Jeanne waltzed into the second bootcamp feeling pretty confident. Laser tag was pretty close to right in her element - and not just, you know, her Senshi element. Any kind of simulated combat game was her thing, and while sure, she had a little more experience with Warhammer and LARPs, paintball and Laser Tag were still definitely on the list. So she was, overall, feeling pretty good about this little adventure.
Plus, Keren would probably be here, and damn it, she really wanted to see Keren again. So when she spotted the purple-haired girl, she walked over as casually as she could manage, wearing what she considered a pretty damn charming grin.
"Hey there, cherie."
Silverah
Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 12:54 am
Keren sorted out Arian and Quenton's sign-ins without much fuss, which was frankly how she liked sign-ins to go. There was no reason for those to be a huge to-do if they didn't have to be, after all! She waved both boys on their way, and then turned her attention to the red-headed siblings who'd made their way over to her.
"Hiya," she said to Liliana and Xander. She recognized them both from last time, which wasn't hard. One did not soon forget massive amounts of cherry-red curls and that ridiculous family resemblance. "Yep," she said, "But you're repeat offenders. I've just got to check you off. Lily and Xander, right?"
She knew she was right. She was asking as a formality. She'd already checked them off. "You're all set."
And there was the girl she'd been waiting for. "Hiya," said Keren, beaming at Jeanne, and if she was overly conspicuous about how she leaned down and kissed the other girl on the mouth, well.
Yeah she was totally counting on Kaatje looking. Was Kaatje looking?
Breaking the kiss, Keren looked around. Kaatje was not looking. Damn.
"We're starting at ten," she said, checking Jeanne's name off the list. "So, like, any minute now. It's good to see you."
Litian
Ivynian
Kaori_luv
Songstress Kitsune
Maggie genuinely impressed Tallulah with her enthusiasm, and she offered the girl an obliging smile before answering, "Yeah, I got my powers back in November of 2009. So - four and a half years?" She was just going to leave out the part where she'd spent a statistically significant part of 2012 and 2013 in the hospital - it was behind her and didn't need to be brought up with every random person.
"Congratulations," she said to Chris, and then fired a wave back to Lily, and made a mental note to say hi later. She'd been back in town long enough that there was really no excuse for not getting back in touch with more of her friends besides just, like, laziness.
That, and the last month had been pretty hectic, between being hunted by an insane General, purifying her boyfriend, moving into a new apartment, and then, on top of that, getting engaged. Oh, and she'd sprained her ankle. Her dance card was full. Tallulah rested a hand on Nick's forearm - possessive, maybe.
"I'd, uh, I'd show you the ring but I left it at home," she said, for Paris's benefit. "I'll text you a picture later. I'll text you a lot of stuff later." She didn't really want to download her friend on the continuing rehabilitation of my ex-Corrupt significant other in public.
Sunshine Alouette
Romeo Wilco
Guine
Akina Tokuwa
Finn blushed at Mary's confusion, which was surely a charming look coupled with his freckles. "Yeah, we're just - we're just friends," he stammered, and hoped that that wasn't what this looked like. He started to mentally object to dating Elke on the basis of her being too young, but then he realized that Andrea was basically the exact same age, so then he objected to dating her on the basis of him being completely not attracted to her. They had a bond, sure - but no.
"Are you going to be okay?" he asked Elke. It looked like they were about to get started, and that meant splitting up.
It was Time. And by Time, Kaatje meant she was now going to depend solely on her sonorous, smoky alto to reach the entire lobby, as well as any latecomers. Whew. Fingers crossed that this worked without the microphone rig, because she'd turned that down for fear of recording devices. Next time she knew better. (And Ash was her favorite.)
"Ladies and gentlemen may I have your attention please!" Kaatje's voice carried quite well to the doors. "Keren, please hand the clipboard over to Anabel."
She surveyed the group; it looked to be about the same size as last time, give or take a few who she knew were only there because they lived at her apartments and, hey, why the hell not? It was all she'd been talking about lately, anyway. An accomplishment, she thought cheerfully. "My name is Kaatje van der Weydin." With this unimpressive statement, she tossed her long red curls over one shoulder and continued, "I am also known as Eternal Sailor Gunn! My sphere is Wildfires and I've been senshi-ing since before most of you knew the word existed. If you were here last time, you know my qualifications! If you weren't… well, we're going to move into a new phase, so, pay attention."
Kaatje stuck her hands on her hips and said, "If you're here, you're an Order senshi or knight, and you're here for Fundamental Skills Training. Today, we're covering the basic tenets of survival: stealth, signaling, and basic combat. If you came here expecting to only play laser tag… you were wrong. Sorry not sorry. That's round one, but rounds two and three are something altogether different, so stay on your toes and we'll be just fine.
"The surveillance is down, thanks to our friend Ash the guardian cat, so don't worry about anyone outside the group hearing anything untoward. Now, you all know the drill. Space yourselves out and let's warm up, starting with torso twists…"
Signups are now closed! Keep an eye peeled for your pairings!
Anabel pored over the list, eventually coming up with a listing that made sense to her and to Keren. With that done, as the group warmed up, she called out names in their pairs: "Nick and Delilah, Talia and Mary, Paris and Liliana, Alexis and Arian…" and so on and so forth until everyone was matched up. To her small cat cohort (cathort?) she said, "Snowball and… the kitten with the flag on her tail. And Liryn and Ash. I'm guessing Kaatje is going to have you play tag, since you're a bit small to operate a laser gun. If that's okay?"
Spotting another differently-abled person, Anabel waved Alex over. "Whatever shorted the surveillance didn't short this here," she said, pointing to the bank of screens behind the snack bar. "Check it. We can totally watch them make idiots of themselves."
---
Elke turned away from her reunion with Mary long enough to give the very tall brunette she didn't recognize a wan smile. "We'll catch up, okay? Call me?" Please please call me, she thought, because if Aysel didn't see another friend of Elke's soon, she'd start thinking Finn was the worst kind of person.
She obediently crossed the room to stand near Chris. It was clear enough from the people around her what she ought to be doing, insofar as warming up; the question was simply, did she have the stamina for it? By the time Kaatje was done putting them through their paces, the answer had become clear: no, Elke was not. She felt winded and a little sore, and thought… maybe Finn was right to tell her to eat more? Oh, probably.
[3]
---
Nick personally had no problem with people. Even new people. But he hadn't exactly counted on being separated from Tallulah so soon after arrival. He split off to go join his partner for the exercises, a dark-haired girl with red eyes. "Hey," he said, smiling at her. "I'm Nick. You're Delilah, aren't you? I guess we're teammates this round?"
If he hadn't spent so much time talking, maybe he would've felt better after warming up. But, uh, no. He hadn't. Good job, buddy, that's not gonna bite you in the a** later.
[2]
1 Nick (Intelligence) & Delilah (Intelligence)
Sirene Naiads
2 Talia (Dexterity) & Mary (Wisdom)
chimarii
the_scowling_cat
3 Paris (Dexterity) & Liliana (Wisdom)
Sunshine Alouette
Kaori_luv
4 Alexis (Dexterity) & Arian (Teamwork)
LP
litian
5 Finn (Dexterity) & Maggie (Intelligence)
Silverah
Akina Tokuwa
6 Tallulah (Intelligence) & Xander (Intelligence)
Silverah
Kaori_luv
7 Elke (Wisdom) & Chris (Intelligence)
Guine
8 Jeanne (Dexterity) & Quenton (Intelligence)
Songstress Kitsune
Ivynian
9 Luca (Dexterity) & Eliza (Teamwork)
Sami-Fire
Kaori_luv
10 Bodhi (Teamwork) & Keren (Wisdom)
Akina Tokuwa
Silverah
For this round, please roll 1 10-sided die! Points go as follows: 1-3: Oww. For some reason, your character is feeling REALLY stiff today. 4-6: Okay. Yeah. Your character feels okay. 7-10: Man, knee lifts and torso twists are your character's DEAL. Those leg lifts? Psshhhh! And arm circles? Basically, you're nearing takeoff. Good job!
The next post will go up on May 13th! Remember, if your stat is Teamwork, you're subtracting one point this round.
Talia stared around the room feeling entirely uncomfortable and unsettled. It wasn't so much the social scene- she didn't mind that at all actually! Talia was a big social butterfly that flocked to the nectar of relationships; so many people around normally gave her a big smile.
No, what made her uncomfortable were the number of people that now knew she was a senshi. She had figured this training would be done under the veil of senshidom; now that everyone was here in their normal forms?
Wipe out. Talia quite liked her senshi life being separate from her civilian life. She liked the anonymity of being a superhero when it pleased her, and being a normal girl when it mattered.
She figured the best way she could survive this was to stick to the back of the room, stay quiet and avoid everyone. Which was really hard when she wanted to talk to everyone!
Talia forced herself to sit on the ground and begin stretching out for the day. This was no big deal to her- Talia was a girl that exercised every day; sometimes even more than once. She wasn't exactly rearing to go with her discomfort, but she was still in it to win it. Her competitive side wouldn't let her back out completely.
Unlike her partner, Mary was very much at home here. Since her entire set of knights and the court she was bound to knew she was a knight, and she assumed everyone here was a powered of some sort, she was happy. Contray to popular belief, Mary loved social gatherings and interactions. She just didn't participate in them frequently due to her mother's, ah, insistance.
She sat on the ground next to her partner, Talia and gave her a kind smile in greeting. The young knight stretched, scratching her cheek in embarrassment at her lack of flexibility. While she was a knight, she wasn't a very limber one, that was for sure. But she stretched well enough!
"Hi! I'm Mary!" she said cheerful as she leaned to the side. Best to get to know her partner sooner rather than later!
chimarii
---
Alex snorted and grinned. Oh this was going to be so much more fun than player laser tag. "Oh this will be hilarious. I'm Alex by the way, page of Uranus, but you probably know that already from the information sheet?" she gave a shrug and settled against the counter to let her ankle rest some.
She was about ten times more done with this whole being injured thing than she she really needed to be, and really wanted to be healed already. Damn broken elbows and sprained ankles and stuff. Neither here nor there, of course, but laser tag man.
romeo wilco
a-disgruntled-dragon
Offline
chiickadee
Princess Hoarder
Offline
Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 2:29 am
"Hello," Talia said somewhat awkwardly and forced. "Nice to meet you~!"
It was somewhat strange, but she didn't leap to give her own name. At least she could maybe keep that to herself for a little while? Augh this was so frustrating!
She stood up a ways to bend over into a dog position from yoga. It was a great way to stretch the back of the legs! "Do you know what all we're going to be doing today?"
Lily grinned at the waves back to her and mouthed to each that they'd catch up later as Keren checked brother in. She gave the girl a silly salute before turning and moving toward where Kaatje was getting things started and they were being paired up. It made her really happy to see so many familiar faces and was secretly proud that she and Paris were among the repeat offenders, so to speak.
She didn't even have to move before she found herself being hugged by her friend. She happily squeezed back. She gave a silly grin at Paris's fashionable readiness for the training session. She herself has opted for green and black running shorts and sneakers, and a simple white tank, despite the ability to see terrible mark on her left shoulder.
She continued to grin, "that's the spirit." She gave Paris a thumbs up totally confident in the girl's ability. "Nothing for a prima ballerina, right?"
Lily started on her torso twist in leg lifts, sort of taking it easy. She had a training session the night before and being kicked in the ribs wasn't exactly helping her, but she figured she would be fine in a few minutes.
"I did great at first, but then I sort of slowed down a bit. I figured it would be best not to over exert myself knowing I would likely be training and patrolling that night. My partner though, she really pushed through. She was totally amazing."
She started in on her leg lifts and couldn't help but help giggle a bit at Paris' super flexibility, "you're totally going to make the other girls so jealous." She wasn't surprised.
"Have you had your dance finals yet? Mine's this week. I took hip hop this semester. It shall be an interesting final, I am sure. After finals its decided if I want to try a summer class, you know maybe help to graduate early or right into planning a class load for fall. I'm almost with the mandatory classes and will soon be fully able to focus on my major. I can't wait."
Sunshine Allouette
Xander nodded to Kaatje, happy of course to help out in anyway needed. He turned and looked to the young man she pointed out and gave a smile. He made a note to at least try to introduce himself and make an offer that if he needed anything at the hospital not to hesitate to ask. He waved at Arian, Chris and Paris, having met the pair, at Orah's birthday party, as well as Quenton, whom he knew as well.
He chose however to stay with Kaatje, he wasn't the mingling sort and they would be starting soon. He was really to be paired with one people he already knew so he would be more confortable, but that didn't happen.
He was paired with Tallulah, who he didn't know at all and he shuffled awkwardly over to her. "Hello," he said, offer a hand to shake, "I'm Xander Jacobs, also Shangri-La of Pluto. It's a pleasure to meet you."
The introduction over he started in with his torso twist, nothing to foreign to him, he usually did them before he swam. Really what was more awkward was him doing them in a polo, khaki's and loafers, with curls that fell just below his waist, he was clearly not dressed for exercise at all.
Legs lifts were another thing entirely, but he did them well enough and without complaint.
"Four and a half years," Maggie said, eyes raising even further at Tallulah. "Four. And. A. Half. Wow, four and a half years ago I was still--" Whoops, better not reveal just how young she was. She was going to say still at Knightside Elementary. Instead, she finished, "Still not a senshi." Throat clear. Totally suave.
When Tallulah and Paris mentioned texting each other later, it took a great deal of Maggie's willpower for her not to blurt out: TEXT ME THE PHOTO TOO!
The conversation was cut off when Kaatje called the attention of the room. Maggie swiveled to face her, ready to take on whatever challenge was waiting for them. Hopefully one that involved lasers and tag.
...and then Kaatje destroyed her dreams by saying that this would not be a crazy game of laser tag for several hours. "Boo," Maggie whispered under her breath.
Then she realized that the partner pairings had changed.
Maggie looked visibly defeated when she realized Paris would no longer be her partner. She waved weakly at the blond girl ("See you guys, later!") and then shuffled over to the new kid on the block.
OH, IT WAS A BOY. A thousand girlish hand claps appeared in her brain, a line of dancing anime versions of herself. If there was one thing Maggie Lawrence liked more than than feeling mature or being curious to the point of exertion, it was boys. She hadn't seen Finn enter, had no idea he had come with a girl, but that didn't matter. Crushing was a full time occupation; and in Maggie's case, it was often one-sided.
Or at least until Justin Bieber, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Austin Mahone, Harry Styles and all the other members of One Direction FINALLY read her fan letters.
Bobbing over to Finn, Maggie fixed him with a bright smile. "Hi, I'm Maggie," she said. He looked older than her, probably more in the range of Paris and company than her. Being 14 felt like a shackle on her. Why couldn't she be older now? She still had black bars painted under her eyes, something that she seemed to forget as she tried to look devastatingly bewitching. In truth, she did a lot of too eager smiling. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." Because that was how older people talked in her head. At least, that was how Maggie thought she should talk if she wanted to feel older.
She paused. "Wow, your eyes are really blue," she said. Then Maggie cleared her throat. "But anyway, about those warm ups!" Spreading out from Finn a bit, she began to touch her toes. It was actually something she was decent at, being relatively flexible. All this working out lately was paying off, and she easily and semi-expertly made her way through stretches.
Perhaps it was just her eagerness to impress this older boy? Maybe.
The last time Bo Hanley made it out to the Order Boot Camp, he had been violently hungover. It was a good thing that his second sphere was Functioning While Being Violently Hungover. Sure, he puked on the field, but hey! He also ran like a gazelle in the end, surviving the boot camp and then going home to take the most glorious nap he had experienced in recent times.
The fact that he remembered to attend the first boot camp was impressive. The young man very rarely stuck to plans that he made. However, the fact that he remembered to attend the SECOND boot camp was down right extraordinary. It helped that he was just in the area.
That morning, Bo had gone out surfing with some of his boys -- one of whom just so happened to live in the general vicinity of the laser tag arena and was giving him a ride home. He had forgotten all about it until he saw the sign flying past the car. At the next stoplight, he jumped out without explanation and began jogging over. His friend shouted after him once, but Bo offered him a goodbye wave. He left without another word.
When Bo pushed open the door to the arena, he did not look prepared at all. For one, he wasn’t wearing a shirt, exposing several feet of what was actually a very muscled yet lean body. Also, tan. Always tan. He had on a pair of khaki cargo pants and flip-flops. Sunglasses were perched on his face. He pushed them up to hold back his tangle of wet, ocean-salted hair, revealing bright red burns from the sun on his face. It wasn’t summer yet, but the weather was getting nice enough. Bo could not be kept away for long. He smelled like the beach.
The moment his eyes adjusted, they fell on a very, very welcome sight. ”ELKE!” Bo boomed, failing to notice the very organized activities that were taking place all around him. Instead, he ran across the room right for her and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her several feet off the ground and then placing her back down. “ELKE, it has been so long. You look great! I’ve missed you. Have you see Chronos recently?” It was a vomit of words, but his excitement bubbled out of him in a more hyperactive way than it normally did. He couldn’t help it. It was freaking Elke. ELKE.
One glance around at what everyone else was doing, and Bo quickly fell into line, doing a series of decent stretches but clearly not putting in too much effort. Surfing had been warm up enough and there was an ELKE here. ELKE.
"Good luck," Finn said to Elke upon hearing her partner called. He gave her a quick squeeze on the shoulder - encouragingly, he hoped - and then headed off to find his own partner. He wasn't sure whether he recognized the name or not - maybe with passing familiarity.
The girl he'd been paired with was young. Finn immediately thought that she was his sister's age, but then he realized, no, Maggie was even younger. Not a chibi senshi, probably - but just barely. "Hiya, Maggie," he said brightly, offering her a friendly wave. "I'm Finn. Your eyes are really blue, too!" So, like, how was that for small talk?
"It's nice to meet you," he added, and nodded about the warm-ups. He made it through the stretches okay - about par for how he'd done last time, but what was clear to Finn was that he was not at his best first thing in the morning. Maggie rocked them, though! He'd hate to rely on his teammate to carry him through today's exercises, but it was entirely possible that what was going to happen. "Great work," he said, rubbing his neck. "Word of advice, don't get old."
"You were, uh, Paris's partner last time, yeah?" he guessed, still trying to place her. That sounded about right. "She's a great senshi. Stick with her, you'll learn a ton."
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the boy shouting for Elke, and mentally congratulated himself on dragging her out today.
Akina Tokuwa
The roller just really wants us to be together or something.
Paris was not at all disappointed by the announcement for partners. She felt a little bad for Maggie, whose look of defeat was not lost to Paris, but as the girl had been paired with Finn Paris wasn't too worried that she'd have a hard time of it. Finn was a good guy. As Maggie made her way over, Paris waved to the both of them—her smile to Maggie was supportive, her smile to Finn chipper and cheerful.
For a moment she allowed herself to feel a little bummed that she hadn't been paired with Chris, but as that would probably be a little unfair given that they worked together extremely well to begin with, she made no mention of it. She hopped up on her tip-toes to give him a quick kiss, and gave his backside a playful (and completely unnecessary) smack as she turned to head off.
“Try and keep up!” she told him. That, too, was unnecessary given that they both led very active lives, but Paris was a bit of a fan of a little spousal competition.
She pranced giddily over to Lily and immediately smothered her friend with a hug.
If being paired with Chris would have been unfair, being partnered with Lily was probably pretty close. They already got along well. Not much improvement needed there in the teamwork department.
“I'm going to rock it this time,” Paris confidently announced. She felt good, full of energy and ready to get this show on the road, which became apparent as soon as she began her warm-ups. She stripped off her hoodie and tossed it aside to leave her in her leggings and sports bra, which left her long, skinny arms and her flat, toned tummy bare. If her ribs and the knobs of her spine happened to be a bit visible, it didn't seem to concern her.
The knee lifts and torso twists hardly phased her at all, and by the time she got to the leg lifts she was pulling her legs clear over her head one at a time, demonstrating an envious amount of flexibility.
But then being ridiculously flexible was kind of a part of her life. She'd be severely disappointed with herself if she performed poorly.
“How'd you do last time?” she asked, lowering herself into an easy split. “I didn't really do too great. Not really bad either, though. Kind of so-so. You looked like you did okay, but this sort of stuff's your thing, so I guess that's not too surprising.”
After his brief pause to greet Horatio, Arian had spotted Lily and Xander arriving and he returned Lily's wave with a small smile and wave of his own. There hadn't been time for much more than that though as not long after Lily arrived a red-haired woman addressed everyone present. It seemed that Kaatje as she'd introduced herself was the person behind all this and Arian listened quietly as she spoke, a little curious as what she meant by rounds two and three being different.
His partner was someone called Alexis and Arian figured it was probably best to find whoever he or she was before everything kicked off. Alexis turned out to be a blonde-haired woman and once within speaking distance Arian said quietly with a slight smile "Alexis?" his voice making the word a slight question as she wasn't someone he knew before going on to add. "Looks like we're working together on this. I'm Arian, or Sailor Athene when powered." Although Arian was hesitant to pen down his powered identity, he didn't mind sharing it verbally given that everyone around them was also part of Order.
And then it Kaatje was telling them all to space themselves out for warm ups and Arian followed suit with everyone else. Although Arian didn't personally consider himself the most limber person around, he'd done enough warm up sessions courtesy of his Thursday evening Aikido sessions that he felt that he'd managed to get through the torso twists and stretching without too much trouble.
LP
sorry for double quote, forgot to edit in score
Kaori_luv
for mention, sorry for double quote, forgot to edit in score
Silverah rolled 1 10-sided dice:
6Total: 6 (1-10)
Posted: Sun May 11, 2014 3:27 pm
Keren hadn't been planning to play, even though she was more or less dressed appropriately. She'd come planning to help Kaatje demonstrate activities, the way she had last time, but the uneven number of attendees meant she had to throw her hat into the ring. Well, maybe this could work in her favor. Maybe she'd be paired with Jeanne-
Alas, no dice. "Coffee later?" she asked her redheaded paramour, before heading off to find her partner. Bo, she thought. Wasn't he the one who'd gotten sick last time?
Yes. Yes he was.
"You'd better not be hungover," she said, sniffing him as she took her place beside him. He smelled like - well, her disgruntled mood inclined her to say low tide, but it wasn't actually unpleasant. "Are you dripping?"
Anyway, he didn't seem all that invested in the warm up, she thought - he was more interested in the tiny girl who'd followed Finn in. Moose, or whatever her name was. Keren sighed and focused on her movements. As teacher's designated pet, she needed to be a good example for the class.