maskormenacelogs | i ain't seen nothing like him in any amusement hall

[When all's said and done, Tetsuo finds his 'job' surprisingly tolerable - he gets to lounge around in chairs and side offices all day with painkillers and no one bothers him. He gets all the free games he wants because he can and no one stops him. He might as well be reigning king here, at least in his mind, and that much he's quickly finding out he really loves. It's just the problem of being in constant pain that's the problem.

Tetsuo looks up from his chair in the back, lazily waving one arm in greeting before painfully getting to his feet. Still, appearances are important. He's pretty sure she - Hazel's a she, who knew- didn't see him at his best before. This is HIS arcade, and he'll be damned if he doesn't look a little more together.

Truth told, he's not sure what's more unnerving; her being right, or being wrong. But he has to know. And at least it's in his territory on his terms.]

Where? I don't see one.

[for her part, Hazel's given up on making a good impression on anyone; when you're covered in as many stitches as she is, people are going to draw unkind conclusions no matter what you do. between that, her top, and the fact that he's got at least a solid four inches on her...well, looks like she was right to save her energy.

none of that takes away from the cocky grin that remains even as she watches him stand up with obvious discomfort. nulling hasn't failed her yet with stuff like this, which means she'll be free to be her usual little shit self for the rest of her time here. it's a nice feeling.]

Hey, you're talking to your metaphorical ibuprofen for the night. You better play nice or I'll walk my ass right back out of here.

[no she won't, but who cares about facts when it comes to good-natured trash talk?]

[What. What? No!

That threat stalls anything Tetsuo was going to say, giving him some time to actually get a good look at Hazel. Whaaaat the hell happened to her? Does she go dancing with tigers or something, seriously, that's a lot of damage. He's seen a lot of injuries - hell, he's caused a lot of them and endured quite a few himself - but he's pretty sure he hasn't seen anyone with more stitches than a teddy bear.

One thing's for sure. She's been through some stuff.]

...

[Whatever. Whatever her deal is, she IS going to follow through on that right. the hell. now.]

So, you gonna start or what?

Yeah, yeah. Didn't think it was polite to just dump that on you, but now that we've got the hellos out of the way...

[she shrugs a little, and that's it. there's no special effects, no spectacular sound, not even a show of exertion on Hazel's part. as soon as she gives the notice that she's starting, the powers just blip out of existence.

there's plenty of snarky comebacks she could toss in now, but Hazel wants to make sure it's working. just because she's done this more times than she cares to count doesn't mean she's stopped worrying that one day it might fail to help somebody; blame it on that bleeding heart she refuses to acknowledge.]

[He's not sure what he's expecting. Maybe for nothing to happen.

He's almost forgotten what it was like to not be in agony on some level, from an undercurrent of pain to a screaming fire deep in his head and veins. The sudden surge of relief is enough to make him sag to the floor then and there. For a second, he doesn't even care what that means. He doesn't care about anything except the fact that nothing hurts.]

Holy shit. It's gone... I can hear myself think...

[for a split second she sees him go down and wonders if she's finally found the one person who could be harmed by such an utterly benign power. but that's stupid, and it's clear almost immediately that the crumple is born of relief rather than death throes.

this is that same feeling she had when Manabu had been unable to stop shaking her hand or thanking her after she'd nulled his powers. Hazel's not really sure what exactly it is, nor does she want to dwell on it, but she's suddenly really glad she hauled her ass out here.]

Hey, you can kiss my feet later.

[it's a completely toothless little quip, thrown out just to keep the situation from getting overwhelming for either of them. Hazel's sure as hell not going to make him get up until he's ready - not if the removal of whatever his power does had him reacting like that. he deserves a little floortime.]

Yeah. You wish.

[That gets Tetsuo back up, even though he really, really wishes he could just stay there. He's been up and moving, sort of, through this whole ordeal; he can handle a little bit of forcing his body to move when it's pretty sure it's done. If nothing else, Tetsuo has sheer willpower on his side.

Man. Getting up doesn't hurt. Moving doesn't require concentration. He hasn't felt this good since before the accident. If there was any small shred of him left that didn't hate the government, it's crushed brutally by that realization alone. It's not fair.

But you know, he doesn't want to deal with that now. He'll deal with that later, when he has any real energy back. Tetsuo jerks his head forward, indicating the rows on rows of various entertainment, and forces a grin.]

You. Pick a game. Any game.

Oh man, you're going to regret giving me that as a thank you gift.

[she makes a thoughtful humming noise as she survey her choices before inevitably settling on a racer. it's always racers when it comes to just hanging out, it seems. hopefully this time she doesn't have to shove her fingers up her opponent's nose.

with an imperious wave she starts off for it, smile pulling at the edges of her lips again. there weren't many situations that could put a damper on her competitive spirit for very long.]

Get ready for a fucking bloodbath.

[A racer? Hah. Oh, this is gonna be funny. It's a shame it's not the real thing - you don't feel the rush from pixels on a screen. It's all or nothing in real life; in a game you get to reset, bam, you're up. But for the meantime, until he gets another bike, it's the best he's going to get.

And here she just challenged him to his life.

Tetsuo's grin widens as he follows along. He's won this already.]

It's gonna be.

[The best part about working in an arcade is being able to pull free games - he's got all the plays he can pocket around here. He doesn't just put coins into her machine, oh no; he slams down a handful of them - enough for at least several things - right there on the counter and uses his own stash.]

[looks like she's unintentionally hit upon a shared interest with her choice, judging from his reaction. all the better - that means she'll have cause to go all out, including into cheating territory if she has to. anything for a win.

his footing her fees is unexpected, but it doesn't go unappreciated even if she doesn't really do much more by way of acknowledging it than tapping a finger on a coin that had gone spinning around the counter to halt it. saving a little money's never a bad thing.]

Guess we'll see whose head stays above water the longest.

[or...above blood, to perfectly continue her metaphor. but that's a little morbid even for Hazel, and what's the point in being so nitpicky at a time like this? she zips through the selection screen, going for something fast and light, eager to get down to business already. this was going to be fun.]

[Of course he'll front it, why not. How else is he going to show off that he can?

Selection's easy. Tetsuo looks for speed and acceleration, ends up sacrificing grip for it, and locks in his choice. It's all about attack here, that's all that matters. He glances over at Hazel to shoot her a smug look, waiting for countdown.]

[she gives him a facetiously peppy little two-fingered salute, and then the timer hits zero and there's nothing in the world but the screen in front of her. she briefly considers jostling him to ruin his start, but why bother? save the dirty play for when things get dire and he's not expecting it.

her focus now is outpace and outmaneuver. her preferred vehicles are quick, but they're fragile and easily spin off the road if they get jostled. the simplest way to keep things safe is to make sure he can't get in position to do that - easier said than done, of course, but that's the plan.]

[The second the signal blares, Tetsuo's grin vanishes completely as he slips back into old habits. His vehicle shoots out like a bullet, pulling straight ahead and speeding up as fast as possible.

Hazel's also favoring speed above maneuvering, or durability, or anything; from the looks of things they picked the two fastest vehicles in the game. Neither of them pulled ahead so far, but that's not going to matter. It's a simple question; who can reach top speed fastest, and who can keep it longest.

If Tetuo can just pull forward and stay forward, he's got this. If not, he'll keep pace with her and veer wildly into the turn to cut across - if he does it right, just barely avoiding crashing into the side.

He'll ram her if he has to, because he's not going to lose this.]

[she's feeling pretty good about how she's doing, even with how tightly they're running together. but even though she herself is prepared to play dirty, Tetsuo's sudden move at the turn catches her off guard; she moves sharply to keep from colliding and begins to spin thanks to her vehicle's poor handling.

a muffled curse finds its way out of her mouth despite her attempts at poke face, because if there's one thing Hazel has always been bad at it's concealing her feelings. she tries to make the best of the situation by angling her vehicle as much as she can so it's crossing Tetsuo's path once again. let's see him deal with that.]

Hah!

[One would really, really think Tetsuo would have learned about doing stuff like this by now. One would be wrong, but one can hope.

Thanks to his choice of vehicle not making turns quickly, Tetsuo's stuck right up against the wall with no possible room for error, and she managed to trap him there. He glares at the screen, trying to ride it out best he can. The smart thing to do would be brake, that would give her an edge he's not willing to concede.

Fortunately, there's a third option. Tetsuo veers his vehicle right into hers, hoping that he hasn't just destroyed both of them. Damaged, he can work with.]

Motherfucker!

[are they both still in the race? yes, but just barely, and that's what's got Hazel getting a little more forceful with her obscenities. the vehicles are frail enough that the rest of this is going to be absolute torture to get through.

she's going to have to pull some real miracles out of the bag now...and while it would probably help if at any point she'd let up on the gas button, that's not happening. no matter how much 'full speed' has been diminished, she's going to be going at it with that and nothing less.]

Give up already!

[Worth it?

His vehicle's sending up some pretty alarming sparks. His chassis is flashing red at the top of his screen - any other hit or misstep and he's out. But he's off the wall and tearing out of there at a decent clip.

Worth it.

He can't tell who made out of that crash worse - but he's not pulling ahead fast enough and steering seems almost shot. This just got interesting, that's for sure. He wrenches his vehicle as hard as possible into another turn, willing it to stop moving sideways and move forwards and hoping the game doesn't tally up damage by steering as well as collisions. He isn't sure - this isn't a game he's played yet. No way to find out like right now.]

You fucking wish!

[at this point Hazel is only peripherally aware of what Tetsuo's doing in the game; she's retained a bit more precision on her steering, but speed has been significantly clipped. for all her bravado there's a desperately intense look in her eyes as she glares at the screen, mentally willing the damn thing to pick up the pace as if it could hear her.

all she can really do is angle herself so that if Tetsuo loses his tenuous control of the vehicle, it'll go knocking straight into hers without some quick thinking. she doesn't care if neither of them make it to the rapidly approaching finish line so long as her car's intact for just one nanosecond longer than his.]

[Her chance comes as Tetsuo pulls sharply to the right to try to level out, his vehicle serenely coasting over at half the angle it should be.

Hazel's vehicle swerves in and he can't get out of the way. His vehicle is done already. He tries wrenching to the side but only manages to hit her head on instead of veering into sideways.

The designers were thoughtful enough to put in very dramatic looking explosions.]

Aaagh! Dammit!

[dramatic explosions accompanied by Hazel's triumphant crowing. you'd think she just blasted through the finish line after lapping him for the entire race rather than spitefully kamikazed them both out.

she pumps a fist in the air, radiating a sort of exuberance that she really has no right to be displaying right now. it doesn't actually matter what happened, because she's going to loudly proclaim it a win regardless of actual fact.]

Yes! Fucking told you you weren't winning!

[HAZEL YOU DIDN'T WIN EITHER STOP TREATING THIS LIKE A VICTORY]

[Tetsuo stares at her for one second before he's pulling out more coins.]

You didn't either! Pay in, you owe me a rematch!

Oh man, don't be such a sore loser and start lying. You got really close a few times!

[now she's just being a little shit (as per usual) but at least she's doing this trash talking while she's shoveling money into the machine. hell yeah she'll go another round with him.]

[This time. THIS time. He is going to win because now it's personal. And because he knows bikes, dammit, he shouldn't actually lose at them.

Tetsuo swaps out to the one she was using. It worked for her, so it's gotta be better.]

Yeah yeah, just start already.

You are so mad, it's actually a little pathetic.

[she shakes her head, tsking facetiously. Hazel could go for her old choice too and make this a mirror match, but the need to tease takes precedent - she locks into his old choice, just to prove to him that there was nothing wrong with the vehicle and he was the one who sucked.]

I'm not mad!

[Yes he is. Especially when he realizes what she's doing.

It was the vehicle. It was totally the vehicle. There's no way that he wouldn't have won if it hadn't quit on him halfway through, or if it had been able to veer out before she made him ram her. And he's gonna fucking prove it. Three... two...]

I'll show you who's pathetic...

[One. He ramps up on the accelerator and tears out, not as quickly as the one he had. But the max speed is slightly higher, so he'll catch up. Maybe now he can actually make those stupid turns. Who designed this track, anyway? Ants?]

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Sore loser is his middle name

well hers is humungous child so he's in good company

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