Description: Following the tumultuous events in Africa, Ryo has a heart to heart with Rust over what has been, and what may yet be. Despite being half asleep at the time. The result is a lot more questions, burdening Rust with even more stress and worry over what is going to happen in the future. The path a man must walk is not an easy one, but Ryo knows, whichever Rust chooses, he will walk it proudly!
Let's turn back the clock a little to before the return to Southtown...
The day after the infamous arrival of Takuma Sakazaki is starting on a largely somber note. Mr. Rust is at least a bit better after a rough night's sleep, although it hurts to move around much. The commotion that came with Cammy's visit and little interrogation (via booting him in the kidney when he was already a broken pile of bones) didn't make it particularly restful.
There's a note left behind by Quon saying that some of his college friends over in Southtown have seen Antoine and that he's already going ahead back to catch up with him. Mr. Rust is of the same mind, although his injuries and the lingering problems with, oh, his wallet and cell /still being back at the hospital/ and the fact he has to go with one of his alternately colored outfits before he can get his usual one back. His hair is now a purplish color for, literally, no good reason.
For being a man limping about when he ought to be back in bed resting, he tries to put on something of a brave face over a late breakfast, a glass of OJ, some toast, and some eggs - someone already ate all the bacon. Whoever ate all the bacon is going to be having a talking to as he sits at a very, very uncomfortable chair.
[OOC] Howard "0 Bao" Rust says, "oh, as a heads up - this is back at the lodge."
[OOC] Howard "0 Bao" Rust says, "the one Ryo burst into some time back."
Ryo has had a tough time of it. Trying to explain to Yuri that, no, he /really isn't/ Mr. Karate had gone roughly as well as expected (i.e not well at all). Takuma, though beaten in the end and at least responsible only for obscene amounts of property damage, has also intimated that he and Ryo are going to be having a very intimate talk some time soon. Which is exactly what he doesn't need. But, he brought it on himself. He made this mask-shaped bed, now it is time to lay in it.
Ryo has, good to his masked word, been working hard to patch up the devastated hospital. Years of construction experience have been put to the test, and the worst of the damage has been patched up. It isn't in any danger of falling over any more, at least. This has taken until well into the night. Rust may just be rising; Ryo has yet to sleep. This is, of course, expected.
Now, though, he has come back to the lodge. "Morning." He says, greeting Rust (the strange hair goes completely without comment; simply accepted as part of the ineffable nature of the cosmos). And, after a moment's thought, bed, can be postponed. Instead, a single word question, full of hope, is on his lips. "Bacon?"
"Hey... Ryo." This isn't calling for his attention, this is a delay between words thanks to swallowing some eggs. It's not the best scrambled eggs he's made, but then again he's extremely sore from top to bottom and. One of his knees pop loudly with a flex as he turns in his chair and just shakes his head.
"Nah, some... somebody ate it all," he grouses, with no lack of tiredness and irritation in his voice. Sadly, this being the next day, is well out of the statue of limitations for making yesterday, literally, the worst day of his life. This just makes his morning even worse. "'m, 'm gonna have a word with 'em when I, when I find out /who/."
He washes down some of what he just had - it's still pretty hot - with a sip of OJ in his left hand. "How, how 'bout you? You... you look like you haven't slept."
Ryo grunts. The language of tired men everywhere indicating that he, too, is less than pleased with the current bacon situation. Still. It wouldn't be the first time he has had to settle for something less than stellar after a hard day, and night's, work. It wouldn't be the last time, either.
Right now, though, that uncomfortable chair is looking mighty comfortable. So he pulls out a spare one, and sits down. "I haven't." He says, simple and direct as ever. "Too much to do. I don't want to be away from the dojo for longer than I have to be. There's kids who need lessons, and since Cammy has been sniffing around, I don't want to turn up and find out Marco's had to deal with any funny business." Is Marco even there right now? Ryo isn't exactly sure. If he's not, then maybe his bear has been taking lessons instead. Again. That would be one more thing Dad would get all worked up about.
Bacon. For those not restricted by religion in its consumption, it is a wondrous thing that transcends the cultural differences of great breakfast cuisine, because... it's bacon. Now, two men who have it very hard are going to have to go a morning without this delicious delicacy of very little actual nutrition value.
"Hoo," he knows that feeling. "Y-Yeah, I'm... I'm gettin' you there." He gestures with a fork over to a frying pan a short walk away. "Still some, some scrambled egg there, if... if, y'know, you want some... uh, how's the hospital, y'know, lookin'."
Ryo nods gratefully. "Sounds good." He says. And, with a supreme effort of will, he gets up, fetches the egg, puts it on a plate, and gets a fork. Truly, this is a herculean undertaking. Or, well, it would be. But he actually feels a bit better. Some of the stress that had been lingering over the really dangerous questions has lifted. His dad /didn't/ kill his sister. His sister didn't kill Rust. Rust didn't kill anyone. It's all, good.
Sitting back down with a grunt, he shrugs his shoulders. "Better than it did." He says, "The walls are back up. Some of the floors need patching. Then it's decorating. It shouldn't take more than a day or two." He sighs, "Then, everyone goes back home, I guess."
Oh, so that's why he looks like he hasn't slept. The older of the two present sighs as his posture slumps just a little more. "So... so I can go and, and get back my wallet and, and cell and some of my clothes back without, without bein' at risk of arrest, or, or what have you." That'd actually be a great relief because frankly he doesn't want to have to say to a credit card company that he lost a card over in Zambia.
"I'm, I'm gonna need to head back earlier than, than that," he says as he straightens up with a wince when his ribs remind him not to be putting so much stress on his abdomen in general, "Quon got word that, that Antoine's been in Southtown." He clears his throat. "The, uh, the teammate of ours we... we hadn't seen since we left for here."
Ryo doesn't look very surprised that Rust is eager to head back. Though the actual reasons do cause him to raise his eyebrow. "I see." He says, nodding, "Well, don't worry about it. I can finish cleanup here, and no, nobody is going to arrest you." He smiles, and runs his hand through his hair. "Heck. Of all of us, you are the one least to blame. I'm sorry you wound up stuck in the middle, there. But, at least nobody got seriously hurt." Which is, after all, the main thing.
The younger man hesitates for a moment before he continues. "What are you planning to do from here, Howard? After you've found Antoine, I mean."
Yeah, nobody got seriously hurt... well, Mr. Rust does, for his part, feel like a nobody at this point in time. There's not much of a point in debating that particular phrase as he thoughtfully takes another sip of that OJ. It's disgustingly pulpy. It might even be more pulp than juice. (Why do people even drink that? Yuck.)
"I, I should've said no /right/ at the, at t-the god damn airport," he grouses out loud as he rests his head atop his left hand, idly massaging the left side of his face as if fighting an oncoming headache, "this, this entire trip was... was just, one bad thing after another, Ryo, it was... it was just, just an unmitigated /disaster/."
Something that should have been full of hope, the very single thing he was looking forward to all his life... completely up in flames while surrounded with the personal dramas of pretty much everyone else. A great point in time in which for Ryo to bring to him a heavy question as to what he'll do from here after he finds Antoine. It is the very end of their King of Fighters run, after all.
"Honestly, uh... back, back to work, I guess," he shrugs as he lays out the bare minimum truth of the matter, "through the trip... I got, I got a couple calls from my, my substitute... the principal... at least one of the other teachers... 's like, they spend all their time just, just givin' me hell. And then... and then without me they just can't, just can't get anything /done/." He complains some more as he stares down at his scrambled eggs. "They... they're already kinda, y'know, pissed I went through with, with this."
Ryo really feels for Rust. In all of this, the man has been almost completely sidelined. His hope for tournament glory has been stolen from him. The forces of the universe have conspired to put him in the middle of one terrible situation after the other, and it is painfully obvious that Rust isn't /happy/. In his work, he's taken for granted. Just as surely as he had been taken for granted in his team.
Ryo listens, and whilst he does, he eats his eggs. They are hot, and he needs the sustenance. As Rust finishes up, though, he moves to get himself a glass of water. He's starting to feel like a human being again. It isn't until he's fetched that, and sat down again, that he speaks.
"Howard. You're a good man. You've got a hell of a talent for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but, you've done a lot for the family, and you've done a lot for Yuri. If you hadn't let her come with you, who knows what might have happened." He lets that hang in the air for a moment, and then, he continues.
"I understand if, after all this, you don't want to come back to the dojo at all. But. I want you to know, if you do want to come back. I'd like you to offer you a job."
Bam. That, probably comes right out of left field. God knows Ryo hasn't talked it through with Takuma yet, but, the way things have gone over the past few days, he'll be damned if he doesn't at least /try/ to help Rust, and this is the only way he can think of to do just that. And he HAD found a hole in the Screw Piledriver technique. The man has talent.
It is true that he handled virtually all of the busywork for his team. Arranging for the tickets, handling the paper busywork, absolutely ensuring everyone was of sound physical health and got the proper vaccines (one of the reasons he was frightened about Yuri traveling about these parts, as he had no way of really knowing for sure), renting out this lodge... just about every little thing.
It's not the first time someone's acknowledged he just seems to have this /thing/ for being, indeed, in the wrong place at the wrong time, which seems to happen to him more often than not as he sadly considers the cooling scrambled eggs that stare back at him. He has himself a bite as Ryo expresses his thanks for doing a lot for the family, and for Yuri... although given how upset she herself was at losing and the resulting Takuma rampage, he's not entirely certain this was in her best interest either.
"I, I'm not... sure yet, Ryo, 'bout the dojo," he interrupts right at the word 'job' as he looks up, lifting his head away from his hand so that said hand can get to his idle gesture of shaking a pointing finger as he speaks, "I'm, I'm almost out of sick leave days, if, if I do I'm gonna have to... to curb it back a lot. Probably, n-no more than once a week, or... or some such."
Would he still be getting his $800 USD/month worth?
"I'm, I'm already working two jobs on campus, Ryo... and, and yeah, they give me hell. They give me hell, but... but I want to say that, that I could do more with my life than... than just know how to, how to beat the shit out of people," he continues with another clearing of his throat, "'scuse me. I make, uh, somewhere under 60k in US dollars a year for, for teaching alone, that's... that's way higher 'n what I could get at home, or, or local," no fooling, considering in the US the highest average tends to be about 55k, "and... and I was lucky I got that job, Ryo. I'm, I'm never gonna get a better salary 'n that. And... and these are, these are kids who're gonna, gonna grow up to be influential."
He straightens out a bit more to make eye contact. "I'd, I'd really like to be able to... y'know, instill to them the idea of personal responsibility, and... y'know, have them know how to do something other 'n... other 'n spend their parents' money and hire people to, to do things they could do themselves."
Ryo actually blanches at the sum of Rust's salary. There's no way that the dojo could afford to compete in monetary terms. Ryo himself doesn't see sixty thousand out of the thing! He barely sees half of that, most of it going straight back into the dojo, and most of those earnings coming from tournament wins rather than student tuition. It's, a staggering sum. But, money is money. One of the things that Takuma has never managed to instill in his son, is the love of money itself.
This is not easy for him, either. In a lot of ways, what Rust is doing is great. The kids probably benefit a lot, and Lord knows there's only one Howard Rust. If he leaves that school, they'll never find someone who can replace him. On paper, it's a no brainer. Rust likes his work, he has a rewarding career, he earns a huge sum of money, what can Kyokugen offer him that this can't?
"That is a lot more than we could pay you." Ryo admits. Straight up front. "But. Fighting isn't just about beating people up. I like to think that when I look back on my life, I'll have left the world a better place than I found it. Just like you."
He looks genuinely frustrated. Poking at his eggs in a half-hearted manner. This kind of talk is /hard/. He hasn't had to do it much. But he has to now. "Howard, I guess what I'm saying is, there comes a time in every fighter's life when he has to decide what's right for him. If you want to go back to the school, and work with the kids like that, I'm not going to stop you. I'm honored to have met you, and I'm proud at how far you've come with Kyokugen."
Then, eye contact is resumed. "But, you need to decide what it is *you* want. You spend so much time worrying about other people, you never find the time to worry about yourself. I will tell you now. You've reached the point where once a week isn't going to make much difference. I think, you need to decide what is really going to make you happy."
[OOC] Howard "0 Bao" Rust says, "sorry for the delay - that was a great pose you did right there."
[OOC] Howard "0 Bao" Rust loves scenes like this here, I wish I could've gotten more like this at Persona MUSH.
[OOC] Ryo says, "It's all good!"
That sixty thousand does tend to get sunk back into things like taking care of his dad back at home, a couple of outstanding debts, and occasionally having to pay out of pocket for things he think the school should be supplying for lessons but isn't. The cost of living in Southtown in general is fairly high, at that - taking up the second job there of being groundskeeper has given him a bit more spending money, although he's pretty certain that's not going to last. Part of what led up to getting that was some real crazy shenanigans that's probably (actually, already) getting frowns from up on high. Not all of it directed at /Howard/, but certainly going to get the scorn of the people who sign his checks.
There's no denying what Ryo says is true, though, about the money. He's seen how costs have gotten cut here and there (see: students doing all the carpentry, and such). Though, the older man's eye contact drifts back to his glass of OP - short for Orange Pulp, let's just be honest here and no longer call it orange juice - sipping away at it thoughtfully and occasionally showing signs of at least a sense of taste at having his mouth full of orange pulp with a grimace as Ryo recounts how he feels about fighting - being able to leave the world a better place than he found it, just like himself.
He lowers the glass at Ryo mentioning how proud he is at how far he's come along that path. There's no doubting that how far he's come along - despite his age - is something of a miracle unto itself. Proof of talent that's long lied dormant in a man who didn't get formal instruction in fighting until he decided to take his chances and sign up under Takuma's tutelage. But, it's a point in his life he's found himself in many, many times over. With Nataya, with Marisol, with countless other friends and associates asking him with all do honesty, in complete earnest.
What does he really want with his life?
"Wish I, wish I... I really had the answer to that, Ryo," the older man concedes, "it's, it's... it's not easy, believe me, but... uh, what... what were you offering for a job? I mean, if it's, if it's somethin' like... ensuring every so often your boiler's still workin', or, or another shed, I, I might be able to swing something like that after this school year's up, 'cause... 'cause, I don't... I don't see them letting me keep my second job there as, as groundskeeper."
He looks up again to point a fork towards Ryo unconsciously, waving it up and down as he speaks, "That's, uh, that's how I got enough sick leave days to get the lessons in the first place and that, and that extra cash."
Ryo can't help but smile. True, Rust is not a typical student. He is older than many, and age brings with it a maturity and an outlook all of it's own. Not to mention that Rust is so much more subdued than many Kyokugen students. (At least, when he's not just pushed /too damn far/). The fact that he hasn't guessed, well, that's just amusing. But for as far as he had come, it's fairly clear that the older man still doesn't see himself as a martial artist first.
"I don't know if you've noticed." Ryo says, slowly. "But all of us advanced Kyokugen practitioners have put a bit of a unique spin on our styles. Dad uses a hell of a lot more energy than me, Yuri is a lot faster..." At this point, Rust might just be wondering if Ryo is going to get to the point any time soon.
"None of us use weapons, though. You are the first person I've seen to blend the two together. I wanted to offer you a position as a trainer, and work with you full time to develop that style. Really see where we can take ..." And at this, the smile grows just a little bit more, "Ol' Rusty."
And that bombshell dropped, he sits back in his chair. Eyes focused on Rust, and curious to see exactly how he'd react. It's a fairly massive step up from where he has been, and although the money and benefits would be a huge step down in career prospects... Ryo has literally, point-blank said that Rust has what it takes to cut it as a professional. Whether or not that is /sensible/ at his age...
... since when has Kyokugen been concerned with sensible?!
The man is under the mistaken assumption it's something part-time. Part-time, he thinks, might be possible, maybe, maybe not, he'd wait until sometime late in March to really say for sure after the current school year wraps up. That's what he assumes, foolishly, with another sip of OP. It's not hard for him to think of himself as a teacher first. That's his day job, and given what King of Fighters showed him personally...
So far it seems reasonable enough. Takuma puts up a lot more energy (he knows this first hand and really there's a big lump in his throat given what happened yesterday), Yuri is... certainly fleet of foot, yeah, he's sparred with her a few times for an ample demonstration of this fact. The way he ate those slaps rapid-fire has not yet left his memory, even though it by itself is very hazy. He nods once mid-sip (or is it mid bite now? Seriously, so much pulp!).
He's still nodding along at mention of blending his weapon fighting with Kyokugen karate. Ryo might be proud of his progress and what little he /did/ manage to do versus Zangief in his tragically short run in King of Fighters, although he personally has his heavy doubts in the face of so many other things around him going wrong.
But then comes those words: 'full time.' His eyes widen at this as he slowly lowers the glass, Ryo's widening smile met with a face full of 'wait, what' and, at mention of the pipe's name, spews orange pulp all over his own remainder of the scrambled eggs.
"W-Wait," he gasps, "full time? I, I... what," he starts coughing with some of the pulp threatening to lodge itself in his windpipe, doubling over and chancing further pain to his midsection as this just completely goes well over what he was expecting.
Then again, nobdoy has ever really accused Howard Rust of being too smart.
Ryo stops smiling as Rust actually spews bits of orange all over his eggs. That's... pretty gross. Worse, now, he's actually choking! Oh god! This was supposed to be a good thing, not the end of Howard Rust! Up and on his feet, Ryo slaps the man heavily on the back, "Don't!" SLAP! "Sound!" SLAP! "So!" SLAP! "Surprised!"
Stepping back, the younger man leans on the counter, and scratches behind the back of his head. He actually looks a little embarrassed, now. Not that he was necessarily expecting Rust to jump for joy at the chance, but that level of shock was totally unexpected. As was the near-fatal revenge of the deadly Orange Pulp. He clears his throat before he continues, if only to try and put him back on his train of thought. Where had he been? Oh... yeah...
"Well. Like I said. Once a week isn't going to cut it." He says, honestly. "The best fighters don't become that way by holding down two other jobs at the same time. You have to dedicate yourself to it. It'll take a lot of time, even working around the clock. It could be years, even decades, before you really feel you've mastered it."
"But." And this is said firmly, "You CAN master it. That's not something many people can do. If you did, you'd leave a legacy behind. The Kyokugen school of Karate would remember you forever. Students from every country in the world would study the great master Howard Rust, and his weapons-based Kyokugen." He's smiling again. The thought of it really is something great; aside from the idea of expanding the school in that direction, it'd be a great way to demonstrate the flexibility of Kyokugen Karate. A style which, from its very name, one would think would be unable to adapt to weapons-based combat...
What the two men fail to realize in this heat of the moment is that, in this very part in time the two have actually pioneered the beginnings of the next great omelette via the application of this disgusting orange pulp slurry that may actually have delighted some tastebuds of a hoity-toity food critic.
A delight that will go lost for many years once these two men dispose of it.
"Pff!" He gags as Ryo slaps him vigorously in the back, which - while probably helping save his life - doesn't do many additional favors to his current state of health as he coughs up more of that disgusting not-juice onto his late breakfast. He groans ruefully at this ruined breakfast, unaware of what sort of culinary magic just accidentally happened between his bad choice of drink and these scrambled eggs.
As Ryo explains how long it'll take, there is a sticking point in the older man's mind - he himself is forty, well past the age many fighters choose to retire. Sure, there's a number of middle-aged and older people in the fighting circuit, but that number is almost certainly tiny compared to those who just flat-out retire. He probably doesn't have enough years of physical activity left in him to spend the 'decades' it might take, as it were!
He at least regains enough composure post-choking to hear out what Ryo's saying in clear-cut terms. Once a week isn't going to do it any more, and that's a fact given his level of study. That yellow belt, that single step up from the initiates, was truly hard-earned through personal sacrifice. Sweat, blood, tears, and occasional rolled eyes and sighs from his Pacific High employers about having to take a day off because of grievous injury.
Ryo has firm belief in his ability to be a master, to be among one of the greats of the budding Kyokugen pantheon. There's not even denying that a small part of him - no, a fairly big part of him - absolutely wanted fighting stardom after his course in life made sure to complicate or destroy his chances entirely left and right as he sucks in some air, half-bent over the table. It's a position in life he has seen one too many times. The crossroads, knowing he can't walk both paths at once and yet constantly finding compromises that really only temporarily make both possible.
He is going to need to choose.
He doesn't want to choose right now.
Put frankly, he doesn't want to have to choose. It's so blatant on his face and his tone of voice that by the time he says it, Ryo might already be aware of this particular conflict of his.
"Ryo," he rises with a single cough and a raised hand, "I, I... I don't know what, what I can say right now. Can I just... can I just get back to you, uh, after the school year ends? Won't be, won't be... too far from now."
He lies back in his chair, just staring up at the ceiling. "This, this whole trip's just... just been a lot for me, Ryo, it, it really has. I gotta, I gotta stop by the hospital, then... then book an earlier flight back. I dunno what, what happened with Antoine, but... but I can't, I can't just leave Quon out alone, not with... not with that Cammy 'round. She, she up and broke into this place last night."
He growls. "Kicked me in the, in the kidney after, after all that happened yesterday." That part is something he's not going to be forgiving any time soon.
[OOC] Howard "0 Bao" Rust says, "as a heads up on an OOC level - after the KoF plot ends, it's entirely possible Rust might take Ryo up on this."
[OOC] Ryo says, "Awesome! :)"
[OOC] Howard "0 Bao" Rust says, "I have had next to no actual high school RP in quite some time."
[OOC] Howard "0 Bao" Rust says, "It's not guaranteed, but, it'll probably be time to move past that particular designation. That is a big narrative thrust, Rust is trying to do two things and he can't have both. He /has/ to choose at some point."
[OOC] Ryo nods, "Absolutely. No pressure from me OOCly either way (not going to be much from Ryo ICly either :P), but it was a notion I thought I had to seize on, really."
[OOC] Howard "0 Bao" Rust says, "It is a good thing to lay bare for him, yeah."
[OOC] Howard "0 Bao" Rust says, "on one hand ICly it's not a bad call, Rust is pretty much born to be a teacher of a stripe, but there is some background as to why he doesn't want to be seen as someone whose only contribution to society is that he can fight."
"I understand. Take all the time you need."
The words come surprisingly easily. For all Ryo might want Rust to join up full-time, he also knows just how much the school means to him. He can't force his preference on the older man. And there is, as Rust had figured out, no actual guarantee that he'd manage to master the art before the demands of his body overtook him. It's a sad fact, but for every ancient master who fights as well as they did fifty years ago, there's a thousand broken men.
Add to that the fact that the school work is genuinely meaningful- in a tangible, every day sense rather than a 'contributing to the annals of history' sense- and Ryo can understand completely the draw of that work. It must be very rewarding, to know that you are contributing to the lives of tomorrow's world leaders.
Still... he would be remiss in his duty to Kyokugen if he didn't try and foster that kind of talent, wherever he saw it.
And then, there's more mention of Cammy. Ryo's good cheer fades completely away, and he grits his teeth. "I told her to stay away." He murmurs. There's... a definite anger, there. "That kid is completely out of control. And I don't think she's going to leave you or the others alone. She's damaged." He tuts, shaking his head, "I know Quon wants to try and handle her his way, but if you guys need a hand... just say the word. You know how I feel about her and the people she's working with, though. They only understand one thing." Now those guys? Those /are/ the guys who only leave behind bodies and broken dreams. It's enough to make him feel sick to his stomach.
The school means a lot to him. It's a sign that things are going okay with life, he's being a good man. He doesn't care so much for a lot of his co-workers, but it's not hard to see why. Most of them are rich, extremely well-educated (possibly even over-educated) folks. He's a guy who grew up poor and had to work for every inch he got. To be fair, he has made a pretty bad habit lately of drinking entire coffee pots thanks to how little sleep he often gets.
Deciding the eggs are a wash on his part, the older man stands up with plate in hand, a visible limp as he goes to scrape off the pulp-festooned scrambled eggs and fail to realize what sort of miracle he just created as Ryo goes on about Cammy. "I told her too," he speaks up between that and Ryo's mention of 'that kid.'
"I, I appreciate that, Ryo," he says as he scrapes the mess off into the trash. He will never realize what he just lost by being rid of this concoction, "right now, after... after Yuri, after... whatever the hell's wrong with Zach," he has yet to ask but is not particularly pleased with him blasting the hell out of him or, if he's heard right, the fact he drove an ATV into the lobby, "and... and Quon's thing with, with Cammy, last thing I want to see is, is Antoine in trouble."
He has no idea.
"I don't know, Ryo, but... but a part of me, part of me feels," he says as he turns back sadly, plate put down in the sink and one hand on the counter for support, "that... that I, I failed 'em all as, as team captain." He shakes his head sadly. "It, it ain't a good feelin', Ryo. It... it just isn't."
Ryo is quiet for a long time, he lets Rust speak his piece, and, he can understand the doubts. Cammy is a force strong enough to shake anyone's confidence, even if she seems to have the emotional and mental stability of a lemming. Antoine's disappearance is troubling, and Yuri just being Yuri is enough to give him headaches on a daily basis. Heck. Throw in the fact that Zach has been possessed by ZUUL, and Rust couldn't have had a much worse pick.
Why is it so many fighters are so unstable?
Ryo also knows that, as much as he would like to reassure Rust, it won't mean anything coming from him; he's not part of the team. He wasn't there when all this crazy stuff started. He's an outsider.
Standing up a bit straighter, he nods his head, sympathetic. "There's really only four people who can tell you whether they think you did well or did badly." He says, "But. I did mean what I said about the team." What was it he said? Oh yeah. "Just because you've lost this tournament, that doesn't mean the team has to break up. There's plenty of team based tournaments, and if you all want to keep training together, and supporting each other, then that's what you should keep doing."
He takes a deep breath, then, and adds, with a laugh. "I will say, the hardest thing in the world is to have others relying on you. For what it is worth, I think you handled the burden ... better than anyone else I could think of, would have." Hell, he'd have knocked out Zach's teeth, hunted Antoine down like a dog, thrown Yuri into the sun, and stomped through Shadaloo's base and died by now, in Rust's place. Who is he to judge the older man?
It does often seem that Howard Rust is the only sane man among a bunch of crazy fighters. Excepting certain mental disorders that allow for things like treating a rusted length of pipe like a person and his particular... issues... with benches. The way they just mock him, the way they break all too easily by people who have met his acquaintance and how /he/ has to be the one to fix them only for them to break again under mysterious circumstances and, well, he should be seeing a therapist about that.
"I, I dunno what it's gonna look like after the fact," he concedes, "they all got, they all got lives of, of th-their owns, and such," he says as he reluctantly moves away from the counter he's been leaning on for support to start limping over back to his room for, say, socks and shoes, his toolbelt, and to get Ol' Rusty back from when he flung it through a window to alert the house to Cammy's presence. That said, he really probably could have done better among his seven or so alternate colorations of the exact same outfit than the one that's pinkish-purple. (It's a fighter thing.)
"I, y'know, Ryo, I just wanna say," he says as he spends part of the way trying to rest his right hand on his shoulder, "thanks for, for everything, it's," he lowers his head and shakes it, "hasn't been... hasn't been fun, lemme tell you. I kinda wish that, that I had more people like you that, that I could've... counted on, y'know."
[OOC] Howard "0 Bao" Rust brbs a sec.
Ryo actually does feel better. It's fairly uncommon that people recognized his efforts. (Although Yuri had said thanks to Mr. Karate, and he's sure Mr. Karate appreciated that, too). "Don't worry about it." He replies, as Rust starts to gather up his things. "I'm just going to, you know, take a couple of hours to nap, here in the house, before I go back and finish up the hospital." And if any crazed Shadaloo operatives happen to break in whilst he is trying to recuperate, he is going to shove a fireball right where the sun doesn't shine.
"If I don't see you again before the flight, stay safe, and good luck with Antoine. Oh, and, I'll sort out the house here, too. Fix the door properly and everything."
That said, Ryo finally detaches himself from the counter, which had been growing entirely too comfortable a place to rest, being, you know, a counter. He's going to find one of these mythical 'bed' things he keeps hearing about. They aren't as comfy as his good old home futon, but right now, he's pretty sure he could fall asleep mid-punch and probably not even notice until the finish bell rang.
[OOC] Howard "0 Bao" Rust says, "Seems like a good place to stop if you're satisfied with it!"
[OOC] Howard "0 Bao" Rust says, "Thanks again for spending all this time RPing with me, it's been good stuff."
[OOC] Ryo says, "Hey, I've enjoyed it! :D"
[OOC] Howard "0 Bao" Rust says, "Take care, in any case! I look forward to future developments."
ODROP::Rust heads OOC.
Log created on 11:51:59 02/26/2011 by Ryo, and last modified on 16:38:23 02/26/2011.