The Onsen, Friday Afternoon

[geniuswithasmartphone]

Alec Hardison was a genius. A real, honest, smarter-than-most-geniuses genius. It was hard to remember that on this island, where a lot of people were smarter-than-most-geniuses geniuses, and most of them had the advanced degrees and/or fancy future tech to prove it. But some days...

...Some days Hardison got a chance to remind everyone how smart he really was.

Days like today, when he was lounging in the hottest pool in the onsen. Due to all the hot springs, the ambient temperature of the onsen was almost ten degrees warmer than anywhere else on the island. He'd rigged up a winterized awning to keep the worst of the wind off of him, he had several vacuum-sealed bags of meat and veggies tucked around to cook sous vide (thanks for teaching him that one, Eliot!), and a supersoaker filled with hot water to keep any rampaging snow monsters at a distance.

Look, he absolutely appreciated the setup at the community center. He did! But sometimes you just wanted to kick back in a natural hot tub, cooking a steak dinner and playing on your phone, which was safely stuck inside another vacuum-sealed bag.

Hmmm. He could probably rig up a geothermal charger while he was out here...

[Open! Will pick up pings when I wake up!]

Comments

[vdistinctive]

Eliot had spent the morning out and about on the island, checking on things and people, and having far too much fun fighting snow monsters.

He was more than happy to finish that off with a soak in a hot spring.

"Man, sometimes you have the greatest ideas."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"See, this is the kinda outdoors I could get used to," Hardison said, smug. He stretched out in the water, appreciating the lack of snow almost as much as the lack of snow monsters. "Why don't we have a hot tub at home, man?"

[vdistinctive]

"Because the regular one we put into the master bathroom is already large enough for all three of us," Eliot said.

What? They designed the house themselves. Everything was big enough for all three of them.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"But that one isn't outside," Hardison pointed out. "Where we could sit in it an' look up at the stars or the sunset or whatever...Val could sit in the grass near the tub insteada whinin' at the door..."

Let him paint you a word picture about how wonderful another hot tub would be, Eliot.

[vdistinctive]

Eliot gave him an exaggeratedly shocked look. "You mean you'd voluntarily go outside?" Alert the media! "You know Parker would want to put a diving board on the roof and make you jump into it from there, right?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

And, like clockwork, Hardison immediately began sputtering. "Just break the damn hot tub is all that would do! And my legs! Can't dive into a hot tub from the roof! That's dangerous!"

[vdistinctive]

"Hey, I didn't say I'd make you do it."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Nah, but I'm makin' sure you tell her not to do it," Hardison retorted.

[vdistinctive]

"Nah, I think that's something you'd have to handle yourself."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Man, I bring you to a beautiful spot an use some fancy cookin' techniques - " holding food under hot water for a long time, super-advanced " - an' this is how you gotta be?" Hardison grumbled.

[vdistinctive]

"You're using a technique created by cavemen."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"Not with vacuum-sealed bags they ain't," Hardison retorted.

[vdistinctive]

"Oh, they're vacuum-sealed. That makes all the difference."

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"You wanna talk shit about sous-vide, you can have whatever's left of Steve's lumpy oatmeal," Hardison informed him. "I don't gotta share, you know."

[vdistinctive]

"Right, sure, you're going to refuse to share food with me." Eliot shook his head. "You remember I've met you, right?"

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"I'm very hungry," Hardison informed him. "Maybe I'll just eat it all."

He was not selling this at all, was he?

[vdistinctive]

"Mmhm."

Eliot didn't believe you at all, Hardison.

[geniuswithasmartphone]

"I'm hungry!" Hardison protested. "An' what I don't eat, I can save fore dinner!"

Oh honey. You were trying.

[vdistinctive]

"You could, huh?"

It was technically possible, sure. . . .