Re: The Grand Battle S2G1! [Round Three: Water...place!]
11-01-2010, 12:34 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Lord Paradise.
Kath looked a sore sight, flopping into the Hydresther bubble and crumpling to a barren rooftop in a dry heap. Jen nimbly followed, the wall of the bubble dehydrating the blood that clung to her clothes and knuckles and leaving an itchy red residue that fell to the floor in an assortment of flakes and grains. She grunted uncomfortably as the gills she had grown found themselves defunct, and her lungs took up the slack once again. This produced only about a teaspoon of complaint from her circulatory system, which she didn't cough up so much as begrudgingly spat out.
Clearly Jen's body was adapting to its new malleable physiology. Her waterproof third eyelid dissipated with a final blink and the arcs of her heels nonchalantly shrugged into a shape that behooved walking more than swimming. Through all of this the lamprey on her back twitched excitedly. Kath had figured out, or at least was comfortable in guessing that that thing was hacking into the girl's DNA. She resisted the urge to shudder. The girl was clever and strong-willed--not quite so much as Kath, but what can you expect from a leglocked teenager--and someone so all-around formidable shouldn't be so easily dominated by an invertebrate.
With a strong feeling of doubt in her mind, Kath said, "Here we are. Hydresther. Are you done with me now?"
Jen eyed Kath up and down, perhaps admiring or perhaps regretting the scars she'd inflicted only minutes ago. Kath put two fingers to the gash on her face, knowing that she couldn't go to a hospital. "Nope. I need your support navigating the culture here, so I think I'll keep you along with me until you're Stockholm Syndrome'd into becoming my sidekick of your own volition."
Kath decided to stick around long enough to kill this bitch. "No chance I get my sword back?"
Jen smirked. "Maybe when I find a better one."
Kath took the risk of honest, praying the truth would function well enough as a bluff. "You don't really want to be around me in Hydresther. The authorities will be on the look for me. It's why I was on my way into the open before I had the bad luck of apparently becoming your accomplice. I'll be caught within minutes, especially so clad." She indicated Jen's garish shirt, which the girl had insisted she wear.
Jen rolled her eyes and held her hand out. "Fine, give it here, I guess I have to get used to all your fish-nudity now that I'm at the city." As she put her shirt back on, she asked, "So what's your rap sheet?"
"Three premeditated murders this morning. I'm the obvious suspect: motive, opportunity, poor breeding and a history of sociopathic behavior dating back to infancy." Jen didn't respond: she was looking over the edge to the underside of the bubble. The lower surface was frothing with life: from way up here all the activity of Hydresther was lost in a morass of foam, the colors of the billboards lost in a thousand dewy rainbows refracting off of waterfalls. The cacophony of light brought a murderous lump into Kath's throat. Jen's hand was shaking.
2
"No great riddance if you fall," Kath told Jen. "You'll live. You piratefolk have no notion of depth, but down here there's no sky to look at and never reach. No directional constraints save the bubbles we wrap around our brains, understand?"
Jen turned around and snarled. "Don't patronize until you've climbed a mountain, Kath, you're bothering me. I can handle your city and I can handle your cops."
"Can you now? Please, Jen, if pirate legal systems were competent any, you wouldn't be all about the piracy. Hydresther copbred are the baddest of the born and the roughest of the raised. It's not only cowards what give them wide berth."
"You're patronizing again," reminded Jen sternly. "I am... of two minds about our next move."
"Don't think too long. Loath though I am to rejoin the masses, it's dry up here."
"Well, one mind wants to find a problem and solve or exacerbate it, or else meet up with one of her companions and go scheme to kill a rock or something, God I don't even care anymore. The other wants to find someone that nobody will miss and eat him." She squinted her eyes as though experiencing a torrential migraine, and began to perspire. "I'm new at this."
"Which?"
Shut up Kath, I might--"
There was a splash from above and not far away. A stone disc about three meters wide emerged into the air and flipped through the bubble like a crude game of chance. A copbred on a marlin followed promptly. Something was screaming unnaturally.
Jen growled. "Well that solves that question. I mean answers... Never mind. Kath you first." She grabbed Kath by the throat and tossed her over the edge.
Kath fell, a bit too imbalanced to go fins and make a proper dive before Jen followed, the lamprey retracting back into her to streamline the body they now shared. This could only go poorly…
Kath looked a sore sight, flopping into the Hydresther bubble and crumpling to a barren rooftop in a dry heap. Jen nimbly followed, the wall of the bubble dehydrating the blood that clung to her clothes and knuckles and leaving an itchy red residue that fell to the floor in an assortment of flakes and grains. She grunted uncomfortably as the gills she had grown found themselves defunct, and her lungs took up the slack once again. This produced only about a teaspoon of complaint from her circulatory system, which she didn't cough up so much as begrudgingly spat out.
Clearly Jen's body was adapting to its new malleable physiology. Her waterproof third eyelid dissipated with a final blink and the arcs of her heels nonchalantly shrugged into a shape that behooved walking more than swimming. Through all of this the lamprey on her back twitched excitedly. Kath had figured out, or at least was comfortable in guessing that that thing was hacking into the girl's DNA. She resisted the urge to shudder. The girl was clever and strong-willed--not quite so much as Kath, but what can you expect from a leglocked teenager--and someone so all-around formidable shouldn't be so easily dominated by an invertebrate.
With a strong feeling of doubt in her mind, Kath said, "Here we are. Hydresther. Are you done with me now?"
Jen eyed Kath up and down, perhaps admiring or perhaps regretting the scars she'd inflicted only minutes ago. Kath put two fingers to the gash on her face, knowing that she couldn't go to a hospital. "Nope. I need your support navigating the culture here, so I think I'll keep you along with me until you're Stockholm Syndrome'd into becoming my sidekick of your own volition."
Kath decided to stick around long enough to kill this bitch. "No chance I get my sword back?"
Jen smirked. "Maybe when I find a better one."
Kath took the risk of honest, praying the truth would function well enough as a bluff. "You don't really want to be around me in Hydresther. The authorities will be on the look for me. It's why I was on my way into the open before I had the bad luck of apparently becoming your accomplice. I'll be caught within minutes, especially so clad." She indicated Jen's garish shirt, which the girl had insisted she wear.
Jen rolled her eyes and held her hand out. "Fine, give it here, I guess I have to get used to all your fish-nudity now that I'm at the city." As she put her shirt back on, she asked, "So what's your rap sheet?"
"Three premeditated murders this morning. I'm the obvious suspect: motive, opportunity, poor breeding and a history of sociopathic behavior dating back to infancy." Jen didn't respond: she was looking over the edge to the underside of the bubble. The lower surface was frothing with life: from way up here all the activity of Hydresther was lost in a morass of foam, the colors of the billboards lost in a thousand dewy rainbows refracting off of waterfalls. The cacophony of light brought a murderous lump into Kath's throat. Jen's hand was shaking.
2
"No great riddance if you fall," Kath told Jen. "You'll live. You piratefolk have no notion of depth, but down here there's no sky to look at and never reach. No directional constraints save the bubbles we wrap around our brains, understand?"
Jen turned around and snarled. "Don't patronize until you've climbed a mountain, Kath, you're bothering me. I can handle your city and I can handle your cops."
"Can you now? Please, Jen, if pirate legal systems were competent any, you wouldn't be all about the piracy. Hydresther copbred are the baddest of the born and the roughest of the raised. It's not only cowards what give them wide berth."
"You're patronizing again," reminded Jen sternly. "I am... of two minds about our next move."
"Don't think too long. Loath though I am to rejoin the masses, it's dry up here."
"Well, one mind wants to find a problem and solve or exacerbate it, or else meet up with one of her companions and go scheme to kill a rock or something, God I don't even care anymore. The other wants to find someone that nobody will miss and eat him." She squinted her eyes as though experiencing a torrential migraine, and began to perspire. "I'm new at this."
"Which?"
Shut up Kath, I might--"
There was a splash from above and not far away. A stone disc about three meters wide emerged into the air and flipped through the bubble like a crude game of chance. A copbred on a marlin followed promptly. Something was screaming unnaturally.
Jen growled. "Well that solves that question. I mean answers... Never mind. Kath you first." She grabbed Kath by the throat and tossed her over the edge.
Kath fell, a bit too imbalanced to go fins and make a proper dive before Jen followed, the lamprey retracting back into her to streamline the body they now shared. This could only go poorly…