Re: Down in Margaritaville [Open]

Sun Apr 07, 2019 11:59 am

Down in Margaritaville [Open] - Page 2 YRtYvEZ

Alex

"Hey, c'mon, what kind of tropical city would it be without margaritas? But you do kinda raise a good point there. Might wanna have more going on to pull people in than just the margaritas..."

Stopping only when Ulv put her hand on his shoulder, Alex naturally listened to the sage advice of his teacher, and followed her back on over to the sand. He had plenty of time to work on this, after all, so he hardly minded.

"Huh... Alright, yeah, I'm pickin' up what you're putting down. I've never actually studied fighting or anything, so I kinda just do whatever seems right in the moment. Well, hat's not true, I studied once, but that was a while ago. Anyway, I'm gettin' disracted. Dragon Gate sounds pretty bitchin', I like the name, and I like setting people on fire. Let's fuckin' go."

Alex stretched out again, wanting to be as ready as possible for whatever training Ulv was about to hit him with. Probably literally, he realized. But hey, he could take some mean hits now, so he was down for it.

Sun Apr 07, 2019 12:22 pm

ULV AUBER | THE BURNING HEART

Taking a side-stance so Alex could see her movements, she cracked a grin at his reasoning for wanting to learn Dragon Gate.
"You know, that was pretty much why I wanted to learn it as well. Going to pick up Tiger Gate some time so I can do awesome Dragon Tiger Gate techniques. But that, is way down the line for you, if you ever decide to go down that line at all" Ulv told him, before letting him mimic her stance and for her to get into the mindset of combat. It was a moment to switch from cold one with the boys, to turn the creature in front of her into mince-meat. Even if there was no creature. Her shining boots vanished, and the great thumping of power went with it, so Alex would know that it was Ulv's strength alone.

"Your stance and form are very important. They can add as much as twice your strength to your blows. Observe, a blow without form, and a blow with form" Ulv then snapped out a single punch, straight jab. Alex wasn't miles below Ulv in strength, so he could still relate. The displaced air made a crack as it was forced out of the way, and sand kicked up from the disturbance. Looking to Alex, and nodding, then then turned back to her stance.

This, was suddenly a lot different. She held herself firmly, her body bent over slightly and her hands closer together. The second punch came and she rolled into it, her muscles tensing and seemingly her entire body shifting a milometer to lend power to the punch. She was truly throwing her entire body into this one elegant, fluid punch, and the power showed. Less a crack this time, more of a thunderous rumble as the displaced air raked the beach, cutting a deep groove in the sand as it blasted tons of sediment down-wind, rocking the place with sheer power.

"Hmm, not quite as effective on loose footing like sand. But, you get the gist, yea? You have more than just your fists in a fight. Throw a few, get the feel for it while I watch"

Resolve Flame| END POST

Sun Apr 07, 2019 2:39 pm

Alex

Alex was kind of impressed at how suddenly Ulv's demeanor seemed to have changed. He wasn't quite expecting it, but something about that kin of stuck out to him just as much as the lesson itself. Maybe he should take that one to heart too.

"Twice as much? That's a lo-"

Anything else he'd have said, though, was cut off by the clap of Ulv's second blow. He didn't wine, though he came close, as he was focused more on her form than his own suffering. Honestly, he was faintly horrified that so much power came just from one punch. He knew other people were strong, but he'd never thought about it quite like this. Could Hayden do this? Ah fuck, could Nel? Shit, everyone was just punching so hard the air broke, weren't they? That made Alex...a little mad.

"Alright. Let's see what I got."

Getting into his best approximation of Ulv's demonstrated stance, Alex focused on making himself as correctly positioned as possible. He had no real idea if this was right, but it definitely felt close, and his instincts never let him down too much. He did much the same as Ulv had, putting his whole weight behind the blow in a way that was far more controlled than he was used to. The punch he threw came so smoothly that, for a second, he didn't even realize he'd actually done it. But he looked forward, and saw not only his fist, but the faintest breeze blowing across the sands.

"...Holy shit."

Sun Apr 07, 2019 3:09 pm

ULV AUBER | THE BURNING HEART

Ulv watched. She could feel the amazement and some anger - as well as a little trepidation - from Alex as he saw the second blow. It was nice to see that a guy as powerful as him could still be human in his thoughts and emotions. He exhibited sharp emotions while mimicking Ulv's stance, and she could really get behind that. Ulv's own initial skill was due to instinct, and she still used it heavily with her kinetic sense. But, he didn't really do anything, which made Ulv frown for a second before coming to a conclusion that best fit.

"Mmm, that was a decent punch, for your level of skill. But, you aren't really putting in the strength you can. You have grown rather explosively, and so your brain hasn't caught up to what your body can do. You don't believe you can reach the heights you can, and so you don't. Psychosomatic reaction, really. While believing you can do something won't always allow you to do it, believing you can't will always cripple your ability to do it. Internal Introspection will tell you what you can call upon, and then open your mind and your body will follow"

Resolve Flame| END POST

Sun Apr 07, 2019 6:33 pm

Alex

“I... I dunno. I guess that's hard to grasp. I'm a normal guy, you know? At least in my head.”

Alex shook his head at that, ran a hand through his hair, and refocused inward for a second. Ulv was right, he was giving this everything that he thought he could, that seemed like he could give it. But that wasn't what he was supposed to be doing, right? So c'mon, Alex, get focused. You fuckin' degenerate. Another punch went forward, and this time the air snapped, if quietly. But it was still very little.

The fuck was wrong with him? God, c'mon. Do better. Another punch, and another. Better, but still not even close, he could tell. Alex was getting angrier and angrier, and slowly but surely he was starting to heat up. Normally, that creeping heat through his bones would have told him to stop, but he didn't want to this time around. He had to get this right, he had to have that shit in him. Ol' teach said he did, and he wasn't gonna just leave it buried. One more, then another, each stronger than the last, yet far from the full extent of his capability even still.

“FUCK!”

With that final yell, Alex swung forward with reckless abandon. Or, at least, reckless force. Anger had certainly drawn that out of him, but sheer muscle memory and his own instinct had maintained his stance even so. It was sloppy, certainly, and far from anything resembling Ulv's trained form. But it was exponentially better than his usual wild swipes, and combined with the ever-increasing anger he was feeling, and the heat of Maiden Masher building up in his body, this blow was far greater than the last.

His fist swung forward, and while perhaps not to the same sheer degree as Ulv, the air certainly thundered back together from the speed of the blow. However, the shockwave that he sent forward had a side-effect that hers most assuredly had not. The heat of his body, which had rapidly been increasing due to his fury, had carried through into the blow. While the sands might have blown away had this punch been a normal one, instead a dent was left upon the beach, formed into glass as the sand rapidly crystallized from the blow. Alex might normally have been proud of himself, but he felt the pain of the Riot slowly creeping up on him, and the last thing he wanted right now was to lose it.

So, instead, he collapsed to the ground, and stared at the sky. Just for a little bit.

Mon Apr 08, 2019 6:40 am

ULV AUBER | THE BURNING HEART

Down in Margaritaville [Open] - Page 2 JCRrxmK

Anger. Building anger with no leash to restrain it. Why did everyone have to be so, impatient? With every punch that failed to be resounding, he got more angry and more....hot. Like, literally temperature wise. Which was not a surprise really, Ulv had Fury powers of her own, so the concept of powers feeding off emotion was not out there. Still, she was going to have to be teacher now, so when he finally made quite the impressive punch and glassed the beach, she turned to the ocean, and took a step to the left, and then to the right. The wind kicked up and bounced off the cliff face and water, making aeroharmonic music.

"This isn't what I should be doing but something strange is brewing, I shut it down but something is telling me to wait and see what this romance could be, I feel a little guilty, why am I so obsessed with this girl's forbidden love! Never did I think I would be tempted easily. My Job's to break some hearts, but you see there's a small small issue this pair is not Belle and Beau. Oh no, it's a Girl-plus-Girl thing. This screws everything"

While there was not much to her speaking voice, Ulv's singing voice was a think of beauty. Powerful, but also elegant, much like her own body. The Wind gathered by her song, and a strange billowing typhoon appeared, sucking water from the sea, and then proceeding to dump it on Alex, spraying him with a few gallons of salt water from the sea, pretty cool from having just come off Winter.

With that done, she walked back over to him, and smiled.
"One brick does not make a house. One punch, does not make a Master. Do not expect to perfectly execute anything you get your hands on without first having the experience to kick off. It is clear you've never looked into the art of fighting, so I will teach you patient and at your own pace. The only problem I have is when people proclaim their skill, and then suck"

Resolve Flame| END POST

Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:15 pm

Alex

Alex only idly heard Ulv’s voice, but he couldn't help but note that it was really pretty when she sang. Was it always like that? Nah, he'd have noticed. He always noticed when a girl had a nice voice, like- Ah, but then the water washed over him, part of it steaming away simply on contact, but most of it cooling him down rather rapidly. That was nice.

“Yeah, never tried much to really learn. Just kinda figured things out as I went. So you’ll need to be pretty fuckin patient, yeah? But look on the bright side, I won't tell ya I'm great at all this. I kinda suck at it. But hey, I'll give it a real good try.”

Though he took a couple more moments to simply lay there, ultimately Alex stood back up, lurching in a single motion that was almost too fluid for the scope of the action in question. He shook his hands out, trying to get the last bits of heat out, and idly realized that his fingers were still a little hot. Maybe he could do something with that when he had some free time.

“We goin’ again on the punches? I can do that all day if I gotta, I don't wanna end up thinking I’ve got it down and then I realize I'm doing fuckin awful.”

Wed Apr 10, 2019 12:58 pm

ULV AUBER | THE BURNING HEART

Alex was a good student. He had passion and conviction, as proven by the rock. And had no self-inflated ego - right not at least, it might come into his own later when he grew more skilled - nor great self-worth. He knew how good he was, and that was not a mutable fact to him. The emotion was a different thing, but Ulv would help him get a grasp on that. Half martial arts was mental, after all. If you couldn't focused and centre your mind, the most skillfully thrown punch would not find any purchase, after all.

Striking outwards, with her Dragon Gate fist, the air combusted around her, igniting in a fanciful dance of fire. There wasn't enough accelerant in air to cause a large fire, but it was nice.
"The man who has practised 10,000 kicks once is inferior to the man who has practised one kick 10,000 times. A good saying about the balance between skill and versatility, but also a strong indication of how long it takes to reach mastery. You have no trouble with passion and determination, as the rock has proven. But there is a lot of strong emotions without much leash to them. Mastery of this anger will be half the road. The other half will be mastery of the body.

As the old saying goes, "A man strikes with his Soul, and a sound Soul dwells within a sound mind, and a sound body. I would say, strike the air. Do it until calling upon your full strength is as natural as the very breath in your lungs, but do not expect anything. Simply throw every punch with the full weight of your mind behind it. What comes out is an extra, an additional. Like 11 nuggets in a 10 nugget box. Once you master the art of calling your full strength, then you can dwell on it, in a serene space"

Resolve Flame| END POST

Sat Apr 13, 2019 7:15 pm

Alex

“Ah, geez… Emotions, eh? That'll be trouble. I do have a lot goin’ on inside, that's for sure. I usually just wait for it to pass, but I'm gonna make a gamble and say that's not how I'm supposed to do it.”

Alex got into his stance once more, though this time it was just a touch more…him. It wasn't right to call it sloppy, but rather it was much more relaxed. It was obvious that he was no longer simply imitating Ulv one for one, but genuinely trying to find what came most naturally for him, what fit him best. He threw his first punch of this round, and frowned a bit as its crack was less impressive than the last. Pausing and shaking his head, the vagrant took a moment to collect himself, wanting to avoid slipping back into anger.

“So do I just keep punching ‘til I don’t get angry anymore? That might be a little risky, ya know.”

Nevertheless, another punch whipped out from his body, this one in fact stronger in its outcome than the last. Ooh, he liked that one. Adapting his stance slightly, Alex cracked his neck and did it again, fairly consistent in its outcome. But, of course he knew he was still staying constrained, and he knew that was still no good. So this time, he closed his eyes, and looked inward. He could probably pull this off, right? Centering in at the faint ember of heat always sitting in his heart, Alex focused on it, not trying to aggravate it but rather to just...touch it, a little bit.

Of course, as he did all this, he kept punching, but his mind was definitely inward. The best way to describe this contemplation was more akin to just poking a dog to wake it up. There was no real attempt to be careful, he more just wanted to actually get what was up with it. And, as his metaphorical finger touched it, it woke. To Alex, not much changed. Almost nothing, actually. It seemed like things just sort of went quiet.

Outside his own head, though, the Riot had simply exploded forward for a very brief moment. All at once Alex simply seemed to become something less than human, the dark rage filling his entire being. There was nothing for it to rage toward, nor to flee from, and so it subsided after its single action. But as it had come forward, it had swung ahead of Alex with the absolute full force of his power. The beach shook with the clap of his blow, the glass he had only just created shattering with the shockwave. And as he returned to his senses, he realized that was a very terrible approach to things.

“...Well, uh, that didn't work like I wanted it to. I uh… You know any good ways to work on the anger thing?”

Sun Apr 14, 2019 6:48 am

ULV AUBER | THE BURNING HEART

Watching, waiting, pondering. Ulv was doing the teacher thing. And restraining the urge to wack him across the head when he got emotional that his punches weren't going the way he wanted.That was literally the opposite of what she had just said to do.
"It is the wrong thing to do, yes. It is like having your arm cut off and then just waiting for it to grow back. Best case, it doesn't. Worst case, you get gangrene and die. So yea, endeavour to master your emotional output. It will serve you well if you can harness it"

Ulv then, watched as he sort of drifted inwards, which was pretty good. At least he could do that and wasn't wholly ignorant of what laid inside of him. Punch, after punch, until finally a rabid explosion of power and emotion. Not, what she was expecting, and certainly not a good outcome. There was a lot, hidden in the heart of Alex.
"Mmm, best way to deal with the fury in your heart is to use it. To get it out, take it's measure. My Resolve Flame can help with the negative side-effects of it, but can't help you grasp it. Don't worry about hurting anyone here, if worst comes to it I'll just use my Reiatsu to pad the blows. There is a lot of it, after all"

Resolve Flame| END POST