Sk8 City xhamsno you can't name a thread that

Grace had new two hobbies, and both currently lent themselves to bruising.

Hobby one: prodding needles into her arm to practice drawing just enough blood at a time to prove she could do it. She was getting better at this.

Hobby two: busting ass as Sk8 City. She was getting better at this, too. After clawing around the internet for drills she could do by herself, Grace had begun taking advantage of every discounted entry Cat could offer her here. If asked, Grace wasn't competitive. But in reality, she was going to be the best motherfucker on the team or die trying.

Today she was putting work into a trick that continued to fuck her up: backwards skating. She could get started, manage a few steps, but it always felt mad precarious. Grace figured it was mostly in her head: her legs could do the work just fine, but it made her nervous as shit. The only way to get better was to blast through it, so here she was. Crushing it.

Mostly, anyway. She was doing a lap around the edge of the rink, one hand outstretched, barely skimming the surrounding wall. Grace picked up speed in time with confidence, decided she didn't even need to look back.

This went great right until she reached the entrance (and exit) of the rink, accidentally pivoted, and came to wheel in reverse onto the carpeted floor beyond. The increased friction put a hard stop to her momentum, and she flopped backwards toward her ass, managing to land mostly the way she'd been taught: not full cheeks and tailbone, more favoring a side.

Except she realized right away it didn't matter, because instead of hitting the carpet, she'd definitely landed on top of someone. Fucking oops!

Who else would it be! Kiyoshi, who absolutely had no talent here whatsoever. She got busted into by someone and now she was falling right back onto her own ass.

"Ahfuck!" she yelped.

She hadn't even made it to the rink >:{

This was more like derby practice than skating by herself. Someone cussed beneath her and she grunted, feeling heavy and clumsy in the skates. Grace rolled onto her side, which felt like the nicest way to uncrunch someone.

"I break you?" she asked, which was definitely a way you asked if someone was okay. A few people were already bumbling around them, but Grace paid them no mind as she shifted to plant ass on carpeting.

Knee and elbow pads were cool for derby bullshit, but they made her feel like a turtle whenever she wasn't actively skating.

Kiyoshi, committed to having fallen, just flopped her head on the ground and watched a collective of people start coalescing to stare at her.

"Think so."

She gave them a mean sneer. Fuck off. She needed a second.

Way to go, Grace. Your first crash into someone and you'd murdered them. Imagine how good she'd be doing that intentionally.

At least now she had experience getting up after going skates up. She caught that look as she moved to her knees, assumed it both was and wasn't for her.

"Where's it hurt?" she asked, nosy as she fumbled toward standing. It wasn't clean, but it wasn't clueless, either. Practice made whatever the fuck this was!

Pff. "My fuckin' ass," she grumbled. "I dunno why I'm here, I can't do this shit."

Just kidding, it was because a coworker wanted to go here for their birthday, and she was here trying to get some practice in before that. She pushed herself up on her hands at least. Crankyyyyy.

She blinked at the chick. Did not recall who this was at first, but that was coming.

Whoops, Grace had landed on someone's fucking baggage, apparently. She held out a hand, widening her stance so she wouldn't immediately lose her footing when shifting weight.

Though it was now that this chick looked familiar, and Grace squinted blatantly. Who the fuck are you.

"Then why'd you come?" she asked. Grace couldn't do this shit either, but she'd had reason to practice. Why spend money on an activity you obviously hated?

"Coworker. Birthday party. Next weekend."

Boom, boom, pow. Delivered on fingers.

"Help me up."

That didn't make a lot of sense. Grace leaned back but offered a hand forward, largely capable of pulling the chick up without busting ass.

"Shit, you're here early," she said, a dad quality joke accompanied by a grunt as she helped the other skater up.

Who the fuck was she? There was familiarity, but Grace met a lot of people between work and life.

Kiyoshi also grunted. But she grunted a lot in general.

She did not get the joke, though. "I'm trying to practice," she explained dryly, a lunkhead. "Why're you here."

She saw the elbow pads and knee pads and the whole vibe was just kinda a lot.

Tough life, being born without a sense of humor. Grace sure as shit couldn't relate. They were both standing in a second, and Grace reached a hand back to massage her own ass cheek for a few gropes. Falling on skates still hadn't become normal to her, as accustomed as she was to busting ass everywhere else.

"Practicing. Roller derby, though," she said. "You wanna get in there?"

Grace jerked her head that way, knowing she was going there herself, but it was up to buzzkill to decide if she wanted to come with.

"What's roller derby?" she asked, staring as — hey, who was this, her brain suddenly started asking. It felt like she... was... someone. Cool? "Fuck that — I've met you before."

Grace had an answer to the first thing, but the second came before she could deliver it. And unfortunately, memory was not her strong point. But she did sure as shit know she knew her.

"I keep thinking I know you but I don't know where from," she said. Squinted. "'Grace' ring a bell?"

And then, very suddenly, she did remember. Early teleportation days, a rare incident of embarrassment.

Ffffffffffff-

She blinked. Blinked. Grace. Trouble was, she didn't exactly remember the name Grace. Not yet. Not until...

Kiyoshi leaned forward and make a rectangle with her hands. Like when you were framing a picture. Squinted. One eye shut. Stared. It was when she focus on just her face that she realized it.

"The fuckin' Snorlax?! Your hair's gone!"

The fuckin' Snorlax. Grace felt her face get warm, reminded herself that at very least she could skate better than this other woman whose name she absolutely couldn't remember.

"I buzzed it," she said, running her hand through regrowth. It had come a long way, actually. She half wanted to buzz it again, but they were getting into cold season. Didn't want to freeze her ears off

"How long was it when we met?!"

They were in the way of people getting into the rink, but whatever.

Kiyoshi leaned against the like... barrier or whatever, the thing around the rink that had an opening that they were blocking. Whatever. Her ass hurt still. That was not the point here.

"I dunno. Like two years?" she asked. What was time. (It was just under a year ago.) "Why'd you do that. Buzzing."

Definitely not two years, if only because she knew she hadn't had been able to teleport for that long. (Had she? Grace sure as fuck hoped she'd be doing better now if she had.)

"Teleported back too close to a wall and almost scalped myself in the back," she said. "Decided to buzz it instead of having some rando bald spot."

Grace followed her lead, but settled on the other side of the other side of the opening because that's who she was.

She sputtered. "What?! You can get stuck in WALLS??"

But for all her loud crudeness, she was warming up to Gr... Gret- nope. Snorlax.

She laughed big.

"Imagine my fucking surprise when I figured that out," she said. Took one foot and rolled the wheels beneath it back and forth about a foot, always needing to move. It helped her focus. "I've clipped skin on my hands and shit before too. It's like I teleport back half an inch off or whatever and fuse with shit."

Though she always, always lost the fuse. Just came out missing whatever body part had gone into the mix, whether that was a chunk of hair or a layer of palm flesh.

Sick. Gross.

"Do you bleed or just like."

She made a chopping motion with a finger over her other hand.

"Does it just like... skin over..."

Chick whose name Grace couldn't remember was asking the good questions.

"Bleed," she said. "It's weird. Sometimes I think it's not going to, but it just takes a second."

She eyed her own palm, considering, then looked back.

"I've clipped the ass off my pants before too. More mad about that because clothing costs money."

Skin grew back free!

Kiyoshi had a big grimace face for that because she misunderstood it as like, she was clipping her actual ass skin off. "Oh, the pants," she realized a second after. "I mean, I'd hate to lose my actual ass. But you can do it better now? Thrifting."

Heheh, "thrifting." Stealing.

It was only a layer of ass! A layer of ass she could regrow! Not that she'd yet had to do that. Scab ass would likely be pretty miserable now that she considered it.

She didn't follow the thrifting thing.

"I guess," she huffed. "Thank fuck I haven't had to practice it a lot more."

Managing mostly not to ruin clothing. Mostly.

"Why?" she asked, confused about the sudden change of heart. Or, she guessed, if it had been two years then maybe it wasn't all that sudden. "I mean. If I could do that I'd swipe everything."

Oh. That's what she meant. Grace hadn't not considered it. But it was easier to traditionally shoplift than it was to try to teleport, hope she got home, remind herself why she was there, wait to pass out, teleport back, hope she didn't make a scene.

Stealing was more fun as a stupid group activity than trying to yoink something by herself and sell it on Facebook marketplace. Didn't give her any pride. But maybe she was pussying out?

Something about this chick always inspired a weird insecurity in Grace. It wasn't her favorite.

"Oh, yeah," she said. "I got a ways to go before I can nail down that shit. Eventually, though."

She made a call me sign with her hands. You know the one.

"Gotta hit me up when you figure it out."

Too bad she couldn't do it herself. Kiyoshi would spend all day trying to figure it out. She looked out at the rink.

"How'd you get into all this?"

Roller derby, whatever that was. Kiyoshi hated roller skating. It felt wrong in a gut twisting way to be moving like that with only just her feet and nothing else. Which was probably why she fell instead. >:(

Grace definitely did not have this chick's number (did she?!), but she understood it well enough as the kind of shit you said but didn't mean. They both looked back out to the rink, kids out there skating like it was no thing. Practice had absolutely helped Grace improve, but seeing an eleven-year-old do it was insulting.

"Had a friend who was trying to build a team," she said. "Figured I'm always down for an excuse to smash into other people for fun."

And intentionally, versus planting her ass on someone on the carpet here. Whoops.

"Well I like smashing people," she frowned defensively, not against Grace but against the world. "But mostly in uh. Boxing rings."

Zipper's was supposed to be a secret, okay.

Also no one would call Kiyoshi's manner of brawling "boxing" if they saw her.

What was the frown about, chick. Grace mirrored it back unconsciously.

Anyway, boxing rings, huh. Sounded like a whole thing. Derby had to be easier. Less getting hit in the head, which frankly Grace did not need more of in her life.

"You ever do Zipper's?" she asked. Shifted her weight to her other hip so she could roll a different foot idly against the carpet.

Oh. She knew about Zipper's. Kiyoshi blinked. But it was an expression of being impressed, so...

"Never met another chick who knew about it before."

Hell yeah. That made more sense than this chick swinging some kind of professional boxing circuit. Seemed pretty fucking formal.

"I used to fuck around there every couple months," she said. "I visit sometimes still, but. They got a lot of vamps and shifters and shit that fight there and I don't want some bitch to scratch me and turn me into a wolf or some shit."

Fuck you, ass-grabbing werewolf.

Real talk? Kiyoshi wouldn't mind getting turnt.

"Why do I only ever fight normies?" she puffed, unaware she'd totally gone up against a whole mega strong were once. She'd have carried that gap in between her upper molars with pride if she knew.

She laughed. Angled herself to start rolling slow into the rink, testing if she was going to be accompanied.

"I had a vampire pick me up by the throat like some Darth Vader shit," she said, clutching a hand to her own neck. "Fucking weird shit. At least you have a chance of beating normies."

Technically she'd stuck in the ring longer than that shitty vampire, but she knew that to be the result of luck more than brawn.

"Mannn," she commented, clearly pretty fucking jealous. No one'd ever picked her up. That was some crazy shit though. "I bet we could take that bitch two on one. But I mean like. I dunno. I wouldn't mind changing up. Being humie's boring."

No. They couldn't. Grace was very sure about that. But she wasn't going to be a buzzkill.

"Psychic or bust," she said. And she was maneuvering around to be inside the rink, now, opposite normie.

"Everything else has some nasty-ass drawbacks."

Vampire she could almost do. Shifter, rather be dead.

Hang on. Pause. She'd take missing body parts from bad teleporting but not turning into a giant tiger or gaining eternal life? Where was the tradeoff?

Huh.

"How's that," she decided for clarification.

Someone was circling the edges of the rink, so Grace backed up a few feet to let them wall crawl between her and Ignorance Is Bliss over here.

"Which one you wanna learn about first?" she asked. "Vamps or shifters?"

And then she let herself slowly wheel back another few inches, reach casual like.

A huff. She didn't live under that big of a rock.

"I know about them. I just don't know what makes the other two so much worse than, I dunno. Missing fingers and passing out on floors and shit like that."

Casually said, not pointed. Kiyoshi watched the skater skate by and thought of they were so good then they could maneuver around her.

Too quick to correct and now Grace still didn't have an answer. She was curious what this chick thought she knew about it all, given that she wanted to go fight one but couldn't find her way into a skating rink.

"I didn't say you didn't know shit," she said, marginally less even. "There's a long fuckin' list for both so I was asking which you wanted to know about first."

And then another few inches back, the distance growing.

That wasn't an answer to her question. It was still an assumption that she didn't know about supernaturals in general.

"I said I know about them," blockhead repeated. "What I don't get- your reasonings."

This dumb bitch. Grace considered doing a loop around, but now it was A Thing. She looked the chick in the face with a more irritable expression than she wanted.

"Tell me what you know about vampires."

Go ahead. Blow Grace's MIND.

Kiyoshi, blessed by being a local radio host and therefore at least eighty percent acquainted with the news and sixty percent acquainted with personal anecdotes, startled to rattle off.

"They live forever. They have magic powers. Some turn into talking animals and fuck with people. They like fucking with peoples' minds. Some people get their whole memories stolen. Don't make eye contact. They only drink blood. They can't have food. They turn into psycho demons, usually on the new moon. They're cold as shit. They get fucked by fire or sunlight."

These were all commonplace experiences. Callers came in with stories about these things all the time. She was sure there was more that she was forgetting.

Grace stared.

Okay, whoever the fuck this girl was was well informed. Cool. Sick. It just meant she was dumb or didn't give a shit about other people.

"And you don't see a downside to any of that," she said flatly.

This was maybe the first inclination that Kiyoshi had of being disapproved of. And for the record? No, she didn't see a downside to it. Not if she had to die in obscurity or to one of these creatures anyway. Why should she do that when she could become one?

But she didn't say that. Instead she held onto the barrister and brought one foot carefully up, starting to undo the laces to her skates because this was quickly turning into a "we're done here" situation.

"I asked for your reasons. Your reasons. Like three times. You turned it into a pop quiz so you could judge me instead."

Seemed to Kiyoshi like you didn't have to be a vampire or a were to be a piece of shit.

Whatever.

Extremely whatever. Grace didn't get this chick. Fucking literally taking off her skates to go stomp home or some shit?

"The only shit I'm judging you for is thinking that having to fucking hunt for blood and risk accidentally murdering people and dying if someone throws a firecracker at you aren't fucking downsides," she said.

Never see daylight again. Never eat food again. Outlive everyone you knew. But she didn't figure this chick had many friends.

There was something about this chick that drove straight under Grace's skin, and if she hated it. Didn't even hate her for it, but felt it directed more toward herself. In a fit of pettiness, her irises flashed purple, an attempt to teleport the fuck elsewhere to reset her mood.

But, of course, it didn't work. So instead she just turned to skate off, only barely resisting the urge to elbow whatever motherfucker got in her way first.

She didn't wait for a response, and ultimately Kiyoshi didn't even realize it because she was looking down and trying not to fall. By the time she lifted her head again to respond, Grace was gone.

"Whatever!" she called out, her full point requiring too many words to say and not enough time to say them.

Bitch. Too good to just answer a given question, had to be a bitch about it.

Kiyoshi would skip the damn birthday party.