08-16-2003, 05:13 PM
Thank you, Duce and urban dream. Urban, where do you see a style change? O_o
Scene...6? Yeah. I think it's six. Take 16.5. And...ROLLING!
***
Tai gave the operator his most withering glare as he parted with his money. The man was thin and balding, and the area between his mouth and his nose kept doing a little twitch that reminded Tai of the twitch of a rat's snout when it smells something it likes. It was both amusing and unnerving, and Tai felt himself unconsciously edging away from the guy, who was leering as he pocketed the money.
Once he felt he was at a safe distance, Tai returned his attention to his sister, and found himself startled. She was hunched over her water gun, her arms splayed at either side of her body, elbows pointing in opposite directions. He could see the muscles of her back pushing against her shirt, and the way the tendons in her neck pulled the flesh up, looking like strings caught under silk. Sweat trickled through her hair, onto the protruding tendons and down the back of her shirt. He watched these lines of liquid as they traveled across her skin, glistening in the afternoon light.
*Whoa*, he thought.
He would have said even more if he'd been able to see her face, which was even more-tightly knit than her muscles. The expression on it was caught somewhere between frothing anger and crazed determination, which made her normally sweet face look horribly vengeful. It was rage beyond her age, something heretofore never measured or even *felt* by most children her age.
All in all, she was handling it pretty well.
*I'm gonna beat ya I'm gonna beat ya I'm gonna beat ya--* her mind ranted. *Gonna beat ya gonna beat ya gonna beat ya gonna--*
*DING!*
"And they're off!" screamed the man with the rat-twitch, taking his hand off the starter bell.
Kari's thumbs were down before the bell had gotten even halfway done *DING*ing. Water jetted in a thin-yet-powerful stream from the mouth of her gun like a horizontal geyser, rushing through the air, uncaring and unseeing and unfeeling and--
--and it hit the target with a THWACK! that rang in Kari's ears longer than the bell had. Instantly the blue water in the tubular meter a few inches above began to rise, rise, RISE!
Her ears full of THWACK!, her eyes full of red, and her heart full of love, Kari fought with all her young might to keep her stream straight and true and on the target, which was barely half the size of a quarter. Through the plastic of her meter she could see the--
--ENEMY--
--little boy on the other side. He was glaring at her fiercely, his teeth gritted against one another, his eyes hidden behind a red haze that seemed to have invaded and conquered most of his upper face. The water in his own meter was less than an inch short of Kari's, and gaining. He snarled soundlessly at her and hunched even closer to his gun.
Her stream wavered and hit the paneling just to the left of the target, water splattering all over her. The boy's meter was now a mere centimeter away from catching up to her own.
Kari fought the urge to snarl back and, with titanic effort, forced herself to focus once again on the target before her. The target was all. There was nothing else. The target was all.
ALL.
The stream realigned itself with the target, and her meter jetted up in a sudden burst of manic speed that spread the gap between her and the boy and--
*DING*
Kari blinked. The THWACK! left her ears, the red dropped from her eyes (the love, however, faded gently and sweetly away), and she suddenly felt like she'd never been so relaxed and peaceful in all her life. She looked around, taking in all the disappointed kids that were shambling away, the flashing lights at the top of her meter, and the sound of Tai congratulating her. This last she latched onto immediately as she carefully pushed herself off the stool, which was a bit too high for her, and landed gracefully on the ground. She grinned up at her brother, who grinned back, and in that moment she felt that all the world was well and good.
Then someone ran up behind her and kicked her in the ass.
***
^_^ I am a mad bastard, doncha think?
If you can guess who the kid is, you get a free box of pocky. Imaginary, of course, but it's the thought that counts. ^_^
Scene...6? Yeah. I think it's six. Take 16.5. And...ROLLING!
***
Tai gave the operator his most withering glare as he parted with his money. The man was thin and balding, and the area between his mouth and his nose kept doing a little twitch that reminded Tai of the twitch of a rat's snout when it smells something it likes. It was both amusing and unnerving, and Tai felt himself unconsciously edging away from the guy, who was leering as he pocketed the money.
Once he felt he was at a safe distance, Tai returned his attention to his sister, and found himself startled. She was hunched over her water gun, her arms splayed at either side of her body, elbows pointing in opposite directions. He could see the muscles of her back pushing against her shirt, and the way the tendons in her neck pulled the flesh up, looking like strings caught under silk. Sweat trickled through her hair, onto the protruding tendons and down the back of her shirt. He watched these lines of liquid as they traveled across her skin, glistening in the afternoon light.
*Whoa*, he thought.
He would have said even more if he'd been able to see her face, which was even more-tightly knit than her muscles. The expression on it was caught somewhere between frothing anger and crazed determination, which made her normally sweet face look horribly vengeful. It was rage beyond her age, something heretofore never measured or even *felt* by most children her age.
All in all, she was handling it pretty well.
*I'm gonna beat ya I'm gonna beat ya I'm gonna beat ya--* her mind ranted. *Gonna beat ya gonna beat ya gonna beat ya gonna--*
*DING!*
"And they're off!" screamed the man with the rat-twitch, taking his hand off the starter bell.
Kari's thumbs were down before the bell had gotten even halfway done *DING*ing. Water jetted in a thin-yet-powerful stream from the mouth of her gun like a horizontal geyser, rushing through the air, uncaring and unseeing and unfeeling and--
--and it hit the target with a THWACK! that rang in Kari's ears longer than the bell had. Instantly the blue water in the tubular meter a few inches above began to rise, rise, RISE!
Her ears full of THWACK!, her eyes full of red, and her heart full of love, Kari fought with all her young might to keep her stream straight and true and on the target, which was barely half the size of a quarter. Through the plastic of her meter she could see the--
--ENEMY--
--little boy on the other side. He was glaring at her fiercely, his teeth gritted against one another, his eyes hidden behind a red haze that seemed to have invaded and conquered most of his upper face. The water in his own meter was less than an inch short of Kari's, and gaining. He snarled soundlessly at her and hunched even closer to his gun.
Her stream wavered and hit the paneling just to the left of the target, water splattering all over her. The boy's meter was now a mere centimeter away from catching up to her own.
Kari fought the urge to snarl back and, with titanic effort, forced herself to focus once again on the target before her. The target was all. There was nothing else. The target was all.
ALL.
The stream realigned itself with the target, and her meter jetted up in a sudden burst of manic speed that spread the gap between her and the boy and--
*DING*
Kari blinked. The THWACK! left her ears, the red dropped from her eyes (the love, however, faded gently and sweetly away), and she suddenly felt like she'd never been so relaxed and peaceful in all her life. She looked around, taking in all the disappointed kids that were shambling away, the flashing lights at the top of her meter, and the sound of Tai congratulating her. This last she latched onto immediately as she carefully pushed herself off the stool, which was a bit too high for her, and landed gracefully on the ground. She grinned up at her brother, who grinned back, and in that moment she felt that all the world was well and good.
Then someone ran up behind her and kicked her in the ass.
***
^_^ I am a mad bastard, doncha think?
If you can guess who the kid is, you get a free box of pocky. Imaginary, of course, but it's the thought that counts. ^_^