fandomtownies | The beach, Tuesday morning

Entry tags:

The beach, Tuesday morning

Rey was back and she and Duke had settled things, which meant it was business as usual for beach yoga. Unless you thought too hard about the fact that it was the end of February and so far there'd only been one Tuesday cold enough for Duke to decide to move it indoors. That either meant that Duke was a cruel and merciless teacher, or that the environment was taking its revenge and slowly killing the human race.

Duke was trying not to think about either option. As far as he was concerned, this was because Maryland was south, and thus didn't get real winters.

Either way, he was doing some easy stretches while waiting for his usual student today, keeping an eye on the porgs and seeing which movements he could get them to mimic. They were down for any and all arm and leg raising. Bending over and twisting the torso were right out, though.

[open, though will be slow in the afternoon EST due to work training]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Mutter all you like," Duke said. "We can work on the zen later. Here." He moved in front of her and held up his arm a few inches from where she was stretching her hands. "You can grab onto me if you start to lose your balance again, so you don't have to fall all the way out of the pose.

"Try pressing back through your raised leg like you're pushing against a wall, even while you're stretching forward. And try not to lock your knee -- that means keep just a little bit of a bend. Your knees and ankles are natural shock absorbers. When you lock them, you're putting stress on your whole body."

Octavia held up a hand, for a brief time out.

And then she bent down to untie the laces on her boots, and to kick them off. They weren't the biggest or clunkiest she owned, but they were still fairly heavy - or at least enough so that she suddenly found them annoying. She also peeled off her socks, because if she was going this far already then she might just as well get fully connected to what was under her feet.

And once she was standing on cold sand, it was time to try again. It went better, this time, in part because she didn't try to overdo raising her leg too high and just focused on trying to find her balance with everything else she had going on.

There was a slight wobble where it looked like she was about to have to grab his arm, but she managed to correct it on her own. ... Kind of. For a second, and then she did grab his arm.

That arm was there for a reason, and rock-steady. Duke knew all too well how hard it could be to find and maintain your balance in a new pose.

He couldn't help a little grin though at her going barefoot. "That's good," he said. "Let yourself connect fully to the earth. Like growing roots."

He made a mental note to cover tree pose, too. A much easier balancing pose, as well as another pose name he figured she'd appreciate.

Octavia had let out another annoyed grunt at her wobble, her brows pulling into a deep frown. But then she looked up, and saw his little grin --

And it felt like she came back out of her annoyance, back into the moment. Like something calmer washed over her.

Her next attempt at balancing on her own went better.

“Good,” Duke said, when he saw her expression ease and her pose start to stabilize. “There’s some zen. The calm helps the pose, and as you start to settle in, the pose helps the calm.”

Octavia threw him a dry look at bringing up zen, but it lacked all the heat it might've had when she'd still been wrapped up in her annoyance.

In fact, it seemed even subtly fond, if you knew how to look.

She breathed slowly, just trying to hold the pose for a moment longer. It was far from perfect, her torso wasn't fully parallel to the ground nor was her back leg very high, but at least she didn't wobble, so. She deemed it acceptable for a first try.

Very acceptable. Especially considering this was her first yoga lesson.

"Nice," Duke said. He absolutely knew how to look, and gave her a fond look in return. "You want to try some more balance poses, or switch to something else?"

"Something else," Octavia replied once both her feet were touching sand again. "A different kind of challenge?"

She had a renewed desire to work more on her balance now, sure, but maybe not right this moment.

"Alright," Duke said. "Let's do some bending and twisting, then. A big part of yoga is the breathing. So we'll start in mountain pose -- or as most people call it, standing up straight."

He stepped back about a foot to give them both room to move, and stood with his feet together, his back straight, his hands in prayer position at his chest.

"Take a deep breath in, and at the same time, raise your hands up over your head. Then as you exhale slowly, let them drift back down to your sides."

The focus on breathing was still kind of new and odd to Octavia, but she couldn't deny there was something soothing about it when she tried syncing her movement to it the way he told her to.

Also, it was nice just to not be in danger of toppling over, for the moment.

That was always advantageous, yes. "Good," Duke said. "Inhale, arms up, and the next exhale, drop your body forward to touch your toes."

Like before, Octavia followed his instruction quietly - and definitely didn't hum a pleased sound at the stretch in her back when she was reaching for her toes.

Except she did, of course.

Duke laughed softly. "It's a good one," he said. "Let's just hang out here for a couple breaths. Make sure you've got some bend in your knees, and just let your upper body hang from your hips. You can sway back and forth a little, let your spine go nice and loose."

"Don't laugh at me," Octavia complained, though it didn't sound serious at all.

The ends of her hair were just barely brushing against the sand. Should've used to a hair tie, not that she particularly cared.

"Not making fun, just enjoying your appreciation," Duke said. "You should hear the noises I make when I do this after a long day. You'd probably recognize a few of them."

Snort.

"Think I prefer them where I heard them first."

"I usually do too," Duke agreed. "Unless my lower back's been acting up."

Sometimes all you wanted was a good stretch.

"Alright, once you feel like you're done here, inhale and roll back up to standing. You really want move through your entire spine, letting your head and arms hang until the very end."

"Okay."

Octavia let her upper body hang for a moment longer, swaying a little before stilling again so that she could start straightening back up.

She had never paid so much attention to her spine in her life.

She was lucky, after her years under the floor, that her spine hadn't made her pay attention yet.

"Once you're standing, widen your stance as much as is comfortable. Like, way wider than you'd normally stand. And lace your fingers together behind your back."

Give her a decade, it was all going to catch up with her eventually.

"Oh, this one's already weird," Octavia said, faintly amused, as she was shifting her feet further apart, and getting more cold sand between her toes in the process.

~~If she lived that long.~~

"If it wasn't weird it wouldn't be yoga," Duke said cheerfully. "Alright, we're going to bend over again, but this time, keeping your hands laced behind your back, bring them up and forward as far as you can as you go. Really stretch those shoulders."

"Tripi diyo gon tripi hef," Octavia replied before focusing on bending down again.

... Next time, she was putting her hair in a ponytail, braids and all.

"Sha, sha," Duke said. "Yu hod em in." He lifted his head enough to give her a cheeky grin.

. . . Whether she could see it through that curtain of hair or not.

She could not. But she could guess!

"Stop grinning at me."

See?

"Never," Duke said. "You're entirely too . . . grin-at-able."

Which was totally a word, shut up.

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