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Lethe, who had paused a moment to consider the best direction to take -- Dusty had said to take partners, so she could grab Sei, but the deerkat had struck out alone himself and... agh. She fully realized how useless she was going to be in this lasertag battle, unfortunately, so her best bet was to go with someone who wouldn't realize her ineptitude. Which probably meant Mitsu. Which probably meant she'd be best going it alone herself, finding some small space to cram herself into and present herself as one less immobile target (and possibly very stealthily sniping people, thus racking up the point and becoming the Red Team's VIP.)

An undignified 'oomph' and a dark streak caught from the corner of her eye captured her attention, and she pressed her lips into a grim line once she had identified the cause. "Mimizoo," she said lowly, for all intents and purposes lecturing her as if she had just let lions out of a cage, "Are you okay? --Don't get in the way like that. Look, blue team's probably gonna head here first! If you guys are going to stay, guard the base and don't let them shoot our targets, okay?"

And with that (hey, if Mitsu could handle Dusty using her as an armchair, she could handle a little fly-by squashing), Lethe turned on her heel and struck out into the lasertag-labyrinth to do some Mission:Impossible! style serving.

(( Just throwing in a post to catch Caoimhe up! ))

Lasertag. Well, Caoimhe had been to a Lazertag arena before--for someone's birthday, she thought--but she had never actually stayed long enough to play the game, just lingered in the lobby eating pizza for awhile. But not this time! After all, the selkie Fa'e actually knew a good bit of the people here, and there was some childlike buzz in the air that really played to her immature side.

Downing a hot dog and soda at the food counter, she let her gaze settle on all the occupants, some her age, some younger, some---well, some were so young that it made a part of her cringe. At the loudspeaker's urging, Caoimhe padded over to the briefing room, walking awkwardly in her brown Converse shoes. It had taken her guardian a year to convince the girl to buy closed-toe shoes and even longer to get her to wear them. (Apparently, it was "dangerous" to play lazertag barefoot. Just like it was "dangerous" to walk around town barefoot. Whatever.) Regardless, if the selkie was to be allowed to attend, Gristla had to approve her outfit.

So here she was, wearing dark khaki shorts, a cream tank top with a wave decal across the chest, the accursed shoes, and to her further distress, a sports bra. Bras? Honestly. The ridiculousness of them! Her next-door-neighbor had given her multiple lectures on why growing girls needed to wear them, but they had only made enough progress to get the teen Fa'e in a sports bra. Sometimes.

Anyway, slipping into the room, Caoimhe completely ignored the instructions of the man, fully immersed in the little vests on the wall. (Technology still had a way of surprising and amazing the rustic Fa'e.) After watching Dustin and a few of the other Fa'e she knew going for the Red Team, the selkie girl grabbed the vest with the glowing number 12 across the chest, slipping into it like the people around her had.

As everyone took off into the arena, the teen Fa'e walked slowly, despite her great urge to race and WIN. She sidestepped the toddlers, feeling the icky prickle in her stomach again, reaching the Red Base just in time to hear Dustin announce partners and take off. Partners? Yikes. The girl wasn't sure how she would be able to handle this gun-apparatus, and she didn't want to look like a total idiot in front of people.

And then the little girl started crying. Crying children made Caoi want to tear in half, cuddle, and vomit simultaneously. So, she did the one thing she could think of to make it better. "Someone make sure she's okay. You know, 'cause she's little and all," she said, rolling the words in her Celtic intonations. Mitsu had a guardian, yeah? Well, someone more responsible would have to help her. Caoimhe wasn't sure what would happen if she tried to.

With that, the selkie took off into the arena, walking toward the right side of the arena. She wanted to run and crawl and jump, but it would probably be best if she familiarized herself with her surroundings first; every good tracker knew that! So, hoping to spot a blue glow to shoot at while surveying the dark Lazertag arena, Caoimhe wobbled awkwardly in her shoes, figuring she could always just tackle someone in case of emergency. This might be fun!

Dusty was just approaching the tunnel underneath the second-floor bridge, when a sudden noise from his pack caught his attention. Someone'd shot him? ALREADY?!

"CRUD!" Plastering himself between the yellow ramp and low wall as near to the ground as he could, the deerkitten frantically tried to spot who'd shot him in the few brief seconds of invulnerability after having lost a life. There- up on the bridge, a few blue lights? Damn it, he could barely angle a shot from here! As the invulnerability stage passed, he set himself up nearer the low wall and began to return fire, launching off some rapid shots at the short member of the blue team up on the bridge.

The ratling nodded at Mik's question, and waited patiently until the Large Person caught his drift. It was a pity that Mik didn't speak rat. Communicating with him would have been so much easier. Still, he seemed to get the just of what the toddler wanted, and pulled one of the blue vests off the rack with a slightly scratched number thirteen. Kiba stood quite still as he was suited up, only wiggling a little when his tail got in the way of one of the buckles. There! He was all ready! The ratling chattered his thanks to the Large Person who had helped him, before the chiming of Shai's shards caused him to look away. Ooooh, he was pretty! Kiba was quite sure he had never seen anything like Shai before. He answered the hello with an excited wave, before once again some one else demanded his attention.

The new man, however, was not as exciting as Shai. But since he talked very loudly, that meant he wanted Kiba to listen to him, and so listen he did. No running or crawling or fighting. That was easy enough. Those were the rules at home. Twitch had already showed him how to hold the gun and told him what to do when they'd been in this room the first time, so that wasn't quite so new to him. Kiba still had no idea about this whole points system, but that hardly mattered. He would just follow a Large Person around. They would help him. Spotting Mik on the move, Kiba trotted after him, the twins undoubtedly making their way towards the blue base as well.

It took the toddler a few minutes to adjust to his new setting, his large ears turning to and fro while his eyes got used to the darkness. They were back in the maze again! Kiba had been quite thrilled the first time he'd entered the lazertag room, as it reminded him of a home he had yet to remember. Even so, it was very exciting to be back. He gave an excited churr, ears perking the moment the go signal was announced. Start? Start what? What did he do?

"We will," Twitch volunteered, nodding to his brother. "You guys better make sure to get anyone before they get too close though. Don't want no sneaky attacks. Anybody else wanna stay?"

Pressing her back to a wall and sidling quickly to the right, Lethe inwardly glee'd as her very first target materialized in the shadows somewhere in front of her, a tiny wobbling thing muttering arcane incantations at her guns and performing a series of delicate taps and strikes upon it to charge it with surely dangerous spells. Determined that she was saving not only her own team -- but the entire arena! -- by taking out this demon, Lethe dramatically jumped out into the corridor, quickly aimed, and proceeded to shout "PEW PEW" at her opponent.

It didn't work. Neither her gun nor the other girl's vest lit up to indicate a hit, and now that Lethe could see her more clearly, it turned out not to be a witch or sorceress or ~vampyre~ (half) but merely That Caoi Girl That Was Dusty's Friend. And That Caoi Girl That Was Dusty's Friend was wearing a vest the same color as Lethe. "Sorry," the River Fa'e said, clearly disappointed that she would not be performing an exorcism by lasers. "You shouldn't just be standing there, you know. I coulda shot you. You could be bleeding. Anyway, I'll let you go for now, but you should prolly start playing better."

Mentally grumbling, Lethe (who looked demonic herself under blacklights -- not that she could see) began slinking off towards one of the connecting corridors.

Caoi's shirt was glowing like a nuclear spill underneath the dark plastic of her lazertag vest. Damn, she wished someone would have warned her about the magic lights. She would have dressed more appropriately. Even her khaki shorts showed bleach spots and bits of lint like glowing beacons. She could only imagine how the pearls on her forehead were reacting. Stubby fingers tapped against the gun as the petite girl heaved it up, trying to test the weight of it. Maybe she should put her hair up? Then again, down, it did provide a certain amount of cover for her glowing shirt and forehead----

WHAT THE HELL?

As Lethe leapt from the darkness, the selkie Fa'e lunged forward at the sound of her approach, unable to stop her involuntary attack response. Her finger tried to squeeze on the trigger, but the plastic pinched her skin, causing her to fumble. The gun clattered to the ground with a few light clicks, hitting nothing and not even getting a shot off. The bright light oozing from the girl blinded her for a moment, halting her in her tracks. And as she dropped her hand, the girl was talking---and on her team.

Whoops.

"I was here on purpose," the stubborn teen defended, widening her stance in defiance. "You fell into my trap, you know, only I realized you were on my team so I didn't want to shoot you." As if to prove it, she nudged her foot into the fallen gun. "Dropped it so my reflexes would stop me from shooting you anyway." Stretching up, she took a hold of her gun, just in time to see Lethe walking off.

"Don't go that way," Caoimhe said, running after her. Unfortunately, the rubber of her shoes caught on the floor, sending the selkie back to the ground. She grunted looking up at the feet of the other Fa'e. She could still save it! "Get on the ground. Then people won't see you. You know you're glowing like a big lantern, right? We need to hide out and wait for the prey to walk by." It seemed plausible, and sure, lying flat on her face, people might not notice her nearly as much as they would the glowing river Fa'e.

Caoimhe got to her feet, grabbing the gun again, and flattened herself against a wall. "I'm going to make for one of those covered tunnels." She began inching past Lethe, moving toward the center structure. "You can do what you want. Just don't get shot." Creeping/sliding/maneuvering, the agile Fa'e let herself get into the process of lurking and hiding again, just like she was back on Aranorn.

Dang it- a total miss! Dusty couldn't see the blue lights now- they must've moved somewhere else on the second floor bridge. Disgruntled, Dusty brought he gaze sharply back to ground-level, trying to make sure no blues were sneaking up on him while his gaze had been focused upwards. None in sight, though; he might as well go through the tunnel now, and proceed onward to make his attack on the blue base--

CRUNCH.

Something hard and plastic and heavy crashed down on his head, and the deerkitten dropped with it, crashing onto the ground with a muted smack of plastic on plastic. The air was knocked out of his lungs too quickly for him to even manage a proper swear, while his vision danced and bobbed. Had the fuggin' ceiling just dropped on his head?! Trying feebly to shove whatever it was off of him, he managed to make out through his swimming vision something red and blinking-- someone had dropped their pack on top of his head?!

"Fuh... fuhhhg," he managed to say, staying put on the ground in a semi-state of shock. Where the CRAP had that come from?!

Lethe made a face at Caoi's retreating back -- but found that she had a point: looking down at her hands, they did stand out more than was comfortable...

She had several options right now. First, she could follow Caoi. Well, the girl couldn't even walk properly: that was right out. Second, she could follow up on her awful, awful idea of taking her ribbons off and turning into a puddle for a while. See if anyone noticed her then. They would slip on her and bam! (She was not sure what actually happened after the 'bam', as puddles did not have fingers to pull triggers of laser guns, but clearly it was a fearsome 'bam' and whatever happened would leave them scarred for life.)

Too much effort. Laser tag required too much effort. Grumbling unhappily to herself, Lethe turned away and began to search for a small corner to stuff herself into so she could plot and figure out how to shoot people in peace.