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There was a flickering look of something across Nuk's face as he watched Shehk retreat, his expression quickly returning to unreadable. As luck would have it, however, a quick and convenient escape was on the way in the form of two boils he'd seen before, and was quite glad to see now. Glancing up as first Bul, then Seiji appeared, whatever had been lingering in the back of the skinwalker's mind quickly vanished, the blank expression replaced by a cocky, positively pleased grin. Almost immediately, Nuk straightened from his chair, standing up and coming around the booth to elbow Bul in the side, snickering as the predictable paintball came sailing through the air to hit Bul in the back of the head. It was as if the 'conversation' with Shehk hadn't happened at all -- or maybe that was just the way he had wanted it to begin with. It was hard to tell.

"Hey, don't be putting words in my mouth, Riley'll kill us all," he teased with a grin, grabbing the angry bruteball from Altair to toss it to the ghost boil, "We'd better be seeing you two at tryouts -- things are going to be sick this year, you watch. We're organizing it around Fitness, so our boils can get the benefit from both Bruteball and Fitness. Other teams aint gonna stand a chance."

Riley was all the way over at her own booth, ten steps away from this one. She was laughing about something else entirely.

And she was pointedly not looking in this direction.

Apart from the Library, Petro hadn't really gotten the chance to visit any of the booths in the Open House. He would have dropped by the Fitness Club but after his piss-poor performance during the paintball match, well, the horse boil wasn't certain if Riley would still want him around. In that case, he was going to need another physically demanding club to join, should the mind flayer deem him unworthy of membership in the meantime. He ended up zoning in on the word Brute then the word Ball and whatever they meant together could only sound like something Tro would enjoy.

A square-root brow quirked in mild trepidation upon seeing most of those present were also members of the Fitness Club, but he shook it off. If they had a problem with him, he was more than willing to settle it. He hadn't gotten there in time to witness Bul getting hit with a paintball but he did notice the remnants. "Think y' missed a spot," he gestured to the back of Bul's head with a grin before turning to face Nukpana. "What's this about tryouts?" he asked.

Nuk's grin only broadened as first Bul, then Seiji replied, clearly quite pleased that the two boils would be there. So far, if things kept going this well, they'd have a killer team -- both the ghost and the monster were nothing to sneeze at, and he knew they'd be ready for whatever was dished out. Which was good, because bruteball wasn't for sissies, and he fully intended for the boils to come out onto that field to be the roughest, strongest guys you'd ever seen. They definitely wouldn't disappoint. The skinwalker's eyes flicked to the mouth on that bruteball, watching the way Seiji spun it to keep the angry, snarling mouth away from his fingers, working it like a pro already. Alright... it was time for some fun.

"Nice handling," he spoke up idly, reaching up to catch the bruteball again as it sailed his way, stealing it back from Altair and pulling it close to his body, moving forward as if to run a touchdown, shouldering both boils a little roughly, to get them going, "But how are your take-downs?" Really, this was a smart idea, start rough-housing in the middle of open house. If they weren't careful, someone would get hurt.

Excellent~

He knew he wouldn't last long, if those two started to play along. Glancing around for someone, he spotted Tro a few feet away. Recognizing him from the Christmastown fiasco, he grinned, elbowing Seiji and Bul again to pull his arm back, tossing him the bruteball.

"Tryouts start now, go go go!"

Where Tro was supposed to run to, that was debatable. But if Nuk had his way, it would be straight into the Fitness booth. As in, plow right through it.

Generally speaking, Cat was not interested in sports. It wasn't that he hated them, nor that he considered them too 'rough' or 'dangerous' to be worth the effort. No, he simply figured he had better things to do. The bruteball booth itself was not that impressive, and the group of tough looking boils tossing around a fanged ball was even less alluring. But Cat had caught sight of someone.

Someone small. Someone pale blue. Someone fluffy.

Interest thoughoughly grabbed, Cat swerved and diverted his path directly towards the little foxfire. Admittedly the two were quite similar in height, but the confused and vaguely frightened stare Jove had given him back in the library was all too alluring.

"Hello, there~" Yet again, Cat seemed to prefer sneaking up on his targets from behind, slinking up to croon gleefuly beside Jove's fluffy little ear.

The grin that had taken up residence on the boil's face upon joining the group of boils around the booth took on a decidedly smug appearance, brows sinking casually over dark eyes. "Thanks." He was no stranger to bruteballs, having enjoyed scrimmages with neighborhood teens back home. Obviously those games would have been a little less violent, probably, but the ball handling was essentially the same. Of course, he'd always been a bit of an aggressive player, and Nuk's shouldered shove and question on tackling seemed to spark something within the ghost, drawing a somewhat fierce laugh from him as she turned to reach for the skinwalker's shoulders.

He'd already moved beyond reach, but that didn't stop the ghost from joining in, pivoting on his heel before digging in with his toes to dart forward after him.

He saw the other boil look to Tro, saw the arm c**k back for a throw, and made running tackle at Nuk's middle. Aiming to crash into him before the ball could leave his fingers, queering his aim. He felt the boil's pelt, but with feet now quite obviously off the ground, he had to trust that he'd rushed at the right moment and wouldn't simply go crashing the floor empty handed. That would suck, big time.

He had not, as of yet, noticed the little pup on the sidelines. If he had, he would have been extremely concerned that he'd get hurt on the off chance someone when barreling in his direction.

All of a sudden things seemed to happen way too fast. Seiji hadn't noticed him, but Bul had, and Jove took a quick step backwards to avoid the older boil as well as get farther away from Seiji's roughhousing. Except there was nowhere to go.

And a familiar voice was whispering in his hear.

The pup let out a startled yelp as he bumped into Cat, whirling around and almost finding himself in Seiji's way. Almost. It was close enough that the pup could feel the air tug at his tail fluff.

The ear that was whispered in twitched like it tickled, and the pup lifted his nose to scent the air. It figured the other ghost would stay downwind, making it hard for Jove to get any warning scent, and he was so Jackdamned quiet! The pup scowled fiercely, blushing with a pale glow as he regarded the creepy visitor. He couldn't figure out what it was that bothered him so much about the other boil, aside from the whole creeping thing. Even now he got the same feeling from Cat as back in the library, that sense that there was more to the ghost than the shadowy body he presented.

((ooc: on phone, sorry for length and speed))

Petro had watched Nukpana take the ball from Altair, and a grin spread on his face at the announcement that tryouts had begun. Even though he knew absolutely nothing about the rules or objectives, the sight of Nuk running with the ball, an arm pulled back with Seiji hot on the skinwalker's heels, had the tikbalang's instincts kicking in. Bare feet started taking long strides towards the general direction of the Fitness Club's booth judging from the way Nuk's arm was angled.

"Let'r rip!" Tro called out, his own arms raised, the grin on his face daring any of the other students to try to stop him. Something Bul might try to do as Seiji had marked Nuk. This was going to be fun, Tro could tell, recalling how well the red-haired boil did at the arm-wrestling game a few days ago. Tro wasn't running at full pace, but he looked ready to speed up if the situation called for it. Hopefully, he wouldn't end up mowing down any random student but with all the commotion the group was making, one had to be completely oblivious or deaf.