fandomhigh | Underwater Basket Weaving and Other Aquatic Arts!; Monday, Fourth Period [05/17].

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underwater basketweaving

Underwater Basket Weaving and Other Aquatic Arts!; Monday, Fourth Period [05/17].

Since the weather appeared to be cooperating, the class would be meeting once again at the beach, and when they did, they would find their instructor as eager and excited as ever, warming up with some squats and arm stretches and encouraging exclamations. And once everyone was there and ready to go, he did one final stretch up high over his head, rolled his neck a little, and laughed before opening his arms to the class in greeting.

"Hello!" he said. "And welcome back! Are you all ready for another thrilling day of learning aquatic arts? I know I am! And since this particular aquatic art will require a lot of physical activity, let's all take a moment to stretch and warm up so that our bodies are limber and ready to go! Because today, we are tackling that most important Aquatic Art, the one for which mostly all other Aquatic Arts stem from, and that, of course, is swimming!

"Now," he continued, after waving a hand to encourage them all to keep stretching while he talked, something that he, himself, was also going to do, "there's a good chance that we all possess a very diverse range of swimming skills! Some of you, such as myself, may have been swimming since you were practically a tadpole, freshly hatched into a world of water and wonder! Some of you may have learned a little later, but due to your exposure to watery depths, may have a wide range of experience and skills. Some of you may not know how to swim barely at all! And that is fine, because we're going to go over many different techniques, we shall help each other, those who already know the basics will receive an excellent refresher, and by the end of the class, hopefully we'll all be confident enough in our swimming abilities to puruse a...bit of a challenge!"

His grin was particularly excited and shiny over that.

And he gave them a little more time to stretch and get warmed up before calling out, "Alright, my intrepid aquatic artistes! Everybody in the water! Let's get swimming!"

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Splish-splash!

Astrid Magnussen

Octavia ~~Blake~~

Clare Devlin

Duke Crocker

Nina Argentum

Listen to Sidon and/or chat with your fellow Aquatic Artistes as you make sure your bodies are good and ready to go! No cramping today, my friends! And hopefully no one had a particularly big lunch before coming to class today, for that matter, as well!

Octavia had not been here last week. Octavia had also not signed up for this.

In fact, she just kind of happened to stumble upon the class when it was already in progress. And, well, Duke was there ~~presumably omg~~, and while she hadn't had plans to swim, she was wearing a top and leggings that would probably do, so...

Might as well join in.

Edited 2021-05-17 13:11 (UTC)

"Ah!" It was a small class, an additional person was pretty easy to spot out, but Sidon could only be delighted by such a discovery. "Hello there! Octavia, isn't it? From the boats! Have you come to try a hand at our aquatic activities and adventures?"

Octavia shrugged a little. "Guess so."

... Apparently she had not come to talk. Please pretend to be surprised, everyone.

"Fantastic!" Sidon's enthusiasm was matched only by the beaming, pleased expression on his face at this news. "Wonderful! Welcome to class, then! You've got marvelous timing, we're about to get into the very good stuff today, but I'm afraid you may have missed out on the very thrilling titular activity of Underwater Basketweaving itself! If you're interested, though, I would be more than happy to take some time to show you. I would feel terrible if anyone should happen to miss out!"

Duke was absolutely here. He was already fairly warmed up after his own class and scaling the Jackdaw's rigging, but he was happy to stretch out again anyway.

When he wasn't busy marveling at just how freaking tall the teacher was and what kind of height he managed when eh stretched up like that.

"Ha yun, jaka."

Everyone liked a surprise snogon, right?

"Gona!" Duke looked at her and beamed. "Hey, I didn't know you signed up for this."

One side of Octavia's lips tilted upward, a little. Mostly in response to his beaming than anything else.

"I didn't."

But like that would stop her.

"Oooo, class crasher," Duke said. "I promise not to tell."

Octavia snorted faintly. "I doubt anyone cares." Because she'd met Sidon before, and he really didn't seem like the type who'd mind.

"Well, yeah, but that's not as fun."

Octavia gave him a little look that suggested she was not surprised to hear him say that.

Duke just grinned back, completely unrepentant.

Octavia made a show of rolling her eyes, and settled into a stretch.

And sounded perfectly casual as she asked, "You wanna come over, after class?"

"Sounds good," Duke said, as he followed her stretching lead. "Nothing like curling up with your snogon after a good swim."

Octavia felt far too good about apparently nailing that casual invitation. It really should not have been a big deal to invite either of her partners to her boat.

(It still kind of felt like one.)

(And also good.)

"Okay," she said, with a tiny nod. "Good, that's settled."

Nina was a liiiiiiitle distracted as she wandered into class literally precisely on time because, well, the bulk of her attention was still fixed on what she’d be doing all weekend and, really, if it hadn’t been for it being Sidon, she might not have showed up at all...

But she stretched properly and , as she did so, actually felt pretty good about it.

Now that everyone's warmed up and hopefully ready to go with any issues or concerns squared away, it's time to begin the lesson in earnest! Starting with the most basic of basics, from proper breathing to floating (Sidon does recognize that some of these things are a bit different for a Zora due to his anatomy, so he encourages any of the more experienced Artistes with much more human-related bodies to share their own tips and tricks and advice!), improving your kicking and, of course, the four different swimming strokes.

"If you find yourself already quite familiar with these techniques," Sidon added, "fantastic! I knew you had it in you! Now's the time to hone your skills, because we can always make ourselves better! And for those of you who might be struggling, don't give up! I believe in you! These things take practice! I believe I mentioned last week that, while I may have practically been swimming since the moment I was hatched, I was not always good at it! But with dedication, determination, and drive, I have become the excellent swimming you see before you! Also, remember, practice makes perfect! There is no lack of water around us, as we are on an island, and if I recall, there is actually a pool," although he did need to make a face of displeasure about it, "in the dormatory basement, which should do in a pinch. Just remember, though, especially if you are not confident in your abilities yet, always swim with a buddy and keep safety measures in mind at all times!

"That said, let us practice! Please let me know if you need help with anything, help each other, and we'll take most of the class to hone our skills and become truly splendid swimmers, before we embark on our final challenge for the day! Or, at the very least, for this class, because hopefully, every day is filled with exciting new challenges for everyone!"

It was funny, really; Astrid, for all she knew, could very well have been hatched into this world like a pollywog herself, because she couldn't remember ever actually learning how to swim, it was just something that had always been a part of her life. She probably was swimming before she could walk. So looking at it from the technical perspective she'd never really had was interesting, even if those techniques were not exactly difficult for her to do.

Floating, especially.

Then again, if it were up to her, she'd just spend the rest of the class period floating.

Clare could swim but she wasn't amazing at it or anything and it certainly didn't help to have to be in a bathing suit around classmates and grown-ups.

Duke listened for anything he might not already be familiar with, on hand to offer any suggestions if people had trouble adjusting zora instruction to more standard human shapes.

But mostly, he was just already enjoying being in the water.

Apart from a few lessons from Duke, this was actually the most thorough swimming class Octavia had been a part of - beyond the ones she'd eavesdropped at the public pool on the mainland, anyway.

She knew most of this by now, but she still listened carefully while she waded into the water a little.

She wasn’t especially good at swimming, but Nina was competent at it. To her it had been a skill she’d picked up for work instead of for fun, so she tended not to think of it as something to do for fun.

She listened carefully because it was kind of interesting and she did like knowing things...

"And now," Sidon announced, blowing a whistle (although, interestingly enough, not the whistle he wore at his chest among all of his fancy royal accoutrements) to get everyone's attention and waving them over as if he would be hard to spot without doing so, "it's time to put the skills you've been learning, practicing, and sharpening to the test! As you can see, I've set up a few bouys out in the water; they mark the course of our race! If you still feel a little uncertain in your swimming and would like to sit out the race, you are more than welcome to do so! All I ask is that you take note of the techniques being employeed by our races as you watch and, even more importantly, encourage them and cheer them on! Those of you who are more confident in your abilities, get ready to race! Swim up to the first bouy, marked One!, and then to the next marked Two!, and so on and so forth until you end up back here and claim your victory!

"Any questions before we begin? Racers! Get ready, on your mark..."

[[ and because who doesn't love a good RNG, the results of the race (dependant on who is actually participating, of course!) are: Nina, Octavia, Clare, Astrid, Duke, which is hilarious because I'm pretty sure those last two are easily the strongest swimmers in the class and we can definitely blame either sympathy or god-knows-what's-in-the-water on that XD ]]

Clare was beginning to think the buoys were moving further away as she swum towards them, which would be just dead of of bounds. She focused on not drowning rather than any sort of racing strategy, which ended her up...right in the middle.

That seemed fine.

Duke was in no kind of rush to win any competition here. He was an excellent swimmer and he knew it, so he had nothing to prove. He hung back, watching the others swim ahead, figuring he could kind of playing spare lifeguard in case something went wrong.

Octavia wasn't necessarily the most competitive person. But she was prone to both being stubborn as well as pushing herself to see how far she could go.

Essentially, she was racing herself, with a wholly unnecessary grim sense of determination.

Nina was the most competitive person in the class, she was pretty sure, and between that and her own need and desire to get through this as quickly as possible so that she, as Etoile, could go back to doxing jerks...

Well, Nina was kind of surprised she’d gotten first, having figured Duke would best everyone other than Sidon.

Or, as is most often the case, have Sidon talk at you in great, enthusiastic length...

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Underwater Basket Weaving and Other Aquatic Arts!; Monday, Fourth Period [05/17].

Sign In - Underwater Basket Weaving, 05/17.

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Warm up and Stretching! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

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Re: Warm up and Stretching! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

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Re: Warm up and Stretching! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Warm up and Stretching! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Warm up and Stretching! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Warm up and Stretching! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Warm up and Stretching! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Warm up and Stretching! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Swimming! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Swimming! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Swimming! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Swimming! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Swimming! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Swimming! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Race! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

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Re: Race! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Race! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Race! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Talk to Sidon! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

OOC - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.