Lucias v Simo: SWU Tourney Rd. 1

[Dutch]

SWU Tournament First Round Matchup

Here we go! Round one of the First SWU Tourney!

A 4 round free for all, let's get nasty! Winner moves on to the next round.

The Setting~



The Waterworks district of a sprawling metropolis. Many man-made canals run parallel to the streets, and the largest building is the water treatment plant. Steam billows from the factory, and men mill about their daily duties. What could possibly go wrong?

Juzt! You're up first!

[Juzt]

There was a faint hiss and the odd drip but for the most part the waterworks were silent. The place was in bad shape tanks caked in flaky rust water leaked and dripped from cracks everywhere. It was unsurprising the residents had complained, they joked it always seemed to be raining near the water works and now it was raining on one man in particular.

At the entrance to the waterworks, stood a Rodian, tall and rangy his red multifaceted eyes were lazily half closed. However his right hand and its long tendril like fingers continued to drum on his hip hyperactivity as if it longed to be doing something else. He was clad in a long green coat, so that from a distance it was hard to tell where the coat ended and Rodian began. On his forehead and down the sides of his face and neck, were tattoos of a darker green that he got from his membership of the Yusk Rogues a gang he had been in what felt like a life time ago.

Simo Kirin, was waiting. It felt good to be a bounty hunter again even for a short while after the uncomfortableness of trying to fit in with Spearpoint. Hunting was what Simo was born to do, chasing and killing had a certain thrill for him. Not an emotion he would ever consciously confess to, as emotions were dangerous and made you unreliable. Never the less it drove him more than he liked to think.

Simo hated waiting, however there were worse places to do it. He felt perfectly at home here, it was hot and humid just like his home of Rodia. Simo knew very little about his target, other than his appearance and that he was wanted preferably alive. Simo was disappointed by that he much preferred to kill rather than capture as that was fraught with risks but he could get a greater return by bringing him in alive. Simo was not one to argue with more money.

The waterworks was clearly a good place to hide, lots of out buildings, alcoves and darkened corners to hide in. Simo scanned each one carefully, occasionally a shadow would pass past his vision, but it was normally only someone using the waterworks as a short cut to get to the streets beyond. Perhaps on their way home from work. Simo heard a sound, the antennae top of his head twitched, he pulled his pistol from its holster and stalked quietly amongst the tanks. The weapon was battered and old, but in perfect working order rather like the rest of Simo's battered equipment, including a good sized rifle on his back. Simo preferred lighter smaller pistols but sometimes more range and power were needed. Simo came upon a tank with sloshing water inside and barrels fanning out round it. One of these barrels was lying on its side, turning his blaster to a stun setting Simo kept all of his senses, smell, hearing and sight trained on his surroundings. Off in the middle distance Simo distinctly saw something move, he aimed held his breath and squeezed off two shots in that direction hoping they would find their mark. He quickly moved forward and jumped behind a tank in case there was any return fire.

[Cain]

Thirty stories above the waterworks district upon a slab of duracrete no more than two feet wide lay what would appear from a distance to be little more than a pile of dark rags. Anchoring those rags to ledge, against the steady wind whipping through the narrow creases between the tightly packed highrises, was Lucias. The boy lay curled up, his knees pressed tight to his chest and his blindfolded face nuzzled deep into the crook of his arm. His favorite weapon, a custom made bo staff, remained securely fastened to the young man's back even as he slept.

A sweet, contented smile lingered Lucias' face while he dozed. His peaceful rest was only occasionally interrupted by a quick twitch in his leg. Neither the howl of the wind nor the hiss of the steam stacks disturbed the boy's slumber. It took a pair of blaster shots ringing out from far below to rouse Lucias' interest. From so far up the sound was nearly imperceptible amid the surrounding white noise. Nevertheless, Lucias' head perked up like a trained hound. The boy's highly attuned senses sampled his surroundings. He sniffed at the air and stifled his movement, listening patiently for the source of the disturbance.

Footsteps.

Lucias popped upright immediately. Crouched on all fours, his hands gripped the ledge. The young man's body shook with excitement. Could it be? He wondered. A new friend, perhaps?

Unable to contain himself any longer Lucias slunk head first over the edge, deftly grabbing hold of a drainage pipe which ran up the length of the factory. As stealthy and sure as a Flickercat the boy scaled wall down to street level.

Lucias' Force sight had pinpointed the location of his new playmate as he had approached slowly from above. He settled in a darkened, smashed out second story window to observe. Gently he reached out to Simo with the Force.

Such a strangely shaped creature. Lucias thought, I wonder if it's squishy... An audible giggle followed, echoing through the lower waterworks. The sound would surely have alerted Lucias' friend to his presence. He wasted no more time hiding.

"Mm, Such a nasty neighborhood to be lost," Lucias announced pleasantly. The blind boy then leaped from his perch on the windowsill. Catching a lamppost with his legs Lucias twisted himself around the pole's circumference and leaned back, hanging upside-down, facing the Rodian. His silvery hair and the long ends of his blindfold hung beneath him. "I'd sure hate to be way out here all alone without any friends."

A sudden idea and Lucias flashed Simo a large grin, "Maybe you'd like to play a game with me? It could be fun! Though I should warn you, I'm pretty good."

[Dutch]

Round 1

Juzt
Effort: 4/5
Fairness: 4/5
Detail: 4/5
Coolness: 3/5
Bonus: /2
Comments: A very solid start. Opening posts are always the hardest, but you did nicely here.

Cain
Effort: 4/5
Fairness: 4/5
Detail: 4/5
Coolness: 3/5
Bonus: 1/2
Comments: Bout what I expected from you, also a solid start. Bonus point for making me giggle a couple times.

Juzt: 15

Cain: 16

Alright boys, the first round is always the worst for you guys in regards for grading. But I think this is about to get good. Cain takes a very slight lead, but we all know that can change drastically.

Round 2! Start!

[Juzt]

The chase was on. Simo could almost smell and taste the man's fear and his determination to escape . He felt a tingle running up and down his spine, his body giving an involuntary jump of excitement. His booted feet pounded on to the hard concrete below him, occasionally he struggled for purchase on the slippery floor but that simply added to the thrill that he was feeling. His quarry was used to running clearly as he seemed to have boundless stamina, but Simo had been doing this all his life and his long strides bought him closer and closer to his target.

His coat swilled and flowed behind him as he ran, his skin tingled in the moist and humid ear, and his Blaster was in his hand. The man seemed to be flagging now was the time, Simo paused planting his feet firmly on the ground. He aimed down the sights. Then a strange feeling washed over him, it was odd like something was pushing and pulling at his brain, calling out to him somehow. Simo shook of the feeling, his head twitching from side to side making the sharp spines along his skull wobble. The target had moved a little further on into the maze of pipes and tanks and small buildings. However, not far enough unfortunately for him.

Simo took careful aim again, his long tendril finger gradually slowly squeezing back the trigger. One the edge of his hearing he thought he heard unpleasant sounding laughter. Simo ignored it, it was peripheral probably some kids wondering about, Simo did not care. The man was starting to recede into the darkness and mist of the waterworks. It was still a shot that Simo could make. His finger readied the trigger again. Then without warning, Simo saw something in his peripheral vision and heard a voice. His body filled with adrenaline, Simo pivoted on one foot without thinking and in shock fired, the blaster blot collided with a near by water tank, it cracked. There was a moment in which time seemed to stand still, as the water started to emerge from the tank, it came out under high pressure and crashed into Simo, who struggled to stay up right for a moment till the water found its level and spread out over the surrounding area. A significant portion of his clothes and body were soaked through by water.

One thing that Simo was truly proud of himself for was his iron self control the mask, the facade he had built around himself. He was very adept at concealing his emotions, acting in a robotic and detached way for the most part. This incident however, was proving to be a challenge to that particular line of defence. So it was hard for him to keep just a hint of his anger and irritation out of his voice as he addressed the object in front of him. He was young, with strange grey hair and an emaciated appearance, his eyes were covered with some kind of blindfold. He gave Simo a strong impression of someone who had lost a fight with a hedge. However somewhere in Simo's bacon slicer of a brain a nagging little voice was begging for caution. Th boy was hagning upside down round a lamp post displaying remarkable agility, and Simo had a strong feeling that insanity was just beneath the surface.

However, the clattering a footsteps distracted Simo from the scruffy looking youth. His target was attempting to use the distraction to build a bigger lead over Simo. “No boy... I have no time to play games... Go play in the middle of a Hyper space route.” Simo was not happy turning his back on the kid but he had a job to do, Simo turned and began to run again. “Freak!” He muttered in Huttese.

[Cain]

With a few "polite" words the Rodian turned and ran deeper into the works.

Ah, hide and seek it is! Lucias thought, trembling with anticipation. As quickly and nimbly as he'd made his entrance, the blind boy hoisted himself back up the light pole and into the darkened factory. This was always a fun game, and Lucias knew a few neat tricks to help make things interesting. A quick short cut through the older district and Lucias was back ahead of his newest friend.

Poor squishy frog-man. Still chasing the sounds of feet. A wide, mischievous grin spread across Lucias' face as he watched Simo for a few more moments. Finally he hopped on to another ledge, this time a few meters from a large transformer.

Lucias held up his hand and wiggled his fingers a bit. Tiny sparks of electricity crackled between the digits. When at last he'd mustered enough energy Lucias flicked his hand toward the transformer, sending a quick flash of lightning through it. The transformer quickly overloaded with an earsplitting pop and a flash of green and white light. Following the fireworks, all the lights for several blocks of the waterworks district flickered out, plunging the area into total darkness, save for the stars above.

Another giggle fit seized the little Kumori. With the surrounding machinery shut off, the sound of his laugh could be heard reverberating from the factory walls and down the works alleys.

"I forgot to mention," Lucias called out to Simo, extending his feelers through the Force to locate the Rodian and slowly close on his position. "I don't play fair."

Lucias approached cautiously, moving primary via window ledges and street poles. When finally he was above Simo, Lucias delicately removed the staff from his back and stepped off the ledge. The fall would add momentum to the blow Lucias had aimed at the Rodian's head.

"You're it!" He shouted just before landing.

[Dutch]

Round 2

Juzt
Effort: 4/5
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 4/5
Coolness: 3/5
Bonus: 1/2
Comments: Bonus for not making Lucias your quarry! I liked that twist a lot!

Cain
Effort: 4/5
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 4/5
Coolness: 3/5
Bonus: 1/2
Comments: YOU'RE IT

Juzt: 32

Cain: 33

Nice boys! I enjoyed this round quite a lot. Def took this in a direction I wasn't expecting, thus bonus points for both! Keep it coming!

ROUND 3

[Juzt]

Simo skidded round corners as he followed the thudding run of his quarry. Deep beneath his cold exterior was the beginnings of annoyance. Simo liked and was very good at keeping his emotions well in check, no point in giving your enemies more weapons against you. It made him seem a little robotic at times are rather like he did not truly care about what was going on around him. That irritating boy had cost him so much time, a good minute at least.

Simo shook his head as he ran, no point thinking about that wastrel he had to get on with the task at hand. Simo had made good time, and could just about see his target's retreating back in the distance skidding over the wet surface, Simo aimed his blaster there was no chance of getting it wrong this time. He allowed himself a faint smile, as he squeezed the trigger. Without warring a near by transformer box exploded. Simo was left with after images burned on his eyes of bright green and white explosions. Lights flickered out and huge blue sparks crackled into the air, given purpose by the water all around. Simo had no idea how, but he knew that little vagrant was responsible somehow. He was a liability that had to be dealt with, judging from his behaviour there might well be a bounty out on him to.

However, finding him or any one in the dark caused by the outage was a challenge to even a Rodian's strong senses. A chilling laugh echoed through out the surrounding area. It was a laugh that on the surface sounded innocent and childlike but beneath it all was a sense of wrongness, like happy dream that is frayed at the edges with and impending nightmare about to emerge. Simo was a little off put but in his work he had to deal with lunatics and psychos all the time, mostly they were his employers. Including some very reputable people in the Republic. This however was different. Simo had to fight this guy and it was the lunatics who were unpredictable, impossible to be certain what they would do next.

The laugh had Simo squinting into the gloom, and listening carefully. It was neraly impossible to tell where he was.

Then a voice called out “I forgot to mention.”

Simo still could not tell exactly where the voice was coming from, his adrenaline was starting to really flow his tendril like fingers tightened round his blaster.

“I don't play fair.”

After that comment for a few moments, there was a sudden silence. Simo thought he could here some rustling, the sound grew in volume when another shout rang out from directly over him.

“You're it!”

Simo was already starting to move but not quick enough. The staff came down with a glancing blow to Simo's shoulder. However it was enough to send Simo sprawling over a barrel, and send his blaster skittering across the floor. His left shoulder feel numb and, Simo groaned and rolled over on to his back. At his feet was one of the barrels they had knocked over. Simo looked across at his blaster and back at Lucias. In desperation he kicked the barrel hard at Lucias hoping to knock it into his legs. Without looking to see the result Simo scrambled to his feet and grabbed his blaster. With it in his hand he shouted

“You don't play fair?” Simo swung round his face impassive but a wild look shone in his eyes “I don't play at all!”

[Cain]

Lucias observed the dim glow that radiated off his new friend as the Rodian took a glancing blow and stumbled over some barrels. The Force was bound to all living things, and in this way they seemed to outshine their surroundings. Each had its own unique quality. Some were brighter, some felt warm, and others felt cold. Perceiving the world in this way could be overwhelming. Eventually though, one began to recognize the signs.

It wasn't always easy for Lucias, but he'd learned enough to this point to recognize when an aura was becoming dangerous. Lucias' "tag" seemed to have done the trick in this case.

Once Simo hit the ground Lucias could feel it. The feeling only lasted an instant, like a shot of electricity and then the barrel Simo booted at Lucias was airborne. The boy reacted to the first jolt of danger, leaping up over the projectile with a backwards somersault and landing in a three point stance with his staff held at the ready.

“You don't play fair? I don't play at all!”

Lucias smirked. This one... his light had become wild, like a dying ember given life by a sudden rush of wind.

"Frog-man's not so squishy after all, mm?" Lucias released the tension in his muscles and slumped back, plopping his butt down on the wet pavement. He crossed his legs, ruminating aloud while scratching the side of his head.

"Hmmmmmm... it doesn't like this game?" The boy inquired with a tilt of his head, showing little regard for the blaster the Rodian was now wielding. "That's ok, I know lots of games! How abouuuut..." Lucias dragged the last syllable as he thought, bouncing triumphantly where he sat as the idea finally hit him. "Dodgeball!"

Before he'd even finished calling out the name of game Lucias had hopped back onto his feet, snatched up his staff and with a full body heave, set it to the air. The two meter long bo was sent spinning in a wide arc, like a boomerang guided by the Force, curling around the street poles and ultimately toward Simo.

[Rugs]

Alright, boys, since Dutch has been occuppied first by a heavy work schedule and then fell ill, I'll be stepping in to take care of this round so we can have this finish up. So, let's take a loot.

Round 2

Juzt:
Effort: 4/5 If we worked with half-steps, I'd give this a 4.5. Very well written, and your writing flows very nicely. Excellent work.
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 4/5 Good glimpses into his mind and into his reactions to Lucias, who I know can be a strange little thing
Coolness: 3/5
Bonus: 1/2 "I don't play at all!" <- made me laugh
Comments: Very well written post. Good details, good internalization of the character. Many kudos to you

Cain
Effort: 4/5 (-1) See comments
Fairness: 5/5
Detail: 4/5 You have a way of keeping track of the little things that add life to writing without getting lost in the minutae of it. Not always an easy thing to do.
Coolness: 3/5 I do like Lucias' manner. Very unique, very different, and it's reflected in his attack, which is certainly different than the norm.
Bonus: 0/2
Comments: Soooo, this is a very good post, as yours tend to be. However, I did have to dock a point from effort given that you did skirt with the limit of how long you had to post. Of course, the great irony of it all is that this grading took forever to happen, and I recognize that, so the penalty's about as mild as I can make it. That aside, this post was excellent. Both of you write very well. Good matchup.


Uuuuh now I have to do math... Divid by zero, carry the 4...

Juzt: 49

Cain: 48

So, juzt takes the lead this go round. One more (regulation, at least) round to go. Should be a nailbiter.

Carry on, gentlemen

[Juzt]

[OOC: I apologise for the delay, I have had a lot of internet issues]


Simo groaned audibly as the stick of the weirdo came hurtling dodging round water tanks and lamp posts acting like a heat seeking missile coming straight for his head. Simo took off at break neck speed, but not before looking back at this freak who had so far done a good job of ruining his day. Any doubts Simo had about him being a Force user had completely disappeared. Simo hated both the Jedi and Sith, he saw them as powerful religious fanatics who had the first opportunity should all have a blaster bolt in the brain. However, this guy seemed to made even the Sith seem like a little friendly church giving out soup to the poor.

However, with his brain back in the present Simo seemed tottaly unable to out run Lucias' staff, Simo had weaved in between, as many obstacles as he could and it just kept coming. Simo had a desperate itch to lop off the smile that was undoubtedly spread across the kid's face. Spotting an old barrel that had been split in two when it had probably been overfilled, Simo made a beeline for it and quickly swirled round holding it in front of him using it like a makeshift shield. The staff clattered into it with a dull clunk that made Simo very glad it had not found its mark.

Simo looked back at Lucias, his brain was telling him discretion was the better part of valour and that he should be running to his ship and putting this planet behind him, this sector even. However, something suspiciously like injured pride bubbled up to the surface. Simo prided himself on an Icy coolness not matter how the situation presented itself. So this feeling coming strongly to the surface coupled with a faint anger banging at the door of his subconscious for attention was slightly unsettling. It seemed as if for the first time in a very long time his emotions were driving him. A small slightly demented smile passed over his face. The last time this had happened he had killed his brother, he had felt sick afterwards. Not because of what he was done but because he did not feel anything afterwards. However at the time, there was anger and delight and shivering little thrill. The feeling was the same here it was dangerous he should fight against it but he was too far gone.

His blaster raised and pointed directly at Lucias “All right, just for you. A little game why not?” He spoke in and indulgent tone rather like a father giving into a son demanding sweets. He started walking slowly towards the small ragged looking boy who had caused him all this trouble. A grudging respect was forming. “Just for you. How about we play a game I thought of called, Blast the scruffy little vagrant.” He squeezed off two shots in the kid's direction. He fully expected a Force user to be able to dodge them with those uncanny reflexes they seemed to have. It was more a signal of intent Simo was ready to play.

[Rugs]

Well, he's waaaaaay over the limit now, so looks like Cain has to be disqualified. Juzt advances.