InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Spoilers!"

Jimmy Proudstar (little_jim) wrote in devolve,
@ 2011-01-29 20:32:00

Entry tags:

alisa_tager, jimmy_proudstar

Who: Alisa and Jimmy
What: Jimmy is teaching Alisa to track
Where: Far side of the lake
When: Early afternoon
Rating: PG
Status: Incomplete

Jimmy concealed himself amongst the trees behind the lake. While hiding himself from her hadn't originally been part of the lesson, her accusation of him being sneaky had just given him the idea. He hadn't covered his tracks completely and she knew he was in the area.

He just doubted Alisa would expect him to be up a tree.

His experience with climbing trees was fairly a new one. There hadn't been many back home. But after five years in the east, he had figured it out. And could usually find an older, larger one that would support his weight.

So that was where he was waiting for Alisa, on the edge of the line of trees, near where he had Freakshow lay down the tracks for him the day before.

This was going to be fun.

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aflyonthewall
2011-01-31 07:14 am UTC (link)

Alisa had hidden herself away long before even leaving her bedroom. It was just habit and one that she was going to have a damned hard time breaking. Meeting Jimmy by the lake so soon was kind of expected. She had maybe thought he'd need more time to prepare but apparently not. For the first leg of it, she mostly just trudged through the snow but as she got closer to the meeting point...

She slipped into the trees. It took a lot of careful work to move from tree to tree like a monkey but that was what her gymnastics training had prepared her for along with her own desire to learn parkour. The hard part was concealing her trail in the snow - branches suddenly empty, fresh bits of snow falling suddenly one tree by one tree.

Jimmy, she was certain, underestimated what tracking skills she did have. Mostly, she needed help concealing. What she hadn't expected was to come upon a large form in a tree ahead of her... Oh really? Sneaky, sneaky. Using her skills in silence, she moved through the trees to the larger one to perch in a branch just above him... And then kicked snow purposely down onto his head. "Nice try, smart ass," she noted in an amused tone, becoming visible.

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little_jim
2011-01-31 07:29 am UTC (link)

Actually, he needed little time to prepare for this. Tracking was a more useful skill these days than being able to effectively hide. But the zombies weren't the only things out there to contend with.

Jimmy had noticed the movements in the trees nearby and out of habit alone began watching and testing his other senses. He managed to hide the smile when he realized it was Alisa.

He put up his arm at the last minute to avoid getting a face full of snow, but didn't move out of the path of it. He'd earned it for grossly underestimating her. Chuckling, he looked up at her.

"You're pretty good already. Maybe we'll play hide and seek with Little Brother sooner than I told him we could." With that he surged forward and out of his perch, landing gracefully a three point stance.

"You coming?" he prompted as he looked up at her.

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aflyonthewall
2011-01-31 07:41 am UTC (link)

Alisa had been pretty certain she'd been heard or scented as she couldn't hide from Jimmy entirely. That was impossible which was why he was the best for this sort of training. If, one day, she could manage to hide from him completely then it would be a victory of epic proportions.

"I haven't been doing nothing for two years, you know," she arched an eyebrow, hiding a smirk. Clearly he had forgotten she had been training this whole time, as much as anyone would let her.

What? Was he trying to impress her or something? Alisa slipped down to a lower branch then settled gloved hands around a thinnish but sturdy one. She used used her momentum of movement and a swing downward to come out of the branch only to let go into a simple flyaway landing on her feet and casually settling a hand on her hip, "Maybe. Lead the way."

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little_jim
2011-01-31 07:56 am UTC (link)

Sneaking up on Jimmy without telepathy was nearly impossible. Beyond his heightened senses, he'd been trained for years before to use his baseline human senses at their maximum potential. The fact that she could get that close at all said quite a bit about her stealthy potential.

He hadn't forgotten. He just didn't know what all she knew. Most people, until they were trained to be quiet, didn't realize how loud they were, how small subtle noises and movements could give away their position.

Actually, Jimmy wasn't. If he had been, he would have done something fancy. Like that. He chuckled again, still brushing the snow from his shoulders and sleeve and hair. "We're here," he told her, nodding towards the area in front of them. "I had Freakshow tromp around out here. So you had a few different examples. He had fun."

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aflyonthewall
2011-01-31 08:14 am UTC (link)

Well, she was also able to at least keep herself quiet. Her surroundings though... It took work. It was difficult. She tried her best but sometimes it just wasn't enough. Which was why she kept working at it.

It was simply impressive that a guy his size could move like he did but she wasn't about to let him know that. She was being cool and collected or something like that. Alisa fished a notebook and pencil out of her pants pocket and flipped it open. Yup, she planned on taking notes and sketches.

"Oh god, what kind of weird did he pull out for this then?" She was mildly horrified but it didn't show.

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little_jim
2011-01-31 08:45 am UTC (link)

That took work for everybody. Jimmy had a harder time sneaking up on people than he used to, even with his senses and unnatural agility for his size. He had to take in account of his surrounding more, since his displaced more of his environment when he moved around.

He was well aware of it, although more from the perspective of seeing John do similar things. They had almost exactly the same mutation as far as Jimmy could tell. But he did occasionally show off, especially for Freakshow.

Jimmy chuckled at her question. "That's part of what you're learning today," he told her. Moving into a crouch near some of the prints, he continued. "When hunting, which is why I was taught to track, you're trying to find the tracks of the animal you want to find. When you're searching for someone, you're looking for tracks with certain features. The hardest part of all is figuring out what something looks like from the tracks it leaves behind. Also, there's more to it than just tracks, but we'll start with the basics."

Rising, he walked across a patch that was clear without trying to make his steps lighter. It left an obvious trail of large footprints in the snow. Jimmy crouched down again, out of habit. It was easier to see small details from closer. "Now walk next to my line of prints and tell me the things that you see that are different."

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aflyonthewall
2011-02-07 12:53 am UTC (link)

Alisa moved to stand alongside Jimmy, settling a hand on a large shoulder and feeling rather dwarfed all of a sudden. She could sometimes forget that he was so huge. Didn't know how that worked but maybe it was just part of being comfortable with him. Alisa listened, making mental notes in her head...

And she removed her hand when he stood up and started walking, arching an eyebrow. She made a slightly exasperated sound at his request and did her walking in the snow thing, not even really thinking about it until it was time to compare. "That didn't make me feel silly at all," she noted sarcastically. Crouching down as well and settling into a three point stance, she started a list, "Stride length, depth, size, shape, the snow's more packed down in yours." Which she verified by touching the different bits of snow with bare fingertips. "Sole patterns... Mine have more bark in them from bouncing through the trees."

The thing about Alisa was... she was ridiculously observant (spying was her hobby after all) and she probably could have gone on but she cut off, blushing a little.

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little_jim
2011-02-07 01:19 am UTC (link)

Jimmy was glad she was comfortable with him. That always took time, especially for people who'd lived out in the horrible world they lived in and hadn't known him for years.

What was silly about it? He needed to show her comparison prints and it was easier to do so with fresh prints and theirs would be varied enough. "Good," he agreed. "Because I am heavier, I will pack down much more snow. Because I have bigger feet, I will leave bigger tracks. But, because I am stronger, my feet drag much less, because I don't have to work as hard as to walk through the snow. So my prints as less misshapen. Also, stride can teach you to approximate how tall a person. Because taller people generally have longer legs. If one foot appears to have more drag than the other, the person could be injured or have a limp."

He smiled, tucking some of his hair back that had fallen over his face. "The bark is important," he agreed. "Things that fall off people's feet or things in the tracks can tell you things too. If the material is deeply embedded, like your bark, it was probably on their shoes. But the pieces that fell from your clothes as you moved are not. This also helps in figuring out how fresh the tracks are. The more litter like the world around the tracks that you find in them, the older the tracks are. Especially if animals have crossed the area as well. Wild animals are disturbed by people and don't go near their tracks until they want to check if it is safe."

"Snow is one of the easiest things to track through, so long as it doesn't snow again soon after. Even then, the snow is usually disturbed enough to know something's walked there recently just from the unevenness. Of course, too much snow and it doesn't matter." He smiled at her. "Make sense?"

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