3466/Splash of September

Splash of September
Date of Scene:	20 September 2020
Location:	Swimming Pool / Patio Deck
Synopsis:	Rogue and the new kid Drake have a poolside chat about life, love and everything in between.
Cast of Characters:	Rogue, Drake Riley

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Rogue has posed:
Rogue had come out to spend the afternoon by the pool on her day off. It was still warm enough to enjoy sitting by the pool in the sun, and this is precisely what she's doing right now. Wearing a pair of denim jeans cut-off shorts, a green and gold bikini top and a pair of flip flops on her feet, Rogue's hair is loose and wild around her otherwise bare shoulders, over her eyes she's wearing a pair of silver aviator sunglasses. Beside her is a patio table with a small plate of sliced fruit on it.

With her left hand holding her phone so she can stare at the screen while her other reaches out to pick up a piece of sliced cantaloupe. She raises it up to her lips to take a bite off of it's corner while she watches some video, with the audio quietly playing, the sounds of some guy screaming and laughing can be heard.

The sun is on Rogue's right side, as its lowering in the west and she's faced north, with the pool just in front of her.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley, on the other hand, was at the pool last night. It was nice, but also included a note of disappointment. So to cleanse the proverbial palette, he's back out again today! Though the excuse he gives himself is a bit simpler - he wanted to visit the pool while the sun was out. Nevermind that it's already drifting towards the horizon.

Unlike Rogue, Drake's already fully dressed for the water. Just a pair of stylized trunks to be found on him. The cheap plastic sunglasses he's been wearing have effectively been memorialized as a part of a past life. He'd rather brave the lingering sunlight than feel them on his face again. He pads, barefoot, along the perimeter of the pool before spotting the otherwise extremely mellow presence on the opposite end. It was more the sounds coming from her phone that drew his initial attention.

Is that...?

"Rogue?" He pauses. "Marie?" He isn't sure what to call her, actually. And this is her dressed down? He catches himself comparing her to Kitty the night before. But in fairness, the two /are/ in the same boat. Both superheroes. Both seeming like completely normal people when not in fancy costuming. It's halting.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue's covered eyes remain on her phone's screen as it plays some video, people goofing around it sounds like! She's chewing on that bit of fruit when Drake calls out two of her many names, and it draws her eyes up to peer out of her reflective glasses at him. Of course her pure white bangs make it pretty easy to tell it is her, even if she's not in a recognizable 'super suit', or roller skating waitress uniform.

"Heya, sugah." Rogue says with a smile for Drake as he appears. "Lookin' like you're settlin' right in. What with your fancy shorts'n all." She grins nice and teasing-like at him. "Come t'swim a few laps? You're lucky, the kids all emptied out about twenty minutes ago."

She leans back in her chair against a towel she has draped over the back of it and puts her phone down on her lap. "Hows your first few days been here?" She asks him, popping the other half of that fruit into her mouth then. One thing about her state of dress at the moment, he can see just how fit she is like this, further playing in to that super hero persona of hers!

Drake Riley has posed:
It didn't go without notice. Drake's a guy. It can't be helped.

Perhaps a point of irony, Drake himself seems to've benefitted physically from his time on the streets. Having to remain in astute physical condition for safety and survival does a lot for someone's physique. Though he's not really taken stock of that, himself.

Drake continues around the pool, an easy smile touching his lips. "Yeah. Been great. Accessible food, a bed, more space than I know what to do with, and everyone around me is at /least/ as weird as I am." He still hasn't really relaxed with his power usage, though. Some things are harder to get used to.

His gaze dips. "You look-," the bright greens quickly snap back up to her face, "..Good. Erh, nice. Fine." He squints slightly. "You look different. We'll go with that. Can we start over? Hi, I'm Drake," he jokes, smile having gone a touch self-conscious.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue drops her free hand down to her lap beside her phone at Drake's words she shows him another smile while she clears her palette and glances at herself, then back up at him. "You too, Fitness Guru." She cracks another grin at him. "I'm glad you're settlin' good then. It's quite a change, huh? Goin' from the road t'a place like this?" she glances around their general area for a second before looking back to him, her white bangs swept across her face now from turning her face against the wind.

She reaches up to pull that pure white hair out of her eyes and tuck it back behind an ear. "Have ya walked the grounds yet? The pathways around the lake are a lotta fun t'go on nature walks, and yeah, the boat house is pretty great too. Can pull out a jet ski thing... zip around on the water for awhile, if ya wanted."

Rogue's covered eyes go to the table beside her, where her glass of tea is resting, soon to be picked up by her right hand, causing the ice inside it to clink against the glass. "You're gonna be a pool lizard though, ain't ya?" She asks, still grinning until she sips from her drink.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley reaches down to nab onto the arm of a nearby deck chair, and he tugs it closer to Rogue's side. Her compliment gets another grin, and he takes a moment to actually look at himself. He's alright, he supposes.

And into the chair he drops. "This is just from, y'know, strict living and not a lot've options. Nothin' to write home about," he dismisses. "But what you said, that could be cool. Never really did the jet ski thing before. It was always about being in the water, instead've on it." He glances to the pool, then back to Rogue. His smile turns guilty. "I'm Californian. Don't act like I've got a choice."

His legs stretch out against the material of the chair, and he folds his left arm behind his head. The opposite arm - the one which is closest to Rogue - rests at his side. "What about you? I'm sure, uh.. plenty of people wouldn't complain about it. Having a superhero nearby, I mean."

That's what he was saying. And nothing else. Honest.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue lowers her glass of tea down to set it on her other hand's palm on her lap just beneath her phone resting atop her left thigh, her legs crossed at the knees with her left foot bobbing around a little, flip-flop dangling from her toes by its leather strap. "Ya should give Rogue Skiing sometime. Probably not many days left in the year for that though. But yeah, ya strap some water skis to your feet, then hold on t'the hope hat I wrap around my waist, then zoooooom, we're off!" She grins and motions her hand up in to the air.

"I'll folk around the lake like that. Easier than usin' a boat, and way faster too. It's quite a bit'a fun." She smiles at him for a second before biting lightly down on her bottom lip.

Her eyes glance down at her phone again, then back up at him where she shakes her head. "Not a very famous super hero, but I'm workin' on that. Was thinkin' about flyin' down t'the city tonight t'go on another patrol in fact."

Drake Riley has posed:
"Yeah, well... magazines haven't seen you like this, have they?," Drake asks with a playfully perked eyebrow, this time using a downwards glance to indicate her choice in attire. A quick laugh follows, and he shakes his head. "Not that I'm saying you should!"

The idea of being hauled around via rope and superhero is so ludicrous, it's hard for him to even imagine. After all, he's never really seen anyone fly. That's a level of weird he's yet to experience. But the mention of patroling, however, causes him to sit up just a little more. "Famous or not, what you do is important. And, I mean... c'mon. There's at least one life changed because of it." His smile softens as he attempts to even his gaze on hers meaningfully.

"..Patrolling sounds intense, though."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue laughs softly at his initial compliments for her, at least what seem like compliments to her anyway! "They haven't. Maybe they should? Course, I'm as dangerous as a bug zappah right now, for a flutterin' fly like yourself. Careful, don't ge ttoo close or you'll be out like a light." She teases him, playing up her voice in those playfully silly and teasing ways she does. "Generally I gotta suit up quite a bit before I go out on patrol though, cause I really do wanna be fully covered up. I don't /want/ to absorb all the people I have to handle out there. Most all'a them have thoguhts bouncin' around inside'a their heads that I really, really don't want in mine."

She smirks softly again before twisting her raised foot around in a circle, making her flip flop wobble and weave back and forth where it hands suspended by her toes.

"Lotta patrols don't have a single thing turn up on'em. They're just like... a nice evenin' out flyin' around. Course I prefer t'fly over Manhattan after the sun's gone down. It just gets too many eyes up in the air if I'm easy t'see up there. Which works out, since criminals love the night time." She says that last part and grins along with it.

"Maybe we'll go together some night, see if we can't find some folks t'wrangle up for the Cops. Once you're maybe a bit smoothed over here, settled in, that kinda thing."

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley steals another glance over her frame, but now for reasons that aren't strictly appreciative or communicative. He kind of remembers what she was saying about her powers, but he wasn't entirely sure he fully understood. He can revisit the whole 'going on patrol' thing in a moment, because that sounds awesome and mortifying at the same time. But this, he's very curious about.

"So... no one can touch you? At all? Ever?," he asks as his gaze lifts to her face again. "Am I understanding that right?"

Rogue has posed:
Rogue's eyes are out over the pool until he asks that question which makes her look back over at him. She has a pair of black elbow-length gloves draped over the arm of her chair on her left side as well. "Pretty much." She says. "I mean, my hair is safe.. it can be touched. My... fingernails, and toenails? Those are fair game. My 'teeth' too." She laughs softly and shakes her head side to side at her own plight in life.

"It's just like skin contact." Her left hand reaches out toward him not that far from her in his chair. She hovers her fingers there in the air. "If I put my hand around your wrist there. You'd get light headed..." she stares, staring green eyes right at him. "You'd start t'black out, and you'd slip into a deep, deep slumber. How long, depends on how long I hold on. And what all I get from ya? That also depends on how long I hold on. Your lightning? Definitely. Some'a your thoughts'n personality traits? Those too."

She draws her hand back. "I've been touched before, a'course. Not t'say that in a pervy sorta way. I mean like, my mutation didn't creep up until I was 13. Was my first kiss, with a boy from back in Mississippi. I felt his mind, an' soul, just transfer right in t'me. I had the memory'a him kissin' me back, likin' it, then seein' the world black out, my fast was the last thing he saw."

She shrugs her mostly bare shoulders then. "Only ran inta a few ways around it since then. They're mostly kinda, ya know, strange. Uncomfortable even."

Drake Riley has posed:
Green eyes to green eyes, Drake studies her in equal measure. But he spares a glance to her hand. If he's being honest with himself, a little lightheadedness isn't so bad a tradeoff. But the more she explains it, the worse it sounds. Not that he doesn't trust her in the event that he should pass out or something - she's a hero. She's a good person. She's the reason he's here. But the way she talks about the other dude, it sounds like he died. She didn't say that, though, did she?

"That's... rough." Sadly, personality wins over good sense, and Drake finds his mouth moving ahead of his brain, "So it's just VR Chat for you, huh?"

After a beat, he offers her an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry. Bad joke. I can't imagine what it'd have to be like in your shoes."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue drops her hand back on tothe arm of her chair, right over top of those gloves that are draped there over it as well. She hears his response and it garners a light laugh out of her before she slowly nod sher head a couple of times. "Pretty much." She quietly replies. But she does look up and over at him. "I have my fun though, don't get me wrong. I'm twenty years old, I'm in the damn prime'a my life. I'm not gonna let it just fly by, and sit in a corner bundled up in a winte'ah jacket. Screw that. I used t'feel sorry for myself, but not now. I'm strong, capable, got all kindsa great stuff I can do."

She leans over for a moment then. "It's all about creativity, ya see?" She flashes him a grin before she leans back once more. Flirting, was something she did like second nature, clearly an aspect of her that seems to just come naturally to the skin-dangerous femme fatele.

"So have ya run inta any other folks from the school, cept for the young kids that just run right past ya like you don't even exist?" She asks him then next.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley looks somewhere between stunned and lost. His mouth opens, and a request to explain what she means is right there at the tip of his tongue. But he catches himself before he makes any sound; her flirty tone caught up to him. Asking to elaborate on something that's likely very private would be no bueno. His cheeks tinge faintly, and he glances aside. He'll just have to imagine what she meant.

Wait no, bad, don't imagine.

He presses a thumb against his forehead, rubbing slightly in an effort to refocus himself while she talks. "Mostly been the latter," he notes. "Students running by, not even slightly weighed down by what I- or you - had to go through, seems like. Kind'a envy'em."

His hand lowers to his side, and his gaze returns to hers, small smile worn. "Not had much chance to meet or talk to others more my age, though. Except for you or Kitty, so far."

Rogue has posed:
Making people squirm is one of Rogue's favorite things to do, and seeing Drake show signs of doing just that at her, she just seems all too pleased with herself. When her phone buzzes with a text, she picks it up and keys it on to read it real fast before she sets the phone down on the table with her glass.

"Lotsa the kids around here have their own unique troubles they've gone through. It's a wild kaleidescope'a different crappy things happenin' to people around here. Some worse than others, a'course."

The Belle suddenly braces her hands on her chair's arms and moves to stand up. At full height now she steps out of her flip flops and starts to walk toward the pool's edge. "You want something from the cooler?" She asks, the cooler being on the kitchenette-area across the pool.

Without waiting for his answer though, the southern gal steps on the water and starts to walk across it like it's no big deal. Her bare feet make little rippling waves with every step she takes, glancing back at him over her shoulder as she goes to see if he wants a drink.

Drake Riley has posed:
"Hn..," is all Drake can get out before she's raising to her full height. His chin uptilts, sparing her a quick glance-over now that she's at her full height. Marie's a pretty girl. Sure, she's lethal to touch, but it's still easy to appreciate. He's making a concerted effort to not be obvious about that, however. Success rates may vary.

"Oh, no, I'm-"

She's walking on water. Drake's mouth pauses mid-word. And then he squints.

"We get it, Marie! You look divine! Don't you think you're laying it on kind'a thick!?," he calls after her, jokingly fake-exasperated.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue is midway across the water when she starts to laugh at his response to her display. "I haven't actually showed you a single thing I'm capable'a doin'!" She calls back as she leaps up off of the water and shoots about twenty feet up in to the air before she stops and turns around to point down at him. "And I'm enjoyin' messin' with ya some, Drake Riley." The Belle says, voice a bit loude considering how high up she is now.

Slowly though, she drifts back down toward the pool and touesh her toes down upon the diving board, right on the edge of it so her toes can curl down off its tip. She puts her hands on her hips and stares over the distance at him.

"Ya like divin'?" She asks him, before she suddenly jumps up in the air, peaks in her arc at about ten feet then knife-dives back down into the water with a little splash! Olympians eat your hearts out!

Drake Riley has posed:
"Showoff!," chides Drake as she suddenly rockets into the air. And then more to himself, he murmurs, "Holy crap..." She's hovering in the air. Pointing at him. People don't normally do that.

His gaze tracks her intently as she swooshes back down and lands on the diving board. Yeah, she's enjoying messing with him. It's not really fair. His powers aren't as utilitarian as that! And he gets the feeling he's more of a 'been there, seen that' case for her. It's weird to be with someone who he's pretty sure would think he's dull, powers and all.

She springs into the air.

"Rogue?"

She jacknifes.

"Marie!"

She careens towards the water.

"Shorts! Shortshosrtshorts!"

Splash.

Can't say he didn't try to spare her wardrobe.

Rogue has posed:
If he looks in to the water he'll see her moving fast down near the bottom of the pool, her arms out ahead of her and her legs behind her, none of them even moving as she just sweeps through the water like a dolphin! As she moves up in tothe shallow end she curves upward and then BURSTS out of the water and back up in to the air only to drop down on to her feet upon the concrete, with water splashing all around her, spattering against the patio.

She's showing off, and doing it on purpose, because she's a bit of a fun-hound.

Of course, her jeans shorts are gone now too, floating in the center of the pool as they'd just come right off. Her matching bikini bottoms keep her decent, however, and she just glances back at her shorts floating out there in the water, her eyelids fluttering to cast off the water.

"Oops." She says, with a sly grin before she turns to walk back to where she'd been sitting originally, now pausing in front of her chair to reach over it and grab her towel, a smile over to Drake. "Don't mind me, I'm... well... it's possible I'm a little crazy, sugah." She says with a grin as she pulls her towel up in to her arms, still shedding water all around her on the ground.

Drake Riley has posed:
Drake Riley can't exactly get a good angle on her in the water from where he's seated, but he certainly recoils when she erupts from the pool again. And when she lands, naturally he catches that she's lost her shorts.

"Tol'ja."

The look she sends back his way, however, may suggest she intended it to be like that. Oh yes, she's definitely showing off. And it's a total tease, he reminds himself. She's basically poisonous to touch! But the thought of how many guys must've been frustrated with a bombastic gal like her does a few laps in his mind. It'd be easy to become flustered in her presence. She owns the space around her. Heck, he hardly noticed the water droplets that hit him from her pool exit.

Drake leans back into the deck chair with a sigh, offering her a coy half-smile. "You're trouble, aren't you?," he asks, gaze partly lidded.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue stands there with her towel in front of her and her eyes up over it as she has it up over her mouth and nose too. When he asks that last question she lowers it and laughs at him. "I am, it's true." She admits with a nod of her head. "I don't mean nothin' by it, I promise. Just foolin' around. It helps, ya know... occupy my mind. Otherwise, I sit'n... all kinds'a random thoughts pop inta my head, thoughts that aren't even mine, but other people's. It's gotten a lot better since I came here, but it's still... ya know, it can be hard t'deal with. So I mask it, by actin' silly."

She moves to wrap her towel around herself then before pulling her wet hair up out of it and draping the soaked locks over her right shoulder.

"Sides, I had t'prove t'ya that I actually do have some powers beyond just life suckin' skin." She adds with a big smirk as she reaches for her phone. "I should let ya enjoy the pool now, and go get ready for that patrol, maybe, yeah? Gotta get my name out there, don't I?" She asks, still grinning at him.

Drake Riley has posed:
Suckin' skin is probably the weirdest way she could've chosen to word that. And Drake is increasingly positive that she knew it when she said it. He squints at her a little further, still smiling.

"S'alright. You showed up when I was up to stuff. And you helped me out, instead of doing things the easier way. I didn't doubt you for a second." He settles back again, this time drawing his body taut along the deck chair with both arms folded behind his head. "I'd take you up on that offer, but it'd be.. what was it? Mighty Girl? Mighty Girl and Captain Hoodie. I wouldn't wanna drag you down like that. But as soon as I can match ya? I'm /so/ in."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue reaches out to gather her stuff up, once her towel is tied around herself. She flashes another grin over at him and just shakes her head. "Mighty Woman." She corrects him then before switching to flawless French. "Donnez du credit la ou le credit est du, no?"

"Keep me in the loop on how you're doin' here, and if ya get bored, just find me and we'll hang out more." She offers him a wave with her right hand, all her stuff held in her left. The Belle turns then and floats off over the pool to grab her shorts out of the middle, then sweep up toward the school, vanishing around the corner of it!