A discovery

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Date: April 3, 2003, afternoon
Status: Public - complete
Setting: The Manor
Summary: Loki discovers some left-overs from the past. Anyone come play?


Loki returned to his room with a contented smile on his face. He had spend some hours rummaging through things from the manor's past, hoping to find something that would prove interesting and maybe even useful.

What he had found was certainly interesting, while its usability, as well as its usefulness, were still in some doubt. What he did not doubt in the least, however, was that he would find out about both soon enough.

He dragged his low table to the corner from where he could keep an eye on the door. Not knowing quite where his so-called friends and family were would keep him somewhat on edge for a long time, he feared. Or at least until he had enough allies of his own to sleep comfortably again. Not that he slept at all at the moment.

Carefully, he put down the four paintball markers he had been carrying on the table and unslung the bag from his shoulder. Then he laid out the paint cartridges he had collected in it, sorted by color. So now he had some firearms, though admittedly not the type he'd been thinking of when he mentioned them to his other self.

He reached into the box with red paint pellets. Yes, that was definitely his color. He took one out, holding it carefully between him fingers in order not to crush it. The ammunition had gone unused for years, it seemed, and the paint inside seemed to have dried up. Maybe applying a little heat would help.

The first attempt went somewhat awry. The heat flowing from his fingers caused the paintball to swell until it no longer fit into the weapon. It brust when he tried, splashing his hand with red paint.

He wiped it on the inside of the light jacket he wore open without as much as a t-shirt beneath, and tried again. A little less heat this time, and more slowly. He stopped when the outside of the ball started to show the first sign of reaction. This one was much better. Of course he would have to try it out to see if it was truly functional again.

Loading the marker, he went to his open window, sighted on one of the trees on the manor grounds, and pulled the trigger. With a satisfied grin at the result, he went back to his table to put the remaining ammunition into a functional state again, before he collected everything and went downstairs.

In the lobby, he put down three of the markers in conspicuous places, together with the paintfall boxes with yellow, blue and green ammunition. Then he retreated to the doorway to watch if anyone would come in and pick one up. The loaded red marker firmly in his hands and ready for action, he leaned against the wall and waited.

Comments

[misterbkeele.livejournal.com]

Somewhere in in the tackle, Barnaby had lost his own gun, which... limited options rather more.

This was sort of embarrassing.

"Well-played," he muttered. "Now please get off."

[cattygabriel]

Gabriel got to his feet, offering Barnaby a hand.

"Well-played yourself," he grinned.

[misterbkeele.livejournal.com]

Barnaby sat up with leafmould and twigs stuck in his hair. This wouldn't do.

"Right," he said and took the proffered hand. He then yanked hard, dragging the angel into the soil while pulling himself upwards. Somewhere, someplace, you could perhaps hear a voice saying, psych!

The demon took off running once again, only pausing to scoop up his marker a few feet away.

[cattygabriel]

Gabriel was trying very hard to hold in his laughter. He himself hardly cut a dignified figure anyway, with the soil and red and green paint streaking his clothes, making him look like some sort of personification of Christmas festivities. There was red paint, soil and leaves in his hair too.

"Oof!"

He remembered crashing into a tree, taking Uriel's proffered hand and yanking the other archangel down as well. A taste of my own medicine, he thought wryly, sitting up and brushing some leaves out of his hair.

At least the demon hadn't taken his gun. He got to his feet and took off after Barnaby.

[stillnotfallen.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale watched all of this from his position on the rooftop, and it did pass his mind to try to get Gabriel to join him, but that wouldn't be fair to Loki. However, Aziraphale staying on the roof wasn't fair to Gabriel.

He squinted to try to clear his vision a bit better - Gabriel had taken off after Barnaby, but where was Loki? Gabriel had shot towards something, hadn't he, but at this height it was difficult to determine if he had, in fact, been aiming at Loki, or if he had only thought he had been aiming at Loki.

Aziraphale sighed. He hated taking risks like this, but there was nothing else for it. Stretching out his wings again, he gracefully jumped from the rooftop, landing where Barnaby had not long before, and set off in the direction of the other three beings.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Wonderful - now everyone was running away from his position! Well... he would make the best of the situation!

Loki wiped his sleeve over his face, trying to get rid of some of the paint and only managing to smear it even more. Getting rid of some of the paint wouldn't be a bad idea, he mused.

He took of his jacket and placed it so that someone running past might just believe they caught a glimps of him, hiding in the bushes. then he found himself a proper high place in good view, aimed at where he supposed someone shooting at the decoy would stand, and settled down to wait.

[misterbkeele.livejournal.com]

Barnaby left the trees, vaulting over a low wall separating two pathways. He was running slower now, pacing himself. He wasn't sure where Loki was now, didn't know the god or his kind enough to be able to pinpoint his aura, but it was probably best to get back to the thicker shrubs and cover of where the game had started.

[stillnotfallen.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale found himself chasing down Gabriel, who was chasing down Barnaby. Figuring that Loki was nowhere near the playing field and from the sight of things Gabriel wasn't going to catch up to Barnaby, the younger angel called out as loud as he dared, "Gabriel!"

[cattygabriel]

Gabriel might have caught up with Barnaby. Eventually.

He slowed down and turned. "Aziraphael?" He glanced down at the green paint on the Principality's pants. "I see you performed a miracle."

[stillnotfallen.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale had the grace to blush. "Well, just a little one," he admitted, "but I would rather not run around with paint on my bum if you don't mind. But, well, we seem to be in a predicament. Loki ran that way," he gestured in the Norse god's general direction as he thought it might be, "and if Barnaby is that way," he gestured again, "then they might be trying to split us up."

[cattygabriel]

"Well, what can they do if we split up? They've split up too. And since Loki didn't bother with explaining any rules before shooting me I'm not sure how you decide who the winning team is. I mean, I tackled Bara - Barnaby and thought that would mean he was out, but he cheated." Well, perhaps he should have known, since Barnaby was a demon, but he seemed decent enough otherwise.

He chewed his lip for a moment, thoughtfully. "I don't think it matters too much if we split up. At least we can cover more ground too, and there's a higher chance of finding them."

[stillnotfallen.livejournal.com]

Aziraphale smiled fondly. "Well, what fun would it be if he were out, anyway? I suppose that means we can't very well lose, which is right up angelic alleys, what with their being no winner or loser. Who would you rather pursue, Loki or Barnaby?"

[cattygabriel]

"...Excuse me?" How was a détente right up angelic alleys? "There will be a clear winner at the End, Aziraphael."

Gabriel looked down the path Barnaby had run, biting his lip. "I think I'll try Loki now. Good luck with Barnaby."

[stillnotfallen.livejournal.com]

"Er," said Aziraphale. "That wasn't. What I meant. I was thinking, you know, like, games played in Heaven, at least when I was there, you know, they didn't have winners or losers, because they didn't want to foster, you know, Wrath. Or any of that business. Of course we'll win in the End. Yes."

Aziraphale merely nodded and started running down the path after Barnaby. Sweet L - Someone, but he ought to just keep his mouth shut around Gabriel!

[cattygabriel]

"Ah."

Gabriel nodded, turning and running in the direction in which he'd last seen Loki, adjusting his grip on his paint gun. He neared the corner and quickly crouched low to the ground, moving forward cautiously.

[misterbkeele.livejournal.com]

Barnaby had taken advantage of the lull to sequester himself deeper in the shrubbery. Pity about the orange shirt (not that much of the original colour was left) -- if only it was autumn, then he might have had a little extra camouflage.

He worried at his lower lip with his teeth, fidgeting. It was the waiting that was the killer, he thought. A metal sprinkler head was digging into his hip, but the angels seemed to be done talking, and moving would rustle the leaves.

[stillnotfallen.livejournal.com]

Once Aziraphale was far enough away from Gabriel, he started walking. After all, he had no real idea where Barnaby was, so what good would running do? Besides, he hadn't gotten to see as much of the grounds as he would have liked, so a nice stroll seemed like a good idea for such a comfortable day. But Aziraphale had once, long ago, made a "pact" of sorts with a demon to stop competition between them, which is a good indicator of how little Aziraphale cared about such silly things.

Hopefully Barnaby wouldn't shoot him in the arse. ... Again.

[misterbkeele.livejournal.com]

Two things happened at once: First, Aziraphale had come into his line of vision, and an idea was forming in his head. Barnaby only had a cursory knowledge of mechanics, preferring to work through people instead. Even so, he could accomplish a few things just by will. An irrigation sprinkler system surely wasn't too difficult to manipulate.

A crease appeared between his eyebrows for a few seconds, one hand resting on the sprinkler head. Then he opened his eyes, aimed, and shot at the angel.

[stillnotfallen.livejournal.com]

Now he had triggered the manor's sprinkler system and was soaked head to toe, his curls sogged and his clothes sticking to his skin. Deciding that apparently the Lord was pulling a Job on him, Aziraphale decided to stand there and take it, resisting the urge to beat his head on a tree or fly back to his room, curl up in bed and never leave.

Aziraphale sighed, letting his head hang limply. At least there weren't any children around, he thought musingly. He spat a bit of water out of his mouth.

[cattygabriel]

Gabriel knelt behind a bush and let his senses extend, searching for Loki's aura. He didn't know it very well yet, but he knew what American Loki's aura felt like, and he doubted anyone else would be in the grounds unless they liked having paint-splattered clothes.

There.

Inching forward slowly, he pointed his paint-gun at the bush.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Loki had a hard time believing the angel actually came straight towards the place where he was hiding. It was unfair! How could he know?

Well, spotted he might be, but at least he wasn't defenseless. He raised his marker's muzzle slightl to aim for Gabriel's shoulder rather than his chest. if he was lucky, the other one would take a second before he got off a shot of his won after being hit on such a relatively short distance.

He did not watch to see if he even hit, but instead burst out from his current bush and dove for cover behind another one, closer to the wall.

[cattygabriel]

Gabriel was about to fire when Loki's shot hit his shoulder. He winced, stumbling, and accidentally fired in a random direction.

"Ow."

He sank down behind a bush, rubbing his arm, before taking aim and firing at the spot where he presumed Loki was.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Loki dug somewhat deeper into the shrubbery he was now hiding in, moving backwards carefully and slowly so as not to create too much of a disturbance around him. Then he remained motionless for a while and cocked his head to listen.

[cattygabriel]

Well, now that Loki was hiding, all Gabriel could do was... either wait for him to come out, or fire at the bush repeatedly and probably not hit him, or make him come out.

He sank deeper into his own bush too, quietly, thinking. He knew where Loki was, roughly - he could sense him - but that wasn't much help at the moment.

He could take to the air and shoot Loki from above, but that would make him an obvious target and he didn't want his wings to get hit.

Or... he could cause a distraction, to draw him out. He frowned in concentration, tracing a symbol in the air with a finger, and a small, slow and rather localised breeze picked up, rustling the leaves in a direct path, almost as though someone were crawling from his position to somewhere to the right of Loki. A blink, and the paint-stained, soil-streaked black jacket he wore was in the decoy position; a hint of it could be seen through the shrubbery. He glanced down at himself, amused that the front of his white shirt was barely white anymore, but the back was still somewhat pristine, having been protected by the jacket. Not any more, though.

Now all he could do was wait and hope that Loki would show himself as he went for the bait.

[norseloki.livejournal.com]

Loki saw the angel crawling through the bushes. He wondered why he'd suddenly turned so obvious. Was he tiring?

Ah, but maybe... maybe he was offering himself as bait, with the other angel hiding somewhere, staying still and intending to take him down before he could change his position after firing!

He had no idea where his own team mate was, so he stayed quite still for a while, scanning anything that might provide some cover for hints that there was a second person around.