Streets of Town, Tuesday Morning

[thewrathofkaan]

On Roscoe's first few days here, the many stairways and handrails throughout town had struck him as a delicious opportunity to practice his skateboarding moves. Today he was ready to give that a shot.

Admittedly, the heights made it more daunting than simply racing through the streets back home, but he was sure he could handle it.

He found a good spot where he wasn't too high up and there seemed to be relatively light foot traffic and set off at a glide before he tried his first jump.

"Nice!"

So... this was where he'd be for the rest of the morning. Hopefully he didn't break anything.

Comments

[sciclone]

Cosima had just been out on a coffee-and-bagel run, but she had to stop to watch the guy skateboard. She didn't skate herself (stupid lung issues), but she'd hung out with enough people who had that she knew moves when she saw them.

This kid had moves.

"Nice jump," she called to him appreciatively. "Are you gonna try the railing next?"

[thewrathofkaan]

"Thanks! I'm kinda working up the courage," Roscoe laughed, jumping back down and catching his board in his hand. "Really not used to this many stairs."

[sciclone]

"It's a lot," Cosima had to agree. "I'm from San Fran, and it still feels like a lot just walking."

She scrunched up her nose. "I think it's supposed to be charming."

[thewrathofkaan]

"Oh, no way!" Roscoe said, perking up. "I went to San Fran with my dad last year. I'm from LA, so another member of the 'hills, not stairs' club."

He shrugged. "But hey, I'm good with it as long as the railing doesn't fall apart. It looks pretty old."

[sciclone]

"Go Cali," Cosima grinned, and went over to inspect that railing. "Yeah, it looks sort of rusty underneath. Huh."

[thewrathofkaan]

"Plus the buildings look, what, like 200 years old? So the stairs and the railings can't be that much newer. Otherwise walking up here must have been a real bitch." He wasn't really a history guy. Just making some guesses. "Which makes me want to wimp out and take a break for a while."

[sciclone]

"If you wanna take a break, I'll hang out," Cosima offered. "I'm a little behind on the whole get-to-know-the-new-kids thing."

[thewrathofkaan]

"See, and I've mostly been assuming everyone I meet is new too, but I knew I would have noticed hair like that if you were on the bus with me," Roscoe said, grinning. "I'm Roscoe."

[sciclone]

"The island's small enough that you get to know everybody sooner or later, but my hair's kind of an attention-getter," Cosima agreed, twisting her braids together. "Hey. I'm Cosima. How's the new kid thing going for you so far?"

[thewrathofkaan]

"Not bad," Roscoe said with a shrug. "I'm in an actual music class, which wasn't really a thing at my old school because of budget cuts, and I've heard good things about the clothing store in town. So far I'm not hating it."

Actually it was about a thousand times better than everything at home. He loved it here.

"How's life as an, uh, old kid?"

[sciclone]

"Never boring?" Cosima decided, with a little shrug. "Which you wouldn't think 'cause it's such a tiny place, but there's always something going on. Sometimes even something good."

She smiled over at Roscoe. "My roomie works at the clothing shop," she said. "Ada. Tell her hi if you go in."

[thewrathofkaan]

"Oh, no way! She's my big sis. Fake one, I mean, 'cause obviously." There were a lot of reasons why that probably didn't need to be said. "She did a magic trick and gave me a flower she pulled out of nowhere. She's good people."

[sciclone]

"She's awesome," Cosima told him, with real enthusiasm. "She told you about the carnie thing, right? I think it makes her a little extra-awesome. There is pretty much nothing she hasn't seen before."

[soniaroadsqueen]

In the year that Ringo had been on the island, she'd sort of come to expect most of the good trick spots around town to be hers and hers alone. Occasionally she'd coaxed Kathy or someone else into an AT ride through the streets, but no one kept the aggressive schedule she did.

Which meant that the high-pitched whine that signaled the approach of someone on AirTrek didn't provide much warning before Ringo came barreling around a corner intending to grind the rail at the spot that Roscoe had found.

Her eyes went wide in surprise, and a little bit of panic, as she realized she was at serious risk of slamming into this new kid, but deeply ingrained reflexes took over. Ringo kicked off the ground, her body twisting through a complicated arc that let her ride along the wall of a building rather than the rail before flipping off to land in quick spin to bleed of speed.

"Ohmygosh!" she exclaimed, eyes still wide. "I'm so sorry!"

[thewrathofkaan]

As Ringo came through, Roscoe had a moment of panic and nearly fell straight forward down the stairs, but adrenaline shot through him and he swung sideways instead and caught the rail with both hands before he could fall.

His board slipped down the stairs one at a time, but Roscoe swung loosely from the railing, inches off the ground. He was able to catch the last few seconds of Ringo's trick before she spoke and he jumped down, grinning broadly.

"Are you kidding? That was epic. How did you do that?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo blinked, clearly not having expected that particular response, but then she grinned. Because how could she not?

She leaned forward, the shift in body weight enough to trigger the sensors in her ATs and set her gliding slowly toward the stairs again where she bent down to catch Roscoe's board.

"Um, practice?" She almost sounded embarrassed about it.

[thewrathofkaan]

"Well, shit, I need to practice more," Roscoe laughed. "A lot more."

He headed down the stairs two at a time to grab his board back from Ringo. "So glad to know I'm not the only crazy person to think of skating on these old steps."

[soniaroadsqueen]

She watched him come down the stairs with open interest, looking at the way he moved. That catch on the railing had been pretty impressive, after all.

"Well, I also have something a bit faster than you." She nodded at his board and grinned. "So I might have a bit of an advantage for some of the, um, bigger jumps?"

Her head swiveled, looking around the area. "But isn't this place great?" Ringo's grin was out in full force. "Lots of great, tight spaces, rails and stairs everywhere. Like a playground!"

[thewrathofkaan]

"Totally!" Roscoe gushed. "I didn't know what I was missing back home. I figured skating down a hilly street in the morning before there are cars on the road was the best I was gonna get. But this is seriously sick."

Scary too, but he'd get over that.

"Where'd you get that gear? It looks intense."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Yeah. There aren't a lot of places like this back home, either. Which is where I got these." Ringo balanced on one foot without apparent effort as she stuck out the other in Roscoe's direction in case he wanted a better look at the two wheels and mostly-covered motor assembly.

"Apparently no one else has anything quite like them." Her teeth flashed. "Which us too bad because they are seriously the best."

[ooc: Gotta run a few errands. Back in four hours or so!]

[thewrathofkaan]

"Nice," Roscoe marveled, tilting his head to look at them. Okay, so he was an amateur, not an expert, but he could at least tell that Ringo's wheels were better than his own. "Are they for competing or something?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well, there are AirTrek competitions," Ringo allowed. Having forgotten that she hadn't told Roscoe what AirTrek was yet.

"But this is just a casual pair for around town." Though 'casual' for Ringo was still pretty tricked out.

[thewrathofkaan]

"AirTrek?" There, now that problem was solved. "Never heard of them."

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo had gotten used to responses like that over the past year. "That's what these are called," she said, waving at her feet. "Like I said, it's a thing back home."

She grinned conspiratorially. "And I'm kinda trying to get some people into it here."

[thewrathofkaan]

"Well, fuck, it can't be that hard to get people interested in a sport where they can skate on walls," Roscoe laughed. "I'll just tell you right now I'm very interested in that."