Ev'rybody Was Kung Fu Fighting (Open)

[Katrina "Black Rose" Richards]

Forward thrust, step forward, cross over far shoulder, spin to touch to back shoulder, diagonal strike down, spin out down, spin in up. Forward thrust, step forward, cross over far rib, spin to touch to back,side strike, spin out down, spin in up. Thrust, thrust, thrust. Turn to the left. Repeat.

Katrina had been practicing her tonfa kata by the lakeside for half an hour, stopping frequently to make frustrated faces, scold herself for screwing up and shake her limbs out. She would then tell herself to stop thinking about it, just feel it, like Mr. Lebeau had instructed her. She even gave her self-scolding a mock Cajun accent as if imitating her advisor.

Presently she scrunched her face up to show dissatisfaction and looked at her footing. It was off.

"Why can't I get the damn footing right?" she muttered angrily to herself. "should jus' stick tobeing the buffer with a little hantohan like I'm good at," she added less coherently and more under her breath with a little angry pout to it. She took a deep breath and exhaled properly, closing her eyes and taking her stance again. She tried a few more times before letting her arms hang limply at her sides, tonfa still in hand but not pulled properly against her arms. She stared at the trees by the edge of the lake and let her mind wander. Did she want to keep training? Take a break? Had she eaten lunch? She couldn't seem to remember.

[Ray "Geo" Kessler]

"You have to move your feet more, especially with those."

Ray Kessler approached Katrina slowly from where he had been watching beside a tree. He flashed her a quick smile. "Don't get so down on yourself, I remember how hard it was to get footing right." He laughed. "We can't all be Shade, right?"

Ray stopped before Katrina and tucked his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "You're staring into space again, Rose." He sighed. "What is it this time? Did you forget to eat today? You shouldn't be training on an empty stomach."

Ray shook his head. "You know, when I offer to buy you some lunch or cook you something, it's okay to say yes."

[Katrina "Black Rose" Richards]

Kat looked up, torn from her wobbly head space by her teammate and co-leader's voice reaching her ear. She put her hips, tonfas still in hand.

"Get outta my head, weirdo," she teased, grinning. How he managed to read her thoughts she'd never understand. Maybe he was secretly a telepath. Maybe he jut wasn't telling anyone so he could use it to freak people out. But he always seemed weirdly connected to whatever she was thinking.

"And I think I did, eat....I think...But I could be remembering yesterday?" She furrowed her brows and made a thinking face. "I think it was....no.....Iunno. But I needed to practice with these, I've been at it for a while. And I know, my feet. Usually my problem is moving too much but I'm still having trouble thinking about the weapons and my footwork at the same time?" She shrugged. "I'll get it..." She always said that, even when she didn't believe it. Maybe she could convince herself, right?

She let her legs bend and let herself fall a little in a controlled way so she ended up sitting on the grass. "And it's all nice out and the breeze by the lake feels good." She nodded her head in Ray's direction. "What are you up to?"

[/blockquote]

[Ray "Geo" Kessler]

Ray laughed, and shook his head. "Well, whatever the case, you're eating something when we get back inside. The last thing we need is you making Sin hungry. That would be bad."

"You're thinking too much, Rose. If you think about it, you're just going to doubt yourself." He smiled. "It's weird, I know, but it works."

Ray watched as she sat in her usual half-fall way. Rose was a good girl and a capable mutant, but she doubted herself in a lot of ways. Ray always thought they decided to have them co-lead their team because he seemed to understand her. Not to mention, Shade was too much of an arrogant prankster and Sin never really showed any interest in leading.

Ray shrugged when she addressed him. "Nothing much, really. I was just on my way back from class with Wolverine."

[Kole "Shade" Hannigan]

Off in the distance shade crawled out of the shadow of a tree, saw the two of them and jumped back into the shadow. Only to reappear out of the shadow of the tree where geo had just been. he approached the two, and with a slight shiver from the cold of the shadow plane he said
" there you guys are, I'v been looking for you every where what are you guy working on?"

[Katrina "Black Rose" Richards]

Kat gave s scoffing sort of laugh. "Yeah yeah," she paused and put on a Cajun accent and a slightly deeper voice. " Y'gotta feel it, little chere, right hea', not hea'." She touched her chest just below the collarbone and then her temple. She shook her head and used her normal voice. "It's not my first day at the rodeo, I've done this stuff before...It just takes me some time to get out of my own head." She shrugged.

"Oh yeah, how that g-" Kat was cut off by another familiar voice and a vague impression of an unnatural cold that she could sense from Kole Hannigan as he approached. Even when she was in control, her empathy made it difficult to not get after-effects off of her teammate when he emerged from the shadows. She didn't mind it as much as she could have, she liked knowing when he was about, better than letting him sneak up on and around her like he did everyone else.

"Hey, Kole. We're not really working on anything. I was practicing with my tonfa and Ray came up to tell me I'm screwing it up." She smiled, amused. She knew that wasn't what or even why he was telling her, but she liked to tease her friends.She shot Ray a sidelong smirk. "Oh and to lecture me on not eating...even though I still think I might have.....at some point....today, I think..." She paused and then frowned,only now registering the words Kole had used in his greeting. "Why were you looking for us? Is everything okay?"

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[Ray "Geo" Kessler]

Ray took a look over his shoulder as he felt the slight and familiar cold. "Hey, Shade." He said with a heavy sigh, folding his arms across his chest.

Ray spent the most time with Shade out of all the team, being his roommate. In a way, he was able to tolerate his antics a little better than Rose and Sin, but he had a natural patience. Shade didn't really play many pranks on Ray, though. He knew better.

"You know, you don't have to teleport everywhere." Ray said with a laugh. He turned and shot Rose a look. "I wouldn't do it if it didn't happen all the time!"

Ray turned back to Shade with a raised brow. "Wait, don't you have class?"

[Kole "Shade" Hannigan]

Shade turned to Geo shrugged and said "well yea I know i could walk but I just got out of a teleportation/stealth tutoring session with Nightcrawler but he kept mostly to lecturing so I had some energy to burn"

then he turned to Rose "Speaking of burning energy" Shade then took a deep horse stance and breathing deeply he extended his arms up and then out, and as he did a portion of the shadow he was casting from the sun rose up his legs around his torso and down both of his arms until they reached his closed fist where they hardened into the shape of a pair of onix tonfa. "Do you want a sparring partner? The best way to keep yourself for thinking to much is to not have the chance to."

[Katrina "Black Rose" Richards]

Kat wanted to be surprised that Kole didn't respond to her question specifically. She wasn't. She wondered if he'd heard anything she'd said. Sometimes she was so incredibly grateful that Ray was co-leader if for no other reason than that Kole seemed to hear him, or at least hear him better than he heard her.

She watched him take a horse stance. She didn't think she'd ever seen anyone use that for their starting stance for Tonfas, but then again, it didn't matter how wrong Kole was at the beginning, he'd suddenly get that intuition to help him all but master the damn weapon. She was so jealous of that mutation it was disgusting. It was endlessly useful. Unlike her powers. Sometimes she wished she could steal powers like Miss Rogue, even if just for a little bit. But she knew she absorbed more than a person's powers and she didn't want Kole's thoughts in her head. It was bad enough getting the occasional emotional feedback from the people around her, she couldn't imagine how awful it would be to have a person's whole mind inside of hers. She shuddered a little at the thought.

He wanted to spar. She thought about it, unsure. How on was Kole today? Sometimes in a fight he could forget he wasn't facing an enemy. Would he end up hurting her by accident? Would she end up doing damage to him? It was hard not to go all out when fighting Kole, it's not like he was good at holding back.

And then there was the food issue. She really couldn't remember if she'd eaten. Would Ray even let her actually spar without eating first? He was annoyed enough that she was doing katas on an empty stomach. She tilted her head to the side as if to ask what he thought on the matter.

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[Angel "Sin" Sawyer]

Angel had been striding purposefully across campus back to her dorm. Earbuds firmly in place, she was mouthing the words as she walked. She'd decided to look over her Ethics notes and ended up getting grustrated with the whole thing. She hated to think what this meant for her as an individual. The fact was, despite being a decently intelligent person she wasn't doing well with ethics because she personally didn't agree with what was being said all the time. She had just started passing groups of students on the lake when she stopped moving.

Pretty sure that was my stop

Rather than turn around, she took a few steps backward. When she stopped at the group, she quirked an eyebrow at Shade who had dropped into a horse stance. Confusion washed out her previous annoyance as she took out the earbuds.

"Yo. Any reason why Shade is in stance and no one else?"

[Ray "Geo" Kessler]

Ray shook his head and let out a small laugh. "I complained about you not eating for training by yourself and now you want to spar with Shade." He shot her a look. "Do you really think my opinion is going to be any different?"

Ray turned as Sin approached the group. Sin was sort of a more 'aggressive' Rose in a way. Her powers were centered on emotions, as well, though hers can be far more potent depending on the situation. She called it 'emotional weaponization', though Dr. McCoy often called it 'emotional energy conversion'. Both were accurate, and in the end it didn't matter so much what the power was called. It was effective if applied correctly.

Ray gave her a simple nod in greeting and then rolled his eyes at Shade. "It's Shade. Are you really surprised?"

[Kole "Shade" Hannigan]

Shade relaxed from his hose stance looked a Ray and said "Bite me, rock head" he then greeted Sin and spoke to Rose. "hey Sin, Rose have you real not eaten today at all? its like 6pm what have you been doing all day?"

Sometime shade wondered how Rose doesn't just drop dead every day from all the crap she puts herself through. From stressing over little things to exacerbating her many health issues by pushing herself while she should be resting or in this case eating. its amazing she is still around.

[Katrina "Black Rose" Richards]

Kat shrugged a little at Geo's response. "You never know, stranger things have happened..." She turned to answer Angel, since nobody had bothered. "Ray's lecturing me and Kole challenged me and I think it's just been decided I'm not allowed. Which is probably for the best." She leaned back on her hands, resting her tonfa on the grass beside her. "Uhm, mostly I've been training. I met with Professor X earlier this afternoon and then helped Dr. McCoy with some stuff in the Danger Room. I kept meaning to go for a swim or something...I guess I lost track of time." A common theme.

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[Angel "Sin" Sawyer]

"So you're getting lectured cause you haven't eaten?"

Angel sighed. While she wasn't exactly happy about Kat not eating, she definitely understood how easy one could lose track of time. Especially when dealing with Professor X and Dr.McCoy.

She rolled her shoulders, trying to relax. The worst thing about ethics was how she felt afterwards, like she didn't belong. Her motivations weren't always the best, but she did do the right thing. That should be enough for Ms. Rogue.

She spoke up, trying to derail her mental tirade before she lost control of her irritation and started projecting. Kat looked tired and she didn't want to complicate her day any further.

"Well, I recommend we lose track of time somewhere we can decompress. Preferably where food is."

[Ray "Geo" Kessler]

Ray rolled his eyes at Shade. The name-calling didn't bother him any more than a minor annoyance. There were just some things about Shade that you had to accept in order to hang around him for any extended period of time. His insatiable need to flex his verbal muscles was one of them.

Ray nodded in approval at Sin's statement. "That sounds like a good idea. Hopefully, they've got something good at the cafeteria today."

Ray held out a hand to Rose. "And you're going to actually eat something."