The Bronx

[Ergo War]

Peace wandered back to the studio a couple of days later, having spent the intervening time relaxing and providing for herself out in the wilderness. She was very well rested for once, to a point where she almost felt lethargic, like even if she was awake part of her wasn't. Well, at any rate, that changed over the course of her class.

Then came the final round of the tournament, wherein she--the winner of the losers--was to go up against the winner of the winners, the only person to have beaten her thus far. Her opponent opened hard, not giving her the opportunity to do so; they punched her and threw her to the ground. After taking a couple of hits she managed to wriggle free and struck back, landing a glancing blow on her opponent's shoulder. It wasn't much, but she managed to get back on her feet in time to sidestep her opponent's next attack and kick them in the back of the knee, which knocked them off-balance for a moment. They returned the favor though, then grabbed her arm when she lashed out and pushed her to the ground again. This time, though, she twisted and rolled them under her, managing to land a couple of blows on their head while they were down there.

The two separated, Peace's opponent bucking her off and making their way to their feet breathlessly. She was starting to feel tired herself, but rushed in anyway with the hope that she would take her opponent off-guard. She didn't, earning a kick to the side for her trouble, but before her opponent could drop their leg she caught it and punched the side of their head. Even through the padding it must have hurt, as they dropped immediately. Once they were down, she pinned her opponent's arms and hooked her feet under their thighs, ruining any chance of using leverage to escape easily. After several seconds of them flailing under her, she was declared the winner. They shook hands, bowed to each other, and then class officially ended.

After the visitors left and just before Peace went to change out of her uniform, Pryor called her over to the front desk. He informed her that this was to be her last class per the original agreement. He told her he wished she would stick around, understood if she couldn't, wished her luck in the meantime, and presented her with an orange belt for her trouble. No matter what she decided to do, he told her she should keep up her practicing and try to stay out of fights she couldn't win. Peace nodded, shook his hand, and went to the back to change clothes. She couldn't very well leave her uniform someplace she was never going to be from now on, so she folded it all up as tightly as she could and slid it down into her backpack. The belt went on top due to its rigidity, but the entire setup looked very bulky with the extra set of clothes in the pack. She would need to get a larger backpack, she thought to herself as she wandered out into the city.

Notes for myself:

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• Blocking II: +11
  
• Footwork II: +11
  
• Basic Striking I: +11
  
• Trips: +11
  
• A note on the above: These are the aspects of her fighting style Peace is currently training as a yellow belt. 1d20, DC 15 increases the bonus by +1, natural 20 grants +2. Reaching 10 means mastery of a certain area for the current training level. After one reaches +10, its roll is transferred to a reroll for another to signify a shift in focus. After every 5 classes, anything with a +10 can be transferred out for something else. Sparring allows for a second roll for the class and occurs on a roll of 5 or 6 for colored belts below green, 3-6 for green to brown, and 2-6 above that on 1d6.
  
• Belt order at this dojo: White, white-yellow, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown, brown-red, red, black (1st-10th dan).
  
• Nippon Kempo: 18/18 classes attended.

 

[Ergo War]

Peace strolled through the neighborhoods of the Bronx absentmindedly, her pack bulging from the extra volume of her martial arts uniform. She smelled like someone who hadn't properly showered after a workout, which was appropriate, as she was in that exact situation. As she contemplated whether she was hungry enough to warrant grabbing some food while in the city, she spotted an absolutely fabulous hat in front of a store. After a second or two she also noticed the familiar boy underneath it and waved.

Philipwn

 

[Philipwn]

Gil fumed silently, leaving yet another underground market without finding anything like the armor he envisioned, or anyone capable of making it for him. He'd been looking around for most of the day several days in a row now, and so far had essentially no leads. At the moment he was distracting himself by looking through other, more traditional shops. In reality he needed to conserve his funds in case his armor required some kind of down payment, but window shopping was better than nothing, which was what he felt he was accomplishing. He'd been standing in front of the current shop window for about two minutes, when...

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Ergo War

 

[Ergo War]

As soon as Peace realized Gil hadn't seen her, she crouched down so he wouldn't see her reflection as she crept over to him. As soon as she was in place behind him, she rose up slowly while swaying back and forth, her eyes crossed, her cheeks sucked in, and her hands flapping on either side of her face. She would continue the motion for a few moments, but if Gil didn't notice she'd keep making faces until he did. If he took too long, though, she'd have to resort to slightly tilting his hat to one side, and no one would consider the disruption of such style a good thing, not even in the most dire of circumstances.

Philipwn

 

[Philipwn]

Gil had committed to being surly for the rest of the day, scowling to himself as he looked into the shop window. This then, only increased the intensity of his outburst and laughing fit when suddenly Peace's face began swimming around reflected in the window in front of him. Swimming here applying both to its motion in the two dimensional plane and to apply to the fairly impressive fish impression his friend was doing.

After eventually collecting himself, sides and cheeks burning from laughing so hard and smiling so much respectively, he briefly hugged his friend in appreciation for so quickly and efficiently improving his mood, and then released her to ask how she was and what she was doing downtown.

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Ergo War

 

[Ergo War]

Peace patted Gil on the back when he hugged her. It was nice to see she could get a giggle out of him occasionally. In response to his questions she gave him a thumbs-up, pulled the orange belt out of her backpack, and pointed roughly toward the martial arts studio she had been attending several blocks away. It wouldn't be visible, but accuracy was important in these matters.

That didn't answer the most pressing question in Peace's mind, which was why Gil had elected to come out here. He had less of an attachment to the city than she did and more animosity toward it, after all. She pointed at him and cocked an eyebrow before glancing at the storefront he'd been staring at.

Philipwn

 

[Philipwn]

Gil's mood fell slightly at the reminder of his purpose here, though he still felt much better than he had for a couple days now. He recounted his litany of failures, all the places he'd gone to find high quality armor and come back empty handed. He further explained his recent window shopping and people watching as a distraction from those failures. Belatedly, he remembered to congratulate his friend on her orange belt. Gil was not familiar with the color rankings of that particular martial art, but it was definitely progress, and deserved accolade.

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Ergo War

 

[Ergo War]

Peace nodded as she put her belt back in her backpack. Armor was a potentially very costly but very useful thing to have. Even she had a use for it if she could find some, though it hadn't really occurred to her to look for some in any serious capacity.

She held up her hand with her pinky outstretched toward Gil and her thumb pointed toward herself, pointed to her eyes with her index and middle fingers, and then gestured in random directions using the same two fingers without breaking eye contact with the lad. She had nothing better to do, so there was no reason not to give him a hand at searching. At the same time her stomach let out a mighty gurgle worthy of the gods themselves.

Philipwn

 

[Philipwn]

Gil attempted to hold back a smile at his friend's obvious hunger. If he had a nickel for every time he ran into Peace in the city and found her hungry... he'd still be very much in debt from that first time he bought her hamburgers. Gil asked what type of food the quiet girl would like to eat, figuring that she had much more experience with the restaurants in the city than he did.

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Ergo War

 

[Ergo War]

Peace looked around when asked about food. She wasn't one to argue when it came to getting something to eat, but she wasn't overly familiar with the restaurants on this side of town. Normally she would search out a burger joint and inhale everything in sight there, but she figured that a stomach growl that titanic necessitated something more immediate. She pointed to a nearby hole-in-the-wall restaurant: Indian food.

After being momentarily overwhelmed by the smells inside the restaurant and the sheer size of its menu, Peace walked up to the register and found a paper menu she could hold. That, at least, made communicating an order much easier; she simply pointed to a couple of random entries. She forked over some cash and stepped aside so Gil could order.


• -$30 for food.

Philipwn

 

[Philipwn]

Gil mused that he would never stop being surprised by how much food his friend could eat, given her slight frame. He'd known her long enough that he definitely expected it, but that mild shock feeling never stopped surfacing when he actually saw her eat. Managing to drag himself out of his thoughts long enough to place an order, deciding on the chicken tikka masala. As they waited for their food to arrive, Gil vented his frustrations with not finding anywhere to buy armor, slowly losing some of the anger and bitterness through commiseration. When he'd finally had his say, he leaned back, relaxed for the first time in a while, and waited to hear -or rather see- what had been going on in Peace's life lately.

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Ergo War

 

[Ergo War]

Peace didn't offer much in the way of her shenanigans since the last she'd seen Gil, instead focusing on the armor question. When their food came out and Peace saw what she'd ordered she looked confused for a moment, but took a bite as she gestured out a thought. First she flexed one arm and slapped her bicep. She held the pose for a second as if to emphasize it, then mimed like she was grabbing something small and cylindrical with both hands, raised her hands, and brought them down a couple of times in a chopping motion.

Communicating this thought would not be as easy as most of the ones she tended to have. She placed a hand flat on the table and made smaller chopping motions with her other arm toward the hand. After a moments she raised her hands up as she had earlier and made a couple of larger chops. Then she held up a finger, raised her eyebrows as if to emphasize this next part, flexed one arm and slapped the bicep again. People gave her weird looks as she took a second bite of her food. Without breaking eye contact with Gil she started taking large gulps of her drink no more than a second later.

Philipwn