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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Jan 4, 2009 4:10:19 GMT -5
It had been a happy day when Hadrian had made the trip from the Court of Clubs to visit his family, and Rhiannon could still remember the glee she'd felt at seeing his silly mowhawked-head outside of the rose garden he'd so loved. It seemed like a very, very distant memory as she stalked down the halls to the guest room where he was staying, every hair on her back standing tall. It had been a small thing at first, noticing that her Lior was becoming more and more distant. First it was just quiet. Then it was avoidance, and finally, he'd refused an offer to curl up with her on a particularly cold night. Of all of the strange behaviors she'd witnessed in regards to the Cat, that one was inexplicable and hurtful, but she hadn't been able to bring herself to ask him what was wrong. She feared it would be something that she had no control over, and as such she was doomed to wallow in her own self-pity and hope that Lior eventually got over whatever it was that was keeping him away from her. As luck would have it, the maid that cleaned her room was eager to supplement her income and was happy to provide an interesting piece of gossip in exchange for just a fraction of the money Rhiannon had made that week. The coyote-hybrid couldn't believe her ears, and she hadn't even let the woman finish speaking before she'd stormed out of the room. Her brother, her sweet and stupid brother, had threatened the man she loved. To think that she'd ever felt joy at seeing the oaf! All she felt now was a strong sense of outrage topped off with a little righteous fury. She would kill him for this. Perhaps the anger would have faded, if she'd sat down for a few minutes and meditated on it. As it was, she repeated the maid's words to herself again and again, like a mantra designed to raise her blood pressure until she saw red. It didn't help that Apocalypse was right there in her mind, encouraging her dark thoughts. The scythe had never been fond of her Club-brother. When she finally reached her brother's room she was actually snarling, but she was far too angry to care about the way she must have looked to any unfortunate soul who might have been coming the opposite way she was. " You IMPUDENT FUCK,[/b]" she screamed by way of a greeting as the door flew open in front of her. Her voice cracked slightly, but she was far too pissed off to care or even really notice. Her rage was practically tangible, between the way her hackles raised and her tail lashed.
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Post by Satra on Jan 4, 2009 15:51:22 GMT -5
"Well, I suppose we could see each other again before I leave," he smiled at the young Esterberrian library attendant, "You doing anything Thursday?" he gave the woman a wink. She giggle and nodded while a blush put some color on her white face. Such a pretty thing. He was incredibly amused that a Wolf could act so mousy. Then again, she was incredibly bookish. Would probably make a real idiot out of him if they had an actual conversation.
"I'll see you then," he smirked, giving her a lick. She blushed a little more, hiding her face and heading for the door.
Then Rhi burst through the door screaming at him.
He gave a surprised yelp, his ears pinned themselves to his skull and his entire body took a defensive position.
"R-Rhi?!" he stammered in surprise, "What the...?!" the young woman put a paw up to her face, and rushed out pushing past Rhiannon. She prayed that her little fling didn't get out... how shameful for a Hearts noble hopeful to sleep with a Club!
That only left Hadrian to stare back at his sister, shocked and confused.
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Jan 4, 2009 16:09:44 GMT -5
Rhiannon was far too angry to pay even the slightest bit of attention to the Wolf that ran out of the room. In fact, she paid so little attention to the horrified woman that she nearly slamed the copper-tipped tail in the door when she slammed it behind her.
This was a private conversation.
"You SON OF A BITCH[/b]" Rhiannon snarled, then fell silent for a moment and took several gasping breaths. The outburst gave her a second to pause, collect her thoughts, maybe even relax a little bit. And for a moment, she did relax. "Where the fuck do you get off, Hadrian? Coming here, into my home, and threatening the man that I love?![/b]" That relaxed really didn't last. As she spoke, her calm tone grew in volume and pitch until it was a hysterical shrill.
Her lips pulled back fully, teeth glittering in the dull light. There were tears stinging at her eyes, pushed there by her own fury, but she did her best to ignore them. "I want you out. Now. Three days ago. Before you came here and stuck your ass where it didn't belong.[/b]"
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Post by Satra on Jan 4, 2009 16:40:12 GMT -5
He could only stare back in horror as his sister as she screamed at him, then the root of the problem came up.
Lior.
So she found out, did she? He took a breath to clear his head.
"Rhi! Listen to me!" he hated that it made her unhappy, but this time he was in the right, "He's no good for you or your kids! He's..." he shuddered at the thought of every time he met up with the man. A cloak's fault or not, he was wrong, "He doesn't deserve you and DAMMIT! What do you see in him?! That worthless pushover piece of shit doesn't deserve a minute of your time!" he paused, realizing the words that just came out of his mouth. That would definitely not go over well.
"Rhi, please. He's no good for you. You're some much better than him in more ways than I can even imagine. You know I would never do anything to hurt you. I'm sorry it had to be like this, but you have to understand, it's for the best."
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Jan 4, 2009 16:56:07 GMT -5
His words flowed over her like a salve designed not to heal, but instead to piss her off even more than she'd ever been before. When she looked at him it was all she could do to keep herself from throwing herself forward and tearing out his throat.
She laughed abruptly, the sound harsh and not at all happy. "Hadrian, you're an idiot. If he's no good for me then let me decide that.[/b]" she looked at him and stared for a long time, as if she was trying to figure something out. It was strange, but she didn't recognize him in that moment. He was just a nameless face to her. "You know who else would never hurt me? Lior. Except, well, guess what? He's still never hurt me. You thought having my own fucking brother try to control my life wouldn't hurt me?![/b]"
By this point, she was crying. The anger and the hurt was too much for her to simply internalize, and there was only the soft comfort of Apocalypse in her mind. No, she wouldn't cry for the man she'd once seen as her brother. She nosed at her arm, wiping off the tears. It was almost without thinking that she reached forward and touched her Heart marking, drawing forth the curved weapon. "Get out, Hadrian. I don't want to see you again. Get out of my court.[/b]"
She needed comfort, and if her damn idiot of a brother was just going to stand there and dig his grave deeper, then she didn't need to listen to him. All she needed was the feel of cold steel in her hands.
The one thing Rhiannon hadn't thought was that this outrage, almost too much for her to bear, would drive the scythe over the edge when it came to his hatred of her Club brother. Before either could react, the weapon lunged, aiming to slice deep into the man's chest. His summoner wanted him to leave, but that was only because she wanted to hurt him. He'd make sure she got a little bit of both.
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Post by Satra on Jan 4, 2009 17:17:31 GMT -5
Hadrian shook his head. "Look, I know you're smarter then me, but I see something you don't! I'm not blinded by my love for him. Rhi, the man feels like death. Anyone who feels like that is nothing but trouble waiting to happen, whether or not he means it." The stupid little emo fuck, he thought to himself. It really was bad enough that the little pussy wasn't strong enough for her, but to add all that on top of it? "Don't think that I'm a complete moron, Rhi!" he voices rising. His intelligence was a bit of a sore spot for him, regardless of how aware of it he was himself, "I'm NOT trying to control your damned life, I'm trying to protect you from what you're so happily blind to!"
Hadrian's troubles with Lior, however, where quickly replaced with his own in the shape of very. pointy. steel. He panicked and tried to repel the weapon with his Vine Bracers. He didn't have enough time to target the only places the bracers could touch without getting cut: the shaft and the little bit of decor on the top. He was able to lessen the attack, but not stop it completely. The vines hit the shaft, making it tumble in the air, making the decorative weight on the top jam right into his shoulder. He grunted in pain and stumbled back, tripping on himself, collapsing to the floor. The pain from putting any weight was put on that shoulder caught him off-guard.
He looked up to realize that his panicked defensive maneuver had overshot and hit Rhi.
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Jan 4, 2009 21:42:55 GMT -5
It all happened in a flash of steel and a tangle of plant. Rhiannon had dove forward after her weapon, struggling to keep control in all of the activity. Part of her was still beyond fury, but there was that other part too. She was angry. She was outraged, and righteously so. But even through all of that... She didn't really want to kill Hadrian, did she? Well, maybe a little.
But if the scythe hit him dead-on, it would be far more than a little.
There was a sickening thud as the butt of the weapon struck him, and Rhiannon yelped softly in reply, diving into the vines to grab hold of Apocalypse and tear him away. She could feel that the vines were on her as well, but she ignored them for the time being, focus entirely on getting the weapon away from her brother. She regained her grip on the scythe a moment after Hadrian did, clinging tightly to it and pulling hard to try and rip it free. It was only then that she felt it.
Hot, wet. Dripping down into her eye from her forehead, wetting the fur beneath her ear and on her cheek. She was bleeding. She could see the flash of red on the thorns of the vine. He had... hurt her. Hadrian had attacked her.
Rhiannon's mind was a delicate creature, prone to odd emotions and seemingly random fits of emotion. It didn't take a lot for her to be pushed to one side or another, and for a long time she'd managed to find a fine sort of balance. As she stood now, perfectly still and starting, she could feel herself begin to lose that stability. There was a moment where she recognized it.
Then all she recognized was the hurt.
With a wordless scream, the coyote-hybrid threw herself at her brother, clutching her weapon in her teeth as she aimed to slam into the Solandrian with her paws. He'd be much easier to hit with the scythe if she could only knock him down.
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Post by Satra on Jan 5, 2009 13:47:48 GMT -5
Hadrian just realized... his sister had been crying. In the confusion of emotions and attacks, his mind was slow to catch up. And now, he'd hurt her.
"Rhi... RHI!" he cried, but she was now rushing at him. The adrenaline pumping made everything so clear to him. It focused him. Somewhere at the heart of his gentle, goofy nature were the instincts of a fighter. His concentration was locked on what was at hand. It didn't matter who was right or wrong at the moment (though he still saw no wrong in what he'd done), he was going to die or be seriously hurt if he didn't do something about this little problem of his sister lunging at him with a giant scythe that hated Clubs. At this point the pain in his shoulder meant very little.
If he could knock her out of this before more damage was done, that would be ideal. Even if they didn't speak to each other for the rest of their lives, he would much rather have a voluntary silent treatment than one of them speaking to the other through six feet of dirt.
He met her charge, taking a chance at her swiping at him. He extended his paws out, slamming them into her chest, activated his Jack's ability, and breathed right in her face. He hoped it would have the intended effect.
Jack’s Ability: He is able to breathe out a five-foot cloud of clammy, stinky fog. The stench is absolutely vile. His breath only smells this bad when he invokes the ability and it is enough to make Cards rank five or lower pass out.
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Post by carcinoGeneticist on Jan 5, 2009 17:41:24 GMT -5
Rhiannon had no idea of what was going through her brother's mind. How could she, after all? She was having enough difficultly figuring out what was going through her own mind. All she could feel was the stone under her feet as she charged, her wings spreading slightly in a subconscious effort to make herself look larger and more intimidating.
When her brother met her charge she didn't have enough time to change her direction and so she collided directly with him in a tangle of paws and fur and scythe. She swung her weapon violently, aiming to hit her brother in some way, snarling and yipping in the way that only a coyote could.
Then she breathed in, and began to cough and gasp. Damn, she wished she still had her mask! She pushed hard at Hadrian in an attempt to push him off, but he was so much heavier than she was! For the moment, she thrashed and kicked against him to try and goad him off, but all that seemed to happen was that she pushed herself closer and closer to the source of the odor. It made her cough and gag hard, stomach fighting to keep its contents in place. Her eyes watered violently when she looked up at him. She activated an ability of her own as she held her breath and dropped her weapon as she lunged forward, teeth bared. Maybe it would disrupt his vile spell?
Strong Magical Ability When activated, she can inflict mental pain on another card of any suit, once per day. The degree of pain is equivalent to that of a thin blade being pressed more and more closely to their throat until they can actually feel their jugulars being sliced into. This usually causes them to pause and cough horribly while they regain their breath. Once they cough, it stops her spell, but she can start it up again ten minutes later as many times as she would like. This ability only affects Cards ranked 10 and lower fully, it can be used on Jacks once a day, and doesn't affect Kings and Queens.
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Post by Satra on Jan 6, 2009 1:30:18 GMT -5
Hadrian gasped sharply in pain. As Rhiannon swung almost wildly at him.. he'd gotten in close enough to avoid death, but felt the blade sting across his back. Blood oozed from the long wound that stretched all the way across his broad back right under the shoulder blades. Then to add to it all, the shaft hit him on the same shoulder as his previous injury. Not in the same spot, but it jarred the growing bruise and the fresh cut.
Then he felt it. A thin pressure against his throat that increased to pain. The foul-smelling fog he'd already managed to produce stayed, but this new pain disabled him from keeping his mind on the spell. At first he thought the scythe had some how managed to get around to his front. He wheeled back in panic, yelping as a combination of pain shot through him with the sudden movement. If he didn't act, he knew Apocalypse... he would be more than happy to take the effort to move that extra inch or two.
He paused in horror as he realized Pale was still behind him from Rhi's attack. The blade still at his back. In a flare of bramble and a very awkward hopping motion on his back legs to the side that was away from the blade, he reacted as quickly as he could to push the weapon up and away from him. With any luck, out of Rhi's reach as well.
He collapsed and screamed as the non-existent blade sliced into his jugular.
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