Description: Those two words pretty much sum up the meeting between Alexis and Benimaru after she finds out just who her 'teacher' for this tournament is supposed to be. The question now is, will the gymnast stick with this 'challenge', or will she forfeit the tournament so that she can be the perfect fangirl? And just what /does/ Benimaru mean when he says he'll take care of it?
The Strolheim tournament looks like it's about to go full swing really soon, and of course the cities nearest Strolheim is growing more crowded as the days pass, with thoughts that most of the matches will take place in the area. It seems no one really knows for sure, many of the contestants may even still be in the dark.
Or at least Benimaru Nikaido is, who's been concentrating intensely as of late as the latest news has really gotten the model looking forward to the upcoming tournament.
The fighting veteran has plenty of experience in big team fights, and not knowing too much about his teammates is obviously going to be the most important issue to tackle- And so he sent messages to Naerose and Alexis to meet him at one of the parks near the local cafes at early noon.
It's a pretty chilly day, and Benimaru's dressed a littlle less flamboyously than usual, a hot red button-up shirt with navy blue slacks, and a matching navy-blue sports jackets (all designer, of course). His hair is worn up in a high ponytail, passing the time by snapping gum it'd seem. He's just standing around at the fountain in the center of the park at the moment, appearing emotionally cool as always. At least that's the case for the moment.
Cold day or not, Alexis is determined to wear her 'outfit' for the entire thing, taking her mask off only when necessary, like to sleep or whatever. The gymnast knew only one name out of the two she was given: Naerose Delphine. She met the witch, in fact she's pretty sure that she gave that scary bubbly girl from Seijyun the witch's book or something like that, but that was /months/ ago... before her brother showed up and distracted her.
The other name, she looked up on the way here.
There /totally/ has to have been some mistake. There really does. 'cuz how could she have some /other/ model for her teacher?
Definitely has to be a mistake. Which is why she's here, at the park already. Hiding up on a tree limb, waiting for the man to appear. It's not until he shows up at the fountain that she even starts to notice the cold, which causes her teeth to start chattering... a dead give away, unless Strolheim chipmunks chatter like this.
Now that was certainly odd. Benimaru's seen odd things in his day, but this one certainly takes the cake! Ah, to be a young teenager again, new to the fighting world and hiding in.. Trees.. .....
Yeah, the sound catches Benimaru's ears and he doesn't think much of it at first, instead looking up out of complete curiosity when it just keeps going. His cool composure shifts rather comically upon seeing the source, just this wide-eyed stare. He probably continues to stare quietly for about half a minute, but then gives the gymnast a dashing smile, raising a hand to wave in greeting, "'Angel Papillion', I presume?" he asks, ".. Ah.. Should I even ask what you're doing up there? I'm more of a fox, than a dog."
"BWAH?!?"
Yes, that pretty much sums it up. What do foxes and dogs have to do with anything? Alas! She has been found out, and so she slips further out onto the tree branch, takes hold of it with her hands and swings herself into a double frontflip twist before landing on the ground in front of him.
"You presume correctly, but you're /totally/ mistaken if you think that I'm doing /anything/ with you. It won't do! There's been a mistake. You need a new person to work with!"
Alexis is obviously extremely distraught, and likely not making much sense herself.
'Bwah?!?' is actually a common reaction for Benimaru, so it's something he's gotten quite used to! He takes a slight step back from the young girl's acrobatics, inwardly impressed, but before he can comment on it is already being told off! This is certainly a new record, it's rare that happens -before- he can use any terrible pick-up lines.
Still he seems mildly lost, thumbs resting in his pants pockets and looking around to make sure it wasn't someone else she was talking to. Unfortunatly it seems it was him. So in the end he chuckles in amusement, "Perhaps you should start from the beginning, Angel. I'm not really sure I understand what I've done just yet." a pause, and then he seems slightly worried, ".. You're.. Uh, a fan of Towazu, are you?"
"Alma Towazu? The community center model guy? Ugh!"
Obviously, she's not a fan of Alma's either. Alexis just wrinkles her nose up, and while it's hidden beneath the mask, the material wrinkles up with it, creating a rather cutely disturbing effect.
"Not a chance! I don't like /that/ guy either!" Rest assured, Benimaru, it's not just you. Maybe she's got an aversion to models?
"But, like seriously. I totally /can't/ work with you. It'll ruin my life!" Absolutely ruin it! "I mean, he'd like, be SOOOOOOO upset and break up with me and we only just started dating, so now I'm gonna have to drop the tournament... which is too bad 'cuz it's my first tournament /ever/ but... well... AUUUUGH! This is totally not fair and it's all your fault! Why couldn't I have gotten Ryu or something???"
Oh so she's not a fan of Alma! Well then in that case she and Benimaru will get along juust fine, right? Benimaru looks visably relieved by that much at least; though the comparison to Ryu is probably even more painful, his head lowered briefly and fighting back a cringe best he can.
God.. Ryu, he will never forget what a pain in the ass he was. If he was in the tournament, it'd definatly be the ultimate payback time. But that aside, him ruining some girls life? He most certainly couldn't have that. Benimaru rubs his chin thoughtfully, to consider it all. Luckily(?) for Alexis, Benimaru has the patience of Daimon when it comes to women, and he chuckles again. "Oh, I understand now, so you have a boyfriend. The jealous type it'd seem, hmn? Angel, there's absolutly nothing wrong with teaming up with me, I'm one of the top fighters in the world, you know.. Want proof? Check out which team won the first King of Fighters team tournament."
"Though really, to prefer someone as entertaining as me, to some boring, fighting hermit is just unfair. Who, by the way, I've tied with in a one-on-one fight. In a tournament, you need to have the strongest and most skilled to win. If your boyfriend's got a problem with that, then he's an ameteur."
GASP!
Them's fighting words!
Well, of a sort. Alexis looks like she's ready to attack, thinks better of it for a second, then grrrs quite audibly. So maybe /this/ is where the whole fox and dog thing comes into play?
"He is so not an amateur! You better take that back right now, or I'm totally gonna whup your butt! AS IF you would say that!" Ugh! Some guys just really don't get it, do they? "And don't dis Ryu either! He's like, one'a the greatest fighters there is! God! I totally can't believe they paired me with /you/!"
Sure, she may just be starting out, but it's just a tournament, right? She can turn her back on it... there will be other tournaments...
"And I don't think he's like, the jealous type or not... it's /way/ deeper than that!" Isn't it?
This girl's got fire. He thought Sakura was quite a tomale, but this.. This girl may certainly have her beat. He has to resist the urge to laugh, because he knows it's only going to make the situation worse. Ahhh.. To be young and in love. It's a beautiful thing to the shootfighter, and so he just settles with a more cocky smirk. Geez, she even stands up to Ryu like her. This is really something else! "Hmn, well it's entirely possible that I am wrong, so I'd be more than happy to take it back but.. It doesn't change anything. Hmph, well I have to concede to the fact that Ryu's not half-bad either. But really, he just doesn't have a shred of charisma and it's such a waste.. His student, he could learn a thing or two from her."
"But that aside, you seem a little stressed out, and we're not going to get anywhere if you don't relax a bit. If you want to take out a bit of frustration on me.." Benimaru leans forward, tilting his chin up slightly and to the side. "Feel free to strike. I won't hit back, of course."
Oh, she wants to hit him alright. Alexis honestly just wants to knock that cocky grin right off his face. Grrr! How dare he insinuate that Drake is in any way, shape or form subpar? The gymnast slams her hands down onto her hips and growls at him once more. "It's not possible. You just /are/ wrong. My boyfriend is /totally/ the best fighter out there, and not only will I whup your butt to prove it, but once I tell him you're bad mouthing him, he'll whup it too!" She seems pretty sure that this is the case.
"Duh! Ryu doesn't /need/ to be overly charismatic, right? You don't have to be that way when you /are/ the best. So buck up, 'cuz he totally /is/, and maybe /you're/ just jealous 'cuz'a that!"
Without any warning more than that, she does a standing flip up into the air. Spinning herself as she starts to angle down toward the ground, she snaps a kick right at that cocky grin.
".. Am I wrong?" Benimaru replies, seeming genuinly surprised. It's not like he's intentionally trying to tease the girl, his wording just needs a bit of work- On the other hand he doesn't work with a lot of fighters whom have boyfriends either, so this is a good bit of experience for him. He starts to say something, but again Angel beats him to the punch.. Well, rather to the kick, and it slams into the side of his face.. But his head barely even moves an inch, though his eyes do close.
"Ow.. I didn't think you'd actually kick me." He admits with a sigh. "But what you're telling me doesn't seem fitting of a gymnast at all. Are you telling me you'd score just as high doing all you do without a smile? .. Just how long have you been in the fighting scene, Angel? And.. Well.. I hate to be the bringer of bad news, but I'm really starting to hate your boyfriend. The position you're in isn't the bookers fault, it's his. And that isn't right."
Blink.
Blink.
"YES! You're wrong! Totally wrong!"
With no retaliation forthcoming, the gymnast lands in a graceful crouch along the lip of the fountain. Perhaps a wonderful thing that there is not an abundance of wind, or Alexis would be finding her backside getting wet as she watches the very-wrong model.
"You told me to take my frustration out on you," she points out with a smirk-like look of 'so it's all your fault'.
"I can fight with a smile! I can do any gymnastics routine with a smile as well! But I'm /totally/ not Ryu! He's like, the big times! He's what a lot of fighters aspire to! And for you to insult him in such a way... it's like, not right! You can't ruin someone's hero for them! That just makes you like, a /jerk/."
With the admission that he's beginning to hate her boyfriend, Alexis glowers at him. Then she springs up into another flip, this time though she just sends a quick slap toward his face as she sails past.
"And stop insulting Drake! It's like, getting old and tiresome and it's /definitely/ not making me want to work with you for some stupid tournament I totally shouldn't have signed up for in the first place!"
Standing up straighter, Benimaru cups the side of his face rubbing at it, and then a sweatdrop runs down the other side of his face during Alexis' celebration. Sure, he's happy for the girl, but this is probably one of the most difficult situation's he's ever been in here! The Ryu idolization was starting to get on his nerves, but he wasn't going to get anywhere ragging on that guy.. Or..
Benimaru's eyes narrow slightly to the mention of 'Drake', and suddenly the puzzle pieces were coming togeather. He, of course, realizes this just moments after being slapped, and he rubs his chin again, "O- Ow! Angel, give my face a break, I have a job you know.." he half-pleads. "All right, all right, look I'm sorry, I didn't know the person you were talking about was Drake Vyril.. That changes pretty much everything."
Benimaru smiles a bit, "Now I'm really surprised, actually, I would have thought him to be one of my biggest fans seeing I'm a shootfighter." Ok, sure, he's just humoring the girl. But she did make a good point, he wasn't winning any points by insulting him. Good thing he didn't know the guys name first.
Duh! 'course he's got a job. Why do you think she keeps going for the face? For one, he's like, direct competition for Drake so far as she's concerned. For another, that's where that cocky grin resides that's begun to irritate her to no end. Alexis just spins about to face his... back and glares at him again. Peridot eyes narrow to thin little slits and she exhales an exasperated sigh.
"Dude! Drake is /totally/ NOT a fan of yours. Why would he be? I mean, that'd be like saying you should be a fan of Alma Towazu's 'cuz he's got that whole community center thing going on in Southtown." Rolling her eyes, she sets her hands to her hips again and shakes her head.
"Yeah, this is /so/ not gonna work. I mean, it'd be like working for that megalomaniac guy that tried to take over Thailand."
It.. Seems like his face is safe for the moment, so lowering his hand again, but keeping them raised in surrender, he faces the firey gymnast once more.. Though again a bead of sweat rolls down the side of his face and her murmurs, "Um.. Actually, neither of those two examples were similar to each other when you think about it. Alma doesn't even grapple.. And Vega does have a lot of girls, but I don't think they're his girlfriends, they're just employees."
Benimaru grins again, and finally his hands lower to rest his thumbs in his pockets again. "You know, Angel, this whole argument could have been avoided if you just said you hate me. I can live with that fact that I'm not the shining knight of everyone's eye. So tell you what lets start over from the beginning. How come you don't want to team up with me? I'm telling you we'd win for sure. Is that not what's important here?"
"AUUUUUGH!" Alexis throws her hands up into the air, clenching her hands into teeny fists. "Don't poke holes in my logic! That made total sense and you know it!" Even if it didn't make sense, it /so/ made sense, y'know? "It all boils down to you being a creep and me being unable to work with you due to outside factors. I just can't. Absolutely /can't/!"
Which is too bad, because she /was/ seriously looking forward to a big revelation as to who she is in the fighting world.
"Fine. I hate you. I can't work with you, 'cuz you're going to ruin my life. Winning isn't what's important. I don't fight to win. I fight to have fun, and to challenge myself." And quite possibly to rebel against her somewhat staunchy parents. "The money and prestige for winning a tournament aren't important either! What's important is that you /can't/ be my teacher, because I've already got a model for a teacher. I've already got a model to be fangirly for, and I've... well you get the picture now?"
The model stops grinning and gives a pout to the small fighter. Yes, it's a pout and he's not afraid to do it! ".. A creep? Ouch, now that's just cold. Though, I suppose I am a bit of a jerk now that I think about it, but I thought I was doing pretty well at the beginning.."
Still, Benimaru's looking as playful as ever, and a middle-aged couple who stroll by noticing the fiasco chuckle as they move on, the woman saying, "Oh, a Lover's quarrel. To be young again, eh, Lars?"
Benimaru shakes his head to the gymnast. "All right, I'm going to skip down to the 'important' part, Angel. Your claim to 'fighting to challenge yourself' is nonsense. You're staring a challenge right in the eye and you're running away from it. And don't try telling me 'this is different' because it's not. I guarantee you if you end up on Ryu's team and he finds out what happened here, he would not be impressed at all. So, if you want to leave, that's fine. But if you stay, I'll help you through this."
Flailing whole-heartedly, Alexis turns to the middle-aged couple and squeaks, "Totallynotaloversquarrel, thisguyisajerk, myboyfriendisinSouthtownthankyouverymuch!"
She then gasps for air and spins on Benimaru. "Oh-ho! So it's like that, is it? You're a tattler too? I mean, seriously, if I decide to give up this challenge, and believe me, it's totally /my/ decision, I'm not being forced into /anything/, then I'm giving it up. I'm not gonna go whine to the coordinators and ask to be put on another team. That's not fair to the other teams to be saddled with me /anyhow/." Arms fold over her chest and she makes a teensy hmph noise. "You /can't/ help me through this, 'cuz it's all your fault for being... you! You ruined this whole entire tournament for me. It's all /your/ fault."
Kicking at a pebble she blows a puff of air upward, to whisk away a stray strand of hair. "Why'd they have to pair me with another /model/?" This muttered to no one but the sky.
Easing off of his more serious tone, Benimaru can't help but snicker when what the couple had said sinks in. Man, what was he doing, getting all serious like that with a rookie fighter like that? But still, he feels that he needs to drive his point home to this girl, but finding himself unable to get really harsh with his words, it's very very difficult. ".. Why would I need to say anything? The fact that his card would change, and the fact he and I have history, would be reason enough for him to ask on his own.." he says with a smirk. "I keep telling you he's not the only number one guy out there, you seem to have it stuck in your head that I'm just some no-name creep. You're half-wrong."
Still though, he feels a bit of relief that she seems to at least be giving things a shot after all. And heck, he really can't ask for more than that. ".. Angel, look, I'm sorry.. But of course I can help you." And with that his smile fades, and his baby-blue eyes narrow. "I -promise- you that I can. People say a lot of things about me, Angel, but one thing I'm not is a liar. If you just make things clearer for me I will help you. That's what a teacher does, right?"
"Whatever. If I make the decision to give up the tournament, I won't be on anyone's card so no one would ask either way." Shrug. Alexis is growing a bit weary of this altercation, and is undoubtedly wishing the witch would show up so that she can make a break for it. "I didn't say you were a no-name creep, just that you're a creep and I can't work with you, 'cuz I'm totally not gonna work for or with Drake's competition. It's just not right, tourney or no." Shaking her head back and forth quickly, she's really hoping that he gets the point.
"You /can't/ help me, 'cuz of who you /are/. How much more clear do you need me to be? I'm not gonna hurt my favorite fighter like that. Not a chance. I'm not his number one fangirl for nothing!"
Benimaru gives a light sigh, and again he shakes his head. "I understand because you finally told me what the problem is. Look, I've been in teams, and I've fought against my own teammates before. It didn't occur to me that Drake thinks I'm his rival, because I sure as hell don't consider him competition."
Benimaru smiles a bit, and raises his hand. "Anyway like I said, I'll fix the problem." with that he winks, and then turns around with his hand still raised. "By dealing with it myself. Catch you later, Angel."
"You can thank me later."
"WHA--"
Fix the problem by dealing with it himself? Why does that sound... ominous? Alexis yeeks and flails those cute little arms of hers again. "I swear on all that is special to me, that if you hurt one hair on Drake's head, you're totally gonna have the wrath of an angry butterfly on your hands, and it's /not/ gonna be a pretty sight."
If one were to actually assess her expression, it would be something like this: >.<
"God! Now I have to find out who's in charge here and get myself outta this mess... and get back to Southtown before Lucas realizes I'm not off on a gymnastics tournament...."
Log created on 19:04:18 10/29/2008 by Alexis, and last modified on 20:31:08 11/02/2008.