Welcome to Gaia! ::

Summer, when you couldn't really go swimming without a lot of awkward questions, was a miserable time of year. What could you do when the temperatures outside were hot enough to cook with but you couldn't wear cute little tops and shorts so that you didn't tan unevenly? Not that tanning unevenly was really that big of a concern for Daphne but staying cool so that she didn't sweat out through her clothing was a pretty big one. Kess had been one of the only things making her convalescence bearable, even if it was a little bit surprising how content the blonde was to stay in and not do much.

Bringing her lunch, finding new games for them to play together, and then there were the endless movies that always ended up playing in the background of whatever it was they were doing. One of these days they might actually watch a movie start to finish, but Daph doubted that it would be anytime soon. Maybe if they were handcuffed to opposite sides of the room or something.

'Up for a ride' and 'bring a swimsuit' were two things that probably didn't need to be asked of the bluenette. If it was summer she usually had on some kind of cotton polyester beneath her brightly colored (see: eyesearing) wardrobe choices. Deciding that if she was going to leave the house it was going to be a statement in style the lemon yellow jeans Kess would remember from the disastrous play auditions made a reappearance with a breezy top to double as a coverup.

Daphne was, in fact, so eager to figure out where they were going that she almost started walking away from her house towards the sound of Kess' bike. She only got as far as the end of the driveway though before stopping, waving like an idiot. "Hey! Busting me out of confinement finally?"

At the headbutt Daphne's grin, if it were possible, was brighter than her pants. It never really occurred to her to think too much about the fact that Kess wasn't really much for little affectionate gestures like that one. It was just for the hell of it, not because they were joking around or (as far as she knew) going to go hook up somewhere. No, Daphne was just going to happily take it with a light squeeze of her arms around the blonde once she was well-seated on the bike.

"My knight in medium armor saving me from the awful suburban dungeon on her badass motorsteed. I've waited for this day my whole pathetic life you don't even know!" Dramatically her voice pitched and became breathy like a swooning Southern belle before the teen cracked into laughter. Straight faces weren't for days when you were finally getting out of the house after a miserable few days of stitches and drug hazes of assorted kinds. Daph herself wasn't much of a recreational user but had to admit that it'd been better than a vicodin rollercoaster.

Tapping her fingers lightly against Kess' stomach to draw some of her attention she raised her voice above the motor. "Where're we going?"

For both of their sakes it was probably best that Kess didn't breathe a word about Californian escapes and instead opted to just shout back something about 'the beach'. That would have been an up and down of epic proportions which probably would have caused the universe to combust, or at least that would have been how the sometimes-dramatic Daphne would've felt. Then she would've spent the rest of the day ******** up a trip to the beach with conflicted feelings that were decidedly not cool, certainly not fun, and utterly useless.

Instead she let out a sound that usually only happy toddlers made and tried not to bounce on the back of the bike, lest they crash. "Are you kidding me? Ohmigosh you can't be kidding because you're not that mean. I know you're not." That mean?! Oops. "I mean you're not really mean but that would just be horrible. You know how I feel about the beach!" At least Daphne thought at one point she'd mentioned her obsession with seeing a vast body of water without a drop of cleansing chlorine in it again as soon as possible.

Several people had made promises about beaches and vacations but she was going to go! Finally!

"Whatever, knight or anything you wanna be, you're my hero Kess." Daph was probably going to explode from happiness sometime before the day was over, removing most of the conflict that she didn't even realize was lying between them. She was thoughtful like that.

Tucking her tongue in her cheek Daphne settled against Kess so that she would be less mobile, her voice was dry with the humor. "Nah, I figured whatever we were doing I could just go au naturale. I haven't shaved my legs in two weeks either so we're going to pretend that we're in France okay?" Snickering she shook her head lightly, chin brushing the driver's shoulder. "I actually wore my favorite suit which I haven't bothered with so far this summer, I figured it was a special occasion." Her favorite suit was a cute little two piece with shorts because not only did they cover what she figured were 'inappropriately exposed areas', it managed to cover a majority of her largest scars.

It didn't hurt that it was also freaking adorable.

Years of learning to control herself were probably all what kept the bike from being toppled when they got close enough to spot the ocean between the trees and houses, the slope of creamy beach making her want to dash right off the back of the motorcycle and run straight towards it. Thankfully she also had a sense of reality and self-preservation so she at least waited until Kess dropped her feet to scramble off the bike, dragging at her helmet to get a better view.

She was standing there in the sea breeze, all but vibrating with excitement, but there were no words. Daphne was afraid that she was going to utterly disgrace herself and burst into tears of both happiness and regret. So many times she'd been promised this trip by lots of people that had loved her, that she'd loved, and they'd never made it. Now she had with someone who was supposed to have just been a friend, a casual hookup. Irony, delight, and memories all swamped her for that quiet moment before she turned to beam at Kess.

"So are you gonna help me with sunscreen later? That's a fun cliche."

Daphne's Limoncello Jeans of Virulent Brightness were tucked away with the less colorful and horrifying assortment of Kess' discarded clothing so that it was just her breezy top and what looked to be normal colored swim shorts peeking out from underneath the hem of the shirt. Shoes were a bit of a conundrum for the girl until she decided to just follow a good lead and go barefoot, hopping around like an idiot on the hot pavement, none of it removing the ridiculously massive grin on her face.

You could basically see the word careening through her head: beach, beach, Beach, BEAch, BEACH, BEACHBEACH, BEACHBEACHBEACH!!! On anyone who wasn't as naturally cute as Daphne Proudmoore it probably would have been concerning, you might think that the person was touched in the head, but joy was catching. She was determined to make the most of the day and Kess was going to have to drag her off the beach at the end of the night to get them to go to Destiny City again. Maybe she could just go swim away and join the mermaids she was ninety percent sure were a hundred percent real.

It took awhile for her hero's comment to penetrate the excitement and when it did her face fell for a moment, thinking that Kess was about to pack up and leave. Then the switch was flicked in her head called common sense that saw clearly that Kess was, to succinctly put it, full of s**t. Launching herself at her, one arm came down over the taller woman's neck in a headlock that was pathetic at best. "Are you kidding me? You have to be kidding me because you'll be lucky to get me to leave!" As her arm eased up, it held her freckled partner close enough for a sunny kiss.

"I have an itinerary. Sunblock, swimming, sandcastles, sunbathing. I need a tan." Stretching arms out in front of herself was distressing, then looking over at Kess made her feel better. "Though I guess I don't have to worry about freckles."

Eyes rolled as the bluenette stripped off her top; keeping it on was directly counter-productive to sunscreen application plus it didn't matter. Even if she'd left the damn thing on it was thin enough that eventually the fair-skinned Daphne was going to burn without liberal amounts of SPF100 block, poking Kess lightly on several of her arm freckles. "Honest, no bullshit question: do you actually burn at all or do you just get more freckles? I mean the sun gods wouldn't be mean enough to give someone freckles and sunburn right? Besides, we all know the reason I burn so badly is because they are super, totally jelly of my fine bod."

Hips twisted as she tried to get a look at herself in the bikini, grimacing at the many scars. Thankfully the one Wolframite had made in her arm didn't look like it was going to do much in the way of scarring but her shoulder would not at all be so fortunate. That one had been deeper, far more painful, and was stretched by the constant movement of her arm. She owed him one in return then, it seemed.

Giggling a bit as cool sunblock hit the back of her legs Daph tried not to jump away. "That was totally on purpose! What's your list? You said I missed two. More questions, ********." It was rare to see her this utterly irrepressible but with no one around the chances of trouble were slim and it was the beach! Kess was just going to have to deal.