The Echo

[Christina Ann Robins]

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"...must come down."

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Not really wanting to talk about her parents anymore, Robin was quite relived but curious at his next comment. Interesting? Was that a good or bad thing? Robin thought about it a moment, before deciding that it meant both and raised herself off the tiles, although still in a crouched position. There she smiled mischievously, and began crawling in the opposite direction where she thought their destination lay. Eventually, she reached the edge of the roof and variously peered over nodding in confirmation as she saw the glistening chlorine waters of the pool. It was empty, thank goodness-- but looked shallow form this distance.

Her mind drifted back to a Mythbuster's episode she had watched, where they had dropped a dummy from 100 feet to see if a hammer could break th water and save his life. The dummy's limbs were ripped from it's body. Robin didn't think they were that high up, but still... They were unlikely to escape this endeavor without injury.

"What do you think?" she whispered over her shoulder at Kin. "Do you think we could make the jump?"

[Kinkade Cymir Malixi]

KINKADE
_{there's a hundred
challenging things
a boy can do.}

How jumping off the building into the water was somehow better than getting caught by his father who would, without a doubt, get them down safely was beyond anyone's logical reasoning. And how he expected to preform this feat without a single student telling his father what he'd done was an even harder question to answer. Kinkade didn't seem to consider either, actually. He simply smiled back, meeting her mischievous expression with his own, as though to convey that he was more than happy to be her co-conspirator in this daring deed.

"We definitely could.

[/color]"Kinkade nodded. And he believed it, too, as his emotions would confirm. He believed it completely. He wasn't a fan of Mythbusters, though, and he had no idea what the findings of that particular experiment were. Maybe if he would have known, he would have been a little bit cautious... probably not. Things like this, those completely insane things, were what Kinkade lived for. He was normally the one thinking of them, though. And they normally weren't quite this dangerous.[/center][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Christina Ann Robins]

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"Doing the things that could break your legs, instead of simply watching, is always the better choice."

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"Right then," Robin said, determination filling her face as she turned back to face the pool, still lying on her stomach. Finally, she leapt to her feet, nodding as if to convince herself that she could make the jump. Being short had it's advantages and disadvantages.

[/b]
[li] Being amazing at Hide and Go Seek
[/li][li] Espionage
[/li][li] Not being too tall by societies standards
[/li][/ul]

[/b]
[li] Never quite being able to reach that top shelf
[/li][li] Being too short by societies standards
[/li][li] Lacking the power you may need to correctly launch yourself off a school roof and into a pool to avoid detection by a guy you just met's dad.
[/li][/ul]

Pocketing two things she had picked up on the way into her hoddie, Robin stood. "On three?"

[Kinkade Cymir Malixi]

KINKADE
_{if you take me away
all the pain will change
into a memory of when
we were amazing.}

Kinkade could relate. Er, well, to being short. Not quite as much to her logic. But it didn't matter, because he was beyond noticing had he wanted to. He got up with her, forgetting that he was worried about his father seeing him. If Shiloh saw him do this, he'd actually be proud. This was going to be amazing!... or very, very painful. For a second there was realization and hesitation, even fear, as he looked down. But her voice brought him back and he smiled again. A carefree grin. He was ready.


"Yeah, on three,

[/color]"he affirmed with a quick nod. Three was a good number. Then again, any number she would have said would have been a good number, shy of eleven, just because he wanted it to be. Anything positive to tack onto this moment would help the situation greatly.[/center][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Christina Ann Robins]

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"Doing what you thought was impossible is not only healthy-- it's downright satisfactory."

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Robin instinctively wanted to spout some last minute advice, something about keeping your knees locked, but said nothing more. The wind ruffled her curly hair, and she gazed off into the distance, lookig as still and solemn as a war veteran, ready to enter once again. She supressed her uncertainties, her fears, and her worry for her new friend's safty, and let the moment sweep her into the brightness of the afternoon, and of the possibilities of the next few moments.

"One."

Confidence.

"Two."

Unlike a normal countdown, Robin's voice got quieter as she continued.

"Three."

And then the tiles of the roof were simply... Gone.

[Kinkade Cymir Malixi]

KINKADE
_{what is it with this town?
every time we win,
it just feels like losing
we were never gonna fit in.}

Kinkade kept quiet, still grinning as she began the count. One, good. You had to start somewhere. If she would have said five, he would have feared for her sanity. Counting, predictable, stable, reassuring. Two came next, much to his relief. And then, three. Why was it getting quieter? He only had a second to consider it before he remembered; oh, yeah, that meant jump. And so, he did. Sure, it was a good two seconds behind Robin, but he found himself in the air. The boy that was a bit uncomfortable with heights was now falling through the air. The pool looked a bit small now, even as it was supposed to be getting bigger. He was getting closer, and it just seemed to shrink. Smaller, smaller, a far-too-small patch of blue among the vast expanse of gray.

Now he was reconsidering. Now he was thinking about how scary, how dangerous, how fun this was. Kinkade wanted to take a breath in, but the air rushing at him seemed to take his breath away. Well, okay. He closed his eyes tightly, praying they both hit the water.

[Christina Ann Robins]

Falling, falling, falling... Fear.

Was this what it felt like to be a bird? No, a bird soared, Robin fell. She was bird, sure, but one that had been shot out of the sky-- and was slowly falling, if the impact didn't kill her, the hunter's dog certainly would.

SPLASH! PAIN.

Water, all around! Then like the bird she was that had just registered the bullet that had brought her down. White, blue, blue, blue, so much blue, and RED. Pain, but it was far away as her locked knees hit the bottom of the pool, drowned by the adrenaline. But instead of returning to the surface, Robin remained on the bottom-- hair floating around her head and irritably getting her her eyes as she looked around for Kin. [/center]

[Kinkade Cymir Malixi]

KINKADE
_{struggle with this town
'cause you love to hate it
but hate to let it go.
and we're all alone.}

Now, Kinkade had thought simple cannon balls from several feet in the air had hurt. This? This was particularly painful. Who knew water could be so solid! But he won, if you could call it that, and he sunk below it's surface. Ow.

His father should have let him play more sports, or, well, done something to prepare him for this sudden surge. Pain was a unique thing, something he wasn't supposed to feel. If he was in pain, then Robin! His eyes opened, then stung. Ow. Damn it. That was foolish. Now that they were open, he kept them open, scanning the water for his crazy companion. Much to his relief, there she was. Safe and sound, Kinkade grinned, then turned his gaze up, gesturing to the surface of the water. He wanted nothing more than to take a deep breath of air, before he began taking in the water instead. So he swam up to it's surface and hoped she followed, inhaling deeply when he broke through the surface. That was better.

[Christina Ann Robins]

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"Water is tranquil, is it not? Yet it can still destroy mountains by simply freezing itself. How is this so?"

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Like the rooftop, the water was peaceful. Very peaceful. She almost didn't want to leave the swirling bubbles that formed around her like a blanket. But she had to, but she must-- her lungs demanded it. So Robin complied, wincing as she let herself float to the surface, taking any form of stroke kick was a bad idea now.

Robin's head broke the surface, spewing dewdrops of water all around her and into the air. They had, they had done it! Robin grinned, but didn't say anything more-- she was at a loss for words-- and simply used her arms to swim over to the side of the concrete pool. The blond pulled herself up onto the pool deck, and lay there-- the warmth of the sun flooding through the concrete and into her skin. It was a relief, a change form the winds of the roof, from the cool of the tiles and water, to the soft pulsing warmth.

[Kinkade Cymir Malixi]

KINKADE
_{we'll rewrite this movie
make it end like we want it to
and, casey, when you go,
can you come and find me?}

Air. Sweet air. So much air. He had to keep reminding himself to keep moving his arms, and not to pay so much attention to his breathing when he began to slip back into the water. It didn't occur to him to get out until Robin did. When she did, he smiled as though she'd just thought of the most brilliant plan- again. He followed her. Now that he wasn't so focused on not suffocating, he was attentive to each pain. Chlorine stung at his body, telling him of the injuries he hadn't seen yet.

But, Kinkade didn't want to think about those right now. He was still excited. They'd already jumped, and now there was just the consequence, but he was still grinning like mad. He pulled himself up, gasping softly at the sensation, then he laid at Robin's side and looked up to the sky.

"My dad is so going to kill you for that one,

[/color]"Kinkade suddenly laughed aloud. Strangely enough, the simple, inevitable fact seemed so strikingly humorous in that moment that he couldn't stop himself from the fit of laughter, even as it sent renewed signals of pain through his body.[/center][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Christina Ann Robins]

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"Andrealine: The most effective, yet short-lived pain medication there is."

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Somehow, Kin's laughter set off a chain reaction that caused her to begin to laugh too. It just occurred to her how ridiculous they probably looked, sopping wet and sprawled out on the concrete, both probably red from their skin being torn and ripped-- both of them probably had broken something too, but couldn't feel it yet due to andreline.

"You know, Empath-Kin, sir," she giggled, "You are the most interesting person I have ever met."

[Kinkade Cymir Malixi]

KINKADE
_{i've been waving goodbye
pretending not to cry
i wanna be someone!
when you take me away...}

Her laughter kept him laughing. This was insanity. It wasn't that fun kind that didn't cause any pain, but just made you laugh at things that weren't really funny. This was painful insanity that made you laugh when things definitely were not funny.

"Yeah?

[/color]"Kinkade chuckled at the idea. He, the interesting one? Hardly. "Well, if jumping off a building with you earns me that assessment, I'm more than happy to try to live up to it.[/color]"

"When I dare to move again,[/color]"Kinkade added, which probably wouldn't be particularly soon, "We should probably see the nurse, make sure you're okay.[/color]" In the meantime, the teenager normally had Aspirin in his jeans pocket. It was for his heart. Shiloh insisted. Funny, he hadn't ever really used it for pain. But again, getting it required movement, so it'd have to wait. For all he knew, it could be at the bottom of the pool.[/center][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Christina Ann Robins]

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"To not know, is to not feel. To not feel, is to not live."

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Robin's laughter seemed to die. A mental image of River filled her mind, the memories she had absorbed in their first encounter. Silently, Robin had a few memories add her own to add to her terror of syringes, needles, and especially unconsciousness. To just... Not know anything anymore...

Robin shivered, although it wasn't cold.

When she felt like sitting up, which again probably wouldn't be soon, she could try something different. Now that their daring feat was over, guilt welled up inside the girl. Was Kin hurt? Of course he was, she was too. Pain caused by... Herself.

"Apple?" Robin offered quietly, reaching inside her sweatshirt pockets and retrieving two green apples.

[Kinkade Cymir Malixi]

KINKADE
_{the ribbon on my wrist?
says do not open
before christmas.}

Guilt. He sensed it, and he didn't like it. But now probably wasn't the time to give her a hug and assure her everything was perfect. So, as with many things, he pretended he didn't notice, and he kept his gaze on the blue sky above. He even ignored the curious students. It felt like they were yelling questions at him as they passed by him silently. Yelling, so loudly, with their emotions pressing in his mind. Focus... Suddenly, he was being asked if he wanted an apple.

"What?

[/color]"Kinkade turned his head and his gaze over to Robin. It hurt, but it was worth it. "Where in the world did you get that?[/color]" Despite the question, he took it gratefully, ignoring the pain the motion brought as he drew the apple toward his chest. He didn't take a bite, he just clutched it in his hand.[/center][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[Christina Ann Robins]

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"Put others before yourself."

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Robin laughed quietly, not capable of much more. Adrenaline was gone, like she expected, and her life-force was working double time to try and heal her-- blue sparks flying over her soaked skin and making it glisten. She opened her mouth to speak, and even though it hurt, she continued. "On the roof. There was an apple tree. That's why I asked if you wanted an apple for lunch before."

His quiet observation, if that even was an emotion, made her smile slightly. Dealing with Empaths had their advantages-- and this one in particular was a keeper. Slowly, quietly, she placed her hand on the concrete below, almost as if she was putting her apple away back in her sweat-shirt. The blue sparks on her skin seemed to freeze and waver, torn between healing their master or following her new orders. "Are we going to jump off anymore roofs in the future, Empath-Kin, sir? Or do you have a better idea for future reference?"