Trouble in Paradise - TIP - Week #4 - Chaolan's Island

Description: Zack is missing in the wake of the devastating typhoon and the volcano's crater is spitting smoke and brimming with lava, but Lee Chaolan is here to take charge. Specifically, he is taking charge as captain, complete with Skipper outfit. Scheduled for today was a beachside party to celebrate the successful culmination of the Trouble in Paradise tournament, but it appears as though participants are being asked instead to aid in the search for Zack, assuming that he has been buried in the sand and not abducted by mermaids. What no one has been told is that they are also being used to clean up the mess that the storm has made of the coast -- 'they' being everyone except the finalists, who will be receiving the royal treatment along with Skipper Lee, here on Chaolan's Isle.



It was meant to be Tranquil Beach.

It was meant to be peaceful. It was meant to be the home of volleyball. It was meant for lovers, or curious young ladies willing to explore the meaning and depth of 'friendship.' It was meant for privacy. It was meant for love. It was meant for so many things, so much potential joy. There was none of that here now.

But in its place, desolation.

The sands are littered with the remains of countless palm trees, the whole trunks driven into the beach. Wreckage is heaped in piles all over the coast, where even ships and boats are strewn about. It would not be surprising to find corpses at this point; such is the power of the typhoon that had blown over the island. A cruel act of god, the cruelest act, it might be easy to only look at the sheer damage inflicted on mankind.

But what about the meerkats.

It was almost like a refugee camp for the creatures. The few survivors, the survivors that had endured the hardships inflicted ten fold on the poor animals. The genocide inflicted upon them, from the creatures known as Caoihme. The prison camps, who rounded them up like cattle, seperating countless families for the sake of conservation. And that was even before the storm. Meerkat mothers can be seen cradling the broken remains of their sons, their daughters, their children. The first victims of such a disastor. If such creatures could cry; that is, if such creatures could in fact bear the human emotion of despair, it is clear that that would be the only emotion that these meerkats would know for countless generations.

And standing tall, above the spectre of death that haunts Tranquil Beach, was Lee Chaolan.

Lee Chaolan is garbed in a captain's hat and a blue polo shirt. Astute pop culture fans might note that his outfit is identical to the outfit 'The Skipper' wore at Gilligan Island. He is in fact sitting in the back of a Jeep; the driver is Mr. Tibbles, a balding butler dressed to the nines. One of Zack's most recent tracks plays from the truck's radio; and the Silver-Haired executive holds a Mai-Tai within a coconut in one hand, a party favor in the other.

He toots upon the party favor.

"Welcome, survivors, to our last week together!"

Johnny stands amid the meerkat D-Day beach. "Man, I'm sure glad I saved all those poor little meerkats from getting blown up. I bet in their little meerkat minds, they think I'm a savior. Yeah, I'm awesome."

Sometimes travel agencies are terrible at their job... or at least end up having the terrible luck of arranging someone's vacation to occur immediately after a tropical beach paradise has been crushed by a massive storm that leaves it looking... not very paradisey and more end of the worldy.

This is why Mika Nanakawa has found herself on Zack Island at this point in time. Managing to take a break from all of her training (none of which is mandated by anyone but her, so perhaps it would be better said that she managed to take a break from herself), the woman known as Rainbow Mika when she puts on her fighting persona decided that with all of her fights offering her various trips around the world in which she ends up staying for a day or two at most, she might want to take advantage of the impressive new paradise that's been advertised so heavily. In an effort to make a bright financial decision, she was talked into arranging her vacation to start not when the island opened (when it's incredibly busy), but a few weeks in when people are starting to head home and prices would come down.

Not a great vacation.

Furthermore, with the island in disarray, nobody has managed to put the curvy woman in island appropriate clothing. No, when Mika Nanakawa thinks of going to the beach, she thinks of working out!

Running!

Swimming!

Fresh seafood! ...to help restore nutrients after working out.

Were King Zack still capable of ruling his domain, it's quite probably that the well-built woman into a bikini of questionable structural integrity that put as much skin as possible on display. Instead the wrestling geek has found herself with her blonde hair put up into a single ponytail (to help further distinguish herself from her masked ring persona), a bulky, worn-out hoody advertising the CWA SLAMFEST '98, red athletic shorts (that hug the curves of her weaponized ass when the hoody isn't covering them up) and athletic trainers.

Despite the fact that this disaster should have ruined her vacation, somehow she's not complaining. No, at this moment in time Mika Nanakawa is helping clean up the beach... but turning it into sprints. Run to some debris, pick it up, run it back to the trash, repeat. It's incredibly inefficient, and perhaps the greatest sin (based on the fact that this is Zack Island) is that her hoody makes it impossible for anyone to get a good look at any bouncing.

Sada Asai is sitting on a former Pepsicola crate and eating from a plate of fried shrimp, looking disconsolate. This may be from the discovery that for all her hard work and suffering, she has won her choice of a hot pot recipe, an X-Bone, or a panda doll. (The fact that she also got a free tropical vacation, and a slave, is immaterial to this thought process. Sada is about WINNING things, and HURTING OTHERS.)

However.

The King is dead...

But a QUEEN reigns, judging by the cheap gaudy thing sitting on Sada's head. Periodically she flicks a shrimp tail at a meerkat.

This entire trip has just been a mistake from day one. The typhoon was just a capper on it.

Thankfully, Scratch managed to weather it, but there was good reason for her to not want to venture outside until she could finally get a way off this accursed island. Having vowed never to go to the beach again for at least a year, the city girl was...obligated to turn up here (or so she was told), and as bleak as things look here, she is only further convinced of her impression of this place as a disaster. "Christ," she mutters, headphones on her head and dressed in as bulky a shirt and pants as she can get away with at this temperature, plus a practical set of flipflops. No WAY she was daring to wear any of the swimsuits they keep peddling around here.

"Yeah, last week, thank god. I can't wait to get off of this rock," she chimes in response to Lee.

Was this truly the icing on the misery cake for the meerkats?

The small, furry creatures almost had a savior. It was not Johnny Cage, no. In the Meerkat language, what word there was for Johnny Cage was interchangable with 'Betrayer.' Johnny Cage was the Dillo God from Hell, who led the hopeful astray. Though Mika, the mysterious Mika, was alright. But it was Sada who earned the most ire. The poor creatures tremble and scatter, the pieces of shrimp being hurled at them. But one meerkat... one meerkat just watches Sada. Watches.

And plots.

"Hahahaha! Wow there aren't that many survivors!" Lee Chaolan pipes up playfully, looking over the few comers to the last 'hot party.' "Well no matter. As you all probably know, my partner, Zack, has disappeared in the storm! And as co-owner of Zack Island, it is my duty to fulfill the position of King in Waiting! And of course, we have plenty of prizes for you runner-ups! Except you Johnny! You are a winner!" Lee Chaolan gives him a thumbs up, just as Scratch mentions how she can't wait.

"About that, young lady."

Lee puts on the biggest smile can muster. It is obvious about what kind of smile that is. As the man turns to look at Scratch from his jeep, he just nods along. "As you know, the storm has wrecked most of the ships that had been docked here! And many of the other nearby ships! So oddly enough, there really -isn't- a way out of here. So all of you get to be part of Zack Island for a little while longer! But of course, all of you probably have -plans- and -dreams- off this island." Lee claps his hands together. "So that's why I am proposing another tournament!"

"Aren't you all just -dying- to hear what this tournament will be?"

Johnny's own cabana was wrecked by the storms; along with several of the possessions he brought along with him for the tournament. He was quite sore about this and complained extensively to his agent, Harry, who had to repeatedly assure the movie star that everything was insured and he could easily buy the rest. This seemed to placate him for the time being. He hasn't hooked up with his partner ever since their last fight. He wonders how she's doing.

He looks towards Lee, folding his arms as he smirks. "I know. Once I defeat the last group in this tournament, EVERYONE will know it too. I think it was obvious I'd be the one to come out on top."

Sada stares at Lee as he gives off a huge hype talk.

She glares at the Dillo for a moment, and starts munching another cold fried shrimp. She flicks the tail towards the meerkats, heedless of that one watching with intent to attack her and/or the residual shrimps.

"Is it for tickets off this hole?" she guesses, with acid in her voice (and the rest of her too, to be fair).

...It really is a good thing that Mika Nanakawa doesn't really understand how to act like a normal person. She's actually having a good time cleaning up the beach simply because it gives her a new method of working out and training that technically doesn't count as training. Having spent the last few years of her life completely dedicated to becoming a professional wrestler, the young Japanese woman hasn't put much thought into other hobbies or interests. She could potentially name ever fighter in the CWA for the last 30 years, their signature moves, and core rivalries, just off the top of her head.

Things she might not be able to tell you? Any of Johnny Cage's movies.

Well, except Caged Fury 3, which happened to have Rico "Steel Man" Fierro as one of the bad guys. Or Roadside, which had Enzo The Titan, famed giant of wrestling, in a bit part.

However, even as focused as she is in training, there's one thing she can't quite ignore...

"...Wait, I just got dropped off on a boat 3 hours ago. It probably hasn't even left, yet."

A twitch comes to the skater's eyes behind her goggles, which she pointedly removes just so Lee himself can see them. PUlling off her headphones and GLOWERING at the white haired older man, Scratch listens...and narrows her eyes even more. Slowly, she walks up to him, closer, and closer....

And simply looks up to him, murder in her eyes, close as she can get without actually touching Lee, though she's forced to ball up her fists to avoid laying a hand on him. Truth be told, if she thought she was stronger, she probably WOULD try to outright deck him right now. But she's not quite that crazy. "If it's not 'who can land the knockout blow on the old coot keeping us here', I swear...."

She then perks, looking to her side as she hears an unfamiliar voice. "Wait, what? You said you had a boat?!" she says, running up to blonde (who may as well be a model to Scratch's eyes, for all she knows). "Please, where is it! Anything to get off this damn sandbar!"

"Ha ha!"

That was the laugh from the one Lee Chaolan, as he rubs his hands together. "It is in fact tickets for my own personal yacht, which will be coming soon! One of my personal yachts. My... my bearfriend's yacht." Lee looks aside at this comment. He had to pull some strings to get Kuma to agreed to this. "But no matter! The tournament is very simple! You each will have a fighting competition! But with special victory conditions! At each site, you will have to complete these conditions, as well as win the fight, in order to get off the island! It is so simple, just like the last three weeks! Unless, of course, you can think of another way off the island."

And Mika mentions her ship?

On the horizon, there is in fact a ship sailing by, the very ship that had dropped her off. But as it pulls around the island, inspecting it for a view... it strikes something. A reef? A submarine? No. It hits upon Lee's former yacht, the yacht that only so recently before had sunk into the waters. Lee actually looks a bit crestfallen. "Oh. Shoot. So -sorry- about that! I almost thought everyone could pass on the tournament!" He shakes his head. "Well, look on the bright side! You look like you could have a lot of fun with this!" It seemed that everyone, even Lee, was sharing similar problems.

But Sada may have her own problems.

The meerkat was watching her throw the shrimp around. Mocking his fellow meerkat, at their lowest hour. And such action was... was not to be unpunished it seemed. The meerkat runs, hurrying to his companions. And standing before them, the meerkat seems to be... talking with its kin. Chittering with passion. With fury. With... righteousness.

The meerkat salutes its kin with one paw.

It's kin salutes back in kind.

Johnny half-listens to Lee's comments. He could tell this tournament was winding down, the cameras moving on, except for the final fights, which is all he cared about. He does notice Sada is here, and his smile dissapears. He eventually learned that the Shirley Temple Sada gave his partner wasn't exactly as advertised. He didn't like that at all.

He casually drifts her way. "Sada, right?" he asks, acting friendly. This time it's false. "Good time at that casino, huh?"

He looks at the meerkats. Maybe...getting back at her was staring him right in the face. He started considering an alliance.

It's beginning to look like the happy people on the island enjoying all of its sights, sounds, smells, and sensations are actually not that happy.

Certainly it had been obvious to Mika that things were a bit rough (what with how the main activities right now seem to be searching debris to make certain there aren't any hidden bodies), but there's a very specific energy in the air right now that suggests that tensions are running high. Mika is good at feeling out the mood in a crowd.

Okay, so being told by one person that they'd do anything to get off the island is also a giveaway, but it wasn't quite the first sign.

"It just dropped me off at the docks... some people seemed really excited to get on it. There was this one guy in a wheelchair who said he needed to get back to Southtown so he could talk to his lawyer," Mika says, somewhat cautiously. None of the overwhelming energy of her ring persona is here.

It's about this time that the ship in question is seen on the horizon. People turn to look at the boat. Some are thinking of how to flag it down.

Then Lee's boat flags it down.

"...Oh, that was the one."

Sada cuts a grim look at Rainbow Mika.

However, she's got a boat? Sada starts rising off the plastic pepsi crate...

Oh, the boat crashes and starts sinking. Sada sits back down with a breathe of fatigue. She looks up at Johnny, ignoring the meerkats. She smiles, if not very profoundly.

"Yeah," she says. "Good time alright..."

She looks up at Lee Chaolan. "This is like, super illegal," she calls up, disconsolately. "I'm gonna report you to the government if you're really doing this." She says this in the exact same tone that someone might have when telling their younger brother to stop eating their boogers quite so much.

Scratch looks rather excited as she hears Mika talk about the boat that dropped Mika off. FInally a way off! She can finally get home from this godforsaken place! Somewhere she won't be under the threat of either sunburn, typhoons, volcanos, or idiot tour directors! "Yes! We can hitch a ride there and....
And....

And there the ship goes, crashing in the distance, and it seems like even Lee's exit plans are dashed. "....you've...got to be ****ing kidding me...." she says with almost no emotion what so ever, falling to her knees and staring out into the sea. "...." She just continues to stare...and stare....and falls on her side, as if the last bit just sapped her into cataonia.

Lee Chaolan takes a long sip of his coconut.

Mr. Tibbles wipes the sweat from his brow. He could tell that this was already risking to fall apart. But Lee? Lee just enjoys his drink. Pulling the coconut away, he smacks his lips, smirking. "Come on people. This is a vacation! Besides, everything is legal on Zack Island!" Lee does a little dance. "And while Zack law DOES make you the Queen of Zack Island, Miss Sada, as you do wear the crown, the fact of the matter is that You all have to help me find my little buddy, don't you? Everybody loves Zack! And that is part of the special conditions."

"So lets figure out teams."

"Now, team... you two." Lee Chaolan gestures at Scratch and Mika, taking another sip of his drink. "You two are gonna fight on... Tranquil Beach. And your special condition is cleaning up all the ship wreckage. Isn't that fun?" Lee nods his head at the two girls, flashing a thumbs up.

This was not excellent.

The meerkats as well seem to find this unexcellent. The head meerkat, having been democratically elected as the leader of the meerkats it seemed, was itching to purge the island of the filthy humans. Meerkats were the true masters of the island, not the humans. And yet, as they begin to stack the driftwood for the bonfire, several of the meerkats begin to surround Queen Sada and Johnny Cage.

Their time would be soon.

Johnny drifted off from Sada. He had a new mission for tonight. He approached the head meerkat - being so charismatic himself, he could easily pick out a leader from the rest. He crouches down. "Now listen here, cowpoke," he says, putting on the Hoedown Dillo voice. "I know yer a mite cross with me. But I'm willin' to extend the olive branch of friendship...and let you take out yer salt on that there girl Sada," in a low voice.

Is this how vacations normally work for people? Honestly, Mika Nanakawa hasn't exactly spent a whole lot of time on vacations recently. Most of her travelling has involved professional fighting or intentional training. She doesn't remember vacations being like this for the few she went on with her family when she was a kid.

Of course, if movies were to be believed, every vacation had to have some crazy thing go wrong, so perhaps the whole point of this island was to sell movie style vacations that would bring your family closer together or let you find new love or something like that.

It would explain why Johnny Cage was here.

The problem starts to show up when Lee starts trying to set her up for a fight with someone she doesn't know and an important line needs to be crossed. "I'm not here to be a fighter, I just came for vacation."

Scratch mean while remains...on her side, laying on the beach, staring at the aftermath of the ship-to-ship crash in the distance. Lee's instructions and attempts to get her and the vacationing "model" to fight are lost on her. "Come back..." she wails listlessly, eyes focused on the horizon.

Heedless of DILLO PERIL, Sada gives Lee a stinkeyed look. She pushes herself up to her feet, adjusting her crown and letting her shrimp fall into the sand to get nasty or eaten by crabs/meerkats/dillo.

"What, I have to help you search for him?" she complains. Putting a hand on her hip, she says, "Do you even know where he MIGHT be? Because this entire thing was /super/ stupid. You should have evacuated us like a week ago, because now you're in this horrible situation where the government will put you in jail."

After a beat, Sada says, "Wait, I'm the government."

She lowers her head, seeming deep in thought. Then she kicks the sand. "Ugh!! I don't even have a jail, do I?"

The man speaks to the meerkats?

As Johnny approaches the meerkats, he does approach them as a man, but as a Dillo. And he explains thing. Hate turns to love. The Third Meer-reich becomes the First Meer-Like. The meerkats suddenly cease their urges to lynch mankind. For as Johnny Cage speaks to them, to plead with them... they fall in love. And they soon begin to surround Johnny, chittering and clinging to him, to give him the only thing that even Hitler Meerkat can give him.

Meerkat Love.

Lee Chaolan himself takes another idle sip of his coconut, looking Sada straight back. Smacking his lips, he just looks across at the woman. "Well, stupid or not, what are you gonna do to stop me? What are any of you going to do? After all, I hold all the cards. You better learn to start entertaining me... or you " Lee Chaolan opens his arms, daring Sada to try him.

"Or you are going to be stuck on this island forever!"

Johnny allows himself to be enveloped by meerkats to form a sort of living armor. "We have become...one," he whispers.

Arms outstretched, he approaches Sada.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OlcJzin3LE

The ground in front of Sada suddenly begins to churn, the sand dissolving into a roiling almost liquid state. Suddenly, the sand erupts upwards, and Dr. Richard Tran(?) rises out of the ground in front of Sada, facing the advancing Johnny Cage. His arms are crossed over his bare chest, and his eyes gleam with a ferocious light.

Wordlessly, he extends one arm outwards to present his palm to Johnny Cage. Come not near to Her Highness.

SOME TIME AGO

THE OCEAN

Dr. Richard Tran, after an unspecified amount of time bouncing along the water like a human skipping stone, slowly opens his eyes. "Hwuh...GWUH! HURG! GRAGH!"

This causes him to immediately perform a highly technical manoeuvre known as 'eating it'. Surfacing moments later, Tran casts his gaze about, the only visible feature aside from 'water forever' being an ominous cloud of smoke rising in the distance. With a weary sigh, he begins doggy paddling toward it.

HERE
NOW

A second ominous cloud is /rapidly/ growing larger on the horizon, less soot black and more steamy white. It is accompanied by a strange sound, a high pitched whining that those with sharp senses might identify as emanating from the small brown speck at the front of this mystery cloud.

"eeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" Indeed, it only grows in intensity and speed until it smashes into the beach. Through the beach. Sand explodes in every direction, a great furrow being blasted in the very terrain, right up to Lee Chaolan's feet.

The steam begins to clear, revealing the broken, half-drowned form of Dr. Richard Tran lying twisted in a crater of damp sand. He is wearing only a speedo that appears to be decorated with images of raw meat and a prominent butcher's cleaver on the front.

He is twitching, slightly.

"I'm not a clown, here to amuse you! I --"

Sada's head turns.

Her eyes widen in shock as she sees Johnny Cage approach her. The famous actor, twisted and mutated by desperation, surrounded by biting meerkats. She remembers Timon from the films of her youth. But Timon, now, is against her.

She stumbles back. "Get away!" BUT THEN

Comes...

THE TRAN.

"Ah! Dick, you asshole! Lee's trying to make us fight for his amusement or leave us to die on this rathole island! Save me!!"

Lee Chaolan purses his lips.

He wanted to continue to dismiss Sada. The trouble was that he could see that skipping coming. And as the skipping approaches, approaching to his feet, that figure comes to a stop right before him in the sand. He tries to take another sip, but the silver-haired demon's eyes go wide. Turning his coconut upside down, he just drops it on Tran. And taking in a deep breath, he gives his response.

Lee Chaolan rolls his eyes.

"Clearly, that is a compelling counterpoint, Dr. Tran." Is what Lee Chaolan states, shaking his head. "Maybe I have overstepped my bounderies. But at dire times like these, we need unity! And what better way is there to be unity, than with another tournament? Besides, you can't deny that the island needs cleaning." He stares hard down at the twitching figure of Tran, his eyes intensifying.

"And who better to clean than those who messed it up?"

The meerkat armor, however, is in full power.

As Robo-Tran holds up that protective palm, the creatures shudder. They begin to channel their inner life, their inner chi that runs through all of nature. A glow may come over Johnny, as all eyes fix upon the Robotic Tran. Love, Meerkat Love pours into the body of the Hoedown Dillo.

Infusing Johnny Cage with the powers of the Nazi Meerkats.

EARLIER

Johnny sat in his ruined cabana, alone, laying back in his easy chair and staring up at the cieling, eyes red. A rolled up reefer was clutched in his left hand, and he sighed wistfully. There was a hole in his roof from the storm and he could see the sky above. It was so beautiful man. He had survived nature's wrath...and now she was gently telling him it's going to be okay. "I love you too," he whispered, then started giggling.

NOW

Johnny still has no idea what's going on but damn if he doesn't have a mission. "Yo," he says to Tran. "You the real little dude or the evil little dude? Whatever, man. I'm not starting any beef. You can't even comprehend what I got going on now. I don't think you even have a mind capable of operating at this level. You know your friend spiked my partner's drink? My partner the ex-alcoholic? I got justice on my side bro. WHat do you got?"

He snaps his fingers. "Have at 'er, meerkats. Go with my blessing."

Tran(?)'s gaze hardens, and he lowers himself into a fighting stance. After a moment, steam begins to pour of out of his skin, slowly spreading to create a thick, opaque cloud in between Johnny Cage and the duo of Sada and Tran(?)...

... and then, as soon as he has the benefit of the concealing cloud, Tran wheels around, scoops Sada into his arms in a princess carry (complete with accompanyin shiver-inducing electric tingle TO Sada, and sound of skin dissolving from acid FROM Sada) and takes off at a run down the beach. He's not that fast, though; he has very short legs, and is carrying a slu-- a fine young lady.

Lee Chaolan loses his coconut.

Dr. Richard Tran's body contorts, neck twisting with a horrible popping sound to position his mouth directly underneath what /should/ be a glorious alcofall. What precious few drops remain do not go to waste. The entire time, Tran stares at nothing with blank, glassy eyes, until a coconut hits him in the face.

Immediately, Tran goes completely limp, and then states clearly, "This is the most delicious coconut I've ever tasted." He waits a beat. "You dickbag."

And Johnny had to go and smoke the marihuana.

Meerkats, already invigorated by the zealous mania of xenophobic rage, soon tap into the latent THC sitting within Johnny's own aura. A little known fact (but well researched in the TV special 'Just Say Showup No-Down: Lightning Spangles Talks About Marihuana!) was that marihuana, insidious and dangerous as the drug is, would commonly contaminate the auras of fighters who partake in the drug that is known as in many illicit circles as 'The Dragon Punch' or 'Bao.' Marihuana was dangerous in beast as well as man, however, and soon, the meerkats are unleashed. The crazed nazi beasts of Zack Island release from Johnny Cage, to pursue the acidic woman and her robo lover.

Truly this is the peak of the MotM experience.

Meanwhile, Lee Chaolan just screws up his nose at the doctor at his feet. As he partakes in Lee's coconut, Lee just pounds his fist within the Jeep, frightening his butler. "You do not understand! This is how things must be! Do you not think my plans will not come to fruition? Everything that matters in the world must be built upon Butt Battles, upon tasteless swimsuits, upon comedy as much as tragedy? Why won't you understand? Why can't you understand?!?!"

And then the insult comes.

Lee suddenly gasps, the ghost escaping his very soul. The party favor falls from his clutches, only to be taken by a flying seagull diving at that very time. And soon, Lee falls as well. Mr. Tibble is already out of the Jeep, and in the back, arms out to catch his master. But it is too late. The blow was struck. And now, with nary any dignity, Lee Chaolan was in the sands with Tran, the insult being too grave, too grating, too strong. Wounded at his very soul, Lee Chaolan writhes in the sands, spasming madly. But as the pain soon numbs into dim agony, he musters enough focus to roll over, to stare his opponent in the eyes. And ask him. Ask him the true question.

"Why, Doctor Tran?"

"Sh, she was?! I thought she was just a giant killjoy bitch!" Sada says.

This is a lie, but she's saying it with high pitch and some quavering in her voice. Maybe she's really convinced herself of it? It's not clear. Perhaps you could ask Hotaru Futaba about Sada's honesty levels.

But then - salvation. In the form....

Of Dr. Tran(?)

"Run! Faster, they're gaining on us!!"

Johnny watches passively as Tran runs off with Sada and the meerkats are in hot pursuit. "You can't run from who you are!" he calls. He spreads his arms wide and takes a few steps back. His glasses fall off and then he just starts collapsing into another giggle fit. "Wowwwwwwwwwwwww!" he declares to the sky. He lies on the sand amid storm wreckage, smiling.

Tran(?) may not be going as fast as he could be without Sada in his arms, but he doesn't seem to be getting short on breath, either. "Miss Asai," he says gravely, locking eyes with Sada as he runs. Between being in his arms, and his electric touch, and his seeming to not care that she is burning his skin off, it is an intensely romantic and sexually charged moment.

Then Tran(?) asks, "Have you ever seen the movie 'Pitch Perfect'?"

Sada twitches like a crab that's touched an electrical socket. It is appealing to some.

As sizzling horror rises, she answers Tran, breathlessly (from the electroshock). "D... don't DO that... and... Uh... Is that the one with the bitchy - ow!! shit!! -- girl??"

Tran(?) takes note of the fact that his Electric Arousal Current appears to be operating at too high a frequency, and elects to simply disable it. "It stars Anna Kendrick, yes," he explains, as he runs. "Other key players include Skylar Astin and Rebel Wilson. And also," he adds quickly, "Adam Devine. Are you a fan of Adam Devine? He is also in the television series 'Workaholics.'"

Still completely unaware of the mad meerkat chase scene in the background, lying in the sand with his impromptu coconut mask, Dr. Tran soon finds himself joined by the man, the myth, the legend, Lee Chaolan. Gettin' all sandy and shit. He takes a long moment to consider the questions posed to him, his extended silence speaking volumes toward the gravity of this conversation, this clash of philosophy.

At last, Tran carefully lifts the coconut off his face, moving it over his heart, and reaches out with his other hand to Lee's shoulder.

His gaze alone speaks volumes, telling of destiny and the folly of men, of the grand stage of life, of both T /and/ A. And at last, his cracked lips part once more, and the small brown man whispers to Lee of the truths of the universe.

"I just kind of hate it here."

"I'm from Japan, I don't - know what that show is," Sada gasps, full of meerkat terror and probably looking heck of otome.

"Maybe we can watch it," she then says. "From... off this stupid island, ha ha! Do you know how to leave??"

Tran(?) pauses briefly, looking uncertain, and then asks, half-teasingly, "Are you asking me on a date? -- if it matters, I do know how to leave the island, yes. I actually already left for a few days. I had business to attend to."

The Nazi Marihuana Meerkats of Zack Island soon latch onto Robo-Tran's shins grafts.

They are not fans of Adam Devine's House Party series.

As Robo-Tran and Sada quickly make it where Lee Chaolan is unable to publish another one of Robo-Tran's scenes, Lee Chaolan himself lays upon the sands. As Mr. Tibbles fights to bring him to a stand, he begins to relax. Tran's truth washes over him, flooding and freeing his soul. The crabs already begin to pick at his skin. But as his captain's hat sits fixed upon his head, Lee Chaolan nods at the secret Tran confides into him. And what does the executive do, before Robo-Tran and Sada (hopefully) fade to black?

He flashes Tran a thumbs up.

"Excellent~"

Log created on 21:32:36 02/20/2015 by Lee Chaolan, and last modified on 03:09:43 02/21/2015.