Merciless

- only a roleplay blog -

[kadeu-nora]

more to be added later

[kadeu-nora]

unpleasant surprise;

September 28th, 2024 - after dark 

Diamond faction, back alley

@passcridae​

There aren’t many places, that Nora would call a safe place, but her apartment is one for sure and so is the residential area. She knows all the hidden paths to her place - away from prying eyes - and the people, who might cross her way. Every little change will be noticed and that is necessary for survival. 

Over the course of the years Nora had made one or two enemies. It was unavoidable in her line of business as well as the fact that there was put a bounty on her head from time to time leading to one or two assassins trying to kill her. So she has keen senses all the time and keeps her weapons handy. 

So she noticed the black silhouette of an unknown person within a split second as soon as she entered the alley on the back side of her apartment. There wasn’t much time to think about what to do or how to react and so without hesitation she grabbed her bow and arrow while stopping right in front of the intruder and aiming the arrow at the man’s head. Hesitating means death in the worst case. Through gritted teeth she shouts at the man. 

“Who sent you?”

By taking a closer look at the man’s face now, Nora feels vindicated that she was right. She knew this man from previous jobs in the past as her opponent. As far as she remembers he wasn’t a strong or versed fighter, but she wouldn’t underestimate anyone - a danger. 

[nihtegalc]

September 8th, 2024 - after dark

Club Faction, Fallon’s Clinic

@kadeu-nora​

“We’ll need to get more cots eventually. We don’t have the room for the numbers we’ve been seeing.”

Fallon nodded, agreeing with her assistant- even if there was a heaviness to the movement. “The worry there is close proximity. If we try to fit anymore people in the main room, we risk more than temperatures rising. We’re already stretched thin, Kaia. We can’t afford an escalation to get out of hand.”

Kaia shook her head in frustration- all but slamming her arms down on the table, and Fallon couldn’t blame her. The rise in temperatures had already seen more patients file into the clinic with heat related injuries and illnesses. The latest incident with the Spades and the water supplies had only made things worse. 

A sourness coated her tongue at the thought, the council meeting from the day before flooding to the front her mind. The sentiments expressed to and around her during the meeting didn’t bother her. Much. It was a lazy and ill-informed  argument that she couldn’t separate herself from her former faction. Borne from a place that craved violence and retribution before all the facts had been discovered. Knee-jerk reactions would get them nowhere and she was happy that the majority of the council- and, more importantly, Mallick- agreed. Still, something didn’t sit right with the healer. 

But now wasn’t the time to sort those thoughts out. Now, she has issues that strike much closer to home. 

With a sigh, Fallon leaned against the worn, wooden chair and lifted a hand to rub her eyes. From where she and the younger healer sat in the kitchen, they could hear the front doors creak open. The hand at Fallon’s eyes dropped and she nodded to Kaia, signaling that this conversation was over and it was time to get back to it, apparently. 

“We’ll make do for now. I’ll take stock at the base tomorrow and see what resources can be diverged.” 

Kaia only nodded, clearly not satisfied but understood that there was nothing else to be done. Not right now, at least. Together they rose from the table and walked out from the kitchen to the converted main room of her home to see who had come in. 

Fallon offered a brief smile at the young woman in the doorway, nodding to Kaia to go start her final rounds with the other patients. She motioned towards an empty cot- it’s former occupant only giving it up a few hours ago- and pulled up a stool next to it. 

“Hello again, Nora.” She started, taking her seat at the stool. Her fingers flexed in preparation as she took in the bloodied and bruised sight. “Did you at least win?”

[kadeu-nora]

With the recent tensions between the Spade faction and the Clubs, cage fighting had become a great rarity in Club territory as many rich people of the other factions no longer ventured into the Club area. Today's fight was one of the last scheduled dates, not as lucrative as usual, but still quite good in yield.

Nora has never been good at asking for help. With most of her injuries, there is no need to see a doctor for treatment. Especially not in Diamonds territory, where everything is meticulously documented and, if necessary, investigated. The small community clinic in the Club area was therefore a good place for injuries that she could not treat herself. Relatively anonymous and not too many questions were asked, as there are basically no laws in the Club area and therefore no prosecution.

She waited a moment on the doorstep of the clinic until Fallon saw her and invited her in. Nora holds her left arm, which appears to be dislocated, in position to reduce the pain, even if she would never show her pain. She had already tried to set her arm herself by bumping her shoulder against a wall. Unfortunately it was crowned with no success. She hadn't been at her best in today's fight.

Her opponent, a monstrous mountain of meat of a man, could wrestle her to the ground and twist her arm back while his foot pressed her on her shoulder blade to the ground. If a spectator hadn't thrown a knife into the cage - which happened often to make the fight more interesting - that she could ram into the lower leg of her competitor, the outcome of the fight would certainly have been different.

Nora paid no attention to Fallon's question and kept a straight face as she heaved herself onto the cot with her good arm. All she did was to take a small black leather sack from her pocket, which she tossed to Fallon as she sat down. "Don't worry! It's enough for your payment." With a small movement of her head she hinted at her dislocated arm "Could you ..." and almost afterwards she added a silent  "Please."

[kadeu-nora]

Heterochromia eyes: Nora’s right eye is brown and her left eye is green

Her appearance - long curly and blonde hair, dressed in black 

Long claw-like nails - definitely the influence of her shifter forms

Snake tattoo on her right hand - a symbol of the mecenary group “The Serpents” - All group members have this tattoo and it is well known that people with this tattoo can be hired as mecenary. Nora wears black leather gloves most of the time to cover the tattoo and will only show her tattoo in certain places when she needs a job.

Bow and arrow tatttoo - in addition to the snake tattoo all members of the mecenary group wear a tattoo with the weapon they are specialized in. 

Harp tattoo on her left underarm - as a memento of her dead mother, who were harpist. 

[kadeu-nora]

[kniveslookbooks]

there’s nothing more satisfying than the sound of hitting someone solid in the fucking jaw.

[kadeu-nora]

Nora’s fighting style

Weapons, techniques etc. 

You could say Nora's first experiences with fighting were fistfights. She learned to use her fists to express her anger and frustration already at a young age abd they are still her prefered way of fighting. Later she learned kick-boxing and self-defence techniques that are taught at the LEA academy. Her biggest advantage in a fight against a superior opponent is her agility and speed of action as well as her talent of improvisation to change tack. She used to learn to fight against Elementalists in the manner of getting out of the way of their attacks (like fireballs and so on) and force them into a close-combat fight. A strongarm can be difficult since she needs to be careful not to take serious hits that would knock her out right away. When it comes to opponents with magic like mental manipulation etc. she has no chance and tries ro stay away from species with that kind of magic as much as possible.

When it comes to weapons she mostly uses knives, bow and arrows. She learned to use all kinds if weapons during her time at the LEA academy, but her father already noticed, when she was still a child, that Nora has great aptitude for archery. By now she is a great archer, who never miss the target. Knives are used by her in close-combat fights. A verbal sparring with Nora will end up quickly in a fight, since Nora will always uses her fists as response due to her lack of self-control because of her agression problem. Her endurance during a fight is trained and high. She knows her personal limit very well and paces herself correspondingly. She can endure a lot of pain - she is used to it- and it is also am impulse for her from within that makes her feel the most lively during a fight, bevause of the rush of adrenaline and so on. Her success rate is high - she needs to win- failure can be deadly in her profession and way of living. Does not mean she never lose a fight. It happens at times, of course, but you better don't meet her on the streets after a lost fight...

Shifting abilities

In her youth Nora had only little relation to her shifter side. Her parents tried to help her, but they weren't well informed about it either. So she didn't choose an animal till her early twenties - a black cat. She noticed the elegance and agility, with which cats are moving on, especially while climbing, and thought that cat like reflexes and agility would be a great addition to her own abilities. Also because of her doing free running (parkour) and due to cats inbuilt balancing system they always land on their feet. On top of that cat eyes can see better in the dark than human eyes and thinking of Nora's later development of profession it is really helpful.

Her second animal were added years later - a harpy eagle. The claw of a full grown harpy eagly can easily cup a fist of a grown up man and they are perfect to get better halt while jumping from wall to wall. She almost never shifts fully into one of her animal form, only shifts partially like using their claws or eyes. The harpy eyes make Nora even more a deadly accurate archer, even out of long-distance.

[edmundo-diaz]