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 Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2013 9:41 pm
To say that Zel wasn't starting to have potential doubts about this outing would have been an understatement worthy of understatement of the year. Paintbrawl was such an intense activity, and with all the extra padding they foisted on him, he was wondering if maybe he'd gotten in over his head a bit. Granted, he was only wearing about half of it – he still wanted to be able to move – so he wasn't looking forward to getting hit. But let it not be said that Zel couldn't take a hit like a champ.
Fingers tightened around the grip of his rented Paintbrawl gun, and he checked over it again, making sure the hopper was clear of any blockages, the air cartridge was primed and full, and that the safety was still switched on since they weren't on the field yet. With that done, he hustled over to where Amarus was getting ready, thanking his lucky stars that they'd managed to get on the same team. Leaning against wall near her he chuckled.
“This was a great idea,” He said looking around at the other assembled on their team. In his opinion they didn't look like much – but then he was comparing them to Amarus so they did have quite a large handicap. “Though I bet we do the best out of all of our team – of course, I'll probably score MVP...”
He grinned at her. “Cause I doubt you'll shoot as many of the other team as I will.” Yeah, he was calling her out – but he'd already made the decision that if he couldn't out shoot her then he wasn't going to give her the gift he had stashed under his vest. It wasn't much, just a bell he'd found that had made him think of her and a note asking her to be his Scarentine.
After all, you didn't let someone sleep on top of you and NOT ask them to be your Scarentine.
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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 11:33 pm
Amarus never had any doubts.
No, rather, when she did, she made sure that she killed them before they got a chance to surface. Smothered them somewhere deep inside herself, so she could keep on believing that she couldn't fail. That nothing would go wrong. That she would be fine, in the end.
So while Zel was being packed with padding, Amarus didn't even wear that much; she was a ghost, short of FEAR pellets she wasn't terribly afraid of getting hit. She was wearing goggles, gloves and some thin stuff covering whatever bare skin she normally exposed. She'd do that much, at least.
Given she was a barehanded fighter, and always had been, Amarus had zero clues how to check her rented gun for absolutely anything. She had been taught how to hold it, how to more or less aim, and how not to shoot herself; that was good enough for her. She was, however, stretching repeatedly and thoroughly before beginning when Zel wandered over to her. "Who doesn't love bonding through violent physical exertion?" she suggested, a smile ghosting across her expression as she stretched.
"Teams, who needs them, right? Just need a partner, that's all, someone to watch your back," she added, straightening and picking up her gun, with an actual smile at Zel this time. She was glad they were on the same team, too, though. Even if she would have been merciless if they'd been opponents, and it would have been as affectionate to her as this would be now.
She had no idea what he was planning. And it was likely he'd manage to outshoot her, when it was probably going to end up being a very... point-blank strategy, on her part. Amarus punched Zel lightly in the shoulder. "Ready?" she asked him, poised to begin.
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Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2013 2:44 pm
Zel smirked, her exuberance for violence was catching - but then, he was quite the violent soul himself. As she cuffed him on the shoulder, he returned the gesture, then pulled his mask down over his face so he could see. "I was born ready," A low laugh escaped his throat as he eyed the starting gates. The lights were still yellow, they had a little time to plan.
"I like your partner idea, we're more likely to last longer on the team as a smaller unit instead of sticking with the herd anyway - they're all going to try to go for the objective up the straight and easy way, which pretty much invites them to get shot in the face." Zel was not unused to Paintbrawl - in fact he and his father played almost religiously. It was one of his favorite games and he enjoyed the rush of it.
"So as soon as the light goes green and our team presses forward and out into what is probably going to be a scramble for cover because the other team is going to start lobbing shots at anyone out in the open - which will be all of the people charging up the main pathway toward the objective. We're going to cut a hard left through and take the side lane - the only people who will be there are pros - so we'll want to stick to cover. Keep your head down and your gun ready... I'd hate to see your pretty face get covered in paint." He smirked and rubbed her cheek with his thumb.
"Alright... ready... and... GO!" Zel saw the light go green, heard the start buzzer wail and without a second to lose, made his way through the starting gate and cut hard left, diving behind cover and peeking up over the scarp metal to see if he could sight a target. Already he could hear screams and yelps of pain as people in the main group were getting hosed with fire from the other team defending the objective.
Shooting a glance over his shoulder he hoped Amarus had remembered the plan. He could do this alone - sure - but he wouldn't do as well as with her watching his back.
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 8:38 pm
The faintest flicker of sorrow passed across her features, almost undetectable, as Zel employed the expression I was born ready. She hadn't exactly been born, and she often mourned whatever life she may have had. Who she had been, what she'd done; how she'd died. Why she was here now.
Would she be making that other self proud? Would she be a disappointment? She'd never know. Family wasn't a luxury Amarus could afford, not that she could afford any luxuries at all. Which was maybe why she did what she wanted, when she wanted to. Not like she'd ever had anyone to guide her.
"I do not appreciate the idea of being shot in the face. I'm not sure I appreciate the idea of shooting at all," she lamented. "It's so impersonal," she said to Zel, wrinkling her nose. Still, it seemed like she could learn to enjoy it, once she got over the intial disappointment of being awful at it. She did not like to be bad at anything.
"Hard left, cover--" she was repeating his instructions, and then turned to look at him, one of her eyebrows quirked over her mirror-silver eyes. She opened her mouth to retort something, when he brushed his thumb over her cheek, and she shut her mouth. There was something that woke inside her every time he touched her, and she wasn't sure what it was, but at the moment it was begging her to keep her pretty mouth shut and accept the damn compliment.
So she did, basically, and nodded once before booking it alongside Zel as soon as the light changed, following his instructions perfectly. She may not be able to shoot but she was still in perfect combat-readiness, her body and mind toned from an excess of drills and practice sessions. "They are screaming?" she asked, re-evaluating her hasty assessment of the game.
Either they were wimps, or these things actually hurt. Buuut not when you were a ghost, really. She heard something behind her, and as she was behind Zel following his lead, she automatically spun and shot whatever it was right in the gut.
It was very, very in pain. "...I hope they were not on our team," she said, leaning over the individual who was whimpering. "I don't think they were. They were.. fast, though," she narrated, assessing the fallen's condition.
"...it'll be fine. I'm sure. Whatever it is." Amarus rejoined Zel, paying attention to their immediate surroundings. Yes, she did actually still remember the plan. And no, she had no second thoughts about having just shot someone in the gut.
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 9:08 pm
Zel laughed and kept his back against the cover, his wings tucked tight and his tail wrapped around his waist like a belt to keep it out of the way. He tried to keep his horns below the cover, since getting paint off of them was a royal pain in the arse. Turning to look at Amarus as she sunk into cover next to him, he smirked. "Nice 360 no-scope," Zel teased her. "Someone tried to rush it looks like - and yes, they're in pain, the shots really hurt if they hit you in the right spot. They're solid balls of paint fired by compressed air. Whoever you hit is gonna have a nice welt - and are 'dissipated' for the rest of the match."Leg and Arm shots only had you sitting out for a two minute 'wound' break - torso and head shots had you out the match. Granted head shots were frowned upon because they could cause actual injury. But that wasn't important at the moment. He leaned over a bit and peeked out around the cover, and was greeted with a few wide shots of paint smacking into their barricade. Cussing low under his breath, he leaned back and stuck his gun out, firing off a few wild shots himself in reply, but keeping the majority of his body behind the barricade so as to avoid getting shot. "Okay, so - I didn't realize the other team was going to rush - this changes the plan," he grumbled, looking over at Amarus as he pulled his gun back to his chest. "We need to find somewhere we can hole up and defend ourselves, preferably with a bit of height." He looked around to see if they'd set up any sort of tower area, and was thankful to see a small defense tower about twenty feet away. It'd be a hard sprint but Zel was sure they could make it... Provided he got a little crazy. "Okay, so, here's the new plan. See the defense tower about twenty feet to our right? When I count to three we're going to break cover and sprint for it, don't stop for anything until you get inside."He smiled at her, grabbed her free hand and squeezed it. "Just remember - run, and don't stop till we're in the tower." He pulled his hand back and tweaked the air valve on his gun for a moment, giving it a little bit more punch. "Alright...""1...2...3...GO!"Zel broke from cover, hoping that Amarus was running as he lifted his arm and started popping off shots toward where he thought the enemy might be. He could see a few of them popping up from cover to hit what they thought would be an easy kill, but already he was diving forward and going prone, sliding along the dirt as he dipped behind cover about halfway from the tower. He hoped he'd provided the distraction she needed to get to the tower. He peeked out around the far side of the barricade, and started to pop off shots as he saw targets peek out from cover. He confirmed one (because he got up a few seconds later with paint all over his mask and held his gun up over his head in the sign for "dissipated player") but he couldn't confirm the second as he ducked his head back from cover as he heard paint smack at his barricade again. Taking a deep breath, he slowly got to his knees, then into a sprinting position. He would have to make this count... He counted to three in his head, took a deep breath and ran for the doorway of the defense tower. He hoped Amarus would be in there as he once against dove prone, skidding again on the dirt and stopping in the middle of the tower. There was a ladder leading up to the top, and the doors - which were open, were able to be bolted shut from the inside. "You in here Amarus?" He called to the ghoul, hoping she'd made it.
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Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 12:18 pm
Amarus looked at him, her silvery eyes narrowing. Alone, she understood half of the words in that sentence: 'Nice' and '360.' Everything else was gibberish, especially when compounded. "Next time perhaps we should demonstrate our gardening skills," she muttered, with a grimace. That, at least, she understood. Plants were her friends, as were birds, for some reason.
Still, she grinned at the notion of welts. But she couldn't help but ask: "What happens to ghosts, though? We can't get welts if we don't want them. Unless the paint is FEAR-based, which would be cruel," she suggested. Not that she planned on cheating; the paint could still do whatever it wanted, she just didn't care much for accepting a careless wound.
Amarus watched him in disbelief for a moment, and then booked it after him as well. She hadn't survived Thunder Road without just cause; Amarus was agile, and fit. It wasn't hard for her to follow him. Although the second she made it into the tower, she climbed up the ladder and scouted things out, listening carefully, mostly translucent. Okay, so she wasn't completely beyond using racial affinities.
All clear. She leaned upside down down the ladder, looking for the source of Zel's voice. "Zel, sweetheart... can you not teleport?" she asked, arching one brow at him. "Because I feel like a lot of the suspense of that daring cover would have been unnecessary if you'd just done that. But I smell no sulphur," she added. She was smiling faintly.
And appeared to be utterly unruffled.
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Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 3:50 pm
Zel chuckled looking up at her as he slammed and bolted both doors. "I can, but that takes all the fun out of it," He smirked up at her, winking. "Sometimes you just have to make a mad dash and hope for the best." Looking around the bottom level of the tower, he smirked and popped open a cabinet built into the side.
"Jackpot." He chuckled, grabbing a two buckets of what looked like nozzle covered eggs with a button on top. Holding one of up to Amarus he smirked.
"You're gonna love these," He said once the bucket found its way up the ladder so he could bring the other up as he climbed. "They're paint-grenades. Hit the button and throw, in three seconds they blow paint every where."
He smirked and sat next to her against the cover, listening to the occasional shot of paint against the tower.
"So, Amarus," He said as he rested his gun next to him and slid the second bucket to her. "... You um, want to go to the Scarentines Festival with me?" His hand had slid into his jacket and he'd found the gift for her, fingers clenched around it.
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Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2013 1:05 pm
Luckily for him, Amarus understood his explanation perfectly, because fun was just about the only motivation Amarus did understand. Well, fun or power. The two were equally valid reasons for doing just about anything, in her eyes.
Skeptical, she tilted her head, still hanging upside down. Her long, bound hair fell down the ladder, as though she was rapunzel. "I am going to like... hideous eggs?" she asked, before affording him the attention to finish his thought. Paint-grenades? Well, that was fascinating, but why would anyone leave boxes of those lying around?
It all seemed very lazy, but why not. Apparently she wasn't terribly thrilled with paintbrawl; the only reason she hadn't just taken to napping in the tower by now was because Zel was there, and she enjoyed his company enough to stay awake. Righted, Zel sat beside her, and she crossed her legs to look out, holding a bucket of paint grenades in her lap.
Amarus generally wasn't much of a plan-ahead kind of ghoul, much less a figure-out-what-people-are-planning ghoul. She had no idea that she could even be asked out anywhere, until she heard Zel, thought she'd heard him wrong, did a double-take, eyed him suspiciously, and then managed a small smile.
"You'd want to go with someone like me?" she asked, amused by the notion, but... strangely willing. Those memories she seemed to shelter somewhere buried inside herself overlapped with how she felt about him. She looked away for a moment, at the floor, to smile. It almost hurt, to feel hopeful-- was hope always so painful? She wasn't familiar with these things, yet, to know.
She slipped one hand out to him, palm up, as if asking for his hand so that she could hold it. "Of course we can go together," she said, "but only if you promise me one thing." Amarus shut her eyes, and tried to gloss over the memories of people she missed. "If you want to leave me one day, you have to fight me first."
On that day, they would be enemies. It was the only way she knew to keep a piece of him with her, even if he no longer wanted to be around her. Even if he figured out he'd made a mistake. But she really hoped that whatever it was that told her to trust him was mirrored in Zel's own self, and... he would never ask to fight her.
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Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 12:31 am
Zel blinked a moment at her request, before taking the hand out of his jacket and placing it on hers. The bell in his hand twinkled slightly before he held her hand in his, bell between their palms. He smiled at her softly before he drummed up the courage to speak again. "Of course I want to go with someone like you - you specifically. You're fun to be around. You're crazy and spontaneous and probably everything I'm not." He said with a serious tone, as if he needed to explain everything going on his head. "I really like you Amarus, we've only been hanging out a little bit and I already know I like your company. There is a rightness about this I can't ignore - like we were meant to go together." He laughed a little at that. "Fate is a funny thing."At her request, he nodded his head slowly and for some reason, he felt the urge to cup her cheek with his free hand, so he did so, his thumb absently tracing her palm. "Amarus, the only fighting I ever want to do with you involves being back-to-back," he smiled softly, before slowly moving the hand that held hers and the bell, to slowly wrap her fingers around the bell. "I found this and it reminded me of you, that's when I knew I had to ask you to the festival. It would mean a lot to me if you wore it there, but I understand if it's not your style." The bell was a simple silver thing, similar enough to the ones she wore, if a little smaller. Off in the distance, he heard a low caterwauling screech of the game buzzer and he laughed softly. "Game's over," he looked into Amarus' eyes and smiled. "Guess we should get going before they start looking for us."
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