I'll draw this line and hope you'll take my side [OPEN]

[thesmallergun]

Characters: OPEN
Location: Death by Pastry
Rating: PG
Time: September 29
Description: Another partner shindig is being hosted at Death by Pastry in preparation for the upcoming mission. Trust games, resonation help, and mingling ahoy! Check out the previous one here. There are two subthreads but feel free to make your own!

Comments

This works for me!

[smokeeasy]

It was the promise of free cake. It was always the promise of free cake. Or smokes. The latter (let's face it) would actually have motivated him better. But one way or another Badou was there. He had a plate piled up with French fancies, macaroons, a cheese danish or two, one chocolate eclair, and a selection of cookies--an impressive haul, really--and now all that was left was to hang back out of the way, eat, and watch people playing trust games.

It wasn't precisely masochistic, he told himself. Even if he did feel kind of melancholy being reminded of Al's absence and the fact that he didn't have a partner now (which he supposed meant he was going to be stuck in the city when this next mission came; hopefully not for Rain-of-Poisonous-Frogs, the sequel).

Oh, but hey, it looked like he wasn't the only one holding up this particular section of wall. And even if he wasn't exactly here looking, it wouldn't hurt him to be cordial

[smokeeasy]

Abandoning his plate of pastries on the edge of the table, and leaving conversation aside for the moment, Badou lead the way outside. After so many weeks of heat, the day felt almost chilly enough to warrant a jacket, but the brightness of the sun reflecting off the sand and cement wasn't diminished in the least

[middayitaly]

Romano initially blinked in surprise at the sudden speed that Badou had picked up right before they exited the building, but... no, it really wasn't anything shocking. Enough of his citizens had been smokers for him to recognize the typical nicotine craves, and Romano himself had had enough smoking throughout his history to almost sort of empathize

And it seems to just keep on happening, that pesky RL thang. orz

[smokeeasy]

Knowing he probably shouldn't feel such a wash of relief at that as he did, Badou gave a shrug and slid the pack of smokes back into his pocket. He could never quite get his head around these countries and their weird...human-landmass-ness. They certainly appeared just like people to him, even if he had been told that they were effectively immortal in their own world.

He did, however, have a friend whose body had gone from healing like water at home to...well, not doing so here. So it didn't surprise him that realizing his own mortality could have an effect on a guy. He also knew better than to prod at topics that might be too personal, especially with a guy he'd just met

don't worry about it, man! :)

[middayitaly]

... what was even in those cigarettes, anyways?

Since Romano had absolutely no idea what Badou was talking about, he was suspecting that maybe there was something a little more... potent in the smokes. But really, was it some weird thing they had only in this universe? In Badou's universe?? Because, if whatever he was smoking was working after just one breath... damn.

"... Shit, what the hell are you even talking about?," he asked incredulously, confusion and skepticism written all over his face.

My last term-time commitment is tomorrow! /prepares to celebrate

[smokeeasy]

"My weapon form, man." Badou said it without missing a beat as though he was just that used to people being completely flummoxed as to what he was going on about. (In truth, aside from Heine they very often were. And even his best friends occasionally got spun around by the twists and turns of Badou's logic.)

"I'm an air cannon. Which I guess makes me pretty easy to wield, you know? Just point me in the right direction and pull the trigger."

YESSS THAT IS SO SO AWESOME 8)b!!

[middayitaly]

At first, Romano just stared blankly at him more. The actual intent behind Badou's explanation wasn't really hitting him at all, and in fact just left him more bewildered than before.

Then there was an instant of realization and he physically jolted from surprise, because whoa what wait was he really-

But of course, then he had to pretend that he totally knew what the guy had been talking about and to just look completely cool and nonchalant about it (or so he hoped). "An air cannon? Dammit, at least you're a projectile weapon, but do you really just shoot fuckin' air?"

/Dances \o\ /o/ \o\ /o/

[smokeeasy]

Another light shrug accompanied another drag on his cigarette and Badou's answer. If he noticed any inconsistency in Romano's manner, he gave no indication of it.

"All I know is that I don't need to have any ammo to shoot with. I mean, I guess someone could load me up with toilet paper or water balloons or something and have a pretty good night in Vegas. But usually, nothing goes in, fireworks come out.

"I mean, with Al when he was still here, see he was an alchemist at home, and here his whatchamacallit--his meister ability-- it let him transmute the projectiles I shot. He could make them more solid if he needed to. So we never really experimented much with me shooting stuff besides 'air'."

[OOC: Btw, did you see that Zack tagged in our event log thread? :D]

/also dances \o/\o\/o/\o/

[middayitaly]

((OOC: No I didn't, thanks for telling me!! :D))

He listened carefully to the explanation, though it... sounded simple enough. Fireworks were a really fucking weird weapon, he had to admit, but they were probably a better match for him than, say, a machete or a hammer would. He had gotten a lot of training from Mulan, but hand-to-hand combat was still one of his major weaknesses.

"Meister ability, huh," Romano mumbled idly, frowning a bit. He had never figured out what his own was, or if it would even be something useful like this Al kid's was. "So you can basically stuff any shit you want and it'll fire? Guess that doesn't sound... that bad." Of course, that word choice coming from Romano meant that he was at least considering the idea seriously.

"So you're willing to go on that damn mission?," he asked abruptly with a small huff. "No one would go on something like that for kicks."

[smokeeasy]

Badou gave a the first question a bit of a crooked grin. "Wanna give it a try?"

Having never experimented with all the various things that a person could try to shoot out of his weapon form, he was plenty curious and keen to try it. It wasn't the sort of thing that Al would have liked, but if Heine could have wielded him, Badou would damn well have bet that they'd have long since tried every kind of "ammo" on the shelves of the local sporting goods store, and maybe a few things off the supermarket shelves to boot. (What did happen if you fired a load of ping pong balls out of an air cannon

[middayitaly]

... to be honest, trying it out sounded really fucking tempting. Would anything work?

But what would have been an admittedly fun train of thought was cut short by Badou's reply, which he similarly found to be the greater issue to address. Romano was... well, frankly, taken aback by Badou's simple willingness to just go. Were he in the redhead's position, he knew that he wouldn't have the guts to just run out and risk his life for a mission that didn't have any relevance to him. In fact, he wouldn't have gone on this one if one of his best damn friends around here didn't get kidnapped too