[LOG] Swim.

[biteymonster]

Main Beach, Ista Weyr(#444RJ)

The coastline of black sand stretches out in either direction, tropical waters lapping ceaselessly against the subtle decline of the main beach that rests at the base of the plateau cliff. To the northeast, water from the upper pool cascades over the plateau's edge, its destination shrouded in the lush fronts of the jungle's edge and a hint of blue-tinged mist. The Sandbar, Ista's seaside tavern, stands to the south beside the long branching structure of the docks.

The dry spring season relieves Ista Island of its humidity, replacing it with light, buoyant air. Tonight, clouds interrupt the dark, star-strewn sky and a good, stiff breeze cools the Weyr.

This time of night, right after dinner, places like the beach are prime for spending some quiet time alone. Or, if you're of the sort, with a dragon. Not that Ehrudith and K'aus are actually 'with' each other now, since the former has cast himself out to sea up to his belly and the latter sits in a folding chair further up the beach from him. The man-part is reading, there are glasses with square frames involved, his book is propped up on his folded leg. Occasionally he'll take a drag from the clove, flick the ashes, blow out smoke and let his hand dangle over the arm of the chair again.

Some people sit, other people walk. Or return from walking, which is what Loe is doing now. She comes toward K'aus and Ehrudith from down the beach, only vaguely aware that they're out ahead of her as she walks along the wet sand where the ocean laps. She's barefoot, sandals in hand, and her wrap skirt wet along the hem as the water rushes in and out around her ankles. More than the sight or a dragon or a man, it's the scent of clove smoke in the air that draws her attention more keenly toward K'aus. Ah, it's him.

Ehrudith takes notice much sooner than his rider. His grand focus is put to the small female not-K'aus before she's really come close enough for him to see her clearly, not that it matters. He has no idea who she is. But she is another human, and K'aus did say something about keeping an eye out, so the dragon dutifully tips his head and gives his boy on the beach a heads up. Thusly clued in, K'aus adjusts only his eyes to find Loe there on her walk, watching her over the edge of his glasses. Finally he tips his chin up and lets his head rest back, a signal from him he's seen her. Besides that, he wiggles clove-hand's fingers at her before he takes another drag.

Loe watches him here and there as she continues on her path, not straying from that firm, wet sand. Sometimes she looks at him, sometimes she looks down, sometimes she looks out to the water or the dragon in it. It mind seem like she intends to walk right by, but she doesn't. She stops there, right in front of K'aus, water swirling up again around her feet. Even though the bottom of her skirt is already wet, she holds it up just a bit, dripping against her calves. "Are you going to come down and say hello are are you going to make me get my feet dirty?" she asks him.

Lolling a little, K'aus's head tilts. His smile is slow in coming but it doesn't stop at small. His mouth is curved very wide indeed while he considers the options. Dirty feet, getting up; dirty feet, getting up. Nobody ever said he was a gentleman. Without bothering with not being obvious about it he sets his elbows up on the arms and reclines fully. There is her answer.

Loe stands there and waits while he thinks and when his 'answer' comes, she cants her head to eye him sideways, giving him a scolding look. Maybe she wasn't really offering to get her feet dirty, since she doesn't take a step toward the dry sand.

With a finger hooked around them K'aus pulls the glasses off his nose so that he can see her and all her being stubborn more clearly. He folds them up to hang from the collar of his shirt and puts the clove to his lips so he can use both hands to lift himself out of the chair. His bare feet leave tracks in the loose sand on his way and once he's reached her he stands there with his hands in his pockets and lifts an eyebrow. There.

Aw, he's coming. Now that he can see her, he'll also see her immediate, satisfied smile when he pushes himself out of the chair. "Such a gentleman," Loe tells him, lifting a playfully coy shoulder as she turns to face the sea. "What were you reading?"

Oh right, the book, the one he left. K'aus relieves himself of the clove and says, "Just some harper's philosophy, it isn't really all that interesting," amidst a small cloud of smoke. They're both facing the sea then, because he's standing behind her and she's turned away from him and neither of them remedy that. "So what're you doing?" He must know.

"Walking, considering a swim," Loe answers, lifting a foot to kick lightly at the top of the water rushing in, toes flicking spray toward the sea. "I haven't actually been swimming much. I used to swim all the time." And only after that does she ask about the first thing, turning back to look at him over her shoulder. "Philopshy about being a harper or just written by a harper?"

"Written by." For as dull as he makes it sound it's a wonder he's reading it at all. Maybe it's some form of deranged punishment. "Why don't you do it anymore?" Pause. Clarify. "Swim."

"Just busy, I guess. I think of it but then end up doing something else, getting distracted, not finding the time." Loe shrugs. "You know how it goes. The time just slips by. Maybe I don't want to trek back to the Weyr all wet. Do you swim?" Beat. "What does the harper say?"

He /does/ know how it goes, though it wouldn't be obvious to just anyone. There's a little nod. That's all. "He says the part of us that functions and the part of us that thinks are seperate from one another and exist on two different levels. What do you mean 'do you swim', like do I know how or is it a hobby." One more long drag before he flicks the spent clove into the sand for it to extinguish itself.

"What do you mean by function? Or, well, what does he mean by function?" That part trips her up and has Loe crinkling her nose. "And I mean," she adds, the smile quick to return, "do you swim as a hobby. Obviously." Her glance flicks to the buttons of his shirt for a bare beat, then to his face again.

"I swim every morning. I run and I swim." When she looks at him he moves his focus past her, to the water. "He thinks the part of you that breathes and feels physical pain is a complex mechanism and that the part of you that is self aware, that feels feelings and has memories, is the actual human part of you." K'aus's hand moves as if on its own to the top button and all buttons following. He starts tugging his arms free of the sleeves.

"And so what does that mean?" she asks, interrupting the hands on his buttons with her own, pushing his fingers away to take over. Once that's done, he can deal with the sleeves himself. "What's the point in figuring out that they're separate?" Loe, always looking for the practical application. She takes a step back from him and pulls her shirt overhead in one smooth motion, tossing it toward the dry sand. "Will you throw me?" Of course she's not finished undressing, so she can't mean right this moment.

"There is no point. It's an idea." That she so freely gave him her assistance is a detail that caught K'aus's attention at the time but he's moved past it. His shirt lands in a messy ball near his chair. "Every time you think to yourself 'why am I here?' or wonder about something outside of your own basic needs you become a philosopher. The idea that our mental selves are non-physical is called dualism. And yes." He drops his pants. "I will throw you."

"But it has no purpose? Does it help you understand yourself or understand other people? Something like that?" He can deal with his pants himself, and Loe unties her skirt, flinging it toward her skirt, the sandals in her hand too. Then she's backing up toward the water, watching his face.

Deal with them he does, if leaving them there when he steps out of them counts. It's just them and the light of the moons, and Ehrudith. But a dragon isn't going to tell anyone about their late night skinny dip. "I think it brings a further understand to people. What makes us tick. What makes us think of ourselves as us and we. What makes us different from animals." He's been following her this whole time.

As she moves backwards, the calm water reaches upward, her calves, her knees, ebbing back and flowing forth, thighs, hips. She's not entirely naked, panties are still in place. And she keeps moving back, keeping that distance between them whether she talked of throwing or not. "What makes you tick, K'aus? Have you figured it out yet?"

K'aus doesn't do underwear. At least not tonight. He follows her further into the water but slowly so as not to chase her in. They're beyond that. "Maybe I don't wanna know," he supplies without any hesitation. "Maybe nobody should." He's very near to having to tread water now. The moonlight shines off the chain around his neck.

"You're the one reading the book," she reminds him. As the the water surges around her waist, Loe stretches her arms out to the sides. "Ready?" she asks, grinning like something excellent is about to happen. And then she lets herself fall back, disappearing below the water and surfacing again a bit further out, where he tread. Her hair wet and slicked back, she just smiles at him. "Do I make you nervous? A little bit?" she wonders, head turned, an eye playfully narrowed.

She leaves him with that and he leaves her with silence if only because she's gone under water. When she comes back up he allows the water to tug him further out and drifts closer to her. His chin lifts to clear his mouth of the water level so he can speak. "Are you asking because I make you nervous?" he wants to know, right before he sinks. His eyes remain for just a moment to watch her, eyebrows up, and then he's gone.

The answer must be yes because when he sinks out of sight Loe starts to backstroke. She doesn't move far off, just an extra arm's length, her eyes searching the dark waves for sign of him to reemerge.

He does, not long after he left her all alone up there. And he passes a hand up and over his face to push his hair up off his forehead. At first he looks a little confused by her being further away; he follows her, flips over onto his back to stare up at the stars.

"You didn't make me nervous before. Maybe you do now," Loe admits, once he's back. And since he's so innocuously floating, she'll let herself drift closer. She hasn't forgotten that he didn't answer. "So?"

"Why should I be nervous? Why're you nervous?" asks K'aus of the sky and pulls himself in a lazy circle around her.

"I don't know. I'm not asking why. I'm asking if you are maybe," Loe points out, turning in place as he makes his circles. "I had an idea what to expect from you before. Now I'm not sure. I keep expecting you to change suddenly." Then, as he circles, she starts to drift back toward the shallower waters.

And as she drifts, he circles, cutting across her path. "So if I say yes, what then? You stay or you go? Which one?"

"Say whatever's true," Loe says with a challenge in the lift of her chin, one levied lightly as she smiles again. "I'm not going either way. You need to be able to stand if you're going to throw me."

"Or I could just opt for saying nothing at all." But perhaps he senses that this will not be sufficient because he adds, "I'm not nervous." There. The invisible tether between them pulls him after her, his arms doing most of the work until his feet find purchase in the sand and he can stand, as she said. And so standing, K'aus holds his hands out.

"Hardly seems fair," Loe says. "You should be nervous." She inches closer, taking her time. The tether might keep him from straying to far but what happens when there's slack? "Unless you know everything that I'll say or do and then, well, you might as well go back to your philosophy because I'd be very dull company." She reaches for his hands, putting them together, one in the other, a hold for her foot. Her smile doesn't falter.

"Of the two of us I thought I was the one who might change at any moment." His hands do as they're told, one in the other with the strength of his arms underneath them. K'aus lowers them too, to make it easier. Of course, that puts him at eye-level with certain bits of her anatomy. "Would you like it if I was nervous?"

Loe gets her foot in place, a hand going to his shoulders for stability. "Yes. Maybe. Are you ready?" Now that she's poised, preparing for his arms to lauch her upward, there's something giddy about her grin, about her excited breath.

He bites his lip and watches her as carefully as he can with as close as they are. Yes. Maybe. "Mmhm." He's ready. But before her fun he looks up at her and sees that grin. It inspires another one, his. "Okay," and K'aus spaces his feet apart, "one," lifts her a little, "two," and again, "...three." Consider her launched.

Three! On three, with his arms lifting, her leg pushing off and her hands leaving his shoulders to reach back, Loe manages to flip backward almost completely before she hits the water. She pops back up a moment later. "How was that?" she asks, wiping her face, grinning, moving toward him again.

There's a little lean involved to dodge her foot, just in case, but otherwise K'aus is watching over her takeoff and landing and, when she reappears, smirking. "You need to work on your form." He waves her back over and readies his hands again, hunkering down as he assumes she wants another go.

Hands are back on his shoulders, her foot lifted and ready for his hands. "Okay, but you have to get me higher this time." She hops a little, loosing her balance, catching it with a hand on the back of his neck, just for a moment. She's still a little breathless. "You're next," promised with a wild-eyed grin.

Her personal jungle gym, K'aus is patient during her near-miss and steady as a rock beneath her. But her hand on his neck forces his gaze up, locks his eyes on hers. He returns her grin this time with a quirked mouth and lifts his eyebrows at her. "One," nevermind that part about him, "two," because this is about her, "three!" To the moon!

She flips again, high this time, and with a squeal as she flies through the air, one that ends abruptly when she hits the water. Ok, so Loe's form isn't that much improved, but she's smiling when she surfaces anyway, and she shakes her hair out with an excited little roar. "Ok, now you," she says, swimming back and offering her hands.

He actually loses his footing a little after her weight is gone, slipping under the surface right around the time she does. They come up within seconds of each other and he tosses his head to send his hair up in soaked disarray, looks at her hands with no small amount of skepticism. Instead of comply, K'aus stares at her. One of the sopping spires atop his head wilts.

"Come on. Don't be a baby," Loe urges ever so supportively. "What are you afraid of? Afraid I can't get you up out of the water?" She pauses in her positioning to turn her elbows out and flex her... arms. No, there isn't much muscle. Yes, this is a girl who slaps instead of punches. But she offers her hands, ready anyway.

"Yeah, 'afraid' isn't the word I'd use." Because he isn't afraid of anything? Because he's something else? It doesn't really matter because he's taking her up on it anyway, if only for the entertainment value. This is bound to be amusing. At first he just stands there in front of her and looks down at her hands again. He meets her eyes, moves his hand to her shoulder.

He has a good five inches on her and who knows how many pounds--putting that hand on her shoulder probably does nothing to encourage him about her strength; there's certainly no excess of muscle there. But nonetheless, Loe is doggedly determined. "What would you use then? Come on, give me your foot." He might be ready meet her eyes, but her own don't linger on his face and avoid prolonged contact with his stare.

This is a bad idea. But it wouldn't be the first he's ever seen to fruition. As she requests, K'aus gives her his foot, using the hand on her shoulder for balance and nothing more. It's awkward but she's short so it's easier than it likely was for her. And he shifts his weight to step into that leg and up.

How could it be a bad idea? Because when K'aus's weight pushes into her hands, she can hardly offer any loft before the shift balance has her falling back into the water? Well, the screech she lets out doesn't sound like an unhappy one and if they both fall into the water in folly, so be it. Getting a faceful of water hardly interrupts her grin.

He might sense the shift in balance before she does, being on top and all, but whether or not his diving into the water over her head helps the situation any will be determined when they come back up for air. K'aus is up within a heartbeat, shaking his head and his hair all to one side and reaching around for some part of her he can use to help her up. "Where is she where is she," he mutters.

A hand, he can find that in the water, and it finds him back, taking hold of his forearm as she pulls herself back up. When her eyes open, they find his face this time, meet his gaze. "You need practice," Loe tells him, barely keeping the laugh from her smug voice. And she gives a little cough, just to clear away the seawater.

His grin is bright and open, deepening the lines around his mouth and squinting his eyes; that's where it starts but isn't all there is. Blame it on the sound of it in her voice, his laughing all helpless and without a care for restraint. He tries to say something through it at one point but can't, so he gives up and doubles over and cackles at the water.

Well, if he's going to laugh like that, Loe will stagger back a bit and laugh right along with him, if not quite so much a hearty cackle and more the laugh of bright bewilderment. "You're crazy," she tells him between giggles and gasps.

It takes K'aus a minute to stumble around in the water and try to catch his breath. It does happen eventually and he slowly uncurls, hand to his stomach. "Oh you have no idea. Ah." A chuckle escapes. Oops. "Oh. Oh it hurts. But you, 'I can do it'," he mimics what she looked like with her hands together but shrinks himself down in the water.

"I didn't say I'd do it well," Loe has to add in her own defense, still smiling. " And it's not my fault you don't know what you're doing. Or that you weigh so much." Surely the blame is entirely his. She laughs along, though it loses out more quickly, taken over as she instead starts to observe this new K'aus laughing his ass off in the water.

"/Ha/, hahaha." He only remains unobservant to her observing for so long though and when he catches on to the fact she isn't laughing anymore and is watching him he gets his shit together and sobers up. His shoulders move with his shallow breaths, each one closer to the big one he needs to catch up, and he asks, "What."

"What do you mean, what?" Loe says, letting out another laugh now that he's trying to stop. But she doesn't seem to expect an answer. Instead she reaches to take his hand, even as she starts to backward toward the beach again, drawing him with her without need of the invisible teather. "I should get back," she says through her smile. "And you have reading."

Obedient, K'aus follows along after her, moving through the water as if he was born from it. But at a certain point between where they were and where she wants them to be he stops, she'll feel the tug on her hand. "I'm gonna stay."

"In the water?" Loe asks, appearing almost confused by his decision. But when there's resistence against her fingers, she lets go, dropping his hand as she continues toward the beach. "Practice?" she smirks.

"...something like that." Bathed in a wash of cold light from the sky over head and its stars and its moons, K'aus tips his chin down and backs up to return to the water and, when he's out far enough, he disappears into it.

Loe reaches the beach and gathers up her clothes, getting dressed again even if it all sticks and clings to wet skin in a terribly uncomfortable fashion. She turns to look out at K'aus again but by then, he seems to be gone, which only makes her scan the water more intently. She looks to the dragon, who would supposedly freak out if his rider was in some sort of peril. And so she turns toward the Weyr to start her walk home.k