ArchivedLogs:Flying

Flying
Swing, Swing
Dramatis Personae Lia, Jeremy, Dorian, Melinda, Kismet, Jackson
In Absentia	18 October 2013 Freed labrats get taken out to play in the park.
Location <NYC> Tompkins Square Park - East Village
Small but popular, this tree-lined park is a perfect centerpiece to the eclectic neighborhood it resides in. Home to a number of playgrounds and courts from handball to basketball, it also houses a dog park and chess tables, providing excellent space for people watching -- especially during its frequent and often eccentric festivals, from Wigstock to its yearly Allen Ginsberg tribute Howl festival. The Lofts roof has been crowded. Crowded with recently escaped lab rats seeking the sun, the wind, the sky, a reprieve from even more over-crowded apartments, or just a place to stretch their legs. One of the Lofties finally got the brilliant idea to give some of these individuals some /real/ outdoors and leg room in the form of the park across the road from the Lofts. The lab rats have been instructed by a chaperone to stick to a small area where they can be safely observed, for now, and were ferried over to one of the park's less-populated playgrounds. Less-populated only because it is mid-day on a school day, one assumes! The playground contains a large play /castle/ in weathered grey wood, with bridges and swings and ladders and slides and... Lia is in /heaven/. The girl is clad in a set of clothing that looks like it was stolen from the closet of an older sibling--an older sibling with no fashion sense to speak of. A blue and grey flannel shirt is worn open as a jacket, its sleeves rolled up several times to reach her wrists and the hem hanging nearly to her knees. Beneath this is a white T-shirt with a big, yellow smiley face winking in its middle. Her legs are covered in a pair of leggings that sag rather than stretching, in faded splotches of neon green and dark blue that might once have been tie-dye. Her ash-brown hair is hanging loose and messy past her shoulders. The girl has already clambered up one of the ladders into the castle and is darting around like a gerbil in a cage with plenty of fun plastic tubes to run through. It seems that borrowed clothing is the theme of the day, and Jeremy is wearing pants that are kinda tight fitting, with a shirt and jacket that are overlarge, the shirt obscuring the colorful text upon it. After spending time on the roof, the park seems to be a little more enjoyable, by virtue of grass and less rising scents and fumes of the city. It even was far enough away from other buildings and power supplies that he had less concern for accidents where he might cause someone trouble. He is rather more subdued than the running and climbing Lia, walking around the outside of the castle and running his fingers over the weathered grey wood, looking up to the bridges above his head. The offer of getting to feel grass and sunlight and fresh air - at the same time no less! - has managed to draw Dorian out of the Lofts this afternoon. Initially there had been some attempt made at hiding his obvious mutations, with clothing choices, but the faded green flannel button up shirt has been hung on one of the posts of the castle for safe keeping, leaving the dark furred young man in a neon green tank top and modified, faded black cargo pants, despite the chill in the air. The thick brown pelt that covers his back, narrow shoulders, and upper arms glistens in the afternoon light as he dashes through the playground castle, running, climbing, and generally acting a good deal younger than he looks. Giggling, bouncing, and generally having an absolute ball scrambling through the tubes, occasionally diving headfirst down one of the slides before bounding back up the nearest ladder into the play structure again. Melinda is content to sit on a nearby park bench and watch for the time being, letting the others get used to their surroundings and perhaps a little more settled in the city. Unlike the rest of them, she's dressed in clothes that fit, though they do look a teensy bit shabby from long hours of wear and perhaps a nap in them. She's wearing a magenta tee shirt with a wide neck line that ties in the center and is cinched in at the bottom hem, but loose and billowy all over. Under that, a navy cotton skirt drapes all the way down to her ankles with slits that go up to her knees for ease of motion. She is wearing brown boots and has a pale rose cardigan draped over her lap in case the crisp autumn air starts to hold a chill. In her hands is an ever present cup of coffee, this time in a travel mug. She takes a sip as she watches Lia get rid of some excess energy with a little bit of a smile. Kismet strolls around the castle, keeping his feet on the ground and his hands in his pockets. His eyes alternate between watching the approaches to the playground and monitoring his more playful fellows. He looks at home in /his/ borrowed clothes: a sky blue t-shirt with a huge black Rebel Alliance logo, well-worn blue jeans, and a heather gray zip hoodie only one size too big. Every time he catches sight of anyone approaching or lingering, he makes eye contact with his chaperone and checks the location of his fellows before continuing his patrol. "Are all the playgrounds in this city like this?" The question could only be directed at Melinda, although he is watching a jogger in the distance. "We didn't have /anything/ like this even in town." It might be the sunlight that has drawn Jax outside, or it might just be the horde of stray labrats over here /unleashed/ upon the world. Though he was brought back to New York in a heap of blood and bandaging, he has since been up on his feet apparently uninjured. And has since been -- everywhere, really, cooking and checking in on their crowd of strays and keeping tabs on supplies and needs and organizing his crew of helpers. At the moment he's /not/ running around with a million things to do -- only, perhaps, one. He has a large tupperware tub beneath one arm, and is eye-catchingly bright -- hair in brilliant autumn-leaf hues of red and orange and yellow, jeans black with red flames embroidered up the sides, a glittery red halter top underneath a silvery jacket. He walks slowly, head tipped back to focus his attention up on the /sun/ overhead, looking down only once he reaches the outskirts of the playground to watch the younger mutants exploring. "Cookie?" he offers Melinda and Kismet, and then, "Naw. Some are better. Why are you /patrolling/?" Lia makes another trip back up to the highest tower in the castle, to check yet again on Coppelia, who is sitting therein like a princess waiting to be rescued (or, really, in safekeeping while Lia needs her hands for climbing about). Assured that the doll is still well, she /tears/ for the nearest slide and hurls herself down it headfirst on her stomach. Reaching the bottom, she tumbles into a surprisingly graceful forward roll and pops up to her feet with bits of mulch clinging to her shirt and hair. "Teddy! Teddy! We should swing and swing and swing and JUMP and maybe we can fly!" Up she goes on one tiptoe, an impromptu pirouette turning her in the direction of the swings, to which she scampers with an enthusiasm equal to the tone in her shouted suggestion. Jeremy smiles as the others are frolicking and playing, though with Kismet patrolling he tilts his head, watching him and Melinda, with Jax now approaching. He offers the man a wave, and at the offer for a cookie, he heads closer and points at the cookies then draws a question mark in the air, as if inquiring if he could have one. The sheer happiness of Lia and Dorian is at least infecting him somewhat and he seems more relaxed. He even chuckles a little, though when he notices the flickering in the air around him he looks concerned and puts his hands over his mouth looking around for those outside the small group. At the sound of his "name" being called, Dorian perks up, popping his head and shoulder up out of one of the juncture points of the tubes like an overgrown meerkat, ears forward as he scans around for Lia, lopsided grin on his face. Once he orients on her and the swings in question, he grins, and vanishes back into the series of tubes again, skittering along the path to emerge down one of the slides, head first again, landing on all fours and into a forward tumble, still smiling like a fool. Standing up and brushing himself off, he starts to head towards the swings, pausing momentarily and looking back towards Kismet, Jeremy and the others, head canted slightly to the side questioningly. He trots over to the other two former captives, hardly out of breath despite all his bounding about, "You guys wanna go swing? Less running, more just fun swinging? Is nice. I had a rope swing back home... I think. Over the river. Never anything like this, but swinging is fun." He grins, holding his scarred hands out to the both of them in invitation to come join them, before looking over at the two "grown ups", perhaps to see if they'd want to come too. Or to see if suddenly he was going to get thrown back in a cage again - there's a slight shadow of anxiety that crosses his face, his ears flicking back momentarily into his rumpled hair. Melinda refocuses her attention on Kismet as he draws near, her smile warm and bemused. She opens her mouth to speak, but the explanation is stolen away by Jackson. In the end, she raises her cup to him and holds a hand out for a cookie. "Certainly. Come to recharge your batteries? Going to sit down for once?" She glances back toward the playground, and as she watches Lia go down the slide head first, her eyes go wide and she cringes, the pained expression only dissipating when Lia tumbles well. She draws in a deep breath and shakes her head a teeny tiny bit before glancing back at those nearest her. Jeremy gets a surprised look and a smile. "I think he wants a cookie, too." She laughs a little when Dorian makes his invitation, but doesn't respond. Kismet studies Jax's outfit in wide-eyed wonder, but his raised eyebrows seem to be inspired by the statement about /better/ playgrounds. Still, he bows and selects a cookie from the tub. "Thank you, Sir." His eyes scan their surroundings again before he even takes a bite of the cookie. "Just want to have advanced warning of any trouble--" Overhearing Lia, he edges over so he can keep the swing set in his line of sight. "Not necessarily the kind that we just got away from, either." The tightness in his voice is accompanied by the barest hint of an accent.../Australian?/ "Thanks to you and your friends, Sir." He looks at Jeremy, then around them again. "No one really in sight at the moment, but if either you two have a cell phone, might want to step back from Jeremy while he eats." Dorian's invitation finally coaxes a smile from the serious young man. "I should keep my feet on the ground. Catch Lia if she uh...tries to fly away." Then, perhaps expecting disappointment, he adds. "I can push, if you want. With my /hands/." "Mmm?" Jax offers the cookies to Kismet and Melinda in turn -- they're pumpkin-chocolate-chip -- and is just starting to turn for the castle at the warning from Kismet. He pauses, digging a cellphone out of his pocket to rest it on Melinda's lap. "Y'mind hanging on to that, honey-honey?" Kismet's answer earns a slight frown. "I ain't your Sir," he answers, promptly, though his smile is still easy and his voice warm. "An' s'good to keep an eye out for trouble but, uh, s'also good to relax and actually --" he waves the lid of the cookies towards the others on the playground. "Have some fun." His head tilts at Lia, and with his cellphone away on the bench he approaches the playground equipment to offer the others the cookies, starting with Jeremy. "D'you fly?" he wants to know of Lia. The direct address from Jax actually stops Lia for a moment. “I don't know, I haven't tried!” she replies with a bright smile and a shrug. “I have a lot of happy thoughts now, but no one has given me any fairy dust. Do you really need both if you also have a swing?” And with that, the girl is not waiting for anyone to accompany her to the swings, slow-pokey otters or otherwise. She skips her way over to the nearest seat and plunks herself down in it, immediately drawing herself as far back as she can go. Once she is on the tips of her tightly-tied oversized sneakers, she lets go to begin pushing herself higher and higher. Her eyes close, delighting in the sensation of shooting upward as if flying, then free-falling, then flying once again. Her loose hair and flannel flap along behind her like a very strange cape, indeed. Accepting the cookie from Jax, Jeremy proceeds to try and get slightly further from the phone, and to do so he climbs up into the castle. His trek takes him up to stand at the top where Coppelia rests safely, and he looks down to the swings, giving a wave so Lia would know he was there. From his perch, he looks over the tasty treat in his hands, and proceeds to consume it slowly to savor it, darkening the top of the tower with each bite, an inverse lighthouse that would hopefully not reach those beneath. Dorian seems to pout a touch when his invitation to swing is turned down by multiple people, dropping his hands, "S'ok. Just wanted t'offer. Cause it is kinda fun. More fun when you can let go and sploosh down into water." He perks back up when offered a cookie, grinning curiously, cautiously reaching up to select one out of the tub when offered, eyes wide, "Cookie? Thank you!" He bounces on the balls of his bare feet while he nibbles on the cookie, watching Jeremy distance himself to eat his treat, a frown tugging at the corners of his mouth. After a moment though, he nods at Kismet, grinning cheerily again, "Oh! You sure? I can swing myself - but if you don't like being off the ground, you can push if you wanna. Maybe push Lia too - since she wants to fly?" He grins, and starts to bounce off towards the vacant swing besides Lia, occasionally nibbling on his cookie, but summarily shoving it in his mouth happily before sitting down to start swinging. Melinda takes a couple cookies and blinks as a cellphone is laid in her lap. "Hey, no problem. I'll sit here and be command central or the phone center - whatever you want to call it." She takes a bite of her cookie and leans back in her seat, quite pleased to watch quietly. "Someone push Jax on a swing. It's probably the best way to get him to sit down." "Having fun? Sure, I'd /like/ to..." Kismet does not look terribly convinced. "Just, all this...freedom, I mean. It's still a little strange, you know." Dark brown eyes dart up to the darkness beginning to envelope Jeremy in the castle. "Like it's going to go wrong any minute and I got to be prepared." He finishes his cookie and watches Lia with a faint, worried smile. "If she can fly, it'd be a bad idea going off alone. If she can't, it'd be a bad idea...period." His eyes stray briefly to the tub of cookies again before he follows Dorian over to the swings. "All right, big push or little push?" Returning from the safe range and brushing cookie crumbs off his borrowed clothing, Jeremy approaches the swings, and signs a thank you to Jax then looks amongst the swings available and those already sitting on them. With Mel providing actual orders though, it makes it easier for him to fall into his old habits, and he gestures for Jax to have a seat on the swing so he can push. Granted, looking at the slightly scrawny boy, the pushes are probably going to be pretty ineffective. "It'll feel strange for a while," Jax agrees with a small crooked smile. "Maybe a long while. Honestly, sometimes I feel like it don't never stop feelin' strange. But you get a bit more used t'the world." He shrugs a shoulder, taking a cookie for himself and setting the whole box down on one of the steps up to the castle. His head tips back to look up at Jeremy. "Why're you all the way up -- oh." The oh comes when he sees the darkness with each bite, though it's curious rather than alarmed. "S'that dangerous?" he asks once Jeremy comes back down. The thank you earns a smile, and a signed , 'Welcome!'. His nose crinkles up at the offer of a swing, and for a moment he hesitates, but then goes to take the seat. "I got fairy dust," he confides to Lia cheerfully, "But I like to do most of my flyin' with my feet on the ground." The wild rock of Lia's swing slows a little when Jax comes by, to facilitate hearing and speaking. “You have fairy dust? Flying with your feet on the ground is not flying. It is...running? Standing still and flapping your arms. Flying means no ground. Upupup!” Her doe-like brown eyes open even wider. “You have all the fairy dust. Fairy boy! Dusk said, Dusk said. You are Jax? You have the map and the dust for flying.” She forgets entirely about pumping her legs to keep the swing going, eventually coming to a slow pendulum-ing and standstill. “Can I see?” Whether she means the fairy dust or the map or the flying or something else entirely, she does not clarify. Dorian offers a little bit of a shrug, tilting his head backwards to look at Kismet, "Medium swing, maybeish? Please?" He has a grin plastered on his face, a little bit of a lighthearted giggle escaping his lips. This fades a little at the discussion of things feeling weird, "It does feel odd. Like it's a fever dream, or a trick, or another test or something. Guess it's kinda just something I gotta get used to?" Dorian starts kicking his feet slightly to make the swing move slightly, slowly, looking at the others. His eyes go wide when he sees the darkness fading around Jeremy, before he descends to the swingset, grinning, but not saying anything - just happy to be outside, among friends. He giggles at Lia and her flying chatter, glancing curiously at Jax, having slept through any conversation of this, apparently. "You have fairy dust?" he asks curiously, unsure what this would actually be. Or maybe the colorful man is actually some sort of awesome pixie mutant. There is a smile as the response comes back in sign, and Jeremy starts to shake his head no, then pauses and gestures it as more so so. 'Do it long and can freeze. Kills electronics. Eats light.' His signing seems trained to get the message across quickly at least, or that the people he signed for before wanted it kept short and sweet. As Lia gets so excited for answers, he seems unsure if he should push still, but Jax did sit, so he plants his feet and does his best to get the swing moving. He nods rather thoroughly though as the others describe it as being odd, a concerned frown coming at the mention of test. Kismet takes hold of Dorian's swing and pulls it back, giving it only a modest shove as he releases it. "You can get used to just about anything. That's not always good, but--" He pushes Dorian lightly when the swing comes back to him. "--yeah, I'm /pretty/ sure this isn't a trick or test or anything. I mean, those folks where we were at?" Another push, slightly harder this time. "/Way/ too stodgy for fairy dust." Jackson looks over to the others, nodding. "No. Flying don't got anything to do with where you're located. S'all in how you feel. I got so many people around me who help me fly. Even," he says cheerfully, "when I'm too beat t'walk. And yes." His arm hooks around the chain of his swing, holding there with his elbow as his hand turns upright. A cloudy swirl of soft glittery light blossoms over his hand, tinged faintly blue where it hovers and then scatters into the air. "I'm Jax. An' maybe kinda a fairy. Certainly been called one before," which comes with a bright warmth of amusement in his voice. The little dark eyebrows on Lia's forehead bunch together, not really understanding where Jax is going with his not-moving-flying talk. Fairies and light and /glitter/ she gets, though. “Ooo.” Her jaw drops open slightly, head canted off to one side like a puppy listening to an answering machine. Walking her swing crabwise over toward Jax's, she reaches out to put her slender little fingers into the light. "Wizard," Kismet mutters. He is so mesmerized by the fairy dust floating into the air that he almost gets knocked over by Dorian when the swing returns. "Wait, so /does/ that actually make you fly? I didn't think you meant it literal, flying on the ground and all." He scans the grounds again before giving the otter boy's swing another push. "I'm not sure there's /anything/ I won't believe anymore." Jackson shakes his head, feet dropping to stop his swing beside Lia's. The glittery cloud swirling through Lia's fingers and then dissipating, a faint shimmer in the air and then nothing. "Naw. It don't /make/ you fly. Just helps you remember your happy thoughts. Those are what make you fly. I only know a couple'a people who can fly in the air, but you get enough happy in your life and y'don't need wings." Lia is entranced by the shimmery fairy dust, playing her fingers through it as if it were water or sand or some such thing that could be handled and slipped between them. Her expression grows ever more perplexed-and-yet-determined when the illusion fails to have any tactile qualities or be affected by her own touch. As the dust dissipates, she /swats/ at it like a cat who had /clearly/ caught the little red dot of a laser pointer, only to have it flit out through its paws as if they had no substance. “Happy thoughts are the only things you need to fly? No dust or magic or wings?” Her nose crinkles, bunny-like. “I have never flown.” Kismet chuckles. "Man, if happy thoughts make you fly, I must have racked up some air time when I was with the Temple." He shrugs and gives Dorian's swing an extra-hard shove, watch it carefully as though he expects his roommate to lose his grip and literally go flying. "Guess I should find some /new/ happy thoughts. Been a bit short on them." But he is smiling all the same, looking around the playground now not with keen watchfulness but appreciative wonder. "With the Temple?" Jackson echoes this with a hint of puzzlement. "What do you mean?" He hitches a shoulder up in a shrug, following Kismet's gaze around the playground and then back. "World's got plenty'a happy thoughts. Hopefully you'll have the space now to find 'em again." A soft glimmer of glitter-dust trails up from his fingers again, this time settling on Lia's hand in a faint dusting of shimmer. "Happy thoughts is one way to fly, for sure. You ain't never felt them?" There is a moment of brow-furrowed, silent thought as Lia actually has to search for this information. “I...maybe? Some. A little. Sometimes.” Her shoulders roll in, making the girl seem both younger and smaller. “Never felt them like flying.” She regards her shimmering hand with a small smile, bringing the back of it up against her cheek to nuzzle there. "The Temple of the Jedi Order." Kismet turns his eyes to the south, gazing at a stand of trees as if he can see through the blazing autumn leaves and all the concrete and steel beyond. "My family...my second family. Maybe I'll go back someday, but not yet. I'm here for a reason." His gaze slides back over Dorian, Lia, and at last Jeremy, silent beside them. "Doesn't mean I can't do some flying while I'm at it." "The -- uh." Ths gives Jax a moment's pause. "I think you're here cuz --" he starts with a deep frown, but then just shakes his head. "We can help y'get back to your family. If y'had one that cares about you, they're prob'ly worried about you." The glitter tracks from Lia's hand to Lia's cheek, a little bit of it swirling off into the air again with the movement. "Can be hard t'fly in cages," he allows easily, feet pushing off the ground to return to swinging. "You'll find it easier out here, I hope." “It is nicer out here. There are more things that are real than in the rooms.” Lia cradles the hand close to her awhile longer. “I never met a fairy before, either. I think...that is good for flying, too.” When Jax restarts his swinging, she pulls herself back again, resetting her own swift swooping arcs.