Sun Hangover {OPEN}

[willem van der holt]

“I see,” he riposted. He took a psychology class back when he was living and schooling in France, but the French had a very radical, very different take on the human mind. They homogenously believe that people are born with a very specific fate; one that cannot be decided or altered. As such, their entire existence was predetermined long before they were even born. In many respects, Chai had adopted this sort of mentality and sometimes wondered if this was just his destiny. He didn’t remember ever decided to be such a kind, jovial soul and sometimes he felt as though things just happened to him without control. If that were the case though, than the ruthless members of societies like murderers had absolutely no control of their actions, and how could one decided to punish someone who couldn’t be liable for what they had just committed? It was quite confusing to Chai, who had come from a country that didn’t employ the death penalty, how one person could decide whether another or not lived.

He didn’t dwell on the thought long before shrugging it off and letting it all leave his consciousness. Again, he shrugged, “It does not need to make sense,” he said, scratching his fingers through his tussels of hair. Casserole, he was sure, studied psychology because he enjoyed it and because she wanted to help people, as she said, he didn’t need to understand anything more than that. It was the same reason he studied politics—he liked it. There was nothing wrong with that. He laughed a little, “But politics makes sense to me,” he mused, “Psychology is so difficult.” At least, for him it was and it wasn’t something he ever planned on studying again.

“I like politics because one person can change world,” he explained, “And not all politics is evil. I mean, Ghandi was a Politician,” he rubbed his nose a little, almost looking as he was about to sneeze before recovering. Sure, there was many evil things that politics could, and did, do, but there was also many good things that could be done, as well. “I like America,” he admitted finally, shifting his honey gaze to the window, looking out over the long stretch of eventide beach, “I want to make it even better.”

[cassidy aurora hawkins]

Cass's smile softened a bit as she watched Chai. She loved how positively he looked at politics. Granted, in America it wasn't perfect and he was being a little ambitious about changing the world, but she loved that he was so passionate about something. A lot of the people she had met since moving to Florida were just kind of seeing what happened and where things were taking them. Cass loved people who were passionate, opinionated and dedicated.

"I like how positive you are," she finally said, still smiling. "It's harder for me to be that way about politics because Ireland doesn't exactly have the most peaceful history when it comes to that."

Moving her gaze to the window with Chai's, she sighed happily. "I do enjoy America too though. Do you go swimming often?"

[willem van der holt]

Ooc|| kay XD I’m going to take some liberties and say they’ve ordered their food, if you don’t mind? Just because... well. They’ve just been sitting there starving for a while now. I hope this is OK with you. If it’s not, let me know, and I’ll change my post. ^^

“Well,” he dismissed a little, “Even if I change the world of one person and make their life happy,” he rubbed his fingers along the back of his neck. As he did so, the little black tattoo of the royal crown on his inner wrist showed a little; he had gotten it done as a symbol for the authority he had in his own life. From time to time, he managed to lose sight of that and would be subject to feeling weak and hopeless, especially in a land that was so foreign to him and him to it. A smile tugged on the corner of his lips, glancing back to Cass and nodding a little but their conversation was disrupted when the waitress put their food down in front of them. Chai’s rather barren salad of leaves, cucumbers, tomatoes, and squash, was a quite colourful array on the plate in front of him and he looked delightfully excited over his meal. Having been romping around in the sand all day had given him quite the appetite and he wasn’t quite in the mood to cook anything for himself at the moment.

“I like be, uhm, to be, I like to be a optimist,” if he didn’t have optimism, he probably wouldn’t have made it for this long in America. Sure, he had many friends here on this island from all walks of life, but it was never an easy road adjusting from one culture to another—especially since he didn’t speak a word of the language when he arrived. He had managed to find several Spanish speakers when he first came to town, who helped him translate between Spanish and English, though. Without them, he wasn’t sure how he would have coped with the culture shock. Speaking of them, he decided he would have to send them a text later as it had been some time since he spoke to either of them.

“Yes, America is very nice,” giggling a little and shaking his head as he picked up his fork, “I do not know to swim,” he explained. In the Netherlands, a land of practically perpetual winter, they had beaches—but they were cold, rocky, unforgiving places. No one ever had a reason to build a swimming pool either because, even in summer, the temperatures were chilly with the arctic winds coming off the waters from the North. On occasion, the Dutch managed to get one or two warm, nice days, but those were far and few in-between. As such, Dutch people didn’t really learn to swim, as there was no point. “I need to get those child duck arm…” he didn’t know how to even remotely begin saying what he was talking about, he whimpered a little, “those thing that make children no drown?” he dissolved in to a quick bout of laughter, who knew describing child floaty wings could be so difficult.

[cassidy aurora hawkins]

[that's fine xD]

Cass had dove into her food with great enthusiasm and looked up at Chai in shock, swallowing the large bite she had in her mouth. "You don't know how to swim?" she gasped. As far as Cass was concerned, everyone knew how to swim. She knew it was silly to think that they were all as obsessed with it and as skilled at it as she was, but still.

Cass was basically a human fish. She would swim in any body of water you would let her near, regardless of temperature. Swimming was the one thing that made her happiest in the world, and she would spend hours just doing laps until she felt like her arms and legs would fall off. The water was the one place where she felt more in control and more connected than other people did.

Setting down her burger authoritatively, she declared, "I will teach you how to swim. I'm on OIU's swim team and I used to teach little kids back in Ireland." She laughed at his description of the floaties. "Those are water wings," she corrected. "We'll get you some of those and an inner tube...that goes around your waist. I won't let you drown, I promise!"

[willem van der holt]

Ooc|| Sorry about the delay! Somehow, I missed your post! D=

“Oh,” he laughed, a little bit stiff sounding as he more of pushed leaves around his plate than actually ate them, “Why learn to swim in Netherlands?” he laughed, “it is cold and snowy almost all year,” he pointed out. Plus, the Dutch were more concerned over their football than bothering with swimming. It was just something he never learned, although he was sure he could float around without sinking easily enough. He hadn’t even bothered to swim in America much. He’d plunge in the ocean up to his knees, but that was about the extent of his swimming adventures.

He finally began to pick squabbishly at his salad. Chai was eating uninterestedly, almost unwillingly, but was, for some unknown reason, still bringing up the tender, green leaves to his lips. For some reason or another, the lithe boy had lost his interest in his salad and was now poking it like a young child to a corpse of an animal. “Oh no,” he shook his head, looking a little shocked when she offered to give him swimming lessons, “We can go to the beach and I will splash,” he waved a hand flippantly, setting down his fork for a moment so he could pick up his glass of water.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to swim; it’s just that he couldn’t imagine himself being very successful. His body was long and thin, like a noodle, and noodles just didn’t withstand water well. Plus, Chai didn’t have many shreds of dignity left, but he wasn’t about to hand over the last of them by wearing water wings, “I am so tall, I could stand anywhere in the pool,” he chuckled. Of course, he knew that wasn’t true, but he was pretty tall.

[cassidy aurora hawkins]

[don't worry about it! <3]

Cass had taken a few more large bites of her food while Chai was talking and looked a little sad when he said no. She quickly recovered, smirking slightly.

"You'd be a good swimmer," she replied, trying not to push him into something he didn't want. "The taller and skinnier you are the better you are, especially if you're a male." She shrugged. "I don't have to teach you if you don't want to," she added with a smile. "I just thought it would be fun."

After sipping her drink, she wiped her hands on her napkin. "You should come to the men's swim meets with me when they start up so you can see," she grinned. "You should see how tall they are!"