HollowEyes/Caton V Endorphine

[3kul]

((Sorry for the late reply Swix, it's taken me a little while to think of a decent post here.))

HollowEyes hadn't been looking in the right direction to notice the stones come flying towards him, though even if he had been he probably wouldn't have had the time to react. The first of the many rocks being hurled managed to smash him right in the jaw, the painful disjointed sensation that he felt immediately after letting him know that the bone had just been broken. Not that he had the time to slur 'aw gweat' out, he was too busy doing his best to avoid the rest of the stones. He leaned forwards and began to spin his arm blades to better protect his body from the onslaught, attempting to use his horn to fend off the remaining rocks that got too close to his head. Endorphine had caught him very much off-guard, and without any charms ready to protect himself HollowEyes had to simply take the hits.

After several minutes of rocky pain, the barrage stopped, though HollowEyes assumed that it wouldn't be long before it started up again. ~Caton, how is the lava coming along?~

~What with the mindspeak, Boss?~ The nekomata was confused by this sudden change, but immediately realized his mistake - such questions were a waste of time according to his master, the best response was an answer to his question. ~Uh, lava going through, slowly but. This long tunnel, narrow too.~

This was not good, HollowEyes had quickly lost the advantage as soon as Caton had begun to fade. The Parasitian knew that his best chance at victory was to have his opponent return to the surface, as the alien clearly favoured underground combat...

Whipping out two charms, the Parasitian had come up with a plan. Sticking one to his throat and one to his horn, he felt the effects of both kick in - his horn suddenly bulged out, increasing in both size and density, whilst his voice was becoming raspy and unfamiliar. ~Cover your ears, Caton.~ Was all the warning he'd give his pet. This was hardly an ideal plan, but at the very least he'd be prepared for more rock-throwing from his opponent.

Slamming his massive horn down on the ground in front of him, HollowEyes emitted a loud chirping sound that was as bizarre as it was deafening. It could be called many things, but 'pleasant to listen to' was certainly not one of them. He continued to slam his oversized horn into the ground as he moved back along the tunnel towards the temple, hoping to flush his foe out by confusing him.

((It's my assumption that Endorphine stopped throwing the rocks after a while (I'd guess that he ran out?), but if this is incorrect please let me know Swix.))

[Swix]

((No problems, 3kul. I'm afraid I've been being a bit 'RP lethargic' myself. And yep, the rocks would have ran out eventually ))

Endorphine quickly withdrew his tendrils from the surface and in closer to his main body as several things became apparent to the plant. The first and most obvious was that every so often vibrations originating from wherever the Parasitian moved rocked the ground he'd taken solace in, shaking the alien up. The other was that far less violent ones also made their way through the soil, and what passed as ears for his species soon identified them as a high pitched sound above the ground. He'd almost began to regret his tunnel digging so far down as this amount of disturbance may well have collapsed the surface on which this HollowEyes was now moving.

The plant alien wrapped a tendril around his head, for all the good it did him to make this unpleasant shaking stop and backed off towards the temple and away from the shaking. He didn't push the soil or make any special effort to hide himself this time though, so while the soil above him was not pushed up in the manner that that of the tunnel had been, it was unmistakably disturbed by his subterranean movements.

As he did so however, he felt the ground below him heating up. Had the cat creature somehow managed to start liquefying the ground below, or was it simply the result of this strange situation preying on the strange mind he possessed? As the shaking threw him off every time he tried to pinpoint where the heat was coming from, Endorphine simply decided that this was a bad thing and left it at that.

He wasn't going down, and he most certainly wasn't going to go any closer to the heavy Parasitian. The plant alien fled in the most direct route back to the temple.

[3kul]

((Another late reply -_-

Apologies in advance for the undoubtedly crappy post Swix, I just couldn't think of a better way to say 'HollowEyes & Caton continue to do the same things that they were doing'.))

HollowEyes didn't stop what he was doing, but his mind was elsewhere. Getting no reaction from what he was doing meant two things, either Endorphine was in fact reacting and was remaining underground or he'd escaped and was preparing to attack from somewhere else. The Parasitian quickly realized that he could not prepared for both outcomes, and that he'd have to take a gamble and make a bold assumption.

He decided to keep going, and hoped that Endorphine remained underground and that this was confusing him. If he was indeed retreating from HollowEyes then he was heading back into the temple, then eventually he'd have to surface and HollowEyes would be able to strike. If he was wrong... Well, this idea seemed better than the seemingly infinite ones to counter Endorphine being somewhere out of sight preparing to strike at some time.

Caton continued to force the lava through the partially caved in crevices in the ground, taking his master's silence to mean that his orders hadn't changed. He was fairly mindless when it came to tasks like this, and in this way he felt that he was a bit similar to HollowEyes - they could only react when they had something to react to, when they were given nothing they didn't really know what to do.

[Swix]

Damn. Damn. Damn.

Was pretty much the only thing on the Krkrlns mind as he fled, every hit the Parasitian made causing everything around him to shake and move about his submerged body. The disturbance caused the soil and small loose pebbles to scrape against his green flesh.

Once he'd reached the temple, specifically the inside of it, he partially emerged his head to look around. The plant alien looked about the temple just in case the Parasitian had somehow managed to rig something up, although all he could see was one of those pieces of paper on the statue, which he'd missed before.

Feeling another, stronger shake as HollowEyes got closer to the temple, Endorphine figured his best bet would be now. The Krkrln moved to the edge of the spiral tunnel he'd dug earlier and moved his tendrils into place.

Endorphine waited until he was sure the Parasitian was close, then started to do one of the few options that he had left. The Krkrln began collapsing the spiral tunnel he'd dug around the inside of the temple. This caused the statue to sink and lean as layer upon layer of the tunnel he'd dug earlier began to collapse in on itself.

He had to bury himself once more as the statue hit the temple wall, pressuring the once strong building that had already been undermined by the centuries of plant growth and causing it too to collapse.

[3kul]

HollowEyes cursed loudly in Parasitian (which was heavily distorted by his broken jaw) as he watched the temple start to collapse around him, he was in no shape to make a quick getaway, as his beetle charm enhanced horn would never allow for such quick movement... This was an unexpected and ingenius move by Endorphine, but HollowEyes was confident that he was one step ahead of his opponent.

He flicked a vine charm towards what remained of the base of the statue and in a matter of seconds a large vine was thrashing about, smacking itself into a charm that had been left there earlier ((a couple of posts back)), amongst other things. The charm burst violently, unleashing at least a hundred Locust Fiends.

<Cawwy me owt o' hea!> HollowEyes ordered them in broken jaw-fiendish, his voice extra loud and shriekish thanks to the cicada charm. They were slightly confused, but managed to get the message - some were convinced merely by how intimidating he sounded at the moment, others were more focused on the large chunks of ceiling that were beginning to fall about them. The swarm charged into their Parasitian master, tiny claws grabbing all over him to carry him out of the temple. His oversized horn was definately causing them some difficulty, but it gave them something extra to hang onto, which was better than having them grab him by the eyelids or something.

Fiends were crying out in pain left and right as they were sent back to the realm that they came from by the collapsing debris, though a particularily large piece of moss-encrusted roof began to fall directly towards HollowEyes. <Scattaw!> The Parasitian ordered his minions as loudly as he could, moments before the rock would crush them.

A glowing red lance suddenly pierced through the earth, smashing the massive piece of ceiling into two pieces, which fell on either side of HollowEyes. He was relieved that Caton had acted in this way without his command, but this meant that the lava was no longer underground, and the nekomata was almost out of energy as it was.

<Huwwy, les' go!> He screamed out to the Fiends buzzing about him, their numbers already halved by simply being crushed by falling rocks. By what seemed like sheer luck by the end of it, HollowEyes managed to get out of the temple alive. He suddenly felt a sharp pain to one side, and looked to see that one of his arm blades was broken, bent straight downwards instead of outwards like it should've been.

It was good to have gotten out in one piece, but HollowEyes felt that he was now faring much worse than his opponent. ~Caton, get over here.~ He mentally called to his nekomata minion. He'd need to finish this up pretty soon, but there wasn't much that he could do whilst the temple was still collapsing. He didn't know what Endorphine would try to pull next, so he left his beetle charm and his cicada charm on, just in case. <You lo', et the plan' when he comm up.> He cried out to the Locust Fiends as he waited to see what had become of his opponent. Dumb as the fiendish sounded with his broken jaw, HollowEyes could tell that the Fiends had understood what he'd said by their joyous shrieks.

[Swix]

Endorphine had retreated deeper underground, in an attempt to avoid any of the falling debris of the plant lined building from falling on his head while he was protected only by a thin layer of soil. Not only would that be extremely painful and disorienting, but it might just knock him out, a status he preferred to avoid when in the midst of a fight.

As he waited for the vibrations to stop, he felt the heat rush upwards just before two large impacts rocked the ground he'd taken refuge in. The Krkrln had to admit to himself that while he'd hoped this move to take his opponent off guard, it also caused him to lose track of just where everyone was, except for that unbearable heat.

After a while he felt the ground stop shaking quite so violently, except the occasional loose rock tumbling off the crumbling remains of the temple, Endorphine slowly made his way towards the surface. It was now the only way he could catch sight of the enemy, having his ability temporarily numbed due to the sheer amount of vibrations the temple had sent coursing through his body, although he made sure to stay away from the heat. He wasn't looking forward to catching fire again, and thus ended up somewhere between the temple and the cliff edge.

As he ascended to near the top of the soil, he made sure he got out the thorns and spines covering his tendrils, a defensive mechanism as much as an offensive one. The tendrils were the first to show themselves this time, before he pulled the top of his head up and blinked his large, insect like eyes to see what he could see.

((I know, but this is pretty much all he's able to do for the minute ))

[3kul]

((Doesn't give me much to go on, does it? ))

The Locust Fiends noticed Endorphine's resurfacing before HollowEyes did, the Parasitian only spotting it from their reaction. Whooping and shrieking with the sheer ecstacy that Fiends get out of spotting their future meal, the mass of insects descended upon HollowEyes' opponent.

The ones up the front of the swarm fell prey to their own greediness, skewered by Endorphine's many thorns and spines, though the rest began to use their comrades' corpses as safe footholds, snapping and biting at whatever part of the plant monster that they could.

HollowEyes was feeling more than just a little fatigued, and he was willing to wager that his opponent was feeling the same way. Perhaps moreso, as whilst HollowEyes had really only suffered a broken jaw and a broken arm Endorphine had been exposed to much worse. It was unlikely, but the Parasitian Second-in-Command thought that he'd like to try and beat his opponent without using the Chain of Despair. ~Caton, tell him that he's welcome to give up if he feels the need to.~ HollowEyes mentally commanded his minion, who looked like he was about to collapse. The nekomata nodded, straightening himself up and catching his breath - an order was an order, and he'd carry it out even if he was dying. "You welcome to give up Endorphine, those bugs not eat you if Boss tell them not to."

It was lucky that he hadn't said this in fiendish, as the locusts would have turned on him almost immediately for trying to steal their meal away from them.

((Sorry for the short post, I couldn't think of much else myself

EDIT: Ah, I just realized that I've powerplayed a little in killing my fiends on Endorphine's body, how slack of me... I'll change it if you want but I think I'll leave it there for you to read through first.))

[Swix]

((Nah, nothing except that the spines wouldn't kill them, just cause massive amounts of pain. The thorns probably would though, if they were suicidal or enthusiastic enough ))

Endorphines senses were assailed with noise almost as soon as he'd extracted his head, horrific shrieks of some animal he did not recognise pounded against his head. This wasn't helped one bit by the radio on his neck, which was emitting some sort of annoying fuzz.

The Krkrln instinctively raised his tendrils all around him, and firmly closed his eyes, until the hundreds of appendages not engaged in keeping him firmly rooted to the ground now surrounded his body. Not a moment too soon either, as he felt things that reminded him of insects swarming the outside, and soon after these became immobile for whatever reason the others simply moved further along. It wasn't too long before the sentient plant felt them biting and tearing off parts of his tendrils that weren't covered by a spine or thorn. Much longer and they'd work their way in to his main body.

The something came through this almost unbearable haze of sound and pain and bugs crawling all over him, a voice that was completely apart from the fiends and whatever else might have been going through Endorphines alien mind. He couldn't make out anything of it, of course, until the two way radio did it's bit, turning a voice into a mix of clicks and rustles close enough for the Krkrln to understand.

Responding was difficult with all these creatures attached and tearing off bits, causing the sticky green sap the plant had flowing about his body to flow outside of it as well. Endorphine tried to make the words as loud as possible so the translator could communicate over all the noise, even though they were pretty simple.

"Yes. Stop"

((Okay, you win . One more victory for your Master Torturer badge. How do you like Endorphine then? Oh and shall we get a judge, just to see?))

[3kul]

((Hooray, I won

A great match there Swix, I have a feeling that you might've been able to beat me though, it was pretty even. Endorphine's a pretty interesting character, you should use him more often .

If you're curious enough to get a judging then that's fine by me, I don't really mind who does it (though I'm still going to count it as my win even if I lose in scores )

And now, some epilogue-y stuff. Don't bother counting this if it's judged, it's just to wrap things up.))

The Fiends that had gotten close enough to snap at Endorphine had found themselves in excruciating pain, though most seemed to be avoiding the spikes, using their own incapacitated brethren as shields. Locust Fiends are incredibly greedy creatures, and camaraderie is definitely not one of their strong points. Fortunately for HollowEyes (and Endorphine), obedience was, though this was really only because the Locust King had allowed HollowEyes control over them - if he ever displeased the spirit then he'd lose that right quicker than he could blink.

<Begawn’!>

The loud shriek instantly silenced the swarm, even those writhing in pain. For just a few seconds the writhing mass of insects froze, then they disappeared altogether. ~Caton, finish up here for me, I’ve got wounds to tend to and work to do.~ HollowEyes made his way to the challenge arena’s exit as quickly as he could, wanting to avoid the usual fanfare that the winner receives. With a broken jaw and a snapped arm blade, he didn’t feel very much like a winner. Had he been fighting alone the Parasitian was quite sure that he’d have lost.

“Good fight.” Caton said to Endorphine, not really knowing what else to say. He’d hoped to leave as well, feeling pretty exhausted himself, but it seemed pretty rough to just leave their opponent like this. “It not seem like it, but Boss enjoyed it. To him, smart people like you are the best opponents. ‘Thinking is fighting’ is how the saying goes, I think.”

The nekomata wasn’t such a good sport as to go and give Endorphine a hand to get back on his feet (although he didn’t really seem to have those), but he did want to at least make sure that he was okay.

[Swix]

((Think so? Well, it was a good match anyway, always a pleasure to match wits with someone.

I may just use him more, he's more versatile than I seem to give him credit for .

Oh and same goes for this post, epilogue-y stuff not needing to be judged))

The Krkrln heard the noises of the insect creatures and felt the horrible sensation of their crawling legs and writhing bodies stop as though stunned for a brief moment, before disappearing and offering something close to a respite, although the bites still remained painfully oozing sap.

The Krkrln hesitated before doing anything, although the sound of the furry animals voice came to him again and was translated minus the fuzz. The plant creature opened his eyes and lowered his tendrils, putting away the spines and thorns as he did, so his limbs looked smooth apart from the small holes and liquid.

Endorphine blinked slowly as his head and main body emerged from the mass of vine like limbs, regarding the nekomata with an unreadable expression, before he 'spoke' again through the translator.

"I agree" Endorphines mechanically replaced voice said "Good fight, good saying. You are most troublesome too, Cat On"

While this was meant as a compliment, it didn't come out too well over the radio device, and whether the plant creature noticed or not was a matter of debate as he slumped down in a mixture of exhaustion and relief before speaking again.

"Perhaps I will see you two in the future"

[addman]

Here comes your judge!

Might I just say, this was a brilliant match to read. I enjoyed the way you played Endorphine, Swix, mainly because I was unfamiliar with the character, and it was nice to be able to jump right in with them without having to read through the character history. 3kul, I hadn't really seen much Caton before this matchup (I know, I'm out of the loop), so it was interesting to see how Holloweyes and Caton worked together, and the relationship between them, which works rather well. Caton seems to act more like a support tool than a totally different character, meaning that it doesn't seem to give you an unfair advantage. Very well balanced.

Also, due to the fantastic quality of your posts (both of you), I'm going to be especially harsh, just so I can try and define a victor between the two of you. Personally, if this was a normal match, you'd both be pushing 50/50, but I'm going to enlist the help of the nitpicker to help critique you both. SKREEE!

3kul:

Believability: 10/10 Handled with the usual grace and fluidity we've come to expect from you, making you possibly the most intimidating character around Blackstar. The language you use makes Holloweyes really come to life, in leiu of the fantastic things he can do. I honestly cannot fault you on this point, so this makes for a short description. Top marks here, bravo!

Powerplay: -1/-10 I know you addressed this yourself, but a minor point for the fiend attack where they landed on Endorphine, but you avoided saying that you'd caused damage, and also cleared this with Swix outside the battle. I think the nitpicker has gotten to me.

Personality/Flair: 8/10 Well written, and with that certain style that you've honed to a fine point with experience. I felt that, although you handled both characters with a lot of grace, it left you glazing over a few points for each character as you tried to cram in a lot of action between the pair. Still, this RP certainly showed what you can do with a keyboard, and your efforts were commendable. You managed to portray the cool disposition of Holloweyes, and also reflect the submissive nervousness that was present in Caton with the way he always turned to Holloweyes for advice, barely acting out of place. The dynamic use of these characters helped your lengthy posts to flow more smoothly between thought, conversation, and action.

Cleverness/Inventiveness: 16/20 Holloweyes tried to work out his opponents strengths and weaknesses with a little experimentation, which came across very well for you. It reflected your own thoughts well and showed that you were thinking. I also enjoyed the little tricks that you used, such as leaving those charms in the temple before you left (which ended up being quite useful), and the way you started smashing your horn into the floor to disorientate your foe. Despite your efforts, I felt that Endorphine managed to exploit you a couple of times, and as a result, you sustained a few knocks. Still, your character's intelligence, and your own were very much on display here, so kudos on the great effort.

Grammar/Spelling: 10/10 No apparent problems. With the amount of text you wrote, this is a good thing.

Total: 43/50 Class act all the way through.


Swix:

Believability: 9/10 Endorphine was a pleasure to watch, and was one of your most interesting characters I've seen yet. Unique amongst the riff raff of Blackstar, I found your alien/plant hybrid to be a pleasure to read about, and thought the translator radio was a nice touch which helped to explain how someone from another world could communicate with the others. My only gripe is that when you were submerged, I didn't realise at first that Endorphine was filling in the earth behind him as he went until later on when you started to mention being surrounded by layers of soil. A little elaboration in the first post or two might have helped (because if I were fighting you, I'd have probably tried to jump down the hole I thought you'd made and followed you).

Powerplay: 0/-10 Nothing I could spot really. Even when your tendrils attack Caton you elegantly managed to avoid powerplaying and grabbing him. You are the anti-n00b, and won't be recieving a pwny this christmas.

Personality/Flair: 7/10 Well coordinated, but could have focussed a bit more on what was happening in Endorphine's head, not just on his actions. You did do this a fair bit, but I would've liked to see more examples to get to grips with him a little more. Either way, it was a pleasure to see Endorphine in action, kicking ass and chewing...soil. For someone with so many characters, it's always a pleasant surprise to see how you differentiate between them, so good job here.

Cleverness/Inventiveness: 19/20 Holy crap! Just when I thought Holloweyes could not be defeated, Endorphine comes along and breaks his jaw! Despite your character being rather weak to Holloweye's fire attacks, you successfully blended attack and defense and socked one to the undefeated Parasitian. The build up to the temple collapse was superb and didn't give anything away until you pulled it off, successfully tricking both 3kul, and me, keeping us guessing with your spiral tunnel business. This was one of the smartest manouvres I've seen on Blackstar to date! I'm surprised that you gave up when you did, because I felt that you were on top through most of this match, and I thought you could have gone on to win it.

Grammar/Spelling: 10/10 Practically perfect puncuation!

Total: 45/50 *rubs eyes* You...you beat him! Congratulations!



I don't know what bearing this judgement will have on your result, since you seem to have already decided on the winner. Great match, the pair of you, I'd like to thank you both for putting on a great show. I'm hoping for a rematch, and hoping to be the judge of that too.

[3kul]

It's like my worst nightmare come true - I've lost and I can't even disagree!

Excellent judging there Addman, thanks for that. It's lines like "You are the anti-n00b, and won't be recieving a pwny this christmas" that make me wish that we still had QOTMs.

If/when I do decide to risk a re-match with Swix I'd be happy to have you as a judge again Addman, though I imagine that it'll be a while before I feel up to that .

[Swix]

... Yay, I beat 3kul on the points.

Loss and a win for both of us? Well, this is.. interesting. The only other match I've seen that happen in was that one with Yoshi.

Thanks for judging that Addman, and satisfying my ever-gnawing curiosity. I'd love to have you back as a judge too, though as 3kul said, it might be a while

I'll be adding these to the scoreboard soon enough, just not now, what with it being 1: 30 am .