milliways_bar | (no subject)

""Good afternoon, Sunshine!" Baze calls from the shore cheerfully, waving his arms. He's stripped his robes to the waist and stands barefoot in the sand.

Rae hears the call from the shore, and looks over, having come up for breath.

"Hey there, Baze!" she calls, grinning and waving back. "How're you?"

"Doing good, thanks for asking," Baze says, striding forward into the water, seemingly without fear. He stops, though, when he's knee-deep.

"I didn't know that you could swim!"

Sunshine laughs, swimming closer to shore, or at least to the point where her feet can reach the bottom. "Never thought to mention it!"

Hang on-

"Can you not?"

Likewise, it's not a thing she's ever thought to ask about.

"Nope! There was no water deep enough on Jedha to learn--except for the kyber caves, and those were cold enough to freeze a man solid in minutes," Baze says, laughing. He cups water in his hands and washes his face.

"I never thought I'd be around this much water!"

"Shiva wept! And I thought the lake here got cold in winter," she remarks, making a face at the idea of water cold enough to freeze a person solid. But the inlet here is pleasantly warmed by the summer sun, and as clear a blue as one could hope for. Rae's hair is a darker red when wet by the water, and falls in an almost-straight locks at length.

"I imagine it's a big change. Not just for the idea of swimming, but just the ready availability of water in general.

"Oh, yeah, absolutely. We used to have to use sonic cleaners, and the soundwaves would ring right through Chirrut's head. Now he loves baths, and I do, too!" Baze says, sitting down in the water and letting the warmth wash over his belly and hips.

"We were shocked at how no one lives on the beach out here. It's so warm!"

"I hadn't thought of that!" Sunshine laughs. "But you're right. It's always lively and warm out here. Though maybe the idea of building a dwelling out here is a daunting undertaking for most people.

"Though, sonic cleaners? That sounds wretched even just imagining such a thing. Baths are definitely the way to go."

"And there's also the fact that no one owns the property," Baze says, shrugging.

"Maybe everyone wants to keep the beach free and open for the patrons of Milliways."

"That'd be best, I think. For everyone to use," Rae says, coming up into the shallows to sit by Baze. Smiling, she bumps his elbow with hers. "Though speaking of using the beach, are you thinking of learning how to swim?"

"I'd like to," Baze says, bumping her back.

"Can you teach me?"

"I can certainly try," she offers, grinning. "Though maybe forgive if I'm not the best teacher."

"Most of main foundation of knowing how to swim is being comfortable with the water. Knowing what to expect, and how to interact with it."

"Comfortable with the water. Got it," Baze says, looking out at the horizon of Caribbean sea.

"What should I expect?"

She thinks on the question, trying to remember her early swim lessons nearly two decades previous. "Well, first, moving through water isn't like moving through air. It offers resistance, so your movements will be slowed, or at least take more effort. But that resistance is what allows swimming to be possible; if water can push against you, you can push against it. People are generally buoyant, too, and will more-or-less float if they let themselves. The difficulty in learning to float well is often that people are used to having something solid to hold onto, and don't trust the water to hold them up."

"...You know, with the waves here, and the uneven bottom of the inlet, it might be better if we start out in the pool, if you're up for starting today," she offers. "Learning to float and relax in water is easier when you have a pool edge or something similar to hold onto at the beginning, and don't have to worry about unexpected currents or waves just yet."

"Chirrut and I played in the pools in the sauna when we first arrived here," Baze says, grinning at her. He leans his head back, stretching his neck.

"I did notice that the water slowed us down, and made us tired afterwards. Chirrut was upset because he couldn't hear me when I went under. And I'm up for trying today!_Thanks, Sunshine."

He reluctantly leaves the warmth of the water, and stands, offering a hand to help her up.

Sunshine smiles, accepting his hand and getting to her feet. "I've hardly swam any in the sauna pool, really - keep forgetting about it, I guess, or only think of swimming when it's blazing bright and hot outside."

She fetches her towel, flipflops and bottle of water before heading with Baze back towards the bar.

"Being underwater definitely dampens - ha, sorry - sound. Dampens everything else too, of course," she grins, wrapping up in the big, yellow and white-striped beach towel.

Baze cracks up at the pun, throwing his head back and cackling. He almost laughs himself to tears, clapping a gentle hand on Sunshine's shoulder.

"Dampens! I love it. The sauna pool is warm, like the inlet, so I like wading in the water during the winter. Of course, sitting in the sauna is nice, too."

He leads the way there, and opens the door to a blast of cool air from the main room.

It's nowhere near cold in the bar, but the temperature change is much sharper when one is soaking wet.

It's enough to put a spring in one's step, especially in the direction of returning to warmth.

"I should probably think of the sauna more often in winter than I do. Wintertime tends to leave me sleepy and lazy, and a sauna sounds like the perfect place for that when it's cold out."

"Oh? Is that 'cause you're in tune with sunlight?" Baze says, cocking his head to the side. He stops by the bar to pick up a pair of swimming trunks and then heads to the sauna's bathroom.

"I'll be right out, I just have to change."

"Probably," she admits, wry, draping her towel somewhere out of the way and slipping out of her flipflops. "If I draw my strength from the sun, it makes sense that I have less of it when the sunlight is weaker."

"Come on in when you've changed," Rae grins, casually jumping into the deep-end of the pool. She'll be waiting in the shallower end when he emerges again.

Baze emerges from the bathroom with his robes folded and draped over one arm, and wearing his trunks. They're navy blue, with a border of red and yellow flames. He places his robe on an out-of-the-way chair and eases into the shallow end of the pool, holding onto the handrail of the steps.

"Thanks for waiting. I'm ready to learn!"

"Come along this way - you're taller than me" understatement of the year! "and can touch the bottom further along than I can. Stop when the water gets to about midway up your chest, close enough to the side that you can touch the edge of the pool. We're going to practice letting yourself float, first."

Comfort with the water is important in swimming, and knowing how to trust the water and how it behaves is a key part of that.

"So take loose hold of the edge of the pool," she says, demonstrating, "and gently let your legs be lifted behind you by the water. You can keep your head up, but you'll end up floating horizontally, held up by the water."

Baze does as instructed, wading into the water until it reaches chest-level, and then holds onto the edge. He grins at Rae, and lifts his feet.

He sinks.

"Oh, this is tougher than I thought it would be," Baze says, laughing, and tries again. This time, he manages to float on his belly, but that's largely because he's grasping the side of the pool.

"Hm."

Sunshine smiles. "Gotta relax. The water will hold you up, but the reflex to tense up makes it more difficult to let it. It's all down to practice, and... there's some complicated thing with buoyancy and surface area, but it is possible."

She lightly grips the side of the pool, stretching out her legs behind her until she looks like she's lying down upon the water, relaxed, half-submerged but held up by the water beneath her.

Baze tries again, and sinks more gradually this time. Eventually, he relaxes in the water, and floats on his back.

"Hey, I'm doing it!"

"Good morning." Alec calls from the shore. Seems like a better idea that forming a new body out of seaweed and startling her.

Sunshine spots him from out in the water, and smiles, waving. "Hey there! Good morning, Alec!"

"How are you today? The water looks nice." Not that he regards swimming as something he ought to be doing. He lives in a swamp so water is just something you deal with.

"It is!" Rae beams at him. "I realized rather belatedly that I hadn't gone swimming this summer, despite the weather being so good for it, and didn't want to let the opportunity pass me by. It's been brilliant."

Especially in the inlet where the water is so clear. She swims in closer to shore so neither of them have to shout.

"How've you been? How is the team situation going?"

"That is a good question. The overall situation regarding the world's...the universe's?...magic has become unstable, dangerous. And Wonder Woman is trying to recruit me to join a special branch of the Justice League to address things.

"But I am not entirely sure that Diana is not, for this once, in over her head." Alec never quite signs, but comes very close.

"Unstable in what way?" she asks, wondering how such a thing could happen.

"Is there anyone else who would be better suited for looking into... whatever's causing the situation and how it can be fixed?"

"This is hard to explain, and even now I don't entirely understand." He pauses to gather his thoughts.

"There was a vast incursion into our reality by beings from an alternate, unfulfilled timeline. In order to drive back the incursion, the heroes had to unleash forces so great that they disrupted the normal flow of things permanently. That somehow unleashed the new status quo to the magic." He leaves out things like "the Source Wall is broken." He doesn't get that, either.

"As for who should be doing this mission...the wizards and mages of my world are trying to gather and make a plan, but I don't trust them either. Diana will at least listen to others, and she never has an ulterior motive. There might be other people with the skills, but not the authority." He wonders about Zatanna, but he can't see her being in charge of something so big.

Alternative timelines, Rae has a minimal understanding of (she read quite a bit of science fiction in her youth, looking for story ideas for her brothers), but she isn't sure what makes a timeline unfulfilled.

"It looks like... you're all in over your head, like you said, but there may not be anyone else more suited to be in over their heads in this."

(ooc: Sorry for the disappearance! Was at a conference with little brain or time to spare for a week.)

"Diana is usually regarded as the fiercest of warriors. And the most capable of heroes. So it's not that she isn't qualified most of the time. But...

"I don't know if she has the patience. Or if she can see the bigger picture." He doesn't think any of the heroes do.