Description: On a crusade against corruption on the seedier side of Southtown, Father Walter happens upon heroine of hardcore Alexis Lovell on a mission to make more money. Mistaking her methods, the missionary resolves to rescue the rocker from soliciting salacious services. Astoundingly, Alexis' appreciation of his accusations is absent.
Downtown Southtown. One of the places where Walter Bardsley's work is most needed! The young priest is out and about on this day, the sun just now sinking low on the horizon, dressed in his usual priestly vestments, gold cross, and that concealing cloak. He's been perched on a literal soapbox, giving a sermon about love, peace, and how the Lord cares for each and every one of them. Some of the homeless and slightly more religious ruffians have come to alternatively soak in a bit of soul-saving, or just heckle the priest. It's mostly been good-hearted, and Walter has taken it all with a stiff upper lip and the occasional joke at his own expense. It's only thus far earned him two converts, a trio of hecklers now owing him beer, and a homeless man falling asleep on him. Overall, he'll call it a win. Of course, the dragonkin that is Walter is /loud/ by nature and his eyes sharp. He'd easily draw the attention of those around him - quite on purpose- even as he steps off of the box and gives various blessings and some food to the sleeping homeless man. It's then that he'll start down a street, waving and accept said offer for booze later, and heads towards the tiny hotel where he's taken up residence for now. Sadly, it takes him towards the area most frequented by women working a more illicit trade.
's next time
Their attempt at scoring a free lunch at Genhanten has only left Killasaurus Orphanage in even more dire financial straits than before. As it turns out, dining furniture can be pretty expensive - although that was covered by the band agreeing to wash dishes for the restaurant, they had ended up having to buy a new skateboard for Yun Lee. Though she would never admit it, for all her musical bluster, Alexis herself had been the one to pony up the cash.
It's for this reason that the band had decided to split up and try and make up some lost ground and turn their situation around. They'd each picked a different part of town, and Alexis had ended up on one of the seedier street corners of Southtown, resorting in desperation to one of the most shameful methods of money-making available...
Busking.
It's been a long and mostly fruitless endeavour. After all, people don't come to this street for the musical flavour - something that's pretty much gone over the girl's head. Her guitar case does have some money in it, though probably more out of appreciation for her somewhat skimpy schoolgirl-style stage outfit than her singing voice, considering the audience. She has no idea how much it's worth in Canadian money, but the numbers on the bills look big, so that's a good reason to be optimistic, right?
For now, it's time to pack up, though. She pulls her phone off of her belt to check the GPS for directions to where the band's roadie, Steve, is supposed to pick her up with the group's van.
The battery is dead.
"Son of a..."
Sighing, she considers her options. The last time she'd tried to talk to one of the women hanging around, the other had told her to find her own corner. Maybe one of the people driving around could be more helpful. She takes the money from her guitar case and sticks it into the front of her shirt as a quick way of making no one steals it, then approaches the side of the street.
After a few minutes, she's managed to get one of the cars to stop. After the driver rolls down the window, she leans over to speak with them. There's some confusion due to a language barrier as she and the man behind the wheel try and request very different information... especially with the driver being distracted by the view of the girl's cleavage provided by her posture, which creates an equally (unintentionally) suggestive view to anyone behind the girl's short skirt.
Surely there will be no misunderstandings here.
Walter might not try to judge others, but there are some things that simply go beyond his capacity to ignore. He's passed four street walkers thus far, and even blessed them while warding off their 'invitations'. But it's the sight of a woman wearing a catholic schoolgirl's outfit in a manner that's simply /lewd/ is something that causes him initial pause. Too-sharp teeth emerge in a scowl as Alexis walks up to a car, bends over, and offers...a most interesting sight. The preacher turns away with a renewed blush on his features. Arms folding as he puts down his weapon case, the man considers. Looking back, trying to keep his eyes /upwards/ out of respect, he finally finds resolve. No, he will not let a desperate young lady simply debase herself for money! The scandalized young preacher marches over to Alexis. His slightly shorter frame glares from behind as he tries to loom. Those wings beneath his cloak flex for a moment, but he controls them.
When he speaks, his voice is full of God-given authority. "Young Lady!" Alexis isn't /that/ young, but it's close enough to where Walter can still play the age card.
"Look at yourself! Wearing such...such improper clothes! Do you truly wish to debase yourself so? You are young, and no doubt talented! But to stand upon this corner, enticing men! Repent your ways, my Child! If you need money, I can provide a measure of it! Will take you bloody shopping if you need, just stop this sin of Lust before your soul is lost and tainted!" Comes the man in a well-meaning tirade of criticism and a helping hand alike!
"I'm looking for..." Alexis stumbles over the words in Japanese as she wracks her brain, reaching up to scratch at the top of her head. What was the name of the street again? "'Hirateuchi?'" It's Hiratachi.
The driver perks up a little. "'Hirateuchi?' I'll give it to you for five thousand yen."
"What? I have to pay for it?"
"No, no, I pay /you/ five thousand yen and -"
"Young lady!"
The words, clear and authoritative, reach Alexis' ears, piercing through the maze of conversational missteps she's entangled herself in. Her head turns, bangs flipping into her eyes as she scowls reflexively behind them at the interruption. Generally, 'young lady' is followed by some kind of scolding, and if there's one thing Alexis hates, it's scolding - and then here it comes.
She's used to having the more conservative chastise her for her choice of dress. She straightens up and turns to face the man of the cloth, arching her back and stretching as she chambers a return volley. But then the priest goes a bit further. Enticing men? Sin of...
Suddenly, irritation turns to outrage. The girl's hands clench at her sides as she stares daggers at Walter. She shoves one into the other, popping her knuckles. "Hey, jackass! What exactly are you trying to say about me here?"
As he finally gets his target's attention, the priest folds his arms as she starts cracking her knuckles. The good Father stands fast against this (seemingly) illicit lady! Daggers meet daggers as his contact-baring eyes peer deeper with an...odd quality to them. There's something not right in them. Anger, hunger...it passes quickly towards more human considerations of the woman.
"This 'jackass' is stating the obvious! I am not such a fool even if I am a priest! Who wears such slatternly clothes and walks around /this/ street whith cash at their sides and being stopped by men!" He points to the stopped car.
"We all make mistakes. I did not come here to judge, but to save! Repent your wicked ways, and all shall be well! Maybe even a nunnery for you!" That's right, he went there.
If Alexis were a more rational girl, she might have latched onto the priest's words about possibly giving her money or taking her shopping. After all, money is all she's really here for in the first place. At worst, she could at least try and get some directions from a fellow English speaker who's not looking for 'hirateuchi' (probably).
Instead, the rational part of her brain is busy remembering English class. She read Hamlet. She knows what a nunnery can mean. The rational part of her brain tells her that she should explain to this priest that she is not, in fact, a street walker.
The irrational part of her brain agrees.
"I..." she growls huskily between clenched teeth as she holds her hands at her sides, what biceps she has flexing as her body starts to quake with anger.
"am /NOT/..." A faint, resonant hum starts to build around her fists as sonic energy gathers in them.
"...a HOOKER!"
The hum crescendos as she charges the draconic priest, pulling back her arm before aiming it right for the man of God's face, a vibration piercing the air as her hand sails through it. Should it connect with anything, a punishing tremor of sonic energy will be released with an echoing, cacophonous crash!
COMBATSYS: Alexis has started a fight here.
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Walter has joined the fight here.
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Walter
COMBATSYS: Walter endures Alexis' Strong Punch.
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Walter
"Your wrath is only an outpouring of your SHAME my Child! Give yourself over to jesus, and we can set you on a path to righteou...what in the bloody hell?" This 'streetwalker' is suddenly flexing her biceps and building...chi around her? Part of the man's mind isn't too surprised. After all, it's a dangerous business. And Alexis seems rather hotheaded! Who knows, maybe some of her customers like that.
But the chi-enhanced sonic punch hits him square in his priestly chest. It sends the man flying backwards and bouncing off of a wall! WHAM! The bricks quiver a bit, and crack from the force. Though it may not be entirely pleasant for the insulted singer: punching Walter's chest feels akin to punching overlapping plates of solid steel. Is there armor under there? It has to be pretty thin, if so. Strange!
"...Ow. Might I suggest a career in martial arts rather than one of picking up men for cash?" Then, the wyrmkin priest stands. He seems more dazed than horridly wounded. And best of all? The punch put him right next to his weapons. Taking out his twin spears, he stabs one into the ground.
"It seems, young lady, I shall have to punish you for your ways!" Frown. He hopes that didn't sound terrible. God help him.
Then he's leaping at the woman, his spear glowing as he simply tries to swat her right in the center of her chest with the blunt part of the weapon. His movement is erratic, almost twisting side to side as he charges. Strangely serpent-like!
"REPENT AND BE SAVED!" Gold light fills the air, blinding and powerful.
COMBATSYS: Walter successfully hits Alexis with Twin Claws.
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Alexis 1/------=/=======|===----\-------\0 Walter
On the contrary, Alexis is quite satisfied with the sensation of fist meeting whatever it is that the priest is concealing under his robes. At least, for now, while the adrenaline is pumping and she can't really feel the sting in her knuckles. She shakes her hand out as Walter recovers.
"Shame? This is how I dress!" she retorts, drawing in a deep breath, her chest swelling with the intake of air... and apparently presenting an appropriate target for Walter's shaft.
"And I /am/ a - MMF!"
Her hands come up to try and grab hold of the haft of Walter's weapon, but not fast enough, and the priest's spear smacks her squarely in the exposed space of her cleavage, sending her flying to land on the sidewalk near her own weapon of choice - her 'axe', sitting in its case. She reaches over to grab it as she fumbles to her feet, then slings it across her shoulder and behind her back.
"Repent of what?! I'm not the one going around telling people they belong in a whorehouse!"
Incensed, she bites back the painful throbbing between her bosoms from Walter's spear and runs straight back at the priest.
"We'll see who punishes who!"
Leaping to the air in a cross-body, her entire body humming she aims to collide with her midsection across Walter's chest before wrapping around and locking her arm over his neck and falling backward, trying to drive his head into the sidewalk with a move known in professional wrestling as a tornado DDT. Should the move connect, the sound of a resounding, dissonant bass chord would fill the area as another sonic shockwave is released.
COMBATSYS: Walter blocks Alexis' Stage Dive.
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Alexis 1/------=/=======|====---\-------\0 Walter
Walter has just swatted poor Alexis right in the cleavage. Bliiiink. The priest can't help it. He stares, blushes, then turns aside. "Faith and strength, Walter! Treat this poor lady with respect!'" Mutters to himself. It's more than enough of a distraction for him to let her get up without a counterattack and get her particular weapon! It seems it shall be shaft versus shaft in this battle of piety versus the power of rock.
"I never said you belong in a whorehouse! Rather than you belong in a nunnery like a proper lady of your no doubt true inner gentlewoman! Let me help you release your true potential!"
But Alexis is definitely a strong fighter! Taking up a defensive staff as she comes for him, still blushing but eyes gazing upon her warily as she rushes in, he's suddenly met with a cross-body leap rather than the expected sonic swat of a guitar! It seems throws aren't something a spearman is good at, as she dives right over the attempted thrust from the dragon-man! Whomp! Her body goes right upon him, and the chivalrous preiest drops his spear to try to steady them both. It doesn't work, as she grabs his neck and bursts him full of sonic energy. His sensitive ears ring, and with an inhuman growl, those wings burst from his back to defend sensitive heads, and more or less try to wrap up Alexis in a hug. A very tight, very iron-scaled hug that no doubt grates a little as they hit the ground. Squeeeeeeze!
"H...hitting a preacher is a sin!"
COMBATSYS: Walter successfully hits Alexis with Medium Punch.
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Alexis 1/--=====/=======|=====--\-------\0 Walter
Alexis has dealt with people like Walter before. The judgmental accusations, the criticism. She obviously still doesn't handle it that well, but it's not really anything new.
Except the part where, pinned beneath her on the ground, Walter sprouts /fucking dragon wings./ Which would be freaking awesome, if those wings did not then proceed to wrap around her middle and try to crush her.
"Mmmmmrrrgghhh!" She lets out an impassioned grunt as she finds herself trapped between the powerful draconian appendages, kicking and writhing and bucking above the rather militant priest as she tries to break free.
The driver of the car watches for a few seconds, decides that he's seen enough, and pulls away.
"What the /fuck?/" she asks in Walter's ear as her chest presses against his back before jerking away as she throws her body back to get free.
She tries to roll Walter over, trying to straddle and pin the priest beneath her, crushing him between her legs as she draws back a fist. And then she's throwing punch after punch, fists singing in the air with multitonal sonic energy, as if playing scales. Each punch is punctuated by an exclaimed piece of a question:
"Why!"
*PUNCH*
"Do!
*REPUNCH*
"You!
*THREEPUNCH*
"Have!"
*STILL A PUNCH*
" Fucking!"
*YOU GUESSED IT*
"Wings?!"
Rather than a punch, if uninterrupted, the final attack would come in the form of a headbutt, a resounding shockwave of sonic chi released at the point of impact.
COMBATSYS: Walter endures Alexis' Beatdown in Three Four!
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Alexis 0/-------/-----==|=======\=------\1 Walter
Walter's life is currently a strange bit of suffering. In a pure fit of animalistic desire to not make head meet concrete, he exposed his bloody wings. The man in the car takes off. The look on the priest's face is the epitome of 'oh shit!'. He's pinned down beneath a woman whose morals he's questioned, showing dragon wings, and generally being a slippery little jerk beneath her. It's not unlike having a very wiggly snake underneath you. But then he's rolled over, crushed by her rather powerful legs, and the man feels for his hips. They literally creak, even as his scales protect him from some of her leg-based assault.
Those wings flap-flap-flap noisily. Then her fists come flying with ever question. Right in the face! WHAM!
"I..."
His face is tilted left, bruised, before her fist flies again.
Wham! Right on the forehead. Thankfully he has a tough skull.
"Ummm, that is...OH GOD!"
Seriously, this 'nightworker?' hurts. Punch punch punch! Punch!
And then the final blow, a chi-based headbutt that has his skull ringing and eyes rolling in the back of his head.
"I...I..."
There's silence, and then he speaks. "...Would you believe it is all fake? Because frankly, my dear, if I tell you the truth you are just going to punch me harder. Nice blows by the way." He sounds pretty much drunk right now, after all those punches.
Rallying his spirit, he lets some of his draconic nature slip out as he tries to squirm out from the woman. A strange feeling fills the air around him. It /might/ be slightly demoralizing, a tingle down the spine of odd fear from this creature. But a headstrong woman such as Alexis may well overcome it.
Suddenly, spear and all, he's hugging...or rather squeezing the girl closer to him if he can manage it. Those wings flap, and with a burst, he's up in the air!
"But let us stop this public spectacle, and take this somewhere private shall we?" Should he catch her, she's zooming through the air. Up until the point he tries to belly-flop her atop a large rooftop away from prying eyes. Wham!
COMBATSYS: Alexis endures Walter's Spineshatter Dive.
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Alexis 1/------=/=======|-------\-------\0 Walter
"Fake my ass!" Alexis is breathing in deep and heavy as her own head rings from the headbutt. Headbutting a dragon? Or... half-dragon-priest-thing? Really hurts.
To tell the truth, those punches raining down were already fuelled as much by fear as by anger at this point. It's the work of the amygdala - fight or flight - except in Alexis' case, the 'flight' option is generally forgotten. The tingling down her spine is as much a natural response as supernatural as she stares in bewilderment down at Walter.
"Wait, are you trying to pick me up now? I already told you, I'm -NOT- a-"
And then, suddenly, the dragon-man succeeds in picking her up despite her protests, in quite literal fashion. It seems that it's time for flight after all as she's carried aloft. The sensation is dizzying, and then... exciting. She's literally flying, free of any transportation technology. This is so much cooler than crowdsurfing -
Right up until she's dropped, from a height, right toward the roof of a building.
"FUUUUUUUUUCK!"
She rolls over in the air as she tries to hit the ground some way other than face first and ends up spiralling over and over, clothing fluttering, before slamming into the rooftop hard and bouncing, head over heels, hitting the surface three times before rolling to a stop, clothing and skin shredded in places by the friction, bruises surely rising all over her body. She trembles on the ground, dizzy from the impact, barely able to retain her mental presence.
Somehow, though, the rocker girl pushes herself up on quivering and bloody arms, sucking in a deep breath to regain the wind that was knocked from her. Finally, she manages to push herself fully upright, and raises her aquamarine eyes defiantly to her winged oppressor. Unslinging her guitar, she raises a pick (who knows where she got it from?) into the air, a hum rising from her instrument and filling the air as the sonic energy is slowly gathered. And then, fuelled by fury, she starts furiously strumming, filling the air with power chords. Her voice sounds out over the bed of noise:
o/~ I'll feel no guilt!
I won't repent!
Day to day, I accept crime!
And that's for me to confess! o/~
Transitioning directly from the vocals into a guitar solo, she sends a rippling tide of sonic energy up toward Walter, the song (an Alexisonfire cover) given tangible, violent and rebellious force by the channeling of chi.
COMBATSYS: Alexis successfully hits Walter with Shredding Solo.
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Alexis 0/-------/-------|====---\-------\0 Walter
There's freedom in flight, and one that Walter rarely gets to indulge in. He can't help but notice a bit of excitement in the woman's eyes. That flight of theirs might just last a little longer than necessary. Then he simply drops the woman from an appreciable height. Watching her roll, shredded up, he actually starts to feel bad. It was instinctive, mostly. And out of concern for the both of them. He doesn't like nasty questions.
"E...err, no. I just do not want this to be seen. Let us just say the both of us could be in danger if too many see /these/." Wings flap a bit as he gently starts to bank and drop down.
Oh, wait a minute. She's carrying a guitar? The fact only now registers in that darkstalker brain of his. And then she's singing. He's...honestly heard worse. A frown. But the clothes she's wearing.
"Wait...do you actually mean you are not a...streetworker. A...musician?" Yes, it just now dawns on him. The priest looks /horrible/ as he stares on at her with absolute shame. His mouth starts to open in an apology, when fury and rage and pure sonic energy is thrust at him through Alexis's voice. Wings move, battered by sonic winds until he's tossed straight into one of those water-tower things atop buildings. And right /into/ it. Those vibrations hurt all the more,a nd by the time he falls back down: he's soaked, battered, and bruised. Oddly, some of his old wounds seem to be slowly closing right before Alexis' eyes.
The priest can barely stand. He scowls, and huffs. "I...think I may well be in the wrong here, Miss. /But/! A warrior does not give up on a duel. Allow me to give you satisfaction of my most uncouth insinuations upon your honor!" He even dips into a low bow, looking genuinely apologetic. Then he straightens.
"If you win, I buy you lunch /and/ dinner, and a new pair of clothes. Agreed? Let me set this right." Then? The man leaps forward, a stick somehow grabbed in all of those shenanigans, and uses the last of his teetering strength to leap at Alexis with a golden, shining stick! He'll go for the knockout-poke to (hopefully) the collar bone.
COMBATSYS: Alexis blocks Walter's Pierce the Darkness.
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Alexis 0/-------/-----==|====---\-------\0 Walter
Alexis' gaze remains level on Walter as she swings her guitar back to her back. There's just a bit less venom in her eyes when the priest seems to finally seems to get her point, and actually recants his judgments, after a fashion. Her head tilts just a little to the side at his offer. "Fine!" she growls in response to the offer, raising one forearm to try and block the stick being swung down at her.
The impact of the weapon against her extended, battered limb seems to be the final straw. It forces her down to her knees, her feet unable to keep her up as she succumbs to the pain, the adrenalin finally starting to wear off. Her eyes linger upward on Walter's, teeth clenched for a moment before her lips purse and her head lolls forward slightly. And then she collapses forward against the priest's waist, that arm slowly lowering. It's almost sweet, the way that the violence seems to just go out of her...
And then that fist suddenly jerks upward. Right between Walter's legs. Accompanied by an oddly musical high-pitched tone and, should it collide with something, the same concussive force behind her other strikes.
'I'm probably going to hell for this,' she thinks as she wavers...
COMBATSYS: Alexis can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\ <
Walter 0/-------/---====|
...Before collapsing fully toward the priest's robes.
COMBATSYS: Walter blocks Alexis' Hitting the High Note.
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Walter 0/-------/--=====|
Walter isn't much better. The dragon-kin is wobbling on his feet, back and forth. He very nearly collapses from the force of his own attack. The priest even drops his impromptu polearm, the stick breaking upon impact. He has nothing left to defend himself! But at least she seems to agree to his proposal.
Watching her go down to a knee, seemingly unconscious. Then she's pitching forward, and the good priest rushes forward to catch the collapsing singer. His arms don't quite make it. That tail of his, though? She's bouyed up about as respectfully as is possible given the situation.
"Bloody tough lady, you are! Hah, quite the fight my dear! Still, being out here would be..."
And then a sonic-driven fist crams right at his most weakest of points. Walter's face goes utterly red from pain as even a dragon has a hard time with such horrid strikes! Truly, a blow worthy of any knight to fell a dragon.
The priest stands there and takes it about as ably as possible. Muscles clench, and he tries to stay put. His voice squeaking out words that are likely /not/ polite and will require penance for later. You know, when he can walk straight again.
Standing, gasping, the dragon holds on. For a moment. He actually manages to yank off his upper shirt portion to try to drape it over her for modesty's sake. But all he manages to do is then promptly fall unconscious, right atop her.
Yet another great work in the Priest Walter's life. One that is /never/ being spoken of except to God.
COMBATSYS: Walter takes no action.
COMBATSYS: Walter can no longer fight.
Log created on 15:12:09 02/15/2015 by Alexis, and last modified on 21:22:34 02/15/2015.