underlondon_npc | Outside of Muses: Camden Market, Christmas 2032

Entry tags:

Outside of Muses: Camden Market, Christmas 2032

At first glance, the busy street Nix ushers Reid out to looks like something out of a Charles Dickens book, although slightly more sanitised than that. The street is narrow and jammed with stalls selling a massive variety of food, clothing, small animals, tools, odd-looking electronics and virtually anything (and everything) else. Few people in the street look particularly well-off - or particularly clean - although there's a wild variation in outfits, ages, genders and races. There are even horses and carts, although the occasional electric flicker betrays the fact that the horses, at least, are some kind of hologram, and in the sky are pigeons, and odd flying shapes that look as if they might be some kind of motorcycle or quadbike. Far off, and high up, an odd-looking machine like a train or perhaps a tram whirrs and rattles along elevated rails into the distance as it snakes through the tallest buildings.

The overall impression is that of noise and ragged colour and smoky late-afternoon air, all highlighted by the rather incongruous-looking strands of fairylights and the lightly falling snow. London smells odd: not entirely unpleasant, but smoky and damp, with an odd note of petrol and oils, maybe even gunpowder, behind the smells of dozens of cultures' worth of cooking food.

Nix turns to Reid with a laughing, red-lipped grin, gesturing with her furled umbrella. The door she's holding open for him is now that of a pub, the George Cross, with people laughing, shouting and drinking behind them as they had been in Milliways, but unlike Milliways it's far pokier, darker and overheated: it's no surprise that she preferred to drink at the end of the universe, when the opportunity presented itself.

"Welcome to London!"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"...Weight limits?" Reid asks. He checks his gun, and then puts it up; he doesn't trust his sense of balance quite that much, much less his aim.

"Precautionary measure," answers Gryff, counting as each of their group leaves the bridge. "Most of it's fine enough, but the rope bridges were built by the kids for the gaps they couldn't jump. I've not seen one give yet, but..."

"We haven't exactly hit lucky today, so pushin' our luck doesn't sound like a good idea," completes Nix. "Happily, this'll be a fairly short trip. Gryff, you go first, then you, Bright Spark, and I'll go last. Anythin' goes wrong, not that it should - and yeah, I know, famous last words - I'll grab you. You'll be fine, just follow Gryff."

The first rope bridge is sturdy and barely six feet long, onto the flat roof of the next building. Gryff heads across after Threnody, boots crunching on the snow, and makes the jump (admittedly, only a couple of feet) onto the next building look effortless before he turns to keep an eye on Reid.

"Here goes nothing, I guess..."

Don't look down, he tells himself, and focuses on just getting across to the other side.

He's not even going to try that jump.

"Your legs are longer than that gap, Bright Spark," says Nix helpfully (or ... not) from behind him. "Hell, Shortarse over there has legs longer than that."

"Anyone ever tell you what a charmer you are, Nix Gordon?" Gryff yanks free a length of rope from an overhang and pulls on it with both hands, checking it for safety before batting it across to Reid. "Hang onto that if you want, Spencer. Although you're better off just jumping without breaking stride."

Reid swallows, and.

"I've never been really, ah, athletic? But I'll give it a try..."

Just don't look down.

"We'll catch you if you fall," Nix says, quieter and more reassuring. "And there's no bigger jumps than that to take. Keep your eyes up, and jump."

"Right."

He swallows again, and goes. ...And when he lands on his feet after the jump, having not fallen to his death--

Well, he kind of wishes Morgan were here to see him.

"Nice one." Nix grins, hopping across after him. "Said you could do it."

"Thirteen minutes!" calls Ariel, two buildings away, before disappearing again.

"He fusses too much, that one," Nix mutters, but takes Reid's hand again and hurries them onwards, across the roof to the next. The next gap is barely two hands wide, onto the wide roof of someone's balcony, and then a scramble up the four feet of wall to the flat roof. Gryff goes first, still making it look effortless, then waits to give Reid a hand up the wall if he needs it.

Reid's tall enough that he can make the climb with little trouble - especially running on the adrenaline from jumping over roofs.

"You'll be an action hero yet, mate," Gryff grins as Nix vaults up after them. Threnody is waiting for them on the other side of the building, her dreadlocks waving slightly in the breeze; she gives Reid a wave and a grin when he appears.

"One more jump, bit smaller than the first one, then down the fire escape to the ground," Nix says, smiling at him. "Like I said, best bet's just to keep going and don't break stride. Ready?"

Reid takes a deep breath, and nods.

"Ready," he replies.

Nix laughs, her head up and her eyes bright, her hat at an angle: she loves this. "Come on, let's go!"

The next building lies slightly lower than the one they're on, and the gap between the two is, as promised, a little smaller than the first; Threnody, then Gryff, clear it without difficulty, snow crunching underneath them as they land.

Reid follows, and tries not to think about the drop until he's safe on the other side, heart beating in his ears again.

"You know, absolutely none of my friends back home would believe this? That I'm jumping from roof to roof?"

Nix grins as she watches a giggling Threnody turn a cartwheel across the roof, her hair flying in an arc of black-pink-green-blue.

"Reckon they haven't been paying enough attention, then," she tells him, tugging lightly at one of his curls. "First time out, you're doing great."

Suddenly she drops her hat on Reid's head to copy her sister, giggling as much as the younger girl.

Reid blinks, hand coming up to cover the hat in surprise. And after a moment, he laughs.

"Having fun?"

Nix finishes the set of cartwheels with a backflip, springing neatly to her feet.

"Yup!" She beams at him: that grin of his is infectious and hers isn't far off.

(Threnody has an excuse: she doesn't leave the tunnels nearly as much as she should. Nix just thinks it's fun.)

"The hat suits you," Threnody observes, still giggling as she dusts snow off her hands.

Nix is laughing too as she slides her (snow-free) cold little hand back into Reid's. "It does, doesn't it?" she agrees, but lifts it off his head just the same. "'cept I'm way too cold to stay without it."

Shaven head: it really does make a major difference.

"I don't mind," Reid replies. He takes a moment to run his fingers thorugh his hair, settling it back into some semblance of order.

Nix resists the urge to do it herself, instead resettling her bag on her shoulders.

"All right, kids, time to act like adults again. Stairs!"

Threnody flicks her dreadlocks out, but heads for the steps. "You spoil all my fun, you do."

"She's a bitch," agrees Gryff, swinging himself down after her. "But we love her. Well, sometimes."

The iron fire escape is old and battered-looking, but it's solid enough, leading down six storeys to a tiny alley just off a main thoroughfare. Jack is waiting for them at the bottom, standing next to an open grill in the ground.

Reid has to admit, if only to himself, just how relieved he is to be back on the ground again. He doesn't so much have to worry about one wrong foot sending him plummeting to his death, for instance.

Nix whistles before she hits the stairs, and by the time she leaps the final four steps to the ground, the dogs have caught up from where they had to leave them on the ground.

Jack grins when she sees Reid. "Nice goin', newbie. Drop through - it's near seven feet down, but it's onto solid ground and Ariel and Carmody'll catch you. Then it's pretty much straight down through the Underground and we're home and dry soon as this hatch slams shut."

"Right."

His voice isn't as shaky as it could be, but he's still nervous. But he trusts these people, he thinks - they haven't done him wrong yet.

Threnody drops through without a second thought, whereas Gryff, being shorter, lowers himself down more carefully before swinging to the floor.

When it's Reid's turn, Ariel and Carmody are both waiting as promised, calm and capable. The passageway they are waiting in has the unmistakable curved walls of the old London Underground, dimly lit and dirty but at least the air smells clear enough, just a little musty. There's a strip of dim lights on the ceiling, illuminating just enough to find your way without too much difficulty. If the signs are anything to go by, they're on the Northern Line.

"...Wow. This really is the Underground. It's... hard to imagine, London without the Underground running."

"Well, yeah. We got the name for a reason," Gryff says as Nix swings herself down after Reid, landing lightly in a crouch before straightening.

"I don't remember it ever running," says Threnody, pushing her hair away from her face. "The bombings were before I was born. I remember when they opened the Overground, though." She looks at Reid curiously. "When're you from, then?"

Nix whistles, and the dogs make elegant leaps down one after the other and sit waiting for Jack, though the big Boxer looks at Reid.

"Vegas," Reid replies. "Born and raised."

He's pretty sure saying 'Quantico' wouldn't be the best idea.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject