2019-07-24: Sinking Lessons
- Log: Sinking Lessons
- Cast: Catenna, Ivan
- Where: Besaid
- Date: July 24, 2019
- Summary: Catenna tries her level best to teach Ivan how to swim.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
If you thought Catenna was going to let Ivan off the hook on those swimming lessons, you're wrong: If he does make his way back to the isolated stretch of beach where they'd spoken some days before, he'll find the Moon Shaman already waiting for him there.
Catenna's barefoot but has put on a loose overrobe, black with patterns of blue, silver and gold dancing along its borders. Moving across the beach, she sets down a big black inner tube - perhaps anticipating that her surly trainee might need something to float on at one point or another. When she straightens again, she looks back up the beach.
There is, at least, a measure of privacy here. The beach is largely cut off from view by rugged rocks and a few stands of tropical trees, leaving only a walkway through the treeline leading down towards the sands, and the rocks jut out into the sea on either sides of the beach, creating something of a private cove. The likelihood of someone walking in on the anticipated lessons is not high at all.
<I'm surprised you think he will actually come. He could easily just walk away from you,> Saarda-Shanta opines from where she perches atop a coconut half-buried in the sand. <The young man does not appear especially sociable.>
Catenna closes her eyes with a quiet smile. "He'll be here, for the same reason I did not walk away from Cyre, or Jay."
<You seem confident about that.>
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Amazingly enough, Ivan does show up for his lesson. He's dressed like someone from Spira, in a sleeveless red shirt and loose tan shorts with brightly colored trim. Dressing out of character like this actually feels, to him, kind of like being on a mission. But he definitely isn't here to kill Catenna unless perhaps he has developed such profound second throughts about this swimming business that they can only be expressed with murder.
But... that probably didn't happen.
As he approaches, he looks to Catenna, and his eyes drift warily to the inner tube, and back.
"Hello," he says. "So apparently Spira does not have a lot of swimming-specific clothing so much as just making most of their clothing waterproof so you can just jump into the sea at any random point in your day like a crazy person."
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
The Owlet turns her head towards Catenna and blinks twice, clearly surprised that Ivan actually came.
Catenna, on the other hand, is not. Turning to greet the arriving young man, she gives him a quick look over as if to take stock of what he has chosen for swimwear.
Seeing him in it makes him see a little less distant - though she's sure he'll do his best to dispel that impression. She smiles quietly nevertheless, taking a couple of steps to close the distance between herself and the young assassin. "That is true... they tend to be fairly adaptable. Some of the men will take their shirts off, but it is hardly required. You can swim easily enough in that."
The Moon Shaman inclines her head and gestures out towards the water. "This beach is very isolated. You will be able to practice here without anyone seeing you." Catenna can, at least, tell that maintaining some sort of dignity is important to him.
It's important to her too. She can sympathize.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan appreciates the thought behind her efforts to take care with privacy, but one person seeing him is already 100% (or is it infinity?) percent more than zero.
"It's not a big deal," he grumbles, as she assures him that it is equally feasible to swim with or without a shirt. His issue with (partially) disrobing is more about the conspicuousness of it than anything else, and at this rate he can't tell if it's more conspicuous to do it or not do it.
He chooses a spot along the beach to drop off the satchel he has with him, along the belt and sheath presumably containing a sword, his shoes, and, after only a brief loop of indecision, the shirt. Nothing more dramatic is revealed than a scar on his back, though he doesn't seem to be worried about it in particular.
He turns to face Catenna -- turns back again to check that the satchel still has the same things in it as it did when he dropped it off 10 seconds ago, and then marches toward her.
"All right. Water. Swimming. Great."
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna can't help but be reminded of how she felt when Cyre saw her in the infamous Shorts all those years ago.
When Ivan moves to drop off the satchel and shirt, Catenna respectfully looks away. She turns her back to him as she reaches down to the tie of her robe and undoes it. "Whatever you find most comfortable. This is about you, after all," she says as she shrugs her shoulders and lets the robe slip off of her, folding it.
Catenna's swimwear is of the same black-based fabric with a blue, silver and gold textile racing over it. It's also a two-piece and fairly flattering. She pauses just long enough to undo the single braid she wears in her otherwise loose hair, then turns back towards Ivan with a quiet smile, moving across the sand with a simple ease. It's warm underfoot.
"Let's start the simple way," she invites before beginning to move towards the surf. The water laps gently at the shore, and she wades into it, making her way out step by step until the waves slosh around her, reaching about two thirds of the way up her thighs. Looking back, Catenna holds a hand out to Ivan.
"When you're ready, wade out to me," she invites. "It is very shallow here. You can keep your feet on the bottom." The first step, she reminds herself, is simple: To get him used to the fact that the water won't hurt him.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan feigns interest in a passing cloud as Catenna disrobes (into a swimsuit that she was already wearing under her robe), but now hopefully everyone is just In Swimwear and the modesty-related crisis has passed.
She suggests entering the ocean slowly, where they can still stand in it. He nods, not wanting to look like he's literally afraid to go in. He walks into the water without major issue, though from the faces he makes as he steps in deeper and deeper, you might be forgiven for thinking the water is hurting him.
"It's cold," he explains.
It... isn't cold. It's delightful. To most people. Maybe not Ivan.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna's absolutely in swimwear! It's not that much worse than her dancing outfit. In fact, it's normally part of her regular Spiran outfit; she's simply unclipped the skirt component that normally hides the bikini bottom and removed the detached sleeves.
As Ivan waves out into the water, Catenna tilts her head at the way he reacts, though the faint, encouraging smile on her face does not fade. She does blink when he complains about the chill, however. Dipping her fingers into the water, she tests it a moment, then looks up.
"...Your magical nature is rooted in something warmer, is it not? Many who cast fire magic heavily find water more painful...." She's not sure exactly how Ivan's magic works, only that he can pull weapons from thin air.
When he does reach her, she nods once. "In any case, to swim you will have to learn the basic ways to move your arms and legs. We can work just on keeping you floating first, and then getting you to move around." She begins to move a bit deeper into the water, up until it reaches her navel.
Catenna turns and holds one hand out to Ivan. "It starts with learning how to move your legs. Take my hands... I will help you float."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I guess it's something like that," Ivan says. There's no way to tell if Talia has a corresponding issue from her ice magic, because, well, everybody hates being set on fire, not just ice mages. It's a pretty universal dislike.
Catenna offers to help him float. He did not KNOW there would ALSO be HAND HOLDING in this lesson!
He looks at her hand skeptically.
"J-just so you know, I can already do all this stuff, I'm just doing it... wrong I guess, because I can't swim as long or far as other people. But it's not like I just sink right to the bottom or anything, I'd be pretty dead by now if that were the case"
Merely being 'bad' at swimming rather than 'unable' to swim doesn't seem like it would reasonably get him off the hook from having to learn how to do it properly, but he's still flustered enough by the basics-first approach that it seems like he ought to say it.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna hasn't noticed Talia being uncomfortable under the hot sun, anyway!
When Ivan looks at her hand like that, Catenna gives him a curious look, raising her eyebrows a little. "It sounds like your biggest problem is that you just don't feel at ease in the water," she muses. "Anxiety about it can cause you to struggle... and sometimes your magical affinities can have an effect. But with time, you can build up your tolerance to it."
Stepping to the side, she tilts herself until her feet leave the seabed. She ends up floating on her back, bobbing in the water. With a few little adjustments of her legs, she turns herself, rotating so that she can look up at Ivan. "Don't try to swim, then," she urges. "Just lie back and let yourself float along on the water. We are still in the shallows here. If you get uneasy, you can straighten up and put your feet on the bottom, or grab my hand if you need to."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"All right, I guess I can do that..."
Mostly, upon entering the water, Ivan has been most concerned with getting out of it again. He's never tried to just float on top. But that's a thing people do, isn't it? It seems like it would work in theory.
He leans back in the water, seeming both trusting and untrusting that this fabled floating thing will work. He leans back, and back, increasingly Nervous about the whole thing, until his legs float up, and then...
Blub blub blub.
He spends a few moments flailing under the water before he gets his feet under him and stands back up, sputtering.
"Is it important to relax? I think maybe I didn't relax."
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"Good. I will be here if you need me," Catenna assures him, entirely convinced that Ivan will need her before long.
Standing a foot or two from the young man, Catenna keeps her arm halfway out, her hand poised on the surface of the water. She watches the way he tilts back, letting her eyes follow the way he holds his shoulders and neck--
Blub blub blub. Catenna reaches out and slides her hand behind Ivan's head, sighing a little as she coaxes him upwards towards the surface. He's able to get his legs under him and come back up with a splutter, and she leaves her hand where it is for a moment, finally giving him a small, sympathetic pat. "Yes, it is important," she says with a dip of her head. "Are you alright? Catch your breath."
For a moment, the Moon Shaman thinks the challenge over. Then she circles behind Ivan, extending her arm towards his, her hand within grasping range. "Alright. The first thing we're going to do is teach you how to relax in the water. I want you to take my hand and begin to lean back again." Her other hand returns to that spot behind his head. "I will be here to keep your head above water. Just bring your arms out to your sides, breathe in, let it out... let all the tension out of your body.... and begin to lean back."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I'm fine! I'm good. No big deal."
Ivan thinks that some of the things Catenna is asking him to do may be incompatible with one another! Such as 'relax' and 'be in the water' and 'relax' and 'hold a person's hand'!
But he did not come here to this stupid beach to give up in the middle of a swimming lesson.
He focuses intensely on relaxing and breathing, with the kind of mixed results you'd expect from focusing intensely on relaxing and breathing. He reaches to take her hand, and slowly tilts backwards again. He's possibly a little more worked up even than he was the last time he tried, but she's techically holding him up so maybe ... ... eventually... ... he'll relax? If that's a thing he's even capable of?
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Poor Ivan. Poor, poor Ivan.
This time, at least, Catenna's going to give him a hand. When Ivan begins to tilt himself backward, his hand finds something soft: Her arm lies just below the water, and she bends her knees a little, immersing herself to partway up her chest to better support the young man. Her arm shifts along his, wrist resting beneath his as she slides her fingers into the spaces between his. With her other hand, she reaches out to adjust his other arm, guiding it until he can let it float at his side.
And she doesn't push him further from there. Catenna simply lets Ivan float.
Above, the sun is warm, not too harsh. A gentle breeze breathes over the surface of the water. Silhouetted against the blue sky, a few white shapes drift - terns wheeling lazily far above. Their soft cries echo, mingling with the gentle rush of the surf. The water is not moving rapidly beneath Ivan, and Catenna's arm keeps his head firmly above the surface.
"It can be very peaceful out here," the Moon Shaman says with a quiet smile, looking up towards the sky a moment. "Can you hear the birds calling?"
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
There is still a tenseness to Ivan that suggests he might sink if left to his own devices, but for now, Catenna is helping him float, and trying to help him focus on something other than the terrible fact(s?) that the water is not breathable and that he is currently experiencing human contact. She asks if he can hear the birds calling.
"I... guess I can." He is, in fact, oriented so that mostly he sees the sky, which is serene and blue and probably not in conflict with any of his elemental affinities. He can aknowledge the peacefulness of the scene on an intellectual level, though he doesn't know if it will be powerful enough to overcome his inner... ... turbulence.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna lowered herself in the water for two reasons. The first was to better support Ivan. The second was to ensure he could look up and see something that isn't her torso from underneath.
She closes her eyes for a moment, letting Ivan float there. Keeping his mind off the water, and off his inner turmoil. "I come out here sometimes when I need to be alone," she admits quietly, "or to places like this. There is something I find very peaceful about simply... floating beneath the open sky like this. My people were nomadic, and we went to many rivers and lakes, and even the ocean, so I always had many places to float like this."
She shifts a little, her arm remaining in place as she lets him adjust to the feeling of floating atop the water's surface. The arm's spot behind his head and neck is fortuitous: She can feel his level of tension. "Do you have a peaceful place like that?" she asks him, her voice quiet. "Somewhere you can be alone and leave your worries behind for a moment."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"You don't worry that you'll start floating wrong and drown?" Ivan asks, when Catenna tells him she likes to float on the water to find peace and solitude. She asks him if he has any comparable means of escape from the world. That's been... rather on his mind lately, as he seems to be getting more and more wound up by things, but he's not sure it's been definitively resolved.
"I don't know," he says. "Maybe. I tried hiding out in these crystal woods, but people kept showing up. Recently someone offered to let me stay at a room in her house sometimes but it feels weird to actually take advantage of that." It was too nice, and too personal. This is also kinda too personal.
"Is this really helping me learn to swim?" he asks.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"Floating wrong? Not really," Catenna answers with a shake of her head. "You're actually very fit. Unless you are about the size of that mage - Borgan, is it? - Unless you have a high body mass, your body will naturally float on water, especially salt water like the ocean. When you lie back like this and relax your muscles, the water will simply... carry your weight."
Ivan makes his admission, and Catenna closes her eyes with a soft breath through her nose. "...People can be very nosy," she concedes in a quieter tone. "But even then, you can find some moments of solitude. You can take advantage of that offer if you wish... they would not offer if they did not want you to accept."
She smiles down at the young man, mild and calm. "This is helping you get used to the water. Until you learn to relax yourself, your mind will stop you from learning. You must let go of your tension."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Catenna tells Ivan that most anyone can float if they just relax and let the water hold them. "But what if you accidentally think about something worrying and tense up? Then you might sink."
Catenna suggests that he take the gifted room at face value. "She does seem to want me to accept, but I'm not sure it's that simple..." Ivan says. He barely understands all the weird mental factors that make it more complicated, himself, so he hopes she won't ask.
You must let go of your tension.
You have to learn to relax to learn how to swim?! What is this nonsense!
"If I had known this would require emotional growth, I wouldn't have signed up!" Ivan grumps.
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"Eventually you learn how to put your worries to the side a little," Catenna says with a quiet shrug, her arm shifting subtly beneath Ivan. "Tensing up slightly will not hurt you. Tensing up a lot and not moving your limbs subtly does, though. You have to let the water carry your limbs naturally.:
Ivan's sulky protest is met with a calm smile, and she gives his hand a small squeeze that probably does nothing to ease his woes. "You were going to have to go through it someday," she assures him with a shake of her head. "Besides, it is not that big a step. You are more than free to brood when you come back to the shore."
With a quick tilt of her head, she glances down Ivan's body, then back up, leaning forward just enough that she can meet his eyes. "Look at yourself now," she points out. "We are having a nice conversation and the water is simply carrying you. You're someone who has trained his body for battle. Certainly you are attuned to how your body feels.
"Close your eyes. Just feel it for a moment. The way it carries you. The way your limbs move with it. Just let yourself feel the sensation of being carried by it."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Actually I had been planning on never growing at all," Ivan says, and seems to mean it.
It's true he DOES know how to compartmentalize his emotions for serious situations, but something about being in the water says DANGER DANGER DANGER, as does socializing.
"It would almost be easier if I were fighting. Maybe a sea monster or something," he speculates. Maybe concentrating on dispatching an enemy would be a good distraction. But then again there was that time in the sunken monastery where he had to fight enemies underwater, and that wasn't better at all, he definitely panicked and almost downed himself.
In lieu of sea monsters, he tries to follow her instructions, closing his eyes and trying to concentrate on the physical sensation of floating on the water. He sort of instead ends up being reminded of the time he was sinking down into the depths with darkness closing in around him.
He pops his eyes open in alarm, making a concerned face at the sky (and Catenna, if she's in view). "I think I'm failing you as a student."
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"We grow whether we want to or not," Catenna remarks with a little shrug, her body moving subtly against the top of Ivan's head. "We can no more stop that from happening than we can prevent the sun from rising in the morning."
Ivan tries. Oh boy does he try. But Catenna can feel his tension instantly, and she lets out a quiet sigh as she squeezes his hand, doing her best to try and ease the fear - but it's simply not going to be enough. When his eyes open, she nods quietly and takes a step back, the arm behind his head gradually rising as she urges him back to his feet. "It can take time to get used to the water," she says diplomatically.
It's the nicest way she can think of to cover for what Ivan is sure is his failure. She hadn't expected to have to go up against fear - just inexpeience.
"It may be that the first step is for you to spend more time around the water," she recommends. "You have to conquer your fear first. But I admire that you made the effort today."
All channels have been gagged.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
Ivan is grateful to turn himself upright again and get something solid under his feet. He looks exhausted, even though, strictly speaking, he hasn't been doing much of anything.
Catenna determines that the first thing he needs to do is conquer his fear, and he balks.
"I don't... have any fear!" Ivan protests. "Being unable to relax isn't about fear! It's about... ... ... thinking too much about things that might happen or be happening!" ...Which is totally irrelevant to fear. Yes.
He drags his hands across his face and sighs.
"Thanks for trying."
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
"Well, you know the word for it better than I do," Catenna says with the patience of whatever the Filgaian equivalent of Job happens to be. She doesn't even so much as bat an eyelash.
When Ivan buries his face in his hands like that, the Moon Shaman closes her eyes for a moment, then opens them once more and shakes her head. "Thank you for allowing me to try," she answers. He didn't have to come out here - he could just as easily have blown her off and lived with the faux pas.
That says something, she reminds herself as she gestures with one hand, beginning to wade back towards the shore and urging Ivan along with her. There'll be no problems on the way there; the water's nice and shallow.
"If you ever want to give it another try," she says, "I will happily work with you."
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"I guess... maybe..." Ivan isn't sure if he wants to relive this defeat, but she did say repeated exposure would help.
Ivan wades out of the water as well. He makes the happy realization that he has some dry clothing to put on because he left his shirt behind, and wishes he'd thought to bring his cloak as well. At least the shorts should theoretically dry quickly, by design.
He kneels down to make sure the contents of his satchel didn't go anywhere while they were swimming, and seems satisfied that they did not.
"How often do you think you need to go into the water to stop being afraid of it?" he asks. "If you were afraid of it, I mean."
<Pose Tracker> Catenna has posed.
Catenna left her robe up here on the shore but she doesn't go for it immediately. She wades out of the water and flicks her hair back, a few droplets flying from it - in a direction opposite Ivan, thank the Guardians.
Hands coming to rest at the arches of her hips, she looks back out over the water a moment. "That all depends how determined you are to resist personal growth," she remarks, eyes distant for a moment.
When she does look back to him, it's with a small shrug of her shoulders. "It's going to depend on you, really. There is no set number because it all depends on the person. But it may help to simply... stand in shallow water for a little while, and let yourself feel it moving around you. Get used to the feeling of being in the water and not sinking. Once you feel you can do that, you will be ready." She pauses. "Or a hypothetical person would be ready, if that hypothetical person were afraid of it."
Still perched on a coconut nearby, the Owlet opens one eye and peers at Ivan steadily.
<Pose Tracker> Ivan has posed.
"Okay, yes. I'll keep that in mind in case I meet someone who's afraid of the water," Ivan says. He finishes getting his clothing and gear back on, and nods to her.
"I guess this wasn't very successful, but at least there wasn't any violence this time?"
Everything's an improvement on attempted murder! Is he allowed to be the one to make that joke? He probably shouldn't have gone there.
"If I get to a point where I think I can relax enough to learn anything, maybe we can try another lesson." He nods to her and heads off.