Proof of Fang: Yuki Kazikura vs Shimmerlace Snuggleblossom

[Malkavia]

Although each pump of Shimmer’s leg hurt, it also stretched the muscle in a way that soaked the tissue in relief, similar to the feeling you get curling your toes and popping your back early in the morning. As she swayed in on Yuki, she started to accelerate. C’mon now cunt.

Shimmerlace anticipated resistance and found it. As soon as Shimmer had clapped fingers on Skybeast’s wrists, Yuki reacted like a sprung trap. Up came the knee, ready to crack Shimmer under her ribs, collapse her core, expel the breath, and double her over for a more devastating follow up.

C’mon now. It was a knife’s edge Shimmer was galloping on—one false teeter and she’d be back into a figure four or worse and no gas in the tank. Even the small moves counted for shielding the small candle. She crossed her arms and caught — CRACK, her breath hitched, and her flatline of a smile curled upwards — Yuki’s knee strike on her arms.

There was an energy to the arena the like of which shimmer hadn't felt since she'd fought on board the cruise ship. She didn't want an audience, and hadn't wanted one since Angelina had made hers go turncoat. But she could feel this one like a tailwind, and it made her mind turn quick on instinct. She ducked into a squat, shouted, charged forward, and aimed to lift Yuki on her shoulder. Lift her up, she imagined, and slam her down!

[CaptainL]

Things were moving along at a breakneck pace now. Both Yuki and Shimmerlace relied on the smaller, nimble frames when it came to their strategy in the ring, outrunning their opponents and laying into them with lightning-fast offense. Now that Shimmer was all the more motivated to take Yuki down, just to prove that she could, she was drawing on that font of energy more than ever. But Yuki was ready for her. She knew that what she needed to do in order to interrupt Shimmer's momentum was to hit her just as quickly - and she was going to do just that, as she pulled Shimmerlace closer the moment their hands linked, drawing her into the path of her raised knee.

To Yuki, it was the perfect plan. She couldn't even see any reason why it would falter - which meant that it came as a surprise to her when, rather than burying itself in Shimmer's chest or her stomach and sinking in with the sort of satisfying thud that would leave her opponent reeling, her knee strike only bounced off of Shimmerlace's forearms, as the Feychild quickly brought her arms inward for a block! At once, Yuki's eyes went wide in shock. She knew that Shimmer's reflexes had to be quick - but she wasn't counting on them being this quick! In an instant, her strategy had been yanked away from her. In that moment, Yuki had frozen up in the shock of the situation - and that gave Shimmerlace exactly enough time to carry out the next part of her plan.

The next thing Yuki knew, Shimmer had grabbed her. The dark-haired girl felt her feet leave the surface of the mat, reminding her all the more how vulnerable she was - how tenuous her position was, and how much control Shimmerlace had over her. When she felt herself being hoisted higher, and draped over her foe's shoulder, Yuki sucked in a breath, her teeth clenched. It seemed that all she could hope for was to brace herself for impact, and to be ready to ride it out. But then...Yuki shook that thought out of her head. No, it couldn't be that easy! Yuki had pledged to give this match her all - she wasn't going to let Shimmerlace get away with this. She still had a chance, and she was going to go for it, no matter the danger!

As she went tense, readying herself, Yuki suddenly bucked her hips upward and rolled her weight over to the side - looking to pull herself out of Shimmerlace's grasp, and to drop down to the mat behind her! If she was able to do so without issue, she would quickly swing her leg out with a lightning-fast kick into the back of Shimmer's knee, hoping to compromise the girl's footing and buy herself some time to set up her next move. If that worked, she would lunge in closer, grabbing Shimmer around the waist, as she went to lift her and throw her over her shoulders with a German suplex!

[Malkavia]

Up she went! And every muscle from calf to gut to shoulder went tight making ready to slam Kazikura down—except before she could, Yuki heaved her body over, rolling right over the shoulder so the the balance got uneasy in Shimmer’s core and she was almost stepping back herself. Of course she wouldn't make it easy. Should've known that by now.

It's enough to put a tight-lipped grin on Shimmer’s face, though the expression it doesn't have long to sit. A blow to the hollow beneath her knee blew out her support…painfully. Ripples of complaint from the frayed strands of muscle recently twisted in a figure-four vice made Shimmer grind molar to molar and groan. More importantly, however, it blew out her support, made her buckle—easy prey for the grip around her waist. For a split moment, the heat around her ribs made her eyes go wide and the skin on her belly crawl.

STRETCH. The thought came after she'd already kicked out, body flat as a surfboard with her feet extended. Her ankles hit the ropes, and she felt the pressure of a wound up finisher stretch her knees and pull on her hamstrings. A suplex worth of force tranferred down the leaver of her waist, hips, and legs through a cocked pair of ankles and into steel cable that bowed upwards. Then energy ran out, and she floated for microseconds like a pendulum at the end of its arc. And then she came back down. Feet to mat. Fuckin’. A.

The next move came as naturally as the last, as if her body knew on its own what she needed to do. She followed the momentum of he fall into a squat, backed up on, two quick steps, and set her target: scoop Yuki up around her knees and lift her. Piggyback style.

Would love to see Eleanor’s face with this shit. She could just see it. Fingers to nosebridge, eyes glowing with that telltale exasperation. Or maybe not. Maybe she'd approve, see something strategic in the unorthodoxy. Here's' hoping.

Either way, if she managed to loop the grab and pick Yuki behind her, she'd be breathing hard and delighted all the way as she charged backwards, heel over toe, towards what she hoped would be a crash into a Yuki-ringpost sandwich.

[CaptainL]

That was close - too close. Yuki knew all too well that if she had been even a fraction of a second off, the full force of Shimmer's move would have come down hard - and when she was already feeling her stamina start to dwindle, the way her breaths quickened and deepened and that burning sensation set into her sore muscles, she didn't know if she would be able to keep things up much longer if it hit. But she had managed to counter the pink-haired girl's momentum, using the weight and leverage of her own body to flip things around, and to sway Shimmerlace out of balance. Now, she was in control! She took a few slow, deep breaths to try and recenter herself, and she could feel the sweat trickling down her brow, but she knew this was it - she knew she needed to act. And as her arms swung into place around her opponent's midsection, as they pulled closer to compress her waist, Yuki could feel her heart racing, knowing she was this much closer to winning the match!

But just as Yuki had countered Shimmerlace's move, so too did Shimmer counter her own. The two girls were evenly matched, matching every move the other made with one of their own, and now, as Yuki's arms locked around Shimmerlace's waist, the Feychild's own arms grabbed her legs. At once, control had been snatched away from her! At first, Yuki was taken by surprise - she let out a gasp as she felt herself being hoisted higher, greeted by the shock that came from seeing her opponent had more left in her than she'd bargained for. She would soon realize the dangers of letting her guard down around her opponent. But by that point, it was too late - and Shimmer had already taken off in a backward charge, bringing Yuki along for the ride!

The world was flying by faster than Yuki could keep track of. Everything was in motion. She threw her head back with a scream of shock - and just moments later, that was cut off, as her back made impact with the corner post. The padding over the turnbuckles did little to absorb the impact. A rattle went through her body, her teeth clenched in a grimace, and the air was driven from her lungs as a loud CLANG rang through the arena. Knocked into a daze, Yuki sank against her own weight, crumpled in the corner; if Shimmerlace let her go, she could only fall lower. She simply didn't have it in her to get up.

[Malkavia]

Fuckin’ got ‘er.

Newton’s law meant that instants after Yuki crumpled, Shimmer came stumbling out of the corner. She caught her balance, turned, and put a hand on her knee. Hamstrings, quadriceps, calves—up and down her leg, she felt each muscle complain, burn, tighten. Threaten to wobble after a long match of abuse.

But she could bury their shit because there. Was. She. Really and truly draped over the ropes of the Feychild’s making for the first time in this match. Skybeast—Yuki. Now she just had to put a bow on it and she could keep her candle. How to do it though?

The answer, same as every move that had got her to this point, was already fluttering in her gut: Clouds. Touch the moon. Across a dozen matches, Shimmerlace had climbed the third rope a dozen times, and for each and every one of them—a pink splat, like a pink paintball pellet stomped into the ring.

Still see me, Yuki? Shimmerlace swallowed, breathed deep, forced the numb fatigue in her core down to her thighs, from her thighs into her calves, and kept pushing until she was bouncing on her knees, and the bounce became a charge. Her target was to ask one more feat from her ragged legs and leap from earth to the first rope, jump to the skybound second rope, and push with every aching fiber to arc her comet to the third rope—so she could come crashing down with both feet into Yuki’s head.

[Monsy]

What the shitstick.
Those were the first words of it. Concession stand, slushie, then getting that ice tickling your throat, and you spit, walk into the crowd and disappear without paying the fare. Not like these fucks really care. It’s a little TV in the corner, where the broadcast played a promo between one gold chunk, and a dork. Why the fuck would she say yes.

Just what was supposed to happen anyway? Pretty pink gets their shit shoved up her ass and out her mouth because what the fuck was she but a choke? A choke barking up trees, and had Angelina Shuffling around backstage. Poking people. Producers, electrical technician and the stupid fuckin’ handsome janitor. Brush their pockets and it gets you a favour and they don’t see shit. Then get a guy, a gaffer, someone who can easily slip beyond the curtain, past the door and to a control panel. ‘Music of the Spheres Box Tickets.’ Or something like that. Quarter of a fuckin’ million yen, Shim. I hope you’re happy.

Because, come time to the match, that spilled and sprawled until Angelina’s face had a bulging blood vessel, Angelina had seen enough seeing Shimmer on the ropes and Yuki on the ground where she should never be. Not against Shim.

‘Popsy’ -- She texted with her flip phone. Then she waited. Waited. Tapping her knee until… There’s a thunk. A set of lights turn off, then another, and the audible whirl of everything powering down. People become a stir, with phone lights being the only source. There’s an electrical buzz and sparks from the Titantron like an electrical fire was about to catch. A horned skull on its face, breaking in and out. Angelina was over the barricade the next instant. The ring was black, and the lights had an epileptic flicker and buzz that flashed her trademark, with Angelina using the moments to climb high, right to the top turnbuckle, adjacent to Shimmer. An eye pinched to stare exactly where Shimmer should be. Perching, right in the knife-slit of Angelina’s purple. She couldn’t see the ropes very well, but could care less. She’d do this with broken ankles-- jump and hit the top rope with both her feet, dive over and flip, land on the fairy’s shoulders and whip herself into a hurricanrana that can take this to the ring floor.

[Malkavia]

The lights surprised Shimmerlace on the first rope, but instinct and momentum kept her going to the second rope, and that’s where the skull—and its thorny horns—caught her.

A calling card is a kind of magic magicians can use to extend their presence across time and space. A queen of spades is just another slip of paper stamped with flat royalty until someone sketches a pair of horns on it. Then it becomes a way to send a strike halfway across an empty stage.

In the dark, Shimmerlace bounced on the second rope, once, twice. Her lips parted, but no breath passed between her clenched teeth as her skin shivered and went tight, like sea anemone shrinking into its rock. She felt cold. She felt hot. The skull shone, incandescent in a way that obscured every other light in a night-sky arena, but despite the dark, Shimmerlace felt the sizzle of a spotlight on her hair and shoulders. Violet Eyes had finally settled upon her roaring, struggling star.

The end hit her suddenly, like a baseball bat swing out of the dark. It’s the same move that tossed her in the gibbet, legs that lock around the neck and toss until the world goes whirligig, heel over toe. For an instant, the memory is so vivid she can almost smell the chlorine, almost see the cruise-ship baby blue sky.

Then her face crashed into the mat and her vision went from black to starry blank.

[Monsy]

The landing strikes on her forearms, thighs and her stomach. It's fluent and soft, like bracing the landing off a jump. It tickles. The mat’s miniscule rebound is used to throw her knees underneath, and a hand went down to posture up. She sighed, and flexed one particular left hand that had been gloved, examining if it held together. Good. Then she stood, walked over to Shim with a wide-eyed but collected focus and wrapped her fingers in her pink hair, then lifted with her shoulder to get Shimmer’s upper-half off the ground.

Mr. Glove.
A pirate-styled brass knuckles. A black leather glove, wrapped in razor wire around each digit in figure-eight formation. It goes around the palm and the thumb, with upright small edges that were half-embedded in the glove by the sight of worn white lines. She took that, flexed her hand, and placed all those edges across Shimmer’s face in a claw. The bite didn't sink in JUST yet, as Angelina placed a second hand under Shimmer's chin, lifted them to be on their knees, where Angelina could lean down, and whisper, “Is this what ya wanted?”

She took her index, with its coils and edges, placed it on the edge of Shimmer’s temple, right on the hairline. Then she found Yuki in her sightline and never let her go through this process. The unstable lights gave an epileptic view of all players in the ring. Just for a second. Gone, then here, then gone. She pressed her finger down as hard as she could and slowly tore it across Shimmer’s forehead -- like her skull was just a zipper being opened on a sweater, splitting skin like the red sea. Her head kept close just so she could hear the rip.

[CaptainL]

It was hard for Yuki to follow Shimmerlace's motion as she made her ascent up the ropes. With the soreness still taking hold of her body, she could only look up through a pained wince, her eyes squeezing tighter and her teeth clenching as she went higher and higher. She knew what was coming. As a high-flyer herself, Yuki knew plenty about how to set up a good hard-hitting aerial move, and it looked like Shimmerlace was about to do just that. With her in the crosshairs. She knew she needed to get away, and that this was going to hurt. But she didn't have the strength. Her body felt stiff and heavy, and her shoulders lurched as she panted for breath. She was rooted in place. All she could do was tense up and brace herself for the impact - and with it, that inevitable creeping feeling of disappointment that came from losing yet again.

Except that didn't happen.

The lights went dead. The power cut. Yuki looked up, but there was only darkness all around her. What was happening? Was this even happening, or was it just her getting lost in her wishful thinking yet again, hoping for something to come along and salvage everything for her? When she saw the sparks begin to fly, she let out a yelp; her heart jumped in her chest in terror, thinking of how everything was about to burst into flames, or come crashing down, or something. That didn't come, either. But what did may have just struck Yuki even harder.

Her eyes went wide. Her breaths slowed to a crawl. There she was. Angelina Tarrant. She knew that she was behind this from the moment she saw that horned skull flickering on the screen. In fact, she should have seen it coming already. Angelina had been targeting her in her daily life in every way she could, finding places Yuki would never expect anyone to dig into and showing up just to antagonize her - just to let her know she wouldn't be safe anywhere. Why wouldn't she do it here? In the middle of a match, even one she wasn't even supposed to be in? No less one that was supposed to set Yuki's career back on the upward track? All of those things would surely make the target so much more inviting.

The next thing she knew, Angelina had already closed the distance. She had sprung into the ring, taking Shimmerlace down. As she felt the thump run through the canvas beneath her feet, Yuki's heart began to run faster. She had always felt the threat of danger around Angelina. Her very presence was like the blade of a guillotine, poised right above her neck. Now, she was closer than ever. She had Shimmerlace in her sights. And Yuki was right in front of her. There was no doubt about it - she was next.

Yuki had gone into this match hoping to turn it all around. To stand up to her fears, her doubts, her hesitations. To show that, yes, she really could fight back. That she could win. She was pleased to know that Shimmer saw her as an authority on the subject, and that had given her hope that it all might just work. But as soon as she saw Angelina once again, all that confidence melted away. Once again, she was a terrified animal, in the sights of a relentless predator. The rest of the world fell away - she couldn't even keep track of the flickering lights through the crowd when Angelina consumed the entirety of her attention. She shrunk back, her face pale, every muscle tense and her heart racing. What would she do? What could she do? If she struck out...what payback would Angelina have in store for her? And if she didn't...what would the Marauder do when she inevitably got her hands on her?

...No. No, she couldn't just sit back and let all this happen. Yuki sucked in a breath as she realized it, letting it fill her lungs. This was exactly what she was trying to prevent. She couldn't let Angelina think she was still afraid of her, not even if it was true! The chance to prove her wrong was right there, staring her dead in the face. All she needed to do was to reach out and grab it. And that was exactly what she could do now!

Angelina lifted Shimmerlace's head, turning it to face Yuki. Her fingers curled into claws as they prepared to sink into her flesh. Yuki watched as the points bit into Shimmerlace's forehead, and the way the blood came cascading down her face. She winced and shuddered; her heart thumped harder and faster in her chest, thinking of how she was next. But she couldn't let that stop her now. This was her time to do something. This was the time to act.

Her eyes locked onto Angelina's. She leaned a little closer, her teeth clenched, and she lifted a fist, drawn back and ready to strike. Her next words were cold and curt, but full of purpose. It was a message to Angelina as much as it was the rest of the world - she was done running.

"Let her go."

[Malkavia]

When Shimmerlace came to, she felt hungover. Her knees ached, and there was a twinge in her back that made her stiff because even small movements stretched the muscle and made it complain. Her mind, meanwhile, was like an engine trying to accelerate with no coolant. She wasn’t dreaming, but she could remember the images from previous dreams—rabbits with horns and glittering needle teeth. Her mind bounced, pinball-like, from the confusion to the sensations throughout her body, to insistent tug up on her scalp.

When Angelina started whispering to the Feychild, neither of her eyes were fully open, though the left was closer than the right. She didn’t look at Angelina, but she shuddered in response. Her whole body tightened, then squirmed, and her face became contorted. Lines creased on her brow, and ravines sunk deep into her cheeks, as her lips curled into a warped approximation of a smile. She chuckled.

That chuckle caught in her throat as she became aware of the sharp edges pressed against her forehead. Slowly, her eyes curled up at the hand. Her breathing steadied. She was totally unaware of her opponent or the crowd—the match all but forgotten as her senses zeroed in. The touch of blade on skin, the feel of Angelina’s chest rising and falling against her back, the flash of her face blinking in and out with the lights. Shimmerlace met her eyes, and then blood poured over her vision, and she shrieked.