The game with Twig was proving to be one of tentative dancing, at arm's length. Courser could play that game. Surely enough, she seemed to be wanting to pay at least some attention to the events as they went on, but there was no denying that at least some of her focus was equally interested in playing the dance with her decoy. The clone didn't take her initial distraction amiss, and equally didn't make any play up on her over-reaction to the dangers of the event. She seemed shaken by the increase in difficulty, but he was guessing she would dislike being marked for it, so courser planned what he could say to her that might be suitably reassuring while also being comfortable as he made his way along the top of the bars. She'd accepted the arm, though. That was good.
The line of thought was derailed as Twig began to answer back in a more playful way than he'd expected, but thankfully the real courser's hands were mostly on auto-pilot now that the test wasn't trying to kill him directly, so it didn't make him falter. Instead the decoy returned her playful grin with warm eyes of his own and a matching smile.
"Well, he certainly knows as many as I do, and I know a lot..." The arms over Twig's shoulder rubbed very slowly, seeming for all the world more like an unconscious action than anything else. "Not just creative moves either.. As you can see, he's very, very good with his hands too, you know." Courser was just dismounting from the bars with a flourish and a slight raise of the arms, as it he were finishing a gymnastic set, and the decoy turned his head to look at Twig directly, giving her shoulder a very gentle squeeze. Really, as a decoy, it was all he could do to give a stronger sense of pressure around her shoulder than a proper squeeze, but the impression was probably clear.
"Still... I'm sure if he thought that a lady like you wanted him to, he'd be quite willing to go all the way with anything you asked..." Here, the decoy stepped up the play, leaning in so its face was conspiratorially close to Twig's. "Though as much a no-one is watching either of us right now, I'm pretty sure there's not enough time for anything like that here on the gym mats..." He winked his right eye and lifted two fingers to touch them to his lips briefly, then turned the wrist to tap the fingertips delicately against Twig's left cheek, still grinning, before he withdrew and returned to the more casual side-by-side position.
Among the list of people not watching what one clone was doing with the white-clad twin, was her sister in black: across from them, Wand was dealing with her own decoy... or not dealing with him, as the case might be. Through his deocy, Courser could practically taste the other girl's conflict, nerves and yearning both, and while it was a very different game of courting to his dance with Twig, it was a careful game all the same. Push too hard and she'd bolt for sure. At her hurried warning, he did pull back his head from her neck, but didn't retreat in any other way - his body remained close in behind her, and his hands held their still just stationary position at the front of her hips. The clone was silent for a few moments, letting Wand calm briefly, then picked up in his soft, charm-laden whisper again in the break where the second clone wasn't saying anything to confuse his words.
"Do you really want me to stop...? I will, if you want, but..." His fingers gave a very delicate impression of squeezing for a moment, something that might suggest a tug of her hips towards his, and then stillness again. "No-one is watching us... no-one at all. She's too busy playing haughty over there to know what she's missing out on." The clone gave a slight shift in his torso next, just gently rubbing his chest against her back in a small motion that settled immediately after. "Too busy pretending she doesn't want what she wants to actually enjoy it. She'll never have any fun that way... but you're not afraid to enjoy what's on offer for what it is... you're braver than her... I can tell ... You're brave enough to grab an opportunity in both hands before it gets away, aren't you?" He had let up on the overt touches and rubbing entirely, in favour of simply standing with the close contact of his chest against her back and hands on her hips, while his voice was a quiet, almost sultry whisper. For a moment, there was overlay again as both clones spoke at the same time, but it hardly mattered. "Though as much a no-one is watching either of us right now, I'm pretty sure there's not enough time for anything like that here on the gym mats..." Wand's clone followed this up with a soft sigh before continuing. "But I'll stop... if you want me to. It's up to you, Wand, just whisper it to me... One word, and I'll be gone, the dance ends, and later is just... another evening alone, with your sister. One word, or two... 'Stop'... or 'Don't Stop', and 'later' might still be as interesting as you want it to be. Close your eyes, just for a moment, put everything else aside, and whisper what you really want." The clone stood about as still was Wand herself now, waiting for the girl to answer.
Elsewhere, a world away, Courser himself had touched down on the mat by this point, and was ready to have a go at the third part of their trial. Due to his unusual position and Damascus having the floor ahead of him, and admittedly, a very major split in his focus as he worked two completely different sets of moves on the girls, the shadow navi had missed the initial thrust of the giant Hall's spear, but he did catch it withdraw and reposition, so he more or less began to put the pieces together. Hopefully, Damascus herself was ready to boost him like they'd planned; courser didn't plan on slowing down, and he took two more running steps after his dismount to meet his mission partner in the launch. He was expecting her to have hands out ready to catch his foot for the vault, but whatever pose she ultimately adopted for the move he had about a second to adapt, and that was really enough to make sure he knew how she meant to handle it. Probably.
Regardless, the spear was coming down for its base level poke by the time he met her for the vault, and whatever method Damascus herself decided to conduct it, they'd find out that either Damascus was even stronger than Courser had expected, or else his own body mass was lighter than Damascus planned; the assisted leap would be more than enough to get him past the top of the wall with momentum to spare, and he barely managed to get a hand on the top before going over. Get a hand on he did, however, even if it brought him to a halt with a rough thump, back to the reverse side of the challenge.
It would have been tempting to just drop down at that point, but he still had a duty to help Damascus up as well, and no decent gentleman would leave an ally in the lurch. It took him a moment to right himself, get his second hand back, and then pull back up to the edge, but by that point the spear would have made its groundward thrust at Damascus and already be returning. His mind darted quickly for the best way to handle the situation, before settling on the necessity for getting both hands down to assist his partner. With a quick snap, he pulled up to perch himself cautiously on the top of the thin wall, both hands and feet spread out for balance. As the spear came for its top stab again, he jumped, turning his body over the thrusting weapon with one hand to the shaft for guidance, and dropped so he could lock his knees over the edge of the wall and lie back, hands outstretched below him, reaching down to be ready to take hold of Damascus' hands, or whatever else she sent in his direction. As long as she didn't weigh a literal tonne, and was making an effort to jump up herself, it shouldn't be too much trouble to sit back up, pull her up with him over the edge, and then they could both drop down the far side together before the clock ran down. Provided everything went to plan.
Elec East High Auditorium
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Having reached the mat first, Damascus took no time to savor her success thus far; whatever the last two statues had planned, it wasn't likely to be much nicer than the traps before them. She was clever enough to see that the clock in front of her was counting down second between attacks, but couldn't make out what the other numbers were, at least not for sure. "Perhaps angles responding to the numbers on a clock?" she reasoned out loud, but that still didn't seem quite right. Especially once the spear aimed down for her feet, she had to reason that she was probably off the mark.
Speaking of which, that spear's stab was an immediate concern, so she transformed into her steel form as she slid into position, waiting for CourseMan. With her skin hardened, she figured she ought to be able to take the thrust with minimal damage, unless it happened to be one of few weapons on the net that would break through her metallic flesh. If it was, they could likely be looking at mission failure, as well as imminent impalement (and not the type that CourseMan and the twins seemed to be hoping was coming). She'd cup both hands while kneeling, waiting for him to step on so she could raise her arms along with him and help him jump up, but it might occur to CourseMan it would be just as convenient, if not more so, to use her breasts as steps up to her head, then make a short hop up to the top of the hurtle. Every part of her seemed solid enough, once the metallic, silver sheen spread across the shape of her body, that he might not be remiss in stepping all over her. He'd probably get a glare, though, if he refused her hands and went that route.
It might also occur to him that he needed to avoid stepping behind her head at all costs. The tail behind her head, which ordinarily only resembled a sword, had taken on an edge now. Pressing one's foot down upon it from above at this point would be the same as voluntarily bisecting one's leg.
Once CourseMan was up, the hard part for her would begin. She couldn't stay a steel statue if she was going to get his assistance up, so she'd have to soften into flesh. The only real danger here was timing; she'd wait just a moment for the next upward thrust to pass before allowing Courser to grab her arms and help her up. This ought to be a coordinated enough effort, even with the soap still coating her body, that the two wouldn't be in danger of embarrassing mishaps (for once). Hopefully, once the two were over, they'd be able to safely climb down the other side. She'd already decided she'd climb down... She wasn't going to risk a repeat of test two in a much more hostile environment. The CourseMen and their twins would have a little more privacy from Damascus' judgmental glare as she was occupied with this portion of the test, assuming she'd made it this far without being stabbed to the point of EJO or otherwise disqualified.
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"Generosity's just another word for overconfidence, when you're dealing with me! And hubris is just another word for... uh," MeleeMan laughed, then trailed off, realizing he had no idea what hubris meant to begin with. He began feeling pretty cocky himself when he seemingly locked in his grip where he wanted to. "Heh! Judo," he repeated, sounding as though he was confirming her hunch, but really just laughing at the notion that he was trying to execute a judo throw.
Unfortunately, MeleeMan had miscalculated again against a rare opponent capable of resisting the grip ordinarily afforded by his strong fists and mighty biceps. Hall didn't have to jump out of her clothes to reverse MeleeMan's hold, only go on the offensive herself. While MeleeMan's hold served a certain purpose, it didn't apply pain or pressure. Hall's, on the other hand, was cutting blood off from MeleeMan's brain, while making it rush to certain other places at the same time. The big brute reflected for a bit how, when he'd first met Anyis, he'd been convinced she must secretly be a man, due to her fantastic physical strength. He'd been wrong about her then, but if it had been Hall he'd met then, in close quarters like this, he thought he might never have questioned the womanhood to begin with.
"Damn. I don't know if I've ever been this horny in my life," MeleeMan reflected as Hall continued booming boasts at him. He'd had some significant feelings watching Anyis fight and Djinni was arousing just to look at... Damascus had a great body and Rania was, well, not as bad as he originally thought... but none of them had ever wrapped him in their legs, smashed their breasts into him, and roared innuendos at him before. If he was the kissing type, he might go for one now, but MeleeMan was not exactly a conventional romantic. Other, lewder activities came into his head well before that did.
"You think I can't shake you or wear you out, huh? Well, sucks to be you, because that's exactly what I'm about to do," he smirked, despite his initial failure to get the pose he wanted. This could actually be eve better, he figured. He clenched his teeth for a moment; Hall would feel heat emanating from his gauntlets, though no actual smoke or jet propulsion. Either such thing would probably demean the "contest" somewhat, and to him, it had begun to adopt a certain sacredness. Rather, he was just preparing to use his arms very hard, as he often did. Hall would feel his fingers grasp harder into both of their holding points.
Grunting with exertion, MeleeMan would begin to shake Hall rapidly up and down, using her shirt and her bloomers (and/or panties, whichever he'd grasped) as long as they'd hold up to violently rack her up and down. Ideally he'd start to feel some give in her grip under the pressure... if he didn't, he was going to start actually getting into the state of needing to use his head and figure out what he really ought to do in order to break this hold, and by that point, he might have even less mental faculty left than he began with. If he lost his grip on either of the articles he was working on, he'd attempt to grasp it back and keep going, eager to keep the pressure on. "Tap out when you're ready!" he encouraged her, though he really hoped she wouldn't.
Two other consequences of this motion: the first, if she didn't distance her torso out a bit, would be that her breasts would rub up and down against his chest and abs, possibly even his face, if he got enough height. He was looking forward to that, if it worked out. The second consequence would be that the cat would come out of the bag, so to speak, and most likely, her groin would end up connecting with what was the male body part equivalent of the statue that she'd menaced Damascus and Courser with during the monkey bar portion of test three. It wouldn't just touch; if she didn't change her MeleeMan-guided trajectory a bit, they'd probably end up rubbing. If she had any lingering doubts over his motivations for all of this, that would probably lay them to rest, unless she was just that devoted to an optimistic theory that MeleeMan was a particularly unusual wrestling/cheerleading coach.
Speaking of which, that spear's stab was an immediate concern, so she transformed into her steel form as she slid into position, waiting for CourseMan. With her skin hardened, she figured she ought to be able to take the thrust with minimal damage, unless it happened to be one of few weapons on the net that would break through her metallic flesh. If it was, they could likely be looking at mission failure, as well as imminent impalement (and not the type that CourseMan and the twins seemed to be hoping was coming). She'd cup both hands while kneeling, waiting for him to step on so she could raise her arms along with him and help him jump up, but it might occur to CourseMan it would be just as convenient, if not more so, to use her breasts as steps up to her head, then make a short hop up to the top of the hurtle. Every part of her seemed solid enough, once the metallic, silver sheen spread across the shape of her body, that he might not be remiss in stepping all over her. He'd probably get a glare, though, if he refused her hands and went that route.
It might also occur to him that he needed to avoid stepping behind her head at all costs. The tail behind her head, which ordinarily only resembled a sword, had taken on an edge now. Pressing one's foot down upon it from above at this point would be the same as voluntarily bisecting one's leg.
Once CourseMan was up, the hard part for her would begin. She couldn't stay a steel statue if she was going to get his assistance up, so she'd have to soften into flesh. The only real danger here was timing; she'd wait just a moment for the next upward thrust to pass before allowing Courser to grab her arms and help her up. This ought to be a coordinated enough effort, even with the soap still coating her body, that the two wouldn't be in danger of embarrassing mishaps (for once). Hopefully, once the two were over, they'd be able to safely climb down the other side. She'd already decided she'd climb down... She wasn't going to risk a repeat of test two in a much more hostile environment. The CourseMen and their twins would have a little more privacy from Damascus' judgmental glare as she was occupied with this portion of the test, assuming she'd made it this far without being stabbed to the point of EJO or otherwise disqualified.
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"Generosity's just another word for overconfidence, when you're dealing with me! And hubris is just another word for... uh," MeleeMan laughed, then trailed off, realizing he had no idea what hubris meant to begin with. He began feeling pretty cocky himself when he seemingly locked in his grip where he wanted to. "Heh! Judo," he repeated, sounding as though he was confirming her hunch, but really just laughing at the notion that he was trying to execute a judo throw.
Unfortunately, MeleeMan had miscalculated again against a rare opponent capable of resisting the grip ordinarily afforded by his strong fists and mighty biceps. Hall didn't have to jump out of her clothes to reverse MeleeMan's hold, only go on the offensive herself. While MeleeMan's hold served a certain purpose, it didn't apply pain or pressure. Hall's, on the other hand, was cutting blood off from MeleeMan's brain, while making it rush to certain other places at the same time. The big brute reflected for a bit how, when he'd first met Anyis, he'd been convinced she must secretly be a man, due to her fantastic physical strength. He'd been wrong about her then, but if it had been Hall he'd met then, in close quarters like this, he thought he might never have questioned the womanhood to begin with.
"Damn. I don't know if I've ever been this horny in my life," MeleeMan reflected as Hall continued booming boasts at him. He'd had some significant feelings watching Anyis fight and Djinni was arousing just to look at... Damascus had a great body and Rania was, well, not as bad as he originally thought... but none of them had ever wrapped him in their legs, smashed their breasts into him, and roared innuendos at him before. If he was the kissing type, he might go for one now, but MeleeMan was not exactly a conventional romantic. Other, lewder activities came into his head well before that did.
"You think I can't shake you or wear you out, huh? Well, sucks to be you, because that's exactly what I'm about to do," he smirked, despite his initial failure to get the pose he wanted. This could actually be eve better, he figured. He clenched his teeth for a moment; Hall would feel heat emanating from his gauntlets, though no actual smoke or jet propulsion. Either such thing would probably demean the "contest" somewhat, and to him, it had begun to adopt a certain sacredness. Rather, he was just preparing to use his arms very hard, as he often did. Hall would feel his fingers grasp harder into both of their holding points.
Grunting with exertion, MeleeMan would begin to shake Hall rapidly up and down, using her shirt and her bloomers (and/or panties, whichever he'd grasped) as long as they'd hold up to violently rack her up and down. Ideally he'd start to feel some give in her grip under the pressure... if he didn't, he was going to start actually getting into the state of needing to use his head and figure out what he really ought to do in order to break this hold, and by that point, he might have even less mental faculty left than he began with. If he lost his grip on either of the articles he was working on, he'd attempt to grasp it back and keep going, eager to keep the pressure on. "Tap out when you're ready!" he encouraged her, though he really hoped she wouldn't.
Two other consequences of this motion: the first, if she didn't distance her torso out a bit, would be that her breasts would rub up and down against his chest and abs, possibly even his face, if he got enough height. He was looking forward to that, if it worked out. The second consequence would be that the cat would come out of the bag, so to speak, and most likely, her groin would end up connecting with what was the male body part equivalent of the statue that she'd menaced Damascus and Courser with during the monkey bar portion of test three. It wouldn't just touch; if she didn't change her MeleeMan-guided trajectory a bit, they'd probably end up rubbing. If she had any lingering doubts over his motivations for all of this, that would probably lay them to rest, unless she was just that devoted to an optimistic theory that MeleeMan was a particularly unusual wrestling/cheerleading coach.
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Twig giggled at CourseMan's flirty return, her smile tightening a bit as she let her eyes drift to the hand on her shoulder she'd been casually ignoring before. Listening to his offer, she grinned and glanced both ways, before tittering again and drawing back from his intimate gesture. "Oh-ho! Let's, like, save some for later, okay? Sounds like my idea of a good time, but I'm totally looking forward to leaving these gym mats behind us... There'll be plenty of time for fun and games later... maybe. We'll see," she finished, tactically cooling her heels and turning her head back to the competition in front of her. "For now, I'd better keep an eye on these two. Can't count on Wandy for that..."
Indeed, although she was faced the right direction, Wand could not care less about what was happening on the obstacle course, focused entirely on the body surrounding her. It probably would have been a nice followup if she did something with her hands on his cues, but she seemed powerless to do much of anything other than make breathy noises and bite her lip. She still made a concentrated effort not to meet his eyes as he kept whispering to her. "Don't..." she began in a low voice, biting her lip and falling into a pout. "... Don't make me say it, jerk! Ugh, it's as much for you as it is for me, right? So just, like... do what you want... Maybe not right here, but if you wanna, like, sneak off, I don't think Twiggy or the others are watching..."
The statue challenge was probably going to take a bit more effort than overcoming the meager barriers of willingness two budding female Navis possessed. After the first thrust, the statue had remained completely still as Damascus had gone to steel and given CourseMan a boost up. Again, his natural athleticism came through, allowing him to make his maneuvers with ease.
The timing on this one was looking pretty tight: if the two were paying attention to the timing, they'd realize that if the initial thrust that started when Damascus first touched down was five seconds, another fifteen seconds had passed while CourseMan got positioned and Damascus waited to parry a groundward thrust with her steel body. That thrust, however, wasn't difficult to time: this was because it clearly corresponded to the "15" on the clock moving down to "0." By the time it had finally reached final number, it had thrust out, targetting Damascus with pinpoint accuracy. The breathtaking question of whether or not it would penetrate lasted only a moment as the spear deflected with a screeching, grinding noise, leaving Damascus mostly unharmed.
At this point, there were probably two important things to note. One was that its blow being deflected seemed to have messed up the statue's movement somehow, and it creaked a bit as it tried to move back into its thrust effort. Correspondingly, while the top two numbers on the clock stayed at zero, the previous three was flashing between "3" and "2" erratically. To the potential dismay of the two, however, they would probably notice the statue wasn't moving for a thrust at the top at all. It seemed that, when the arm was back in position, it was going to thrust for the middle... and that would be any second now.
The second important thing was that Twig had mentioned earlier that this test was only timed for 25 seconds. If the timer had started when Damascus touched down, that couldn't leave them with more than five seconds left. The two would need to carefully consider their strategy in the final moments: not only if there was a way to get over even more quickly, but if there was a way to do it without Damascus being mid-climb when the timer went down. Then again, maybe these were all idle concerns. If the pair was confident, they weren't making bad time before. It might be wise to finish through as they'd originally planned.
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"Au contraire, my dear MeleeMan, few are those who can count their identity as blessed as myyyaaaah!" she began wailing as MeleeMan began his next avenue of attack. Her body rocked much as MeleeMan had hoped, her undershirt-clad chest brushing up and down against his chest (but not actually bouncing that much, as her bra was still doing an admirable job). "Aaaaahoho! What are you thinking, Coach? Your arms are going to get tired far before my muscles give way under this method of attack! I could hold up this defense for days if need be- eek!"
The woman's usual boom turned into a shrill shriek as MeleeMan's arc carried her a bit lower than was prudent. "M-MeleeMan, I think your body may have become a tad overexcited from all of this exertion- Oh! Oh my! MeleeMan, stop, it's poking! It's poking, hold on! Everything's slipping!" The girl's face had become red as she realized the would-be coach's offense was starting to shift her garment's positions on her, feeling the hold of her bra against the momentum of her rather impressive breasts weakening and her lower garments, underwear and all, beginning to be shifted (consciously or not) to the point where the exposure of crack was becoming a concern (and the alternating wedgie a bother). "I-I'm not giving up, I don't give up, but time out! Time out, for the sake of decency!" Even in this declaration, she was still smiling, as she seemed helpless to avoid doing so. Now, however, there was a pretty clear urgency in her eyes that MeleeMan would have to be intentionally ignoring to miss.
To Hall's credit (if perseverance in such a challenge was a credit), she really didn't seem to be weakening under the attack. It appeared she really would keep her hold locked in unless MeleeMan acknowledged the time out. If he did, however, she would immediately dismount and work on trying to straighten out her garments.
Indeed, although she was faced the right direction, Wand could not care less about what was happening on the obstacle course, focused entirely on the body surrounding her. It probably would have been a nice followup if she did something with her hands on his cues, but she seemed powerless to do much of anything other than make breathy noises and bite her lip. She still made a concentrated effort not to meet his eyes as he kept whispering to her. "Don't..." she began in a low voice, biting her lip and falling into a pout. "... Don't make me say it, jerk! Ugh, it's as much for you as it is for me, right? So just, like... do what you want... Maybe not right here, but if you wanna, like, sneak off, I don't think Twiggy or the others are watching..."
The statue challenge was probably going to take a bit more effort than overcoming the meager barriers of willingness two budding female Navis possessed. After the first thrust, the statue had remained completely still as Damascus had gone to steel and given CourseMan a boost up. Again, his natural athleticism came through, allowing him to make his maneuvers with ease.
The timing on this one was looking pretty tight: if the two were paying attention to the timing, they'd realize that if the initial thrust that started when Damascus first touched down was five seconds, another fifteen seconds had passed while CourseMan got positioned and Damascus waited to parry a groundward thrust with her steel body. That thrust, however, wasn't difficult to time: this was because it clearly corresponded to the "15" on the clock moving down to "0." By the time it had finally reached final number, it had thrust out, targetting Damascus with pinpoint accuracy. The breathtaking question of whether or not it would penetrate lasted only a moment as the spear deflected with a screeching, grinding noise, leaving Damascus mostly unharmed.
At this point, there were probably two important things to note. One was that its blow being deflected seemed to have messed up the statue's movement somehow, and it creaked a bit as it tried to move back into its thrust effort. Correspondingly, while the top two numbers on the clock stayed at zero, the previous three was flashing between "3" and "2" erratically. To the potential dismay of the two, however, they would probably notice the statue wasn't moving for a thrust at the top at all. It seemed that, when the arm was back in position, it was going to thrust for the middle... and that would be any second now.
The second important thing was that Twig had mentioned earlier that this test was only timed for 25 seconds. If the timer had started when Damascus touched down, that couldn't leave them with more than five seconds left. The two would need to carefully consider their strategy in the final moments: not only if there was a way to get over even more quickly, but if there was a way to do it without Damascus being mid-climb when the timer went down. Then again, maybe these were all idle concerns. If the pair was confident, they weren't making bad time before. It might be wise to finish through as they'd originally planned.
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"Au contraire, my dear MeleeMan, few are those who can count their identity as blessed as myyyaaaah!" she began wailing as MeleeMan began his next avenue of attack. Her body rocked much as MeleeMan had hoped, her undershirt-clad chest brushing up and down against his chest (but not actually bouncing that much, as her bra was still doing an admirable job). "Aaaaahoho! What are you thinking, Coach? Your arms are going to get tired far before my muscles give way under this method of attack! I could hold up this defense for days if need be- eek!"
The woman's usual boom turned into a shrill shriek as MeleeMan's arc carried her a bit lower than was prudent. "M-MeleeMan, I think your body may have become a tad overexcited from all of this exertion- Oh! Oh my! MeleeMan, stop, it's poking! It's poking, hold on! Everything's slipping!" The girl's face had become red as she realized the would-be coach's offense was starting to shift her garment's positions on her, feeling the hold of her bra against the momentum of her rather impressive breasts weakening and her lower garments, underwear and all, beginning to be shifted (consciously or not) to the point where the exposure of crack was becoming a concern (and the alternating wedgie a bother). "I-I'm not giving up, I don't give up, but time out! Time out, for the sake of decency!" Even in this declaration, she was still smiling, as she seemed helpless to avoid doing so. Now, however, there was a pretty clear urgency in her eyes that MeleeMan would have to be intentionally ignoring to miss.
To Hall's credit (if perseverance in such a challenge was a credit), she really didn't seem to be weakening under the attack. It appeared she really would keep her hold locked in unless MeleeMan acknowledged the time out. If he did, however, she would immediately dismount and work on trying to straighten out her garments.
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Ever the gentleman, and a mission-focused one at that, Courser did, of course, use Damascus' offered hands as his springboard. The realisation that he'd misjudged the timing of the spear pattern, however, came too late for him to actually modify his plans, for now, though he did curse himself inwardly for spending too much of his focus flirting and not enough paying attention to the actual task at hand. As such, time was very much of the essence as he reached down for his partner's hands, hanging from his knees at the top of the wall. the way the spear struck Damascus' hardened form and stuttered seemed to have thrown off its rhythm, too, so all they had left was to move quickly, and hope it was quick enough. He held his hands out and ready for her to grab, seconds counting in his head; it would be up to Damascus whether she waited for the middle thrust, or tried to get to him ahead of it - either way, Courser was ready to pull her up as swiftly as he could manage the moment both of their hands locked in a firm grip.
One more curl was no real trouble, even pulling on his partner's non-metal weight, after the earlier crunch trial. As he assisted her, he brought her up level for the first part while he sat upright, arms still mostly straight, then guided the angle to the side a little once she was almost there. His right arms reached out all the way to the side, still holding hers, while his left arced over his head to settle across his chest, guiding her left hand in the process. For her part, Damascus would find this lift bringing her up to a section of wall directly beside Courser himself, and hopefully with enough momentum to give her a good purchase on the top edge with him. It would also, coincidentally, result in Courser having one hand across her back, holding the hand furthest from him, while the other still gripped hers in between them. If Damascus made a motion to begin climbing down the far side safely, though, courser had other plans. He wasn't letting go of her grip and instead braced himself to push off the wall completely - she'd be able to feel the muscles in his arm tense up against her back.
"No room for a safe climb - time's up. Got to go now, together, come on!" Without any further warning than that, Courser kicked off the edge of the wall and jumped down the far side. The position of his lift had left him in the right place to apply significant pressure to Damascus' back as well as he jumped down, and given that she would only have just crested the top, and that the lip itself was precarious enough already, he guessed there would be little room for her to do much beyond going with it. With any luck, they'd both be hitting the bottom mat on the far side before time ran out completely, but it would probably be a near thing either way.
Over where the two young ladies were practising the traditional cheer-leader skill of being pliable to male interest, the decoy who was engaged with Twig and nodded to her, grinning as he accepted her re-establishing some distance and letting his arm drop once more. It was cute the way she'd made absolutely sure no-one else in the room was seeing them before allowing herself the girlish little giggle. Quite adorable, really. When he responded to her, his voice had dropped back to a more casual, friendly tone, rather than outright honey and charm.
"Later then, of course. They'll be finished with this one in a moment anyway, and I suppose you'll have to get pretty Boy started on his final test. What was it going to be... endurance?" Here he chuckled warmly and raised an eyebrow, looking sidelong at Twig with a flash of teeth in his grin. "I'd wager you won't need to watch that one too closely at all, unless you really want to. I can already guarantee you, he's the kinda guy that can keep going for hours at a time, if that's what's wanted." Here he clasped his hands behind his back, then kicked a slow, lazy circle around the would-be cheerleader on a small water current. His voice, meanwhile, was drifting more and more back into flirtatious territory, once more oozing entendre in a refined tone. "An endurance test is bound to take a while though. Later might be good, but while we're in a gym... no harm in warming up a bit, don't you think?" He completed the circle, then turned delicately on one toe point and circled back the other way, gliding backwards now. "Unless you're warm enough already, and you're just classy enough not to let it show. I do appreciate class, after all. Not like a certain someone..." the clone slid to a stop, standing beside Twiggy again, and resting on elbow very lightly on her shoulder in a friendly manner. He leaned his head in close, and whispered in something of a conspiratorial tone.
"Take a look over there. Just subtle-like." his eyes flicked over to Wand and her clone for a moment, then back to the test instead. "Well, wouldn't matter if you stared really, she's far too caught up in her own little world, putting it all on the table like that." He shook his head. "She's so wrapped up you could set off a firework behind her and she wouldn't notice. You're classier than that though... you could let yourself get warmed up to the point of bursting, and never let it show," he tilted his head to look at her properly again for a moment. "Not until you wanted to, of course." In his voice, he emphasised the 'you', selling up Twig's control over her own situation as much as subtly challenging her to his slightly naught game. "We might be waiting for a while, with the endurance test, though... and Pretty Boy won't be seeing us, on those treadmills, and Wandy isn't seeing much of anything... what are we to do, then?" He backed off again, just a step, and stretched in a way that flexed his chest and let him casually buff his knuckles on it. He left the question hanging, though, since chances were Twig would need to be addressing the real Courser shortly to get the next test under-way.
Across the floor, where Wandy was very much not paying attention to the challenges of the obstacle course, her own attentive clone grinned and bent its head down from whispering in her ear, to rubbing its cheek against hers from behind.
"Later then, of course..." unlike the distance-respecting tone of the other decoy, this one's words remained laced and dripping with hinted at promise of what was still to come. "I would love to sneak you away and help you see stars, sexy, but we shouldn't leave the gym until everything is done. Soon, I promise. They'll be finished with this one in a moment anyway..." Since she had told the clone to do what it wanted, though, he stopped whispering in order to let her focus on the way his finger tips traced delicately back and forth over the curves of her hips. What pressure he could actually apply was put on more on the downward and inward motions now, instead of the pulling back, creating the sense of moving towards somewhere very sensitive indeed, but nevertheless a long way short still. "What was the next one going to be... endurance?" The hands retreated and returned to rubbing soothingly against the middle of her back instead, though they didn't stay there for long - this time the creeping progress edged outwards and around her chest, under the girls arms until his fingertips very gently brushed across the outer curves of her breasts. He shifted his head to the other side of hers.
"Don't worry, no one is looking. Just relax and enjoy, like you know you want to... Because if it's about me as well, like you say, beautiful, well, what I enjoy is helping beautiful women like you have..." He let her hear a slight intake of breath, in flattering imitation of quiet pleasure gasp. "...Fun." As it was, his hands subtly caressing her chest were still only a gentle touch - if she actually wanted a firmer touch, the clone wouldn't be able to give it - but if she was thinking clearly enough that truth in itself might help her feel safe in light of his exploring.
"You know... An endurance test is bound to take a while. Later might be good, but while we're in a gym... no harm in warming up." He paused to press in close against her back again. "Unless you're warm enough already. No reason not to let it show. No-one's looking over here, so tell me... are you feeling warm?" The decoy fell silent and gave Wand room to answer, if she was so inclined, and amused itself instead by continue to 'massage' the girl gently while nuzzling at her cheek and neck. Of course, all things going in time, the final sage of the test would probably be finishing in less than a few moments, one way or the other, so unless the others in the gym completely disregarded Wand and her suitor to deal with that, and unless Wandy herself was tuned out enough not to notice, the state of distraction might not last much longer anyway.
One more curl was no real trouble, even pulling on his partner's non-metal weight, after the earlier crunch trial. As he assisted her, he brought her up level for the first part while he sat upright, arms still mostly straight, then guided the angle to the side a little once she was almost there. His right arms reached out all the way to the side, still holding hers, while his left arced over his head to settle across his chest, guiding her left hand in the process. For her part, Damascus would find this lift bringing her up to a section of wall directly beside Courser himself, and hopefully with enough momentum to give her a good purchase on the top edge with him. It would also, coincidentally, result in Courser having one hand across her back, holding the hand furthest from him, while the other still gripped hers in between them. If Damascus made a motion to begin climbing down the far side safely, though, courser had other plans. He wasn't letting go of her grip and instead braced himself to push off the wall completely - she'd be able to feel the muscles in his arm tense up against her back.
"No room for a safe climb - time's up. Got to go now, together, come on!" Without any further warning than that, Courser kicked off the edge of the wall and jumped down the far side. The position of his lift had left him in the right place to apply significant pressure to Damascus' back as well as he jumped down, and given that she would only have just crested the top, and that the lip itself was precarious enough already, he guessed there would be little room for her to do much beyond going with it. With any luck, they'd both be hitting the bottom mat on the far side before time ran out completely, but it would probably be a near thing either way.
Over where the two young ladies were practising the traditional cheer-leader skill of being pliable to male interest, the decoy who was engaged with Twig and nodded to her, grinning as he accepted her re-establishing some distance and letting his arm drop once more. It was cute the way she'd made absolutely sure no-one else in the room was seeing them before allowing herself the girlish little giggle. Quite adorable, really. When he responded to her, his voice had dropped back to a more casual, friendly tone, rather than outright honey and charm.
"Later then, of course. They'll be finished with this one in a moment anyway, and I suppose you'll have to get pretty Boy started on his final test. What was it going to be... endurance?" Here he chuckled warmly and raised an eyebrow, looking sidelong at Twig with a flash of teeth in his grin. "I'd wager you won't need to watch that one too closely at all, unless you really want to. I can already guarantee you, he's the kinda guy that can keep going for hours at a time, if that's what's wanted." Here he clasped his hands behind his back, then kicked a slow, lazy circle around the would-be cheerleader on a small water current. His voice, meanwhile, was drifting more and more back into flirtatious territory, once more oozing entendre in a refined tone. "An endurance test is bound to take a while though. Later might be good, but while we're in a gym... no harm in warming up a bit, don't you think?" He completed the circle, then turned delicately on one toe point and circled back the other way, gliding backwards now. "Unless you're warm enough already, and you're just classy enough not to let it show. I do appreciate class, after all. Not like a certain someone..." the clone slid to a stop, standing beside Twiggy again, and resting on elbow very lightly on her shoulder in a friendly manner. He leaned his head in close, and whispered in something of a conspiratorial tone.
"Take a look over there. Just subtle-like." his eyes flicked over to Wand and her clone for a moment, then back to the test instead. "Well, wouldn't matter if you stared really, she's far too caught up in her own little world, putting it all on the table like that." He shook his head. "She's so wrapped up you could set off a firework behind her and she wouldn't notice. You're classier than that though... you could let yourself get warmed up to the point of bursting, and never let it show," he tilted his head to look at her properly again for a moment. "Not until you wanted to, of course." In his voice, he emphasised the 'you', selling up Twig's control over her own situation as much as subtly challenging her to his slightly naught game. "We might be waiting for a while, with the endurance test, though... and Pretty Boy won't be seeing us, on those treadmills, and Wandy isn't seeing much of anything... what are we to do, then?" He backed off again, just a step, and stretched in a way that flexed his chest and let him casually buff his knuckles on it. He left the question hanging, though, since chances were Twig would need to be addressing the real Courser shortly to get the next test under-way.
Across the floor, where Wandy was very much not paying attention to the challenges of the obstacle course, her own attentive clone grinned and bent its head down from whispering in her ear, to rubbing its cheek against hers from behind.
"Later then, of course..." unlike the distance-respecting tone of the other decoy, this one's words remained laced and dripping with hinted at promise of what was still to come. "I would love to sneak you away and help you see stars, sexy, but we shouldn't leave the gym until everything is done. Soon, I promise. They'll be finished with this one in a moment anyway..." Since she had told the clone to do what it wanted, though, he stopped whispering in order to let her focus on the way his finger tips traced delicately back and forth over the curves of her hips. What pressure he could actually apply was put on more on the downward and inward motions now, instead of the pulling back, creating the sense of moving towards somewhere very sensitive indeed, but nevertheless a long way short still. "What was the next one going to be... endurance?" The hands retreated and returned to rubbing soothingly against the middle of her back instead, though they didn't stay there for long - this time the creeping progress edged outwards and around her chest, under the girls arms until his fingertips very gently brushed across the outer curves of her breasts. He shifted his head to the other side of hers.
"Don't worry, no one is looking. Just relax and enjoy, like you know you want to... Because if it's about me as well, like you say, beautiful, well, what I enjoy is helping beautiful women like you have..." He let her hear a slight intake of breath, in flattering imitation of quiet pleasure gasp. "...Fun." As it was, his hands subtly caressing her chest were still only a gentle touch - if she actually wanted a firmer touch, the clone wouldn't be able to give it - but if she was thinking clearly enough that truth in itself might help her feel safe in light of his exploring.
"You know... An endurance test is bound to take a while. Later might be good, but while we're in a gym... no harm in warming up." He paused to press in close against her back again. "Unless you're warm enough already. No reason not to let it show. No-one's looking over here, so tell me... are you feeling warm?" The decoy fell silent and gave Wand room to answer, if she was so inclined, and amused itself instead by continue to 'massage' the girl gently while nuzzling at her cheek and neck. Of course, all things going in time, the final sage of the test would probably be finishing in less than a few moments, one way or the other, so unless the others in the gym completely disregarded Wand and her suitor to deal with that, and unless Wandy herself was tuned out enough not to notice, the state of distraction might not last much longer anyway.
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In a rare moment of self-gratification, Damascus smirked, realizing that Hall's spears were powerless against her innate body-hardening skill. On the other hand, the smirk faded soon enough; once CourseMan had gone up and over, she realized that her real enemy was the time constraint she was working under here. Complicating matters, the angle of the thrusts had also changed... not particularly challenging to dodge if she was operating under her own time, but at this point, she had no extra motions left if she wanted to beat the clock. CourseMan was doing as much as he could, but she knew that time would run out if she waited for the spear to go by one more time.
The SP jumped up to grab his arm immediately, following through as he was ready to receive her. They'd be put in close contact for a while, but this was hardly the time to think of any funny business, especially given that they were both probably sweating like professional athletes at this point... although, at least the soap would freshen up their scent a bit. Damascus didn't have time to consider that the lubricant might make her a little difficult to hold onto her, but even if she did, there wasn't anything she would be able to do about it. She wasn't able to time the seconds specifically, but she knew she had to defend. Hardening her whole body wouldn't be an option right now... with the added weight of all that steel, she'd probably drag herself back down to the floor of the gym along with her partner. She thought he could handle a bit of extra weight though... seeing as the spear was going for her middle, she attempted to harden just her waistline. She figured that ought to defend her from the stab.
Hoping that would be enough, she'd attempt to use CourseMan's assistance to get up and over for real this time. If so, she'd take his advice and careen on down the back of the climbing wall rather than taking her time stepping down as she'd originally planned. They'd just have to hope the wall was more forgiving than the rope... Then again, hopefully Twig and Wand had not addressed that concern because it wasn't relevant, not just due to nervousness. If she got down, she'd honestly be at the point where she wasn't the least bit concerned what CourseMan was preparing to do with the girls. She'd only be considering what kind of endurance test they had to face next after this obstacle course. CourseMan didn't seem concerned, but she thought he was riding the line between brave and stupid pretty hard... she was at least a bit concerned, and she was the one that could turn her body into metal. If five or six of those statues surrounded them and started jabbing with spears, she didn't think the endurance he was boasting of, which was probably more for sex than it was for surviving mortal wounds, would save him.
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Elsewhere, a certain someone did indeed have the endurance required for sex more on their mind than that needed to survive mortal wounds. Hall's exclamations were making MeleeMan more excited in spite of himself; he barely managed to grunt out, "Can't help it," in his own defense as he continued to shake her as bodily as he could manage. He had a lot more in the tank- his muscle strength and endurance were two of his only legit redeeming qualities, after all- but he had to admit that Hall was proving so unaffected from an actual competitive standpoint by his onslaught that it was a bit humbling for him. That only made him want to try harder. He grit his teeth and shook and shook and shook...
Until finally, he tossed the girl roughly aside, cursing "damn it... damn, screw it" under his breath as he let her go. As much as he wanted to keep going, he'd found he was developing a bit of a soft spot for the crazy school council president (perhaps because he wasn't the one she was trying to burn and stab to death), so seeing her freak out was killing his buzz a little mentally, though not physically. Breathing hard, he beat his fists together idly and with great frustration as he waited for her to fix herself up. "That was a mistake," he lied to himself, gritting his teeth and looking frantically around the room for something to distract himself from his moment of weakness, i.e., not exerting his influence over Hall just then. "I don't make mistakes very often but... damn, when I make them," he thought to himself, barely resisting the urge to pummel more exercise equipment into smithereens to vent his anger.
Once he'd given her a second, he turned back around, turning his accusations towards others, as he often did. "Time out, that's all this is! I want you to think about what just happened and realize that's a weak point of yours, alright? Any guy could do something like that- to one of your teammates- and they won't all be as nice as me," he ranted, stepping forward to wave a finger in her face. "Look, if you started rubbing against me or end up pulling my shirt or my pants off in the heat of a wrestling maneuver, I'm not gonna call for decency or a time out, I'm going to keep fighting back! I don't want weakness in me or you, that's what it means to be a man!" he growled. "I mean, a coach. A manly coach," he corrected, wiping his mouth with his sleeve indiscreetly as he continued catching his breath.
Still, one advantage about this time-out and promised reengagement: it meant that the Hall would be distracted for at least a bit longer. He certainly wasn't thinking about that right now, though. "Look, I'll lead by example... We can't have that kind of weakness in either of us. To get back on even footing and get over your problem, just attack me the same way, alright? You attack me and try being 'indecent' or whatever; I'll show you that I don't care about my clothes or my body or any decency crap and just how much better it makes me as a coach. Yeah, I said it: I'm a better coach than you, until you get over this obsession with clean behavior and decency," he scolded her, glaring angrily from behind his visor.
At this point, ironically, MeleeMan wasn't thinking about having Hall do anything dirty with him. He was only trying to deflect his anger towards his own inability to manipulate events how he wanted them so that it became a shortcoming of someone else. On the off chance that she took up his offer and really went for it, however, he had forgotten at least one important factor: her skirt was still tucked into the hem of his pants. If she displaced them at all, she'd probably find it. Then again, she'd probably be much more concerned about what else she found.
The SP jumped up to grab his arm immediately, following through as he was ready to receive her. They'd be put in close contact for a while, but this was hardly the time to think of any funny business, especially given that they were both probably sweating like professional athletes at this point... although, at least the soap would freshen up their scent a bit. Damascus didn't have time to consider that the lubricant might make her a little difficult to hold onto her, but even if she did, there wasn't anything she would be able to do about it. She wasn't able to time the seconds specifically, but she knew she had to defend. Hardening her whole body wouldn't be an option right now... with the added weight of all that steel, she'd probably drag herself back down to the floor of the gym along with her partner. She thought he could handle a bit of extra weight though... seeing as the spear was going for her middle, she attempted to harden just her waistline. She figured that ought to defend her from the stab.
Hoping that would be enough, she'd attempt to use CourseMan's assistance to get up and over for real this time. If so, she'd take his advice and careen on down the back of the climbing wall rather than taking her time stepping down as she'd originally planned. They'd just have to hope the wall was more forgiving than the rope... Then again, hopefully Twig and Wand had not addressed that concern because it wasn't relevant, not just due to nervousness. If she got down, she'd honestly be at the point where she wasn't the least bit concerned what CourseMan was preparing to do with the girls. She'd only be considering what kind of endurance test they had to face next after this obstacle course. CourseMan didn't seem concerned, but she thought he was riding the line between brave and stupid pretty hard... she was at least a bit concerned, and she was the one that could turn her body into metal. If five or six of those statues surrounded them and started jabbing with spears, she didn't think the endurance he was boasting of, which was probably more for sex than it was for surviving mortal wounds, would save him.
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Elsewhere, a certain someone did indeed have the endurance required for sex more on their mind than that needed to survive mortal wounds. Hall's exclamations were making MeleeMan more excited in spite of himself; he barely managed to grunt out, "Can't help it," in his own defense as he continued to shake her as bodily as he could manage. He had a lot more in the tank- his muscle strength and endurance were two of his only legit redeeming qualities, after all- but he had to admit that Hall was proving so unaffected from an actual competitive standpoint by his onslaught that it was a bit humbling for him. That only made him want to try harder. He grit his teeth and shook and shook and shook...
Until finally, he tossed the girl roughly aside, cursing "damn it... damn, screw it" under his breath as he let her go. As much as he wanted to keep going, he'd found he was developing a bit of a soft spot for the crazy school council president (perhaps because he wasn't the one she was trying to burn and stab to death), so seeing her freak out was killing his buzz a little mentally, though not physically. Breathing hard, he beat his fists together idly and with great frustration as he waited for her to fix herself up. "That was a mistake," he lied to himself, gritting his teeth and looking frantically around the room for something to distract himself from his moment of weakness, i.e., not exerting his influence over Hall just then. "I don't make mistakes very often but... damn, when I make them," he thought to himself, barely resisting the urge to pummel more exercise equipment into smithereens to vent his anger.
Once he'd given her a second, he turned back around, turning his accusations towards others, as he often did. "Time out, that's all this is! I want you to think about what just happened and realize that's a weak point of yours, alright? Any guy could do something like that- to one of your teammates- and they won't all be as nice as me," he ranted, stepping forward to wave a finger in her face. "Look, if you started rubbing against me or end up pulling my shirt or my pants off in the heat of a wrestling maneuver, I'm not gonna call for decency or a time out, I'm going to keep fighting back! I don't want weakness in me or you, that's what it means to be a man!" he growled. "I mean, a coach. A manly coach," he corrected, wiping his mouth with his sleeve indiscreetly as he continued catching his breath.
Still, one advantage about this time-out and promised reengagement: it meant that the Hall would be distracted for at least a bit longer. He certainly wasn't thinking about that right now, though. "Look, I'll lead by example... We can't have that kind of weakness in either of us. To get back on even footing and get over your problem, just attack me the same way, alright? You attack me and try being 'indecent' or whatever; I'll show you that I don't care about my clothes or my body or any decency crap and just how much better it makes me as a coach. Yeah, I said it: I'm a better coach than you, until you get over this obsession with clean behavior and decency," he scolded her, glaring angrily from behind his visor.
At this point, ironically, MeleeMan wasn't thinking about having Hall do anything dirty with him. He was only trying to deflect his anger towards his own inability to manipulate events how he wanted them so that it became a shortcoming of someone else. On the off chance that she took up his offer and really went for it, however, he had forgotten at least one important factor: her skirt was still tucked into the hem of his pants. If she displaced them at all, she'd probably find it. Then again, she'd probably be much more concerned about what else she found.
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CourseMan chose to apply focus and expediency to the task at hand, and Damascus wisely avoided any reflexive steeling against the promise of the spear's next blow. These two decisions together allowed the two to get over the wall and, quite probably, tumbling down the other side just as the statue sorted out its defect. Its spear was nothing but a breeze below Damascus's heel as she vaulted over.
The Navi and SP might not be happy about how they handled the dismount (the other side of the wall was an equally long and steep fall), but they'd probably be happy at the results. A lit mat and victory tune greeted them. Of course, there was no chance at all either of the twins had been watching the clock, so there was probably no way they'd ever know how close they'd come. All of the statues folded into passive positions again as that trial came to an end, each lowering into back into the floor. Once the pit below the monkey bars closed, the fires from the tires having stopped earlier, one could be forgiven for thinking it was a totally reasonable obstacle course again.
As for the twins, in the meantime, they were enjoyed in their own methods of being tangled up in CourseMan's grasp. Twig, the less boldly grasped of the two, gave CourseMan a small smile. "Yeah, the next one is the treadmills, I think? I'm sure it's gonna be, like, running super-fast while they have to dodge lasers like that guy from that one movie... anyway, I get it, CourseMan's got a tight body. It's not that I have any need to watch that, but listen to you! You, like, seriously wanna make out in this gym?" Twig rolled her eyes, although she was clearly protesting more as a matter of establishing her standards and not as an act of protest or disgust.
The would-be cheerleader cast her eyes to her sister with a sigh, then cast them away again. She was rolling her eyes as hard as she could, since that was the reaction that was called for, but watching it had made her obviously red. "G-geez... Wandy's surprisingly easy, huh.... Like, get a room, you two..." she muttered, seeming as if she was suddenly doing some thinking herself. "Uh, anyway, let me do my thing and look at the next competition so we can get outta here..."
Wand, in the meantime, continued to be putty in her hired coach's hands, buying whatever lines he sold in bulk quantity, whether she'd admit to it in so many words or not. His comment about "nobody watching" caused her to chance a glance over in Twig's direction, but it was gone a few seconds before Twig actually darted her own eyes over. As such, Wand simply gave short, terse nods as positive nods to his inquiries, continuing to stand about weak in her knees and let CourseMan work his magic however he felt appropriate... up until his last statement, which caused her to pout and shrug a bit in his hands. "Mmm... I'm not gonna say whatever you want, jerk... Seriously, maybe you better ease up before-" she started, her eyes darting around again, before her sister shouted, making her give guilty jump in place and scramble away from her clone.
"Wandy! Woah, woah, Wandy, Courser, all of you!" she shouted, not bothering to address Damascus with any name but trying to call her into the huddle. "This is bad, this is bad! I took a look at the last contest... Hall's supposed to come administer it herself! It's a treadmill endurance competition and it says... it says we've gotta outlast her on the treadmill?! I mean, uh, my endurance is pretty good, like... I'm not that bad," she said, flipping her hair self-consciously.
"What the heck, Twiggy!" Wand shouted, putting her hands on her hair. "No, like, you don't get it! Have you seen Hall at track?! She's a freakin' monster! And, and, besides that, what are we gonna do to hide these two?! How are we gonna hide this?!"
"Yeah, you're like, not exactly the best at 'hiding things', are you?" Twig said judgmentally, putting her hands on her hips. She continued before her sister could respond. "But, uh, yeah... that means the game is up, right? I mean, not like Wandy and I can run on that kind of thing, and even if we could, we'd get totally creamed by Hall, I'm sure..."
"We're too close to give up now, though! You've got some kind of plan for how to deal with it, right?" she said, turning to CourseMan's clone she'd been with instead of the genuine Navi for confirmation.
---
MeleeMan's attempt to toss Hall aside was probably necessary for his conscience, but it couldn't be helping his ego. His attempt to stop shaking and release her only succeeded in giving her one more rough shake, as without explicitly saying he was giving her a breather, Hall kept her vice-like gripped locked in. Getting the message, though, Wand voluntarily dismounted as quickly as she could and scooted over to a side, fixing her bloomers and adjusting her shirt while standing facing him.
She regarded him with a small smile that seemed sympathetic (or pitying?), but also incredulous. She waited for him to take a pause before interjecting at her usual volume. "MeleeMan, I think you and I must have some different interpretation of how high school wrestling works... if this was some sort of a coaching exercise, I understand, but it certainly isn't a situation one would encounter among high school wrestlers, even if we consider a co-ed competition. I'm assuming when you refer to my 'teammate' you'd mean a hypothetical wrestling teammate...? I suspect that if such a hold break was interpreted in a sporting competition, it would be quite illegal. If you're insinuating I would allow such a thing to happen to me, to one of my cheerleading teammates, or to any other member of our school, in any capacity other than regulated competitive competition, why, that's just silly! I'd delete any assailant, before I let that happen... there would be no need for an escape method." She said this with good humor, but no irony, seeming to assume he'd join in on laughing at the interpretation.
"MeleeMan. I want you to know that for your willingness to shed your pride for the sake of victory, I respect you as well as your I do physique. However, an adherence to standards of decency is not a weakness. Following these rules is what keeps us civilized and allows us to focus on our pursuits with full attention. My ideology aside, you do recall that I am the head of the school disciplinary committee, correct...?" She continued to smile congenially as she indicated one of her armbands. "You're not a student here, so you don't need a lecture from me regarding your personal views on 'decency,' but I hope you can respect that it jeopardizes my position as a beacon and standard at this institution if I willingly engage in 'indecency'! I expect my operator, the administrator, would be quite peeved, as well, as his steadfast moral compass is my inspiration. Striving to be a good coach in spite of any... hardships... is an interesting goal, but, as for me, I clearly have some more important obligations to fulfill in my leadership roles at this academy."
"Besides, it seems you hardly need me to sharpen your coaching methods!" Hall said, beaming widely and clapping her hands. "Why, under your 'hands off' tutelage, those two brilliant girls have already managed to clear three goals! I need to personally administer the final, so I'll need to take my leave. I must admit, I was optimistic they would achieve their goals through perseverance, but I never expected the exemplary results they've achieved so far... Perhaps the administrator made those tests too easy?" She giggled at this, indicating it was apparently a joke. "Now,we should head to the auditorium, but... I confess that in our scuffle, I've lost track of my uniform skirt. I wanted to appear in my full uniform to offer inspiration, but I can't very well do so like this... help me find it, would you?"
The cheer captain turned away from MeleeMan, giving him what could be the final pleasant and unguarded view of her impressive behind as she glanced around the room in her futile search.
The Navi and SP might not be happy about how they handled the dismount (the other side of the wall was an equally long and steep fall), but they'd probably be happy at the results. A lit mat and victory tune greeted them. Of course, there was no chance at all either of the twins had been watching the clock, so there was probably no way they'd ever know how close they'd come. All of the statues folded into passive positions again as that trial came to an end, each lowering into back into the floor. Once the pit below the monkey bars closed, the fires from the tires having stopped earlier, one could be forgiven for thinking it was a totally reasonable obstacle course again.
As for the twins, in the meantime, they were enjoyed in their own methods of being tangled up in CourseMan's grasp. Twig, the less boldly grasped of the two, gave CourseMan a small smile. "Yeah, the next one is the treadmills, I think? I'm sure it's gonna be, like, running super-fast while they have to dodge lasers like that guy from that one movie... anyway, I get it, CourseMan's got a tight body. It's not that I have any need to watch that, but listen to you! You, like, seriously wanna make out in this gym?" Twig rolled her eyes, although she was clearly protesting more as a matter of establishing her standards and not as an act of protest or disgust.
The would-be cheerleader cast her eyes to her sister with a sigh, then cast them away again. She was rolling her eyes as hard as she could, since that was the reaction that was called for, but watching it had made her obviously red. "G-geez... Wandy's surprisingly easy, huh.... Like, get a room, you two..." she muttered, seeming as if she was suddenly doing some thinking herself. "Uh, anyway, let me do my thing and look at the next competition so we can get outta here..."
Wand, in the meantime, continued to be putty in her hired coach's hands, buying whatever lines he sold in bulk quantity, whether she'd admit to it in so many words or not. His comment about "nobody watching" caused her to chance a glance over in Twig's direction, but it was gone a few seconds before Twig actually darted her own eyes over. As such, Wand simply gave short, terse nods as positive nods to his inquiries, continuing to stand about weak in her knees and let CourseMan work his magic however he felt appropriate... up until his last statement, which caused her to pout and shrug a bit in his hands. "Mmm... I'm not gonna say whatever you want, jerk... Seriously, maybe you better ease up before-" she started, her eyes darting around again, before her sister shouted, making her give guilty jump in place and scramble away from her clone.
"Wandy! Woah, woah, Wandy, Courser, all of you!" she shouted, not bothering to address Damascus with any name but trying to call her into the huddle. "This is bad, this is bad! I took a look at the last contest... Hall's supposed to come administer it herself! It's a treadmill endurance competition and it says... it says we've gotta outlast her on the treadmill?! I mean, uh, my endurance is pretty good, like... I'm not that bad," she said, flipping her hair self-consciously.
"What the heck, Twiggy!" Wand shouted, putting her hands on her hair. "No, like, you don't get it! Have you seen Hall at track?! She's a freakin' monster! And, and, besides that, what are we gonna do to hide these two?! How are we gonna hide this?!"
"Yeah, you're like, not exactly the best at 'hiding things', are you?" Twig said judgmentally, putting her hands on her hips. She continued before her sister could respond. "But, uh, yeah... that means the game is up, right? I mean, not like Wandy and I can run on that kind of thing, and even if we could, we'd get totally creamed by Hall, I'm sure..."
"We're too close to give up now, though! You've got some kind of plan for how to deal with it, right?" she said, turning to CourseMan's clone she'd been with instead of the genuine Navi for confirmation.
---
MeleeMan's attempt to toss Hall aside was probably necessary for his conscience, but it couldn't be helping his ego. His attempt to stop shaking and release her only succeeded in giving her one more rough shake, as without explicitly saying he was giving her a breather, Hall kept her vice-like gripped locked in. Getting the message, though, Wand voluntarily dismounted as quickly as she could and scooted over to a side, fixing her bloomers and adjusting her shirt while standing facing him.
She regarded him with a small smile that seemed sympathetic (or pitying?), but also incredulous. She waited for him to take a pause before interjecting at her usual volume. "MeleeMan, I think you and I must have some different interpretation of how high school wrestling works... if this was some sort of a coaching exercise, I understand, but it certainly isn't a situation one would encounter among high school wrestlers, even if we consider a co-ed competition. I'm assuming when you refer to my 'teammate' you'd mean a hypothetical wrestling teammate...? I suspect that if such a hold break was interpreted in a sporting competition, it would be quite illegal. If you're insinuating I would allow such a thing to happen to me, to one of my cheerleading teammates, or to any other member of our school, in any capacity other than regulated competitive competition, why, that's just silly! I'd delete any assailant, before I let that happen... there would be no need for an escape method." She said this with good humor, but no irony, seeming to assume he'd join in on laughing at the interpretation.
"MeleeMan. I want you to know that for your willingness to shed your pride for the sake of victory, I respect you as well as your I do physique. However, an adherence to standards of decency is not a weakness. Following these rules is what keeps us civilized and allows us to focus on our pursuits with full attention. My ideology aside, you do recall that I am the head of the school disciplinary committee, correct...?" She continued to smile congenially as she indicated one of her armbands. "You're not a student here, so you don't need a lecture from me regarding your personal views on 'decency,' but I hope you can respect that it jeopardizes my position as a beacon and standard at this institution if I willingly engage in 'indecency'! I expect my operator, the administrator, would be quite peeved, as well, as his steadfast moral compass is my inspiration. Striving to be a good coach in spite of any... hardships... is an interesting goal, but, as for me, I clearly have some more important obligations to fulfill in my leadership roles at this academy."
"Besides, it seems you hardly need me to sharpen your coaching methods!" Hall said, beaming widely and clapping her hands. "Why, under your 'hands off' tutelage, those two brilliant girls have already managed to clear three goals! I need to personally administer the final, so I'll need to take my leave. I must admit, I was optimistic they would achieve their goals through perseverance, but I never expected the exemplary results they've achieved so far... Perhaps the administrator made those tests too easy?" She giggled at this, indicating it was apparently a joke. "Now,we should head to the auditorium, but... I confess that in our scuffle, I've lost track of my uniform skirt. I wanted to appear in my full uniform to offer inspiration, but I can't very well do so like this... help me find it, would you?"
The cheer captain turned away from MeleeMan, giving him what could be the final pleasant and unguarded view of her impressive behind as she glanced around the room in her futile search.
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Great strength was never CourseMan's forte, so it was with a small amount of internal relief that he spared time for a grin upon getting Damascus to the top of the wall. He released his hand grips with her once they had kicked off safely, to give both of them the chance to stick a secure landing; it wasn't a terrible height, but a couple of body length still meant it was better to treat the drop with respect. For his own part, he landed one foot leading the other and dropped to a crouch to cushion the stop before standing upright to offer a quick wink to Damascus, alongside him. He hadn't been sure they'd make it in time at all, but the chime from the test said they had and he saw no reason to act like he'd been in any way uncertain.
"One more to go, then. Ready to blow this one out of the water, Damascus?" He stretched and rolled his shoulders, still on the far side of the wall with her, and grinned as he spoke.
Over by Twiggy, his clone had kept its friendly smile through her image-maintaining comment,s but he just cast his eyes up tot he ceiling and gave a helpless, wide-handed shrug at her remark about making out.
"Well, if you don't want to..." He slid back a step, making it clear that her personal space was still very much her own, but his voice still suggested heavily that it would be her own loss. The way she looked after getting a glance at her sister was... interesting. He had a feeling she was on the edge, maybe contemplating the likelihood of missing out altogether if she kept up the aloof front... but it was a careful thing; if he pushed now, he was sure she'd push back and dig in her heels. Better to let her think over the possibilities, for now.
The clone with Wand had paused slightly when he got a poor response from his pressing question, but it was still clear that she was struggling to keep a game face on regardless. His hands had moved on from fingertips exploring her chest, now to gently palming and massaging the same area in slow, teasing motions. Both clones, however, had to stop their games when Twig gave a shout out from her examination of the next test. Wand's clone let her jump away, and indeed faded from sight as she did, dissipating into shadows to let the slightly embarrassed girl join the group to find out what the problem was. The more casual clone, with Twig, also disappeared as Courser himself rejoined them. One interesting point of this, of course, was that now both girls were once again standing in close proximity to the CourseMan that could actually touch things properly, and just the one of him, between both.
When Twig had spelled out the emergency, Courser frowned softly and folded his arms for a moment, looking between the two would-be cheer-leaders and Damascus. With all his thoughts in his own head again, and no split awareness, Courser turned his mind to actually thinking about the situation itself, and the seriously contemplative look he adopted might seem a bit unfamiliar to both girls.
"Well, that sounds problematic. What can we do, I wonder..." His eyes settled on Twig first, and if she was watching them, there'd surely be little doubt in her mind that the gaze fixed on her now was exactly the same set of eyes that had been flirting with her at arms' length just moments ago.
"Is it just the endurance test that you're supposed to compete against Hall in? If we do the step demonstration challenge instead, will she stay out? I'm guessing not.... From what I've seen of this woman's ego, having to face her as the last test is just an extension of the whole 'ramping difficulty' thing. Hmm..." his eyes darted across to Wandy and he let a small smile curl at one corner of his lips. "Don't worry, we're not giving up yet. I'm sure we can find a way to satisfy everyone." Exactly how they were going to do that, though, was another matter. Without thinking about it overly much, he reached out one hand to rub Wand's shoulder for comfort - being the real deal this time, it was a much more present and firm touch, if infinitely safer that the ones the clone had been giving her. The hand dropped again a moment later and seriousness returned.
"Ok, the way I see it, we've got two options that have any hope of working out. First, You girls put on the uniforms and take the test, and Damascus and I go back to normal. Let hall come in, and while she's here, we can do our best to distract her or subtly cause her to throw it early. If the test is specifically just to outlast her, then we don't need to have you two go on for ever - we just need to make her quit early. Trouble with that is, if she catches on and calls us for trying to throw her off... Hmm. Actually... if that happens, and you girls play innocent, we might be able to get her to declare it invalid and just judge you based on passing all the rest... but that's risky. Could go a number of other ways, most of which aren't good. You girls are safe of getting in trouble either way, like this, but she could insist on a do-over, or who knows what else, even if I take all the blame." He let out a short breath, folding his arms and tapping fingers lightly.
"Other option, I guess, is if we keep Hall out of the room, and convince her to let me oversee your final challenge in her stead. MeleeMan must be doing a good job of distracting her, so, if we can convince her to stay away and pass that authority to me for your trial, that ought to work out fine. Problem there is how to do it. I can be real convincing when I need to be... and I think I know how I might approach it, but it's going to rely on my partner keeping her occupied enough to give in, and she seems pretty duty-oriented." He turned to Damascus and raised an eyebrow.
"What do you think, Damascus? I think I'm leaning towards the second option, personally. If I can get a direct line through to Hall and MeleeMan has her in some kind of compromising situation... even just vaguely will do, I think I can swing convincing her to let me administer the last test in her place."
Depending on what the others decide, CourseMan was ready to change back to his default outfit if he needed to - it wouldn't do to make any kind of communication to Hall dressing in the testing uniform, after all, or to be seen in it if she came in... but he'd keep it on until a decision was actually made and they could begin working on whatever their final plan would be. If nothing else, though, he maintained a calm and confident air about himself; despite the situation the CourseMan he presented to the group was one that was entirely on top of the situation, and not too worried. Internally, he could see disaster on so many branches, but there was no point in letting any of that show.
"One more to go, then. Ready to blow this one out of the water, Damascus?" He stretched and rolled his shoulders, still on the far side of the wall with her, and grinned as he spoke.
Over by Twiggy, his clone had kept its friendly smile through her image-maintaining comment,s but he just cast his eyes up tot he ceiling and gave a helpless, wide-handed shrug at her remark about making out.
"Well, if you don't want to..." He slid back a step, making it clear that her personal space was still very much her own, but his voice still suggested heavily that it would be her own loss. The way she looked after getting a glance at her sister was... interesting. He had a feeling she was on the edge, maybe contemplating the likelihood of missing out altogether if she kept up the aloof front... but it was a careful thing; if he pushed now, he was sure she'd push back and dig in her heels. Better to let her think over the possibilities, for now.
The clone with Wand had paused slightly when he got a poor response from his pressing question, but it was still clear that she was struggling to keep a game face on regardless. His hands had moved on from fingertips exploring her chest, now to gently palming and massaging the same area in slow, teasing motions. Both clones, however, had to stop their games when Twig gave a shout out from her examination of the next test. Wand's clone let her jump away, and indeed faded from sight as she did, dissipating into shadows to let the slightly embarrassed girl join the group to find out what the problem was. The more casual clone, with Twig, also disappeared as Courser himself rejoined them. One interesting point of this, of course, was that now both girls were once again standing in close proximity to the CourseMan that could actually touch things properly, and just the one of him, between both.
When Twig had spelled out the emergency, Courser frowned softly and folded his arms for a moment, looking between the two would-be cheer-leaders and Damascus. With all his thoughts in his own head again, and no split awareness, Courser turned his mind to actually thinking about the situation itself, and the seriously contemplative look he adopted might seem a bit unfamiliar to both girls.
"Well, that sounds problematic. What can we do, I wonder..." His eyes settled on Twig first, and if she was watching them, there'd surely be little doubt in her mind that the gaze fixed on her now was exactly the same set of eyes that had been flirting with her at arms' length just moments ago.
"Is it just the endurance test that you're supposed to compete against Hall in? If we do the step demonstration challenge instead, will she stay out? I'm guessing not.... From what I've seen of this woman's ego, having to face her as the last test is just an extension of the whole 'ramping difficulty' thing. Hmm..." his eyes darted across to Wandy and he let a small smile curl at one corner of his lips. "Don't worry, we're not giving up yet. I'm sure we can find a way to satisfy everyone." Exactly how they were going to do that, though, was another matter. Without thinking about it overly much, he reached out one hand to rub Wand's shoulder for comfort - being the real deal this time, it was a much more present and firm touch, if infinitely safer that the ones the clone had been giving her. The hand dropped again a moment later and seriousness returned.
"Ok, the way I see it, we've got two options that have any hope of working out. First, You girls put on the uniforms and take the test, and Damascus and I go back to normal. Let hall come in, and while she's here, we can do our best to distract her or subtly cause her to throw it early. If the test is specifically just to outlast her, then we don't need to have you two go on for ever - we just need to make her quit early. Trouble with that is, if she catches on and calls us for trying to throw her off... Hmm. Actually... if that happens, and you girls play innocent, we might be able to get her to declare it invalid and just judge you based on passing all the rest... but that's risky. Could go a number of other ways, most of which aren't good. You girls are safe of getting in trouble either way, like this, but she could insist on a do-over, or who knows what else, even if I take all the blame." He let out a short breath, folding his arms and tapping fingers lightly.
"Other option, I guess, is if we keep Hall out of the room, and convince her to let me oversee your final challenge in her stead. MeleeMan must be doing a good job of distracting her, so, if we can convince her to stay away and pass that authority to me for your trial, that ought to work out fine. Problem there is how to do it. I can be real convincing when I need to be... and I think I know how I might approach it, but it's going to rely on my partner keeping her occupied enough to give in, and she seems pretty duty-oriented." He turned to Damascus and raised an eyebrow.
"What do you think, Damascus? I think I'm leaning towards the second option, personally. If I can get a direct line through to Hall and MeleeMan has her in some kind of compromising situation... even just vaguely will do, I think I can swing convincing her to let me administer the last test in her place."
Depending on what the others decide, CourseMan was ready to change back to his default outfit if he needed to - it wouldn't do to make any kind of communication to Hall dressing in the testing uniform, after all, or to be seen in it if she came in... but he'd keep it on until a decision was actually made and they could begin working on whatever their final plan would be. If nothing else, though, he maintained a calm and confident air about himself; despite the situation the CourseMan he presented to the group was one that was entirely on top of the situation, and not too worried. Internally, he could see disaster on so many branches, but there was no point in letting any of that show.
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MeleeMan's SP was plenty pleased with the outcome of the third test, turning her smirk to CourseMan. There hadn't been anything to celebrate back when she was clamoring up a soapy rope, but the latest tests were so challenging that she had a certain feeling of pride in her accomplishment. "I'd be perfectly happy if water weren't involved in any of the challenges to come," she admitted, rising back to her feet slowly and accepting his hand up. Damascus had even begun to feel a certain fondness for the handsome rogue; he was, if nothing else, a good team player, unlike her master...
Well, emphasis on the player. Every time she started to think that CourseMan was a nice change of pace from her usual companions, she was reminded that she was playing second fiddle to a pair of swooning, lazy teenagers. That said, she didn't hate the girls so much that she'd wish the next contest on them... she didn't know whether she could outrun Hall (possibly through a field of criss-crossed lasers), but she was pretty darn certain that neither of the two girls could. All of this had started to put another question in her head, but she figured she ought to address the more pertinent ones that CourseMan had posed first.
She nodded along and stayed quiet until CourseMan was finished, then closed her eyes with a brooding frown. Finally, she shook her head. "That first option is unfortunately less of an option than it seems. From what we were told earlier, the outfits we're wearing are having their positions tracked... That means that if we take them off and hand them over, that movement might be monitored. By the same token, if we deactivate them and allow the girls to reactivate them, that could be noticed as well. There's a slim chance that if we moved virtually on top of the girls and swapped outfits there, which I'm sure you would enjoy, it might confuse those sensors... but it's not a risk I'm willing to take after coming that far," she explained, casting a judgmental glance between the two girls.
"I agree that the second option is thereby the logical choice. However, if she were truly duty-oriented, there is no way she would have stayed away so long with MeleeMan... he's an insufferable lout as well as a complete idiot. Any reasonable, decent person would want to escape his company as quickly as possible, were they not bound to servitude to him like I am. This means there may be some weakness of hers we can exploit... Indeed, perhaps he is in the process of exploiting it at this very moment, though if he is, it's the product of fortunate circumstance rather than careful planning," she murmured, casting her eyes to the broken, smoldering strength test machine that MeleeMan had ruined earlier.
"But yes. The best chance we have is to convince Hall to allow you, actually being one of your duplicates, to stand in for her during this contest. That will allow us to easily manipulate the results while keeping up a façade of genuine competition. I can open up a communication with MeleeMan that will allow you to speak to both of them, but... is it possible for you to pull up another CourseMan who is not so ridiculously dressed? I feel like our plan will be lost from the beginning if she sees you dressed like that," she remarked dryly, knowing that he'd probably thought of that already, but finding she must comment upon it all the same.
At this point, she let her eyes drift between the two girls for a moment, before she closed her eyes with an irritable, contemplative expression. "There's one more thing that's bothering me. You girls... Do you honestly still want to join the cheerleading squad after all you've seen us go through? There are two possibilities: one, that the squad is actually some society of super-powered phenoms capable of extraordinary feats of athleticism. Or two, and more likely, that someone really doesn't want you on the team. You girls seem perfectly capable of becoming popular without being on the cheerleading team... What is it to you? Frankly, no matter how little you care about the wellbeing of myself and CourseMan, I would have thought that last test would have dissuaded you from wishing to continue, perhaps for concern of your own future safety..." She opened up her eyes again and glared hard at Wand, who seemed the more likely to shrink under pressure at this point.
She wanted that answer, but she also wanted to proceed. Closing her eyes again with that familiar face that made it look as though her temples were throbbing, she frowned towards the floor, but addressed CourseMan. "Let me know when you are ready to use the communication link and I will put you through to MeleeMan," she advised.
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The beautiful picture that had been coming together perfectly before MeleeMan was suddenly becoming shaken, distorted, and broken, like an etch-a-sketch drawing being viciously shaken by some child who couldn't know any better. "Damn, you're cocky," he scolded Hall, being significantly kinder than he might be if someone he liked less had just told him that she'd delete him in a co-ed high school wrestling contest. The refusal was just making him feel all the more frustrated... part sexual frustration, part classic frustration-frustration.
The others hadn't communicated with him yet, but he didn't need to be commanded to draw things out longer. The last thing he was considering doing was giving the student council president her skirt back, not just because he didn't want her to wear it, but also, he didn't want to lose his one bargaining chip or let things end on their current note. Desperately, he combed over the situation for anything that would give him a leg up or some leverage to stop her from leaving him alone, sporting an erection in a seldom-used high school gym equipment room. That couldn't be allowed to happen.
"Funny! You're talking to me about getting disqualified, but uh, as I remember it," he began, crossing his arms and sneering, "weren't you the one crying 'time out' earlier? And now you're just going to quit without finishing our contest? Huh, I thought you were all about following the rules?" he laughed, pouring on the agitation as hard as he could. "So I guess the next time I see you in a competition, for starters, I'll expect two things: a time out, followed by an inconclusive finish where you kinda go, 'oh, yeah, I remembered something else I have to do.' That about the size of it?"
He approached her from behind, invading her space a bit to continue grinning down at her. "Yeah, I guess my students gave you a good out just now. How about this instead: if I'm such a great coach, then why don't you trust my coaching buddies I left with the girls to administer whatever that last test of yours is? In the mean time, you resume your time out and we finish our match. Or, of course, you can let it go. That's something rule-abiding student council presidents do, isn't it? Call a time-out and then leave like they just won the damn match by walking out on it," he chuckled. He almost added "though I'd love watching you go" but realized that 1) he didn't want her to leave and 2) he ought to at least keep a semblance of having healthy competition on his mind.
There was one thing he'd yet to address yet, however. "Oh, right, your skirt," he murmured, tapping one thumb against his chin with a mockingly contemplative frown, wide across his huge jaw. He hiked up the hem of his pants again, sort of as a taunting gesture, but also to slide the lost object a little further inside. "I guess you wanna extend your time out to take a look around for that too? I could take off my pants, if it'd make you feel better," he couldn't help joking, spreading both of his hands and shrugging. He buffed his fist on his jacket, although the nature of the beast made it a far cry from the handsome mannerism it was when CourseMan employed it. "Hey, hey... I know I'm being hard on you... But that's my proven coaching technique! And it works, doesn't it?"
Well, emphasis on the player. Every time she started to think that CourseMan was a nice change of pace from her usual companions, she was reminded that she was playing second fiddle to a pair of swooning, lazy teenagers. That said, she didn't hate the girls so much that she'd wish the next contest on them... she didn't know whether she could outrun Hall (possibly through a field of criss-crossed lasers), but she was pretty darn certain that neither of the two girls could. All of this had started to put another question in her head, but she figured she ought to address the more pertinent ones that CourseMan had posed first.
She nodded along and stayed quiet until CourseMan was finished, then closed her eyes with a brooding frown. Finally, she shook her head. "That first option is unfortunately less of an option than it seems. From what we were told earlier, the outfits we're wearing are having their positions tracked... That means that if we take them off and hand them over, that movement might be monitored. By the same token, if we deactivate them and allow the girls to reactivate them, that could be noticed as well. There's a slim chance that if we moved virtually on top of the girls and swapped outfits there, which I'm sure you would enjoy, it might confuse those sensors... but it's not a risk I'm willing to take after coming that far," she explained, casting a judgmental glance between the two girls.
"I agree that the second option is thereby the logical choice. However, if she were truly duty-oriented, there is no way she would have stayed away so long with MeleeMan... he's an insufferable lout as well as a complete idiot. Any reasonable, decent person would want to escape his company as quickly as possible, were they not bound to servitude to him like I am. This means there may be some weakness of hers we can exploit... Indeed, perhaps he is in the process of exploiting it at this very moment, though if he is, it's the product of fortunate circumstance rather than careful planning," she murmured, casting her eyes to the broken, smoldering strength test machine that MeleeMan had ruined earlier.
"But yes. The best chance we have is to convince Hall to allow you, actually being one of your duplicates, to stand in for her during this contest. That will allow us to easily manipulate the results while keeping up a façade of genuine competition. I can open up a communication with MeleeMan that will allow you to speak to both of them, but... is it possible for you to pull up another CourseMan who is not so ridiculously dressed? I feel like our plan will be lost from the beginning if she sees you dressed like that," she remarked dryly, knowing that he'd probably thought of that already, but finding she must comment upon it all the same.
At this point, she let her eyes drift between the two girls for a moment, before she closed her eyes with an irritable, contemplative expression. "There's one more thing that's bothering me. You girls... Do you honestly still want to join the cheerleading squad after all you've seen us go through? There are two possibilities: one, that the squad is actually some society of super-powered phenoms capable of extraordinary feats of athleticism. Or two, and more likely, that someone really doesn't want you on the team. You girls seem perfectly capable of becoming popular without being on the cheerleading team... What is it to you? Frankly, no matter how little you care about the wellbeing of myself and CourseMan, I would have thought that last test would have dissuaded you from wishing to continue, perhaps for concern of your own future safety..." She opened up her eyes again and glared hard at Wand, who seemed the more likely to shrink under pressure at this point.
She wanted that answer, but she also wanted to proceed. Closing her eyes again with that familiar face that made it look as though her temples were throbbing, she frowned towards the floor, but addressed CourseMan. "Let me know when you are ready to use the communication link and I will put you through to MeleeMan," she advised.
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The beautiful picture that had been coming together perfectly before MeleeMan was suddenly becoming shaken, distorted, and broken, like an etch-a-sketch drawing being viciously shaken by some child who couldn't know any better. "Damn, you're cocky," he scolded Hall, being significantly kinder than he might be if someone he liked less had just told him that she'd delete him in a co-ed high school wrestling contest. The refusal was just making him feel all the more frustrated... part sexual frustration, part classic frustration-frustration.
The others hadn't communicated with him yet, but he didn't need to be commanded to draw things out longer. The last thing he was considering doing was giving the student council president her skirt back, not just because he didn't want her to wear it, but also, he didn't want to lose his one bargaining chip or let things end on their current note. Desperately, he combed over the situation for anything that would give him a leg up or some leverage to stop her from leaving him alone, sporting an erection in a seldom-used high school gym equipment room. That couldn't be allowed to happen.
"Funny! You're talking to me about getting disqualified, but uh, as I remember it," he began, crossing his arms and sneering, "weren't you the one crying 'time out' earlier? And now you're just going to quit without finishing our contest? Huh, I thought you were all about following the rules?" he laughed, pouring on the agitation as hard as he could. "So I guess the next time I see you in a competition, for starters, I'll expect two things: a time out, followed by an inconclusive finish where you kinda go, 'oh, yeah, I remembered something else I have to do.' That about the size of it?"
He approached her from behind, invading her space a bit to continue grinning down at her. "Yeah, I guess my students gave you a good out just now. How about this instead: if I'm such a great coach, then why don't you trust my coaching buddies I left with the girls to administer whatever that last test of yours is? In the mean time, you resume your time out and we finish our match. Or, of course, you can let it go. That's something rule-abiding student council presidents do, isn't it? Call a time-out and then leave like they just won the damn match by walking out on it," he chuckled. He almost added "though I'd love watching you go" but realized that 1) he didn't want her to leave and 2) he ought to at least keep a semblance of having healthy competition on his mind.
There was one thing he'd yet to address yet, however. "Oh, right, your skirt," he murmured, tapping one thumb against his chin with a mockingly contemplative frown, wide across his huge jaw. He hiked up the hem of his pants again, sort of as a taunting gesture, but also to slide the lost object a little further inside. "I guess you wanna extend your time out to take a look around for that too? I could take off my pants, if it'd make you feel better," he couldn't help joking, spreading both of his hands and shrugging. He buffed his fist on his jacket, although the nature of the beast made it a far cry from the handsome mannerism it was when CourseMan employed it. "Hey, hey... I know I'm being hard on you... But that's my proven coaching technique! And it works, doesn't it?"
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Wand gave a small, cursory nod to CourseMan's reassurance, seeming more than ready to believe him. Twig, on the other hand, crossed her arms and frowned (pouted?). "Anything, like, specific in mind?" she intoned, before CourseMan naturally went on to try and drum such specifics up. The two stayed quiet as CourseMan and Damascus hashed over the details of a potential plan, happy, as usual, to leave the heavy lifting to them. Twig decided to speak on behalf of both of them. "Option two sounds like it could work. I dunno, but I wanna avoid anything that's gonna make us swap these uniforms around. If you're gonna communicate, maybe you could do it from just the head up? Or, like Damascus says, if you have a clone that's dressed regularly... Anyway, I'm not sure what your plan is, but from what I know, Hall is super stubborn and pig-headed. Not sure she's gonna let anybody else administer the test unless there's a seriously good reason..."
"That makes me think of something, too!" Wand added, apparently acknowledging the surprise of the fact that she'd have something to contribute to the conversation. "If she isn't able to come herself, wouldn't she just make Coach administer it, instead?"
"Huh, that's- Hmm," Twig mused, putting a finger to her lip. "But would he be able to run it as a horse and buggy?"
"In his human shape, Twiggy!" Wand reminded her, having a chuckle at her sister's expense.
"Oh! Yeah, yeah, of course," Twig fumbled, twisting at her hair and trying to grasp at her supposed reputation again. "I just meant, like, I bet his endurance is better as a horse and buggy, so we'd need to be worried... Uh, anyway, that's all hypothetical. We still wanna end up racing against Courser if at all possible."
The girls went quiet for a bit as Damascus finished by voicing her secondary concern. Twig flipped her hair and clicked her teeth. "Uh, yeah? Like, there's obviously someone that doesn't want us on, and it's that snobby, stuck up squad leader, Hall! She's always been jealous of us cause our operators donate wads to the school. She knows we have the right to do whatever we want, and she does what she wants to keep us shut out. That's why we've gotta get on the squad, now... if we give up, she's totally gonna be sneering down at us from her high perch forever!"
"Don't you know?" Wand added, having managed to recover from Damascus's glare and speaking with the confidence of an expert in the field she was now broaching. "The thing about being popular is you've always gotta think you're the most popular. How can we be the most popular if we aren't cheerleaders? Like, even if we are, it's pretty much a high school rule, right? But, yeah, I hadn't expected her to be such a tool she was gonna make us literally jump through flaming hoops to get on. Anyway, whatevs! We're showing her."
Having contributed far less useful to the efforts than they certainly appeared to feel they had, Wand and Twig waited to see what Damascus and CourseMan came up with next.
---
"Hah! I count my confidence as one of my merits," Hall responded in a cheery, conversational tone as she searched the room in a futile effort, either remarkably missing the frustration in MeleeMan's voice or else intentionally agitating him. "Now, MeleeMan, I'm sure you know I do love to talk, but I also can't believe you care to hear me prattle on about why my responsibilities as a student leader outweigh those of my personal pride in a coaching exercise I've taken part in which has, in actuality, been shown to be quite unnecessary." She had her usual smile on at this point, but either through being forced to defend herself while she was in the middle of something else, or MeleeMan's words having genuinely gotten under her skin, she was raising her already booming voice a bit louder. "If you see me engaged in a contest, you can expect to see me win. If you see me engaged in a contest when I am otherwise strictly scheduled to be keeping an appointment, you can expect to see me fired!"
Feeling his presence behind her, she turned around and raised an eyebrow, returning a smirk of his own and holding her ground in close proximity. "MeleeMan, I appreciate your interest in our competition and your generous offer, but my operator has clearly placed me as the 'bar' these girls must clear in order to join the cheer squad. This means he is expecting most superlative performance! Clearly, my own operator expects these girls to be the finest cheerleaders this institution has ever witnessed..." Hall gave a rare pause here, looking as though she was remembering a stove she'd left an oven on somewhere. "So! It would be quite inappropriate for me to accept your coach friend as a substitution. I'm certain he is a fine specimen of physical fitness and other aspects, but without confirming such, I would be remiss."
Hall stopped, seemingly forgetting that wasn't actually a punctuation at the end of her current situation. "But, by my Administrator, where did I put that skirt...?" she finally added, putting her hand on her chin. "There are really no other places it could have gone missing. Could someone have...?" she started, raising her hand to her lower lip as her ordinary smile slowly curled upward.
"MeleeMan," she finally spoke again, speaking calmly, but with a certain lightning in her eyes that MeleeMan might note had not yet appeared in their short acquaintance (then again, he might not: despite Hall's best efforts to make eye contact, his eyes had consistently been other places). "Do you have my skirt?" She glanced down at his pants meaningfully, a glance which could be flatteringly interpreted as directed at his nether regions. "If you admit you do, I am willing to take it at face value if you say you were keeping it for me, so that it wouldn't get lost in our scuffle..." Her eyes shot back up at his, her lips breaking in a grin. "Is that the case? If you say you do not, I am afraid I may be forced to use my authority as a security officer of this school to... verify your innocence."
"That makes me think of something, too!" Wand added, apparently acknowledging the surprise of the fact that she'd have something to contribute to the conversation. "If she isn't able to come herself, wouldn't she just make Coach administer it, instead?"
"Huh, that's- Hmm," Twig mused, putting a finger to her lip. "But would he be able to run it as a horse and buggy?"
"In his human shape, Twiggy!" Wand reminded her, having a chuckle at her sister's expense.
"Oh! Yeah, yeah, of course," Twig fumbled, twisting at her hair and trying to grasp at her supposed reputation again. "I just meant, like, I bet his endurance is better as a horse and buggy, so we'd need to be worried... Uh, anyway, that's all hypothetical. We still wanna end up racing against Courser if at all possible."
The girls went quiet for a bit as Damascus finished by voicing her secondary concern. Twig flipped her hair and clicked her teeth. "Uh, yeah? Like, there's obviously someone that doesn't want us on, and it's that snobby, stuck up squad leader, Hall! She's always been jealous of us cause our operators donate wads to the school. She knows we have the right to do whatever we want, and she does what she wants to keep us shut out. That's why we've gotta get on the squad, now... if we give up, she's totally gonna be sneering down at us from her high perch forever!"
"Don't you know?" Wand added, having managed to recover from Damascus's glare and speaking with the confidence of an expert in the field she was now broaching. "The thing about being popular is you've always gotta think you're the most popular. How can we be the most popular if we aren't cheerleaders? Like, even if we are, it's pretty much a high school rule, right? But, yeah, I hadn't expected her to be such a tool she was gonna make us literally jump through flaming hoops to get on. Anyway, whatevs! We're showing her."
Having contributed far less useful to the efforts than they certainly appeared to feel they had, Wand and Twig waited to see what Damascus and CourseMan came up with next.
---
"Hah! I count my confidence as one of my merits," Hall responded in a cheery, conversational tone as she searched the room in a futile effort, either remarkably missing the frustration in MeleeMan's voice or else intentionally agitating him. "Now, MeleeMan, I'm sure you know I do love to talk, but I also can't believe you care to hear me prattle on about why my responsibilities as a student leader outweigh those of my personal pride in a coaching exercise I've taken part in which has, in actuality, been shown to be quite unnecessary." She had her usual smile on at this point, but either through being forced to defend herself while she was in the middle of something else, or MeleeMan's words having genuinely gotten under her skin, she was raising her already booming voice a bit louder. "If you see me engaged in a contest, you can expect to see me win. If you see me engaged in a contest when I am otherwise strictly scheduled to be keeping an appointment, you can expect to see me fired!"
Feeling his presence behind her, she turned around and raised an eyebrow, returning a smirk of his own and holding her ground in close proximity. "MeleeMan, I appreciate your interest in our competition and your generous offer, but my operator has clearly placed me as the 'bar' these girls must clear in order to join the cheer squad. This means he is expecting most superlative performance! Clearly, my own operator expects these girls to be the finest cheerleaders this institution has ever witnessed..." Hall gave a rare pause here, looking as though she was remembering a stove she'd left an oven on somewhere. "So! It would be quite inappropriate for me to accept your coach friend as a substitution. I'm certain he is a fine specimen of physical fitness and other aspects, but without confirming such, I would be remiss."
Hall stopped, seemingly forgetting that wasn't actually a punctuation at the end of her current situation. "But, by my Administrator, where did I put that skirt...?" she finally added, putting her hand on her chin. "There are really no other places it could have gone missing. Could someone have...?" she started, raising her hand to her lower lip as her ordinary smile slowly curled upward.
"MeleeMan," she finally spoke again, speaking calmly, but with a certain lightning in her eyes that MeleeMan might note had not yet appeared in their short acquaintance (then again, he might not: despite Hall's best efforts to make eye contact, his eyes had consistently been other places). "Do you have my skirt?" She glanced down at his pants meaningfully, a glance which could be flatteringly interpreted as directed at his nether regions. "If you admit you do, I am willing to take it at face value if you say you were keeping it for me, so that it wouldn't get lost in our scuffle..." Her eyes shot back up at his, her lips breaking in a grin. "Is that the case? If you say you do not, I am afraid I may be forced to use my authority as a security officer of this school to... verify your innocence."
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As the others talked through the suggestions he had made, Courser held his tongue; he put out the options and was happy enough to leave the others to decide, though that decision seemed fairly swiftly to be reaching a consensus of doing everything in their power to keep Hall out of the room. While Damascus raised her other concern, Courser watched her with interest, mulling the matter over in his mind. Casually, as though it were no important matter, first one of his clone,s then the other, slipped back into sight from behind the others, even as they chatted. This time the two were dressed in his normal default outfit, instead of the cheering ensemble, but that didn't stop one of them coming to stand close, but not too close, to Twig, while the second draped a more intimate arm about Wand's shoulder.
"If she's stayed away with that brute all this time, there's only two things I can think of that they might be doing..." The clone that had resumed position around Wand was smirking as it spoke. Across the other side, the clone with Twig raised an eyebrow, then shook its head before answering back.
"Aye... and they both begin with the letter 'F'." It gave a small derisive chuckle, pausing to roll its eyes in a way intended for Twig to see. The first looked past the target of its flirting to cast a sidelong glance at the second clone again, though even as it did, the hand draped about Wand's shoulder rubbed and soothed softly. When it responded, there was a layer of 'knowing' on its voice, like someone who was in on secret.
"Well, if they were fighting, she'd probably have called off the test, and we'd have heard it by now. If it's the other one, well, that plays into what we want to do, doesn't it, boss?" The double entendre was clear in the words, but the original CourseMan was unimpressed and folded his arms with a sigh.
"Keep it in your pants, you two. We can play games later, and celebrate when we're done." As much as he seemed to be directing a warning glare at each of the two clones in turn, Courser was nevertheless avoiding making direct eye contact with them, to save himself the feedback problem. He looked, instead, to Wand and Twig, and for them the charmingly pleasant expression was back, with a small grin.
"Actually, I think I can make all of this work to our advantage... even the fact that she seems to have a personal vendetta against both of you. I can work with that too." While he planned, the clone with Wand had begun t get adventurous again, creeping a hand down over the curve of her chest, but Courser, the real one, 'caught' it in the act. "Oi! Behave, you. In fact, get over here, you can make the call." The decoy gave a small, put-upon sigh and withdrew its hands from Wand's personal space, coming to stand closer to the original and Damascus. He still managed to find time to offer wand a small, apologetic glance and raise his hands in a helpless gesture.
The decoy straightened itself out and fussed with his outfit for a few moments, making himself respectable and presentable in ways that didn't really need any attention, then adopted a pouting expression towards Damascaus.
"I'm ready for my close-up, darling." Both the other clone and the original Courser rolled their eyes in unison, and put face to hand with a small sigh. Courser himself had glided back so he was standing behind Damascus, and spoke in a more serious tone. "Alright, send a message through to MeleeMan first, please Damascus... let him know that he needs to keep Hall there, and if she's already in a compromising situation, all the better. The more compromising the better, in fact. If he's got her out of her knickers, that's fantastic. If he's... well.. anything more and this'll probably take care of itself anyway, I imagine. Give him a few seconds, then put the call through."
The decoy took a deep breath and let it out again, settling into character before the call began. When the line was connected the clone making the face of the discussion was all business, adopting a calm and serious tone that started off friendly and good-natured, at least to begin with. His entire posture had shifted to go with this as well, becoming far more straight-laced and sensible.
"Thankyou, MeleeMan. Miss Hall, pleased to meet you. It seems there is a..." The decoy's expression faltered into one of mild shock and surprise. "Ah... Miss Hall, surely you don't intend to administer the girls' tests like that, do you? You can't present yourself in that manner." The decoy feigned looking away for a moment, then brought his eyes right back again. "If you wish to... canoodle with my colleague, that's none of my business... but I find it reprehensible that you might do so while these girls are supposed to be under testing conditions... at least so long as you have a part of your own that you are required to play." Here, the decoy paused briefly, putting a thumb and two fingers to his forehead for a moment as though the whole situation was troubling him. Despite the gesture, he didn't give Hall any real chance to cut in or explain herself, though, moving on with his chastisement swiftly. His tone had grown more serious and had lost the bright, friendly shine he had started out with.
"Miss Hall, under the circumstances I don't believe you are, presently, the best representative to administer the girls' final test. They have struggled hard to come this far, and I've watched them strive through each test now... and to think that you have been off... Well you certainly do not appear to have been talking 'coaching' methods with my colleague... that you have been off doing as you have, while they have worked at these trials, is incorrigible! I know that you hold several important posts at this school, but if this is how you administer them, then I'm of a mind to report this mess to your head of school myself." Given Hall's general demeanour and position, it seemed unlikely that she had been on the receiving end of a dressing down of this calibre very often, but Courser wasn't out of steam yet, and though he paused to give a small, tired-sounding sigh, he picked up again almost immediately; even if Hall tried to jump in and defend herself, she'd find that this hard-line version of CourseMan was surprisingly good and maintaining his train of words and would comfortably talk right over her without falter, if he had to... having to deal with errant thoughts giving themselves voice through clones had apparently served a subtle benefit.
"Here is what I suggest, Miss Hall. I had been going to ask you to hurry back, since the girls are both warmed up and ready to go, and now it is you alone who are keeping us all waiting with your tardiness, but under the circumstances, I don't feel that you are in a fit position to join us at all. I begin to suspect that you may not have been fit to set the tests in the first place, given what I've seen today, but I am a man of my word and I will see this out. No, what I propose is that you hand over the administration of the final test to me. I've already cleared my presence here with CoachMan, and I've watched the tests as they've unfolded, and increased in their difficulty, so I know the bar that the girls need to be expected to meet for the last test, assuming the trend continues.
"I assume, Miss Hall, that the requirement of the last test for the girls to best you was stated in jest, and I should hope I don't need to outline for you how ridiculous a requirement that must be if it were serious. Asking them to beat you, is of course, asinine. On the first hand, it seems obvious that no other girls in the squad were required to pass such a trial simply for entry. If they were, then every member of the squad would need to be your better just to join, and you would have no business presiding over any of them at all... On the second, if the other girls were not required to be able to beat you, then it is clearly an unfair test, imbalanced and motivated with a goal towards failing these girls unjustly. It doesn't matter which is the case and which is not, Miss Hall; if either, then you are unfit to administer. I suspect what you intended, rather, was to test the girls yourself to the relative limit they were expected to reach, and then relent provided they reached it.
"I will test these girls rigorously. I will ensure that the test is a further step up on the required performance from the previous, and I will ensure that the test is both fair and even-handed. If they fail, then they will fail. If they pass, then they will pass. I will make certain that there are no tricks or any other kind of misconduct used, and at the end of the day, I will not report your misconduct any further. Are we on the same page, Miss Hall?" Finally, after the thorough upbraiding, CourseMan stopped long enough to give Hall a proper chance to respond, watching with what had become an altogether stern expression on his clone's features.
As much as most of the other girls present had probably already realised that Courser was fond of being wordy at times, each of them had only really seen the various faces of his charm until now, so it might be something of a surprise to some of them to witness such a shift in his displayed persona, to delivering such an extended castigation to the unfortunate disciplinary.
"If she's stayed away with that brute all this time, there's only two things I can think of that they might be doing..." The clone that had resumed position around Wand was smirking as it spoke. Across the other side, the clone with Twig raised an eyebrow, then shook its head before answering back.
"Aye... and they both begin with the letter 'F'." It gave a small derisive chuckle, pausing to roll its eyes in a way intended for Twig to see. The first looked past the target of its flirting to cast a sidelong glance at the second clone again, though even as it did, the hand draped about Wand's shoulder rubbed and soothed softly. When it responded, there was a layer of 'knowing' on its voice, like someone who was in on secret.
"Well, if they were fighting, she'd probably have called off the test, and we'd have heard it by now. If it's the other one, well, that plays into what we want to do, doesn't it, boss?" The double entendre was clear in the words, but the original CourseMan was unimpressed and folded his arms with a sigh.
"Keep it in your pants, you two. We can play games later, and celebrate when we're done." As much as he seemed to be directing a warning glare at each of the two clones in turn, Courser was nevertheless avoiding making direct eye contact with them, to save himself the feedback problem. He looked, instead, to Wand and Twig, and for them the charmingly pleasant expression was back, with a small grin.
"Actually, I think I can make all of this work to our advantage... even the fact that she seems to have a personal vendetta against both of you. I can work with that too." While he planned, the clone with Wand had begun t get adventurous again, creeping a hand down over the curve of her chest, but Courser, the real one, 'caught' it in the act. "Oi! Behave, you. In fact, get over here, you can make the call." The decoy gave a small, put-upon sigh and withdrew its hands from Wand's personal space, coming to stand closer to the original and Damascus. He still managed to find time to offer wand a small, apologetic glance and raise his hands in a helpless gesture.
The decoy straightened itself out and fussed with his outfit for a few moments, making himself respectable and presentable in ways that didn't really need any attention, then adopted a pouting expression towards Damascaus.
"I'm ready for my close-up, darling." Both the other clone and the original Courser rolled their eyes in unison, and put face to hand with a small sigh. Courser himself had glided back so he was standing behind Damascus, and spoke in a more serious tone. "Alright, send a message through to MeleeMan first, please Damascus... let him know that he needs to keep Hall there, and if she's already in a compromising situation, all the better. The more compromising the better, in fact. If he's got her out of her knickers, that's fantastic. If he's... well.. anything more and this'll probably take care of itself anyway, I imagine. Give him a few seconds, then put the call through."
The decoy took a deep breath and let it out again, settling into character before the call began. When the line was connected the clone making the face of the discussion was all business, adopting a calm and serious tone that started off friendly and good-natured, at least to begin with. His entire posture had shifted to go with this as well, becoming far more straight-laced and sensible.
"Thankyou, MeleeMan. Miss Hall, pleased to meet you. It seems there is a..." The decoy's expression faltered into one of mild shock and surprise. "Ah... Miss Hall, surely you don't intend to administer the girls' tests like that, do you? You can't present yourself in that manner." The decoy feigned looking away for a moment, then brought his eyes right back again. "If you wish to... canoodle with my colleague, that's none of my business... but I find it reprehensible that you might do so while these girls are supposed to be under testing conditions... at least so long as you have a part of your own that you are required to play." Here, the decoy paused briefly, putting a thumb and two fingers to his forehead for a moment as though the whole situation was troubling him. Despite the gesture, he didn't give Hall any real chance to cut in or explain herself, though, moving on with his chastisement swiftly. His tone had grown more serious and had lost the bright, friendly shine he had started out with.
"Miss Hall, under the circumstances I don't believe you are, presently, the best representative to administer the girls' final test. They have struggled hard to come this far, and I've watched them strive through each test now... and to think that you have been off... Well you certainly do not appear to have been talking 'coaching' methods with my colleague... that you have been off doing as you have, while they have worked at these trials, is incorrigible! I know that you hold several important posts at this school, but if this is how you administer them, then I'm of a mind to report this mess to your head of school myself." Given Hall's general demeanour and position, it seemed unlikely that she had been on the receiving end of a dressing down of this calibre very often, but Courser wasn't out of steam yet, and though he paused to give a small, tired-sounding sigh, he picked up again almost immediately; even if Hall tried to jump in and defend herself, she'd find that this hard-line version of CourseMan was surprisingly good and maintaining his train of words and would comfortably talk right over her without falter, if he had to... having to deal with errant thoughts giving themselves voice through clones had apparently served a subtle benefit.
"Here is what I suggest, Miss Hall. I had been going to ask you to hurry back, since the girls are both warmed up and ready to go, and now it is you alone who are keeping us all waiting with your tardiness, but under the circumstances, I don't feel that you are in a fit position to join us at all. I begin to suspect that you may not have been fit to set the tests in the first place, given what I've seen today, but I am a man of my word and I will see this out. No, what I propose is that you hand over the administration of the final test to me. I've already cleared my presence here with CoachMan, and I've watched the tests as they've unfolded, and increased in their difficulty, so I know the bar that the girls need to be expected to meet for the last test, assuming the trend continues.
"I assume, Miss Hall, that the requirement of the last test for the girls to best you was stated in jest, and I should hope I don't need to outline for you how ridiculous a requirement that must be if it were serious. Asking them to beat you, is of course, asinine. On the first hand, it seems obvious that no other girls in the squad were required to pass such a trial simply for entry. If they were, then every member of the squad would need to be your better just to join, and you would have no business presiding over any of them at all... On the second, if the other girls were not required to be able to beat you, then it is clearly an unfair test, imbalanced and motivated with a goal towards failing these girls unjustly. It doesn't matter which is the case and which is not, Miss Hall; if either, then you are unfit to administer. I suspect what you intended, rather, was to test the girls yourself to the relative limit they were expected to reach, and then relent provided they reached it.
"I will test these girls rigorously. I will ensure that the test is a further step up on the required performance from the previous, and I will ensure that the test is both fair and even-handed. If they fail, then they will fail. If they pass, then they will pass. I will make certain that there are no tricks or any other kind of misconduct used, and at the end of the day, I will not report your misconduct any further. Are we on the same page, Miss Hall?" Finally, after the thorough upbraiding, CourseMan stopped long enough to give Hall a proper chance to respond, watching with what had become an altogether stern expression on his clone's features.
As much as most of the other girls present had probably already realised that Courser was fond of being wordy at times, each of them had only really seen the various faces of his charm until now, so it might be something of a surprise to some of them to witness such a shift in his displayed persona, to delivering such an extended castigation to the unfortunate disciplinary.
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Damascus narrowed her eyes threateningly at the cheerleaders again, questioning internally why she'd felt it appropriate to help snobby brats succeed in this madcap game. The simple answer: MeleeMan had commanded her to, she was his SP, and bizarrely, it wasn't the most degrading thing she'd ever been asked to do. "Such lofty goals. But you two would be wise to remember the balance of power here. No, I'm not threatening to pull out... I'm saying that if Hall has the authority to make you go through these nonsensical trials to join the squad, her authority to continually subject you to them will presumably be a factor in the future," she warned the two of them. "Such a hair-brained scheme was never going to work in the long-run. But I will be happy to continue the charade as long as is necessary to fulfill my duty," she finished, though her frowning face rarely looked happy, despite her words.
For his part, CourseMan was proceeding more or less how she'd expected, putting his clones back in reasonable dress so that they could play their part in the upcoming trickery. She decided to put her faith in CourseMan where she could not in MeleeMan... even if MeleeMan was making a mess of things, there was a chance that CourseMan could somehow manipulate his foolishness to work for them. She had to admit that it was sort of hard to have faith in him when he couldn't keep his hands off of the cheerleading wannabes, however. "I will let him know," she answered with coldness that crossed over from professional to critical. "I'd venture a guess that you're correct. If cheerleaders are the highest rung of the social ladder for girls, then I'm certain that the 'perfect male' has been unable to resist the natural pairing."
Once the chastisement begin, she watched with a deep frown, her red eyes smoldering but revealing little of her emotions... unless those emotions were unmasked irritability and a sense of malice. Her eyebrows stayed arched like a demon mask. In this case, she actually was feeling increasingly negative about the setup... not for Hall's sake, but for worry that they were compromising themselves. "MeleeMan isn't going to like that... what was relying upon his relations with the girl, with the introduction of guilt, has suddenly become putting an end to it. Worse yet, I don't believe the girl will take this sitting down... she won't be shamed into relying on CourseMan. If anything, we're challenging her power here, and she will interpret that... correctly... as a slight against her." Her frown lowered and her long neck sank into her shoulders as she questioned whether they'd really picked the best option here. "This won't end with CourseMan getting to administer the test. This will end either with her coming to defend her honor, with MeleeMan abandoning our plan, or with the whole lot of us being thrown out of the school," she mused. "This is not a meek woman we're dealing with... As used as the pirate obviously is to getting his way with women, I doubt his tactic will find purchase."
Hopefully, Damascus was just being pessimistic, as was her conditioning. She couldn't internalize any of her criticism of the method now that the net was cast, though.
--------------------------------------------
For his part, MeleeMan wasn't liking Hall's immediate response. "Ugh... She wants to meet the guy in person. If she gets a look at how sissy that damn sea-man is, she's going to realize she's being played," he thought to himself, reaching into a pile of right answers and pulling out a wrong one based on his own perception of CourseMan. Thankfully, at least in his estimation, the topic shifted to a more favorable topic. He found himself getting harder at the concept of defying her, challenging her, and screwing with her... in both the colloquial and the dirty sense. Verbal back-and-forths ordinarily just made him unwarrantedly smug, but given the subject, he couldn't help himself.
"Hall, I'm surprised at you! Passing the blame, that's not a very captain-like thing to do, is it? I'm sort of getting the sense that not only are you using this as an excuse to skip out on your time-out, but maybe you're even scared to take on my students! That's a damn shame," he scoffed with a grin, then realized that was going to have a counter-productive effect. "Damn shame, that is, that you can't go there in your underwear," he corrected himself, although he'd still failed to properly identify her bloomers as part of a uniform rather than panties. "Verify away! Just remember that innocent ain't something I'm called very often," he taunted her. Mission be damned, if he had Hall reach inside his pants, he thought he'd have sexual gratification built up enough to last him for a few whole miserable weeks of Rania's scholastics.
Also, unfortunately (or fortunately) at this point, no matter how she reached in, there was one inevitability that he hadn't planned intentionally: the skirt was riding between his legs, below the intersection. It would be virtually impossible to pull it out unless she not only brushed that area, but actually groped around thoroughly for it. Then again, maybe she wasn't going to reach in at all. He had no idea what she planned to do to find it, but he was ready (and excited) for whatever it might be...
That was about when he got the message from Damascus, saying to open up the line so CourseMan could speak to Hall. "Damn, ****, ****-balls dammit," he thought to himself in a salty, internal growl. It was as though the universe was conspiring to hand this over to CourseMan despite all of his efforts... Every plan seemed to involve him, when all he wanted was some alone time with his sexy new friend. "Fine, whatever... He's not going to ruin everything I've built here just by butting in." According to Damascus, he was supposed to have Hall in a compromising position now... almost like they knew what he was doing, somehow. Still, he wouldn't argue with that part. He'd let Hall do whatever she had planned before cutting over to allow CourseMan in.
If she did something that could be interpreted as unscrupulous, all the better. If she didn't, then CourseMan's remarks would just have to be directed at her skirtlessness. That was all well and good; what wasn't was CourseMan's unbelievable cock-block. While Hall watched the monitor and possibly responded, MeleeMan was clenching his teeth with a look of contempt almost as fearsome as Damascus ordinary frown, possibly as much so. If Hall listened closely enough, she'd hear the metal of his gauntlets joints grinding together as he flexed his fingers uncomfortably. "Why? Why why why why WHY, dammit?! This pretty boy sea-man is ruining my master plan!" he asked whatever powers may be, feeling like he was going to shatter his teeth clenching them.
In one fell swoop, Courser had ruined the mood in the room, given Hall a reason to leave the room and go to the girls (at least in his estimation, knowing what he knew of Hall's ordinary reaction to being challenged), doubled up on his own suggestion, making it look like he'd planned something out from the start, and insulted the girl he was making moves on (something he thought only he was justified in doing, in the spirit of competition). He had just as negative an impression as Damascus did about the plan, but for mostly different reasons. At this point, though, he had no choice but to run with it; otherwise, he would have to confess the manifold lies he'd given up to this point.
He figured the best way he could make it work was to double down. "My co-coach has got a point. He oughta administer the test. After all, you've got your hands full here," he suggested, trying to spread back out the innuendo and get the cheerleading captain worked up. "Or, you know, I can just remote in to my students right now and explain things. I'll show them how you lost your skirt wrestling me and how you, in turn..." he'd trail off, because given Hall's earlier test, it was probably let the results of whatever she'd decided to do show themselves. "But between you and me, I think it's best if we keep our coaching session between the two of us, avoid any misunderstandings, and also give you a chance to wipe that loss off your record. Or uh, show me the 'error of my ways,' if there is such a thing. Right?" Hall had probably never actually lost, but he figured that little embellishment couldn't hurt.
For his part, CourseMan was proceeding more or less how she'd expected, putting his clones back in reasonable dress so that they could play their part in the upcoming trickery. She decided to put her faith in CourseMan where she could not in MeleeMan... even if MeleeMan was making a mess of things, there was a chance that CourseMan could somehow manipulate his foolishness to work for them. She had to admit that it was sort of hard to have faith in him when he couldn't keep his hands off of the cheerleading wannabes, however. "I will let him know," she answered with coldness that crossed over from professional to critical. "I'd venture a guess that you're correct. If cheerleaders are the highest rung of the social ladder for girls, then I'm certain that the 'perfect male' has been unable to resist the natural pairing."
Once the chastisement begin, she watched with a deep frown, her red eyes smoldering but revealing little of her emotions... unless those emotions were unmasked irritability and a sense of malice. Her eyebrows stayed arched like a demon mask. In this case, she actually was feeling increasingly negative about the setup... not for Hall's sake, but for worry that they were compromising themselves. "MeleeMan isn't going to like that... what was relying upon his relations with the girl, with the introduction of guilt, has suddenly become putting an end to it. Worse yet, I don't believe the girl will take this sitting down... she won't be shamed into relying on CourseMan. If anything, we're challenging her power here, and she will interpret that... correctly... as a slight against her." Her frown lowered and her long neck sank into her shoulders as she questioned whether they'd really picked the best option here. "This won't end with CourseMan getting to administer the test. This will end either with her coming to defend her honor, with MeleeMan abandoning our plan, or with the whole lot of us being thrown out of the school," she mused. "This is not a meek woman we're dealing with... As used as the pirate obviously is to getting his way with women, I doubt his tactic will find purchase."
Hopefully, Damascus was just being pessimistic, as was her conditioning. She couldn't internalize any of her criticism of the method now that the net was cast, though.
--------------------------------------------
For his part, MeleeMan wasn't liking Hall's immediate response. "Ugh... She wants to meet the guy in person. If she gets a look at how sissy that damn sea-man is, she's going to realize she's being played," he thought to himself, reaching into a pile of right answers and pulling out a wrong one based on his own perception of CourseMan. Thankfully, at least in his estimation, the topic shifted to a more favorable topic. He found himself getting harder at the concept of defying her, challenging her, and screwing with her... in both the colloquial and the dirty sense. Verbal back-and-forths ordinarily just made him unwarrantedly smug, but given the subject, he couldn't help himself.
"Hall, I'm surprised at you! Passing the blame, that's not a very captain-like thing to do, is it? I'm sort of getting the sense that not only are you using this as an excuse to skip out on your time-out, but maybe you're even scared to take on my students! That's a damn shame," he scoffed with a grin, then realized that was going to have a counter-productive effect. "Damn shame, that is, that you can't go there in your underwear," he corrected himself, although he'd still failed to properly identify her bloomers as part of a uniform rather than panties. "Verify away! Just remember that innocent ain't something I'm called very often," he taunted her. Mission be damned, if he had Hall reach inside his pants, he thought he'd have sexual gratification built up enough to last him for a few whole miserable weeks of Rania's scholastics.
Also, unfortunately (or fortunately) at this point, no matter how she reached in, there was one inevitability that he hadn't planned intentionally: the skirt was riding between his legs, below the intersection. It would be virtually impossible to pull it out unless she not only brushed that area, but actually groped around thoroughly for it. Then again, maybe she wasn't going to reach in at all. He had no idea what she planned to do to find it, but he was ready (and excited) for whatever it might be...
That was about when he got the message from Damascus, saying to open up the line so CourseMan could speak to Hall. "Damn, ****, ****-balls dammit," he thought to himself in a salty, internal growl. It was as though the universe was conspiring to hand this over to CourseMan despite all of his efforts... Every plan seemed to involve him, when all he wanted was some alone time with his sexy new friend. "Fine, whatever... He's not going to ruin everything I've built here just by butting in." According to Damascus, he was supposed to have Hall in a compromising position now... almost like they knew what he was doing, somehow. Still, he wouldn't argue with that part. He'd let Hall do whatever she had planned before cutting over to allow CourseMan in.
If she did something that could be interpreted as unscrupulous, all the better. If she didn't, then CourseMan's remarks would just have to be directed at her skirtlessness. That was all well and good; what wasn't was CourseMan's unbelievable cock-block. While Hall watched the monitor and possibly responded, MeleeMan was clenching his teeth with a look of contempt almost as fearsome as Damascus ordinary frown, possibly as much so. If Hall listened closely enough, she'd hear the metal of his gauntlets joints grinding together as he flexed his fingers uncomfortably. "Why? Why why why why WHY, dammit?! This pretty boy sea-man is ruining my master plan!" he asked whatever powers may be, feeling like he was going to shatter his teeth clenching them.
In one fell swoop, Courser had ruined the mood in the room, given Hall a reason to leave the room and go to the girls (at least in his estimation, knowing what he knew of Hall's ordinary reaction to being challenged), doubled up on his own suggestion, making it look like he'd planned something out from the start, and insulted the girl he was making moves on (something he thought only he was justified in doing, in the spirit of competition). He had just as negative an impression as Damascus did about the plan, but for mostly different reasons. At this point, though, he had no choice but to run with it; otherwise, he would have to confess the manifold lies he'd given up to this point.
He figured the best way he could make it work was to double down. "My co-coach has got a point. He oughta administer the test. After all, you've got your hands full here," he suggested, trying to spread back out the innuendo and get the cheerleading captain worked up. "Or, you know, I can just remote in to my students right now and explain things. I'll show them how you lost your skirt wrestling me and how you, in turn..." he'd trail off, because given Hall's earlier test, it was probably let the results of whatever she'd decided to do show themselves. "But between you and me, I think it's best if we keep our coaching session between the two of us, avoid any misunderstandings, and also give you a chance to wipe that loss off your record. Or uh, show me the 'error of my ways,' if there is such a thing. Right?" Hall had probably never actually lost, but he figured that little embellishment couldn't hurt.
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"Whatevs," Twig replied to Damascus, checking her nails with gratuitous disinterest as she made light of Damascus's claims. "At this point, it's all about making it. I'm pretty sure this is just a one-time deal that Hall came up with to throw her weight around. When we're with the whole squad of reasonable people I'm sure we're totally gonna fit right in."
"Yeah, like, the whole squad isn't superwomen," Wand added, crossing her arms. "At least, like, not that I know of. And if that jerk does keep on our case, we'll just make the connections we need in the squad and tell her 'later'! Not like there's a binding contract."
The two got chummy with their favorite CourseClones again, giving light chuckles to his witticisms and (in Wand's case) continued jitters of barely-concealed tension under his grasp. In a group discussion, though, Wand seemed pretty hesitant to show much of what she was feeling from CourseMan's more forward touches. Thus, she looked a little relieved when his main body brought his spin-off in line.
"While the call's up, I guess we don't wanna be seen or heard on-screen," Twig commented quietly to the CourseMan nearest to her that wasn't presenting. "It's a shame I won't be able to look in... I wanna see the look on Little Miss Hall's face!"
---
In the meantime, a certain other cheer-leading coach continued to enjoy himself with the look on Little Miss Hall's face (and the look of various other parts of Not-So-Little Miss Hall's body), as he had been for a good while now. "Oh, come now," she scoffed at MeleeMan's jeers, seemingly taking them as ribbing in good humor. "And, as far as innocence goes, who among us is truly innocent? In this matter, however, I feel there shall not be shades of grey. Now then, since you are clearly terribly eager to have your name cleared, and not especially afraid of being disrobed, understanding that such is occurring without any deviant intent... Please, hold still."
Still smiling, Hall placed her hands on buckle of his jacket clasp, undoing it, and then on the lapels of MeleeMan's jacket, attempting to take it from him if he would voluntarily remove his arms. If he would, she would turn from him and ruffle about the inside herself; If he would not, she would be forced to feel about the inside of his jacket (in vain, of course), putting her in intimate range once again. Either way, she would take some steps back from him and close her eyes as she investigated with apparent calm.
The reason for the space would become obvious as two spears suddenly rained down, gunning powerfully but precisely for MeleeMan's ab protection, attempting to spear it down along with his pants and reveal his secret shame (or pride). Two statues had very quietly materialized on either side of him and had performed the thrusts. If they didn't get the pants they'd been aiming for initially they'd launch another strike.
Hall turned around and opened her eyes: doing so would likely expose the sight of either MeleeMan defending the honor of his groin from her statues, or the view of his prize and her prize clearly on display. Either due to the more obvious bulge in his pants on full display, or the item itself beneath the exposed bulge of his skinsuit, Hall would quickly whirl back around, holding a hand over her red face and clenching her teeth in a grin. "MeleeMan, you are not decent!" she exclaimed in a loud, girlish cry. Although MeleeMan wasn't likely to notice, the two statues had moved into a position of facing away from him and covering their eyes with their free hands, as well.
Unfortunately for her, this would be the position Hall was in when two-way communication finally kicked in. Realizing she was being spoken to, the girl straightened up and put on her "first impressions are important" face, crossing her arms as though drawing the eyes to her bust would somehow hide the fact that she wasn't wearing pants. Being as talkative as she was, she first tried to interject her own greeting, but seemed to understand why he was startled, and held her tongue until the clone appeared to glance away to compose himself. "I understand-" she began, speaking in her usual congenial tone, before CourseMan made accusations. This caused the girl's usual smile to fall into a bit more of a stern expression, a face that usually accompanied "allow me to explain" at business meetings.
Of course, the clone had no intention of allowing her to do so. She bore the initial chastisement with little trouble, but parted her lips in a hasty attempt to get a word in edgewise as CourseMan expressed his opinions of her qualifications. Seeing that he was not going to stop, she remained quiet still, her expression now looking more like a long-suffering teacher letting a worked-up parent get it out their system at a parent-teacher conference. She did start to interject again when he mentioned reporting her activity. "Yes, well-" she started, before immediately shutting up again as he continued.
The cheer captain continued to more or less hold that composure with only minor facial ticks revealing her emotions beyond that point: a challenging curl of her lips at the notion that she was unfit to administer the test; a tightening of her smile at the suggestion that CourseMan himself would administer the tests; the slightly pitying tilt that seemed to be associated with her unshakable confidence when CourseMan elaborated on the issues with the concept of the girls being forced to best her to qualify; and finally, shut eyes and a wide smile that could be interpreted as either contemplative or relieved as CourseMan wound down on his spiel.
She opened her eyes and glanced back at MeleeMan only briefly, but with the same wide smile, hearing his suggestions out. She first spoke to him, though she was still facing CourseMan, in spite of the fact that CourseMan was still awaiting a response. "MeleeMan, I understand your great desire to see this competition come to a head, and I understand you prefer your coaching methods with more stick and less carrot, but let's not joke just now, all right? Your coaching partner and the young talents we serve deserve a proper discussion, immediately."
Although she'd been facing CourseMan's window before, her eyes now seemed to focus on him. She smiled in a business-casual fashion, but made the very unusual choice to enter her rainbow-holding gesture again, raising her hands above her and tilting her neck back. "Welcome to our fine Academy, CourseMan!" Her booming voice reverberated all around the small room MeleeMan shared with her. It would probably be fair to assume this loud greeting was intended to establish early on in her retort that she wouldn't be talked over, a fact that might be new to CourseMan but probably would not be to MeleeMan. "Let me dispense with pleasantries. You have caught me at a disadvantage, but I assure you that what has transpired with MeleeMan here in this room is the offspring of none but the most noble intentions. MeleeMan has, in fact, requested this session with the explicit purpose of developing his coaching abilities. For now, though, that is neither here nor there."
Her eyes opened a bit wider and her voice grew in intensity as she continued. "I understand also your concern over my apparent negligence for our students! Rest assured, I shall be there post-haste. With my abilities and this netspace, it shall not even be a second. However, I believe it would behoove us to 'get on the same page' before I do, as you eluded, rather than airing our grievances in front of the two unrelated test-takers. And, as for my state of dress, it is of little consequence. We will all be girls in the final trial, and I would happily run it bare to the gym if necessary."
Lowering her arms and dispensing with the rainbow, Hall crossed them below her chest once again. "CourseMan, I believe myself to be a gregarious and optimistic individual, but I also have a role as a corrector and disciplinarian. This is why I must take protest at your erroneous assumptions! Let me start with this notion that the basis of the contest the Administrator has created is flawed. You assume that, simply because I am the cheer captain, my acting as the gatekeeper is preposterous. Here, at Elec East High, we expect perfection from each and every one of our students. We consistently strive to be the greatest at whatever task we choose to perform. The idea that I would relent and accept only a half-hearted effort is quite incorrect. I do, in fact, expect these two girls can best me in the final competition and go on to become the finest cheerleaders the academy has ever seen! This is the ideal our entire squad strives for. I am only the captain because such an administrative role is necessary for cohesion of the squad and is suited to my natural talents. This was determined by a vote from my contemporaries.
"And, in any case, why shouldn't I expect it?" Hall questioned, an excited grin breaking her lips. "If you have truly been watching their struggle, then you share my marvel at their results! The data I have been tracking indicates these girls have passed each of these tests, which are intended to be cleared with perseverance, sweat, blood, and multiple trials, with exemplary results! Only one test has been failed, and the girl who did so immediately returned to the challenge and bested it. For the Administrator's sake, one of the powerful spears of my testing avatars struck one of the girls, and she continued, undaunted! I have little doubt in my mind that these girls have the physical and mental fortitude to be the greatest, and it will be my honor to serve as the giant whose shoulders they stand on.
"CourseMan," she spoke, lowering her voice to a (still quite loud) conversational tone. "I appreciate your candor. From a professional coach such as yourself, you opinion is greatly valued. I also apologize for the state you find me in: while I assure you there is, in fact, no miscreant behavior underway, it is understandable that you would have doubts about me based on this appearance. If I am to suffer disciplinary action for my behavior, I shall speak to the Administrator about it at a later time, or, I shall be happy to provide my e-mail address if you wish to submit a report first-hand. However, I must insist on delivering the final test myself. This is not up for discussion, and, meaning no offense, you are a guest at this school, unqualified to prohibit the advancing of this testing by delaying my progress. I understand you have cleared your presence with CoachMan, and I thank you for doing so, but CoachMan's authority does not trump that of the Administrator."
Obviously, Hall hadn't been badly shaken, but she'd certainly been excited. She turned back to MeleeMan, showing him her bright eyes even as she showed CourseMan her improperly-clad bum. "MeleeMan, my skirt, please. I mustn't keep them waiting a second longer!"
---
Twig and Wand fumed crossly, put in an obvious bad mood by Hall's digital presence, even in spite of the fact they couldn't actually see her. The two initiated an impressive array of eye rolls, hair flips, "gab gab gab" and "blah blah blah" hand gestures, and all manner of other displays of attitude as she spoke. While Twig continued making her feelings known, however, Wand suddenly spoke up, hissing a whisper to CourseMan and Damascus nearby.
"Oh. My. God. This was the worst idea ever. Not 'cause of Courser or whatevs, but because, like, were we seriously trying to get on the cheer squad with that loser in charge? What is her damage, seriously?!"
Twig stopped, seeming to have a sudden thought. Her face broke into a wide smile with obvious deviant intentions. "Hold up. We're such dummies, Wandy! We don't need to join the cheer squad with Hall in charge!"
"Uh, yeah, I just said that," Wand agreed, crossly.
"No, I mean, rather than us getting in, let's get Hall kicked out! It's like she said: even though she's the big cheese with the Adminiwhatever on her side, she's only cheer captain because she tricked a bunch of cool people into voting her in, right? I can't see it, but I just know from how she's been talking that she's in some stupid situation with that beefy guy. Maybe some potentially recordable situation?"
Wand frowned, but then slowly grinned, her twin link finally kicking in. "Oh. Ooooh! I totally get it. Jumbo Jugs can tell that guy to, I dunno, mess with her somehow, right? While Courser has this window up, he can video record it, then give that copy to us! We'll put it on every forum around the school, and Hall's squeaky-clean goody-two-shoes status will be ruined, no matter how hard she moans and preaches and scrubs! They'll vote her off, we'll rub elbows with the right people and make our way in... everything works out!"
"All right, like, let's do that, then get out of here!" Twig declared in as loud and excited of a whisper as possible while still qualifying as a "whisper." "Courser, Damascus, get us that juicy dirt! That's your new mission. Get that for us and we can all beat it, go to the mall, or... or whatever!" she added with a sudden blush, her eyes traveling back to CourseMan briefly.
"Yeah, like, the whole squad isn't superwomen," Wand added, crossing her arms. "At least, like, not that I know of. And if that jerk does keep on our case, we'll just make the connections we need in the squad and tell her 'later'! Not like there's a binding contract."
The two got chummy with their favorite CourseClones again, giving light chuckles to his witticisms and (in Wand's case) continued jitters of barely-concealed tension under his grasp. In a group discussion, though, Wand seemed pretty hesitant to show much of what she was feeling from CourseMan's more forward touches. Thus, she looked a little relieved when his main body brought his spin-off in line.
"While the call's up, I guess we don't wanna be seen or heard on-screen," Twig commented quietly to the CourseMan nearest to her that wasn't presenting. "It's a shame I won't be able to look in... I wanna see the look on Little Miss Hall's face!"
---
In the meantime, a certain other cheer-leading coach continued to enjoy himself with the look on Little Miss Hall's face (and the look of various other parts of Not-So-Little Miss Hall's body), as he had been for a good while now. "Oh, come now," she scoffed at MeleeMan's jeers, seemingly taking them as ribbing in good humor. "And, as far as innocence goes, who among us is truly innocent? In this matter, however, I feel there shall not be shades of grey. Now then, since you are clearly terribly eager to have your name cleared, and not especially afraid of being disrobed, understanding that such is occurring without any deviant intent... Please, hold still."
Still smiling, Hall placed her hands on buckle of his jacket clasp, undoing it, and then on the lapels of MeleeMan's jacket, attempting to take it from him if he would voluntarily remove his arms. If he would, she would turn from him and ruffle about the inside herself; If he would not, she would be forced to feel about the inside of his jacket (in vain, of course), putting her in intimate range once again. Either way, she would take some steps back from him and close her eyes as she investigated with apparent calm.
The reason for the space would become obvious as two spears suddenly rained down, gunning powerfully but precisely for MeleeMan's ab protection, attempting to spear it down along with his pants and reveal his secret shame (or pride). Two statues had very quietly materialized on either side of him and had performed the thrusts. If they didn't get the pants they'd been aiming for initially they'd launch another strike.
Hall turned around and opened her eyes: doing so would likely expose the sight of either MeleeMan defending the honor of his groin from her statues, or the view of his prize and her prize clearly on display. Either due to the more obvious bulge in his pants on full display, or the item itself beneath the exposed bulge of his skinsuit, Hall would quickly whirl back around, holding a hand over her red face and clenching her teeth in a grin. "MeleeMan, you are not decent!" she exclaimed in a loud, girlish cry. Although MeleeMan wasn't likely to notice, the two statues had moved into a position of facing away from him and covering their eyes with their free hands, as well.
Unfortunately for her, this would be the position Hall was in when two-way communication finally kicked in. Realizing she was being spoken to, the girl straightened up and put on her "first impressions are important" face, crossing her arms as though drawing the eyes to her bust would somehow hide the fact that she wasn't wearing pants. Being as talkative as she was, she first tried to interject her own greeting, but seemed to understand why he was startled, and held her tongue until the clone appeared to glance away to compose himself. "I understand-" she began, speaking in her usual congenial tone, before CourseMan made accusations. This caused the girl's usual smile to fall into a bit more of a stern expression, a face that usually accompanied "allow me to explain" at business meetings.
Of course, the clone had no intention of allowing her to do so. She bore the initial chastisement with little trouble, but parted her lips in a hasty attempt to get a word in edgewise as CourseMan expressed his opinions of her qualifications. Seeing that he was not going to stop, she remained quiet still, her expression now looking more like a long-suffering teacher letting a worked-up parent get it out their system at a parent-teacher conference. She did start to interject again when he mentioned reporting her activity. "Yes, well-" she started, before immediately shutting up again as he continued.
The cheer captain continued to more or less hold that composure with only minor facial ticks revealing her emotions beyond that point: a challenging curl of her lips at the notion that she was unfit to administer the test; a tightening of her smile at the suggestion that CourseMan himself would administer the tests; the slightly pitying tilt that seemed to be associated with her unshakable confidence when CourseMan elaborated on the issues with the concept of the girls being forced to best her to qualify; and finally, shut eyes and a wide smile that could be interpreted as either contemplative or relieved as CourseMan wound down on his spiel.
She opened her eyes and glanced back at MeleeMan only briefly, but with the same wide smile, hearing his suggestions out. She first spoke to him, though she was still facing CourseMan, in spite of the fact that CourseMan was still awaiting a response. "MeleeMan, I understand your great desire to see this competition come to a head, and I understand you prefer your coaching methods with more stick and less carrot, but let's not joke just now, all right? Your coaching partner and the young talents we serve deserve a proper discussion, immediately."
Although she'd been facing CourseMan's window before, her eyes now seemed to focus on him. She smiled in a business-casual fashion, but made the very unusual choice to enter her rainbow-holding gesture again, raising her hands above her and tilting her neck back. "Welcome to our fine Academy, CourseMan!" Her booming voice reverberated all around the small room MeleeMan shared with her. It would probably be fair to assume this loud greeting was intended to establish early on in her retort that she wouldn't be talked over, a fact that might be new to CourseMan but probably would not be to MeleeMan. "Let me dispense with pleasantries. You have caught me at a disadvantage, but I assure you that what has transpired with MeleeMan here in this room is the offspring of none but the most noble intentions. MeleeMan has, in fact, requested this session with the explicit purpose of developing his coaching abilities. For now, though, that is neither here nor there."
Her eyes opened a bit wider and her voice grew in intensity as she continued. "I understand also your concern over my apparent negligence for our students! Rest assured, I shall be there post-haste. With my abilities and this netspace, it shall not even be a second. However, I believe it would behoove us to 'get on the same page' before I do, as you eluded, rather than airing our grievances in front of the two unrelated test-takers. And, as for my state of dress, it is of little consequence. We will all be girls in the final trial, and I would happily run it bare to the gym if necessary."
Lowering her arms and dispensing with the rainbow, Hall crossed them below her chest once again. "CourseMan, I believe myself to be a gregarious and optimistic individual, but I also have a role as a corrector and disciplinarian. This is why I must take protest at your erroneous assumptions! Let me start with this notion that the basis of the contest the Administrator has created is flawed. You assume that, simply because I am the cheer captain, my acting as the gatekeeper is preposterous. Here, at Elec East High, we expect perfection from each and every one of our students. We consistently strive to be the greatest at whatever task we choose to perform. The idea that I would relent and accept only a half-hearted effort is quite incorrect. I do, in fact, expect these two girls can best me in the final competition and go on to become the finest cheerleaders the academy has ever seen! This is the ideal our entire squad strives for. I am only the captain because such an administrative role is necessary for cohesion of the squad and is suited to my natural talents. This was determined by a vote from my contemporaries.
"And, in any case, why shouldn't I expect it?" Hall questioned, an excited grin breaking her lips. "If you have truly been watching their struggle, then you share my marvel at their results! The data I have been tracking indicates these girls have passed each of these tests, which are intended to be cleared with perseverance, sweat, blood, and multiple trials, with exemplary results! Only one test has been failed, and the girl who did so immediately returned to the challenge and bested it. For the Administrator's sake, one of the powerful spears of my testing avatars struck one of the girls, and she continued, undaunted! I have little doubt in my mind that these girls have the physical and mental fortitude to be the greatest, and it will be my honor to serve as the giant whose shoulders they stand on.
"CourseMan," she spoke, lowering her voice to a (still quite loud) conversational tone. "I appreciate your candor. From a professional coach such as yourself, you opinion is greatly valued. I also apologize for the state you find me in: while I assure you there is, in fact, no miscreant behavior underway, it is understandable that you would have doubts about me based on this appearance. If I am to suffer disciplinary action for my behavior, I shall speak to the Administrator about it at a later time, or, I shall be happy to provide my e-mail address if you wish to submit a report first-hand. However, I must insist on delivering the final test myself. This is not up for discussion, and, meaning no offense, you are a guest at this school, unqualified to prohibit the advancing of this testing by delaying my progress. I understand you have cleared your presence with CoachMan, and I thank you for doing so, but CoachMan's authority does not trump that of the Administrator."
Obviously, Hall hadn't been badly shaken, but she'd certainly been excited. She turned back to MeleeMan, showing him her bright eyes even as she showed CourseMan her improperly-clad bum. "MeleeMan, my skirt, please. I mustn't keep them waiting a second longer!"
---
Twig and Wand fumed crossly, put in an obvious bad mood by Hall's digital presence, even in spite of the fact they couldn't actually see her. The two initiated an impressive array of eye rolls, hair flips, "gab gab gab" and "blah blah blah" hand gestures, and all manner of other displays of attitude as she spoke. While Twig continued making her feelings known, however, Wand suddenly spoke up, hissing a whisper to CourseMan and Damascus nearby.
"Oh. My. God. This was the worst idea ever. Not 'cause of Courser or whatevs, but because, like, were we seriously trying to get on the cheer squad with that loser in charge? What is her damage, seriously?!"
Twig stopped, seeming to have a sudden thought. Her face broke into a wide smile with obvious deviant intentions. "Hold up. We're such dummies, Wandy! We don't need to join the cheer squad with Hall in charge!"
"Uh, yeah, I just said that," Wand agreed, crossly.
"No, I mean, rather than us getting in, let's get Hall kicked out! It's like she said: even though she's the big cheese with the Adminiwhatever on her side, she's only cheer captain because she tricked a bunch of cool people into voting her in, right? I can't see it, but I just know from how she's been talking that she's in some stupid situation with that beefy guy. Maybe some potentially recordable situation?"
Wand frowned, but then slowly grinned, her twin link finally kicking in. "Oh. Ooooh! I totally get it. Jumbo Jugs can tell that guy to, I dunno, mess with her somehow, right? While Courser has this window up, he can video record it, then give that copy to us! We'll put it on every forum around the school, and Hall's squeaky-clean goody-two-shoes status will be ruined, no matter how hard she moans and preaches and scrubs! They'll vote her off, we'll rub elbows with the right people and make our way in... everything works out!"
"All right, like, let's do that, then get out of here!" Twig declared in as loud and excited of a whisper as possible while still qualifying as a "whisper." "Courser, Damascus, get us that juicy dirt! That's your new mission. Get that for us and we can all beat it, go to the mall, or... or whatever!" she added with a sudden blush, her eyes traveling back to CourseMan briefly.
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In a not entirely dissimilar fashion to Hall's own tolerance of his rant, the CourseMan fronting the view screen watched and listened to Hall's eventual answers with a calm and patient expression, and didn't attempt to cut in until he was sure she was done. While she spoke and the would-be cheer girls schemed, the Courser standing out of sight by Twig nodded subtly.
"I think we can work something out... She's all but given us the tools I need, I think..." His voice was a low, smooth whisper, every bit as calm and confident as always, despite the talking to that Hall was giving his decoy right at that moment. "We might need to play it a bit fast and loose, but I think it could be fun..." Depending on how close they'd gotten, both girls would probably be able to hear the mischievous grin in his whisper, even if it wasn't showing to clearly on his face. The Courser that was nearer to Damascus, on the other hand, looked to his mission partner with a slightly more uneasy expression.
"I'll be honest... I'm less keen on digging dirt for the sake of it..." this murmur was quiet enough that chances were Damascus was going to be the only one who actually heard it. "But the way this has gone I think that this administrator, and Hall by extension, genuinely does have it out for these girls unfairly. Seems one side is as bad as the other... So I guess a mission is a mission for now. Make sure you're getting the feed. I'm sure MeleeMan won't mind having his odds and ends on display like that if it means a successful pay up. Heck he's probably proud of them." The seriousness was still slightly set at odds with the cheer outfit he was wearing, especially now that the one by Twig and the one in front of the screen were dressed normally again, but by this point Courser had gone a long way towards owning the look and seeming comfortable in it.
The clone in front of the camera was about done listening patiently to Hall's responses and tilted his head as he watched her, folding his arms for a few moments. When she was finished properly, he heaved a short sigh.
"Thankyou for the welcome, Miss Hall, but I'm afraid to say that my impression of this school was notably higher before I had cause to interact with you. Showing off your barely clad behind to me while trying to have a serious discussion is only digging yourself deeper, Miss Hall. You do realise that, don't you?" He waited for her to turn back around. If the clone had been thrown off by what glances he'd been given of MeleeMan's own state of compromised dress, he didn't show it... but if anyone in the room still thought that Courser had any hang-ups about gender, they weren't paying attention. "Let's see..." He lifted one hand enough to begin extending fingers one by one.
"First you resort to the juvenile excuse of 'He started it!'. What are you, Miss Hall, a child? Take some responsibility for your own choices at least. The fact remains you are sequestered in the change rooms as we speak, in the process of disrobing my partner and allowing him to disrobe you in turn. Don't even think to pretend that he coerced or pressured you into doing so. That's on you, Miss Hall.
"Next, you continue to suppose that the standards of testing that you are insisting upon are reasonable, when they are not. You ask why I find it preposterous?" His voice grew progressively harder as he continued now. "I find it preposterous that the woman in charge of admittance to the team, leadership and coaching of the squad should by definition be the least skilled, least capable, and least competent member. Yes, Miss Hall, that is preposterous, and if you cannot see why then I must sincerely question your intelligence as well. You didn't answer my question: were the other girls in the squad required to be better than you, just to gain permission to join the team? If, as you say, that is the goal that they all strive for, then it does not sound as though they were.
"Unless of course you're fibbing to me, Miss Hall. At this stage, and given your conduct so far, I would not be surprised. You say that you absolutely must, without fail, be the one to deliver the test. If it were a fair and just test, then that would not be so important; it could be overseen by any competent coach. But I think we've already established that this isn't a fair test, is it, Miss Hall? your excuse for your poor dress is simply to say you'd be happy for everyone to run the test in the nude anyway. Somehow I doubt you actually mean that. I'll let the overt sexism of your comment slide, Miss Hall, with the understanding that if you should deign to grace us with your presence here at any point in the foreseeable future, you'll be arriving skyclad." His eyes glinted here as his eyebrows drew down. "Unless you're lying to me about that as well, Miss Hall. I'll let the girls know you need them to change down." As the clone said this, the Courser by Damascus tilted his head to whisper to her.
"Be ready to drop the uniform if Hall shows up. We've got an excuse for them being off when she arrives, if she comes along, but she can't see us wearing them. Long as they're bundled up again when she gets here, she doesn't have any clue who they were on." Off screen, the clone standing by Twig raised a cautious, calming hand to her to pre-empt what the other clone had just said. He whispered carefully.
"Don't worry, I don't think she'll go through with that... but if she does, well, you want a scandal... that's a scandal. 'Cheer coach makes girls perform naked in front of others for admittance to squad, indecently exposes herself to them.' If you two are prepared to get your kits off for a bit as well, and make a show to her about how uncomfortable it's making you both, she'll never recover from that getting out. You can forget popular vote; she'd have to leave the school. Even if you aren't cool with that, footage of you refusing to strip for her would probably do too... though I bet Wand will take it all off, if her behaviour with pretty boy is any judge." Elsewhere, the clone of the hour was still 'negotiating'.
"And now, after all of that, you tell me that, you aren't actually qualified at all. I wish I could act surprised for your benefit, Miss hall, but I can't. You're in your position not by merit, skill or qualification, but by nothing more than popular vote. Knowing that, this drastically over-scaled test for these girls begins to look exceptionally like a blatant abuse of power." The clone let out another short sigh, then shrugged and began removing his jacket in a way that Hall would be able to tell what he was doing.
"If you are going to insist upon delivering this test yourself, then I expect you'll be joining us shortly." He set the coat down and continued, now unfastening the front buttons on his shirt and exposing progressively more of his chest. Hall wasn't the only one able to get an eyeful of this, of course. "But know that I will remain here and I will be observing, and if you are wearing a stitch when you arrive, Miss Hall, we will all know that you are little more than empty lies. Are we clear?" He finished with the front buttons and began undoing the wrist cuffs on the undershirt now while waiting for Hall to confirm, deny... or perhaps even zap herself right there at once. Courser himself, off screen, was watching carefully, and if Hall gave any sign of actually showing up, he was ready to shut off the cheer uniform and have it bundled up again, like he was simply holding it for Twig. Even if Hall declined to show up in the buff, like she'd suggested of her own accord, they'd still have the image of her forcefully stripping MeleeMan, while being herself only partially dressed. That should do some damage at least, even if nothing else panned out.
"I think we can work something out... She's all but given us the tools I need, I think..." His voice was a low, smooth whisper, every bit as calm and confident as always, despite the talking to that Hall was giving his decoy right at that moment. "We might need to play it a bit fast and loose, but I think it could be fun..." Depending on how close they'd gotten, both girls would probably be able to hear the mischievous grin in his whisper, even if it wasn't showing to clearly on his face. The Courser that was nearer to Damascus, on the other hand, looked to his mission partner with a slightly more uneasy expression.
"I'll be honest... I'm less keen on digging dirt for the sake of it..." this murmur was quiet enough that chances were Damascus was going to be the only one who actually heard it. "But the way this has gone I think that this administrator, and Hall by extension, genuinely does have it out for these girls unfairly. Seems one side is as bad as the other... So I guess a mission is a mission for now. Make sure you're getting the feed. I'm sure MeleeMan won't mind having his odds and ends on display like that if it means a successful pay up. Heck he's probably proud of them." The seriousness was still slightly set at odds with the cheer outfit he was wearing, especially now that the one by Twig and the one in front of the screen were dressed normally again, but by this point Courser had gone a long way towards owning the look and seeming comfortable in it.
The clone in front of the camera was about done listening patiently to Hall's responses and tilted his head as he watched her, folding his arms for a few moments. When she was finished properly, he heaved a short sigh.
"Thankyou for the welcome, Miss Hall, but I'm afraid to say that my impression of this school was notably higher before I had cause to interact with you. Showing off your barely clad behind to me while trying to have a serious discussion is only digging yourself deeper, Miss Hall. You do realise that, don't you?" He waited for her to turn back around. If the clone had been thrown off by what glances he'd been given of MeleeMan's own state of compromised dress, he didn't show it... but if anyone in the room still thought that Courser had any hang-ups about gender, they weren't paying attention. "Let's see..." He lifted one hand enough to begin extending fingers one by one.
"First you resort to the juvenile excuse of 'He started it!'. What are you, Miss Hall, a child? Take some responsibility for your own choices at least. The fact remains you are sequestered in the change rooms as we speak, in the process of disrobing my partner and allowing him to disrobe you in turn. Don't even think to pretend that he coerced or pressured you into doing so. That's on you, Miss Hall.
"Next, you continue to suppose that the standards of testing that you are insisting upon are reasonable, when they are not. You ask why I find it preposterous?" His voice grew progressively harder as he continued now. "I find it preposterous that the woman in charge of admittance to the team, leadership and coaching of the squad should by definition be the least skilled, least capable, and least competent member. Yes, Miss Hall, that is preposterous, and if you cannot see why then I must sincerely question your intelligence as well. You didn't answer my question: were the other girls in the squad required to be better than you, just to gain permission to join the team? If, as you say, that is the goal that they all strive for, then it does not sound as though they were.
"Unless of course you're fibbing to me, Miss Hall. At this stage, and given your conduct so far, I would not be surprised. You say that you absolutely must, without fail, be the one to deliver the test. If it were a fair and just test, then that would not be so important; it could be overseen by any competent coach. But I think we've already established that this isn't a fair test, is it, Miss Hall? your excuse for your poor dress is simply to say you'd be happy for everyone to run the test in the nude anyway. Somehow I doubt you actually mean that. I'll let the overt sexism of your comment slide, Miss Hall, with the understanding that if you should deign to grace us with your presence here at any point in the foreseeable future, you'll be arriving skyclad." His eyes glinted here as his eyebrows drew down. "Unless you're lying to me about that as well, Miss Hall. I'll let the girls know you need them to change down." As the clone said this, the Courser by Damascus tilted his head to whisper to her.
"Be ready to drop the uniform if Hall shows up. We've got an excuse for them being off when she arrives, if she comes along, but she can't see us wearing them. Long as they're bundled up again when she gets here, she doesn't have any clue who they were on." Off screen, the clone standing by Twig raised a cautious, calming hand to her to pre-empt what the other clone had just said. He whispered carefully.
"Don't worry, I don't think she'll go through with that... but if she does, well, you want a scandal... that's a scandal. 'Cheer coach makes girls perform naked in front of others for admittance to squad, indecently exposes herself to them.' If you two are prepared to get your kits off for a bit as well, and make a show to her about how uncomfortable it's making you both, she'll never recover from that getting out. You can forget popular vote; she'd have to leave the school. Even if you aren't cool with that, footage of you refusing to strip for her would probably do too... though I bet Wand will take it all off, if her behaviour with pretty boy is any judge." Elsewhere, the clone of the hour was still 'negotiating'.
"And now, after all of that, you tell me that, you aren't actually qualified at all. I wish I could act surprised for your benefit, Miss hall, but I can't. You're in your position not by merit, skill or qualification, but by nothing more than popular vote. Knowing that, this drastically over-scaled test for these girls begins to look exceptionally like a blatant abuse of power." The clone let out another short sigh, then shrugged and began removing his jacket in a way that Hall would be able to tell what he was doing.
"If you are going to insist upon delivering this test yourself, then I expect you'll be joining us shortly." He set the coat down and continued, now unfastening the front buttons on his shirt and exposing progressively more of his chest. Hall wasn't the only one able to get an eyeful of this, of course. "But know that I will remain here and I will be observing, and if you are wearing a stitch when you arrive, Miss Hall, we will all know that you are little more than empty lies. Are we clear?" He finished with the front buttons and began undoing the wrist cuffs on the undershirt now while waiting for Hall to confirm, deny... or perhaps even zap herself right there at once. Courser himself, off screen, was watching carefully, and if Hall gave any sign of actually showing up, he was ready to shut off the cheer uniform and have it bundled up again, like he was simply holding it for Twig. Even if Hall declined to show up in the buff, like she'd suggested of her own accord, they'd still have the image of her forcefully stripping MeleeMan, while being herself only partially dressed. That should do some damage at least, even if nothing else panned out.
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Damascus lowered her eyebrows, wondering how the girls were anticipating just sweeping the Hall problem under the rug, but conceding that she wasn't being paid for her life coaching. More so, even with the tormenting that Hall was subjecting everyone to, she started to wonder if she wasn't favoring the wrong side... at least Hall seemed like a hard worker. She didn't dwell on that for long though; she wasn't the sentimental type and it wasn't up to a weapon to pick her mission.
Hall's defense was more or less what Damascus was expecting, though perhaps less furious and more composed than she'd been expecting. If MeleeMan was being grilled that way, he'd probably be on his way to the gym to start a fight... then again, that was always a likely possibility no matter MeleeMan's circumstances. Privately, one of the CourseMen (Damascus had temporarily lost track of which was the original one) was weighing in on their chances. He sounded pretty confident, she thought; she didn't like his penchant for dirty maneuvers, but in this case, she was happy to have it. "Yes, judging by the number of times I've had the unfortunate burden of watching MeleeMan's body betray his feelings, I'd say he's not ashamed of it," she remarked, noting with disdain that CourseMan seemed to be enjoying the show.
Her eyes narrowed as CourseMan continued with his plan; her eyes scanned all parties involved to see their reactions. Smoldering red, they locked on the nearest CourseMan after a time. "That would work out nicely for you, wouldn't it?" she scoffed, in a quiet voice. "I'll go along with it, if by some miracle it works, but I have to comment that this feels like a plan out of the MeleeMan playbook. That's not a compliment." She thought about it harder for a moment, then crossed her arms beneath her chest. "I believe we've neglected another factor... With the slickness of the soap on ourselves and on our wardrobes, it's not going to be enough just to drop the outfits. The girls are going to have to be soapy as well... The only way I know of transferring that look will be for them to nestle up to us and thoroughly rub our bodies together. Or to just you, if you prefer. I have no desire to hug anyone, least of all them."
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Being the one stripped wasn't exactly MeleeMan's usual preference, but he found it hard to argue under present circumstances. Smirking, he allowed Hall to remove his jacket, which seemed to let off its off a visible ripple of heat in the air as his massive biceps freed themselves. He kept the smile stupidly pasted onto his face, even as spears nearly skewered him, tearing off his pants and creating a few cuts in his skinsuit while they were at it. He frowned slowly, then inched free of the spears as much as he could. "Damn," he commented, sounding less affected than one might imagine.
Hall's reaction wasn't quite the one he would have chosen either, but he couldn't help but laugh triumphantly. "I told you I wasn't innocent!" he guffawed; the publicity didn't seem to be causing him to lose any of his excitement. "What did you think was going to happen when you tore off my pants? Use your head," he sniggered. Once again, CourseMan swooped in next with another long rain of criticism; he could only provide constant quips to keep himself entertained. "I dunno, I think my coaching method's got plenty of stick," he joked under his breath, crossing his arms proudly. "Well, if you want some discipline, snrk, I'll bring the rod," he murmured, tilting his head slightly as the grin spread across his face.
MeleeMan was all on board with the idea of Hall stripping down and doing tests in the nude, but he didn't think she was going to go for it. He'd already gone the "twist logic until Hall does something stupidly sexy" route and had found that it was pretty hard to bend her. It seemed to work best somehow when she took the reins herself... perhaps that was the mark of a great leader. He found it hard to hold a grudge against her at all, truth be told... He felt a bit more smitten than he cared to admit to himself, even with Hall playing hard to get. That said, he also loved messing with her, and Damascus was now encouraging him to do more of that.
Coughing, he adjusted his face as best as he could, but the smirk sort of stayed, just showing less teeth now. "Yeah, I think it's kind of messed up that you're forcing me to wave it all around the gym here! I needed those pants to keep it all together, and now they're ruined. All you lost was your skirt earlier, and you said it yourself that it's really not like you're indecent without it. I mean, test or no test, you've put me out in the open while you're still all covered up! That's hardly sportsmanly of you," he scolded her in a teasing voice. "I mean... all I've got to cover up with is this," he murmured, holding the skirt in both hands. "I'll just cover up with it then..." he added, before slowly draping it over the extended front of his skinsuit in erotic fashion, keeping it hanging there. "Are you going to take it from me?" he taunted again.
---------------------------------
Damascus frowned, shooting a glance over to CourseMan. "Let's be sure his face is covered up in any shots we use and that his voice is muted," she suggested, closing her eyes with an expression that showed her patience was being tested.
Hall's defense was more or less what Damascus was expecting, though perhaps less furious and more composed than she'd been expecting. If MeleeMan was being grilled that way, he'd probably be on his way to the gym to start a fight... then again, that was always a likely possibility no matter MeleeMan's circumstances. Privately, one of the CourseMen (Damascus had temporarily lost track of which was the original one) was weighing in on their chances. He sounded pretty confident, she thought; she didn't like his penchant for dirty maneuvers, but in this case, she was happy to have it. "Yes, judging by the number of times I've had the unfortunate burden of watching MeleeMan's body betray his feelings, I'd say he's not ashamed of it," she remarked, noting with disdain that CourseMan seemed to be enjoying the show.
Her eyes narrowed as CourseMan continued with his plan; her eyes scanned all parties involved to see their reactions. Smoldering red, they locked on the nearest CourseMan after a time. "That would work out nicely for you, wouldn't it?" she scoffed, in a quiet voice. "I'll go along with it, if by some miracle it works, but I have to comment that this feels like a plan out of the MeleeMan playbook. That's not a compliment." She thought about it harder for a moment, then crossed her arms beneath her chest. "I believe we've neglected another factor... With the slickness of the soap on ourselves and on our wardrobes, it's not going to be enough just to drop the outfits. The girls are going to have to be soapy as well... The only way I know of transferring that look will be for them to nestle up to us and thoroughly rub our bodies together. Or to just you, if you prefer. I have no desire to hug anyone, least of all them."
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Being the one stripped wasn't exactly MeleeMan's usual preference, but he found it hard to argue under present circumstances. Smirking, he allowed Hall to remove his jacket, which seemed to let off its off a visible ripple of heat in the air as his massive biceps freed themselves. He kept the smile stupidly pasted onto his face, even as spears nearly skewered him, tearing off his pants and creating a few cuts in his skinsuit while they were at it. He frowned slowly, then inched free of the spears as much as he could. "Damn," he commented, sounding less affected than one might imagine.
Hall's reaction wasn't quite the one he would have chosen either, but he couldn't help but laugh triumphantly. "I told you I wasn't innocent!" he guffawed; the publicity didn't seem to be causing him to lose any of his excitement. "What did you think was going to happen when you tore off my pants? Use your head," he sniggered. Once again, CourseMan swooped in next with another long rain of criticism; he could only provide constant quips to keep himself entertained. "I dunno, I think my coaching method's got plenty of stick," he joked under his breath, crossing his arms proudly. "Well, if you want some discipline, snrk, I'll bring the rod," he murmured, tilting his head slightly as the grin spread across his face.
MeleeMan was all on board with the idea of Hall stripping down and doing tests in the nude, but he didn't think she was going to go for it. He'd already gone the "twist logic until Hall does something stupidly sexy" route and had found that it was pretty hard to bend her. It seemed to work best somehow when she took the reins herself... perhaps that was the mark of a great leader. He found it hard to hold a grudge against her at all, truth be told... He felt a bit more smitten than he cared to admit to himself, even with Hall playing hard to get. That said, he also loved messing with her, and Damascus was now encouraging him to do more of that.
Coughing, he adjusted his face as best as he could, but the smirk sort of stayed, just showing less teeth now. "Yeah, I think it's kind of messed up that you're forcing me to wave it all around the gym here! I needed those pants to keep it all together, and now they're ruined. All you lost was your skirt earlier, and you said it yourself that it's really not like you're indecent without it. I mean, test or no test, you've put me out in the open while you're still all covered up! That's hardly sportsmanly of you," he scolded her in a teasing voice. "I mean... all I've got to cover up with is this," he murmured, holding the skirt in both hands. "I'll just cover up with it then..." he added, before slowly draping it over the extended front of his skinsuit in erotic fashion, keeping it hanging there. "Are you going to take it from me?" he taunted again.
---------------------------------
Damascus frowned, shooting a glance over to CourseMan. "Let's be sure his face is covered up in any shots we use and that his voice is muted," she suggested, closing her eyes with an expression that showed her patience was being tested.
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The two girls seemed more or less fully reassured now that CourseMan's clone had given their plan the nod. They didn't seem to pick up on the doubts Damascus and CourseMan himself were expressing privately. The twins held their breath in anticipation as the conversation continued forward, probably expecting CourseMan would be able to draw something very juicy from the student council president that would let them scheme their way onto the squad. Still, even the success they seemed so certain of didn't stop them from giving some groans and eye rolling to what they could hear from MeleeMan. "Ugh, gross...!" Twig muttered, as though she hadn't been reveling in the innuendo of a different buff stud for the past half hour or so. "I dunno if I'm, like, gonna be able to watch the video if he's gonna be waving his junk around... Well, all we need to do is post it straight to the forums, anyhow..."
The two watched the CourseClone conversing with Hall with a bit more consternation now. Twig listened to CourseMan's comments on the alarming plan he'd just hashed out with Hall, frowning. "Y-yeah, um, I think it'll probably be good enough if we just refuse... actually, it's probably best if we can stay in the background or whatevs. We want this video to sting Hall, not come around on us..."
That was probably the last insightful comment CourseMan was going to get from her for a while, as both she and her sister were pretty blatantly distracted watching the CourseMan talking with Hall beginning to tantalizingly disrobe himself. Gulping, glanced down at her own outfit and undid her cape, beginning to take it off.
"No, dummy!" Twig hissed, moving in closer to her sister so she wouldn't have to raise her voice. "Not us! We're not actually getting naked, Wandy!"
"Oh... oh! Uh huh, of course," Wand submitted more quickly than usual, still watching the stripping CourseMan intently.
---
Hall ignored MeleeMan for the moment and focused on his antagonistic co-coach's comments, still smiling (but tightly) as he continued to make his low opinion known. She had reddened a bit when he addressed her state of dress once more, but seemed determined to simply brace herself against his criticisms rather than interrupt for a defense. It wouldn't be hard to guess from the look in her eyes, if not her perpetually smiling eyes, that her opinion of CourseMan was falling more in line with his own of her. When CourseMan hit on the sharpened point of his plan, however, she closed her eyes and bowed her head, looking as though she were restraining some frustration (but still smiling). She still didn't interrupt, waiting until he was entirely done and smiply holding her half-cocked smile.
She opened her eyes with a look of forced patience. "CourseMan, that statement was merely to express my commitment, were I forced to administer the test in the buff. It is not hyperbole, but it is also certainly not a statement of intent. I believe I will be showing the girls plenty of due courtesy by making my way there in my current garb. Unless-"
Hall turned to MeleeMan again with her slightly red face, clearly making a difficult attempt to keep eye contact as MeleeMan spoke. "MeleeMan, I apologize again if you and your partner find me without honor or sportsmanship, but, again, your unfortunate opinions do not outweigh my need to attend to my duties. I..." she halted, watching his indecent display with her skirt incredulously and blushing furiously. "I... very well!" she spoke, in a loud squeak. "You have a penchant for creating unwinnable situations, my friend! But fear not: in recompense for my earlier rather rough treatment of you, I will allow you to wear my skirt if you truly must to protect your dignity."
"Now, I'm heading to the gym. MeleeMan, you can feel free to accompany me, if you wish. Perhaps you can keep your difficult ally in line...? Owing to the farce he has attempted to put forth just now, I strongly suspect he has some deviant intentions hidden... I don't mean to speak ill of him, if he is indeed your ally, but the concept of a Navi pretending to be a coach in order to engage in unsavory activities with young women is villainous beyond my comprehension. Come along now, or I shall be going myself!"
Hall had moved to the door at a near-lightning step, and seemed fully intent on stepping out into the hallway in her bloomers. It was only by grace of her pausing for MeleeMan, it stood to reason, that she hadn't already closed a third of the distance to the gym. When she got moving, it was very unlikely there would be much time at all before she reached her destination.
The two watched the CourseClone conversing with Hall with a bit more consternation now. Twig listened to CourseMan's comments on the alarming plan he'd just hashed out with Hall, frowning. "Y-yeah, um, I think it'll probably be good enough if we just refuse... actually, it's probably best if we can stay in the background or whatevs. We want this video to sting Hall, not come around on us..."
That was probably the last insightful comment CourseMan was going to get from her for a while, as both she and her sister were pretty blatantly distracted watching the CourseMan talking with Hall beginning to tantalizingly disrobe himself. Gulping, glanced down at her own outfit and undid her cape, beginning to take it off.
"No, dummy!" Twig hissed, moving in closer to her sister so she wouldn't have to raise her voice. "Not us! We're not actually getting naked, Wandy!"
"Oh... oh! Uh huh, of course," Wand submitted more quickly than usual, still watching the stripping CourseMan intently.
---
Hall ignored MeleeMan for the moment and focused on his antagonistic co-coach's comments, still smiling (but tightly) as he continued to make his low opinion known. She had reddened a bit when he addressed her state of dress once more, but seemed determined to simply brace herself against his criticisms rather than interrupt for a defense. It wouldn't be hard to guess from the look in her eyes, if not her perpetually smiling eyes, that her opinion of CourseMan was falling more in line with his own of her. When CourseMan hit on the sharpened point of his plan, however, she closed her eyes and bowed her head, looking as though she were restraining some frustration (but still smiling). She still didn't interrupt, waiting until he was entirely done and smiply holding her half-cocked smile.
She opened her eyes with a look of forced patience. "CourseMan, that statement was merely to express my commitment, were I forced to administer the test in the buff. It is not hyperbole, but it is also certainly not a statement of intent. I believe I will be showing the girls plenty of due courtesy by making my way there in my current garb. Unless-"
Hall turned to MeleeMan again with her slightly red face, clearly making a difficult attempt to keep eye contact as MeleeMan spoke. "MeleeMan, I apologize again if you and your partner find me without honor or sportsmanship, but, again, your unfortunate opinions do not outweigh my need to attend to my duties. I..." she halted, watching his indecent display with her skirt incredulously and blushing furiously. "I... very well!" she spoke, in a loud squeak. "You have a penchant for creating unwinnable situations, my friend! But fear not: in recompense for my earlier rather rough treatment of you, I will allow you to wear my skirt if you truly must to protect your dignity."
"Now, I'm heading to the gym. MeleeMan, you can feel free to accompany me, if you wish. Perhaps you can keep your difficult ally in line...? Owing to the farce he has attempted to put forth just now, I strongly suspect he has some deviant intentions hidden... I don't mean to speak ill of him, if he is indeed your ally, but the concept of a Navi pretending to be a coach in order to engage in unsavory activities with young women is villainous beyond my comprehension. Come along now, or I shall be going myself!"
Hall had moved to the door at a near-lightning step, and seemed fully intent on stepping out into the hallway in her bloomers. It was only by grace of her pausing for MeleeMan, it stood to reason, that she hadn't already closed a third of the distance to the gym. When she got moving, it was very unlikely there would be much time at all before she reached her destination.
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The clone on point with Hall had maintained a relaxed expression while he gave her room to answer, continuing, slowly, to undo his shirt, then casually slip it off his shoulders and let it drop to the gym floor even while she gave him what little answer she would. Topless now, the decoy was displaying a healthy level of firmness and definition, though well balanced and lean - not bulging or over-bulked in any way. When the shirt dropped, he buffed the centre of his chest with one set of knuckle,s as his original seemed prone to doing, but at the same time his other hand trailed down his middle to hook a thumb rather distractingly inside the buckle of his belt. The hand rested down in a way that seemed to drag at the belt buckle, and the front of his pants just slightly.
Elsewhere, beside Damascus, the original CourseMan was trying to think quickly. What were their options now... Hall wasn't answering the questions, and probably wasn't taking the bait... the girls seemed... convincable, barely... Needed to keep them out of spotlight, to keep them happy... Hmm... While he planned, he flicked his eyes back to Damascus along with a wry smirk and an arched eyebrow.
"Ahh, you wound me, Damascus... I might be a player, but I'm no letch. It's all about the game, and the dance, and as much as I'm sure you look beautiful sans raiment, I'll only ask if it's necessary to making the whole thing work." Still grinning, the raised eyebrow became a playful wink. "We are a bit messy, I suppose, but we'll see how it works out when we actually slip the outfits off. I think the young ladies might find it just a bit too crass for us to get away with, asking them to strip down and rub up on us, if you follow... But of course, if it becomes necessary, well... Getting caught is not on my to do list today."
And speaking of getting caught, it was swiftly becoming clear that Hall wasn't in a mood to speak to his decoy any longer over the direct line and would be getting to the gym very soon indeed. the decoy standing near Twig and her sister turned more directly to the girls, face more serious that it usually was when talking to either of them.
"Probably no surprise to either of you, but Hall's being difficult... and we're out of time now. Got to alter the plan... Ladies, I'm very, sorry about this, but we need to make this look real, and fast. Boss will drop the clones in a second, and bundle up the uniform. Damascus too. I need you both to start stripping down too - go slow as you like, reluctant as you please, keep your decency as much as you feel you need to... we need a solid visual reason for the uniforms being off when Hall gets here in a few moments. We'll keep the actual footage all censored 'for your protection' you follow? No names, no visuals... only one getting fingered right now will be Hall, I promise." He gave no sign at being aware of the laden entendre in his choice of wording, but there equally seemed little chance that the girls would miss it at this stage. He tactfully didn't mention that MeleeMan would likely be arriving along with Hall... as long as the girls believed he was the only male who might see, they would probably be herded into going along with it.
Hall seemed to be done with the call, talking to MeleeMan now and on her way to the gym. At a guess they had seconds, maybe. The real Courser looked to Damascus again.
"Out of time... kit off, kill the call, I'll drop the clones and we'll play it by ear. Hey, and if you can let MeleeMan know, if he actually wants to take Hall's side in any of this, I can work with that too. Might throw her off." With a last nod, Courser deactivated his cheer outfit and bundled it up, a small part of his mind vaguely curious to see if any of the remaining slippery soap stuck around on his person. The decoys each stuck around until Damascus had terminated the call before fading away as well. In the case of the stripping clone, he had just reached down and unbuckled his belt, beginning to pull it off, before dissolving into shadows. Courser himself quickly shucked his coat and pulled his shirt off over his head in a much faster, if less sexy, manner to the clone, putting himself in the same partial state of dress as it while holding the bundled cheer outfit in a spare hand. In the moments before Hall herself arrived, he took a few steps closer to the girls as well, so it would look more like he was holding the cheer GMO for one of them instead of on his own.
Elsewhere, beside Damascus, the original CourseMan was trying to think quickly. What were their options now... Hall wasn't answering the questions, and probably wasn't taking the bait... the girls seemed... convincable, barely... Needed to keep them out of spotlight, to keep them happy... Hmm... While he planned, he flicked his eyes back to Damascus along with a wry smirk and an arched eyebrow.
"Ahh, you wound me, Damascus... I might be a player, but I'm no letch. It's all about the game, and the dance, and as much as I'm sure you look beautiful sans raiment, I'll only ask if it's necessary to making the whole thing work." Still grinning, the raised eyebrow became a playful wink. "We are a bit messy, I suppose, but we'll see how it works out when we actually slip the outfits off. I think the young ladies might find it just a bit too crass for us to get away with, asking them to strip down and rub up on us, if you follow... But of course, if it becomes necessary, well... Getting caught is not on my to do list today."
And speaking of getting caught, it was swiftly becoming clear that Hall wasn't in a mood to speak to his decoy any longer over the direct line and would be getting to the gym very soon indeed. the decoy standing near Twig and her sister turned more directly to the girls, face more serious that it usually was when talking to either of them.
"Probably no surprise to either of you, but Hall's being difficult... and we're out of time now. Got to alter the plan... Ladies, I'm very, sorry about this, but we need to make this look real, and fast. Boss will drop the clones in a second, and bundle up the uniform. Damascus too. I need you both to start stripping down too - go slow as you like, reluctant as you please, keep your decency as much as you feel you need to... we need a solid visual reason for the uniforms being off when Hall gets here in a few moments. We'll keep the actual footage all censored 'for your protection' you follow? No names, no visuals... only one getting fingered right now will be Hall, I promise." He gave no sign at being aware of the laden entendre in his choice of wording, but there equally seemed little chance that the girls would miss it at this stage. He tactfully didn't mention that MeleeMan would likely be arriving along with Hall... as long as the girls believed he was the only male who might see, they would probably be herded into going along with it.
Hall seemed to be done with the call, talking to MeleeMan now and on her way to the gym. At a guess they had seconds, maybe. The real Courser looked to Damascus again.
"Out of time... kit off, kill the call, I'll drop the clones and we'll play it by ear. Hey, and if you can let MeleeMan know, if he actually wants to take Hall's side in any of this, I can work with that too. Might throw her off." With a last nod, Courser deactivated his cheer outfit and bundled it up, a small part of his mind vaguely curious to see if any of the remaining slippery soap stuck around on his person. The decoys each stuck around until Damascus had terminated the call before fading away as well. In the case of the stripping clone, he had just reached down and unbuckled his belt, beginning to pull it off, before dissolving into shadows. Courser himself quickly shucked his coat and pulled his shirt off over his head in a much faster, if less sexy, manner to the clone, putting himself in the same partial state of dress as it while holding the bundled cheer outfit in a spare hand. In the moments before Hall herself arrived, he took a few steps closer to the girls as well, so it would look more like he was holding the cheer GMO for one of them instead of on his own.
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Damascus had to agree with the girls where MeleeMan was concerned, although, to her, the suave flirtatiousness of CourseMan was only a slight shade better than the overt lewdness of MeleeMan. The girls seemed to prefer it though, that much was apparent... though it remained to be seen if they liked it so much that they would overlook the perverse elements of this bizarre game-plan. She was having a hard time going along with it herself, mostly out of pride. She normally harbored a lot of indifference towards Rania, but right now, she wished she had the operator around to provide an ordinary viewpoint of right and wrong.
The SP nodded silently with CourseMan's words, thinking that any extra chatter at this point just threatened to betray them to the now-approaching Hall (or possibly via MeleeMan, who she couldn't count on to be careful with his communications). Still, she did need to get a message to him; she would do so privately, keeping her stoic frown and staring with apparent disinterest as various CourseMen disrobed. "MeleeMan," she spoke silently. "CourseMan says to act on your own discretion... It could be advantageous to us if you would mislead Hall by taking a perspective opposite ours."
"... What? Take a what?" MeleeMan grunted, irritation apparent in his words.
"I only mean do not be compelled to fall in line with our actions. Our ruse may ultimately be more effective if fewer of us are supporting it," she explained.
"Uh huh," MeleeMan responded. It dawned on her then just how little actual he'd actually been paying attention to their activities so far. He'd been mostly acting on his own this whole time, so reminding him he was free to do so probably amounted to little.
At any rate, her role in the plan now relied on getting out of the ridiculous cheer outfit she'd been... ordinarily she'd be happy to do that, but considering the fact that their plan then relied on her staying out of her normal clothes as well, she wasn't rushing into it. She followed CourseMan's lead, first swapping from the GMO back to her standard skinsuit and sheath wrap cape and accessories. Undressing was relatively easy from there; the wrap loosened and floated away from her body, all joining up to the mass of her cape, before circling her in a spiral. Her head tilted up from her long neck as she reached her fingers beneath the hem of her skinsuit at her cheeks, then began to pull it down from her body.
The leather of her floating ribbon would remain around her as a partial curtain as she stretched and stepped out of the suit. A lot of flesh was visible; the curves were probably already well known to CourseMan, but now they appeared to be completely uncovered. One with less on his mind than CourseMan might find themselves theory-crafting how she apparently went without underwear, but still managed to wear a skinsuit without revealing anything too indecent. It seemed to work for her more modestly than it did for MeleeMan.
For now, she'd leave the floating curtain suspended around herself. She reached backwards, grabbed the band at her ponytail, then released that as well, allowing the massive drape of her hair to fall down the curve of her back. Anyone remembering the sharpness of Damascus' ponytail blade might find the prospect of that now released hair particularly frightening. Her face showed little emotion, but at least a little redness, as she stood ostensibly naked, covered only by her crossed arm and the winding ribbon. "There. No point in prolonging it," she insisted, gesturing with a nod of her head towards the girls, to let them know she was now counting on them to do their part. She'd back away from the bundle of clothes, to let them stand where they needed. "I still think it would be good to get soaped up before the lady arrives. There is little chance that Hall was not aware of all of the conditions of the tests, and as you saw... I was unable to navigate the rope without being thoroughly coated."
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If Hall was still watching her skirt, she'd notice it fall slightly from its perch, almost as though the towel-holder beneath it had suddenly lost some of its rigidity. The plan was falling apart, at least in his eyes, and, though he'd never say so normally, the last thing he wanted to do right now was hit the gym. Worst, though, he was cursing his luck, because the best thing he'd found in recent memory was about to get away from him, and he was powerless to stop it. Either he'd hold her here and she'd blow up at him for not letting her do her job (even he wasn't egotistic enough to think she wouldn't be angry about that), or she'd go to the gym and find out this whole thing was a farce (even he wasn't stupid enough to think she wouldn't be angry about that). "That towel thing was just a joke," he reassured Hall, smirking, though with uncharacteristic self-consciousness. A slight twitch in the side of his mouth betrayed that. "You know, coach to coach... Slap on the butt kind of thing."
Hall was walking away quickly now; in MeleeMan's mind, her two choices were still basically the same. Come up with something desperate here... or let her proceed how she was and face certain failure. The fact that she'd taken getting naked off the table only made him more sure of the fact that there was no reason to let her reach the gym. "Wait! Uh..." he groaned, trying to think up something on the spot. His mind was working in overtime now... Having to think this much and actually worrying about someone else thought of him was proving exhausting. He'd rather fight a slew of Larks and Shrimpy than have to make plans and count on his acting ability.
Plans flashed through his mind at an amazing pace given his usual reasoning ability... but they weren't exactly winners of plans. "I could tell her I can't go to the gym while I still have a boner... I could even ask me if she could help with it... wait, no... then she'll just leave and ask me to catch up later..." He frowned with obvious consternation. "Don't go just yet. See, I..." he started again, trying to think up something to say that would get Hall to say. "I could tell her she's got a hole in her bloomers from where I put her in that hold earlier... but then I could actually a tear a hole in them before I say that... no, damn, she'd realize that." He sucked in a big breath of air. What was there to say?
His chest was still swelled out with the inhalation, until finally he released it, then threw up his hands. He'd only come up with one thing that might work. "Crap, you're going to make me say it... I, uh..." he began, finding this harder than he expected. His mouth twitched again. "I mean, I guess you probably noticed since... well, I haven't hidden it well," he murmured, before reaching up to remove his helmet. His angry, orange-burning eyes shot down to his crotch real quick to show his meaning. "But, and look, I know it's not professional, but uh... I'm in, what do you call it... love. Yeah, that. I'm in love with you," he explained, lowering his hands in defeat.
"I didn't want you to go to the gym cause... You know how it is, you finish up there and whatever and then, bam, you're a busy girl, you uh... do things... all over the school. Important stuff," he murmured, unable to come up with good examples. "Probably last chance we'll ever have to be in a room alone together. I didn't want it to end like that, so I've been working my ass off, trying to get you to stay in here. I get it: you're devoted to your students and all that crap, so am I... but you only find..." he grimaced hard, his face not matching his words. "True love..." he finally managed, looking like he wanted to spit. "Once in a life time."
"I know I handled it kind of badly but... You think you could let one of my co-coaches handle that last test? I know one's kind of a douchebag, but uh, there's another, and she's... not like that, so just let her do it," he encouraged Hall, still unable to make himself smile comfortingly like he meant to be doing right now. He felt like he had a hole in his gut; confessions of love were for women in his eyes, not men, and certainly not MeleeMan. Technically, what he was saying wasn't too far off from his true feelings, but it felt completely emasculating to actually say it. "I mean, we don't have to do anything or... uh... be anything. But, you know, if you'd just... I dunno, coach me, or help me work on my wrestling, or..." he trailed off, rolling one hand and hoping she'd fill in the blanks. "So long as it's just the two of us? What do you say?"
Ordinarily, it might sound like he was fishing for a kiss, but he kind of hoped she wouldn't. His frown and his angry eyes were betraying the turmoil he was in, but they weren't exactly telegraphing his other feeling, which was a growing need to vomit, from going so far out of character.
The SP nodded silently with CourseMan's words, thinking that any extra chatter at this point just threatened to betray them to the now-approaching Hall (or possibly via MeleeMan, who she couldn't count on to be careful with his communications). Still, she did need to get a message to him; she would do so privately, keeping her stoic frown and staring with apparent disinterest as various CourseMen disrobed. "MeleeMan," she spoke silently. "CourseMan says to act on your own discretion... It could be advantageous to us if you would mislead Hall by taking a perspective opposite ours."
"... What? Take a what?" MeleeMan grunted, irritation apparent in his words.
"I only mean do not be compelled to fall in line with our actions. Our ruse may ultimately be more effective if fewer of us are supporting it," she explained.
"Uh huh," MeleeMan responded. It dawned on her then just how little actual he'd actually been paying attention to their activities so far. He'd been mostly acting on his own this whole time, so reminding him he was free to do so probably amounted to little.
At any rate, her role in the plan now relied on getting out of the ridiculous cheer outfit she'd been... ordinarily she'd be happy to do that, but considering the fact that their plan then relied on her staying out of her normal clothes as well, she wasn't rushing into it. She followed CourseMan's lead, first swapping from the GMO back to her standard skinsuit and sheath wrap cape and accessories. Undressing was relatively easy from there; the wrap loosened and floated away from her body, all joining up to the mass of her cape, before circling her in a spiral. Her head tilted up from her long neck as she reached her fingers beneath the hem of her skinsuit at her cheeks, then began to pull it down from her body.
The leather of her floating ribbon would remain around her as a partial curtain as she stretched and stepped out of the suit. A lot of flesh was visible; the curves were probably already well known to CourseMan, but now they appeared to be completely uncovered. One with less on his mind than CourseMan might find themselves theory-crafting how she apparently went without underwear, but still managed to wear a skinsuit without revealing anything too indecent. It seemed to work for her more modestly than it did for MeleeMan.
For now, she'd leave the floating curtain suspended around herself. She reached backwards, grabbed the band at her ponytail, then released that as well, allowing the massive drape of her hair to fall down the curve of her back. Anyone remembering the sharpness of Damascus' ponytail blade might find the prospect of that now released hair particularly frightening. Her face showed little emotion, but at least a little redness, as she stood ostensibly naked, covered only by her crossed arm and the winding ribbon. "There. No point in prolonging it," she insisted, gesturing with a nod of her head towards the girls, to let them know she was now counting on them to do their part. She'd back away from the bundle of clothes, to let them stand where they needed. "I still think it would be good to get soaped up before the lady arrives. There is little chance that Hall was not aware of all of the conditions of the tests, and as you saw... I was unable to navigate the rope without being thoroughly coated."
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If Hall was still watching her skirt, she'd notice it fall slightly from its perch, almost as though the towel-holder beneath it had suddenly lost some of its rigidity. The plan was falling apart, at least in his eyes, and, though he'd never say so normally, the last thing he wanted to do right now was hit the gym. Worst, though, he was cursing his luck, because the best thing he'd found in recent memory was about to get away from him, and he was powerless to stop it. Either he'd hold her here and she'd blow up at him for not letting her do her job (even he wasn't egotistic enough to think she wouldn't be angry about that), or she'd go to the gym and find out this whole thing was a farce (even he wasn't stupid enough to think she wouldn't be angry about that). "That towel thing was just a joke," he reassured Hall, smirking, though with uncharacteristic self-consciousness. A slight twitch in the side of his mouth betrayed that. "You know, coach to coach... Slap on the butt kind of thing."
Hall was walking away quickly now; in MeleeMan's mind, her two choices were still basically the same. Come up with something desperate here... or let her proceed how she was and face certain failure. The fact that she'd taken getting naked off the table only made him more sure of the fact that there was no reason to let her reach the gym. "Wait! Uh..." he groaned, trying to think up something on the spot. His mind was working in overtime now... Having to think this much and actually worrying about someone else thought of him was proving exhausting. He'd rather fight a slew of Larks and Shrimpy than have to make plans and count on his acting ability.
Plans flashed through his mind at an amazing pace given his usual reasoning ability... but they weren't exactly winners of plans. "I could tell her I can't go to the gym while I still have a boner... I could even ask me if she could help with it... wait, no... then she'll just leave and ask me to catch up later..." He frowned with obvious consternation. "Don't go just yet. See, I..." he started again, trying to think up something to say that would get Hall to say. "I could tell her she's got a hole in her bloomers from where I put her in that hold earlier... but then I could actually a tear a hole in them before I say that... no, damn, she'd realize that." He sucked in a big breath of air. What was there to say?
His chest was still swelled out with the inhalation, until finally he released it, then threw up his hands. He'd only come up with one thing that might work. "Crap, you're going to make me say it... I, uh..." he began, finding this harder than he expected. His mouth twitched again. "I mean, I guess you probably noticed since... well, I haven't hidden it well," he murmured, before reaching up to remove his helmet. His angry, orange-burning eyes shot down to his crotch real quick to show his meaning. "But, and look, I know it's not professional, but uh... I'm in, what do you call it... love. Yeah, that. I'm in love with you," he explained, lowering his hands in defeat.
"I didn't want you to go to the gym cause... You know how it is, you finish up there and whatever and then, bam, you're a busy girl, you uh... do things... all over the school. Important stuff," he murmured, unable to come up with good examples. "Probably last chance we'll ever have to be in a room alone together. I didn't want it to end like that, so I've been working my ass off, trying to get you to stay in here. I get it: you're devoted to your students and all that crap, so am I... but you only find..." he grimaced hard, his face not matching his words. "True love..." he finally managed, looking like he wanted to spit. "Once in a life time."
"I know I handled it kind of badly but... You think you could let one of my co-coaches handle that last test? I know one's kind of a douchebag, but uh, there's another, and she's... not like that, so just let her do it," he encouraged Hall, still unable to make himself smile comfortingly like he meant to be doing right now. He felt like he had a hole in his gut; confessions of love were for women in his eyes, not men, and certainly not MeleeMan. Technically, what he was saying wasn't too far off from his true feelings, but it felt completely emasculating to actually say it. "I mean, we don't have to do anything or... uh... be anything. But, you know, if you'd just... I dunno, coach me, or help me work on my wrestling, or..." he trailed off, rolling one hand and hoping she'd fill in the blanks. "So long as it's just the two of us? What do you say?"
Ordinarily, it might sound like he was fishing for a kiss, but he kind of hoped she wouldn't. His frown and his angry eyes were betraying the turmoil he was in, but they weren't exactly telegraphing his other feeling, which was a growing need to vomit, from going so far out of character.
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"S-so we've gotta strip down too, after all?" Wand gasped, clutching at the brooch of the cape she'd just re-clasped.
"And she has to too, huh?" Twig added with a frown, indicating Damascus with an unhappily pronounced pronoun.
"Well... there's nothing else we can do, right, Twiggy? If... CourseMan needs to see me get naked..." Wand began, gulping and letting her sentence trail off as she finished removing her cape. "I mean, we're too far in to back out now, right?
Twig tore her eyes from CourseMan for a moment to realize Damascus was halfway to naked, herself. Gasping as her enemies revealed themselves, Twig turned back to CourseMan and raised her arms, causing leaves to materialize in a rather small storm above her head. Casting her hands forward, she concentrated those in a small circling ring around CourseMan's eyes, obscuring his vision (but not completely). "All right, Courser. We'll do what we have to, but, like, no peeking! If I see any more of you running around, or even see you turn that head to Jumbo Jugs there, you're fired! For real!"
While her sister gave an ultimatum to protect her modesty from the target of their flirting, Wand had begun undressing at a brisk pace. Of course, there really wasn't much of a show in her disrobing: pulling off her remaining gloves and boots revealed that the skintight suit she normally wore extended to the feet and hands. Once that was done, she ran her hand along the neck of her suit, creating a slit to pull it open that probably hadn't been there before. "I'm... gonna pass on the getting soapy thing for now, though... Like, it's gonna look bad if we're in the middle of it when Hall shows up. She probably won't pay attention to it, anyway, whatevs..." She began pulling the suit off of herself, revealing more of her fair, tan-less skin. With the suit fully off and pooled around her feet, she gingerly stepped out. The undergarments she was wearing were a red bra-and-panty set. The color was eye-catching, but the style was conservative and without frills or lace. She placed one arm on her wrist uncomfortably (dark purple-painted nails were visible on her hands, indicating she did paint them, even if they were normally covered), and continued to keep her eyes locked on the supposedly sightless CourseMan. She headed towards him, tentatively, watching to see if he made any movements that might indicate he was looking beyond his veil of leaves.
Twig, on the other hand, was still disrobing. She removed her cape quickly enough, then moved on to her gloves. Pulling them off slowly, assuming CourseMan was still "blinded," she would let a small grin cross her face. "You can't see, right...? Totally blind...?" The girl set her gloves aside and took the boots off much more quickly, then turned away from CourseMan, grinning with a slight flush. "You don't wanna get fired, right? So be a good boy, and keep those eyes closed... no matter how bad you wanna open them..."~ The girl shed her suit quickly, but was pretty clearly making a point to bend over near the end and show off her bottom, which she probably assumed to be a charm point. All the while, she was constantly turning her head back to CourseMan and watching for any indications that he might be peeking, or any indications that he obviously wasn't. With the suit off, her underwear was revealed. While similar to Wand's in coverage, it had more in the way of lace accents and a quiet floral pattern to it. "You'll just have to use your imagination..."
Assuming she'd gotten all the way there, she would then remove her ponytail holder, allowing her hair to fall to shoulder length (a step Wand had apparently forgotten about, although it might not be necessary). "All right, everyone's butt naked now," Twig declared, flipping a hand as though it was no big deal, but still flushing with obvious excitement. "So, uh... what was next? We're supposed to put on the cheerleader costumes...?"
Wand had made it over to CourseMan's bundle now, so her shaky voice was much closer when she spoke. "Oh! Oh right, yeah, uh... are we supposed to be, like, changed or changing when Hall shows up? Not sure I get it..."
As for the clothes themselves, they were still as wet and sudsy as they had been when they were taken off. Of course, where their outfits hadn't covered them (which would be most of Damascus), there would probably still be some moisture on the skin, even if they'd gotten the suds off. There could still be time to dry off...
---
"Yes, well, even if you intended it as a joke, you're more than welcome to use it," Hall replied in a good-natured but hurried statement. "I expect if I show up with it on now, I'll simply end up wasting another ten minutes listening to your friend berate me further..."
The girl waited for MeleeMan to spit out what he was struggling with as she kept her hand on the door, clearly expecting some kind of final comment. She was in a hurry, but obviously too polite to just ignore him and run out. She kept smiling, while obviously struggling to keep her eyes on his and wait for him to finish. When it finally came out, she shut her eyes and smiled, beginning to turn. "Yes, think nothing of it, natural bodily reactions to the stimulus of rough-housing, I'm- What?!" she suddenly shouted, her eyes opening widely as she apparently realized what she'd actually heard. She continued listening with a flush and a slight tremble of her lip, putting her hands to the side of her face without seeming to realize. "L-love? Love?! True love?!?" she stammered, stumbling back against the door she'd been trying to open. "I... I-I... No, no!"
The two statues MeleeMan had seen earlier appeared again between the two, crossing spears in front of MeleeMan to separate the two in the room. "No! Oh no, you, you, haha, you're joking with me again, right? Right MeleeMan? The head of the school council, the cheerleading squad, the disciplinary committee, and security at this school, not to mention the appointed proxy representative of the administrator, has never- I mean, c-can never! Oh, that's cruel! Forcing such a trick on me when... when you know I'm about to go and attend to my... duty! And, and what does the school code even say about a relationship with an older gentleman from outside the school? About 'true love.' I expect it says it is forbidden! It f-feels forbidden so I'm certain it is, although I've never had occasion to refresh myself on that chapter!" She summoned a book from thin air, and began flipping through it rapidly, finding the text she was looking for and jabbing it with a finger. "It says right here! Relationships forbidden! It's in our school code, you see, so it's perfectly forbidden, good sir! Another excellent test of my talents and expertise as a paragon of our school, you've put upon me, and I commend you, sir! But, as you can see, my wits are still perfectly about me. N-now, if you're quite done with your mean-spirited jokes or tests at my expense, I'm going to take my leave?" she sputtered, wheeling back towards the door and placing both hands on the handle. She remained there for just a moment, seeming as though she was trying to force the flush from her face with sheer concentration before entering the hallway.
The statues continued standing between MeleeMan and the door, so he probably wouldn't be able to physically restrain Hall even if he wanted to. He might actually have a difficult time even leaving the room, blocked as he was...
... In any case, it was keeping Hall in the room a bit longer, which might leave certain parties in a certain other part of the auditorium standing around awkwardly in various states of dress longer than those parties expected.
"And she has to too, huh?" Twig added with a frown, indicating Damascus with an unhappily pronounced pronoun.
"Well... there's nothing else we can do, right, Twiggy? If... CourseMan needs to see me get naked..." Wand began, gulping and letting her sentence trail off as she finished removing her cape. "I mean, we're too far in to back out now, right?
Twig tore her eyes from CourseMan for a moment to realize Damascus was halfway to naked, herself. Gasping as her enemies revealed themselves, Twig turned back to CourseMan and raised her arms, causing leaves to materialize in a rather small storm above her head. Casting her hands forward, she concentrated those in a small circling ring around CourseMan's eyes, obscuring his vision (but not completely). "All right, Courser. We'll do what we have to, but, like, no peeking! If I see any more of you running around, or even see you turn that head to Jumbo Jugs there, you're fired! For real!"
While her sister gave an ultimatum to protect her modesty from the target of their flirting, Wand had begun undressing at a brisk pace. Of course, there really wasn't much of a show in her disrobing: pulling off her remaining gloves and boots revealed that the skintight suit she normally wore extended to the feet and hands. Once that was done, she ran her hand along the neck of her suit, creating a slit to pull it open that probably hadn't been there before. "I'm... gonna pass on the getting soapy thing for now, though... Like, it's gonna look bad if we're in the middle of it when Hall shows up. She probably won't pay attention to it, anyway, whatevs..." She began pulling the suit off of herself, revealing more of her fair, tan-less skin. With the suit fully off and pooled around her feet, she gingerly stepped out. The undergarments she was wearing were a red bra-and-panty set. The color was eye-catching, but the style was conservative and without frills or lace. She placed one arm on her wrist uncomfortably (dark purple-painted nails were visible on her hands, indicating she did paint them, even if they were normally covered), and continued to keep her eyes locked on the supposedly sightless CourseMan. She headed towards him, tentatively, watching to see if he made any movements that might indicate he was looking beyond his veil of leaves.
Twig, on the other hand, was still disrobing. She removed her cape quickly enough, then moved on to her gloves. Pulling them off slowly, assuming CourseMan was still "blinded," she would let a small grin cross her face. "You can't see, right...? Totally blind...?" The girl set her gloves aside and took the boots off much more quickly, then turned away from CourseMan, grinning with a slight flush. "You don't wanna get fired, right? So be a good boy, and keep those eyes closed... no matter how bad you wanna open them..."~ The girl shed her suit quickly, but was pretty clearly making a point to bend over near the end and show off her bottom, which she probably assumed to be a charm point. All the while, she was constantly turning her head back to CourseMan and watching for any indications that he might be peeking, or any indications that he obviously wasn't. With the suit off, her underwear was revealed. While similar to Wand's in coverage, it had more in the way of lace accents and a quiet floral pattern to it. "You'll just have to use your imagination..."
Assuming she'd gotten all the way there, she would then remove her ponytail holder, allowing her hair to fall to shoulder length (a step Wand had apparently forgotten about, although it might not be necessary). "All right, everyone's butt naked now," Twig declared, flipping a hand as though it was no big deal, but still flushing with obvious excitement. "So, uh... what was next? We're supposed to put on the cheerleader costumes...?"
Wand had made it over to CourseMan's bundle now, so her shaky voice was much closer when she spoke. "Oh! Oh right, yeah, uh... are we supposed to be, like, changed or changing when Hall shows up? Not sure I get it..."
As for the clothes themselves, they were still as wet and sudsy as they had been when they were taken off. Of course, where their outfits hadn't covered them (which would be most of Damascus), there would probably still be some moisture on the skin, even if they'd gotten the suds off. There could still be time to dry off...
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"Yes, well, even if you intended it as a joke, you're more than welcome to use it," Hall replied in a good-natured but hurried statement. "I expect if I show up with it on now, I'll simply end up wasting another ten minutes listening to your friend berate me further..."
The girl waited for MeleeMan to spit out what he was struggling with as she kept her hand on the door, clearly expecting some kind of final comment. She was in a hurry, but obviously too polite to just ignore him and run out. She kept smiling, while obviously struggling to keep her eyes on his and wait for him to finish. When it finally came out, she shut her eyes and smiled, beginning to turn. "Yes, think nothing of it, natural bodily reactions to the stimulus of rough-housing, I'm- What?!" she suddenly shouted, her eyes opening widely as she apparently realized what she'd actually heard. She continued listening with a flush and a slight tremble of her lip, putting her hands to the side of her face without seeming to realize. "L-love? Love?! True love?!?" she stammered, stumbling back against the door she'd been trying to open. "I... I-I... No, no!"
The two statues MeleeMan had seen earlier appeared again between the two, crossing spears in front of MeleeMan to separate the two in the room. "No! Oh no, you, you, haha, you're joking with me again, right? Right MeleeMan? The head of the school council, the cheerleading squad, the disciplinary committee, and security at this school, not to mention the appointed proxy representative of the administrator, has never- I mean, c-can never! Oh, that's cruel! Forcing such a trick on me when... when you know I'm about to go and attend to my... duty! And, and what does the school code even say about a relationship with an older gentleman from outside the school? About 'true love.' I expect it says it is forbidden! It f-feels forbidden so I'm certain it is, although I've never had occasion to refresh myself on that chapter!" She summoned a book from thin air, and began flipping through it rapidly, finding the text she was looking for and jabbing it with a finger. "It says right here! Relationships forbidden! It's in our school code, you see, so it's perfectly forbidden, good sir! Another excellent test of my talents and expertise as a paragon of our school, you've put upon me, and I commend you, sir! But, as you can see, my wits are still perfectly about me. N-now, if you're quite done with your mean-spirited jokes or tests at my expense, I'm going to take my leave?" she sputtered, wheeling back towards the door and placing both hands on the handle. She remained there for just a moment, seeming as though she was trying to force the flush from her face with sheer concentration before entering the hallway.
The statues continued standing between MeleeMan and the door, so he probably wouldn't be able to physically restrain Hall even if he wanted to. He might actually have a difficult time even leaving the room, blocked as he was...
... In any case, it was keeping Hall in the room a bit longer, which might leave certain parties in a certain other part of the auditorium standing around awkwardly in various states of dress longer than those parties expected.
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In the midst of preparing to remove the rest of his gear, courser was actually slightly surprised when Damascus interpreted his brief instruction as a request to strip down as well. She'd seemed reluctant, he thought, but also mission-minded so that probably explained it. With a small side-wards glance, the did his best to walk the careful line of appreciating her form in a complimentary way, while still trying to appear a gentleman about doing so. On the other hand, as much as she gasped and tittered, he was pleased to see that the far more pliable Wandy seemed almost eager for the 'need' to get undressed. It almost seemed like she wanted to, just so long as she had the excuse of it being necessary. That was good. Twig, however, had a foil for his rampant amusement and he turned his playfully smirking grin towards her as she objected to his sight. He let her encircle his eyes with a gracious smile, though it slipped back to playful as he inclined his head.
"Of course, if it makes you feel more comfortable... but I will have to have my eyes back eventually, I'm afraid. It would be a bit difficult to pretend I was planning to oversee your trial while I couldn't see either of you." He didn't exactly close his eyes, instead trusting to the leafy shield that Twiggy had produced; he would get whatever sights she herself allowed him to, by virtue of controlling her leaves, nothing more and also nothing less. Occasional glimpses of her obviously offered behind seemed to crop up between the leaves, and he wondered just how much she was wanting to show off while maintaining her illusion of unwillingness.
"Of course," he chuckled softly. "If you fired me, where would that leave us. I suppose I'd just be a stripper, then, wouldn't I?" As if to illustrated, one hand pressed down on the band of his pants, thumb tucked inside as it dragged the garment tantalisingly over one hip and suggested the beginnings of a neat patch of dark hair lower down in the middle. Bare-chested as he was, he stretched briefly, and rubbed the knuckles of the free hand against the tight muscles of his chest, then, in a very deliberate tease let one finger trail slowly down across his well-defined mid section, tracing the cut of his lines tauntingly.
Of course, this alerted him to the truth of Damascus' own concerns; even with his default clothes switched over and off again, some of the suds still remained, just as surely as they rendered the folded cheer uniforms soggy. The girls, of Courser, were free of suds. His ally was right that that would be a problem if it were noticed. The lure of banter was too great for him to pay attention to that particular problem right away though. Twig was teasing him, and it would be a shame to disappoint her. His grin flashed white teeth.
"All I see are leaves... but I would be a terrible liar indeed if I tried to say I didn't want to watch. It is such a shame I need to be professional here," as if the way his lower hand was again casually toying with his belt buckle now was, in any way, professional. "You're taunting me... If you really want me to be a good boy, you might have to fetch a collar and a leash... but we can save that for later."
As much as the occasional flashes through the leaves clued him in, Courser gave no sign of being aware that Wandy was approaching close to him, though it did mean that she'd have a front row seat to the way he used the fingers on one hand to dexterously unbuckle his belt and pull it off, draping the length of leather over his bare shoulders before bringing the hand back to the button, the inner catch, and then, with a teasing slowness, the zip. With the front of his pants open, anyone watching would easily be able to see that the sensible black briefs underneath and been pressed down a long way by his earlier tease, showing neat, dark hair that was lying down straight, but nothing more direct, yet. The visible shape of what lay within was still mostly obscured, but some of the nicer pieces of male eye-candy were still on full display.
When Twig, further off, asked about the uniforms, Courser put out his free hand, palm out and fingers up in a halting gesture towards her voice.
"Ah, no, don't put them on! There's a chance Hall might be able to tell it's a different person wearing them, from before, so you shouldn't touch them." This was, of course, before Wandy spoke up, and he had made the hand gesture itself very naturally — if she was standing too close to him when he did it, there was every chance that his out-reaching and would land squarely on her chest. If he did cop an incidental feel, his hand would linger for a few moments all the same, brushing gently before he pulled it back, and he didn't pass any direct comment — without really seeing the situation too clearly, he guessed there was a chance that Twiggy wouldn't see what occurred, if it did, and that suited him fine. He did answer Wand's question too, feigning a very small start at the nearness of her voice, if she hadn't quite been close enough to catch with an accidental grope before.
"We've got to make it look like you've just taken them off, that's the idea, and are only stripping naked under duress because Hall said you had to." As if to make this clear, he brought the bundle of uniform that he was holding in closer to himself, pressing the damp articles against his midriff and rubbing some of the remaining residue onto himself. That, at least, made it look like his own suds came simply from holding the garments for the girls, but it still left the problem of the girls not looking like they'd been wearing the soapy uniforms. Truthfully, he'd expected hall to be showing up any second, and was vaguely surprised at how well MeleeMan must be doing in delaying her, but he'd take whatever time he could get and make the most of it.
"And like it or not, I'm afraid Damascus is right, too; I had hoped the mess would clear away when they were deactivated, but it seems not. That means we've got to quickly get both of you looking like you were just wearing them." While he spoke, he continued to be distracting in other ways, swiftly running the thumb of his free hand around the band of his pants to push them the rest of the way over his hips and letting them drop. When he lifted one foot to push them away behind them, it seemed he's cleverly deactivated his footwear at the same time, to prevent any kind of clumsy or undignified action. The delicate skip he made flicked the pants away behind him and left the flirty navi standing in just his briefs, and it would give anyone who didn't have leaves covering their eyes a good view of his shapely and well toned legs; like the rest of his body, there was tone and definition, but no excess or bulging at all. That done, he squeezed a corner of the uniform he was holding in order to more thoroughly coat his free hand in the soapy substance, then tilted his head down just enough to add a very playful daring to his smile and held up the hand, fingers wriggling.
"I'm guessing you'd each feel better about me doing this before I stripped down completely, rather than after, right? Now please Wand, Twig... I'll promise to behave, but I'm going to need my eyes for this, or else I might accidentally get... adventurous." Of course, there was every possibility that Twig would prefer to keep him 'blind', and risk accidentally adventurous touches that couldn't see what they were doing. "I don't think Hall can be stalled much longer. The sooner we can disgrace Hall here, the sooner you both get your happy ending, no?" Inwardly, Courser was actually feeling strangely pleased that he'd managed to go so long without a fresh clone popping out of the woodwork to pass comment, but he wasn't sure how long he was going to keep that streak going.
"Of course, if it makes you feel more comfortable... but I will have to have my eyes back eventually, I'm afraid. It would be a bit difficult to pretend I was planning to oversee your trial while I couldn't see either of you." He didn't exactly close his eyes, instead trusting to the leafy shield that Twiggy had produced; he would get whatever sights she herself allowed him to, by virtue of controlling her leaves, nothing more and also nothing less. Occasional glimpses of her obviously offered behind seemed to crop up between the leaves, and he wondered just how much she was wanting to show off while maintaining her illusion of unwillingness.
"Of course," he chuckled softly. "If you fired me, where would that leave us. I suppose I'd just be a stripper, then, wouldn't I?" As if to illustrated, one hand pressed down on the band of his pants, thumb tucked inside as it dragged the garment tantalisingly over one hip and suggested the beginnings of a neat patch of dark hair lower down in the middle. Bare-chested as he was, he stretched briefly, and rubbed the knuckles of the free hand against the tight muscles of his chest, then, in a very deliberate tease let one finger trail slowly down across his well-defined mid section, tracing the cut of his lines tauntingly.
Of course, this alerted him to the truth of Damascus' own concerns; even with his default clothes switched over and off again, some of the suds still remained, just as surely as they rendered the folded cheer uniforms soggy. The girls, of Courser, were free of suds. His ally was right that that would be a problem if it were noticed. The lure of banter was too great for him to pay attention to that particular problem right away though. Twig was teasing him, and it would be a shame to disappoint her. His grin flashed white teeth.
"All I see are leaves... but I would be a terrible liar indeed if I tried to say I didn't want to watch. It is such a shame I need to be professional here," as if the way his lower hand was again casually toying with his belt buckle now was, in any way, professional. "You're taunting me... If you really want me to be a good boy, you might have to fetch a collar and a leash... but we can save that for later."
As much as the occasional flashes through the leaves clued him in, Courser gave no sign of being aware that Wandy was approaching close to him, though it did mean that she'd have a front row seat to the way he used the fingers on one hand to dexterously unbuckle his belt and pull it off, draping the length of leather over his bare shoulders before bringing the hand back to the button, the inner catch, and then, with a teasing slowness, the zip. With the front of his pants open, anyone watching would easily be able to see that the sensible black briefs underneath and been pressed down a long way by his earlier tease, showing neat, dark hair that was lying down straight, but nothing more direct, yet. The visible shape of what lay within was still mostly obscured, but some of the nicer pieces of male eye-candy were still on full display.
When Twig, further off, asked about the uniforms, Courser put out his free hand, palm out and fingers up in a halting gesture towards her voice.
"Ah, no, don't put them on! There's a chance Hall might be able to tell it's a different person wearing them, from before, so you shouldn't touch them." This was, of course, before Wandy spoke up, and he had made the hand gesture itself very naturally — if she was standing too close to him when he did it, there was every chance that his out-reaching and would land squarely on her chest. If he did cop an incidental feel, his hand would linger for a few moments all the same, brushing gently before he pulled it back, and he didn't pass any direct comment — without really seeing the situation too clearly, he guessed there was a chance that Twiggy wouldn't see what occurred, if it did, and that suited him fine. He did answer Wand's question too, feigning a very small start at the nearness of her voice, if she hadn't quite been close enough to catch with an accidental grope before.
"We've got to make it look like you've just taken them off, that's the idea, and are only stripping naked under duress because Hall said you had to." As if to make this clear, he brought the bundle of uniform that he was holding in closer to himself, pressing the damp articles against his midriff and rubbing some of the remaining residue onto himself. That, at least, made it look like his own suds came simply from holding the garments for the girls, but it still left the problem of the girls not looking like they'd been wearing the soapy uniforms. Truthfully, he'd expected hall to be showing up any second, and was vaguely surprised at how well MeleeMan must be doing in delaying her, but he'd take whatever time he could get and make the most of it.
"And like it or not, I'm afraid Damascus is right, too; I had hoped the mess would clear away when they were deactivated, but it seems not. That means we've got to quickly get both of you looking like you were just wearing them." While he spoke, he continued to be distracting in other ways, swiftly running the thumb of his free hand around the band of his pants to push them the rest of the way over his hips and letting them drop. When he lifted one foot to push them away behind them, it seemed he's cleverly deactivated his footwear at the same time, to prevent any kind of clumsy or undignified action. The delicate skip he made flicked the pants away behind him and left the flirty navi standing in just his briefs, and it would give anyone who didn't have leaves covering their eyes a good view of his shapely and well toned legs; like the rest of his body, there was tone and definition, but no excess or bulging at all. That done, he squeezed a corner of the uniform he was holding in order to more thoroughly coat his free hand in the soapy substance, then tilted his head down just enough to add a very playful daring to his smile and held up the hand, fingers wriggling.
"I'm guessing you'd each feel better about me doing this before I stripped down completely, rather than after, right? Now please Wand, Twig... I'll promise to behave, but I'm going to need my eyes for this, or else I might accidentally get... adventurous." Of course, there was every possibility that Twig would prefer to keep him 'blind', and risk accidentally adventurous touches that couldn't see what they were doing. "I don't think Hall can be stalled much longer. The sooner we can disgrace Hall here, the sooner you both get your happy ending, no?" Inwardly, Courser was actually feeling strangely pleased that he'd managed to go so long without a fresh clone popping out of the woodwork to pass comment, but he wasn't sure how long he was going to keep that streak going.
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As amazing as it was to her, Damascus found that watching CourseMan flirt with the two half-naked cheerleaders was even more frustrating than being flirted with herself. "It's not as though he's ignoring me as a weapon... just as a woman," she reminded herself... though, that still irritated her, when the alternative was airheaded cheerleaders. "Then again, I'm standing here completely naked myself. Perhaps my brain has rusted," she mused. In the end, she resolved that it was her task to go along with others' orders, not to second-guess them. Well, any more than glaring judgmentally at the ones hatching the schemes.
She was pleased to see that if they were going to go along with this perverse and silly plan, at least they were going to do it with some commitment; Courser overrode the protests of the girls with his insistence that they really ought to soap up to complete the illusion. It remained to be seen if the girls would go for it, but Damascus hoped they would... nothing would be more infuriating at this point than for a minor detail like that to unravel their plan. Her eyes drifted over CourseMan's body; she didn't seem to have much shame about it, but then, she didn't have much of an apparent reaction either. "He's leaner than MeleeMan, but not as hard either. The ideal fighter would have a balance between the two," she thought internally. "But muscles are nothing compared to steel, to begin with."
Idly, Damascus began to wipe at her thighs, getting some of the soap off where she could. It would not benefit them for the apparent coaches to be covered in the trials of the test, which should be reserved for the girls. She hoped CourseMan would have a good excuse for why he'd let his hands get so soapy when Hall showed up... or if, rather. MeleeMan seemed to be doing almost too effective of a job keeping Hall away. She didn't want to think she'd just taken off all of her clothes for nothing.
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The grim frown remained on MeleeMan's face, seeming remarkably free of smiles or lovesickness, despite his words and the proximity to his supposed loved one. "'True love?' Come on, don't put words into my mouth..." he murmured, rubbing his chin and looking to one side. "Truth is, I've never been in love before. Maybe this is, maybe it isn't. Just, you know... I'm the ultimate male, I say it all the time," he sighed, closing his eyes contemplatively. "Usually I expect the girls to come onto me and I wait for them to do it. But when it comes to you... I feel like I'll regret it if I just cross my arms and wait for you to come to me." He spoke with the frankness of one who doesn't understand that words matter much in relationships. "So, damn, I don't know. I just thought I'd speak my mind... Give it a shot. I mean, if this isn't love, then-"
Hall's protests weren't grounded only on disbelief of MeleeMan's words, however. "Older gentleman? Now wait just a second," he grumbled, his angry eyebrows arching more angrily, before he quieted to let her continue. The lower row of his teeth showed in a grimace as his mouth drooped. "Woah, woah! There's seriously a rule like that? Hey, I hate to break it to whoever wrote your rules, but you can't help who gives you a boner, okay? If I feel something when we wrestle and when we get along, that's unavoidable. And if you feel your heart beat faster when I flex my perfect biceps and triceps, well, what're you going to do? Kick yourself out? No, come on! No book can decide everything," he protested, placing a hand atop the shafts of both statue spears in front of him. "Wait!" he shouted again, seeing that she'd started to rush for the door, to an extent.
MeleeMan wasn't the type of person to let people block his path when he wanted something, let alone inanimate(ish) objects. With great application of force, he worked to push apart the spears, shooting smoke out of his gauntlets and gritting his teeth. "Wait, damn it! Okay, so what if it isn't love? Let me ask you: don't you think you're pretty good? Hell, don't you think you're pretty great? Cause I do! And I don't think that about a lot of people," he explained, "cause like I said, I'm the ultimate male, the ultimate fighter, the ultimate, er, coach. But come on... you're tough... you wrestle like no other girl... you don't judge me... as much as other people seem to when I act on my natural urges. You've got it all. And I can't let you go out there and..." he paused, not wanting to say "learn that I'm a fraud who is not only not a coach, but also conspired to try to distract you while two girls cheated all of your tests." "... and leave you thinking this was some stupid test! Do you know how many girls I've wrestled? It was... uh... two, but you were the one who made a match of it," he spoke without much eloquence. "There's a lot more I want to do with you," he said, truthfully, "but if you go out there, we're not going to do any more of it." He didn't explain why, but it was certainly true.
If the statues hadn't let him through at this point or if Hall had tried to leave already, his rage would begin to get the better of him. He was going to get by them one way or another, even if it meant pulverizing the statues to dust. If they continued barring him, he'd do just that, or attempt to, hammering them with his fists. It was worth noting that the struggle seemed to be keeping his erection up. It was possible it was actually up pretty darn often, just usually well hidden by the baggy pants he wore. "I'm serious!" he reiterated, although he didn't say about which part; he just kept attempting to muscle his way through the statues that barricaded his way.
She was pleased to see that if they were going to go along with this perverse and silly plan, at least they were going to do it with some commitment; Courser overrode the protests of the girls with his insistence that they really ought to soap up to complete the illusion. It remained to be seen if the girls would go for it, but Damascus hoped they would... nothing would be more infuriating at this point than for a minor detail like that to unravel their plan. Her eyes drifted over CourseMan's body; she didn't seem to have much shame about it, but then, she didn't have much of an apparent reaction either. "He's leaner than MeleeMan, but not as hard either. The ideal fighter would have a balance between the two," she thought internally. "But muscles are nothing compared to steel, to begin with."
Idly, Damascus began to wipe at her thighs, getting some of the soap off where she could. It would not benefit them for the apparent coaches to be covered in the trials of the test, which should be reserved for the girls. She hoped CourseMan would have a good excuse for why he'd let his hands get so soapy when Hall showed up... or if, rather. MeleeMan seemed to be doing almost too effective of a job keeping Hall away. She didn't want to think she'd just taken off all of her clothes for nothing.
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The grim frown remained on MeleeMan's face, seeming remarkably free of smiles or lovesickness, despite his words and the proximity to his supposed loved one. "'True love?' Come on, don't put words into my mouth..." he murmured, rubbing his chin and looking to one side. "Truth is, I've never been in love before. Maybe this is, maybe it isn't. Just, you know... I'm the ultimate male, I say it all the time," he sighed, closing his eyes contemplatively. "Usually I expect the girls to come onto me and I wait for them to do it. But when it comes to you... I feel like I'll regret it if I just cross my arms and wait for you to come to me." He spoke with the frankness of one who doesn't understand that words matter much in relationships. "So, damn, I don't know. I just thought I'd speak my mind... Give it a shot. I mean, if this isn't love, then-"
Hall's protests weren't grounded only on disbelief of MeleeMan's words, however. "Older gentleman? Now wait just a second," he grumbled, his angry eyebrows arching more angrily, before he quieted to let her continue. The lower row of his teeth showed in a grimace as his mouth drooped. "Woah, woah! There's seriously a rule like that? Hey, I hate to break it to whoever wrote your rules, but you can't help who gives you a boner, okay? If I feel something when we wrestle and when we get along, that's unavoidable. And if you feel your heart beat faster when I flex my perfect biceps and triceps, well, what're you going to do? Kick yourself out? No, come on! No book can decide everything," he protested, placing a hand atop the shafts of both statue spears in front of him. "Wait!" he shouted again, seeing that she'd started to rush for the door, to an extent.
MeleeMan wasn't the type of person to let people block his path when he wanted something, let alone inanimate(ish) objects. With great application of force, he worked to push apart the spears, shooting smoke out of his gauntlets and gritting his teeth. "Wait, damn it! Okay, so what if it isn't love? Let me ask you: don't you think you're pretty good? Hell, don't you think you're pretty great? Cause I do! And I don't think that about a lot of people," he explained, "cause like I said, I'm the ultimate male, the ultimate fighter, the ultimate, er, coach. But come on... you're tough... you wrestle like no other girl... you don't judge me... as much as other people seem to when I act on my natural urges. You've got it all. And I can't let you go out there and..." he paused, not wanting to say "learn that I'm a fraud who is not only not a coach, but also conspired to try to distract you while two girls cheated all of your tests." "... and leave you thinking this was some stupid test! Do you know how many girls I've wrestled? It was... uh... two, but you were the one who made a match of it," he spoke without much eloquence. "There's a lot more I want to do with you," he said, truthfully, "but if you go out there, we're not going to do any more of it." He didn't explain why, but it was certainly true.
If the statues hadn't let him through at this point or if Hall had tried to leave already, his rage would begin to get the better of him. He was going to get by them one way or another, even if it meant pulverizing the statues to dust. If they continued barring him, he'd do just that, or attempt to, hammering them with his fists. It was worth noting that the struggle seemed to be keeping his erection up. It was possible it was actually up pretty darn often, just usually well hidden by the baggy pants he wore. "I'm serious!" he reiterated, although he didn't say about which part; he just kept attempting to muscle his way through the statues that barricaded his way.