Slippin' and Slidin' Along the Waterfall with You (Tobias)

[Shizuko Hongo]

Shizuko was not normally fond of going outside. After all, she became sick very easily, and it was quite easy to acquire some kind of microbe while outside. But, summertime was inching closer and closer, and the blonde young woman could not help but want to celebrate. She knew that the beach would probably be crowded with other students, who were probably wanting to celebrate as well. Thankfully, she knew of a different place to go swimming; a place where most people did not go because it was so deep in the woods. She herself had discovered it by accident. She had been just wandering around the campus to get some fresh air when she had gotten lost in the woods and discovered the hidden, watery gem. She had been half-tempted to call her friend, Tobias, and tell him about it, but she had lost the courage as soon as she had thought of the idea. Sure, the last time they had seen each other had been great. It had been downright fantastic, as a matter of fact, despite the masks obscuring their faces. Somehow, though, they had managed to guess who each other were, which was both sweet, yet scary at the same time. Sure, by then, they had been friends for a couple of months, but the feeling of something tickling her stomach whenever she looked him in the eyes was strange. She wish that she knew what to call that pleasant, yet disconcerting sensation that spread through her whenever her chocolate irises met with his hazel ones. Maybe, one day, she could figure out a name so she could research what biological mechanisms caused such a reaction. She may have been an inventor and loved machines, but she also liked knowing how things worked, like any good scientist would. She shrugged the feeling off and instead dressed herself in a one-piece bathing suit and a light sundress, put sunscreen, a sketch pad, a hat, and a towel in a small bag, slipped on some sandals and headed to the woods. She earned some strange looks from peers, who had not seen much of her at all, let alone seen her out of uniform.

The blonde had underestimated the amount of bugs that would be out that day, but, thankfully, there were not too many bugs that wanted to drain her body of blood. In fact, most of them were just buzzing in her face, but she still was not very fond of sharing her personal space with little creatures who served no purpose to her species. Thankfully, the amount thinned out as the sheer amount of trees (and all consequential parts of such a plant) began to become less and less. She giggled a little as she pushed her way past the thick curtain of vines that shielded the waterfall from the side on which she was walking. Truthfully, she had taken the less-direct route, but there was no reason not to. The day was warm, but not too warm, and there were just enough clouds in the sky to prevent her from turning into a lobster after a mere five minutes in the sun. Once she was sure she was in the optimal spot, she laid down her towel and sat on it, thinking about whether she wanted to go in the water first, or sketch for a little bit. She decided on the latter, since she was not feeling up to swimming at that particular time. Besides, she had been struck by inspiration on the way there when she had seen some trash lying outside the back door of the cafeteria. In her mind’s eye, she pictured it would be a contraption that could pick up sound signals through the wall. Of course, she would need some metal, and something that could penetrate thick, stone walls, but it would be ideal for some kind of spies. She then set to drawing a few different sketches of the contraption, not very happy with how the first one turned out.

Once she felt sweat start rolling down her body, she decided it was time for a dip in the water. She quickly tucked her sketchbook in her bag, shed her sundress, grabbed her sunscreen and lathered herself up with it. She made sure to get every part of her body that she could reach so that she did not end up as red as she was the last time she was out in the sun too long. Granted, that had been over three years ago, but she still remembered it all the same. She shook the thought away and headed over toward the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. She really wanted to jump from the top, just to feel the wind rush past her, but she decided it would not be a good idea, because, from her mental calculations, she had a slight possibility of landing safely. So, she decided to immerse her pale feet in the clear, blue water that was relatively still, save for the area where the waterfall itself came down with a crashing roar against the pool of crystalline liquid below it. She waded into the pool slowly, careful not to get too close to the waterfall. Sure, she knew how to swim, but the force of the water near the rocks was much stronger and the pace of its flow was much more rapid than she could probably handle. She played around in the calmer part of the pool, sending water flying in all directions as she twirled and splashed in the water. It had been such a long time since she had so much fun, and, in that moment, she wondered why she had not tried to do such a thing sooner. After all, even her brilliant mind needed a rest and time to be childish again. She continued to splash in the water and accidentally sent a particularly large splash in a person’s direction, though she did not realize the person was standing there at first. She seemed startled when she realized there even was a presence and immediately came forward to apologize.

“G-g-gomen! I-I’m so v-very sorry! H-here, l-let me… E-eh? T-T-Tobias-san?”

Immediately, Shizuko felt immensely guilty. She had probably ruined his outfit and embarrassed him. Some friend she was. Her face lit up a bright red color, and she felt her heartbeat speed up for some reason. What was wrong with her physiological reactions? She knew the normals and abnormals, but she could not find any obvious reason why she felt so simultaneously giddy and embarrassed. Emotions were not really logical, so she figured that was why she did not understand what was going on with her body.

“G-g-g-gomen, T-Tobias-san. I-I-I did not m-m-mean to b-b-be so r-rude. H-here, l-let me h-help you…”

Within a moment, Shizuko was out of the water and jogging over to get her towel and wrap it around Tobias’s shoulders. She looked at the ground feeling rather guilty. This was not exactly how she had planned to meet him again, that was for sure.

[Tobias Fordson]

        The calm breeze passing through the summer air was a welcome respite from the hot, sunny days on the island. For Tobias, the outdoors weren't an overly-exciting environment to him. Insects were generally disturbing to him, though he held no real hatred for them. Most of them served some purpose or another, and there wasn't anything wrong with that. He just preferred that their purpose didn't directly involve him. That was hard to accomplish, though, given the necessity of him travelling outside today. Normally, this wasn't a problem, but his roommate had been sleeping in today and Tobias didn't want to disturb him. Not only that, almost every place he could study in peace was filled with other students. As it stood, there was only a handful of people he could manage to stay around without feeling 105% uncomfortable and out of place. His only other free location was the local waterfall, a place he tended to visit on his few lunches not in the school itself.

        Just as he had done every time he visited the waterfall, he brought his lunch basket, though as usual to his study trips, it only had a small snack inside, the rest of the room being taken up by books, binders, pencils, and a small swim bag with his swimming trunks and towel inside. He had always made sure to take this in case one day, by some miracle, he found the courage to actually try swimming for once. It was highly unlikely, but he still kept it as a possibility. Hell, this Island managed to get him to dance. If it could do that, there was a good chance he could learn to swim finally. Of course, it wasn't like he didn't know what was to be done, but there was a big difference between knowing your arms have to swing forward and backwards in a certain pattern and having the actual experience to put that knowledge to work.

        Finally, after a great deal of walking, the greater portion of which included trudging through massive amounts of undergrowth, Tobias reached the clearing surrounding the waterfall. It really was beautiful to gaze at, even for a reclusive indoors person like him. The majesty of the cascading waters misting over the pool at the foot of the falls was simply breath-taking to him. It brought such a calm feeling to him that, were it not situated in the middle of the forest, with such a long walk to both reach and return to the school from, he would visit it more. What was more incredible was that Tobias was so distracted by the sight that he was caught unaware by the sound of Shizuko playing in the water. As the presence of the girl came to his attention, the large wave she sent out splashed right into him, causing him to more-or-less tumble to the ground. In the moment, he was confused and disoriented, but the words the girl spoke run in his ear. At first, he thought he was dreaming. There was no way Shizuko was out here splashing people with water. Not at all, he thought. However when the girl's pale image finally came into view as his vision cleared, his eyes widened in shock. She really did splash him? This was surprising, though her tone did sound like it was an accident. All too suddenly, Shizuko had wrapped Tobias in her towel, the only reaction he could muster being to grasp the edge and pull it tighter before shaking his head lightly.

        "O-oh.... Sh-shizuk-ko.... I d-didn't exp-pect you here.... N-no no. It's o-ok. H-honestly, I'm m-more surp-prised you're here... W-w-what brought y-you to the wat-terf-fall?"

        Tobias could hardly breathe right around Shizuko. Granted, he had a hard time not feeling suffocated around other people, but this was different. It was as if his heart was pumping so fast that his lungs couldn't keep up the same pace. His skin tingled anywhere she was touching, as if he was allergic to her very presence. Nothing made sense around this girl, and it both confused and fascinated Tobias. Sooner or later, he'd figure out the big mystery that was causing this reaction to Shizuko. He promised himself that much.

[Shizuko Hongo]

For a young woman who was so inclined to technology,Shizuko liked to think she had a healthy relationship with the outdoors. She tried to go and enjoy the nature that she found herself surrounded with every so often, and time out of class gave her the ability to do so. Honestly, she could not remember the last time she had played in the water or gone swimming. She had decided to sketch first, though, because her inspiration was strong, and she always preferred to quiet the whim of her muse before doing anything else. When she felt that she as getting too warm, she had jumped in the water and started to goof around, allowing herself to be a little bit childish, despite actually being eighteen years old. Her intelligence had caused her to grow up a little faster than normal, but she was never ungrateful for her gifts. Sure, they landed her in a scary place, but she had her brother with her and she had even made a friend, despite the circumstances. She figured the school was not the worst thing in the world, but, in all honesty, she would have rather met the people she had under different circumstances, like traveling or something like that. She let the thoughts go and decided to splash around in the pool of crystalline water that surrounded her and for some time, she was giggling and smiling widely. Unfortunately, when she realized that she had soaked Tobias with water, she immediately clambered out of the pool of water to help him dry off and sit down in the grass.

“A-ah… I-It was a n-nice day, s-so I figured I would c-come out and draw a little. I-I became a l-little h-hot, though, s-so I d-decided to s-swim a little,” she stammered, gently stubbing her bare toes into the dirt. She peeled some of her beach blonde hair off her face and tried to tuck it behind her ears. However, her hair was not dry enough, so it slid slightly but continued to stick to the skin of her head. She scratched the back of her neck a little bit as a small blush crossed her cheeks. What she had done was embarrassing, to say the least, and it did not help that she could feel something tickling the inside of her stomach. She would find out what the feelings she was having were called, but for that moment, she decided that she would be present for her friend. In doing so, she led him over to where she had been sitting earlier. Her backpack was resting in the grass; a solitary spot of purple in a sea of green.

Shizuko helped Tobias sit down and, after doing so, sat down next to him. She reached over to pull her backpack closer to her to see if she brought another towel with her. Sometimes, she brought extra items ‘just in case’. She dug around in the bag, hoping to find something to dry herself off with. Sadly, she had only brought one towel, so she just had to deal with the breeze caressing her skin and chilling her. “T-Tobias-san? W-would you mind s-sharing the t-towel with me for j-just a moment?” she inquired shyly, scratching the side of her neck and looking up at him from under her eyelashes. She did not want to be rude, but she was becoming colder and colder by the moment, and she was afraid that she would catch a cold. She scooted a little closer to him so that she could speak to him in a quieter manner. She did not really like having conversations at a noise level where people could hear her. She did not really like the sound of her own voice, so she preferred to speak softly or not at all so that she had to hear it minimally or even not at all. “I-I’m sorry for getting you wet…” she apologized again, turning her chocolate eyes downward before looking back up at him again, “I-it’s nice to s-see you again, though.” Shizuko smiled shyly at Tobias, her cheeks flushing a pink color.