She has been quiet. Paranoid. And spiteful.

Her dreaded meeting with Ghyslaine had not ended how she anticipated. Again, the woman had been dismantled by fate and told a resounding no that echoed through all her life's choices. She was moping, perhaps. But Sersie was alone at the end of this road, in utter darkness, unable to see both physically and spiritually that this could be a death sentence.

Somehow, she had wandered into the badlands, and she hasn't left since (minus a quick trip to the pits). She shuffles in an awkward gate, nose clouded with dust but still strong enough to guide her. Every noise is a potential threat, every nudge of her body a potential end. But alas, the broken lioness finds herself back 'home' in a crag just big enough for her sleep. Drying bones litter it, she has been taking food from vultures as of late--the meat is rancid but she eats anyway, steeling herself against it's fowl taste. But anything is better than nothing at this rate.

There is a part of her, that truly thinks, this is it. That this is where her end lies, perhaps. It's a strange feeling, one that is utterly foreign to her. She has fucked death so many times, that waiting for it now seems....strange.

Where is her rage? Where is that fire in her gut that always drives her forward? And why has it abandoned her now?

code by daanyan, Art by Rabbit


…

How he kept wandering into the shittiest places in the lands, he didn't know. Or, he thought as he prowled the land where things apparently went to die, maybe this was simply an example of how the whole place looked. He'd turn around and walk right back over the sandbar, if so.

But it seemed there was something still alive, a trail left in the dirt and sand that seemed fresher than the others, and was certainly more fresh than the bones and decay around him. Boredom drove him onward, seeking the source of the odd tracks. What he found was... just as odd.

He stood there, regarding the woman with a mixture of interest and disdain. It seemed impressive that she had survived whatever fate had befallen her, but he somehow doubted she would continue to do so for long. He could just put her out of her misery, he thought. But that would be an act of kindness, and while he could be described as many things, kind wasn't one of them.

Don't know whether to be impressed or to think you're dead and just haven't stiffened up yet, he commented. Because, no, he wasn't above taunting a maimed, blind woman. If he'd known her before, he would have realized this was just... her. That her hatred drove her to cling to life despite everything. But he didn't, and so he found the sight before him pathetic.

How unfortunate, that he couldn't see it.

@Sersie

I'MMA TAKE THE WORLD WITH ME WHEN THEY PUT ME IN THE DIRT

code by corvus

A scent had caught her attention, but honestly, she had grown far too tired to move today. Sersie waits, doing her best to paint a picture of what or who was approaching. Her tattered ears swing forward, but her head does not lift from the comfort of her front leg as she uses it as a pillow.

"Don't know whether to be impressed or think you're dead and just haven't stiffened up yet"

The words are enough to get her head to snap towards their general direction. She inhales again, they appear to be male by the musk but she could be wrong.

The thought of her being wrong made bile pulse through her throat and sit on her tongue. Sersie hated being wrong. She hated this. Trapped in a dying, rotting prison where her full potential could never truly be realized. She could fight, and she would, but the only common sense she garnered was enough to tell her victory would be long gone if it came to that. Any serious scuffle could end her life.

"Funny" came her raspy, dry voice. Fucking hilarious"Say your jokes, jester and then be on your way"

@Akuji

code by daanyan, Art by Rabbit

I'm delighted you think so, he replied just as dryly as she had spoken. Be on my way? Why? Don't want to be put out of your misery? Granted, he wouldn't want to be, in her position. He'd want revenge, and he wouldn't be willing to stop until he either got it or had to be put down permanently.

Someone made a mistake in letting you live, then, he concluded, following his own inner train of thought.

He prowled a slow circle around her, taking note of which injuries were new and which were old, keeping well away in case she decided to take a snap at him because he thought it would be such a shame to have to end her when she was just getting interesting to him. Finally, he took a seat in front of her, still several feet off. I'll go with impressed, I think. After all, it takes a sort of skill to make someone hate you enough to leave you for dead, instead of just finishing you off.

@Sersie

I'MMA TAKE THE WORLD WITH ME WHEN THEY PUT ME IN THE DIRT

code by corvus

There is no hiding the actual disdain for his words. While the stranger speaks, Sersie's visage crinkles and gnarls against scar tissue littering her face. He just keeps going too....a rambling thought process she was unfortunately privy to. Of all the times, she thinks, now the universe decides to bug the hell out of her by sending some joker.

Sersie lifts her head up then, and gets to her legs (shakily). She can hear his pitter-patter walk around her, as if she was some commodity to be admired. When the stranger settles on impressed, the expression on her face softens....a little.

"And I will go with annoyed" she snaps back, facing off in the wrong direction of where @Akuji was likely at. "You are lucky I am exhausted today." she mutters, taking a few steps away from where she thinks he is. They are careful, meticulous paces toward the puddle of water that is collected between the rocks forming the gorge. "Do you have anything better to do than harass a woman?

code by daanyan, Art by Rabbit

He shrugs slightly in response to her comment of annoyance, managing to suppress the chuckle that welled up when she looked a good foot or so to his right. Fair enough, he replied instead, well aware that his particular sense of humor wouldn't be appreciated by everyone, or possibly anyone other than him.

No, truthfully. This place is rather... dull, he admitted. There was a severe lack of chaos to amuse him, which meant he was likely going to have to start his own. Which was always fun, but where to start?

You're welcome to suggest something more entertaining, he said, a sincere statement with no suggestion in it. He wasn't asking her to make things more entertaining, he just wanted to know if she had a better idea of something he could go do. Besides fuck himself, because he had a feeling that might be the next thing out of her mouth.

@Sersie

I'MMA TAKE THE WORLD WITH ME WHEN THEY PUT ME IN THE DIRT

code by corvus

You're welcome to suggest something more entertaining,

"You are just as annoying as my--" the words catch, surprisingly in her mouth. "--my children" her head hangs lower when the softer words are spoken. Though she cannot see her reflection anymore, she tries anyway to no avail. Her children--Sersie had never expected to miss them so much. The little hellions of saxe and dake blood were to be her dynasty. For all she knew aside from Sevasti, they were dead. She had failed. Again

The tripod sits slowly, solemnly, beginning to get lost in those thoughts. She missed the lagoon, during her time as Queen. It had been the first time in her life that Sersie felt in control, safe, unbreakable. And it all came crashing down so fast. Even nature had to remind her that she was nothing, and that happiness never lasted. Sure, she could attempt to take it back ...but she had no allies, no pride. At the time of her fight with the Sigrun Queen, she had the saxe and the oasis.

None of them were viable anymore.

The lioness had gone utterly silent, leaving it hanging in the air between her and the stranger. She was not one to show emotion, nor was she one to feel the sting of tears in empty broken sockets. No, she forced it down. She choked it down like rancid meat and a snarl replaced the sorrow on her face. "I don't have an answer for you. I came here to die" she admits "And saying it out loud makes me feel disgusting" she mutters after, clearly unimpressed with her lack of confidence. Where had her fire gone?

@Akuji

code by daanyan, Art by Rabbit

He looked around like he expected the aforementioned children to suddenly come popping out of the bones around them, but the area was just as dead as it had been a moment ago. Wherever they were, it wasn't here. Which was likely a good thing, because he wasn't the most patient creature and children could be so very, very annoying.

Slowly, an evil grin stretched across his features as the silence went on. He could almost taste the emotional disarray, or at least imagined it. How so like a woman, to be broken by the thought of her cubs. He'd thought more of her, but apparently she was just like the rest. How boring.

The grin faded into a scowl at her admission of coming to this place to die, and where before their brief encounter he would have told her that could be arranged, something else slithered out of his mouth instead. Pathetic, he hissed, loathing dripping from the word. I didn't take you for a weakling. Show them the mistake they made in granting you the mercy of letting you live!

He doesn't know her, not really. Not any better than he knows this place he wandered into. But he does know what he can see. That someone has taken much from her and still she lives on. There is something in this woman, he believes it. And he so very much hates to be proven wrong.

Do you want me to go find your cubs and tell them their mother died a sniveling, blind milksop, or do you want them to hear the stories of how you wrecked your revenge on those fools, a woman on the warpath who would let nothing stop her? he asked, tone as though he was demanding an answer. Because I see the latter, he concluded more moderately. But if you've given up, and the only assistance I can offer is a speedier end than infection and starvation, then do tell.

@Sersie

I'MMA TAKE THE WORLD WITH ME WHEN THEY PUT ME IN THE DIRT

code by corvus

The lioness sits and listens. Her body still as the graveyard around them, the sting of venom from Akuji hits her like the kids of a wip. Pathetic and weak hit the hardest. Sersie has done so much, tried so hard to prove she was neither of those things. In a rare moment of tenderness, of opening herself to a complete stranger, she is mocked. It hurts more than any claw, bite or dismemberment could--and she would know, personally.

But the strange man ends it, differently. Wherein the lioness expected the hate to continue, the insults to fly, he describes her as the latter of two choices. And he was right

As he finishes his speech concerning who he thinks she is, what kind of woman she is, Sersie finds the agitation has turned to righteous fury. Quickly as she could (though shaky, unsteady, she hasn't eaten a proper meal in ages) she turns quick-sharp towards him--his voice. Whatever distance had been between them was eaten by three distinct paws, before her mouth would open in an attempt to clamp down right over his snout and mouth. Best to shut him up before she decided to kill him instead of just fight.

Sersie vs. @Akuji
Minor Maim
Round 1 / 4
Hits:

Rolling 7d20: 1 + 9 + 19 + 13 + 11 + 8 + 4

Dodges:

Rolling 5d20: 1 + 2 + 8 + 4 + 15

Luck:

Rolling 5d20: 16 + 19 + 13 + 17 + 15

code by daanyan, Art by NAKI

There it was! That fire he knew she ought to have. YES! he exclaimed with a delighted laugh as she turned on him and charged. The sound was immediately muffled as she encompassed his muzzle with her own, her teeth digging into the thinner skin and immediately drawing blood. Still he crowed his triumph and joy, even as he reached up with his left front paw and attempted to sink his claws in as high up on her shoulder as he could reach given his shorter stature. Which perhaps she was now picking up on as well as she came in contact with him. It typically put him at a disadvantage when trying to reach important areas on his opponents, but on the plus side it made him exceptionally good at gnawing on their kneecaps.

C'est la vie.

Akuji vs. @Sersie
for Minor Maim
Round 1 / 4
Hits:

Rolling 4d20: 18 + 10 + 4 + 14

Dodges:

Rolling 7d20: 8 + 6 + 11 + 16 + 12 + 13 + 5

Luck:

Rolling 5d20: 1 + 9 + 13 + 10 + 19

I'MMA TAKE THE WORLD WITH ME WHEN THEY PUT ME IN THE DIRT

code by corvus