Dragon and Pheonix Dancing (for cyandimitrik)

[Bare]

Location: LAW Gymnasium

Izumi breathed in and out softly as she stood in front of a wooden dummy in the LAW, in the midst of a workout to keep herself in proper form. After all she had signed up for a tournament that would be held in LAW soon, the Double or Nothing Tournament, and she needed to be at the top of her form if she wanted to win it.

As such after doing a good warm up she was taking the time to work on her martial arts technique. Since she intentionally chose not to use them often in LAW for fairness she felt she was rusty, and as such needed to keep on top of her game.

Naturally it also meant she chose to wear a gym outfit that complimented this, although it was nothing special. A pair of dark pink hakama style pants cuffed at the ankles along with a black sports bra, along with some white athletic tape wrapped around her knuckles to her fore arms.

It was breathable, light and allowed the full range of motion she required as she began to move, pushing her arms forward and striking at the various posts on the dummy, gradually increasing her speed with each and every strike, gradually also adding in kicks to it as well till she was running through full on katas on the dummy.

To Izumi it was nothing special, just standard moves at her usual pace that she had been trained too do. To others in the gym it was a bit more... impressive though. At the speed she was hitting the dummy and with the ease and grace she was doing it at it, it certainly looked impressive to the outside observer. Especially as Izumi started to add in some power moves.

"Hagh!" She cried out with a palm strike, before leaning back and swinging her leg up for a kick that connected with the top of the dummy, making it shaking, and giving out a loud cry as she did so before pulling her leg back and going back to light attacks, adding in the occasional power move as she did so, garnering a larger crowd by moment as she did so.

[CyanDimitrik]

Blaise Cameron

It's been an interesting time in Blaise's life lately. He's had more matches, interesting opponents, and good opportunities to really start making waves. Not every match has gone his way, but he's actually, finally started to reap the benefits of harder training. It's cost him a bit in terms of pure love of the sport, sacrificing it on the altar of performance, but the fans have embraced him more. And for once, he feels like his career choice is paying off. He has a trajectory. The thing everyone back home mocked him for is paying off.

Heck, maybe his family will start calling again.

...yeah, nah. That would require them to actually watch him wrestle. They stopped doing that over a year ago. Meh!

It doesn't matter. It's all cherry! Blaise is living his best life with zero complaints! And right now, he's occupied with running some quick grappling drills with a trainer, keeping his change-ups smooth and sharp. One armdrag leads to another armdrag leads to another armdrag...

THUMP.

"Hah, dude, what gives?," asks Blaise, leaning over to prop his hands to his knees while looking at the sprawled man who was clearly distracted.

"Something's going on over there," he says, pointing outside the ring. A gathering?

Blaise lifts to his full height and props his hands to the top rope. Leaning forward, he squints into the distance - but he can't quite see what's going on over there. "I'mma go check it out," he finally says, already vaulting himself up and over the cable.

Boots land on the practice ring's edge, and he hops neatly down to the floor again. As he approaches the gathering, he runs his right forearm against his sweating brow, having already been working in the gym for close to an hour. It doesn't take much to nudge some people out of the way, carefully weaving about. And finally, he gets a clear view of what's going on.

Kung-fu?

What?

This was, in fact, the very last thing he expected to see in a wrestling-dominant establishment. Hands prop to hips, elbows bent back, he just watches the bluenette for a bit, taking it in. It's like one of those action movie montages, isn't it? Not something he'd ever actually seen in person. But, alas. He can't help himself. Something in Blaise just demands he chime in.

"Quick! Do the hadouken!," he impulsively calls to her.

[Bare]

Unaware of the crowd building around her as a result of her skills on the wooden dummy Izumi continued to throw strikes and combinations, sweat building up along her body and gleaming under the harsh lights of the gymnasium. Making her look even more ethereal and alluring in the process for the crowd of onlookers, more than a few of which at this point not being there solely for her abilities. Still as she landed a kick on the dummy a voice broke with a light hearted question that some may view as offense, but not to Izumi.

"The hadouken is from a karate based fighting style, this is kung fu so the kikoken would be more accurate." Izumi shouted back without turning, her leg still being raised for the kick before she pulled it back to turn around... Only now finding out about the crowd that had gathered. "Oh um... hello... The show is... over?" Izumi said with a slight blush and sheepish look, not meaning or intending to draw a crowd of this size, although she was curious as to who spoke, it was a male voice, probably a young one which narrowed the options down a bit as she looked at the slowly dispersing crowd.

[CyanDimitrik]

"Oh."

Good point. Karate. Not Kung-Fu. Goes to show how much Blaise is aware of those differences. But to his muggle brain, how much difference could there be between one blue fireball and the next? Are fireballs region-locked? Does Karate require a VPN? The thought leads down a whimsical trail, before suddenly diverting:

"Do a flying bird kick!"

Chun-Li is Chinese, right? He at least knows the characters!

When Izumi turns around, it'll likely be easy to identify the cheeky dude standing amidst the onlookers. He'll be the one sporting the monkey-cat smile. You know the one. :3 Though once he's had a chance to really get a look at her face, the puckishness dims and the smile softens. She's pretty. She looks around his age, maybe slightly older.

"Pretty fancy," he offers up as the gathering likely begins to thin. "Don't usually see that kind'a thing around here. Uh, the LAW performance center, I mean. Not Japan. Heck, you don't usually see me around Japan, so what do I know, huh?" A hand sets to the back of his neck, the smile taking a sheepish note.

[Bare]

Watching the crowd begin to disperse it wouldn't be difficult to find the one that had spoken up to her. Both because he had decided to speak up again and had a rather telling expression on his face to boot. Smiling softly at this she would acquiesce to his request and leap forward onto her hands, pushing up on them and twisting her hips spinning her legs about for the closest imitation to the flying bird kick that was humanly possible.

Pulling her legs in and landing back on her feet Izumi would finish closing in on the man. "Hehe, yeah well to be fair if there was anywhere I would see someone like you it would be here so not that strange." She shot back with a smile before holding her hand up to him. "I'm Izumi. Izumi Tachibana. You are?" Izumi asked while waiting to see how he would respond.

[CyanDimitrik]

Blaise observes the little stunt with terrible amusement, hands propping to his hips and elbows bent back. Bless her heart, she's doing her best shot at pleasing the crowd in as best a way as the laws of physics would allow. But alas, therein lies the self-aware humor in the request. It can't be done!

Still, Blaise isn't going to deride her that. So when the effort concludes, he gives her a peppy little round of applause and approving grin. It's only when she begins to approach him that he realizes everyone else has wandered off in their own directions, intent on getting back to their own business. Blaise glances leftwards, then right, before finally refocuses on the kung-fu girl before him.

"What? Am I giving off gym-rat vibes?," Blaise asks, eyebrow perked at her playfully. "I probably do. S'fair. Anyway, uh, hey!" Her hand is taken, albeit a bit awkwardly. He never knows what to do when a woman's hand is presented to him. Shaking them always seems so formal, so... business-like. Impersonal. So it results in a sheepish, brief little acknowledging handhold for a second before he replies, "Blaise. Blaise Cameron. I'm a wrestler 'round here."