Welcome to Gaia! ::

Spei ran up to the wall and leapt up to run three steps along the bricks before having to return to the level ground of the alley. Close, but not there yet. He was convinced he could wall-run more than three steps while powered up; when he was in his civilian form he could only manage to run two steps, so anything above three was gravy. But he was determined to do it, hence the late-night parkour practice.

Maybe if he ran faster… He charged up to the wall again, this time taking full advantage of his enhanced speed, and leapt higher up the wall to give himself more of an angle to run. One, two three, four steps! Kicking off the wall to land back on the ground, he very nearly let out a whoop. As it was, he hissed a joyful "Yessss!" and did a standing backflip to celebrate.

Parkour was not only useful, it was fun.

He repeated the feat at least three more times before he sensed the nearby presence of another Order person. Stopping to stand in the center of the alley, he called out, "Hello? Where are you? It's safe to come out." Maybe they were just passing by; he couldn't tell that much, but he could feel they were quite close by.

"Sure I know," Spei replied, studying the Senshi who had appeared. She had an odd aura, but it wasn't Chaos-aligned or even adjacent. "But sometimes you might want to stay closer to an opponent so you can attack them, or sometimes the building's too high. Then you can run on the walls."

Launching himself at the wall again, he demonstrated before landing on the ground again. "Besides, it'll confuse them a little. What I'm doing is parkour, or free-running. It's a way to move around quickly using your environment. And it's pretty fun."

He slowly approached her. "I'm Spei, Page of the Moon. Pleased to meet you… ?"

Pulled into it at 9? Spei's eyebrow went up. He had no idea that Order Senshi started so young. He knew what "chibi" meant – maybe it was a different classification of Senshi, to make up for the fact that they were children. She seemed a little sensitive about it, and who wouldn't be when one was effectively an adult Senshi with a child's magic? So he didn't pry.

"Senshi of Laughter… I bet you have some interesting magic," he half-smiled at Rhea. "It's very nice to meet you. Sure, I'll show you two different ways of doing it, depending on what you want to do."

He stepped back a few paces. "First is what I was just doing – it's called wall-running. Civilians can usually only manage two or three steps, but I've made it up to four with ease. Let me show you." Leaping up to plant a foot on the wall, he ran four steps toward Rhea before gracefully landing on the ground. "You use your momentum and your balance to keep your feet against the wall as you run. Gravity eventually wins, but it's a good way to evade an opponent while staying engaged with them." At least that's what he used it for. "Want to try it?"

Spei nodded and clapped. "That was really good for a first attempt. Most people don't even get beyond bouncing one step off the wall. The trick is to hold your head as vertical as you can, and keep your body at about a 45-degree angle from the wall. That will help you keep your balance quite a bit. And practice helps too." His expression didn't change – perpetually flat and emotionless – but his words to Rhea were warm and encouraging in sound.

"Now here's another trick that's similar but super easy," he said. "You know how cats can jump over six-foot fences by running up them? A traceur – that's what they call someone who does parkour – a traceur can do that too. It's called cat-climbing." He pointed to one of the buildings adjacent to the alley. "This is around three stories high, more than I can jump as just a Page. But watch."

Stepping back to give himself a good running start, he jumped as high as he could, about two stories straight up, then half-ran to the top, where he grabbed the lip of the roof wall and pulled himself up. "That's about all most traceurs can climb, about a story, but I'm willing to bet that people like us can do more. Again, you let your forward momentum hold you close to the wall, and you run on your toes, using your hands to help. Like a cat using its paw pads."

He jumped down and landed, doing a parkour roll to a kneeling position near Rhea. "Do you want to give it a try?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Wise idea." Spei stood and brushed the dirt off his shoulders and knees. "There's lots of tutorials on Youtube for parkour. That might be a good place to start. Also, there's a parkour gym here in town – it's really good for like all levels. It's where I got started."

He looked at Rhea and gave her one of his almost-smiles. "I think you have a natural talent for parkour. You should really give it a try. There's other moves too, like handstands on walls and learning how to land and roll to dissipate the energy of jumping off something, like I did. It's just a lot of fun, and a great way to train."

"Wow, gymnastics and muay Thai? You're pretty hardcore," Spei said with a wry almost-smile. "You should take to parkour pretty easily then."

He nodded a slight bow to her. "It was a pleasure meeting you and showing you parkour stuff. Yeah, maybe we'll meet again on some rooftop somewhere." With that, he cat-climbed up the wall and vanished from view.