"In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud."
The lights are so bright in the arena that it's impossible to see the crowd. Not well, anyways. But that's fine— I don't need to see them. Sight, sound, hearing— are all secondary senses, irrelevant to me.
The arena is a place for instinct. I recite my lines perfectly, peacocking around in a manner uncomfortably close to the more eccentric behaviors of a notable council member that has pissed Javier off. (Social satire and scheming is beyond me, at points. Certainly the stuff that he does is. I just listen to what he wants, and I get it done.)
He picked an obnoxiously fierce opponent for me, today. She's built like a goddamn warship, tall and broad and mean as hell, and she got to request the terms of battle. Weapon based combat. Of course. Everyone who gets to make the request asks for that, when they're fighting me, because they know damn well that I prefer to fight bare-handed.
Right as she charges at me, responding to a well-scripted taunt, her pike aiming for my throat, I throw open my umbrella. The blade punches through the silk material easily enough, but that is precisely what my secondary weapon was designed to do. I snap it closed, steel jaws closing down on the handle of the weapon.
Now comes the hard part. My opponent isn't exactly surprised— the woman's fought me before, and certainly seen my matches with others. She hauls with all her weight against me, literally tossing me into the air and hurling me against the ropes. I hold on, feeling not unlike a rat caught by a goddamn mountain lion, but persist about as well as can be expected.
Oh, Gods, I shouldn't have worn my nicer costume today. He didn't warn me! But I suppose I'll make enough money off the betting pool to replace it, and more. I curse and grind my teeth together, chest heaving with the effort it takes to not get crushed under the pressure she's putting on me, trying to trap me up against the wall, where I can't find proper leverage.
Inch by inch, I begin to wiggle loose from the ropes, pushing further into the ground, nearly crawling underneath the woman. I can tell she's in fucking conniptions, trying to figure out what I'm getting at. She presses down on me harder, bearing down on the handle of her pike.
I slam the heel of my shoe directly into her ribcage, because Jordan isn't a smart enough woman to piece things together herself. Might as well give her the answer, and be done with it.
She goes sprawling across the arena, and everyone loses their shit. I hurl our tangled mess of weapons out of the box, far past the top ropes, where she won't be able to go get them.
"You're going to PAY, Jordan!" I snarl, going a bit off script but not caring too much. I know my character, I play her enough to know what Javier wants. "You made me tear my goddamn stockings, and you may not know how expensive the damn things are— you uncultured swine— but I'll make sure you fucking learn."
The woman leaps to her feet, pulling out her secondary set of arms; two twin daggers. I throw myself at her, hoping to get into close enough range that she can't properly slice at me, but only end up trapped further. She grabs the collar of my blouse and hauls me up to "eye-level," so that I dangle just off the ground.
"I'm sorry, your Grace, but I don't find that offer amenable." Jordan simpers in perfect sarcastic form; she may be a brute but she at least has the good manners to be one that returns banter. "You should know better than to turn up to a fight wearing hose, anyways."
I smile.
"My apologies. If you find my attire displeasing, I suggest you FUCKING WEAR IT!" I shout, removing my hat in one swift motion and slamming the garment, still clasped in my open palm, over the woman's face. I'd thought of this a few weeks before, been waiting to use it. Might have overdone myself. Hand hurts like bloody hell, and I've crushed the velvet with the movement, scattering about a thousand flower petals and leaves from the artfully arranged piece all over the arena. A shame, because this part of my costume is one of the more expensive pieces.
