Event: Target

"Not gonna let you get eaten by whatever's in that alley," Doc growled irritably.

<Even if I don't have hands?> she asked, tipping her head.

Doc rolled his eyes.  "I meant Tanner."

<I know,> she told him, but gently. <I'm just teasing. I trust you. I'm not afraid of much, and that usually gets me into trouble, but around you it might be justified. Hard to be scared while you're around.>

Doc snorted.  "Not gonna let a cat get hurt."

<I'm one bite!> she exclaimed, rolling partway into her back so she could close his ears between two little soft paws. <One nom! An Eve sammich. I promise to give him a hairball on the way down, defeating the monster so you can get the book.>

Riesy looked over at where shiz cat was obviously flirting with the man mountain. S/he shook shiz head. "Shameless, the both of you," s/he intoned. Which was rich, coming from shim.

Eve looked up when addressed by Riesy, and it took a moment for the words to process. When they did, she pulled her paws away like she'd been burned, and got halfway to her feet before realizing that she couldn't really just jump down- they still had quicksand to cross, and she was safest where she was.

<I'm sorry,> she told Doc quickly, because she was, because she hadn't meant it like that and if Doc didn't care for people she figured it was a fair bet he didn't care for people talking to him like Riesy had just implied she was. <I didn't- I- I'm sorry. I don't- I wasn't trying to... I can get down if you want>

"Th'hell you talking about," Doc grunted.  "Stay where you're safe.  And no more talk about dying."

<Riesy,> Eve said by way of explanation. <He thinks- he called us shameless, he thinks I was- that I was hitting on you. I wasn't- or, that is, I didn't mean to, is all. I'm sorry.>

Doc gave her - and Riesy - a look.  "You're a cat.  'Course you're not, never figured otherwise.  Just 'cause they can't keep it in their pants don't mean the rest of the world's the same.  Don't you mind that crap."

Riesy threw shiz head back and laughed at the cat's fluster and the man's confusion, tipping back over Tanner's arm. "That was a good one, old man," s/he said fondly. With a final clap to Tanner's shoulder, s/he weaved shiz way over to Lilybeth to start them moving again.

"Thanks for saving my ass again, Squirt," s/he said, and went to toss shiz arm around Lilybeth's shoulders, but felt a gigantic pull in shiz chest when s/he did it. "Ow, fuck!" S/he grabbed the spot that hurt worst, then glared without heat up at Lilybeth. "Christ you're a fucking Amazon!"

S/he trudged over to one of the mirrored pillars scattered through the section and rucked shiz shirt up to see. S/he hissed and let out a "Yeah-uh!" that echoed through the empty store when s/he saw the already purpling skin across shiz ribcage from where s/he had slammed into the red tiles. "That's gonna be fun explaining to my mother."

"So I have been told," Lilybeth said, with a mixture of pleasure and annoyance. "Sadly, I don't exactly look like Wonder Woman."

Eve shifted uncertainly for a moment, not certain it really was okay- she had probably been flirting with him, even though it had been unintentional. But if it hadn't bothered him, then maybe she could just be more careful not to do it again, and keep her paws to herself until they were out of this place, and then she could find someplace to hide. Under a rock, preferably.

<Okay,> she agreed reluctantly, tucking herself back up against the back of his neck where she would be stable for making the next jumps. She nearly curled her paws to her chest, but remembered the sudden jerk of gravity and force when Doc had practically just stepped across before, and opted to hook her claws into his leather jacket like before, too. <And I'm- I'm sorry about... joking about dying,> she added for good measure. <It's just... you know, it's something that happens to everyone, so I figure there's no sense getting upset it'll happen to me at some point. I didn't mean to take it lightly.>

Isabelle looked around at her crew and everyone was mostly back on their feet. Riesy's bruises looked painful already but there was nothing they could do about those now. "If you guys are really ready, we should probably keep moving," she said gently for once, still feeling pretty shaky herself. "But we'll need to rearrange because no way we're letting Riesy and Tanner bring up the rear."

rolling

The member 'yumearashi' has done the following action : Dice rolls

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'd10' : 4

"Like hell you don't, y'could break my ass in half," Riesy said, turning to holler at Lilybeth. S/he rubbed a hand over the rust flavored bruises, dreading telling shiz parents they had been right and coming on this trip had been a bad idea.

S/he looked toward the next section of linoleum and already felt the shaking start deep in shiz chest. "Hey Doc?" s/he called, turning to meet his eyes. "Can't you just fuckin' chuck me across? I'm really tired of being on the ground."

"Could do," Doc grunted.  He considered Riesy and the aisle for a moment before crouching on one knee, his hands laced together on his upper leg to form a basket Riesy could step into.

Eve quickly scrambled to her feet and hopped to the floor before Doc and Riesy could do anything that might dislodge her over the aisle. No sense in taking chances.

"Or we could do that..." Isabelle wasn't sure which grounds to object on first, the safety issue, the fact that humans were not aerodynamic, the idea that Riesy could pitch into the shelves in the next section and really get hurt but before she could voice any of those they were doing it.

"Thank fuck," Riesy said, nimbly hopping into position. "I take back every smartassed thing I've ever said to you. And you too, ma'am, I didn't mean to be an asshole," s/he said over Doc's shoulder to Eve.

Once he was sure Riesy was ready, Doc surged to his feet, heaving up and forward with his massive arms.

Reeling shiz arms and tucking shiz legs the way s/he had been taught, Riesy landed on shiz toes and rolled across shiz to minimize impact, not even landing on shiz pack or shiz arse.

"Haha! Success!" S/he raised both arms in the air, then winced when shiz ribs reminded shim that was a bad idea. S/he started unraveling shiz harness, in the event someone fell in.

Listening to only Doc’s half of whatever he was talking about with Eve was mildly disconcerting, moreso when Riesy commented and received a fairly condemning remark in return; Tanner flushed crimson, unsure how to respond to that, though Riesy seemed more amused than anything.

He let Riesy pull away, shoving his hands into his pockets to hide his reluctance, and fully intended to go back to worrying about the next crossing- but Riesy made a noise, and Tanner looked up, and caught much more than a glimpse of the tattoo that curled around Riesy’s hip and up her side.

Once again, the contrast sparked the feeling of velvet sweeping over his skin, from his palms to his elbows and up towards his shoulders, and he dropped his gaze quickly to the floor, squeezing his eyes shut and curling his fingers into his palms in an effort to quell the sensation.

It was- distracting, and intense, and he really, really needed to focus on something else.

The blush he didn’t seem to be able to quell only got worse at Isabelle’s comment about not trusting them to bring up the rear any longer- which was probably fair, but definitely embarrassing, and he curled in on himself, trying to occupy the least amount of space possible in his chagrin.

Until apparently the new plan was launching people across the space, and he straightened up, posture going entirely tense- that seemed like a far more dangerous plan than just walking, but before he’d managed to figure out a proper objection, Riesy was scrambling into position and Doc was, as promised, launching her.

Tanner’s throat went tight, anxiety singing in the air around him, but Riesy landed fine, looking entirely too pleased with herself, and Tanner exhaled sharply, and forced his shoulders to relax.

“Where- what order. Do you want the rest of us?” he asked, turning his attention to Isabelle, because if he wasn’t supposed to be holding the rear, he wasn’t sure where he was supposed to be.