open; My girl, linen and curls

[foxsays]

WHO: Araceli Bonaventura; open
WHAT: Beach party
WHEN: Solace 22nd
WHERE: A nice bit of the Wounded Coast
NOTES: As ever, starters in the comments, feel free to make your own. People shockingly having a good time where nothing terrible happens, let me know if anything happens that I need to update for and warn in the headers please! The big beach cookout as mentioned in this post. Also Araceli's birthday, if you want to catch her doing the birthday thing that has a separate starter.

Comments

[foxsays]

It's a rite of passage, some things you have to go through without something else afterwards. And it's on the face. The face bleeds a lot very easily from not very much, I wondered if there were scales to be balanced. [Some lessons have to be learned the hardest way possible and some of the scars on Araceli's body attest to that as she goes to where she's stashed towels so they can sit on the beach without getting sand and shingle in uncomfortable places.]

[eolasemah]

It does. [Sina laughs a little, touching her face, remembering how horrifying she had looked-- and Nari, and their other friends-- on the day of their rituals, as symbolic and important as they were. Blood is always alarming.] I think we just kept them clean. The wounds weren't deep, of course. Just... sore for a while.

linking all the tattoos in one go for laziness

[foxsays]

No one gets more done anywhere else? Mine are for important things: the fox, of course, is for Lux, the anchor and compass for my father and how sailing is so important to us. [Forearms outstretched, tattoos Sina's seen dozens of times but the rest are more easily hidden especially since Skyhold was cold and Araceli not a fan. Turning, she sweeps her hair over her shoulder out of the way.] Whales are special, beautiful and wise, and my father's mother sails now to watch over them and I love them through her. I think I've said much about mermaids to anyone who'll listen but this one makes me think of my mother and how I'd watch her at her vanity.

[Turning back to face Sina, she lies down without a care, points to the one above her heart.]

This is the moon, the tidemaker, and the waves, and this is the heart and lifeblood of my people, and I wouldn't be here without it. I know they'll be there the rest of my life. A map of where I've been. [Not where in a literal sense exactly although for a lot of people that's what it is but how much she's grown and changed and learned as a person.]

[eolasemah]

Oh, they do, [Sina says, nodding quickly,] just not me. I'm not very good with pain.

[Smiling sheepishly, she tucks a strand of wet hair behind her ear and leans in to better see the tattoos, listening quietly as Araceli explains, and inspecting each as one would look at drawings in an art gallery.]

They're beautiful, [she says softly,] I'm glad you have them. [Still sitting up, she takes her weight off one hand to gently brush her friend's hair from her face, smiling fondly.] They make me love you more.

[foxsays]

Not everyone has to be. We have our own strengths and weaknesses. I had done things like fall off rooftops and break my wrists, I had been in duels and been stabbed, I had been shot. Those were-- I was ready for the tattoos, they were less than the other things each time.

[Each time it was always 'there has been worse, I can do this' which has served her oddly well in Thedas because now she's lived through the worst thing and come out the other side of it. Not untouched but she's here. Alive. Whole.]

A mi también. I'm glad you came here today Sina. And that we met. [Guess how much more painful this makes a certain conversation in hindsight, fingerpistols.] You've been such a good friend to me, one of the best and truest. [It's the most natural thing to close the distance and gather Sina close to hug her tight (how many more chances will she get after all?)]

[eolasemah]

[With each new injury listed, Sina cringes further, but it melts away when Araceli pulls her into the embrace. Sina hugs her tightly back, resting her head on her friend's shoulder, inhaling the sea and enjoying the skin-to-skin warmth. Perhaps there's more to it than what meets the eye, but... no reason to dwell on these things.]