Outdoor Adventure Time!, Tuesday, period 1

[vdistinctive]

The class met up at the edge of the preserve again, this time, where Eliot and Parker waited, wearing white coveralls and safety goggles on their heads. The usual duffel bags of supplies were on the ground by their feet, and accompanied by several large buckets of what looked like balloons.

"Slightly different plan today," Eliot said, when it seemed like everyone was gathered. "We're sticking together as a group."

“If you don’t want to play, you can hide, but really, why would you want to?” Parker would never get that. “Everybody gets a set of coveralls, and goggles. The paint is biodegradable, but let’s not test what it does to your eyes.”

"It does wash outta your hair, though," Eliot said with a wink. "I promise."

What? Those folks with fancy hair had to stick together.

"We'll be hiking out to a clearing before we get started. There are four buckets of paint balloons here, with a few more already tucked away out there, so lots of chances to re-arm yourselves. I guess . . . technically if you come out clean by the end of class you won? But then you probably also didn't have any fun. We're not really plannin' to keep score."

“Grab a color, grab a cover, get ready, go!” Parker was holding a balloon with blue paint.

Yes, Eliot was going to be blue very very soon.

Yeah, he was getting that feeling.

"When we get to the clearing," Eliot said. "I see any balloons flying before then, I will be very put out."

Pbbbbbbttt.

Comments

But then. . . .

[vdistinctive]

Eliot was sticking to the fringes, keeping an eye out to make sure no one . . . put an eye out, basically, when he noticed something lurking along the fringes.

Something large.

He narrowed his eyes, growling faintly under his breath. The thing locked eyes with him in return.



"CLEAR THE WAY!" Eliot bellowed, and charged right back at the thing.

Re: But then. . . .

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

WHO CHARGES AT A CHARGING BUFFALO-RUG-PUG-THING? Even Mabel could see the crazy inherent in that course of action, Eliot, and she was... she was Mabel.

... That said, from where she was at, staring at all of that charging, (and it was alot of charging), she did have a perfect line of fire to...

"INCOMING!"

To start hurling paint balloons at the big, floppy, angry, hairy-looking creature. Have some pink, alot. Have alot of pink.

Re: But then. . . .

[vdistinctive]

PEOPLE WHO CHARGE AT DANGER PROFESSIONALLY. Hell, the buffalo-rug-put-thing didn't even have a gun, this was practically safe by Eliot's standards.

The alot, distracted and further enraged by the pelting with pink, turned to start charging in Mabel's general direction, prompting Eliot's shout of "Dammit, Mabel!" even as the distraction gave him room to avoid its horns when he jumped onto it and grabbed its neck.

And not Eliot was alot of blue and pink. So there was that.

Re: But then. . . .

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

Never fear! Mabel was equipped to handle this!

"Grappling hook!"

Yes, she still carried that around with her to class. One never knew when a grappling hook would come in handy, out here in the woods.

So, there was Mabel, dangling safely from a tree branch as the alot stampeded along harmlessly underneath.

Re: But then. . . .

[vdistinctive]

Both Eliot and the alot blinked up at her at that one. With basically the same baffled expression, though Eliot would deny it later if someone tried to tell him that.

Then the alot roared and started bucking to try to throw Eliot off, splattering pink paint everywhere.

"Stay there!" Eliot told Mabel, not even remotely expecting her to listen to him. "I got this!"

And, well, he was doing a remarkable job of staying on the alot. But that didn't do that much towards stopping it from rampaging through the class, yet.

Re: But then. . . .

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

"If you say so!"

Mabel really had no intention of coming down from her tree branch just yet, anyway. It was the best place possible for throwing more balloons down at the alot, after all.

Have a purple one! Hopefully it would even land on the animal, instead of the teacher!

Re: But then. . . .

[vdistinctive]

It did! It landed right on the alot's head!

. . . And splattered all over Eliot's safety goggles. So now he was blinded and riding a rampaging alot.

He sighed, attempted to wipe the purple off enough to see, and then gave Mabel a thumbs up.

Sure. This was his life now. Whatever.

Re: But then. . . .

[rhymeswithtable.livejournal.com]

Mabel was quite happy to give Eliot a thumbs-up right back! Score one for Team Paint Balloon!

Look, if he was going to ride the alot, Mabel was going to do everything she could to try to help out! And if her only weapon happened to be an armload of balloons full of paint, she was going to use them!

... While hanging there. From her grappling hook.

Never leave home without it.

Re: But then. . . .

[vdistinctive]

Eliot's intention hadn't actually been to ride the alot. The whole point was to control the alot and calm it down, or possibly tie it up somehow?

Look, Eliot might have grown up in Oklahoma, but he'd never actually done any rodeo work before. Willie trained racehorses, dammit.

He managed to clear enough of his goggles so he could see again -- at least until the next one of Mabel's balloons splattered him, anyway -- and reassessed the situation.

"Try to aim next to it!" he called up to Mabel. "See if we can drive it back outta the clearing!"

Re: But then. . . .

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

"AAAAAAAAAAH!"

That was Dipper's initial reaction before getting a grim look on his face.

"Flank him!" he shouted running to side and starting to throw paint balloon's.

If only he had a journal entry about this.

Re: But then. . . .

[vdistinctive]

"What?"

What part of "clear the way" had this kid not comprehended?

Re: But then. . . .

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

Well technically he was out of the way, Eliot.

Plus Dipper had faced dinosaurs and scary triangles. An alot wasn't as ferocious.

Plus there was always a tree to scramble up if he needed to. For the moment he was running to the said and throwing paint balloons at the alot's head. Mostly mauve, chartreuse, maroon and burnt umber.

Apparently Dipper had hit the balloon stockpile of sophisticated colors.

Re: But then. . . .

[vdistinctive]

Eliot didn't even remember filling balloons with those colors.

He'd managed to end up on the alot's back in short order -- he had some vague ideas about rodeos and wild bulls -- and he and the alot were now both becoming a veritable rainbow of colors.

"Anybody got any rope?!"

Re: But then. . . .

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

Rope? Dipper was supposed to bring rope to class? This was not a requirement!

Luckily for Eliot a light bulb went on above Dipper's head. Not literally of course.

"Mabel!" he said shouting to his sister who was up in her tree perch at that moment. "Grappling hook!"

And then with modding permission granted her grappling hook came sailing into the air into Dipper's hands. He released the catch on the grappling hook gun and pulled out a length of cable attached to the hook. He swung the grappling hook in a circle before tossing it in Eliot's direction.

"Incoming!"

Eliot could probably take it from there.

Re: But then. . . .

[vdistinctive]

Well, that was why he'd asked. Dipper and Mabel were totally getting bonus points for preparedness and quick thinking, though.

Eliot caught the grappling hook with one hand, still gripping the alot's fur at the base of its neck with the other. "Thanks!" He looked from the hook to the trailing cord, then at the alot's head.

And smacked the alot in the head with the nice, weighted metal hook. Which mostly just pissed the alot off more, but hey, it was worth a shot.

Re: But then. . . .

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

"Awesome!" Dipper shouted.

Only to be followed by a "Whoa!" and then a "What?!" and then an "AAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Turns out the rope got tangled around Dipper's leg and he was being dragged around.

A lot.

Re: But then. . . .

[vdistinctive]

"Wha --" Dammit, hadn't this kid just been safely in a tree? "Dammit, Dipper!" Eliot yanked at the grappling hook, but it was too well made for him to take the hook off the cord fast enough to keep the kid from getting dragged into a tree or something. He sighed and tossed the hook -- well away from Dipper -- and tried to steer the alot in the other direction.

If a student got trampled on his watch, it would look so bad.

Re: But then. . . .

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"GET IN THE TREES!" Eliot, you were so getting yelled at later. But for now: "WITH YOUR AMMO!"

Re: But then. . . .

[vdistinctive]

What? Charging at danger was literally his job. This was why he'd avoided long term relationships for so long.

Re: But then. . . .

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

THAT THING WAS 8 TIMES YOUR SIZE. It was like taking on eight guys who were really really angry!

Which okay, he'd done that before, but they weren't aliens!

Re: But then. . . .

[vdistinctive]

Admittedly, pissed off humans were way easier to predict than an alot of aggression.

Eliot was also hatching a plan now to drag Parker and Hardison to a rodeo. Or at least somewhere he could get Parker to try riding a mechanical bull.

Re: But then. . . .

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

A SPLASH! of blue and then one of yellow were aimed for the alot's eyes.

"What are you trying to do, annoy it to death?! I don't think you can strangle it!"

Re: But then. . . .

[vdistinctive]

Eliot glared as the alot reared up on its hind legs and staggered around, flailing its front ones. Apparently it could also be bipedal. Okay then. Eliot hung on harder and threw his weight backwards, trying to topple the thing to the ground. "Do I try to tell you how to steal things?!"

What did you know, Parker and Eliot were already just as much an old married couple as Eliot and Hardison were.

Re: But then. . . .

[whoisalicewhite.livejournal.com]

"No, but you bitch at me if we take too long!"

Remember that blight, Eliot? Remember 'you're awesome, let's GO'? Pfftt.

"EVERYONE PAINT THE ALOT!"

Re: But then. . . .

[vdistinctive]

Hey! That was what you got when you stopped to gloat while a building was actively hunting you.

Eliot did not weigh enough to topple the alot. Good to know. At least he was managing to steer it away from the kids a little?