ripples in the ocean (open post)

[nishizono]

Who: tetora nishizono & (open)
When: fluid
Where: generally the ingress complex
What: when you miss your band of misfits from home, you end up with some pretty bad decision-making.
Warnings: PG-13 language

a) chicken scratch
He hasn't learned to write.

This is an interesting realization to come to when up in space, and a pretty frustrating truth to come to terms with. The facts haven't changed since his "awakening" - he's a delinquent raised in thinly disguised captivity, and when he's not being poorly managed, he's skipping out on basic education to murder politicians. Kind of hard to fit maths and basic kanji in a schedule like that.

Which is why he's sprawled out on the floor with a cheap notebook and fat marking pen, struggling with his own name. He's written it before. He can spell it out with the English alphabet. Ironically, pinpointing the locks and buttons that isolate him from - well, himself - also means he's not accessing the wealth of information the identities have made easy for him to use. Add that to the list of fuck-ups, he thinks wryly to himself. Writing is hard.

"Hey!" He calls out at the first humanoid-shaped thing that crosses his peripheral vision, ever the rude person that he is. "Do you know Japanese?"

b) drop the beats
Rigging up a mixing console from scratch is exactly as tedious as it sounds. Relearning the technical parts took the better part of a handful of months, and in the end Tetora's only managed to build a bass-treble amplifier, with a switchboard for mono and stereo audio channels. There isn't even a panning slider, or a reverb unit; just switches from option A to option B, some volume controls.

He's stupidly proud about himself for something so basic, though. He loves music. Whether or not Lucy Monostone has anything to do with it is a can of worms he's not going to acknowledge, but for all it's worth Tetora knows he's always going to be captivated by music no matter where he goes. He doesn't know how to play any instruments, or maybe one of his versions did and kept it to themselves, but Tetora had inherited Ooe's skillsets and nurtured it whenever he got the chance. Just like he's doing now.

The growing collection of handmade tools are scattered around him on the long bench he's commandeered for his work. Screws, wire clippers, a soldering gun running on batteries and held together by tape. If anything, Tetora's been resourceful.

Unfortunately, he also only has two hands. He looks up and stares at the first person he catches staring back, before asking (somewhat politely): "Wanna hold this?"

C) make your own adventure
[ Leave a prompt for him, anything goes. ]

Comments

[nishizono]

Your funeral, [ he shrugs, tucking the knives back into his boots.

Adrien's right, at least. Fights don't leave much room for preparedness, and Tetora keeps learning that lesson over and over (and over) with little reprieve to breathe. Not until recently, when he found his way to this starry-sky fever dream.

He cracks his knuckles. Taps the tip of his boots on the ground, then makes a slow circle around the man. He looks human, but of course that's nothing useful. A lot of things look human here. Tetora shrugs when he finishes a loop. Nothing for it - he runs up to the guy, nowhere near his top speed but still more agile than one might expect from a person Tetora's size. He throws a few jabs and low swings, mostly aimed at the face - he's gauging Adrien's reach. ]

[prorenataa]

[ Despite all their smacktalk back and forth, there is nothing personal about this session for Adrien.

He's not here to prove a point or any of that nonsense. If Tetora proves to be someone who is hiding special abilities, well it won't be the first time that Adrien's tangled with someone stronger than himself. Fates' sake, he's used to those uneven types of bouts.

In the opening moves, he allows Tetora to circle him, watching him from the corner of his eyes and allowing his other senses to track him when the younger man goes briefly out of view. He's had to do this so many times, it's instinct now, the way he can feel the chill of fingers up his spine when he has a threat behind him.

When Tetora moves Adrien spins into the attack. His own opening salvo is defense based, giving away as little as possible; he's learned to guard his secrets. He gracefully weaves his shoulders back, spine straight as he gives at the waist, maintaining his balance on his feet even as he dodges the jabs thrown in his direction. Tetora does eventually force him to move his feet when he presses and when the 'reach' comes, it's in the form of attempting to use his opponent's own offense against him.

His counter is an attempt to grab one of those jabbing arms, twist and throw Tetora over his hip and down to the ground. ]

hold this

[nishizono]

[ The grip would be easy to get out of, by Tetora's guess, but he rolls with it - literally. He's flipped onto his back, but he twists and attempts a low kick to Adrien's gut with the heel of one foot, before using the momentum to roll back on his hands and push up onto his feet. ]

[prorenataa]

[ When he feels the younger man move into the roll, rather than the instinctive resistance of someone who wasn't prepared to counter, the doctor is already taking his own evasive action.

Where he might have otherwise followed-up with a second attack, he's forced to drop back in order to avoid the kick to the gut. It saves his abdomen but leaves them kinda at a zero sum for the exchange. ]

[nishizono]

[ It's not the best opening, but Tetora takes it. There hadn't been any agreements to a fair fight - Adrien himself had said the goal was to win short of murdering the other. He has no qualms about palming the knife and slashing upwards. The very act of it is thrilling; he hasn't been in a fight with any real stakes iin a long while now.

If he were honest, it's been making him incredibly restless. ]

[prorenataa]

[ Adrien wasn't in the mood to be knitting on himself later. He dodged back from the knife swipe, but rather than retreating entirely, he reached under Tetora's upward motion and attempted to capture the wrist of the hand with the knife.

If he was successful, his next act would be to step into Tetora and attempt a wrist lock, to control the arm, while executing a strike with his elbow towards the back of the younger man's head.

If Tetora proved a little too slippery to get ahold of, then the doctor would spin to the side away from the knife and simply attempt an elbow strike to the side of the neck.

Wait, was he supposed to pull these punches because Tetora was significantly younger? Might have missed that memo. ]

[nishizono]

[ Thank goodness for horrible note-taking, then.

The man catches the swing, which Tetora had expected; it was a fifty-fifty shot after all. The wrist lock had pain racing up his arm for a beat before his reflexes kicked in, making him twist with the action to lessen the torsion - he only narrowly avoids an elbow to the nape because of it.

That would have been really annoying. ]

You're not too bad— [ he quips, flipping the knife edge-side facing out to his other hand, then bringing the handle down on the back of Adrien's elbow on the arm holding his own wrist. ]

[prorenataa]

[ He had been holding on to the wrist lock, planning a secondary attack and so missed his opportunity to avoid the strike from the handle of the knife.

That ... smarted!

It was also effective in forcing the doctor to give ground and also offer Tetora a brief nod of his head. He wasn't one to talk much during sparring, or genuine fighting for that matter, but the gesture was one of acknowledgement and respect in return.

He maintained a perimeter then, shifting back to a defensive posture. This said something about the doctor's style. He seemed to like to use his opponent's aggression against them, particularly when his opponent held an advantage; like the knife. Stepping in a slow, silent and circular manner, he was attempting to lure Tetora into executing another attack.

[nishizono]

[ it's an annoying style, mostly because it mirrors his own. tetora is always the smaller fighter, the younger fighter, the one who appears to have all the disadvantages. adrien isn't buying into it, though, and it's impressive as it is annoying. he circles back, following the path that adrien makes. it was a clear opening, which is why tetora trusts it as far as he can pick his nose. he flips the knife in his hand this time, the blade's sharp edge facing out.

this is... almost fun.

he breaks into a sprint, knife held at the ready as he slashes at adrien in quick movements. ]

[prorenataa]

[ As the younger man closed, the doctor readied himself.

For this particular encounter he moved to block the knife hand with a forearm, while twisting around with the other elbow, looking for a body shot. He was also twisting once again, a foot striking out to try to catch Tetora behind the inside knee.

Again, looking to convert the energy of the sprint to the doctor's advantage.

But ... he was still the man without a knife. ]