second flame [he's not having difficulties, really]

[firedprince.livejournal.com]

[Zuko is sporting a slightly less emo hairstyle! Well... it's still emo, but at least you can see his eyes now. He's found himself a nice open spot behind the theater where hopefully no one will see him, or care. Instead of his robes, he's wearing a more casual tunic, though it's still made of nice material.

He glides through a few martial arts exercises, some punches and kicks, focusing. And then he lashes out with punches backed by fireballs, each dissolving into nothingness a few feet away from him. Everything about him says he's mastered this but he's still going, still practicing, almost to the point of exhaustion.]

Aaauuugh! Why can't I keep up with her?!

[He punches the ground. The resulting rush of fire actually propels Zuko backwards a few feet and he lands on his back. Hard.]

Stupid stupid stupid!

Comments

[allstrings.livejournal.com]

[She grinds her teeth and attempts to buck him off.] Not yet.

[firedprince.livejournal.com]

[He rolls and gets to his feet again, ready stance.]

[allstrings.livejournal.com]

[She climbs back to her feet, takes a quick glance at ye olde bullet hole wounds, takes a deep breath and launches a kick to the shoulder blade.]

[firedprince.livejournal.com]

[Zuko swings aside. He just goes with the flow, as much of the fire in his moves as in his hands, and tries to chop her knee in a small, precise motion that would temporarily dislocate it if it hit.]

[allstrings.livejournal.com]

[Preferring to protect her legs for freedom of movement, Jolyne swings Stone Free's arm down to take the brunt of the attack, dislocating their shared shoulder in the process]

[firedprince.livejournal.com]

[Countered! Zuko ducks away from her and resumes a nice ready distance, watching and waiting with serious confidence-- nothing like the gruff, diffident boy most have met on the Plane.]

[allstrings.livejournal.com]

[Jolyne examines her arm and shoulder for a moment before letting the entirety just dangle at her side. Stone Free has temporarily vanished and if you look closely, you might notice that part of her hand seems to be... missing. As she rushes to attack again, thin razor-sharp threads extend outward from her good hand.]

[firedprince.livejournal.com]

[Zuko leaps back, throwing a thick shield of searing hot flames in front of him, hoping to burn the threads or deflect them somehow before they can get to him. If not, they might cut his arm up pretty badly.]

[allstrings.livejournal.com]

[While most of the threads burn up in impact with the shield, causing blood to randomly spurt out of various parts of Jolyne's body, a few swerve around to strike where he isn't guarding]

[firedprince.livejournal.com]

[Zuko cries out and rolls away from them. While he's on the ground, he lashes at Jolyne's ankles with a firey snake along the ground.]

[allstrings.livejournal.com]

[Seeing as she's currently bleeding about as much as a CLAMP bishounen, Jolyne is tripped and lands on the ground -hard-.]

[firedprince.livejournal.com]

[Zuko gets up, but once he sees how much she's bleeding, he relaxes his stance.]

Want me to ... uh ... get something to help with that? [He's looking paler than usual. THAT'S A LOT OF BLOOD. Not that he's afraid of it or anything.]

[allstrings.livejournal.com]

[Pfft, bleeding this much is -normal- in JoJoverse. Jolyne works at propping herself up with her good arm until she's in a sitting position.]

Thanks, but I think I'm alright. [Threads slowly snake out of her body to crudely sew up the larger injuries.] Well, I can always get F.F. to fix me up when I get back. Nice moves there, by the way.

[firedprince.livejournal.com]

If you're sure. [That's so creepy. Zuko is juuust a bit weirded out, but he looks away before it's too obvious.]

... Thanks. I've never fought that hard against someone who wasn't some kind of Bender.

[allstrings.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. [To make matters worse, she reaches over and more or less resets her dislocated shoulder with a fun yank.]

I'll take that as a compliment. [She scratches the back of her neck with her good hand] Dumb question, but what sort of thing is it? Being a 'Bender,' I mean. I'd say it's like stand power, but everything around this place seems that way.

[firedprince.livejournal.com]

[WINCE]

Oh. A 'bender is someone who can manipulate one of the four elements. They're usually part of one of the nations their element is attributed to, but not everyone is born with the ability. Firebenders and Earthbenders are the most common now.

[allstrings.livejournal.com]

[Sorry, Zuko. She's not quite so observant that she'd notice she's squicking you out.]

So there are natural-born Benders, and ones that train into it... hmm... Let me guess. [Points a finger at him] Fire Nation, right?

[firedprince.livejournal.com]

[He'll get over it.

Zuko nods.] ... I am.

[allstrings.livejournal.com]

It sounds pretty interesting. [Playful grin] You ever set things on fire when you were a kid?

[firedprince.livejournal.com]

[a pause]

... Only when my sister made me.

[allstrings.livejournal.com]

[Raises an eyebrow] Couldn't do it herself, I'm guessing?

[firedprince.livejournal.com]

She could. [looking awaaay] But she always wanted to get me in trouble.

[allstrings.livejournal.com]

You could always have just set her on fire a couple of times. I bet after a while she'd back off.

[firedprince.livejournal.com]

[His voice gets quieter, and he looks away again, serious.] ... Burning another person is a serious crime outside of an Agni Kai.

[allstrings.livejournal.com]

[She prods at some of her injuries, a bit embarrassed. She's gotten so used to having to fight to kill just to keep herself alive, with all the enemy stand users around the prison.] ...ahh, yeah. You'd probably wind up in jail for that sort of thing. Sorry- it's sorta common place to see stuff like that lately, so...