A bright dense space

[compos_mentis]

Who: compos_mentis, slaying? (hippocraticly)
What: Nina's warm welcome to Luceti.
When: Midday of the 14th
Where: House 7
Summary: Nina shows up in Luceti in a bad spot. Potential violence ensues.
Rating: ...idk?

Comments

[compos_mentis]

[Well, it's a woman. By the looks of it human - after all, she hasn't taken note of Nina, and she suspects any klovian might have - but for all she knows it could be an n'dea. But it's off- those wings. Nina had taken note of her one wings, but now... Either way, it's not something which should be outside of her realm to incapacitate. By the looks of her though, there's still a distinct wrongness as to why she, Nina, is here.

The first assumption Nina deduces is this is a domestic residence. This creature in front of her is too casual and relaxed for it to be anywhere else. The second is that, curiously, this creature has wings of about the same size and proportion as her. Was she hallucinating something about the Angeli? It seemed possible, and it only become more probable in her head once she silently tried to morph her own wings off her back only to find that nothing happened. So this was either some mass experiment or a hallucination. Okay... tightening her grip on her knife, Nina ran though it all in her head once more in the split-second she has here.

Hm. There's a few options here. While she is in cover now - hiding and crouching behind another segment of the counter - she'll no doubt he discovered in all of no time flat, particularly because the weapon she commandeered appears to be the one she was using for... whatever that sweet-smelling mess was. There are of course, various logical ways she could handle this, but Nina's never been much for logic. Her gut is telling her that this person in front of her might be dangerous, and because of that, she needs to take her out.

A good way to disable anyone is to hamstring them. Thus, once Buffy is close enough that she might barely spot the other woman in the room. Nina takes this moment to slide out of her hiding spot, knife in hand, and try to give a nice deep stab on the back of Buffy's legs. I say try, because, well, she knows her angle isn't good to get it to a point where the other's leg might buckle; it might only get a shallow cut. Preparing for a retaliation, she's also going to try to spring up to her feet in much the same movement.]

[slaying]

[It looks as though the knife has done nothing so simple as clatter to the ground. And the sinks are empty. Did someone come home, maybe? It may have been moved. Her hope builds dangerously and Buffy is quick to wonder whether Willow is already back home. Forget that it would make little sense for Willow to come home, pilfer an in-use knife, and then walk out again. Logic has no place holding hands with idealism; however, it does not take the Slayer long to reject this hypothesis. More likely, it may have been Emony taking the tool to tinker with one of the house appliances. Different stroke for different strokes.

With a sigh, Buffy pops 'round to find another knife -- and she is seriously considering a proper butter knife this time -- when movement catches her eye. Buffy may be fast, but she suffers from just as much fallibility as the next human and so without the proper time and space to react? She gets off lightly with a shallow slice along the back of her right leg where the knife tore through thin trousers. Buffy's tight inhalation sounds like a hiss when she steps quickly backwards and assumes she caught herself on some broken part of counter or something else equally domestically dangerous. What she does not expect when she looks down is to see a woman. A strange one, at that. In her kitchen. Well, this is a new one.

One, two seconds and Buffy notices the knife in her hands. Awh, f--. That explains the little slice. Being so presented with a threat once the intruder rises to her feet, Buffy slips into a rather defensible stance. One foot forward with the knee ever-so-slightly bent. Arms are cocked with her fists loosely up in a block. She would much rather take that blade with her hands than with her face or torso.]

Who the freaking hell are you? [She asks, even as a little pilot light in the back of her mind blinks the morse code for whoa, familiar. Notably, Buffy's question comes in a rather hushed (but harsh) whisper. Wouldn't want to wake Bones.]

[compos_mentis]

[-Doesn't know who she is-? There's a few conclusions that Nina can jump to assuming that's not a lie. But that's a broad assumption to make and it's one that Nina knows she can't afford to make right now. Besides, she's already in the thick of it, and this little blonde looks like she might have some fight in her. For all she knows, this could be fun. She snorts a little by way of an answer to Buffy before, well, deciding to go a little crazy.

Namely, incoming stab with the knife. She knows this blade won't give her much though, so in much the same movement Nina also brings one of her fists out to see if she can't pop the blonde right in the jaw and end this quickly. That said, well. She's hoping it isn't that easy and at least one of these attacks will become a glancing blow where she might get to enjoy herself in a real fight: the violence would give her some comfort over all the uncertainty she's had since waking up here]

[slaying]

[Stranger, in her kitchen, trying to shank her. Great -- just what she needs. Only that in some twisted respect it is exactly the kind of thing that Buffy needs. It is too difficult to rail against near-invisible enemies and too tough to sit back and just wait for Willow to be given back to them. Buffy has always solved problems with her fists and when she doesn't get to use them? She gets antsy. So do go ahead and pardon the slight smug enjoyment she gets from efficiently deflecting the stabbed blade with the side of a forearm.

What she doesn't quite manage to do, however, is step back in time to spare her jaw the fist. But a decade of Slaying has toughened her up and more often than not, Buffy would rather simply take the hit and steam forward rather than depend on fancy footwork to dodge. Swords and axes and fangs and claws. These are things worth evading. Blunt trauma heals and half the time she convinces herself into not feeling it. So back goes Buffy's head -- accompanied by an uncomfortable crack -- but she is back up to stance in a matter of milliseconds.

And here comes the crossroads. Fighter's instinct would lead her to return the volley and throw her own fist into the fray. Go hit for hit and see who's left after a whole pile of co-pummeling. But the every-other-part-of-her? The part that genuinely cowers from the thought of what an enraged Slayer's punch could do to, say, a regular normo-powered human. Buffy remembers all too well how easily Faith had buried that stake in a man's heart. That is a line she tries never to cross. And while the intruder's punch had definitely been packing, it was not the kind of conclusive answer Buffy would need to know she could make the leap from suppression to violence.

So at the crossroads, she chooses to go for the armed hand. Taking the hit on the jaw means remaining within reach, so Buffy grabs for the woman's wrist in hopes of twisting and forcing her to drop the kitchen knife. If she could remove it from the equation then she could perhaps subdue the situation without adding unnecessary harm into the equation. But such a maneuverer will also help her test the limits of this new opponent--how fast does she break? How hard can she push? Is this one of those altercations where Buffy need not worry about using excessive force?

As Buffy aims to grab and twist she looks up to meet her eyes with a hot and watchful determination. Size ain't everything, yo.]

[compos_mentis]

[That grip. Nina's actually surprised because that's beyond what she would ever expect out a human with this size and build. Far more than what she would ever expect of an n'dea. This grip, while not on par with say a rhall or an urglish is easily up to a gian's. while she does drop the knife, Nina decides to take this moment to return the favor.]

Nice grip. [But that's all but grunted out as the other hand, the free one, goes in for a second round; a nice punch in the gut. As she goes to land the blow though, Nina does one of her favorite tricks: she changes the internal chemistry of her muscles. Not a human's anymore, but more of a vak'nasul's tight bound cords. She can't change her overall limits, of course, but proportionally she can get all the better. Buffy, this next punch is something you've probably come to expect out of any vampire.

As for the other hand, though she did drop her weapon, she's also going to try to violently jerk the arm back. Ideally, this'll pull Buffy in closer and give her second punch more impact. If it doesn't, well, then she'll resort to some other morphs]

[slaying]

Gee, thanks. [Buffy kicks out her heel and sends the knife skittering away into the corner.] Any self-respecting girl loves getting her grip complimented. [Sarcastic in the face of anything. It's how she likes to be.

But some of that smarminess is wiped clean off her face when the punch lands. Angled into it like that by the intruder's tug on her arm, it very nearly knocks the wind out of her. With a groan, she stumbles first a few steps forwards and then--ah--Buffy shoves hard against the stranger's shoulders to drive her far back while she regains a slice of composure.]

Looks like you are very much not the garden variety, huh? Something a little more rich than vanilla. [Buffy takes any gained time to re-evaluate and size up her opponent.]

[compos_mentis]

[Nina allows herself to be pushed back here. Well, not much she can do to resist, but now she's sizing up her opponent all over again. Oh, fun. This is going to be fun, she can tell already] Heh. Something like that, anyway.

[That said, even if she was allowing herself a moment or two to allow herself to observe a bit of what Buffy does in the pause, Nina is not one to allow a respite in a fight. Looking around her there's all sorts of things she can use in the kitchen, but in her immediate area... well, the answer is obvious. Corner of her eye, jam jar and...

In one quick movement she grabs the jar with one of her hands to toss over in Buffy's direction. While the throw in pointed, the projectile is awkward and slow; she doesn't honestly expect it to hit. She does, however, hope it'll distract the other party enough for her to pull another favored trick of hers: elbowing someone in gut before morphing the forearm into that of a gain's, complete with the long, sharp spin they have on the end of the elbow, ideally stabbing the other in the same movement.

Mind you, that's assuming she can effectively close the distance. In this flimsy dress and this relatively open area which the other fighter obviously knows better she might not get the chance.]

[slaying]

[An interesting string of events gets kicked off right about the moment Nina chucks the jam jar.

One. Buffy reaches up to catch the jar. She doesn't want jam splattered all over the kitchen and she certainly doesn't want to end up beaned by it. One arm reaches up to snatch it from the air. Unfortunate that the lid is definitely off of it and a fair, fat dollop drips out onto her shoulder.

Two. Buffy leaves her torso completely exposed in the attempt to catch the jar and so the elbow blow is hard and sudden. And it feels sharper than any other elbow to the gut she has taken. Her air comes out of her gut in a light curse. Ow.

Three. Conveniently, Buffy now has a weapon in her hands. If Nina remains too long within range, she will bring the glass jar down hard on whatever part she can reach. A shoulder, perhaps? Or the side of the her head. Maybe even just the elbow that snagged her gut.]

[compos_mentis]

[And we're going with option B! Side of the head! Fortunately, the moment Buffy caught that, Nina knew the blow would be coming. You see, this technique of a gain elbow, while very potentially damaging, also leaves her exposed. Far from letting a shallow human skull take the blow, she morphs it to some species she honestly can't recall the name of: the practical result is that her head seems to swell as he hair shortens in the moment before the impact as she adds more bone mass.

...Still hurts, mind you, but it doesn't give her any lasting damage, even though the jar probably shattered on impact if Buffy was swinging with any strength. And it did, to be fair, draw blood. But then, this elbow stab should have drawn blood too, and made all the move obvious when she roughly rips the arm (and hopefully the spines) out of Buffy, which of course is something like a serrated edge on the other woman's gut.

At very least, that T-shirt? Totally ruined.

But now sporting a head wound, even if it's not a bad one, Nina skids back a step to try to put distance between them. Nina even laughs a little. She called it; fun. Maybe this'll prompt blondie to go on the attack.]

[slaying]

[The first shirt was ruined by jam and now this one by blood. Sadly, the latter is usually the more common ailment amongst her wardrobe. But she still gets angry over the shirt. And the rips in her stomach. Bones is not gonna be happy about the blood drop smears on the kitchen floor.]

God, what is your major malfunction? [But she is definitely provoked into an attack. Buffy unhooks a frying pan from above the stove as if collecting a much fiercer hammer or axe from the next room over. Sadly, she hasn't the time to collect any of her favourites.

She tosses the pan from hand to hand -- getting a feel before she charges, cookware a-swinging.]

[compos_mentis]

I'm a monster. [That's said with a small sardonic tone before she snorts] Or so I'm told, anyway.

[Okay, a pan... blunt weapon, nothing she can't handle. She puts a defensive stance and, Buffy might notice, the her forearms both change once more. They seem to be growing chitin plates on them, not unlike, oh, say a line of hard bone-like scales. All the better to defend with, my dear. And by now, she's grinning ear to ear with a little smile-smirk

And it is with these bone-like-plate lined forearms she intercepts the first blow with the pan, both arms And then she shoves back!]

[slaying]

We've all got a bit of monster in us. [Though she doesn't strictly sound happy or comfortable with that fact.] Besides, yours seems to show a bit on the outside--[eying those scales]--so tell me something I don't know.

[The pan clanks against the morphed bone, vibrating up her arms. Buffy winces and takes her knock-back with grace and balance. Time to throw a feint into the mix.

She charges again and once she is within distance she ducks. Kicking her foot out, Buffy aims to sweep-kick at Nina's legs. At the same time, she stabs at an upward angle towards the intruder's abdomen in hopes of sliding past those scaly arms.]

[compos_mentis]

Alright; ever heard of the Illuminati?

[That's said almost casually, but really her eyes are narrowing about now. She doesn't fall for the feint, instead taking this moment when he comes close to make a standing jump onto one of the counters. Crouched on top of it, she growls a little before pouncing right back down, seeing if she can't pin the other person now that they may or may not be thrown off-balance]

[slaying]

Are they the guys that install light fixtures?

[It...might be tough to get a read on how genuine of an answer that is. Any indicator is soon drowned out by frustration. Buffy resists the pinning attempt by grappling with the woman, pushing back against her while still staring straight into her...oh.

The penny drops:] You've been here before.

[compos_mentis]

[..What-

No she hasn't she- She doesn't remember- And this isn't a lie unless this person is being false with her, and her facial expression, tone, nothing in it is suggesting that.

Oh now it's no longer fun. Nina growls and in the midst of the grapple she slams her forehead into Buffy's face. Or at least tries to. She can't discount the ability that it's true she might have been here before, but now she's pissed because she can't recall it. Give her a moment to regain composure, Buffy, you might be making headway]

[slaying]

[Oh, she is definitely taking advantage of any time handed over to her -- but not until after a brief moment of being nutted on the head by someone else's head. It stings, but she herself is quite fond of delivering a similar move. Fighting is always like this for Buffy Summers. In the thick of it, never minding getting a few cuts and bruises and broken things. There is a primal element to her body language and her behaviour when she fights. Instinctive and animalistic. She shows very little of the grace and refinement that great masters have. But she gets the job done.

After pulling back from the head shot, Buffy steps in to an elbow blow aimed (again) for Nina's stomach. She throws her hips and shoulders into it, twisting into the maneuver to drive more of that Slayer strength behind it.]