Description: The first of the training sessions Tran requested from Frei finds the good doctor balking at the idea and venting his frustration by smacking the monk silly. However, somewhere in the frenzy of catharsis, Frei plants the seeds of a new Tran and hangs his hopes for Tran on a new star.
Boy, this here shrine sure is...random. Tran's been here before, for some reason or another, even if he can't remember why. He's mostly struck by a sense of 'Why does this even exist.' It doesn't seem like anybody particularly cares about it, considering it's pretty run down. The scars of many battles no doubt help with that. It's really a miracle the place is still standing.
So if this place is so worthless, why is Tran here, leaning on a wall with a lit cigarette in his mouth? Well, because Frei thought it would be a good spot to instructionalize. It may be, at that - it's a calm area, no interruptions at a crucial point, nobody to hurt on accident...And, best of all, it's not the YFCC. That's the biggest selling point, really.
Today has been sort of up and down for Frei. He was reunited with Hinata (good), who hit him really hard and beat him (bad). He also got The Everest(tm) sundae for free at The Whole Scoop because he wolfed it down (good), but this also preceded his fight with Hinata (bad). Then he went home and watched an episode of Best Week Ever (good), an episode of Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School (bad), and did a crossword puzzle (...sort of neutral, really).
A little alarm clock in his kitchen rang at 6pm, reminding him that come dusk, he was supposed to meet Tran at the shrine for the first of... an unspecified number of training sessions with his powerful but unfocused chi abilities. Slipping on his wooden sandals, tightening his headband, and loading up his iPod with Donna Summer, the monk set off for the long walk across town to the shrine. He takes his time, having plenty of it to kill.
Thus the sky is darkening to red-orange as the monk is visible walking through the woods, swinging his arms back and forth to the beat and singing. He's... actually not a bad singer, with a pleasant if not exactly professional-level voice. The fact that he's singing Donna Summer probably isn't helping, though. o/~ "Bad girls... talkin' 'bout the sad girls... bad girls... talkin' bout the bad, bad girls, yeah..."
At first, Tran was a little bit impatient, because he was here early. This quickly turns into flat out boredom, and soon he's staring into space with a vacant look in his eyes. Then comes the faint voice of Frei, and Tran unconciously starts tapping one foot to the imagined beat. Then he looks down, realizes he's doing it, and shouts an obscenity at the top of his lungs. If he never admits it happened, it never did!
So it is that he's right back up to a mild fury when Frei actually gets to him, and let's assume nothing keeps him from doing so, like bears or flesh-eating meteors or a roving gang of biker dolphins.
"'Bout time. What kept you?" Tran kind of shouts a bit, because ha ha! Headphones.
The monk's green eyes give Tran a sort of o_- expression as he slips the headphoens off his head (earbuds are bad for you) and hangs them around his neck. "Nothing kept me. You're early." He has this nasty habit of telling the truth. It's amazingly effective at keeping people off-beam, in Frei's experience. As if they can't believe someone's telling them how things actually are.
Walking past the good Doctor, Frei sits down on the veranda of the broken-down shrine and pulls the iPod out of his jeans pocket, switching it off and setting both it and the headphones down next to him before linking his fingers together and stretching his arms over his head in an arch. "Well, I'm here," he says, standing up... as if somehow Tran has the master plan for training and not Frei.
"I'm not early, you're late." It's a lie, and Tran realizes it, but, well. Just because somebody tells him the truth doesn't mean he has to admit it. In fact, the truth should conform to what Tran says it is, or he'll really give the universe what-for! Take that, physics!
Moving on, Tran watches Frei get prepped and stretch and all that, occasionally looking around while he waits. Nope, nothing he hasn't already seen. "Yes, you're totally here. So." Tran places one hand in the other and cracks his knuckles. "You ready?"
Frei doesn't look convinced. Why? He has a watch. Still, he has subscribed quite usefully to the 'If it helps Tran cope what's the harm' school for some time now. Reaching up behind his head, the monk tightens the knot in his headband, his gaze darting to Tran's... somewhat aggressive overture of readiness. Well, it's not as if Tran's trying to learn chi to help him master pottery or macrame, right? "Should be!"
Shaking out his arms, Frei just... stands there. If Tran's gonna punch him, well... that's just how it is. Besides, the monk needs to know what this 'new' stuff the Doctor is trying to do is before he can do anything so grandiose as suggest improvement methods. "Alright. Might as well start by showing me the, uh... 'new' stuff you're trying that's not working out." You have a future in education, Frei. This is certain.
"Good. Let's...let's get this started, then." C'mon, Frei, you're supposed to be like a fountain of sage advice here, knowing the answer to the problem before you've even been told the problem itself! God, next you're gonna say you're not psychic.
As tempting as it is to just charge up and slug Frei in the jaw, that's not really...new. It's old hat. It's the usual. So, Tran does as he's bid, and stands there. "I'm doing it right now." Wait, what? It's true, though, because the doctor is gathering chi, both from the area around him and, strangely enough, from himself. He's radiating it, wisps of steam rising off his shoulders, only to be visibly pulled in again. "Give me a sec, this takes a little while."
COMBATSYS: Tran has started a fight here.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Tran gathers his will.
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Tran 0/-------/---====|
That does indeed get a reaction out of the monk, who observes Tran carefully. What's going on is indeed a little unusual; most people pull chi from outside in, rather than drawing on their own internal reserves. In fact, only a very few fighters he's ever met -- himself included -- seem to do it the way Tran's doing it now, which interests him. Plus it's also something the monk's never seen the good doctor do before.
Of course, it behooves Frei to respond in kind, so he crosses his palms in front of each other just in front of his torso, then pushes outward, tai chi-style, before getting back into stance. The end result is much the same, overall; Frei's own chi starts building, though in his case rather than steam -- rather than 'erupting' as Tran's does -- his chi simply resonates with the surroundings; in this case, that little dramatic blow of wind that sends the tails of his headband spiralling back. "Well, that is indeed new... a little rough around the edges, but it's a good start."
COMBATSYS: Frei has joined the fight here.
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Frei 0/-------/-------|====---\-------\0 Tran
COMBATSYS: Frei gathers his will.
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Frei 0/-------/---====|====---\-------\0 Tran
"Tip of the iceburg." Tran's eyes are alert and open, but he's still not really entirely used to this - when he's doing it as hard as he can, it's difficult. It requires concentration. Luckily, Frei's giving him the time for that. After a bit, however, Tran cuts it out, exhaling slowly. "Alright, pressure's rising...but it'll still take a bit of time. Let's keep it going."
Now, Tran doesn't seem to be doing much of anything special right now, but since Frei's good at this sort of thing he can probably tell that Tran's not really...doing anything with all that chi he's just built up. It's mostly just sitting there.
The doctor himself is anything but motionless, however. Rushing forward, he raises a fist and pretty much just tries to slug Frei in the mouth, like he wanted to do in the first place. Will it be all the sweeter for the wait?
COMBATSYS: Frei blocks Tran's Strong Punch.
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Frei 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Tran
Frei doesn't look like a trained martial artist at first glance, but in fact over time he's starting to at least know the tricks that trained martial artists would know. Case in point: he catches Tran's fist in an open palm, turning it aside and redirecting the kinetic energy off a bit. But it doesn't look like Frei is actually all too keen on attacking back, at this juncture; after all, Tran's the one who has something to show him, not the other way around. Frei himself doesn't really know any shiny new tricks.
"I'm not sure what it is you want advice on, Tran," he admits, scratching the side of his head and watching the good doctor carefully. "I mean, my impression of you is that you work on instinct. Is that something I can really teach?" Of course, Frei himself works on instinct... but it's instinct based on a solid foundation of theory, though perhaps the monk himself doesn't recognize the difference.
COMBATSYS: Frei focuses on his next action.
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Frei 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Tran
Despite the ease with which Frei deflects his attack, Tran remains undiscouraged. A little annoyed, but not at that, specifically. "Christ, aren't you supposed to be the patient, mellow one? I mean, god, hold on to your ass!"
Tran follows this up by trying to smack Frei upside the head. It's a simple, yet effective gesture of 'sit down and shut up'. Truly, the doctor is proving himself a fine student already. "I said it takes a little while! Maybe if you weren't just sitting there like a lump, I'd be more inclined to get to the good stuff!"
COMBATSYS: Frei interrupts Quick Punch from Tran with Fast Throw.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
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Frei 0/-------/-======|=====--\-------\0 Tran
Deciding that hand-grabby is one again the way to go, Frei knits his brow as his fist wraps around Tran's, then instead of simply standing back, he lashes out with his foot and trips the good doctor, a patch of slick, chi-created ice appearing under his feet to send him slip-sliding away as he falls... and perhaps making an ordinary trip a little more painful than it might otherwise be. Dusting off his hands, the monk folds his arms over his chest and watches Tran carefully, face curiously set all :|y.
"I can't teach you anything if you don't tell me what you want to know," the monk says patiently. Usually he can deal with the good doctor's sort of... random, shotgun wedding approach to social interaction, but working at the YFCC has made Frei a little more aware of how he acts in the role of 'teacher'. That's just not going to work here. "You can *tell* me before you *show* me, you know."
With a yelp, Tran's ass hits the ground, and he goes slip-sliding a few feet away. Left on his back in the dirt, he stares upward at Frei balefully. "What? Where's your sense of the dramatic?" Tran pauses, the roll over and pushes himself up, rubbing at his now acheing backside afterward. "No, no, fine, whatever. You wanna know, okay."
Tran takes a step forward, looking Frei straight in the eye, and then asks, "I'm building up chi, right? As much as I can. Trapping it, letting it circulate inside me with nowhere to go." He pauses, placing a hand on his chest for emphasis. "And then, once I've built up so much I don't think I can stand it anymore..."
His hand clutches the fabric, ripping it off his chest with a wild motion that puts Frei in danger of being smacked again. "BOOM! Steam everywhere!"
COMBATSYS: Frei endures Tran's Dr. Tran Takes Off His Top.
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Frei 0/-------/=======|======-\-------\0 Tran
Frei says, "\
It would be nice to say that, in true martial tradition, Frei was willing to walk into a blow in order to better position himself to retaliate with more force. What *actually* happens is that Tran says something so hilarious that Frei sort of sees the attack coming but can't do anything about it at all.
Because he's laughing too hard.
Tran's fist, as he Hulks out (sorta), does indeed smack Frei in the head, but not really all that hard; it stops the laughing for a moment while Frei 'oofs' in surprise, but that's about it. Then the monk POINTS at Tran and just begins *cackling* like a lunatic. "OH MY GOD DID YOU HEAR WHAT YOU JUST SAID." Frei stops to take a breath... and then startings gibbering insanely all over again.
After a second, he wipes his eyes. "You build up the chi... then boom, steam everywhere, unquote. Okay. And... and how do you..." A brief snickering here. "...how do you build up the chi? I mean, do you..." Then the insane laughing AGAIN. "Oh man. Tran, you don't need a chi expert. You need Dr. Ruth. No wonder you didn't ask Alma for help."
Then the monk suddenly spins and aims a punch at Tran's head, an invisible and swirling mass of wind around his fist giving the punch extra oomph. "Okay. I think I can take this seriously now. Pretty sure.""
COMBATSYS: Frei successfully hits Tran with Fierce Punch.
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Frei 1/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1 Tran
"SHUT UP!" Tran frowns. His eyebrows slant way down to show just how angry he is, which is super-angry. "Damn it, you know how I meant it, not all...all...rrrgh!" All told, it sounds like Tran's too busy being super-pissed to really cope with Frei's punch, which smacks him right in the face and sends him reeling backward, eventually thumping against a wall.
Somewhat steadied, Tran holds his hands up in fury, clenching and unclenching, and retorts, "I...you...gah! Your family is a dog! Your clothing makes bad math!" Painfully aware of how lame he's sounding right now, yet unable to come up with anything better, Tran loses it. Twin jets of steam erupt out of his ears (along with a half-dozen other places on his body), and he throws his hands up into the air. "THIS! This is exactly what I was talking about!"
COMBATSYS: Tran switches his Mindset.
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Frei 1/-------/=======|=======\==-----\1 Tran
Steam... from the *ears*.
Pausing, Frei scratches the side of his head again, trying to parse this out. In fact, he's been bouncing theories about Tran's more or less unique steam chi for a long time, at least ever since the two have met. What better time to lay those out than now? And while he needed a good laugh to get the nervousness out of his system... even if Tran doesn't buy it, the monk really is interested in helping him.
Which is perhaps why he hangs back and doesn't attack, gathering his own energy again. There's something... different about Tran, though it's hard to put his finger on it. "Okay. You know that your emotions and your chi are linked, right? Haven't you ever wondered why people who fight can have sudden, dramatic shifts in their abilities when their emotional state changes? It all boils down to the same thing." Case in point: since Frei is attempting to exude calm, rather than wind, the air around the monk... shimmers in the dusk sunlight, as if through a fine mist or snowflakes.
"You're not really in control of your emotions, so you're not in control of your chi, either, you know? There's a difference between using your feelings to help you, and being used by your feelings."
COMBATSYS: Frei gathers his will.
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Frei 1/---====/=======|=======\==-----\1 Tran
Still making half-strangled sounds, Tran finally manages to bunch his hands up into fists and keep them that way. In fact, aside from the noise, he's actually quite still. The air around him, now. It's hazy, thick, more from the /suggestion/ of steam than an actual outpouring presence. Almost like a dramatic opposite of the air around Frei.
The atmosphere is charged, baby.
"Stuff it! This whole thing was a retarded idea, goddamit!" The low growl continues, but now Tran's ready for one thing - ACTION. He leaps forward, steam erupting out from under his foot and propelling his entire body forward. He raises a steamy hand, and then...runs right by Frei. Well, most of him. The hand tries to catch the monk's face, and if it does Tran's going to take him for a ride right into one of the shrine's walls, culminating in a large blast of chi. Why, it's almost like he's ripping off a more famous fighter, who he may or may not have had a painful encounter with not too long ago. "EAT A DICK!"
COMBATSYS: Frei fails to interrupt Strong Throw from Tran with Gekkou Nocturne.
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Frei 0/-------/---====|=======\===----\1 Tran
Not exactly expected, now is it?
The misty air gives way to a silvery glow that flickers around Frei's body like cold flame. He hasn't tried what Tran's doing right now before, but... it's certainly worth a shot, isn't it? Especially if it gets his point across. He plans, at the very least, to do something about that grab move but is a little too slow and ends up slammed rather painfully into the wall as a result. He slumps down the side, clutching one arm with another, and looking at Tran carefully, his green eyes bright.
If nothing else, that proves this was the right thing to do.
"It's not. You need this... or you're just going to keep raging along, unhappy, until you burn yourself out." It's very rare to hear Frei speak in such serious tones, after all... even he seems surprised to hear the words come out of his mouth in such a way. But if that gets his point across, he'll accept that. "Why do you want to give up now? Because changing is too hard? Too damn bad! Life is change, Tran. I didn't really know what you wanted until now. But I *can* help you. I know how. If you'll stop running away from what you can do for five seconds and suck it up!"
For his part, Tran has no idea what the hell Frei just tried to do. It's hard to see through the steam and rage. Boy, isn't there a lot of both? There sure is. Not quite enough to keep Tran from pausing to deliver wordage, but close.
"Why? Because you're an asshole!" Tran drives a fist toward Frei's chest, trying to hammer him against the wall. "He's an asshole!" Tran shifts his body around, flinging the other hand forward to follow it up. "His asshole friend's an asshole!" Tran grabs at Frei's collar, and tries to lift him up. "You're all complete JACKASSES!" Rearing back, Tran drives his head forward, trying to send Frei all the way through the quickly weakening wall.
There's probably another explosion.
COMBATSYS: Frei blocks Tran's Fierce Punch.
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Frei 0/-------/--=====|=======\===----\1 Tran
"I'm not," is all Frei says, ducking back from the grab and crossing his arms in front of him, both flickering with that cold silver glow, Tran's chisplodey forehead basically bouncing off his guard as the monk at least gives himself the space to dash away from the shrine, moving the fight back from the already battered structure. He distinctly heard a *crack!* noise after that last one... and would rather not have to explain the destroyed shrine to anyone.
But probably to Tran's chagrin, Frei's not actually DOING anything. Usually the monk's way of dealing with the doctor's manic, angry energy is to try and match intensity with intensity... right now, that's not really working, is it? So he just... does nothing. Well, except keep talking. "I can't even imagine what's going on in your head. I think without all that undirected rage you wouldn't know what to do with yourself. Maybe that's why you won't bother to learn how to control it." Is he goading Tran? Maybe...
COMBATSYS: Frei takes no action.
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Frei 0/-------/--=====|=======\===----\1 Tran
"The hell you aren't!" Tran screams again, wordless anger blasting to the surface. Inhaling again, he shouts in a slightly more controlled manner, "Deny it all you want, keep pretending you're so good and wonderful and great! Go on! It's what you've been doing!"
Abruptly breaking into a run again, Tran twists his body and brings a fist in low. Frei's fought him enough times that what's coming should be obvious. Especially since the steam, instead of being more of a misty aura around Tran, all snaps inward, creating a roiling white ball. He slams it upward toward Frei's chin, trying to send the monk airborne, even while his other fist waits for the second half of the show. Cooincidentally, this is an excellent time for the doctor to rant more.
"Maybe I wouldn't be so pissed around you guys if you weren't a bunch of jerks who keep treating me like a retarded cousin who just got out of the county jail!" And then, assuming Frei doesn't JD or dodge or otherwise pull something COMPLETELY AWESOME, Tran brings his other fist forward, slamming it with all the power he can muster.
COMBATSYS: Tran successfully hits Frei with Here Comes Dr. Tran!.
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Frei 1/----===/=======|-------\-------\0 Tran
He'd already had it in mind to weather the attack, basically. If it put him in a better position to deal with Tran, then so much the better... but honestly, Frei doesn't care. If this is what it takes to get Tran to work through his rage into a more clear-headed place, then... well, so be it. It all goes off without a hitch, the attack blasting into Frei's body and sending him sailing across the space, landing in a tree which then cracks from the force, leaving the monk in a sprawl on the ground.
He does get up, though.
"Then stop acting like it," Frei says calmly, blood streaming from a cut on his forehead. Considering that he's actually a lot tougher than he looks, this is a rare occurance for Frei. But he doesn't seem perturbed. "Change is all around us, Tran. I've changed since I first came here. Since I first met you. Everything is different tomorrow than it was today. Trying to say you can stay the same, putting the blame on everyone else for not adapting to you... that's not going to get you anywhere. And no amount of punching me in the head is going to help. So you can either stay here, and listen, and maybe learn something, or you can turn around and leave. I honestly don't care either way, though I sort of wish you'd choose option A."
COMBATSYS: Frei takes no action.
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Frei 1/----===/=======|-------\-------\0 Tran
At this point, Tran's exhausted. Depleted. Hunched over and slightly slack, he's all steamed out. Taking in a deep breath, Tran looks up at Frei, silent, and then staggers a couple of steps back, leaning against another convenient tree. He sighs, and then slumps down into a sitting position. Listening quietly to everything Frei has to say, trying to make sense of it.
"I don't get it." The verdict comes in. Tran closes his eyes and slouches down a bit further. "I got about one thing out of all that, and it was 'stay here and listen.' I asked for this, somehow, so I suppose I've got it coming. One thing, though." He holds up a single finger. "I'm not making any promises."
COMBATSYS: Tran takes no action.
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Frei 1/----===/=======|-------\-------\0 Tran
Probably the only thing keeping the monk going right now is his untapped talent to heal the body with chi. He's not like, say, Mizuki... he can't help others. But he does know how to use the energy of the Earth to keep himself going just a little bit longer. Even as he walks toward the shrine -- obviously not interested in smacking Tran around anymore -- the cut in his forehead is slowly closing, and he walks a little more assuredly... sort of.
Easing his aching body down onto the creaking wood, he turns and looks at Tran carefully, then sighs and leans back on his hands, face pointed up at the now-sunless sky, the lights of Southtown starting to sparkle into being in the distance. "I don't think you're a 'retarded cousin', Tran... neither does Alma, though you probably won't believe that. If I didn't think you were worth associating with we wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place." He drops his head down to look at the doctor carefully. "And I'm not interested in changing who you are, either. That would be stupid. But... I can help you be who you are, better. That's all. If it works, then great. If it doesn't, then... well, it wasn't meant to be. Not everything is."
COMBATSYS: Frei has left the fight here.
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Tran 0/-------/-------|
Now, Tran /could/, theoretically, help a brother out with his own not insignificant healing abilities. However, it would be way too gay without his own brand of steamy theatrics to conceal his marvelous medical miracles, and he doesn't have the energy for that right now. So tough luck, buddy.
"We'll see, then." With his eyes still closed, Tran continues, "Like I said, I don't get what you're saying. I guess that's kinda the point, but..." He trails off, and then sighs again. "Hell but I'm tired. Is that enough for today, or do we need another weird twist before the night's through?"
COMBATSYS: Tran has ended the fight here.
Shaking his head, Frei hauls his legs up on the shrine and lays on his back, staring up at the sky. He talks big, but a tiny part of him is wondering if he can even go through with this... if he's got what it takes to actually teach someone else. He's not a person prone to doubt, and someone who knew what to look for would see it in his expression.
"No..." the monk says, lacing his arms behind his head and closing his eyes. A nap cures everything. Look at Chrono Trigger. "I think you needed to get that out of your system, so that's all for now. We'll... pick it up some other time. When you want. There's no rush, after all."
Luckily, Tran still has his eyes closed, plus he's not that great with the whole 'emotion' thing anyway, so Frei's doubt just kind of passes him by unaware. "Yeah, that's...yeah." Tran's silent for a few minutes.
Then he starts to snore, lightly. Nap? Awesome.
Log created on 01:16:10 08/11/2007 by Frei, and last modified on 08:44:52 08/12/2007.