Rooftops and wires around town, Sunday afternoon

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae didn't do still well -- not without extenuating circumstances, anyway -- and her dorm room was much too small with a Trevor in it. So after sleeping in as late as she possibly could without the usual winter train noises from back home, she headed out into town to wander and explore.

Stair railing to tree to store canopy and -- jump, two, three! -- she was on the rooftops.

This town had excellent rooftops to run across. Which was good, because it was lacking a little in electrical wires, mailboxes, or clotheslines.

She hopped from one roof to the next, noting which ones seemed like they had people on them more often than others. The whole place was cleaner than she was used to, nowhere near as many beer bottles and cans scattered around, though there were even more squirrels than in Possum Springs. Hadn't someone said something about the local squirrels? She didn't remember. They seemed pretty normal to her.

Well, maybe not the one in the hat.

Run, run, run, jump! Clang onto an HVAC vent, then balance along the edge of that sign and jump!

Oh hey! A park!

[open!]

Comments

[what_the_shock]

Huh. Miguel didn't often see a lot of other people up here.

He swung up and dropped down in front of her. He pulled up his mask to be friendly, though the sun made him squint. "Hey. You one of the new students?"

[thishouseishaunted]

"Are you a costumed vigilante? Because I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to just randomly take off your mask."

[what_the_shock]

"Tell me about it." Miguel snorted. "Not a problem around here, though. No secret identities needed." He stuck out his hand. "Miguel O'Hara."

[thishouseishaunted]

"No secret identities needed," Mae repeated. "Then why are you wearing the silly outfit at all?"

[what_the_shock]

"Because the mask has visual filters, the web on the back has anti-grav," and the UMF fabric keeps me warmer than jeans," Miguel said. "What, you don't like it?"

[thishouseishaunted]

"I'm a fifteen year old girl suddenly confronted by an adult man dressed entirely in spandex," Mae pointed out. "I don't think anyone wants me to like it."

[what_the_shock]

"It's UMF, not spandex," Miguel protested automatically.

Which...was so not the point here.

"...point. Forget I asked. Fifteen, really?" Who could tell with cats? Was that different in people years? "So, new student? Or just a new local daredevil?"

[thishouseishaunted]

"I know, I know, I look, like, eight." She was very short and flat chested. It was embarrassing. "Are you going to lecture me about gravity and not walking on power lines?"

Adults usually did, after all.

[what_the_shock]

"Make sure the lines are insulated." That was responsible, right? "I'll save the gravity lecture for class. Are you taking science class?"

[thishouseishaunted]

"I'm taking Civil Disobedience and a glorified Home Ec." Mae was pretty sure that Dr. Hank had advised her parents to let her ease back into school, because that seemed like a light load even for a place that didn't teach math. "Are you teaching science?"

[what_the_shock]

"Guess you'll miss the whole thing about gravity, then." Miguel shrugged. "Unless they teach that in Home Ec." What even was Home Ec?

[thishouseishaunted]

"I am actually familiar with the concept already."

She fell off of stuff a lot. That was part of the fun.

[what_the_shock]

"See? Saves us both a lecture. So what about you, Miss No-Name Student? Future masked vigilante, practicing for the circus, or just working on your high-altitude brooding?"

[thishouseishaunted]

"Um. None of the above." That was a weird assortment of options. "I like climbing on stuff."

Seriously, what she did wasn't even parkour. She didn't do flips or rolls or vaults or anything. She just jumped around and balanced on whatever she could find.

[what_the_shock]

Excuse you, it was a totally normal assortment of options!

"Not jumping off or falling to your death off?" Miguel asked. "Just checking."

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae shrugged. "Haven't been that lucky yet."

Ahhh, gen z humor.

[what_the_shock]

Which would put Mae squarely in Miguel's great-grandparents' generation.

He snorted. "Just keep staying that unlucky, then, okay? Splats mess up the cobblestones."

[thishouseishaunted]

"I dunno, man, I was just thinking this place is too clean."

[what_the_shock]

Too clean? Fandom? Miguel was wondering about your world, Mae.

"Yeah, but do you really want to have flies all over you?"

Asked the spider.

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae was from a dying Appalachian mining town with an abandoned glass factory and freight trains passing through. Fandom was pristine.

"I'd probably be eaten by scavengers way before the flies showed up."

[what_the_shock]

"What scavengers?" Miguel asked. "Pretty sure the gremlins aren't into dead people."

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae gave him a Look. "Every place has scavengers." Him not noticing the local ones, she felt, said a lot about who he was as a person.

[what_the_shock]

"Teal deer run rampant in the woods and gremlins and squirrels run the streets," Miguel said. "Pretty sure we haven't got enough scavengers they'd get your body first. Unless maybe there's an alot of scavenging."

[thishouseishaunted]

"Well yeah. Scavengers don't eat live things."

How many carcasses of those things did you see lying around, Miguel?

[what_the_shock]

"I didn't mean -" Miguel stopped himself and shook his head. "You know what, that doesn't even matter. Try not to die anyway, okay?"

[thishouseishaunted]

"You're not the boss of me."

Mae was, in fact, very good at not dying.

[what_the_shock]

"Thank shock," Miguel muttered. "Consider it a suggestion."

[thishouseishaunted]

"Okay, Spandex Man. Whatever."

[what_the_shock]

"It's UMF," Miguel repeated. "And I did actually tell you my name, unlike some people."

Because you still hadn't, Mae. Don't think he hadn't noticed.

[thishouseishaunted]

Miguel was still a grown man in skin tight pants, so Mae was okay with that decision.

"How nice for you. I'm going to go now."

There were still more things to jump on, after all.

[what_the_shock]

"Yeah, sounds good. If you die, I'll keep the scavengers away."

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae was already bouncing down onto a streetlamp, using it to spring up onto a ledge on the next building.

"WHaT dO I caRe," she called over her shoulder. "I'lL be DEaaaAAAAaaAaAAaD!"