lostcarnival | let's get down to business

Entry tags:

let's get down to business

Who: Nightrunners and whoever wants to make use of the training yard for whatever reason.
When: S2 D1-D5
Where: The Training Yard
What: Training, or pointing and laughing at people training.
Warnings: Explosions and swearing, probably.

Though it's never really been off-limits, once they're down off the moon, Lambert wastes little time informing the nightrunners he officially expects them to get back to training and getting in shape. They can make ample use of the training yard facilities to learn how to work with each other after their extended vacation, or just get to know their newer coworkers in an environment closer to what their actual working conditions will actually be like.

The yard, as usual, isn't limited solely to nightrunners. Anyone who wants to work on their physical or magical skills are welcome, as well as anyone from the other departments who have anything they might want to test out that requires a combatant, for some reason.

Lambert's generally a constant presence at the fringes, sometimes participating in exercise or sparring himself, but mostly just watching and making sure no one's about to put someone's eye out or break the equipment, because that would be bad for obvious reasons.

[ ooc; this is an open log, so bring your own toplevel! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"What is?"

Joker would say he doesn't mean to pry, if that would be such a god awful lie. He knows he's being a bit nosy as he walks over, his wings folded snugly against his back. He'd dropped by to see some interesting going ons, and now he's just here for a good while longer. Hey, he's already been nosy, might as well go the full way with everyone else.

She purses her lips, the last few feet of her tail curling like a pretzel.

"Hi, Joker. I'm just... it's the armor the Ringmaster left for me. It's weird. I'm not sure what it's got going on." Scout flexes her plated hands and huffs a breath out of her nub of a nose. "Did she get you anything? She must have, I don't see why I'd be the only one."

"It's probably magic." Joker says the word fairly confidently, because he doesn't see why it wouldn't be. It's the Ringmaster, and she's one of the good Fair Folk. That's more than enough reason for it to be magic.

"And I did. I think most people in the Carnival got somethin'." Adjusting his wings, he reveals the cloak that's draped inbetween them. It's a little hard to manage, but... When he isn't actively practicing, he feels better having it on.

Just in case.

"It's sturdy against quite a few things, I've found."

"Probably." Her tone is less certain, not out of any belief that it's not magic, just because she'd have really liked to know just what this thing does and if she should regret putting it on. "It's not really... I mean, I don't really wear armor, but this is light and close enough to the skin, I guess, it's not as bad as I expected."

She puts her other foot down but doesn't hop off the poles. They're short ones, anyway, the less-risky set not far off the ground. "It looks nice. What've you tested it on?"

"My teeth." He grins playfully, displaying perfectly normal blunt human teeth. If he was still a vampire, maybe it'd be less obvious as a joke. Well, he's not complaining, honestly. "And some new knives I got. Anythin' else is a bit outside what I'm capable of. Still, the best part is, I think-"

And he tugs the hood of it up, where two holes slide nicely around his antlers. He's grinning wider. "It was made with me in mind~." Wearing hoods and hats is such a trial when you have headgear, after all.

Scout snorts, imagining him gnawing at it. "Oh, headwear! I didn't realize you missed that kind of thing so much."

She's probably lucky, her horns are up front and don't really prevent her from pulling a hood up, and she doesn't particularly care about hats. Thinking about it, Joker's loved garish clothing for as long as she's known him and headgear's probably been part of that. "That's really nice!" You can tell she's going to make a joke, her freckled cheeks crease with a smile. "Wow, you almost look like someone people should take seriously."

Honestly, half the fun when it comes to jokes is either anticipating them or being surprised by them. When she makes her little tease, Joker's grin only gets wider. "Well, we can't have that. I'll have ta add some roses or somethin' ta it, let them know what they're in for."

Still, she should get the point, and he rests his hand on his hip. "Yer free ta test it out a bit, if ya like. See how durable it is for yerself."

"Maybe a slogan? Nothing says you're not your own person like wearing a symbol of allegiance," she says helpfully.

"Well, is it possible to do that without hurting you?" From the flicker of her eyes and the way she shifts her weight, she's thought about just jumping on him. That. That would probably hurt. "You could go get out the dunk tank and make yourself the target?"

"Ha." His mouth quirks up in a dry grin. "That'd be fun ta try, but not much like bein' in a regular fight, yeah?" Besides, he doesn't feel like squeezing his wings onto there. Too much hassle when they're still working.

"I could wrap it around a limb or somethin', then hit that. I mean, as long as I've got my wings for my feet, or my feet for my arm, then I outta be fine."

"Depends on who you got to do the throwing," she says, trying to match the dryness.

The tip of her tail goes in slow circles. "Well, maybe, but is it supposed to be impact resistant, or just deflect surface damage? Can you put it on a training dummy, or does it only work on you?"

Now isn't that a scary thought? Although Joker wants to think that he hasn't pissed off anyone enough that they'd really hurt him in a simple game. (Yet, and probably.)

Her question has him think, however, and he glances down as he takes a piece of the cloak inbetween his fingers. "Never thought about puttin' it on a trainin' dummy, honestly," he says, rubbing the material thoughtfully. "But then, I don't usually get somethin' like this. Think it's worth a shot?"

"Sure. It'd be a shame to damage your nice new cloak if it doesn't." He's got tailor friends, though, they should be able to help him out. "Maybe you just need to be nearby? If it's got special properties for you and you alone? I mean it'd be pretty bad if someone could steal it and it'd work for them, right?"

She hops down off the poles. On the ground she has to keep her tail bent more. Even with the length of her legs, it's so long a not insubstantial part of it would drag on the ground if she didn't.

"Ha. That would sure be a disappointment if it got nicked off of me that easily." Laughing a little, Joker starts to lead the way to the training dummies. There's only one way to find out! As he starts to get it of from around his shoulders, Joker continues to talk over his shoulder.

"Do ya think that's how yers works too?"

Scout follows, picking up her feet rather daintily, but also aware that she's doing that enough to try to minimize it instead of walking like a dog with socks. The ground feels weird. She really has become used to not wearing shoes.

"You'd have to find someone else with these feet and this kind of a tail." Hooved feet are common enough across Carnival history. Hooved feet that are also sort of paws and have one free toe with a prominent hooked claw are more specific, outside of the usual two or three options. "But someone could just pull on a cloak, antler holes or no antler holes."

"Well, Ginko is probably close enough..." And it'd be kind of funny to see him in that kind of get up too. It wouldn't fit him at all. The mental image is probably half of why Joker is grinning so much.

"Oh- or have ya seen that mannequin Wardrobe has, now?"

"Ginko is not close enough! I have way better legs," Scout protests, though it's pretty obvious she's trying not to smile. "I'm shorter in the torso and my arms aren't as thick too. Anyway, he'd have to not use the toe boot pieces and shave his tail. I don't think a few pieces would do whatever the whole thing is supposed to do."

Whatever that is. She's still figuring it out. Scout stops in front of the training dummies. "No. They got something expensive, I heard."

Oh no. Half of his face has been overtaken by that wide-ass grin, or just about as close. The words out of his mouth soon make it pretty clear why. "Now, all I'm hearin' is that it would be extra tight~ on him." With absolutely zero shame, he waggles his eyebrows.

Hey. It's a secret between friends, but he knows Ginko managed to buy a sexy outfit for Psii. Who knows what could happen.

Circling around the training dummies, Joker hums. "Yeah. It's a mannequin, and it changes shapes. Y'should go down there, get yerself fitted, see it in action."

Primly she says, "You can get your own copy made. I don't want to have to sterilize this to wear it again." Scout is neither scandalized nor all that amused by raunchy humor. Sex is just a thing people do, sometimes including her, not particularly charged in one way or another.

"Mmm," Scout says, with the kind of neutrality that in a generally honest young person means yeah, no, but I want to be polite. "I don't need more clothes. Everything I have wears well, and I've got six changes even if I don't mix and match anything. Plus two people bought me armor. That's already so much."

She likes her layers. Undershirt or underrobe, trousers of whatever length, overrobe, obi, cloak or long loose coat, sometimes a tabard.

Honestly, there's not enough people in the carnival who appreciate raunchy humor. Most of them do tend to be like Scout nowadays, or Ginko, or they're, frankly, just children who probably shouldn't hear this anyway.

(Which, admittedly, was a rule he disregarded in the Manor... but they were all captured regardless. A little bit of scandal and embarrassment was fine in comparison to the despair which had continued to weigh on their shoulders.)

Still, it is what it is, and Joker just chuckles at the brush off to his teasing. "Well, find a reason ta go down there anyway. Ya don't need ta get new clothes just ta go for a fittin'."

Scout rolls her eyes and whines, knowing she's whining.

"But I hate how long it takes! All this minutia, and I don't wear anything that needs to be carefully tailored anyway. I'm not a wrestler these days!" Way back in her last tour, with the Asgardians who'd loved nothing more than feats of combat, she'd been fourteen, barely changed and considerably more cheerful than she is these days. So she'd joined the performers for a while. Those guests had loved her.

Well, the only way to react to someone playfully whining is to coo obnoxiously and reach over to try and pinch her cheeks. Whether she lets him or not, Joker won't force the action. It's all in good fun.

"Awww, lookit ya. What if we have ta make a stop and charm a handsome king inta lettin' us peform, and he'll only let us do it if we gets ta see the beautiful Scout in the frilliest dress?"

Her hazel-green eyes flick over and she lets him do it, the pinch pulling her mouth to one side while she's clearly planning something. She snakes her currently armored prehensile tail around, low where it's hard but not impossible to see, and back up to tap Joker on the back, between his wings.

Then whether he turns or not she'll shove him and laugh. "I don't know if anyone's that handsome."

It's a half success: he doesn't entirely turn around, but he does peer over his shoulder in faint interest before he's shoved. Joker goes along with it, laughing as he regains his balance with a few flutters of his wings.

"Awww, really? What about pretty? A pretty queen?"

Scout shoves him again, no harder than before, and brings her tail back around to behind her. The hardest thing to get used to after asking the Ringmaster to change it was the sudden awkwardness of trying to work out what to do with it most of the time. She's so much more aware of it than she was before it became so dexterous.

"I don't know if anyone's that pretty, either! I'm only really attracted to people who're good athletes and balanced and kind, and then they have to be people who won't want it to be a whole relationship." Scout really doesn't see the point in being embarrassed about sex. She's also raised to not see any point in romance, and for her it's taken pretty well. "Better if they're also my friend, too. It's been a while but I'm not going to have my head turned that easily."

"Ah, such standards." Hopping away from her shoving hands, Joker laughs a little bit. Somehow, his shadow even seems to turn its head a little as well as if laughing into a hand. "Well, that's good. At least ya know what ya want, then, yeah?"

Hopefully she'll just be able to stick to it and still be happy.

let's get down to business

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