And in this corner... (Hinsero, Open)

[Aftershock]

A loud crash filled the dining hall as Hinsero's shoulder hit a table on the way down, upsetting it and knocking a few plates and mugs about. As he slowly pulled himself to his feet, nursing his bruised shoulder, he looked at Cainith as he pulled himself back from the throw he had just performed on the man and readied himself for another attack.

Cainith had been searching for a wrestling match since he had first arrived in Selenitas Weyr, and had hit nothing every time... until finally, fellow Wastelander Hinsero accepted his challenge. Hinsero, however, realizing he was outmatched in size, strength, and training, decided to make things interesting by declaring that he could choose to start their brawl whenever he wanted to... without warning. Cainith, enjoying a challenge, quickly accepted, and the wait was on... until today, when in the middle of a plate full of meatrolls and a bushel of apples waiting for dessert, Hinsero leaped on Cainith's back and wrapped his arm around the larger man's throat, trying to start with an advantage. After a short struggle, with Hinsero sticking as stubbornly as a leech, Cainith had finally deposited the well-built young man onto the table that now lay on it's side beside him, with a mussed beard and a bloodied lip from a lucky elbow strike during the tussle all he had to show for the action thus far.

Beckoning at Hinsero with a finger, Cainith boomed, "Ha ha ha, a good start, cub! Now, come at me again, and we'll do this right!" Spitting a clot of blood onto the floor, and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Cainith grinned like a hunting wolf, and noticing the gathering crowd now observing the spectacle in the middle of the dining hall, added, "Don't worry, I won't embarrass you too badly in front of all these fine people."

[Ruby]

He'd planned it carefully. Heart had been left at home, Hinsesk left to his own devices (mostly sleeping and lounging; he was still recovering from his injury during the collapse of the mines) and Hinsero went to the dining hall, staking it out in the late evening. Cainith had been eating late recently, Hinsero had noticed - something about extra chores, or so he'd heard - so they wouldn't bother too many people. Despite being a fairly large man by nearly anyone's estimation, Hinsero had a way of lurking in the shadows that made him near invisible. He'd also used Ithanna as somewhat of a shield, sharing his breakfast (her dinner) with her to blend in. She'd headed out already - or so Hinsero thought, she may have just been getting dessert - and his target had just had a seat. If anything distracted Cainith, it was eating.

Used to sneaking around in the dark by now, Hinsero was nearly silent, although his boots scuffed once or twice. He couldn't help a few of the looks that turned his direction, but Cainith didn't seem to notice. It was only a matter of moments before he was behind the much larger man...

He tried for strangulation first, a move that had worked on felines before. It seemed to be going well at the beginning, but Cainith was inhumanly strong, and Hinsero couldn't get the kind of strength and leverage he needed to effectively crush the windpipe. In the end, Caininth managed to pull him off over his head, smacking Hinsero's shoulder into a table on the way down. Huffing his air out, Hinsero took a second before bounding back to his feet. His shoulder got a quick rub - bruised only - and Cainith got a quick look-over - split lip, but nothing Hinsero couldn't take care of. As an apprentice healer, he figured if he couldn't fix it, they'd gone too far.

Crouching a little, Hinsero grinned. "Oh, I'm not worried about embarrassment. Anyone can see I'm the underdog, underdogs either win or are praised for their bravery. And Great Faranth is watching over me, if she graces me with her attention I'll succeed!" With that, he rushed in, attempting to use the one thing he might beat Cainith at - speed - to surprise him. Ducking under the bigger man's reach, Hinsero plowed into Cainith's middle, doing his best to hook a leg behind Cainith's ankle to take him down that way before the big man could recover and pull him off. Hopefully.

[Aftershock]

Cainith was momentarily surprised by the taller man's speed, but recovered quickly, taking the blow to the midsection easily and shifting his stance when Hinsero tried to hook his foot behind Cainith's. Laughing as he fought, enjoying the feeling of the blood flowing in his veins, the challenge of combat that had been so long absent from his life, he grabbed Hinsero around the armpits and lifted, hefting the smaller man's feet off the ground until he was suspended in the air upside-down in Cainith's grip.

"Nice move, cub, but it takes more than that to fool this old wolf. Enjoy the ride down!" With that, he dropped backwards, suplexing Hinsero onto the hard ground, then twisting faster than the wherling thought such a giant could move to loop his arms under Hinsero's own, Cainith's elbows on the ground with his fingers laced on top of Hinsero's skull, driving his face into a pile of spilled yellowfruit pudding on the floor. "First lesson, cub... how would you get yourself out of this hold?"

[Ruby]

No luck. This time, Hinsero found himself facedown in a bunch of pudding. His arms, left useless by the hold, he snaked up so his hands were folded on top of Cainith's, keeping them trapped long enough for him to force his face sideways. He could feel his nose swelling - not broken, he didn't think, just bruised - but with his ear pressing into the rushes instead of his face, he was distinctly more comfortable, and better able to breathe. And think. He was going to have to do that, starting now.

"Izzagood ting i'liek yellowfruit," Hinsero mumbled, spitting some of the pudding out onto the ground. Going momentarily still - he had been wriggling in an attempt to squirm out from under the big (and oh Faranth, heavy) man - the Wherling whispered something unintelligible. Still, quiet... and then he shifted his hips sideways with a jerk, planting the toe of the booted foot towards which he had shifted his hips and rolling back towards Cainith. The slippery move was designed to throw the person on top off balance, rolling the assailant away. It wasn't something that normal fighters would expect; honestly, it was something his mother had taught him and his sister, a move that worked much better with a woman's hips and legs. But Hinsero was counting on the fact that Cainith would have expected just about anything besides that sort of move; well, that, and the man's extraordinary bulk would throw him off balance easier than a smaller man.

It worked, or it worked well enough that Hinsero was able to roll back the other way, putting a good amount of distance between himself and Cainith. Sliding his arms out of Cainith's hold had been the trick, but once Hinsero was moving it was a possible adjustment to make. "Like that?" he asked, not cocky but honestly curious. "How would you have had me do it?"

[Aftershock]

Cainith's eyes widened a bit as Hinsero slipped out from beneath him, and quickly climbed to his feet and reset his position as the man faced across from him. His smile wide, obviously overjoyed that the wherling had some tricks up his sleeve and had the potential to pose an actual challenge, Cainith said, "Good show, man. It's been a long time since I've had someone pull a move I hadn't seen before." Rolling his shoulders, he continued, "Not how I would have gotten out of it myself, though. Come, I'll show you how I would have done it." With that, Cainith lowered his arms and stuck his head out, obviously inviting Hinsero to put him in the same hold Cainith had put him in not moments before.

[Ruby]

Hinsero's grin was near as big as Cainith's - he was glad he'd been able to successfully complete one move, even if it was a woman's trick. Having the big man acknowledge that it was something new made him smile even more. "Learned it from my ma," Hinsero explained, straightening as Cainith did. "Doubt it would have saved me if we were fighting in earnest, but I'll take what I can get for now."

When Cainith called him over to show him the move, Hinsero hopped back and forth for a moment, acting as if Cainith were about to tackle him. Then, laughing, he took a leap at the giant, fitting awkwardly into the place Cainith had occupied so recently. "I think this is easier when your opponent isn't three times your size," the Wherling chuckled, then tightened his grip as much as he could. "Alright, give me a try. Bet I can hold on longer than you could!" At some point, Hinsero questioned his sanity - teasing a man this size when he was about to throw you couldn't possibly be a good idea, but Hinsero trusted Cainith. They were both Wasteland candidates, and it was likely that the big man would stand for Eikask's next clutch. Maybe they would be Wherhandlers together. Regardless, Hinsero wasn't nearly as worried about being tossed by the man as he would be by pretty much anyone else.

[Aftershock]

Cainith continued to grin as Hinsero climbed onto his back, letting himself be forced to the ground to simulate the position Hinsero himself was just in moments before. "Good, good, lock your fingers on top of my head, force it down to the ground to disrupt my balance," Cainith instructed as Hinsero completed the full nelson, ignoring the stares from the other occupants of the dining room.

Once Hinsero was fully set up, Cainith said, "All right, boy, this is how I get out of this move... watch carefully." Moving slowly at first to allow Hinsero to observe the set-up, Cainith pushed himself up on one arm, slipping the other behind his back bent 90 degrees at the elbow. He then slipped his right foot over Hinsero's own. "Now, you FLIP," yelled Cainith, and did just that, his foot locking Hinsero's foot and throwing him off-balance as Cainith flipped over to fall on top of him. The arm Cainith put behind his back was suddenly falling down on Hinsero's stomach, the elbow driving into his solar plexus and driving the air from him, forcing him to release his grip on Cainith's head as Cainith continued to roll over the wherling, wrapping his other arm around Hinsero's neck and ending up sitting on the floor on the other side of Hinsero's original position, an arm like an iron band wrapped around his throat as Hinsero was left with his feet splayed out in front of him, his upper back extended backward along Cainith's chest as he suddenly had to fight for air past Cainith's bulging bicep. "That's how that's done, boy," Cainith exulted into Hinsero's ear, his grin as wide as ever as he held Hinsero in a chokehold.

[Ruby]

Hinsero did as he was told, bringing his (not inconsiderable) strength to bear, not that he expected it to do much against this monster of a man. He forced Cainith's head to the ground as hard as he could.... and somehow ended up with his air cut off, leaning back across Cainith. Gasping for a second, he remembered his training and reached up, curling his fingers around Cainith's forearm and jerking down, rounding his shoulders as he did. It didn't free him by any stretch of the imagination, but it did relieve the pressure on his windpipe. At first, the sound he made sounded like choking, but momentarily it became clear that he was laughing instead.

That abruptly cut off, however, when a diminutive woman with greying hair and a very, very large wooden spoon faced him down, her expression dangerous. "Marina," Hinsero gasped out - he didn't know the woman personally, she was the mother of some missing Brownrider, but she was a friend of Naura, and as Nautic's mother Naura was around the Wherhandler apartments fairly often. He always said hello to both the women, and ended up with better food and bigger portions because of it. Usually. As of now, she did not look pleased.

"Out!" she demanded, pointing the spoon towards the door. "I won't have you messing up my dining hall any further, unless you plan on cleaning it up. Go be little boys outside." Hinsero squirmed in Cainith's grip, eventually breaking free by virtue of being slippery. Marina hadn't really sounded mad - in fact, Hinsero was fairly certain she'd seen her wink at the end there - but if Naura's spoon-arm was anything to go by, he didn't want to test Marina's. "Er," was the only thing Hinsero could think of to say as he straightened up and surveyed their mess. Still half laughing, he offered Cainith a hand up, then leaned sideways to crack his back. "Uh. Sorry?"

[Aftershock]

Cainith laughed uproariously as the woman spoke. It was rare indeed someone called him "little" anything, that was for certain. Letting Hinsero help him off the floor, he choked the laughter back, however, at a pointed glare from the older woman, and cleared his throat before saying, "My apologies, ma'am. I was just teaching the boy about self-defense. I didn't mean to make such a mess... just got a little carried away, is all." Smiling widely, he bent over and began uprighting tables and chairs, then began scooping spilled dishes off the floor.

[Ruby]

"Outside, then," Marina said with a smile, flapping a hand at Cainith. Hinsero had hopped to as soon as Cainith moved, righting tables and chairs as quickly as possible. "That's good enough," Marina broke in at some point, waving a drudge or two over to scrub up the pudding. Hinsero looked up at the bigger candidate, one eyebrow raised. "What'd'ya say, Cainith? Brave enough to take me on again, outside somewhere?"

((We can keep going in this thread if you want, or start a new one in the jungle somewhere... whatever!))