The beach, Tuesday morning

[betterthanaplan]

Rey had texted to say she'd be back today, so Duke was out on the beach at his usual time, stretching his way through an easy warm up. He wondered if Nina would actually show up today. He doubted it, though he was sure she'd come up with something bizarre to report about yoga this morning either way.

Thinking about that was a lot easier than worrying that something had changed since Rey's text and she wouldn't show at all. . . .

[ooc: morning yoga is open!]

Comments

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina had woken up to a quandary because, like, see Duke had invited her to yoga on the beach but, like, she still didn't fully believe him that it was, like, all above board and that meant, really, that proper young ladies couldn't go by themselves.

Luckily, part of having a big brother was that she had a built-in chaperone for things like this.

Even if it had meant she'd had to wake him up and wheedle him into it and then there'd been the whole thing where he'd taken a look at her dress and told her to go change because yoga wasn't meant for Nina's frilly dresses.

Nina was still wearing a skirt, but she was wearing leggings under it (she was a lady), and the skirt was less ornamental than the first outfit she'd put together that morning had been.

And she owed Prompto at the very least coffee after this.

"Gooooooooooooooood moooooooooooorning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina chirped, hapless chaperone in tow.

[Hapless chaperone shaaaamelessly modded with permission hahaha!]

[hashtag_chocobro]

Hapless chaperone reporting for duty. And owed at least a coffee, it was true, quite possibly a cupcake, too, because this was cutting into his quality sleep time before his computer class. But, honestly, it wasn't like a little yoga before hand would be a bad thing. It was important to stay limber, right? Even if he knew his sometimes lack of coordination did not always go hand-in-hand with things like this, and he thought it was a little silly that Nina felt she needed to drag him along, but, well, Brotherly Duties, and all that, he supposed...

[betterthanaplan]

Nina -- and her chaperone -- would hopefully note that Duke was not at all shirtless this morning, though the undershirt, long pants, and lack of shoes made for perhaps not the most weather-appropriate outfit in the world. (He had a whole canonical spiel he could do about how yoga was about the mastery of the mind over the body and so he didn't feel the cold -- but that could wait.)

"Good morning," he greeted, with a minimum of blinking at Nina's boisterousness. "Glad you could make it." He nodded to Prompto. "And you brought a friend." He shrugged and spread his hands. "The more the merrier."

[bookbeltof_love]

"A lady couldn't come alone," Nina said earnestly. "And, like, this will be good for my brother too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

And, really, how much choice had Nina left him with?

(He was totally getting a cupcake after this.)

[betterthanaplan]

"I think you'll find one could," Duke pointed out. "Since Rey does on a regular basis." He shrugged. "Well. Might as well get started. You said you had to look up what yoga was. Why don't you tell me what you found out, and we'll work from there?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"I mean, like, my first attempts mostly led me to 'things you can do on vacations' and a lot of poses that seemed designed to show off the, ah, assets of the ladies and gentlemen practicing this," she said, because Googling 'yoga on the beach' had been a Poor Life Choice, "but when I found the wiki page," yeah, that was where she was starting Duke, "it seemed like it was……………… mostly religious?????????????"

Nina had gotten so confused.

"Like, some sort of religious stretching routine?????????????????? And, like, it wasn't meant to be sexy but go co-opted into becoming so, but it doesn't have to be……………….????????????????????????"

[betterthanaplan]

Duke dropped his head and shook it. Ah, the joys of professor Google. "Like many things, it did start out as a religious practice, yes. Any, ah, sexual component is entirely being read in by the practitioner or audience, though." Nina. "The way I learned it is more about connecting the mind and body. Learning to recognize and manage the various signals your body sends you, especially the negative ones, and either addressing them or moving past them."

He gave her a sidelong, faintly knowing look. "That's you connecting with your own body, by the way. I am not trying to connect to yours or anyone else's but my own with my practice."

Any connecting he did after practice was between him and the other person doing the connecting, thank you very much.

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina shifted a bit, uncomfortable, as she slanted a side-ways look, just to make sure Prompto was still there because, seriously, sure, she could handle herself if it came to that (honestly, if it came to a fight, she was going to fare better than Prompto would…) but…

It made her feel better to have him there.

She was silly, and ridiculous, and over-the-top but all of this sort of frank talk, meant to be taken seriously, left her genuinely discomfited, especially since she didn't know Duke very well and having her brother around was… good.

Nina's entire knowledge of human romantic (and sexual) relationships came from terrible romance books and over-blown boarding school drama.

And, honestly, Nina was still surprised people listened to her at all, let alone actually paid attention to what she was saying…

She'd been here a year and change and that was still weird and unsettling.

"Um, like, I can go if you're just going to keep harping on about radio," she ventured, shifting a little anxiously.

[hashtag_chocobro]

Prompto jerked his chin up in greeting at the nod, before a lopsided grin sort of surfaced. It'd been a while, hadn't it, since he totally invaded this dude's boat to take, like, a million pictures, hadn't it? But now he felt even more like Nina's reservations were her being silly, because he'd seemed like a pretty cool guy.

"I'll probably just follow along, too, and messy up threads," he offered, "if that's cool."

Participating would be way less awkward than just standing there and trying to keep an eye out for...impropriety, or whatever. Honestly, Nina...

[betterthanaplan]

"It would be weird if you didn't," Duke said, with a small, wry smile. "Yoga's not much of a spectator sport and threads are made to be messy. You have much experience with it?"

[hashtag_chocobro]

"Noooooot really," Prompto admitted, after a moment to think about it and a small laugh. "Yeah, the training I'm used to is waaaay more 'oh look, big fighty things, let's go!' than, like, deep breaths and let's be in tune with the universe and stuff."

That was pretty much what yoga was, right?

Well. Unless you were his sister, apparently, in which case...no, Nina. Gods.

[betterthanaplan]

"'In tune with the universe' is more the advanced class," Duke said dryly. "This is more about being in tune with yourself. How your body moves and what it's capable of, and where it might need a little TLC. Which . . . seems to me this island could use more of that kind of training. Along with the 'oh look, big fighty things' kind."

[thatwaslucky]

Rey even made it here more or less at her normal time, in a decent mood and everything when she greeted him with, "Good morning."

She also hadn't really thought people would worry that much.

[betterthanaplan]

It was funny how going into a war zone could make people worry about you.

"Hey." Duke gave her a broad, deceptively lazy smile. "How was your trip?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Mostly uneventful," she replied. "I might have to go back once some things get worked out, but that's fine. How were things here?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Quiet," Duke said. "Nobody turned into anything that I know of, and nothing attacked. Which I gather is pretty good for Fandom."

[thatwaslucky]

"It was only a week, it's probably just gearing up for something."

That made it better, right?

[betterthanaplan]

"So what you're saying is, I should have enjoyed it while it lasted," Duke said with a small sigh. "Yeah, sounds about right."

[thatwaslucky]

"You really should have," she smiled. "But that's okay. If we get another week of quiet you know to treasure it."

They would not!

[justice_undone]

Breq usually went for a walk in the mornings, but not always along the beach, but this was the path she had chosen today. She slowed down when she noticed someone doing exercises.

"Good morning," she greeted, as she passed close enough for it to be rude to just pretend no one was there, but she wasn't going to disturb someone who preferred being left alone.

[betterthanaplan]

"Morning," Duke greeted in return. "Here for yoga, or just out for a walk?"

[justice_undone]

"The exercises you do are called yoga?" Breq asked. "I'm just out for a walk, I didn't know this was a place for practicing."

[betterthanaplan]

"That's right," Duke confirmed. "It's not official or anything, but Rey and I come out here once a week to practice. It's kind of a meditative thing. You focus in on your body and how it feels as you work through various stretches and poses. You're welcome to stick around if you want to try."

[justice_undone]

Meditation wasn't really her thing - it would probably just remind her how angry she really was - but she could do with some exercise, and why not try a local style if she was invited.

"Thank you. I'll watch for a bit first. Is this kind of practice from this world?"

Here she remembered to turn her blank expression into a smile.

[betterthanaplan]

It was kind of interesting to see that, after spending so much time with Octavia. Hers was clearly a practiced stoicism, with expressions bleeding through. Breq's seemed more like the opposite of that.

Duke shrugged that off and nodded. "It is. Founded in India, which is on basically the opposite side of the planet from here. It's all about balance and flexibility, which can make a nice change from the varieties that focus more on power or speed. Or fighting."