trans_9 | With all the force of a great typhooon -

Mulan is early to bed and early to wake, and just as early to get to the Sensoriums for practice. A strictly military woman, she's not much for meditation. Quiet reflection is for when you're on the march, and sitting around has no place in the middle of a war. Not the one she fought, anyway.

Her kung-fu reflects this. Her style is a model of efficiency, the sort of fighting that results when an experienced warrior takes a young, underpowered farmhand and trains her to hit for the maximum amount of damage that can be dealt out with the shortest amount of training time. It's not flashy. It's not refined. There's not a lot of spirituality involved. There's just Mulan, and imaginary enemies needing to be hit, and muscles in the process of being kept up.

After her encounter with Sawyer, she's more thoroughly maintaining her gender-neutral garb, still pulling her hair back, still wearing her roomy men's shirt and loose yoga pants with the plantsuit underneath. She flows through the movements of her agressive, active katas, as the sun rises over a simulation of her original training field, illuminating dew and mist over the green grass, and the sound of a rushing river somewhere in the background, out of sight in the forest behind her. A tree hung with ripe lychees shades her as she strikes, evades, and flows. In a few minutes, some of them will be breakfast.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Is it silk? I haven't seen silk since I woke up here."

She leans over to examine the edge of Katara's skirt thoughtfully. "It does look comfortable, but I don't think I could wear it. It's so . . ."

She's thinking "sexy," but the only words she knows to say it are mildly unflattering, and she knows that Katara isn't the sort of girl who would bare her midriff to be a tease.

". . . I mean, people here sometimes don't know I'm a woman. And you know, the other day, I was helping a man clear the city, and he had no shirt on, so I told him I was because I thought he wouldn't want to show that much skin in front of a woman, and he accused me of . . ." she airquotes - no telling where she picked that up from - "'Checking him out.' I'm engaged! How improper is that?"

She sighs. "And if I'd been dressed as a woman to start out with, I bet he would have done that from the start."

"Oh, yes!" Katara said, smiling. "It's a little revealing considering I usually don't wear something quite like it, but I guess I'm used to it now. Like I said, its only because it gives me freedom of movement, and reminds me of my world. I miss it sometimes."

Katara made a disgusted sound. "It always annoys me how its improper to show any skin as a woman but you can just go around with no shirt on if you're a guy! Don't get me wrong, I'm used to it in my world, but really, why is it that you can't dress modestly and not be thought of as a man? I mean, its your choice to wear clothes how you want. In fact, I rather like them! I bet he would have been checking you out if you were dressed as a woman!"

Katara is totally planning on helping Mulan meditate...right after some ranting,

Edited 2010-03-23 22:38 (UTC)

"Well." Mulan blushes a little. "Usually the men in my world and time don't show skin if there are women around. It's improper."

She pauses, before adding, "The first time I ever saw a man without his shirt was when I was here, for the first time, in basic training."

And it was hawwwt.

". . . anyway. We should probably be meditating, not getting ourselves angry." Or thinking about Shang's glistening abs. Oh how glorious they are. She smiles. "I don't meditate a lot. We didn't have time for it in basic training, not with the Huns moving so quickly. How do you start?"

"Understood," Katara said. "Where I come from men can't really do that anyway, they would freeze. In hotter climates, men can get away with it though. It is a double standard, but really, there isn't much you can do about it. Anyway, you're right, we do have training to do. After listening to you over the comm, I've realized I know what might help to benefit you."

Katara quietly change the Sensorium settings a bit. The backdrop itself didn't change, but now the air had the scent of sandalwood as the incense burned on four sides of them.

"To start, you have to get in a comfortable position," Katara said. "This will be the position that you think benefits you most, that helps you to relax best. When you've found it, make sure to get yourself completely comfortable: stretch your shoulders, flex and release all your tension. This will be important: its like the beginning of your ground and center. You find the spot that pleases you best, and in that position you retain focus and build a mental shelter. try this now."

Katara was already cross legged, watching her student.

'Build a mental shelter.' Okay. Well, Mulan hasn't done that before, but she has sat comfortably, so she works on that first. Releasing her tension takes a little time.

Now, a mental shelter. Sort of like a little shrine to herself. She imagines short walls, windows all around her, the breeze filtering through big, open windows.

. . . her shoulders are tensing. She relaxes them again.

Katara waited until she was comfortable, and she could see how she was fidgeting a little. That made sense: everyone always had trouble focusing at first, meditation was never something that one jumped into. That was why Katara was starting out slowly.

"Once you feel that stability, concentrate on your breathing. Picture yourself as a tree, breathing in draws in the water that falls to the soil, breathing out and growing, leaves blooming, branches stretching outward. count your breaths if you have to, but be constant. When you get better at this, you won't have to count anymore, it will come naturally."

She waited, watching.

With all the force of a great typhooon -

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject