>> "Its like underwear, you put it on and feel it."

Perhaps for Hokee, it was like putting on underwear. Sure, Chase wore underwear, and he knew what felt comfortable, but he'd been wearing underwear for his entire life. He'd had time, in those short eight years, to decide what he liked and what was comfortable. He'd never handled guns before, didn't know what he liked, what worked for him. Hokee's glimmer of insight into the world of buying paintball guns only baffled Chase more.

>> "Just have to try until it feels right."

Chase must have maintained the blatantly-confused expression well, because Hokee explanded upon what he had said to the younger boy.

>> "You need to be able to hold it and run, so you got to, you just have to find how it molds with your body."

Hokee tested another gun before offering it to Chase. Chase took it lightly, mimicking how Hokee had held it. This one fit much better in his arms, and Chase could feel it. Much like a younger child might play a ukulele as opposed to a guitar because it better in their arms and was easier to play. Chase didn't know if it was "the right gun" but it felt alright.

"I can actually hold this one," Chase said simply, smiling. He remembered to check the trigger action on the gun. There was a decent amount of give, but it wasn't impossible for him to pull the trigger. Chase hummed and look at Hokee, giving a wide grin.

"How do I look?" Chase inquired, striking a pose that was more laughable than much else, because he was attempting to be rather tough-looking, and Chase just... didn't look very tough. He wasn't very tough, "Do I look mean?"

The look that Chase was supporting was priceless, so priceless that there was no possible way for the store owner to charge them for the gun. It would be a rather mean and cruel trick to play on the kid. Yes the gun seemed to fit him much more then the previous one, but the stance he had was so wrong. The chances of him intimidating another soul was about as good as a kitten flinging grenades. He just didn't have that bad boy look in the slightest. Raising an eyebrow, Hokee started to rub the bottom of his chin in thought.

"Not there yet. You need.....gear." and another hundred or so pounds. For now this gun would work, unless he found something else that might be better. "Wonder if they got stuff that makes you look like Halo people..." Chase needed serious false advertising to get him looking worthy of a paintball fight.

Round around the corner he started off to the equipment. "What's your badass color?" Everyone had that. Some color that they could wear and just own it. Not own it as it make it look all sappy and stuff but a color which gave them power, presence, that kind of stuff. Being a shifter, he wasn't sure if colors mattered to the kid or not, but hey it was semi important.

>> "Not there yet. You need.....gear. Wonder if they got stuff that makes you look like Halo people..."

Chase nodded and trotted after Hokee as they ventured to the next aisle, which bore what could only be described as the armor of gladiators. Chase looked around with wide, intrigued eyes.

>> "What's your badass color?"

"My what?" Chase echoed. He paused, to give the inquiry some thought. What was a "badass" color, anyways? Did Chase even have on of those?

Chase wavered faintly, looking around at the surrounding rows of gear, and he hesitantly replied, "Umm... black or grey?"

A bit of a snicker came from the older boy. Chase really needed to get out more. Poor kid, under the thorny rule of Taylor all the time. He needed to get out, explore, cause trouble, just be a kid for crying out loud. It was sad when things like this happen, a boy was denied the right to be exactly what they were. Chase wasn't some goody goody, there was no way possible. Considering how he met him, and how things went, he knew there was something else about the young kid.

"Black or grey." Not power house colors. Though not saying florescent lime green was good. Any bright color had to come with a in your face personality. This wasn't what he had, not in the slightest. The grey seemed to fit him, a kid just in the background. Still, he needed a real powerhouse color. Grey would just let him fade into the back and totally lose the fear factor towards others. Though if he really sucked at the sport, it might be good to stay that color so people wouldn't notice him. "Not black....it would make you look smaller."

Picking up an orange helmet, the teen rocked it back and forth in his hands for a moment. "You have to look like you could squash people like they were ants. Nothing to bold for you, but can't let you sink out of sight." Orange would not work for the kid, maybe a trim or something like that, but the full color wouldn't work. "Can you rock camouflage? Winter print, greys and stuff. "

>> "Black or grey. Not black....it would make you look smaller."

Even if Chase had no idea of what the sport was about, he already had a methodology ingrained within his system. Standing out was never a good thing, in his experience. Standing out caused trouble. To blend in was the key to survival, so why on Earth someone would want... an orange helmet, Chase mused, as Hokee picked up the helmet... was beyond him.

>> "You have to look like you could squash people like they were ants. Nothing to bold for you, but can't let you sink out of sight. Can you rock camouflage? Winter print, greys and stuff. "

Chase looked at himself, wholly aware of the fact that he didn't look like he could squash people like they were ants. Heck, he didn't even look like he could squash ants. Chase lifted his gaze from himself to Hokee as Hokee continued speaking aloud about what colors might work for him. Nothing to bold, nothing too dull... winter camouflage, maybe?

"Um... I think so?" Chase gandered, shrugging his shoulders. At least there was greys in there.

Luckily, Hokee abandoned the day-glo orange helmet. Chase wasn't looking forward to a highlighter with legs, so wasn't too keen on the neon colors. He just wasn't a neon-colors kind of kid.

Now that he had an idea for the color combination, it would help out greatly. Sure by the end of the game and all it didn't matter what color you were wearing, in the end paint had a way of covering things. That was what its all about, no turning about and shaking limbs, just paint and guns. The hard part was next, finding the colors combination in the right size. With a print in winter camouflage, it could be limited.

"We need to look in the back of the stacks, so people wont have touched it....right?" Not to long ago, Chase had been him and well he didn't know how much control he had. In a place like this, there was sure to be several people trying to stuff all the time, so having Chase turn into some random person might not be a good idea right now. As much as he liked and enjoyed ticking of Ms Taylor, he wasn't going to go and loose the kid for days on end and take a chance of running into her later.

Shoving the orange helmet back into place, his limbs stretched out as he dominated area. Yanking a helmet from here, snagging one from there, he eventually was able to find one that looked about the right size. It wasn't the right color, but for all he knew Chase could have some oblong head or something else under all that head. "Take it out of the plastic and see if it fits."

Chase watched Hokee closely, making note of what he was doing, how he was so expertly perusing through the helmets and such. It was still something of a foreign language to Chase, but he was excited, too. He was intrigued by the unknown.

>> "We need to look in the back of the stacks, so people wont have touched it....right?"

That made Chase pause, and he looked at Hokee for a moment. Why would he care if people had tou-- oh. His mutation. Chase hadn't been expecting such an inquiry, so he seemed a bit taken aback by it. Shapeshifting. Right.

"Kind of," Chase agreed, the words getting all choked-up in his mouth. How to explain this... "I should be okay, as long as one person hasn't worn it a lot. If a lot of people have tried a helmet on, everything just feels like... mud."

There was no better way to explain it. Hokee rummaged to the back of the rack, and fished out a helmet, passing it over to Chase. Chase took the helmet into his hands, weighing it, and reading it for residues. Murmurs of residues were there, but too faint to be of any use.

>> "Take it out of the plastic and see if it fits."

Chase pulled the plastic out of the helmet, as instructed, and slid the helmet onto his head. The sound around him was muffled by the helmet's padding, and his head was consumed by the helmet's entirety. He leaned back faintly, because of the claustrophobic feeling that came with the helmet, and Chase looked around, touching the grill over the face with his hands. It was a little too roomy, but only slightly.

"Cool," Chase gasped, grinning from behind the face mask. He looked towards Hokee for approval, before looking around for a mirror. Chase didn't care if the helmet was a little too big, he wanted to take a look at himself.

The squinted eyes watched the younger male carefully. If need be, not knowing how lucky they would be on the matter, he might have to quickly shove Chase aside so people wouldn't catch him morphing. Plastic or not, there were people like him who did the same thing. It was pure chance he was going on now, chance and hope that things wouldn't get all freaky mutant all up in there. Chase was cool, but he didn't want to risk him turning into some ape gorilla dude on him, or worse some hot chick. He certainly didn't have anything against hot looking girls, just the idea of possibly Chase turning into one was totally not cool.

"Alright." With that minor risk put to the side, his glands in his armpits could relax a bit and stop producing the goods. If Chase thought he'd be okay, he'd have to take the word of the youngster. He did know his power after all, if anyone would know if he would morph or not, it had to be the tyke. Squinted eyes watched carefully as the helmet seemed to roll about in Chase's hands while he prepared himself to try it on. Nothing had happened yet, though how long did it take for him to turn into someone else. Both times he changed before, he personally hadn't paid much attention.

The figure stayed the same as the helmet consumed his head. This was a plus. Not having to explain why a kid was rapidly growing or shrinking was very nice. After Chase got the helmet on all the way, and he was personally convinced there was to be no shape shifting and such, Hokee did what any reasonable person would do, hit the side of the helmet. He wasn't trying to hit it wildly hard and this wasn't a patty cake sort of hit either, just a good normal slap to test how big or small the thing was on Chase. Part of getting gear, you had to try it out, smack it around. "Hows that feel?"

Getting a clear hit on the helmet was a bit difficult, it almost seemed like Chase was ready to bolt in one direction or another. He could swear also that the helmet wasn't turning exactly the same ration as the neck. Exorcist moment going on possibly? Maybe trying to go ahead and testing out the helmet by hitting it wasn't a good idea. Oh well, not much he could do now about that one. Chase should understand in the end, he was a guy after all.

Chase tilted his head back at Hokee, to fix him with an inquiring glance. Chase could feel a few, very faint residues within the helmet, but nothing strong enough to use. There would be no shifting today. Chase lifted his gaze, and was met with an open-handed smack to the side of the helmet. The helmet shifted faintly, the cushioning on the inside smushing into Chase's ear. Chase winced faintly, which was a given, but managed not to shout.

>> "How's that feel?"

"A little big," Chase guessed, "It moved on my head when you did that. And it was loud."

Chase shook his head as a means of demonstration, the helmet wobbling about on his head slightly opposite of how he was turning his head. Chase might have been intelligent, but he was still a kid. His head was small.

The helmet moved a little. Well was that good or bad? Some wiggle room was good, but on the other hand it wasn't good either. What if Chase went and wiggled his head out of the helmet and took a shot to the head. Sure you shouldn't aim at other people's faces and such, but sometimes you couldn't help but nail a good head shot here and there. To not do such a thing would be defying the natural instinct that come with a trigger happy hand. this was life and that was how things worked. Lazar tag was vastly different then paintball but he had figured out once that if you shoot your eye with your gun it deactivates yourself. Not something that is healthy for the body, but a wicked cool trick.

"Smaller?"

Sure it was an obvious question, but Chase was the boss on this matter. Yes, he himself knew more about the sport then the younger mutant, but it was the preference of the owner that mattered. Still, if the helmet moved around and such, there had to be something done about it. "Try adjusting it." Half paying attention to Chase, he started to shuffle through the helmets more to see if there was anything a bit smaller. Worse case, he would figure out a way to get the helmet to fit Chase, even if he had to stuff it with socks or something.

>> "Smaller?... Try adjusting it."

Chase paused in shaking his head at the suggestion voiced by the older boy. He didn't know if he needed a smaller helmet, but hadn't thought to adjust it... you could adjust these things?

"How do you adjust it?" Chase spoke-up. He opted for something a little less clueless-sounding. He didn't want to seem any less cool to Hokee than he already.

The inquiry wasn't begged with the tone of, tell me and I'll do it, though. This was more of an indirect request for assistance... as in, "Hokee, show me how to adjust the helmet so that I can do it properly somewhere down the line."

Why couldn't Chase be a really hot chick right now. The line he said just called out to him in a totally different mindset. No, this was a kid and unfortunately not an older girl he could totally get some action from. Darn. How could he explain this to Chase without putting his hands on the helmet himself? Oh man, this was totally not fair. Though it did give him a great idea, find a hot girl and get her out on a date with paintball guns. What he'd do to wrap his arms around one right now and show her how to handle the gun and maybe get a few sweet kisses on her neck.

Shaking his head to get out of his hormonal trance, he plucked out a helmet that would fit him. "Make sure you got the head strap across the back of your head like this." Why did he feel like he was some fashion model right now? Lowering his body close to the ground, he was soon squatted with his back to Chase. "Reach behind your head........ and grab the sliding adjuster bars, see its right here... on the head strap of the goggles. You'll feel it. Pull them apart to make it tighter or if you need it looser, then push them together."

Standing back up, he stretched his legs quickly before turning to face Chase. Lowering back down he took a hold of his own chin strap."Chin part is easy, just make sure the helmet feels snug but not to tight. Its got to feel comfortable but not rock around. Underwear." With a wink he was up on his feet. Taking the helmet off his head, he tossed it in the shelf carelessly. There were other things more important right now, like getting the right helmet for Chase.

Hokee took a helmet and wedged it onto his head, and began to describe certain ways to adjust the helmet. Chase watched attentively, trying hard not to get too lost or confused in the mountains of "helmet adjustment how-to" that was being thrown at him

>> "Make sure you got the head strap across the back of your head like this. Reach behind your head........ and grab the sliding adjuster bars, see its right here... on the head strap of the goggles. You'll feel it. Pull them apart to make it tighter or if you need it looser, then push them together."

He mimicked Hokees' gestures, only half-certain of what he was doing. He reached back, blind and clumsy hands finding the sliding adjusting bars, and pulling the goggles in until they were snug, but not too tight. Okay...

>> "Chin part is easy, just make sure the helmet feels snug but not to tight. Its got to feel comfortable but not rock around. Underwear."

"Underwear," Chase echoed back, a giggle at the fringe of his tone. He found the chin strap with ease, courtesy of bicycling in his younger years. Even if his parents hadn't been too fond of him, they were still inclined to make him wear a bicycling helmet. Chase adjusted the strap, and shook his head again. This time, the helmet didn't budge.

Looking back at Chase, he couldn't help but let a corner of his lips twitch upwards. The kid had style, awkward but still there was style hidden in there. With a head nod he accepted the answer. Not often would two guys randomly say underwear in public, that is unless they were walking past Victoria Secret....dang now he wanted to take a stroll near one of them. He really needed to hook up with a girl soon and get some serious lip lock going on, that or catch the TV at night when no one was awake and cross his fingers they don't block the good channels.

"Safety gear......chest protector is a must. Then your mom won't be all up my a---butt about this." What stuff would Taylor insist on him having? He knew this was something she was totally against, but if he got all the protective stuff for the kid, how could she say no? This was a safe sport even if gorillas like him played against small guys like Chase. The gear would take a brute of the damage, kid was a guy and needed to be allowed to do guy stuff. One thing for sure, if he caught Chase with a Barbie doll he'd have to have a firm talk with the kid. That is unless Chase was pulling its head off or putting in a microwave, those were acceptable actions for kids his age with girl dolls.

"Do you got a cup?" That was another must have. Not that he absolutely had to wear one, but it was always fun catching another guy off guard by hitting them there. He'd do it to another guy, so he should make sure Chase was protected against that. Actually cups were way more important then the chest protector but he had a feeling that the female population would think else wise.

Chase was still of the age in which underwear would be something worth chuckling over. Luckily, it didn't go over as "too uncool" by the older boys' standards.

>> "Safety gear......chest protector is a must. Then your mom won't be all up my a---butt about this."

Chase nodded his head attentively. It was good to err on the side of caution. Chest protector. Okay.

>> "Do you got a cup?"

A what?

Chase blinked, and unfastened the helmet, so that he had time to think. Something about how Hokee said "cup" implied that he didn't mean the kind used for containing drink. Chase didn't know about any other kind of cup, so it was likely that he didn't have one.

Chase shook his head, and gave a hesitant, "I don't think so."