The beach, Wednesday morning

[betterthanaplan]

So Duke had had kind of a rough morning. That was not going to stop him from showing up for yoga -- or maybe meditation -- today. If anything, it just meant he needed it more.

There were faintly glowing chunks of . . . something all over the beach. Duke frowned at one, not sure if he should try to touch it. Oddly enough, "fragments of the shooting stars from last night" did not even occur to him as a possibility for what they were. . . .

Comments

[thatwaslucky]

Rey showed up, helmet thing tucked under her arm, because maybe it was fun and maybe she'd end up trading it, who knew.

"What's all this?" she asked, frowning at the sand.

[betterthanaplan]

Duke poked at one of the things with his toe, not quite making contact.

"I have no idea."

[thatwaslucky]

Rey didn't get any kind of weird feeling from it, so she just picked one of them up. "Guess I'll have to ask about it next time I go to sell."

Because yeah, 'star parts' was a leap.

[betterthanaplan]

"Sell what?" Duke had done far less exploring of their current wackiness than she had, yes. "Tell me you're not going to sell the helmet."

[thatwaslucky]

"No. I might trade it for something better." She wouldn't want to. She loved it. "But my pockets are full of things to sell. I'm probably going to shake down the coconut trees before I leave here."

[betterthanaplan]

"You're going to be rich by the time all this is over," Duke said approvingly.

[thatwaslucky]

"Should pay for all of the portal trips I take," Rey said with a little smile. "How are you doing?"

[betterthanaplan]

"I've . . . been better," Duke admitted. "Had kind of a rough night."

Well, a rough wake-up this morning, anyway.

[thatwaslucky]

"Rough how?" she asked, frowning a little.

[betterthanaplan]

"Dreams," Duke said. "Or -- one dream anyway. Just a nasty one."

[thatwaslucky]

"Want to talk about it?"

She was fine if not- her own weird dreams had turned out to be prophetic, so it wasn't like she liked talking about it when it was her.

[betterthanaplan]

Well, let's hope that didn't happen with Duke's!

"Oh, the usual. Everyone I know and love dying horribly. My attempts to help only making it worse. . . ."

[thatwaslucky]

"Oh, is that all," Rey said wryly, and frowned. "That is a rough night."

[betterthanaplan]

"Yeah," Duke said with a sigh. "Might need to start those meditation lessons sooner rather than later."

Because those would help with nightmares, right?

[thatwaslucky]

It might!

"Want to work on that today?"

[betterthanaplan]

"If you're up for it? I'd like to get a handle on this shit as soon as possible."

[thatwaslucky]

"Yeah, let's try it," she said, taking a seat across from him and setting the helmet down in the sand. "I know you know the basics."

[betterthanaplan]

“Sit still, clear my mind, focus on the breath, yeah.” Duke sat up straight, folding his legs easily beneath him. “Haven’t been great at it lately, but I have some practice.”

[thatwaslucky]

Rey nodded. "So the way I do it is to start there, and then expand that to the things around me. Which might be different for you than it is for me, but the concept should be the same."

[betterthanaplan]

"Expand it. Like . . . expand my focus?"

[thatwaslucky]

"Yeah. I start with me, and where I am, and then focus on the sand, the water, beyond that. It ends up being a very good way to feel very small in the universe," she said.

[betterthanaplan]

"I -- yeah, wow. Can you feel all that? Through the Force?"

[thatwaslucky]

Rey nodded. "It loses specificity after a while, but that's kind of the point."

[betterthanaplan]

"Huh. Alright, let's give it a try."

[thatwaslucky]

"Okay. We'll start like normal, focusing on breaths," Rey said, closing her eyes.

[betterthanaplan]

"Got it." Duke closed his own eyes and shifted his weight on his seat until he was comfortable, then zeroed in on his breath.

It was much easier to do that right now than it had been this morning, yes.

[thatwaslucky]

"Concentrate on that," she said quietly, "in and out, until it's just you."

She might've been a little curious if she'd be able to tell when he got to that point.

[betterthanaplan]

She might, though it was going to be a little while. His mind was pretty jumbled lately, and the rude awakening this morning hadn't helped. He frowned faintly as images from his dream tried to invade his head. It was difficult not to flinch away, to simply accept them and move on the way he would other intrusive thoughts when meditating.

In and out, he repeated to himself. In. And out.

[thatwaslucky]

That was okay. She was freakishly patient.

But she could sense when he wasn't relaxing, and it occurred to her that maybe this was the wrong place to start. "Actually," she said, still quiet, "forget about yourself. Put your hands in the sand."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke cracked one eye open to flash her a look, then followed her instructions, sinking his fingers in deep. Feeling the way it shifted around and between them.

[thatwaslucky]

"Just changing the tack a little. Maybe this will be easier," she explained. "Keep breathing, keep it steady, but think about where your hands are. What they feel like under the sand. Keep that up until that's what's on your mind."

[betterthanaplan]

Duke nodded and concentrated. The sand was coarse and warm on the surface, finer and cooler as he dug down. His brain tried to veer into the gravel and crumbling roadway from his dream, but he wrenched it back. The ground beneath them was as stable as sand could be, the water only a few feet away.

Neither of them would end up falling, here.

[thatwaslucky]

"In, and out," she said. "Try to find individual grains of sand in all of that."