662/A Chansssce Meeting in Gotham

A Chansssce Meeting in Gotham
Date of Scene:	28 May 2017
Location:	Gotham City
Synopsis:	When you've got animal super powers, even eating apples is fun!
Cast of Characters:	Feral, Sibilance

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Feral has posed:
    Prowling down the upper west hills of Old Gotham, a pair of black loafers click along uneven, weathered pavement as one of the city's women takes a night stroll. It's well past dark and the closest she has to a travelling companion is half of a hoagie that's steadily shrinking as she tears off large, hungry bites.
    Large blue-blocker sunglasses shade her eyes pointlessly from the yellowed street lamps and her gaze drifts casually from side to side as she passes alleyways or reaches street corners. Her slow, aimless walk has the tell-tale cadence of someone from out of town, who might not know the district's reputation. It's not good to be out after dark.
    Pausing at a cross walk, she adjusts her ill-fitting t-shirt with a frown. It's men's clothes, a few sizes too big to fit in the chest and left limp and hanging everywhere else because of it. On the front is a yield sign with a cartoon snake underneath, captioned helpfully: Danger Noodle
    Beneath the loose hem of her t-shirt? Well on one side there's a snug and weathered stretch of denim that just barely reaches her bare ankle - on the other is nothing but skin all the way down. The jeans are more than a little worn on the good side too - they're either purposefully-altered or *very* second-hand. Given the unevenly-tanned but well-defined leg it's displaying, it's probably the first one.

Sibilance has posed:
    You know what Sibil sees, from the unusual woman prowling the streets? Confidence. It draws the eye more than any hapless victim would. Who would wear an outfit like that if they were naive of the dangers of Gotham?

    A little further down the road, there is a little stall set up, with a jar of flowers, a bowl of little berries and small fruit varieties, a little basket of fresh veggies kept chilled with a wrapped-up ice pack or three. Seated on an old wooden chair behind the stall as if this were a market district is a strange rattlesnake woman. She leans against the stall with both arms and stares at the oddities that slink through the dark corners of this part of Gotham.

    She stares with her inhuman golden eyes in Vanya's direction, fixated on the woman. Sibil's scaly brow furrows as she tries to remember where she saw this individual last.

Feral has posed:
    Confidence is a good word for the bare-legged woman walking down the street. Her posture is tall, her shoulders are back, and she moves with a comfortable ease that's unthreatened by little potholes or straying too close to alley walls. Her gaze stays up and out, not minding the cracks and crevices she steps over and every so often her nostrils flare as she sniffs the air.
    A breeze winds its way down the night-time street from the direction of Sibil's stall and the snake-shirted woman turns towards her, locking two yellow-tinted eyes on golden slits. An excited smile parts her lips and just like that, Vanya hooks her thumbs into her pockets and walks over.

Sibilance has posed:
    Sibil's posture straightens up when she's approached. She keeps a very keen, almost unblinking focus directed toward Vanya. She does recognize the woman, and that is not a source of comfort for Sibil. She dislikes fighting as a whole and finds the idea of being around someone that seems to bask in the glory of confrontation exceedingly uncomfortable. Especially when she can just... feel it in their surface thoughts at all times. Measuring people up, judging weak points... Not the easiest thing for her to listen to.
    "Hola!" she greets, putting on her best businesswoman face. "Don't worry, most of it is free. Try to leave some snacks for others, si? The flowers you have to pay for." She rests her hands on the arrangement set up on one side of the table. Looks like they're sold individually.
    Smile~ She looks cordial, but a strong sense of smell would note that Vanya frightens her. A good observational skill might note that her foot is placed on top of her tail so that it doesn't rattle.

Feral has posed:
    Before she's even reached the snake-woman's stall, Vanya's already taken the serpent's measure in a cursory look and a scent of the air. There's a marrow-deep self-confidence that permeates her thoughts and a simple judgement: Sibil is beneath her - not a threat, and so someone she can keep being relaxed around.
    Besides whatever natural intimidation might hum in the were-woman's aura, she doesn't add anymore. In fact, Vanya's first thoughts are surprisingly positive.
    "Free? That's no way to run a business," she considers, casually scanning the serpent's wares while taking another big bite of her sub. "There's no venom in them, right?" she asks with a playful glint in her eyes.

Sibilance has posed:
    That's good, that Vanya thinks that. Sibil is not, inherently, harmless, but she is not someone that will fight her. The snake woman slowly relaxes as this turns more pleasant than she was expecting, and she chuckles in response to the comment. "I'm not running a business," she corrects, "I'm donating extra produce to whoever wants it." She shrugs at Vanya, "I don't want to step on the toes of the local scary green lady's thing with dangerous plants," she tells Vanya, too.
    A nervous laugh and she says, "Just nutritional goodness."

Feral has posed:
    The were-woman laughs boisterously at Sibil's reply and smiles in amusement, flashing several of her upper teeth. "And fruit, my favourite!" Fishing around in the pocket on her good side, Vanya slaps a couple bills on the table then takes two apples with the same hand. She starts to open her mouth for a bite, then pauses and looks back to the vendor.
    "With how snake you look, can you do that jaw-unhinging thing?" she asks, pantomiming by opening her mouth very wide at Sibil's face. Okay, now all her teeth are showing. At least they all look human.

Sibilance has posed:
    Sibil almost protests, her mouth opening to do so when she's paid for the fruit, but she decides to leave it alone. Getting paid when she didn't expect it is nice, and now she's smiling a lot more easily. She tucks the money away in a pocket. The question posed to her has her giving a startled blink. She flickers out her tongue just the once as she registers the mental image of a snake opening its maw like that to eat something.
    "No," she answers, "Since I can just eat anything a normal human does, I think my physiology didn't bother with that. I can open it really wide, though." She cracks open her maw, and pulls back her lips, and good god she can open her mouth wide. But she closes it after the brief demonstration. She has a lot more teeth than one might expect from a snake, but that's because she's not really a snake.

Feral has posed:
    Vanya's smile almost dips when Sibil explains her limits. The demonstration fixes that and once she's done the reptilian youth is facing a lot of human teeth and a thoroughly entertained woman. "Oh that is awesome!" the sun-glassed brawler laughs and just as quickly offers one of her two new fruits.
    "Do you think you could fit a whole apple in there?"

Sibilance has posed:
    Raw entertainment. Sibil can feel it from Vanya, the brawler's playful attitude becoming somewhat infectious. She is smiling quite happily -- she keeps her mouth closed during smiles, because toothy smiles look vicious and predatory from her -- and beams at being called awesome. She accepts the proffered fruit and... she doesn't even think about it. She pops open her maw and just sticks the whole apple in there. These aren't small apples, either.
    She pulls the apple from her maw and begins biting little chunks out of it. "Rare to see someone take this kind of interest," she notes, because she is usually unnerving for most.

Feral has posed:
    Vanya's smile curls sideways into a toothy smirk and she bounces a finger off Sibil's forehead scales in a light poke. "Next time make a bet that you can do that. It's free money," she coaches mirthfully before turning back to her own apple with an expression far too thoughtful for such an impulsive personality.
    "I'm pretty special," she notes proudly as her eyes flit back to Sibil's. That golden, slitted gaze is the furthest thing from unnerving. "I bet you a dollar I can do that too," she challenges slyly.

Sibilance has posed:
    Sibil laughs and retorts, "People wouldn't fall for it from a snake woman! I have better ways to get money than making cheap bets with people, anyways." She flickers her tongue and beams at Vanya all the more. She then pulls a dollar from her pocket, one of the ones she was just given, and sets it down on the table. "Betcha you can't," she replies, with a knowing lidding of her eyes. She says it with such a certainty that it might be absolutely convincing and make it difficult to get the right mindset for proving her wrong, even through use of her powers, even when she tries. It's such a subtle mind control nudge, but that's just how her ability works. Might be hard to tell she even did anything until after the fact.
    She locks eyes as she says it, too.

Feral has posed:
    The were-woman meets her eye-to-eye and pauses in her bravado to assess the apple again, making sure she's got the right sense of its size. After just another moment's thought, she smiles.
    Vanya tilts her head back and opens her mouth wide with an audible 'ahh' before she tries to press the apple in. Sure enough it doesn't fit and her jaw quivers as she tries to force it further open. It eases back in slightly as she relaxes then opens again.
    Traced in the yellowed street lights, the bones of the woman's jaws thicken and stretch as her mouth slowly but visibly grows in size. Her teeth elongate and refine themselves into predatory points with four viscously large fangs as a faint coat of short fur begins to sprout down her face in almost tattoo-like bands of black and danger-orange. The were-tiger gives her apple a little extra shove as it continues to catch on her expanded jaw, this time on her oversized canines.

Sibilance has posed:
    Sibil balks in surprise as the woman's physiology visibly distorts in order to get the apple into her maw. Evennnntually it might work, but the little mind control nudge will be a consistent road block in the attempt, like she has some kind of persistent jaw problem making the muscles too stiff to open all the way. She might pulp the apple into sauce before she manages to get the thing into her mouth, unless her force of will can fight a psychic ability to some degree.
    "<My god. I have never seen anything like that,>" she says in Spanish in a hushed voice.

Feral has posed:
    After more pushing and struggling, a deep animalistic growl rises from the pit of Vanya's chest before she wrenches the apple back out, now sporting four grooves from where it'd wedged against her teeth. She snarls balefully at the fruit and glares at it while turning it this way and that. The stall owner might notice that the back of her hand has begun to sport the same coat and human nails have stretched into dangerously-pointed claws.
    "I swear this thing was smaller a minute ago," she grumbles hotly, looking vengeful towards the apple.

Sibilance has posed:
    "It hasn't changed size. See, I'm special, too. That..." Sibil lifts her hand to point to the apple, "That was my fault. I made you think you couldn't fit it in your mouth." She then straightens her posture again and says, "You would've won the bet easily. I just wanted to mess with you." She taps the money, and slides it toward Vanya. "I don't need to make cheap bets. I can just ask for money if I really needed it. Gambling would be way too easy for me to cheat at."
    And she smiles again, as the command wears off. She seems just a mote more sinister now, with her triumphant glow.

Feral has posed:
    Vanya quirks her brow oddly as she processes that, then turns her withering felid glare from the apple to its grower. Those same teeth are flashed as the were-tiger snarls anew.
    "So what you are saying," she infers dangerously cool and focused, "is you controlled my mind..."
    A couple minutes ago, Sibil didn't have the full weight of Vanya's feral attention on her. That's no longer true.

Sibilance has posed:
    "I did."
    Sibil doesn't seem too worried on the surface. "Not anymore," she adds, with a gentler voice. "Object demonstration. Best way to show you what I can do. You seemed interested a second ago..."
    The maintained eye contact is indicative of Sibil waiting for this to turn violent. She is anticipating it, because most people get really angry at this point. She's yet to find anyone that doesn't react with anger or fear, even when it was something harmless like this.

Feral has posed:
    Vanya's mind is simmering and frothing as she takes in another deep pull of air through her nose, claws sharpened and teeth ready as tension mounts in her neck and her leg. Vaulting over the table wouldn't be a difficult task...
    And then, her lips draw back into a broad smile as the were-tiger lets out another barking laugh and slaps the table with her hand. "Hah! And you didn't even flinch, I'm impressed! You know I could eat you and just call it 'dinner', da?" she jokes darkly.

Sibilance has posed:
    Sibil braces. She stares at Vanya as she processes what was done, and she deeply considers murdering the snake in front of her. It's a moment of confident, predatory air as she watches the coiled serpent calmly adjust her stance and rest her hands on the edge of the table. It would be easy to vault, Vanya thinks, as Sibil makes a subtle move to blindside that assumption.
    But the situation slowly defuses. She jumps when the table is slapped, just a brief startle there. "You think that, but you would be wrong," she notes, since Vanya is operating on several assumptions about what she's looking at and Sibil can hear that. "Want another apple?" She lifts the apple up and smiles to Vanya, trying to bring it back to playful and friendly.

Feral has posed:
    "Okay, you would be a lot for one meal," Vanya concedes, admitting to her bluff. Opening her mouth wide, she stuffs the apple in between her fangs and shuts it snugly. There's a moment of smug satisfaction before the were-tiger tries to get it back out only to pause as it hits her same teeth from the inside.

    "..."

    She growls quietly in exasperation.

Sibilance has posed:
    Sibil laughs! She tries to stop herself, but she can't help it.

    "Okay, that wasn't me," she quickly defends, holding up both hands.