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Strickenized rolled 1 12-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-12)
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 Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 10:22 pm
What came was little more than the glancing headbutt from earlier. Was he holding back? Was he distracted? Mired in poor form from all the ways Schörl jabbed at a man and effaced him and defaced him until no confidence remained to function properly? Was she trawling Aue over her hooks until she knew she could reel all the good parts back into his flayed body? Is that what so deterred him from fighting?
Or was it pity? Fear for what would come of Faustite's half-gone body if he punched with his native force, if he didn't restrain himself well enough to avoid pipes and metal-bolted meat? Faustite staggered lightly, turned on the balls of eir feet to rake a hand across that retreating fist. The damaged one, the blistered one — that was the target to bring Aue to heel.
That was eir clincher. The clinched victory to this match, to moving forward, to claiming some other medal from this state-sponsored show of hubris. Schörl couldn't ignore that. Couldn't ignore that measure of success should ey reach the pinnacle to these match-ups. And if Aue wanted to lag behind and pity em for having no kidneys, no liver, no jejunum, no stomach, then may he wallow in it once Faustite finished digesting the strips of skin that caked themselves to eir gilded cage.
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Syrie rolled 1 12-sided dice:
9
Total: 9 (1-12)
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Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 10:25 pm
HP: 17 / 40
ATK: 7
Another rib-rattling cough, higher seeming and with less force to bend. Aue took a moment to tear and wrap part of his sash around the bleeding, raw meat of his still cooking hand - once heated and bubbling like that, flesh didn't just stop when the flame was removed, oh no, it carried right on cooking until it cooled.
That's why chefs let steaks 'rest' before serving them. To be certain that the meat was at it's most flavourful.
It was enough. I can't let him take another bite. What else is there for her to take if he does? A chill ran up Aue's spine; his brows drawing together as he frowned. There was no point in holding back if Faustite was going to keep trying to devour him - full force magic was one thing, physical mauling another. Lines had been drawn, the Finn would step across to suit.
Shifting his weight so he could curl the damaged hand against his chest, Aue went after Faustite. He is a glass cannon: thin, delicate frame. Hit the face. It took all the agility he could muster to get in close, but once there the Finn wasted no time in letting loose a solid one-two combo. That 'glass jaw' was gonna get tapped, right nice.
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Strickenized rolled 1 12-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-12)
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Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 10:28 pm
The moments Aue spent wrapping his hand were moments spent across much distance — for even outside combat, Faustite did not stand idle. The seconds those actions took raveled over feet, yards, handfuls of meters spent in a near-jog to chase each other. But Aue kept beyond Faustite's reach, and Faustite loathed to spend energy on a teleport when eir concentration frayed so willingly in this setting.
For every moment ey felt that vomit cooking to crust against eir grate, for every moment it and its magical counterpart stuck their acid fingers into eir remaining organs, Faustite recalled Ochre's words. Remembered his petty try at pedagogy. How he tried with all his so-earned morals to lecture Faustite on how to become a monster.
What would Aue add to em? Laziness, as Schörl warned? indifference? A vexing affinity for beer and videogames when so much work remained?
The time to think on it ended when Aue finished his wrap. Now bandaged under a flimsy yellow sash, the blistered hand became ever louder a target. both moved to close distance, but Aue's longer arms outpaced Faustite's range — he struck and struck, and the youth staggered backward with a hand flung up to ward away the pain. But his face smarted, and his neck pained with the ricochet. Faustite was weary, sore, beleaguered. Enough black and purple mottle left em looking a victim.
Bent low, Faustite slipped in to seize that hand in clawed grasp — tear away the sash, cut it, crush it.
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Syrie rolled 1 12-sided dice:
12
Total: 12 (1-12)
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Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 10:28 pm
HP: 15 / 40
ATK: 10
Move. Move. Stagnation was death. Faustite would happily devour him, flesh first - then glittering starseed. One to fuel the fire that kept limbs moving, the other to fuel the more sinister fire of addiction; reasons that the senshi of lemons did not allow the petite general to come close to his chest in better times. Faustite's hungers were as clearly lain out for Aue as they could be dangerous to him without care.
End it. End it now. He is staggered, reeling. A cornered and dangerous animal. Either of us could go down easily now. Don't ******** it up - there's too much to lose. She's too creative.
Terrible, the mistake made then. Mottled metal pipes, blackened and crusted on the inside by soot made from his magic - from him - were offered up to the Finn like a sacrifice. Moreso even than the missing torso with its bared furnace, Faustite's ventilation pipes were a weak point. The metalwork supporting the half-youma's torso was solid enough to take heavy blows, painful to the joins as it would be, but the fire within was protectable. The metal pipes were not, and covering those suffocated Faustite.
Up he went, shifting to position for what he intended to be a finishing blow. Down again with full force to his teammate's pipes. The resultant sound was awful, the impact jarring through his bones and certain to bruise. Bone was not meant to strike metal, after all.Strickenized Aue tries - and fails - to end the fight. The perils of being lazy.
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Strickenized rolled 1 12-sided dice:
6
Total: 6 (1-12)
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Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 10:30 pm
Faustite struck floor with the groaning sound of disturbed metal. Hollow it rang through eir chest, a vibration so deep and bone-jarring that it chattered eir teeth, and worst was the resultant pain. Faustite eked out a desperate rasp sans air, where breathing grew too painful for more than a shallow breath. What breaths ey could take were staggered and wheezing. Aue finished the fight unless Faustite managed some means to take his starseed.
But there, on the ground, barely able to function, that clincher escaped em. Faustite managed another grinding breath, smoke leaking from eir pipes with ink stains tracing their thin lines down the sides. Felt like a cracked rib; Faustite grew familiar with these bodily shortcomings.
Ey needed space, a moment to breathe, a moment to collect emself through all this pitiful damage. Faustite drew together enough to pulse out one last billow of smoke to overtake his nearness to Aue.
Schörl's lack of visit was paradoxically fortunate.
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Syrie rolled 1 12-sided dice:
6
Total: 6 (1-12)
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Posted: Wed Apr 24, 2019 10:31 pm
HP: 11 / 40
ATK: 4
For all the strength Aue had put behind his attack, Faustite neither fell completely nor yielded the match. Instead the mangled general moved like a fly with it's wings torn away, twitching and desperate. Heated smoke, acrid and cloying with the scent of citrus, vomit, and metal came to scorch Aue's lungs once more.
Ragged coughing joined the broken breathing of his opponent; annoyance flickering across the Finnish eternal's battered features. Faustite being bent low made it very easy for the Finn to grab the general's hair and lift, to sink his mangled hand into the youth's chest to touch the starseed within.
"Det är över."* Swedish came hard, hurting almost as much as the smoke did, as his cannibalized hand, but in a much deeper way. Aue removed his hand from Faustite's chest, leaving his starseed safely where it was, and dropped him back to the ground. <********, I am tired now. I want whiskey. Maybe if he did well enough in the tournament, he'd earn it. Maybe.
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Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 4:12 am
It had been a tight match -- right up until the very end of it, when Aue had come up with the answer first, the key to unraveling his opponent. They both had weaknesses, but Faustite's had turned out to be easier to exploit within the confines of the ring. The young general's body was fragile, and still not fully second nature to its owner. It cost effort and risk to make use of it. Some problems took time to remedy.
It was the expected result of the match, ask things considered. Quartz would've thought worse of Aue if he'd fallen here, with so little excuse for it, than he did of Faustite. But it was not Quartz that either of them had to answer to.
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Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2019 9:00 am
Vitriol had taken a seat as the fighters went up upon the stage. It had yet to see the general fight outside of the one fight between them when it was a knight and the rigerous bootcamp it had just completed. Several weeks had made the half-youma very familiar with the endurance and stamina demanded from the other officer. Their sparring had been a far cry from the fight back in the graveyard and it felt the decide each night when it iced down swelling limbs each night. Despite the tourney going by rank and everyone thus being on equal footing, it still couldn't help but hope the other succeeded and claimed the title at the end of the tournament.
It recalled faintly the last time it had been in the Negaverse tournament and couldn't recall seeing the other before then again, it knew so little about everyone present. The face and body if the Negaverse had changed but these tournament and competitions still held true to an old sense of desire. To pit one another and see how they faired within their own stripes and medals to those they rubbed elbows with on the everyday.
It was surprising to say the least that the person who was on stage was one Vitriol knew and it remembered the parting words given when they fought before with getting teeth.
Now it really wanted his general to win.
The fight began and each side showed themselves to their own powers. Aue brought out to large disc of lemon which it had never seen before but the petals it remembered. The other knew what to target. The hearth was unguarded and so it sent juice into the fire and with it the smell akin to cleaner burning on a grill. Faustite retaliated with smoke and Ash and the lemon citrus was cut by something more overpowering. It watched, wondering how an attack to the inside would affect the youma general before they were tangled together and the fire licked at Aue's palm and went bright red and bubbled. True it was a tournament, but just as the senshi freed itself, it wondered if Faustite would have taken the hand as a frozen. Skin charred but it might as well been melting. Healed, it would still retained the scarred rivers.
It touched it's collar that concealed the senshi of Pepper's bitterness.
Just as Aue hacked and wheezed, threw up against the officer, Vitriol anticipated victory but all too quick the tides changed. Taking what air they could, the senshi went for a hit into that angled jaw and close, looked to the pipes.
"No." It whispered.
Yes, it went. The loud clang of the contact sang like the ding of a wrestling bell. Match over.
Faustite eeked out the dregs of smoke it could but it was done as the other fell, black blood draining from his mouth like motor fluid.
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Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2019 8:44 pm
[Spectator Post - Tourmaline]
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Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 8:33 pm
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Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2019 9:00 am
You don't know what you did. You won't. Faustite was released and ey fell back to the ground, muscles weary, sinew unable or uninterested in holding em upright anymore. The youma general sucked in a wet breath, fist curled against the floor, gritting teeth against the loss. How like my subordinates. But they've time to grow; what do I have? What time can I salvage? Another breath, wet, as black as eir soot. What a show in so many parts — that ey could not justify parayouma through martial prowess, they ey could not justify emself through martial prowess, that ey could not best even a senshi, who lacks all lethal weaponry belonging to an officer, that in addition to eir idleness, ey was no frontline asset. What a pity, what a host of problems to correct with full youmafication.
Ey pushed at the ground to reach eir feet, but muscles of eir upper body would not hold. A sharpness stabbed through eir back, below one of the pipes. Already ey calculated the math for how many hours in bed, how many days spent off patrol until it reacquainted itself with pipe. Another attempt went to getting to eir feet, then a third. Faustite spat a wad of black after at last clamoring to eir feet.
A hand pressed over eir chest where Aue's once was, and ey regarded the senshi balefully. "Congratulations," ey spat.
Ey turned, at last viewing the few who oscillated around them — Quartz, Kamacite, Vitriol, Tourmaline — and shame tightened, wrenched a ghosting of guts into a knot. Faustite's reticence gathered like a pinpoint at eir back. But ey could not — would not — make eye contact with any as ey passed, a black hand grabbing each chair to steady emself in passing until ey collapsed into one, breaths heavier and wetter and sucking until ey coughed more black into eir palms. Eir frustrations vented in a whisper as hands curled into fists around the back of eir chair and Faustite pressed eir forehead to knuckles. "I hate this useless body."
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Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2019 12:45 pm
It was one blow but it went to the core. While so many had their vitals encased and protected by fat and muscle, the pipes clung to framework caging about all of him. It wanted to say it was a underhanded move but it had been just as guilty in its desire to win to go for the same spot. It had also seen how much it had brought the other to his knees. Whatever it took to win was the nature of these fights. Dead men couldn't complain about honor.
It watched the other try and fail to stand before at last he rose. Down the stage and pass them, he went to sit and set his brow against his fists. Rising, it followed and came to him.
"Really? I think it's pretty useful." It said as it sat next to its general. "It made quick work of that officer's hand and it houses such a strong will." It fished out a starseed from it's subspace and offered it. "It has such charming features."
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Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2019 7:03 pm
"Kind of you to find its benefits." Faustite coughed, then spat more black past the back of the seat. "It doesn't deserve that." Welded together like a salvaged thing, like a high schooler's misbegotten dress form project, Faustite could seldom call emself sturdy. What gilt em cost em, what Aue himself made was better misused as a series of weak points. Aue, both the engineer and the victor. The doctor to eir monster.
Faustite drew another crackling breath, coughed when eir lungs reached capacity. More black, this time thin ribbons that clung to lips and knuckles. The general swallowed hard. Wolframite was playing kind.
They all were. Better to treat kindly those who face an immediate transition. Pittance paid meant so much for the conscience, and Vitriol was the one virtue signaling to the rest of the room. What a treat it must've been to see one subhuman creature show mercy to another, show patience to it like neither one could fully path out the nuances to interpersonal care. Everyone in that room had all their skin and all their organs and no extra pieces from stepping into something else, from wandering too far into this life over their last.
Three words summed up Vitriol just as three words summed up Faustite. And as ey leveraged enough of eir face away from hands to sight the other youma, ey spotted a greater sin that purged eir mouth of all taste. In washed spit and spit and more spit, overtaking blood, and eir mouth throbbed an order of magnitude quieter, as if ey buried it in an ice bag. But Ochre already poisoned em, and Umber did too — in that clawed hand was everything Schörl wanted em to take. Healing on pain of someone else's death. Looking at it now, ey could not resist it. The shaken hand slipped out to fetch it, to bring it to mouth like a burdensome need. The crunch poured regret into em.
The sound of rock hitting metal was eir first clue, eir flame licking wild eir second. I'm a funeral pyre, ey realized. The funeral pyre gives way to a flame and the flame has a life beyond. Faustite sucked another spotty breath faster and faster and faster, fingers found the white-hot grate unyielding. Faustite swallowed and swallowed and swallowed but ey couldn't keep it down. It rose, higher and higher, brighter and brighter, blazed like the bleary hot of an ingrown oven. Ey vanished.
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Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 8:24 am
Quartz watched impassively as Faustite found footing and hobbled over to collapse in a chair. Not the poor sod's lucky day today. Little Wolframite -- Vitriol, wasn't it -- hurried over to help with the proverbial licking of wounds. Just as well. Both combatants needed medical attention -- and only one had to go back into the ring soon. Quartz found his way over to Aue. "Well, you both look like s**t," he said, no attempts made to gild the lily. "And you smell like it too, Jesus." He shook his head. "But you recovered fast from puking your guts out, you made use of it. She'll look favorably on that." Quartz studied the eternal with a kinesiologist's eye, trying to get a sense of the body beneath the soot and charred flesh. "Anything out of order besides the obvious run-in with a George Foreman grill? Some of the other winners took real damage too, but that hand's pretty impressively ******** let it a slow breath. "You're better off losing the next battle than losing the hand. Don't do anything stupid."
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Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2019 9:59 am
He could only watch Faustite coil in on himself at the end, knowing that offering a hand to help would have been met with sharp claws and sharper words. The general was displeased and upset - natural things, considering their shared Master - and he moved to the seating before traitorous Swedish could touch Aue's lips.
He doesn't know Swedish, what words could I offer now that wouldn't fall fallow to the ground?
His hand throbbed unpleasantly, partially charbroiled, but his eyes were on Faustite's slow progress to a seat, to Vitriol's succor. Then they were on Quartz. Aue grunted, nodding at his teammate's words. English wasn't Finnish, but it also wasn't Swedish. "Ja." Quartz was aware, he knew the hellbeast's punishments intimately. They all did.
Mindfulness of body was important: Faustite was getting his check-over, so was Aue. A few lacerations, stretched tendons. The worst was probably the weakening of bone from striking metal pipes to drop Faustite. "Mm." He offered his good arm, gesturing to the already bruising points of contact and miming the body slam from earlier. Of course there is damage, even enhanced. But damage to forfeit my next round? No. I am moving on.
Words he hated to hear, words from previous year - but without the emotionally loaded angles. Quartz was all business. Aue considered the worth of his hand to his work versus the punishments that their shared general would dole out for the loss, nodding slowly. "Kanske."
"Jag komme inte att förlora min hand."xStrickenized mentioned watchin ur grill xShazari He's only allowed to use Swedish atm, because Schorl is evil <3 [swedish: yes/ perhaps/ i wont lose my hand]
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