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Post by Lao on Mar 6, 2020 16:18:03 GMT -6
Mount Paozu was a natural wonderland. Atop the sterling peak lay a dense woodland, with an abundant river, peaceful bamboo groves, and every manner of wildlife. Lao, however, was not currently able to appreciate Mount Paozu's better features. Inspired by the ancient legends he had learned while traveling through the south, Lao had come up with an ingenious training regimen while he was here. According to the tales, when a carp swam all the way up a waterfall, it would ascend and become a heavenly dragon. Taking inspiration from this tale, Lao had decided to swim up a waterfall himself, without flying. (Because that would be cheating, of course.) This endeavor had gone... poorly, so far. As it turned out, Mount Paozu's waterfall was hundreds of feet tall, fed by the river at the absolute peak of the mountain. And every time Lao attempted to swim up said waterfall, the laws of physics took exception and he would tumble down onto the sharp rocks at the base of the falls.
After a few hours of this though, contrary to all laws of science and common sense, Lao had begun to make progress. About five feet up the falls, if you looked closely, you could see the form of a man swimming frantically, not progressing farther up the waterfall, but not falling back down either. He had, essentially, learned how to tread water inside of a waterfall. But he had been at this for a while, and his strength was beginning to leave him. Determined to make even just an inch of progress, Lao didn't stop until his arms and legs literally gave out. But his arms and legs did eventually literally give out, and he tumbled back down the falls once more to be battered by the sharp river rocks below. Dragging his bruised and battered body from the water, Lao looked at the sun beginning to set and decided that it was probably a good time to call it a day.
Back on dry land, Lao found his clothes draped over a nearby tree branch and put them back on, wincing as the rough cloth painfully rubbed up against the many cuts and bruises he had acquired throughout his day of training. Yawning, Lao fished his campsite capsule out of his obi belt, and clicked it open. In a puff of smoke, an entire campsite appeared suddenly, complete with a little tent, campfire ring, and a few logs for sitting on. He got on his hands and knees and crawled into the tent, digging through it for something. When he came back out, he held a fishing rod in one hand, and a small bundle of firewood in the other. "Let's get this fire going, I'm still soaked..." he muttered to himself. He placed the firewood in his little fire pit and lit them with a small ki blast. "Boy, that sure is convenient. So much better than when I had to rub sticks together." Humming to himself, Lao then began to prepare his fishing line and rod. He figured he had a few hours of daylight left, and resolved to catch dinner before he was left shrouded in darkness. He was camped close enough to the river that sitting on one of the log benches with his back to the fire, he could cast his line and still feel the warmth of the crackling flames on his back.
Settling in, Lao allowed himself to relax while his fishing lure bobbed along in the rushing river, occasionally reeling it in a little to make sure it didn't drift too far off downstream. He was still cold and wet from the river, and his wounds still ached a little, but the comforting glow of the fire soon began to take all his worries away. This is the life.
Power Level: 25,000
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Post by Hazel on Mar 6, 2020 16:50:43 GMT -6
"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"
If one were to notice the distant noise of screaming gradually getting louder, they might be inclined to look up. In that very moment, from the top of the mountain, it appeared that somebody had fallen off the mountain! This was no accident, however, despite what it may look like. Moments later in the deepest basin of the river just below the waterfall, a massive (wo)man-made cannonball impacted the serene surface, sending a column spewing into the air and dousing the surrounding area in a deluge. It eventually stilled again for a moment, not even a bubble arising from below the surface. And then, spontaneously, a frizzled head of soppy blue hair popped out, spouting a steam of water from their mouth and shaking their head rapidly.
Hazel, having complete her jump, took the opportunity to simply fly out of her watery prison, garbed in a one-piece frilled light burgandy swimsuit. Blinking, the hybrid finally noticed the encampment upon the bank which she had no doubt disturbed. "Ah!" She said, spinning around and disappearing behind the line of trees for a moment. She returned not long after back in her normal attire, hair dried a bit and semi-straightened back into its' usual manner while still leaking everywhere. Capsules were hella useful! "Howdy stranger!" She said cheerily, aiming to land not too far from where Lao had set up. "Sorry if I disturbed your, uh, peacetime. Usually not many people camp this close to the base of the mountain."
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Post by Lao on Mar 6, 2020 23:57:45 GMT -6
One moment, Lao was peacefully fishing, and finally starting to dry off from his ordeal in the waterfall earlier. The next, he was being splashed with water as somebody dove into the river from the top of the mountain, creating a massive wake that completely drenched him. Lao blinked in surprise as a woman in a swimsuit emerged from the water, leaving him to stare agape for a few moments before she noticed him and retreated to the treeline. He thought about shouting an apology, but before he could do so the woman reappeared, now fully clothed. As she spoke, Lao began to take off the shirt portion of his gi and wring the water out of it. "Don't worry about it, don't worry about it. I was already wet anyway." Now that he got a better look at her, Lao was puzzled by her odd appearance. She had a tail, which initially led him to assume she was a saiyan, but her large, pointed ears and abnormal hair color suggested otherwise. "Say, you're not from earth, are ya? It's nice to see a fresh face! I was just trying to catch some dinner. If you've got time, maybe you could help out? Y'know, since you probably scared off all the fish with your diving routine... Ahem. In any case..." Lao turned his back and frowned at the sad, smoking remains of his once roaring fire, put out by the splash. "I gotta put this fire back in order."
Standing up, Lao stretched a bit, before his aching bruises reminded him why he was taking it easy in the first place. Wincing a bit, Lao put his shirt back on and started out towards the woods to look for some new, non-soaked firewood. "I'll be right back. Don't uh... don't steal anything, please." he said, awkwardly scratching the back of his head. Lao ended up only being gone for a few minutes, and returned carrying an armload of deadwood he had gathered from a fallen tree. This should burn up good. he thought, returning to the campsite and dumping the firewood into the fire pit. Once he had gotten the fire going again with a little bit of ki, he would sit down heavily on one of his sittin' logs, and turn back to his new guest. "My name's Lao. Pleased to meetcha, and welcome to my humble abode." Lao gestured to the rather frumpy little campsite around him, and continued. "I came out here for a little bit of training. What brings you to the mountain?"
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Post by Hazel on Mar 7, 2020 10:21:56 GMT -6
"Nope!" She chirped back. "The names Hazel. Half-Konatsian and Half-Saiyan swordfighter martial artist aspiring mage at your service!" Hazel have a short bow, hoping to defuse the situation if the guy was mad by being as friendly as possible. It usually worked, and she was friendly most of the time anyways, so it was a win-win situation! She was so lost in thought she missed Lao's tacked on murmuring. "Huh? Did you say something else?" Hazel questioned, eyebrows furrowing. "Well, it's OK! I'll help get you some food I suppose. It is the right thing to do... probably. I don't know how the ruling would fall on accidentally scaring away fish from a fisherman, but I'll go along with it." The man went to fetch more firewood, asking her to not swipe anything while he was absent. "Stealing?" The hybrid pouted. "Why would I want any of this s- er, I mean, of course I won't take anything from your lovely encampment! Promise on the sanctity of my name and honor."
When the human came back with a bundle of dead tree and kickstarted the flames again, it was finally time to settle down. He even offered his name too! Lao was short and simple but she felt like it fit the guy sitting across from her quite well. Hazel opted to float horizontally just above the ground with her neck craned back for the moment, legs kicking idly in the air. "A training type of guy, huh?" She murmured, nodding to herself. "Well, I came here in order to jump off the peak and make a big splash." The hybrid explained, making hand gesture to make sure Lao fully understand the (simple) concept. "I wanted to do something fun for once and this was one of the few tall mountains with a large enough basin nearby to make a big splash." Flipping herself over and resting upon the ground, the girl propped her chin up with an open palm.
"If you were looking for dinner, you should also try hunting and gathering from the normal stuff. Berries and wildlife and all that. I even got a book just for the purpose of identifying safe plants!" The words boisterously declared with a hint of pride. "Though, I guess that at my level, stuff like a bad berry aren't that likely to really hurt you that much outside of a bad aftertaste anyway."
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Post by Lao on Mar 8, 2020 23:18:27 GMT -6
So she was taking a day off, eh? Lao could respect that. There were certainly worse places to kick back and relax. "Nice to meetcha, Hazel." Half-saiyan? Lao didn't even know that was possible. He had just been assuming everyone he met with a tail like that was a saiyan, but now he worried he had been accidentally misidentifying half-saiyans. Was that offensive? What if they were just too polite to correct him? Oh, god... he thought, breaking out in a cold sweat over the social implications. Wait, no, down this road lays only suffering. Best to avoid this train of thought entirely. He took a calming breath and continued. "Konatsian? I've never heard of that. What kind of planet are ya from?" he asked innocently, hoping the question didn't offend. He knew the saiyans came from some planet called 'Vegeta' and that arcosians like Polarus usually came from 'Arcose', though the arcosian had been stubbornly cagey about exactly where he came from. Lao had decided it was best not to pry. He'd never left earth, but Lao liked to imagine that he'd travel to these places someday.
As the conversation moved to Lao's dinner prospects, he gave Hazel a somewhat sheepish look and said "Well, to be honest... I don't really know anything about hunting. I usually just live off fish and wild plants." He'd never gone hunting once in his life, come to think of it. Back when he first started out, he had no way to catch any animals, and now that he was strong and fast enough to catch them with his bare hands, it just felt kind of unfair. Plus, he didn't really have any idea what to do with an animal once he'd caught it. Fish were easy: You catch 'em, debone 'em, cook 'em, and eat 'em. Simple and straightforward, and Lao had been doing it for most of his life, whether on his own or on fishing trips with his dad as a kid. The wild edibles were another story, he had had to figure that one out by trial and error... but Hazel was right, once you reach a certain power level your only consequences for eating poisonous plants might be a stomachache. "How about this: If you're still game to help me out, I'll see if I can't still catch a fish or two, and you take your book and see if you can't find anything edible around here in the woods. We can even share, if you're hungry. Sound fair?"
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Post by Hazel on Mar 9, 2020 11:59:04 GMT -6
"Konatsians are from... Konats. A big ol' deserty planet. I never understood why Earth had so many different biomes yet most other planets I've heard of seem to consist of a handful at most. ...Ah, tangent. I'd assume you know where Saiyans are from due to them being one of the more outgoing interstellar species." Quite known for making kids with anything they possibly could. Hazel was, of course, an example of that. "You don't know anything about hunting?" She said in disbelief. "You like the type to camp a lot. It'd be a perfect alternative to fish all the time!" Staring off into the distance, one could only assume Hazel was seeing distant memories of the fish variety with negative connotations to them, the girl shuddering. "ANYWAY. I happen to have some experience with hunting. Mostly desert hares and the occasional Vulture-Viper that swung by. Earth has much more heartier and meatier things to choose from."
Lao proposed a faux competition of sorts. He would fish and she would search, both to help recuperate for his own lost meal and to potentially gain enough excess to feed herself. "Hmmm..." The girl hummed, squishing her cheeks together in deep concentration. "Alrighty! I accept your proposal!" Little did he know that she was good enough to probably not need the book when searching after carefully reading and re-reading it in preparation. Oh-ho, Lao would certainly be awed by the sheer variety and amount of tasty things she could fetch while out in the wild. Giving a mini-salute, a mischievous grin spread across Hazel's lips. "I'm off! Good luck with your fishy endeavors!" With that, she'd zoom off into the thick underbrush, nary a sight nor a sound to be gleaned from what she was doing off on her own, leaving Lao with complete silence so long as he made no noise himself.
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Post by Lao on Mar 10, 2020 20:30:28 GMT -6
Ah, so Hazel was from Konats. He had never heard of it before, but Lao guessed he probably should have been able to guess from the fact that she called herself a "Konatsian". Oh well, it wasn't really important in the grand scheme of things. Now that she was gone, Lao could refocus himself on his fishing. Even with this setback, Lao was confident that his special fishing technique would see him through. Closing his eyes, Lao reached out to sense the auras around him. He could feel Hazel some distance away from him already, an especially bright aura drowning out the lesser ones around it. He further sharpened his senses, trying to feel the smaller, more minute auras through the noise. "Almost got it..." he muttered, sweat beading on his forehead. And then, suddenly, he found himself in a field of fireflies. Each light, a living thing. He could feel the trees, the grass beneath his feet... and the fish. It was time to get down to business.
Eyes still closed, with his mental focus locked on the auras of the fish in the river before him, he cast his line with unerring accuracy to bait the fish he had targeted. Like clockwork, he pulled fish after fish from the river, eventually coming to six before he let his focus slip. "That should do us, I think." He didn't want to overfish this area after all, he planned to stay here for a few days yet. He hadn't forgotten his new nemesis, the waterfall. He would swim up it. As he began to prep the fish for cooking, Lao idly wondered what Hazel was up to out there. He could vaguely feel her energy signature roaming about out there, but he couldn't really tell what she was doing.
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Post by Hazel on Mar 13, 2020 11:44:45 GMT -6
Although Hazel herself had been silent and far off during Lao's own endeavors, it wouldn't be long before the human could hear an audible roar echo through the forest, followed closely by a thunderous crashing. It stilled again for a little while, giving just enough time to maybe raise concerns before the sudden rustle of underbrush and rapidly approaching energy signature would alert Lao to Hazel's return. "I have returned with a bounty in tow!" She declared, bursting into sight and one-handing a dinosaur over double her size. "Check it out! I found an Achillobator. Some people say they taste like chicken, but that's a lame excuse to use simply when you don't know how to describe the flavor." The sheer size of it along with several fishes meant that the two seemingly had more than enough to eat, though the fact that Hazel inherited a Saiyan appetite might go unnoticed until it was too late.
Noting the amount of fish he had secured, she gave a hearty thumbs up. "Wow! I didn't expect the fish to return to quickly after my little charade in the water. Seems you got a knack for it, huh? Is it just practice in fishing, or do you have another method?" Or perhaps the fish around here were so hardcore that they didn't even scatter after her cannonball... though that seemed unlikely from what she'd seen of Earth's fauna insofar. Flopping the dino a decent distance away from Lao's fish preparation, Hazel unsheathed Penn and began to inspect her catch. "I think the legs are usually both the best and most nutritious part of a raptor type animal like this, so maybe I'll get those ready and you can do whatever you were gonna do with some fish?" Snapping her fingers in sudden realization, the Konatsian also drew a small bag from her hip, opening the string and revealing the small trove of various colored berries within. "I got some fruit, too, but there wasn't that much non-toxic stuff around here, and I felt like eating something that tasted good for once rather than out of necessity."
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Post by Lao on Mar 16, 2020 22:14:54 GMT -6
Lao couldn't help but be impressed by the bounty Hazel was able to gather in such a short time. He whistled appreciatively as she approached with her catch, and said "Whew, that's quite a haul! Hope we can actually eat all that." He was a little concerned that the catch would go to waste with only two people around, but Lao decided to trust that Hazel wouldn't be reckless enough to catch more than she could actually eat. Considering the size of the beast she had acquired, the young hybrid must have quite the appetite. "We're, uh... we're probably gonna need a bigger fire. You get that carcass butchered, and I'll find some more firewood. Hold on..." Rising from his comfy log seat, Lao surveyed the nearby area with his ki sense, feeling the auras of the plants around them. After closing his eyes and concentrating for a few moments, he turned around and strode over to a nearby tree. Knocking on the wood, he put on a slight frown before speaking. "It's dead. Not rotten yet, so it should make good firewood." Rearing back a moment, Lao aimed a swift low kick at the base of the tree's trunk, shearing through the wood with ease and causing the tree to briefly begin to fall over before he caught it.
Working quickly, Lao chopped the tree-trunk into more manageable firewood with his hands, and used the pieces to form a much larger version of the campfire he had built earlier, right on top of the first one. Lighting it with a tiny flash of ki, Lao looked on with a little pride as the bonfire surged to life, crackling warmly and flooding the area with a reddish glow. "Now that's what I call a cooking fire, haha! Alright, let's get this meal goin'!" In a moment, Lao took his prepared fish and skewered them on sticks, jabbing them into the ground next to the fire to roast in the heat.
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Post by Hazel on Apr 1, 2020 8:56:54 GMT -6
"It should be fine," Hazel stated, giving her own catch a once over. "I haven't eaten in a bit, so I think I could stomach a bit more than usual." Twirling Penn around, she gave Lao a thumbs up, letting him go fetch firewood as she began to cut into the dinosaur. Some might say using a sword like Penn for this was disrespectful, but this was HER sword to use as she saw fit! Besides hunting was a necessary part of survival, and it wasn't like cutting into an animal was liable to damage or dirty the crystal blade for an extended period of time. Whatever blood caught on the blade slicked off like rain against oil, the Konatsian sticking her weapon in the ground as she hoisted the dino's now separated pair of legs into the air. "I don't suppose you have a metal skewer large enough to hold these..."
Shouldering the weight with one arm, Hazel awkwardly bent over to pick up a long, bumpy branch that had fallen some time ago. Snapping the excess leaves and smaller sticks off, the Konatsian set down her catch for a moment to bathe it in water from the river, returning and jabbing it straight through both pieces of meat. "Alright!" She huffed, stretching a bit. "Now we got all that set up." Plopping down on the dirt, it seemed Hazel was perfectly comfortable in her position. "So anyway, what are you up to?" She asked politely. "It's rare to see somebody with your skills just camping and not... I dunno, punching rocks or something. I mean I get the whole training constantly gig, that is what I intend to do so I can become stronger myself, but still." Shrugging, her finger began idly tracing shapes in the dirt. "Is this how you like, live normally?"
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