2020-09-24 - Gyreworks Presents: Beach Battles!

Faces were painted and root beers sampled!

When you tell Rekani there’s a beach festival, you don’t get half-measures. He’d shown up, dressed in a patterned A shirt, shorts, flip-flops, and his signature crisp, white fanny pack, ready to have a blast. His super double agent girlfriend likely reluctantly in tow, he’d gone about the food vendors, nabbing samples where he could, buying the sweetest and most fried where he couldn’t.He took the idea of the coming competitions seriously, though. Alcohol was eschewed for water, he kept the vape hits to a minimum. That doesn't stop him from being ridiculous, though. One of his first stops was the face painting booth next to Sweet Retreat’s stand, paying Kailey to give him a big ridiculous monarch butterfly over his face. Once he looked ready for a Brazillian Carnival, he was ready to compete.

He was pretty pleased to at least not be the worst looking failure in the first round that showed losses. He knew he wasn’t going to do well. Balance was never his thing, and his height pretty much sunk him. Likewise, the size mismatch between himself and the slight Kip had meant they’d ended up dead last, but thankfully without wiping out like a few of the other teams.

He was all smiles and laughter going into Tug-O-War. He gave his co-worker Dhalia a high-five on his way to take up anchor spot. He looked across at Aidan, putting index and pinky toward his eyes, then pointing at Aidan. I see you. he was miming, but grinning. Half-wrapping the end of the rope around himself, he counted on his size to at least assist in the battle. Once time was called, he struggled and pulled, his face turning red in effort. It started good, making some ground, then lost it. It was a hard fought battle, and could have gone either way.

Then he put a foot wrong. He was leaning back and the sand squished beneath his weight and slipped. His ankle curled under. He lifted the leg immediately and slammed it back down, but the damage was done. It hurt when he put weight on it, it screamed as he pulled. It may not have totally been him letting the team down, but he wasn’t giving what he could. Eventually, they were pulled over the victory line, and he collapsed immediately, flopping to his ass and grabbing at his ankle, swearing in two languages. He apologized to his team, laughing it off, but a little disappointed he wasn’t the anchor he coulda been.

But that just meant it was time to get fucked up. Fucked up ankle or not, the day just got better from there.

Dahlia decided Limbo had sounded like a fun thing to try. Something she hadn't played in, well, forever. If at all? How often did a game like Limbo ever come up? Not often enough.

She was next in line, watching wide-eyed as the person in front of her tried to get under the limbo pole. They failed, ultimately, and Dahlia was sure she was right after them. No way she could get that low. Alright, alright. She examined the pole and positioning a moment before slowly starting to work herself under. She mostly let instinct take over. Barely even breathing as she concentrated.

Dahlia may or may not have blanked out until she heard a bunch of hoops and hollars as she found herself on the other side of the pole. She popped up, laughing. "Jesus. Thank the Cabaret for all that dance practice!" She grinned.

Others tried to follow suit but, in the end? The dancer came out victorious! You know she's going to be wearing that fancy T-Shirt for a while!

"If you say 'shank' one more time!" Cuz he's been saying that he told her they shoulda shanked Lilith and Byron when they had the chance. For like the last ten minutes. Straight.

Graham mutters the word, "Shank," under his breath, and Elise whacks him hard across the shoulder. He goes, "Ow," and rubs his arm, looking hurt, "And offended by all this violence, baby. It wasn't my fault."

He's absolutely convinced the three-legged thing isn't his fault, anyway. First off, Elise is the one that tied their ankles together, way too tight. "Baby, seriously, I can feel the circulation cutting off. My fucking toes are gonna fall off." He had told her some variation on that theme about forty-five times in the ninety seconds between when they tied their ankles and were off to the races, but she was all, "Stop being such a whiner, G, man up!"

And now look, El, look at his shin. He's got rope-burn, even through his jeans, Elise, even through his jeans!

Limbo… Okay, look. They were in line behind Dahlia Evergreen, and what the fuck was he suppsoed to do after a performance like that? Suffice it to say, there were ample jokes made about which pole…

Tug-of-war was a team effort, and their team just sucked, Ellybean. What can ya do? With the eyebrows and the gleamy smile, Graham slings an arm around her shoulders and steers them on down the road toward the car, talking about consolation prizes and being secretly more jealous that he didn't win a t-shirt or a tanktop than he lets on. 🙁

Despite the fair weather, August wears a t-shirt and cargos for the Beach Battles. He could do this in a tank top, but he doesn't have enough beer or tequila in him to be entirely comfortable with the newer scars on display. Maybe once they're tattooed. For now, he's in a Hoh Rain Forest tee, dark gray cargos, and his Tevas. He takes Eleanor to get their faces painted, opting for fig leaves and thorny vines for himself.

The tug of war August can't risk with his back and shoulder, and the limbo he knows won't work out, but he figures he won't embarass himself and Eleanor in the three-legged race. He'll just make sure it's his right leg tied to her left; that's the stronger of the two.

They watch the limbo with unconcealed amusement; August cheers on Alexnader until the bitter end, offers him a rootbeer float as compensation. After that it's their turn in the three-legged race. They don't win, though in truth August didn't expect them to. He's not disappointed with how they fair, either; really, no one in the race was close to as old and beat up as him. (Secretly, he's surprised when Alexander and Isabella fall; he expected himself and Eleanor to, not them.) A few people watching murmur, wondering why Eleanor still agrees to be seen in public with him, much less come to events. He kilted her, left her for a young technology expert who still dares buy coffee at the shop! Luckily, August and Eleanor are too busy getting covered in sand and trying to win to hear that.

They celebrate their not-embarrassing loss with funnel cakes covered in whipped cream, strawberries, and chocolate sauce; a last taste of summer while they watch the tug of war. This is harder to cheer for, since the group is so diverse, and people he'd support are spread across teams. He settles for yelling encouragement at invidivuals between bites of funnel cake.

And before they go home to wash off the face paint and sand and crawl into bed after a long, eventful day, they take plenty of pictures for Friendzone. Because they're married, and sometimes people need a reminder, no thanks to the Revisionist.

<System> <FS3> Lilith rolls Athletics+Presence: Good Success (8 7 7 3 3 2 1) (Rolled by: Lilith)

Limbo is rather silly, but it's the event that Lilith was secretly looking forward to. It's amusing to watch people attempt a bar dropping lower and lower and she plans to try and win. The woman isn't sure she can, of course, she's only done limbo at a barbeque in a backyard a time or two. No use in trying if she's not going to give it a serious go, though. She's been dancing all her life in a non-professional sense and is quite flexible so it's at least some kind of bolstering assurance she might have a chance. Also, she wants to see Byron give the bar a go, even though his height is likely to work against him.

Wearing a pair of black and tiny athletic shorts with a tee that's covered by a cropped teal hoodie, the brunette woman is stretching just before it all begins. She's accidentally causing a bit of a spectator show too, the way she's unabashedly leaning forward with legs spread to touch the ground and walk forward with her palms. Afterwards, she hangs in a backbend of pose and stretch, midriff partially showing and ponytail hanging as she grins up at Byron, "Starting soon. Can you do this?"

It's not that Byron wasn't looking forward to Limbo. He enjoys having fun and goofing around as much as the next person, even though he can be a bit competitive about it. In fact, on a couple of trips to the Caribbean with some of college friends, he's had to have a go at it since everyone else was. At that point, though, everyone was pretty wasted and drug fueled. Here, the man was terribly sober and surrounded by Gray Harbor families, many of whom he offers a familiar smile and a friendly wave to.

Dressed for a day at the beach, despite the sunscreen, he has on a plain white tanktop and some blue swim shorts. A pair of expensive sunglasses protect his eyes from the glaring sun. Just like Lilith, Byron is doing a few stretches too, but his are in no way as showy. Instead he lifts a hand high above his head while the other crooks at the elbow to touch the elbow of the first all while he pulls himself up in a deep before switching arms. Idly, he watches Lil go through the motions of limbering up, getting some eye candy right there. There's a lift of his brow at her question from just above his shades. "Is there anything that I can't do?" Pause. "Don't answer that."

"Anything you can do, I can do better, anything you can do, I can do too..." Lilith sings at Byron with teasing while easing out of the backbend and down onto her backside to twist legs from side to side. Rising up when the music starts as cue, the brunette woman does a little hop in place on her running shoes, then loops her arms up around the man's neck and shoulders to rowdily draw him into a good luck kiss, "C'mere. I'm going to make me show you how flexible you are in bed, too. I'm terrible. Let's rage, babe."

When finished with PDA like there isn't a whole beach of families around them, Lilith excitedly takes Byron's hand and skips to wait in line, doing a little dance in place while waiting for her turn and watching the others. When she sees Dahlia, though, she knooooows that's her competition. The woman gets past the first and second bar easy enough, though there's a learning curve, she doesn't get particularly graceful about it until the second or third time around. But by the fourth go, when the bar has lowered significantly, flexibility isn't quite the issue for her. She CAN bend down that far, but holding it while progressing is a whole different story. Knocking the bar when she comes up too soon, it falls and she comes up with a hissing squint face before scampering over to Byron.

"That's okay. We still have bed limbo."

Sunglasses covered eyes scan over the competition when Lilith finishes up with her limber stretches and her sing-song ways. Alexander and Isabella seemed to have entered. Not odd to see Isabella in any competition, but she was always his rival. There was also Nicole and Dahlia and a bunch of others. One of Felix's goons too. So when Lilith grabs him to pull down into a rough good luck kiss, he's taken by surprise at first, before his arms wraps around her her slim waist as he opts to enjoy this moment. Once the intimate exchange is broken, he straightens and offers one of his confidant and friendly smiles to a passing family, a couple with a shop downtown and their three kids. "Limbo practice." He explains.

If that was supposed to be limbo practice, then he should've demanded more practice time.

The music always helps to get people in the mood to Limbo! and today was no exception. Maybe he should've gotten a few drinks with little umbrellas to help further loosen him. The first pass was done with care, stretching his torso out as he leaned backwards while inching his way forward with the rhythm. He was feeling good, for the most part. From what he could see, Lilith was shimmying her way to victory, being second in line to go and show the group just how it's done.

He was getting into the swing of things on his second pass, moving to the groove with far more ease than the first time around. Then he began to get cocky, watching as they lowered the bar yet again and observing the participants who would go before him. He clapped and cheered during Lilith's turn. Well, he did the same with everyone else, but added far more enthusiasm during Lilith's pass. Then when his turn came around, he leaned back once more and moved one leg, then the next, moving his body in dance rather than this being a strict athletics competition. Here's when his cockiness comes into play, when he pushes his sunglasses up the slope of his nose with the bar hovering so closely above his face. It was supposed to be a cool move, but due to a misstep and possibly miscalculation on his part, his raised arm lifts the bar, eliminating him.

Obviously, he's not pleased by this at all, though knowing that Isabella was eliminated as well, earlier in this round, that only took a little bit of the sting away. Not that he wasn't having fun and if anyone looked at him, he'd be all laughter and smiles. It was a game, right?

Lilith was still in the competition and by now Byron's got himself a little drink. Non-alcoholic, but it was something. Hooting and hollering once more, he catcalls during Lilith's performance only to lightly wince she knocks the bar down. He goes to meet her, standing on the sidelines as she leaves the field, leaning over to press a kiss into her hair. To this talk of bed limbo, he has to add, his gaze back on the competition, "And that's the most important game to win."

Limbo was a little harder than Lilith expected, but it's fine, the three legged race is what she's really wanting to do. Between events, the woman drinks a fair amount of water instead of booze because she's taking prep for the race seriously, she doesn't want to hold Byron back at all. They have some keen advantages, including the man's runner's endurance and speed, as well as their ability to know each other's bodies and work as a team.

Lilith isn't as fast or trained as him, though, even with her showing to accompany on some of her runs, and him outpacing her might be a problem. Then again, Lilith is kind of bossy and outspoken to direct coordination, and Byron isn't usually in the business of outpacing her, he has a distinct way of supporting her. While waiting to get tied for the race, the woman stands strategizing with him while eyeing competition, "Okay. I think if we keep an arm around each other's back and count 'left right left right left right' to keep a rhythm, we should be all good, right? Just be careful with your strides, your legs are longer."

It's getting near start time and Byron can tell how competitive Lilith is about to be with this particular game, she's already flushed with anticipation and hyperactivity even while mostly standing still. Honestly, it comes off as if there's some kind of vibration coming off of her... like an excited chihuahua. He probably shouldn't make that comparison, though.

Performing some limb stretches, especially of his legs, Byron knows that he can't treat this like a sprint or the long distance running that he's used to. Having your ankle tied to another person made this a different game entirely. As competitive as he is, he couldn't take this race too seriously. If it were up to himself, sure, he would have no else to blame. Here, he needed to coordinate movement with Lilith, which he's somewhat used to, whether it be on the dance floor or something more intimate. They may not always be in sync with one another, with how much they tend to have explosive arguments, but on a physical level, they complimented one another well.

If anything, he finds it amusing when Lilith gives out her instructions. They were good advice, so he nods. "Aye, aye, coach." Normally, he's used to being the ones calling the shots in most scenarios since he's the competitive one. This in itself, like Limbo!, was all a game to the man. He likes to win games, though in truth, he probably just doesn't like looking bad in any sort of competition. Win or lose. The last event was a sore spot for him, but Limbo was a ridiculous event and was more for fun than anything else, but that's what all events should be.

As they walk over to the starting line to have their ankles tied together, he will add his own bit of advice, "When I call 'sprint', after the next step, the count will be double time. After five paces, we drop back to the normal count to regain our energy. I'll only make the call if I feel confidant that we're keeping perfect rhythm."

A quick glance is given the competition, but right now they needed to focus and keep their eyes looking ahead of them. Once they are both secured, he slips his hand behind Lilith to keep her close. They need to be molded together and feel like they are moving as one. He gives her a reassuring squeeze at her hip, a few seconds before the start whistle is blown. This was stifling to be honest, especially for a runner, and yet they both did their damnedest to make it work. He tried not to extend to his normal stride, keeping perfect pace and perfect count alongside her as they both call out the steps in unison, "left, right, left, right.." Once he feels that their movements were in sync with one another, he counts silently in his mind, before he makes the call. "Sprint. Left. Right." And from there, they begin to pick up speed for those five paces.

Lilith nods solidly to Byron's additional spoken strategizing, her game face utterly on as she looks more gauging about the varied competition tied all around them. While she can be fairly competitive too, it's generally a good natured kind when it comes to games, unless she really hates the competition. In this case, though, she doesn't want to screw it up and bring her partner down, it's additional pressure for focus. She's always a little better about composing herself and staying on task while rotely repeating or counting in her mind anyway, so she can totally do this! She thinks. The leg length differential might be an issue if they lose stride and can't get it back.

After finger curling her own dig on Byron's side with 'ready' gesture, the race is off and they keep in sync pretty well. They're careful not to make too much ground at the start and focus on that rhythm and time needed to accustom to each other's strides. But when the man says sprint, the woman is spry with compliance and ups the count and left-right rhythm until they're winding back to something more sustainable. Then another burst... it has them covering pretty decently wide stretches of ground fairly steady and quick and Lilith is trying not to look at the competition left around them toward the end. She can't help but notice the other couple, though, and pinches her fingers into Byron's side like a nip of spurring to free-sprint until the end.

And whatever they did there, it works because they win! After looking around to make sure they did, in fact, win, Lilith does the silliest thing in reaction-- she tries to leap hold around Byron's neck while turning into him, forgetting they're still leg tied, almost toppling them before she falls into gleeful giggles and a real hug before her 'hoo-rah' fist gesture to the applause, "We started with schoolyard games, babydoll. This was ours from the start."

Once they start running, there was no stopping. They had to rhythmically keep time with each call of left and right. For a runner who is used to stretching his legs and running like the wind, this was rather constraining, but run like the wind they did. There was no use looking at the others racing against them, that would only lead to distraction and perhaps a misstep. It was hot and with the sun in their faces and cool breeze brought upon by their own momentum, they trudged ahead.

The further they went along, the easier it was to see who their competition was. Everyone else was beginning to fall behind. "Left. Right. Left. Right. Sprint. Left. Right." Byron calls out, preparing himself for that final burst. They were so close. "Eye on the prize." He practically whispers, it's almost as if he could taste it.

Then Victory!

It was hard to stop running once they reached the finish line, but with as in sync as they both were to one another, they come to a slow stop without tripping themselves up. Well, until Lilith almost tries to jump and wrap her arms around his neck. It's a good thing that he was dropping into a crouch at that same time. It helps to keep them stabilized. In doing this, he quickly undoes the binding at their ankles, letting it spill out across their feet and onto the sand just so he can gather her up in his arms into a victorious lift, beaming brightly up at her giggling laughter. "It really was." He says in agreement, spinning them both around before lowering her into a celebratory hug adding in a quick kiss, his own skin glistening with a sheen of sweat and bits of sand.

"Let's get something to drink and prepare for war."

Aidan arrives bright and early, because there's not a lot of summer left -- technically, there's no summer left, but if the day's going to be kind enough to pretend, so is he! He's looking tall and slim and about 40 years late, wearing a pair of white-piped navy running shorts and a pale yellow palm-tree-laden t-shirt from a Beach Boys' tour, both of which have weathered those decades remarkably well. Big, roundish, vaguely Jackie-O plastic sunglasses and a pair of rainbow flip-flops do absolutely nothing to lessen the effect, though for the majority of the time, he's barefoot -- for the time he's lying on a towel soaking up what sun the PNW deigns to supply, and when the contests begin, as well.

He doesn't seem to be eating any special training diet, unless funnel cakes and cotton candy are secretly health food, but when the call comes to prepare for the limbo, he does come over and stretch thoroughly, chatting brightly with the other competitors he knows, and the ones he doesn't too if they're so inclined. He's easily one of the tallest participants, and frankly he looks as surprised as anyone when the number of competitors and height of the bar have both lowered significantly and he's still in. Suprised, but also pleased! It seems almost inevitable that it can't last, of course, and in what turns out to be the final round he's the first out, lightly bumping the bar with his chest and having to catch himself on his hands at the last moment. He arcs up to standing, laughing. Third place isn't too bad!

The race, he's had even better preparation for -- he and Grant have spent time practicing this over the last week or two since the announcement! And even so, his longer legs and Grant's greater athleticism have them almost constantly on the verge of losing balance. It never quite happens, though the amount that it makes Aidan laugh by the time they're approaching the finish probably isn't particularly helping. Still, not only do they stay upright, they're right in the middle of the pack and tied for third... which still isn't too bad.

After a brief pause while the events are switched and he eats some more cotton candy (look, you don't get that everyday; gotta eat it when it's handy!) it's time for the tug-of-war. He answers Rekani's gesture with a grin and finger waggle of his own, and falls into place with his team for what turns out to be a hard-fought battle. But this time, this time, he and his emerge victorious. He raises his arms in triumph with a whoop, beaming, and high-fives everyone who's inclined to be high-fived, regardless of team. The retro effect is somewhat dented as he switches out his current shirt for the new tank top, tucking the first one a bit dangerously into the waistband of his shorts until he can slip on his flip-flops and bundle it up with his towel. But now there's even more to celebrate! This calls for root beer. And maybe some of the real beer. And almost certainly cotton candy.

The peanut gallery watches the events... from a safe distance, where no one risks getting involved.

Team...Baxter win the Tug of War