Window Shopping

[Star]

Wait, rewind.

"Did you just make a band? Are we in a band?" The mop lifted, neck craning, and swiveled slowly like a groundhog looking for it's shadow. A band? Cool. Except, you know, the little s'name thing. If Doc Holliday could be Wyatt's huckleberry, he supposed he could be her star. Right? Of course that made sense.

Thoughts shuffled, and flipped.

"Uh. Sorry. Morgan. I just," a hand flopped towards the other two. "Anyway. So, like, are you any good? I didn't, you know, stick around. Like, obviously you know that, you were there. But still. How good are you? At parkour."

Because running from Bad Guys is Totally A Thing. Chasing, too.

[Avis]

"If it works out," Dez replied with a shrug. "I mean, I think it will, but I don't wanna presume. Future's not something to take for granted. That said, maybe ask your singer friend if he's open to doing something. No pressure, just, ya know, might as well meet more people in the community. And yeah, I'll definitely buy that album and give it a listen to. Several, actually. Only way to really know it, I think. A lot of times I'll find my opinion changing between the fourth or fifth listen."

Avis broke off, her eyes flicking over to the smaller parkour athlete. "Oh, and hey, sorry to sidetrack you out of the conversation, Morgan. I just get kinda...like a locomotive sometimes. One track and all that. But, uh, hey I'm curious. What drew you to parkour in the first place?"

[Morgan Bellanar]

Morgan actually quirked an eyebrow when Jack asked if she was any good. "Uh, yeah" the tone implied it was obvious as she gesticulated with her hands for emphasis, "I c-can make a living of-off of deliveries with it, fall 10 stories no problems, and d-ditch angry-dogs down dead-end alleys. Sssso yada-yes Imma good. " She then grinned, "Buh-but ye ssshould of stuck around to w-w-watch the fails t-the others did, heh-heh-heh. First-times tis always funny to-to watch."

Morgan shook her head, "N-n-nada-not a prob Dez, heh-heh. Musicians t-t-t-chat music...Uh, w-what started it?" Her face scrunched up in thought. Being chased by Faery monsters of a semi-solipsistic nature beyond the fields of mortal vision instigating her interest in parkour was not a good explanation. Needed the money was sort of true but too simple. She rubbed the back of her head and chuckled, "Uh, ssseveral thingssss I suppose. Godo-good gymnastics ano-and running, next step. C-combines nicely with courier w-work, extra-when-lack-bike...Um," she also looked a little embarrassed as she admitted the next part, "Aaaand for-r-r reasons unknown," she guessed she smelled like a raccoon but wasn't going to tell a couple of normans (normals) that, "Uh, d-d-dogs chase me regularly on me shortcuts, heh-heh...so you know," she shrugs sheepsihly, "Heh-helps avoid bites."

[Trickster]

Lynn grinned as she listed to Morgan. "Yeah, she's one of the best, I think. Skills like you wouldn't believe and knows all the back ways and short cuts there are. Of course, if you ask her to be your running buddy, you may have to remind her that you can't corner up a wall the way she can, but it's fun none the less." She tilted her head back to look at Jack. "You're the guitar player? Is Star a nickname or a stage name? I guess I could think up a stage name." Her brow furrowed in thought. "I'd have to work on that one, it'd have to go with whatever band name we came up with."

Motley Crew maybe?

[Star]

Some people have lots of names.

Some are True, and some aren't. Some people change names the way other people change jobs. Sometimes, A Name is A Job.

"Oh? Star? Ummmm, yeah, that's a nickname. I mean," a hand gestured, "You don't really... Should I? Should I tell them?" Eyes flickered over to Avis. Was that a grin? Maybe. "Okay, yeah, I'm going to tell them."

"It was our first date, right? And it was, you know, night, because like that's when you date. And it was totally clear and the stars were out, and we were talking about how, like, you know," hands came together in a sandwich, "You see a whole bunch in a strip? That's where you're looking across the edge of the Milky way spiral. The flat side." True story.

"Anyway, we were like looking for stars we recognized and I said... No, I can't... okay. I mean, just, you know, remember it was a date. Anyway, I said, 'I only see one star'. And I was totally looking at her. At Dez. And then I said, 'And I hope one day you'll see the same thing when you look at me'." Awwwwww. Warm fuzzies.

"Anyway. So, like, when, you know. When we got serious, she said she finally saw her Star. So, anyway. That's why she calls me Star."

An arm slipped around Avis. Right? Baby?

"Sometimes."

Because Sugar Pie Honey Bunch.

  Totally True Story 4 Successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-05-11 22:44:00		Star rolls 9 to Seriously, that's what happened (Lying Manip + Sub + Spec) (10 Again)		6, 10, 4, 9, 2, 9, 5, 7, 1, 9		4 successes

[Avis]

For a moment "Dez" just stared at Star, her mouth slightly agape, even after he'd slipped his arm around her waist, and it was only after the silence had transformed into something completely awkward that she nodded and leaned into him in return.

"Um, yeah. Um. That's it," she muttered, head ducking in momentary embarrassment. 'Cause, shit, she hadn't even realized she'd slipped up and spilled his shadow name out in public, even if didn't matter, and that story? Yeah, that story. Wow. Talk about personal. Maybe not 'have a community leader shout out to everyone you know and work with that you had public sex in a museum' personal, but that was part of the problem. Even if it was a lie, even if all of the little pieces of Star's lie weren't true, the emotion behind it all was, and that made it all the more intimate. Sex in public had it's own veils shrouding it, it's own bulwark of misconceptions, assumptions, and bias, but a lie like that, even if it wasn't true, still reflected a truth, just as poetry or fiction reflected the mind.

So, yeah, kinda hard to process all at once. Hopefully they'd just take it for embarrassment. Or, ya know, whatever. Not like it mattered.

"Anyways, um, ten stories. You know that's like, one hundred feet? A straight drop from that height'll fuck you up. People have survived it, sure, and from higher drops, but not without some reconstructive surgery afterwards."

   Nope! She blew it

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-05-12 01:00:40		Avis rolls 5 to true story, yo (manip2+subterfudge3) (10 Again)		6, 6, 7, 7, 1		failure

[Morgan Bellanar]

  He seems sincere

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2015-05-12 18:39:48		Morgan Bellanar rolls 6 to Does he lie? (10 Again)		3, 10, 2, 7, 1, 3, 4		1 success

Morgan blushed and rubbed the back of her head. Lynn's comments had brought to mind a certain flaming incident, "T-t-thank ye Lynn. Ye w-will improve ye running with time Imma sssure." Then Jack went off into a romantic tale about...being a star? "Oooh, heh. Um...Jack tis Star, nice, uh..." She cast a look at Dez at her strange behavior, "Story...Imma g-g-deduce he be summarizing, right?"

Morgan laughed as she shook her head, partly at Dez correcting her and at the woman's poor attempt to support Jack's tale. Which to the raccoon, meant Jack was probably embarrassed by the source of the nickname. Or it was a criminal alias and they really shoudn't pry. "Nevah ssssaid a straight drop, heh. Ssssliding d-d-down walls oro-or drains works. Always do c-correct roll with the landing," The traceur then tilted her head before shrugging with a serene smile, "Ano-and not sure heh-how high up t-the warehouse twas off the ground but twas high up." She could be permitted a little exaggeration. Her highest drops were probably only from 5 "full" stories at most. "On-one of the mmmost important p-parkour tricks to learn: heh-how to fall safely."

[Trickster]

Lynn glanced between Jack and Dez for a moment, one eyebrow lifted slightly in question before shrugging and moving on with things. While he seemed completely sincere, Dez seemed uncomfortable about something.

Probably a cute tattoo involved.

Instead she huffed a bit of a laugh at Morgan's words. "Learning how to fall safely seems like one of those ideas that should be on pillows and bumper stickers and little motivational posters. You know, one of those so completely obvious things that nobody ever really gets right?"

[Star]

Thank the Veil this wasn't Banisher U.

Come on, girl. You gotta sell it. Still, it could have been worse. Jaw dropped in surprise or a loud question liberally sprinkled with obscenities, for example. He'd been waiting for that shoe to drop -- this had legit been one of the longest chain of words unlinked by f-bombs he'd heard until the ten stories came up.

A ten story fall deserves an f-bomb.

"I think most people just work on not going up real high and then falling?" His free hand raised questioningly. Him? Totally. "But, yeah, I see what you mean. It's kind of funny. Like in PE? They should totally teach that. Unless it's a liability thing. Dear Parents, Jack broke his arm today, falling down." He shrugged, arm slipping away from Avis. Nobody's clingy.

"So she's teaching you?" A finger flicked between the pair.

[Avis]

"Yeah, do you give lessons?" Avis asked, shifting the leather jacket to her other arm. "I've never really seen anyone do that kind of stuff. I assumed it was some kind of Hollywood thing, but, um, there's a lot of stuff I don't know about. Learning how to fall, learning how to move over things instead of around them, that's awesome stuff. Probably as close as we can get to flying, right?"