[1 v 1] Chop Chop (Gene/Bren)

[Smerdle]

Upon returning from his first trip to the Haunted House, Brenley hadn't gone back to the reaper dorms. It wasn't that he was too tired or injured to make it all the way home, he simply didn't want to be alone with that... thing... that had taken up residence. Its wide, glowing eyes were trusting and kind, as Pachua's had been, and a rather insistent part of Bren's brain wanted to kill the minipet too. It would be a bad impulse to give in to when he was supposed to be getting better.

Instead, he had shuffled off to the gym and spent the rest of the evening ineffectually smacking at a punching bag until he was too tired to do anything but slide to the dirty floor and fall asleep. He awoke now with a crick in his neck and a small puddle of drool beneath his cheek. He should have left the room as soon as he could comfortably stand, but he just sat up, pulling his knees near his chin and staring off into space.

Carhop Cavalier

_insert emo playlist here_

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Gene was angry for whatever reason she could find. Her coffee had some grounds left in the cup this morning, her favorite pair of leggings had a few burrs on them, and to top it all off she still didn't know what the ******** was going on with herself and Frost. Angry and bitter, she stomped into the gym with a latte in hand, not even bothering to change into her gym clothing. She didn't need to, what with her angry clothes of a tank top, leggings, and ratty sneakers that she kept around for hard labor.

When she saw a familiar kid dozing off in the gym, her anger flared to a higher level than the rest of the day. He was one of the few who'd gotten out of that s**t-hole first. He had no right to that.

"Hey." She called out, floating to him.

smerdle

crawling_in_my_skin.mp4

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

The Doppelganger threw the latte in the boil's face, stomping down on the cement floor of the gym in a huff. "What do you think you're doing here being lazy? This is a gym!" She puffed her cheeks up, glowering at Brenley.

"Going to run and abandon me again?"

Yeah, definitely still vindictive about that.

HP: 50/50
DMG: 7

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He looked up as the ghost announced her presence, immediately identifying her as one of the ones who had been locked in that house with him. He had fully intended to never speak to any of those people again, and now one was throwing a latte at him. Bren hopped to his feet with a gasp, nearly falling over in the process, then actually did slip and drop back to the ground as he attempted to retreat.

"Ow," he muttered, rubbing at his bruising posterior as he slowly pushed himself upright once more. "I would like to run far, far away from your coffee and your accusations, actually, but I—" Obviously under the impression that speaking to her while he tried to retaliate would distract her somehow, Brenley took a weak swipe at the ghoul, missing her completely. He sighed.

"And I didn't abandon you. I was going to get help." The more he said it, the more he believed it. But nothing he told himself had managed to erase the sight of Pachua's cooling corpse from his mind's eye.

HP: 33/40
Damage: 0

Carhop Cavalier

gonna sue u for ur burlin' mcdonalds coffee

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

Gene relented for a moment, dodging Brenley's swing easily enough with a quirked brow, placing her hands on her hips as she gave him the most condescending, patronizing look she could manage. "Planned to but didn't." She spat, obviously not taking his excuses.

She'd been left alone in that room until... well, she didn't like thinking about it. It wasn't an experience she wanted to relive. Pushing the thought of that room to the back of her mind, she stepped up to the boil. "Run if you want - be a coward again."

HP: 50/50
DMG: 0

smerdle

shots fired

 

[Smerdle]

Since arriving at Amityville, Brenley had been called a coward many, many times. It had never really bothered him much, but in this particular instance, it did grate a little. Slightly. Mostly because, despite his selfish intentions, he had ended up trying in the end. The boil sighed, then pressed his lips together. He couldn't very well tell the ghost that he had drowned in the name of saving them. She wouldn't believe him, and it wasn't true anyway. It had always been about him first, but had he made it back, he would have gotten help.

Bren raised his hand, pausing as he contemplated what to do with it. He eventually decided to jab her lightly in the shoulder with his first two fingers, lowering those fingers just as awkwardly.

"I'm not a coward." He didn't sound all that certain, but at least the sentiment was there.

HP: 33/40
Damage: 1

Carhop Cavalier

sissy poke

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

"That's why I had an entire building collapse on me, right? That's why my favorite childhood token was stripped from me, destroyed in the rubble? You ran for yourself, you didn't get help in time." She attacked with her words and her fists, raining blows on him as she delivered her harsh lecture.

"I know you're only a snot, but what do you have to say for yourself?"

HP: 49/50
DMG: 9

smerdle

wow sorry this took 5evr

 

[Smerdle]

The building had collapsed? He had heard nothing of what had happened after he had left until now, but then again, he hadn't gone looking for news either. Better to keep to himself. Safer.

"How is that... any of my... fault?" Bren said, staggering under the force of her punches. He tried to stand straight once she had stopped and mostly succeeded, backing away a couple of paces and rubbing at where she had hit. "I didn't take your things. I didn't kidnap us all. Should I have stayed so we could have all died together? Why aren't you hitting Aurel or Llyr?"

Realizing he was on the verge of whining, the boil paused, taking a breath and trying to compose himself. In truth he was angry underneath all of his blather, frustrated by the fact that he was so ineffectual, both back in their prison and now. He advanced again, holding up his hands as if he meant to strike back. "What did you do to help anyway?"

HP: 24/40
Damage: 0

Carhop Cavalier

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

The ghoul stopped, realizing what she was doing. Her anger was being taken out on a Snot, a boy that couldn't properly defend himself against her. He'd suffered just as much as she did - and she didn't even know everything that he'd had to do in order to obtain a key. She gave a small frown, dropping her combative stance and shaking her head, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't be blaming you." She sighed, looking back at the boil. "We all tried to help, we all tried our best to get out of there - I don't know how you got your way out, but I'm sure it wasn't easy."

She took a pause, then gave him a small smile of apology. "No hard feelings?"

smerdle

she can't keep hurting her husbando

 

[Smerdle]

He kept his arms raised even after she'd stopped hitting him, certain that she was just trying to ease him into letting down his guard so that she might strike more effectively. When she sighed and apologized, he started to believe that she might actually leave him alone to sulk. Or he could soak his coffee stained clothing in lieu of sulking, he supposed. Both activities held equal appeal right now.

Brenley's sigh mirrored the ghoul's. "I'm sorry as well," he said, lowering his hands. "Getting out was difficult, but there wasn't anyone forcing me to leave, at least not at first. I could have stayed behind longer to help get everyone out, I was just frightened." And he had just killed someone. He swallowed. "You're Gene, right?" It felt like he had heard everyone's name in passing there at least once.

Carhop Cavalier

love 4 waifu

 

[Carhop Cavalier]

"You were forced to leave?" Gene questioned, aggression no longer detectable in any of her mannerisms. "I was out cold for a while - had a run in with the real Game Master, not that stupid minipet. He locked me in one of the rooms and I ended up..." She gagged a bit, looking sideways. So much blood. Unending blood and the awful squelching sound the ax had made.

Gene's darkened face lit back up, however, remembering that she wasn't in a play delivering a monologue."Ah, yes! And you're Brenely, if I'm not mistaken?" She offered a hand, chipper smile brushing her face quickly. "How did you get out?"

smerdle

doki doki

 

[Smerdle]

"Once the doors were open, the fracs told us we had to go or he'd kill everyone in twenty-four hours anyway. And there was this gas... I guess we weren't forced out physically, but we all chose to leave at that point. It didn't seem like there was anything else we could do."

Bren's eyes widened slightly at her mention of the real Game Master. He had figured there was more to their abduction than a gasmask-wearing minipet, but he certainly hadn't seen the actual perpetrator. Interesting.

"Yes. I am Brenley." He held out his hand to shake hers, still slightly wary, especially when she asked how he'd escaped. As it turned out, it was far easier to omit large portions of his story when relaying it to someone he didn't know. If he seemed nervous, it was just more of the same, really. "I was locked in a room where I had a vision... hallucination... thing where I left my mother to die. I earned a key for it." Bren waved the hand Gene hadn't shaken, indicating the 'how' wasn't important. "It was... unpleasant... but so was everything else."

He folded his arms, hoping that her brand of ghost couldn't read minds. "It didn't matter in the end. I drowned on the way back and woke up at school." He shook his head and laughed once through his nose. "It almost feels like we need some sort of support group after all of this."

Carhop Cavalier

desu lies