[IC] Athalia Academy: Season Two - Finding Bael

[Driving Park]

Summary: The Three Musketeers (a name coined by Crash in this very post) join the ranged dojo group, which allows the conversing to increase at an exponential rate. This is something the scene desperately needed.

- Crash -
Crash had screwed his eyes shut as soon as he realized his mistake, his face practically flooding with color as he gripped the final creature in his arms, he was just about to make the situation twice as bad as it already was by desperately trying to escape when he heard Carmen speak to him. “N-no I mean its-n-not a bad-Not that I was-My eyes are closed!” Crash stuttered as Carmen indignantly stepped aside, he felt her dress slide over and off of his head, his face was undeniably the same color as his eye and his eyes were indeed screwed shut. Strike me down now...be quick and aim for the heart Talk about over-dramatic...He cracked one eye open to glance up at Carmen awaiting either a trumpet blow to the head or a harsh battering with words. He physically flinched as she reached down to yank the string from the final dummy gripped between his arms, he swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat rather wishing he could melt into the ground at this moment. The dummy fluttered to the floor wriggling helplessly at her feet, if it was possible Crash shrunk back further from Carmen, he opened his mouth to say something when she stepped onto the last dummy adopting a Captain Morgan like pose. “I’m so sorry, I-I didn’t think” He murmured to Carmen, his hand seeking out the back of his neck as he sheepishly avoided Carmen’s eye he could hear Yutaka’s hysterical laughter. As if to make matters worse he heard a small cough behind him, becoming acutely aware Kathy would have seen that whole escapade. The young shapeshifter had really put his foot in it this time, he glanced over his shoulder at Kathy noting the slight blush to her cheeks and that she was focused on Yutaka, he shifted his gaze to the teacher as well. His face flushing a darker color as the man seemed to be one step away from rolling around the ground whilst laughing.

- Carmen -
Carmen could hardly remain what little upset she was for long with the spectacle of their teacher laughing uncontrollably and Crash beet red and clearly ashamed. Carmen stepped down from the stricken dummy and put her hands on his shoulders. "Don't worry about it," she said, with a hint of a smile. "I can always gain consolation that whatever you do, you are rewarded exactly in suitable embarrassment," she said, poking his red cheek. "Just...try to be a little more aware where you're sticking your head next time?" she opined. "At any rate, I will never tire of seeing your face being the same color as your hair," she finished playfully as she turned to see Kathy a little red herself. Stepping over, she had to ask. "Now why are you redlined?" she asked. "If you got embarrassed for Crash, then you know what I''ll say," she said with a playful smile, her eyes gleaming of mischief.

- Kathy -
"My hair's purple right now, so I'd hope my face isn't he same colour as my hair." Kathy smiled, replying back to Carmen as the blush began to fade off. Carmen seemed quite good at reassuring people so she was glad she decided to help Crash out instead of fueling his embarrassment but... 'No no no, definitely not going there Kathy. You promised not to think about those sort of things...' She thought to herself, trying to ignore the slight tinge of irritation she felt watching the two of them. She already considered Carmen to be a friend of hers, and there was no reason why she couldn't be friends with Crash either. 'A little skinship between friends is normal... Otherwise I'd be in trouble too.' Sighing, she shook her head and just looked back at their instructor, hoping he had more to say to them about the training beyond just hysterical laughter.

- Yutaka -
Taking a couple of deep breaths with the mask off, Yutaka decided it was probably time to act more his age and give the deeply embarrassed student (Crash) a break. He fixed the gas mask back onto its proper position on his face before he walked over to where they were. He gave them a small clap of his hands and told them, "First of all, I'd like to mention that the three of you did a lot better than I had expected for your first experience at facing a large number of opponents. Once again, great job."

"Now... A few things to note from what I saw." He took the time to study all of their faces to make sure they were all listening. "Carmen, though it was effective this time around, try not to make your swings too wide with multiple opponents. You risk getting your weapon grabbed or knocked out of your hands if any one of them are paying enough attention to know that seems to be the main focus of your attack and defense." Turning to Kathy he told her, "Kathy, you're not being aggressive enough. It's good to help your teammates and try to keep a broad view of things, but you could've taken out a lot more dummies if you just attacked more. Also, you may want to make sure you don't accidentally hinder your teammates during a real battle." He added, referring to how she had pulled the sheet from under the male student's (Crash) foot. Finally turning to the beet-red student (Crash) he commented, "I probably should've gotten your name too before we started. At any rate, you need to watch your endurance. From what I can tell, you're going at full power from the beginning so if I decided to just make the dummies back off every so often and extended the battle for another 10-15 minutes, you would have run out of energy. Watch for that, and... Your surroundings." He glanced briefly in Carmen's direction with his last couple of words, smiling under his mask. 'He's a good kid.' Yutaka thought to himself, noting that the student (Crash) hadn't even thought to blame the teacher for making the dummy go up Carmen's skirt in the first place.

Yutaka admitted to the three of them, "Now I don't really have anything else planned, so I'll be here to supervise if you want to train with something else. Otherwise, feel free to go to any of the other instructors here or in other dojos. Best of luck!"

- Darwin -
Darwin chuckled at Mercy, maybe it was better to leave the love birds alone...or maybe they were plotting something, that was actually highly likely...oh god, were they super-villains? Man, that would've been really cool if he had talked to a pair of loving super-villains.
When Mercy asked about the skittles he had to think. "Well all the writing on the packet was in Russian, so I'm not really sure.....I could taste some cyanide though I hope you're not allergic to it, I heard it was a good part of any healthy diet." He said all of this without another thought about what he was saying. "Oh yeah! We should probably do that......" He said confused for a second. "So um...what do you want to know Mercy? About them or my awesome archery skills?" With that he fired an arrow into the ceiling by accident.

- Crash -
Crash visibly relaxed as Carmen kindly reassured him that she wasn't upset...well she didn't look upset with him, he returned her smile relief apparent in his features. He touched the back of his neck again, luckily his face was so red already he physically could not blush any harder at her words, a grin spreading across his face as she poked his cheek. He adopted a sheepish expression and nodded in agreement "I will definitely work on that" He murmured, raising an eyebrow at her next comment chuckling despite himself. "I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not" He admitted to her, a grin still plastered on his face, He was beyond relieved by Carmen's reaction to his...intrusive accident, he wasn't particularly good at making friends so the last thing he wanted was to lose one. He glanced at Kathy as Carmen moved over to her, still grinning like an idiot as he watched their exchange shuffling in discomfort as the adrenaline left his system leaving him feeling rather worn out and reminding him of his previous training with Tora...which he had abandoned. He felt a slight twinge of guilt at this fact but what could he do about it now? Besides the teacher looked like he hadn't moved since he'd given Crash his instructions. He heard Kathy sigh and cast a glance at her frowning as she shook her head and focused on Yutaka, he felt shame creep into his expression. Mad at me perhaps? Is she wearing two shoes... He subtly glanced down at her feet, yup two shoes. Doesn't mean anything there are plenty of other things to use...apologize now before- He looked over at Yutaka as he approached them, clapping his hands before he kind of congratulated them.

He felt a glimmer of pride at being told they had done a better job than the mask wearing man had expected them to, though it slid away as he heard the words 'Now' and 'A few things to note' hopefully constructive criticism...He listened to what the teacher had to say about both of his female companions unable t
o stop himself jumping to Kathy's defence, even if it wasn't necessary. "It wasn't really her fault though, I'm just clumsy like that I'm pretty sure I should have been paying better attention to what I was standing on" He blurted out before he turned towards him. Luckily his face was slowly starting to return to a more human color as Yutaka glanced at him, he was a little bit nervous as to what was going to be said a part of him wanted to believe he'd been at least a little bit useful during that fight. "It's Crash" He smiled at Yutaka after listening to the teacher's analyse, his cheeks had instantly flushed again as he mentioned that he should 'watch his surroundings' whilst glancing in Carmen's direction. I wasn't expecting that...turn off full power? Damn, how do I do that...sedatives maybe? "I'll try and work on that..." He grinned at Yutaka, referring to all of what he had said. "Thank you" He added nodding his head at Yutaka , thanking him for the training he hadn't actually considered that his embarrassment was in part Yutaka's fault. He turned to Kathy and Carmen when Yutaka had finished talking, tilting his head to the side he still looked a little flushed but he was visibly calming down again now. "I personally can't take anymore hits today, did you two fancy heading over to another dojo or are you going back to sparring?" He asked them curiously, hoping he would still be invited along even after what had happened.

- Carmen -
Carmen took note of the suggestions the teacher made to her and the other two, thanking him for his time and his compliments. She couldn't help but audibly chuckle when Crash rushed to Kathy's defense. The two complimented each other quite nicely and humorously. Turning to Crash when he asked what she and Kathy had planned, she responded "I quite fancy going to another dojo," looking at Kathy to hear her opinion. "Either magic or firearms...though, there was another teacher that walked outside a while ago. I wonder what he teaches. I'd be happy going anywhere though. The three of us might as well stick together, right?" she finished, smiling at the two.

- Kathy -
Kathy smiled, looking gratefully at Crash when he jumped in to defend her. It really had been her own lack of attentiveness, but she didn't want to interrupt the instructor anymore and decided to keep silent until he finished giving out his last thoughts. "Thank you very much." She told Yutaka, then turned her attention back to her teammates. "I'm good to go to another dojo as well." Kathy nodded in agreement with them. "I was thinking of going to firearms practice next. Come with me please?" She added, smiling at the two of them invitingly. It seemed that Carmen had also considered it as well so she was quite confident that the trumpet player would join her, but she was a little worried that Crash might be a little apprehensive about going to a place full of dangerous equipment.

- Crash -
Crash grinned at Kathy giving her a quick wink in response to her grateful look. He looked from Carmen to Kathy and back again a few times as they spoke, he definitely liked the idea of moving to a new dojo, he wasn't even overly bothered which one they went to. He chewed his lip and lifted his hand to the back of his neck as Kathy suggested firearms practice next, he desperately wanted to go there but...Ah, desist from current train of thought. In for a penny, in for a pound He noticed both girls were smiling at him and each other in turn. "I'm feeling Musketeers stick together, so count me in." He grinned at the pair of them. He'd be fine...right? "What's the worst that could happen" He shrugged, before turning and beckoning them to come with him as he headed for the doors throwing a wave at Tora. He could apologize to the teacher later...maybe by then he'd have recovered enough. He jogged over to the door, demonstrating he still had some energy left, he pushed it open and held it so until both Carmen and Kathy had passed through it, whether that meant waiting for a while or not.

- Little Feather & Lion -
Little Feather listened to Ara's answers to her questions she smiled at the other woman. "Erm well hopefully by the time you do get to see the campus it'll be more presentable" She grinned. Lion was toying with the idea of saying something as well...unfortunately around this time a gun went off in the shooting range, the large cat literally hit the deck, folding his paws over his head. Little Feather jumped violently and a hand instantly fluttered to her chest, eyes wide in apprehension she was breathing pretty heavily and was slightly pale beneath her face paint as she looked at Ara. "F-firearms?" She queried just after Garden already had. Argh I think I just brought up my lunch Lion grumbled to the Lakota woman at his side, she grimaced and moved away from the beast taking a deep breath she had to make a decision, walk through that door and deal with this irrational fear or run for it. "Lets go and ask?" She suggested in answer to Ara's question, blinking as she realized Lion was crawling on his belly towards the building. She swallowed the lump in her throat and walked through the door and into the dojo ignoring Lion's mewl of protest.

- Mercy -
"Cyanide?!" Mercy squeaked, she had heard the rest of his explanation but that word surprisingly stood out. I feel like I'm about to lose at Russian Roulette... She had been wondering what that strange after taste had been. "Ok...moving on from that" She grinned at the unicorn. "Lets go with both...so would I be correct in thinking love is in the air?" She murmured to Darwin cocking her head to the side curiously before she glanced at Matt and Lily briefly, looking back at Darwin just in time to watch him fire an arrow into the ceiling by accident, She looked up at it, her mouth quivered with the effort not to laugh at the mishap, it would have been most unkind...but she felt herself smile at him. "Nice shot all the same" She complimented him, well the arrow had stuck up there and it was perfectly straight. "I expect a bullseye on the next one though" She challenged him with a devious smile and a wink to accompany it.

- Carmen -
Carmen was pleased to see the other two interested in going to another dojo as well. It seemed the firearms dojo was the pick of the bunch, and the three began to walk over to it. On her way out, Carmen collected her hat from the corner the teacher had set it in, thanking him as she did so and rejoining Crash and Kathy with the hat now back on her head. Smiling at Crash as thanks for his chivalrous door holding for her and Kathy, Carmen ended up leading the trio into the firearms dojo. Stopping once she walked through the entrance, she saw a number of people already there, some she recognized. Well, this'll be interesting, she thought. Surveying the crowd, she noticed Lily, the girl she had briefly met earlier and wanted to talk to more eventually, several others she recognized from the Academy, and a girl with them she didn't recognize [Ara B]. Soon she spotted the megaphone lady from earlier who had coordinated the Beach Olympics and glanced at her in the bar. It was about time she met her, so she decided to walk over to her first for instruction, with Crash and Kathy in tow. Walking up to her with a bright smile, she began. "Hello! My name is Carmen. This is Crash and Kathy...have you met before?" she asked, looking at all three of them. "Anyway, we're interested in firearms training...do you have any open slots for us?"

- Andromeda -
Andromeda felt bad, Zivon looked so flustered, she wondered if it was her fault or leroy's, or a mix of the 2. she blushed when Leroy called her name beautiful and stammered "th...thank y...you". she was surprised when he asked to touch her snakes, no one ever asked before, and the only people who had been brave enough to touch them was her parents "i ... well i ... um ... i suppose ... and uh ... they're snakes," she cleared her throat 'i'm doing alright, thank you"
there seemed to be something off between the interaction between Zivon and Leroy, like Zivon was scared, more like terrified of him, then he tripped "Oh! Zivon are you ok?"

- Leroy -
Leroy smiled, watching Andromeda's blush with a hint of amusement. Apparently she liked flattery, which was always a good sign for him. It was easier to get along with people that didn't mind hearing compliments after all. "Not poisonous are they?" He asked, showing the first sign of caution he had towards the reptiles on Andromeda's head as he reached a hand out towards them, though not touching them since he hadn't exactly gotten permission to do so. 'Woah, clumsy.' Leroy thought, watching Zivon suddenly face-plant onto the floor. Now he didn't have anything against Zivon, in fact he would've very much liked to see what other reaction he could elicit from the boy with his abilities, but he was also cautious to see if the guy had actually figured out what made him act so 'drunk' back at the auditorium. The less people knew about the actual nature abilities, the better. He held his hand out to Zivon to help him up. "You alright there?" He asked, putting on a friendly smile, seeming to just wave off Zivon's embarrassment.

- Andromeda -
Andromeda reached up and shook a few snakes to wake them up "not really, not unless they don't like you" she laughed a little awkwardly, she felt the few snakes turn towards Leroy with the slightest bit of hostility "you'll want to be careful, they can't really hurt you but it'll sting if the bite you" she drop her hand.
something in Leroy's voice when he spoke to Zivon bothered her a bit, but she wasn't sure why so she didn't say anything.

- Ara (B) -
"Firearms? Basically guns. Weapons that shoot out iron death by using gunpowder. And yes, firearms would be the source of those loud noises." There were several things wrong with Ara's description of firearms as she explained what they were to Garden and Little Feather, but she wasn't exactly one to be focused on details and accuracy of real definitions. Then, with a slightly delayed reaction, she stopped to think for a moment before asking, "Lady Ara?" Now that had been a first. "Hm, I like that." She finally said, smiling at Garden. 'A won't, but that's none of my concern.' She thought, chuckling to herself. Turning back to Little Feather she asked, "Presentable? What exactly happened at the academy anyway? I didn't get too many details about why everything was moved here." Nodding to Little Feather's suggestion to ask for the answer to her own question, she followed them onward inside the dojo. She couldn't help but laugh at Lion's interesting approach towards the building, but supposed even the king of beasts would be scared of gunfire.

Hearing the door to the dojo open behind them (during a short pause between the sound of guns firing), she turned around to see who else was coming in. To her mild surprise and great amusement, she recognized the faces this time around. 'Wonderful. Just wonderful.' Ara chuckled to herself, rubbing her hands together in anticipation. She would let Carmen know who she was right away, but she was still considering her approach for Crash and Kathy. 'Do I play it strategically and pretend to be someone else? Or do I go with the head-on approach and see how they take it? Decisions, decisions...' Looking at the group she had joined, she gave them a brief wave and told them, "I'll be right back. Just want to greet a few people."

Playing it safe while she mulled over her options, Ara approached Carmen with a big smile on her face. "Hey! Fancy seeing you again so soon." She immediately noticed that Carmen still had the gigantic hat on top of her head. "Still being fashionable I see."

- Crash & Mercy -
Crash followed Carmen as they made their way to the next dojo, he glanced sidelong at Kathy at one point. "I'm sorry by the way, don't be mad with me" He murmured to her before they entered the dojo. His eyes skimmed the crowd curiously, he caught sight of a few people he knew and a few he only knew of, the woman with Little Feather, Garden and Dani however was definitely new he hadn't met her before. He noticed Carmen was moving again and dutifully went to follow her, turning to look where she was headed, he instantly groaned upon seeing who she was heading for. Of all the people...why fate thou art a heartless bizzwidge He thought trying not to drag his feet as he followed the musician over to Mercy.

Koop shuffled on her shoulder looking around as more students entered the dojo, he reached over and tapped her cheek, pointing over at the other students. She looked in the direction he pointed studying the new arrivals, she was quite surprised she recognized near enough all of them...except for one woman who she was sure she hadn't seen before. "Wow looks like we're about to get busy in here...oh, well would you look at that" She grinned at Darwin as Carmen, Crash and Kathy entered the dojo. Coincidental? When she turned back to see where they were going she was met by Carmen's bright smile which instantly made her smile in return though she could see Crash grow nervous as they approached, he avoided her gaze and once they were standing still he kicked at the floor idly What has he done now? He's got that look about him...like a child waiting to be told off for something "A pleasure to meet you Carmen, I'm Mercy" She introduced herself inclining her head a little as she did. "We know each other as it stands, great to see you again Kathy" She grinned at Kathy, obviously enjoying Crash's reaction as he looked from one to the other nervously.C Isn't it just? Crash thought sarcastically. "Crash honey, are you ok you look a little...tense?" Mercy asked the red haired shapeshifter, he merely grumbled at her and refused to answer. Mercy grinned deviously at him before turning to Carmen a softer smile on her face. "Well you've certainly come to the right place, we're going to attempt archery over here if you're interested...otherwise I think Nikola is supervising firearms. I could probably get you set up though if you like, he looks a little swarmed over there" She offered.

- Darwin -
Darwin turned to Mercy with a grin, seemingly unleashed about his little 'mishap'. "oh yes, love is definitely in the air for those two, it actually used to be a love triangle but then Bael disappeared so now it's a love...line?" He chuckled and turned round to see a huge bunch if amazing people strolling over. "CRASH!" He shouted firing an arrow over their heads by 'accident' before proceeding to run up to Crash and squeeze him into a hug. "It's been a while!" He laughed as he let Crash out if his constricting hug and picked up his bow and quiver. "you guys want to see my amazing arrow skillz? I can like hit a bouncing tennis ball from a mike away, I'm that good. I'm like solo from One piece but not green hair, purple hair, amazing hair, btw red hair Crash? Its amazing!" he then noticed Kathy and pulled her into a hug too. "Whew, I must say Kathy, you and Crash make a great couple" Darwin always knew how to destroy awkwardness.

- Kathy -
"The Three Musketeers? I like the sound of that." Kathy laughed, following Crash and Carmen out towards their next destination. She tried not to think about the actual worst that could happen, though she already had an image of Crash (literally) shooting himself in the foot as soon as he made the rhetorical question. Thanking and saying goodbye to Yutaka, she smiled as she passed by Crash holding the door out for them. He did this quite often, and she was finding these small acts of courtesy of his quite sweet. On the way there though, she was caught off-guard by the sudden apology he made to her. "What?" Kathy asked, confused about what he was talking about. She would've had an inkling if she noticed Crash's intentions back when she sighed after watching Carmen and Crash's exchange, but she had been too focused on keeping her own thoughts in check and trying to look more interested in what Yutaka had to say. At any rate, she knew that he hadn't done anything deserving of an apology so she quickly continued, "Silly Crash, I'm not mad at you at all." She reached up to give him the usual ruffle on the head, but for some reason hesitated. "..." Having lost the timing, she just awkwardly retreated her hand and clasped them together behind her back as they walked to the ranged dojo.

Inside, she found that there were a lot of people she recognized over there. "Little Feather! Dani!" Smiling, she waved at the familiar faces. There were 2 she didn't recognize (Garden and Ara) and made a mental note to introduce herself to them if she got the chance. Continuing to follow Crash and Carmen though, her eyes opened wide with surprise as she noticed who the 'instructor' was. "Mercy?" Kathy had thought that Mercy was a fellow student, so she was surprised to see her there as an instructor. 'Why do I keep assuming people are younger than they are..?' She wondered, frowning a little. "It's great to see you again as well." Turning back to Crash and Carmen she told them, "I'm good with archery if you guys are."

Kathy let out a laugh as Darwin suddenly pulled her into a friendly hug. "And good to see you too Darwin!" Then hearing his oddly pronounced sentence, she immediately felt her face flush into a bright red, having (unfortunately) understood every word he said. 'Is this a spreading rumour? Or maybe the tropical scenery is making people see more couples than there are?' "N-No, um..." Stuttering, she thought of another topic they could talk about instead. "Uh, I'm enjoying my purple hair a lot more than when it was blue. Th-Thanks Darwin."

- Carmen -
Carmen was brightly greeted by a girl that caused a slight amount of confusion, of course beginning with the one eyebrow raise. The girl looked really familiar, but Carmen couldn't remember why. With a tilt of her head and narrowing of her eyes she responded "Pardon me, but I'm not sure how I know you? I feel like we've met but I can't place it in my head. I do apologize...remind me?"

Turning to the trainer, she smiled at the girl she know knew as Mercy's polite response. "The pleasure is mine," she said, with a small courteous bow. Noting Crash's...interesting...reaction to being led over to Mercy, she was curious of their past. She was fairly certain Mercy, Crash and Kathy had all been at the bar earlier, but had no idea what their previous relations were. At any rate, Kathy's reaction was a little more normal, and just then a very bright boy bounded over and made a hugging attack run. Carmen grinned a little when he dropped the awkward bomb, unashamedly saying to Kathy and Crash "Well look at this, somebody's doing my job for me!"

Finally, Carmen responded to Kathy. "Archery does indeed sound great. I've never tried it," she admitted, turning back to Mercy as she did so. "I haven't tried a lot of things, thanks to this trumpet," she finished.

- Zivon -
Zivon didn’t look back to the two he just stood by himself and continue to hide his face with the book. He wanted to hide but there was really no proper place to hide. He opened the book and just…read it on spot trying to avoid any interactions or maybe future embarrassment he would make in the future. “I-I-I a-a...o-oka-ka…y-y” He stuttered out, using the book to hide his embarrassed face. But sadly enough with fear raising in his body his powers…showed again. The book began to decompose, pages falling off quickly and rotting. Zivon looked at the book and panic even more causing it to age rapidly. He started to breath heavily and he felt really sick. He dropped the book again and looked at the mess he made. Zivon started to pick up the decomposed book and looked around to throw it but he forgot about one other ability or…power? Of his he might actually like. He touched the notebook, eyes turned purple and the book became back to normal, well fixed and not decomposed. He removed his hand from the book and eyes went back to his normal grey. There he stood quiet.

- Leroy -
"Hmm..." He made a thoughtful sound, retreating his hand completely. Leroy didn't bother to mention that if all they could do was make a few stings they probably wouldn't really affect him in any way. There was already one scared individual in the room feeling cautious towards him, so he decided to restrict the amount of 'suspicious activity' for now.

Leroy kept his friendly smile up, even as Zivon ignored his outstretched hand and got up on his own. He let his empty hand fall back down to his side and commented with a slight tilt of his head, "I didn't really think I did anything all that deserving to be ignored." He knew that Zivon wasn't actually ignoring him, but he wanted to see how far he could get with trying to guilt the boy into being a little more friendly. Watching another book crumble in his hands, Leroy laughed and asked, "Are you sure you like studying? You seem awfully eager to destroy those books." Then watching the book be restored back to normal, the smile on his face grew bigger. 'Interesting.' He thought, though he didn't make another comment out loud.

- Garden -
Garden listened again on what Lady Ara explained on…firearms, they sounded dangerous …iron death. She then walked with her friends inside the ranged dojo there she saw familiar faces. Sir Darwin, Lady Mercy, Lady Carmen and the two she meet earlier at the bar Sir Crash and Lady Kathy? That was their names probably as she remembered. She stood there watching them talk and didn’t feel like ruining the conversation but just waved at them and give a polite greeting. “Hello there Sir Darwin, Lady Mercy, Lady Carmen, and hello to you to Sir Crash and Lady Kathy was it? I am really sorry… I don’t properly remember if that is your true names.” She curtsied to all of them and then looked at Sunflower still quietly sleeping. “Such a lazy kitty…” Garden giggled lightly.

- Crash -
Crash couldn't hide his relief as she told him she wasn't mad with him, he could stop checking her feet now...that shoe had really hurt...he grinned at her as she made a motion to reach up and ruffle his hair, though it faded as she hesitated before retracting her hand and clasping them behind her back. He wasn't quite sure why she had hesitated...

He was caught completely off guard as Darwin shouted at him before firing an arrow over the top of them he was so distracted by it, he almost jumped out of his skin as Darwin ran over to him and squeezed him into a hug, he was very confused at the sudden show of affection and in a rather masculine manner looked awkward as hell rigidly stood with Darwin wrapped around him, he patted the unicorns back. "Hey...darwin" He managed to choke out, gasping for air once the purple haired boy had released him, he clutched his bruised stomach for a moment grinning at the other male. Damn that guy is stronger than he looks, I think he cracked a rib... He grinned at Darwin as he said 'red hair' and 'amazing in the same sentence. He blinked several times before his face flushed with color yet again, as he overheard Darwin's comment to Kathy his hand shot to rest on the back of his neck awkwardly. ...oh geeze, here we go again he mentally sighed, this time he didn't jump straight in to defense mode after all Darwin had directed that comment directly at Kathy. He flinched as she stuttered out her answer, ignoring the strange tingle of disappointment he felt at hearing her answer, it was an inappropriate reaction...and he'd been inappropriate enough for one day. "Archery Sounds good to me" He grinned at his fellow musketeers, figuring wooden arrows were safer then bullets to test him out on first. He raised his eyebrows at Carmen, rolling his eyes at her comment but grinned sheepishly at her all the same offering the girl stood next to her a friendly smile as well about to introduce himself when Garden joined into the conversation as well, he smiled as she curtsied at them. Sir Crash? Heh, bless her He felt himself want to respond in a similar fashion so he bowed to her before greeting her. "Lady Garden, pleasure to see you again" He smiled in a charming fashion. "Will you be joining us for archery?" He asked her.

- Mercy -
Mercy raised an eyebrow at Darwin listening to his answer to her question, she had apparently forgotten she was supposed to be a responsible teacher and really shouldn't be investing this much interest in the students personal affairs...yet again she was a counselor so this was fine right? She glanced at him as he shouted out at Crash, grimacing as he fired another arrow this one shooting over the heads of the group of students in front of them. Oh boy...this is going to get very interesting She rubbed her temple unable to stop herself from chuckling as she watched one of the T.A's that had offered to help out in here, hop past them with an arrow protruding from his right butt cheek, she grimaced a second time. At least it wasn't his knee, she thought to herself. "Yes...you look surprised?" Her tone was questioning as she spoke to Kathy. She placed a hand to her mouth to stop a giggle from passing her lips as Darwin in his way dropped an awkward line into his conversation with Kathy, she felt her smile grow at Carmen's comment. Interesting to say the least, seems I'm not needed to embarrass Crash She looked up as Garden also joined the small group. "Lady Garden!" She grinned happily at the other woman. "Glad you could join us" She winked at her happily before looking around at the other students. "Ok, anyone that is actually interested in giving archery a go, I suggest you grab yourself a bow, a quiver and a bracer from the display cabinets. You want to get a bow that you can draw the string back on and isn't to heavy for you to hold up in one hand...some of them are heavier than they look" She finished with a grin. "Once you've got your equipment come back over...any problems give me a shout I'm here to help after all" She told them.

[Driving Park]

Summary: People keep talking. Ara gets annoyed. Carmen spends the entire time attempting to prepare to fire a bow and arrow.

- Darwin -
Darwin's great big shining smile never faltered as he smiled at the people before him. He was having such a great time talking to his besties and all but it seemed like he'd hurt Crash with his hug. Or maybe he was recoiling with happiness! Yes' that would've been it. "Oh hey Garden" he shouted as she approached and her merely waved, you couldn't hug royalty! Last time he'd done that he'd ended up in the tower of London. He didn't know Carmen so he just sent her a crazy smile."Oh my what a shame! I've always wanted to watch a couple have my famous Skittle cake!" He grinned again and then realisation dawned. "Oh! Anyone up for some skittles? Mercy and me just had them and they were pretty good, weird aftertaste though, not really sure hey if you know what I mean they're fine with it though." He took out a hand full of skittles. "Oh you're welcome Kathy I'm glad you like it! Purple is just amazing isn't it?" He giggled again. "Ph you guys are joining for archetype, I'm like the best!"

- Ara (B) -
"Hah, don't worry, I would've been surprised if you recognized me." Ara chuckled, making a cheeky grin. She laughed as she overheard a very friendly purple-haired guy (Darwin) give several people a hug and comment on how good Kathy and Crash looked together. Nudging Carmen with her elbow she commented, "I think pretty much everyone sees them as a set by now." Then remembering that she hadn't offered an explanation yet, she gestured for Carmen to bend down so she could whisper in her ear. Whether or not the musician complied she whispered in a low voice, "I'm Ara. The real one by the way. Hope you didn't forget me after getting me into a wedding dress and all." Smiling, she retreated back so she could get a good look at the group around her. So many interesting people, and so many different ways she could have fun with all of them. She had apparently made the right choice to follow Little Feather's group into the ranged dojo.

Giving a wink in Carmen's direction, she decided on her next plan of action. She took a few steps closer to Garden so she could move on to the next person she was quite interested in having a talk with. "Say, do you remember me?" She asked Crash, knowing the obvious answer to her question. Well, that was the fun of it really. Ara continued, "I'll be quite offended if you don't, since I kind of went out of my way to try to make an impression you know."

- Kathy -
Kathy raised a brow at the way Crash clutched at his abdominal region after being treated to a tight hug by Darwin. 'Exaggerated joke, or actual pain?' She wondered. Deciding that musing alone wasn't going to get her any answers she asked Crash, "You alright?"

"Hi, Garden was it?" She greeted, "It's not my 'true' name as you put it, but Kathy's fine." She personally thought that 'Katherine' was quite a mouthful anyway. Not even her parents called her that and she wasn't even sure if she'd turn around at the appropriate time if someone used that name to actually call out to her. Then noticing the unfamiliar girl (Ara) beside Garden, she looked at the 2 other musketeers. 'They know her?' She wondered. At the very least, the girl (Ara) seemed quite happy to extend a friendly greeting to them.

Listening to Darwin she repeated, "Weird aftertaste?" With all the skittles Darwin seemed to produce out of nowhere and gobble down, she didn't really think it was possible for him to have any expired candy so the fact they would have a 'weird aftertaste' sounded somewhat strange to her. Then turning to Mercy, Kathy nodded, "I thought you were a student this whole time." She explained, scratching her cheek. "I made a mistake with Crash's age before too... Apparently I see everyone a few years younger than they are." Then she sheepishly admitted, "Um, I'm a complete beginner at archery so... Could you get me started first? For example... What's a bracer?"

- Garden -
She greeted everyone back, still curtsying to them. She smiled again and put the sleepy Sunflower on the floor carefully a good distance so no one might disturb the little kitty. “Yes Sir Crash I am very interested in archery, I had some guards at home using a bow and arrow but I never got a chance to try it so certain reason…Yes it Garden, well nice to meet you again Lady Kathy.” She said giving a sweet smile then looked at Sir Darwin and gave a light giggle. “Sure thank you Sir Darwin for offering, a weird after taste? How interesting…” Garden tilted her head with the curiosity of a weird after taste of…skittles.

Garden then looked around more on the dojo, a wee bit confused. “I am also very new to this…. I don’t really have a proper image of a..fire..arm? So it would be very grateful if you teach me as well.” She said to Lady Mercy, smiling again but showing her confusion as well.

- Carmen -
Carmen glanced to see Garden waving at them. "Hello Lady Garden!" she said, waving back. Garden's way of referring to people seemed to be infectious in conversation, a fact that Carmen didn't mind. She also didn't mind seeing Crash and Kathy's reactions whenever a comment was made about the two of them. That would never get old.

Turning her attention to the familiar yet unfamiliar girl, Carmen intuitively leaned in to hear her identification of herself. Her eyebrows raising in understanding upon the deliverance of the explanation, Carmen responded, still in hushed tones for whatever reason. "Oh! I was wondering when I'd get to meet you," she replied with a grin. "However...Ara the guy says he's the real one," she said in confusion. "I'm just going to say you're both the real one and call it a day," she concluded, pleased with herself. She guessed that a doppelganger would have issues with being two people at once.

Finally, Carmen turned to Mercy as she give suggestions for beginning archery, taking the liberty to be the first to follow her suggestion and walk over to the archery equipment. She was inexperienced, but she at least knew what everything did and looked like. Going to the bows first, she picked up and weighed several of the bows. There were bows in many different sizes and styles, and she had no idea which one was good for her. Eventually, she settled on a very long but fairly thin bow. Big enough that she liked it, and thin enough that she was able to hold it and pull back the string without trouble. Then she picked up a quiver and a bracer, trying a few of those as well before settling on one. After she was outfitted, slinging the quiver on her back, she walked back to Mercy and the others, waiting for the rest to also get their equipment, and completely unsure if what she had picked was good.

- Crash -
Crash glanced at Kathy as she asked if he was alright, he puffed his cheeks before releasing a long winded sigh. "Yeah, just a little bit on the 'sensitive' side after earlier" He grinned at her, he still had a bruised cut on his cheek as well he hadn't shifted into anything that had the ability to heal him."Don't worry about it" He smiled before he thought on what he had said and added "...not that I think you are worrying...or...anything" Crash murmured touching the back of his neck awkwardly. Luckily or perhaps unluckily the new addition to the group (Ara) had approached him asking him straight off the bat if he remembered her. He blinked in surprise at her, looking positively stunned by her question. He studied her for a moment desperately trying to place where he would have seen her before, but his mind was throwing him a blank. Guilt swept across his puzzled expression at her next comment, he lifted his hand to the back of his neck as he flushed in embarrassment looking very apologetic. "I-I'm really sorry...I can't say I remember you, I don't mean to cause offense. M-my memory just isn't the best, to many hits to the head" Crash stuttered out, smiling sheepishly at the girl stood in front of him. He had absolutely no clue who he was talking to...he had been focused on Kathy when Carmen had spoken to the girl in front of him.

- Mercy -
Mercy raised her eyebrow at Darwin grinning at his antics despite herself. Skittle cake? He was full of surprises. She was unable to stop herslef form maing a slight face as he offered everyone else is Cyanide laced black market skittles. "They were really good even with the extra dose of cyanide" She agreed with Darwin yet subtly warned the others of why there was a slight aftertaste to the tasty sweets. She turned to Kathy as she addressed her, a small smile tugging at her lips. "Ah, well to be honest with you I was probably acting like a student...I doubt many teachers climb onto their students shoulders to make announcements" She pointed out with a shrug, smiling as Kathy admitted to mistaking Crash's age. "I'm not surprised to hear that, the way he acts doesn't exactly help" She smiled, frowning thoughtfully at Kathy's next question before she held out her left arm showing the girl the piece of leather tied tightly around her forearm. "A bracer in this case is a strap or sheath made of leather that covers the inside of an archer's arm to protect it while shooting. Bracers protect the inside of the archer's forearm against injury by the string of the bow or the fletching of the arrow whilst firing. We've got a selection of them over there left and right hand ones, you'll also want to pick up a bow you're looking for one that feels comfortable to hold in your submissive hand so if you're right handed you'll be holding the bow in your left drawing the string with your right When picking your bow you'll want to make sure you can pull the string back as well, once you've got that sorted just grab any of the hip or back quivers, they're pretty easy to put on. If you get a hip quiver just tie around your waist like a belt with the quiver resting on your dominant side, you can also grab a archery glove for your dominant hand we've got left and right ones" Mercy explained lifting her right hand to show Kathy the black right hand archery gloveshe was wearing. "Once you've got everything head back over here and we'll get started" She grinned at Kathy,

- Ara (B) -
Ara frowned at Carmen's 'compromise', or whatever it was. "He's being delusional. And no, we can't both be the 'real' one. I can assure you that he's the doppelganger." Though she said this absolute confidence, there was also no way of proving it either so it was actually up for debate. After all, if they could find evidence of which one was the original so easily then A and B would never be having this sort of argument to this very day.

Her smile widened at Crash's flush of embarrassment. 'This is just too easy.' She thought. But at the next moment she hid her grin and made a very melancholy expression. "Really? Not even a little bit?" Ara asked, "I was there at the water balloon fight too... And had my eyes on you pretty much the whole time." Which was technically true, since she had been busy trying to take revenge on him the whole time but obviously she was trying to put the statement up for mistaken interpretation. She pretended to look troubled for a bit, looking away with a thoughtful expression. Then with a small smile, she turned back to him and continued, "Oh! I think I have something that can help jog your memory but... Can you lean in a bit closer? It's a bit embarrassing to say..."

- Kathy -
"I am worrying about it. And you can't tell me to do otherwise." Kathy replied, giving Crash a faint smile. Injuries aside, she was quite glad that he was being honest with her. Over-hearing the girl (Ara) and Crash's conversation, she couldn't help but look a little confused herself. 'I don't think Crash is one to forget people's names...' Then hearing the statement about the water balloon fight, she also tried to remember if she recalled seeing the girl there. She had been pretty pre-occupied herself there, but she felt quite certain that the girl's face was an unfamiliar one. She looked to Carmen, who seemed more than ready to start firing her arrows, and asked, "Do you know who that is? It seemed she was at the Beach Olympics too but I don't recall seeing her at all..."

With a slightly alarmed expression she repeated Mercy's words, "Cyanide?" Now she was fairly certain that it had to be a joke, but she still decided not to take the offered skittles in Darwin's hand after hearing that. Besides, even the one offering them had told them about a potentially-worrisome aftertaste. She laughed and nodded in agreement with Mercy, "Yeah, I think how you made the announcement may have contributed to that a bit... What classes do you teach? I feel like they'll be interesting to go to." She made another nod in agreement to how Crash's actions probably made him seem younger. Though there had also been moments where he seemed surprisingly mature too, like back when they went to the infirmary right after the party. Kathy listened carefully to the instructor's explanations. She realized that she had seen a bracer before, in movies or the like mostly, though she had thought it was a kind of accessory rather than something with an actual function in archery. "Thank you, I'll be right back then." Selecting her all the equipment that was mentioned, she came with a bow in her left hand with a bracer on the forearm, an archery glove on her right hand, and a hip quiver that she was still strapping around her waist. It all felt a little funny, the equipment being so asymmetrical and with her not being used to having something so big hanging from her side. "Is that all I need?" She asked, confirming with Mercy. Glancing over at Crash she asked him, "You're going to try too right?"

- Andromeda -
she saw Leroy withdraw his hand, and turned her attention to Zivon as his book crumbled, as the previous one had "oh!" then he reconstructed it, she blinked "how did you do that?! That's really cool Zivon, is that your power?" she smiled then realized she was probably being too forward with the poor guy, who looked utterly terrified "oh sorry, you don't have to answer that if you don't want to"

- Carmen -
Carmen narrowed her eyes at Ara with a hint of displeasure. “Look, I imagine you both think you’re the real one. There’s no use trying to convince me either way – you both sing the same song. I’m going to just not bother with it, and we’ll all be better for it, hmm?”

Turning to Kathy, her expression lightened back up to her normal disposition. “She’s being a little…indirect. You and Crash encountered both her and me simultaneously at the bar earlier today, and she was in the Beach Olympics, but in a different form. She’s two people – a doppelganger. I’m not sure if either of you ever talked to her directly before, so I wouldn’t worry about not recognizing her. I had a lengthy conversation with her at the bar but even I didn’t recognize her in here. I had to ask her.”

Watching Kathy get her equipment, she kept up conversation while waiting to be corralled by Mercy. Having been talking with Ara earlier, she hadn’t heard Kathy talk to Mercy. “Have you done archery before?” she asked with a polite grin.

- Crash & Mercy -
Crash caught her smile widening but was flooded with a fresh wave of guilt as she adopted a melancholy expression. He shook his head still looking awkwardly apologetic, he couldn’t for the life of him place her...he was wracking his brain, he was forgetful but names and faces usually stuck in his mind. “Y-you did...?” He frowned, still colored with embarrassment, he had been completely absorbed in the game he hadn’t noticed anyone watching him...He glanced at Kathy silently asking for her help. He returned his gaze to the girl in front of him (Ara) , his eyebrows raising in surprise as she came up with something that could jog his memory. He obligingly leaned closer to her to listen to what she had to say. He waited for the brunette to answer him looking at Kathy as she asked him a question, he grinned at her. “Unfortunately for everyone else, yes I do intend to join in” He answered her, amusement apparent in his crimson eyes he was a little surprised however as Koop flew towards him thrusting a bow into his hand and depositing a glove, bracer and quiver at his feet. “OK...” He murmured bending down to pick up the bracer he frowned and pulled one of the arrows from the quiver. “You’ve got to be kidding me...Sucker darts?” He complained, holding out an arrow with an orange suction pad at the end of it, he narrowed his eyes as Mercy tried to stifle a laugh.

Mercy nodded at Kathy. “Yup...that’s what you said hmm?” She nudged Darwin in the side carefully not wanting to cause another arrow from impaling another T.A or student for that matter. “Well I can’t promise I won’t do impromptu things like that in the future” She warned her with a small grin. “At the moment I’m more of a counselor but I’m pretty sure I’ve been signed up to be a Co-economics teacher...god help whoever has to work with me” She answered. She nodded as Kathy moved away looking around to see whether any of the other students were ready, she noticed Carmen had managed to get all of her equipment together, she beckoned her over. “Looking good, if you’re sure you’re comfortable with it all feel free to pick the target you want...except the end one I’m putting Bandicoot down there” She suggested, smirking at her small jest at Crash’s name. “Just as a safety precaution” She justified her comment, although she actually looked kind of surprised when Crash begun complaining about the arrows he had been given, she put a hand to her mouth trying desperately to suppress her laughter as he waved the harmless item around. Koop... She shook her head noticing the little moogle shoot towards her and take refuge behind her. "Moving on..." She grinned at Crash who was still sulking over the arrows he had been given. "Kathy, yup, looks like you've got everything pick a target as well, once you're ready I can show you 3...or 4 if you're joining us" She pointed the last part of her speech to the girl (Ara) whom's name she hadn't acquired yet. "How to shoot first then I'll go help the others...Crash you can use the end target, looks like Koop modified it for you" Mercy finished with a grin.

- Ara (B) -
"Think what you will then." Ara replied to Carmen, obviously displeased herself about the musician's opinion on settling the matter. She was right about one thing though: there was no use trying to convince her either way and neither of them had any real means of convincing anyone about it in the first place. It was a problem B and A would just have to deal with themselves.

Now as fun as this 'innocent-girl act' was, Ara thought it was probably time to move onto to see how Crash would act when he realized who she was exactly. Recalling a rather mischievous comment A had made for Crash's ears alone back at the bar, she whispered into his ear, "So... Have you started making preparations for the honeymoon yet?" She wasn't exactly sure if he'd remember that comment well enough to get what she was talking about but this seemed like a good way to hint who she was to him. And if it wasn't... 'Well, continuing the confusing game might be interesting in its own way.' She though, nodding to herself as she moved away with a smirk on her face to see what sort of expression the redhead was wearing.

Turning to Mercy, who obviously didn't recall who she was either, she smiled and nodded, "I'll be joining in as well!" She left briefly to gather up the appropriate equipment for herself, momentarily wondering if she would prefer to use her left or right hand for archery since she was ambidextrous. She ended up deciding to choose to use her right hand as the dominant one since that was the more common hand to use anyway. Returning to where everyone else was, she snickered for a moment at the toys Crash had been given before choosing a target to shoot as well.

- Kathy -
"?" Confused by Carmen's vague description, she tried to recall back to the events at the bar. 'I know I was blushing a lot...' She thought to herself, wishing that she didn't really have to recall such an embarrassing moment at all. But the more she thought about it, the more she was certain that she had never met the girl (Ara) before. Unless... The key hint from Carmen seemed to be that she was 'two people' and a 'doppelganger', but it was a little difficult to wrap her head around the concept. And as far as she knew, doppelgangers were supposed to be completely identical twins of each other so people of opposite genders didn't normally fit into that sort of equation. As it was, the more she thought about it, the more she became confused about who the girl could be. And by the time Crash glanced over in her direction with a look of help, she could only give him a helpless shake of her head with a look that indicated she wanted to know the girl's identity as much as she did, if not more perhaps. Hearing Carmen's question, Kathy shook her head and answered, "Not at all. I've never even seen real archery in person, just through a TV screen sometimes during the Olympics." Remembering that Carmen seemed to know her equipment she asked, "What about you? Have you done all this before?"

Looking at the 'arrows' Crash had been given, she could help but let out a small laugh. Though she felt a little bad for Crash, it was undoubtedly a much safer alternative than providing him with real arrows. Walking over to him before he left for his specially assigned target, she placed a hand on his shoulder and suggested, "Just fire a few for now, and I'm sure you'll be free to use real arrows once you prove the only thing you'll hit is the target. Right Mr. Bandicoot?" Unable to resist the last bit, she let out another laugh. She also felt a little guilty for thinking that perhaps this had been a good decision on Mercy's(?) part. As much as she trusted Crash as a friend and ally, Murphy's law seemed to dictate that the amiable shapeshifter and sharp objects were not a combination to be put together with a group of fellow beginners. Looking to Carmen as well she told them, "Let's pick targets next to each other. This seems more like an individual activity but... At least we can all stay close by right?"

- Carmen -
Carmen thanked Mercy with a smile for directing her to the targets, chuckling at her nickname for Crash. She nodded sagely at the “Just a safety precaution” justification before turning her attention back to Kathy.

Seeing Kathy’s confusion, Carmen decided to remove the veil of vagueness while Ara was off talking to Mercy. “Her name is Ara, and her other form is a guy. That’s about all I know,” she admitted, shrugging. She moved on to Kathy’s next response and question. “I've studied archery a good amount in books, but haven’t done it for myself before,” she admitted. “I can get the equipment set up, but we’ll see how my actual shooting goes.” After Kathy had poked fun at Crash, Carmen responded to her suggestion of setting up next to each other. “I’d like that,” she said with a smile, walking over to a group of four unoccupied targets, picking one of the middle two. “Is this suitable?” she asked, pulling an arrow out of the quiver and preparing to attempt her first shot.

- Garden -
Garden watched them carefully, trying to learn from Lady Mercy, but all of these things were confusing her. The arrow, glove thing... proper position... she was getting lost and confused. She stepped back and rubbed her head. Garden then looked at Lady Carmen and gave an smile of confusion. "Umm....Lady Carmen...sorry for asking but mind telling me what to do? I kind of... got lost..." She looked away, sighing a bit, maybe ranged wasn't her thing? She shook her head and and tried to give out a smile showing her interest in it still. She picked up a bow and inspected it, tilting it around and looking at it very closely. Garden for no reason smacked her head with the bow, just trying it out randomly. Of course it hurt but she was just curious of the weird object. "Ouch... but how interesting...." She said, still inspecting the weird thing.

- Zivon -
ZIvon could't look back as he knew he used his powers in front of them, Leroy just seemed too scary for him. Zivon stepped back and fell again on the floor hitting his butt. He was not having a good day...especially for his sprained ankle. He bit his bottom lip really hard trying not to shout as he fell. It started to bleed a little but he wiped it away quickly. Andromeda seemed to be interested in his power which made him even more scared as he didn't want anyone much to know about it yet but he accidentally showed in front of them anyway. Zivon looked at them and closed his eyes, he put the book on the floor and stood up. "U-Uh..hh..h-h...S-o..o-r-r...y...." He bowed his head to Leroy as he heard him say that he didn't like to be ignored. Even though Zivon was still freaking scared of Leroy he knew his sort of manners in a way. He kept quiet again looking at the floor making sure that he doesn't cry.

- Lily -
Lily looked around to most, if not all but Matt, had left her. Well, that answers that... She let out a shaky sigh and then walked over to a nearby bucket of water. She'd just let Matt get the stuff. She sat down near it and began to swirl her finger in the water. The water reacted ever so slightly, moving in ways it wouldn't normally. She glanced up at the paper targets on wooden stands and then back down at her water. With narrowed eyes, the swirled the water slowly and got faster and faster with every passing second. Slowly, she moved her hand up and the water, in a swirling tornado shape, followed her finger. She pulled her hand back and shot it forward in one fluid motion. The water flew from her hand, swirling as it was hurled at the target. It hit just a bit off center of the center and then splashed to the ground. She got up and quickly walked over to the target to inspect her handiwork. There was a visible mark on the paper and lifting her finger to the paper, she peeked in and saw that the wood had been nicked.

Neat...

She walked back over to the bucket and began to start again, only this time she was trying to make it look more like... a whip. She managed it a few times and actually got it to snap but the third time she tried to snap it, it exploded in her face and soaked her from head to toe. Her face fell before a smile formed and she started laughing at herself. She pulled the water out of her hair with her hand, coaxing it out and then glancing at Matt, chucked it at him. It landed square in his face. Lily busted out laughter, watching him jump as the water hit him. She grinned and then pulled more water from the bucket and looked around at the others. She spotted Mercy and Carmen and grinned. She chucked two large orbs of water at them and waited for a reaction, her smile wide.

- Annie -
She glanced up at the boy, her irritation growing. "Hm... alright. Come with me." She said, jumping up and walking out into the open area once more. She'd had an idea and she wanted to try it out with this boy. She motioned for him to stand in front of her. "Stand in front of me. And promise me you won't use your powers. If you do, I'll punch your brains out. Now..." She relaxed herself and then sent a death glare the boy's way. "Punch me."

- Crash -
Crash’s eyebrow quirked up at her comment, for a moment he looked completely confused as to what on earth she was on about. He lifted his hand to the back of his neck awkwardly. Wait...didn’t that...back in the bar?! Crash’s eyes widened as he suddenly place where he had heard that before, for a moment it looked as if he had figured it all out, several different emotions skittered across his expression realisation, annoyance, frustration and a few more before finally deciding to rest on embarrassment. Low blow Ara...low blow “You as well?” He murmured to the girl (Ara B) his cheeks flushing red though he seemed less defensive this time round mainly because it was only really affecting him right now. “I have no idea who you are...I’m sorry. But I’m going to take a guess and say that you know Ara?” He sighed. “Whatever he said probably wasn’t true, I’m not entirely sure why he’d get you to say that but” He shrugged, smiling awkwardly. “Erm...you’ll have to excuse me a minute, I’m just going to rejoin my friends...though feel free to come join us” He offered in a friendly manner, still clueless to who the girl was but rather eager to escape her and get to Kathy.

He didn't move very far however before Kathy approached him, he looked at her as she placed her hand on his shoulder, he smiled at her encouragement though it faltered as she called him Mr Bandicoot. He gave her his best unimpressed look which didn’t last long when she laughed, he huffed in put-on annoyance. “I’m not jumping on boxes or wearing a Tiki mask...just before either of you get any ideas” He warned them. “Sure...I've got the one on the end” He pointed out, watching as Carmen walked over to a group of targets he poked Kathy’s side playfully with his harmless arrow and nodded towards Carmen. Before he moved over to the targets choosing one of the end targets, he begun to fumble around with his bow trying to knock the arrow.

[Driving Park]

Summary: Carmen finally shoots her arrow. Everyone is surprised. Seven keeps annoying Annie. Not a lot of people are surprised. Crash is a klutz. Nobody is surprised. People keep conversing. Really nobody is surprised.

- Mercy -
Mercy smiled at Ara and nodded at her. “Great! Grab some kit and get stuck in” She encouraged noticing that Carmen had already set herself up for her first shot, she moved over towards the other woman. “Careful...” She murmured. “Stand side on, feet shoulder length apart stand upright...release the tension from your body” She instructed more for the others to hear as Carmen seemed to already know what she was doing. “Point the bow towards the ground and place the shaft of the arrow on the arrow rest. Attach the back of the arrow to the bow string with the nock––the small plastic component with a groove for this purpose” Mercy continued looking at the other students, because Carmen had already prepared herself to shoot it was easy enough for the others to look at what she had done. “Use three fingers to lightly hold the arrow on the string. Most commonly, the index finger is held above the arrow and the middle and ring fingers below. This is called the Mediterranean draw or "split finger" style” Mercy demonstrated the hold on her own bow as well. “Hold your bow arm outwards toward the target. Your inner elbow should be parallel to the ground and the bow should always stay vertical. You should be able to look straight down the spine of the arrow” Mercy instructed pointing at the way Carmen was holding her bow. “Draw the string hand towards your face carefully! And find an anchor point somewhere around your chin, cheek, ear or the corner of the mouth. This will be your reference point, it must remain consistent from shot to shot” She explained. “Take care not to relax too much or to keep pulling back once you reach the anchor point, or you risk ill-targeted shots or losing power” She added as an extra. “Next take aim at the target, you want to focus on the centre of the target erase everything else from your mind except for that target” She told them. “And when you’re ready, Release the arrow by relaxing the fingers of your string hand. But remember this! Once the arrow has left your bow and is heading for its target, move your draw hand back and finish the shoulder rotation” She explained. “Keep your bow hand steady until the arrow hits its target and watch your arrow fly” She grinned. “Give it a go and don’t worry if it doesn’t go right the first time practice is key” She smiled encouragingly. Though at around that time she felt something wet collide with the side of her head, causing her to squeak in surprise and hop to the side, she lifted her hand to her face, she wasn't drenched but neither was she lightly splashed instead the orb had been somewhere in between. Holding her bow in her other hand she wiped the water from her face and pushed her hair back behind her ear ignoring the cool water soaking into her shoulder she looked in the direction the orb had come from raising her eyebrows at Lily. "What was that for?" She called to the other woman, grinning despite herself. "Magic using is cheating" She poked her tongue out childishly at Lily looking around for a way to pay the angel back whilst keeping an eye on the students shooting.

- Margaret Clementine -

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An orange-haired girl opened her eyes, finding herself laying still within an opened cryotube. She stared at the light that mercilessly shone down on her eyes, only to realize that she was unable to see any light. The girl wondered if she had yet to open her eyes.

She had opened her eyes. Darkness enveloped her. Something felt off. Something was wrong.

The orange-haired girl attempted to move her body, but it refused to move. She even tried to lift her finger. Thankfully, and surprisingly, it slowly moved like an inchworm. Relief.

Relief. She felt relief. The girl promised herself to remember what she just felt.

The girl lifted her body slowly- and gently- out of the tube. She felt strange. Strange. She felt strange. The girl promised herself to remember what she just felt. Slowly, and strangely, the girl crawled out of the tube.

She fell on her head and felt pain. Pain. Something she felt familiar with. It was a welcoming sensation, yet she lacked the proper emotions to experience the joy of feeling pain. She squirmed on the floor, unable to think about what to do in order to get back on her feet.

Initiating Movement Support Systems.

The girl barely managed to get on her fours. She slowly rose, apparently growing taller...-

She realized she just stood up. The girl, wondering about what she felt about her situation, stood still. Nothing was in her sights. A pitch-black bucket covered by a lid... that was where she was. Black. She felt afraid of it. Fear. She promised herself to remember fear.

The girl walked. She walked up to darkness, only to bump into something. She waved her hands around her as if she were blind, though she technically was right at the moment. The girl spent thirty minutes inside the room she was inside, attempting to find an exit out of the cramped place. Her body moved slowly, so she had to proceed with caution. She promised herself to remember caution.

The girl caught something. It felt like a handle.

So she pulled it.

The girl blindly walked out of a storage room within the Range Dojo. She managed to completely walk past Nikola T. Lovelock, who fell asleep on the desk he was at due to the fact that no one really went to him. Not that the teacher even cared. The girl saw two blips of red, though she decided to ignore them. The girl walked and walked... before falling on her head again. The orange-haired girl decided to stay still for awhile.

- Seven -
Seven titled his head as he heard the teacher wanting to punch her...weird... He turned back human, being naked as usual. He then stood in front of Annie and yawned. "Really? That's weird hhhmm.... okay but whatever I can't really use my powers to punch you though I can't fight!" Seven joked around and yawned again he then punched Annie lightly well very lightly as he wasn't really feeling up to punching hard.

- Annie -
She rolled her eyes and grabbed his fight with her hand, unfazed by his now nakedness. She pulled on his wrist and sent him vaulting over her. "Rule number one. Punch like you mean it, every time." She barked, her glare harsh and unforgiving.

- Alex -

New Appearance

He sat in a corner of the magic dojo, staring down at the floor, a rather bored pixie, which never led to anything good. He took in a deep breath and let it out, looking up around the dojo. There were a few people around but then again, maybe he was just imagining it. Maybe this woman wouldn't teach him at all. He made a small horse sound in frustration and then stood up. Doing magic in here wasn't going to help him much anyway. He needed the wildlife. With that, he turned and left without a word. He turned his heel outside and entered the forest, walking among the plants and local wildlife. Using a small amount of energy, he pulled a few leaves from the branches and made a small necklace out of them.

Yeah, this'll be useful in a fight.

He shook his head and ripped the necklace apart. His expression turned more... stern as he became more focused. He pulled down a wall of leaves and attempted to throw them at dangerous speeds. It didn't quite go as he planned, instead the leaves just sort of... flew up into the air and then floated back down. He threw his hands down in frustration, causing a torrent of leaves to fly around him.

i] - Kathy - [/i]
"What?!" Kathy couldn't hide her surprise and disbelief at what Carmen told her. She looked at Ara, then Carmen, and repeated the cycle a few times. "You're kidding... Right?" There were certainly similarities between the boy that had teased them back in the bar and the girl before her now, especially when she grinned with a mischievous look in her eyes, but accepting they were the same person was an entirely different matter. But at the same time... It was so unbelievable that it seemed rather strange for Carmen to be attempting to pull the wool over her eyes with such a tale. 'Oh dear... This is getting confusing.' Her mind was basically going in circles, wondering if it made more sense to believe Carmen or not. For the moment she decided to keep an eye on things and see how they went, settling on a very neutral and grey-zone of thought where she neither denied or accepted Ara's identity. "And at least you know the theory. I doubt my knowledge from the theatrics of Hollywood would be helpful at all." She added, smiling at Carmen.

Kathy smiled, enjoying the jest quite a bit. "Oh, you never know. Being able to get health from knocking into crates might be pretty useful for you." Grouping with everyone else around the targets again, she let out another small laugh when she felt a poke to her side. "Hey!" Looking at Crash she told him, "You're supposed to show people that you can handle a real arrow, not the potential dangers of letting you have one." For good measure, she also made a poke at his side with her gloved hand, not using her arrow because even the non-pointed end seemed like it would be painful if she jabbed too hard by accident.

Listening carefully to Mercy's explanation she watched the instructor and Carmen carefully while noting how she was supposed to take aim. Carefully grasping the bow and a single arrow in her hand, she copied was doing... Then stopped for a moment in the middle of drawing back the string. '... It's more resistant than I thought.' Taking in a small breath, she slowly relaxed the string once more before she drew it back again, keeping her arms steady despite the foreign strain. She wanted to actually draw back further towards her ear as the anchor, but decided to settle for the corner of her mouth since she didn't quite trust herself to be able to hold too much more additional strain from the string yet. Focusing on her breathing, she stared at the target in front of her. In and out. In and out. She stopped her breathing for a second after breathing out, then released the arrow in the next. Kathy followed through with the motion and watched the arrow sink in just milimetres left of the target. "Ah..." She was a little disappointed, even if she knew it wouldn't have been that easy. She looked around to see how her friends were doing, only to see something that looked like a suspended bubble of water start flying towards Carmen.

- Carmen -
Carmen looked over to see Garden next to her, looking quite lost and confused. "Well, I...I don't actually know how to explain it, really. I learned from books," she replied. "You'd have the best luck asking Mercy to tutor you. It is what she's here for after all! ...You're welcome to stand next to me and watch, if you'd like. That's the only way I know how to teach." As if on cue, as Carmen prepared to fire, Mercy began explaining it to the rest of the group. Noticing that she was being effectively used as a demonstration, Carmen felt like she was getting away with something...and also pressure. Although she knew how to shoot and was about to, she didn't know any of the terms Mercy was using as applied to what she was doing. She had just copied what she had read, and it was natural enough for her. So, she just kept quiet and assumed that since Mercy wasn't telling her she was doing anything wrong, she was somehow doing it all completely right. Well, good to know that I learned it correctly, she thought. She had never been totally confident in learning...well, everything...from books and other media, but it seemed the archery books had served her well. Now that she thought about it, she didn't remember why exactly she went to the trouble of learning how to use a bow and arrow, but was glad she did.

"Well, we'll see how the theory translates to practice," she replied to Kathy, ready to test it for herself. Concentrating back at the task at hand, she was about to fire her first shot when she was suddenly hit square in the ribs with an abnormally large amount of cold water. Whipping around on her heels to see and apprehend whoever threw it, she instantly didn't care when she saw it was Lily. For some reason, seeing Lily always put her in a better mood...not that she wasn't in a great mood already. "LILY!" she called out, smiling. "Want to shoot with me?" she asked brightly, as if the drenching as nothing more than a greeting. Normally she would be upset at being soaked, but it had only soaked her dress, which was a beach dress and thus meant to get wet anyway. "Come on, it'll be fun!" she encouraged Lily. She really wanted to spend a little more time with her than a few seconds before having to run off and demolish crossdressing guys with a foam cannon.

- Lily -
She smiled at Carmen's reaction and giggled at Mercy's. Even if the angel didn't remember her, at least she still had a sense of humor. Lily ran over to Carmen and grinned widely. "Of course I do. That's what I'm here for. Though, I do wish I could use my powers. As useful as a bow and arrow are to me, they won't always be readily available." She said, turning to Mercy. Lily saw both forms of projectiles as important but even she knew her gun wouldn't always be a reliable weapon 100% of the time. Then again, neither would her powers. "Well, wither way, I need training for both." She finished, smiling warmly over at Mercy. She turned to Carmen and grinned. "Now, I've only ever shot a bow and arrow once or twice and it was for fun so, we'll see how this goes.

She picked up and bow and one arrow and nocked the arrow pointed down. She pulled the arrow back, her stand just a bit off and let it go swiftly. It plummeted straight into the ground, as one would expect. [b]"Yep... Just because I've done it before doesn't make me great at it." She said chuckling.

- Carmen -
Carmen smiled back at Lily as she ran over to her. "Well, perhaps we can try out the magic dojo after this?" she suggested. "Then you'd be able to work on your powers. I'd like to do the same myself," she put in. "Perhaps you can teach me how to use a gun?"

Watching Lily's first shot, she grinned. "Hey, you have more experience than I do. I just know the theory," she said, bringing her bow back up to where she had it before. "Now...let's see how much theory can help me," she said. After an annoyingly long time aiming and getting everything Just So, she let the arrow fly. When it hit one of the target's outer rings, her eyes went wide in disbelief. "I hit it?!" looking at Lily, as if desperate for an explanation other than that it was her doing. "Beginner's luck, surely?"

- Crash -
Crash raised his eyebrow at her amusement dancing across his face. “Are you sure? If I do that I run the risk of getting ‘Crash hurt’” He pointed out to her. “And lots of splinters” He added with a smile which swiftly turned into a grin as she laughed at the poke, he rolled his eyes playfully as she told him off in a way. He sighed recoiling away from her poke Really shouldn’t start these things you’ll always lose He grinned at her. “Yeah you’re right...” He agreed moving over to his target he turned side on following Mercy’s instructions but as he lifted the bow his gaze slid to Kathy watching her take her first shot, a soft smile on his face at the concentration evident in her expression. He pulled his bowstring taut and held it up to his face, using his cheekbone as his focus point, however he wasn’t really focusing his eyes slid back to Kathy watching as she fired her first arrow which was only slightly short of the target. “Crash!” At that moment someone shouted in his other ear causing him to jump so violently he jolted backwards his bow lurching up as he released the arrow into the sky, grimacing at it shot up into the glare of the sun. “Ah...shizzwizz” He murmured, moving away from where he was stood looking skyward as he waited for the inevitable pull of gravity. “Heads!” He warned the others, squinting towards the sky though he couldn’t see anyt- TWANG! – Crash jolted backwards catching his heel with his other foot he ended up falling back onto his back with a soft thump and a drawn out groan. Unsurprisingly the wayward sucker dart was now stuck to the center of his forehead...he huffed in annoyance. “That was really uncalled for Koop...” Crash muttered, staying where he fell, momentarily sulking at being caught out...

-Margaret-

Margaret squirmed.

She quietly squirmed and squirmed, slowly leaving the Range Dojo. The girl did not seem to mind moving out like an earthworm staring at people practicing archery. She could see several blips of red floating in the air.

Margaret decided to observe the red colors floating within her dark vision.

The girl slowly picked herself up, though she felt something heavy weighing down her head. After taking her time to stand, the orange-haired girl took a step toward the lights. She slowly approached the strange light, walking as if she would tip over at any second, her expression completely devoid of creative faces. She did not seem to know that she herself had color. The recently released woman approached one of the lights (Matt), softly raising her arms. She seemed to want to touch the red color, for she walked toward the color like a zombie. If nothing interrupts her, she would simply rub the reddish color out of curiosity.

– Garden –
Garden gave an awkward smile and just continued inspecting the bow. “Oh okay Thank you for answering Lady Carmen.” She curtsied to her then stood near her, inspecting how she does it. Then Lady Carmen was suddenly drenched with cold water; she turned around to see another woman who by the name of Lily that Lady Carmen said she didn’t want to bother their conversation so she walked away a bit and continue to look at the bow. “This is just so…interesting… I wish I could build something out of it…” She said as she sat on the ground and clearly inspecting it. She stood back up and looked at Lady Mercy and then asked. “I am really sorry Lady Mercy but I don’t follow about this bow and arrow…” She said as she scratched her head in embarrassment.

– Seven –
Seven then was vaulted over the girl as she was fell on the ground landing on his feet perfectly. “Really? But I don’t have anything against you! You are quite interesting for me to really punch unless you get on my nerves but really…that’s impossible…” He gave a sly smirk and licked his paw. Seven then ran towards Annie with all his might just to test things out…for fun and punched her.

- Lily -
Her face dropped for a few seconds before quickly pulling back into a smile. "Of course. I'd love to teach you how to shoot." She told Carmen and then turned to watch the girl shoot. She was... much better than Lily, at least in theory. She looked like she was a 'by the book' sort of person which Lily never was and never will be. She always figured it out the hard way. She'd been tricked by a book once, she wouldn't again. She had to figure things out on her own like always. She felt the hard steel of her pistol on her back, hidden to the eyes of others and her mind went back to her times spent as a human. It wasn't exactly her brightest moment though... She smiled. She did do more good things than bad, right? She'd saved enough people to make up for her mistakes, right?

She shook her head slowly and smiled over at Carmen. Slowly she lifted her bow and grabbed another arrow. she nocked it and pulled it back, pointing it down. Her eyes came her as she glared at the target. With determination, she quickly lifted her bow and let go. The arrow wizzed in the air, hurling itself at the target. It hit the second ring from the outside. She smiled to herself and then turned to look at Carmen. "I prefer going with my gut most of the time." She explained, giggling to herself.

- Annie -
She smiled as Seven came after her. Much better. Still.. bad but much better. She wanted to test his strength so she stood still and let the boy punch her steeling herself for the impact.

- Matt -
Matt waved as the group except Lily left to a different part of the archery court. Watching what Lily did, he put the arm strap on his left arm, picked up the bow (even though he had it upside down), knocked the arrow, and aimed at the target. As he pulled the arrow back, he was suddenly drenched in water from head to toe.

He turned to see a laughing Lily, enjoying his misfortune. Before he could do anything about it, Carmen shot up, just as drenched as he was, and began chatting with her.

- Carmen -
Carmen stood and watched Lily's second shot, smiling when the arrow hit the target. "Looks like you don't need the book like I do," she said. "If you improved that much in one shot, I bet you'll hit the bullseye on the next one," she guessed. She was thoroughly enjoying herself and readied her second shot. Pulling the arrow back and spending approximately two minutes less time than before to aim, she let the arrow fly and it hit one of the middle rings. "Well, it's an improvement!" she said, moderately pleased with herself. Thinking, she added, "I wonder what different bows feel like. Maybe I'll try another one sometime," looking over all the different bows around her (Lily and Kathy's, specifically).

- Lily -
"Here. Try mine." Lily told Carmen, smiling as she handed over her bow. She didn't feel much like continuing anymore anyway. She turned to look at a drenched Matt and giggled again. "A bit wet, are we?" She jeered, smiling widely.

- Matt -
"Er... Somewhat?" Matt asked, not knowing if he should laugh or glare at Lily. So instead, he just stood there, a tad shocked.

- Lily -
She chuckled a bit and then turned to watch Carmen should she decide to shoot. "Well... What are you waiting for? The target's not going to hit itself." She teased Carmen, sticking out her tongue.

- Seven -
Seven step back and did a hand stand then he did a flip. He then tilted his head and gave out a loud meow. “Want me to continue? Cause I don’t see any point on doing this…” He licked his paw hand and smiled.

- Annie -
"If you see no point, then there is no point. Feel free to leave." She spoke softly, suddenly very tired. She walked over to her seat and sat down, her legs crossed.

- Seven -
Seven yawned again but he walked closer to Annie and turned back to his bakeneko form. “But I told you I am interested in you! If you want to get rid of me then try because I am going to hang out with you for a while now” Seven said as he curled up into a ball and yawned again.

- Annie -
She stole a peek at the cat now curled up near her and sighed. "What might hanging out with me entail?" She asked curiously. She'd all but given up trying to get rid of him for now. So much for a calm relaxing day.

- Carmen -
Carmen raised one eyebrow when Lily offered her her bow that quickly. Taking it from Lily's hands and putting her own down next to her, she said "oh, well thank you! You can try mine if you'd like." Looking over the altogether different bow, she didn't really know how she would calibrate herself to it. It seemed she pondered for an abnormally long time as Lily poked fun at how much time she was taking. "Oh alright, if you insist," she responded playfully, with a grin on her face. Putting an arrow in the unfamiliar bow, she drew it back and aimed at the target. She aimed dead center, to see how the bow would shoot in her hands. The arrow was released and, predictably, it arrived below the bullseye on one of the outer rings, but pretty centered. Carmen couldn't decide which bow she liked more, and turned back to Lily. "Well, this complicates things," she said with a chuckle. Since she was at a loss for what to do considering Lily no longer had a bow in her hands, she decided to ask. "So...what would you like to do? I'm happy with anything."

- Seven -
Seven looked away at the distance, yawning and licking his fur. “I don’t know you just… it just is! The world is such a wonder there are many things to be interested in!” He smiled but then licked his paw. “Even though it hurts you or just plain kills you… there are so many thing just to be interested in…” His voice went dark for a quick second then Seven licked his paw again.

- Kathy -
Kathy's concentration was quite admirable when she fired the first arrow. She didn't really get a second attempt in because her attention was swayed by the two different things occuring on either side of her. First, there was Carmen that had suddenly become soaked in the middle of ranged practice. Where the water had come from was beyond her, but judging from Carmen's outburst it had apparently been a part of Lily's ability. Before she could ask if Carmen was alright, a second distraction suddenly came from her other side and by the time she turned back around from it, the musician had gone to join her other friend.

The second distraction 'surprisingly' (lol) came from Crash. Upon hearing 'heads', she immediately looked up to see if anything would come flying at her. Luckily for her, Kathy needn't have worried in the least. The flying projectile had returned back to the one that launched it and landed right into the middle of his forehead. She couldn't help but let out a laugh. "Good shot." Inwardly she also thought, 'Though the decision not to give Crash real arrows is getting to be an increasingly smart decision with each passing second.' Relaxing her bow by her side, she walked over to him and pulled the sucker dart off of him. "In a sense, it's quite an amazing feat to shoot yourself in the head with an arrow." She commented, smiling down at Crash.

[Driving Park]

Summary: Zivon and Andromeda have a heart-to-heart while Matt and Margaret have a heart-to-heart...but only Margaret knows it's a heart-to-heart. Meanwhile, the Krashy hype train quietly leaves the station.

- Crash -
Crash sighed loudly, still looking unimpressed as she walked over to him he watched her hand reach for the dart his eyes momentarily crossing before he flinched as the dart released his skin with a thunk noise, he lifted a hand and rubbed at the red disc now present on his forehead. He looked up at Kathy smiling at her comment despite himself, beside he couldn’t not smile back at her. “Thanks...” Crash said. “Although I don’t think I’m cut out for archery” He grinned, he still hadn’t moved from where he had fallen, he briefly closed his eyes and huffed his hair out of his face. “Kathy...” He murmured, opening his eyes and blinking up at her, color tinting the tops of his cheeks as he sat up and turned to face her, his hand seeking out the back of his neck automatically. “C-can I ask you something?” He stammered, casting his gaze to her feet for a moment.

- Kathy -
Kathy couldn't help but let out another laugh at the clear red disk in the middle of his forehead. "Hmm... Guess not." Watching Crash huff his hair out of his face, she raised a hand up and poked gently right in the centre of the circle. "Looks like you ended up marking another target over there." She withdrew her hand after noticing the slight flush in his cheeks, wondering what the question could be about. "Of course... What is it?"

- Matt -
Matt was awoken from his confusion by someone reaching out and touching him on the head. He turned around, confused, to see a girl with orange hair blindly touching his hair.
"May I help you?" he asked, raising one of his eyebrows.

Margaret
The girl stared into the red color, for it seemed to turn toward her. Red. She felt warm. Warm. She promised herself to remember warm.

Margaret heard a voice speak, but she had yet to have a language pack installed within her mind. So the girl simply opened her mouth a little, rubbing the red color a little more. It felt nice. And warm. Warm. She liked "warm..."

The girl softly leaned to the red color closer, leaving her and the color within a close proximity. She liked "warm."

- Crash -
Crash’s lip curled up into a smile as she laughed, he felt her poke the mark on his forehead gently, by this point his pulse had quickened. He lifted a hand to his forehead as she withdrew her own, rubbing at the mark on his forehead before dropping his hand lifting his eyes to meet hers which didn’t help his situation. “Would you...” He started though he trailed off, glancing around them at the archery range. “...come with me for a moment?” He finished, though there was slight disappointment in his expression but he was able to wipe it away with a quick smile before he continued. “I could really do with something for these bruises but I’d rather have some company...I mean I don’t want to drag you away I...just thought if you...” He stumbled over his words. ...that was...pathetic He got to his feet brushing himself down before sheepishly grinning at her his cheeks were still a little flushed.

- Kathy-
"Hm?" Kathy looked a little confused. For the amount of colour in his cheeks and the strange amount of hesitation, his request was an easy thing for her to fulfill. "That's alright with me." She laughed, feeling a little relieved it wasn't anything too serious. She held her hand out to him, brushing her fingers on his wrist. This time she also got a slight flush of colour in her cheeks as she explained, "You know... So you don't trip." Clearing her throat as she tried not to look too embarrassed she continued, "Let's put away all the equipment then?" She glanced over at Carmen, wondering what she would do but it seemed that she was still talking to Lily. 'Should be fine then.' She thought, though she gave the musician a small wave to indicate she was leaving if she managed to catch Carmen's eye.

- Crash
Crash looked relieved when she agreed to go with him, he gave her an appreciative smile blinking as she held her hand out towards him, feeling her fingertips brush his wrist his face lit up in recognition though he found the slight flush of color in her cheeks made his smile widen. “Probably wise” He grinned at her. “Once we’ve put the equipment away, I should be ok from here to there honest” He tried to assure her as he swooped down to grab his bow which had taken a tumble along with him moments before, he flinched as Koop flew over with his quiver of sucker darts passing them to him. Waiting for Kathy he made his way over to the equipment stand pulling off his bracer and glove and returning them to their places before doing the same with the rest of his equipment, the colourful blush still stained his cheeks, he waited for Kathy to put her equipment back his hand resting on the back of his neck as he glanced around saluting in a friendly manner if Carmen looked in their direction. He waited for Kathy before making his way to the exit. “Hey, thanks for this” Crash murmured to her, he chewed his lip looking distracted as he held the door open for her.

- Kathy -
Nodding, Kathy momentarily stepped away from Crash so she could put away all the equipment in their proper place. If she caught the eyes of Mercy or anyone, she gave them a quick wave and nod of the head to indicate that she was leaving. Finishing cleaning up, she went to where Crash was at the exit. "No problem." Giving him a smile, she stepped through the door and turned back around to wait for him. Tilting her head to the side she told him, "It's not really a big deal though. Feel free to ask me for bigger favours sometimes too." She smiled. In some senses she actually hoped he would rely on her more often instead of hesitating to ask about even seemingly-minor matters such as these ones. "So? Where are you going to treat these bruises?" Normally she would have assumed they were headed towards the infirmary but... Past experiences seemed to dictate that Crash might've had another place in mind

- Andromeda -
Andromeda didn't know what to do, she just seemed to be making the situation worse, so she decided to try a tactic her dad taught her, he used it hen she was scared.
she leaned down in front of the boy, she gently put a hand out to him "i'm sorry i frightened you, Zivon, are you ok?" she realized he was avoiding both her's and Leroy's eyes. she looked up at Leroy and mouthed 'sorry, give me a minute' so he wouldn't think she was ignoring him. she looked back at Zivon, not looking at his eyes wouldn't do much good as Zivon couldn't actually see her eyes through the sunglasses, thank god. she wasn't sure what else to do as Zivon's actions reminded her a lot of a frightened bunny she had seen once, the bunny had run away before she could get it to calm down, so she had no idea what to do.

– Zivon –
Zivon carefully looked back at the two, shivering a bit somehow he was still of course very afraid not even saying a word. He bit his bottom lip again and looked around hoping to find something to calm him down a bit…at least a bit. Zivon put the book back in the shelf and sat down on the floor, his ankle was hurting really badly. He rubbed his ankle and it felt really swollen. “O-ow-w…” He sighed as his bangs covered his face he was feeling less scared bit still feared any failure he would create. He has to try to be brave like his dad wanted him to be yet he couldn’t bring up his very small courage. “H-H-i…ii… so-r-r…y” Zivon tried to get out of his weakling shell yet he couldn’t...

- Andromeda -
He did seem to be a little calmer now, but not a lot "you don't have to apologize, you didn't do anything wrong" she looked him over "are you scared of me? or Leroy?" she asked, smiling making the question sound almost like a joke "plenty of people have been scared of me" she said, still smiling "with good reason truthfully" she cleared her throat "that was an interesting power you have" she figured if she kept talking and didn't make him he might calm down a little "it can be a little destructive i guess, but so can mine" her smile became a little sad "but hey, you can fix the things you break" she chuckled sadly. then she looked back up at him to see if he would talk or not.

– Zivon –
Zivon didn’t look back as he hugged his on knees avoiding any eye contact as Andromeda spoke he wanted to reply but all he could say were just one words and his stuttering made it hard to understand. It was pretty noticeable that he was shaking, he was afraid of course but tried to be brave…like what his dad wanted. “M-Ma…a-a..n..y-y t-h…in-n..g-gs” He said as Andromeda asked if he was scared of her or Leroy, he was scared of both of them but only because his nature. As soon she started to talk about his power he shut himself up, like he turned off not wanting to explain any of it, it had cause him a great deal to him and his dad and yet he really couldn’t control it that made it worse. He closed his eyes and shook even more. “C-c-u…ur…s-s..e” He said very quietly, it was a curse to him and wished he never had it.

- Andromeda -
she chuckled a little when he said it was a curse "mine's a curse too, i guess we have a lot in common, Zivon"
she sighed "please talk to me, i hate silences" she pulled her legs underneath of her and sat down on her knees in front of him "and believe it or not, i don't particularly like talking either"
she figured she'd change the topic "do you like Athalia, Zivon?" she gently ran a hand back through her hair/snakes which hissed quietly but otherwise ignored it. she really wanted to take her glasses off but she didn't have her veil to replace it with, she just clasped her hands gently in front of her, waiting to see if he would respond.

– Zivon –
Zivon just kept quiet even though he wanted to speak all he can say were stuttering words and something silence. He didn’t look at her but flinched back hearing the clap. Zivon then bit his thumb and looked at her not showing his face from his bangs but just looking at her. “…o-ok…a-a..y-y” He stuttered out, he did like the school but it was just him thinking that he would ruin and mess things up like how he freaked out at the auditorium. “C…o-m…m-mo…on-n?” Zivon tilted his head… someone he had something in common with?

- Andromeda -
She smiled "good, it's not a bad school, I've been tutored and home-schooled up until now because my mom refused to let me leave the house unless she was there" she fiddled with strings of her bikini without thinking about it. then she chuckled again when he stuttered out common. Andromeda nodded "yeah, we're both cursed, i assume from birth?" it was a rhetorical question so she just kept going with "and we both seem pretty shy, i'm mainly talking cause it's what my dad does when i'm scared, hearing someone else talk always seemed to calm me down, but that's just me, and of course we both go to Athalia" she smiled and laughed a little "you look like a really nice person, and i'd like to know more about you, if you'd give me a chance"

- Crash -
Crash noted the smile as she stepped through the door, he had just caught up to her when she tilted her head to the side. He lifted a hand to the back of his neck, his cheeks flushing a darker color at what she said. “I don’t know, it feels like a big favour to ask. After all I am dragging you away from training” He pointed out, as he moved over towards her. He looked a little confused at her next question for a brief moment before he remembered the bruises were the reason they were leaving in the first place, he lifted his hand to his cheek subconsciously running his fingers over the cut resisting there. “Not the infirmary!” He exclaimed, grinning apologetically at his sharp response. “...I still haven’t recovered from the last time” He confessed, involuntarily shivering at the thought of returning to Kiwi. “I’ve got something in my room I could use, should only take a minute to grab then we can get back...” He announced, he chewed his lip and glanced at her seeming to be a little calmer now he slid his hands into his pockets uncertainly, probably something a Crash should never do if he's planning on moving. “Fancy walking along the beach on the way?” He asked her, taking a couple of steps backwards and jutting his head towards the empty beach it was easy enough to walk that way to get to the beach houses or follow a path through the resort.

- Matt -
The girl ignored him and instead came closer, rubbing his hair even more. Matt started to get nervous. Why was this girl trying to rub his hair? And why did she hear him? Even one who spoke a different language would realize he was attempting to talk to them.

He began to back slowly away, as if any sudden movements would either anger the girl, or scare her.

- Meanwhile, Dani shoots targets and does a relatively good job at archery -

- Kathy -
Kathy shook her head and responded, "Don't worry. It's my first time with archery so I'm not exactly all that attached to it yet anyway." She looked away for a moment feeling a bit of colour return to her cheeks again. 'And I much prefer to follow along with you instead of staying behind...' She thought as she ran her fingers through the ends of her ponytail, deciding not to admit the stronger reason aloud for... A variety of reasons. Another laugh could be heard after Crash's adamant refusal to go to the infirmary. She had suspected as much, but his reaction had been funnier than she would have thought. "Haha, anyone that's been under Kiwi's care can sympathize. Bruises are probably a bit too light considering the risks of going to the infirmary." Hearing the suggestion, Kathy also glanced over at the beach for a moment. Despite the fact she honestly preferred to walk on solid ground much more than the sandy surfaces of the beach, she nodded in agreement without hesitating. "Sounds good." Smiling, she held her hand out to him again, "So we keep the accidents at bay?" She told him again, subtly hinting that she wanted him to take his hand out of his pockets.

- Crash -
Crash lifted the corner of his mouth giving her a lopsided smile as she spoke, his eyes dropping to her hand as she ran her fingers through her ponytail. “Agreed” He chuckled “Between the two of you I don’t think I’ll ever walk into a room again without checking the ceiling first” He commented with amusement present in his expression. His mouth twitched up into a smile as she nodded though he looked a little surprised as she held her hand out to him, blinking at her as she offered her explanation he grinned sheepishly at her pulling both of his hands from his pockets. “Hmm would probably be best, I don’t think I’ll survive any...” He reached for her taking her hand in his own automatically though he froze after doing so remembering she generally held his wrist, he hesitantly loosened his grip so she could slide her hand to his wrist should she want to. “...How long did Darwin say your hair would be purple?” Crash grinned at her trying to shift any awkward feelings, once Kathy had decided what she was comfortable with Crash made his way onto the sand hopefully with her in tow.

- Margaret -
The girl blinked when the color began to move away from her... She felt strange. A new sensation entered her heart.

Fear. She failed to express this emotion, but she was certainly feeling it. The girl watched the red color slowly distance itself, simply staring at the red color moving away from her. Did she look scary? Or was it just a shy entity? She wished she could see more. Maybe have her eyes opened... well, her eyes were literally opened at this point, but not technically. The orange-haired girl shrunk just a little, taking a few steps toward the color again. She liked red. It made her feel... safe? She felt more curious than anything. Curious and fearful. Curious. The girl promised to remember "curious."

Meanwhile, Nikola felt like waking up.

Ryuu Yamauchi
Ryuu threw down the book he was reading. It literally took him ONE second to throw down the thing. What on God's green Earth was a "Foompuhn," anyway? With that said, the otaku had given up on this book, so he decided to take out one of his manga magazines for a quick break.

He eventually read for thirty minutes.

"HOLY CRAP!!!" The sunglasses-wearing otaku yelled in the Magic Dojo. "WHAT AM I EVEN DOING HERE?!"

He sighed, sweating profusely as he unknowingly received a decent amount of frightened glances, though thankfully, he had not shouted loud enough to catch everyone's attentions. The otaku came to the dojo to train on magic, not read about how that one girl attempted to slice apart that one dude due to some embarrassing situation. With that said, he took out another book.

"Weapon Enchantments," it said, or at least, that was the extremely butchered name of the book he just took out. The otaku blinked, wondering if this book would genuinely do good things for him. So he decided to at least read it. Just a little. The otaku took a seat on a table, intently glaring at the book's contents...

So far, he was doing pretty good. Ten seconds was already a great record for him.

- Tora Yamauchi -
Tora had vanished into his own training room after realizing that Crash would take an eternity to run. Directly underneath the Dojo he was in, the Yamauchi began to tear apart a bunch of punching bags, though his methods were unseen by everyone right at the moment.

[Driving Park]

---INTERMISSION---
Subway - "Call to Arms"

A demented portal opened within the same desolate subway that served as one of Hell's gates. This portal, however, did not belong to Thane. A horseman of death walked out of the portal, his mask seemingly absorbing the life around him... if there even was any life left. Wielding a deadly lance, the horseman let his steed slowly trot down to the center of the subway. Behind him was another of Hell's officers.

Actually, four of Hell's officers had appeared in a single area. And that usually happened in rare circumstances.

The second officer among the four was Apophis, who wore new skin for the left side of his body. He wore the skin of a virgin angel he decapitated before making it available for "fashion" uses. Unfortunately, since he accidentally lost the head, he was forced to wear his old demon skin he wore much, much earlier. With that said, he seemed to be the one responsible for bringing the horseman of death with him.

Idolon: a name to be feared. An essence of war, the immortal one who never dies. He was the bane of all warriors, for he always- ALWAYS appeared when one reached a certain level of power. In every battle, he made sure to brutalize whoever's army he just faced. Not only had he killed thousands of legendary monsters without using his steed, but he also did so with swift honor, and graceful brutality. Idolon was one of Lucifer's first hired officers, and everyone understood why.

Macbeth also walked alongside Apophis. The Ice Man, as demons liked to call him, was a peculiar case. He held a strange presence among the ranks of Lucifer's army. Not only was Macbeth incapable of using nearly all kinds of magic, but he also lacked some common sense most people would have. Nevertheless, he had one of the greatest potentials among Lucifer's hired officers. His loyalty proved to be flawless, though many demons held some sort of fearful curiosity as to why Macbeth killed demons as well.

Then there was one more officer who had not left Hell before, and just entered Earth once more. He carried a frighteningly sleek shotgun, and some sort of gas mask covered the man's face. With a dull helmet that had been left with scars from battle, boots that alarmed those who knew who he was, and disturbingly loud noises that came from his mask, Macht held a grudge against anything supernatural he faced. He created training camps for his own soldiers to train in, and massive prisons for those he captured. While he never exactly did anything to those he imprisoned, some of his soldiers responsible as prison wardens had been reported to disgrace nearly everything inside them. He had just recently done a "clean-up" by tearing apart every single one of those wardens, claiming that they failed to live up to his expectations.

Many demons, however, actually hailed Macht as one of Hell's greatest warriors. He never killed his own side's men unless he genuinely needed to take care of something. He had a creed.

This creed never applied to his enemies.

Apophis stopped in his tracks, turning to the three officers he brought with him. Clapping his hands once, he rubbed his hands together as he said, "Welcome, gentlemen... and ladies."

Lilith did a cute little front flip out of the portal, following Idolon like a good little girl. After all, she'd been told to stay by him, right? She made a small like snort and shook her head. Lulu worried too much. It wasn't like the young demoness couldn't handle herself. Still, she followed along, more than happy to learn more about the plans they were making. She nodded toward Apophis at his words with a smirk on her face. "Just one." She shouted, smiling brightly.

The skin-masked deity of Chaos laughed, his eyes widened as he directly stared into Lilith's eyes. "Yes, yes," he said in a strangely high-pitched voice before continuing with a deep voice, "m'lady."

She smiled back and went to stand behind Idolon, playing with her clothes absentmindedly. Creepy mother f-cker...

The man wearing skin simply threw his hands by his sides, pacing around mindlessly as he began to talk,

"Now, I am aware of how organized our plans are, in... you know."

Apophis looked Macht dead in the eye as he growled gingerly, "Killing the children."

He continued with his usual, mixed voice,

"But, I have come to the conclusion that even I can make fascinatingly brilliant plans! Without further ado, I would like to present to you one of my FINEST creations... hehehehhehehehehehehheehehehehehehehehehehehehehe....."

The Deity of Chaos snapped his fingers with an extremely proud look on his face, as if a child had just finished a LEGO puzzle. Behind Apophis, something began to take form. Armor was the first thing everyone noticed about the being that just appeared. Wielding a mighty axe, the armored thing looked as if it could lunge out and kill Apophis at any moment. Idolon crossed his arms at the "creation," as if to observe how well it would fare in battle.

Thankfully, he had learned a little bit of his side's language a little more. He proceeded to ask Apophis,

"Creation has potential. Angel power...?"

The Deity of Chaos laughed. And laughed again. And again. Macbeth turned to Macht, as if he wanted to ask if Apophis was okay or something.

"Yes."

This caught every single of of the officers' attentions. Apophis smiled like usual again, his hollow skin seemingly becoming more hollow at every second that passed: almost as if they were going to slip off of his body at any moment.

"I have... an angel. And a virgin one, at that too! A fallen angel banished from her home... I gave her a new home, however."

Apophis grinned, proudly announcing as he pointed at the suit of armor,

"And it stands RIGHT before your eyes, gentlemen! A fallen angel... a lost, poor creature that has been forever forgotten by her own kind! Lost, like some of us are. Poor, like some of us have been. It's no coincidence that we ever got to actually USE an angel instead of eating their tender, soft flesh while burning their organs to create one of the most holy bonfires Hell would ever come to see..."

The Deity of Chaos smelled the air, as if he were trying to remember the mentioned bonfire, closing his eyes as he let out of satisfied breath of joy. With that said, he walked over to the suit of armor, putting an arm over the armor's shoulders as if it were his best buddy.

"I couldn't let a cute creature die so easily," he said sorrowfully, a look of remorce falling upon his face. "It's... unfair. I know how she feels. She's gone through terrible things... just like you and I have experienced, but perhaps even more heartbreaking..."

Apophis passionately rubbed the suit of armor's helmet, letting the head move like a rusted machine that had been turned off. "Dying like that would be too much for her."

The skin-wearing man shot his eyes open, directly looking into his comrades in the eyes. Macbeth flinched for a quick moment.

"So we should give the Academy a chance to kill her, am I not correct?"

Idolon tilted his head. Macht put his shotgun behind his back, crossing his arms comfortably. Macbeth stood still, wondering what Apophis meant.

"You see, we cannot kill the Academy's students," Apophis said, excited, his eyes glowing madly as blood drooled out of his mouth. "We cannot kill them. But I believe that THEY can kill US."

Macht quietly asked, his voice sounding hollow due to his gas mask, "So you're saying that...?"

Apophis nodded madly, snapping his neck.

"YES! You and I are thinking alike! I will find a way for Athalia Academy's students to KILL this angel! Only then would their minds begin to grow corrupt. Only then will they realize that they can kill. And only then, the time for us to kill them comes sooner. It hastens the process without ruining my lord's plans, does it not?! RIGHT?!"

Silence fell over in the subway. Apophis, whose head was loosely hanging in front of the demons, snapped his head back into position, his calm demeanor returning again.

"And through this beautiful angel, we shall invent a beautiful game together. For our Lord and Savior. Our Lord who has granted us the chance to bask in blood together in utmost euphoria... The Beautiful Game is what I'd like to play with the Academy."

Idolon simply nodded, wondering how things would go on Apophis' end. Macht and Macbeth stood still, though Macbeth seemed a little disturbed by how Apophis had to transfer the information to him.

The skin-wearing god clenched a fist so tightly, his blood stained his entire arm as he whispered,

"Tonight, we shall play with Cross' army... the Beautiful Game."

---END INTERMISSION---

[Driving Park]

Summary: OMG KRASHY <3 (Shut up, I'm allowed to put in editorials.) Also, Margaret. Also also, Lily has a moment and kidnaps Carmen and Matt to shoot at stuff. Makes sense.

- Kathy -
“Right. Don’t let me catch you off-guard then.” Kathy joked, giving a meaningful glance towards her shoes. She smiled as she watched Crash take his hands out of his pockets. She planned to reach over and wrap her fingers around his wrist, only Crash beat her to it. Sort of. “U-Um…” Kathy’s face turned bright red, unable to look at Crash’s face as she stared down at their hands. Her voice a little higher than usual, she found it rather difficult to finish even that simple sentence without trailing off. “He didn’t say but… The blue didn’t last too long so…” Trying to keep herself from squeaking, her words had become quieter with each syllable until the last one was barely audible. She felt like her heart was going to burst inside of her and she almost wanted to snap her hand back to regain some composure. However, she kept her hand in his as she followed him to the beach. “C-Crash… Um… Can I ask you something too..?”

- Crash -
Crash’s eyebrows lifted at her jest catching her glance at her shoes meaningfully he chuckled lightly, though the amusement drained from his expressions as he watched her face turn bright red and heard her stutter. He dropped his eyes to their hands about the same time she did unsure whether he regretted the simple action or not...he felt a peculiar tingle run the length of his body in response to his pulse quickening, practically throbbing in his ears though he was trying hard not to show it as he listened to her reply though she seemed to be getting quieter with each word he didn’t even hear the last one. S-say something else!.........why are you stuttering?! You’re talking to yourself... Crash was sure she was going to retract her hand, though he couldn’t deny the prickle of relief that passed through him when she didn’t he gripped her hand lightly trying his best to act like this was perfectly normal. He lifted his free hand to the back of his neck opening his mouth as if to say something when he heard her pipe up beside him. He glanced at her with warm crimson eyes “Sure” He answered her, the corners of his mouth turning up in a soft smile.

- Matt -
The girl followed him, making Matt even more nervous. He had no way of communicating to her. She didn't seem to understand english, and he had no idea how to understand what she was doing. She seemed very transfixed on his hair. She kept rubbing it, making Matt feel awkward.
"Do you need something?" Matt asked again, hoping maybe she just didn't hear him the first time.

- Kathy -
As they walked, Kathy just hoped that her hand would not grow sweaty as she held onto Crash's hand. That would have been really embarrassing, and an extremely probable way for her to leave a bad impression right now. 'He's already seen be blush a thousand times already, so I can live with that now.' She thought, 'Just please don't let the stress go to my hands..!' It was then that she made the mistake of looking up to see Crash's expression as he answered her. He had pretty much delivered her a critical blow at the height of her embarrassment. The only things she could rely on now was that it was biological impossible for her face to grow any red, and that it was in fact impossible to actually die of embarrassment. Kathy quickly turned her eyes down towards the ground, gazing fixated at the sand below them. "Are you...?" The question got caught in her throat. 'That's a stupid way of asking.' Correcting herself, she tried again, "I was wondering if you maybe..." She trailed off again. 'Oh forget it... I don't have the courage to ask.' Shoulders slumping, she gave up. However, she knew that she couldn't just leave Crash hanging without asking a question so she quickly tried to think of something else to ask. "You said that Mercy was the one that gave you a place to stay right? Does that mean she's your guardian or something similar..?" Inwardly, she groaned. Basically she had gone from an awkward question to one that was possibly too personal to ask. Kathy quickly added, "You don't need to answer if you're not comfortable with it."

- Crash -
Crash had to focus to keep his face from turning the same color as his hair, his pulse was practically humming in his ears and his mouth seemed to be rather dry all of a sudden. He hadn’t realized his simple action had caused her more embarrassment, he studied her red stained face for a moment as she cast her gaze down to rest on the sand beneath them. He cast his gaze forward resting it on the gentle lap of the foaming waves as they lapped at the beach. He felt his shoulders tense as he heard the start of her question, he returned his gaze to her a curiosity apparent in his expression. He swallowed a lump that had formed in his throat, he blinked as she trailed off again momentarily holding his breath until he saw her shoulders slump, he frowned as she changed her question he cast his gaze back to the beach in front of them lifting his hand to the back of his neck as he processed what she had said. I thought... “Erm...no, no its ok, I don’t mind” He assured her.”Feel free to ask me anything” He grinned at her “Yes she was but she’s not my legal guardian...although she pretty much acts like it” He answered her with a small smile before chewing his lip in a distracted manner; he glanced towards the beach houses that were coming into view. “...Kathy” Crash murmured grinding to a halt. “I need to ask you something” He stated his eyes dropped to the sand as the color in his cheeks darkened. “I-I meant to ask you earlier b-but...” He trailed off lifting his hand to rub the back of his neck awkwardly. “Just didn’t seem like the right time or place...not that this is...or isn’t...” Crash seemed to be stumbling over his words, he shifted his weight from one foot to the other before taking a deep breath and lifting his gaze to her face Spit it out! “W-would you go out with me sometime?” He blurted out with a stutter to go with it, then fearing he hadn’t been entirely clear. “As in...on a date” He glanced back down at his feet, assured he couldn’t blush any harder. Oh good...you worded that terribly... From such a vague suggestion he hadn’t been prepared for the rather heavy reaction his body seemed to be having to this moment, his heart at this current moment was thrumming so hard in his chest he wasn’t sure his ribcage would be able to contain it, he even had butterflies in his stomach, he had possibly subconsciously stopped breathing as he waited for her reaction.

- Kathy -
Kathy felt a little bad as she watched Crash frown. She was actually a little curious to know more about Crash's life outside of the academy, and apparently Mercy might've had a large part in it, but it wasn't really the question she had wanted to ask and for some reason he seemed a little disappointed by the question as well. "Ah, I see..." She answered, nodding in understanding. She even attempted a small smile at the explanation he gave. It wasn't too bad of an attempt, and she did succeed in putting on a thin smile for him. For the rest of the walk she remained silent, not wanting to mess up again. "Hm?" Kathy looked up in surprise when Crash suddenly stopped though, right when the student houses were coming into view. As though his nervousness was contageous, for some reason she found her own heart beating a bit faster again. "S-Sure... Ask anything you'd like." She watched the colour deepen in his cheeks, their spots having been exchanged with Crash now being the one looking down at the ground instead of her. Hearing his question, she stopped breathing for a second, blinking in surprise. 'Huh? Did I... Did I hear him correctly?' Suddenly, she burst into laughter. Feeling all the tension leave, she sat down in the sand, still laughing. "Haha, s-sorry, hang on... I just need a moment." She had to wipe the tears from her eyes. Clearing her throat, she looked up at him with a wide smile on her face. "... Funny thing," Her blush returned, but this time her voice was nice and steady. "I wanted to ask you that question before. Though... I ended up pulling out of it." She tightened her fingers around his hand and answered, "... Please. I'd love to."

- Zivon -
Zivon listen intently at Andromeda explaining their reasons of being in common…and she was right in a way. His powers… he believed they were a curse to begin with… she talk about her dad and how it comforted her, it reminded him of his dad and how he cared and comforted him… it made him home sick and wanted to cry just remembering more about his dad. “…Dad...” Zivon whispered to himself as he remembered his dad a bit more trying to hold back tears. He looked at Andromeda and tilted his head she seemed really nice yet he just couldn’t’ trust anyone now a days but that was just him. As she wanted to know more about him he looked away and kept quiet, he didn’t want anyone to know who he really is he may wanted to be a shadow and just never be notice but did he really want that? He didn’t know…As Zivon though more about his dad he ended up saying something unintentionally. “…I miss you dad…” he sighed as he leaned back at the bookshelf still covering his face as he starts to cry. “...D-dad…”

- Crash -
Crash noted her less than impressed reaction to his answer, not that he expected much he hadn’t really given his answer any thought. To say he looked surprised when she burst out laughing would have been an understatement...he felt his mouth twitch up into a nervous smile despite the onslaught of negative thoughts at her reaction. It was probably a good thing he very much liked hearing her laugh, he couldn’t say it put him at ease with his question still hanging in the air but he felt himself smile in a somewhat perplexed manner. He leaned forward slightly as she sat down in the sand, keeping his grip on her hand light. Why is she laughing? Probably because I’m being delusional He raised an eyebrow at her as she finally seemed to be calming down, he was still smiling though it was hovering between amusement and worry as she cleared her throat. Smiling is always positive... He lowered himself into a crouch taking the strain off his arm, meeting her gaze catching the blush return to her cheeks, he listened to what she had to say his eyes widening in surprise momentarily dropping his gaze. She was? He felt that peculiar tingle pass through him as she tightened her grip on his hand and finally gave him her answer...pulling a wide grin onto his face, he released the tension from his shoulders visibly relaxing as he rubbed the back of his head. “Wow...” He breathed remembering he’d been holding that breath for a while, his face was still flooded with color but he seemed to have calmed down about. “I didn’t expect that...you wanted to ask me” He admitted, leaning his free arm on his leg he gently squeezed her hand, unable to wipe the smile from his face. “I’m going to go with, this is the part where I ask you when you’re available and get an idea of what you’d like to do” He breached rubbing the back of his neck, trying not to hint that he wasn’t very versed at this kind of thing. In his defense they were currently on a tropical island far away from anything ‘normal’ so this situation was - in the tradition of Athalia - unexpectedly strange.
.
- Kathy -
"Hmm... I would've been really embarrassed if you figured it out after I stopped asking," Kathy admitted with a sheepish smile, "So it may have been for the best." In hindsight, it was probably a very good thing she ended up not asking him. After all, unlike Crash she hadn't taken the time to pull him aside and away from others before making her attempt. Carmen, especially, would have probably heard everything and made the situation seem incredibly awkward whether or not she had actually succeeded. She took her free hand and hid her mouth behind it, unable to keep herself from smiling so wide that she was fairly certain he would've been able to count most of her teeth if he wanted to. She was still blushing, but for once it wasn't accompanied by the unpleasant feeling of wanting to run and hide somewhere. Laughing again in a light voice she replied, "We're on an island Crash, and I won't be going anywhere. I'm available whenever you are." Calming down enough to lower her hand from her face, though she still had a bright smile accompanied by rosy cheeks, she asked, "Let's discuss more as we go. And... Want to help me up?" It was actually a legitimate request. Feeling the sudden flood of relief, her knees had momentarily given out on her. Though she could get up on her own now, she could do with a little boost and there wasn't really enough space for her to get up with Crash crouching so close by.

- Margaret -
The girl heard something again. Questioning. The red color questioned her. What did he question her? She wanted to question him for the answer. After all, questions were answers as well. The girl attempted to open her mouth, though it barely budged. So she decided to stay close to the red color. She got just a little closer, seeking a safer feeling to stick with. Safe. She wanted to feel safe. The girl loosely hugged the red color, feeling afraid of the nothingness below her. She hoped she could get an upgrade. An upgrade. She needed a language pack and an upgrade.

- Carmen -
Carmen waved at Crash and Kathy as they left. The Three Musketeers will unite again...eventually, she thought to herself, fully expecting it to be...a long time before she saw the two of them again. At this point, before Lily had a chance to answer Carmen's question, Carmen turned to see...a very interesting sight. A male, who she was vaguely positive she recognized from the party back at the Academy, was...being clung to by a girl, who she absolutely did not recognize. After a few seconds to ponder what she was seeing, she admitted to herself yet again that come on, you should expect that. Remember who you're around, but adding however, this actually seems like too normal of an odd occurrence. Satisfied with her thought process, she addressed the newcomers (to her). "...may I help you?" she asked, oblivious to the fact that they didn't ask for help, but noting only that they were right next to her and looking in her direction.

- Matt -
"...may I help you?" asked the girl wearing a unrealistically large floppy sun hat.
"Er... Maybe?" Matt answered awkwardly. What are you supposed to say when some girl is hugging you and another offers to help save you from it? That's not exactly something that happens often enough that they write a handbook on it.

- Margaret -
The girl noticed that the red color had talked again. It asked a question again, though the girl did not know whether she was being spoken to or not. There was the possibility that the red color was still talking to her, but she hoped that it would tolerate her. It did not seem like the color was talking to anything else... was it? The girl turned softly, though she did not find colors strong enough to catch her attention.

So the orange-haired girl plastered herself a little closer to the red color. She felt safer again.

- Carmen -
Carmen titled her head to one side when the boy responded "Er... Maybe?", responding "Maybe? What does that mean? I can provide help if you'd like...so long as I know what 'help' entails." She noticed the girl respond only by clinging tighter to the boy. She wasn't entirely sure what her issue was and why she seemed to be unaware of her surroundings. She certainly wasn't blind, but what was she?

- Matt -
"Um... How exactly am I supposed to answer that question based on these circumstances? I'm being hugged to death by some girl I've never met, and you ask if I need help. How exactly would you help? I don't think hugging someone you don't know is a punishable offense." Matt replied, flinching when the girl began squeezing even tighter. Any more squeeze and he might start to get sore.

- Crash -
Crash chuckled at her sheepish admittance. “I hadn’t even cottoned on...so the chances of me figuring it were probably pretty slim” He murmured, unable to shift the grin from his face. He tilted his head to the side as she laughed and replied to his question, his face had just started to return to a normal color when a fresh flush tinted the tops of his cheeks. “You have a point” He grinned at her, rubbing the back of his neck. “If that’s the case, lets figure out what to do first” He decided on saying, nodding in agreement with her. “Sure thing” He agreed, realizing how close he’d crept he felt the heat rush to his cheeks as he shuffled back and upright offering her his other hand to gently tug her up and onto her feet. Wait...where were we going? His elated expression momentarily faltered as he realized he’d completely forgotten the other reason they had come out here. “Right discussing...as we go” He repeated, stepping back once she was back on her feet. “W-where were we going?” He asked pressing one a hand to his forehead his fingers threading through his fringe as he gave her a sheepish smile.

- Margaret -
The girl shivered a little. Shiver. She was not used to long sentences. She was amazed. Amazement. She promised herself to remember amazement. This red color was amazing. The orange-haired girl looked around once more, wondering if something was bothering the red color. Nothing, yet. Nothing. There was nothing like usual.

The girl buried her face near the red color. She felt something collide against her face, but it was... warm. She liked warm. The girl proceeded to remain still, softly burying her face into whatever that held the red color. Her face remained idle. The girl felt safer.

- Lily -
She looked over to see a small female clinging to Matt and her heart... twinged? Lily blinked in surprise. What? Was... She jealous? Her eyes grew big and she turned away, Carmen's question almost completely forgotten. If it weren't for the fact that she now wanted to leave and well... No. She didn't want to be alone. She just didn't want to be here anymore. She swallowed and turned back, her expression blank as she watched the others, the small girl hanging onto her friend.

Lily turned to look at Carmen and gave the girl a weak smile. "I'd love to go shooting if you'd want to come with me. I think I know where the gun range is." She spoke, her voice soft, almost inaudible.

- Carmen -
Carmen looked at Matt as he asked the admittedly unanswerable question, and then looked back over at Lily, who looked...troubled. To say the least. Her face was not normal and Carmen noticed it. Meanwhile, Matt looked like he was about to cry out for help, and the girl looked totally lost. Carmen took a step back, looking back and forth at the situation with wide eyes. Well, for the first time so far, I have no idea what to do. Now it's me who needs a lifeline. Oh, the humanity... she thought to herself. Fortunately, a lifeline did arrive in the form of Lily's very soft question. Carmen visibly breathed a sigh of relief and responded. "Please. I'd like that...it would be nice to see a different location. I've been in this place for a while." She was fully aware that "awhile" was probably about...20 minutes? Or something like that. But in roleplay time, that's an eternity. Turning to Matt and the girl, Carmen said, "we're going to go shooting. Hope you don't mind," with an apologetic look on her face, and turned back to Lily. "Lead the way," she said with a smile.

- Lily -
Lily looked over at Carmen, relief coming over her. She turned to look at Matt and then girl and her heart ached again. She wished she could just ignore it but part of her didn't want to. Part of her wanted what she had before, someone to look over her like that. And she'd known Matt for so long. Then again, how well did she really know him? She looked over at Carmen, her expression worried and then back at Matt and the little girl.

...Should... I?

She shook her head and walked over to Matt with a determined look on her face. She grabbed his hand and pulled him with her, headed toward the gun range. As she walked past Carmen, she grabbed her hand as well and took the both of them to the gun range, her cheeks growing red hot.

They entered the gun range and Lily let go, her cheeks still flushed red. She walked over to one of the stations and pulled out her gun from her back. She pulled it up quickly and aimed to shoot at the targets. She fired off five rounds in quick succession into the forehead of the stupid looking dummy and then began looking at her gun as if to occupy herself, still blushing.

- Carmen -
Carmen thought her lifeline had arrived, but then Lily remained still, apparently thinking again with a very interesting look on her face. She began to ask why, but before she could even get one syllable out she suddenly found herself being practically dragged to the gun range, with Matt also in tow. Soon they reached the gun range and Lily let them go. Carmen was extremely confused. Her eyes were shaped like dinner plates as soon as Lily grabbed her, and they hadn't subsided since. Somehow she had had the reflexes to snatch her trumpet as they whisked out of the ranged dojo. She was now standing in the gun range looking as confused as it was possible to be. Which did not happen very often. Her confusion only continued when she noticed that Lily had entered a Code Red to rival Kathy's. At this point her mouth was even slightly open as she tried to figure out a rhyme or reason for Lily's sudden actions. The confusion was at an all-time high when Lily suddenly pelted one of the targets with her gun, and...was still blushing. Carmen stood there for a minute, and was able to scrounge together. "What.......was that...?" she asked softly, still with a face of extreme confusion.

- Matt -
Matt was so confused that he just wanted to hide under a bush or something. This girl was intruding way too deep into his personal space. Of course, she did that as soon as she started rubbing his hair for long periods of time. He looked over to Carmen, pretty much begging for help, but before she could do anything, Lily stepped in. Lily walked by, snatched Matt from Margaret's deep embrace, grabbed Carmen as well, and before anyone could do anything, they were at the gun range.
Matt stood dumb-founded as Lily let go, pulled a gun out of nowhere and shot a dummy to death.
"Wha... What happened?" Matt asked, slightly dazed.

- Lily -
She felt her chest well up inside as she tried to find the words to explain what she'd just done but she couldn't find any. Honestly, she didn't really even know why she did it. And if she did, she didn't want to admit it. She turned to face Carmen and smiled. "You wanted to learn to shoot?" She asked, smiling. She hoped Carmen would understand but something told her the girl was too confused. She didn't even know what to tell Matt. What could she tell him? I was jealous so I stole you away? Maybe....

She turned to look at Matt, her expression full of... nervousness? She swallowed and smiled at him. "You looked uncomfortable and I wanted to try and help you get out of there..." She said softly, her cheeks blushing again at her lie.

- Margaret -
The light was taken away from her.

Without any warning- a new color of red- suddenly tore the orange-haired girl off. The girl fell on her back, confused. Confusion. She did not like confusion. Someone snatched the red color away from her. The... warm color. The color that made her feel warm threw her away. The orange-haired girl wondered if she did something to anger the new red light, which seemed to fly away...

It flew so far. The orange-haired girl shivered. Shiver. She shivered again. Shiver. Soon, her incredibly short-ranged field-of-vision had gone completely black. She turned, seeking light. She turned again, seeking light again.

The color red had thrown her away. Perhaps she was a defective product...

Sad.

She felt sadness inundate her body. Sadness covered her frail frame, but she was unable to express it. A defective product: she was defective to be with warmth. Perhaps it was for the better.

The girl sat, shivering in fear. But she was unable to express fear, for she was incomplete. Defective, to be more precise. She would wait until someone found her again. Or something warm. Anything.

Margaret Clementine was her name: the same name that had been lost so long ago.

- Matt -
Lily didn't answer for a second, but when she did it didn't seem... She was just too hesitant.
"You looked uncomfortable and I wanted to try and help you get out of there." Lily said. Matt had a feeling she wasn't telling him something, maybe it was the way she acted, but he didn't question her.
"Well, thanks." Matt said honestly. He then changed the subject. "Anyway, do you think you could teach me to shoot as well? I've never really had a gun before, so..." He half hoped things would go back to normal and they would forget the whole things, but a little piece of him wanted to know what she was up to.

- Carmen -
Carmen was still confused. Her response of "You wanted to learn to shoot?" was actually the most sane thing about this whole situation, but it didn't explain the principal issue, that being the Code Red and the fact that she just grabbed both of them and took them with her without so much as saying a word. Worse, her response and expression when talking to Matt did nothing to ease Carmen's confusion. Matt seemed to be less confused and responded fairly normally in fact, which put Carmen in less of a "WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON?!" mood and more of a "ok, so...what's going on?" mood. Instead of continuing to look confused as she was succeeding at currently doing, she did the one thing she could do and respond to Lily's query. "...Where do I start?" she asked, managing a soft smile.

- Lily -
Finally, a full smile emerged on the angel's lips. She nodded gingerly at Matt and then turned to Carmen with a small smile on her face. "Let's find a gun for you both. Come on. I'm sure they have a selection." She told them, motioning for them to follow her into what looked like a storage shed. Inside was a case full of weapons. Anything from a shot gun to pistols, to automatic weapons. She chuckled at the cage and smiled back at the two of them. "Let's just start with pistols, yeah?" She asked, chuckling. She punched in the code Maria had given her and took out two pistols and a bit of ammunition and walked back to the range with Matt and Carmen behind her, after shutting the cage again.

She put each person in their own station and put a gun, ammunition, eye protection, and noise canceling headphones on the table next to them. "Alright. First, pick up and put on the headphones and the eye wear. Then pick up a gun. Get a good feel for it. I'll come by and help you load it." She told them and then walked over to Matt. She smiled at him awkwardly and then pulled up the box of ammo. "Pull the barrel out so we can put ammo in. Make sure it's on safety." She told him, a bit more gruff than she meant to be.

- Margaret -

She felt cold.

Cold. Cold was not red. Cold was dark. Darkness made her cold. She shivered again, unable to tell the red color to come back. She could not even understand what it said. Alas, it did not matter right at the moment. She could not talk. She could not use hearing comprehension. She lacked the ability to understand words. She could not perform any task others could do.

...Initializing movement support...

Margaret Clementine budged... but she was not used to walking. Therefore, she failed to stand up. She budged. Budged. Shivered. Shivered... and shivered.

She felt alone.

Margaret shivered again. She was in a place that was no different from the empty room she came from earlier. Unfortunately for her, her blind status prevented her from backtracking to her cryotube again. Why did she have to wake up? Question. She questioned her existence, wondering if she was made for fun, or for cold experimentation. She came out to feel warmth. She had been abandoned by it.

She hoped that something could envelop her with warmth soon. Something. Someone...

Anyone...

[Driving Park]

Summary: So like, this Andro-Zivon convo? Serious business, man. When the rest of the cast are off shooting deadly firearms or making nice nice to each other, you can rely on the A-Z team to keep the convo combo streak. P.S. Every post must now end with Margaret being depressed. P.P.S. Ryuu.

- Ryuu -

Ryuu was in the skies.

Now, how did he reach the skies? Well, it all started with the good ol', sunglasses-wearing punk reading a book about magic. This fella sucked at reading, pals. And mind you, once he started reading about destructive magic... things could get pretty hefty.

Just like now.

"Oh my F--KING GOD, I'M FLYING FASTER THAN AN F-ZERO RACING MACHINE!!!!! HOW AM I ALIIIIIIIIIIIVE?!?!?!"

The otaku had accidentally used an explosive projectile move... on the ground. And of course, the consequence involved him flying so high in the air, he thought he saw the stratosphere. Ryuu landed directly in front of the firearms dojo, where an extremely large crack formed. Did I mention the crack looked like his face?

"...BWAGH!!!" Ryuu threw his face out of the small hole, shaking it to get some dirt off. "Wow, how am I still alive? Is it because this ground is made of cotton or something?"

He was wrong. It was just that his head was so hard, he penetrated the face of the Earth.

With that gotten over with, Ryuu stood up from the ground, stretching his body in pain as he entered the firearms dojo. He had... gotten a basic gist of how to use magic bullets! Sort of. The otaku felt thankful to himself for bringing his trusty ol', limited edition "Han Solo Pistol." He absolutely adored it, but to think that he would get the chance to actually fire something out of it... it was an honor. Ryuu had the chance to be Harrison Ford for a while, or at least, that's how he thought of it.

...I swear to God, though, Han never shot first.

The otaku entered the firearms range and... was surprised to see a decent amount of people within the range. He frowned like a grumpy child, annoyed by the fact that there were... women... firing arrows... and the way the strings pressed against their-

Stormtroopers. Yup. The strings are pressing against stormtroopers.

Barely avoiding a perverted thought, the otaku walked quietly up to a shooting range. He honestly did not care if there were people around him: he needed to test this out as soon as possible. Ryuu took a deep breath as he slowly took out the pistol. Personally, he never fired a gun at something before. He always wanted to, but in order to do so, practice made perfect. He would improve by himself.

The otaku failed to realize that he just walked past an orange-haired girl shivering in fear.

Ryuu took a deep breath, staring at what appeared to be a shooting target.

...

Ryuu channeled his energy to the pistol... and focused on separating it from himself. It took him a while, but... he felt some progress. Take it slow. Take it slow...

The otaku, who had always swung swords in his entire life, fired his first bullet in his entire lifetime. The bullet totally missed, but he felt power. Power exit his body. It was the first time he ever let plasma leave his body. The plasma bullet flew before crashing straight into a wall next to the target, leaving a small puff of smoke on the wall.

Ryuu grinned wickedly, looking like a gangster who just killed every single one of the Yakuza. In fact, shooting the bullet felt so awesome, he decided to repeatedly fire at the target, regardless of whether he missed or not. And sure enough, he missed quite a lot... but one of the bullets went straight through the target. It was not powerful, but he was getting somewhere. The red plasma bullets made him feel awesome. After a few more shots, the otaku took a step back, sighing in relief.

"I think I'm better at shooting than that one demon archer."

Somewhere in Hell, Pace O. Shazt sneezed.

- Matt -
Matt looked around the gun shed. There were so many different kinds! Sure, he knew that there was a variety, but this many? And this was obviously not all of them. After all, there were no rocket launchers.

Matt followed Lily out of the shed again, and was just about to pick up the pistol she lay down to look at it when Lily told them to put on the safety glasses and ear muffs first.
Matt gave a sigh of relief that he was warned before he did something stupid, and then put on the safety gear. He patted his head phones, then pick up the gun, making sure to point it down range. Sure, he really wanted to look at it to see how it worked, but something told him to wait for instructions first.
"I'm ready." Matt said slightly louder than normal, as he was pretty much almost deaf.

- Xanthus -
He stood on the dock, looking around at the beach, not a soul in sight. Well... so much for that welcoming party I was promised... He chuckled, a small smile on his face. He swallowed, a bit nervous despite all of this time he'd used to prepare for this. He had to wonder where she was. He could feel her energy but it was faint and he didn't know why. For some reason, he couldn't get a good location on her. He just knew she was on this island.

He pulled the scarf off of his neck and put it on his arm, content to carry it. She'd given it to him a long time ago and he'd never been able to get rid of it. So much had changed for him. He was finally able to get his old body back and... most of his things. But at what price? He didn't really know anymore. The woman he'd seen didn't seem suspicious but... he still didn't know. What were her intentions? She seemed innocent enough but he could smell the demon on her. Then again, he might have just been smelling himself at that point. He chuckled to himself again and began walking off the dock. His bags should already been in his cabin according to that woman. Cross? Something with an M. He didn't know. He had a hard time with names. Still, one name was burned into his mind. His right hand moved down to touch his left arm, touching the white feather tattooed there.

I'm coming...

- Kathy -
Kathy nodded in agreement, already looking forward to their plans without even knowing what they were going to do. Taking his other hand, she got back up with Crash’s help, her heart beginning to beat a little fast again. Noticing the sand on her clothes, she reluctantly let go of one of them to dust the sand off before she looked back at him and noticed his expression had changed a bit. Then hearing his question, she couldn’t help but laugh again. “We were going over to your place for a bit. For,” She used a finger to gently poke the visible bruise on his cheek, “This. Remember?” Giving Crash’s hand another small squeeze, she began to take the lead this time towards the beach houses. “So which were you assigned? Tell me you remember, since I don’t fancy a breaking-and-entering as the first date.”

- Andromeda -
Andromeda heard him whisper 'dad' but she decided not to comment.
she was a little annoyed when he refused to answer her but she didn't say anything.
then he started crying after whispering something "Zivon? hey are you ok?" she leaned towards him, gently putting a hand on his leg "where's your dad now?" she asked, really hoping he wasn't dead or something and she was going to make it worse. She thought about her dad, she missed him, just him though, not home, and certainly not her mother. "I've only made you feel worse this entire time haven't i?" she rubbed at her forehead, a snake gently rubbing at her hand, trying to comfort her "I'm sorry, maybe i should leave"

- Carmen - [u]
Carmen was still confused. However, since the group seemed to be rolling with the gun thing and leaving Lily's...unique...actions behind, she mentally shrugged and went with it, dutifully following Lily until she was set up at her own station with all the equipment. Looking over the headphones and eyewear, Carmen sighed and put on the headphones, somehow managing to equip them without taking off her hat. She was sort of thankful that there wasn't a mirror around, because she surely wouldn't be satisfied with the look if there was. She turned to Lily and asked, only somewhat joking, "Don't you have more...fashionable protective items? I just can't be seen in these," she said, holding up the eyewear. Her face made it fairly obvious that she wasn't completely serious and being lighthearted about it, but...all the same, she had a glimmer of hope that more fashionable protective gear existed and was available for her use. Suddenly the prospect of learning to shoot became a smidgen less appealing. But, she reassured herself, if she stuck with it she could have more fashionable equipment made for her. Or, ordered from Amazon.

[u] - Lily -
She leaned over to look at Carmen and raise a brow at her. She chuckled and shot her a smile. "I think you look fine! Beautiful!" She shouted, chuckling at herself as she went back to helping Matt. She handed him the ammo and let him put it in himself, helping him along the way when he needed it. "Alright, keep the safety on. I'm going to go help Carmen now." She explained, making sure Matt knew where the button was.

- Xanthus -
His brow raised as he watched a man fly through the air, headed toward the middle of the island. Xanthus couldn't help but chuckled at the humor of it. With a shake of his head, he was headed in that direction.

Might as well go where the excitement is happening. Lily's bound to be there trying to patch the pour soul up even though she knows it hurts her.

- Zivon -
Zivon tried himself to stop crying but it got worst when he felt someone touching his leg, he panic as he moved back screaming a bit and looked at Andromeda with so much fear. He… didn’t like being touch, not by anyone but his dad, when he looked at her he was frightened and so scared as he remembered what bad things that happen to him before. Zivon was defiantly crying and panicking but he just hugged himself and tried to keep quiet. “…..” He soon became quiet and looked away. He shook his head and still was shaken with fear. Instead of talking he decided just to shake his head for yes and no questions. He leaned back at the shelf and shook his head trying to say he doesn’t like to be touch and his father wasn’t dead but was safe… from him. Zivon sighed and tried to stop freaking out and just smiled…unwillingly but he was trying to be better at socializing.

- Andromeda -
Andromeda pushed herself away when he freaked out "I'm sorry, I'm sorry"
she dropped backwards onto her bum. he nodded a few times in response to her questions, she wasn't quite sure what it meant. she pulled her knees around to her side and looked at him "i always mess things up, i hate to agree with anything my mom says, but i'm pretty useless" she looked the boy over "do you want me to go Zivon? before i make things worse"

- Zivon -
Zivon felt immediately guilty for making Andromeda thinking that she will make things worst. He was the one freaking out and crying but she didn’t know that. He sighed and rubbed the tears from his eyes. He shook his head saying no that it was fine but as much he wanted to say it he seemed to go mute for a while. Zivon decided to use the book at the book shelf he opened one book and immediately search for words so instead of nodding his head or staying quiet he could show words in the book to show what he want to say. “Sorry, My fault, its fine” He showed the words to her and tilted his heads till unwillingly to smile but still trying his best.

- Andromeda -
Andromeda saw his expression change when she said she was useless. he shook his head but couldn't seem to talk, then he grabbed a book and started pointing out words, saying it was his fault and apologizing.
"is something wrong with your voice? are you have troubling speaking?"
she looked down at the book again then back at him. "do you want to ask me anything? I've been doing all the asking"

- Crash -
Crash blinked twice before he offered her a sheepish grin, his free hand still touching his forehead his eyes lit up in recognition as she spoke. As she lifted her hand to his face he felt his pulse quicken, subconsciously the eye above his bruised cheek closed as her finger made contact with the cut. “I do now” He smiled as she gave his hand another small squeeze and begun off again towards the beach houses. He momentarily focused on the ground in front of him trying to get more of a grip on his facial expressions at the moment it seemed pretty stuck on a wide smile. His ears pricked as she asked him her question. Oh booften... his face fell for a moment before he could rectify it forcing a ‘thoughtful’ expression onto his face, he lifted a hand to his neck lifting his eyes to search the beach houses. “....sure...its...erm...” Crash murmured, his cheeks tinting as he wracked his brain for his door number. What was it...unlucky number...13! 113! “It’s 113” He announced, feeling pretty confident that he was right. Saved... Perhaps he got away with that one? “You don’t? Shame” He grinned deviously. “What do you fancy on a first date then?” He asked her as they made their way through the beach houses towards 113, upon arrival the door wasn’t locked and swung open with a gentle push. It was probably about this time Crash realized that he hadn't unpacked his bags properly yet, they were still stacked in the hallway although one of them had clearly been rifled through. “Ah...I forgot about that” He admitted with a sheepish grin.

- Kathy -
Kathy raised an eyebrow at him, beginning to wonder if her joke would not end as one. Luckily for both of them, Crash seemed to have recalled the number he was assigned to. Laughing she replied, "Something a little more on the legal side would be a good start." She followed him towards the correct house, she tried to think about what she considered an 'ideal' first date. "Hmm... To be honest, I'm actually not too sure." There was also the issue that they were currently on an island owned by the academy with a limited number of places they could go to. 'I'd probably be happy with anything you'd like to do though.' She thought, not quite wanting to admit that sort of cliched line aloud.

Inside, her gaze immediately went towards Crash's unpacked belongings. Shaking her head, she smiled at him. "Why don't we find the that first-aid kit of yours first, then I can help you unpack your belongings and get settled in?"

- Zivon -
Zivon shook his head and showed her words again. ‘No, Just scared, Problems…” He sighed again, sometimes his mute problems can get the better of him but he got used to it he though about what Andromeda said and though if he wanted to ask her something since he can use the book now he was way better an communication than before. “You are nice, better talking than me, Got nothing much to say,” Zivon pointed again those words and looked at Andromeda, her snakes interested him but he felt that asking about could hurt her feelings but he just ignored it that though. He unwilling smiled again and was still shaken with fear but not as much as before.

- Andromeda -
"it's ok to be scared" she said. it made her smile when he called her nice "i'm only good at talking because of my mom" she tried to smile but it occured to her it probably looked more like a grimace, she didn't like talking about her mom. "would you mind if i asked you a few questions then? if you have none for me?"
she looked away and it occurred to her that she had done no training what so ever this trip "have you done any training yet?"

- Zivon -
Zivon nodded to Andromeda and showed her again some words. “No training at all, okay to ask I guess…” He then looked around the Magical place, floating lights… he wished he could learn about this place a bit more but he just let out a content sigh. Zivon looked at his hands, he usually covered them with mittens or gloves but it always rots away so he had to be careful what he touches. At the end he does end up destroying anything he touches. He tried to cover up his hands with his sleeves and went back with his non-verbal conversation with Andromeda.

- Andromeda -
"i haven't trained either" she said, looking around as well. she smiled at him and asked "so were you in the contest earlier? i dressed up one of the guys, the one in the sailor outfit" she laughed at the memory. her eyes floated over the bookshelves beside them and she spotted a box she though looked interesting, she pulled it don and set it beside her to look at later. she returned her attention to Zivon "I've had a fun vacation so far, what about you?"

– Zivon –
Zivon tilted his head, a contest? Oh he remembered seeing the weird event things. A sailor outfit?...weird... Zivon then again looked through the pages of the book and showed some words. “No, Lost in forest, sprained ankle…scared…” He really wasn’t having a great vacation sadly but he knew it his own fault for it. Zivon looked at Andromeda and showed her some words again. “Having hard time having fun, scared really, can’t do anything about it…” He sighed and closed his eyes, he was still scared but he guessed he can never get that feeling out of him…ever…

- Matt -
Matt thanked Lily and attempted to load his gun. It was pretty simple, really. No gizmos or dodads. Just putting bullets into the gun.
After he finished, he held it up and pointed it down range after making sure safety was on.
One sure needs a whole lot of safety stuff to use such small devices. Matt thought. I guess that happens when you're using a death machine.
"Okay, ready." Matt said. "I'm assuming it would be a bad idea to look down the barrel just to make sure there's a bullet there?"

- Margaret -
The orange-haired girl budged once more, in hopes of getting up.

She did. This time, she did. The girl sat on her fours for a few seconds, blankly staring at the empty ground beneath her. She then applied strength to her arms, pushing her away from the dark abyss, facing yet another abyss. Margaret shivered for a split second before standing up on her feet.

Margaret stood on her feet. Her bare feet. Bare. She had bare feet. Well, not exactly bare feet. There was a protective layer of... something... wrapped around it. It looked like bandages. White bandages. White. White made her feel cold. Margaret looked away from her white feet(?), slowly walking toward where the red colors had gone off to. She had blindly walked, bumping into many things in the process. She even bumped against someone with what looked like a red jacket.

Ryuu wondered why someone decided to bump against him, but continued to practice his Han Solo shooting practice.

The orange-haired girl walked. Walk. She walked. Walk. She walked. Walk. She walked. She walked more. She walked even further.

The girl saw two bright colors again. Two red colors. They looked very pretty together. Maybe such was the reason why she had been thrown away. She was not pretty. Pretty. She was not pretty. She was defective. Defective. Too defective. Defective products were eventually thrown off to the trash. Trash. Was she trash?

Maybe she was trash.:'(

Margaret Clementine weakly trudged toward the two red colors, eyeing them without any emotions in her face. After all, defective things like her could not express emotions right at the moment. She walked toward the lights. She wanted the warmth to keep her warm. Just for a little while.

- Carmen -
Carmen reacted to Lily's playful compliment as any fashionista would: "Oh, stop it," with the requisite flip down of the hand and flip up of the head. It was wonderful. Still, she wasn't looking forward to putting on the glasses, but it looked like it was inevitable if she wanted to shoot. So she put them on and gingerly picked up the gun, flipping it over and over again in her hand. To an outsider it looked like she was looking at an alien artifact, and as far as she was concerned it was one. She had no idea how it worked except that you pressed the trigger to fire. She had read about guns in the books, but none of them ever had a practical explanation on how to fire one. Best learned in person, I guess, she thought to herself as she waited for Lily to come and help her out.

- Crash -
Crash’s grin widened as she took his devious comment in a lighthearted manner. “Ok, legal is a must...this is good we’re getting somewhere with this decision making” He commented before listening out for her answer to his question he bit his lower lip thoughtfully, he’d hoped she’d of had some idea. He adopted a rather serious and thoughtful expression as they moved over towards the beach house. ...ideas, come on! Think knucklehead think! Crash lifted a hand to the back of his neck, the tops of his cheeks tinting in embarrassment as he cast his gaze to his feet. “Puppy on speed” He shrugged at her as if this was a perfect explanation, he grinned and nodded at her before hesitantly releasing her hand he moved over to his bags grabbing both of them and tugging them into the room with a window (?) throwing the bags on the bed, he started rummaging through the empty one. “Kathy, ” Crash turned to glance at her, holding the first aid box in his hand though he’d managed to turf all of the clothing out of his bag whilst searching for it. “For the minute, just forget we’re on this island ok...we’re back at the academy. We can go anywhere we like, we can do anything we like” He told her. “Where would you like to go? Don’t hold back, just tell me whatever springs into your mind” He smiled at her warmly, before turning his attention to his first aid box pulling out a tube of cream, he waited patiently for her answer fumbling with the lid on the cream, he gripped the hem of his shirt hesitating for a moment. “I’m just going to take this off...” He warned her, giving her a chance to react.

- Kathy -
Kathy was about to offer to help carry one of the bags over to his room, but had to settle for just following Crash because he had already started to carry to carry them both over with ease. She looked around the room and commented, "I guess all the houses are just the same." For some reason she had a slight thought that perhaps Crash's room would be different from hers, which made no sense considering the fact he hadn't even unpacked yet and the houses were probably all built to be near-identical to one another. "Hm?" Hearing her name, she turned her attention back to Crash and listened to his question. She smiled back at him, "I could ask the same to you really." She momentarily stuck a small portion of her tongue out at him again. Then looking thoughtful again, she gave him an actual answer to his question. "Maybe... Go to a movie together." There was a slight tint of colour in her cheeks as she gave him the answer, despite the fact she didn't seem to be saying anything to embarrassing.

Getting distracted for a moment, she let out a small laugh and pointed at some of the clothes Crash had taken out. "You may want to put some of that away." He had accidentally laid out some more 'personal' articles of clothing into view. Apparently she wasn't too shy with seeing undergarments though, since she didn't attempt to shield her eyes or turn away as she pointed them out.

Then hearing his warning she began, "Ah, um..." Her face turning even more red, Kathy murmured, "... S-Should I help you with your back..?" She didn't think she could really stare at the front of his torso, but thought she might be able to handle his back. Hopefully. After all, she did accept his invitation out of the dojo to help him to treat the bruises.

- Crash -
Crash glanced at her momentarily, looking thoughtful for a second. “Really? I thought the girls rooms would have been ‘fancier’” He mused, his smile broadening as she momentarily poked her tongue out at him. “You could” He agreed with her. He chewed his lip thoughtfully hearing her answer and watching the color seep into her face, he chuckled. “Ok, why are you blushing?” He asked aware this could cause her to flush further. “A movie sounds like a great idea...we could even do that here you know” He pointed out to her with a small smile. “If you could watch any movie what would it be?” Was his next question, he had a warm smile plastered on his face. He blinked at her as she let out a small laugh, he felt hi cheeks color as she pointed at his bed, he noticed a scattered assortment of boxers...He dropped the cream on his bed momentarily, quickly scooping them back up and into the bag she didn’t need to see the collection of cartoon characters adorning his undergarments, he tried particularly hard to hide the ones with a familiar little red Bandicoot on them. “Erm..yeah sorry about that” He smiled rubbing the back of his neck once he’d stuffed them back in the bag.Crash watched her face flush with color, expecting her to turn away he blinked in surprise as she offered to help him...he hadn’t...”I’m not sure what the damage is...but that would be appreciated” He murmured, he felt warmth seep into his own cheeks, he pulled his shirt over his head turning side on to her and chucking it on the bed instantly pulling a face at the assortment of purple marks adorning his abdomen, “I really got to be more careful” He sighed, trying to see the damage to his back there was probably only a few here and there nothing major unlike his front, he’d already started treating those. “Arnica, should bring out the bruising quicker and sooth them...erm thanks for this...sorry to ask you” He thanked her.

- Lily -
She walked over to Carmen with a smile on her face. She had just enough time to see that girl again, headed towards Matt. She felt herself tense up but she wanted to ignore it. So she did. Her face dropped a bit, however as she walked over to Carmen. "Here. I'll show you how to load it." She told Carmen, holding out her hand for the gun. She took in gingerly and slowly put ammo into the barrel. When done, she made sure the safety was on and that Carmen knew where it was. She looked up at gave Carmen a weak smile before walking back a bit. "Alright. You may take off your safety and fire at will." She yelled.

"Clear on the gun range!" She shouted as she walked into the range master's station to watch.

- Xanthus -
He felt his heart beat quicken when he heard her voice shouting to clear the gun range. It didn't matter what she was talking about, he was mostly just proud of himself that he'd been able to locate her so quickly. He chuckled. I guess I know the love of my life pretty well then, eh?

With a smile on his face he drew closer to the gun range and stepped inside. He couldn't immediately see her but his eyes scowered the range for her. He raised a brow and chuckled again when he noticed the same guy that had been flying threw the sky. I guess you never really know what to expect at these sort of places.

For now, Xanthus kept his presence hidden. He didn't want Lily feeling his energy though he didn't know if he could hide it with the close proximity. She'd have to realize soon. It kind of blew his mind that she wasn't already looking for him. He walked up to the guy he'd seen flying through the air and simply watched with bright eyes, content to enjoy everything for now. He'd get his reunion soon enough.

- Margaret -
The girl saw one of the lights move away... It must have hated her. Hate. She... did not want to hate. But was she hated? Hate. It synchronized well with defective. Defective. She was a hated defective. Was she? Maybe. The girl shivered again, walking closer to the red color that remained still on the station. It glowed brightly. It was beautiful. Beautiful. Red was beautiful. So far it was beautiful. Margaret shivered again. She felt cold.

The girl reached out for the red color once more, intent on rubbing it for warmth once more. Though, she would do it lightly so that the color would not smash her off somehow. She felt scared. Scared. Scared that she would be tossed aside again. Trash. She did not want to be trash.

[Driving Park]

Summary: DRAMA AT THE GUN RANGE :O (feat. some dude named Xanthus) A-Z convo hype. The Krashy train has no brakes.

- Ryuu -
Now, Ryuu had been having a reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally fun time spamming the living sh-t out of the plasma bullets he just learned how to use. While the bullets themselves lacked that enormous power real bullets had right at the moment, he was getting somewhere. At least they went through the fairly weak targets he had been shooting like crazy. Red bullets that looked liked lasers soon began to at least hit a little closer to the target.

Ryuu was shooting Han Solo style, meaning that he sort of had a freestyle shooting pose. Surprisingly enough, he had gotten one bullseye. Just ONE, though. He should not be getting cocky, or else he would forget that he needed to train to improve, not brag.

So when someone began watching him, the otaku thought,

Oh sh-t.

Ryuu felt like he needed to focus a little more. In fact, something about this guy made him feel nervous in general. First things first, he looked better than him. Second, he looked cool. And finally, he looked better than him. For some reason, good-looking men seemed to have inflicted a trauma upon Ryuu Yamauchi, and he had every right to hate such handsome people. Or at least, that was what he thought.

Then again, Tora used to have women swarming around him even in his own house, which the martial artist found creepy. Ryuu agreed with his adoptive brother's emotions. The less handsome you were, the less women would d-ck around you! The wise words of Santa Claus...

One of his bullets hit a bullseye again. Ryuu partially had to thank himself for the fact that he did not need to reload.

...

The otaku could not handle it anymore. He partially turned his head to show that he was aware of Xanthus' presence. Raising his eyebrow, the sunglasses-wearing student shot once more, hitting a pretty decent shot, before lowering his weapon.

It was rude to talk to people with your back faced toward them, so he turned face-to-face with the dude in question.

"...Uh... 'sup," Ryuu said.

...

...

...

...

...Aaaaaaaaaaaand the conversation's over! Ryuu angrily thought to himself. Holy crap, that was fast.

- Carmen -
Carmen let Lily show her the ropes to loading and setting up to fire. She heard Lily shout an uncharacteristically authoritative command, and was now ready to fire. She didn't really know what to expect, but she decided to just roll with it and brought the gun up to firing position, taking off the safety. Tightly gripping the gun with both hands, she took aim at her target dummy, taking a predictably long time as with the bow and arrow.

She fired.

It was loud, even with the ear protection.

She also hadn't been expecting the kickback nor the muzzle climb, and actually overshot the target, as she had been aiming for the head and not the torso. She looked around, and said quietly to herself, "let's hope nobody saw that," lining up for her second shot. Aiming for the torso this time and more prepared for the gun's response to being fired, she fired again, hitting the target square in the center. That's better, she thought. She still had a good amount of her clip left, so she decided to open fire and see what some repeat shots were like. Emptying the rest of her clip quickly into the target, she was fairly successful, hitting the target each time but in a fairly wide range within said target.

She didn't care.

"...that was fun."

And with that, she went to load another magazine.

- Lily -
She smiled watching Carmen's first reactions with the gun. She wished her own first experience had been so tame. It had been a lot more... stressful for her. She was a bad shot and being chased didn't help. No one had warned her about the kickback or any of that stuff. She assumed it would be easy. She sighed, watching Carmen more as she unloaded her clip in the dummies. Lily smiled and clapped her hands from the range master's station, silently cheering her new... friend on.

- Xanthus -
The purple haired demon smiled as he watched this man fire off bullet from.. well.. he didn't know where. He chuckled a bit. It was always so interesting seeing other people's powers. It'd been so long since he'd even used his. though, he supposed now he'd have to start training again. Though, had he ever trained in the first place? His expression grew sour as he thought of the angel guards that had been on top of him, pinning him to the ground in heaven. He was stupid for assuming he could have done anything. Though, he knew that if he'd been properly prepared, he could have done it.

Xanthus' brow raised when the man turned to look at him and still continued to fire. He chuckled and teased, "You know, it's dangerous to shoot without looking." He spoke, his voice dark and smooth. He tried his best to contain his laughter when the man simply replied, "Uhh... 'Sup?" Xanthus shook his head and smiled at the man. "Nothing much. I was just watching you. That's a pretty interesting power. Mind... explaining? I'm only curious." He asked, leaning against the post.

"I'm Xanthus by the way. It's nice to meet you, flying man." He greeted the man with a chuckle.

- Kathy -
“Um… No particular reason.” Kathy told him. Given the context she knew that even very gullible people would have difficulty believing her answer, but she didn’t quite feel like disclosing to reason to him just yet. Giving him a sheepish look, she shook her head slightly as an indication that she didn’t want to discuss it any further. Then listening to him continue with the dating inquiry, she let tried to feign annoyance, though the large smile on her face made it difficult to pull such a look off. “I can’t be the only one planning this out Crash. Your turn, same question. What movie would you want to watch?”

Staring at the Bandicoot boxers in particular before Crash hastily put it away, she gave him a grin and teased, “Apparently you’re not as averse to being a Bandicoot WOOas you acted to be.” Deciding to give him a break she decided to stop there after adding one last thing to say. “And no need to apologize for that.” She thought, ‘I wasn’t the one troubled by that after all.’

Kathy had a hand on her cheek in an attempt to cool it down as she walked over to where Crash was. Her embarrassment subsided a bit when she saw the bruises on him though. Making a thin frown, she attempted a quick poke on his side. “You weren’t supposed to let Crash get hurt, remember?” Taking the cream out of his hands, she placed some on her fingers and began to apply some of the cream onto his back. “… No problem…” She murmured, trying not to think too much as she gently brushed her fingers over the bruises. “L-Let me know if it hurts, okay..? And don’t you dare turn around..!” She added the last part rather hastily. Even though Crash had seen her blush quite a few times by now, she still didn’t want him to look at her while her face as glowing red.


- Crash -
Crash raised a questioning eyebrow at her, catching her sheepish look and shake of the head he didn’t push an further with his enquiry...though he was curios. He flushed with color as she tried to feign annoyance, he couldn’t take it seriously not with the large smile that spread across her face, it made a chuckle rumble through his chest. Though her comment made him adopt a sheepish look and rub the back of his neck awkwardly. “H-hey I wasn’t expecting you to plan everything!” He stuttered out. Movie? When was the last time I sat still enough for one of those... “I can’t think of a specific movie but my 3 favourite categories are...Sci-fi, Thrillers and...” He trailed off, flushing with a fresh wave of color. “Romcoms” He murmured in a low voice before clearing his throat. “Would your choices fall into that?” He asked her.

Crash flushed further attempting to scowl but failing miserably at it as his mouth was adamant it wanted to smile. “Shh, nobody needs to know that” He told her with a sheepish grin.

Crash hadn’t been expecting her to poke him, so he didn’t avoid her jab instead as her finger made contact with his skin he quite comically recoiled away from her touch actually squeaking in surprise. “H-hey!” He exclaimed, his cheeks flushing further, he adopted a rather childish sulky expression twitching whenever her hands went near him. “I thought I wasn’t supposed to get ‘Crash hurt’ through accidents?” He grinned at her as she took the cream from his hands. “I bruise easily that’s what the problem is” He commented, flinching momentarily from the cold feel of the cream before relaxing as best as he could hearing her speak he turned his head ever so slightly towards her, instantly wanting to turn around because she had told him not to. “What why?” He couldn’t keep the playful tone out of his voice.

- Kathy -
"Romcoms?" Kathy repeated with a smile. Out of all the categories he had listed, for some reason that one actually seemed to suit him the most. She could easily imagine him watching and laughing at a romantic comedy, sitting comfortably in a living room with a bowl of popcorn on his lap. "I'd be good with any of those, except for thrillers." She admitted, "I'm actually worse with jump-scares and suspenseful type of things than actual horror." Then seeing Crash's attempt at a scowl, though the big smile on his face refused to fade away, she couldn't help but tease him again. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone... For now." Inwardly she thought, 'Weakness number 2 has been noted.'

After taking a poke (literally) at weakness number 1, she let out a laugh at the highly-expected but still amusing reaction. "Hmm, that's quite an impressive octave to reach. Especially for a guy." Kathy wasn't entirely sure she could get her voice as high as his when he squeaked. 'Probably not something he feels all that proud of,' She thought with a smile, 'But that's probably what's so interesting about it. Wow, and to think that until now I was always the one being teased. I seem to be on a roll this time.' Unfortunately, there were slight hints that her time as the one getting the laughs with the teasing was going to end soon. "No, don't you dare." Kathy warned him, feeling very much aware of the heat on her face as she rubbed the cool cream onto his bruises. "And you're not allowed to... Because." She finished lamely, not having a real legitimate excuse as to why he wasn't supposed to turn around. It was also hard to think of a creative reason when she was trying her best to keep her mind distracted.

Finished applying the cream, she leaned back a bit to check and make sure she didn't miss any spots. "... Your back's bigger than I thought it was." She murmured, briefly running her fingers along his back between his shoulder blades. Catching herself, Kathy quickly cleared her throat and announced, "Done." She backed away from him with the cream still in her hand and turned around so he could get dressed again.


- Crash -
Crash lifted one of his shoulders a smidgen as if in a half shrug, a lopsided smile crossing his face, the left side of his lifting slightly higher than the right. "Yes Romcoms, especially the older ones" He admitted not entirely precise on how 'old' he meant, now he was thinking about it however his movie knowledge seemed to be seeing back to him. He tilted his head to the side thoughtfully her confession hadn't taken him entirely by surprise, his smile grew into a grin. "Hmm, yeah jump-scares aren't the best parts of thrillers..." He agreed. " For now?" He repeated attempting an unimpressed look this time, reaching up with a hand to pull the corners of his mouth down...not that, that worked either he gave up after a few seconds chuckling at his own expense. Oh well, you didn't expect to escape that for long did you?

Crash had considered taking that comment as a gracious compliment perhaps if it had come from someone else he'd have been better guarded against it instead his cheeks flushed a sheepish look crossing his expression as his response to her was to poke the tip of his tongue out at her childishly. "I'm sure you'd be able to rival it, if I tickled you" He voiced, obviously fishing for a reaction he wasn't about to start a battle he couldn't win but he was a little curious.Crash allowed the devious look to remain on his face as he peeked over his shoulder at her, even after her less than creative reasoning behind her objection. "I'm sorry, was that a dare?" He asked her, though he didn't completely turn around he did catch a quick glance of her flushed face before he turned his head away again his own cheeks flushing, he had just finished treating the last bruise on his abdomen.

Crash had been trying to focus on other things whilst her fingers danced across his back, he wasn't doing very well his cheeks were emitting heat like a radiator though he had an amused grin on his face it faded back into a docile smile as he heard her murmur behind him. He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat, his Adam's apple gliding as she briefly ran her fingers between his shoulder blades...he was pretty sure he didn't have any bruises there. "Hmm..." Crash hummed...almost instantly lifting a hand to his face covering it in embarrassment as he realized what he'd done. W-what was that?! You were supposed to say a coherent word! He cleared his throat, glancing over his shoulder at her as she announced she was done. "T-thanks" He stammered, reaching for his shirt he quickly pulled it back on, stepping towards her he gently reached out to poke both of her sides. "I'm decent" He grinned dancing around her to open his other bag. "You know...I think catching a movie could be possible on this island" He mused aloud. "It might not be the same here but it'd still be fun, I can guarantee it" He assured her with a smile, the bag in front of him was mainly occupied by odds and sods, CD's, a few photographs, a few different types of drumsticks, headphones, phone. "We don't have to do this by the way...If you don't want to" Crash piped up rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly and grinning sheepishly

- Ryuu -
"You know, it's dangerous to shoot without looking," said the man before Ryuu. The otaku felt like derping out as he thought dumbly,

wat.

The otaku, however, saw this as a chance to get along with... presumably another student of Athalia Academy. After all, talking to strangers wasn't dangerous for him at all: especially when he had a power that could be utilized to create swords. He put a hand in his pocket as he greeted back,

"Name's Ryuu. I use plasma powers; and that's just a very pretty summarization of what it actually is."

Ryuu looked Xanthus from head-to-toe, not knowing if he would be taken for some gangster looking for the classic "lunch money," as he asked Xanthus,

"You new around here? I'm pretty new- and..... I definitely decided to fly on purpose. Of course I wouldn't start flying around on accident, right? Yup."

Meanwhile, Nikola woke up.

- Kathy -
“Should I take that as a challenge?” Kathy asked, laughing again. She briefly made one of her hands hover over his side, not quite touching his skin but close enough that the ‘threat’ was probably real enough. She had caught the slight peek he had made at her face. Feeling a tinge disgruntled, she poked at one of the bruises on his back. “… I said no looking.” Though she hadn't really expected to hear a reply from her murmur, for some reason his hum made her feel a bit nervous. 'Maybe I shouldn't have said that aloud..?'

Kathy jumped up and quickly pushed his hands away when she was poked on both sides. "Haha- hey! Sneak attacks are against the rules." The blush on her face beginning to cool down she looked up at him and nodded. "Yeah, sounds like a date then." She smiled as she replied, then looked at the bag in front of them. Kathy ruffled his hair and began, "No procrastinating Crash Bandicoot. And it'll be faster with two people right?" Noticing the drumsticks in particular she commented, "Say, I don't think I've really seen you carry these around today. Is it just because we're at the beach and all?"

- Matt -
Matt aimed at the target's chest, focusing as hard as he could. He didn't really expect to hit it, after all, he never used a gun before. Just as he was about to shoot, he felt something touch his head.
"Ack!" he exclaimed, surprised. He shot as he jumped, making his aim go all wrong. He missed by a mile.

- Andromeda -
"oh that sucks, how'd you get out?" she brought a hand up and was messing with the snakes.
Andromeda frowned "i'm sorry Zivon, i can't really do much that's beach related, for everyone else's safety, so i can't really help you have fun" her hand dropped, landing on the book beside her "being scared all the time must be kinda sad" she said looking at him.

[/u] - Xanthus - [/u]
Xanthus nodded his head in respect out of hearing the man's name. Ryuu. It was a nice name if a little... unusual? Then again, maybe Xanthus was just uncultured. Maybe his name was weird to them too. He watched with mild amusement as Ryuu looked him up and down and then asked if he was new.

"New to here? Yes. New to all of this? Fairly." He explained, laughing at the man's answer about his flight earlier. "I kind of wish I could fly. I had a friend that could and she always left me in the dust." He continued, smiling warmly at his new friend. "But plasma powers must be fun. I guess it a bit different from shadow control. I mean, I can't really... like... travel shadows but I can turn shadows into weapons, yanno? Similar to your power only Shadows are the materials I use." He explained, looking Ryuu up and down in the same manner that the male had done to him.

- Lily -
She turned when she heard something from Matt's end. He'd fired in a weird direction, no where near his target. Something's wrong...

"Hold fire!" She shouted, her voice filling the entirety of the range.

She flew out of the range master's station and bolted for Matt's station, completely missing the streak of purple hair in the station next over. "Matt, are you okay?" She asked in a worried voice. She stopped when she saw the girl from before. "Oh..." She mumbled and swallowed. She sighed and then bent down to get on level with the girl. Jealousy or not, what the girl had done was dangerous and needed to be taken care of.

"Hey. It's dangerous to do that to someone that's about to shoot. If he's got his safety off, you need to stay out of his station and watch from afar. Come on, come with me. I'll take you to a seat where you can watch him." She explained to the girl, hating every word.

- Margaret -
The girl flinched when she heard something loud come from the red light in front of her. Gun. A gun. Gun?

She was unable to register the word "gun," even though she remembered it. Gun... It sounded familiar.

Still, she had returned to the warmth. The red color was warm. She liked warm. Margaret stared at the color as if it she was a child staring at a new toy given to her. She felt glad to have been reunited with the warmth once more.

Yet again, a loud noise echoed throughout the entire place, though it did not belong to a gun. It was a voice.

Margaret blinked, not knowing what was going on. Suddenly, all of the "guns" stopped making the funny, loud noises. She turned around, wondering if something different was going to happen. Different. She just got here. She wanted things to remain the same for a while. Just for a little while.

The girl turned again, finding a new red color near the one she had been with. She actually remembered the new red light! It was the one that separated her from the warmth. Margaret stared at the new color with her emotionless face, wondering if she was going to be torn away from the warmth again.

The orange-haired girl blinked when she realized that the new color was talking to her. Or, so it seemed. Maybe she was right, actually. Margaret, however, did not understand what the color was saying. Did it hate her? Did she know she was defective?

She softly squeezed herself onto the warmth near him, wondering what to say- or more importantly, how to speak.

- Ryuu -
The otaku raised an eyebrow, a devilish grin on his face. Of course, he unintentionally looked pretty mean, though he himself was still unaware of it. Putting away his gun- loosely letting it hang out of his large pocket- the sharp-haired student nodded at Xanthus.

"Good to hear that I'm not the only new dude, here." Ryuu grinned again, telling the fellow male, "Flying is pretty random for me. I guess you can say I enjoy it... At times. Yeah."

Xanthus' powers actually took the otaku by surprise. Still, he was not as surprised as he would have been when he first came to the academy. Blinking at Xanthus for a brief second, the Yamauchi let out a huff of air, simply giving the shadow-user a smirk.

"Never heard of anyone that could make shadow gizmos. Sounds better than my conveniently bright powers."

Ryuu laughed sarcastically at himself, taking note that his eyes were already weak to light. Just when he was about to introduce Xanthus to another part of his backstory, someone told the entire range to stop shooting. The sunglasses-wearing student himself was not firing any weapons right at the moment, and he did not really care about why everyone was told to stop shooting, either. He did, however, take interest when a red-haired beauty suddenly walked over to another red-haired dude and... an orange-haired woman. Ryuu did not recall seeing her before.

Wait a second, the Yamauchi said, putting up a hand beneath his chin, there were some rumors about some orange thing roaming around the school supplies. They say that's the reason why the academy kept losing so much bread... Maybe the orange thing is that person?

Ryuu thought over what he just thought before admitting it sounded like BS.

"I wonder what's going on over there," the otaku said, looking over at Lily's direction, with his hands in his pockets. "Seems like one of them's causing a fuss?"

– Zivon –
Zivon nodded as she said being scared the whole time is sad…it does but what can you do about it? He sighed and scratched his head. ”Ran away fast, sad…yes but I have to learn with it… Fun, I guess I can cook for fun…” Zivon showed Andromeda the words again, he did like to cook so it didn’t bother that cooking could be the only fun thing that he could do at this island.

- Andromeda -
"oh really? my mom would never let me cook, you find it fun?" she smiled, "that's nice" Andromeda chuckled

- Matt -
Matt turned to see what caused his surprise to see the orange haired girl again. She had followed him. Before he could say anything Lily marched up to them.
Lily gave the girl a talk about how it was dangerous to get near people while they were shooting. The girl didn't do anything except squeeze tighter. What was going on?
"I don't think she understands English." Matt told Lily while he put his gun on safety.

- Andromeda -
"oh really? my mom would never let me cook, you find it fun?" she smiled, "that's nice" Andromeda realized she was running out of topics to talk about "if i tell you about my curse, will you tell me about yours? i really want to know, if you're willing to tell" she pulled the book up into her lap so her hands would have something to do.

- Oona -
Oona had sat on the beach for a long time after everyone left, it was really peaceful, hearing the waves slide across the sand. finally though she stood up and headed towards the dojos she had heard about. when she stepped through onto the lot and the buildings coalesced she stopped to listen. she couldn't hear anything from the building that reminded her of a library, from the others she heard the sounds of combat and the last one seemed relatively quiet, like all the action had just stopped, she decided to head to that one.
she walked in, there were quite a few people in there, she glanced around and discovered it was a range of some kind, fire arms probably. Oona then saw a girl holding(?) a bow, she appeared to be made of plants, this interested her so she crossed to her, "Hello, My name's Oona, what's yours?"

- Zivon -
Zivon kept quiet a bit as she asked for his curse he didn’t want to say it but she did say that she will talk about her curse… a win win situation he guessed, Zivon sighed heavily and showed her again some words. “Death… touches things and turn dead… not human or animals… Can be destructive and hurt many people… Can’t control it well, fueled by fear. Can turn things back to normal though but only if I am calm…” Zivon then closed his eyes it felt awkward just telling Andromeda these things but it was better to show her the words then just keeping quiet.

- Garden -
While looking at the bow a white hair girl walked closed to her and introduced herself as Oona. She curtsied to her and gave a friendly smile. “Nice meeting you Lady Oona my name is Garden nice to meet you.” Garden said to her while holding the bow she then asked Lady Oona something. “You here for the training? I was hoping to get some training myself but I don’t know about this bow here… It quite an interesting object I have to say…” Garden inspected more of the bow; if she had some glue and some tools she could do wonders with this bow.

- Andromeda -
Andromeda was silent as he told her "my curse is death too" she closed her eyes and rubbed at them, before pushing her glasses back into place "i don't know what color my eyes are" she started "i assume you know who medusa is? almost everyone does, i'm her so many greats grand daughter" she looked away "i kill people with my gaze"
she sighed and looked back up at him "you've got one up on me, i can't turn people back after they turn to stone, theiy're gone ... forever" she flipped the book open so she didn't have to look at him.

- Oona -
Oona, being a rich kid, wasn't even surprised when the girl called her 'lady'. she smiled at the girl and dipped her head slightly at the curtsey "it's nice to meet you too Garden"
When the girl asked her about training she simply nodded, Oona chuckled slightly at the bow "would you like me to show you how to use it? i quite enjoy it, my parents would never let me around guns so i whined until they let me take archery lessons, it quite simple if you want to learn"

- Carmen -
Carmen had successfully loaded another magazine into her gun when suddenly Lily's still uncharacteristically authoritative voice rang out over the gun range. "Hold fire!"

"Well what on Earth for?!" Carmen asked, not loud enough for really anyone else to hear. Looking over to her right, she saw Matt still being clung to by that girl. "...oh," she said, realizing the explanation. Soon Lily was down there, telling the girl the dangers of hugging a shooter. I bet nobody's ever had to say that before, she thought to herself.

- Zivon -
Zivon felt again guilty for making Andromeda talking about her curse, it sounded rough and living a life like that… he would be insane already and maybe… ended his life… He shook his head thinking that though and showed her again some words. “Sorry, must be very hard… that burden… but you must be strong to live through that… a strong will.” Zivon looked away for a moment and sighed, she must be strong willed to live though that. “Common… we have a lot in common” He actually smiled at Andromeda but not unwillingly but for a while he smiled at her naturally.

- Garden -
Garden clapped her hands together and smiled happily. “Oh that would be wonderful of you Lady Oona thank you!” She curtsied to her again and looked at the bow. “Archery lessons… sounds fun, I could never do those sporty things due to I have to learn about economics and so much more “ Living life as a princess… is not much fun at all.

- Andromeda -
Andromeda chuckled a little when he called her strong "i'm a product of my raising, if you had to live with a witch you'd be strong willed too"
she took a deep breath "sometimes i can ignore it, if i'm not paying attention sometimes i forget about it, and i'm happy" she smiled "it's been awhile since i've really had to worry about it"
she cleared her throat "yeah, we have a lot in common" Andromeda looked him over "so ... do you want to ask about the snakes?" she giggles "everyone does, it's the first thing they notice"

- Oona -
Oona liked the way Garden reacted "come on" she lead her over to one of the ranges, taking the bow with her. hen Garden was beside her she lifted it up "first off you have to hold it like this " she held the bow out for Garden "be very careful, hold the bow out at arm's length before you pull back the string, but don't tense up your arm, you wanna try?"

- Lily -
She closed her eyes and tried to keep her temper. Something about this girl set Lily off and she kind of wished it didn't. She wished she could just go back to be kind and naive. Maybe she could... pretend? She opened her eyes and looked up at Matt as he told her he didn't think she understood English. She nodded her head slowly and began to look at the little girl. She turned her head sideways, thinking a bit.

Maybe if I just...

She took a deep breath and smiled at the girl. "This won't hurt." She told her and then reached out her arm. She touched the girl for just a second and felt a large shock and pulled away. "Ow!" She mumbled, holding onto her finger. Robotic? But she felt human. She had an energy. Robots didn't have energy... She looked up again at Matt and looked at the girl's hands as they clutched onto him. "Come here..." She said softly and held out her arms to the small girl, trying to coax her into coming into Lily's arms. At least that way she'd have a more direct way to heal the girl... If she even could...

- Xanthus -
He turned when he heard her voice, his head shooting up like a deer caught in headlights. His eyes were wide. Not really full of worry, just a bit... surprised? Just from her voice it sounded like she'd changed. He felt his heart skip a beat when he saw her. She'd changed again. She looked older. Then again, so did he. He saw her walked over to two other students, one of them quite small. He had to wonder what was going on. He also had to wonder why he didn't just walk over there and grab her away and take her with him. He had a half mind to do so but... Something stopped him.

He heard Ryuu say something, asking about what was going on over there. Xanthus turned to look at him and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure. I'm not even sure if we should try to find out. They don't really look like they needed to be crowded around. I guess we should just hang back here?" He asked, seeing it as the most reasonable thing to do. Plus, he was nervous again...

- Margaret -
The girl stared at the red color apparently looking at her.

She then felt something touch her, though Margaret did not flinch at the thing. For it felt... warm. For a split second. She liked warm. Warm was red. Red meant warmth. The girl stared at the red color, then at the color she was clinging onto, before looking at the other color again. Margaret felt timid. Timid. She promised herself to remember timid. She felt timid by standing in front of the two colors. One felt warm. Two made her feel warm inside. She could not process why she felt warm.

After staring at the different light for a little while, the girl looked back up at the red color she was currently holding onto, before looking back at the other red color. Perhaps she was not defective? Maybe she had a chance of being fixed... Margaret shivered, clinging onto Matt tightly one more time before loosening up. She weakly let go of the red color, immediately feeling cold again.

The girl seemed extremely reluctant in approaching the red color. What would the color do if she approached it? Margaret... decided to take a step forward.

She wobbled as she took another step. She stepped further once more. She stepped again. And again.

The girl began to rub the new color, feeling warmth again. She hoped... she can stay with the warmth. She hoped the warmth would not leave her...

- Ryuu -
Ryuu had an eyebrow raised throughout watching the process of some girl walking into another girl's arms.

"That was unusually amusing," he quietly admitted.

The otaku looked back at Xanthus, shrugging as he agreed with the shadow manipulating student,

"I mean like... sure, I guess. Whatever fits your preferences. I'm just watching some girl walking into another girl's arms with lots of amusement."

- Zivon -
Zivon shook his head and then again for how many times showed her some words. “I was curious but inclined to say anything about it, they look nice though” Zivon gave another natural but very small smile then his stomach growled… he didn’t eat anything since he got to the island. “Hungry..” He said oddly enough he got out of his mute shell. He patted his stomach and stood up, since he could speak normally again he tried but still ended up stuttering a lot. “I-I…a-m goi-ng to co…o-ok-k so-m…ethi-ng to ea-t… y-ou w-w…a-nt to joi-n?”

- Garden -
Garden walked with Lady Oona as they walked their way to the ranged. As Lady Oona explained how the first step thing was done she took a deep breath and positioned herself as she saw with Lady Oona. She then let out the deep breath and pulled the string she accidentally let of the string and weirdly the bow flew out of her hands and ended smacking her face. “Ack!!” She scremed as the bow smack her face hard causing her to fall on the floor. “Ow… I guess I am not good with these type of weird machinery…” She laughed a bit while she rubbed her face from the pain.

- Matt -
Lily thought for a moment, then reached out to grasp the girl. Just as Lily touched her, however, she jumped back for some reason.
"Are you okay?" Matt asked, worried. What on earth was going on? He felt somewhat like this day had broke. Had literally broke, and was somehow not functioning as it was supposed to.

Lily took a step back, and attempted to coax the girl off Matt. At first, nothing happened, but then the girl slowly let go of Matt and began to walk towards Lily. She walked wobbly. Somehow, this whole experience made Matt think of a baby.
A baby! Matt thought. She acts like a baby! She can't understand English, but can understand emotions. She holds onto me because doing so makes her feel safe!

---

Ed: This post marks the end of an era. We are returning to on-Guild posting, so these huge posts and their summaries that I lovingly crafted with knowledge, humor and a touch of stupidity are resigned to history. It's been a good run, folks... *sniff*

[FaithsRose]

- Crash -

Crash felt the corners of his mouth twitch up as she laughed. “Possibly” He confirmed though he visibly tensed as he felt her hand hover by his side, a mask of worry apparent on his face as he naturally twitched away from the heat of her palm, flinching a she executed her revenge and prodded one of his many bruises, he visibly winced at the sharp pain the prod caused but it was only brief. He had a retort on the tip of his tongue but now that he thought about it he’d rather not suffer another injury for being an ass.

Instead he settled for poking her back, laughing lightly at her reaction as she jumped into the air and pushed at his hands. He playfully poked his tongue out at her “I think you’ll find they’re not” He assured her with a small mischievous grin. As he stood by the bag wondering whether he was going to get away with just abandoning it here, he saw her hand move up towards him causing him to briefly close one of his eyes, his wayward hair flattening onto his face as she ruffled his hair this was an action he wasn’t averse to, mainly because he’d linked it to her as it seemed to be a regular form of interaction between them. Hearing his ‘new’ nickname he merely huffed in annoyance, though it wasn’t an overly convincing expression.

“True...” He admitted as he reached forward and grabbed the bag housing the majority of his clothes, he strode over to the drawers (?) to begin putting them away neatly. Leaving Kathy to rummage through the other bag which he was sure only had a few shirts and a small assortment of objects. You didn’t leave anything stupid in that bag did you? he thought idly to himself Knowing you, you probably did... He was pulled from his thoughts as her voice reached his ears, he looked up at her with curious crimson eyes “I hadn’t unpacked them otherwise I probably would have had them on me, although considering how today has been so far I’m quite glad I left them here” He replied with a light hearted smile; before he returned to the arduous task of neatly putting his clothes in drawers, his gaze occasionally drifted to rest on Kathy.

I wonder... He cleared his throat as if to get her attention “If we’re going to do this, want to play a game with me whilst we are?” He asked her, catching her eye before explaining the one he had in mind. “I’m going to ask you 8 questions and give you 10 seconds to think of an answer for each one” He started his explanation amusement lighting up his expression. “You have to say the first thing that comes into your mind. You can ask me afterwards if you want” He offered with a challenging twinkle in his crimson eye and a mischievous smile dominating his expression. He had almost finished putting his clothes away by now considering there hadn’t been an awful lot to begin with. “It’ll be fun I promise!” He assured her with a quick wink, warmth apparent in his features though a thoughtful look crossed his expression for a brief moment. “Unless...perhaps you have a better idea?” He queried, raising a questioning eyebrow at her.

[AthaliaAcademy]

(Totally did not mean to post on this account. I always do that... Blah...)

- Xanthus -
He let out a long sigh. For some reason he was nervous. He saw her there, with some child. He let out a small puff of air as a small smile appeared on his lips and his eyes softened. She'd be such a good mother...

He took in another deep breath and then turned to look at Ryuu with a bright smile. "Actually, I think I might go over there. I seem to know one of those ladies." He told Ryuu and then turned to walk to Lily.

- Lily -
She turned to look at Matt when he asked if she was okay and simply nodded her head. The girl had come over to her and grabbed her like she had Matt, rubbing on Lily. She looked down, a bit surprised. A smile came over her face as she knelt down and hugged the child back. She didn't think the child understood much else and she didn't know how to show her that she wasn't trying to hurt her. In fact, at this point she felt bad. The girl wasn't trying to steal her friend. Had Lily fallen this far? Before she would have welcomed the girl with open arms as another friend. Why couldn't she go back to that?

She felt her body tense up when she felt something. She felt it deep inside her heart, a ping. A spark, a hope. Something she didn't need. When she felt hope, things always went wrong. She stood up quickly and turned to look, seeing Xanthus standing nearby, walking toward them. She held the girl close to her, more for her own comfort than the girl's. "What... What happened to you?" She stuttered, her eye wide, almost with fear. She was... scared?

Xanthus' face dropped, his expression turning into that of confusion. "What? Do I have something on my face?" He asked, trying to make light of it all. "Come on. You're supposed to be happy... Smile..." He told her, his eyes filled with worry.

"But you... You aren't supposed to look like that. How... How did you get it back?" She asked.

"When there's a will there's a way." He answered.

"I don't believe you!" She shouted, turning away, leaving the girl. She turned and began walking away from them, toward Carmen's station.

"What?" He asked, his eyes growing wide with surprise. What's that supposed to mean? Does she think I'm not me? "If you don't believe me, why can you feel my energy? You know it's me. It's my pure energy as if I'd never died." He explained following her brisk pace. "Lily, come back... Please?" He continued, trying his best.

Lily stopped in her tracks, looking down at the ground. "I... I just need some time..." She told him, tears forming in her eyes. Xanthus shook his head and walked up behind her to wrap his arms around her.

"I'll be here when you're ready." He whispered in her ear and then walked back to Ryuu. "That went well..." He mumbled as he got back, sending Ryuu an embarrassed smile. "Not really... what I was expecting." He continued, sitting down in one of the chairs. He felt... drained.

Lily kept walking, her vision getting blurry as she walked. She needed someone to take her away from here but she knew she couldn't fly. She'd just crash. "C-Carmen?" She called out through her tears. Maybe she'd... help.

[Scallop]

Darwin

Darwin was having a great time firing arrow after arrow wizzing about the place. Whenever Darwin thought about it...he could never figure out how he could create a rainbow arrow, but damn would it be awesome! Just like him! He somehow ended up really far away from Mercy and the others just firing arrows at random while shouting stuff about fruit. When would the fun stop? Darwin's purple hair was all ruffled and crazy looking as he let loose arrow after arrow until he saw.....RYUU!

Suddenly he leapt from the ground and went flying through the air with his bow and arrow before hitting Ryuu with so much force all the while pulling him into a hug. "HAI RYUU-SAN!" He said his face beaming glory. "Isn't this place, just amazing? I could sit here all day shooting stuff, but that'd be boring wouldn't it? So how are you Ryuu, been quite a time on this island right? Oh whwere are my manners, here have some skitttles Ryuu-san!" He held out a hand full of green and purple skittles. "They're just awesome! I got these off the Russian Black Market!"

[HylianRose]

- Xanthus -
He jumped back as another colorful character entered, talking to Ryuu. He blinked watching him spout words like they were a bad meal. Well, at least he wouldn't be bored. Still, maybe he should intrude. He felt like an outsider in this instance. Hell, he was an outsider. He put a sheepish smile on his face and watched the two, waving at the colorful boy when and if he noticed him.

What am I supposed to do? I want to chase her down but I want to give her time... Ugh. Why is this so hard?

He honestly didn't know what to do with himself. He'd spent so long trying to fix himself after what had happened. She'd basically pushed him away because his face had changed. Then again, it was a rather sticky situation. It didn't help that he wasn't the original soul of that body nor was he the only one at the time. She must have felt guilty. She always did that, felt guilty for things out of her control. She was too nice for her own good but he couldn't really see it any other way. A mean Lily was just... not Lily.

[Driving Park]

Carmen

What happened next was pure distilled drama. And confusion.

After Carmen had looked to see what the problem was - the girl hugging Matt - she had looked away again, inspecting her gun. And then her dress. And then her hat (yes, she took it off to inspect, but only briefly). Her safety gear had long been taken off, as nobody was cleared to fire on the shooting range and all the guns were on safety. Hopefully.

It was a frankly awkward situation for her, as she was just hanging out a little separated from everyone else, waiting to be given the clearance to fire her lethal weapon. From what she could hear, it was a light commotion as Lily attempted to right the situation.

But then, it fell silent, except for footsteps. Carmen was now giving a full...50% of her attention to the situation. She preferred not to get involved. But then, she heard Lily say "What... What happened to you?" The situation now had 100% of Carmen's attention...much to her dismay. She really just wanted to shoot. That had been fun. But hearing Lily's voice almost afraid arrested her full attention.

And then Lily was right next to her, in tears. Carmen's head immediately snapped up and towards where Lily had been. Her eyes were full of fury. While she didn't know Lily that well, Lily had never done anything to hurt anyone, at least so far. At this point in her time an Athalia, she wouldn't have cared who it was that was crying. It was unacceptable. Especially during a vacation. I mean...what kind of person do you have to be to hurt someone while on vacation? Carmen didn't know. But she assumed she'd find out.

"WHAT'S GOING O- ...who are you?" Her authoritative query was cut short by the sight of someone she hadn't seen before. Her eyes narrowed at him. She was fairly certain Matt or the clingy girl hadn't caused the just previously authoritative Lily to shed tears. "Did you-"

"C-Carmen?"

She was interrupted by Lily's tearful cry for help. And for help from her, of all people. Was she really the most qualified person to help? Her thoughts were strung together in a largely nonsensical stream of consciousness, but she clearly needed to help Lily. Nobody else was even moving.

She hadn't taken her eyes off of the unrecognizable man that had presumably caused all this. "What did you do?" she asked with still narrowed eyes. She did not wait for an answer or even an attempt, turning on her heel at once to aid Lily. Catching up to her, Carmen attempted to console her. "Lily, what's wrong?! Who was that?" she asked in a worried yet still annoyed (at the guy) tone. "Do you need to get away from him?" she finished, having already sprouted her gaseous skylark wings in case she was in danger.

[Ebil Bunny]

- Matt -
As Lily hugged the girl, Matt glanced over at a movement in the corner of his eye. It was an older boy that Matt recognized, but didn't remember how. He just sort of tugged on his memory.

However, when Lily saw him, she had a completely different reaction than just sort of staring. She sort of... Flipped out. Something about the other boy not being real, maybe death, and then Lily called Carmen for help. Matt sort of felt a twinge of hurt that she didn't ask him, though he didn't know what he'd do if she had.

"Lily, what's wrong? Who was that? Do you need to get away from him?" Carmen asked, while Matt sort of stood there, trying to remember where he had seen that guy before. Matt had a feeling that Lily didn't really want to talk about it, as much as just think about it for a while.
"If you want, I can go put the guns and stuff back." Matt said, removing his ear muffs and safety glasses.

Meanwhile, Dani continued to shoot arrows at targets by himself.

[HylianRose]

- Xanthus and Lily -
He heard someone calling out after him in an angry tone and turned to see another girl Lily was heading to. Wait... She was... crying? He felt his chest well up inside, her throat went dry and he felt like he couldn't breathe. Why was she crying? He knew why but he still didn't... understand. Why would she cry when she saw him? Was it just.. shock? He didn't know. He was so confused and... guilty? But what was he guilty for?!

He knew he needed to leave her alone but his feet had other plans. He hurried over to her and the girl, his expression worried. "I didn't... Lily... Don't cry, baby..."

This sent another shock wave through Lily and her tears came harder. Not because she was hurt or sad but because of his tone and his words, how sweet he sounded. Memories flooded back and she didn't know how to handle it. She couldn't see him right now but she didn't want Carmen to yell at him.

"I'm... fine. Yeah, Matt... You go put the guns away. I'll see you later..." She managed through a torrent of tears. She needed to get herself put back together. She turned to Carmen with a shaky smile. "I just need sometime away but I don't need to be alone. I'd had to ask this of you but could you take me back to my room? I'm not angry with him and he's done nothing wrong I'm just... in shock." She explained, wiping the tears away. Her voice was still shaky but she seemed to have a handle on herself now at least for the most part but that was because she was turned away from Xanthus and he wasn't talking anymore.

Xanthus took a step back as she spoke to her friends, taking in a heavy breath. The air around him felt thick and hard to breath, the world was going dark. He knew he shouldn't react this way but his body just... He felt like she hated him and he didn't know why.

[Driving Park]

Carmen

Carmen was wide eyed with concern and confusion as Lily bawled her eyes out. She was about to yell at the unfamiliar male again as he came hurrying over to Lily, but his words made her reconsider. "I didn't... Lily... Don't cry, baby..."

Baby? Were they...together? Why is she crying if...did he leave her? Her confusion only mounted, almost reaching the level she had when Lily blushingly spirited her and Matt away to the gun range. Speaking of Matt...aren't they friends or something? Why is she asking me to help her and not him? I've barely talked to her... The whole situation seemed really odd to her for whatever reason...hopefully Lily would be able to clear some of her confusion when she was feeling better.

At this point the only thing she could do both out of concern for Lily and her current mental state was comply with Lily's request. "Sure, Lily. Come on," she said with a soft smile that she was able to manage, and took her hand to lead her in the direction of the houses.

"Which house is yours?" she asked.

[HylianRose]

- Lily -
She pointed in the direction of her cabin and then began walking in that direction. "I'd fly but I'm not sure I'm okay for it. It'd be better if I stayed on the ground. I need to go sit down or something..." She explained, her voice soft and a touch hoarse. "I'm sorry you have to do this. I would have asked Matt but I don't think he could have begun to understand..." She continued, her eyes cast down to the ground.

She looked up in the direction of the cabin and then back to Carmen who looked more confused and concerned than she was meant to. Lily began to chuckle. "Sorry, just... you look so confused. I have to find some humor in this right? I'll explain when we get in there..." She told Carmen, smiling through the drying tears.

Lily was strong but she wasn't perfect. The moment she got the chance, she'd start crying again, she knew it.

[Driving Park]

Carmen

As the two started walking, Carmen glanced back at the unfamiliar male. He looked absolutely crushed, dejected and confused, and it made Carmen feel sympathetic, despite knowing nothing about the situation. She wasn't about to take sides, and he was clearly struggling to cope as well. She gave him a longer look back with a look of apology as sincere as she could muster.

Lily pointed out her cabin, and as they walked Carmen realized they were also walking towards her own cabin. She brushed it off as a coincidence and that it would be a different cabin close to hers. Except...I still haven't met my roommate yet, she thought cautiously to herself.

She was a little unnerved when Lily started chuckling. She certainly wasn't expecting that after the interaction that had just taken place. She must be a strong soul, Carmen thought. She attempted to respond in a similarly lighthearted vain. "It certainly seems like you tend to cause confusion for me," she said with the same soft smile as before. "...and yes...I am quite confused," she admitted.

[Animelover_princess]

- Oona -
"Oh!" she quickly slid to Garden's side "oh no, are you ok?" she took the bow and set it aside "can i see?" she smiled at the girl "it's ok, i did that multiple times myself, when i was still learning, it's pretty common" it didn't seem to break skin, or whatever the girl's equivalent was. "it doesn't look too bad, you might bruise, if you bruise" she smiled and chuckled a little "do you want to try again? or wait a little? it's your choice" Oona smiled at the girl again.

- Andromeda -
she smiled "thanks for the compliment" she ran and hand through the snakes "normally people says it's weird"
then he spoke and she smiled. she stood, setting the book on the bookshelf beside her.
then he asked if she wanted to go get something to eat with him. she nodded "I'd like that Zivon, thanks, any idea where?"

[Ebil Bunny]

- Matt -
Matt left to put the supplies away, but realized he couldn't unlock the place the guns were held. Matt went back to the gun range to ask Lily if he could borrow the key, but she had disappeared with Carmen.
Hm. Well this is a puzzle. Matt thought. He couldn't leave the guns some place, and he couldn't carry them around with him. He looked around to see if there was a staff around that could take care of them. However, if there were any besides the very busy one making sure nobody shot each other, Matt didn't see them.
Matt sighed and sat down in a chair nearby. He had the guns put in his pockets, but he didn't feel very safe with them on his person. Just to make sure they wouldn't shoot him in the leg while he walked, he triple checked the safety, and made sure they had no ammo.

Meanwhile, Dani began getting bored of shooting targets, and began thinking of something else to do.