Description: Cammy tries to train someone unfamiliar with Shadaloo elite special forces training for the first time, and it is not a complete farce, though how much her student actually learned is up for debate. Will Quon ever learn the secret and ancient mysteries of the killer bee assault? Will Quon being trained by a Shadaloo member end in tears for some or all concerned?
After having a surprise visit from Cammy during his spar yesterday, Quon opted for emailing her /immediately/ if only because it would eliminate surprise visits like that. Creepy as hell, really.
As a result of email correspondence, Quon is meeting her at the border of the Pacific High field right where sand meets grass.
Cammy is an assassin, she is wont to turn up at inopportune times. It's practically her job, after all, so Quon probably shouldn't be surprised by it. Disturbed by it, perhaps, but not surprised.
She doesn't actually reply to the email, she just shows up, as it takes little excuse for her to hove into view around Quon after all. And she's sure Quon won't stand her up. After all, she'd be most put out if he did. And she knows where he lives, right? ...And she knows he knows.
As it's fairly cold at this time of year and as she doesn't care about dress sense much she's back in her red cloak again after the merest experiment with other clothes. She doesn't like black leather jackets, red cloaks just feel right. Loitering around at the edge of the field and hoping she doesn't get jumped, again, by some NESTS people, as thats happened quite a lot lately.
Quon finally catches sight of the Killer Bee, and approaches her. Taking a deep breath to prepare himself for what they are about to do. Whatever it is. To be honest, the Chongquan fighter has no idea what to expect. He doesn't know her training methods. He doesn't even know whether or not if he will be expect to adopt her fighting style or if he will be allowed to keep his own style with refinements made to it.
"Cammy." And from his tone, it's an acknowledgement of her presence, a greeting, and an inquisition into the nature of this training session all in one word.
He doesn't say more. Really, is there any need to?
In truth, Cammy is even more wary about this then Quon is. She's never trained anybody before that she can remember - well, she has knockarounds with the other Dolls sometimes but they are generally good enough to train themselves from beatings alone. She doesn't even remember being trained herself, if she ever was trained the old fashioned way. For all she knows she was plugged into a machine one day and came out knowing kung fu.
This uncertainty is hidden behind her eternally placidly brainwashed expression.
The Killer Bee turns to face him when addressed, to look him over with blank eyes. "Hello, Quon. How are you?" she replies, the Doll trying hard to make small talk, and put Quon at ease. "You emailed me very soon after the last time we met. Have you recovered from your encounter with the man with bad hair?" she asks.
If Quon knew Cammy better, the attempt at small talk would be an immediate giveaway to her nervousness. As it stands, Quon is none the wiser. "I'm good. Nothing like good bed rest to make a man feel like a hundred bucks." Which for the most part is true. While there are still dull aches here and there, he does feel relatively good.
He bounces on his feet a few time before looking at the Shadaloo assassin. "But how about you? How are you doing?" If he learned one thing, from his Chongquan teacher, it was to give those teaching you respect.
Cammy is a little surprised by the question. It is a rare occasion when someone asks her how she is doing. Reports to Lord Vega are rather different in tone. "Me? Well.". She shrugs a little. "OK, I guess. There are many NESTS operatives in this city who I have annoyed, and they have a tendency to attack me at random. And the last time, just after I was recovering from a NESTS encounter, Rolento Schugerg hit me with a grenade. So. I have been better, in the past. But Lord Vega is pleased with me at the moment and that is the main thing.". It could certainly be worse.
She then goes a little quiet, thinking for a moment. "I was watching your style - it is quite different from mine, but there are a few things in common, some things I could show you which maybe you could use in your own way. Especially kicks and throws - I am good with kicks and throws, and you used both I noticed.".
Quon listens quietly as Cammy answers the question. While he face doesn't show it, her answer contains more information than he was expecting and perhaps even more information than what he probably feels he should even be privy to. In fact, Quon thinks that he might even get /killed/ for knowing what he just found out now.
Though his face doesn't say anything, neither does he for a while, which creates a moment of awkward silence that speaks volumes.
When he finally speaks he completely avoids Cammy's status report, opting to respond to Cammy's commentary on his style. "I tend to use more kicks than most practitioners of my style." He snickers a bit in amusement at a thought that had popped into his head which he soon after gives voice to. "There's a bit of irony in being a kick specialist in a fighting that translates to Strong Fist."
"Well, alright then, we can work on your kicks.". And now Cammy frowns a little, as she ponders just how to go about doing this. "I fear I may not be a very good teacher." she confesses. "It has never really been requested of me in the past. Not a part of my normal duties.". She doesn't know what she doesn't need to know.
"So.... I don't know. I can show you some kicks, and you can try and copy my technique? And I will examine your technique and point out flaws. I am good at analysing techniques, at least.". That, /is/ part of her duties. "Would you like that?" she asks. Cammy-sensei really doesn't fit very well in her mind, she's a follower not a teacher, by design.
"Sure." It's actually a teaching style that works for someone like Quon. He was a natural at learning how to fight when he was a student under Sifu Huang. A natural at seeing a move and then mimicking back. But in addition, he was good at tweaking a move and making it his own.
He side-steps to move in to a better position to watch what Cammy is doing. He does have a question, though. "Will I have to adopt your fighting stance or should I mimic the attack from my own?"
"Well, I could probably mimic yours somewhat if it makes it easier.". Given Cammy is usually hurling herself through the air, bouncing off walls and whatever else, she's not in the formal rest stance all that often when she's kicking people... extreme agility requires extreme flexibility. And she probably could mimic his style better than he could hers. "But for now, I don't mind. Try and mimic it from your own.". Thinking back on Quon's fight with Rust, she mentally selects a few kicks from her wide repertoire which should be easy enough for Quon to pull off in his own stance.
Then she favours Quon with a rare grin. She's not so humble as to not mind showing off every so often, and she's not had the chance to show off for Quon yet. And in such an amicable environment, too. She shrugs off her cloak quickly, as there won't be much kicking going on with that on, and settles into position next to Quon quickly before aiming a slow motion kick at an imaginary assailant's upper chest. She repeats it a couple of times for him, before doing it at full speed - just to show the desired effect.
Quon eases into his own stance, before bouncing lightly on his feet with a grin. He takes a deep breath and then repeats the kick though not in slow motion like the demonstrative kicks Cammy was throwing earlier, it never quite hits the same speed as Cammy's. The fact that he's less familiar with that particular kick and the fact that he's simply not nearly as fast as her yet both work against him.
Even still he repeats the kick again and again slowly building the muscle memory for the kick so that he can use it without thinking about it.
Cammy eventually stops demonstrating so he can do it on his own, and she walks slowly around him, watching him from all angles. She sees plenty of flaws of course for a first attempt, but really, not bad. "Hmm, well. It looks quite good to me given it's new to you. I think you should straighten your leg as the foot hits, not so early, you are losing some power, but aside from that. Maybe you can try these kicks on the bad haired man and see how it goes. I will watch again, if you wish, and offer advice." she offers after a while. "You are a quick learner. Now you just need to be faster and stronger. That part just takes practice.". She can be a bit blunt.
"Would you like to know more kicks?" she asks. "Or we can perfect this one, perhaps.". She stops circling him, to face him, peering at the outstretched Quon-foot. "Though I suspect you can practice in your own time, given you are not as new to this as I first assumed. I remember those chi hands you have.".
Blunt doesn't offend Quon. His original teacher was quite blunt. In fact, even when he did something well, he was quick to point out flaws to him. Especially to keep him from getting an inflated ego. Especially when he was one of the top students back in the temple. Second only to Wu Jie.
Quon was also willing to ask questions as well. Quon makes some of the recommended adjustments before such a question comes to him. "Should I swing my hip like this to get a bit more power out of it?" He demonstrates the kick with the proposed adjustment to his hip and then goes back to kick with just the adjustments that Cammy told him to make, "Or should I keep it like this?"
He then lets his mind back track to the question that she asked of him. "I wouldn't mind learning more kicks."
Cammy thinks that one over. "Perhaps not always, as I can see what you are doing much easier then." she replies, especially given she's facing him at the time. "You should not always sacrifice surprise and accuracy for power. The former problem was just poor form, is all.".
She then settles in alongside Quon again, and gracefully drops down low before lashing out at invisible legs with one boot, only to gracefully somehow manage to practically float back up to a standing position. "Can you do that?" she asks, as she repeats the motion for him.
Quon repeats the kick Cammy performs though he sort of gets caught up on the particulars of the floating back up to standing position on the first few attempts. The later attempts show significant improvement in transition from low to standing.
Even when she stops, he keeps going as he waits for her to analyze his technique.
Cammy is a bit less impressed this time. Maybe it's because the straightforward forward kick is surely something Quon must be familiar with already. "You are... somewhat clumsy." she says after a moment. "Though, getting a little better already..." she concedes, as Quon persists, and improves. "And with this move I can hardly hold you or guide you like I could with a kick.".
She moves over to stand behind him, and watches silently for a good minute. "Hmm, well. I guess this one needs work. Especially on the standing. Maybe it's your knees..." she ponders, and leans in a bit closer to peer. "Is there anything I can do to help?" she asks, a little plaintively. "I think I'm going to talk to Sagat about this." she decides. "He has taught people before, and he seems very helpful. He can teach me, how to teach.".
The knees... The knees!!! A moment of clarity has arrived! With a few adjustments to the knees, he practically floats up with grace. Granted, it's not the grace Cammy shows but the move is still quite new to him and his current style doesn't use as many moves with low to high transitions. But the movements are much cleaner.
As he continues to practice that one move, Cammy mentions a name. His eyebrow raises, and Cammy might get a sense of familiarity coming from him. Yet he says nothing and continues to tweak and adjust that one move.
"Oh, thats better." Cammy observes, now with some slight pride. She grins at him again, and shakes her head, pigtails bouncing. "Remember, you thought this training was just going to be me beating you or something. Not at all! You've learned two things already and the only person who has bruised you is that friend of yours. Now - now maybe you will trust me more.". Everything is going according to plan, and she does like that.
And then, she tilts her head suddenly, as if listening, a look of concentration over her face. Poor Quon has a psychic teacher. "Oh. You know Sagat already?" she asks, all curious. "So many secrets you have, with your chi hands and your knowing world champions.".
"H-h-how?" Confusion is currently Quon's state right now and he doesn't even bother to mask it with his acting ability. And he has every right to be confused. After all, he never mentioned Sagat once though it pretty much played into how he figured out who she was.
Quon shrugs, "Yeah. I happened to catch him at a demonstration at the Youth Fighter's Community Center." Which is completely true. No mention is made of Sagat saving his life, or having a conversation with him right before his debut SNF match.
"How?" Cammy blinks. "I have been gifted with a fragment of Lord Vega's psycho power, so I have some minor parlour tricks. Nothing compared to the Master, of course.". The happy look falls off of her face though immediately, as Quon goes back to apparent discomfort. And to think, for thirty whole seconds there she thought that they were both comfortable in each others presence for the first time, and now she's done something Doll-like and ruined it all again.
"I see. Youth Fighters Community Centre. Well... I am sorry about my knowing." she says, with a small shrug that somehow speaks volumes.
"Let us try some other kicks." she says, wanting to swiftly move things along, so she does another slow motion demonstration, this time of a more powerful roundhouse which Quon will no doubt find easy.
And the roundhouse is something that Quon has a great deal of familiarity with. The rotation and the speed showing not only the ease the Chongquan fighter had in picking it up, but the time he had spent in refining it, not only under his instructor's watchful eye but training in his own time.
Just because Quon was a naturally talented student doesn't mean he was the type to shy away from hard work.
And now Quon has gone silent. She's cursing inwardly! None of this shows on the Doll's impassive face, though - most of her thoughts stay locked up behind those blue eyes with barely a hint to the outside world. Not only is this due to her nature, but it's a good survival instinct anyway where she lives - things like how much she hates Balrog or Juri are best kept quiet.
So the Doll silently goes through all the kicks she had planned to show him in turn, with only the occasional grunt of (dis)approval or nudge in the right direction to more or less satisfy her that he's doing it correctly.
And Quon goes through each and every one of Cammy's demonstrated kicks as she does so. With the standing kicks he generally has more ease though the kicks that start low and transition to high don't seem to plague him with as much difficulty as that initial one. And to his... and perhaps to Cammy's surprise he doesn't all that much difficulty with the double legged sweep.
Through it all Quon doesn't say anything the awkwardness of the situation practically strangling the potential for relaxed conversation. At least for now.
Cammy is eventually done, then, and Quon seems at least marginally competent in kicking people Shadaloo style. And after doing that, in truth, Cammy herself is wanting to leave and start over, as the atmosphere is just getting colder and colder throughout, silence feeding upon itself. "Now you have something to practice until the next session, anyway." she says vaguely, as she picks up her cloak. Apparently it's lesson over.
Slipping the cloak back on over her Doll uniform, she smiles a forced smile. "Well. It was enjoyable for a little while." she tells Quon, obviously far more interested in the 'hanging around Quon and talking to him' part than training with him. Next time, it will be better." she promises. A mental note is made not to mention Sagat, psycho power, or indeed Shadaloo in general, next time they meet.
And when Cammy announces that the training session is over, he finishes his kick and then turns to Cammy and with closed fist to palm, bows towards her in respect before rising again.
Truth be told, Quon has a bit of uncertainty. He doesn't know how much Cammy will tell Sagat about him let alone what the overall effect of being trained by Cammy will have especially now that some connection to Sagat is known. Plus the fact that Cammy has taken a liking to him may have put him on Shadaloo's radar where he's not exactly sure he wants to be.
Log created on 08:30:10 11/12/2010 by Cammy, and last modified on 12:24:57 11/12/2010.