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 Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 9:05 pm
Candace had been going to College too. And Clarice was smart enough he bet she would have gotten about a thousand degrees. School had never been his strong point, but he'd had goals. And a career, briefly.
"LAN parties," Harrison said, repeating a quip from B0nez. "What were you gonna do if you didn't wind up here, be the head of a fancy corporation somewhere?"
He saw some movement out of the corner of his screen, and swung his mouse over, firing.
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 9:22 pm
Jordan laughed. "Me, running some corp - crap!" he yelped as the figure on his screen flopped limply to the ground in a spray of blood. Clearly he'd guessed wrong about the spawn point. "I'll get you next time, Gadget."
While the respawn timer ticked down, he answered the question, "No, I was going to teach. Probably one of the social sciences, I hadn't decided yet."
The screen cleared, and he glanced at the map and started making his way around towards where he'd last seen Harrison, angling to get behind the other player.
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:16 pm
"Ha!" Got him. "Don't count on it."
B0nez laughed in the back of his head, a ghostly cackle, and urged him onward.
He wasn't sure why Jordan would want to waste all that money on college and then go into a job that didn't pay much. Didn't matter much now.
"This isn't too far off of what I was planning to do anyway, I guess. Hadn't planned to run into any actual monsters, though. Just the regular people kind. Them I don't mind so much."
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:23 pm
"We'll see." If he took this street, he could get up a ladder and onto the roof, and he just bet that Harrison wasn't expecting that. He moved back so that he could see the street below his perch without being too visible, swapped to a rifle, and waited patiently.
"What were you going to be doing?" he asked curiously.
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:38 pm
"Police officer," Harrison said, hunting for another flash of movement and getting a little nervous at still not seeing any.
"I was good at it too. But, you know. Weird s**t. You can't put emptied a clip into kind of shadow demon in your reports. Not that I ever did, but," he shrugged. Enough incidents raised flags, no matter what you said.
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Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2012 10:43 pm
"Huh, that's cool." Jordan looked over at Harrison, trying to imagine that. ... Right, game. There was movement on the street under his spot. He aimed. "Hey, Harrison. Heads up." Bang.
"Yeah, I get that. I got crap from people about avoiding places, but heck if I was going down the alley between the buildings when I knew there was a shadow thing hanging out on the fire escape." He shrugged sympathetically.
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Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 12:30 am
Heads...
There was a fresh string of cursing. Where was he! He hadn't even seen him. B0nez had a few guesses.
"Yeah, yeah, okay, but that's the last one, so don't get too smug over there," He respawned and toggled between weapons.
"Guess I ignored it, for the most part. Except when I couldn't."
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Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2012 10:10 am
"I'll only get smug if I earn it," Jordan said, his tone just a shade too innocent. He went back down to street level; camping on the roof might be effective, but it would be boring and not particularly fair. He headed for a defensible spot in a structure that was supposed to look like a parking garage, and mostly did.
"Yeah. I tried pretty hard to be normal." Jordan snorted. "Clearly that didn't work."
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Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 4:02 pm
"Clearly," Harrison smirked, working his way to the rooftops. B0nez had eked out the source of the last shot pretty good. If only...he could figure out...how to jump to that damn box and what the hell was the matter with the jumping controls.
"Normal's not all it's cracked up to be. Most folks are working themselves to death in shitty minimum wage jobs while paper-pushers get all the money for it." For all that, Harrison was no Marxist. He'd always been of the if you can't beat em, join em mindset. Police work had been a good fit for him. A badge meant people respected you. And there were always opportunities to earn money on the side. "At least they don't pay us too bad here. And it's for a good cause," The last phrase was a little sardonic. "Hell, we're on the clock right now."
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Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 5:16 pm
There was a stairway in the structure that would be just perfect for an ambush. But it would require the second player to be maneuvered into a specific spot. Hm. Time to play shotgun hide and seek. Or was it tag? Jordan climbed back up to the roof, scanning his screen for motion below. If he could just figure out where Harrison had got to, now ...
"Well, when normal's all that's available," Jordan said, "you find a spot that doesn't fit too uncomfortably and settle in, I guess." He looked away from the screen to study Harrison's expression, thoughtful. "It's what normal people do. Us too, if you think about it. We just got an option that didn't require trying to ignore the shadowy things." He shrugged, returned his attention to the game. "I figured I wouldn't be unhappy as a professor, but I actually like this job."
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Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 7:41 pm
"Oh, a Professor. When you said teaching I thought you meant like, middle school. ...You must be real smart, huh?" Even futilely hopping on boxes, he could see something on the roof.
"Heads up, Professor," The spray of bullets exploded up the top of the building but ultimately went wide.
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Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 8:20 pm
"Hell no. Middle school kids are little monsters," Jordan said. "I remember being in middle school and being a little monster. That's not something I care to subject myself to." He adjusted his aim. "I like to think I'm smart, anyway," he said, and laughed a little.
The rattle of digital gunfire made him tense up, but he grinned as he realized Harrison had missed. He made sure to retreat at an angle that would let Harrison see where he was going. "Hey now," he said. "I hadn't even made it to student teacher."
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Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:07 pm
Harrison tried to jump up to follow, with about the same success rate of all the other times.
You're never going to be able to strafe, B0nez said with despair. Harrison just got off the boxes and circled around, reloading.
"Hell, I remember you being a little monster," Harrison grinned. "Not me, though. I was an angel." He paused before traversing across some open space, and doubled back. "...Shame. Student teacher doesn't have the same ring."
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Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2012 9:26 pm
Jordan checked around the corner of the building, edging out just enough to be seen, then retreating quickly towards the spot he'd chosen to lay a trap. If he could just get Harrison to enter the building, the layout would lead him right up to the stairwell.
"Hah," he grinned back. "I think that was about half middle school age that time. I sure wasn't that short at 12. Pushy, maybe." He chuckled. "Doesn't, huh. Not as distinguished, either, hm, Officer?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 5:58 pm
"Ha. Pushy."
Harrison did see him, and...too slow. Again. He followed fast, swiveling his gun to track corners and windows.
"Hey, now that title I actually earned, TA."
Yeah, really didn't have the same ring as Professor.
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