[ Closed ]

[abhero]

Who: Emil and Russel
When: February 7th, during school
Where: LCHS
What: Emil is up to no good. Russel tries to stop him and gets caught up in the mess.
Warnings: Excessive stupidity


Building a potato gun wasn’t too hard. There were what, a million internet guides? And you could buy materials everywhere. Emil has dedicated the last few evenings to assembling one and he was rather pleased with the results. All that was left is testing it (don’t get him wrong, he loves water balloons as much as the next person but it’s time to branch out).

Instead of being in English class like he was supposed to, he sat on a table in the empty courtyard, looking over the masterpiece. Next to him was a bag full of different vegetables. It’s called potato gun, sure, but he mustn’t rule out yams or eggplants! This was a scientific experiment and Emil took it very seriously.

He loaded the gun with a potato, aimed and --

”Whoa!”

The projectile shot out and hit a trash can so hard it toppled over, garbage scattering everywhere. This is awesome, he didn’t expect it to go this far! Still, a few adjustments are needed, Emil had a feeling aiming it at people wouldn’t be so well received as water balloons. Maybe with a different projectile… he peeked inside the bag, trying to decide what vegetable is next.

Comments

[pianistofraielin]

The accusation of bullying got genuine dismay out of Russel. If there was one thing he couldn't stand, it was bullies.

Maybe he had used excessive force? Maybe he was throwing his weight around like a jerk? Maybe--maybe he should've gotten a teacher instead of trying to handle this himself?!

"But that's-- I-I wasn't-- I mean--" he sputtered, in a futile attempt to defend himself.

[abhero]

Huh. He wasn’t expecting Russel to take his whining so seriously, but if it made him back off, Emil decided to go along.

He huffed.

“Well you did,” he grumbled. The annoyance was genuine - that eggplant had bruised his pride too, not just his back. “And it really hurt. How’d you feel if I shot you in the back with this gun instead of at the table?”

Emil conveniently ignored the fact he probably would’ve try human targets if he ever figured out how to adjust it to “no actually serious injuries” level.

[pianistofraielin]

"But you--you hit me in the face first!" he protested, a bit of incredulity creeping into his voice. Russel hadn't liked it at all so it was a fair point, but...Emil's appeal to empathy kind of fell flat when it had already happened.

"So--so maybe," he continued, gaining some steam, recovering his indignation, "you should think about how I feel!"

[abhero]

“I hit you ‘cause you charged at me, it was self defense,” Emil said, warming up as well. Russel could have been planning to beat him up, as far as he knows! “And seems to me you feel fine, it’s like you didn’t even notice getting hit in the face. Your coat looks worse.”

[pianistofraielin]

"I was just trying to confiscate your contraband like a responsible upperclassman!" he shot back.

Let's just...not talk about why he was able to shrug off that eggplant to the face. Ignore it and maybe the guy will forget.

[abhero]

"Aha!" Emil pointed, dramatically. "You were trying to steal my stuff, I obviously was justified in hitting you. I'll have you know I'm allowed to carry a potato gun, it's called the second amendment."

He gave Russel a smug smile, seemingly unaware that's not how things work.

[pianistofraielin]

"That's not what the second amendment means!" he shouted back. This guy!!!! "A high school isn't a well-regulated militia so it's constitutionally acceptable to forbid students to carry weapons on school property! Your potato gun is in violation of the school's student code of conduct!!"

[abhero]

Emil started to yell once Russel said weapons, cutting him off. "Yeah well, it's not considered firearms here so I can bring it if I want!" To be honest, he wasn't sure how much it was true; he knew potato guns weren't weapons somewhere in the country but he didn't remember where. And anyway he couldn't care less about regulations; he had a bigger problem here.

He wanted his grocery bag back. He bought all the materials with his own money and while he had an employee discount, he had no intentions of letting it go to waste. These were perfectly good vegetables and he won’t just throw them away.

Emil went back to the tables, giving Russel a wary look. He better not try something funny…!

The teacher coming over from the side went completely unnoticed.

[pianistofraielin]

If not for the wary look, Russel might not have realized why Emil was heading back toward the tables. But he caught it, assumed it meant Emil was up to something, and realized he must be headed for the bag of produce.

Oh no. Oh no. Russel couldn't allow him to get his ammunition back, that could only end in disaster. Without hesitation, he sprinted to the table, hoping to beat Emil there and snatch the bag away before he could grab it.

[abhero]

The bag!! Emil broke into a run. He was fast, but so was Russel - seriously, fucking jocks - and Emil realized he was going to lose. He dropped the gun to the ground and flung himself over the table, hugging the bag like it was a long lost relative.

“Let go!” He shouted, trying to yank it back from Russel’s grasp.

[pianistofraielin]

Russel dove for it and got his hands on the bag at exactly the same time as Emil. When Emil tried to yank it away, he only succeeded in tugging Russel forward so he overbalanced and nearly fell onto the table.

He planted a foot against the bench for leverage and yanked back; they were, essentially, locked in the dumbest ever game of tug-of-war. "You let go! As if I'd let you keep defacing school property with this!"

[flamberge]

All the loud noises of flying vegetables and teenage yelling drew the attention of one teacher in particular, one with highly sensitive hearing. As soon as Karl aka Mr Locke heard the chaos, he made his way to the courtyard and stumbled upon teenage stupidity at its absolute finest. No really, this had to be a gold medal winner in the stupid olympics.

The teacher stood to the side for a moment and watched this little scene unfold. Only one question remained: would he be noticed or are teenage skills of observation really that bad? Going with answer b for $500, Bob. Engaging in a fight over a... bag of groceries (??) seemed have made them oblivious to everything else. An irate sigh escaped him as he finally made his presence known. Teenagers grumble grumble. "A noble decree, however it won't spare you from the punishment both of you are going to receive."

A nice and kinda scary glare followed from Mr. Locke, who stood a short distance away with arms folded across his chest. Disapproval practical radiated off the guy in waves. Okay, he was a kid once and did stupid shit, but this? This went beyond that.

[abhero]

Emil turned his head to the voice - shit, a teacher. This could've been avoided if it wasn't for stupid Russel. He didn't even get to try the rest of the vegetables!

He was used to getting in trouble and knew punishment was probably unavoidable. But no matter how obvious the evidence was, Emil always reacted the same way when caught - denying everything.

"We're just having a friendly disagreement, Mr. Locke" he said, still clutching the bag. "I wasn't doing anything."

[pianistofraielin]

Russel was not nearly as good at playing it cool when authority became involved. His head snapped toward the teacher and he froze with a strangled, high-pitched noise, horror slowly dawning on his face.

It was easy in hindsight to see that he probably should've gotten a teacher to handle this in the first place. Idiot! Why did he try to do this himself, he didn't have that kind of authority!

He let go of the bag, without regard for the fact that Emil was still pulling against a resistance that would no longer be there. "I WASN'T DOING ANYTHING I SWEAR."

[abhero]

Russel’s immediate freak out was amusing - or rather, it would have been amusing if he hadn’t let got of the bag. The sudden release made Emil stumble back, but it would have been fine, he could regain his balance… if it wasn’t for the discarded potato gun.

Emil tripped over the stupid thing and fell down with a yelp, the bag landing on top of him. Two oranges and a yam spilled out and hit his face before rolling away on the asphalt. Totally undignified.

[flamberge]

The attempts at weaseling out of this fell on deaf ears. Karl had seen enough to know that neither boy was innocent, neither Kid A playing it off as nothing nor Kid B declaring his lack of involvement. How little effect their words had get emphasized by Karl's expression remaining the same despite their poor attempts at explaining.

"Last I was aware, throwing fruit at someone and playing tug of war with a bag constitutes as something." Not even mentioning the potential weapon on the ground that Kid A just so gracefully tripped over. Whoever thought to bring a suspension worthy thing on school grounds had to be a genius. And by genius, he meant idiot.

[pianistofraielin]

"But he was--I was just--I mean--" He gestured uselessly, utterly failing to capture whatever he was trying to say. This teacher was not going to let him out of it, and the prospect of getting in trouble for this, which was pretty much the dumbest thing he'd ever gotten in trouble for, was so upsetting that he had no idea what to do about it.

[abhero]

“He means to say we’re very sorry, we were just playing and got carried away,” he said, sitting up. Emil was a decent actor and definitely looked innocent and properly apologetic. The teacher would be an idiot to actually buy it, considering how he was so obviously guilty but by God Emil was committed to this. “There, cleaned it up.” And he put the yam and oranges back in the bag to show his good intentions.

He didn’t mention the gun, either. Emil’s brilliant plan in case it came up was to say it isn’t his - it could totally be Russel's or a random gun that just happened to be there. When in doubt, deny.

[flamberge]

The incredible acting fell incredibly short in convincing Karl of any innocence. It got an E for Effort and maybe an unimpressed eyebrow raise, but nothing more. "I'll be certain to relay your courteous cleaning efforts to the principal when we go see him together." Major emphasis on the word 'together'. The kids weren't getting out of this, no matter how much one tried to lay on the sweet talk.

"As for that item on the ground..." Karl began as his eyes darted briefly down at said object, "Whose is it?" Considering how freaked one kid was and how overly innocent the other acted, he could hazard a guess which of the two that belonged to.

[pianistofraielin]

"That is not what I mean at all!" he snapped back at Emil.

And then Karl's mention of the principal got a stare of abject horror and a strangled little noise of dismay. The only times Russel had ever gone to the principal before were because he'd gotten into a fight protecting someone else. You know, legitimate reasons where his actions were totally justified. Not shit that wasn't even his fault.

He was hit by the familiar sensation of an Echo, along with a memory that...was...about equally distressing.

His head slowly turned to give Emil a piercing stare. THIS GUY? THIS GUY WAS TIED INTO HIS CHOSEN ONE DESTINY?!

The inner outrage was so overwhelming that he completely failed to defend himself to Karl's question.

[abhero]

Emil shot Russel an angry look. He could hardly resist the urge to facepalm - he was trying help and this guy was ruining it! Emil meant to play dumb and claim he doesn’t know where the gun came from but if Russel plans to rat out (Emil it’s really your fault) maybe he should just pin the blame on him…

The (utterly unjustified) righteous fury was interrupted by a flash, just like when he remembered the crow. Was that another - what did the weird internet cultists call it again - echo? He knows the guy? And most importantly -

Did they really call themselves “Heroes of Love and Justice?” That’s so... silly.

He stared at Russel incredulously. Now Karl had two teens struck dumb and ignoring his questions.

[flamberge]

And now they're ignoring him while giving each other the oddest looks (something attributed to the mention of the principal). How nice. Best course of action to take when in trouble. Really. Not surprisingly, the pseudo-teacher does not appear amused. Kids these days. When he was their age...... you know what, these kids are fine. In trouble and mildly annoying right now, but fine.

Karl gives a sigh as he goes to pick up whatever this thing on the ground is supposed to be. "I will assume your sudden silence stems from the desire to go speak with the principal as soon as possible."

[pianistofraielin]

His head whipped back around to Karl. "N-no! It's--!" He couldn't very well explain that it was an Echo and that it was a really stupid reveal.

He sank with a sigh, resigned to his fate. Maybe the principal would actually listen when he tried to explain himself.

[abhero]

It was hard not looking too forlorn when Karl picked up the potato gun. His poor toy that he built all by himself and barely even got to try! It would be confiscated now, for sure.

Emil made a face and put his hands in his pocket. “Well, we’re gonna speak to the principal anyway,” he said sourly. He wasn’t weaseling out of this one, that much was obvious; more excuses would just make this teacher scold him more. It’s best to go right to the highest authority and get it over with.

Besides, the faster they end it, the faster he can talk to Russel alone. He wasn’t used to Echoes yet, this shit was weird and he wanted an explanation.

[flamberge]

The guess on who owned this little device was solidified upon catching glimpse of the face smooth-talker made. No comment came about it, only musing on how if the kid wanted to keep this then he shouldn't have brought it to school of all places.

"Correct. Now, unless you wish to explain yourselves honestly, we'll get going." Karl gave one boy a stern look and then the second. This chance was the one final chance they have to possibly say something in their favor. Speak now, or forever hold your peace and enjoy whatever punishment the principal whips up for fighting and bringing a weapon on the premises. Spoiler: it won't be pleasant.