🟆001🟆

[71lines]

Who: Tenten and You
What: Various
Where: Varying
When: After a few days have passed.
Warnings/Notes: None so far.

1. Part of training involves firearms training. Jorgmund is, at least, intelligent enough to know that not everyone deals with slugthrowers on their homeworlds, so they've set out an array to try out. Assault rifles, shotguns, pistols, etc. Everyone's given a basic rundown and scored at the end of each day. The scores, they're told, don't mean anything. It's just for bragging rights. The only reason anyone might swallow that is because no one's caught the range crew laying down their bets yet.
   
   So far, Armstrong has the highest. That may be because he went first and Cayde-6 hasn't stepped up to bat, though.
   
   The New Hires are taken to the range in small groups, to more easily control them. Two to four at a time, only whenever there's a gap in the regular Rig crew's training. When they go in, the range master makes a comment about forgetting some paperwork and slips out, locking the door behind him. The other range personnel are making themselves busy. Tenten, in the meantime, is peering at the firearms with a critical eye. She picks up a pistol and flips it over in her hands a few times, testing the moving parts. Trigger. Slidey bit. Switch for something there.
   
   She frowns, then looks down the barrel, thumb pressed against the trigger. Was there something that was supposed to happen inside when the trigger was pulled? How was an arrow supposed to fit in here? Or did it throw tiny knives? Maybe she ought to pull the trigger and see what launching mechanism it had inside...



2. The Rig isn't very warm at the moment. In fact, even inside, temperatures don't crawl above fifty degrees. At least there's no wind to make things truly miserable. Even the gym isn't even that hot, at least when people aren't physically exerting themselves.
   
   But Tenten's soaked through with sweat. She's been sitting there, eyes closed, with her hands twisted into an odd shape, for almost the entire after-dinner period. Every now and then, she opens her mouth, exhaling harshly, but that's about it.
   
   There's quite a bit more warmth in the five feet around her.
   
   It was frustrating. Lee couldn't do it, sure, but everyone else had mastered two other nature changes, the techniques for infusing one's energy with an elemental nature. Tenten-well, she was about the only member of their circle of friends who hadn't managed it. Her control was just too sloppy, as much as she hated to admit it. But now... Now she wasn't having any more luck than back home. She exhales again, a thin creeping of a small cloud flowing from her throat, and then breathes in sharply, exploding into a fit of coughing when the ash flows right back into her lungs.
   
   Oh. She really should've brought a drink of water.



3. "Hey, you." Oh, look. Its your favorite person, Planker. He's kneeling on the floor, arranging some strings in a pattern. Strings, bits of plastic, some nuts and bolts, shoelaces, scraps of napkin torn into strips? "Lend me your shoelaces real quick, okay?" It looks like his are already down there.
   
   Planker hasn't looked up once. He's just holding his hand out. He opens and closes it a few times, slapping his fingers against his palm in an impatient gesture. On closer inspection, he's just very slightly... off. Something's weird about him. It might just be the strain on his face, though, it looks like he's undergoing an effort just kneeling there.
   
   Of course, there's a reason for that. It's Tenten, in disguise and forgetting for a moment that her fellow New Hires don't know about transformation techniques. The strain is pretty simple: Planker's a lot taller and heavier than she is, maintaining the transformation's taking its toll. She's spent the past while exploring the back halls, the stairwells, the access tunnels, trying to get a layout of the areas that the New Hires technically aren't banned from going, but aren't exactly allowed to go. It's been frustrating. All of the doors have weird locks, ones she can't pick. She's seen someone use a card of some kind to get in, but sliding a slip of paper through didn't work either.
   
   So now she's just laying down a map, trying to commit it to memory before everything fades, in case she can get through the doors later somehow.
   
   Of course, getting assistance might be easier if she weren't wearing someone else's face at the moment.

Comments

[71lines]

Tenten blinks, rubbing the back of her neck. Well, that was certainly-huh. A little awkward. Maybe not how Adora meant to phrase things? Then again, who knew what problems they had?

"Well, I don't know her like you apparently do, but I like her. She's cute. Sure, she's not the friendliest, but I've known worse." She shrugs a little. "Maybe she just empathized with not liking mixed baths?" After all, who really did?

[princesspower]

"Don't let Catra hear that you called her cute," Adora laughs, "She'll probably yell at you about it."

She does want to get closer to Catra again. To mend that rift between them. The problem is taking the first few steps, isn't it?

"I think she gets what it's like to not really have privacy. Life was like that for us, once."

[71lines]

"But would she be cute when she yells?" Tenten grins. All in good fun, right? "But, yeah, she doesn't seem the type to appreciate that."

Those first few steps can be the hardest, but they can also be worth it. Not that Tenten really knows much about that kind of thing.

"Showering with other girls doesn't really bother me that much," she comments, folding her arms over her chest and suppressing another little shiver. "I'm used to public baths and all. It's just that they usually have a barrier between the men's side and the women's side. Not that it keeps some guys from trying to sneak a peek." She draws a little face and shakes her head. Perverts were a dime a dozen. Realistically, she probably didn't have that much to worry about with the likes of Dave and Steven, but why take chances?

[princesspower]

"Depends on what she's yelling..." Adora signs. She can definitely remember Catra being cute, but she can also remember the two of them exchanging barbs and locked into mortal combat. It's not easy to get past all of that, even here. Even when they have to work together. She needs to figure that out, though. One way or another.

"I mean, I'm used to public showers," Adora shrugs, "So I can handle it as long as - well. Like you said, as long as no one is being weird about it. I don't think anyone here would be. Well, at least not anyone I've met...."

[71lines]

Tenten giggles and shrugs, ceding the point. "Sounds like you'd know better than me." But, yeah, Catra was cool by her. Granted, she hadn't actually had Catra angry at her yet, so that might be a thing. Ask her how she felt about someone like Temari if they were here and she'd probably be a lot less chill than Adora is managing to be about all this.

"Why take a risk, though?" Okay, that sounded a little mean. "I'll admit that most of the guys don't seem like the type to be a problem like that, but sometimes..." She just trails off and shrugs again. It was kind of a common problem in Konoha, thanks to certain people who shall go nameless.

[princesspower]

"Yeah, it's better not to have to deal with that," Adora replies after a moment of thought and then nods, "It was never a problem for us... thankfully. Although the Fright Zone wasn't exactly great in a lot of other respects. none of the other cadets tried being... weird."

She doesn't want to finish that thought. It's just strange.

[71lines]

"Guess that's why it's the 'Fright Zone' and not the 'Gross Pervert Zone'," she laughs. "But, yeah. Let's not dwell on that too much." She'd just wanted to explain Catra's protectiveness, that's all. "Catra's good people, as far as I'm concerned."

[princesspower]

"She... can be," Adora replies slowly, her eyes sparkling a little, "But I'm so glad to hear that she is being 'good people' here. She... wasn't, exactly, back home."

[71lines]

"Maybe she's trying to turn over a new leaf?" Hey, new place, new you. Sounds like it's not a terrible idea, at least in Tenten's mind.

Then again, Tenten doesn't know exactly how backstabby Catra can be. It's entirely possible she'll learn the hard way.

[princesspower]

"Maybe she is," Adora says quietly and a smile flickers over her face, "...I've been hoping she would. That' she would stop hurting people. And if it takes this place to do it..."

Maybe it's not all bad.