[BATT]Somebody Watching Me [Tamiya+Zeylla]

[artificial bones]

Just some casual stalking and induced paranoia.
Civisect City, where the funs at!

 

[artificial bones]

Zeylla was hiding away from her hive(and lusus) again; taking a few days in Civisect to be away and have a change of scene. The beetles she had recently earned doing some adventuring had been very useful in buying herself a rent-a-hive, though while small, was very cozy. But she could only spend so much time cooped up inside(hadn't she come here to do something besides sit inside and read, or write drab poetry) before she threw on her coat and slipped outside. The decision now was, what should she do?

Old habits are hard to quit. Not that Zeylla wanted to quit. she was quite happy to still watch troll on the occasion that the mood hit her, and as she stood in the fine evening air, the sun just dropped past the horizon, she knew that watching was exactly what she wanted.

She wandered the city casually, and spent almost the whole night wandering without finding one interesting troll. It was actually becoming frustrating, and Zeylla wondered if perhaps she best turn back to her temporary hive when suddenly.

There, wading through a crowd, though perhaps not wading as it almost seemed that trolls stepped out of her way as she walked, a little path opening up around the troll, a curious looking purpleblood with confidence in her step. Before she walked to far passed, Zeylla had glimpsed her face paint, and it was so intriguing. The greyblood quickly pursued, quickly crossing the street and slipping into the crowd behind the other troll.

That night, she followed the purpleblood- a juggalo(a term she had just learned that evening from an overheard conversation), evidently fairly well-known, and her name was Tamiya (she had over heard her name being called by another troll as the night progressed)- and found she enjoyed stage performances as that evening she went to a small, odd little show with strange masks and music, so after several torturing minutes into the show she slipped outside and left back to her rent-a-hive to nurse her pan-ache in the plush recuprecoon in her block.

The second night, she found her again. This time she saw her through the gates of her own hive(or at least, Zeylla assumed it was hers), working on some strange garden made of rocks. Rocks that the purpleblood was just moving around, as if it made some sort of sense. Zeylla was so busy watching her movements she didn't notice her eyes, trained over in the greybloods direction(was she looking at her?).

She quickly moved on, and later found herself following the purpleblood again-it was that paint that drew her, and perfect coincidence she kept spotting, though they were living fairly close to the same area- as she spent time at a poetry reading. Zeylla enjoyed this, and found herself drifting off into the poetry as she watched the other troll with only about half her bloodpusher, before letting her eyes drift to watch the poet and enjoy the show.

She left when she felt eyes on her and saw Tamiya staring at her again(or at least looking in her general direction, which was still odd). Just up and scurried off, and relaxed in her recuprecoon and worked on her own poetry for the rest of her evening, never giving that look another thought.


Now it was the third day, and Zeylla really had no intentions of following Tamiya again. Being noticed twice put her on high risk of confrontation, so she decided tonight she would spoil herself with a good meal before making the trip back to her own hive. Surely her lusus was settled down now and she could sleep in her own 'coon. She wandered the streets for a while, enjoying the part of town that was well dressed for highbloods with fancier tastes. She picked a nice restaurant and was just settling in to her seat, sipping on her water as she waited for her server to come back for her order(she decided to have seasoned quackbeast with little startchpods and fancy produce, surely cut into little shapes to add look to the food, and costing way over what it should probably cost) when she got a feeling in her gut.

Like someone was watching her, but as she glanced around, she couldn't see anyone in the near vicinity looking her way. Weird.

Sypon

if this isn't acceptable please let me know!
pats her little stalker

 

[Sypon]

((Totally fine! A good representation of Tamiya’s various outings.))

Those horns. The horns were what caught her eye first. After a day’s worth of déjà vu, Tamiya had begun to look for them. Curvaceous, mottled with tuberosities, long and wide enough to stick out of a crowd. When her eyes cast up and down upon the figure, she could hardly make out the blood color of her follower. As it turned out, the desaturated symbol was no trick of the light.

The juggalo vaguely recalled her, flickering through the tight crowd in her small stage performance. There was no reason to notice a face in the crowd then, but the very next night she had wandered to her semi-isolated hive and Tamiya had seen. It was then that the hairs on the back of her neck prickled. She was no visitor. Just prying eyes, floating past and lingering just enough to instill a gut-clenching reaction in Tamiya. This was a haunting. Back then she had regained her breathing, smoothed over the spot that she had smacked as her jaw clenched together and hands twitched into fists. For a while, she would have respite from the wraith.

Until the poetry – a sacred moment, marred by the inky mystery of her prowler. Juggalo praises turned to hatchet words as Tamiya’s hands began to shake upon registering Zeylla in her midst. She was here for her – for what? It was then that she recognized her hemoanonymous symbol. Something was horribly wrong.

There was only one reason to hide one’s hemotype, and it was not a saintly one. Furthermore, without the identification her caste, Tamiya had no idea what she was capable of. She was ghostly, and her biology and spiritual force was a horrendous enigma. Was she a lowblood, peering into her deepest thoughts with psionic prying? Or perhaps a highblood, poisoning her slowly through mere proximity? An agent of the rebellion – some kind of faithless detractor – an agent of an unknown order yet to be unearthed? Tamiya’s thinkpan lit up with visions of being strangled in her recuperacoon, illuminated horrifically by the light of a glowing jadeblood. Crushed under the weight of the undead, slipping into unconsciousness as a dart pierced her nutrition chute, lit aflame and left to burn alive as her hive crumbled to dust. Her community shattered, her memory snuffed. Tamiya’s ink splattered against the page. She had looked up that night, and her stalker had gone. The juggalo’s eyes immediately filmed over red.

After dealing with the small, semi-deadly kerfuffle at her poetry session, Tamiya was unable to sleep. Even drenched in sopor, praying for rest, her mind raced with thoughts of the anonymous troll. There was no chance on Alternia she would let her guard down now, and as the sun rose and set Tamiya had finally decided to power through the day with 3 kettles of boiled Faygo and the sermons of her people played on blast in her hive. A shakey hand applied her make-up, and Tamiya was out the door at dusk.

Early meditation sessions were similarly tainted by the thoughts of her aggressor. Tamiya shifted on a park bench, phasing in and out of consciousness and screaming herself awake much to the fear and chagrin of the population of Civisect. At last when her sustenance sack cried out in hunger pangs she removed herself, unsteadily making her way to the inner city. Staggering in her tall geta and hakama amongst the finer folk, Tamiya looked more out of place than usual – and when she came to a dead halt, she stuck out tremendously.

Those horns. Tamiya ducked out of line of the sight of the restaurant, in the adjacent alley.

stringency

Heyyyyy!

 

[artificial bones]

If she hadn't been looking out the window across from her table in boredom, Zeylla may have never noticed her. But as it was, she was looking at the window at the exact same time that the purpleblood she had been following happened to appear. She looked worried, shocked even. Zeylla felt her curiosity piqued as the face-painted troll dipped to the side of the window and out of sight.

She sat for all of 3 minutes before she had to get up and follow. She needed to know what was going on. That look on the purplebloods face, it had been one of shock and maybe a little terror. What did a troll like that have to fear? Zeylla needed to know. Needed.

So she ignored the waiter, who was coming back finally to take her order, and stalked out of the restaurant. Food could wait, a good story could not.

The street was much louder than the restaurant had been, and the sounds assaulted Zeyllas ears as she looked down the street for the familiar getup. She saw nothing at first, but decided to walk in the direction the other troll had left in. She walked passed the alley where Tamiya hid, unaware that that was where she was, with a searching look on her face. Where did that troll go? She paused just at the entrance of the alley, but didn't bother to look down its depths(surely, in her mind, a troll of that caliber would not be hiding amongst trash in an alley) as she scanned the crowds before her, back to Tamiya's evident hiding spot.

Sypon

E V E zey you gunna get jumped! or something hahaha stop following trolls!

 

[Sypon]

Now was the clutch moment – leave, or wait. Tamiya swallowed the thick knot in her nutritionchute that threatened to stopper her breathing. Her hand went to her side to grab the pipe that she had stowed earlier. Her chin wobbled; staying her breathing took up Tamiya’s concentration. Suddenly, those horns appeared in her view. Right there – right then.

She had not expected to see the anonymous troll so soon; she must have been spotted. She must have been targeted – she had caught her in the act, the act of stalking – hunting her. Tamiya’s chest burst with prickling fear, bolstered by a shot of rage that she forced herself to inject when she acted out of impulse.

The juggalo stepped forward at a rapid clip. Using her momentum and impressive height, Tamiya swung her pipe over Zeylla’s head and braced it against her neck. She clamped down and swung her back into the darkness of the alley.

Tamiya deals 4 damage!

((THE BATTLE BEGINS IMMEDIATELY! Let’s just make this PRP a BATT so we can stay in this thread (and because it started so soon.) we can make it a PRP/BATT if we get more RP interaction afterwards but I’m not concerned. OuO))


20/20
Chucklevoodoos: 2/2 offensive A

stringency

 

[artificial bones]

HP 16/20!
Zeylla does 0 damage!

She was not expecting the attack, though she would never admit to letting her guard down in her curiosity. The cold pipe crushed against her throat within seconds, and she reached back to grip the wrists of her assailant, legs kicking as she was dragged backwards.

How could she have been so foolish? She could, in her panic-just out of the corner of her eye-, glimpse the golden claws of the very troll she had been following. She should have seen the signs, but instead she had only seen a mystery to explore, an enigma to observe. And now, she was in a battle she hadn't expected, nor had she wanted.

She fought against Tamiya's grip, but couldn't manage to do much beyond struggle.

Sypon

 

[Sypon]

They were out of sight, but even so - a hemoanonymous troll under assault by a well-known subjugglator elite was not something to be trifled with by a passerby. Tamiya simply didn't know if the mystery troll had backup.

The two struggled, Tamiya gaining ground quickly with her surprise assault and rage-induced brute strength. There was an unimpressive space between the buildings in the alley - to the immediate right was the restaurant, which consumed much of the space with a parked delivery scuttlebuggy blocking the back half of the alley and boxes and palettes stacked up along side of it.

Tamiya grit her teeth and, with a grunt, forced Zeylla against the hard wall of the alley - wedging her between Tamiya and a metal industrial-sized foodwaste disposal container connected to the establishment. Gaze sleep-deprived and adrenaline-crazed, the juggalo thrust the pipe up once more before allowing Zeylla a small amount of breathing room for interrogation.

"Why are you following me, tentacleshit? Who sent you? Who do you ******** work for?"

20/20
Chucklevoodoos: 2/2 offensive A

Tamiya deals 6 damage!

stringency

>:U!!!!!

 

[artificial bones]

HP 10/20!!
Zeylla does 2 damage!

The smell of the trash receptacle was nauseating, and the idea that it was smeared against the back of her jacket would have usually induced a need for snarky remakes and quips full of sharp, cutting words, but Zeylla couldn't quiet find it in herself to choke out a single insulting retort with that wild, painted face staring her down like a wild animal. Also, the pipe against her throat didn't help.

She gagged as Tamiya thrust the pipe into her throat, as if it helped to get her question across, and Zeylla swallowed awkwardly(the feeling of the pipe still pressed against her neck like a waiting, deadly beast) and thought of her options.

One one hand, she could try to talk this down. Explain herself and tell the purpleblood she was a nobody and not worth her time. She could beg and plead and grovel. And yet, even if she was willing to embarrass herself in such a way, those wild, burning eyes of her quarry-turned-aggressor told her that it would be no use. This troll was set, determined to believe in some underlying story.

On the other hand, fight until she could escape.

And with that thought, a fire lit in Zeylla, and her eyes flashed, and without a word of explanation, because, what would an answer help with sometroll who probably wouldn't believe her anyways, fought back.

Her hands were still free, and now she was facing Tamiya-who was focused on an answer and the pipe across her neck- so she swiftly swung her left arm up, swinging for Tamiya's face, though with the awkward position she was in, it would not be the strongest hit.

Hopefully enough though to make the other troll stumble back enough for her to try to escape, or at least have at least some space between them until the moment came.

Sypon

BABY SLAP TO THE FACE > A < //

 

[Sypon]

18/20
Using chucklevoodoos!
"style A 1d6+1 auto hit on this attack, also removing from max hp count, 2x per battle."

There would be no civilized answer from the greyblood. Tamiya's lip curled as the window for her answer dwindled, but was suddenly taken off guard by a strike to the face. In her stupor, she released the majority of her pressure on Zeylla. So this was how it was going to be.

Tamiya shook sense back into her head and fueled her quickly boiling rage. A red haze drifted over her eyes, the beginning of a mental assault. Her chucklevoodoos were still untrained, still capricious and uncontrolled, but she would not be letting her aggressor go so easily. At least not without some kind of satisfaction if no answer could be gleaned from her horrendous gelatinous think-space. The potency of her powers was limited in her impulsivity, but they pulsed towards their target all the same.

stringency

spooky ookie attack gooo!

Tamiya deals 3 damage!

 

[artificial bones]

HP 7/17
Zeylla deals 6 damage!

Zeylla stumbled away the instant Tamiya's grip loosened, and thought perhaps this could be her chance. She was facing the exit of the alley, the way to her safety and away from this insane, fight-ready troll. She took one step when suddenly she felt a tingling. It wasn't in her body, but her mind, like a fuzzy feeling. She couldn't place a finger on it, and as she took a second step it intensified. A buzzing like a hundred thousand flies all around her.

And then they were around her, millions of flies; big, fat ones with hairs visible on their bodies with gem-like eyes, small ones with no distinguishing features, a haunting, buzzing black dot. Zeylla tried to wave them away, but couldn't. She was so focused on the flies she barely noticed she was back home.

My hive?

And the stench of flesh, dead and old, and suddenly a panic rising in her chest. A suddenly realization, that her lusus was dead. That her lusus was dead.

Zeylla screamed, a wail of panic as she fell to her knees with a painfully resounding crack. But the pain resonating from her knees pulled her back, and she realized she wasn't in the wooden darkness of her hive-with some nightmare of death and decay-, but in a dark, dank alley. Fighting another troll.

Who evidently had powers as well. It seemed every troll she confronted had some form of strength beyond their own. Weak, it was weak and cowardly and Zeylla felt the panic turn to anger as she turned, rage blinding her vision and think pan. She reached to her side and clutched the stiletto at her side.

She turned to face the purpleblood, and without a moments hesitation, she whipped out her weapon and slashed at the Tamiyas middle section, her structure and rules falling to the wayside as anger burned at the edge of her sight.

Sypon

DA RAGE. dem powers are just UNFAIR >:U

 

[Sypon]

There was a visible twitch to Tamiya’s mouth, a slight pained smile as Zeylla fell to the ground. As unprepared as she was this was an excellent result. The clown was emboldened. Her focus waned on the attack as the anonymous troll appeared to be down for the count. With this assault, she was incapacitated. She would crumble, be taken apart, and –

The thought died instantly as she turned suddenly. Zeylla had produced something long and sharp, a weapon that Tamiya hadn’t seen. She had no time to react before the stiletto ripped her midsection cleanly, slicing through her clothes. Immediately the dark fabric began to blossom with the dull sheen of blood – Tamiya gripped at her stomach more out of sudden shock than anything. She stumbled, her sclera bursting back to yellow, letting an angry gasp escape.

12/20 BOOF
Chucklevoodoos 1/2
Tamiya deals 0 damage! ;n;

stringency

 

[artificial bones]

HP 7/17
Zeylla deals 0 damage!

Zeylla stood stock still as Tamiya stumbled back, her eyes trained not on the troll before her but on the stiletto in her hand. The white of the bone knife was stained with deep purple. It rolled like hot wax down the blade before dripping down from the point where her ashed knuckles gripped the knife, but unlike the heat of wax, it was cold and sent shudders rushing down Zeylla's arm, stripping her of the eager bloodlust she had felt moments before.

Instantly, her bloodpusher kicked into overdrive, pounding loudly in her spongeclots, and her palms clammy. She gripped tighter the blade and tried to even her heightened breathing, even as her inner self screamed to fight! To spill more! She was already shaming her lsus by fighting, and now she was shedding blood. Her stomach twisted, somewhere between the deep hunger of battle and the sickening nausea of guilt. She couldn't do this, she shouldn't do this....yet, she had to survive, and there was no escape.

She was too swallowed into the panic induced by Tamiya's blood to make a move, her body shaking slightly as if chilled by a harsh wind.

Sypon

 

[Sypon]

one more go at brainsplosions
12/20
power: 0/0~

Tamiya deals 2 damage!

As Tamiya’s surprise waned, pain and anger grew inside of her. The confusion she always tamped down was stirring into a froth that made the red haze flicker back into her eyes – if only for a moment. She was too exhausted, too sleep-deprived and befuddled to cast such a spell on her opponent. The realization was sinking in, but she couldn’t lose her grip now. Tamiya refused to let this tide turn.

If anything she was comforted by the fact that this tussle was entirely disorganized. No back-up for either meant some semblance of a fair fight. Attempting to use the last energy from her powers, Tamiya made another attempt to rush at Zeylla. This time nursing her stomach wound, she brandished her pipe wildly and went in for a nearly blind swing.

stringency

 

[artificial bones]

HP 5/17
Zeylla deals 6 damage!

She became aware of movement at the last moment. The purpleblood was charging, swinging like a maniac, and her pipe would have cracked Zeylla's thinkpan had she not thrown her arm up as a guard. Though using her arm holding the stiletto might not have been the best idea, as it dropped from her hand as the shock rushed through her arm.

She jerked back from any further swings, clutching her arm as the pain receded. Her knife was useless now, to duck down and grab it was to welcome a pipe across her spine. Perhaps it was better this way- with her fists she could fend long enough to tire out the troll before her(exhaustion was obvious on the purplebloods face). She would just need to be prepared for that pipe.

After her second of recovery Zeylla came back in, her aim reciprocating Tamiya's, her fist aimed directly for the other troll's temple. If she could just disorient her enough to escape.

Sypon