Stupid tree. Yep, that's right, blame the tree for everything. In reality, it was all Ryder's fault, but he couldn't burn down the tree for his current lack of a flamethrower. Blaming the tree was the next best thing he was capable of doing. It's not like there was even anything sharp he could cut down the monstrosity down with. Stupid tree.

'So what exactly did this tree do?' is what you may be asking. Well, it had deposited Ryder not so gently on the ground. Now, he lay looking up at the leaves while lying on his back over the broken branch. Luckily, there had been hardly anyone around to see his graceful dethronement. Those who had were mostly kids. They must have had some crazy parents if they were brought to a known hangout for the local asylum kids. Stupid parents.

Brown eyes moved up the tree, examining the freshly revealed wood that was only visible where Ryder's branch had snapped. With a large, overly dramatic sigh, he heaved his body off the ground and brushed the wood chips off his clothes. Ah, tomorrow might bring a couple new bruises, but he shrugged it off and studied the tree some more. Of course he was looking for new footholds. After finding some suitable ones, he set off back up the tree. Once again, he was perched comfortably somewhat far off the ground. Well he was until he shifted his weight and slipped off. At least this time the branch didn't break and follow him down. Laying on the ground, staring back up at the leave, Ryder could only think one thing~ 'Stupid tree.'

So maybe the ground wasn't so bad, it was cool at least. And there was no threat of it snapping and him falling again. Even though he was young, he would be sore tomorrow. By the time Ryder heard the sound of someone speak, his eyes had gotten heavy and he was about half asleep. Of course when his half conscious mind registered someone had spoken, an eye opened to find the speaker. "Nah, not unless you happen to have a smoke." He wasn't in a flirting mood after his falls. That happened to a person after hitting hard objects from a ways up in the air.

Ryder had closed his eyes again, but slowly opened them both after he finished. It was a girl his age, maybe older, from the asylum. It was easy to tell the locals apart from the prisoners here. But Ryder didn't actually know the girl. Somehow Ryder managed to stand up after almost falling back and rolled his shoulders to stretch them. "So you got any tips for staying in a tree? He was still itching to defeat the tree or destroy it.

Hey, give the guy a break, he wasn't high. At least not exactly, he had been slightly before falling, but the impact brought back most of his sobriety. Eh, he was a klutz too. So he could just blame it on that if he wished. Oh, Ryder's eyes lit up on the lighter. Yes, he was a pyro, but a proud one at that. So of course he took the lighter and held it up to a small branch, trying to start a chain reaction so that one branch would catch another and so forth and so on.

No such luck. Not even to little branch would catch. Fuck! he yelled before just ripping the branch off and throwing it. A few more of the cusses had escaped before a mother yelled at him across the park. She said something about cursing in front of children but Ryder didn't exactly listen. Nope, he was too busy pondering what he could have done to make such a formidable enemy of the tree.

When the woman was finished with her across the park rant, Ryder dismissed her with a wave of his hand and turned his attention back to the other prisoner. "Oh no, the better question is what is someone like you doing in a park instead of being out in the real world partying with some hot guys?" Okay, he wasn't exactly a flirt, even if that somehow managed to sound like flirting.

Well, as burning down the tree turned out to be a total bust (where was that flamethrower when you needed it) Ryder dejectedly tossed the lighter back. After all, what else could he use it for? That is, unless one of the munchkins running around had a pack of Winstons hidden on them. Although after looking around, that seemed very unlikely. Ryder's pyromanic fix had only been satiated for the time being. A simple branch probably wouldn't be enough for the Bullet say, the next day. But he was good for the time being.

In the quietness that ensued once the girl seemed to be in her own thoughts, the sounds around became clearer. Over the course of his tree climbing fiasco, more people had appeared in the small park. He wondered why they came to the park. Wondered if they were afraid of the murderous teenagers scattered about. Wondered why they even still lived in a town so close to an asylum. He wondered about a lot of things. However, no answers were revealed to his ponderings. So he wondered some more. Wondered if the kids even knew what the asylum kids had done. Wondered whether or not the kids there would have kids and bring them to the same park. Wondered if some of those same kids would grow up and kill someone too.

He was ripped from his musings once again when his fellow asylum member spoke again. Ah, well someone seemed confident. Well let's see how far the confidence stretched. Planting a sexy smirk on his face, he spoke a single word. "Ryder." And he manage to do that thing where you make it evident you were finished speaking when he ended, keeping the sexy smirk on the whole time.

When Jessie spoke again however, his eyes stopped following her progress in the circle and he couldn't help but burst out laughing. Her question had sounded like a line from a bad porno. Yeah, sure he had been 'bad' but not in the way she was suggesting it. More like murder, as she had said earlier. But that didn't have to be told, now did it? Now I just stole a couple things, I don't think it's that bad. He couldn't help a couple giggles that came out while he spoke. And he wasn't telling the whole truth either. But shh, that's a secret.

The real reason he was in there surfaced in his thoughts after the lie was said, though it didn't show on his face. Because in the end, the cops hadn't cared about the theft, grand theft auto, pyromania, arson(he hadn't even meant that one) or his stupid insomnia. No, they had only cared about the murder. Actually, that was what everyone had cared about. Ryder stopped his thoughts of the murder and looked at the hand twisting the lock of his hair.

He brought his own hand up and let it hover of the other foreign hand before closing down on it and disentangling it from the strands of hair. "Now now, let's back off the hair." He said, somewhat teasingly, but also because he wasn't crazy about people he just met messing with his hair.