Description: Why do people /always/ think Blanka's a monster? Oh, right - cause he is one! Oops! Fightings ensue in this SNF! (Winner: Blanka)
The San Juan Islands. The trio of small islands just off the coast of Washington make for a remarkable place to get away from the rigors of daily life. Time seems to have slowed down here. As if merely being disconnected from the mainland has tempered the flow of contemporary advances. Getting dropped off at the harbor felt like stepping into a town about a hundred years behind its time. Surrounded by farms and small, single lane roads often blocked by sheep milling about lazily.
Hotaru's trip wasn't end there as the girl was taken toward the other end of the island where her match scheduled for this weekned was to take place. A thick, old growth forest, with a canopy of trees so tightly packed as to make it difficult to even tell what time of the day it was. A lot about this fight was kept secret from her, all the way down to the nature of her opponent. The last time they were this tight lipped about one of her fights it was because they were teaming her up against her obnoxious arch nemesis, Joe Higashi against an Ikari Warrior. All she can hope is that the same torment at the amusement of SNF staff isn't happening this week!
Dropped off fairly deep in the forest, the girl is still pretty much kept in the dark. It's quite likely that the whole point of this match is to entertain the audience with a generic scary movie scenario of lost girl encounters frightening forest monster. All by herself at last, Hotaru begins to walk slowly through the forest, hands clasped behind her back as she instinctively finds the easiest paths through the underbrush. Far from frightened at the environment, she feels at peace within the woods. While she's trying to listen for any indication of an actual opponent in the vicinity, she can't help but end up focusing on the sounds of the wildlife all about. Birds in the trees, a red blur leaping into a nearby bush that was most likely a fox, a trio of deer munching on forest grass that stay still even as the girl draws near. It's quite easy to forget that she was here for a fight at all, really!
It's not a proper jungle. It's cooler, and the trees aren't the same. There aren't any easy-grabbing fruits, no animals that Blanka easily knows. But it's away from people, from the screams and points and surprise. That, in and of itself, makes it relatively peaceful. He'd been sent here by the SNF foundation, sent to the 'american jungle' in which to face another opponent. He knows there are cameras dotted around here and there to catch the excitement, but he's not quite sure of who or how the fight will start.
Blanka stays where he is, half-hidden in the underbrush, his coloration a bit too yellow, the evergreens not matching the more brilliant colors of his native home. He's started to watch for his opponent, smelling 'human' on the wind. It's not something he can pinpoint, but he's hunkered down and waiting, watching and grinning. These have been fun, so far. Even if he loses, each time he's made a new friend. Or, er, been called a monster. Here's hoping it's the first, not the second!
Her relaxed tour through the forest may be scheduled to come to an abrupt end before long, but in the meantime, Hotaru is pleased to be here. There is an old feeling to the woods. While the island may be a tourist trap, this forest has been preserved very well. The air is heavy with the smells of tree bark, damp soil, and wildlife.
The trio of deer are approached, the girl standing off to the side as the eldest of the group lifts his head to stare back at her with calm, brown eyes. Hotaru doesn't linger for long though. No one enjoys being stared at while trying to eat, after all! An eagle's nest captures her attention next, secured high up in a tree. The white-feathery head of the patriarch of America's woodland creatures stares back down at the girl as she gazes up at the remarkably large nest with somewhat widened eyes.
The stare down is cut short, however, as something rubs against her leg and Hotaru glances down with a blink to find the same fox she had caught a glimpse of before sitting there at her side. "Hello, Reginald," she speaks with a smile as yet another small animal inherits yet another impromptu name while the mammal looks back up at her with an inquisitive expression. Hotaru leans her head to the side slightly as the fox rubs against her leg once more then turns to walk off in a particular direction, though at a pace slow enough that Hotaru can follow. Having nothing better to do, the girl decides to do just that, trailing behind the fox by a couple yards, keeping up by leaping over the bushes that he can pass through easily. How sweet of the forest animal to escort the poor lost girl to the only other human-like life in the vicinity!
Like lambs being led to slaugh.. er, never mind. Like happy little lemmings running towards a cliff! (that's been debunked, you know! They were pushed, by evil humans. Rar!) Blanka hasn't really moved appreciably since there was the scent of human. He's mentally sizing up what challenger they'll send against him. A strong warrior like Ryu again, or perhaps someone like Drake again, who he has to be very careful not to accidentally kill. Sheesh! Such are the trials and tribulations of being a beast-man! But at least today there's a relative peacefulness about the place that makes this a good day. If he had a watermelon, it would be perfect!
The rustle of a leaping girl does catch his notice though, and when he turns to look, he has to wonder for a minute. Is /this/ his opponent? The person he's supposed to fight? Augh! Hunkering down more in the underbrush, he puzzles over what to do... hide, and avoid the 'omg monster bigfoot lemme call my friends' greeting that he's half-expecting, or hope that she'll be professional? The need to actually /do/ something wins out - and as she approaches, the underbrush rises up to meet her, Blanka standing tall in the heavy undergrowth. "You come.. for fighting, right?" Mind you, if she didn't, she'll probably think him insane. But hey, such is life!
Let's face it. Blanka has a lot going against him here. There's the green skin. That's not normal by any means, and the flash of red-orange hair contrasting so strongly against it doesn't help. There's his face - a cross between human and animal, highlighted primarily by the downturned mouth with the tip of sharp canine teeth visible, looking like fangs one would associate with an animal that gets its food primarily from hunting. The ragged clothing one would expect to find on a man gone crazy living in abject isolation from the rest of humanity. Even rattling ankle braclets, that at first glance might lead one to believe that he had just escaped from being locked up somewhere for the good of all.
Rising up out of the plants only completes the package deal of Scary<tm>, and Hotaru freezes, startled at having been surprised such. She didn't sense any fear in the animals around her. Even her small, furry escort through the woods didn't exhibit any signs of there being anything to be frightened of. But how could all those animals miss something as bloodcurdlingly alarming as /this/ thing?
He starts to talk to her but she doesn't even seem to realize the attempt as the young fighter reacts more on reflex than anything now. Bracing herself for a split second, she switches to being on the offense immediately, running forward and jumping into the air with a spin kick aimed at the monster's head! And if that connects, she'll push off with her kicking foot to spin back around and strike him with her opposite leg before leaping back off him to try and land in the grass. "KYA!"
That should answer his question as to whom his opponent is. The fox that brought the girl to him scampers off to the side, not seemingly worried by this development at all. A detail that the girl doesn't miss, even in the midst of her preemptive strike. Why is she the only one frightened here??
COMBATSYS: Hotaru has started a fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ <
Hotaru 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Blanka has joined the fight here.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////////////]
Hotaru 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Blanka
COMBATSYS: Blanka endures Hotaru's Heavy Kick.
[\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Hotaru 0/-------/-------|==-----\-------\0 Blanka
Why do they /always/ do this? Does Blanka need a giant neon sign saying 'Hi, I am not a monster, plz do not yell, scream and kick me in the head cause it hurts a lot'? If he does, why has he not yet gotten such a sign, and started carrying it around!?! The answer to that, well - it's simple. Blanka is, at heart, still an optimist. He's sure that /someday/ in the right situation, the right peaceful presence, he won't get kicked in the head when he tries to talk to someone. No, no, they'll actually maybe be a little wierded out, but they'll handle it just fine and after a good match, they can go hit up a fruit stand or something. Not today, though! Today, the fight starts with a girl leaping towards the green giant, and planting a boot right to his temple. He stops trying to talk, howling at the sudden stabbing pain and flash of light he sees in his vision from the impact. She can hop away easily enough, that's for sure.
He is, however, quick to recover. And if she is here to fight, a fight she'll get. Blanka's more than willing to dish things out, especially when the battle's been joined. He can tell from the strength of her hit that she's trained - so it /has/ to be the fighter he was expecting. In that case, well - he won't hold back. Leaping forwards, he lands crouched near her, then suddenly brings his knees up in a double strike, an attempt to catch the girl with a very intense knee session! That should maybe give her something to think about! He doesn't try to talk again, right now - that knock to his noggin's blown his concentration, and he's acting on pure jungle instinct!
COMBATSYS: Blanka successfully hits Hotaru with Rock Crush.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Hotaru 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Blanka
Her daring first strike connects! It's hard to gauge how effectively though, as he manages to stay standing while her hope had been to kick him down and be able to take off running to get away from this monster all together. Thoughts of actually having been dropped off for a fight in the first place have slipped her mind as she lands after her kick, feet sliding over the soft soil a little before finding traction.
But it didn't seem to phase him much as he comes right back her with a frighteningly fast recovery accompanied by a howl that only serves to accentuate how far he has come from his human origin... even if her own jump kick was pretty much to blame for that sound. He comes back after her with a speed that almost conceals the power behind his attacks and while the smaller fighter tries to scramble backward she ends up with Blanka's first knee slamming into her stomach, bending her forward just so that his other knee can crash against her chin, causing her to see stars and knocking her clean off her feet to land on her back several yards away. It would seem that she can dish it out well enough, but taking it in is a real problem.
It is with borderline frantic panic that she gets back up to her feet so fast, dead leaves and small twigs falling off of her as she does so. In a normal fight she might have preferred to take a second to catch her breath before getting back up, as her footing seems a little off and her vision a little blurry, but when faced with a beast man like this she isn't going to stay still for so much a second if she can help it.
There is a worried, pleading glance cast at the forest around here as she takes a couple steps backward. When faced against Kurow in the jungles of Thailand, she was able to enlist the help of other creatures in her fight. But here all the wildlife seems content merely to observe rather than interfer, as if they all know something she doesn't. After such a jarring first attack though, it's all the girl can do to shake her head and get her focus back on the beastly creature. If she can beat him down a little, then getting away would be easy!
COMBATSYS: Hotaru focuses on her next action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > //////////////////////// ]
Hotaru 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Blanka
Normally, this is where Blanka would hoot and holler and 'aroo' with cheering as he lands from his attack. Sending an opponent flying is always cause for a cheer or two. However, this is one of those things where he's just a little less certain - after all, the look of the girl's face is one of prey.. er, not prey. No, no, nothing like.. ok, actually, it's a lot like prey. He lives in a jungle! While more of a fruit kind of guy himself, he knows what those 'I need a way out' looks are for. And in that moment, he reassesses what he's been doing. Carefully, hands out, he starts towards her. He opens his mouth to speak again, knowing that this is exposing those giant fangs, and more likely than not she won't hear anything but 'raar, gnash, grr, aroo' in the state she's in. "Aro... Are you here for.. fii-yiiiii!" Blanka's voice is cut short as his foot hits a branch, the limb snapping and sending him flailing forward in an unexpected fast lurch, as if to land on the girl. Oops! Darn him and his clumsy beast feet!
COMBATSYS: Hotaru dodges Blanka's Light Kick.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////////// ]
Hotaru 0/-------/=======|====---\-------\0 Blanka
She backs away but he keeps advancing on her, baring those deadly, fruit-slaying fangs of his. His hands are extended outward, clearly intent on getting a grasp on her in order to tear her to pieces like any good - er, evil monster would do. She's silent other than the emphasized breathing brought on by fear and the staggering pain of his crushing knees moments ago. Trying to reason with something like him with words would be ridiculous after all, right?
And then comes his incomprehensible sounds and a very unpredictable looking, savage lunge, and Hotaru's feet respond with a lot more dexterity as she slides to the side, shoulder bumping against the thick bark of an old pine tree, causing a small rain of pinecones to come falling down around the two fighters.
Were there words amongst the sounds he was making? Her adrenaline-rushed mind tries to figure out if what she had heard was merely a trick of sound or an actual attempt at communication. But of greater importance is that she feels trapped with the tree behind her and Blanka to her side.
Which is why her next course of action is a more brazen, almost wreckless charge back at him, small hands attempting to find a hold on his much larger arms. If she can get that leverage, she'll charge right up the front of him with a sequence of rapid but unforgiving stomps before leaping from off his shoulders to land behind him. "Ya, ya, ya!"
COMBATSYS: Blanka interrupts Shin-Jou Tai from Hotaru with Electric Thunder.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > ///////////////////// ]
Hotaru 1/---====/=======|======-\-------\0 Blanka
Who would have thought that Blanka's perfectly peaceful day would have started going wrong by having a schoolgirl suddenly assume him to be a monster?! Well, okay, Blanka would - this is, after all, the second most common thing to happen to him. Otherwise, it's male models thinking he's a monster. Augh! He's spitting dirt and twigs out of his mouth and getting back to his feet, a bit slowly. His jaw hangs open as he starts to face the girl, and she's suddenly all up in his grill, her hands on his bicepts, and her foot in his stomach, then against his chest, and one actually /in/ his mouth. And as she pulls up for her next stomp, her off-foot catches him underneath the jaw, clacking it pretty hard, and putting his mouth almost-shut.
And incidentally, triggering an instincitve reaction, jungle-wise. When he's being attacked by oh, say a squeezy constrictor that doesn't want to let him go, the best way to stop them is to put a gentle little chomp on them and then briefly electrify the entirety of his body - after that, they don't seem to have the urge to hold onto him anymore. The impact sets this off, with her foot in his mouth, there's only one place for the electricity to go, arcing from his body straight through to that foot. As soon as he realizes it's happening, he stops and falls back - but with the kick from earlier rolling through his head, that's a good few seconds of *BZZZZZZZZZ* going on. Afterwards, he falls down onto his rear, looking a little stunned.
The foot in his mouth was somewhat of a blunder. The last thing the girl was trying to do was insert limbs in between those teeth of his. In fact, the entire point of this exercise is avoid that /very/ thing! But as her foot gets stuck, primarialy due to her own fault, Hotaru's rapid climb for great freedom is cut short. Even before the eletricty courses through her, throwing her into a convulsing fit, the girl is already starting to flail, losing her balance entirely.
The electric jolt and stumbling fall results in her dropping right back down to the ground, back landing hard against the very tree she was trying to get out from being trapped against. But she's still on her feet now, thanks to that very sturdy trunk, and it seems that while her assault went horribly wrong, the beast was dazed a little nonetheless.
Squinting her eyes, she shakes her head, trying to clear her mind and regain her focus. Panicked flailing isn't going to get her out of this, she decides. She needs to pull out all the stops. Pour everything she has into a single, devastating assault that will finish him or at least leave her able to make her escape.
Seeking to take advantage of his moment's hesitation, whatever the cause may be, the girl leaps at him again, though this time coming up just shy, landing in a crouch, arms extended out to her sides for balance. What comes next is an incredibly powerful, chi-laden backflip packing not just the force of the girl's physical prowess but a veritable torrent of blue energy that trails behind her kicking feet. "Ten-shou..."
COMBATSYS: Hotaru successfully hits Blanka with Ten-shou Ranki EX.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\\\\ < > /////////// ]
Hotaru 0/-------/-------|=======\====---\1 Blanka
The backflipping kick packs enough power to send most opponents clean off their feet and the momentum carries Hotaru into a high arc. At the apex the soles of her shoes connect against a thick, extending branch, giving her leverage with which to dive back down at the poor, misunderstood creature. "Ranki!"
She collides with him hard enough to drive them both back down to the ground, however, sliding several yards through dry twigs and leaves that form a small cloud around them. By the time the dust settles, Hotaru is kneeling on Blanka's stomach, leaning forward so that her palms can press hard into his chest.
The diminutive fighter begins to build up an incredible field of power around the two, manifesting as a sphere of blue and yellow energy. She draws not just from her own deep resevoirs of chi but from Blanka's as well, using his own strength to suppliment the pulsating, convulsing energy that she collects. "aaaaaAAAAH!" But even as she charges the inevitable chibomb, she can't help but notice something amiss with the creature she is about to blast. In conducting this very attack, she has felt the aura of many - including vicious preditors, killers, manipulators and ruthless stalkers.
It is only in this moment of up close, strangely personal contact that she begins to see him in a new light. The creature within is nothing like the monster without. Maybe that is what the animals wanted her to understand...
The epiphany is brief and there is no time to think on it for long, as the building power has reached the limits of her capacity to control it. Allowing the sphere to collapse back in on herself, Hotaru channels all of that pent up strength down her arms and into the chest of her ambiguously dangerous foe. There is a small explosion, leaves and small rocks sent flying out away from the two, and the sound of a quiet, wearied exhale as Hotaru slumps forward a little, hands still pressed against Blanka's chest - but now for support rather than to attack. 'I've made a big mistake,' the girl realizes, mentally chiding herself.
Who knew the girl could kick /so hard/?! It was like, a foot that came in and knocked the stuffing out of the red-haired beastman. Flying back he went, crashing onto the ground with a thud more akin to a bushel of plantains falling off the branch in the jungle, dead weight hitting the earth. But that's not all of it, oh no - now he has to deal with the second hit, her impact skidding him a few feet, then pain upon pain as the blast of her energy flies through his body. It's like holding onto a live wire, or the feeling of swimming with the eels before his body adapted to it, to use it on it's own. But there's one good thing in the aftermath, the explosion's end signaling a sudden silence to the forest.
She's not trying to immedeately hit him again.
As one yellow eye creaks open, he sees her atop him, wearied and slow.. and he wonders, for just a moment - did she finally realize? Maybe, just maybe, she doesn't think he's horrible and evil and trying to kick puppies or something? Carefully, his voice is forced with effort, raw from the pain of the last attack, he speaks. ".. Fight hard.. but finish fights. Blanka.. not losing tournament today." She's not being given a breather - after all, she's pointed out quite succiently that she can dish it out - now it's her turn to find out if she can take it. Blanka's hands go for her own, and his eyes go from yellow-gold to blue-white, his open maw arcing like a Jacob's ladder. And then, well - that charge is all fed through his body, an electrifying stimulation stronger than the first - deliberately controlled and intent on knocking his opponent off of him and hopfully out of the match!
COMBATSYS: Hotaru fails to reflect Direct Lightning from Blanka with Kobi Kyaku.
- Power fail! -
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ <
Blanka 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Hotaru can no longer fight.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ <
Blanka 0/-------/-----==|
She put everything she could into that attack, only to realize that she had been thinking of the strange looking beast man all wrong. Startled at first, she had struck with fear and assumption, missing the clues that the forest would have given her to realize the error of her first impression. She should have been thinking of him as an able fighter that she needed to treat with the respect appropriate for a fighter of equal or perhaps superior ability. Instead she struck out at him frantically, letting so much of the key focus required for her style to succeed fall by the wayside.
Realizing her mistake comes too late, however, having already spent all of her strength on a single attack intended to debilitate him enough that she could run away rather than thinking about this like any other fight that requires proper pacing and discipline to see it through. He speaks, and the girl hears him for the first time, blue eyes blinking with visible surprise. Words. Broken english, but perfectly comprehensible nonetheless. How had she missed him speaking before? If she had only listened rather than reacted on appearance alone... "Nn," she replies, her tone suggesting that she understands exactly what he is getting at now. This is a competition fight. The one she was supposed to be here for. Nothing more.
The lesson learned doesn't help her out with this fight, however, as Blanka's green hands clamp down over her own, holding her in place in spite her immediate attempt to struggle free. She can sense the build up coming even before his eyes strangely change color and while she tries to twist her body in such a way as to kick free before his attack goes off, his grip is too strong and the girl is subjected to the entire force of his electric charge. "AAYYAA" comes the pained scream before the blast knocks her clean off of him and onto her back some feet away.
Coupled with the crushing knee attack from earlier and the previous jolt as well as her own error in over exerting herself, the girl seems to be completely out of the fight, lying in the dirt with her eyes closed. At least there's the small relief in that Blanka's fangs are mostly put to use in piercing fruit rinds!
And afterwards, Blanka stares up at the sky for a while - he's tired, exhausted, and the injuries of her energy will definitely linger for a day or two. He stares at the swaying branches, allowing that peacefulness to slowly crawl back into his spirit, to tone down the instincts of fight or flight that raged through him mere moments ago. And only when he can hear the movement of animals in the area does he get to his feet, slowly and woozily. He walks over to where the girl is, then looks down at her, shaking his head. Under his breath, he admits that the fight would have been much different, were she not fighting with that panic. But.. hey, his first SNF win, he'll take it how he can!
Carefully, he picks the girl up and holds her in his arms, (not by the scruff of her neck, thanks!) and then starts to walk towards where the town was. Even if they'll make more bigfoot rumors, he's going to go and make sure she gets a warm bed and some tasty fruit to work off the headache she'll probably have. Plus, maybe he can get some tasty fruit too. :D
COMBATSYS: Blanka takes no action.
[ \\\\\\\\\\\ <
Blanka 0/-------/-----==|
COMBATSYS: Blanka has ended the fight here.
Log created on 12:46:05 08/26/2007 by Blanka, and last modified on 23:14:13 08/31/2007.