ArchivedLogs:Baby Steps

Baby Steps
Dramatis Personae Anette, Ash, B
In Absentia	2016-01-10 "Age of the geek, baby."
Location <NYC> Lower East Side
Historically characterized by crime and immigrant families crammed into cramped tenement buildings, the Lower East Side is often identified with its working-class roots. Today, it plays host to many of New York's mutant poor, although even here they are still often forced into hiding. Dark and wet and gloomy, it's not the best of nights to be Out and About, though at least it's not /freezing/ on top of it. Drizzly, slick, streets full of dirty gritty puddles for the cars to splash pedestrians with. B, right now, is not really splashing in puddles so much as gliding over them -- it's leaving kind of a /light/ show in this particular alley, bright and streaky in dazzling silver and purple from the Tron-like highlights on hir gauntlets and boots. Zip-zip-zip, down the sidewalk, up the /wall/, up over a dumpster, flip straight off it to land (kind of) a good bit above the ground -- the hovering boots she wears rather help with hir very much gravity-defying mode of locomotion. "{See,}" she's (cheerfully) explaining to hir companion in clumsy Spanish, "{it's not so difficult}" (this is a /blatant lie/, it is in fact quite unwieldy and very tricky to get the hang of), "{you use the gloves to stabilize --}" The light show, though, has attracted kind of a bit of attention -- more than just the occasional glances from passersby outside the mouth of the alley. Some people have paused to look (sort of impressed, here and there, with the unusual flying accessories) but couple of figures now are stopping -- not only looking at the hoverboots but, now, the small blue figure who is wearing them. Frowning. Muttering to themselves. Ash looks a bit like a puppy that has been doused with water and left out in the cold too long. He's damp from an accumulation of moisture from the air, but he's not precisely soaking. He does have the large puppy eyes, though, looking at B as if she is explaining quantum mechanics in an effort to save his life. "{Sure...}" he replies, looking down at the ground and then to the gadgets on the ends of his limbs. "{Stabalize... how again? Like the tightrope walkers?}" He exhales shakily as he spreads his arms out, palms down, and takes a step forward, oh so wobbily! "{Does it have to go... so fast? Maybe if I were... holding on to something?}" He looks mournfully at the nearby wall. As he starts to move, his feet zip ahead of the rest of him and he flails! Anette is on her own tonight, currently just walking down the sidewalk bundled in a coat and gloves, holding an umbrella above her to hide from the rain. She's been keeping to herself and clearly had no intention speaking to or meeting up with anyone but the small group gathered and muttering to themselves has caught her attention. Especially as she's picked up fragments of the comments and more than one has been a mutant slur. Intrigued, she makes her way over, weaving her way to the front of crowd just in time to watch Ash wobble helplessly as he attempts to hover himself. "Subtle," she says a bit sarcastically, not directed to anyone in particular, though a faint grin present suggests a hint of amusement, either by the boots themselves or the attempts to use them. "{Stabilize, see? This way.}" B stops her wild careening, zipping down to stay by Ash as she demonstrates more carefully. She glides easily forward as Ash flails, reaching up to his shoulder to offer support. "{Here, can slow down if you --}" But she trails off at the sound of other voices, nose twitching in the air. It's oddly not the slurs that make her tenser but the smell of a familiar scent, gills fluttering briefly alongside her neck. She doesn't let go of Ash, still offering support, seeming quite steady hirself on hir glowing hoverboots. One of the group at the mouth of the alley jostles hard at Anette as she weaves through them, giving her something of a shove as she makes her way to the front of the crowd. "-- /friends/ of yours?" It's asked pretty derisively as the young man looks from Anette over to B. B just snorts. "{-- adjust the sensitivity here,}" she continues to Ash. "{I keep mine way high but you don't have to.} Hi, Anette." "{No, no, it's okay. I am so not sensitive! I'm a big not sensitive buffoon - like an itty bitty baby thing!}" Ash leans against B when she comes up to steady him, blinking rapidly at the friend under his arm and down at the ground longingly and then behind him to the noisy crowd he has been ignoring up to this point. He looks Anette over once she becomes visible from the crowd, but his attention snaps back to his boots and what B is doing to them to fix them. "Oh... hii, Anette." Don't mind him, just turning into human gelatin here. The jostling most definitely got Anette's attention and, where she might have once reacted negatively and mutant-y, she merely tenses, grinding her teeth as she breathes out slowly. "Acquaintances," she murmurs in response, before looking over to B and ignoring the rude person. Yellow eyes scan the blue one for a moment, judging whether there's any potential risk or threat. B seems to pass as Anette glances back towards Ash. "Sure you can handle that thing? Hate to see you accidentally knock yourself out." "{Baby steps,}" B agrees with a tiny closed-lipped smile. "{There. Now try? Maybe more ease. Easy. Not so much of fast.}" Tentatively, she lets Ash go, though stays close by him as she glides juuust a little bit back. "I don't think he's going to knock himself out falling from -- pretty much standing height. That's what practice is -- for." The hesitation in her words comes as she tenses abruptly, a broken chunk of glass comes thunking against her side, chucked over from the mouth of the alley. "Boring," someone from the alleyway is calling. "Come /on/, freakshow, the flying was more interesting." The second chunk of glass dings against one of hir boots. "Not dancing no more?" "{Yeah, Okay. I can try.}" Ash hesitantly lets B go, and is instantly dismayed when she slides out of reach. He exhales and begins slowly moving forward, jaw clenched in concentration. "When have I ever knocked myself out in your presence?" Ash asks quietly, perturbed. He continues, slowly getting the hang of moving directly forward at a slow crawl. Yes! One direction is working for him. However, when he turns his head to look for the thrown glass and then the people who threw it, he starts flailing once more. He waves his arms as he comes to a stop and stares over at the source of the noise. "{Should we go somewhere else?}" Anette almost seems impressed by Ash's improvement, watching him as he starts to catch on. Only to to jump in surprise by the suddenly thrown glass and outburst. Without thinking, she twists her neck and screeches, wide eyes glaring to find the perpetrator. "Maybe we should wrap up lessons," she says, twisting her head to a more human position. Tensing up, she quickly steps closer to B and Ash, safety in numbers and all, and quickly slips her talons out of the gloves away from human eyes, though she promptly slips her hands in her pockets and out of sight. Just easily accessible. B shoots forward again quickly when Ash starts to flail, though doesn't actually catch him this time -- her smile is quick when he stops himself. It fades pretty quickly again, too, though, with the rumblings from the onlookers. "Think lesson time is over." Though ze's eying the sole exit to the alley with a wary look. "{I don't guess you ready to learn how to go /up/.}" A little wryly, to Ash, as she ventures slowly forward towards the group. Clear and polite: "Excuse me. We're leaving." There's a long moment of delay where nobody moves, before some of the crowd parts. A few don't, one or two still holding things -- a rock, a bit of broken bottle -- that they had evidently also meant to throw. "{You could always pull me - if they work like skates and all... might be better than walking a gauntlet.}" Ash replies quietly, eyeing the members of the crowd quietly as he very slowly follows B, trying to keep his feet underneath him the entire way. "Nice seeing you," he remarks to Anette. "Wish it was under better circumstances, but you know how things are." He swallows hard then gives her a smile. "I seem to have that effect on people," Anette says with a slight chuckle. She follows the others through the crowd, though she remains close to them. And while she attempts to remain on her best behavior as far as any more mutantation-based outbursts, she does remain on alert, keeping an eye and ear out for any signs of any more problems. "So uh...are these your hoverboot things?" she asks B, in an attempt to maintain some sense of casual. "I made them, yes. They --" That's as far as B gets. One of the men still holding a rock hefts it -- it's as much indication as she needs, not waiting around for him to actually /throw/ it. Reaching out to snag Ash, she zips -- not /through/ the crowd but around it, /over/ it, ricocheting straight /up/ the wall of the alley and overhead. Small size notwithstanding, she pulls the much bigger man along with her as if his weight were negligible, dropping them down on the street on the other side with a soft growl. "-- come in handy sometimes," finishes, called back over her shoulder, a little bit more strained despite attempts to -- still sound casual. Ash does his job in one, keeping his grip on B's hand, and two, keeping his feet more or less near his core, curling into a ball, much like a roller derby player. He does his best to help glide along with B, but it's an after thought to not hindering her. He is also helping by ensuring the rock that is lifted is not thrown, buying Anette some time while they all make their escape. "Very useful," he agrees when they are on the other side, glancing back to look for Anette. As the other two make their escape via hoverboot, Anette is forced to take a more...Anette approach. Coat swings off her shoulders, exposing her wings. With a short running start, Anette is airborne, easily sailing just over the heads of the crowd and landing not far behind Ash and B. "I can see when they'd be handy," she says, slipping her coat back on. "They do look pretty fun." The crowd behind them is -- getting all the more riled, at this performance. B doesn't stop moving, continuing down the street with a very small hint of smile. "Sometimes being a nerd is kind of fun. You guys up for cocoa? I'm --" She glances veeery briefly back over her shoulder as another broken scrap of metal whizzes by them -- not actually very well-aimed, it doesn't hit anything. "-- thinking probably getting home is. Best." "Cocoa at home sounds ... great. Let's go." Ash keeps hold of B and coasts along for the ride, waving Anette along with them as they go. "Age of the geek, baby." "Yeah, cocoa sounds good actually," Anette says, cringing a bit at the sound of breaking glass but focusing forward and ahead. The geekiness goes uncommented on.