Minutes or hours passed, but Quinn’s determination seemed unbreakable. At some point, the degree of numbness afforded to her by [color=black]Quinnlash[/color]’s aid lessened, perhaps out of frustration, or perhaps as a way of pushing Quinn’s own tolerance for pain. It didn’t slow her down any, though her progress was little improved. Clearly it would take time to master a course like this, but time was something she now had in abundance.

What she did not have any more was privacy. 

Midway through a leap sabotaged by ill-footing, the door to the rec space slid open. Quinn had just enough time to see two blurred smudges of people enter as her face smacked into the cushioned platform, and she fell back onto the matted ground. 

A sharp hiss and a sympathetic, “[color=caffbf][i]Oooh![/i][/color]” when she landed. As the world spun back into focus, she could see clearly that the newcomers were none other than the twins who had been present at her welcome. With how hectic the morning had been, she hadn’t really gotten a chance to look at them. 

They were the same height, and shared a similar lean build, but from there the similarities were scarce. Their uniforms were gone, and the girl now wore a black sweater bearing the faded logo of some band, which was too large for her, with one sleeve rolled up to her elbow, and the other hanging a few inches past her hand. Black pants, black shoes, black nail polish, black lipstick, black eyeliner which made her seafoam eyes pop. Her hair, which had been pulled into an elegant flat tail earlier, now hung long and straight like an ebony curtain, covering half her face completely. 

The boy had seemingly stolen all of her colors. In place of his uniform he wore a tie-dyed shirt that looked handmade, and a pair of pale salmon-colored pants. His nails were painted as well, though rather than black, each finger was a different color. He had a rather poofy and ineffectual scarf draped over his shoulders, and his hair, which reached just past his shoulders, was fluffy and voluminous where his sister’s was flat and dense. Even their expressions seemed entirely opposite; he wore a wide, toothy grin that reached well into his eyes, and she seemed almost muted, though not outright scowling. 

“[color=55cbcd]Told you,[/color]” the girl said, voice flat. “[color=55cbcd]Straight to the playground, just like you.[/color]”

“[color=caffbf]Never so happy to be wrong![/color]” said the boy, marching over with his sister in tow. “[color=caffbf]It’s real nasty right off the bat, isn’t it? You’d think they wouldn’t make the beginning so hard. I made it right about…there,[/color]” he pointed to about halfway across the segmented beam section right ahead of where she’d fallen. “[color=caffbf]Before I had to call it quits my first day. Heads up—they move. Chipped one of my teeth falling down.[/color]”

“[color=55cbcd]It was hilarious.[/color]” 

“[color=caffbf][i]She[/i] hasn’t even tried it.[/color]” he said, jutting a thumb back at her. In response, she flipped him the bird, and he stuck out his tongue, still grinning. Then, as if suddenly remembering himself, he turned back to Quinn and offered a hand to help her up. “[color=caffbf]Rude! So sorry! I’m Cyril, and this—[/color]”
 
“[color=55cbcd]Sybil,[/color]” the girl said. 

“[color=caffbf]We’re the Derisas, and your new coworkers! It feels a bit strange welcoming someone who’s technically our senior, but…welcome![/color]”