"
He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
— Friedrich Nietzsche,
Beyond Good and Evil[This is the culmination of
two previous roleplay events, at least for one specific character. I wasn't sure where to put it exactly so I created a new thread. Where things will go from here who knows?!? And that's the joy of it, really.]
Upon learning of the plague and its source, Icerra purposefully infected herself in order to spread the plague towards select individuals. Her first victim in this manner was Celizan, who foolishly got a little to close to the kore. Travosh gleefully burnt Icerra from the inside out, but it was too late, the elf was infected. Her second victim was another Ad Lib guildmate, Taya, who just so happened to annoy Icerra, and was met with a face full of backwashed beer. There was no pyromaniac klyros around that time, and Icerra got away, but this does not mean she did not face retribution.
Taya hired Karnath to put a curse on the kore. Soon enough, the infection coursed its way through Icerra's body and finally reached her brain, where it launched its full assault. The hallucinations were strong, everyone she encountered was Miomai, and for the first time in a long time, Icerra was truly afraid. She took to the rooftops in her delirious state, where Karnath eventually caught up to her. He placed upon her a curse so that if she made physical contact with another, her entire body would be gripped in agonizing pain, and thoughts of suicide would take over her mind. Sadly, Death is Icerra's goal and one true wish, so this second half of the curse had minimal effect on her behavior.
Icerra continued to plunge deeper and deeper into delirium, completely unaware of the curse. Soon, the healer Jecewie came upon her and called Tanosn to aid her in helping the kore. After a long night in the sanitarium, the two enkidukai eventually concocted a remedy strong enough to cure Icerra of the disease, but of the curse they remained unaware.
Following her recovery, Icerra continued her daily routines of mischief, sowing seeds of chaos into the fertile soil of Hydlaa's social fabric. Her actions gained her new followers and allies, while increasing the ire of her enemies, especially one particular klyros. During one especially chaotic event which culminated in a large brawl outside the doors of Kada El's (the guards were conveniently off duty) Mariana happened to grab Icerra by the ear, which triggered the curse for the first time. The pain was unbearable and sent Icerra into a near catatonic state. Because Hydlaa's citizens are all sick and get their jollies by torturing adorable fenkis, a small group stood around Icerra continuously poking her, insisting that they were 'helping'.
Icerra wrongfully suspected Mariana of being the one to place the curse on her, or perhaps any of the Adani Order, since it was they who seemed to take her actions personally. She brought these suspicions to her brother in faith, Cruse, who then hatched a plan. They hired a trustworthy gentleman to kidnap Mariana for them. Taking her to the base of the Windowless Tower, they began torturing her for information, but Mariana withdrew, if not physically, mentally and spiritually. Icerra noticed this, and through reasoning even I can't understand, killed the akkaio on the spot. The ransom note sent to the Adani eventually led to a showdown outside the city walls between the Dakkruists and Travosh and Sarras. The Dakkruists were defeated after a hardfought battle, but any death is a good death in the mind of a Dakkruist, even if it is their own.
Mariana summoned Icerra in order to teach her a lesson/get revenge/retrieve lost property, who knows? Fenki is loco. Thus we have the following confrontation:
Mariana looks at Icerra. In her paws are two shoddy looking sabers, shoddy at least compared to her usual, shimmering and well kept blades. Their edges, however, are sharp is is necessary for their usual task of cutting. Cutting flesh, hopefully. "Hello," she says flatly to the kore.
Icerra approaches Mariana, her paw dripping with blood, but hears Travosh's voice and stops, "Y'all gonna kill me let's make this quick."
Mariana continues to look at Icerra with the same cold, impassive stare. The usual effervescence that pervades her quirky smile is gone, and her ears are pointed straight forward, instead of dropped slightly in a casual, relaxed state. Her tail swings lethargically back and forth. "I'm not here to send you to your whore of a mother."
Travosh says "Just here to watch, Icerra. Had my share of melting people lately."
Icerra blinks slowly in response to the insult. She lifts her bloody paw, a deep laceration cut into her palm and stares at it for a moment, before dropping it and lifting her eyes to Mariana, "You know... yer just like us."
Mariana seems to have absolutely not a care for Icerra's statement. "So you have said, over and over again, silly delusions from a silly, hurting little girl. Not enough gray matter between your ears to realize you're simply a chaotic freak following an equally chaotic and grotesque entity, a perversion. A blight upon the land. Your opinions mean nothing to me, Icerra. You are a small maggot, deserving of being salted and burned. Sadly, to kill you would be to give you pleasure. I'm not here for that."
Icerra shrugs, "Fine... I'll play along..." she adds in a mocking tone, "What ARE you here fer?"
Mariana slowly slides her swords together, listening to the ring the motion generates. "You'll just have to figure that out," she replies. "I'm afraid you'll just have to figure that out. You're a fighter hm?" She slides the blades together once more. The steel gives off a slight waft of smoke. "Come now, how about a good fight?"
Icerra pulls out and dons her steel gauntlets, sliding her paws into them one by one. Blood begins to ooze out the bottom of her right gauntlet, soaking into her fur as it runs down her arm, "Sure... I'd like that."
Mariana is coldly unconcerned about the blood. She slowly pulls on her own armor, covering herself in hardened steel. She looks something like her old self, like she's reverted somehow, but for the deadness in her eyes. "Come now Icerra, only fair, to give you the first chance of attack."
Travosh skips on over to the other roof to get a better vantage point
Icerra stands with her weight on one foot and puts her hands on her hips. She smirks as she watches Mariana put on her armor and calls out to her with a lift of her chin, "What's that Mariana? 'Friad of gettin' hurt? I thought you couldn't feel no pain."
Mariana doesn't respond to the fenki, except that she does, "I'm not a masochist like you. I've no reason to visit your whore-goddess, who spreads like a sexually transmitted disease. I'm here only for you. Now, stop dancing around with your pointless words and come at me, dead woman's daughter."
Icerra switches her weight towards her other foot, tiliting her head till her neck pops. Her paws slide down and unbuckle her falchions. She holds them low and at her side as she lowers her head and glares into Mariana's eyes. After a drawn out and silent moment, she charges on barefeet towards the armored akkaio.
Mariana's smile finally reveals itself, spreading across her lips in an agonizingly slow fashion. She swings her blades as she watches the fenki come towards her, and as she gets closer, she shifts one towards the sword in Icerra's left hand, meaning to cut the delicate tendons beneath her flesh and cause her to lose to grip. With the other she lashes out at the kore's wrist, a quick and condescending motion as if batting at a misbehaving child.
Icerra drops her left falchion as her tendons are cut, just as Mariana intended. Her right paw goes sailng in an arc throguh the air as Mariana's thermal saber cuts through her wrist like a hot knife through butter. Naturally, she drops that falchion too. Her forwards momentum keeps carrying her, and since Mariana put up no guard nor tried to move out of the way, she crashes into the akkaio at full speed.
Mariana takes Icerra's full impact with a disjunct, awkward laugh, one that seems to bark right out of her throat. She lets go of her own sabers, knowing that with the blood loss the fenki is surely experiencing, she probably won't be able to fight very well. As she falls back and loosens her grip on her own blades, she wraps her arms around the fenki and moves to press her bare paws right against her spine.
Icerra falls onto Mari and finds herself face to face with someone who obviously enjoys causing her pain, or making her suffer, or at least trying to. But, Icerra isn't feeling much of anything, in fact, after days of suffering that curse, and dying over and over again numerous times, Icerra has grown completely and utterly numb. Finding herself with no other weapon, she opens her jaw wide and bites into Mariana's neck.
Mariana's neck starts to bleed, and she lets out an infuriated snarl. She shifts her claws and moves both of them up to the back of Icerra's neck, seeking her bare flesh, and presses her fingers hard against it. She unsheaths them one by one, tosses her leg over the backs of the kore's knees, and tries to roll them both over so that she has the high ground.
Icerra tightens her jaw and latches on firmly, her silver fang along with her natural ones puncturing into Mariana's throat, the akkaio's blood seeping out of the corners of her mouth. She is unable to prevent Mariana from rolling ontop of her and she falls onto her back, her own neck bleeding from Mari's claws being sunk within
Mariana lets out another furious snarl. She curls her paws into a fist and aims it at the fenki's juggular, at her windpipe, and punches at it. Hard. The other paw remains at her neck, still digging in harshly, still leeching more blood from the kore.
Icerra begins to choke, what with Mariana's blood flowing freely down her throat from what must be a punctured carotid artery, and let's not forget Mariana has now crushed her windpipe. Her jaw slackens as by now she's lost a copious amount of blood, which has spilled across the stone paving in a sickingly slick and ever growing crimson pool. In fact, she's fading quite quickly. Mariana is doing a piss poor job not killing her.
Mariana raises her face out of Icerra's reach, her own consciousness beginning to fade from the loss of blood. The gash in her throat briefly flashes red-hot, and the fenki lets out an agonized scream as she harshly cauterizes the injury. She looks back down at the fenki, scowling at the sight of all of the blood, and she plants her own paw against her throat. Fire flares again, up along her paw, while she presses it against the kore's flesh, as though making a mirroring scar. The other paw presses hard against the bloody fenki's wrist, putting pressure on the arteries that are quickly pumping her life's blood away, and pants, looking into her eyes with a glaring coldness. "Don't you die on me, you bitch."
Icerra's body spasms and she chokes up blood. Whether it is her own or simply Mari's being regurgitated is hard to tell. She'd like to say something snarky, or irritatingly detached and dismissive, but she still can't talk because her throat has collapsed in on itself. Must be pretty hard for her to breathe too. She just keeps her eyes locked on Mariana's, almost as a dare, or a challenge for the akkaio to keep her alive, or perhaps daring Mariana to question just what's worth holding on to.
Mariana wrinkles her muzzle in a sneer. "Pathetic," she spits. "You are weak, a disgusting, pathetic weakness." Instead of trying to salvage the kore's life, she merely, heartlessly, feels around Icerra's form for detection of her sabers. Her ears twitch as she listens to the gurgling sounds the fenki makes, and they fall on them as though she is deafened to the woman's suffering.
Icerra doesn't have any sabers on her. She must have left them back in the tower. She had no use for them, afterall. What Mariana will find is an assortment of knives and shivs tucked into the waist of her shorts and strapped to her undeveloped chest with a leather belt. She might also find a curious green glass vial with a viscous black solution contained within.
Mariana stops feeling around as she detects the presence of the vial. Slowly, she draws this out, and examines it in the light. As she watches the fenki die, she also observes if the stealing of the vial has any effect on the woman's facial expression. She watches this closely, smiling as she observes the blood still oozing from her missing paw.
Icerra's eyes do quickly grow wide as the vial is exposed, but not for long, for they quickly roll back into her head as she slips out of consciousness. With each weakening beat of her heart, blood squirts out of her severed arteries, amassing in a pool around the two of them. Probably doesn't help the property value of these houses. Slowly, but surely, it trickles to a stop.
Mariana reaches back for Icerra's severed paw and drops it on the woman's chest. She stands to her feet and glares down at her as she does, her paw still clutching the vial of whatever the substance is. She examines it with a blank look, perhaps wondering what it is...and then clutches it closer, maybe understanding. Her eyes take on an almost closed expression as she stands amidst Icerra's blood.
NOW THE BIG MYSTERY IS, HOW DID MARIANA USE ALL THAT MAGIC WITHOUT HER GLYPHS??? DUN! DUN! DUUUNNNNN!!!