2025-04-07 - Roof Hockey Is Always A Good Idea

It's the middle of the night, with the park still fairly empty of employees due to people just beginning to filter back in. The grounds around the Tarjay (is there a parking lot?) are deserted, except for Zack, who is circling the place in a way that looks an awful lot like someone casing an area for a robbery. Well, except for the fact that he's doing so with a pair of beat up rollerblades hanging from his shoulder by their laces where he tied them together, and carrying a newer looking hockey stick.

Oddly enough, Percy actually had skates! They might even be blades, since he's about of 'that age' that preferred those to the older-style roller skates. And he even knows how to use them! Mostly.

Maybe he skates to the school? He did stay on the island, offering to help with any of the kids that also stayed during the evacuation. Schooling wasn't required, surely, but some kids feel better with routine and he was willing to help with that as best he could...or just to be there if they wanted someone other than a parent to talk to.

Now, however, there are no students. It's the middle of the night and things seem to be deserted. A perfect night to go skating around an empty lot, right? Is there even a parking lot with no cars allowed on the island?

Maybe that's why the goal is to get to the roof of one of the largest, flattest buildings in order to achieve this harebrained scheme! Percy likewise has some hockey equipment, no doubt borrowed from the school, as he skates his way towards the dark and seemingly abandoned Tarjay.

The movement of someone around the building gives him pause, but rather than duck behind something for Stealth purposes, he instead stands there, squinting, to see if he can make out who it might be.

Zack also doesn't have the common sense to be concerned about someone catching him apparently casing the place, especially when Percy's silhouette is clearly on skates, and holding hockey equipment.

"Man, you too? What're the odds?" His accent is unmistakable - southern, as far as Yankees are concerned, or Appalachian for someone who can tell the difference. Some people come to the north with an accent. Zack came with an ACCENT!!, thick enough that he could easily wander into territory where he's hard to understand. "There ain't much of a lot here, but there's a heck of a lot of space on the roof."

And Percy came with his own accent as well, only his is from Across the Pond and about as BBC British as one can get. Blue eyes blink after a moment of surprise and realization and the older man gives a grin, "What are the odds indeed!" Those bright eyes look up towards the roof of the building, "D'you suppose there are air vents up there? Or far enough apart that they could be...useful?" In a game of street...or roof...hockey?

'I don't suppose you can fly, can you?"

"No such luck," Zack chuckles, shaking his head. "I ain't got none of that stuff." He doesn't really sound upset or ashamed of this, the admission that he's the only person who came on the island and then just... never learned magic. "But I don't think this'll be too hard to climb. Give me your skates and I'll take 'em up, then you can pass the big stuff up to me."

"Climb..." Percy repeats, looking up at the building. "You think not?" Wouldn't there be some sort of access ladder or staircase somewhere? Maybe? He doesn't look entirely convinced, but he'll sit down right there and remove his skates so that they can be handed over.

Before the first skate is held out, he offers, "I'm Percy, by the way." Because if they're both going to be risking their lives climbing forbidden retail stores, maybe they should know each others' names.

"I'm Zack." Zack grins, and is enthusiastic about shaking Percy's hand. "Yeah, I can get up there. It ain't too bad. Long as there's a dumpster or somethin' in back." He ties Percy's laces together, so that he can hang the skates from his other shoulder, then passes his hockey stick to the other man. "Let's go look."

And with that, he goes bounding off to explore the alley behind the store.

Percy will trade the skates for the hockey stick and follow, a bit more carefully as he's now only in socks. Is he concerned about climbing a dumpster in socks? Maybe the thought of actually getting to the roof is more exciting than the potential feeling of 'Ick' at the thought of the former. "Would the dumpster be close enough to the building?" is asked as he trots a little to catch up. "I could try to boost you too..." somehow.

Zack has, by the time Percy follows him, heaved a dumpster close to, but not up against the wall of the superstore and closed the lid. He takes a few steps back and takes a moment, then bursts into motion. A couple of very fast steps and he jumps onto the dumpster, runs forward another step without losing momentum, and runs up the wall for a couple of steps before pushing up and grabbing the top by his fingertips. He hangs for a moment, then hauls himself up. It's something that, if he'd have thrown in a flip or something to show off, legitimately would fit in on a YouTube parkour compilation. A moment later his head appears over the side, with his hair hanging in his eyes. He's grinning ear to ear.

"See? Told you it weren't nothin'. Hop onto the dumpster and hand me up the big stuff."

Percy just blinks again at seeing Zack flip his way up the building. "Are you sure you can't fly?" he asks, "Or just that you're a ninja? I hope you don't expect me to be able to do," he gives a wave of his hand to the wall, "All of that?"

But he'll go to try and climb the dumpster and...well, it doesn't seem to be going well. The hockey sticks made it to the top of the thing, but so far Percy seems to be having difficulty. "This is..." he grunts, "Not my strength..."

Zack treats Percy's plight with the dumpster as a subject of some amusement, grinning the whole time at the spectacle.

"You can do it, man." The statement has the tone of good natured encouragement. "Get yerself a running start before you jump. Makes pushing yourself onto the thing a little easier, y'know?"

"I am quite a bit shorter than you, my man...and quite a bit older, I would guess..." but Percy's not going to let a dumpster defeat him! That said, he's also not going to take the suggested running start.

Instead, he's going to take a moment to see if he can find the best angle to climb the dumpster, pulling himself up through sheer stubbornness.

"You ain't THAT much shorter'an me," Zack laughs. He's short enough, himself, that he's used to people being taller than he is. He watches Percy scramble onto the dumpster and gives him a brief round of applause. "There, see? You got this. Now hand me up the stuff."

He'll have to lean precariously down over the edge to grab everything as it's handed up to him, but he doesn't seem to mind the potential danger of becoming overbalanced and falling right onto his head. Either that or he's just too reckless to acknowledge that there IS a danger.

"It makes a difference," Percy grunts even as he grabs the hockey sticks to try and lift them towards Zack. He'll stand on his tip-toes to try and get the height so that the other can grab the equipment before he tries to figure out how he's getting the rest of the way up there.

"There's not a ladder or anything up there?"

Zack receives the items, one after the other, and leaves them on the roof at his feet, next to all their skates. Percy's mention of a ladder has him turning thoughtful and looking around, like he hadn't considered the possibility, not even when he was planning to run up the side of the wall, until Percy pointed out the easier way.

"Guess there's gotta be something, don't there?" He says after a moment. "They gotta have a way to get up here to fix things and stuff. Lemme go have a look-see. See if you can find anything on your end."

"Usually there'd be access inside...maybe?" Although, if the building is only one story, maybe they don't? Of course, that means that Percy has to now climb -down- from the dumpster without injuring himself in order to look around.

There -does- seem to be a ladder, but...well, it might not be of much help. It does come from one end of the roof over an edge, much like how a ladder goes into a swimming pool. It seems to be folded up, however, so that it isn't reachable from the ground.

"Well..." he calls up, trying not to be too loud but loud enough for his voice to carry where it needs to go, "...There's a ladder. Technically."

Zack follows Percy's voice over.

"Well, if that don't beat all. There IS a ladder. It's just all folded up." He goes over to mess with it and see if he can figure out how to get it to reach the ground, approaching the situation with the cheerful confidence of someone who has no idea what he doesn't know.

"These places usually have a pole or something to pull these things down...I've seen them in cities." But here? Really? Did they really need that? Hopefully the tinkering with it won't make such a clatter that it might rouse suspicion; they should really wait for the hockey game itself for that.

'Maybe you can push it to unfold with one of the hockey sticks?"

"Oh, that's a good idea." Zack's beginning to show a pattern - just tackle everything in the most direct way and throw enthusiasm at it until it solves itself. "You're good at thinkin' of this stuff. Lemme go get one."

He comes back with the hockey stick, messes around with it, mostly pushing and banging on things at random, and the ladder eventually comes free with an unfortunately loud KA-CHUNK.

"Probably why they gave me the teaching degrees," Percy quips back at the compliment. If he still had one of the hockey sticks he could have tried to tap at it himself, but it seems neither really thought the roof access through.

When Zach returns and finally gets the ladder to come free, he jumps at the loud sound. Maybe too many are still off the islands to notice or care? He looks around quickly before moving to scramble up the ladder quickly.

Once he's on the roof he hisses, "Get down! Just in case..." maybe if someone noticed and came to investigate, if they don't see people on the roof they'll leave?

"Aw, man, you're a teacher? Really?" The way that Zack says 'you're a teacher' implies that being a teacher is some kind of mythical, otherworldly thing. It's giving the same energy as kids who just assume their teachers live at school and never leave. "That's awesome. I seen they got a school on the island. Guess it must be pretty crazy, teaching all them kids of performers and stuff."

He is not taking the covert part of this whole exercise NEARLY as seriously as he should, but he gamely crouches down, to avoid being silhouetted against the sky, grinning the whole time.

"Um... Hello?" comes a young voice from behind them, on the other end of the roof. In the darkness there's a silhouette of a young man with a mop of hair flopping in the evening wind and a long tail swishing behind him. More strangely, however, is that he's holding a hockey stick in his hand, and behind him is what looks like a hockey goal made out of PVC pipe and fishnet.

The figure's head tilts a little and then Huck steps forward, moving closer so he can see them. "...So, this is weird."

"They have three," Percy offers back, quietly, "Elementary, Middle, and High. I'm at the High School," and he tries to wave for Zach to crouch down further. The new voice calling confirms his wariness...but it's coming from the wrong direction? Not from the ground?

He turns to look at the other and notes the Hockey equipment before relaxing. "How..." he looks back at the ladder and then at the newcomer, "How did -you- get up here?"

Zack turns towards the sound of another voice, still grinning, and raises his hands up, like Huck might have a gun pointed at them. Except not really, because there's no way he'd be this amused about the whole situation if there was actually a gun involved. .... Right?

"You caught us. In our defense, we've never been up here before." Because that's a valid defense?

Then he catches sight of the hockey goal and bursts out laughing.

"I KNEW this was a good idea. If it was a bad one I'd have been the only one who had it." He gestures with his own hockey stick. "Did you bring skates?"

Huck squints a bit and steps closer so that he's in the same ambient light as the other two men. "I'm sorry, I'm Deaf. It's hard to read lips here in the dark..."

He does smile widely when he sees the others are laughing too. "So, I've been up here a few times..." He gestures at the net, "I had to fly the goal up." He shakes his head, though, "I don't have skates. I was just doing the American field hockey thing – which is weird."

"Why are you guys up here?" he then asks, looking them over. "And with hockey sticks?" His brow furrows a little, "Are you two here to make fun of me?"

"Oh, sorry..." Percy says but then repeats it again once Huck is closer and in the light. Blue eyes widen, "You flew?" He looks at Zack, "I knew someone would be able to do that..." but then looks back. "American Field Hockey?"

The furrowed brow and the question get a tilt of his head, "What? No! We both apparently had the idea that this is one of the only flat-topped buildings that could support skating...and street hockey. I, certainly, haven't met you, and I would hope that I would never be accused of making fun of -anyone-!" Hopefully his British accent doesn't make the lip-reading more difficult.

"Man, we had to climb up here. This'd be too much work for a joke," Zack chuckles. "Even for me." Then a pause. "Oh, shoot. Deaf." And then, full of good intentions and very questionable execution, he repeats himself, louder and probably with the intention of being clearer, although his own accent really precludes that. Not that being quiet or unclear is the issue here: "THIS! WOULD! BE! TOO! MUCH! WORK! FOR! A! JOKE!"

Accents do indeed make things more difficult. Huck's brow furrows a little as he concentrates to read Percy's lips, "American field hockey is dumb, I know, but I don't own rollerblades and I absolutely had to get up here and play. It's the weirdest thing, eh, but I couldn't sleep thinking about it. I've been up here a few times now, but no one else has."

"Oh, um," he shoves his hand out to Percy, "I'm Huck."

Looking at Zack, he smiles, "I have no idea what you just said, but I can only assume you were yelling it like I was underwater and not completely Deaf." He laughs a little, "Just talk normal. When you try to yell or be slow, it actually makes it harder."

His head cocks to the side then, "Wait... so... you two had the same idea? Do you guys play hockey?"

Percy turns to Zack, "Shouting isn't going to make him hear you better. Just enunciate and make sure he's looking at you when you're speaking to him." Maybe it's the teacher in him but he had to say something.

The offered hand is taken and given a friendly shake, "Percy. That's Zack." And to answer, "I suppose we did. Have the same idea. And yes, I was a professional hockey player in England." He is so obviously lying. "All 5'5" of me." He then grins, "I'd been known to do a bit of street hockey back in the day. I borrowed some equipment from the school." Mostly the hockey stick and the ball.

"Oh, sorry." Zack's ready and willing to be corrected, taking it in the spirit that it's offered. Unfortunately, even when he's not doing the American Overshout, his accent is so thick that he's sometimes hard to understand for people who can actually hear him. In his case, it's less cultured British and more Backwoods Hillbilly Southern.

"I'm Zack," Zack repeats, with a wave, even though Percy JUST introduced him. "I ain't played in a couple years. Had a buddy back in Nashville who was into it, and I got roped in, y'know?"

Huck is impressed, "Really? For the British Elite League? That's amazing! I never went pro or anything, but I'm a pretty good player!" Sarcasm tones are best heard and not lip read.

"Hey Zack," he says, offering his hand to the other man with a large, fang-toothed smile. "Is Nashville in the US somewhere?" he asks. "I play all the time in the Palace here when they have open ice."

He looks at the ball Percy has, "A ball? Doodles, that's brilliant!" He starts laughing and he gestures at a pile of pucks back by the goal. "I brought pucks up and they suck on this roofing."

Percy laughs, "No. I'm kidding. I played in the neighborhood and was usually chosen last for the teams." He may be small, but he also might be more tenacious. "I believe Nashville is a city in Tennessee," says the Brit.

"Well, they play floor hockey at the school, so I thought it might be close enough," is offered when the ball is mentioned. "Well, now that there are three of us, how shall we work it?"

"Tennessee born and bred," Zack agrees with Percy, like his accent isn't a dead giveaway. Well, for Huck, maybe it isn't.

Now that everyone's closer, he squints at Huck for a moment.

"Hey, I think I seen you before, ain't I? At the clinic? We was both always just passing through, but that tail really sticks in the mind, y'know?"

He doesn't have any real ideas for rules beyond the obvious:

"We should just do it on foot, since Huck ain't got skates. Wouldn't be none fair otherwise."

Huck nods about Tennessee. "That's south, right?"

He smiles widely at Zack, a charming, dimple-laden grin that could melt the most bitter of ice. "I don't think so? But I'm around a lot of places given my job at the park, so you might have seen me somewhere. But, I feel pretty confident if I had seen you," his tail begins to swing, and then with a coy, flirtatious glance away and then back at Zack, he adds, "I'd remember seeing you're face."

He laughs, and then shrugs, his tail shrugging with his shoulders, "Skates or no, I'm still gonna wallup you boys."

"Wait, um, so, you want to play?!?" he asks when Percy asks, with a childlike excitement. "Hell yes!"

"I skated over here..." Percy then looks down at his socked feet...on the roof of the store. "I guess I can play in bare feet..." He looks over to Zack, "If I end up breaking a toe, you're at least a medical sort."

Huck's challenge gets a raised brow, "Are you saying two against one then?"

"Tell y'what, you keep the skates," Zack suggests to Percy. "Sounds like ol' Huck here thinks he's quick enough to keep up." His eyes glitter with amusement at the challenge. "I'll stay on foot, just to make it a little more fair." He gives the hockey stick a casual swing with an easiness that suggests either a familiarity with hockey sticks specifically, or maybe just a general proclivity for doing sports. "Wouldn't wanna whallop ya too fast."

Huck laughs a little, unsure, so he just asks Zack, "Did you just call me old?" He rolls his eyes and hefts his own stick.

"Don't break a toe, Percy," Huck advises with a friendly tone. "I don't want to have to fly you down." He walks over to about where 'center ice' should be from the net and taps the end of the stick there. "Grab one of your balls, Perce." He says it in a childlike way that emphasizes there's a 'Percy playing with his balls' joke in there, which elicits a chuckle from him.

Percy teaches High School. The juvenile jokes are just a part of his job. Moving to put on his skates (finally), he'll then take a few practice skates before retrieving his stick and one of the balls. The ball is tapped over to Huck, "You two can play offense...Leave the old man to keep defense."

Zack hops up and down on his toes a couple of times, like a race car revving and waiting for the flag to finally take off. He fairly vibrates with pent up energy straining to express itself.

"Man, you sure you want that?" He asks Percy. "Maybe we better go up against the flying guy, first round."

Huck watches as the other two talk, laughing a little at being the flying guy. As he waits, he snatches the ball with the blade of the stick, bouncing it up and down on the blade. He’s showing off a little — he doesn’t get to play hockey with other people much these days.

“If you’re worried about it being two on one I can grab a second stick,” he offers with a playful laugh as he passes the stick in his hand to his tail. It wraps around it and he lets go with his hands, though using his tail, he continues to bounce the ball on the blade.

"Isn't that sort of what I suggested?" Percy tilts his head to Zack, "I can defend the goal...although, I suppose we could both try against him?" When Huck holds the hockey stick with his tail, that gets an odd sort of look. "I'm not sure if that's a help or a hinder."

But he'll give a shrug, "Both of us against Huck then."

Zack turns out to maybe not be a skilled hockey player, but athletically gifted enough to compensate for only having the vaguest idea of what he's doing, with a good, instinctive understanding of the space around himself and how to maneuver the ball, a well of energy that doesn't ever seem to freaking run out, allowing him to go at a sprint pretty much indefinitely, and the recklessness to take risks in a situation where he's a guy with a big stick and no padding running at another guy with a big stick and no padding. Hits that he takes on accident, and there probably ARE going to be a few, because he really IS displaying a reckless disregard for his own wellbeing, he laughs off like they never happened. There's definitely a certain amount of competitive spirit in there, but only in the sense of wanting to really test himself against Huck.

Percy is neither skilled nor athletically gifted, but he sure tries hard! Maybe he barely gets to take a swipe at the ball if it comes his way, but he's also willing to skate...not the most gracefully around...and try to call out encouragement to his teammate.

He probably should have worn knee-pads because he probably does take a few minor spills. Does his hockey stick make contact with the ball? Doubtful. But he seems like he's enjoying watching Huck and Zack battle it out while pretending he's a part of it too.

Huck laughs with Percy about the tail stick, “Alright okay.” He takes it back into his clawed hands and then drops the ‘puck.’ He plays a little easy at first, not wanting to make anyone feel bad for not being great and also to make sure they all have fun! He laughs a lot, enjoying it. He plays very physical, his checks and crashes into Zack are hard and confident, though they would be much harder if they were zipping around on skates. He does make sure anyone who falls is okay before moving on, however.

Zack is a bit more athletic than Huck, but Hucks got hockey skills. He lobs a few one shots at Percy slow enough the man can block them and gain confidence before he winds his stick up and slams one into the net past him.

Zack, coming in just a little bit too slow to block the shot, throws himself into a last effort to do so with a dive that pretty well explains why the knees on his jeans are duct taped. He's probably blown the knees out of all of his pants pulling dumb crap like this. It winds up with him on his back, throwing out one of his cheerful non-curses ('Well, shoot!') having failed to block the shot. He kips back up in a way that suggests maybe he ought to have been hired as an acrobat rather than a paramedic, and goes bounding over to collect the ball for another round.

"As crazy as everyone round here is for hockey, it's weird there ain't a rink nearby," he comments, tossing the 'puck' in the air and catching it a couple of times. "This'd be real fun to do on ice skates."

Does Percy manage to block the lobbed shot at him? Does he recognize the 'pity lob'? Eh, does it matter? Hey, he's sort of involved, so that's nice. That, and he can watch these others do crazy acrobatics and antics with tails...and all sorts of things he never really thought he'd ever really see much less be a part of.

"There likely is on the mainland. But I'm fairly certain hockey skates are different on the ice than figure skates, so they may not wish to have to smooth the ice if they let hockey players borrow the rink here. Seems it could be a good use for it, but there are also so many shows a day, I would imagine."

In a break between plays, Huck laughs, sharing, “It’s definitely better on ice skates for sure.” And then, as if to illustrate that fact, he pushes off with 1 foot and then floats into the air about 6 inches off the roof. He skates across the air with his flying ability as if he were wearing blades and on ice, moving across the roof until he’s next to Zach and Percy.

“ The cool thing about the palace is that after they have done all of the shows and practices for the day, they open it up to employees to free skate,” he shares. “ if you ever want to play real ice hockey in there, let me know. I’d love to maybe set up some teams. Also, if I’m not around, I’ve made arrangements with some of the supervisors there to allow me to hide one of these gold nuts and some sticks beneath the bleachers on stage right.”

He adds, “ It’s where this goal came from tonight.”

“Do either of you ice skate?” Asks Huck, before his tail gives Zack’s s shoulder a light shove, “And you have to teach me that crazy thing you did when you got up a few minutes ago!”

"Maan, you can FLY," Zack laughs to Huck. "You don't need no fancy tricks to get back on your feet after you take a tumble."

If Huck is going to 'skate' around on air, he's putting his roller blades on.

"There's a whole buncha ice skating in Nashville. Ain't like they got frozen lakes and stuff in winter so much, but I guess it's just a thing people do. I been a few times to the big public rink. They won't really let you go fast, though. If you set somethin' up to play hockey, I'll be there, long as I don't got a shift that night."

"That's nice that they allow that. I suppose that a lot of people ice skate here..." he seems like he does not. "Oddly enough, it doesn't get -that- cold in London." So roller skates it is. Also, Percy's a big nerd and ice skates are apparently 'too cool'.

"I mostly just attempted to play Street Hockey," is offered quietly before he watches the two continue their conversation.

Huck laughs, "I did say that was how I got up here," he responds to Zack's amusement about flying. "Maybe not here, but one day if I leave, I'd love to know the trick!"

He smiles over at Percy, "Really? You just get fog there?" He clearly only knows London from TV. "Street hockey on skates, though, right? Running hockey is American field hockey, and Americans are weird." It's said with a smile, so he knows he's teasing Zack with that. "Would you like to learn, Perce?"

"What, ain't you American?" It literally has not occurred to Zack that the default state of things is not 'person is American'. Which makes him about as American as they come, really.

"Fog and rain...and the occasional dirty snow and the occasional sun," Percy agrees with a grin. "Yes, on skates. If you're running with a paddle, that's generally Cricket." At the mention of how Americans are, his grin widens, "Well, you said it, not I."

Zack gets a blink, "What, me? No...I'm British. From England. Across the Atlantic Sea..." although -not- from Manchester for any who get the reference.

Huck laughs heartily at Zack, and when Percy shares his home country, Huck is also then affirming, "I. Am. Not." His tail swings around as he notes, "I'm awesome, because I'm from Vancouver. That's Canada." Then, if allowed, the end of his furry tail 'boops' Zack's nose as he says with a high pitched voice, "BOOP."

"Hey, we should put a sign up somewhere. Maybe see how many people we can get together and have a real game in the Palace some time?" says Huck with some exuberance. "I know Theo and Knox would play..." He thinks a minute, wondering if he knows anyone else.

While Zack would probably not ordinarily lean into a furry tail nose-booping, he is both sitting on his butt on the ground, putting his roller blades on, and also distracted by Percy.

"No, man, I KNOW you ain't American. I heard that accent before on the TV." He's heard A British accent before on the TV, but much like someone not from the south might not be able to differentiate that Zack isn't from Georgia or Alabama or what his family's general social standing was, it's unlikely that he really has an ear to tell posh from Manchester from... pretty much anything but bad Hollywood cockney, probably. Every American has seen Mary Poppins at least once, whether they want to have done so or not.

"My roommate prob'ly w - HEY." He rubs his nose, and then sneezes.

Percy gives Huck a nod when he says he's Canadian. Zack's mention of hearing his accent on TV gets another grin, "Well, good. I'd hate to find out that I suddenly sounded American." Teasing.

In fact, the Southern accent is much closer to British than many might think. Might not be the London/BBC accent, but he hasn't seemed to have a problem with it yet. The tail-boop has him giving a little skate backwards just a little.

"I suppose you could post on the Employee Board. It seems rather busy...I know I can't usually keep up with it."

Huck just laughs at Zack's response, feigning ignorance, "What?" He smiles at Percy's step back. "Well, maybe we just ask around, too? We only need 12 players to pull a full group, though we could do with less if we had to."

He tilts his head considering things a moment, and then asks, "Hey, isn't this all kind of weird? I mean... Why are we up here? You guys don't even really play hockey. I couldn't hardly do anything without thinking about playing up here. And now, I don't really feel that. Like, I did it. I'm good. What even gave any of us the idea?"

Zack shrugs off the question of why he's here with a grin. He doesn't really give off the sense of being someone who needs reasons to do things. He gets up, skates a little circle, and skids to a stop. It must be nice to just... do all sports well.

"You gotta admit, it's awesome up here. Ain't that reason enough?"

"I actually -have- played Street Hockey," Percy reminds. "I never claimed to be -good- at it," but he's played. Just not Ice Hockey. He'll also skate a little, albeit not as gracefully or easily as Zack, "It's a valid question. Although I'm not sure it needs to be anything but rhetorical. No one's hurt...no property was hurt...why is it different from those in the apartment buildings that sneak up to the roof for parties?"

Huck nods, "It is indeed awesome up here. It's just..." Huck inhales, purses his lips, and then shares, "Okay, so, a few months ago, I had this dream. I was on a boat, and there were all these other people there, and we fought these zombies. A few days later, I found out, everyone on the boat with me in the dream had the same dream. We all shared it. I just..." He shakes his head, "I've never thought about playing hockey not on ice my whole life, and certainly not on a roof of a Tarjay. Suddenly, I it's all I can think about, and then I get up here, and you two show up."

He shakes his head a little, "Sharing the same dream of rooftop hockey." He shrugs, "I just feel like, I don't know... Maybe this is more weird island shit?" He shrugs again, this time his tail shrugging with hsi shoulders, "Maybe I'm overthinking it."

"This don't feel so much like a dream to me," Zack remarks. "There ain't no pink elephants or nothin' right? And none of us is naked." Then he laughs. "Guess I could always jump off the side and find out for sure. Fallin' off something in a dream always wakes me up."

Of course, if it's NOT a dream...

Percy shakes his head, "This isn't a dream. I wouldn't dream about lugging a hockey stick from the school out to here and then trying to find some sort of ladder to climb. I also wouldn't dream about climbing a dumpster..." Dreams are often a little more elegant than that, even when fighting zombies.

"It is uncanny," he'll offer after a moment, "That there were three of us with the idea on the same evening. But...if it's something weird with the island, it seems innocuous."

Huck's brow lifts and he laughs at Zack noting there's no nudity, "I want to be in your dreams. Just... Don't jump, okay?" To Percy, he smiles. "I don't think it's evil that we're all up here. I just think there's no way it's coincidence, is all." He grins again, and exhales. "I suppose you're right, though. We aren't in trouble or anything." He hefts his stick back into his hands. "Zack's at the clinic, but, what do you do around here, Perce?"

"He's a TEACHER." Should Zack have let Percy answer that question himself? Probably, but his enthusiasm once again trumps his restraint. "Don't that beat all?"

Percy doesn't seem to mind that Zack answered for him. "Not very glamorous, I'm afraid. I'm rarely off of -this- island..." not even going back and forth to the Park Island! "With the evacuation, this has actually been a nice break from everyone's concern."

"Wait, what?" Huck is surprised by that. "A teacher? Like, wait. Is there a school on Crescent Island?" He looks back and forth between them.

"Some people got their kids and stuff here," Zack points out to Huck. "Though I didn't think it was THAT many."

Talking with Huck is proving, for him, to be an exercise in self-discipline, since he can't just go tearing off around the roof on his skates and shout conversation back at him, and standing still doesn't seem to be very much in his skillset. He starts to skate backwards towards the edge of the building before stopping himself and coming closer again.

"Three schools, actually," Percy amends. "Elementary, Middle, and High School. As Zack said, people come here with their families and the children need to go to school, so here I am!"

He watches as Zack moves about on the skates before looking between him and Huck, "It's actually quite the population here. The park employs thousands..."

Huck is surprised by all of this. "Doodles. That's wild. I mean, I guess, I don't have kids, so why would I have known that. But wow." He grins, "Hey, don't fall, Zack!"

He bounces the ball a few times and then flicks it off his stick toward Percy, an easy, gentle pass. "So are you like a nurse, Zack?"

"If I do, you can just fly out an' catch me," Zack laughs, careless of the fact that like gravity, and no he probably can't.

When asked if he's a nurse, he laughs, comes to a stop, and shakes his head.

"Man, I NEVER coulda made it through nursing school. They really work 'em hard, y'know? I couldn't have sat through it." He pushes the artful mess of his hair away from his forehead. "I was an EMT back home, got hired as a paramedic here." He grins. "Most of my job is runnin' soda to diabetics and wrapping sprained ankles. It's a long way from Nashville."

Percy's brows lift, "Wild that they have schools here or wild that people who work here have kids?" He does seem amused that it's such a shock. Blue eyes then look to Zack as he answers the question, "I bet you could, if you wanted to. I found that once we find what we want to do...not what our parents or peers or society wants us to do, but what -we- want to do, then sitting through all of that is easy because we actually want to be there."

But there's another smile, "Being a paramedic is important. Thank you for doing it."

"I can fly, I can't move faster than gravity," says Huck about catching Zack. "I actually liked school. I've only got a couple hours left to get my Bachelors, but I've ended up kind of distracted here." He laughs, "Don't tell my mom."

"Wild that they have schools here," Huck answers Percy. "I just figured kids ferried to the mainland every morning or something."

"I ain't never been much for schooling," Zack demurs with an easy smile. "Man, I barely got through the paramedic training by the skin of my teeth, y'know what I mean? I wouldn't have gotten through it at all, 'cept an instructor took pity. The nurses got to do way more. Tell you the truth, I think they know more'an the doctors do."

"I'll keep silent, but one of the things I offer is tutoring if people need that extra push to finish a degree, whether college or GED. I may not be of much use if you were a Math or Hard Science major, but I can manage most others," Percy offers with a little shrug.

In regards to ferrying to the mainland, he looks thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head, "That would be...a lot of ferrying, and I think it would add too much travel time. Besides, if something happened on the mainland, it would take the parents just that much longer to get there. The student population itself would likely take some tourist-sized ferries out of commission each school day." Or so he surmises.

"Took pity or just wanted to see you succeed? Usually it's the latter."

"I'm not downing on myself," says Huck, "I'm not stupid or anything, but I am not smart enough to do medical school. It's awesome that you're a paramedic." He smiles over at Percy, "I'll finish eventually. I got an internship here my senior year and then when it ended, I stayed on as a full timer because my tail is too awesome to leave." That tail swirls around all wonderful and he laughs a little at it. He listens for Zack's answer about that instructor.

"Oh no," Zack chuckles, raising one hand as to ward Percy off. "I done all the book learning I plan to do 'till they make me learn somethin' else to get my certifications renewed." His smile softens when the subject goes back to the nameless instructor who went easy on him in his time of need. "Guess I don't know, really," he admits. "Y'know, I grew up hearing 'bout how nobody cared for nobody else in the big city, right, but I got there and it weren't like that at all. People wanna help more often than they don't."

It's probably an exaggeration, but rose colored glasses is a nice way to see the world.

Percy looks between the two, "No one is questioning anyone," regarding intelligence, certainly not him! He then looks to Zack and gives a little nod, "Living in cities, people are so focused on themselves and their own lives, but I think most would be surprised at how good people can be. They may not always be nice, but they're -good-. And they'll help, even if they're cursing expletives the entire time."

Huck smiles, "I grew up in the city. I can't imagine what it must be like in rural America, but Vancouver was great. People there are awesome. And we have plenty of ice hockey!" He laughs, "And our team is better than the Predators."

"One of my college courses had this whole thing on marketing demographics in cities versus rural areas, and how city people are more likely to recognize that we're all in everything together, and that the people around you doing well helps you to do well. It has to do with how everyone lives right alongside everyone else, in the same buildings, and how that closeness requires and also creates social safety nets. People in rural areas can plant gardens and never even go to a town if they don't want."

Zack smiles broad, and shakes his head.

"Sounds like them marketing guys ain't never actually been into a holler," he chuckles. "Ain't the first crazy story I heard the cityfolk tell about us."

He's been standing still for all of what, a few minutes? For this conversation, and he's starting to fidget again.

"Y'all wanna go another round? Two on one against me, this time."