My Hero [Jackal] [Quest]

[Vriska]

The way Jackal thought was incredibly similar to her brother and still wildly different. They had a similar cold about them. It was amazing how a woman so warm could be so cold.

Not that Vriska felt anything for the dead guy.

If anything he'd died too quickly.

He hadn't suffered.

She thought of a thousand answers to Jackal's question, but none of them rang true enough to actually warrant an answer. She could not deny the fact that this man had needed to die.

The coast looked to be clear from here. Which meant they were probably in mortal danger. "This way," she whispered, heading off in between the crates.

Choice; HAPHAZARD LEFT PATH

[Jackal]

x x

The Beast at Our Door

Jackal nodded, and though it was faint, the trace of a grin flickered onto her face. She, as it happened, agreed with Vriska's choice. The other paths would clearly be used by the goons hiding out here; the leftward path would be the safest one, and would help them keep their cover. The element of surprise was their strongest weapon, here. If they lost it, things would become far more difficult.

Jackal slipped into the makeshift path behind Jackal, discreetly slipping in between the barrels and crates, as Vriska did as well. They proceeded that way for quite some time, until they came to the end of the larger storage area, near a hallway that clearly led to a larger room somewhere. There was a single guard posted outside the door. Jackal pressed her finger to her lips and slipped forward, clambering up the walls of the hallway and sticking to the ceiling, digging in with her claws. She moved slowly, carefully, until she was directly above the head of the guardsman. Keeping her feet dug into the ceiling, she dropped down behind him and crossed her arm-blades in front of his neck, before abruptly jerking them and slashing his throat open, leaving him to do nothing but gurgle as blood flowed from the vicious gash in his neck, which had been nearly severed. With alarming speed Jackal dropped from the ceiling, flipped over, and caught his body. Noiselessly, she dragged it back to where Jackal and Vriska had emerged, and stuck the body behind some crates.

"The next room is a larger chamber. It'll just be a few guards, and Victor himself, hopefully. If we're lucky, we can slip in quietly and take them out before they'll know we're there. Hang on, let me check," Jackal said, her eyes turning red again. She detected four heartbeats; two close to the entrance, one in the middle of the room, and one near the rear, sitting at some sort of desk. The one at the desk was facing away from the others, and the one in the middle of the room was facing away from the two at the door. Vriska would be able to see all that with her own Vision Eightfold, of course. "You open the door and kill one of the guards quietly. I'll be right behind you and I'll kill the other guard at the door, and the one in the middle of the room. Then it'll only be Victor. Him, we'll deal with personally."

---

Actions;;

---

Players

Vriska

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Normal[/ul]

Jackal

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Normal[/ul]

Enemies

Guardsman A

[/b][/color] [img src="img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/Shinamec/sosfullheartcontainer243.jpg"]
Alertness;; Unaware of JACKAL, Unaware of VRISKA, Aware of Guardsman B, Aware of Thug, Aware of Victor?[/ul]

Guardsman B

[/b][/color] [img src="img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/Shinamec/sosfullheartcontainer243.jpg"]
Alertness;; Unaware of JACKAL, Unaware of VRISKA, Aware of Guardsman A, Aware of Thug, Aware of Victor?[/ul]

Thug

[/b][/color] [img src="img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/Shinamec/sosfullheartcontainer243.jpg"]
Alertness;; Unaware of JACKAL, Unaware of VRISKA, Unaware of Guardsman A, Unaware of Guardsman B, Aware of Victor?[/ul]

Victor?

[/b][/color] [img src="img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/Shinamec/sosfullheartcontainer243.jpg"]
Alertness;; Unaware of JACKAL, Unaware of VRISKA, Unaware of Guardsman A, Unaware of Guardsman B, Unaware of Thug[/ul]

Quest info - special actions; all participants can use them

Stealth

Bypass

[/i]: If an Enemy is aware of Enemy', and Enemy' is killed while stealthed, but Enemy survives, Alarm will be raised. If an Enemy is aware of Enemy', and both Enemy and Enemy' are killed in one turn (while stealthed), then Alarm will not be raised. If any enemies are killed without stealth, Alarm is raised.[/ul]
[/blockquote]

[Vriska]

Now that Vriska was starting to worry less about preserving life she had the time to step back and appreciate Jackal's work. There was a grace to her butchery, and she was a remarkable acrobat. Flexible, too.

There was so much blood it made little splashes as Vriska walked, following Jackal's lead. Almost done. It was almost over. The guards at the door looked very guard-y. Very Paul. The door opened noiselessly - what kind of villain doesn't have squeaky doors? Sloppy work, Victor.

Again the sword, regrettably. Speed was sadly of the essence here. Slip it under the ribs and angle it up and is that your heart beating? Nope, not anymore.

Actions; Stealth | Lethal Attack

[Jackal]

x x

The Beast at Our Door

Jackal watched as Vriska moved, and at the moment that Vriska's blade found one man's heart, Jackal's arm blade slashed across his neck, spilling blood on the ground before her. He began to gurgle, but in the same moment Jackal sprinted noiselessly towards the Thug in the centre of the room and dug both her hands into his neck, piercing the flesh with her razor-sharp claws.

The man fell quietly, but in that moment, the man who she'd thought was Victor turned around, perhaps because he had heard some of the gurgling death throes of his allies. However, he did not call out for help, or even get out of his seat. Instead he just let out a barking laugh and stood. Jackal's reptilian stare suddenly turned absolutely feral, and she hissed, the sound somewhere between a snake and a wolf.

"You're not Victor. I'll never forget him."

The man laughed and stood, drawing a knife from his side and a bomb from his belt.

"Course not! You think the big man runs this shitshow?" The man spat and laughed again, before he flipped the knife in his hand. "I'm his second-in-command, and I'll be more than enough to handle you brats!"

---

Actions;;

---

Players

Vriska

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Normal[/ul]

Jackal

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Normal[/ul]

Enemies

Guardsman A

[/b][/color]
Alertness;; Dead[/ul]

Guardsman B

[/b][/color]
Alertness;; Dead[/ul]

Thug

[/b][/color]
Alertness;; Dead[/ul]

Decoy Victor

[/b][/color]
Alertness;; Aware of JACKAL and VRISKA;; not raising alarm!
Range;; Out of range of Jackal, out of range of Vriska[/ul]

Quest info - special actions; all participants can use them

Stealth

Bypass

[/blockquote]

[Vriska]

Well. This had gone wrong. In retrospect this should have been the obvious ending for this entire mission. This complicated things a bit, but at least now they didn't have to worry about stealth anymore.

"We should try to take him alive. He can lead us to Victor."

With that, Vriska moved in, trying to stab the fake somewhere he wouldn't bleed to death too quickly.

Actions; Maneuver | Attack

Effects; [STRONGarm raises damage by a half level]

[Jackal]

x x

The Beast at Our Door

Jackal's mouth stretched into a deadly, toothy grin, and she thought that if this man thought he could handle her, then he didn't know her very well. She raised her claws and focused on the darkness, the shadow in the room, and found the fire in it, found the suffering, the hatred, the envy for the lack of light. She seduced that hatred, and poured all of her will towards it, bringing a shadow under her control, until it was hers, and responded to her will, eager to kindle its secret fire.

No, no, little flame. You're dead for now. Die, die, until I demand you live.

When that was done, she stared at the other man, and smiled, before she slowly, quietly, knelt down on all fours. Her smile was very calm, but it changed into a fearsome grimace as her mouth began to widen; not naturally. Her mouth was splitting wider, and wider, while her upper lip began to harden into something long and sharp and cruel, while the rest of her body suddenly expanded, bones lengthening, muscles growing to absurd proportions, layers of fur spreading across her entire body until instead of a twisted young girl there stood before the man a gigantic, black dragon, its eyes glowing with rage.

---

Actions;;

---

The Imposter snickered as the two girls started their various tricks. One was real direct-like, which was nice. The other decided to run straight at him with a damn robot arm, which was unfortunate. He grimaced when she hit him in the chest and fell backwards, but kept stumbling all the way out of range of her attacks in what was a moment of inspired bumbling.

"I'll get ya for that, you *****!" he screamed, before he suddenly tossed a knife directly at her, the blade cutting through the air like wind and catching her in the shoulder--the fleshy one. At the same time, he lit his grenade and threw it at the hugeass dragon that was on the other side of the room. The grenade sort of sat there for a minute, its fuse hissing dangerously.

"Hehe, even dragons go BOOM!"

---

Actions;;

---

Players

Vriska

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; STRONGarm
Status;; Normal[/ul]

Jackal

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; Gathering shadows, Minish transformation buff
Status;; Get away from the bloody grenade![/ul]

Enemies

Decoy Victor

[/b][/color]
Status;; Pissed as hell!
Range;; Out of range of Jackal, out of range of Vriska[/ul]

Quest info - special actions; all participants can use them

Stealth

Bypass

[/blockquote]

[Vriska]

HA HA he was falling on his ass oh wait holy f8cking OW

Royal blue pumped from the wound in Vriska's shoulder as she grit her teeth against the pain. There was quite a lot of it.

And then Jackal turned into a giant dragon.

Considering all Vriska could do was turn into a crow, this was somewhat impressive. That something so powerful could be hiding within her when Vriska herself resented her own animal form added a twinge of jealousy to her awe.

But its use was not lost on her. Nor was the knife in her shoulder, though she would have preferred that being lost as soon as possible. Ow.

Reaching up gingerly, Vriska yanked the knife from her shoulder. Immediately the bleeding went from being serious to being ridiculous. To compensate, Vriska opened her Vision Eightfold and cursed the decoy to the limit of her power. Already the effects of the White Seal were making themselves felt, slowing the bleeding down to a trickle.

Then she decided to do something incredibly stupid, because like Jackal, Vriska had grown rather fond of her teammate as well.

She sprinted and leaped. Time slowed, but if anything the fuse accelerated. There was no time. Grasping the grenade in an armored fist, Vriska curled herself around it, fervently wishing she'd stayed in bed that morning.

Actions; Vision Eightfold | Jumped on the grenade

Effects; [White Seal (6) - Target may not regain health.] [Weaken (6) - Target's damage is reduced by half a level.] [Hex (6) - Values of all positive buffs affecting target are decreased by one.] [Turnabout (6) - Vriska gains half-level regenaration. Vriska gains half-level damage increase. Values of all positive buffs affecting Vriska are increased by one.] [STRONGarm - Vriska gains half-level damage increase.]

Target; Decoy Victor

[Jackal]

x x

The Beast at Our Door

When Jackal saw the blade go twirling through the air towards Vriska, she threw back her head and roared, a loud, terrifying shriek that was somehow back-ended by the deep boom of a furnace coming to life. Her eyes glowed red, and she lowered herself to the ground, preparing to sprint, until she saw the grenade. Even as a dragon, her eyes went wide, but she hoped that she could get away quick enoug--

NO YOU NOBLE IDIOT.

She watched in horror, unable to speak, as Vriska dived on top of the grenade like some kind of moron with a special moron slug in her moron head. She reached out with one of her massive, deadly paws, not knowing what to do, until there was a sickening, muffled explosion, and suddenly there was a lot of blue blood.

No no no.

She didn't know what to do. She was a big mass of teeth, bone, and blade. She couldn't help now. All she could do was punish the imposter. She sped along the ground like a black shadow, while another shadow seemed to fall under her sway, joining the huge black mass travelling beneath her. She fell upon the man as a storm of teeth and fury, knocking him down with a slash from her bladed wing, and then driving her beak into his sternum. The blood loss was tremendous.

She was not done.

---

Actions;;

---

THERE WAS A GODDAMN DRAGON MAULING HIM TO DEATH.

Not one of Frank's (his name was Frank) better days. First thing to do: GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE. So he did, backpedalling like a bicycle rolling backwards downhill. The blood that was coming from all of his wounds was shockingly red, and there was a shocking lot of it, and his thought process was really shockingly bad because of the shocking blood-loss.

shock shock shock so that's what he did.

He pulled another grenade, and this time pre-lit the damn thing. Then, because he was full of hate, he pulled out another one and did the same thing.

"You're gonna bite it now you damn freaks!" he screamed, tossing both the grenades in the air. In mid-air, spikes popped out of each grenade like a porcupine, and suddenly, lightning arced between the two. Frank pulled out a lightning rod--he didn't know what the thing did but Victor said to throw it at something big, so he threw it at the big thing--the dragon.

In her fury, Jackal didn't react so much as just roar and shriek a lot when a lightning rod--with one very sharp end--embedded itself in her chest, and directed the lightning straight into Jackal's ribcage. It normally would've hit the heart, but lucky for Jackal, her insides were arranged special-like. As it was, the huge dragon stumbled after absorbing the damage, her rear legs going out from behind her. As all this was happening, however, the lightning arced from Jackal's body towards Vriska: but was blocked by a strange, invisible barrier.

It was Vriska's curse at work: Frank's lightning grenades didn't do much damage, but they spread the damage around. Problem was, Vriska was keeping that damage from doing jack shit.

---

Actions;;

---

Players

Vriska

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Losing blood! (takes 1/2 level of damage per turn), Turnabout[/ul]

Jackal

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; Night Dragon, gathering shadows
Status;; 2 Shadows, only one action slot next turn (Lightning stun)[/ul]

Enemies

Decoy Victor;; Frank

[/b][/color]
Alertness;; Aware of JACKAL and VRISKA;; not raising alarm!
Range;; Out of range of Jackal, out of range of Vriska[/ul]

Quest info - special actions; all participants can use them

Stealth

Bypass

[/blockquote]

[Vriska]

There was a feeling like her entire body was beaten with flaming hammers all at once, and then her body decided to inform her brain that yes, it did just hug an exploding grenade and would appreciate it if that never happened again. While grabbing the bomb in her steel fist did presumably mitigate the explosion it also turned her entire hand into shrapnel. Her arm now ended in a twisted, twitching steel joint and what used to be her hand was now buried in her body somewhere. Through the approaching creeping blackness of blissful unconsciousness she thought she saw her middle finger buried in the floor.

Atta girl, her mind slurred. F8ck the universe.

A bestial, pained shriek jolted Vriska back to coherence. Jackal! Must help Jackal!

Looking up, Vriska noticed to her growing wrath that Jackal had some kind of lightning spear in her chest. She jumped up to her feet and beat the decoy to death with the stump of her arm.

Or she would have if her legs could work properly. How many bones did that bomb break anyway? For a safe estimate Vriska assumed all of them.

Eventually she managed to kindasorta get to her knees, and then to her feet. The tabard was a loss, so she discarded that. Her shirt, though holey and singed and soaked in blood - Holy sh8t is that all mine? - would still do. Still working through the shock numbing her mind, Vriska wondered if this meant she was a zombie now. If not, she would probably find out soon anyway. But not without taking that asshole down with her.

What had happened to her sword anyway? Looking around, Vriska shuffled over to pick up the next best thing. Fakevictor's throwing knife, still slick with her blood. Taking the closest thing she could reach to a throwing stance - a kind of swaying stoop, which was the closest thing she could reach to anything at all right now - she took aim and threw.

---

Actions; Ranged Attack

Effects; [White Seal (5) - Target may not regain health.] [Weaken (5) - Target's damage is reduced by half a level.] [Hex (5) - Values of all positive buffs affecting target are decreased by one.] [Turnabout (5) - Vriska gains half-level regenaration. Vriska gains half-level damage increase. Values of all positive buffs affecting Vriska are increased by one.] [STRONGarm - Vriska gains half-level damage increase.]

Target; Decoy Victor

[Jackal]

x x

The Beast at Our Door

Jackal's entire body felt like a big pile of sluggish murder. That assessment was fundamentally correct, of course, but also literally untrue, since she wasn't doing any murder at the moment, but was just obsessed with the thought of it. She willed her limbs to life, trying to get to her feet, suddenly feeling as though she was trying to lift a dragon's limbs with a young girl's arms. She fought through the pain, and managed to get her hind legs working, pushing herself into a standing stance. That was fine, she thought. That was fine. She didn't even need to stand, save for the fact that she refused to lie while Vriska was in pain.

She opened her huge jaws, and shadow began to pool around her, slipping up her legs, and pouring down her throat like a dark oil, but she wasn't choking. She swallowed it up, until she finally closed her jaws shut, then suddenly opened them with a vicious roar.

Out of her mouth spewed forth hell. A torrent of savage, pitch-black flame lanced towards Frank, like something out of a nightmare. The sound that followed the flame was terrible, like two steel horses had run straight headlong each other while, somewhere nearby, a lion was roaring.

---

Actions;;

---

At roughly this point, Frank was feeling pretty good, massive blood loss aside. When one of the girls tossed his knife back at him, he knocked it away with his right hand, which was covered in a protective gauntlet. He laughed and brought a potion to his lips, drinking the liquid down.

Nothing. His eyes went wide, and he started to panic. Something was keeping the potion from working. The wounds in his chest suddenly felt much worse.

And just then the dragon breathed fire on him. He screamed in agony and fell to the ground, weeping and clutching at his wounds, but the pain wouldn't leave. He scrambled back, but there was no where to go, and the pain, the terrible pain....

---

Actions;;

---

Players

Vriska

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Losing blood! (takes 1/2 level of damage per turn), Turnabout[/ul]

Jackal

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; Night Dragon, gathering shadows
Status;; 2 Shadows, only one action slot next turn (Lightning stun)[/ul]

Enemies

Decoy Victor;; Frank

[/b][/color]
Alertness;; Aware of JACKAL and VRISKA;; not raising alarm!
Range;; Out of range of Jackal, out of range of Vriska[/ul]

Quest info - special actions; all participants can use them

Stealth

Bypass

[/blockquote]

[Vriska]

And there it was, the fabled (at least by Rwaht) Shadowfire. A torrent of black, burning night and horrible sound and the screams of her enemies.

Mistress of the dark plains, burning shadow
Queen of black, in black, in darkness hidden
Of night is heart of light, umbra draco
By dark hand is flame of shadow bidden

It took Vriska a moment to realize that she was composing poetry instead of doing anything useful. Though the only really useful thing she could do right then was fall over, so she did, sliding slowly do the floor, clutching at her wounds. Her breath gurgled, and she tasted metal on her tongue.

Worst of all, the smell of fried douchebag was making her hungry.

She tried to laugh, and actually managed a kind of strained chuckle. "Ha ha ha ow. Wanna go get something to eat after?"

---

Actions; Compose poetry | Fall down

Effects; [White Seal (4) - Target may not regain health.] [Weaken (4) - Target's damage is reduced by half a level.] [Hex (4) - Values of all positive buffs affecting target are decreased by one.] [Turnabout (4) - Vriska gains half-level regenaration. Vriska gains half-level damage increase. Values of all positive buffs affecting Vriska are increased by one.] [STRONGarm - Vriska gains half-level damage increase.]

Target; Decoy Victor

[Jackal]

x x

The Beast at Our Door

Jackal's fury was terrible to behold, mostly because she was a big goddamn dragon. However, she no longer roared, merely stared down the man who had pretended to be her target, the man who was burning to death from the inside. That was how Shadowfire worked. If you paid attention, you'd notice that slowly, surely, she was shrinking, her musculature and bone structure receding, the vicious beak and deadly jaw giving way to a human mouth, while the fur and scales receded to their normal level. She was, of course, completely unclothed by the end of it, having discarded her cloth skirt before she'd turned into the dragon in the first place. Without stopping, she walked over to Victor and held her blade to his throat.

"You feel that, don't you?" she said, her voice flat and cold like a pane of freezing glass, "The burning, inside you. You can't stop it. It won't go away. Not unless I tell it to." She rooted through his satchels with one hand until she found two potions. She raised them and shook them in front of his face. "These heal, yes?"

"Yes... yes, pleas--"

Jackal pressed the blade against his throat. A thin red line formed against the edge.

"Victor."

"He's in a place downtown! In the slums, there's this small safehouse by the west side! It's got a mark on the door, like--like this," Frank said hurriedly, showing her a discrete tattoo on his arm. It was a single slash, with a diagonal mark across it. It was plain enough that it wouldn't be distinguishable unless you knew it was a gang sign; though Jackal was surprised no one had found out about it until now. Then again she supposed most guards weren't hellbent dragons filled with burning rage. Jackal nodded, and turned away, walking towards Vriska. She didn't tell him that she couldn't call off her shadowfire once it had burned someone. That had always bothered her. It didn't so much now.

She ignored the crumbling, screaming man behind her as he was consumed by her flame, and ran over to Vriska, forcing one of the potions down the girl's throat. Only when she was sure the Potion had gone to work would Jackal take her own. For a long time she stared at the girl, then said, perhaps ungratefully,

"Why on earth did you do that?"

---

Actions;;

---

Frank's dead. Mini-boss over, all health restored, all cooldowns and durations reset to 0.

---

Players

Vriska

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Normal?[/ul]

Jackal

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Normal[/ul]

Enemies

Decoy Victor;; Frank

[/b][/color]
Alertness;; Literally as not-alert as it is possible to be
Range;; BURNED TO DEATH RANGE[/ul]

Quest info - special actions; all participants can use them

Stealth

Bypass

[/blockquote]

[Vriska]

All of a sudden Vriska felt something sweet and cold pass her lips and she swallowed eagerly. The icy sweetness pooled somewhere in her belly and then spread throughout her entire body, banishing the creeping blackness in her brain as she was forged anew. Her left arm, made to take advantage of such magic, glowed with blue light as metal bled from the severed joint and refomade the once-absent hand. For today, at least, Vriska would not die. This was something of a relief.

Though being alive meant she'd have to figure out a way to explain why she'd risked explosive death in the first place. "Dunno," she said truthfully. "Seemed like the thing to do, really. I'm the knight. I risk my life, I get the girl, I live happily ever after. Besides," she added as she got to her feet. "You're one of the few people who don't make me want to jump off a cliff - I've grown fond of you too. And you didn't answer my question."

[Jackal]

x x

Kyoku de Ajia

Jackal watched as Vriska's body reconstructed itself, even the metallic parts. She supposed it must have had some sort of magical link to her body, or the way that her body was arranged. Without thinking, she reached out and touched Vriska's metal arm, staring at it. Then her eyes drifted along the rest of Vriska's body, labouring over certain ... areas. It struck Jackal suddenly that she was a very attractive woman. One who had just dive-bombed a grenade to protect her. This was remarkably hot. When Vriska spoke, Jackal blinked, and then laughed incredulously when she realized what Vriska was talking about.

"Well, I guess--yes. Yeah. I think I owe you more than dinner by this point," Jackal said, sounding surprisingly happy. She examined the spot on her chest where the lightning rod had been. No scars. Frank's potions had been pretty good. After successfully inspecting herself for damage, Jackal gently trailed a hand along Vriska's shoulder, then across her chest, and her stomach, taking care to keep her claws from finding flesh. She didn't even realize the ludicrously suggestive nature of what she was doing; she was honestly checking for damaged skin and scar tissue. She smiled. "Looks like the potion did the trick. You're still smoking hot." She hadn't really meant to say the last part, but she laughed anyway. She was surprised at how happy she was. She supposed it was just a sense of sudden relief that Vriska was all right; and the knowledge that someone whose name wasn't Rwaht had stuck their neck out for her. On top of a hand grenade.

"Do you think you can finish this?" Jackal asked, before she realized she was still wearing absolutely nothing. Blinking, she found the spot where she'd tossed aside her only garment and tied it back on quickly, before she looked up at Vriska and asked, "I'd understand if you didn't want to get into any more danger. I can probably handle things myself from here on out."

---

Players

Vriska

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Normal?[/ul]

Jackal

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Normal[/ul]

Enemies

None

Quest info - special actions; all participants can use them

Stealth

Bypass

[/blockquote]

[Vriska]

When Jackal laughed, Vriska couldn't help but laugh with her. It was good to be alive. And then Jackal was touching her. Slowly. Gently. Carefully. After a moment Vriska cleared her throat. "You don't have to start paying me back now, although-" She was completely misinterpreting the gesture. "Oh. Well. Yes. Thank you?" Her face flushed blue with embarrassment as Jackal turned to retrieve her one piece of clothing.

It was only when Jackal was dressed, turned around and saying something to her that Vriska realized she'd started smiling appreciatively, almost thoughtfully, and had her arms crossed. She quickly discarded both and focused on the mission, trying to pretend she hadn't made her interest so obvious. "And let Victor get away from the storm of assbeat he's earned? Not a chance. Trouble is my business, and business is my middle name. I've got a large order to fill."

"Speaking of names." Vriska hesitated. "I never got yours. Rwaht only ever calls you Jackal."

[Jackal]

x x

The Sun's Gone Dim

Jackal laughed as Vriska spoke, watching the girl blush. It was strange--and, well, blue--but cute. She realized that all the leftover adrenaline from the fight was probably bleeding over and making her giddy, but she didn't mind. She hadn't laughed in far too long. "You're welcome," Jackal said wryly, before she started running over the directions that Frank had given her in her head ... she thought she might know where it was. She laughed again while Vriska spoke. "Storm of assbeat." That was a good one.

Dragons come not in herds, or packs, but in storms. It was an old phrase. She'd read it somewhere.

When Vriska mentioned names, though, Jackal froze. Literally. She juts sort of stopped moving for a very long while, suddenly gaining that strange, lizard-like stance. Then she slowly snapped out of it, raising a hand and looking at it.

My name? She looked at Vriska for a long time. On one hand, she'd barely met Vriska. On the other hand, she'd saved her life. Her name was the only thing that still belonged to her, really. It was all she had. Everyone had to call her Jackal, because she didn't let them call her anything else. It was a small measure of control, but it was the only one she had.

And now Rwaht won't even say my name, she reflected sadly. She realized she'd been staring at her hand the entire time, with its scales, and claws. She lowered it and looked at Vriska. She didn't say anything for a very long time.

"Shayu." Her voice was clear. "My name is Shayu."

She smiled. "Now come on. Let's go."

---

Players

Vriska

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Normal?[/ul]

Jackal

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Normal[/ul]

Enemies

None

Quest info - special actions; all participants can use them

Stealth

Bypass

[/blockquote]

[Vriska]

And of course she'd had to go and ruin a perfectly good moment with a faux pas like that. What the hell had she been thinking, asking someone their real name when they so clearly wanted to hide it and it was just the second time they'd met. The silence stretched past strained, past pained and was rocketing through FOR F8CK'S SAKE JUST SAY SOMETHING before Jackal actually answered.

Somehow that she would actually trust Vriska with her name stunned her. Vriska knew exactly what was in a name. She knew, then and there, that she would keep this one safe. It would become a private thing, a word of affection. A way to touch her where she could not be touched without hurting someone. A claim, perhaps, to mark this small victory. Another piece of Shayu was hers. Later she would claim the spoils.

God dammit she was waxing poetic again. The woman was just too damn beautiful. Vriska smiled back. "It's beautiful. You're beautiful."

And then they left. They had work to do.

[Jackal]

x x

The Sun's Gone Dim

Jackal felt a little strange. Here she was in the middle of a life-or-death quest that just might get her her life back and ... she was also being hit on by/hitting on one of her brother's closest advisers? She wasn't sure how to feel about it, at least not now ... Jackal might project confidence, but that was really just a side-effect of habitually hiding weakness like it was a dirty secret at a family reunion. She hadn't properly dealt with any of those weird "feelings" things in years. And she had to admit, Vriska was growing on her at an alarming rate. That, and the last time anyone had called her "beautiful", it had been Rwaht, and as her brother he sort of had to. A smile flickered on to her face.

"That's a new one. Thanks."

They left the slaughterhouse with little incident, and made their way across town quietly, Jackal slipping through the shadows. She was still, after all, a wanted fugitive, and while she didn't expect to find half of the guards looking for her, it probably wasn't a good idea to be seen skulking about at night. When they finally reached the house--and Jackal identified it by the mark that Frank had pointed out, she guided Vriska to a nearby alleyway.

"You're sure?" Jackal asked, looking deadly serious. "Frank nearly killed you back there, and Victor will be far more prepared. He's a dangerous man. I don't want you getting hurt for me," she said, placing an arm on Vriska's shoulder and looking directly in her eyes, "And if you jump on a grenade again, you won't need to wait for it to detonate, because I'll kill you."

She sounded so serious that it would probably take a couple of seconds for Vriska to realize she was joking. Jackal smirked, but her expression changed quickly.

"If you're going in there with me, you need to promise me you won't do anything stupidly noble. I already have one halfblood doing that in my life, I don't need another," she said dryly, though she did mean it.

---

Players

Vriska

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Normal?[/ul]

Jackal

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Normal[/ul]

Enemies

None

Quest info - special actions; all participants can use them

Stealth

Bypass

[/blockquote]

[Vriska]

In response to Jackal's touch, Vriska placed both her hands on Jackal's shoulders and moved in closer, half-embracing her and closing the distance between them. Still holding Jackal's eyes with her own, Vriska put her forehead against hers and smiled. "Only if you kiss me."

Hey, they might die tonight. Might as well take what she could get.

[Jackal]

x x

Premonition

Jackal blinked, then laughed.

"As you wish."

So she kissed her. Jackal wasn't very good at it, of course. How could she be? But she tried, and that had to count for something, she figured. She sort of stared at Vriska for a moment afterwards, laughed like a sheepish schoolgirl, realized it, stopped, made a sort of frownsmirkreluctantsmile and then said,

"All right. In we go."

And, without anything really better to do, she sort of walked up to the house. It was a good thing she went before Vriska, because the front half of it exploded right in Jackal's face.

Oh. Oh no.

Jackal's body went flying like a ragdoll and flopped onto the cobblestones in front of the house, in the large courtyard which was now half-burnt black by tongues of flame. Her body felt useless ... but her wounds didn't feel too bad. Everything just felt numb. She tried to move her tongue, but she couldn't make any noise. Her throat wouldn't even move. She helplessly clawed at the ground, praying for it to be over. Some movement came back into her fingers, but not much.....

---

Actions;;

---

Victor walked out of the rubble, tossing a grenade in one hand and sneering.

"Stupid little girl. Do you think I'd really not notice if you showed up all of a sudden? You're hard to miss," he sneered, before he saw Vriska, who'd been just short of the blast. "Oh. You're one of the mixed blood bastard knights, aren't you? Led around by her gem of a brother?" Victor jerked a thumb at Jackal's incapacitated form. "Eh, you're all bloody idiots. You'll die just the same. Oi, catch."

And then he threw a grenade at her. A grenade with a knife on one end.

---

Actions;;

[/i][/ul]

---

Players

Vriska

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; Normal?[/ul]

Jackal

[/b][/color]
Passive abilities;; None
Status;; INCAPACITATED; will have only 1 action slot next turn[/ul]

Enemies

Victor, THE DIRECT DOUCHEBAG

[/b][/color]
Range;; Out of range of JACKAL and VRISKA!
Status;; Normal[/ul]

Quest info - special actions; all participants can use them

Stealth

Bypass

[/blockquote]