sixthiterationlogs | 0I Waterlogged [OPEN]

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0I Waterlogged [OPEN]

WHO: Moana
WHERE: Fountain/Docks/Around
WHEN: December 27th
OPEN TO: ALL ARE WELCOME!
WARNINGS: Mentions of almost drowning…
STATUS: Closed

Prompt i – le mea e te

The waves crashed hard against her torso as the horizon spun and tumbled away. Something grabbed onto her foot and a violent pull jolted through her as another wave trapped her below the surface of the water. Her lungs burned while her fingers blindly groped the lagoon floor. Needles prickled against her senses and her vision began to falter and fade.

This is what she got for trying to pass the barrier reef.

Cold fire filled her lungs and her eyes snapped opened to find a large blackness surrounding her. This water was calmer and colder than what she'd experienced a moment before. She felt fabric constrict across her shoulders and then something new tethered around her feet. She didn’t have time to stop and consider these changes. She kicked at the water moving towards the light above her and the promise of air. She gasped as she broke the surface of the fountain, her fingers clawing at the cement rim before pulling herself up, over and onto the hard cold ground. She pulled off her scrub, the pack, her boots and her socks; feeling their weight press uncomfortably against her. She coughed and gasped, her dark brown eyes blinking away the stars and tears that filled her vision.

Her sight blurred and it took Moana a moment to focus on what was around her. The air was frigid, biting and gnawing uncomfortably at her wet skin. Her boots, pack and navy blue over shirt were tossed messily to her right side. She wasn't on her island anymore and the more she asked herself how she got here the more she drew a defined blank.

"Pua? Pua are you here? Are you okay?" Her voice was frantic as she looked around the base of the fountain. Her pet pig had been in the boat with her and she'd hoped that he'd somehow made it back to shore.

She was in so much trouble.

Prompt ii – Iloa mamao atu

She'd pushed the extra clothes and shoes into the pack. She wasn't used to wearing shoes and despite the fact that the ground was freezing she felt more comfortable without them on. Moana shrugged the pack over her shoulders before ringing out her thick black hair. Water pooled onto the sidewalk as she began to make her way through the small town. She had gotten general information from those she's spoken too but it was hard to believe. The gods wouldn't punish her like this, would they? Is this what happened when people tried to leave the reef? All of her questions felt very silly.

"What do I do now?" She asked no one in particular, her dark eyes moving over the small town. Wandering around helped her a bit but it felt too directionless.

She paused after passing a few buildings and looked up towards the sky in amazement. The snow on the ground had melted away and yet small little white fluffs were falling from the overcast above her. Moana held out her hand and then shivered as the cold ice melted on her skin.

"What is this?" Moana had been born on a tropical island; she'd never seen snow before.

Prompt iii – Na i le punou vaitafe

She had been told there wasn't an ocean and yet she couldn't really believe that. The ocean connected everything; she had to be able to find it. She ended up at the boathouse, her gaze peering around the building and the boats lined up on the docks.

"All rivers go to the ocean right?" Moana began to talk to herself, keeping her tone calm and yet curious. "I've never seen a canoe like this." She paused looking at the small boat that floated next to the dock. She knew how the village canoes were designed and built but she had no idea how something like these boats were built.

"Hello?"

She called, this time louder, wondering if someone might hear her. There was a feeling inside of her, something tugging her towards the rolling currents of the river.

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It sounds a little like those tropical islands that had been so pristine and untouched in the days before the war in the Pacific. Peggy had been lucky enough to have never been deployed to the Pacific, instead her assignment had kept her in the European theatre, far away from that disaster. "It sounds lovely," she shares. "I've never sailed myself, is it hard to learn?"

"And besides, I feel as if you've begun to tell me about it just with your description," Peggy promises, given that she knows the power of words at times, with their ability to paint a picture and be so vivid in their description.

Moana shook her head. "I don't know since I've never tried but I think I'll be able to get it." She messed up before she had arrived here but that didn't mean that Moana was ready to give up, nope, she was just going to try harder than last time. She'll keep trying until she gets it though she had no idea what her father's reaction would be. She only knew that he hated the idea of her running off to the ocean.

A smile touched her lips while her fingers reached out towards her drink. She took a small sip before nodding her head. "My grandmother was very good at telling stories and legends. I must have gotten that from her."

Peggy feels bad that there's no ocean around and that the only sailing that anyone will really be able to do is likely in a little paper boat on the river. "I've never really had anyone in my family that was a big talker. We were very big of long, comfortable silences." The sort that always faded into being more uncomfortable than anything else.

"When I arrived here, it was warmer. Not the sort of warm that you think of when you think of the tropics, but still a shade better than this. Perhaps you'll get to try ice skating?"

Moana was still planning to learn how to sail. Even if it was just on the lake it'd be able to teach her what it was like out there in the water. It wasn't perfect but it was a small taste of the freedom that she desired.

Her smile widened a bit. "My grandmother is an amazing person. She taught me everything I know about Maui and the gods. She also taught me about the ocean." Moana's fingers rose to her lips as a wistful expression spread over her features. "She used to say that she was the village crazy lady. I guess when my father took over she didn't have to do anything so she always just did what she wanted. I always looked up to her." There were times that Moana felt like she had more in common with her grandmother than she did her father or mother.

"What's ice skating?" It sounded interesting and possibly difficult.

There were times when Peggy had thought that she might become the crazy lady if she continued down a path of pursuing what she did, with only a mind and an eye for her career. Lately, she hadn't been feeling like that as much, thanks to her friendships and the burgeoning 'something else' with Daniel, but there had been moments. "Ice skating, it's essentially placing sharp blades on your feet and using them to navigate the ice," she says, thinking of the small ponds she'd skated on and how that hadn't even compared to Rockefeller in New York, once she'd moved there.

Though, apart from the lady in the lake case, LA didn't really offer much in the way of winter sports. "If you have some rather sharp blades, we could do it here, but I'd hesitate to strap knives to your shoes."

Moana thought that her Grandmother was amazing. Yes, she was a little odd but she was wise and she loved the island and the ocean just as much as Moana did. She'd learned so much from her Grandmother.

"Sharp blades? What if we used something like reed or fish bones? It just has to hold our weight and have a thin in?" She went through the materials that she knew and what might be strong enough to do that. Wood would be the best choice but that involved tools that Moana just didn't have.

"It sounds like it'd be something fun to try."

"I don't actually know," Peggy says, which is an odd thing to be thinking about. Skating on fish bones certainly sounds odd, but in this place, perhaps they'd just be enchanted fish bones. She's stopped thinking that anything is impossible, honestly.

"We could always just skate and slide with our boots," she says. "With a slick enough surface, we're bound to go somewhere quickly. There are plenty of other winter activities, too. Sledding and such."

She took another small sip of her drink and listened. She was starting to feel warmer and she couldn't fight the smile that pulled at her lips as they spoke. It was a surprisingly normal conversation and she felt as if she was learning a lot.

Moana didn't like shoes but she'd give it a try. She was hard press to dismiss things simply because she wasn't familiar with them. Everything was created and thought of for a reason. "Is sledding on ice too?" She knew the word but given the context Moana felt as if Peggy was talking about something else.

"On a ridiculous amount of snow," she says, because her memories of tobogganing and sledding had been on massive piles of snow that could eat you up and cushion your landing, should it be a messy one. "It doesn't take much, though, just a board or two to sit yourself on and a large hill." Or a small one, to start off with.

The trouble is, the more danger and trouble you seek out, the more you start wanting that sort of rush.

Moana glanced out one of the windows. "I think we have that." She then turned to Peggy with a smile, trying to stop the soft laugh from escaping her lips. There was a lot of snow outside, being in short supply of it now felt a little bit silly.

"Are there hills around here?" She hadn't really taken a long look around.

"No, actually," Peggy admits, given that the most they have are sharp sloping canyon walls that are far too steep to do anything on. "I suppose that it's not really any sort of traditional winterscape around here," she admits ruefully.

"Though, most of our time is spent surviving, anyhow, so it's hardly like I have much time to think of skating or sledding down hills."

Moana took a moment to think about Peggy's phrasing. It sounded like the idea of survival was a newer concept to her while it's something that Moana had been faced with all her life; for the villages survival. "Well, yeah but you can't just survive. You have to live or you'll lose an important part of yourself. Even work can be fun, if you look at it in the right light."

At least, that's what she thought.

"I was never much of a fun person, at home," Peggy admits, which isn't hard to say, but it's not a very popular thing to admit. "I hadn't taken any vacation and even the vacation I did take was to work more. My life was my job," she says, "and I was so good at it," she promises, feeling like she can boast just a little to Moana.

"Unfortunately, there's no real job here but surviving. Then again, I suppose I'm doing well by it, as I'm still here."

Moana's expression softened. "If your job makes you happy. Sometimes you have to be happy where you are. That's what my father used to tell me." She didn't know if he was right but she hadn't forgotten what he said. He was probably very angry with her right now. Very angry and very worried.

"But you can find new things to make you happy too."

She was all about finding things that made people happy.

The new things that Peggy had thought would make her happy are very far away now and the people here that might make her happy are from a past that she knows she can't relive, especially when they've already moved forward. "What makes you happy?" she asks, subtly directing the conversation away from herself before she has to start talking about her own personal life.

"Your island?" she guesses, thinking it's not such a leap to assume so, given the joy with which Moana speaks of it.

Moana's smile faltered and she placed the small glass down as she shook her head. "Not exactly." It was complicated, probably less so than other things but it was something that Moana wrestled with. Her grandmother and mother knew her feelings best but it wasn't something she felt like she could talk about. At least, not on her island. From what she knew about Peggy she liked the woman. She was honest and kind and wasn't afraid of things simply because it was different, unknown or new. Moana might be wrong but that was the impression that she got.

It made it easier to trust Peggy and feel comfortable around her despite being somewhere unexpected.

"I love the ocean but I also love my island. I love many family and all the people who live there. Sometimes I don't think I should want so much but I can't really stop myself." Her dark eyes looked over towards Peggy. "A lot of things make me happy. Meeting you has made me happy."

Peggy's face softens with the compliment. She's not entirely sure that she's the easiest person to like, but then she's surprised when people like Moana and Angie and Mr. Jarvis prove that she's not as hard a nut to crack as she thinks she is. Perhaps it's just that she's broken and she needs other people to fill in those gaps.

"I'm glad, you're a lovely girl, yourself," she promises. "I have to start to get ready for my party, but promise you'll at least poke your head in. Or, if you'd like, you can stay and I'll just set up around you."

Moana had the amazing talent to see people for who they were. Sometimes it took a bit but she trusted what she saw in people and she knew that Peggy was a good person. A little rough around the edges but then everyone was to a degree. Everyone was making their way in the world, trying to get better and trying to survive. It was easy to lose sight of who you are.

"Thank you." She smiled, feeling a little bit better about ending up here. "I don’t want to be in the way and I should probably find room at the inn if they have space but I’ll try and stop by and meet people." She liked the idea of meeting people however she was also tired and a bit overwhelmed. She might fall asleep the moment she gets to her new room.

This place was a lot for a girl to take in and the stubborn part of herself didn’t want to accept it so easily.

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0I Waterlogged [OPEN]

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