xp_logs | LOG: Manuel and Kyle

Manuel goes for a swim, and meets Kyle. They talk, Kyle helps him discover that he does indeed remember how to swim.

Kyle had, quite frankly, no idea what-so-ever what he was doing. He was just imitating some of the stuff he'd seen on TV. Wrestling, the olympics, a couple of those fruity cheerleader competions that were on ESPN2 like, right after the last showing of SportsCenter.

Even the fruity cheerleader guy stuff though, seemed pretty damn cool when it turned out you could do it yourself. Hitting the mats hurt though, when you screwed it up. So he'd headed down to the pool on a whim, stripped down to his jean shorts, and tested the water. Because it wouldn't do at all to just toss himself into the pool. For all he knew, stupid mutations might come with like, a crazy hatred of chlorine. It didn't seem to, though Kyle could smell the chemicals in the water well enough. So for a few seconds, he dangled his feet in the pool, trying to decide if he wanted to do "crazy flippy shit", as Forge put it, or just see if he could actually dive. Cause he hadn't been able to before, that was for certain.

Manuel emerged from the changing rooms, wearing nothing but a towel around his waist and a pair of very baggy shorts. "Oh." he said, seeing Kyle sitting on the edge of the pool. "Sorry, don't mean to interrupt." he said apologetically. "I was going to see if I remembered how to swim."

"Nah. You're not interuppting." Kyle shrugged. It was Manuel, so he was a little... edgy, but for once, the older student didn't smell like -sex-, and that was a relief. "You can't remember if you can -swim-?" He asked, pointing with one thumb at the water. "I think its like riding a bike. Once you can, you can't forget how. That might be horse though. There's something that's like riding a bike though. Maybe driving... "

Manuel walked to the edge of the pool, sort of near Kyle but not really, and dangled his feet into the water. "GAH!" he said, withdrawing them right out again. "The water's COLD!" After a second, he looked over to Kyle. "Maybe. That's what I'm hoping - that even if I don't really remember, my body will. Had a really weird moment back in my room a little while ago - apparently I know how to fight or something. Darned near took Amanda's head off completely by accident."

Kyle blinked, poked his leg in the pool a bit more and then scrunched up his face. "Dude, its not -that- cold." He tiled his head curiously and then hrm'd. "Unless its one of those mutant things. I don't get cold much outside either, so.. maybe it is cold. And yeah, I think you did a sword-thing. Clarice was makin' noise about that couple of weeks ago, I think?"

Manuel shrugged. "I don't remember the password to my journal." he admitted. "So I'm kind of going in cold." he said, looking at the pool and smiling somewhat. "Well, if I'm going to do this, I'd better do this." He slid into the pool and cursed in Castillian without thinking. "Damn, it's cold!" he shivered.

Kyle blinked. "Dude, you could just get one of the nerd-people like Kitty or Doug or Dr. Hank to reset it for you." He shook his head in confusion at Manuel's exclamation and then laughed. "If you're gonna do that, you should've just cannonballed in. At least then its fun with the freezing your balls off part."

Manuel stood waist-deep in the pool and glowered at Kyle. "Could have told me that _before_ I went in." he grumbled. "I remember Dr Hank - big guy, blue fur? Types with his toes? I don't remember this Kitty or Doug. Maybe once I swim a bit and get changed I'll go see them." He paused for a few seconds. "What's a cannonball?" he asked with a grin. "Because I could really use some fun in my life."

Kyle nooded. "Yup. He gave me one of his keyboard. Noisy as all getout, but I don't rip it up with the claws." Obviously, whatever had happened to Manuel was pretty bad if he didn't remember his classmates. "Kitty's the brunette girl who has the little purple dragon, and is dating Jamie. And Doug's.. . " Kyle rolled his eyes. "Doug's a nerd. I think. He does a language thing with his power and he has a computer with him like, all the damn time..."

He stood and walked over to the low diving board and gestured. "And the only way to explain a cannonball is to show you." Okay, he could've explained. But then he'd have missed the priceless expression on Manuel's face when he took a running leap off the diving board and curled into a ball, landing in the water with a huge splash.

Manuel sputtered as he cleared the water out of his eyes, nose, and mouth. "That does look like fun!" he said, climbing out of the pool, walking over to the diving board, and then doing his own cannonball. As soon as he resurfaced, he grinned like a madman. "That IS fun!" he cheered, effortlessly treading water in the deep end of the pool.

Manuel swam over to the edge of the pool and pulled himself out. "Guess I can." he said, and then stared at Kyle for a second. The boy had _pointed_ ears! He tried not to stare, but did a really bad job of it. "I think I'm going to do that again." he grinned.

Kyle couldn't help but laugh. Stuck-up pissy Manuel, hair plastered in his face and soaking wet was -funny-. And he was right, cannonballs were fun. "And see, turns out you can swim. Go you." he said, after pulling himself out of the pool and shaking some of the excess water out of his hair.

Normally Kyle wouldn't have even noticed, but he was still not entirely convinced this -was- Manuel. Maybe he was doing the weird split personality twin thing like Doug or something. Only, not nerd and cool, but like, nice and evil. Or something. "Okay, which one were you looking at? The feet or the ears?" He was pretty sure it wasn't the fangs, and he'd remembered to trim back the claws on his hands, so that wasn't likely it either..

"Ears." Manuel admitted. "I'm sorry if it bothers you, but I've never seen anything quite like it before." he said apologetically. "I'll try not to stare too much." He then climbed up onto the diving board and did another cannonball, whooping with joy the entire time.

Once Manuel had surfaced, Kyle plopped down at the edge of the pool and dangled his feet in the water. "Eh. Not a big deal. I still get a little wigged when I look in the mirror sometimes. I dunno how the blue and purple folks manage to get used to it..."

"I've met a blue one - Dr McCoy is blue. We have _purple_ ones as well?" he asked as he swam over to the edge and pulled himself out of the pool. He looked down at his body and then grinned. "Well, at least I kept myself in good shape, eh?" he said to Kyle.

"Yup. Two of 'em. Clarice and Catseye. Catseye.. " Kyle shook his head in disbelief... "Thinks she's a cat, and turns into one, but she's a person too, and is only totally purple when she's a cat. Otherwise she's just got purple hair and is really pale.. Clarice teleports and is all purple."

"A cat?!" Manuel exclaimed. "That's ... a little hard to believe." he admitted. "Oh, I believe you, it's just ... wow. A cat. That can turn into a person?" he said, sitting down heavily against the tiles of the pool decking. "This place gets weirder and weirder."

"Or a person who can turn into a cat. Its kinda hard to say with her. And there's Rahne, who turns into a wolf, and Mr. Worthington and Jay who have wings, and yeah, this place doesn't get any more normal." Kyle said, half-grinning. "You kinda take it in stride after a while. At least, I do after a month and a half. But most of those folks know you already. You were here when I got here." He didn't mention the 'and were kind of a giant ass." because that'd be rude..

"I've been here for a while, near as I can tell." he said with a shrug. "Wish I remembered more of it. I remember this Worthington guy, and Jay as well. They both have wings, and that doesn't bug me. I have no idea why." he said with a shrug. "Memory's a bit of Swiss cheese. I don't remember much, and the stuff I do remember is stuff I don't give a shit about. That's so weird."

"So you remember Jay and Mr. Worthington, but -not- Kitty or Doug?" Kyle was taken aback a bit. Jay was a little hard to forget, all big huge wings and mouthing off, but Kitty was -hot-, even if she was dating Jamie, and Kyle didn't poach.. "Man, how do you forget someone as cute as Kitty? Dude. Dude."

Manuel shrugged. "I don't KNOW!" he said with frustration - then looked apologetic. "Sorry. Look, I'd better go." he said, and slowly trudged off towards the showers, trying not to break down in front of Kyle. There was so much he didn't know, and what he did know didn't make any _sense_.