Mae
"Where's this fucking son of a bitch..."

Margarita had been standing by the side of this massive yet bare concrete wall now for over five minutes in this part of the cradle, waiting for a certain someone to show their face. The Scandinavian cold had been getting to the Southern Italian, a Fur-lined parka wrapped around the girl's body on top of a white shirt and a pair of jeans. Her red and white sneakers rubbed against the grass quietly, kicking around a rock as if it was a football. God she missed the sport.

Still waiting, Margarita leaned on said concrete wall as her shoe continued to make contact with the rock, eventually kicking it too far for her to reach without messing around with her powers. Giving in, Margarita reached out for it with an arm, her hand and wrist shooting for the grey stone as her limb effortlessly extended more and more out of the sleeve of her jacket. She couldn't help but look at her distorted limb, making contact with the grass beneth her hand three-ish metres away.

Was elasticity even a correct word to describe her abilities that made her stand out against all others barring the Cradle? Sure her body was able to stretch itself out, but her body didn't subconsciously or automatically pull itself back together. What about elongation? That could work. But she had rubbery properties; her finger could erase pencil marks effortlessly! She could squeeze through gaps as well, unbelievably thin ones too. So that makes for...

*Crunch*

Hearing leaves crunch behind her, Margarita quickly grabbed the rock and let her arm slink back to her rapidly, forgetting to form an elbow joint in the middle twisted her neck around a whole 180 degrees, a sight that still freaked out a lot of her peers.

"Finally, there you are. Good evening." She greeted, still wearing a bored face despite the horribly twisted neck.

What a weird kid.
Benjamin
◇ Don't bite the hand that feeds.

□ It was an adage old as time, and the central motif of a Nine Inch Nails song she'd heard entirely too many times hanging around with Omar, and it was one that was now proving to be very prudent to her life. A few days prior, she'd been absolutely shit talking the girl she was sneaking out past curfew to see, and now she was willingly crawling out of her third story window and using a nearby tree as her ladder down to meet up with the expectation of a brisk walk and a pack of smokes. Scurrying down the trunk, her right eye was covered by a distinctive eyepatch, her left swapped onto one of its frequencies to check for anyone who might have been lurking around to catch her sneaking around.

▪︎ As it turned out, though, she was fine. Nobody was around. She started to walk out towards where Margarita said she was going to be.

□ Of course, though, there was five minutes of distance between her and her rendezvous, the mere existence of which made her feel slightly *Dirty.* It felt like the stories her friends had told her of their own escapades past midnight, soliloquies preached to the rooftops and love made in giant trash bins, yet she knew she wasn't out here for that. The mere thought of doing anything but existing in a shaky truce disgusted her as of the moment she turned the corner, and once she saw that she hadn't been stood up she grunted lightly to announced her presence. Unlike Margarita, who happened to be dressed quite warm, Margo had on nothing but a slightly oversized beige graphic tee and orange corduroy trousers, and her distinctive heeled Blundstones with their yellow laces laddered.

▪︎ Talk about an outfit.

◆ "Evening? Fuck, man, it's four in the morning." She half-laughed, stuffing her hands into her pockets. "Keep you waiting long?"
Mae
"Okay then, *Early good morning*." She snickered as well, throwing the rock up and over the ten metre wall. The other's outfit was less suited to the cold, sure, but she just assumed that her acquaintance was more used to the cold.

"Not really, but here we are. Anyways," She put her hands in her pocket, her arms still shaped like pasta noodles since they were still in the safety of the Cradle, away from prying eyes. "Hope you brought enough money for your cigarettes. I just have enough for a midnight snack."

Despite the outward neutrality, Margarita remained wary of this other sack of shit. Who knows what kind of shit she'll pull off. Hopefully not. She didn't want to tire herself out emotionally being angry at someone 24/7 or be wary all the time she was gonna get hit square in her jaw.

But for now, all was well. Margarita, without saying another word, stretched her legs out way above Margo until she could place herself above the towering barrier. Her feet soon followed, and as two limbs made their way up, one returned back down, its palm open as if it was waiting for Margo to grab onto it.

"So, am I pulling you up or are you climbing up?" Her ten metre arm remained still, waiting for a hand to grasp onto it or for the girl to climb onto.
Benjamin
◆ "Alright." Looking up, Margo could sense the wariness that existed between the pair. Sure, they were out and about together, and they were chatting openly, but the memories of what they'd done to each other both in the woods and over the chatroom were likely still fresh. Whatever. "I took the money out, since you don't have a bank account. But... Let's just get up this wall first."

□ Old instincts were kicking in, honed over years of late night adventures around the gated community she'd grown up in and it's surrounding sister suburbs, all gated off and staffed by clean-cut men who were likely wired on energy drinks late into their shifts. Looking over her shoulder, she shook her head as Marge asked her if she needed a hand up; if anything, she had to resist firing a snarky comment back, reminding herself that she wasn't here to bicker now that a truce had been solidified between them. 

▪︎ Stepping back a few, she ran, and in a series of motions she'd clearly done before she thrust herself up the wall to the point where her fingers could curl around the embankment's lip.

◆ "Huf-" She grunted as she pulled herself up, easily rolling over the side and onto her back. The cold concrete, though, was no bed, and the chill quickly zapped her body like static. "Fuck, that's cold, actually... Then again, I didn't bother with a jacket. Thought it would be nice out, and it mostly is, but God this concrete feels like someone's got my ass in a kidney remover bath. Anyways. Gimme a sec, I'll dig out your money... Is this where you always come to smoke?"
Mae
At least Margo got the money down. She still had to see it, but she knew Margo. An aggressive father beater? Yes. Respectful? Yes and no. Reptile lover? *Si* A liar? No.

Margarita couldn't help but be impressed. Ten metres? Just like that? "Shit. Pretty impressive there." She retracted her hyperelongated limb as Margo rolled over on her back to take in the early morning sky. "No, I erm... Smoke in the forest- there." She pointed her noodle arm at the dense forest, more so the general area than the actual campsite itself. "Miss Pernilla would probably kick my ass way more than necessary for catching me a cigarette. But *Si*, I just relax there in the afternoon. Curfew and all, you know?" She reached out her other unstretched arm at Margo, offering to help her up.

Whichever the choice was, Margarita sat on the ledge and threw herself off of the concrete wall, using her arm as a rope as she rappelled down the wall slowly but carefully. Any sort of practice at this point was welcome, and rappelling down a wall with the help of her arm as a rope of some sort was just one of the hundreds if not thousands of uses for her new parahuman body, one she now found as a welcome change.

"You can jump down, right?"
Benjamin
◆ "God knows I've jumped walls like this before." Margo spoke from where she lay, one hand in her pocket digging her wallet out and the other raised above her head. "Growing up bored and rebellious in a gated community does that shit to someone. You learn to climb fences and jump walls pretty quick when that's the way to freedom. Anyways, gotcha, man... Gotcha."

□ Before she could even get her wallet all the way out of her pocket Margarita had already disappeared down the other side of the wall, leaving her alone on the concrete slab. Shaking her head she grumbled something fierce and sat up, scooting herself over to the edge in a slightly awkward shuffling motion. Planting her palms to the concrete, she took a deep breath, and in one swift motion she dropped her body down the wall while using her hands to keep herself from dropping the ten feet or so uninterrupted. Once she was hanging safely she let go, dropping to the dew-covered grass with a soft grunt.

▪︎ She looked over at the other gal and pulled her eyepatch off.

◆ "Assuming we're off to the woods, then, huh?"
Mae
"I see. Boredom is a great teacher, *Si*?" She smiled at past memories as they flashed in front of her eyes for a moment. Those times she ran away from both thugs and street kids. Those times she knocked the lights, if not teeth, out of those boys that looked for some easy cash. Those times she got paid hundreds of Euros for her talents in being nimble when necessary and tough when necessary. "Necessity taught me how to run and punch. Got too good at it, and here I am."

She didn't even notice Margo fishing her wallet out when her feet touched the grass, her arm dropping limply from the ledge like she was some sort of human freak.

Now that she watched her elongated arm slither on the ground as it retracted back to its normal length... Come to think of it, she *Was* A human freak. '*Am I an alien?*' She mindlessly thought as Margo slowly dropped down the wall in a more... Normal manner.

"Woods? No, just circle around back to the city. I just don't want the three or four guards that are up tonight seeing us both out here fucking about." She slowed down her pacing to match Margo's. It's the little things that count.

"So, Brooklyn, right? How are things over there?" She asked, hoping to break the ice as she let her neck stretch itself out, scouting the area ahead for any staff that might be outside the walls.
Benjamin
◆ "Guess so." She flatly replied, stuffing her hands into her awaiting pockets. "Living in a place with an active street community is pretty sick honestly, it was one thing I liked about parts of Brooklyn: the corners and their stores and stoops were often busy, y'know? Really helped it feel alive."

□ Thinking back, she ran through a short list of all the things the streets and their inhabitants taught her. Fighting dirty, basic parkour, a singular gang sign Holly had taught her a few years back that she'd never forgot for some unknown reason... How to deal with the cops. Rough living bred rough but reliable people, she figured, and that was good enough for her. Setting the thoughts aside she continued walking, nodding once or twice while Margarita spoke to show that she wasn't just tuning the other girl out.

▪︎ Sure, there was still the grudge. At the end of the day she wanted nothing more than cigarettes and a chance to get back at the gal for beating her ass the first time, but the power of sticking to a truce kept her violent thoughts in check.

◆ "Boring. I lived in a gated community, for fuck sakes, the most entertaining thing most people there get up to is calling the cops on minorities for no damn reason." She spat, both figuratively and literally. "Most people there were stuck up rich people, but in the humble parts of town it's cool, especially out front of the bodegas. A chopped cheese and a few rounds of dice is what it's all about... Where you from, again? I know it's Italy, but that place is less one cohesive country and more a bunch of city states that decided a while back that fighting wasn't getting them anywhere, so."