FOUL TOXINS

[lovestained]

Who: Everyone!
Where: The Game Tower
When: Day 498

[ Welcome to the Game Tower! On the screen is The Red Sea Witch, who does a curtsy before speaking to the audience: ]

Gyahaha, hello! ✩ Today's show is a game long-time viewers might recognize! The rules are simple: poison others and don't get poisoned! Have fun~✩


RULES | ROOMS | EFFECTS | ENDGAME + WINNERS

Comments

[sangreine]

[ Abruptly, she lefts go of his throat and shoves him backwards in the same movement. ]

Take that ridiculous bark down and fight me fairly. Tearing you into bloody scraps will be a lot more satisfying than knocking you around. [ She's practically shrieking, shaking with rage. Yep, this will end well! ]

[at_heart]

[ Cool, so, stumbling back again, but at least he can breathe. Breathy, ]

Not saying this isn't — justified... but I think you'll thank me later for not.

[sangreine]

Fine. [ She rips her sword from its scabbard but keeps a tight hold on the sheath. ]

I'll put it through your eye or down your lying throat.

[ Lunging again with her sword flashing, ready or not! ]

[at_heart]

[ Yeah, that's a threshold of damage where he needs to at least try to block, to dodge. He has his own sword with him, too, and he's catching that first strike with the flat of his own blade. ]

Heh. Careful, starting to sound like a good time, there.

[sangreine]

[ Normally when they spar she does a lot of elegant flipping around, is graceful, playful. Now, she's the opposite: charging, relentless, vicious, at her top speed and full strength. She's absolutely trying to kill him. ]

Don't you DARE mock me! You'll soon be a bloody smear on the floor, pathetic human.

[at_heart]

[ It's new! And making him seriously consider using more than just barkskin. Cut-Tongue Sparrow is out, though, unless he can get her outside first. Better that this rage isn't directed blindly (heh) into a crowd. ]

Man, that is some straight-up supervillain dialogue.

[ Sorry, the. banter is a reflex. Backing his way towards the tower doors— ]

[sangreine]

[ She makes a screechy, infuriated sound and then uses The Harder They Fall to speed herself up significantly, sword flashing in blinding arcs as she tries valiantly to hack off whatever piece of him she can reach ]

[at_heart]

[ He feels the impact of that hard enough to rattle him, but it's still a blade so Juniper Tree cancels it out. Still falling back, closer and closer to the door. Come on, just — let's just get clear of everyone else... ]

[sangreine]

[ She can see herself being corralled, so she uses more speed + Verticality to try and get behind him. ]

If you want to play dirty, I'm game. [ And then she uses Mind Crush on him, trying to get him to give up his conviction to fight back. ]

[at_heart]

[ He just wants to get out of the game tower, honestly, but that sure is a thing to get hit with.

It just also doesn't really land right, because unfortunately for Diva-brained Alizarins, he really didn't have much in the way of conviction to fight back.

Lupine does pause, does blink, but then he darts around her for the door. Outside, into the city, she can do whatever she wants to him out here. ]

[sangreine]

[ Another rage-filled noise as he tries to run around her, and she brings her scabbard down hard for his shoulder before giving chase. ]

[at_heart]

[ That lands, sharp fiery pain that lets him know he'll need a sIV to look at it later, and he'll have to favor that shoulder for the rest of the fight, but he's always had a high tolerance for pain and adrenaline makes it even easier to push through.

(He could keep fighting right now with a break, a dislocation, whatever.)

The important thing is that they're outside, and being outside means he can use Cut-Tongue Sparrow on her with a thought, taking her sight, without worrying she'll lash out and hurt someone else trying to get to him. ]

[sangreine]

[ When her sight goes dark she stumbles, barely, then sneers as she closes her useless eyes (habit) and listens for his heartbeat. It should stand out like a beacon given how she's been thundering at him. ]

[ Then she uses Nightmare Vision on him. She can't give him a vision of being hurt or killed himself, that won't do a thing, so instead she creates his nightmare scenario: if he doesn't drop his sword, innocent people will die. She conjures nightmarish images of Venti, Doctor, Persicaria, getting hacked to pieces. ]

[ At the least, it should give him a moment of pause. And she uses that to charge him. ]

[at_heart]

[ —You know, it's not like he hasn't looked over ZRAEL's powers, it's not like he didn't know this was a thing she could do, but it doesn't make it feel any less real, so that's...

Nauseating, frankly.

If she could see, she'd get the pleasure of watching his expression hollow out, and hey: he will, in fact, even drop the sword, as soon as it ends, hand up over his mouth.

The disorientation is intense, he can see her coming but it doesn't immediately mean anything. ]

[sangreine]

[ Oh good, his queasiness will speed up his pulse, making him easier to locate in her blindness. She uses his pounding heart to adjust her trajectory and shoves the tip of her blade into his chest, feeling it catch on the barkskin. ]

[ But waste not want not, so she uses her momentum to try and topple him over. At the least he'll have a bruised sternum, maybe some cracked ribs. And she's going to get ready to throw him another vision in a second that says he needs to drop the fancy cheater's skin, so if he's going to react and stop her it's now or after revival. ]

[at_heart]

[ The pain's fine, the pain is — almost a relief. Grounding. He grits his teeth, eyes cinched shut, then rolls back.

He'd rather use Through the Looking-Glass, but he's too dazed to focus enough for that, can't think of an illusion to summon up in the moment — so it's Alice in Wonderland instead.

The cottage just appears around her in the middle of the city. Impervious. ]

[sangreine]

[ When he rolls back she hadn't seen it coming, obviously, so she loses her grip on her sword and it rattles away from her onto the ground. She makes a move to retrieve it, but -- bumps into something. As she's trying to feel around to try and get past it, her vision returns -- and she sees the walls enclosing her and knows what's happening. ]

[ Confinement is a struggle for her in the best of conditions, which certainly do not describe her current predicament. With the monster in her so near the surface, it's worse than anything imaginable. ]

[ Just before the walls close above her, she screams -- not in rage, but in terror. The cottage fills in and chokes off the sound, mercifully. ]

[ She's not sure if Lupine can hear her doing it, but despite knowing it's useless, she beats herself against the wall, over and over, scratches her hands raw. Whenever Lupine lowers the walls he and whoever is with him will find her beaten and broken in the middle of where the cottage once stood, unconscious. ]

[at_heart]

[ ...Yeah. That's — about what he expected, even if he thought the scream would sound different. He really, really did not want to actually contain her like this.

Would like to give himself at least a moment of lying there in the street before he has to do anything else, but. His shoulder's on fire and his ribs aren't much better and if he doesn't dig his phone out right now, he's probably not going to be able to.

So: ]

@☆ZRAEL

[at_heart]

🐺: She's down
🐺: Not out tho
🐺: Gonna need to figure something else out

[ And then, remembering fuzzily, ]

🐺: Near the game tower

@🌸🌼🌻🌷🌺🌹🍃

[at_heart]

[ And, after that's taken care of, one more text. ]

🐺: Sorry but
🐺: Think I might need healing after all
🐺: Not far from the game tower
🐺: Thanks

1/2

[outofoffice]

[ Holy shit

Lupine must be fucking dying ]

🌸🌼🌻🌷🌺🌹🍃: I'm coming!

Re: @🌸🌼🌻🌷🌺🌹🍃

[outofoffice]

[ He flies there, in fact -- it's faster, and easier to spot Lupine from the sky.

He lands nearby and hurries over. ]

Don't be offended, but I'm surprised you're alive!

Re: @🌸🌼🌻🌷🌺🌹🍃

[at_heart]

[ A very crooked smile. He's tired, most of all. Makes an effort to sit up, wobbles, and gives up on it for the moment. ]

Yeah, well. If she'd been thinking clearer, she wouldn't have wasted so much time trying to stab me.

[ Which reminds him: gotta let down Juniper Tree. The bark recedes, revealing bruises. What Venti can see at the moment is all on his neck from an, uh, attempted strangling??? This is fine.

Bruised all over, cracked ribs, dislocated shoulder, some internal bleeding as a result. Sorry bb. ]

Re: @🌸🌼🌻🌷🌺🌹🍃

[outofoffice]

[ Venti winces, but steps closer. ]

You're lucky your head and arm are still attached.

[ Let's just . . . place a hand on Lupine's arm and numb ALL OF HIM ]

1/

[at_heart]

[ Oh shit, that's so much better, so much of the tension rushes out of him that he's left a little dizzy. ]

Lucky? C'mon, this is skill.