This Requires Skill • •

[Caoimhe Siobhan Monroe]

Caoimhe was focused. She bit her lip as her fingers and thumbs whipped over the joystick and the buttons of the machine and her dark eyes were unblinking as they watched the screen before her. She didn’t often make it down to the arcade since she knew it was never a good idea to let her loose around retro video games and challenge existing high scores. She had caused plenty of chaos whenever she had headed into the city with her brothers growing up, and they had wiped the floor with existing high scores and worn the skin off their thumbs playing Pac-Man for hours in a small arcade downtown. No one even knew who they were because they’d come in only a handful of times a year and leave with at least one new high score each. It was a silly game they had between them, but living just a few blocks away from Two Bits, Caoimhe knew she had to indulge every now and then, just for the sake of old memories if nothing more.

It was probably safer for everyone to leave her with her sciences and the extensive video game collection she had at home, but Caoimhe was never someone who could be described as safe. A little nerdy, maybe, but even she had caused her fair share of explosions in chemistry class because she had mixed the wrong thing or just wanted to see what reaction would come from putting mystery vial A with mystery vial B. Thankfully, she was a straight A kind of student and managed to talk her way out of those incidents, or else she might not be in New York City, a biology freshman with dreams of maybe one day being on a research team that changed the world. Until then though, she’d be the girl in video game clothes and making too many references people couldn’t pick up on because they were too obscure for them, or because one of her two accents had become too thick to understand.

Biting her lip, the tall redhead leaned in a little closer to the arcade machine, concentrating hard. The child screaming about tokens on another, less interesting game didn’t reach her ears, and the rest of the noises were blocked out. She hammered her fingers down on the buttons when she needed to, jiggling the directional stick at a speed that could only come from someone who had spent many years playing video games across a multitude of platforms. When the screen exploded in a pixelated finale, Caoimhe bit harder on her lip, jumping in the air when the high score screen flashed before her eyes a moment later. Grinning madly, she inserted the gamer handle she had always used on the screen and then took a step back to watch it rise to the top of the leader board. It wasn’t bad work for a quick stop after class and before cleaning up her apartment.

• • •

TAGGED! @damion
WORDS! 668!
OUTFIT! Louisiana Lovely!
LYRICS! Everybody’s Got The Right - - - Assassins
NOTES! I wasn’t sure if they knew each other already or not, so I left it open for you to hop in and decide xD <3

[Deleted]

Today's practice had been just the band fucking around. They had all gone out the night before and saw Pitch Perfect Two, and they decided they were going to try their hand at a capella. They didn't sound nearly as good as the girls on there did, but he was kind of surprised at how well they had done. Considering they were a heavy metal band, they had a delicate side to where they could do a capella. No, they weren't going to sing it during a set, but it was just something fun they could practice around with instead of just practicing the same things over and over again each  and every day. 

Since coming to New York, Damion had made a few new friends, and one of his closest friends in New York was Caoimhe. She was similar to his best friend from California, Georgie. He missed Georgie so much. He missed their little sleepovers, and how they could just be around each other and never run out of anything to talk about. Georgie had a similar energy level to Damion, which was pretty rare to find. Caoimhe wasn't Georgie by any means, but that didn't mean he didn't love her just as much. She brought something different to his life, and Damion loved that about her. He hadn't seen her in a few days, and he wanted to hang out with her after practice that day. 

He had first gone to her apartment, but when he knocked, she didn't answer. When he checked his watch, he noticed that she was supposed to be out of class by now. The only other place he thought she could be at was the arcade. So he made his way there, and sure enough, she was there. He let out a chuckle as he saw her watching the points soar up. 

"You know, it's really not fair that you play these games. No one else will ever have a chance at gaining a high score."

He joked, standing beside her, watching the score go up with his head tilted to the side slightly. 

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For:
Kim with Caoimhe
Outfit:
 click
Words:
352
Notes:
They shall know each other, then.

[Caoimhe Siobhan Monroe]

Before New York, most of Caoimhe’s friends had been friends of her brothers. It was just a natural thing when she spent so much time in their company, and when most of her own class thought her a strange creature, she was far more comfortable with the older boys just sitting around playing video games with them. Caoimhe had always stood out a little bit compared to the other girls growing up. She had the Celtic fair skin and vibrant red hair, which meant playing out in the sun required more sun screen than anyone else or she burnt up and wound up looking like a strawberry from head to toe. She was also lanky, though she came in only at five foot eight, Caoimhe offered appeared to seem taller, just because of her skinny frame and the way she held herself. She had shot up earlier than most of her classmates, and when you towered over the majority of the class it was just giving them more ammunition for the teasing. Luckily, most of it just went over her head and she blasted the childish insults out with headphones, but if she hadn’t had her older brothers to scare the life out of some of the bullies, growing up would have been an entirely different experience.

New York though was the first time Caoimhe was on her own, and she was surprised at how easy she made friends. It wasn’t a surprise that she befriended boys easier than she did girls; it had been a pattern throughout her life. It was probably down to her tomboy traits, and the fact that Caoimhe had been raised almost solely by men. They had introduced her to the world of video games when she probably should have been playing with rattles still, and it was a hobby that had practically taken over her life when she wasn’t working on schoolwork or at the restaurant. Seeing the high score on the screen filled her with a sense of pride, and she reached for her cell phone to take a photo of the leader board to send to her brothers. Turning her head at the voice by her side, Caoimhe grinned, revealing her pearly whites and the slightly overbite she had never had fully corrected after having her braces removed. “That’s why I only come in here ever now an’ then.” She pointed out with a one shoulder shrug, sending the picture message before she gave Damion her full attention.

“How’s it goin’, anyway?” Caoimhe was always polite, considerate of others, unless there was a video game controller in her hand. Then she lost ever manner she had ever learnt and the words that flew from her lips could probably make a nun cry, if Caoimhe was ever religious enough to find herself in the vicinity of a nun. At least that was what her uncle had always said whenever he walked in one of the typical intense video game nights of the Monroe children. “Were you lookin’ for me by any chance?” She asked with a smirk, slipping her phone back into her jeans pocket, and pushing her glasses back up the bridge of her nose.

• • •

TAGGED! @damion
WORDS! 539!
OUTFIT! Louisiana Lovely!
LYRICS! Everybody’s Got The Right - - - Assassins
NOTES! <3

[Deleted]

Sometimes Damion regretted moving to New York. That was mostly due to the fact that he lost the best relationship he had ever been in and he had lost the best friend he had ever met. Arimett was his fiance for about two years before they both decided that what they had wasn't going to last if they went long distance. He wanted to go to New York, and she wanted to go to some art school in California. He promised her that he would come visit almost every weekend, but that hadn't been good enough for him. Sure, he was a little upset about it, but he had the bigger picture to look at right now. He was still young. As for leaving Georgie, he felt really bad. He felt that he needed to protect her; that he needed to be there whenever she called. It was sad, really. He felt better about leaving his fiance than he did his best friend.

"You should make money off this somehow."

He told her, turning his attention to her.

"I'm not quite sure how you're going to do that, but I want at least twenty percent of the profit you make for suggesting this."

He joked, smiling a big, goofy smile. He crossed his arms over his chest as if he had just won an argument.

"Oh, you know. Same ol', same ol'."

He answered, letting his arms fall back into their natural place beside his sides.

"Just got done with band practice, and I got bored of being alone."

He added, putting on a cheesy smile again.

"Yes, I was hoping that I could bother you."

He replied. He wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do today, but he didn't really want to be alone. He hated being alone. Damion was definitely a people person. If he wasn't constantly surrounded by people, or at least one person, he went crazy. He never knew what to do. He didn't know how to entertain himself without trying to entertain someone else. His favorite thing in the world was entertaining people, yet he couldn't manage to entertain himself. Plus, it was always better sharing moments with others, even if they were tiny, unimportant moments.


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For:
Caoimhe Siobhan Monroe
Outfit:
 Click
Words:
372
Notes:
I'm trying to force out my posts, and I don't think I did a good job at it. I'm sorry. 

[Caoimhe Siobhan Monroe]

New York was really the first time Caoimhe was standing on her own two feet. She had considered herself to be independent for a long time now, but there was always a brother to holler at for chips or another can of energy drink. Just like they had always been there to chase away any bullies who might have thought it clever to torment Caoimhe at school or on the way home. This was the first time in her life when they weren’t around to help her out the second she might need it. If she needed them now they had to drive a fair few hours to come to her aid, and in that time she could probably have fixed the problem herself. At least that was what she had found when her sink had been leaking a month ago. Caoimhe went out and bought a reasonably priced toolbox that came with basic tools and managed to fix the problem without much assistance from elsewhere, and she only did it because she was too impatient to wait for a plumber to get back in touch with her or for her family to drive to the city to make sure she didn’t get conned by some slapstick handyman who thought he could make an easy buck from her. She was an eighteen year old alone in the city after all; so many people mistook that to mean she was naïve.

Laughing, Caoimhe shook her head and moved her red head back from her face. “Pretty sure that’s hustlin’.” She pointed out, folding her arms and hooking her thumbs through the straps of her backpack. “An’ I’m plannin’ on makin’ it through college without alertin’ the cops t’ my presence.” She grinned. Hilarious bets with brothers and friends were one thing, but she didn’t really think making money and taking bets down at the arcade was all that legal in the state of New York, or any other for that matter. Still, it didn’t matter. As much as she loved video games and spent many a night skipping sleep to play one, her future was in biology and the sciences. She wanted to make a difference on a research team somewhere, even if that felt like a lifetime away to the young freshman.

“Well you came at the right time. I’m just about done with everythin’ for today.” Caoimhe had wrapped up her chores and errands early that morning when stores were just opening, and her only class of that day had been right after lunch, after which she had headed to the arcade to indulge for a little while. After getting that high score she was pretty darn proud and happy to call it quits and find something else to do. “Fancy grabbin’ a bite? I could kill for some nachos right ‘bout now!” She took a step away from the machine, and turned to walk backwards out of the arcade so she could face Damion and get his reaction to her idea.

• • •

TAGGED! @damion
WORDS! 511!
OUTFIT! Louisiana Lovely!
LYRICS! Everybody’s Got The Right - - - Assassins
NOTES! It worked for Caoimhe! xD <3

[Deleted]

<sub>Damion let out a chuckle, shaking his head at the redhead. He was glad she was able to catch on to his sarcasm and joking attitude. It would've made for an awkward friendship if she wasn't able to kid around with him. That was basically Damion's personality. He was the joker. He was always cracking jokes, trying to keep the mood light and smiles on peoples faces. 

"I'm sure people are doing worse things to get through college than hustling. I think you'll be the last one on their list. I say, go for it!"

Dami told her, grinning. When she mentioned food, Damion's hand went to his stomach automatically. If there was one thing this kid loved more than music, it was eating. He could eat more than a horse most days, yet he never gained an ounce. He hated eating healthy food, too, which was something that puzzled him. He never understood how he could eat pounds upon pounds of food a day and not even gain a pound. He blamed it on his father, his biological one. His biological father was a huge man, height wise. He was also a twig who happened to live off Coke and McDonald's. Damion really hated his father, but he was thankful he got his metabolism and height. 

"Ooh. Nachos sound really fantastic. You know what else sounds fantastic? Peanut butter and chocolate."

He crooned, rubbing his stomach.</sub> 

[Caoimhe Siobhan Monroe]

Caoimhe got along better with guys than she did girls. She was a tomboy through and through and had grown up as the only girl in the house. They had panicked when she had needed to go and buy tampons for the first time, and her brothers were baffled as hell if anyone passed a comment about Caoimhe when she was in shorts – which in Louisiana was about eighty percent of the time. She was one of the guys, and always had been. She laughed at bad jokes, spoke fluent sarcasm, and cursed with the best of them usually when she was playing video games and things were not going her way. The rest of the time she could be a perfectly sweet girl, but many would say that she would look so much nicer in a dress, or without the dirt on her legs and hands. That just wasn’t Caoimhe. She didn’t own dresses or skirts and she didn’t hesitate to worry about her clothes if she got knocked to the ground. She was tough mostly because she had to be growing up. Her brothers roughhoused with her and bullies tried to cut deep. Neither of them beat her too much.

“Thank you, but my job does my jus’ nicely.” Unlike many who made jokes, Caoimhe actually liked waiting on tables. Rude customers were quite another thing and she longed to crack them over the head with her longboard, but she had enough patience and training to smile through their complaints. After all, she had done the same work in Columbia at the family bar and grill. It was a little different there with a warmer atmosphere and a few more regulars, but the work was essentially the same. She liked meeting people, chatting to them while she took their orders or cleared their tables.

Laughing, Caoimhe shook her head. “We can pick up some Reese’s Cups on the way.” She said through her loud laughs. She adjusted her backpack so it rested comfortably on both shoulders without yanking at the back of her hoodie or t-shirt. She hated that more than anything. “C’mon y’ bottomless pit.” She remarked, squeezing her way through the arcade crowds and back out onto the busy New York street. While she was tempted to abuse her staff discount for the third time this week, she chose to head in the direction of one of the diners instead of Planet Hollywood for a change. She spent enough time at that place as it was with work.

• • •

TAGGED! @damion
WORDS! 428!
OUTFIT! Louisiana Lovely!
LYRICS! Everybody’s Got The Right - - - Assassins
NOTES! <3