fandomhigh | The Floor Is Lava, Thursday

The class had been told to meet in the Danger Shop, which was set up to look like a suitably foreboding landscape, with a large chasm filled with variously sized rocky platforms, separated by variously sized gaps, with a viscous fluid down below, glowing yellow and orange. At least one of your teachers was looking pretty pleased with herself.

Make that both teachers, really. Jane was bouncing on her toes in excitement to see how this went.

"It's not really lava, don't worry," Jane said before the class could even take it all in. "It's jello."

Which was only moderately better. Especially because someone had found the setting to make it real jello. You're welcome.

"But welcome to class! The object is very simple... don't fall in."

"The last person standing wins," Cara added. "Anything short of actually harming one another goes."

"Oh! And let's try it without powers this time?" Jane suggested. Helpfully.

"We'll supervise, to...keep it fair." And not because Cara had popcorn stashed away or anything like that.

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I mean, if only she knew someone who'd been doing stuff like this almost as long as they could walk.

"Just stick with me," Vi said confidently.

"It is within the given rules," Steph said with a grin. "Gonna be my expert guide?"

She'd seen Vi do her roof thing before.

Like Vi cared if it was in the rules or not. "Of course, you gotta know how to do stuff like this if you want to get around the Lanes."

Please indulge Steph's Game Master brain here, Vi.

"That explains your expertise in acrobatics, huh?" she asked, falling in step behind Vi.

Fine, Vi would pretend to care about the rules for Steph.

She shrugged as she hopped across a small gap and held her hand out for Steph. "After the undercity sank, it got built up towards topside, people adapted."

Steph reached out to grab her hand, then hopped the gap after her, weighing a couple of incredibly sharp biting things to say and then saying none of them. Whatever personal information Vi was willing to share within earshot of everyone else was up to her.

"So if we ever visit your world --" if Vi could ever get back -- "I'm going to have to do some training first, is that what you're saying?"

Vi squeezed Steph's hand before letting go. "Yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying," she said. "Good thing you signed up for this class."

"You mean for other than shallow reasons?" Steph asked, eyes sparkling mischievously.

"Are you suggesting I want to see you covered in jello?" Well, maybe, but not from falling into it.

Not in class, anyway.

"Obviously." Steph glanced around, trying to figure out where to jump to next. "Among other --" she tilted her head slightly in Jane's direction -- "reasons. You know."

Vi grinned as she jumped across another gap with barely a glance. "Oh, yeah,," she said. "Think we'll get to see that?"

Steph had a couple of false starts and a long, concerned look at the gap before she made it across, wobbling just a bit.

"God, I hope so."

"You're overthinking it." Vi automatically reached out to steady her. "You're more likely to fall if you don't commit.

"Me too," she said, wriggling her eyebrows conspiratorially.

Steph snickered and leaned against Vi briefly to stabilize herself. "So I shouldn't look before I leap, then?"

"Well, not quite." Vi tried to figure out how to put it in words, given she didn't really need to think about it any more. "You kind of have to be looking both a couple of jumps ahead as well as right in front of you. No point in making an easy jump if there nowhere to go from there."

Steph gave her a look of unabashed admiration. Which wasn't new, really. Also, she had the meta Super Mario theme playing in her head now, faintly.

"Damn, I guess I should probably go hit up the gym, see if they have a parkour setup, huh?"

Nor was the dorky grin she got in return. "They probably do with everything else they got," she said. "Otherwise, I'm happy to teach you."

"Oh no," Steph deadpanned, "spending more time with you. Oh no. Whatever would I do?"

Vi kept on grinning. "I know, it's the worst."

"Terrible," Steph said, shaking her head. She scanned the area, trying not to take too long and overthink it, then tilted her head toward another chunk of something that looked big enough to hold both of them and gave Vi a quizzical look.

"My favorite kind of terrible, though."

Vi...hadn't actually stopped grinning at Steph, but grinned at her in a different way and hopped lightly across. "You're doing great."

"We're doing great," Steph replied, glancing around quickly again to assess how many people were in the jello by now. "Looks like it's just us, Stark, and Skywalker left."

She took a second to tense for a jump and then pushed off, clearing the gap easily enough.

Too bad she didn't get her feet back under her in time to make a solid landing.

Vi lunged for her, trying to catch her before she fell.

Steph didn't fall right away -- she wobbled for a moment, long enough to shake her head and say "Keep going!"

And then she fell into the jello.

It could have been worse, so hey.

Just because it could have been worse, didn't mean that Vi was happy with it. Okay, maybe a little at the idea of helping Steph clean up.

She did, however, race across the remaining gap to finish this as quickly as possible.

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drumsticksandd20s - 2023-05-14 05:00 (UTC) - Expand

The Floor Is Lava, Thursday - Period 1

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