eighteen | trip like I do

[strike_you_out]

Around
[On a fine Friday morning, Slugger stands at the top of his driveway overlooking the perfect yard and perfect street in this perfect 1950s "utopia", and knows that this reality was born of someone else's delusional madness. He yawns. Well, better find some way to kill the time. Not looking back at the house on Anderson Lane, he rolls down the

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Around

[miss_enma_ai]

[Also roller skating. She's much better at it now. She's perfected the skating aimlessly bit.]

[strike_you_out]

[Hearing the sounds of wheels that aren't his own, Slugger looks around until he spots where it's coming from. He's almost a little surprised to find Ai skating on her own and turns to catch up to her.]

[miss_enma_ai]

[Looks over.]

Hello

[strike_you_out]

[He nods in greeting, gaze fixed on Ai's feet as she skates. He's definitely noticing the progress.]

You got better.

Jacques' Roller Rink

[godisachild]

[Hey, guess who noticed you earlier, and decided to follow you when you seemed to find an actual destination.

Yeah, he'll just smile and watch as Slugger knocks people down. It's not like he's going to skate.]

[strike_you_out]

[Slugger doesn't notice Pokey right away, so he goes about cutting people off in the rink until he's toppled a group of three teenage drones all in a pile. Smirking proudly, he then appears before Pokey leaning on the barrier that separates the rink from the rest of the floor.]

What are you doing here?

[godisachild]

[The chubby boy just snickers at the display. Though, he just shrugs in response to Slugger's question.]

Oh. You know.

Hanging around.

[strike_you_out]

Bored?

roller rink

[nosoul_nomind]

[There's a person clapping from the sidelines when Slugger manages to knock over three people at once. Good going, bro.]

[strike_you_out]

[Slugger rolls backward watching with a grin as the drones struggle to get back up again. Their progress is halted when a fourth trips and lands on top of them, adding to the pile.

Funny, he thought he'd seen someone clapping from the side. There aren't many people he'd expect to see that from. Scanning the faces in the sidelines, he then crosses the rink in a short blur of movement and stops on a dime directly in front of Barton. His voice is low and eerily soft.]

Spectating?

[nosoul_nomind]

[She gives the slightest of starts when he moves so quickly and suddenly. She wasn't expecting that.]

Yeah, guess so. Things finally got interesting. [So she says, flatly.]

[strike_you_out]

[Her response is a curious one. She's either been here forever or she's very stoic. Either way, he did get a tiny jump out of her and for that he smirks.]

Yeah?

[Not even sparing a glance over his shoulder, he sticks out his heel to accidentally-on-purpose trip a passing drone behind him.]

roller rink;

[decadenzas]

[scoots out of the trophy room just in time to see a few drones go sliding across the rink floor and into a barrier wall. wow that is kind of beautiful.]

A shame they can't all be this entertaining.

[strike_you_out]

They're clumsy today.

[Wonder why. Slugger pauses at the edge of the rink to look from Charles to the room he'd just exited.]

What's in there?

[decadenzas]

They really ought to be careful, this floor is very hard. One of them might split their head. [in which case he would be laughing his ass off.

the smile fades when he glances back over his shoulder.] It was left after the termination of the population control program. Have you not been inside? They've plaques and trophies.

[strike_you_out]

[Split their head? Slugger grins darkly at that but says nothing of it. As for the question, he shakes his head.]

Why would they need trophies? What's the point?

[And why would the trophies be kept here? Not that he expects any logical answers...]

around.

[desolavi]

[ also wandering around town, as always. but the moment seki sees that fucking brat go gliding past on skates -- well. he's immediately gonna break into a sprint to try and catch him -- looking for anything in the streets he can grab up and chuck at slugger. ]

[strike_you_out]

[It doesn't appear that Slugger has noticed he's in pursuit. He continues down the street at a moderate pace without looking back.]

[desolavi]

[ and then there's just the sound of ceramic scraping against wood as seki grabs up some poor random potted plant off a windowsill and hurls it square at slugger's back. ]

[strike_you_out]

[Still oblivious, Slugger is rolling to a stop for other reasons when something hard forcefully strikes him in the back. Dirt and ceramic shards explode over his right shoulder, landing in a mess on the pavement in front of him. The suddenness of it is enough to startle him and, yes, it hurts.

Shoulder slumping, he wheels around swiftly in place. The unobscured portion of his face is mostly expressionless, but that quickly changes when he recognizes his attacker and grins.]