[ if you see Minatsuki in the arena for her debut fight? she wrecks it.

but the thing is that she seems— different, during the fight. she's very good, experienced at both the combat and at playing to a crowd. her ability comes out for the first time here, too, this strange flurry of whips that she makes out of her own blood. it's just that the longer the fight goes on, the more she's falling back on something to cover her nerves, a personality that she left behind almost a year ago; she starts laughing more and more, this awful, high, grating noise. she toys with the Aranean she's up against, insults and dances around them, dragging out the fight just for the sake of mockery, and at the end—

kills her, without hesitating for even a second. she stands proud like a seasoned gladiator in the face of the cheers, bowing in the proper Aranean style to the crowds.

when Minatsuki comes out the other side at last, something is still not quite right. she's shaking head to toe, pale, but still laughing. she claws absently at the side of her head with her fingernails, hard enough that it must hurt, blood dripping down the back of her neck from where the Whip Wing had clustered. ]

Ha... Ahaha... [ if you come towards her, she startles, skittish as a wild animal, and then gives a knife-sharp smile. ] I wondered if I was gonna be rusty, but I guess not.

[ in the aftermath, Minatsuki inherits quite the fanclub for killing Jngja, and even though she has no interest in it, Hanamira Kougousabi eats it up. if you're around the stadium, you might see her fairly often, making an appearance to give tips and take part in practice bouts with up-and-coming fighters. she pays a lot of attention to any of her admirers, too; she'll sweet-talk anyone who stops her in the street, coy and a little cocky. (if you want to rescue her from one of these run-ins to pay her back for using her status to bail you out last week, she'd appreciate it.)

naturally, a lot of Araneans and others who've seen her fight want to know more about her abilities. the blood. she's not at all magical! what kind of fascinating artificial enhancement does she have? so it's common to find her in a conversation where she's being interrogated as such, and she gladly offers information, even if you can see her hands clenched into tight fists, nails digging into her palms just past the end of her long kimono sleeves. ]

Oh — you want to know more about my Whip Wing? Certainly, certainly. I'd be delighted to show you. [ she plucks out one of her earrings; blood oozes out from the place where her earlobe is torn, forming a long, prehensile tendril that flicks up into the air and curls like a question mark. ] It's a blood mutation that was created in a lab, and then transplanted into me. Very few people have this, so as you can imagine, it's quite desirable.

[ she hates this. kill her. ]

[ is she just always going to be a bad person, she wonders in the wake of this latest development. when they fought that faker Mockingbird, it was different, because that wasn't the same tightrope fear-triggered survival drive as a Carnival Corpse, she was working with everyone then to end things. but put her back in a stadium and — well, you can take the girl out of Wonderland, but you can't take Wonderland out of the girl.

fuck that. it's not her style to sit around brooding about shit like that, and she's done plenty of it already, anyway. she did what she had to, and it's natural that she'd fall back on bad habits; it's not like she's turning this into a regular thing. ... she did think that being on the good side was supposed to involve less of the same life she's already led.

she doesn't want to think about it. not now, not here. it's a rookie mistake to get caught up in her own head when she has an act to keep up. if she's going to put her head back on straight, then she should look for a distraction that will take the edge off her twitchiness. which is why she strolls up to anyone she sees hanging around COST's lodgings. even if she's never spoken to you before and doesn't know your name. ]

Hey. [ she nudges you with her foot. it's possibly more like a gentle kick. ] Come shopping with me. There's nothing I want, but I've got a shitton of cash now, so I'll buy you something as long as it's not stupid.

[ she's going to keep doing stadium fights despite the effect they have on her, so if you want to partner up, there's plenty of opportunity; she is also absolutely down to be a trophy if you want to take her along for court mingling. if there's anything you want to discuss, hmu @ dragonstrike! ]