Puzzles and Fools (Open to Jaxel's minons/Cray I and A members)

[TheHighwayman]

Five killings- that wouldn't be too strange on its own in a city, especially in the bits of Ketra that the victims had been found in, but there had been one found every night, all almost immediately after midnight. Nearby witnesses had reported screams and the sounds of a struggle, but aside from a bruise or two there'd not been any wounds on the bodies. Nobody had been seen fleeing the area, and despite the guards arriving only moments after the first shouts being heard, the killer had always had time to write some strange, arcane gibberish near the body... in blood... when the victim wasn't bleeding.

Needless to say, rumors abounded about the likely source of the murders. A phantom of some sort? A mage gone rogue? Some variety of demon? Some unknowable monster? Whatever it was, in the nearby districts men and women alike headed home earlier than usual, peered nervously out into the darkness, and were always doubly certain to lock their doors. They wanted no part of anything that could kill without a trace and baffle the guard so easily.

One tavern, however, was as loud and boisterous as ever, even in the midst of a cold, foggy night. Perhaps the patrons were braver than most, or more foolish. Maybe they simply didn't buy into the superstition? It could very well have been they were just drunk. Regardless of the reasons they didn't try to evade whatever monster prowled the city streets, one patron's was absolutely clear: he was looking for it.

More accurately, Jaxel had given up wandering the streets calling for the monster to come out and say hello, and offering a cookie in exchange for cooperation. Instead, he now resided in the midst of the bar, an ale bottle resting besides his currently upside-down head as he stared at the scraps of paper that displayed what had been written in the alleyways.

"Well, this isn't much fun," he said, tumbling over into the seat opposite him. "I took this job expecting action, some man-eating monster- though I suppose it can't eat its victims, seeing as it leaves them entirely intact... Oh! Unless they tasted disgusting and it spat them back out!- and excitement. Instead I've got a bunch of papers I can't make heads or tails of..." Jax swapped two of the bits of paper around, opened his mouth to give a cry of satisfaction... and then shook his head. "Nope, no, not it... Let's see..."

Aquellian edrik eulion

Lyrindian, medrik eascrel?

Ezero ehret myllak

Xiol mrevop rith

Jfrul rel bryfet

...But with a mildly annoyed puff he took a swig of his drink and began furiously shuffling them around... with about as much luck as would be expected.

[zozee9]

Tanya swung open the door to the tavern, attracting attention from most of the people in the room. This was to be expected, of course, with her bombshell body and now fixed hair and make-up. In one hand was a giant brown bag and in the other hand was, well, another giant brown bag. She had just returned from her inn, where she had picked up all her belongings. After all, she was going to be moving into the guild headquarters. Or so she was told.

To be honest, Tanya's memory of the day before was still a little hazy. She knew she had been drinking at some bar. Apparently she must have gotten carried away, given that a large chunk of her memory was missing. Tanya remembered stumbling upon a guild, completely wasted, and meeting a bunch of hot (and not so hot) people. That was just about the extent of her memory. But upon waking up mid afternoon mostly sober, she was informed by Jaxel, her apparent boss, that she had agreed to join the guild.

Well, worse things have happened while she was drunk.

She saw no reason to take away this contract (especially given her hot boss and fiery coworkers) since he had let her know that she would be allowed to avoid the fighting. Instead, somehow knowing her wisdom, he wanted her help on some sort of puzzle. Tanya wasn't sure what exactly it was, but agreed to it nonetheless. Puzzles were fun. In fact, finding him had been a sort of a puzzle.

He had agreed to meet her in the streets, where apparently he was trying to lure a monster. Not her cup of tea (or beer), but she supposed the monster was made up in his head. She had realized that Jaxel was a bit... peculiar. But she walked down the streets, carrying her heavy bags, and failed to see him. So she started looking inside windows, paying special attention to places that looked lively. This tavern, being the most lively of all, instantly drew her attention and rewarded her effort. He was here.

A gorgeous smile on her face, Tanya strutted over to her dragon tattooed boss. Her dress, which was longer than usual reaching the floor, showed off her swaying hips as she walked. It was a tight, dark blue, and had a long slit along the right side. And, as always, it made her the most lust-worthy girl in the room. She paid no heed to the eyes watching her as she moved, but instead sat down next to her oblivious, handsome boss. Crossing her legs, which, with the slit in her dress, showed a decent amount of thigh, she set her bags down on the ground.

"Hey handsome," Tanya greeted before resting her right hand on his hands. "Mind if I take a look at those papers? I assume this is the puzzle that even your clever self can't handle." Tanya knew her boss was a little low on the intelligence level, but ego boosts were never a bad thing. Without even waiting for his response, she scooted his hands aside with hers and spread the papers out in front of her.

"Mmm..." she said, a slight sultriness in her voice. Then, suddenly looking up at Jaxel, she demanded, "I'll solve this for you within the next hour or so if you pay for any alcohol I drink during that time. Deal?" While she had more than enough money to buy her own alcohol, she preferred to save it. After all, her money drained quickly. She had to spend it on clothes, and booze, and booze for other people... and occasionally even food. That being said, her money supply was pretty close to inexhaustible.

[TheHighwayman]

Jaxel paid no mind to Tanya until she was right next to him, still absorbed in his frantic (...and not very effective looking) efforts to find some sort of answer. When she spoke up, however, he beamed at her and nodded. "Well, it might not be a puzzle, since a puzzle generally has a solution, and this might not... but yep!" The man was clearly happier to have something happen to break up the effort than he was annoyed at not being able to solve it himself.

When she mentioned drinking, Jaxel shrugged and shouted to the barkeep, "Oye! Put anything miss Tanya here wants on my tab!" The barkeep didn't seem to have any doubts about the crazy man's ability to pay- Jaxel was well known in Ketra for being both eccentric and good to his word.

With that settled, the man leaned back and started mulling over what the monster could be. Hopefully it wasn't just some run-of-the-mill man-eater, those were far too boring. All one had to do was poke it with a sword, run a bit, poke it some more... oh, sure, it was exciting, but what he'd heard about the killings made him hopeful for something better. A demon of some sort wouldn't be bad, those were usually pretty entertaining to deal with. One time he'd banished one by beating him at cards, and there'd been this other one who'd said everything backwards... Oh! Maybe the city itself was possessed by something! That would be a new one. Yeah, he'd keep that as the idea for now.

That settled (as far as Jaxel cared to settle it), the man started whistling a jaunty, upbeat tune. It was, in fact, the tune to a rather bawdy Adelan song, though Jaxel wasn't entirely aware of it. While he did so, he flipped up and balanced himself with one hand over his chair, without missing a note. A couple of the patrons flicked copper coins in his direction and chuckled, and one or two mentioned something about the local bards needing to step up their game.

When the song was finished, Jaxel remained balanced on the chair (though he did give a little hop to switch arms), and grinned at Tanya. "So, any luck?"

[zozee9]

After Jaxel shouted to the bar keep, Tanya followed with, "Something that has low alcohol, please!" She was drunk enough the day before to restrain herself for the rest of the week. Her plan was to stay mostly sober. Mostly.

She glanced at the papers, but decided to not start working on them until her alcohol was delivered—which happened seconds later. She took a sip of what seemed to be a pomegranate martini before setting the drink down and looking back at the words.

Quickly engulfed into the mystery of the puzzle, Tanya kept rearranging the papers and mentally going through various ways to decipher the code. She immediately cancelled out the possibility of the letters needing to be rearranged. Instead, she decided the letters were probably off in the alphabet or something more complex. She went through many different possibilities, so distracted that she didn't even pay attention to Jaxel's whistling. Which, of course, was to a song she knew quite well and normally would've sung along with.

Then, out of nowhere, she shouted, "Of course!" This happened right after Jaxel asked her if she had it figured out, but that was completely coincidental. She shouted because the answer was so obvious and simple. She had been over thinking it.

Leaning over towards Jaxel (leaving a sight of her boobs that most men would have found irresistible), Tanya explained, "It says 'Jaxel remember me?'! It's missing a comma, which is annoying, but the message is delivered nonetheless. Who is it? Some sort of secret admirer?" She paused and scrunched up her face in confusion before adding, "What is this puzzle about, anyway? Your monster pet you were looking for earlier?"

[TheHighwayman]

The strange man scratched at his tattoo and shook his head. "Well that could be from just about anyone, couldn't it? Did I make the monster angry somehow? Maybe he doesn't like cookies? No, no, that was after these were written... Hrm..." That was unfortunate. Rather than shedding light on the situation, the notes had made it even more muddled. Swinging back his head and draining the last of his own bottle, Jaxel just stared at the bits of paper for a moment.

Finally, he gave a triumphant cheer, leaping to his feet... and then fell silent and paced restlessly around the table. "Nope, can't have been him. The orc would have just run in and hit me with an ax, none of this note-leaving..." Unfortunately, Jaxel had amassed quite the list of people who might be just a little bit hostile towards him, so picking through the list wouldn't be easy even for somebody smarter. "If whoever did this knows me, maybe Albacore knows them as well? Could ask him... Though that takes time, and I think there's going to be another killing tonight. I'd like to stop that... Any suggestions? I suppose we could just stay here until we hear a yell."

Jaxel slumped back into his chair, twirling the bottle about in his hands. Leaning forward, he looked Tanya up and down, leaned in really close to her face, and flicked her on the nose. "Nice dress, by the way. Think it might be getting you a few stares though." It didn't occur to him that half of those stares were probably directed at his own antics.

[zozee9]

OOC: So sorry! I totally forgot to reply to this...
_____________

IC:

Tanya laughed as Jaxel tried to figure out who the message was from. His ideas were interesting, to say the least. Then again, she had her fair share of unique people that didn't like her. Or maybe she didn't. Actually, almost everybody grew to like her, if nothing else.

Then he continued on ranting about some Albacore and asking her for some ideas of what to do. Strategizing was her specialty, but she didn't even know what she was supposed to be figuring out (or who Albacore was, for that matter). She was just about to point this out when Jaxel leaned in close to her.

Her semi-professional antics immediately disappeared as he flicked her nose and commented on her dress. Tanya smiled coyly and she reached her hand around to the back of his head, grasping his hair gently. Then she pushed his head towards her and kissed him—gently, but definitely full of experience. She knew what she was doing. Releasing her hold, she backed up (though staying close to his face) and replied, "More than a few, I do believe. But thank you, I do rather fancy this dress."

Despite the kiss that she just had to go for, Tanya wasn't planning on doing anything with Jaxel. If he wanted to, that would be a totally different case. But she got the feeling that he had no desire to... not with how he had acted so far. Plus, it seemed like the situation might be somewhat serious. After all, he had mentioned death. And while she loved to sleep around, even she couldn't ignore life and death situations. Maybe whoever would have died would agree to become her servant. Then it would more than make up for lack of action with Jaxel. And, of course, she could always make a move some other time.

But for now, Tanya just remained where she was, a flirty smile resting on her lips.

[TheHighwayman]

Jaxel guffawed, leaned back in his chair, and let out a quick laugh. "Hah! Well, that wasn't exactly the sort of help I was looking for, Tanya. Not bad though." The man chuckled to himself and sat back, looking like he was thinking about something... though what exactly the lunatic was thinking was anybody's guess.  His eyes locked on the ceiling, he gave a short whistle, and he drummed his hands on the table. Finally a spark came back into his eyes, he leaned forward again, opened his mouth, and...

A scream echoed in the distance, and whatever the man had been about to say was lost as he vaulted over the table and out the door, yelling behind him. "That's gotta be it! Come on!" Jaxel threw himself through the door without waiting for any sign that Tanya was following, whooped, and sprinted off down the street.

Sword in hand, Jax flew along- ignoring the fact that running at a dead sprint while holding a bit of sharp metal is the basic definition of a bad idea. He was more concerned with getting there on time- before whoever was doing this could run off again. Oh, and saving the victim wouldn't be too bad either, he supposed. Another scream came from an alley just ahead, and Jaxel spun into the gap between buildings to see... a corpse, a bloodstained wall, and a complete absence of any apparent killer. This time, however, the writings were no puzzle. "Let's begin," Jaxel read, scratching at his tattoo. "Well, that's not good..."

[zozee9]

Tanya watched in wonder as Jaxel clearly disappeared into his own thoughts. There was little more she wanted than to be able to read people's minds. Alas, no one could have everything. What she did have, however, was a bottle of beer that was downed seconds later.

The scream surprised Tanya and she would have spit out her drink if it wasn't for how much she worshipped it. Quickly swallowing, she set the empty bottle on the table, grabbed the pieces of paper (and stuffed them in her corset), and ran out after Jaxel. Her running was significantly slower, due to her dress, high shoes, and lack of athletic ability. But she managed to catch up with him not too long after he found the body.

Eyes wide, she wondered why she hadn't drank more. She could tell the body was dead even though it was still fresh. But dead bodies were things she didn't want to see anywhere outside a book. At least it wasn't covered in blood... otherwise there was no telling where the contents of her stomach would currently be. The blood on the wall bothered her less, so she kept her eyes on that instead.

"Nope," replied Tanya slowly. "Not good at all..." She was more referring to the dead body than the writing. After pausing for a second, she realized that she was being stupid. What was she hoping to find? Somebody screaming like that just because they were being pleasured in an alley? Or maybe just two people getting in a civilized, words only fight? Of course not. A dead body was only reasonable.

Not being able to help herself, Tanya looked back at the body. The sight wasn't any kinder, especially knowing that the woman had been alive only minutes earlier. She still looked alive. But there was a large bruise on her arm and her eyes were left opened in a haunting way. As much as she wanted to look away, Tanya just took a few steps forwards and looked at the body in closer detail. The part of her mind that wanted information was controlling her.

The woman looked like she was just under thirty and recently separated, or out to have some fun with men other than her husband. There was a tan line around her left ring finger, indicating that a wedding ring had been there. Her hair was dark brown, straight, and just past her shoulders. Her shocked eyes looked black, and her skin was lighter than her own but still brown. She was adorned in a loose brown dress, which made Tanya guess that separation was a more likely cause of the lack of ring. She wasn't dressed to hunt, like Tanya always was.

Taking a look around the body, she noticed a poorly carved cat statue lying about a foot away from the woman's right hand. The woman was probably right handed, whatever that mattered for, and was clearly a local. Her looks were Adelan, but the cat confirmed it. After all, cats warded off bad spirits. So if she had been holding it in front of her to get rid of the murderer, then the murderer must have been, or looked like, an evil spirit. That was not good.

Tanya took in all of this information without saying a thing. She might be able to figure out more, with better lighting and willingness to touch the body to move it around, but she was satisfied with what she had found. Looking up at the blood again, Tanya added, "This isn't her blood, is it?" The woman had no cuts... and unless the blood was drawn from her in some magical way, there was no other explanation she could think of. But who would carry blood around with them?

[TheHighwayman]

Jaxel scratched at his tattoo, thinking it over. The woman definitely didn't look to be bleeding, so where had the blood come from? It just didn't make any sense. "It's not hers, so..." Jax paced about the alley, every couple of steps doing some random flip or handstand- it would seem not even a situation that dire would curb his antics.

"Wait! If it isn't her blood... it has to be the killer's!" That was it! Made sense, too.... aside from the question of why the killer would write in their own blood. Still, so far it was the best explanation, which was good enough for Jaxel. Now, that just left the why and the who. "Who'd be crazy enough to write with their own blood?" At least a dozen people Jaxel knew... not the easiest list to narrow down.

Jaxel was so caught up in his thoughts that he almost didn't notice the figure creeping into the alley behind them. Almost. With a twitch of the ears and a flick of the blade, Jaxel spun around and had his saber leveled at a rather disheveled looking man. The man didn't seem the least bit bothered by the sword, and simply grinned.

"Well, you don't seem any worse for wear. I suppose I should be glad you didn't manage to off yourself before I could hunt you down." The man shot a lecherous smirk at Tanya and raised an eyebrow. "And I see you found yourself a rather attractive associate. Guess I'll just have to kill her too."

With that, the man let out a horrendous shriek as he bent unnaturally backwards and collapsed, and Jaxel gave a confused tilt of his head before his eyes rolled back and he followed suit. Jaxel laid there groaning for a moment, and then slowly he opened his eyes... and something in them didn't look quite right. The jovial elation the man always seemed to carry with him was gone, replaced by a subtle malice. A subtle malice that slowly directed itself towards Tanya.

[zozee9]

Tanya hesitated to respond to Jaxel, thinking over what he said. It was possible that it was the killer's blood. But why? Why would they write with their own blood? She was debating this, as well as what other options could be, when a suspicious man appeared behind them. The shadow cast by the moon was caught in her peripheral vision, which was what caused her to turn around.

She was surprised that Jaxel immediately pointed his sword at the man. There were plenty of people that hung out in alleyways, and they weren't always bad. Take her, for instance. She had to go to the alley quite often to empty the contents of her stomach. But the fact that the man did nothing except grin got rid of any beliefs that Jaxel's sword pointing was wrong.

And then he started contorting. Unless he was part of some circus that Jaxel used to work at, which she doubted, Tanya knew what was going on before it even happened. Things like that truly were the work of evil magic. It would make no sense for anything possessing him to live his body, unless it found a new host. Or, if it was his magic, he would still probably need something to control. This was simply the logic of magic. Either way, his soul was going to go for her or Jaxel. And since he obviously knew Jaxel, Tanya was willing to bet he was the target.

Because of this quick evaluating of the situation, she was able to prepare herself for what was to come. She wasn't surprised by the change in Jaxel. Knowing that the cat carving must not work, she decided it was probably time to fend for herself.

Could it be an evil spirit? If that was the case, holy words might be able to banish it. Well, it was worth a try.

"Eee yach sha oo Parteana lacki reath... Qui me Yakoush y atsu... Khnk ats slammi Youch..." Tanya started muttering clearly while slowly taking steps back. She continued on in a similar way, changing the god, religion, or language every few words. It was the best chance of making sure she found the one that went against him, if any did. If nothing else, maybe it would confuse him.

She took this chance to do a brief checkout of the alley. Since she was so distracted with the dead body before, she hadn't been paying attention to the alleyway itself. The body was behind her, she remembered suddenly, and quickly stepped sideways so that she wouldn't walk over it. There was a dump to her immediate left and a few trashcans farther up and to her right. The buildings beside her both rose high, though the one on the left had repeating windows every few steps. They were barred, though it looked like some of the poles were starting to get loose. She remembered that the alley was a dead end. Probably planned on the attacker's part, she realized. This was all just a ploy to capture them. Him. Jaxel.

[TheHighwayman]

Perhaps the analysis of the whole thing being planned wasn't too far off; Jaxel (or whatever was controlling him) quickly stepped between Tanya and the mouth of the alley. Between the reach of his sword and the man's speed, it would be nearly impossible to get by him. Cackling with some perverse glee, he stepped closer. "Hah! That easy! Six years of tracking him down, and it was that easy! No fight, no trick up his sleeve, nothing! It's almost disappointing." His voice was certainly Jaxel's, though the purposeful, deliberate manner of speaking made it unnervingly different from the man's ordinary, fast-paced, jaunty speech.

His cackling just continued as Tanya spouted a number of holy words. "Ah, I'm afraid, my dear, that you'll need to do much better than that. Firstly, holy words only have real power when spoken by somebody with a pure soul- and by the way you're dressed I'd have to say you don't quite fit the bill." Tossing his saber from hand to hand, he gave a wolfish grin and pressed in some more. "Secondly, I'm not just some demon you can banish with a prayer. I'm a bit more... substantial than that."

Jaxel appeared to be about to say something more, but as he gave his blade another flip, his mouth froze half open, and another strange voice came out. This one was far more gutteral. "What in hellfire's name are you doing? We waited six years for this, and you're just screwing around! Bad enough you had to set up that puzzle for him when we know where he lives. Now let's get to- wait, why are you twirling that sword around? Why am I twirling this sword around?"

The other voice returned, and the sinister gaze turned to a look of confusion. "I don't know. I just had the sudden urge to mess with something. It doesn't matter! Now, my dear, shall I kill you quickly, or shall I draw it out?" Jaxel raised the weapon, as if to answer the question himself, when he went green in the face and suddenly flipped backwards and landed with a handstand. He was still blocking the way out, but it certainly ruined his intimidating presence... and it looked to have made him sick.

"Oye! Firstly I don't much like you trying ta slice up miss Tanya. Secondly, I think it's a little cramped in here with three of us. I kinda like my body to myself. Come on, what was wrong with the last body? Seemed perfectly good to me." It would seem either the spell the strange invader had used didn't destroy the original inhabitant... or, more likely based on the baffled look, something had gone horribly wrong (for them, at least).

[zozee9]

Tanya kept muttering holy words, despite what the man controlling Jaxel said. First off, he could very well be lying about the fact that the words wouldn't hurt him. She doubted it, based on his power, but it was possible. Secondly, she did have a pure soul. Too many people mixed up pure and innocent... but they were separate. She could be pure without being innocent. And she was. Thirdly, she was still hoping it would distract him from her planning that was going on at the same time.

While she couldn't run forwards, she could still run sideways or backwards. But she could run to either the dump or one of the windows. If she was lucky, she could pull out a window bar. And then hit Jaxel on the head with it. That might be enough to get the person out of his head. Otherwise, there might be something in the dump that she could use. Or just a bunch of trash. She couldn't see anything promising sticking out, but that didn't mean there wasn't anything.

The only problem was that she wouldn't be able to make it in time. But then a second voice came out. It wasn't Jaxel's, nor the person who was pretending to be Jaxel, but somebody else's. That set her suspicion onto one thing: the man probably had some kind of deal with a demon or evil soul. Their bodies would be shared, but it would grant the man special abilities. Abilities such as the one he was using now. She was tempted to take this chance to run, but Tanya knew that the demon would probably be even stronger than the normal warlock or whatever he was.

And then Jaxel did a backflip. She knew it had to be him—actually him—and the voice afterwards only proved that. But just because he had managed to gain control didn't mean he'd be able to keep it. So she turned to the left and ran as fast as she could in her high heels... which was surprisingly fast. Her plan was to climb into the dump, quickly scan to see if there was anything worthwhile to use in it (like a sword?) and, if not, reach for the window right above it and pull out the bar that looked extremely loose. If all else failed, she could use her shoes as weapons. The heels were long as pointy and perfect for poking out eyes.

[TheHighwayman]

Jaxel and his newly found mental company made no move to stop her; they just continued doing random bits of acrobatics and fiddling with his saber. Oh, and arguing with himself. "Who are you both, anyway? I still can't figure it out. What do you mean you can't figure it out? How many people who can possess others have you killed? Stop standing on our head, it's making me want to kill somebody! Also, the girl's running, kill her! I can't; he's got control of the legs!"

In some bizarre tactical move (perhaps because, as mentioned, Jax had control of the legs), the rather over-crowded man hefted his saber and chucked it after Tanya. Fortunately, throwing a sword is generally ineffective, and throwing a sword when one third of you is trying not to hit the target is even less so. If Tanya couldn't find any other weapons, the sword that landed with a clatter a good ten feet off might do the trick.

The strange duo of body-snatchers did seem to get some measure of control back though, as at the very least he was no longer standing on his head. "Argh! Why'd you go and do that? Now we don't have a weapon! Impulsive fool, this is why we're stuck like this to begin with. Ah well, at least she can't really do anything with it as long as we're in here. So can we kill her? With -what-? Our bare hands? Actually, I rather like the thought of making Jaxel strangle this lady- not going to do it!- quiet you!"

[zozee9]

Tanya made it to the dump with no troubles and pulled herself into it. Turning her head around, she noticed that Jaxel was still doing acrobatics, even though the other two were clearly still in his head. His will to perform must have been greater than she had originally thought. Their conversation was pretty amusing.

She turned around so that she'd be able to keep an eye on her semi-possessed companion. Then she started moving things around in the disgusting garbage. In fact, everything she found was garbage. Most of it was rotting food. Nothing of use.

So, seeing and hearing that Jaxel was still in control of his body, Tanya took the risk and turned around. She reached for the bar that looked loosest and started to pull it. Swearing under her breath, she realized that the bar wasn't nearly as loose as she had expected it to be. With some time, she might be able to get it loose. But she doubted she had that time.

And then a miracle happened.

Hearing something clatter behind her, Tanya quickly turned around to see a sword lying on the ground. It couldn't even be more than ten feet away. Given the lack of saber in Jaxel's hands, she guessed that he threw it for her. His aim was awfully bad. But then she heard the other two complaining, and realized that the sword was supposed to hit her. Well, the aim was (luckily) still awfully bad.

Tanya gladly climbed out of the dump. Glancing up at her companion, she ran for the sword. She was willing to take the bet that he could stay in control long enough for her to at least grab the weapon. But after that, she needed a plan. Killing Jaxel didn't seem like the best option.

[TheHighwayman]

((OOC: Yeah, they're verbally arguing between themselves. I'll keep this one fairly short so as not to interfere with future editing.))

"Hah! See, you guys can't win! Tanya's got the sword now, and she can get the both of you while you're stuck- oh." Jaxel's triumphant taunting turned to a frantic waving of his hands. "Tanya, don't use that! I kinda like having my blood inside my body!" It would seem at some point that control of the arms and legs had shifted, as now his legs were clumsily forcing him towards Tanya.

"Oh, this might work to our advantage after all. She can't harm us, as we'll simply jump from this body should it die... but we can still hurt her. If you can walk better than you did when we possessed that drunk! Stop wobbling! I can't! He keeps getting in the way. Oh great, here comes another one of those stupid- argh!" The cry was accompanied by a frontflip, followed by a handstand, followed by a cartwheel- which fell apart halfway through and led to the man cracking his skull on the alley wall. "I...hate...you...so...much."

While the impact sure looked like it hurt, it didn't keep the man down for long, as he bounced back to his feet. "If you don't want me to hit our head, stop messing up my acrobatics! Or stop doing them!"

[zozee9]

OOC: I edited the last one a little. Thnx for clarifying. :)

__________________
IC:
Tanya laughed at Jaxel's realization of her current problem. And she laughed even harder at his possessors frustration about his random acrobatics. Having this guy as her boss would be quite amusing, she realized. That is, assuming he got out of this alive.

Well, if there was one thing Tanya prided herself on, it was her wisdom. And her looks. And her ability to drink a lot. But neither of those last two would help her in a situation like this. After another quick look around the alleyway, Tanya created a plan.

She held the sword well—while it was clear she wasn't experienced with the weapon, most people probably wouldn't have guessed that she had never actually handled a saber. But for now, the sword wasn't even important.

A daring smile on her face, Tanya looked at Jaxel straight in the eyes and said, "Why on earth would I want to keep your blood inside your body? If you were gone... well, I'd be next in power! The guild would be done with your stupid tactics and actually have success for once. And I'd," she sighed, "I'd be the ruler of it all! In fact, I think those two are on to something by getting rid of you." Tanya lifted her left leg up and pulled her shoe off with her right hand. The sword was still being held in her left hand. "I should help them!"

And with that, Tanya chucked her four inch heel at Jaxel. If he didn't move it would hit him square in the stomach. No serious damage would be caused, but there would most definitely be some pain. She just wanted to double check her theory...