The various Summer events held plenty of attractions that held a lot of attention. And even with the coming school year not too far away, some things like SAMAS presented plenty of opportunities for young student martial artists to get tips and for some that were progressing their way toward mastery to demonstrate what they'd learned. This was especially true for the five elements as they had been studying various forms of martial arts that would reflect their chosen element and their new forms. In fact, SAMAS even allowed for them to display and present some of the skills they had been practicing, along with other interactions.
"So this jungle gym is to help reflect your style?" one man commented to Huoxing and Muxing as he looked at the arranged scaffolding that was set up to resemble how the branches in a tree would interact with each other.
"And would work with our Animalian Species," Huoxing gave a smile before hopping up onto one of the bars, "Red Pandas spend a fair amount of time in trees, "so it represents an interesting challenge in protecting both balance and moving with regard to the rest of the styles I've been working on."
She then demonstrated that by moving along the bars quickly, while sliding, flipping, gripping with her hands, and counter balancing her tail against the rest of her body as she did so. It was fairly artistic, and in a way almost resembled an ornate dance in how Huoxing moved through the obstacles that had been set up. And while she moved across to another set, Muxing made her way over to the first set.
"A lot of that looks a lot like parkour," the tourist commented to Houxing as he looked up to her.
"Heh... well... I've seen a couple guys that seemed interested in that fancy running," Huoxing answered, "and some of it seemed fun, so I thought I'd try to add parts of it in... make it more acrobatic in some ways and give it something that would even give observers reason to smile."
A small group had come to watch the official display as Houxing and Muxing moved to demonstrate what they'd developed and learned so far, and how well they'd balanced their skills to their Animalian form's natural ability. It lead to some curiosity and noted differences in specific styles that was soon pointed out.
"You're not as fast as the little panda," one person in the crowd stated.
"Red Panda," Houxing corrected.
"Yes," Muxing answered, grateful for the talk she'd had with Ping in helping her at least more openly recognize where she'd had issues that were truly malingering even after their rescue. They'd gotten an appointment with Doctor Jones's clinic, and specifically with one of the new therapists that Doctor Jones had hired. She hoped it would help in the long term, as she really didn't want to spend the rest of her life practically flipping out at anything that would remotely relate to sex. "But my form and style is also different from my sister's. As a Chinese Tree Viper Animalian, my physical abilities and thus my style are different from Huoxing's, even if both of us are good at styles that would fit with being in the trees."
"Or a jungle gym in this case," Huoxing gave a chuckle.
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There were some other events that weren't quite related to things related to SAMAS and its martial arts displays. It was more in relation to interactions with some of the tourists that had come to see the SAMAS related events. Many of the human tourists that had come were in awe of many of the martial arts displays and demonstrations. The styles often varied and this seemed to be the thing that drew the most awe. As Shuixing walked along after getting a quick snack, she inadvertently bumped into one tourist that was watching one of the masters from one of the other martial arts school's break bricks with his fists in coordinated punches. The guy ended up bouncing off her and skidding along the floor, earning a few laughs from those that had seen him collide with the Water Buffalo Animalian.
"I'm sorry," Shuixing said quickly as she came forward and offered the young man a hand up.
She shakily got him to his feet and he responded with a semi awed look up to her. He wasn't exactly scrawny or overweight or anything, but she also noted that he had rather long and lanky legs for a human and a beard of stubble that wasn't much more than peach fuzz. He looked down after Shuixing got him to his feet.
"No... I... I shoulda paid attention to where I was going," the guy commented, "but I just got so distracted by all this awesome stuff here."
"You like martial arts?" Shuixing asked.
"I'm a big fan!" the guy answered with a smile and a small hop back, "Nate Bowman. I've always loved martial arts movies and all their sweet moves!" He paused to throw a series of faux punches and kicks into the air, that looked more like aimless flailing than anything else and Nate was lucky that no one happened to be in the area where the punches and kicks he made. About all he managed to do was to trip himself and hop on one leg before Shuixing could catch him before he fell into one of the other areas where the various skill areas were being displayed. As she caught him, he only looked down again. "But as you can see... I'm a bit uncoordinated. No matter what I try... I manage to mess it up. I think it's partially why my dad let me get a break from his farm up in Wisconsin. I was practicing on this fence post, missed, kicked a barn wall, startled all the cattle inside and they left in a hurry, wrecking gallons of milk that was supposed to be raised."
"But you still like martial arts?" Shuixing asked, glad that her English was getting better as she was actually intrigued a bit by him.
"Yeah... but I suppose all I'll ever amount to is watching movies on television," Nate answered with a semi depressed tone, "as a clumsy guy like me would never be able to do any of those sweet moves..."
"Perhaps you shouldn't try to copy moves you've seen on television or in the movies," Shuixing commented, "for one thing, some of those moves would be staged and wouldn't be actually part of that particular martial art... or are the result of Hollywood mixing several martial arts styles together The other thing is that even with the moves they show that ARE accurate, they're also something that are at a master's level of training and discipline. If you're just starting out... you don't want to go right into the hard things. You start with the simple and build things up from there."
Nate slowly nodded and looked down, looking rather embarrassed at having both failing to paying attention to where he was going and colliding with this stacked Amazon of an Animalian as a result, and also for essentially admitting that he was clumsy with no ability to keep himself coordinated. Shuixing noticed the embarrassment and gave a small smile and gently patted him on the shoulder. He'd given her a couple of small glances that she'd actually expected after becoming an Animalian. While there were a fair number of humans that weren't really into the more animal like features that Animalians had, they still seemed to be interest in many of the human features that Animalians had, and Shuixing had already noticed a fair amount of that after her conversion. It was in an odd sense nice to be seen as "desirable" after how she'd been treated in the cult, in which they only came for her when they couldn't get anyone else... though in many ways she did agree with a fair number of Muxing's concerns regarding things like the Bare as You Dare competition, but for Shuixing, that was all in the past, and as an Animalian, she was more than happy to move forward.
"I'd even be happy to show you the ropes with getting started," Shuixing offered, "help you learn balance, warm ups, and so on. You could tell me about Wisconsin."
"Really?! You'd help me?" Nate looked up, looking eager, excited, and even welcome.
Shuixing nodded and soon found herself on the receiving end of a very happy hug, which she smiled and returned.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
For Tuxing and Jinxing, SAMAS had provided for some opportunities to spar and practice while simultaneously allowing them to demonstrate their skills. It wasn't much more than one of their various training sessions with each taking turns placing padded gloves over their hands and forcing the other to go through a series of exercises that were designed to help perfect moves and counter moves. In some ways it was like an elaborate sparing match with security measures that the UFC-A had mandated for safety reasons. It worked relatively well and actually attracted just as much attention as Huoxing and Muxing and their practicing on the makeshift jungle gym nearby.
"You know... even with many martial arts masters that have come here to teach Animalians or have become Animalians," Jinxing commented, "It think more people have come here to watch us."
"Probably because Animalia has advertised our presence so much," Tuxing commented, "even if the end plan may end up with us returning to the Chinese colony when it's established."
Jinxing threw a pair of punches that she intended to get Tuxing off balance with. Tuxing swung one arm up and deflected one punch and caught the other with her other hand. Tuxing then began to slowly push against Jinxing and hedged the Snow Leopard Animalian toward the marked circle on the match. Jinxing tried to push back, but she also knew that this was a point where she knew she at a major disadvantage. Tigers were larger than Snow Leopards, and once Tuxing had been able to catch and hold onto Jinxing, the match was clearly in Tuxing's hands. And after Jinxing's feet had crossed the line on the mat, a referee called the match with Tuxing the winner.
"You did fairly well," Tuxing said to her sister, "I think you're getting faster."
"Yeah... shame I can't equal your strength," Jinxing commented as she caught her breath, though they both shook hands.
"But strength isn't everything," Tuxing reminded her, "I have to play to my speed and agility advantage in sparing sessions with Shuixing."
"Yeah... it's like strength and balance are her thing," Jinxing nodded, "Say... where is she anyway? She was supposed to come back."
The glanced around the area and only saw applauding fans that were essentially cheering them on. In this, they guessed that Shuixing was still getting a snack and would be back in a little while which soon lead to some of the other. That came when Tuxing felt a small hand catch her tail and give it a gentle tug. That made her turn to find a young girl standing there with an image of an anthropomorphic tigress in oriental clothing standing next to an overweight male anthropomorphic panda.
"You're very good," the girl said to Tuxing.
"Thank you," Tuxing gave a small smile and a nod, "Jinxing is pretty good too. Our styles are merely different."
"And will stand for truth, justice, and the hero's way!" Jinxing added with a small smile, "as the Five Elements follow their fearless leader, Tuxing."
It wasn't much of an answer, but it did seem to satisfy the girl who came in for a hug, which Tuxing returned. The girl then giggled when Tuxing's fur tickled her neck. She waved to rejoin her parents, letting Tuxing and Jinxing enjoy seeing people happy.
"The truth, justice, and hero's way thing sounded nice," Tuxing commented, "but I don't think going around as kung fu crime fighters would work."
"Maybe, but I think that's what she was looking for," Jinxing gave a shrug, "did you see her smile at that? I did."