841/Fielding Texts

Fielding Texts
Date of Scene:	29 March 2020
Location:	Track and Field - Happy Harbor High School
Synopsis:	Drawn away from her writing by Alexander's text of the night sky, Patsy goes to talk troubles and triumphs of life under the stars. Nobody sings Hakuna Matata this time.
Cast of Characters:	Alexander Aaron, Patsy Walker

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Alexander Aaron has posed:
    Things had been strange.
    Stranger than normal at least. With how things have gone down at school. With the people he's met. The friends he's made. The friends he'd lost. Seems like in some ways the world comes rushing towards people and at times there's no break from it. Just a steady pelting of events and reactions that one has to address and deal with even when there's no energy left to deal with it.
    Couldn't go to his father for advice. Or rather advice that might be useful beyond the casual comment of, 'Deal with it, boy.' which had some positive sentiment to it. But not something that was wanted. Not now.
    So the young man known as Alexander Aaron had decided to just stop for a time. To call a halt to the world as he walked out of the school and just laid down there in the middle of the soccer field. The green grass soft and wonderful and only a few bugs wanting to crawl over or nibble in the passage of time.
    One of his friends had wandered out, "Hey Alex, what are you doing?"
    "Nothin'."
    "You cool?"
    "Oh yeah, sure."
    "Okay man,"
    And off they went.
    Night time rolled around, the sun creeping down below the horizon and disappearing. And slowly, very slowly, the stars began to come out. To appear there above Happy Harbor, away from the light pollution of the big city, on the cusp of the suburbs, far enough away that there they are...the stars. How long has it been since he's seen them.
    Slowly an arm lifted, the cellphone in his hand aimed straight up to the heavens. There's a small click from the little handheld device, then the picture appeared on the app he was using. He looked at it for a time, lowering the phone to his navel as he contemplated both of them.
    A glance at his contacts, scrolling through them, trying to find someone who might appreciate it until he settled on one...
    He attached the image, then pinged the name he had labeled, 'Redhead Nancy Drew' and clicked send.
    << Guess where I am. >>

Patsy Walker has posed:
Fingers fly over the keyboard and the glow of the screen shines from the gloss of her finely-manicured nails. Headphones tucked to her ears bobble back and forth in time to ambient music, nothing too distracting lyrically or rhythmically, and it's only the brightening of her phone's screen that coerces Patsy to look over from the laptop. A curious frown proceeds her picking it up to see the message -- ah, it's Alexander -- and she opens the message to see the picture.

Oh wow, look at that: what an expanse of stars, and very clear! << Guess where I am. >> says the text attached.

"Hmm..." Pushing the headphones away from her ears, Patsy then slouches in her chair. A loose t-shirt sporting some Lisa Frank rainbow horse and a black pair of sweatpants make for comfortable writing time. Her fingers fly over the keyboard.

<< Still in the city because the stars aren't super bright. Do I get a cookie? >>

Ping, off it goes.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    The response she gets back is quick.

<< Oooh. cookies. >>

<< Happy Harbor soccer field. It's kinda nice. >>

Patsy Walker has posed:
Patsy glances over again as her phone chimes. Her grin is quick, her laugh just as such. Fingers fly yet again.

<< Surprised that the sky is that bright there. Why there right now? Late. You're not cold? >>

Ping, off it goes, and she rises to wander to the kitchen where she realizes, belatedly, that she left her decaf coffee in the microwave an hour ago.

The toils of the Muse.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    For Alexander that phone is the only light in his line of sight beside the stars. He holds it on his chest and just now and again looks down at it while around him there's the faint chirp of crickets and small frogs wandering up that way from the lake near.
    His phone buzzes and he looks at it, then types.

<< No reason. Just wanted to lie down in a field I guess. >>

<< It is a lil cold, but I have a jacket. It's pretty though. And frogs are making noises. >>

Patsy Walker has posed:
As Patsy inputs another 45 seconds to the microwave and gets it going, she glances over at her phone on the counter again. A brief squint and her thumbs fly after she picks it up.

<< I haven't heard frogs in forever. Used to at my parent's lake house. >> She pauses in order to look beyond her reflection in the window out at the city's night-time glows of windows.

<< Want a friend? Think my brain needs a break from writing. >>

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    There's a pause in the response, perhaps a minute or two...
    << Sure. Here I am on Google maps. >>
    And there's a link to show her the exact location, down to latitude and longitude. She could zoom right on in after all and see everything so well. If not the young deity reclining there.

Patsy Walker has posed:
The microwave beeps, Patsy retrieves her coffee, and sips at it while her eyes rest on her phone. Thumbing at the link, she then fusses with it to find precisely where the field is.

<< Not too far. Gimme about 45 min, more if traffic is bad. >>

Ping, text sent again. It doesn't take long to find more appropriate clothing to change into, warm beneath her peacoat seen worn before, and just about forty-five minutes on, a distant dark silhouette of a figure shows up on the edge of the field. It takes a second for Patsy's eyes to adjust, but she spots the sprawl of Alexander on the grass and calls out quietly,

"Hey you. I brought a blanket if you wanted to get off the grass. I know it gets dewy this time of night." Regardless of whether or not //he// wants to join on the blanket, sided with wool for the sitter and then a waterproof lining for the ground, it's flipped out and then the redhead settles crisscross in her sneakers. A look up towards the night sky is followed by a sigh. "Boy, this is better than your picture."

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    When she arrives and calls out she'll see him rise a bit, pulling himself slooooowly up into a seated posture, almost painfully so as grimaces and streeetches his back, pulling his feet up into a cross-legged posture then planting his hands on either side of his knees and twisting to the side until his back makes a soft cartilaginous crackle.
    Then he turns the other way.
    Once that's done he greets her with a smile and murmurs, "Sure... I'm fine for now but lay it on out."
    Then his eyes follow hers up towards the sky and he nods a little, "Yeah. It's pretty cool."
    And with that he'll crawl over and then just lie on the edge of the blanket, his head close to hers but his body perpendicular.
    "So hey. How are you doin'?"

Patsy Walker has posed:
In order to better appreciate the vast expanse of the night sky above, Patsy does shift from sitting to lying back on the blanket. Beneath her, the subtle shift of the grass and flat surface is foreign to her own carpeting back at the apartment, but in a pleasant way. She briefly glances over when Alexander shows up partially on the blanket, but not for long. Above, the cosmos beckons.

He asks his question and the redhead muses for a short time. "I'm good, I think. I was writing when you texted me, but I needed a break, like I said. I felt like I was going to hit a speedbump in a bit. I got up to reheat my coffee, so that's probably proof of it." She chuckles to herself before she sighs. "Other than that...not much has happened since I saw you last talking to pigeons. I mean, I did come across a really weird guy at the zoo, but the zoo attracts all types. How about you? How goes your time at your cool logo school?" One can hear the smile in her tone.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "Oh cool logo school is still in the offing, next semester." He lifts a hand and she can likely see it from where she is, though he's waving vaguely in the direction of the school whose soccer field they're on. "I'm still going here, for a little longer though. Sort of a favor to my dad." There's some hint of negativity there, but not a lot.
    "After that, back into the city."
    Then there's quiet. The sounds of the crickets, the chirps of the lake frogs. It's a lovely tableau and the relative silence just makes it all the nicer. She might hear him take a deep breath, hold it, then sloooowly let it out.
    A few more shared moments then he says quietly, "I'm half tempted to fall asleep out here."

Patsy Walker has posed:
A near-silent crinkle comes of the writer nodding against the blanket, her red hair pillowed on the wooly tartan-patterned fabric. "Nothing wrong with the city," she murmurs quietly. After all, she calls the place home.

Silence reigns for a time, interwoven with the sounds of the insects and frogs calling out in herald to spring, and when Alex speaks again, Patsy glances his way. All she can see is the crown of his head, but it doesn't detract from communication.

"It'd be too cold for me to sleep out here, even if I burritoed myself up in the blanket. It's not a thermal one, it's just a picnic one I got after I graduated high school. Boy, that seems like a while ago now." She laughs to herself again, still picking out the constellations she knows amongst the myriad stars.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    A small hmm comes from him as he murmurs, "If this was the zombie apocalypse we would have to huddle together for warmth and hide." He nods slowly, thoughtfully.
    A moment passes then he murmurs, "How did it feel?" Alexander asks and she'll see him lifting his hands up and up, holding thumb and forefinger out as if framing a picture of the heavens above between them. One eye scrunches up as he fails to find the angle he likes and then he murmurs again, adding to the question there, "When you graduated? Things went all different? Stayed the same?"
    He draws one leg up a little and rest his foot upon the ground.
    "I talked to one guy. And he said nothing really changes. That it's all the same thing over and over. And I don't know if I believe him."

Patsy Walker has posed:
Alexander does get a chuckle out of the writer for his allusion to a zombie apocalypse. "True," she allows quietly, eyes still upon the heavens. The rise and motions of his hand drawns her attention and she watches its angles against the sky. Now the richness of the celestial display has come first, after vision adjusted; the blackness is filled with more distant lights and the brightest stars shine like diamonds.

It's Patsy's turn to let out a long sigh. Her boots rustle as she crosses them at the ankles and interlaces her hands over her stomach.

"Don't believe him. That guy's being a real nattering naybob of negativity. Of course things change. You're out in the world on your own, but you know enough to get along if you've been paying attention. You get your first steady job, you buy your own things, you make new friends and...I mean, sometimes you leave things behind. Some friends grow away from you. Maybe your family's still your family, but they ask you about if you made your rent instead of whether or not you got your homework done. It becomes crazy how big the world is sometimes, but it's also crazy-fun how much //opportunity// is out there. You could do so many things and...really, the only thing that's stopping you is you, you know? But it's scary too," she allows with a dry little note of memory. "You have to solve stuff on your own and sometimes, you don't succeed. Maybe you get fired. Maybe your car breaks down. Maybe you get into a fight and your roommate moves out and you have to find somebody else or you won't make rent. Maybe you lose people." Her voice goes quieter. There's a short period of bruised silence.

"But...I mean, it's life. Why look at it through grey lenses? It's an amazing place to live if you're brave," she finishes.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    For a moment he pushes his head into the pillow so he can lift with his hips and look at her upside down from that angle, his eyebrows lifting/lowering as he considers what she tells him. Then he eases back down, hands settled across his chest as he considers the words she's granted him.
    "You have many stories in you, Patsy." He says, as if somehow not connected to what they were discussing, and yet it must be. Yet for now that is all he says in return for those thoughts given him. Perhaps having driven him somewhat introspective.
    A small flicker of light flashes by above, perhaps a shooting star, perhaps aught else. He doesn't remark on it, however. Instead he tells her quietly, "I am not sure how many of those things I'll experience. And I worry sometimes I won't feel the right things when I do experience them."

Patsy Walker has posed:
Weight in the young man's words about the stories has Patsy lifting up her head to look at him. She frowns, somehow noticing this gravity on some level she'd be hard-pressed to define, and then settles her head back down on her pillowing of hair. The flash of light threading in a winkling arc across the zenith of the sky draws her attention and her eye-tooth catches at the corner of her lip; of course a wish is made, kept to herself for sanctity.

"Well..." Pausing, Patsy thinks again. There's some fretting and she stretches her feet out on-pointe before relaxing them again. "So...it's okay if you don't experience ALL of that. Those were just a bunch of examples. I left out a lot of things like...taxes and traveling to other countries and wrestling crocodiles and stuff." She glances over at the crown of his head again and maybe Alexander can feel her steel-blue gaze linger there now.

"As far as the other thing, about feeling the right thing...that's not fair to yourself. Nobody really gets to judge you for how you react. You're your own person, right? I mean, do you have an example or something you feel comfortable sharing? You don't have to if you don't want to, there's really no pressure," she adds truthfully.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    For a time he might feel the weight of her regard, evident only in that slight crinkle of grass as she shifts her frame just enough to look upon him. It's there in the way one cricket falls silent and another near finds it safe enough to chirp. The way her breathing might shift from the subtle difference in posture. But he makes no hint of recognizing it, no voice to the thought, perhaps still lost in part in his own.
    He does nod, however, when she mentions other things to do. Then sort of smirks about the wrestling of crocodiles, a small 'heh' slipping from his lips.
    But then he rolls over to face her, lying down on his abdomen and looking across the way to her, holding his chin up with his hands. "I mean... because of who I am, Patsy. I don't feel fear. And that extends to... I've learned, a lot of emotions really. It's all somewhat connected."
    His eyes lower as he murmurs, "I have found I don't think I can love someone since..." He looks to the side, "So much of that is fear. Afraid of losing someone. Afraid of not being good enough."
    Looking back, "I have a hard time planning for the future. Because of Fate, but also because I do not worry."

Patsy Walker has posed:
Patsy listens and when he's done speaking, her eyes fall from his face. They track to one of his elbows buried in the blanket's edging and then off to the far end of the field before rising back to the heavens. Her lips can be seen to purse and shift one way before the other, still holding that rosebud of thought.

"That's a toughie," she admits. "So...you think you can't love someone because it's like you're too confident that they'll stay with you and you're already sure you're good for them. I can see that being difficult for some people to process, but maybe not everyone. You're also, what...nineteen?"

Alexander gets a wry little look, complete with wry little smile. "You've got a lot of life ahead of you, bud, every decision doesn't have to be made right now. There's time for stuff, even if it doesn't feel like it. It sounds silly, but maybe try a checklist? Like, here's what I want to get done by the end of this year. Check stuff off as you go after you hang it on your fridge. Same with relationships though. You really do have time." This, she says more gently.

"I mean, look at me, I'm clearly a guru, I've been around forevvvvver." A snort.

Alexander Aaron has posed:
    "It's... different than that," Alexander straightens up then, rising up to a seated posture, drawing his legs up to cross them before him, hands resting on his knees thoughtfully. Small bits of grass and debris cling to his pants legs even as he chews his lower lip thoughtfully. His head cocks to the side as his hazel eyes drift a little, noting he way the stars reflect off the lake down the decline.
    "It's more... I don't care? I was in a relationship with someone recently. And we were exclusive. And I thought I was being a good partner." He uncurls a hand and waves it to the side, "But she dumped me." He says that openly blatantly.
    "And I just... it didn't bother me too much beyond the part where I had to reflect and wonder if I wouldn't be able to function as people expect me to. Like ever."
    As he says that he pushes himself up to his knees and then rolls a shoulder. He gestures towards the school parking lot, "C'mon, I think the security guard mighta seen us."

Patsy Walker has posed:
"Oh...I'm sorry, Alexander, that's...that's rough." Patsy's consulation is just as gentle as she can manage. She too remembers past break-ups and how they were always rocky and jagged, full of emotional bruises and cuts. She sits up quickly at his mention of being seen, however, and squints.

"...yeah, I think the guard has too. We'd best beat it before the flashlight comes out any brighter," she mutters. The blanket is rolled up as quickly as can be managed after she departs from it. Still, she takes enough time that many glances are given in Alex's direction.

"I still think you've got some time to figure this out yet. I'm sorry I don't have any super-spiffy wisdom for you, but...I mean...in the end, you can only be you. There's probably somebody out there for you and you just haven't met them yet. Remember that whole Fate bit? Maybe there's a few more years to go right now. Or maybe it'll be tomorrow. Life's crazy, but we're stuck in it. Hopefully, whomever it is, they can handle it if you want to wrestle crocodiles."

Alexander then gets a twiddly-fingered wave and a quick grin, cherubic and apple-cheeked. "Don't get caught," the author singsongs before she begins making her way towards one of the exits at a rather brisk jog. Gotta beat the flashlight!