ArchivedLogs:Swinging

Swinging
Dramatis Personae Ducky, Kai
In Absentia	2013-06-23 Kai gets his first ride on the tire swing.
Location <XS> School Grounds
Xavier's School is situated on grounds as luxurious as the mansion itself. The tree-lined drive brings you up to the lush green sweep of front lawn and the wide front porch with its bench swing, often frequented by students studying in pleasant weather. The large oak tree in the front yard is home to a tire swing, installed long ago beneath the sturdy old treehouse. The lawn rolls out all the way down to the thin rocky pier at the edge of the glittering lake. The water stretches huge and wide off into the distance, the boathouse a small blip at its shore. Along its bank, forest stretches dense and shady to one side; to the other cliffs start to rise, high and rocky, providing trails for hiking or climbing, for the adventurous. A summer weekend is generally a good time to get out and find new ways to relax. Many students have gone with various faculty chaperones to take in the carnival while others are just enjoying themselves in town. A few remain around the school, and then. There is Kai. Perhaps reinvigorated from his Afternoon of Adventure, the thin Korean boy is currently sitting in the tire swing under the treehouse, using his stick-like legs like small, ineffectual pumps in an attempt to get the massive rubber ring moving. Dressed in cargo shorts and a green-and-yellow-striped tank top, he is currently barefoot, and his face is a mask of irritated exertion. Which turns his swinging from casual fun into a hard, mechanical process which is proving to be fruitless beyond a mild swaying of the tire. The early summer evening has been a busy one for Ducky, and she is currently trudging her way out of the forest towards the main building - she looks like she has had a rather adventurous day in the woods. Her faded blue jeans are splattered with various shades of mud, smeared with grass stains, and colored in a few places with smudged pinpricks of fading red, while her school t-shirt has been ripped in a few places, showing fresh scratches. As she breaks the tree line, the small dappled gray and white pigeon flutters down from just above the treehouse to snuggle up against her shoulder. As she spots Kai attempting to swing alone, Ducky changes her direction, heading towards her friend and stopping to lean against the tree. "D'you want some help? I can give you a push if you want - it'll at least get you started swinging. Makes it easier to swing once you've got some momentum," she offers quietly, waiting to move until he says yes or no. Kai doesn't notice Ducky, so engrossed is he in his attempts to gain momentum. At least until the pigeon flutters from the tree, and he instinctively looks up to track it to its intended perch. Then he's got a tight little smile, and he nods at the offer. "A push would be very helpful," he says, his voice mildly irritated. "I am too small to get it moving." He demonstrates, bending his knees and leaning backwards as he straightens them again. It looks like he's attempting to pull the swing free from the branch. Then he looks at the older girl with a small shrug. "See what I mean?" He leans on the tire, then, to give Ducky an appropriate assessment. "What have you been doing to get so dirty?" "It's ok. Tire swings are always a pain to get moving in the first place," Ducky says, pushing off from against the tree to stand behind the swing and Kai, bracing her feet against the ground and grabbing hold of the sides of the tire, taking before grunting slightly and shoving her arms out, attempting to propel Kai forward. Not that Ducky is particularly strong, but she does her best to at the very least give Kai at least a little bit of forward motion, waiting to push him forward again once once he swings back, skittering back out of the way. "Same thing I usually do. Trying to talk to birds and stuff. I kinda fell into a blackberry patch when I was talking to some starlings, and, um, it's sorta scratchy and, uh, yeah," Ducky explains, continuing to push Kai on the swing. "They are hard for everyone?" Kai's irritation fades a bit in light of this new information, and he cranes his head to track Ducky until it's no longer possible. Then he's looking forward again, tensing slightly when the girl takes hold of the swing, and making a small inhalation of surprise when it begins its slow arc. Then he doesn't look irritated at all, even giggling a bit as the swing picks up momentum. "This is fun," he says, looking momentarily panicked at the swing begins to rotate. "Oh! What is happening?" Then the swing rights itself, and he sighs, nodding at Ducky's comments on her activities. "I like going into the forest," he admits. "But you must be careful. There are many thorny bushes like that." He smiles, and pumps his legs a bit, this time with more effect. "Were the starkings nice?" "Normal swings are easier, since it's just a bit of plastic on two chains, so you're just gonna be moving your weight. Tires are heavy and all that, so you're moving yourself, and the tire and everything," Ducky says with a smile, straigtening out the trajectory of the swing as she pushes him again. She keeps pushing him as she talks, occasionally correcting the swing so it doesn't spin too much when it is going forward, explaining between pushes, "I like the forest. There are so many birds out in the woods that I've never had a chance to talk to and see in real life, so I'm kinda anxious to get to talk to all of them, even if they don't really have much to say all the time." She smiles at the mispronunciation, but doesn't really correct him, "They're nice. Very chatty, but kinda not really much to say. They tend to travel in very large groups, which is neat looking, but makes them sort of hard to talk to, since they all talk at once." "Yes, that is a lot of weight to move," Kai says, nodding. "No wonder I could not manage it." Now, with the swing's arc straightened up, Kai's smile slips a bit wider, and he holds his breath on the upswing, releasing it as the tire comes back. "I have heard the noise they make sometimes in the evening," he says of 'starkings', lifting his eyebrows. "They are very noisy, just before they are going to bed." He shifts his weight adjusting so he can kick his legs a bit as he swings. "What do birds like to talk about?" he wonders, the next time he's close. "Is it interesting?" Ducky nods, even though Kai can't see her, and smiles broadly, continuing to push him on the swing, "I used to have a tire swing when I was little. I used to have to kick off against the tree in order to get going, but then if you end up spinning it's kinda a bit scary, cause if you hit the tree wrong, it hurts." It sounds like she is speaking from experience on this matter. She pushes again, tossing her weight into it so that she can get the swing a bit higher, although the question gets a bit of a chuckle, "It kinda depends on the birds, really. Some of them, like crows and ravens, are more coherent in their talking on a normal basis. Usually when you hear them in the morning they're talking about food, or where food is, or how much they want to eat. Starting in the spring they're talking about mates almost as much." There's another push of the swing, and she continues when Kai gets back closer, before pushing again, "Usually if I ask them about specific things, I can get an answer out of them, sometimes." Kai seems content to listen as Ducky explains about her swing when she was younger and he lifts his shoulders. "I have swung from a rope," he says. "But it is not the same thing as this. This is more fun." He smiles as he comes back, and dips his head backwards to regard Ducky upside down. "I will have to try the other kind of swing, toooo." The extra oomph gets a noise of pleased excitement as he gains altitude. "Does it matter how smart the bird is?" he wonders, when he's caught his breath. "Some birds seem smarter than others. Chickens do not seem like they are very smart birds at all, and the crows seem very clever. There are stories about crows that are written by a man called Esop, but they are not very nice in those." When Kai tilts backwards to look at her, Ducky giggles at her upside down friend, shaking her head slightly, "Not sure if we've got a swingset on campus. We totally should have one though, 'cause swings are awesome, no matter how old you are. It's just fun, and getting to jump off a swing is the closest I've gotten to flying. It's neat." She pushes again, making use of the added momentum from the bigger swing, although she has to step back a bit to compensate, "Usually yeah. Corvids, like crows and ravens, are very intelligent. They can remember people for years, and hold grudges too, even against people who can't talk to them. Pigeons are decently smart, and most small birds are remarkably dumb. Falcons and other raptors are smart, but remarkably single minded about hunting. But occasionally I find one that's smarter than normal." Another push, and a pause in her talking until Kai swings back closer, "Chickens are remarkably stupid creatures - we've bred them to the point where they're pretty much mindless ambulatory meat bags." She smiles at the mention of Esop, and nods, "I like Esop's Fables. They aren't always kind to the crows in it, but to be honest, crows can be mean things sometimes." Ducky pauses in her bird babble for a moment, "How're you doing today, Kai? Had a decent enough weekend?" "Do you know a lot about birds because you can talk to them, or because you like them?" Kai asks, his soft voice forced into something louder as he works against speed and altitude. "You know a great deal about them, it seems. Even the fancy names that they use on the Discovering Channel." He flails his legs once, at the height of the swing, and there's a laugh that escapes as he comes back towards Ducky. "It /is/ almost like flying," he agrees, although he doesn't look poised to jump any time soon. The question gets a shrug, odd-looking as the boy clutches the rope. "My weekend has been all right," he says. "Peter has come back, only he has hurt himself. /Again/." Kai doesn't sound overly happy about /that/ little fact, but he doesn't stay on it. "I also went out of the school, yesterday," he says, looking at the front gate. "It was very interesting." The laughter is apparently contageous, and Ducky giggles out loud as Kai laughs, pushing the tire swing again as she does. "I know a lot about birds because I read a lot - I wasn't really social when I was in school, so I read, and I talked to birds. I've read a lot about them, because I want to be able to know what kinda bird I'm talking to. It's also sorta what I want to do with my life - I'd like to get to travel, and work with conservation efforts to help endangered species and stuff." Ducky nods emphatically, pushing the swing and smiling, "Peter seems to do that a bit often, I think. I have heard things, and the first time I met him, he got stabbed by a knifey guy on a rooftop." The mention of Kai leaving the scool gets a bit of a frown as she continues pushing him, "Alone?" she asks, voice concerned, although she's admittedly curious, "Where'd you go on your adventure? I admit - I'm kinda leary about going off campus. It doesn't sound safe right now." "You would be good at that," Kai says of Ducky's hopes. "The birds could tell you what they were needing, and you could tell others." He's very certain of that fact, and he nods firmly. "It would be very helpful to them." He wrinkles his nose at Ducky's input on Peter, and his smile dims, just a bit. "Yes, he does get hurt a lot," he says. "Even when he says he is being safe, he still gets hurt. Or kidnapped. Or /something/." Clearly, this is a point of frustration for the younger boy, and he actually tosses his hands in the air for a split-second. He colors a bit, when Ducky asks if he left alone, and nods slowly. "I did not want to wait for someone to take me, so I went by myself." He lifts a shoulder. "I was going to go to the carnival, but I only got as far as the town before Mister Summers came and brought me back. Because it /is/ unsafe to be out alone, if you are a mutant." He frowns. "But I did not meet any other people, so I do not know how safe or unsafe I really was." Ducky nods and grins, "That's kinda the idea. I could get information from them, and be able to help them better to get what htey need, and make sure that they have enough room, and enough resources." She smiles brightly at the idea of being able to help her birdy friends, and even more of them around the world, "It's why i was so excited to get to go back to school. I think I may actually get to do this some day. I'll be able to go to college and everything, I think." She watches as Kai throws his hands into the air, getting ready to catch him, or at least try to catch him, if he feel, but goes back to pushing the tire swing in the next motion. "I'm glad that you are back on campus safely. And even without running into people out in the town, it can still be sort of not so safe, mutant or not. There are mean people out in the world, and they don't always take kindly to kids just kinda wandering around unsupervised. Or, they try and take advantage of them." Ducky nods, still pushing Kai on the swing, although it isn't quite as emphatic as before - the next push, however, she starts getting back into the swing, as it were. "College is like more school, yes?" Kai verifies. "It seems to be a thing that the older students discuss a lot. Is it important to attend college, to do what one wishes in life?" he wonders, twisting his body around to look at Ducky. "If so, it is good that you will be able to go." He falls silent, his brow knitting as Ducky explains the dangers beyond being a mutant. "Really?" His tone is incredulous, and he frowns. "I did not know that," he admits with a small, concerned uptick of his eyebrows. "I did not mean to put myself in that sort of danger. I just wanted to see someplace outside of the school grounds." He wrinkles his nose. "All I really saw was that there are many trees between the school and town." "College is more school, but it's sort of specifically based around what you want to do. And only sometimes do you really have to go. Like, um, since I want to go into conservation, I'm probably gonna study Environmental Sciences, which focuses on how the different ecosystems of the world interact and how things change. And stuff," Ducky explains and nods, only pushing Kai slightly now, to allow for conversation a bit easier, "You don't have to go to college, like if you want to be a mechanic, or a baker, or do skilled work - you can go to a trade school, or take the classes offered here for it. It means you get the basics and stuff." When he twists himself around in the tire swing, Ducky does what she can to stabalize the inevitable spin, although slowing the swinging in the process, "Kinda depends on what you want to do beyond life here, sorta." She nods and shudders slightly at the thought of the dangers outside, "I was lucky on the streets for the time I was there. People kinda looked out for me, but there were kids, like me, who weren't that lucky. They... they just kinda vanished. Stopped coming around eventually. No reasoning or anything, no goodbyes. No news. Just gone." She nods to Kai, then looks at the woods, "I think the trees are there to keep people from going too far, or coming in from outside. Makes it secluded, and safe. But, I think the carnival is still around for another day or two. I'm sure we can get a group together to go. That way you can see off campus. And there's safety in numbers," she says, smiling and nodding. Kai nods at the information on college, and he considers for a moment as he swings, resting his chin on his hands atop the tire. "I think I would like to do something with art," he says. "I like to draw and paint, and it would be good to do something like that for a living. Like Mister Jax, perhaps, and teach it." His smile for this thought is wan, and there's a small flutter of his shoulders that might be a shrug. "I do not know if it necessary to go to college to do it, but if it is, I will go gladly." The comments about the trees gets another nod. "They are all along the road as well," he says with a nod at the gate. "Not as thick as the forest, but they are there." There's a flash of smile for the thoughts on the carnival, and Kai bobs a nod. "That would be very nice," he says earnestly. "I am very eager to see a carnival, and what other things there are around here." There's more talk of carnivals, and other idle chatter that, filling the time right up until the bell for the evening meal is rung. There are definitely worse ways to spend a late Sunday afternoon.