Ticket to Wonderland

(It should be okay. Unless Darkone is okay with keeping your assumption, all you have to do is edit your posts a little. Your characters were the only ones talking about it, after all. Honestly, though, I'm kinda' hoping Winona invites everyone to come watch her get her ass beat. >:])

"Salutations Ladies and Gentlemen!" Winona annouced to few of the people seated around the bar garden at the back. "No need to fear or leave your seats, me and this young lady here are just going to engage in a mild sparring session. No actual fisty-cuffs...this time."

Winona reached up her garnment and detached the knife scabbard that was wrapped around her upper thigh, she held it up, wraping her hand around the the knife handle that was tightly fastened into the scabbard.

"This should prevent any serious accidental injuries." Winona said, looking up to the Snow leopard neko. "Just pretend it's a unsheathed blade."

Winona then took a knife fighting stance.

"Lets see your form then."

Winona made a run at the Snow Leapard and with her right arm swung the Scabbard horizontally at her face.

Taihaku quickly took a stance, her body angled with her left side closer to Winona, her knees slightly bent, and her arms held out, elbows bent, and hands open.

Seeing that the "blade" was coming in from her left, she waited for Winona to near and begin her swing. At that point, she swiftly and fluidly turned her body while stepping into Winona's attack, catching the other neko's arm over her right shoulder and attempting to grab it with both hands. She then attempted to use Winona's momentum to flip her over her shoulder and onto the ground without letting go of her arm.

If she succeeded, she'd then attempt to place her foot on Winona's chest, being careful not to injure her, and twist her arm just enough to make her lose grip of the knife.

Winona quickly found herself flipped over the Snow leopards's and her back quickly acquainted itself with the grassy soil of the garden, before she could recover the other Neko's foot was already pressing her down and had the knife preyed out of her hand.

"Hmmm...quite." Winona said, looking up from her position the ground. "Alright, lets try that again."

Winona got to her feet and took a few steps away and turned round and caught her scabbard as the Snow Leopard gently tossed it back to her.

"No runup this time." Winona said, quickly thrusting the scabbard in a forward motion with her rightarm toward's the Neko's midsection

Taihaku had taken her stance after having tossed the neko her kife back, so she was ready enough that when Winona thrust her knife, she was able to step back with her left foot and turn her body perpendicular to Winona's, effectively sidestepping the attack with her arm passing in front of her. It helped that she forecast her attack by talking about it.

However, she hadn't been prepared enough to counter the attack, which would give Winona enough time to draw her arm back or attack again.

Taihaku, anticipating a second attack, attempted to gracefully twirl a couple steps backward, putting her just out of Winona's reach. If she succeeded in not getting hit, she would then resume her stance and await the neko's next attack.

The Snow Leopard sidestepped Winona's lunge, ending up on Winona's left after her perpendicular backstep. While Winona's right arm was still reached out from her attempted thrust, Winona quickly swiped her left foot at the Snow Leopards legs as the other Neko was about to make another move, attempting to hook her foot round the back of the Snow Leopard's right foot, which if successful should trip her up as Winona pivoted on her free right leg and turned away.

Unfortunately for Winona, Taihaku's movement brought her right foot away from the other neko's left as she twirled counter-clockwise, causing the sweeping attack to miss by an inch. Taihaku used her twirl to move a few steps away from Winona and resume her stance as planned. She stared at the white-haired neko intently, her pale blue eyes narrowing and widening as she took in details of Winona's appearance, body position, signs of exertion or frustration, and movement style.

Man, this thread grows fast. I turn around for all of one day and there's two whole new pages to read >.<

(I counted you being gone for at least three day, not one. o.o; )

Winona quickly realised her foot failed to trip up the Snow Leopard and so allowed herself to continue to turn full circle on her right leg until she faced her opponent again, just in time to witness the other Neko finishing her own twirl and resuming a stance a few steps away.

Without even pausing for a second, Winona ran towards the Snow Leopard, raised her arm up and quickly swang her Scabbard back downwards towards her chest.

Taihaku contemplated using the same over-the-shoulder counter movement she'd used the first time, but quickly decided against it. This woman would probably be smart enough that the same tactic wouldn't work more than once. So she went with another course of action. She waited for Winona to begin her swing, and attempted to catch her wrist with her left hand. Much like Jessica inside the bar, Taihaku was rather strong despite her small stature, and if she succeeded, Winona would likely find her grip hard to break, and her body likely difficult to move.

The Snow Leopard caught Winona's right wist with her left hand as it came down, Winona seriously had to refrain from kneeing the Neko hard in the stomach with her left leg, which would have been the natural tactic for Winona to use in such a situration, but obviously she wasn't out to inflict pain in this sparring match, there's also the fact that this Warrior might very well pummel her senseless if things got too rough.

Winona instead reached for the Snow Leopards raised arm with her free (left) hand and attempted to turn her back to the other Neko, if successful she might just be able to throw the Snow Leopard over her shoulder as she turns.

Winona's momentary hesitation gave Taihaku some time to analyze her movements a little more, and figure out what courses of action Winona might take. Then Winona grabbed Taihaku's hand on her wrist, trying to prevent her from pulling away, while beginning to turn around. Taihaku's mind homed in on one specific action: it was like what she herself had done to her earlier!

Instead of trying to stop her, Taihaku allowed Winona to turn her back on her. When the white-haired neko attempted to throw her, Taihaku used her own free hand to grab Winona's left hand on her right hand on Winona's wrist, preventing her from letting go as well, and lifted her feet to give Winona ease to lift her. She attempted to use the momentum of the throw to flip herself over Winona and land on her feet in front of her.

If she succeeded, she'd then attempt to turn her body clockwise and lift the hopefully surprised Winona off her feet, swing her in a circle, and then let go with both hands, throwing her towards some of the bushes in the garden.

Winona felt the Snow Leopard go over her, the throw felt much easier than she had expected, either this woman is lighter than she looks or she had allowed it to happen on purp...

Before she could work out what was happening Winona was flailed around in a complete circle released and sent flying through the air before crashing into some nearby bushes.

After a moment had past, Winona sat back up, her upper body emerging from the plantlife with small peieces of bark caught up in her white hair and a few tiny blooded scratches on her face. She took a moment to lick the back of her hand and then wipe her saliva over her hair, grooming herself before she picked herself up and tightening her scabbard back around her upper thigh.

"Well I am convinced." She said, clapping as she walked back over to the Snow Leopard. "You've got the job, Miss...ugh...
what shall I call you?"

"My name is Taihaku. I am the daughter of the chief of the snow lepoard tribe," she announced stiffly, sounding very rehearsed. Taihaku gave Winona a gracious bow with her right hand in a fist over her chest. When she rose back up, she added, "I humbly appreciate the opportunity you've given me. Shall we return to your cohorts and notify them that the position has been filled?"

"Ah, What honour it is to have a Chief's daughter with us!" Winona gimicked Taihaku's bow. "You can call me 'Mousetrap' almost everyone else does. Sure, lets find the others."

Winona gleefully turned and headed her way back into the Tavern. An 'Inventor guy' and now an 'Tribal Chief's daughter'! This was just getting better and better.

Taihaku, of course, followed behind the other neko as they returned to the tavern. She batted an eye as she replayed Winona's second-to-last sentence in her mind.

"You can call me 'Mousetrap' almost everyone else does."

How dare she give her some nickname in return for her earnest greeting, she thought?! Such a response would be considered incredibly rude in her culture! Were she as bold as her mother, she'd have chastized this "Mousetrap" right then and there, but she didn't want to make a bad impression, or make her rethink hiring her. And why had she deemed her unworthy to be privy to the knowledge of her true name in the first place? Did she not trust her? Was she testing her? Or was she just doing it to insult her?

She'd have to make a point of confronting her to find out at a more appropriate time.

Winona made her way back through the Tavern and found the others back were she had left them at the bar counter.

"We're back!" She grinned, pausing a moment to pull a peice of bark out of her left cat ear and brush her garnment down of any clinging soil. "I've found ourselves someone willing to do a little mercenary work for us! Doc Strange, this is Taihaku."

Winona turned to Taihaku.

"Taihaku, This is 'Doc Strange and ugh...friends."

A little old-fashioned Doc Strange stood up from his Barstool and stiffly indicated a decent Bowing to the Newcomer: "I am honoured to be introduced to You, Lady Taihaku. Allow me to further introduce You to my friend Jessica - and her Friend Xin, sitting on her Shoulder. And then there is Dylan, the Daughter of the Barkeeper here."
Suddenly blushing he scratched the Back of his Head: "As You can see, we are quite a... colourful Bunch, so to speak."
"Hehe, she´s totally bigger than You!" Dylan smiled and Doc Strange replied: "Almost everyone here is bigger than me. But it is refreshing to see, that here are three of such Persons, who are bigger - and are actually pleasant to look at at the same Time."
Then he turned back to Taihaku, saying: "So - I think, now we can go to our... `Headquarters´. At least for the next Time., I presume."
To Winona he mentioned: "As odd as it sounds - I think, I have to thank You. I suggest, You are quite a Source of Inspiration for me and my Work..."

(I was waiting for Balth or Para to post, too, but I guess I might as well go now. ^^; )

Taihaku returned Doc Strange's bow. A part of her was a little uneasy about Mousetrap's introduction of her. She hadn't done it very well, only giving the name and nothing else. But she supposed she should accept whatever introduction she was given, if only to make the meeting go more smoothly.

She kept silent as he introduced the rest of the group, consisting of another short but well-built girl, perhaps not unlike herself; the waitress with the mechanical arm, whom she'd met earlier informally; and a neera sitting on the shoulder of the first girl. Strange went on to admit how 'colourful' the group was. She was about to respond to this when the waitress, named Dylan, spoke up.

Dylan had apparently decided the fact that she was taller than Strange was something worth noting. Taihaku had not really noticed it, but it was true; this somewhat effeminate-looking man was a fair few inches shorter than the already quite short for her kind Taihaku. The neko found this fact perplexing, but not really worthy of her extended interest. Perhaps the reason why he was so short for being a male would be made apparent sometime during her employment. Then she heard him say that he was glad to have people around him that were 'pleasant to look at.' At this, Taihaku scoffed quietly, but said nothing.

Peresphone's been lurking, so I've been lurking too in favor of posting a series of comments about how she's sitting around not being noticed xP
I'm bad at RPs sometimes...
Just keep posting and as soon as she finds a reason to butt in she'll do so

(I thought Persephone knows Taihaku? If this is no Opportunity to get in - I don´t know anyone other. Of Course she can ask Doc Strange about what he knows about the Multiverse.)

((Sorry, was busy and low on inspiration...))

Xin frowned slightly at the doc’s words while the nekos were away. “Can’t some of us get going, before the big, hungry cat people come back-?” She began to asked, cutting herself short when the two cat people in question returned, slightly worn out. The curious tiny was both suspicious and intrigued by the heavily garbed, cold-looking, and overall quiet Taihaku. Needless to say, though, ‘Mousetrap’ was the object of most of the neera sorceress’ caution, as the tiny scooted over toward her mutant human friend’s neck. At this rate, Xin just wanted to get out of here and see this doctor guy’s house.

Finally Jessica got the Picture. She said: "Okay - let´s go."
Then she whispered to Xin: "You may better be close to me - and if You want, You can stay in my Room. There is even a Way up to the `Rooftown´, if You want to go there..."
Doc Strange then got his riveted, dark blue Leather Jacket and agreed: "Then it is settled: Let us go then. Oh yes..."
He turned to Persephone: "Miss... I am very sorry - what was Your Name? For You I can say - every Problem has it´s Solution - even if You don´t know it yet - the Way `home´ is right there."
He pointed at her Forehead: "Your unconscious Self has a psychological `Setback´, a Melange of Datas, that brings You back home when used the right Way - like Doves have little Magnetite Cyrstals in their Brain, so they know what Way to fly to their Nest."
He mentioned: "I have constructed a Machine, called the `Everdoor´-Portal. The only Thing it lacks is Energy to get it online. All I have achieved by now, is a slightly short View back to the Westcoast of England, which is my Home. So it does work. I just need an Energy Source strong enough to power it."
He smiled: "So perhaps in the near Future there is a Way to Your Home - whereever this may be."
"You want... home?" Dylan asked.
"Me? No Way! This World has unlimited Possibilities! I have made some Friends here - and had the unique Chance to know my old ones even better by now - in a far more fascinating Way I could have ever imagined!" he replied and Jessica smiled: "I can tell!"

"So then," Taihaku interjected, attempting to speak before anyone else started. She looked at Doc Strange. "Would that make you my employer, and Ms. Mousetrap more of a..."

She paused momentarily to pick her words carefully. "...Human Resource manager? And, furthermore, what role am I expected to perform?" She directed her second question to the group in general. One of whom she recognized, she realized. She blinked once, and her eyes widened briefly at she looked at Persephone, but she quickly resumed her neutral expression, and said nothing about it for the time being.