You Can't Roller Skate in A Buffalo Herd

[KamiKaze]

((Junko Kurosawa continued from I Hate Mustard))

Flaming Hot Cheetos weren't her absolute favorite food. But they were freaking delicious. They were flaming, and they were hot, and they were Cheetos. That really summed up why Junko liked them so much. It was a pretty good snack, too, if you don't mind the red stuff on your fingers after. Anyways, why was Junko at the skate park demolishing a bag of Cheetos? Well, first off, the key word in that sentence is "Junko". Junko spent a lot of time here. Ever since she was like, in elementary? Yeah, elementary. Ever since then she'd been here on a regular basis. She could fondly remember Sarah teaching her how to rollerblade here. She guessed that some of that energy needed to come out somehow. Sometimes, they'd still rollerblade together. Not too often, too. Sarah was busy, after all.

But she had a different motive for being here this Saturday afternoon. She and Beaks had a bit of an agreement, you know? She was a woman of her word, too. So hopefully Beaks would show up in a few seconds. To Junko, though, sometimes seconds were too long. She already had her skates, helmet, and all that on, so she was pretty ready to go. For the time being, she was sitting on top of a picnic table, eating Cheetos. Relaxing, but relaxing wasn't good enough for Junko. The excitement of rollerblading was more her thing. Maybe it'd become Aiden's thing, too. He'd seemed excited for it.

And hey, maybe if he showed up before she finished, she could give him some Cheetos too. Did he like the Flaming Hots? She'd never asked. She could ask if he showed up, maybe? It'd be polite to share, kinda.

Eh, he'll be here soon.

[Rorick Skyve†]

((Aiden Slattery continued from It's Raining, It's Pouring))

Easy, easy, easy, few more steps or so. Junko was right there, having a stare off with the horizon or whatever, just totally clueless. Hadn't snuck up on anybody in a while now, his baby bro had prolly been the last one. Man, it was the best, that little harmless thrill that made him feel so fucking happy nonetheless. Really had to be careful to not start giggling like a classroom full of preteen chicks. No problemo though, he had this one.

Heard some rustling. Came from Junks, or from something she was holding in her hands. Maybe chips or something? Sure sounded like it. Well shit, now he kinda wanted some of that as well, chances were they were some of those Cheetos she was always going on about. Like, hadn't tried them himself yet, nope, but he knew he liked a lot of things the chick did, so those were prolly ace as fuck as well. She wasn't gonna mind sharing some, right?

Sure but, if he pulled that little prank he was just about to pull, maybe she was gonna prank him back, not let him have any of those. Eye for an eye, tit for tat, a Roland for an Oliver, that sorta deal. Fuck, choice was tough like a bitch's nails here, like.
Aiden stopped for a second, maybe two large steps away from her back. He held his rollerblades in his hands, one of them in each. Couldn't take both in one hand, would make too much clinking and tinky-tinking noises, no way he could ninja his way on someone like that. But maybe, he wasn't going to now.

Snacks or snickers, oldest question in the book right here. Woulda done some eenie meenie miney mo shit or something to make the choice for him, but he couldn't waste that much time, girl could turn around any second and bust his ass. Yeah, had to go fast now. Think quick. Kiosk was around the corner, he could still just do a Flash real quick and get some from there if she denied him hers. That settled it then. No more Mr Nice Guy here.

He made another step, mouth twitching a bit from that wide ass grin on his face. Ready, steady...now!

He jumped forward, both rollerblades still firmly gripped in his hands and hugged Junko from behind by throwing his arms around her neck. The rollerblades collided against each other mid-air, creating a short sound like he was hammering away on a steel pipe.

"Freeze, criminal scum! Hand over all of your snack bags this instant or I will use deadly force!"

[KamiKaze]

"Gah!"

Junko flinched as something grabbed her from behind, only to smile a bit. That Aiden. Seriously. Of course he would sneak up on her with that grin. And beg for snacks, while we're at it. She was going to share with him anyways if he had shown up quickly.

"I demand a snack lawyer," she said, lifting the bag closer to his- wait. He was holding the skates in his hands. And his arms were still wrapped around her.

"No problem with Flaming Hots?" she said, trying to push the bag closer to him. The positioning was a little weird, so she tried to squirm out a bit. Two people wrapped around each other on a picnic table made things strange.

[Pippi]

((Bryony Adams continued from Poe's Poems Pwn Posers))

Bryony was lost and out of place. That wasn't exactly a new sensation to her, but right now, it wasn't merely confined to the thoughts in her own mind. She knew that the skate park existed; she'd walked through Sumac Park plenty of times and seen people with skateboards tucked under their arms and rollerblades slung over their shoulders walking towards it. But that sort of thing wasn't her scene at all, so she'd seen very little reason to even go close to the skate park.

The past few days had been... pretty rough, however. Actually, scratch that. The past few weeks had hit Bryony like a truck. There'd been a good number of sleepless nights for her, staying awake until the sun came up, either distracting herself by drawing and surfing the internet, trying her hardest to hold tears in, or simply lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, feeling blank and hollow.

Eventually, it got so that not even drawing or watching endless reruns of RWBY could distract Bryony from the growing mess of white noise in her head. She had laid in bed until midday, today, feeling utterly gross, before something clicked in the back of her mind that she needed to do something, and fast. She had thrown back the covers at a speed she didn't realise she was capable of, managed to scramble together a cute outfit to wear, and headed off for a walk to try and clear her mind. She'd plugged herself into her iPod, and kept her head down, soon becoming lost in her music.

This was why Bryony was now standing in the middle of the Desert Plains Skate Park and feeling very out of place in her 'Troubadorable' t-shirt, light zip-up hoody, black skirt and kitty-cat face tights. She was in a brand new place and she didn't feel like she belonged there at all.

That one was definitely not a new sensation.

She imagined she was getting a few glances, but this time she couldn't even blame any of them. She wasn't in appropriate attire at all. It would probably be a good idea to retrace her footsteps and wander around Sumac Park some more, before she started to feel stupid and self-conscious.

A sharp clacking sound suddenly pierced the air, cutting over Bryony's music and making her jump about a mile into the air. She looked hurriedly around herself for the source of the noise, eventually realising it had come from about a few feet away. There were two people at one of the benches, and Bryony was almost certain she recognised them from around school. She took one step towards them before she froze. They seemed to already be... pre-occupied, and on top of that, she didn't exactly know them very well.

And now she was in a dilemma. Would it be weirder to keep on walking towards them, or to do a complete about turn and head the other direction?

Bryony split the difference by remaining frozen on the spot.

[Rorick Skyve†]

Aiden chuckled when her felt her squirm and trying to wrestle out of his bear hug, but no chance. Being all tiny didn't mean he had nothing in his arms, no Sir. Could keep this madam on lockdown all day if he wanted, no escaping unless he released her from his grip. Which he did, right then. Any longer and it'd get awkward, like, there were other peeps there and he didn't want Junks to get any sort of wrong idea here. So he he untied his arms from around her body and took a step back, to give her room to breathe.

"Denied. This is a free country, but not for snack hoarding scum like you! Then again...I'm nothing if not corrupt, you see."

He positioned herself next to her, laying his rollerblades down on the picnic table. He looked at her, then at the bag of Cheetos, then back at her. He wiggled his eyebrows, making his intention very clear.

"Bribery accepted. Even though I've never tried Flaming Hots before, but like, only one way to find out, right?" He reached out for the bag and reached into it, all the way down, fumbled around a bit inside, until he got hold of a sucker he was satisfied with. Felt big enough, just about right for him, he was frickin' starvin' and all, so he was.

Retracting his now grizzly-greasy fingers, he brought a single Cheeto to light and held it in front of his face, examining it. "Damn like...thing looks like a peanut and some fried chicken got it on without a rubber, you follow me? " He grinned at her, then shrugged. "Eh, if it tastes like the two combined, I'm still down. Prolly not, but one can dream, right?" With a wink, he basically tossed the thing into his open mouth.

Instant regrets, fuck. Like, he shoulda figured, Flaming Hot prolly didn't mean it was gonna be mild like an old granny or something, but holy flamin' shit, had it in his mouth for two seconds and he felt like he needed to call 911 or some shit. To arrest Junko, put out the flames in his mouth, get his a fucking rescue waggon, all at frickin' once!

"Oh, fuck." He put his hand in front of his mouth, pressed his palm down on it. He could instantly feel how he was beginning to sweat, tearing up and everything. The hell had he been thinking, couldn't even eat a pepperoni without having to suck a cow dry of milk. Fuck, milk sounded like a good plan right now.

"Jesus Christ, Junks, you really are going to jail for this." That's what he wanted to say, but with all his mumbling, no idea if any of that had come through. Maybe she had some water with her though, anything. She had to, like, how the hell could she have been eatin' those things otherwise? Chick had to be on fire, more than usual.

It would have been logical for him to look somewhere under the ground, underneath the picnic table. Would have been logical for Junks to have a bottle stored away there. Only his mind was everything but logical in that moment, felt like all nerve paths were burning down as well. So Aiden got up, looked around and then he spotted someone ahead, not too far away.

Tiny thing, thought he had seen her before, some time, forgot her name in the haste of the moment, but not like he cared right now - only thing that mattered was that small bottle she was carrying with herself, fucking salvation.

"Hey, can I have that for a moment? Please, it's really sorta very urgent!"

Again, no idea if any of that came through, with his hand on his mouth and all. Maybe she would understand him frantically pointing at the bottle with his other hand, like a goddamn maniac. He really, really, really hoped she would.

[KamiKaze]

Aiden finally released his grip on her. Junko let off a puff of air. At last, breathing. Bear hugs didn't do the lungs wonders. But yeah, he was gonna sample the Flaming Hots. Maybe he was a hot spicy food sort of guy, maybe he wasn't.

"Oh thank god you accept bribes," Junko said. "Food bribes for food officers can be pricey these days."

Though, did it really look like that? A chicken and a peanut's bastard child? Junko never thought of it that way. She always thought that it looked like a... Cheeto, except redder and hotter. Shut up, it made sense, didn't it? Peanut and chicken did make sense, though. It didn't taste like it, though, but Aiden was going to find out in a second.

In that second, he found out that it didn't taste like that at all.

"Oh shit, shitshitshitshit."

It was pretty obvious that Aiden wasn't a hot food guy after all! Anyone could see that the poor guy was tearing up and sweating. Junko sometimes forgot that people didn't like hot food the same way she did. Sure, her tongue must be battle-scarred from all the flaming hot cannons and stuff, but other people's weren't.

She brought her water bottle, didn't she? It wouldn't be the first time Junko had forgotten her water bottle somewhere. Or it being kicked or something. Man, that thing had been through a lot, hadn't it? Probably not as much as Aiden's tongue right now, though. Junko's head darted left and right, up and down. Gah, where did she put it? Maybe Aiden had one of his own hidden somewhere, but she had no idea. Didn't look like it?

Oh, there it was.

Junko saw the steel gently reflecting the dim shade of underneath the picnic table, and stood up. Her fingers curled around the cap and pulled it up. It was too late, though. Maybe. Aiden was already asking innocent bystanders for help. Bryony, wasn't it? Yeah, kinda artsy Senior girl.

"Here, here! I've got one too!" she shouted.

[Pippi]

Well, that plan had backfired spectacularly. Sure, it didn't really matter anymore if Bryony stayed or left. The two people on the bench were now heading towards her instead, making her decision entirely moot. Normally, this would be an encouraging sign, that someone actively wanted to make an effort to talk to her.

However, they were both making their way in her direction rather faster than she was comfortable with, the boy in particular. Bryony's fight or flight sense, the dial for which had been set to 'flight' and then broken off years ago, kicked in, and she took several steps back, as the boy drew closer and started yelling... something.

Bryony felt tears well up in the corners of her eyes as she was confronted by this yelling, manic stranger, but through some unbelievably powerful force of will, she didn't break down at the sight of him. The initial shock was starting to wear off, and she could see now that, although the boy looked a little deranged, it wasn't an antagonistic look in his eyes, like the bullies at school had perfected to an art form. It was more an 'Oh Jesus Christ There's A Massive Goddamn Spider In The Bath Tub' look.

It took Bryony a second to realise just what the boy was gesticulating at, and by that time, the other person on the bench, a girl, had joined them, holding her own water bottle aloft. Still, Bryony couldn't help but feel a little intimidated by what was going on, and she didn't want to just ignore the boy's request, so she thrust out the hand holding the plastic water bottle, almost punching Aiden in the chest in her haste.

"Oh, god, um, here, sorry... please, take it," Bryony said, stumbling over her words as she did so. "Are you, um... are you okay?"

[Rorick Skyve†]

Man, the hell had he been thinkin' trying to eat that stuff? Couldn't even eat a pepperoni without turning into Bowser, spitting flames and shit - dumb freakin' move, hunger prolly got to him.


Aiden heard Junko shouting something, but he didn't really hear what it was, all of his brain was just focused on that bottle there in the tiny chick's hand. Fuck, she could have gone waterboarding on his ass with it for all he cared, as long as some of that water was gettin' into his mouth asap.

Looked like he was in luck though, little one had a heart of frickin' gold, giving the thing up like that. He immediately took hold of the bottle with both hands as she held it to his chest. "Don't worry, don't worry, all good, just need to-" Yikes, could feel his tongue going numb. Had to save the rest of the talking for later. With lots of fumbling, he removed the cap and immediately brought the opening to his lips, no second thoughts. Took one swig, then another, then finally decided 'fuck it' and went chug-a-lug.

Half the bottle later, Aiden was satisfied and lowered it again, wiping his lips with one hand. He looked down at Bryony - oh right, that was her name - giving her a somewhat exhausted smile. "Jesus, sorry about that. You're a real lifesaver, thanks a whole bunch." He turned his head to notice Junko, who had come next to him, some water of her own in her hand. "Ah, rats. Guess I shoulda waited a bit, huh?"

Shit was kinda funny, embarrassing but funny. Sure hoped Tiny would see it the same way. "Yeah, sorry Bry, had a bit of an accident and stuff." Mouth was still kinda itchy and stuff, but a whole damn lot better than before, to be sure. "Want me to give you a buck or two for a new one?"