Description: Zach's troubles continue as a spectre from his past rears its ugly head. It goes as weel as one may imgaine.
Todoh is in the middle of a forest being Todoh, 'nuff said.
Okay, okay, FINE. Sheesh. We are living in a world where his name alone does not convey what is going on? This world has gotten much too complicated to even be worth the bother, sometimes. Why, back in the day...
...
...
...
Ahem.
It's a cold evening out in that large clearing, and Ryuhaku Todoh is in the middle of a particularly tense home situation that's seeing him camping out, oh, wherever he damn well pleases. Which he does to begin with, so, it's like very little has changed at all.
There's no tent or sleeping bag or even a blanket, just Todoh lying down there in the open, relatively quiet, looking up at the stars as though the very stars themselves have slighted him at some point. He is probably hatching harebrained schemes to throw in his lot with the sun so that it may chase them out of view or, better yet, steal their glowing glory all for himself in some childish way of thinking that defies any and all well established laws of the universe and physics in general.
Every so often he fiddles with a little ball in a cup, swinging and catching it with his face more often than not. His only audience, thus far, is the local wildlife who is taking a page from him and largely sitting around just barely in view, doing nothing in particular other than being there.
Well, this /is/ Todoh we are talking about. It'd be par for the course.
Zach Glen had camped himself out in the large clearing a day or two ago. He had no fallback position after the warehouse that he levelled... got leveled. He wakes up, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes before pushing off of the ground.
There's... a sound. It keeps repeating itself, rhythmically. The fugitive psychic scowls, looking around as he clambers to his feet. He mutters a faint curse as he tries to locate the source of the sound.
This could be the makings of comedy. Or tragedy. Or, most likely, both.
It's not just a sound! Occasionally there's a grunt or two out of complete irritation on the part of a crazy old man. Whenever Zach's eyes adjust to the darkness outside, he might see a little green plastic ball pop up and down, up and down, up and down from the ground along with... some figure on the ground. The silhouette is very familiar.
Very, very familiar, and unmoving.
Zach squints his eyes, following the ball in one such trip. Up... down... into Todoh's face.
/Shit/, Zach thinks. He was trying to stay clear of people in general while he tried to come up with some kind of plan. Todoh qualifies as people, even if certaim members of the Kyokugen Dojo would argue that point. Glen looks around swiftly, trying to see if he can pull some kind of clean escape.
He slooooooowly tries to edge away from the Todoh-Ryu master. He has to do this /just/ right, because you never know what will draw that crazy old man's attention. Zach is trying to avoid such things.
It seems to work. Maybe when Zach really puts his mind to something, sometimes, in some ways, he must succeed - the ability to impart his will in ways desired, instead of letting it get the better of him, may very well work in matters of stealth. There is no fault in his form, how no grass even rustles against the weight of his feet.
A bunny runs away, hopping along the grass.
Todoh suddenly sits up with a start, facing away from the sneaking Zach as he shakes a fist in the vague direction of something that would not understand the nature of his complaints.
"THINK THAT'S FUNNY, DO YOU?! HUH?! I'LL MAKE A STEW OUTTA YA!"
He grouses and stands back up, dirt caked on his back (he's been there a while), huffing angrily. "Even they're givin' me lip..."
Zach freezes as the rabbit runs, tensing as Todoh bolts upright. Zach's eyes are wide and locked on Todoh's back. It was only sheer luck that Todoh did not spot Zach. He slowly lets out a breath he did not even know he was holding.
Back to the escape plan. Slow, gentle movements. Minimal sound.
"THERE'S A MOUTHBREATHER BEHIND ME I JUST KNOW IT!" Todoh shrieks at the top of his lungs, as though he could not be any more incensed at the moment, the little plastic ball dangling out the cup as he turns around with a few stomps, hunched over in anger as he catches wind of Zach's breath.
He stops, blinking a few times.
"Which one were ya, again?"
Zach gives a short start as he eyes Todoh. He frowns, considering for a moment. Does he answer truthfully, knowing there would be a fight? Or does he lie, and try to talk his way out of it. Neither solution really appeals to him, so there's no helping it. Regardless of what Zach has become in the past few weeks, he intends to hang onto his honesty.
"The one who uses chi wrong," Zach finally says. It's not like Todoh had ever bothered to learn his name.
"THAT DOESN'T NARROW IT DOWN!" Todoh all but yells in Zach's face, waving a fist threateningly. "That's so many of those numbskull kids these days! All those pretty li'l flashy lights that AREN'T THE CORRECT WAY TO DO THINGS and how am I supposed to KNOW you're any DIFFERENT from--"
He stops and looks Zach over. Does he notice the choker? The angry squint is not one that makes people reassured, when they are faced with a man so detached from many things in this world that some laws of physics merely become a very polite and poorly enforced suggestion upon his person.
"Wait. Wait. Waaaaaiiit. You," he says quietly, "have you come to beg for mercy and forgiveness?!"
He suddenly grins wildly and throws his arms up. "Because I'm in such a merciful and happy mood right now, I can let you start my licking my socks clean!"
He lifts one leg up and wiggles a foot in Zach's direction. "Eh? Whaddaya saaaaaay?"
Zach tugs at his hoodie, trying to conceal the damn thing. He eyes Todoh's wiggling foot, before looking back up at the insane man. "No," Zach answers as he shifts to start backing away from Todoh, "And no. No telling where that sock's been. I'll pass."
Zach casts a look back over his shoulder.
No good hiding places out here. Last time he uses /this/ locale.
"AS IF I KNEW WHERE YOUR TONGUE'S BEEN!" Todoh starts to yell again, bringing his foot back down on the ground and starting to walk towards him. "So what's it gonna /be/ then, huh, comin' out of nowhere 'n disturbing my happy time during the, ahem, HAPPIEST TIME OF MY LIFE WHERE I AM NOT RECONSIDERING MY DIRECTION IN LIFE or ANYTHING?!"
He huffs, starting to point a finger at Zach. "Still gonna be a loser, huh?! Loser! You're a loser! Teasing me with your interest like a strip of bacon! Just to dismiss me and my KINDNESS so very casually?!"
Zach's eyes narrow. Ignore it, he tells himself. The old man's just spoutin', trying to get under your skin. You didn't throw down on /Ayame/, and if there was anyone on the planet who you could consider free to fight on sight, it'd be her. He's not trying to kill you either. There's no /reason/ for this to turn into a fight, right?
Zach doesn't say anything. He simply tries to continue his subtle retreat, hoping it will work before he has to turn it into a full-blown one.
"Not gonna talk, eh?!" Todoh continues advancing on the cowering Zach. "I can see it in your li'l beady eyes, boy!! You're ashaemd! You're a shame! I'm, uh... some other thing involving me and shame that isn't something like me being a shame or... bah!!"
With that, Todoh throws his hands up into the air, but he's not throwing his hands up in frustration - well, okay, not alone, there's a lot of things in life he'd throw his hands up about but this one is, particularly, important. The way they reach high, the way it seems the dark clearing may glow a little brighter yet to the lights of the world's latent energy bent into will...
...Followed, exactly, by Todoh deciding it is too much of a bother and decides to just slap a hand across Zach's hooded cheek.
"You're a waste! My genius and talent is lost upon pretenders like you!!" He declares in a fit of cantankerousness.
Or, well, a fit in general. He's a great fit for having a fit.
COMBATSYS: Todoh has started a fight here.
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Todoh 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Zach has joined the fight here.
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Todoh 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Zach
COMBATSYS: Zach still bears the choker, which shimmers an odd color.
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Todoh 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 [E] Zach
COMBATSYS: Zach blocks Todoh's Aggressive Strike.
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Todoh 0/-------/-------|=------\-------\0 [E] Zach
Zach flips his right arm up to catch the incoming slap. He regards Todoh with hard eyes. "Back off," Zach says. He doesn't reach for the sword; it would likely just get in the way. Zach doesn't shove back, doesn't retaliate quite yet. That was one. Didn't it take three to piss off the Buddha? Zach couldn't tell you.
However, the energy that responds to his will, his birthright... it responds regardless. While Zach /does/ keep it buried under a wall of iron will, Soul Power sheathes his body, giving him an odd purple glow...
COMBATSYS: Zach gathers his will.
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Todoh 0/-------/-------|=====--\-------\0 [E] Zach
"Ooooh, look at this BIG BABY," Todoh is all but spraying spittle out of his mouth, although there is a momentary pause in the intensity of the power that Zach brings to bear. It's bright, it's blinding, it feels /wrong/ in just what it is. It's overwhelming, enough to give even the cussed and crazy like Ryuhaku Todoh a moment of pause.
"Wastin' all that energy just FLASHING and GLOWING instead of GETTING ON WITH IT ALREADY!" He lectures out loud, more or less embodying his complaints on a perfectly verbal level as he just takes both hands and - to the sudden surge of discomfort to his very mind and soul just by willing to make contact with it - attempts to just bring both hands into Zach's chest to just shove him over like a bully would to a seemingly weak target.
"You pathetic soft chewy candy bear!"
COMBATSYS: Zach blocks Todoh's Quick Throw.
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Todoh 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 [E] Zach
Zach stands his ground, wincing a bit as Todoh slaps down on sore muscles. He lets out a long breath. He shifts his weight, as if preparing himself for whatever it is Todoh is going to try next. This was, after all, only the second strike.
This does not mean that Zach is doing nothing, however. He is watching Todoh for openings. Oh so many openings. He bides his time; the old man will likely show Zach when (and perhaps /where/) to strike first.
COMBATSYS: Zach focuses on his next action.
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Todoh 0/-------/-------|======-\-------\0 [E] Zach
"What's the matter?!" Todoh just continues screaming and pushing along a younger man who, incidentally, didn't really provoke him or anything of the sort, as though despite the cheery veneer he really is just looking for someone or something to blame, to just point aaaaaaaall his recent woes at, and this recently reawakened memory of this young man's treachery just makes him all the more a target to unload.
"In awe about what YOU coulda had, boy?!" Ryuhaku throws his hands up again, and, okay, let's just forego the creative metaphors and descriptors for what everyone knows is already coming, okay? We're all on the same page here, aren't we? This is Todoh we're talking about.
A Todoh who proceeds to step forward, turning his body as he raises a bent arm with his palm outstretched, trying to swing said arm into Zach.
COMBATSYS: Zach interrupts Strong Punch from Todoh with Aggressive Strike EX.
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Todoh 0/-------/-----==|=======\=------\1 [E] Zach
Zach steps into Todoh's strike, shoving it off with his shoulder. Zach is not, however, content to leave it at that. His right hand comes up quickly as he rotates his body to line up the strike. Zach steps off his left foot hard, extending his right arm as he leaps towards Todoh.
Zach's leap arcs as Zach gives one last torque of the hips to add some more impact to the fist that collides with Todoh's jaw! "You're still crazy, old man," Zach growls.
Ryuhaku's head turns to Zach's forward leaping punch, already a bit unbalanced to Zach's little sudden shove. It is a clean hit, there is a definite resonance in the way Zach's fist collides that suggests, yes, he just hit that crazy old man who will probably never approve of Zach being the way he is - a thing that Zach can't really help but be.
Something others of his kind can't help but be. That's just how they all differ.
"You can't even punch right," Todoh hisses through clenched teeth as he stumbles back a mere step to reaffirm his footing, as though the inconvenience was more imbalance than any of Zach's particular technique or - as some may have accused him of before - complete lack thereof, as he brings his arms up yet again.
"First lemme show ya what you COULD'VE had if you didn't just throw it away for some crazy Kyokugen bint!" He cries out, a loud kiai following his wake as three blocky pieces of yellowish-orangish chi - maybe a little bit more orange than yellow today, he's kind of in an orange mood - bringing his hands down to guide the summoned segmented chi down with gravity's blessing (or perhaps insistence), intending to crash it down upon Zach's beleaguered body.
COMBATSYS: Todoh successfully hits Zach with Kasane Ate.
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Todoh 0/-------/---====|=======\=====--\1 [E] Zach
Zach grunts as the chi smashes into him, forcing the psychic to stagger back several steps. He glares at Todoh. "The hell is a /bint/," Zach mutters. He eyes Todoh with growing irritation. The psion brings his right hand up, fingers spread and palm skyward. Time to show his own twist on the 'classic'.
Three sheets of ragged purple rip into existance, hovering for a moment before Zach sweeps the hand down. The three pieces of the Pile Smash scream towards Todoh!
COMBATSYS: Todoh endures Zach's Pile Smash.
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Todoh 0/-------/=======|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 [E] Zach
The twisted purple segments come to light, and Todoh stares at them with utter imputiny as he holds his ground... and claps his hands above his head, loud enough for almost anyone even remotely within the forest's borders to hear it. The sound of him centering together his energy, as the hands meet the descending wave of psionic energy.
The hands do nothing to stop it, but he does not flinch. His face goes from 'mildly irritated' to 'outright rage' as a vaguely rectangular shape of blasted earth appears underneath his feet, grass and dirt spraying everywhere like a mortar just struck down upon it.
"AND YOU STILL DO IT WROOOOOOONG!" Todoh roars as he brings his hands up again, which must beg the question at this point - Zach was gifted with such incredible amounts of power, with such an incredibly heavy price. By all means, with his own innate psionic powers, he should be able to fell nearly anyone or anything in front of him.
Yet, Todoh stands, shaking with rage while his very consciousness wrestles with his indignation as much as he does the sheer wave of power coursing through him, that ruins the very earth beneath around him where Zach's flawed (in his eyes, really anyone else would say it's pitch-perfect) rendition of his trademark technique.
Is this, perhaps, a reflection of a greater innate weakness that goes beyond mere power output in Zach's character, if this is representing his sheer will being shaped into a weapon - if it isn't strong enough to overcome a man of such poor character and moral fiber?
"THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT AND THIS IS THE LAST TIME I'M GOING TO SHOW YOU!!" Ryuhaku calls out to Zach as he brings his hands down, the bright cyan blue lights of a seemingly identical make to the typical Kasane Ate as they shimmer against the wake of the violent violet chi, looking to make Zach look juuuuust as bad as the ground underneath Todoh himself.
COMBATSYS: Zach dodges Zach's Pile Smash.
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Todoh 0/-------/------=|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 [E] Zach
COMBATSYS: Zach endures Todoh's Meiou Ken!
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Todoh 0/-------/------=|>>>>>>>\>>>>>>>\2 [E] Zach
Zach stands firm in the wake of the earth shattering strike. He stands, battered and bloody... but not yet broken. "Fuck off," Zach spits, wobbling as he sets himself into a stance that is somewhere between Hiten Ryu and Boxing. He leans forward a little bit, trying something he attempted earlier in the encounter. It is a surprisingly difficult move from Hiten Ryu, likely 'borrowed' from Alma: the straight lead.
Zach leads with his right fist, throwing the punch even before he launches from his stance. The leap carries Zach towards Todoh at high speed even as a trickle of blood starts from his nostril. The psion extends his right fist as psionic energies wrap around the vertically aligned fist, striking at Todoh with the lower half of his hand. Glen gives an extra twist of the hips to lend some extra pop to the strike. His right foot lands, and Zach fails the landing, falling face first in the grass.
COMBATSYS: Zach can no longer fight.
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Todoh 0/-------/------=|
COMBATSYS: Zach knocks away Todoh with Burst Strike.
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Todoh 0/-------/-======|
"HOOWAAH!" Todoh bites his tongue when Zach lands that big, satisfying punch to the strength of his powered purple powers. There may be some catharsis in just touching this man at all with such powerful effect as he is deftly removed from where he stands, corkscrewing through the forest and into a tree--
Scratch that. Through a tree, which explodes into splinters, twigs, leaves, and at least two fledgling birds that were ready enough to leave the nest tomorrow that somehow manage to survive the chaos.
The second tree behind it splits over as Todoh's body hits it, a loud and pained grunt as he rolls off of it and through the harsh, battered forest landscape through that single incredibly short-lived battle, as the master(?) places a hand on a sharpened broken stump to pull himself up, a gigantic bruise dominating the right side of his face, heavy breaths taken as he sees Zach hits the ground face first.
"That's it, isn't it." Todoh sneers as he staggers along down towards Zach, pointing a finger. "Even with all /that/, you... you couldn't doooo iiiiiit," the mocking turns into wheezy sing-song as he thrusts a finger down at the injured Zach, "y'know why? Because... you have no battle ability!"
He huffs again as he leans down next to him, with very notable disregard to personal space to lean up next to Zach's ear. "You're a loser! You're a bum! You got... no... talent! You got nothing!! No technique, just one, tiny, itty bitty trick you do OVER and OVER with no success whatsoever!" He's all but spitting bile now.
"And THAT'S why," he preens himself as he stands up, drawing a fan to stroke his own ego, "you will NEVER amount to anything, just another one of those... one of those stupid glow stick guzzling kiddies with the FREAKIN' DAY GLO!" His dialogue starts slipping into insane frenzy, as though projecting some of his own issues.
"I'll never, ever take ya back even if you beg!! Even if you give me all the money in the world, even if you get me Takuma's head!" Pause. "Or his dojo board." Pause. "Or his car." Pause. "Or maybe just... y'know... HIS PRIDE, I'LL NEVER TAKE YOU BACK! You're worthless!"
After another thoughtful pause, he speaks again in a softer voice, "but I'd appreciate it if you diiiid, EVEN THOUGH THE LOWEST KYOKUGEN SCUM COULD WIPE THE FLOOR WITH YOU, buuuut..."
"Yeh hah hah hah hah haaaah! Hah, hah." And so, the older man goes to cackle into the night, unaware of the true weight of the malevolent words he speaks... but if he did, he'd have probably made it all the worse for poor Zach anyway, because Ryuhaku Todoh is, truthfully, entirely like that.
Even with all this new power in Zach's control, is he still truly... just, weak?
COMBATSYS: Todoh has ended the fight here.
Log created on 17:46:06 03/30/2011 by Zach, and last modified on 20:28:05 03/30/2011.