Post by Douglas Everheart on Jun 19, 2019 18:07:48 GMT -5
Douglas stood before the girl, with a stance that most would've recognized as that of accomplished street fighters around the world: He'd shaken his hands out of his pockets, his right leg was slightly in lead of his second, and he'd crouched a couple inches, as if he were about to tackle her. He'd met no shortage of ghosts and supernaturally aware people in his years, but most of them had been relatively straightforward in their methods and tactics. This girl had exhibited no increased capacity for strength or speed, or any unique manner of manipulating reality, which led him to one conclusion: Either she employed some kind of subtle power that let her move energy around in great quantities, in which case he would be very badly off in trying to directly confront her...or she wasn't alone. The fact that she was speaking to someone else made the latter seem very appealing: some sort of mutual agreement with a hollow? Perhaps, but a hollow would've been something he could sense coming well enough in advance. This was something more complicated.
"Motherfucker...you -are- just like Kira, aren't you? If I see one thing explode during our game, I'm crying bullshit and going screaming through the streets until a shinigami finds you and kicks your ass. Standards be damned."
By the time she had gotten to twenty, Douglas was growing more certain about the way things would go here: She was toying with them, like any good predator did. And like all predators, that meant she had already planned out her battle to a not-insignificant extent. She had waited until the time was right, stacked the deck in her favor, and made sure to initiate combat only once she was certain she could win. Predators rarely relished in fair fights, and that meant Douglas needed to make an impact quickly. He needed to change the dynamics of their encounter before she was able to lead either or both of them down the road she wanted them down. He could run, try to find a safe place to wait things out, and that was almost certainly playing to her strengths. Since he didn't know hers, and she didn't know his, that meant the surprise round was the most important one.
This girl was confident in her strengths, and Douglas was confident in his own. The only question, then, was how well their strengths matched up. If she was trying to kill these two people in broad daylight, in the middle of Karakura Town, that meant she had done it countless times before. She was certain there weren't going to be any intruders, and she had taken the time to warn them that leaving the park would lead to a gorey fate. Douglas mused for a split second about escaping anyways, and immediately dismissed that option: the chances of some kind of barrier or summoned spirit rending him to bits as soon as he left the area, however small, was too unpleasant to contemplate.
She finished her count, and Douglas's body tensed. He was prepared for her to dash right into his face, like something out of one of those poorly-done horror movies, or for her to suddenly start firing off projectiles of some kind. Instead, she just looked at him for a moment or two, and then spoke to someone else again. He had no idea who she was referring to, and where they were, but now he was fully confident in his earlier assessment: This girl was almost certainly less threatening than whoever she had working for her. He once more crouched lower to the ground, waiting for anything at all to happen, when something did, far faster than he'd been expecting. A goddamn skeleton appeared, about two feet past his right arm, and her own arm was already slicing into his bicep. He attempted to snap his leg around in a clumsy scythe kick, but it was his lead leg, and he had no room to build up momentum; he managed little more than scuffing his shoe across its bony side, before it disappeared once more, taking his arm with it, and leaving a huge pool of blood around him.
He simply stared at the wound for a few seconds, feeling a numb sense of loss, and detachment for a few moments. He tried to tighten the limb, and felt almost as if it were still there. He could all but feel the nails digging into themselves, causing a surge of pain up his arm...that was then washed out entirely by the heavy wave of fatigue and almost nauseating pain that came from his stump. It was a neat, precise cut, one that hardly could've been done better with a scalpel and a bonesaw. He tilted his head towards it, looking at it with a curious detachment, before letting out a low, almost weary sigh. He once more took his combat stance, closing one eye, and then the other.
"Alright, so we've got us a stand situation, folks. Thing can pretty much come from anywhere it wants, at any time. Looking pretty bad for the old man, but don't count him out just yet. Once knew a guy who got his foot blown off by a mine. Motherfucker still carried three people out of the line of fire, hopping on that fucking foot, and then held the doorway for them until reinforcements arrived. That's allllll we gotta do here, just wait for reinforcements. Come on you anorexic fuck, let's see you take another arm. First taste's free, but I'm betting you got eyes bigger than your stomach."
He clenched his free fist, stomping both feet ever so slightly, gently, and then rolling his shoulders. Hide and seek where one of the seekers was fucking invisible? The game was rigged from the start, as the phrase went.
"Motherfucker...you -are- just like Kira, aren't you? If I see one thing explode during our game, I'm crying bullshit and going screaming through the streets until a shinigami finds you and kicks your ass. Standards be damned."
By the time she had gotten to twenty, Douglas was growing more certain about the way things would go here: She was toying with them, like any good predator did. And like all predators, that meant she had already planned out her battle to a not-insignificant extent. She had waited until the time was right, stacked the deck in her favor, and made sure to initiate combat only once she was certain she could win. Predators rarely relished in fair fights, and that meant Douglas needed to make an impact quickly. He needed to change the dynamics of their encounter before she was able to lead either or both of them down the road she wanted them down. He could run, try to find a safe place to wait things out, and that was almost certainly playing to her strengths. Since he didn't know hers, and she didn't know his, that meant the surprise round was the most important one.
This girl was confident in her strengths, and Douglas was confident in his own. The only question, then, was how well their strengths matched up. If she was trying to kill these two people in broad daylight, in the middle of Karakura Town, that meant she had done it countless times before. She was certain there weren't going to be any intruders, and she had taken the time to warn them that leaving the park would lead to a gorey fate. Douglas mused for a split second about escaping anyways, and immediately dismissed that option: the chances of some kind of barrier or summoned spirit rending him to bits as soon as he left the area, however small, was too unpleasant to contemplate.
She finished her count, and Douglas's body tensed. He was prepared for her to dash right into his face, like something out of one of those poorly-done horror movies, or for her to suddenly start firing off projectiles of some kind. Instead, she just looked at him for a moment or two, and then spoke to someone else again. He had no idea who she was referring to, and where they were, but now he was fully confident in his earlier assessment: This girl was almost certainly less threatening than whoever she had working for her. He once more crouched lower to the ground, waiting for anything at all to happen, when something did, far faster than he'd been expecting. A goddamn skeleton appeared, about two feet past his right arm, and her own arm was already slicing into his bicep. He attempted to snap his leg around in a clumsy scythe kick, but it was his lead leg, and he had no room to build up momentum; he managed little more than scuffing his shoe across its bony side, before it disappeared once more, taking his arm with it, and leaving a huge pool of blood around him.
He simply stared at the wound for a few seconds, feeling a numb sense of loss, and detachment for a few moments. He tried to tighten the limb, and felt almost as if it were still there. He could all but feel the nails digging into themselves, causing a surge of pain up his arm...that was then washed out entirely by the heavy wave of fatigue and almost nauseating pain that came from his stump. It was a neat, precise cut, one that hardly could've been done better with a scalpel and a bonesaw. He tilted his head towards it, looking at it with a curious detachment, before letting out a low, almost weary sigh. He once more took his combat stance, closing one eye, and then the other.
"Alright, so we've got us a stand situation, folks. Thing can pretty much come from anywhere it wants, at any time. Looking pretty bad for the old man, but don't count him out just yet. Once knew a guy who got his foot blown off by a mine. Motherfucker still carried three people out of the line of fire, hopping on that fucking foot, and then held the doorway for them until reinforcements arrived. That's allllll we gotta do here, just wait for reinforcements. Come on you anorexic fuck, let's see you take another arm. First taste's free, but I'm betting you got eyes bigger than your stomach."
He clenched his free fist, stomping both feet ever so slightly, gently, and then rolling his shoulders. Hide and seek where one of the seekers was fucking invisible? The game was rigged from the start, as the phrase went.
