Apr 18 08:45:00 107 PA - Not so Happy Endings
From Chronicles
Tuesday morning is a decent time for some B-ball, though a game has only just broken up moments before. A collection of Dergs youths are clustered in small groups, chatting, some dressed for sports, others less so. Zero is outfited with shorts and tshirt that do little to hide his slender nature and is amid sharing farewells with a young guy and girl. He has the ball and is casually bouncing it between his hands as they speak, toned low but relaxed.
With duffelbag slung over one shoulder Ash makes his way into the rec center and takes a look around to see whom might be out at this hour and spending time in the rec center. He rolls his head about on his neck then yawns widely while making his way towards the male changing and restroom. He doesn't seem to have quite kicked into his usual overdrive yet, maybe having recently awoken or the like. He lifts his free hand in a wave to a couple of people with the usual greetings of 'Yo Ash' met with 'Hey hey.' and the like. While maybe not the most popular of people, he's certainly known by a few.
Zero perks slightly at those name tosses, glancing about a moment before he finds the source. The ball caught in hand and tossed between them casually as he settles on the man himself. Neither discreet nor obvious, he gives the man a glance over before looking back to what is being said to him, a casual grin given. "No, no, don't worry. We can practice those plays later if you want, not that I'm much at teaching." His shoulders roll and he casually tosses teh ball between his hands. "Catch you later, alright?" And the final goodbyes are given, with a parting fist bump for the young man before Zero wanders off a bit, returning to his casual ball bouncing.
Ash disappears into the changing room and comes out a few minutes later, still carrying his duffelbag but this time it's a lot bulkier and heavier. Seems he's swapped his armor and street clothes for something more relaxing, name something more suited to the gym. He sets his bag down and starts to limber up, warming up as it were. One leg is stretched high up and held to his chest as he balances easily on one leg doing the standing splits before the other is pulled up and stretched. He continues with the stretching, a routine something a gymnast would likely use and he goes through it without any strain. As of yet he doesn't seem to notice any looks his way or the like, or simply isn't bothered by such things.
Zero hangs around that long. He's good at it, just naturalling lingering and the ball makes it easier as he casually practices his dribbling. It won't be until after Ash is out and doing his streches that Zero eases over casually. Not in a furtive way, but genuinely unhurried and relaxed. "Pretty limber," he will note as he closes close enough to talk without raising his voice. "Wish I could do half of that stuff, you know? If you play ball, I'll have to make sure you're on my team." He grins, the expression genuinely friendly.
"Sometimes, it pays to be a d-bee." Ash says in answer to the comments and then bounces up to his feet in a flash that is almost to quick to see while turning to look at the man who speaks to him... a shorter man, that's unusual for Ash to say the least. He raises an eyebrow and grins amusedly, "Sure, I play... every now and again. I play to much I piss everyone off." He shrugs a bit. "Who are you?" He asks in blunt fashion, but not in an aggressive tone of voice.
"Name's Zero. Zee if you prefer, some do," the young human replies. He's not reeal tall, no. But he's big on mood, which bouys high with uncanny ease. "I would guess it's not much fun when someone is just too good," he agrees. "Never had that trouble myself, but I'm decent enough." He casually tosses the ball at Ash. An easy lob towards. "I like meeting new faces.. well, new to me anyway. Not seen you about before, so figured I'd say hey."
One hand reaches up to catch the ball and Ash palms it easily enough, "Just bad luck I suppose, course, thousands of people in the dregs, not recognizing one shouldn't be that uncommon." He tosses the ball into his other hand before giving it a light underhand toss back to Zero. "Ash." He says in answer of the introduction, "Zero huh, bet you got as much shit about your name as I get about mine." He notes with a wry grin. "How long you been in town Zero?" He asks curiously.
Zero catches it lightly and shakes his head. "Zero's more a handle. Short for 'Ground Zero', but that's a long story." He lifts his free hand in an idle brush off of such things. "I like it fine. Don't think there's anything wrong with Ash either." He spins the ball up on his index finger, it wobbling a little, but balancing well as he says, "Been here a few months. Not too long, but settled in alright. Usually not too hard that, you know?" The ball wobbles a bit too much and he lightly slaps it with his other hand to bounce it to Ash again.
"Well see I bet there'll be tons of people around you won't recognize on sight." Ash says as the ball comes bouncing back to him. Catching the ball he looks at it a moment, spinning it between his hands, not up on a finger and periodically stops the balls spin with a tighter grip. "Few months is hardly enough time to get to know tens of thousands of people by name." He smirks a bit then tosses the ball back to Zero. "You wanting a game or something?" He asks curiously.
Zero shakes his head and grins. "I'm no masochist, but the hoops are open for some shooting. I kinda like it, almost meditative, since you don't have to worry about passing, guarding and all that from real play. Just finished a game, anyway." He grins and tilts his head towards one of the nearby baskets before he starts over, lightly bouncing the ball as he heads over at a relaxed pace. "This place is pretty good for meeting new people. Lasting longer than I expected too. Not much grefitti and mess. Kinda nice for the neighborhood. How about you? Been here long?"
"My whole life." Ash answers, taking a look around. "The Vigilantes are pretty good at trying to clean up their turf." He shrugs, "Whatever floats their boat." He follows on out onto the 'court' as it were. "You get used to it. It's a pretty simple rule, adapt or die." He smirks faintly. "Better take some creds with you to pay off some of the others deeper you go into the Dregs. Then you got others, only care about money. Don't mess with there businesses and they'll leave you be. This," He gestures around, "Kind of an anomaly."
"Yeah?" Zero glances over as he pauses near the basket. "Well, I'm not unfamiliar. Grew up in the Burbs, not too differnt than this place on the surface. Just details and faces change, you know? I'm alright at staying out of the places that are.. you know, too dangerous. I'm not the sort of guy to look for trouble." His grin is lightly amused as he turns and takes a shot at the basket. It almost bounces out before wobbling its way in.
Ash smirks, "Except I imagine it's a lot nicer without the Skulls sending kill teams in on sweep and burns." He jogs over to pick up the ball as it still bounces and then heads out to the three point line, bouncing the ball along the way before he turns and shoots, which while not a complete brick doesn't go in after a bad bounce off the backboard. Fortunately it doesn't go flying away. "Sounds boring." He notes, "Never looking for trouble. What use is living if you don't enjoy it?"
Zero wanders closer to the basket as Ash moves into position to shoot. And darts a few steps to snag the ball once it bounces. He drops into an easy, relaxed bounce as he nods. "Yeah.. that isn't here. Much better without it, but I bet there's something here to replace it." HIs grin light, the topic not one he takes with too much seriousness at the moment. "Who says I don't enjoy it?" His brows lift. "Did some time as a merc, didn't really take well to it. Not like I'm always sitting at home, twiddling my thumbs or anything, you know?" He pauses at a decent distance and turns, sending a hop shot that reflects off the backboard and spins out of the hoop, hooking back towards them. "Not real keen on having people want to kill me is all. Wouldn't be that hard for most, I'm sure." Again, he says it lightly, not one for lingering in the dark or dire.
"One thing I learned, is that everyone and everything is killable." Ash says as he reaches out for the ball when it bounces towards them. Once he's grabbed a hold of it he bounces the ball a couple times then shoots again, the barest jump to his feet this time and it flies towards the hoop to swish right through. "Only thing I don't like about merc work, is you never get the whole story. Someone's always full of shit. Everything is is bang on fun." He says with a grin then runs over to the ball, really runs. Fast, like is there in under a second fast and tosses the ball back out to Zero so he can shoot again. Another blink and he's back out where he shot from, not even breathing hard even though he outpaced the ball on it's journey. "So what do you do to keep life from becoming boring?" He asks conversationally.
Zero arches a brow as Ash does his dart in and out, recieving the ball well. "Yeah, I guess anything can be offed, but like I said.. some easier than others." He shakes his head and says, "I've found crazy girls are good enough for a good time. And less likey to kill you. A slap on the cheek heals fast and it can be pretty exciting, yeah? I've run across my fair share, even if I haven't been in the game that long. That I get to do work on hardware isn't too bad either. Guns and such. Picked that up while I was out mercing." He takes a shot, which is a rough in, bouncing a few times between the rims before sliding through the net. "And I like to play a prank now and then. Make a little trouble. Though that got my truck shot once."
"Can't say as I would know." Ash says with a shrug at that, watching the ball bounce a few times. "Not really my thing to go about trying to sleep with a lot of women." He looks over at Zero then, gesturing towards his face, "Not that many girls get a kick out of a guy without a nose and not enough of my own species around." He shrugs a bit and then jogs over towards the ball and lobs it back to Zero but he doesn't return to the court, instead heading back over to his duffelbag where he left it near the wall.
Zero catches the ball, then starts to wander over with Ash, continuing hte conversation casually. "I dunno, man. You do look differnt, but not bad really. But some chicks are stuck up on looks." He shrugs his shoulders a little. "I did a bunch of running around before.. sometimes a little settling with one or two that were nice, though it never lasted too long." Freely admitted. "Nothing wrong with living free, though I'm with this one girl now. Sofi. She's a handful, but there's something about an unpredictable girl that keeps things fresh, right? And she's got some fire to her too." He bounces the ball lightly as he speaks. "Working so far.. kinda nice too."
"You're talking to the wrong guy if you want to talk about girlfriends Zero. Don't have one. Haven't ever had one. I want to get laid I have to pay for it." Ash says as he opens his duffel bag and pulls out a blue racket-ball. "Sounds to me that if you had any sense to you at all you'd stop lookin' and be glad for what you've got. You go around fucking girls over and it just makes it harder on all of us." He then bounces the ball hard on the wall and it shoots off at speed, and much like a dog he chases it, catching the ball with one hand then throws it at the other wall, repeating as he has to run off at a slightly different angle to catch it this time. He keeps that up for a few then stops near Zero again, "Here in the Dregs, you hurt the wrong woman, you'll end up mist."
Zero chuckles and shakes his head. But he waits untilk the ball play pauses to answer. "You got me wrong, man. I'm not going around right now. Was before, but Sofi's real particular so we do things her way. In part cause I know she'd rough me up, but also cause she's kinda special. And I never fucked any girl over. Some might assume, but not cause I told them anything to assume by. I like making women happy. And that don't mean just doing it. Sometimes its just telling them they look good, you know? Presents for no reason, stuff like that." He considers Ash thoughtfully, then wonders, "You been after any girls? Sometimes you have to run after 'em, I've found. Some like that."
Ash shrugs, "Last girl I tried to go after didn't turn out to well." He answers, another hard throw and the ball rockets off as he heads out after it then he heads out to catch it. Another hard throw then bounce and he's back over towards Zero again, catching the ball just before it might hit someone. "Gave me the whole cold shoulder, even after I went and dug up info for her, for free. So fuck it, I'm done with that game. At least with a whore I know she at least is willing to give me a good roll for the money." Another pair of bounce catches and the quick-flex is finally starting to work up a bit of a sweat. "You sound like some real casanova." He says with a smirk and a shake of his head before getting ready to start another set of hard bounce sprints.
Zero grins and shakes his head. "Well, girls who are looking for business aren't really the best for getting close to," he opines. "And I'm alright. I've had my fair share of failing. JUst a matter of not giving up and not sweating the small stuff. You could get turned down by a dozen chicks, but you know.. there are hundreds out there, man. No use sweating the small stuff." He keeps the the basketball, casually handling it as he speaks between Ash's racing off. Which Zero watches, openly impressed. "What's your style with the ladies? How'd you handle this business chick? Not saying I can give you anything sure fire, but you know.. never hurts to help out if you can, right?"
Catching the ball one more time Ash turns to look at Zero, "Why the fuck do you care asshole? I don't know you, and you don't know me. What the fuck makes you think I want to talk women, or even look to get advice from some prick who isn't even the same -species as me that thinks it's fun to go around tagging as much ass as he can?" He smirks, "What, now that you've found this one girl who can beat your ass you looking to pass on the legacy? I'm not like you. I don't want to be like you. Hell I'm not even sure I -like- you since you've gotten on this trip." He narrows his gaze, "And I sure as hell am not going to talk to someone I don't even know about my personal life. So keep it up, find out how many other people can beat your ass besides your girlfriend."
Zero arches a brow slightly at that. "Just looking to be helpful, but that's alright." He shrugs, mood only dipped subtly. "And like I said, you've got me wrong, man. But you can believe what you want. Maybe we can try and get off on a better foot later." He lifts a hand in a casual salute before he turns and takes the basketball off towards one of the rack that holds the various balls for use here.
Ash smirks, "Yeah right. See you around 'Zero'." He shakes his head and goes back to throwing his ball at the wall, as hard as he physically can in order to have to run hard to catch it before it his the other wall. Each time the ball hits the wall there is a reverberating crack of rubber on plaster that seems to be picking up pace with each impact of the ball. Seems the quick-flex is bound and determined to work out some issues, or at least give himself one hell of a workout.
Zero doesn't make much impact himself. Once the ball is secured, he dips into the change rooms, then emerges a few minutes later in street clothes with wet hair. Out he goes and off to tend to his day's business.
