The Origional Group of Dorks goes to the beach... Only problem, Ali doesn't know how to swim and is terrified of the water. So, they learn.
We get to the beach, it's nice. Soft sand is beneath our feet and we choose a place to set up. Wynne, Oghren and Sten sit down and Sten reopens his book. Oghren takes a nap and I sit with Wynne on the blanket and she and morrigan help me make a sand castle. Alistair, Zevran and Barky (the dog) ran down to the water and are currently swimming around. Leliana is standing at the waters edge supervising. Because you should never leave those three unattended, same with me. After a while Zevran comes back sopping wet and asks me what I'm doing "why don't you come down and go in the water?!" He asks and pulls me up. I shake my head "nope. It's scary. Not doing it." I reply. He looks at me "The water? Put your foot in at least." I groan "fine." And he leads me down to the shoreline. I look at the ocean apprehensively, then quickly dip my toe in, freak out when the wave comes in and run back to Wynne and Morrigan "it moves!"I say frightfully as I hide behind Wynne. "What moves? The Ocean? Yes, it moves, that's the waves." Morrigan replies looking at me. Leliana comes running back "Are you alright??" She asks obviously concerned. "Their scared of the water." Wynne says not looking up from her book. Leliana looks at me "why are you scared of the water?" She asks looking at me curiously. "I-I don't know how to swim." I mumble looking at my feet. Lelianas expression softens. "You can't swim? That's fine. Do you want to just go look at the water with me? Or stand in the shallow end? Come on, let's go." And gently grasps my hand, she leads me down to the edge and we watch the waves for a moment "See? Nothing to be afraid of." And puts her feet in, I brace myself and step in. "It's cold." I say and then Zevran pops up from underwater and says "you get used to it. It's not so bad." Barky then appears next to him with a ball in his mouth and I laugh and pet him, then throw the ball again and he bounds after it. The three of us stand in the shallows as Leliana explains that because I was stuck in the circle tower I never learned how to swim, and that next time we go to the pool she and Zev, and maybe shale because Shale's a stone Golum and is fairly large so she could just carry me around the water. I don't think she likes sand though, as she hasn't moved from the blanket. When the sun starts to set we go back to our friends with Barkspawn in tow, clean off and then head home. This wasn't such a bad experience even if I'm scared of the water.
Leliana, Zevran, Morrigan, Wynne and I are at the pool today along with Shale. When we went to the beach a few weeks ago Zev and Leli promised they'd teach me how to swim, so that's what we're doing today, Shale and Morrigan are helping them out, and Wynne is being the lifeguard and overseer. Zevran jumps in right away, while Leliana goes in via the steps. I sit on the side with morrigan kicking my feet for a few minutes and getting used to the water as we sit on the steps. Then Leliana shows me how to blow bubbles and kick my feet and float without sinking. Their doing it like you would teach a child, through games and little things like that. Then Zevran grabs my hands and then walks around as I kick my feet, we may or may not have purposely splashed Wynne who then got a cup filled with water and threw it at us. It was funny. And of corse Shake had to do something and I was getting tired so she scooped me up and we chased Zevran and Morrigan around laughing hysterically, and giggling in delight. Because what's better than chasing your friends around from the arms of a six foot tall (at least) stone golom? Answer : basically nothing. And so that is how I learned to swim. It was fun, and I have to say I prefer pools to the ocean because the waves and the fact that there's still fish and sharks and stuff I still find kind of terrifying.
The End.
Based off a comic I saw on tumblr of how Alistair would be that guy at the beach who wears socks and sandals and I was like "wait, if Ali went to the circle when they were two... Ok their going to learn how to swim in the cutest way I need to write this."
Until next time,
M
That is indeed a cute way of learning how to swim.
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, I can see Alistair with socks and sandals.
[if he was mountaineering or hiking that might have been better understood - change in terrain is good for sandals - not the dress kind - but more all-terrain].
Scooped up in the arms of a golum, hey?
[Danusha Goska wrote this awesome piece about the golem's world].
Fish and sharks and stuff. The oceans are getting warmer - so more sharks.
And these visual forms are good.
"IT MOVES!"
I know right!
ReplyDeleteWhen Hawke was teaching Fenris to read he used the "A is for..." Type things. If you look at the tag "Fenris learns to read" on my tumblr you'll see it, I highly suggest looking at it, it's adorable and always makes me smile.
Oh check tumblr there's a comic and then another one in the same thing of morrigan setting them on fire so the world ones not need to witness such a monstocity.
That would make more sense yes.
Yes, Shale is a stone golum.
Cool!
That's not good!!!!!!!!
What do you mean?
"IT MOVES!!! Afjdgjhsgkdfhj *Runs away*"
KEYSMASH FOR THE WIN!
DeleteI mean: using the comic as a basis for your writing. And being able to see/visualise/feel the characters.
It often works with paintings, drawings, multimedia.
No, the world doesn't need to see that monstrosity!
Shale/stone. That makes sense. Do golems in your world have names based on their materials?
Yeah!!!!
DeleteOk that makes sense.
True.
No they don't!
Good job DA:o writers. Only Ali, Garret (Hawke) and Marien are my characters. The rest are canon DA characters who I just put in because they are part of plot (when there is one that is) So I think Shale is possibly made of Shale stone. Most Golems do not have names. I think shale's the only named one.
I'd be more scared of the Portuguese Man of War than a shark. They tend to inhabit Pacific waters. Is this ocean more similar to the Pacific, Atlantic, or Indian Ocean?
ReplyDeleteTrue, those sound terrifying. It's closer to the Atlantic Ocean. As Fereldan is usually cold, and borders the eastern sea.
DeleteAny headcanons on your other characters' swimming abilities?
DeleteWell, I know that all my TES characters can swim at least reasonably well, and have a little headcanon that Valan and Sammie may have had some seafaring adventures (literally just go watch Pirates of the Caribbean but think of Jack Sparrow as Valan. It's highly amusing.) The beginning of Daggerfall starts with a shipwreck so Juliette needed to know how to swim. And the rest can just swim at the average level. As for Dragon Age we know Ali's terrified of the ocean and previously didn't know how to swim. And as for Zariad (my city Elven rouge from the Deriem alianage) he can swim a little and Garret Hawke can swim as he's pushed Isabela off the docks so many times she goes and pulls him in, or next time she sees him smacks him upside the head. And Marien Jade, the unkind inquisitor can swim the best of them all, so that heightens tensions even more between the little elven warden whose very novice at swimming due to being stuck in a tower pretty much their entire life and the human who learned how to swim when they were 3 and were breed on the propaganda that elves are bad and greedy and 2nd class citizens.
DeleteIn the Witcher Geralt can swim. Which is good because Yennefer teleports him into the lake.
Fallout: Depends on the game. One can't and two others can.
Oh and all the Neverwinter crew can
DeleteI'm thinking of V and S and their swimming adventures.
DeleteMy OCs were all required to learn to swim as part of combat proficiency. Emmeline is a competitive swimmer, which makes her abilities more pronounced. Caitlin is deathly afraid of the water, but she can swim backstroke very well. Steve is best at breastroke, but he cannot swim freestyle. (He is just terrible at water combat in general.) Alex can swim all strokes including butterfly stroke. Adrian is similarly proficient in swimming. Part of Alice's job is delivering packages and gathering raw materials. This means she sometimes has to kill squids for ink and go noodling in areas that do not permit the use of fishing poles. She can swim only freestyle and backstroke, but she can get the job done. Mark swims freestyle best as does Landon. Andrew cannot swim specific strokes, but he has a knack for finding underwater objects.
DeleteReally if you go watch PotC and just imagine Will Turner and Jack Sparrow as Sammie and Valan it makes quite a bit of sense. And is very amusing
DeleteVery interesting! Ah ha, how long has she been swimming competition? She would like Ali, they'd have that in common, and a few other things. Only Ali is more hyperactive, but wouldn't you if you were stuck in a tower since you were two years old? That must be hard work for Alice. What kinds of things does Andrew find?