Description: SNF: "Fine Taste" - Adelheid Bernstein valiantly defends manners and good taste against the crude shouting and frankly unbearable smell of... a wine cask?? Read on and find out exactly how well Chin Gentsai handles a nuclear explosion centered on his face! Witness the magic of an old man erupting into flames! Learn a little bit about wine, because really, it's a very immersive and complex field depending on the subjective fields of on-...
"Pardon me, Sir Bernstein - allow me to fetch our good Lord Sommelier for your?" The steward at Greenhill Vineyards sneers mightily. "-Scuffle." He bows deeply to his fair-haired guest, and pirouettes away, presumably dancing that dainty dance of the rich and privileged all the way in to the very depths of the vineyard. It leaves Adelheid by himself for the time being; he's surrounded by vats and vats of mechanized grape-crushing devices and the sweet, sweet smell of juvenile fermentation. It is a smell that is, frankly, something like freshly pissed-in Kool-Aid. Only a madman could appreciate this smell.
-
IN THE NEXT BUILDING OVER, Chin Gentsai smells *exactly* like freshly pissed-in Kool-Aid. He's shored himself up in the bottling room and is currently on number 12 out of the 15 bottles he's stolen for himself - a personal best, if you ask him. He's currently speed-chugging this latest bottle while a staff of combat-ready sommeliers rushes up to the room - if Adelheid is paying any attention, he can hear intercom warnings of a Code Grape to the Second Floor Bottling Room. Flash back to the bottling room, to Chin, grape-stained in the corner, glugging away at his bottle -
He hears footsteps on the stairs! What to do??
-
A barrel *explodes* through one of the skylights in the grape-crushing room, landing on the room's central walkthrough in an explosion of glass and wood. The barrel, a sturdy thing, doesn't *quite* crack, but it does buck and roll after landing. If Adelheid isn't shocked out of his mind, he *might* hear a hiccup from the wooden vehicle- but he probably doesn't. How the fuck did Chin get in here, in the first place? Is it even Chin? WHAT IS IN THIS BARREL.
"Yes, of course. Thank you."
The words are spoken without anything remotely like sincerity. It was less manners and more reflex, you thanked the help because it made them complain a little less. You didn't mean it because they are the help and this is their job.
RLeft alone, Adelheid, the tall, fair-haired young man doesn't even bother to make himself ready beyond the act of removing his coat and laying it aside where wine nor blood might mar it's stark, white fabric. Running a hand along the coat to smooth a wrinkle, he wrinkles his nose against the smell, sickly sweet. He wouldn't much savor the bouqet when all of this was properly finished either, of course, but the smell now is particularly offensive. Thankfully, it is less than intoxicating.
The Eldest Bernstein was nearly allowed to grow impatient before the sound of alarm broke through the ambient quiet of the winery. It all culminates by a rather dramatic entry by, of all things, a barrel! The sudden shattering of glass does manage to pique Adel's nerves, white-rabbit-red eyes cast upwards and then down as they track the wooden husk down to the floor, face turning away in a faint flinch with the sight of the impact. He expected a flood of the expected but was surprised when nothing save for a hiccup sputtered from the tumbling cask. Curious, he placed himself in the path of the tumbling barrel and hefted a foot, leaning his weight forward before he planted his boot on the rolling hull to bring it to a sudden stop.
"I have heard of fools riding barrels over waterfalls but this, now this is a bit more intersting." mused the man, rocking the near-coffin back and forth beneath his foot. "Let us see what manner of person would be so brave!" his words flowed plainly enough before hitching upwards in force and volume when he hefted his boot from the barrel's surface, sweeping it well over his head before bringing his heel down in a axing strike to finish the job that the fall had started.
COMBATSYS: Adelheid has started a fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Chin has joined the fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Chin
Adelheid's perfectly-sculpted foot arcs up, then ratchets down with the murderous force of a guillotine, sure to shatter whatever poor material falls beneath its heel! That barrel is *sure* to be destroyed unless something absolutely? ridiculous? were to happen. Something like? like?
A HAND SHOOTS OUT OF THE BARREL in a burst of alcohol-soaked oak! Adelheid will find his foot caught by the ankle, and a startled hiccup echoes from within that startlingly durable container. His ankle is *pulled* forward, allowing that cask to roll easily beneath the upraised limb - at a critical juncture, a foot explodes out of the opposite side of that thick wood, which has the unfortunate effect of propelling the wine vessel into the air, hand and foot spinning around it like-
Well, like two armaments of some kind of drunken tornado Satan. Adelheid's in a rough spot, here - how does one defend their back from a fist and foot spinning end-over-end from ass to neck??
COMBATSYS: Adelheid instinctively blocks Chin's Chou Shuu Riku Gyo.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Chin
The crack and splintering of wood, it was not a sound he abhored but it had come slightly earlier than he expected. When his foot came to a halt just shallow of it's mark, he understood why. Stopped by a gnarled, leathery hand. Brows arch upwards, surprised, interested. This is some manner of Schrodinger's Barrel! Or not Schrodinger's Barrel at all. Pandora's perhaps? Analogies fail in the face of the suddenly, bounding cask! Adel frees his leg from the contained dervish just soon enough to be able to plant his foot and mount a defensive, his body moving nearly of it's own accord as he twists on his heels and bends his gauntleted forearms into the rush of strikes that rush in from the horrid cask! They thump and knock against his guard all the way down, the young man stooping into a kneel just to keep pace with the terrible assault before the barrel would thump to the ground and roll away, it's momentum carried.
It was not anger that played across the young man's features but rather a intense focus. His attentions probed the battered barrel as best he was able but he could make heads nor tails of the damned thing. Gauging the abilities of a foe he could not see was proving to be slightly difficult. If he was unable to see his foe, he could not measure his strengths fully. The thing could be containing a horde of snakes that transformed themselves into limbs for all he knew... Drunk snakes at that!
Attempting to pull back the curtain once more, Adelheid set forth! Two, long steps carried him in pursuit before he bounced into the air off of the balls of his feet, a long leg extended as the leap carried him towards the barrel! If nothing else, he could play a odd game of 'Kick the Can' with his unknown opposition!
The crack and splintering of wood, it was not a sound he abhored but it had come slightly earlier than he expected. When his foot came to a halt just shallow of it's mark, he understood why. Stopped by a gnarled, leathery hand. Brows arch upwards, surprised, interested. This is some manner of Schrodinger's Barrel! Or not Schrodinger's Barrel at all. Pandora's perhaps? Analogies fail in the face of the suddenly, bounding cask! Adel frees his leg from the contained dervish just soon enough to be able to plant his foot and mount a defensive, his body moving nearly of it's own accord as he twists on his heels and bends his gauntleted forearms into the rush of strikes that rush in from the horrid cask! They thump and knock against his guard all the way down, the young man stooping into a kneel just to keep pace with the terrible assault before the barrel would thump to the ground and roll away, it's momentum carried.
It was not anger that played across the young man's features but rather a intense focus. His attentions probed the battered barrel as best he was able but he could make heads nor tails of the damned thing. Gauging the abilities of a foe he could not see was proving to be slightly difficult. If he was unable to see his foe, he could not measure his strengths fully. The thing could be containing a horde of snakes that transformed themselves into limbs for all he knew... Drunk snakes at that!
Attempting to pull back the curtain once more, Adelheid set forth! Two, long steps carried him in pursuit before he bounced into the air off of the balls of his feet, a long leg extended as the leap carried him towards the barrel! If nothing else, he could play a odd game of 'Kick the Can' with his unknown opposition!
Chin hmmmm
COMBATSYS: Chin just-defends Adelheid's Aggressive Strike!
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Adelheid 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Chin
Adelheid's reflexes save him from the barrel's bizarre upwards attack, but there's no way young Bernstein could possibly expect the cask to land on one spindly, moccasined foot. One would expect his next attack - a precisely angled heel-strike - to WRECK that wood and expose the charlatan inside, but lo, as the blonde's immaculate leg shrieks through the air to collide with the unprotected (re: no arm) side of the barrel, the unspeakable happens!!
Mostly, another arm explodes out of the wood to intercept Adelheid's kick with an upraised forearm. It'd do some damage if it wasn't a mobile barrel intercepting the attack, but frankly, being in a barrel offers a collection of legs and arms some advantages. In this case, lurching forwards and rolling on the ground towards Adelheid is certainly one of them. What happens next??
Well. If Adelheid isn't tripped up by the rolling barrel, he's bound to be stymied by a FINAL limb exploding out of the thing, and the man(?) within propelling himself airborne once again with an extended, stubborn leg. The belimbed barrel again assaults Bernstein with a collection of punches and kicks, dragging him through the air with it!!
"*hic*"
COMBATSYS: Adelheid deflects Kaiten Tekikuu Totsuken from Chin with Dark Barrier.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Chin
And so Adel's attempts at kicking a barrel are foiled once more by someone inside of a barrel, or possibly a barrel full of snakes that are mysteriously turning into leathery, human limbs, or maybe the barrel is indeed simply full of strong, leathery limbs, a tangle of appendages that have gained some farcical life... and the hiccups.
Whatever it is, Adelheid can simply not get a bead on the tactics of the barrel or the unknown entity or entities within it! His strike his caught, held away once more by a interloping hand. Not wishing to suffer the same trick as before, the young Bernstein all but bounces away, a shallow retreating leap carrying him away the the bothersome barrel . His escape is short lived, of course... because here comes that bunghole riddled sucker now!
Allowing his displeasure to become evident upon his features, Adel offers a frown the the barging cask, his footing spreading wide as he braces himself to intercept. His heels twist into the floor and his center of gravity is lowered. The air around him rustles and whispers with it's movements before he abruptly drives his shoulder forward, arms hefting as if to form another guard against the charge, only to have a howling field of roiling, silvery energy to spring up between himself and the barrel. It howls and twists, a impassable barricade that the barrel crashes into and seems to simply bounce away from. The barrel rider left to his own devices for just a moment.
*KER-KRACK* goes the barrel when it SLAMS against Adelheid's hastily-constructed (but legit horrifying) -space barrier-. The barrel rebounds on its spindly legs, smoking from the impact, and within, a startled hiccup sounds -almost- but not quite like vomiting. It looks like what or whoever's inside of the barrel really, probably, has had way too much to drink. The cask sort of hunches over on its legs, leathery hands resting on green-clothed knees, and takes a second.
But not a Compose second! Just long enough to swallow some wine that's rushing back to the mouth, certainly. In not even a hot half-second the barrel's moving again on wobbly legs, delicately stepping around spilled wine marring the vineyard's floor, masterfully dancing dangerously close to--
--inside of--
a particularly big puddle of wine, which unfortunately sends the barrel *careening* towards Adelheid, impacting Bernstein's well-built chest with enough of an impact to shatter planks and the nails binding them together alike! In the ensuing explosion of purple drank and splinters, one of those spindly hands LURCH up to grab at Adelheid's fair hair... grab it... and pulls him downwards with about as much force as one might expect of a younger, larger tournament fighter. It's understandable, because it's tough to see much in the mess, but if Adelheid's head is grabbed, he's going to have a bottle stuffed onto his presumably lipsticked mouth, and if THAT happens...
He's going to need to swallow some sake, very quickly.
"Oshaaa~!"
COMBATSYS: Adelheid dodges Chin's Gou Inshu.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Chin
So there is indeed a man inside of the barrel, or at least that is what there appears to be. Tw arms, two legs, are there more? How many sets reside just waiting to catch him by suprise? Adel strengthens his guardm resting on the balls of his feet as he awaits the barrel's next move. It will come, it will come soon...
When it does, Adel is ready! The noncomposing rest was not spent in vain! Adel had watched what he could witrh keen interest, sharp, red eyes fixed on the creature before him! When the barreled man moved, Adel had a fairly good idea as to what was about to transpire. He paced the man, slow, careful steps. How well could the other's vision be inside of that-? A heel traipses into a puddle, Adel's lips part, he draws breath, "Look out for-" he is not a unsporting man. His warning is only half given, the breath is halted, drawn back, the fool has somehow managed to shift his stumble into a sudden lunge!
The impact jars a grunt from Adel, eyes squinted against the sudden wash of wine that seems to have helped pickle the man inside. The smell fills his nostrils causing the bridge of his nose to wrinkle in distaste. His nerves prickle and he just manages to avoid the grimey, soaked hand, neck lurching back and away from Chin's grasp.
Adel shifts, weight moving to one leg as he rears back, a leg lifting and abruptly driving his heel towards, and hopefully into the shattered hole left from their collision to find the barreled man's middle. Like a snake, the leg retracts, coiling once more to drive out again, this time spearing his heel towards where a head might be in a quick, dazing thrust that might just leave the other reeling long enough for the third motion of the leg to go unnoticed, strtching high overhead and then sweeping down in a arcing strike!
COMBATSYS: Chin blocks Adelheid's B's Destruction.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/----===|===----\-------\0 Chin
Rainbow Mika has arrived.
The barrel, exploded, is a series of wooden shards rattling around on the processing room floor! It gives Chin a sort of beautiful freedom of movement in attempting to get Adelheid to engage in UNDERAGE DRINKING, but frankly, it's clear that Bernstein isn't in the mood to do anything excellent *or* illegal. Chin, defeated, drops his gourd and sort of lets the thing sling back into place while--
Adelheid's foot *rockets* towards Chin's middle--
and *SLAMS* into that gourd, sending the thing rocketing around behind the old man! Gentsai's face loses color - and there is a LOT of color for it to lose - as his most cherished posession damn near explodes, and he sort of gives Adelheid this pleading expression even as one impressively-solid arm slaps upwards to deflect Adelheid's other foot from impacting even one of the snowy hairs on Chin's liquor-soaked head. The problem is that Chin's arm is not impressive or solid.
"My- my drink! How could you?! This is my most important--" Chin tries talking while his arm basically *crumples* beneath Adel's foot, and finds words failing him while the ground rises to meet him. He tucks into a tight, acrobatic roll around the teenager, and pops up to his feet on the boy's other side, apparently unbothered.
"Most important posession! You're lucky I'd put it on a strong string -- I could have lost it!" That strong string comes into play again, and soon, because frankly..
TL;DR - You knocked away Chin's alcohol, and Chin has really hurt his arm blocking your stupid foot, Adelheid, and now his alcohol gourd is sailing through the air at your head because he has it on a damned bungee-string.
COMBATSYS: Chin successfully hits Adelheid with Hyoutan Geki.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Chin
With the barrel gone, Adelheid can finally see his foe well and full, his eyes fixing upon the strange... vagrant man.
His keen insight and intellect are still left groping in the dark to try and pin down the elder's moves and abilities. He strikes, Adel knifing his fingers into the air where the man once stood even as the sauced fighter sweeps aside in a tumbling roll. Adelheid is quick to roundf on his elder, prepaired to bring his guard up for the sudden strike or veering blow... only to find it coming from the other direction. Too late does he notice the elastic cord attached to Chin's gourd. The hefty container zipping home once more but not before it makes a nice detour across Adelheid's temple. The impact is solid, it throws stars into his vision and threatens to make his legs buckle, the younger fighter swaying in his stance as he steels himself against his foe. "So you have said!" he speaks once more, not above engaging in some idle banter, a moment taken to sweep finger tips through the hair that had been mussed by ther gourds passing, setting it right as best he is able before pressing the offensive. "I apologize for my manners up to this point." he states as he looses a jab and then another at the elusive fighter, "I was not entirely certain as to the barrels contents, person or otherwise. This has delayed our introductions..." he reaches, both hands snapping in to try and catch the collar of the man's wine-soaked shirt, "I am Adelheid Bernstein, you are not the man I was intending to fight but you have proven yourself more than a equal as a stand-in!" so anchored, he would draw the man in, a long leg lurching up, knee crooked and ready to drive home just below the other's sternum.
COMBATSYS: Chin fails to interrupt Combo Grapple from Adelheid with Ryuu Rinhou Rai.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Chin
Chin doesn't even care what Adelheid's talking about at this point - his attention's flittered elsewhere, as it so frequently does. The old man sort of reaches behind him not even moments after Adelheid gets domed by his sake gourd, and the thing *snaps* back into his hands; Gentsai pats it twice, sets it on his hip, and observes the vineyard for the nearest intact cask. Adelheid's words, meanwhile, drone over him like some kind of aural, soundy, velvet thing. The point is Adelheid has a good voice. So when the young man lurches forward on Chin's slender shoulders, grabs that wine-soaked shirt and *pulls*, Gentsai's reaction is really, a lovely foil to his competitor's own suave act.
"HH-aaaaaaaaa!!!" Chin shrieks like a shrill bird, and is nothing more than a cloud of flailing arms and hastily thrown elbows. Adelheid's sure to get a bruise or something, but the simple fact is that youthful reflexes beat panicked scrabbling *every* single day of the week. Adelheid, in a final gesture of kindness, silences Chin with a knee to the sternum -- the man toddles off with a sort of helpless waddle, looks as though he's about to vomit, but does NOT.
Instead, for the first time ever in this fight, he rights himself into about as erect a posture as his ancient back can grant him, and puts up either spindly arm and delicate fist.
"You said something about a fight???" Four (count 'em!) teeth gleam dully from within an otherwise gummy mouth.
The man stands still, at last!
"Yes, although this is rather later than things are usually discussed." Adel agrees. "I offer no threats, nor coercion. I wish to fight you for no other purpose than to test my might to yours. I will insult neither of us with the idea of concession." he blathers on, lifting his hands up once more, resting on the balls of his feet, heels lifting from the slick floor. "I will say this already, you style is intersting, difficult to gauge. I have enjoyed our exchanges even if there will be only one outcome when this is over!"
To punctuate this fact, Adelheid charges the man, a full on rush that has him streaking across the space between, a arm held out, hand open. Should Chin find himself caught in the iron grasp of Adelheid, he can expect to go on something of a trip! A wild ride that ends quite suddenly against one of the many tanks surrounding them, slammed harshly against a wall at the end of the charge.
COMBATSYS: Chin dodges Adelheid's God Press.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/-======|======-\-------\0 Chin
Hmph. Chin's eyes glitter while Adelheid speaks, but it's clear to anybody looking that those eyes are about the only lucid thing belonging to the man. He wobbles where he stands, those tiny arms are like toothpicks railing in the wind, and frankly, the very notion of this fight is ridiculous if you're comparing Chin to Adelheid.
"Very well," burbles the senior, moustache fluffing out of one side of his mouth - it's caught in the other side. "I'll acc-*hic*-cept your-- ooh.. Very polite youngster! I know a few children who could--" Chin wobbles again, hiccupping, and forgets his train of thought. He stares towards one fresh, unopened cask of "Whatever This Vineyard's Name Is" Red - he seems to have found a target more interesting than the fight at hand. So when Adelheid rushes him in a fashion that is frankly pants-shitting-horrifying, Gentsai takes one step towards that cask in the distance, sparing only a moment to glance Adelheid's way!!
The Bernstein youth might see the way the old man smiles-- right before Gentsai hits the floor, tripping over his own two feet and landing in a brutal bellyflop on the vineyard's hardwood. Adelheid shrieks over Chin's prone form, leaving the Chinese elder's garments flapping in the murderwind Bernstein leaves in his wake.
"--Wah!" There's no explanation, really, for how Chin erupts from the floor like some sort of wine-soaked phoenix -- he's down one second, and in the next, he's up, spinning, and driving a brittle-boned fist towards Adelheid's retreating kidney!!
"Do you like the vintage here, son??!"
COMBATSYS: Adelheid fails to interrupt Quick Punch from Chin with Genocide Cutter.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Chin
AUGH! AUGH! Right in the gatdamn- Augh...
Adelheid's charge carried on just past Mr. Gentsai, hand raking through the air where the elder had been, his over commital leaving him to lurch in process of regaining his balance, a stumbled step here and then again as he collects his wits and turns. Chin approaches, spry and quick. Adel readies, stooping down, legs bent at the knee, arms spread wide. A shining moment before GENO-
A gnarled, leathery hand dives in and lances through Adel's guard, drilling him in the side well below his ribcage. The pain is just fantastic, really something special. The blow catches the youth in the begining stages of his Genocide cutter, his body halted just before the leap is born, it becomes something more of just va dead flop that leaves Adelheid collecting himself on the floor, a hand clamped over the offended organ, his breat heaving in a shockerd wheeze, "I-" huuh! "don't drink."
Chin-- almost dies. If he weren't an ancient old douche with inexplicable fighting prowess, being *near* that failed Genocide Cutter would be enough to kill him. Unfortunately, he is, so it's a floof of white hair and a cap that almost falls off of his head - Chin manages a little smile at Adelheid. "You don't drink? You should, it would limber you up! If you look here--" Gentsai wobbles to a stand, and brings one knee up 'till he's standing in a vertical split that might just make an Olympic gymnast blush.
Here, as the veritable icon of ancient Oriental knowledge and skill, Chin sort of -- uncorks his gourd and starts draining it. His eyes close blissfully, the redness in his cheeks grows darker, and that flash looks precariously lighter by the second!!
Chin is drinking enough to upend most theories about tolerance.
COMBATSYS: Chin gathers his will.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1 Chin
This was less than dignified, on the floor, gasping for breath. He fought back against the pain and collected himself, building it all back up from the rubble that he had become on the floor. His breathing was reigned in, called to heel as he felt his heart rate slow in his chest. It had scattered him and tussled it all. He pushed himself up, hands braced against the concrete floor as he got a knee beneath himself and then a foot. He drew himself up, slow and steady. Gentsai was giving him plenty of time, time to catch his breath, time for the pain that burned in his side to abate. Time to gather his wits and sharpen his focus on the old man Those keen, red eyes locked upon him once more, a heavy gaze that tried to pin everything he is and can do to a wall for the eldest Bernstein child to study like a bug on display. It is difficult of course, the style alone is nearly incomprehensable. Still, he will do his best.
COMBATSYS: Adelheid gains composure.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1 Chin
Chin is *far* gone by the time Adelheid looks over at the old man - it's the lamest interlude in an SNF fight to date, but Chin is at least an entertainer at heart. He moves from his vertical splits to a low crouch, one leg extended to its fullest to his side - from there, it's simple relaxation that lets his body fall into a horizontal split. His four teeth gleam within that wine-smeared smile, and Gentsai leans forward on his hands, testing the flexibility of his arms from his awkward position.
"Taking a break, at your age?? You couldn't possibly be trying to take it easy on me, could you...?" Chin lifts an eyebrow, visible mostly as an enormous amount of hair quirking upwards beneath his hat, and spies Bernstein for a moment longer. He opens his mouth to talk again-- but rolls forward?? Rolling forward isn't talking at all! How the hell is he even DOING a somersault as fast as this??
Chin becomes a tiny, alcoholic meteor streaking along the floor, only to come to a stop JUST before Adelheid, dizzy, eyes crossed, expression -horrid-...
Frankly, he looks like he's about to puke.
"Hng-*BLORF*" A torrent of flames that smell *exactly* like frathouse vomit spews forth from Chin's purpled mouth!! HE'S A DRAGON.
COMBATSYS: Adelheid blocks Chin's Fun'en Kou.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ////////////////// ]
Adelheid 1/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1 Chin
Unable to put the old man in a box, Adelheid was at least able to divine that they were both on roughly even footing at this point. It was little comfort, this simply meant that he had been keeping pace and only keeping pace the entire bout! The deciding moves were yet to come! Adelheid shifted, ready to push the offensive once more, breath drawn for the reply he would be offering in turn... but when the man opened his barely-toothed maw that second time, nothing came out... and then he.. HE ROLLED?! A foot skidded back across wet stone, the beginings of a evasive dart but the rolling drunk was far quicker than Adelheid liked his drunks. He was upon him in an instant and breathing fire!
The noxious flames poured out towards Adel, he attempted to dart away but found some sort of mercy in this world when his heel bumped up against something. Looking back, he found the circular lid of Gentsai's barrel. Stomping his boot down on the edge, Adel sent the cask top flipping up into the air where he quickly snatched it up and pressed it forward as a impromptu shield, flames hammering against the hard, soaked wood and setting it aflame instantly, his fingers seared by flames and heat as he tried to hold the vomited inferno at bay.
It worked, but for only so long, the lid gave away, crumbling to ash and cinders in his grasp, allowing the flames to breach in a sudden rush. The blast sent Adel tumbling, hands flying to stifle flames as they cought. He was back to his feet quickly and sought to press whatever advantage he might have, darting in, trying to veer just shy of a frontal assault as he launched in with a thrusted knee that was quickly followed by a low, sweeping kick that scythed at the elder's heels.
COMBATSYS: Chin interrupts Strong Kick from Adelheid with Gou En Shourai.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
[ \\\\\\\ < > ///////////////// ]
Adelheid 1/-======/=======|=------\-------\0 Chin
"GUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH," bellows Chin, in the feeblest impression of that rockstar boy, Yagami, that might've ever been managed. It's hard to hear him over the shrieking flames, but Adelheid's got more important things to worry about anyway! Namely, that the fires are *quite hot* and that Chin is *not stopping*. Of course, the reaction Adelheid gives is precisely the right one -- that expertly placed foot! The feint and the sweep! That overwhelming bravery in the face of freaky alcohol-flames!
"OOOOOOHHHHhglmpgk--" Chin frankly becomes scared at the sight, because Adelheid is really just a very strong, very angry doll when it comes to it, and that's horror movie material. It's wide eyes and a flinching, upraised hand that meet Adelheid's first kick, while the disippating flames sort of go -- inwards, since Chin, like an idiot, swallows them. As Adelheid sweeps low, Gentsai commits a miracle of acrobatics in shifting his weight to his other foot and attempting a stationary, hands-free cartwheel--
The cartwheel means Chin's *head* is hit by Adelheid's *foot*--
The panicked swallowing has Chin erupting in flames--
And FALLING.
ADELHEID: YOU ARE FACED WITH -- A man has lit himself on fire, like an idiot, and completely on accident. He has also landed on you. It smells like somebody's lit a homeless shelter on fire. You can tell he's fallen on accident because he's wriggling around like a squalling baby, but every single time he *moves* it is like the *sun* is giving you a *massage*. He is cradling his head and moaning about how much it hurts.
Chin has either been struck very hard in the head, or is suffering a lifetime's worth of cumulative hangover. He's still on fire, which hurts.
What do you do??
Burn, that is what he will do.
Adelheid will burn.
Composure slips as flames burn and boil flesh. The pain is wonderful, he has felt worse beinfg taught at and under the heel of his father but those myriad, horrible experiences make this one no less painful, noxious, nor horrific. He struggles, battered by the flailing man's... flailing. A elbow sinks in here, a knee there, the heel of a palm crashing beneath his chin. "Get off of me!" he demands, teeth gritted and muffling his words as he attempts to land a few answers. "Get off of me!!" the demand is repeated and something that isn;t flesh begins to boil over in the heart of a Bernstein.
It wells, a dark and terrible energy, murderous and malicious. There is a sudden eruption, crimson light suddenly bursting from his skin as a blood red flame engulfs his hand, sanguine fire shrouding his fingers, thumb, and palm as they contort into a set of grasping glaws, trying to catch the other by any part of anatomy that is firmly attached. "GET OFF-"
Should those fingers find a anchoring point, Adelheid's entire body will lurch upwards, regardless of whatever burden the elder might prove to be. From here, it is another darting, flight towards one barrier or another. A wall, a pile of crates, a massive fermenting tank, something, anything. It will suffer monsterous collision and then yet another eruption of power, bloody light exploding like a atom bomb... a very small atom bomb. "OF ME!"
COMBATSYS: Chin blocks Adelheid's Gigantic Pressure.
[ \\\\\\\ < > ///////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Chin
The fire fizzles out, eventually -- roughly around the time Adelheid *GRABS* Chin's shirt and shoots into the skies like an anime superhero. Gentsai makes several sounds that are hardly fitting of the world-famous master of the up-and-coming Psycho Soldiers (whimpering, sobbing, babbling, crying), and is unfortunately *loud* with the way sound reverberates through the Vineyard's processing room.
"Pleasedon'thurtmei'mtoooldforthisandmyheadhurtsandooooOOOOHHHhhh--" Chin moans, pitifully, into Adelheid's ear while the Bernstein shrieks through the skies towards the Vineyard's distant wall. Halfway through the trip, Chin *stops* his mindless babbling and lifts either arm high... ... which loosens whatever grip his shirt's had on him. Freed, Chin falls *straight* through the air to land on the concrete some twenty feet below, with a sickening thud that suggests, nay, DEMANDS that he have suffered SOME sort of damage.
Arthritis + brutal impacts mean that Gentsai will be soaking his knees in a tub for the next three days, easy. In the mean-time...
"Ha-haaaa!" Gentsai is a marvel of sagging skin and barely-there musculature, a bone structure that seems more appropriate for an elf or faery or some sort of dainty, inhuman thing. He's hardly appetizing to look at. "You didn't think I'd take my shirt off, but I did! Girlish modesty has no room on a battleground!!" And with that - taking advantage of the adrenaline pumping through his body, Chin launches himself towards Adelheid, spinning into a Hail Mary of a flying kick!!
COMBATSYS: Adelheid fails to counter Choukarou from Chin with Grosse Stob.
[ \\\\ < > //////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Chin
Bricks crack and mortar crumbles, but in the end, all Adelheid is left with is the smouldering remains of a ill-smelling shirt. Drawing his arm back, Adel casts the remains of the garment away where they can fume and burn in peace. A failed attempt, this entire fight had been riddled with them, his foe too wily or lucky to be pinned down. It was frusterating, it was interesting. At it's heart, there was little lesson he could take from the matter, however. Save perhaps that he should not accept matches staged at places that produce intoxicants.
Later days of course.
For now, all Adel could do was attempt to handle the drill bit of limbs that was Gentsai Chin.
He thought he had the matter handled when he drew a foot back and began to send it snapping upwards but this was a falsehood! Chin had reached him far before he could muster the strike and plowed into him with a flurry of strikes and blows that should have put him on the ground.
Instead, when Adleheid crashed into that self-same wall he had plowed into a moment ago, he did not crumble in a unconcious collection of anatomy, but rather he lurched from it's battered surface, breathing labored and arms heavy as he attempted to lift them back up in his usual stance.
Chin falls to the ground on screaming knees, and notably limps as he lands - hastily, he reaches down to secure one shaking leg before rising back to the same, childish fighting stance he's always used. "Mmh-- I guess I've still got i--" He PAUSES when Adelheid doesn't tumble out of the wall like a broken mannequin! Form and poise, even when he's on the ropes?! Gentsai lifts one hand to bring his eyebrows out of his vision, squints at the blonde stumbling before him, and walks towards the weakened Adelheid, impressed all the more by his resilience.
"Good... good! You're really something! Ah-- if I could only be so tall and muscular again!" He resumes a readied position once he's some few feet from Adelheid - he's NOT underestimating the boy - and settles one hand onto that damnable gourd. Adelheid might feel-- pressure, here, a subtle sort of ethereal massage, like fingers tickling along his back. Across, Chin's wrinkly old face cracks into a wrinkly old smile.
"You're too polite, especially if you're following that man's path~" Chin ducks low, enters into a sort of crouching spin, and surges upwards in the last moment, gourd uncorked, sake spraying everywhere! Of course, a fist accompanies it, but it's undoubtedly a distraction tactic at its fore.
"Let me end this for you, then!!"
COMBATSYS: Adelheid dodges Chin's Kisui Shuu.
[ \\\\ < > /////////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/--=====|===----\-------\0 Chin
With head lowered, Adel watches Chin as best he can from beneath his brows, body faintly trembling with wear and exertion. It is all he can seem to do to remain upright. "To... fight another person is to wager your life against theirs." Adel claims in answer to Chin's claims of his manners, "In these gambles, lives can be lost if foolhardy or uncareful. A life that only a mother could provide in the first place.... to take a person's life, is as intimate as bestowing it." he potificates even as Chin comes... he's just approaching in a manner that Adelheid cannot understand. In this moment, he has decided that he does not need to understand the elder's style, techniques, or movements. He simply needs to get the hell out of the way!
The fist comes and Adel's body weaves away, weakly, blearily, perhaps even a little drunkenly. To say there is nothing he has learned from Gentsai would be untrue here. With fatique and his injuries weighing against him, he simply allows his body to fold away from the strike before he attempts to answer in kind.
A hand streaks out, attempting to catch the elder by the arm, leg, shoulder, whatever he can take hold of before he would turn and press the drunken master against the wall, his free hand reeling back in a sudden fist and then driven home!
COMBATSYS: Adelheid successfully hits Chin with Scorpion Blow.
[ \\\ < > //////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Chin
"Hmm, hmm!! Very smart of y-GAH" You would think Chin would have registered that Adelheid was not hit by the alcohol OR the tiny fist accompanying it. You would think he'd get out of the way, or something, or anything, but really, Adelheid's ripping a page out of Chin's book has taken the old man by complete surprise. It's with wide eyes that Chin finds Adelheid grabbing him by the bare armpit and *THROWING HIM* into the wall - the fist collides solidly with Gentsai's face, and momentarily has his eyes rolling.
"--ooh... Athena..." He slinks to the ground, boneless, eyes lidding, lips going limp. Words-- fail Gentsai in his rapid loss of consciousness, and he leans into Adelheid, legs gone numb. His hands rise along the Bernstein's torso, 'till they find his pectorals, and... squeeze at air, because nothing's there, because Adelheid is not a woman.
Chin falls to the ground, ass-first! Winner: Adelheid Bernstein!
Just look out for the feet getting all tangled up with yours, Adelheid. Jesu- this is a lot of force for somebody who just fell down dead.. what the--!!
COMBATSYS: Adelheid endures Chin's Fast Throw.
[ < > //////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Chin
That was it? He had won? Given it his best and his all and he had won!
No, the old man was stronger than that, more clever than that, drunker than that!
He attempts to reel away from the man as he gestures and grasps for things that are simply not there! A name, 'Athena'. A god of war and strategy, not a unflattering comparison but Adelheid would have much prefered someone with a shared set of genitalia! Still, this is not his chief concern!
Feet tangle about his ankles and... and he just lets it happen, trying to roll with it as his feet are pulled out from underneath him, he does the best he can as far as bracing to land on his back, the impact shaking a coughed grunt from him as he literally just rolls with the fall, pulling his feet out of the rat king that Gentsai had threatened to make of their legs, sweeping them up and back so that the momentum carried him into a crouch, one that he quickly advanced from, steps errant and unsure as he lunged once more, a fist reeled back and then driven down to try and hammer a nail into the coffin that is the end of this entire debacle!
If he can remain standing afterwards is a entirely different matter.
COMBATSYS: Adelheid keeps on fighting!
[ \\ < > //////// ]
Adelheid 0/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Chin
COMBATSYS: Chin interrupts Medium Punch from Adelheid with Gou Inshu.
[ < > //////// ]
Adelheid 1/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Chin
Chin rolls to that damnably wobbly fighting stance so soon as he feels Adelheid's impeccably dressed ankles leave the grip of their mightier counterparts. He smiles, dimly, while he watches Adelheid sort of go sprawling, and turns around, hands folded behind his back, to attempt to shrug off the burning pain in his knees and the creeping headache along his spine.
"Hmm-mm-mmm--mmp?" One snowy eyebrow peaks when Chin hears Adelheid standing... again... but one could argue that Adelheid didn't make TOO much sound, aside from the huffing, the puffing. The bare-chested elder frowns, mightily!
"Again!! I have a massage booked!! OoooOOOSHAAAAAAAAA!" He's like a furious python, now, in the way he spins around, one arm upraised, to deflect Adelheid's incoming punch by stopping it at his elbow!! The old master *pushes* into his adversary, reaching down for the jug of sake at his side. "You want seconds, then?? The time for talk is over! I paid good money for this service!! My poor knees..."
Chin *slams* the sake jug home, forcing bitter, alcoholic drink into Adelheid's mouth.
"My poor knees need some love!! Why do you hate love so much?!" Chin rips the jug away and smashes it into Adelheid's face, and pays *CLOSE* attention to the pale combatant! No more rising from the dead!
There was no avoiding it this time, no ducking away, no weaving, bobbing, jumping, leaping. There was nothing, nothing save for having the end of that bottle, the end that he had seen Chin gulping and slurping from not even five minutes prior to this, into his own mouth. This moment, this exact moment, he would omit it all. He would omit it from reports, from recollection, from retellings, and when his time at last comes, he can only hope it is ommited from that flash that is his life leading up to the end of it.
Now Adel is no stranger to the drink, they have been introduced on occasion and shared polite conversation but it was always in moderation and always of a somewhat... more selective sort. What swills over his tongue and down his throat now is anything but the entity he had spoken with prior. Strong and burning, this is paint thinner, isn't it! It's paint thinner! You are poisoning him now!
He sputters but regretfully swallows, feeling the heat of it travel down his throat and into his belly. It's like a car wreck. Striking him with such unkind force and then leaving him to live in the aftermath. The world spins, his head spins, his eyes spin. Everything spins. He's even doing a little bit of spinning as he makes his way to the floor, a drunken twist as his body impacts against the ground in a boneless thump.
COMBATSYS: Adelheid takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\ <
Chin 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Adelheid can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\ <
Chin 0/-------/----===|
Chin watches Adelheid after he takes that last swig of sake, and beneath that inscrutable mop of white hair, kindly old eyes are *burning*. He stares for a good, long time -- even after Adelheid has fallen into an unconscious heap on the ground, there's no movement from Chin. He just... *stares*.
A suited man walks up to him after some time, a smile on his face, microphone in hand, muttering something about 'congratulations!' and the like - Chin holds up a hand to the announcer, and begins to approach Adelheid. He stoops over - bending down is impossible thanks to that fall earlier - and sniffs. Booze.
"You're a bit of a lightweight, hmm? We'll need to change that, boy. You-- I'm pleased to say, you've passed my initial testing!! You can start learning Wushu... tomorrow!!" Chin sets a piece of paper on Adelheid, tucks it into his waistband. It's a phone number and an extremely crudely drawn picture of alcohol with 'XXX' on the bottle. He spins around, marches straight past the nonplussed announcer, and marches straight through the Vineyard's sales room, where he marches straight into the wine cellar, marches straight to the back, and becomes lost for the rest of the day.
The vineyard loses some dozens of bottles of randomly valued vintage, from $5 swill to $300 crystal-bottled masterpieces. Chin never makes it to his massage, and is never seen or heard from again, so far as the vineyard goes. His appearance becomes an urban myth, and Saturday Night Fight is banned from hosting competitions there, ever again.
COMBATSYS: Chin has ended the fight here.
Log created on 22:21:31 11/08/2014 by Chin, and last modified on 01:24:01 11/10/2014.