(2016-04-13) Climbing the Frog
Climbing the Frog
Summary: Rosa and Daxton get some practice in before the conversation turns serious.
Date: IC Date (2016-04-13)
Related: None
NPCs: Players go below, other chars that deserve mention can be listed here
Scene Runner: Who ran this scene, NA if no-one or mutual
Players:
daxton..rosa..

Training Grounds Paragon Island


In the center of the island, a large open area, roughly 100 meters round, stands as training grounds for the students of Coral Springs High. Bleachers on one side to sit have been erected by the faculty. A few pillars to mark each school can hold a flame atop it should it be needed at night. A mix of dirt and sand, any number of activities take place here. A few trails meander off from the training grounds and go around the island itself.


The training grounds are nearly empty this evening. For whatever reason, the only person here just at the moment is Rosa, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the huge space, backside planted in the sand and forearms resting on her knees, open palms upward. Her lips move, and she takes deep, slow breaths. In, out, in, out.

She nods to herself after thirty seconds of this. And then her body is expanding tremendously, turning into the vast green frog-monster she buries inside more often than not.

The creature remains in this position, though it takes up far more space. Its eyes closed, its long arms resting on its giant legs. Deep breaths. In, out.

Daxton steps in the training room just as there's suddenly a meditating giant frog. He stops, blinking and then shrugs to himself. What else can he do. He's dressed in workout pants and a wife beater. His right shoulder has an admirable bruise from where he slammed into the wall at top speed on sunday. While Rosa mediates, the speedster starts to stretch out.

It's not exactly meditation. Rosa is trying to keep the frog calm — and trying to make it so it will respond to her commands to change back. It stays there for thirty seconds, and then it nods its huge head. It's shrinking back down to Rosa's smaller form. Thankfully her training costume changes with her — she doesn't have to worry about winding up naked. When she feels she's back to herself she opens her eyes, looks around, then smiles when she sees Daxton, raising a hand to wave at him.

Yeah, naked would have been bad. Or , well…uncomfortable anyway. For both of them. He waves back, stretching before stepping closer. "Hey." He looks tired, but very awake. 2 slammed energy drinks will do that. "How's the day going?" He just got out of detention.

Very uncomfortable. "Hi," Rosa replies, climbing to her feet as he approaches. "I am doing fine, thank you. How are you?" She notices the tiredness in his posture and aspect, and resists the urge to tell him to get some sleep again. He wouldn't do it anyway.

Daxton smiles, "I'll live." Which is true. Hopefully. "How's the …transformation going?" He's not sure what to call it. The speedster bounces from one foot to the other. Blue eyes study her for a minute, "I think the Team is going to start up a study group, if you're interested."

"Well, the frog is learning to respond to me when I want it to let me turn back," she says. "At least when it is calm. When it's upset… well, we will see when that happens. I think it would be best to have a team on hand with tranquilizers before I test that." She tilts her head slightly, brows knitting together for a moment. "Our team is starting a study group? Of course I will help." She tends to do really well on her own. She just didn't expect such a thing from Ares.

Daxton nods, "That's good then." rocking from foot to foot, "I guess but that's not really something we can set up, huh?" He shakes his head, no tranquillisers please. "Yeah. Me and Felicia need the help." He reaches up and scratches his chin before rotating his right wrist. "I read fast, but that doesn't mean I get it."

"I will be there," says Rosa mildly. "If my friends need help, why would I not give it?" And while she doesn't know Felicia all that well, she still considers both the shrinking girl and the speedster her friends. "Let me know when you are getting together." She shifts, twisting at the waist to stretch her arms and shoulders.

Daxton's eyes her before taking a deep breath and glancing away. "Cool. I don't know when it's happening, but yeah. I'll let you know." He reaches and scratches his chest once, wincing slightly at the bruise on his shoulder. "Sorry about Grayson last night. He's kinda a douche."

Rosa smiles. "I have known him longer than you," she points out. "I know what he is. He can be a very good friend when he is needed, but he is often not so good at showing it." She shrugs. "When you need him, he will very likely come through. Not everybody can be as easy to be around as me." This is said with a hint of a wry smile. She's usually pretty easy… but there IS the frog.

Daxton's nose wrinkles , he doesn't believe her. But then she's smiling at him, which causes him to smile back. "Yeah. Guess not. So…are you just training the back and forth, or are you going to do other stuff?" He doesn't know if Froggy is Rosa's only fighting ability.

"This is the best place to practice the transformation. It cannot do too much damage when it is in control." Rosa shrugs. The frog did a heck of a lot of damage before she came here. And even while she's been here, once or twice. "But this room is better fortified than most. If you have something in mind, it can come out and play." She pauses to observe, "It is not very good at dodge ball. It is a rather large target."

"Seems like it was pretty calm just now." Daxton looks around the room, "I don't play dodgeball either. It's no fun when I always win." Who's going to be able to hit him? He shrugs and then gently rubs his shoulder, "What do you want to do?" He doesn't really know what's ok and what's not with her.

Rosa raises an eyebrow. "What do -you- want to do?" she counters, a little amused. "What were you going to do when you came in?"

Daxton stops moving, glancing around the room, "Well…I was going to…" He stops, frowning about how to word it. "Hold on. I'll just show you." He takes a deep breath, his body seems to start to vibrate and then he's gone. Well, he's across the grounds, running up the pillar. Seems if he gets fast enough, he can defy gravity. At least some. Once he's at the top he stops, holding onto the fixture with one arm, almost in a spiderman pose. He calls down, "I used to do parkour before…I think I kept up with it."

Rosa considers this, watching as he makes himself run so fast, faster than the acceleration of gravity — though really, she thinks, as long as he keeps running upward, the acceleration due to gravity…

She forces herself to stop thinking on that. "You could climb the frog," she suggests. "I could try to keep it calm. You can certainly dodge anything it aims at you — it is not the fastest creature. A little practice for both of us?"

Daxton's head tilts and he lets go of the pillar free falling for a minute before moving his legs to run down. it's riskier than running up, but he has to get down somehow. "You sure? I wouldn't want to hurt you.." He stops next to her, a breeze created form his fast motion drifts past them both. "You mean like…tap your nose or something?" He wants to ask if it will try to eat him, but doesn't want to offend her.

"Daxton, in that form there is very little that can hurt me," Rosa observes. "The frog is fifty-feet tall and capable of lifting thousands of tons. It shrugs off bullets." She pauses a moment. "Just do not touch its secretions with bare skin — they are hallucinogenic. Its tongue, too. But it will be a bigger challenge for you to climb it than to run up a wall."

Daxton doesn't know that. "Okay…" He eyes the tiny girl. No secretions, check. He nods, although he looks down at his bare hands, "Do I need gloves?" Hell, maybe it'll help him sleep, who knows?

Or maybe it will bring his nightmares to the surface during the day. "Gloves might be a good idea," Rosa agrees. "But I leave it up to you, Daxton. The frog will likely react to your climbing, but I do not think there is much that you need to worry about from it." A pause. "Are you ready, then?"

Daxton's cheeks puff out as he thinks and then he nods, "Give me a sec." He zips out and then back again with gloves on. "Yeah…let's try this." He nods, stepping backwards to give her some space.

"Okay," says Rosa, nodding as he steps back, and then closing her eyes once more, taking a deep breath. "Uno, dos, tres," she murmurs, and then she's growing again. The process is fairly quick, but not instantaneous. Her skin turns mottled green as she expands from a five-foot-nothing teenager into a massive frog creature, paler on its front than its back. Its eyes remain closed for the moment, but it emits a deep croak.

Daxton's eyes widen. He's not actually watched her transform. It's kinda cool and gross at the same time. "Holy cow…" He backs away a bit more watching as the giant frog croaks. Well then. he hops a few times and then starts making laps around the huge frog.

The frog's eyes open as it hears the patter of Daxton's feet running about it in circles. The creature cannot follow Daxton with its eyes, of course — he's far too fast for that — but it can at least get a sense of the direction he's running. It starts to lumber in a circle, trying to follow him but without much luck. It emits another deep croak, confusion audible in the noise.

Awh…poor froggie. Daxton takes the poor creatures confusion to his advantage and starts to speed up the creatures back. He's trying to be carful, just because Rosa said he couldn't hurt her, but still.

The frog is all the more confused when it realizes that there's a creature on its back. The thing running in circles has gone and now something is on its back, climbing. Its back, notably, is slippery — amphibians, after all, secrete liquids to keep themselves moist. But there's enough traction to be found — and the flesh is pliable without being easily broken. The frog is confused, but apparently not scared. It keeps turning, trying to figure out what is on its back. The fact that it has no neck to turn its head doesn't help matters.

Daxton chuckles once he reaches the frog's head. He balances as froggy turns, shifting to keep in the middle. He knees down, leaning over to look the creature on one of it's eyes. He laughs again, this is weirdly fun.

When Daxton's face suddenly appears so close to the frog's huge eye it utters a surprised croak, somewhat higher pitched than before, and takes a lumbering step backwards. The end result of this, however, is that it starts to fall over.

Oh! Yikes! His eyes widen and Daxton shifts, trying to hold on before he realises the motion is to roll. Oh, crap. Crap. "Woah…shit!" And he starts scampering to stay ontop.

The frog lands on its backside with a crash that shakes the training grounds. "Rrrrrrrbit," it grunts, but for all that it's fallen backwards, it is still fairly calm. It's listening to Rosa. Its tongue lashes out, however, trying to snag the speedster.

Daxton zips to the side, sloping slightly on the frogs skin, "Gah!" It's kinda amusing, the speedster is grinning as he dodges the sticky tongue. "This is fucking awesome!"

Were Rosa on the surface, she'd probably be quite amused too. The frog is less amused. Not terribly upset — not with Rosa's constant attempts to keep it calm — but not amused. It continues to croak, repeatedly, its arms moving to intercept the tiny creature that's climbing all over it.

Daxton laughs, his feet not getting the best traction, but that gives him some ideas for is they're even in a battle. His gloved fingers grip, and then he has another idea. Are frogs ticklish? The world's about to find out. As he dodges Froggy's arms, he lets his vibrating fingers try to find a tickle spot.

Are frogs ticklish? Rosa genuinely has no idea — the frog, though, is not at all sanguine about whatever is happening. It starts to roll, trying to escape from this weird sensation — and Rosa realizes that she needs to bring the creature under control, starts to try to shift back. It hasn't happened yet — but she's trying.

Well, now Dax is preforming a barrel roll, trying to stay on top, "Woah…easier there!" He's still smirking though, this is such a weird evening.

sn't it, though? Though the frog is now shrinking drastically, not as fast as Rosa grew into it — the frog is fighting the change — but Rosa is winning out. Soon, rather than the speedster trying to remain on top of the frog, he's on top of the somewhat smaller girl. And she's blinking up at him.

The shift in size isn't something Daxton was prepared for, although thinking about it he should have. He looses his footing, so he indeed does end up onto of the tiny freshman. He blinks back before, "Hey." It's another moment before it really registers he's onto of her, "Oh shit! Sorry!" The bigger teen scampers off before offering her a hand up, "You ok?"

Rosa hides a laugh behind a hand, nodding. "I am fine," she says. "Thank you." She accepts his hand and pulls herself to her feet. "Perhaps tickling the frog is not the best of ideas. But that was… interesting."

Daxton smirks and then shrugs, "It was an idea. Never said I had good ones." He's still favouring his right shoulder. "I didn't annoy it too much, did I?" The frog, that is. Well, her too.

"No, it will be fine," says Rosa. "It is going to sleep already. It was confused, more than anything." And she doesn't seem annoyed. She points at his shoulder. "You are hurting again. Have you gone to the med bay about your shoulder?"

Daxton's eyebrow raises, "Is that good? Like….sleeping already?" He doesn't really get the whole frog thing yet. The teen immediately stops moving and glances at the bruised shoulder. It's a decent one but he shakes his head, "No…nothing to be done now. It's not too bad." He must have had some pretty terrible bruising at some point to thing that that's not bad. "I should have iced it Sunday night. I wasn't thinking too clearly." Apprently.

"That is what you said yesterday," Rosa points out. "But fine. What about your hand? You've been rubbing it." Not just now, but she's noticed it a couple of times.

Daxton's eyes flutter and look away. it's been a record time he's looked at her. "No…it's not hurt." His gaze lands on the gloved hand and his naked wrist. "It's dumb, but …I realised I should be wearing a watch." Hard to get into it and tell her everything here, currently. So he just says, "I think I had one, and now I don't and it's missing. It's…important, I think." That makes no sense, he knows that and sighs, annoyed at his dumb brain.

Not direct sense, perhaps, but Rosa can put the pieces together. Some of them. "You learned something about yourself," she says, nodding. "Daxton, when is the last time you actually slept? I know about the nightmares. But you will not survive on Red Bull."

Daxton's jaw works itself, but he nods, his voice drops low. "Yeah, we….found found the…unit I was part of." His eyes dart around, making sure no one else is near. "I dozed last night. Felicia gave me a few Monsters to get through the day." He swallows nervously, "I'm doing ok so far." Who needs sleep?

Rosa studies him for a long moment. "I care about you," she says. "And if you do not sleep, your mind will not have a chance to clear itself. Eventually you will start having waking dreams. I know you have nightmares, but would you rather face them when you are asleep or awake?" She presses her lips together, then suggests, "If you need it, I would sit up with you, wake you if you seem to be having a bad dream." It's an idea, anyway. And then her brows furrow. "Felicia. Is that why I gave her money for this 'Tempus Fugit Fund'? To buy you Red Bull?"

His eyes dart back to look at the tiny freshman, his cheeks tinting pink. "I'll sleep. I'm not trying to be a drama bomb." He sighs, looking down at his sneakers. "No….I'm not gonna do that to you. You need your sleep too." A head tilt, "Tempus Fugit Fund? What are you talking about?" There's confusion in his voice and face. "She said she had a stash…"

"Maybe she does," says Rosa. "I do not know. She was going around early this morning, looking for money." She shrugs. If it was to help somebody, it was for a good cause — but she does not believe that keeping Daxton awake indefinitely would help him. "We can arrange it for a time when I am well rested," she notes.

Daxton frowns, that makes no sense…. "I'll ask her. If that's what it's for that's not cool." She gets a look, the frown fading into something softer. "…I guess. If you're ok with that."

"No, if she was trying to help you, I have no problem with that. Let me ask." The last thing Rosa wants is for Daxton to get mad at Felicia when she's trying to help. "I am okay with that," she says. "We are Ares. We take care of each other."

Daxton's cheeks go pinker, "I don't.." He huffs, embarrassed. He starts to raise a hand to run through his short hair but stops when he sees the glove with the goop on it. "Yeah…Team Ares." He bites his lower lip, eyes trailing his shoes. Again his voice lowers, barely audible, "My Unit wants me back."

"I could hardly blame them," Rosa observes. "But you belong here." She moves in closer to put her arms around the young man in a hug. "We will not let them take you away."

Daxton swallows again, not wanting to give Rosa any of the other details. His arms lift, he doesn't want to touch her with the goop. Is she even affected by it? Either way, he let's her wrap her arms around his torso, which is vibrating softly. "I don't feel like I belong anywhere.."

Rosa has never experimented with her own hallucinogens. Whatever the case, she doesn't appear to be worried about it, and she's not asking for details. "Where do you want to belong, then?" she asks. "Because where you want to be, that is where you belong."

With her this close, it's almost impossible not to make eye contact. "I don't even know who I am, much less where i want to belong." His breathing is steady and he allows his arms to drop slightly. No more airplane impersonations. "I don't feel…right at times. Like something's missing." Maybe the watch?

"We need to find your watch," says Rosa mildly. "Tomorrow we will talk to Felicia. And perhaps Vinny and Annaliesa." She barely knows either of them, but they're both trustworthy members of the team. "It will be okay, Daxton." She is very earnest about this.

Daxton's brow creases, "I didn't have it when they found me…only the dog tags." Which the chain can be seen around his neck disappearing underneath his tank top. Another lip bite and he looks down at her arms around him, "I know. I'm not…I know there's people that have it worse." His head shakes slowly, which is ironic for the speedster. "I'm alive. I should be happy with that."

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