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

He's not really trying to startle her and so, of course, she doesn't sense the Force warning her before he speaks. Scout mistimes the landing to a leap and kicks frantically at the ground as it's coming up at her. The end result is a dramatic flailing stumble and catching herself on a tree.

Her skin is dark enough that the flush barely shows, especially in this light, but she can feel the heat and does her best to rest her forehead against the bark, though her horns get in the way. "I thought I was."

Oh, welp. Joker winces sympathetically, the expression of a man who flew backwards into a pole once. Even before she gives her answer, he can imagine it well enough.

"Sorry, didn't mean ta startle ya. Guess ya were really focused, huh?"

"I'm always focused," she says, and sighs. He's not here to mock her, and honestly if he was it would be very easy to turn it back on him. You lose a lot of dignity working at the Carnival for very long and it'd be hard to forget him and the wings.

Scout pushes herself back off the tree trunk and back onto the tips of her toes. They're hoof-claws now, bronze gleam partially hidden by dirt and pine needles. "Could be worse, I guess. That thing I was in the Game Cube was pretty messed up. Did we ever have anyone grow an extra head? I mean, Tiamata and... who else had multiple heads, but I never asked if they'd come in with them."

Some species are just like that, after all.

Not hiding his interest at all, Joker leans over to get a better look at her feet. While it might be awkward for some of the newbies to be looked at with such interest whenever they get new changes, Joker trusts that the workers who've been here a while don't care as much. At least, so long as it's not too rude or assholish.

"Multiple heads, huh...?" Straightening up, he rolls his head around as if that can dislodge a memory. "I mean, I know plenty of folks have grown new mouths or more eyes- like Amethyst, y'know- but I ain't too sure on a whole head." He stills and grins at her.

"But y'know, sayin' that out loud almost guarantees ya might get a change like that some day."

Obligingly Scout balances on one foot and holds the other out. It's somewhere between the paw of some kind of big cat and a hoof. Three thick, solid weight-bearing toes that can only bend slightly, tipped with heavy brass claws or hooves. The inside of each foot bears a smaller, more mobile digit bearing a large curved claw which narrows to a wicked point. From the way part of it gleams more brightly, she's sharpened it. Her skin up to partway up her thigh has darkened and grayed like old tarnished bronze, with the slightest hint of a jaguarlike multipart spot on her calf. "It looks like a tusk-cat foot," she says. "They're pack-hunters from Naboo. My tail and horns look like they're from Naboo too, but a completely different animal. I guess people ride both there, though."

She makes a face. "I had another one in the Cube. That's enough. That's plenty."

Laughing at her distaste, he leans back. "Fair enough! I guess everyone's had one world they wouldn't want ta go back ta, travelin' with the carnival after long enough." The vampire world, he's certain, is permanently banned even by the Ringmaster. The Matrix too, probably. Now that he thinks about it, it's been a real shit year.... Well, he knew that already.

Hopefully it'll clear up from now on, however. He has a lot of years to work to get what he wants.

Curiously, he nods back down to her feet. "Looks like they're pretty sharp- did that yerself, then?"

"I wouldn't put it that strongly. It's a place. I wouldn't want to live there, but I've seen worse. I just don't like the Game Cubes!" It does seem like the past several months have seen more intense visits. Scout's last tour hadn't been without danger, but usually the worst to come to the Carnival grounds itself was rowdy, over-strong visitors.

"They were blunt. I took my knife and just cut some of that away." There's this in their favor, it's easier to trim and shape metal hooves and claws with a vibroblade than it is to try to maintain metal toenails. "I mean, I still need to climb things sometimes."

"Ah." He clicks his tongue in understanding. "So it's for more practical reasons than just bein' prepared to take someone's shins out, huh?" Hey, sometimes you have to ask. People take to their changes in all sorts of different ways, sometimes for sensible things and sometimes to make someone else's lives a living hell. He tries not to judge too much either way.

"Yeah, but I'm not gonna say that's not a factor! Those boots I had were just brutal in a fight." She hadn't liked them much, they'd been heavy and hot and awkward, but they'd been wonderfully tough and rugged, too.

Scout's a great unarmed fighter, if pitted against people who are at or near human levels of strength and ability. She spend a lot of time practicing. Now she's got to try and adjust.

"What- " He places his hand over his heart, looking far too offended to be serious in any way. "Ya wouldn't be honest with me, Scout? Why, I'm the most trustworthy guy in the whole carnival!" This is almost definitely a lie. The most trustworthy guy is probably Steven, who's, like, ten. Barring him, then Zecora, who is a zebra.

"Still, think about repurposin' those boots? Can always fiddle around with things, if they're worth it."

"What? Why would I ever try to hide anything from you?" She's not as polished at exaggerated reactions as he is and kind of looks dully surprised. "Everyone knows, I can't lie anyway, so why would I bother?"

Scout taps at the ground with her hoof toes, kicking up a film of dust that further dulls the metal. "For what, though? Or for who?"

"I mean." His gaze goes up 'innocently' to the sky. "The newbies might not. And we're always gettin' more and more new faces by the day." So, theoretically, she could figure out a way to work around that whole lying thing.....

But anyway.

"Dunno." His gaze comes back down to earth. "For yerself? Bet ye could make boots that take inta account hooves and claws and all that, dependin' on what the best parts of 'em are."