OPEN RP POST

[sparklemagpie.livejournal.com]

The sun in shining!

The waves are crashing!
The seagulls are taking your hotdogs like the cocky b*tches they are!



IT'S BEACH PARTY TIME!

There's volleyball, fire pits, surfing and sandcastles!

GO HAVE FUN ON YOUR SHORE LEAVE MEATSHIP DENZIENS! STACY LOVES YOU EXTRA TODAY!

Comments

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"I would not wish to be eaten by it," Arha said thoughtfully. "Perhaps it would not be such a terrible thing to learn this swimming thing."

[its-keeper.livejournal.com]

"The ocean doesn't eat you." Will laughs. "C'mon, there's an inlet over there. The water's calmer. It'll be a good place for learning."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"I shall learn this." Arha steeled herself and then rose. "Even if it does not eat me, I would not let it. I may be a desert creature, but it cannot define me for all of my days."

[its-keeper.livejournal.com]

"That's the spirit!"

Now on to the baby-beach, Arha! Will leads the way.

"Okay, the first thing you should know how to do is float on your back," she says, walking into the calm inlet up to her thighs.

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

Arha stared at the water for a long moment, then glowered. Float. Float! Her body did not have much water in it even now. Floating would be interesting. She waded in very carefully.

"How does one do this thing?"

[its-keeper.livejournal.com]

"You have to get comfortable with the water. Trust it."

Is this soppy enough for you yet, Arha?

"And it helps to take a deep breath."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

There was a massive amount of skepticism radiating in waves from Arha. Grudgingly, she prodded the water, then snorted. She did not wish to trust water. It was to be guarded and spared and hoarded.

Slowly, she ducked her head under the water and came up very much soaked.

[its-keeper.livejournal.com]

Will claps her hands. "Good job! Now try laying back in the water."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

Drowned desert rat.

She felt like a drowned desert rat. Arha very, very carefully laid back into the water as skeptically as humanly possible. The water closed over her head immediately and she pushed herself back up. That was too tight.

She tried relaxing a much as her uncooperative muscles would let her. She floated a little better when she did relax.

[its-keeper.livejournal.com]

"Breeeeathe in," says Will, leaning back to float beside her pupil. "Let the water hold you - support you - we're 70 percent water, you know, so it's not like we're out of our element here."

Yeah, tell that to the Fremen. That'll pass.

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

Arha made a completely undignified sound to that statement. SO. Completely. Out of. Her element.

"I am not waterfat," she muttered, but relaxed further and did as she was told.

[its-keeper.livejournal.com]

Will sits up in the water. "Did you just call me fat?"

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"No," she muttered. "Not in an insulting way. But you do have more water on your than I do. You float better?"

[its-keeper.livejournal.com]

"I . . . guess, but I've also been swimming for . . ."

She has to stop and think.

"Ten years."

More or less.

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"You have had the practice," Arha said quietly. "I have gone twenty odd years with the only water on my homeworld buried in caverns that are hard to find. We wore suits to conserve bodily moisture. Everything was recycled. Free water such as this was not possible. All of us are very...rangy."

[its-keeper.livejournal.com]

". . . how do you keep your skin so soft without any moisture?"

Because dang, do those Fremen girls all look top-notch moisturized!

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"Non exposure to sun," Arha replied. "We do have moisture, it is just...conserved. Sandbathing is common, as well, and on occasion oils are used to work softness back into the skin."

[its-keeper.livejournal.com]

"You just stayed inside all the time? How does sandbathing work?"

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"Traveling at night when the high heat was not bothersome was more likely," Arha explained. "The temperature extremes were quite brutal, especially in the deep desert."

She half grinned.

"Stripping down to skin and scrubbing fine sand to clean oneself is most common. It works well."

[its-keeper.livejournal.com]

"It gets cold, right?"

Will looks thoughtful. "I guess that would be a good way to exfoliate . . ."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"It does get cool in the night," she murmured. "But the sands, too retain heat." Arha nodded once and got a mouthful of water, which she boggled at before sputtering it out. "It makes good polish."

[its-keeper.livejournal.com]

"Oh. I guess."

Hey, they're supposed to be swimming!

"Anyway! How's the floating coming?"

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

"I float," Arha said as if surprised. "Apparently I still have enough water in me to do so. I am...pleased."

[its-keeper.livejournal.com]

"Great! So - hold on a minute, let me get something -"

Will splashes out of the water, runs off, and returns with a boogie board.

"Okay, hold on to this so that your front half floats."

[ladyofthesands.livejournal.com]

This was an agreeable thing. Arha held on. Tightly.