Another tired workday, eating the same boring microwave burritos, working for an ISP she hates, in a body she hates, with the only remotely cheering part being the cute skirt she's wearing. She spends her day charming the employees of the ISP as she solves their tech problems, spending her warmth on people she'll never speak to again.
Eventually it's the end of the shift. She clocks out, gets up, and walks out into the backyard, stretching.
Hmmm. Does she?
She does. She can read the guidelines on the way there, and she kind of trusts Helena. Already.
"Yeah, let's do it! Got a link to the basic guidelines I should review real quick on our way there?"
"The guidelines are about getting practice. Practice with switching over to your other regulator, practice with changing into your reserve mask, practice with how to try exhaling evenly if you're doing an emergency ascent... but you, diving for 30 odd minutes, finding a chest buried under a few meters of water? I'm not worried. And I'll be there, with my regulator, in case we need to quickly get out of the water. I'm not worried at all."
Helena makes her way over to a public bathroom, just like the one she walked into yesterday, presumably to change into the wetsuit that she brought. The entrance is a door next to a warm and cozy cafe, with wood decor and books all along the shelves on the cafe's walls. The bathrooms almost blend into the huge building. All the doors clearly mark them as unisex bathrooms; they have a very minimalist illustration of a shower head on them.
It reminds her quite a bit about her own bathroom, actually. There's an extra-wide sink counter that'd be perfect as a changing table, together with a toilet placed against the room's far wall, and a spacious shower cabinet. And in the middle of it all, is a wide open room with plenty of space for Sable to get changed inside of. She'd also notice a medicine cabinet above the sink, with a table on a piece of paper attached to the cabinet doors, partially obscuring a wide array of colorful boxes kept behind the glass.
Oh wow. This is impressive, as public bathrooms go. She gets changed, then steps out with a smile.
She sees Helena, similarly dressed for the upcoming underwater excursion. She slowly waves at Sable. "You're looking very good in that wetsuit of yours! Excited to dive for the first time?"
Helena walks over to the pier; the first chest is placed under it, under one of the beams, making it easy to reach. Helena slowly walks out in front of Sable, before turning around and looking at her. "Ready, Sable? Follow me!" She flops into the water, making her way down to the shallow ocean floor near the beautiful beach. She has a flashlight in her left hand, brightening the surprisingly dark waters, as she leads Sable on the way to the chest.
Into the water she splashes! Oooh, it feels great. Even the rebreather feels good. She swims back and forth for a moment, then catches up to Helena.
It probably takes just 10 minutes to find the chest; it has white paint on top of it, making it very visible under the water. Helena opens it, revealing a painting of the city in the chest lid, together with a wide range of small figurines of the city inside the chest itself. Helena grabs one for herself, before motioning for Sable to try getting one for herself. The figurine sticks itself incredibly well to her wetsuit, meaning that she won't need any pockets to carry it back up out of the water.
She smiles wide and grabs a figurine happily, sticking it to her hip and then swimming a little circle around Helena playfully.
Helena points a bit further down, revealing another white chest, before swimming in that direction. She turns to Sable for a moment, her mask letting Sable get a good look at her smile, before she starts continuing towards the second chest.
She smiles widely back. Down she goes, following Helena to the next chest. It's always so neat to be underwater.
This chest contains an image, and figurine, of a boat instead. It looks like the kind of boat that Sable enjoyed yesterday, and it too, sticks perfectly to her wetsuit. Helena starts turning back, heading towards an ecosystem of kelp and bright, colorful fish that have started to form around a series of concrete pillars lowered into the water, somewhat closer to shore.
She marvels happily at the boat, twirling in place for a moment, then sticks it to her other hip and swims after Helena, examining the area she's swimming toward. Is there a chest over there too? The fish are so pretty!
There is indeed a chest, this one almost camouflaged between the kelp. It has an image and figurine of a candied apple inside, adding to Sable and Helena's collection. Helena chooses to slow down and marvel at the scales of the fish surrounding the two of them, spinning in place as she follows their many unexpected movements.
Sable does the same, smiling warmly. They're really pretty.
So's Helena, but now is about the fish.
Eventually, the hour is over, and Helena makes her way back up to the surface. She looks at Sable, her voice muffled by the mask. "That was so much fun! I want to try going deep, see how far this rebreather can take us." She looks at Sable with a glimmer in her eye.
She grins and nods, eyes alight with excitement. "The fish were so pretty, and the figurines are so cool! And you're really graceful under the water. Out of it too, but especially diving. I'd love to go deeper with you."
She tucks her figurines into her bag.
Helena nods at Sable. "Yeah, I'm going to invite you on a diving trip with one of my friends, I'm sure of it. You're a natural in the water, you know that?"
"Well, I've had some amazing fun for today, but I have some friends to meet fairly soon. I'll be sure to call you back once I've got a diving trip put together, and we're gonna have some amazing adventures together!" She smiles and waves at Sable, before walking off to a public bathroom and changing back into her sheer top that really underlines the bra she's wearing under it, together with the short skirt and the long legs to go with it.
Before walking off to see her friends, she stops to talk to Sable. "Do you work out, Sable? Because being healthy and active and in good shape feels better than you'd ever think. There are gacha-gyms that try to simplify getting into the habit, and you can do martial arts if you feel competitive and like challenging others. I can help recommend places, if there's any kind of physical activity you'd like to try. I've done a lot of things in my time here."
"Haven't in a while," she replies with a shake of her head. "Been meaning to get back into it, and have picked out a saber club to try in a few days, but want to get into a few more things, probably. Was considering yoga, or maybe dance classes, or something?"
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