Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)
A track of bubbles in and steam over the water marked the way their slightly unusual vehicle had covered. In the end, they had really managed to build it... somehow... even Garnet wasn't really certain how and why it actually remained in this rather stable state its appearance was certainly not speaking of, yet it did and she was thankful for it.
Exiles had achieved something!
Now, Aurora was quite certain over-emphasizing the team work part of this task's completion too much would probably do more harm than good and so she had decided to compliment everyone on their good job and move along. For a second or two, the fiery mutant had wondered whether they should row to get to the main island but thinking of how long building this raft had taken, she found there was neither enough time nor patience for another thing promising to take long just then. The consideration of whether to put her hand into the water to make the 95% of steering accuracy 100% was ended even quicker when - inwardly abhorred - she thought of the wrinkles a longer exposure to salty water would inflict onto her skin.
Thus mentally creating a blast of heat she did not really care to watch (Aurora had the slight feeling jumping over those waves with back turned towards the direction they were speeding into wasn't a particularly good idea anyway), the odd wooden craft almost had something of the Batmobile...just less futuristic, making its way through the sea and moving with a pace that could just be considered fast when talking about rafts.
There wasn't much time to go until they would finally reach the shores of the training island and start the real thing. *... while everyone else is probably already in final spurt mode...,* the team leader thought cynically while the rest of her mind was occupied with half-hearted considerations as of how to get to the meeting point without running into one of the chasing teams. For a reason she knew just too well, enthusiasm certainly was not what thinking about the upcoming hours and hours of this team mission induced in her.
TBC - Exiles (Feel free to let them land or whatever when- and however you like!)
"Being my own sensible and grown-up self I will go and make a stand saying that we are SO going to lose... starting farther off than anyone else, being a bunch of loners and all. Yet looking at the upside, at least we will never have points taken for cooperating with other teams."
As Casey looked down at the makeshift raft he still seemed shellshocked. He hadn't known that he was capable of building anything other than models and science fair projects and for some reason there was an odd sense of accomplishment about sitting on something handmade that wasn't sinking. A ghost of a smile crossed his pair face and there was something in those unnaturally blue eyes that hadn't been there before, the beginnings of a light. Sure there were still problems, still the fact that he was and probably always would be the school victim at least verbally, and of course there were the more annoying members of the team but maybe things could be alright. Even out here in the middle of nowhere overnight. For once in his life he was daring to hope.
Across from him Jess Mariano didn't look half as optimistic. His face held it's usual dark scowl and there was a book in hand. Whether or not he was actually reading it was unclear but what he was doing was ignoring everything and everything around him, still as determined as ever to make things difficult for this unlikely team. He was prepared for reactions from his teammates, for them insulting him or asking him to participate but it paid to have a troubled childhood and a background in brooding it seemed for he could easily fix anyone who dared challenge him with an icy glare, of the sort that said 'what the hell are you looking at'.
It had worked for him in the past, problem was that most of the people in his past were easy. They gave up easily for one thing, not bothering to take a chance or to reach out to anyone and as a result anyone drowning went under. New York was like that, at least where he had grown up. Each man for himself, survival of the fittest. What Jess wasn't prepared for were people a bit more determined, people like Jack. There were people here at this institute and they didn't give up so easily. For some reason they kept thinking that everyone could be saved and could see the light. Didn't they get that some people didn't want to be saved? Didn't they see that he was perfectly happy in his downward spiral? And he was or at least that was what he kept telling himself. If he thought it enough then oneday maybe he'd manage to convince himself.
Jess shook off those thoughts, glancing up once from the pages that had so involved him earlier to favour his team with a once over sweep of his eyes. He hated to admit it but they'd actually managed to do something and under the leadership of barbie too. It was right up there among the greastest recorded miracles in the world, the real miracle would be if they managed to survive and actually prevail over the rest of the weekend however.
The raft itself was nothing special, a piece of junk really but they weren't sinking so Jess bit his tongue. Afterall if he got wet so did his book and despite the gloating smirk he would then be entitled to wear, the one that said 'I told you so' in the most immature way ever, he'd be out a good book. The dark haired mutant had to admit though that he found the use of powers to avoid any actual rowing or similar activity amusing. It was one moment where his respect for his leader momentarily increased although considering his general lack of respect for anything and especially for any other people that wasn't anything to boast about.
"Are we there yet?" Jess asked. His tone was low and sarcastic and a look of pure boredom now lingered on his handsome face. It was a teasing remark, one that might have been amusing as a play on the ever asked children's question but which turned out as purely condecending in Jess' capable vocal chords. Casey, whose eyes had been figuratively glued on the water and the raft since they had embarked, looked up at him with something resembling brief dislike before his blue eyes cleared and looked curiosly to the rest of the team and to Aurora to see how they would react.
"What exactly's our plan anyway?" Jess added, his voice deliberately not betraying any form of interest. "Search for burried treasure or wait for our immunity challenge?" This time the low voice held pure mockery as it spoke.
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)
How could she help but feel some annoyance as she stared at the oh so tempting waters. Okay, so it had been her own choice not to volunteer to pull or push the raft whilst in morph, despite her want to. But despite some foolish moments, Racheal did try and sympathise with the fact that he powers didn't exactly hold much elegance or comfort.
She didn't even glance at the others as her eyes wandered over the water. However, despite that, her mind did turn to them, and how they had miraculously managed to build this raft. Okay, so it was nothing fancy, but it was staying afloat, and seemed to show no signs of about to fall apart. And, in her mind, not only had they actually managed to build it, but they had actually managed to do it in a relative short amount of time. Now that was surprising. She had expected to end up spending the entire weekend on the rather empty island - and she had quickly bored of the idea of collecting vines!
Every so often, the feral mutant would allow her fingers to drag in the water, enjoying the feel of the movement. If anyone had been paying attention, they would have seen her eyes turn a dark brown at one point as she thought back the urge just to leave the raft be.
Sighing, she finally lifted her gaze, just for a few moments, to look at the members of the team. Between them, there seemed to be a small mix of emotions, but Racheal wasn't overly surprised. After all, she felt a weird ix as well, some pride at their achievement so far, but some dread for the path a head of them. After all, they still had to survive the night, yet alone complete this challenge.
"Are we there yet?" Green, feline eyes turned to Jess, her chain of thought disturbed by his rather childish tone of voice. Although the rather neutral appearance remained round her lips, her brow furrowed slightly. She may have been slightly ignorant of the basis of the question, but the tone had been clear enough. Would this guy take any of this even partially seriously?
"What exactly's our plan anyway?" … "Search for buried treasure or wait for our immunity challen Racheal tilted her head at this, not fully grasping the idea behind his obvious mocking tone, though to her the tone was enough to go by. She bit her lip slightly, stopping herself from giving any sort of comment. She wasn’t in the mood for any idiotic behaviour right now, still feeling a bit down after stirring her own memories of her brother. Instead, her eyes turned back to the water in her silence, part of her feeling more out of place and uncomfortable than ever.
"Things change. It's a fact of life. Things are born, things die. That doesn't give you an excuse to complain"
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)
Well… what can you say other then ‘At least it’s floating…’
The youngest of the Chadstone bloodline, not including any distant cousins he barely has any contact with other then the during the well publicized family events, couldn’t help but be amazed the little runts put this together… Granted others helped here and there but Paige and the other blue-eyed boy, whose name Max already had forgotten, bound the logs in a way Max could only describe as an artistic fashion. If the art was abstract that is, but for once the bully held back any more comments other then ‘Hey! The bookworms managed to be useful.’ And for Max he figured that was a form of compliment in its own so he didn’t bother keeping his voice down while standing in amusement beside Gypsy at the time.
Of course, right after the comment he had eyed the contraption with an understandable degree of hesitation until they finally all agreed to – without too much fuss – board the thing and head over to the mainland. Being someone who was always a bundle of energy, Max would have actually preferred the chance to row over there, but as it seems to be the constant case, Garnet flashed her powers once more and reminded the lesser mutants how omnipotent she was compared to them.
If only Max had abilities as diverse and powerful as Garnet’s, his father would be prouder of him then, want more to do with him and treat him better. Although Max would never openly, or even inwardly think that as the reason why he wanted to be stronger, ever since he was a child all Max could ever do was idolize the man who demanded nothing less from his sons. With parents that went on about how fantastic mutants are compared to humans, and the stronger the mutant the greater respect they deserve, it made being such a low class mutant nearly shameful. It’s a good thing Max himself really just didn’t care about his abilities, but unfortunately only cared what he could do to impress his father, and generally one can not change their abilities. Of course there were forces in the world with such power, to alter a mutants talents or switch them or remove them all together and give them either new gifts or leave them nothing more then a common human.
Their Gypsy was proof of that.
"Are we there yet?" For the moment Jess was ignored by Max as the occasionally violent young man kept his eye out on the sea, never having done something like this before meant he was getting some sort of amusement from the games. In truth Max only tended to be violent when he was stressed about something, his violence wasn’t as random as some people assumed. Usually he’d get told off at home, and being unable to release his frustration during the arguments his family often have, it means those at the school get the full impact of not only Max’s anger but that of his parents that still echo around inside of the young man’s frustrated mind.
For example, if Max was stressed, or just generally upset over something, instead of ignoring Jess, Max’s arms would have lashed out without any real thought on the bully’s part and shoved the cocky and insolent teen right off the raft and into the waters they sped over by the will of Garnet’s powers. Lucky for the moment Max was content in thinking and keeping to himself, because there was a lot of stress on his shoulders at the moment and Jess was being most unwise to keep prodding and poking with his intolerable attitude.
"What exactly's our plan anyway?" As far as Max cared, he knew exactly what his plan was, and with that thought he threw Garnet an extremely charming – yet amazingly casual – glance as if asking ‘Yeah, what’s next?’. It was something they’d probably have to get used to, as loud as Max can be a lot of what he says is generally spoken through body language. "Search for burried a treasure or wait for our immunity challenge?" This time Max did snap, his leg twitched slightly as there was a hurried thought to just shove his heel into the retarded one’s mouth. But the previous calm managed to keep him restrained enough to stop himself, acting as if Max was just shifting his sitting position instead. Though the look that screamed out ‘Shut up or I’ll shut you up’ which had been thrown irritably towards Jess the instant he had finished speaking remained a little longer before the threatening glower was dismissed petulantly towards the shore of the island they were approaching.
"I say we use the useless as body shields and make for cover." The quiet mumble was directed towards Gypsy, and for once Max wasn't refurring to the bookworms as the useless ones.
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)
She wasn't sure of a lot of things in her life but she was pretty damn sure she didn't like the water, she'd never been in a boat before and the idea of getting on the shoddily looking raft and floating out onto a vast expanse of water didn't thrill her either. She wasn't very good at swimming either, a couple of lengths in the pool was all very well but she didn't like the idea of the raft sinking while they were mid way out. As a result Paige was sitting as close to the centre of the raft as she possibly could her arms wrapped around her legs and her eyes closed, trying not to feel queasy over the rocking motion of the raft as it moved through the water.
Paige wished for the thousandth time that she'd seen someone about quitting Exiles, maybe she'd be better off on a student rescue team, that sounded more like her. She liked helping people, maybe if she talked to Hank he could talk to Garnet. She couldn't face talking to Garnet herself, she knew she'd have to say why she wanted to leave then and it'd be so much easier to tell Doctor McCoy, she was sure he'd accept a rather woolly explanation from her.
"Are we there yet?" Her pale eyes opened, staring across at Jess as he spoke. He'd never spoken to her before and she was quite sure that she wanted to keep it that way, the same went for Gypsy. Jess was an overly confident and the more confident a person was the more Paige seemed to shy away from them. "What exactly is our plan anyway?" Plan? her plan was to get through each hour and somehow get through the two days and then get back to the institute as quickly as possible and hope to never leave it again.
"I say we use the useless as body shields and make for cover." He meant her didn't he? That’s what she wasn't she? a useless one ... expendable. She looked over at Casey, wondering if Max had been calling him useless too. She looked away back down at her legs, closing her eyes against the tears that threatened miserably to fall from her eyes. Maybe she'd just show them all that she wasn't useless, maybe she could show everyone that she wasn't just a spam... a waste of space.
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)
All had went well since the raft had touched water for the first time and with some sort of misplaced optimism, a delusive part of her had actually thought that things would become better now that everyone had seen Exiles was really able to accomplish something. Behold those minutes of bliss… before Jess launched his next attack, a fresh load of sarcasm, oh how much she had not missed that. The urge to just close her eyes and count to ten as almost every psychiatrist she had ever heard of would have recommended in such a situation was almost overwhelming her, yet then again wouldn’t that mean surrender, defeat? Considerations in the glimpse of a second, a mind set up in a wink’s time – the human brain is indeed an astonishing thing.
Mimicking the expression of a mother that is faced with the challenge of having to tell her slightly troublesome son that the toy store has already closed after midnight and faking a corresponding voice equally authentic, Garnet replied with the satisfaction of those killing at least a few ants of this whole state terrorizing their homes. ”I am genuinely sorry to disappoint you, dear, but the games will not start before we have arrived at the summer camp.” She nodded with a plastic smile as if assuring Negetive of her words’ sincerity and shortly entertained the thought of continuing the farce but then decided against it. There was only a thin line between funny-cynical and the ultimate bore and so she became serious again. ”We have to get to the meeting point without being caught, remember? And the quicker and smoother we can make our way there, the sooner you are free to do whatever you wish… maybe even have some nice campfire and roast marshmallows,” Circe finished with her face as straight as possible although the corners of her mouth fought hard to rise to a teasing grin.
Max’s comment she had missed, his low murmur too quiet to rise over the sound of the boiling sea she was so close to. However, Aurora hadn’t failed to notice the tension between those two males. It was something almost corporeal, yet strange at the same time. Both seemed to have similar attitudes, discontent with the current situation, sarcastic, not actually team players. Then again, probably it was the most illogical misassumption that this kind of people would be able to get along with one another… though it seemed to work between the boys and Gypsy. Unwilling to think about it any further than those few seconds of silent contemplation – at least at that time – Garnet focused on the shore ahead again realizing it had become closer even quicker than she had thought.
”We will land in a few moments… try to hold onto something,” the team’s leader announced not as unnecessarily as earlier this day as she thought. This could indeed be a little rough despite the fact that she had already started to slow down their pace. It wouldn’t be enough to throw people off the craft or let them roll about but still it couldn’t be wrong to at least warn them… just in case.
(OOC: Sorry, don’t really what to put here. Anyone can assume we hit the shores whenever s/he likes! )
"Being my own sensible and grown-up self I will go and make a stand saying that we are SO going to lose... starting farther off than anyone else, being a bunch of loners and all. Yet looking at the upside, at least we will never have points taken for cooperating with other teams."
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)
Sitting upon the makeshift raft, Gypsy tapped the wood to her left expecting it to break the raft. Instead that piece of wood stayed put. The demonic girl did this every few moments on the way from their island to the larger of the two. Surely it wasn’t going to actually get them from point A to point B. It just didn’t seem right, it was as if this raft had a stubborn personality that wanted to prove everyone wrong.
She still seemed amazed that this now seemingly less hopeless team had done something. However, as amazed as she was, it felt rather uncomfortable. Gypsy despised teams and when she had to do group work for school assignments she let those unfortunate people stuck with her do all the work, while she sat back listening to her favourite metal bands on her discman and opened odd leather covered books which she stated all-knowingly that had been written by Satan himself. Not knowing whether to take her seriously or not the poor souls chose the safe option of believing her. Of course, by the time the ‘group’ had begun the work Gypsy had already completed her own during her own time and was more than ready to hand it in unless someone made a good point that she had missed out on which she’d add in once she got back to her room. Hey, what else are teams for!?
"Are we there yet?" The voice of Jess made Gypsy look up from the wood she had just tapped. "What exactly's our plan anyway? Search for burried treasure or wait for our immunity challenge?" A smirk crossed her face at the tacky reality TV shows her parents had loved. The endless ones where a group of strangers would be stuck on one island and one by one someone was voted off until there was a winner. Now that just seemed like a complete waste of time to Gypsy. Haven’t people got anything better to do with 30 odd days of their lives? Yet now she was doing something that could be seen as a challenge that show had, she felt almost ashamed of herself.
"I say we use the useless as body shields and make for cover." Again an amused smirk crossed her face, immediately picking up on what Max meant by that. Just because she didn’t mind Jess didn’t mean she couldn’t find something amusing when someone said something subtly directed towards him. She would do the same if Jess said something about Max. It was just the way she was.
”I am genuinely sorry to disappoint you, dear, but the games will not start before we have arrived at the summer camp. We have to get to the meeting point without being caught, remember? And the quicker and smoother we can make our way there, the sooner you are free to do whatever you wish… maybe even have some nice campfire and roast marshmallows,” Gypsy had to stop herself from shaking her head. Was that supposed to be some kind of a joke? She had no comment for that and chose to ignore Garnet for as long as she could, which didn’t last long since she forgot to tune out as she spoke once more.
”We will land in a few moments… try to hold onto something,” And what exactly were they to hold onto? No no, there was no need to think like that, they were getting close to the shore. The quicker they got to the shore the quicker they could get to the stupid meeting point which meant the quicker she could get back to her locked away world that was her dorm room. Wow, that was a lot of positive thinking from Gypsy, therefore she silently reminded herself not to think like that for at least a week.
Instead of holding onto something, since there was nothing in the first place, she folded her arms – she had enough balance as she was sitting anyway.
It wasn’t until Aurora slowed the raft down that Gypsy was, again, reminded of what she used to have. It was rather annoying seeing the leader using her power so casually so often, but she kept her thoughts to herself, for now at least. Her mind left the moment of self-pity and returned to what was at hand; the helpless team was about to get where everyone else was and, miraculously catch up to them? Now she was thinking too far ahead, all she had to think of was getting off the raft as it docked on the shoreline.
Gypsy felt satisfied that she had kept her balance while the raft came to a small, yet obvious, sudden stop as it hit the sand of the shallow waters. Getting to her feet, the former mutant moved closer to the end of the raft and jumped off leaving it to rock slightly in the water along with whoever was still on it.
“Hey, what happens if we get caught?” The part demon asked as the thought came into head, once they were all on the shore. “Are we supposed to lie down and play dead for the rest of the weekend or do we ‘fight’ against them?” She had to try and suppress the laugh that tried to escape as she mentioned fighting. They little session in the Danger Room had been one thing, one odd thing which would have worked perfect for all the other teams but to fight against another team... it just seemed amusing. Whatever the answer to come from her question was, Gypsy didn’t mind the thought of coming across one of the teams that’s sole purpose of the weekend was to stop the other teams.
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)
After he had asked his questions and contributed to making the raft journey more unpleasant than it had to be Jess caught the glance that Max gave their team leader and had to forcibly control a sarcastic comment from slipping through his clenched teeth. They were on a damned island with a stupid 'mission' to complete and the jerk was still trying to flirt with Garnet. At least he wasn't stooping so low as to use the mission to pick up girls, and he could too. Despite his less than perfect attitude Jess had had girls before. Quite a few of them really but none of them ever meant anything to. He preferred to exchange sarcastic and witty comments with the girls he respected and to exchange saliva with the usual ditzy types who had far too few braincells. It was just a part of who he was and the trampy blondes he hung around with were only for pleasures of he flesh. Here of all places though, even Jess was more subtle than that and he was about as subtle as a brick in the head.
He saw out of the corner of his eye Max glaring at him and thought that if looks could kill he would be ashes. It was almost as stony a glance as that of Medusa the dark haired boy thought to himself but it didn't really bother him. He had recieved more than his share of killing look over the course of his lifetime and he merely smirked back, well aware that if he pushed the limits too far there would be a fight and looking forward to that moment for if there was one thing other than reading which was good at it was pushing people's buttons. Somehow he always seemed to know exactly how far to go to drive a perfectly sane person over the edge. It was almost an artform and a form in which he had had much practice in.
Max's comment didn't go unnoticed by Jess, who this time couldn't resist rolling his eyes despite his mother's words to him as a child somewhere along the lines of if he did it too often his eyes would get stuck that way some day. Casey across the way had his own thoughts that ran contrary to his timid attitude. *Useless, he has no idea* the blue eyed mutant though. It didn't even occur to him, so accustomed to being picked on he was, that the comment was not directed at him. Paige caught his eye and Casey could tell that she had also heard the comment and assumed it was directed at them. He didn't have the power to do anything though and just smiled sadly back. Silently Casey hoped that that didn't get too disheartened by the whole ordeal. Paige did afterall seem to be the only person here aside from their leader who would actually speak with him.
He listened with Jess as Circe made her reply to the steady stream of sarcasm that the New Yorker had been spouting since the raft set sail. Jess actually felt the slightest inkling of respect for her at her words, afterall he did prefer people with a sense of humour and those who would actually put up a witty fight. She became serious quickly and the slight spark of fun died out once again. Well he'd just have to try harder then, see how long she could put up with him. In the meantime he would take care of himself rather than the team, he was good at taking care of himself and doing what suited him best. Survival of the fittest and all that. Jess and Casey had a thought in common as both of them wondered if the marshmallow comment had been in jest for despite their opposite attitudes both teens enjoyed sugar of any sort.
It was a welcome relief as their leader announced that they'd be landing soon. Casey just wanted to disappear again and that was easier to do when in a place larger than the small raft size whereas Jess was content to just me anywhere that wouldn't involve sitting in such close quarters to the two pipsqueaks as he had now dubbed them and to Max. What exactly to hold onto was one question that crossed his mind in a disgruntled quick thought but it faded as they approached the shore.
Jess had good balance and such a large amount of pride that he wasn't about to wobble, fall or grab onto something and he stayed aboard as the raft came to a stop. Casey was not so lucky and he wobbled and gripped as best he could onto the wood of the raft to stay on board. While Jess easily stepped his way onto shore Casey waited until the raft was completely still in the water and was more cautious as he left the raft behind.
“Hey, what happens if we get caught?” That caught the attention of both mutants. Both of them wondered for neither one had any true faith in the mutants managing to work together effectively enough to avoid capture and Jess had no problem with capture either, or at least he hadn't until Gypsy asked her next question.
“Are we supposed to lie down and play dead for the rest of the weekend or do we ‘fight’ against them?” That was a scary thought and one he didn't care to entertain. The only thing worse than co-operating in this stupid exercise with people he hated was having to do nothing at all with the people he hated. That was unacceptible and he turned his head to Circe, for once without a sarcastic comment, awaiting her answer. He had his own question too which was actually one of intelligence and importance and he asked it with a seriousness that had not been present in his manner on their journey thus far.
"Do they have to catch all of us for us to lose or just a few team members?" Jess waited anxiously for the answer to Gypsy's question and to his own as he ran a hair through his thick dark hair. He hadn't packed hair gel and although he normally didn't see himself as vain one of the few parts of his appareance he cared about was his hair. It was a selfish worry and one perfectly suited to Jess who cared more about himself than about the rest of his team combined. Across the group the blue eyed Casey noticed the change in Jess and hoped it would last. Maybe if the dark haired boy spent as much time helping as he did making sarcastic comments they would stand a chance at accomplishing something. That would however require all of them to actually agree on something and to set their minds to a task and that seemed, at the moment, as likely as it was that dinosaurs would return to rule the world.
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)
As Gypsy readied to leap off the raft, Max glanced around at the sand and the water, he felt like an idiot but the idea of wandering around with wet shoes and socks just did not please him greatly. However, he could probably ask Garnet to help him out there… The rocking wasn’t really enough to warrant an ‘accidental’ fall over board, which made Max sulk a little since the idea of having Garnet tend to him was an extremely pleasing thought. A quick sigh escaped from his lungs before he slipped his legs overboard, it wasn’t that shallow so he really wasn’t overly fussed about ruining his clothes, his own comfort was what weighed on his mind.
“Hey, what happens if we get caught?” Half paying attention to Gypsy, since that was a pretty damn good question, Max glanced at Paige and offered her what could actually be called a friendly smile. “Are we supposed to lie down and play dead for the rest of the weekend or do we ‘fight’ against them?” Max chuckled a little since it was well known to those who try to keep Max in one spot for any duration of time got more trouble from him then they’d want, and he just wanted to see those other teams have to deal with his ‘dead’ carcass for the rest of the weekend, he’ll make them sorry they every won!
"Fight against them?" A quick glance at the people around him with a final stare at Garnet before looking back towards Gypsy again "Come on Gypsy, haven’t you figured it out by now? We’re not doing anything, our talent is screwing up and neglecting others, the only one of us that is of use would be Paige, we get beaten and she’ll fix us good as new to get beaten again," A rather sarcastic tone filled his voice at the end as he motioned towards Paige, then walked towards Gypsy and placed his hand on her shoulder. "But hey, don’t worry, Garnet is here, so we can screw up by getting caught, she’ll burn everything, then we can neglect their charred remains, it’s perfect." He didn’t mean to sound a little irritated with her for the fact she kept using her powers with such effect that it felt as if she was belittling them, at least Max was starting to feel like that. A plastic smile appeared, like seen on those cheesy commercials but the mockery behind it was so plain that impossible for even the most naïve to miss it. The smile faded immediately however and his arms crossed over his chest as a resentful expression somewhat appeared before he got himself distracted.
"Hey, when’s lunch?" Bright eyes darted about the new area ahead of him but then settled on Gypsy’s shoulder, he was starved, no breakfast and he didn’t really have much after lunch yesterday. It was around the time he asked for meals that he really started getting into his mood swings, as if trying really hard to find good things to focus on before realizing how grumpy he was and falling back down into a grouchy mood. Then again, he couldn’t entirely be blamed, after all, usually all he had to do was say he was hungry and half the estate’s workers would be rushing around getting him whatever he felt like!
Jess asked an additional question, and although another good one Max pretended still to be more interested in finding some sorta secret burder Island take out place sitting on the beach front somewhere.
(OOC: Angie, Loza, Lady >> I hope you're ok with this... had to make up something as a reply so I hope I'm not interfering with any plans here..
Also, feel free to move the group into the forest...)
The light nod Aurora directed at the two dark-haired questioners implied she was taking there half-joking queries quite seriously. However, wanting everyone to hear the reply, Exiles' leader waited until everyone had left the craft and somewhat gathered at the shore before answering to what she had expected to be asked much earlier. Watchful eyes were wandering around while she spoke fully aware of the fact that any of the Hunter Teams may be close by.
"Good questions have been asked," she stated with an appreciating nod before getting to them "As said before, there are various things points can and will be taken but also granted for. The highest score will certainly go to those Prey Teams getting to the Meeting Point unbothered and without missing a member... however, since this is supposed to be as realistic as reasonable with teams as untrained as we all are" Stressing the "all", Aurora tried to make sure she was not regarding herself as superior in the teamwork area. In fact she didn't have much practice in this field and knew herself that, as a leader, she was incredibly underqualified. "just jumping out of hiding shouting 'gottcha' will not do the trick. Serious injuries have to be avoided but as a matter of fact, the Hunters need to actually do something to keep us from just walking on.
Also, there will be quite a loss of points if the team arrives at the Meeting Point incomplete but still everyone reaching the target location will score a certain amount for the team... just not as much. On the other side, Hunters do gain points for catching one or two of us but the highest score only for getting hold of one or even more complete teams."
Circe's eyes shortly focussed on Gypsy when she finished her reply, a silent reminder that she hoped would be understood. "Yet whatever you do, remember that in the end, we are all on the same side. This is supposed to be at least a small preparation for real missions but when there is the choice between really hurting a comrade or giving up, please do not hesitate to choose the second option."
Considering the questions answered, Garnet nodded as if to underline her words and pointed behind her back at the eastern end of the mountains that could be seen in the distance. "Half way up those rocks we will find said spot. Ambushes are extremely likely so have to be careful and move as stealthy as possible, avoid main tracks etc. If anyone has additional ideas as of how to avoid attracting attention or perceives any hint at a Hunter Team's presence, do tell us. Any more question? Otherwise I would we had better get away from this far too obvious location."
Max's comments she chose to rather ignore, especially since in her very own personal opinion, he wasn't entirely wrong. The danger room session had showed all too clearly that their fighting skills needed more than just some training... in most of the cases, they rather needed to start at zero which made the prospect of just running away quite a realistic one. The critical subtext regarding the use of her powers, however, Aurora did not pick up. Too natural a thing it seemed to her to employ all means she had - it had nothing to do with bragging or putting others in her place but was just what she was used to do.
"You do not have the faintest idea who you are dealing with. After finding out, will you shy away from the flame?"
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)
((ooc: *mumbles something about ezboards, her computer and closing web pages mid post* And Racheal was about to sound fairly interesting too *sigh* lol))
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Ignoring the banter and interaction between the other team members, Racheal cast her green eyes to the shore in her seemingly never ending silence. She couldn’t help but feel a little sulky, not only about stopping herself from swimming but a hundred other things as well. Racheal made no attempt to ‘hold on’ to the make shift boat as they reached the shore, relying calmly on her slightly increased agility and balance. Was there ever a time she was not grateful for her gift?
She left the raft just before it completely halted, her movement only sending the raft on a gentle rock as she calmly alighted the barely sea-worthy vessel. True, it was an achievement, but it could hardly be called a master piece.
Having long decided that, within a group of outcasts, she still seemed to be separated from the group, she went to move away as if to look around a bit, before Gypsy’s words caught her attention. “Hey, what happens if we get caught?” Eye brows rose slightly at her words, realising that despite having thought it would be better to just shut up and move on, some things actually needed talking about. “Are we supposed to lie down and play dead for the rest of the weekend or do we ‘fight’ against them?” ‘I hope neither..’ the feral thought quietly to herself. She hated the idea of simply surrendering, yet she had worked with members from other teams just a few nights previously, and she new full well that if it came to a fight, their little group would hardly stand a chance. Her eyes gazed round the small gathering, and part of her couldn’t help but see a group of stranded strangers who had no idea what was going on. How could they stand up in a fight against the others?
"Do they have to catch all of us for us to lose or just a few team members?" Perhaps a little too quickly, she turned to Jess in surprise. He had actually made an interesting, and perfectly valid point. She knew that, given time to morph, she would have a good chance of escaping most people, but she honestly couldn’t see much chance of some of the others escaping them. Even as the thought came to mind, she felt that there team had been rather poorly thought of. After all, despite their success with the raft, how far could this group of outsiders truly go?
She had been about to add to the series of questions aimed at Garnet, eyes turning to her, when Max’s voice broke her thoughts. "Fight against them?" … "Come on Gypsy, haven’t you figured it out by now? We’re not doing anything, our talent is screwing up and neglecting others, the only one of us that is of use would be Paige, we get beaten and she’ll fix us good as new to get beaten again," … "But hey, don’t worry, Garnet is here, so we can screw up by getting caught, she’ll burn everything, then we can neglect their charred remains, it’s perfect." Despite her natural dislike of the boy, and how he had gone about saying it, she found herself agreeing slightly with Max. If they were to fight, they would probably loose, and if they didn’t it would be some kind of miracle.
For now ignoring the stone mutant’s comment about food, she turned her attention back to her own question. ”Whilst we talking about it, exactly what is supposed to be considered as caught? Do they just have to see us and recognise us, or do they have to physically make contact or restrain us?” Despite having being silent since they had begun first making the raft, her voice failed to hint at any shyness, as if she had suddenly decided that as she wanted to speak out, she would make no qualms about doing so. Her eyes fixed on Garnet, she continued ”And as much as I hate the way he put it, Max makes a decent point, in a round about way. If we have to fight the other teams at all, we’ll loose. I hate to put a downer on things, but can you seriously see us winning against any of the other teams?” She looked round at the team slowly, instinctively including everyone under her comments. Although she knew getting this far had been quite an achievement, she hated the idea of hiding the facts from anyone in a situation like this.
After a couple of moments thought, she couldn’t help but glance at Max, remembering his comment on lunch. ”I vote for 'you catch or gather food, you get some lunch'” Her eyebrows rose slightly. Racheal was pretty certain that she would be capable of catching something, or even finding some roots, as the like-ality of finding fruits at this time of year was low. Although, in her voice, she seemed to include everyone, she could help the slight challenge in her eyes as she looked at Max, before turning her gaze back to the rest of the team, finally falling on Garnet. Ah well, she thought, nothing like letting your thoughts known to push you further from people.
As Garnet answered what had turned in to some equilivent of a short fire round, Racheal frowned. She was liking the idea of this less and less. Her eye-slits widened at the thought of all of this. Okay, she had already decided that this was a seriously bad idea. They stuck an untrained team in the middle of a deserted island, only to end up on an island with more trained, if not teams then members, trying to hunt them down. Silently, she wondered if life had not been more restful when she had wandered the streets. At least she had only had the police to dodge, and not other mutants!
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OOC: *continues mumble about posting just two minutes too late* Ah well, editted it slightly, though it makes less sense lol
"Things change. It's a fact of life. Things are born, things die. That doesn't give you an excuse to complain"
"Good questions have been asked," A mumbled whisper escaped Max, but other then Gypsy who stood beside him it would have gone completely unnoticed. And all Gypsy would have been able to tell was that the tone of mumble was anything but pleased with what was happening at the moment. "As said before, there are various things points can and will be taken but also granted for. The highest score will certainly go to those Prey Teams getting to the Meeting Point unbothered and without missing a member... however, since this is supposed to be as realistic as reasonable with teams as untrained as we all are" Being a good fighter was one thing, handling himself against a pack of waylaying students was something entirely different. Bashing things around wildly was his greatest talent at the present moment and that was not the safest of actions – not that he cared if he hurt anyone. "just jumping out of hiding shouting 'gottcha' will not do the trick. Serious injuries have to be avoided but as a matter of fact, the Hunters need to actually do something to keep us from just walking on.” It wasn’t fair in the sense that meant that Gypsy couldn’t use her powers against them, so what was she going to do? Bully them into surrender? Maybe that would be the only way this team would manage to get far, they were terrific bullies, and fantastic victims, maybe they could bound the bookworms up and use them as bait. If a hunting team finds the bookworms then the rest of them could… what? Threaten to unleash Garnet onto them? Then again, Gypsy threatens to use her powers a lot, and they think she’s selfish enough to actually do it, perhaps they could bluff their way through things. It just occurred to Max while he was thinking – why the hell was he even interested if they get far or not? It’s not like he cares… though it would nice to shove it all back into their face – wasn’t Riley one of the other team leaders?
Also, there will be quite a loss of points if the team arrives at the Meeting Point incomplete but still everyone reaching the target location will score a certain amount for the team... just not as much. On the other side, Hunters do gain points for catching one or two of us but the highest score only for getting hold of one or even more complete teams."
Well then… splitting up and running off on their own would make them less easy to find wouldn’t it? The thought of Riley’s team beating them drove him on, that was now his goal, he will do everything possible to help this team, he didn’t care if he was going to have to carry both bookworms to the other side of the island! He will not be beaten by Finnicky-boy!
"Yet whatever you do, remember that in the end, we are all on the same side. This is supposed to be at least a small preparation for real missions but when there is the choice between really hurting a comrade or giving up, please do not hesitate to choose the second option."
A soft ‘Pfft’ came from Max, who had every intention to pummel Riley as best as possible if given the chance.
"Half way up those rocks we will find said spot. Ambushes are extremely likely so have to be careful and move as stealthy as possible, avoid main tracks etc. If anyone has additional ideas as of how to avoid attracting attention or perceives any hint at a Hunter Team's presence, do tell us. Any more question? Otherwise I would we had better get away from this far too obvious location."
Once Garnet finished Max patiently waited for her to get to his comment – when the hell is lunch!?
“Whilst we talking about it, exactly what is supposed to be considered as caught? Do they just have to see us and recognise us, or do they have to physically make contact or restrain us?” Well Max assumed they had to be restrained, there was no chance in hell he’d just give up so easily, even if he had to throw Jess at them, he will not let Riley get the better of him again! “And as much as I hate the way he put it, Max makes a decent point, in a round about way. If we have to fight the other teams at all, we’ll loose. I hate to put a downer on things, but can you seriously see us winning against any of the other teams?” Hey! Look, someone agreed with him! Max smirked a little, not caring about the fact if his words pleased her or not, he was right, that was all that matter! Racheal looked directly at him then, something she hadn’t really done before and it caught his attention easily enough.
“I vote for 'you catch or gather food, you get some lunch'” Oh really now? Cat girl just brought herself a one way ticket on his dinner plate then, let’s see how she likes having a stone fist rammed down her furry little throat and then put up over a nice warm fire, and Max will be a team player, he’ll even share her carcass! There was definitely an expression on his face that didn’t hint to pleasant thoughts, though Max tensed his jaw for a moment as he tore between the idea of reacting or playing cool so not to get onto Garnet’s bad side so soon.
"So what animals do you turn into exactly?" A placid expression was plastered onto his face while Max talked with mocked curiosity, "And which one tastes best?" Well… this was Max’s version of restraining himself, he was quite proud actually! A handsome – yet somewhat malicious – smile tugged lightly at the corners of his lips before he turned about on his heels.
"You’re a dim-witted team, with dense attitudes, and if you are such a wonderful hunter kitty-cat, why the fõck don’t you be a nice pet and get food to share, shßt, even I would offer out stuff, even if it meant sharing with the retard there!" An agitated hand waved back towards Jess just so everyone knew exactly who he was talking about despite him not looking back to the other boy. Firstly Paige is wounded, secondly Jess is just… Jess!! That leaves Gypsy being the only other person who is tolerable – Max has completely ignored Casey for now – and Garnet the only one of actual use. What the bloody hell was he doing here? What was the point? He doesn’t want to lose now that he realized if he wins he can shove it all in Riley’s face for months to come and yet this lot of – a decent suitable name brutal enough to describe them was lost to even Max at the moment, but mark his words, he will NOT indulge in their stupidity and ineptitude.
It didn’t really occur to Max that he wasn’t exactly being the most helpful either, with his constant remarks and inhospitable attitude towards the others, but hey… he wants to try, that’s a rare something that no one better endeavour to impede upon. Unfortunately for him, that was the one thing this group was the best at doing… impeding.
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)”I am genuinely sorry to disappoint you, dear, but the games will not start before we have arrived at the summer camp.” Her lips twitched in a half smile as she saw Casey smile over at her before she left her eyes drop down to her knees, her skinny arms wrapped around her legs, drawing them closer to her body. Why could they all just get along? Would it be that hard for them all too just co-operate for forty eight hours?
”We have to get to the meeting point without being caught, remember? And the quicker and smoother we can make our way there, the sooner you are free to do whatever you wish… maybe even have some nice campfire and roast marshmallows,” She was beginning to wonder why she’d responded to the intercom this morning, the answer was obvious even if she chose to pretend she didn’t know … she wanted to fit in, she wanted to be a part of this team, for once in the time she’d been at the school she wanted to do something right with her fellow pupils. She didn’t really know much about the other teams but maybe there was a chance that they might at least make it to the meeting point. The thought that there were other people out there who’d set traps for them frightened her, what if she injured herself, it could take her months and months to recover from a broken leg or something and she was supposed to be helping Michael with his physiotherapy. She suddenly wondered if green strike force was on the island, she might even bump into Michael, but what if green strike force was a chasing team … surely Michael wouldn’t hurt her. There was the sudden thought that it wouldn’t be Michael that was upon the island, he’s said his power was an astral projection, Michael could hardly go running around an island with his legs the way they were. She hardly heard Garnet as she warned them that they were about to land.
“Hey, what happens if we get caught?” Her pale green eyes lifted to look over at Gypsy … that was a good thoght … what would happen? “Are we supposed to lie down and play dead for the rest of the weekend or do we ‘fight’ against them?” How was she supposed to fight anyone? She supposed she could always surrender but she knew that her team mates would probably hold that against her, the last thing she wanted was to annoy Gypsy.
"Come on Gypsy, haven’t you figured it out by now? We’re not doing anything, our talent is screwing up and neglecting others, the only one of us that is of use would be Paige, we get beaten and she’ll fix us good as new to get beaten again," There was a sudden surprised look upon her face as Max spoke blushing slightly as he smiled, that hadn’t occurred to her before, she might not be much good at fighting but if anyone got hurt out here she’d be more useful than all the others put together. The thought made her feel a little better, though she knew that her powers weren’t good enough to heal anything but small injuries, it wasn’t like she’d be able to reattach an arm or anything.
"Hey, when’s lunch?" He had a good point; his words reminded her that it was some time since she’d last eaten. They didn’t have any food, she’d not thought about the fact that they’d not brought anything to eat with them, she wasn’t used to this whole outside thing, did that mean they had to find their own food? How would they know what was poisonous?
Paige was the last one to leave the raft, peering down into the water, she couldn’t see the bottom, though she knew it wasn’t deep, she’d seen the others wade the few feet to the shore. She shifted her position, standing up, trying to ignore the facts that the raft was rocking slightly from side to side. As she stepped off the raft, her back leg caught hold of one of the vines she’d earlier had so much difficulty stripping. The arm that wasn’t in a sling desperately flailed trying to keep her balance as gravity pulled her body downwards. With nothing to hold onto a second later she plummeted into the water. It was icy cold, stealing the breath from her lungs. She struggled to her feet, gasping and chocking, her front drenched, though most of her back was drenched. There was water in her mouth, it tasted horrible and the hurriedly spat it back out again, wiping the back of her sleeve over her lips. Knowing the others would notice in a minute and with brightly flushed cheeks in her embarrassment she squelched over towards the others, hanging back a little from them. Her shoes were dripping wet and her hair hung in rat’s tails around her face.
"Good questions have been asked … Serious injuries have to be avoided … we are all on the same side … Ambushes are extremely likely … Any more questions?" Yes … could she go home? She’d be much better off in the medical bay than out here, Doctor McCoy would be wondering where she was. She hadn’t thought over the fact that he’d know where she was, they wouldn’t organise something where people could get hurt without at least informing the doctor.
”And as much as I hate the way he put it, Max makes a decent point, in a round about way. If we have to fight the other teams at all, we’ll loose. I hate to put a downer on things, but can you seriously see us winning against any of the other teams?” Paige too stared at her team leader, wanting to hear some kind of encouragement. She hadn’t thought over the fact that she was probably the youngest person on the island, she was already doubting herself, her team mates were doubting her and the team, the last thing she wanted to hear what that their team leader didn’t think they were going to make it. She wrapped her arms around herself, her bandage was wet, along with her jumper and the plunge into the icy water had shocked her system, her skin was coming up in goose bumps against the cold water.
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)"So what animals do you turn into exactly?" Perhaps it was the slight ignorance which lead her to believe he might actually have a useful interest in her power. But any illusion was destroyed as she turned to face him. "And which one tastes best?"
Every muscle in her shoulders tense, eyes narrowed as she faced Max. Racheal was, by nature, a relatively calm and placid person. Few things could actually get her so roused she would want little more than to attack her problems with claws. Bout one of those few things were her powers. Her gift, which had kept her alive for over 14 years and she silently felt blessed for every day, and he dared to insult it! It was bad enough to have humans freak because of her eyes or teeth, but this was too much.
"You’re a dim-witted team, with dense attitudes, and if you are such a wonderful hunter kitty-cat, why the fõck don’t you be a nice pet and get food to share, shßt, even I would offer out stuff, even if it meant sharing with the retard there!" Brilliant, and he was one to speak? Only just managing to hold back a snarl which threatened in her throat, she could help but glance at the others as he waved his hand, not really realising Paige's condition, to wrapped up in her own anger at this... this... boy! How dare this arrogant mutant even think of lowering any other person below himself, as if he were something special.
Within her mind, a silent voice begged her to control herself, holding on enough just to stop herself from morphing, just keeping her voice to a spoke outrage, rather than yelling. That silent voice kept running the names of the other team members through her mind, reminding her that it wasn't fair on them, least of all Paige who was already terrified of her, if she completely lost it. As rare as it was, it wasn't exactly a pretty sight.
But how dare he! "And do you not think if you engaged your mind for 2 seconds you might actually realise what I meant!" She kept her voice to a slightly more natural speak as, for now, she kept to the original point. "You really think that I would expect everyone to try hunting?! If you want to try raw meat, go for it. Because unless a fire is built, that will be exactly what you would get! I had expected that most would actually look for edible roots and leaves - I expect on this island meat is much harder to come by. Unfortunately, there isn't one of you cushy little McDonalds here, you might actually have to do some work in order to eat. Though, if you want to go chasing rabbits, be my guest!"
Her hands clenched slightly, trying to force herself to calm down. "You seem to be blind to the fact that mutant powers aren't the most important thing in the world. Some people actually have completely unrelated gifts that make them useful, different. And no matter what, you still have no right to lower any in such a way as you just did! You are not the most important thing around here" Somewhere, at the back of her mind, Racheal realised she could only remember one time when she had been in such a rage, and that had been 8 years ago. Although she was managing to prevent herself from morphing, dark tear-lines from her eyes did develop slowly.
Her eyes were fixed on Max now, not turning to the observing team members, as if she had partially forgotten they were even there. Part of her kept an unconscious eye on his pose, just in case he was to suddenly lash out. Although isolated from most of the school, that hadn't prevented her from hearing rumours of the school bully, even on her first day at the institute. And if he moved, she needed to be ready to dodge.
"I'ld be surprised if I was the only one who wanted to get off this island as quickly as possible, and the best way to do that is to use EVERYBODIES strengths. I'm sure your eager to get back to your nice little cushy life." Slowly she tried to calm her breaths. Some people had life so easy and they couldn't even see it. Perhaps she was over-reacting, but she hadn't yet realised it, and now she couldn't help but get off the main subject a little, part of her previous pent-up frustration showing.
"I know full well that I'm no team player. Yet I agreed, just as you all did, to go on this little game. And, in all honesty, to me that is all it seems to be. Yet, for a while back there, we actually did manage to get something done. And it's about time you started seeing more of peoples strengths rather than their weaknesses." Had she repeated herself there? The thought remained just for a moment. But a Racheal in full rant was a rare, and admittedly long-going sight. But at least she was managing to keep her voice to a spoken level, rather than shouting at the top her voice.
"Some of us actually have experience with looking after ourselves, and, despite appearances, other people. Just because I am a loner doesn't mean I have always run alone...." It wasn't uncommon for Racheal to speak almost as if she was actually an animal, and in fact they had been lucky in some ways that, yet, she had not actually begun any animal like characteristics. "... Though in some ways I now wish that I had kept to my own path.” There was no sadness in her voice, just a simple fact that had slipped it’s way into her rant. Oddly, she had hardly moved, trying to simply make her point known as she continued, pausing only to breathe. Part of her knew that this wasn’t helping, and she did want to stop herself. But she could feel the anger of every beast within her, especially that of her beloved tiger morph, who felt that Max’s insult had been directly aimed at her as she ‘knew’ full well that she was Racheal’s top morph. Sometimes it was difficult, having the spirit and instincts of so many beasts running through her veins and mind, especially right now.
”And as for being edible…. If you really want to try to eat a fully grown Siberian tiger, bring it on. I’ve not lost a fight with her in 14 years, and I miss my old play fights..” Her voice had lowered suddenly as she spoke, her voice almost a quiet snarl. What she didn’t point out was that other than her ‘play’ fights with her twin, she had only actually been in a fight once, and that had been on the rescue mission two days ago. However, she also failed to mention that the play fights she had always had did not involve any velveted claws. The whole point had always been to sharpen their skills after all, and a cat’s prime weapons were those needle like nails. She had been tempted to add that he could always try fighting her orca if he wanted to swim, but she stopped herself, having a sudden feeling that she had already gone too far, and she didn't want to step to much further away from the others. She already felt she was alone anyway.
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OOC: *wipes forehead* Too much spoken for Racheal.. seems weird lol. *Glances back up at post* Mmmm… Oh well, that will have to do, I don’t have the energy to try and improve it, though I know it could be better.. and longer lol.
"Things change. It's a fact of life. Things are born, things die. That doesn't give you an excuse to complain"
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)
Just as Jess thought the day couldn't get any worse it did. He suposed it was karma, or some other stupid concept, for all the suposed "hell" he had put his mother through not that she ever mentionned how she had made a mess of things or how she had put him through hell.
"Come on Gypsy, haven’t you figured it out by now? We’re not doing anything, our talent is screwing up and neglecting others, the only one of us that is of use would be Paige, we get beaten and she’ll fix us good as new to get beaten again". The comment came from Max, who else? his mind wondered rhetorically, and Jess raised an eyebrow at it but had to grudgingly admit that the comment wasn't far off base. Even still it made Max sound even more arrogant than he currently did and whether it was hypocritical or not Jess couldn't stand arrogance in others and certainly didn't help Max's already dismal reputation in his mind.
"But hey, don’t worry, Garnet is here, so we can screw up by getting caught, she’ll burn everything, then we can neglect their charred remains, it’s perfect." And it goes on Jess thought rolling his eyes. Did Max love the sound of his own voice or what? He loved a good criticism of teamwork as much as the next guy with problems but he didn't love anything that had anything to do with Max and that put him in a darker mood than he had formerly been in.
As the question about lunch was asked Jess thought, finally something coming out of your mouth with a point. That sure as Hell doesn't happen much. His attention was diverted as his question was answered by Garnet though after she had finished answering Gypsy's. Great so we can dump Max's body somewhere and still get points Jess thought to himself, only partially joking as he glared daggers at the blonde boy.
When Garnet mentionned choosing giving up over harming another person for real Jess snorted out loud, unable to contain his reaction. He'd gotten into enough fistfights to be able to defend himself and to attack agressively if he wanted to and he didn't see any need for restraint. They'd all heal fast enough in the end and weren't a few scrapes and bruises realistic examples or what would happen on any regular mission? Jess heard Max's "Pfft" beside him and marvelled on the fact that they actually agreed on something. At least it would mean that Max was fine with fighting if he just happened to be punched by someone. That was just in case though and for one he preferred to look on the slightly brighter side of the cup although this glass was half empty no matter how you looked at it. The dark haired mutant silently hoped they would get into a situation where he could start hitting and not stop until forcibly restrained. After spending more than a few hours with this mockery of a team he'd need to take out his agression on something and inanimate objects just weren't the same at all. She mentionned stealth and Jess glanced down at the heavy work type boots he was wearing. Little hope of not leaving a trail in those. Whatever, it would do them good to get into some sort of a fight. He figured Max was all talk and no action and was nearly itching to see what he would do and, although he hated to admit it, Jess was actually rather curious about what the wimps would end up doing.
He was surprised when the green eyed girl of the group actually spoke up since she had been getting close to registering as mute to him due to her lack of speech. She came across as confident but not arrogant like Max and Jess thought that perhaps there was one less person on the team he would sacrifice if he had an option of dropping team members of his choice. She's a realist the New Yorker thought as she rather bluntly agreed with Max and stated her lack of confidence in the make-shift team. Nope he thought, forming the one word answering to her question in his head although he didn't speak out loud.
Across the way Casey had been listening in silence to the entire conversations going on around him, trying to make himself nearly invisible for the time being. Although people might not have thought it he was just as sarcastic as the next person and while it would have sickened him to hear it, his instinctual response was identical to Jess'. What were the odds of a team like them going up against trained professional teams who had actually been on missions together and succeeding, especially when every person on the time would rather become a human pincushion than be apart of this sad excuse for a team.
Jess noted the challenge in Racheal's response to Max's lunch query and his mouth quirked up at the side, appreciating her attitude of each man, or woman as the case may be, to himself. He wasn't about to do something for the entire team as they didn't contribute and appreciated her comment for that.
"So what animals do you turn into exactly?" Someone like him could smell trouble a mile away and this was barrelling in that direction. "And which one tastes best?" Jess shook his head at this. Even if it was just to keep up his mucho appearance Max was taking things way too far. At least he wouldn't suggest actually eating one of their team members. His dark eyes caught Max's malicious smile and he amended his previous statement. He wouldn't actually suggest eating any team member other than Max.
"You’re a dim-witted team, with dense attitudes, and if you are such a wonderful hunter kitty-cat, why the fõck don’t you be a nice pet and get food to share, shßt, even I would offer out stuff, even if it meant sharing with the retard there!" The blonde boy's hand waved in Jess' direction letting him know that that comment was directed at him even though Max's gaze wasn't on him.
"Yeah I'm the retard. I'm not the @$$hole suggesting we turn kitty into Fancyfeast," Jess retorted sharply, using a brand of catfood as a reference as his dark eyes blazed with a fire rarely seen in them. He'd been approaching civil for the last few minutes and yet Max dared to bring him into this as the useless one. Max hadn't contributed anything useless since they arrived on this Godforsaken place and yet he thought he had the right to put down Jess. He could see attacking whoever had made a comment or Barbie who probably couldn't control her team if every member was on a leash but this was purely personal and Jess deeply resented that, ignoring the fact that given the chance he might have made a similiar comment about Max, leaving out the whole kitty treats part that was.
He was half a frigging second away from just tackling Max, especially since the blonde hadn't even glared in his direction. It was almost too easy and so tempting and if Max made one more comment he could have a bruise on his cheek for a week. Luckily he wasn't the only one to fire a storm back at the arrogant mutant, Racheal seemed to have no problem standing up to the bastard either. He had been impressed and remained fairly smug about her remarks but the fact that she was turning it into a lecture bored him somewhat. Couldn't she just scream at him for a minute and get it over with? Jess wondered how long it would take for her claws to take him apart, although it was beyond darkly mean he found the mental picture of the mutant with claw marks marring his pretty boy face rather amusing. The rant went into a threat though and Jess couldn't help a full smirk from breaking across his face. Well this is worth the price of admission, he found himself thinking.
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)"And do you not think if you engaged your mind for 2 seconds you might actually realise what I meant!" Annoyed footsteps slowed and with a sigh of pure irritation he turned around. "You really think that I would expect everyone to try hunting?! If you want to try raw meat, go for it. Because unless a fire is built, that will be exactly what you would get! I had expected that most would actually look for edible roots and leaves - I expect on this island meat is much harder to come by. Unfortunately, there isn't one of you cushy little McDonalds here, you might actually have to do some work in order to eat. Though, if you want to go chasing rabbits, be my guest!" When she went on about needing a fire Max gave an expression bluntly saying ‘what the hell are you on about, hello!?’ and waving a hand rather frustrated towards Garnet before folding them as she continued on, pure anger swelling inside the hot tempered young man. So what the hell did she expect, that they would survive solely off friggin leaves and dirt for two days?
"You seem to be blind to the fact that mutant powers aren't the most important thing in the world. Some people actually have completely unrelated gifts that make them useful, different. And no matter what, you still have no right to lower any in such a way as you just did! You are not the most important thing around here" A colder gaze burned into Max’s eyes, how DARE she suggest such an insulting proposition, Mutant powers are everything!, they set them apart from humans and push them forward in the world, with power you can have respect, and with respect you can have great power. His arms dropped down as he stepped towards the group once, his fists balled tightly as he watched her, a tense and venomous demeanour clouding over him.
"I'ld be surprised if I was the only one who wanted to get off this island as quickly as possible, and the best way to do that is to use EVERYBODIES strengths. I'm sure your eager to get back to your nice little cushy life." Cushy? What does this nobody know of his life, hoe can she even dare to suggest she has any idea what he goes through, that’s all anyone ever sees, the glamour and splendour that it offers, ignorant to the other hellish half that is kept from public eyes life a carefully guarded secret.
"I know full well that I'm no team player. Yet I agreed, just as you all did, to go on this little game. And, in all honesty, to me that is all it seems to be. Yet, for a while back there, we actually did manage to get something done. And it's about time you started seeing more of peoples strengths rather than their weaknesses." A hand rose and his tensed fingers rested lightly against his forehead, was SHE lecturing him now? The tantrums he has thrown in the past when someone has started lecturing him have been nearly famous around the school (usually because he gets all dramatic and has even thrown his table to the front of the room a few times when he was forced to sit at the front of the room and was getting told off at the same time). For the time being he was bluntly ignoring Jess, let the wuss sit back and throw in side comments, Max couldn’t stand back seat fighters like that, pathetic wimp.
"Some of us actually have experience with looking after ourselves, and, despite appearances, other people. Just because I am a loner doesn't mean I have always run alone...." What the hell is she on about now!? The expression on Max’s face reflected those exact sentiments and although his fists started to clench tightly and their texture began to grow rought and colour sapped away from them, he remained strenuously still for the moment. "... Though in some ways I now wish that I had kept to my own path.” In Max’s entire record of fights, he’s never done more then push a girl who’s tried to take him on, some sort of twisted sense of guilt rising up that refuses to allow him to outwardly beat a girl (especially since in most cases it was such an easy thing for him to do). And this time was no different, he honestly wouldn’t thrash the girl but the chance of throwing her into that icy water was more then appealing…
”And as for being edible…. If you really want to try to eat a fully grown Siberian tiger, bring it on. I’ve not lost a fight with her in 14 years, and I miss my old play fights..” The threat of such a challenge caused an instant shift as the rest of his skin solidified and turned to tough living stone instead of tender flesh. Although Racheal seemed completely on guard, Max stepped towards her, slowly, as unthreateningly as possible considering his activations of his power, ignoring all others, even Garnet for once, as he whispered with a voice oddly calm compared to the torrent of brutality swirling under the calm exterior.
"Siberian Tiger huh?" A softer voice followed as he leaned a little towards her from where he was stand a short distance away, no more then two meters, "Sounds yummy." Of course Max wasn’t stupid, he did keep space between them, the sapphire eyes burned dangerously within the living stone mutant. Both tightly clenched hands ready to move into the positions both Wolverine and Psylocke had taught him over the years of working in their martial arts classes, yet at the same time holding back – admittedly it wasn’t wise to start a fight with a whole lot of others around, especially Garnet, and with the image of Paige shivering in the background he wasn’t entirely eager to start beating down giant kitties in front of her.
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)"Yeah I'm the retard. I'm not the @$$hole suggesting we turn kitty into Fancyfeast," Somewhere in the back of her mind, Jess' words registered, and suddenly two thoughts came to mind. Firstly, what was it with everyone starting to call her kitty? Of all the things in the world... well, at least it wasn't quite as bad as kitten. But even so... Silently she fought the thought down, this was hardly time to start up this arguement, yet alone another one. And secondly, she seemed to suddenly remember that there were actually over people present. And as soon as she realised that, she also decided that she had possibly over reacted, even for her. Why was it everytime anyone said anything against her powers she got into such a rage?
As Max stepped towards her, she refused to shift, though she relaxed slightly, readying herself for any swift movements needed. Silently, she did hope that he would have enough restraint to stop himself. Not that she wouldn't fight him, just that here and now was not the place. Through out her rant, her eyes had been trained on him, and she hadn't missed a single move. Sure, Garnet could just create a fire, but surely it would have been easier for her if they at least had some wood to burn? Was her point of view so outrageous or was it simply that her rant had been more confusing.
"Siberian Tiger huh?" She ignored the relative calm of his voice now, sensing more than that now, not surprised that her rather lecture-like rant had touched a nerve. "Sounds yummy." Her eyes met his for an instant, her own still narrowed in anger, the slitted pupils almost vanishing within the green, and she couldn't help but let a soft snarl escape as the tiger within her tried it's hardest to break free.
"Well, the move is yours..." She kept her voice low, the challange remaining in her eyes, pausing for a moment before stepping back once. No, now was not the time for this, and although she kept a wary eye on him, she turned her eyes slowly to the rest of the group, slowly telling herself to calm down and relax abit. What had she started? Her eyes scanned the group more than actually registering them individually. What was with her? The last thing she needed was to have isolated herself further, but by the looks of it, she would say that was just what she had done. Her eyes lowered to the sands in thought, they needed to move, and to eat after all. Part of her wanted to leave, there and then, even if it was only to hunt, or to scout a head.
"So.. what now?" She said simply, lowering her voice to a calmer tone, the question directed at Garnet, as if trying to ignore the last few minutes. Silently, she hoped that someone, anyone, would actually realise that she hadn't intended for any of this. The black tear lines which had developed remained a little longer than she would have wanted if she had known, as ever trying to push down the event till it vanished, at least for now. It was about time she learnt to control her beasts more, but it could be difficult when they had been her life for so long.
Perhaps if her mind had not been so wrapped up, she would have paid more attention to the group, possibly even noticing Paige's condition. But knowing already that the healing mutant feared her, and now Racheal feared that the girl would dislike her even further, she made a concious effort to avoid looking at her for now. She just need to calm down.
Despite her need to calm down, her mind ran over her own words, and part of her cringed. Not only had she lectured, but she had randomly started to include her own feelings in it. At least she hadn't said that much. Just that she was seriously considering leaving the institute, though it had only been a hint at it. She sighed inwardly. Racheal had once been told that no one cared about a couple of lone mutants, least of all those which were theives and orphans. Perhaps Jake had been right after all. Perhaps she had betrayed him to simply discover that the world was harsher than she had dared to hope. Hope? Now that was something she was learning was pointless. You couldn't escape your fate, so what was the point of trying?
"Things change. It's a fact of life. Things are born, things die. That doesn't give you an excuse to complain"
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)
Aurora had no illusions regarding the fact that there certainly were several people who would have enjoyed the sight of her speechless, overtaxed by the sheer mass of things she was supposed to be dealing with at once. Paige was soaked and would probably catch a cold if she didn’t do something about her state, a plan for how to get to the Meeting Point in the most efficient and promising way had to be made – something she hadn’t been able to do beforehand since the only thing she had known about the location was the approximate position of their target – her teams’ members needed to be motivated which on its own was an almost impossible thing to accomplish and on top of that, one of Exiles’ more supportive members and the suddenly worsened school bully had a clash that threatened to escalade to an actual fight.
Yet chances anyone would savor this moment of helplessness were low. Her face a marble façade, Aurora’s racing thoughts were not displayed for anyone to see. Contrary to what she had always thought, teams didn’t seem to be about helping and supporting each other – a group of friends and if not that so at least comrades of arms – but at least as far as Exiles was concerned, it was war. All against one another, alliances were ephemeral and in the end, everyone was alone. This wasn’t what she had expected… this wasn’t what she wanted to be part of. Yet then again, what options did she have?
Oh pride, glorious support in hard times, what sword in the back you can be for those you keep from accepting defeat! Every muscle tense, this burning flame inside of her ready to lash out when necessary, Aurora couldn’t do anything other than watching, being ready. Everything changed so quickly, challenges seeming to be accepted – pictures of fangs on stone flashing through the fiery mutant’s horrified mind. Determined steps brought her closer to the two, fury difficult to hide gleaming in those coal eyes yet the moment came and went, the strong-willed animal morpher being the one regaining her mind.
”I can’t believe you!” Circe exclaimed, only a hint at the anger she was feeling being carried in her voice. Words thrown at the team as a whole, helpless frustration in disguise as she looked around. There was so much more she wanted to say.
If they were so antisocial, why had they come to the Institute in the first place?
If they weren’t even able to cooperate for a few hours, how could they expect to lead an at least minimally satisfying life?
If they were so sick of living, why didn’t they just get themselves a rope and made some of those mutant haters out there a reason to celebrate?!
None of those questions was ever spoken out loud and as chances came and went, Aurora was once again almost overwhelmed by the ever-growing feeling of grievance. What had she done to deserve this cross, this task impossible to accomplish?
Iron will, burning heart, behold the strength a single soul can grant; a million suns’ force incarnated to deny sweet surrender once again. How could she ever have dared to hope one small victory meant everything would become easier? Inanity, wishful thinking – it is so easy to full yourself.
An almost inaudible sigh escaped those full lips few men had never wished to kiss. A role model she had to be, a shining example for everyone to strive to imitate. If only there hadn’t been this tired little girl inside of her that craved nothing but the simple pleasures of life. A life without struggles, without responsibility. Aurora Garnet Ferelle doubted she would ever have the chance to give in to this buried side of hers. A young woman pulling herself up.
”We will cross this open area to get into the woods. It is not actually safe there but at least we will not be as easy a target as out here. Now, I did not make the rules, I did never lay hands on your timetables and I certainly forced no one to come here so if you want to blame or mock about someone, call in Jean Grey’s office or look into the mirror… or try for once, try with all honesty.” Her gaze was enigmatic when she looked around, Garnet herself uncertain of what she wanted her features to express. A command, a plea – for them to ignore, to laugh at? Goodness, why did she lower herself to such a disgraceful level? ”You may be surprised by the effect this can have…,” she finished motioning them to get moving.
There was an undefined air of authority about her urging everyone to follow unspoken orders while a sympathetic thought heated the atmosphere around poor Paige. A small smile graced Aurora’s lips when she turned to the healing mutant, a light nod encouraging her to follow the others before she took up her pace to occupy the position that was hers. A true leader always fights in front row.
"You do not have the faintest idea who you are dealing with. After finding out, will you shy away from the flame?"
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)
(OOC: Sorry about that, Casey's just so quiet he usually doesn't have much to say but they'll be more this time I promise.)
Jess shook his head in disgust noticing Max carefully ignoring him. Fine, whatever. Not like I care anyway, Jess said almost convincing himself of this fact. Years fending for himself as his mother hooked up with one bastard after the other had resulted in him not only being able to defend himself in a fight but to him picking fights with others for no real reason other than one glance the wrong way. It hadn't been unusual at all for him to turn up with a black eye at least once a week and although Jack's presence and the presence of other people who actually gave a crap had meant that the fights were fewer and farther between Jess was still agressive. He probably always would be and if someone gave him even the slightest opportunity he was in the centre of things. Now however Jess felt the strange sensation of almost wanting to let someone else do it for once. Maybe if there had been no other excitement he might have jumped Max and would have enjoyed it while it lastest but at least now there was a distinct possibility of him being a spectator in anoter fight even if it was just verbal.
Casey's eyes widdened at the lecture, making them bluer than they had been before, a feat which had seemed next to impossible until this moment. He wished he had the guts and the powers to be able to lecture Max and those like him. At least the other bully on the team would occationally screw off or suprise people with an intelligent question whereas Max seemed to have no such boundaries. Casey thought that it was physical stature and past experience that kept him from speaking up. He had the attitude and even the sarcasm but whenever he had spoken up before it had resulted in a bloodied nose and in a day spent in the boy's washroom wishing everything would stop or get even the tiniest bit better. Sure the emergence of his powers had helped things, for it was better to be ignored than to be physically injured at least by his standards, but he still got the taunts and the threats. Maybe if he wasn't short, awkward and into science things would be different. For the time being he could only watch the stronger and more confident members of his team do what he could only dream of doing.
His still widdened eyes focused on Max whose skin was beginning to change and harden as the morph finished her lecture. Max's voice was calm but Casey wasn't fooled. He'd seen people who he had touched that way before. They appeared calm although on the inside they fumed and he saw that anger in most of them later on. Casey heard Racheal's snarl and his eyes shifted to her although her green eyes were narrowed almost to slits and he couldn't really meet her gaze had he wanted to.
"Well, the move is yours..." Casey wondered if it was really concieveable that the first fight on this team, for it had been seemingly unavoidable that there wouldn't be a fight the entire time, would actually not involve himself, Paige or Jess. From his point of view it looked as though there would either be some sort of a power struggle between Jess and Max or if not that than at least one of the bullies picking on himself or Paige. That the quiet girl who had barely said a word until moments earlier would be involved hadn't even occured to him and he glanced over at Paige briefly, wondering if she had been thinking the same thing. The moment seemed to die though, the morphing mutant coming to her senses although she still seemed a little intimidating to him.
"Gives whole new meaning to the phrase 'go get him tiger'," Casey remarked, more to himself than to anyone since he figured the only person who would actually listen to him was Paige. He looked over at Paige and felt for her, knowing that to be wet at a time like this had to be most unpleasant. Naturally it seemed like much of the team didn't care but that came as no surprise to the blue-eyed mutant. Afterall they had never made any pretenses about caring for others. If there was one thing they all were it was honest even in their selfishness. He wished he could help but there wasn't much chance of that. Yet again he was just useless Casey although there was little self-pity in that though. He had long since moved on and accepted that he wasn't exactly a perfect helpful kid.
Casey looked hesitantly over at Garnet, wondering how the leader was dealing with all of this. Thus far Casey wasn't exactly her biggest fan despite being the type often called a teacher's pet. Even still he certainly felt for her now since to be given the responsibility of guiding a team was probably a great feeling due to the fact that it meant the older teachers had confidence in those abilities posessed by a person. This had to be a let down though and Casey made a mental note to be as agreeable and easy to manage as he could even while thinking to himself, yeah because that's a real effort. Might as well make a note to be yourself.
Jess was now openly smirking even though the excitement seemed to be dying down at least for the moment. If there had actually been any sort of comment he might have made somesort of comment to provoke Max and the girl, maybe something about betting five bucks on the tiger but the moment was lost. Jess almost found this a pity, so elated had he been to watch Max finally get what he deserved. He snuck a glance at Garnet, it suddenly occuring to him that he hadn't managed to get a word in edgewise in this whole ordeal. What was a person suposed to say though to something like this? Other than toast one of the two or decide to surrender and drag the whole lot of them back to the institute kicking or screaming what was there to be done?
"I can’t believe you!” she exclaimed and Jess thought to himself, and here it comes. He smirked, for the first time not the main object of a teacher's anger although he had to hand it to her, Circe's voice didn't show all the expression he was sure she was feeling.
"We will cross this open area to get into the woods. It is not actually safe there but at least we will not be as easy a target as out here. Now, I did not make the rules, I did never lay hands on your timetables and I certainly forced no one to come here so if you want to blame or mock about someone, call in Jean Grey’s office or look into the mirror… or try for once, try with all honesty.” She glanced around with an expression that could be interpreted by therapists a million different ways. He wasn't sharing the sentiment of blaming himself though. Jess had a list a mile long of people to blame, beginning with his mother and her boyfriends with Max somewhere near the end of the list.
"You may be surprised by the effect this can have…,” she finished with a gesture that indicated they should all move along. Yeah a nice motivational speech is going to change everything, Jess thought to himself sarcastically. He had personally been hoping she would chew everyone out or yell or something. Sure her restraint was admirable but he didn't care, he wanted something to happen because otherwise that was one Hell of an anticlimactic moment.
Casey was similarly impressed by her restraint since he knew that if he had the power and the authority he wouldn't have just talked it out and let it go. Maybe she was right though. Afterall there was no use in creating grudges now or in making everyone resent her and everyone else on the already unstable 'team'. He caught her gesture for moving on and glanced over at Paige before falling into step with her, figuring that even if she didn't want to talk it would be safer beside her than to get caught up beside any of the other four who all seemed pretty on the edge at the moment and walking beside Circe would just be awkward.
Jess shrugged to himself before grudgingly starting to walk although he trudged along behind the rest of the group, keeping well behind Paige, Casey and Circe. He couldn't resist one last comment though and said loudly enough so that everyone could hear him although his tone managed to make the words sound as if he wasn't addressing the team as a whole, "whoever thought up teams should be shot".
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)"Fight against them? Come on Gypsy, haven’t you figured it out by now? We’re not doing anything, our talent is screwing up and neglecting others, the only one of us that is of use would be Paige, we get beaten and she’ll fix us good as new to get beaten again," as Max motioned towards Paige, the part demon’s gaze followed. Something, that would be pretty much close to a smile, spread from Gypsy’s lips. It seemed the young healer felt something for being acknowledged, as long as she knew that she could be of use only when she was needed and didn’t get in the way for the rest of the time all was good.
"But hey, don’t worry, Garnet is here, so we can screw up by getting caught, she’ll burn everything, then we can neglect their charred remains, it’s perfect." As if having a hand on her shoulder wasn’t making her feel uncomfortable, for she didn’t like being touched, Max just had to mention Garnets’ skills. No, her mind whipped out of that thought. She couldn’t let herself think like that otherwise she’d turn into some jealous sour little girl, something she wasn’t. Luckily the question of lunch aided in distracting her thoughts. Yet that question didn’t seem to be answered as Garnet began answering the question that she had asked.
"Yet whatever you do, remember that in the end, we are all on the same side. This is supposed to be at least a small preparation for real missions but when there is the choice between really hurting a comrade or giving up, please do not hesitate to choose the second option." As the fiery mutants gaze stuck on her, Gypsy stared back giving a ‘yeah, yeah, I know’ look. Just because she did know, however, didn’t mean that she liked that rule. She had this power of hers that she wasn’t allowed to use, but the headaches that came with flashbacks she was allowed to keep. All right, so she wasn’t going to really use her power on anyone this weekend, unless they really crossed her path in a bad manner. ’But to make things clear,’ she stated in her mind before sternly telling herself that it wasn’t because she cared for what happened to the mutants of Xavier’s nor was it for the trouble she’d be in if she did happen to send someone to hell by the teachers, it was for the trouble she was saving herself from, from those at Harmony Uni. They always kept track on her and seemed to know when she even thought about using her power. They were the people she didn’t want to anger. They held power that could be far more dangerous than any mutant. Crossing them would land her in serious trouble.
”I vote for 'you catch or gather food, you get some lunch'” There wasn’t even a moment of thought allowed before Max replied to her statement calmly, yet she could all too easily see that something was brewing inside him, which was easily seen as he threw a nasty comment in Jess’ direction. A devilsh smile slowly tugged away. It looked like there was some good viewing on this channel!
A slight look of surprise was on Gypsy’s face as Racheal stood up for herself against Max. Now this was fun. If she had of known that this was coming she would have attempted to be motivated from when they landed. Oh well, she was watching it now and enjoying every moment of it.
"You seem to be blind to the fact that mutant powers aren't the most important thing in the world. Some people actually have completely unrelated gifts that make them useful, different." Gypsy felt herself agreeing with the feral mutant on that occasion. Mutant powers aren’t everything even though she could tell that it did to some people. The former mutant had learned that the hard way. Now being a demon and holding unique powers made what she possessed everything. She ignored the curse it also brought along with it and the fact she still missed the warmth of her former power.
"Some of us actually have experience with looking after ourselves, and, despite appearances, other people. Just because I am a loner doesn't mean I have always run alone...." Ignoring the rest of the sentence, Gypsy found herself in what Racheal had said. She had experience with working with others. She experience and a lesson. If it wasn’t for working for alongside others, whether invited along to help or not, Gypsy wouldn’t be who she is today. Therefore, the last thing she would willingly do was work in a team, unless, of course, if it was to benefit herself greatly like aiding in the raft preparation had.
”And as for being edible…. If you really want to try to eat a fully grown Siberian tiger, bring it on. I’ve not lost a fight with her in 14 years, and I miss my old play fights..”‘Oh, nice move,’ thought Gypsy as she listened to the low growled sentence. Now having the power of enhancing sinful feelings to an extent where they would be devoured into Hell would be no use if Gypsy wasn’t handed empathic abilities. They may not be all that strong but she could feel the anger felt from the disputants, more so from Max than Racheal. At times the sensing of others sinful emotions was like a temptation to use her power. Gypsy could only guess that it would feel stronger if she actually used her powers on a regular basis like that of the former owner of her power.
Luckily she wasn’t one to give into temptation and focused on watching as Max replied to the animal metamorph, who then replied with "Well, the move is yours..." A look of excitement almost flared in Gypsy’s eyes as she almost willed a fight to come. It saved having to waste time finding one of the other teams to pull some stunt that would most likely be half as decent as the one this could turn out to be.
"So.. what now?" A frown emerged. ‘Just because there’s an audience doesn’t mean you have to stop,’ Gypsy thought selfishly wanting a fight to break out between the two. And she had just begun to weigh the odds in her mind to see who had a better chance. Max would be who she’d prefer to win in the fight, but the underdog is always full of surprises.
”I can’t believe you!” Gypsy had to restrain from agreeing with Aurora on that comment, although, she could tell that the fire mutant wasn’t thinking along the same terms as her. Pity, there might have been something to like about the Exiles leader if she had have wanted a fight.
”We will cross this open area to get into the woods. It is not actually safe there but at least we will not be as easy a target as out here. Now, I did not make the rules, I did never lay hands on your timetables and I certainly forced no one to come here so if you want to blame or mock about someone, call in Jean Grey’s office or look into the mirror… or try for once, try with all honesty. You may be surprised by the effect this can have…,” Looking in the mirror was out of the question. Gypsy wasn’t one who fussed about the mirror on appearances. Sure, that wasn’t what Garnet had meant but the former mutant wasn’t going to go out of her way and look into something she didn’t like in an attempt to look for someone to blame. So she decided to blame it on Mrs. Grey and get on with it without having to go and complain to the headmistress. Now came the trying part. If you tried too hard you’d be nothing more than a try-hard, something she often found in the classroom with people nearly standing on the back of their chairs to answer questions. And trying also came back to the experience she had with others. She had tried to help out and it had changed her life. Trying was something that had long been placed in the trash.
Being urged to move along, Gypsy had no choice but to move along with the flow. Perhaps some something fun like what could have happened would come later.
Re: Stage 1 Cleared - Welcome to Level 2 (Exiles)
(*Aims shotgun away from Lady* Very well then… you may live )
"Well, the move is yours..." For the love of god, did she honestly think he was intending to have roasted kitty for lunch, was she truly THAT dense!? Alright, he lost his temple by calling the team exactly what they were, dim-witted may not have been the best words to describe them, how about dysfunctional, that fits perfectly. For some reason he eyes slipped over towards Paige, she was the timid girl that was so easily frightened and yet part of Max wanted to know if she honestly thought he had any intention of eating Racheal, lord, she was a bookworm, Paige was meant to be smart, if she thought he could do that then she wasn’t as intelligent as he gave her credit for being.
His eyes turned over to Gypsy before snapping back towards Racheal as she addressed the group, relaxing a little since she wasn’t continuing her lecture or the fight. This is what he was missing his parent’s big event for? This is the thing he was willing to get grounded for!? And she was wrong, he didn’t choose to come here, he didn’t even know what was happening until he had been boarded onto a plane and whisked away to this god forsaken place! He didn’t sign up for this team, none of them did, and he didn’t want to be here, NONE OF THEM DID!
The metamorph was a girl, he couldn’t hit a girl, couldn’t shove her into the sand either, she hadn’t really upset him that much just yet to push his moral ethics… granted he was ready to clobber Jess if the other gave him the opportunity, but every ounce of strenuous energy was put solely in glaring off towards the forest now as his eyes turned away. God please, please, let Jess say something, let him look at Max in just the perfect way that will rightfully be able to get rewarded with the most atrocious punch a stone fisted mutant could possibly deliver.
“I can’t believe you!” For the first time Max’s eyes looked over towards Garnet, he’d not seen her like this, he’d seen her angry, he’d seen her playful, but not like this, he couldn’t even find a word to appropriately describe the manner Garnet seemed to be showing at the moment. “We will cross this open area to get into the woods. It is not actually safe there but at least we will not be as easy a target as out here. Now, I did not make the rules, I did never lay hands on your timetables and I certainly forced no one to come here so if you want to blame or mock about someone, call in Jean Grey’s office or look into the mirror… or try for once, try with all honesty.” Why did every keep telling him to try right after they say he’s a hopeless case without the chance of succeeding? Two hours of being screamed at and told you’re a let down and failure has never been forgotten just by his dad saying afterwards that even he could possibly accomplish something, why did Garnet think she could do the same thing and actually have it work? If he was such a fõcked up individual, why should he waste energy in trying to be anything else no one believed he was even capable of being? “You may be surprised by the effect this can have…,” A disgruntled stare was all that was left of the torrent of emotions, the living statue watching as Garnet walked ahead to lead them on, Max’s eyes only half paying attention as she just continued on, obviously wanting to get away from both this spot and this moment.
"Why should we try?" It wasn’t a mocking statement of any kind, but actually quite the contrary, his voice withered down from the phoney calmness to a honest though somewhat hopeless mumble, "You just said we can’t do it, you just told us we don’t have a chance… you don’t think we can do it." It was one thing having the team going on about how they can’t do it, but the leader of the team? Where the hell did she get off, what kind of leader outwardly says, ‘Yeah, I know, you can’t do it.’ They know they can’t, that didn’t mean they actually wouldn’t be happy to get somewhere, how the hell can they continue on when SHE doesn’t even believe they are able to get to the next step?
Not only she doesn’t think they can do it, she probably thinks she’d be better off on her own, and more angrily in Max’s mind, she probably would be better off on her own, but so far, half the things done have been done solely by her!! He did not come here to have yet another figure in his life do EVERYTHING for him and then tell him how no matter what he has tried so far to help it’s all doomed for failure anyway.
"We’re all screw-ups and we are fully aware of that, none of us wanted to be part of this shitty little group, but we decided for reasons lost to us at the moment, that we’d actually turn up for the stupid meeting, every one of us probably wants nothing more then to be anywhere else," Max wasn’t like Racheal, he didn’t have such an easy off switch, he wanted to impress Garnet and she wasn’t giving them any chances to impress her, she was doing EVERYTHING for them and then saying they aren’t trying! "Our reasons are different to yours Garnet, and I bet everyone has formed a sugar-coated twisted little lie onto of that to explain why they are here, but we’re here, and this is us trying Ferelle!" His voice had raised to an determined level of getting his point across even though he had no idea what he was planning on saying, words just pouring out as his frustrations attempted to boil down to a more manageable level.
"You want us to be a team, then let us do things for crying out loud! Stop doing everything for us and saying we’re not trying and that we’re doomed for failure!" Now there’s words that have been locked up inside of him for over a decade waiting to explode on his unsuspecting parents, though in the recent years Max has given up any pretence of wishfully hoping that he can be more free willed – something that many assume he already had and perhaps had too much of. "Why couldn’t we cut the trees and move them in pieces if needed to have Paige and what’s his name build the damn raft? Because it was easier for you to move them!" There was definitely an accusing tone in his outburst, his hand thrown back to the island in the distance. "Why couldn’t we row here ourselves? Because you did it faster on your own!" A more serious voice was swapped as he began to finish up, painfully aware that he wasn’t starting things off as well with her as he intended, "We’re going to bßtch, we’re going to moan, that’s a given, so let us have something useful to bßtch and moan about without you making things so quick and easy by doing everything for efficiency sake, you’re not here to keep up with other teams Garnet, you’re here for us win or lose, and we’ve done what you’ve asked, so start asking more and stop doing everything, then you’ll see us trying!" After all, sometimes the only way to start tolerating each other as a team was by actually doing things as a team, and rowing here, having everyone in charge of the rowing forced to pay attention to the other person or people meant that there would have had to been co-operation, even if just for a short while, other wise they would have kept going in circles and gotten nowhere until they finally got their acts together.
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