The spray of dirt kicked up by Scrap's paws had Mosaic flinching back and blinking, only for the paw to hit her right in the eye right after. She howled, reeling back, eyeball stinging and welling up with more tears. Her eyelids were locked shut and her face ached, but that DIDN'T MATTER. She didn't need both eyes to see her opponent.

She dove directly at Scrap while they were down, lips pulled back and jaws snapping for their head and neck. Her first instinct was to go for their face--an eye for an eye--but that metallic mask was in the way and she didn't want to break her teeth on its gem! Instead she tried to sink her teeth into the vulnerable bits that weren't impeded by their gem and tear at whatever she could reach.

@Scrap

ROUND 4

ATTEMPT: bite scrap while they're down
DEFENSE: also dog
INJURIES: incredibly bruised up belly, one eye out

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

violence

They aren't quick enough. Mosaic is upon them and their vision is nothing but flashing teeth. Jaws snag around their left ear and shred it like paper. Scrap screeches in pain as blood cascades down their Magnetite mask, making it look as though a section of skin had been torn away to reveal something metallic and horrific underneath. Another haphazard bite tears into their right cheek and drags along the curve of their snout, although this reveals nothing but blood and meat.

Reason, pity, mercy- all of that dissolves in the face of their own mortality. They aren't trying to justify anything, anymore. They're barely even thinking. It hurts, and there's nowhere to run, and she's really going to KILL THEM-

Teeth sink straight into the tender flesh of Mosaic's throat, close around her windpipe, and then TEAR outward. A mouthful of meat comes with it, and they choke on the thick taste of metal that drips down their throat. A waterfall of blood drenches them as they stare up at Mosaic and the hollow they just carved into her neck.

ROUND 4

ATTEMPT: Bite Throat
DEFENSE: even more dog
INJURIES: Multitude of bruises, bitten leg + face, torn ear

@Mosaic [permission granted to powerplay the violence]

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

violence

She feels an ear fold and tear between her teeth surprisingly easily, spilling warm blood into her mouth. It runs down her face and lips as she snaps again at Scrap's face and again sinks her teeth into flesh that tears and gives. It's so horrifyingly easy.

Mosaic gets a brief glimpse of Scrap's mutilated visage--it no longer looks anything like her, she thinks--as she pulls away to attack again, before the other dog surges up from underneath her and jaws lock tight around her throat. Now it's her turn to feel the rip of teeth into skin and fur, to gasp and choke at the agony and nauseous feeling of something in her flesh that shouldn't be. Instinctively she thrashes and tries to throw herself away from them, which only helps them tear out a chunk of her throat.

There's so much blood. Blood spilling down her chest, splashed across both their faces, blood in her nose and mouth. The sweet air turns metallic and stings at the exposed tissue of her wounds. Mosaic staggers in a wave of dizziness and feels a surge of terror. There's too much blood. She sees Scrap's face pull away in slow motion and tries to lunge for it, violence the only thought left, only to fall as she misses and the motion carries her forward.

@Scrap

ROUND 5/5

ATTEMPT: bite at Scrap's eye
DEFENSE: dog
INJURIES: bruised up belly, one eye out, piece missing from throat

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

violence

Mosaic lunges for their eye only to go careening past her mark, hitting the ground just beside them. Scrap staggers to their feet, the chunk of flesh falling out of their slack jaws with a wet plop. They're panting, staring emptily at her collapsed form. Their mind is a haze of blood and not-quite-thought. Any complex emotions about their circumstance has been boiled down to a sludge of fear and animalistic anger. They want this to be over. It hurts so much. She tried to kill them. They cannot let this happen ever again.

If Mosaic awakens from her chrysalis, she will hunt them. This will happen again. It will keep happening, until there is no more of their face left to lose. This will happen again. They cannot let this happen ever again.

The citrine is bright against dark of her chest fur.

Their teeth chip against it as they bite at it again and again and again They end up doing more damage to the flesh around the gem, the gemstone itself being smooth and difficult to grab ahold of. They're numb and deaf to anything Mosaic might try- her death throes, her last gasps of life. They aren't comprehending the magnitude of their actions, the weight of a life snuffed forever. They just need this to end. It will never happen again.

ROUND 5

ATTEMPT: Tear Gem
DEFENSE: dog
INJURIES: Multitude of bruises, bitten leg + face, torn ear

@Mosaic

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

death

A ringing filled her ears and the world blurred. Mosaic tried to stand back up, but her legs just scrabbled weakly at the dirt before buckling again. The anger and desperation that had filled her seconds ago drained away with her blood. Her breathing came in quick, shallow gasps.

How had Scrap done that? she wondered dully. It had happened so quickly.

Something began tugging and tearing at the citrine in her chest. Mosaic convulsed, head lifting from the ground and legs kicking out blindly, but there was no strength in it. The tearing continued unrelentingly. Bits of torn skin and bloody fur littered the ground. At last the gem separated completely from her flesh with a final vicious tug. Mosaic gasped as she felt it tear away. There was so much blood around her. It was hard to breathe. It was cold. The world fell away.

- exit @Scrap

Character: Mosaic Age: +25 (95th Cycle) Magic Level: +3 (Pupil) ROUND 1 Attempt: +1 Penalties: - ROUND 2 Attempt: +11 Penalties: - ROUND 3 Attempt: +19 Penalties: - ROUND 4 Attempt: +15 Penalties: - ROUND 5 Attempt: +2 Penalties: - Total: 76

Character: Scrap Age: +25 (50th Cycle) Magic Level: +1 (Fledgling) ROUND 1 Attempt: +11 Penalties: - ROUND 2 Attempt: +17 Penalties: - ROUND 3 Attempt: +8 Penalties: - ROUND 4 Attempt: +20 Penalties: - ROUND 5 Attempt: +9 Penalties: - Total: 91

WINNER: Scrap

Magicka and activity logs will be added shortly.

Its over.

They spit out the bloody stone and just stare. At the face that so closely resembled their own- although now that's hardly true. Every sense is consumed by blood- the crimson of it painting every surface, the choking scent that has overtaken the tunnel's normally sickly-sweet, the thick, revolting taste of it coating their mouth and throat. Even the relentless pounding of it in their ears.

It didn't have to end like this, but it did.

Thoughts return, although scattered and muddled. They just killed someone, someone angry and irrational and traumatized, someone just like themself. They aren't sure if they even feel guilt about it, exactly, and that makes it worse. It went to far, but maybe Mosaic would've been the one to tear their throat out, if they hesitated. Maybe it was always going to end this way, with only one of them left standing. Or maybe this is all empty justification.

They should find somewhere to rest before the adrenaline leaves them and they collapse, right here, in the blood, next to the lifeless simulacrum of their form. But they don't move.

@Aurelle

Aurelle could smell the blood a mile away.

She'd assumed it was just Lesser gembound having some kind of fight, really. After all, she didn't hear any voices or shouting-- just some snarling, and the sound of flesh being torn by teeth. The tunnel it was coming from was a popular one on her route, especially at this time of year. There were cherimoyas that grew in there, from time to time. She'd have to go in there eventually.

And... well, there was little advantage to delay.

The coppery stench grew stronger in her nose as she slid carefully in. A little pulse of her magic and the microbes opened up to her-- namely, those covering the two dogs. She knew one was still on the ground, and the other was standing. She could hear their breathing hard in their ears. Aurelle wasn't one like to assume things, really, but she definitely assumed that the dead one must have been in the wrong, somehow.

That's just how things worked, wasn't it?

"Oh, goodness gracious me," she murmured, moving cautiously closer. She couldn't tell if they were Lesser or Greater, but it didn't matter. She still asked, "are you alright?"

@Scrap

They are jarred out of their daze by the voice of another. They turn sharply to see one of the stranger gembound they've ever encountered- bipedal, nearly entirely furless, and painted entirely in pale lavender hues, like something out of Gemini.

And she knows they just murdered someone.

"THIS ISN'T WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!" They shout before they really register what she said. She's... she's just worried about them? As they loom over a corpse, drenched in blood? "S- She was going to kill me! I had to!" And maybe she already could already tell- she already knew they were innocent.

And everything about this situation- the overpowering scent of blood, the exhausted tremor in their voice, the clumsiness in their footfalls as they backed away and nearly tripped over Mosaic's corpse- made it clear that they were not fine, even if they didn't directly answer Aurelle's question.

"DON'T get any closer." Scrap growled desperately. Their entire posture- ears pinned flat, hackles raised, tail tucked, whites of their teeth and eyes flashing- screams fearfully reactive dog. They were buzzing with far too much adrenaline and fear to relax, even if the minuscule rational fraction of their brain knew she likely meant no harm. T And they- they don't THINK they want to bite her. They didn't want to kill Mosaic either. But- But- But-

But it still happened.

@Aurelle

Aurelle's hands lifted placiatingly, though her first instinct was to clarify 'it's not what it looks like' with a gentle "I can't see, I'm blind." Still, she didn't push her luck. If Scrap didn't want help, then she wouldn't force it on them. It wasn't until that fully registered, though, that she realized--

Ahh... what was I meant to do again...? She wondered. Meet someone injured, but not dying, and... get to know everything she can about them?

That seemed fine, for as long as Scrap didn't ask to be helped.

Realizing that she was likely towering over the dog, she slowly lowered herself down onto her knees and sat. "Why was she trying to kill you?" Aurelle asked softly. "Ahh, I suppose you don't have to answer that, but... you did what you had to do. I'm glad you lived."

A beat. "I'm Aurelle," she introduced. "I, ahh, live in Orion. The cave down the tunnel."

@Scrap