The Honor Circle Returns! (IC)

[Cogidubnus]

 Giles said nothing for a moment, his face a blank wall of seriousness. The moment stretched out even longer, until finally the blackguard's face cracked in a too-white smile. The man snerked, laughter escaping through his teeth as he tried to keep himself composed, until he finally lost it and his laughter echoed through the earthen bowl. He leaned back just slightly, as far as his armor would allow, and tilting his head looked at the man in front of him with insane eyes, equals parts murder and mirth.

"I'm an asshole?" he said, his eyebrows raised. "By the gods, there's the pot and the kettle. But ah won't deny it." his mouth twisted in a smile. "I'm an asshole, yeah. But let's tell the truth, shall we?" some of the mirth faded from his eyes. "Ye just wanted to impress your girlfriend by showin' her just how big yer dick was by standin' up to the big, bad pyromancer. Fair enough, but then you insult me too?"
He spat. "Fuck you. Even bad men love their mommas, asshole. I won't be pissed on by nobody, and most certainly not by a long-haired prettyboy like you."

As if in response to the darkness, the blackguard's eyes flared, and fire and hell danced within them. "You should have stayed and played with your little green ladyfriend, Mr. Knight in Shinin' Armor. You're gonna need a big fuckin' stick to beat any kinda sense into me." he grinned again, suddenly crossing both arms. His spear blazed like a torch, and blood poured from it. "I'll burn you to ashes, and I'll dance on your bones." he said with some finality, and without saying anything more, spread his arms dramatically.

The surface of the magma rippled, and as Giles moved, fire poured up from the liquid rock to surround him, engulfing him entirely - and continued to do so, the Blackguard simply drawing heat out from the lava beneath him and using it to fuel his flames. As the flames began to pile up, he gestured with one hand, and the magma responded - as though a massive rock had been dropped into the viscous fire, it splashed up around the blond haired man, and from all directions a wave of magma descended upon him.

[Stygian]

Stygian muttered. He had expected perhaps some comments or remarks on the rules he had demanded, and some more of that irritating jargon. Not for Giles to attack quite this quickly though. Evidently the ambient heat added to the man's power very much. His gaze shifting as he caught Giles' movement, a bead of sweat already forming on his brow, he caught the movement of the magma, and tensed. No blocking this man's attacks. Coat fluttering, he looked up, as the lava spilled inward...
   The gouts of magma splashed together in a spraying and sputtering fountain, drowning the plateau underneath the blond man in scorching hot rock and eating chunks out of it. Left was only a steaming pile of slag.
   'To put it in your way', the low, cold voice of Stygian came from just left of Giles, not many meters away, 'you talk a shitload of trash'. Placed out of the dim light trickling through the crack above, and only barely illuminated by the fiery light as it reflected off the cavern side, the man bathed in murky shade, his coat seeming to blend with the shadows behind and around him. The amber light receded as he took a few steps forward toward the blackguard, swallowed up as the shadows seemed to deepen, twisting all the more in that rippling, fiery illumination. 'We were having a conversation. And whatever my intents or hers, they are none of your business. Unless', he said, and narrowed his gleaming pitch eyes, 'you're telling me that you would rather be approaching her yourself. In which case you're even more of a bother.'
   The man stopped at around the edge of the cliff he was standing on, hands resting at his sides, his chill gaze directed down at Giles and the umber light tinging his pallid face an orange tone.

[Cogidubnus]

 Giles cracked another smile when he heard the man's voice call out to him from the side of the arena, and with fluid grace he turned to face him. The fires around him were growing at a phenomenal rate, the pyromancer using the magma like a giant battery of thermal energy. They had already engulfed the platform on which he stood, the flames five times as tall as he was, and wider than two spearlengths stretched together. His biggest weakness, the time it took for him to get going, seemed to have been negated by the landscape around him. He laughed mockingly.
"I'm telling you your an arrogant fuck, and you'll get what's coming." he grinned madly. "Nice trick. How long until this entire bowl is one giant bonfire? What then, prettyboy?"

He laughed again. "Better hurry! Shoot me, quick! Use your shadows, your tentacles, your heart of darkness! Hurry up and show me your strength!" the core of the flames turned blue, the bonfire twisting into a funnel. The wind picked up, and the ambient heat increased exponentially. The expression on the blackguard's face was clearly insane. "Can you even fight? Are there shadows enough in my hell? Better Hurry! Before it's too late, prettyboy!" his laughter could be heard all the way back at the tavern, the flames rising and twisting higher and brighter. "Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!"
The arena exploded, sheets of fire raining down on the man, a massive conflagration that seemed to simply encompass the man in an orb of flames before rushing in to collapse upon him.

[Stygian]

The brief second that Stygian's face was still in view to Giles, unobscured by the fierce dancing of the flames, the blackguard caught how the man's eyes widened as if in shock. Then, the flames bombarded him from all directions. The crushing, disintegrating flare of the heat fell inward, with no escape in sight, swallowing him up.
   The burst of... something, colder than air, more oily than smoke, nearly knocked Giles off his feet, and sent cascades of cinder and dust up as it drove the atmosphere of the cavern before it, before even the scattered flames were snuffed out, smoky chill creeping out and crackling against the fire. The blackguard saw a flicker of a pallid outline, an eyeblink's glimpse of a spectral figure of some sort, before the blackness around it slammed in like a shockwave, and Stygian burst forward against him, stopping just short of the other man. His face was tinged with a cold irritation.
   'You're in touch with your bloodlust. I like that', he said, deceptively calmly. 'But don't fool yourself.' A hint of a green gleam lighting up in his eyes, the man's gaze took on a vicious, amused streak. 'You think you know bad? Don't pretend. You're run of the mill.'
   Stygian's hand came up in a vicious sideways swipe, as the air drew together again, something black ripping streaks through it as it drew inward, a force like a speeding truck aimed at the blackguard's chest plate.

[Cogidubnus]

 Giles didn't have time to sent back a snappy retort, the man's shadow-imbued hand snapping out at him quickly. The blackguard didn't have to be reminded of the man's prodigious strength, and he brought one black-armored arm up quickly. With his other hand, however, he quickly flipped the red-hot spear in his hands, and twisting his body so Stygian would have that much farther to reach, stabbed at him. He didn't expect not to dodge the blow, but he was perfectly fine with an exchange of fire.
The man's fist hit him like a truck, and to the amazement of those watching lifted the pyromancer clear off the ground, making him turn in the air and land in the bubbling magma below with a splash.

The black-armored man sank for a moment before somehow bobbing to the surface. He rolled over and slowly got to his feet, still grinning madly.
"Yeees...." he laughed, standing on the surface of the magma. "I thought a' much, so I did." he snickered to himself. "Ah, but it's no important, is it? Ye may be bad, an' I may be just an asshole. But yer also an idiot." he said, and whirling his spear over his head launched it at the man. It trailed fire like a comet, and fire rained like napalm from the sky. Beneath his feet, the magma rose again, and splashed up to cover the platform upon which he stood.

[Stygian]

The spear's tip nicked Stygian's side. Giles could feel it through the haft, the fraction of a second it took for the man's fist to connect with him, before he was hurled through the air with a sound of tortured metal. Yet Stygian merely glanced down at the wound, ignoring it as it closed up itself, and walked to the edge of the platform, looking down at his opponent with a mixture of amusement and contempt.
   Giles sent his spear hurtling for Stygian, and knowing that this was most likely a distraction, as the man's real power seemed to lie in his control of the flames, he twisted and leaped back, well out of the sizzling shaft's way. The folds of his coat extending, an image of shadowy wings formed for an instant as he smoothly floated upward, until he landed equally fluidly on another platform, a bit higher up. Standing straight, he snorted, and glared, that green gleam still visible in his eyes even through the redness of the flames.
   'Speak for yourself. You've not really been demonstrating any fantastic qualities of... judgment', Stygian retorted, then grinned slightly. 'I'd ask you to come up here and fight like a man...' He reached out his hand a bit, the darkness thickening to his right side. 'But maybe you've already realized that you can't handle a monster.'
   Again, Stygian swept his hand forward, and as the blackness took the scything shape of a wing, there was a flash, and then a rumble. Sharp shards of rocks spattered, and then a groaning, grinding sound filled the cavern. The image of one of the stone pillars grew, as it toppled, its shadow falling over Giles.

[Cogidubnus]

 "Monsters are killed by men." Giles said to himself, snickering even as the pillar of rock fell. With the shadows around him quickly darkening as the pillar got closer, the pyromancer laughed again, and disappeared under the bulk of the rock as it came splashing down.
The pillar bobbed in the magma, the stench of sulfur and ash thick in the air.

A moment later, Giles resurfaced, slowly walking higher as the magma itself pushed him back to the surface. His grin was nearly feral. "And you are still an arrogant sun-of-a-bitch!" he yelled, his blue eyes still somehow too-bright in the lurid red light, and with one arm he gestured, the fires conjured by his spear sweeping out and towards the black-clothed man. Laughing madly, walking on the surface of the magma, he simply began to dance in the middle of the lake of fire, conjuring his flames in the middle of hell.
The surface of the liquid rock caught fire, a carpet of flames above the magma that spread until it encompassed the entire pool. It grew like wild fire, the blackguard drawing on the heat from the volcano below him to fan the flames yet higher - quickly, they were already as high as the blackguard's waist, and rising.

"Better hurry!"

[Stygian]

For a moment, Stygian stopped. The man was adding to the flames, but was he really capable of channeling and generating that high an energy output on his own? It didn't seem quite... He hesitated to say believable, but one had to believe that a person's capabilities were correlated to sheer power. And that power was measurable. Whatever the blackguard was using to fuel his fires, he would run out of eventually. Or, it could be taken from him.
   Catching his own reasoning, and elaborating on it, an easy task as he realized what he must do, Stygian smirked. And then, he laughed, a harsh, cold sound eerily audible even through the roar of the flames. It broke off Giles' own laughter, ebbing out as the rumble of the fire seemed to dim to nothing.
   'You keep trying to play by your own rules, you fool. You think this is Hell? You think you belong there? You know nothing', he said, stepping forward. 'Man cannot fathom, cannot truly comprehend such things, without them taking root in man itself, poisoning him. And then Hell devours him...' Darkness began swirling around him once again, an unearthly breeze causing his his coat to flutter again, his hair glowing in the breeze as his visage seemed to grow even paler. The sky above, seen through the crack of the cavernous roof, was darker than midnight, and the blackness continued to spread, creeping forth in snaking veins, prying at the reality around them and descending. In the corner of his eye, Giles thought he caught something moving, but the darkness veiled his vision. The chilling feeling of something unseen staring at him filled him up.
   'You stirred my anger,' Stygian hissed from above, his voice twisting and seething, faint but powerful at the same time, coming as if from everywhere around. 'You mocked me. Now...' He grinned. Black fangs flashed in a porcelain face, his white hair flowing slowly, like ghastly fire, his visage twisted into a death mask. 'I shall poison you.'
   The first few flickers of green and vicious yellow began tingeing the tips of the flames below, and Giles thought he heard a sound like a breath, as a breeze grasped them, twisting them around and matting them and bringing an acrid, toxic odor to his nose. The shadows twisted at the edges, hissed, turned to smoke, as hideous shapes crept beneath them, driving them on. And above him, Stygian floated, some ghastly light having taken over his form. His coat billowed open, and was no coat. Wings, like sable-black scythes made of fire, stretched out to encompass him, their many tips raking holes in the sky. Spreading his hands, he rose, a smile on his face.
   The fires were dying. Green and wicked yellow hues having taken over the formerly pure blues and reds of the flames, the whirling breeze bringing only more suffocating darkness. Giles' eyes swam, and the initial thinness of the air had been replaced with a choking something that burned as much as it chilled. How long had it been since he had felt something actually burn? The shadows stretched, and he could see that shape, that many-winged thing with a heart of faintly green-tinged white descending toward him. And around that image things... pitch-black, slithering, snarling, clawing things that he had only ever read about in books and heard told of in stories, moved. Things used by the church to put fear into people. Things that the insane dreamed of at night.

- -

The metallic clinking stopped, and the machine's red lens narrowed slightly, spinning as the red circle narrowed. Having already reduced most of her damage to the inconsequential, Sahlena blinked, a blinder making her red oculus flicker, and turned toward the people at the bar.
   ':eh, i don't want to sound concerned or paranoid here or something, but if someone dies in a Circle, then what?' she asked, looking over at Dani and Sylvie, and then the Boogeyman. ':because i really think he might /kill him.'

[Cogidubnus]

"I think that might be a bit premature." Cog said idly, standing up by the window. "Until he stops moving, anyway. Of course, I dont' know if he could surrender now if he wanted." Cog smiled to himself, shaking his head slightly. A bit of glass crunched under his boots as he shifted his weight.

* * *

Coughing incessantly, with tears blinding his eyes, Giles felt the black sting of oxygen deprivation keenly. He'd never run into somone who could simply suck the oxygen from the air itself, although it wasn't the first time he'd run into the technique. Flushing an area out with a heavier-than-air gas is an effective technique for removing the oxygen from the area, preventing both his fires and eventually Giles himself from functioning. It did make several assumptions about the nature of Giles's power, however.

The blackguard resisted the urge to wheeze, silently snarling at the visage of Stygian descending from the heavens - both palms out, smiling with ebony fangs and ivory skin. Confident, arrogant, dismissive, hiding in shadows - with every poisonous breath the creature took, Giles felt his gut tighten even more. He felt his vision begin to blur, and snarled again - just barely resisting screaming in rage, he conserved the air in his lungs, and in the face of the floating, dark man, and all of his conjured shadows, the blackguard raised one black, armored finger. His eyes were death itself, and they were dotted with red.
The man had made two mistakes.

The man was descending towards him. This was his first mistake - just because the fire itself was out, did not mean that there was no longer any heat. Magma burbled and boiled underneath both combatants feet, and with a surge of magma, a wave of the viscous rock rose quickly, first carrying and then launching the blackguard at the man in a full-body tackle. His armor was as hot as the magma beneath him, and the wave of lava quickly followed behind him, intent on burying them both beneath the liquid rock.

The second mistake was in itself twofold - trying to suck the air out of an enclosed space ment, eventually, he'd be fighting to create a vacuum. By adding poisionous gas, he avoided this, but in some ways, this was his second mistake. You can't flood an esentially infinite area.
The Red Sea parted, all fire the blackguard's to command - like a yawning, hideous maw of ash, smoke and cinder, the magma moving itself to the sides of the arena at the pyromancer's command. The gas, heavier than air, barely began to descend into the yawning portal, a hole that was fast approaching a depth too deep to see - but also, it showed part of the man's second mistake. As the volume in the arena increased, the pressure above his canopy of darkness would increase too, the already poisoned air now becoming rarefied as the arena grew and grew, the hole of lava burrowing down deep to some unseen heart of fire, infinitely far down. With every passing second, the pressure began to increase exponentially, with no end in sight.

[Angel]

Dani glanced up at Sahlena when the android first spoke, before turning to watch the fight between Stygian and Giles, starting to pull herself up. Sylvie alternated her gaze between Sahlena and Dani, helping the Red get to her feet and having conflicting emotions between wanting to watch how Stygian was fighting and fearing the inferno Giles was no doubt conjuring.

When the elf finally did glance outside, prompted by Sahlena's voiced concern, she took in a sharp little breath and her eyes went wide. But only half of her shock was because of the flames and magma. The rest of it was quasi-recognition and astonishment at Stygian's "true" form.

"... So?" said Dani, having noticed her friend's shock.

"...Be more careful about who you fight next time, Twizzler-head," Sylvie replied, still mesmerized. Dani gave a half-exasperated, half-affectionate smile.

"No offense, leaf-face, but you're really not one to judge fight choices if you thought you could take a guy like him," she told the Green. Sylvie didn't answer her; instead, she turned to face Sahlena, mindful that she was still supporting the redhead. Dani probably could stand and walk on her own, but with her legs as burned as they were, that would be pretty painful.

"Why would he kill him?" the elf asked. "I mean, he was being a jerk, but it seems like even someone like Stygian would need a better reason than that."

Dani, meanwhile, looked curiously over at Cog. "You're not worried?" she said, only a little incredulous. The Circle could probably prevent death if necessary, but she doubted that Stygian had bothered to include death avoidance in the rules. And the statistic the Boogeyman had given her earlier did nothing to assuage her doubt. Furthermore, from what she'd seen, the two might be evenly matched. "They could end up killing each other if this gets worse."

[Stygian]

Giles' strategies were sound. Had it been a normal fight, or had he been fighting someone else, he might well have fought himself out of his predicament. But weakened and trapped in a surrounding now corrupted, devoured by darkness...
   There was a sizzling sound, and the blackguard's whole body shook as he stopped with a slam. He could feel the heat of the conjured lava to his sides, striking out, and stopping short. Blackness twisting around it and covering his luminescent skin, Stygian's palm held the man back, seething and hissing as the fire burned the dark substance continuously. He could stand the pain. But he could not keep up force against that increasing pressure. Giles had the environment on his side, and with the masses of stone and the heat around, he was simply capable of commanding a greater deal of energy and weight to put behind his maneuvers.
   'Or, I can leave you breathless, if you'd rather wish that'. Face tainted with both viciousness and contempt, Stygian pushed the man away from him before the heat could fully burn through his protection, and watched Giles from above. Sizzling, the blackguard began falling slowly, singeing his way back down. 'I would enjoy watching you suffer. But you're pressuring me. I really do not like that. Don't worry though. I think this will be agony enough... to teach you not to be such a scum in the future.'
   Whatever held Giles aloft gave way, and he began falling. Not before he felt a rush though, and began hearing it, a roaring, screaming sound that signaled the re-entry of air into the cavern. Light and fire flared up again, and a sparkle of hope almost rose for the blackguard. Until the illumination gave sight of what Stygian was doing. A sweep of something black from the lucent figure's hand smashed the breath out of Giles' lungs.
   Crushing, groaning sounds from all around accompanied roars and screeches, as the blackness stretched all around impacted the cavern walls. His face now blank, Stygian slowly rose on black wings, even as the rushing rocks fell around him, crashing inward, destroying the sight of the darkened sky, and burying all below.

[Cogidubnus]

 It was moments after the man threw the man into the yawning pit that the arena simply disintegrated, the blackguard hitting a concrete floor instead of falling into the cavern, bouncing on the hard paved stones once before laying still.

* * *

"I'll be damned." Cog said, raising one eyebrow. "Good thing I didn't have any money down."

[techmaster-glitch]

Mechangel

   The cloaked hunchback had been passively observing all the battles that had happened, but upon seeing the battle between [Giles] and [Stygian] start, moved out of his room again to a doorway outside on the other side of the Inn to get a better look at the battle, so he wouldn't have to look through walls. He had expected the battle had been spectacular, but more than that, he had gathered an invaluable amount of data by the time the Circle arena disintegrated.
   [Analysis complete.]
   [designation [Giles]: new tag. highly dangerous. if [Honor Circle] battle necessary, handle with extreme caution.]
   [designation [Stygian]: new tag. extremely dangerous. do not [Honor Circle] battle under any circumstances.]
   The cloaked figure abruptly turned back into the building, the door closing behind him.

[Stygian]

For a moment there was darkness. A pallid figure wreathed in black floated over the paved stones outside for a flicker of a second, before the lack of restraints made a black something, both smoky and liquid and solid at the same time, spill out all over the place with wing-like sweeps, slithering and swirling. It only lasted a few seconds, before something like a shockwave seemed to pass through the air. Then the black drew together, compressing and wrapping around itself as it drew inward into a far smaller shape. And then, Stygian merely stood there, hands in the pockets of his coat, the last slivers of shadow slipping into place and settling solid on him. Black eyes turned down, he regarded Giles' crumpled form for a few seconds, looking as if disappointed that the man were not crushed under the rocks, or as if he wanted to kick him. Then, he shook his head, turned, and walked back into the bar. Even if it was likely that the man had broken one or two things, he was not about to help him to the infirmary.
   Looking both relieved and sour at the same time, upon entering Stygian didn't say a word, but just walked over and took his seat again. And then he sat, blank-eyed and distant, not even wondering what next, his thoughts as empty as his expression. Suddenly, what little joy he had experienced before had left him.

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

After her close shave, Keaton distastefully eyed the glass-covered table and edged away from it, still protectively clutching Catastrophe, as though she was worried another blackguard-turned-projectile would come flying at her. Without any regard to whatever direction she was going in or whoever she could have possibly bumped into, she continued to sidle away from the table, until her hip nudged one of the chairs at Sahlena's table. The chair clattered slightly, nearly making Keaton jump out of her skin, and the momentarily-hypersensitive jackal whirled around so she was staring at Sylvie and Sahlena. The two women were having a conversation, apparently, while surveying the current battle between Stygian and Giles. Keaton assumed that was the topic of their discussion.

One look at the conversing women and Keaton instantly felt slightly awkward, particularly because Sahlena, who had finished repairing her arm, was there. She fidgeted a little, scuffing her heel against the floor. "Hi there," Keaton said to Sylvie, then with a decrease in confidence to Sahlena, "Uh, hi." Keaton glanced over her shoulder and at the window through which they were watching the fight, the intense battle now at its conclusion. In a moment's time, a somber-looking Stygian returned to the bar and seated himself, surprisingly morose despite his win. In fact, he appeared more defeated than victorious. This perturbed Keaton.

"Hey hotshot," Keaton's voice said from behind Stygian. "Why the long face?"

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Angel]

As the Circle faded, Dani and Sylvie stood still. Each left without an answer from earlier, they'd both turned back to the fight just in time to watch Giles get knocked out and the fight end abruptly, Stygian walking back in and not looking the least bit victorious. The girls were equally confused. One was unsure whether to thank Stygian or not; the other was wondering if Giles was still alive, and remained quite clueless about why the fight had even started.

For a few very awkward moments, neither one said anything. Then finally, Dani tapped Sylvie's shoulder with the arm stretched across the back of the elf's neck, speaking quietly. "Um...infirmary?"

Sylvie blinked and jerked herself back to reality. "Right," she said, her voice also low. She finally located the infirmary door, and began leading Dani steadily towards it. The Green glanced over at Stygian briefly, but Keaton was talking to him already. She'd thank him later. For now, she needed a moment to process what had happened, and Dani needed rest.

[Stygian]

Stygian blinked, then turned on the bar stool and looked back at the succubus for a few awkward seconds, before his eyebrows jumped up a notch and he seemed to decide on actually answering her. Snorting, one side of his lips quirked up, and though it was hard to see with his eyes, he gave her muzzle a clear look.
   'You're one to talk. What do you want? Curious?' he said, a bit challengingly almost, and then leaned forward, giving her an intentionally insidious and suggestive grin. 'Or are you looking to celebrate? From the way you banged up Sal over there...'
   ':she lost', the machine interjected, with what could be taken as a pointed glare. Stygian frowned back at her quickly, then shrugged, and turned to Keaton once again. 'Consolation prize then. A drink?' he asked. He passed a slight look Sylvie's and Dani's way. Should he talk to them? He guessed that might be a good thing to do. But then he'd have to shrug off the jackal briefly.

[Paladin Sheppard]

"Well shall we?" Paladin asked as he headed out to one of the empty circles. He was curious about the interesting female's fighting style. He had come across many in his travels even though most fights with a large weapon like his and Piix's, were mostly full effort blows there were some attacks used that could catch people off guard.

Reaching back over his shoulder as he stepped into the ring Paladin pulled Cobalt from its holster.

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

Keaton scowled slightly at Stygian's remark regarding her muzzle, but said nothing derogatory in retaliation. At Stygian offering her a drink, however, Keaton found that she couldn't deny that. She was probably almost out of the money she culminated purposefully for this place, so as long as the drinks were on him she only found this beneficial. After all, free drinks. Fun. Nestling her hands in her pockets, she leaned back casually and eyed a suddenly-very-fascinating groove in the furthermost wall, then sighed. She grinned in resignation and removed one of her hands from her pockets, lifting it palm-up.

"Yeah, sounds good to me," Keaton said amiably. "You paying? I don't have much cash on me."

---

...Piix:

Piix nodded to Paladin, following him outdoors and into one of the vacant circles. She spun Orpiment like a baton in her unoccupied hand, her opposite hand clutching the pendant securing her cloak. Again, she ripped it from the black fabric, and the voluminous cloak was instantaneously absorbed into the golden orb with a spectacular billowing effect. Tossing the sphere upright, it quickly adopted a life of its own and started levitating around Piix's body, quickly orbiting and expanding until it had become the Discus again, and was hovering between her shoulder-blades. Its surface rippled briefly, and three identical orbs pervaded from its gelatinous surface, quickly rotating around Piix's body until they spun back into a casual momentum.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

Concerned that offering drinks to another lady might make Sylvie think that he was losing interest in her, Stygian hummed and put his chin in his hand for a second, looking at Keaton. He could just excuse himself... but shocking or confounding the jackal into keeping her distance would serve a purpose as well. Not to mention it would be fun. And he desperately craved distraction right then...
   'Oh, I'm sure you can find some way to recompensate me later...' he said, with yet another smirk, getting up and now looking down at the considerably shorter jackal, a situation that made the latter feel as if he were looming over her. With those black eyes, that was either terrifying or simply overwhelming. As soon as he'd gotten up, he took her hand, putting a slightly crumpled bill into it, and then rounded her.
   'Excuse me for a bit though...' he said. He began walking away toward the infirmary. The next moment, the jackal felt a sharp, pinching squeeze, perhaps an inch right of her tail. But even as she twisted around to try and catch the man's hands where they shouldn't be, he was straightening his coat with both of them, and didn't seem to have moved quickly at all, nor to have been close enough...
   Entering the infirmary silently, Stygian propped himself in the doorframe and looked at the elf and the Red as they moved over to a bed, waiting a bit before he spoke.
   'Considering how often that seems to happen, I'm surprised you think it enough to go here', he said, with a bit of a deadpan snarker image. 'And, seeing as you seem to lose as soon as you fall asleep, I'm surprised you're even fighting here at all.' He fixed his eyes on Dani, their deep black colder than his smile.

[Angel]

Sylvie noticed the glance Stygian shot to them, but didn't act on it. She didn't want to interrupt, and although there had been a split-second twinge of jealousy when he was talking with Keaton, she brushed it off. He was being polite; if there was something more to it, she'd find out later.

She walked Dani in and watched her choose a bed and sit, making sure that the Red was all right manipulating her blistered, burned legs. Both women looked up when Stygian spoke; apparently, neither of them had heard him come in.

Dani glowered at his smartass comments, but a half-mischievous, half-sinister smile showed that though she was annoyed, her anger wasn't very deep. And wouldn't be for a while. Just because he had scary eyes didn't mean she could be completely cowed after what she'd discovered a while ago.

"The sleep thing is normal; getting burned isn't," she replied coolly. "And I hunted out fights for the same reason every Red does." Her smirk grew a little. "Thanks to Tempered Steel out there, that reason's been fulfilled. So be careful; I can make a manatee fall on the next person who annoys me." Her expression changed now, becoming a still-mischievous look of mock-scholarly curiosity as her eyes focused on the ceiling and her hand went to her chin. "Or I might cause an earthquake. Hell, I don't know what would happen."

Sylvie gave Dani a surprised look. "Wait a - that rainstorm... that was you?"

Dani gave the elf a wider smile and a nod. "Hell yes, that was me." Her eyes shifted back to Stygian and got a bit serious, the smile fading to a more normal one. "But don't worry. I'm not stupid enough to try and fight someone with your power. That was an impressive fight," she congratulated the man, and meant it. She respected his strength, even if she wasn't sure whether to trust him. "Not quite sure why that happened the way it did, but it almost made me wish I could fight you."

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

At Stygian's comment about recompensation, Keaton opened her mouth as if she wanted to spontaneously answer, but no sounds came out in the next moment. She simply gawked for a moment, any noise her vocal chords had the potential to produce evaporating on the spot, after she witnessed Stygian loom imposingly over her, casting his elongated shadow over her person. She stared up at him, her face still locked in that same expression, and accepted the bill he proffered somewhat gingerly, as though she expected for the cash to be impregnated with a vile acid, or for it to metamorphose into a terrible beast in her hands. Fortunately, being a mundane bill, the money did no such thing, but in her distraction, Keaton didn't realize Stygian's imperceptibly fast movements until it was too late.

She yelped loudly and practically jumped out of her skin, staggering forward into the place Stygian used to be standing. Grasping the place she was pinched gingerly, Keaton spun around and watched Stygian disappear into the infirmary, her face pale and eyes owlishly wide.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Stygian]

The smile on Stygian's face flared up for a second, before he fell into a short, nasty-sounding laugh and grinned at Dani, stepping away from the door and walking closer. At least she was in a good mood, and still feisty. He wasn't sure whether if he approved what seemed to be her nickname for Giles, but...
   'Try better than a manatee and you might bother me. But thank you. And it's good to see you have some spirit still', he commented, stopping by the foot of the bed, hands in his pockets. 'I don't think it would be a fair fight, honestly. You, I'd just try and knock out quickly. Unlike Ashtray back there. If he hadn't pressured me...'
   Stopping himself, Stygian's eyes flicked imperceptibly toward Sylvie for a moment, and he cleared his throat. He wasn't sure what she'd think of him saying that he'd actually drawn out the fight with Giles in the start, hoping that he'd get to squeeze as much pain out of the man as he could. It was a goal that had failed, unfortunately. But he'd made his point, at least...
   'Well, either way... I came here to see if you were alright, to let you see that I'm not such a bad guy after all. And, also...' He bent down, and looked at the Red closely, narrowing his eyes and displaying his fangs in a grin. 'You're welcome.'

- -

There was only a moment's pause before Keaton's reaction was followed by a metallic sound. First, she had trouble identifying it, but as it developed and steadied, she realized that it was a chuckle. Over by her table, the same table that the package Stygian had set out before lay on, the machine woman was pulling the last of herself together, literally, self-repairing components managing a very quick and passable though not entirely thorough mending of the damage that had been dealt to her. Reaching over to look at and examine the scattered components, she passed a glance to Keaton, and the jackal could really feel the smirk that the machine's face was incapable of demonstrating.
   ':hope you're not that surprised', the machine commented, a bitterly humorous note edging into her tone. 'do yourself a favor and don't tangle with him. not unless you plan to follow him around for a while.'

[Paladin Sheppard]

Swinging Cobalt around a few times to loosen up, Pal watched as Piix's shield and orbs went through their startup routine.

"Funky looking gear ye have there." Pal said as he crouched into a fighting pose, his axe drawn back ready to fight. "Ready?"

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

Keaton cocked her brow at Sahlena, but, again, let her comment slide without any exaggerated or overblown interpretations of her sarcasm. Still gingerly rubbing the offended part of her body which had been mercilessly assaulted by Stygian, she inclined her head toward Sahlena, looking somewhat pensive even in her irritation. Keaton's cheeks were slightly rosy with embarrassment, but it was retreating nicely from her face.

"I didn't mean anything by it," Keaton said to Sahlena as though her reasoning made perfect sense, "I mean, nothing bad at least. I just wanted to see what was bothering him. He won, so I didn't get why he was upset."

---

...Piix:

"Ready," Piix said, nodding affirmatively to Paladin, maintaining a determined air. She readied Orpiment.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Paladin Sheppard]

Paladin started moving towards the Orin, not directly though his line of advance was slightly of to her right. When he was about halfway between them he suddenly cut towards her left and accelerated into a blur of wolf, armor and axe.

Bringing Edge of Cobalt down at Piix's legs he had the blunt hammer like side of the head leading...

[Angel]

Dani was a little intimidated when Stygian walked over and leaned down to look at her, but only for a moment. At his final comment, she got a puzzled look. "Wait... so I'm the reason you took him on?" She looked over at Sylvie now, tilting her head a bit and seeming quite perplexed.

"Well, the firebug kinda dragged you back in," the Green explained. "All of us were pissed, but you weren't really conscious at the time."

"He did?" the Red muttered. She reached back and brushed her fingers over the collar of her tunic. Sure enough, they came back covered with soot. "Hnh. Jerk," she she said under her breath, wiping her hands off on her leggings. Then she faced Stygian, her expression calm and happy again. "Well, thanks, then. I guess I did misjudge you."

At that moment, a nagging little thouht resurfaced in the prison guard's mind. "Hey... has anyone checked to see if he's still alive? Not that I'm not mad at him," she added quickly at Sylvie and Stygian's very probable surprise. "I'm just curious."

[Stygian]

Cocking an eyebrow, Stygian's expression shifted to slightly nonchalant incredulity, and he stood straight again. Crossing his arms over his chest, he looked at Dani with a bit more serious air.
   'I fought him because he was being an asshole. That simple', he commented with finality. 'You think I'd care? He probably has a broken rib or three, no more than he deserves. I imagine he's laying out in the street, if you want to go wipe your feet on him.'

- -

':mhmm. sure you did', was the machine's simple answer. ':yeah, this lens prevents me from seeing the red on your face.' She tapped the center oculus set into her forehead. ':and i can't hear you either, since i don't have ears as huge as yours. or smell you. hey, what do i know? i'm a machine.' Looking down, she picked up a screwdriver-like tool from beside the metal bundle on the table, its tip small and delicately fashioned like a surgical tool, and busily got to work on her arm again. ':you're still rubbing your ass', she added after a few seconds, not looking at the jackal.

[Magic]

"Pop! Goes the weasel."

The air inside the inn called 'The Honor Circle' became thick as it compresses suddenly around a curiously small ball of light emerging out of nowhere. For a moment, a brisk wind swirls around the concentrated energy, before falling silent. Then the smell of ozone wafted into the surrounding area, accompanied by crackling bolts of characteristically blue Cherenkov radiation emerging sporadically from the singularity, eventually converging and suddenly exploding outward like a shock wave, saturating the immediate area with blue light before vanishing.

..!

In the middle of the spectacular event; an ermine covered in bruises, clad in scratched clothes, and valiantly or feebly, depending on the onlooker's opinion-- shielding his face with his forearms and holding his knife with a death grip. He remained in said posture for a good minute before opening his eyes and lowering his hands to observe his surroundings. His expression changes to that of relief, and then, nervous laughter. "No grues. Definitely no grues.", he remarked in an exhausted voice. Apparently he was too consumed in his moment of triumph over overwhelming, sinister, slavering monsters of the deep dark to mind the people around him, up until he realizes he's in what looks like an inn.

Consequently, and obviously, he felt awkward about looking like he's about to be eaten by something deadly, talking and laughing to himself and generally ignoring everyone else as he does so; reflected in his expression as he looks at the people around him. He clears his throat, sheathes his knife into a small scabbard on his belt, and looks around quietly for a seat, someone to talk to about this particular fragment of the multiverse or just a drink. Fighting for my very life makes me thirsty, I guess. Haven't had a good drink in a long...

..

..nevermind.

[Boog]

Finally! Richard broke free in a rush, tripping to the ground soon after. Then Risky did something deeply confusing; she surrendered.
"Fair?" The zombie sat up, elbow resting on his knee. He wasn't really used to fair being a major consideration in this sort of thing, and if anything her trick just went to show him for being cocky. "Nothing unfair there. You sure you wanna stop?" He pushed himself to his feet and hefted his axe, the scenery wavering as it awaited her reply.

--

Boog was seeing to other matters behind the bar when he was asked whether or not Stygian was allowed to fight Giles outside the circle, and thus didn't have a chance to reply before the armored man was stomping in, with an unconscious Red in tow. Initially he sat back to watch the fun... and then Stygian attacked Giles. Broke one of the ONLY rules of the Honor Circle. Right. In. Front. Of. Him. The thought entity watched, livid with shocked rage as the man calmly gave his excuse and followed his target. The Boogeyman snatched up the Keys to the Circle with a snarl and ran after... Just in time to see a fight start. The one thing that, as only a stand-in proprietor, he couldn't interfere with. He pounded at the sealed edge of the fighting ring once with frustration and stomped back inside. Parts of him occasionally faded out of existence or reappeared, cycling through nightmare images as he struggled to maintain his composure. The fight ended, and Stygian came back inside. It was convenient that the man went straight for the infirmary; Boog didn't want to have to lose it with the man in front of everyone, to interrupt the general flow of things, but those who would be present may cause him to think twice before doing such things again. He waited a minute, then followed.
"I never thought I'd see you outclassed by him, Styggy."
The thought entity stood in the doorway, for the most part under control. Every so often parts of him seemed to revert to an artist's sketched frame of a figure, or an old woodcutting out of some medieval tome, or succumbed to a crackle of static like a television broadcast, but for the most part he held himself together.
"Congratulations on the win, don't get me wrong. Such a shame though. Say what you will, the big brute at least had the class to remember the rules of the establishment he was in. He insulted you and scared his opponent, behavior permitted and encouraged here. You lost it and slugged him outside of a circle, and even then he kept the presence of mind to step into one. After he'd been attacked. You couldn't even keep that level of self-control through a few insults." The renegade concept finally settled down to his usual shape. "Try it again, and I'm kicking you out. You wont be able to come here, you wont remember where here is, you may not even remember what here means. No. Goddamn. Fights. Outside. Of. Circles."
And with that, the concept turned on his heel and walked out before the other could reply. He had patience for neither insults, threats nor excuses, and nothing else came to mind that Styg was likely to do. Rather fortunate too, seeing as another patron had arrived.
"Hello good sir, and welcome to the Honor Circle! Where the drinks cost money and the violence is free, despite how practical it would be to do things the other way around." Gigantic grin already plastered back in place, Boog sidled around the other side of the bar and leaned toward the newcomer. "Are you a first time patron? Any questions? Comments?" He looked over the ermine quizzically, "... Pursuers?"

--

Marya grinned as Giles was smacked out of the circle. She approved of that sort of thing, on both sides. By her standards Giles had won the first confrontation; the other one had ran out of things to say first. But points for initiative. The fight was definitely worth watching. Pretty fire, nice dialogue, truly an example of brutality and vulgarity as an art from. And then it ended, as exciting things will do, and the victor made his way inside. And if I know my barfights this is where the other one gets up, has to pay for a round of drinks, and nurses a broken nose.
... But this isn't a normal barfight.
... He ain't getting up...
Marya got up and strode outside to investigate, jumping as some slinky guy in clothes that had seen better days popped into existence right next to her. With a shout of "Rktk! Watch it!" as she passed, she pushed through the doors and made her way to the toppled blackguard.
"Hey." She nudged the armored man with her shoe, producing a clunk but no voluntary movement, "If you can hear me then twitch or something."