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 Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 11:25 am
Rain hadn't known what to expect when she neared the physical education section of the examination grounds. She felt a little cheated though when she realized there were no dummies or live targets to attack. Instead, there were boxes with little scales on it. Maybe it would be easier this way? It wasn't like boxes could dodge, right? Not that it would make much of a difference in the end. When it came to her aim, she usually missed.
She closed her eyes and began concentrating on summoning her skull ball. It surprised her when it appeared almost instantly. Did this mean that her fear was getting stronger? It usually took her a solid minute or two!
It looked like a normal casketball for the most part. It was small, round and black as the night itself. The only physical difference was the glowing skull that appeared on its side. It almost seemed to be grinning as if it were enjoying itself and it did not require much physical contact. It floated against her flesh, sometimes barely touching it at all. When it moved, it was because she willed it to move. It was as if they were linked as one, as if the ball could read her very thoughts. Sometimes, she wondered if the ball was alive.
Oh, how she loved her skull ball! It was so comforting and she couldn't resist taking some time to enjoy it. She dribbled it on the ground with her right hand, loving the way it felt. She then passed it between her legs to catch it from behind with her left hand, throwing it high into the air. Without missing a step, she caught it with her right hand and begin spinning it until it was twirling around on the tip of her finger. There wasn't much she enjoyed more than playing with her ball. Sometimes it was easy to forget that it was a weapon.
She blushed deeply when she realized she had been focusing more on the ball than on her friend. She couldn't remember the last time she was so embarrassed! "I'm so sorry," she stammered, hugging the ball against her chest as she turned back towards Shine. "I don't get to.. play with it.. much. I guess we are supposed to attack the boxes," she finished awkwardly.
Would she even be able to hit it? Dare she hope she had more control over her fear? There was only one way to find out but it scared her. She wanted to help out the school! What if she.. failed horribly? What if she was the sole reason the school got shut down?
Would she be forever remembered as Rain Rottingham, the failure?
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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 12:40 pm
(I'm so sorry I don't have time to do more right now, I'll fluff it out a little later ;; <3)
At the sight of the boxes, Shine shared her friend's confusion. She hadn't practiced much with the equipment in the gymnasium yet, and hadn't participated in any spars...in fact, her FEAR attack had rarely been used since her arrival at the school. This could potentially be bad. The examinations were meant to be somewhat challenging, that much she understood, but this seemed close to impossible when she didn't have the slightest clue what she was doing with any facet of it.
Rain seemed to be a little preoccupied with her casketball, which came as a bit of a relief to her. The lollipop wasn't nearly finished, and her FEAR was so much stronger when she was able to get some sugar in her system...
...so she took advantage of the distraction to sloppily consume the rest of her candy, thankful for her strong zombie teeth. The loud crunch noises coming from her direction weren't the best for discretion, but at least nobody had to see how she was eating the thing. With a look of concentration and a noise that sounded like she might have broken her tooth, she was victorious. The only remainder of the lollipop was a candygoop-covered stick. And just in time, too - Rain was addressing her again.
When her friend apologized shortly thereafter, she felt a little guilty. She did usually like having her attention, but the circumstances this time were different. Ashamed, she wiped at her mouth, trying to get the sticky off. Knowing that she felt bad for ignoring her made Shine feel bad too, but if she knew about the disgusting eating habit she had just publicly practiced...well, both of them would probably feel worse, she reasoned.
"It's okay, the ball is a good thing." Wait. Unless... "...except if you like it better than..." No, no, that wouldn't happen. She tried to change the subject and divert focus to the task at hand instead. "I...think so? They have things." She demonstrated the concept of "meter" with an extended finger, moving it from one side to the other. "Can you show me?"
If Rain went first, she would have more time the metabolize the sugar, and maybe that would help her understand how she was going to apply her FEAR to this little box thing. It was such a strange concept.
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Meeki rolled 8 12-sided dice:
5, 5, 7, 9, 7, 7, 11, 1
Total: 52 (8-96)
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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 3:38 pm
Was Shine worried that she liked the ball better than her? Rain wanted to sway such a silly thought but ended up keeping her mouth closed. It would be weird if she misinterpreted it and made the situation even more awkward. Not a single boil or ghoul mattered to her more than Shine, so she had to be misunderstanding what the ghoul was about to say.
"I'd love to," she replied with a nod that bounced her pigtails up and down. She did a couple quick stretches to warm up her limbs before turning around to face the scale. The last thing she wanted was to fail in front of Shine. She had to do this and she had to do it well! The target was only twelve or so feet away from her so hitting it should be a breeze.
"Here goes nothing!"
Locking the target in sight, she began spinning the ball around her hand, faster and faster, building up the momentum. When she was sure she had enough force, she let out a loud piercing scream and threw the ball towards the target.
It hit.. sorta. Kinda. Not.
It missed the scale completely but it did manage to hit the side of the box. What Rain hadn't counted on was that the spinning would actually make the ball fly back towards her and with an uncanny accuracy! She felt the ball hit her squarely on the face, and was sure the crunching sound she heard was her nose breaking. She could smell the coagulated blood as it began to ooze out and she was flying -- no falling -- backwards! The last thing she noticed was her body making contact with the ground. Then everything went black.
Her ball came to a stop, somehow at her side. The skull was facing the unmoving body, grinning.
Damage to Target: 0
Damage to Self: 14
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Nothing Yet rolled 4 4-sided dice:
4, 1, 3, 1
Total: 9 (4-16)
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Posted: Sat Dec 10, 2011 7:30 pm
As Shine watched Rain prepare to unleash her mighty FEAR attack upon the pitiful, doomed thing that was the mysterious meter box machine, she felt compelled to try to mimic the movements that the FEARleaders did. She had only seen them once when she stumbled across one of their practices, but it looked like a good thing to do when trying to support someone she cared about.
She jumped up and down, balanced awkwardly on one foot, and did her best to clap with sticky, grimy hands. The sound that it made when her palms smacked and stuck together, only to be ripped apart and smacked together again, was not a particularly appealing one. But the sentiment was there.
When she was finished with her clapping routine, she realized that she wasn't sure what else there was to do aside for the three things that she'd just demonstrated, and it didn't occur to her to repeat them in various combinations, so she just stopped and watched on eagerly. It was so impressive, watching the ball move faster than she could even fathom, seeing it lurch towards the box with such animosity!
Then Rain was on the ground. She had no idea how she had possibly missed the sequence of events leading up to that problem, and she didn't have any time to think about it, because she was just...there. Not moving. Not doing much of anything. Frantic, she looked from the box to the ball to Rain to the box...it had to be the box! The box was what did this! The box had to pay!
Her initial movements towards the box were shambling, slow, and uneasy, but her FEAR allowed her motions to do a drastic u-turn towards speediness, clashing with her anger and igniting something that she couldn't entirely control. She dashed towards the box with a speed that rivaled the thrown ball, slashing wildly in its direction until she felt her hand make contact. If she had been a bit more calm, she might have directed her attack towards the target more accurately, but time was of the essence here. She knew she'd hit the thing, and that was what mattered. Now she had to help Rain.
She was kneeling at her side as quickly as if time had skipped from the moment of her her attack to the moment of attending to her friend. Confused and worried, she began to cry again, gently and carefully poking at her in hopes of waking her up. When that didn't work, she gathered Rain into her arms, hugging her close, crying into her hair. She wasn't strong enough to carry the other ghoul, but her crying usually brought help, so...maybe it would bring help for Rain this time.
The meter on the box mocked them from afar, wiggling just slightly past where it had been resting initially.
hit!
damage done: 5
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Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2011 10:12 am
She didn't know how long she had lain there before waking up. It didn't matter. Shine was crying again, that was the only thing she focused on and she followed that melancholy sound to consciousness. It was a strange thing, even the way she cried seemed beautiful in its own way. Rain had always been drawn to the sound. It did not surprise her that it brought her back. She'd follow that sound anywhere.
When she opened her eyes, all she could see was Shine's hair and neck. It took her another minute to realize she was being held. No one had ever held her other than her parents. No one had ever really seemed to care about her before other than her family. Her eyes started to burn from the tears that would never come. If she could cry, she would. She would cry for the pain she had caused Shine. For the.. happiness.. she felt for being cared about.
She stirred only enough to reach her arms around and hug Shine back. "It will take a lot more than that to kill me," she half-joked, "though my nose doesn't feel too pretty right now." She gazed over to the scale and saw that the meter had gone up. Not only that but there were faint marks all over it and the box, marks that could have been caused by some very sharp fingers.
"Oh Shine!," Rain exclaimed. "You did it! Look, you did it! I think you just helped save the school! I knew you could do it!"
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