2024-07-03: The Mountain And The Dragon
- Log: The Mountain And The Dragon
- Cast: Li Yao, Elisa Kafim
- Where: The Li Grounds, REA
- OOC - IC Date: July 3, 0099
- Summary: Elisa Kafim goes looking for Li Yao. She finds him, and his wisdom.
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
Li Yao, once a renowned gundam fighter, then a member of the shuffle alliance back in it's early days before going off and becoming a terrorist with the Celestial Beings, now for all those who know of him he has disappeared. Rumor is he finally gave up and crawled off somewhere to die. Others say that he went off on some expedition to mars or jupiter or wherever else, and every now and then in a small village that gets a few tourists a year swear they say they saw him buying groceries and then heading off into the mountains.
Well if someone was to pick up on these rumors and follow the path into the mountains they would find themselves following creeks that merge into streams and eventually streams that merge into a single river flowing down a mountain. At this point that person would have found the ancient training ground of the ancestors of Li Yao. For those who may be sensitive to such energy and memories that can be carved into a land this place drips with both negative and positive energy. Wonderful and horrible things have happened here in the past.
The path up the mountain is well maintained and appears to have been refurbished, stairways have been replaced, markers have been made prominent. Someone is at least taking care of this area. The path twists and turns following the river up the mountain, until it diverges into a clearing. Closer inspection would see the outlines of a wooden foundation and signs that there was once a large building at this spot, now though there is simply a small shack.
In front of this shack is an old man, with a cup of ginger tea set next to him that is obviously cold. This old man is of course Li Yao, the recluse of the mountain in the middle of nowhere in china.
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa Kafim remembers her friends in Celestial Being--her allies, as she stepped onto the world stage. There is loyalty there...
And her operatives have finally caught word of Li Yao. It is enough for Elisa to find her way.
She walks in a dark robe, a ritual knife at her side. She has no 'Newtype' senses, but reading the blood of an animal poins her to where the energy has collected. A small smile spreads on her face.
Then, she walks. She walks up the river, onto the path up the mountain. Elisa Kafim is alone as she does, walking wooden stairways, taking markers. The twists and turns do not dissuade her. Nor does the time it takes to walk. Though the morning sun has passed o evening by the time she makes it here...
Elisa steps into the cleaing.
"Li Yao," Elisa greets her old ally.
"...Good evening. I have been looking for you."
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
Evening has set in and Li Yao is found in the middle of meditation, in a way he is attempting to use the polarized energy of the land to find a way to fix his own chi. Breathing in the energy, twisting and converting it into his own internal chi before attempting to circulate it through his body. As it reaches the heart though Li Yao's eyes shoot open infront of Elisa and he grasps his chest , using his other hand he reaches into his pocket from it retrieves a small vial, pouring the contents of which into his mouth. A moment or two passes before he seems ok and stands up before scoffing at Elisa, "Congratulations, the witch has found a dead man."
Reaching down he picks up his tea cup and sips it before wincing at the cold and bitter taste before tossing the rest of the tea out on the dirt. " Don't you kids know any manners to let people know when you will be visiting. What is it now, texting? Is that a thing again? Couldn't you have texted that you'd be coming?" Yes the old man is still indeed old and he stands there in a moment longer before a cold wind blows and he takes a deep breath, "Well you came all this way, come on in." Yao gestures towards the shack before he opens the door and heads in.
The shack is simply what one might expect from an old martial artist, a mat on the ground, a few handmade chairs around the smoldering fire pit, with a clay pot hanging over it. Some satchels and chests line the corners and walls, likely containing food, tea, whatever some old man might need. Yao produces a second cup from one of these chests, it's a simple clay cup that he fills with hot water from the pot and mixes in some tea leaves. "So the chi-less one has come to my door. I suppose the ice queen was too busy, or did she laugh at the idea of coming to find me." It's not a question so much as a statement that Yao finds funny as he laughs at the concept of Yuliana wanting Yao about. Taking another sip he still winces at the bitterness of the tea, "So what gives me the pleasure to be the host to Mrs. Kafim?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
"A specific dead man," Elisa says, a pleased note in her voice. "If I wanted just any corpse, it would be easy."
She watches him drink his tea, or mostly not drink his tea. "I suppose I could have," Elisa reflects. "But I do not often visit others anymore."
Elisa smiles at the invitation. "Certainly."
She steps inside and looks aroundd, but has no complain for his meager living space. Instead, she regards each maer, and looks to the cup. The chi-less one, he calls her.
Accurate.
She smiles. She has the correct number of teeth. "She is busy," Elisa confirms. "And so am I. I consider this task an important one."
"I wish to invite you to leave exile. To return to the world. ...I have been away for some time, myself. But I have decided... that I must understand this realm better."
"And my wife wishes me to make 'friends'. ..Our old allies seem a natural place to start."
"...We are acting on the world once again. Celestial Being is gone, but now comes the Dawn. I would bring you into it, if you are willing. And if not..."
"I do have some tea of my own. It is polite to bring a gift, yes?"
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
Elisa presents her case and Yao stares at her for a moment. Then he readjusts his gaze to the smoldering charcoal and pokes at them with a stick. There is definitely hesitation coming from Yao and one wouldn't need to be a new type to tell that. "So back to the battlefield, another chance to watch the young perish and the old to continue to move forward to start more fighting?"
Slowly he looks back up at Elisa and tries to get an understanding of her own expression and thoughts, maybe he can read her if he looks hard enough. " I didn't even get to die with our comrades, instead I lost and lived. A horrible outcome for any warrior. Who knows maybe I am simply jinxed and you don't want me to join your cause."
"What is the cause of this new group anyways?"
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa has little emotion to read, but that does not mean that there is nothing there. She notes his hesitation; for her part, she is intent. As always there is something not quite human in the witch, more than her half-Meltrandi heritage woul suggest. "Yes," she says. "...The battlefield is where humanity decides its fate. That has been the way for some time."
Her expression is calm; her thoughts she voices easily enough. "Yes," she says. "It is shameful, for a warrior. But I know much of bad luck and bad fortune, Li Yao. I know how to overcome it."
"...To stand against the tyranny of NUNE. To remind the world of those they would prefer to forget."
"And for my part, the protection of my wife and family. I require allies for this goal."
"I would count you among them, given the choice."
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
Li Yao takes a deep breath, "To stand against NUNE, the Federation, the Gundam Fights, the Zeon, the Zentradi..." Staring at the embers for a moment, "I have fought many times because someone has had another enemy that needed to die."
There is a long pause for a moment before he tosses the stick onto the smoldering embers and watches it slowly catch fire. "No one has ever came to me to ask for help protecting something. My honor demands that there is no other answer but yes." Standing he moves to a chest and begins to shove things into a half packed rut sack. A moment later he walks back to the fire place holding a scroll, that he whips toward one of the corners of the room stretching it out and then drops the end in the fire.
As the fire begins to consume the scroll and spread towards Yao's bed, Yao himself walks towards the door and then looks back at Elisa, "I would suggest we leave before it gets any hotter here. I like tea myself, but I never wanted to experience how one dries the tea leaves first hand."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Elisa listens, and waits. And through that long pause, she does not blink. Bu when Li Yao speaks of his honor and his answer, she inclines her head. "There is always someone who needs to die. But I have those I require to live. ...Ulimately, fighting NUNE is a means to this end for me."
The scroll... She looks at it. What is it? But not for long. Whatever it was, it is kindling now.
"Very well," Elisa says. "Let us go. I have a ship..."
"I prefer not to take my 'shortcuts' with others when I can avoid it, now. There is much that has happened since we last spoke."
She walks for the exit, and will walk with him down the mountain.
"...It was pleasant, to walk in this place. I can 'feel' how it has seen much."
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
As the scroll burns the last bit remaining explains what the scroll exactly was:
' Li Family Fire starting technique'
'Step 1 - Soak a scroll in oil'
'Step 2-'
Li Yao walks slowly as he looks at the land, the shack now a distant memory to him. "This was the Li family's training ground where we mastered our art. A lot of energy has been put into the land, one might even consider it consecrated." At that word the old man tosses a glance back to the witch before he continues down the stairs.
"Perhaps had I done something similar and fought to stop the federation before that damn psycho gundam, I would still have family." Taking a moment he looks towards a river and remembers his own wife for a moment before shaking his head. "Alas now I have nothing to protect of my own, no family, heirs, students, not even with the new CANON law no one wants to learn the old ways."
Again he forces his head to look forward before asking, "So what has happened, catch me up on the world and more importantly why you feel the queen of ice needs protection."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
It's a very effective technique, it would seem.
"I see," Elisa says. "So that's why... It was like a beacon, that I could find it. And then, of course, I found you."
She pauses. "Perhaps," Elisa says of Yao's family. "I am surprised that no one wishes to learn from you... But I suppose they do not always see value in places they have not looked."
Pause. "The Federation has fallen. In its place is the New United Nations Earth. It is the same, though now it includes many of the Spacenoids rather than warring with them."
"...But ultimately it is more of the same. I do not inherently care of politics," she clarifies. "How they wish to organize themselvees is of no difference to me. But this government holds grudges."
"For the things she has done--some of them in our work in Celestial Being--and what power she holds, they will always seek my Yuliana. ...But that i not the only thing from which I would protect her."
A pause. "The Goddess on which we relied is now our enemy. I can protect Yuliana from Her... for now. But the only way to fully excise the danger is to follow Her to Her realm, and defeat Her there."
"To do this I must engage with this world, not hide fromm it. I cannot simply leave to another planet."
"...Aside from that, many organizations have risen in the shadows. The Dawn of Fold who are my allies are only one. And the world is more and more limited in what information is shared..."
"To be clear, I do not ask you to protect my wife from my Creator. Only to aid me in protecting her from the threats of this world. The rest is merely... context. I cannot fully do both."
<Pose Tracker> Li Yao has posed.
"The goddess herself... " The old man looks at the river for a moment before he begins to enter the old man ramble mode, " Long ago there were two dragons, the one who taught my ancestors and one who taught the warring clan. Neither side could defeat the others for each side's dragon would protect them from the other. In the end the war was stalemated and neither side could win.
Kneeling he fetches a cantine from his bag and places it in the river, " Our dragon came to us one day and confessed he would pass soon with age, and so gave our side it's scales. Those scales were forged into a weapon that could cut through the other dragon, without their protector the other side fell. "
Yao points his finger to another mountain side with a dried up river bed, "Our dragon's power still flows through this mountain, their dragon was killed by a weapon made of their own kind and with them they died out. The point I am trying to make is, perhaps you need to find another higher power to use as a weapon to defeat the goddess." Yao rises as he sips from the river and then stores the rest, it may be a long time if ever that he tastes the power of this mountain again. " I will protect your Ice Queen, witch, at least one of us deserves family."
<Pose Tracker> Elisa Kafim has posed.
Old man ramble mode! Luckily, Elisa is interested in his ramblings. She is trying to Learn and Understand more, after all. "Hmm..."
"So, though you lost your protector, through his foresight you were able to defeat your rivals nevertheless..."
She nods, thoguhtfully. "I see. Yes, that may be. Thank you for your insight, Li Yao. And for your protection."
"I did not always understand the value of 'family' beyoond one's spouse..."
"But now that I do, I will let nothing separate me from mine."