touchscreens | 003; Video

Entry tags:

003; Video

[This is Mai, backlit by the daylight outside as she apparently uses a terminal in one of the districts. Her expression isn't quite so even and bland today. There's a fine sheen of sweat on her face and a flush to her typically pale cheeks that's anything but embarrassment.

From what one can see from the chest up, she's wearing what amounts to a tube top. It's a deep maroon in color and yes, she hunted everywhere for one that shade. If she's going to do this, she's going to do it in a color she likes.

Her voice sound distinctly annoyed.]

It's pretty sad when there's a heat wave that I can't stand. Not that I love the heat or anything but you'd think living in the Fire Nation's lands would give me some resistance to a heat wave like this.

[She bears no bones about running the back of one hand under her bangs as she mutters.]

Maybe I've been in Ba Sing Se way too long.

[And now she's quite literally fanning herself. If anything the poker face look is gone beneath her own wave of annoyance and discomfort.]

I'm sticking by the water until this heat wave blows over. If you need me, you know where to find me. I don't suggest looking for me though, not until it's a lot more comfortable.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Lloyd actually isn't looking for Mai. However, he is looking for the same thing she is, some relief from the seeming wave of heat. Dressed only in a pair of blue swim trunks and a pair of sandals, the teen barely takes the time to drop a towel on the ground and kick his shoes off before he heads straight for the water.

Oops, sorry, Mai, hope you weren't still trying to talk, because with a whoop, Lloyd divebombs right in with a splash. He, uh, might not quite have registered that anyone else was there.]

[It's all over before she realizes it. Usually her reaction time would be better. And usually she wouldn't be boiling to death either.

As it is she manages to turn right as that whoop is let loose and receives for her troubles a deluge of water that soaks her from head to toe.

And there she stands, in a now soggy sarong and top, just... what?]

[Lloyd doesn't notice at first, completely submerged under the water from his dive. Once he surfaces, though, he catches sight of her from the corner of his eyes and turns to face her in surprise. Pushing wet hair out of his eyes, he smiles.]

Oh, hey! You trying to cool off out here, too?

[It looks like she is, considering she's soaking wet. Huh, she must have taken a dive just like him.]

[The flattest of looks.]

I was thinking about it before I was almost drowned while still on shore.

Whoa. What happened? I didn't think rivers got waves that big.

[But who knows, maybe this river does get waves that big sometimes. It's a different world. Anything's possible, right?]

They do when people make the waves that big. Like morons cannonballing into the water.

[Here, let her lob some more boulder-like hints.]

Someone splashed you with a cannonball?

[Lloyd looks around, trying to spot who the culprit is, when it dawns on him that they're alone. There isn't anyone else on the beach. Which means...

Oh. Oh, right. He did kind of jump right in. He turns back guiltily, cheeks turning pink.]

Oh. I- Sorry. I didn't see anyone here. Er... are you alright?

Do I look alright?

[She looks drenched but it isn't as if she's going to die from that. Still, it's Mai and she's not about to answer a question easily.]

[Is this a trick question? He really doesn't do well with trick questions, Mai. Lloyd eyes the girl, trying to figure out if she's hurt.]

Um... Yes?

[If it sounds like he's guessing, that's because he is. But surely she would have said something if she'd actually been hurt.]

It was just water, right?

Do you think I was planning on dunking myself?

...isn't that why you're wearing a swimming suit?

[Because that's what that tube top thing is, right?

...why are his danger senses still tingling?]

Maybe I wanted to enjoy being near the water instead of in it.

[Luckily, there isn't anywhere to keep her knives in this ensemble. She looks indignant enough though.]

Oh. Sorry...

[He already apologized once, but he's feeling chagrined enough that it feels like he should apologize again.]

I guess I didn't think. Um... I brought a towel if you want to dry off?

...

[A long sigh goes here.]

It's no fun if you don't fight back, you know.

[She glances over at said towel a moment and then with all the casualness in the world scoots her foot under it and gives it a gentle little toss right into the water beside him.]

Now we're even.

[Huhwha-]

What?

[That was not the response he'd been expecting from Mai. Not that he knows what he had been expecting, but having a girl tell him he should fight back and not just apologize? Sorry if he's staring, Mai, but he's completely bewildered. So much so that there's a blank moment when he has to process what she just did. There's his towel, floating in the water.]

H-hey-!

[The protest jerks to a halt on his lips. Fair's fair, right? She's right, now they're even. But didn't she also just say he shouldn't just roll over for her?

Augh, girls are so confusing!]

Come on, I could have made it up to you another way!

You could have. And now you don't need to. I saved you a whole step.

[That- But- Lloyd's left mentally spluttering because there's logic there and yet there isn't. He can't argue with her because technically she's right - but she shouldn't be!]

So, what, you're saying I saved you a step in getting wet?

[Logic, meet Lloyd. You'll get along just great.]

[She just... what? Wait.]

No, I meant...

[Then she just sighs out, waving a hand.]

You know what, never mind. Yes, you saved me a step. Bravo for you.

Um... thanks...

[...you know, for being congratulated, it doesn't feel very much like she's really praising him. But, you know, maybe it's best to just leave it at that. At least he's been forgiven.]

You know, I didn't catch your name. I'm Lloyd.

[Why does it feel like she's talking to a less angry version of Zuko here? It almost makes her homesick.]

Mai.

[If Lloyd had to compare Mai to anyone he knew, he'd probably compare her to Sheena, but that's not really the best match, either. He'll just be content to think of Mai as Mai.]

It's nice to meet you, Mai.

So... [Change of subject.] Since you're already wet, are you going to go swimming now?

[She considers that a moment. He had a point, she was wet already.

With a shrug of her shoulders, the drops the bottom bit of her sarong-type skirt aside to step into the water.]

May as well be in the water if I'm going to get drenched by it.

The water's pretty warm. [Or at least it feels like it. It's not really helping with the heat he's feeling, anyway.] But hey, it's still pretty fun!

[He reaches for his towel and wrings it out, then wades out of the water far enough to lay the towel out on the sand. Maybe if he's lucky, it'll be dry by the time he gets out.

Right, back to what he was doing to begin with.]

What if we played a game together? Two people would be twice as much fun!

[She's waist deep when she has to stop and give him a look.]

What kind of game.

[Is it volleyball? Because she could actually get into volleyball.]

003; Video

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]; 1/2

[Action]; 2/2

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]

[Action]