the gauntlet discussion

Entrance to the building, a lot of students sit around in the halls and on the two large staircases and study.

Amancio sat on a bench towards the edge of the Foyer, positioning himself to see everyone who would come in and through the Foyer. A bench out of the way of the main entrance, so that he could easily see everyone walking through, but they would have a harder time seeing him. Plus, it was closer to the entrance, an easy way to cover his tracks, if anyone asked, Amancio thought to himself. Right, a halfway decent cover story for the real reason he was here. Rankings and competitions hadn’t started quite yet, but as soon as they did, each student would be at each other’s throats, and for his part, Amancio wanted to start putting faces to names, so he could begin planning. There was no way he was going to get caught off guard by anyone in the competition, that much he was sure of. But, in order to look like he was actually doing something, Amancio pulled out a book from his sack and began to read, occasionally glancing up to see if anyone was passing by.

Reiza ambled through the main foyer, head down but mind in the clouds. Or, well, just not where she was. The blonde haired girl was busy with a conjured game, trying to keep herself busy considering how little she wanted to train. This whole thing wasn't really her idea, after all. It would be no surprise that she had a minimal investment in it. She glanced up once, hoping over to one spot of floor as she continued her game.

Amancio glanced up as he heard someone else enter the Foyer. And was none to impressed by what he saw. This girl looked like she was caught up in her own little world, without a care to who else saw her. She seemed to be looking at something that wasn’t there, and reacting to things that she herself was making up. Which would have been fine, anywhere else in the world but here. Amancio watched her, at first repulsed and almost offended that someone let her into the Academy, but as she continued to play her game, Amancio relaxed slightly. He made a note to himself in the margin of his book. Small blonde- lost in her own world. Not a problem for him then, the thought, returning his eyes to his book, but watching her out of the corners of his eyes.

Reiza was well aware of how she looked. First, she must have seemed like some elementary school kid that had somehow gotten lost and ended up at Ainsley. Her small stature had always generated that sort of assumption, but the blonde had long since decided that she didn't care. Second, they would assume she was not entirely sane. Again, it wasn't like she cared. Eyes narrowed, she looked up in time to see a boy jotting down something in a notebook. Now, either he was studying or he was writing something about her. And while Reiza didn't really care, she assumed she might as well help him out in his assessment of her. Wasn't she supposed to be helpful?

Hopping on either leg, she made her way over to the boy. She wasn't quite looking over him — such a thing simply wasn't possible with her, for obvious reasons — but she did block enough light to make her presence known without saying anything. "Need to know anything else about me?"

In the corner of his vision, Amancio saw the blonde moving towards him. Great, now he had to deal with her. Amancio took a calming breath to steel himself for what was coming, and continued to look down at his book. When he heard her voice, just as high and annoying as he had imagined, Amancio glanced up, as if he was just recognizing her presence. “How about,” He started, giving her a glance up and down, sizing her up. “Why you’re here?” Start there, and then continue with figuring how what made her act like a child that was lost in the streets. Better yet, what made her so specal that she had gotten into Ainsley? He had been able to piece together how most of the students around had come to be here, but this small blond mess in front of him. He had zero ideas about her.

Good question. Brows raised, she observed him for a moment. The man certainly looked as though he had some fairly discernable reasons for being here. Maybe her answer would annoy him a little more than others. She shrugged by way of answer. "Why is anyone here," she countered, plopping down on the bench beside him. She glanced down at his notes, gaze landing on the identifying mark he'd made for her. She pointed to it, looking back up at him. "Reiza. You can put my name by it, if that makes it easier. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only small blonde around here. At least, small compared to you, I guess?"

”Why is anyone here?” Uh, for a few good reasons. Amancio thought to himself but kept his mouth shut. This was why they hadn’t let girls in before. Why was anyone here, that was the first question someone should have an answer to. It’s why they were going to run in the stupid race anyway. But whatever, Amancio did his best not to look fazed by her response but had a much harder time hiding his disgust when she plopped down beside him, much too close for comfort, and looked over his shoulder. Amancio shut the book and looked sideways at her. “Small-er.” He said, as her head was significantly lower than his now that she was sitting down. Could people really be this small?

It was evident that this man did not like her. Reiza was used to this; many people didn't like her. Her own indifference to his feelings must have been obvious as her features relaxed back into their usual blank mask. She was silent for a moment, staring ahead at nothing. "Smaller," she echoed. Again, nothing new. Most people her own age towered over her. She found she was the optimal size to hide in small spaces and to be given piggyback rides. She was, though, forever unable to reach things in high places and often settled for lower shelved items. "Way smaller. How tall are you?"

Amancio tried to get a read on what Reiza was doing, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t tell if this was all an act, or if this was legitimately her personality. Either way, it was doing a wonderful job of putting him off. So if her mission was to irritate him, she had done well. Amancio sat in silence with her, staring off into the distance, wondering to himself how long this could go on before she cracked and told him this was a joke, or got bored with him and would continue to play her mindless game, because this was getting more uncomfortable by the second. “Six one.” He said in response to her question. A good size. Tall enough to be imposing, but not tall enough to be awkward or gangly. He had complete control of his body at all times, yet he was still intimidating to people.

Reiza whistled. That was a full — she had to count this in her head to be sure — eleven inches. Almost a foot. For just a moment, she envied his height. He must have had some reach. But, she couldn't fault him; it wasn't like he had any control over his genes. Her family was, to say the least, a little lower on the height tier, so her height wasn't totally radical in the grand scheme of things. "Aren't you a big boy." She'd only made the remark as a joke, words drawled. "Is everyone in your family tall or did you just get lucky?"

Amancio nodded in agreement, and tried his hardest not to put more physical distance between the two of them. “I got lucky.” He said in response to her question. His family wasn’t extraordinarily tall, but he had gotten some boost in the gene pool apparently, and he stood above six feet. Which would only help him in this place. “You?” It seemed like a decent follow-up question. He could see no topic that would give them common ground, since this girl barely seemed to be attached to the ground as it was. What could they possibly have to talk about, really? The competition, but one could only talk about that topic for so long before it got tiresome. So height it was, he supposed.

"Not lucky." The extent of her luck could be measured now by how far her from the ground her legs were on the bench. She could easily swing them back and forth without fear of her shoes scuffing the ground. She did so now, almost furiously. It was enough to rock the bench a little as she looked up at him. "'m five two." A wry smile twisted her lips, lighting up her features before it was gone. "You never said your name."

Five two. That would barely bring her up to Amancio’s chest. She really was tiny. And she expected to survive here? If anything, Amancio had to credit her with guts. If nothing else, she could crawl under everyone’s legs or trip them up while they were running. But sometimes the small ones were the most deadly. Unless they were out of the mind, as this girl clearly seemed to be. “Amancio.” He said in answer to her question. He seriously considered whether or not he would regret that admission later, but he saw no way around telling her his name. Amancio racked his brain, trying to think of something, anything, to get him out of this awkward mess. He was obviously not going to get anything useful out of this girl. “I’m late for training.” He lied, grabbing his book and standing up quickly. He turned to give her a curt nod. “Nice to meet you.” He said cooly, and then headed off in the direction of the gym.

And here she thought they were working up a good rapport. He'd given her his name and his height, which had been a gateway to more conversation, but now he was shutting down. Was it because of how small she was? No, it had been clear before she'd gotten to her exact measurements that he wasn't inclined to be amicable to her. She supposed it could be the way he was with everyone. "I'm headed the same way," she stated, kicking herself off the bench, "I'll walk with you." She had to jog to catch to him and keep his stride, blonde curls bobbing in time with each step.

Still half-carrying, half-dragging Artemis, Nate entered the main hallway, and only when he was absolutely sure he had placed himself between Artemis and the way to get back to whatever girl whose head she’d been about to take off, did he let her go. She’d have to go through him to get back to the Armory, “What the hell was that?” He asked, crossing his arms in front of him. There were so many questions he had for her, the first of which was, “Who was that girl?” And why was she trying to kill her in the first week? Nate raised an eyebrow, making it clear he wasn’t going to accept anything except the truth. He hoped that their friendship at least gave him that. But then again, his social upbringing with many of the people here hadn’t gotten him too far yet. But Artemis didn’t know that. So he just fixed her with an expecting look, waiting for an answer.

Artemis had stopped struggling a long time ago and was just letting herself be carried to the foyer. Of course it had been Nate that stopped her from fighting with Juliet. Nate had always been the one trying to make peace between everyone in the 'Guardians kids' circle when it got nasty. "I believe that was me about to kick ass with a spear and you picking me up and taking me here," The little blonde replied, fluttering her eyelashes at him innocently. She actually liked Nate, there was many in the little rick kid circle that she just tolerated, he always helped her out when she needed him, and they went way back. "That girl is Juliet Donovan, " There was no point in lying in who she was or why Juliet wanted to kill her. That was the simple part of the whole situation. She blew a piece of stray silvere hair away from her face, pouting slightly at the look he gave her. "Juliet isn't what I would call my number one fan. Too make a long story short, her brother was in love with me ,but I wasn't interested. He decided to run the Gauntlet to get me interested, he didn't even get that far. He died at Ainsley within the first month. So, she blames me." As she blames herself as well.

As Artemis explained herself, Nate found himself regretting that he’d asked. That girl, Donovan, was the sister of a guy that had fallen in love with Artemis. Oh no. The guy ran the Gauntlet to get rich, died, and now Donovan blamed Artemis. “So of anything you could have done,” Nate said, “bought them off, had them move away, anyway to get rid of them,” Hey, no judgement, people in their circles did a lot of sketchy things. There were probably more bastard Guardian’s kids running around than they suspected. Some of them might have even been stupid enough to apply to Ainsley. “You decided that running the Gauntlet yourself was the best option? And picking a fight with her was supposed to …what, give her a good first impression of you?” Nate knew he was being harsh, but Artemis was so much better than picking a fight with some commoner with a grudge.

"Why on earth would I need to buy them off?" Artemis questioned. Had the story been as simple as what she was selling, she wouldn't feel the need to give the Donovan family anything. "I never reciprocated the feeling for that boy. I never told him to go off to the Gauntlet. He went on his own free will without any word from me. I can't be responsible for everyone who does a stupid decision." She couldn't bring herself to say it wasn't her fault, not when it was one hundred percent her fault. "Besides," She flushed slightly, "My parents don't know anything about him and it's a little more complicated than him being a random boy. His father is my mom's doctor. He was the assistant that kept pestering me. My parents would feel responsible." It was common knowledge that her mom was having health problems, she had a few different doctors come to look at her but Matt's father was the only one who seemed to make a difference. As it was, her father was grateful to him and he would be upset to find out it was because of her. Her dad was wrapped around her finger and liked to think that she couldn't do much that was wrong.

"And I'm pretty sure that his parents don't know either," Artemis explained. Even without the extra complications of their relationship, the situation was messy. "Juliet is the only one of them that knows and I don't care what she thinks of me. I didn't actively look her out and she kept pushing," Nate seemed to think she was better than she really was. Why did everyone seem to think that lately? "I'm not here to run the Gauntlet out of guilt or repayment, Nate. I'm here because I'm a Lennox. Why? Surprised I haven't been married off?" She raised an eyebrow, Mr. And Mrs. Delacroix seemed to think that the girls should just be married off. Nate probably thought the same considering Lyca's falling out with her family.

Nate did his best not to roll his eyes and sigh. Why was everything always so complicated? Why couldn’t a fight just be over something simple that got out of hand? No, it had to be a complicated and involved story that involved Artemis lying to her parents, costing some poor boy his life, and leaving Artemis with a girl on a mission to kill her. Wonderful. Nate found himself almost regretting pulling Artemis out of there, and letting the girl, Juliet, whoever she was, have at her. No, that wouldn’t win him many brownie points with anyone, as much as part of him might wish for it. “Oh my god Artemis,” He said, rubbing one hand over his face. “Nothing is ever simple with you.” He commented.

“So you’re going to….what?” He asked, trying his hardest to understand what she was telling him. “Win the Gauntlet, become a guardian, for what, family tradition?” Sure, the Lennox family had been Guardians just as long as the Delacroix had been, but Artemis had never struck Nate as the competitive type. Lyca, sure. Jo Bronte? Of course, but Artemis? This was a picture he’d have to get used to. “Uh, kinda.” Nate replied honestly. Artemis was one of those girls in their circle who everyone thought would be married off at the first chance. To a new Guardian or some other good match like that. “But I’ve been wrong before.” Wasn’t that the truth.

"Nathan Enzo Delacroix! I can not believe you just said that," Artemis put her hands on her hips and shook her head at him. "I am not a complicated person. This situation found me, I did not go looking for this. Name one other thing about me that's complicated," She huffed slightly. Obviously, someone didn't take away much from their etiquette classes growing up. "Besides," She sighed, "I never wanted anyone to die for me." She dropped her gaze from his face, it felt like anyone could see right into her heart and know her secrets. "You know," She smiled slyly at him, not wanting to get into another tornado full of emotions, she had the rest of her life for that, "It's always the ones that try to portray themselves as honest and sincere that you have to look out for. They like to go for innocent and simple girls like me."

"Okay," The blonde sighed dramatically. "You've caught me. I really came to Ainsley and decided to run the Gauntlet because I'm in love with you and I just wanted you to know that, that's all. I just wanted to make sure that my future husband would be okay so I came all this way to protect you too." She rolled her eyes at him, honestly, she knew she wasn't the most obvious choice of deciding to compete in the Gauntlet, but she didn't think it was that surprising. "I'm kind of offended that you're doubting me. I know I'm not exactly Jo or Lyca, but I have been trained as much as you have." Artemis might not be the most competitive person, but she could not resist a challenge, hence the almost murder that happened in the armory, and it sounded like Nate was issuing a challenge, albeit he probably had no idea.

Nate knew better than to answer the question about being complicated, so he kept his mouth shut, even though a few items ran through his head. Artemis had never been one to keep things simple, and even if she hadn’t intended someone to die for her, Nate seriously doubted she had kept things simple for this poor guy, whoever he was. She even went as far as to nearly confirm it. The innocent and simple ones. Sure…. and he could throw knives like Lyca. He'd forgotten about this part, where she could get on his nerves with just a few sentences. it was like she was actively trying to make everything a joking matter, when this was most definelty not.

“Artemis…” Nate trailed off, closing his eyes and trying to be patient. She didn’t need to go that far. Or joke about it, because if the wrong people heard her saying stuff like that, well…things got around in their circles. “I didn’t mean that.” He said by way of apology, but she barred right over him. He wasn’t doubting her skills, but Jo and Lyca were a little, uh, more intense -yeah, that was the right word- than she was. Lyca fought her entire life to be validated and worthy of this shot, and Jo, well, she was just terrifying. “I know you’ve trained,” He said, because she had, “But,” He knew this wouldn’t make a difference, so he didn’t even know why he said it. “What happens if you don’t win?” What would she do then?

Despite what Nate must be thinking, Artemis had made it abundantly clear to Matt that she had wanted nothing to do with him. She might have looked down at her nose at him but she wouldn't have been cruel. Not because she had felt sorry for him but because his dad had been looking after her mom. She didn't play with him, she didn't lead him on. It wasn't her fault that he had been stubborn and decided to go after her. He should have known that nothing but trouble would have happened with her. She wasn't a cruel person, but she wasn't a nice one either. Better than Pierce, which wasn't saying much, but definitely not better than Dan.

"No," She replied, shaking her head, "You meant exactly that." She didn't expect Nate to understand, nor did she blame him for not being able too. Artemis was never going to be the person that people would look at and think much besides the fact that she comes from a wealthy family and that she'll be some rich guy's husband. There was a time that she was okay with that. She had always known that she was more than that and that's all that had mattered because fuck what everyone else though. So no, she wasn't at all surprised to know what he thought of her. But the fact was that she had been accepted here just like everyone else. Artemis wasn't expecting that question. Most people were afraid to die in the Gauntlet but most of their circle would make it through, even if they didn't win. They had been trained for this their entire life, of course he would ask. "I just think that I needed to get away from home for a while. I don't know if I'll be able to go back if I lose or if I win."

Nate wanted nothing more than to run his hands over his face and pretend that he wasn’t having this conversation. He wasn’t actively trying to say the wrong things, but yet that was how she was taking them. But instead he just shifted his feet, and adjusted his arms that were still crossed. “Okay, fine.” He said. He had meant what he said, even if it hadn’t come out exactly the way he intended it to. He couldn't control her life, and so she’d have to make her own way. But…“What?” Of course she’d be able to go home. “What do you mean, any of us can go home.” Supposedly. Maybe not waltz in back home alive and well and be welcomed with open arms, but they could all go home, whatever and wherever it was for each of them. That much he was sure of. But if that was what she thought, then she could think that.

Artemis was quiet for a second, eyeing him slightly. She did not mean that in the physical sense. Obviously she could physically go home, if she doesn't die, but she wasn't ready to go home and she wasn't sure if she would ever be. It had been a hard year since Matt died. She had grieved alone and in silence and then presented a face in public. Even worse was the ghosts that lingered in her home. They had snuck around a lot in her house, and there was memories everywhere. It was just hard. She had been using that word a lot but there was no other way she could describe it. "My house is being haunted with ghosts," She replied softly, before masking it all with a smile. "Thanks for pulling me out of the armory Neurotic Nate," Nate was four years older than her and from the moment she had met him, he had always followed the rules. Her little blond self took rules as more of an option at times, and it was easy enough to see why they clashes at times. Thus the name, Neurotic Nate was born. "See you around and don't go doing something I would do," She winked at him before moving to go around him. Before she left, she stopped and put a hand on his arm, looking at him seriously. "Seriously though, if you hadn't been there, I don't know what would have happened with Juliet. Thank you." She gave him one last smile before leaving the foyer.

It took a good deal of self control for Nate not to roll his eyes. Ghosts, really? Some guy she hadn’t cared about had died, and suddenly her home was filled with ghosts. Or she was crazy. And now he was Neurotic. She was the neurotic one, Nate thought to himself, trying not to react, but he couldn’t help the face of confusion and surprise that met her response. She was the one obsessing over some guy she hadn’t cared about. And now he was dead, and she was seeing ghosts, but she was calling him neurotic? Nate silently asked any diety what he had done in a past life to deserve the crazy women that were in his life. “…That won’t be a problem.” He said in response, a little quicker and sharper than he had intended to. He at least had his sanity, which was more than he could say for Artemis at the moment. But he was a gentleman, so when she thanked him, he simply nodded solemnly. “Of course. Anytime.” He said without really thinking. Okay, maybe he wouldn’t pull her off someone every time she got into a fight, but he’d keep her from getting killed. Their years of friendship at least gave her that priviledge.