BAD Reputation (Open)

[Tiao Lei Shen]

"Tch."

Tiao Lei Shen, former Pillar of Hircine High, snickered as he turned his head to the left. Following suitely, his body would move to the left, walking around the boy that stood in his way.

"Christ! Didn't you hear me!? I'm challenging you for pillarship!" The meathead spun around in a 180, agitated that his threat was being taken so lightly.

"You're an idiot. I'm not a pillar in this school."

"Well, then, I'm here to prove that I'm good enough to be captain!"

"I don't want captainship." Tiao replied instantly, turning around with a scowl that seemed to suggest he was both bored and aggravated at teh same time.

"Well... you're still one of the biggest names here. After taking you down everyone will know my name! They'll all be cheering the name-"

Before the meathead could finish speaking, Tiao bolted foward. Bending his knees and popping himself up, Tiao came up with a right handed tiger claw, striking and attaching itself to the other boy's throat. The height difference in accordance with Tiao's pop of the knees would give him incredible leverage in tune with his incredible hand strength. The boy choked as his hands came up to his throat in an attempt to tear away.

"Get it through your god damn minds. All of you." Tiao took a moment to look around him, making eye contact with those dispersing from the last fight, including the winner of it and a black student with dreads among many others.

"I don't want Captainship. I don't want anything to do with this shit hole. I'm the Tiger of Hircine. If anyone wants to place me with a title then there you go. However-"

Tiao was cut off as the meathead gave up on trying to pry away his hands. Instead, he sent his hand forward in a wide right hook. Blasting forward again, Tiao tipped the boys body weight back, making his punch flail outwards as he drove his back in to the lockers.

"I'm not here to make myself a name like all of you pissants, as I already have one. Leave me alone, and this won't happen to you." Tiao turned his attention back to the meathead, bringing his left hand around in a swipe with his palm, striking the paragon student in the right temple. Once. Twice. Three times, then he dropped.

"We're done here."

[Jesse St. Johns]

"Not yet."

When the gods wish to punish us, they grant our wishes. My father said that once. I guess he meant situations like this. I was new in school and didn't understand the rules. Pillars, Captains, titles, the fighting, corporal punishment, I didn't get it. I couldn't put the pieces together. In an attempt at learning I had stepped in on the end of a bad fight and gotten nothing useful at all. But not a moment later another fight had erupted and died within a breath, the winner very clear. And he had been a former Pillar. That's interesting.

"Not here ta fight ya. Here ta learn. I just want info. There's no guide book fer Paragon or Hircine and I don't understand Pillars, Captains or the system."

I had walked away from the scene of the previous fight and slowly strolled towards the next. Everything in Paragon it seemed revolved around fights. Wanna find someone? Follow the blood. Wanna learn something? Ask someone who wins. I stopped a little over a yard away, hands now out of my pockets and hanging firmly by my sides. Didn't want him to think I was planning something fishy.

"What cha say? Care to enlighten me?"

[Aroon Kamsing]

~Apologies if I'm interrupting anything, people.~

IC:
Standing a few metres away, watching the event unfold, a young Thai youth tilted his head very slightly as he watched the display. He had no understanding of 'pillars' and 'captains', but was certainly not so dim as to miss the crucial fact that, to these upperclassmen, it was how they defined their ranks.

'But then...The Chinese boy made it clear he's not either, and has no interest...No, no, of course. He said -this- school. He must have been a high-rank at his last school...That's it....'

His train of thought mercifully broken, lest it continue on the same point for an age, he blinked shortly at the sudden beating administered to the 'challenging' student. Not a bright fellow, no doubt. Anyone with a half-brain would have been able to see that, by the Chinese boys posture and manner, he was a fighter. Why would someone be so silly as to fight so far out of their own capacity? Was that how they did things here...?

"Strange. Very....strange."

The mutterings were almost unspoken, bare movements of his lips as he paced quietly towards him, around the time he would be making his speech to the other students, though that would of course include Aroon himself...Tiger of Hircine. Must have been a proud fighter there, doesn't seem to be happy he's at this school...Why is he at this school, in that case? Did he get himself thrown out? Transferred? Exchange, perhaps....--

Taking a slow breath, he stayed his thoughts as much as he could without giving himself a tension headache. He wanted to ask a question, but if he did so whilst half-aware, busy going over other things in his head, it would most likely just cause friction. The problem was, in that brief spell between his approach and his short pause, another youth, though much bigger than either he or the aggressive senior, approached and began to speak himself. A stroke of luck in his favour, perhaps, that the conversation began very much as he had intended to do so, and instead of asking his own question for sake of not being the social 'parrot', so to speak, he stood a little aways and began to survey his surroundings....

Both boys were taller than him, at least an inch on the Chinese boys part...Four, maybe five inches on the black boy. He had a slight frame advantage over the smaller of the two, though was noticeably outmatched by the other. Around them, sixteen, no...eighteen people. Two were hidden by shoulders and other bodies in the way....Everyone else 'looked' like the crowd, but seemed to mainly filter past. Clearly, to some of them, this was normal.

Out of manners, more than anything else, he would wait for an interjection to present itself in order to speak, and doing so quickly and calmly towards the Chinese boy, a mildly curious look on his face betrayed by a darker glint in the back of his eyes. He knew why he was asking, he just wasn't about to admit it to himself. There wouldn't be another tournament for him to compete for six weeks, and these students clearly liked to fight among themselves.

"For that boy...To have attacked you like he did."

He paused, mulling over the words in a quiet, and oddly mellowed tone, "You are a well-known fighter, yes?"

[Tiao Lei Shen]

A voice spoke up in minor protest. Tiao spun on his toes to turn and face the new voice. It wasn't hostile, but an informative inquiry. Tiao's face remained unchanging, still bearing a scowl as his eyes shifted around to catch glimpse of the other two dozen or so students around. For a moment Tiao thought another one was speaking to him as well, but he spoke so quietely that Tiao assumed he had been speaking to himself.

"I say you should acquaint yourself with Wikipedia."

Tiao stated coldy, intending on shedding no more light into the situation until the thai student spoke up again, this time louder and more directed. Tiao turned his body slightly to his right, making it so he was facing both of them rather than giving them his back. It wasn't a polite thing, but one of paranoia.

"The meek shall inherit the earth, and therefore I'll be left with nothing. I'm widely seen as the greatest fighter ever to step into, or out of, Hircine High. Not many people would like to argue that fact with me face to face." Tiao paused, turning his eyes back to the black student before deciding to inform him afterall.

"I was the second pillar of Hircine High for two years. There's a school captain, typically whoever is capable of beating every other student as well as gaining control of the student body, be it respect like Darren had at Hircine or fear, like the only way someone will gain control here. That Captain can have up to three official liutenants, known as pillars. They act as enforcement to the Captain's policies, which are meant to be protection of the student body. But don't expect this place to follow that guideline.

"There's two major schools now. Hircine and Paragon. Don't misunderstand me, as much as I hate this place, I'm not a fan of my old school either. Hircine holds just as much hatred and loathing from me as I'm putting in here. I'm done playing in this system of puppets."

[Aroon Kamsing]

~I'd considered waiting for Jesse to post, but I'll not be in this thread for terribly long anyways, I think~

IC:
Twitching slightly at the brash remark, Aroon gave a short, solitary nod at the answer given to him. It appeared that, indeed, this young man had been a person of rank in his previous school and was definitely of a grandiose caliber as a fighter. Closer now as he was, he was able to take a more in-depth look at him and was able to make a few preliminary notes. Firstly, the form and the way he'd struck down the power-seeking student a few minutes before. The exchange had been quick, and quite brawl-like in its performance, but to the deeply perceptive Thai, he'd seen a finesse in the execution. There was martial arts training in there, no doubt about it. Going by the clothing he wore, it was fairly likely to be an Asian martial art, and to further narrow it down, though based on a personal assumption, he'd referred to himself as the 'Tiger of Hircine'. Chinese Kung-Fu had a style based on the tiger stance, and putting together everything else just made it...fit.

His question had been answered, and thus he had no intention of asking another without merit. Instead, he listened on as the explanation was given on the issue of 'captains' and 'pillars'. Apparently, in this corporal punishment regime they'd put into play, something that wasn't all that prevalent where he was from, they also let the students control each other. An odd concept, and he was forced to remember reading 'Lord Of The Flies' in the past. Children governing children, from his eyes, was all it was.

Of course, that didn't necessarily make it a bad thing, if the right person was in charge. The rest of the words filtered through to his head, of course, absorbed like a sponge, and without thinking, he spoke almost to himself, but at this distance loud enough that the Chinese boy would hear.

"Hm...Then maybe you should play by your own rules instead of someone elses...."

Blinking quickly as the words left his lips, he cursed himself for the potential antagonistic tendency the remark could incite, and though his lips remained shut, his brain continued to 'speak'.

'He talks about 'Darren', he must be the captain of Hircine, or something, ruling by respect, but that this place could only do so by fear. If he understands a ladder of command that was ran by an understanding between its members and those under them, then why not put it to use here? Unless, perhaps, he's been under someones thumb the whole time..?'

Shifting his eyes away from the Chinese boys face, he spoke in an apologetic tone, as quiet as he had before, "I'm sorry. I meant nothing by it."

He had no enjoyment in conceding himself to someone else, but for his first day here, it wouldn't do to go getting into the bad books of someone like this fellow, despite the deeply veiled interest in how capable he really was in a ring. Even at that, it was just a remark. Surely it would be acknowledged as such, and the situation could be bypassed, no?

[Jesse St. Johns]

"Fear. Respect. Punishment. Puppets."

I said it quietly, under my breath. Survival of the fittest in its sickest form. I listened to the labored explaination silently. I wasn't about to interrupt this guy. When he finished I glanced at the other man who had joined in and eyed him over. Reserved, didn't speak much. Smaller than me but that meant nothing in this world. I took a moment to mull over all the things said. So Captains run this world, Pillars enforce it, teachers and everyone else sit back and allow it. And here in Paragon it's every man for himself, where violence reigns and power comes from fear.

Well ain't that a bitch.

I suddenly realized I had become very visible in this crowd. One of only two men to say anything to the Tiger, and a new easily remembered face at that. I was surrounded by a crowd that upon hearing such an explaination would undoubtedly entertain thoughts and putting it into action.

Then he struck.

I was blind sided and lost in thought. I cursed myself as I fell to the floor from the blow. The big guy from before, the one who's fight I came in at the end and interrogated him, he was on his feet. And he was seething. He'd used both fists in a clenched hammer blow on the back of my skull; I could feel the heavy thud and knew what it had to have been. On hands and knees he screamed a gutteral moan and fell upon me. Guess he wasn't happy with me. My first test.

He was big, my height but out weighed me by a good 50 pounds of mostly muscle. He had an arm around my throat and was pressing his weight into my back, choking me hard. Things were dimming quickly. Act Jesse, MOVE! I stuck my thumb out and stabbed for his eye. Got lucky, hit dead on, same one he got hit in before. He howled, loosened slightly. I slipped my chin under his arm and sunk my teeth gums dead into his flesh. He howled louder and finally let go. I pushed hard and shrugged him off me. I spun, both of us on our knees, and sent a wild but powerful haymaker his way. I aimed low.

I hit his neck. I felt the spongy, thick wind pipe crush inward and come back distorted. His eyes bulged and his howl stopped dead. He stopped everything. He gurgled a little, fingertips clutching his throat. Then he fell backward gasping sickenly. I was breathing hard myself. I hauled myself to my feet and looked at the crowd. Then back to the Tiger. I said in a post-choked, raspy breath,

"Thanks. I got it."

I turned to leave but something about the Tiger's final words confused me.

"Last question. If you don't plan to play the game...what will you do?"

[Tiao Lei Shen]

Tiao Lei Shen scowled, talking much more than he intended to. Old habits die hard. Even if his words were little more than what he saw as facts and not quite the boastings of the past, it could still be a fair assumption that Tiao still liked the sound of his own voice, even if it came out more sparsely.

Tiao's eyes shifted over to Aroon as the thai once again seemed to speaking his own thoughts aloud. They narrowed in on the boy in what could easily be mistaken for agitation, but in reality was much more down the line of bemusement at the restating of Tiao's original intentions. Following suitely however would be an apology by the thai, causing one of Tiao's brows to rise. He shrugged with a slight shake of his head, disregarding and accepting the apology at the same time, Tiao not exactly sure which would be the appropriate response.

This guy seems...awkward.

The former pillar's eyes instantly shot back towards his left, the sudden movement of someone approaching receiving his full attention. Once again, old habits die hard, and Tiao found his body preparing for a lunge to intercept the attacker. However, as the attack came much too short, as it wasn't intended for him to begin with, Tiao planted his weight back down on his heels. It wasn't his fight, and he had no reason to involve himself. No reputation build up, no obligations, and no real knowledge of the two present.

Regardless, the taller and darkest skinned of all those present defending himself to the end. As he moved, Tiao made mental note of all his movements. Unlike the thai who stood beside him, Jesse held himself completely different. When one is a master of the martial arts, they can read body language very well, picking up all sorts of details, like recognizing another master. However, Jesse seemed to have no real training. A true scrapper to the end, showing hints of having a fire inside that could rival Tiao's own. If this one had some real training, he might be a force to reckon with.

Jesse turned to leave, but not before inquiring once more. What did Tiao intend to do? That was a very good question. His father Tiao Feng Ming had always given him commands, and there had never been a choice of whether to obey or not. While that aspect had not changed, the times away from his father had. For the past two years Tiao had taken orders, be it by the strings attached by MacMillan, or the direction led by his good friend Darren Blayne. The only time Tiao had been without orders had been the school days before Darren, where he was an unpredictable force of destruction. Now that he had ostricized himself, was that what he was destined to be once more, or was there a path Tiao had yet to find for himself?

"For now...I suppose I'll just keep tabs on the score. It'll be interesting to see it played from the stands for a change."