[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ze7epWJ.png[/img] [h1][color=steelblue]...Someone Gets Hurt[/color][/h1][/center] [hr] [hr] [center][h3]The Goddess's Blood Runs Red[/h3][/center] [color=6495ED]“The woes of the [i]hax'doiyap,”[/i][/color] That pitch, that [i]voice[/i]. Xiuyang had let her guard down on that evening, and the lurking spider wasted no time in seizing its chance. [color=8B008B]“and the stomach churning cope they spew. Fuck-”[/color] she was sitting on a rooftop, appropriately above the Yanii, with a single leg dangling over the edge and her palm supporting her chin. Juulet grinned once her eyes met Xiuyang’s. [color=8B008B]“never gets old.”[/color] She was chewing something, and by the smell of it some could deduce it was jamb’syp. The glob of brown saliva she spat out after a brief moment of heavy silence confirmed it. [color=8B008B]“You know what? I don’t buy that shit one bit. I don’t buy that there aren’t good enough dicks here for your scrawny, mudblood Yanii ass.”[/color] she leaned forward, and in an instant, she was standing a few metres before Salomé, balanced on one bare foot. [color=8B008B]“I bet it’s something else. That something is totally, and utterly fucked with you. And,”[/color] she bit her lip. [color=8B008B]“you’re hoping [i]we[/i] would be more understanding. Is that it? Acceptance, little Yanii with a hideous secret, hmmm?”[/color] she hopped half a metre closer. Xiuyang's eyes snapped open, and she sobered herself in an instant. Several emotions flickered in her eyes: first surprise, then fear, then what was probably a businesslike smile. Then, a shrug, and a smile of rueful acceptance. [color=steelblue]"The truth is always the most effective punchline, isn't it?"[/color] she replied, with a level of maturity that she probably couldn't have managed without borrowing her mother's voice. She sat up, and opened a hole in the roof of her dorm room with Binding magic. Out came two wine glasses and a bar cloth, and she set to work cleaning the lip of her gourd for her esteemed "guest." [color=steelblue]"It's true. I found acceptance with a select few of the Yasoi'riimel, and I clung desperately to it. I'd partly realized it myself, but when you put it so bluntly... I've done nothing of any tangible benefit to them. Your underlying, unspoken assumption that I am 'settling' for the yasoi is wrong; I prefer their company over most yanii. I won't deny the rest."[/color] She poured drinks for herself and Juulet. [color=steelblue]"...but I'm delaying the inevitable."[/color] She shrugged. [color=steelblue]"Might we speak candidly of my transgressions? I'd rather atone, and be a chip in your pile, than a stain on your boot; but the lever is yours to turn. To which side would you lean: are the yanii inferior but useful creatures, or would Sipenta be better off without them?"[/color] She took a long, long drink from her glass. Her drink tasted like sour grapes. Juulet's was much better, if she deigned to grace a drink poured by a yanii with her lips. There was sincerity in Xiuyang's voice; it didn't seem to be a trick question, but a genuine one. Mid-way through Xiuyang's answer, an obnoxiously loud yawn was ripped out with exaggerated arm stretches. [color=8B008B]“Leave it to a fucking Yanii to tell you their whole life story on a rhetorical question.”[/color] she exhaled loudly from her nostrils, almost as if steam was erupting from her nose. [color=8B008B]“Truth is I don't care why you tree ride. I just wanna know what makes you so repulsive to your own kind that you gotta cope the way you do.”[/color] another hop was taken, and the gap between the two closed even more. [color=steelblue]"Right. If I get the chance to write an autobiography, I'll keep it short,"[/color] she japed with as much good nature as she could, given the circumstances—and took another nice, long drink from her gourd, as though she understood that it was likely her last. [color=8B008B]“There are no politics here, girl. No hate for the sake for hatin'. Nah, as fun as it is, it's a waste of my divine time.”[/color] she clicked her tongue a couple of times, eyes wide in increasingly crazed. [color=8B008B]“My only problem right now is [i]you[/i]. You took something I wanted. Something [i]real[/i] nice, and continued to be a cunt about it too.”[/color] she shook her head. [color=8B008B]“I'm going to do something bad to you, Salami. Pretty damn nasty. Absolutely revolting.”[/color] a third hop. She clasped her hands together and took a moment to admire any emotion that was coursing through Xiuyang's being and inevitable manifested deep in her eyes. [color=8B008B]“But first, that mask ...”[/color] she raised a hand and wiggled her fingers, telegraphing a clear desire to [i]touch[/i], and given her past inclinations, likely [i]seize[/i] too. [color=8B008B]“What's under there?”[/color] As she listened to Juulet, her eyes could have been described by some as slightly hopeful at first. Then, slightly confused: continued to be a cunt about it? When? Every muscle in her body tensed. As Juulet drew closer, the night air started to feel colder. Her skin crawled as she repeated herself for emphasis. It wasn't the night air—it was those [i]mad eyes.[/i] Xiuyang's body shook, her voice only coming out smooth and even on account of her mask. [color=steelblue]"Nothing worth your divine time. Just another forgettable face."[/color] [center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ5gtInauiI][h3]♫[/h3][/url][/center] [i]Crash.[/i] Another object flew up from the fresh hole in the roof: the Staff of the Burning Monkey King. It crashed into the drink Xiuyang had offered Juulet, which went ignored. Both were showered in booze and broken glass. By the time the dust settled, Xiuyang was already running across the rooftops, staff in hand. [color=steelblue]"I should be flattered that you're curious about it, but it's the one thing I won't show to anyone!"[/color] The shattered glass and spreading fluids froze mid-air when they got within Juulet's bubble. And they then converged into a single point, until they reformed the glass with only slight entropy to its overall form. She tossed the actual drink once the glass landed on her palm and took a sip of the non-existing drink. [color=6495ED]“Good, I was scared this would become some boring ass attempt at a debate.”[/color] she rocketed after the fleeing girl with monkey-like agility. It was clear Juulet was the fastest of the two, and if it weren't for her inclination to play with her food, she would already be breathing onto Xiuyang's nape. Instead, she 'detonated' air mines in Xiuyang's path, most missing but the debris wasn't so easily avoided. [color=6495ED]“You're nimble for a Yanii! Did Ashy teach ya'?! Wow!”[/color] she wasn't flying and instead hopped from roof to roof with uttered 'boing's in each jump. [color=6495ED]“Tell you what! Give me that mask, and I won't make you eat your hat!”[/color] she laughed maniacally. And after the final mine detonated right before the Revidian prey, appeared Juulet half a metre before her. Hard as a wall and immovable by any collision. Xiuyang staggered and almost tripped; perhaps she didn't sober herself up as well as she thought. Several expletives were uttered as she defended against the debris, twirling her staff and dodging two more mines. She knew Juulet was toying with her, but she wouldn't let it break her. She'd take every chance she was given, even from the hands of someone who hated her. She did manage to stop in time to not run straight into Juulet. Truthfully, she might have given in to any other demand she could have thrown at her, but she would rather die than show her face—not that she'd tempt her by saying it out loud. She pivots, using her staff and what little kinetic she could muster to fling herself onto another series of rooftops. She wasn't making good time. Juulet rolled her eyes. [color=8B008B]“So defiant. It's that bad, huh?”[/color] she didn't sprint just yet and watched Xiuyang go. [color=8B008B]“Depriving me of what I want ...”[/color] and suddenly, she was up above, right ontop of the fleeing Revidian girl. [color=8B008B]“Makes me crave it all the more.”[/color] her grin matched her mad eyes. The Yasoi then dived into her prey, still abusing temporal magic as much as she could, to make it as seamless as possible for herself. [color=8B008B]“MINE!”[/color] As Juulet bore down on her, Xiuyang drew. She drew as much as she could—perhaps more than she ever did, including during last year's trials. She was stronger than she let on under most circumstances, and perhaps even more than she herself realized. With madness briefly flashing in her own eyes as well, she twirled her staff, and managed to actually repel Juulet's strike. By the look in her eyes, she didn't expect to do that—might not have even [i]wanted[/i] to do that. For the first time that night, her eyes showed true, life and death terror. She inhaled, and screamed, with the benefit of her mask's audio projections. The ear-piercing sound traveled far and rattled nearby windows. She knew she could never outrun Juulet, and her greatest attack only managed to deflect her [i]bare hand.[/i] She had no good options. She needed someone to save her. Missed. Her right hand pierced right into the roof after being deflected by the unusually sturdy stick. The burning rage in Juulet's eyes were contrasted with the adrenaline-filled glee she was experiencing from the anticipation of getting her reward. An absolutely destructive combo worthy of the moniker of Mad Avatar. [color=FF8C00]“Screaming for help?!”[/color] she shouted back as the plea reverberated through her and the whole neighborhood. Many lamps turned on, people stepped out of their homes and lamplighters were surely nearby. [color=FF8C00]“I'll make you regret that.”[/color] she venomously spat out right as a temporal tear formed behind Xiuyang. A portal, one leading into a dark and cold place. She then charged, rocketed forward with her Arcane mastery over simple kinetic. Xiuyang tried to mount a defense, anchoring herself in place with kinetic and binding, also using binding to form a shield enhanced with explosive chemicals. However, it was not enough. She was easily thrown into the portal and sent flying, tumbling through the grass. Her heart raced incomprehensibly fast. She almost hoped she would just have a heart attack and die right now, but then the whole school would see her corpse. Or, perhaps, just Juulet would. She couldn't be sure if her body would last, or if she'd even be discovered. Only when her body stopped tumbling did her life stop flashing before her eyes, rapid and morbid thoughts swirling as time slowed to a crawl. She forced herself to her feet, enduring fireworks of agony from her broken ribs with every breath—but still, she could stand. She could not, however, run. Run [i]where?[/i] Her only option now was to fight. She drew again, but her reduced drawing speed was catching up to her. With binding and kinetic, she created a small sandstorm around her, then used arcane pyromancy to turn it into a storm of glass. She hurled it at Juulet with a silent prayer to Eshiran for deliverance. Eshiran heard her call. Juulet zipped through the portal as it closed right behind her with Xiuyang ragdolled into the lake's beach. They were seemingly nowhere, although to those familiar with the area, they would know they weren't too far from the city. [color=FF8C00]“Yes, squirm little worm.”[/color] she straightened herself, bemused by the attempts at survival by the Revidian. However, little did the Avatar know ... Eshiran answered her call. [color=FF8C00]“Child's play.”[/color] she extended an arm out and aggressively drew the heat Xiuyang was conjuring. But then came the sands, and then the glass. What was supposed to be a show of strength to bring complete and utter despair backfired. In an instant, her hand was pierced in multiple areas by the sharp glass. And then her whole arm. [color=FF8C00]“Something like this ...”[/color] her eyes widened, but she did not panic just yet. Both her arms were extended, and this time she used blood magic mixed with a burning aura to surround her being. [color=FF8C00]“Can't do shit to a Goddess!”[/color] But the storm didn't stop. Something much bigger than some Yanii could naturally make. [color=FF8C00]“Something as low as this ... Will Not-!”[/color] she had to dig her foot into the earth just to not completely falter and be taken by the storm. [color=FF8C00]“Something. Such as. THIS!”[/color] the storm pierced through, and her maddened grimace twisted into pain and unrefined fury. She vanished into the storm after letting a final, furious screech that echoed through the surrounding forest. Xiuyang stood frozen, eyes partially shut, expecting her unfocused and desperate spell to fail. It was experimental and hadn't even been perfected yet; she only threw it out for lack of any other ideas. She was [i]sure[/i] she had messed it up in at least one stage. It shouldn't have done [i]anything[/i] to Juulet. She glanced around, her whole body shaking like a leaf. She looked for Juulet in wide-eyed panic. In a rare moment of clarity, she looked for a savior, who surely empowered her attack or weakened Juulet's in some fashion to make this happen. It got quiet. Calm waters climbed to the short and withdrew with the softest of sounds. There was nothing after that scream and the subsiding of the storm. Just Xiuyang, alone and cold. For a moment it almost felt like it was over. But she and the Gods knew this wasn't the end. What was a simple combination of spells to an avid time abuser? Juulet manifested right in front of Xiuyang, bloodied with her left eye kept shut while the other remained partially concealed behind her dark and dirty locks. Her whole attire was ripped to shreds and her skin did not fare much better. [center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfo2R5iF7_0][h3]♫[/h3][/url][/center] Immediately she went for the throat, squeezed and lifted the smaller girl only to slam her down to the ground, flat on her back. A few bones were going to go there. [color=FF8C00]“You've caused a Goddess to bleed.”[/color] she spoke in what was perhaps the most collected manner Salomé had seen yet. In her deep rage, she had found some sort of clarity. [color=FF8C00]“I should kill you. I want to kill you. Sacrifice you. Tarnish you. Wear your skin and decorate my hall with your skull. Not before doing so many bad things.”[/color] the more she spoke, the more her panting because audible. She almost drooled in her long-winded hateful speech. [color=FF8C00]“But in my infinite generosity, I found a better idea.”[/color] She let go the throat and instead went for the Revidian's hair. As she stood, the badly wounded Xiuyang was made to rise with her until she was off her feet and hanging a centimetre above the dirt. [color=DA70D6]“First, though, what I came here to do.”[/color] She readied her idle hand, formed a fist, and bashed it into the human's face. Over and over, with only half of them fully stifled by a last ditch effort to use magic. [color=DA70D6]“C'mon. Take it off and I'll stop. I won't even make you say uncle. Promise. Do it. Now.”[/color] Despite having her throat crushed by Juulet, the ever-present mask dutifully projected the would-be sounds of her desperate attempts to breathe. Only with the totality of her magic was she able to barely cling to life. As Juulet slammed her to the ground, a light seemed to go out in her eyes. This was a woman who knew she was dead. She didn't even bother to scream a second time. Instead, she focused all of her energy on preserving the integrity of her mask. She wasn't even thinking about why she was doing it—out of spite, perhaps? Though she saw no beauty in herself, she saw it in the yasoi, and had tried to support them. Though she was a fool, she tried to learn from her transgressions. Though she felt herself of little worth—just another rich brat leeching off the lower class—she tried to find the value in it. Though she'd been a coward, she tried to make a stand. Though the scales of her heart were weighted with bias, she tried to give Juulet a chance. Though she believed the rumors about Xiuyang at face value, she'd tried to be better. The gods would not reward her efforts. Not in this life. In the end, she'd made Juulet bleed. Perhaps that was the greatest achievement of her life, though she wouldn't dare say it. She couldn't do anything to stop her now. She couldn't even lift her arms up to remove the mask with her own hands. With a touch of kinetic, it gave a final, weak hiss, and dropped to the ground. Juulet saw it: the true face of Xiuyang Solari. There was a glow in Juulet's one open eye. A glint you'd see on a child when they tore open a gift to find out what it was. Finally, this inconsequential enigma was going to be answered. And once she found it ... She stared blankly. The corner of her eye twitched. [color=8B008B]“Is this a joke?”[/color] she slapped Xiuyang's temple like she was some sort of broken contraption. [color=8B008B]“A trick? What the fuck? I leave that pit only to find more of this?!”[/color] Then, she snorted like a young porcine cub. [color=8B008B]“Fuck.”[/color] she sat upon Xiuyang's ribs, certainly damaged after the previous impact, and slapped her own bloodied forehead. [color=8B008B]“Yanii. Yasoi. Hegelan. Hells, even the slithering fucks could never love something like this. Holy fucking fuck balls.”[/color] she laughed, viciously. The intent was to hurt, and the revulsion was hardly hidden. She barely held back some stomach acids from rising. [color=8B008B]“Killing you would be a pity.”[/color] she said softly, but the venom never left her voice. [color=8B008B]“And as a generous Goddess, I'll grant you your one, true wish.”[/color] Right below them, another portal opened. They were now suspended above it, with Juulet holding Xiuyang with her one good leg. [color=8B008B]“I'll give you a chance at acceptance. Among those that best suit you. Oh yes.”[/color] a wicked grin took form. Below her, Xiuyang could feel a slightly warmer air - a tad drier than the shore they were at. It smelled like bark and distant smoke. What she could sense were vague humanoid forms huddled up together with wildly unusual energy signatures. [color=8B008B]“Fare you well, pathetic little Salami.”[/color] Juulet scoffed before letting go. Xiuyang fell into the unknown - far, far away from the familiar. [color=8B008B]“Fare you well.”[/color] Xiuyang's eyes met Juulet's, and for perhaps a fraction of a second, there was pity for the remains of her twisted mind, buried under the distorted facsimile of childlike innocence. But then, she looked at her like she was a [i]thing[/i]—a dangerous thing the Zenos of Ersand'Enise had allowed to exist, to walk and talk and pretend to be something resembling a human being. No; she was a feral beast, put on a pedestal and worshipped by misguided fools—given a taste for yanii suffering and death, and in the end, [i]she,[/i] the victim of this unreasonable creature, would be the one blamed for the events of this night, by those that had created this monster. Another portal opened, but Xiuyang's eyes offered no further terror or despair for Juulet to feed on. A profoundly cosmic acceptance washed over her, as if her soul had already left her body. Juulet had promised something "absolutely revolting," and the implications of those words were not lost on Xiuyang. From the moment those words exited her mouth, perhaps, she had expected this kind of fate. Juulet closed the portal, extinguishing the light cast by the moon of Ipte and the stars above. Xiuyang hoped the impact would finish her off. Instead, the canopy of treetops battered her already-broken body even further. Branches tangled with clothes, and her body settled somewhere halfway up into the trees, cradled by her own robe as if it were a hammock. Her neck hung at an odd angle, but it wasn't yet broken. For a moment, the spot felt strangely comfortable, and sleep tempted her. However, now that she had some measure of control over the situation once more, her will to live came back from the depths and roused her, demanding immediate action. There were humanoid shapes down below, whispering amongst one another. Six yasoi, alerted to the sound of her fall, but none of them seemingly convinced that it was worth checking out. Hours passed as Xiuyang slowly healed only the most critical injuries, using only the most subtle binding magic she could manage—the kind of magic even wild creatures could use. Right now, all she needed was to be able to move away from this group. Once she was capable, she pushed through the agony and forced herself to climb through the treetops. One of the yasoi was slowly stalking her. Once they were out of earshot of the other five yasoi, hunter and prey simultaneously decided to run. Xiuyang was as slow as ever, and he was fast—fast, but [i][b]weak.[/b][/i] He threw out an attack that should have been child's play for Xiuyang. She barely managed a defense; he struck her face, and she bled. A rage not dissimilar to Juulet's own overtook her. Not because of that pathetic exchange—but because of what she [i]saw.[/i] The beanie's temporal effect showed it to her. What he would [i][b]do[/b][/i] if he caught her. Her fists clenched and trembled with rage. [color=dimgray]"I made your goddess [i]bleed,"[/i][/color] she snarled. [color=dimgray]"You are [i]dust."[/i][/color] She drew, and he flinched in fear. Though the two could not understand each other's words, murderous intent was a universal language. "D-Demon..!" he whimpered. "DEMON!!" he shouted, turning to run—but Xiuyang would not [i]let[/i] him run. She gave chase, intent on slaughtering him, like the animal he was. Once more, he was too fast. Xiuyang only sobered from her murderous rage once she realized his allies were coming to back him up. She turned tail and ran, [i][b]ran[/b][/i] from the fate that awaited her if she could not outrun them. She saw it again—she'd trip on a root, and they'd be upon her. Using her temporal precognition, she avoided every obstacle that came her way, while the beasts behind her stumbled over each other to be the first to reach their quarry. Having lost them for now, she collapsed into a muddy crevice, and covered her favorite robe in dirt to wash out the colors and blend in. Exhausted, cold, alone, and frightened beyond measure, she wondered if she would survive, or if the Zenos would even bother starting an investigation...