Get Over HERE (Open)

Paprika's trip to the Demon Realm had been just as boring as every other trip she had taken on Earth. For a planet that was so full of wondrous people and incredible sights, it was surprising just how dull they managed to make travelling! Maybe it was because you couldn't stop to smell the roses. That wasn't a problem in the Demon Realm, because the roses were everywhere, and they shot venom at you. Well, not exactly. Not in most places, at least, although maybe if you went to the right botanist...

... actually, that might make a good gift for one of her favourite Earthlings!

She stopped in the middle of road to consider this, tapping rhythmically on her chin as if it would make her brain work a little faster. She might not even have been that wrong, but it was all for naught, because something else happened that made all that thinking so much harder. Some horrible screaming, right in the middle of the Demon Realm! Didn't they know this was supposed to be a quiet and pleasant place?

"HEY!" she screamed back, stomping her feet. Bits of smoke wisped around her skin as her energy began to raise hand in hand with her mood. Maybe her power was based on blood pressure. "Can you keep it down, you stupid -- you stupid, uh--!"

Her eyes darted around for the culprit. He was somewhere close... and then she found him, almost directly behind where she had been coming from. How on Earth had he gotten there? She would have to ask him that after she knocked some manners into him. She wheeled towards him and stormed over towards him, hands curled into fists. She was glad none of her favourite Earthlings were here to see her so terribly cross.

"Listen, you dumb cucumber! You're not allowed to just come here and shout and scream over spilled swords! So shut up or I'll set you on fire!"

"Don't have the strength to kill you!?" Paprika repeated, incredulous. The nerve of this over-sized pickle to doubt her like that. Clearly, the problem was that he simply didn't know who she was. Not, it wasn't that she was exactly famous, but the least someone like him could do was put the effort in to make sure they knew all about the most important and prettiest demons in all the realm. She crossed her arms and fixed him with a glare that could have pierced steel armour. It didn't take much to tell that this was one demon who was not the least bit impressed.

It was very clear to her that he didn't care all that deeply for the way things ran around here, and she resolved that she would simply have to teach him a lesson. She ordinarily didn't like to use violence to solve her problems, unless those problems were really annoying, but this particular piece of produce wasn't an Earthling at all. At least, not one she recognized. So it would be nothing at all to use a little fire on him. In fact, he probably deserved it.

"You're going to regret being so loud and rude, you dumb zucchini spirit," she spit out at him, her wings flapping to inch her forward into range for her fiery assault. "I'm going to turn you into a bonfire of stupid!"

With that, she shut her mouth and began to channel her magical fire. Her glare never subsided, all the while. It started in the back of her throat, red-hot air ready to burst. And then, she leaned forward to release a stream of fire straight towards the vegetablesque invader. She kept the attack going, like an unending flamethrower, desperate to make sure to burn every last bit of him just to prove how wrong he was. She didn't even care if he was burned into crisps! She could potentially keep up the flames for several seconds before she had to stop to catch her breath.

Paprika was so busy breathing fire that she didn't even notice the Namekian's energy signature emerge behind her. She started to take a long breath, smoke still wisping from between her lips, when the fist connected with the back of her head. She let out a cry of pain as she was sent screeching towards the surface, crashing into a formation of misshapen rocks, seemingly floating above a pond of oozing purple liquid. She let out a cry as she peeled herself away from the rocks, snapping her tail up into her hands to make sure none of the strange ooze touched her. 

The Distorted Drifts were not her favourite spot, she decided.

"Hey, you maniac! You could have ruined my shirt, or burned my tail! I don't know who you think you are, but you're making me more and more angry by the minute! You had better apologize before I thrash you into tomorrow, you stupid pickle! You dumb cucumber! You ugly unripe banana!" She stomped her feet on the rocks with each consecutive insult, breaking off bits of stone which rolled into the very ooze she had complained of, only to melt with a sizzle in the liquid.

That caught her attention, and she pointed an accusing finger at where the rocks had fallen. "Do you SEE?" she screamed up at him, bristling even hotter than before. "I could have been hurt! I could have been burned! I could look like one of those hideous demons with the white hair and the wrinkled skin about now!"

"If you don't apologize in two seconds, I'm going to turn you into a roast and feed you to someone's pet dinosaur!"

Paprika was absolutely fuming. So much so that in her rush to prepare another round of insults to throw at her opponent, she managed not to see him charging in until it was a second too late to actually dodge effectively. She did start towards the side, but his fist connected with her for a glancing blow that nonetheless sent her spinning around. She nearly stumbled back into the very acid she had nearly fallen into before, but she caught herself at the last moment. When she turned her attention back to Mollusc, she shot him another absolutely venomous glare, all while rubbing her bruised cheek.

"Okay, fine. You can throw a pretty decent punch. Is that what you wanted to hear, you annoying pickled frog?" She winced when her hand crossed a particularly sensitive part of her cheek. That was enough evidence to tell her she was going to have bruises tomorrow. She was going to have bruises. If she wasn't in a mood before, this certainly set her off. "You're a HORRIBLE PERSON, did you know that? Now I'm going to have a big ugly purple SPOT on my face for the next WEEK."

She began to stomp her feet as she yelled, her energy rising alongside her worsening temper. Just as the Namekian had scolded her for a moment ago, words were coming easy and actions slow. But the thought of having people on the street pointing at her and laughing now that her perfect visage was going to be marred by some dumb slug's fist-print was enough to spur her into another attack. Her eyes locked onto the ghost and she began to spur more fire forth from her throat. It only took a moment to heat this time, before she launched herself forward and sprayed white-hot magical fire straight towards him. Mid-way through the stream, she began to shake her head in a violent display. It did help with the temper, but it had another purpose -- her fire began to spread, covering a wide area as she aimed to cut off his paths of escape. 

Well. Some of them.

At the end of her stream of fire, Paprika was forced to look upon Mollusc and realize her attack had done very little. He claimed that it hurt. But she had wanted to do more than hurt him. She had wanted to fry him into little bits, turn him into ghostly vapour, prove once and for all why cucumbers should never go on a roast. But instead, he shook off her attack like it was nothing. When he charged forward again, he swung with far more force than she could have anticipated -- she took a knee to the gut which caused her to cry out in pain, followed by two heavy blows on the head.

It took those precious few seconds for her to go from being on the offensive, to being slammed right back down into the dirt. She landed hard, and for a few seconds, struggled to push herself back to her feet. When she did, she stared at Mollusc with all the spite she could muster. But if he could move that fast and hit that hard, she knew she had no real chance of beating him so fairly. So instead, she forced a much more neutral, even innocent, expression.

"You know, I think you've proved your point," she said, soothingly. "I think the best thing for you to do now would be to go about your business. Maybe take out all that anger on someone else! After all, you wouldn't want to waste all your time on someone like me, right..?"

She took a couple paces back, the first cautious steps of a retreat, but she didn't take her eyes off of Mollusc. A subtle magic began to play from her gaze, something aimed to influence his mind. It wouldn't be much, but if her ploy played out as planned, he might very well soon find her to be an undesirable target: someone he wouldn't want to waste any more energy attacking. Someone to be passed by, in favour of his primary task. She hated having to back down like this herself, it was practically admitting defeat -- and defeat wasn't something someone like her should ever have to taste.

But it was better to be smart than to get more unsightly bruises or, even worse, cuts and scrapes.