Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was another nice, hot summer day and having been granted the day off, Derrick had decided that it would be a good time to enjoy the nice weather, even if that's what he usually did when he had the day off. Unfortunately, while he had planned on practicing some archery, the range was closed as there was currently construction going on. And while he would have then gone to practice calligraphy and work on the job of wedding announcements that he had been given by a friend, it was too nice of a day to be stuck indoors.

And so it was once again, time to practice some parkour. As much as he would have just liked to walk around and enjoy the park today, he tended to get antsy if he wasn't moving and exercising a bit. He should probably join some sort of sport, but parkour was much too interesting to him.

He was therefor in the park practicing his parkour a bit and dodging others as much as he could while he did it. Usually people weren't at the designated parkour areas, but there seemed to have either been a large influx of tourists or, like himself, many others who had decided to spend their day at the park. So while he was having to dodge a few people and thinking that he should probably move somewhere else, suddenly, someone on a skateboard entered his peripheral vision and he tried as hard as he could to not hit them, though stopping himself made him lurch a bit forward too much. All he could yell out was a quick "Look out!" as he tried to scramble and make sure he didn't run into the kid on the skateboard.

It took a second for Derrick to realize what had happened and scrambled off whomever he had landed on as soon as he could. And it was a kid. S***! He thought as he scrambled around in a bit of a panic, making sure that he wasn't too hurt and then trying to address the girl he had run into. "I am so sorry! I did not mean to run into you like that!" Well of course he didn't, he never meant to run into anyone like that, ever. "Shoot, what I mean is, are you all right?"

Luckily it didn't seem that anyone had seen them or at least hadn't been paying attention, otherwise he might be in a lot more trouble than he already was. Though it was just as bad to run into someone who was as young as she was too. "You need help? I can take you to a hospital or something if you need it." He noticed her skateboard a little bit aways and saw that it was fine, and didn't seem to need any repairs. Grabbing it, he moved it closer to her. "Um... here's your skateboard." He almost mumbled, feeling completely embarrassed at the situation he had created just now.

Derrick instantly felt better as the girl reassured him that she was okay. Honestly, he would never be able to forgive himself if he ever seriously hurt a child, and knowing that he could have prevented it would be even worse. So knowing that she was okay allowed him to let out a huge sigh and splay out on the pavement for a bit. "Thank goodness..." He replied, rubbing a hand over his face before sitting back up and looking at her.

He almost felt like shooting his tongue back at her, but just smiled instead. She reminded him a bit of his younger brother. He would have to visit him again. He nodded to her. "Yeah I'm okay. Might be a bit sore later not knowing what exactly I landed on, but nothing broken or sprained from what I can tell." He replied before standing up and holding out his hand to her. "I'm sorry. This is the route I usually take for parkour practice, though it isn't usually this crowded. But that means I should have been paying more attention to my surroundings."

Derrick smiled, glad that she was okay. "Yeah, it's unusually crowded, though I suppose it's because it's so pleasant outside today." It was in-between the time of just warming up too much and the humidity not having kicked in yet. "I hope you're enjoying the city. A lot of... interesting stuff happens here." Of course he couldn't say what kind of stuff happened here, as much as he wanted to tell her to get out of here as soon as she could, but that would be giving too much away.

"I've been here with my family since I was about your age, so I know what it's like." He said, rolling one of his shoulders to make sure it hadn't been damaged. "I'm Derrick, and I apologize for running into you again Ms...?" They hadn't really been introduced, though that was bound to happen considering that they hadn't actually met and had more collided with each other.

Derrick smiled and gladly shook her hand. "Nice to meet you too Connie, even if it wasn't the best way to go about it." He said, still feeling a bit embarrassed. Honestly, running into someone was so cliche.

After they had shaken hands, he rubbed the back of his head. "Well... is there anything I can do to make this up to you?" He looked around, trying to see if there was anything he might be able to get her, until he spotted an ice cream stand. Almost everyone liked ice cream, and it was a nice summer day too. "Uh... you want an ice cream or something? My treat for running into you." Though if she rejected the idea then he might just buy her a water bottle or something or give her some money. He could have seriously hurt her and was still feeling a bit put off at having run into a kid.

He would have to be extra careful going through the park next time.