throws monster hat down in disgust

[theparasite]

Date & Time: 8/3-4, throughout the night
Location: VARIOUS
Characters: Artemis Ratcliff, Kate Kane, Collette, Koltira, the Nightcap, Regina Darkov?
Summary: Exterminating a hat
Warnings: Suffering and gross and all that monster hat jazz


Blind.

Am I...blind? Girl. Is this blind?

Girl.

It received no reply but resentment, and even in that there was no true answer to satisfy.

Blind, then.

Fumbling in what was there decided as a blind fashion, the Nightcap crawled out of a second-story window and clutched at the frames, fidgeting to perch securely and breathe in as deep as it could. No more flinching away from the pain the body shuddered with; sacrificing those sensory connections meant risking greater harm to the whole thing. It was learning a little too late, but better late than never seemed about right.

How still it had stayed for such a time! It felt like an eternity, that short span of days after the blazing sun and blazing fire. Its eyebrows were still singed, clothes tattered and tossed away in favor of stolen goods. The texture was hard to enjoy now that Regina Darkov's skin had hardened over with scabs and calluses from the conjuring scourge – it was all up her arms and neck and face. Ugly, ugly skin. If the fit wasn't quite right, the color too off, it wouldn't know. Blurry, not truly blind, her eyes wouldn't find details in much of anything, let alone that.

The Nightcap had to think very hard about its priorities. Life, above anything, mattered most. The pride it had in simply being was made bitter by the colossal threats it had collided with, each leaving it with less a capable host than before. Where would it leave the monster, should its little Darkov die? Ambling truly blind to find the nearest brain to latch to: That was hardly desirable. And if it were to simply abandon the girl for a healthy host, there went all hopes for access to the door and the world beyond.

Unless...that...yellow girl. Yellow hair.

She had called Skigaa, Regina's serpent. Impossible, but true. So, perhaps...

Key.

Took a key. Where is it?

Something so crucial had been so quickly forgotten in blazing sun, blazing heat, and oppressive nights in the dark. Now remembered, it grew frantic.

It leaped from its perch, scrambling up the wall opposite, and set to seeking it out. First thing's first.

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[theparasite]

Cradling the damaged shoulder had been where the Nightcap's attention was before it realized danger was coming quickly. Slowly, its head had begun to lift before the impact blackened all sight and red, hot pain flooded its sensory intake.

Regina shrieked, recoiling and staggering backward, nearly off the roof – but not quite. Instead, she and her monster landed hard on her back, clutching now her face instead of the shoulder, a fresher pain overtaking the old.

[gevurah]

"Hello again."

It was all she said as she barreled forward, a hand outstretched for the monster's neck. She moved with a renewed determination tonight; she wasn't allowing Nightcap to get away again.

[theparasite]

It coughed, spitting up black and red as hands scrambled from its sliced cheek to the hand at its neck. Fingers clawed at the glove, trying to pry at fingers and fabric, gurgling and hacking. It pulled its mouth in a snarling smile, contrary to the wild-eyed panic painted plainly across its face.

[gevurah]

She was lucky enough that her gloves were sturdy enough to take the damage and maintain functionality. The palms were ribbed to allow for excellent grip, something that allowed for her to grab a fistful of the fabric around Nightcap's collar.

"We've got unfinished business," she spoke in an eerie, false sense of calm.

Already she had taken note of Nightcap's injuries. But where she had attained them and who else was after her possibly, that wasn't too important to her just yet.

[theparasite]

"Kuh–"

The smile twitched again and again as it clawed at the hand.

"Ffffinished," it sputtered, peeling into choking laughter. Fingers drummed across the bat's wrist and closed around it, extra leverage to force needles out of its knuckles.

"You– are–"

[gevurah]

She was ready this time, though it had been another close call. She pulled back, barely dodging those needles, the needles scraping against the edge of her gauntlet. Her leg swept out underneath, hooking around the back of Nightcap's knee to throw her down.

"No, you're finished."

[theparasite]

Legs buckled, and the Nightcap dropped; weight fell heavy and hard on its elbow and elicited a sharp cry as pain radiated twofold, shoulder and elbow. It made the rest of the arm feel numb, more unresponsive to the monster's whims than before.

It was rather infuriating, to say the least.

Snarling unintelligible sounds, it scrambled, rolling on its belly, legs kicking over the empty air at the edge of the roof as it scraped and scratched for Batwoman's ankles. There was no plan or half-formed idea of what to do if it grabbed hold, just to do it: act, maybe think, act some more. Kill her.

what do you mean i edited this years later...

[gevurah]

"Hnn."

Down she went, but not without a fight -- and she had plenty of it in her.

As her body dropped, she quickly regained her balance and her free leg swerved toward Nightcap's face. She shifted her heel and aimed specifically for the jaw. Trigeminal nerve, even monsters like her -- it -- had to have them.

Besides, all that incomprehensible noise was growing on her own nerves.

what do you mean i tag a week later

[theparasite]

Did the monster have the nerve? No. The girl, though – the girl certainly did. And through her, so did it, and both were flooded with excruciating pain, recoiling and twisting away in a blind panic of pain. And in rolling, drawing too close to the edge, gravity grew claws and raked at the Nightcap's legs and flailing arm.

Rasping, groaning, it scrambled to twist onto its belly as it slid, further and further to an edge already unforgiving in its texture, but bloody, sweaty hands were of no use. Fingers pinched against the edge, holding all that dangling weight, numb and ignorant to the popping joints giving way.

As it fell, it barely made a sound louder than that popping, choking on the breath Batwoman's boot had stifled in one blow.

kisses u

[gevurah]

She was swift to rise to her two feet, albeit shakily. Adrenaline coursed throughout her body despite shifted into auto-pilot. This thing didn't have much energy left in it -- dispatching it once and for all was on an horizon she could almost reach.

Slowly, she stalked after Nightcap, like a wild cat after prey. She was poised and when the timing was right, she struck forward fast, grabbing a fistful of hair.

"You've taken up a lot of my time."

[theparasite]

The monster rippled and bulged in odd places, trying to will the body to do its bidding quickly, smoothly, but a battered thing could only do so much, even with the will to back it. The Nightcap's eyes rolled up, trying to find and follow the shapes of red and black in the dark and all the sound that came with i–

Pain from the scalp was instantaneous and near unbearable, eliciting a wild and unchecked scream. It certainly caused more motion than the monster itself could, giving it the means to scramble and catch hold of chunks of wall enough to keep gravity from making the pain worse. As the monster worked, the girl wailed, and everything was a swirl of pain and noise and hatred so vast as to swallow everything.