Diving
Who: Silver, Troy What: Diving When: Friday afternoon, some time back Where: Pool out back of X Mansion Status: Complete Rating: PG-13
Diana focused on her dive, eyes closed as she stood poised on the board. A few steps forward, a hurdle, hitting the board and she rode it up going into a double summersault before punching out and entering the water. Hitting the bottom of the floor she pushed up and threw her head back as she burst forth to the surface. She needed this. The pool had been a saving grace for her, a refuge from having to deal with load and noisy and nosey people. Something she didn’t have while on the streets. She was going to stay, yes, she knew this was a better place for her. She wanted a degree and here at least they wouldn't give her much of a hassle about her mother kicking her out or looking for a foster family or any of that stuff.
Her powers... now that was a bit of a pain. It had taken only a few nights to finally figure out what was going on. They had done testy things, having her try to do things in and outside and all of that stuff. Apparently it had something to do with moonlight. So her powers were only good outside and at night. Something she had found out on her own before but they had scientific names, and tests and such explaining it all. It made her feel like a bit of an outsider even among these 'fellow' mutants. As if that wasn't enough, she couldn't even reliably teleport at night under the moonlight. They said it would take time and practice to figure it all out, and said they might see about some guy named Kurt helping her out. Meanwhile they wanted her to learn to defend herself by taking fighting lessons. She felt like she had been drafted into some kind of military school. Hey, she didn’t mind too much. Knowing how to fight would have been really useful in the past.
The last couple of days had left her angry and frustraited and with a bit of a headache. So she had come out here and found refuge in swimming and diving and running. The physical activity helped. The mental focus involved in diving helped clear her mind of all other bothersome things. The smell of the chlorine water was familiar and calming. She pulled herself out of the water and headed back to the board to try out another dive. It wasn't like she had anything else she had to do tonight. At least not as far as she knew, and she planned to enjoy herself while she could.
Troy was hot-footing it out to the pool in his trunks, minding the warm concrete and making his feet expel a thin layer of water wherever he stepped. It wasn't until he was almost to the ladder when he realized he wasn't alone. No one ever swam in the outdoor pool. Who the hell?
Oh, yeah. The new bamfer. He quirked an eyebrow after noting she was (as per pool decorum) in her bathing suit. "So," he began, "Bit of a cowgirl? I like the wide open spaces, myself. The indoor pool is stuffy - and you can't get a tan," he said (noting that she did have a tan, and opted to sit on the side of the pool. "I'm Troy." He gave a small wave, and decided that being on his best behavior was a good choice. First impressions were so important, after all.
She looked up, surprised, as Troy intruded on her little bit of solitude. She didn't realize that anyone else even used this pool. The guy seemed sort of nice, and heck, it looked like he was a fellow swimmer.
She shrugged. "Being indoors too much bugs the hell out of me." For a lot of reasons. Sound was contained inside, and therefore louder. And all those walls felt like they were crushing in on her sometimes. Plus she really wasn’t used to being around too many people again just yet. "Not to mention it can get pretty crowded. It's a bit hard to do dives or laps when there are people all over the place." Usually just fooling around. Or at least that was the way it was like in the public pool she would go to sometimes. She imagined it would be much the same here.
She headed over to the low diving board and headed to start position. "So, are you a real swimmer? Or do you just like to sunbathe?
"I'm a real swimmer, dove," he stated, matter-of-factly. "Dive on, I'll show you in a minute," he told her with promise.
A girl after his own heart - most of the folks inside were just that - inside people. He loved the open air and the feeling of the elements. Control over water was much more gratifying outdoors - where you could feel the clouds passing... sense the rain coming from a mile away...
"Let's see what you've got." He nodded for her to make the dive and grinned with challenge.
She scowled at the pet name, dove. Honestly, she just MET the guy and he was already taking liberties. "Dove?" she scorned. How did he even come up with that?
She whipped around, her hair striking furiously across her back. She stood there at the start point and forced herself to calm down and focus. She just stood there, eyes closed, arms to her side and breathed in and out as she ignored most of the world around her. The air passed by and she centered herself, thinking about her dive before she finally pushed forward. A pike 1 1/2 summersault with a twist. She barely made it and she didn't rip it, but there wasn't too much of a splash. All in all a decent dive.
She pushed off from the bottom of the pool to look at Troy. She pushed a stray bit of hair away and cocked her head. "Well?"
He gave a hearty chuckle at the response he'd earned with his sincerity. Honestly, chivalry really was dead. Women didn't appreciate anything anymore.
Troy, however, appreciated her performance off the diving board. A true athlete. He nodded enthusiastically in appreciation as she arose from the water. "Very nice," a pair of claps.
Then, his arm jetted out from beside him and the water in the pool began to ripple. Before he finished bringing his other arm up, the water was anticipating his actions and formed a large, hand-shaped wave at the far end of the pool - near thirty feet high. It made a roaring noise and caused the level at their end to become much more shallow. "Hi!" he said, and the hand made a loud and wet, but all around friendly wave from one side to the other, then slowly emerged beneath the edge of the pool, back into itself. It was gone in a few moments, and the water was still.
"Hydropath," he said.
The praise for her dive eased her wounded temper a bit. She started to swim to the wall when he surprised her. She gasped as the water moved unnaturally away from her. She could almost touch the bottom now. She was glad when it returned and she could grab the side of the pool. That had been scary. All she could think about was what if he had done that while she had been diving?
"Oh." Was her eloquent reply. Then a few moments later. "I'm sorry. I guess I'm just not really used to the whole being around a bunch of people with powers thing just yet." She sighed and dipped her head back to wet her hair. It was a comfort thing. Of course, just being in the water out here like this made her feel better, less on edge.
She pushed back and floated back to the far wall, kicking lightly. "And there is that training thing. Do you have fighting practice? I'm supposed to meet with some guy to figure out how much I know and need to learn." She braced her back against the far wall facing him. "Teleportation isn't exactly much of a help in fighting." she looked down at the water. He had such a cool power. Why couldn't she have that one instead of her own pathetic 'ability'?
"We have all sorts of practice. Personally, I'm still tinkering with college level math," he shared, offering an understanding smile. "Some of us are more advanced than others in some things, and then us underdogs can whip their butts at, say, basketball," he waved a hand, searching for other examples, "or swimming. Just don't swim with 'Bobby.' Iceman." He'd let her figure it out.
"You'd be surprised, by the way, about teleportation. I didn't think I would be worth a whole lot in a battle. But, I'm a captain/co-captain now on the training teams. They should go easy on you." Troy gave one amused chuckle and scooted so he could dip his feet in. They disappeared.
"Kurt, the other teleporter, he's pretty awesome in a fight - but I think his tail is an unfair advantage. Other than the training and shit, how do you like it here? I've heard around that you're a bit of a pistol. I didn't like these schmucks at first, either." He shrugged and turned his eyes to the sky. "Huh... clouds're rollin' in pretty quick..." Storm? Mayhap.
She shrugged as best as she could. "School is cool. I was in honors at my old school. Though there are a lot of classes offered here that weren't at my old school. It's hard to decide on some of them." she sighed. "Though there doesn't seem to be any organized sports. You know like teams? Classes are fine, but I might just do workouts on my own. Other than the fighting thing. That I would need a class for." She had actually been a scholor-athlete at her old school. Not best in either but good enough in both.
"My teleportation sucks. Trust me." It was evident in her tone that she didn't want to expound on that. "Kind of nice to know this fighting thing will be ok." she added briskly.
She scowled. Figures, she was the new girl and people were gossiping about her behind her back already. Well she didn't need them. She was just here to get a degree and live somewhere safe, not make buddy buddy friends. But it still hurt a little, even though she told herself she didn't like them, want them, or need them. "Yeah, well, people and me don't tend to get along. They have this nasty tendency of really pissing me off." It was usually one thing or another. They were loud, nosy, and smelly. Guh, perfumes and colognes and all that crap that people poured on like water could kill her sometimes.