Seafoam chases and talks with Zachary

Characters in this scene: Seafoam, Zachary

Setting Location: Sanctuary

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

Zachary sits in the main lounge, furiously dragging his mouse back and forth between clicks. His laptop is open in front of him, showing animated figures clashing and fighting with each other. One keypress, another, an ultimate, and the battle is won. A few seconds later, a blue "VICTORY" banner appears onscreen. Inside the chat, several other players typ out "ggwp" to each other. Zachary snorts. "While you were feeding in bot, I studied the blade," he mutters. "And now you have the audacity to act like you played well?" He lets the game end without typing anything. Who knows, typing those words back might even result in the spirits gainsaying him. There is no possible world in which that 1/6/3 Ashe could have been interpreted as playing well. Better not to coddle these noobs with encouraging words. As the game searches for another match, he takes a quick look around the lounge with his Sight. Sanctuary has been gaining more and more residents, and has been getting increasingly busy. He doesn't see anything out of the unusual now, but... The minimap at the top left corner of his vision flashes yellow. Top middle sector. *Fuck.* Seafoam is near, within 5 to 30 meters. Probably in the hallway ahead. Can he avoid her if he starts moving now? Zachary exits matchmaking and closes his laptop. Next is to unplug his ethernet cable and leave. He packs up and ducks behind a couch.

Dream || Seafoam — 03/25/2021

*Boredom. One hand propping up a head, the other dangling casually off the couch it's conjured. "Do you **really** think him to be worth it?"*

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

It's been roughly half an hour, now, since Levi had started searching around Sanctuary for Zachary. Seafoam had been laying around feeling melancholy ever since the deal with the Emissary had gone through, and today was the day that Levi had finally decided she would get up and snap them out of it, while also tying up another loose end - checking on Swaygze after their awful dinner with Justin earlier that week. Despite his awful demeanor and rather disturbing tendency to brag about his kill count, she was, despite her better judgement, rather worried for him. Whatever had caused him to run off, it certainly wasn't a sudden need for a bathroom break. *"Come on, Dream. We both know you're worried too."*

Dream || Seafoam — 03/25/2021

*A casual examining of its fingernails. "I am. But if it were me, I would have gone back to our room by now, or gone to do something more worth my time."* *A lazy smirk, a glance out the corner of its eyes. "Perhaps you simply enjoy the attention~?"*

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

Levi rolls her eyes. *"Shut the fuck up, Dream."* With her headmate's (mental) laughter ringing in her (mental) ears, Levi arrives in the main lounge... Just in time to catch a foot vanishing behind a couch. Her eyes narrow slightly. *...You've got to be shitting me.* She walks over to the couch and checks behind it, finding the object of her hunt hiding behind it. "...What the fuck are you doing back *here?*" Levi is, currently, dressed for comfort, pairing the same pair of hole-filled black leggings with a gray sweater, patterned in a way that's reminiscent of a cloudy day. Three small strips are cut out of the sweater at the center of her collarbone, outlining a triangle pointing downwards. Her skin and hair seem to glimmer subtly, in a way that makes one think of light shining through water.

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

What Levi sees is the tail end of a cable being quickly dragged away. A few meters away, Zachary is hastily dodge rolling behind a table, laptop clutched awkwardly to his chest. He makes it to the entrance of the small lounge, with just enough cover to break line of sight, notices the trailing cable, and panics. He can't explain what makes him do it. If he had to answer, he would say that he wasn't thinking at all. He whispers the words, "火劍,“ and a thin beam of fire emerges from his hands, to cut through the walls of the small lounge. Then he ducks through to the outside area, and starts running.

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

Levi simply stares, nonplussed, for a moment before regaining its senses. "What the fu- Hey, I just wanna talk, come back here!" It starts running after him, and rounds the corner just in time to see him *cut through the wall(???).* "What in the SHIT-" Levi follows Zachary through the hole, slowing just a bit to stoop through the hole, then quickly sets off following him at speed.

Dream || Seafoam — 03/25/2021

*"Are you **still** sure he's worth it?*

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

*"Shut up already!"*

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

*Oh God oh fuck she's seen me.* How is he ever going to explain all of this to Seafoam? That he saw who she was on OMO and realized that he had been making a fool of himself this whole time? That he had set a marker onto her so he could keep track of where she was with his Sight, all to better avoid her, but he had started playing League of Legends and gotten distracted until she was far too close? That sometimes he had turned on his Sight, not to stay away, but to just watch as the yellow section on his Sight swung from middle sector at 9 o'clock to the far end at 8 o'clock back in to middle sector at 7, and try to imagine what she was doing? Zachary makes the easier decision, which is to say nothing and keep fleeing. Surely if he can lose her, he won't have to explain anything. Running is far too slow. He jumps into the air, jumps again, and lunges forward in a punch that carries his body forwards. Then he jumps again, and lunges forward again. It's more tiring, but marginally faster. He skates through the air until he reaches a balcony, and heads indoors again.

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

*He's fast, I'll give him that...* Levi smirks behind her mask as bewilderment gives way to adrenaline. *But in a straight race like this? It's not even a contest.* Sure enough, she's gradually gaining on him, slowed down as he is by his laptop and accessories... And then he makes it outside, jumps, jumps *again*, punches into nothing, and keeps going, all the way up to a balcony on the second floor, leaving a flabbergasted Seafoam watching him go. There is a momentary pause as Levi pings a question back to her headmates and is met with a general consensus of *"yeah, go for it, we'll be okay"*. Thus reassured, she mutters "Alright, you Smash Bros motherfucker, you wanna play? Let's *play,*" and activates her Sight. The world becomes flooded with saltwater, and the buzz of conversation falls away, but Levi is focused on one thing in particular - the trail of blood floating through the air in front of her. She leans forward slightly and sniffs at it. A bit of smoky fire, quite a lot of chaotic, salty-sweet fear (*Oddly gratifying*, she thinks distractedly), the telltale tang of sweat, and the unfortunately inescapable scent of BO. *Yeah, that's about what I expected.* She straightens back up and jogs back inside, breathing deep lungfuls of air in an attempt to separate out Zachary's scent from all the others in the lounge, but quickly realizes that it's something of a lost cause. She shakes her head and huffs in annoyance before heading for the stairs and sprinting up them two at a time, heading for the much less populated second floor. There, hopefully, she'll have a better time catching his trail.

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

Zachary sees the yellow areas marking Seafoam's location retreat backwards from middle to outer ring. Then the yellow drops away entirely as she moves too far for his Sight to track. He walks into another room, panting heavily. If his heart is racing faster than it should be from just a brief bit of jump-skating like that, he's not going to think about that. Hopefully, Seafoam has given up by now. Any sane person should have, by this point.

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

Levi has, in fact, not given up by now. In fact, her instinct about the second floor is right - there's not a drop of blood to be found along the layer of seawater on the floor. And there's a *veeery* faint smell in the air... A familiar one. She smiles to match her mask. "Called it." And with that, she's off, going quietly as she can while still moving at a pretty decent clip, in an effort not to scare him off.

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

The yellow slides back into Swaygze's Sight with astonishing speed. If he's right, she's in the hallway that leads to this room... and there's only one exit in here. *Fuck, how is she finding me?* He crouches down by the wall. If it worked before, it'll work again. "火," he says. "火劍." The sword refuses to appear in his hand. "Come on, 火劍." The sword flickers into existence, but all it can do is singe the walls lightly. Its power today is exhausted. There's nothing he can do now. Zachary turns toward the entrance of the room and prepares to face judgment.

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

Zachary's scent intensifies as Levi draws closer to what seems to be a conference room of some sort, currently unused. Judging by the vividness of his blood trail and how strongly it smells of him around there, it seems like he must still be in that room. *Huh. That air combo trick must've taken more out of him than I thought. Or he's gonna ambush us as soon as I walk through the door, but probably not. He doesn't seem very... fight-y right now.* It pushes open the slightly ajar door, and sees a bundle of veins and arteries crouched by a wall. *Oh, right.* It closes its eyes, takes a deep breath, and lets go of its Sight. The feeling is like removing a bandage in the middle of a shower, but instead of dry skin feeling water, Levi's mind flows back to join with the rest of its system's. The relief is palpable, but rather than luxuriating, Levi opens its eyes and focuses on Zachary, who is, indeed, crouched by the wall, with the look of a man who is prepared for the worst. It walks a few steps into the room and cocks its head slightly to the side, bemused. "...So like. Is it the mask? Should we switch to one that's not as intimidating, or something? Or was there some kind of horrible Other behind us that you were escaping from?" Its tone is gently mocking.

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

"I -- what?" Zachary is intensely aware of how he must look right now, with sweat starting to bead onto his clothes and his hair flopping into his eyes. His parents would yell at him so much if they could see him now, dressed in, of all things, a wrinkled KDA t-shirt fetched from the bottom of his suitcase.

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

Levi shakes her head. "Sorry. Don't worry about it." She sits down on the floor across from him, then winces, reconsiders, and grabs a nearby chair, plunking it down in front of him and sitting in it quite demurely, legs crossed and hands folded in her lap. She is, to Zachary's credit, breathing rather heavily after their little chase. "Sooo... Can I ask what all that was about?"

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

Upon thinking about it, Zachary can barely even remember. "Nothing?"

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

Levi gives him a Look. "Dude. Seriously? You don't just run away from someone like that over nothing unless you think something *really bad* is gonna happen. You cut through a fuckin' wall! Like-" She stops, takes a breath, continues a little less agitated. "We assume this has something to do with whatever made you bolt from dinner with us and Justin like that. That's what we wanted to ask you about. Are you, like..." She waves a hand vaguely at him. "...Doing okay? Should we be worried about something?"

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

Zachary isn't sure whether to be happy that Seafoam remembers his existence, or whether to be horribly embarrassed that *that* is what she remembers. He flushes a deep red. "Why do you care?"

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

Levi raises its eyebrows, looking upwards thoughtfully for a moment. "...Y'know? That's a good question." It looks back down at Zachary, making eye contact. "I think it's because, despite the kinda shitty impression you made at dinner and on OMO, we've started thinking of you as a friend. And being concerned about each others' wellbeing is, in our mind, part of what friendship is about. So, now we're here." Levi laughs to itself a bit. "Of course, we're also here because you put up a pretty decent chase. Maybe try not to smell so much like fear next time, though." "But yeah. If you wanna talk about what's up, we're happy to listen. If not, that's fine too."

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

"There's nothing to talk about," Zachary says. "Nothing important."

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

"Huh. Coulda fooled me." Levi shrugs and twists to her left while seated, grabbing the back of the chair with one hand and bracing the other on her knee. The motion produces a truly impressive amount of loud popping noises. She repeats with the other side, then looks back at Zachary. "Sooo... Now what?"

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

Zachary shrugs. He's not sure where to look. If he looks up, he can see Seafoam's face, but that requires craning his neck all the way up. If he turns his neck a little lower, then that just means that he's going to stare at the *fascinating* cutouts in her sweater near the neckline, and he doesn't think she'll like that. Height level just means that he's going to stare at her legs, which feels similarly pervy. But looking at the floor just seems rude.

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

They sit in silence for a moment, Levi looking with faint amusement at Zachary and his apparent inability to decide where to rest his gaze, before she, begrudgingly, decides to break it by addressing the elephant in the room. "Is it because you've got a crush on me?"

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

Zachary curls in on himself, hugging his legs around his chest. "Nnnmaybe...?" Fuck Practice, fuck his inability to lie, and fuck this whole situation.

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

Levi chuckles softly to herself. "Yeah. Thought so. You, uh, weren't super subtle about it." She leans back in her chair, an amused expression in her eyes. "Gotta say, though, usually people with crushes on me don't react *quite* so strongly when I'm around. Think you might've set a new record there-" She stops as something makes itself known in her memory. "...Ah, fuck. It was the duel, too, wasn't it?"

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

"Maybe," Zachary grunts.

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

Levi lets her head loll back as she lets out a groan. "*Uuuuuugh.* Fuuuck. I knew I was gonna regret making that damn challenge." She sighs explosively and lifts her head back up. "Welp. Guess that clears that up. In the meantime, uhhh..." She glances around the room. "Now what?"

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

Zachary has decided: the floor is a perfectly acceptable place to look. They sit in silence for a while, Zachary studiously ignoring Seafoam. Finally, he speaks. "Sorry. About the duel thing."

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

Levi startles, just a bit, but catches herself. "Hah. Thanks. I'm sorry, too." There's another beat of silence, then she continues. "I'm... *preeetty* sure we still have to go through with it though. 'Less you wanna concede now and save yourself the trouble, hehehe." Her tone is joking, but with a slight competitive edge to it. Distantly, she "hears" the sound of palm meeting face and a male voice saying *["Ugh..."]*.

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

"No, of course not!" Zachary says. "I stand by what I said. I can take you in a lifting competition... I think." He looks at Seafoam, really *looks*. She isn't very muscular at all, especially not compared to Zachary, but she doesn't look like someone who is expecting to lose, either. Something has to be going on. In his Sight, Seafoam has status effect upon status effect, so many that he can hardly make sense of them all. *Stolen strength, stolen speed, stolen agility...* Too late to back out of this now. "Let's do this."

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

Levi shakes her head slowly. "Hate to break it to you, but, uh, that's not what either of us signed up for. When I said a duel, I meant a fight, and I made that much clear in my comment. And you agreed to it. I can show you the comment again, if you like."

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

Zachary stands up. "Are you sure about that? I don't want to hurt you."

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

At that, Levi stands too. The edge that was briefly present in its voice returns in force, even as it's audibly smiling. "Oh, don't worry. I'll do my best to pay you back with interest."

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

"Quarterstaff breaks bones," Zachary says blankly. "Nobody responsible ever spars with quarterstaff at normal speed within range of each other, because even with modern protection it's still too dangerous."

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

Levi starts to say something. Stops. Thinks for a moment. "...I see. Good to know, then." She shrugs. "I'll pull my metaphorical punches if you pull yours? One of the stipulations I made was no major injuries, after all. I won't lie and say I wasn't looking forward to a more no-holds-barred fight, but that seems like the sort of thing that'd result in breaking those stipulations preeetty quick."

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

"First blood, match of three? We can do that."

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

"Hell yeah, sounds good to me! Only issue's gonna be finding somewhere to do it, though, since Sanctuary doesn't allow fighting on the grounds." Levi yawns, mask slipping slightly. "We can work that out later, though." One hand readjusts her mask as she talks, the other waving languidly in an "it can wait" gesture. She stretches, leaning away from Zachary so she doesn't accidentally bump into him. "Think I'm gonna head back up to our room, take a catnap. That little chase earlier was a nice workout, so thanks for that!" She gives him a knowing look, and a smile creeps into her voice. "Hopefully we'll see ya 'round more?"

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

"Sure! Of course. Actually, if you want a workout, I do that every morning. Makes it easy to remember. Would be nice to have a partner" Zachary's brain catches up to his mouth a moment later, and he blushes. "I mean, only if you want to."

levi || Seafoam (Tojin) — 03/25/2021

Levi's eyebrows raise once again, and she laughs brightly. "Yeah, fuck it! Sounds like fun. We've only got a few days left here, but sounds like the start of a good habit to get into." She heads for the door, giving Zachary a little two-fingered wave as she goes. "See ya tomorrow, then!"

Swaygze07 — 03/25/2021

"Out on the lawn, at 8 AM tomorrow! Bye!" If Dad was seeing this, he'd be laughing himself silly. *Everybody has something they are best at, and for women, that is not the physical.* Then again, Seafoam had dumped on Dad's advice earlier, and there was all the Practice stuff changing things too. Dad would have... a lot to say about Seafoam and Sanctuary, in general. Not least of which is how Zachary ended up here in the first place. Maybe this isn't the best situation to follow his advice. Zachary watches Seafoam go, and for the first time in a while, feels a little lighter.