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 Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:18 am
Living in a dorm was easy. Living in a dorm he'd done. Plus the dorms here were pretty lacking. Other than some lamps there were no useful electrical devices. Their cell phones stayed on them at all times but you couldn't even use GOOGLE on those things.
No computer.
No TV.
No Xbox or netflix.
JEEZ. Had they told him those details before he signed up?! So Bix was over the dorm thing almost as soon as he realized he couldn't quite sleep yet. Everytime he closed his eyes he saw those crazy tentacle monsters with the teeth. At the time they were just something he could shoot.. poorly... In retrospect they were a lot scarier. What was with that? In the heat of battle he was ready to go but when it came to being himself he seemed to have some trouble.
He was thankful for the person he was, if only briefly. The person that he was pre-island was careful to pack a huge bag of clothes and a few knick knacks. Even a couple of comic books, though he'd read them a thousand times before. It was nice to have something besides their Handbook to throw up on the shelves. This meant that he had a nice choice of clothing and so he threw on a ratty tee from high school that said 'Debate Team' and revealed his 'Class of '08' across the back. He kept a pair of sunglasses at all times, hanging off of the shirt pocket. Bright lights didn't agree with the albino young man.
When he closed his dorm room door he put a big white piece of paper, jammed under the room number, that said BIX in big black letters. If any of his friends were looking for him (or girls for that matter!) they'd find him easily. But for now he wanted to explore.
The haunting thoughts of monsters filled his mind and unconsciously the trainee found himself outside of some clean looking doors that simply said 'Training Room'. Bix was preeeeetty sure he could use some training. He'd done rather well with the gun when he got into a jam but calm, cool and collected he'd been a big fat FAIL. Wrapping his long braid around his neck like a scarf, he pushed his way through the doors to see exactly what sort of training he could accomplish here.
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Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 2:32 pm
Gale was bored. In fact, he was beyond bored.
He supposed he shouldn't have been. After all, he'd been the one who agreed to this in the first place. He wanted to be here, had faced a creepy tentacle monster who'd practically eaten off his leg to be here (even if it was all dream, but that was beside the point).
But no TV?
Seriously?
No TV?
Gale dragged himself mopishly around his room. It was, for the most part, pretty empty. He wasn't a person that had thought to grab a lot of stuff before coming here, so the place was pretty scantily decorated. There were a few clothes hanging up in the closet, a slightly rumpled hat that read "Manchester United" sitting on one of the shelves, and a small, worn brown leather notebook on the desk. Other than that, however...well, it was pretty bare.
Gale dragged himself to his feet. If he was going to be here, he might as well do something instead of sitting around complaining that there was nothing to do, so he made his way out of the room and down towards...well, nowhere really. Gale ambled around with his hands in his pockets, silently taking in the sights and sounds. When he walked past a door that read "Training Room," he stopped, backed up, and pushed open the door. Training would be a good thing, wouldn't it?
There was someone already in the room, though. Someone with a long, white braid.
"Oh, hey Bix."
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Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 7:08 pm
Even though Gale's greeting was calm, relaxed and not very loud it made Bix jump. He jerked, body seizing momentarily in surprise and he even let a little gasp slip. JEEZ. What a baby.
"Oh.. hey." He tried to be cool, spinning to give the other boy an easy smile. "Sorry .. with the .. jumping. You know those movies where stuff pops out to scare you? I'm that guy. " He smirked but clearly looked slightly ashamed of it especially since they were pretty much living a life where fighting monsters was everyday business.
"What's going on?" He was standing in front of some weapons racks that seemed to have dummy weapons. They were similar to the ones they'd used in their 'training' in the pod-simulation (new word!). He was hovering in front of case that looked to have guns.. but possibly nerf guns? some kind of non-lethal darts?
"Dorms kind of suck... right?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 7:33 pm
Gale studiously (and probably very wisely) clamped his mouth shut when the older boy jumped at his arrival, though a small smile tugged at the corners of his lips. He hastily squelched his amusement, however, knowing it was probably not the coolest thing in the world to be called out on something like that. So he just let it go, instead ambling over towards Bix.
"S'no problem," Gale answered with a shrug, hands still in his pockets. "I mean, we were attacked by some big creepy thing that tried to eat us and spit flesh eating acid at us while all the while destroying any hope we had left to survive, not to mention the whole thing was a big simulation anyway to induct us into the Academy and probably caused some sort of psychological trauma for all of us. So yeah, it's cool, man."
Stepping around the older boy, Gale stood beside him, gaze sweeping across the shelves. He had never seen so many weapons in his life - even though they were all fake in some way or another (to be "safer," he supposed), and his eyes immediately moved to the cabinet that held the handguns. Well. Nerf guns. And dart guns with blunted tips.
He idly picked one up, turning it over in his hands. "Dude, yeah, man," Gale said with a snort, shaking his head. "It's pretty dull back there, so I came out here to look around, y'know?"
His gaze slid to the gun again. "What're you doing here?" he asked, slanting his head upwards to look at Bix. "You gonna practice or something?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 7:41 pm
Gale seemed so cool about everything. He was so much younger but he seemed to have his s**t together. At least outwardly. Bix, of course, now was making an effort to seem cool too. He mentally decided that having his sunglasses hang off of his pocket helped.
Was he really being that shallow?
Yes.
"I've done the dorm thing. Hopefully once everyone settles in it will be more fun. Though I don't know how much fun our 'instructors' will let us have." He gave a wry grin and went back to checking out the weapons. Idly he played with the end of his braid.
"I figured.. I could use some." He glanced down but the coolness broke for a second. "Alright who am I kidding.. I am pretty terrible. I mean we all are but..." He laughed. "So much FAIL."
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Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 7:58 pm
Gale had long since decided that just being chill about life was the way to go. After he had realized that his parents would never believe him about the whole "seeing shadows move" thing, or the strangeness he always felt, he had adapted a rather laid back attitude about everything. Sometimes it bordered on apathetic, but it was better than getting overly emotional about everything. Leslie was sometimes that way, but she was his sister and therefore it was different.
Gale lifted an eyebrow, feeling his face color a bit. Sometimes he forgot just how young he was compared to the others, and the fact that Bix had already "done the dorm thing" was yet just another reminder of the fact that - he was damn young. Though fifteen was not a kid.
"Yeah, I hope so too," he said with a grin, which rapidly turned into a look of exasperation. "If our instructors are anything like Caelius, then I have a feeling we'll be in for one hell of a ride."
The gun in his hand felt slightly awkward, since it was not a real gun and it was made of thick plastic rather than metal, but Gale still held it like one, absently squinting down at it. "Well, we're all bloody horrible right now," he said, and then laughed. "I suppose that's why we have a training field."
A pause. Then he added curiously "Well, why don't we train? See if we can get any less 'terrible?'"
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Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 8:23 pm
"Sure.. let's do it. Train I mean. Not do it.. jeeeezus..." Bix rolled his eyes AT HIMSELF. "Ignore me."
He looked at the weapons and eyed up what looked to be a bow and arrow set. Something made him want to pick it up but instead he moved his eyes back to the guns. What was the point in deviating from the familiar?
His gun was light and his common sense told him that training with this would only help his aim. Anything with his grip or balance would have to be worked out with a real gun. Aim was pretty important though.
"So we just... shoot each other?" The idiot didn't even pay attention to the fact that there seemed to be training dummies along the wall. "Orrr..."
Clueless.
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Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 9:22 pm
The look Gale gave Bix was slightly mortified mixed with a desire to laugh out loud. He stifled the urge to snort with laughter, instead hastily turning his attention to the gun in his hand. It wasn't anywhere near the same weight and feel as a normal gun; the plastic was heavy and thick, but it was not nearly as solid as metal. Gale held it up to his eye, squeezing one shut as he examined it carefully. There was a small set of what looked to be plastic darts set aside on a shelf, and he reached out to pick them up. The tips were blunted, making them virtually useless, weapon-wise, though they might cause a bit of a bruise if actually shot at a person.
"Er," Gale said quickly. "No. No let's, er...not shoot ourselves, shall we? I mean, that would be bad. Even if it's plastic. Uh, yeah."
There were dummies stuffed with hay and other miscellaneous materials lined against the far wall. They all had the same bland expression, two scribbled on eyes and a lopsided mouth. Gale slid a few of the darts into the gun, then snapped the fake magazine shut.
"Look," he said patiently, waving his free hand at the dummies. "There. We can shoot there."
He hesitated a moment, then shrugged. Stepping towards the line that indicated where the room ended and the practice field began, Gale held up the gun with both hands. He closed one eye, gritted his teeth, then pulled the trigger.
Thwack.
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 6:00 am
Bix flushed, feeling like an idiot. DUMMIES.
He felt as brainless as the straw figures for a minute and figured Gale may as well shot at him with the damn darts. The older hunter moved in front of his own dummy but stopped for a second. It looked too.... benign.
"Look at this thing.." He scratched his head with the plastic barrel of the gun. Probably a habit he should get out of. During their pod-sperience he'd whipped his gun around willy-nilly like a champion. People were constantly ducking and rolling just in case. "It's so goofy looking. Like.. it's so happy about being a stupid dummy!"
He snorted but wouldn't fire at it. Apparently it just wasn't scary enough. "Oh wait!" With a grin he grabbed a few darts off of the shelf and a couple blunted arrows. Running back to his dummy he shoved the darts into it's face to make it look like it had fangs and a couple more out of it's head to give it horns.
"Hmmmm..." A few more careful jabbings and the dummy's cloth back had a variety of arrows sticking out of it like spikes. It wasn't 'scary' per say but it at least looked like a monster and not some simple looking dude that he would be firing at. He couldn't help a snorted laugh though. "Better."
Bix finally took a moment to line up a shot and THWIP... MISSED COMPLETELY.
"So.. maybe it's taboo or whatever. I don't know. Where are you from and what made you come here?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 9:18 pm
He had missed the first shot, sadly. The dart had gone far and wide from its target, thwacking into the far wall and bouncing uselessly to the ground. Gale watched it for a moment, wondering if it had been him that had been off, or the fact that he was using a plastic gun to shoot.
He blamed the gun.
"You, er...probably shouldn't do that, y'know," he added, gesturing to Bix as he scratched his head with the muzzle of the gun. "I mean. With a real gun. Cuz, uh...that would be bad."
Bix was now poking some of the darts into the dummy. Gale blinked after him, slightly confused as to what exactly he was doing until the older boy stepped back, looking satisfied. Gale shrugged.
Strange guy...
At least it made the targets a bit more...entertaining. Gale lifted the gun again, ready to shoot, but Bix's unexpected question made him lower it, turning his head to face the other.
"Where am I from?" he repeated, as if the question confused him. His breath slipped out in a soft sigh, then he shook his head as if to clear it.
"London," Gale answered. "England. My twin sister and I were raised in a small home on Warwick Avenue, just near Paddington Station."
A small hesitation as Gale's eyes moved to rest on the dummy again, and he raised the gun, holding it horizontal to the ground instead of right side up. Squeezing one eye shut, he pulled the trigger.
Whack.
"I came here because I wanted to prove myself to someone," he said, stepping onto the field to pull the dart from the dummy's stomach, near the left hip. His fingers grasped the metal end and he yanked it out, crossing back to stand with Bix again. Gale's shoulders lifted and fell in another shrug.
"What about you?" he said, slanting a gaze up at Bix. "Where are you from? And what made you come here?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 10:02 pm
Bix wasn't so mysterious. He didn't seem to have lying in him, or at least he was so bad at it that he got caught in his lies. If you could never pull off lying, why bother doing it?
"I'm just a country guy. Grew up in the middle of nowhere. Only thing to do is hunt, get tattoos and immediately get married and have babies out of high school. I was lucky." He aimed, licking his lips as he tried to line up correctly, "I was like 1 in a bajillion who got to go to college."
His dart THWACKED the dummy in the side of the head but it was more of a graze. The dart twirled harmlessly to the ground.
"You have a sister? I have a brother. Or did.." He frowned. Apparently as open as he was, that detail wasn't coming out right this second. It probably wouldn't take much prying to get it out of him but it wasn't something he easily tumbled out. "I came here to make some sort o difference to someone. Try to help people who need help."
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 11:16 am
Bix was surprisingly honest, though that wasn't really surprising. He didn't really seem the type to hide things - or rather, he didn't seem the type to be even able to hide things. Gale watched him step back, take in the dummy and attempt to shoot. The dart didn't really hit; sort of brushed against the side of the head of the dummy, then twiddle to the ground with a small thwip.
"Why college?" Gale asked, genuinely curious. He gave a shrug. "I mean, if everyone else was getting married and hunting and whatnot, why not you too? Tattoos are kinda cool...and uni is bloody difficult, from what I've heard, at least."
He had been a good student, but after being sent to live with his uncle, Gale had pretty much given up on studying. Maths and science were not his greatest subjects, after all; if anything, Literature had been his favorite, but he had lost both his drive and his interest in it and in schooling in general, instead spending his time working as a cashier at his uncle's store (no one had really known, nor cared, really that he had technically been underage, since his uncle owned the store).
"And yes," Gale replied. "I have a sister. Her name is Leslie."
And dammit Leslie, where the bloody hell are you, anyway?
He left his frustrations left unsaid, instead lifting the gun again and firing another shot. This time the dart hit the dummy's right arm.
"Why?" he asked bluntly. "Why help? I mean...not that that's a bad thing, but...why?"
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 12:45 pm
Bix snorted, a bit of a laugh, when he asked why Bix didn't do the marriage thing. "You know that nature vs. nurture thing? Well apparently I'm not very susceptible to 'nurturing' a lifestyle into someone. I may have lived in hickville but I HATE that stuff."
Bix lined up another shot. This time aiming or the body. It was a bigger target and he did seem to get a solid hit. "I liked fantasy and sci fi and the bigger world I could find online. My dad dragged me around hunting until I was old enough to tell him I didn't want to go. It was okay though." He never had a bad relationship with his parents. "They were okay with me being different.. but they didn't have much imagination themselves. My little brother was into all that so that was good. College was a great escape." He smiled again and shot, back at the head and another MISS.
"Meh.." He dropped the gun to his side. "My little brother was one of those kids that went out to play one day and never came home." Apparently the details of his life came pouring out with barely a question. "I'm okay with it now. Resigned, I guess, but I was bad for a while. We all were but my parents just listened to everyone and nodded to the cops and took everything they said for face value."
He stood back just to watch Gale firing or a minute. "But I of course.. I was in high school and I watched too much TV and played too many games so when I suggested maybe there was more.. something else.. not to just give up.. I was just imagining things and life just wasn't fair apparently. If someone could have just done more or even made an effort for a second..." It would have at least made him feel better, even if it had amounted to nothing. He didn't finish the sentence though, just stood there quietly. He didn't look sad or upset.. just there.
"Leslie huh? Older younger.. is she hot?" He laughed, hoping not to get punched for pre-emptively hitting on Gale's sister.
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 1:16 pm
"I'm not into that sort of thing either," Gale said with a snort, shaking his head. "I mean, it's cool if people wanna get married and have babies and all that, but...I dunno, when I reach that age I don't think that's what I want."
And right now he had absolutely zero interest in that sort of thing. Which was probably a good thing. Gale held up the gun again, trying to figure out where to shoot this time. Maybe in the real world he wouldn't have time to decide, but right now this was just casual training, so he carefully considered his options. "I'd rather be playing games than hunting, to be honest," he said, then grew silent. His own parents, while good people and kind, had never really understood him all that much. It made him a little envious, but now was not the time for that.
"I'm sorry, man," Gale said, in regards to Bix's brother. "That's gotta be rough. I mean, me and my sister, we're pretty close, so if something like that happened to her..."
Though technically it already had. She wasn't here with him, after all. Gale suppressed a scowl of irritation remembering that, instead listening to Bix speak. It seemed the older boy had more to him than met the eye, after all. Gale gave a small shrug, aiming at the dummy's leg. The dart hit the side of the calf, lower than he had intended, but still a shot nonetheless.
"Maybe if someone did more, I wouldn't have been stuck moving in with my uncle," he said, then gave Bix an exasperated look over his shoulder as he walked to gather up the darts he had shot (he had run out of ammo). "And Leslie's my age; we're twins."
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 4:41 pm
"Twins? Hoooo so she looks like a dude?" Bix laughed and shoved Gale a little bit. The dart guns were boring. For someone who went through a ton of schooling he had a rather short attention span. He wandered back to the weapons rack and dropped the dart gun into an empty spot.
"So where is your sister?" If they were so close wouldn't she be involved? Or maybe he left her somewhere safe and he was doing this to help protect her in some way?
He picked up some nunchucks for a second but then just laughed and put it back. He remembered their 'pod experience' and the horrible nunchucking he'd seen done through the eyes of his gas mask. Instead he picked up some wooden daggers, two of them, and adjusted them in multiple ways in his hands. Meh.. why not?
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