Breaking the Loop (Alicia)

IC Month: Mid Spring
IC Setting: Early afternoon, at the edge of Lake Therma. Unusually warm day, bit cloudy though, as if it might rain later.

Sometimes he thought his life was too repetitive.

Like...like a math problem. A+B=C, over and over again. Now, in math, Zachariah loved it. He loved how - how everything just fit, how it all had its niche in the giant web that was math, and it was all intertwined so tightly and incredibly, and if one could only figure it out then they could do - well, practically anything! He loved how, in math, there was a place for everything and everything was in its place. How it was all so elusive and odd and ever-changing...even as it remained exactly the same. Always the same. Math was like - like a giant tapestry, where as a whole it was a jumble of color and shapes and lines...but if you looked closer, you found there was a pattern, that there were a million little patterns that all came together as a whole. Math was just great that way. Math was timeless. But always the same.

Zachariah loved that - in math. But in real life? The same thing over and over again - knowing that nothing would ever change, that tomorrow you'd be doing the same thing, or a slightvariant, on what you did today? In math, it was wonderful - in life, it was boring. Zacha loved his life. He loved what he did. He loved how it seemed that, now he was at the Caldera, now everything seemed to be going okay, he could do what he wanted, have fun, to his favorite things, over and over again. At first that was great. But now...well, it was just starting to get repetitive. Over and over again, who wanted that their whole life? It seemed these days all he did was eat, swim, play around with friends, practice his acrobatics, do math (yes, for fun, as he didn't have a tutor in it but still loved to do it), and sometimes talk with Claudia or her friends.

Was that really all his life contained? Was it all it was? Surely there was more than that to it. And yet...here he was, down by the lake again, just like yesterday, and the day before....It seemed like his life was starting to feel like...like when you eat nothing but pie for a month. It might be your favorite food in the world, but by the end of the month, after you've eaten nothing but that, it tastes like soggy cardboard.

Great. His life was no better than soggy cardboard. What a cheery thought.

Zacha shook his head, trying to get rid of the depressing thoughts. He wasn't usually this down, but today, for some reasons, his spirits were lower than Aunt Claudia's chances of getting a date (don't ever tell her he thought that). It was a warm day, if somewhat cloudy, and the water looked nice. He should be swimming. He should be having fun swimming. What was it about today that made him feel so lethargic? He could walk on his hands until his face was blue and do several backflips in a row, but it was too much effort to get up, walk five feet, and jump in the lake. And his own uselessness - that's how he felt at the moment: useless - was starting to really irritate him.

Enough that, with a frown and a determined grunt, he pushed himself onto his feet. He'd been laying in the sandy bit around the lake watching the sky, which was growing cloudy but didn't promise rain for another few hours probably, but now he decided it was time to do something. So, he waded into the water, which was mercifully warm as it always was, and, when he got deep enough, threw himself down into the water, ompletely submerging himself. The teenager came back up shaking his head fiercely, but feeling a bit better. Maybe swimming would make the unsettling depression that weighed heavily on his shoulders lift. and afterward......well, maybe not. For most of the time, when he had troubles and felt stressed-out, he'd lose himself in studying math for a while; it always, always helped to clear his head. But this time he wasn't so sure he wanted to; it might just remind him of how he was feeling now and make it worse.

Great. Now even math was failing him.

Frustrated, Zachariah grit his teeth and shook his head again sharply. This was doing him no good at all. Maybe if he just swam for a while, he'd feel better. So he did; for almost an hour he swam, doing laps around the lake, diving down to crawl on the bottom for as long as his air would last, doing handstands in the water - everything he could think of. And he did feel better, too....his spirits were lighter, though he still felt a gray shadow looming over him, nearly as tangible as the clouds above.

When he was exhausted and thinking he must be shriveled as a prune from the water, he climbed out and lay down in the sand to dry off - unfortunately there wasn't too much sun left, and he hadn't thought to bring a towel. Oh well, he'd dry anyway.

What he really needed, he decided, was a distraction. From? Well, from how he felt, from his morbid thoughts....He wanted to talk to someone. but not, oh, but not to aunt Claudia! He shuddered to think of it; he was sure he'd be bombarded with questions trying to examine every thing that had ever happened that might have led to such things. He did not like it when Aunt Claudia decided to go all psychologist on him. Psychology was cool.....to watch, or think about, but Zacha did not like feeling like a guinea pig under a magnifying glass. Not her. Maybe he'd go to the Dining Hall or somewhere later, sit down at a table with a bunch of strangers and just join in the random chatter. Might be worth it.

But he knew what he would do. The sudden new determination was so great that he sat up, staring out at the lake, He would change...well, something. Even if it just meant doing one extra job, trying one more thing...he'd find a way to make his life change. Somehow. Maybe I'll Impress a dragon. The thought came out of nowhere, and he tilted his head, examining the idea. He had to be proclaimed adequate - but he could find a geneticist and ask, right? Maybe.... It would be interesting. And it would certainly be change. But...he didn't know. There was just something about dragons...They seemed awesome and all, able to talk inside people's heads and stuff like that, and fly, but....he didn't know. Maybe it was just how big they were - after all, he'd seen the size of the hatchlings, and they were just babies! No...maybe he wouldn't Impress a dragon after all. But...

I'll do something, he decided. somehow, i'll break the loop.

((Wow, crazy huh? Didn't expect him to be so dramatic. anyway, just throw Ali in whenever ^_^))

Alicia darted quickly from the main caverns towards the thermal lake. She had been inside, debating what to do all morning, because all of her friends for once were otherwise occupied. Most of them had picked up jobs around the weyr and were doing that, and all but two of the rest were visiting family nearby! That did leave the two, but, well, she had seen them running off to the woods outside the weyr and had no doubt they were up to no good. So she finally came to the conclusion that, in absence of her normal friends, she would resort to her second-favorite pasttime: Swimming!

It had taken no time at all to throw on her swimsuit, throw a tshirt over it all, and grab a towel. In fact, she grabbed two, because she often liked to use one on her hair alone. With all her things in line, Ali had made her move.

She was so busy moving in fact, and her attention on the lake, that she barely noticed the young man laying on the sands. It came as no surprise that she nearly walked right into him, and quickly burst out, "Sorry, sorry! Did not see you! Are you okay?"

Zacha lapsed into a half-doze, staring through half-open lids towards the sun that was slowly being eaten by thin, grey clouds. Stratus clouds, he vaguely recalled; it meant no hard rain, but soon enough a steady drizzle would ensue. He should go inside, before it started, but he didn't want to move. Part of his thought he'd rather be out here in the rain and mud than inside.

He let his mind drift in a lazy listlessness, and it gradually lifted the depressive feelings pushing down on him. Suddenly a female voice brought him back to the present, and he opened his eyes fully, looking up at the girl that stood over him in surprise. He had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. Why wouldn't he be okay? And then, as his brain caught up with his senses, he realized what she meant; she must have nearly stepped on him. He quickly scrambled to sit up, shaking sand out of his dreadlocks as he did so.

"Yeah, no problem. I'm fine," he assured her, looking up so he could get a good look at the girl. She looked about his age, skinny with red hair and green eyes, freckles and a still pretty flat chest. Hell, maybe younger than him. Pretty, though. She was wearing but a long t-shirt, obviously over a bathing suit. "You didn't pick the bets time to swim, though," he added with a gesture to the sky. "Rain's coming. I'm Zachariah - you can call me Zacha." Yes, the sudden change of subjects from the rai nto his name was, well - typically teenage-boyish actually, so shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

Ali shook her head and quickly looked back and forth, then up at the sky. "Yeah okay. And it is? Great!" She swore. "Just when I was hoping to get some good time in and all that. Well, now I have nothing to do again," she muttered.

She then paused and looked up and down at Zacha. She had not met him before, but he was cute. Looked to be about her age and in good shape, quite attractive really. Maybe she could spend time with him instead. It was better than being stuck outside with the rain if it came. Even though the lake would be warm, it was just not fun to walk back to the caverns in rain.

"I'm Alicia but you can call me Ali," the young gal said, sticking out her hand with a devious grin spreading on her face. "Well, if its gonna rain out both of us, and we both seem fit for water, should we go somewhere like the bathing caverns and soak for a while?" Oooh, the hunt was up in her blood. She knew that much!

Listening to the girl, it was easy to tell that she minded the rain much more than he did. Zacha really didn't see what was wrong with swimming in the rain; if you stayed under, you wouldn't even know it was there. And it actually made swimming more interesting, disrupting the water and whatnot. Even walking back once you got out didn't seem like a problem to him - after all, you were already wet.

But hey, maybe she thought differently. How was he to know? Not everyone felt the same way as he did. Of course, he always preferred a sunny day over a rainy day, too; who didn't? But whatever, not like it really mattered. Though apparently she thought she had nothing to do....Well, Zacha could easily sympathize with that. Of course he had several things he had that he could do when he was bored, but there were enough times when every one of them got old that he could relate.

Zacha quickly stood up so he could shake the girl's hand, and did so, noting her firm grip. Ali, huh? "Alicia's a nice name," he said honestly, grinning. He noticed her grin, a strangely mischievous grin, and wondered what she was thinking to produce such a look.

"Well, if its gonna rain out both of us, and we both seem fit for water, should we go somewhere like the bathing caverns and soak for a while?"

He blinked. So....that's what she was thinking. Honestly he was perfectly happy out here....and wasn't quite sure why she was asking him. But...bathing caverns? Huh.He hadn't thought about that. He hadn't been planning on going inside, but now that he thought about it, that was actually...a really good idea. A good soak in hot water might be nice; it occurred to him for the first time the flaw in his plan of staying outside: the rain was cold. Of course, a bath wasn't a swimming pool, and others would get annoyed if he tried to do anything fun, but he could stand being still for a while....

He refocused on her with a dawning grin, and couldn't help but notice how pretty she was again. "Uh...yeah. Sure," he agreed ,thoughts momentarily jumbled. A short soak would be nice. The boy was obviously oblivious to Alicia's intentions, which were probably slightly naughtier than his own; what he was envisioning was a soak where they could maybe chat, of course he with his shorts on and she with....something still on, of course. He honestly wasn't even contemplating the idea that she might be envisioning a different scene. But then, Zacha was like that; still fairly uneducated in such ideas.

Ali gave a glance up and down Zacha again. He certainly was cute, and his handshake was nice upon her own. He had strong hands, and she liked that. With another grin she said, "Perfect! The best thing about going to the bathing caverns at this time is that no one should be in there; I hate when I go and I can't just relax by myself in the pools."

She held onto his hand, giving it a little tug. She certainly would enjoy seeing more of this boy, and seeing if she could maybe get him to give her a backrub. This afternoon was not going to be so bad after all maybe. It was certainly better than work!

For a moment Ali wondered how old he was. He certainly seemed right about her age and looked like some of the boys his age. She wondered how she had not had the fortune to run into him before, and felt she had best find out why. "I've never seen you around before; do you work somewhere around here? I help out cooking in the kitchens sometimes, myself."

This time Zacha did notice the way Ali's gaze swept over him, and he fidgeted slightly, as if her stare was a physical touch. For some reason her eyes on him sent a shiver down his spine, as if a cold finger had run itself down it. He nearly missed her next words, but remembered in time to listen. Nobody at the bathing caverns? Well, he supposed that was a good thing - maybe he could get away with doing some tricks in the hot water after all, without getting angry looks for it.

He made to let go of her hand after shaking it, but her fingers wouldn't let his go, and in another moment she was tugging him along back towards the caverns. He stumbled after her for a moment before gaining his balance, and caught up, glancing sideways at Alicia. "In a hurry, are we?" he couldn't resist asking with a small grin. She still hadn't let go of his hand, but he found he didn't really mind.

"I've never seen you around before; do you work somewhere around here? I help out cooking in the kitchens sometimes, myself."

Zacha shook his head, dreadlocks brushing against his cheek as he did so. "No, I don't really work," he admitted freely, shrugging. "Not beyond the chores set to me. I live in the Living Quarters with my Aunt Claudia - Claudia Martingale. Though if you've ever seen her you can probably figure out she isn't my real aunt, but she took me in when my parents died. "

He paused; he hadn't really meant to say all that. At the end he fought to keep his voice steady; he'd thought he'd gotten over the death of his parents, his mother by illness and his father by Threadscore, but the hurt and grievance was still there, buried deep. How, he wondered, had Ali brought it up so easily? His hand automatically went to the small, exposed Threadscore on his shoulder, the messy scars that crisscrossed each other over the klah-colored flesh. As soon as he realized what he was doing he dropped his arm to his side again, shaking his head.

"Sorry....It's the first time I'd thought of them in a while. I guess - I'm not really...over it yet, even though it was a long time ago." A long time being two or three years, which to him in his 15 years of living [i]was[//i] a long time. "I still miss them sometimes, you know?"

He frowned; suddenly this had turned kinda sober. He tried to push the weight of his remembered sadness away, not wanting to inflict Ali with it as well. In a see-through attempt to change the subject, he said the first thing he thought of: "So you said you work in the kitchens? Is it a good job?"

((sorry, didn't expect him to turn the mood over like that xD))