Rainy Day Weather PV Kage Suzuki Closed

@Simon Kincaid

For a while, it had seemed as if there were endless amounts of skipping stones on the banks of the Great Lake. But of course, like everything else that exists in the universe, it ran out.
Suzuki had been skipping stones for a while. Stone after stone, pinging like tennis balls across a court on the Great Lake.
Her arm had begun to grow sore, but still she threw stones, as if her life depended on the movement of limbs and the beat of the stones.
The beat.
The music of them as they slapped against the slowly rippling tides. In a way, every single being was like a stone being skipped across the waters of circumstance. All fine until you sink.
Standing up, there was the slight creak of bones that had been in one position for too long. Suzuki turned, and started walking, slowly, towards another section of the bank. Trotting along the shores of the lake, Suzuki broke into a run. The slow wind whipped her hair back. There was the slight tickling as the tips of her feather-like hair brushed her forehead.
The wet mud slurped and sucked at her boots, trying to pull her down.
Then.
The mud slurped extra hard at her boot, successfully dragging her down. Suzuki’s other boot flailed in midair, like a bird trying to land on a swaying branch.
She tripped.
She fell.
The mud cushioned her fall (it also got all over Suzuki, but let’s put that aside for now).
Apart from a small rock jabbing into her knee, nothing hurt.
The muddiness wasn’t all too bad, really. There weren’t any worms in sight. In sight. Suzuki didn’t mind the mud.
A little (emphasis on little) pissed off, Suzuki continued her trek (at a walk now) down the shores of the lake.
And ran into the boy.
He seemed to be enjoying the cool winds, and he had probably come for the same reason Suzuki had. To relax a bit, and enjoy some time in the great outdoors.
Nodding at him, (Suzuki decided at least a bit of acknowledgement was required) she made her way closer to the shores, and dug around until she found a large, flat, smooth rock.
The skipping began.

He had noticed her fall from the distance but she got back up relatively quickly and seemed to be okay after that. That was good. A trip to the Hospital Wing would not be what either of them planned that particular evening.

Simon walked closer. His curiosity was now getting the best of him as he wondered what the girl was so determined to do. Was she looking for something that was lost? Maybe a pet. Some of the students at Hogwarts had their cat or a rat trailing around with them on their free time. Did it wander off? Stalk off to chase something? Or maybe she had a bracelet or something else that she had dropped and was now searching for it.

Upon closer observation though he noticed that she was picking something up now and again as she went. Rocks. Rocks that she then skipped across the water. While he had never skipped stones himself, he had seen it done a few times and always felt it was quite a skill to have. Not everyone could do so.

"Not bad, especially for such a windy day," he complimented as he now was close enough to strike up a conversation. He then smiled to her, hoping he didn't interrupt her thoughts.

[Word Count: 213]

@Simon Kincaid

Four skips, five. Six. Seven. A plunk as the smooth faced stone sinks into the water.
Suzuki had had adequate practice on the shores of the Thames, though she had to admit that skipping stones on the Great Lake was far easier than skipping it on the constantly moving Thames.
Flat, still bodies of water were definitely more suited to stone skipping, that was for sure.
It was then that the boy she'd acknowledged started up and walked a bit closer.

"Not bad, especially for such a windy day." The boy spoke, smiling.

It was pretty windy, but Suzuki had gotten accustomed to skipping stones in weird conditions. It all depended on the angle. The meager physics Suzuki had taught herself helped, especially the bunch about the horizontal and vertical positions. That was useful, for things like throwing, hitting, and, weirdly, finding good stones.

"Thanks." She replied in a monotone. Then. "You know how to skip?"

Although the skill wasn't really considered useful, it sure was a neat trick to know, and could commonly used to show off to your friends, especially if you were the type who was very experienced at stone skipping. The most advanced would be able to achieve more than ten skips even on a rushing stream. One with a lot of rocks jutting out in the middle.

"Yea, yea. I know how to skip," he said, his mouth pulling more at a smile than he already had. "Learned way back in primary school, I did. You know, one foot in front of the other," and Simon began to skip along the shoreline of the Great Lake. He knew that she didn't mean THAT sort of skipping but it was a good conversation starter - so he hoped.

But just as she had tripped due to the softness of the grass and the mud created from the earlier fallen rain that day, he too caught his foot and stumbled some, catching himself just before he was about to lose balance and go into the dark water.

"Damn...that was close," he laughed, glad for the fact that he found his balance. "Almost took a right ice bath. I'm sure that water is pretty cold still at this time of the year." He leaned down to feel it and sure enough it was cold. Very cold. Usually the cold didn't really bother him, but that didn't mean he took freezing cold showers and just as such - he wouldn't want to swim in icy waters either.

He now went and found a log and sat down upon it, raising his hood up from his sweatshirt that had fallen. While cloudy out, he still didn't want to take too many chances. "It would seem I need practice with my primary school skipping skills. As for rock skipping...I haven't ever tried. You seem pretty good at it."

@Simon Kincaid

Suzuki observed as the boy skipped along the murky shoreline, unimpressed.

Although she had to give it to him, he was quite amusing. Kind of, not really.

She also watched as he nearly toppled into the water. Cold shock, swimming failure, hypothermia, and post-rescue prolapse.

” Did you know that unforeseen immersion in cold water can result in death.” It was a question asked, or rather, stated as a sentence. One without the question mark. It was seemingly uselessly said, but right now, Suzuki didn’t worry about such things.

Digging a second stone up from the ground, she rubbed a coat of mud off it with a grimy thumb and glanced at the sky. Cloudy. It’d rain soon, she was positive. The scent of rain lingered around in the air.
That was good.
Rain was good.
Suzuki enjoyed the rain. Back at home, rain meant no having to endure football and baseball training sessions. She almost longed for it to rain every day, and for the most part, she lived in the right place.
Rain would be nice. Cold and hard. Coming down in masses.

” Why don’t you try it? Rock skipping, I mean?” To Suzuki, anything that hadn’t been done before was in need of trying. It was only until then that a decision as to whether you were good at it or not could be made.

This was an interesting lad before him. She seemed to enjoy the art of rock skipping enough to be out there and keep doing it and yet she also didn't seem to be in the happiest of terms. Could be any reason though, Simon figured - a bad mark on an essay, a failed exam, a disagreement with a close friend. He wouldn't try to judge.

"It looks easy, in all good basic theory," he said as he scanned the ground around him for a flattish looking rock. "But I'm sure there's a lot more physics to it than I'm realizing. I was never very good at maths...even back in my muggle school back in London."

He brushed aside some grass to reveal a stone surface but it looked much too dense and heavy to skip along the upper surface of the waters of the Black Lake.

Keep looking.

He glanced back up to her and smiled some, thinking of that school and it occurred to him that her accent seemed familiar. Was she from nearby? "I'm Simon, by the way," he realized he had forgotten to introduce himself to the rock skipper. "Simon Kincaid, First Year Hufflepuff. I'm from London - born and raised. And yourself?" Time for those introductions. Introductions first. Lesson in rock skipping later.

@Simon Kincaid

A muggle school. She'd heard of a few around London- sometimes she'd watch the masses of kids streaming out from the open doors of the building. Sometimes they disappeared in the cars that seemed to be popping up all over the city, some disappeared into bigger versions of the cars, large yellow vehicles that could house nearly fifty kids at a time. Personally, she'd never been to a Muggle school- she'd just stayed with Nakamura and his family for the most part. Judging from the kids actually going home after school hours, Muggle schools were nothing like Hogwarts. The building didn't even resemble the medieval style castle that Hogwarts was.

" Call me Suzuki. Born in Japan, raised partly in Japan, and now I'm stuck in London."

She poked around in the mud for a second rock, and found it. Using a sleeve to wipe away the mud gathered on it (and hoping not to see any worms at the same time), she skipped it across the surface of the lake. Eight skips. Keeping her eyes peeled for maybe a view of the fabled Giant Squid, Suzuki stopped skipping and started gathering rocks.

After a bit, she had a small stack of perfect skipping stones- smooth, flat, light, and of the perfect width. Time to skip now.

Stuck in London. That was a sad way of looking at it. Simon loved his hometown and the heart of England. He had only been to some of the outskirt towns and once, as a baby and before his recollection, he had gone to one of England's coastal towns to the beach with his mother and his aunt. A normally easy going baby was distraught every time he was outdoors and they wanted to expose him to the joys of the ocean waves - only to find he was severely starting to burn after a very short time in the sun. That was the last of those sorts of trips. He stayed in London after that.

"Nice to meet you, Suzuki," he hoped he got that remotely correct. Simon discovered a couple rocks now he thought might be suitable for skipping and came over to where the girl was. "Alright, so what's the trick here?" He was sure there really wasn't a trick - that it was probably practice, trial and error. Still, the girl might have a couple pointers that he could use.

"And do these look okay?" he placed the rocks flat out in his hands, hoping that they would work. He wanted to get some skips in - or at least some attempts, and he wasn't sure how much longer he should be out, even if there was a lot of current cloud-cover.

Mentioning/Interacting: @Simon Kincaid

Outfit

#666

[font=Kaufmann Bd BT]" It's all in the way you hold the stone and the angle and the intensity at which you throw it. Those are fine."

Picking up one of her one stones, she hooked her index finger around an edge of the stone, adjusting until her hand was in a C shape around the stone, showing the end result to Kincaid. Moving her arm behind the rest of her body, Suzuki bent her wrist until it was aligned 90 degrees to the rest of her arm, and threw her arm forward (or sideways forward), releasing the rock when it was in front of her.

Six skips. Not bad, but not her best. Hm.

" You can crouch a little and lean backward enough until you're in the right position."

She repeated the procedure, getting only four skips this time. " Other than that, it's just practice and experiment with different throwing techniques." In Provence, Southern France, Suzuki had tried skipping clamshells. It partially worked, but the flimsy shells didn't work as well as rocks. They cracked too easily, and never danced on top of the water surface like rocks did. It was still an interesting experience, nevertheless. Worth a try, certainly.

She skipped a few more rocks, and turned to look at Kincaid. " Got it?"