fandomtownies | The Beach, early morning

Current Mood: lonely

Entry tags:

The Beach, early morning

Another night of restless sleep interrupted by bad dreams meant Isabel was up and out the door early for her morning run. After a long loop around the island, she ended up on the beach, slowly sipping her bottle of water and looking out to sea.

Soon enough she'd have to get to the hotel and get to work, but for now it was time to think of happier times.

[Open of course. Since I never tagged the post, for the record my girl's a white hat at heart.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

William was out ~~finding a secure place for a discreet phone call~~ for some morning exercise as well. The beach was one of his favorite spots for meditation and katas, as it had a calming influence.

He spotted Isabel and waved.

"Morning." he called.

[Isabel is free to know Billy is a good guy, if she's not likely to turn him in.]

At the sound of a voice, Isabel was instantly on guard, an unfortunate necessity given the circumstances. These days there were few people she truly trusted.

"Morning," she replied. "Looks like another hot one."

Oh, Billy understood about distrust. He'd learned that long before Her Pinkness arrived.

"Getting a lot of those." he nodded. But I guess it's to be expected after such a mild winter." He kept his tone conversational, and respectful. His norm these days. Treat everyone like a loyalist until they prove otherwise.

Fortunately as a non-powered individual he tended to be beneath most of their notice.

As a survival strategy it wasn't a bad plan. Nothing to see here, move along and all that.

"Yeah, I don't know if I prefer the mild winters or the ones where we kept getting hammered with twenty-four inches of snow at a time."

William shrugged. It was a trade-off. Mild winter, harsh summer, or the other way around. "Long as we don't get too many storms that knock out our AC, I'm good." It was carefully non-threatening talk, but it was also true.

Isabel shuddered. "God, anything but that. Especially with this humidity."

William chuckled. "Yeah, I'd rather bake than boil any day. I mean, if I had to choose between the two."

He took a step closer to the water. His prosthetic was water proof enough that getting his feet wet wouldn't hurt it.

"Nice to have the water available if it gets too bad though."

Once upon a time, when Billy had first arrived on the island they'd discussed less innocuous things than the weather. It was odd, how Umbrage was scarier than Vader.

Anakin typically went out for a run every morning; it was the most innocuous way he could think of to siphon off at least a little of the frustrated energy that came with biding his time, trying to figure out a way to get Tahiri to come back to her senses (because there had to be one, he knew it, and he was too stubborn to think otherwise), and keeping his use of the Force under tight wraps. The pretense of having almost no Force ability whatsoever still chafed, despite its necessity.

Therefore, a long run every day. The routine was well enough set by now that he recognized the older girl on sight.

"Hi, Isabel," he greeted as he trudged through the sand toward her and flicked his hair out of his eyes.

"Anakin, hey," Isabel replied with something that almost looked like a smile. "You're right on time."

Crossing paths like this was enough of a routine, that Isabel had brought a second bottle of water with her, one she immediately held out towards Anakin. "Thirsty?"

There was a time that Anakin might have pulled the bottle toward him with the Force and without a second's thought, but the habit had been drummed out of him through necessity a long time ago. (Aunt Mara would be proud, he sometimes thought sardonically.)

"You know it," he replied, and reached out to take the bottle. "Thanks. Tomorrow it's my turn. Working later?" He knew that, of course, but public conversations -- keeping them as boring-small-talk as possible was also a necessity.

Once upon happier time, Isabel might have played along with a fun game of telekinetic keep away. Instead she handed it over just like the normal girl she always thought she'd wanted to be. If the bottle wound up a little colder then one would expect after being exposed to the hot summer air? Well, funny how that happened.

"Yup. At the front desk. Which means multiple rounds of Solitaire on the computer. Of if I'm really in the mood to be frustrated, Angry Birds."

Did Anakin notice the bottle's interesting temperature, given the weather conditions? Yes, and he offered her a fleeting grin.

"I can see why that would frustrate you. The physics don't even make sense." Yes, it was a game, and no, it wasn't supposed to make sense, but Anakin liked to hold on to logic where he could get it these days. He wasn't the sarcastic jokester Tahiri used to be, and he wasn't going to try. At least his taking things too seriously was an opportunity for other people's amusement at his expense. He was contributing to morale that way.

Isabel winked at Anakin, enjoying the tiny moment of subversion.

"I don't think they're supposed to. Besides, I get more frustrated with the snickering pigs. Smug much?" Much like a certain woman in pink they all knew and loathed. "I'll admit to taking immense pleasure in blowing them up."

He really shouldn't admit to the same, but -- "I would too," Anakin agreed. He sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose, trying to stave off the inevitable headache. He'd long since given up saying he had a bad feeling about something, because there was always a bad feeling about something, and he couldn't sort it all out any more. "More satisfying than moving virtual playing cards around."

"Yeah, you can't stack the deck in your favor when you play on the computer," she observed. "Not that I would ever do that. That would be wrong."

"Of course you wouldn't," Anakin said with a faint smile. He could, if he really wanted to, but his programming skills were another thing he kept quiet. "We all know better than to do something like that."

Tiny hint of sarcasm? Just a bit.

They all knew better. But it didn't stop them from trying.

"So what are your plans for the day? Anything exciting?"

Because they wouldn't know what to do with themselves if they didn't?

"Hardly. Just class today, and maybe some reading later," Anakin said with a slight lift of his eyebrows to indicate that 'reading' was code for 'scheming of the robotic sort.' "You'll probably have more fun than I will."

"Well keep your head down in class and don't get eyestrain doing your reading." In other words, don't do anything dumb and be careful.

So many of her friends were gone, Max and Michael had never returned from Antar, Isabel needed someone to fuss over. Aren't you lucky Anakin?

Anakin scrunched up his face in a halfhearted scowl, out of habit more than any actual irritation; he was used to this from her.

"I know, I know," he said in a well-rehearsed exasperated tone. "You know I have this speech memorized by now."

In other words, he appreciated the continued concern.

"I'll try and mix it up a bit next time. Maybe warn you of the dangers of loose women and whiskey or something," Isabel said with a wry smile. "I'm just trying to keep you out of trouble so your grandfather doesn't haunt me."

"Loose women?" Anakin echoed. He blinked a few times; he had no idea what that was supposed to mean. "I don't think I want to know."

Thank you Anakin, you actually made her laugh. It was small, but definitely genuine. "No, you probably don't. And it's not like you'll have to worry about it here. Not as long as everyone follows the rules." Especially when there was the freaky eyed chick running about town enforcing them.

"Oh," Anakin said, and his eyes widened just before he turned bright red. "Oh."

So . . . nothing to worry about, really.

"Yeah, OH...." she replied with one last chuckle. "So, red cheeks aside, are you doing okay?" Not too frustrated? No burning urge to do something dumb like shake a certain imperio'd blonde until she came to her senses?

Isabel was there for all necessary talking off ledge purposes.

"I'm fine," Anakin insisted, even if a flash of worry in his eyes suggested otherwise. "Really. I'm more worried about your boredom at work later."

"Aren't we all?" Or they were at least getting very good at lying to themselves.

"I'll be fine. If I get really truly bored, I'll go bother Gunther in the kitchen."

Of course they were. Dysfunctionality was the status quo around here.

"That's probably guaranteed entertainment," Anakin decided with a tiny smile.

"If you swing by at some point this afternoon you might get to see the show," she offered. "If not I can at least score you some pastries from the kitchen."

"I always find it amazing how many people will show up on the beach during a hot day even knowing that it will attract everything and become a focused pressure cooker."

Good morning, Isabel.

"Savannah," Isabel said, unruffled by the other girl's tone. Show no fear and all that. Just calm dispassion. "Good morning to you."

"I prefer nights," Savannah said, watching the water. "They're a lot more quiet and I can do what I want instead of having to ride herd on people who just can't handle reality."

"Cooler to." Small talk. Nice, safe, inoffensive small talk.

"No need to ride herd on me," she told the other girl after a quick glance at her phone. "I need to get going and get cleaned up. I need to be to work in an hour."

"Definitely cooler," Savannah agreed. "Less bright lights."

She nodded. "We all have jobs we have to get to. I'm on my way to class to make sure none of the uppity puppies with powers decide to try to mess with Angela."

That wouldn't go over so well for the student that tried that.

"I'm sure everyone will behave. They know the rules." And if they were smart, they'd keep following them. It was pointless to lose anyone else to detention.

"Yes, they know the rules, but sometimes they want to show that they're a bad ass."

Isabel had her own opinion on who showing they were badass. It was an opinion she was very much going to keep to herself though. She nodded, face a careful mask of disinterest. "You do what you have to do."

"Yeah, I do what I have to do."

And someday when this was all over, they were all going to have to live with the choices they'd made, no matter their reasons.

Isabel slowly got to her feet, empty water bottle in hand. "Time's getting short. I need to get to work. I'll be seeing you Savannah."

That was something that Savannah was all too aware of.

"Talk to you later, Isabel."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Beach, early morning

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject