2018-06-20: The Overzealous Guard
- Log: The Overzealous Guard
- Cast: Talise Gianfair, Pearl
- Where: Meribia Docks
- Date: 20/06/2018
- Summary: A guardswoman seeks a wanted criminal, in a reckless fashion.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
It hasn't even occurred to Talise that she'd find her face on a wanted poster again after her little run-in with Amelia Rose and her goons in Vane awhile back. Sure, the encounter wasn't a huge incident; worse has happened than four or five Guards getting roughed up in the course of their duties. But it was enough that a certain bleached-blonde woman's face, complete with diagnostic cheekstripes, is back on the poster circuit.
Talise has gone about her life as if it's not an issue.
The sun's low enough in the sky that port traffic is fairly sleepy tonight, allowing Talise to spend some time sharing a small map with a particular ship captain. Soon enough, she exchanges a few silver to the captain, the map going along for the ride.
When she turns away, it's to begin a slow stroll down the harbourfront. She didn't bring her armour and she's peacebonded her sword (though she could fix that in a hurry if she needed to), and her heavy seafarer's coat keeps the worst of the breeze off. It's with a wistful smile that she maneuvers past a few stacks of crates and into a part of the harbour a bit further out of public view - all the better for discreet encounters.
"Geez," she murmurs to herself as she looks through the rows of storefronts. "I remember when most of these were pubs. Times sure did change while I was gone."
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Honestly, there's a lot to indicate that Talise could have had an easy day, were it not for someone following her. They do so at a distance, blending with the people who work around the harbour. But it's when Talise ducks into a alley that the follower closes the distance. What's good for discretion can also be good for an ambush.
A low, wolflike growl comes from behind Talise, to get her attention. A heavily scarred young woman makes herself known to Talise, if she wasn't already aware.
"One chance." The woman says quietly, brandishing a wanted poster. "Come quietly and face your judgement." Her voice lacks particular emotion, but all the same, there's a vague feeling of malice behind it.
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
On most days, Talise is pretty good at keeping track of her six. She's even been pretty good about it today! She steals regular looks behind her and keeps her ears open for suspicious sounds that might be someone out to shank her.
It's why she's so surprised when someone starts growling at her. Blinking a couple of times, she draws her coat partway around her as she looks back over her shoulder.
Only to find a woman brandishing a wanted poster and a body full of scars.
"Oh, that there lady?" Talise drawls, deepening her voice as if to pass for a man, shifting her arm so that her coat hides the curve of her chest. Her height and build make her taller than most men anyway. "I saw that there lady on the poster goin' north out the main gate with some of them there vile fiends. If'n ya hurry, ya can catch 'er 'fore what she gits too far, missa guard lady ma'am."
Talise doesn't even have the decency to be embarrassed about how blatantly she's rolling her bluff dice. Maybe it makes it more convincing. Or maybe there aren't many tall half-Beastwomen with large swords wandering Meribia and she's just wasting her breath.
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Pearl, for her part, is not particularly amused. She fixes Talise with a glare, her facial expression unchanging. "I see. You take me for an idiot." The human woman cracks her neck. "We can add this to your list of charges."
It is then, without warning, that Pearl suddenly rushes forward, making an open hand swipe at Talise's face, the claws on her glove shining briefly in the darkness of the alley. But that's just a feint before she drives forward with her other hand, to drive it into Talise's gut.
The attack is almost animalistic, and it's after the fight commences that Pearl's facial expression changes. Her mouth bends into a sick grin, her grey eyes widening slightly. It could be potentially be rather disturbing.
GS: Pearl has attacked Talise Gianfair with Feinting Claw! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Talise Gianfair critically Guards a hit from Pearl's Feinting Claw for 17 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
"Well, in fairness, you're picking a fight with me without an army," Talise points out in her normal voice, lowering her eyelids slightly. "But hey. Upside for you is I--"
Pearl cuts her off before she can finish. "Hey, I wasn't done!" Talise huffs as she whirls - and the glint of those claws isn't missed in the least. She brings her hand forward -
The feint is caught at the last second as she realizes that the Guardswoman isn't carrying her shoulder quite right to lead with that arm. Talise shifts her footing subtly and sweeps her left arm. Her palm slams into Pearl's fist with a fleshy thud, her prodigious natural strength blunting much of the blow's momentum; the momentum still slams the taller woman back a couple of feet, her boots skidding against the cobblestones.
For just a second, that disturbing leer on the Guardswoman's face leaves Talise taken aback. Most of the Guard she's met up until now have been zealous at worst, but basically sane. She's not quite so sure about this one.
It bugs her enough that she doesn't make it a fistfight. Instead she leaps backwards, wincing and shaking her hand to get some feeling back into it. "Lady, trust me on this one. Just go home," she fires back, even as she realizes her sword's peacebonded and she needs a moment to get it out.
She goes to Plan B.
Namely, Talise reaches into her coat - and comes out with something not native to Lunar. It's a large, loaded shotgun. There's a loud FOOM as she opens fire with a few rapidly-fired rounds of buckshot, spraying hot lead towards the fervent martial artist.
Maybe it'll scare her enough to back her off and make the loss of bullets worth it. But Talise doubts it.
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Pearl with Slam Fire! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action. GS: CRITICAL! Pearl takes a solid hit from Talise Gianfair's Slam Fire for 148 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
There's nothing more than a grunt as Talise deftly gets her arm up in time, evading the worst of the attack. But the guardswoman was expecting, perhaps, that sword to come out. She was not expecting ARMs fire. Indeed, for a first encounter with one of these weapons of the blue star, it's not a pleasant one. Pearl tries to dive out of the way of the buckshot, but just isn't fast enough. The balls of shot dig into her arm and leg, digging in and drawing a fair amount of blood. The light armour she wears does very little to mitigate the damage.
Hatred burns behind Pearl's eyes as she looks at Talise again. So this criminal has one of those weapons. No reason to hold back, then. The martial artist, rather than leaving, instead rushes forward at full speed, before going into a slide. The goal, to tangle her legs in Talise's, and drive her face first into the ground. The fact that the talons on her boots might cut up her hamstrings is just an added bonus.
GS: Pearl has attacked Talise Gianfair with Wolf Style - Running Takedown! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Talise Gianfair guards a hit from Pearl's Wolf Style - Running Takedown for 63 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
What works to Pearl's advantage here is that Talise has to preserve her shells. She can't make more. She doesn't keep shooting; she swings the shotgun back into her coat and steps backwards to give herself some space.
"Althena's sake, woman, back down!" she shouts across the distance, a touch of frustration creeping into her voice. She can see the amount of blood she drew and it bothers her a little. She'll beat up on the Guard when they overstep what she considers to be the bounds of decency. Killing is another matter.
Pearl seems to have fewer compulsions, and Talise sighs, reaching back to snap a few cords somewhere - but before she can draw a weapon, the quick martial artist is doing something she doesn't expect. Talise steps to one side, but Pearl cuts her left leg out from under her; the talons hit the front of her calf, and she staggers forward on one foot, arms pinwheeling a moment.
Now might be a great time to stab her - but she manages to recognize how off-balance she is, and rolls with it. She hits the ground on her side, grunting in pain, but throwing herself into a roll away from the other woman.
She's wincing as she comes back to her feet, favouring her right leg a little - but she's also gotten her hands on her sword. A bit of stray light plays along Rastaban's blade as she starts forward.
With a grunt, Talise plows forward. Rastaban arcs through the air as she swings an overhand blow, then another, slashing at Pearl's shoulders and upper body with a couple of hard strokes aimed to cut a few slashes into her without actually killing her. "You really think Althena wants you to do this?" she snaps over the din of battle. "This inquisition crap?!"
GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Pearl with Gathering Tide Stance! GS: Talise Gianfair has entered a Reflect stance! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action. GS: Pearl takes a glancing hit from Talise Gianfair's Gathering Tide Stance for 57 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
As the claws do their job, Pearl rolls forward and back up to her feet, turning back to face Talise, right in time to see the sword arcing through the air towards her. She pulls back, bringing up a bloodied arm to deflect. The scar tissue covering it may indicate this is not the first time she has done something like this. But again, Talise makes contact, and the Rastaban digs into Pearl's arm, loosing even more blood into the air.
Pearl pulls away again, and growls. "Don't try to preach to me, heathen." Again, there is malice behind the words, but not, perhaps, the drive of a true believer. She's a little too calm for that. Though it could just be the blood loss.
For the moment, Pearl moves to deny Talise any further advantage, and slashes out with her claws several times. But once again, these serve more to drive Talise into quarters so close she can't make a decent swing. But that's not the only move she's making. When her arms and Talise's sword arm are suitably entangled, Pearl makes an unorthodox attack, biting for the half-Beastman's upper sword arm, to drive the large silver fang protruding from her mouth into the tendons.
GS: Pearl has attacked Talise Gianfair with Wolf Style - Crippling Bite! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Talise Gianfair critically Guards a hit from Pearl's Wolf Style - Crippling Bite for 18 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
There's a bit of blood running down Talise's left calf. It hurts and she'd really rather there wasn't a cut there.
She marks Pearl again and takes another step back, withdrawing a few metres with a short backwards lunge. She opens her mouth to say something -
'heathen'
Talise's eyes narrow. "How much do you even know," she starts to say, before Pearl lunges at her again.
The other woman's attack is almost terrifyingly ferocious. Talise backs off step by step, widening her eyes with surprise as Pearl strikes out at her - but she always seems to find another inch or two of space. Claw strikes clash against Rastaban's blade as she whips it about in a series of short defensive sweeps; a few swings sneak through her guard, talons biting into her shoulder and tearing the material of her coat. Her breathing picks up as she fights to keep ahead of the more rapid style-
Until Pearl does something Talise couldn't possibly anticipate. "WHAT," she shouts as Pearl actually bites her.
Only the fact that Talise juked to the side at the last second keeps the fang from ripping through her bicep. The sleeve of her coat tears away, the fang leaving a slash along the hard muscle beneath - but the lunge gives her an opening. Inhaling, Talise wheels off to one side, clicking her teeth together.
She tenses. With a grunt, she swings forward again, lashing out with a hard arc of her weapon. Rastaban's blade bites through the air in a series of quick strikes aimed to carve marks into Pearl's flank.
She's not pulling her swings anymore. These ones are aimed to kill.
GS: Talise Gianfair enters CONDITION GREEN!! GS: Talise Gianfair has attacked Pearl with Infinitely Rippling Waters! GS: Talise Gianfair has completed her action. GS: Please react targeting the attack number in +queue. GS: Pearl takes a solid hit from Talise Gianfair's Infinitely Rippling Waters for 151 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Pearl has posed.
Once again, Pearl tries to evade, but her overzealousness in closing leaves her open. The sword slices deep into Pearl's back, blood spraying onto the ground. She should be screaming in pain from cuts that deep, but she gives off little more than a dismayed grunt. For whatever reason, pain doesn't seem to do anything to dissuade the attacker. If anything, it makes her more ferocious. She pulls herself slowly to her feet, the blood dripping down her arms, her legs, her back. Her gi has been shredded by the Talise's sword, revealing even more old wounds under new.
But even Pearl knows when a fight is not going her way. And while Talise has a decent bounty on her head, she's not a priority. Sometimes, the time comes to cut your losses. She could press on, but not well enough. And not like this, certainly. When she finally speaks, it's with that sick grin on her face again.
"Better. I'll find out if your strong enough."
Then Pearl suddenly digs her clawed glove into one of the buckshot wounds, worsening it, making it bleed further. She lets it pool onto the claws and then lashes out with a slash. It's not close enough. It doesn't need to be. The whole purpose is fling the blood from her wound into Talise's eyes, and blind her. Not for long. Just long enough to disengage in a hurry. Speed is her advantage here, as she sprints off, out of the alleyway.
A trail of blood will follow, but it disappears near the harbour side, almost like she threw herself into the sea. Almost.
GS: Pearl has attacked Talise Gianfair with Bloody Distraction! GS: Pearl has completed her action. GS: Talise Gianfair guards a hit from Pearl's Bloody Distraction for 0 hit points!
<Pose Tracker> Talise Gianfair has posed.
It's true, Talise isn't one of the Vile Fiends or the Lord of Calamity. She's a minor nuisance, albeit one who fought Ghaleon.
That said, she's having a hell of a lot of trouble driving this damn martial artist off. The fact that Pearl's not screaming in pain is incredibly unnerving. This feels more like fighting a rabid wolverine than fighting a person - and that grin's going to linger in her nightmares tonight, if she somehow gets out of this alive. "Look, you're bleeding out," she calls. "You really need to go treat those!"
THen Pearl claws one of the wounds open.
Talise's jaw drops a little. "No no, you're supposed to treat them with heals," she says with a pinched shock.
The blood spray startles her even more. With a gasp, Talise throws her arm up, but much of the red splatter hits her face anyway, dripping into her left eye. She growls and staggers back, wiping her arm with her sleeve. One eye stays open, though, just enough that she can see the shape of the other woman vanishing into an alley.
Talise pauses for a second. She considers the situation - that by all rights this Guardswoman should be bleeding to death, but she only seems to get wilder and crazier. On balance, Talise could probably win the fight. If this were someone who died when they're killed.
And she's not so sure about that.
Talise does the only smart thing she can think of, tactically.
She turns and runs like hell.