smash_logs | Happy Valentines! Your Love Is Toxic!

Entry tags:

Happy Valentines! Your Love Is Toxic!

Who: EVERYONE
What: CUPIDBOTS
Where: EVERYWHERE
When: VALENTIMES DAY
Warnings: None yet, but will be updated if that changes

Ah, February 14th. A day for loving lovers to love... But at Smash Academy, it meant something else...

At the crack of dawn, they appeared. Tiny robotic cherubs wielding bows and arrows. Those who had been at the academy for some time knew what they were: The Cupidbots. Obnoxious, potentially life-ruining robots with one mission: Fire their arrows at unsuspecting passers-by, causing them to fall in love with the first person they saw for the next 24 hours. They would be gone by the next day, but still for the best to try and avoid them.

WHAT DO?

[[Go ahead and start up your own threads for random happenings, planned ships, or just throw your characters out and see who bites!]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He followed after Falcon, unsure of where he was heading and figuring the where didn't matter as long as they could get away from ridiculous Valentine's Days shenanigans. "Considering this has happened before - since you already know about it - you'd think someone would do something to prevent it from reoccurring."

One would think so, anyway. Snake was quickly beginning to relearn that people were either masochistic or sadistic and seemed to take some demented pleasure out of being a third party to the less than favourable predicament.

He heard one and reacted entirely on instinct, the motion surprisingly fluid, as if he'd not been out of practise with a gun in the least. And in a way, he hadn't been. He still did target practise in his free time and once a soldier had been trained, said training didn't just get up and disappear. Even when the soldier wanted it to in favour of living a 'normal' life.

"Anyone develop a cure for it yet?" he asked as he moved quickly along, not keen in staying in one place for too long.

"Yeah, you would think."

The displeasure was more than evident in his voice, a testament to how some of the things at this school still managed to get to him, even with plenty of time to be desensitized.

"They show up every year, regardless. I've learned to just be careful."

One couldn't keep too sharp an eye out, after all.

"Effects last about twenty-four hours. The goal is to just...make it to my office unscathed. Wait for it to blow over."

Another shot. At least he hadn't lost the ability to shoot after downing too many bottles of booze. But he was no ordinary soldier and he knew it.

"Treading carefully," he thought aloud. Then he gave a succinct nod, one that was curt and short, professional and at the same time, respectful of Falcon's freedom with his information. This crossing of paths was far less awkward than the one with him under the box in the halls of mistletoe. "Shouldn't be too hard with the two of us. You've proven once already that you're a formidable opponent."

And he couldn't resist something akin to a prideful smile, as if he was talking about himself. For all anyone knew, he was. There was no lying when it came down to just what he thought of his own person and anyone who was remotely familiar with him likely knew it, too. "It's a suicide mission for these..." Wackadoodles. "...things."

"Save the compliments for when we're out of their way."

He knew all too well how easy it was to fall prey to the tricky little robots, and despite the fact that he tended to have an ego the size of Montana, Falcon didn't plan on getting too cocky, and was quick to tell Snake as much.

"You don't want to let your guard down. They have a tendency to--"

He stopped short. Where the hallway was clear a moment ago, just ahead seemed to be a collection of the bots in question, zipping around not unlike a small cloud of gnats.

"--swarm."

Snake was still looking behind them, trying to pick off any that got too close. But he was listening all the same and when Falcon interjected himself, he cast a quick glance over his shoulder. "Swarm?" he asked, before facing forward again as he strafed back.

Catching up to Falcon, he stopped at his side, and after a moment, simply stared. There were a lot. And while he knew and and Falcon weren't quite unstoppable, they wouldn't be easy to take down. But sometimes a lot of smaller things could certainly overpower a couple of larger things. Unification and all of that. Strength in numbers.

Shit.

"We really going to try to get in that way?" he asked, idly fishing with his free hand for any ideas that might have come to mind. It's one of those times C4 isn't going to help. "Grenades, maybe."

Shit was right. Falcon had gone his entire time at the school never falling victim to the troublesome little robots, and he wasn't about to start now. He was, however, fairly certain that two guys with pistols weren't going to make it through what was apparently a tiny cupid robot party.

All he had to do was make it to his office, but he wasn't sure how much longer they could go unnoticed.

"Do you have grenades? On you, I mean."

~~"I have a pair of grenades in my pants," said Snake to Falcon.~~

He was still padding himself down. He had them. He just had to find them. Snake had been in a bit of a hurry the last time he was dressing up. And while he'd not anticipated winged creatures armed with aphrodisiacs, he knew it was better to be safe than sorry. All it took was one instance of sorry behaviour for Snake to regret it and never travel the same path again.

Then he gave half a grin, "That I do. ~~Let's make this Valentine's Day a blast.~~" A successful grasp upon one and Snake offered it up. "Kind of hoping to get through this without destruction to public property, but looks like that won't be the case here."

"For the record, on any other day I'd call you crazy for having grenades on you."

Cupid bot swarm or no, Falcon couldn't help but get that in.

Then, despite himself, he turned slightly and offered Snake a tiny grin. "But if you thought I gave a shit about public property, you are sorely mistaken. Fire away."

"Well, there was the run-in with the mistletoe..."

He was pretty sure he didn't need to go into it any further than that. Otherwise it was going to be a repeat of Snake 'karate chopping' the air to take down the bots of love, which seemed like it'd do more harm than good. Or just be an insane waste of his time. Grenades really were the perfect way to handle things.

They could always do repairs. It wasn't like he was paying for it. But it wasn't quite the same as trying to prevent an eco disaster either. "Find a safe place," he murmured as he glanced sidelong to Falcon. Then without much more of a warning, he pulled the ring and nonchalantly tossed the first grenade into the gaggle of cupidbots.

Falcon nodded, not needing to be told twice to find cover. As Snake pulled the ring, he ducked around the nearest corner, plugging his ears and waiting for the inevitable explosion of fire and shrapnel.

It came, and it was the perfect distraction for an unseen, unfelt cupid bot cupid bot.

When the noise subsided, Falcon emerged from his hiding place, coughing a little through the smoke.

"Snake?"

No sooner had he tossed what he hoped would be their 'lifeboat,' had Snake managed to take his own hiding place, lifting his left arm to shield his sight. The downside was that it separated him and Falcon and in the event that something went wrong...

Well. Two heads were always better than one.

But Snake heard him and he squinted as he tried to peer through the leftover fog caused by the damages. Not particularly proud of what could be constituted as vandalism - probably by that Crazy Hand character - he found he wasn't exactly regretting it either. His hide was more important building masonry, honestly.

"Yeah," he answered back as he moved across the ground, slow and cautious. "You good?"

Coughing and waving smoke away, Falcon stepped back out in the hall and glanced up and down the corridor--but the first person in his field of vision, of course, was Snake.

"I'm good," he pants, not sure if the pounding in his throat is because of adrenaline or something else.

"...You?"

It wasn't the first time Snake had been caught in an explosion. By an explosion. Whatever. And the mercenary doubted it'd be the last time, at that. Life just wasn't the same without some reckless behaviour and considering Otacon wasn't around to remind him to mind his manners, Snake considered it some free reign. At least for the time being.

As the smoke began to finally clear, he found it easier to see. His eyes found Falcon and for a moment, he simply paused. And he couldn't figure out why, but there was the oddest little tingle in his fingertips. "...Yeah. I'm..." Great, actually. "...good."

Falcon, too, was sort of surprised at how good he felt. If he'd noticed the sting, of course, he might have been able to put two and two together. As it stood, he had no idea where this sudden feeling of euphoria had come from, and was too busy coming off the adrenaline to care.

He exhaled, heavily, rocking back on his heels.

"It looks like it worked. Did you want to...come back to my office?"

He was still trying to stand normally when he heard Falcon address him. His office. It was probably safer there, not that... he felt so much at a disadvantage like he had before. Probably thanks to that grenade. And if he really needed to, he had a few more on him. The year following, he made a secret resolution to set up C4 around the academy and detonate it.

That was preemptive thought if he had any.

Looking over to Falcon, he wondered idly why the man paused. Hesitated, more or less. As if Snake might possibly turn him down. "Yeah. Better there than here. We can wait it out." Then he added as an afterthought, "I wasn't doing anything else anyway." Because for whatever reason, it just wouldn't do for Falcon to think Snake didn't earnestly want to go.

It seemed that the hallway was clear, more or less, smoke aside, and Falcon didn't hesitate to press forward through the aftermath of the grenade, trying to fight down the strange, unsettled feeling in his stomach.

He shrugged it off, scanning the path for more cupid bots, finding none. Everything had gone better than expected, except for--

"Is it hotter? All of a sudden?"

"I thought it was just me," Snake confessed when he heard Falcon.

He couldn't stop looking around, a hand loosely on his gun. That 'good' feeling he was experiencing, he wondered if it would hinder his ability to shoot anything appropriately. He certainly didn't feel the same haste to vandalise public property for the sake of his own protection.

His feet finally stopped and he tugged at the collar of his sneaking suit. "Heater broken?" Even if it was, he didn't want to get caught up in the furnace that was his clothing. At the same time, though, stripping down in Falcon's office didn't seem to be a very good idea either.

"No, it's...definitely getting warmer."

Somehow.

In the back of his mind, he vaguely considered that perhaps he wasn't thinking straight--but getting to the office was much more important. The way was mostly clear, and soon enough he was opening the door and showing Snake inside.

"Shouldn't be. It's been working fine all winter."

Snake went in first, tugging at various parts of his suit, as if it might possibly relieve him of some of that heat. "Can't think of whatever else it'd be," he muttered as he busied himself with... himself.

He glanced around Falcon's office, trying to remember if he'd ever been there before. Once more, he knew distinctly that he knew who Falcon was. That Falcon knew who he was. He just didn't know how well and it still wasn't the time to dig into that. And there was no way Snake was going to ask for his help.

"Not those... uh. Things we were dealing with," Snake continued, suspicious and rightfully so. "Maybe someone released something through the vents." Poison, or something like it. That wasn't impossible. In hindsight, it'd be a good way to take out everyone at the same time.

Falcon shut the door behind them, taking off his jacket and throwing it onto the world's most comfortable couch. The clothing removal, however, didn't do much for the hot, itchy feeling that crawled up and down his spine.

The mention of vents, however, made him frown, and he rubbed his chin in thought.

"Something in the vents? Like what?"

At least he could take off his jacket. Because Snake taking anything off was going to result in Snake standing around in his skivvies and while he thought Falcon would probably understand the sentiment, he wasn't that comfortable in such a vulnerable state. Thankfully, Falcon's question distracted him enough to get Snake to pause and truly consider the idea.

"If someone blocks the vents and leaves carbon monoxide in the air, I think people eventually deal with over warming." Not that it would have explained why they experienced it before they even got into the building. "I'm out of ideas." He could have gone and crawled through the vents himself, but passing out there seemed like a poor decision on his part.

Falcon looked vaguely worried for a moment before dismissing the concern--it was ridiculous, anyway, and it didn't quite make sense. The hallways were just as warm as his office, after all.

He was starting to think that maybe they were the problem.

After a few moments of strained silence, Falcon took to rubbing the back of his head. It seemed as good a time as any to address the elephant in the room--the fact that this was a different Snake than the one he'd known. "Look, uh. I know things have been sort of weird, between us--"

Oh, God. A conversation that Snake really didn't want to have. He couldn't even remember everything between him and Falcon yet. And if they tried to have a trip down memory lane, Snake was going to say something stupid. He knew it. He normally said stupid things, too. It was just going to be worse and if Falcon smacked him...

Well. It sure as hell wouldn't be a woman's slap.

"Not weird," Snake began as he lifted a hand. "I'm putting it all together. Slowly. I know you. You know me. Probably better than I know you at this point in time." Then he shook his head, "Give me some more time to put it all together."

And Falcon was the only one who even got the implication that Snake knew there was something going on. Maybe that meant something.

He paused. Falcon hadn't expected this new Snake to remember things the old Snake did. When people returned to the academy with no memory of having been there, that was that. They didn't just spontaneously receive old memories that should have been long forgotten.

He frowned.

"You're not going to like it, when you put it all together."

Somehow that bothered him more than he thought it would.

"Yeah."

It was a rather simple way to begin. Snake rubbed at the bridge of his nose, a little annoyed by the whole ordeal. He didn't want to deal with irritations like this. If he'd had his own oblivious way, or perhaps if he was younger, he could agree to the whole 'ignorance is bliss' mindset. Too bad he'd grown up.

But now he had to see it to the end, regardless of what it spelled out between him and Falcon. Or Samus, for that matter.

"I kind of got that. Even if I don't know, I'm used to not liking puzzles when they're done." Then he offered a shrug, as if he literally tried to cast all of that aside. "What can you really do. Sometimes you've just got shit luck."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Happy Valentines! Your Love Is Toxic!

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