knightsoflegend | open ♔ valentine's day

[ Only then does Rey notice the oddity of sitting at the edge of the pool instead of heading inside of it. She looks over at her boots, then at Vi. She shakes her head. ]

I can't. [ Her attention diverts briefly again to Lucia, but she stows that. ] I never learned.

Oh, well, that's simple enough. Do you want to learn?

[ An earnest nod precedes her verbal reply. ]

I do. It's not that I didn't want to, only ... the planet that I grew up on, it was all desert and sand. It's only been since I left that I even saw water like this. [ And, obviously, she loves it. ]

[ vi loves sand. it's a problem. she misses the feel of sand burning the soles of her feet, smoothing the callouses away like nature's pedicure. she doesn't know why she misses it, but it is what it is. she can relate to rey on a deeply familiar level right now. ]

I was the same way. I don't remember where I grew up -- [ and she just brushes past rey's use of the word planet like it's nothing, who cares, vi might have been to hades for all she knows. ] -- but I don't remember a lot of water or learning to swim either. My best friend taught me, we actually met right about...

[ she shifts about three feet to the left. ] Here.

Edited 2016-02-19 03:50 (UTC)

A Knight, then. [ She nods. ] That's lucky.

[ If only Finn were, she might feel less out of place. But the culture shock isn't the worst of it, the fact that those who could understand her culture shock are another problem entirely. She doesn't want to dwell on it, and there's nothing in her cheerful acknowledgment of Vi's luck that seems to pity her own situation. Instead, she soldiers right through it, and starts wrestling off the leather belt and linen wrap that's fastened around her by it. If she's going to swim, she won't need anything extra holding her down. ]

I don't think my best friend knows how either, actually. I can't imagine why he might. [ She says it absently while she strips down some. ] But I've seen others down here swimming: it's not common in this world, is it? Not knowing.

[ she nods in agreement to her luck, she's incredibly luck to have finnick. ]

I'm not sure, really. There are so many different worlds out there, I don't think it would be reasonable to think that there aren't loads of them where swimming is completely foreign. I bet there are worlds where math isn't a GED requirement, too.

[ SIGHS WISTFULLY. ]

What's a GED? [ She crinkles her nose. ] I'm sorry. I'm not sure I'll ever be through playing catch-up.

It's no biggie, you don't need to apologize for not knowing when you're trying to learn. A GED is a high school diploma equivalent, basically a certificate that says you have a basic secondary education. Which I don't have and am very slowly working on. [ a beat as her mind wanders elsewhere. ] Do you need a swim suit? There's a couple spares in that bag over there. The blue one, not the baby bag.

[ oh so she shouldn't just jump into the water in this. ok that makes sense, and is fair, because she now notices that vi isn't really wearing regular clothes. she pulls her feet from the water and trudges over to the bag, sifting through it. her nose crinkles slightly—confusion, not distaste, for the suits don't quite cover as much as rey thinks they should if their purpose is sun protection while in the water but it costs $0 to stay in her own lane on this one. so she starts wrestling with the muslin of her shawl and the buckle of her belt while she toes out of her boots to get changed there bc like who cares honestly. ]

[ maybe vi's skimpy white bikini is her regular clothes U DON'T KNOW REY. while rey dresses -- and as the future proves, vi doesn't give a fuck about modesty -- vi picks lucia up and plops her on the side of the pool before shoving herself out as well to deposit the baby in the little play pen rigged in the corner so lu can play safely away from the water while vi attends to rey. all that to say the baby is out of the water and sitting on her butt in her ruffled one piece, cheerfully playing with a toy silver dragon. it seems to be besties with a toy giraffe. idk. ]

We're close to the same size, so either one will probably fit.

[ also vi's balling shark bite scar, rey gets to see it. ]

[ look in a world where hutts are apparently titillated by human females for no explicable reason, white bikinis are probably the norm on some planet. rey's only beef is that it's not utilitarian enough for sun protection, anyway. when she sees vi in her bikini, rey opts for the same, taking note of the scar she sees when vi climbs out of the water in a way that somehow seems curious and not creepy despite her present nudity, which reveals its own collection of minor scars, which join with freckles to pepper her bared skin.

only once she has the bikini bottom on and has started fussing with the ties on the top does she opt to ask. ] That looks like it hurt.

[ she glances down, twists like she'll be able to see the same huge half circle reflected on her back before she turns back. ]

I don't remember. Not when it happened, at least, I remember later, healing. Split my stitches a ton. Even that is sort of fuzzy. [ tip toeing her fingers down the curve, she shrugs. ] I like to think it was shark bite. If I can survive that, I can survive anything.

[ She nods in agreement with Vi's estimation of her survivalism. ]

So you came through the Veil as well? [ she gets the bikini top tied, gives one last skim of her fingers along the edges of it, and then moves for the pool's edge. ]

[ damn rey, why you do pretty? ]

It was three years at the beginning of the month, actually. [ vi's knight anniversary is valentine's day, actually. she gives lucia a glance to make sure she's safe and entertained before slipping into the water again. ]

Well, congratulations, if that's the sort of thing one celebrates. [ Rey can't much imagine why you would, but when your life is as bleak as hers has been you gotta take the small milestones ok. She drops her feet back in the water, nervous but bold, easing straight down the side and keeping her hands securely fastened to the edge. The brief chill startles a choked sound of her, but she collects herself readily with a slowly drawn breath. ]

I think it might be. Definitely fuckin' changed my life, so.

[ since the first thing finnick taught we was to be comfortable in the water, she's applying the same idea to rey so she just keeps talking. ]

Maybe it's like a birthday. I dunno.

I've never much celebrated those, either.

[ She says it without self-pity, at least, mostly because she has no concept of what she's missing or why it should be missed. Once you're past a certain point, after all ... But for Rey, her momentous yearly event was surviving one more on Jakku. In the water, she turns, keeping her elbows up on the edge of the pool to keep herself from sliding down, though if she let go, her average height would likely be enough here to at least keep her head above the water. ]

Birthdays are weird for me. Where I'm from, the lifespan wasn't incredibly long, I was already pushing the far reaches of it when I was 26 so every year was a huge accomplishment. Plus, we're huge party kids so any excuse, really.

[ ducking her head back she gets it wet before sweeping it up into an astoundingly messy bun. ]

[ that better targets something she can empathize with, but rey doesn't say so. instead, she nods, turning her full attention towards vi. ]

What made it so hard to survive your world?

Mostly me. Have you heard of aasimars yet?

[ only the name, really, so she shakes her head. ]

Basically, they're people descended from gods. Most of 'em are pretty distant, many generations back; great, great, great, great, great, great-grandparents, that kind of thing.

Where I'm from we're called demigods, but it's pretty much the same thing. And the monsters there could smell the divinity in our blood and just... [ she shrugs. ] Hunted us down. We were born to protect mortals from the parts of the world they couldn't see, but it made us twice as vulnerable.

[ her nose crinkles a bit at the drop of 'gods'—only because rey's never been religious, and she's always considered it silly teedo superstition. then again, many would say the same of the force, and she knows it to be real. ]

These monsters, were they sent after you by some kind of master, or were they hoping to eat you to survive? [ Apropos of nothing but curiosity, really. ]

Depends on the situation, honestly. Gods can't drift into each other's realms, but the creatures they make can -- including their mortal children. A lot of the times it was because they were trying to stop us, but some things, I think, just really liked the taste of demigod.

[ she makes a face like eugh that's bad news, then qualifies it, ] A hired hand can be reasoned with, but not a hungry strill. [ and her expression then offers sympathy like yep that means it was awful. on the bright side, she now seems to have her feet flat on the bottom of the pool, drawing away from the edge without much noticing. ]

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