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 Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 1:14 pm
Ambergris again. It was a desolate, Gods-forsaken place. He kind of liked it. Silent streets. Eerie buildings. The mist that had hung around early in the morning had been frankly fantastic, especially when two ghastly and a haunter had drifted through a wall and he'd got about twenty pictures of them and and and!
Aulus paused in his current task of sweeping clean an abandoned courtyard to grin broadly; that had been an amazing opportunity. If he really was going to start selling pictures that one would be really popular with all the goth, emo, and ghost wannabe kids who had their parents' money to spend. Perhaps having their Mummies and Daddies buy a pretty picture for them would make up for said parentals inability to understand the depth of their dark artistic soul. Whatever, more to the point he personally was pleased with the picture, and would enjoy it even if he never made a bean off it...
Still, that had been this morning and it was this afternoon now. He itched. It had been getting worse for days now, but he'd been hanging around in Camphoreon, and unable to scratch it with so many people around. Perhaps he could have found a dojo but it would have contained unfamiliar people full of questions he didn't really feel like answering, such as who the heck are you, and do you intend to pay to use this place or what? No. Far better to come here, even if it had meant spending a few hours finding a square of land with smooth ground that only needed a sweep. He'd had to go and search out a broom after that, but these small annoyances hadn't seemed too bad; knowing he'd be able to get rid of the itch soon had made them quite bearable.
After what felt like forever, Aulus turned to inspect his swept area to see something he could work with. It was still a little gritty-looking underfoot, but he'd got rid of any debris that could injure his feet. As such he tossed aside the broom and quickly removed his many-buckled boots and his socks.
Right.
Retrieving his bo-staff from where it lent against a wall, Aulus took a deep calming breath and sank into Musubi-dachi stance. He only had Tortie and his bike to bow to, but it didn't feel right to start without it; the formality had been ingrained into his head for more than ten years now after all. With that completed the powerfully built man swished his staff experimentally through the air and set about going through his moves. Damn he'd missed this.
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Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 1:30 pm
Lucas had a similar need, but for much different reasons. Building guns was doable, as well as firing them in a controlled environment, but he feared he had developed a vague inability to turn his barrel against living things. This wasn't something he could investigate easily - not without being arrested or otherwise tossed into the brig, anyway - but he could at least reacclimatize himself to handling firearms in unfamiliar environments. This thought had driven him from the base and into the quiet, near-deserted Ambergris, where gunfire would disturb few and surprise fewer.
He stood with his back to the rear of an abandoned shop, facing an assembly of cans arranged on top of a few stacks of tires. A Charmander stood a ways off, guarding a pile of empty cans in preparation to replace those that his trainer shot away. With a slow breath, Lucas raised a gun against the innocent aluminum, quickly aligning his sights and pulling the trigger. The sharp report rang out into the town's streets, echoing against otherwise quiet walls.
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Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 1:44 pm
The shot cut through his psyche like a hot katana through a block of lard. Gunfire. He hadn't heard that sound for a while... It was disturbingly close by. Having frozen rigidly in place, Aulus forced himself to relax. Right. He couldn't just let this be, but he wasn't just going to rush off like an idiot either. Setting his staff down quietly, he quickly replaced his socks and boots; he preferred their restriction to the possibility of stepping on something sharp. With his footwear back in place, he retrieved his staff and set off towards the source of the noise with Tortie by his side.
It didn't take him long to work out where the sound had come from; some old abandoned shop. Hu. Well, there was somebody in there with a gun so he was hardly just going to step in and call a cheerful hello. Standing back and to the side of the door, Aulus swung his staff forward to knock sharply three times. He didn't know who the person with the gun might be, or what they might be up to, but he damn well wasn't going to slink off in fear or just hang around ignorant of the situation; he'd just been getting into his routine, and whoever this was had put him off. The least he wanted to do was see their face and find out what the heck they were shooting at in this abandoned town. Perhaps it wasn't wise to investigate gunshots in a place like this, but he had never claimed to be a wise man.
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Posted: Thu Feb 24, 2011 1:55 pm
A second and third report rang out as Aulus approached, the man responsible for the sounds unaware of the man's advance. "Snow," he said, signaling the Charmander to do its assigned duty. The fire-type nodded, gathering up a few cans in its short arms and trotting over to the tires. It reached to place them but was distracted by a series of knocks. They sounded nearby but were muffled...
"Snow!" Lucas was terribly short on patience as of late, and the Charmander's meandering gaze placed him teetering on the fringe of losing what little he retained.
"Char!" Snow regarded his trainer with a knit brow, finishing his task swiftly and running off to the other side of the building. Lucas toyed with the idea of chasing it but decided against it. Let the thing do what it pleased. It obviously didn't have enough of an attention span to do what little he had asked of it...
The Charmander crept around the corner of the house on all fours, staring at the man with the stick as he stood at the door. That big stick looked like something that could have caused the knocking sound! "Char?"
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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 2:18 pm
...Hu. Aulus swung his staff up to rest it over his shoulder and looked down at the fire type with a raised eyebrow. "Well it sure as hell wasn't you shooting that gun now was it?" he asked rhetorically, signaling Tortie to hold back for the time being at least. "I suppose I'm going to have to try harder to get their attention." So saying Aulus swung his staff at the door again, a good deal harder this time, and called; "You're not subtle, you know!"
Why the hell was he interfering in any case? It wasn't any of his business why somebody was shooting a gun in this creepy old city. He didn't care if they might have been shooting someone, he didn't know anyone in the area who mattered to him in the slightest, and who cared about strangers?... Who cared why he was doing this at all? He could do what he wanted to do whether he had any reason or not, and whether it was sensible enough. Anyway, the person with the gun had annoyed him, and he was going to make sure they knew that. Hopefully this wouldn't end up with a bullet between his eyes.
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 12:08 pm
Snow tilted his head in curiosity when he was addressed, flinching at the loud sound of the staff against the door. Why was he making such loud noises? Was he looking for Lucas? That sounded plausible enough. He backed away slowly before turning and scampering off towards his trainer, quite literally running into the man's legs halfway through his brief sprint. Aulus would hear a quiet "what the hell are you doing, Snow?" before the similarly scarred man appeared from around the corner of the house, a small handgun pressed into the palm with its barrel pointed harmlessly towards the ground.
"Something I can help with?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 12:43 pm
Hu. The man had a scar on his face. Something about it seemed... seemed... familiar? It could just be a sense of connection he supposed, but he had the niggling feeling that there was more to it than that. In any case, the man's scar wasn't the most important thing in the picture: that honour was reserved for his firearm. "Nothing much," Aulus said in nonchalant tones with an equally nonchalant shrug, "I was just checking nobody was being murdered over here, responsible citizen that I am. Don't see any blood on you, but there wouldn't be unless you shot at point blank range... Still, maybe you were doing something totally innocent, what do I know? Maybe this is the town firing range? Forgive a stranger to the area for not knowing these things."
Damnit Aulus, don't provoke men with guns; sometimes they shoot you.
This was knowledge he had acquired first hand and ought to have learned from. He hadn't been so close the last time, and the idiot shooting at him hadn't really known what he was doing whereas this one might. Even if he didn't, he was close enough for it not to matter; it was kind of hard to miss a man his size at the distance of a couple of feet...
Still, gun or no gun he refused to be intimidated by this man. If he really wasn't doing anything wrong then there should be no problem anyway. If he was a psycho murderer on the other hand, he was probably buggered whether he snarked at scarface #2 or not. Perhaps he shouldn't have bothered to investigate, none of this was his problem... it hadn't been rather. He'd made it his problem now, and he wasn't going to lose face by backing down.
...Still. Given the stranger's gun was lowered for now, Aulus lowered his staff so that the end closest to the older man was angled similarly to the gun. Either of them could raise their weapon at a moment's notice, however, and if this man was a nutter... Damn. Why had he decided to investigate the sound of gunfire? It had been none of his business, and if the man with the gun had shot anyone there was very little he could do about it in any case. Should have just ignored it. Idiot.
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 12:51 pm
At the suggestion that his bullets' mark was anything living, Lucas's expression darkened substantially, taking on an indiscernible amalgamation of bitter emotions. The weight of his former occupation was still quite heavy in his mind, and he scarcely appreciated this stranger dragging the thoughts right back up to the front of his cognition. The gun, however, remained pointed harmlessly away, his trigger finger resting parallel to the banner no matter how tightly his hand closed on the grip.
"Temporary firing range," he said at length. He was unable to keep a slight hostility from his tone, but he made no outward signs of acting on that hostility. "If it's a bother I'll find somewhere else."
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 1:08 pm
Well he didn't have a hole between his eyes yet, he supposed that was as good an outcome as he could have asked for. "No, it's no bother," Aulus said with another shrug, allowing the end of his staff to tap onto the ground as the other man remained at least physically non-aggressive...
Right.
So.
Nobody was threatening anyone right now, and so he should just go and find himself somewhere else peaceful to exercise. Right, he'd do that then.
"No bother, that is-" Why was he talking and not turning to leave? "-provided I can see this 'temporary range' of yours." Oh he was such a pillock. "I hate to be suspicious," a smirk, great, that was a really sensible expression to flash at an annoyed looking man with a gun, "but you're a bit of a shady looking character. Rich coming from me I know, but still." Fan-fricking-tastic. Open mouth insert foot, or possibly insert barrel of angry stranger's gun while implying that you know his mother is a good lay from first hand experience. He really didn't want to end his day with a bullet lodged somewhere in his person...
He had to know though. He couldn't just take this stranger's word for it and walk off. Well he could, of course he could, but he'd committed to this course of action now. He wasn't pressing the matter because he really cared whether or not Scarface #2 had killed somebody, he was only... he was just...
Fine, perhaps he cared a bit whether or not there was a person dead or dying in there. Not much, just a bit. Right.
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 1:21 pm
No bother. Right. Back to business then--
"What the hell are you trying to imply?" He unconsciously lifted the barrel slightly - only very slightly, but enough to suggest the indignation simmering behind the dull blue of his eyes. It was a sore nerve that this stranger was dancing around, and Lucas wasn't in the mood to fill the role of the forgiving fool. But anger wasn't going to get him anywhere besides into armed confrontation, and he had no wish to prove the man's suspicions well-founded. He gestured towards the shop's backyard with a swift inclination of his head, "Back there, if you're so curious. It's just cans and tires." He stood and waited to see if his grudging company would move. Damned if he was showing his back to the guy, though they'd inevitably reach a stalemate if the other man had similar thoughts...
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 2:06 pm
"Not implying anything," Aulus replied, his lip curling slightly as he noted the change in the gun's position, "I'm just saying that when I hear gunfire in a strange setting, I tend to be curious. I'm also saying that men with scars on their faces hardly look like the most innocent angelic creatures ever; hypocritical of me to turn that prejudice on somebody else, but there it is." So now he was supposed to turn his back on the annoyed armed man who had raised his weapon slightly? If he wanted to investigate, he'd have to. Fine then, at least he wouldn't be totally unguarded: Tortie knew to watch his back.
Decision made, he forced his survival instincts down and turned his back on the man with the gun. It seemed to take forever for him to move around the back of the shop, but when he arrived he felt the knot of tension that had formed when he'd heard the first gunshot ease. Tires and cans, a few other bits of junk, but nothing more.
"Fine, I'm happy," Aulus said, turning around once more and giving a curt nod, "no bodies here. Hey..." So that was it! Aulus dark red eyes narrowed as he studied the stranger's scar again.
~"I've a friend with a similar scar," she explained, absently tracing the line on her own cheek from her forehead to almost her jawline, "and he's blind in that eye. No loss of depth perception though."~
"You know a girl with purple streaks in her hair?" Aulus asked casually. "Her eyes are the same colour; she trains a pidgeot, a pikachu, and an eevee; she might have more but those are the ones I know of." How many people could be walking around with scars like that? It had to be the same guy... And he was blind in that eye; good to know if things did turn nasty.
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 2:20 pm
Lucas gave a small hmph at the man's words. Hypocrite indeed. Not that Lucas had any better reason to judge as he was, apart from the fact that he was slowly growing more and more irritated with the guy's attitude. When he moved towards the back of the store, Lucas moved the gun to replace the safety and pocketed it nonchalantly. No need to wave around such a dangerous thing, especially when he had absolutely zero intent of firing it at anyone. He followed at a comfortable distance, folding his arms across his chest while his company took stock up the area. Snow stopped at his trainer's heel, watching the pair in curiosity. Were they going to start knocking over cans again? He toyed with the idea of returning to his scrap pile in preparation for such.
Lucas raised an eyebrow when he spoke once more, listening with a growing realization. "You mean Claire...?" Wait a minute. What was this guy doing with Claire anyway? Why did he know her? This was not approved accompany, not approved in the slightest. A dark rage began to take root. "You stay the hell away from her," he said, voice low and features unabashedly displaying every ounce of anger seething in his veins.
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 2:31 pm
...Claire?
Aulus blinked, far more confused by the foreign name than he was worried by Scarface #2's obvious anger. "She told me her name was Lucy," he responded sharply, a scowl spreading across his face, "but I suppose that was a lie? And why exactly should I stay away from her? It's not like I went looking for her the times we met, but it's a free country, so if I had gone looking for her why should that be any of your business?... Unless you're a special friend of her's? Don't worry about competition, I'm pretty sure she's not interested in me if she's lying about her name."
She'd lied to him. He'd been right to be suspicious, and wrong to let his guard down even a fraction. He'd shown her the pictures he'd taken, and talked to her about martial arts. Why had she lied? Anger was beginning to churn within Aulus too now, and although his staff remained lowered he found himself tightening his grip on it. She'd lied. What else had she lied about? What had she wanted from him? Had their meetings really been coincidence, or had she set them up somehow? That b***h. Well, whatever she'd wanted from him she wouldn't get it, and next time he saw her (he was in little doubt that he'd 'accidentally' bump into her again), he'd make sure she knew the game was up... But she hadn't told her scar-faced friend about him. Even through his building fury Aulus wondered at that; did it mean she didn't trust this guy either, or was it just that he wasn't part of her conniving little plan, and so she hadn't bothered to tell him?
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 2:44 pm
"She's got all right to lie about her name if she wants to." Though Lucy was actually a bit closer to her real name than Claire was... Oh well. "And I applaud her for it too. Sounds to me like she makes some good decisions." A slight sneer worked its way into his words. Hell, in actuality, she'd probably called herself by a different name to protect her identity as a Rocket, but there was no way he was about to let this guy think it was anything as rational as that.
"You should stay away from her because if you don't," he lowered his arms to his sides, brandishing himself as though he were his own weapon, "I'll break your damn spine. Claire is my responsibility. I will not see her hurt by some random jackass." Not that he'd given any indication that he intended to hurt her, but to Lucas it was a very real and very imminent probability.
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Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 3:06 pm
Aulus' scowl deepened, but he forced his body to relax rather than tense up as it wanted to; if he guy was going to try anything, the last thing he needed to do was hinder his reactions by being tensed in one direction or another.
"You're touchy," Aulus observed after a moment with a sneer of his own, "touchy and paranoid. Not that it's any of your business, the first time I met her I stopped her damn stupid pikachu from drowning in chocolate, and second time I met her she approached me not the other way around; I didn't hurt her either time... Let's get one thing clear while were about it," he went on, looking the other man up and down disdainfully; "you don't scare me, and I've no intention of being bullied by you. I'm not going to go looking for the girl, but you know what? If I happen to see her, I might just talk to her, or she might just talk to me. If that's something you think worth killing over... Well," Aulus gave a smile that was not very nice at all, "maybe my first concerns about you were right after all, humm?"
He didn't really care that the b*****d had a gun any more; he was being threatened for no reason (no sane reason), and he was not going to stand for that. Who the hell did this guy think he was anyway? Lucy's owner?... Claire's, he should say. He didn't like her or this madman at the moment, but while he might now be angry with and doubly suspicious of 'Lucy', he found himself despising her scar-faced 'friend'.
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