ArchivedLogs:Our Lake

Our Lake
Dramatis Personae Dorian Siccavil, Sebastian, Shane
In Absentia	2013-11-20 '
Location <XS> Lake
Bright, bright, bright; the lake glitters wide and expansive here, stretching off into the distance. Sunlight, moonlight, starlight, it catches them all. Lapping at the rocky shore, its deep waters are frigid in winter and cool even in summer. A stone pier stretches out a ways into the water, wide and smooth, though often icy in winter. The water teems with life nevertheless, home to myriad species of fish that provide for ample fishing or just lazy watching on a slow summer day, for those who want to take a boat from the boathouse out to the center of the lake, or perhaps lounge on the pier and try their luck. The days are growing colder, and at twilight it's far more nippy than even the brisk afternoon was. Over behind the mansion and the distant cliffs the sun is setting; only a little bit of its lingering rays make it out to the lake, casting a dusky orange light across its waters. By this dim lingering light Bastian is working on /homework/, sprawled out on the pier on a blanket with his Spanish book in front of him. In the spirit of practice he's speaking in (stilted, slow) Spanish as well rather than the more comfortable Vietnamese the twins often lapse into when alone together. "{-- even after it is. Out there. How long you think before this over?}" Shane's Spanish comes much more fluidly, glib and easy though he slows his pace down for his brother's sake. "{/Over/? What makes you think this will ever be over? I think Stark and Cage and Pa /themselves/ could clean up the /dead/ in a week if they focused on nothing else. The military'll keep botching it so with /all/ of them it might be a week or two. But after that?}" His shrug is awkward -- he's /in/ the water, elbows resting on the edge of the pier to hold him up at conversational height, his clothing balled up on the blanket nearby Sebastian. Classes are over, dinner likely consumed, and Dorian is making his way down to the lake, apparently largely unconcerned with the chill in the air. He's wearing a rainbowy tank top with a faded band logo on the front that leaves his dark furred shoulders and back largely exposed to the air, and a pair of loose school branded sweatpants that have been modified to let his broad tail swing free behind him. His bare feet pad through the grass as he cautiously approaches the lake, hesitating at the sound of conversation, even if he doesn't understand the language being spoken. Recognizing the two as he approaches, Dorian picks up his pace and offers a somewhat cautiously optimistic wave, his ears perked forward amidst his mess of hair in curiosity. "Hi," he chirps, at a pause in the conversation, looking between the two, "Is... is, um, the lake safe to swim in, still, or, well, now?" He fidgets with his hands in front of him, glancing out at the water hopefully before looking at Shane and Sebastian again. The conversation ceases anyway at the sound of an approach, the twins' ears and noses picking up the signs of Approaching Classmate far earlier than most would have. They turn in tandem to look towards Dorian, relaxing back into their previous postures once identification has been made. "Safe?" In the water, Shane snorts. "Nowhere's ever fucking /safe/." "We haven't seen any zombies today, if that's what you mean," Sebastian offers, more gently than his brother. "It's a really big lake though. But it's /probably/ safe, we've been in and out of it a lot." "Plus, you can totally outswim a biter. They're disgusting as hell, though." Shane says this with a grimace. "'sides, if anything here tries to kill you, B'll kill it /first/." Dorian hesitates again, fidgetting more, "Well, I kinda meant that there wasn't a swarm of zombies floating around or nothing. I... I know things aren't safe, really, like, safe safe. Kinda still adjusting to stuff, I guess, but yeah. So, no biters?" He ruffles the fur at the top of his arm, looking at the water, and then at Sebastian, "Would it be ok if I went for a swim? I mean, if you guys want privacy or anything, I can stay over out of the way, in another part of the lake, but I figured I'd check with you guys first, since, well, you're out here more often than me. And you were here first." Pausing in his anxious chatter, he ponders the suggestion of the lake being probably safe, and of being able to swim away, "I think I'd be able to get outta the way of anything in there most likely anyway, but I haven't been in an actual natural lake in forever." He bounces on the balls of his feet in excitement, taking a few hopping steps closer to the edge of the water, the wind off the lake ruffling his hair into more of a mess than normal. "Jesus, dude, chill the fuck /out/." Shane's tone is lazy rather than sharp, his eyes drooping closed. "D'you always talk this fucking much?" "No biters that we've seen today," is all the assurance Sebastian is willing to make. He just /blinks/ when Dorian asks if it's okay. "It's -- everyone's lake." "What, if I say it's not okay are you going to scurry back to the mansion? Do you actually have a backbone in there?" Shane leans closer, pulling himself a little bit higher on the stone to peer towards Dorian like he's /checking/ this for himself. "S'not our fucking lake. Though I doubt," he adds with a sharp-toothed grin, "that you could get outta the way of /us/." "-- Whiiiiich doesn't matter because we're not going to be chasing you," Sebastian is quick to add. "Go on, swim, it's awesome. There's some really neat places we can show you -- well maybe when everything's not terrible." Shane snorts. "Everything's always fucking terrible. /Except/ for this lake. C'mon get in." "Yes, usually. Sometimes," Dorian responds sheepishly, his ears twitching at the admission, "I kinda chatter when I'm around other people. To make up for when I'm alone, or nervous, or, well, mostly alone. Because I don't..." His voice trails off, and he clamps his mouth shut, heaving a sigh, and signing 'sorry' as he forces himself to /not/ talk for once. There's a visible flinch at the question about a back bone, and his shoulders droop, one hand reaching up to ruffle the fur at the top of his arm, "Probably, yes. I'm not used to being in a position where I can actually leave if someone doesn't want me around." That said, he does take a few steps away from the twins and sheds his shirt, neatly folding it up and setting it on one of the rocks. He hesitates for the space of a deep breath, before quickly shedding his sweatpants and sliding lithely into the lake in one smooth motion, vanishing beneath the surface of the lake for several minutes. When his head eventually breaks the surface of the water, he is giggling in spite of himself, his hair plastered to his head and making the rounded little shapes of his ears far more visible than normal. "Holy crap, I missed that. A lot. Like, a whole lot," he breathes, blinking to clear the water from his eyes. Shane's lips twitch upwards as Dorian starts to talk again. "Well, 'round here you can stay or go no matter /what/ the hell /I/ think you should be doing. -- I guess in class they usually tend to want you to stay, though." "Not that he /does/." Sebastian grimaces, leaning forward to bonk his head lightly up against his brother's. Shane just laughs at this, settling his chin back down on his forearms. His head turns to watch Dorian disappear into the water, and he watches still for a while when the other boy vanishes. "... He doesn't have gills, right?" he says after the first minute. Sebastian scoots closer to the edge of the stone, peering off into the water. He shrugs. When Dorian reappears, though, Shane's grin returns, wide and bright. "S'pretty great, isn't it?" He thwaps a wet hand against Sebastian's arm. "C'mon get in." "But I --" Sebastian starts. "Fuck your homework," Shane cuts him off cheerfully. Sebastian wrinkles his nose, but he stands, shedding his few layers of clothing and diving down into the water, too. "-- How long /can/ you stay under?" Still giggling, Dorian bobs in the water, before diving under again, his long tail slapping briefly against the surface before vanishing completely, resurfacing again, treading water easily, his hands spreading out instinctively as though to make use of the webbing once there, a contented grin on his face. When Shane urges Sebastian into the water, Dorian nods and grins, chirping lightly in agreement, "Yes. Swim? Homework can totally wait, I mean, the lake'll probly freeze over soon enough, right? So swim now, work later." Apparently nearly a decade of no school work has given the otter-boy a rather lax work ethic - or it could just be the freedom of the water going to his head. Either way, he's got a sort of dopey lopsided grin on his face as he moves easily through the water. The question gets a head tilt, and his notched ear twitches slightly, "Um, I think the last time they made me do it, I was able to hold my breath for, um, 20 minutes? I get kinda dizzy when I push it though - I almost passed out that time. But, um, that was a bit ago, and I had a growth spurt since, and they didn't really seem too interested in testing me again, so, yeah." Perhaps /that/ explains the near constant chatter without the need to draw breath. "See? /He/ knows what's what." Shane jerks a thumb to Dorian when Dorian affirms his swim-first-homework-later ethic. Once his brother is in the water he lets go of the pier, second clear set of eyelids sliding closed before he vanishes under the water to reappear a few feet past Dorian. "That's because /he/ doesn't have Professor Deeb for AP Calc. /You/ want to explain to him why I didn't --" Even before Shane cuts him off, Sebastian's eyes are starting to widen. Shane jumps in with a /wide/ grin: "I will give /all/ your teachers /all/ the explaining." "--nnnnooo that's okay actually I can handle it myself." Sebastian still /has/ the webbing on his fingers; it assits in keeping him up where he bobs in the water. "Twenty minutes is a long time, I can barely hold my breath twenty seconds, my lungs --" "-- are extra-special shitty," Shane finishes with a crooked smile. "You fish, right?" Dorian grins and bobs in the water, his tail now lashing lazily about behind him, no longer as useless seeming as it was on land. "Pffft - nope. I don't even think I'm gonna get to Calculus. I'm just tryin' to get my diploma if I can, without any of the fancy stuff. Not like I have a mind for numbers anyway," Dorian giggles, letting himself float freely in the water. He runs a hand through his hair, attempting to keep the soggy waves out of his face as he squints slightly to see where Shane goes. "Yeah, I guess gills would sorta make it kinda hard to hold your breath? I'm built like an otter, 'lest that's what people usually say. Kinda anyway. I mean, tail, ears, lungs, eyes. Uh, fur?" he shrugs slightly, dipping lower in the water with the motion, and turning it into another dive beneath the surface, briefly, before popping back up a short distance away. "And yeah, I fish. Or I used to. When I was little I'd fish in the river near home, to bring in some extra food. Can't be /that/ different in the lake, right? I mean, haven't tried in a long time, but sure. Could be fun," he smiles brightly at the idea of being helpful. "S'alright fuck calculus I've failed geometry twice already," Shane informs Dorian cheerfully. "And algebra before that. I'm making it my goal to fail /every/ fucking high school math class at least once." He vanishes again, disappearing far beneath the water. Sebastian keeps an idle eye on his brother, but he looks more relaxed than cautious, a small smile of his own appearing at the cheer from the other boys. "You can't fail calc if you never make it to calc," he calls out over the water. Shane's head reappears farther off in the distance. "Fffffuck you and your technicalities. And yeah fishing in here is -- ohfuck /Dorian/." Shane vanishes again, reappearing next to the otterboy. "Ohmygod. /Dorian/. You know what you can do for me?" Suddenly he sounds /so excited/. He lifts his own webbed hand, fingers wiggling. "You can /flip my brother the fuck off/ holy shit you cannot flip someone the bird with webbed fingers." Sebastian presses his knuckles to his lips, stifling a giggle. "C'mon it's easy just -- just one hand, put the middle finger up and the other fingers down and /wave/ it. Right at Bastian." Shane's grin is still bright. Dorian tilts his head slightly at the mention of failing class, snorting, "I think, technically, I failed second grade. They kicked me out, so I think I failed it. I guess?" His eyes attempt to track as Shane vanishes under the water, instead opting to dive beneath the water as well, moving lithely through the water with undulating movements, before breaking the surface again with a delighted smile, just happy to have such freedom again. At the excited exclamation about flipping people off, Dorian looks quite confused, glancing between Shane's webbed hand, and his own finely scarred fingers. The instructions get a skeptical look, but he does so, the movement of his fingers clumsy at the unaccustomed movement, as he raises his middle finger toward Bastian. It is, however, accompanied by the most confused, apologetic, and faintly bewildered look... and none of the emphasis or intent that typically accompanies the gesture. Shane claps his hands together, delighted at this gesture. "/There/, B, just imagine that's my hand." Sebastian thwaps a wet palm against his face, rubbing his hand against his cheek. "There's some fish that are better to catch than others," Shane happily switches topics to start explaining. "S'a couple in here that don't have too big of populations so should probably leave 'em alone but there's plenty that are plentiful /and/ delicious, c'mon I'll show you." He's already disappearing beneath the water once more. "-- I guess we could eat again." Sebastian seems pleased at the idea of Shane eating. He nods after his brother to Dorian, and then vanishes beneath the water as well, a rapid /streak/ of movement that far outstrips Shane, though Bastian quickly circles back to join Shane once more. Dorian snickers and shrugs, dropping his hands back into the water, after signing 'sorry' to Sebastian. The prospect of fishing soon distracts the young man from any sort of further apology, and he grins brightly, drawing in a deep breath of air before diving beneath the surface to follow the twins through the dark water. He may not be quite as fast, but his sinuous movements and muscular tail propel him at a decent clip through the water, almost able to keep up. His tiny ears are pressed tight to his head, keeping the water out of them, while his eyes have filmed over with a nictating membrane, granting him further comfort in the water. Pleased at the offered fishing lesson, Dorian happily follows along, happy to be included and in the open water again.