Beach [Monday, Morning]

[withasword.livejournal.com]

A lot of people might think Kate was crazy for being up and out of bed before lunch on a Monday with no classes. But on a day like this, in a place like this, and there was no way Kate was staying cooped up in the dorms. Nor was she planning on spending it training like her father and Greg would've liked.

No, today was a beach day until it got that bit too hot. She'd always loved swimming, and always found an excuse to ask while she was growing up that their traveling routes took them by lakes, rivers, or stayed near the sea as much as it was possible. Here, she didn't need any of those excuses. It all right there any time she wanted it, and she wanted it now. Before it rained, or the island moved, or giant metal spiders attacked, or... whatever else.

It didn't take her long once she was down there, to drop her bag onto the sand, tug off the t-shirt and cutoffs she'd thrown on over her swimsuit and stride out into the water. A week of this? Yeah, she could live with that.

[[open beach, ofc!]]

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[necroslacker]

Sam wasn't going to wonder why Kate was up because he'd been up for hours. Most of the time, he could control his nightmares (or well, he could control seeing the spirits coming at him at night) with the pouch his mother had given him but he hadn't worn that in awhile.

He'd ended up on the beach after walking through the park which meant he wasn't wearing proper swim attire. If asked, he'd just say he'd eaten recently and swimming so soon was dangerous. He remembered that lie from television.

Hands tucked in his pockets, he spotted Kate in the water and slowed his walk some, not calling out or anything. Instead, he was just watching quietly for the time being.

[withasword.livejournal.com]

Kate was luckily enough, the sort to keep aware of her surroundings. In this case, aware of her silent observer who happened to be wandering towards her towel and clothes abandoned on the sand.

"I've got my eye on you, Seattle." If he was going to call her by cities...

Not that he honestly seemed to sort to mess with anything she'd left out there. Still, she could tease.

[necroslacker]

"Do you?" Sam called back, stopping just short of her clothes and towel and shooting an amused glance towards her. "You make me sound like a shoplifter and, really, no offense meant, but your clothes probably wouldn't fit me."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"Why would I take offense to that?" You had to wonder. He was saying she... wasn't guy shaped? Yeah, she'd take that as a backhanded compliment of some variety rather than an insult.

"I'm just overly clothing protective. What can I say?"

[necroslacker]

"How would you stop me from taking your clothes and your towel anyway?" Sam asked, gesturing to the short distance between himself and her clothes.

"You're over there and I'm right here and as far as I know, you can't fly or shoot tranquilizers from your fingers," Sam pointed out, amused. "I could take your things and be gone before you even got out of the water."

Would he do that? No but he thought he could. He was pretty fast when he needed to be.

[withasword.livejournal.com]

No, she couldn't do either of those. Nor did she have anything to throw at him, and he was too far out for any regular spell to work (besides which, she needed herbs for most of them).

Technically, she had power words would allow her to take a hold of his mind and stop him. Kate had certain moral compunctions that stopped her from going that route, however.

"I think I'd catch up." He might think he could be fast, but she thought the same of herself. She was a damn sight faster and fitter than most people her age, male or female. "It's not that far!"

[necroslacker]

"Whose to say I'd just run in a straight line and make it that easy on you?" Sam wondered, turning more towards the water now. If it hadn't been clear before that this was all hypothetical, it probably was now.

"If I took your clothes and towel and ran, I'd try and toss them somewhere safe to pick up later and then get the hell out of sight myself," he continued, shrugging. "It's just common sense. If I just carried the stolen goods all the way to the dorms, I'd deserve to be caught."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"Thinking like a true thief," she joked. It wasn't a role she could honestly picture him in. Despite the whole necromancer thing, he seemed a decent sort of guy. Not that you could always tell for sure, but she'd met thieves and creeps of all varieties, and Sam didn't quite fit.

"Not planning on a little paddling?" she asked, since he was just plain loitering now.

[necroslacker]

Sam didn't fit as a thief because he wasn't at thief and doubted he could even steal something of a friend's for a laugh. He could lie and had lied but he just wasn't one to steal things for fun.

"What, you mean like swimming?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. The water did look nice but he hadn't gone swimming since the werewolf attack. Luckily, he'd been able to use the 'too busy' or 'sorry, getting tortured' excuse. "I didn't bring my suit."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

The water was nice. Very, very nice.

"So?" That hardly mattered. He was a guy. Shorts were an acceptable substitute. Or just rolled up pants, in a pinch.

If it helped, Kate had her own nice long half-healed scar striping its way across her back, so he wasn't alone in that. Torture seemed to be going around.

[necroslacker]

"So?" Sam repeated, sounding the slightest bit amused. He didn't know whether having a torture buddy would be helpful or not but hey, it was nice to know he wasn't completely alone in all that.

"I didn't bring a towel either," he pointed out, stubbornly resisting for the hell of it now. "You gonna let me borrow yours or am I gonna have to drip dry?"

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"It's hot," she pointed out, gesturing upwards. "I don't think that would be the worst think in the world." Or take that long, for that matter.

"But whatever, all the more water for me," she told him, making a point of turning and wandering back into the surf. He could miss out if he wanted to.

[necroslacker]

"Is that your attempt at reverse psychology?" Sam wondered, taking a few steps towards the water. "My mom used to do that on me when I had to eat vegetables or do chores. I think I've learned to recognize it by now. That's a very 'don't come in here, I don't want you too anyway' line there."

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

Juliet had a whole week off, and she intended to enjoy it as much as she could. This week, enjoying it meant thumbing through a fat stack of gossip magazines on the beach while working on her tan.

Or, well, it would, if she didn't realize a crucial flaw in her plan as soon as she got to the beach and arranged her towel. "Excuse me," she called apologetically to the other girl. "Do you have any extra sunblock?"

[withasword.livejournal.com]

Kate wandered a little closer, twisting her hair into a vague ponytail and shook her head.

"Not the sort of thing I have on hand." Post-apocalypse, a little sunburn tended to be the least of your worries, and it wasn't like Kate was a typical sunbather. "More of a 'go sit in the shade when it gets hot' sort of girl."

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"Is that good for your skin?" Juliet asked, surprised. "I thought you were supposed to wear sunblock even in the shade. You just have to pick the right kind so you can still tan."

Because that was clearly a majpr concern post-apocalypse.

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"I don't know about good--"

There were probably some in her world who considered that sort of thing. But, given Kate's heritage and the way her body chomped through viruses as tough as Immortuus and Lyc-V, she probably didn't have a worry of skin cancer or any other sunburn-related problems.

Maybe it just wasn't her major concern.

"But it's worked okay for me so far. I don't know about the tan thing...But I'm gonna go with you being right," since she seemed to have a more detailed knowledge of these things than her.

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"I think I am right," Juliet said, with no irony whatsoever as she sighed and tugged a sunhat and sunglasses into place. "I guess I'll make the best of it. I'm Juliet, by the way. Do you come out to the beach often?"

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"Often as I can." Generally early, and when they weren't in Iceland, or Tokyo, or anywhere else that would completely discourage you from taking a dip. Unlike Juliet, she was mostly in it for the swimming, rather than the tanning opportunities.

"I'm Kate," she added. "Do you?"

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"When I have spare time," Juliet said. (Which was often, yes.) "We had the party near here on Friday. I think it's almost prettier at night."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"But you don't get your tan," Kate pointed out, smirking a little. That seemed to be a priority, if a frivolous one, by her standards.

"Party for anything specific?" Somehow, she'd missed it. But she'd never been the life and soul of that kind of event, so it was probably no loss to anyone.

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

Juliet shrugged. "Just that it had been eons since the last big student party," she said. "Plus, by doing it this week we could have fireworks before people expected them. You like to be a little surprising, you know?"

[withasword.livejournal.com]

"Yeah... I guess so." Although when Kate got surprised, it seemed rarely to be the good kind. It made a girl a little skeptical. If someone jumped out and yelled surprise at her on her birthday, they'd probably wind up getting punched on reflex.

"I'm not great at surprises. Give me routine any day."

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"Really?" Juliet looked askance, seemingly not processing the words. "But ... but ... but that sounds boring."

[withasword.livejournal.com]

Kate exhaled an amused breath. "Come live where I'm from for a couple weeks," she told her. "Once you've run into a mythical monster or two you'll be begging for boring."

Actually, Kate liked the odd fight. But it was nice, if a little strange, to be able to relax most of the time like she did here.