aterat | [Closed] It's A Matter Of Scale

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[Closed] It's A Matter Of Scale

Who; Nida, Mono
What; Master and Student Climbing Lessons
Where; Outside of the Historium
When; Late November
Warnings; None

There was always a time in the evenings when Nida was free, and tonight he had plans. He had sent Mono a message, cleared that the young man was ready for some work tonight, and then told him to meet outside of the Historium before dinner. Because this wasn't the sort of thing that one should do on a full stomach, not when you were learning.

Nida waited outside of the building, clad in tight clothing and he was pulling on his gloves. Another pair waited in his pocket for the child, and he waited for his young student. Time to have some fun while they can.

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Mono was doing just that, learning from the slip up and chalking his fingers as he kept working his way towards the top. He did call over his shoulders, again without looking down, “I can do that! I am almost all the way up!” He smiled to himself, feeling quite pleased with himself.

This was fun, honestly. Climbing was always fun when there wasn’t something dangerous around making you climb. Six hadn’t always understood that. She preferred to let him do the climbing if it wasn’t easy stuff, but she did boost him up if he needed a little extra height to get the first handhold.

Well that's amusing. Nida smiled as he watched the boy work.

"When you get up there, I'm taking a picture with my Tell Phone."

Mono had quite forgotten they could do that with the Tell Phones, but then again he didn’t use his much because of the complications he found he caused it. That aside, he was just excited to be doing something like this.

Maybe with one or two more clumsy moments and remembering his instructions, he made it all the way to the top with a victorious little wave and one of his little soundless laughs. “I did it!” He turned his head finally to look down to see Nida, wondering if he’d done well and if the man might be proud of his attempt.

He had. It wasn't as high up as Nida intended them to get to, but it was a great first start. Nida smiled and waved up at the kid. Then he got his tell phone out to take a picture of the kid.

"I'm so proud of you, Mono!"

And there it was, something he hadn’t been sure he’d hear, but definitely what he’d wanted to… He’d made someone proud! His teacher was proud of him! That meant he’d done good! And that just made the fun of the challenge better. “Thanks!!” He shouted back down, leaning against the building and looking around. It wasn’t as high up as the top of the grey building where he liked to sit, but it still gave him a good view of the surrounding area. “It was really fun, and the chalk made it a lot easier!”

He would have to see if he could find something like this in his world, or make something work kinda like it, if he went back. It might make things a little easier…

"I know it did. I learned a lot of early work like that."

Nida smiled and just couldn't help himself in that smile. While at Garden he did teach some classes, none of them were ever this. So he truly was shining with this.

"Alright, now you take a moment to breathe, and we talk about getting down."

Ah, yes... Getting down. He looked at the ground below thoughtfully. He hadn’t thought about that.

And he’d said he wouldn’t do what Nida had done... So he took a moment to just enjoy the air and the surrounding view, like Nida said, before he finally offered the man a curious tilt of his head from above. “If I’m not supposed to do the neat thing you did, how do I get down?” He called, because he knew he couldn’t manage that. He’d fallen enough times to know that.

"We're going to keep the line tight as you go down, to catch you. And you're going to experiment with trying to lower yourself."

And it wasn't the most fun to do, but it was something one often did.

"What goes up must come down after all."

“Okay!” He called back, “I guess that’s true…” he mumbled, more to himself as he looked down and tried to decide the best way to go. The kid figured it was just the same as he did to get up… But backwards. Which wasn’t correct, but he at least tried to plan his steps as he tried to start lowering himself down the wall, following the holds he had before.

It’s definitely more clumsy looking than when he went up, though. He wasn’t used to climbing back down, of course, he was used to going up and moving forward. Backward was usually a bad idea.

Backwards was usually a bad idea, but down wasn't always backwards. Sometimes you ended up somewhere high and you needed to get down. And practice mattered. This wasn't even the most difficult way that Nida was going to teach him this.

No, that would be when Mono would climb up one place and come down another he didn't know.

"You're doing good kid. You can do this."

Now that would certainly be an interesting test, the kid would undoubtedly find that rather exciting.

But for now, he was focused on getting down from where he was now. Nida’s encouragement definitely helping as he tried to carefully make his way down the side of the building with careful movements. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite so well executed as his trip up and when he did slip this time (further down the wall at least than on his way up) there was a lot more scrabbling to get his grip again, a panicked sound escaping him. He definitely needed more work on the return trip.

Nida reacted before he even thought with the slip, immediately taking up the slack given to him on the line, holding the boy up to give him some stability as he anchored himself again.

"It's okay. Take a moment to breathe, to let your heart recover a tiny bit. YOu're okay, and you'll be okay."

Mono felt some relief as he realized that he was still held safely in place by Nida’s grip on the line. He wasn’t in danger. That wasn’t a problem here, not right now. “Thanks!” He called back, still sounded perhaps a little shaken by it. He didn’t know why, but it rattled him a bit. “It’s harder coming back.” He added over his shoulder as he carefully found his grip again and let himself breathe as instructed. Eventually, he slowly continued his descent.

"That's what I'm here for, kid," Nida said. "And yeah, it can be harder with some things. But if you don't learn going down like this, the other stuff won't help. But you can do this, Mono. I believe in you!"

He was so damn happy and proud, and the kid would absolutely know that when he hit the ground.

Mono guessed that was true. Nida was there to teach him… And making sure he didn’t fall seemed like an important aspect to the process. It was a nice security that he really wasn’t used to being there… He smiled to himself, though. Nida’s encouragement really did help as he tried to work out a path down the wall. It helped to boost the kid’s confidence as he chose his next movements downward.

It definitely was slower than his trip up, but eventually the kid settled his feet on solid ground. He turned with a little whirl, arms raised up lightly in excitement. “Hey, I did it!”

Feet on solid ground meant Nida could drop the rope and move to the child to catch him up in a hug. Yeah, this was good. He was so proud.

"You did it, Mono. Bet you've never done something like that before."

Mono had not expected to be swept up in a hug. Hugs were... weird. Not in a bad way, not when it was someone he wasn't anxious around...

And it was Nida, and the man sounded so proud of him, that he tried to adjust to it after a second or two of obvious surprise. "Nope! Never did anything like that! Usually I just gotta go up and keep going! So it was really neat to do it like that!"

Hugs were a good way to reward a kid. NIda could have done with more of them as a child.

"Well we're going ot make it so that you can climb up and down as fast as a squirrel. I believe in you."

Mono would figure all this out eventually, hopefully with enough time around Nida and others.

Still, the kid was pretty darn excited by the idea. “Really? I was watching some at the park, they’re really fast! I’m gonna have to practice a lot, especially with down.”

"They're really super fast," Nida agreed. Though yeah, that wasn't physically possible to do, but he was going to give the kid a goal. "Alright, take a breather. I've got some jerky here for you to eat to recharge a bit. Then we'll go again."

Mono nodded. “Okay, I like the sound of a snack.” He responded quickly, wondering what the jerky was. It was a funny word… But he would be happy with a quick snack. After all, the faster he ate, the faster he could get back to climbing and practicing!

Nida reached into a bag at his side and pulled out the bit of seasoned, dried meat to hand over to the kid.

"This is touch and takes chewing. But it's tasty too."

Mono looked at it curiously, turning it over in his hands after Nida passed it to him. It really did look tough, and taking a bit out of it, he blinked, “Wow, it really is kinda hard and chewy…?” It wasn’t bad though, he kept eating it since the kid had learned you ate what you got. It was just a learned habit at this point in his life, because you never knew when your next meal would be.

At least that was how it was before, even if now it didn’t seem to be the case.

It was tasty in Nida's opinion, and he was happily taking out another piece for himself.

"They season it in all sorts of ways, and even make it out of different meats. I find it a practical protein boost on a busy day."

“Protein is good for climbing, then?” He asked, looking at it again before he took another small bite. He hadn’t heard that said about food before, so Mono had to ask to learn a little more.

It was definitely pretty good, not as good as apple turnovers or sugar cookies from Ignis, or Aerith’s Red Bean Bun things, or cinnamon sugar pretzels from Illyana… Yeah, the kid had been steadily acquiring a heck of a sweet tooth. But the jerky was definitely good, and if they were good to eat for climbing and stuff, then that made them an important snack!

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