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Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:52 pm
It was a fairly average day, bright, sunny and clear as ever, what better way to spend such a nice day then at the park? Normally Reed came, not because he had any love of parks -though the little garden's weren't to bad- but because it allowed him to be around people without actually having to deal with any of them. The children were all in the playgrounds, the joggers kept to the pathway's, the school girls and boy's hovered about various fountain's or hid under large tree's and made out. The only surprise element was the occasional hobo, and spotting one of them always felt like a crude version of 'wheres waldo' to him. All the fun minus the pretty pictures...
It gave him a chance to get away from work and school which he seemed to be constantly involved in, and spend time picking out random individual's from the masses. People who he could add to his list of disgust; those who further supported his belief in humanity being a lost cause. So many were simply a waste of resources, worse then ants or mosquito's because they seemed to serve no purpose on the planet at all.
Sadly this day at the park wasn't going as all the others had, a large section of the expanse of green was quartered off from the rest of it all. A paint ball expo of some sort, drawing in masses and crowds to donate and play. Apparently it was some sort of thing to do with 'charity', all the money that came from participants and generous donators alike going out to cure some disease or another. "Great..I get free time, and this comes up." Reed sighed to himself, but since he was already there, and hated wasting time. He figured he'd at least go up and check it out, maybe paintball could be fun? Give him a chance to unwind a little.
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Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2010 10:30 am
Nate wasn't much for the park, really, but he did find some fun trouble to get into sometimes. While the park was great for kids and families, other folks used it for other things, and those were the people he liked to check in on. Of course, now that he was a Senshi, his sentimentality about things were changing.
Maybe it was because he was finally growing a concept of right and wrong. Not that it really stopped him from his old habits anyway, but hey. At least now he was aware of them as 'wrong'. That was a step, right?
He also had first met Angela in the park, when she had been sitting on the park bench, practicing her music. That was a good thing, and sometimes he came to the park on the off chance that she might be there, on the days when they weren't hanging out already.
Not today though. Today he was here for some paint ball. He had his trusty gear on, visor drawn down to protect his eyes, padding and gloves protecting him. And his good ol' paintball gun, one of the few possessions he truly cherished. He wasn't there for charity: he was just there to shoot the hell out of people with some paint. And get away with it.
He was in between rounds, getting a drink, when he spotted someone peering around like a lost sheep. He grinned, going over to the other young man, tossing his cup of water over his shoulder as he went. "You here to play?" he asked, resting his paintball gun against his shoulder.
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Posted: Wed Sep 22, 2010 11:01 pm
Reed startled a bit as he heard the voice obviously addressing him, mentally kicking himself for having stayed around long enough to be noticed at all, curse his curiosity!Reed had hoped to get a good scope of things and leave before getting dragged in or heckled by any of those annoying little girls with donation jars. It seemed he'd been a bit too slow to avoid it all, and there was absolutely no way to ignore the guy when he was standing there grinning at him like that. No way for reed to escape or pretend he hadn't heard him, darn...
"Why are you looking for donations?" Reed quipped dryly, looking the other youth over with an icy stare. This one really didn't seem like someone who was fishing the crowd for donations, didn't have the tentative attitude and sweet smile of all the other little aids. Though one could never really tell, and even if the guy wasn't here for the charity of it all he was certainly here to play. Decked out as he was in paintball gear, he looked like someone who loved the game enough to have put money into buying equipment.
"Honestly I've never played paintball before." Reed admitted with an honest shrug. He'd never done anything involving a gone before, non-lethal as paintball was, it was still completely new to him. While he didn't oppose pseudo violence or painty messes in any way, he did have some issues with looking foolish in front of a bunch of pro's.
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Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2010 10:32 am
"Donations? Maybe to the 'Get Nate A Burger' fund, but other than that, I think I don't care where your money goes. Hell, I don't even know what they're raising money for. Something stupid and worthless, I'm sure. I'll just go in their pockets anyway."
He grinned, shaking his head.
"Never played, huh? My kind of target. You want to give it a try? That's why I'm here: I just like shooting at things." At least he wasn't trying to sugar coat it, though he wasn't selling the game very well. He literally asked the boy if he wanted to suit up and get shot at.
But what else could the guy expect? Coming to a game like this, with people who knew how to play. He had to know that he'd get asked to play, and would essentially be a target. He grinned.
"I'll go easy on you. Let you get off a few shots."
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Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2010 5:59 pm
Reed's smug uninterested look fell a bit, pleasantly surprised by the others attitude towards the whole thing. Hell the fact that he had some sense of humor at all was nice! Even if he did seem a bit too cocky, really pro or not reed wasn't some push over, and he sure as heck wasn't about to turn down a challenge by some young punk!
"I cant help but agree with you" Reed smiled, glancing between 'Nate' and the tournament area. "You know what, why not! It'd be rude of me to pass up getting shot at wouldn't it? Especially since your promising to go easy on me." Reed gave a shrug of his shoulders, nodding for nate to lead on. Somehow..deep down..reed didn't believe for one second the guy'd take it easy on him.
Secretly though, he didn't mind, shooting things could turn out to be fun! The brutish, unthinking, low brow type of fun, but still fun. "By the way I'm Reed"
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Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2010 9:06 pm
Nate grinned broadly. He had to admit, he liked a guy that would willing subject himself to some pain, just because he was challenged to it. That meant the guy at least had it in him to take some risks: have some fun.
And if Nathan liked anything, it was having fun.
Most people were just plain boring, and he usually had to turn to trouble making and being rude to get them to do anything interesting. It'd be interesting to see how long this guy lasted before he got angry and decided he'd had enough.
Nodding, Nate led the stranger, whose name he hadn't yet caught, to the gear the charity supplied. It wasn't anything Nate would ever use: thin padding that barely protected anything, and goggles that looked like they came from the hardware store. That's why Nate had brought his own.
He pointed at it for Stranger to put on, if he wanted.
"Might take the sting off. You know, if you get hit," he said with another grin. "The name's Nate, by the way." Just Nate. No last name. No full name. Nathan Darrow wasn't much for using his full name.
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Posted: Sat Sep 25, 2010 11:40 pm
Reed chuckled softly at Nates comment, shaking his head as he looked over the gear. He would bet everything in his wallet that it was all hand-me-downs, or cheap charity donation gear. "You say 'If', I get the feeling this being my first time and all. That I'm already pegged to get hit at least once."
Glancing over at the gear Nate wore, and then the sparse choices laid out before him; Reed found himself sighing a little bit. Yeah, Nate obviously had the better gear, but something even if it was cheap and thin, was better then nothing. That and Reed was no where near enough in love with the sport to go out and spend his own money on things.
Didn't care enough about a few bruises to whine about it either. "Nate huh, interesting..So do you think any of these things work well enough for me to shoot you with?" Reed huffed as he pulled on the simple gear, turning a bit to eye the guns. He wondered if they had red paintballs..somehow that seemed morbidly appropriate, if he was going to shoot something it'd best look as though it'd gotten shot. Even if it wasn't real.
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Posted: Sun Sep 26, 2010 1:20 pm
Nate grinned.
"Well, maybe once or twice," he said, less than innocently. He fully intended on unloading his entire store of ammo on the newbie, of course. But he'd let the guy learn that in due time. Right now, he was happy to be 'helpful'.
He helped him put on the gear, patting the armor hard to see how resilient it was. It didn't seem too touch, and he chuckled, then looked at the guns. Here he seemed to sober up a bit, looking at the guns seriously. Even if he was going to use Reed as target practice, he did at least want to give him a chance to be challenging. Who knew? Maybe he was a paintball wizard and a complete natural. He could be hard to fight.
Maybe.
"This one might work," Nate said, picking what he found to be the best one and checking it over. It looked like it was a sturdy gun, and nothing blocked the chamber, so it would at least fire without jamming.
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Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:49 pm
Reed watched carefully as Nate picked out a gun for him, he didn't seem the dishonest type, surely didn't seem like someone who'd try to cheat a simple newbie out of a win by messing with the equipment. It never hurt to pay attention though, just in case.
"Wonderful, you know I've heard these things can leave some nasty welts on a person." Reed smiled cheerfully as he took the gun for himself, he was surprised at how light weight everything seemed to be, from the armor to the weapon. It had a nice heft to it without being bulky. Now all they needed was to get the paint balls loaded up, and the killing could commence! Ah..the game...purely for love and sport and all that jazz. Not at all because he wanted to wipe that smug confident look right off the strangers face.
"Come on, lets get started before some poor sad eyed child comes begging for our pocket change. I want to see what this thing can do." Reed was sure he was getting overexcited about it all, it probably wouldn't end well for him either, but he found himself strangely not caring about that right now.
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Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:05 pm
"They can, yeah," Nate laughed, "and probably will. You always come out a bit bruised and maybe even some cuts. Gotta avoid getting shot, you know. That's the best way to not get hurt."
He laughed at the dumb advice, then nodded, inspecting the gear one more time before deciding that was as good as it was going to get. He'd have some protection, but not much. He moved over to the station that supplied the paintballs, refilling his own gun and snatching a few bags for himself while the helpers weren't looking.
Paint could be expensive for a guy without a job.
He helped Reed load his gun, then grinned as his shooting companion for the time being urged them on. Nodding, he led the way out to an area of wooden walls, boxes and haystacks. Their cover and war field.
"Alright, you pick where you want to camp, and I'll start shooting at you. Doesn't matter how many times you get hit, or hit me: we'll just play 'til we run out of paint, okay?"
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Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:27 pm
Reed paid no mind to Nates extra snatch of things from the supply station, it was none of his business and he didn't care enough to bother asking questions. "Oh, so it would be bad if I stood still; out in the open where everyone could see me? You know, that there is perfect advice, you should consider making a book of it." Reed snorted, smirking at nate as he looked over the various sides of the field before them.
So many good spots, so little time, he favored the right half though, being right handed and all he was sure it'd be a bit easier on himself if he took up a spot there. Somewhere near the boxes maybe, Reed absolutely hated hay to much to even consider hiding behind it. Itchy annoying messy stuff..blech..
"Shoot until we run out, that's fine with me. I suppose I don't need to wish you any luck do I?" Reed offered with a sly smile and a nod before running off to get into place. It was go time, and he was feeling so stoked for it. Finally a real challenge!
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Posted: Mon Sep 27, 2010 4:26 pm
"I would make a book," Nate countered, "but all that writing. How boring. Who even reads books anymore anyway?" Not something he'd want to say around his dad, surely, but not everyone was a librarian.
Nate pulled down his goggles and gave him a thumbs up before running off to find his own area to hunker down. He started off behind some hay, holding his gun up and steady. Of course, he didn't call 'go', instead indicating the match had started by firing at the guy.
That was a pretty clear way to make it known that the game was going, right?
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Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2010 3:23 pm
Reed wanted to roll his eyes at the comment; Who read books? Who didn't read books! They were fundamental to learning, and quite an enjoyable way to spend ones afternoon. Though he reasoned he wouldn't be caught dead reading anything that had to do with dolling out advice, let alone anything Nate could ever write...If he could write at all..
Reed had to shake the rebellious thoughts away, he wasn't here to pick a mental battle with his newest acquaintance, he was here to get shot at! And hopefully shoot back, Reed hated playing a target, but at this point it was the best way to learn the game. Learning by trial was always more fun then learning via reading.
Finding his own little spot to hunker down behind some propped up boxes Reed dared to peek his head up, not hearing any sounds from his opponent..no flags or signals or..The loud pop and splat not far from his head making him jump and duck back down. As surprised by the noise as he was by Nates accuracy. Making a little note to himself..to avoid putting his head out..though he couldn't shoot blindly could he? Maybe if he was quick about it.
Reed popped up again, taking a quick glance around and laying out a sporadic spray of paintballs in the general area he'd heard Nate fire from. He was going to play completely off of luck until he got the hang of it or got hit trying! Gah, he hated relying on luck.
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Posted: Wed Sep 29, 2010 10:10 am
It was unlikely that Nate was very much for writing, and even more so that he would ever try. So it seemed they were both safe from having to worry about that for now. Anyway, there were more important things to focus on at the moment, like not getting hit with painful little pellets of paint.
That was a good motivator to stay on guard and paying attention.
Nate grinned when he heard the fire being returned, ducking behind his cover and wondering if the guy was even looking at where he was shooting. Slipping off down the other side of the haystack, he peered out and then hurried to a different spot, trying to get the drop on Reed and rush his hiding spot.
He liked this game already. It was like playing cat and mouse, and he got to be the cat. Not that he very often played any other role, but it was still fun each time. Anyway, he had hopes that Reed would turn out to be a smart mouse.
So he worked his way in an effort to get behind Reed and fire at his back. First rule of paintball was, after all, to watch your back. Or maybe not, but it could be.
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Posted: Tue Oct 05, 2010 7:59 pm
Reed waited anxiously, curious after a moment as to the delay in returning fire. He was sure he hadn't hit the guy, if anything he'd only managed to foolishly give away his position..Not that that was such a bad thing, maybe it'd draw Nate out, bolster his opponents already overconfident attitude and cause him to slip up?
Popping up again like a nervous rabbit peeking from his hole, reed wondered if Nate was trying to wait him out, wait until he had a perfect shot...or maybe...
Reed felt stupid for having stayed so still where he was, this was a war game, the players weren't expected to stay put behind their respective barriers and wait until the right moment. They were supposed to seek and destroy, be tactical in their movements and get the jump on their opponents!
Realizing his error a bit to late as he turned to check behind him. Catching what he thought was the barest glimpse of someone..though it could have been a shadow..Still Reed wasn't taking any chances, and fired off a few ill aimed warning shots..
Nate had to be lurking somewhere, he just needed to spot the guy! Erm..and..learn how to aim...
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