The beach, Tuesday morning

[betterthanaplan]

Duke was pretty exhausted after the weekend, and had an appointment later for some day drinking, but he had a standing appointment for yoga on Tuesdays, and damned if he wasn't going to show up. There just might be a lot of reclining poses today.

Just -- not corpse pose. He probably should have asked Jean when he was supposed to die.

[beach yoga is open!]

Comments

[thatwaslucky]

And it was good that yoga was still on because Rey's weekend had been weird and she kind of needed this today.

"Morning," she greeted him.

[betterthanaplan]

"Hey, Rey," Duke said. "I see you survived the weekend."

[thatwaslucky]

"The incredibly weird weekend," Rey agreed. "Yours sounded interesting."

[betterthanaplan]

"Oh yeah? I'm behind on the radio. What'd it say about me?"

[thatwaslucky]

"A couple kids, they seemed to have a tough time with some things," she said vaguely.

[betterthanaplan]

“Ah. Yeah. That.” Duke sighed. “One was from a happy Fandom future where Octavia and I are still together, and one was from home. Where I’ve apparently been dead for years. So yeah, they butted heads a little.”

[thatwaslucky]

"Ah," she said, wincing a little. "How're you doing today?"

[betterthanaplan]

"I'm glad not to be dead yet, mostly," Duke said.

He kept feeling like if he mentioned his impending death casually enough, it'd stop being terrifying. It wasn't working.

[thatwaslucky]

"Which you're not allowed to do," she said, just as casually. "Alternate universes are... interesting."

[betterthanaplan]

"Trust me, I'll do my best to prevent it."

Right up until he decided it was better for all of humanity that he died.

"You end up with any kids of your own?"

[thatwaslucky]

"A boy," she nodded. "With Luke. Named Ben."

It was so weird.

[betterthanaplan]

"Luke. That's the guy you were going to marry that one weekend, right?"

[thatwaslucky]

Rey nodded again. "And the alternate universe version of my first teacher, who hated me and then died."

He didn't hate her.

[betterthanaplan]

"Why would he hate you? You're awesome."

[thatwaslucky]

"Thanks," she said, and shrugged. "He wanted to avoid the war and Resistance and all of it. I didn't take no for an answer. And I worried him."

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah, as someone who was actually hated back home, that doesn't sound like hate to me. Crotchety-ness, sure, but not hate."

[thatwaslucky]

"We parted on bad terms," she said simply.

...Technically. That very last bit had been okay, sort of.

[betterthanaplan]

"I'm sorry to hear that," Duke said. "Anyway. Whether he hated you or not, I can definitely see where having his kid show up and call you 'Mom' would be extraordinarily weird. It was weird enough just hearing Jean call my ex her uncle."

[thatwaslucky]

"Oh," Rey said, making a face. "Wow."

Yea. Weird.

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah, I guess we make up in her timeline? Or possibly he gets me killed and feels super guilty about it. I figure it could go either way."

Or both!

[thatwaslucky]

"I'm going to hope it's the first option," Rey said, frowning. "But if he got you killed I doubt he'd be 'uncle' anything."

[betterthanaplan]

You would think! But Haven tended to make everything extremely complicated.

"Yeah. Kid was short on details, unfortunately. I mean, it makes sense, since she was ten, but still. It might be nice to know so I can, you know, avoid it."

[thatwaslucky]

"It would be helpful. I swear I think they show up just to give us questions," she said.

There were all sorts of mixed feelings on this weekend.

[betterthanaplan]

"Sometimes I think that's what all of Fandom is about. Did you know I turned into a bird last week?"

[thatwaslucky]

"No! When did this happen?"

She was kind of sorry she'd missed it but she also would have been super nice about it if she hadn't.

[betterthanaplan]

"Right at the start of my class," Duke said, shaking his head. "Apparently, I was the bird of the week."

[thatwaslucky]

"So class tomorrow could be interesting," she said.

[betterthanaplan]

"I'd say it can't be weirder than last week, but that might just be issuing the island a challenge."

[thatwaslucky]

She had to ask. Had to.

"Did they have to make you hats?"

[betterthanaplan]

"Fascinators," Duke said. "They're sort of hat like things. Usually on headbands or something." He shook his head. "I have no idea if they actually did it. Most of that day or so is pretty fuzzy. Turned back at Luke's the next day."

[thatwaslucky]

"Someone warned you about turning back, right?" Rey checked.

[betterthanaplan]

"No. No they did not."

It'd been super awkward.

[thatwaslucky]

"But you got through it," Rey said brightly.

Not looking amused, nope.

[betterthanaplan]

"Mostly because Octavia was there. She volunteered to run for clothes for me while I hid in the office wearing an apron."

[thatwaslucky]

"It would be nice to have an option to carry emergency clothes everywhere, just in case," said Rey, who knew from experience.

[betterthanaplan]

"I'm definitely going to have to start keeping some in my office, yeah," Duke agreed. "And booze. Really need to stock up on booze in there."

[thatwaslucky]

Rey was quiet for a moment.

"I guess there aren't many good places for hiding spots on the beach." Not that she'd be turning into a ray next time, but she didn't know that.

[betterthanaplan]

"Sure there are," Duke said. "Smugglers and pirates have been stashing things on beaches for centuries. You just have to get a little creative."

[thatwaslucky]

"I'd be more worried about it getting dug up by accident," Rey admitted. "It's not exactly the same as Jakku. Not that I'd ever hope to need it anyway."