lostcarnival | (no subject)

Who: Scout and OPEN
What: Adjusting to new feet using the power of Athleticism
When: After the Game Cube, for the next few days
Where: Anywhere really? Most notably the Backyard, the woods, the lake, and one of the tents.
Warnings: Nah

Considering the things Scout could have kept from her Game-form, tusk-cat feet aren't too bad. She's still pretty aggravated though. It's literally having to walk on the tips of her toes! She can with an effort put weight on what used to be the balls of her feet - she has to get those coarse pads touching the ground in order to traverse really smooth surfaces - but she can only keep it up for so long. Her feet themselves, or tarsi or whatever now, are elongated. Scout's not keeping her knees and ankles bent in the light crouch that becomes natural to most people who end up with digigrade or ungulate feet, so this makes her noticeably taller.

She has to readjust to standing and walking and pretty much everything, which is a very broad concept. Still, it has to be done. No matter how many times she falls over, or how concerned Thranta seems.

So Scout can be seen for the next few days with a determined expression, walking with a wobble at first. When out of the way, around the less populated trailers, she may be seen side-stepping tens of times in a row, stepping up and down from a block from every angle, hopping and stamping and kicking out and balancing on one leg, performing squat thrusts, and running. She swims in the lake and sharpens her bronze dewclaws and tackles trees. She climbs things. She does strange things with gravity. She can be seen in the woods running along a thin fallen log and jumping from wooden ring to wooden ring. Finally, she spends a lot of time in one of the tents with music of all kinds playing, because she was a really good dancer before and refuses to just lose that.

Over that time she goes from falling or nearly falling every few minutes to... not. Still, even by the end,
it's not unheard of if you startle her.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Scout gets back up. She's had plenty of practice in figuring out how, by now; it was sad at first. Now she brushes off some pine needles and straightens up, trying to ignore the heat in her cheeks. She hates people seeing her failing at something.

"I don't need to. I've seen animals with legs like these. They keep them straight."

"Try spreading 'em a little, then. You want to get your center of gravity lower when you're learning how to really move again."

He demonstrates this by crouching slightly. She's seen him really get moving before, likely knows how fast he is, but he's still tempted to show off a little...

"Once you figure your balance out better you can stand more upright and do all kinds of things!"

He decides to demostrate by taking off at a swift trot and making a short (for him) leap - only about 8 feet. Gazelle legs are great.

"Um. Okay." She wants to say she already knows this, but she knows it's just a defensive snap and keeps it to herself. People here know all about trying to adjust to changes, it's what you have to do and she's so not the first or the last.

It's easy to think these things. Harder to convince herself. Scout watches Axel spring up into the air with a bit of envy. Many Jedi are able to make immense leaps with unaugmented human legs, calling on the Force. Not her.

"I guess it's just been a while. My tail was trouble in totally different ways." Like dragging. It seems less outrageously long, now.

"Tails are a pain, but I think the balance issues with legs are worse." He looks her up and down, his own tail flicking. "How fast are the creatures that have those legs? You can probably approach those speeds if your hips have changed at all." Sorry, Scout, but he ain't staring at your hips.

Just as well. "They haven't. My knees, barely. It starts getting different about halfway down my thigh. ...well, my stride's longer, anyway, that'll make me faster once I'm more used to it. Tusk cats have this bounding gait that's kind of hard to do on two legs anyway." Scout shrugs. Better to try to be philosophical about changes.

"That's a start. I'm up to my waist, as... I guess you've seen." Thinking about that is awkward, so he changes the subject. "What else are you trying? Just hopping, or are you doing other things too?"

She smiles seeing him uncomfortable, but goes with the subject change readily enough. "Whatever I can think of. Walking, running, dancing. Climbing things - I've really got to go and sharpen these dewclaws so they can bite into stuff."

Scout is thorough, and wants to build up how these legs and feet work into her muscle memory. The only way is through repetition.

"You dance? Gonna be doing that in the big top if the RM catches you, y'know!" His voice is teasing, and he smiles at her.

"Sounds like a good start, though. You ever heard of yoga? Tai chi? They're both great for balancing practice." He sweeps through a a tai chi pattern, in demonstration. "Good for keeping up muscle and flexibility, too."

She makes a face at him, exaggerating displeasure. Scout had been in a few shows, before, nothing regular.

"Only vaguely. But there was a game I was taught called Flow, when I was little, that looks kind of like that."

"Oh, a game? Sounds interesting. What were the rules?" His smile shifts into a cheeky grin.

She shakes her head, mock-sorrowing. "Not that kind of game. It's all about, oh, pitting yourself against gravity in different ways. But if you're teaching small children balance and how to move well, it goes better if you make it fun."

"Ah, I get it. Kinda like gymnastics mixed with the floor is lava or something?"

He's literally made the floor lava, but he's not going to tell her that.