sixthiterationlogs | ψ come away little lass come away to the water

WHO: E V E R Y O N E
WHERE: The waterfall
WHEN: During the hot weather in late May
OPEN TO: Anyone
WARNINGS: PROBABLY NAKED. cw your warnings in individual threads.
STATUS: Open. THIS IS A MINGLE, have at it, tag around, you know what to do. If you want Finnick, let me know in the comment subject!

He wouldn't actually say it was really hot yet, but it's definitely getting to the sort of temperatures that make Finnick miss swimming. There's no substitute for the sand of a beach underfoot, the reassuring roar of the surf, the taste of salt in the air, but there is at least water here, tumbling down from the waterfall and flowing through the canyon until it disappears into the rocks to the south. And he knows from constantly checking his fish traps that the water is deliciously cool.

He's tested out a few spots along the river for swimming, and it's good to be in the water again, after being kept out of it for so long by the harshness of the winter. Not swimming doesn't feel right to him, and it never has. He's never spent this long somewhere with a winter this cold, and he can't remember ever going this long without swimming. So Finnick's been testing the water out since before it was probably what most people would consider to be warm enough to swim. It had helped that he and Annie had some gifts to hunt for in the river, but those have long been found, and now it's just for relaxation.

The calmest, most relaxing place he's found so far for swimming in the river is the pool at the foot of the waterfall, where the water plunges into the canyon crisp and cool from the heights of the cliffs. It's deep around the falls, and it's big enough to swim, and Finnick spends most of the hottest parts of the day there.

So whenever he hears someone talking about the heat while he's dropping food off in the village, he suggests they try the waterfall pool. Word's likely to get around, so he won't be entirely surprised to find other people stopping by the falls.

When they do, they're likely to find him swimming around the deep part near the falls, stripped down to his underwear and, from the grin on his face, having the time of his life. It's clear just from looking at him that he's good at this, moving through the water with a confidence and grace more like to a sea-creature than a man. He's in such a good mood that he even calls out to greet many of the people who approach.

Of course, he's not the guardian of the waterfall: everyone's welcome to stop by whether he's there or not. Once or twice, there's even a moose to be seen standing at the edge of the pool taking a long, relaxing drink.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It is simple. To me, at least." He'd shrug, but it doesn't translate well whilst on one's back, not to mention half-submerged in water, so he just twists his lips in a grimace and carries on. "We've had space travel for generations. I never knew it wasn't like that across the galaxy."

Poe has been flying since he was a child. He remembers his mother taking him up into the atmosphere, promising to take him flying properly when he was older. She died before she got the chance to fulfill that promise, but he thought of her every time he took off.

"Some are more interesting than others," he points out with a smile, his expression sobering for a moment after as he thinks. "Dozens. I haven't really kept track. Most of them are just outposts, really, hardly worth writing home over."

"I haven't even been to dozens of countries," Peggy wants to make it clear how incredible that is to anyone who isn't inured to this. She reaches up to pin her hair back from her face with a few pins tucked under the strap of her sports bra, still incredibly awed. "It still takes hours to get over an ocean from Europe to America for me. In the same time, you could simply go to a new planet," she says.

"Poe, that really is amazing," she says, as if she needs to point it out for him. "How are you coping with being trapped here, then?"

Her planet sounds terribly backwards, but Poe isn't going to point that out to her. That's rude.

"Yeah, probably," he agrees. "Especially with a ship with warp capabilities. Most planets are inconveniently far apart."

For a brief, hysterical moment, Poe is struck by the sudden urge to dive down below the surface of the pool so he can pretend he didn't hear Peggy's question. The only person he's talked to about what it feels like to be grounded is Spock, someone who likewise understands space travel and the incredibly freedom it gives you. But Spock isn't here, and Peggy's smile is warm and inviting, her eyes clear and genuinely curious, so he swallows down the sudden lump in his throat and answers.

"Miserably," he replies, his voice a croak that has him clearing his throat. Apparently swallowing wasn't enough to clear things up. "I feel like my legs have been cut off at the knee, like I can't even get around. I've been flying since I was six years old. To have that ripped away from me..." He wipes a wet hand over his face in an effort to wipe away the uncomfortably honest expression he knows he's wearing and forces a wan smile. "I'm adjusting. It sucks, I hate it, but at least I'm not dead. We'll get out of here eventually, and then I'll get back in the cockpit and it'll be like this never happened."

He shares her belief that they're going to escape, which is something that she needs to hear. Every time that she explores and finds nothing, it's another setback of frustration that she tries her best to push past, but she finds that it grows harder with every additional failure. "I know I'm not a pilot and I certainly can't pretend to know what it's like to be stuck in that sense, but I feel much the same," she assures him.

"I had a life and a career and prospects at home," she says. "Here, I have nothing better to do, some days, than come out and try and tolerate the heat in a pool," she says, with the distaste of someone who's never really learned how to relax.

He's not sure she does understand what it feels like to be grounded, to be trapped on the surface like a bug under a glass, unable to even exit the canyon when he's spent most of his life used to being able to just flit off when the whim took him, flying thousands of miles in mere minutes.

He's not going to point that out to her, either.

"You already know I'm a pilot," he says instead. "What did you do before you washed up here?"

I worked at the phone company is an excuse that stopped working a long time ago when things started to happen, not to mention when people from her future began to arrive. "I worked for the strategic scientific reserve, most often in investigative and undercover capacities," she says calmly. Soldier turned spy, though Peggy had done her fair share of espionage during the war, as well.

"I knew a few pilots, in my day, but they just flew planes for a few hours at a time," she says. "Or, to Switzerland to enjoy some fondue with his newest girlfriend," she adds, with a fond roll of her eyes.

"Oh yeah?" he asks, eyebrows lifting like he's impressed even though he doesn't what what the strategic scientific reserve is. "Cool." He believes her, though, sees no reason not to. Plenty of his acquaintances are spies, or have worked in covert espionage once or twice even if it's not their main career.

"Trick flights to impress girls is a time-honored tradition," he protests, grinning, his earlier melancholy evaporating. "Once, when I was in the Academy, I took this Keshian, Toril, up in my little puddlejumper with the understanding that she'd be terribly impressed by my prowess in the cockpit and our picnic lunch would wind up being less about eating food and more about... Well, you get it." He winks at her, charming and totally unabashed by telling this sort of tale to a woman he's only just met. "Anyway, Toril was suitably impressed by my flying but not at all impressed by me, and told me she wasn't interested in being more than friends. Luckily for me, her brother thought differently."

"He didn't even do it to impress me, he literally used it to get from point a to b in order to have his dates," is Peggy's dry response, seeing as Howard's romantic foibles had never been entertaining to her in the least, not now, not ever. She raised her brow when Poe seems eager to prove to her that there's a certain type of person that pilots are, not entirely sure whether she's quick to approve.

"What happened to just taking a girl out for drinks and dancing? Why all the showmanship?" she complains.

ψ come away little lass come away to the water | SWIMMING MINGLE OTA

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