Trying hard now (Ch. 2: Day 2)

Mie · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 1:01 am

"Whadn't talkin' about emeralds, anyway," sighed the pinkish monkey, clearly weary of the ever-present business undertones to the cogs in Rock's head.

She'd barely taken a step towards the monorail, however, when the effervescent mole came bouncing toward them with an unusually convivial Ace in tow, and she couldn't help but wonder if they'd been enjoying the casinos (or more specifically, the incessant waves of free booze roving around on silver trays within them).

"Eh," replied Layla with a shrug and a pouty frown, stuffing her hands into her pockets. "At the risk of soundin' juvenile, I ain't seen much that actually looked fun. Me an Rock were actually just lookin' for an arcade or somethin'."

psikeout · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 1:28 am

"Yeah, I was thinkin' we might hit the street for a while," he seconded, "—see what's outside." The primate scratched at his neck thoughtfully. As he watched a passing monorail train, he muttered and added, "Half afraid the place'll blow up if I leave, though,... between the crazy duffel-bag-guy, and Jack an' her... posse..."

Greens · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 3:49 am

"Heheh. Oh, nooooo," Caz exclaimed with a solemn shake of her head, in the same manner she might had she just lost her last round in a game of pinball. Jam's silver tray booze theory just may have had some merit to it.

"Aw, y'don't need to worry about that. Me an' Caz got this place locked down tight. Ain't that right, Caz?"
"Tight as a tiger," she blurted with a smirk.
"Yeah. 'Sides, Sheriff Jack doesn't strike me as the type to..."

His thoughts were cut short by some bizarre cornucopia of bedlam sounding off in the distance. His head shot several distressed glances out in the distance. Quite what it was, he could not say for sure, but he was sure he could make out a thousand diesel trucks all towing trailers full of angry bees somewhere out of it.

"Aaaww, I didn't know they were having fireworks..."

"...The type to uh... to, blow things up."

psikeout · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 1:21 pm

Rock stared at the two with ever-increasing suspicion. His brows got a little lower, and his nose wrinkled a little higher. Maybe he caught a whiff of their breath.

Whatever the case, when Rock so briskly turned to face the distant commotion, he fully exposed his left eye to view. He hadn't been trying to hide it, but if Ace and Caz didn't notice the big, dark circle around his one blue eye before, they certainly would then.

He didn't comment on the spectacle. He definitely wasn't going chasing after what looked like the world's most annoying electrical parade.

Mie · Posted: Tue Dec 07, 2010 11:14 pm

There was a certain expressiveness about the way that Jam, unlike the rest of her little group, very slooooowly inclined her head (without fully turning) toward the hullabaloo with half-lidded eyes that completed her expression of muddled foreboding, exasperation, and pity. It was almost as if in posturing alone, she was saying, "As you can see, there is nothing that group of people wouldn't do, and I for one am in favor of being around for as little of it as possible."

Yet she said nothing.

Greens · Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 6:32 pm

"Mmm-mmmmm-mmmmhh..." Caz gave a frown of general disappointment in the general direction of the lights and cacophony. Not that she really understood what was so awful about it, but joined in because everyone else seemed to be frustrated about it somehow, and she didn't want to seem unsympathetic. "Well that-- that's not-- prolly, even... them, I bet.

"It better not be," Ace mumbled lowly, his gaze set to the same horizon. "'Cause I ain't checkin' it out, if it is..."

The mole soon lost interest in the distant spectacle, but soon made a new discovery that managed to keep her attention just the same. "Oh, woah... Rock. What happened to your, face? ...Are you okay?"
"Hm...?"

psikeout · Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 6:39 pm

Rock looked back to Caz from the corners of his eyes—a sort of huhwhat kind of look, as if he was unsure of what she was referring to. It only took him a split second before he realized, shook his head, and murmured an "oh" while gingerly touching his gloved fingers to the offending purple patch of skin. "Qualifiers," he explained, with no waste of syllables, as usual. "Put me up against Burnin' Joe Blazer for my first fffriggin' round..." he slurred in quiet bitterness.

Greens · Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 6:46 pm

"Joe Blazer..."

"Qualifiers," Ace echoed, before tilting his neck to the skies, looking that sort of irritated, tucked-in-lip look one gives when one realizes they left their refrigerator door open. With a gentle puff from his nose, his vision leveled with the ground again, and he spoke. "Aahhh... Those things still goin' on?"

Mie · Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 6:59 pm

"You familiar?" asked Jam of the creamy colored half of the pair, with a notable air of puffery. "The old bird assigned t'be 'is trainer sure seemed impressed."

"Got back t'the room, and Ogled it -- turns out they pitted Rock against the top contender for the heavyweight belt on the Westside circuit."

She rolled from heels to toes looking as though she'd been the one to take down a gargantuan professional athlete; her hands on her hips, and her nose a few degrees higher than where it normally sat, she added with no shortage of boast, "Messed the guy up, too."

psikeout · Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 7:03 pm

Voluntarily ignorant to the side-conversation his braggartly girlfriend was engaging in, the white primate straightened up his black jacket and stared analytically at the yellow cat. "Yeah?" he said, an upturn to his voice, a hint of a smirk, and a sort of incredulous gleam to his eyes, as if he found it funny that Ace forgot because he'd been out partying it up. "I checked the schedule. You're down for 4:30."

He looked off to the side with a haughty, exaggeratedly disinterested sniff masking his amusement. "That leaves you a good, y'know... fifteen minutes to train up."

Greens · Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 7:48 pm

"Oh, s**t," the mole... blurted. But any sense of concern about the fact was alleviated with her half-dumbfounded smile and sudden burst of guffaws. "Man, that guy must be pissed. Came all the way out here an' he didn't even make it past the... qualifiers..."

Ace simply looked up again with his hands in his pockets, and gave the same look twice-- perhaps slightly stronger this time, with his eyes a little squintier, and took a looooooooooong, quiet breath, before winnowing it out of an o-shaped mouth. And with that, the time for partying hardy... was over. "I guess we should uh," he said, licking his lips sheepishly. "...go there, huh."

"...Oh! The qualifiers!"

psikeout · Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2010 8:04 pm

Hands hanging by their thumbs from his coat pockets, Rock was still staring off at some distant skyline. His jesting self-satisfaction faded, though, and he looked back at Ace and smiled a little more genuinely.

"Don't even need to sweat it, bro," he said simply. "Just getch'ass up there. You got this in the bag."

He slapped Ace on the sleeve, jerked an upward nod, and turned to go his own way with an arm around Jam's shoulders.

Greens · Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2010 9:18 pm

"Hm. W'a'right," Ace conceded, giving the monkey pair a subtle grin and one last look over his shoulder, where the mole offered the kind of wave goodbye that started at the forearm. "See you in the finals, Rock." "Eheheh. Bye guys."

"Well, Caz," he started, already walking a bit ahead of her. "Those faces aren't gonna punch themselves." Her small, hurried steps quickly caught up. "Aahhh, hold on, hold on. We aren't gonna hafta run, are we? 'Cause I'm... not in the right, running... m-mindset."

“I'll be doing the running,” he replied cooly, and took a step or two behind her.

“Wwwooh, okay...” she said, doing her best not to look transparently dissapointed. “I'll just-- catch up to you th-aaahh! Suddenly, she found a great weight lifted from her legs-- particularly, 36 kilograms, as she was literally swept off her feet and subsequently carried in the serval's arms. “...Ohhohoh, hahah! I see, I see.”

“Ready?”

“Take us to the bridge, Daniel!”

And with that, they were off.

Trying hard now (Ch. 2: Day 2)

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