FujiwaraPhoenix

The Jade Stream

"Not see many strangers? This place is in the center of the continent; how could the people here not be used to it?" Liu responded to the girl with a headband, letting out a quick laugh before the realization dawned on him.
"Oh. Now that you mention it, everyone was in a fuss about you. At least, I think it was you." he started, turning towards Torako. "Something about... A tiger lily? I understand absolutely nothing in regard to that, but that might just be me not spending much time listening in on gossip."

The hushed whispers coming from the crowd around the three, though, began to become a tad annoying. Though he couldn't quite make out what they were saying, the fact that they refused to be open about their conversations just felt... Off. Maybe she really was something unnatural?
...
From the looks of the bowls stacked on the table, at least, that seemed to be true.

"...Wow. You... You certainly do like the food here, don't you? I can barely finish three, much less however many you've managed to complete..."

This girl- Torako?- certainly seemed to defy most common logic, though; walking around with that kind of garment, coupled with that weapon and a seemingly insatiable appetite... Most bandits wouldn't hesitate to try to capture her for ransom, but she... Made it here. With nary a scratch on her, to boot... And it didn't seem like she was traveling with anyone else, either. What was she, exactly?

Actually, didn't the other girl have a weapon equally as ornate? Was she a companion? No, that one's manner of speech was more hesitant, as if they had just met or something. That wouldn't have been the case otherwise.
The heck was he getting himself wrapped up in?

"Well, it's good for business, at the very least. Though I'm seriously hoping you have the cash to pay for this... Actually, I'm sure you'll be fine."

Liu's words trailed off as a waitress brought the three their food; the girls, their soup, and him, a platter of lightly seared venison with a special herbal blend on top with a bowl of rice on the side. This was what the place was famous for, and by the gods it was worth the price. The gamey aroma wafted around the three, lingering about as Liu savored the smell alone for the moment.

"...Man, it's been a while."

Laughing, Liu took a pair of chopsticks and began to eat. Only here could they obtain those few herbs that made the dish... Well, "pop," so to speak; these mountains were truly nature's blessing.
Not to mention, they were also pretty damn good at warding off illnesses. A win-win, for sure.

"So... Anyways... I've yet to ask; for what reason have you two come here? I've yet to see a wanderer or a merchant that could garner as much attention as you have here, today."

The Jade Stream

I think that's just fretting over nothing. It's moving at a steady pace as-is, and waiting a while won't kill anyone lol.

The Jade Stream

The journey back to town went as well as Liu had expected; no predators, no bandits, and, best of all, no annoying insects trying to get at the game. Coming through the back entrance of Mingdu, Liu's first course of action was to head over to the man that had lent him the bow and arrows in the first place; an old guard, one who had long since been relieved of the burden to protect and had instead passed it on to the next generation. On occasion, he would come by the school and watch the youths train; Liu assumed that it had something to do with nostalgia. Luckily, the man's house was quite close to the outskirts of the town, which meant he could get a place to skin this thing faster.

"Excuse me? Mr. Xu?" Liu asked, knocking on the door with his free hand. It took a few moments, but the soft sound of footsteps and the slow creak of the door followed by the old man revealing himself with a smile was reassuring. Good, he hadn't kicked the bucket yet.

"Ah! Little Fengxian! Come in, come in! My wife's currently out at the market, but I know she'd love some meat! I know I certainly would!"

The somewhat hearty laugh that followed only seemed to exemplify that, even if he was aging and his hair was turning grey, old Mr. Xu still had that fire burning inside of him. In a way, he was like a grandfather to Liu; his own, sadly enough, had passed away before he was born. As to why, well... Even his parents weren't quite sure.

"Pardon for the intrusion." Liu said, bowing to the old soldier as he carefully made his way into his home. "Do you mind if I skin and divide the deer right now? It's starting to..."

"No problem, no problem! You do this all the time, so there's really no reason to ask!"

"Thank you."

With that small bit of banter out of the way, Liu moved to the kitchen and, after carefully clearing the table in the center of any dishes or the like, went to work. Taking a knife hanging from one of the racks, Liu meticulously and rapidly began to dissect the deer. The head came first, then the stomach, and so on and so forth; he had done this countless times, and in about twenty minutes, his job had been completed. The skin was put to the side, carefully folded to deliver to the tanner later. Bu the meat, though...

"Just leave a leg here and I'll be fine!" the old soldier stated, standing from the side as Liu silently removed one of the legs and placed it to the side for him. "I really can't thank you enough, helping my wife and I with this. Really, I can't!"

"Well, your bow's certainly made my job easier, and most of the other bows are owned as heirlooms..."

"That doesn't mean mine isn't! You see, when I was younger-"

Before the old man could go off on one of his stories about his youth, Liu swiftly placed the bow back on the wall where it was displayed before moving to clean the blood off of the arrow he had shot to kill.

"...And then! When the flags of the enemy started waving in the wind-"

"Thanks, Mr. Xu, but I have to deliver this before it starts to get stale and begins to rot. Sorry!"

And with that, Liu took the remaining meat and skin left the house.

"Okay, let's see here... I would sell it on the marketplace, but in this sun it'll go bad too quickly there... The 'Blue Dragon', perhaps?"

The town's biggest restaurant had always been a reliable place to sell off whatever his haul was for the day, so it was only logical for him to check there first. With that in mind, Liu quickly walked off to the center of the town, where the restaurant was firmly situated for all to see and visit. The rumors of a challenger back at his old school interested him, but first... Money.

The restaurant was a lot quieter than it usually was, which piqued his interest. Everyone seemed to be focus on a pair of young women chatting casually in the center. But why them, though? Usually, such a sight was fairly common...

"Oh! Liu, you're here! What a miracle!" one of the waitresses exclaimed, running over to the young man as he entered the restaurant. "Our regular hunter couldn't obtain the deer that we ne-"

The waitress' gaze turned down towards the mostly-intact deer meat at his side before turning back to him.

"Well, guess I came at a good time, huh? Missing a leg, though, but..."

"It's fine, it's fine!" the girl returned, shaking her head. "One deer is good enough, especially with how big that one is. With that, we can-"

"You can make the house special, right? Don't you only sell, like, thirty dishes of that a week?"

"Yes, exactly! I was saying that our regular hunter got hurt on the job, and couldn't bring any in. Can we buy that off of you right now?"

"Name your price."

"One gold piece and twenty sil-"

"One gold and a serving. Just tell me where to bring it."

Quickly hurrying Liu to the kitchen in the back, the head chef had Liu bring the meat to a hook hanging from the ceiling. Taking the opportunity to wash his hands, Liu took the money and slipped it into his pocket before starting to head back out to the main dining area. Before he could make it out the exit, though, the waitress from earlier grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back.

"Why are you so relaxed? The famous Tiger Lily is out there right now!" she whispered, the panic clear in her voice.

"The... What now?" Liu asked, looking between the waitress and the table before shaking his head. "Well, whatever; it's the only table left with an open seat, anyhow."

Breaking the girl's grasp on his clothes, Liu walked over to the table at the center of everyone's attention and, to the shock of everyone (as if the first girl to do so wasn't enough), casually took a seat and smiled.

"Sorry for the intrusion; nowhere else to sit. You two liking the place so far? From what I know, you two aren't from here, and it doesn't look like anyone's giving you the usual courtesy... Which sucks, to be honest."

The Jade Stream

Uh... Probably the third one. Not necessarily cool, but it's fitting stylistically.

Anyhow, post coming riiiight up!

The Jade Stream

Ah... I trust you enough to handle it on your own.

The Jade Stream

Hm...

Well, reading up on all the forms that you've listed, I do think that the point regarding Choy Li Fut is the strongest in terms of proposal; I guess that it'd make the most sense, given the circumstances that you've brought up. From what I'm reading, it's also a version that hybridizes styles, which is somewhat fitting given the location of Mingdu.

I mean, if you want to make alterations and/or change the name for this style, then be my guest.

The Jade Stream

Hm...

I haven't figured out what I want the style to be, except that it should have some decent focus around counters. I'm actually more inclined to let you think of how it is and just run it by me instead. =w=;;

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Well, uh... My apologies. I had expected to be able to kick it off last night, but some work came up that I had to resolve. It's a tad late, but... We're starting now!

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"Ugh... You know, this is really just not my day..."

For the longest time, here he had been, hidden in the underbrush of the forest near his home. It was a clear day, with only a few clouds to pass over the otherwise shining blue sky. That meant, of course, that it had been the perfect time to go out looking for some wild game. But it seemed that today, the goddess of luck scorned him. The last four hours he had spent here had given him no sign on anything. Nothing in the area moved, save for he himself and whatever the wind decided to sway every so often. He had tried to move around, in hopes that he might be able to find something somewhere else. Four hours, and nothing to show; no sign of any wildlife anywhere.

"...Nevertheless, I shall not give up. I shall catch something today, or my name isn't Liu Fengxian!" the boy hissed, rising out from his position and dusting off the varied leaves and debris that had gathered itself on his clothes. He had decided to borrow a bow from one of the townspeople today, promising to let him have first pick on whatever he wanted, but... Well, it wouldn't matter if he didn't catch anything, right?

But, fruitless as it seemed, Liu was not deterred. Was there anything that he could use as bait today...?
...
Not in particular, it seemed. Usually, if the hunt was going well that day, he'd use the animals he had caught as bait to catch larger beasts, but... Well, the results spoke for themselves. He seldom brought anything more than a weapon or two into the woods, anyhow; it was difficult enough carrying something like a deer back home, and having the extra weight would only burden him needlessly.

"But honestly now, this place is usually home to at least a boar or two. What could possibly...?" he trailed off, wondering to himself as he carefully walked off in hopes of finding... Well, any recent sign of life.

With the noon sun shining brightly upon the forest, the mixture of light and dark made the forest seem a lot more surreal than it usually was. The sound of birds singing gave Liu a moment's reprieve from the stress of the possibility of failure. Taking a moment to pause his hunt, the young man took refuge from the sun under a large katsura tree. Calmly seated with his back leaning upon the trunk thereof, Liu closed his eyes and took a deep breath. It would do him no good to fret right now; animals always seemed to be able to sense tension in the air.

A few minutes had passed since then, and Liu, reinvigorated from the brief moment of respite, took to his feet again. The sound of rustling leaves nearby, though, immediately caught his attention. Taking out the bow on his back, he moved cautiously, treading carefully over the leaves beneath his feet. The sounds grew louder, little by little, as he edged closer and closer to it's source. Taking an arrow in hand, Liu drew the bow back and aimed, trying to take note of the sound's source and its direction.

"...There."

Liu let the arrow fly, and the dull 'thunk' it let out was followed by a loud wail, one that he had come to know quite well. Success!

Taking the opportunity, Liu began to move, throwing his previous caution to the wind as he dashed in the direction of his arrow. What he had hit was surely a deer, given the noise that had resounded from the area moments ago, and the uneven sound of leaves being crushed underfoot meant that he had successfully hit it, at the very least.

The chase had taken only a few minutes, but the creature seemed to have given up by the time Liu had reached it. The trail of blood that was left behind it meant that it was almost certainly close to death. If only he had hit the head, then maybe it wouldn't have had to suffer so.

But this was nature, and luxuries like a quick death were seldom common in a world like this.

Switching from his bow to his sword, Liu stood silently above the deer, its life ebbing away slowly as it lay prone on its side. With a quick slash of his blade, he quickly cut through the animal's throat before moving to retrieve his arrow. It had lodged itself in the deer's abdomen, which would explain it's rapid loss of life... Sheer luck, if anything. Had it hit a leg, the chase might have devolved into the creature's last stand... Which would have made a mess of the meat, and that would do him no good.

Flicking the blood off of his jian before sheathing it and putting the arrow back into its quiver to be cleaned later, Liu took a deep breath and, with both arms, lifted the now-deceased deer off the forest's ground and hoisted it over his shoulder. It was times like these that he really appreciated the teachings of his master; dragging this thing back to town would take at least an hour otherwise.

That was enough for today; he had no reason to try and be greedy, for that would only end with waste. With that in mind, the young man walked back to town to sell the meat of the animal he had just killed.

The Jade Stream

Name: Fengxian Liu

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Appearance: But enough about me...

Can Manipulate Qi/Ki?: Yes

Specialization: Naturalist (N/A bound)

Abilities: Having been trained in channeling qi, Liu is able to strengthen his body to endure blows that would otherwise... Well, break a lot more than they would, to put it one way or another. Things that would otherwise snap his bones in half instead damage him (and his lifeforce) directly. Which is helpful, considering that not moving is usually followed by death in the wilderness anyhow. he also has the ability to bind his soul to that of another, but hasn't exactly decided to do so quite yet... Or, more accurately, hasn't been able to. He's picky.

Aside from being able to harden his body, Liu has a jian that he bought and is quite proficient with; having gained the money to do so through his daily hunts, he is also quite proficient in tracking and hunting... Normal animals, at least. The sword itself is a regular sword, custom-made by the village blacksmith (for an additional fee, of course).

Personality: A person who prefers to let his actions speak for him, Liu's much more comfortable out in the woods near Mingdu than he is actually being in the town itself. While he can be talkative at times, Liu is more than happy to let others do the work and chatter on instead. When push comes to shove, though, he'll do all that he can in order to resolve whatever plagues him. Be it anything from trying to fox his way out of a sticky situation to the good ol' "beat up whatever's being annoying" strategy, the way things have worked out for him seemed to have been for the best.

In that regard, though, he's certainly not stellar in any category; just a cut above in most respects, but not much more than that. He remains loyal to his ever-aging parents and, though it may not seem like it, works in the background to ensure their care and well-being. Giving respect where respect is due is also ingrained into his being; he admits defeat gracefully, even when the opponent in question is leagues ahead of him.

History: Trained as a student in the Mingdu monastery, Liu found himself to be a slightly above-average student. Though nowhere near the two prodigies of his year, the young man found himself to be content staying in the shadow of others as he worked to fulfill his parents' ambitions. Though the two of them had grown old working in the fields, Liu found himself favoring the ruggedness of nature, and thus made a living that way. It was certainly much less consistent than the farm, but he was still young, and so his parents let him do as he pleased for the moment. After completing his training, though, his master urged him to go out and find something to strengthen himself with... Which, of course, ended with the comparison between him and the rest of the class. Liu half-heartedly agreed, faking sincerity as the old man time and time again asked about his efforts. It wasn't like he was't trying...

More like, he hasn't... Exactly... Found anything. Yet.

Other: N/A