(no subject)

[theresnodoor]

There are all kinds of ways to lift a mood. Depending on how severe it is, the methods can be relatively simple. But when the weight you're carrying gets to be too much, you've got to bring out the big guns of self-comfort.

Rachel is standing on the edge of the lake, eyeing the water. Still too cold to go walking around in her morphing outfit but, after a moment, she strips down to it anyway. Then, wearing slightly more than nothing, she walks slowly into very, very cold water.

When she's up to her waist (and shivering), she ducks her head... and doesn't come back up.


However, the lake is now occupied by one more dolphin than it was two minutes ago.


Morph therapy.

Catch the fever.

Comments

[death_gone_mad]

The lakeshore is a nice place to get some whittling done. So, perched on a rock on the beach, there is a red haired, dark skinned woman working away at a short log.

Normally, she wouldn't watch someone swim around in a lake. But, there was someone who just went in and hasn't come out.

Isn't the water cold?

She is either waiting for Rachel to drown or she is curious how long Rachel can hold her breath.

Well, maybe there is a way out of Milliways underwater.

Either way, she's watching.

[theresnodoor]

Rachel is not going to drown. Though she is holding her breath.

And when she breaks the water, a graceful grey creature with rubbery skin and a permanent grin, it's in a leap that clears her ten feet from the surface of the lake before executing a perfect swan dive back inside.

Rachel isn't currently broadcasting her thoughts, but if she were, one might hear something along the lines of <YEEEEEEEE-HAH!>

As it is, one will just have to take the constant leaps and dives as evidence of her happiness.

[death_gone_mad]

Huh, a dolphin.

She never noticed a dolphin in this lake before. It's not like she searched the lake thoroughly before, but this is a noticeable dolphin.

Wait, a dolphin in a lake? She could have sworn they were salt water creatures.

At least on her world they are.

The dolphin is a good distraction from her previous drown-watch.

[theresnodoor]

Well, yes, they are. But as the dolphin is a mammal, rather than a gill-having creature, Rachel didn't think a lack of salt water would matter too much. And while the dolphin can certainly feel the difference, and would rather be in salt, it isn't hurting anything. She's not in pain.

Also? The dolphin's brain, even in the wrong water, is telling her to SWIM FAST and JUMP HIGH and RACE THAT FISH TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LAKE and LOOK A TURTLE, PLAY WITH IT, PLAY WITH IT!

It's a very excitable dolphin. Not all the playing is going on above the surface of the water, but there are impressive leaps quite often.

[death_gone_mad]

Okay, this dolphin is definitely new. Either that or she has been out of the bar for a really long time. She forgot to ask Bar how long it has been since her last visit and just assumed the seasons changed. It could have been a year, a decade, who knows?

But for now that is forgotten, as is her work. If the dolphin wants to put on a show, she is content to watch.

[theresnodoor]

And you know? Once Rachel notices that she has an audience? Even the dolphin wants to set up a little mini Sea World performance.

You thought all that was awesome? You have not yet SEEN awesome. Check out THIS dive. Get a load of THIS flip. You want to see her race to the other side of the lake and back?

Want to see it again?

Dolphins: nature's glory hounds.

[death_gone_mad]

The watching draws something out in her. Now instead of just watching, she is tracking.

Like a cat watching a fishbowl.

There is no way she would leap in, but she is tense, watching, watching. Fishie is too far away! D:

Such a cruel tease. Bad dolphin!

[boston_bruiser]

The lake is finally thawed out. Voodoo can't ask for much more, really - 10-mile runs tend to get boring once you start doing them day after day.

So right now he's taking a swim (sans facial hair and psuedoturban, of course - he shaved this morning and he's wearing swim trunks), alternating between breaststroke and sidestroke. By his best guesstimate, he's done about a mile so far.

He doesn't see Rachel enter the lake. He doesn't see the dolphin, either.

He can totally be messed with. Because you know, dolphin and all that.

The mun would also like to point out that this tag could've contained a terrible pun. A real soul-crusher, we tell you, absolutely horrendous. But it doesn't, because Puns Are Bad.

[theresnodoor]

OMG.

PERSON IN THE WATER.

COME PLAY!!!

Rachel will invite him to play with her in a calm and orderly fashion.

i.e., the dolphin zooms beneath him, curves around him, leaps over him, dives back in on his other side, and repeats this procedure twice more.

DOES SHE HAVE YOUR ATTENTION NOW? DOES SHE? DOES SHE?

[boston_bruiser]

OH YES SHE DOES.

"What the fuck?" Voodoo sputters as he starts treading water. The lake has dolphins?

The bewilderment quickly fades and is replaced by a realization that hey, maybe it just wants to play. Voodoo shakes his head and grins.

"Ah, what the hell. I'm up for it."

He's just grateful there's no one around to watch - that he can see, anyway.

Hey, the man's got a reputation to maintain.

[theresnodoor]

YAY!!

They should play Spin & Swim. It seems like an easier game to play with a human. Also, Rachel can win every time! Spinning to create a little tornado of water, then circling around him, taking off to swim in circles...

Okay, maybe it's a little difficult to play with a human.

[boston_bruiser]

Yeah, Voodoo's a bit confused as to exactly what the dolphin wants to play after a while. Eventually, though, he comes up with an idea of his own. It's one he's almost certain to lose, but what's the harm in finding out?

He waves to get the dolphin's attention, then points to himself, then the far shore. Does it want to race?

[theresnodoor]

Despite the absolute certainty that this will not be challenging at all, the dolphin's answer is pretty much OMG YES, RACE.

She zooms up beside him, calling in that high giggling way that dolphins communicate with, and waits.

Well, he seemed to think she'd understand caricatures for racing, right? So what's the harm in showing just how well she really does understand?

[mogget_cat]

Rachel is apparently insane.

This is the opinion of one(1) not'cat who has slunk out onto the dock to see if there are fish for the catching.

[theresnodoor]

There are! They're in the lake! With Rachel! Who is playing tag with them!

Actually, only Rachel is playing tag. The fish are playing OH GOD RUN FOR YOUR LIFE AHHHHHHHHH and the dolphin wouldn't mind that game either. But Rachel? Just tag.

With occasional pauses for leaping into the air. That feeling of soaring into cool, dry air then splashing back down into thick, welcoming water is right up on par with actual flying.

[mogget_cat]

Not just apparently, then. "Certifiably insane," he murmurs, shaking his head.

Such a pity.


Ooh, feeeeesh.

[theresnodoor]

Her feesh.

Not Yrael's.

Once she's noticed him, she executes an absolutely perfect, effortless dive and, with more than a little giggling in her tone, calls, <Yrael! Come play!>

Seriously, morph therapy. You try to be somber and serious with a dolphin sharing your brain.

[mogget_cat]

Yrael's feesh. Feesh feesh shinyfish feeesh. All his.

"But you are in the water," he says, in a tone that says it explains everything wrong with the situation. "Where it is cold and wet and watery."

[theresnodoor]

<I know! Isn't it great?>

It is SO GREAT!

Also, it is where the feesh are. Thus, they are hers.

[katyafeline.livejournal.com]

Katya, who had slid into the Twilight when she heard someone approaching, steps out again lightly, the air around her momentarily fracturing in a halo of winter-weak rainbows. Well. That is very curious - she was right, not Other, but definitely 'other', as so many seem to be here, in one way or another.

Now the dolphin has an audience, a slim Muscovite sitting cross-legged on an overhanging rock.

[theresnodoor]

Dolphins like audiences. Even when Rachel notices this particular audience and even recognizes her, she's not overly concerned. Even the dolphin, when faced with the mental warning of 'tiger', doesn't care much.

I mean, hello. We're in water here. What's a tiger going to do that should make a dolphin scared in water?

C'mon now.

But since there's an audience and everything, that changes the game. Rather than Chase the Fish and Race the Current, the dolphin wants to play Leap As High As Possible. And Rachel's okay with that.

Everyone has a favorite animal. But it's very difficult not to be awed when a dolphin goes about trying to impress.

[katyafeline.livejournal.com]

Katya can appreciate a good shift - Bear, her erstwhile partner, preferred to have a variety of ursine forms at his disposal. The joy of it warms her like a good roaring fire, even if she resists taking any for herself. It's somewhat rare to stumble across a source of joy like this, even at the end of the universe.

One good turn deserves another, and she cups her hands around her mouth, as if to warm them... Which totally has nothing to do with how the water sparkles like glitter in the dolphin's wake, now.

[theresnodoor]

She honestly doesn't notice until she's up high in the air, flipping once before pointing her nose to the surface of the lake for a perfect dive.

The dolphin, while fun-loving and joyful and playful, is not stupid. Nor is it simple. It takes in the sparkles, the glitter with amusement, not concern, and dives back in with hardly a splash.

But Rachel noticed. And humans do so love to look a gift horse in the mouth.

She stays beneath the surface for some time, forcing the dolphin to stay still so she can look up. Trying to figure out what the sparkles are, what they do, and if they're some sort of danger.

[katyafeline.livejournal.com]

Ever have a good roaring fire going, and just for the hell of it you add a few more twigs... and inexplicably the whole thing falls apart?

Katya's in a similar mood, at the moment. Huffing, she obliterates the spell, returning the water to it's non-sparkly state. Honestly, you do nice things, and what do you get? Suspicion.

Grumpy Other is grumpy.

[theresnodoor]

Hey, the sparkles are gone. The dolphin notes this and might even be disappointed, except that there's still water and fish, so basically everything is okay.

Rachel notices this and swims back to the surface, turning to the side to look around with one eye. Dolphin vision: not so great.

But she does manage to spot Katya, and note the grumpiness.