The Beach, Monday Evening

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie didn't come to the beach that often. As a pale Montrealer, it wasn't really her scene. But having come back from Seattle, she'd just felt like she needed to spend some time somewhere that wasn't a bouncy castle. Or filled with people. So here she was. It had rained earlier, but it wasn't raining right now. Natalie had kicked her shoes off, and was carrying them in one hand as she walked back and forth in the damp sand.

Somehow it soothed her. She wasn't even entirely sure why she was feeling upset, but she was feeling pretty hollow. Maybe it was just that she'd had a weird, stressful week, and now that the primary stress was leaving her, finally, she didn't know what to do with herself. (Like she ever really did.) And feeling the sand under her feet and between her toes was at least making her feel physically grounded, if not mentally.

She'd just walk for a while before going back to tend to her animal friends and read up on future politics. Yes. That was what she'd do.

[ooc: Open beach is open, whether for Nat-bothering or other beachy needs!]

Comments

[pursuedthestars]

Jim had gone for a run on the beach (well, over most of the island but the beach was a stop) so his path was taking him near Natalie.

He slowed down when he recognized and eventually started walking, cooling down and tilting his head at her as he came closer.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie's attention was on the water and the sand and her own two feet. Not to mention all the thoughts she had roaming around her mind. Her chest may have felt hollow but her head did not.

She didn't even notice him. Not at first, anyway.

[pursuedthestars]

"You look like you've got a lot on your mind," Jim said as a way to get her attention. He brushed his fingers through his hair and stretched.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie looked up, and didn't look too surprised. Maybe she'd caught some movement, at least.

"Coming down from a long week," she replied, lightly, even shrugging one shoulder.

[pursuedthestars]

"Not having fun in the bouncy castles?" Jim guessed, crossing his arms and standing in front of her. "I kind of hate it."

He liked his bed.

[whenshewasnice]

"They're not my favourite," she replied with another shrug, even if that wasn't really anywhere near the reason her week had been a mess. "They lack privacy, comfort, and are bad for the animals."

[pursuedthestars]

"Which is why I'll probably sneak back to the dorms once or twice," Jim said because, yeah. "I want my bed and my privacy without bouncing the hell around everywhere."

[whenshewasnice]

"Mm." She looked out towards the water again. "It's somehow not as fun an environment as when I was nine or ten."

Bouncy castles had been fun then, not so much now. Just saying that made her miss Todd a little bit, like her head wasn't messy enough as it was.

[pursuedthestars]

"So, what's up with you?" Jim asked curiously. "What's got you walking down the beach like an angsty cliche?"

Well, it was.

[whenshewasnice]

That just earned him a (mild) look that said something along the lines of 'excuse me?'

As far as getting her to share anything went, that was not the best way to start.

[pursuedthestars]

"What?" Jim shrugged. "Come on, Natalie. The beach, the setting sun, a lone figure on the beach? You'd be thinking it if it was someone else."

[whenshewasnice]

"No." If only because she most likely wouldn't care about random people on the beach enough to think that. "Sometimes people are just taking walks."

[pursuedthestars]

"Are you just taking a walk?" Jim asked, curious. "Or are you out here for other reasons?"

[reven8e.livejournal.com]

Emily, on the other hand, was a beach dweller of the greatest order. So she was taking a quiet stroll by herself in the evening, as you do.

As soon as she saw Natalie she waved a hand at her, not wanting to interrupt whatever line of thought she was at.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie took a moment to notice her, too many distracting things on her mind. Way too many.

Once she had, though, she raised her hand briefly in the semblance of an answering wave.

[reven8e.livejournal.com]

"It's a nice place to get lost in your head for a while, don't you think?" Emily said easily. She was all too familiar with the concept.

[whenshewasnice]

"Guess so," said Natalie, who was not in much of a sharing mood. (Though when was she ever?) The utter neutrality came easily. "At least it's not raining."

She wouldn't have minded a little rain, actually.

[reven8e.livejournal.com]

"Yeah." As someone who usually edited what she wanted to say several times before actually speaking, Emily was pretty good at working with little information. That said, she would have been a bit surprised if Natalie had actually told her something more substantial.

"I don't think I've ever been to the beach when it was raining," Emily said as she looked up absentmindedly.

[whenshewasnice]

And Natalie even had a knack for dropping down to damn near zero body language. But then that was something she did most of the time, anyway. She'd even almost managed to irritate someone into leaving in a huff just by not giving off anything to grasp onto, once.

She was an amazing people person.

"Probably much the same as being anywhere else when it rains."

[reven8e.livejournal.com]

That was a useful skill to pick up and not at all the only reason Emily talked to her.

"You think? Somehow I thought it would be a bit different, what will all the water and the dryness and, you know, stuff. But I really don't know a thing about the sea." Just how to swim on it when it was freezing.

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie just barely shrugged one shoulder. "Haven't looked into it. Maybe?"

She did not seem overly curious about it. Quelle surprise. "Too far outside my area of expertise."

[reven8e.livejournal.com]

Emily shrugged as well. "Maybe."

Neither did Emily, but she felt like talking, or at least to talk to someone. "Been here for long? If I could, I'd probably set a tent here." Now that sounded like an idea, but there were rules. Damn rules.

[whenshewasnice]

"For a moment." She hadn't been looking at the time much. She glanced out over the water again. "Not long enough to start thinking about camping."

[reven8e.livejournal.com]

"I already hate those inflatable castles," Emily said flatly as she kicked some sand, but it wasn't the same because it wasn't dry. "Honest to God, I'm going to break my neck sleeping there."

Maybe she was overreacting, just a little. "So how have you been? One shoulder shrug or two shoulders shrug?"

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie, definitely on purpose, did not shrug at all. Although from someone closer to her, that might even have garnered something of an amused response. But maybe not today.

"Fine."

Standard meaningless answer.