Thread Roulette: Prove Yourself

[Event !]

On the outskirts of town, a giant obstacle course has been set up, with a crowd that's formed but barriers to keep them away. Oriel and AJ and Ray and Anjali have been broken into two teams who have to compete against each other. Be sure to wear your protective padding; you'll need it.

[Anjali Kedar]

Anjali bent into a lunge, going deep towards the ground as she stretched her legs out.  She had no idea what was going to happen in the obstacle course, but that was the fun of it.  She'd been training for most stuff, but truth be told she wasn't the most athletic person so she wouldn't be all that great at whatever laid ahead.  Yeah, she was flexible, and she could bend in positions most couldn't dream of, but she couldn't run for hours and she certainly didn't care to.  Hell, she didn't care much for a walk around the block.  Maybe it was laziness.  Maybe it was because running just sucked.

Either way she had trained and ran and did whatever she could think to prepare herself.  Now she stood before three other people, only one who was familiar.  A fellow Indian, and one who liked sweets perhaps more than anyone else she knew.

"I'm partnered with Ray." She confessed, looking at the three faces and pushing her hands on her hips.  She was wearing short, purple athletic shorts and a black tank top, her dark hair pulled back into a tight ponytail.  "So which one of you is Ray?" She asked with a wide smile.

[Deleted]

How’d he get roped into this? Something about Phoenix pushing him to get out more and such and such….Oriel didn’t need anyone but Phoenix, so why did he have to socialize!?!?

Though he had to admit that now that he was here, he felt the tickle of competitive excitement blooming in his belly.

And maybe a little bit in his loins as well, because he couldn’t deny that every single one of these competitors(including the scrawny dweeb from the dance team) was more than good looking enough to share a bed with him. And Phoenix, of course, but Phoenix would probably only like a third of them, being gay and all. Oriel daintily walked his fingers across the dainty shoulders of a certain dainty pheromone manipulator, grasped her opposite shoulder, then tugged her in. “Hey there hot stuff…come here often?” he teased with a wink.

Granted, the other indian chick was hot too, but gosh! He barely knew her~ AJ and he had history together, so, unfortunately, he had to be picky. That and they told him he was partnered with her. “I found my partner~” he sang with a bright, boyish smile.

Oriel had confidence in himself for this course. Running was his specialty(he only did it a couple times per week these days as opposed to a million but Oriel still considered himself to be in shape) and while he hadn’t rushed and pounced over obstacles in a while(specifically, since he left NYC), Oriel was under the impression that some skills just didn’t die over time. Like riding a bicycle. Or something like that. “So….you got the skillz for both land and sea, or just the sea?” he asked AJ. She was a swimmer or something, right? Last he heard…

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

How did this happen to him? Ray was asking himself this question over and over again. Here he was, still recovering, at least he got his cast off and had a brace on his wrist. This was going to suck. He was athletic sure, but as soon as he’d seen Oriel on this field he’d prayed and then celebrated internally that he wasn’t partnered with that guy. He was scary and not to mention he’d stomped all over Ray’s drawing. He hadn’t forgiven Oriel for that, not one bit. And well, he’d been avoiding him so far and so that was good, but now they were just being shoved into the ring together. Well, at least they weren’t partners. His wings fluttered as he looked at the other two girls and luckily one spoke up before he had a chance to ask.

“Oh that’s me!” He bounced brightly, raising his hand in a wave. He avoided Oriel, giving him a wide berth as he approached his partner. “Hi Anjelli? Did I say that right?” He asked, pretty sure he’d screwed that up. He should probably stretch but he was excited and full of energy and well, he had bone problems not muscle problems, it seemed those always worked well for him. He put himself through a few sketchy stretches to prepare himself and as he did so he smiled at his partner. “So what kinda stuff do you think they’re having us do? I mean, we could do the obstacles on our own, right? And why do we need so much padding?” He probably would have brought padding for himself just because, it was him and it was probably safer that way. Ray enjoyed talking and if Anjali didn’t, she was about to be out of luck because the filter between Raylaigh’s brain and mouth was missing.

“What’s you power?” He asked, it seemed between all of them he was the only one with an outright obvious power. Wings fluttered on his ankles, four in total, two for each foot. It had taken years and years of training just to get used to walking with these wings and getting them not caught in each other during flight. So today was going to be the real test because he could run and he could fly, but those transitions, mainly landing, were his weak spot.

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

AJ wasn't sure why she'd decided this was a good idea. Something about wanting to put herself out there, something about wanting to have experiences before she graduated. She'd spent so much time hiding away. She'd gotten back in the pool, back in the water and after she'd done that, she'd found it refreshing in more ways than one. She needed to do other things that made her feel refreshed, have new experiences. This wasn't swimming. No part of it involved swimming. It was a lot of running mostly and...obstacles. She still wasn't sure what they would be, but she had spent more time running and less time in the pool, even if it wasn't ideal to her. Still, swimming kept her in shape enough. Although honestly, she was feeling a little bit like the other girl would give her a run for her money.

She felt Ori's fingers on her shoulder and shivered, at first startled, before turning to him, her wavy ponytail nearly hitting him in the face. "To obstacle courses?" she asked him. "No, not often at all." She was trying to mentally prepare herself for that. She wasn't even sure if she and Oriel would make a good team, especially for something physical like this. I mean, they knew each other, and it didn't seem like the other two did, so that was an advantage maybe. But still. She felt awkward standing there in her athletic shorts and baggy purple vneck.

"Not so confident about the land part..." She shook her head. "You make me sound like a mermaid." AJ was only worried about her reflexes if anything. Being quick on her feet, agile. The obstacles were a worry. She did have a history of being clumsy.

[Anjali Kedar]

Anjali looked from the bakery guy to the other girl and then the white guy who she knew was Ray.  Bakery guy had claimed the other girl, and then Ray had acknowledged that he was who he was and she smiled.  He looked friendly between that smile and his wave, and she liked friendly looking people. She shook her head but smiled anyway when he attempted her name.  "Close,  Ahn-jah-lee." She corrected, sounding each syllable out before repeating her name for him quicker.  "Anjali.  My friends call me Anji though, or just Anj.  It's faster, but I mean, just like a syllable or two.  I answer to anything, though.  Like, you could probably call me anything, but something nasty.  Like bitch.  Don't call me bitch."  She laughed realizing she was going off on a random tangent when he'd only just asked if he'd said her name right.  She bit her tongue to keep it from moving anymore, thankful as always that the tone of her skin hid the flush in her cheeks.  "Not that you did.. or would..

"I honestly have no idea.  I'm a little nervous about what's going to be happening." She admitted.  "I mean, I work out a lot but like, obstacles and stuff aren't my thing.  And when I say working out I mean yoga, not that hardcore gym rat stuff.  I'm not a gym rat.  I hate the gym, even though I work in a gym."  Sleeping seemed to be the only time her tongue got a break from wagging around her mouth.  "But I hope the padding isn't any indication as to what's to come."

She noted the wings on his feet and couldn't help but think it was kind of awesome.  Not only that, but the two of them would be a perfect duo.  Wings and air? Yeah, they went hand in hand!  "Aerokinesis!" She chirped excitedly, that broad smile shining on her face.  "Like, wind and air manipulation.  We're totally going to rock this if those babies are real.."

[Deleted]

Oriel did not fail to notice the way the skinny kid so obviously avoided the delinquent boy. As though getting too close would somehow cause himself permanent injury or Oriel would eat the other kid out of nowhere. What? Did Oriel do something to him? Well…..maybe he did. Right. So maybe it was warranted. Maybe. It wasn’t like Oriel gave any shits today about upholding the long forgotten plan of teasing and torturing the weak willed, upper middle class, ignorant dweeb, like he’d intended on doing the better part of last fall. Yeah, things happened last fall, that that plan was all but forgotten in Oriel’s attempt to ‘improve’ himself.

In any case, Oriel had all his attention on the game, and on his partner, so very little of it was available to spare in giving Ray the bully session he feared. Well….it might still come amid the contest, but that was just Oriel practicing his sportsmanship. At least, that was his story, and he planned on sticking to it.

“You ever done one before?” he asked his partner. He had to know how much of this he was going to have to carry himself. Hell, he’d carry AJ on his back if need be, she was tiny enough he could do it, probably, but he needed to know what the two of them had so he could develop a stratagem. Oriel rubbed his prickly chin in contemplation, the looking down at his vertically challenged partner, contemplating her words. “….you’re not? You’d make a damn sexy one though. My very own Little Mermaid~” Oriel pulled her in again for healthy dose of affection. “Let’s dye your hair red when we get back to the castle, okay hunny~”

This was Oriel in a stupendous mood, by the way.

After his moment of ridiculousness, Oriel allowed himself a moment of seriousness. “You’re short,” he said thoughtfully. “Compared to me, I mean….so I guess I’ll have to boost you over the tall shit?” Sounded like a plan. “How’s your sprinting?” he asked.

[Raylaigh Hawthorne]

Ray glanced at the girl Oriel was partnered with and felt a mix of relief and pity. She didn’t upset about it, so Ray let go and held onto the idea that Oriel would be too occupied to give him grief. In fact, it made him want to win all the more, just to show Oriel, to show everyone that he wasn’t useless, that he could do it. “Oh sorry,” Ray ducked his head as he joined Anjali, “It’s really pretty!” The flyer’s wings fluttered as he laughed, his whole body filled with happiness. “Don’t worry Anji, I don’t call you that. Never.” He nodded very affirmatively. So long as she didn’t give him a reason to be nasty he wouldn’t be, and even if she did he probably wouldn’t do anything about it. After all, Oriel was nasty to him and Ray did everything to avoid him. He just couldn’t understand what he had done to make the other boy hate him so much. He closed his eyes and dismissed their last interaction from his mind.

Nodding, Ray looked around wondering just what was going on. He turned back to Anji and smiled laughing to himself. “It’s a struggle, I can run and swim, but I don’t know if that’s gonna help with this, I mean I haven’t been in the gym for a while. I just hope this isn’t a contact sport.” Knowing Hammel, they likely wouldn’t have signed him up for this if it was. He was so breakable that they’d made him stop playing basketball, his one true love. “You work at a gym?” Ray asked curiously and wrinkled his nose, “I’d feel like I had to work out all the time if I did that.” He liked to eat and certainly his eating habits would make health crazed people raise their brow and probably they would look down their nose at him. “I’ve never done yoga, it looks super hard, I mean can you put your foot behind your head?” He looked at her as if he expected her to demonstrate her yoga skill on the spot.

Ray’s jaw dropped and he whooped with delight jumping a little into the air and raising his hand to give her a high five. “Oh we are going to kill!” He bounced excitedly on his feet. “You bet! As real as anything else,” he flapped them and lifted his foot. “Those guys aren’t going to hit them.” Raylaigh grinned confidently and looked around again at the course. It didn’t look overly complicated but there had to be a catch since they’d put them on teams. He had a ton of padding that he’d brought with him and for lack of anything better he started putting pads on. He was not stupid and he’d only just gotten out of his cast the other week, he was not about to be broken into a million pieces. Nao would kill him if he did that.

[Amanda Joy "AJ" Lane]

"Mmmm, no," AJ told him honestly with a bashful smile, but doing this was more about proving something to herself, that she could step outside of her comfort zone, do something a little unexpected and have fun doing it.

She rolled her eyes at her partner. "Yeah, well, I'll keep that in mind for halloween," she told him. She'd gotten used to Ori's comments over time, which he deemed as compliments. AJ just tried to take them that way. She probably wouldn't look horrible with red hair, of course, she wasn't too crazy about dying her hair and so she'd probably buy a wig instead.

"Possibly," AJ answered, although she wasn't that short! Average, maybe. But short compared to Oriel. "I can sprint, fairly well." She wasn't too worried about the running part, just the obstacles.