001 - That Was Fast [OPEN]

[theimmortalweapon]

WHO: Danny Rand
WHERE: All around the village
WHEN: July 10th to July 13th
OPEN TO: All [* closed to the first person who tags it]
WARNINGS: N/A

---

FOUNTAIN; JUL 10 *

"I am treating you with respect by being who I truly am. Not everyone around you does the same."

The old woman's voice rang through Danny's head in stern warm notes. He had passed another test, faced another servant of the Hand, he had won and wanted to demand answers about his parents death. Familiar words, taunts, his parents, the monks, Madame Gao . . . Danny didn't know what was real and what wasn't and, before he could get his bearings, he felt himself floating. Water surrounded him, filling his lungs and clouding his senses with its smooth cool touch. A soft push encouraged him towards the distorted light, shimmering above his head, as his lungs began to burn impatiently demanding air.

Was this torture?

He could handle torture, the monk's had taught him to withstand pains and torments before he'd been allowed to obtain the mantel of the Ironfist. Some Ironfist he's turning out to be. Controlled by his anger, he left K'un-Lun, but Danny didn't regret it. Even now, it felt like the right choice. Why else would they have chosen an outsider to take the trial? He had been able to find the Hand. He can stop them once and for all . . .

A fuzzy haze filled Danny's thoughts as cold rain began to beat down on his face, his shoulders and chest. He's floating; an awkward weight pulling at him as his clothes shift and ripple with the steady disturbance of the rain. He tried to remember what he'd been doing . . . Gao, Colleen, Claire? They had been fighting. He's been . . . his head throbbed and his thoughts slipped away from him.

He was floating but for some reason he didn't have the strength to pull himself from the water.

INN; JUL 10

It had taken Danny a few hours to shake off the haze of his arrival. He felt drugged, hungover and wet.

This wasn't the first time he had traveled to an unexplainable world but he'd never thought that it would happen again and without any memory of his arrival to draw on. He'd lived in K'un-Lun for over a decade before the way had opened again, how long would it be until he returned home this time?

He couldn't wait that long.

Danny stripped in front of the inn's fire, hanging the dark green scrub on the mantel in hopes to dry the soaked fabric. Dirty blond curls hung limply around his head as he bathed in the heat of the fire. He watched the flames danced, licking up the side of the logs and curling into the air as light flicker into an invisible heat. It was easy to lose himself to his thoughts and the turmoil that he had felt bubbling inside of him.

The black mark of his dragon tattoo along with decade's worth of hideous scars marked and marred his chest, shoulders and back. Danny didn't look like much, his features were pleasant, cute even, but his body told the story of a man who had ventured through hell and managed to come out the other side.

INN; JUL 10/11 *

Midnight neared and Danny felt the hour approaching like an instant ache in his side.

As comfortable as the bed was, he couldn't sleep. Madame Gao's words hummed like a pained memory in his head, repeating over and over again as if to haunt him. His fingers curled into a fist and he punched the wall of the room shaking the wooden planks that defined and shaped the inn's upper floor. He didn't have the strength of the undying dragon, he hadn't been able to access the Ironfist for days but it felt further away from him now, as if the water of the well had stolen more than just a few hours of his memories.

A groan rumbled through his chest as he pushed himself up from his bed.

Danny didn't consider the noise he was making, he hadn't even thought that punching the wall might rouse someone from their bed or call someone already awake to the source of the noise. His focus was centered on his thoughts and the growing frustration he felt bubbling in his chest.

The door to his room was open and anyone coming to inspect the noise would find Danny standing in front of the window, watching as the rain beat angrily against the glass. He looked tense, angry and once again he was shirtless.

TOWN; JUL 11 THRU 13

It was an hour before sunrise.

Danny hadn't slept well but he wasn't going to let that get in the way of his usual morning routine. He found a small clearing of grass, just outside of the inn, and began shifting through the calming stances he'd learned during his training in K'un-Lun. Those familiar with martial arts will notice that Danny's style is a combination of a few different Kung Fu technics though with a slightly different edge or flair to each motion. He favored forms that were prevalent in Tia Chi but even that couldn't exactly quantify what he was doing.

He trained for a little over an hour, half way through taking off his shirt as sweat and mist dotted his shoulders and back. He felt the cool humidity dance against his skin, warning him of the impending rain, but ignored it.

After training, Danny headed back to the inn to grab something to eat and figure out how he could assist those living in the village. He'd speak to anyone who was around or stand there looking a little bit like a lost puppy. He decided that today he'd explore, cut some wood for the inn and gather his bearings. He didn't like the idea of not chipping in, even if he'd only arrived the day before.

Towards the afternoon, he took an hour to meditate on the lip of the fountain. Danny tried to remember how he had gotten here, what paths he had walked but his memories held nothing but darkness. A low annoyed growl rumbled through his chest before releasing his breath and his anger. He couldn't summon the Ironfist and he couldn't find any answers.

What use was he?

In the evening Danny chopped wood outside of the inn. This time he'd left the hunter green scrub in his room but had grabbed a towel to whip off the beads of sweat that dotted his skin. Rain began to fall in a slow steady dribble but that didn't deter Danny from splintering the thick logs and placing them under the inn's awning so they can dry.

[ooc: Feel free to run into Danny at any time during this last post over the next few days.]

Comments

INN; JUL 10/11

[thegreatexperiment]

Being a night owl was nothing new to Sam, but she had to admit that she missed the company. Which was pretty fucking hilarious, considering her rather low opinion of most Kindred. She still didn't want to see another vampire in this clown rodeo. But it would have been nice, she thought, to have someone else around to keep her distracted. Sleep wasn't an option. She was too afraid to dream.

Of course, prowling the dark hallways felt like a fucking cliche.

But Sam could live with that.

She was on her way back to her room, her head itching from the kerchief that covered her hair, the burn scars aching from being rubbed by the coarse fabric.

Thump. Thump.

Oh good. What new fresh hell was this?

It was probably wrong that Sam was relieved to hear it. At the very least, it meant that someone was conceivably having an even worse night of it than she was. It was a 'misery loves company' sort of thought. But hardly the first she'd had. And it didn't take someone with Avery's heightened sense of hearing to tell it was coming from the open door.

Quietly, Sam peeked inside.

INN; JUL 10/11

[theimmortalweapon]

Danny didn't notice Sam right away. He was annoyed and wrapped up in thoughts that would inevitably spiral into more annoyance. He couldn't do anything while he was here. The Hand was in New York and he hadn't been able to get any answers from Madame Gao. In fact, she had only given him more questions. Not that any of that mattered now but Danny has having difficulty clearing his thoughts and controlling his rising frustration.

The hairs on the back of his neck prickled and he turned to see Sam standing at his doorway.

There were a lot of questions that Danny could ask though his mind was current devoid of any coherent thought. He tried to take in the sight of the woman in front of him but he couldn't get a good read on her. He was tired and annoyed and he wasn't sure why she was standing there...

He probably should have said something but Danny ended staring silently at Sam while struggling with his thoughts.

[thegreatexperiment]

"What the fuck?" Sam said, ever the eloquent wordsmith. "Why does every guy the Overlords kidnap look like he could be a Calvin Klein model?"

It was true. The circus here was filled with beautiful people, herself excluded, of course. And they were all so deeply intermingled, enmeshed and entwined. Sometimes, she felt like she'd been sucked into a soap opera, but she was the only one there who could see the cameras.

And the chaos.

But, of course, people didn't say things like that. People were pleasant and decent and useful.

Well, Sam wasn't people, but she played one on TV. Or something. "Believe me, I've punched enough walls in this shithouse to know that it doesn't do anything except hurt your hand and annoy your neighbors."

[theimmortalweapon]

Danny's eyebrow rose at Sam. He wasn't the best at normal social interaction but that was not something that you said to someone while standing at their door in the middle of the night . . . or maybe it was? Danny really wasn't sure what to say to that and his grump faded into awkward puppy-dog-ness.

"Huh? Calvin Klein?" He asked, with an odd level of uncertainty. "You mean the underwear company?" She thought he was a model for an underwear company? Danny looked down at his chest and realized that he was, in fact, standing there in the hunter green scrub pants and nothing else.

Maybe it bothered her?

"Sorry." He scratched the back of his head and exhaled a slow breath. He didn't want to think about depressing things and honestly, Sam's presence and reaction was a breath of relief from his thoughts. "Does that mean you're an annoyed neighbor?" The edge of Danny's mouth twisted as if he was tempted to smile.

[thegreatexperiment]

Sam waved off the apology. Even if she wasn't quite up the caliber of the other models in the fun house, that didn't mean she didn't like to look. And the new guy was definitely a treat for the eyes.

He'd make a good live model for an art class, she thought.

And wistfully, she missed her days back on the campus when there was nothing to do but paint and talk and sound pretentious.

"Nah," she said. "I was already up. I'm just the insomniac neighbor." She offered him what just managed to pass for a smile, her blue eyes gleaming like sapphires in the dull light. "But you look pretty annoyed. Guessing you just got here?"

[theimmortalweapon]

Danny's palm ran through the thick curly collection of dirty blond hair as he turning his back to the window and leaned back against the wall. "That obvious?" It was very obvious that he was new though Danny took the change with slight grace. This wasn't the first time he'd been brought to another plane.

His mouth twisted in a little bit of a wider smile. "Good to know that you were already up." He hadn't meant to wake anyone but it also didn't occur to him that a lot of people were staying at the inn.

Maybe he should find another place to live where he can punch walls?

"What do you do most nights? or is it roaming the halls and waiting to hear people punch walls?" Danny didn't have a great opinion about what he looked like. That kind of stuff really didn't matter to him and frankly he never noticed what people looked like.

[thegreatexperiment]

Sam laughed. It was a rusty sound, like she rarely ever used her laugh. But at least it was genuine. If nothing else, living in the village had given Sam the opportunity to be more genuine, perhaps, than she'd ever been anywhere else.

Small wonders.

"When I'm not inciting riots on the text network," she said, wiggling her wrist. The screen of her device caught the light. "I usually draw. Or work on my still. Although not gonna lie, roaming the halls and waiting to hear people punch walls is definitely on the agenda. Right up there with pacing like a caged tiger and just complaining to the ceiling."

No visible cameras, of course. But that didn't mean they weren't there.

She leaned against the doorframe to his room, folding her arms across her chest. "And stewing too. You can never do too much stewing."

Outside the Inn; JUL 10

[littledhampir]

The day her former mentor had told her she was expected to run every morning and every afternoon, Rose had hated him. She’d cursed him every mile as the stitch in her side made her want to double over and empty her stomach of the hasty breakfast she’d scoffed down. She’d continued to curse him for days, even weeks despite the fact that the run became easier. Eventually it became more of a habit than because she wanted to die.

There was no Dimitri breathing down her neck anymore. No Academy to care about, even before she’d wound up here and while she no longer had the habit of cursing Dimitri - an act that was too painful given recent events - she did have the habit of running, even on crappy days like this when she would much rather be in bed. It was the little piece of homely ritual that she maintained in this place, the thing that showed she still believed she would one day find her way back there.

The top of her magenta scrubs did little to hide the sweat that made the scratchy material cling to her skin as she slowed to a walk, beelining it for the fountain so that she could splash her face and cool off before heading in to shower. The darkening sky promised it was going to be a shitty day to venture out and she silently cursed the lack of sun she’d been enjoying now that her life wasn’t conducted on a night schedule.

She’d gotten used to being one of the few who was up and moving at this hour, her curious gaze sweeping over the newcomer she’d spied at the Inn the last couple of days. She’d have to be blind to not quietly admire the way his muscles tensed and rippled without a shirt on and just because she wasn’t exactly looking with purpose, it didn’t mean she couldn’t look. She was grieving, not dead, okay.

“What style is that?” The question a serious one, as she perched on the edge of the fountain. It wasn’t even some excuse to make conversation with the shirtless dude. Only Rose could become more interested in fighting style, than she was in physique.

Outside the Inn; JUL 10

[theimmortalweapon]

Running was good practice if you ever had to run away from something but it wasn't the kind of training that Danny was accustomed too. The monks at K'un-Lun had other ideas of training. He pushed his body and his mind to their limits and did so using extreme methods. Comparatively, running wasn't that much of a work out. It helped with stamina, breathing and other basic skills required for fighting but that was the limit of its benefits.

Danny would have to find new ways of training and keeping his skills sharp. Forms, breathing, meditation and physical training all helped but it wasn't the same as sparring against an opponent who then reacted back to your attacks.

His head turned and he focused on the woman in front of him. He looked surprised, Danny hadn't thought that anyone would be interested in what he was doing. He had seen a handful of people walk by, leaving him to himself as he shifted through the familiar stances. Danny shifted his pose and then exhaled a slow breath. "I learned it from the monks in K'un-Lun." It didn't really answer the question except that the style itself was based out of the unknown city.

"Do you know material arts?" His tone was firm but boyish and curious. Danny took his training very seriously but at the same time he enjoyed meeting people with a similar passion.

[littledhampir]

“Monks?” Her eyebrows crawling up her forehead as he managed to say the last thing she was expecting. “I always thought they were all about… meditation and vows of silence. Ya know, zen stuff.” Not that she really knew the first thing about monks, let alone met one but that was the image the word conjured in her mind. She tried to imagine a monk teaching at the academy, and all she came up with was;

“Wouldn’t their robes get in the way?”

“Mixed Martial Arts, not any one style.” She wasn’t sure you could really call what they learned Martial Arts, because it didn’t exactly follow any of the commonly learned styles. The Guardians took from everything; Krav Maga, Jiu-Jitsu, Aikido, but it was altered and shaped to suit the fact that their role was to protect, and to consider the enemy they faced.

“I know how to fight.” Her own style was perhaps as unique as Danny’s, though night and day compared to each other. Even Rose’s style had evolved from the what she’d learned. The Academy mostly trained men to be Guardians; people who had more height and weight than she did. As a female, she’d had to adjust in order to have a chance against the Strigoi.

[theimmortalweapon]

A low amused chuckle vibrated through Danny's chest. "Some monks are like that but there are warrior monks too." It all depended on where you were and who you spoke too. K'un-Lun was a private eclectic group of people who had been kind enough to take Danny in after the plan crash. He didn't really think they were normal monks.

He laughed again. "No, robes don't really get in the way. Some monks wear pants." Danny didn't mean to find this amusing but he hadn't had anyone ask questions like these before.

Danny considered her for a moment before gesturing towards where he'd been practicing.

"Want to spar?" It didn't have to be right now but he invitation would be open in case she was ever interested. Danny was always eager to meet other fighters and learn from them.

[littledhampir]

“Warrior monks?” Eyebrows raising again as she barely holds back a low chuckle. There was just something about that image that amused her endlessly, possibly because the image she had of monks was something taken right out of a TV show or movie.

“Be like fighting in a dress I expect and despite what they show you in bad TV? Nobody does that well.” Well, not as well as they could in something else. Somewhere over the last year, her vanity had given way to her need to be prepared, and skirts and heels just didn’t cut it.

While it shouldn’t, his question surprises her, Rose’s head canting as she regards him. She was too used to people dismissing her abilities on account of her gender, the brunette expecting condescension more than the acceptance. A slow smile pulls at the corner of her mouth. There was an open eagerness to the offer that didn’t rub her the wrong way, like he was excited by the idea of meeting somebody who shared his interest, instead of looking to test her in some way.

“Now?” A glimmer in her own eyes that suggests he’s not the only one who is eager.

[theimmortalweapon]

Danny really didn't know enough about fashion to properly converse about the methods that monks were able to fight. He usually wore pants with his rooms, as did most warrior monks, but there were the masters who often times had a skirt like fabric over top of their pants. It showed their status as a master and it was often what they wore. He was fairly sure there was a split down the side that allowed them to fight but Danny had never been focused on that.

His training hadn't been a hobby or the kind of thing you did while letting your mind wander. It had been painful, difficult and relentless.

"Why not. Unless you have somewhere else to be." It wasn't as if this world has pressing appointments or schedules. They could do what they wanted, when they wanted to do it.

"We can start with a warm up." If only so that they can gauge each others strengths and skills. Danny wanted to go all out but he also didn't want to actually hurt someone where there wasn't a fully stocked hospital to rush them too. The sentiment went both ways but he had been training for years, he was a master of many different forms of martial arts and he was a little cocky.

Fountain

[theluckygirl]

That day felt different right from the get-go, as soon as her eyes opened and she was awake and she can't remember every feeling that way. There was something about the start of the day that had Claire anticipating something. What? She didn't know and for the first half of the day, she wandered the village aimlessly, trying to understand what it was.

That's when she decides to go to the hospital and go through the things she's organized hundreds of times by now. But when her eyes look across the center of the settlement when they take in the fountain.

And then it clicks.

Claire runs over and sees the form of someone floating and when she sees it's him she quickly grabs hold of the front of his scrub shirt and pulls him closer to the edge.

"Danny?!"

Fountain

[theimmortalweapon]

"Whoa!"

Danny's eyes snapped open and he flailed a bit as Claire pulled him towards the fountains edge. He didn't attack her, he instantly knew her voice, but he hadn't expected to be dragged across the water either. He still wasn't sure how he had gotten into the water. Cold water filled his mouth and he coughed as he felt his shoulder lift out of the water.

It took Danny a moment to grab Claire's hand and then the edge of the fountain. He felt weak and his head was hazy but hearing his friends voice slowly snapped him into awareness.

"Claire? How are you?" He coughed, bowing his head over the rim of the fountain. "Ah- what happened?" He felt awful which was rare for Danny.

Re: Fountain

[theluckygirl]

"You're practically drowning and you're asking how I'm doing?" Claire replied in disbelief, moving slightly to the side to help him out of the fountain because she wanted to properly look him over. He didn't look right. "It's kind of.."

She ducks down a little to look at his face. "Are you okay?"

Yes, there are so many questions she has for him and he probably has equal, if not more, for her, but she getting him out of the fountain was priority number one.

"I'll explain, but first I need to get you out of the fountain. Come on, take my hand."

Fountain

[theimmortalweapon]

"I got it." Though as he spoke he took her hand and pulled himself over the edge of the fountain. The backpack did not help the process and when he was over, he plopped like a collection of wet rags to the stone surrounding the fountain.

"Damn it." He growled the words as he pushed the backpack off and sat up. His limbs felt heavy and his head spun like he'd been drugged. "I feel like crap."

Danny was having a particularly hard time getting out of the fountain.

"Please tell me what's happening." He hated feeling this disoriented and not knowing where he was. She was familiar but everything else around him felt like he had walked into another world.

[theluckygirl]

Seeing how disoriented Danny was made this so much harder, mostly because Claire wasn't sure if he'd been on his way to passing out while underwater or if something had happened before he arrived. She had to remember the timeline rule, even if he did remember her.

As she helps him take off the backpack, she both checks him over for visible injury and tries to choose her words wisely. Explaining that a person suddenly appears at the bottom of a fountain in a world not of their own isn't exactly happy and exciting news.

"It's really hard to explain but we're not in New York anymore. In fact, I can't say for sure exactly where we are, Danny. Everyone here just showed up like you just did, with a bag on their back like this one."

She pulls it over and points out the sympbol.

[theimmortalweapon]

Danny looked up at her like she wasn't making any sense. "I found myself in K'un-Lun for fifteen years. That doesn't sound that crazy." He'd been trapped there too but the monks had explained it to him. The way had to be open and it only did that every fifteen years or so.

"Guess someone didn't just give this to us." He looked down at his clothes and then back up at Claire.

"Did you change my clothes?"

Training; July 11

[cleptes]

After dropping by the inn for some breakfast, Bela took some time to think about what she was going to do for the rest of the day. While she did have a usual routine, Bela often believed that changing it up may make the experience here a lot less dreary. On her way out from the inn she catches sight of a shirtless man doing some kind of training - her best guess that it was Tai Chi, but Bela could be wrong.

Curious, she watches him for a few minutes from a distance and doesn't say anything. Disturbing him didn't seem like the polite thing to do and he probably wouldn't notice her either.

At least not yet.

Training; July 11

[theimmortalweapon]

Danny shifted through the forms he had spent over a decade perfecting. First on the back of his heels and then forward, bringing his arms up and in front of him. The motions were fluid but then the final strike was quick and firm. Danny didn't falter or stutter. Training was it's own form of meditation, clearing his mind and his soul, but with a firmer force.

He didn't see Bela. He had no idea that she was there watching him but a light prickle on Danny's skin gave him the feeling that he was being watched. His training told him to react but so far this place hadn't been hostile and Danny didn't want to initially make enemies.

He didn't even know if the Hand was here.

"Is someone there?" Danny didn't stop moving but he spoke to the air. Worse thing that could happen was that he was talking to himself, which wasn't really that bad.

Training; July 11

[cleptes]

It soon became clear to her that this wasn't just a mere hobby for him, that he hadn't just taken a few classes. This was something that he had dedicated a lot of time and effort to - Bela was impressed. She continues to watch as he shifts from one movement to the next, amazed by how seamless they were.

When he speaks, Bela doesn't hesitate in answering him. "Yes. There is." A pause. "I was on my way out from the inn and I noticed you."

Realising how that may have come across she continues. "I was curious, I suppose. I'm sorry if I've disturbed what you were doing."

Training; July 11

[theimmortalweapon]

Danny was going to shake his head to answer her but he wanted to finish shifting through the set of forms without interruption which meant he could talk but he couldn't move. "You aren't disturbing me." As he spoke he shifted into another stance. If Danny had wanted to be away from the prying eyes of the village then he wouldn't be practicing next to the inn where everyone walking in and out of the building could see him.

Sometimes having distractions helped, sometimes they clear his mind by filling it with things that weren't relevant to the chaos that was often buzzing around in his head.

He finished the last position by bringing his palm to his fist and exhaling a slow measured breath. His eyes refocused on the setting around them and the tensed muscles in his back began to relax. Bright green eyes looked over at Bela accompanied by a light smile as he grabbed his shirt. "Uh, hi. I'm Danny Rand. Still kind of new around here."

He paused, tossed his shirt over his shoulder and held out his hand in the friendly greeting of a handshake.

"Who are you?"

Training; July 11

[cleptes]

The village didn't have a formal training area so outside the inn seemed just as good a place as any. Unless there was a designated spot for this kind of practice and Bela simply wasn't aware of it. When it came to exercise or any kind of relaxation she took to the forest or the lake. Being away from the buildings and surrounded by nature seemed to do the trick.

She liked her distractions as well, but it would be nice to be able to block them out with a few simple techniques. Perhaps she could ask him for some helpful tips or even a lesson - it's something that Bela is going to keep in mind for the future.

"Hello." Bela smiled in return and took a few steps forward, now that he had completed his routine. Taking his offered hand and giving it a firm shake, she waited a moment or two before answering his question.

"I'm Bela Talbot. It's a pleasure to meet you, Danny Rand." Taking back her hand, she continued. "I have been here for over six months now, but there are others who have been around for much longer than I have."

Training; July 11

[theimmortalweapon]

Danny would be happy to give lessons to anyone who wanted them though he wasn't sure how many people would be interested in learning either material arts or meditation techniques. It was something he could do and do well, so he'd likely throw out a general offer on the network after he's settled in and gotten used to the ebb and flow of the village.

"So I've heard." He flashed her a brief smile before taking his hand back. Danny wasn't usually a calm person, there were too many wars raging inside of him, but his morning routine helped keep his anger and frustration contained to reasonable levels.

He looked thought for a moment or two while running his hand through damp curls. Danny didn't mind the rain but if this was going to keep up he might need a haircut. Wet hair was awful when you were trying to stay warm. "Are you staying at the inn? I've noticed some of the houses are taken, I wasn't sure how many people were here or if the Inn was where everyone met up or something."

Danny finally pulled his shirt over his head. It was also wet and it clung uncomfortably to his frame. "Want to talk in the inn? I need to dry off." He was resilient but he still didn't want to catch a cold.