|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:22 pm
Otto's drums were gathering dust.
One too many fingers sore or broken left him without the grip to play. One too many toes bruised or cracked to attempt to play with his feet. One knee had twisted too badly to have weight put on it, and his lungs felt tight no matter how much air he had to breathe.
All of this made an already grumpy boy even grouchier.
After hours spent glaring at the drum set, Otto gave up willing the injuries to magically heal and decided to go for a stroll. Well.. not so much a stroll as it was him leaning on the hallway walls an shifting himself forward.
Maybe a trip to the vending machines would yield something interesting.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 4:47 am
Reine spent the days following that incident in her room- at least, after she had recovered well enough from the injuries sustained. Parts of her body still didn't feel like they really were hers; she couldn't control her fingers too well, after almost all the bones in her hand had broken.
Eventually she'd decided enough was really quite enough, so she dressed slowly, and left her room. A little air would clear her mind, probably, after everything. Perhaps Alynthe would enjoy it as well.. she had no idea anymore. The apophis had been mostly quiet after their last conversation, and the silence weighed down on her like guilt.
Moving slowly, carefully down the hallway, Reine came across a familiar figure. The word 'puppy' came to her mind first, as always, but then she thought of Thackery again, and felt Ally shifting uncomfortably in her mind, and she found herself unable to say it.
"Hey, Otto."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:03 am
Otto blinked and stopped moving, slowly turning to see Reine. No 'puppy'? This had to be the best day of his life, you know, without the injuries and pain. Or maybe she was pissed about something.
Meh. Not like he cared.
"Yo." He responded after a moment of giving her a judgmental look. "Lookin' pretty damn beat up, ain'tcha?" The boy was nothing if not rude and forward. One could blame the injuries for the lack of word to mouth filter, but he was always like this.
"So, Cripple, where ya goin'?" He asked as he turned and started his slow shuffle down the hall again, this time trying not to rely on the wall for support.
He couldn't appear needy, you know. There were girls watching! Too bad he was still hobbling with a limp.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:22 am
Reine raised an eyebrow at Otto, but merely shrugged his words away. They all looked 'pretty damn beat up', as far as she knew- Otto himself was sporting bandages, and he wasn't exactly walking properly, either- in fact, he was sticking to the wall, as if using it for support.
"Speak for yourself," she said, the smallest hint of a smile on her face. "You're the one who can't walk properly." At least Otto hadn't changed after that.. incident, which was enough to make her feel comfortable with him, nevermind that he was being rude.
A few steps closed the distance between them, and Reine tugged at his arm, draping it over her shoulder; if he didn't want to walk with the wall's support, he'd have to make do with hers.
"Just thought I'd get some fresh air, after being cooped up for a few days. Figured I'd need to stretch and, I dunno, walk around."
Protip: There aren't actually girls watching you, Otto.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:31 am
"Says you." Otto grumped, though he knew it to be true. As tough as he tried to seem, he was really babying the leg with the bad knee. To his surprise Reine seemed to try and help. To her surprise, he didn't make a fuss. Perhaps he wasn't in the mood to whine. He did, however, give her a look of disgruntlement. Or was that his normal face? Hard to tell.
"Makes sense." Otto commented idly, moving with Reine's help. If he could flip the bird at the protip he would.
Otto fell silent for a moment or so. He was trying to remember where he was heading before running into Reine in the hallway. With some snarky help from Tenya (and after some cheeky back and forth), he remembered. "I wanna stop at a vending machine on the way." He demanded childishly. "M'hungry."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:57 am
"That's why I'm richer than you, Mr Grumpypants." He hadn't struggled, which was uncharacteristic, but instead of being worried, she just held him a little closer. It was nice to fall back into the swing of things, to remember she was a hunter, and to be with the others on her side. Maybe if she tried hard enough she could forget Thackery. Maybe she would never have to see him again.
Alynthe hummed softly in the back of her mind.
"Okay," she murmured, slightly distracted. Eventually they reached the cafeteria, or Vending Machine Paradise; while there were lonely machines here and there in the compound, the cafeteria offered a wider selection, and the two spent a few minutes picking out what they wanted.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:03 am
Otto gave the girl a haughty look coupled with a scoff. Why? Because she was right and he didn't like that. Never not wasting what little cash he had on a moment's bliss of vending machine food.
By the end of their little side trip, Otto had himself a small little palm sized loaf of pound cake that could very well have been inside that machine for ten years. It tasted good, regardless.
"Where to now, lady?" Otto asked, though not nearly as understandable as he spoke with a mouthful of cake.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:24 am
Reine smirked at him, the closest to a smile she'd gotten all day. In her free hand she held a can of chocolate milk- admittedly, she'd picked that option because who sold milk in cans, but it did taste decent... more than she could say of Otto's pound cake, though he looked like he was enjoying it.
Swirling her drink, she took another sip of milk, then pointed in front of them.
"Out." As for out where, Reine wasn't completely sure either- just that she needed fresh air, and to be somewhere that wasn't surrounded by walls. Perhaps just the courtyard, or the training fields outside.. wherever, really.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:54 am
Out? Otto raised a brow. The idea of fresh air wasn't a bad idea, but Otto seemed hesitant, checking his cell phone for the time.
Well.. it wouldn't be dark right away...
"Fine, how 'bout the courtyard or' sumthin'?" That was close enough by that he could make a run jog hobble for safety relatively quickly.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:19 am
"Maybe.." They exited the compound, Otto's arm still around Reine's shoulder, which basically meant that for now, he was at her mercy. He seemed vaguely bothered by going outside, but Reine shrugged it off as just being grumpy, and kept walking.
Where she was headed, she had no clue, either. The moment they stepped out Reine felt herself calm down; the cool evening breeze almost seemed to lift a weight off her heart. She paused for a while, as if searching for something, but a quick glance around the courtyard left her feeling dissatisfied, and she continued on, pulling Otto along.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 10:41 am
Otto was more or less dragged along wherever Reine wanted to go. He honestly didn't care if they hung out in the courtyard or not, he just didn't want to be out very long. If it got too late, maybe he could pull away and limp back to base.
The courtyard didn't seem to suit Reine's fancy. What she was expecting, Otto didn't know. The cool breeze did nothing for the boy, his grouchy outlook on life not exactly helping him appreciate it like Reine did. He had his stale cake, what more did he need, right?
"You ain't had enough air yet, er'whut?" Otto grumbled, eyeing the skyline for a quick second. If this were a city he wouldn't mind so much, what with street lights, head lights and all kinds of lights at the dead of night. Still, he reckoned he still had a while yet before he needed to worry.
Or hoped, anyway. It was bad enough Eva knew his secret. Reine was the last person who needed to know.
Well... her and Caelius. It was a toss up which was worse, other than Reine would be like Eva and try to 'help'.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:36 pm
The sun was setting, but Reine didn't feel particularly threatened, though in her current state you would have thought maybe the girl had learned some sense of self-preservation; if anything attacked them, the two trainees were as good as sitting ducks.
"Never enough air," Reine said, shrugging. Asphyxiation wasn't high on her do-want list, in fact, she was pretty sure she didn't want to die anytime soon, by whatever methods. The courtyard just didn't have the right sort of atmosphere; if Reine actually liked alcohol she would be drowning her sorrows in a bottle of.. whatever now, but the point was that she felt like she needed to indulge herself just a little bit.
They reached the beach just in time to see the sun disappear from the horizon, though some of the sky was still tinted orange. The first stars had come out- Reine was pleased, really, to see the sky so clear; it was so beautiful out here.
"I died here once," she laughed. It sounded so morbid to say that, but she felt it was appropriate to reminisce a little. It had all started with the trial, after all, the first step of her journey towards becoming a hunter.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 8:57 pm
Otto was getting nervous.
The beach came into sight, and he had a feeling he'd have to waste his cell battery on the way back for a source of light. Still, even he had to admit that was a stellar sunset.
Otto turned to Reine as she spoke, his chest tightening some. "Oh.. the trials.." He murmured, looking back out onto the water. "During the fight with the giant pony, right?" He'd been there, but he never knew Reine was too. "When people started turning on each other..." He cringed, shifting away from Reine's hold.
"I'd hope s**t like that won't happen anymore." Still, he'd almost forgotten about it all.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:16 pm
The 'giant pony' he mentioned sent a chill down her spine- horseman. They had been around, even then.. they simply hadn't known that, during the trial. Reine's face twisted into a frown, remembering that particular battle- she wasn't proud of her actions then, and she had paid for her recklessness with one death..
But even then, the horseman had been merely playing with them. Taking advantage of their insecurities.
"It won't," she said firmly. Maybe it was because of Otto that she felt just a little braver, a little more sure. "That was so long ago. We're all hunters now." Reine reached over to ruffle his hair, attempting to reassure him.
"It's been such a long time since then, anyway. Sleeping for months, and then waking up suddenly, and then missions, and.. stuff."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 26, 2012 9:21 pm
Otto eyed Reine, wondering where her sudden confidence was all coming from. She was being awfully mature. He flinched as she ruffled his hair, the urge to swat her hand away was there, but he knew better enough for now. Not all his fingers were up for that kind of excitement, all bandaged up.
"Yeah, lots'a stuff." Otto agreed. "Though I still don't get exactly what our grand goal is supposed to be, other than front line fodder."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
