01.02.2133 - Spar by the Bonfire

[Dray]

In Temmit's mind, one thing was for certain as the chameleon sat down next to him...the boy had skills.

He hadn't even sensed him coming, an unsual and scary fact for Temmit. Especially since Temmit had tacked Marcus' location ever since they left Our-Commons that morning.

"Hello Temmit," Marcus said in a friendly greeting as he sat down on the ground beside him. "Exciting stuff eh?" CURIOUS

River was probably very close to finishing the setup of their tent thought Temmit. And even if River didn't perchance spy the enemy sitting down next to him, he would be there soon. And he knew the hunter would have the good sense to flank Marcus should action be required.

Not that Temmit expected it would be, after all, hundreds of kids were about.

[Johan]

Naturally, I've got Sense Motive on full blast here...I think I'll blow my focus for an Empathy check too.

Also, am I to assume that I haven't run into Marcus since that day in the Church?

"Hey! How you doing, Marcus?" Temmit asked in his most friendly fashion. "Exciting is certainly a good choice of words. You got any thoughts on how tomorrow will go?"

[Dray]

You haven't had a face to face encounter no, but you have caught his eye contact once in awhile.

..and damned isn't that funny when Temmit is acting like that.

"Nope, no idea, but I certainly wouldn't mind finally getting a chance at proving myself," he returned. VANITY

"How about you? Have any ideas on what surprises they have in store for us?" CURIOUS

(I will need a sense motive roll sir...the game is afoot. And while you are at it, you may want to roll bluff in future posts should you try to conceal your own body language while distorting any truths, or, trying to dim your body language in any way)

[Johan]

Sense Motive: Natural 17, modified 30. Don't forget the Empathy that's up. I'll make Bluff rolls as I think they are required.

"Nah." Teemit answered. "I'm in the dark as much as anyone, I think. I've never been involved in one of these games either, but I hear that the big feast, and the presence of our August hosts is quite unusual. Makes me really wonder what they're hoping to see."

He sucked his tongue for a moment, then changed the subject. "So how is it that you managed to change houses anyway?" He asked. "That time in the forest finally convince you that you're no plant grower?" He smiled jokingly.

[Dray]

Bluff: Natural 5, modifed 21. Don't forget you are messing with someone with skill.

The small note of surprise that Marcus had at the question was very satisfying to Temmit.

It only took a moment for Marcus to collect his resolve though, and then he replied with a bit less friendly manner.

"That time in the forest was time well spent, I got my head around a few things," he said, then paused for a few moments. DECEIT

His light manner returned. "After all, the plant growers don't get the girls, and their are a ton of girls in the Actors House eh?" WICKEDNESS

His voice got very serious.

"Girls like Leslie." EVIL

Temmit knew that Marcus was testing him. Marcus was making statements not only to ignite an emotional reaction in him but to watch him as he did so, that way Marucs could learn the visual queues that would make reading Temmit easier at a later date.

[Johan]

Temmit chuckled. "She's cute, all right, but she's too young and skinny. What about Shannon?" He asked, delving into Marcus's playground. "She's in the Actor's house, isn't she?" He popped into his mouth one of the crackers that he had been provided.

"Is your mother convinced that puberty is natural yet?" He shook his head in sympathy for Marcus's supposed plight. "I still can't believe that you had to meet the Quintescent because of puberty." He laughed slightly again.

[Dray]

"Yeah, I will have to kill my mother for that one eh?" he said with a completely friendly laugh that didn't match he statement whatsoever, it made Temmit's spine crawl. HATRED

"Shannon's sweet enough... nice chest, and she sure would be an emotional one in the skinny I imagine." WICKEDNESS

Temmit had never heard the expression before.

Marcus looked straight at Temmit and said, "But I like it when the little one's squirm." EVIL

[Johan]

"Don't play his game. Or don't let him win, at any rate." Smokey whispered, even before Marcus spoke this last provocation. "Remember: he's reading you, and learning your tells. He's trying to shock emotions out of you."

Temmit placed a binding on his mental chest, as he had long since come to model his emotional containment upon. Smokey's words serverd very well as those bindings.

"Damn, man!" Temmit laughed quietly. "You're sick!" He forced an 'inadvertant' snort, which made him cough on the cracker he had been eating, and he laughed a bit more in the doing. "How they squirm!" He whispered in echoe to Marcus's perversion.

"I guess you have more experience than I do." Temmit admitted, still lauging slightly. He took a drink to wash down his cracker and to give his face something to do as he steeled himself for Marcus's next assault.

"You can learn an awful lot about what makes a person fearful by observing what he uses to scare you." Smokey observed.

The truth in these words spoke volumes to Temmit. Marcus was trying to make Temmit angry, and the tactics that the doppleganger used told Temmit quite a lot, really. He wondered what might be next on Marcus's salvo.

[Dray]

"In a great deal many things," he responded matter of factly. CONCEIT

"So what happened to your squirmy little friend, where did she really get those bruises?" CURIOUS

[Johan]

"So here's the investigation." Smokey said. "Trouble is, is he really investigating Leslie's accident?"

"Not likely." Temmit answered. "But the answer to that question is information that I don't want him to have either."

"Certainly, but it's likely that what he's trying to do is get you into comfortable territory so that you'll let your guard drop. This means, of course, that as far as he knows, you're only comfortable with Leslie; he doesn't know you at all, and yet he does."

Temmit smiled inquisitively at Marcus. "I hear tell she fell and smacked her head...you do seem awfully fixated on her though; what's up with that? You interested?"

Then a thought occurred to Temmit. "Why do you ask about her bruises? Did you hear a different story?" He asked conspiratorially.

[Dray]

"I just thought it odd that you were out the same day she had gone missing is all," Marcus replied. "I thought that might have been so you could go look for her. Quite the risk don't you think? Dodging the truancy office to go find such a young membe(r)...fellow student?"

DEVIOUS

Temmit understood that the slip of the tongue was nothing of the sort. Whether Marcus knew that he had been fooled by it was unknown.

[Johan]

Temmit made a questioning face, not looking at Marcus, but intended for him. "Memeber?" He asked. He then shrugged the comment off visibly and considered Marcus's connecting of dots.

"You know, I hadn't thought about it a whit, but you're right: that is an odd coincidence. I can see how some folks might connect those dots, as you did." Temmit answered

"But you're also right in that that'd be an unwarranted risk, just to go looking for a kid, and I'm certainly no risk taker...Shanteel beats that out of you at a young age."

He then changed the subject back to Marcus's original line of questions, nearly a week and a half ago. "So I take it that you're still looking for a...ummm....community? No luck on that front?" He asked conversationally.

[Dray]

OOPS

There is an err in your statement, and it is my fault, as you aren't the first player to make it.

Temmit, and all the player orphans (which is all of you), do not sleep at the orphanage while school is in session. You all report back to the House dormitories. ONLY in the summer do you take up residence in the orphanage.

SO....

Instead of Shanteel as the antagonist in that statement, you can change it to the reknowned Stephen Nedell, the bastard who is in charge of the Truancy Office. Who sometimes visits a student on sick days to check if they are faking.

[Dray]

"A community? Is that what they are called now?" Marcus asked with a smirk. He started to get up off the ground but continued to talk while in a crouched position beside Temmit.

"Nah," he continued, without waiting for an answer, "I am building my own. Come see me sometime if you want to join eh?"

Marcus lightly slapped Temmit behind the shoulder.

[Johan]

Shanteel beat the risk-taker out of kids at an early age. I'm thinking that there's no conflict there.

"Yeah." Temmit said agreeably. "Maybe I'll do that."

"Oh, and hey - good luck tomorrow. Try to not get yourself 'killed'".