Apathy's Cold Embrace

[Duncan Lloyd]

Friday afternoon.

The smell of cigarettes and alcohol plagued the air as a young man of around eighteen years old walked about on the streets, for the most part aside from the sidelong glances from police officers and the occasional lecturing grandmother, this young man was nothing out of the ordinary. A tired, lazy, and rather stern expression on his face dissuaded any from attempting conversation, but overall the man looked nothing more than a face in the crowd.

A rather pissed off face in the crowd, but a face in the crowd nonetheless.

Duncan Lloyd, much like many the young adolescent boys lacked one thing. It wasn't liquor. It wasn't cigarettes. Hell, if he felt like it, well it wouldn't be women: what Duncan lacked was money. His wallet was filled with what amounted to monopoly money, food stamps that where rarely recognized at anywhere but places with horrid tasting food. Duncan, was, for lack of a better term: broke. And that really left his entertainment options down to only the free options of San Fran: in short, nothing much.

"They got it wrong when they said mo' money mo' problems, really mo' money mo' shit to do."

There was of course one option and that was something that seemed to be a dime a dozen at Hircine: fighting. Truthfully, it hadn't been so bad when he was there for his Freshman year, sure there where a few troublemakers, but the captain usually took care of it. What with a lack of captains, pillars getting transferred over to a new school, and of course that new school in question...well Duncan just couldn't help but sigh about the whole thing. Perhaps, he may show some interest in the fiasco, but at the moment...well at the moment all Duncan cared about was sating his interest and at the moment urge to have a fight, friendly or otherwise.

He could only hope that on the streets San Fran, the fight or whatever could provide him with entertainment, came sooner rather than later.

[yuri]

(It was a very frustrating friday for me today. As I walked down the sidewalk I couldn't help but clench my right fist in anger. Things were just not going as planned for me lately. As I continued walking I realized that I just needed something to take my anger out on.

Looking around I saw a man who seemed a bit liqoured up walking down the sidewalk. He would have to do. Walking forward with a purpose I stopped in front of the man.

Without saying a word I shot my left hand out in a quick left jab for his nose. The punch wasn't meant to do much damage only to hit his nose and hopefuly make his eyes water a bit. Instantly after My left arm would be retracting I would torque my upper body to my left and snap out a powerful right cross aimed for just under his left eye.

I did not care about anything other then inflicting pain, and venting my anger.)

[Duncan Lloyd]

Duncan’s eye raised as somehow and out of nowhere someone came to quench his want to fight, it was strange, almost as if some omnipresent figure had granted him this opponent whom was similar in size and build to him. Though obviously not in temperament, the boys jab. Duncan nearly sighed as he took a step back and moved his head out of the way and then quickly ducked down as the cross was coming towards him, currently his goal was hitting the boy before he had a chance to hit him.

Ducking under the boys snowball of a punch and entering his guard at a slightly lower level. Due to the fact that they shared similar size, Duncan simply having his knees bent allowed for his arms to be in the correct placement for the victim of what would most likely be a very powerful and dangerous blow: the lower intestinal track. Located right above the crotch and due to the boys now occupied body (his left outstretched and his right in a standard boxing position) completely open. The nature of the blow relied in the area it was attacking, the lower intestinal track would simply not be defended very well by the muscular walls every other part of the body was.

That’s because it was nearly impossible to get muscle there.

Duncan’s punch would take the form of the standard karate ‘nukite’, a finger based punch that relied on forming the fingers into a knife like object and thrusting it into an opponents weak point. Usually forbidden from competition, this blow was especially devastating mostly because it was designed to hurt. Combined with the speed and power of Duncan’s punch (which alone could probably knock the air out of his opponent), his opponent would probably be guaranteed to double over in pain or in the best situation: throw up.

“Perhaps I’ve been gone for too long, but that’s no way to greet someone.”

[yuri]

( As the man Ducked under my right I found myself in quite a dilemma. I knew for a fact that my entire midsection was open, and that there was no way I was going to come out of his counter unscathed. The best thing I could do, was try to redirect his attack, or try to block and hopefully take some of his power away from the attack.

As his arm flew in fast for me just above the crotch, I found the only thing I could do was to bring my leading legs knee, up and to my right as quick as I could. This would cause my knee to connect with the outside of his arm just before it would hit his target.

Since this put me way off balance, and there was not much power in the block, there was no way for me to fully redirect his attack. Falling backwards as the attack hit me since I was now only on one leg, I instantly rolled backwards and regained my feet.

Gasping slightly for air I could feel a deep burn where his fingers had hit my midsection.)

"fuck that hurt"

(I said to him after I heard his words. Luckily for me I had unintentionaly stopped this fight from ending, little did I know that if his strike was one hundred percent accurate, I would have been on the ground right now, instead of just having pain in my stomach)

"nice counter, I'll have to remember that....and what do you mean this is no way to greet someone, I greet all my friends like this"

(I said to him with a smile as I brought my hands back up in an orthodox boxing style. I then nodded my head towards him trying to get him to attack me)

[Duncan Lloyd]

"It's a wonder you have any friends then," he smirked, "Then again I suppose they simply hit back, seriously man, you take a punch like a bitch."

He approached the now risen boy and proceeded to pace around and circle him several times, this of course would put the boy on edge and it was that type of psychological warfare that Duncan enjoyed most. He had his move planned, now was simply a matter of executing it quickly and effectively. At around his third circle around the boy he stopped and was now in front of him, though veered towards Yuri's left Duncan slid his left foot forward. His left arm snapped up, causing a whip like motion as his elbow ratcheted his fist straight up. It was an impressively quick backfist, aimed for the left cheekbone of Yuri. Despite being an attack based on speed, if it landed on target the bone on bone between the knuckles and cheek would likely cause it to bruise and cut open.

If Yuri decided to block the blow with his already established boxing stance then there was a strong chance that it would have the same effect on the boys forearms, in which case causing heavy bruising and ruining any chance of having anything except a very painful defensive strategy. In fact things seemed rather simple at Duncan's end, he would either land a face shot or permanently destroy his opponents defense...a win-win situation as far as he was concerned.