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**Tricks and Spills**

//**Ace High**//

[[Zolotisty]] squawks with laughter and twists away from Dex to go scampering after her skateboard. "Stoppit! Stoppit, you are not allowed, it is not //fair// Spandex." She catches up the board and turns about.

[[spandex]] is looking at ..that bird! yeh ..that bird! "Wut?"

There's a whole lotta noise from the jungle suddenly. A sort of rolling, crashing, yelling, all mixed up together, and . . . yup, it's getting nearer.

Zolotisty just shakes her head. "Wut what //wat//," she mocks, grinning, and pads closer to klatank her board back to the cobbles. She steps up to coast and push closer. "Not even paying attention anymore."

spandex shrugs.After a day of obsessively over ollies, she's moved to kickflips. Camera operators have been on the phone to Ogilvy, who's considering a dex-lecture about bad Telly.

[[calliaphone]] skateboards sedately through the gates. If, by sedately, we can be taken to mean with arms flailing and lungs issuing such yells as would frighten a titan.

Zolotisty twinges and turns to peer, ears pricked at the ruckus.

calliaphone has not yet discovered the brakes, but has at least mastered the art of turning. As such, Zolotisty is not bowled over. Merely //swerved// around. The yells are enough of an assault.

spandex, in short, is boring. To make matters worse, there's been no action otherwise, due to a recent dare. "AUUUGGHfuck" she barks, snatching up an escaped board as she fails the landing.

Zolotisty yawps, scamperhops away from her board, and wheels to eye callia. How's she not fallen off!

calliaphone zoooms past Dex, narrowly escaping disaster. And finds a new way to stop. Known, in skateboarding parlance, as The Wall of The Council Office.

Totally 80s Kat [[g_rock]] saunters in a little ways behind Callia, smirking at the guards on the walls "Z, Dex. How are you, my lovelies?"

calliaphone has fallen off now. She sliiiides to the floor, and rolls over, eyes crossed. Getting up, she staggers, and grins. "h'lloZolodexty. . ."

spandex leans heavy on a hip. "Props skooch, yer nailin' shit now -Ow.. gnarly wall..grab, yeh. Hi G. Lovely."

Zolotisty observes callia closely, then looks toward Dex. "She drunk?"

calliaphone beams! She has no idea what Dex just said, but she thinks maybe G will understand some of it. Besides, she knows praise when she hears it, whatever the language.

calliaphone struts, and trips over her feet.

calliaphone only smells very faintly of bourbon, it should be noted.

Totally 80s Kat g_rock grins at Dex "Well, that's just lovely." he applauds Callia. Hey, she stayed upright far longer this time!

spandex shrugs one-shouldered again. "Ionno I'm not yer narc-member." Surlydex drops her board and crouches low to try another kickflip - and the board escapes under her again. "GRARGH!"

calliaphone stares. "why you kicking it? thassnotnice!" she tsks. Dex'll never train it that way. You have to give treats, and //persuade//! Then you can work as a team!

calliaphone crouches down, and pats her board encouragingly. Then palms her screwdriver and gives it a once over, to make it feel //really// loved.

spandex picks herself off the ground and laughs. "Kickflip" she explains to callia. "Impatient," she explains to her board.

spandex smooches the deck, just to really prove her board-love. She glances up to Z. "Cmon Twist stop hovering lets see you ride."

Totally 80s Kat g_rock eyes the wheeled contraptions with no small consternation. A cut-braked tourbus full of coked out bandmates and screaming groupies, piece of cake. Board with wheels, no thank you!

calliaphone thinks maybe Dex's board will understand. If they're to be partners, it's gonna have to get used to a certain amount of impatience. She turns to watch Z, with great interest.

Zolotisty eyes Dex now, swipes her tail, then shoves onto her board again to kickturn off toward the center of the square. She likes speed, always, and she's got an aggressive carve for a learner.

Zolotisty wants to popshove it more than //anything// cos Dex managed it yesterday afternoon on //accident// and it looked bloody ace, but if you're shit at ollies..

calliaphone is intrigued, and attempts to mimic. Pushing off goes well. Kickturn less so, and she and the board part company - board rolling to a halt by G's feet. Callia somersault-rolling to a halt by Dex's.

Totally 80s Kat g_rock picks up the board and examines it briefly. He tossrtolls it back toward Callia. "Y'almost had it that time!"

spandex cringes. "ouhh roadrash-age," she points to callia's brightred shoulder. Her scraped elbows and knees pulse sympathetically.

calliaphone peers at the scrape marks, and grins. Apparently, she's undaunted. "how'd you make it jump up an'down?" she retrieves her board from G, and gets on it, to try again.

calliaphone looks hopefully down at her feet, as if they're going to figure this one out all by themselves.

spandex looks up to catch Z zippin' around the square. "Hotstuff, Twist. Stairs next yeh?" She laughs ..and then regrets it as Z //heads// for the bank steps. "Waitwaitwait" she says, jumping up.

Zolotisty is decidedly NOT waitwaitwaiting.

spandex stops herself, shakes her head briefly and calls, "I mean, ripitup yeh. ..just not.." Another headshake. "She'll be fine," she tells her board, pushing off to try another kickflip.

Totally 80s Kat g_rock sits down near the wall and pulls out his keytar. He'd tune up, but he has no idea how. He sits and starts keying out synthtastic tunes

calliaphone is foot-tapping as she watches Z vanish, she //loves// the accompaniment! She's also plucking at Dex's sleeve. "how? how you doing it?"

Totally 80s Kat g_rock launches into something fast and as hardcore as a keytar can really get. Boarding music! Woven in are strains of stickin' it to the man, and loitering, and all that good stuff.

spandex has been gaping at G. "What is that thing - oh ..umm a kickflip?" She grins at callia. "Needta start with an ollie wanna see?"

calliaphone nodnods, hopping up and down on her board with excitement and, strangely, not falling off.

calliaphone puts in a few dance moves (of her own design, although they might owe something to the Grimaldi dynasty). She can't help it, it's that //music//.

spandex starts to explain, can't, so pushes off and nails two ollies. "You gotta really ..umm.. pop yer back foot as hard as you can, right?" She tries, and demonstrates another. "And lift it."

calliaphone watches //carefully//. And again. And again. And then, frowning with concentration (and winding down the dance moves a little), she gives it a try.

spandex does another. "Oh! And your front foot slides forward like this, to catch the nose. ..nose of your board, I mean."

calliaphone's feet do a funny little stamp-slide//jump// thing. the board leaves the ground for a second, and then she lands on it - //crump// - hands first, feet waggling in the air. "uhh. . ."

calliaphone has a suspicion this wasn't quite what Dex had in mind.

spandex is crouched to watch callia. "Yehyeh but backfoot //way// back, right on the tail, and front foot further back. C'moncmon do it again."

Totally 80s Kat g_rock plays on, surpressing a laugh-and-cheer for Callia "Almost right, dear!"

calliaphone, upsidedownily, opens her eyes wide, and nodnods. She does a slow backwalkover to get herself rightsideup, and then she's back on the board for another try.

calliaphone is quite glad about all this talk of back-foot front-foot. this she can cope with. it's left-foot right-foot that always confuses her. would confuse you too, if you had two lefties.

calliaphone tries the maneouvre again. this time, more height! and she lands on her feet. //on the board//."Woo!" another try, another, a tumble or ten or twenty, and she's getting there.

Totally 80s Kat g_rock pauses the music to give a thumbsup at Callia. He'd have long since broken his fool neck. Or his leg, if it weren't full of metal.

spandex returns to obsessively trying kickflips, keeping one eye on callia while shouting encouragement and instructions."Almost! You flicked it, I did that too,'spain in the ass."

spandex has the //other// eye on Z who isn't killing herself on the stairs or rails or kerbs or - oops, that Joker, and that's good enough for her.

calliaphone practises like an unco-ordinated marionette with tangled strings. On wheels. And possibly fuelled by bourbon. And yet, somehow, when her feet are on that board, she's oddly stable.

spandex lands her first kickflip, and despite herself, shimmyshimmy hipwaggle rocksout to g's disco-esque keyboardthingie //shit//."WOOP! We gombe off the hook and aces by tomorow, skooch!"

spandex's grin is broad. She kisses her board, and means it this time.

calliaphone applauds, without //any idea what that meant//. She applauds with great enthusiasm, however, and decides a victory lap is in order.

calliaphone pushes off. Her board rattles, she rolls, g_rock rocks 'cause that what he does best. . .

Totally 80s Kat g_rock builds to a chaotic, rhythmic crescendo of discord and fuckoff-authorities-boarding-ain't-a-crime. He stands to watch the victory lap

Totally 80s Kat g_rock finds himself, without knowing quite how, astride Cakey's table, sweating and sneering and soloing within an inch of his life. Hipthrust! Heldnotepointatthecrowd! Wink at the cute jokergal!

spandex is already eighteen steps ahead and imagining sick ramps and rails and jumps and a girl posse and ouh they need a name and their own park. She rides past G, pausing. "Uh, G?"

Suddenly, it's raining underwear in Ace High. Sadly, not the kind of underwear a rocker wants to be pelted with. But at least it doesn't seem to include Bernard's speedos.

spandex asks simply, "th'fuck?" He'll understand she figures, otherwise her diagnosis is Completely Mental.

calliaphone //swerves// past a pair of granny-knickers, and ollies (yes, she does) over an elderly brown sock with a hole in its toe. She gathers speed, whooping.

spandex catches a stiff pair of bright red y-fronts and offers them to G.

Totally 80s Kat g_rock shrugs and nods. You take what you can get.

calliaphone, a little bit over-excited, tries a wheelie. they probably don't call it that, but she's more experience on two-wheels (or one) than four. unexpectedly, it works.

spandex lifts a brow. Yep, G's mental, but he seems happy with it so she rides off to try ollies and flips over the bank steps.

calliaphone zoooms up a slope, and ziiips across the pavement outside the council offices, pulling fearful faces at the Officialdom within. Fists are shaken, but she's too fast for catching!

Abundantly [[Ari]] bounds into Ace High but not very far, she stands at the gate, back pressed to the wall so she is not in the way and watches with wide eyes

Totally 80s Kat g_rock continues to rock, winking at Ari

calliaphone waaaves. "Ari Ari we're riding these skateboards wanna have a go!" she points to her backpack, beside G, with a spare board sticking out.

Abundantly Ari giggles and watches all the rocking and rolling going on with interest, she spots a bag of boards near where G is rocking and starts to sidle that-a-way

Abundantly Ari grins, now that she has permission she stops sidling and bee lines for the bag, looking over the boards to decide which is best

calliaphone rattles along the plaza in front of Mike's showroom and //whups// she's in the air and "WAAUGHH"into the main square, and //crash// into the cake-stand. in lieu of brakes, y'see.

Totally 80s Kat g_rock shifts gears, to a riff-laden dirge for the death of personal freedoms at the hands of the corporations

spandex is pulled into a polite discussion about //prohibiting customers from entering our establishment//. This somehow escalates quickly to a debate about a //war-sponsored financial system//.

Abundantly Ari sets a board on the ground and wiggles it a bit, wheels seem stable so she steps on it and pushes forward with one foot rolling slowly and grinning madly

Totally 80s Kat g_rock barely dives off the cakestand in time to avoid being crushed. Luckily, he's able to turn it into a powerslide into a killer solo

calliaphone extricates herself and board from the gateaux, and offers the cake-man a go at skateboarding, as compensation. he declines.

calliaphone helps herself to a slice. "you done it before, Ari?" this, through a mouthful of chocolate mud cake.

calliaphone hands a second slice to Ari, and she's off. She's gotta try that thing again! With all the people waving at her from the council offices. Obviously, they were well impressed.

calliaphone thinks g_rock's style is wasted without wheels. Ah well, she can always fit them to him, some time when he's passed out. For now, she pushes off.

spandex's unconscious plan to wear the bank manager down by her apparent stamina for ranting works. "Hiya Ari!" she calls, grinning, and returning to terrorizing bank customers with her near-misses.

Abundantly Ari shakes her head and pushes forward a little faster "nope! Lookit me go!" both feet are planted on the board and her arms held out from her sides, occasionally she propels herself forward again

calliaphone zoooms, ziips, face-pulling, waving back. She rattles and rolls and. . .LEAP! She sails, grinning widely. . .

Abundantly Ari rolls to a stop and watches Callia, mouth slightly open, then she beams and starts to applaud

calliaphone lands perfectly! she twists to look over her shoulder as she speeds along the pavement. who saw? did anyone see? "WOHOO! LOOKIT ME! GUYS GUYS DID YOU SEE?"

calliaphone, in her excitement, doesn't see the cracked paving stone, sticking up slightly, dead ahead.

Abundantly Ari turns to Dex "Hello Dex!" and then back to rolling along in a straight sort of line, she looks about to be sure no one is watching and then hops a bit on the board wondering how Callia jumps it

Totally 80s Kat g_rock hits an abrupt stop to the song symbolizing. . .something or another. He shouts at Callia "Lookout!"

calliaphone: There's a solid //thunk// as Callia's front wheels hit the edge of the stone, and stop dead. The board pivots onto its nose, the tail coming up to launch her into the air.

spandex is being chased by a pink-dyed purse dog that looks like a hairless rat with a diamante collar. She jerks her head back to watch callia. "Whaa//oh shit//." She cringes.

calliaphone gasps, and briefly flails, but then some other instinct kicks in. Behind and below, the board clatters, wheels uppermost. But she's already rotating. Knees tucked. . .

calliaphone flips neatly. One foot down, then the other, arms round over and down, she wheels with the momentum - round-off, half-whip, flyspring, front-flip - reach and bend, rebound and leap. . .

Abundantly Ari is drawn back to the commotion, "holy moley!"

It's quite the display, probably her best ever. And from her face (if you've mangaged to glimpse it while she was flipping), it's obvious she knows it too. Elation, pride, concentration, mixed in equal parts.

calliaphone, in fact, //almost// gets away with it. Lined up for a perfect landing, she'd definitely have nailed it, if not for the kerb.

spandex is impressed. This one's gombe replayed and commentated upon in slo-mo for the Audience Back Home. "Freeze it here Jim ..notice her perfect balance and really quite remarkable height here."

Totally 80s Kat g_rock is frozen for a moment, marvelling at the display of prowess and grace. From calliaphone.

calliaphone's left foot is in the clear. Touching down firmly onto the ground, knee bent to take up the impact. The other . . . An inch or two and it would have been alright. Instead of which. . .

calliaphone is half-on, half-off the edge of the kerbstone. And as the weight of her body comes down, the ankle gives way.

There's an audible crunch. A short, sharp cry. And Callia crumples, chalk-faced, onto the cobblestones.

spandex is a moment of sick stomach lurch and giveway knees ..and then she is sprinting for callia.

Totally 80s Kat g_rock cringes, hearing the sound from across the square. He drops the instrument and jogs toward the fallen performer

Abundantly Ari scrambles off her skateboard, launching it in the opposite direction as she hurries to the fallen Callia

calliaphone is curled. ammonite tight, and knuckles white. she opens her eyes wide. not fully cognisant."what. . ."

spandex crouches next to her. "Callia? Callia?" She gently brushes hair off her face. "Skooooch c'mon."

spandex, softly, "you okay, what hurts most?" 

calliaphone says, in a dream-voice, "My. . ." she squeezes her eyes shut, and opens them again. Tries again,"Foot . . . it. . .wrong. . ."

Totally 80s Kat g_rock kneels down on the other side of the girl, obscuring the view of the already twisted and swelling ankle."Callia, we need to get your boot off. Unrelated reasons."

calliaphone grabs hold of Dex's arm, clutches with too-cold hands. She struggles to sit, to reach the boot,"gettitoff. . .hurts. . .gettit. . ." a tentative tug "AAIIEEE!"

Abundantly Ari watches shifting from foot to foot uncertainly, she would ask if Calli was okay but it is fairly clear she is not

Totally 80s Kat g_rock pokes Dex on the shoulder and points to Callia's boot "I think you gotta cut it off. Before it swells too much." he's careful, though, not to let Callia see.

Totally 80s Kat g_rock motions Ari over. Callia's gonna need a hand to hold for this bit. . .

spandex //shshshshshs// like Elias does. "Okok. S'gombe okay." A sharp glance to G. Wut. "Noway. Let a doctor do it, G." 

Abundantly Ari scoots down by Callia and pats her hand "G is smart so it will be okay"

Totally 80s Kat g_rock nods at Dex, wide eyed. "Yeah. . .yeah, I guess that makes sense. Sorry, I'm not great with first aid. Can you two get her arms, I can try to hold her legs, we'll get her to the hospital tent?"

spandex has very recently been through this with Z, and is firm and sure. "Lift her gently. Hurry."

Abundantly Ari nods "I can do that"

calliaphone says, "Ari. . .don'go. . ." but her teeth are chattering too much for more than that.

Totally 80s Kat g_rock lifts Callia's legs gently, the boot thankfully stabilizing the ankle more than if they'd got it off. G is as un-jostly as he's ever been in his life.

Abundantly Ari squeezes Callia's hand "I won't go anywhere!" not even if there are scary bits! Like needles!

spandex keeps her hands on Callia and closes her eyes. Her work with Improbability is instinct-fast with some things, and **lightness** comes birds-in-breezes quick. "Careful! Nono, like a bride."

calliaphone, all the same, whimpers as she's moved. "Hurtingmakeitst-stop p-please iwondoitag-g-ain" Tears are leaking, streaking the dirt down her cheeks.

spandex slides out of callia's grip and moves to her side. "Cmon G, you wanna ..or me?" Her tone's too sharp, stressed.

Totally 80s Kat g_rock appears to be out of his depth. He sets the legs down gingerly, then comes round and scoops the poor dear up. "Like this?" Not waiting, he heads for the medtent, taking long, smooth strides

Abundantly Ari hurries along with him, walking speedy like to keep up so she can continue holding Callia's hand

calliaphone flinches, tenses, fists full of leather sleeve. then relaxes. She's all outta fight, for today.

spandex is off at a sprint for Elias', pounding up his stairs, shouting his name. The door's locked and a notice about his schedule puts him in IC today. //fuck//.

Totally 80s Kat g_rock smiles a tight, greatful smile at Ari as they disappear into the hospital tent. S'good to keep her calm.

spandex shouts down the last alley she saw Z riding in, "we're in medtent, Twist!"

spandex gathers up boards and bags on her way to the medtent. "Oy!" she's yelling at the nurses,"get her a fuckin' bed!" 


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