[OPEN] I Want to Swim Away, But Don't Know How...

[treadwater]

Who: Undine and You
When: Mid-May, after the Battle Royale
Where: Pool Deck
Summary: Trying to remember how to relax
Warnings: Discussion of the event and violence possible


1. Flyers
Hand-written flyers on Serena Eterna stationary are posted in a few public spaces. Perhaps you run into Undine while she has an armful of them, sticking some up in the library or Playback or around the seating area of the Windjammer. They're fairly plain, words hand-written and a vague silhouette-style drawing of a person doing a swim:

SWIM LESSONS AT POOL DECK, 3PM-5PM

Apparently someone's looking to do something productive in the aftermath of all the things.

2. Swimsuit Shopping
Of course, Undine's going to stop and find herself a new, flattering swimsuit at the new Tommy Bahama before the lessons. If you're a friend, she might encourage you to join her. It's always an interesting time for her, shopping. Blue hair can clash with a lot of things, if she's not careful, but she also doesn't want to lean matchy-matchy. That's something she does in her transformed form, and she doesn't want to evoke that same sort of mood now.

"Alright, so here's the question: paisley or floral?" She's holding up both suits for a second opinion.

3. Lessons
Swim lessons go here--Undine starts everyone out in the shallow end, getting to know their level of comfort with the water. Luckily, she found some kickboards and floaties on the sports deck, so she can give lessons at all levels. She's an encouraging teacher, a bright smile on her face the whole time.

4. Free Swim
Once lessons are done, Undine gets herself a virgin pina colada from the pool bar and sits at the edge of the water, dangling her feet and relaxing. Now's a good time to talk to her about anything on your mind. Or maybe, maybe to get her to talk about what's on hers.

5. Wildcard
Same bat time, same batchannel: darkersolstice or darkersolstice#9463

Comments

[saltwaterlungs]

"We don't really do prom in France," she says too quickly to cover her ears going red, "but proms probably have less stabbing in the places where they happen. There's probably usually not usually an evil necromancer at regular proms either. Just principals, who are probably as bad,"

She tries to joke. Fucking hell, of course complimenting the dress would leave her open to a counter-offensive, Darcy chided herself for getting sloppy and careless.

[treadwater]

"I've never been to a prom, so I'm not really sure how often they have evil necromancers. Though I don't think the principal of my school is quite as bad as the Captain is." Not nearly that bad at all, though she's very much in the CDD's pocket, as are all the teachers.

[saltwaterlungs]

Well, tries was the operative word. She isn't... really sure whether to tell Undine that she was joking or not, worrying that she'll get uncomfortable like how their last conversation ended.

"They probably don't have evil necromancers that often," she finally settles on, "this place is a bad example."

A small shrug.

"At least we got to keep the outfits, ehn? Not like your magical girl thing. Or if they turned back into pumpkins after midnight."

[treadwater]

"Means we can wear them for fun together sometime. I mean, if you wanted, that is. Doesn't have to be for dinner, we can just go to Scoops all dolled up."

Something just for them, not because anyone else decreed that it be so.

[saltwaterlungs]

Oh God, this was the nightmare scenario, how the fuck had she ended up on the back foot like this? Darcy fiddled with the drawstring of her hoodie. It wasn't even that she thought Undine was flirting with her, she almost certainly wasn't, she just... wasn't used to attention like this. Individual interest in her. She'd been casual friends with the girls on her fencing team, sure, and they'd hung out outside of fencing, of course, but if Darcy had left the team, they wouldn't have stayed. When she was committed to the psych ward, any semblance of social life had vanished, leaving her an unlucky black cat to be avoided at all costs. And all of that was beyond a grueling schedule that left little time for any social endeavours. At some point, she'd forgotten how to be a girl her own age, the minds and interests of her peers were as occult as the function of her own mind before her death.

"I don't eat ice cream."

Not a great start.

"But we could get fancy breakfast or something. If fancy breakfast is a thing people do."

[treadwater]

"If it's not, we can make it a thing. There's no one to tell us what to do or not do here. So we could totally do fancy breakfast, for no reason other than we want to."

Her smile comes easily, is playful. She's just glad to have someone near her own age to hang out with, even if Darcy's...prickly. Like a feral cat or something.

[saltwaterlungs]

"Fancy breakfast, then. If we're lucky we'll get through it without me saying something dumb, or starting a fight."

Prickly as a feral kitten, that just needs some socializing and some love to stop hissing at everything that comes near.

[treadwater]

"Or me saying something dumb and getting so embarrassed I dissolve into a pool of tears like that mythological bird." You know the one, right? It's a weird little joke.

[saltwaterlungs]

"You have birds that dissolve into tears in your world?"

Huh. Like a reverse phoenix, but worse.

[treadwater]

"I'm not sure it was ever real, but it was called a squonk. A bird so ugly that if anyone ever looked at it, it would cry itself into oblivion." She shrugs. "I think I read about it in one of the old books from before the Founding."

[saltwaterlungs]

"I think I know how it feels," she jokes, "I used to get really bad breakouts before competitions, because I was stressed. I was just glad that you can't see anything through the masks,"

She gestured vaguely to her face.

"The founding of what?"

[treadwater]

"Ah, the Founding of the City after the Collapse. You know, not really a big deal or anything." She's truly nervous how other people on the ship will react to the state her world is in now. People already get weird about the whole magical girl thing...

[saltwaterlungs]

"Alright, no big deal then."

Hey, if Undine doesn't think it's a big deal, Darcy's gonna trust her on that.

"What was your city like?"

[treadwater]

"Beautiful. Peaceful. It's a good place to grow up, and a great place to raise a family. I mean, it's got great parks and schools and a sprawling university..."

She's never been to any other city anywhere ever, so she has no comparison.

[saltwaterlungs]

"It sounds really nice. Lyon doesn't have that many parks or anything, but there's other things. The traboules are cool, they're old walkways that silk workers used to use, you can get anywhere in the city through them, some of them go underground. And only a few of the big ones get tourists, the rest are private, they just feel like a local secret. It's big and it's old, there's a lot of churches, and the food is really good."

[treadwater]

"Secret walkways through a city sound pretty amazing. As do churches. There's not many left in the city--the closest thing to religions are, like, Foundationalists, who think that being a magical girl is a sacred thing. They're kind of all weird though."

She shakes her head. "You know, if we ever get a shore excursion that isn't something deadly, a chance to like. Go see a city, maybe we could go together and see what secrets we can discover together."

[saltwaterlungs]

"Some of the churches are pretty amazing. I have a local one, but for big events like Easter and Christmas my family would make the journey up to the Basilica. It's on top of a hill near the city. Lot of tourists there too, usually, but it's okay for the holidays. It's kind of nice, having everyone singing together. And there's the festival of lights- Mary Mother of God helped save the city from a plague a long time ago, so we light candles in her honour-"

She caught herself getting swept away in a very un-cool manner, and Darcy cleared her throat.

"It's okay. The Foundationalists sound like they kind of suck."

And a shrug with a small smile at her suggestion, "yeah. That would be cool."