Log: BUBBLES! (Not the Powerpuff Girl)
WHO: Sakura Kinomoto, Li Syaoran
WHERE: Tomoeda, by the penguin slide
WHEN: Uh, last week, actually. I'm slow. Sue me.
WHAT: Sakura and Li meet up while hiding from the rain on the way back from class. Only rain doesn't usually cause a flood of foam...
WATCH FOR: A lot of slipping, PENGUIN SLIDE, and a Meiling cameo of DOOM.
Tomoeda District(#261Ten)
Tomoeda is a seemingly normal suburb of a seemingly-normal Tokyo. It's a pleasant, upper-middle-class neighborhood with its own elementary and high schools, neat little houses and clean roads. Highlights include the large local aquarium, a park with a distinctive slide in the shape of a giant penguin, and a lively shopping district where one can find delicious parfait. Absolutely nothing strange or magical ever happens in Tomoeda.
Honest.
In ancient times, it was said that all roads led to Rome, a reflection of the overwhelming influence that most powerful of cities held over every other civilization at the time.
In Tomoeda District, all roads lead to the little park with the penguin slide, and this is more a reflection of convienience to the animators than anything else.
Regardless of the reasons, the little Penguin Park is not strictly on the way home for Li Syaoran. It is, however, the nearest available cover for angry elementary school students who forgot their umbrellas at home and are caught in what appears to be a plot-driven and unseasonal sunshower.
"Damn it, almost there," Li breathes as he vaults over the railing and touches down on the wet sand. He's been running for a while now with his school bag over his head, and he makes a beeline for the little area under teh cover of the slide. What's worst is he can'te evn use the time for fear of being trapped and impaled by immovable water droplets. He's just going to have to wait this one out, and he sighs with relief as he ducks under the structure, his hair slicked to his head, unaware others might have had the same idea.
"Hi, Li-kun!"
That chipper little voice came from right behind Li, as a little girl crawls over from where she was crouching under the slide. Sakura Kinomoto had the same idea on the way home from school, when the rain started pouring down and the weather report hadn't indicated a need for an umbrella. She doesn't really see it as a disaster, but she kind of wishes that Tomoyo had been walking home with her, so she wouldn't have to be under the penguin slide alone.
But now she has company! Albeit grumpy company.
Li Syaoran looks surprised, then mortified, then angry, then confused and then resigned as Sakura speaks to him, finally settling on an old-fahioned grumpy blush.
The emotions in sequence:
Surprise: holy crap, a Sakura!
Mortified: OH MY GOD I'M ALONE UNDER A SLIDE WITH A GIRL WITH CUTE AND ENORMOUS EYES.
Anger: ARGH WHAT AM I SAYING SHE IS NOT CUTE.
Confusion: Where the heck is her other half?
Resignation: Oh well, might as well make the best of it. At least there will be no photographic evidence.
"Oy," Li finally says in reply, tossing his bag to the sand and dropping down onto his butt. "You too, huh?"
Li Syaoran frowns. "Ah....well, Meiling got a ride from Wei. She said she wanted to cook m....er, cook dinner tonight, so they wanted a head start on things."
Inside the apartment, flames are spewing from a pot of water as Meiling desperately tries to douse her pigtails, Wei assuring her Master Syaoran will appreciate the additional flavour, so long as it was cooked with love.
Underneath the slide, Li reminds himself to stop for a hamburger once the rain stops. And then starts staring outside grumpily at the rain. He's never been really good at small talk, which will probably bite him in the ass when Eriol shows up.
"....so..........kept up with your swordwork?"
"...Yep!" Sakura nods, though there's that very brief pause. Somewhere between cheerleading, looking for cards, being Tomoyo's model, being sat down and forced to watch Tomoyo's videos of her, cooking, mooning over Yukito, cooking desserts for Yukito so she could moon over him, and meddling in IPA affairs...yes! Yes, she did practice swordsmanship. A few times. Besides...
"Actually, I used my sword to beat up a giant robot! Well, Buttercup-chan did more beating up. And I was big at the time," she admits.
Li Syaoran is not particularly pleased by this news. "Oy," he says seriously. "Didn't I say you shouldn't use the sword until you were better? Even if you were Big, you only had one lesson on how to hold it!" Li scowls, and instantly feels more comfortable. If he can keep the conversation on Sakura's suckage.... "You need at least---"
What it is she needs will forever remain a secret, however, as something suddenly rings inside his mind, and Li's head snaps to his right. "You feel that?" he asks. Otherworlders have fooled the Rashindan before, but he's /sure/ it's a Clow Card.
"I-I know, but I had to do something against the robot! Besides, I got a strong blow, and--" Sakura abruptly breaks off her excuses, as she gets the same sort of feeling Li just got.
"It's a Clow Card," she nods, "or something close to it." Her eyes scan the area.
Rainy playground.
"But I already have The Rain, and you have The Thunder..."
Li Syaoran nods at the last statement. Must have been a translation error, although fanshippers will obsess over this tiny continuity error for years to come.
Oh, wait. Wrong fandom.
Li moves toward his backpack and pulls free his kendama. A moment of concentration and light, and his sword erupts from the toy, held defensively in front of his body. Li presses his back against the wall of the slide, taking a quick peek outside and digging in his pockets for spells to use.
"hurry up," he whispers. "I'll cover you when we go out....could be the Storm, maybe? Or the Create?"
Li /really/ hopes it isn't the Create.
Meanwhile, on another plane, the unawakend Create thinks to itself, (Man, I need to track down that Mr. Nobody guy.)
Sakura reaches for the necklace as she slowly steps back out into the rain. At which point she is promptly drenched, but a Cardcaptor must endure such harships. "Key that holds the power of the Dark," and well, you know the rest.
One big, pink, silly-looking rod later, she glances around for anything off about the area. "I can tell it's here," she whispers, "but I don't know exactly where...um, what's the Create?"
Li Syaoran grimaces at the nearly-henshin sequence and Sakura's comment both. "The Create," he says seriously, "Is a very, very bad thing, and if I say any more about it, it'll be the one we fight." His face sets into a hard mask as he rises to the balls of his feet. "YOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!" he shouts, running out into the rain. "Iiiiiiiikuuuuu ZZZZZZZ....."
There is a brief pause after Li vanishes, and his battle cry changes into a terrified yelp.
".....ZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"
There is a watery sound, a sterangled and angry yell, and then the blade of Li's sword plants itself intot he sand as its owner is swept away by a giant wave of bubbles.
Clow Reed was a very strange man.
"...Li-kun!?" Sakura glances around, seeing no trace of her green clad friiieerival. "Li-kun, where did you go?!" She holds the staff out in front of her, eyes wide in mild paranoia as she looks around. Rain, rain, rain...foam?
She runs over to the planted sword, looking around and facing that...big wall of bubbles. "Hoooooeeeee...Um, how to get rid of foam, how to get rid of foam NEVERMIND RUNNING AWAY FIRST! JUMP!"
With the little shoes on her feet, the girl tries to propel herself high in the air, briefly trying to get a birds-eye view in order to see where Li ended up. Of course, what goes up must come down, and she ends up coming down right /into/ the bubbles.
"HOOOEEEEE *SPLAAASH!*"
Li Syaoran comes up for air and spits a disgusting stream of soapy water from his mouth, scowling like he has nev....okay, like he hasn't scowled in the last five seconds or so. He catches a glimpse of pink vanishing under the stream and looks a little chagrined that he has to try and save her, although pleased that she isn't going to be able to save /him/.
The water and bubbles, meanwhile, are beginning to fill the park entirely, creatign the weirdest bubble bath ever, the top of the penguin slide providing some sort of solid ground to stand on, at least.
Li takes a deep breath and begins cutting through the rush toward Sakura. "Oy!" he shouts as he comes up for breath. "Where are you?"
For a moment, Sakura disappears under the sea of bubble. She resurfaces again, taking a deep breath of air and somehow managing to tread...foam. Though she's up to her chin in water, and having trouble paddling around. At least she knows how to swim! "Li-kun! I'm over here! Um, let's try to get over to the slide!" "I can't--" She gets pulled under again, and then resurfaces. "I can't use cards in the water like this!"
She dogpaddles over towards the slide, and towards Li, looking uncomfortable and bubbled.
Li Syaoran groans and continues swimming toward Sakura, finally drawing up beside her and wrapping an arm around the girl's waist, propping her up against his body and turning his other side into the water...foam...stuff. "Hang on," he grunts, his arm and legs pumping as he starts pulling them through the soapy goodness toward the slide with long, powerful and practiced strokes.
Li is a very good swimmer. Just don't ask him to skate.
His right hand finally grabs onto a rung of the slide's ladder, and he grits his teeth. "Can you BWHJHJWE" Li's sentence is cut off by a faceful of bubbly foam, and he shakes his head. "Can you DUHDSHASKSDJH." Anotehr spray, and he spits off to one side repeatedly. "AUGH, HURRY URHGSHDHS."
"O-okay, okay!" The ladder is slippery, but with enough stumbling, Sakura manages to slippery-slide up the way and starts climbing. Li's support does help, but then her feet slip along the ladder, and she's just left hanging again for a second.
"Nggggh...." She grits her teeth, trying to just pull her way onto the top of the penguin. "What card /is/ this?! There's just so many bubbles....Bubbles?"
Li Syaoran groans and tries his best to follow in Sakura's footsteps, both so he can catch her if she falls and so he can get out of the rush. Besides, his sword is underwater, and so it's not like he can fight. "Yes," he says roughly. "The Bubbles. It's....well, you can see what it does!"
The bubbles seem to swirl appreciatively before continuing on their way.
"I...see that. Why would Clow Reed make a bubble card?"
She has not seen how a giant winged lion can smell after a rainy day.
"Okay, okay." She tries to help Li up after her, finally getting her balance on the top of the penguin slide. Her clothes are soaked, and she smells vaguely of Palmolive. Why couldn't a Bubbles card be cuter, like Bubbles?! "Hmm...But then maybe we can...wash all of it off?"
Wise decision or not, she whips out a card depicting one scary-looking mermaid, and strikes it with her staff. "Watery!" And lots of water gushes forth...
Li Syaoran has no idea why Clow Reed would make a Bubbles card, and for an instant isn't sure if adding water to bubbles is a good idea or a bad one. Somehow, he never imagined himself having this much trouble capturing it.
But as the Watery gushes forward, the thick foam begins to receded, and a tinier, chibi mermaid clenches her fists and pouts angrily.
".....oh please capture it now," Li groans.
His heritage really sucks sometimes.
Sakura stares.
And blushes, clasps her hands together and /squeals./ "Kawaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiii! What a cute card!" It takes all of her self-control not to jump up and down, because that would probably cause her to slip and fall.
"Okay, okay." She raises the staff, and a magic circle appears. "Return to your true form, Clow Caaard!" VWOOOOOSH!
Li Syaoran groans again and lets his head fall against the surface of the slide as the Bubbles begins to flow into those funky little swirls of Cardstuff, zipping in toward a multicoloured (though primarily pink) rectangular shape on the end of the staff, finally coalescing into its card form.
BUBBLES GET
Li looks up and sighs with relief as the bubbles finally subside. "Good work," he says as he slowly begins to edge backward - possibly unbeknownst to him - down the slide. "Now let's ho---" Li's face goes into shocked grimace as he hands frantically scrabble for purchase against the slick surface of the penguin head. With a strangled yelp, he slips and falls off the side, a large plume of water spraying into the air.
"Alright! What a cute card!" Sakura's still blushycuted out when she grabs the card, looking at the little mermaid. "Now we ca--Li-kun!?"
Oh yeah, she forgot to recall Watery. Which is fine for keeping Li from breaking something when he falls off the slide, but it means she's still in a lake. Just a lake of water instead of Floam.
"Oh! I'm sorry! Um, Watery, return!" The water drains all the way back into the card as the tide shrinks into a puddle or two, and she...slowly...starts to climb down. The park is soaked, but then, it /is/ raining. "Are you okay!?"
Li Syaoran looks like a partially-drowned and slightly soapy rat, and he peers at Sakura before spraying another stream of water from his mouth....that immediately soars back toward her card pouch. Ho ho ho, Clow spit.
"I'm fine," he says, pushing himself to his feet and reaching over to pick up his sword. "I've got to say, I never expected a card like that to be this much trou...."
Li stops speaking and blanches, then quickly ducks into the penguin.
And comes back out looking grim, a sopping wet backpack full of school books hanging from his left hand, sword still in his right.
Sakura...recalls.
"The...the...the poster on recycling...that I finished ahead of time for tomorrow...with the tissue paper..." Is now a leaky, drenched mess oozing out of her backpack, as she discovers when she follows the equally-horrified Li. "But...but..."
"....Hoeeeeee....."
Li Syaoran grunts and concentrates, dispelling his sword with a flash of light and shoving the kendama into his front pocket. "I know," he says in response to the Sakura Noise. "At least you can ask Daidouji-san for the homework again, and Meiling will..."
And as if the devil herself (?) was summoned by the sound of her name, a piercing and angry yell echoes out from the sidewalk.
"SYAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"
Li stiffens and, with a groan, turns just in time to absorb the Meilingrush in full tilt. "What are you doing talking to her! And out on the rain! With no umbrella!" Meiling herself is in full gear, with an umbrella over her head that is now being held over Li. She rather forcefully grabs one of his arms in one of hers and begins pulling him away. "Come on, Syaoran! I made udon! We'll get you into some warm cloothes and..."
"Oy," he say. "Maybe we should at least give her..."
*SPURNEDFIANCEEDEATHGLARE*
".....forget I said anything."
Sakura gives a little, awkward wave to Meiling, who really must be a nice person! She's so concerned! She's just...forceful...yes.
Then she shrugs, sneezes, and starts walking back towards her house. "See you later, Li-kun, Meiling-chan! Oh, uh, Li-kun...thank you!"
Yeah, she just doomed him.
The smile vanishes half a second later as she turns the Look Of Death on Li.
"What was she thanking you for! Well? And what were you---"
This continues for some time.
As in a dozen or two episodes.
This log has been brought to you by APP MEILING, DAMMIT.
WHERE: Tomoeda, by the penguin slide
WHEN: Uh, last week, actually. I'm slow. Sue me.
WHAT: Sakura and Li meet up while hiding from the rain on the way back from class. Only rain doesn't usually cause a flood of foam...
WATCH FOR: A lot of slipping, PENGUIN SLIDE, and a Meiling cameo of DOOM.
Tomoeda District(#261Ten)
Tomoeda is a seemingly normal suburb of a seemingly-normal Tokyo. It's a pleasant, upper-middle-class neighborhood with its own elementary and high schools, neat little houses and clean roads. Highlights include the large local aquarium, a park with a distinctive slide in the shape of a giant penguin, and a lively shopping district where one can find delicious parfait. Absolutely nothing strange or magical ever happens in Tomoeda.
Honest.
In ancient times, it was said that all roads led to Rome, a reflection of the overwhelming influence that most powerful of cities held over every other civilization at the time.
In Tomoeda District, all roads lead to the little park with the penguin slide, and this is more a reflection of convienience to the animators than anything else.
Regardless of the reasons, the little Penguin Park is not strictly on the way home for Li Syaoran. It is, however, the nearest available cover for angry elementary school students who forgot their umbrellas at home and are caught in what appears to be a plot-driven and unseasonal sunshower.
"Damn it, almost there," Li breathes as he vaults over the railing and touches down on the wet sand. He's been running for a while now with his school bag over his head, and he makes a beeline for the little area under teh cover of the slide. What's worst is he can'te evn use the time for fear of being trapped and impaled by immovable water droplets. He's just going to have to wait this one out, and he sighs with relief as he ducks under the structure, his hair slicked to his head, unaware others might have had the same idea.
"Hi, Li-kun!"
That chipper little voice came from right behind Li, as a little girl crawls over from where she was crouching under the slide. Sakura Kinomoto had the same idea on the way home from school, when the rain started pouring down and the weather report hadn't indicated a need for an umbrella. She doesn't really see it as a disaster, but she kind of wishes that Tomoyo had been walking home with her, so she wouldn't have to be under the penguin slide alone.
But now she has company! Albeit grumpy company.
Li Syaoran looks surprised, then mortified, then angry, then confused and then resigned as Sakura speaks to him, finally settling on an old-fahioned grumpy blush.
The emotions in sequence:
Surprise: holy crap, a Sakura!
Mortified: OH MY GOD I'M ALONE UNDER A SLIDE WITH A GIRL WITH CUTE AND ENORMOUS EYES.
Anger: ARGH WHAT AM I SAYING SHE IS NOT CUTE.
Confusion: Where the heck is her other half?
Resignation: Oh well, might as well make the best of it. At least there will be no photographic evidence.
"Oy," Li finally says in reply, tossing his bag to the sand and dropping down onto his butt. "You too, huh?"
Li Syaoran frowns. "Ah....well, Meiling got a ride from Wei. She said she wanted to cook m....er, cook dinner tonight, so they wanted a head start on things."
Inside the apartment, flames are spewing from a pot of water as Meiling desperately tries to douse her pigtails, Wei assuring her Master Syaoran will appreciate the additional flavour, so long as it was cooked with love.
Underneath the slide, Li reminds himself to stop for a hamburger once the rain stops. And then starts staring outside grumpily at the rain. He's never been really good at small talk, which will probably bite him in the ass when Eriol shows up.
"....so..........kept up with your swordwork?"
"...Yep!" Sakura nods, though there's that very brief pause. Somewhere between cheerleading, looking for cards, being Tomoyo's model, being sat down and forced to watch Tomoyo's videos of her, cooking, mooning over Yukito, cooking desserts for Yukito so she could moon over him, and meddling in IPA affairs...yes! Yes, she did practice swordsmanship. A few times. Besides...
"Actually, I used my sword to beat up a giant robot! Well, Buttercup-chan did more beating up. And I was big at the time," she admits.
Li Syaoran is not particularly pleased by this news. "Oy," he says seriously. "Didn't I say you shouldn't use the sword until you were better? Even if you were Big, you only had one lesson on how to hold it!" Li scowls, and instantly feels more comfortable. If he can keep the conversation on Sakura's suckage.... "You need at least---"
What it is she needs will forever remain a secret, however, as something suddenly rings inside his mind, and Li's head snaps to his right. "You feel that?" he asks. Otherworlders have fooled the Rashindan before, but he's /sure/ it's a Clow Card.
"I-I know, but I had to do something against the robot! Besides, I got a strong blow, and--" Sakura abruptly breaks off her excuses, as she gets the same sort of feeling Li just got.
"It's a Clow Card," she nods, "or something close to it." Her eyes scan the area.
Rainy playground.
"But I already have The Rain, and you have The Thunder..."
Li Syaoran nods at the last statement. Must have been a translation error, although fanshippers will obsess over this tiny continuity error for years to come.
Oh, wait. Wrong fandom.
Li moves toward his backpack and pulls free his kendama. A moment of concentration and light, and his sword erupts from the toy, held defensively in front of his body. Li presses his back against the wall of the slide, taking a quick peek outside and digging in his pockets for spells to use.
"hurry up," he whispers. "I'll cover you when we go out....could be the Storm, maybe? Or the Create?"
Li /really/ hopes it isn't the Create.
Meanwhile, on another plane, the unawakend Create thinks to itself, (Man, I need to track down that Mr. Nobody guy.)
Sakura reaches for the necklace as she slowly steps back out into the rain. At which point she is promptly drenched, but a Cardcaptor must endure such harships. "Key that holds the power of the Dark," and well, you know the rest.
One big, pink, silly-looking rod later, she glances around for anything off about the area. "I can tell it's here," she whispers, "but I don't know exactly where...um, what's the Create?"
Li Syaoran grimaces at the nearly-henshin sequence and Sakura's comment both. "The Create," he says seriously, "Is a very, very bad thing, and if I say any more about it, it'll be the one we fight." His face sets into a hard mask as he rises to the balls of his feet. "YOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!" he shouts, running out into the rain. "Iiiiiiiikuuuuu ZZZZZZZ....."
There is a brief pause after Li vanishes, and his battle cry changes into a terrified yelp.
".....ZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!"
There is a watery sound, a sterangled and angry yell, and then the blade of Li's sword plants itself intot he sand as its owner is swept away by a giant wave of bubbles.
Clow Reed was a very strange man.
"...Li-kun!?" Sakura glances around, seeing no trace of her green clad friiieerival. "Li-kun, where did you go?!" She holds the staff out in front of her, eyes wide in mild paranoia as she looks around. Rain, rain, rain...foam?
She runs over to the planted sword, looking around and facing that...big wall of bubbles. "Hoooooeeeee...Um, how to get rid of foam, how to get rid of foam NEVERMIND RUNNING AWAY FIRST! JUMP!"
With the little shoes on her feet, the girl tries to propel herself high in the air, briefly trying to get a birds-eye view in order to see where Li ended up. Of course, what goes up must come down, and she ends up coming down right /into/ the bubbles.
"HOOOEEEEE *SPLAAASH!*"
Li Syaoran comes up for air and spits a disgusting stream of soapy water from his mouth, scowling like he has nev....okay, like he hasn't scowled in the last five seconds or so. He catches a glimpse of pink vanishing under the stream and looks a little chagrined that he has to try and save her, although pleased that she isn't going to be able to save /him/.
The water and bubbles, meanwhile, are beginning to fill the park entirely, creatign the weirdest bubble bath ever, the top of the penguin slide providing some sort of solid ground to stand on, at least.
Li takes a deep breath and begins cutting through the rush toward Sakura. "Oy!" he shouts as he comes up for breath. "Where are you?"
For a moment, Sakura disappears under the sea of bubble. She resurfaces again, taking a deep breath of air and somehow managing to tread...foam. Though she's up to her chin in water, and having trouble paddling around. At least she knows how to swim! "Li-kun! I'm over here! Um, let's try to get over to the slide!" "I can't--" She gets pulled under again, and then resurfaces. "I can't use cards in the water like this!"
She dogpaddles over towards the slide, and towards Li, looking uncomfortable and bubbled.
Li Syaoran groans and continues swimming toward Sakura, finally drawing up beside her and wrapping an arm around the girl's waist, propping her up against his body and turning his other side into the water...foam...stuff. "Hang on," he grunts, his arm and legs pumping as he starts pulling them through the soapy goodness toward the slide with long, powerful and practiced strokes.
Li is a very good swimmer. Just don't ask him to skate.
His right hand finally grabs onto a rung of the slide's ladder, and he grits his teeth. "Can you BWHJHJWE" Li's sentence is cut off by a faceful of bubbly foam, and he shakes his head. "Can you DUHDSHASKSDJH." Anotehr spray, and he spits off to one side repeatedly. "AUGH, HURRY URHGSHDHS."
"O-okay, okay!" The ladder is slippery, but with enough stumbling, Sakura manages to slippery-slide up the way and starts climbing. Li's support does help, but then her feet slip along the ladder, and she's just left hanging again for a second.
"Nggggh...." She grits her teeth, trying to just pull her way onto the top of the penguin. "What card /is/ this?! There's just so many bubbles....Bubbles?"
Li Syaoran groans and tries his best to follow in Sakura's footsteps, both so he can catch her if she falls and so he can get out of the rush. Besides, his sword is underwater, and so it's not like he can fight. "Yes," he says roughly. "The Bubbles. It's....well, you can see what it does!"
The bubbles seem to swirl appreciatively before continuing on their way.
"I...see that. Why would Clow Reed make a bubble card?"
She has not seen how a giant winged lion can smell after a rainy day.
"Okay, okay." She tries to help Li up after her, finally getting her balance on the top of the penguin slide. Her clothes are soaked, and she smells vaguely of Palmolive. Why couldn't a Bubbles card be cuter, like Bubbles?! "Hmm...But then maybe we can...wash all of it off?"
Wise decision or not, she whips out a card depicting one scary-looking mermaid, and strikes it with her staff. "Watery!" And lots of water gushes forth...
Li Syaoran has no idea why Clow Reed would make a Bubbles card, and for an instant isn't sure if adding water to bubbles is a good idea or a bad one. Somehow, he never imagined himself having this much trouble capturing it.
But as the Watery gushes forward, the thick foam begins to receded, and a tinier, chibi mermaid clenches her fists and pouts angrily.
".....oh please capture it now," Li groans.
His heritage really sucks sometimes.
Sakura stares.
And blushes, clasps her hands together and /squeals./ "Kawaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiii! What a cute card!" It takes all of her self-control not to jump up and down, because that would probably cause her to slip and fall.
"Okay, okay." She raises the staff, and a magic circle appears. "Return to your true form, Clow Caaard!" VWOOOOOSH!
Li Syaoran groans again and lets his head fall against the surface of the slide as the Bubbles begins to flow into those funky little swirls of Cardstuff, zipping in toward a multicoloured (though primarily pink) rectangular shape on the end of the staff, finally coalescing into its card form.
BUBBLES GET
Li looks up and sighs with relief as the bubbles finally subside. "Good work," he says as he slowly begins to edge backward - possibly unbeknownst to him - down the slide. "Now let's ho---" Li's face goes into shocked grimace as he hands frantically scrabble for purchase against the slick surface of the penguin head. With a strangled yelp, he slips and falls off the side, a large plume of water spraying into the air.
"Alright! What a cute card!" Sakura's still blushycuted out when she grabs the card, looking at the little mermaid. "Now we ca--Li-kun!?"
Oh yeah, she forgot to recall Watery. Which is fine for keeping Li from breaking something when he falls off the slide, but it means she's still in a lake. Just a lake of water instead of Floam.
"Oh! I'm sorry! Um, Watery, return!" The water drains all the way back into the card as the tide shrinks into a puddle or two, and she...slowly...starts to climb down. The park is soaked, but then, it /is/ raining. "Are you okay!?"
Li Syaoran looks like a partially-drowned and slightly soapy rat, and he peers at Sakura before spraying another stream of water from his mouth....that immediately soars back toward her card pouch. Ho ho ho, Clow spit.
"I'm fine," he says, pushing himself to his feet and reaching over to pick up his sword. "I've got to say, I never expected a card like that to be this much trou...."
Li stops speaking and blanches, then quickly ducks into the penguin.
And comes back out looking grim, a sopping wet backpack full of school books hanging from his left hand, sword still in his right.
Sakura...recalls.
"The...the...the poster on recycling...that I finished ahead of time for tomorrow...with the tissue paper..." Is now a leaky, drenched mess oozing out of her backpack, as she discovers when she follows the equally-horrified Li. "But...but..."
"....Hoeeeeee....."
Li Syaoran grunts and concentrates, dispelling his sword with a flash of light and shoving the kendama into his front pocket. "I know," he says in response to the Sakura Noise. "At least you can ask Daidouji-san for the homework again, and Meiling will..."
And as if the devil herself (?) was summoned by the sound of her name, a piercing and angry yell echoes out from the sidewalk.
"SYAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOORAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"
Li stiffens and, with a groan, turns just in time to absorb the Meilingrush in full tilt. "What are you doing talking to her! And out on the rain! With no umbrella!" Meiling herself is in full gear, with an umbrella over her head that is now being held over Li. She rather forcefully grabs one of his arms in one of hers and begins pulling him away. "Come on, Syaoran! I made udon! We'll get you into some warm cloothes and..."
"Oy," he say. "Maybe we should at least give her..."
*SPURNEDFIANCEEDEATHGLARE*
".....forget I said anything."
Sakura gives a little, awkward wave to Meiling, who really must be a nice person! She's so concerned! She's just...forceful...yes.
Then she shrugs, sneezes, and starts walking back towards her house. "See you later, Li-kun, Meiling-chan! Oh, uh, Li-kun...thank you!"
Yeah, she just doomed him.
The smile vanishes half a second later as she turns the Look Of Death on Li.
"What was she thanking you for! Well? And what were you---"
This continues for some time.
As in a dozen or two episodes.
This log has been brought to you by APP MEILING, DAMMIT.