beach | afternoon | friday | 18 september

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

As weeks went, this one had been fairly quiet. Jonas didn't know if that meant things were leveling out or if it was merely calm before more storms. Whatever it was, he was trying not to dwell on it. He'd understood most of his classes this week and felt a little more comfortable in exploring the island proper.

That would be why today found him at the beach. At first, he'd almost been frightened of the looking expanse before him. The water was moving, so unlike what he'd seen in pictures, and everything was just so much more vibrant than he'd imagined. The first few hesitant steps onto the squishy sand almost sent him stumbling but he regained his balance and got the hang of the new surface quickly.

There was a chill in the air so Jonas didn't dare attempt swimming but he did take off his shoes and press his feet into the sand, letting the cool grains slide over his toes and feet. It was rough, coarse, and the only thing he could relate it to was gravel and even that didn't seem right.

Crouching and reaching for a handful, he let it slide through the fingers of one hand while getting close enough to the water that he could put his other hand down and feel the waves just touch the tips.

Jonas didn't really know if he'd be leaving anytime soon.

[the beach is an open place!]

Comments

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

The week had been quiet. Too quiet to Beka's liking and there was her constant need to be outside. It made her restless, with too much energy and naught to direct it at. So she'd donned her tunic because it felt more right to move in and had gone running. Training helped. It cleared her mind and she needed to stay in shape either way. Running in sand wasn't easy, but it was sommat more to concentrate on. Pounce didn't so much agree and he'd stayed in the dorms, saying he'd more interesting things to attention to.

She'd been running for a while now, having started at the other side of the school. It was the first time she'd noticed someone else on the beach and she slowed as she noticed who it was, diverting from her patch to move closer to him. "You decided to come check it out after all?"

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"Yes," he said, peering up at her and smiling. "I don't have a class today and it's the beginning of the weekend so I couldn't resist the adventure. Hello."

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

"Hello," she said with smile and a nod. She wet her lips as she took an instant to catch her breath and glance out at the water. "Are you liking the adventure?"

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"I think so." Truth was, he didn't really know what he was feeling. Certainly excitement and awe but there were other things mixed in there that he didn't have a reason for. He'd think on those later. "It's a lot different than pictures I've seen. For one, it's moving."

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

"Moving does change a lot," Beka agreed, still sounding amused. She liked it well enough, but naught came close to what the Lower City meant to her. "The smell does too."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"What's the smell?" he asked, standing up to sniff the air. He caught a whiff of...something but he couldn't place it. It was definitely not the same scent he smelled in his room, in classes, around other places. It was tangier.

[not a problem! i'm about to be AFK for a commute home!]

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

"Tis the salt in the water," she said. "You've seen rivers?"

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"Briefly," he answered, nodding. "When I was...traveling."

Escaping. In the interest of keeping things light for the moment, traveling just seemed like the water word.

"I never looked closely though. There wasn't time."

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

She nodded. "They don't smell like this," she explained. "Don't have tides either. When the water moves up and down?" she added quickly, in case he wasn't familiar with it.

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"The water grows?" Jonas asked, eyes widening. In his surprise at that factoid, his memory momentarily faltered and he couldn't remember if he'd read that before. "Very large?"

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

"Sommat like that," she agreed. "It seems to go higher up the beach. I think it's sommat higher now, but I'm not certain."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"That's amazing," Jonas said, staring out at the water and trying to see it grow. He wasn't able to, of course, but he tried. "And rivers are different?"

[provostsdog.livejournal.com]

"They've no tides," she confirmed. "The water rises if it rains much, but it stays the same most of the time."

[elephantgadget.livejournal.com]

"Is there no ocean where you come from either?" Helen asked curiously. She'd been out wandering and found herself down here to marvel again at all the water.

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure there was ocean," he said, nodding up at the new arrival, "but I was just never allowed to see it."

It'd been Elsewhere, beyond the limits of the Community. Now, Jonas knew it existed but he'd just never experienced it before.

"Hello," he added.

[elephantgadget.livejournal.com]

Helen nodded. "There was ocean on my world as well, but where I was it was mostly, well... by turns desert and then dramatic monsoons."

"I'm Helen, by the way."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"Jonas," he answered, giving her a nod and standing. "Monsoons?"

He added that word to his extraordinarily long list of things he didn't know and waited for her explanation. The more people talked, the more he learned. Books were helpful but the way people spoke seemed to make things more real to him.

[elephantgadget.livejournal.com]

"Torrential downpours of rain that turned the desert into sucking mud," Helen explained. "You wouldn't think from the description that I could possibly miss it as much as I do, would you?"

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't assume either way," he said, shaking his head. "It's not my place. There's a difference between just rain and monsoons? They sound identical."

[elephantgadget.livejournal.com]

"A monsoon, is... well... it's like the difference between... pouring water from a cup over someone's head and pouring a bathtub of water over their head. Or several bathtubs of water."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

With that sort of explanation, Jonas understood more clearly and he nodded his thanks.

"It's never rained that hard in any place I've been," he explained easily. "We've had steady rains and things of that nature but never something like that. I've found I like the rain. And the snow."

[elephantgadget.livejournal.com]

Helen smiled. "I like them both too. As long as you either have proper clothes or can come in and get warm and dry after. A nice hot bath is lovely."

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

That was another one of those things that Jonas hadn't ever really noticed. Showers were for getting clean, not for enjoying where he was from. Efficient use of the water was a rule.

"I haven't really experienced either enough to know the downfalls," he lied. He'd almost died in the snow. He just wasn't sharing that. "Though I can see how wet or cold clothing could lead to uncomfortable experiences. I'll have to make sure to plan ahead."

[elephantgadget.livejournal.com]

She tilted her head thoughtfully. If he didn't seem to understand the wonderfulness of a hot bath...

"Have you ever been to the Onsen?"

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"I don't know what that is," he said, shaking his head. There was no recall happening with that word, no association, nothing. "So, no."