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 Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 5:45 pm
There was a clattering sound, a crash, and then a series of swear words that emanated from around the corner of one of the buildings nearby. It was an open area, with lots of people milling about, a fountain in the center of a wide space with a series of ramps and walkways that made for excellent skateboarding places.
Which Caspian was learning, although at present he was on the pavement, rolling around with a rather large bruise forming on his elbow.
"Damn it," he muttered, and clambered to his feet, swiping dust off of his knees and straightening his jacket. Caspian tugged it a little more securely around himself and tried to act as though he hadn't just wiped out in front of a group of people, some of which were looking at him curiously.
"Okay," he said brightly to himself, and squared his shoulders, flashing any onlookers a grin. "Take two."
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Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 3:13 pm
James had resumed boarding when the weather started to clear up and the roads or sidewalks weren't perpetually wet any longer. He wouldn't dare risk the bearing of his precious Loaded board, he'd spent too much money to risk damaging it from anything other than riding and few tricks.
Plus, it was his primary mode of transportation since he couldn't afford a car and the buses weren't always running.
It was comforting and stress relieving, to glide across the pavement weaving in and out of people as he moved. Which was something he desperately needed now that his extra ciricular activites were taking more and more of his time. Combined with his work for his thesis and grad school, he was stressed more often than not.
Which is how he stumbled upon a young man struggling on a skateboard. With a brow arched and an amused look on his face, James slowed until he came to a halt beside them. "What exactly are you trying to accomplish there?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2016 12:07 am
He heard the telltale rasp of wheels across pavement before a shadow was cast over him, and Caspian glanced up, catching sight of a brown haired man probably a few years older than himself. There was a board beneath his feet, which Caspian looked at briefly before he let his gaze flicker back up to his face.
A grin stretched out across his own, Caspian flipping the board up so that it rested across his shoulder blades, his arms bent with his hands resting across the top of the board. He took a step back and laughed, flipping dark hair out of his eyes.
"I was trying," he said, sounding amused. "To ride down this rail, but it didn't work too well."
He glanced at the other's board and said, "You board too?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2016 2:45 pm
"Well, yeah. It's kinda a given?" James retorted, coming off more sarcastic than he meant. He glanced down at his longboard, slid it forward before stepping on the tail and snatching it up, tucking it beneath his arm. Fingers drummed against the decorated wood as he examined the board behind the dark haired man's head.
Skateboards, in James' humble opinion, were utterly lame. Especially when the rider couldn't even to tricks.
"One, that rail is garbage for grinds, especially with the weather." He'd seen more than a fair share of people try to ride the rail and fail. "How old's your board anyway? Why a skateboard?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 27, 2016 5:12 pm
Fortunately for James, sarcasm was a necessary facet of being Caspian Lyons, and he smirked at the young man, his eyes following the movements as he flipped his own board up into his hands. Caspian bent over in a mock bow.
"I forgot, I must be in the presence of sheer greatness here," he intoned dramatically, and then gave a noncommittal shrug.
"Force of habit. I've had this board for a million years, never let me down before. There's no point in throwing something away that's perfectly good, is there?"
Caspian grinned again. "Your turn. Why a longboard?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 12:44 pm
"I never proclaimed to be great, but from my observations-- that rail is garbage." James had seen too many skaters crash and burn from attempting anything on it. Even the really good ones.
"When was the last time you replaced the bearings?" Green eyes examined the board the best he could from the distance. "Old, well-loved boards are great but sometimes need to be put to rest." The taller man himself had just put his first board to rest at the end of last year. It'd been well loved but became too bendy as bamboo boards were prone to doing.
He'd hung it on his wall and was prepared to decorate it with photographs he took, if he ever got around to it.
"Longboards are better for traveling. You can do some tricks on them but," he shrugged, "if your goal is transportation. Longboards coast better."
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Posted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 8:22 pm
" 'Bout six months ago," said Caspian, rocking back and forth on his heels with a look of amusement on his face. "Are you trying to tell me you're some board expert or some s**t? Because, no offense, I appreciate all the advice and s**t, but I like my board and I'm keepin' it. At least for now, 'til I can find a better one."
He gave a shake of his shaggy head, the black hair sliding forward and giving hints to the blue and green underneath, Caspian glancing around.
"All right then, Mr. Expert," he said grandly, a grin splitting his cheeks. He seemed not to be offended whatsoever by the other's assessment, taking all of it in stride. "If you're so sure you know what's happening and everything - where would you say is a good place to board?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 07, 2016 3:49 pm
Six months ago wasn't a terrible time frame, even though the board looked well loved and worn. "I'm hardly an expert," James conceded hand raising in surrender. "A well loved board is a great one, no arguments there. It's definitely hard to retire one." He remembered the struggle of retiring his first board.
If he hadn't fallen in love with his current one, the loaded board, then he'd still be riding his well loved bamboo arbor board.
"The library has the best rails," he said with absolute certainty. "I mostly asked about your bearings because the shitty weather tears them up and sometimes, people forget to get them changed." He'd been naive when he first started, almost ruined his board over bad bearings.
"Library also has great drops if you want to practice that too and there's lots of grass so you probably won't get too hurt."
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Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2016 4:13 pm
He grinned. "Glad to see there's a man after my own heart," Caspian said dramatically, waving a hand. "Boards are a sacred thing, man, you gotta treat them with respect otherwise they'll never work right, and that sorta sucks. I just want them to work out, y'know?"
He kicked his foot at the pavement beneath him, head tilted as he listened.
"Oh, huh, that's a good point," Caspian said, with a little nod of his head towards the guy. "I'll have to try the library, I'm still figuring out all of the best places, so the rails there I'll kick up to number one on my list, thanks for that, man."
His grin widened. "You mean if I wipe out again? Dude, hopefully not."
Caspian stuck out his hand. "What's your name? I'm Caspian."
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Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2016 2:47 pm
"It's like - It's like a wand. You don't treat it right and your spells will backfire all the time. Don't disrespect the board, y'know?" Okay so that probably wasn't the best analogy but James was studied out and his tired brain seemed to think that a Harry Potter reference was the best way to explain how to pick a good board.
It was fine. It worked. Caspian didn't seem to mind and that was what mattered.
"Are you not from here?" An innocent question and - Frankly James had a hard time believing that some people voluntarily moved to the city at all. There was perpetual property damage, strange wild-fires, and a growing list of missing civilians but it was fine. Stuff was probably really cheap here.
"You will, but y'know we can't all be professional boarders." James was decent at riding around the city but sometimes he hit a bump and went flying. It was always painful and embarrassing.
James stuck his hand out towards Caspian. "James."
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 1:04 pm
"Dude," said Caspian, with a slow look at the young man beside him. "Did you just Harry Potter me? I mean," he added, with a smirk, "Not that I can say much, I do that all the time. Besides, it's not like I can't understand what you're tryin' to say."
His lips quirked up in a slightly less sardonic smile.
"Nah, moved here a couple months ago with my sister," Caspian said, waving a careless hand. "We're renting a place somewhere in the middle, it's all good, though, the money's cheap. I just need to find a job and everything will be all Hakuna Matata."
He reached out and accepted James' outstretched hand, giving it a firm shake.
"A pleasure, James," Caspian said, and then added, a little cheekily, "Is there a Potter that comes after that?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 6:55 pm
The reference was caught immediately and Caspian's respond had James grinning from ear to ear. "Literary nerd, I'll admit," he replied gesturing with both hands in a you caught me manner. "Can't resist a chance to sneak in references to my favorite works."
He listened with mild interest then shrugged because there was no way he could argue with that. DC was great for cheap rent what with all the property damage that was perpetually happening. Or the way people had a tendency to go missing.
"Well the city is something." He didn't elaborate, only shook his head at Caspian's question. "Nah, last name is Cheney. I wish I was a Potter. Life as a wizard would be so much cooler than -" he stopped realizing he was about to make some comment about being a negaverse agent. "Than a muggle. Boring existence y'know?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2016 8:56 pm
"Literary nerds are the best nerds after movie geeks," said Caspian loftily, a smirk on his face. "But I'm glad to see there are people in this city that aren't total bores, you wouldn't believe how many people don't even know who Harry Potter is, it's ridiculous."
He swung his board around absently, and slightly carelessly, almost taking out a woman's shopping as she walked past. She gave him a dirty look, hauling her bags closer to herself, but Caspian seemed not to notice, his eyes flicking up and down James' face, a grin on his own.
"Muggles, schmuggles," he said, waving a hand and smacking some guy in the shoulder in the process. "I'm sure you've got some cool as s**t thing going on with you that makes you better, right? Everybody's got some sort of magic or whatever."
Caspian pointed a thumb at himself. "For example, mine's volleyball, and boarding, and generally making a shitton of moolah whenever I want."
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Posted: Sat Apr 23, 2016 11:57 am
"It's a shame too, I grew up with Harry, it changes your whole world," James admitted dreamily. J.K. Rowling was a literary genius, at least when it came to the Harry Potter series and the way it was still expanding. All of her other books had been decent but nothing ever captured him the way her wizarding world did.
He just wished his world of magic was more like hers and less like what it was.
He shrugged at Caspian, unsure of what to tell him. Or how to explain that outside of this crazy double life he had, James didn't have anything magical about him. "Maybe. I mean, I'm decent at boarding, though I avoid most tricks because well - that's not what longboards are for. And I write so there's that. Nothing like novel worthy but sometimes my articles make it in the papers."
Of course he wasn't going to say that they were mostly advice columns under a pen name or just bland reviews. "I teach, sorta. I'm a student teacher but I think they're gonna offer a permanent position once I graduate with my masters." It helped, that the previous, popular, english teacher had died.
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Posted: Sun Apr 24, 2016 9:33 am
James was pretty chill, which Caspian appreciated on a variety of levels. He had no qualms about saying what he liked and what he didn't like, and this was no exception; there was, after all, no point in pretending when you didn't like something.
"Harry Potter is like, a necessity," he said now, with a sage nod. A grin spread across his face, and Caspian gave James a friendly punch to his arm that was probably a bit harder than necessary.
"Boarding is still a magic skill, and so is writing, and I can't write for s**t," he said with a laugh. "I'd be pretty proud of that, if I were you, not everyone can put words on paper, including myself. I definitely don't have that sort of skill, so that's a trait right there."
Caspian tugged on a lock of black and blue hair. "Teaching's pretty cool. I'm in classes now, at the university, but it's slow going. What do you student teach?"
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