Kyu lessons...
Hall's Lounge
Cozy to the point of downright stuffy this lounge exudes a salty briny air. Overstuffed and comfortable looking are the chairs of dark blue that reside at one end of this circular room. The smattering of tables that they surround are nothing more than tops with scarred wooden legs attached as well they should be. The bases of the tables and chairs are waterstained and marked by mild salt buildup. Rugs worn with age decorate the polished floor of this relaxation area soft greens and browns making barefeet swoon. Paintings of charts and various sea mammals and fish have been painstakingly added to the walls creating the atmosphere of their mother sea. To one side of the bridge is a wide ledge... [look closer]
To the northeast, you see one person.
Settled near the water is Terpsichore
Swimming about is Tursi
Obvious exits:
Baths Men's Dorms Staff Hall Women's Dorms Infirmary Bridge Sea Lane
Kyu walks in from the Women's Dorms.
Jessa is slouched in a chair, her feet propped up on the nearby table. The senior apprentice is busy tossing bits of food to her gathered 'lizards, who do a pretty decent job at catching the morsels.
Kyu walks out of the dorms, having put away her bits and pieces of knotted strings in a safer location... where they aren't likely to get mangled and shrunken again.
Jessa tosses a bit of food towards Kyu, a grin on her face. And whoosh! A firelizard swoops down and snaps up the food before it can hit Kyu. Talented, ne?
From Kyu's shoulder, Altair creels hungrily. I want food, too. /Now/.
Kyu flashes a guilty look at Jessa, as a claw pokes her in the neck, walking over to the senior. "Heya, Jess... mind if I snag some foodbits from you?"
Jessa grins at the younger appy-type girl. "Hiya Kyu, nah, I don't mind. Except, I'm all out now." The senior appy holds up the bowl, and tips it upside down. A few crumbs fall out, but nothing more. "See, all gone. Sorry."
Kyu shrugs, and turns to tease her flit with an apolegetic look. "See? No more. And I just fed you not too long ago, too." Trust the FlyingStomach to put up that kind of antic at this time.
Jessa grins, "They always eat, and eat lots." Kind of like Jess though, huh? She has little room to complain really. "So, whatcha been up to? How're you liking the Craft so far?"
Kyu takes a seat, near Jess. "Oh, I'm doing pretty fine, and it's been fun. Although some dolphins talk nearly as much as the firelizards eat." Mischevious grin, there. "Otherstuff is ok, normal, expected... somestuff is interesting, too."
Jessa giggles and nods, "Yup, the 'phins just love to talk. And play." But talking and playing is fun. And it's an excuse for not doing other things. Jess nods, "Yeah, it's not all great. But I love lessons and swimming. Hate chores though." Bleh, chores. The bane of all appies.
Kyu shrugs. "Ah, chores. They're everywhere you go... in the hold, in a craft... probably in a Weyr, too." Bane of all appies, indeed, a point reinforced during an earlier Duty lesson. "Water lessons are more fun than others, though, at least for now."
Jessa grins and nods, "Yup, water lessons are a -lot- of fun." And, speaking of which, "And how are you coming with yours?" Curiousity is a good thing, and something that Jess possesses overly healthy amounts of.
"There hasn't really been much progress.... what with the lessons going on being mostly orientation and all, but we do get a few refresher lessons and swim practice every now and then", Kyu admits, and then adds - albeit a little sheepishly - "Somehow, I can't wait to be done with those and get on to other, maybe more challenging things."
Jessa grins and nods, "Oh, you'll get into them quickly enough." Ayup, and then Kyu will be challenged, but then a challenge now and then is a good thing, riiight? Right!
Kyu nods slightly. "Indeed, indeed." Right, right! Of course, said challenge will probably do her in eventually, but till then, it's all fun.
Jessa nods, and then sits up straight in the chair, quite a change from her previous slouching position. Then she stands up and stretches, and then plunks back in the chair and resumes slouching.
Kyu wiggles a little more into her chair, and wonders if she can relax yet. And idly remembers to shoo off Altair, who's hogged her shoulder for too long now. Bad.
Kyu releases Altair, who launches into the air.
Jessa tilts her head at the younger girl, "So, what're ya up to now? Taking a break from chores and lessons, or waiting around for gossip?" Grin.
Kyu cackles... or laughs as close to a cackle as one can get. "Anything would be fine, really. Just don't have anything in particular scheduled at this time of day, at least for today." Gossip, or lessons, or whatever. "I'm more or less finished with chores for the day too."
Jessa nods and grins, "Ah, that's a good thing to have, free time and all." The senior appy stretches again and yawns slightly, because sitting around doing nothing really makes on bored and tired.
Kyu cocks her head to one side, before reverting to a more normal posture. "Tell you what, since we seem to be free for now, how about dropping a few pointers and stuff like that? Things I'd need to know, and suchlike." Always useful to know a bit before it actually comes up and smacks her in the face someday, yes, yes.
Jessa raises a brow, "Pointers? What do you mean? Well," she starts, with a light shrug, "Most of the stuff you'll learn is pretty much basic and common sense. I mean, you can't really study how to swim. You gotta do it. So, don't worry too much about studying, because it's the actual practice and doing it that'll get you somewhere." She pauses, and then shrugs, "Yeah, just practice your swimming a lot, and spend some time with the 'phins, and ask lots of questions if you don't understand something that you learned that can't readily be practiced." Words of wisdom from Jessa. Oooh.
Kyu nods in acknowledgement. "Take it as attempting to learn from the voice of experience, anyhow. So would the experienced one care to teach?" Half-serious, really, but... we'll see. We'll see.
Jessa giggles and nods. Teaching, oooh! Fun stuff that is. The senior appy grins, "Suuure!" Enthusiasm is just leaking out of her pores. "So, what do you need?"
Kyu shrugs. "Well, swimming lessons would be an ok thing... you know how the masters are about having to go through each lesson again, even if you /do/ know how to swim already." Not too friendly a dig there, but one supposes that it proves the eagerness of apprentices to take on the world. And kids get impatient, yeah. Or was the word hotheaded? Which makes them accident-prone - not a good thing, that.
Jessa snickers and nods. "Sure." And then the senior appy gets an idea, she tilts her head to the side and asks of the appy, "Have you had water safety yet?"
Kyu has the decency to blush. "Ah, no... at least not really." She blushes a little more, and is ashamed to admit she actually fell asleep in that class. End result, effectively no class. Assuming it was necessary.
Jessa grins and nods, "Alright then. Water safety first." An easy class really. "So, there are certain times you should not swim in the water. Can you name a few, and tell me why it is a bad idea to swim then?"
Kyu thinks for a moment. "Well, when there's a storm... tides will be stronger, and waves higher, so you may encounter problems where there were none, originally." A bit more thinking and a little less creativity, produces the next answer. "And at night, or in any other situation when you can't see as well as in the day, because you might get lost and loose sight of the shore."
Jessa nods, "Right. And in a storm there may be logs or other debris that can hit you," she adds to Kyu's response and then grins, "Can you think of any other things you should consider when swimming that you should be aware of?" Easy stuff really, most of it's just good common sense.
Common sense being, unfortunately, uncommon, Kyu has to think some more. You can almost see steam rising off the top of her hair as her brain goes into overtime. "Clothes... should allow you to move easily... why we have swimsuits? Sometimes it can't be helped though. Strange fish, or other poisonous creatures in the water... like water snakes... Debris or plants that you could become entangled in as well, maybe." Not too sure about her answer, but venturing it forth anyway.
Jessa doesn't laugh, because laughing at silly responses just isn't something a good teacher would do. Instead she smiles and shakes her head, "You should never dive into water unless you're certain of its depth." Sage advise. Oh yeah.
Kyu nods, and files that somewhere in that overworked mind of hers. "Um, never dive from too high a cliff, either, or where you're not sure if you'll hit the water after diving?"
Jessa grins and nods, "Right." And then the senior appy stands up and grins, "Alright, water safety, it's basic, and easy. Right? So, what do you say to swimming? Maybe the crawl? Have you learned that yet?"
Kyu shakes her head. "Still on the basic arm and leg practices, we are." A sigh at that, if there's a set of lessons that might get boring and go faster at this point in time, it'd be swimming. But then of course, not all of the current batch of apprentices have had experience with swimming. "The crawl would be fine."
Jessa grins and nods, "The crawl is fun!" she affirms for the somewhat less than enthusiastic appy. "C'mon, let's go out this way," she says, heading to the ledge and jumping into the water, then swimming slowly off, waiting for Kyu to follow
You go to the Sea Lane.
Natural Seabreak Pool
Formed when the cliff face to the south collapsed, this rather small, shallow pool is under ten feet deep and the floor is sandy now instead of rocky as it once was in times past. To the south, there are two large doors that can be closed from the inside, that lead into the deeper sea lane that cuts through the stone ridge forming the dolphinhall. To another side is a distinct shortcut to Emerald Cove, just deep for dolphins and their partners.
To the west, you see one person.
Swimming about is Nezive
Obvious exits:
Emerald Cove Shallows Sea Lane
Kyu swims in from the west.
Kyu follows a little later, having taken the time to change into a swimsuit. Looks like she'll be bathing again today, but it's probably worth it.
One learns to not bathe until the end of the day. Saves a lot of trips to the bath, and lots of wasted time. Jess is floating in lazy circles while waiting for Kyu to show up again, once the girl reappears she grins, "Alright, the crawl then." Teaching is fun! "To start you'll want to do a tight scissorkick, you do know how to do a scissorkick, right?"
Kyu nods, and proceeds to demonstrate, holding on to a convenient rock while moving her legs alternately in a straight up-and-down motion.
Jessa grins and nods in approval. "Yup, that's right. Keep the legs straight, don't splash much. Yup, that's a scissorkick. Alright then, and for the crawl you'll want to be doing a scissorkick the whole time. You position yourself so that your face is in the water, so you'll be swimming on your stomach. Now with your arms, you'll bring one arm up first out of the water," she demonstrates, bringing her right arm up first, but she's standing and not lying in the water, "and point and arch it back into the water. And then your other arm will leave the water and repeat this motion. You do this stroke all the time, and when you need to breathe, tilt your head to the side that's arm is coming out of the water, take a breathe, and then put your head back in position." The senior appy pauses, "Got all that?"
Kyu nods, and standing in the water, tries out the arm movements first to make sure she's got it down, before progressing to trying the full stroke. She does have a few problems with timing the breathing and positioning at first, but seems to be able to work it out after a bit. Of course, she can't yell to check if she's doing fine while swimming, but you be the judge.
Jessa observes the appy's swimming, and then calls out to her, "Looking good, but you might want to try doing it slower at first, to get the breathing part down. And keep the arms arched and coordinated. You'll go faster too if you put more strength into your strokes, you don't need to just try and move faster."
Kyu stops for a while to call out her acknowledgement, turns around and begins to swim slowly towards Jessa, keeping in mind her pointers. Slow, delibrate movements, with a push behind them.
Jessa watches the movements of Kyu, and then grins and nods in approval, "Right. Looks like you've got it. Just keep practicing. That way you'll get the positioning, breathing, and timing down nicely." And of course, with practice comes speed and ease of movement.
Kyu continues, easing herself into the motions. Yay, another excuse for being in the water down, but not completely pat yet.
The senior appy nods to Kyu, "Alright, that's good for now." Ayup. "Just remember to practice," Jess calls out in reminder. They don't say practice makes perfect for nothing, y'know.
Kyu nods, coming to a stop near the edge of the pool. Glancing to Jess for permission, she pulls herself up on the edge and out of the pool. "Well, now, having done with that, I suppose I need to get myself cleaned up before dinner again.
Jessa grins and nods, "Yeah, you do that. And I'll see you around." The senior appy decides to stick around the pool and swim a few laps, maybe practice some strokes of her own.
All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are © Anne McCaffrey 1967, 2000, all rights
reserved, and used by permission of the author.
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