Game Over

[attr="class","landfill-scroll"]In spite of Iggy's blatant skepticism and lack of interest, Casper's enthusiasm increased tenfold at the boy's reply. His eyes lit up, lips pulling back in a grin, and he replied, as eager as ever, "Yo! That's awesome, are you kidding me?! I'd kill to be able to play the violin! What are you talking about? 'Not important' my ass! You gotta show me sometime! It's all, like..." Abruptly lost in his excitement, he entirely disregarded Iggy's mention of the bus and diverted his gaze for a moment, making vague, animated gestures with his hands. "... You know? Man, that's cool!"

He put one hand on his hip, still using the other to secure his jacket under his arm, and looked back at the yellow Inkling. "I'm pretty good at remixing music, and I've got the guitar down pretty well, but... oh, and I just picked up drums, too! It's kinda whatever, you feel me? But I'm gettin' there." Then, all at once, his brow lifted, lips parting, and he took sudden hold of either of Iggy's arms, staring intently at the other boy. "We -- we gotta play together -- dude, let's start a band!"

[attr="class","landfill-scroll"]Unbothered, as per usual, by Iggy's relative lack of enthusiasm, not to mention the way the boy shrugged him off and stepped out of arm's length, Casper dropped his arms to his side - for only a moment, that is, before he waved his hand and shook his head, grinning still. "Nah, dude, you're right - I am pretty kickass with this kinda stuff. You've gotta at least be sort of good if you brought it up, though! I won't believe you're not any good until I see it for myself." He barely seemed to pick up on Iggy's discomfort; what he did seem to notice, however, was his readiness to leave.

Excitement dying down somewhat, he pursed his lips, eyeing the other boy reproachfully. "Man, loosen up a bit. Would it kill you to just hang out? The tryout is through. The bus isn't going anywhere -- I mean... yeah, it is, but it'll be back. Not like there's any rush." Allowing his gaze to linger for a moment, he eventually rolled his eyes and faced forward, starting again down the street. "Alright, whatever. Don't think I'm gonna let you off the hook with that whole band thing, though."

i'm a bad kid, i'm disastrous

i don't know wrong from right

i cannot be bothered to write any more than the bare minimum rn

Iggy Mayhew

[attr="class","landfill-scroll"]At Iggy's inquiry, he paused and looked off to the side, making a thoughtful noise. "Huh. Good question," came his clueless reply. "What time is it, again? Let's see..." Without waiting for a response, Casper reached into his pocket and retrieved his phone, turning on the screen with an expectant expression.

When he glimpsed the time, however, his features quickly lost their nonchalance. His heart was gripped with horrified realization, and it shown as plain as daylight upon his downturned face. Shit.

For a moment, he simply stared at the screen, as if he hoped that doing so would cause the time to turn back. When his efforts yielded no results, however, he slowly lowered his phone and lifted his face, swallowing thickly. Iggy... was going to murder him.

Throughout the course of a few seconds, he went through the seven stages of grief until, finally, he reached a point of numb acceptance. Stiffly, Casper tucked his phone back into his pocket and stared ahead. The rambunctious voices were growing nearer with every step they took.

He cleared his throat. "So, uh... dude," Casper began, his voice thick with apprehension. A nervous, if not somewhat hysterical, smile tugged at his lips, and he gave a strained bit of laughter. "You're totally gonna laugh, like -- seriously, it's so -- it's like, y'know... um..." Helplessly, his voice trailed off into a strangled silence. He refused to look at Iggy, and the forced smile upon his lips was threatening to wane.

[attr="class","landfill-scroll"]Any second now, Iggy was going to explode. Casper braced himself for the inevitable and waited. When the other boy's footfalls came to an abrupt stop, he slowed, but kept his gaze ahead, and continued to wait. Several moments passed, however, and no such outburst presented itself. Reluctant though he was, he eventually cast his companion a cautious glance, bewildered as to why he'd yet to start shouting.

Though displeasure was plain upon his companion's face, he didn't seem to have any intentions of scolding Casper, much to his dismay. Regardless, Iggy's response was somehow worse than it would have been if he had yelled. Some terrible, heavy feeling had manifested in his chest as a result of the boy's withdrawn disappointment. Though it took a moment, he eventually recognized the emotion as guilt, and soon after that decided he didn't like the way it felt. Not one bit.

Ears drooping, he fell uncharacteristically silent, the uneasy smile upon his lips suddenly looking rather strangled, and faced slowly forward. Somewhere in the midst of his guilt, he felt his ears grow hot with embarrassment. Of course he'd managed to miss the last bus, after he went out of his way to reassure Iggy countless times that he knew what he was doing. Upon facing ahead, the smile fell suddenly from his lips. It was all he could do to keep from kicking himself.

Just as he started ahead again, mentally preparing himself for a very long, very quiet walk back home, the source of the ruckus presented itself - three figures emerged from around the corner of an alleyway, howling with laughter, but the noise fell suddenly silent when they spotted the two Inklings a few yards ahead of them. They appeared to be talking lowly amongst themselves, and for a moment, Casper merely stared from afar, brow lifting slightly.

[attr="class","landfill-scroll"]Nervousness wasn't among the first emotions to manifest within him at the sight of the group. Instead, he felt merely curious. Truthfully speaking, he likely wouldn't have paid them much of any mind if it wasn't for the way they seemed to be paying so much attention to him and Iggy. Though a part of him wanted to make an offhand comment about it to his companion, his voice died in his throat when they stepped forward, the streetlamp casting light upon their scaly features. It was about then that he felt some amount of apprehension, delayed as it might have been.

He surely could have written off their unsightly appearances and jagged teeth - even those beady red eyes of theirs - had they not been staring ahead as if with malicious intent. The feeling multiplied when the three began to approach, albeit at a languid pace, and Casper tensed in spite of himself, feeling much more jittery than he'd have liked. He dared to cast a glance in Iggy's direction, if only to see if his companion was as wary about the situation as he was, but he couldn't seem to tell. He just looked skeptical.

Fighting the urge to take a step back, he reluctantly held his ground as they approached and then came to an eventual stop, his attention shifting warily between the three of them until finally it came to a rest upon the piranha who had spoken first, his voice ragged. That, at least, was enough to make him absolutely certain that they did have reason to worry.

It was a feeble attempt, what with the fact that he appeared precisely as nervous as he felt, but he managed a more or less steady reply after a few seconds of uneasy silence, an almost challenging note in his voice, "What, like it's weird to be out at night? It's barely past twelve." He tried to ignore the way the one of the piranhas was tapping his claws against his belt, an almost eager way about him as he observed the two Inklings before him. Cas swallowed.

Putting on as intimidating of a front as he was capable, he straightened his posture and continued, more assertively this time, "Nothing 'unsafe' about it. What's it to you?"