Tokyo is Gorgeous on Winter Evenings

For the first time, Jessica got to see this tormentor's face in the light. She was not sure what to make of it. It was half pale, half discolored. All intense. The redness looked like it was a recent thing. Maybe she had fallen out of a car and her face slammed into the asphalt. Or maybe someone had gotten her face in a sander in some fucked up hardcore match. Whatever the case was, Jessica was unconcerned. Or, more appropriately, she was concerned with making the other half of her face just as ugly.

Jessica moved forward, ready to seize on her advantage, when Seren through a wrench in the works. A kick slammed into her knee, and caused her to crumple to the side. The Violent Violet was moving towards the doll, to try and kick it as far as she could. But her attempt to remove the weapon from the state of play was foiled, and now she was on the ground just like the crazed woman. She cursed for a second.

But it was going to be ok. Jessica was a wrestler, as good at ground game as she was at anything. The Violent Violet crawled over, and collected snow on her knees and gloves as she quickly tried to position herself on top of her erstwhile opponent. If Jessica could get on top of her, that would be very bad news for this psycho.

Mostly because Jessica would start raining down punches like the snow that was falling from the sky. The blows were not hardened by her gloves. If Jessica could not eliminate Seren's weapon, she would begin to use her own.

A grin carved itself across her face, feeling the sole of her boot connect firmly, watching Jessica fall away from her immediate sight. She felt a rush of... something. She threw back her head, hood sliding back off her head as she let out a shrill cackle through the light breeze and muffled grunts shared between the two during the scuffle. The scrambled attempt to mount her was met by a sudden retreat. She tucked her body in rocking backwards to tumble back far enough that her boots caught the ground to leave her in a crouch. Hunched over and staring, mouth wide and hungry she looked like a stone gargoyle one might find on the roof of some far off cathedral. A bit of gravel and snow clunk to her hair from rolling through the path. Sunken orbs locked on Jessica as they were more or less eye to eye, at a distance apart. Baby lay under the bench, markedly out of reach from her, though she hadn't seemed to try to obtain him again.

Seren's head slowly canted to the side as she watched the purple haired woman at an odd angle. Her palm ran down over the path, slowly balling into fists... did she coop up more gravel? It was hard to tell, impossible to be sure. Did she have another weapon? She did... a visible one. But what was it? What if she had something concealed, a knife? The park was her playground, every thing thing in it was a weapon waiting to be realized. Sometimes all it took was a bit of creativity. She had this in spades.

"Apologize." There it was again, that simple request that seemed too far off now to really consider. There was really no telling if it even mattered now.

Jessica advanced. At this point, it was all she could do. Her assault was halted by a single command. It was fairly strange, in the context. There was no effing way that this woman thought that Jessica was actually about to apologize. She blinked. The Violent Violet then smiled. "Sorry your face is still in one fucking piece. Let me fix that." With that not-so-subtle threat, Jessica pounced forward and tried to get a handle on the woman in front of her.

There was very little dignity in her half-crawl, but there was far less dignity in losing. And losing was something that she was not prepared to tolerate. She came quickly, and with little regard for her own safety. This crazed woman probably had something screwed up on deck, but Jessica was no easy-going gal herself. And she very much intended to show that to her, one way or another.

She pounced. The goal was to get on top of this woman. From there, the opportunities were going to become more and more wide open. Jessica felt she could do some damage, but she had to be on top. That was how she liked it when it came to more than just fighting.

They couldn't tell if the request had been misconstrued or if Jessica was actively trying to take verbal jabs. It was a split decision, but ultimately didn't matter. She had declined, for now. She did however take the threat to heart, welcoming the woman's intentions to maim her with her cracked grin. At least there was no misinterpreting that portion of things. Seren was more than happy to take it as an unspoken challenge. It wasn't frequent she exposed her nature to those outside the ring. That was her place of release, one where her thirst to draw blood was not only welcomed but embraced by droves of sickly people who paid for the experience. The real world was less forgiving of such behavior, understandably so. Her body was a vessel for destruction impulse, this was her element.

The doll maker didn't think on Jessica's scrambling one way or another. There was no pride to be lost or gained here, by her anyway. Any judgements she reserved for the purple haired woman had nothing to do with the lack of grace on display. She was raw, something the doll maker could respect on a basic level, far more than how she presented herself up until this point.

As Jessica pounced, Seren braced herself as the two collided. She hadn't moved. She didn't want to. While it was true putting herself below the woman was a mistake from a defensive standpoint, it wasn't as if defense was what she had in mind, almost ever. She was prepared regardless, from her crouch she was easily able to buffer her body and Jessica's with her knees, disallowing the woman from straddling her effectively while given the option of potentially kicking her off. For now she wanted her close. She needed her close.

As Jessica took position over her, Seren's arm shot out, closed fist soaring up at the violent violet's face. before it impacted, her fingers opened revealing she had in fact picked up a generous handful of gravel once again. This time however, it wasn't to throw in her face, no. This time she aimed to drive her palm up into the the side of the woman's head, to drill those tiny bits and pieces of rocks and lord knows what other debris, into her flesh. If she enjoyed Seren's face so much at present time, she was more than happy to give the woman an informal invite to the club.

Like a great tiger deep in the heart of the jungle, Jessica pounced. Her heart was racing, and she had even extended her fingers out slightly. These were not the great paws of a tiger but rather the trained hand of a fighter, looking to seize an opponent before she ground her into the snow below her. Jessica's hands grabbed on to the supple flesh that was underneath the layers of clothing. She could not get a good grip, at least not up to her standards. But the body underneath was strong, supple, and surely going to wallop her if she stayed in a bad position too long.

Seren's legs prevented her from getting as close as she wanted to. She took a massive swipe, but it was just out of range. The Violent Violet repositioned and leaned in, ready to begin her assault anew. Just as she loomed over Seren, another bullet cocked in the chamber, something very hard slammed into the side of her face.

It wasn't a punch. At least not a pure punch. Jessica detected gravel in the side of her face as she plummeted off to the side. It was not a good feeling, not really. The impact of her body against the snow was slightly better than that, but Jessica could not say that she enjoyed that experience terribly.

But Jessica had not yet given up on the night, not yet. If it was not a good sign that Jessica could not get in close, she could stay at a distance. She swung her large leg up after adjusting for a second, and then brought it straight down. Jessica was aiming for Seren's midsection, but she was going to take whatever she got, really.

She ground her palm into Jessica's face as bits of gravel spilled down onto her, bouncing off her own face and lodging themselves in the faux fur lining of her jacket. Her wild grin had a shark type quality to it, a dangerous maw slightly parted as a constant threat. As her arm followed through it found the purple haired woman spilled to the side of her. Not one to waste opportunities, she untucked her legs, leaving the defensive curl she had been in and rocked to the side to roll after the woman.

She was stopped almost immediately as Jessica's leg came crashing down along the side of her midsection. Her eyes bulged at the impact, snarling as she soaked the pain with a growl. She hadn't known what to think of the woman until now, the crushing weight of her kick from even on the ground was impressive. She had been right to practice caution up until now, as much as she hated it. Rather than continue the assault, the kick was enough to roll her back away from capitalizing on Jessica's position. She'd pull herself to her knees with some distance between them, not risking going any higher unless given a solid opportunity to rise fully again.

"Apologize."

She repeated in a low rasp. Shoulders hunched, fingers flexing as she kneel in the snow and gravel, her hot breath billowing from her mouth. These two rabid strangers trying to murder each other in a empty park under dim lamp lighting. It was a scene for sure.

Her kick had sunk nice and low into Seren's gut. It was not the best attack she had ever done, but it was certainly far from the worst. But more than anything, it had done what she needed it to do. It had set the stage for what she wanted to really do, which was to get away. Jessica rolled away, and got up to her knees. When she got back up she saw the crazy woman looking back at up. This woman was quite insistent that Jessica apologize, which Jessica found amusing in a terrible, annoying sort of way. Jessica grinned, and slowly approached Seren.

"What, you gonna hit me with more gravel? Is that your only trick? Why don't you use your fists, like a goddamn fighter?" Jessica was growling. "I am going to rip you limb from fucking limb. It is going to get really ugly, really goddamn quick." Jessica inched forward. "You got one more chance to run, and just fucking one." Jessica emphasized the point by extending her index finger into the air. "So make your choice."

Jessica was just out of range now. If this woman wanted to take off, she still could. Her purple eyes focused on Seren. Snow was covering her body now, but she was not going to wipe it off. Jessica was priming herself, getting ready to go off. She was a cannon with a full charge. If Seren made the wrong choice, she was going to explode right at her. The Violent Violet was tense. Wind blew, and her purple hair attacked her neck. It woke her. Jessica balled her fists.

Seren returned to her gargoyle crouching just outside the path where she had wound up. If she intended to use the gravel again, she certainly couldn't for the time being with it being out of range. She raised her arms, palms held wide as she tauntingly wiggled her fingers to display she didn't have anything there to make use of. Well, anything readily visible anyway. Her grin had faded a bit as she watched Jessica with a cool indifference, the gears turning in her head did so quietly giving no hint as to what she was thinking. Aside from favoring her side when she had risen up to her crouch, she didn't seem terribly deterred by the blow she had taken.

Her head tilted to a steep angle, birdlike in nature as she watched Jessica unblinking. She found her definition of what made a fighter to be curious. Was it out of a misplaced ideal of honor, or was the woman just upset with having been peppered with rocks. The two of them saw themselves as very different beasts. Seren knew what made a fighter, and it wasn't standing toe to toe exchanging punches until one person fell. It was clawing, scraping and biting, ripping you victory from your enemies cold dead husk. It didn't matter how.

This woman was a puzzle box. Physically capable, willing to pick a fight with a stranger in the dead of night. Might makes right, perhaps this was the source of her source of her discontent with Seren's use of their terrain. A strong sense of pride, the smug air about her whipped harder then the winter winds.

She saw fit to offer mercy, as if she were the one in control of the situation. She was, in a sense, all she needed to do in theory was to apologize to the doll. Yet she refused to back down. Was the offer of retreat a trap? Did "tricks" only sully the warrior if someone other than her had been using them? AN offered freedom under threat of violence. There was no stakes in pride on the line, it was simply the three of them here. Baby rarely judged harshly. Was this woman frightened perhaps, on some level? Had she bitten off more than she had intended to? They weren't certain. It didn't matter either way.

Her boots shifted on the snow ground, scrapping along the cold hardened soil. She was readying herself as well, expecting another wild lunge from the violent violet the moment refusal touched her lips. The woman across from her was an enigma, yes, she had fight and an impressive show of bark to go with it. She had humbled bigger women. Stronger women. More ferocious women. She wasn't scared. The doll maker rarely felt at all, fear rarely entered her mind. Perhaps this woman could push her to her limits. Jessica was driven, that much was certain. When all this cae to a close, Seren may very well by left in a pool of her own blood in the cold. She couldn't be bothered to care. What could be, what might be, didn't matter now. She lived for this moment as she often did, as life was fast and fading. What did she really have to lose.

"Apologize." Her lips curled into a sickly smirk, knowing that was as much a refusal as anything else she could have said.

Jessica's ears were perked up. She heard everything. On the street, obscured from view, a car passed by. It could have been a mini-van, or a taxi, or a hearse. The second she heard it she tuned it out. The wind rustled, and the last few brave leaves gave up on hope, and flitted down to the ground. That gave her no good information, so she tuned it out. Somewhere back in her apartment building, some old person was watching TV rather loudly. It was just noise. Jessica tuned it out, just like she had tuned out everything else. Her ears were perked up to listen to the person in front of her. For a long time, she was silent. Jessica felt that she could practically hear the woman's heart beating.

Then she spoke. Seren was not interested in her offer of partial clemency. Truth be told, Jessica was probably going to let her walk. If someone had the wherewithal to use gravel in her attacks, it was probably more trouble than it was worth to stand out here and trade blows with her until one of them was nothing more than a cold body and blood on the snow. Jessica tightened up when she heard Seren's repeated demand. If it was war that she wanted, Jessica was more than happy to give it to her.

The Violent Violet moved forward, slow and wary. This woman could have a knife or worse on her, and Jessica was here to satisfy her honor. That involved flying fists and body slams, not psycho shit. Her purple eyes searched the woman, looking for anything that might tell her that the situation was worse than it actually was.

But Jessica found nothing. Once she was in range, Jessica sent a punch forward. She could not get everything into it, as she was still on her knees. But the sheer strength of her arm was usually enough to carry the day in most battles. If there was one thing that Jessica had no room to doubt, it was her ability to brawl. The hard right hook would hopefully convince this woman that she had little reason to doubt her strikes either.

Seren's body shook slightly, the extent of which was lost within the layers of her log coat. The laugh she suppressed threatening to claim her body as her shoulders bobbed. For reasons unknown to her, the Violent Violet seemed adamant of keeping herself crawling in the dirt and snow like a dog. The imagery wasn't lost on her, but embraced. She had no real reason to tumbled about on the ground and limit her potential. This was a fight after all, no matter how much fun she might extract from it. As Jessica slowly closed in within the space between them, Seren watched for a time before finally rising easily from her crouch, grinning down at the woman as the lone lamp over her shoulder cast her adversary into her shadow.

She didn't linger to allow for Jessica to contemplate her folly, nor give her a chance to rectify it. Skirting to the side, she circled the woman, swift by nature, in theory the doll maker would have little trouble out maneuvering the woman who had shackled herself to crawling on her hands and knees. As she slipped around Jessica, she waited until she had a clear path. Her target was the woman's back, the location where no amount of speed or strength would allow for her to be punished for driving her strikes down into the woman to the point of breaking. She didn't even need to get behind her, a well arced attack from the side was good enough.

Dipping inward she twisted her body, hooking her foot around to drill a kick into the back of Jessica's head and neck. If she was so determined to stay on her knees, she might as well bow her head.  It hadn't ended there, unless Jessica had managed to somehow stop her assault, the onslaught would continue as she circled fully. Pausing after every other step to send another vicious kick at the woman's head and back, looking to drive her forward into the ground until she had finally gotten behind her fully, where she could enact her actual plan.