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Post by Jiren on Oct 16, 2019 3:32:44 GMT -5
Scorch nestled himself into his favorite meditation spot, and prepared for another experience like the one he encountered with Lord Frieza previously. He took out the gem from his pocket and marveled at the glint off of one of its faces. Just as before the changeling placed the gem in the crook of his indian-style legs. Closing his eyes, he opened himself up to the room around him. The lava flows in the walls, the humidity that permeated this cave, he was at home. The vibrations created by the flowing magma and water beneath the chamber, it all combined to relax Scorch and soothe his mind.
He touched the gem with his mind, and before he knew it, his mind was transported to an arena of the mind. This time, unlike the last, it was his mind that created the ring. A large cavern, much like that which he was meditating in, except this time there were lava flows coming down the walls, and creating a marbled effect on the floor. "Ahh, the comfort of home field advantage." Scorch quietly looked around the cavern, admiring the red marbling effect that was prevalent in the walls and stalagtites.
As his eyes scanned the room, he saw a hazy blob slowly resolve into a black haired figure.
WC: 219
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Post by Kyuuri on Oct 17, 2019 2:55:21 GMT -5
Sitting on the couch at Kame House with a half-finished bottle of beer in his hand, Kyuuri eyed the gem sitting on the table as if it was some sort of wild animal--a dangerous snake that would jump off th table and bare its venomous fangs if he let it out of his sight. How had he let Roshi convince him to even give this a try? Maybe it was the beer he had been handed after walking in the door from playing Pachinko in one of the parlors on the promenade in South City. He had started to learn that the drink had a relaxing effect on the mind. Was Roshi trying to lull him into a false sense of security?
Well, whatever. Kyuuri was on vacation anyway. The alcohol served to prevent him from getting too wound up like others of his race.
According to Roshi, the gem could be used as some sort of training method: fighting against spectral opponents using his mind or some such weird ass hocus pocus. Even before he had heard the words that sounded like so much stupid superstition, the mention of training methods already had the young Saiya-jin's guard up. After all, this was the same person who had wanted him to wear a heavy as hell giant turtle shell when he was on vacation. Too much physical training was for complete idiots who didn't know how to use their heads. Just like the Saiya-jin people who had exiled him from the homeworld. Just because he had figured out better fighting methods by working smarter and not harder like some neanderthal. The joke ended up being on them after all: the concept of a vacation that the humans had developed with all its strange trappings like the myriad of alcohols and lush greenery spots was a luxury beyond the understanding of the Saiya-jin people. And he was getting to experience it all on his own!
Screw training.
However, Kyuuri knew that if he didn't at least try the stupid gem training method, Roshi wouldn't let him hear the end of it. And the Saiya-jin didn't want to hear the old man nag when he eventually got a good buzz going, so he set the beer down on the wooden table with a disgruntled sigh. "Alright, stupid gem," he muttered darkly, flicking his fingers to get the condensation from the bottle off his hand. "It's just you and me now. Let's get this thing over with."
Taking a deep breath, the young Saiya-jin closed his eyes, letting himself enjoy the smell of the alcohol on his own breath. Slowly, his senses began to fade from his surroundings more than what he could give credit to the beer for. It was like the Doppler Effect: senses that were previously loud became soft until they were nonexistent, replaced with a soft sound of something else that was slowly growing louder. Was that...a lava flow? That gurgling sound that was much deeper that the higher-pitched sound of water was unmistakable. He could feel himself making a face at the thought of the last time he had been on a planet with active lava sources. Not the best of memories.
Opening eyes that were not actually his physical eyes was an odd experience to say the least. It was as if the world that he was seeing through meditation had become a physical place--like an out of body experience that some of the religious beggars he had seen in South City refer to. Mentally, Kyuuri rolled his eyes. If that was the case, he wouldn't be able to give them crap for it next time. Though, he was pretty sure they were all on some sort of herbal hallucinogen, so their accuracy was rather suspect.
As Kyuuri's dark eyes began to focus on his surroundings, so too would the Icer's perception of him start to sharpen from the hazy blob into a full figure. Though, what a strange sight he must have been: a bright blue Hawaiian shirt with a pair of shorts and sandals on his feet. He was the picture of a human being on vacation. If not for the tail wrapped around his waist and his messy dark hair, one would probably not even recognize him as a member of his actual race. Was Scorch having some sort of fever dream or strange side effect from his particular crystal?
Glancing around at the rocks of the cavern in which he found himself, the young Saiya-jin shoved his hands abruptly into the pockets of his shorts. "Looks...homey," he stated with a wry smile. Yeah, he didn't regret his exile from the Saiya-jin people at all.
Finally, he caught Scorch's figure. Though, Kyuuri's demeanor didn't change upon seeing someone from the race that would be the enemy of his people. If anything, it seemed like resignation. "Really?" he asked himself rhetorically. "Of all the ghost opponents this weird thing could come up with, this is what it gives me?" Shrugging his shoulders with his hands still nestled firmly in his pockets, he continued. "Eh, whatever. May as well give this thing a spin before Roshi complains." He was freeloading at the old man's place, after all.
"Hey, you there!" he called out to Scorch. "Ghost Icer thing! You're here to fight someone, right? I'll play with you for a little while."
With that, the young Saiya-jin's entire demeanor changed. It wasn't that his body posture shifted or even that he had moved. In fact, his hands were still in his pockets. But, rather he himself was giving off a feeling that Scorch could probably perceive rather clearly--this Saiya-jin was extremely dangerous despite how foolish he probably looked.
"Come on then, Ghostie," he stated with a voice that contained a murderous and simultaneously mirthful tone. "I don't have all day."
WC: 978
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Post by Jiren on Oct 17, 2019 3:39:12 GMT -5
Scorch watched the Saiyan warrior’s astral form slowly materialize. As his opponent looked around and got his bearings Scorch remembered back to his confusion his first time he experienced this place. Lord Frieza, his sworn enemy of all the possible martial artists in the world. Now, he was faced with one of Lord Frieza’s henchmen. An experience like this, was something that could very readily give a man a complex, make him think that the universe was out to get him. It could really make a man re-think his life and trying to decipher what in the world he did, to get such negative karma.
Scorch thought back to the shady guy that he bought the gem from, and wondered if maybe that somehow had anything to do with this gem seemingly being twisted to present him with his sworn enemies. He sighed, and thought back to his last real life fight. The ship. He was torn between wanting to stop Lord Frieza and others like him through means that did not subject others to the hardships that he himself had experienced as a child, and wanting to do the most ruthless things necessary to become powerful enough to gut his sworn enemies. After all, gutting people was in his species nature, and he was constantly fighting against it lately. That fight was also one that he felt himself slowly losing. Murdering those aliens, and the Guild leader could not have exactly been conducive to redeeming himself.
The universe seems like it has some grand plan for me, but I reject that plan. I make my own rules. “You, Saiyan, did Lord Frieza send you. First I meet him here, and then one of his goons,” Scorch bellowed, his voice several octaves deeper than other members of his race. He stepped closer, and dug his foot into the thin layer of dust on the floor of the cave.
This action actually caught his attention mentally, dust, in the astral realm, the detail of this construct was astounding. While he had allowed his mind to ponder such a thing, the attire of his opponent dawned on him, a blue shirt, with flowers in a slightly different shade of blue. Searching his memory, he was unable to determine what this sort of attire was used for, or even called, but it did not seem like training clothing, and that in and of itself was strange to him. It was also definitely not the Saiyan armor that most of Frieza’s men wore. “Hey, where is your armor, Saiyan?”
Scorch shrugged his shoulders as the opponent goaded him to attack, but Scorch was redoubling his efforts in patience. He instead adjusted his clothing, and prepared for the opponent to come to him. He had encountered another Saiyan on the ship he had stowed away on, and he had learned the hard way, that even the weakest of these pitiful creatures could pack a far greater punch than most would ever give them credit for.
“Welcome to my Meditation Chamber, Saiyan,” Scorch nodded at Kyuuri, and smiled, his head cocked slightly to the side. “Please, won’t you make yourself comfortable?”
WC: 529 Total WC: 748
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Post by Kyuuri on Oct 17, 2019 13:11:42 GMT -5
And now they could get started. And...
What?
Was this Icer apparition not going to attack him? Was this gem thing broken or something? Did he have to do everything himself? This really was a giant pain in the ass. Maybe there was some flaw in the gem's construction. Or maybe whoever created the thing hadn't counted on its user drinking alcohol before using it. Remember, kids, don't drink and use strange mystical objects.
However, when Scorch began talking, the young Saiya-jin smiled wryly. There it was. That haughty attitude that all Icers seemed to have where they thought they could order everyone around just by being who they were. He could remember that feeling deep in his bones from when he used to live on the Saiya-jin homeworld.
"Sorry, Ghostie," Kyuuri began with a halfhearted shrug as he didn't feel like removing his hands from his pockets for a full one. "I don't work for Frieza. At least, not anymore. I'm pretty sure my contract was voided when my own people exiled me from our world." At seeing Scorch's confusion at his attire, it forced the Saiya-jin to actually look down at his clothing. That's right, he wasn't wearing his armor! He couldn't help but actually laugh a little out loud--a short, barking laugh that was half humor and half self-deprecation. "And I'm not wearing armor because I'm on vacation," he continued. "I probably won't need it anyway. Plus, I could get used to this sort of clothing. Nice and breezy and light."
Stopping for a moment, Kyuuri quirked an eyebrow. Did the Icers even understand the concept of a vacation? The idea had been completely foreign to him until he arrived on Earth since Saiya-jin only really understood the struggle for survival, and if one ever took a break from that they would just be dead anyway. Were Icers similar in that fashion? From what he knew, Frieza likely never took a day off from his push for galactic conquest. Would this Icer even understand what he was saying? Well, no matter. It was just a ghost anyway.
"As much as I'd like to sit and relax in your little lava cave deathtrap, I've got things to get back to," the young Saiya-jin stated with a wry smile. "So, I hope you don't mind if we get started at a bit of a higher gear than you may be used to, Ghostie."
One minute Kyuuri was standing there relaxed with his hands in his pockets and the next he was already in front of Scorch sending his right knee directly into the Icer's abdomen followed by a left knee. With his hands still in his pockets, he used the momentum and leverage of his left knee strike to spin in the air to catch his opponent with a spinning heel kick with his right heel to the face. Provided this struck, the force would drive Scorch backward where he would be faced with Kyuuri once again driving a front kick into his solar plexus followed by an overhead somersault strike with the Saiya-jin's left leg to drive the Icer's face into the ground.
While Scorch's vision was obscured, Kyuuri would rise into the air and finally remove his hands from his pockets to cup them directly in front of himself to send two long streams of bright blue Ki energy directly at the Icer's body on the ground.
All the while Kyuuri was attacking, his mind was still wandering. How did time pass here? Would his beer still be cold when he got back? Nothing was worse than beer that was chilled getting warm. Hopefully, this was one of those "time passes differently in this space" kinds of things. Otherwise, that was a really large waste of beer. He still had half a bottle left! And he really didn't want to have to go out and find another human with those slips of green paper to knock out in order to get some more. That entailed going all the way off the island Kame House was on and that hoofing it all the way to South City. This better be one of those temporal whatsit deals because like Hell was he going to do that. And he knew that old man Roshi wasn't about to do it. And not taking the old man's beer was one of the few things keeping the peace, he knew.
Well, the faster he finished this, the faster he could go back to drinking on the couch. Maybe after that he could take a nap? That would be nice.
Life was good.
A1: 2QA (Knee, Knee) + SA (Kick) A2: 2SA (Kick, Kick) A3: Bukujutsu + Energy Wave Speed: Energy Wave
Taking the -1 Action as if I was the first poster in the thread. Thought that would be more fair since I started combat.
WC: 811/1,789
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Post by Jiren on Oct 18, 2019 3:04:43 GMT -5
Scorch listened to the Saiyan, and something struck him, I think he things this is all, just some sort of mental thing, that he is alone here. He calls me Ghostie, like he thinks I am not real. Mayhaps there is something there, he definitely seems to have a different way of things than most Saiyans. This fighter however, took Scorch by surprise, when he attacked while his hands were confined within his pockets, this tactic was definitely something that he should pay attention to, as it could very well be something he could use one day. If it works, use it. Never ignore a tool because you don't like the one who created it, it was something his mother used to say. He didn't remember what lesson she had been trying to impart at the time, because he had tuned her out almost as soon as she started yammering on that day.
As for his opponent, kick, kick, kick. Then another kick, all with his hands in his pockets, this Saiyan was either cocky, or good. He wanted to yell at the man to fight light an adult, not a toddler, but he didnt get the chance to do so, as he took his hands out of his pockets, just in time to blast Scorch in the face. Mentally he rewound the last few seconds. The first kick had definitely hit home, he could feel the spot on his stomach where the knee hit, the second knee was a glancing blow, but it was enough, it was a setup. Scorch's attempt to correct from the knee strikes had set him up perfectly for the boot hell he took to the face. He stumbled a bit, and the Saiyans next swing missed what he could only assume was the intended target, because when the next foot came, Scorch was looking up at it, he flinched though as one of the feet neared his face, and the next thing he knew, he was on his back, looking up at the pair of ki blasts.
The changeling did what any sane fighter would do, if you cant avoid both, at least avoid one of them. He rolled to the left, with the help of his tail, and found his feet. The saiyan had gotten in several good hits, and he could definitely feel it. It was at times like this that he wondered what it would be like to have that Saiyan blood, getting stronger after every fight, especially if you lose. There was a name for it, but he had not heard it enough to remember it.
As Scorch regained his feet, he wasted no time, he immediately lifted his hands as if to give his opponent finger guns, looking directly into the eyes of the other man, he unleashed his own energy blasts, except they came from his index fingers and his eyes. Rushing in after his opponent, he charged forward, as if he was about to punch his enemy head on, but instead of doing so, he fell to the floor, sliding forward and between the legs of his opponent, then he saw it, the Saiyan's tail. Stopping his own momentum with his tail, while simultaneously using it to help him regain his footing, he reached for the enemies tail, in the hopes that he could immobilize his opponent in this manner. As he reached for the tail, he spoke, in an attempt to distract his opponent, and hopefully, make his chances of grabbing the tail better, "Do you think I am ghost? Some sort of apparition? I can assure you, that I am real, I am Scorch, and I am in a cave very much like this one right now, on the planet Frieza. I mean, that is why I invited you to make yourself comfortable in my meditation chambers after all."
WC: 644 Total WC: 1,392
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Post by Kyuuri on Oct 18, 2019 13:48:02 GMT -5
The contact the Saiya-jin felt against his knees and feet brought him back to his immediate senses out of his reverie. Thinking about temporal shifts between dimensions and how cold his beer would be was all fine and good, but even for a Saiya-jin as oddly intelligent and witty as Kyuuri was, the moment battle was joined in earnest his battle instincts would take over his idle thoughts. Brow furrowing as his ki blasts struck the cave floor causing pebbles to spray outward with dust starting to kick up around the two of them, he was immediately ready for Scorch's next move.
He didn't expect them to be finger gun blasts, though. What was that? Some kind of new Icer dance move? Though, it was then that he likely did something unexpected himself.
Most Saiya-jin would likely have simply crossed their arms in front of them to bear the brunt of the ki attacks and power through them. After all, for the Saiya-jin their toughness was their forte. Known for going through from planet to planet being able to withstand the harshest environments and attacks, it stood to reason that just like any other of his race, Kyuuri would simply power through whatever the Icer would dish out. And why wouldn't Scorch expect him to?
However, the young Saiya-jin dodged backward and downward from the air to land back on the ground in a crouch, giving ground instead of surging forward like so many of his idiotic Saiya-jin compatriots, the blasts from the Icer sailing overhead to shatter a stalactite into rocks, adding more dust to the fray. Gathering his Ki energy into one hand, he waited until the smoke from both sets of blasts cleared slightly to reveal Scorch coming up to where he thought he would be to grab his tail and sent forward his blast directly at that point.
Taking a moment, Kyuuri kept his hands before him, one hand in a fist and one with an open palm as he assessed what had been said. Scorch did seem oddly more coherent than some sort of strange apparition. Letting his palm fall to his waist to check that his tail was still wrapped firmly around his waist and had not fallen free, his dark eyes met Scorch's.
"They call me Kyuuri," the Saiya-jin replied, introducing himself in kind. "So this crystal thing transports us to an actual location? And here I thought it was some sort of "theater of the mind test yourself against yourself" kind of bullcrap. This is quite a bit more than I expected." Pausing for a moment, he continued. "I should apologize then. I attacked you thinking that you were not real."
WC: 450/2,239
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Post by Jiren on Oct 19, 2019 16:46:59 GMT -5
Scorch chuckled a little bit at the Saiyan's comments, 'Theatre of the Mind', the chuckle was more of an acknowledgement that the saiyan was not wrong, than anything else. It was indeed a Theatre of the Mind, except from what Scorch had come to understand, this was a place where their minds could go, seemingly subject to the same limitations as the realm world, but with a few key differences. Such as the fact that the last time, when he had fought Freiza, he was uninjured when his mind returned to the real world.
"From what I can tell, this seems to be some sort of realm where we can affect our surroundings, in limited ways. The first to appear seems to somehow dictate the surrounding that we will meet in, but I do not fully understand how it happens, i have not yet unlocked the ability to make it what I wish, my meditation cave here seems to have been the easiest thing for this place to have extracted from my mind. I do rather like it though, wouldn't you agree? A nice change from the cold of space?
Scorch nodded as the man continued to talk, watching his every movement, sizing up the opponent. From Scorch's best guess, this man had him beaten in every way, so he would have to strategize. The changeling dropped back into the defensive stance that he had becomes so accustomed to, despite the offensive training that Lord Frost had been teaching him, Scorch still preferred this method of fighting, letting the opponent's movements dictate yours, dodging, striking when the time was right, the exposition of his partner seemed like the perfect time to test not only himself, but the reflexes of this Saiyan, the first person he had really encountered that was close to him strength wise.
The red changeling charged forward, he was preparing to attempt a gore maneuver, halfway to his opponent, he reared his fist back, he had every intention of swinging the fist, even is the swing was simply a diversion, when he got to the opponent a quick dip of his head, and he lifted his whole body up, and backwards, using his tail as a stop, limiting the range of the backwards movement. After this maneuver he turned and looked for his opponent, hoping to see him laying on the ground, possibly even gored by the changelings horn.
When he spied his opponent, Scorch spoke up again, "There is no need to apologize, we are here to learn from one another, this arena is to test ourselves, even try out new moves before our own lives are on the line. As you may or may not have guessed, injuries sustained here, do not translate back to the real world, yet the knowledge that we gain from our experiences here do.'
Scorch took a further step back to put distance between himself and his opponent, each step itself, represented the fractions of a second that could be the difference between an attack landing, and that same attack missing.
WC: 515 Total: 1,907
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Post by Kyuuri on Oct 19, 2019 23:06:03 GMT -5
As the Icer charged toward him, Kyuuri mentally readied himself for the punch that was coming. He began to raise his hand to bat it away when suddenly, his hand touched air where a fist should be. His body began to react to the emergency situation before his mind had registered his eyes seeing Scorch's head down with horns stretched toward him and he moved sideways. Though, as the dust settled, the Saiya-jin's bright blue shirt had a large tear in the front of it and a long scratch across his chest. While he had managed to avoid the brunt of the blow, it was not as if he had emerged completely unscathed. As the two faced each other at the distance that Scorch had bought himself, they stared at each other for a few moments. Finally, the tension was interrupted by a sharp noise. Followed by another.
The young Saiya-jin was clapping.
"Well, if the goal is to try out new moves, I'd suggest you keep that one," he said with a wry smile and humor in his voice. "It was a pretty good one." Cracking his neck he relaxed from his stance and stood straight. "Though, I should probably get going. My beer is probably getting warm, and I'm not really one to do much training in the first place. Maybe we'll meet again some other time. Keep working on that move, though! Really did take advantage of your natural movements."
With that, Kyuuri gave a short wave and winked out of existence.
WC: 256/2,495
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Post by Jiren on Oct 20, 2019 1:06:27 GMT -5
Scorch watched the other man fade from existence in this Astral realm. He took a few steps back and sat down, the Saiyan had liked the last move he tried. Headbutting someone with his horns would definitely put them on the defensive. "Interesting individual there, very much unlike the stories I have heard of the average Saiyan warrior. He say he was exiled from his people though. Which, for a species that was mostly annihilated, I have heard many stories about their kinds still roaming the galaxy, spreading that Saiyan DNA by mating with other races."
Scorch closed his own eyes and felt for the Gem, and his own reality.
WC: 110 / 2,017
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