Description: Two Men on a Boat. The two fighters hang out on yacht after the Neo Development Project fight. Quon explains why he has decided not to pursue an acting career. Jace, however, seems to have other ideas.
On this particularly sunny mid-Pacific day, it's about as good as it ever gets on the Pacific Ocean for yachting. The waves are a gentle six feet, giving the boat a solid roll, but at least the fish are biting. Well after the NDP match that took place on the yacht, Jace has changed to a pair of board shorts and a white Killers t-shirt. He has been conversing with the captain of the boat, and he returns aft to where chairs and poles have been setup to fish.
He jumps into his seat, picking up a coke that he has poured from a cooler just ahead of them, filled to the brim with drinks. He takes a long swig of the drink, picks up the pole and casts bait into the water once again. He calls out, "The Captain is going to turn us into the headwind. Should give the fish a little more incintive to bite. Don't ask me why..."
And Quon for his part had changed into some orange swim trunks and ditched the brown vest and changed into another white T. While Quon has the fishing pole in hand, hasn't really been paying attention to it. Instead, he's choosing to focus on physical recovery because jesus, those hits to the jaw frickin huuuuuuuuurt.
Quon turns the moment he hears Jace take his seat. "Hey. Whatever, I'm just along for the ride, man." After that, Quon reaches into the cooler with one hand and pulls out an orange soda.
Craning his neck to look over his shoulder, Jace leans towards Quon and whispers, "I think it's great how you're not trying to take over the show or anything, but I hired this guy because I know nothing about either fishing or running a boat. However, this guy may or may not have been out in the sun for too long. If you have any fishing wisdom to add, please don't hesitate." He glances over his shoulder one last time and adds for emphasis, "Please."
He leans back in the chair, putting his feet up on the rail of the stern of the boat. He begins reeling his cast back in, shrugging his shoulders, "So I read in the fight prelims that you act in Hong Kong. What's that like? I've only ever been exposed to the kill-or-be-killed nature of Disney films."
"Unfortunately, I have none to share. This is my first time fishing." He gives Jace a helpless shrug as he also turns to glance over his shoulder following Jace's sight to the captain. "Can't really help. I've spent most of my time on land. Away from the ocean."
He then opens the can of orange soda and begins to drink. And that's about when Jace asks him about acting. "I wouldn't know. I never got my shot. I came into fighting hoping that a producer or director would see me and like what I did and turning it into a movie career. Things came up. I got arrested, got expelled from college, lost my job, lost my apartment in Southtown and spent time living on the streets."
With a quick nod of his head, "Me too." It's with a certain forlorn air that Jace comes to the verbal conclusion, "I guess we're stuck with Captain Morgan here..." He glances towards Quon, his eyebrows knitting together in a vexed expression before he keeps reeling the line in.
"If you don't mind me asking..." He seems hesitant to continue, but he does after a few more spins of the reel, "...but what happened?" He shakes his head, "You're amongst the top two percent of fighters in the world. I know this because the Neo-Development Project wouldn't take you on if you weren't, plus you hit pretty dang hard. What gives?"
"Well... This may take a while. It started in China, a little bit after I had left the temple and re-entered the world as a whole. Traffic was being held up by some people in military gear. And someone got tired of waiting in traffic so they attempted to take an alternate route around the military vehicle. And they shot the vehicle causing it to crash. I left my vehicle to see if I could give first aid to them since..." He pauses for a moment. "Well, I figured the military looking guys had made their point. But as I was approaching the vehicle they shot not at me but the person I was trying to check on. The person wasn't even conscious! I fought them. I had them on the ropes and then they decided that they rather die by dog piling me so that the helicopter could shoot us all. I barely survived."
It's at this point Quon takes another sip of his orange soda before continuing. "It turns out that Sagat pulled me out from the pile of bodies and made sure I got to a hospital. He also told me that in that moment I made some powerful enemies in the form of Shadaloo and told me I should lay low and keep off their radar until I was strong enough to face them. It wasn't to be. It turns out one of their members took a liking to me which only drew more attention to me. The leader of the organization himself, made his displeasure with my 'friendship' with this member known and then had some people load up my car with who knows what. So I intentionally got myself arrested for drunk driving so I wouldn't have to go wherever that location was that he wanted me to deliver it and walk into a trap or somehow help him hurt more people. Getting myself arrested got me kicked out of Southtown University. Then after that I was attacked by someone else from Shadaloo who went out of their way to destroy everything in my apartment and cripple me. I was in the hospital so long I lost my job, lost my apartment and once I left the hospital, I was out on the streets."
Taking a long sip of his pepsi, Jace raises an eyebrow towards Quon. He takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, "That is screwed up on so many different levels." He continues to reel in the cast until it's just a foot off the pole. He whips the pole back and casts the line again.
He tilts his head, "How have things been since? Is fighting covering you now? I know NDP isn't volunteerism, which is the only reason I'm allowed to do it, y'know..."
"Yeah, it's paying the bills, for now. But I can't help but feel as though I have a constant target on my back." He sighs for a moment. "It's why I have to be satisfied with fighting. Acting is off the table for me. I just don't think I could live with myself if a fellow actor got killed because some villain with a grudge decided to show up to the studio and bust some heads. At least with fighters, they have a decent chance of coming out of the bad situation alive."
"Adon showing up to my fight, and smacking up the referee just because he had a grudge with me when I hadn't done anything to him only has gone to show that I've taken the correct path. What if I was on studio filming when that happened?"
He begins reeling in his cast slightly quicker now, nodding his head as he listens, "That's certainly a concern, but it shouldn't be your largest concern in the world at all. You're a good fighter. You're bound to have a target on your back whether you want it or not. As far as Adon goes, you never really know what's behind other people's motivations."
He then asks, "Still, you do know security on a set is far from your concern, right? Nor is security during a match. This falls on other people's shoulders. Why is it holding you back?"
"I'm concerned because, it's one thing for me to be in danger. It's something else for someone who had nothing to do with me someone who was completely innocent to get caught up in my wave of troubles. It just doesn't sit well with me. I'm sorry." He takes a deep breath.
After a few moments, he continues. "I'm not exactly sure if set security is trained to deal with assassins, or organizations that have a standing army, or anything like that. I've been fighting bullies damn near all my life but I think the shock of seeing bullies on the scale that large with that much in the way of resources. I don't think I know how to handle it."
Quon takes another sip of his orange soda as he all but ignores his own fishing line. "I have a question. Which one of the Ansatsuken fighters was your teacher?"
With a nod of his head, Jace replies, "Well, that's very altruistic of you. I'd avoid the movie industry all together. It's pretty dang cutthroat." He then adds, "And don't apologize to me. I'm not the one you should be apologizing to."
He then shakes his head, "No, set security is not trained for that. Then, as I said, not your concern, but... As you said, not sitting well with you." He raises his hands, shaking his head, "But it's..." He trails off suddenly, his eyes wide as if he has had some kind of thought. There's a wild look there. Something entirely inhuman as the wheels turn, as if someone or something else is now in control of Jace.
Offhandedly, with a very distracted tone of voice, he replies, "Ken Masters trained me."
Ken Masters? "In that case, if there's anyone who has the best understanding of my situation, it's your master. It turns out he ran afoul of the same group of people I did. He's summoned to a location for some reason or other but Vega's purpose was to send a message to the world at large by murdering his camera crew right before Ken's eyes. I watched the footage of this happening."
Quon shakes his head. "If he would do that to your master, he would certainly do that to me. Especially since he out right hated me. And to be honest, I think there are others out there just as bad. But yeah. Like I said before, I'll stick to fighting. Safer for others around me."
Continuing to look away, absentmindedly reeling in the line, Jace replies, "There's a difference between you and Sensei. Vega is dead, if the news is to be believed. Your biggest concern is Adon, who has also taken an interest in you. This can be rectified..." He leans back in the chair, rubbing at his chin until a wild grin spreads across his face.
He looks quickly towards Quon, "Quick, Quon..." That's a tongue twister. "We need to get you acting lessons if you have no experience in front of the camera."
"No experience in front of the camera? You didn't see the interview I did with Adon? I made the dude embarass..." And that's about the point where begins following Jace's train of thought and not liking where this was going.
He puts down the soda, pulls back the rod and waves his hands. "No! You're not thinking... No! That's not happening. No! No! No!"
Jace stands quickly from the chair, throwing the pole overboard and then turning towards the bow of the ship. He jumps, grabbing on to the roof of the wheelhouse and scrambling up, "Bosun Boozy! Hard a starboard! Hard a port! Hard a whatever the heck it takes to get us back to the mainland!"
He makes it to the top of the wheelhouse, tripping and falling to the point of sticking over the far edge.
He simply drops his head over the edge to peer into the wheelhouse, "Fishing time is over! Get us back! This is my best idea ever!"
As the boat turns, Jace's mad cackling can be heard all the way back to shore.
Log created on 10:17:53 05/05/2012 by Quon, and last modified on 21:25:42 05/05/2012.