Enter Spiderman

[Othello Buskirk]

With classes over for the day, Othello pushed aside the idea to do homework as he got changed in his dorm and then headed out of the House and across to the Gym. Today was a good day, health-wise, and he decided to make use of the energy that he had. Walking through the gym, he stopped as he stood by the door that lead into the climbing room. He had heard about the place and seen pictures, but hadn't yet come in here due to the fact that he disliked indoor climbing - couldn't see the point in rock climbing if he wasn't climbing actual rocks.

Pushing the door open, he walked in and looked around. He knew that the rules said that he was supposed to have a buddy if he wanted to climb, but he wasn't intending on doing anything death-defying, so he was sure that he'd be fine climbing solo.

Dropping his bag in the floor, he pulled out his harness and climbing shoes and put them on. He could use the stuff that the Academy supplied, but he knew that all of his own things were safety checked  - not that he was saying the Academy things wouldn't be - and he liked his own gear. Attaching the chalk bag to his harness, he walked over to a pretty simple looking wall and attached the carabiner attached to the safety rope to his harness, dipped his fingers into the bag and rubbed chalk on his hands and began to climb the wall.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda stopped by her dorm after Cross Country class finished, dropping off her backpack and grabbing her climbing bag before she left again, locking the door behind her. She walked across the circle that separated the houses, towards the gym, and then slipped inside, following the familiar path to the climbing walls. As she entered, she saw someone already climbing and glanced around, before picking a vertical wall with automatic belay. As she prepared, checking her harness and changing her shoes, she looked across the room, recognizing the uncommon darker skin and then guessing who it would be.

Not wanting to distract Othello, she finished her own preparations, undoing the drawstring on her chalk bag and powdering her own hands before she buckled the belay rope on. It was sad that none of the more-than-vertical walls had automatic belay, because she hadn't gotten to climb them since the gym had been opened, because not enough people in this darned horse academy climbed. She would see how Othello did, though, perhaps she would talk to him about it.

When her hands were pale with chalk, she eyed the wall that she had chosen, mapping out her route before she started scaling it, her hands and legs working in unison, but always with the three-on rule, never more than one hand or foot loose.

[Othello Buskirk]

As he made his way up the wall he was scaling, Leo heard the door open and close - smoke stop doors always made a whooshing noise as they opened and closed, almost what he would imagine a decompression chamber being like. However, he didn't let this distract him from his climb.

Once reaching the top of the wall, he wrapped one hand around the belay rope and then kicked off the wall, allowing himself to free-fall until he got too close to swinging into the wall again and once more pushed himself off. When his feet were back on the floor, he unhooked his harness from the belay and moved onto another wall.

As he hooked the belay onto his harness, he took the time to actually look around until he spotted the other climber. He tipped his head to the side as he watched the other person, obviously female from what he could tell from her backside, and the turned back to the wall he was about to climb. He chalked up his hands and reached up to the first grip. Just as he lifted his foot though, the world seemed to dip out from underneath him and, with his hands on the wall to steady himself, he sat down on the ground, knees bent and head between his knees as he waited for the rainbow of colours to stop swirling around in his head. As funny as it seemed to him, the world suddenly became all jelly beans and candy when his head started spinning, he just couldn't believe that it happened here, and when he had company.

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda found herself focusing only on the wall as she started her ascent, coming into the state of mind that she had grown used to. If anyone tried talking to her, she wouldn't take notice, she knew, from plenty of experience. It didn't take her too long to scale the wall, which despite it's difficulty had been nothing more than a warm-up. She hadn't imposed any serious restrictions on her climbing, which was when the climbs really got hard. After all, with how many different routes there were up one wall, it was a matter of logic that they would get harder the more holds were 'untouchable'.

Once she was at the top, she pushed herself off, rappelling down easily before she unlatched her harness and fastened the automatic belay to the hook set into the wall for that purpose. She turned to see where who she thought was Othello had gone, and saw him sitting on the floor. Walking over, somewhat oddly because of the harness, she asked, "Are you okay?" As she approached, she could see that she had been right, not that it was such a stretch. She was concerned her fellow vet student, though, sitting there. That wasn't normal, right?

[Othello Buskirk]

It didn't take him long to get his head to settle down and he cringed slightly as he heard footsteps approaching. "I'll be fine, thanks." He replied, his voice bright and cherry, although he didn't look up at her. He didn't need to look up to know that it was his fellow vet student standing behind him, as he knew her voice well enough.

He finally rode to his feet and blinked a couple of times as he shook the last of the spots out of his vision, and the room returned to normal colours. He always referred to his episodes, as the Spimsons when they did flashbacks to Marge and Homer's youth back in the psychedelic sixties. Letting out a deep breath, he unclipped himself from the belay, walked over to his bag and pulled out the bottle of PowerAde and took a drink, hoping that the electrolytes in the drink would allow him to continue climbing. If not, he could just remain as Miranda's spotting buddy.

He turned to look at the girl and gave her a bright smile. "I guess I repelled down that wall too quickly, it went straight to my head." He knew that he should be honest with her, but he didn't want to become someone's tragedy case, so he hoped that he could joke it off. He walked back to the wall he had been at and attached the belay once more, but as he reached am arm out, everything seemed to shimmer, so he knew that there would be no more climbing for him today. "I must have a migraine coming on." He said as he once again unattached the belay and then massaged his temples. "Are you in need of a spotter?"

[Miranda Florin]

Miranda inclined her head as she heard Othello's words, although she didn't quite believe him. Something about his voice was too cheery, a forced brightness. However, she wasn't going to pry into his affairs if he didn't want to share them, that wasn't her way.

As Leo commented on his problem, Miranda nodded, "That's possible, I know I've done that a few times, it's not especially fun." She could relate to the descent problems, although she usually just braced herself against the wall for a few seconds until it passed. However, everyone was different.

She frowned as he commented, "I hope you feel better soon, then." As he offered to belay her, she glanced at him, concerned, "Are you up for it? Otherwise, I can just stick to the easier walls." The easy walls were the ones with the automatic belays, the ones that went, at most, vertical, but those were no fun. If one had to be climbing indoors, there at least had to be a challenge. Miranda's eyes went to the backwards wall, which she had yet to actually climb. Too bad the school didn't have any overheads, but then, that was probably just a little bit too much liability, especially since there weren't any adults around to keep stupid kids from climbing without a rope.