I wonder why I never wondered why the easiest things are so hard...

[gotbottle]

Ah, Chicago. Such a huge city, with so many people, that the same dramas can't help but be played out time and time again. Sometimes, even within the same day. Today's flavor seems to be "when worlds collide."

Case in point: Ananya Chinnamalai is walking up to the entrance to the Main Gauche. She's never been the sort to avail herself of free

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[prince_stupid]

Ragar would offer to help Dylan, but he has a problem of his own at the moment. Another kitten. He trots into the Conrad with the tiny animal curled up and dangling by its neckfur from the big cat's mouth.

Daine has proved herself invaluable as regards caring for the little ones he can't--which isn't to say he doesn't heal them and clean them up before handing them over, but he's less capable of being a mother than he would like to be.

[weepnot_thepast]

And just like that, Dylan goes a bit weak in the knees. He catches himself, keeping them from buckling. He raises a hand to his forehead to steady himself. He feels this... odd... sort of pulling, longing sensation, deep in his chest.

Is this it?

He starts scanning the lobby, trying to figure out who might be drawing him in. To the left. Definitely to the left.

He sidesteps a cat trotting along past, trying to figure out which of the many people in here he needs to see. But he finds himself circling back, twice.

He doesn't get this. What's going on?

Murmuring under his breath, he unconsciously goes drifting off in the same direction as the cat, watching the people milling about.

[prince_stupid]

Ragnar stops by the elevator to wait--for someone to open it, for someone to come out of it. He's a patient cat, though somewhat less so when he has a kitten to take care of. He sets the tiny animal down.

"I beg your pardon," he says to Dylan. The man seems to be headed his direction anyway. "Might you open this for me?"

[weepnot_thepast]

Dylan stops and stares down at the cat. And gapes. Not just because the cat is talking to him, no, though that's remarkable in and of itself.

No... the feeling's he's had for the last minute or so intensify, coalescing into a rush that makes him light-headed even as a cool determination and comprehension settle deep in his bones.

He blinks down at Ragnar.

And then mutters, "Aw, shit. No. No way..."

[kineticmachine]

Arlin is also at Navy Pier. He was in the toy shop (don't ask -- or rather, go right ahead, because it's vaguely embarrassing to be in the toy shop to begin with, even if it was because that was the only place Arlin knew of to get the particular toy he was looking for and said toy has a particular part he's going to pull out of it later). Now, he's merely wandering around the Pier itself.

...it's really hard not to notice the girl floating on a board in Lake Michigan. Even if there wasn't a small crowd -- well, a couple of people, at least -- peering curiously over at her.

He walks up and leans on the railing at the edge of the Pier, smirking down at her. "What are you doing?" he asks. Unlike some people, he's assuming she's there on purpose, because she is, after all, wearing a swimsuit. This just isn't where one would normally expect to find someone attempting to swim.

[gotbottle]

Well, that's a different question, at least. Not "are you okay" or "do you need help" or "did you fall in" all over again.

Rachel looks up, way up at the pier, shielding her eyes from the sun and the reflected glare off the water with a hand held at her brow. "Doing the closest thing I can to sitting on a surfboard in the ocean," she calls back. She's not sure which of the few people leaning against the railing staring down at her actually addressed her. "And thinking. If that's cool."

[kineticmachine]

That was not an answer he was expecting, really. Arlin makes a little h'mm noise to himself; he's not expecting her to be able to hear that.

He looks around at the few people looking down at her, the Pier, Lake Michigan. "This is a poor excuse for an ocean," he remarks. "Though far be it from me to tell a total stranger how to spend their time thinking." At least she's doing it in an interesting manner, even if it seems unwise to be sitting on a plank of wood off Navy Pier, of all places.

[gotbottle]

Rachel keeps her eyes on the people above; this time she's able to pick out which one's speaking to her. "Yeah, well." She gestures at the lake. "Poor excuse for an ocean. Poor excuse for a surfboard. Poor excuse for a city, most of the time, but what are you gonna do, right?"

She shrugs. "Beats trying to float in the pool at the Y, anyway."

The expressions on the faces of the other people gathered at the railing seem to suggest they think otherwise. Rachel ignores them.

"Girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, man."

[bemagnetic]

Jacob walks up to the railing of the pier. He finished applying at a job nearby and decided to take a look out at the water. Hello-o-o-o, hot woman in a bathing suit out in the water.

Wait, he knows that chick.

"Well, if it ain't Cleopatra herself surveying her kingdom," he says as he stops on the bottom rung of the railing and leans over to see how far a drop it is from railing to water. "How'd you get out there?"

[gotbottle]

Rachel looks up at the sound of his voice, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand. She breaks into a grin, and calls back, "William! Hey, how's the conquering going these days?"

She glances down at her makeshift surfboard and shrugs. "I swam out! That's what you do. Even when you're Queen or whatever."

[bemagnetic]

"Oh. You know." Jacob shrugs his shoulders, and then grins all confident as ever. "Same old, same old. It's my day off from the conquering thing so I thought I'd catch some rays."

He eyes her suspiciously.

"You just jumped off from here?" And is this entirely allowed? Not that he cares. Jacob can be a bad, bad boy when he wants to be.

Most of the time... he wants to be.

[gotbottle]

"Guess even the King himself needs a break once in a while, huh?" Rachel calls back, teasing.

She shrugs, grinning up at him. "I didn't exactly ask if it was allowed. I didn't see any signs saying 'No floating on a piece of wood on the water here okay', so I decided to take my chances. And yeah. I jumped. From up there."

There may or may not be just a little bit of a dare in her tone.