Fifth Floor Common Room, Monday Afternoon

[soniaroadsqueen]

It had required moving some furniture around in order to create the space necessary, but Ringo had managed to lay down a big white sheet on the floor and pin its corners with some large boxes. She'd even had boxes left over, and those were stacked near the edge of the area she'd blocked off.

Most of the boxes were open, too, and revealed their contents to be hundreds of tiny different bits of metal. Ringo had asked Ume to send her AT parts, and Ume had delivered in spades. She had enough pieces here to put together dozens pairs. Sometimes, apparently, little sisters were good for something after all!

Of course so many boxes had taken a lot of work to get up to the fifth floor, and she hoped no one had been annoyed as she had painstakingly moved one box at a time from the lobby.

Now Ringo was sitting in the middle of that white sheet, her smile matched by some happy humming as her hands rapidly swapped out small screwdrivers for tiny wrenches and the pile of precisely-machined metal in front of her began to take shape.

Every so often some screw or gear would slip from her fingers, and she'd have to put down what she had so far and find it. Fortunately, the sheet was very, very clean, and practically nothing blended in against it. So soon enough she'd be back to humming and assembling, and she was almost done with the first unit.

[Open!]

Comments

[spin_kick_snap]

"That're pretty much what I do, out in Baltimore," Kathy said. "Run really fast, chain tricks?" That had been the phrase Ringo had used, right? "Surprise a couple of bad guys, then get up and outta there before anyone knows what's hit 'em!"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Awesome! Are there some good places for it?"

Wait.

Ringo blinked in surprise and confusion.

"What was that last part?"

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy looked a little sheepish. "Chain tricks?" she tried.

Yeah, she didn't think Ringo was gonna buy that.

[soniaroadsqueen]

An amused grin flickered across Ringo's face. "That wasn't what I was asking." And Kathy knew it.

Before Kathy could respond, Ringo held up one hand, thinking.

"I can pretend I didn't hear it, if you want me to," she offered quietly after mulling it over. "We all have secrets." Her lip twitched. "I certainly have mine."

"But I am curious. If you want to tell me about it, that is."

[spin_kick_snap]

"It's not really a secret," Kathy said, shaking her head. "I mean, it is when I'm not on the island? But here, nobody really cares and it's not like I have to worry about anyone going all supervillain on me."

That she knew of anyway.

Offering Ringo her hand, she said, "Codename Banzai, costumed vigilante. Most nights I'm out in Baltimore, chasing down criminals and stuff like that. Hi."

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo examined that hand, trying to figure out what the appropriate response was. After a moment, she nodded in decision: a confidence for a confidence.

She reached out and took Kathy's hand, just a bit awkwardly since she didn't do a lot of handshakes. "It's not exactly a code name, but sometimes I'm called Crazy Apple." Just saying the name caused that side of her to stir, and Ringo's eyes were dangerously serious for a split second before settling into their usual friendly smile. "Thorn Queen of the Sleeping Forest." Which sounded kind of elaborate next to Kathy's simple explanation, which made Ringo shake her head sheepishly.

"It's not so grand as it sounds."

[spin_kick_snap]

"What does that mean?" Kathy asked, confused. She didn't want to point out that it could easy be the name of a LARP character, because Ringo clearly meant something serious by it, but Kathy couldn't place what it could even be referencing.

[soniaroadsqueen]

Ringo looked down at her lap, embarrassed. But she probably should explain.

"Like I said, it's not as grand as it sounds, but 'Thorn Queen' is a title, I guess. The Queens and Kings are the people considered to be the number one in their particular roads. There's a Flame King, and a Pledge Queen, and so on."

"And Sleeping Forest is an AT team. And old one. It contains a number of Kings and Queens." Ringo frowned slightly. "We don't, well, I wish we did more things like beating up bad guys. That sounds kind of fun."

She finally looked up, searching Kathy's face through her eyelashes. "Does that make sense?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"Oh." Kathy said, snapping her fingers. "So because you're the best at the Sonia Road, you're the Thorn Queen?"

That sounded really cool. You got to flip around and go superfast and then when you were done, you got a fancy title. Kathy could absolutely get behind that.

"So why is it called the Sonia Road? And why would being the queen of that make you the Thorn Queen." She frowned, working a few things out in her head. "Crazy Apple because your name is Ringo and you do crazy stunts? With a nod to hawthornes of your title?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Sonia Road is name of the road," and definitely the one Ringo preferred. "But it has a number of high-level techniques that involve constricting your opponents' options, binding them, sort of." Shredding away their own ability to run.

Those techniques also did some non-trivial damage to the user's body, but Ringo wasn't going to teach anyone those techniques, so it didn't matter.

"And, yeah. Because I do crazy tricks." Ringo smiled. She liked that interpretation. "And because," she sighed, "I scare some people." Including, if she was honest, herself, sometimes. That side of her was not very nice.

[spin_kick_snap]

Without the information about shredding them, Kathy was still a little confused why they went with 'thorns' and not 'rope' or 'lasso', but was willing to assume it was a cultural thing.

And then, forgive her Ringo, but-- "You scare some people?" she asked, trying not to sound dubious.

[soniaroadsqueen]

The tone in Kathy's voice surprised a laugh out of Ringo. She tried putting on a scowl, but her natural demeanor plus the laughter totally ruined it. "What?" she demanded. "I'm not intimidating?"

She shrugged. "But I guess I can be scary sometimes? I mean, well, ATs can be dangerous. And if you know what you're doing you can really hurt someone." Which Ringo had done a time or two.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Don't you mean if you don't know what you're doing?" Kathy asked, proving she knew absolutely nothing about ATs or the sport itself.

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Well, that, too," Ringo agreed.

"But, well, as an example, imagine what would happen if someone gets up some speed and then kicks you." Now imagine that they were getting up to speeds that ATs could manage.

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy quirked a smile. "I don't have to imagine it, I know." That was pretty much how she fought in Baltimore. Sure, at half ATs speed, maybe, but that was still three times faster than the average human went. "So, when you race, it's not just about speed or distance or whatever. Taking out your opponents is also allowed?"

[soniaroadsqueen]

"It depends on the rules. Challenged party gets to set them. Some of them are one-on-one duels, some are team-based." Ringo sighed, clearly unhappy. "And at the highest levels everyone seems to think that violence is an important part of it all." Which was stupid! ATs weren't about that!

Wait.

"You mentioned something about that before. But I thought you didn't know what ATs were." How did she get up to such speeds?

[spin_kick_snap]

"Something about what?" Kathy was back to being confused. "I haven't heard of them until just now, no."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Going fast. It doesn't sound like you mean in a car or anything."

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy couldn't help but smile at that. "I don't," she admitted, ducking her head a little. "Uhh...costumed vigilante is my way of saying 'superhero' without sounding like I'm bragging a lot, actually."

She still felt like it was bragging? Just not as much.

"Last year, I ended up developing some, umm, powers. Like superspeed. Super-agility. Super-dexterity. The, ahhh, ability to bounce." Yup. Still no way to make that not sound weird. "I have to concentrate to do stuff at normal people speeds sometimes. I'm about three times faster than a normal person. So when I'm running for all I'm worth, I hit about 145 kilometers an hour."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Oh," Ringo's eyes were huge. "Wow! That's awesome!"

"I bet you can do some really amazing tricks!" Everything came back to AirTrek for Ringo, in case you hadn't noticed, Kathy.

[spin_kick_snap]

"Now you understand why I was so interested in them!" Kathy agreed with a laugh. "Because I know what I can do already--and then to add that to the chance to go faster--!" Surely Ringo could see what Kathy was getting at here. "And that's why I knew what you were talking about with the warehouses on that side of the island. I go there to practice parkour."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Now we've definitely got to get you a pair put together." Ringo turned around, reaching blindly into one of the boxes behind her.

"Quick! What size do you wear?"

[spin_kick_snap]

"I'm a seven," Kathy said, gleeing so very much right now. "...Not that I have any idea what that means in non-American sizing."

[soniaroadsqueen]

"Me either," Ringo said, rolling her eyes at the silly Americans always needing to be different. "Try these on and let me know which one works," she demanded handing four different sized right-footed boots over her shoulder, one after another.

[spin_kick_snap]

They were special that way! Freedom! Eagles! Red white and blue! Stupid sizing conventions!

The third boot fit perfectly, leaving just enough room at the toes for Kathy to be able to wiggle them without being confined. She still tried on the fourth shoe just to be safe, but it was definitely the third that was the best fit. "These here!" she declared, holding her foot up. "What next?"