The beach, Tuesday morning

[betterthanaplan]

Duke was much more in a yoga mood this week than he was last week, which seemed to reassure the porgs, who were flapping their wings and hopping about around him as he went through a few sun salutations to warm up. After a few flows, Duke changed tactics, copying their moves.

There was a lot of balancing on one leg while wobbling his arms. It was quite a workout, if not at all yoga-like.

[open!]

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[thatwaslucky]

Rey arrived on time, and decided to just stand off to the side for a moment, watching.

And then pulled out her phone.

[betterthanaplan]

The porgs spotted her first, gamboling over to say “hi”. Duke set his raised leg down and looked over his shoulder.

“How long were you watching?”

[thatwaslucky]

"Enough to really enjoy that," she admitted, tucking her phone away. "Is Chewie the porg leading yoga today?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Don't know, I'm not sure he's balancing his practice well enough. Too much balancing on only one side."

[thatwaslucky]

"Then is it even balance?" she said with a tsk.

[betterthanaplan]

"Right?" Duke shook his head sadly. "I think his heart's in the right place, but he needs a little more training before he can be a true yogi."

[thatwaslucky]

"He'll get there," Rey said, confident. "How are you today?"

She toed off her boots, revealing a very fitting pair of fuzzy socks.

[betterthanaplan]

"I'm good," Duke said on a laugh. "Those are quite the socks you've got there."

[thatwaslucky]

"Master Skywalker's been having socks appear in his house. He thought you and I were probably the only ones who'd really appreciate them," Rey explained.

[betterthanaplan]

"Not enough porg love in this town," Duke said, shaking his head. "Those nonslip? If not, I'm not sure they're yoga ready."

[thatwaslucky]

"Oh, no, these are absolutely coming off." Sand, and all. "But they had to be shown off."

[betterthanaplan]

"Totally fair," Duke said. "Hopefully the porgs won't try to eat them."

Look, as far as Duke could tell, anything at porg level was considered fair game.

[thatwaslucky]

Frowning slightly, Rey removed the socks, then tucked them into the toe of her boots, and then stuck said boots open end-down in the sand, in view of where they would be working.

"I think they're good."

She was a problem-solver.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke laughed. "Good plan! They're not much for digging, I don't think." He nodded to the sand next to him. "You want something simple and meditative this week, or more of a challenge?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Let's have a challenge this week," she decided. "I've been pretty meditative lately."

[betterthanaplan]

"Challenge it is. Have I shown you Warrior III yet?"

[thatwaslucky]

"I don't think so," she said.

[betterthanaplan]

"We'll do that one, then. Sort of a mini-flow through the warrior poses to work up to it. Start with Warrior I, which I know I've shown you." Duke centered himself and lifted his arms into the air on an inhale, then stretched one foot back into the standard Warrior stance.

[thatwaslucky]

"I do remember that one," she said, following along.

She still had to watch to see what he did next, but it was easy for her to follow.

[betterthanaplan]

"It's the one where you get stabbed in the chest," Duke said cheerfully. "We'll go from there to Warrior II." He dropped his arms, twisting his hips and torso to the side, and looking out past his leading hand.

[thatwaslucky]

"I definitely can't forgetting getting stabbed in yoga form," Rey teased, following.

[betterthanaplan]

"That and 'exhale cow' are burned into your brain forever," Duke said. "Okay, Warrior III." He shifted his weight forward onto his leading foot, pressed his arms out forward, and lifted his back leg, until he was balancing with most of his body parallel to the ground. "Possibly more of a superhero kind of thing."

[thatwaslucky]

"I actually don't know much about those," Rey admitted, frowning as she slowly lifted her leg up, finding the right balance to not fall right over.

[betterthanaplan]

"A lot of them fly," Duke said. "Usually posed like this. You know, except the supporting leg." He glanced over, taking a look at Rey's form. "Good. Remember to keep your hips lined up, parallel to the ground. It's more important to keep your body straight than to be perfectly horizontal."

[thatwaslucky]

She made a point to straighten out, though it wasn't exactly easy for her to tell if she was doing it right. "Better?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Just about," Duke said. "Hang on." He stepped out of the pose and moved over to her to adjust her pose a little. "There we go."

[thatwaslucky]

"And then to remember what the right position feels like," she said, actually trying to commit it to memory so she might know when she was doing it right next time.

[betterthanaplan]

"Exactly. Gotta build that muscle memory."

[thatwaslucky]

"I like this one," Rey decided.

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah? It's a good one." Duke stepped back and resumed the pose. "From here we're going to go back to Warrior II, then swing the front arm up over your head and lean over the back leg. Like this."

[thatwaslucky]

"I like challenging days," Rey said, leaning into this one easily. "This feels like something to do before sparring."

[betterthanaplan]

“Gets your whole body going,” Duke agreed. He swung his arm back over his head and straightened into mountain pose again. “Take a breath, and we’ll do the other side.”

[thatwaslucky]

Rey did the same, straightening... and maybe looking over at her boots in the sand.

"Still safe."

[betterthanaplan]

“I don’t know, that little one is eyeballing your shoelaces.”

[thatwaslucky]

"That little one needs to find a better hobby then," she said lightly.

[betterthanaplan]

"I'm sure she'll take that into consideration."

[thatwaslucky]

"She absolutely won't but I'd appreciate if she tried."

Really, if it was ever a problem she could just nudge them away.