freedom_is_grey | (no subject)

(no subject)

Some days a person just wants to go outside and play with their dog.

Some days a person also realizes that at least one other person exists that would like to play with a dog, possibly outside.

Today is one of those days, which is why Ysalwen has been following Liranan to Tacit Ronin for the past -- long time.

She's really got to ask someone to teach her to drive. This is ridiculous.

But eventually she reaches the base of the Jaeger, rests her hand on Liranan's shoulder, and calls up --

"Chuck? Are you there? It's Ysalwen."

Liranan barks three times, joyfully.

"And Liranan. He want to know if you can come out to play."

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It's a long way up a Jaeger, which is why Chuck fails to hear Ysalwen's call as anything more than general garage background noise with his headphones on.

Dogs barking, now. That's harder to miss.

Chuck finishes cutting through the stretch of steel cable he's been dismantling, checking again to see it's secure, before turning off his angle grinder and poking his head out from the Jaeger.

He waves, before disappearing back inside.

"Hey, Commander, Liranan," Chuck says, voice crackling out of the walkie-talkie hanging off of the bottom of the scaffold. "What's up? If you want to talk, press the green button on the ... box thing with the speaker. I have to clear some stuff up, but I can be down soon."

Box thing Ysalwen understands.

Speaker -- if you squint it kind of looks like those radios she was reading about. A little.

Maybe.

Hmm.

Ysalwen pushes the green button and leans a little closer.

"You can call me Ysalwen, Chuck. Unless you don't want to. Um. I wondered if you might want to come outside with Liranan and I. He brought extra frisbees, and he likes your company."

Liranan barks again.

Ysalwen waits until he's done to stop holding down the green button.

Is that right? Who knows!

"Really?" Chuck asks, whole voice brightening. He cunningly does not mention he wasn't sure about her name.

(It does sound like 'solvent'! He thought so.)

"Sure, yeah, that'd be great."

It takes another moment for Chuck to full divest of his face mask and headphones, swinging out onto the scaffold with his gloves still on. He descends very quickly, but he clearly knows what he's doing.

He unvelcros his gloves once he reaches the bottom, and grins at them. "How've you been?" He asks Ysalwen, kind of, but mostly Liranan.

Edited 2015-03-09 03:31 (UTC)

"Everything at home is a clusterfuck," she answers cheerfully. For both of them.

"But we're alive, so it's all going to be upward from here."

She hopes.

Liranan just wags his tail, then moves toward Chuck to see if he can get any ear-scratches.

Chuck's hands are bigger than Ysalwen's, after all. It's economical!

"Hey, that's a good start," Chuck says, happily scratching Liranan behind the ears. Then, bemused: "Did you walk here?"

"I have neither a horse nor an ox-cart, and have yet to get any driving lessons, so -- "

She smiles crookedly.

" -- yes."

"Huh," Chuck says. "Well, I guess we can walk back out. I don't have a second bike.

... And you probably don't know how to use a bicycle, yeah?"

He's already walking for the entrance, stride relatively easy, rubbing a hand against the hair at the back of his neck.

"I'm not even entirely sure what one is, to be honest."

Her reading has sort of skipped right over bicycles. Or it's somewhere back at basic chemistry, biology, physics, and algebra.

Go figure.

"Are they easier to use than cars?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Fewer rules. They have two wheels," he goes to gesture, realizes something accurate would involve raising his hand from Liranan's head, and instead traces something in the air. "In line with each other. About a meter in diameter, each. They don't go anywhere as fast as cars, but you can learn how to ride one in like a couple hours, probably. Less, maybe, if you've got good balance. You sit on a seat right in front of and above the back wheel, and push against these things called pedals, and gears and stuff use that to make you move forward."

"Gears I understand, at least a little. These must be quite small. And I'm going to go out on a limb and guess your wheels aren't made of wood. Are they -- plastic?"

Everything else people talk about seems to be.

It's a very strange series of materials, that. And all the colors are unexpected, too.

Liranan, meanwhile, seems content to trot at Chuck's side, casting only the occasional glance in Ysalwen's direction. She's keeping up, right?

Right?

"Rubber," Chuck says. "I... don't think it's a type of plastic. I think it might be from trees. Or used to be from trees? Plastic's manmade, I'm pretty sure. Also, plastic tends to be ... like, really stiff or really bendy. Rubber's kind of in between, but... to different extents. I guess?"

Chuck is not a materials scientist.

"Huh. Something else to look up, I suppose."

Vulcanization for the win!

Anyway --

"Do you think you could teach me how to ride a bicycle sometime? Not today, of course, because Liranan would kill us if we denied him now, but -- sometime?"

"Uh," Chuck says, glancing over at her. "Yeah, sure, if you want. They're pretty handy for getting around rougher trails, too, when you're used to them. You'd just want to get a helmet from Bar."

He's never gone mountain biking, but he's generally aware!

"Oh. Um."

Ysalwen's expression sags into disappointment for a second.

"I can't actually wear helmets. Or armor. They get in the way of spellcasting, and I'd rather not -- hmm."

A pause.

"Would a magical protective hat work just as well? It cushions my head wonderfully in battle, for what that's worth."

And it looks like a toque. It is very ridiculous.

"Well, if it works for battle it should be fine for biking," Chuck says, grinning at her. The idea of a 'magical protective hat' is kind of delightful. "It really just needs to be able to absorb shock -- so if you fall and hit your head, the jolt doesn't travel all the way through."

"Oh, it will do that in spades. So will my own magical shielding, if need be. So I don't get any scrapes when I fall."

She figures that part is inevitable.

"Handy." Chuck pounds the up button lightly with the side of his fist, resting against the wall. He tilts his head down the row. "There's some bikes down there. None of them are locked up or anything, so we should be able to find one that fits you pretty easily."

He glances down at Liranan. "No bikes for dogs, sorry mate."

Liranan just barks, prancing a few steps and wagging his tail.

He likes his paws on the ground, thank you!

Ysalwen laughs.

"I don't think he's too concerned about that somehow, Chuck. We're lucky he tolerates riding in the golf cart here."

Edited 2015-03-13 02:16 (UTC)

"I'd probably prefer to stay standing if I was a dog, too," Chuck says, grinning at Liranan.

The elevator door opens with a blast of music, and Chuck sends a judging look at the ceiling as they get in. "We need to grab some Frisbees from the Bar?"

One day Ysalwen will actually find the lyrics to Girl from Ipanema.

That will be a terrible day.

"I only have one, and it's pretty well-chewed. More would probably be a good idea."

At least one more. Maybe two.

They end up with a solid tug rope (long enough to pit giant dog against man and wizard lady) and two more Frisbees in vibrant yellow so they can't lose them.

Hopefully.

Chuck shivers slightly when they walk outside -- it's not really cold at all, but he's kind of become unaccustomed to a breeze.

Ysalwen shoots him a quick, sideways look.

"Do you want a cloak? I warn you, Liranan might decide it makes a better toy than the rope, because he loves surprising people."

She's just saying.

Liranan just barks loudly, twice, and darts ahead of them, running in a wide circle for a minute before returning.

Play bowing is the best! Come on! Come on!

Chuck starts to shake his head at Ysalwen, when Liranan barks.

He laughs, loud and unconsidered. "Yeah, we're pretty boring, aren't we?"

He grabs one of the Frisbees he's carrying, and swings it wide. It's pretty clear he's used to playing fetch in an empty hangar bay.

Liranan flings himself after it, running all out.

When he gets underneath it, regardless of the height, he leaps.

GOTCHA!

Ysalwen laughs as he springs back, circling around her to end up at Chuck's side again.

Take the frisbee, Chuck! So you can throw it again! Come on!

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