ACTION - Experimentally open post

[odd_jobs]

Who: ALL ARE WELCOME
What: WATER BALLOONS
When: Saturday afternoon
Where: Outside of a small sidewalk cafe

Graduation has come and gone, leaving one last summer before a person really runs out of excuses and has to decide college or work. Many of his peers, and quite a few who likely managed a far better GPA are probably placing applications and writing essays.

There are those of the Numbers Club busily working out strategy, tracking movements and setting up things like safehouses and tracking resources.

Someone, however, is not quite so ready for either form of responsibility.

It's probably why, today, there's someone sitting up on top of the artifice on the busy walkway, an apron from Joe's Pizza Palace wadded up beside him.



More importantly, it's probably why a water balloon is dropping towards your head from above.


((OOC: Feel free to dodge, get hit, catch and retaliate or what have you. Or just enjoy it because it's a hot day. He's non-discriminatory about targets so ALL ARE WELCOME.))

Comments

Because humourless children need this

[icy_heavens]

You know who doesn't expect things like water balloons dropping on his head? This kid. So yeah. Hit right smack on top of the head and thus a bit soaked. Okay, seriously what the hell? He blinks water out of his eyes and scowls up in the direction the balloon came from.

Ah. There's the idiot. "Was that really necessary?"

It's a childhood. I'll live an extra one for you.

[odd_jobs]

Tadashi grinned and leaned over the side, tossing a bright blue one up and down in one hand.

"A matter of grave importance." The serious wet glare from below was downright perfect. It was more than a little hard to have the self restraint not to drop the second. "Second only to air."

Exactly. What does he need a childhood for when everyone else is having them?

[icy_heavens]

Oh, he'd seen that face before. At the after-school meetings. Which meant that the guy might get an unpleasant surprise if he did drop that next one.

And that wet, serious glare continued unabated. "I didn't realize that dropping water balloons on people was necessary for survival. I seem to have been doing well enough without it."

Peer pressure?

[odd_jobs]

Tadashi found himself blinking downwards. It could have been the distance, the angle, the natural foreshortening, but the kid looked what...? Nine?

He looked to the kid and the balloon and then the kid again.

"Wanna try?"

[reckless_fire]

Kenji sees the shadow of something overhead and looks up...just in time to be hit dead in the face. Sputtering, he shakes the water out of his eyes and turns a decidedly irate glare upwards, scanning the walkway for the asshole that bombed him.

"Son of a bitch!"

...And finds Tadashi. Whoa...aaawkward.

[odd_jobs]

It seemed to be somewhat mutual the laughter stopping on a weak sort of "Ah... haha... oh hey."

[reckless_fire]

"Uh...hey."

How eloquent. Try as he might, however, Kenji could think of nothing else to say that didn't either sound even more stupid, or head off into the territory of Things He Didn't Want to Talk About, so he just stood there for a moment, awkwardly shifting his weight from one foot to the other. It wouldn't have been so bad if Tadashi had acted like his usual smart-ass self, but his friend's awkwardness just made him feel even more awkward, creating a huge feedback loop of awkwardness that hung between them.

"I...um..." Yeah, he had nothing.

[odd_jobs]

The silence stretched out as the kid below shuffled. There were a couple of things he could think of but they seemed less than appropriate... or would require addressing that fucking elephant standing between them.

So, simply, eloquently, he lobbed another water balloon.

[chalicejoker]

Hajime looked like he wasn't paying much of attention to anything as he walked by the spot Tadashi had chosen to launch his water balloons from. He probably looked like a perfect target. After all, when you've gotten back superhuman senses and reflexes more suited to some war machine bug monster, it's not really obvious.

He reflexively catches the water balloon without even looking at it. Once it;s in his hand, he turns to look at it just to identify what the mysterious object hurtling toward his head was. When he realizes what's happened, he'll glare upward in the direction from which the balloon came.

[odd_jobs]

Up above, the culprit is leaning on his elbows over the edge, a look of mild surprise on his face. He lets out a low whistle. "Not bad. You're the first."

[chalicejoker]

"I'm pretty hard to sneak up on." Hajime arches an eyebrow and considers an immediate counterattack with the water balloon but decides against it.

"You might want to be careful who you throw these at. You never know when you'd tick off the wrong guy." With that, he tries to lightly toss the balloon back up there. Too bad he's also gotten back a bit of superstrength he hasn't quite gotten the hang of yet and might not be gauging the force he's tossing it back with as well as he thinks.

1/2

[odd_jobs]

Tadashi noted the casual stance of the guy below and grinned as he lifted a hand to catch the balloon on the return. "Heh, noted, man. It's-"

The balloon snapped up faster than the teen could track and in that fraction of a second the latex snapped in his palm. Jets of water were propelled by speed and force behind him, divided into four by his frozen fingers.

[odd_jobs]

The teen jumped back, waving his stinging hand in the air and gaping down incredulously.

"Holy SHIT man, do you pitch for the Majors or what?"

[15minuteslate]

As the water balloon hit, Mamoru froze stock still -- he needed a moment to process what had just happened.

"What the fuck?"

Saked to the skin from the chest up, Mamoru looked up, glaring, searching for his drenching's source.

[odd_jobs]

It's not particularly hard to find... between the clashing color of the rolled up green apron above, or more specifically the teen finding some great mirth in your affronted expression.

"Man, I REALLY should have brought a camera."

[15minuteslate]

Mamoru opened his mouth angrily, taking in a deep breath, ready to rip this guy a new one --

-- and then he broke into a lopsided smile. "Okay, okay, you got me," Mamoru laughed, shading his eyes with a hand so he could look up at the teenager. "Nice aim."

[doomedtheworld]

Vanessa did not have much of a temper by any means. Being as small as she was, she couldn't really afford to. Still, that day when she was hurrying down the street only to come to a sudden halt when a water balloon smacked against her shoulder and soaked the right side of her body, that didn't stop her from looking upward and scanning the building she was under with what could accurately be called a murder-glare.

[odd_jobs]

It very likely didn't help to hear the laughter from above or the humor stained tones of the kid above calling back to someone out of sight. "Your aims off! Little to the left next time!"

[reckless_fire]

"Guess I'll have to work on that, then." A few seconds later, Kenji comes into view, holding a blue water-filled balloon and looking not at all apologetic. Peering over the railing, he grins down at the lady with the death-glare, and for a moment, it looks as if he's going to drop a second balloon on her. At the last moment, however, he chucks it at Tadashi.

"There. How's that?"

[comparative_insanity]

A couple of months ago he would undoubtedly have been hit squarely over the head by that balloon. But things have changed, gifting him with faster reflexes and fast-growing claws - without much control over either.

The positive part is that he manages to withdraw the claws before people notice and start staring. The negative is that he still gets really wet, since slicing up a water balloon over your head tends to do that. So he lets out an indignant squeak and then stares. "Now what did you go and do that for, huh?"

[odd_jobs]

There's a low whistle from above that tapers off into a barely controlled snicker.

"Well, ten points for reflexes." Someone called down, cheerfully. "Might want to work on the catch."

[comparative_insanity]

"Ten points for reflexes, not so much for style, huh?" He shrugs easily, but then shudders a bit because ew, wet shirt.

"Is this like a normal pasttime for ya, or did you just feel frisky today, or what?"

[depolarized]

What the--!! [Riku hits the balloon instinctively, but the angle is too sharp, making the thin rubber skin break open, water soaking his head and shoulders.]

[odd_jobs]

The laughter from above, crowing and fitful, probably doesn't make the cold indignity any better.

[depolarized]

If nothing else, that laughter pinpoints exactly where the perpetrator is. Riku glares up at him. "What's an oversized monkey like you doing out from the zoo?"