This is the woman she has watched more than any other in her entire life. The various legends and current stars of the Hex she has only ever looked at through the lens of the official Aristeia! broadcast, which she can only sort of watch without getting twitchy and starting to pace her apartment. She has never studied footage, has never built a profile on an opponent, cannot even name half of her competitors without looking at her phone. 

But Machia? That's been a matter of survival, hasn't it? 

What does it mean when her fingers twitch? Why does she look down in certain circumstances when she's so unnervingly capable of driving her eyes right through Madeleine's in so many other cases? When does her little frown mean she's pensive, and when does it mean she's happy? When is it neither, and she's simply digesting a problem too big to describe? What is a trap, what are her vulnerabilities, when are [i]those[/i] a trap? She shows too much teeth right after she drugs something, and too little when she hasn't and she's lying about having done it anyway. It's dangerous when her eyes flash too bright. She's up to something when they dull. She can recognize the moment when Machia has decided to take her leg off almost without looking at this point. The shift in the air from the temperature spike in her body is plenty.

Although, it's never looked like this before...

Madeleine is not a woman with much in the way of talent. She has no mystic sixth gear, there is no wizardry she can perform with her body to shift tempo the way that her opponent can. Now that she's moving this quickly, she doesn't even really have enough strength to stop herself in the hex without tearing something in half. The one and only thing she has going for her is a willingness to endure pain. She sees the 'kick' coming but all she does is open her eyes wider to lock onto the missile and, with a final gathering of strength, launches herself into the air. 

There is no graceful twist around the leg. At most she manages to torque her neck and tuck in her shoulder so that when it smashes into her it cuts her over her right eyebrow instead of stopping her cold. She winces, gulping in a way that somehow swallows what's left of her sandwich as she leans even harder into her trajectory. She curls inward, snatching at the leg as it passes and cradling it against her chest with one arm and hurtles directly into Machia.

The two of them collide. Madeleine, laughing and still half crying, stretches her body at the moment of impact, just enough to put one foot under her to sort of kind of gracelessly "land" on the ground instead of just crashing. She kicks, leaps, snatches her drink bottle in her teeth where a sandwich used to be, and streeeeeeeeeeeeetches for the very corner of the hex.

Two fingertips. That's all that sticks. She lies there on her back, arm still desperately reached into the scoring zone, heaving and sweating and giggling like a deranged lunatic.