Scrape scrape [Finished!]

[carcinoGeneticist]

Now this, this was the kind of anger Zenon rarely managed to see, at least not aimed at her. This was the anger of a jilted lover, the rage of a protective parent. This was someone who had been physically harmed and their pride damaged all in the same swing, lashing out in an attempt to make up for lost face. Zenon knew this reaction, she'd written about it in her most recent article. Best of all, it was looking as though she was going to need to write revisions. She'd done nothing to this bird - well, maybe he was feeling embarrassed, but there was no direct witness to that, and yet...

As Colin raged, the hybrid stared at him with a level calm gained through years of practice, never even batting an eye. She listened to him scream, jotting down something in her mental note-pad: Put this in all caps. Her ear twitched as his pitch rose. That... well, that was uncomfortable.

"At this point, yes, this is true. I am sitting right in front of you, and it would take an input of effort on your part to leave this situation,[/b]" she replied in a voice that might have sounded like a whisper, when compared to the volume of Colin's own. "However, the truth remains, it was you who encroached on my quiet evening and then made the decision to stay. Can you understand, then, why I might be so bewildered? Your actions and words are at complete odds, worse than a Lowlander who says they have pride in their region and yet endlessly seek a cure for their rot.[/b]"

She wondered if, in his current state, he would even fully recognize that she had just compared him to a Lowlander. Mentally, she prepared herself for a blow of some kind.

[Lucca]

Colin opened his beak, and closed it again, glaring at her with a look that could cause dry ice to spontaneously combust. A vein in his head pulsed with rage, and he repeated the action, beak opening and closing but no sound coming out. Finally, he managed another high pitched angry chirp. He was, at this point, simply too angry to speak. Too angry to think rationally or really at all. Nothing had possibly ever managed to set the Bird off quite this badly, and he'd later bear a grudge against Zenon so strong that he'd probably rather be left to bleed out than ever have to be treated by her in her capacity as a doctor, should their paths ever cross again in the future. That was just the way Colin's mind worked.

At being compared to a Lowlander (and yes, he recognized the slight; he could feel each insult now as if they were physical blows to his person) red filled his vision. With a wordless screech, he dove at the woman, beak biting at her and claws lashing out as he leapt in a flurry of ruffled purple feathers. Blindly, he struck out, trying to hurt her, like a wounded animal and not the rational, highly sophisticated Card Colin always saw himself as otherwise.

[carcinoGeneticist]

Yes, violence seemed at this point to be an inevitable conclusion to this little interaction. Regrettable, surely, but it was in the name of her research, and that made whatever scratches or scrapes the man might give her worth the pain. Her ears pressed back against her head as she eyed him warily, beginning to mentally count down the seconds. Her estimate was thirty until he exploded fully.

She only reached fifteen before there was a screeching tumble of purple feathers was throwing itself at her, pecking and clawing violently. A rather ineloquent noise escaped her of its own accord, somewhere between harsh caw and startled hiss, as talons raked through her thick Solandrian undercoat. She threw herself backwards from the suddenly violent creature.

Damn, but that was close. Zenon hunched her powerful feline hind-limbs, then propelled herself backwards, body yanked along by her Diamond flight ability. She tumbled through the air for a second, then landed on the table behind them, knocking over mostly-empty mugs of beer left by the previous patrons of the bar. The Corvie hybrid had a moment of relief that they had left. One angry target was more than enough for the time being. All four legs bent as the woman sank into a crouch, her ears pulled back as an angry hiss escaped her. She gave the man a warning swipe, continuing to back away.

It was just a test now of how long it would take him to regain control of himself. She hoped beyond hope that he didn't have any unexpectedly powerful abilities. That would... complicate things.

Powerful Magical Ability
When activated, she can fly for 1 hour. Winged Diamonds can use this ability for effortless, perfectly controlled flight.

[Lucca]

Colin was more animal than true Card at the moment, feathers fluffed up into angry disarray, eyes wide and pupils merely small pinpricks within the burning blue pools. He reacted to her darting back as any angry cardinal might, spreading his wings and launching himself after her, knocking over several stools in the process of taking off, his natural clumsy streak a hundred times worse when he lost all sense of self control.

His feathers skimmed through a few drinks left of the counter as he bore down on the table where the lynx-crow crouched, mindless fury still having him firmly in its grasp. Luckily for Zenon, Colin had almost no extra abilities whatsoever beyond those common to his Suit, and certainly no offensive ones, though he did subconsciously activate his Spade speed boost as he flew at her, making his attack come on much faster than she might be expecting. He once again slashed blindly with claws and beak, most likely setting himself up for her counter attack if she so chose.

The other patrons were staring, some of them beginning a ragged, drunken cheer for one or the other of the fighting Cards, and the barkeep twitched uncomfortably, as if contemplating whether or not he should start throwing people out...though many of them still seemed wary of Zenon's appearance, and wouldn't approach because of this.

Basic Magical Ability: He can run up to 30mph in sprints and 20mph for up to an hour in extended runs.

[carcinoGeneticist]

A counter-attack was the last thing on the woman's mind at this point. She simply wanted to stay out of his way until he calmed down, and then she wanted to get home and write all of her newly-discovered information down, while it was still fresh in her mind. When the bird lunged at her, surprisingly fast, Zenon's hiss turned into a startled caw and she threw herself sideways this time, once again out of the furious man's path, using the momentum from activating and deactivating her flight ability quickly to throw herself under a nearby table.

One that was occupied, but that wasn't the point.

"Excuse me, gentlemen,[/b]" the woman muttered as all around her patrons stirred and shifted. At least she hadn't bumped the table and knocked over their beers - the situation would really be bad then. She scootched herself back, putting some more distance between herself and the cardinal, then pressed her way through the chairs at the back. There was only a few feet between herself and the doorway, now, and Zenon glanced back in the general direction she'd last seen the furious Colin in. She knew when it was time to get out.

[Lucca]

A furious squawk tore itself from Colin's beak as his talons raked only empty air, and he swerved, the movement wide and imprecise because of how fast he'd been going in a different direction. He continued to launch himself at the black and brown form, not being nearly so careful as Zenon and crashing heavily into one leg of the table Zenon had been under, upending it and spilling whatever the customers hadn't grabbed...which luckily the men had mostly made to secure their drinks and vacate the table after the first intrusion.

It didn't occur to Colin to block off the exit; his field of vision was narrowed to only the infuriating woman who, in his mind, had caused all of this with her incessant needling of him. He charged her, beak gaping and eyes sparking angrily, Spade speed still lending a quickness to his attack. If he managed to catch her, his beak would seek to bite through that thick coat of fur and feathers.

[carcinoGeneticist]

People were milling around now, surrounding the pair of brawlers - well, at least one brawler, and someone who just wanted to get away from that place. Zenon felt trapped, worse than usual when she skidded across the floor and crashed into a pair of legs, whirling to face that person with a hiss. That put her right into the path of the raging bird, of course, and a moment later her would crash rather soundly into her bulky frame.

This wasn't going at all right. It wasn't that the woman was really afraid of a fight, persay, more that she usually worked hard to avoid ones that involved her. The healing of wounds was a slow, frustrating process, especially when she needed to get one of her coworkers to help patch herself up. A loud and enraged screech escaped her beak as she tumbled across the floor with Colin, a screech that went up dramatically in volume when his beak finally managed to strike her hard enough to actually get through her protective coat, causing her quite a bit of pain.

"Enough![/b]" The woman squealed, trying to roll beneath the bird, lashing out with her clawed forepaws as well as her feline hinds, kicking repeatedly at the man's belly. She didn't want to hurt him, not really, but she wanted him to get off her. She opened her beak to reveal pointed fangs, hissing again.

[Lucca]

Colin made a strange, unnatural sounding squawk of triumph as he succeeded in tackling the horrible woman, still lashing out as they tumbled across the floor, heedless of all the other patrons of the bar. Their shouts, their crowding bodies, their drunken looks, all of it was lost on the single-minded Cardinal right then.

It wasn't Zenon's loud, spoken word of command that got through to him, or her hiss, but a moment later, one of her back claws managed to hit home. Hot white pain laced through his side, and he gave a small, unhappy chirp, but even this wasn't quite enough to bring him back to himself...until a steady hand landed on his shoulder and gave a firm, but gentle, tug. The barkeeper had finally decided to step in.

At the sudden, unexpected touch, combined with the pain of the wound in his side (he was lucky it hadn't been his stomach, really, as that would have been so much worse) Colin froze. He went completely, utterly, still, blue eyes wide as the rage slowly slipped out of them to be replaced by horrified realization. He paled visibly beneath his purple feathers, gaze darting back and forth between the faces of those looking on, staring, leering.

He had to get out of here. Had to get away. He leapt up and off of Zenon in one motion, doing his best to ignore the blood trickling down his side.

[carcinoGeneticist]

It wasn't working. Words weren't working, and even when she felt the grim satisfaction that one of her claws had managed to catch the man's side, his assault on her continued. Her head smashed against the floor with a thud, pain exploding white across her vision, and she blinked a few times to try and regain her sense of self. Colin's enraged expression swam back into her view and she shook her head hard, an attempt to cast the last of the bleariness away. She needed to get up, to get him off her - he was bleeding on her, now, and she had no way of knowing if he had any blood-borne diseases, she didn't want to be exposed to something --

A face appeared over the Cardinal's shoulder, followed by a burly arm and large hand. She felt the weight of the man vanish and immediately rolled onto her feet, all of the impressively long hair along her spine standing on-end. Her test-subject had gone still a moment before he'd jumped off of her and had looked around the room with a horrified kind of shock - he hadn't been fully aware of what he'd been doing, then? That was interesting - and didn't seem to be paying nearly as much attention to her as he had been.

Perfect. Without another glance in his general direction, the feline hybrid turned for the door that had been her initial goal and fled, trying to get far enough away that he wouldn't be able to follow her home. That would have been the last thing she needed - someone showing up at her door with poisoned cookies or something of the sort.

As soon as she'd gotten some distance from the bar, she activated her flight ability, diving into the night. This was going to make one hell of a paper.

[Lucca]

It was one of Colin's deepest, secret weaknesses...that if he got mad enough, he'd just completely lose himself in the rage. It probably came from the fact that he was in such rigid control of his emotions and reactions most of the time, a sort of freakish backlash or overcompensation. Either way, the Cardinal felt a rising sense of panic and utter horror and shame over his complete loss of control. He...could never remember being quite that angry before, and it scared him.

Finding his Spade speed still activated, he used it to rush out the door, putting distance between himself and the bar and never looking back, heedless of whatever the barkeeper or the patrons might be yelling at him as he left. As he ran, the fear was forced down, the shock as well, giving in to the anger that still sparked in him. Now, though, it was cooling, twisting into something else, something that made his stomach clench every time he thought of that hateful, mocking face, that awful, grating caw in the voice of -her-. This was, after all, -her- fault entirely. She'd intended to get him that angry. She'd kept pushing and pushing until he'd just boiled over. Yes, he knew, he should have walked away...but she should have shut her big beak.

All he could think as he took to the sky and made for home, blood drying on his feathers, was how good it was that he'd never have to see her again, because if he did, he couldn't be sure he wouldn't lose it completely again.

Let no one say Colin couldn't hold a grudge.

((ooc: aaaaand done? )