[ closed ] how many hours will i let slip away

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[ closed ] how many hours will i let slip away

WHO: Conner Kent/Superboy & Annie Leonhart
WHERE: Heropa Fitness Center
WHEN: First week of September (Wednesday?)
WHAT: Wolf comes out to play. Strangely, the fitness center patrons are not as pleased by this development as Wolf is.
WARNINGS: None as of the moment.

All things said and done, it was a fairly average later afternoon, edging into early evening at the Heropa Fitness Center when the giant white wolf walked in through the door. For about thirty seconds, it seemed like no one had noticed. Patrons continued to use the ellipticals, the burst of air conditioning as Wolf walked through the door little more than an acknowledgement to the heat outside.

It wasn't until someone using the weights turned around to reach for their water as they sat up that anyone noticed.

And unhelpfully for everyone else, all the did was drop the water and point.

"Wo-wo-wo-wo-wo-wo-"

In fact, the same man falling over holding his chest officially garnered more attention than Wolf did, though it was shock, rather than a heart attack, setting the poor man back. He'd be fine.

Wolf continues to move past the people gathered on the opposite side of the room, using his nose to track down his errant friend.

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Conner is in the back corner by the benches where people are lifting a couple of hundreds pounds over their head. Today he just so happens to be playing spotter since he could lift one of these bars with one hand. That's why he doesn't notice his giant white companion at first. It was just the door opening that assaulted his superhearing - an occurrence that happens dozens of times while he's here. Since his customers are flat on their backs, they can't see the wolf either.

Not until the other gym goers start going quiet and a sense of shock settled over the place that he looked up. He immediately frowned upon seeing his giant wolf companion strolling through the place like he owned it.

"I told you to wait out back if you were going to come."

The look Wolf gave him clearly said that he wouldn't and if anyone knew the pair they might pick up on something in the animal's eyes that spoke of bitey little alligator babies.

Annie steps out of the studio used for yoga classes, walking into the same shocked silence - and the same ridiculous sight. Worse when one of her coworkers at this location is addressing the giant predator that's strolled right into the fitness center.

Was the wolf an imPort too? Annie wouldn't be able to dismiss the possibility, or the possibility that it was a summon of the young man currently addressing the wolf.

"Is he with you?" There. Sidestepping possible complications implying ownership, Annie balanced her waterbottle on her hip and looked at a point just to the side of the wolf. No direct eye contact. She recollects that much, if challenges are in order.

For some reason, he doesn't feel that bad about Wolf shocking the whole entire place into silence. It's a nice change for a while. Though he does feel bad about the one guy having heart issues.

Normally he doesn't get this kind of reaction. On the streets, Wolf makes him stand out as an imPort so they stare with awe and wonder - not pure trauma.

Said coworker is petting the giant wolf like its a dog and the wolf enjoys it. "Yeah. I told him not to come to work but...whaddya gonna do?" He shrugs casually as if to say 'the guy's huge so he does what he wants'. Wolf finds Annie fascinating and starts sniffing her face (since it's the closest thing).

At least the heart issues aren't strictly Wolf's fault. Annie doesn't know what to make with the petting this wild looking animal like a dog, let alone the fact he enjoys it. Annie moves her head back an inch, but she doesn't retreat, by now looking down Wolf's muzzle and lifting her hands to gently pat at his nose... and keep it from turning into getting licked at face level.

Some indignities shouldn't be endured by animals bigger than she is.

"Maybe you can show him the back door? Or ask the manager if you can put up a warning sign at the entrance. 'Maybe Be Large White Wolf on Premises: It's Okay, He's Friendly.' ... He is friendly in general?"

Annie would rather not be bitten or have things broken, but she knows she can handle that - it's more a concern about idiots around them acting inappropriately and getting negative reactions out of the behemoth standing here. He's a good looking animal... if odd. Nothing as odd as some of what Annie's seen, so it evens out in the end.

Wolf is still a wild animal underneath it all, face licking is not a thing he does so Annie is safe from that. The muzzle pat is fine but after that he pulls away as if to say that it was enough. He may not mind it, but he only tolerates it from strangers for so long.

"I did, he doesn't like the back door. I think it smells too bad back there for him. Generally." The giant wolf wouldn't bite anyone's head off but that didn't mean he was like a household dog and willing to let everyone and their mother pet him or tug on his tail or fur.

As for breaking things, that wasn't likely to happen. While Wolf grew up in the wild, he was intelligent and used to being inside these days. Conner can't say for sure how other people will react when it comes to seeing a nearly five foot wolf.

Annie doesn't pursue the wolf. Not knowing anything about his behavior, his prior life circumstances, or his tendencies away from breaking things, she had no idea what to make of the giant animal suddenly being indoors and on the job. She's about to suggest they hang something nice smelling out back and encourage him to use that entrance anyway, another person leaves out of the studio where yoga generally runs, sights the giant white wolf next to two teenagers, and screams.

Loud enough to startle Annie into turning around, holding up her hands and asking, "What's wrong?"

The wolf, Annie. The giant wolf is wrong, and the man screaming indicates this by pointing beyond her to Wolf himself, and she refrains from hitting her forehead with the heel of her palm.

Of course.

"Wooooolf!"

He was actually fairly tame - for a wolf. Clearly he's no ordinary wolf, size non-withstanding because they usually wouldn't come into a place that was filled with people. Really, Conner was just finding this amusing. When they walked together on the streets it marked him as an imPort which meant people would crowd around him to try to pet Wolf or ask things of Conner. Put the giant wild animal indoors and they all act like he's going to start biting people or tearing them apart.

However, when the teenagers start screaming he pats Wolf's side. "Come on, lets get out of here."

Leaving his post, Conner moves towards the front exit with the giant wolf trailing after him.

Stay and handle crowd control, or leave?

Annie isn't going to choose crowd control. Not over something that's removing itself from the premises even now. Not that she was invited along - she simply keeps pace like this is the most normal thing in the world, waving in unconcern at the manager who steps out of the front office, eyes wide.

See? Totally fine. The screamers are simply screaming over all the wrong sorts of things.

Like harmless giant wolves.

No big deal. Promise.

"What's his name?"

While Conner doesn't slow down for her to catch up with, he also doesn't take off once outside the door. He can hear her footsteps, her heart beating in her chest, her breathing all following along behind them.

When they are away from the gym, he looks over at her. This stranger didn't have to come, but she did.

"Wolf," another casual shrug of his shoulders. "People tried to convince me to name him something different but he likes it so I don't see why it's a big deal."

Clearly someone else has brought up the subject before.

Being no more gifted in originality, Annie raises her eyebrows, wondering at the extra information.

"If it works for both of you, I don't see the problem." Yes, it was an obvious sort of name, but does that matter? It's a tie between him and Wolf. Annie isn't so concerned with complicated naming rituals... and isn't all that tied in to her own name, she thinks (she'd be wrong to think her name doesn't carry personal importance, but she hasn't ever had to think about it that way before).

"How did you end up crossing paths?"

How is Wolf so okay with being surrounded by people and all the accoutrements of civilization?

"Some people seem to have a problem with it." Wally was the first and some random girl he didn't know was the second. There was no way he was going to go with Wally's suggestion of Krypto either.

"I was hiking through India when I saw this collar on his neck and some other wolves. They'd been part of an experiment that genetically altered all of them. It made him vicious and violent. We fought for a while until I managed to get them all off. The other wolves returned to the wilderness but Wolf here decided to stick with me instead."

Okay, it isn't the full truth but he can hardly say that he purposely went into India because he was looking for the person who experimented on the animals.

She considered what he said. There were similar themes to other things... watching Wolf from the corner of her eye, Annie wondered at what similarities crossed universes.

"Were you in Colorado?"

Now is when he looked over at her. He didn't know her - had only seen her around work. Conner doesn't know if he should talk to her about this sort of thing. Though he is playing off as having super-strength as his power so, what could it hurt?

"Not as one of the kidnapped teens. A couple of my friends had been taken so I went to rescue them."

She nods. That tells her something, but it isn't the conversation she was wanting to have, and so past nodding, she doesn't pursue his rescuing of friends. A handful of imPorts had died, along with civilians. He's not talking about it like he was one of those who were friends with the ones who'd died.

Then again, Annie technically was, and she'd never spoken about what had happened to Minako. It never felt right.

'They had done some similar experimentation on animals," she says, looking past Conner and Wolf both. "It's just what I was reminded of when you were talking about running into Wolf for the first time." Clarifying, in case there's any room for misunderstanding.

Now, after the event he would feel the loss but during he would have kept going because if he hadn't then more might have died. Not to mention the patch that sort of made things blur red with anger.

But he doesn't talk about the 'deaths' he and his entire team had suffered through mentally. It's just not something he does.

"Yeah, I know. I saw them." The bears and the other animals that had attacked when they broke through the mountainside. "But he came to this world with me. Turns out this world isn't the only one to experiment on animals."

She gives him a long look, considering. "Funny to hear you say it that way," she says after a while. "Wouldn't most say, 'turns out my world isn't the only one to experiment on animals?'" Ownership of the place he's from before talking about the crimes of this world, making this reality seem more central than it really is. Or isn't it central by now? A minautre nexus, gathering people from all kinds of extremes, different threads in a spider's web that shake and catch the afternoon light. Strong in spite of a fragile appearance.

There are enough people here like that, she thinks.

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[ closed ] how many hours will i let slip away

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