Post by vespertine on Dec 28, 2023 14:52:11 GMT -5
Off camera (aka bored and wanted something to do)
(James)
Date/Time: Dec 26th, 10:00PM
(James and Ves walk up to the crowd on the beach at Ocean Beach. It is dark and everyone has their rave sticks. A few people come up and start a conversation with Ves and James before the festivities begin. It's not a rave so much as a fire party or what the San Francisco Fire Church calls one of those parties where fire is twirled, thrown, gulped, or eaten then spit back out. Vespertine is here because she is learning how to fire eat. James is here because he wants to learn how to fire twirl. It starts when it gets dark and people can learn, twirl, play or do whatever, then at 10PM, someone, or anyone actually who thinks they have enough courage to perform can show off their skills. Vespertine goes aside with Serina, a fire eating teacher who used to work in Vegas for the Cirque de soliel and who is one of the head moderators for the San Francisco Fire Church Meetup which has been meeting now for about 5 years.)
S: How is your fire breathing going?
V: Not as good as I would like. I haven't practiced a whole bunch, I've had a few matches, I've just gained a title and James' boss proposed the idea that I be manager for his federation.
S: Wow. You are busy. But your fire eating is going to the wayside. You know you have to keep that up, right? What do you want to get out of firebreathing.
V: I would like to eventually use it in my entrance. Just one more thing I have grasped and that I accomplished that I can make my own.
S: Your entrance huh. Interesting. Let's see what you got.
(She steps aside and Vespertine gets out a fire stick, takes a small flask out, pours some liquid, we assume its lighter fluid of some kind, on the stick, then lights the stick. She twirls it very fast and then with her free hand, she takes a swig of the same liquid. When she is done, she puts the flaming stick to her mouth and blows. Immediately, a flame shoots out of her mouth a good 30 feet in the air but only lasts for 10 seconds. She finishes and huffs, a whuff of smoke escapes her.)
`
V: See, I have the stamina, I have the lungs. But I really wasn't much of a great swimmer though I like to be in or on the water. I can't seem to go farther or longer or even faster. Is faster even possible?
S: It can be. You've been doing this for a year, I'll say off and on, right. You need to build your stamina up. Mostly your lungs. Build those up first and you can go farther or longer. Try this.
(Samara fires her stick up, dances with it for a seconds, then takes a swig of the same liquid but drinks more of it, then puts the flaming stick to her mouth and does the same thing but sways her head so it shoots up at 40 feet everywhere and goes longer than 10 seconds. Everyone sees this and claps. Serina goes over to Vespertine and because she is almost 5'10, she towers over Vespertine. She gives some pointers on what she should be doing and how she should do it, then steps back and lets Ves try it. Ves does so. This time, she takes a bigger puff of air, takes a longer drink, then puts the fire into her mouth, keeps it there for a minute, then blows....hard. It does go longer by about 5 seconds but seems to come out shorter.)
S: Good. Almost. That breathe of air you took before you did it, kinda lessoned it. You know air can snuff out flame. So with the amount of air you breathed in before you did it, it was shorter because the air and flame were conflicting. If you didn't breathe but kept the amount of liquid fuel that you drank in, the effect would be longer and farther.
V: Still I need to work on my stamina.
S: Keep going though, you are doing good. (She looks over at James) How is he doing at fire twirling?
V: A lot better. He is a fast learner so has gotten the hang of it. Oh, want to do a cross flame?
S: Sure, don't cross the streams.
(They laugh and then both of them at the same time, light their fire sticks and go into this dance which they do for a minute or two before they stand 10 feet apart from each other and fire off their flames which cross. Serina's lasts a few seconds longer but it looks like a big firey X in the night sky. Applause comes from every direction.)
V: I live for the applause. (they laugh again)
(Someone new comes up to talk to Serina and Ves goes off by herself to practice for a while. After 30 minutes, she takes a "breather". Fire eating is hard on the lungs. Then Serina comes back up to her.)
S: SO... if you were going to incorporate this into your entrance, how would you do it?
Ves: So the way I see it (she explains) I would 6 beautiful woman come out on stage before me as my Japanese flute plays. They would get in two lines and firebreathe into crosses like we did. I would come out under this roof, shall we say, and when I get to the top of the entrance ramp, I would do my own fire breathing out towards the audience, finishing my flame with theirs. This is all because the lights are out. The only way they can see anything is they bring torches out with them to guide their way, then they use the torches to light up. Red lights come up as Diamond Eyes starts up. They go backstage and as I go down the ramp, I would light up and blow out fire every few feet. But add a green coloration to it if that's possible to indicate the color of poison. I then go up the stairs, go through the ropes, then lights go out again and at the bridge of the song, I do one very song, very far fire blast upon which at the end of, fire pyro pillars go off at each of the four corners. (she pauses) Yeah, I think that would work.
S: Green huh? That might work, I've only ever seen blue, yellow orange and red colors in fire. But the chinese have a kind of powder where they can turn their fireworks and fire into any color they want.
V: Interesting, I have to check that out.
S: Do they all have to be women?
V: Well.... no. I prefer women because they are more attractive to me and the audience but if Jet can find some hot looking men who can do fire eating as well, I wouldn't be opposed.
S: Makes sense I guess. Anyway, gotta go round to the others. Keep practicing.
(Vespertine continues to work on her fire eating for the next hour sometimes taking breaks every few minutes.)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Later.... 11:30
(James and Ves are sitting on a log watching the Fire Show go on. Ves is laying down on Jame's lap. He is stroking her hair. They had been watching for a while.)
James: Why don't you go out there? You want to get better? Good time to practice too.
Ves: I don't know. I am not good enough yet.
James: No. You are good enough. You just don't want to.
Ves: I do, I'll get there.
James: Ok (long pause, when Ves looks up at him)
Ves: What?
James: Oh nothing. Just, I don't think you can go out there. You can't do it because you aren't ready yet. Yeah, ok, I'll go with that.
(Vespertine sits up, looks at him, searches his face.)
Ves: Ok here we go. You don't think I can.
James: I don't think you can. I think you are good enough.
Ves: If I go, you go.
James: Mine's pretty tame compared to yours. If I'm can't and I'm not ready then.... (he lets the sentence trail off.)
(She gets up in a huff. She looks at him angrily, he looks back with a smirk. She takes off her hoodie, grabs her fire stick and liquid fuel and takes off in a huff.)
Ves: You watch. I can do this.
(She goes off into the dancing crowd and starts flaming shooting and flame twirling. She does a small dance, and is joined by several others and Serina. James just watches from the log he is sitting on. About an hour later, she comes walking back, huffing and puffing. Her point being that her she needs more stamina doing this. She stands in front of him, hands on hips.)
Ves: Satisfied?
James: Very.
Ves: I bet you didn't even watch me.
(He raises an eyebrow. Get a "really?" look on his face.)
Ves: What?
James: You aren't on camera. It's not all about you. Don't let your ego get too big. You are still learning. Remember that. Because you know a lot of others things you are great at that nobody else can do. You are always learning. You're Asian, yes Korean I know, but we can't all be fast learners and great at everything we do like you. Take your time, enjoy the journey, not the destination. You're not on stage, you can take the day off. You just won the title from Deimos, you don't need to perform anymore. We had our wakeboard weekend in which we had to entertain my sister and her husband and JC and Bry. Take time off. Be a normal person. Well as normal as you can get breathing fire. Eventually you will be good at it but you won't get it right away. Look how long it took you to learn Tae Kwon Do. Tae Kwon Do, a korean martial art.
(She looks crestfallen. James is the only person in her life that can call her out like that with almost no repercussions. For everyone else there is a wall there to keep up because she has to keep up appearances. He calls her out on occasions like this to keep her ego in check and when he does, she feels like a lost little girl with no family, no friends and the wall was brought down so she is made vulnerable, innocent and feel like the small person she is. Three emotions she never wants to feel. She goes into little girl mode with her body, almost like a little girl who was just scorned for doing something bad and got caught doing it. She looks down at the sand.)
Ves: Sorry, yes. You're right.
James: Oh look. (He grabs her hand and pulls her too him and sits her on his lap. He takes her chin and forces her to look up at him) I won't apologize for bursting your ego bubble. I realize you are still on the high that came with gathering your first title.
Ves: But I won't even let my father or mother talk to me like that. And yet you turn me into that small little vulnerable girl that I should be, that I am. But won't let anybody see.
(He cradles her in his arms while she lays her head on his chest and cries. He rocks her but lets her cry. He knows she isn't on her period so she has "those" feelings but she is crashing hard from being on stage, on the go, on top of her game for the last two weeks. From entertaining at Tahoe, to going to watch him in the ring to doing street racing, she always seems to be someone who always needs to be at the top of her game. She cries herself to sleep. He lets her sleep for another hour in his arms before he wakes her so they can go home. They pack up and take off. He'll spend the night at her house to make sure she is ok. He doesn't want her to go back on painkillers just to mask the pain she is feeling. No sex, he thinks, not tonight. Tonight she can take off and be a normal woman. She fell asleep again on the way home to her place. He luckily finds a parking spot on the street, leaves their fire things in the car, picks her up and carries her upstairs to her apartment. He lays her gently down on her bed, undresses her and she curls up like a small cat as he covers her with a sheet. He then goes to sleep on the living room couch.)
(James)
Date/Time: Dec 26th, 10:00PM
(James and Ves walk up to the crowd on the beach at Ocean Beach. It is dark and everyone has their rave sticks. A few people come up and start a conversation with Ves and James before the festivities begin. It's not a rave so much as a fire party or what the San Francisco Fire Church calls one of those parties where fire is twirled, thrown, gulped, or eaten then spit back out. Vespertine is here because she is learning how to fire eat. James is here because he wants to learn how to fire twirl. It starts when it gets dark and people can learn, twirl, play or do whatever, then at 10PM, someone, or anyone actually who thinks they have enough courage to perform can show off their skills. Vespertine goes aside with Serina, a fire eating teacher who used to work in Vegas for the Cirque de soliel and who is one of the head moderators for the San Francisco Fire Church Meetup which has been meeting now for about 5 years.)
S: How is your fire breathing going?
V: Not as good as I would like. I haven't practiced a whole bunch, I've had a few matches, I've just gained a title and James' boss proposed the idea that I be manager for his federation.
S: Wow. You are busy. But your fire eating is going to the wayside. You know you have to keep that up, right? What do you want to get out of firebreathing.
V: I would like to eventually use it in my entrance. Just one more thing I have grasped and that I accomplished that I can make my own.
S: Your entrance huh. Interesting. Let's see what you got.
(She steps aside and Vespertine gets out a fire stick, takes a small flask out, pours some liquid, we assume its lighter fluid of some kind, on the stick, then lights the stick. She twirls it very fast and then with her free hand, she takes a swig of the same liquid. When she is done, she puts the flaming stick to her mouth and blows. Immediately, a flame shoots out of her mouth a good 30 feet in the air but only lasts for 10 seconds. She finishes and huffs, a whuff of smoke escapes her.)
`
V: See, I have the stamina, I have the lungs. But I really wasn't much of a great swimmer though I like to be in or on the water. I can't seem to go farther or longer or even faster. Is faster even possible?
S: It can be. You've been doing this for a year, I'll say off and on, right. You need to build your stamina up. Mostly your lungs. Build those up first and you can go farther or longer. Try this.
(Samara fires her stick up, dances with it for a seconds, then takes a swig of the same liquid but drinks more of it, then puts the flaming stick to her mouth and does the same thing but sways her head so it shoots up at 40 feet everywhere and goes longer than 10 seconds. Everyone sees this and claps. Serina goes over to Vespertine and because she is almost 5'10, she towers over Vespertine. She gives some pointers on what she should be doing and how she should do it, then steps back and lets Ves try it. Ves does so. This time, she takes a bigger puff of air, takes a longer drink, then puts the fire into her mouth, keeps it there for a minute, then blows....hard. It does go longer by about 5 seconds but seems to come out shorter.)
S: Good. Almost. That breathe of air you took before you did it, kinda lessoned it. You know air can snuff out flame. So with the amount of air you breathed in before you did it, it was shorter because the air and flame were conflicting. If you didn't breathe but kept the amount of liquid fuel that you drank in, the effect would be longer and farther.
V: Still I need to work on my stamina.
S: Keep going though, you are doing good. (She looks over at James) How is he doing at fire twirling?
V: A lot better. He is a fast learner so has gotten the hang of it. Oh, want to do a cross flame?
S: Sure, don't cross the streams.
(They laugh and then both of them at the same time, light their fire sticks and go into this dance which they do for a minute or two before they stand 10 feet apart from each other and fire off their flames which cross. Serina's lasts a few seconds longer but it looks like a big firey X in the night sky. Applause comes from every direction.)
V: I live for the applause. (they laugh again)
(Someone new comes up to talk to Serina and Ves goes off by herself to practice for a while. After 30 minutes, she takes a "breather". Fire eating is hard on the lungs. Then Serina comes back up to her.)
S: SO... if you were going to incorporate this into your entrance, how would you do it?
Ves: So the way I see it (she explains) I would 6 beautiful woman come out on stage before me as my Japanese flute plays. They would get in two lines and firebreathe into crosses like we did. I would come out under this roof, shall we say, and when I get to the top of the entrance ramp, I would do my own fire breathing out towards the audience, finishing my flame with theirs. This is all because the lights are out. The only way they can see anything is they bring torches out with them to guide their way, then they use the torches to light up. Red lights come up as Diamond Eyes starts up. They go backstage and as I go down the ramp, I would light up and blow out fire every few feet. But add a green coloration to it if that's possible to indicate the color of poison. I then go up the stairs, go through the ropes, then lights go out again and at the bridge of the song, I do one very song, very far fire blast upon which at the end of, fire pyro pillars go off at each of the four corners. (she pauses) Yeah, I think that would work.
S: Green huh? That might work, I've only ever seen blue, yellow orange and red colors in fire. But the chinese have a kind of powder where they can turn their fireworks and fire into any color they want.
V: Interesting, I have to check that out.
S: Do they all have to be women?
V: Well.... no. I prefer women because they are more attractive to me and the audience but if Jet can find some hot looking men who can do fire eating as well, I wouldn't be opposed.
S: Makes sense I guess. Anyway, gotta go round to the others. Keep practicing.
(Vespertine continues to work on her fire eating for the next hour sometimes taking breaks every few minutes.)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Later.... 11:30
(James and Ves are sitting on a log watching the Fire Show go on. Ves is laying down on Jame's lap. He is stroking her hair. They had been watching for a while.)
James: Why don't you go out there? You want to get better? Good time to practice too.
Ves: I don't know. I am not good enough yet.
James: No. You are good enough. You just don't want to.
Ves: I do, I'll get there.
James: Ok (long pause, when Ves looks up at him)
Ves: What?
James: Oh nothing. Just, I don't think you can go out there. You can't do it because you aren't ready yet. Yeah, ok, I'll go with that.
(Vespertine sits up, looks at him, searches his face.)
Ves: Ok here we go. You don't think I can.
James: I don't think you can. I think you are good enough.
Ves: If I go, you go.
James: Mine's pretty tame compared to yours. If I'm can't and I'm not ready then.... (he lets the sentence trail off.)
(She gets up in a huff. She looks at him angrily, he looks back with a smirk. She takes off her hoodie, grabs her fire stick and liquid fuel and takes off in a huff.)
Ves: You watch. I can do this.
(She goes off into the dancing crowd and starts flaming shooting and flame twirling. She does a small dance, and is joined by several others and Serina. James just watches from the log he is sitting on. About an hour later, she comes walking back, huffing and puffing. Her point being that her she needs more stamina doing this. She stands in front of him, hands on hips.)
Ves: Satisfied?
James: Very.
Ves: I bet you didn't even watch me.
(He raises an eyebrow. Get a "really?" look on his face.)
Ves: What?
James: You aren't on camera. It's not all about you. Don't let your ego get too big. You are still learning. Remember that. Because you know a lot of others things you are great at that nobody else can do. You are always learning. You're Asian, yes Korean I know, but we can't all be fast learners and great at everything we do like you. Take your time, enjoy the journey, not the destination. You're not on stage, you can take the day off. You just won the title from Deimos, you don't need to perform anymore. We had our wakeboard weekend in which we had to entertain my sister and her husband and JC and Bry. Take time off. Be a normal person. Well as normal as you can get breathing fire. Eventually you will be good at it but you won't get it right away. Look how long it took you to learn Tae Kwon Do. Tae Kwon Do, a korean martial art.
(She looks crestfallen. James is the only person in her life that can call her out like that with almost no repercussions. For everyone else there is a wall there to keep up because she has to keep up appearances. He calls her out on occasions like this to keep her ego in check and when he does, she feels like a lost little girl with no family, no friends and the wall was brought down so she is made vulnerable, innocent and feel like the small person she is. Three emotions she never wants to feel. She goes into little girl mode with her body, almost like a little girl who was just scorned for doing something bad and got caught doing it. She looks down at the sand.)
Ves: Sorry, yes. You're right.
James: Oh look. (He grabs her hand and pulls her too him and sits her on his lap. He takes her chin and forces her to look up at him) I won't apologize for bursting your ego bubble. I realize you are still on the high that came with gathering your first title.
Ves: But I won't even let my father or mother talk to me like that. And yet you turn me into that small little vulnerable girl that I should be, that I am. But won't let anybody see.
(He cradles her in his arms while she lays her head on his chest and cries. He rocks her but lets her cry. He knows she isn't on her period so she has "those" feelings but she is crashing hard from being on stage, on the go, on top of her game for the last two weeks. From entertaining at Tahoe, to going to watch him in the ring to doing street racing, she always seems to be someone who always needs to be at the top of her game. She cries herself to sleep. He lets her sleep for another hour in his arms before he wakes her so they can go home. They pack up and take off. He'll spend the night at her house to make sure she is ok. He doesn't want her to go back on painkillers just to mask the pain she is feeling. No sex, he thinks, not tonight. Tonight she can take off and be a normal woman. She fell asleep again on the way home to her place. He luckily finds a parking spot on the street, leaves their fire things in the car, picks her up and carries her upstairs to her apartment. He lays her gently down on her bed, undresses her and she curls up like a small cat as he covers her with a sheet. He then goes to sleep on the living room couch.)