That's gonna leave a mark.

It was a cold winter’s day, no sun shining down on Amitowe as the sky was instead overcast in a blanket of pure white clouds.

Snow clouds, no doubt, ready to unleash cold hell upon the town at some point during the day.

The town below lacked its usual lively bustle, many cooped up inside wrapping presents or snuggled up in mountains of blankets in a desperate attempt to warm up. Still, the odd dopaline still roamed, and this fact was clear as ever in Amitowe’s very own park.

“Alright, you can look now.”

At the lake’s edge sat two dopals, one red one blue. The former held something out to the other in their paw, a meek smile on his face as he awaited his friend’s reaction to the gift. “I’d have wrapped it, but…well…every attempt kinda ended in disaster, and by the time I gave up I’d wasted so much wrapping paper I-”
“Len.” Len stared into those purple eyes in front of him, wide open as requested, fumbling excuses cut short by their name of all things. He almost prepared himself to apologise, but his blue buddy just placed a gentle paw on his snout. “I love it.”

Not far from the pair stood quite a few dopals, all shapes and sizes, though mostly tall, and all leaning against the wall of some poor dop’s house. In the middle stood a dull dusty pink lady, dressed in a torn shirt and ripped varsity, as well as the cast on her leg that’d become quite the noticeable trait of hers.
“Oh, isn’t that cute.” Barb commented with a smirk. “We’ve got ourselves some lovebirds…winter uh…hwyleira sweethearts.”
“Galonrhoi isn’t for a good few months yet.” The shorter dop beside her, sporting a similar jacket, chuckled to herself and friends. Barb just gave her an approving nod, eyes lighting up slightly as an idea came to mind.
“Why don’t you and…Curtis, why not, why don’t you two go give ‘em a reminder? I reckon they’re just confused, poor lads. Think it’s the wrong holiday, y’know?”
“Mm?” The other dopal at Barb’s side, a duller blue than Len’s friend and tall enough to dwarf both of his gangmates, seemed to snap out of a zoned out state. This seemed to frustrate Barb a bit, but she just gestured to Bynx and re-crossed her arms.
“Bynx’ll explain. Off you go!”

In the brief time it took them to get to the ‘lovebirds’, Bynx did manage to catch Curtis up to speed, though he still wondered why he’d specifically been asked for this. Surely Bynx could do it herself?

Oh well, might as well have fun with it.

“Oi.” A quick and simple statement, just to grab their attention.

Then, without warning, Curtis’ claws were around Filbo’s neck as he was slammed against a nearby tree in the same motion. “D’ya think this is some sort of joke?”
“Wh…what?” Ah, genuine fear in those pathetic lilac eyes of his. He loved to see it.

The larger dopal, in one quick movement, had raked his claws across the other blue one’s face, pink droplets spraying onto the grass. It glowed too, how cute!

Though a tug on his tail seemed to bring him somewhat back to his senses. Not really, but it at least brought awareness of his surroundings back, tossing the now injured dop to the ground as though he was just some torn up teddy bear.

A quick glance over his shoulder revealed who dared touch him. The other kid. With a dismissive grunt, he just slapped him with his tail, making sure the tip stabbed into him somewhere. He then turned back to his initial target, claws out and ready to do more damage.

At least until he then felt a sharp pain in his tail, what was this kid’s problem?

Curtis lifted his tail and the kid with it, glaring daggers at him.

“Let. Go.”

“Stop-” In opening his mouth to speak, Len did unfortunately let go of Curtis’ tail, but it didn’t matter anyway. He had his full attention, Filbo laying forgotten in the grass. “Stop hurting him! He didn’t do anything to you!”
“Didn’t do anything?” Curt had knelt down slightly to get a better look of his…rather pitiful assailant, so as he spoke he stood back up to his full height, advancing on the smaller russet dopaline with slow, deliberate steps, backing him up towards the lake. “You aren’t the only ones in this town, y’know. And this isn’t a small town. You could’ve easily exchanged gifts somewhere more private, where others don’t have to watch, but no! You went somewhere public to, what, rub your relationship in our faces?”
“I-”
“GALONRHOI’S IN FEBRUARY!” He screamed, a swipe smacking Len upside the head. It sent the poor boy flying, backwards, right into the water with a loud splash.

Loud to some.

Near deafening to others.

A quieter splash followed, Curt glancing to the side to notice his dillodin companion had been stupid enough to follow them into the lake. What, to rescue them? He didn’t need rescuing, poor sod could probably swim.

With a disgruntled grunt, the jacket-clad blue dopal(as opposed to the nothing-clad, brighter blue dopal sprinting to the water’s edge in a panic) made his way back to the rest of his group, which at the moment just consisted of Barb - the other underdogs were busy doing Hwyleira things.

“Curtis.” The leader’s disapproving expression had him confused for a moment, at least until he realised what he’d actually been asked to do.

Well, no, he was still confused. He’d done as she’d asked. Given them a reminder.

“What the fuck was THAT!?” Barb’s shriek would’ve had many other dops flinching, but Curtis just gave her an unflinching look of semi-genuine bafflement. So she continued. “I told you to gently remind them of the season, not TRY TO FUCKING KILL THEM! I sent you with Bynx so she wouldn’t do something stupid, now I know-”
“You know what, Barb? That I did my job well?” Curtis could only smirk at how that seemed to piss her off further, “Bynx didn’t do anything stupid. And neither did I. My reminder was just a bit…heavy handed.”
“HEAVY HANDED!? YOU THREW A KID INTO THE LAKE!”
“I beat a message into them. With claws.” He shrugged, “Not my fault I pick fights I can win.”

“...what?” That appeared to dampen her anger, though it was mostly just replaced with confusion. Enraged confusion, her voice dipping to that dangerously calm level most would be terrified of. “What the fuck does that have to do with anything?”

“It’s simple, really.” The more he spoke, the more condescending Curtis’ expression and tone became. “I saw a fight I could win with ease. I used the opportunity to make sure my message stuck with them. I didn’t walk up to someone larger than me-”
“Curtis.” It wasn’t her tone that stopped his words in their tracks, no, it was just how close she’d moved to him. He grimaced and stepped back.
“You beat up two children. You didn’t ‘pick a fight’, so don’t even start with that shit. I told you-”
“You told me to remind them-”
“Gently. With words.” The shorter dopaline snapped, not exactly affording him a chance to respond properly. “I meant- fucking tease them or something! You went straight to violence! You didn’t even give Bynx a chance to tease, which, by the way, she was meant to do. The Galonrhoi comment was hers. You were supposed to supervise.”
“What, stand there looking pretty?” Curtis snarled, slamming Barb against the wall of the building they’d been all pleasantly leaning against not so long ago. “Is that what you think I’m good for? All I’m worth to your stupid gang?”
“If you think my gang’s so stupid, you should leave.” Barb seemed unfazed by the sudden slam, though the taller of the two could tell it was a facade. It was always a facade.
“Leave? Yeah, right-”

“Hey!” A familiar yell cut through their argument, a rather exhausted and quite damp looking Bynx having finally arrived at the scene. “Curtis, what the fuck was that?”

“I asked him the same!” Barb used Curtis’ distracted state to shove him away from her. “That was not the behaviour I expect from an underdog!”
“Behaviour?” He echoed, mocking in tone. “What, are you Eris now?”
“Fuck no, I’m a leader that cares about her gang.” She took a deep breath as she spoke, likely to steady any nerves. Calm herself down. Not look like a scared kid in front of the guy who’d just shown no hesitation in possibly attempting murder. “And…you’re a danger to the gang. Get out.”
“Out?” An eyebrow raised, hand slammed into the wall behind Barb with his arm vaguely resting against her neck. She wasn’t as effectively pinned as before, but still uncomfortably close to both the wall and Curtis, “We’re not in a building-”

“OUT OF THE GANG, CURTIS.” The taller dopaline didn’t exactly appreciate her constant voice raising, it struck him as rather childish. Nothing a ‘level-headed leader who cares’ would do.

“Mm…” Curtis pondered over his response, that was…quite the dilemma. Out of the underdogs? The best known gang in Amitowe?

He couldn’t have that. That threw a wrench into his whole…formidable reputation plans. Though, ‘kicked out of the underdogs because he was too violent for even them’ did have a nice ring to it…

“Where I go, Bynx goes.” He spoke up eventually, giving Bynx a pointed look and a gesture to walk off with him and his sparzynx. Striker had stayed behind during the lake fiasco, as per Curtis’ orders. “So I hope you know you’re losing two gang members here.”

“That’s for Bynx to decide.” The dusty pink leader’s tone was significantly more level than before, it seemed she’d finally figured out that an argument didn’t need raised voices. “Bynx? Do you want to go with him?”

“N-” “Of course she does!” Curtis wasted no time in grabbing his ‘friend’ by the arm, starting to make his way..well, away. They couldn’t start on any kind of scheming right in front of their target!

Though the dull cyan dopaline noticed some resistance, the sound of feet kicking against the path and- claws in his arm, claws in his arm right this was going to be harder than expected.

Curtis hissed in pain and waved his arm, shaking Bynx off of him in a motion that doubled as a signal to Striker. He figured he’d help his pet out, tail waving towards Bynx and stabbing her directly in the thigh, the dillodin collapsing with a yelp and a thud.

That yelp quickly became agonised and frantic screaming, though, as the back of Striker’s hooves had made contact with the ankle of her other leg, the feline quickly moving on to sink his teeth into her tail.

The dillodin, of course, kicked at the sparzynx with her functioning leg, the one bleeding from a rather deep gash in the ankle. The other sat limp on the ground beside her, much to her confusion and Curtis’ satisfaction. After a moment spent watching the carnage ensue, he took a step towards Bynx.

He placed a hand on her face from behind…

…and was torn away from her, dragged backwards by equally as sharp claws digging into his shoulders. Still, it just did more damage to Bynx, as he only dug his claws deeper into her flesh in reaction - sure, he was pulled away from her, but that was going to leave a mark anyway, the glittery…mulberry coloured blood on his hand all but proved that.

Curtis didn’t need to look at his assailant, clambering back to his feet before she could try anything. Now, usually he’d be angry at his work being interrupted, but this situation just had him oddly…pleased.

So it was going to devolve into a fight?

He didn’t mind that.

In fact, he’d make the first hit. In a heartbeat, his fist was smacked into Barb’s cheek, and a kick was swung low - right into her still casted leg. He was pretty sure it was mostly healed by now, but he was fairly certain it would at least hurt, if not knock her over.

His shorter opponent didn’t seem to take that too well, punching and swiping wildly at Curtis’ chest, likely in some attempt to make herself seem more threatening or harder to hit. His tail was swung her way, and…stopped in its tracks. He yanked it away, swiftly jabbing its tip into her arm before stepping out of range.

Barb went to continue, expecting his tail’s poison to be the same as her past inoculator-bearing opponents, but…well, the sudden numb feeling in her arm certainly had her confused.

That was what Curtis could tell anyway, using the distraction to lunge forwards and grab her face in his hand, slamming her against the wall yet again. But this time, it was her face colliding with brick, as opposed to her back.

The smaller of the pair let out a strangled snarl and ducked underneath Curtis when he loosened his grip to get a better aim at her face with another swing. Barb spat something out and dove behind Curt, her claws digging into his arm when he tried to turn to face her.

As she moved to yank it backwards, a sickening snap rang out, so loud that the birds nearby fled for the skies with distressed chirps.

However, Barb wasn’t on the receiving end of it this time. Curtis could easily infer that from the ensuing pain he felt.

Once again, his fist connected with her face, followed by several more punches in quick succession - a flurry of blows, if you will.

Not that it mattered, he knew Barb would refuse to back down so easily. So he switched his strategy once his arm got tired, flexing out his claws and trying to trip her up with kicks to her healing leg.

That was when a punch connected with his stomach, hard, and then an uppercut collided with his chin as he’d hunched over upon taking that first hit. Curtis stumbled backwards, stopping a moment to catch his breath and…

Figure out where Barb went.

A rustle behind him, she’d climbed into a tree, hadn’t she?

He was given no time to react to this realisation, as sharp, stinging pain coursed through his body. He could only guess her claws had been raked down his back, the taller dopal giving a pained screech and staggering back into the tree she’d just leapt from, trying to slam her into it.

Barb wouldn’t let that deter her, she had the upper hand now and there was no way she was losing it. He felt more stinging pain as she clambered up his back, up until she reached his shoulders.

Curtis yelled something in his rage and grabbed her by the arm, tossing her off of him and onto the floor with ease, though her claws of course still left marks in his shoulders. She really liked going for those, didn’t she? It was starting to piss him off a bit, why couldn’t she just fight fairly?

Both dopalines stood glaring at each other, panting, it seemed they’d reached a stalemate of sorts. Of course, one was more beat up than the other, but that was besides the point.

“Give it a rest, Curtis.” Barb growled. “Leave before I tear your ears off. Or your eyes out.”
“I’d like to see you try.” His voice shook, but with rage rather than any sort of sorrow. He wasn’t sad about this, he’d never liked the underdogs or the pathetic dopals they called gangmates. They were pathetic. Curtis took a trembling step forward, he was nowhere near done with this fight.

It almost seemed Barb was equally as ready to continue the fight, but a whimper from behind had her attention off of him almost immediately.

And there she went to Bynx’s side, knelt down and assessing the damage.

Curtis just watched, contemplating. He could use this to his advantage, hit her while she was technically down, possibly pin her…

But…

With a frustrated, shuddering sigh, he forced his jacket off of his body. Well, he tried to, but one of his arms refused to cooperate. He frowned, that hadn’t hurt that much before…

Some struggle later, the jacket was discarded on the floor, and Striker sprinting after his owner signified Curtis’ departure.

A slow downpour of snowflakes followed, accompanying the now sombre mood as Bynx tried to lighten it and Barb just muttered words of comfort and mild annoyance while trying to pick her friend up comfortably. She rushed off, away from the park, in hopes she could outrun the heavier snowfall and get them both some medical attention.

Maybe some hot chocolate too.