1825/Log 1825

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Log 1825
Date of Scene: 04 August 2017
Location: Unknown
Synopsis: Summary needed
Cast of Characters: Aqualad, Wonder Girl, Terra, Stargirl




Aqualad has posed:
Kaldur and Cassie are out exploring! It was /theoretically/ a tour; but, as Cassie had taken pains to explain, she was as new to the city as Kaldur was. He'd countered with her at least being /human/ and having some better knowledge of the customs and courtesies...

Long story short: They'd gone a-wanderin'.

Kaldur is dressed as incognito as possible; wide, oversized boots for his webbed feet, jeans, and a lightweight jacket with the collar turned up covered his gills up from casual notice. But there was little to be done for the slight webbing around his fingers, save to keep his hands in his pockets, and the sharp contrast of dusky mocha skin, grey eyes, and short-cropped blonde hair give him a decidedly unusual appearance.

"Explain to me again this concept of basketball," he asks Cassie, wandering along with her, his pace unhurried. "There are lines, and 'dunks', and hoops, and you ... shoot the ball... at the hoop, yes?" he asks. "But the hoops are set so close to the ground; why do you not simply leap up to them"?"

Wonder Girl has posed:
Technically, Cassie's only half human, but she was raised not *knowing* that, so she definitely has a normal human-girl perspective on the world that Kaldur may be lacking! And in tough times, you go with what you've got. At the very least, she's rather the energetic, friendly sort, making her well-suited to the whole tour of the whacky world above the waves. She may have spent the first part of it pointing out rather obvious things that Kaldur had already familiarized himself with. 'Its a tree!' 'A bench!' and so on. But eventually she caught on that this is maybe more the 102 level course.

"Oh uh, sure. I played a lot of sports in like middle school and junior high, though I was a little short after that and now..." Yeah, no collegiate sports when she'd be likely to put a ball (or a player) right through the wall. "You've pretty much got it, anyway. And you do leap up to them! That's a dunk. But most humans don't jump quite so high, or fly, or anything like that, so the basket is high enough that only the good ones can pretty much just reach. I could never dunk when I played as a kid."

Atlee (1034) has posed:
    Up ahead of the exporing pair is Vernon Memorial Park...the actual 'park' part of the area, built around the memorial statue in the center. It's a bit dark for many people to be up and about, but it's still well lit by street lamps, dim rather than dark.

    All of this means it's easy to see the girl lying on the ground in the grass, given her uniform is at least half a very bright white, making it easy to spot her despite the shadows involved. She's just sort of sprawled there on her back, hands out away from her body a little bit, palms down, legs slightly splayed out comfortably, the toes of her boots pointed outwards as her chest rises and falls. Her eyes are closed, lips parted as she breathes in and out.

    Yes. Terra, heroine, champion of the Stratan people, and envoy to the surface from the combined races of the Underrealms....has apparently managed to pass right out in public and is currently snoozing.

Stargirl has posed:
The sound of a basketball hitting a cement court comes from nearby - in fact there is a half-court, not even fenced off, though there are benches. On the court is a young woman, blonde with her hair pulled back through a blue baseball cap. She's wearing a Captain America shield hoodie, it halfway zipped. Her jeans are a little faded and her tennis shoes a little scuffed. She's gamely bouncing that basketball and every once in a while she will take a shot. Miss. Dribble and move and shoot. Miss. "Hell." the girl curses, and sighs. She eyes the hoop and makes a run for it, then leaps up PAST the rim, the soles of her feet even past... then Courtney dunks the ball as she goes back down. When she lands she looks around sheepishly to see if anyone noticed.

Aqualad has posed:
Kaldur gives Atlee a curious look; laying down to sleep is not common in Atlantis anymore than New York, but-- hey, he's the visitor here. Maybe it's a custom to take a nap in the dim twilight of the evening in one of the densest urban metropolis of the world.

Cassie's words are largely lost on him, but he's polite enough not to make a deal out of her using unfamiliar nouns. The gist of 'school' isn't lost on him, and he figures out most of it through context clues, nodding along politely as Cassie tries to illustrate her explanation.

"Ah! See, there is someone, doing the basketsball right now," Kaldur says-- he touches the back of Cassie's arm and leans down slightly, eyeballing his pointer finger so she can see where he's gesturing at Courtney defying all laws of physics to issue slam-dunks from downtown.

"She seems quite athletic! She must be one of your champions, then," he concludes.

Wonder Girl has posed:
Spotting the girl ahead, Cassie's head tilts a little. "I wonder if she's OK," the young woman considers, knowing that indeed this is not a common activity among the surface-dwellers! And that girls laying by themselves in parks are sometimes the sort that are in need of a bit of heroic assistance! She's starting that way to check, getting so far as calling out a quick, "Hey are you-" before Kaldur catches her attention again. She turns a little to follow his gesture and notices that there indeed is someone doing the basketball. Which would be perfectly un-noteworthy except...

"Huh. Yeah she, uh, she is. And she uh, no, I think... that's not exactly normal." Either way, if Courtney was worried about people noticing, she has at least two staring right at her, now. And one is pointing! "It was a very good dunk, though."

Atlee (1034) has posed:
    The raised voice does cause Terra's forehead to furrow slightly, her head turning slightly, before her violet eyes open again, blinking, before she raises her hands above her head, letting out a huge stretch as she yawns then sits up, smacking her lips a bit as she blinks again, her short black hair a bit mussed. Just in time to see...a girl fly? Doing a...dump? No. What was it? Goal? Home run...no... Her brow furrows in thought, before she takes in the other two people nearby, looking over at them all curious.

    That's about the point she realizes that it is now NIGHT. "...oh, nutbunnies." she grumbles, peering up at the stars, then getting to her feet, dusting herself off a little bit.

Stargirl has posed:
"That was dumb, Courtney." the girl tells herself. "Real dumb." She half-heartedly dribbles, watching the pair to see what they do, but she stops as Terra stands. "Where'd she come from?" Courtney hadn't noticed her napping or she would have gone to check on the girl. She gives a little wave and a thin smile.

Aqualad has posed:
Kaldur is a big, imposing fellow, and when Courtney looks at him and Cassie guardedly, his reflex is a short bow-- a courtly enough gesture in Atlantis, but the sort of 'creepy karate guy at the Y' thing that doesn't normally fly in New York. Particularly since it's a warrior's greeting, and he doesn't quite look away from her when he does it.

But, he's got that undefinable something about him that marks him as more than mere rec center weirdo. He stands tall, and proud; when Cassie remarks that Terra might be unwell, his grey eyes turn cooly to the slender girl leaving the grassy pitch.

"Apologies for interrupting your reverie," Kaldur tells her, his voice even and with careful elocution-- a faint accent suggests English is not his native tongue. "My friend seemed concerned that you were in distress. Is all well with you?"

Wonder Girl has posed:
No formal bows on her part, but Cassie at least lifts a hand to wave hello at Courtney, grinning in a vaguely smug, knowing way at the other young woman's self-deprecating mutterings. Yet with both her and Kaldur's attention turning back toward the girl laying in the grass, and the strange way she greets the late hour, Cassie turns her attention back that way again and starts over a little. "Yeah," she echoes, after Kaldur. "You OK? You were just uh, laying there. Kind of a weird spot for a nap. This late, anyway."

Atlee (1034) has posed:
    There's a last big yawn as Terra starts wandering over towards the loose trio. "Oh, it's okay! I didn't mean to nap, but I was fixing the waterfront where the giant alligator fight happened last week, and I guess I was just a bit sleepy afterwards." she says cheerfully. "It was very comfortable to lie down, and no one was bothering me, so I guess I just dozed off." She frowns a bit. "...I hopefully didn't miss anything important."

    She glances at Courtney. "That was a good...um...it's not dump. I don't remember the word..." she admits, sheepishly. "I don't really know a lot about sportsball things." She holds up her hand as the other blonde offers to call for help. "Nono, really, thank you. I'm fine!" she says, rubbing her eyes absently. "I mean, I'm pretty sure it wasn't a coma this time, I wasn't hurt nearly bad enough for that." She frowns a bit. "And no one drew things on my face this time..." She pauses. "....did...they?" she says, suddenly a bit concerned.

Stargirl has posed:
Courtney tucks the ball under her arm and starts towards the knot of people, sudden concern on her face as Kaldur and Cassie question Terra. "How's it goin'?" she asks. "I can call someone, if you need fire rescuse to come check on you." That must be for Atlee. "I think I remember the address of a women's shelter too if..." but she's not sure where she was going with that thought.

Aqualad has posed:
"Nothing of import, I think," Kaldur assures Terra. "This is my friend, Cassie. I am Kaldur," he explains to her, bowing again slightly. "Well met. Your face seems quite normal to me," he assures her-- "and I believe the word for which you seek is 'dunk'," he says, trying to suppress some modest pride at being more aware of a word than another visitor to the city!

He looks over to Courtney when she approaches to polite conversational range, shaking his head at her offer. "I think that is not necessary," he says, politely. "She seems otherwise quite well-- merely fatigued from her labors. A strange place to rest, but--" he shrugs one shoulder politely. "I am not one to judge how a person might choose to rest."

Wonder Girl has posed:
"Oh good," is Cassie's immediate response, when she's reassured that the napping girl was really only doing just that. The rest of the explanation, well... it's not even that totally strange to her that she doesn't take it in stride. Instead, she glances sidelong at Kaldur. "Did you hear about the giant alligator? That'd totally be right up your alley!" Then back to Sleeping Beauty. "Well, so long as you're OK. I think, hmm," and she moves a little closer, "no it doesn't look like anyone drew on you... Usually its the frat guys doing that, anyway." Or that's what she's learned in her experience with the wonderful world of COLLEGE!

Kaldur also gets a big grin and a thumbs up when he demonstrates his newly mastered human-world vocabulary! She's very positive! Then she looks back over at Courtney. "So uh, who do you normally play with?"

Atlee (1034) has posed:
    "DUNK! Yes, that's the word!" Atlee says, pointing at Kaldur in second-hand triumph! "It was a great dunk!" she says to Courtney happily. "Can you do it again?"

    She's slightly distracted by Cassie's looking, getting a relieved expression when she confirms she's mustache free. "Oh? I think it was a pair of children. I don't know where they got the markers..." she says with a frown. "It was very rude!" And she must have been really out of it not to have noticed it happening, for that matter. "Thank you all for being worried enough to check if I was okay." she says, clasping her hands behind her back.

Stargirl has posed:
Courtney wrinkles her nose. "It's not a good idea to sleep in the park, not if you're by yourself. Someone might try to steal something from you, or kidnap you, or worse. This is the city, after all. I think you got lucky." she lectures for a moment. Cassie asks about basketball, though, and she drops the chiding. She shifts the ball to both hands from under her arm. "Noone, really. Basketball's not really my game but I don't have time to play team sports, what with classes and everything. But I was just taking a break to get some air and stop worrying about things for a couple of hours." She smiles. "You're all welcome to come shoot or something if you want."

Aqualad has posed:
"Alligator? I was not aware of such a thing, but I will be alert for it returning," Kaldur tells Cassie, frowning. "Alligators are uncommon this far inland. Beyond the delta, the water is too fast-moving and polluted for them," he remarks. "And the inlets too cold, largely-- they prefer more temperate climes. I will look into it," he tells his blonde companion.

He smiles slightly at Atlee's gratitude and inclines his head, but shoots a guarded look at Courtney's offer. "I... beg your pardon," he says, slowly. "I am under the impression that 'shooting' in such a crowded city would be extraordinarily dangerous."

Wonder Girl has posed:
"No problem! We girls gotta look out for each other!" And, you know, probably other people too. Cassie would probably help Kaldur, for instance! She's struck a rather heroine-like pose while saying this to Atlee, of course, hands on her waist and shoulders squared. Then she removes one to give a dismissive wave. "Well, kids are brats, but that's not too bad. Hopefully they weren't running around without their parents or anything." Nevermind the terrible parents letting their spawn draw on bystanders!

Kaldur's lecture on alligators receives a dutifully serious look, and a nod or two as Cassie surely commits these important facts to memory. She may be his guide to the surface world, but surely he is the Professor when it comes to scaly-swimmy things. Though, just as quickly, it's back to teaching him the surface ways. "Oh, not that kind of shooting. They call it shooting when you toss the ball in that game. Maybe 'cause you're aiming for a target kinda, with the basket? I dunno!" And here she turns to Courtney and hmms. "Yeah, I don't really get to play much these days either. Hmm." Now she mentally debates how bad an idea it is for her to try! "You wanna, Kal?"

Atlee (1034) has posed:
    Atlee blinks cutely at the lecture from Courtney. "...do people really do that?" she says, sounding...vaguely disappointed in the human race a little. Or at least a bit confused by the idea as she frowns. "Well, I would not allow that to happen...I mean, I don't have anything to steal, and it would be difficult for someone to successfully kidnap me once I was aware of it." She gives a Courtney a thumbs up! "So it's fine!" she says cheerfully.

    At Kaldur's explanation, she says. "I"m fairly sure it was a mutant alligator. It was all white. Also it has laser eyes. I'm pretty sure that's not natural." she says, musingly. "It took me FOREVER to fix all that melted stone so it was smooth again." At Cassie's enthusiastic response (and explanation, because she was thinking along Kaldur's line of thought) she chimes in. "Oh! I would like to try as well! Can we all play?"

Stargirl has posed:
Courtney frowns a moment. "What?" she asks, confused. "Oh!" and she laughs gently, not mocking Kaldur in the least. "Right, 'Shooting a basket', yeah. What she said." and she smiles again as she offers the ball to Cassie. "If you all don't join in I'll probably end up going home anyway. So, you all can be my excuse not to keep my nose out of a book or some old scientst's crusty notes."

Aqualad has posed:
"Lasers? Yes, that is very uncommon," Kaldur says, seriously-- but there's a brightness in his eyes that suggests he's slightly amused by his words. "It is not a creature I have enocuntered before, at least," he offers, with a demure sort of modesty.

At the offer to play, he nods his head eagerly. "Yes, I would welcome a chance to attempt some of your sports," he tells the trio of girls. "If someone will explain to me the rules, it would be appreciated. I do not wish to offend any local customs by breaking them," he says, following the group to the court.

Wonder Girl has posed:
"Sounds like something an evil scientist would cook up. Was it an evil scientist? Or, I guess just a 'mad' one? Those guys are always doing junk like that, it's a real pain," Cassie goes on about the alligator as the thing acquires laser eyes and other impressive features. "Like this one time a guy was playing with some kind of computer simulator thingy and he blew up his kid so he tried to bring him back but ended up making all these copies of superheroes and then Dooms-"

"-Oh, great!" With the general consensus seemingly going toward playing a bit, Cassie forgets whatever story of techno-wizardry gone awry. "Uh, well mostly, you can't take a full step without bouncing the ball as you go, that's called dribbling. And you're not supposed to knock people over or stuff like that, but people *kinda* do it anyway when they think they can get away with it, but maybe I shouldn't have said that..." She goes on a little, explaining some of the most basic parts of the game. Ball goes in the hole! "Hrm, should we pair off?"

Atlee (1034) has posed:
    "That is my guess." The violet-eyed girl listens to Cassie's explanation of simulated heroes and dooms, then says solemnly. "Villains are WEIRD." She tilts her head, listening intently as Cassie explains, hanging on her every word. "Okay! I am -ready-!" she says cheerfully, then pauses. "Oh! Also, I am Atlee! Pleased to meet you all." She pauses, then realizes she's in costume, looking down. "Oh! Er, I mean, I'm Terra!" She frowns. "...darn it. I keep forgetting." She siiighs a bit, but walks out onto the court. "Well, you all seem nice, so it doesn't matter!" she says, good-naturedly. "We are all...verse each other, then? In competition?" She considers Courtney curiously "...and do we get to dunk like you were?" She holds up a hand, measuring herself and Courtney a little bit. "...because you're already a little taller than me to begin with." she says with a little frown.

Stargirl has posed:
"It's not always mad scientists, though." Courtney adds. "Sometimes there are magic curses or old magic." she says, nodding sagely. "Like today there was a guy on the street that's actually a dead guy who keeps getting back up... his name is Solomon Grundy." She pauses, but if none seems to know who that is she goes on. "...he's all white and huge. This time, though, he was wearing a weird 'Superman' costume. I don't know where he got it, but he tried to give me some ice cream and then steal money for me." She frowns a moment. "It was almost like he didn't know who I..." but she realizes THEY don't know who she is either and she changes the subject. "Uh, yeah. It's only half a court, so all we can really do is one side play offense and shoot while the other team defends and then switch after a shot or two." Atlee introduces herself and Coutn laughs at herself. "I'm sorry. I'm Courtney Whitmore, if I didn't say before. Nice to meet you all." Terra mentions her mistake earlier. "Dunk? Me? No. I'm not really... I can't..." she's not a great liar, is she?

Aqualad has posed:
Kaldur picks up the ball and dribbles experimentally while the girls chat, frowning with careful concentration at the motion required. He gets the hang of it fairly quickly, but his knees reflexively bob with each exaggerated motion as he gets the timing down.

He moves down the court with a weird, sideways shuffle-- a few kids two courts over are snickering and laughing-- then with no apparent effort at all, he hops skywards and tips the ball into the basket, landing heavily and flexing his knees.

"That is a dunk, yes? I saw you perform that maneuver earlier," he tells Courtney, retrieving the ball and carefully slow-dribbling it over. "And this is the 'dribble' you mentioned, yes?"

Wonder Girl has posed:
"Oh I kind of heard about that," Cassie answers Courtney. "Or well, he was fighting someone and it was on the news and a lot of people were kinda in a panic and it was a whole mess. But we, uh, it got sorted out. Though next time I kind of want to, erm..." Yeah, they're all pretty uniformly terrible at being secretive, or not letting on that they totally want to go face-punch the big not-quite-dead dude. "We can't all... play against each other together. It's gotta be teams. Two verse two." She looks around, and this is while Kaldur is comically practicing his dribbling. "Um, I guess I can take sleeping beauty here," and she ambles over to this 'Terra', "and you get Kal-" Pause, and she yells over, "-Yep, that's a dribble! You'll work on it."

"I'm Cassie, I think Kal said that, but anyway, yeah," she goes on, as they're making their introductions. "We don't have a ref or anything so uh, just one team'll start, other throws it to them and then we play, and basically you're on attack until you get a basket, then the other team can try, unless you steal it."

Atlee (1034) has posed:
    ARGH! She DID miss something by SNOOZING! Atlee siiiiighs. Giant Solomon people, though it sounds like no one was hurt at least. And that's what's important, after all.

    She blinks as Kaldur also slams a dunk, then sighing a bit. So unfair! She can't dunk like that. She'll be lucky if she can even reach the bottom of the net. Though she perks as Courtney, then Cassie introduces herself, as Kaldur has, then grins. "You are all 'k's!" she notes, making the sound, giggling a bit, then nods to Cassie. "He did, but it is nice to be said again. "Um...so we cannot touch each other while playing? It is not an actual fight, yes?" she says to be sure, before things start.

Stargirl has posed:
Courtney sighs and rubs her forehead. "Really, really dumb, Court." she mutters again. "Oh! Yes, that was a dunk. A fine dunk." she says, suddenly cheerful. "Good job." She nods. "Cassie, Kal, Terra." she repeats. "Great!" She shrugs. "Well, you're not _supposed to_, but people do and sometimes they're even pretty rough. There's usually some bumping and jostling but no actual punching." She thinks about this and tilts her head. "You two haven't ever seen a basketball game? Huh." She shrugs again. "Oh well."

Aqualad has posed:
"I am new to America," Kaldur says to Courtney, shaking his head apologetically. "I am from Atlantis, and I am only visiting," he clarifies. "It is a prolonged stay, however, and I do not wish to create any insult by breaking rules," he tells the girls, experimentally and carefully continuing to dribble.

He flashes a tight, controlled smile at Courtney when they're teamed up; he's not such a dour fellow, it seems. Just very, very self-controlled. "Excellent. A welcome ally," he tells her, handing off the ball. "Then let us attempt to play, and see what we think of the game."