Practice (7-12-11) [Open]

Keoki had just finished a quick scouring of the grounds, trying to figure out where would by the best place to practice her freerunning. The day before had ended up rained out, so even by the time the rain stopped, it would have been rather muddy and slippery for practice. But, that wasn't as big of a problem as the fact that most of the grounds had nothing there.

She could practice a few tricks on flat ground, like rolls or flips, but for vaulting and climbing, her only choices were picnic tables and trees, respectively. Sure, there was also a fence, but she had a feeling that climbing around on the fence would be more likely to get her in trouble than the other two options.

So she took to heading over to the tables. It didn't seem like anyone was there at the time, perfect. Backing away for a running start, she ran towards the table and jumped at the last second, leaning in towards the table as she pushed her palms down onto the table and gave herself enough momentum to pull her legs through and land on the other side. Patting off her palms as she walked back around the table, she moved back out to try something else.

((This is a kong vault: https://youtu.be/jvX3U7bXMeY [fixed]))

Aemilio was looking forward to doing some freerunning with Keoki like they'd agreed they would. He'd actually put his alarm clock that morning (at 10 o'clock, which was 2 hours earlier than he'd like to get up normally) and was dressed and done with breakfast half an hour later.
He was wearing a wide hoodie with short sleeves and a comfertable pair of pants so he could move freely. All ready for picking up free running as a hobbie again he knocked on Keoki's door only to find she wasn't there. When he went looking for her he saw her walking through the garden when he looked out the window and hurried outside.

He was just in time to see her perform the first stunt of the day. Clapping his hands together he walked up to her; "impressive."

She didn't notice Aemilio was walking over until she heard the clapping, turning to face him before she spoke up, "Thanks. Sorry I wasn't in this morning. Wanted to have a look around the grounds. Turns out it's rather empty for free running, but hey," she just shrugged before taking a seat at the table. "I'm sorry, good morning, by the way."

"And, well, sorry about before," though Keoki didn't specify, she meant the date. But she quickly changed the subject back, "How much do you remember, anyway? So I know how much to explain." She didn't get up right away, in case he felt like talking or something first.

"It's ok, don't worry about it," Aemilio said with a shrug and a smile to both things she apologised for. He took place opposite her and once there looked down for a moment, thinking of his brief but fun past experience with parkour and free running.
"How about we just kick it off with the basics?" he suggested, "at least then we'll be sure we haven't left anything out?"

(( myeah, I don't know anything about this stuff so get me started here wouldya? =P ))

She nodded, "As long as you're in good shape, you shouldn't have too much trouble. A Simple Vault would be a good start," she stood back up and moved to the edge of the table where she could demonstrate.

"You use use your arm to get you over the obstacle, and it's pretty easy. Just run a few steps, jump and swing your legs over it while using your arms to keep you up," she explained before backing up a few steps. Then she took a running start before performing it just like she'd said, bringing her legs over and using her arms for support, and landing on the other side.

((Simple vault photo [click].))

"Ok then," Aemilio said with a confident nod; he was in good shape and that combined with his superhuman strenght and speed left nothing but his technique as a possible problem. And as there wasn't much skill required to do a 'vault'.

First he watched Keoki do it, then followed her example; he took a couple of steps back, then ran towards the same table she jumped over and did what she'd done. Even his landing looked good.
"There," he said looking quite pleased with himself, "piece of cake."
He looked at Keoki questioningly and slightly challanging; "what's next?"

Keoki grinned when he seemed so confident. Though it was a very easy trick. She crossed her arms as she thought of what would be a better challenge. "Oh, I know, a double kong. The kong vault is what I did right before you arrived. Double kong is a variant, which as the name suggests, means you do it twice, in a row."

She looked over at him and tilted her head just slightly, "Would you like to try just the kong vault, or try a double kong? I'll explain whichever you'd like, but the latter is hard." It would be interesting to see how far he'd like to press him luck. Though it'd also be rather impressive if he managed to finish the tougher one.

"I know I can do the Kong," Aemilio said with a cocky smile, but when the double Kong was mentioned he didn't immediatly go onto bragging. "Double Kong," he repeated slowly. He'd done it before (somewhere in that one week he was into free running, back more than a year ago) and he recalled it not always ending happily; despite of the enhanced strenght, speed and reflexes a wrong hand-placement had caused him an unhappy fall, one that he often tried but never never succesfully deleted from his memory.

But he wasn't going to back off now, in front of Keoki. "Just a moment," he said to her, walking over to the table, leaning over it, putting his hands on different places of the wood then walking back to her again.
"Ok, I'm going for the double Kong," he told her, staring at the table with an intense and determined look.
He took in a deep breath, a couple of steps back and went for it! Running, jumping, hands, hands, legs, and landing! Ok, it didn't look as good as it could have - specially the landing was a bit rough; he planned on landing on his feet and slowing down to a full stop with a couple extra steps but he had too much speed for that and his legs weren't in the right place for it. So instead he needed a somersault through the air and over the ground to bring himself to a stop.

"Ahem, well..." he muttered, getting up as he dusted some earth and grass of his clothers, "I'm still a little rusty."

After he'd decided on what to do, Keoki took a step back to watch how it'd go... and covered her mouth to quiet a laugh at the end, "Well that was interesting," Taking a few steps over, she looked over the table again, "Overshot that a little? Being hasty will get ya hurt," she glanced back to him and added, "And I'd hate to see that."

She moved her eyes passed the table area to look around, and spotted a tall tree with a few low hanging, but seemingly sturdy branches, "Wonder what the view's like up there? You wanna see? Climbing's not that far off a skill for free running. And it could be neat to see how it looks up there." Maybe it she wouldn't get as high up as the terrace already was, but there could be a nice spot. She looked over to Aemilio first before heading over, in case he didn't feel like checking it out.

Avoiding Keoki's gaze, Aemilio muttered something about not being prepared as a reply to Keoki's comment on his stunt. He knew he should've at least been happy she said she didn't want to see him get hurt but he wasn't in the mood for that right now.

When the subject was changed he followed Keoki's eyes to the tree she wanted to climb. "Ok, just a sec," he said to her, running back to the same place he'd started his attempt-to-double Kong at just now, took in a deep breath and tried again. "Here goes nothing!"
But what he shouted to energise himself wasn't true; it went much better already. Still a little rough on the landing but apart from that, good.
"Ha!" he exclaimed, almost as if he expected an applause but then he remembered the tree-climbing plan. "O right, where were we?" he said to Keoki, taking his place besides her.

Keoki watched as Aemilio went back to try again. And this time, he improved pretty well, "Hey, nice job. You pick this up pretty fast. But then, you did practice before for a short while, right?" Looking back to the tree, she didn't really wait for Aemilio before easily managing to scale up one of the lower branches and pull herself into a standing position, with her back to him. Just because cities didn't have forests didn't mean their parks had no trees, so she knew which limbs were sturdy enough.

"You know, sometimes you can find a great view from here," she stated without turning around as she reaching for another branch and pulled herself up higher. After finding her way up another pair of branches, she sat down on one with probably with enough room for two, closer to the top that had a view relatively clear of leaves.

Aemilio just smiled (slightly pleased with himself) at Keoki in reply of her comment and compliment.
Next came a fairly humbeling moment, when he saw Keoki swing her way up the tree seemingly without any effort. He looked at her with a combination of awe and jealousy.
He was a reasonable tree-climber but surely he couldn't make it look as good as Keoki had just now. O well, he couldn't just linger here on the ground...
So he started climbing, slower and less graceful than his female company but at least he made it up there in a time most people would still brag about (please don't pay attention to him being slightly out of breath when he'd reached the top).

"Really?" was all he managed to say in a semi normal voice before he needed a brief moment to get his breath back. After that he made himself more comfertable - as far as possible in a tree - and in a easier voice said: "well, it is pretty nice up here," as he looked around.

"Yeah, I remember this one park I really liked. Perching up in one of the trees by the plaza had a great view. You could see this fountain, and all the people around it. Kids, couples, musicians," she paused for a second, leaning against the tree trunk as she looked out.

"I guess it was just nice to see something calm in a city. There's always something crazy going on, but parks tended to be peaceful, by comparison," and it also didn't hurt that they tended be to nice places to practice as well. Speaking of which, she looked over to Aemilio, "And you know, if you want something challenging to try later, this would be a good spot." She grinned, knowing she could actually just move down a few feet and be able to jump out of the tree with a safe landing, thanks to a basic technique called a roll.

Aemilio listened to her story and smiled and nodded in understanding. He didn't grow up in a big city himself and even he felt like finding a peaceful place every now and then.
When she started about something challanging his smile faded a little though. 'Something more challanging?' He didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of her. And he wasn't all too happy about his previous performances anyway.
"Something more challanging?" he asked, trying not to let the doubt be heard in his voice, "like what?"

"Well, it's nothing you have to try now, since you're just getting back into all this. I've been practicing for a few years now," she pointed out, "But there's something you'll eventually have to learn called a roll. As a rule of thumb, whenever you jump from a height higher than you are, you'll need to end with a roll so you get rid of the momentum and don't get hurt."

She then went over a quick explanation, that you want to tuck your head in and roll from one arm to the shoulder, then move towards the opposite hip so your spine didn't hit touch the ground too directly. After that, you'd land in a crouching position. "The tables could be good practice, but the tree has a lot of different heights you can try from. Maybe work your way up," she added at the end, since that'd probably be the easiest way to practice it.

Unable to keep his face from saying; 'that sounds like a lot of work...' he nodded. But as he tought about it a bit longer his face cleared up; it would be a lot more fun exercising like that than just jogging and psuh- and sit-ups in his room. And if he could train with Keoki every now and then that would be a nice bonus...!

"Ok," he said with an enthusiastic grin, "sounds good to me." Then he looked down and felt it nessecairy to add: "starting with the tables sounds especially good."

Keo noticed he didn't seem to like the idea right away, "You know, we can take a break and just hang out sometimes. If you want." It couldn't hurt to just talk a little, and she wouldn't mind getting to know more about him, not that she'd admit that very easily. Then he seemed a bit better with the roll idea, and his note at the end made her grin a bit too, "That sounds fair. Whenever you want to try it." She didn't move just yet to let him decide what they should go next.

Keoki bringing up breaks and just hanging out definetly fired up Aemilio's enthusiasm - slightly suspiciously much more than any of the other argument.
Then came the next part: whenever did he want to try it? On the one hand he was quite content sitting in the a with a pretty girl on a pleasent day with a nice temperature and a slight breeze... but on the other hand that might be a bit too obvious...?
"How about now?" he suggested with a smile that masked his real feelings perfectly.
He looked down the tree to the ground again, wondering why it suddenly seemed so far away, then looked up again and half-jokingly asked: "if we go down, can you do it a little less fancy and spectacular than on the way up? For my ego's sake?"

"Fine by me," Keoki said with a light nod. But she did laugh when he asked her to tone down the climbing a bit, "Sure, I guess I'll try." It was a little hard to forget a skill, but she took her time more on the way down, and actually moved all the way down instead of jumping off about halfway.

She patted her hands off to get rid of bits of bark before looking back over to Aemilio. Hopefully it didn't seem too bad that she was more skilled with free running, but then, she didn't exactly excel in other areas. Most glaringly, social relationships were a big weakness, which didn't exactly help right now, especially. Just ignoring that for moment, she leaned up against the tree while waiting.

As Keoki moved down the tree Aemilio followed, at an easier pace than the way up. When he reached the ground as well he let out a long breath, then like Keoki started clearing his hands from anything tree-like by patting them on his clothes.
It did slightly bother him she so obviously waited for him as it made him feel extra unskilled but he didn't mention it - mainly because he didn't want to direct even more attention to the fact that he was far less good at this than she was.
"So," he said, "so what am I suppose to do with this table?"

"The table? Oh, do you want to try a roll or take a break?" she asked, recalling what he'd said just a little bit ago, "I just figured you could try a roll on an actual jump first. Usually, people practice on the flat ground, but you skipped right to a double kong and did pretty well on just a second attempt," she explained as she moved over to the table, "So I figured you could start off with a jump like you would for a real roll, instead of just the bare basics." Then she took a seat by the end of the table closer to the tree. He did seem to pick things up pretty fast. Sure, he'd practiced once before, but it was still impressive to pick it up so fast on the first day.

Aemilio stared at the table for a while. "If you show me once I'll give it a try," he said hessitantly, praying to God he wasn't about to make a giant ass out of himself.

"You know, I was bruised to hell by the end of my first few practices, so trust me, there's not much of a standard you have to live up to," she said with a grin after he seemed hesitant, "I think I might even have a few scars from when I stupidly tried tricks on cement too soon," she added while giving her arm a quick look for the little marks. It was normal for her, but most others didn't really pay attention to the rather minor marks from her practice when the much larger bite mark was visible on her arm.

Taking a step onto the table, Keo turned back to him, "Just land on your feet and move down into a roll. You can't really hurt yourself from this height." Indeed, the most that would happen was a stumble. Turning back to the grass, she jumped off and as soon as her feet touched the ground, rolled onto her shoulder, then over her back and landed in a crouched position like she'd explained earlier.

((Blurry, but here's an example (click). It's done on the ground instead of in a jump, but it's still close enough to see how it'd look.))

Aemilio listened to Keoki nodding, though feeling a little patronised when she tried to comfort or encourage him with mentionings of her own accidents and things alike, but realising she didn't mean it like that he let it be.
He watched Keoki carefully as she did the roll with a titled head; it didn't look all that difficult from where he was standing but still he made sure to pay extra close attention.

Then when Keoki was done he smiled confidently as he stepped on the table where she'd been just now; "I think I can do this." He took in a deep breath and did as Keoki had done before him. It actually went quite well - his movements a little less fluent and natural as Keoki's but that was it.
Coming out of his crouching position with a pleased grin he looked at Keoki; "how was that?"

Keoki took a step back as Aemilio moved to try it. And he managed to get the trick down right away, "Nice! First try too, that's good," she noted at the end. If he picked up most things that quickly, she wouldn't have to teach him for very long. She brushed herself off a bit before taking a seat on the table's bench, facing towards the grass instead of the actual table, "Just practice that occasionally, because it'll be used a lot. But for now, up to you if you want to keep practicing."