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Boom
Sept 14, 2008 9:15:52 GMT
Post by The Delaney Twins on Sept 14, 2008 9:15:52 GMT
Oh my - She had to rouse herself in order to prevent one of the discs getting away from her - although it wouldn't have mattered so much with this one: it wasn't aimed towards anybody, but it wouldn't be so useful if it went flying through the window that it was bang in the middle of its trajectory. The plate disintegrated midair, falling into uneventful dust and making the girl that stood below it launch into an impressive coughing fit. Then she let herself respond to what he'd said - and surprise surprise, her knee-jerk reaction was so inappropriate that it verged on extraordinary rudeness. Then again, though, what reactions were there that weren't rude? It was probably better going into a laughing fit than acting all disgusted, as she well knew most people would upon hearing the news. But she just found it so... so d*mn funny! All the same, she tried to stifle the laughs, but they still bled into her voice as she said - "Oh... wow. Really? Wow." Lynn was just so very coherent when it came to this type of thing. After a couple of seconds, she'd calmed herself and focused enough to be able to take another plate down milliseconds after it had been released. Then she turned back to him, and grinned wickedly. "Well, I have to say, Russ, that takes "fun for the entire family" to a whole other level."
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Boom
Sept 14, 2008 9:57:38 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Sept 14, 2008 9:57:38 GMT
Well, that wasn’t the reaction that he’d expected. Usually the news was accompanied with an expression of shock or disgust – and it had looked like Lynn was going to follow the pattern as Russ had prepared himself to blow up the plate before it shot through the window. But she’d got it, and then she’d started practically shaking with laughter. “Oh… wow. Really? Wow.” Russ could hear the repressed giggles in between those words, and his mouth spread into an amused smirk as he watched her try to calm down, her lips twitching. Another plate flew out, and she made it disintegrate, before turning to him, grinning her pretty, but wicked grin at him. “Well, I have to say, Russ, that takes “fun for the entire family” to a whole other level.” Well, that was definitely unexpected. He spluttered into laughter, that he then tried – and failed – to repress. Jesus, right, that was brilliant- Smash.[/b] Aw, shít. The plate that he was supposed to explode had slammed into – luckily, he guessed – a wall, shards of clay raining to the floor, and people surrounding him were throwing him dirty looks. Still, as he looked back at Lynn, his lips trembling back into laughter. “Aw, Jesus, Sally, don’t say that to her,” he chuckled. “I’d love to see the look on her face, but Christ…”[/color]
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Boom
Sept 14, 2008 10:40:33 GMT
Post by The Delaney Twins on Sept 14, 2008 10:40:33 GMT
Oh, crap, Lynn thought as she saw the plate shatter against the wall. She hadn't noticed until the bright, shivering waves of the sound had come into her field of vision - she'd been too distracted by Russ's laugh. Which was stupid. She was being very, very stupid here. Russ was very attractive, yes, but he wasn't going to show any interest in here, so really it made no odds either way whether his laugh was nice or not. But she couldn't help noticing. It was just so... She didn't know. It was a proper laugh. She didn't believe in laughing unless you meant it - and really, why was that so hard? She herself laughed a lot, but she always meant it. What was the point if she didn't? And so she was glad to see that Russ meant it right now. That was all. "Aw, Jesus, Sally, don't say that to her. I'd love to see the look on her face, but Christ..." She was surprised to find that she was happy enough to ignore the Sally for now. Maybe it was just more irritating in a Scottish accent? "Don't worry, I won't." She was sure she looked a bit mad, grinning as she was while taking down two plates that flew out in quick succession. The bloody thing was getting faster, wasn't it? "I have no great desire to be killed just now, funnily enough." She paused, thinking for a moment. "That must have sucked, though, finding out you were cousins when you were dating." The machine seemed to have stuck on her side - but of course, that probably only meant that she was going to be treated with a barrage of discs very soon. "But then again," she added as an afterthought, "didn't stop the royals, did it?" She really couldn't see anything wrong with it, now that she thought about it. It had surprised her, of course, but it wasn't wrong. So that meant that they must have wanted to break up...
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Boom
Sept 14, 2008 18:57:32 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Sept 14, 2008 18:57:32 GMT
“Eh, it didn’t stop us either, after a while,” he admitted, as the machine choked and spluttered once more, sending out two new plates that flew out simultaneously. Two separate explosions, both different, one small and quiet, and the other louder and fiercer. “Again, don’t tell her I told you that, I’d be on floor duty for a feckin’ year if she’d heard that!” Another one came out of his side of the machine, and Russ blew it up with an explosion of ashes, glancing at Lynn’s side of the device, which seemed to be a bit stuck. “This thing is a bit of a tinpot, really, isn’t it?” Okay, now no plates were coming out. What was wrong with it? Waiting, he rubbed the leather bracelet wrapped around his wrist absentmindedly, and looked at Sally, still in Silver Surfer mode. If her name was actually Sally - what a nickname he could make out of that. Sally the Silver Surfer. Ha. Except, even metallic, she really didn't look much like the Silver Surfer at all. She was far too pretty for that. Especially with the freckles that speckled her cheeks; they were kind of cute. He could bet that the Silver Surfer didn't have freckles.
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Boom
Sept 15, 2008 16:00:39 GMT
Post by The Delaney Twins on Sept 15, 2008 16:00:39 GMT
"Tinpot is an understatement," she said, phasing back into her own skin as she saw that the machine had just given up the ghost altogether. Or maybe it had run out of plates, or something. But that wouldn't make sense, would it? There were still a good few minutes left of this session, and they hadn't even been going for the whole time. She doubted that anyone would underestimate the amount they would need... She bent down, her eyes shifting again as she looked to see the machine's wave pattern, but everything seemed to be working all right. Well, it was hot, but so was just about every other machine in the room. That was normal. She straightened. "It's bloody ridiculous, really. Just because we don't have the 'proper' powers like those lot" - she gestured at a group of elementalists congregating around a mechanism that definitely wasn't having the problems that theirs was - "we have to put up with equipment that's as old as our grandparents! It's discrimination, that's what it is." And to punctuate her point, she kicked the machine. Immediately it started making a worrying grinding noise that screeched against her ears, and she could see that now inside the machine a bright pinpoint of heat was focused near where the plates came out on her side. It started shaking. "Oh, Jesus," she said, stumbling back from it. "OK. So that was a bad move."
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Boom
Sept 18, 2008 17:32:36 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Sept 18, 2008 17:32:36 GMT
As Lynn blasphemed and inched back from the machine, Russ went to where Lynn had been, and got down to look at it, drawing back on that time he worked with that engineer – whatshisface with the really ugly grey ‘stache – and hoping he could see what was wrong with it. Not because he cared about the piece of crap, but seeing as he might be able to – well, he’d always been taught to never miss an opportunity to show off. And something made him want to show off in front of Lynn. “Discrimination seems to be right,” he agreed. “Unless she just has a problem with us. The others seem to be doing okay.” But all he could see was a lurid spot of white light as the machine started to shudder, that was steadily growing bigger. “What the f**k?” He frowned, moving closer to it. “I think it’s overheating… is there a switch somewhere?” Russ stood up, and immediately saw that there was no switch. Well, that was just fúcking excellent. Yeah, it was a magic school, and all, but what the hell was wrong with a switch?! “Christ, right. How do you turn it off if there’s no switch?”
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Boom
Sept 18, 2008 19:09:18 GMT
Post by The Delaney Twins on Sept 18, 2008 19:09:18 GMT
"Um..." Lynn hesitated, watching as the machine rattled and shuddered at an unsettling rate. It was only getting worse from here, she could tell. "You, um - is there a plug?" She looked on the other side. "OK, so no plug - what the hell is powering this thing?" Right. This was not good. This was not good at all. They had no way to switch it off, and anyone could see that if they didn't switch it off very, very soon something extremely bad was going to happen. The disturbing white light at the side of the machine was only getting brighter, and she could see the heat waves that were twisting away from it were only getting stronger, a worrying shade of orange. The machine's former groaning was escalating into a full-blown roar. It was going to blow, wasn't it? And she was going to have to do something about it. This room was absolutely teaming with people, hundreds of them, and there was no way that equipment that size could explode without hurting them. And Russ was standing right beside it. Russ would be hurt. She turned to him. "Don't freak out," she said simply, and went metallic again. Only this time, there was a difference. This time, she melted. Her legs were the first to go, fusing together, then her arms stuck to her sides, and then her features started to collapse in upon themselves. Within a few split seconds, she was a puddle of metal on the floor. She couldn't see properly when she was like this. She could only sense the waves, and even then, it was kind of like being badly blindfolded in a bright room. She couldn't even think right. She didn't like going fully metal, but right now she couldn't help it. The metal pool slithered her way across the floor in a couple of seconds, her clothes falling into a pile behind her, towards what she could tell from the sound waves was a complete cacophony by now. She hit the machine quickly, then engulfed it, covering every part of it in the lead that she knew she needed to do this. And then she brought the waves in with her: every ounce of heat and radiation she could sense around her she drew inside her. It burned so brightly that she glowed. Then the machine fell to ash beneath her, and her metal-self collapsed with it. She didn't pause; just slithered back to where her clothes had fallen. Her arm reformed first, flesh sticking out of the metal pool, and she used it to pull her shirt in the approximate direction of her head before her torso rose. Luckily for her, the shirt fell in place, keeping her from indecent exposure in the arena. She pulled her shirt down to cover her knees as she moulded her legs back into shape. She knew she must have looked pretty mad, just wearing a shirt, sitting in the middle of the arena beside a pile of smoking black ash and her hair as dishevelled as if she had been pulled through a hedge backwards, but she tried to keep her composure. She took a deep breath, and released it in short shudders. She didn't like doing that. It made her feel sort of nauseous. And demonic, come to think of it. After taking a couple of seconds to steel herself, she tried smiling back up at Russ, unsure how he'd take it. She knew it was probably just about one of the freakiest things she could do here. "Sorry about that," she said, more brightly than was really appropriate.
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Boom
Sept 19, 2008 19:26:51 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Sept 19, 2008 19:26:51 GMT
Sally - Lynn - stared at the machine for a minute, before turning to him. “Don’t freak out,” she warned, and before he could ask, she was… what?! Her features started to collapse in on themselves, and her limbs were fusing together. What? That’s not – should that be happening? He glanced around quickly, but no one seemed to have noticed anything out of the ordinary. No one seemed to have even seen it. Jesus… Russ looked back at her – wait, what the fúck?! She wasn’t – where – what? Where the hell did she go- But, there was a molten pool of metal on the ground. “Aw, fúcking hell,” he cursed. She’d melted. Christ- Don’t freak out. Okay, so she’d… meant to do this. She’d meant… right, Jesus. Okay. People … melted, willingly? Whatever place she’d been to before arriving at Orchid, it was really screwed up. So, speechlessly, with one final muttered curse, he leant back on his heels and watched the pool of metal, silently. It slithered across the arena floor; a puddle of mercury creeping its way to the machine. A puddle of metal that was Sally. Now, that wasn't strange in the slightest. It - she? - slid across the floor, and covered the entire machine with a shining silver layer, staying there for a second, before the machine crumbled into ash. He froze. Not long later, she was back again - and it was a tribute to the amount of shock he was in, he didn't notice the fact that she was technically only half-dressed. She grinned brightly at him as soon as she was fully formed again, and said, in an even brighter tone, "Sorry about that." He didn't mean to be awkward, honestly. He tried to answer her, but words weren't really coming to his mouth properly. This had to be the first time he'd ever been truly speechless. "Uh... God. Right. Um..." Nice. He laughed, albeit a little nervously. "Christ, sorry. Uh... how'd you do that?"
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Boom
Sept 19, 2008 20:32:37 GMT
Post by The Delaney Twins on Sept 19, 2008 20:32:37 GMT
Well, it wasn't as bad as she'd thought it was going to be. She didn't know what it would be like, springing it on him like this. Most other people - or at least, most other people who weren't enemies that she was going to kill within a few seconds - she was able to talk through the whole procedure, taking it as slowly as they needed to, and even then a lot of people freaked out quite badly. Russ was actually doing pretty well. He wasn't screaming, there wasn't any limb-flailing, he'd just kind of... frozen up. Freezing up she could deal with. Probably. But what did she do if he didn't - Oh, no, it was OK. It was all right. He was moving again. "Uh... God. Right. Um..." A nervous laugh. "Christ, sorry. Uh... how'd you do that?" All right. OK. So maybe that was a bit of a stupid question, considering that she had shown him at least half of that power earlier, but that was understandable. He was shocked. She tried to joke her way out of the situation. "I'm the spawn of Satan. Don't tell anyone." She laughed, but her laugh came out nervous too. To try and hide that fact, she went on, speaking hurriedly, "Nah, it's just - just part of my other power, I guess. I've always been able to do it - or mostly, anyway. It took a while to get it that fast, but other than that..." She trailed off, and looked down at her knees, kind of embarrassed. Now that was impressive, wasn't it? Lynn hadn't been embarrassed in years. While her gaze was directed toward her legs, she looked at the arms that were holding the shirt in place. There was an unnatural pinkness on the forearm that she'd first put up through the metal, and on closer inspection, she saw that the skin was flaking away. It was sort of sore, actually. Great. Another burn. She could tell what had caused it. She hadn't given the metal enough time to cool before reforming. It happened sometimes. Made her look like an incompetent nitwit, though. "Hmm..." she said, poking at the puckered skin on her left arm with her right finger. "I think I might have to go to Nurse Gornray."
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Boom
Sept 21, 2008 8:12:58 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Sept 21, 2008 8:12:58 GMT
Okay, that was something more normal to focus on. He could deal with this. “Aw, God, right, don’t poke at it,” Russ said, and with a roll of his eyes, he was back to normal. “C’mere, let me have a look at it.” He stepped closer to Sally, and took a gentle hold of her forearm, studying the patch of pink and flaking skin there. “Well, we stuck to the rules, anyway. She did say nothing more major than a first degree burn… you could actually get her to heal it, but you’re probably better going to Nurse Gornray. You don’t want to be here when she finds out what happened to the machine.” Letting go of her arm, he turned to the pile of ashes lying on the floor; the cremated remains of the machine. Yeah, they were so dead for killing the machine, though it wasn’t like there weren’t any number of conjurers in the school who could make a less ancient one, and one that was less likely to blow up. Then, he turned back to Lynn, and now was when he noticed that… well… she wasn’t exactly fully dressed. Knowing perfectly well that he wouldn’t get away with making the usual smutty comment to her - and in any case, she looked pretty embarrassed as it was - he looked back at the machine and tried to hide his smirk. But of course, his mouth had other ideas... “You know, I've never had to do so little to get a girl semi-naked before.” No… shít!
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Boom
Sept 21, 2008 8:55:27 GMT
Post by The Delaney Twins on Sept 21, 2008 8:55:27 GMT
She'd never thought what-was-probably-technically-sexual-harrassment would be quite so funny, but judging by the laughter that was shaking out of her now, apparently it was. She concentrated a band of light around her midriff, blinding the room to her... more private areas as she stood up, taking her shorts and - oh God - her pants up with her. Her pants had just been lying there on the floor. That was taking it a bit far, wasn't it? She'd collected herself by the time she stood up, and tried to angle the clothes she was holding so he could only see the shorts. And everyone else, for that matter. She was getting a lot of curious - and in some of the girls' cases, outright disgusted - looks by now. She should really have been acting outraged, but she just... Well, she couldn't. Never mind. Her wicked grin now firmly back in place, she looked up at Russ, raising one eyebrow. "Considering the fact that what it took to get me semi-naked was a piece of machinery nearly exploding in a crowded room and my transformation into a hunk of metal, I think that statement may reflect badly on you, Russ. That doesn't hold up with the stories I've heard at all." And then she thought of something else, and God, she really shouldn't have said it - but it just kind of... Slipped out. "And anyway, I'm sure it's not all that bad. Seriously. Does my being half-naked bother you?" Oh, Jesus, Lynn. You bad bad bad girl.
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Boom
Sept 21, 2008 9:39:25 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Sept 21, 2008 9:39:25 GMT
Well, that one was fair enough, wasn’t it? She was right, it didn’t make the best reflection on him, but hell, it was funny. He smirked back at her. “You know, it does, actually. Why only half?” There was a small tut from somewhere around them, making Russ laugh. God, if people couldn’t take that… He kind of wished he could have seen Madeleine’s face if she’d heard that. He’d have gotten into trouble, sure, but it would kind of be worth it. It would have resulted in a good laugh, at any rate. Just to show some form of decency, Russ turned around as she changed, to find several eyes on them. Clearly, they were attracting an audience. He laughed at that thought, shaking his head. Jesus. “You know, you’re attracting a bit of an audience here, Sally,” he said back to her, smirking. “Feel good, right?”
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Boom
Sept 21, 2008 9:57:54 GMT
Post by The Delaney Twins on Sept 21, 2008 9:57:54 GMT
"Oh, feels awesome," she agreed, pulling her shorts up quickly and trying not to laugh at the outraged faces of the people around her. Prudes. You'd think they'd never even seen a - She stopped that thought. It was probably one that was best left incomplete. "Maybe this is my calling, come to think of it," she said, tapping him on the shoulder to let him know it was OK to turn around. "Tell you what, tonight, I shall pack my bags and run off to Vegas and become the finest showgirl they have ever seen. You can come visit me in a few years' time. Just ask for Amber Sil- oh, hi, Ari," she said, cutting off in what some would presume was the nick of time when her friend appeared beside her. He looked scandalised and she could just guess that - ahh, yes, the heatwaves told her that he was definitely blushing again. Of course he was. "You burnt yourself?" he asked. It probably wasn't supposed to come out as a question, but the glances that Arihant was giving Russ betrayed more than a little discomfort. "Yes, as a matter of fact," she said, showing him her arm. "Reformed too quickly. It happens." "Are you going to Nurse Gornray?" Lynn couldn't let herself laugh at his tone of voice, but God help her, she desperately wanted to. He sounded like her great-aunt Tabitha. "Yeah." "I'll go with you," he said quickly, glancing at Russ again. She could tell what he was doing. He was trying to get her out of this situation before it had gone too far. Ari was really no fun, sometimes. "Right, aye, that's probably a good idea," she said, hiding her irritation. She turned back to Russ. "Mr Ford," she said, putting on a show of propriety for her prudish friend, "I'm sorry, I'll have to say my adieus now. I assure you, it was an absolute pleasure meeting you." She grinned over at Ari, who rolled his eyes. "I hope to see you again soon," she said, winking. She didn't know quite why she had winked, but for some reason she'd had a very, very strong urge to.
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Boom
Sept 21, 2008 10:34:20 GMT
Post by Madeleine Baudelaire&Russ Ford on Sept 21, 2008 10:34:20 GMT
A showgirl? Now, there was an image… But before he could say anything, Arihant the Asbestos was coming over. “Just ask for Amber Sil – oh, hi, Ari,” she broke off, turning to him. He looked shocked. Actually, kind of outraged, to be honest. Russ could bet that he’d heard most of that conversation, and wasn’t too impressed. Well, he didn’t have to be, did he? Prude. He was actually giving Russ some pretty strange looks, now. Looks that were oddly reminiscent of pain, actually. Hang on, he was that embarr-? “You burnt yourself?” he was asking her, his face now a mixture of concern and discomfort. Sally held out her arm towards him. "Yes, as a matter of fact. Reformed too quickly. It happens." “Are you going to Nurse Gornray?” Sally laughed, and Russ had to choke his back. The mixture of expressions had leaked into his voice, now. “Yeah,” she said. “I’ll go with you,” he responded, as fast as he could, and looking at Russ again – making it blatantly obvious that he wanted to get Sally away from him as soon as humanly possible. Russ’ mind jumped straight to the obvious conclusion then. Clearly, Ari had a bit of a thing for Sally, and didn’t want her being around guys like Russ who could possibly be a bad influence on her, and- “Right, aye, that’s probably a good idea,” Sally was saying, turning back to him. He smiled at her, as she said, “Mr Ford, I'm sorry, I'll have to say my adieus now. I assure you, it was an absolute pleasure meeting you." Arihant the Asbestos (this was how he remembered that particular name) rolled his eyes at that, and Russ smirked. “I hope to see you again soon,” she said, with a wink. Russ bit back the laugh, and bowed to Sally with a flourish. “Likewise, Miss Delaney, it was a delight to make your acquaintance.” She left, then - but she couldn't have gotten to the hospital wing before Madeleine's voice, presumably amplified by her messing about with the air particles, came out loudly, telling them to wrap up, so they could clear up. Looking at the pile of ashes, Russ shook his head, grinning. Jesus, right. But before he could think much on it, he could see Madeleine coming over, looking incredibly confused. "Russ, what the hell happened to that machine?!"
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