[CHAL] Second Time is the Charm? (Hati x Tethys)

[Pollack]

Well well, it looks like it was time to try her hand at this again!

Hati was once again strolling into the challenging grounds. Her head held high as she scanned the field for any available Captains that seemed to be free enough to accept a new challenge. Last time she might have been bright eyed, naive, and nervous about the whole encounter, not to mention completely unprepared for the bizarre a**-beating she got from the chubby Reaver.

I mean come on, who rolls on top of a person to win a duel!? Apparently, if her last encounter was anything to go by, the Stormborn did.

But this time was different, or at least she hoped it would be. At the very least she had more of an idea of what to expect out of this next duel and it showed in her more confidant stride. Was there a chance that she'd lose again? Oh yes, in fact the odds were stacked quite high against her. But as her mother had always said you couldn't let the fear of failing keep you from trying. Above else she was determined to work her way into the pride's ranks.

Even if it meant coming back to these accursed challenge grounds time and time again! By the time she was through most likely all of the Reavers in the pride would be sick of seeing her face.

Now, the real question was who would be the lucky fellow she'd spend the afternoon punching?

Epine de Rose

 

[Epine de Rose]

Tethys had attempted to roll over someone to win a duel once, and while he had been heavy enough to win, he hadn't expected the dirty move he would get in retaliation. He had lost a remarkable amount of fur that day and his back had been scratched up for months, but Naima had proven that small didn't mean weak... when used the right way, it would mean quick, nimble...and very dangerous. Truthfully, he had now seen such abilities twice now, once from her... and once from one of his newest Reavers.

It allowed Tethys to have a unique perspective when it came to challengers. It was in his best interests to see how they fought first, then to respond accordingly. To underestimate them would result in far more injuries than he really should have had, to get that balance just right, would lead to a much more interesting battle.

Thus, it was him that Hati would find in her wanderings - it was another one of his very brief moments of pause. They had wandered back in this particular direction following a shift in intelligence, then they had explored several locations that had rendered his own band less jovial and much more serious. Their quest was no longer a game, no longer about plants and diplomacy; the threat they now faced was very real.

...They had needed a very brief break and thus they had returned home, if only for a short moment. Once might have said that on this occasion, Hati's timing was impeccable as Tethys was renowned for his more curious approach to recruitment and his inclination towards accepting those who didn't necessarily win 'outright'...

Pollack

 

[Pollack]

Hati wasn't quite sure what to expect at this point, so far the Reaver that she had met and dueled against seemed to be something of an oxymoron. Her previous thoughts of grandeur and glory hard fought in the Storm Born she had grown up on had been all but dashed in just a few short visits to the legendary pride.

Despite that she still had a hunger inside of her to become a member of their ranks. She had worked far too hard, dreamed about this for too long, and put all her eggs in this basket to turn back now. So they might not be what she expected, but perhaps they would be what she needed? Life did have a funny way of working out even through the weirdest twists and turns she learned in her short time as a adult with her brother.

Thus, she had no prior expectations or standards to live up to when she came up to Tethys. Sure he looked like the classic image of what a 'Viking' was meant to be, gruff, full of scars, packed with muscle. But as she learned previously there was more too the book than just was meant on the cover.

"Afternoon!" She cheerfully greeted with a smile. "I take it you're a Reaver if you're hanging around out here. Before we start this whole shebang I do just have one thing to ask you..."

Pausing Hati's ears pinned back against her head as her expression shifted to show a little bit more insight on how tired she was. "Is it common to roll over people to win here? I mean I like cute guys on top of me as much as the next girl but not like that." She finished grimacing. She realized a bit too late that he might have taken offense to her dry attempt at humor.

Oh boy, here's hoping she had met someone who wasn't a total stick-in-the-mud!

Epine de Rose

 

[Epine de Rose]

"Captain," Tethys corrected and lifted a brow at her follow-up question, he'd certainly had others introduce themselves in unique ways but this took the cake. Evidently she'd already dueled before and the result had been a loss, though the loss had come through means she might very well have considered questionable. Unfortunately for Hati, the white lion was of the opinion that such a battle tactic was perfectly reasonable depending on the circumstances.

"And it depends," he replied and shook his head. "Did you jump on to his back?" he queried and then paused. "Or her's actually, but it seems females traditionally have a habit of jumping on to ours and clinging for dear life," he pointed out. "Consequently, sometimes the only way to get you off again is to crush you," he explained. He certainly didn't know the circumstances surrounding the duel or who had actually participated, but a guestimate generally worked out and if he was wrong...well, females were quite reliable for correcting him.

"Have to wonder how long you lasted in your previous encounter if this is your first query," he added and tilted his head to the side. "You are aware that you cannot render certain combat tactics in this particular region, yes? Even if you don't appreciate the one chosen by your opponent..."

Pollack

#GoodOldReliable

 

[Pollack]

Blinking rapidly for a few seconds Hati silently stared owlishly at him before giving a small shake of her head. Captain...? Well first off she had to wonder what a Captain was doing here in the first place. Didn't they have...eh captainy things to be doing?

Secondly, "Oh s**t, I'm sorry. Captain...erm, whoever you are, I challenge you then!" Finishing off with a chirp of nervous laughter she shifted her weight back and forth between her feet. Gods above she would take being rolled on any day than handling awkward small talk.

His line of questioning did give her reason to pause. Her eyes lifted skyward as she took a few seconds to think back on the duel. "No." She replied bluntly. "I was just next to him and he...well I suppose the best way to describe it would be died on top of me." Popping her lips she gave a loose shrug. Honestly jumping on someone's back and clinging on was one way to do it, it wasn't a tactic she had considered before but something she'd certainly be noting for the future.

"Not very long." She replied truthfully, letting out a soft sigh following soon after. "Yes I do realize that, you do what you must to win a duel. Be it rolling over or clinging to someone's back as you just said." She flashed a wry smile. "I can appreciate the creativity if anything, it's not something I can admit I'd be able to come up with." She could admit her flaws, she wasn't much of a tactical genius and never would be. She understood and accepted that she made a much better follower than leader in that regard.

Still, even so that didn't mean she didn't have a few tricks up her sleeve to use. Lowering her body to have better balance she braced herself to pounce. "We can continue this lovely small talk later, you ready for business?" She inquired, a impish grin tugging at the corner of her mouth.

Epine de Rose

Ye olde faithful is Tethys' new nickname

 

[Epine de Rose]

He stared at her in amusement - she was certainly a quirky one. Just what he needed, another spitfire in the Stormborn. Suffice to say that she would fit right in on the condition that she had learned from her previous duel. He wasn't expecting miracles, but he was certainly going to hope she had learnt from being squished that she probably should move a bit more quickly. After all, it took someone a while to fully lay down and logically speaking she should have been able to roll out of the way herself!

"If he died on you, then you would have been acknowledged as the winner," he pointed out to her and then shook his head. He'd let the rest slide, she was as flexible and merry as Naima, so he imagined her positivity would work well for her. That being said, he did make a mental note not to lie on the top of this particular lioness as he didn't want to lose anymore fur from his back. That little injury had taken a while to recover and his fur was still wonky - it would never be as smooth as it had once been.

"I really don't have a choice," he added after a moment and shook his head. "I always have to be ready," he pointed out and gave a small wave of his paw. "I will however give you the opportunity to strike first, Ladies first in that respect."

"...Then we'll see if you're worth your salt when you're not been flopped on."

Pollack

 

[Pollack]

"Generally I do like to give the deceased the benedead of the doubt. Who knows? The crushing heart attack might have just been his signature move." She answered back with a casual shrug. It had certainly worked well enough that it could have been a finishing move! If they had been in some sort of fighting league she was certain her previous opponent could have made a killing.

Though if the stories were true it might lose him brownie points with his own pride ending every duel in that manner, entertaining or not.

With a bemused blink she broke her previous stance for a second, eyeing him intently down to gauge whether or not he was joking or serious.

Damn, he seemed serious. Now that he had pointed it out she was just noticing just how badly he looked. Ragged, tired, with clear evidence of his life in battle - hell he was missing a whole ear! Was this what all Captains looked like!? If so, she made a mental note not to gun for the position herself. She rather liked to keep all her body parts attached, thank you very much!

"Mate, that sucks hard. I hope you can catch yourself some sort of break soon." She sincerely wished. With a shake of her head she lowered herself back to being ready to pounce. Right, chit-chatting could come later. It was time to get down to the hard knocks.

Rushing forward Hati used her hind legs to propel her into a half-hearted leap with her claws aimed to slice at his shoulder. It was little more than a testing leap, she knew with his extreme size and natural male advantage with his mane that she couldn't gun for trying to latch on to the neck and pin. She needed to experiment and find out where would be the best spot to set all her eggs in a basket on.

Hopefully before she got crushed for a second time!

Epine de Rose

I had noooo idea how to finish this reply off. So here's your tag! Sorry it took so long, bb.

 

[Epine de Rose]

And so it came to blows.

With the niceties over the lioness was quick to take advantage of his invitation and she had already begun to make her case. However, he'd grown used to those who were 'faster' than him and as of late, it had been advantageous of him to learn how to counter that. After all, he'd been beaten far too many times by those with quick paws and if he didn't learn from his mistakes then he didn't deserve the rank he had been graced with. Thus, as she bounded forward, he was quick to simply slip to one side and stride away from her.

It seemed she hadn't been anticipating that she would hit him, if her assault had been what he thought it was then she was simply working out her approach. This wasn't a bad thing, but he would only give her one or two strikes more before he returned the favour in kind. Fact of the matter was that he didn't generally give this many free strikes, but he was rather partial to the smaller lionesses. For some reason they seemed to have far more fire and while they might not employ brute strength, he'd seen more than his fair share of clever ones.

...He had reason to suspect that given the opportunity, this one would be no different.

Raising a brow, he glanced to his side to inspect her and waited patiently for the next move.

Pollack

 

[Pollack]

Ahhhh s**t! Damn he was a lot faster than he looked!

With her weight being forced on one foot she had come stumbling forward upon her landing. Letting out a string of curses under her breath she dug her claws into the ground, effectively stopping her dead in her tracks albeit in a less than graceful fashion. She could deal with the already blooming ache in her wrists from pushing all her weight on them in such a strange position later.

Sucking in a deep breath Hati quickly turned her body back around to face him once again, or well face his rear at the moment. Squinting she eyed his still relaxed form up and down. If he cared to look he could almost see the cogs turning inside her head! If they were human she would have been the worst at playing poker with her lack of being able to hide her emotions on her face.

Right, he was faster than she had anticipated and well much more experienced. A full out assault metal-to-metal would be stupid and end in her kicking her arse rightly kicked. She would have to wear him down before she could have any chance in landing a blow, but dancing around him came with the risk of him being able to effectively one-shot her if she didn't count her steps just right.

She needed a way to put a reasonable distance between them and be able to keep him there.

Pursing her lips her eyes trailed down his form once more before landing on his beat up tail. Well, if their ealier conversation was anything to go by the Stormborn did seem to have a knack of winning in unconventational ways...and it would siffence in doing exactly what she needed to do to win.

She might be called a little s**t ankle biter after this, but it would be so worth it.

With him starting to turn to face her again her eyes widened. s**t! Now or never, Hati! Least the window of opportunity slammed closed right in front of her face. Bounding forward she grabbed onto the tip of his tail with her jaws, clamping down hard enough to try to keep a good hold but not enough to permanently do any damage to it. Scrambling backwards with it in tow she pulled it till it was taunt.

Great, she had actually gotten it in her mouth....now to wait!

Epine de Rose

He can rightly kick her off if you want to. xD I just wanted to try and get this moving forward in a bit more interesting manner instead of her going at him 50 billion times. (We'll leave that route to Imani)

 

[Epine de Rose]

It wasn't that it hurt, it was just that he wasn't entirely sure of how he was supposed to react to it in the given circumstances. It was a strategy that the cubs would use against one another and their parents when they were first finding their paws, and yet here she was as an adult, clinging to his tail. She'd certainly pulled it back enough for him to be unable to move it unless he began to strain and run from her, but he wasn't sure there would be any purpose to that either.

Sure, he could simply close the gap between them and cause her to lose her balance, then take a swipe, but what would be the point in that? He had confidence she would bounce back from that fairly quickly, but then he could potentially end up with her latched on to his remaining ear until he headbutted her into a boulder of some description and they'd be at this all day.

"Is cub wars the in thing at the moment?" he said finally as he glanced between his tail and his challenger. He seemed to have let his guard down, if only because he wasn't entirely sure of what she was aiming to achieve other than to try and prevent him from moving away from her. "And has this ever actually worked for you against your siblings?"

He paused.

"Pretty sure my own sister would have kicked my a** if I'd tried that as a kid," he pointed out. "Just...trying to understand the logic of this one, beyond a distraction tactic, I'm struggling to comprehend if it's meant to do anything else," he confessed with a bemused expression.

Pollack

Lmfao Hati... I can't even.

 

[Pollack]

Yeeeeah, she could probably admit that this looked like the stupidest idea in the world. Frankly she was glad that everyone else in the proving grounds seemed otherwise occupied or they might have all started to watch just to see where the hell she was going with this.

Which she exactly couldn't blame them on.

Still, she was stuck here now and unless they wanted to stand here all day something had to be done. Though could one win a duel simply by waiting till the other person was s**t of your s**t and wanted to get something to eat? ...Yeah, probably not.

Furrowing her eyebrows together she peered up at him with an exhausted glare. Letting out a snort through her nostrils she gave a clipped nod to his question about this tactic ever succeeding for her.

Well to be fair it helped her win that one time. Repeatedly swiping and making cuts to the back of Skoll's legs was the final driving force that made him conceced that little fight of theirs. But gods almighty that took hours last time! She really, realllly didn't want to be stuck that long here again.

With both of them stuck in this position and his guard being down there was one spot that was left extremely vulnerable that should could try to strike at. Ugh, it disgusted her that she even had to think about stooping this low but all's fair in love and war right? A man rolled on her, a girl clinging on his back, and now...her aiming for the future of his family line. The Stormborn seemed to have a certainly tolerance for weird and wacky wins.

...Still she'd have to apologize for this later.

Sucking in a deep breath Hati launched herself upwards with a strong kick of her legs. Her head effectively headbutting her target with all her weight behind it.
If this didn't bring him down then god help her because she was going to be launched into space for this, and rightly deserve it too!

Epine de Rose

Internal Hati right now
xD I think we only have a post or two left in this RP. (Though I'm having great fun with it now)

 

[Epine de Rose]

It was fortunate that he'd already had children if she was concerned for his bloodline, while they might be raised by his half brother, they were still of his blood. However, he could safely say he didn't have any plans to spoil that particular party any time soon and he probably didn't appreciate her sentiments when it came to this particular strategy. It was a cheap move, but also one that she telegraphed quite clearly given her delayed reaction - she had obviously given this considerable thought.

It would have worked if she'd simply gone for it, but the momentary stand off between them both had been just enough for him to take note of the very subtle flicks of her eyes. He was no masochist and it really should have come at no surprise that he sprung away, though it resulted in more of a hop-skip-jump sort of movement that held neither grace or dignity.

...The male populace would however appreciate the significance of the actions no matter how ridiculous they might look.

"Cheap move," he remarked after he had given himself a split second to ensure he hadn't lost yet more body parts (he hadn't), as he would have been a touch saddened by the loss of those...another ear he could handle. "Would've worked though if you'd committed to it immediately," he noted, conceding that if that standoff hadn't occurred he would most certainly have had to tap out quickly.

"I think we'll call that a win, don't you?" he added and raised a brow. "If only to preserve my reproductive rights," he mused and gave a slight shake of his head.

Pollack

 

[Pollack]

Hati let out a high pitched squeal as she lurched forward with him. Yes, she had been preparing to launch herself forward and deal with his inevitable jump forward from what she expected to be pain. She hadn't quite planned to be dragged with him! Nor did she plan to end up munching on mud at the end of it all once she finally disregarded her plan and let go of his tail.

'Hello mud my old friend, it's good to see you again. At least I'm not stuck under someone in you at the end of this duel.' She thought to herself as she shoved herself back up to her feet.

Sighing heavily she lifted a paw to her face scrubbing it down to flick off the mud still caked on like a would-be face mask. It was a cheap move, she could accept whole-heartedly that some would even dare say it was dishonorable. She could argue that there were a plethora of fighting moves that were considered cheap that people still did on a regular bases. "I realized I really didn't have s**t else to do once I grabbed your tail other than that or try my paw at being a glorified ankle-biter." She agreed, her voice lowering with admission of her own guilt.

Would have worked. Yeah, but it didn't this time because of her own self conscious and second questioning. Damn it all. Her shoulders slumped as she came to the realization that her efforts to join the Stormborn had once again ended in a defeat. "Right. Well Captain I do want to thank you for the duel, I appreciate the opportuni-"

Wait...what?

Hati's ears perked as her head lifted. "You're ******** kidding me right now, mate." She questioned as she eyed him suspiciously for a few moments just to make sure he wasn't pulling her tail or playing a especially cruel joke before a bright smile broke out. "...You aren't. Oh my god I actually did it then!" She exclaimed gleefully.

She had to stop herself from embarrassing herself by doing a happy little shimmy dance (at least for now, in private that was going to be another story!) Instead she stiffened her body as she gave a respectful bow of her head towards him. "Thank you, truly. This honestly means the world to me. I look forward to seeing you around then, Captain!"

The first thing on her agenda would to be go back to her previous home and inform her brother of her victory and gently remind Skoll to get off his arse and try his hand at his own duel. From there...well she would have to figure it out from there. She had done it though, she had actually become a member of the Stormborn.

Come what may, that was enough.

Epine de Rose

Fin unless you want to do another post, bb. <3