fandomtownies | The beach, Tuesday morning

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The beach, Tuesday morning

Duke showed up early for his planned yoga practice with Rey, lugging along some plywood sheets to put down and give them a more stable surface. He spent a little while rearranging and pressing the sheets down to get as level a platform as possible, then laid a few rugs over them for a nicer surface.

The set up done, he stripped off his shoes and overshirt and laced his fingers together behind his head, looking out over the water.

This island was so freaking weird. But hot damn if it wasn't gorgeous, too.

He started through a sun salutation to warm up, and wondered if the sea monster was nearby.

[Anticipating one, but open for all. SP extremely likely until the afternoon. Up early because my employers in their infinite wisdom have decided to assign me mandatory training that starts an hour and a half before I'm usually even out of bed. . . .]

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"Cat-cow poses," she repeated, failing at trying not to look amused by that, but she still got her positioning right. "And what are those?"

"Oh just wait," Duke said. "It looks even sillier. But it wakes your spine up like nobody's business."

"First, cat. As you exhale, round your back towards the sky, curling your hipbones in and dropping your head. Then as you inhale, reverse it into cow. Drop your belly towards the ground, lifting your shoulders and hips, and look towards the sky. Try to get your whole back involved, but don't push anything. You want a gentle stretch, no sharp pain."

He moved slowly and easy between the two poses. "Exhale, stretch your back up, feel the stretch through your shoulder blades and lower back. Inhale, roll through the spine and stretch out your abs. Exhale, cat. Inhale, cow."

At least if she was going to look silly, she was doing it with someone. And this kind of movement even felt good.

Even if as soon as he got to "inhale, cow," she had to pause for a moment to stop smiling and relax her shoulders again.

"These things need better names."

"They have them," Duke said. "But 'marjaryasana' and 'bitilasana' are a bit of a mouthful for English speakers and their, uh. Galactic equivalents." He shrugged, offering her a grin. "Or, you know, white people are linguistically lazy."

He shook his head, clearly taking a moment to recenter on the actual yoga. "Alright, return to your flat, neutral spine -- bharmanasana, or 'tabletop' as us descriptive Americans like to call it -- then on your next exhale, send your hips up and back, and we'll do adho mukha shvanasana. Also known as 'downward dog'."

Rey understood Shyriiwook, so the real names of these moves didn't even register as complicated, even if she didn't understand them. She would judge the animal names for them, though.

"At least it gives me an idea of how the next pose will go," Rey said, once she'd finished that part.

"If you're waiting on upward dog, that'll be later. I'm thinking virabhadrasana. Or warrior pose." He looked up at her and winked. "They're not all stupid animal names. Okay, so, bring your right knee up to your chest, or as close to it as you can get without forcing anything. Step through into a lunge and lift your arms up towards the sky. Shoulders down, chest up, right knee over right ankle. Ground through both feet and breathe."

She was a little more concentrated on her pose this time, since that sounded like more instructions than it actually was. She liked this one, though.

"This pose would probably leave an actual warrior wide open for a stabbing, but I'll forgive it," she said with a tiny smile.

"Oh yeah, I kind of picture it as the last thing a spear carrier does while running at an enemy," Duke said. "But it feels great through your hips. Alright, now step back and bring your feet together for tadasana, or mountain pose. Also known as 'standing up straight'." He grinned and shrugged, bringing his hands together in a 'prayer' position at his chest. "I could get into how you should be focusing on grounding through a triangle of pressure points in your feet -- but it's basically just standing. It's also the first and last pose of the flow I was doing, Surya Namaskar. The sun salutation. If you still wanna try it."

"Sure, if you're up for it," she replied. She'd spent so long having to teach herself everything that if someone wanted to show her something, she'd probably go for it. "Is it part of a normal routine, or do you mix this up more usually?"

"Depends on my mood," Duke said. "Or what part of my body I want to focus on any given day. Surya Namaskar is a fairly simple flow, great for beginners or to warm to something more difficult. It's the first flow I learned when I started practicing. My first yogi swore by it first thing in the morning."

Duke did not tend to do it first thing in the morning, no.

"Start in mountain pose with your hands at your chest, like so. Pranamasana." Duke demonstrated, then moved through the twelve-step flow, naming each pose as he went. "Just like we did when we were sitting, we'll lift our arms on an inhale and stretch towards the sky. Urdhva Vrikshasana. If you're comfortable, you can arch your back a bit, into Anuvittasana, like this." He leaned back, hands in the air, his body forming a crescent shape. "Then exhale and bend forward to touch your toes. Uttanasana. Keep your knees soft here, and don't over do it. If you can't bend all the way down or you need to bend your knees to get to a place that feels like a good stretch, do it. Inhale, and move to a plank position, Phalakasana, like you're going to do a push-up. Exhale, press up through your hands and lift your chest towards the sky. Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, or 'upward dog'. Inhale, Adho Mukha Svanasana, that's our downward dog. Exhale, back to Uttanasana. Inhale, Urdhva Vrikshasana, and exhale, back to start."

He straightened, shaking his hair out of his face again. "Then you do it again. I usually go for three sets, but you can run through it as often as you like, until you feel satisfied. Or bored." He shrugged. "Either way."

Rey wasn't sure how much of that she'd remember, but she was going to try. Plus it was fun to watch.

"We'll see which one happens first," she decided. "Thanks for doing this, Duke. Names aside, I might actually really like this."

And honestly, because she knew the language, the Americanized names were going to be easier to remember later. Even if she never got over the cow one.

The Americanized names were ridiculous, but they were definitely memorable!

“No problem,” Duke said. “Yoga’s been really good for me, and it’s nice to be able to pass it along. And us former scavengers should stick together.”

Rey looked at him curiously. "So when you say you're a former scavenger..." she said, leaving that open ended in case he didn't want to get into detail.

Duke shrugged. “Was mostly on my own by the time I was ten. Spent a lot of time squatting anywhere that was warm and dry, living off what I could steal, scam, or find.” He tilted his head thoughtfully. “I might’ve been more thief than scavenger. Did make some cash selling shells and sea glass I found to the summer people though.”

Huh. Whatever answer Rey had expected, she'd thought it would be further off from her own story. "You do what you have to do," she said with a shrug of her own. "You're right, we should stick together."

Base, unsupported survival tended to look the same all over.

Duke just gave her a smile. “Want to try something a little tougher? Or are you ready to call it a day?”

"I'm always okay with tougher," she told him.

"Oh sure, make it a challenge." Duke smirked. "Alright, let's try some balance work. Vrikshasana, or tree pose." He demonstrated. "Shift your weight onto one leg and lift your other knee, forward and then out to the side. Ideally you want to be able to rest your foot on the top of your thigh like this, but you can do the shin if you have to. Just not the knee. That way's asking for injury. Hands in front of your chest at prayer position, and once you feel settled and stable there, you can stretch them up above your head. Then hold that for a few breaths, or until you start to fall over."

He frowned, tilting his head a little in thought, pose wobbling for just a second. "I can't quite decide if using your whole levitation ability here is cheating or not."

"I've actually never tried using it like that," Rey admitted. assuming the pose, foot on her thigh. "There's probably some Force thing for balance?"

Since there was for jumping.

"But," she said with a tiny smile, "I don't think I need it."

Duke nodded, impressed. "Good. Because I kind of wanted it to be cheating, but I'm pretty sure it'd just because I was mad I couldn't do it myself."

He lowered his arms and leg on an exhale and gave her an assessing look. "Can you do a handstand?"

"I have no idea. I could try," Rey said, lowering her leg. "Are you trying to see me fall over now?"

"Yoga's all about testing your limits," Duke said. "So -- yes. Yes I am."

"Do you want me to do anything else with it, or get straight to embarrassing myself?"

Which, she was kind of game for, since she was curious if she could do it.

"Hey, you might turn out to be good at it," Duke pointed out. "Would it help if I did one first?"

"Definitely," she nodded.

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