If it's a bad day, you try to suffocate

[lasttimeilost]

Chicago's a rough city to be in any day of the week, but for some people it's rougher today than it has been in a while.

Leon Warner is laying on his side in a puddle from the rain yesterday, protecting his head from the poorly-aimed kicks of the group of larger boys around him. Oddly enough, he didn't ask for this fight, it just came to him, and

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[uponthewires]

Anne's just passing through. She's finished her latest ballet lesson, which was more rigorous than usual. Her feet hurt. She's still wearing her pointe shoes and she can't wait to get home and soak up her legs in warm water. She's a bit disheartened by how poorly she's doing in class. She's either not thin enough, or graceful enough, or tall enough.

And Madame Soleil always lets her know it.

Seeing Scout giggling, however, might improve her day infinitely. All the other times she's come across the demon, it's been under less-than-ideal-circumstances. She wonders if she'll recognize Anne.

Tentatively, she starts walking over to her, waving a bit shyly with a small smile on her face. "Hi!"

[crashiscoming]

Scout has hazy memories of the bad times. She remembers the endless cold, but isn't sure if that has more to do with the dark, wet memories crowding her head.

But Anne is in there, somewhere, a fuzzy picture in a sea of black, and so her face lights up. "Hi!" she cries, jerking one of the chains so the swing spins sideways so she can look Anne straight on before spinning away and then back again.

"Swing?" she offers, because who is she to keep all this fun just for herself?

[uponthewires]

Anne's smile turns into a beam at the positive reception. She is never sure what is going to be a bad trigger, and she certainly doesn't want to upset Scout again. She's important to Robin, and despite their infrequent encounters, she's become important to Anne. For reasons she can't quite explain. It just is.

"Definitely," she says with an affirmative nod, sitting down on the swing next to her, smile still on her face.

"High up?" Anne asks, as she starts swinging and spinning around on it herself. The higher she goes up, the more she laughs.

[crashiscoming]

Scout has that effect on some people. She likes Anne, either way--perhaps not exactly 'family', but something important. Nice, perhaps. She knows Anne helped her, even if she doesn't have the best grasp as to why or how.

Scout nods. "High up!" she replies, and giggles as she starts trying to straighten herself out so she can swing as high as possible. She likes swinging, likes the mindless motion that leaves her room to reach for the sky. The effect on Scout is very similar to the effect on Anne--she starts laughing, sounding almost human and happy. If she wasn't covered in blood, you might think she was a regular kid swinging.

[uponthewires]

Anne tries to go as far up as Scout does, and she remmebers when she was little, and she thought she could actually touch the sky if she went high enough. She looks over at Scout, having never seen her like this, and there's the blood that she can't look over but... she doesn't know why she isn't scared. Whether she should be or not, she isn't.

"It's been a good day," Anne says as if reaching this decision just now, and she keeps swinging herself, trying to go as high up as Scout at the same time.

[crashiscoming]

Scout laughs, watching Anne swing. "Up, up, up!" she cries, reaching out a hand for her. Not that they can swing and hold hands at the same time, but if she can help Anne get as high as she is, Scout's willing to help.

Her logic centers work perfectly all the time, why do you even ask?

"Good day good day good day to be ALIVE live live 'live, yeah? Yeah?"