|
Post by Clove on Jul 21, 2020 22:44:54 GMT -8
What Baccer said shortly after that perplexed her further, the reason he wanted to fight, and it was because he wanted to belong somewhere more specifically among the strongest fighters in the world. The tea princess bit her bottom lip, she lowered her gaze, and drank the rest of her lemon drop. “Let me tell you the truth about being strong, no matter how strong you are, even the strongest in the world there are still some things that you can do nothing about that will render you powerless. Even if you swore your entire life to protect, you can still lose, and before you go about trying to belong among others focus on yourself first. You don’t have to impress anyone else, just be yourself, and prove to yourself that you’re worthy.”
Clove was internally suffering from a void in her chest, martial arts is what saved her from the turmoil of her past, and she spent the rest of her life keeping herself occupied to suppress the darkness from consuming her whole. A smile formed on her face once again, as she stood up, and looked across the bright horizon of the West City skyline. It was her home, away from home, and she could look forward to the rest of her day knowing there were new opportunities for the both of them.
“Ah, right on time.” Clove motioned over to Baccer as she put her black sunglasses back on, “Let’s get the show on the road, shall we?”
With a hand extended, she offered it for the teen to grab, and soon as he did she would take off soaring across the sky utilizing her mastery of ki control to take flight. The studio was in a warehouse district of west city, a plain grey building with a black painted number on the side labeled forty two, and the massive studio doors were open about five feet apart. Clove flew right in, to be greeted by a darkened studio, and spot lights illuminating the set of a western lands style wooden dojo. The tea princess landed near the catering table, it was a twelve foot long table, with a massive assortment of food and drinks for the film crew and their guest stars.
In a matter of minutes the rest of the crew from the yacht arrived at the studio, taking their positions on the set, and the Donkey Beastman Cabbage approached them both.
“Alright, we story boarded what we have in mind for the commercial advertisement, it should be pretty simple in that we want you both to spar each other inside the dojo. Slowly at first, just basic moves, and then taking a break to drink the energy drinks. After that, you spar a lot faster, in fact I want you both to dodge rather than make contact to prove the level of heightened performance. We’ll do a couple of takes at first and adjust accordingly. Are you ready?”
[494] [494/4,000]
|
|
Baccer
Arcosians
"Ohh, so that's what "beating someone down" is"
Posts: 168
Power Level: 48984
Effort Points: 15710
Reputation: 4
Faction: The Southern Demon Kingdoms
|
Post by Baccer on Jul 22, 2020 5:01:44 GMT -8
Baccer narrowed his eyes when she pointed out the differences between him and conventional weapons. Well, of course, he knew that. what he was getting at was more of a... how was it called.. a metaphor, yes. Well, no reason linger to that now, it seemed his companion had gone ahead and retorted to his second answer. Huh, it did sounds like strength did have a few drawbacks after all. But that didn't exactly deter him. He was made to be strong. A weapon would always seek to become the best weapon it can be. If it fails at that, then there was no reason to create it in the first place "I see..." he simply said, sipping some of his soda with a contemplative look.
But the melancholy mood wasn't meant to last for long, as soon west city appeared on the horizon. Baccer almost instantly forgot his previous sour disposition and stared slack-jawed at the large city. Truthfully, the training could have never prepared him for what a metropolis like this could actually look like. As soon as she offered her hand, the bug man seemed rather puzzled. It was certainly an odd gesture, but he had no reason to not trust her, thus he complied. As soon as he realised they were taking off, a momentary sense of shock overcame him. Flying was not an unknown technique to him, but it was the first time he experienced it. It was... awesome. The freedom, the feeling of weightlesness. Of course, he was helped by someone else in order to experience this. But he hoped by the time of the tournament he'd be able to do it on his own. Now that was an aspiration he could get behind
As they reached the filming studio, baccer looked around stunned. The refined, eastern-inspired set contrasted hard with the warehouse around it. Then again, most shoots were like this back in the red ribbon as well, so it was nothing he was unfamiliar with. As soon as Cabbage approached them and explained the script, Baccer nodded vigorously. He still felt rather unsure of this, but it would at least involve fighting. And that was more than fine with him. New city, new opponent. Of course, it would probably be a fake, mock-up fight. But how cool would it be if they let them spar for real?. Nah, that might break the set... The bugman decided to leave such troublesome behaviour for some other time
[413]
[907/4000]
|
|
|
Post by Majin Zam on Jul 22, 2020 6:54:42 GMT -8
Somewhere nearby, a hungry beast growled... Or a hungry stomach, rather. Zam held her gut and groaned in unison with it. Breakfast had been way too long ago... Her tiny nose twitched. Waaaait, wait wait wait, wait just a minute! Something smelled good... Sniffing the air, she rose from the ground and flew around in tentative circles. Hm hm, it was coming... from... that direction! Without wasting a moment, she zoomed off towards the warehouse district. Along the way, her antennae waggled curiously. They were picking up something familiar. Unfortunately, she was too hungry to ponder further... Food first, questions later!
Before long, the mischievous Majin found the large, gray building. She flew in through the double doors without paying much attention to all the strangers around. Her eyes were sweeping the scene for something more important... Upon finding it, her pupils started twinkling like tiny stars. So... much... foooood! Faster than one could say ‘nyoom’, the pink blur rushed over to the table lined with delicious things. She didn’t even ask for anyone’s permission before snatching a sandwich. It was barely given a confirming sniff before she stuffed it into her mouth. ...Olive, toothpick and all. “Om nom nom, om nom~!” She munched away happily.
By now the other people had noticed the uninvited guest helping herself to their lunch. One of them shouted to get her attention, demanding to know who she thought she was or something along those lines. Honestly, the girl was barely listening. She gulped down the sandwich and flashed a bright smile. “Zam is a Majin, is what Zam is!” Murmurs spread among the film crew like ripples in a pond. Oh, they had definitely heard that name somewhere... Not that said girl was offering them any help remembering. Instead, she was surprised and happy to see someone familiar. “Oh, hi Miss T!” The greeting was accompanied by eager waving.
However, when the curious creature spotted another familiar face, her smile promptly vanished. There was a pause. A beat. Quiet enough to hear a pin drop. “...You.” An ominous mutter of recognition left her lips. The gentle gold in her gaze flared into cruel crimson. An accusing finger aimed a sharp point at the android, accompanied by furious shouting. “What are you doing here?! You big, dumb, mean, smelly cheater!!!” With each childish insult she flung, her chaotic energy ticked another notch higher. Triple digits... Quadruple... Quintuple... It was absurd how much raw power could fit into someone so small. Clove had witnessed that first-hand during the tournament.
[424] [1,331/4,000]
|
|
|
Post by Clove on Jul 23, 2020 1:37:20 GMT -8
Baccer was quite observant, she hoped that her words reached him, and he was easily distracted when they flew into the studio. Even when the director asked him if he was ready to film, it seemed he was lost in thought, as he did not answer him, and she was concerned for a minute until her attention was directed at a pink haired majin. Zam was enjoying the feast at the catering table, while the film crew questioned who she was and why she was eating their food, that was largely ignored as she continued to eat.
Director Cabbage walked over to Zam, recognizing her immediately, “You’re the West City Women’s World Martial Arts Champion! What an honor, I see you are enjoying our delicious catering for our production today, can I interest you in an opportunity of a lifetime? Clove Tea and Baccer are going to be in our advertisement as well, if you join in and our commercial is well received you can earn an entry to the triannual World Martial Arts Tournament. So what do you say?”
In that exact moment the Majin approached Baccer and in her anger she accused the teen of being a cheater. The explosive ki signature coming from Zam was enough for Clove to pull out her red metal odachi blade, she stood by to watch the scene unfold carefully, but while the majin was ready to attack the insect like teen she did not take the opportunity to strike. A sigh escaped her lips, it seemed that the pair had quarreled before, and it was not resolved immediately for Zam to make such a fuss over it.
“Now, now, let’s all calm down, and talk about this...whatever it is. Zam, if you have a problem with Baccer here, I am sure we can figure something out. There is a proper time and place to resolve it, believe me. The studio set that these people worked hard to make is not appropriate for the level of fighting you two are capable of.” The Tea Princess realized she needed to talk to Zam in a way that she could understand given how much she learned about her personality in the Tournament, “You can fight Baccer somewhere else but not here, it isn’t safe for everyone, and they might get hurt. Director Cabbage is offering you a chance at being part of the project. How about we do this first and then fight later? Somewhere safe. How about it?”
The Tea princess remained hopeful that she got through her, so that she could power back down, and join them in the advertisement.
[439] [1,770/4,000]
|
|
Baccer
Arcosians
"Ohh, so that's what "beating someone down" is"
Posts: 168
Power Level: 48984
Effort Points: 15710
Reputation: 4
Faction: The Southern Demon Kingdoms
|
Post by Baccer on Jul 23, 2020 13:38:04 GMT -8
Baccer was indeed absorbed in thought. Perhaps too much to actually notice he was being questioned by the producer. But then, a voice he could not forget or ignore rang out. He turned his head to see a certain pink Majin approach him. To be honest, the Bugman barely even remembered about the Satan city incident. In hindsight, he should have expected the particularly childish girl to hold grudges. In the beginning, the bio-android seemed rather taken aback, almost startled. But then, his pride flared up and his brow furrowed. Her power was overwhelming, but if he let that intimidate him if he could not defend himself considering an issue he's ultimately correct on, then he'd be nothing more than a coward "hey. I told you the rules right before we started, and I followed them perfectly. It's not my fault you don't know how to count" he said, even throwing in a jab at the Majin
But right before the situation could escalate, the tea princess intervened. While Zam's power surpassed Baccer's by quite a bit, the tea princess dwarfed them both, leaving not much room for question. At least in the mind of the somewhat more rationally-minded of the teens "Y-yeah, you're right on that" he said, backing off, but still keeping an eye on zam. If he knew one thing about the Majin, was that she didn't react well to people telling her what to do.
Man, quite the unfortunate situation he found himself in. After all these travels and new acquaintances, he just had to bump into Zam again. Well, luck ain't exactly programmable, so no amount of superior DNA would save him from this. At least, it seemed like someone stronger than both of them acted as a mediator "besides, if you really want to settle this, what better stage than the world martial arts tournament" he said, trying to goad Zam, mostly hoping he wouldn't have to defend himself from a full-scale assault by her just yet. But this whole situation did give him an idea. Clove might be just the person that could reasonably allow him to reach his full potential. Thus, leaving a good impression on her was paramount.
So, as a show of good faith, if not extraordinary wisdom, he turned his back to Zam and headed for the set. Every instinct in his body was screaming to not turn his back to a potential opponent. However, this move was calculated. Due to his regenerative capabilities and hard exoskeleton, Baccer knew that even zam would not be able to kill him in a single attack. Therefore, she would make herself the unquestionable assailant on a defenceless opponent. And with clove here, that wouldn't end well for the Majin. Turns out, despite his teen-like naivete, the intelligence of an android was not to be underestimated... especially an android whose brain was working on full gear, particularly in trying to find a way to avoid the very possible ass-kicking he foresaw in his near future
[504] [2,274/4,000]
|
|
|
Post by Majin Zam on Jul 24, 2020 2:18:09 GMT -8
Baccer’s words were like fuel to the furious fire. Zam immediately shot down the totally wrong version of what happened. “Liar! You changed the rules cuz you were losing!” One party may have been right and the other wrong, but neither side wanted to admit it. Luckily Clove was there to stop the quarrel from turning into a brawl. The pink girl was already winding her fist back, when the responsible adult stopped her. She glared defiantly up at the woman. “Blah blah blah, you adults always just wanna talk!” All the difficult words being thrown around weren’t helping her frustration one bit. Fortunately, the mediator seemed to realize that and simplified accordingly. Slowly the pink blaze shrank down, as she stopped to listen.
...Aaaaand then Baccer just had to poke the beehive again.
Immediately the chaotic creature’s temper flared, as did her energy. “I don’t wanna settle anything! I wanna punch you in the face!” Angry flailing punctuated her threat. Meanwhile, the director -who seemed blissfully unaware of the danger- commented how he liked her spunk and that they could use it in the project. When the bugman boldly turned his back, the Majin’s reaction was as calm and mature as one could expect. “Jerk! Plblblblblblbt!” Well, maybe he should count himself lucky that she only blew a raspberry at him and nothing more... explosive.
Zam folded her arms and puffed her cheeks with a childish huff. The aura blazing around her faded away. “Hrmmmm...” While she still kind of wanted to just eat all the food and blow the place up, Miss T’s offer had tickled her curiosity. She had been promised a fight... Aaaand something called a pro-jet. She wondered whether it was food or a game. Either way, she wanted to learn! Her eyes finally turned back to gold and her weird, wobbly power level dropped to single digits. “Hm hm, okay! I’m gonna do this pro-jet!” She aimed a point at the bugman, along with a dramatic challenge. “And I’m gonna do it better than Mr. Smelly Jerk!” She had quite the confidence for someone who had no idea what to do. But she never let tiny details slow her down. Instead, she turned her attention to Clove, watching the adult’s example carefully.
[378] [2,652/4,000]
|
|
|
Post by Clove on Jul 24, 2020 3:28:36 GMT -8
The bitterness between Zam and Baccer were childish at best, both were confident in their abilities, and their potential to raze a whole city block on fire was entirely not child’s play. The majin and the insect teen had the combined power to reach catastrophic proportions. Perhaps their competitive nature made them natural rivals and they both settled to focus their attention for the advertisement project. Clove followed after Baccer, she figured she could demonstrate for Zam that they had to reduce their power to 0.1% in order to capture their movements on camera.
“Alright you, two, listen carefully, the camera has a shutter speed and a frame rate that is lower than what we can demonstrate. In order for our movements to be captured, we have to move slower than a sloth, and even when we do that it would not be enough due to our present ki signatures.” Clove stepped in front of Baccer, with a sword still in hand, she moved her blade slowly at him, expecting him to block. “We have to demonstrate to Zam at what speed we need to move, and rehearse the entire script before she can jump in.”
The tea princess recalled the storyboard script from memory, after sparring in the dojo set, the next step was to drink the energy drinks on the table nearby, which she took a fraction of a sip of motioning for Baccer to do the same to get the practice in, and then went back to sparring him again at a faster pace but still slow enough for the camera to capture.
“Okay good, that’s how we are going to do this project. We are going to do several takes as Director Cabbage had instructed so that the editor has enough to work with in the final cut. Are you ready Zam? It is your turn to practice, come here, and show me.”
[318] [2,970/4,000]
|
|
Baccer
Arcosians
"Ohh, so that's what "beating someone down" is"
Posts: 168
Power Level: 48984
Effort Points: 15710
Reputation: 4
Faction: The Southern Demon Kingdoms
|
Post by Baccer on Jul 24, 2020 6:08:43 GMT -8
Baccer was momentarity on edge, anticipating the Main's response, whatever that might be. Despite his calm exterior, he was ready to spring into action at any moment. Luckily for everyone involved, it seemed clove diffused the situation with little difficulty. And while the android wasn't exactly ecstatic to be working with Zam, he would have to andure if he ever wished to become half the fighter Clove was
However, it seemed this arguement wasn't the end of his troubles. As now, the shoot itself stood in front of him. Luckily, this wasn't Baccer's first rodeo. Among the promotional videos he had to participate in for the red ribbon army, combat drills were some of their favourites. Then, like now, he had to slow down so the camera could actually capture him. Even though he was much more powerful now, all it took was a little adjustment and everyone around could easily mistake him for a common martial artist. In fact, while he was tampering with his energy signature, he managed to seemingly... turn it off. Neither clove, not Zam could sense him even though he was right there. What's more, he didn't seem to have lost any of his previous strength even in this state. If any of them knew about androids, it would be a pretty easy thing to recognize the similarities to the total energy absence they themselves also excibited
The bugman could pretty easily follow Clove's instructions, neither his discipline nor experience lacking. But it was Zam he was worried about in this whole ordeal. From what he knew, she wasn't exactly "restrained". Furthermore, she seemed to hate it when things didn't go her way. The last thing Baccer wanted was for Zam to fail at this and then throw a tantraum. The thought was so concerning, the he found himself taking a few steps away from the area in which Clove and the pink girl were about to start practicing in
[325] [3,295/4,000]
|
|
|
Post by Majin Zam on Jul 25, 2020 3:47:22 GMT -8
Zam was always eager to learn new things. ...At least until it came to the actual learning part. She stared blankly at Clove’s torrent of difficult words. The golden gaze blinked. Once. Twice. Cam... shu... fra... whaaaaa...? Her confidence deflated like a pricked balloon. Wisps of steam rose from the holes hidden in her hair, forming a triple set of question marks above her head. After listening to the baffling explanation, she watched quietly as the woman and the bugman... uh... pretended to hit each other? Suuuuper sloooowly...? She cocked her head curiously, as if that would help her understand better. Hm hm... Nope! She didn’t get it all. This pro-jet was a weird game.
Fortunately for everyone involved, Majins had a tendency to mimic those around them. Outfits, mannerisms, even martial arts techniques... Majin see, Majin do. So when it came to the pink girl’s turn to step on the stage, she did it like Clove had done. In fact, the motions might seem unsettlingly similar. And just like Baccer, she suppressed her energy as close to zero as possible, albeit subconsciously. However, when it came to the mock sparring, well... She had taken the ‘slower than a sloth’ comment too literally. ...Which was odd considering she had never seen an actual sloth. She threw punches exactly like Baccer, but suuuuper sloooowly. “Wooosh... Wooooosh...” Hard to say whether the... uh... sound effects she provided were meant to be serious or mocking.
As for the energy drinks... The greedy creature’s sip was more of an audible gulp. She downed the whole can with ease and let out a happy squeal. “Yummy~!” Good thing too. If it had been yucky, she would’ve probably sprayed the whole crowd while spewing it out. There was just one teeny tiny problem with giving a small, hyperactive monster a sugary and caffeinated drink... When they went back to sparring, her motions were no longer slow. She drew her fist back, winding up a punch so wild her whole arm stretched. Flashing a maniacal grin, she launched the stretchy strike towards Clove at a dangerous speed. Way too fast for the cameras.
[356] [3,651/4,000]
|
|
|
Post by Clove on Jul 25, 2020 7:48:24 GMT -8
The film crew were able to get just the beginning of the rehearsal spar, the energy drink the Majin consumed turned those sloth like punches into fierce quick jabs, and Clove was forced to put her sword away to catch the pinkette’s fists with her palms. The dust in the air was vacuumed into the sheer power behind every punch, Clove had no trouble resisting the impact, the ones that did sting her hands reflected part of the damage on Zam which was all too familiar a feeling from their last bout at the tournament. Their practice session turned into the real deal, in one fell swoop Clove pushed Zam across the dojo, and began to throw a few jabs at Baccer for him to instinctively dodge out of the way. With crimson eyes she looked over to the energy drink table so he can take a sip as well, and as soon as Zam returned for the sparring match she caught her fists to a stop to give the film crew a chance of catching the conflict. Their match went on for a few minutes until it was Clove’s turn to drink from the energy drinks on the table while Baccer and Zam exchanged blows behind her. The tea infused energy drink was rather tasty, it was less carbonated than she expected it to be, and she took a second sip before setting the chilled can down on the small table of the dojo set to return back to the fight. Clove was now in a circle, holding Zam’s fist in one hand, and holding Baccer’s in the other while they kept their free handed grip on each other. Director Cabbage affirmed his opinion on the group’s duel, issuing a few pointers, even going as far as asking Zam to drink another energy drink, which forced the Tea Princess to theorize that a caffeinated drink was potent to the Majin and more effective than it should be on average. “Alright Baccer, catch Zam’s punches before it connects so that it gets caught on camera, alright?” With a reassuring smile she added, “You’re doing great, we will be finished in no time.”[362] [4,013/4,000]
|
|