K - I - S - S - I - N - G

[ninazu]

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© lexasperated

I WISH YOU COULD SEE THE WICKED TRUTH
CAUGHT UP IN A RUSH, IT'S KILLING YOU

The Pitt lived for violence – the healer knew that before joining, and none of their atrocious acts surprised her. From the shitstorm of a raid on Sunhaven to burning down the Typhoon’s territory, she took part with murderous glee. Ninazu went months without consequence for her killing lust, but that ended recently. And she found she despised feeling vulnerable, as the capture and torture at the hands of a Roseblood hound forced her to feel.

The consultation prize of this lioness body only fanned the flames of her anger, rather than soothing her – how pathetic of her to jump from a defensively useless body to this brawler, only to slink away in the shadows? She stood head and shoulders above the pathetic likes of the Rosebloods; how dare one of them rip into her, as though she were no better than the meatbags she played with.

Fuming, the tawny lioness stepped into Stryker’s temple. Her pawprints left steaming puffs rising from the sands, the red and orange flames of her mane licking erratically against her fur. “STRYKER!” she called – no, roared, as she failed to control her anger in this new body. Ninazu’s usual frosty exterior melted in the wake of her wrath, golden eyes alight. “The Rosebloods pissed me off, and we’ve sat on our asses for too long. Let’s wake up the damn group by beating their asses.” She always went for the throat of an issue, and her rage only exacerbated that tendency of hers.

[member=1738]Stryker[/member]

WRITTEN BY AXIOM * TAGS

© LEXASPERATED

[Stryker]

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[glow=#000,2,300]☣ —[/glow] Oh, don’t she worry. Stryker had known that she had disappeared, but not to exactly where. The lion was steamrolling through the clans around the Pitt, hoping for any desperate scent his nose caught, but was found with nothing. Dearly he hoped for her prompt return. Without her at his side, professionally, the ardent had truly struggled to keep his hopes up, especially with the up and coming Sunhaven drama. After awhile though, things did happen to pay off. Wendell fell right into his paws, Buckingham almost succumbed to his powers, and Fairylights happened to be captured by Lucky Luciano, creating mass chaos within their enemies ranks. It was dearly enjoyable for him. But thus, he did have his right hand man to enjoy things with.

Not long before her arrival, his gut told him to go on patrol and take a soothing walk to calm himself down. Things were indeed stressful. Stryker’s world faded into bliss as he heard the angered scream of Ninazu from afar. He switched directions quickly and rushed to her, only to arrive with wide eyes and a genuine smile upon his maw. ”Why hello to you too, sweets,” he cockily remarked. Neon eyes grazed over her pelt quickly, searching for any visible wounds that he could possibly get someone to treat. By the sound of it though, the medic seemed unbothered. ”Aren’t you looking nice.” By that point, he assumed her serval body was too damaged to proceed with which prompted the change. He couldn’t say he hated it...

Moving on from the cockyness, he grew serious. She was obviously pissed. ”I’m all for wiping them out, but perhaps we should recap first,” the ardent urged promptly. ”A plan would be nice also.”

//sorry, i was out!! thank you for making this <3

[ninazu]

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© lexasperated

I WISH YOU COULD SEE THE WICKED TRUTH
CAUGHT UP IN A RUSH, IT'S KILLING YOU

Unusual for her, the lioness failed to respond with a quip to Stryker’s flirtations – she felt too much rage churning away in her head, frustration at her cascade of failures and the lingering feelings of vulnerability that came from torture. “Thank you, I stole this thing from some idiot Roseblood whose bricks for brains and shit-stain of a soul didn’t deserve this powerful of a body,” she grumbled in response, ears flicking back. “Damn bastard that captured me tortured and killed the sand cat body I dragged myself around in. Can’t say I don’t like the upgrade, though.” Her anger colored her voice and how she spoke – her incoherent ramble was made worse by how quickly she shot out the words.

Gold eyes narrowed as she drew her front paw through the sand, flames smoldering before dying in the suffocating particles. The rage burned inside of her, hotter than any flame she could ever produce, and this talking made her simultaneously angrier and calmer – angry that she wasn’t taking action, calm from the venting, and thus an odd equilibrium struck it out in her mind. “The Rosebloods just moved to a new territory. Most of their members appear clueless to how powers work – the assaholic bitch that tortured me asked shitty questions about how I controlled my elemental abilities, if you can believe that. He fucking captured me and sticks a knife in my gut, only to ask me some shit-tier question anyone with half a brain and a dollop of magical experience could answer,” she continued, her plans for an attack getting mucked up by the anger. “Next time I see him, he’s dead. Ass-eating fucker probably wouldn’t expect me to come back and kill him, moronic piece of shit.”

WRITTEN BY AXIOM * TAGS

© LEXASPERATED

[Stryker]

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[glow=#000,2,300]☣ —[/glow] Well... That was an interesting way to phrase it. Stryker wasn't complaining though. A smile grew on his lips, offering a slight chuckle at her words. She was always so aggressive with her words, but somehow so intelligent and well-versed. "If you say so," he echoed in response. "It is definitely a change in pace for you." Not like he hated the sand cat body. "A shame that the other body had to die nevertheless, sweetie."  The smaller body was actually rather adorable, but she would never know that. In her defense, she wouldn't be receiving anymore short jokes from him and that would definitely lift some weight off of her chest. Now the ivory lion had real competition.

A new place wasn't so bad. Another fresh start meant another lovely territory that could be burnt to ashes, especially with Ninazu's new knowledge and rage. "We'll go back soon," he remarked. "But first, did you catch a name? We can make things personal." Sounded like one hell of an idiot though. They probably wouldn't even see their attack coming from inches away!

[ninazu]

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© lexasperated

I WISH YOU COULD SEE THE WICKED TRUTH
CAUGHT UP IN A RUSH, IT'S KILLING YOU

Her ears twitched, her scowl deepening – he called everyone a version of ‘sweets,’ didn’t he? The rage itched to latch onto that, but it felt highly irrational. Clearly Stryker agreed with her on attacking the Rosebloods; she’d no need to switch topics now, especially not if she wanted to continue planning. “His name was Vagabond. Though the entire group is to be considered complicit, they watched the torture without a damn care – even after I claimed I was a healer.” Damn assholes; she could count on more peaceful groups to leave doctors mostly intact, but the Rosebloods apparently held no such issue. And Ninazu held no moral issue with hitting them back with Total War tactics, either. “I’m going to prowl their territory for one of them to do the same shit – no, worse shit – to. Ideally, I would like to turn one of their own members against their fucking egotistical brat of a leader before throwing raids at them. Might as well see if they fall like dominos before throwing real effort at destroying them.”

And it unnervingly sounded as though she intended to carry out her plan regardless of Stryker’s opinion or permission. While she valued his viewpoint, as both a proven battle commander and as her direct superior, the lioness tended to act as an independent agent. That wouldn’t change here when things became personal. Even with her pride on the line and rage boiling in her mind, the woman’s mind remained as sharp as ever; her wrath, scorching as any volcano, nevertheless succumbed to cold logic.

But the logic of what she called him for mostly passed – and there remained some emotion that did not belong, scuttling in the back of her mind like rats. Gold eyes narrowed to slits; the erudite-marauder took a few steps towards Stryker, her hard stare analyzing him as she analyzed her own feelings. She felt tempted to repeat his own words back to him – looking nice, a shame, and those dumb fucking nicknames he kept using. Her claws tapped the ground, as the lioness realized she failed to tell whether or not he was fucking mocking her – yes, that seemed a plausible reason for the outlying emotion. “I am in no mood to be mocked, Stryker. If you think I’m damn weak for this, come out and say it,” she said, managing to step over her emotions without stomping on them. Fitting in the pattern with Ninazu’s thus far emotional display, she continued to skate around her anger and whatever else mucked around in her brain; that, however, did not change the fact that it still hurt to speak the words. Especially these ones.

WRITTEN BY AXIOM * TAGS

© LEXASPERATED

[Stryker]

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[glow=#000,2,300]☣ —[/glow] The lion's browline furrowed. If she thought the Rosebloods would care about her position in another clan, she was surely wrong. They were a rightful enemy and wanted a fair advantage over a Pitt. Though she could of been used for their own good, they chose to watch her suffer and then release her back to the Pitt in such a harmed state. Stryker saw a point in her position. Even so, he chose to disagree and figured that the Rosebloods were smarter for eliminating their competition (supposedly). Usually he would comment cockily on the subject about their subject, but Ninazu seemed in no mood for his games. Instead he moved along. "The removal of one of their members will definitely pinpoint us as a headstrong enemy of theirs," the ivory lion remarked. "I would love to help picking off the lot of them." Specifically Vagabond. He assumed that Ninazu wanted a shot at him first though. "Perhaps we can head over there together for old times sake?" After all, she was not in a small body anymore and could no longer ride on his back.

Her next words lodged a stake through his world. The lion listened, ears flattening as she traveled further into her speech. Lighthearted playfulness came off as mocking to her. Neon orbs staggered nervously and avoided her gaze for a moment as he dove into thought. Not coming up with a quick enough conclusion, he sputtered out some rambled sentence in hopes of reaching out to her. "You know that's not what I meant," the ardent urged desperately. "We just can't head in with no plan." He felt as if his comment would make things worse, but he hoped dearly that it would help soothe the mood at least a bit. "I understand you are hurt, but I want to do this right for the both of us." Her satisfaction was paired with his own. As Stryker's right hand, he needed her.  If she went in and got dealt with for good, Stryker was unsure of what he'd do.

[ninazu]

BURN
BRIGHT

Anger waned; she watched Stryker turn from cocky to almost apologetic. Feelings flashed through her mind, too fast for full processing – pleased that she got under his skin, sated that he hadn’t meant to mock her, annoyance at herself for such a blunt statement, and so forth. But Ninazu supposed she should have expected this nonsense. Nothing useful ever came from chasing emotions, especially not anger. Why she played the damn fool and needed to learn that lesson again… well, she didn’t know.

Now came her turn to avoid meeting the ardent’s gaze, looking up for a moment. “No, you’re right,” she said, growing increasingly frustrated with herself. Pieces of the inner turmoil bubbled out of her head and onto her face, with twitchy grimaces before neutral coldness took over. Ninazu usually went through her life squashing her feelings; with so many of them popping up now, she found it difficult to continue the strategy. Lashing her flame-tipped tail, she supposed Stryker’s presence only added to the frustration. He walked through life with his emotions on his sleeve; she envied that he could, and she hated that he had the inexplicable way of drawing down her defenses.

“Everything feels like a potential threat right now. But you’ve never, fuck. Just… give me a minute,” she huffed, trying to avoid saying the damn words too emotional. She had to be weak enough to get captured, didn’t she? So she could march to Stryker and let him see what a scattershot, hysterical bitch she could be. Every word she spoke sounded like some younger version of her vomited it out – as though forgetting the need to meticulously choose words with the same precision as a physical strike.

Her eyes narrowed, the fire around her neck flaring suddenly before dying out. “I like your idea of hitting them, just the two of us, like old time’s sake.” She’d pick off one of them on her own – she needed some personal brand of justice. How pathetic, that after the ordeal she ran straight to Stryker instead of making vengeance on her own; she’d never let herself live it down if Stryker got even for her. But the lioness would still, gladly, take his help.

© MADI