Open RP -- Rukia skips rocks

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

Rukia didn't often go down to the river except when she needed to bathe, but today was an exception. The little shinigami was desperately bored, and she'd ultimately taken to skipping rocks on the water's surface, and watching the ducks scatter when one got too close (she actually tried not to aim for the ducks and for the most part she succeeded, but occasionally, one went astray).

What was frustrating was the way some rocks skipped gracefully across the water, some skipped one or two times and then stopped and some fell into the water with a plunk almost as soon as they left her hand. Rukia was sure there had to be a trick to it. She just wished she knew what...

((Anyone who wants to come talk to her, give her pointers, feed the ducks, etc., is welcome. :D))

Comments

[ive-never-not.livejournal.com]

Lilly liked to walk along the river, because despite what anyone else may think, she does occasionally think about things, and liked a bit of nature to help her do it. Right now, she wasn't thinking about much beyond how weird it was that she used to be dead.

She was broken from her thoughts at the sound of a rock splashing into the water. When she looked, she was greeted by a small girl attempting, and failing, to skip rocks on the water.

Well, why not. I'm feeling charitable.

"You need to wrap your finger around it, like this." She said, picking up a rock. "With the flat side down." She demonstrated: index finger curled around the rock. "Then throw it sideways, in an arc," she pulled back, and threw it, watching the rock skip across the water.

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

Rukia turned at the sound of a female voice, jumping a little. The normally observant shinigami had been lost in her rock-skipping, and the voice that drew her back to reality startled her. The girl it belonged to looked normal and friendly enough, though, so Rukia gave her a small smile.

She watched intently as Lilly picked up a rock and tried to show her how to throw it.

"Like this?" she asked. She picked up a rock, wrapping her finger aroudn it, flat side down, as demonstrarted. But when she tried to throw it in an arc, she ended up hurling it high into the air.

It went sailing several feet before it landed in the water with a splash.

[ive-never-not.livejournal.com]

Lilly laughed softly at the resulting splash. "Not quite," she said picking up another stone. "Throw it lower, closer to the water. And make sure you throw it sidearm." She demonstrated by moving her arm in an arc, slower than she would if she were really going to throw it.

"And, when you do let go, snap your wrist, so the rock has some spin to it." Again she demonstrated the wrist movements.

"And that's all there is to it." She threw her second rock and counted out five skips before it sank.

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"Throw it sidearm," Rukia murmured to herself out loud. That sounded simple enough, really. She made a few decent-but-not-great sidearm gestures without the rock, first, to make sure she had it. "Like that?" she asked Lilly. She wanted to do it right, this time, and she was going to do it right if it took all day! Now that someone had witnessed her doing it wrong, learning the correct way had become a point of honor.

She watched Lilly's rock go skipping before she gave a little, impressed, "Ah!"

[ive-never-not.livejournal.com]

Lilly nodded. "That's not too bad. You're still a bit too jerky, try doing it all in one smooth motion."

She laughed at Rukia's expression. "I've had lots of practice. You'll get it eventually."

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

((Let me know if this isn't a good place to interrupt.))

Una watched the two girls skipping rocks from a short distance away, smiling in amusement. She recognised the blonde from Logan's party (and it must be either Lilly or Veronica, from Logan's tale of woe); the smaller girl was a new face.

She strolled over, hands in pockets. "Hallo there. How's the rock-skipping conditions today?"

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

((It's fine with me if it's fine with Lilly-mun!))

"Oh!" said Rukia, nodding a little in comprehension when the other girl explained the proper way to go about throwing the rock. "Like this?" Her throw was better than before, although it still left room for improvement. This time, the rock skipped across the water four times before going under.

At the sound of Una's voice, Rukia turned to look in other woman's direction. "Hello," she returned the greeting. "They're all right. I'm kind of new at it... but I'm learning." Rukia smiled at Lilly.

[ive-never-not.livejournal.com]

((Works for me))

"Not bad!" Lilly said with a huge smile. "The record's something like 40 or 41*, but that's just crazy."

Una had one up on Lilly, as she had never even heard Una's name. Still, she smiled and waved. "They're pretty good." She laughed sarcastically, "it's always a beautiful day in Creepy-Ass-Fake-Disneyland, after all."
*((The current record is 51 skips (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07273/821782-85.stm), but it was 40 at the time of Lilly's death))

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

Una chuckled. "I don't know about you, but I'd do almost anything for it to rain just once." She picked up a rock and tossed it from hand to hand before sending it out across the surface of the water, where it skipped four times before sinking with a plunk. "Where are my manners? I'm Una Persson."

[no1likeher.livejournal.com]

"You're technique is very good but you need to work on your rock selection."

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"Oh! Hello, Pippi. It's been a while since we've seen each other. How are you doing?"

[no1likeher.livejournal.com]

"I'm good I suppose." Pippi said sitting down on the ground. "And yourself?"

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"I'm... all right, all things consider." Rukia gave her a smile. "Haven't been getting in trouble, have you?"

[no1likeher.livejournal.com]

"In this place? Nothing stays broken. What sort of trouble is there to get into?"

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure you, of all people, could think of something..."

[no1likeher.livejournal.com]

"It's not for lack of trying." Pippi grinned.

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"Oh, really?" Rukia couldn't fight back a smile. "And just what have you been trying, Pippi?"

[ningyou-hime.livejournal.com]

Chii was out with sweet breads from the shop to feed the ducks with. After her previous encounter with Gumshoe, she was still wondering if she would ever see them fly.

She didn't get to see that this time, but there was Rukia...throwing rocks.

Curious, Chii toss out some bread to the ducks and asked Rukia, "The ducks like to eat rocks?"

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

Rukia turned at the sound of a familiar voice. "Oh, no, Chii," she said. "Ducks don't eat rocks. I'm just skipping them, or trying to, because it's fun." She smiled a little. "You like ducks?"

[ningyou-hime.livejournal.com]

"Oh." Chii filed away the information ducks did not eat rocks, which very, very good. Otherwise she would have tried throwing rocks at them.

When Rukia asked if she liked them, Chii perked up and beamed. "Yes! I think they are very cute. Like Rukia! And I like to feed them." She threw out another piece of bread to illustrate this.

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

...cute? Like Rukia? The shinigami found herself blushing a little. "Ah..." she said. "Thank you, Chii. I'm sure the ducks appreciate being fed." She smiled a little at the persocom. Then she got an idea -- Chii liked cute things...

"Chii, have you ever heard of bunnies?"

[ningyou-hime.livejournal.com]

Noticing the blush, Chii reached out to gently touch Rukia's cheeks and asked, curiously, "Why is Rukia-san turning red here?"

Rukia's question got a head tilt and the response of, "No, Chii has not. Are they food? Or utensils? Or buildings? Or animals?" There were lots of other things they could be, but those were the main things Chii stumbled on in her daily life.

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"..." That just made Rukia blush more. But she cleared her throat and said, "Chi..." and then paused, trying to think of a good way to explain it. "Sometimes when people feel embarrassed or flattered, their cheeks turn red. It's called blushing. It doesn't hurt the person, though. Sometimes people's cheeks turn red when they exercise too much, too, but we don't call it blushing then."

Rukia's eyes lit up when Chii asked about bunnies, and she grinned. "Bunnies are animals, Chii," she said. "They're very cute. Would you like me to show you?" There were toy bunnies and bunny books all over the park. Not as good as the real thing, but they'd have to do.

[ningyou-hime.livejournal.com]

"Flattered?" Chii asked, a little confused. "I know what embarrassed is, but not flattered." Sort of. Chii couldn't fully grasp the meaning of embarrassed, never having experienced it herself. Then she had to ask, "Rukia-san has not been exercising, so are you flattered or embarrassed?"

At the thought of learning more, and of something cute, Chii gladly nodded her head. "Yes! I would like that very much. Where do we go to see them?"

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"Flattered is when..." Rukia paused. How did you explain flattered to someone like Chii? "When someone says a lot of really nice things about you, we say they're flattering you. So when you feel flattered... it means you feel good because someone said something nice about you, maybe something you weren't expecting them to say." That would suffice for Chii, anyway. She didn't answer the question of whether or not she was flattered or embarrassed, and hoped Chii wouldn't notice.

Rukia beamed when Chii said she was interested in learning more about bunnies. "Great! Come with me!"