[Claire]

[plantfood]

Though Mathias doesn't mind caring for Sam at all, has come to love it, in fact, he can't deny that he does enjoy his mornings alone. When Sam wants to stay with Lucy and when the dogs want to stay with Sam, he's able to take his scuba equipment down to the ocean and go diving for as long as it holds his interest. The water is still the most peaceful place he's found on the island, even with all the life below the waves. It's easier to slip under the water than it is to try and push his way through the jungle most days.

The sun has fully risen when he finally comes out again, the tank still strapped to his back, his regulator dangling down by his side. If he could, he would probably stay out all day, but the oxygen won't last forever, even with all the extra tanks the island gives him nearly every year. It's not something he can rely on, he knows that much, and he doesn't want to wake up one day and realize that he's pressed it too far and all the oxygen is gone. It isn't the same to snorkel, though he supposes he could do that in order to preserve the tanks.

It isn't until he's in the shallows, mask pushed up onto his forehead, that he realizes there's someone walking along the beach. There's often people out, especially in the busier areas, which he tends to favor when he dives. He's trained well, but an emergency is still possible and he likes to know there are people in the area.

"Good morning," he says to the girl when she gets closer. With one foot out of the water, he tugs the flipper off, then sets his foot down again. It's a little awkward, trying to balance everything, but he manages without falling back into the water.

Comments

[plantfood]

"No," Sam says, but this is a topic she's comfortable with and she pauses for a moment, collecting her thoughts. "But he takes me swimming, he says it's important to know how to swim, so we go to the pools and we swim, sometimes with Mack and Flo, do you know them? They have dogs, too, Neil's their dad."

Mathias grins at Claire and shrugs. "Sometimes you can get her started on something and she won't stop." And other times she's quiet, content to sit and watch. He knows she can't possibly get that from him, but the two sides remind him so strongly of himself and his brother.

"Do you want to show Claire where I keep my equipment?" he asks and Sam nods, then starts to walk toward the hut. "You can come inside!" she tells Claire.

[regenerated]

"It is important to know how to swim, definitely, especially on an island," Claire grins and nods in understanding, before glancing over towards Mathias with a brighter smile and a content exhale. "I'm pretty sure that I used to be like that, too, when I was her age. Actually, it's still pretty easy to get me caught up in something I feel real passionate about— but with my brother, it was the total opposite, he just wanted to play soccer and play video games, and communication got lost in the process. It freaked my parents out pretty badly, after having me."

With a soft laugh, she takes off after Sam, hesitantly entering the hut and biting her lower lip. Anywhere else, something like this would never happen, wandering into the hut of someone who's nearly a complete stranger— yet on Tabula Rasa, it seems almost commonplace. The stark difference never fails to amaze her.

[plantfood]

"I was quite quiet," Mathias says as he follows Claire inside. "My brother was not." That's been true of Henrich his whole life. Even now, he has vague, blurred memories of his squealing infant brother, memories of listening to him shriek whenever he was hungry. And memories of his mother say, 'You were never this loud,' which Mathias always took to be a compliment.

"This is the diving stuff," Sam says as they arrive at a small room off the main living space. "I don't play with it yet, but I will when I'm bigger and can fit it and that's why I'm learning how to swim."

Mathias steps forward to put his things away, then pulls out the second set of equipment. He's most concerned with the mask and the belt fitting properly, because he feels they can find other flippers in the box if they're needed. "Here, try this on," he says, handing the belt to Claire. "It's adjustable, but I just need to make sure the last hole on the belt is small enough for you."

[regenerated]

With a laugh, Claire reaches out to ruffle Sam's hair, at the surprisingly thorough explanation. Then again, she thinks, she's been in that position before as well, watching after all of the cool hobbies that her father kept up, the things that her mother would do around the house, and wanting to follow in their footsteps as soon as possible. It doesn't hold as much anymore, but Claire thinks that had either of her parents been involved in diving too, she would have followed them straight into that as soon as possible.

Something filled with so much wonder, not mired in uncertainty.

"Well, you'd better grow up fast, then," Claire tells Sam. "Because I'd love to dive with you. Or even just swim, if you ever wanna. I'm a pretty good swimmer."

Taking the belt in hand, Claire nods her thanks to Mathias and tugs the belt as tight as possible. "Oh, thank goodness," she laughs, when the last loop seems to fit it around her snugly. "I'm not that unreasonably tiny, then."

[plantfood]

Mathias nods, glad that the equipment will fit Claire. The mask is easy enough to adjust, he knows they'll have no real problems there and if she wants a wetsuit, the box is usually good enough to provide. They'll have to start using one tank anyway, so he isn't worried about making sure that fits just yet.

"Not as small as me," Sam says to Claire. "I'm short."

Mathias laughs a little and nods his agreement. "But you will get tall. Your dad was very tall."

"Like you," Sam says, then wanders toward her crayons and colouring books that are spread out in the main room.

Turning back to Claire, he smiles and says, "The equipment fits, that's the first step. Before we actually go diving I'll have to teach you a few safety techniques. A way to find your regulator if you drop it, because the mask will make it difficult to see much side to side." Back home, he knows there are courses that people are required to take, certificates that they earn, but although he has his, he doesn't feel qualified to start telling people when they're certified. All he can do is teach them to be safe.

[regenerated]

"My biological dad was decently tall," Claire remarks as she watches Sam walk into the next room over, glancing over at Mathias with an amused grin. "And yet, I definitely didn't luck out. So. Don't put too many ideas into her head. Though... if her dad was tall like you, I guess that'd definitely help her odds out a bit."

Tilting her head playfully from side to side, Claire peeks at the mask, taking it in hand and holding it up to her face. The entirety of the world looks different from behind that span of plastic, as though the mask alone protects her from the immediacy of anything else that rests around them.

"So... what's the regulator supposed to do again, exactly?" Claire asks, removing the mask and narrowing my eyes. "I mean, regulate, obviously. But again, total diving newb, here."

[plantfood]

"It regulates your oxygen," Mathias answers with a teasing grin, although she's nearly answered her own question. "It changes the air from pressurized in the tank we'll wear to ambient, which means you can breathe it easily. We use a demand valve regulator, which I think is the most common. It was, at least, when I left home."

He has no idea what might have changed in the future, but he can admit that things may be very different from what he's used to. Briefly, he wonders if people still dive at all and makes a note to ask River when he next sees her.

"It's your life line, really," he says. "Which is why it's important that you're able to find it if it ever falls out. Even if you're only thirty feet down, that's a fair distance to swim when you can't breathe."

[regenerated]

She can't help the series of thoughts that pass through her mind all at once, driving deep into memories, into speculation, into the spread of her imagination that's grown so quickly over the past few years, with all that she's seen and done. Thoughts that quickly wonder if invincibility would cover something like a lack of oxygen. She's tempted to think that it would, a chill passing through her at the memory of waking up on an autopsy table, unsure what to do, or whether to say anything at all. But how it would feel? That's beyond her.

Maybe that's what sends her imagination firing even more.

"I think I've heard of some of the stuff that can go wrong if you try to come up too quickly, anyway, like... bubbles forming in your bloodstream, or something. Does that happen?" Claire asks, quirking a brow. "I never know if it's just some old wives' tale my mom used to keep me away from the water."

[plantfood]

"No, decompression sickness is a real thing," Mathias answers with a nod. "It's rare, however, and we won't be diving deep enough or for long enough for it to be a real concern. Even if we were to extend our dives longer or deeper, it's easy enough to avoid simply by not rising too quickly. Making stops along the way to reduce the excess pressure from the gas in your body."

It's something Mathias has been particularly careful to avoid. There's no way on the island to treat decompression sickness and were anyone to suffer under his care, he knows they likely wouldn't survive. It's not something he takes lightly.

"It really only becomes a risk when you dive for long periods of time at a greater depth," he promises.

[regenerated]

She wonders how a body would be able to repair itself from that. With her limited understanding of the human body, even a nuclear threat seems like it'd be easier to return from than something like air caught in the blood stream. One doesn't heal from a trapped bubble. Again, she finds her imagination wandering, and even if she would never make such an attempt again on the island, where even a small papercut bleeds without healing in seconds, it's something she wishes she could have tried back home. If only because...

...if only because a premature death still seemed like the preferable option to no death at all.

"I believe you. I'd probably be too scared to head down that deep, anyway. If the whole world looked pretty dark in a pool when I was eight feet deep, I'm sure that thirty feet would start to look pretty bleak without a big light on my forehead to guide me around," she suggested with a grin. "Me, I'm all for mild adventure. I'll leave the big stuff to the adults."

[plantfood]

"I try not to go too deep here," Mathias says. It's not only his knowledge that there's really no way on the island to recover, but the faint sense of claustrophobia that still permeates most aspects of his life. This far removed from the ruins, it's easier to ignore but every so often it's still there and he does his best not to aggravate it any further.

"Besides the obvious reasons, there's just no telling what might actually be in these waters some of the time," he says and although he's smiling when he says it, he isn't joking. "When one lives on an island with dinosaurs and Godzilla attacks, it's best not to stray too far, I've found." He's never had anything to worry about in the water, but there's always a chance. A giant squid, some kind of monster he's never heard of.

The island is capable of all of that.

[regenerated]

"I guess," Claire admits with a tilt of her head, already feeling guilty for how she wants to disagree, wants to argue that all of the danger that might be found in the depths is in fact all that much more important to check out. That Rapture is the very proof that they should be pushing themselves to make sure they aren't somehow overlooking a group of people similarly trapped as the rest of them, or even more so. Even murmurs about one of the island citizens, Sirius Black, being found cast far off the coast, leave Claire wondering.

"I mean, I agree, like. Those of us who... would probably do more harm than good in situations like those, because, you know, personally I've got a bit of a damsel in distress syndrome, we should definitely stay out of danger's way. But then again, I look at places like Rapture, and then suddenly I find myself wanting to argue that diving that deep is exactly what we need to do," she muses. "Not that I would, myself. I just think too much."

[plantfood]

Mathias grins at that and shakes his head, because he doesn't disagree with her at all. But, like Claire, he also doesn't want to be the one going on those adventures. Once, he might have happily gone down to Rapture or as deep in the ocean as he possibly could, but with Sam in the picture, he has to think about others as well.

"I agree," he says. "There is much of this place left to explore, I just don't think I'm the right person to do it." He pauses, thinking of what she's said, then continues. "I may also have a bit of a damsel in distress syndrome, though with more facial hair." It isn't entirely true, but he's ended up in danger before this and on the island, when he'd had to be rescued by Steve and Tom. One of the last things he wants is another cast for another six weeks. Or worse.

"I fell down a mine shaft on the other island," he admits. "Broke my leg, had to be pulled out by members of the ITF. It was very... dramatic."

[regenerated]

"Oh... my god, that's terrifying," Claire exclaims, and for all that she knows she's seen dangers more insidious, there's still something about being caught in a place with so little light and air that chills her to the bone. At least when an enemy nears, there's something to fight. A reason to press on, against all odds. But being somewhere only open to one thanks to the caving of the earth under one's feet, that scares Claire more than she'd like to admit. "Wow, I didn't even know that the other island had a mine shaft or anything. Actually, I know... really little about what the island has altogether, which is probably a bad sign. I know that there's some evidence of a settlement having been there, but I never made it over, myself."

Wincing, she turns to Mathias and offers a sheepish smile. "Now I'm almost tempted to go on an expedition there, myself. I mean. Not with the aim of falling down a mine shaft, obviously. I've broken enough ribs in my lifetime to know that's not something I want to experience."

[plantfood]

"I thought it would be an adventure," Mathias admits, his lips pressed into a thin line briefly. There are other reasons -- he wanted to forget about missing Veronica just for an afternoon and he certainly got his wish -- but for the most part, he'd been looking for that sense of adventure that he missed. Now he isn't so sure it's something he needs, even when he is feeling his most restless.

"I think I would have gotten that, if not for the accident," he continues. "If you do go, just make sure you take someone with you or that people know where you are. Which I'm sure you know already and I sound like I'm lecturing now." He laughs quietly and shakes his head. "I just don't want to think about what might have happened had I been alone."

He owes a lot to both Danny and Neil for the parts they played that day. Even with all the hallucinations of the vines, Danny had kept him relatively calm and Neil had been the one to go for help. If he'd gone by himself, he likely would still be down there, though no longer alive.

[regenerated]

"My dad was a pretty strict guy, so believe me, your level of lecturing is totally acceptable," Claire grins, hands carefully tucking strands of her hair behind her ear, keeping busy to prevent herself from dwelling on her father, a process that she was pretty sure she carried through multiple times each day. From some distance away, Sam continued to babble on, drawing a wider smile from Claire. "I had this whole teen phase where I kind of wanted to go against anything that my dad had to say or suggest, but that's more or less ended by now. Well, then again— I guess he isn't exactly here, but."

She presses her lips thin. "But even before I left, we kind of came to a truce about the fact that he was, in the end, just way overprotective. And I guess when it comes to something like that, it could be a lot worse, right?"

[plantfood]

"It could be," Mathias agrees, glancing to Sam briefly. Though it's not necessary just yet, he imagines when she gets older, he's going to be overprotective as well, probably enough to drive her crazy, but it's something that he's made peace with. On the island, where anything can happen, he can't imagine letting Sam go wherever she wants or do whatever she wants.

"My parents were very much the opposite," he says. "It's not that they thought we deserved to do whatever wanted, just that they were often very busy." Distracted is probably a better word. He loves his parents, but they weren't exactly the most present people in his life.

[regenerated]

"That's... actually how my parents started out. Or at least, how I thought they were, until I figured out that half the reason my dad was so distracted in the first place was just because he was, you know. Trying to make my life better, and to protect me, and just make sure that nothing happened to me. Mom, though, she was kind of caught up in the show dog business for a while," Claire smiles, although it's thin and unsure. How many times, after all, had Sandra's mind been wiped over the years, before Claire knew about any of it? Maybe Sandra had been twice as attentive, only to have it drawn back every time.

While she doesn't hold it against her parents anymore, a part of her might always feel uncertain over the matter.

"Anyway," she says, catching his glimpse towards Sam. "I think you're already doing great. From what little I've seen. She seems really comfortable with you."