Skyline and Neon Fight

Characters: Elara, Mariette

Location: Sanctuary (Cosmic Bob)

Date: 11 July 2021

Still with the aftertaste of the walking browniesin her mouth Mariette went to the lobby. She had brushed her teeth three times already and she could still feel the taste.

Turns out that magically mixing a mouse with a brownie to make it walk wasn't an idea born from genius. How the hell did they even accomplish that?

The lobby looked royal, full of small details in the walls and furniture, golds danced with woods, the smell made her think of some of the old buildings in her city, but more... Clinical? She didn't know.

Leaving the lobby behind and its majestic pair of stairs, she headed towards the elevators area. That zombie girl should arrive at any moment.

Mariette had left her phone behind, she was worried that Quiet could get affected by whatever this cosmic Bob was. In her pockets there were only the key to her room, a pack of bubblegum and more heavy, in her robe's pocket, her implement.

She was wearing a sport top, pants and a hooded robe that would be more at home in a boxing match. She didn't even bother with her hair, it was as fluffy as ever, and she would need help to braid it all.

Finally at the elevators area, she waits until one of them opens.

The door slides open, and a girl straightens from leaning into the wall tapping at her phone. She looks up, eyeing her surroundings warily.

The first thing to leap out, literally, was a large, cheerful golden retriever which literally jumped out of the elevator to greet Mariette excitedly, wagging its tail and pawing at her. There's a sigh, and the girl complains, "*Max*!" She's got a distinctly brummy accent as she follows the dog out.

She's vaguely Japanese in plain, old clothing. Her dark hair's roughcut, and she's watching things a bit twitchily. She's got a carry-bag, which smells kinda meaty. Mariette would probably be able to tell that there are knives hiding in her clothes - they're well-hidden, but there's enough of them that anyone practiced in telling will tell. She's not obviously *dead,* but she's distinctly off - which is helped by the claws which make up her hands, that had tapped so very carefully at her phone.

She sighs, watching Neon get 'attacked' by her happily barking hound. "Hi there," she says, a bit dry.

Mariette can't think before the dog jumps on her, she can only react. And react she does.

"OHHHHHH MY GOD! HELLO CUTIE!"

She starts petting the dog like her life depends on it, kneeling down to be able to hug the retriever.

After what feels like several minutes, Mariette finally remembers what she was doing, before standing up quickly and looking at the girl, slightly embarrassed.

"Oh...oh-hello! Ehhhh your dog is really cute."

She takes a moment to give a good look at her, and gets slightly surprised, she expected her to be more... Zombified? Several objects appeared to be on her clothes, probably some kind of weapons, or snacks. She decides to not comment on it, but keeps it in mind just in case she tried to use them.

"Your hands look cool! They might not be the best for hitting, but they look fucking *mean*!"

The girl laughs, grinning, when Mariette responds to Max as nearly everyone responds to Max. The dog responds entirely appropriately, licking Mariette and delighting in the pets and overall being a perfectly normal golden retriever. Perhaps a bit weightier than most, but that's the weirdest thing about him.

Her smile turns wry when Mariette stands up, and the dog whines, pawing at Mariette, clearly unhappy that the pats have ended. "Yeah, he is," she agrees, before pausing as the last words process. She looks at her hands, and the claws. "Um... thanks?" She's clearly baffled by that, before just ignoring it. "So, Neon, huh?" The girl looks Mariette over. "Huh."

"Ah, yeah, call me Mariette, I feel kinda weird when someone calls me Neon in real life, what about you, Skyline?"

She brings her hand down to continue petting Max, but her eyes stay on the girl.

"Call me Elara, then." She shrugs, watching Mariette, then glancing around through the lobby with fidgety wariness. She doesn't see anyone else, but it doesn't seem to calm her. "This place feels weird," she mutters, looking at Mariette again. "So... how's shit?"

Mariette looks around. "Yeah, I thought so too, feels kinda empty for the kind of place it is. Like when a big party ends and you get back to the place the next day, when everything got already cleaned up."

She closes her eyes for a second, taking her attention back to Elara, her voice feeling more focused.

"Eh, it's going. I've been having to take care of the kids, they're really good, but I'm kinda worried that not getting into fights might affect me negatively."

She remembers how tired she felt last time she let a fight slip from her.

"What about you? How's it going with the eh... Witch hunters?"

"Eh, don't worry about them. They're not the worst things in the city. One of them even seems to *worry* about me." Elara rolls her eyes. "Asshole," she mutters. She cocks her head, studying Neon. "Fights *really* your thing, huh?" she asks, and her attention is sharp. "Suppose I should've guessed, given how much you talk about it. Mm. I usually prefer to run away, but..." She glances at her claws. "I suppose I can indulge a few instincts. You know how fights work around here? Thought we weren't supposed to hurt each other."

"Ah shit, yeah, don't attack me right now or something like that, for what I've understood that would be really really bad."

She takes a second trying to remember how it worked.

"Okay, so I think there's some sort of machine in the basement, we need to get there and it should get us into something like VR but better.

"As to how it actually works I really don't know, maybe we can ask the machine or whatever?"

Elara lazily swipes at Mariette, pretty much no chance of it actually hitting and even if it did she wouldn't do more than tap her. "Oops," she says, very dry. "Well then. Shall we get moving, or d'you want to small talk a bit more?" She smirks. "Unless you're scared of the ghoul," she mocks lightly.

When the claw reaches towards her, Mariette stays put. However a barely visible coloration appears on her robe, where the claw would had hit if it had continued her trajectory. Like something was shining underneath.

"I really like the resident evil games, you know? There's something so satisfying about beating the shit out of a zombie."

Mariette gives the smirk back, more playful than malicious.

"So yeah, let's go! My only question is which one of this elevators goes down to the basement."

"*Hah*. I'm no fucking *zombie,* poofy hair, trust me." She reaches out and taps *down* on the elevator button, and an elevator pings, doors opening. "How about that?" she asks, lightly. "C'mon, Mari, keep up." Max jumps after Elara as she heads for the elevator, paws tap-tap-tapping.

Quickly following she gets inside the elevator and pressed the button that said "B", the doors closing.

"Okay, so I think elevator rides are really awkward, so let's not talk until we get there and let's try to not make it an awkward silence, and enjoy it instead, alright?"

Elara *laughs* at that, and she grins. "Oh, Mari, you think you can get *me* not to talk? Damn, I thought we knew each other a bit better'n *that.*" She goes to one knee, scritching Max's ears; the retriever licks her face, and the ghoul shakes him off. "C'mon, Max, d'you think Mariette here knows us well enough yet if she's gonna ask *me* not to talk?"

Max barks cheerfully.

"Didn't think so. Practitioners can be so *silly* can't they?"

Mariette lays on the elevator wall, closing her eyes and pulling a pack of gum from her pocket, she pulls out a piece and starts chewing on it, before offering one to Elara.

Elara glances at it, and there's something very odd about her expression when she does so. Unreadable. She takes it, though, and chews. Her teeth are very sharp. After a few moments, she asks, "What's it *supposed* to taste like?"

Mariette doesn't responds for a few seconds. A *ding* sound breaks the silence and the doors open.

Mariette immediately opens her eyes.

"I think you guys call it spearmint? I prefer this to peppermint and- oh"

She suddenly remembers what the girl actually is.

"Fuck, eh... I'm sorry, I forgot about the ghoul thing."

*What the fuck Mariette?*

That earns another laugh, straightening and stepping out into the area around Bob's machine. Max follows loyally. "You're fucking weird," Elara tells her, and she sounds fond. "Tasted like apple turnover. Don't fuss like a stupid."

Mariette hears all the insults thrown her way. They made her remember someone, from when she ran away. She smiles and gets out of the elevator.

"Well, I can tell you I find them fucking delicious." She makes a bubble, just to let it *pop.*

The machine now stood in front of her.

"Well? How the fuck are you supposed to work? I'll be honest, I expected something like a Tekken arcade and not an actual pinball."

Elara gestures lazily over to a list of instructions on the wall to the side, and smirks again. "Learn to *read,* Mariette," she tells her, laughing. She drops her bag, and Mariette would see a few severed limbs in there. "Watch the bag, Max," she says. "Don't *eat* any of it."

The golden retriever, who had already been nosing into the bag, jerks his head back and looks innocent, sitting himself neatly. An absolute angel.

"So, we going 'til someone surrenders, someone dies -" the instructions said that death in there was only temporary, which was fucking terrifying, but hey "- or you got some other idea of what counts as a loss?"

Reading down the rules Mariette stops to think.

"Eh, if there's no way one of us can continue that counts as a lose... I don't like finishing off someone that can't fight anymore. Like let's say someone gets knocked out or can't speak to say they give up."

Mariette looks at Max, and thinks how much Gambit would probably like to pet him. And Quiet...

"Oh! Quiet asked me to say hello on her part... Well, she didn't exactly said hello, but that's what her emojis meant, I think."

Mariette puts her finger in the slot coin.

"Surrender or once someone can't keep going. Done." Elara follows suit, making a face as a trace of precious Self gets eaten away.

Recovery is why she brought meals along. Its *fine.*

They blink, and they're in a massive junkyard, piles of junk stretching past the horizon dotted by cranes, whose massive floodlights fill the area with harsh light and shadow.

Elara spawns on top of a driverless vehicle moving slowly between one crane and another. Mariette spawns on a precarious pile of derelict cars, swaying slightly as a crane carries one away.

There's a steady rust-tinted light rain falling, just enough to make the ground lightly muddy. In the distance, they hear howling laughter.

**The Hermit - being alone**

The ghoul grins, balancing easily on the vehicle. "Catch me if you can, Mari!" she announces, looking up at Mariette on her pile; she's easy to find in the mess, the only living thing here, bright and vivid amidst the greys. She jumps off, slipping away into the junk piles, disappearing into the darkness silently. Its not hard. She makes a *living* doing this.

**9 of Cups- Satisfaction**

Mariette takes her robe off. The skin that isn't covered by her pants or top is filled with tattoos. They shine, like expecting.

She puts on her brass knuckles.

And she smiles.

For the first time in more than a month she's in something more than a simple spar. Something were she could actually feel dying if she weren't careful. And all she can think is how alive she feels.

"HAHAHAHA FUCK YEAH! LETS GO!"

She starts jumping off from one car to the other, getting to ground level and proceeds to run towards the pile where Eliana disappeared. Where she gets near, she starts walking more slowly, checking around, trying to find her.

But her smile remains.

**7 of Cups - Illusion**

There's a clatter and swearing, yanking Mariette's attention into the junk pile; its hard to see anything in the pitch black, but some of its rocking with little flickers of light, like something crashed into it.

**The Hermit- Inner Guidance**

The clatter was distracting. She really didn't like ambushes.

Alright, what would Marcel do? His voice sounded clearer than her own mental voice "Mariette, careful steps, look around"

"Shit, it's dark, I can barely see"

If only someone could produce light...

"..."

Mariette lifts up her right arm, the one with her implement, and it starts shining, much brighter than necessary. The walls of junk are now more visible. She lowers her posture, ready to jump at any second

**Ace of Cups, Reversed - sudden emotional troubles**

Elara did *not* appreciate the light, and the ghoul snarls behind Mariette; she's near the clattering sound, a straight line between her and it. There's frustration at the failed ambush, too, but she still moves quickly, lunging in with a clawed swipe.

**King of Cups, Reversed- Violated trust**

Mariette leaps forwards, barely dodging the attack, the exposed skin on her lower back getting a superficial scratch.

"Oh c'mon... I thought you were gonna use those claws in a more upfront way. I mean, backstabbing?"

She shakes her head.

"Guess, I'll need to be more careful with you."

She lifts her guard up, her light getting dimmer, her tattoos in her arms starting to show that same level of light.

**Queen of Pentacles - work-home conflict**

Elara smirks, showing sharp teeth. "You managed not to walk right into a trap, so that's smarter than I thought you'd be," she taunts. "And what d'you expect from a thief, huh?"

Elara circles Mariette, stepping lightly. She moves with an acrobat's grace, rather than a fighter's, but her stance still shows combat training.

"But I guess we're both here now. So c'mon then. Come hit me, unless you think you *can't.*"

**Page of Cups- Creative opportunities**

The light on her left hand appears to reform, looking almost solid. What is left are four big magenta letters floating next to her arm *FUCK*

Mariette starts jogging towards Elara, picking up her speed. A few meters before clashing, she jumps. Directing all her weight towards crushing the ghoul with her shield.

Elara *could* dodge. But that wasn't what she needed right now. This was a *fight,* and afterward she was getting a chance to heal.

When Mariette lunges, Elara slips aside, and the shield slams straight into her; there's a *snap,* and the ghoul is thrown through the air. She flips, hitting the junk feet-first *hard;* there's loud swearing, and she falls to the floor, landing in a crouch.

She shakes herself off, yanking her arm back into place. Savage spines start to emerge from her skin, sharp bone-spurs. That sense of 'it might be human' is fading, being replaced with 'No, that's not human, that never *was* human, and it most *certainly* wants to kill and eat you'.

Elara grins, and those teeth are a bit more than sharp now. "Nice hit."

**Justice- Fairness**

Mariette looks at the effect of her push, and then at the new knife like bones appearing from her body.

She lifts up her arms again and her light appears to get slightly dimmer.

"C'mon! Let me see if those claws can actually go through my tattoos!"

**Knight of Cups - Charm**

"If you're going to ask so *nicely...*" Elara moves, and she basically launches herself from crouch to cannonball, slamming her entire body at Neon, rather than just her claws.

**Temperance- Purpose**

*What the fuck*

She thinks of dodging, of using her actual shield. Instead she brings that same pale light around all the tattoos in her arms and the front of her torso. Dim lights in yellow, blue, green and pink wash her body, her arms going to her face and neck.

"Only one way to find out!"

Mariette gets ready to receive the full impact.

She gets thrown violently, falling down and slamming her hands on the floor to not get the brunt of the fall on other parts.

She uses the same momentum to roll backwards and crouch.

She could feel the parts were the spikes hit her. She touched around, there were marks of blood, but nothing too bad, nothing she wouldn't be able to endure.

"Cool, so this is working around fine..."

**Ace of Swords - Breakthroughs**

If Mariette thinks she's getting a pause, she's really quite wrong. There's a sound like a laugh and a snarl, and Elara just keeps on going, slamming into her again and grabbing her with her claws around the waist. They don't penetrate the gleaming light, but they still get purchase, and Elara goes to bite on the nearest thing - which is an arm, actually, sharp teeth trying to slice deep into muscle to taste blood.

**Page of cups- Possibility**

Mariette covers her face from the second slam, and gets confused from Elara grabbing her, but the moment she sees the intentions of her taking a bite, her mind reacts against the possibility.

She uses her right hand as bait, and while she gets distracted with it, she uses her left to punch hard into her lower mandible, a hit meant more as a way to forcefully close her mouth than to actively hurt her.

**6 of Pentacles - Giving**

Her head jerks back at the hit, and she makes an irritated sound, shaking the feeling off. "Are you even trying?" she demands, and then yanks one hand up, claws swiping towards Mariette's face in a less-friendly return of a similar gesture.

**Page of Wands- Newly-formed ideas**

*Shit, she's being more aggressive than I expected, I should maybe take this more serious...*

Mariette yanks her head back, as best as she can, but it isn't enough to save her from taking a deep slice to the cheek, the blood starts dripping and covering her face almost immediately..

That was enough.

Mariette grabs her arms tightly around Elara's torso and plants her feet firmly into the ground.

Her tattoos get brighter, much brighter.

And she lifts her.

Mariette twisted her body around, doing a bridge and bringing their combined weight directly on the ghoul's back and head.

**3 of Pentacles - Learning**

A ghoul can take a *lot* of damage, but pulverising straight through her head and back *is* enough to take one out, even one of Elara's type. She's not getting back up.

Their surroundings fritz, and both Elara and Mariette are standing in the basement again. The ghoul staggers, reaching up to her head with a growl; the damage is gone, the bone spurs less, but they are more present than before.

Max paws a severed arm out from the bag then grabs it with his teeth, tossing it through the air. Elara snatches it up without even looking, tearing straight into it. As she does the spurs start to retreat, a bit more humanity crawling through her seeming. Slowly.

"Holy shit... Are you okay? Sorry, you appeared to become more... Animalistic? And I got a bit worried when you attacked my face... Fuck."

Mariete looks around Elara, trying to see any visible wounds, she doesn't even notice that the scratches and stabs she received had disappeared.

Elara takes another bite, chewing it and swallowing it down, then rolls her shoulders. Then she stretches, pure grace. “Not injured,” she says after a moment, looking over at Mariette. Mariette gleams, the light of life warm and healthy. “What, you *worried* about me?” Elara teases. It comes out wrong when there’s bits of flesh in her teeth, and faint bone spurs still press through her clothes.

Relief appears to hit Mariette like a wave, before her eyes get wide open, she quickly goes to the nearest reflective surface, it being the crystal on Bob's and checks her own face.

No marks.

*Okay, good.*

"Don't make it a big deal. But yeah, I got worried something could have happened, didn't want to do something permanent to you."

Elara’s tone is nothing but gentle playful mockery. “Mari was *worried* about me!” Then she sighs, and drops the teasing. “*You* fine? Like, in the head?”

Mariette gives her a smirk.

"You're asking me if I'm crazy?"

She laughs.

"I'm fine, this machine seems to work okay, I didn't kept that wound in the cheek, and thank goodness, I don't want tattoos on my face."

She looks at the gnawed hand Elara was eating.

"So... How was the meal?"

Elara shrugs, looking wearily at the arm. "Tastes like apple turnover, but pretty shit apple turnover, really. It's been dead a while and it died... peacefully. Not the best meal."

Mariette puts her robe back on, feeling much more energetic than she had felt in the past few weeks. Her implement felt lighter.

"You mean raw meat tastes differently depending on how the person died? Haha that's fucking creepy!"

"Hah, *yep.* And yeah, it does. Well, the apple turnover part is weird. How nice they taste, well, ghoul thing. The recently dead and the violently dead are better for me." She sighs. "Annoying." She looks at Mariette again, and smirks. "You're looking better."

Mariette can't help but let out a teasing laugh, "Is that your way of flirting?"

She passes a hand through her hair.

"Nah, I *do* feel better. I hadn't fought in some time now, and I had to avoid some fights before to try and not be a bad example for Gambit- eh, that's Mahns in the forum.

"I think my like for fighting has become an actual part of me, so if I don't get into then I start feeling *bad.*"

She takes her implement off and puts it in her pocket.

"Wait, does everything tastes like apple turnover? Is that a regular ghoul thing?"

"Don't be *yuck*," Elara protests, at the flirting comment, before making an amused noise and taking another bite out of the arm. She chews and swallows. "I traded for a little charm that changes how stuff tastes," she says after. "Normally bubblegum would, like, taste like ash. Same with pretty much everything that isn't raw meat that I've tried."

"So being able to taste something even if it's apple turnover is better than it tasting like ash... Huh, makes sense.

"Didn't it came in other flavors?"

She grabs the pack of bubblegum and immediately grabs a piece.

"You want one? I know it must taste not that great, but I usually just enjoy making bubbles even if it ran out of flavor already."

"I'd need to trade for the other flavours, its one per charm far as I know." Elara shrugs, eyeing the bubblegum. "Nah, I ain't really the bubble-blowing type." She rolls her shoulders. "So, we gonna stand down here forever, or...?"

"Eh... Do you have wanna do anything or you're gonna leave now? I would ask you if you wanna try another round, but maybe it's better that you don't finish all your *food*."

Elara snorts, and scrapes off a patch of meat and chews it down. "Trust me, my food sources are consistent." She's a bit bitter there. "Better question, you gonna be gentle if we go again?"

The smile on Mariette's face can't be held.

"Yeah! Now that I know that the wounds on my face won't translate back I can definitely try that, honestly that thing with the spikes was fucking cool! I wouldn't mind trying that again."

Elara tosses the arm at Max, who snatches it out of the air and starts gnawing on it. "Near-death ghoul, closer I am to dead, better I do, mostly." She snorts. "Did you *really* hit me with *fuck?*"

Mariette starts thinking back on her words and how she could hit her with an insult, it takes her a few seconds before she realizes.

"Ah! You mean this?"

Mariette takes the robe off again and flexes her left arm.

Four giant letters appear, floating next to her arm in a neon magenta light *F U C K*

"Hahaha I don't use it too much for fighting, they're more like shields, but when I saw all the spikes I thought they would work better than just punching into a ball full of needles bare handed."

"Maybe you ain't stupid after all. One more run, then?"

Mariette doesn't even answer, she immediately puts her finger in the coin slot.

Elara follows suit with a laugh.

The two of them emerge in a large oval arena with a deceptive floor; at first it looks like packed earth dotted with a few stripped corpses of cars, but as they settle, it's quickly apparent that some areas are softer than others, risking an ankle or lower leg sinking in if they don't move carefully. The sky above is pitch-black and starless, and the entire area is lit with a low level of ambient light with no clear source. From each side, a single spotlight swivels and tracks each combatant as they move.

**Temperance - Balance**

"Spotlights?" Elara complains. "What, is Bob calling me out for being a sneaky shite? Well fuck you too, mate." She takes a few experimental steps, and does a cartwheel when she catches herself sinking. "Oh, a *challenge!*" She laughs, and straight-up does a handspring to head towards Mariette, dancing around the soft spots.

**5 of Pentacles- Poverty**

Mariette takes her robe off, leaving her implement inside the robe's pocket, putting it all on top of an old rusty car.

"Hahahaha now we're talking! The spotlights are so dramatic, I fucking love it!"

She sees Elara closing in doing a handspring and decides to also get closer, skipping on her feet, trying to find a good path towards her.

"Didn't know you were an acrobat!"

**The World, Reversed - Aimlessness**

"*Gymnast*, thanks," Elara retorts. She pauses, bouncing on her heels once Mariette's a few armslengths away. The spotlights wash out her appearance, ghost-like and monstrous even with only faint spikes. "And a fucking good one, too!"

She dashes in closer, but before she might hit Mariette she instead drops into a roll straight past her, avoiding any attempted strike. She slides smoothly to her feet, twists, and throws herself at Mariette's legs.

**The Star, Reversed- Disconnection**

*Alright, dodge backwards, then before she can stand, attack*

Mariette tries to jump back, only to realize that her left foot got stuck in the loser dirt, she struggles for a second to recover her balance, but by then Elara's hit had already been delivered, making her stumble back.

**9 of Pentacles - Abundance**

Elara yanks at Mariette's right leg, sending her crashing to the floor and soft dirt. It's a struggle to keep the ghoulish part of her brain from just viewing this as a wealth of *flesh*, all available for the taking - she ate, but she's still hungry, she's *always* hungry, and freshly killed flesh would be so -

She claws into Mariette's leg cruelly, but her distraction results in Elara stepping into the same soft dirt, which stops her from properly following up by slicing straight in as she stumbles and gets stuck.

**Queen of swords, Reversed- Cold-hearted**

"fuck-OUCH!" She feels her skin tear apart at the attack on her leg. Her tattoos start shining, bright.

*Fuckfuckfuck!!!*

And then Elara slips just like she had before. That gave her enough time to remember this wasn't an actual fight in real life.

Like a flicker the lights go out, instead she turns her body around and throws a kick with her uninjured leg, taking the ghoul off herself. Putting weight on her wound, however, makes her eyes a little watery

*Deep breaths, Mariette, don't get too emotional.*

She starts standing up, trying to keep her balance on her good leg.

**2 of Pentacles - Multiple Priorities**

Elara would normally get shoved back by such a kick, but half-stuck she simply bends, and she yanks her claws into the dirt to pull herself out, into a hand-stand and then falling back onto her feet.

*Control yourself,* she thinks. She *could* do that. She had to do that. Even with the smell of blood thick in the air, eroding her self-control. "Come on," Elara challenges, circling closer. "Going to leave this whole fight on my terms, Mari?"

**3 of Swords- Hurt**

Mariette bends her wounded leg slightly, focusing on keeping her balance on her other one. She gets closer slowly, limping.

"Yeah, maybe I should start actually giving back, right?"

Her rhythm changed drastically, as she lunches forwards in a flurry of punches, catching her balance by stepping hard with her bad leg. The pain makes her frown, but she doesn't stop.

The hits were hard, but *human* hard, she was still trying to hold back from using her practice.

She tries to punch anywhere that isn't covered up by her claws and spikes.

**2 of Pentacles, Reversed - Disorganisation**

There aren't that many spikes right now, and what were there were nearly blunt, which leaves plenty of options to hit, torso and stomach making the ghoul snarl. Elara swears, taken aback by the abrupt change of rhythm as she tries to deflect before clawing back in a vicious swipe.

Each painful strike encourages the spikes back out - but not much. It takes more damage than *this* to send her slipping closer to death, where she was at her most dangerous.

**2 of Swords- Weighing up options**

Mariette finds it easier to dodge the claws while not letting her attacker get a break to aim her hits better, but her movements start getting slower, the pain in her leg was *bad*. Or maybe it was the blood loss? She needed to end things quick either way.

But how?

It was obvious that her punches weren't enough to bring her down and she was covering her face making it hard to knock her out.

*I need to get closer.*

When a claw got dangerously close to her face, she followed up on the same arm and grabbed it, one hand on the wrist and the other on the interior of her elbow, she gets closer, passing underneath the arm and twists it.

"C'mon! Do you feel defeated yet?!"

**6 of Swords - Releasing Baggage**

Elara snarls at the pain as her arm twists. "Me, defeated?" She scoffs. "Not *yet.* Not nearly fucking *yet.* I don't consider myself defeated until I'm fucking *dead.*"

And she swipes awkwardly at Neon's face with the other arm - highly impaired by how twisted up she is, but her claws are still *sharp.*

**King of Pentacles- Security**

Dealing with the claws and maintaining her hold would be easier in other moments, but not now.

The claw swipes awkwardly but close to her face, making a small scratch on her cheek.

*Dammit! Again with the face wounds.*

She softens her hold and instead pushes her away by her side, trying to make her lose balance and to get some distance between the two.

Before she can follow up she stops, almost falling down. The borders of her eyes are getting dark, she could only focus on what is directly in front of her. And her leg felt cold.

*Alright, last try.*

Mariette walks towards Elara, small steps and hands up ready to attack.

**The Devil - Addiction**

Elara rolls, but the normally-graceful movement is impeded by the spikes and the mud and the dirt. She snarls, yanking herself to her feet; she misses Mariette stumble as she yanks herself up, turning around. Mariette shines with flickering life, gorgeous, and Elara can smell blood on her claws, on Mariette.

She's hungry.

Elara lunges.

The more animalistic attacks appeared again and Mariette's clouded mind struggled to produce her next thought: "ahhh shit!"

*Can't give up now, this is just starting to get fun.*

Both her hands are shining, quickly forming shields on both her arms.

Mariette lunges forwards too, her hands up covering her vitals, she can only see the inhuman face of Elara and gets ready for the clash.

The following landing and the impact from the crash become a blurry, she can feel the cold sweat running down her face more than the actual hits she's blocking.

*I can do this, just a bit more.*

An opening appears and Mariette gets ready to hit, but the moment she throws her punch everything turns black, there's no more thoughts in her mind but an ear piercing shriek coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

A second passes in complete darkness, but it feels more like an eternity.

Suddenly she opens her eyes and jumps, standing up in a second, she looks around and sees that they're both back in the basement.

She has her guard up, adrenaline flushing trough her veins, and blinding lights on her body.

Elara's panting. There's no blood on her. There's only *Life,* Mariette bright and rich and glowing and Max fainter, see-through, smelling like Death.

She's still hungry.

She shifts, instinctively, still *wanting* to hunt -

The simultaneous influence of Sanctuary's clear warning against breaking Hospitality and Max's angry bark stop Elara before she can take more than a step towards Mariette.

Her hands flex.

She swallows. "You, uh. Still got spare bubblegum?"

Mariette looks around her pockets and throws her the whole pack of bubblegum, still holding 7 pieces.

She feels better, but the adrenaline is still running, sounds appear muted and she wants to *attack*, even if she knows there shouldn't be a reason for that.

She kneels down next to her robe and puts it around herself, taking deep breaths. She feels so alive. Her mind is calming down, but her body is still tense, she doesn't even notice at what point she started biting her nails.

She waits to see how Elara reacts.

Elara catches the pack, using her claws delicately to open it and pluck out a single piece, which she unrolls and then puts in her mouth. She tosses the pack back, next to Mariette.

She then sits down as well, Max padding over and nuzzling into her. She scritches behind his ears.

She watches Mariette. "We good?" she asks.

Mariette nods, before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, which she holds for a few seconds. When she lets it out and opens her eyes, she notices that her sight is not tunneling anymore.

"Yeah, we're cool... Holding yourself just like that, that's kinda impressive not gonna lie, I can only imagine how tough that must be."

She touches her leg, were the wound used to be, her mind makes her think the skin is more tender.

"I can't believe I passed out," she says, almost a whisper, more to herself than anyone else.

"Humans are both much more and much less durable than they think, I've found," Elara says, a bit dry. "Blood loss is a big deal."

She chews on the bubblegum, looking away from Mariette, unfocusing on the bright, gleaming Life. She can still smell it, but its not as *much* when she isn't looking. "Frankly, the fact you managed to still hit me that hard when I clawed up your leg's kinda impressive. You *walked* on it."

"It's weird... I usually just keep going even if something hurts, my tattoos make it so I don't get permanent damage... At least if I activate them when receiving damage, it's more manual than one would expect. It still hurts though, the pain remains, so I had to learn to keep attacking even if it hurts, knowing that I won't die from the pain alone."

She looks stuck in her thoughts.

"So I did the same while receiving actual damage, I thought the cold sweat and the tunnel vision was just from the adrenaline and that I could keep going, but apparently it was both that and the blood loss, so when I used my shields my body just gave up, I think."

She grabs a piece of bubblegum and starts chewing on it, before long, she stands back up.

"What about you? Feeling okay? Should I bring you something from the kitchen or something?"

Max paws over the bag, a bone lying next to it. Elara pulls out a severed foot. "I brought my own," she says. "I'm a bit... well. If I talk about it too much I think I'll sound fucking creepy." Elara's tone is dry as dust. "But I'll be okay, I think." She looks over at Mariette, at the glowing lights. Its like looking at an aurora, rippling and beautiful.

She took another bite out of the foot, chewing down some toes, and stands back up herself. "We heading back up, now, huh?"

Mariette looks towards the elevator.

"Yeah, I think so. It was really fun, thanks for joining me on this-" She points to the machine "-thing."

Mariette fixed her robe and touches her implement, she felt stronger.

"Eh... You wanna hang out some other time? I mean, it's cool if you don't..."

She was feeling so awkward.

"Sure. You don't seem so bad after all, for a Practitioner." Elara plucks up the bone and her bag, heading for the elevator. With a cheerful bark, Max jumps onto Mariette, rearing up to lick her face.

Elara laughs.

Mariette's smile is back in her face as she receives the dog with a hug, her tattoos shining bright to be able to carry the dog.

After talking to Max a little, she looks between the mountains of fluff.

"Cool! It's nice to talk to someone else... I mean, Gambit and Quiet are amazing, but I need to be really careful with what I say, this feels more, I don't know, casual?"

Elara nods. "I'm young, but I'm hardly a child," she agrees. "Yeah. This... I think its been good."

It really *would* be a shame to douse that light, Elara muses, as they get in the elevator and Mariette refuses to talk, and the ghoul chatters to her dog instead. Some part of her is even wistful that Mariette can't be the one to have her Binding - which is stupid, she hardly knows her at all, and if Elara had the choice she'd rather *not* be Bound. She *would.* She doesn't want to belong to some asshole Lord's pet.

But this was nice, even if she's still unusually aware of her ever-present hunger. It was worth it. This was good.

Elara runs her claws through Max's fur, and just enjoys having a new friend.