Participants:
| Scene Title | Wall Climbing |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Jay is climbing walls, Kaitlyn is telling him to get down and Abby is watching. |
| Date | November 10, 2009 |
It's cloudy, but the wind isn't blowing, and while the temp is below fifty, it's not much below fifty, and thus Jake isn't wearing anything too heavy - just an insulating but light windbreaker, a pair of jogging pants, and a very brightly-texted black shirt which reads: You could singlehandedly make my dreams come true — or you could use two hands. The colors on the jogging gear are dark - he skipped Columbia blue and white for something black with red highlights. The sneakers, though, are white, and they literally fly. The rubble of Midtown lies before him - plenty of opportunities for leaps, dodges, and other simple but good-looking tricks. Right now he's headed for the wall of a battered but somewhat-standing building at a dead run, green eyes fixated. He's going up that thing as high as he can manage to - he's gotten sick of being afraid of falling and getting hurt without his gift. Time to prove himself, God help everybody.
The high pitched sound of a dog yapping reflects on the rubble of midtown, followed shortly by a small brown and white dog as it bounds gazelle like over some of the crumbled concrete near where Jay is headed. It comes to a stop at small tumble of rocks, docked tail going a mile a minute as he starts digging furiously, barking wildly.
"Benny! Will you leave whatever that is alone?!"
Kaitlyn comes carefully climbing over the same rubble that Benny had just easily cleared with a few leaps, holding onto a grocery bag, with two bigger dogs in tow. One of the dogs seems to almost grumble about the route they are taking. Of course, the sight of a human in his territory makes the German Shepard stop, ears perked forward. Kaitlyn noticed the dogs pause and glances where he's looking. "Shit." She murmurs as the shepard starts to growl, ears flattening back on his head. "Easy Jerry Lee. Looks like he's trying to make things easy and kill himself."
Someone's been watching, as she walks, Jay's little practicing. He's not the first to be trying out this sort of thing out here in the ruins and the pink haired woman watches while rubbing at her nose with a kleenex. Sure going home had been great, and she had relished the chance to see her parents even if it was just overnight. She hadn't relished the chest cold and sinus cold that had decided to settle on her when she'd returned. She wasn't about to call up Flint to deal with it event hough she felt like dying. She was going to just forge ahead and get through this. Millions of people got this all the time. They lived, so would she.
Felix's suggestion of Vodka hadn't helped save that it made her a little tipsy and relaxed on the couch once she'd come back from class. She was bringing supplies for Cardinal and the others at the library and leave before the shadow could rip her a new one for being out and about when she should be in bed. Sometimes though, you don't have the time to stay in bed. Idly she wonders if Elias could port her home and let her mother take care of her…
Yaknow, dogs are pretty much Jay's arch-nemesis - aside from cops. The runner veers, because if those things get too close he's going to be in for it, and takes the edge of the building near the corner, because it'll be more stable, because it will have more handholds, and because there are fewer dogs there. The look he shoots over is slightly alarmed. Nevertheless, the prove-self desire is still in effect, and with a grunt he heaves off the ground, gaining four or five feet in height just from the jump. Bare fingers catch and claw at the brick, and miraculously take hold. That alone is pretty impressive; the fact that he picks his hands up one by one and starts climbing a moment later is probably worth applause in some circles. Unfortunately, this place hasn't got those circles. Time to get out of dog-reach, jaw tight and attention fastened upwards because if he looks down, he's going to have problems. Distant words do penetrate his brain, however, and as he clambers his way up to a dog-free perch, he grunts, "Who. The hell. Names a dog. Jerry Lee?"
The runner gets little Benny's attention and he chases after more then happy to assist. The yapping increases as the young man gets to a place Benny can't follow. He stands at the bottom of the wall barking wildly, one paw on the wall as he gazes up at Jay. The bigger of the three dogs, a boxer mix by the looks of it ambles over to stand next to the small Benny and adds his booming bark.
"Isn't none of your damn business how I name my dogs." Kaitlyn calls from where she is, as she has no desire to get any closer. "Better question is who in their damn mind climbs buildings in Midtown? You looking to get killed? I might be able to help you with that." She states bitterly, eyeing him suspiciously, before something tickling the edge of her ability catches her attention. Her shoulder gives a bit of a twitch as she searches for the source, brown eyes landing finally on Abby. Brows drop in a slight frown and she takes a step sideways, before she seems to relax slightly.
Woman with dogs and grocery bags, guy doing parkour. Because that's what Victor did, and she spent a few hours or more watching him do it, denying him the chance to teach her a thing or two. So the woman shuffling away, doesn't really gain much notice since she's not all that close. She just watches, from afar now, because this is the ruins and shit happens in the ruins. One of the two might be a not so nice person.
"Great," grumbles Jay as the dogs start barking. "No thanks, all right? Look, I just didn't have forty bucks to climb a rock wall." But he did have the money for decent running gear - or more likely the parents bought that. He shifts his grip towards the nearest handhold, spidering away from the corner. "Sorry, guys, didn't bring any jerky, don't aim to become dinner. 'Scuse me here, this ain't easy." A windowsill! Jake claws his way up into it with a hard heave, catches the sides of the blasted window with both hands. He squints into the darkness and apparently decides that this is not an appropriate stopping spot; around he turns to at last look down at what's barking at him - and at their owner. A crooked smile gets flashed from about forty feet up, then he leans around to see what other handholds he's got available.
"Benny… Hooch.. Heel." The command is sharp and firm from the older woman and the barking stops suddenly as both dogs look at Kaitlyn. Benny has to get one more bark in at Jay, before both move to sit at her feet, though the attention of all four is on the guy. Lips press together briefly before the woman sighs. "You should really come down before you break something. What the hell is it with you young guys and this need to prove your macho?"
"Hooch, now, Hooch is a great dog name." Jake sticks his head out and looks down again, eyeing the dogs. "Still looks like he'd take a nice chunk outta my ass, though." An easy grin flashes. "It's not about macho right now, but if you must know, we're all trying to get laid. That's all it's ever been. Man secrets 101: it's about getting laid. Don't tell anyone I told you or they'll revoke my man card." And he reaches out to dig his fingers into the brick, follows that by gaining himself a foothold and sliding some of his weight onto it. "Christ, and I'm only three stories up." Maybe four. He's not counting. Regardless, he sounds disgusted with himself. "Gimme a minute, all right?"
"Yeah.. I know that one too." Amusement colors her voice for a moment, before she looks down at Hooch, who watches the climber with long tongue lolling out of his mouth, panting slightly. "Him? Naw… One you gotta worry about is Jerry Lee.. But don't worry about the dogs as long as you stay the hell away from me." She continues to watch him, shaking her head slowly. "Sit." Comes another command and all three dogs sit, though Benny has to gives a few more barks to Jay, offering his opinion.
She point at Abby too. "You should be in bed." Kaitlyn makes it sounds like an order. "I can tell from here how nasty your feeling. Not to mention that pink hair.. what the hell is it about you younger kids today? Out around here Pink hair might get you unwanted attention."
"Too many things to do and nothing that can be done from a bed" She calls over the space between her and the woman. "He's pretty good at what he's been doing, don't worry" nasally southern inflection. 'Been watching him for a bit"
Oh great, there are two of them. Jay pauses in his wall-crawling to twist his head around and squint over his shoulder with effort. "The hell," he says, and, "Fuck it." And he focuses on the wall again, in a hard flurry of climbing that takes him down to the second floor, where he drops into a windowsill and stares inside for a moment, before taking a seat on the edge of it. Somehow he's covered half the building's face in the last few minutes. "You guys gonna shoot me if I come down? …Better question, you gonna set Jerry Lee on me? Cuz I'd hate to look like a fool running my ass off from something with four legs." Both hands brace in the windowsill, just in case the wall decides to crumble beneath him. At least he's now only about thirty some feet off the ground?
"What the hell could need to be done by a pixie with pink hair in Midtown?" Kaitlyn eyes the younger woman suspiciously. The scrambling of feet, pulls her attention back to Jay, she glances at Jerry Lee who glances at her, his head giving a slightly curious tilt. "You stay away from me, you'll be fine. They won't move unless I let them." She glances at the dogs around her and adds a firm, "Stay." To the commands they've already been told. "As long as they don't see you as a threat, kid, you'll be fine. Just try not to break something."
What could Abby do in the midtown with her hair. "I could do a lot more than you'd suspect, but likely not to you" But time is a wasting and she's rested enough. "And it wouldn't be now because i'm not that kind of girl" AND she lifts up from her spot on the hood of a run down beat up scorched vehicle, gathers her bags and starts to trudge off herself.
A disturbed voyeur to all of this, Jake stares down, brows lofted. "Huh." And this is where Jake displays impressive wisdom for his eighteen years: he does not make any suggestions concerning what those two could go do. Give him a minute, he's relaxing, getting his wind back, getting ready to slide down. "All right then," he says instead, "Here goes. Because the only thing I'm a threat to right now is the nearest bucket of cold beer." And off he drops, twisting to catch the edge of the windowsill - which crumbles just a bit. "Ohh, shit." Suddenly he's scrambling for handholds, getting his feet under him. That's what he gets for trying to be flashy.
Kaitlyn's eyes widen a bit and she takes a few steps backwards as he looks like he's about to slip. She does that even though she's not anywhere close to getting dropped on. "Hey.. watch what your going." She snaps at him, taking a few more steps back, the dogs moving with her. A glance at the girl leaving, Kaitlyn relaxes some. Girls like that should not be in places like this in her opinion. Brown eyes flash back up at Jay watching his progress suddenly tense again. Maybe she should leave before he falls.
Maybe she should - but the windowsill holds for a few more seconds. Things fall and crumble on him. Those extra few seconds are vital - they let Jake get his footing, take his weight off the burnt wood. Once he's steady, he breathes, "Fuck. Fucking fuck…" Deep breath sighs out, and he begins working his way down. No more fancy stuff - at ten feet he just shoves off and drops into a crouch. Then? He spins, just in case the dog's coming for him, one arm upraised. "I don't want trouble." Hey, at least he figured out that he survives just fine without the last-second ability to save himself.
When Jay turns around, there is no one there, just the sound of quickly retreating footsteps. Kaitlyn is too worried about the boy falling to stick around for the problems that would come with him getting injured.
In the distance there is the sound of Benny yapping again and Kaitlyn shouting, "I don't need the rat, Benny… Leave it alone."