Test Drive Meme #1

[proximods]

The sun is shining and the weather is nice and toasty. Overly toasty one might argue, even. It's a great day to be laying around at the beach, so it's a good thing that that's where you've found yourself today, whether you'd made plans to be there or not. Bathing suit and sunscreen ready, you're going to get your tanning time on.

But with heat comes the expected side effects for a place like Proxima Gamma. While the cool water can sometimes slow the effects, the heated beaches and freshly popped flowers seem to have made getting close to someone else just seem like a really great idea. You can try to fight off the side effects much as you want, but the scientists like to believe everyone has a breaking point.

Comments

gary "eggsy" unwin | kingsman

[lesson]

i — skinny dipping

( he's been to the beach a handful of times in his life. a few when he was young — maybe not infantile, but young enough that the memories came in sporadic, incomplete flashes; like his memory had filled in the blanks from all the times his mum had told the story of the aggressive seagulls and his tayto crisps — and a few more when he'd been old enough that the allure of beaches was outright null and void. their timing had always been off, either too late in the summer or too early; the air had always been cold and the water even colder. the last time, his mum and stepdad had gotten into a spat over misreading the forecast, and he'd ultimately spent most of the day on the curb between sand and parking lot fiddling with his mobile. it was a whole day sort of trip, and the outcome never seemed fully worth the commute.

but it hadn't all been absolute shit. he imagined he'd go again with his sister when she was a bit older.

if he ever saw her again.

it's sorry thoughts like that — and pleasant view of small white crested waves breaking across the shore; the heavy heat making the back of his shirt sticky — that have eggsy peeling out of his jacket, button down, and trousers with record efficiency. for someone who'd had no plans on coming to the beach today (it was boiling, and he'd almost rather stay by the air conditioned shop fronts, what with that fancy allowance card they'd gotten) he's quick to head towards the water. but pauses. he's got no trunks, and half the fun of swimming is having dry clothes to climb back in to afterwards. he doesn't fancy that walk back to town with soaking pants wetting through his slacks the whole way. so with a cursory look around, he drops trou completely, and makes a dash for the water.

cool, refreshing water. perhaps a tad too cold, but nice and energizing after the almost lazy, sticky warmth of the day. eggsy wades; ducks his head under, and generally revels in relaxing until he spots another person testing the water. it's not a shriek on his lips, per se... but it kind of sounds like one. and he crouches a little awkwardly in the water in order to stay "appropriately" submerged. )

Didn't see you there, ( he mumbles. like, yup, that'll explain my undignified screaming. )

ii — sand castles

( maybe an hour or two after a near mortifying separation from his pants, eggsy's been reunited with his clothes and has since stopped giving a fuck about if he gets sand all over himself. it was going to happen one way or another— why not stop being a baby about it and indulge in a quintessential beach past time.

building a sand castle.

and if it looks like he's gotten a little too into it — with parapets, and sticks and leaves collected to serve as flags — then you're silly; there's no such thing as too into your sandcastle.

though too defensive of one? that's possible. because the second someone so much as kicks a little sand into the moat he's diligently shaping by hand, they get a rather grumpy: )

Oi, could you not?

iii — choose your own adventure

( want something else? need rescuing from drowning? sunscreen rubbed on your back? he's a nice guy and a great swimmer, and could probably help you with both! )

skinny dipping

[coy]

[ honestly, if you asked caroline why she was skinny dipping, she wouldn't be able to give you a straight answer. she just felt the impulse to do it, maybe because it was something oddly familiar. something she and bonnie and elena used to do when they were younger, in the falls. thinking they were being so edgy and all that.

or maybe it's really just because she wanted to go for a swim but didn't want to deal with a wet bra. either way, she's swimming in nothing but her underwear (she can go commando but with the top she's got, the ladies need some support). and she suddenly decides this is the worst/best idea when she hears this... squeal? is it a girl--

wait no, it's a guy.] Yeah, obviously. [ she replies, trying her hardest not to laugh, too much.] Are you okay? Please don't tell me there's, like, jellyfish or something.

Skinny Dipping (if you're game for an OC)

[undomesticated]

[Riley had rolled up and dumped her clothes in the crotch of a tree with a notable bright red flower pattern wreathing it, not at all bothered or ashamed to be striding nude across the sand towards the water. The ocean was her goal and she was hardly the only person to be buck naked to get a bit of relief from the heat.

It helped that nudity and shifters went hand in hand and she'd been naked in public since birth. It's just the way her people rolled. Nudity didn't equal sex. It generally equaled either just going for a shift or just coming back from one. In this case, she had no suit and felt like relieving herself of the almost oppressive heat, glad her fur wasn't permanent. God, she'd be dying in this.

Running into the water, she grinned as she ran until it was too hard to move that quickly in the water, diving in and swimming under the surface, feeling the way the water rippled over her, cooling her in ways the wind hadn't been able to. She popped up, then turned when she heard a high-pitched sound.

There was a guy giving her a look, like she'd been intruding on his private time.]

Hey.

[She stood, not minding at all that the water level wasn't doing much to cover her upper half. Shame? What was that?]

Well, now you do. It's great out here, isn't it? I didn't expect it to be so hot.

ii.

[disarrayed]

[ maybe some people would be more remorseful upon kicking a sandcastle, but Bellamy certainly isn't. he's been here for long enough, but the fact that he can still feel the throbbing in his neck, the panic in the beat of his heart? well, he doesn't exactly care about sandcastles.

instead, he's nearly running, crossing the too-warm sand in boots that don't do well on the mushy surface. he's got a crude knife in his hand, because if this is some stint by Mount Weather? he won't have it. which is why he doesn't hear Eggsy's warning, doesn't even consider the guy coddling the damn thing. he practically charges through it, and in sinking his foot into so much sand? falls. ]

What the hell. [ and whoops, sorry Eggsy, that be a knife in your face. ]