Description: After Rogue Team's loss to Wrestlefriends, Shiden and Varvara have words about the future...
It's not long after that narrow defeat by the Wrestlefriends in round 2 of the King of Fighters tournament. People still haven't gotten the idea that maybe, just maybe, they shouldn't be out here. A crazy thunderstorm still rings through Machu Picchu in Peru, as though completely unsatisfied by the glorious display of violence - or maybe simply offended that they decided this place be a part of the prestigious King of Fighters tournament.
Who even knows any more?
Varvara Economou, once again the first member of her team in line and - as the trend has gone, so much as two matches can give a trend - the first one eliminated.
El Fuerte has promised her a feast when the match is over. For her part, she is still dazed. Confused. Injured. And from the waist up, caked in dirt. She is showing significant apathy in wanting to head back inside even with lightning striking down alarmingly close by.
Maybe she's confusing the sound of it for her rumbling stomach, which, given her low intelligence, would be a very, very easy mistake for her to make. Tourney officials are basically wrapping up out here with at least some element of haste while especially intrepid interviewers are likely looking to flag down Zangief for word on how he feels about going into the semifinals of the King of Fighters tournament.
For the losers, well... let's say Varvara doesn't look all that much more wretched than normal, for her part.
Still pretty wretched, though.
Shiden wasn't in the lineup. And, to be honest, that served him jsut fine; while Varvara was off fighting, he was confronting cultists, tearing some throats out, and generally investigating what the 'Cult of Gaia' was up to. Secretly, he just doesn't give a good god damn if Team Rogue wins. It doesn't materially affect his plans and, to be the most honest, he knew they wouldn't win. Eventually, they'd run up against the wall named Oyaji and that would just be that.
So he's a little surprised to find himself disappointed that they -didn't- win. Thankfully, it isn't his fault, and that is something he intends to use, as he brushes past the tent that was and is the Rogue's 'camp' tent for the fight. After all...
He can smell that Varvara is outside. If and when she looks up, she'll see him standing there, looking impeccable (because he didn't fight), arms folded across his chest. He doesn't look pleased, and his dark gaze is a bit forbidding.
"So," he says, in a remarkably casual voice, "What happened? You lost to a man in a mask?"
[OOC] Varvara says, "sorry for the delay, turns out I wrote the pose in my head and not in the actual window again."
[OOC] Varvara says, "which... happens alarmingly frequently these days, ugh."
[OOC] Shiden laughs. No worries.
Compare this to Varvara, who really has a very poor understanding of where she stands in the pecking order in the fighting world. She knows Shiden is strong, she knows Aranha is strong, she knows Wing is strong, she's pretty sure Naerose and strong, and for lack of absolutely anything else about her she can think of that might be construed as a good quality, she thought she was strong.
She doesn't look up, but the shadow cast by a nearby flash of lightning is a plenty good cue unto itself as thunder roars across the troubling skies.
"Yeah, I lost," she replies matter of factly, spitting dirt and who knows what other matter in the ground out of spite into the very earth in front of herself.
"Pathetic. Maybe I was wrong about you, Varvara. I thought you -had- something under all that dirt and crap..." Shiden's right foot snaps back, and down, and kicks that dirt right back into her face. Hell, it's not like it's going to make much of a difference is it? She's dirty as hell. As if unconcerned, he walks a few steps away, almost distracted, then, without a word...
--he strikes, firing a quick, straight, sure kick, again with that right leg. But it isn't an attack that will hit--such is his control that he will stop with his toe a mere centimeter from Varvara's forehead, having stopped himself with little effort.
"If you can't hack it, Varvara, I'll have to cut you loose. I've got -plans- and I won't let anyone hold me back... not you, not that 'dancing spider'... /no one/. If you can do what I want, then you'll go far... but if you can't, I'll end you right now."
There is no flinching with the flecks of dirt to her face. Her entire upper body is numbed in pain, even as a speck of dirt lodges itself in her left eye. It is very much possible she is too stupid to notice there is something in her eye.
The words of Shiden are a much different story. Pathetic, to have nothing under all that dirt and crap, as he puts it. She wraps her arms around herself just as Shiden walks away, an ache in her inner being as much as an ache in her upper shoulder. Being driven half-way into the ground is absolutely never a fun experience - but is she really covering for an ache in her shoulder, or just the beginnings of an emotional breakdown.
Her eyes widen with a hiss with Shiden's sure-fire, straight-shot boot coming for her head, and then shut just as it stops, a low hiss from her teeth as if her mind has already processed being wounded by this where it has not actually even made any sort of contact whatsoever.
Lightning strikes again.
"Like what?" She asks after a pause punctuated by another blistering shot of lightning coming much, much too close. The crackling thunder is almost deafening, now. "The hell am I gonna do for you?"
Good. She didn't flinch. Had she, well, in her state, there probably isn't too much she could have done about what -he- would have done. The foot lowers, and the man is standing on both feet again. And he doesn't seem to care about the rain, despite his fine clothing, which is sure to be ruined if soaked in this kind of wild weather.
"That is the question, isn't it? I've asked you this before, Varvara, and you've never given me the answer I want to hear. What do you /want/ in life? Is this sort of existence appealing to you? I know you've got the brain to, at least, appreciate -having-. So what do you want to have?"
He drops to a crouch, balancing elbows on knees, an eerily similar position to the one he took when he proposed that she join this team.
"Do you -want- to eat trash forever? Or do you want to have real food, real clothing, a place to sleep where dogs aren't pissing on you and people cursing you? If you want it, you have to work for it. And I have the job for you."
Compare his fine clothing to hers - ragged, dirtied, torn in some places from the rigors of battle or maybe that she really could afford to get the same thing at one size larger. She's never really known much better in so far as clothing goes - aside from a few sweet tastes at what luxury felt like.
She found a lot of dresses to be uncomfortable when she tried them. And /heels/. My god, heels. They're so awful, how can any woman enjoy trotting around in those things?
These fine tastes of splendor she sampled, hwoever, have clearly not stuck on her person beyond the sheer novelty of having, even being able to have ore so than the items themselves. Avarice. She is likely one of the greatest embodiments of it, for one who is of extremely little means to feed such habits.
What does /she/ want in life? She always believed it didn't really matter, she'd be strong enough to take anything and everything she wanted to in lieu of all the good fortune and good looks so many other fighters around her have.
Does she want to eat trash forever? Real food, real clothing, a place to sleep?
The answer encompasses something far beyond just these simple, easily realized modern ideas of luxury and comfort.
"I want it all!" She somehow finds the strength to rise up, maybe getting this extremely rare opportunity to actually stand taller than Shiden - for however short length of time this may be whenever he may choose to exercise his natural height advantage over her (as a good number of people have, early malnutrition in her life has left her fairly short). "'n when... when haven't I worked for it? All those friggin' pretty-faced people, all those silver spoon-fed kids just... getting it all!"
No matter how hard she can throw a punch or toss someone, time and time again, it's all completely eluded her. She's desperate, it shows in her tone of voice and the wildness in her eyes - maybe even sadness, but this may be just because she hasn't processed the fleck of dirt in that one eye yet.
"What... what do they got that I don't?!"
[OOC] Varvara says, "sorry for the delay."
[OOC] Shiden says, "No worries, man, really."
[OOC] Shiden says, "Combat has been joined @ FFMUSH scene so, I'll be delayed here and there as well"
[OOC] Varvara says, "sure thing."
Hell, he doesn't want her dressing up in dresses and heels and the like. That's so not her. But she'd be more effective if he couldn't smell her from fifty yards away, and good, tough leather boots and clothing would help her too, and she could build a look that was intimidating without being, you know, intimidating for all the -wrong- reasons.
But he knows that food is what she wants more than anything else. It must be hard to be so hungry all the time. He doesn't let himself get that hungry without an extremely good reason. Though on the balance of it, not having money is a decent reason for it.
"They have money, Varvara. Earned or bequeathed, given or stolen, that is what they have. But that's -all- they have. Money is power... but the power that -we- have, that power... matches theirs. More than matches it. They hire bodyguards, but they don't know who to hire. They should hire us."
He smiles--a cold, reptilian smile that clearly speaks to who and what he really is. "So we'll get our -own- power. By stealing theirs. By taking it from them by force. You want it all? Then we'll have to rip it from their hands. That's what I want to do. I want -power-. You can have their money, their food. But only if you work with me. If you work against me, I'll tear your throat out." At least he's honest about it, huh?
[OOC] Varvara says, "checking to make sure connection's still going, it's getting a li'l jumpy..."
[OOC] Varvara says, "OK, good."
As it stands in so far as looks go, there are almost undoubtedly at least two or three palette swaps wandering the world and probably getting piledrivers from Haggar and friends every step of the way - which does not really speak well for the prospects of /this/ individual right here, in regards to continuing about being a hoodlum without much direction.
What she's thinking is that it can't /just/ be money. There is something missing - something that her muscles alone isn't compensating for, and even with Shiden's answer, there is a restlessness that makes her think... there's more to it, there's way more to it than just money.
As much as she'd love to have a lot of money. Make no mistake. She wants it all.
Where Shiden's smile is reptilian, something that shows the truth of his nature, her face is that of - embarrassingly - a dumbstruck young woman who is in the middle of losing virtually all direction and confidence in her own life. Something that no amount of intimidating appearance (or stench) can really hide from discerning eyes.
Or that bolt of lightning some twenty yards away, while we're at it.
It seems so simple, isn't it - that's all she could have ever thought about prior. Be strong, take what you want - which in her case, is everything. Yet, every step of the way, virtually every engagement since she left home has left her bleeding, broken, wounded, and ultimately embarrassed like a piece of trash to be thrown away.
"And they keep /winning/," she sneers - riled up by Shiden's words as much as she is emotionally distraught at how they keep managing to get ahead of her in spite of everything that should be to the contrary.
"So? You're going to give up because they're -winning-? Surely whoever trained you to fight didn't take on a mewling little lamb. So they win. You keep getting up. Unless you're -dead-. But you're still moving." He doesn't bother with another physical threat. She doesn't understand them properly right now, and for that matter, he doesn't think they'll work on her.
"You want to take their money? You want to have it for yourself? Then you have to get stronger. Gain power. You can't do it as you are now. There will always be someone stronger, Varvara. But if you keep going? Then that stronger person will be -you-. And me. We've got a long way to go, I won't deny it. But if you want to rise up and throw off this oppression then you need to gain the strength to do it." Strength that he will gladly use to his own ends.
Fun fact about her schooling years, hands-on tutoring by an honest good soul didn't help the fact that she had a lot of trouble with basic math.
Those Pankration classes were something different. Do well, get snacks. Getting competent at fighting - if just that - was more a means to an end for free snacks than the actual desire to really get much stronger. That was only the first of many steps that sent her down that sad, lonely, and not at all desirable path of being a homeless bum whose only good quality - if something could be considered good - was that she could fight at least worth half a crud.
No, maybe a third of a crud.
No more than three sevenths.
What would those people think of her now, she dares to wonder outside of her normally ignorant lack of introspection. Assuming they even remember her, of course. It's doubtful that despite her appearance in King of Fighters that she's going to be really seen as a prideful thing to come out of the Greek-dominated part of Cyprus.
Just as well, really, do you want someone like her /being/ the very representation of your people to the world?
Rather than respond to Shiden vocally, she turns away just as lightning strikes much too close again. (Why is anyone still outside in this weather?) Her fists clench, although to Shiden's keen eye she's too hurt to really throw anything resembling a proper punch. Perhaps a mere gesture of impotent rage, and little more.
"Get stronger, huh." She can think of plenty of strong people from her short time being a total blight in the rotten underbelly of Metro City. She knows where to go. The question is, would US customs screw up and allow someone like /her/ back into the country again?
Her steps are weak and unsure, a limp visible as she suppresses a cough. "I know who... who I'm gonna ask," she growls, "gonna beat it outta her... gonna beat it outta her when she tells me how."
[OOC] Varvara may be a little sluggish here, someone has asked specifically for my help in helping introduce a character to the grid on FF MUSH out of nowhere.
[OOC] Shiden laughs. It's okay. I think we can call it here?
[OOC] Shiden says, "And I may ask for your help in introing my Empire alt sometime later, myself."
[OOC] Varvara says, "Sure thing."
[OOC] Varvara says, "Thanks for the scene, been looking forward to all this."
[OOC] Varvara likes the Shiden/Varv dynamic.
[OOC] Shiden says, "It's an interesting one."
[OOC] Varvara says, "it's too bad Antoine's been kind of obscure, I remember he was supposed to be really central to a lot of things, but... so far hasn't really delivered."
[OOC] Varvara hopes he comes around more soon though.
[OOC] Shiden says, "He's been busy with life changes."
[OOC] Varvara says, "yeah, I know about the exams and moving from a little while back, dunno about any other things."
[OOC] Varvara is gonna jump off here for now, take care, thanks again for the scene.
[OOC] Varvara says, "soon I get to beat Maki's face in."
ODROP::Varvara heads OOC.
Log created on 19:12:56 05/02/2011 by Shiden, and last modified on 22:32:38 05/02/2011.