2015.08.14 - Lakeside Advice

*Liam mopes about recent developments, but gets some unexpected advice.*

August 14, 2015

Beacon Hills Lake

Evening in Beacon Hills, and the lake's quiet. Earlier during the day it was all a-bustle, of course, the warm weather bringing out the swimmers and boaters. But now everyone's gone home, and it's a perfect place to gather one's thoughts. Probably why there's Nadya sitting in a lawn chair outside that RV parked near the shore, a little camp lantern lit beside her, apparently watching the night sky reflected in the water.

Liam Dunbar is moping, not a word most teens use to describe their actions, though usually an accurate one. He walks up to the lake, which he had apparently jogged to and sits on a rock sighing. It was an 'I want attention' sigh if there ever was such a thing, and he picks up a rock and tries to skip it... then remembers that he doesn't know how to skip rocks, but that doesn't deter him.

The mopey teenager is allowed to stew in his thoughts for a little while, a few rocks plunking into the water, before there's the creak of the lawn chair and footsteps along the shore. "There's a trick to it," is apparently Nadya's idea of a greeting as she bends to pick up a stone of her own, holding it up so Liam can see and grinning at him, then flicking the rock out onto the lake. Three skips! "Helps if you find a flat one, too."

Liam Dunbar falls off the rock. Yep that's Liam, and the sheepish look on his face as he looks up at the older woman pretty much sums up half his personality in a second. After half a second he gets up and looks for a flat rock and tries it again, not saying a word, but trying to flick his wrist the way Nadya did, and does manage a single skip. hardly impressive but it made him forget his troubles for half a second and grin.

"There, see? Now it's just practice," applauds the woman, hooking her thumbs into her belt and watching the lake instead of Liam for a bit. "You live around here? It's nice. Quiet from what I've seen so far." And whereas Liam's bumbly and still trying to find his own metaphorical feet, Nadya seems to be so well-grounded she might as well sprout roots. Calm and cheerful, that's her.

Liam Dunbar is a puppy sometimes cocky sometimes insecure and usually dopey. He tries again, "Eh it is sometimes, and other times its crazy." He tries again and gets a plunk again, then again and gets another single skip, "But I guess things change right? And before you can get used to a change another happens and another and another. Do things ever slow down enough for you to catch our breath?" Its pretty clear he's talking about somethign else, or maybe he's not maybe he's just talking to talk.

Nadya seems content to watch as Liam keeps trying with the rocks, not moving to interfere, letting him get a feel for things on his own. "Oh, it'll slow down eventually. People get tired, if nothing else. Just need a bit of patience, sometimes." She bends to pick up a rock of her own again, finally, and nudges Liam in the shoulder to get his attention. "Hold it in the crook of your finger like this, and flick. It's more like a frisbee than a baseball." She mimes the motion once, slowly, then sends the rock spinning out onto the lake for three flat skips and a final high, spinning bounce before it plunks into the water.

Liam Dunbar watches grateful for the distraction and tries it himself mimicing the angel and flick and how she held the rock, He only gets 2 skips , but its an improvement. "Thanks! Um I'm Liam by the way." He looks for another skipping rock idly and sort of half perches back on his rock, a slight smile warring with his mopey mood. He has that look about him, something that just screams teen relationship drama, something about the way he sits or the type of sigh, its very unique and identifiable.

Nadya meanwhile has the look of someone that's seen that particular look way, way too often and can probably smell it from 100 yards. "I'm Nadya," she replies, her normally barely-there accent thickening when she speaks the name. Slavic, definitely. "Trying to sort some stuff out, huh?"

Liam Dunbar nods and finds another rock and tries skipping it again getting a second bounce again makes the corner of his lip twitch, "Yeah... I got kicked out of school. Was getting used to public school and made some friends, then got well mixed with a weird crowd and that took getting used to, still trying to figure that out, and I met a guy. I didn't think i like guys. I mean My best friend does and that's cool. But I don't... but then I met Ethan and well.. Yeah... So I get sorta almost used to that set up this really cool date and he tells me he has to leave for family business for a while... but he'll be visiting all the time and skype and stuff... but... I mean we just met and now he's gone." Liam suddenly blinks and realizes he just told his life story to a stranger, well parts of it anyway.. and goes quiet suddenly and tries to skip another rock.

Nadya clicks her tongue, a smile pulling her mouth to one side as she regards the boy, "Oi, so not just relationship trouble but separation anxiety. Bednyy rebenok." Yup, that was Russian alright. "It'll even out, kiddo. Like I said, things calm down if you're just a little patient. Not like he's falling off the face of the earth, right?" Not even a moment of judgement about any of it, just somewhat amused sympathy and a mildly teasing 'punch' at Liam's shoulder that barely even nudges him.

Liam Dunbar shakes his head and smiles, "I mean its not just that. Its well.. Its everything. So many changes and I can't get a handle on one before another happens. " He shakes his head and this time just picks up a normal rock and hurls it into the lake with a giant plunk... and that rock was about the size of his head. The kid definitely has some muscle. "Thanks. I'm not ready to tell my family yet. Not that they'd care, other than make me leave my door open when my best friend came over and stuff. And my friends well... I don't know..." He just sighs again.

"So don't grab at things," is the offhand advice from Nadya, her hands going back into her pockets as she watches the ripples from Liam's rock. "Change happens, whether or not we want it to. Sit back and breathe a bit." As though to illustrate, she takes a long, slow breath in through her nose, filling her lungs before letting it back out through her mouth, "Not saying ignore things, but stressing out about stuff you can't control doesn't help, da?"

Liam Dunbar shakes his head and smiles a bit, and instead of looking for another rock he just watches the ripples from the one he plunked, okay maybe it was more a small boulder, but still. He watches the ripples come out and finds it oddly relaxing. He closes his eyes after that and takes a few deep breaths, "I should just go with it instead of worrying huh? Talk with him laugh share silly stories, and let whatever happens happen. Instead of worrying about what might happen."

"Exactly." It might be notable that Nadya didn't even seem a bit surprised by the size of the rock Liam tossed. But then again, Liam might be too distracted by his own troubles at the moment. "Life goes on, kiddo. You might get run over by a beer truck tomorrow. So you deal with what you can control and let the rest sort itself out." Again she reaches out to the boy, patting him on the back, "Besides, fuss too much and he stresses out too, yeah?"

Liam Dunbar nods and gives a smile though his mind is now on the werewolfy question of would he heal if he got ran over by a beer truck. And that makes his brows furl for a second until he decides he probably doesn't want to know. "Yeah .. You give good advice." He leans back and tries to skip another rock and it bounces twice again. He looks over at her again, "Thanks you're really cool."

Nadya just grins, leaving her hand on Liam's shoulder for a bit before taking it back and looking up at the sky, "I've had some practice. And good teachers of my own. You just learn to not sweat the small stuff, eventually. Or go crazy over it, I guess." A pause, a shrug, then she kicks at some pebbles thoughtfully, "Either way, life goes on."

Liam Dunbar nods and says, "Or you go after your coach's car with a crowbar and get kicked out of school.." He looks sheepish and nods, "I really need to try to relax." He jumps as his phone beeps on him and types a quick response. "Are you out here often?" Liam doesn't usually just relax or take a breath he's either working out doing school work or somethign else active, he's never actually been out here before to just think.

Nadya snickers before tsking theatrically at Liam, "Yeah, that sort of thing causes trouble, I've noticed." Pulling her hands out of her pockets the woman stretches, reaching for the sky and going up on her toes a moment before settling back to her heels, "Not really. Just rolled into town a few days ago, seeing what's around, that kind of thing." She nods back towards her camper, "Kind of nice, taking your home with you." She and Liam are down by the edge of the lake, apparently tossing rocks, while her camper sits nearby with a lawn-chair and a lit camp lantern outside.

Liam Dunbar grins a bit, "Yeah that would be cool being able to go where ever you wanted to. And still be at home." His mind is obviously still on his guy, but he doesn't seem as sad about it any more instead he just pulls out his phone and sends another text this one different and leaves him smiling. He was half perched on a rock and still trying to get the hang of skipping stones.

"There's downsides, of course," Nadya shrugs, though she's regarding the old Winnebago with a fond smile. "Lot of official crap wants a fixed address, that kind of thing. Lots of stuff you need to make sure you've taken care of. And the damn thing has lousy gas mileage, tell you what."

Liam Dunbar nods and smiles leaning back on the rock, "I don't think I've ever just sat and looked at a lake before. Ya know? I'm always doing stuff, trying to be the best working out studying. Trying to show everony how good I am. I don't think.." He shakes his head and grins "Yeah I can imagine and if it breaks down you're stuck where ever you are. Of course if your house doesn't move you're stuck there anyway. So I guess its not that different." His brain was still jumping between multiple things but mostly was thinking about the advice from earlier. And Ethan.

"Sometimes you really do just need to stop /doing/ and just /be/, I think," Nadya agrees, looking back to the lake. "Everyone has things to do, places to be, yadda yadda. So many of them forget to pay attention to who they are under all that. You're, what, fifteen? Ish?" An eyebrow gets cocked towards Liam, but she doesn't really wait for his response before continuing, "Thirty years from now, the world'll still be going around the sun, and you'll look back at what you were worrying about today and think it's just so silly. Life works that way, usually."

Liam Dunbar blinks and nods, "Yeah still in highschool." His phone beeps again a few times. "I don't know about that, but... heh maybe." He does take a second to respond then closes his eyes. He takes a deep breath and for once tries to just be. Of course that's easier if you're not a were wolf and can't smell emotions and just about every thing else, but he found by the second or third breath he could make sense of a lot of it, and push some smells down and may attention to others. He then sniffs the air, "Oh you might want to check your um.. fuel line? I think you've got a gas leak. Might be why your mileage sucks?"

Nadya's scent, if you take a moment to actually think about it, is complicated. Almost like she spends a lot of time in a spice cabinet, lots of herb scents, dirt, tree bark, that kind of thing. "Maybe. The poor thing's so old I'm pretty sure some parts are just giving up, it's a rolling work in progress." She's still smiling at it like someone would regard a loved pet, though. "We've been all up and down this side of the country together."

Liam Dunbar likes Nadya's scent, though he cant identify most of it. He'd probably just lump it up into saying she smelled like hippy. But in a nice way! He then stretches, "Its getting late and i should probably make an appearance at home. Maybe even stay there since I don't have a reason to sneak out... Or maybe I might show up later. Talk more if you're here... And if not... just uh what was it you said? Just 'be' for a while?"

Nadya turns to grin at Liam, "Yeah, wouldn't want your folks getting worried." Again she reaches out to pat his shoulder encouragingly, "Might want to make it a thing, something to practice. Just find a moment where you're not doing anything and just stop for a bit. Listen to the wind and feel the sun on your face." Then she looks up at the sky a moment before nodding to the boy, "But yeah, getting late. Safe trip home, keep an eye out you don't twist an ankle, dark out."

Liam Dunbar smiles after all wolves have great night vision, but he couldn't tell her that. And while he wasn't exactly as stealthy as a certain cat he did just sort of walk away and vanish. A few moment later he's running on all fours and is gone, he seriously needs to get a bike or a moped runnign everywhere is exhausting even for a wolf.