[ 1v1 ] It's Nothing Personal (Roch/West)

[Smerdle]

West was at it again. The wrath demon was back outside the gym, waiting around for one or two other students to pass by who might be willing to get a little knocked around. Surprisingly, he wasn't looking to punch and run, but to actually try learning something from these fights. It had been a while since he had fought for more than fun, but mindless, frustrated flailing wasn't going to protect the people he cared about when the horsemen decided to start dicking them around again. Deep down, he suspected that nothing he could learn would be enough to stop them, but he wasn't quite ready to accept that at the moment. He didn't think he would ever be.

He crossed his jacket-covered arms and leaned back against the side of the building, closing his eyes and taking several deep breaths as he waited for something to break the silence.  

[Ice Queen]

Roch was heading for the gym, looking for something to get his mind off of all the crap he was working on. A good spar--or even just beating the crap out of a dummy, he decided. It would be good to get rid of some of the tension in his shoulders--although, seriously, with a healing type ghoulfriend--

Nah, he needed to blow off some steam. He reached for the gym door, barely glancing at the wrath demon. He'd never really talked to West before, and the guy seemed the type to blow a fuse just over... well... anything. Although that might be entertaining in a spar...

"Y'busy?" he asked abruptly.

Smerdle

Yay!! This should be entertaining<33

 

[Smerdle]

The demon's eyes cracked open to slits when he heard Roch's voice, then rolled slightly at the boil's words. "Do I look it?" he asked. West waved a hand. "Dun answer that." He eyed the gym door, putting two and two together.

"Y'came t'fight? 'Cause I could do that." The last time he had fought a reaper, he'd been riddled with holes for his trouble, but from what he had seen, he suspected Roch's weapon was a Jack damned guitar. He could fight a guitar. It might even teach him something about fending off giant boomerangs.

Ice Queen

Yes, it will be! (don't mind initiative roll in the middle of nowhere yay)

 

[Ice Queen]

"It's a good way to blow off steam," Roch said, heading inside. Well, they were both boils, and hobs, as far as he could tell, which meant he wasn't going to have to take it easy--not that he usually did with other guys. "And considering our little hunter problem, it strikes me as the smartest way."

He wondered, though, because he hadn't seen West at the gym very often--but it might have just been them keeping different hours or something. He reached a hand out, summoning his guitar and turning to face the other male with a slight grin. "Let me guess--you're a close distance fighter?"

Smerdle

It works<3

 

[Smerdle]

He nodded, the smallest of smiles creeping across his face. "Seems we have th' same idea." West eyed the guitar as he took a couple of short steps back, attempting to assess the situation. "An' yeah, I am. So's long as y'don't throw that thing... Or even if y'do. Whatever." He did have not-so-secret wings and that one FEAR thing he could fling around, but for the most part, West punched things.

HP: 50
Damage: 0

Ice Queen

fakeout :B

 

[Ice Queen]

Roch brought up his guitar, wielding it like a baseball bat and grinning at the rage demon. "Then let's see how good you are," he said simply before swinging. He didn't hold back--the body of the guitar slammed into the demon's shoulder, hitting his FEAR shield hard. He figured a guy so pissed off all the time was used to brawling hard, right?

HP: 50/50
DMG: 10
FEAR: /3

Smerdle

Notta fakeout=p Sorry, Roch assumes West is a brawler OTL

 

[Smerdle]

Yes, West was used to delivering and receiving beatings, but he couldn't recall the last time a battle had started off quite like this. He staggered back as Roch's guitar seemed to nearly dent him to the bone, his brief grimace of surprise and pain quickly shifting to a snarky little grin.

He shook his head. "Not so good when y'smack 'round my punchin' arm," he muttered, balling his left fist and sending it flying toward Roch's head.

HP: 40
Damage: 4

Ice Queen

XD

 

[Ice Queen]

Rich grinned as the hit hit his FEAR shield. Then brought the head of his guitar straight up into West's gut--lightly.

"This might sound like a jackass thing t'say... but y'want some pointers?" Roch asked. "We can j'st go on like this if y'don't wanna take advice from a reaper, but class jester or not, I know a bit about fightin'."

HP: 46/50
DMG: 2
FEAR: /3

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

The boil bristled at Roch's suggestion, taking a short step back as the guitar tapped him again. He knew how to fight just fine. If you weren't a Jackin' pansy you didn't need any more schooling than getting pointed at a target and hitting as hard as you could. West's eyes flared brightly for a moment as his FEAR started to coalesce, to clear his mind or turn him into a thoughtless and murderous machine or whatever else it felt like doing today. He took a sharp breath. Anything it threw at him was still theoretically better than nothing at all. Even in his most uncontrolled moments, this usually managed to help him win. It would be just as useful against this arrogant sack of crap who thought he could teach a wrath demon how to fi—

West frowned as he felt his FEAR buildup drain away as quickly as it had threatened to build. He was so surprised by the sensation, that a questioning "Wha—" spilled from the demon's lips before he could stop it. The furious disappointment on his face almost amusing.

"Yeah. Fine," he replied, voice barely audible. This was all just... embarrassing. Stupid reapers.

HP: 38
Damage: 0
FEAR: The Eye Y3 fail

Ice Queen

 

[Ice Queen]

"Relax, I ain't gonna tell anyone," Roch said. "Especially if you don't tell people that I'm teachin' y'to fight like a dirty rotten jacktard," he added, letting his guitar hang over his back. "First thing first--you like t'hit people, well there's these things called brass knuckles--I'm givin' odds you've heard of them. But in a pinch even a simple piece of metal will do."

He reached into his pocket--and pulled out his solid steel harmonica in its case. "The real point of brass knuckles isn't the front part--it's the part in your hand. By gettin' rid of that gap between your fingers and your fist you're makin' the arm one solid pole."

"Now, once y'got your steel, focus your FEAR into that hand--keep it close to the body, and get in as close as y'can to--" His fist slammed up into West's solar plexus.

HP: 46/50
DMG: 9
FEAR: /3

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He held back all the new and sarcastic things he wanted to say at first, watching Roch reach into his pocket with a curious gleam in his eyes. When the other boil pulled out the case, West's lips pursed with faint distaste. He was no stranger to using his environment to his advantage when he had to, but he hadn't brought anything but his fists and FEAR to a fight ever since Savior had almost killed him. West was thisclose to laughing, to accusing Roch of being a big ol' cheater, when the reaper hit him.

It hurt. After graduation, he was really going to have to ask his uncle where he'd gotten his knife.

West took advantage of Roch's proximity to slap him on the back. He might have been squeezing his fingers into a fist of his own while he did it, who could say. "Good one. I'll 'member that."

HP: 29
Damage: 2

Ice Queen

 

[Ice Queen]

"Now usually, I don't punch," Roch said bluntly. "I like my hands too much t'risk them. But if you're goin' into a fight with a hunter with your bare knuckles, I say lay the jacker out any way you can. Anyone that'd kidnap kids, stick strange s**t in'em--" His jaw gritted slightly. "Jack'em up as hard as you possibly can."

He slipped the harmonica back into his pocket. Then he kicked out lightly, bringing his knee up first, then kicking at the demon's shin. "How about kicks, y'any good at them?" he asked.

HP: 44/50
DMG: 2
FEAR: /3

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"I know how t—" West balled his fists tighter, huffing the rest of the air he had drawn in to speak out through his nose like an irate cartoon bull. He'd fought plenty of hunters in the past, using such illustrious techniques against them as... dropping out of the sky onto their golems and flicking them in their ears. Hrmmm.

The idea that he should have been paying more attention to attack technique all these months rather than balance and stealth crossed his mind again, but it flew from his thoughts as he became distracted by something Roch said. He had been well aware of the fact that hunters had taken students. His eagerness to defend them had earned him nothing more than a blasted mark. He hadn't known that anyone had anything stuck inside them.

His anger rose in a brilliant flare so bracing it made his hair stand on end and forced his stubby fingernails to dig shallow gouges into his palms. Those humans already had the ability to spy in Halloween and now they were shoving things into people as well? What did the hunters' technology do? How did it feel? Had the students known it was inside of them before they had been told?

West glared at the reaper. Could he kick? Could he kick? Well, he'd never really tried to do so in any sort of terribly intentional capacity, but he did have working legs.

West kicked. Hard.

HP: 27
Damage: 12

Ice Queen

 

[Ice Queen]

Roch was kicked. He grunted as he fell back, wincing slightly before grinning. "Nice," he said. "That jackin' stung." He faked to the left, then kicked with his right, hitting the demon in the thigh, decently hard--but not nearly as hard as he'd been kicked. "Let's work with that," he said--but was it kicks he was talking about?

"Amphi can't talk now," he went on, deliberately pissing off the other male--and himself. "They jackin' traumatized her so much that she lost her voice. Amrita hardly wants to come outta her room now, the others--I don't know what's up with them, but I bet it ain't good. They did this to GHOULS, man. Ghouls that aren't fighters. Amphi's a HEALER, dammit."

HP: 32/50
DMG: 6
FEAR: /3

Smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

West didn't have any more than the vaguest idea who Amphi was, but that wasn't the point. The point wasn't even that Amrita wouldn't come out of her room, although that was more troubling. What made his blood boil was the fact that they had been able to do this once, and if the hunters could do it once, they could do it again. Amityville needed something that could counteract the ease with which the hunters invaded their space and stole students away, some way that they could invade without the hunters' knowledge, to spy on them as they had been spied on.

But how? West hadn't the faintest idea where to begin.

Instead he quickly swung a fist at Roch's leg, the one invasion he could control. Horsemen, hunters, they were all the same. "An' what am I 'sposed t'do 'bout that, huh?" he spat. If someone smacked this Amphi hard enough, West was sure she'd make some sort of noise.

HP: 21
Damage: 7

Ice Queen