Match of the Millennium

Description: In a re-run of their first Odyssey match, Arisa and Roxana go head to head to find out how much each of them have learned in their season in the NFG. There may not be any chariots involved this time, but things are still sure to be dramatic with their respective skills on show. There's plenty at stake with the winner taking Bronze place in the tournament and the loser paying for dinner!

[ROXANA]
Roxana is very much looking forward to her rematch with Arisa. It seems so much longer than ten months ago since they faced each other as Helios and Selene in the Greek city of Ioannina. It had been quite the spectacle, with the Texan depicting the sun god and the Nebraskan playing the part of the moon goddess. To add to the drama, chariots (or the NFG version of) had been thrown into the mix. It marked a dazzling debut for the pair.

Roxana had managed to take the victory, as well as scoring maximum points in her next two matches against Rodrigo and Ishida, but after that things didn't quite go as smoothly. She and Coco had run into the formidable force of Might and Magic in the tag team tournament, then there'd been all the unpleasantness with a giant snake, acid-spitting creatures and a crazed scientist. Post Zack Island, she'd moved past a downhearted and broken-spirited Rodrigo, only to be thwarted by Queen Tanwen. All that is behind her however and today Rox is focusing only what's in front of her. As the legendary sound of Jimi Hendrix's guitars play out over the stadium stereo, she allows herself a smile before starting to make her way to the ring.

The ring in question lies at the centre of the pitch of the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, which bears the honour of being the largest stadium in Brazil. As she walks out of the tunnel and on to the grassy surface, Roxana is hit by a wall of sound that she can feel in every fibre of her body. To her astonishment she sees that the stadium is filled to its 73, 139 capacity with fighting fans. Many of them wave state flags of Texas or Nebraska, whilst others are obviously locals and are dressed in the yellow, blue and green of their country's colours. The Gear girl is hit by a rare surge of emotion at the idea that so many people are interested in seeing she and Arisa perform.

There's no characters to play the part of today, Roxana Page has come as herself, which happens to be a scorpion part of the time. With this in mind, she wears her usual costume, which is adapted especially for her transformations. The stretchy black jumpsuit has a discreet hole at the base of her back, where a tail can be pushed through when it forms. Her arms are bare to avoid obstruction when her claws and pincers appear and her hair is braided neatly away from her face, so the armour that appears over her head and forehead can easily form. These changes start to happen in front of the crowd, before Arisa has even arrived. It seems today that the shapeshifter has decided to become battle-ready from the off.

[ARISA]
Fightstagram
tansei_sashay * 2d
Cartagena, Colombia

[Photo of a plate of bite-sized fried food: bits of sausage, pork, plantains, potatoes, and other veggies]
[Photo of Albert looking starry-eyed at a heaping plate of said food]
[Photo of Arisa feeding an embarassed-looking Albert a fried potato on a little stick; she's giggling]

<3 ( ) >>
5428 likes
[tansei_sashay] okay losing sucked but fritangas: worth it. so good! here's al being kind of a baby about a girl feeding him in public. hope brasil has something equally good to do after next match.

-----

A little flick of the thumb and Arisa turns off her phone, grinning. Some of the comments were a little weird -- that's the internet, though she's blaming Tom and Lou a little on that one, too -- but it felt nice to be sharing some good news for once. And in truth, it DID really put her mind off the idea of losing in the tournament to Albert... or more accurately, helped her remember that ultimately winning and losing aren't what she came for. Maybe at the end of all this the entire group could make a night of it? Certainly anyone who'd be inclined to come would probably be the halfway normal ones, socially speaking...

Once again, Arisa has left the showy particulars of her entrance to the local crew, meaning that as she stows her phone and belongings in a locker (thank you, stadium venue!) and walks out to the actual ring, Melly's "Falar de Amor" starts playing on the speakers. The Texan doesn't recognize the song, but she can definitively appreciate the groove. She's dressed per normal, just like Roxana; when you are deploying the ninja-like ability to deploy weapons from seemingly nowhere, there's no need for bulky clothing, after all.

The strains of the intro song dying away, Arisa gives a little wave to her opponent, who's pre-game pre-scorpioning. "Guess we've come full circle, huh?" she says with a smile. "Feeling like the standard wager now is loser pays for dinner but gets to pick the place. You up for it?"

[ROXANA]
Calm, composed and in control. This is the portrait painted by Roxana for the thousands of spectators who currently have their eyes locked on the two lasses who are about to engage in combat. In truth, she has a fluttery feeling in her stomach and her heart is pounding in her chest. She waves back at Arisa and swallows hard, anticipating the difficult battle she has ahead of her.

"Yeah, it's kinda wild that we're facing our first opponent again. The same with the finalists. If I didn't know better, I'd think this whole thing was planned." Stepping closer to Arisa to offer her a hand shake (claw shake), she nods her head with enthusiasm, sending her braid bouncing at the back of her head. "I'm definitely down for that deal. As long as you don't mind travelling if I lose. I saw this commercial for Restaurante Ribeiro in Bahia that's owned by a family whose daughter is a fighter like us! They even had one of her matches there this one time."

[ARISA]
It'll take more than claws to deter a handshake from Arisa, who -- despite passing -- isn't entirely human herself. "Oh, if I've learned anything over the past almost a year," Arisa says, voice solemn but face smiling, "it's that I don't think the NFG is all that great at planning things out." She'd say more, but without knowing how much of it would be redacted, what's the point?

Bringing her arm back from the shake and flexing her fingers a little bit, Arisa gets in stance, hopping ever so slightly on the balls of her feet for a second. "I don't mind another bite of the apple, though. No chariots for sweet kick flips this time, but I've been working on my technique since last time." A pause, an inclination of the head. "I can only assume you have too. And if the prize is 'dinner AND getting to see more of Brazil' then I got plenty of motivation!"

A look to the side at the officials, and it seems like everything's ready to go, whichever of these young women feels primed to make the first move and kick this finals match off.

[ROXANA]
Arisa's observations about the NFG are met with a grim grin, as Rox seems somewhere between resigned and amused regarding the statement. She sympathises with the fact there's no point in saying more about the subject too. Apparently redacted has become the most hash tagged word in posts to social media fighting communities in the last couple of months.

Seeing that Arisa seems ready, Rox too gets into position, posturing herself so she's leaning forwards with her tail angled over her head. "I've worked on my technique some." She admits. "Between trying to survive and not starve to death." There's a glance to the cameras after the Gear speaks the words, but as far as she can see they're still rolling.

"Apparently Restaurante Ribeiro has the most amazing moqueca. The reviews rave about it." Roxana murmurs, practically drooling at the idea of it. She's so caught up in her food fantasy that she is oblivious to the fight officials looking their way.

COMBATSYS: Arisa has started a fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Arisa            0/-------/-------|

COMBATSYS: Roxana has joined the fight here.

[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////////]
Arisa            0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0           Roxana

[ARISA]
Roxana's response gets a wry grin from the Texan. "Yeah, weird how that... kind of... situation will really make you not skip leg day, right?" Someday, she tells herself. Someday the lawsuit reckoning on this one will come. Hopefully it's the little people -- the crew and such -- who'll really benefit.

But for now, there's a much bigger challenge in front of Arisa than any kind of NDA or other legal document. It's Roxana, who was plenty strong and challenging in their first fight, and who has probably -- despite her demure phrasing of it -- improved since. It's gonna take a solid bag of tricks to have a chance, here, but fortunately... Arisa is well-stocked with tricks to spare.

The proverbial bell rings, and the Texan doesn't waste any time; with a perfunctory shout of "Good luck!" to her opponent, she cross-draws -- from seemingly nowhere -- her mother's heirloom guns, starting a sidelong circular run around Roxana and opening fire, the topaz and quarts charms dangling from the guns' grips jangling. The NFG (which allows swords) insisted on blanks, but even a blank is gonna hurt plenty!

COMBATSYS: Arisa successfully hits Roxana with Blue Topaz and Yellow Rose.

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////    ]
Arisa            0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0           Roxana

[ROXANA]
"The cry of "Good luck!" snaps Rox out of her delicious daydream. "Oh, you too!" She responds. Her black eyes go wide at the sight of the weapons. She remembers these from their first go around!

The Texan is terrifically quick on the draw, leaving Roxana to take both blanks to the chest. This is a part of her frame that isn't protected by the chitinous armour that covers other areas. As such it causes her considerable pain. "Ow!" She winces, clutching her claws against herself and biting down on her lip hard enough to draw blood.

"It's okay, I'm fine!" She insists, but she's not in any fit state to strike back at present.

COMBATSYS: Roxana focuses on her next action.

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////////    ]
Arisa            0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0           Roxana

[ARISA]
Sliding -- more skidding -- to a stop, Arisa stows her guns and blinks at Roxana in surprise. Whatever her expectations were for her attack, this was probably not among them... of course, the last fight she's coming off involved Albert shrugging off gunfire, so maybe her expectations are skewed. Blinking a couple times, the Texan turns her head slightly, watching the scorpion Gear carefully. "Sorry," she says, guardedly. "Were you not ready?"

After all, nothing says 'I'm fine' LESS, in the modern world, than someone saying 'I'm fine.'

Arisa gives Roxana a moment or two, but when her opponent doesn't make a countermove, but seems to be upright and sensible, the Texan decides that this is enough of a break to get herself centered. "Alright," Arisa says, cautiously, just to be sure. "Let's get back to it."

Ducking forward, despite knowing Roxana's arsenal of countermoves, Arisa risks it, directing a quick straight-leg kick to the gear's midsection, intent just to push her back a little bit, get her head back in the game.

COMBATSYS: Roxana blocks Arisa's Light Kick.

[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////////     ]
Arisa            0/-------/------=|======-\-------\0           Roxana

[ROXANA]
Licking the blood from her lip, Roxana shakes her head at Arisa. "You have no need to be sorry for displaying your skill." She says softly. A shy look appears on her pretty face as she admits what had actually happened. "I still had my mind on that moqueca. I really should have had a snack before the start of this fight."

Arisa's suggestion that they get back to it has the Nebraskan nodding her head with enthusiasm. This time when the Texan comes for her, she catches the leg between her claws, causing them to throb but preventing her stomach from taking the blow.

Mimicking the pose she had previously displayed, Rox once again angles forwards, giving the crowd a fantastic look at her fine form and putting her in the perfect position to start spraying Arisa with her tail. Should the toxic substance make contact with the gun wielding girl, it will cause her considerable pain, as well as the risk of paralysis or temporary blinding should it get in her eyes!

COMBATSYS: Arisa blocks Roxana's Scorpion Spray.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////////      ]
Arisa            0/-------/-----==|=======\-------\0           Roxana

[ARISA]
Feeling her kick land on a much harder surface than Roxana's tummy, Arisa adds one last push as she pulls her leg back; not enough to do any harm, but enough to push the demon hunter's daughter away and give her a little space and breathing room. Probably for the best, too; it means once the paralytic venom makes an appearance, Arisa has a second or two to prepare. Squinting her eyes shut, she hunkers down, crossing her arms in front of her and turning her head slightly away.

The result is still painful; the venom splashes across her guard and gets a hiss of pain from Arisa, but blessedly, the defensive stance keeps it out of her eyes and other more sensitive internal bits, so the lingering pain she remembers from her previous fight with Roxana doesn't make an appearance... for now, anyway.

Shaking her head as she brings her arms down, the Texan grins at her fellow American. "I have no idea what that is, but if it's anything like the stuff Albert and I had in Colombia, I'm all for it. I learned the hard way not to fight right after eating, though..." She thinks, with a grimace, of the last time she got a punch in the gut when she'd just eaten... not an experience she'd want to repeat.

Arisa's hand drops to her side as she ducks at Roxana in a low run again; when the Texan gets close, she whips her arm up in an arc, and the Gear can see what she's holding: a stoppered glass bottle of a bluish liquid, that becomes a glittering trail in the air. But as Albert also found out: this is holy water, and all it takes a little prompting from Arisa to set it alight into a searing arc of white-blue fire that should really test Roxana's defenses!

COMBATSYS: Roxana blocks Arisa's Tequila Sunrise EX.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////////////        ]
Arisa            0/-------/-------|=======\-------\0           Roxana

[ROXANA]
Roxana looks at Arisa curiously as she starts to hiss in pain. It's not out of cruelty, more curiosity that she observes the effects of her substance on the other woman. "You've got better." She remarks with respect. "Which makes you even more of a challenge."

Straightening up, she responds to Arisa by simply saying. "It's fish stew with spices, coconut and all kinds of good things. Where are you going to take me if you lose?"

The Gear watches as the glass bottle appears, the blue liquid inside it seeming at once enticing and potentially dangerous. "It glitters." She gasps, continuing to observe its progress. "It burns!" She adds before starting to back the hell up.

Bringing both her pincers and claws up in defence, in a desperate bid to ward off the fire, the flames still flicker at Rox. She rolls away to put more distance between she and them and then drops down on to her stomach, before starting to slither forwards in a manner more reminiscent of a snake than a scorpion. Once close enough, she begins to weave her bendy body in and out of Arisa's legs in a figure-of-eight motion. Her intention is to disorient the blonde, so she can sneak up behind her and start to lift her in to the air. Should she pull off this feat of strength, she'll them slam her forwards to go flying head first into the ground.

COMBATSYS: Arisa dodges Roxana's Scorpion Slam.

[  \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  /////////////////////         ]
Arisa            0/-------/-------|=======\-------\1           Roxana

[ARISA]
"Oh," Arisa observes, pulling her hand back and stowing the phial of holy water back to god knows wherever her various hidden weapons go. "That DOES sound really good." As for the question about where she plans to go if she loses? The Texan's brow knits ever so slightly as she considers that. "I hadn't really thought about it, but come on, we're in Rio. There's got to be some amazing place people are raving about online." Apparently she's not quite as worldly when it comes to cuisine... or knowledge of it, anyway.

Eating it is a different story.

Roxana gives herself a little space, and with a little inkling of intuition, Arisa decides to use a bit of that buffer time to her own benefit; in a swirl of purple, a big sheet of origami paper is swiftly twisted and folded into a jo staff; not as long as a quarterstaff, only a few feet, but that's all the time she has. The sinuous -- dare we say sensuous? -- dance of Roxana's approach is mesmerising, but 'I couldn't take my eyes off her' means that Arisa ends up watching her very, very closely, so that when the attempt to actually slam her into the mat comes, the Texan suddenly vaults *backwards*, so that she's flipping over Roxana's head, swinging the mystically-hardened origami staff forward on her way down, hoping tha it will smack Roxana in the back and send her stumbling away!

COMBATSYS: Roxana counters Medium Strike from Arisa with Deadly Scorpion.

[     \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Arisa            0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0           Roxana

[ROXANA]
"Coco gave me the names of a few places." Roxana comments as the conversation about cuisine continues. "They're on my phone but like you, I'm pretty sure we won't need to worry about finding somewhere amazing in this city." The younger North American is pretty enamoured with what's she seen of this vibrant place so far and she plans to stick around after the tournament is done to explore South America further. After all, she's not got a family to go home to for Christmas like the majority of the NFG contestants do.

The predatory pugilist's slam attempt is thwarted before it can even get going fully. Arisa is wise to her antics and starts demonstrating her crafting class as she pulls out the pretty paper. "Incredible." Roxana says, her voice full of admiration.

Then there's the amazing acrobatic display! The black-haired beauty is left blinking as her fellow American slips over her head with agile grace. The scorpion senhorita looks over her shoulder and sees the weapon swinging towards her. Spinning around she stalls it with her pincers, batting it away and then latching on to the Texan's arms instead. She starts to squeeze them, seeking out eye contact as she does. As she holds her opponent in place, Rox's tail moves backwards and forwards in a mesmerising motion, smacking into Arisa repeatedly and releasing poison from its stinger.

[ARISA]
Yyyyyep, there it is. Rolling backwards from Roxana's interruption of her attack, Arisa takes a deep breath, letting the papercraft jo staff roll off to the side; the jutsu keeping it properly weapon solid will fade not too long from now, anyway. The Texan isn't particularly mesmerized by the tail movement, but she is watching the scorpion Gear carefully. Now... now she's got to plan out how all of the rest of this is going to go. Last time it didn't work out for her, but now, Arisa's prepared, thinking.

And the first little bit of thinking is: catch your breath and think.

"You sure have improved," she says, calmly, as if forcing herself to be so... which isn't necessarily inaccurate. "But we're just getting started."

COMBATSYS: Arisa gains composure.

[   \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Arisa            0/-------/----===|=====--\-------\0           Roxana

[ROXANA]
Poison delivered, Roxana releases Arisa from her grasp, watching her roll away to safety. She can see that the other American has been affected by her action but she's putting on a brave face, staying calm and composed in a way Rox herself would be proud of.

"Thank you." She accepts the compliment. She's not completely convinced by the truth of it herself, though she does know that she's been training hard, so perhaps it has had some effect. Either way, there's no way she's going to let the words go to her head. She's under no illusions about the talents of the Texan.

Approaching the craftswoman with caution, the Gear lashes out tentatively at her, first with one claw and then the other. The strikes are speedy and whether they strike or not, the Nebraskan will immediately bend backwards into a bridge in an attempt to evade any retaliation.

COMBATSYS: Roxana successfully hits Arisa with Evasive Strike.

[       \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ////////////////////          ]
Arisa            0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0           Roxana

[ARISA]
Gritting her teeth as an attempt to juke out of the way of one claw sends her into the path of another, Arisa pulls back, eyebrows furrowing. Claws hurt, film at 11. If getting in close is a problem, however, well... Arisa has plenty of solves for that specific situation, that's for sure. Shaking out her arms and grimacing a little at the pain in her shoulders from the double blow, the Texan produces a length of very real grappling chain, which gets twirled overhead before being slung at Roxana. The chain has two purposes: to slam the grappling end into her stomach and knock the wind out of her, then with a flick of the wrist, send it swirling around whatever part of Roxana's body is handy and drag her off her feet.

COMBATSYS: Arisa successfully hits Roxana with Rodeo Dynamite EX.

[         \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  ///////////////               ]
Arisa            1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0           Roxana

[ROXANA]
Roxana stays steady as Arisa produces the chain, watching the display put on for both herself and the cheering crowd. Against all her instincts, when it's launched towards her, the lithe lass runs towards it, instead of trying to get the hell away, hoping she can halt it with the armoured parts of her body.

Alas for Rox this doesn't go to plan. It does indeed connect with her stomach, causing her to double over with the impact. As it locks on to her leg, she feels it give way beneath her and she's soon a crumpled heap on the canvas.

Listening to the sound of her own breathing, Rox remains down for as long as she dares and then forces herself up on to her feet. It's clear from the way her lips are pursed that's she's feeling some pain, but she's trying to push through it, just like she's practiced in her training sessions.

Starting to stalk towards Arisa, the scorpion then abruptly spins around so she's facing the opposite direction. Bending backwards, she lashes out at the Arisa with both claws before dropping into a bridge again, a position she seems strangely comfortable in. From here she launches another set of slashes from below.

COMBATSYS: Arisa fails to counter Double Scorpion Slash from Roxana with Chouten Jutsu - Hakkekyou.

[                  \\\\\\\\\\\\  < >  //////////////                ]
Arisa            1/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1           Roxana

[ARISA]
It was a great and intricate plan; grapple Roxana, bring her close, and when she tries to break free, use onmyoujutsu illusions to keep her off guard and strike back. The first part, at least, seems to work... but even as Arisa opens her mouth and brings up an ofuda to get that started, she gets clipped by a claw, so the rest is essentially academic, ending with the Texan on her back. "Well," she says, voice thick as she gets back up, "it be like that sometimes, I guess."

[ROXANA]
"It is." Roxana agrees, seeming to study Arisa as she gets back to her feet. She has no intention of letting her stay on them.

The scorpion-fighter is soon back in that familiar bridge position, but this time it's purely for the purpose of launching herself forwards into a roll, heading straight towards the Texan. If she's able to crash into her, she'll follow up by flipping her into the air and repeatedly slashing her vertically with her claws as her body rises and falls.

COMBATSYS: Roxana successfully hits Arisa with Killer Scorpion Roll.

[                           \\\  < >  /////////////                 ]
Arisa            1/=======/=======|===----\-------\0           Roxana

[ARISA]
Arisa simply doesn't have it in her to handle whatever Roxana throws at her next. There is plenty of rolling, slashing, and other such scorpion-related maneuvers, and the end result is one unconscious Texan lying on the ground, eyes shut. Whatever plans may have existed for post-fight food will have to wait until the medical team have had their say, but the announcer can enthusiastically announce Roxana the winner, at the very least.

COMBATSYS: Arisa takes no action.

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Roxana           0/-------/----===|

COMBATSYS: Arisa can no longer fight.

[                 \\\\\\\\\\\\\  <
Roxana           0/-------/----===|

[ROXANA]
As Roxana emerges from the intensity of her attack, she fixes her black eyes on her opponent to assess her current state. What she sees is a broken woman. The Texan has clearly not coped with her assault and is collapsed and unconscious on the canvas at the centre of this stunning stadium.

Rox's fans give out a roar of approval as she is declared the winner and she bends her body in a bow. As she does she reverts to her human form and it's hands she waves to them with rather than pincers.

Getting this win today means that Roxana has secured the Bronze place in the tournament, an achievement she'd have been thrilled with if she'd known it was possible before the season commenced. Her time in the New Fighting Generation has been a strange experience to say the least but she wouldn't change it for the world. Has she played things perfectly? Perhaps not. But she has always tried to be fair and gracious, both in victory and defeat, something that was taught to her in her upbringing.

Once her fellow American has recovered from their battle, Roxana is looking forward to eating out with her, somewhere in this vibrant and beautiful city they have the honour of visiting. In the meantime, she's gonna call Coco in Argentina and let her know the good news.

Log created on 10:45:50 01/12/2025 by Roxana, and last modified on 17:48:19 01/14/2025.