[attr="class","body"] Ah — Jun is in trouble!

The spark of protectiveness that flares through Yaoyao isn’t new, but it’s also pushed aside quick. Juju’s a big girl who can kick ass by herself. In the meantime, Yaoyao’s more preoccupied with Flower Power over here - and the angry flush on her face as she unleashes barrage after barrage of thorns in-between swings of that nasty wooden sledgehammer. Seems reckless. Seems pointed. Seems personal, almost, even though Yaoyao didn’t even know her name until Lili filled it in for her a few seconds ago. No time to wrack their brains for an inconsequential answer, though. Yaoyao will give her this: she’s fast. Even with that giant hammer.

Yaoyao kind of likes that hammer, actually. And on that thought:

Shadow hands grab it on the next swing. Grab, and yank, and rip the thing clean out of Flower Power’s hands on the flip they do backward over her head just for kicks. Lili inspects it while Yaoyao levels her best shit-eating grin at Flower Power’s angry little face. It’s strong, and those thorns all over it would really hurt if someone’s bare skin got hit… though I suppose everyone is wearing sturdy enough clothes that it’d maybe soften the blow? Still - careful where you aim, okay?

Yaoyao’s grin bares teeth. Wolfish, glinting, dripping with challenge. In it, Lili sees the tenacity that got her this far, that got her everything she wants, everything she has. It’s intimidating and inspiring in equal measure, and it’s everything Lili once wished she could be.

It’s also infuriating to anyone on the other side of a battle from her. Lili sees the indignant fury, the reaction rippling through Haruna’s face, before Yaoyao even responds.

No promises. Where’s our Juju with the flag?

---

[attr="class","body"]It’s a late night, and she wishes she was home by now. But her asshat of a boss has left her to clean and close up shop at the tattoo parlor by herself, so there she was. Still… with her baobao in her ear telling stories and laughing that laugh of his, she hadn’t been too mad about it. It‘s her favorite thing in the world, that laugh. But it’d been a long day. For a minute she’s only half listening, half wiping down the last of the seats, a fond little smirk on her face as her baobao complains in her ear about an underclass man and a joyride and a missing mech, when it happens.

She might never forgive herself for that.

It was stupid. She got sloppy. Got complacent, thinking about her sweetheart waiting for her, making dinner in the home they shared, warm and content and entirely their own, and she thought he was safe.

She heard the knock, faint through the receiver, and she did think it was weird for half a second — who the hell would show up unannounced at this hour without calling? None of their friends, knocking what she’s like — but she’d been distracted. Scrubbing at a stubborn ink stain, thinking about getting home. She didn’t tell him to check the peep hole. She didn’t tell him to be careful. She didn’t tell him to be on guard, or to find out who it was before he opened the door, or any of the shit she should’ve said.

But she heard the impact. Sharp and sickening, even through the phone. She heard the fall, and the phone hitting the ground, and she was stupid enough to be confused for the split second before Jawny’s barking and whining came through the phone, the syllable of Kei’s name barely formed on her tongue before the anger rage horror terror sickness realization hit her.

She was out the door and in the air before the cleaning product hit the ground, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that the tattoo parlor she’d argued her way into an apprenticeship at was too damn far from the apartment. Stupid, stupid, stupid of her to have been stubborn about the one with the best reputation on their entire side of the city, instead of one in the same neighborhood, or even the same ward.

She was too far, even forgoing the streets to hurl herself through the air on tendrils of darkness swinging through blocks faster than she could count. Too far, and too stupid, and and too damn slow—

And too late.

There’s nothing there, when she gets crashes through the door. Nothing but Jawny, whining at nothing, and a phone on the ground, and empty air, and a hollow, roaring fury in her ears, in her chest, in her head.

The world is silent as lavender hands appear in the air, and pull the phone out of their pocket. It’s quiet as those hands reach for a familiar number, and send out a cry for help.

The scream, though. The scream turned howl turned roar - that shakes the flood. The building. The street. The ground itself. There are shadows everywhere, now, and it’s fitting. What else would you expect, after all, when your world, all at once, has gone dark?

---

[attr="class","body"]Oh. Ohoho. The jumbo lizard wants a taste of her? Now that’s hilarious. It’s so hilarious that as she throws herself backward outta the way of that swinging tail, the laughing grin on her face is so wide it looks more like a baring of teeth than a normal, proper smile.

If there’s one thing she’s learned about humans, it’s that they’ve all got their vices. Baobao with his sweet tooth, Juju with her model boats, Lili with her baking addiction, ‘n more. Yaoyao, though? Yaoyao’s vice — uh, the publicly acceptable acknowledgeable one — is that there’s nothing in this world quite like the thrill of a good fight. Sure, there’s competitions and races and games and all that, and she’ll get a good kick out of ‘em if they’re good enough to be worth her time. And she likes other crap, too. Working on her bike. Cooking. And, y'know, other stuff.

But fighting? Blood and bones and bruises, throwing everything you’ve got at subjugating someone who’s pissed you the hell off, proving that you’re better, that those who mess with you will regret it by tooth and claw — oh, the rush is almost too good for words.

“WHO'S HIDING, HUH?!” She cackles, slamming her fists together while two shadow-hands, each the size of the glorified jumbo pickle’s face, mirror the movement. “Bring it, you overgrown gecko — and I’ll eat you FIRST!”

Way up above, in the sky, there’s shouting, and the ear-ringing screech of engines, and it hurts like a mother. But she’s too delighted by the oversized lizard trying to get at her to spare a thought for it right now. Long as they don’t hit her with that kinda noise in close contact, and as long as they don’t ruin this whole thing for her, who cares what they do?

---

TL:DR; local idiot makes herself the target in a big way. Fenrir's the bull and Yaoyao's the brightest red flag you ever did see 🫡

[attr="class","body"]And preoccupied they’ll stay.

Eyes in the back of our head, Lili!

Understood!

“LOOK OUT BELOW!” That’s about all the warning any of the other combatants get — well, that and a hasty screech of ‘incoming!!’ from somebody who bothered to look up — a few scant seconds before impact. Yaoyao impact, specifically.

Having hauled herself up into the air again using that wall of thorns, she swings, gets momentum, and lands with a brilliant, thundering CRASH: the sound of Yaoyao, and a pair of ginormous claws of shadow curled into fists and raised up high, smashing into (more than one unlucky competitor, and also) the ground. Did someone order a giant, flashing, neon target with teeth? Whether they like it or not, that’s what they’ve got on their hands now.

Three flags, three people per group, and fifteen people in total. That will be five teams, Lili murmurs. Five teams, gunning for three shots at winning. Twelve other people to keep track of. Twelve people to stomp into the dirt. Only provided that they haven’t posted anyone to hang back and provide support or defense!

Well, you know what they say: the defense is a damn good offense.

That’s a VERY subjective st—thorns, behind you!

Quick as Lili’s warning comes, Yaoyao flings aside the opponent she was grappling and throws a wall of dark energy up behind her; an arm, sorta, but way taller and thicker than the everyday shade arm. She hears a series of rapid-fire thunks, probably the thorns Lili meant, and lowers that wall just in time to avoid a sledgehammer-shaped briarwood branch to the face. The girl who swung it’s got sprouts growing in spirals down her arms and a determined glare so nasty Yaoyao almost respects it.

Looks like someone else is finally feeling aggressive.

That's Haruna Amano — she can manipulate the plants growing out of her, and they can grow out of just about anywhere. She can sever them painlessly to use as controllable weapons, but it hurts when they get uprooted from her skin…

Huh. Sick.

---

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[attr="class","likedoinfo"]LINK TO COMPLETED CHARACTER SHEET: local menace, as requested
LINK TO LOCKER ROOM: hereeee <3
OTHER: also said it in the locker but will say it here as well - I'm exchanging 140 + 150 of my tokens (so 290 out of 300) for EXP to pay for these upgrades!! as always if there's anything that needs tweaking or fixing please feel free to reach out to me via discord <3

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[attr="class","likedoinfo"]LINK TO COMPLETED CHARACTER SHEET: babygirl (menace)
LINK TO LOCKER ROOM: here's the upgrade!!
OTHER: if anything needs fixed/tweaking, please feel free to reach out on discord!! much love <333