(Private) The Climb

Jun 4th, 2014 12:33 AM

Asp chuckled and shook her head. "Well, I've always been competitive and physical... but, uh, when I was looking at Clubs, I got a really balanced sort of perspective. Vegas was a good place for that. I spoke to people, and this club just sort of resonated for me. Honesty. Self-improvement. Teamwork. Camaraderie. It's nice to be part of a brotherhood like that. You know?"

She wondered if that was something that mattered to Cut.

"The competition, the striving, pushing myself... heh, that was just growing up with my Dad." There was fondness there in her youthful voice, and a hint of homesickness, maybe?

**Star** · Jun 4th, 2014 01:07 AM

"Sure, I get that. That's cool. Vegas sounds like it was a cool place. Totally not asking, but surprised you left?"

Smiley's People... seemed like colder memories. Memories cast back further, searching. Nope. Phone techs? Magicians? Stage crew? None of those were anything he'd have called brotherhoods.

But he got the appeal.

"Your dad sounds pretty awesome. Was, uh, was he, like, one of us?"

Jun 4th, 2014 01:18 AM

"You gotta leave the nest sometime," she said, sipping at what was left of the Evian. It was definitely a new bottle. She wasn't one for refilling the damn things over and over until they got all gross. "The Club got word the chapter here needed a few more, so I boxed up and came here. It's my first real gig."

Gig. Like it was no big deal, like it wasn't an assignment to the life-threatening danger zone that few 22 year olds wanted to involve themselves with.

She shook her head. "Nope. He thinks I'm here because I wanted to move to Cali to open up a martial arts dojo," she said with a chuckle. That was true, sort of. "I mean, I do, but that's more of a longer term thing. I think he thinks I just wanted to learn how to surf."

Asp shifted gears, then. "How about you? Where are you from?" She wondered if the Guardian would give her a straight answer.

**Star** · Jun 4th, 2014 02:24 PM

"Oh. Uh, here and there? Nowhere anyone's ever heard of, for sure. Confession: I'm a small town kid. Like, every time you talk about Vegas... it sounds pretty exotic."

He shrugged.

"I just moved around a lot. Chasing the dream. The whole magic thing. Thought, you know, I'd make something of myself. Had to keep stopping to do work and pay the bills. Not really sure how I got into the phone company gigs... but, once you know how to do it, it's easy freelance work." The words flowed easily. He didn't mind talking about himself.

"How'd you get into martial arts?" he asked, curiosity animating his features.

Ninja girl!

"Like, at the professional level? You said you taught, right? I mean, that's definitely cool. Not that tai bo stuff, right? Not that you couldn't, just, you know."

Funny thing? If not ARROW, he could see the tai bo schtick. Or Zumba. Totally.

He was not imagining Asp doing Zumba.

Nope.

Jun 5th, 2014 01:45 PM

She sipped at the water, looking at the bottle as it ran out. That wouldn't do. She'd be buying another when they got down the wall. "I'm from there and it seems pretty exotic," she said, her breathing slowing down a bit closer to a normal rate as her heart rate slowed. She was pretty fit, so it wasn't like her recovery took all that long from a climb. "There's so many people and so many lights. Things are always changing. It's fun, but it's also not all that homey a place, you know?"

She nodded as he described his past. That was it. She had to know. "Okay, I need to see some of this, man. I've seen a lot of good magic shows. Are you carrying a deck of cards?" Did he carry cards in his pockets at all times?

"I got into it like most kids did. Parents enrolled me when I was five, and I took to it. Started with karate, moved into grappling styles and escrima. Once I got really into it, there were competitions - that sort of thing. Once I had the black belts, it was a lot easier to get involved." She paused. "I do some of the teaching for charity, teaching inner city girls how to protect themselves and be confident in the face of dangerous situations, but the rest is paid." She certainly had needed the knowledge in the past. She chuckled as he dropped his last question, just shaking her head in a silent negative.

Tai bo, huh?

**Star** · Jun 5th, 2014 02:09 PM

"OK, cool. I was just legit curious. The whole chicken and egg thing. Like, you know, do you join Fight Club because you like to and can, or do you learn after."

Sure, it was more than that. The angle. The approach. Broad strokes of stereotyping, but that didn't mean it was wrong.

"Actually. I'll show you something. It's not really a trick, but, you might think it's cool. Side note? It's totally not intimidating at all when you say you've seen a lot of good Vegas shows. Not. At. All. Thanks for that, really. No pressure."

He stuck his tongue out as a hand fumbled at a pocket; finally looking down, saw that it was trapped closed by the straps of the climbing harness.

"Oh."

Huh.

"Maybe we should get down? How do we get down?"

Jun 5th, 2014 03:06 PM

"Well, even if I could tell ya... first rule of fight club." Wink. Asp liked action movies. Fight Club definitely counted.

She looked somewhat excited in a girlish sort of way as he suggested he'd show her something cool. "Performance under pressure is an important skill to measure," she said playfully. This was particularly important to the Arrow. In life-and-death situations in which you had to rely on someone else, you had to know.

"We can just rappel down. We're on belay. One sec, I'll let them know we're coming."

Asp leaned over the edge and called down to the staff, making sure they were ready. Once they signaled up that they were good to go, Asp said, "Lean back and walk down the wall. Try to keep your feet flat against it. The belayer will keep you from falling."

Then she led the way, doing precisely that and heading for the deck.

**Star** · Jun 5th, 2014 03:20 PM

Rappel!

He got kind of excited. That was badassery personified. Excited enough he forgot to reply to the performance bit.

Except... it wasn't.

"Uh... ok. Yep. Will do."

A few moments of waiting got him a demonstration as Asp started. That was so not epic. That was just... walking sideways. He wanted to bounce down the side like a yo-yo getting unwound. That's how the movies did it. That was rappelling, right? Who did this shit?

Doing a legit rappel would have made the climb worth it.

This.

This is why illusions were important. Because reality.

Jun 6th, 2014 12:51 AM

Asp hit the bottom at some speed, having sped up as she went down. Safety? What was that? Thanking the staff member, the Arrow de-harnessed swiftly, most curious what it was that Cut had to show her. She took her hair elastic out and slipped it around a wrist, shaking her hair out with a flick of her head. There was going to be a shower in her near future, for sure.

"So, have a good first climb?" She grinned.

**Star** · Jun 6th, 2014 03:27 PM

Rappelling? Harder than it looks. Even the no-fun walking sort. A foot slip almost sent him face-forward into a nugget, but he maintained his balance. Going up? Slow and steady. Down? The same.

Eventually his feet found themselves on solid ground, and he methodically shed his own harness. Wiping his face on his upper arm sleeves likea cat washing themselves, he proceeded to recover his Gatorade and offered it to Asp. Aspen. A mental image of the white-barked tree was so much better than a giant-ass snake.

"Yeah?" Not so convincing. "Yeah. That was, ummmm, interesting. Not super sure if it was fun," he laughed. "Who knows. Maybe it gets better with practice? I could see doing it again."

Totally being polite there. Hands tugged at his pants, pulling them back into some semblance of order. The wedgie would have to wait.

"So, uh, you want to see that thing, huh?" he asked with a grin. "Let's go outside."

(Private) The Climb

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