Ripped up ticket stubs (Ch. 6: Day 2, pt. II)

psikeout · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 12:18 pm

"Ah— uh—"

That was about all Casey could get out before bending out of his seat and crouching next to the downed loris. Speaking of "downed," it seemed like she had downed way, way too much.

"Stay with me, here—how many fingers am I holdin' up, Latti'?"

Heart · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 1:26 pm

If anyone had wondered where the newest 'group member' was, all they had to to was look behind them. Avatar was wasn't sitting in any actual seat. She was sitting on the wall closest to the door out - just waiting to leave, and hoping that there would be something more interesting in her future then a rock concert. She didn't even have a reason to be there in the first place, and following the group around was quickly loosing it's entertainment.

Sure, she tried to write, but the massive influx of people going in and out, moving around in general, screaming, and the loud music really didn't help her concentration. So instead, the piranha gave up trying to do anything, and stared blankly at the stage. She didn't listen to the music at all - she didn't care to.

Why th' heck am I here again? she had thought. This is so boring.

No, it wasn't until after the consent that Avatar finally took an interest in her surroundings. Mainly, the struggle at the backstage door. The tension between the hedgehog and the primate came off in waves. Avatar had to check it out. She weaved through the crowd, hoping to get a better look.

Greens · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 9:42 pm

The whole world was happening around the two of them, but they'd be hard-pressed to notice if the whole place was coming down on top of them. Then again... maybe it would be, before long.

"S'okay, baby," he churred, still rocking her in his warm embrace. "I'm here now. I'm here."

She stuttered, still overtaken by his sudden appearance. "I'm so... I'm, I'm so, sorry, about ev-"

"Don't be," he interrupted firmly. "You don' owe me anything. I'm sorry. You were put 'n the middle of so much bulls#$@ you didn't deserve."

"I--"

Caz rose from his grip for just long enough to look him in the eyes with her own glassy pair, only to find a level of unquestionable genuineness in his expression. For a moment, she was overcome with the rising need to just slap him, but how could she when he'd just effectively stripped her of her ammunition? "I spent so long... just trying to figure out, how to function without you," she choked. "An' now you jus' sshhow up-- like--"

He shook his head. Honestly, it was the best circumstances he probably could've asked for, but that didn't mean things were perfect by a long shot. While Caz's eyes were thankfully buried deep into his chest, Ace was forced to witness what was likely the beginning of another not-so-secret war. He didn't speak aloud, and he couldn't look the hedgehog in the eye, with his back to him, but he was visibly tensed in a way that he clearly didn't want to be.

Sheff · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 10:03 pm

Geoff stood his ground when Rock moved in closer than most would find comfortable, a long pause being held before he replied hollowly.

"Stayed awake, if that's what you're askin'."

The hedgehog's eyes didn't budge either, remaining tightly locked with the monkey's as the two continued to stand face to face. There was a look to them that showed the deepest desire to just step forward and make this meeting go beyond unneeded conversation, but he was showing some self control as he remained stiffly rooted on the spot. Really, Geoff was tense enough to not show the slightest twitch.

"Good thing we were passin' through," he said almost a bit too calmly. "Might've missed it."

psikeout · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 10:43 pm

"Hm," Rock concurred quietly and nodded slowly, once, his smile fading—not for anger or unhappiness, but... apathy. Geoff had come and made a small stink about getting backstage like he was going to start something, then, well, didn't. The many weeks that had passed since the monkey last saw the hedgehog had created a nice buffer of peace and calm that ultimately rendered him indifferent. The chemistry was gone; Geoff was, to Rock, inert.

In the end, Rock did nothing to hinder Geoff from "passin' through," but he did little to welcome him to conversation, either. With that very intent stare glazing over, and head just oh-so tilting to a a bored cant, he seemed to be waiting for the hedgehog to find the brazenness to justify his own existence in that room with a meaningful statement or action after making such a ruckus to enter it, or the courage to turn around and leave it with some peace and dignity intact. After all that had transpired, Rock certainly had nothing left to prove.

Zaka51 · Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2012 11:14 pm

Tyra had only sniffed at Casey's name correction, the irony being lost on her, but the wolverine snapped out of her drowsy, gloomy appearance when the loris suddenly started speaking to her. Latika was obviously under the influence of something, but it didn't dull her words any. Tyra's eyes were locked on the Chunese girl during her entire rant. With every word, her brow lowered into an increasingly angered glare and her pulled further back into a scowl, baring her teeth. But whenever she wanted to interrupt, no real words came out--just stuttered beginnings of sentences that got cut off.

When Latika finished and hit the floor, the pinkish wolverine seemed frozen in place, struggling for words. She wanted to rebuff the loris in the harshest way possible, but she couldn't control her voice. Every word came out muffled and disjointed to the point of being completely incoherent, while she only stood in place, body strained with anger, a hand twitching from it. It wasn't clear what it was, but something in the tipsy porter's words had hit a nerve and shut her down before she could even start.

With a sharp and pointed growl, she turned in place and immediately started stomping for the hotel lobby, looking like she'd tear off the head of the first person she bumped into.

Luckily, she didn't.

The first person she shoved out of her was was a recognizable blueish-gray dog, finally returning from his unexplained pre-concert departure. Pax stumbled a bit and watched her as she stormed off. His confused expression persisted until he turned back to the people in the ballroom. Sighting Jack and Casey, the agent began to make his way over to them. "Hey," he greeted with a low wave. "Sorry I missed the show. I was..."

He trailed off as he found himself peering past them at the backstage entrance. The relaxed mood he sported vanished in almost an instant. "What's going on over there? What are they doing?" he asked in a harsh whisper, sounding very troubled.

Nuzlocke Griff · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:12 am

The ferret closed in on the bigger commotion without taking much regard to the fallen loris, the angered wolverine, or the three new members of the rag-tag team. Much to his surprise, the security was quite armed for only a concert, as though they were waiting for the group to show up. The heavily armed Troopers only caused things to get more annoying in Desmond's case as he took notice of the whiter primate's challenging stance and the intensive stare aimed at the hedgehog. Unfortunately, his sense of restraint was not as high as the green hedgehog's.

"You cocky bastard..." he let out with a sneer, a bit higher than he wanted but he didn't soften his tone any when it slipped out.

Giving most of his attention now to Rock, he began to unzip his guitar case and pull out something, and if not stopped by any of the security or mechanical Troopers, one would notice its shape as one of a bat.

Seafarinhare · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:33 am

Ivan continued to watch the situation unfold from a distance. He got a glimpse of the white monkey. Presumably Rock as he exchanged with Geoff. He was too far away to catch what they were saying, but body language seemed to suggest aloofness. The kind of aloofness that could very well lead into something.

Ivan could barely tear his eyes(or in this case, eye) away from the scene to respond to the arrival of Pax. He just kind of spoke to him from the corner of his mouth, "Geoff be talkin' with the white monkey from the looks..." He trailed off as he started to move closer to get a better look, actually approaching the doors even.

Sheff · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 9:46 am

There was a period of time from the hedgehog where everything was stock still. His eyes didn't betray any particular emotion, his body language easing into a form that simply wasn't as aggressive.

A sense of pointlessness had fallen over Geoff. Despite all the effort poured into arriving in this one, single room, he was finding there to be no winning move in this current game. Aggressiveness would incite half an army to open fire. Leaving would make the situation an endeavor that should have never been pursued. Anything said would only ricochet off the monkey's hide of disinterest. Geoff had come in as a foolhardy individual and now stood as one lacking any reason to be there. What had he expected to do in the end? If it was to become even with Rock, to somehow force the primate down a rung in the ladder... now that was an impossible task.

Focused as he was with this particular realization, everything else was just white noise in a distant background... until his eyes seemed to sharpen, suddenly grasping at a subject. He couldn't speak for himself, but there was another individual who deserved the white monkey's attention, at least for the brief moment he'd give it.

"...do you even know what he's gone through?" Geoff abruptly said without any prior set up for such a question, the hedgehog turning his body to openly look at the cat who seemed to have already justified his own presence.

psikeout · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 10:44 am

Rock was absolutely dead serious when he calmly replied: "Better than you ever will."

There was a darkness to those low-spoken words. They had a history that went well beyond anything that happened in Chun-nan, and nothing Ace could have faced there was even remotely worse than what he and the two primates had been through prior. It also seemed to overshadow whatever one-liner the little ferret had to say, as his words didn't even so much as draw Rock's focus off of Geoff. It did get a number of laser sights centering on his head and body, though, shining from the targeting modules on the heads of the surrounding Capsule Troopers, too numerous to easily count at a glance.

Jared quietly stepped back over to Rock, carefully weaving around behind his heavily-armed robot friends to nudged the duffel into son's grasp, transferring its strap to the whiter monkey's shoulder. "Bus is waiting out back," he stated in a subtle, low voice.

Rock took the bag's weight and Jared walked away; Rock looked blankly after him, breaking eye contact at last. Somehow, during that short stretch of time, their road team had indeed broken down the equipment and hauled it all out.

He looked back to Geoff, then glanced at the seemingly-permanently-seething ferret. "I'd say you oughta put him on a leash, but he looks like he'd enjoy it too much," he mused of the subject of his gaze, and then looked fleetingly back to Geoff and smiled insincerely. "Drive safe."

He took a single turning stride backward, went over to Jam, and made to leave and walk away from the whole mess.

Mie · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:04 am

Jam watched. She had nothing to contribute to the conversation — Nothing verbal, anyway. There was a small pop of... something that shot from her clenching fist, not unlike what goes on in a light bulb just as it bursts. Otherwise, she just stood rigid.

The hedgehog's very presence already made it too late to hop on Rock's cool aloofness wagon; he was there because he wanted to do something about his perceived slights. It was a notion that very nearly broke the steely simian's resolve to not do anything, especially when Geoff went so far as to shift gears and claim Ace's retribution as his backstage pass. A ghost of a barely formed laugh pulled her lips back just enough to bare a subtle sneer, while a humorless, "Hm," puffed out her nose.

Neither Desmond, nor his CT fanclub, nor even the other monkey's flattering commentary seemed to even register as the confrontation fizzled out... She lingered behind Rock a moment after his departure, as if waiting for something. Eventually, though, she turned and left, snatching a gym bag and a mid-sized, black, sticker-covered hard case off the floor as she went, walking with the pace of one who had places to be.

Sheff · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 11:46 am

Geoff proceeded to do nothing. There was an unresolved, churning tension still disturbing the air around him, but he made no move to unleash it, allowing the the two monkeys to walk away, only a narrow stare following them. His lack of action was questionable, but there weren't many alternatives that would end without disaster of some degree.

The hedgehog turned around then, his brooding expression transitioning into one of shocked agitation as he saw Desmond's current predicament.

"...the hell are you even doing?"

It was more of a dry comment than a question judging by how Geoff walked right on by the ferret, thoughts becoming lost in other matters outside of the aggressive agent. In fact, he would continue to walk past the embracing Ace and Caz, through the doors, and potentially right out of the ballroom if no one made the effort to stop him.

Greens · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 12:18 pm

"Wait."

Where did that come from? Surely not from Ace, the one being fought over like a child between quarreling parents? The one who, against all odds, suddenly seemed to have nothing to say on the matter now that it was all finally happening? But as it turned out, once he begrudgingly took two steps in front of Caz, he had plenty.

"It's true. I went through Hell. I made enemies, like I always do-- Tracer among 'em. I was kidnapped, and... and tortured in a way I'd never even heard of before. They went... into my head. I don't know how, And, learned things about me. Dug old bones I never, ever wanted to see again. They learned about... you all. For the first time in years, I was really afraid. Like I was going back to just being someone's puppet."

"But when they were finding out all the things that made me tick, I was there with them, and I learned about me too." His head shook, as if to buck off the demons clouding his thoughts. "I've gotten a lotta input over the years. 'Ain't nobody that can break you but you.' 'There's always a chance.' "But I'd forgotten the one piece of advice I gave myself."

"We never know what side our dice'll land on... But we're still the ones who throw them."

"We're always in control. I am, you are, everyone. You could have us executed right here and now, and you could get away with it. You have that power now. But you haven't, because you don't want to. Hhyou can sure be a prick about it," he added with a quickly fleeting smile. "...But never evil."

"Rock... ...Jam, I'm sorry. I really am. I %$*#ed up. I know it, I own up to it. I'd take it all back if I could. You of all people should know why I'm afraid of being used."

"...And I of all people should know you'd never use me like that."

He breathed deep and sighed, as if relieved of a great weight on his chest. His arms fell to his side, and he looked about as serenely content with himself as he did exhausted. The night could have very well ended there-- just hitched a ride back with Caz and fall into bed and sleep for the next two or three months, and he'd be more or less okay with that. When she herself approached his side and grabbed hold of his hand, the two of them almost seemed like a happy couple even in the midst of all these theatrics-- the way she squeezed it could've been nothing if not her own form of encouragement. Ace showed his thanks by way of a smile.

His gaze fell back on the monkeys, but it seemed like he was all out of words by then. All he had left was a shrug of his shoulders and an awkward half-smile that said '...Whoops..'

Nuzlocke Griff · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 12:49 pm

Taken aback by Ace's apology, the ferret temporarily overlooked the white primate's childish comment and thought of the one situation in which praise was accredited.

"Yeah, you guys might be acting like a couple of sour mouths now," he replied after the serval, while swatting away at the countless threatening lights beaming down on his body, "but you did save our asses from being some of Seven's floormats. I don't really know you two, heck I hardly know any of you, but I can at least see a good guy somewhere in there..." he said pointing to Rock whilst beginning to look at the CT force still aiming at him, "...who either has restraint or a good heart not to blow us to bits."

"Call it corny or ignore me some more, but thanks for the help back there. I never had the fantasy of dying in space anyways."

Finished, he looked at the bat he now held in hand and over at the white primate again."But could you please get these guys to lay off? I got a grieving family who wants to know what happened to their son."

psikeout · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2012 1:05 pm

Rock stopped, and his arms went a little limp at Ace's call. It was a good thing the guy couldn't see the monkey's expression with his back turned, because, at first, it was a little insensitive. Well, it was a lot insensitive. It was a tired, pleading kind of skyward gaze and inaudible groan, as if he really, really didn't want to deal with whatever was coming. Maybe he expected something preachy—another message of how they shared the blame for their predicament. The outer corners of his eyes seemed to frown their own frown, and his mouth twisted slowly to one corner, but ultimately, they formed a softer expression than he had worn. He simply deemed it a very bad time and place for the discussion.

The look had faded from his countenance when he turned to face the serval from afar, but remained pained and tired-looking. He ran a fingerless-gloved hand through his hair, mussing it more than it already was, and shook his head.

"I—," he was going to begin, but didn't really get to, because... well, the guy he didn't know. Desmond was standing there talking like he was familiar. Rock glared boreholes in him for it; who was he to Rock other than some random guy, noteworthy mostly for his tights, who had tried to attack him on some space station? They had no history, and Rock clearly didn't care to listen to him or his judgments of character, or answer him, and was transparently uninterested in reconciling anything with the stranger. He didn't care whether the guy thought he was a villain or not.

He just shook his head.

"Okay, one," he said, then looked and pointed to Desmond, and dryly, procedurally stated, "f*#% you."

"Two,... Ace," he addressed clearly, sighing and refocusing, "thanks for comin' out tonight, and... we can... talk," he said with very careful selection of words, only to abruptly add, "I do wanna talk. Just not here."

The way his eyes darted across Ace's party, the "in this company" addendum went unspoken, but clearly apparent.

"Why don't we just have you'n Caz spend the night here in the hotel, and...," he trailed off as he considered options, taking another backward, half-turning step. "We'll get in touch sometime later. For real."

Perhaps he expected Ace would understand, given the circumstances. He nodded with brows raised in an "okay?" kind of way, hand raised in a very stationary-looking wave, and, if given any kind of remotely affirmative response or gesture, would proceed to actually leave out one of the back doors.

Ripped up ticket stubs (Ch. 6: Day 2, pt. II)

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