|
Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jun 27, 2012 12:43:11 GMT -5
Joshua shifted a little awkwardly when Matthew mentioned money, though he did nod his agreement. It was difficult sometimes being the rich guy in his circle of friends because a lot of people looked at you differently when you came from a wealthy background. Like you'd suddenly decide that everyone was below you and start bragging about how much you had or something. He'd never been particularly boastful about how much money was in the family fortune (though he did know as soon as he'd turned eighteen and had been granted joint access to the bank account, it was a lot). It wasn't like Matt had said anything against him, it was simply one of those moments when he realised a divide. Then he realised something else and chuckled nervously before saying, "Geez, I'd better be careful, then. Better not get myself insured in case Nell or my sister decide I'm better off six feet under." He didn't really think that would happen, of course, it was mostly for the sake of a joke. "Vancouver's worse than this place but that might be because of the size, the popularity even. Maple Hollow's so... remote, it's hard to think that anything can happen here." At least it wasn't some awkward, backwards town or anything like that. It was a normal city and a decent place to live. Even more than decent if you were an elemental. "There're more elementals here than anywhere else in the world, though. Probably because of the Academy. That's a good enough reason to stick around, I'd think." It was nice to be around your own kind, to not feel isolated by the fact that you were... ah, different. Being different was awesome when it meant you could control the elements around you but it still cut you off from the average existence of mortals.
He went inside the arcade with Matthew, immediately noticing the state of the carpet. He was so used to things being incredibly immaculate and clean at his own house and at the fancy establishments in the wealthier parts of Maple Hollow that he couldn't help but pick up on it. Still, it didn't bother him too much and he ignored it as he glanced curiously around at all the machines and the arcade-goers like themselves. His lips twitched in appreciation. "Uh, maybe something we can both play to start off?" There were a lot of singular arcade machines for people to play by themselves but he figured that since he and Matt were hanging out it might be a good idea to start with something competitive and move to the single machines after a little while. A bit of friendly competition was never a bad thing, right? "Hang on, just lemme get some change." He went over to one of the conversion machines and fed a couple fives into the slot. He liked hearing the clang of the quarters as they slid into the bottom basin for collection. He didn't have anything smaller than a five in his wallet other than a dime and a couple pennies. He wasn't big on carrying change in his wallet and usually liked the bills over anything else. Most of them were hundreds and fifties though he did have several twenties and a couple of the smaller bills for convenience. A lot of places like Timmies and other small chain stores wouldn't even accept hundred dollar bills. Made sense, since no one would order something that expensive. At least he didn't think that they would, given how cheap Tim Hortons was.
|
|
|
Post by MATTHEW FUYU CHANG on Jul 6, 2012 11:20:33 GMT -5
For a moment, Matt had forgotten that Joshua was, by and large, a lot more wealthier than anyone else Matt had ever known, but he hadn't meant to insinuate anything by his remark. To him, Josh was a friend, and Matt was happy that he did have a wide variety of them -- rich, middle class, not so well-off, girl, guy, whatever. But he had never considered Josh's abundance of money something special. It just was. Matthew considered Josh to be just another guy in the crowd he hung out with, and pretty much treated him as such. "I don't think you have anything to worry about, unless you manage to eat something that belonged to Nell. Or your sister, for that matter," Matt joked back, thinking about his encounter with the Fire elemental at the cupcake shop. "Yeah, true. I mean, it's kind of expected, really -- Maple Hollow's remote but almost out of necessity, since there are a whole bunch of us here. I wonder if any of the people involved were elementals."
[/color] Matt had thought about this question before, especially since Maple Hollow was the elementals' sort of safe haven, at least in Canada. He wasn't too sure about the international community, but he assumed there had to be people in other countries that had the same powers that they did. He wondered how they lived. He wondered if there were other Academy's, or the one here was the only one of its kind. He didn't usually think too much about stuff to do with his power, but it was a curiosity that always stuck arond whenever he got to thinking too much. It was kind of a bad habit. Matt counted out the coins in his hand, having already exchanged his bills into coins, waiting for Josh to finish with his. He was trying to think of something the both of them could play together -- the only game he tended to play that had two player functionality was Time Crisis, but he sort of had the thought that playing a game where you shoot a bunch of things probably wasn't the best idea in the light of the recent Maple Hollow shooting. Darn kids and their video games and all. He took a look around -- there was some Dance Dance Revolution (which you couldn't catch Matt on unless he died and someone dragged him onto the platform), some funky Jurassic Park game, but at last, his eyes found the perfect target: Fast and Furious, your generic car racing game in the likeness of the awful movie franchise. Matt turned his head back to his friend just as the other was done with exchanging his cash into coins, the sound of the machine spewing out coin after coin ceasing. "What about those over there?"[/color] Matt pointed to the empty bank of racing machines, the screens all playing the same computerized race as an example. "How do you feel about driving games?"[/color][/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]
|
|
|
Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Jul 6, 2012 15:52:46 GMT -5
He laughed when Matthew mentioned food, a common joke to fall back on considering who Nell was and what her appetite was like. He knew that the two of them were poking fun affectionately and so it didn't bother him to joke about her. He figured that Nell would not mind. She knew what she was like, too. "It's more likely that Annabel will eat my stuff," he said. It was true, his sister didn't really have too much respect for the food in the fridge and seemed to assume that everything was fair game. Technically it was since the Dale family were rich enough to replace anything that was selfishly eaten in the dead of night. "Nell, though... yeah, can't argue with that. I'll watch my step." It was funny to try and imagine Nell as murdering him in a hunger-induced vengeance simply because she was so nice and sweet toward him. He'd seen her rare glimpses of anger when she dealt with Bryce and Rafael but they were just that—rare.
Matt brought up a curious and disturbing point when he wondered at the identities of those involved, victim and shooter alike. There were certainly days when he entered shops and wondered if any of the people he spoke to were hiding just as he was but there were others when he went about his day completely oblivious to the fact that he might be chatting with a fellow Fire in disguise. "Dunno. At least powers weren't involved, if they were." It would not do them much good to attract government attention onto the small but bustling city. Maple Hollow certainly wasn't a sleepy little town, that was for sure, but it wasn't anything like Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal. He'd been to all of these places and he found them nice but he would always prefer home. "Maple Hollow's definitely remote out of necessity, though. Used to be just our kind but I guess they couldn't avoid human interruption forever." It wasn't like the city was guarded from people visiting or anything like that and so if someone discovered the place by accident and decided it looked like a nice place to live there was nothing the elementals could do about it.
He followed the direction of Matt's pointing and his gray eyes fell upon the duplicate machines, watching a purple car race continuously around a track. He'd never been the best at video games but he did like cars and so it enticed him a little. "Sounds good to me," he said, nodding. He went over to one of the empty machines and inspected the steering wheel, the coin slot, the general set-up of the thing. It all looked okay and he settled into the bank, slipping a couple of coins into the slit and watching the screen change from the looping advertisement to a selection screen for the car. Naturally he picked the white one, forever favouring the colour. "If you kick my ass you're not allowed to hold it against me," he told Matt with a chuckle as he waited for the Water elemental to get himself situated as well. The arcade certainly wasn't the quietest place, he thought, what with the nearby pinball machine making loud sound effects as a younger boy stood at it with a look of concentration in his eyes.
|
|
|
Post by MATTHEW FUYU CHANG on Aug 10, 2012 9:22:29 GMT -5
Maybe it was because Matthew had spent just a little too much time (or way too much time entirely, if he was being honest) vested in his comic books and storylines of mutant powers and whatnot, but when he thought about just how likely it was to meet other elementals in Maple Hollow, and with Josh bringing up the fact that powers weren't involved (or were not reported for the sake of the town and national security or something), but it would make a pretty great comic book story -- a group of kids with all these elemental powers with equally gifted staff. There was no Professor X, no Charles Xavier to teach them ethics and how to use their powers for good, but the Academy always seemed a little like the mutant school in the X-Men verse. Banding together to fight for peace, saving lives, having more to live for than simply finding a job, buying a house, paying off your mortgage, starting a family -- it'd be nice to have the best of both worlds, and perhaps Matthew was just drawn to the idea of being a superhero because he's had almost nineteen years of ritualistic monotony, but it was nice to have a dream, no matter how much of a pipe dream it was. Besides, none of them could fly, and if Matthew's learned anything from his years of being a comic connoisseur, it's that really, without the ability to fly, things could get pretty difficult relatively fast. Maybe he could use it as a premise to a future series of comic books, he thought, but then realized that he didn't want to be That Guy. How overwhelmingly uncreative. "I suppose not. It makes sense -- wouldn't do well to have a witch hunt for elementals and for it to get out that Maple Hollow's a giant hub of elemental activity, or something. At least most of us are smart enough to all be on the same page with keeping this place hidden." He could say whatever he wanted about how he just didn't get along with most of the Fires and Thunders (and vice versa, he was sure) but at least they could all agree to this unspoken sort of rule that they, all of them and as a whole, needed to be protected. He might not like them much, but he knew that if it really called for it, he'd probably help them out in dire straits. A war against each other just seemed really frivolous and silly when faced with whatever the government could, potentially, come up for them.
But, the time for existential philosophizing was over as he and Josh made their way around the arcade, and he was still counting out the tokens he got in return for his money, making sure he had the right amount as Josh got settled into the bank of racing games. Racing games were fun just for the multi-player aspect of it -- when he was younger, he actually thought they were about on par with how one drives in real life, but the moment he began to learn how to drive, it became apparent that no, no, that was not the case at all. That being said, Matthew wasn't too great at them,and he told Josh so. "Honestly, it can go either way here. I'm not the best at these, either."
[/color] Matthew tossed some of his tokens into the machine and settled in, scrolling through and picking the car that looked the most like his own -- nautical blue, classic -- and put the settings into manual. When it came to picking the course, the rev of engines in the background of the game drowned out what he could have potentially said to Josh, so he just looked over to confirm that the one he picked was all right, then waited for the countdown to start, foot on the pedal, ready to go. [ ah, you can choose anyone to win, i don't mind at all. sorry this took so long. x_x ] [/justify][/color][/font][/blockquote][/blockquote]
|
|
|
Post by JOSHUA DONOVAN DALE on Aug 10, 2012 21:06:08 GMT -5
Remembering some of the stories about witch hunts in Britain from History courses throughout the years, Joshua decided that it was definitely not the kind of path that he would want to see the elemental race go down. "I really don't want to be tested on or killed, thanks," he said, accompanying the grim statement with a dry laugh. There was no telling what the government would do if they found surefire evidence of elemental existence but the race had their speculations. They'd probably be rounded up and tested on or else tagged for future testing in the event that they were released, either that or they'd be forced to fight their country's battles in the wars. Fire was a destructive power and he was sure he could use it in a fight for real but at the same time he knew he wouldn't want to, especially not if he were forced. "There's always the threat of losing your powers if you're too stupid," he mused. No elemental could really say what greater power had the ability to strip their powers from them, only that it was possible. It had happened before. Most elementals who suffered it didn't talk much about the experience and so knowledge was limited. "It's fucking weird if you ask me," he said, not that anyone had asked him. "Like some kind of back alley conspiracy or something." It was downright creepy. He wondered if it involved anything medical and scientific or if something else was at play. Then again, he didn't plan on risking his powers to find out.
It was almost nice to know that Matt wasn't over-qualified in the world of racing games. Though he tried to keep his competitive streak under control, it was a blow to his ego and his ever-present pride when people could consistent best him at anything. It was why he tried to avoid competition unless it was strictly friendly. If someone made it clear that they were trying their hardest to beat him at something it sparked something within him and he got a lot harder to deal with. He was a downright sore loser and he'd actually lose friendships over post-game arguments that occasionally ensued. He'd try his best to avoid that with Matt. "May the shittiest driver lose," he joked, chuckling as the game started up. He pulled ahead for an early lead thanks to starting in the centre of the road with few obstacles to block his path. Internally he was feeling a little cocky and he admittedly paid less attention than he should have to the curves and bends in the track. This lead to him slamming into one of the barrier-walls and he blinked as Matt managed to get ahead of him. "You just got lucky," he insisted despite the fact that his own lax attitude had been at fault and it wasn't Matt getting lucky at all. And Matt actually managed to win when Joshua crashed again and lost too much ground on him, rolling his head. "No gloating," he reminded him with a twitch of his lips. "Rematch, or?"
[It's okay <3 Good to have you back~]
|
|