Spring 2005 TOA Round 2 - psychosyd v. Malevolence

[LocoColt04]

Welcome to the semifinals. No, your eyes do not deceive you. Yes, you are here, and yes, this thread is stickied. Wouldn't want it to get lost in everything else now, would we?

Everything is the same as it was in the first round. Each of these fights is on a different day, and the first poster has creative choice with the time of day and the weather. Just no snow or anything, considering the hemisphere and the time of year. Aside from that, my only advice is to be aware of your surroundings, and remember the "little" things which happened to be the deciding factors in the first round fights.

One week has passed since the fourth and final fight of the first round. For timeline purposes, that specific fight was the one between Gambit and Gerrard (the psychosyd/Archis fight), which never actually started.

I only have one real request for this round -- make use of your time. I'd like to see at least four posts each, and I honestly don't think that's asking too much of you, especially in this longer time frame.

You have until the sixth of May.
I will be stopping in at the end of the month to remind you.

[Malevolence]

”Isn’t there ANYWHERE someone can get good rum around here?”

“Listen sir, I’m sorry if you’re not happy with the quality of our drinks, but please, don’t yell. We have some very irritable, very inebriated people here, and they generally all have hangovers. So…just keep your voice down.”

“Sorry. Amaretto and vodka on the rocks. Stiff.”

“Comin’ up.”

Taere’s drink arrived promptly after being mixed, and he drained half of it in one shot. He was bored as all hell – it had been 6 days and he had absolutely nothing to do until the fight the next morning. Or, more accurately, that morning. It was about 2:30, and his fight was scheduled to start promptly at 8. He could generally get by on about 5 hours of sleep, but that was getting progressively harder, and by then, pretty impossible. He knew by then he wasn’t going to be in the best shape for the fight, even if he had a shot of adrenaline right beforehand.

Taere stared at the ice and liquid in the glass, clinked them around in front of his face for a minute or two, and then downed the rest of the drink. He left a few coin pieces on the bar, and walked out. The moon was surprisingly bright, presumably because he’d been inside a darkened bar all night. He was a good 2 hours walk from the field, so he figured he’d walk there first, then get up when people started making noise. He was alright with the streets, but once he got out of the city into the more rural areas, and finally into dense forest, he began to lose his bearings. The topazes on his armour glowed a bit, illuminating his body and about a foot around him, but other than that, he was practically blind under the dense canopies of the trees. He walked slowly, looking down as he did so, and got far enough, about halfway by his estimates, then stopped.

“Oh, fuck you.”

Taere looked down directly at the root he was struggling with the week before. He bent down, to examine what damage he had done. He saw little to none. Just for spite, he extended his gauntlet blade, and chopped down at the root so as to cathartically sever it. With his luck, of course, this didn’t happen. Instead, his left arm became firmly lodged in one position – with the blade stuck horizontally in the root, which was obviously extremely uncomfortable. He strained his muscles’ capacities pulling on his arm, but ended up still firmly lodged in a rather distressing, contorted position.

“Mind if I help?”

“Roma, I can handle it myself,” Taere said, then muttered, “When I got you stuck in my wrist I didn’t think you’d be stuck in my head, too.”

“I heard that, you know.”

“Fine, you have a better idea?”

“Actually, yes, I do. If you’ll excuse me…”

The topaz on his left wrist glowed bluish, and then the blade attached to his left hand took on a similar aura. Suddenly, the root blinked out of existence in a puff of black ink.

“What the hell? Care to explain?”

“No.”

“Fine…”

Taere continued walking, until he could see the bleachers reflecting white light through the trees. He reached them within a few minutes, and laid down under a tree behind them. Almost the moment his head hit ground, he passed out sleeping like a rotting log. When he woke up, he realized that may have been because he had unknowingly laid down next to a rotting log. He was awakened at around 7:00 by the sound of buzzing chitin shells about an inch from his nose. He jumped up, ready to fight…a maggot the size of his pinkie fingernail.

“Well, if I’m up already…”

Taere walked into the middle of the field, and waited. Apparently his opponent was famous for some kind of card trick, so fighting him would be, to say the least, interesting.

[psychosyd]

(OOC: This first part is for Cesar and only for Cesar, so im going to make it as crappy as possible)

He never came
----------------------------------------------------------------------

"These cards got a nice feel to them chere, I like how they feel." I sez to da girl behind da counter, lookin ever so pretty with her hair all down.

Leaning across the counter top, I look at her, staring into her eyes.

"Mebe Gambit will buy an extra pack if it came wit' dinner on Saturday no?" I sez, raising my eyebrow slightly. She blushes slightly, looking away, which iz always a good sign dat Gambits abilities with da ladies hasn't grown slack yet.

"Well... err, Mr Gambit, I get off work at 4, I could meet you then" She stammers slighly. Gambit must say she is quite cute when she's blushin.

Reachin out, I take her 'and an put da two packs of cards in em, enclosin my hands over hers.

"Well now, dat would be lovely Chere, I'll be right here for wait'in for ya. Now if you could ring 'dese up for me, dat would be lovely." Turnin around I lean back on de counta as de miss finishes checkin out my cards, and Gambit for dat matter. It was about 6:40 AM right now by my wager, and I had places to be in an hour. Da ladies could wait until den no?

After purchasin my cards, I slide them into one of the many interior pockets of my trench coat. A good t'eif always has pockets enough to hide many curious objects, and while it has been a while since I left da T'eives guild back home, Gambit still kept a few skills here and dere. Grabbin my staff, I give a nod behind be before walkin out.

"See ya latah Chere, Gambit has some work ta do" I seyz over my shoulder as I leave the store and out into the daylight.

It was just barely dawn, or so it could be guessed by the way the sun was just barely rising over the mountains promising for a new day. Another round of the tournament in fact, after a weeks reprieve. Not that there had been any fighting for Gambit.

"Meybe dis time things will be a bit more interesting no?" I says to myself under my breath. Taere sounded like an interesting opponent, or as much as he could be. Hopefully he will provide some amusment.

It was a nice walk to the tournament arena, and being 20 minutes early helped for getting a good feel of the surroundings. I never like to be in a situation where I dont have any knowledge of the geography anyways. First rule as a T'eif, know your surroundings and the quick escapes. In the distance Taere is even quite visible, having already arrived and was waiting.

"Well then, I don wanna keep him up too long." I say as I walk up to face Taere. I sink ever so slightly into the moist ground, wet from morning mildew and a light rain which had come only the day previous. It could mean slippery footing, or extra traction. That particular elemnt will have to be determined later.

"Gambit is a man of his honor, and since I arrived second, you can have the honors of makin the first move Mes Amis." I says, standing with my hands holding my staff tightly, awaiting whatever Taere had in store.

(OOC2: For those nerds who care, I modeled the first part of my post off the way Gambit was introduced in the first episode of the X-Men cartoon, "Night of the Sentinels" Part 1. For the rest of you, theres a bit of trivia you now know)

[Malevolence]

((OOC: Please tell me your entire RP isn’t going to be that hard to understand…fucking Cajuns. Oh, and “bo staff” is the correct spelling. ‘Tis Japanese, not English.))

Taere looked out through the morning fog that seemed to constantly hover over the forest at the exact wrong times and saw…little to nothing. It was still early and the fog was just as thick as the morning of his last fight with Roma. As per the last week, the fog seemed to clear at the exact right moment (magic, perhaps?), revealing a tall, tank-skinned man wearing a brown trenchcoat and carrying a long metal bo staff. He seemed somehow familiar…but Taere wasn’t sure why. The he saw the red eyes.

“Gambit is a man of his honor, and since I arrived second, you can have the honors of makin’ the first move mes amis.”

Before he could even start to think, Roma decided to butt in again.

“I know who that is!”

“Oh, from your amazing one month stay on this plane of existence, you already know about this guy?”

“Of course I do. He’s Remy LeBeau, a thief. You know, he’s in those…what do you call them…comic books.”

Taere paused. “Roma…those are made up. Fake. Not real.”

“Obviously not, seeing as Gambit is standing in front of you.”

“Roma, please, you can’t be serious. If he was really—”

Remy interrupted Taere’s thought: “Listen mes amis, I dunno who you’re talkin’ to yourself about, but I’s me, and tha’s that. Now like Gambit said, you have the first move. I suggest you take it, or you might find me ace of spades somewhere it shouldn’t be.”

Taere stared at his arm – at Roma specifically – and glared. He then looked up and drew his sword, allowing the crystal to form the blade once again, and as usual, in a slightly different shape than before. He began the same way as he had his fight with Roma, but this time something he didn’t expect happened. Roma’s black inky self wormed its way up from his right gauntlet into the blade of the sword, turning its normal light blue hue into a dark hazy purplish-black that seemed to almost leak out of the blade, surrounding it in a light-eating aura. Taere glared at Roma’s small illuminated eyes in the blade as if to say “What the fuck are you doing?”

“If your sword is going to be called the Malevolence, shouldn’t it have a little evil in it?”

Taere shrugged a bit to himself, then readied his newly empowered weapon. He then realized this fight was going to be rather difficult. If this really was Gambit from the X-Men comic books, then counteracting any of his techniques was going to be nigh impossible. Kinetic energy isn’t magic; it’s just a physical property. Ether was one thing, but pure molecular energy was entirely different. His best strategy wouldn’t be to block in this case, but to dodge as many of Remy’s attacks as he could, as he was in no rush to explode. Taking this into account, he readied his blade to attack…and ran off to the right, towards the edge of the arena. This admittedly seemed a bit odd, but Taere, as usual, had some sort of convoluted, directionally confusing attack planned.

As he reached the end of the arena, Taere looked behind himself, and sighted a tree directly behind Remy on the other side of the field. Just as he was about to reach the out-of-bounds markers, he fired the gauntlet blade off of his left wrist in a grappling form. Remy easily avoided being impaled through the chest by stepping backwards. The blade whizzed by, and lodged itself in the tree that Taere had aimed for. Taere threw his legs in front of himself to brake, and allowed the tensile strength of the monofilament steel cable to pull him back towards Remy. With his sword out diagonally to the side, Taere shot through the air towards Remy. As he approached, Taere sent the electrical signal to the gauntlet blade to detach and retract, pulling it tip-over tail back towards him. This posed an interesting set of problems for Remy: First, dodge two blades coming from opposite directions, both precisely aimed decapitate you; second, realize the larger, more evil looking sword is trailing para-dimensional black ink that can cause pieces of your body to blink out of physical existence.

Quite the dilemma.

((OOC: Eh. Decent-ish. Could’ve been better…))

[LocoColt04]

In light of the forum downtime, I'm giving an extra three days to the threads, thereby making the end date MAY NINTH.

Malevolence, on a personal note... stop criticizing your own posts. I meant to say something at the end of round one. It's annoying as hell, and only makes me second-guess your writing. If you don't like your own posts, why should I?

[psychosyd]

OOC: good catch on the bo staff comment, the bo wasnt even supposed to be there... and Cesar you take too long, ill save the response for a later post, and Mal, dis is how Gambit would talk no? Shoulden't Gambit be the one who is de author of dis here RP since he is involved in it? Besides, its fun, and very challenging.
--------------------------------------------------------------

“Listen mes amis, I dunno who you’re talkin’ to yourself about, but I’s me, and tha’s that. Now like Gambit said, you have the first move. I suggest you take it, or you might find me ace of spades somewhere it shouldn’t be.”

Taere was turning out to be quite da interestin fellow, but dem mercenary types always were. For one thing he wore a suit that appeared to be made of dat metal adamantium. If dis was the same adamantium dat Wolverine had, Gambit could be in for quite a challenge.

Not that any of dis mattah's now, since the battle has already started, I sez to bring myself back to earth. Already had Taere made his move, taking a dash off to my left. Den I notice sometin' I didn't before... a black/purple haze that seems to follow his blade. For a second, the haze of a woman seems to overshadow her.

Roma?

---
"You know Chere, I'm only joinin cuz you asked me so nicely" I says to Roma, leaning across the table and handin her my application.

"Good, I expect to see you in the Semi finals then, don't be late." She sez with her ever mysterious smile.

"Of course Chere, Gambit never misses an appointment"
---

Fsssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhh! The cut of metal in da air wakes me from my dream, and I realize that its actually comin from Taere, in da form of a blade launching toward my head. I take a step to the side, reaching inside my coat pocket, my right hand over my cards. Slowly, I take da jokah off the bottomn of da deck and slide it to the top.

"Almost had Gambit's head on a pole dere, sometin' Gambit isn't to keen on happenin." I sez, not quite so Taere can hear, but loud enough for myself as the gauntlet skewers da tree behind me. It den begins to pull Taere in, his sword level with my head, as if to amend the mistake his gauntlet had made. Sliding my thumb across the new bottom of the deck, I pulls out my ace o' spades, holdin it up, along with da 2 and 3 o spades.

"Well den mes amis, I guess you set da table, well this game, da Spades are wild and aces high!" I shout as I charge the cards in my hand. Both begin to glow a yellow color, sizzlin' in de air like cherry grenade's on da fourth o July.

As I arc muh hands back a hollow clink sounds off behind me, followed by the rip of wood. Turnin I see his gauntlet detatch itself from da tree and start flyin toward muh head again. Dis man had a few tricks of his own.

"Well den, time to ante up!" I sez, urning back arcin my hand back before I throw da cards at Taere and they whistle like bottle rockets in da air, the energy fully charged in dem. Then I grab the top of my staff wit my right hand and press my staff into the ground to propel me in a slight flip to the left side, away from both blades.

"Da Parties just gettin started"

[Malevolence]

((OOC: Righto, fine, speak Cajun. Blah. Oh, and I’ll stop with the self-deprecating comments; sorry Cesar ^_^’)

The last thing Taere heard before instinct kicked in was “Da party’s just gettin’ started!” followed by the sizzle of kinetically-charged cards flying through the air. Taere’s adrenaline evoked a rather inadequate response, but it was about all he could do without risking breaking the crystal blade of his sword – something he wasn’t “keen on” either. Taere twisted his body upright as far as hr could, barely missing the two and three of spades, but not far enough to entirely avoid the spread of cards. The Ace hit his chest at a glancing angle, but even that hit was hard enough to send him flipping head over heels as a burst of yellow energy exploded on his armor.

Taere fell flat on his back, as the grappling blade retracted itself back into his left gauntlet, whipping by his face on its erratically lashing cable. Taere jumped up in time to see Remy land with his staff in hand a good ten feet from where he was moments before. Taere got up to prepare himself for his next move, but as he did, he felt a deep pain in his chest.

“Well, that’s a rib…no, make that two. Nice shot, Remy.”

“Only me friends call me Remy, an’ you ar’n’t one o’ me friends. I’s Gambit t’ you.”

“Fine then. Nice throw, Gambit.”

“Tanks, mes amis. Got an’thing else?”

“Of course I do. Try this.”

Taere straightened himself as much as he could, and his armor clicked. Three plates in the front and left side of his armor locked, forming a temporary brace for his ribs that barely decreased his mobility. He then shifted his grip on the Malevolence, and twisted one of the rings near the pommel. The large embossed gem on the quillions of the sword began to glow with an inner fire, which slowly eked its way into the blade from the crossguard.

“OW! What the hell are you doing Taere? I’m still in here, you know”

“Will you calm down? Just…do something with it.”

The fire that was slowly edging its way into the blade began to swirl around with the inky black ness that was Roma, and mixed together for form a rolling grey-red flame that looked similar to a pyroclastic cloud. This grey smoky flame began to almost ooze out of the sword and dissipate as a cloud would, but it certainly wasn’t just a cloud. The air around the sword was distorted as if looking through the air above a large bonfire – so much that it was almost hard for Taere to see where to run. Once Taere got used to it, though, he set his sights on Gambit, and started in a run.

Taere leapt towards Gambit about ten feet away, and swung the blade in a long arc to his left. The cloud expanded in a blast of volcanic heat, flying towards where Gambit stood. Taere’s agile opponent darted away by pushing off his staff, but Taere landed and continued to swing, feeding the cloud with more energy. It gathered speed, scorching the green grass before it even reached it, sending Gambit around in circles dodging the extreme heat. Every so often a volley of charged cards would fly through the air, but were incinerated if they even came close to the cloud. After letting Gambit run for a while, Taere stopped swinging. Almost instantly, the heated cloud dissipated and fell, covering the ground with thick volcanic ash. Taere pulled the Malevolence back, and then slammed it down on the ground, the tip pointing at Gambit. A massive pyroclastic cloud about 50 feet across formed at the base of the sword, bubbled out, then shot itself forward at near-sonic speeds. Its pressure differential blew the volcanic ash on the ground in front of it into a massive cloud, giving Gambit another dual-pronged attack to deal with: both the searing heat of a pyroclastic cloud, and ash capable of cementing lungs shut like concrete. Quite the issue.

[psychosyd]

OOC: Jus' be glad I didn pick Nightcrawler ya?

Crouchin slightly I catch my breath after Taere's last assult with his flame cloud. Apparently breakin ribs was not sometin dat Taere liked very much and he deffinatly responded in turn. Lookin around I notice few trees in de marked zone, dis bein plains and all... makin it tricky for any extra cover.

Think fast Remy, dis break is gunna be short lived, as he already got sometin cookin, and he won leave any more openins like he did before. I sez to myself.

Just then is when Taere slams his blade into the ground at me, and a huge firewave forms from his blade. Though a good 10 feet away I could feel the heat formin. Dis could get really hot real quick.

I crouch down awaitin what would happen next when suddenly the flame wave burst towards me, stirrin up all da ash that had formed from his sword before. I take a breath of air quickly before I can inhale any of it and den stand to take a step back.

Though the cloud was too wide too outdistance, it was not incredibly tall only a few feet at best. Leaning back, I plant my staff again, and then run foward toward da flame cloud, and thrusting my staff into the ground, I arc it, and pole vault over the flames takin my staff with me. I land on the ground, crouched, the grass all around burnt and the earth blackened. A searing heat at my heels tells me my coat has caught on fire.

"Dammit, now Gambit needs to get a new coat" I sez half to Taere.

"Well then ill just have to buy you a new one afterwards won't I?" He comments back dryly.

Grabbin da cards out of my pockets, I quickly get out of the burnin cloth, stickin my cards in the pouches around my waist. At least I could move better without tyin me up. Takin my staff I lift the burning coat up at the end.

"Well now, isn't it time for Gambit to have his turn?" I sez before closin the remainin distance between me and Taere, whippin my staff with the flamin coat still on it like a torch. He quickly raises his cloudy blade to block the attack and so I spin around backwards, whippin my staff around my body to attack from the other side, the flames crackling through de air. I slowly push him back as I attack with my staff, but he eventually gets his blade knock my coat off the end of my staff. Without a glance I spin the staff in my hands once, while jumpin into da air. Focusin my powers into da staff I charge the very tip of it and then slam it into the ground causin da very ground to be charged with energy. It ripples from the impact sending a powerful shockwave out in every direction around me.

--------------
(X-Men Legends: Gambits Staff Slam)
The reason im doin this... both from the first post and this now, is since this is an established character I just feel I might as well pay credit to where some of my ideas are comin from as they are not entierly mine... meh. Its a tribute to my favorite X-Men... gotta pay credit where credits due

[Psiko]

Well folks, it is once again judging time. As would be expected, picking a winner is never very easy. I'm not going to be all over-analytical like Cesar usually is, because if I get into analyzing things odds are I'll start to focus on the RP part more than the B, which is the opposite of what Cesar wanted for this particular tournament. *Glares*

Malevolence: As always, I find myself in love with your writing. Cesar wants me to let it be known that he thinks your dialogue is a bit overkill because RPBs should be about action moreso than RP skill, and in this tournament I am obliged to agree. Any other time your posts would be near perfection, in my opinion, because you don't ramble on for ages with the dialogue and you do have a great mix of action and humor that balances the intro wonderfully. I'm not a huge fan of Science Fiction, yet I would be hard-pressed to find a RPB of yours that I did not like despite the futuristic approach.

Psychosyd: I've always been a Gambit fan, ever since I first watched a X-Men cartoon. The Cajun writing spices up the posts, yet at the same time it is overwhelming. In the future, it might be best to stick to it in just the dialogue. Neither Cesar nor I have trouble reading it, but we both agree you took it to an extreme it never should have reached. Apart from that your posts were wonderful. I've looked up to your RPB skills ever since I was a n00b here at TFF, and still to this day I have nothing but respect for your RPBing skills. But, in the end, we decided to give the victory to Malevolence.

You both did a fantastic job and the decision was NOT, by any means, an easy one to make. Good luck in the next round Malevolence, you are now given the opportunity to make a "kill" post.

I hate having to be the one to make this post, lol. IMO you should both advance. ^^