Scene #7516: Rock'em Sock'em Monsters

Owner	Pose
Samhain	TOEI UNDERPASS NIGHT It's a cool summer night. Shaw has sent a text message to Bercilak's radio. It simply reads 'Fight. Underpass. Come whenever.' Come whenever is literal, because Shaw will just camp out there all night, quietly. The underpass is a good place to fight, tonight, because the pass above is closed off for construction, and there's none going on at this time of night. No chance of harm to people above by accidentally shattering the road, and if they do, they can just repair it, right? Right. Shaw's in his 'factory worker overalls' and his welding mask, a massive slab of muscle. He's got a sledgehammer in one hand, rested against the ground hammer-down. He's so silent that you'd think he's a statue walking past. Bercilak knows better.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Bercilak comes. That much is evident by the roar of his hoverbike, the pulse detonation engine audible long before the armored green beast is. The roar slows, breaking up into rhythmic bangs, and it touches down. Bercilak is fully armored, the axe already materialized, resting in a special slot on the right side of the bike. It stands tall and proud like a battle standard for a lone soldier--but he isn't alone. He's brought friends. Shaw's friends. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqWRaAF6_WY Bicycles from his school pull up--Spalding first among them, unsuited. Shep, the Atrox from the Condemned Subway, arrives on a hoverboard pieced together from scrap, with Eumenides following close behind in sunglasses and baggy street clothing that hides their features, stepping out of a futuristic yet utilitarian dune-buggy. The pink top-knot is what gives them away, visible under their hoodie. The motorcade is followed next by a bus, unloading citizens of the occupied city of Borealis, carrying signs in support of 'Samhain the Smasher' who, along with all of Samhain's other friends, quickly form a ring around the two. Bercilak steps off of the bike and shoulders the axe, and though his T-visor is just as expressionless as Samhain's, the spring in his step is undeniable as he approaches. "Ofhered thou wert misplesen the beauteous serpent," says Bercilak. "Come! I shalt ilern thee hau sibs hondle swich." He invites Samhain to make the first swing. It's only right--all his friends are here.
Samhain	Bercilak was expected. Others were not. Shaw's mask hides whatever facial expression he may be making, but his tone doesn't sound displeased. "An audience. I see." His 'gaze' lingers on the sign from the people of Borealis. "It's Samhain of the Slaughter." Is that...humor? In his tone? Shaw begins walking forward. The hammer drags across the concrete, forming a line in the ground from pure strength. It seems like he's going to come straight up and deck Bercilak. "Go at each other like we mean to kill. We both can't die to the other - I know that much." Until, right when he reaches Bercilak's range of the sledgehammer, it suddenly diverts on the ground towards the right, the only warning of what's going to happen. Instead of going for a straight slug to the chest, Shaw dashes right, moving to impact the sledgehammer straight into Bercilak's side with a weighty motion and try and crack the armor with brute force!
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Shaw knows Bercilak well enough to know that attacking directly from the front is unwise even for someone with the strength to match him--that massive harness over the towering knight's chest is easily six inches of hard, unyielding shell that even a sledge would struggle to crush. But--the side, that's different. Bercilak knows this too. "Verily," he grunts, as the weight of the axe falls reassuringly into his waiting, armored palm. He's expecting the frontal attack. But for a guy who's seven and a half feet tall and fully armored, the Green Knight is -quick.- When the play is revealed, his whole body shifts. Shoulders, waist pivot to the right, left foot forward. Hands slide up the haft, the end is hooked just beneath the head of the sledge. Sparks fly as it collides with the green plates of his armor, even with whatever bizarre molecular chicanery the armor pulls off to minimize damage. Though the consistency becomes semi-solid to absorb impact, there's only so much it can so against Samhain's strength, and a dent is left, just under that massive harness. But Bercilak isn't letting go. Holding the head of the sledgehammer to his abdomen with the haft of the axe, he angles the head down and aims, with the weapon's blunt eye, a quick jab right at Shaw's chest. [Vicinity] Borealis Fan: Chungus fight! CHUNGUS FIGHT! [Vicinity] Eumenides: We are uncertain of this term's meaning. [Vicinity] Spalding: Look out, Shaw! It's a setup! It is--Bercilak follows-up by releasing his grip on the sledge in order to shift his hands back down to center position, making a wide-arcing lateral sling aimed to either knock Shaw over, or space them apart!
Samhain	Shaw knows Bercilak's going to be quicker than he thinks he is. But at the same time, he doesn't expect /that/, as the hammer is caught, the axe haft is smashed into him, and the hammer is let go. The last part isn't as bad, because Spalding warns him - he just is spaced back. It's very hard to knock Samhain over. Injured, now, but not showing blood, Samhain flashes a quick thumbs up at Spalding as he begins to move. The hammer is arced again, for the side. But this is a feint. The hammer actually goes under, moving to sweep the leg... And this is also a feint, as suddenly, Shaw /leaps/ backwards, trying to get Bercilak to block or dodge or counterattack in vain. Whether or not he does, he moves to leap back forward with the sheer power of his legs, cracking the ground underneath his feet, and smash his hammer over Bercilak's head to try and shatter his helmet (or his skull, or both, why not both?).
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Crack. The axe is brought up at the last minute, as Bercilak is taken in by the feint. The horizontal plane formed by the haft is used to shove Samhain's blow aside, but all he manages to do is change the angle, causing the hammer to instead impact with the back end. That armor is tough--but even the toughest armor is sorely tested by Shaw's strength. The helmet dents, and a red stream trickles down the back side, watering the cloak of rye grass and hyacinths. The helmet comes off, or rather, is flung off, carrying with it a stream of red, white and pink matter, much to the displeasure of the audience. [Vicinity] Shep: Yep! That's brains. [Vicinity] Spalding: Gross! Shaw can hit that hard?! Bercilak laughs raucously, mirth dancing like flame in his blood red eyes. "Craftuous hound thou art, thou bijaped me!" He returns the favor with a stomp that hews a fissure into the ground, spreading wide and threatening to swallow Shaw. Blue flames illuminate the darkened overpass and the faces of Shaw's friends as Bercilak makes a thruster-assisted drop-kick, vaulting off of the axe. The blade is stuck into the ground... [Vicinity] Yonk: Sorry we're late, Shaw! [Vicinity] Annalise: Behind you! This was his trick--the kick wasn't to knock him into the chasm. It was to knock him into the boughs of a massive banyan tree, which rises from the fissure and crashes through the overpass, shattering it into massive concrete chunks swatted away from the audience by its smaller siblings, themselves rising to serve as ringside seating. [Vicinity] Dog Friday: Shaping the arena to one that suits his strengths... Bercilak is a cunning fighter! GO, GREEN KNIGHT! [Vicinity] Bercilak: What? Whist, bicche! A smelly corpse flower sprouts near Dog Friday.
Samhain	Shaw doesn't seem concerned by the brain matter like the audience. He can smell it sharply, but it's just that. As the Ribbongers appear, Shaw heeds their warning as he's dropkicked. "Okay." He's not going into a chasm, is he? The hammer is shifted around, blood-stained and damaged, to impact with the tree. The tree's too large to break through, but the hammer stops Shaw from hitting it directly, instead sending shockwaves that slam through his arms and cause him to start sliding down the tree as he finally loses grip. But that's actually Shaw's plan. He lets go, not loses grip. He moves to rip one of the 'smaller' branches off the tree, kicks off, and moves to try and impale it into Bercilak, or just swat him with it, at minimum. His welding mask gleams. As if it's saying... 'Break me, if you want to win. Kill me with all you've got.'
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Without his helmet on, Bercilak's grin is plain for the world to see. Perched atop one of those branches as the tree rises, he leaps down and brings the weapon's blunt heel to bear, expertly flipping it around in his hands to crush the enormous limb to the ground. Samhain's thrust instead pierces straight through the Green Knight's hip. [Vicinity] Dog Friday: Hmph... Samhain's strength is every bit a match for Bercilak's. Even with height, all he could do was redirect the blow... [Vicinity] Eumenides: Keep your guard up, 'Shaw.' The axe is again flipped, and Bercilak actually drives the banyan limb further in with his thrusters, eliciting groans of shock and winces from the Ribbongers, Spalding, and Shep. But he's laughing. The beard of the axe reaches back and hooks around Shaw's neck just as Bercilak's knee comes rising rapidly up to Shaw's mask. The thrusters carry the both of them, as Bercilak unhooks the axe and attempts to drive Shaw into the bark of that enormous tree! The curtain-like tendrils hanging from its verdant boughs are set ablaze by the blue flames of his thrusters, lighting up the night sky in moments as the whole tree goes up. "I SHALT FUCK THEE ABOVEFORTH, SIB!"
Samhain	Bercilak is pierced, but he drives it further in. Shaw can't help but be a little amused, though he doesn't laugh. He's less amused at the hook of his neck, as the knee comes into his mask, and he's slammed hard into the tree. The tree goes aflame. So does Shaw. He's completely immolated by it... But it doesn't incinerate him. Just his clothes. His mask is cracked from the knee into tree, and he's completely nude, but has 'barbie doll' anatomy. He's very, very ripped, and very, very scarred. Each scar appears like it's relatively fresh, but they must be centuries old. "If you want to kill me...go for the face! I'll give you that tip since you're losing!" Bercilak's winning, though. This is an attempt at fight banter. Something he's never tried before. Taking a fist, Shaw moves to coat it in the flame, and then slam it into Bercilak's face. And another. And another. Until they're falling into the chasm, and he has to close it back up somehow to avoid going down with him. No matter how far down they impact, Shaw moves to crater Bercilak straight into the ground, and keep on punching with bone-breaking force.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	[Vicinity] Shep: Gosh... are they really tryin' to kill each other?! [Vicinity] Spalding: Nah. They're just bros. Don't let up, Shaw! You got this! [Vicinity] Borealis Fan: YEAH!! SMASH THAT KEEPER! "BA-" whack. "HA-" Thwack. "HAHA!" His laughter echoes up from the chasm, the walls of which are illuminated only by the flames which wreath Samhain's fist. Even his skin and bones are tough, though nowhere near the extent that his armor is. The axe is used as a wedge, with the edge of the beard and the haft jammed into the walls of the fissure. He has to use both hands, holding it behind his back--which opens his face up for the pummeling. No matter how that fist cracks his cranium, draws blood, rearranges his face and burns into his green flesh, Bercilak's bloody smile remains. Interwoven, gnarled roots push the two of them above ground. And Samhain's ceaseless punches pound a crater into even those mighty roots, cracking and splintering them. "As-" Crack. "Thou-" Crunch. "LEST!" The hook is sudden and explosive in its force, coming from the left side. His hand is choked all the way up to the beard of the weapon, using the blade as a punching tool to crack straight through that mask.
Samhain	As they pound a crater, suddenly, the weapon comes up past Shaw's fists, and the axe smashes into his mask. It shatters it with a powerful force, strong enough to crack Shaw's skull. An immediately fatal death for a normal human. For Shaw... Did he ever really plan on winning this fight? Maybe. But now, he doesn't want to. Because he's showing his best friend something. As the mask shards fall, Shaw's hands move to cover the sides of his head. Only Bercilak can see his 'face'. But even as he does, Bercilak will naturally recoil and try to look away, and if he does, Shaw will cover his face fully. Only if Bercilak can resist and stare him straight on, will he see the truth. Samhain of the Slaughter's face is a naturally black void. It's terrifying. But the deeper you look, you start seeing lights. 'Stars', as they could be called. And they tell a story, in shapes. Of a beast who lived in the darkness with the men. Hunted on them. The men who created fire and knives to scare it off. It adapted new shapes. They kept trying to kill it. They never could. "Do I scare you? Because I'm going to die here. Don't worry. I'll get better. But I'm glad it's by you." The humans ran, and ran, until they made a contract. With the Other. The Other sealed it away. But the beast was never unthinking. It only did what it knew how to do to eat. The predator instinct. The big bad wolf, the dragon, the primordial darkness. Inside its prison, a hellish realm, it was alone, with only annoyances to keep it 'company'. But it meditated. Someone told it that it could be loved. So it wanted to be loved, to feed in a different way. That same shape of dark stars told it that it needed to turn everyone else into monsters. That those monsters would become its friends. The stars disappear, ending the story. The rest is known. But one dark star appears in the middle. A lonely star. And then, a bright star appears next to it. And another. And another. Enough to count for everyone watching, and Bercilak. (And Dog Friday.) The beast is no longer alone. So it doesn't have to create monsters. It just has to find its own place. "Don't let them see my face." Blood is pouring down Samhain's skull, as the voice echoes out of the void. "I don't want to scare them. Tell them I'll be back in time for..." He coughs, and then he goes quiet. Both Bercilak and Dog Friday would know, instinctively, that he'll be back. The others don't have that feeling. But even so...even if Shaw will live again... It's unlikely Samhain of the Slaughter will ever return.
Rubi-Kan Vagrants	Bercilak is still. The axe falls to the side. His bloodied face, teeth stained red, relaxes from its violent grin into a warm smile. He is being shown something. And he may not understand it, at first. But he appreciates it. A gauntlet disappears, that his bare green hand might rest upon Samhain's shoulder. Is he scared? "What causal hath I to be fered of a frend?" He gently squeezes his friend's shoulder, and watches. Listens. He is silent, even when at last he knows the whole of Samhain's tale. When he is gone, Bercilak laughs softly, holding his body close to his battered armor. When he crawls out of the crater, he is met with expectant glances. Frightened. Questions burn in their eyes as surely as the banyan tree's blackening skeleton behind him. Is Shaw alright? Is he dead? Did the Green Knight draw them here just to make them watch? Bercilak's armor vanishes, deconstructed rapidly in waves of blue light. He's left in his street clothes, naturally with a tank top wholly inappropriate to the situation. Worse, he is utterly silent. He holds his thick arms wide, one hand holding the axe, the other empty with palm forward in a calming gesture. His eyes are locked on Dog Friday. "Berc," says Shep warily, "I think you mighta gone too far... They have Reclaim here, don't they?" "They have caskets," dryly replies Eumenides. "Ugh... you're going to make me tell them, aren't you?" asks Dog Friday in annoyance. "Verily." The fairy sighs. "He'll be back," they explain begrudgingly. "Like a bad penny." Bercilak gently taps the axe into the ground. A shawl of moss and peat spreads over the crater, keeping Shaw's face a mystery to anyone who might dare peek. "Samhain shalt not," corrects the Green Knight. "Here ifound he his ending-dai. But Shaw shalt ilive, and ilive wel." The axe then disappears, and his palms lower. "Lanhure, he shalt ilive wel gramercy of thee al." "What the heck is he saying?" asks one of the Borealis fans, lowering her 'SAMHAIN THE SMASHER' sign. She scratched out SMASHER and wrote SLAUGHTER at some point earlier in the fight. "He's saying Shaw will be happier, thanks to us," says Yonk, scratching her head. "At least, I think...?" "Verily." "What, even me?" asks Dog Friday skeptically. "Sikerli! Whi the fuck not? Bahaha."
Samhain	And so ends the story of Samhain of the Slaughter, a vicious monster who hunted and killed all he could, merely to be sated. And so began the story of Shaw Wayne, the young man seeking to learn where his place was, alongside his friends.