"Walking the dog" but the dog is really a yo-yo (open)

[Axelle Flint]

Axelle didn't often spend time at the student lounge because she usually preferred to be outside, or to just go home after school had finished if she didn’t have soccer practice. But it was cold today, and kinda awful so she decided that it would behoove her to hang around inside a bit and while she was at it practice with her yo-yo. She'd been neglecting the important piece of plastic for a little while now and was quickly reacquainting herself with all of her old tricks in their varying forms of difficulty. She had done several very simple tricks in a row as a warm up before trying to do some of her more difficult tricks like 'drop in the bucket' and then a 'trapeez' trick. She did several variations of those, sliding easily back and forth between easier and harder tricks, taking the time to reset her strings if necessary. As long as she stayed focus she didn't have to worry about the thread breaking or throwing the plastic so hard that it hurt someone.

To that end she had confined herself to a corner and was busy being wrapped up in her work, enjoying the fact that for the first time in a while she could simply shut down and focus on something enjoyable like her yo-yo and nothing else that plagued teenagers her age. She was one with her yo-yo and that was good enough for her for now, except when her finger slipped on a trick and bapped her in her eye. Swearing rather loudly she stopped for a moment to take a deep breath and put her mind back in order before she started doing tricks again. She was completely unaware if she was being watched or not. She was unharmed of course, the yo-yo hadn’t had enough energy to do any damage to her at all and the string was still intact, it had just been a rather abrupt surprise to someone clearly not expecting it. Despite being wrapped up in her hobby, it was safe for those around to assume that Axelle was still approachable, though she seemed absorbed.

[Jason Prowler]

After a long day of classes Jason enjoyed stopping by the student lounge to unwind and collect his thoughts. The lounge was a little more crowded than usual, students playing pool, watching television and conversing in the lounge areas. He didn't mind the crowd, in fact he enjoyed the large social setting. Sporting his green camouflage backpack over his left shoulder he made his way through the lounge to an empty pool table. Jason peaked around to be certain no one was on the table and placed his backpack against a nearby wall. Grabbing the rack he set the object balls in place and clanked them around until they were in position.

Within his peripheral vision he noticed a rather short girl confined in a corner not to far from the cue sticks showing a rather impressive skill with her yo-yo. He stopped what he was doing for a moment to admire her ability, that is until she smacked herself right in the eye. Jason cringed and said in a whisper “Ouch!” as the girl screamed vulgarities. He totally knew how it was to be clumsy.

As he walked over to the cue sticks the girl continued her routine absorbed in every swinging movement. Inspecting each cue stick he spoke out to her “You’re pretty talented.” he said smiling with the cue stick of choice now in his hands.

[Axelle Flint]

Axelle looked up caught the yo-yo this time before it could smack her in the face. "Ah, yeah...it's a control exercise I've been doing since I got here," she explained with a default smile. She swung the yo-yo down again into the standard "walking the dog" as she talked to him. She spied his grip on the pool cue and quirked an eyebrow. "You play pool?" she asked curiously, having honestly never been in the room to watch anyone play before. She'd heard her grandfather talking about playing it (apparently he was really good) but she'd never actually seen his skills in action.

She had no interest in playing herself but she wouldn't mind watching and letting her yo-yoing become a background action, that was good practice for all sorts of unconscious acts like grabbing falling people, or catching things that are falling without breaking them or sending them through walls, which was easier than it sounded and many pencils and books could attest that they'd been flung mercilessly at a variety of objects accidently when they'd slipped off tables or other flat surfaces and Axelle had flailed trying to catch them. She walked closer to the table and very carefully reached out to feel the grain of the wood under her hands and smiled, worn, but still in good shape. Even though Axelle was used to metal beneath her fingers, she was also fairly adept at wood working (which some of her classmates knew better than others).

[Jason Prowler]

Jason never seen anyone throw a yo-yo around like this girl, she made it seem so easy. It was tough for him to pick up things he hadn’t practiced, he would probably throw the yo-yo so hard it would snap right off the string into an innocent bystander. “Well looks to me like you got the control thing down.” Jason grabbed the nearby cue chalk and began very gently chalking the cue tip. The chalk made certain there was a proper amount of friction between the cue and the ball. “Trying to, I used to be a lot better growing up.” he shrugged. “But now it takes a few shots to get my bearings.” Truth be told he had to relearn the entire game just to accommodate his unusual strength, in a way it was his own little control exercise.

The girl walked closer to the pool table and began caress the wood with her hands with a smile. “How about yourself? You play before?” Jason inquired noticing her admiring the pool table. Jason finished chalking his cue tip he placed the chalk down on the edged of the table. “I must apologize for my poor manners. My names Jason, Jason Prowler.” he said with a friendly smile.

[Axelle Flint]

"Well ya know, six years of practice can really give ya a heads up if ya know what I mean," she shrugged as she caught the yo-yo, wound the string back around it and put it into her back pocket. Despite the amount of effort it took her to do it carefully, it looked natural, as if she wasn't trying at all. That was the point of all the control exersizes of course but it was good to know that they were apparently paying off. Except that one time about a couple months ago when she ripped her jean pockets when she was talking to Corbin in his shop.

She shook her head. "Nah, never really thought it was worth learning. I have enough trouble with my own two feet and a soccer ball, I'm not about to put a piece of wood in my hands and try and smack some balls juuuust right,” she shuddered at the thought of all the chaos that would ensue. When the boy introduced himself she grinned back. “Axelle Flint, I think we have a few classes together, either way I’ve seen you around,” she said with a nod. “But there are so many people here at any given time I think it’s a bit difficult to know everyone. Anyway call me Axe or whatever. How long have you been at Hammel?” she asked conversationally.

[Jason Prowler]

Jason knew all too well how vital it was to need to practice a task over and over. It took him almost a month just to be able to open doors without ripping them off the hinges. “I totally know what you mean.” he nodded with a smile.

He set himself in front of the cue ball to make sure that everything was set up just right for the break. “You should try it sometime, takes some getting used to but eventually you get the hang of it." He shrugged. "I can teach you if you like.” he said with a reassuring smile. The young girl introduced herself as Axelle, a familiar name but Jason couldn’t put his finger on where he heard it before. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Axelle. I didn’t realize we had classes together. I’m surprised we haven't met.” He looked at her quizzically. “I feel like I heard the name before though, like you're famous for something.” Jason was trying to think about where he had heard her name from but couldn’t figure it out.

Almost two years now Jason had been attending Hammel, it felt like time was just flying by. “This is my second year, graduating at the end of the semester.” Graduation was creeping closer and closer. “How about yourself?”

The pool table was beckoning and Jason wanted to break. However, it took a large amount of concentration in order to do so. He wanted be attentive in the conversation and it would be tough to do both. Besides, it made him a little nervous that there was cute girl present that would be watching him the entire time. This made the whole playing pool thing a little more complicated than it already was.

[Axelle Flint]

Axelle shook her head, declining. "Nah, I'm good really. Thanks though!" The thought of even attempting it made her nervous. Except this WAS Hammel, maybe if she went poking around she'd discover that the school had a special pool set specifically for those who had more their share of physical energy going around. Despite wondering if such a thing existed, here was a very large part of her that simply wasn't interested in the game itself to learn how to play it, even with someone offering to show her. Her thoughts were halted however when Jason mentioned that her name was familiar and that she might be "famous" for something. "Infamous" was probably more apt thanks to that damn statue. She preferred not to think about it and tried to change the subject quickly. "Ah yeah well...I'm kinda everywhere, ya know ~ know a lot of people...and like there was a whale shifter at the sex talk and I helped out after he shifted...and touched a whale butt..." she thought to herself, finishing the sentence in her head.

"Same here," she practically rushed into the next question to escape her thoughts. "But I've been around for a while," she admitted. "I'm also a native of Pilot Ridge too so like...yeah," she wasn't sure where she'd been going with that but there it was for general consumption. Axelle looked at the table and then at the stick in his hands. "Ah, sorry, am I keeping you from playing? Should I go back to my corner?" she asked seriously, worried that she was keeping Jason from his game and thinking that maybe she'd let her mouth run away with her again.