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 Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 10:40 am
  SCENARIOKiran encounters Yue Lao in a wild mood; she can't seem to control her anger, and it looks like Kiran is going to have to fight her to straighten her out!
Bitter Words
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Face your demons generated a random number between
1 and 3 ...
1!
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 10:42 am
• [ THE OUTCOME OF THIS BATTLE: ] •
Legion win.
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 11:24 am
From the shadows, Yue twisted her hands around the monkey fist. It was coarse, and she liked that sensation. Kiran might seem unarmed, but she had once fought the same way that he was likely about to. Bare handed fighting had been her strongest technique, a bone-breaking style which could send even the most muscular warriors howling with pain if one was to execute it right. Yue had always been a little wild and unpredictable with her fighting style, however, and that was trained out of her in the Academy. She was almost done, her style improving regularly; not only had she learned how to control her bone-breaking, but she now fought using a meteor hammer. The baby version, anyway; a rope monkey-fist meant only for training. Which was a good way to start, because she had already hit herself in the face with it a few times.
In the dark, Yue used her free hand to slide a loose bit of hair away from her face. Her skin was hot to the touch. She was angry. For a brief moment, she forgot how mad she was, as if she was stepping back from her body to look at the situation. As soon as that was over, all her emotions washed over her and she was choked with the desire to fight. To draw blood. Only that was never her fighting style; Yue had never been one to break the skin. What she did damaged the flesh and bone beneath, attacked what others couldn't always see. She tore people up from the inside.
Before, she had been unreachable. Without care. She spoke in riddles, bounded from one friendship to the other at no cost to herself. Everything was transient. Since joining the Academy, she had begun making bonds, be it as an enemy or a friend. Things had changed. She switched to the monkey fist, so that she had something to compliment her melee fighting style; even ranged opponents, ideally, could be stopped with the use of this weapon. That was the goal. Right now, she was still rough, still not used to the monkey fist. She had learned to control it much better over time, though; she didn't hit herself like she used to.
Yue tensed her hand over her monkey fist, and gripped it, prepared. She stepped out of the shadows and looped it upwards, so that its arc began behind Kiran. She pulled it back towards her, punching near his arm with its motion. Basically she had looped it behind him and tugged it back to her in one fluid motion. Not to hurt or even to make hard contact, but to warn him: this is how I fight, can you still break my anger?
"What's wrong, fiend? Can't hit a girl?" Yue smirked, and a shadow passed over her eyes. She remembered laughing with him, being happy with her friend. But right now, she was being selfish. Her mood was all that mattered to her. Just like it used to be.
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 2:02 pm
He had to remind himself to breathe as he stood there waiting, tensely, for Yue to make the first strike. For a brief moment, his breath had caught in his throat as he gaze into the darkness, trying to make out Yue's form among the shadows. His ear-fins twitched, trying to pick up on the slightest of movements that she made before attacking. Despite his confident words, there was a smidgen of doubt trying to worm its way into his mind. In previous fights, he had never fought against someone wielding a weapon. He had sparred with Uncle using staffs, though he found he didn't much like that weapon of choice. Uncle always managed to get the upper hand in those sparring matches. And during his first encounter with Jianyu, Kiran had tried to penetrate through Jianyu's armor to get at his money purse. That plan failed miserably. His style of fighting of using his bare hands didn't match up well against armored opponents.
But it looked like Yue didn't wear armor, so that wouldn't cripple his style. But her weapon did worry him. He wasn't familiar with the monkey fist. Being a ranged weapon, the monkey fist provided Yue with the advantage. Kiran was a close quarters combatant. If he couldn't get near her, he wouldn't be able to land any kind of hit on her. He would have to hope his speed in dodging her attacks with the monkey fist would be fast enough to allow him to get in close to her. If he could remove the weapon as a factor, he believed his chances of winning this fight would be much higher.
Every muscle in his body tensed up when Yue stepped out of the shadows. Kiran fell into a defensive stand, his right foot sliding back and his left leg bending slightly. He raised his arms in front of him; his hands were open palms. The monkey fist arced upward. He twisted away, but it looped around him, lightly grazing his arm. He flinched, though it didn't hurt much. A dark look crossed his face. Was she playing with him with that attack?
"Come closer and find out. But when I hit, I don't go easy like that attack just now." Kiran smirked darkly. But a second whisper of doubt flickered in his mind. He had never fought against a girl before. It brought up flashes of his sister, and how he cruelly he treated her in those early years of growing up. Gritting his teeth, he glared at her. He launched toward her, deciding to skip anymore banter and get right to the fight.
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Posted: Sun May 22, 2011 12:34 am
Some shift occurred as Yue Lao stepped from the shadows, some small thing unhinging for good within her. Everything felt very distant, like she was playing some kind of game and her own body was the pawn. She could have gripped that rope so hard her hands bled, in that frame of mind; it wouldn't have mattered. She would have kept on fighting. There was nothing supernatural in the way she felt, it was just her reaction to feeling too strongly to cope. Guilt, mostly; guilt, sorrow, exhaustion. Hope and other balms would have to come later, once the fight was over... For now, she could only grip the current reality, in which she was facing off against someone she had considered her friend.
"Easy how, fiend? Easy as in I gave you an easy out? Easy to mock, easy to retaliate against, easy to see coming? Easy, easy, easy. Say it enough and it gets hard to remember what easy means," Yue said, returning to her riddle roots. She used to speak in riddles all the time, or at least so cryptically and with such convoluted conviction that it was difficult to follow what she was saying. She swung her monkey fist in circles, gaining momentum.
When she fought Cais and Sakn, she had been too careless, allowing herself to take a hit early on. She wasn't big enough for that kind of show of strength, so instead, she took a step back. It backfired, though; she slid in the mud and nearly hit her head against the wall. Recovering from the slide, she spun to face Kiran again.
"I'll be happy to oblige your desire to fight, fiend," Yue said, low, her eyes narrowed even in the shadows. She swept the monkey fist towards his ankles, a rope snare made with the momentum of the swinging and the weight of the knot at the end.
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Posted: Sun May 22, 2011 1:43 pm
Somewhere in the midst of listening to the angry ramble, the words got lost. He tried to sort out the meaning, but it was just a tangled mess in his head. "You sure like to throw around words until they've become worthless." Kiran bit back with a sneer twisted upon his face. "Does that make you feel any better? But if you're looking for an answer, easy as in your attack just now. I hardly believe that was your real strength. Because if it were, then this will be a sadly easy fight. And that wouldn't be very satisfying, now would it? If you're going to attack, you shouldn't hold back."
Kiran ran at her, his feet slapping against the ground and mud slurping beneath his feet. He kept an eye on the swinging monkey fist, wary of when it would let fly again at him. Then Yue slid, and Kiran hesitated. His expression softening, he almost reached out to catch her. Hadn't he promised to always catch her? It seemed like such a far off memory now, or maybe a dream of a memory. He wasn't sure at that moment. But she recovered in the next instance before he could even reach out to catch her.
But a moment of hesitation is all that was needed to lose a fight sometimes.
He tried to get his head back in the game quickly. But it wasn't quick enough to catch the subtle movement before the monkey fist flew out toward his ankles. He moved back a quick step, but it wasn't fast enough to avoid having his ankle wrapped up by the rope. It was tight and rubbed against his bare ankle. Gritting his teeth, he yanked hard on the rope with his foot as he twisted around on his free foot.
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Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 1:23 pm
Yue Lao tilted her head, her eyes blank, as though she was confused or surprised. "Words are worthless, they start out so," Yue replied. Can't heal a wound with words, or cook dinner, or sew cloth. In fact, it seemed like they did more damage than good, lately. It was difficult to spark Yue's temper with insults like that; unless it was directed towards Jianyu or threatened her mothers in some way, Yue wasn't typically bothered by them. "If it's an easy fight, go ahead, fiend; show me how weak I am," she replied, "There are many things I keep to myself. Maybe my strength is one of them."
She liked Kiran, she really did. They had gotten along pretty well. He was fun. But he didn't know everything about her. She hid many things from prying eyes, and it was second nature to her to show only part of what she was about. However, when she slipped, was he about to catch her? At first, her heart softened, but then the guilt she felt and the selfishness just overwhelmed her again until she felt like she wanted to cry or scream.
Once her monkey fist had wrapped around his ankle, she jerked the line fast and unwrapped it, returning it to her side. She spun it above her head, and it became a rope blur.
Fallen or standing, she would soon unleash it against him, a sweeping ark that would crash down with its own weight and her momentum; a hook attack like before, but meant to hurt.
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Posted: Mon May 23, 2011 4:00 pm
Kiran wondered what could have happened to his friend to put her in this state. "I'm inclined to believe the opposite," Kiran told her coolly. "If words are so worthless, how can one word cut just as deeply as a sword?" Was that the reason? Had someone said something to her that pushed Yue over the edge? Guessing was all he could do at this point. Yue didn't seem likely to outright tell him what had gotten her this mad. And that made a ball of frustration press against his chest. They were friends, he thought. Shouldn't she be able to be open with him.
This type of weapon was beyond what he was used to fighting against. When training with Uncle, he fought against staffs. A flexible, ranged weapon was difficult to block against. The rope squeezed around his ankle when Yue jerked it and he tried to yank it the other way. He could already feel the numbness of needles and pins stinging through his foot as the blood was cut off from it.
His green eyes swept around the area. There wasn't much to see as dark shadows stretched across the street. Anything that he could use as a makeshift weapon was out of reach while his foot remained ensnared by the monkey fist. He would first need to deal with that, especially if he wanted his trapped foot to be of any used later in the fight. He briefly put weight on that slowly numbing foot as he darted forward a step toward her. But the numbness was enough to make him wobble, and he dropped into a crouch to maintain his balance. His left foot was weakened but would be useless to put all his weight on while attacking with his good foot. He leaned on his right foot as he kicked out with his left foot, aiming for Yue's shins.
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 12:20 pm
Yue seemed to grow even more frantic with Kiran's suggestions that words could hurt so much. "Maybe you're just weak, but words don't cut into me," she retorted. Her anger towards Kiran stung, but she just couldn't admit that something had hurt her. It wasn't even as though someone had been particularly cruel... Yowai just wanted her to know that she was being selfish. Which was true, but Yue had trouble acknowledging her own selfishness.
Kiran probably didn't deserve this. In fact, he seemed strangely kind despite what was going on... as though he wanted to figure her out. Find the root of her troubles. She couldn't quite manage to tell him; Yue Lao was not the kind to expose her true reasons so easily. Maybe if this could end... but it wasn't close to that, just yet. She was still filled with anger, and incapable of letting it go like that.
A good meteor hammer figher would be able to unwrap their weapon, and use it to block a kick like that. Yue was still a student, though, so her clumsy attempt resulted in her unwrapping the monkey fist from his ankle but failing to block using it. She managed to step back in time to avoid most of the blow, but her left shin took some of the pressure. She sucked in a break in pain, and raised her monkey fist again, a sweeping move which would hit him around the back of the head or back if she missed her target. Her legs stung, and she started out of the way of another kick as she aimed her blow.
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Posted: Tue May 24, 2011 4:26 pm
Kiran narrowed his eyes, like he was attempting to stare right into the very core of Yue, trying to figure out the truth. "I wouldn't be so sure about that," he returned with a frown carved across his face. "If words don't cut you, then what made you this angry?" He still didn't have the slightest idea of what was bothering Yue, and she didn't seem to be willing to give any hint to the reason behind her anger. He ground his teeth and tried not to scream out his own frustrations. Fighting, it seemed, was the only way he could help her at the moment.
His kick didn't land a completely successful hit, though he did manage to graze her left shin. The rope loosened around his ankle, a blessing as the blood was free to rush back into it. But his left foot would still need a moment before the numbness faded. He moved to roll out of the way, retreat and regroup before moving in to attack again. But he didn't move fast enough. The monkey fist slammed into his back, hitting right between his shoulder blades.
Kiran groaned, pushing back with his shoulder blades. That attack had struck too well. He would bet that it would be bruised for a few weeks. But now he was closer to some of the random items littering the street. He grabbed hold of a crate and threw it at Yue. His plan was to use it as a distraction so that he could close to Yue. As soon as the crate left his hands, Kiran charged toward her. The lingering numbness made it awkward to put weight on his left foot, but he tried to force the pains of his body out of his mind until the fight was over.
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Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 8:33 am
Yue Lao glared at Kiran. He looked like he was trying to see into her inner thoughts. After years of careful practice, learning from Yowai's stoic expressions, she didn't want Kiran to see very much. It was clear she was upset about something that had been done or said to her, and that it really had hurt her a lot, but what might have caused it could have been far too many things for any kind of accurate guess. That's what Yue assumed, in any case. How could Kiran know? She had never talked about her problems with him, not really. He didn't know that she had to keep her mothers a careful secret, that she cared for someone who never returned those feelings. For anyone else, that might seem easy, simple to get past. Yue couldn't just let it go. The only way she could sort it out so that it made sense was to fight, and so on Yue's own terms Kiran was helping her.
"Uselessness and selfishness," Yue retorted, "and knowing that we can't change a thing, not even if we want to." Yue noticed how frustrated Kiran was getting, but it only made her more eager to fight. She was making him suffer like she had to suffer. Not knowing drove her mad. That really was it. Not failing or being discarded, but not knowing if that was the case, or if she could ever really succeed. She wasn't able to see the future.
Yue Lao's shin throbbed. He had hit her much harder than she should have allowed, but she was angry and tired and in poor shape; she was not even as skilled as she might be on a better day. Not that she was incredibly talented to begin with. But soon she would be done her studies at the Academy, and she could train in real situations. Ones where she needed to avoid blows, or she could die. That kind of situation would make her learn, and fast.
The crate startled Yue. She tucked and rolled out of the way, off to the side, stepping back onto her feet. Her monkey fist was coiled in one hand.
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Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 2:01 pm
Her expression gave nothing away, adding to Kiran's frustration. He had no way of knowing what had brought on this anger now eating away at Yue. He never had any idea, not even a hint, of any problems that Yue might be facing. They had both been guarded about the information they let slipped to one another when they met. He doubted there was any tell to her words even if he had looked for a deeper meaning at that time. But he never had a reason to think of reading into her words then. Thinking back on their encounter, he couldn't remember anything that might help him to understand why things turned out like this.
"Who's uselessness? Who's selfishness?" Kiran demanded, still searching for some kind of understanding. But he felt like he was grasping straws that slipped from his hands each time he reached out for them. "What can't we change?" Could those answers help him in some way? That all depended on how Yue answered them, if she answered them at all. Talking really didn't seem to be getting them anywhere.
In training, Uncle had always told him to be careful of people fighting in anger. Sometimes, their movements could be predictable, but other times they could be highly unpredictable. They were best to watch and be wary of their movements. If he got too full of himself, thinking he could easily win, he might make a mistake that could cost him the fight. But this wasn't a fight he had anticipated. He wanted to quickly finish this fight, no matter the outcome. But unconscious hesitation held him back without him even truly realizing it. He wanted to help put a stop to Yue's anger, but he didn't want to seriously injure his friend.
Kiran watched as she dodged out of the way of the crate which crashed into the wall of a building. It smashed about, sending some splintered bits flying. He followed her movements as he drew back a fist. She was up on her feet by the time he was upon her. His fist flew forward, mostly, intending a hard punched to her face.
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 11:26 am
How could it surprise him? In fact, there must be no way that Kiran could have expected her to talk about what she was really bothered by. He hadn't shared anything with her, and that would define their experience together. Yue would sometimes match the degree of information offered, though it was rare, but to have someone guarded, she was just fine with that. If someone else was guarded it meant she would continue withholding all of her secrets as well. It was just that a lot more of her was secret than it should be for normal Lunarians. Her likes, dislikes, fears, joys, aspirations; many were secret, and it was just her way. Jianyu knew many of them, Sakn knew some, but Kiran, she had thought, didn't want to know any of them.
But he did say he would catch her, didn't he? Yue remembered that again, suddenly. It wasn't as though he wanted no connection at all. That was a connection. Perhaps it would just take more time before Kiran and Yue Lao understood one another more profoundly. "Me, fiend. Who else?" Yue mumbled, with a half smile that looked more like a smirk. Who else was selfish? Who else so useless? "Everything, nothing can be changed. Prove things can change, fiend; I wish that you could."
She was being irritatingly reticent with details, she knew. But to her, she was saying everything. It was just a code. A code that needed to be deciphered. Yue tried not to get splinters in her skin or face as the box shattered, and she was pretty sure she succeeded. Startled by his sudden charge, Yue didn't think. She just swung her rope monkey fist, as hard as she could, for the charging target.
Did that just hit him in the face?
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Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 2:01 pm
The response stunned him, even if it didn't reveal too much. Yue thought she was useless and selfish? That hardly sounded like the girl he remembered meeting on the rooftop and picnicking at the fountain then running away from the guard after they fell in. That girl had seemed happy, if a little guard in what she revealed to him. "You're not any of those things!" Kiran shouted in frustration. Knowing his words probably wouldn't reach her in her current state only added to his own anger. "I don't think you're useless or selfish. I don't know what happened to make you think that. But believe me. You're not!"
He didn't know what to say about the other thing. He didn't know what she wished could be changed. It would be pointless to tell her that it could be if it really was something that couldn't be changed. He knew there were things that couldn't be changed, no matter how much a person wanted to change it. If that was the type of situation, Kiran believed it would only make Yue angrier if he tried to convince things could change.
The monkey fist swung at him. Kiran saw it coming. He moved to dodge it, halting in his attack. But he couldn't move fast enough to avoid the weapon. The monkey fist smacked him right in the fist. Kiran stumbled backward and landed on his back. His hand reached up to hold the spot where the monkey fist had scored a blow. It didn't feel like any bones had broke, though he was certain he would have ended up with a broken nose if he hadn't managed to dodge even a little. But as it was, he would have a black eye for weeks. His mother would throw a fit over this, but that was only a whisper of a thought in his mind at that moment. All he could focus on at that point was the throbbing pain blossoming from his left eye.
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Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2011 8:46 am
Kiran thought that she was wrong? How could-- no, of course it was possible. He had yet to really get to know the other side of her, the side that manipulated and coaxed and took what it wanted while discarding the rest. The side she was trying to overcome. But even this fight was an act of that selfishness. She wanted to feel better, and apparently didn't care who it hurt. "I want to believe you, fiend. I do."
The hit connected, solidly. Yue Lao's anger as Kiran fell dissipated, not immediately but slowly, and she coiled her monkey fist around her shoulder, approaching him. He was hurt, but how badly? It couldn't possibly be that bad... She lowered herself onto her knees at his side, and helped him sit up, if he'd let her. She would hold him up, keep him out of the rain as much as she could. Something in her had snapped. The one Lunarian who was around, to fight her out of this, and she really had kept on attacking until he was injured. That was terrible. It was terrible for her to have done such a thing. And she understood that. The knowledge that she had learned what was too much, that she felt something for someone other than herself... it was what she had wanted in the first place.
So she would hold on, if he'd let her. "Kiran... I'm sorry, for everything I've done." Her mood must seem nearly mercurial, but her rage was rare and it was not what she was meant to be like. Before her training, her temper had been so difficult to stoke. Lately.. everything seemed to hurt or upset her. She hated that. She wanted to be back to normal. Or to change, which was more likely what would happen... She would have to pick up the pieces, but she would try. First, she really wanted to get Kiran somewhere dry.
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