After School Practice [Hyde]

    "Alright, good work. That's it for today, everyone; see you next week!"

    A chorus of "''Kay"s and weary cheers filled the gym as the other member of the basketball team drudged to the bleachers to gather their things. Julian couldn't blame them; practice had been a little more rigorous than usual. Even he, one of the fittest members of the team, was definitely going to be a little sore in the morning. Heh, woe to the others whose only workout was these once a week practices; no doubt they'd be like the walking dead tomorrow, granted they chose to come to school. The thought made his lips twitch up in a faint smile as he plopped onto the bleachers, using a towel to wipe off the light sheen of sweat covering his face.

    He'd fallen into a pretty normal routine lately. Which was sort of a good thing; he was of top of his schoolwork and clubs, his social life was decent, and things were generally going well for him. But he hadn't been able to focus on the other "issue". ...Well, it might be more accurate to say he felt a little stuck. He could visit that blue room, he supposed. But what if that turned out to be a dead end? What then? Go back to checking this world's information, occasionally bugging Emmilene? That got him nowhere. Checking out the other worlds was an option, but a stupid one without backup; after all, if something went wrong on that side, he had no way of calling for help. It was bugging him to no end, and until he came up with a fallback in case whoever was behind those blue doors had nothing useful to say, he wasn't ready to pay them a visit. So what now?

    All the other members--and even the coach--had left by now, leaving the gym empty. With a frustrated huff, Julian tossed the towel down and stood up, snatching up a basketball someone had failed to put away. A few quick strides was all it took to position himself at the free-throw line. After dribbling the ball a few times, Julian threw it in a perfect arc towards the hoop. It bounced off the rim, causing him to frown as he jogged after it. Geez, that was a sucky throw. In no time at all, he had fallen into a rhythm of toss, run, position, throw, repeating it over and over in an effort to clear his head. Wasn't like he could come up with anything if he was so frustrated at the issue, anyways; might as well take a quick breather before taking another crack at the problem.

“Oh! What a coincidence! I wasn’t expecting to run into you here?!” Hyde would say as he walked over with his track pants and the school’s own signature t-shirt. It seemed that he had just come from track practice himself, but he seemed full of energy. “You know, I was sent from the athletics club to do a small inventory count, there was a small complaint here and thee o some of the kids taking the basketballs off campus and stuff like that. I hate it when I get the tedious stuff. “ Hyde would shrug as he noticed that Julian had a basketball in his hand. “Well, since were here, how about a little game. I guess that dance dance revolution game could wait if you want to settle with a little basketball.  Besides, I wanted to see how good you really are!”

    // Huh? // Julian's concentration shattered as a voice called out to him. Good thing he hadn't thrown the ball yet; no doubt that shot would've missed by a mile otherwise. Turning to face the newcomer, he let the ball rest in both hands, idly spinning it between his palms. A grin stretched his lips wide, showing off his teeth. "Speak for yourself! Didn't know you ran track." He'd seen that uniform around enough times to know which club it belonged to. Huh. Should've figured that a guy with so much energy would choose a sport like that.

    Julian's eyebrows rose at the redhead's little piece of news. Was that really an issue? He hadn't seen anyone from the team take any equipment home...huh. He'd have to keep that in mind and warn the team about that later. After a second, his eyes drifted to the basketball in his hands before looking at Hyde again. "I swear I was gonna leave this here." Although the grin was gone and replaced with a poker face, there was something in his voice that would clue Hyde in that he was just joking.

    ...Huh? Hyde wanted to play a game? A smirk graced the teen's features as he dribbled the ball with one hand. "Didn't know you played, Hyde." He let the ball thud against the ground a few more times before catching it again. "...You do mean one-on-one and not Horse or something, right?"

“One on one, I’ll take you on. It’s not just the track team, I’m apart of. I joined the athletics club, which means I would have to be adept in any sport in case I would have to be filler or something. It sounds like a lot of work, but I like helping people out. Especially if you could use the practice, it brings out the best in you when you have a reasonable challenge. “ Hyde would then get into a position as he stood in front of Julian with a competitive look on his face. “You know, we were talking about something you were curious about. Even though I might sound crazy to you, maybe we can finish that conversation while we play… sounds good?” Maybe Julian didn’t remember, but Hyde intended to warn Julian about the shadows and the other worlds. The last thing he would want is for his new friend to get kidnapped by his doppelganger. “Maybe telling them would increase their chances of being safe? Hyde would think to himself as he awaited Julian’s answer. “

    You had to go through registration with the athletics club before you could join any of the teams. So it stood to reason that if Hyde was in track, of course he'd be part of the club. Julian was himself, actually; hence why he was allowed in the gym after school. "Alright then. Let's see how you do. First person to five points wins." After flashing a quick grin, the teen took his own stance and started to dribble the ball, keeping his eyes locked on Hyde's.

    ...Huh? The serious expression that had come over Julian's face melted into mild curiosity for a second before he offered a small shrug and a nod. "Sounds fine." // Saves me the trouble of bringing it up. // Really, how was he supposed to start that conversation? "Yo, Hyde, remember when you told me about those monsters? Yeah, tell me a little more 'bout that." ...Yeah, no. He was trying to get information, not garner suspicion or get labeled a weirdo.

    After a moment, Julian feinted to the left then dashed to the right, heading for the hoop. Granted Hyde didn't catch up or knock the ball away, he'd attempt a jump shot before running after the ball, calling out in the meantime, "So...what about it?"

It was more on instinct that Hyde knew which way that Julian was going to go. Running at top speed, Hyde kept up with him as Julian turned on the jets to make that layup, reestablishing his defense. This was a pretty simple game for Hyde; he had the ability to play at a certain height without getting tired. This game wasn’t just about skill; endurance also played a viable role, due to the fact that the two combatants came from their own individual practice sessions. However, Hyde was definitely a ball of energy; Julian would have to rethink his attacking strategy if he wanted to score. “ Well, I was in the ueitawa for a short period of time. There are these things called shadows that were running around back then. It was hectic, nobody could protect themselves from it, and so I left the country like everybody else that thought it was a reasonable idea to leave. “ Hyde would speak briefly but he didn’t want to run on his sentences he was focused on the game. Hyde would then attempt to make a steal at the end of his sentence, hoping that Julian would be distracted at what he said.

Strengths

Spoiler:

    Agh, damn. He should've figured Hyde would be able to run that fast. What good was a track team member if they weren't quick, after all? Keeping his eyes locked on Hyde's, Julian dribbled the ball, anticipating the redhead's next move. Running around this guy definitely wasn't going to work, so he had to try a different tactic. As his mind ran through the various plays he could attempt, Julian listened, tilting his head slightly. "Shadows"? A faint tingling of recognition echoed through his head. Emmilene had mentioned "shadows". They were monster-like things, if he remembered correctly. So Hyde had been caught in the middle of them or something in this..."Ueitawa" place? So whatever the hell was going on in Azores had happened somewhere else too...?

    He was lucky enough to catch sight of Hyde's hand before it had stolen the ball away. Passing the ball behind his back, Julian spun around and stepped to the side, taking his shot. "Where's Ueitawa? Never heard of anywhere like that in the states." he commented mildly. If Hyde didn't manage to knock the ball away or block him, the ball would have flown neatly into the net and Julian would dash for it, hoping that maybe a second of a head-start would be enough to beat Hyde. If Hyde managed to get the ball, Julian would shift to defense.

Trait:

It wasn’t too shocking to see that Julian had some skill; his ball handling was on point when he adjusted his strategy to protect the ball. ‘What?!”This caught Hyde off guard a bit as the ball was heading straight for the net. He couldn’t help what was already in the air, but the least he could do is beat Julian to the net and  get to the ball first. Hyde took advantage of his speed and got to the ball, dribbling towards the free-throw line to clear the ball. He bounced for a while with a focused look on his face as he answered Julian’s question with a smile. “Yea, It’s safe to say that its somewhere in japan, or near it. I wasn’t too good at social studies so I’m not too sure myself at the exact location; all I know is how to get there. “That and the fact that this is a different dimension. Hyde wasn’t too sure how different things were in this world.” There were these red zones where the people in it were docile or frozen as the monsters roamed and did weird things to them. I’m confident to say that the same thing happened in Azores too, right around the time the notice for a criminal was announced.  ” After that, Hyde would do a behind the back move, but he would surprisingly go for a jump shot near the free-throw line. If Julian didn’t suspect that he was going to the layup, he could provide some defense and put  hand up, or even make a clean block before the ball had a chance to go in.

Just to be fun, ill give myself a 50% chance for a miss using rand XD

Miss chance-

Spoiler:

    // Shit. // Well, that plan didn't work. As Hyde stopped at the free-throw line, Julian would be right there, tensed slightly in a defensive stance while eyeing the ball bouncing up and down. His forehead creased in a slight frown as Hyde continued with his story. "Red zones"? ...Alright, maybe that could happen. Wasn't like he was an expert on this supernatural junk, anyways, so monsters appearing and attacking people was sorta-kinda plausible(ish). But the same thing happened in Azores? There would've been at least a news report on something that big. If that'd happened, then why did no one, except for this guy, know about it?  

    He expected a shot or some other tricky manuever, but seeing as Hyde wasn't leaning in any specific direction like he was about to take off, Julian figured his opponent was staying in place for now. "...What," he jumped up as Hyde threw the ball, easily knocking it to the side thanks to his considerable height, "makes you so confident that happened?" Not even halfway through his sentence he was off, racing after the ball that had bounced off. Hopefully Hyde would be a little distracted answering that question or hanging onto his words, so maybe he had a shot at grabbing the ball this time. If he managed to get there before the redhead, Julian would pick up the ball and start to dribble it slightly as he eyed Hyde expectantly, watching his moves and awaiting a response. If Hyde beat him out, then it was, again, back to defense.

Hyde was going to answer the question, but he stopped in the middle of opening his mouth to form words. He was too lax, which made Julian beat him to the ball with good hustle. Hyde was pretty fast, but distractions could easily make the best of players make silly mistakes. Julian was back on offense and Hyde shifted into a defensive stance he wasn’t going to let any easy baskets go by him. “I seen it happen, but it was a different color this time. Things were black and white and everyone was frozen. It was around the same time that I saw those shadow things again.” That was a big piece of information for Julian to mull over while Hyde waited for the right moment. He didn’t want to carelessly charge in for a steal and be unsuccessful, that would give Julian an easy layup.

    Sooo...Hyde saw these monsters again, and somehow made it out alive. Could he really have outrun those things? Not tha he'd ever seen a "shadow", but he'd imagine they'd be harder to run away from than a regular person. Speedy or not, it didn't sound very plausible for Hyde to take that course of action. So...what did he do then? Emmilene mentioned that personas could fight off those things...did that mean...? ...Surely not...right? "You did, huh? a note of doubt crept into his voice. "What'd you do?" Julian didn't move for the time being, just watched Hyde for any sharp movements as he kept dribbling the ball. He'd already tried running past once before; trying the same tactic again so soon was just asking for trouble. This time, he'd wait to see what Hyde would do.

In such a situation, I was a bit desperate. For some reason, I was granted the ability to fight back. It’s called a persona…it was pretty handy and it saved my life.” Hyde would say simply as he used that moment to make a steal. He used his quick speed to make a rush for a ball. If he was to get it, Hyde would quickly make a u-turn and head straight for a layup. If the steal failed, he would have to use his speed to keep up with Julian to prevent a fast break He didn’t think twice as to what the reason was for Julian to ask all of these questions; Hyde just wanted to play the game. Plus, a promise is a promise right? Hyde was going fulfill his end of the bargain. Even a person as dense and as silly as Hyde had a bit of pride, he was going to keep his promises whenever he made them.

Strength

Spoiler:

    As nonchalant as he tried to be, it was hard for Julian not to stumble just a little. The hell? Did the redhead really just blurt out that he had a persona? In that second he was stunned, Hyde managed to grab the ball away. Damnit-! Collecting his thoughts as best he could, Julian raced after Hyde, trying to close as much distance as possible between them. It was probably hopeless at this point, which irked him to no end, but he was still going to try.

    "Did you just...say persona?" His breath was ever so slightly labored as he spoke. The teen was pretty sure what Hyde had said, but it couldn't hurt to doube check. If the answer was yes...well, he and Hyde were about to have quite a discussion. This was one of his first real leads, and like hell he was about to let it sip past him.

“Yea…” Hyde would say as he took advantage of the head start and went for a layup, scoring a point. They were tied now, and Hyde was going to go after the ball once more to put him at an advantage against Julian. “ If you aren’t careful, you might get one too. However, that doesn’t insure that you would win or even survive. Receiving one just means that you was able to move around during the time stop I think, “This was a word of warning from Hyde to Julian. This wasn’t all just fun and games; it was the same as the demons that Hyde was able to summon in his old world. Just because you had demons to fight with, doesn’t mean that you would have a fair chance against anyone else.

"Guess I haven't been careful enough then." Sarcasm practiclly dripped from his words as a somewhat sardonic smile quirked his lips upwards. He'd been running almost as fast as he could, and a final burst of energy put him semi close to Hyde as he added, "'Cuz I've already got one." Hopefully that would trip the redhead up a little. Maybe give him enough time to dart past and scoop up the ball. Truth be told, he considered stopping the game and just holding a serious conversation with Hyde about this whole persona business, but the game wasn't up yet. First person to five points wins, right? The score was 1-1. They still had a ways to go. Why stop when this was just starting? Hopefully Hyde would stumble or hesitate for a second, giving Julian enough time to pick up the basketball and double back around. If that didn't work, Julian would keep running, hot on Hyde's heels no matter what.

Weakness: