[Open] Mind the Gap

[likeits1999]

Who: Kevin & Anyone
What: Kevin lives his 90s skateboarder dreams
Where: LOVE Park
When: During the Philly camp period
Warnings/Notes: None

[ Kevin's never been to Philadelphia, but even under the ruin of the forest he knows where he is. Once he figured that out, he had to head for LOVE Park.

There are a number of important spots, but the ledges around the empty fountain are a sacred landmark of 90s skateboarding. Skating the gap from the sculpture into the dry bowl is a rite of passage that's been on Kevin's list for years, but back home? That's Sabbat country. You must never go there, Simba. It's not worth getting caught up in a vampire turf war.

Here, though? The only thing in his way is the rough shape the place is in and some plant roots that have luckily missed the all-important fountain gap. He'll take that over pissy vampires any... evening. He supposes it's evening? The sky hasn't changed the whole time they've been here, it's mad spooky.

Kevin wishes he could record himself as he makes the first attempt, and is immediately glad he can't when he misjudges the distance and spills on the landing. He pops back up, grabs the board, and tries again. It takes him to the third time to get his landing right. ]

Hell yeah!

[ Kevin whoops triumph, pumping a fist in the air as he loops back around.

He jumps again. And again. He starts getting fancy, spins and flips in the air. He laughs when he falls, catching himself or rolling through it with endurance the living only wish for. He makes a lot of celebratory noise whenever a daring experiment pans out for him.

He's probably lucky there's nothing in the ruined city that thinks teenaged vampire sounds like a good snack, really. ]

Comments

[unsealthecatbox]

[Such a big city yet somehow Ange managed to stumble upon LOVE park at the right time to see someone skate around. She just...watches from afar, somewhat entertained by an activity she hadn't ever seen before in person. She watches Kevin fall and spill the first landing, and her reaction is to sigh and shake her head. That's got to be painful. Oh, right, vampire. Maybe not so painful, then? She's not sure.

And then he's actually managing to do well! Even when he falls he celebrates! It'd be almost endearing, if he wasn't so noisy. Still, at least she can respect he keeps trying]

Of all things you could have done in an abandoned city before we have to journey for a few days to another place, you go skating, instead of getting ready for the trip. I'm not sure if I should praise you for doing whatever you want, or be annoyed.

[...okay, maybe not the second. She's not going to police anyone, hah!]

[likeits1999]

[ Kevin brings himself to a stop, pausing with his foot still on the board. ]

I don't know about you, but I'm ready to go!

[ He thinks. Maybe. Probably. Really, he's just firing off an answer without actually thinking about it. The way she talks sounds like he should be ashamed, and that just makes him defensive. ]

[unsealthecatbox]

I suppose you are, if you have time to skate around. [She's as ready as she can be -- not very ready. Hard to plan ahead when you're in a completely unknown world.

Ange approaches, looking around the park]

Relax, I'm not going to try take that thing away from you -- although I do wonder why the spirits allowed you to keep it, unless the spirits want you to save this world by doing skateboard tricks.

[Yeah, she's guessing he arrived with it. She almost wishes she had a skateboard, if only for possible practical uses it could have]

[likeits1999]

That would be the sickest world-saving anybody ever did.

[ He grins a little at the thought. ]

I'm just glad it's not gone, honestly? I already lost one this month and shit's expensive.

[unsealthecatbox]

That better not be the kind of world-saving the spirits want. I'm not in condition of learning extreme sports in the middle of a ruined city.

[She's sure she can't keep pushing her luck when it's about putting her physical integrity at risk]

Is there even a place anywhere in this world where you can get another skateboard? I had the impression it's a rather...medieval world. A medieval world with Philadelphia in it, somehow.

[She sighs]

...this world will never make any sense, will it.

[likeits1999]

Well if it turns out it is, you guys got the right guy here.

[ Kevin points at his chest with both thumbs. It's doubtful, but oh man that would be so sweet. ]

Probs not. For both things.

[ He doesn't think the prospects for finding a skate shop or things making sense are looking too good. ]

It's okay though, stuff doesn't have to make sense as long as you figure out what to do with it.

[unsealthecatbox]

[Now I'm kind of hoping it does happen in some way, haha]

Stuff doesn't have to make sense as long as you know what to do... [What an easygoing way to look at things. How do people like you do this, Kevin?] ...well if anyone here was worried you were going to take this whole 'brought to save a world' thing badly, then they have nothing to worry about. You're going to be just fine.

[Because you have to be fully aware of how bad the situation is to be affected by it, she thinks. Ignorance is bliss, laidback attitudes are a good defense mechanism, etc]

[makinuscream]

[ In between rummaging through the library and exploring this magic thing (the concept of magic is one Urahara finds fundamentally abhorrent because it suggests a practice with few or little definable rules), Urahara took to the streets, fan in hand and sword at his side.

A shame that he can't hide Benihime in a cane as is his wont to do. Ah, well.

Somewhere amid the thoughts of how to science magic and what his chances are of creating a conduit to back home to send a message so no one start panicking, he hear a joyous cry that catches his attention.

Strolling over in the direction of the sound - pausing here and there to inspect the plant growth - Kisuke makes his way to the skate park and the young man flipping and dipping back and forth on a board. Plopping himself down on the edge of the fountain with one foot tucked beneath him, Urahara waves the fan in greeting. ]

Catching some down time? [ A new face. Another person likely displaced. Perhaps this one had been here longer and had more stories to tell. ]

[likeits1999]

[ This dude has a fan and a sword. Dope. Kevin takes a broad turn around the empty fountain to come up on the other guy. ]

And some air.

[ He says it nonchalantly, like he does this every day. ]

You skate?

[ Maybe it's a dumb question, bro doesn't have a board on him, but... ]

[makinuscream]

Not on a board.

[ Surely, sliding along invisible platforms made out spiritual particles counted - a little - as skating. Okay, maybe not, but since he can't demonstrate, it's a moot point anyway. ]

Surfing is usually my activity of choice when I have free time, but the lack of an ocean, surfboard, and sunscreen killed that plan.

[ Flashing a good-natured grin, Kisuke idly taps the edge of a wooden sandal against the concrete. ]

I've never been to Philadelphia before, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it doesn't look like this. Or didn't.

[likeits1999]

Tubular, bro.

[ Kevin’s no surfer, but he can respect that. ]

I’m way more New York than I am Philly [ which is to admit he’s never been here either ] but nah, man. Not in anything I’ve ever seen.

[awfulcer]

[In another world, he probably would have trumped up some bogus reason to threaten Kevin with arrest. It's not that skateboarding is illegal, it's that bullying teenagers and threatening benign people with charges was a time-honored and habitual hobby for Ebbing PD.

But he's not a cop, and he's not back in Ebbing, and he's here looking to give Kevin an apology, so for a while he just sits at the edge of the park, watching the kid at a distance catch air and flip the skateboard around and exercise a sort of athleticism that makes Dixon's bones hurt just looking at it. He huddles there, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders like a shawl, looking miserable and ragged, shivering, face scarred up and Morgul blade-wound bandaged under his clothes. He exercises all of his little willpower in not pulling out of his few cigarettes and lighting up.

It's only when Kevin takes a tumble after an ambitious kickflip that Dixon musters it up to actually approach, dragging his feet as if remorse and guilt were shackles around his ankles. It's less that he thinks Kevin might be injured than that he feels he needs an "in" to actually approach the kid.]

You okay?

[likeits1999]

[ Kevin gets back up, brushing off his knees. ]

Yeah bro, I'm good.

[ He glances after the board, rolling on without him to a stop, and decides he can let it go for a few minutes. Nothing's going to snatch it.

He didn't get a real good look at Dixon over the mirrors, and now that he's had a chance to? ]

Are you?

[awfulcer]

Better than I was when I was flying off the handle earlier. [Might as well cut straight to the chase: sorry Kevin, he hecked up real bad over what was otherwise a productive conversation about sharing blood around.] Some of us got a little banged up back on the hill.

[It's a bit of an understatement for a battle between three factions that included members of the squad getting stabbed and nearly having their souls sucked out.

Dixon gestures over to the skateboard.] You're, uh. You're pretty good at that.

[likeits1999]

Looks like it. [ He’s seen some of them are in bad shape. Dixon’s one of the worse ones. ]

I’m not like... pissed or anything still? But no, that still was not cool and if you do it again I’m gonna get all riled.

[ It feels weird to know this given how bad off this guy looks, but Kevin knows himself. He knows that the things Dixon was saying are not okay with him, and even though he tries to keep to his better nature? Some shit just does not fly.

Being complimented makes him pause. He didn’t expect it. ]

Thanks. I got a lot of practice.

[ And despite how weird this line of conversation is, it draws a wary half smile. ]

[awfulcer]

Something he said just set me off, I guess. I think we're all on edge a little. Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you knew I'm sorry for it.

[Dixon's aware he can't make any promises. If there's one facet of intelligence he does alright on, it's self-awareness; he knows himself better than to say it won't happen again. It will. It's like rain; you don't know when it'll happen, but eventually it will, and probably at an inconvenient time that ruins the day for everyone. It's not that he thinks he isn't responsible for his temper, it's that he knows he's responsible and also knows he's too weak-willed to do much about it.

(It doesn't really occur to him that it's less about going the fuck off than about the prejudice for Kevin. It was enough of a shock that it bothered anybody, honestly.)

But as much as Dixon would love to just marinate in a good old-fashioned self-loathing stew, he doesn't want to bog the kid down, and so he sets into the new topic of conversation unhesitatingly.]

They got a skate park where you're from? Where are you from, anyway?

[likeits1999]

Alright. We're cool.

[ For now, anyway. The thought counts for a lot with Kevin, and it helps that he's really not too impressed with Harper either after all that. The shit they're lining up to do is dangerous and probably awful. They're supposed to work together. They can't afford to rip into each other like that, and Kevin's watched enough long, slow feuds play out that he's not interested in seeing more. ]

New York, man. Yeah, there's a couple. [ There are more than a couple. ]

Skating street is different, though. It's real.

[ He points with his chin up and through other parts of the park. Places people were supposed to use for other things, but repurposed and made something different with a skateboard and the right knowhow. It's a place officially off-limits but all the more prized for it. ]

[awfulcer]

[He gives Kevin a nod and a fleeting, hesitant half-smile.

He takes a seat on a ledge next to the LOVE sign, because even existing is exhausting today. He's pretty sure they're going to have to pack up and move tomorrow, go out on the hunt for medical supplies that aren't just a half-empty bottle of hand sanitizer under the counter of the Wawa, but he has no idea how he's going to even be able to walk a mile. Even thinking about it makes him want to curl up on the concrete and lay down.

He follows Kevin's gesture, seeing no doors of opportunity opening up with the backs of benches or the handrails like Kevin does, but thinking it is a pretty nice park, that the perpetual twilight of the ruined city is actually lovely. Wildly different from where he's from, but beautiful nonetheless.]

Got a lot of New Yorkers here, I think. [It's not even that he'd hate Kevin if he ran into him back home; it's that Kevin would occupy such a different space in age and interests and region that he wouldn't even really exist to Dixon. There would never have been any reason for them to speak, never any reason to consider Kevin as a whole person instead of just a fact. And now they have to travel together for God knows how long.

It's not a bad thing, it's just a strange thing.]

Skating street, that means when you're doing all this... [he points around at the park] stuff that technically ain't legal?

[greyerrant]

You seem to be having fun. [ Rumbles a tired-looking, enormous figure who is watching Kevin. ]

I remember running the streets as a juve myself. I suppose... it was fun.

[likeits1999]

That’s the plan, man.

[ God if this guy isn’t big. Christ. Only the space between them saves Kevin from having to crane his neck back a bit. Part of him, a very tiny part, is glad for it. I can outrun this, says that instinct. I am safe. ]

When you was a what?

[ The more conscious, thoughtful part of Kevin has much different priorities. ]

[greyerrant]

[ Loken smiles a bit. ]

Forgive my lack of a correct term in... well, what's translated from Low Gothic. I guess you could say when i was a youth, I acted in a not dissimilar way to how you now act.

[likeits1999]

[ Kevin nods, considering. ]

That's me, man. Red-blooded teenager, I guess. I mean, it's donated, but...

[ He shrugs in a way that is probably troublingly casual for the subject. ]

[greyerrant]

Donated? That do you mean?

[ The large man blinks, and looks down with interest at the young man ]

[likeits1999]

Oh damn, nobody told you huh?

[ Kevin sighs. He has a feeling he's still going to have to do this a lot. ]

I'm a vampire?

Don't worry about it though, we got a system for that now.

[greyerrant]

I do not know what that words means.

[ He looks at the young man with continued curiousity. ]