, slung it over his shoulder and stared up at the front door.

"Home sweet home," he said, without a lot of conviction. His mind was off on far, far, FAR too many thoughts about Paige and Gabriel or Azrael or...whatever Feathers' name had been.

Twitch, twitch.

"I best go find Storm and sort myself out with a room," he said out loud, in a firm tone of voice. "Everythin' else can wait for later."

[Maggott]

Maggott gamely hung on for a second, but he began to run out of air and the movement pushing water in his nose and ears didn't help. He released her tail as she continued away from him.

Sputtering, he stood in the shallower end where he had ended up. The dolphin-girl continued to move around in the circular ride she had been taking him on, and he watched her. He marvelled that he had never seen her around the school before, and thought that if she didn't want to be seen, why, she'd just be a fly on the wall, a snake in the garden, or a bird on the window sill. He would have never known.

"Hey!" he called out to her. "What's your name, luv?"

[Animaux]

Cal surfaced, wondering where he had gone. It didn't occur to her that maybe the blue man couldn't hang on for very long. It worked for HER after all.

She circled a few times and then zoomed up to him, standing partway out of the water and flapping her fins at him. This was great fun!

"Hey! What's your name, luv?"

Damn. No way to do this easily.

She thought for a moment and then went to one end of the pool and tried to spell her name in cursive by swimming through the water.

"C", something that may have been an "a" or an "o", and "l".

Wondering if she had been successful, she went and circled the blue man a few times, smacking him lightly with a fin on each turn around.

[Maggott]

The dolphin-girl shouted out some kind of response, but Maggott couldn't make heads or fins of it. She swam in a big circle around him and he spun a little in the water, still enjoying her company immensely.

Suddenly, a hunger pang ripped through his stomach. Maggott grimaced and put a hand to his bare skin, feeling the girls squirm around inside. They were ready to pop out, eager to feed. It was the second meal of the day, and he had at least two more to go through.

His mind drifted again to the disappointment at finding Xavier gone from the institute. He still hadn't gotten the full story about that... Another sharp pain brought his mind back to the present. He needed to get into privacy, quickly. If he didn't, the girls would come out on their own, and everyone would see his disgusting "power". No one had asked him where the girls were sometimes, or why he periodically turned blue, and he hoped to continue it that way. So far, only Logan and Sabretooth knew the truth about Eany and Meany.

Sloshing to the side of the pool, he kicked up and landed his butt on the cement side. He pulled his legs sideways, then stood, and water dripped from his baggies onto the ground. He looked back at the dolphin girl and gave her a big smile.

"I had fun, luv, but I really gotta go for a trap." He started to turn back to his chair to get his sunglasses and towel, then noticed that the girl had been wearing a bathing suit before, but certainly wasn't now.

He turned back to her. "Do ya need help with your clotheslessness, Flipper?"

[Animaux]

Cal rose backwards out of the water, flapping her tail as the man swam to the edge of the pool and lifted himself out.

"Eeekeeekeeekeekeeek?" she said, disappointedly. She zipped over to the side and nudged his foot on the way out. People were such fleeting playmates.

"Do ya need help with your clotheslessness, Flipper?"

Ooh. That was a good call. Even after the fright in the kitchen earlier, she had forgotten that bit.

She blinked a few times and thought it over. Fresh water, really, was the way to go for her, and the chlorine in the pool was already beginning to bother her; her vision was getting a little cloudy. Maybe the big man had the right idea after all.

She pressed right up to the side of the pool, where he couldn't see her body, and transformed back into a human.

She brushed some wet blonde hair out of her face and smiled up at him with her blue eyes twinkling. This had gotten some of her energy out and put her in a mellower happy mood.

"Yeah, that'd be great. I left uh - " she looked around. "Oh, there." She pointed; her bathing suit had fallen by the edge of the pool, but someone had been 'nice' enough to pick it up and drape it over a deck chair, far out of her dolphinesque reach.

[Maggott]

The girl swam to the side of the pool and reversed the transformation he had seen her undertake before. This time, however, he looked away, gazing back at the Institute. He wasn't really looking at it, of course, he was just not looking at her.

"Yeah, that'd be great. I left uh...Oh, there."

Maggott turned around, opposite from where she stood, and saw her suit draped over a chair. He strode over to it, grabbed it, and walked back to her, his eyes averted as much as he could. He leaned over and handed her the suit.

"Never did get your name, luv - my dolphin's a bit rusty."

[Animaux]

Cal reached for the suit, impressed with the man's politeness. She giggled a little as she took it out of his hand. "Heh, thanks. I have a lot of problems with losing clothes this way."

She wiggled around, trying to maneuver the suit on underwater, and finally succeeded. She dunked her long blonde hair underwater one last time before popping up over the side of the pool - remarkably like a sea lion.

"Haha, yeah, eh? Some animals can form words better than others. The squeaking is fun, though. I'm Cal." She rolled over. From flat on her back, with her feet still dangling in the pool, she put up a hand to shake. Her social skills were improving a little, at least.

[Maggott]

Maggott was relieved that the girl was so apt at underwater dressing. When she plopped down at his feet, he smiled at her, his pearly white flashing brightly.

"Haha, yeah, eh? Some animals can form words better than others. The squeaking is fun, though. I'm Cal."

Maggott took her hand and shook it firmly. "Maggott." A fresh hunger pain slashed through him and the girls squirmed inside once more. He tried not to react to it, but his stomach flinched and his smile faltered a bit nonetheless. "Sorry, luv, but I gotta jeet for now."

He walked over to his towel and glasses, throwing the former over his shoulder and putting the latter over his eyes. He ran off towards the school, waving behind him.

"Maybe we can lammit later!"

[Animaux]

Maggot? Cal thought with some distaste. She had seen enough carcasses to not like THAT image. She tried not to think about it. Then again, the guy looked distasteful of his own name too.

Then he bolted.

"No worries, bye!" she called after him. Huh. That was weird. What the heck does 'lammit' mean, anyway?

She crawled over to a chaise lounge, and flopped down in the sun happily. Ah well. Life was still pretty good.

[Con't in "Calmly hanging around..."]