fandomtownies | A Rooftop as Well as the Streets of Fandom, Early Wednesday Afternoon

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A Rooftop as Well as the Streets of Fandom, Early Wednesday Afternoon

There were flying, fire-breathing jalapeños. Of course there were. Why wouldn't there be? What else could Natalie possibly have expected, coming back from Montreal around noon? Sam was edging towards a nervous breakdown, so why wouldn't there be chili peppers breathing fire and flying through the air, trying to hurt everyone?

And yet it was almost a good thing. Something to do. Natalie was already on the phone to Clint when she was making her way to the dorms. By the time she was coming back into town with her bow, it had already pretty much turned into a target practice field trip. Climb up high and try to shoot moving targets that could give you third degree burns if you let them too close.

And the view from the roof was... Kind of insane, yes. Seriously, who even thought of these invasions?

"This is just ridiculous."

[ooc: Archers assemble! This is mainly for the bows and arrows gang, but if you want to climb up too, or gawk, or need assistance down in the street, go for it! Up early for timezones, I will stop spamming the flist now.]

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Alec had gotten a call from Clint about this, so right after his classes finished up, here he was, with his new longbow and everything. He... maybe ran here, actually.

"...Hi." He was going to be nice today. Because flying fire-breathing things were a very serious concern and he was going to be professional about resolving it. "...Have you hit any so far?"

"Not yet." Well, not with an arrow. There were crumpled jalapeno remains on the roof a few feet away from her which suggested she'd hit them with something. "Moving targets

Which was why this was practice.

That wasn't a surprise, and he couldn't actually blame her, so much as Alec wanted to be critical of that, he just gave her a nod before he began setting up his own things: dropping off his backpack in a corner of the roof, pushing up his sleeves, and beginning to unload arrows from his backpack into the quiver over his shoulder. He moved like someone who had done this enough times for it to be routine and methodical by now.

With most of his attention on his supplies instead of on Natalie, he said, "You know about aiming a little ahead of where they are when you fire, right? Further ahead than you think, usually."

Well, the girl in the bright red, yellow, and green costume didn't have a bow, but the way she ran toward the edge of a nearby rooftop and leaped onto this one at least suggested she did this sort of thing a lot, as did the grappling gun she tucked back into her equipment belt when she landed.

"This is your latest trick, Fandom?" she yelled over the edge of the rooftop as she produced a handful of stylized metal throwing implements from a belt pouch and let a couple fly at hovering jalapenos. (One missed.) "Really? Boy, that really heats me up."

[OOC: You can ignore her if you want. I just couldn't resist the pun. ;)]

"I'm familiar with the principle."

Instinctively, in close combat. It helped a little, but not enough. But at least she knew the principle. And watching him for the moment, although keeping an eye on the jalapeno situation as well, watching him go about his routine with practiced ease... She missed Jace.

For once, it made her more inclined to be nice. Well, professional. Whichever. "You have to account for the time it'll take for the arrow to actually get there, right?"

Clint probably shouldn't have been so amused about the impromptu target practice but seriously, jalapeños? Flying ones? Maybe he was just easily amused. And maybe he shouldn't have brought Kitty with him, but he'd never had to take care of an animalified person before and he wasn't sure if leaving her alone was a good idea. Plus, her little lion cub roars were encouraging as he took his shots.

"I hope this doesn't turn anyone off Mexican food," he said, taking a shot and wondering what kind of trick arrows might be useful here.

Edited 2013-05-15 16:53 (UTC)

"Aw, they're just trying to put some spice in your day," Clint said with a smirk. "That was a nice shot."

In Alec's book, being professional was being nice. Because he was so rarely either. At least, to people he didn't like.

"Right. They seem faster than they really are. They take a few seconds."

Arrows acquired, he zipped up his backpack and hauled up his bow, scoping out the roof in search of a desirable perch point. And maybe one that wasn't deliberately chosen due to being on the completely opposite side of the roof from Natalie, because again: nice.

"Thanks!" Robin ~~chirped~~ ~~said~~ chirped brightly, possibly a little too enthused about the compliment because oh my god, Steph, play it cool in front of the hot teacher like you didn't just spend a whole semester in his class oh my GOD. "That was a lucky shot, really, since unlike these guys I'm not completely warmed up yet."

Where was an off-screen rimshot sound effect when you needed one?

Natalie was slightly less amused because the damn things breathed fire. And also, she just generally had a hard time hitting any of them.

"Well, guess it could be worse. It could also be raining guacamole." Although that might have put out the flames... "I can't believe you brought the lion cub."

Natalie's niceness did not extend to caring about where he on the roof he positioned himself. She had a good enough spot by a corner, with a good view of the streets below. Reaching for an arrow from the quiver at her back. "And for things that shouldn't fly, these peppers are pretty fast."

Alice wasn't fond of Fandom's latest addition, but she didn't feel like shooting them down. Not until they started to aim almost exclusively at her. Was this group of ten ganging up on her?

Whatever the case, she was now leading them to the group on the rooftop. All she had with herself was a gun, so Alice wasn't eager to try and take some down, not in the middle of town with people everywhere.

She was punching the ones that dared to get too close though. Her patience had a limit after all.

"Some help down here? Don't force me to use my gun," Alice grumbled as she crushed one of the jalapeños against the wall. Ew.

"I didn't want to desert her," Clint said, gazing at Natalie and firing because hey, when you could do a cool thing, it was important to do it in front of people. "I don't know if a dog and a lion cub are a good match and I don't want her to eat anything she might regret when she's a person again." Clint looked out at all the flying veggies and laughed. "I thought the next thing that showed up to be shot down would at least be human."

"Are puns part of the costume gig? I thought banter alone was enough," Clint said, feigning concern before loading up two arrows and shooting them off.

"Nope, the banter is definitely required, but punning adds some extra flavor to the -- yipe!" Robin yelped and flung her cape up over her head when a particularly intrepid jalapeño tried to buzz her. Oooooookay, never complaining about how the fireproofing makes this thing heavier. NEVER AGAIN.

She popped back up to snap a Batarang toward the divebombing jalapeño, and this one was on target to slice it neatly in two. "Cut that out -- oh, wait, I already did that for you."

"Well, if things that aren't supposed to exist are going to exist here, I suppose it's just as well for them to not be constrained by the laws of physics." Natalie could probably tell from Alec's tone just how impressed he was with that tendency of Fandom's. Which was to say not at all.

He decided to claim a spot on the roof about six feet or so away from Natalie, where, incidentally, quite a few of the jalapeños were in sight. He fished out an arrow from his quiver and began lining up his shot.

He was such a showoff. Despite the situation, Natalie rolled her eyes. With affection. Probably.

"I think I prefer this," she replied dryly, taking way more care to line up her shot because even when she did, she didn't feel too confident in her ability to hit a jalapeño. "We've had enough humanoid threats lately."

If there was some kind of invasion going on, Maddie sort of figured she had to be involved. So that was her up on a rooftop, in costume, occasionally misting into something as she tested out what worked best on... fire-breathing jalapenos like some twisted science experiment.

So far surrounding them with steam was working best on them. That's right, she was essentially cooking them. This wasn't the weirdest thing she'd ever done, but she wanted to start a whole new category for weird things now.

[Slow today, but I had to. had to.]

"That's a good point," Clint agreed, watching her. "Your form is getting better. Your practice is starting to pay off, don't worry."

"Good." It was nice to feel in control of something. Even if it was just her archery form. She took aim at a swarm of jalapeños. "Not that I was worrying about that, but thank you."

She had a lot of other things to worry about. But when didn't she?

Edited 2013-05-15 21:55 (UTC)

Well, the good thing about them ganging up like that was that it increased Natalie's chances of hitting at least some of them.

"Watch out."

She was quick to line up her shot, this time, and fired her arrow down into the street. And would you look at that, she hit at least a couple of them. Already reaching for another arrow.

And this was Natalie, squinting from one rooftop to another.

"... Well that's new."

When Maddie noticed someone watching her, she gave a little shrug and called from where she was half-formed in midair, "Don't mind me. I'm just... There's no way this isn't weird, is it?"

"I was thinking it might actually raise the demand," Alec offered as he reached for a second arrow in between shots. "Out of spite, I guess."

Alice didn't even flinched when the arrow passed by. Moving would probably make things more complicated for Natalie. "Nice shot," Alice said as she casually smashed another one. "You won't happen to have a blade of any kind over there?"

Natalie wasn't really too fond of this lack of respect for the laws of physics, either. So, they had something in common there.

Along with what they were doing here. Natalie was less practised in readying her arrow and lining up her shot, but it couldn't be denied that she was getting better. Maybe one of these days she'd even get a special item for her troubles.

"Not really." That didn't matter mch right now, though. "But, whatever you're doing, it's working. Keep it up."

"Will do," Maddie said, and had to duck back a second later to avoid being singed by a pepper. "I swear to god, this town."

"No," Natalie called down, getting her new arrow lined up. "Just arrows. Sorry."

"Okay, you've got some awesome toys there, and I know awesome toys when I see them," Clint said. Clicking the switch on his bow, he readied a putty arrow and fired at one of the jalapenos, hitting it with a satisfying splortch noise as the putty covered it and the fire it was breathing died out.

"Good point. I've had a hankering for a margarita since I stepped outside," Clint said, grinning. "You have to admit, this is kind of fun."

"You don't look like you're having fun," Clint remarked. "We're shooting things! This is great entertainment!"

"It does love to be ridiculous," Natalie agreed, dryly (if a bit louder than usual, what with the distance), as she got another arrow ready in case the jalapeños around Maddie got to be too much to handle. "While being dangerous."

Natalie didn't answer before she'd released the arrow into the swarm. Hit a couple of the things, too. Pierced them so they fell with the arrow into the street. "You are having fun," she pointed out, without a glance over. "I'm learning how to hit a moving target."

For her, the fun in this – if you could call it that – was in the calming down of her mind with the focus it took to try and hit something. That had been an otherwise hard thing to reach lately.

Alec wasn't usually inclined to think of this kind of thing as fun so much as dangerous but producive, but he valued Clint's opinion, so he was willing to take a moment and actually think about it. "It's... rewarding," he granted. "I guess."

Kate was ~~ridiculously late~~ up on the roof as soon as she got Clint's call. "I'd ask why there are flying peppers, but..." she commented as she checked over her bow.

"I was going to make a crack about eating the blackened peppers, but I leave the 'eating of one's enemies' to other people," Kate replied, taking her own shot.

"I wanted some target practice, but this is ridiculous," Kate said, giving Alec a grin.

"It's definitely not the kind of target practice I was planning on," Alec agreed before firing off an arrow at one particularly nasty-looking pepper. "But I guess it could be worse. They could be talking, too." Because banter was not his specialty, see. "Are you good on arrows?"

"If they were talking and breathing fire, I'd need some arrows tipped with breath mints," Kate decided. She loosed an arrow at a flaming pepper. "I'm good, but they better not burn up all my shafts."

"It's a good skill to have," Clint said. "After a while, focusing on the target will put you in a nice zone. At least, it does for me. Everything else kind of slows down and it's just me and whatever I'm hitting."

Clint shrugged softly. "If we don't shoot these things down, they're gonna make people toasty. We're storing up good deeds for the rest of the week this way."

"Well, it's gross when you put it like that," Clint said, trying not to stare as he watched her shot. Geez, she was good.

"That sounds--" Like innuendo Alec would not have picked up on a few months ago, but suddenly did. Huh. "Never mind. Do you usually use arrows that are so... specific?"

"And..." Excuse Alec while he tried to find a non-arrogant-sounding way to word this. "It's nice that there aren't too many people fighting them from down there." He nodded toward the ledge. "Less to worry about."

Edited 2013-05-16 02:35 (UTC)

"I think a lot of people looked out their windows, said 'Screw this,' and stayed inside," Clint said. "Which is nice because we don't have to worry about the jalapeno bodies falling on anyone."

Especially putty-covered as they were after Clint's last shot.

"The answer to that question," Natalie replied from her spot close to one corner of the roof, "is always Fandom."

Which made the question pointless, yeah.

"Guess it thought the week was too sane."

"That sounds about right." It was the same when she was at the piano. She'd been doing both a lot. "It's concentration. And breathing."

And no pointless crap and worry about things she couldn't change.

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A Rooftop as Well as the Streets of Fandom, Early Wednesday Afternoon

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