Fifty-Eighth Theory [Voice/Action]

[i_speak_softly]

Open Voice

The person who made the little wind-up dragon... can I have another?

Action for Nezumi

[The reason Don needs another dragon is because he took the first one apart to make a camerabot for someone he doesn't even know. He hopes this was a good idea.]

[He heads to building three, floor one, room five, as he was told, and knocks five times.]

Action for Isamu

[After making that delivery, Don circles southward to the home of one Isamu Nitta. Allegedly some other people live here too, but Don has never met them. Hopefully, if they exist, they won't mind too much that a giant turtle is climbing in their window. Isamu did say to surprise him.]

Action for Buffy

[Around sundown, Don makes his way to House 7. He knocks here too, though he doesn't count how many times. He has a question to ask...]

((Housemates of the people Don is looking for are welcome to tag in, and of course the Voice part is open to anyone pinged by clockwork draconids.))

Comments

[i_speak_softly]

Will you count or should I?

[herotypical]

I happen to be very very good at counting but...maybe you should. Just so you can be sure I'm not sneaking in any stolen seconds.

[ as if she ever would. ]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don is good at counting too, though it's weird to do it in English. He'll suffer through it for you.]

One... [He turns in the right direction...]

Two... [... gets down in a runner's crouch...]

Three! [... and goes!]

[herotypical]

[ buffy takes the porch steps at a jump, heels hitting the rough-finished path with a crunch of gravel. she should be heading immediately up the path but she swerves towards the bridge -- jack's marauding bridge. ]

C'mon! The scenic route! [ she shouts -- gleeful between huffs of breath. ]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don has no objections to scenery. He follows, giving Buffy just enough room to change direction again, should the mood strike her.]

[herotypical]

[ she's fast -- but not exactly supernaturally so. rather, her abilities will come into play with her endurance and perseverance and the length for which she can keep up a pace like this.

she veers first towards the bar; leaping up and grabbing onto a side-gutter to haul herself up onto the roof of good spirits. ]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don kicks off the wall, grabs the ledge and flips up.]

Nice moves.

[herotypical]

Not too shabby yourself, y'know. But us shorties gotta make do with...[ a grunt as she rolled onto the roof and popped up to her feet. ]

More climbing. Gotta make do with more climbing.

[i_speak_softly]

[A skeptical look - but teasing.]

I used to be short and jumping still seemed to work fine.

[herotypical]

Yeah, well? Maybe turtle jumping is different from Slayer jumping.

[i_speak_softly]

Maybe a Slayer should go running with a Turtle more often and learn how to jump better.

[... That's an acceptable way of asking for a recurring not-date, right?]

[herotypical]

...We do that and you know I'll just inevitably be able to kick your ass in a week or two. I'm a fast learner.

[ she sprints to the far side of the bar's roof. ]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don follows. Conversation while running is not a problem for him.]

I already got my shell kicked a few days ago. I can't believe I lost a roof-running race in Manhattan.

[herotypical]

Who did the kicking?

[ the dropping down is done with much more ease and grace -- landing on her feet. there's too much space in this part of the village to simply jump from one roof to the other. further on, though... ]

[i_speak_softly]

[A flip, and a light landing in the grass.]

Her name is Ran Fan. [He pronounces it the Japanese way, so it's hard to tell whether the first letter is an R or an L.] Do you know her?

[herotypical]

Nope. Sounds like my kinda person, though.

[ buffy jerks her head at the building across the wide path. next target. ] We're talking a friendly spar, right? Not...y'know -- grr argh evil?

[i_speak_softly]

No. I saw her roof-running, and - invited her home. Sort of.

[What? Sometimes he moves fast. He eyes the next building and decides to attack it with a pole vault, gaining a third-floor windowsill and leaping up the facade from there.]

[herotypical]

[ she laughs as she jumps and grabs for handholds -- skittering up the side of the building in his wake. when they reach the top, she combat-rolls onto the roof and pops to her feet. ]

Invited her home! [ she follows up on what he'd said before. ] I thought you were happily attached, Hef!

[i_speak_softly]

[Ouch, Buffy. Instead of answering, Don just looks out across the Luceti skyline, such as it is.]

[herotypical]

[ she knows enough to notice when a joke sinks... ]

Donnie?

[i_speak_softly]

Yes.

[Part acknowledgement, part highly-simplified answer to the question. Are you going to press him for details?]

[herotypical]

[ for a moment, she looks as though she might be nosy...

but then? ] I double-dog-dare you to jump straight to the next roof.

[i_speak_softly]

[It's disconcerting how Buffy sometimes seem to channel Don's brothers, and he can sense her settling inexorably into the Sister Zone. It's disappointing to have that happen again, but it's probably better this way. Given the whole 'happily attached' thing and all.]

That roof? Barely worthy of a single-dog-dare.

[He stows his bo, paces back the way they came, then sprints across the roof and easily clears the jump.]

[herotypical]

[ she soon follows -- clearing the gap with startling ease, now that she was limbered up. ]

Last time I did this...[ she confesses with a flush of adrenaline in her cheeks ] a town was collapsing behind me.

[i_speak_softly]

[Sideways glance. Couldn't you pick a more agreeable subject?]

Nice to just run, without the for-your-life part.