Summary:While skating in the park, Jimmy and Darcy meet Jacyn. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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"Okay, one foot in front of the other. Keep momentum going. Don't overbalance."
Jimmy recites the words, repeating after Darcy, as they spend some time under the afternoon sun in Central Park. She's introducing him to roller skates, and he's taking his time, going slowly at first. Dang it, balance is so much easier in his other form. His other form doesn't even need to care about gravity.
Which is way this is a good exercise? Darcy rolls backwards in front of Jimmy, watching his body. It could easily be sexual, but it's not. She's focused on his center of gravity, how he bends his knees, and the push of his feet.
"Good. Good. Bend knees a bit more. Don't lean forward so much. Shoulders back," she says. her tone is encouraging, proud of him and pleased that he's trying. Simple athletic clothing and knee pads make it look like she's just a regular skating instructor. The fact that one boot of her skates is almost completely duct tape, however…
Jimmy's wearing heavier athletic clothes: long-sleeved shirt, full-length pants of a stretchable fabric. Something warm as well as flexible, for the sake of the fall-ing temperatures. He grumbles as he draws his shoulders back, straightening up his torso while his knees bend. "Normally, leaning into it…" …just part of flying. But he doesn't say that out loud.
The social implications of just…strolling around. Where there are people. And things. And people.
Did we mention people?
Jacyn has the tense shoulders of someone that isn't quite fully comfortable with being out in the park, but there they are. Her hands are shoved deeply into the pockets of her leather jacket, her eyes never staying in one place for long, looking left, looking right. Despite always looking she doesn't seem to have the haunted edge of someone actively being followed. Just someone used to situational awareness that it's a bad habit these days.
"Yeah, but if you lean too far your wheels will try to go out from under you and then you'll over compensate and end up on your ass," Darcy explains, still rolling backward, unaware of Ms. Broody on the cement path behind her. Her eyes are focused on Jimmy, lips curled up in an amused smirk.
"Trust me: cracked tail bone sucks."
Jimmy pouts. Dang it, this gravity thing sucks. But, most of the time, he will have to deal with it, so this is good training for him. He starts getting the rhythm together, still not going fast, but at least going smoothly as he goes towards Darcy.
With Jacyn being behind Darcy, that means she's almost exactly in Jimmy's line of sight. His chin lifts, and a look passes over his face. Darcy knows that look: it's his calculating look, figuring out the variables of a person and what to do about them. Jacyn isn't being followed, doesn't need any beneficial intervention there. But there's still that edge of social awkwardness and anxiety. Anxiety presents a conundrum. On the one hand, Jacyn would surely be more comfortable with being left alone; but on the other, perhaps she's coming out Where The People Are specifically to break out of that habit. In either case, a sudden and loud greeting would be much too far. No, best to keep it low-key and thoughtful.
Jimmy looks right at Jacyn and gives her an up-nod, a silent greeting. An acknowledgement of her presence without chasing her down and demanding a big response.
Lucky for Darcy she doesn't notice Ms. Broody, because Jacyn is very, very….very broody. She's not scowling, though. Even if that up-nod gets a quick narrowing of her eyes. An inner debate, her own weighing and measuring to see where she lands on things.
He being nice? He some weird guy that hits on chicks when his girlfriend isn't looking? Deeming it safe enough, though, Jacyn lifts her chin in response, stepping to the side to avoid stomping on Darcy and Jimmy as paths begin to collide, "Sup?"
Jimmy's gaze grows thoughtful of someone behind her. Without breaking rolling stride, Darcy twists her upper torso and her head to look. It's a smooth and well practiced motion, and her own balance on her rolling wheels does not falter. Unlike Jimmy, who opts to keep his greeting low-key, Darcy does not. She turns, lays splayed so one toe points away from boyfriend and the other toward, her heels facing each other. Thus sidewise, Darcy smiles brightly at Jacyn, green eyes behind thick framed glasses skimming over the other girl. Darcy checking Jacyn out.
"Hey there. Good afternoon," bubbles the brunette, one hand lifting to wave at Jacyn.
Jimmy digs his toes down, putting the brakes to the pavement to slow himself down. They could just be ships passing in the nighht; with that uncertainty of approach, he'd have been fine with giving Jacyn that little bit of acknowledgement and letting her go about her day. But Darcy reaches out further, and so Jimmy follows her lead. As he gets closer, he lays a hand on Darcy's shoulder to assist in his balance. "She's been into roller derby since before we met, and we figured it'd be a good thing for me to learn too, see? So I experience it as more than patching up bruises from her collisions." That could sound dangerously like an 'I fell down the stairs' kind of excuse, but it's true! Darcy bruises easily and she does a heavy contact sport. It's not Jimmy's fault!
Oh. God. Contact has been made. Jacyn comes to a stop when actual conversation appears to be happening, and she looks like she might snap back about things, and run away from nice, normal social interactions. But she doesn't. Instead she comes to a stop and looks from one of them to another, then back again. "Hey." Darcy gets a mild hey, something almost tired about it.
But Jimmy is oversharing, and she just looks at him, her expression flattening for a moment, "Uh…huh. She get banged up often?"
"In all senses of the word, yes," Darcy replies. Her smile is unapologetic as she shifts her stance to something more stable, letting Jimmy use her as a wall to stop against. But if Jimmy's oversharing, what Darcy does is out right TMI. One knee bends as Darcy dips one toe down to hold herself still on the concrete. Her hands pull up the stretchy top and the waist band of her pants down enough to expose a hip. There? A large and very ugly bruise, its edges yellowed as it heals and reveals the age.
"But I put the other girl into the crowd, so… Worth it," Darcy quips, pulling the pants back into place and her top down. She then holds out a hand to Jacyn.
"I'm Darcy. This is Jimmy. Skater names are for the rink. Nice to meet you." Maybe Darcy realizes she may have been too forward with pulling down her pants and so skipped the offering of her 'codename'.
Oversharing. Perhaps Jimmy thought it would be a way to bring Jacyn into the conversation without leaning on her to speak up — which itself can spike anxiety — and he overcorrected too far. His blush rises when Darcy tugs at her clothes, his gaze coming up and aiming at the sky. "Yeah, but she gives as good as she gets." He lifts a hand in greeting — not extending for a shake — when Darcy quotes his name. "Plus, I don't actually have a skater name."
It's like some weird nightmare. Amusing, though. It's becoming amusing. There is amusement at Darcy when she goes way beyond over sharing, and because a bruise deserves to be matched with a bruise, Jacyn grabs the side of her shirt to pull it up to expose a bruise that looks new across her ribs, big and ugly enough she's lucky that she didn't break a rib, "I put the other guy through a window."
It's not into the crowd, though. Then she lets her shirt fall back into place before she reaches out to take the offered hand, "Jacyn." There's a quick back and forth look before she adds, "Nice to meet you both."
"Oh. NICE," Darcy coos, actually leaning into Jacyn's personal space to look at that bruise. She doesn't reach out to touch. One might think it is to avoid being rude, but really it's because Darcy understands how much a bruise can hurt when poked. She straightens up at the shirt falls back into place, unperturbed by being told the other woman put someone through a window.
Maybe Jacyn plays Banked Track. Those bitches be crazy.
"Likewise. Ain't the weather great?" Darcy babbles on.
Maybe Jimmy's peripheral vision notes the movement. Either way, he keeps his gaze fixed happily on the sky. Oh hey, look at that cloud. It looks like a butterfly. La la la, not looking. He nods his agreement, still without looking — can someone give him the all-clear? "Yeah, it's good to meet new people. Are you from around here?" 'Around here' could mean 'New York as a whole', even.
"It's weather." Jacyn, she of the no opinions on weather. It's day time. And not raining or snowing. Her feelings do not appear to be very strong on it either direction at this time.
"I'm from around here." Which is probably all of New York, because she doesn't elaborate further. "So you two are just out here….roller skating?"
Darcy glances at Jimmy then rolls her eyes.
"Oh my GOD. Really, Jimmy? Bruises are MEANT to be admired," she admonished him, bapping his shoulder with a hand.
"I'm from Jersey, but I like New York better. Yes, we are. Rink's closed and he wanted to learn so… here we are!"
Jimmy doesn't bap in return, but just pokes Darcy's shoulder with a fingertip. "A strange man looking at you lift your clothing is, I think, a bit beyond 'admiring a bruise'." And hey, as far as Jacyn is concerned, he is a strange man. (She doesn't know the half of it. He's very strange.) He nods. "I suggested it, and she leapt on the idea. Hadn't realised how much goes into just… keeping your balance."
"Your body isn't naturally inclined towards being on wheels." Jacyn offers helpfully, her hands tucking back into the pockets of her jacket as she looks down at the skates in question, then back up. "Staten Island." Since Darcy was so forthcoming, she decides to be as well. One hand pulls a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket, tapping one out before she catches it between her teeth before continuing, "You needing to learn to skate for a particular reason?"
"It's all core, baby," Darcy says. Normally, she'd poke his stomach but, he's still learning and puttting him off balance like that is just asking for trouble. So, seh refrains. Instead, she grins at Jacyn and nods.
"You're right. But the more time you spend on them, the better you get. Like anything," she quips, her lips curling up in mischief.
"Hoping I can talk him into the men's league. And I still think Meth's a great name for you. Especially if you go co-ed and play with Ann Phetamine."
Jimmy shakes his head. "Nah, no need to learn. Just thought it'd be good for a couple of reasons — something more to share with her, and a bit more body-mastery, learning how to do something so… different." He pokes his tongue out at Darcy. "I have no ambitions of joining an actual derby team. Seems dangerous." Not to him, though. He's just concerned about bringing his inhuman strength into such an aggressive situation.
"There are derby teams?" Why doesn't she know this?! Wait…right. Been dead for a while. Jacyn seems to at least show some small measure of interest in this possibility, enough that she looks like she might ask further questions. Instead, there is an upwards shrug of her shoulders, "You could take up acrobatics, or ballet, too."
"Totally. Staten's got the Gotham Gals. Tough bitches, and my Midtown team plays them several times a year. I skate for GridIron. Gimme your number, and I'll get your their practice schedule," Darcy offering, latching onto Jacyn's small measure of interest as if the other were as interested as she is. All after Darcy tossed a wink at Jimmy for his tongue sticking out. Her thought? Will give you things to do with that later.
Jimmy tilts his head, considering Jacyn's suggestion. "Ballet… that could work. Graceful, requires crazy amounts of precision and control…" He's chewing on it. Apparently, grr grr masculinity doesn't strike him as a reason to reject the thought of becoming a ballerino. Those thoughts get derailed when he gets that wink from Darcy, his face left heating over. He doesn't read minds in detail, no, but he can still tell the basic shape of what Darcy's thinking, just from the look on her face. That may be worse, because it leaves so many blanks for him to fill in.
The number that is rattled off is very much not a local area code. It sounds like….Chicago? But it's a number that Jacyn knows by heart, so either she's given out this fake number before, or it's her real number. "Thanks." It's offered almost honestly, then she glances between them, reading between those lines, "I should go."