She'd spotted the wanted online during an extensive panic filled search, during a bout sleeplessness that had hit her particularly hard after her only coping mechanism had been taken away. She was out of alcohol, unable to buy more, and feeling twitchier as the days went on. 

But... the silver lining was that she was more or less being forced to go clean, even if it was unwillingly. It was yet another heavy step in the direction of a new life. One free from crime and rampant drug or alcohol use. One that would hopefully one day be free from nightmares and life altering episodes of sever anxiety or panic attacks. 

She wasn't 100% willing to run with it yet, but she was being left with less and less choice, and that was at the lest least a place to start. 

She'd traded in all of her expensive, stolen clothes for cold hard cash, and then used some of that cash to buy more reasonable every day clothes, and then stolen the rest in her usual manner. She had dressed in some of those new clothes for the observation shift she was scheduled for. She was excited to a degree, since this was the furthest she had gotten in the hiring process in the last few weeks. She was also petrified of screwing it up like the last two.  

The Ad had was looking a climbing wall attendant, which entailed basic safety procedures, monitoring the wall and guests who were using the wall, and a few other things. Juniper didn't doubt that she could handle the work load of the customer interaction aspect of it, so long as it was as chill as it sounded on paper. She wasn't even that worried about actually having to climb a wall if it came down to it. Being able to get rid of most of her weight was the best cheat code in the universe, after all.

She paused at the front desk where guests typically signed in for sessions, and smiled brightly at the person behind the counter. "Hi! I, um, I'm here for the shadow shift? Juniper Brown?" 

The worker was equally as cheery, and vanished for a moment to let whoever was in charge of seeing how she did know that she was there. 

Cora normally left the hiring to her manager and the various underlings, but lately they had, well, poor taste. There had been a random twig of a child from the local high school that had the muscle strength of a toddler, and then there had been some stoner guy who tried putting his own harness on backwards two days in a row and had to get shown out the front door when he attempted to exit through the bathroom. Yeah, that was a winner. Cora grumbled to herself as she looked over the paperwork for the new chick. She seemed to have a lack of experience, but nothing on the paper screamed problematic.

Well, unless the name Juniper was just some type of foreshadowing. She had met her fair share of self proclaimed 'free spirits' to know that often meant they didn't believe in personal hygiene and thought smoke breaks were destined to last their entire shift.

Reaching the counter where the girl was waiting, Cora gave her a once over and then approached. "I hear you're shadowing today. Any rock climbing experience? Or, honestly, any life experience at all? I won't beat around the bush, I've had some shitty as f*** applicants lately, so my own customer service smile may be lacking." She glanced for a moment at the various threads lingering around the girl. It was a habit she couldn't quite break. Most people had small patches of them, almost like spiders webs tied to different parts of their body. Hands, wrists, ankles. The girl had her fair share, several dark threads mixed in with the different colors. While it was more than many people, Cora forced herself not to judge. Love was a messy business, and she knew that more than anyone.

Ooh, blue hair. Spicy attitude, also. Two factors of the hotness list checked off immediately.

The teen reminded herself to keep her flirting in check and straightened a little before responding. "I don't have any professional experience, but I've done a bunch of amateur stuff around the cliffs in Hocking hills, but haven't dabbled back into it while traveling around, until now. I got back into it a bit at Central Rock climbing. I'm... still a bit rusty, though."

Of course, that was all slew of bold faced lies. She had climbed a bit her or there back when she was like, ten... but nothing too steep and nothing that required freakin' rope. She was 100% hoping to skate her way through this and just... learn things on the job.

"I've mostly spent the last few years working on my own online platforms. Managing, working with customers, focusing in deadlines." That seemed like a neat way to wrap up what her fake online job was.

"I'm honestly excited to get back into it, one way or another. I've gotten so out of shape over the last few years." She ended it with a light laugh, keeping it pleasant and short.

The girl had good responses, Cora would give her that. Either she did have good credentials or she was really well rehearsed. Either way, Cora was satisfied. Not all employers saw lying as a positive sign, but Cora felt someone willing to put so much effort a credible backstory also desperately wanted a job. People who wanted jobs were less likely to smoke in the bathroom.

”We will start you off with something simple: kids room. Depending on how you handle a bunch of rowdy munchkins without killing them can tell me a thing or two about your ability to last here.” Cora led the way around a corner and into an area with a heavily padded floor and a very low ceiling. She pointed to the setup, explaining as she went. ”This is the free climb playground. One climber per color, we are in charge of keeping them from knocking heads. If and when they fall, you make sure they get out of the way quickly so no one crashed into them.”

There were only three kids today: a tiny girl who was a spider monkey shooting for the top of her zone, a young boy who had barely made it two rocks high, and an older kid who was trying to jump from color to color (clearly the rule breaker).

”First challenge, greenhorn. Wrangle the stray munchkin.”

Oooh boy. She was a glorified baby sitter in charge of rambunctious brats. Or at least one, brat, if watching the one boy swinging from one hand hold to another like he was in a action movie was anything to go by.

"Alright. Control the ne'er-do-well and make sure they are all safe. Got it." She gave the woman a thumbs up and headed on in, stretching her arms above her head a little as she went.

"Hey! Gotta stay in your color zone, buddy!" First step would be to try a less aggressive approach. Maybe he would be open to-

"Shut up, Hag!"

... okay, maybe not. Second step it was, then.

"What, is the blue zone too hard for you?" Her hands settled on her hips as the kid tried to crane his neck to glare at her ruefully, nearly losing his grip on one of the rubber rocks in the process.

"No it isn't!"

"Why are you trying to run away from it then? I bet I could get up to the top faster than you can!"

"You're stupid!"

One eye twitched a little, but she kept her cool. The kid was just ignoring her while still trying to climb over into the next zone.

Time for step three!

Heading on over to the wall, she reached out to touch it and concentrated specifically on the hand holds he was reaching for next. When his fingers found it, it simply wouldn't be there.

"Would you look at that! Guess you're gonna have to head back into your zone now, huh?"

"Hey!" The kid sputtered, inching back a few grips and trying for another. That one wouldn't be there either.

After a bit of back and forth and virtually corralling him back into his own zone by getting rid of specific grips along way, while the other two kids pointed and laughed at him. He was fuming the whole time and really, really confused. Probably would commit the offense again in the near future, but for now she had solved the issue.

... hopefully.

"Witch!"

She headed back on over to her hopefully-future-employer with a rather apprehensive smile on her face.

"Well... how was my wrangling?"

Threads watched the girl approach the situation, and was relieved with what she saw. The situation didn't escalate immediately, which was good. Some teenagers like to yell at the younger climbers without trying the gentle technique in the beginning. When challenging didn't work, only then did she resort to powers. The actual execution was actually impressive. Cora had never seen someone use their powers effectively in this environment, and she was smiling when Juniper turned back to her.

"Gotta say, that was pretty good. You managed a slow escalation, and the end use of powers didn't directly endanger anyone either. You just might survive here after all." Cora waved for Juniper to follow her back to the main room, and approached where the other climbers were doing their thing. "For the beginning, we will keep you on low risk tasks. It's for my liability and yours. The last thing you want is to see what happens when someone has a bad fall and their buddy doesn't catch them. Accidents happen, and there isn't always something you can do to stop it. But we make the best effort up front.

"All climbers have to take a belaying class. They all get tested on setting up their harnesses correctly, and they all get checked before they start a climb. I don't care how advanced someone is, I don't take risks with that type of crap." She waved an arm to a free climb area, where the spidermen and women of the world were exploring the rock wall. "The more advanced climbers have to really earn a right to go without ropes. Most of my top climbers have been here for 4 years or more, and they have had the spills to prove themselves. Not gonna scare you, but they will tell you if you're doing something wrong even before I will. Any questions?"

The tour was short, but there wasn't a whole lot to show. There were rocks. There were a lot of rocks, and handholds, and foot holds. Down the road they would address other tasks, like cleaning the wall, checking the hand holds, maintaining the gym, but day one didn't need to stress her with so much.

As soon as the woman had turned her back to show her to the next place, Junipers arms were in the air and she did a little dance in a circle in celebration. She hadn't bombed it! Yay!

She hurried to catch up before the woman could catch onto her excitement.

Quite a bit was explained to her, as well as a showing of what she would be up against. Looking out at what she was going to be expected to do, she felt a little stirring of fear in her stomach... but, not as bad as before. She could handle criticism pretty well and working with a few people here and there wasn't overwhelming. It only started to really get to her when it was a table full of Karen's screaming at her for messing up an order of fries.

For once in a long while, she felt like she could do this. This wasn't that bad.

"Accidents happen, be safe, be thorough, and don't get offended from constructive criticism from those who know more than me. I think I've got the gist of it, so far."

She watched as one guest missed a grip and started to fall, but the attendant who was holding onto his rope seemingly helped to catch him with some unseen power. Huh. Guess she wasn't the only one with a power she could use to her benefit on the job.

"Actually, I do have a question. How liberally can I use my power while on the clock? Theoretically if i'm holding onto the rope and it's connected to the climber, I can take a bunch of their weight away and make it easier to get them down, or lessen a fall. I just... er.. don't wanna abuse my power if it's frowned upon around here."

Cora didn't flinch when the guest slipped, and Trish--one of her senior employees--easily caught him and helped bring them safely back to the wall. She wasn't surprised Juniper had caught this, but she was at least glad. Being observant was a large part of safety in this building.

"Actually, almost all of the staff here are mutants. There are a few who I keep full-time because they help with the general safety of things. There's Scout, the manager," Cora nodded to the man hiding behind a desk. Scout had been one of her father's best friends, a mutant with dark brown hair and a dusting of white feathers intermingled on his head. "Scout is, well, he can change between birds. He does most of our after our inspections. Then Trish you saw. She has telekenesis. She is usually spotting the bouldering zone or any of our guests who want to try a climb without ropes."

Cora put her thumbs in her belt loops and looked at the girl, making sure she looked serious, but not upset at what was asked. "I never discourage using powers to help guests, but I will never tolerate their use in a way that would endanger them. Our gym is open to all mutants, and they can climb with or without their powers. You will get some people who climb with vines, who climb with claws, and we do our best to work with them to create a safe environment. As staff, I make sure that we never make that situation any more risky.

It was better sometimes to be stern, than to be regretful. Cora was laid back with a lot of things, but the climbing gym was not one of them. She had seen what a bad fall could do to someone, how it could ruin their life. She was all about having fun, but it would always be a matter of doing it the correct way.

"I don't want you to think your first day is just a bunch of rules, but I don't like a lot of bullsh**. If you screw up on someone's french fries, they may be unhappy, but if someone forgets they are belaying and drops their partner, everyone suffers. I just want to make sure you're ready for that type of situation."

Scout and Trish. Two new names, which she was only marginally familiar with from the interview process. The refresher was very much welcome.

Also, holysh*t stern! Like, it switched on a dime, didn't it? Juniper could understand though, and so she didn't mind. Having everything laid out now at the very beginning was preferred, instead of running into something later on and being blindsided by it.

"I appreciate it, actually. I tend to focus on safety quite a bit in my personal life, so it's not like it will be that difficult translating it into working here. I don't like getting hurt, or seeing other people get hurt." Unless they deserved it... "I was mostly worried about being.. er... smaller than most, and how I could be more effective at keeping people safe if i'm spotting people larger than me. Knowing I can use my power to make it less likely for anyone to get injured is a relief."

She chuckled slightly. "I studied online a bit to figure out the harnesses, but i'm sure I will need a bit of first hand work with those. I never used them back when I was climbing, since I can alter my own weight as well. A fall for me can be relatively harmless."

Juniper was straightforward about her concerns, which made things easier. An overconfident greenhorn was a recipe for trouble. ”I won’t start you belaying until you’ve have more experience climbing and familiarizing yourself with the facility. You’ll take a class like everyone else and see how we handle things. Trish will walk you through that this afternoon. Even then, I usually let some of the senior staff handle the ropes.”

She pointed to a pair in the corner, where a slimmer girl was belaying for her larger boyfriend. ”That being said, you’ll find size is less of an issue with the proper equipment. Leverage and good communication is key. Relying on your powers can put you in a tight situation if you ever find you can’t use them. I like to keep people trained to do things the hard way first before we go for shortcuts.”

Cora motioned for Juniper to follow and they walked to the staff room. Here, there was a table, a fridge, microwave and some lockers. The walls were decorated with different posters staff brought in. A communication board listed upcoming classes, a company party, someone offering to cover shifts. ”You can pick a locker, make a good choice because it’s yours until you quit, die or get sacked. Scout’s had the same locker since day one.” Why he needed a locker since he lived in the building now was beyond her, but that’s what it was.

Honestly, seeing the smaller girl handling the bigger man by herself was... encouraging?

She had just assumed that her size and weight would only hinder her in her efforts at that part of the job. Cora did have a good point though... what if one of her clients happened to be one of those guys who could turn powers off? She'd be screwed if she didn't know how to handle herself in that kinda situation. "Valid point. I guess I just didn't think it was possible given my size. That's actually really encouraging to know."

She followed after the woman quickly, glancing around the staff room with just as much interest as she had shown the last room. It was pretty normal. That was nice. "Ooh, lockers!" Heading on over, she poked through a few until she settled on one. It was red. She liked red. A few magnets slapped on the front and it would feel like her's in no time.

"I'm assuming there is probably more paperwork and stuff to fill out with Scout." She started. He had been the one that had done her initial interview, if she was recalling correctly.

"When can I expect my official first day to be? I can shift around my classes a bit here and there if needed, I just gotta give adequate notice to my teachers." Gosh, this was really happening. It was super exciting!

Then again, she'd be tired all the time from having early classes and then working after but... it was probably worth it if it was one step toward a better life.

Or, at the very least, a less shady life. Maybe she could finally stop pretending to be a cam girl on the internet.

"I just wanna be as prepared as I can, I guess." She blushed slightly, scratching at the back of her neck. Was it weird asking a bunch of stuff like this is she wasn't even officially hired on paperwork yet?

Cora wasn't the most nurturing character. In fact, there were times she could be a tough boss. She took the business seriously, and had expectations from the people she employed. Her workers joked that she would be all bark and no bite if they didn't know she could take any of them down in a fist fight. She had thrown rowdy climbers out the door without backup, and even took out one potential thief about a year back with an elbow to the nose. When she faced younger hires, she had to remind herself that they were nervous, and she couldn't scare them off all at once. Scout always begged her to behave, knowing they needed the extra hands as they got closer to the summer.

But Juniper was likable. She was genuine, even with the fibs she might be telling on her resume. After she picked the locker, Cora nodded to answer her first question. "Scout can finalize things with you up front. You start on Saturday unless you need longer notice. From there he will get your classes and any other schedule requests and work them into our system. We know you have school so we will try to work with you. The older hires get priority for time-off requests, but most don't mind juggling other things."

Cora let that process, then smiled at the girl's final comment. It was probably the first genuine smile since they started talking. She did have a soft spot somewhere under the surface. Cora offered a hand, chuckling. "Being prepared is good. Welcome to Anti-Gravity. I look forward to seeing what you can do."