firstofitskind | Ultrazone Laser Tag, Baltimore, Tuesday Afternoon

Ultrazone Laser Tag, Baltimore, Tuesday Afternoon

The whole 'Dad' thing was, in Liam's opinion, going pretty great. Yeah, they'd had a few hiccups already (and he was sure there would be more to come) but they'd worked past them. And this last weekend, getting to spoil the hell out of tiny baby Nina was really amazing. Even if, yes, thinking about the way she'd been treated growing up made him, quite honestly, furious.

Today wasn't about Nina, however. Well, that was a lie- it kind of was, because he'd told her he wanted to get to know Prompto better, make a real connection to the kid that he hoped would drive home the fact that he had no intention of whisking Nina away or whatever.

And what better way to do that than with an activity that involved running around and shooting at each other? With fake weapons, of course.

[ooc: for the chocobro. no, not that one. the other one. and NFB for distance!]

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Liam allowed himself a moment to feel a bit of smug satisfaction when he saw that one of his shots had hit its mark.

And then it was back to, well... having the same internal debate as Prompto was. Did he wait out the rest of their allotted time in the arena up here, a scenario that was very much true to life (except in real life, there wasn't a buzzer that would sound to indicate to both sides that the time they'd paid for had expired, and they had to vacate to allow the next group in), or did he go back down, maybe try to find which tower Prompto had been heading for, try and get the jump on him there?

Prompto was more than okay with just waiting out the clock! Well, perhaps not entirely. There was definitely a part of him that would get increasingly antsy as the minutes dragged on, and he got to thinking how this would work better if they had teams, most of his experience was with teams now, not solo work, but how would that work out? Him and Noct vs. Liam and Nina? Nina and him vs. maybe Liam and Ignis? Liam and the Argentums vs. the remaining chocobros?

And then Prompto reminded himself that he should probably focus on the current skirmish rather than already thinking about future ones that would probably only exist in his own imagination.

So he shifted a little so he could peer out over the low wall of the tower and started scanning the area for movement, hoping his little chocobro fluff of hair wouldn't give him away....

....you know, he hated when the guys called his Chocobo Butt for his hair, but a chocobo plushy could make for a pretty good decoy right about now! Man! Coulda, woulda, shoulda...

Okay, but see, the fact that he was coming up with possible future scenarios was a good sign, a sign that maybe some part of him was willing to acknowledge a level of permanence to this whole... situation? Arrangment? Something.

Or at least, if Liam could read thoughts from a distance, that's how he'd feel, anyway.

Right now he was just going to continue to contemplate whether he should be the one to break this standoff they apparently had going, here.

On the one hand, running out the clock seemed like a good idea to get a better, fresh start on this, now that he sort of understood Liam's style a little better. And Ignis would probably approve of him holding his ground and not changing position if he didn't have to.

On the other hand, he would definitely be losing this round because he was the only one who'd gotten a hit so far.

"Damn," he muttered to himself, giving one more peek over the edge of the tower to search for movement in a moment of desperate hope, and then, if he didn't see anything soon, he was going tos start trying to maybe map out the best way to make it over to where he figured Liam was without being noticed or seen

Or have Liam realize he was on the move again...

There probably would've been a lot less 'hunker down and wait for the other person to move' if they'd gone into this with teams rather than one-on-one.

Especially since Liam didn't really... know how this was supposed to work? He hadn't played a lot of games before, okay?

And Prompto's life for the past year or so had been so heavily focused on teamwork that he almost didn't even know what to do with himself, either. It was honestly a little weird, if he was honest, and he wondered if that was just as much of a deciding factor in getting to move, the idea that he didn't really like just being out there on his own and even if it meant getting shot again, he'd rather just find Liam than just stay isolated, than anything else.

Whatever the reason, though, Prompto did decide to finally get on the move, still skirting the walls as he tried to make it over to where he figured Liam was hiding out, turning each and every corner with a quick and dramatic turn and aim of his gun so that he could be quick on getting a hit in the event that he finally turned a corner and happened onto where Liam was.

Liam frowned.

Was that just a shadow, or was that actual movement?

It was hard to tell, with the way the arena's spotlights kept doing wide, sweeping arcs of the space.

He elected to stay put for the time being.

And eventually, after a few false turns and wrong directions, Prompto found himself stumbling, honestly a bit unexpectedly, despite the fact that he was venturing out specifically to find Liam...actually onto him.

There was a brief second of surprise, followed by a small surge of victory, and then, finally, thirdly, he remembered why he was looking for Liam in the first place and fired off a shot.

Retreating back the way he came quickly in the following beat, hoping he just didn't wind up tripping over his own feet as he did it, and honestly kind of hoping the shot even stuck, but aim was never really something he had to worry about much....it was everything else that got in his way!

Liam grimaced as the shot hit its mark, lighting up his vest. And then-

And then he jumped down off the edge of the tower, despite the bored teenager who'd been manning front counter explicitly forbidding that when he'd recited by rote to Liam and Prompto the rules of the place.

Look, it was both faster than trying to follow Prompto back down, and more likely to enable him to avoid being shot again while making his way down.

Which meant that when Prompto did make it to the bottom of the tower the normal way, he was more than a little surprised to pop out the passageway there to find that Liam was already there.

Like....how??? He didn't just...jump, did he?

Somehow, Prompto just knew that he totally did just jump, but he didn't have time to be impressed by that or to ask if Liam could show him how (which was actually a good thing because Prompto actually did not do well with heights and would have instantly regretted asking that question), and instead just backed up back into the bottom of the tower as quick as he could, hoping Liam wasn't pretty much expecting him to pop up there to get a shot in before he disappeared back inside.

He was totally already anticipating his vest lighting up, though.

Damn!

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Ultrazone Laser Tag, Baltimore, Tuesday Afternoon

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