The Rocky Bits, Sunday, Late-afternoon

[puppy_fair]

After Zack's shift, the puppy headed down to the rocky bits, where he proceeded to get his run-and-jump on like a... Well, like a crazy kid in a lot of purple clothing who could do leaping backflips from a standstill. Feel free to use your imagination on that front

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[unborn_renegade]

Jak had scaled the Rocky Bits how many times? Yeah. It was good morning exercise, and afternoon exercise, and really nothing more, but he took to it with verve. Up one end! Down the other! His feet were developing calluses on their calluses, and he didn't care!

Of course, because he'd been there about fifty times, he didn't really have to pay that much attention to where he was going, either. Which was usually good, because he could just focus on the adrenaline pumping through his legs and--

It's sufficient to say that he had not necessarily planned to encounter the very large, very human-shaped, and very unexpected piece of rock that suddenly seemed to appear out of thin air in front of him.

[puppy_fair]

And Zack, who was in fact not a rock but who did happen to be large and quite human shaped with the possible exception of his hair, certainly wasn't expecting to see the not quite as large but similarly human-shaped stone that happened to be barrelling directly toward him.

Try though he might to hit the brakes, the resulting thud that they made as they collided was really quite spectacular.

Birds flew away in the distance.

[unborn_renegade]

There were people back home who'd be impressed by Jak's newfound ability to produce sound, even! Not just the thud, but also the sudden, surprised grunt of what the hell ow and the resultant sigh of I haven't got any air left in my lungs! and, finally, the thwock of Jak's ass hitting the rock.

The other rock. Not the rock he'd just hit. We were still a family show.

He swore he could see flut-fluts. Waaah?

Oh, wait. That was just the sky. He finished off his noisy streak with a slow "Mrrhhhh?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack, who was now similarly on his rear end on the rock-that-was-not-the-rock-that-he'd-run-into, was wondering where all those little flapbeats who were circling his head had come from.

... Nope. Also just sky.

His vocalizations were only slightly more eloquent than that of the other rock.

"Ow?"

[unborn_renegade]

Jak veered half upright, rubbing the back of his head - because it hurt, this time.

He pulled a face at Zack. What the what now in the what? ...Dude, he could still see flut-fluts.

[puppy_fair]

The flapbeats probably weren't going anywhere anytime soon, either.

Zack heaved himself into a sort of sitting position, if sitting involved propping oneself up on one's elbows and attempting to remember how to breathe, and gave Jak a look that was meant to convey, at least until he managed to get enough air back into his lungs to be able to form words, a fuzzy sort of 'where in the world did you come from?'

It was possible, however, that the gist of it was more or less a 'bzuh,' instead.

[unborn_renegade]

Jak's expression became even more dubious. Zack was asking him? What? Whatitty-what-what with a tapdancing what on the mountain of what (property of Arthur, the Once and Future King of What) and...

Um.

Jak pressed his hand to the rock and tried to stagger up to his feet, which only worked insofar that he managed to put his hand on the boulder he was sitting on and made a kind of pathetic owie noise. Okay.

[puppy_fair]

That owie noise really was kinda pathetic, wasn't it?

Owie.

"Here, I..." Zack held up a finger, because more words were not forthcoming at all, and then rooted about in his pocket, surfacing with two vials of potion. Sweet, delicious potion that kinda tasted like cough syrup mixed with tar but one could not be choosy when one's health bar had just been knocked to next to nil.

Or something.

With a noise that was kind of like a breathless squeak conveying yet another fun and new level of 'ow,' he held one out toward Jak.

[unborn_renegade]

Hey, wait. Jak remembered those things. From... somewhere. Somewhere with flut-fluts. And stuff. Actually, the last time he saw one of those, he had the imprint of a tree stuck on his forehead, so it was like... a thing. Or something.

Whatever.

He reached forwards and snagged it without thinking. Downed it. Pulled a massive face. Ew. Ew.

[puppy_fair]

Zack's own face was less 'ew,' and more, 'yay, I am no longer seeing flapbeats!'

"Sorry, man. You kinda get used to the taste, after a while."

Really, Zack, you could have apologized for barrelling into the guy like a dual horn on a rampage, instead. But that would have made sense or something, huh?

[unborn_renegade]

It was still kind of disgusting, but the lack of squeaking flut-fluts was kind of a pro. At least now Jak's hand-on-the-rock routine was actually managing to get him, you know, upright.

He brushed the dirt off of his tunic, blinked once or twice to get his bearings, and offered Zack a hand.

[puppy_fair]

Oooh. A hand. Zack could totally appreciate hands when they were offered, and he grinned up at Jak before taking it and hauling himself to his feet.

"Good day for a run, huh?" He gave a little smile, and then started to dust his own clothing off. "Just, maybe not in opposite directions like that. Ow."

[unborn_renegade]

Yeah, no more running into each other, please and thanks. Jak shook his head right along, because seriously, ow. Now that he was done dusting himself off, his arms could settle into a good, sensible crossing position, and he gave Zack a curious look. First time he saw him around here...

[puppy_fair]

Zack's 'feathers and monsters' issues were being swept under the table for the time being, because there were totally more important things to focus on, now.

Was Jak pondering what Zack was pondering?

"Think you have a good enough handle on where the trees are around here, Jak?"

[unborn_renegade]

Jak's arm-crossing became way more pronounced arm-crossing. Of course he did. Precursors, who did Zack think that he was?

The race was totally on.

[puppy_fair]

"Good!" Oh, it so was. Zack took all of a moment to give a satisfied nod.

And then he was off and running, back the way he'd come from, with an exclamation of 'Yeah!' and some giddy laughter tossed in for good measure.

Distractions were awesome. Distractions that involved some measure of competition were the best ever.