Logs:A firebug meets a galaxy

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Content Warning

smoking

Cast

Andromeda Derby, Calamity

Setting

the rooftop of an office building in North Philly

Log

It's a cloudy sort of night in North Philly, the perfect sort of night for climbing around on rooftops without the moon lighting up the place. Even if the light pollution from the city makes it fairly easy for Calamity to see where they're going. Currently, they're perched on a rooftop of an office building, legs dangling over the edge, smoking.

"can't see the sky," the sad voice comes softly some distance behind Calamity, and when they look back they'd see another person around their age standing in the center of the rooftop and staring up at the cloudy sky. they look rather plain, with mouse-brown hair and lightly freckled pale skin.... except for their eyes, which look like they might as well be two blue moons plucked from the skies themselves. they glance down at Calamity, then back up, "didn't expect another up here... surprises, surprises."

Calamity gasps at the unexpected noise and scrambles up, dropping their cigarette on the gravel roof as they do. "The fuck?" is all they say, and tense to run, glancing between this unfamiliar person and the opposite edge of the roof.

andy's posture stays generally relaxed and they look back at calamity as they scramble. their head tilts to the side, they watch the glowing end of the cigarette as it falls to the ground. slow blink. they look back at calamity. "sorry. didn't mean to scare or nothin' - thought you'd appreciate knowing i'm here."

"Yeah - only maybe before you started talking." Calamity grinds the cigarette out with the heel of their boot. They're small, with a mop of dark curly hair that falls into their face and a wash of freckles across their warm tan skin. Their oversized sweatshirt hides most of their form, and they've shoved their hands into its pockets, holding eye contact with surprisingly pale greenish grey eyes. "What're you doing up here?"

the question amuses them, "plotting the execution of the king of spain." ah yes. sarcasm.

"What'd he ever do to you?" Calamity sarcasms right back, but they've relaxed just a little. "But if he's kind he probably deserves it anyway."

"exactly," they giggle and rock back onto their heels, "honestly, m'prolly here for the same reason as you - wanted to enjoy the night and the peace and the quiet. though..." another sad glance up, "not much night to enjoy."

Calamity glances up, too. "Eh. There's still the city to look at. 'S more interesting to me, at least. An' it's not raining, which is a plus." They pull a battered pack of cigarettes from their pocket and open it, wrinkling their nose and taking a cigarette out before offering it to them. It's nearly empty, but it's only polite, right?

they shake their head and give a soft no thanks, m'good before moving to the edge of the building to look out at the city's lights. "it is pretty," they acquiest after a moment of thought, "each window and light a star of its own, story of its own," they grin, "i guess it'll do. you like to watch city lights, then?"

Calamity shrugs and goes to put the pack away, and then reaches down to shove their previous half smoked cigarette back into the carton. Waste not, want not, you know? "Yeah. It's really cool when I can find a taller building than this, and look out over more of it, but this's fine for now. I like to try to find landmarks that I know from the ground, when I'm up places like this."

they plop down to sit cross-legged a couple inches from the edge, letting out a soft hum of acknowledgement as they look over the city. "like that one?" they ask, gesturing towards the city hall - clock face bright and glowing against the night.

"That one's easy." They grin and light up, careful to blow the smoke away from them. "But yeah, basically. Center City is always fun though, 'cause everything overlaps and sometimes it's hard to see which building is which

"i mean, it's all already hard to tell for me - i'm from chicago. still learning the streets here an' all. which one's your fave?"

"Okay so it's really hard to see 'cause there's no lights - 'cause it's abandoned, but there's this old like...factory? On Willow Street, here, follow my finger juust...." they point toward Center city, a little to the left, where the dark smudge of what looks like a smokestack peeks out over the rest of the buildings in the area.

"ooohhhh...." they lean forward slightly as they look in the direction, eyes brightening, "abandoned, huh? you been there?"

"Yeah it's fucking incredible. Apparently it's got like, asbestos or whatever, which is why it's still there, but," they shrug. "There's a lot of really cool abandoned buildings around.

"all ripe for exploring," they grin a bit, "that's cool. where're the others?"

"Hmm okay. So I'm not gonna tell you all my secrets, but..." They point out a few more, one closer to where they are than the others. "There's more that you can't see from here, 'course. And like...not all the places I get into are abandoned, anyway." They watch carefully for a response to that.

they don't seem to bat an eye at that, instead waiting patiently for Calamity to continue pointing things out.

"But yeah, those're the ones I hang out in most. I really wanna try to get into the Hale building downtown, but...I'm still too much of a chicken. 'N there's always too many people around."

"what's in the Hale building?" they tilt their head and try to locate the downtown area and figure out which is the Hale building.

"Oh you can't see it from here, it's this...it's just this abandoned building downtown, I think they're gonna renovate it into something. It's pretty famous though, it's like all historic and shit."

"it'd be pretty cool to see it before renovations," they rub their chin and seem to be contemplating it, "it's abandoned, but always too many people around?"

"Yeah. 'Cause it's downtown, even at night there's shit going on. 'S annoying." They make a face. I'd love to get in there just to say I did it, you know? Bragging rights and shit."

".... we could work together?" they shift in semi-decently concealed excitement, "if you like. don't mind a partner. 'cause that sounds dope as shit, and i know a thing or two about sneaking into places m'self."

"..." They take a drag and narrow their eyes slightly. "No offense, but I don't know shit about you. And you don't know shit about me. I could be lying out my ass. And you could be a fuckin' narc."

amused, "do i look like one? interesting. but that's okay, we don't need to work together." \ "No, but...who knows, right? I could be a narc." There's a beat, and then Calamity gives them a little blep. Just enough to keep the conversation from getting too heavy. "How about...we do something smaller, sometime? So we can like...see how each other's shit works?"

they rub their nose thoughtfully, "... sure, that sounds like fun. you can choose the place - you know the city better. but i'll prolly wanna stake it out first so i'm not going in blind." better to make escape plans that way, right?

"Sure. D'you live near here? Might be easier to find someplace that's easy for both of us to get to?"

"yeah i'm staying near," insert general place close to Sturm's old place but not exactly at it basically sort of landmark........... thing.

"Oh that's like. Walkable. Sweet. Here I'll give you my number and I'll like..text you the address of someplace? And then we can figure out where to meetup. I can't tonight, I gotta run some errands in a bit." Errands? At this time of night? But they seem to be telling the truth.

"ye no problem," a pause for a moment, ".... what would you like me to call you?"

"'S a weird way to ask me what my name is. Calamity." They grin. "I use they/them pronouns, too." Both the name and the pronouns have a touch of heat behind them, like it's a challenge.

if it was possible for a physical manifestation of !!!!!! to appear above someone's head, it would happen right now for andy. "i do, too. they/them, that is. um..." they consider a moment.... then nod, "andy. you can call me andy."

Their grin widens, and their eyes sparkle with excitement. "Sweet. Andy, cool, here..." They pull a phone with a battered case from their hoodie pocket, and offer it to Andy to type their number in.

and andy does do the thing! their name in the phone is added with a little star and a music note emoji with it.

"Do you do music shit?" Calamity eyes the phone and sends them a quick text 'Calamity 💥'

they add Calamity to their phone, emoji and all. "yeah. i love music. i can play some instruments, too."

"Nice. I...can't do any of that shit. But I like to listen, and stuff. What sorta music? And instruments?"

"i like.... softer music, mostly. haven't really made any songs, but i can do like.... hozier. or florence and the machine. and ones like that and uhh... piano, cello, acoustic guitar... i'd love to get my hands on a violin one day and learn that.... i really like string instruments."

"Oh man that's like the opposite of me, I've been into like, hardcore recently. Punk shit." They shrug. "Loud enough so you don't gotta hear yourself think, you know?"

"that stuff's cool, too. not a like... every day for me, but i definitely have days for it," a laugh, "though i don't think i could sing along to the more hardcore punk songs." indeed, their voice - though melodic - is on the softer side and not likely to be able to perform like. screamo. not easily, at least. "green day, though.... i can do green day."

"You're...that's adorable." They don't seem to be being condescending. "I should prolly head out soon, I was just kinda taking a break before I gotta do my errands." Their cigarette finished, they flick the butt over the edge of the roof. "'S cool meeting you though, I'll text you."

they don't seem to know how to take that, but aren't against being called adorable in general so.... "good night," they wave and turn back to the city, content to spend a bit of time on the roof alone for a bit before going back to wherever they are staying.