Tai Shing Pek Kwar practice (solo)

[tehm]

tehm HP: 100% MP: 100%

+Combat Perception -[BLIND] -[SOBER]

This was it, the day had finally come... for tehm to look completely silly.

Although he had convinced himself this was the best course of action, he could not overcome the feeling that he was going to look very foolish for a very long time.

In order to calm his nerves, tehm started slowly testing his flexibility, no problems there, his body could easily perform front and side splits. Moving into a deep bridge, he tried standing up from this position.

(No problems there)

As he dropped easily back into bridge he tried kicking his body up into a handstand but succeeded only in performing an ineffective kick.

(So it's the same as the back-flip, there's a trick to the technique that I don't know.)

Tehm wondered again at the ramifications of the stat system. He suspected that no matter how many push-ups or splits he did this body would never become stronger or more flexible, were that possible then one could improve their stats outside of the in-game systems. It seemed more likely that the only thing to be gained via exercises such as this were "tricks", feats of dexterity which anyone with his attributes could perform had they but practiced them.

Tehm set about slowly getting comfortable in hand-stand position, performing front splits and slowly contorting his waist forward and backwards letting his feet just barely touch the ground before kicking lightly off the ground and back to a straight-backed position.

After a few hours, tehm found he could easily drop from standing into bridge, kick into handstand and either stay there, or maintain momentum into what gymnasts would call a back walkover.

For the rest of the day, tehm worked on getting his front and back walkovers as quick as possible. By the end of the day he was sure that they were still way too slow to be useful in any real capacity, but it was a necessary first step on the long road to progress.

Word Count: 330

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[tehm]

tehm HP: 100% MP: 100%

+Battle Perception [BLIND] [SOBER]

It had been nearly three weeks.

Progress had been quicker than expected due largely to adventurer's near limitless endurance and the agile body that Tehm now possessed. Although he would make for only a passable gymnast, tehm could now flip and tumble, roll and scamper in a fair imitation of the characters which he was trying desperately to learn to emulate.

This was not to say that he had any idea how to use any of this in combat, he'd still not attempted to fight so much as a slime, but he was gradually becoming more comfortable with the frankly silly movements that he hoped would help him survive in this strange world.

Now that the groundwork it was set, it was time to learn kata.

Tehm had no idea if this would be useful in any real capacity. He had read that in olden times the purpose of kata had not been to teach an art, but rather to serve as a mnemonic device in order to remember how each move was to be performed ideally in a time before video cameras. Essentially the students would learn to fight in the manner that was best tailored to their abilities and capabilities, but should the master pass away and they inherit the style this combat training alone would not allow them to pass along the original style, only their specialized form of it. The means to alleviate that was to also teach kata, essentially a dance that served to preserve the core implementation of each skill in an easy to remember sequence so that the student could refer back to it to illustrate the 'common form' for any given technique.

This meant at best his training could give him only half of the story, at some point he would need to find a sparring partner and begin learning how to actually use the techniques.

Tehm had no idea how to begin stringing together the movements of the first kata he had chosen to learn, but he quickly decided that since the purpose of kata was to preserve the small details, the position of the back in stance, the weight distribution during steps, attempting to rush through the process would only be counterproductive.

Standing relaxed, he arched his back out, throwing his shoulders forward, keeping elbows relaxed and slightly out he put his hands in front, completely relaxed, trying to mimic the basic stance that was used throughout all styles of monkey fist. Bending his left knee slightly and putting his right leg out in a 70/30 cat stance, tehm wandered idly if the monkey system also used a 70/30 distribution for this stance.

Once he was fairly certain that he had the initial position correct he set about learning to move. He was not trying to learn kata yet, simply how to transition through stances--to take a few steps forward then back while maintaining proper balance and without breaking stance. Although he was sure he looked very silly he even sought to mimic the queer hand and head movements that were always used during transitions. He strongly suspected that these had been added to the katas only to make the system appear more obviously "monkey style" on screen, yet having little knowledge of the style, he had no idea which parts were purely theatrical and which parts could end up being important as he progressed in his training.

Word Count: 568

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[tehm]

tehm HP: 100% MP: 100%

+Battle Perception -[BLIND] -[SOBER]

It had been over a month since he had been trapped in this new world, but tehm was finally beginning to feel comfortable with his new body. No, more than comfortable. He was now confident that he was more agile, more athletic in this new world than he had ever been, or ever could have been in the real world. Not just the endurance, but the raw athleticism that his new body possessed bordered on the inhuman. In less than two months he had been able to obtain a proficiency in gymnastics that most gymnasts required years to develop. He was nowhere near ready to try out for the Olympics, as if the concept of such sport had any relevance in this new world, but with his inhuman endurance and preternatural athletic ability the amount of rigorous practice he could endure in a single session would be unheard of by any manner of athlete in the real world.

Exhaling slowly, tehm began:

Crouching deeply, the small monk sprang forward into a front cartwheel kick before dropping low into a sweep kick into a low back walkover. Still crouching, he threw a quick combination, right uppercut, left straight, right cross then planted the fist into the ground, straightening his body in order to perform a high sweep kick from the ground. Rolling quickly backwards into a standing position, tehm threw a right elbow into a spinning backfist , roundhouse kick, sweep combination then quickly rolled forward on the ground to spring quickly into the air into a jump kick that ended in a back hand spring followed by a single back.

This was not monkey kung fu. At least, not really. He had practiced the katas used repeatedly throughout the old Shaw Brothers catalog, but could find no way to make any of it applicable to real combat. It seemed that there was a real disconnect between the training katas shown and the style of combat choreographed by the masters in those same movies.

Rather than try to bridge that divide, tehm had decided instead to figure out what worked for him, for this body. To try not to mimic the forms used in the movies, but rather to develop a working fighting style that mimiced the raw athleticism of the actors in those movies while utilizing sound fundamentals of combat that had been developed on earth for sport--jabs, hooks, sweeps, front kicks, side kicks, roundhouses, backfists, etc... Supplementing these basics he had added simple gymnastics moves which would have been suicide to attempt on earth, needlessly draining endurance and forcing a loss of sight on the opponent but which had no such drawbacks for him here, in this virtual realm.

Word Count: 450

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[tehm]

tehm HP: 100% MP: 100%

+Battle Perception +Drunken Monkey -[BLIND] -[Drunk]

The time spent practicing the traditional monkey katas however, had not been completely a loss. During his exploration of the forest, tehm had located a small village of landers several miles from London and desperately needing a beer and a bed to sleep in for the night, had tried performing a little bit on the street in an attempt to earn some coin from the villagers. The response had been overwhelming! It was as if the landers had never seen a street performance before (perhaps they hadn't?) and although they initially seemed confused by the performance, after a few strangers had finally thought to throw a gold into his bowl the coin started flowing quickly as the other landers came to realize what a "busker" was.

The lander village was called "Brent", and tehm had been staying there almost every night since he had discovered it. The villagers there were a kind people, and he greatly preferred their company to that of the bustle of city life in "London". He especially found that he loved the children of the village. Sarah, Matt, Alex, Ethan, and Edward were regular attendees of his little show and almost always managed to find him whenever he came to the small village, no matter what time of day. He idly wondered if lander children had no schools--it seemed that they were always playing in the streets or doing small chores for their families regardless of what time he passed through. Except Sarah that was, although she was always playing with the other children he had never once seen her speak to a family member or performing any chores obviously at the request of another.

She was his favorite. Although he had lost her due to an unfortunate miscarriage, tehm had nearly been a father many years ago. Had she been born his daughter would likely have been about sarah's age, and although she could hardly have hardly resembled his current appearance the shape of her oval face, the almond shaped eyes, the cute ears, the mousy voice and small frame reminded him so strongly of Rebecca, his wife, that he felt an instant kinsmanship with the young girl.

(If Rachel were alive she would have been about your age...)

Preparing for his next performance, tehm unfastened the large gourd from its bindings at his waist and took a long pull of the tepid beer that they made in this small village. Although the beer in London reminded him strongly of a watered down Michelob Ultra from the real world, the beer the brewer made in this village was much better; much more closely resembling a "Blue Moon" from earth. He'd asked the brewer here repeatedly to divulge his secret but beyond the use of the obvious anise and orangepeel he was tight-lipped about his secrets.

Securing the gourd back at his waist, tehm rolled back onto his back before kicking up into a standing position and smiling at the small audience of children.

"Ready for a show?"

Tehm crouched down into a traditional monkey stance and rolled his stick onto his lead foot, kicking it more than 8 feet into the air before quickly springing up into a front flip, catching the stick in mid flip between his knees and chest before landing lightly on the balls of his feet...

Word Count: 555

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[tehm]

tehm HP: 100% MP: 100%

+Battle Perception [BLIND] [SOBER]

One day, while relaxing with his back propped up by the cool curved stone of the mill in Brent, after several hours of performing, the girl, Sarah, rushed up to him, hands extended holding a small object saying "Look Mr. Tehm, look what I found!"

"What's that Sarah? What did you find?"

"It's a turtle!" exclaimed the excited girl. "I found it near the stream over there!" she said, pointing to the small creek which ran from the north of town curving off to the east.

Smiling at her excitement, tehm pondered the implications of this new information: although this was "just an mmorpg", what sarah had found was a living, breathing creature, not a "mob". His 'Battle Perception' made that abundantly clear, having provided him no information about the small creature she was showing him. Of course it shouldn't really have surprised tehm, he could often hear the chirping of unseen frogs, crickets, or cicadas in the forest; and although he had never seen them since being trapped here, he knew that there were likely birds flying around the skies of The Forgotten Realms, going unmolested, and largely unnoticed by the adventurers that now made this land their home.

"He sounds fantastic! Can you describe him for me Sarah?"

"Yeah! He's dark green, with a round shell and he's got the cutest little tail! Do you want to hold him?"

Tehm held the small turtle which the girl had offered him and ran his rough hands over the slick shell of the small creature. The pattern on the shell was formed of smooth hexagons, and he felt the movement of the small feet as the turtle seemed to try to dance out of his coarse hand.

Tehm wasn't sure what kind of turtle it was, but it certainly seemed harmless, handing it back to the child the two made small talk about her day.

Although he never seemed to notice it, whenever he talked with the girl tehm's face was perpetually cracked in a large grin. He adored his conversations with the child and her exhubert personallity was infectious, providing a wonderful distraction to the idol complacency which seemed so pervasive in this new world.

"Would you like me to show you something Sarah?" tehm said, moving to his feet and taking the girls hand in his they walked cheerfully down the road leading out of town.

Taking care to avoid any encounters with the low level monsters in these woods, the two travellers soon came to a felled tree about a quarter mile from the village. Jumping up onto the trunk, Tehm began walking down the nearly 200 feet of straight oak before coming to the springy section of the tree he had been looking for. Taking a few test bounces to make sure that the tree was still green enough for what he had planned, Tehm leapt high performing a back flip before landing again on the thin branch. Using the spring of the limb in tandem with the momentum from his jump he followed this with a double backflip then finished with a forward single.

"Do you want to try?" tehm asked the willowy lander.

"YEAH!" the girl exclaimed, hopping up onto the tree and extending her arms like a tightrope walker, taking care to avoid any of the small limbs or branches that might unbalance her. Reaching the springy area which tehm had just been on she gave a careful bounce or two before attempting a few jumps in place.

It was a simple joy, much like that of a trampoline, but to a lander who had never had the courage to stray far from the village or had ever even heard of a trampoline this must have seemed an exciting adventure to the young girl.

As they were returning back to the village, hand in hand, the small girl asked the disheveled monk, "Mr. Tehm, can you come play with me again tomorrow?"

"I'd love to." replied tehm.

And so it was, what had once been a terrifying, unexplored land frought with danger had somehow become a strange sort of utopia where no one really lacked any material wants and the small funds necessary to live a happy life in this new world could be earned with little effort by a heroic adventurer.

(I wonder how Rebecca is getting on without me. Is she still alive? Does she think I ran off and left her?)

(God... she must hate me by now.)

Word Count: 748

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[tehm]

tehm HP: 100% MP: 100%

+Battle Perception -[BLIND] -[SOBER]

Tehm wasn't sure when he had lost of how long he had been in The Forgotton Kingdom, but the day which it had happened had long since passed.

It wasn't as if he'd ever really bothered to count the days he had been trapped in this world, but at some point the rote monotony of life in this land had made the days seem to stretch, one into the other, so much that he really wasn't sure just how long he had been away from his old life; from his family.

Since she had first asked him nearly a week ago, tehm had spent nearly every day going on some small adventure or another with the lander Sarah. Today was to be no exception.

He wasn't sure exactly when he had figured it out, it was no one relevation but rather a small series building clues that had lead tehm to the realization that Sarah had no family. It wasn't that she was ill-taken care of; the villagers all seemed to pitch in to help her out, but the girl had no father, no mother, no sisters or brothers to take care of her. Of late, tehm had begun letting sarah stay at the room which he rented in the lander town of Brent. He had never really rented a room before, the nights were quite pleasant and he enjoyed being outside--often sleeping in the forests during his long explorations of them, but even if the nights were pleasant and the insects nearly non-existent in this virtual paradise he thought that a small girl needed a place to call home, even if it was only a small room in a quiet inn, so Tehm had set aside the money to purchase a room each night for he and the girl to stay in.

Sarah always assured him that she had made plans to stay with this or that friend's family, but each night he would find her in the tidy room, and make the small extra bed ready for her stay.

Today was a special day though, today he was going to take her someplace no lander had likely ever been before. Although she did not know it, the small creek which ran by brent widened considerably to the south east and about 4 miles out of town it fell sharply into a wonderful little waterfall surrounded by mossy trees and cool rocks.

In preperation for the outing, tehm had even prepared a small picnic for the two, with crusty bread, a hard yellow cheese, salted beef, and a peppery sausage that he was quite fond of.

After stopping at the brewers to refill his gourd, tehm set out with Sarah down the road just as the dew was evaporating off of the cool grass.

After reaching the waterfall, tehm helped the lander navigate the slick rocks leading down to the waterfall and began laying out their lunch.

"Is this your first time seeing a waterfall Sarah?"

"Yeah!" exclaimed the girl, splashing her feat in the stream below having kicked off her shoes nearly as soon as they'd arrived.

"The mist feels wonderful! Is it always like this?", asked the inquisitive child.

"Usually. After a large rainfall, places like this can flood quite quickly. If you look on the trees near here you may be able to find some dried grass or sticks caught on them a few feet from the ground. If you do, that's where the water can come up to when a 'flash flood' like that occurs.

"How does the water get so high here from rain but nowhere else?" asked the girl incredulously.

"Well, water wants to go to the lowest spot, and it will do so as fast as gravity will allow." explained tehm.

"When it rains like that the water isn't just coming from the rain here, but from the rain coming down over all of the creek upstream of here as well. Since this place is so much lower all of the water rushes here very quickly, but because the stream is relatively flat past this point, the water can't escape as fast as it arrives here, so you get a flood!"

Not even really aware of it, tehm felt tremendous pride in this little girl. Although the landers had a surprising amount of engineering savy when it came to building structures, they had no formal educational system that he had noticed, and so even basic literacy was a remarkable skill for these children to possess.

That Sarah had such an inquisitive mind and seemed so easily able to grasp fundamental concepts of the sciences gave tehm overwhelming hope for the future of these kind villagers.

(I think, maybe, if I could build a school here and provide a better life for these wonderful people, I might be able to do more good for the children here than I could have in a thousand years on Earth.)

It was a happy thought. Perhaps the happiest he'd had in months.

Word Count: 836

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.

[tehm]

tehm HP: 100% MP: 100%

+Battle Perception -[BLIND] -[SOBER]

Returning from their picnic, chatting happily about their adventures, tehm and Sarah stopped back at the brewers to refill tehm's gourd with the excellent beer of Brent.

"Say, as we were walking back I noticed an abandoned farmhouse out on the east side of town. Do you know who it belongs to?"

Returning his gourd to the wiry monk the Sam responded "Why, I suppose Sarah here does."

"You do?" questioned tehm.

"It's mom's house." replied the young lander, "I slept there for awhile after she passed but the roof leaks really bad and it smells really awful. I don't go there anymore"

As they walked back into the heat of the afternoon, tehm questioned Sarah.

"Sarah, if I fixed up your place and turned it into a school, do you think that the other children would be interested in coming?"

"What's a school?"

"Well... have you heard about how princesses and knights will have people called tutors that will teach them to read, the history of this lands, or perhaps how to ride a horse or carry a sword?"

"uh huh" replied the girl.

"Well a school is a little like that. In the mornings, after chores, the children could all come to the school and I could maybe teach you all how to read or write, to work with numbers to help around the shops, or maybe even to learn a craft, like sewing or woodwork. I would be like a tutor for everyone."

Sarah laughed, "But how can you teach us this if you're blind?"

"Well... I can still write pretty well. Maybe you could read to me what you had written?"

Sarah continued to giggle, but tehm continued on.

"So, do you think we could clean up the old farmhouse?

Word Count: 294

Made by Sifr of GS, Synesthesia and Adoxography.