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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Aug 11, 2011 11:39:27 GMT -5
Growing up, Joshua had always been fond of all sorts of logic problems, puzzles, and riddles. He liked having some sort of challenge to figure out, something to fill his thoughts and keep him entertained for a while. Whenever he wasn't immersed in studies or hanging out with what few friends he did have, Joshua could often be found with some sort of book involving a number of logic problems and the like. Riddles were frustrating sometimes, for the answers were obtainable but often required thinking out of the box. He tortured himself by continuing to try and figure them out. He hated cheating. Joshua might give up on a riddle, but never would he resort to looking at the answer or searching for it online. That only brought with it a crushing sense of defeat. You knew the answer, then, but there was no satisfaction. There was no bragging rights involved, because you hadn't figured it out yourself. And if you couldn't do that, what was the point to trying at all?
Lately, he'd found a new obsession--the Rubik's Cube. "Whoever invented this is a mad genius," he muttered under his breath as he glared at it. Joshua had never really been the owner of one before, despite knowing what they were. He'd figured that it was very simple and a child's toy, for who would find any fun in clicking around a coloured cube? And then he'd discovered the truth--they were addicting. His parents weren't speaking to him and his sister was flat-out avoiding him, he'd been locked in his room with virtually nothing to do. It had been when he was going through one of the chests in his closet that he'd found the cube, sitting amongst a few other possessions such as his chess board and a few packs of cards. Little things that he didn't want lying around his room but couldn't be bothered going all the way to the game room whenever he wanted to mess around with them.
Vaguely the Fire graduate remembered being given the object amongst a number of other gifts when he was much younger. Most of these had been toys and things that he would never use, his parents and relatives not having picked up on the fact that their serious child much preferred his books. Most of these things had been given to Annabel shortly after she was born, but for some reason the cube had remained. Perhaps he'd just stuffed it in there simply for a place to put it? Whatever the case, he'd dug it up by chance the other day, and since then it had been absolutely consuming him.
Click. Click. Click.
The sounds were rhythmic and even comforting as he walked, glancing upward every now and then to ensure he didn't bang into anyone. He walked slowly and carefully in the halls, ignoring anyone that griped at him about not being fast enough. He wasn't too concerned with the opinions of others right now. He wanted a quiet place to sit and try to decipher the mystery of this strange cube, somewhere he wouldn't be getting in anyone's way. He made his way out onto the grounds, and the bell clanged out to give him his answer. Taking his gaze away from the Rubik's Cube for a moment, Joshua looked up at the bell tower and shielded his eyes from the sun. Yes, the last floor up there had a nice viewing area of the grounds with it's windows, and there was a lot of light. Not many people climbed the tower--he guessed it was just out of disinterest above all else.
Joshua made it to the top of the bell tower and then sat down against one wall, allowing the light to fracture through the window panes and bathe him in its glow. Click, click. Click. He continued to work on the cube with determination, still unable to see the pattern in solving it. "I'll figure you out soon enough," he promised it with a frown, pausing momentarily to study the mess of coloured squares and try to figure out which move to make next.
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Post by AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE on Aug 18, 2011 19:08:49 GMT -5
Out of sheer boredom and never actually going up to it before, Ace had made his way up to the bell tower. He was there for a while sitting there since after classes. He had a window opened and the wind steadily came through. Ace gazed down at the students below making their way through the day without even looking up. Why didn't anyone look up? Someone could easily hide from anyone if they went up. Like up a tree for example, no one looked up a tree unless they heard sounds from there. So all you had to do was hide, and stay quiet, no one would find you. Why, well because nobody looked up.
It's a bit of a shame that no one looked up anymore. Mostly everyone was texting or playing their games, to involved in their little things to look up. They didn't look up at the sky or the clouds and make shapes in the clouds. Like seeing a bunny or a face, or looking up at the sunset. Not many people took the time out of their day to appreciate the little things in life. The things they take for granted, like the sun rising and setting, or the colors that they make. The things that they can see in color and create things with those colors. What happened if the sun didn't rise when it should have? People would miss the sun. That old saying was true, you don't know what you have until it's gone.
He sighed and pulled out a coin from his back pocket. Holding the coin in his hand he examined it taking in the look of the metal. He felt it's weight in his palm, and the coolness that it had. He rubbed his thumb along the edge feeling the bumps. Then he placed it on his other hand and flicked it up. The coin soared into the air and flipped gracefully down slowly tumbling farther and farther away from it's starting point. It tumbled down and down until Ace could no longer see it. The coin was gone, eventually someone or something would find it and take it being just a little bit richer. Ace grinned remembering money. He had finally convinced his mom to let him buy the bike, and he had asked his dad for the money for it. Saying it was his birthday gift, for this year and the next. His dad agreed and suddenly Ace had a bike. The guy who was selling it wasn't home today, so he would have to go out and get it tomorrow. He'd also need to learn how to ride a bike but that was just a minor detail.
Ace turned as he saw someone climbing up the stairs. He recognized the guy, he had met him a few months ago at the hospital. He saw the small object in his hands and the small sounds that it made. A Rubik's Cube? Those things were easy if you knew the right trick. He watched as the guy toiled away at the small toy. Hmm he must not know the trick. It was rather simple, just switch the stickers around. There were no rules for a Rubik's Cube, so taking the stickers off and rearranging them wasn't really cheating. It was thinking out side the, Cube. Ace watched as he paused and he decided this would be the best time to come in. "Josh right? Those are pretty easy to solve." He said with a grin. "Just rearrange the stickers."
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Aug 18, 2011 20:12:33 GMT -5
The intensity with which Joshua stared at the Rubik's Cube could be likened to that of an artist when trying to comprise their best masterpiece. So focused was he on his craft that he did not even hear the movement from a floor or so below him, he had not noticed that the tower wasn't as vacant as he thought. Click, click. No, wait. The blue couldn't go there or else it would mess up the red. Joshua scowled at the Cube and cursed his logic for failing him. Click. He watched the red slide back into alignment and the blue right back out of it. Damn it. How was he going to get around this one? I know there's a trick to you, blasted cube, and I am going to find it. He was generally pretty good at figuring things out. His sister had a sliding puzzle that she'd borrowed from a friend and it had been Joshua to find the trick to solving it. Annabel insisted that he teach her, but she'd pouted and given up when he reminded her that there was no reward in cheating.
Someone else apparently had a different opinion. Not easily startled, Joshua merely blinked and glanced upward when he heard another voice in the room. He recognised the boy from somewhere, but it did not immediately click where they had met. The kid called him by name and then insisted that rearranging stickers could be considered a logical way to solve the Cube. Joshua stared at him for a long moment, expression completely serious. "That would be cheating," he said as sternly as if this guy had suggested he swipe the answers for the end of year exams. "I don't cheat." He was not angry, he was just firm in his beliefs that one should not cheat if they expected to feel any gratification in the end. He lived for that feeling of accomplishment, of success. Completion of things gave him something that wild and crazy stunts did adrenaline junkies--satisfaction."Perhaps it is a successful solution for one that wishes to start over, but I'm not one such person."
Moving on from this, Joshua said, "Yeah, I'm Josh. And you're--" He furrowed his brow, concentrating hard to try and recall. "--Ace, right. From the hospital." As soon as he solved this small part of the problem, other things started to click into place. He was an ally of Nell's, perhaps even a friend of hers from what Joshua had heard. He was a Water elemental, younger than Joshua but still not too juvenile, and he volunteered at the hospital in Maple Hollow. The last detail was obvious, seeing as it was how they had met. "I knew you went to this school, but I'll admit I'm surprised to run into you." They'd never met before in all the six years Joshua had been in attendance, so he figured that they never would. Ace was a Water elemental and thus definitely not a part of Joshua's usual 'crowd'. But the Fire boy had something for Ace that he didn't have for a lot of Ace's allies: respect. He respected him for keeping an eye on his best friend--and now girlfriend--during the course of the war.
Abandoning his attention on the Cube, Joshua used the wall as an aide to get to his feet, sticking his hand out to Ace. "The war is over, but the truce we spoke of shouldn't end until there's good reason for it to." He was very blunt and obvious about his intentions. "As long as you remain loyal to Nell and agree to leave me off your list of pranking victims--" Joshua's lips even twitched into an amused half-smile at these words, "then I think we can get along." It was more than he did for most people, this offering of camaraderie. But he felt that it was necessary to make it clear that there was no animosity between them. He may have thought that Ace was a bit nuts for sniffing him and all, but apart from that minor miscommunication he hadn't had problems with Lupus quite yet. "Now that we've got that over with... what exactly are you doing up here?" It was a friendly enough question, tinged with Joshua's natural curiosity.
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Post by AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE on Aug 19, 2011 12:48:46 GMT -5
Ace looked as Josh kept clicking away at the small toy. He was horrible at solving that. He used to try and solve it with Ray when he would go to her house, They would sit for hours trying to figure it out. Eventually Ray found a trick and was able to get one side right. She Got all the reds on the one side but everything else was messed up. She taught him the trick to getting it like that, and since it was something she taught him, he didn't ever forget it. He watched the boy silently clicking away, so focused that he didn't even notice Ace was there. And then there was the trick of switching the stickers around. that one always worked.
Ace grinned, "There never were rules that came with the thing. So it's not cheating, more like thinking outside the Cube." He said with a grin. "But you can solve it anyway you like." Ace said with a grin. It wasn't cheating, it was thinking outside of the box. Either way Ace believed it wasn't cheating. He never cheated, okay that was a lie. He cheated sometimes, like when he didn't study for the test his answers were written on a small slip of paper he had hidden behind his watch. That way it just looked like he was looking at the time and not cheating. It was just one of his sneaky little ways.
"Yep I'm Ace." He said nodding. He didn't know much about this guy. Just that he was a friend of Nell's and even got kicked out for not wanting to side with his element. The guy stood up for his friend, even if it meant getting your entire element, basically like your family, against you. Ace respected that a lot. "Yea I didn't think I'd meet you here either." Ace said agreeing with Josh's statement. He had never met the guy before, so what were the chances of him meeting Josh now? Still the same, maybe it was just a chance meeting.
Ace looked at Josh as he stood up and stuck his hand out. He listened to the guy's words and how they should still be allies because of Nell. And when he talked about the list of victims Ace had for pranking, Ace grinned a little, mentally putting his name in the safe list. He'd try and get his friends to not prank him either, but there was no guarantee about that. Ace grinned at gave Josh's outstretched hand a firm grip, not to tight to intimidate him, but not too loose to show that it wasn't a big deal. Before Ace let go he added "So if either of us hurt, or betray Nell, we have permission to beat the betrayers ass?" Ace said bluntly and with a serious face. Yea he was totally serious about that then he let go of the others hand. Then he asked a question, "Oh nothing, just watching the people down there pass by." He said with a shrug. Then Ace turned his attention to the Rubiks cube at the other boy's hand. "So I see you like puzzles."
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Aug 19, 2011 18:15:26 GMT -5
Joshua's frown deepened as Ace tried to pass it off as being edgy or unique somehow. Thinking outside the cube, he'd said, clearly a parody of the old saying. "I consider it cheating." He was a very opinionated person and even though he didn't try to shove his opinions down the throats of others he had no plans of letting up and switching stickers. This Rubik's Cube would be solved eventually, but it would be with his own two hands and nothing else. "Besides, I'll get it eventually." There was an almost blasé confidence behind Josh's tone as he spoke. He had no doubts that he'd be able to solve the Cube, he just wasn't sure how long it would be before he reached his goal. Josh didn't give up on things. Failure was something that he hated and could almost say that he even feared, hating the feeling that he got when he was forced to forfeit. Even though he hated being involved in sports as a kid there had been a crushing sense of defeat when he'd resigned, especially when his father had berated him and expressed disappointment.
Joshua's grip was every bit as firm as Ace's when the other male took his hand, expression serious. He wasn't kidding around about this truce thing and he hoped that Ace didn't think that he was just spewing a bunch of pointless words, either. The words elicited a stiff and decisive nod from the Fire elemental. "Deal." With that, he released his grip and allowed his hand to drop back to his side. He may not have any sort of problem with Ace at the moment, but if this boy ever hurt Nell then Joshua wouldn't hesitate to rip his throat out. Masochistic as it seemed, Josh was actually glad of this mutual threat. "I don't plan on hurting her, so I don't have anything to worry about." He hoped that his Water counterpart was the same. He knew that relationships could be a rocky and dangerous business when it came to heartbreak and jealousy, but he hoped that their already strong friendship could keep the relationship just as solid. It wasn't like they had met for the first time and then decided that they were going out.
Arching an eyebrow, Josh couldn't fathom why Ace had been standing up here and technically just people-watching. Sometimes it could be interesting to observe interaction at a party or in the mess hall or something, but just watching people walk underneath him? Sounds boring. "Ah," was his only response. The Water elemental then commented on Joshua's love of puzzles, and a bit of a dry laugh brushed past his lips. "I'm not sure if 'like' is the correct word at the moment." As usual with people that didn't know him, it was very hard to pick up on the fact that he was joking. He did indeed like puzzles and he enjoyed solving them, but it sounded like his frustration toward the thing could have been genuine. It took a lot of trust-building for Josh to ease up and relax around someone. It had taken quite a while with Nell before he would say anything about himself or feel comfortable enough around her to make jokes and things. "They pass the time." He shrugged.
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Post by AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE on Aug 19, 2011 22:02:44 GMT -5
Ace grinned at the guy in front of him. Well one who sticks to his morals, He admired that. "Alright, alright." He said surrendering to Josh's calm opinion. Then he decided to ask him something."You mind if I give it a go?" He asked curious. If he did let him try, he'd only end up with one side right and the other five all messed up in it's small three by three rainbow of squares. Sometimes Ace just liked to see the small squares take on different patterns. How many patterns could be made with a Rubiks cube? Well it's three by three which is nine squares, and there are five other sides. Ace mentally groaned, that is to many numbers to try and calculate in his head. Maybe one day when he's bored he would end up trying to figure it out. Though he was pretty sure someone had already done it, and a little internet surfing could easily find it.
Ace grinned at the guy's handshake. His grandfather once told him, a firm handshake was the handshake of a man, or something along those lines. Ace nodded in agreement with the deal, or pack, or truce that they just agreed too. IT was a mutual deal based on protecting Nell. It was a good deal and he was glad he could have added in his little rule to the dealings. If Josh hurt her, or ended up betraying her, he'd kick his ass to the moon and back. Even if the two ended up being the closest of friends, it would violate the deal and he would have to carry out the punishment. Why? Well because he made a promise, and he did his best to keep his promises. "That's good, I don't really want to kick your ass." He said with a grin on his face. "I would never hurt Nell." He said his expression becoming as serious as he could. Ace placed his hand in his pocket as there was no longer any need for it to be out.
Ace nodded at his response. It was interesting to see people from up here. To see people toil about doing what they did. Ace thought that whoever was up there, saw this everyday. People walking about doing what they always do. Ace blinked, was he serious or was he just kidding? It looked like he was really into that little toy he had there. Ace was confused until he said that they helped pass the time. Oh okay that meant he liked to do them when he was bored right? Or did it? Either way Ace pulled out a small notebook that had fit in his pocket. "Well then, I have a little puzzle for you." He said with a grin. Ace pulled out a pencil from his other pocket and opened the small notebook to a blank page. Quickly he made a square made of nine dots. "Now You need to connect all the dots. Rules are you have four lines. Those lines can only be straight lines, and you can't lift the pencil off the page. No folding the paper either. You can't trace back over lines but the lines can intersect. So just connect all of the dots with four lines. Simple enough." He said grinning and handing him the pencil. Not many people he met knew the solution to this puzzle until he showed them it. He'd be a little surprised if Josh got it quickly enough.
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Aug 19, 2011 22:55:16 GMT -5
Joshua blinked at Ace when the other boy asked if he could have a chance with the Rubik's Cube. Josh was very protective over his possessions and had always exhibited somewhat of a problem with sharing as a child. He didn't have to share because he grew up in a mansion where he could have anything that he wanted all to himself and he didn't have to put up with the grubby hands of other children. This, however, was a bit different. He was a mature adult and he was pretty sure that Ace wasn't going to be destructive, so he handed it to him and said, "No rearranging the stickers or I may just have to rearrange your fingers." He was joking, but again it was said so seriously that it was almost chilling. He doubted that Ace would be able to solve the Rubik's Cube within a couple of seconds or anything like that. After all, he hadn't heard anything about Ace being some child prodigy. "Be careful with it." He was talking about the Cube as if it was as dainty and delicate as a glass flower, but really he was just paranoid about the safety of his possessions in the hands of another person.
"Do you?" Joshua sounded somewhat intrigued as Ace spoke of a puzzle, glancing at the Water student expectantly. "Let's see it, then." He was never one to turn down an interesting challenge, especially not if it involved problem solving and solutions. Ace extracted a notebook from his pocket and drew something on it before handing it to Joshua, who accepted it with a very determined expression. It was clear that this wasn't as much of a joke for him as it might have been for Ace, seeing as Josh took logic and intelligence seriously. He nodded absently as Ace explained the rules, trying to look for a solution. A frown played across his lips as he could not immediately find something that fit within the rules and boundaries of the game. Boundaries. Hmm. Several minutes had passed until he was sure that he'd traced most of the possible solutions in his mind. "Don't tell me," he mumbled quietly, "I'll get it."
[/colour] Still frowning, Joshua went back over the rules in his mind. No lifting the pencil, no retracing lines... but nothing about boundaries. Twirling the pencil in his fingers for a moment, Joshua gave a bit of a smirk and solved it, handing it back to Ace with a simple, "That was a good one. You nearly fooled me." He was quite used to these little conundrums and puzzles thanks to the fact that he had a book of them at home. This very puzzle might even have been in it, but seeing as Joshua did not allow himself to move further in the book until he had solved them all in order, he hadn't quite reached the end yet. "Are you fond of puzzles as well, then?" He sounded genuinely interested in this. Josh was a big fan of things like Kakuro and Sudoku as well as the more obscure puzzles like the one Ace had just given him. He was also very good at playing things like chess. He simply adored exercising his mind.[/blockquote][/justify][/blockquote][/size] |
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Post by AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE on Aug 20, 2011 11:54:54 GMT -5
Ace grinned as Josh handed him the colorful cube. He listened to the guy's warning and at first he wasn't sure if he was serious or not. He blinked for a second then grinned taking that as a sorta joke."Don't worry don't worry." He said with a grin. Then he set to work on the small toy. Click. Click. Click The small Toy kept clicking away as Ace turned it around and around. moving the rows and columns of the block picking one color in particular, he went with red. He clicked away for a few minutes concentrated on the toy in his hands gently moving and shaping it to fit his purpose. "There we go" He said with a grin as he got the last red into place. He showed the cube to Josh. "I can only get one side of it the same color." He said with a little shrug. It was good enough for him, no matter how long he tried the small cube he'd never be able to get it perfectly back to normal without having to take off the stickers.
Ace watched as the Josh tried his little puzzle. He grinned, when he was first confronted with this puzzle he couldn't get it. He had no idea how to solve it at first and he gave up after a while of trying. It wasn't until he showed his English teacher back in eighth grade that he got the solution to the puzzle. His teacher easily got as he had done the puzzle before. It was really cool to see the solution that he couldn't get, the thing that was staring him directly in the face. Ace wasn't the best at puzzles but he liked to do them. He liked riddles and to play chess even though he was horrible at it. He played chess against his phone on one of those apps you could get for it. Well he had one but he usually lost to it.
To be honest, Ace was surprised he had got it in only a few minutes, it took him at least ten before he had to go to help. He took the pencil "Well thanks." He said grinning. "I'm impressed you got it so quickly. Most people I've seen do this gave up pretty easily." He rolled the pencil in his hand as Josh asked him his question. "Well I like to do them even though I'm not that great. Chess and riddles too, but I'm still pretty bad at those too." He said with a shrug. Ace wasn't the smartest guy of the bunch, he knew what every highschooler knew but he wasn't book smart. He was smarter when it came to fighting yea, but chess or other games like that, he wasn't that good at them.
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Aug 20, 2011 14:49:22 GMT -5
At least Ace seemed to take his joking as, well, an actual joke. He'd met people before that were very intimidated by him and thus took every single thing he said to heart, even if he hadn't really meant it. In order to rearrange someone's fingers you would have to slice them all off and sew them back on, which was far too bloody and gory of a venture for Josh to consider seriously doing it, especially when it came to his Rubik's Cube. He might burn his hand or pull the Cube away from his possession if he started to pull off the little coloured stickers, but he wasn't a savage. "What are you doing?" he wondered curiously, watching as Ace seemed to be getting into the rhythm of something. Was it possible that he actually knew how to solve the Cube and that Joshua was just missing something obvious? But then Ace handed it back to him and told him that he was only able to get one side of the cube into place. Laughing lightly at this, Josh nodded and accepted his puzzle back into his own hands. "Interesting." He mixed the colours back up so that it didn't feel like cheating for him since Ace had gotten part of the puzzle done for him, then resumed his constant clicking for a while. He was still listening to the Water elemental, he was just simultaneously intent on figuring out what the hell he was doing with the damn Cube.
Josh seemed mildly amused by the fact that Ace was impressed with his effort, though he didn't have any intentions of gloating or bragging about it. Joshua was never modest or shy about his accomplishments and he would be the last person to pass something he did off as 'just luck', but he also wasn't some arrogant prick that went around preening his feathers and crowing about his accomplishments. Only assholes did that, and he tried to avoid being an ass as much as possible. "I've done puzzles similar to that one before," he explained. "I find that they're a good way to keep myself occupied when I need something to do." Joshua was quite the opposite of Ace. In a fight, he had to rely on his height and his powers if he had any chance of winning. If it was outside of the Academy and his element was banned, he was pretty much screwed if the other person knew how to scuffle. He could somewhat defend himself and throw a punch thanks to former gang involvement, but he wasn't that great in a fight at all. "I like chess," he mused when Ace mentioned it, thinking about how he could probably whoop the guy's ass in a game of chess. Then again, Ace could probably best him in a fight. No, he could definitely best me. Unless it had to do with their bargain. Josh had a feeling he would be a bit savage if this guy did anything to hurt Nell.
Going back to his Cube, Joshua nevertheless still kept his thoughts on the conversation with Ace. He remembered back to when they had met and how awkward things had been then, his lips twitching slightly as the memory presented itself to him. It was not quite a smile, just enough to suggest that he was lost in his thoughts. Leaning against the nearby wall, Joshua turned his gray gaze to Ace and asked, "So do you still volunteer at the hospital?" Joshua had not quite his volunteering, or at least he didn't plan to. Things were a tad awkward with Daddy-dearest at the moment and so he figured that he would stay away until life calmed down, but he was bent-set on going to medical school and thus he wouldn't stop until he was forced to. Hell, Josh had even braved the scary double major in order to have better chances of med-school. He had wanted to be a History major on part of it being his favourite subject, but he knew that History had nothing at all to do with medicine, so he'd went with Biology instead. And History. It was a hell of a lot of work and meant that he hardly had any free time, but Joshua figured that this would all pay off once he graduated.
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Post by AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE on Aug 22, 2011 22:38:23 GMT -5
Ace grinned, "My little trick." He said to Josh's question, not once hesitating, his nimble fingers scoured the face of the cube turning twisting, watching as the color red fell into place. Finally the cube rested in his hand all red on one side, the rest was all mixed up still. He grinned at Josh's laugh, well look at that Ace managed to make the guy laugh. "Thanks." Ace said in return. The guy fell back into the pattern of clicking away at the toy cube, but Ace had a feeling he was still listening to him too. He grinned and sat down against the wall next to the older boy but not to close. He had a thing and being close to guys, just an old habit, so there was still a decent amount of space, about a hands length of space, away from each other.
Ace nodded, and grinned, "Yea they make the time pass rather quickly." He said remembering that one time he had one of those metal puzzles where you had to take it apart and then put it back together. That took him forever to do, but it was good because he was stuck waiting for the doctor. They always had bad old magazines to read there so he started to bring his own toys and puzzles along to pass the time. Hell even after the appointment he pulled at the metal toy the jingle of the rings that hung on the entwined fish jingling away with his every move. He pushed and pulled unable to figure it out, by the time he looked up from the puzzle he had no idea where he was. He asked around, and eventually managed to get his way back to school. But he still hadn't solved that puzzle, he called it his Doctor's puzzle. Not because it had anything to do with a doctor making it or him being allowed to become a doctor. It was just something he brought to the Doctors office. That's all.
Ace nodded at Josh even though he was actually sizing the guy up in case he did have to fight. He didn't know how well the guy could fight, but he did know if they got their powers mixed in then, well Ace would be screwed. Instead he planned to find Josh in Maple hollow and fight him there. That way he could easily fight the guy without giving him the advantage of his powers over Ace. Since even though He had a natural advantage with him being a fire and all. He had a few years of experience over Ace. .
When he asked about if he still volunteered Ace looked sheepishly at the ground. "Well I try, but I've been a little, busy."He said rubbing the back of his neck. He was a little ashamed of not going to the hospital in a while. But he was busy, with, stuff. Specifically researching on bikes, and how to ride them and stuff. And some other times he was busy trying to convince his mom that he could ride a bike and not fall. "What about you?" He asked, trying to switch around the conversation.
Ace looked around and then decided to ask a question "Josh what exactly is your relationship with Nell?" He asked curious. Was he just a close friend, or maybe just a cousin, or someone she knew back from childhood. He wanted to know he was curious.
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Aug 22, 2011 23:10:18 GMT -5
Joshua didn't really hold anything against Ace for cutting back on his volunteer work. Hell, he could have stopped it entirely, it wasn't like Joshua was going to care. He worked at the hospital because he really wanted to work there full-time when he was older and wanted better chances of getting to medical school. Maybe their reasons were vastly different. "Life happens," he shrugged, basically making it clear to Ace that he wouldn't judge him or anything. Speaking of the hospital, he wondered if he would be allowed back there any time soon. The current awkwardness with his father meant that he was in quite a bit of trouble on that front, but he knew that Donovan couldn't stay angry at him forever. Sure, he had evaded arrest and gotten his car impounded for speeding. What teenager didn't get up to stupid shit? Of course, one could argue that Josh was nineteen and that he should really be acting like it, but hell. He'd freaked out. It happened sometimes. It wasn't like Josh had been the one to pull a gun and shoot at people during the party, he hadn't been busted with drugs or for sleeping with a minor or anything like that. It was just some stupid mistake he'd made and so in his logic his parents would recover from their anger with him eventually. Hopefully sooner rather than later, because it was getting to be a bit of a pain seeing as he wasn't allowed to ride his Lambo to school or... well, anywhere else really. He couldn't take the Gallardo, either, or any of the other cars. He was basically just banned from driving.
Of course Ace would turn the question back on to him. He just shrugged and replied, "Yeah, of course." He didn't know if he had ever told Ace why he was interested in volunteering, but no matter, he still wasn't planning to drop it any time soon. Just like an aspiring vet works in animal shelters and someone who wants to go into sales might get a job at a business, Josh was following his heart. "I'm going to school for medicine, it just seemed a sensible thing to do." He normally wasn't comfortable with giving out personal details like that, but whatever. Ace already knew he was volunteering and so there had to be a reason, right? Some people could correctly deduce the fact that volunteering at a hospital sometimes meant that you wanted to be a doctor or a nurse. What he wasn't going to say was that his father owned the hospital and that he'd been there a little less often lately because he was fighting with him. He barely knew Ace and so only the most minimal of details were required. He wondered what Ace had been 'busy' with, but as usual with people that he wasn't acquainted with he didn't ask. Joshua could still remember when he'd went through this sort of awkward phase with Nell. It was a little less awkward with Ace considering he was not an attractive female, but the same basic credentials were there.
Then it happened: Ace asked about his relationship with Nell. There was a flicker of jealousy for a brief moment--was this guy attracted to her, or something? He'd better not put the moves on her or anything. It wasn't that Josh was the controlling and possessive type, he just didn't trust anyone else not to hit on a girl even if she was in a relationship. He was worried that someone like Ace who just might have a cleaner romantic history and better reputation than Joshua would come along and sweep her off her feet. That would be the end of their relationship. He didn't want that to happen with Nell. On another hand, even if Ace wasn't interested in Nell that didn't give Josh a reason not to admit the truth. "She's my girlfriend," he said smoothly, as if daring Ace to challenge this. He hated when people assumed that he was a bad match for Nell because he had been with a lot of the girls in the past and had never tried his hand at a serious relationship. "I hope you don't plan on coming between that." It wasn't necessarily a threat, because if Ace was just an over-protective friend then they had nothing to worry about. It was more like an establishment of an agreement. "She's also my best friend." One of his only friends, really, but the best out the lot of them. "And your relationship with her?" He tried not to sound too challenging as he spoke.
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Post by AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE on Aug 24, 2011 16:32:26 GMT -5
Ace nodded, "True words." He said nodding, life did happen and it happened often. Ace was busy with bikes, and convincing his parents, and just being lazy. He was just a guy who did what he could. He tried doing stuff like volunteering to help not only his resume but also so he knew what to do with certain injuries and learn up on what signs to look for in a patient. Ace wanted to become a doctor of some sort, maybe a medical or a psychologist. Some sort of doctor that was the point. He didn't know that the reason Josh didn't go much is because of family problems. Ace's family never really had family problems. Well besides that one time with him. But his parents argued every know and then, and so did he and his sister. But they all got along, no one in his family ever hated someone else in the family. Maybe disliked a little, but never really loathed. Nor did his family ever kick him out because of something he did. Granted Ace never sped, or really could speed (his car couldn't go over sixty miles per hour and however many kilometers that was) And he never really stole much. He usually just drew pictures with a sharpie on some walls when he was bored and wanted to do something bad. Or he'd run around trying to sticker the most buildings in a certain amount of time against his friends. That was usually it, and they never got caught.
Ace nodded, well at least one of them was still volunteering. Ace nodded as Josh explained his reason for volunteering and how he was going to go to a med school. Well that was one of the reasons Ace wanted to volunteer. He wanted to become someone who saved people, and being able to treat people for injuries or schools well that was saving people right? He wanted to be one of the people who saved a bunch of people or found a new cure for a disease, or prevented anyone from getting hurt in a hostage situation. He wanted a job that would have him saving people. The only job that did all that was well, a super hero really.
Ace's eyes widened in surprise. He is her boyfriend? Thier dating? Nell's dating!? What? When did this happen? That all went through Ace's head as he told him what had happened. Well he wasn't expecting that. He was expecting a good friend. And then the guy said about not coming in between the two. Ace laughed, "I don't plan too." he said grinning at Josh."A little paranoid are we?" He said a mischievous smirk placed upon his lips. No there wasn't anything between him and Nell, nothing romantic anyways. "Hey don't worry about me. Nell's my closest friend." He said and she was. He told her his secret she was practically family to him, his sister like his little sister. "But if you aren't good to my petite soeur," He said little sister in french to emphasize the importance, "Just know I'll be more than happy to carry out our deal." His lips were smiling, but his eye were as serious as if he was swearing Josh into a secret cult dedicated to the sole protection of Nell. And the way he answered it would determine Ace's opinion on how good he would be with Nell.
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Aug 24, 2011 18:16:49 GMT -5
Joshua folded his arms, barely trusting Ace at all by this point. Okay, so maybe he was overreacting a little but you had to cut the guy a little bit of a break. He'd never had a girlfriend in his life before. This was his first relationship as much as it was Nell's, and he was terrified that he was going to lose her. Especially that he was going to lose her to some other guy that wormed his way into a close friendship with the girl--and there were a lot of those. He still considered her his best friend, his other half, but now they were dating on top of that and jealousy was another thing that Josh had never experienced before. And why would he have had to? He was smart, he was witty, he would like to believe that he was attractive. His parents were rich, he could have anything he ever wanted, and he was an elemental. Sure, he couldn't play sports and he didn't know how to swim and he wasn't exactly social, but that had never really mattered much to him before. Nor had his romantic history, until now. He worried that something would come between he and Nell and bam, that would be it. If that something was Ace, the two boys would not get along.
"Not paranoid," Joshua said a little stiffly. "Wary. I trust Nell." He really did. He didn't think that she was going to go flouncing off with every guy that ever had a crush on her or that ever opened up to her like he had. But he couldn't be sure about everything. "I don't trust you." There it was, plain and simple. Joshua was suspicious. He had only met Ace once before, but he was probably a more suited guy for Nell than Josh might be. The latter was a player, a romancer of women in bars whose last names and sometimes even first names he'd never know. Was it bad that he wanted to strangle the smirk off Ace's lips right now, or was this just what jealousy and panic felt like? Josh had never taken himself to be a jealous person before. This hadn't been something that he was expecting when he stepped into the land of dating and relationships. Maybe it would fade with time and as he and Nell became more sure of themselves and sure of their status of being 'together', but until such times as they could both say in confidence that nothing could come between them, guys like Ace were a threat. "Good," he said when Ace said he didn't have to worry about him. "Let's hope you keep it that way."
She was his closest friend, too. She just had a more special place in his heart now ever since he'd made that bold and daring move back in Tim Hortons all those nights ago. What had he even been thinking back then? I wouldn't be surprised if the trapeze had something to do with it. Yes, he certainly had those feelings about Nell. He was attracted to her and it made him a little hot when he imagined things like what she'd mentioned to him. But the attraction went deeper than that. He loved Nell as a person, because if it was just sex he was lusting after he would have given up by now since Nell wasn't putting out and he wasn't trying to make her. "I know French, Ace," he said with a scowl. Little sister, eh? He was pretty sure the two of them weren't actually fucking related. "Listen here," he said with venom. "I don't care what your relationship with her is, she's my best friend too. You have no right to tell me what to do." He hated the idea that Ace thought that he might hurt her, that he was going to wind up breaking her heart. The jealousy was mixed in with a lot of anger and contempt, and it wasn't a good combination. "So if you aren't good to her, Ace, I will happily cut your throat." Ace had threatened him, after all, and Joshua didn't take threats lightly.
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Post by AMBER SAVANNAH JAMES AMBROSE on Aug 24, 2011 18:49:42 GMT -5
Ace nodded at the guy across from him, definitely feeling a very untrusting vibe coming from him. Well if Ace believed in vibes anyways. "That's good, always trust Nell, it's great in a relationship." He said knowing from experience in relationships. While Josh was a one timer, Ace tried to get back into the dating scene throwing in a few one nighters himself. He knew from a few failed relationships if you didn't trust your partner, crap happened. A lot of the time it was usually his fault for doing something suspicious, and when he tried telling the truth it was too late. He wasn't the best at keeping a relationship going, but he tried. He didn't make a comment about not being trusted, it was natural, he only met the guy once and Ace was close friends with Nell. So if he was in Josh's position he wouldn't trust himself either. Ace nodded, "I'll do my best sir." He said making a mock salute to the guy, though that probably didn't help the situation he had sat himself in.
Ace grinned "All Canadians know french. It's the American's that it impresses." He said with a little bit of a chuckle. He wasn't catching on that Josh was glaring him down with bad feelings. He sorta didn't feel it until Josh told him to listen up. He turned his had at the other guy and saw the death glare, Ace listened to his whole speech how he shouldn't tell him what to do, and that if he wasn't good to her well Ace would end up with a deadly necklace. Any normal person would have been intimidated, some people would have insulted him back, others would have run away but not Ace. Ace glared back only for what seemed to be a minute, and then he laughed. That's what he did he laughed. When the laughing stopped his lips twitched into a smile not a normal happy smile but an approving kind of smile. He looked at Josh and the smile stayed. "Well Josh I can honestly say, I approve of you for Nell." He said holding out his hand once more, since they were sitting beside each other it would be a bit of an awkward handshake but Ace didn't mind.
Well he approved of Josh that's for sure. He had put him through his little test and he passed with flying colors. The guy did it, he earned Ace's approval and though it wouldn't count for much Ace was just glad that Josh was her boyfriend. That way someone else was protecting her just as fiercely, maybe even more fierce, as he was. IT was a comforting thought to know. "Well it might not mean much, but I'm glad Nell found a good guy." He said with a grin.
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Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Aug 24, 2011 19:08:15 GMT -5
Yeah, whatever. Joshua didn't give a damn if Ace was better at relationships than he was or if he was more experienced, all Josh cared about was the worry about this asshole being a threat to he and Nell. Alright, sure, a few seconds ago Josh had been fine with Ace and they'd been calmly discussing puzzles. Now it was personal. "Why wouldn't I trust her?" It was more of a rhetorical question than anything else. Nell was a trustworthy girl in his opinion and he loved her for that. Sure, she'd kept the whole issue about her family and her mother and her status as an illegal alien a secret, but he understood why she hadn't told him about that at first. That was a big thing to tell someone and it showed a sign of trust and friendship that she finally had admitted it to him. He'd trust the girl with his life. No, it was Ace that Josh didn't trust. And himself. Joshua didn't trust himself to be the best guy for her, and that was half the reason why he was so defensive and protective over the relationship at this stage. He didn't know how easy it would be to tear them apart.
Even though things were tense, the comment from Ace made him snort a little in exasperation. "Sure. Tell that to the bastards that fail it every year." Just because the country was bilingual didn't mean that every person who resided on Canadian soil knew French. His grandfather had never cared to learn it, after all. Both Donovan and Patricia knew slightly rusty French, but their son had tried hard and he believed that he was now officially bilingual. It was good for a future job application to know both main languages of your country, after all. Ace didn't seem at all offended by Joshua and his anger issues, something that was somewhat frustrating Josh. Does he not see me as a threat? the boy wondered, and this certainly did not help the fact that he was practically bristling. I'll show him threatening if he ever thinks about hurting her. In his experience, it wasn't just your significant other that had the capacity to hurt you. Joshua had been lied to, backstabbed, hurt, cheated... all by his friends. Not cheated on, but it was close enough. They'd even tried to kill him. Friends weren't always people you could trust.
Josh glowered at him for a long moment. "I didn't do this to impress you," he said. "I did it because I'm dead fucking serious." And he was. If Ace did anything wrong by Nell, Joshua was never going to let him live it down. Ever. All the same, he also didn't want to end up throwing down with her friend just because he felt threatened by him, so he took his hand in a much more firm grip this time. Let him know that Joshua did not fuck around. "I don't know whether I approve of you yet," he said. It was hard to tell whether he was being serious or not, but then he smirked a bit to make sure he gave it away. Even Josh could relax a tiny bit. "Get back to me on that one in a couple months." He was kidding, after all. Nell had a lot of friends and it wasn't his place to choose who they could and could not be. Just as it wasn't Ace's place to 'approve' of Joshua. "I'd certainly hope it means something to her." Ace's opinion might not have mattered, but Nell's did.
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