Summer Camp The Lake Party Closed

Haley had put on her playfully devilish smile again as she set her sights on her target - Simon. Cosmo counted across and Haley got into her fighting stance, like a lioness getting ready to catch the gazelle. They charged through the water as best they could, jumping with loud laughter at Simon, who was strong but went down mercilessly in that surprise moment and with the strength of two girls. But Haley knew her boyfriend well enough to know that this meant revenge. She fled further out from the shore with a few flicks of her arm and while she thought Cosmo would follow suit, she didn't.

When Haley stopped, she could no longer stand and had to use light swimming motions of her legs to keep herself afloat. "Cosmo swim!" Haley was shouting to her, but it was too late. Simon had grabbed his first victim and lifted her up with ease, throwing her back into the water. Far too often Haley forgot his strength for his age, but it never failed to impress her. She gazed at the whole spectacle with a look of awe until she realised that she would be his next target.

"Oh please!" she was pleading, but Simon had already ducked under and while Haley tightened her legs and looked for a way out, it was already too late. He surfaced, grabbed her and threw her back into the water with an ease. As soon as she resurfaced, she glared angrily at him, but not for long. She couldn't suppress her laughter and swam over to Simon, who was standing where Haley couldn't stand. He was not only stronger, but taller. Another one of his dhampir strengthens. She splashed some water on him and as soon as she arrived, she held onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, much like she had done with Cosmo before. She took advantage of the fact that he could stand here and she couldn't. But secretly she also just liked being close to him.

"Cosmo are you all right?" she now asked with a laugh, thinking of a way to get back at her best friend. "You know, I can live with it when you take revenge on me. But I can't live with you taking revenge on my best friend." She now whispered into Simon's ear from behind. "After all, the whole thing was my idea , love." She put extra emphasis on the love as a reference to his words, though she would have no problem if Simon called her that.

She looked back at Cosmo now, giving her looks to indicate what she had to do. Haley would distract Simon and Cosmo could attack again. She loved the connection with Cosmo, they understood each other without words and even so Haley was sure Cosmo understood her.

Haley was now climbing Simon like a monkey until she was face to face with him, grinning broadly. The water took most of the weight, but surely it would not have been a problem for Simon even without water. She still had her hands clasped around his neck and was looking him straight in the eye. "What are we going to do with you now?" she continued, still smiling. She slowly leaned over and gave him a kiss on the nose, still waiting for Cosmo to take her chance.

Lake shenanigans with @Haley Rose and @Simon Kincaid

It seemed as though a proper battle was under way, and Cosmo let herself get lost in the fun. She revelled in how timeless her friendship with these two seemed, in how easy laughter came and how happy they made her. A shriek escaped as Simon flung her through the air, quickly followed by Haley who could only glare at her boyfriend for a moment before joining Cosmo in laughing. During the school year such noisiness would generally earn some kind of reprimand or disgruntled glance, but today everyone was excited and loud, so the three second years only added to the already cacophonous noise from students.

"I'm alright," Cosmo answered Haley with a grin, "but your boyfriend is mighty strong!" It was an offhand comment, and something most people wouldn't think twice about but to Simon and Haley it would be a reminder that Cosmo did not know of the hufflepuff boy's dhampir lineage.

A kind of happy contentment rushed through Cosmo as she watched Haley swim towards Simon. Her friend was so happy, so cheeky. The young redhead clung to Simon's back and something in her eyes told Cosmo that the mischief was not over yet. This time she wanted to do something different, so she took a moment to think while their quarry was successfully distracted. It would need to be something harmless of course, but being spooked never hurt anybody right?

Once more Cosmo took a deep breath and dove beneath the water surface. All the sound muffled, and she gazed through the murky darkness, letting everything slow down for a moment. She used breaststroke to pull herself down to the lake floor and scrabbled gently along the sand, searching until her hand caught on some water weeds. With a light tug they easily dislodged from the sand, and Cosmo resurfaced. She had to work quickly, but Haley was doing a good job distracting Simon with her face right up close to his. It was quite an intimate moment really, and Cosmo flushed a little, looking down at her busy hands.

Before seeing her best friend with a boyfriend, Cosmo had paid barely any attention to other students who started dating, it just wasn't something that interested her. But now she caught herself looking whenever students would walk by holding hands, and laying in bed at night it was easy to let ones imagination wander. Cosmo had a healthy curiosity about everything, and so it made sense that she would wonder what a kiss felt like, and whether she wanted to hold girls hands or boys hands. It wasn't pressing though, and for now she was entirely happy just to play pranks and laugh with her friends.

The weeds were tied securely now, and Cosmo positioned them in her hands before diving under once more and swimming to Simon's legs. She circled round behind him, holding her breath so no bubbles would escape (which was quite a feat, considering just how many giggles were trapped in there). With nimble fingers Cosmo slipped the looped end of the weeds around Simons foot, trying to make it feel as natural as possible. Then she tugged hard and- no! They broke in the middle and instead of being pulled under with Cosmo, Simon was left with a loop of weed drifting gently by his foot. Cosmo frowned, but decided to continue with the plan anyway and pulled Simon down with her hands instead, the same way that she had to Haley just before.

Samantha chuckled when he saw Avery shrink when she rambled at him. Looks like she found herself a new hobby: teasing the boy from time to time just to get his nerves. Of course, she wouldn't do it to the point that she hurt the Avery's feelings. She just intended to just joke around with the guy.

"No, I'm not gonna beat you up because of something like that," Samantha said when Avery asked whether or not he'll get a beatdown from her. "It's just an initial reaction, that's all. And I'm not the type of person who would kick someone's butt for something as ridiculous as getting surprised."

Seeing that Avery didn't look threatened of Samantha anymore, she wanted to ask what exactly are they going to do first. Avery nodded towards the spring board, and Samantha gazed where he's looking at. It seemed to be fun jumping to the pool from one of those things, but for the longest time (and for some reason), she couldn't get to use the diving board. She'd tremble when she got to the end, just before she could jump, and would just get back to lower ground and go to the pool the conventional way.

Now that Avery was inviting her to try the diving board first, Samantha couldn't resist. "Yeah, sure," she said as she started to take off her hoodie. "Lemme just get some sunblock on before we hit the lake, alright?"

───────────── Summer Camp August 3rd, 2021 The Lake Party ─────────────

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───────────── Outfit Reducio Sunglasses Top Swim Trunks ─────────────

Kazuo had not woken up early that morning, as was his usual habit. He hadn’t gone for his morning run nor even made it to breakfast. He had slept far later than usual and woken with a headache he had not been prepared for. Most of the other students had already abandoned the cabin for camp activities which was a small mercy because he did not think he could handle the energy level of noisy kids. He forced himself out of bed begrudgingly, finding the hungry grumbling of his stomach impossible to ignore. He tugged aside the curtain of Ruka's bunk to reveal the older boy had also slept in.

"Ruka, wake up." He called to the older boy but Ruka just made an unintelligible noise. He wrinkled his nose in irritation then his lips turned upward into a smirk. He climbed up onto the bunk, kneeling over the sleeping boy, and gave him a shake. "Wake up or I will push you off the bunk." He threatened to no effect. "Fine, you brought this on yourself." He declared then reached down and began to tickle Ruka. This resulted in a large amount of thrashing wherein Ruka attempted to kick him off the bunk - nearly succeeding before Kazuo stopped.

“We missed half a day and there’s supposed to be swimming at the lake. I want to go.” He announced as he climbed off Ruka’s bunk and began searching through his trunk for swim trunks and a shirt. Once dressed, he added a pair of sunglasses then waited for Ruka to get ready, assuming the older boy would eventually crawl out of bed and accompany him. It was, perhaps a bit selfish to assume that Ruka would join him but he felt dragging Ruka out of bed was justified since, in Kazuo’s opinion, the ache behind his eyes was at least partly Ruka’s fault. He wondered if Ruka felt as questionable as he did but a stubborn sort of pride in him refused to ask. He would not complain. He had made the bad decision, he would own it but that didn’t mean he would suffer alone.

Once Ruka was ready, he’d lead the way down to the lake, squinting against the brightness even behind his sunglasses. “Food first, or swimming?” He asked Ruka as he looked around, noting the picnic baskets of food and drink. The choice of music that was playing drew a smile to his lips, helping lift his mood a bit.

Semi-open to interactions, please ask first

Interacting
@Ruka Burnett-Tân

Interacting with: @Samantha Foster

S H I R T

S W I M T R U N K S

----H A T

Ruka had had no intentions of waking up, possibly ever again.

He felt queasy, his stomach was trying to strangle itself inside him, his throat was raw, his head was close to exploding. He had not realised that was how he felt when he had gone to bed, but upon stirring awake it was the only thing he was aware of. Why Kazuo felt like being awake - no, alive - at this moment in time was beyond him. Why he thought climbing up on his bunk to shake and tickle him was even more of a mystery, which Ruka responded to by trying to simultaneously wiggle away and kick Kazuo off the bed. Maybe the fall would be bad enough to prevent him from ever trying to tickle him again. Except, Ruka didn't succeed in his endeavour, and maybe that was for the best since, in any other situation, he might have actually thought the tickle assault funny.

His urge, once the tickles had stopped, was to wrap his arms around Kazuo and just pull him down to lie with him, maybe go back to sleep for the rest of always, but his friend clearly had other plans as he moved off the bunk again to comment on their sleeping in and the Lake Party that was apparently going on. "Liquids are evil," Ruka decided with a groan, burying his face in his pillow for a moment before managing to sit up - dizzy, his head was swimming - and come to terms with his existence. Realising that Kazuo was actually serious about leaving their cabin for the Lake Party, he slowly shuffled down the ladder of his bunk, blinked his eyes back into focus and searched for a pair of trunks, a T-Shirt and a straw hat resembling cat ears to throw on and look semi-presentable in.

Once ready to leave - or at least looking like he was able to leave - Ruka instinctively reached for Kazuo's hand to follow the other boy out of their cabin and into the evil of sunlight. He understood now why Kazuo had opted to wear a pair of sunglasses, because his own hat was doing little from stopping the bright light shooting daggers straight into his brain. Feeling like this was supposed to be illegal. Still, Kazuo had announced that he wanted to go swimming, and who was Ruka to deny him his wishes, really? So he squinted against the sunlight, made a gurgling sound in the back of his throat and let the other boy drag him along to where things looked suspiciously much like a Beach Party. There were picnic blankets and baskets, music, a platform to jump into the water from, inflatables to use inside the Lake. It forced a small smile on Ruka, despite the heavy protests of his insides, and he squeezed Kazuo's hand as he took a small step towards one of the picnic baskets. "Food," he decided, hiccuping as his stomach squirmed with longing. "If I go in the water now, I'll drown straight away." His body was definitely not responding well enough yet to risk losing ground beneath his feet. "I'm not a good swimmer on my best days." At least he had learned to stay afloat and he was already quite proud of himself for that.

Almost urgently he tugged Kazuo in the direction of the closest free food basket and stopped there for a moment. Letting go of his friend's hand, he instead reached up to swiftly take the glasses off his face and put them on his own before dropping down on his knees on top of the blanket with a grin. "C'mon, I'm starving," he announced as he started rummaging through the basket. "I'll take all the bread, you can have all the cheese, does that sound like a deal?"

OPEN TO INTERACTION [font=century gothic]INTERACTIONS @Hui Ming [font=century gothic]MENTIONS n/a[/font][/font]

The Outfit Reducio

"The pleasure is mine," she had smiled, already enjoying the company of this boy to a far greater degree than could be said of so many of her peers.

O, would that the rest of Hogwarts could take a page from his learn'ed book and employ a few basic lessons of propriety. At the conclusion of her following commentary, however, relaying her empathy towards his inexperienced situation as a newcomer to this fantastical world, she eyed him curiously. It had been subtle. A slightest quaver to his voice. Although... it was only for a second. Perhaps she had imagined it. The following agreement to accompany her was spoken with confidence enough, a curt nod to emphasize. With a nod of her own in the direction of where she'd intended to find her seat, she began to meander, expecting him to follow.

"Is it?" His comment about the unique beauty of her surname drew a curious look towards him from over her shoulder, one brow flared with slight amusement. It wasn't every day that someone commented on her name at all, let alone to call it oddly beautiful. "It's my mother's surname," she replied easily, unoffended by his inquisition. "And her mother before her. Mine is a matriarchal family, actually. The name has been passed through quite a number of generations, now. I haven't really put much thought into it, really."

That was only half true. Her family was matriarchal. With only a few exceptions, it was composed entirely of well educated, ambitious women who had raised the children of the next generation as single mothers. Not entirely unlike hags, Evelynn supposed with ironic distaste. But this certainly wasn't the first time she'd been forced to contend with the implication of her name. Just, after two years of attendance at Hogwarts without so much as a whiff of commentary, she thought perhaps she'd managed to avoid suspicion. Even now, there was a chance that this boy's curiosity was just that. Innocent curiosity about an uncommon name. In the event that was actually the case, she thought it best not to bring its meaning to light.

"And yours?" she inquired, turning the conversation around on the boy. "Is it Hui, or Ming, that's your surname? Any particular significance to it?"

Interacting: @Evelynn Decipio |

English | Mandarin | French | Quotes

Fear raced Hui Ming, the flow of adrenaline heightening his senses. He was extremely aware of himself at that moment, from the rapid thumping of his heart to the smallest twitches of his fingers and toes. Everything had to be perfect, from his form to his thought process to this conversation. Ming would be lying if he said that it was not easily the most stressful encounter he had had in Hogwarts thus far. He would also be lying if he said that some aspect of this was not exciting. There were stakes here, the exact nature of which he was unaware of. Was this a coincidence, a chance meeting, or something ore deliberate?

Miss Decipio nodded in away from the crowd and towards one of the emptier picnic locations. A blessed relief in some ways, but it would leave him as the sole focus of the lady's attentions. Left without much recourse, Ming followed the ginger-haired older lady; always careful to match her pace and remain behind her. He was unsure of how much of his being was being watched or judged, but he was the heir to the Hui family name and he would not bring shame upon that name.

The upperclassman (surely, that was an appropriate manner to address her in his mind?) actually looked back at him with an arched brow at the mention of her surname. His only response was a half-smile. It seemed to be the appropriate response, since he was given an airy explanation of the family. The Chinese boy listened with interest, his brows coming together as he processed her words. It was most enlightening. Matriarchal families and Latin family names. It was rather different from the norm, but he could hardly complain. His own culture and background made his name rather different from the norm as much as hers was a giant red flag. A mental note for yet another thing to be researched once the castle and its library were made available to him.

"And yours?"

The Chinese boy actually stopped following, so surprised was he by the question. Then he wanted to kick himself for his obvious oversight. It was obvious in hindsight that the question would be flipped on him, even had he not been thinking about how different the naming conventions in his own culture were. That it had surprised him was because it had never happened to him before. In his experience, people fell into two camps: those that knew Chinese or similar Asian cultures and could differentiate between his given and family names, and those that couldn't and simply assumed that his name followed the same naming conventions as theirs.

"I-uhhm," he all but stammered. How shameful it must be to watch him stumble though this conversation like some uncultured savage. Get a grip, Ming!

The young boy cleared his throat, allowing himself a brief moment to collect himself a third time. "Hui. My family name is Hui, and Ming is my given name. Thank you for asking, Miss Decipio," he said in the best approximation of a polite voice that he could manage. "I have had the misfortune of meeting too many people who simply make assumptions about such things."

The boy hummed for a moment, falling back into step behind the upperclassman. "Perhaps there is some significance? Hui roughly translates to 'bright in the sunlight', while Ming becomes 'clear-sighted'." It was not correct. Not entirely. But it was a close enough approximation for the circumstances. "My parents subscribe to the traditionally-held idea that naming something is to endow it with the properties of the name."

Here the boy would give the smallest of shrugs, before adjusting his glasses. "You can well see how that turned out."

OPEN TO INTERACTION [font=century gothic]INTERACTIONS @Hui Ming [font=century gothic]MENTIONS n/a[/font][/font]

The Outfit Reducio

Footsteps faltered after her inquiry, prompting her to pause in her own steps and cast a glance about in search of the reason. What she saw was a rather shocked expression from his counterpart. Again, she lofted a curved brow to denote her own bemusement. His reaction, to her, seemed not only entirely uncharacteristic of what little she knew of his socialite front, but also utterly uncalled for. All she'd done was to return the question. By all accounts, that was the proper thing to do, to show respect through a demonstration of equal interest in the other.

Yet, here he was, balking as though she'd committed a terrible faux-pas. Or… perhaps it was something else? His wasn't a shocked expression of aghast, but rather…nervousness, perhaps? His stammering couldn't quite be placed except to say that he had lost his grip on the situation. Withholding comment, however, Evelynn simply turned to face him fully, her hands lowering to her sides with their delectable burdens as she patiently waited out his little fit.

"Hui it is, then," she smiled once he'd finally found his words again. With that, she turned to resume walking, lingering only long enough that he might catch up and find his figurative footing to accompany her once again. "I will admit, I am a bit more familiar with Japanese surnames. Of which yours is not," she added with self-assurance, quite confident that his was an Asian name of different descent. "Theirs, I am occasionally able to recognize as given or surname without prompting," she explained, meandering casually towards the intended eating area shaded by the overhanging foliage. "But not everyone of Asian lineage presents their name in the traditional way, so if I do not recognize the name for what it is, I cannot quite be certain which is which. And I would rather not make assumptions."

It wasn't a long walk to the blankets, and they arrived before she'd even quite given her rationale for the inquiry. She paused, silence briefly falling over the pair as she crouched to arrange herself. The plate, she set upon the blanket a bit at a distance, but near enough within reach. It was just to set it away to allow freedom of her hand to tuck her skirt beneath her as she eased herself to the quilted ground, smoothing it out over her lap while her knees bent out to one side, ankles crossing in as elegant of a side seated position as she was able. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, fingers briefly lifted to test the security of her wand within the bun seated low on her neck before reaching for her meal and drawing it to her lap.

"I find your name interesting," she went on, continuing as though there had been no pause at all. "Ming. It is a clear sounding name. It reminds me of the sound crystal makes when tapped. Which is all the more interesting given crystal's use in scrying. Perhaps it is not your mundane vision where your name will take root, but rather that of your third eye. Have you ever had visions? Seen things in your mind that have later come to pass? Or alternatively, perhaps it refers more to the intangible. You need not have perfect sight to weed out fallacy and see clearly the truth. When others may be blinded, perhaps you may not be so easily convinced."

Interacting: @Evelynn Decipio
Mentioning: -

English | Mandarin | French | Quotes

The bespectacled Chinese boy pinked with embarrassment when the upperclassman turned around to look at his consternation. He was grateful when she did not choose to raise the issue, and instead head towards one of the quilts placed for the picnicking students. He followed behind her respectfully as she approached a particularly empty spot for them to sit.

"I must commend your thoughtfulness in asking for clarification rather than jumping to conclusions, Miss Decipio." The boy said carefully as they approached the shades. Left unsaid was the implication that this was not common amongst the group of barbaric hell-spawn masquerading as the student body. "You are of course correct, on both counts. Hui is indeed a Chinese name - we have been in this country for some time but we do hold dear to our roots. Nor do all of us adhere to our traditions so closely, as you correctly point out - in fact, I believe that Mister Avery Chen in my year is also of Chinese descent, though his naming conforms more to the local conventions than our own."

As the upperclassman sat down on the chosen picnicking spot, so too did he. Mimicking her, he set his plate down first. Then, kneeling onto the blanket, Ming would arrange himself carefully so that they were not quite side by side, but sitting more akin to a 45 degree angle of each other: still close enough to easily look at the other if it was warranted, but the focus of the view being clearly upon the fiasco gathering of students at the pool. He then sat on his feet, straight backed in a very recognizable Seiza*. The entire movement was smooth, polished over years of agonizing practice and repetition.

As the ginger upperclassman speculated on the meaning of his name, Ming could do little but listen to her and add more things to his ever-expanding mental list to research. Apparently future-sight and prophets were concepts that existed in this world too. Lovely. He tilted his head politely as she spoke, to indicate that he was paying attention to her ideas on why his name might be more relevant than he himself believed.

"I am afraid I will have to disappoint you once again, Miss Decipio. Would that I could chance glimpses of the future. Perhaps it would helpful in navigating this school." Ming spoke up when she had finished. It might have been interesting to be able to have such glimpses into what could be. "Neither could I put much stock in my ability to separate fact from fiction."

He paused here for a moment, distracted by the utter chaos in the pool. Were those three having a wrestling match in the water? In public? What were they, five years old? "If I was told three months ago that there exists a world in which almost all 11-year-olds were expected to not only purchase, but actively carry around objects that capable of creating explosions, causing lacerations, and generally being an object capable of creating chaos. I would have dubbed it a fiction from the mind of a child. Surely, so sane community would allow such...." Here he trailed off, turning his head to look upon the ginger. "And yet, here I am, living in that very fiction."

OOC Note: Seiza literally translates to "correct sitting". Originating in Japan, its usage spread to China, Korea and much of East Asia. It embodies not only politeness, but respect, and is seen as a sign of refinement. It is extremely uncomfortable to maintain for long periods for those who are not trained into this posture from a young age.