concoursec | (no subject)

Character(s): Yuri Otani, OPEN
Location: Training Center
Rating: PG, pobably
Open/Closed/Finished: open
Summary: Borg finally convinces Yuri to take on some monsters...

Ultimately Borg was a hunter and needed to hunt, he had explained to her. Yuri was, of course, reluctant to go anywhere there were monsters, but he had kept pestering her and reminding her that he was her only defense against attack, and if she had to rely on herself for that in her current state, what did she think would happen?

So Yuri had requisitioned some of her old alien fighting gear from storage: knee, elbow and hand protectors, rollerblades for a quick getaway, dart gun, catching net.

She crossed over into the humid jungle, hedged and contained by bridges and metal fencing. It reminded her of an old American movie she'd seen once about a park where they kept dinosaurs.

Her first opponent wasn't long in appearing: a seemingly innocent plant she was walking past reared up and opened strange jaws, leading into some kind of digestive bag. Tentacles whipped out and snapped at her. The grat was easily two heads taller than her.

Borg was instantly on the alert, tense but joyful. His 'wings' extended, and from those, drilltacles snapped out of their sheaths, ready to do some serious weed control.

Yuri, meanwhile, let out a little scream and fell on her butt, necessitating Borg to readjust a moment...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Marco bowed politely, rubbing the back of his pineapple haircut. "Sorry for the intrusion, I thought you might be in trouble." He smiled gently, "I'm glad to see that's not the case."

Yuri wobbled to her feet too, and managed an even deeper bow even with rollerblades on. "Thank you, i'm OK. That was a bit scary though." He's a gentleman! Yuri thought, trying to reconcile that with his unconventional appearance...Not that having a froggy drillmonster on one's head was really conventional either.

"Tch, like one of those things could beat me." Borg added unhelpfully.

For the many oddities Marco had seen on the Grand Line, that wasn't exactly even close to one of them.

"Perhaps not, but the rest of you seems scared," Marco arched an eyebrow.

"Oh, me and Borg aren't fused..." Yuri said, nervously waving her hands, and reached up to pull him off her head. "...see? Ah, i'm Yuri Otani by the way. It's nice to meet you, sempai."

Marco tentatively reached forward to shake her hand and nod at Borg. "Nice to meet you both. I'm Marco." If he was startled by this revelation, it didn't show on his deadpan face.

"You seem to know this place, Marco-sempai. Do you know where we could find monsters that are..." And Yuri and Borg finished the question simalteneously.

"...less scary?"
"...less wimpy?"

Marco stared blankly for a moment before explaining slowly. "From what I could tell, you were fighting a grat, which is about the weakest the training center has to offer. If you go deeper, you'll find much stronger things. Maybe it would help if you weren't on wheels? Otherwise, just have faith in Borg, since he seems capable enough."

"Oh man..."

"Exactly what I wanted to hear. Let's go, Yuri. I'm sure if we keep going there'll be more to encounter..."

Yuri looked pleadingly up at Marco. "But this is what we normally have to wear for alien catching back home so I thought...Anyway, that sounds scary! I wish Kumi were here..."

"You want me to come with you? I can make sure you won't get in too far over your head," Marco offered freely, kind of pitying the kid. It wasn't like she wasn't strong, just scared from what he could tell. It reminded him of Toby or some of the new recruits. But the only way to deal with that fear was face it head on and overcome it usually. "What kind of aliens? And I'm not sure wheels are going to work on sort of softer dirt like this, eh? Just get them mucked up probably."

"Would you? Oh thank you so much, Marco-sempai." Her big green eyes wobbled with happiness and she gave him a bright smile, the only reward he was going to get for this. "I guess you're right...I didn't think about the fact that we're only technically on school grounds. I'll just leave these here and come back for them." Yuri said, kneeling to unstrap her skates.

Things were looking up. She might have to pad into the desert in her socks but that was alright. She had a nice upperclassman to go with her, which made the fear a lot easier to deal with.

"No trouble," he grinned softly. "Is your world all paved or something?" He really had to ask.

Yuri blushed as she padded in her socks across the jungle, looking about for anything else that might leap out at her. "Well my school is in the middle of Tokyo, and aside from the Forest of Spaceships out back, it's all concrete."

"Heh," Marco grinned, "Normally the only time someone wears rollerblades in my world is for a game of Davy Back or two."

"Oh what's that? Is it fun?" Borg looked around eagerly for more monsters as they walked farther into the fetid jungle.

"Relatively," Marco shrugged. "It's an old pirate game for settling differences between crews. There's different events depending on how many rounds and who's calling it. And the stakes are the most valuable things we own."