Description: ... is don't disturb underground, secret dealings between gang members. And if you do, be prepared to fight. Fortunately, Varvara -is- prepared to fight... but can she beat the gang enforcer?
Time: 11:45PM
Place: Underpass, Southtown
It isn't -quite- the dead of night. But out here, it's close enough. The asphalted area is closed off by chain link fence, lit by yellow-orange sodium light, harsh and unflattering to anyone. Trucks and other cars rumble across the freeway overhead, providing all the aural cover that anyone would need.
And there they are... two long, black cars, pulled up opposite each other. Two men on either side are facing each other, tense, clearly arguing. Other men range about, dressed semi-well in the way of the elevated grunt, all carrying. Just pistols, but they're carrying.
And there's Shiden. He stands by one of the cars, looking impassive behind his mirrored glasses, his sportcoat open for comfort the two men in the middle argue back and forth.
It might not be clear what is going on, to an outsider, but it's clearly -something-... and something delicate, from the looks of it.
Somewhere nearby, a woman - someone who's arrived in the so-called promised land for all organized fighting - is not living anything close to an ideal life. She's made due with sleeping out in the open with a newspaper for a blanket. She hasn't eaten since the airplane ride, the toxic waste they offer on board probably the only food she has ever turned down in her twenty-three years of living. She is unsure if she even regrets the choice. It was a hard choice between starving to death or perishing of food poisoning.
Hell, maybe she should've eaten the newspapers she found in that alley. Her first day in the promised land of fighting is leaving a lot of broken promises... but no tears. She doesn't mind the cold, hard ground too much. It wasn't much more comfortable or secure back home, however far away it is now.
She would've been happy enough to ignore the mechanical sounds and squeals of the much more fortunate passing along nearby. All it would take - drowned out as it was - would be the squabbling. The arguing. It's enough to get her to rise up out of her would-be bed of the evening (if a newspaper cover could ever count as a bed) with a growl. Her stomach echoes her feelings, triplicate.
She's friggin' starving. Muscles like these don't feed themselves. It matters not what's between the gathered (armed) thugs and herself. If they're arguing, down here, there's gonna be a fight. That's what her life's taught her thus far, something she's willing to apply even in a brand new landscape she is a total stranger to. People with too much money love to throw it around talking about who'll win and who wouldn't, she's found.
Might as well grab a piece of that, she feels. If only she knew her particular folly on this end.
She hardly acknowledges the danger inherent, even if there's a good chance she's shorter than a lot of the people milling about as... lookouts, security, or perhaps even spectators. She doesn't give a damn about the difference, she's not gonna spend another whole day starving.
"Hey." She speaks sternly, loud enough to call some attention if only because it is a voice that does not belong here by any stretch of the imagination. "You people gonna fight, or what?" She bluntly asks, mistaking a volatile deal for the makings of some sort of rumble about to happen, cracking her braced fist into an open palm. "You already woke me up. Better make it /good/," she sneers, "'cause I'm short on cash."
But, certainly, not short on outright trouble.
The response is pretty immediate. But not all of it is aimed Varvara's way. First, see, the men draw down on her--she's got two guns pointed at her by two men with very tense looks on their faces. And then there's the other guys, who are pointing guns at each -other-.
"What the hell!! Who is this bitch?!? YOU SET US UP!!"
"She's YOUR plant, isn't she? ADMIT IT!! YOU STINKY BASTARD!!"
Very tense indeed, guns pointed every which way. Guns... the resort of the powerless, those without skill. One would think that, in a place like Southtown, a place where fighters have gathered for years, deliberately or accidentally, is a place where everyone would learn to fight.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, it isn't so. Which is probably better for the police, as they'd have a hell of a time subduing regular troublemakers if they became -special- troublemakers.
"Fight? Hold it, hold it," says Shiden, pushing off the car. "You guys, clear out. You don't got what it takes to take her on." His gaze, behind those mirrored glasses, is intense, analytical, and a little distant. But he can tell.
"Even if you put a bullet in her, might not stop her... and for damn sure you won't get more than one shot. Besides, Chang, you're not that good a shot. So just back off."
The well-dressed man grins, fiercely, wolfishly. "This is what you brought me along for, so why don't you two get back in your cars and let me deal with the girl?" To her, he turns.
"Tell you what. You give a good showing, I'll give you some cash." His lips quirk upwards, just a touch. "Charity."
Varvara holds her ground when there's guns flashed her way. Not from fright, just a scowl. Waking her up for nothing. She's got half a mind (...almost literally) to just walk up and start taking names. It's not the first time someone's pointed a gun her way. In a place like this? Far from the last.
All the talk about set ups or what have you go over her head. Like she cares, there's sustenance and further existence at stake. What people do with whatever other garbage they got going on, that's their problem. She has her own, and from the sound of things, she's just going to have to give them /all/ one as she flashes a look towards 'Chang' over there.
A voice of reason halts the standoff. She grunts, her gaze following those shades that reflect one of those yellow lights. It's hard to avoid getting lost in them as he tells it like it is. (Damn right they don't have what it takes. So much for an easy mark.)
That grin puts her off. No, that whole /face/. It's on the tip of her tongue now to ask. Who gave up everything so he could keep that face? That suit. Her nose wrinkles, as he casually comes up and strikes the deal of deals - the best deal she's gonna get tonight. Or the rest of her life, if things keep going the way they do.
"Charity?" She huffs. It's the fate of pretty much everyone who's only got fighting strength going for them, to be little more than entertainment for those with too much money. The way he casually suggests he'd be more than willing to part with money for a simple 'good showing.' She doesn't smile, but she works up a chortle even with that unsettling, confident look on his face. This is a man who knows what he's doing, what he himself is capable of.
"I'll take it." 'It,' of course, being that cash as her eyes narrow. She straightens her body out, standing at her utmost height (of five foot three - none too impressive by itself), bending her right arm with a hand close towards her head in what appears to be something of a salute.
"Erroso," she utters quickly before dropping into a ready stance - a bit sideways, mostly forward, left foot and arm leading with hands raised and relaxed instead of tense, leaning forward ever so slightly with most of her weight on her back foot.
COMBATSYS: Varvara has started a fight here on the left meter side.
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Varvara 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Shiden has joined the fight here.
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Varvara 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Shiden
The men are obedient--even the ones on the other side. They've heard of this man. He isn't necessarily the most dangerous man ever--there are tens, if not hundreds or thousands, of men more dangerous than him in many other ways. But for now, in this moment, he is the most dangerous person in the room... as far as they know. Maybe this chick's a close second. The men retreat to the cars, leaving a good, wide-open area to fight in.
"That's right," he replies, with a calm, almost detached amusement. "Charity." The word hangs in the air, like a starting flag about to be dropped... but it isn't dropping yet. First he slides his left hand into his jacket, and draws out a wad of cash. He glances at it, not even paying attention to her for a moment, then flips it backwards to one of the men, who nearly bobbles it out before getting a grip on it.
"She hits me..." He looks at her again, gauging her, "... four times? She gets it all." What the hell, it's just money, right? And then he takes up a fighting stance, a weird, hybrid one--part kung fu, part karate, leading with his left side, hand up and open, right formed into a fist, knees bent.
And then the invisible flag drops and he's lunging, his legs driving him forward as he draws the fist back--then launches, as he gets close to her, a hard, straight punch, aimed for her forehead.
COMBATSYS: Varvara blocks Shiden's Ringing the Bell.
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Varvara 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Shiden
She doesn't know how much that exact wad of cash is worth. She's only ever handled pounds and, more recently, a handful of Euros. But if that's money, she wants it - and she wants it right /now/ because she's absolutely famished.
Four hits? She can count to four. Her eyes drift back to her opponent to try and weed out that otherwise fatal distraction (...two distractions, one her stomach, one the key to getting her stomach to shut up). He moves in especially fast - so fast that a single moment later, and that would be her forehead that his fist would be finding purchase in.
Not her open hand, which shudders under how much of her strength she has to put into ensuring it won't simply bowl her over or, say, bend her arm so far back to shatter it. Her eyes narrow just a little more.
"You can punch." Whether this is sarcasm or a compliment isn't clear by her tone, but the taller - maybe even stronger - man has put enough power behind that punch that even a clean catch requires the slightest pause before she can bring herself to act.
Her back leg suddenly sweeps forward in a lighting-fast low arc, releasing hold of the man's fist in the process which may or may not be a significant tactical mistake as she crouches down in order to lend more of her body to the blow to try and push him back out a little or, better yet, get him off his feet.
COMBATSYS: Shiden dodges Varvara's Swollen Foot.
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Varvara 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Shiden
Hell, Shiden doesn't know either. It's just cash; he's got plenty of that. The impact of his fist to her palm sounds like a gunshot, or a deep cracking of wood--but her hand holds, the impact shuddering back along his arm as well. Just as quickly, however, he's pulling his hand back, rocking back onto his heels, sinking down a little and hurling himself backwards, arching. He flips upwards, tucking, as Varvara's foot goes by underneath him.
"Guess what," he says, sound almost cheerful, but with just a hint of nasty sting to his voice--as he abruptly uncurls, kicking outwards with both heels as he lands on his hands, altering momentum to allow himself to flip back to his feet and to remain facing her.
"I can -kick-, too!" Of course this last is really spoken just as he rockets his heels out, and not later--timed to sound just as the heels would impact on her head. "But you've got skills," he says. "... I think," he adds, as he comes up on his feet. Unless, of course, he gets hit beforehand...
COMBATSYS: Shiden successfully hits Varvara with Medium Kick.
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Varvara 0/-------/----===|-------\-------\0 Shiden
Her sweep comes up empty, but she doesn't curse the miss other than being just that much longer away from being able to /eat/. She returns to her ready stance, arms raised as the man with the shades and the expensive-looking suit challenges her to a pop quiz. 'Guess what,' what. This isn't a guessing game, this is a /fight/.
A fight Shiden seems to be pulling a clear lead with as he brings his heels out. It's quick, it's a split-second thought that makes her think she could probably duck this as she goes to a kneel.
Those heels say otherwise as she is brought to a further kneel with a clean strike, turning her head with a shower of spittle to decorate the underpass with that only catches little flickers of the yellow lights, restong her left elbow against the ground as she scowls to the sound of what might be a coy retraction of his statement about her skills.
"You can /kick/," she concedes as she shoves herself back up on her feet in complete protest of the weakness her empty stomach wants to inflict on her body with a new bruise on the side of her scarred face, swinging a right hook towards the agile man that is quickly followed up with an open left palm with the appropriate kiais apiece.
COMBATSYS: Shiden blocks Varvara's Combo Attack.
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Varvara 0/-------/----===|=------\-------\0 Shiden
He's ready for her when she comes back up, espeically as she comes up swinging. The right hook is aborted early, Shiden stepping into it, using his upraised hand to get inside the arc and stop it cold--but the left palm is dealt with more directly--he brings the arm across, meeting that slapping hand with his own. It stings, but not too bad. "You've got some power in you, feels like," he says, before he disengages, leaping backwards quickly, going into a backflip...
And then immediately reversing again, leaping long and low. Were he a pretty woman and Varvara into that kind of thing, what he's aiming for next might be -fun-... in a way. Because he's flipping over, aiming to land on her shoulders--and to trap her head in his thighs.
At that point he'd whip around, using his body weight and momentum to spin her around by the head, to spin her around and then hurl her into the ground, a vicious sort of throw for sure... and one that will bounce her head off the pavement if he hits it.
COMBATSYS: Shiden successfully hits Varvara with Riding the Dragon's Tail.
- Power hit! -
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Varvara 0/-------/-======|===----\-------\0 Shiden
With an appearance like /hers/, it's unlikely she'd ever draw in anybody of either sex. 'Some' power? You don't get a body like this just living the high life, prancing around with a pretty face atop the shoulders of those not as fortunate.
Speaking of shoulders...
She exhales loudly in vocal response to Shiden's observation of 'some' power in her, readying herself for his next leap. /This/ one she's got, he's this bouncy guy, jumping all over the place. She'd have her way if she could just catch him...
She thinks it's another kick. She finds out the hard way when she has a face full of thighs that immediately sees her trying to wrap her arms around his legs to wrestle him off. It becomes difficult to breathe. Her ability to breathe proves to be the /least/ of her problems when she is promptly spun about off her feet and into the pavement.
Not just on the pavement, into it. This is an important distinction, as her head hits the pavement hard enough that spider cracks form around the point of impact. A low series of pained, dizzied moans follows as she pushes up and brings her left hand to her face. Blood. It's not her first time seeing it. Her forehead is all but ripped open, blood threatening to blind her very eyes.
But she rises, all the same. Doesn't matter whether her blood stains the only set of clothes she currently has on her back, she's hungry. Her growling stomach serves as a stark reminder. /This is how you get to eat./
She wipes away the blood and takes in a deep breath as she returns to her ready stance. Humbled as she might be by this guy's skills in these last few exchanges, she's not ready to submit.
"That all?" She asks, chancing her luck for even worse, more vicious and showy assaults.
COMBATSYS: Varvara gains composure.
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Varvara 0/-------/---====|===----\-------\0 Shiden
He chuckles, just a little bit. Hell, he knows it was a good hit. He felt her skull crack the asphalt as it impacted, even as he was using the momentum to roll away and pop back up to his feet. Surprisingly, none of his clothing is rumpled up, or even dusty. Must be some very good fabric. And yet, it seems like she should be hungrier for the fight than she is. "Something wrong?" he asks, almost sounding genuinely concerned... but mostly sounding mocking.
Well. She wants more? She can have more, certainly. His shoe soles squeak against the paving as he suddenly rushes her. He feints a kick, and another, and another, and then he feints one last kick, low, before stamping his cocked foot down and using it as a fulcrum to swing an overhead smash, his right fist whistling through the air sharply.
Behind him, the men have started raucously betting, more money flowing, their troubles forgotten in the spectacle alive right now. "Tough," he observes. "But sometimes it doesn't pay to be tough..."
COMBATSYS: Shiden successfully hits Varvara with Medium Punch.
~ Cruel hit! ~
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Varvara 0/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Shiden
Sometimes, it doesn't pay to be tough. These are words to live by. Sometimes it's good to back down. That cut on her head, alone, should be enough to dissuade anybody with a comfy fallback like some sort of personal hospital bed, or really good health insurance.
She has neither, given she was sleeping with a newspaper atop her not that long ago.
Her defense is not as ready as she makes it appear to be as he throws a bunch of feint kicks. She seems to be staring blankly at them. Does she know most of it's a trick? Is she really still ready to keep fighting? She finally does go low when he feints that low kick, his fist striking into the back of her skull and - once again - batting her to the ground with a loud crack that might send a chill down the spines of those much less hardened to this sort of thing.
As Shiden himself says, sometimes it doesn't pay to be tough.
The pain ringing through her head, the blood getting in her eyes, it's too strong a deterrent to a fast recovery to try and take advantage of whatever opening she might see. Cruel as the man stands, clearly dominant in their battle.
This doesn't change how hungry she is.
With a loud roar, she pushes herself up to her feet, trying to work her way around the man's back and strike a fist into his back to toss him off balance as a precursor to an arm lock behind his back while the other grabs for his throat, yanking it the opposite way while trying to clench hard enough to start choking him for a while - disengaging with a knee to the back after a couple seconds of it, if she isn't stopped to begin with.
COMBATSYS: Varvara successfully hits Shiden with Chimera's End.
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Varvara 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Shiden
Confident? Or overconfident? Smashing Varvara into the ground for the second time probably got him to the latter point; that loud roar doesn't disturb him, but a few of the gangsters shy away, before catching themselves and playing it off. Shiden, however, can't play off the hit, or the choke; she proves her strength, choking him out for a bit, then shoving him away. He stumbles, but spins, his expression a touch hard; reaching up, he slowly rubs his throat, then clears it, roughly.
"So that's your game... that's one," he says, his voice rough for the first couple of words, evening out only a little towards the end of the sentence. Surprisingly, perhaps, he advances again--he isn't a great ranged fighter, and though he's just found out that she's a tough one, he has to fight how he fights, coming forward with a punch sequence--right hook to right backhand followed by a left hook--followed by a spin, Shiden whipping around his right foot to try and hook it behind Varvara's neck and throw her face-first into the asphalt, again.
"But can you land the other three? You won't get -anything- unless you can manage that!!" he taunts, his voice strong but still scratchy from that chokehold.
COMBATSYS: Shiden successfully hits Varvara with Combo Grapple.
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Varvara 1/-----==/=======|=====--\-------\0 Shiden
No apology or query about how he's feeling is offered. It's a fight, through and through, and she sure as hell going to act like it is. He's too solid, too skilled to go down with just one combination like that. She wipes away blood from her face again as he calls it 'her game.' If that's the language someone like him wants to use, hey, he's free to it.
She's too out of sorts after that second smash into the pavement to properly judge any sort of distance when she's seeing double courtesy of Shiden. He seems a bit too distant for that first right hook, the twisting of her neck against the strength of that shot proving this guess very, very wrong. The backhand sees her tilting more to the side with a gratuitous spray of blood from her mouth, the left hook helpfully(?) centering her just in time for the hooked leg to get the back of her head and - once more - allow her to properly make out with her lovely date for the evening, the asphalt. She must be leaving quite the impression, after all, there's a new series of spider cracks where her skull strikes.
She can make out this - 'can you land the other three?' Her swimming consciousness curses what kind of math he's using. Two blows, two locks, on that one clean combination. It doesn't occur to her that he is counting by clean combinations and not just number of hits as her blood-soaked face scowls up at his reminder she won't get anything unless he can manage that.
She can manage that, especially when he's standing this close!!
With little warning, her left hand shoots up to try and grip at Shiden's nearest arm to pull him down with her..
COMBATSYS: Shiden blocks Varvara's Lifeless Triumph.
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Varvara 0/-------/-----==|======-\-------\0 Shiden
It may prove a struggle to pull Shiden all the way down /with/ her, but she does her damned hardest, attempting to soften him up with a hard squeeze around the waistline with joined arms to try and wrestle him fully onto the ground with a later attempt at twisting the neck briefly with the, perhaps, oddest choice an attempted finish - trying to grab one of his ankles and give a painful squeeze while trying to bend the foot in a way it shouldn't ever go.
How much of this he lets her get away with is up to him.
It isn't a matter of 'letting' her get away with anything; when she drags him down he doesn't resist, preparing himself instead for trying to avoid whatever comes next. What's next, apparently, is a series of holds and grapples ending with an attempt on his ankle. This, in and of itself, is not a real surprise; he acts violently, there, ripping his foot away from his opponent's hand before it gets too twisted, and finally rolling away from her, rising to his feet once more.
Now his clothing -is- dusty and ripped, but he's kept the sunglasses, very important... and he's also favoring that ankle. "Such an odd style... some sort of wrestling?" he asks, conversationally, before preparing himself. It doesn't take -long- to do that--more a matter of mental preparation than anything else. And then he's drawing upon his chi, his lifeforce. It builds within his right hand, as he blurs forward once more time, aiming a two-knuckled punch right for Varvara's heart. It doesn't look like much--but his hand is like a bomb now, and if he hits, whatever he hits, he'll unleash all that stored energy in a burst of power that'll ravage whatever he hits. It is, perhaps, lucky for Varvara that he actually finds her somewhat interesting... and so he's not trying to kill her, because used properly (or improperly), this sort of thing -can- be lethal...
COMBATSYS: Varvara interrupts Cracking the Mountain from Shiden with Hill of Futility.
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Varvara 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Shiden
When Shiden breaks free, Varvara is still on the ground. To will herself to stay awake and stand is a labor unto itself, and sadly twelve of them cannot be redeemed for a free turkey wrap at the local convenience store. She takes a certain sort of pleasure at watching that dirtied, ripped suit. How much of his money is he gonna be putting to getting replacements for that?
"Pankration," she replies to his polite enough query, though it is hard to hear in between loud breaths. She's tired, her head is light, and she can't keep the blood out of her blasted eyes. Her left hand grips onto a loosened piece of asphalt while trying to get herself up to a standing position. /Something/ that should still say, 'I can fight.'
Because Shiden over there sure as anything can! If that light gathering around him - kinda hard to see, vision is so blurry - says anything, he's going to probably put her down right there. Her left hand clenches into a tight fist, muscles tense, as a cloud of dust escapes between fingers that can't quite clench themselves enough to be airtight.
She's got a hand around his collar just going up between his arms as her upper body leans back. The shot misses the heart - it just gets her equally as painfully on the opposite shoulder, the explosive strike so powerful it blasts the cloth off her upper arm (look how thick that thing is)... to say nothing of the blood that is let free as his chi runs through that shoulder almost like a knife.
Her cry of pain is almost loud enough to drown out the vehicles passing above. She doesn't waste the momentum, managing to heft him over her with just that one arm and into the ground with a new set of cracks that, for once, isn't her body.
Her struck arm spasms while adrenaline pumps through her, her spared heart racing while her face turns red even with the blood loss. With this same arm she just slammed him with, she gives out another call as she lifts him /again/ - not with a matching slam, but to simply toss him a distance away as she clutches her bloodied shoulder, gasping for breath and grinding her teeth.
Whatever that was that just went through her, she doesn't like it. She struggles to even retain control of her fingers while pain shoots through that arm - which spares Shiden further assault for precious seconds.
Not good. Shiden's most powerful technique... and she took care of it. Of course, he still did damage to her, but the 'crowd', such as it is, goes silent as he is tossed away. Well. That was... interesting. Spitting some blood from his mouth, he takes his shades off, tucking them away, before lowering himself into his stance. Good. He was right. She -is- strong... he closes with her, somewhat cautiously, but doesn't get too far, really, before he dips his knees a bit lower.
Then he's gathering his hands to his chest, briefly, the space between his fingers and palms glowing bright red-orange... and he unleashes a powerful kiai just as he also thrusts his hands forward, flinging an orange-yellow ball of chi roaring through the intervening space between Varvara and himself.
Quite likely, he's already following behind it, coming in to follow the thing up, even if it does move significantly faster than he usually does.
COMBATSYS: Shiden successfully hits Varvara with Tiger's Shout.
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Varvara 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Shiden
It is a testament to Shiden's own power that her arm continues to spasm in agonizing pain. Blood drips through her jaw and (aggravatingly) over her eyes once more. Less of some strangely dressed foreigner and more like an angry savage, she snarls as she remains hunched over. If she were a mountain, Shiden cracked open a spring. A red spring. More than one. Her stomach still growls.
The orange-ish yellow ball of chi comes for her. It's fast, growing brighter and bigger in her blurry vision. She bends her knees down as if to initiate the thought of jumping clean over it, as if she even had the strength left in those legs to do any big leaps. She doesn't.
A short hop forward sees her gettling struck straight on in her abdomen, another loud yell before she's thrust down into a seated position on jagged asphalt filled with cracks and small gaps from when the two collapsed there (...more her than /him/).
At this distance between them, closing in or not, Shiden is at the advantage. She inwardly curses. That glowing stuff. She bets he's really proud of that. She gasps as she pushes herself up with her one fully functional arm, swaying while her strength fades.
With one possibly last effort, she crouches down and springs /forward/ instead of upward, an arm held out to try and grab onto Shiden. Should she tackle him, she tucks into a roll with him in tow that ends in a classical wheel throw.
Throwing herself at that hard ground while already wounded is probably not going to do wonders to what fight she's got left - if any.
COMBATSYS: Varvara can no longer fight.
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Shiden 0/-------/---====|
COMBATSYS: Shiden dodges Varvara's Fleeing Musician.
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Shiden 0/-------/---====|
Proud of it? It's a skill... one he had to develop on his own. So yes, maybe he -is- proud of it... but it doesn't show too much in his face. He's concentrating, because he knows just how close Varvara's taken him to the edge. She's been his first real challenge in some time. Crouching, he springs forward as she strikes, briefly planting his hands on her shoulders and springboarding off--adding his momentum to her own as he sends her stumbling forward to crash into the ground.
"Right," he says, to himself, straightening his clothing... and retrieving his glasses. Back on go the mirrored shades, as 'his' man tosses him the money clip. After a moment, he smirks, and removes about half of the money there, pocketing it. The money clip, a polished but indistinct brass thing, now with a few hundred in it, is tossed at her form.
If she wakes up in time to claim it, well, good for her. "Mr. Cheng, Mr. Zhou," he says, to the two men, the 'leaders', "We'll find another location for this... meeting. This one is clearly compromised..."
The springboarding motion does more than just save Shiden from the grab - she never manages to tuck into that proper roll on a landing, leaving her to crash face-down against the pavement with a small bounce. She makes another gurgling noise before going quiet, a half-assed attempt at pushing herself up with her less injured arm ending, largely, in failure.
A part of her wonders if she can digest that little bit of asphalt rock by her lips while blood gets in her eye again. She can hear footsteps. Someone saying something. No food, no nothing, she's down there in the middle of the underpass...
Something light hits her upper back. She doesn't even bother trying to move until the various dealing parties take their leave. A lazy roll onto her side as she dazedly stares at the overcast night sky above and a bit of fumbling with her hand reveals...
Her thumb has to go over it up and down to be sure. Money? She's not sure how many clean hits she actually got on him. Maybe she was counting right all along!! Ugh. It hurts to think. She's so hungry... weak. Hungry. Hurt. Hungry.
Yanking one of the bills clean out the clip, she sticks one end of it in her mouth. It tastes nothing like food, though her weary self wants to confuse it for bread. It's money. Money means food.
She needs a lot more than food, she knows. But now, first of all, she can eat. It's a long walk to the nearest convenience store that'd be open at these hours. She's all bloodied up and one of her shirt sleeves are ruined.
Heedless of her injuries, she's up on her feet long moments later, stumbling back along to the big city with a clip of bills in one hand and a good portion of one in her mouth. If she can get there fast enough she might not even have to swallow that bill.
Maybe it'll be that guy again. Maybe it'll be who knows what else. But the next fight - the next meal ticket - awaits.
COMBATSYS: Shiden has ended the fight here.
Log created on 20:32:21 05/19/2010 by Shiden, and last modified on 10:53:42 05/20/2010.