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The Menagerie play by post RPG would like to thank both Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson for their Dungeons & Dragons role playing game. They made the world that much more fantastic.
Kiko Administrator [M:725:2029:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=378&page=1#8679] member is offline
[b]Walk on the edge and bleed.[/b][0:Running With The Pack][1:Wherever I May Roam]
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Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #15 on Jun 10, 2012, 11:59am »
Kiko backed up quickly to avoid the strike, but she was smiling. He had definitely improved and she did not expected him to go on the attack immediately. But, it made sense. Get in the first blow and your opponent is off balance. Throw them out of their game, make them scramble to catch up, and all the while there is a little germ of worry infecting their thoughts.
It was a tactic she used.
Kiko yanked the katana from her sash and darted forward. He would hear the footsteps, the whisper of clothing, or the grass rustling. He had before. The blade swept up beneath his arm to throw him out of the pattern.
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144] member is offline
[b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Joined: Nov 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 329
Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #16 on Jun 10, 2012, 12:05pm »
Dom was thoroughly surprised to hear the whisper of steel on laquered wood of a sword being drawn. So it was serious then. He didn't fear getting killed, but he had no illusions that she'd teach a lesson in pain if she wished to. She was faster than him, and a more skilled combatant. His senses gave him a fraction of a second more forewarning than usual, but hsi reflexes were merely as good as practice had made them, he had no particular special sense for combat as of yet.
He feinted back, keeping out of sword range with an single sliding step, economical use of motion. He couldn't outpace her, or outmanouvre her, but if he could turtle up and strike at her from a solid position he might land a blow. The tip of the staff whipped out again, this time aiming to crack the hand holding the blade. The blade hissed any time it was swung and the attack on the draw gave him the information he needed to target his strike.
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Kiko Administrator [M:725:2029:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=378&page=1#8679] member is offline
[b]Walk on the edge and bleed.[/b][0:Running With The Pack][1:Wherever I May Roam]
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Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #17 on Jun 10, 2012, 12:22pm »
Kiko spun her hand back. The katana returned to the guard position faster than it had been drawn. She was breathing easy, the motion of her arms and legs were smooth. This was Kiko's element. Her world came to life in these moments. The sword was not just an instrument of death to her, it was an extension of the animal grace she had. Seven years as a wolf and Garou had taken the forms she learned at her grandfather's side and burned them into her soul.
She skipped backward again, too, dancing out of the way of the longer polearm. She could win this battle with a strike, of course, if that had been her intent. It was not. All she had to do was keep him frustrated, make him angry. Wait until he lost control of his thoughts. Still, she could push him a little more in that direction.
Kiko made another darting pass with her blade on the other side of his body. This time though, she spoke up.
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144] member is offline
[b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Joined: Nov 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 329
Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #18 on Jun 10, 2012, 12:27pm »
All the response she got was more clicking of tongue. Two quick steps were suddenly take and he advanced staff thrusting down toward her feet in a flurry of quick jabs to put her off guard, culminating with a lunge and a twist of his hands that brought the staff up along what he hoped was her centreline.
A groin shot would have been dirty, even against a woman, but though he might fight tenaciously, efficiently and even somewhat gracefully, he never fights fair. No quarter asked. None given. Maybe that's what culminated in the lethal attack back then, having been in enough scrapes running errands and seeking stories to strip away any chivalry in combat. Even a half-competant opponent could take him apart in a fair fight, so he'd made it a point to never give them one.
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Kiko Administrator [M:725:2029:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=378&page=1#8679] member is offline
[b]Walk on the edge and bleed.[/b][0:Running With The Pack][1:Wherever I May Roam]
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Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #19 on Jun 10, 2012, 12:39pm »
Kiko hissed out a sound. The flurry of jabs kept her busy just long enough for the strike to land. Her eyes flared, the irises swelled and then shrunk down to mere pinpricks. The wolf took notice of Dominic's scent just as quickly. She was angry. She paced the cage of Kiko's body and demanded to be set free to deal with the attacker.
And. Kiko wanted to let her. She did. She wanted to maul the skin of Dominic's throat and teach him a lesson he would not soon forget. Yes. She knew how the bard felt. She spat out the next words in a harsh tone.
"Good. Almost. But, this isn't the first time someone has hit me in the groin. Try again, Bard."
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144] member is offline
[b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Joined: Nov 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 329
Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #20 on Jun 10, 2012, 6:23pm »
He wheeled around, keeping her in front of him, using simple footwork to keep his balance and enable him to turn to any direction. It's how he fights, from a static position, not having the finesse to move around too much. He doesn't reply, simply whipping the staff around toward the sound of her voice, not a jab this time. He didn't put much force into it, as with any of these strikes.
The constant clicking sound was odd, as was the tilting and wheeling of his head, almost birdlike. His eyes rarely faced her, a somewhat un-nerving thing. He's all business now, having heard the tone in her voice. She'd get him back for that, he knew, and fear gnawed at the pit of his stomach. Maybe he shouldn't have been so aggressive? There he goes, unable to temper his fighting again.
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Kiko Administrator [M:725:2029:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=378&page=1#8679] member is offline
[b]Walk on the edge and bleed.[/b][0:Running With The Pack][1:Wherever I May Roam]
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Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #21 on Jun 10, 2012, 6:44pm »
Kiko smacked the staff away with the butt end of her katana. She reversed the direction at the last second, too. The length of the blade ran up the back of her arm, whipping back in low on the opposite side of his body and whisking past his abdomen. A few steps closer, just a few would have laid his skin open, as well.
And the wolf? Well, she was still pacing the confines of Kiko's flesh waiting for an opening to strike. If Dominic could see he would be quite right to fear her. Her eyes were wild and contained nothing human inside them. Another push came too, in the form of her katana. The hilt bashed once, twice, and a third time at Dominic's staff.
She wanted him to respond. She wanted him to use the weapon. She wanted him to do it without thinking about it.
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144] member is offline
[b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Joined: Nov 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 329
Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #22 on Jun 10, 2012, 6:53pm »
He could tell she was playing with him, and had heard the hiss of the blade cutting the air. Was that meant to frighten him further? His heart was already racing, his jaw set, clicking tongue through his teeth. That just pissed him off for some reason, he felt heat coming up inside him.
He felt the strikes probing his defenses, waving his staff back and forth, the nature of her movement something like a cloud of sound cues in front of him. It wasn't perfect, this new technique, and he turned the blocks aside at the very last second each time. But she had come close to use strikes of that type, too close.
He pivoted on his front foot, bringing the other end of the staff round in a rapid, short arc, stepping into the strike and driving it toward her solar plexus, or at least where he judged it to be. And unlike the sparring blows his entire weight and every bit of strength in his left arm was behind it. He was no warrior, but the weight, speed and momentum of this blow would be enough to crack a rib. It would also leave him right up next to her, eliminating his reach advantage. Maybe stupid.
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Kiko Administrator [M:725:2029:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=378&page=1#8679] member is offline
[b]Walk on the edge and bleed.[/b][0:Running With The Pack][1:Wherever I May Roam]
Joined: Sept 2011 Gender: Female Posts: 2,125
Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #23 on Jun 10, 2012, 7:05pm »
Kiko could feel it. There was a certain snap to his motions this time around that said anger, hot and rapid had hit his system. And it wasn't just him, the air around them boiled with heat that had nothing to do with the summer sun. No, this heat came directly from their bodies to stain the air.
She was crowding his space. She had stopped darting in and out to force him into rash action. It worked, too. Now, she would just have to deal with the consequences. The staff hit her solar plexus just like he had wanted, though she managed to turn her body just by being on the tips of her toes. The full force of it was shunted aside, barely.
Kiko's breath blew out in a gasp, anyway. Now, what would he do.
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144] member is offline
[b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Joined: Nov 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 329
Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #24 on Jun 10, 2012, 7:11pm »
Dom only has one follow-up to that attack, which is to pivot back again and swing the staff down in an arc across the front of his body, trying to get back from his opponent and perhaps finish it. It had worked on one sparring partner, doubled over by the crack to the abdomen only to have the staff smack the back of his head a heartbeat later, driving him to the ground.
Would it work on her? He didn't know, but he had no other option and he was seething enough that she'd drawn steel on him to not care if he knocked her for a loop. Anyway, she'd barely needed any recovery time when they'd sparred before and he had spent a week sore and creaky. He was running low on options, and he'd be getting toward the edge of his stamina soon. Any fight he'd been in had been decided in a handful of seconds, and if she started dancing around him it wouldn't matter if he were psychic and could read her every move, she'd just be faster.
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Kiko Administrator [M:725:2029:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=378&page=1#8679] member is offline
[b]Walk on the edge and bleed.[/b][0:Running With The Pack][1:Wherever I May Roam]
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Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #25 on Jun 10, 2012, 7:23pm »
No. It did not work on her. She did not double over, or leave her head and neck exposed. Pain had never been Kiko's enemy. She embraced it, wrapped her arms around it like a lover, and refused to let go. Once, pain was all that kept her alive. And while those days were long past, one strike; however brutal was not enough to stop her. But, she needed to do something and she needed to do it fast. He was still thinking instead of reacting.
Kiko ducked around his arm, body halfway around his hip, and gave a short mocking laugh in his ear.
"You're getting tired Bard. I can hear your heartbeat thudding against your chest."
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144] member is offline
[b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Joined: Nov 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 329
Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #26 on Jun 10, 2012, 7:30pm »
A sound came from the bard then. Most utterances from him are quiet cryptic things like clicks and whistles, or sweet notes of some song. This was a snarl, a ripping gurgle of angry noise from his throat, his deep timbred voice making him sound like a pissed off bear. His temper was flaring, in a way it never used to. He had to keep his composure, it was the only way he could get anything done.
Focusing on his senses was becoming harder, his hammering heart was thudding in his ears and his clicks were becoming more erratic as he sucked breath into his lungs. But he would just aim for the voice, pivoting again to swipe a backhanded blow at her head, or maybe catch her shoulder. He just wanted to land a hit.
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Kiko Administrator [M:725:2029:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=378&page=1#8679] member is offline
[b]Walk on the edge and bleed.[/b][0:Running With The Pack][1:Wherever I May Roam]
Joined: Sept 2011 Gender: Female Posts: 2,125
Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #27 on Jun 10, 2012, 7:48pm »
Kiko's head rocked back. She took this blow like she had taken the others with naught but a hissed in breath. This battle had started due to her curiosity; more than anything else. She thought Dominic was being way too hard on himself. This world was a harsh place.
Of course, she had killed her sibling to save people she barely knew and liked even less. The fact that Katsurou had begged her to made no difference to her. The lesson was embedded and every decision made since had brought her to this point.
If Dominic had killed a man, he could not change it now. All he could do was continue on a little wiser. Kiko's breath blew back out and her vision returned to normal. She stepped forward and very loudly sheathed the katana. The tsuba echoed with the smack against the wood, too.
“Put some clothes on, you weird, yellow-eyed, table-dancing, werewolf-training, cryptic, stare-me-right-in-the-eyes-and-don't-even-blink wench.”
Dominic [M:123:1420:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=382&page=1#14144] member is offline
[b]Let me tell you a story...[/b][0:No encore today][1:You have my attention]
Joined: Nov 2011 Gender: Male Posts: 329
Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #28 on Jun 10, 2012, 7:54pm »
Dominic stayed in that taut combat position for a moment more, hissing breath through his teeth before finally letting himself relax. He planted the end of his staff on the ground, leaning on it, sweat sheening his brow. A few deep breaths to compose himself and he finally got some words out.
"At least I didn't end up on my ass this time." he murmured, shambling back over to collect his coat, hat and instrument. He turned back to her and his voice was hesitant. "I'd thank you for the practice...but why were you trying to make me angry?"
Love, like Hope, has too few letters for a word so powerful.
Kiko Administrator [M:725:2029:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=378&page=1#8679] member is offline
[b]Walk on the edge and bleed.[/b][0:Running With The Pack][1:Wherever I May Roam]
Joined: Sept 2011 Gender: Female Posts: 2,125
Re: Reacquaintance « Reply #29 on Jun 11, 2012, 7:00am »
Kiko swept hair off her face and released the braid she wore at the back of her neck. The wolf had curled up around her heart, she no longer paced about Kiko's guts.
"Honestly? I wanted to see what you would do. You were afraid Dominic. I could smell it. And, yes, you are not the chivalrous sort.
Kiko gave a small snort of sound then.
"Chivalry changes with the times and cultures. But, forgive me if think you are needlessly critical of your actions and perhaps influenced by your songs and tales."
Kiko had finished re-braiding her hair.
"You defended yourself Bard. You are not a murderer."
Welcome to The Menagerie. We are a free role playing game with less rules and more freedom. After many years, a couple of hosts and a few different game systems, we feel that less is more. Players get to be truly creative, which in turn leads to more enjoyment in game.
We invite you to join us in crafting our world and look forward to making friends. Should you have any questions, feel free to post in our chat box or ask any of our members or staff.
May you enjoy your stay.
It must be said that this game is the product of continued dedication and friendship.
Grayell: Game inventor and closet basement geek.
Yukiko: Admin and dream-weaver.
Marlena: Admin and promoter extraordinaire.
The Menagerie has enjoyed many incarnations, revamps, reimaginings and renovations and none of it would have been possible without the ongoing support of my friends, the players. Their unwavering loyalty and endless dedication to this project has been stellar.
I would like to thank all admin and staff past and present, in particular Tiberius.
I would like to thank friends and staff no longer with us, and to the few I hold most dear: John, Roland, Alex, Azriel and Jenkins.
Thank you all.
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Our 2nd site archive with: Total posts 70665, Total topics 1819 & Total Members 86.
...or our first site archive with: Total posts 69401, Total topics 1325 & Total members 145
...OR the very humble start of our game at our friends, www.Heroscapers.com.
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