Match of the Millennium

Description: While the tournament begins with a preliminary round, four of the stranded NFG fighters set out to try and find sustenance. An opportunity presents itself: Zack has left behind instructions for a competition that will earn the four a 'cheeky handful' of Zack Coins. Fortunately, Coco is on hand to provide instruction in the rites of keijo - but who will emerge victorious from the mighty butt-battle? And what mysterious prizes could their Zack Coins (ZC) afford them?

[COCO]
It's a hot day on Zack Island. With a temperature over 30 degrees Celsius and blazing sunshine above, it's the perfect weather to put on your favourite swimsuit, slap on some waterproof sun cream, and go for a nice, cool dip in the pool.

At least, it would be, if you weren't stranded on the otherwise-abandoned island by some fiery evil bitch with no food supplies, no internet, no room service, and no hope of getting off the island unless you go climb a mountain so you can re-enact the most traumatic event of your thus-far short life. It's only day two of the marooning, but the food situation is already frankly starting to remind Coco of her high school days.

At least she's managed to accomplish steps one and two. The posh purple-nette is standing on the concrete at the poolside, her expression neutral as she reads a set of instructions stuck to the wooden wall of the poolside bathing hut aloud.

"Hello, sexy babies.

Today is your chance to win a cheeky handful of Zack Coins!"

Coco scrunches her face up, letting her shades slip down slightly to reveal her silver eyes. "He... he did that on purpose, didn't he?"

She pushes the sunglasses back into place with one finger. "Anyway...

"...Whoever can give the best showing and emerge the first Keijo Champion of Isla Zaca will receive a shiny prize. So let's see you put those lovely hips to action! It's your chance to make a splash and win some cash! Signed, Zack. Pee ess, Zack Coins are not legal tender."

Coco pulls in a deep breath, drawing back her shoulders and pushing up her chest before letting out a sigh. In another lifetime, she would have been tittering with delight at reading a message from Zack himself, eager to throw herself into this very activity for which she has not only trained as an amateur devotee, but aligns with the philosophy that she developed thanks to the influence of Djamila in Season One.

It still holds true, she supposes, and for now, she'll have to embrace it.

"Time to give it your ass, Connie. Stiff upper lip," she tells herself. "Or upper hip, I suppose."

Turning to face the others, she swings her hands up to clap together, steepling her fingers under her chin. "Right. So, it looks like we've got the equipment here for English Standard Rules - which is where two competitors stand on the same platform and politely take turns trying to knock each other off without falling in themselves. I suppose we could adapt the German regulation, which, by my understanding, involves four competitors on a larger platform in a free-for-all, with the last one in being the winner. Or we could blow up some floaties and go Japanese Youth Division rules, which is played on multiple platforms with aggressive positioning and relies much more heavily on mobility, with chi being allowed. I'm fine with whichever, as long as we can find an electric inflator; the last time I tried to blow something that size, I nearly passed out. Have you lot got any preferences?"

Of course, aside from the other competitors assembled, there's also a pair of camera girls on hand to record everything, one with a hand cam and the other operating a tripod with a full view of the pool. There's also a guy with a boom mic. Constance hasn't bothered to learn any of their names; she's far too wealthy and angry at life to care at the moment.

[ROXANA]
Rox has her swimsuit and her sun cream on and a dip in a cool pool should sound rather wonderful right now. Her heart isn't really in it though. Despite her outwardly calm demeanor, what happened the previous day has left her shaken. She'd of course watched Junko in action on her television screen but seeing her up close in all her cruel glory was a very different experience. The strange thing was, well, one of the strange things, that some of what she'd said in her speech had made sense. Rox had almost felt some sympathy for her at some points but that had lessened somewhat when she realised the creature's plan to trap them all on the island.

Now, to make matters worse, they have been given an assignment. Herself, Coco, Kenzo and Ishida have received instructions from Tom and Lou to go to the pool and play a game of keijo. This is the very same sport the scorpion-woman had cringed upon hearing the description of. If it was just she and Coco then it could have been more bearable but she's also going to be up against, literally, her favourite fighter, Kenzo and the friendly fellow fan of Flea, Ishida.

She listens as Coco reads the rules in her upper-class London accent, which somehow seems to make them more ludicrous. They are pretty loose and open to interpretation and none of them appear any more appealing than the next. Pondering the problem, she eventually pipes up. "Perhaps we should go German, so that nobody has an unfair advantage. Neutral territory, so to speak. I'm not set on it though, if someone else has a different preference."

This said, she falls in to silence, sending a shy smile to Shock and Roll. She does give out a girlish giggle though, when Coco continues and says the legendary season one catchphrase. "Give it your ass." Djamila may be absent but her words of wisdom live on.

[ISHIDA]
Ishida -had- brought some food with him onto the island, though it was more to share with others: two loaves of French bread, cut into halves and carefully wrapped in aluminum foil prior to the last voyage of the S.S. Glassbow. It was a nice little bonus for those who had been left wanting after the picnic sandwiches vanished. They didn't last very long at all -- but to be fair, the loaves would have been put to waste after another day regardless.

So, with no internet, no room service, that left the only source of Ishida's proteins as the remains of his bag of dried cuttlefish -- meticulously rationed out to last him until... right now, as he dangles the very last scraps of meat over his eagerly-awaiting mouth.

He washes the shredded meat down with a gulp of water from a plastic bottle. Here in a famine-plagued island, he will be holding onto this plastic bottle as one of the few ties to civilization -- for without water, death will come far more quickly for him.

True to form, though -- no one will hear the stoic qigong artist complain.
But they might hear his stomach rumble.

Ishida is wearing the same thing he was on the boat: an uncombed silk jacket, a pair of charcoal grey swim trunks, and a pair of light canvas shoes. , The jacket is, as before, unfastened to bare a pair of well-muscled abs. He folds the bag into precise halves, then quarters, before storing it in a zippered pouch on his backpack. He sends a glance towards Coco as she reads the sign aloud, giving her his full attention as she explains the differences in rules between the various nationalities.

He seems to be strained a bit, though: it takes him a -little- bit of effort to sort out what Coco is saying given his relative unfamiliarity with her accent. His grey gaze turns to Roxana as she offers her suggestion. And while Coco's note of a Japanese youth league does have him leaning that way, he finds himself nodding towards Roxana.

"Barring an inflator, I agree. Blowing up inflatables will make us more tired and more hungry."

He... takes another sip of water, at that note.

"That said..."

Here, he turns towards Kenzo, with a curious expression on his face. Perhaps the nin-gineer has something more to offer?

[KENZO]
Kenzo has been caught unprepared for being stuck on the island for more than a few hours. As he and the others make their way to the pool, Kenzo is trailed by his drone. Yes. The drone that he used to make a drop in entrance into the Rumble the first season.

The reasons he brought the drone along were that he probably could get some nice footage of the island, the fact that it had storage so it could hold onto his combat suit when he wasn't fighting, and he could use it for a dynamic entry for his match depending on where the fight was located. That would bring us to the reason why Kenzo isn't using it to escape or send for help. First, seeing as Kenzo was using his chi to charge it, power requirements for doing either would leave the drone stranded too far away from certain help, with him feeling too drained to maintain power to escape and it too far away from anything to be of use. Second, he thought of Junko/Suzaku as the petty type of asshole to blow his drone out of the air if he attempted escape or send it out for help. There were many promises silently made to himself on the trek that the next drone would have solar charging capability.

As Coco reads the instructions, he finds it impossible to resist applying his palm to his forehead at the mention of a 'cheeky handful' but otherwise keeps quiet until Ishida turns to him.

"While I'm okay with the German rules, especially since the Japanese youth league rules are particularly less safe for all involved when accounting for my ability."

To further emphasize the point, Kenzo holds up two fingers in a peace sign (mostly to avoid inadvertently insulting Coco by giving the British two-finger salute by turning the hand the other way) and then lets the electricity climb up to his fingertips like a Jacob's Ladder.

"That being said, going with English standard and running it as a one on one tournament seems like the fairest way to handle it but German rules allow us to get this over with as quickly as possible so I'm leaning towards that."

[COCO]
Coco's hands slip down to her hips, resting on either side of them as she listens thoughtfully and nods along as each of the others speaks in turn. If there's one thing that's nice about being stuck on a mostly-deserted island - other than all the things that would be nice if they weren't tainted by the circumstances - it's that the level of psychic noise in the atmosphere is almost non-existent. For once, Coco is able to lower her psychic guard and just listen to people. None of the three that she's listening to now give off the sort of empathic vibes that threaten to subsume or clash with her own sense of self.

Arriving on the island had been an all-time high for her. Junko's arrival had turned it into an all-time low. But right now, she realises that she's...

"Okay! So, we're going to need one of these," Coco says as she starts pulling a large octagon formed and crossed by metal pipes and wrapped in waterproof red fabric - almost a bit like a water trampoline - away from where it's sheltering against the wall under the hut's canopy and carrying it over to the pool. She tosses it out into the middle of the water, where it flips flat to float.

"Now, if I'm correct about this, they'll have to have a system installed..."

Searching along the wall of the hut, Coco finds a dial with settings labelled 'Off,' 'Jacuzzi Mode,' 'Pool-Hopping Mode,' 'Tug-of-War Mode' and 'Butt-Battle Mode.'

"A-ha."

She turns the dial to the fourth setting, and barely-perceptible jets activate inside the pool, gently producing currents of carefully-balanced force to drive the platform to the middle of one of the pool's widest points, ensuring that it won't drift and risk competitors falling off near the concrete poolside.

It also gives evidence to the fact that the island's power grid is operational or they have some kind of emergency source. Which might mean that they're using some sort of limited resource on a keijo competition, but that's not something for Coco to care about.

"Excellent. So, in German rules, as with other European variants, you're not allowed to take both feet off of the platform, you must face the outside of the platform at all times, and contact with your opponents is only allowed between the lower back and mid-thigh - although, given the slight discrepancy between our respective heights, I suppose we can be relaxed about precise regions and focus on the spirit of the rules, which is that you're supposed to try and use your bottom to knock your opponent - or opponents, in this case - off of the platform and into the pool before they can do the same to you. Once you fall off the platform or take both feet off simultaneously, you're eliminated. And since it's German free-for-all rules, sideswiping and opportunistic target selection is allowed."

She takes a deep breath, looking for a moment as if she might faint, before wiping her brow, taking a drink from a water bottle she's left on a poolside table, and smiling.

"So, any questions, or shall we just have a go at it?"

[ROXANA]
Rox watches Ishida indulge in his snack. Strangely, she hasn't thought about her stomach too much since the scene with Junko had happened. It's amazing what shock and stress can do to the digestion. She could maybe go for some mango but there doesn't seem to be any on offer, so she forces herself to focus on the game in hand.

She subtly adjusts her white bikini bottoms, trying to make sure they cover as much as such a garment can do, and listens to the British girl who's giving them tips and tricks on keijo. Roxana is relieved that Coco is taking control because she's likely to have been lost, if she'd had to take the lead.

Both of the men appear to be amiable to sticking to the German style of play. They both give solid reasons as to why, so it seems that is settled at least. Looking back towards the purple-haired party princess, the scorpion-woman admires her strength. She presents as pretty calm and chill given the circumstances, and like Coco, Rox finds nothing jarring about the current company she is keeping. She just has to get over her bashfulness about the booty battling sport. "I suppose it's just like us using our bodies in a fight." She muses aloud. "I have no qualms about it in my matches, so I'm sure this will all be fine." She's clearly psyching herself up but hopefully she will provide some comfort to the others too. Although, she suspects Coco has no qualms about what's about to happen.

She watches as her mentor sets things up and then starts to stalk closer to the edge of the pool. "That's clever." She comments on how the pool has been provided with different modes. The instructions seem straight forward enough, so she's happy to get going as soon as possible before she slips into feeling scared again. "Lets go for it." She says softly and then gets into the pool to assume the position.

[ISHIDA]
Ishida still isn't really used to that drone of Kenzo's. He understands it on a rational level: it's like a semi-sentient 'pet.' And yet -- the very nature of it being both a flying 'pet' and almost silent in doing so means it's really easy for Ishida to forget it's even there. Which is only really noticeable when Ishida flinches whenever it hovers into his peripheral field of vision.

Which just happened.
Ishida flinches, the corner of his lip snarling up for a moment.
And just as quickly, the Japanese fighter's face shifts back into a mildly embarrassed smile.

It also seems that he's onboard with finishing this as quickly as possible. His stomach groans, as if to voice its own say in the matter.

He starts to move to help Coco with the platform, but it seems that she's got the matter well in hand. He nods along with great interest as she explains the rules. As Kenzo and others can attest -- his focus is unwavering, perhaps uncomfortably so.

"... Only one foot," he repeats quietly. "... I see. To prohibit jumping as a means of sneak attack."

He nods, glancing over towards Kenzo. "I am ready..." One last check with his teammate for confirmation.

And then, well. No time like the present. Ishida peels his jacket off, leaving it on a bench to the side. And without further ado, he hops into the pool -- no special grace, just a simple entry will do.

"It is a nice break from the heat."

[KENZO]
Kenzo watches as Coco pulls out the red octagon shaped piece of equipment and tosses it in. As it stands, Kenzo is content to let her work after all, she is the closest thing they have to an expert they have at the moment. When he sees her turn the dial he moves a bit closer to see what the settings are but tries to hang back enough that it is clear that he's not trying to crowd her. How successful he is at that endeavor is debateable.

He then watches the platform drift towards the middle of the pool with a look of fascination.

"I wonder if I can convince the Ultratech execs to add that to their pool. I could probably justify it as a way to help with training or something."

He then takes off his button down shirt and opens the container in his drone to store the shirt and the lite version of his specs before closing it once more. The gray shorts he was wearing stay right where they are. It's only until one gets a closer look at them that one realizes that the shorts are made out of swimwear material so while he can swim in them, they don't look out of place walking around. He then takes the drone out of tether mode and pilots it off to the side and puts it in sleep mode before tossing his wrist controls to the chair right next to the drone.

"Alright. Let's go."

And with that Kenzo hops into the pool, himself.

[COCO]
Strangely, Coco seems to have slipped naturally into the role of educator in these circumstances. It's the same confidence and authority with which she'd spoken the day before about the theories regarding the mysterious fate of the former Zack Island and some of its most prominent faces.

Zack Island, it seems, is her specialty subject - which probably unlocks a lot of the puzzle that is Constance Louise Coalbridge.

"It's an internationally recognised and respected sport, Rox, and honestly, it's quite fun and harmless - at least, in standard competition. Japanese Youth Division is another story - you hear about some pretty nasty injuries."

Coco nods at Ishida's analysis of the one-foot rule.

"You want to keep both feet on the platform if you can to avoid leaving yourself open, but in the early days some people used to score easy wins just by jumping up and down and making the platform tip over with the opponent's weight. Of course, there was counterplay if the opponent jumped up just before they landed - causing the opponent to land on their end of an empty platform and almost guaranteeing they'd fall in - but it was decided that it was against the spirit of the competition for matches to be resolved by jumping up and down instead of butt-battling as Boo Tee intended."

She grins at Roxana and Kenzo. "I had a system installed at the Summer Estate so I could train between school years. Well worth. And it doubles as a nice jacuzzi, too."

She doesn't immediately follow the others into the pool, instead opting to step up to the poolside and stand above her new keijo disciples and offer further illumination.

"Okay, so!"

She claps her hands together in front of her chest as she stands straight on her toes before rocking back on her heels. "First off, I'll show you all the basic stance."

She turns around to face away, lifting her shoulders and putting her elbows out at either side to support her balance, her back slightly arched and knees slightly bent. "Note the position of my arms. Be careful when striking not to hit your opponent with your elbows, as that's obviously a foul. You should keep your elbows forward of your hips at all times. Your knees should be slightly bent, like so. Your bum should be sticking out slightly in neutral guard, but not too far; otherwise, you won't be able to put any power behind a strike."

She turns around to face her body sideways, turning her face to address the others. "So, there are three basic maneuvers in Western keijo. The first is the strike, ay-kay-ay the booty-bump, which is, quite simply, thrusting your bottom at your opponent in an attempt to imbalance and ultimately knock them off the platform and secure victory. A good strike comes from the core, making use of both your abdominal muscles and your knees, and looks a bit like this."

She demonstrates by pushing her center of gravity slightly forward before slamming her bottom backward, pushing up onto her toes and naturally shifting back slightly along the concrete with the effort.

"I'm probably a bit rusty, but that should show you how it works. Now, if two opponents strike simultaneously, assuming equal ability, the impact will tend to balance out, leaving a net neutral state of play. However, you can counter an opponent's strike by dodging, like so."

This time, she bends her center of gravity forward instead, twisting her hips to allow an invisible opponent's backside to whiff.

"Keep the foot-on-the-platform rule in mind when performing a dodge. There are different variants, but the idea is to avoid the strike, causing your opponent to lose their balance and potentially eliminate themselves if they were striking with eliminational force. However, there's one more trick that you can use."

She assumes a 'neutral guard' position once more, then thrusts her hips out, but only a limited distance, this time stopping short in a move that slightly resembles twerking. "This is a feint, sometimes known informally as a half-ass. You make your opponent think that you're striking, but pull up short. It's the hardest maneuver to master, but if you do it right, and your opponent tries to dodge, you can cause them to go off-balance by over-committing defensively. But if you try a half-ass and your opponent comes at you whole-ass, you're probably going to take a nasty hit and might end up getting knocked off."

She turns her body to face toward the class, placing her hands on her waist confidently. "Because you can't see exactly what your opponent is doing, a lot of Western keijo is about guessing what tactic your opponent will use and trying to counter it - a bit like rock, paper, scissors. Striking is rock, feinting is scissors, and dodging is paper. And now that you're all educated, let's get started!"

Coco leaps lightly over onto the platform, keeping herself dry for the time being. She takes up a position near the middle of the platform, facing toward one of the edges of the octagon, then turns to look over toward the boom operator. "You there, with the big stick thingy - count us in, will you? Once everyone's on, that is."

[ROXANA]
There's a part of Roxana that is tempted to transform. Having a tail would be most helpful, but also likely illegal. She takes a moment to steady herself on the platform in the pool and then risks lifting up one of her legs to test her balance. There's a slight hint of a wobble but after that she stays in place.

As she's joined by Shock and Roll, she bows to them but doesn't risk going too low. She's still a rookie after all! "May the best fighter win." She says with a serious expression, her stare becoming somewhat steely.

Kenzo's comment about Ultratech has her feeling curious. "Oh, you are still working with them then? Is it just you or did any of the other Metal fighters continue the relationship?"

Rox can't resist sneaking a glimpse at the torsos of the two male competitors, since they are both topless and close by. It's not enough to affect her composure though and besides, she's gonna have her back to them for the most part.

Coco's claim that the sport is respected internationally has Rox feeling sceptical but she says nothing, having no wish to offend her mentor. Keijo is obviously something close to her heart, if she went to the trouble of having her own system installed. She watches the demonstration carefully, mentally going through the manoeuvres and making notes in her mind.

By the time the kickboxer joins the other three on the platform, Roxana is raring to go. The simple system of Rock, Paper, Scissors appeals to her and she's usually good at guessing what other people plan to do. Perhaps this will be a good game for her!

The boom bloke begins the countdown.

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

"Keijo!"

Mirroring Coco as closely as she can, the Nebraskan shifts her body into the basic stance. Arching her back, she bends at the knees and then thrusts her pert and peachy posterior first forwards and then backwards with the intention of bashing her backside against the Brit's! Butt cheeks clash, causing the equilibrium to be maintained.

[ISHIDA]
Ishida... finds himself in a very interesting position. It isn't every day that he would have an opportunity for one of the most desirable women on the planet to be standing over his head while he treads water in place, detailing the ins and outs of a popular sport in great detail. It's even rarer for such a perfect specimen of femininity to be demonstrating those techniques, in person, for the express purpose of preparing one to use those very same techniques.

It could be considered rude to stare at her body.
It's ... also rude to -avoid- watching the carefully planned-out demonstration.
And Ishida does his best to avoid rudeness at all costs.
It's a tough life.
He manages somehow.

As she says 'rock-paper-scissors,' he nods along. And once it's polite to do so, he answers: "Ah... like 'jan-ken po.' I... think I understand." he acknowledges. His cheeks are a bit darkened as he speaks. No doubt this is due to maintaining his position against the steady current.

He begins to climb up to the platform. It... takes him a bit; he's used to climbing up with a ladder, but not so much onto a wobbly platform. Eventually he realizes how to swing his leg atop the platform and pull himself up.

Breathing out placidly, he brings himself to a kneel, and then slowly rises to his feet. He's ... a little unsteady at first, but he manages to balance himself by holding his arms out.

And of course, now that Roxana asks the question, he glances over to Kenzo, eager to hear his answer.

"Best of luck to you all," he states, making sure to look Coco and Roxana in the eyes as much as possible. Thankfully they're close to his own height -- unlike the taller Kenzo.

He smiles, as the boom is lowered. As one student strikes at her master, so too does Ishida start out with a volley against his own. He feels like attacking the day's -instructor- might be biting off more than he can chew. And he's still a little leery of the scorpion techniques from his last fight with Rox.

"Apologies, Kuroiwa-sempai..."

Ishida figures he's more of a known quantity.

He steps forward -- then throws his arms backwards as he slings his hips towards the nin-gineer. Unfortunately for him, Kuroiwa-san is a bit faster than he -- and he's a bit slow to compensate, sending him forward into a stumbling misstep!

[KENZO]
Kenzo nods as Coco not only gives a run down of the stances and movements. While not exactly enthused about being one of those being chosen to play this game, he did have to grudgingly admit that there is a bit of a mind game to it and it's something that Kenzo in particular can appreciate.

The ninja hops and with a press up, he gets up onto the platform. With a bow and a deep breath he takes the keijo stance but he also attempts to use his ears to get an idea of where the others are at though he's also looking over his shoulders at the others. It allows him to watch as Rox direct her posterior at her mentor. But he doesn't have a chance to appreciate the outcome since his own kouhai is whipping his hips towards him. Kenzo's eyes open wide in surprise before he takes a step to the side and then spins pulling himself out of the path of Ishida but the spin also puts his butt right in the path of Coco.

With a step towards the Brit, the ninja gives the kickboxer a half-assed hip thrust.

[COCO]
For once, Coco actually isn't aware of how others are likely to be perceiving her demonstration. She's too engrossed in her own recitation to be letting her empathic senses take over, and she's not trying to establish any form of mental dominance like she would in a fight, an online video shoot, or a casual conversation. She's focussed entirely on instruction and form - of her technique, that is. She doesn't really notice if she's being stared at or appreciated.

Unlike usual, where (face intact) she would be enjoying it.

The Butt Battle begins, and she smirks to herself as she detects her protege preparing to square (or is it round?) off with her. It's not much of a surprise, given the funny feelings Rox seems to have been giving off about the competition as a co-ed sport. Well, she might have been nice and helpful while she was sharing her bounteous keijo expertise, but anyone expecting Constance F-ing Coalbridge to show mercy between the bells (metaphorical as they may be, in this case) hasn't been paying attention.

Judging by Rox's reticence and novice nature, she anticipates a weak opening shot to test the waters and aims to take advantage. The purple-haired posho pivots, and the beautiful Brit's lily-white ass launches backward with all the gentle kindness of a battleship firing its main cannon.

*SMACK*

Coco's eyes widen with surprise as Rox supplies an unexpected equality of gluteal force, the impact sending repeating ripples along the pristine flesh of her pert posterior and forcing her to catch herself as Newtonian physics send her toward the edge, teetering on one foot before planting herself back into neutral guard again.

"Nice, babes! Looks like you've got your basics down," she praises her protege.

The platform may be centered in the pool, but that doesn't mean it can't spin, and as the fighters are spurred to action, the surface beneath them starts to slowly rotate. Coco finds herself back-to-back with Kenzo. She knows he's a ninja, and suspects he's the sort to avoid close quarters where he can. With that in mind, she bends forward and pushes her bottom out in a calculated fakie, wiggling to imply more effort than she's giving. To her surprise again, she finds herself brushing bum-to-bum against Kenzo in a manner gentle enough to almost appear amicable.

"Well, hello," she says, her cheeks going pink. "Didn't expect you lot to pick up the halfie so fast. Are you sandbagging?"

It's not a good idea to focus too hard on one opponent in a multi-opponent format - something that Coco's learned more from FightFest 2023 than keijo experience - so Coco slips to one side, setting her sights (in reverse) on Ishida. She slams her butt backward at speed, thinking that Ishida, being all about the bass, would not have the abdominal alacrity to avoid her power-push - but again she finds her expectations subverted, and she actually loses her footing a little as she overcommits to the booty-bump and finds nothing but air.

"Whoa!"

She manages to regain her balance after teetering on one foot for a moment, but her face is turning more pink with each challenge. Perhaps she should have opted for a soak along with the others before starting - the heat seems to be putting her off her game. After all, she's far too young and gorgeous to be 'rusty.'

[ROXANA]
"Thank you, Ishida." Roxana responds as he wishes the rest of them luck. "Best of luck to you too. I would still like to beat you though."

She's strictly in human rather than scorpion form for this game, so there's no chance of Ishida taking a tail to the tush, unless it's the jet black braided ponytail she's wearing her hair in.

As the cheeks of she and Coco connect without doing damage, the rich girl praises Rox, which she modestly accepts with a simple nod. Kenzo then comes after the experienced keijo player, following his clash with his own mentoree. Ishida dodges a booty battering from the Brit, meaning both Ishida and Coco are behind on points.

Calculating her next move, Roxana tries to choose between them, believing it's best to try and knock someone out the game. She's already gone after the other girl and she has a suspicion that Ishida might come for her next. Anticipating this, she arches herself forwards, resulting in both her booty and breasts sticking out in different directions. Apparently he's decided to dodge her too though, because the two fighters both find fresh air rather than flesh!

[ISHIDA]
Kenzo proves to be nimble enough to avoid his strike, sending Ishida teetering off-balance as he seeks to keep from falling off the platform. Throwing his elbows to either side, he's able to stabilize himself -- but with his compromised balance, there's already the scent of blood in the proverbial waters.

Ishida steadies himself, flashing a determined smile as his sempai clashes with Coco. It isn't long, though, before the serpent of the keijo arena pivots her gaze, and her bum, towards Ishida.

He's... a bit more ready for it this time, though, and as there's still space on the spinning disc where he'd come from, that's precisely where he sidesteps. His teeth bare in a grin as Coco topples forward much like he had a moment prior.

No time to rest, though, as Rox is still in the running. Perhaps sensing the moment, she pivots out of the way -- but at the same time, Ishida's -also- expecting retaliation and moves in an evasive pattern to counteract.

Laughing, he turns his eyes towards Coco as if to signal his next attack...

But without actually -doing- so, he suddenly shifts his hips to try and catch Roxana unaware while she's in the midst of trying for another strike. And in doing so -- he finds that Rox has anticipated -that- move and turned tail... to -strike!-

Ishida hadn't expected his strike to be met with redoubled force, though -- and with the awkwardness of his positioning, he's taken right off his feet! "Aaah!"

And so it is that the keijo battle claims its first casualty, as Ishida's flailing body hits the water in a loud *SPLASH*

[KENZO]
"Sandbagging? Never. I've just been fortunate that there's some crossover application of some concepts I've learned in martial arts to keijo."

After that, Kenzo can see Coco go after Ishida and his fellow Shock and Roll member manages to show some fancy footwork of his own and avoiding the gluteal collision causing Coco's balance to be compromised. After that, there's a moment where Roxana and Ishida jockey for position both moving in an evasive manner for an attack that never comes. At least, at first. While Ishida goes for a low commitment attack, Roxana gives it her ass and sends Ishida into the drink.

Kenzo then attempts to take advantage of the fact that Roxana is recovering from knocking Ishida out of the game by thrusting butt first into to Roxana. Who still manages to maintain her own balance.

[COCO]
Fortunately for Coco, as she's relocating her gravitational center, the action shifts to revolve around Roxana. Her protege is proving to be something of a quickstudy, scoring a swift elimination on Ishida before matching force with Kenzo. The speed with which she executes her sequential slams has Coco whistling as she witnesses them from the corner of her eye. She's proud, but she's not too proud to try and take advantage of the focus on the other female, especially with her own shaky start. Stepping back as Kenzo rebounds, she pops her booty viciously at Roxana's hips. There's no way that the girl would be ready for another forceful clash, is there? A Euro-style triple slam is the kind of technique experienced keijo competitors only dream of mastering.

And yet, Coco feels her backside collide with Roxana's with enough force to activate the full suite of her own jiggle physics - feels Roxana stand firm as Coco's bottom starts to smart.

"What, seriously?" the purple-haired practitioner of posterial pugilism protests, biting back the urge to rub her reddening rear end. "I have /got/ to stop taking it easy on you lot. Fighters obviously have some sort of natural advantage."

[ROXANA]
Does Rox suspect that Ishida is rattled from the clash with Coco? Perhaps. She is part predator after all and he is currently vulnerable prey. As he taps her ass softly with his cheeks, she hits him back hard, the force of her thrust sending him into the swimming pool. Does she murmur "one down" under her breath or do your ears deceive you?

There's a definite swish in her hips as she succeeds and it's almost like a switch has been flipped. It's in the way she stands, in the way her smile curls up at the corners and in the way she's starting to move more sensually. All the shyness she felt has vanished, so by the time Kenzo comes for her too, she brazenly bashes him back with her buttocks, flipping her black braid afterwards for good measure.

Next up is Coco. Perhaps it's her confidence that is starting to rub off on Roxana. Not that the Nebraskan hasn't always had a quiet assurance about herself and her abilities, it's just that the only time she really feels the need to flaunt them is in a fight.

Her mentor whistled her approval, so it would be wrong for Rox not to continue to make Coco proud of her, even if it means knocking the purple haired pugilist off her pedestal. When she senses motion from that direction, Rox doubles down with her derriere. Bikini bottomed backsides meet, making the platform vibrate.

Rox suspects retaliation may be on the cards, as Coco seeks her revenge. She swings her hips to the side out of harms way, leaving both of the female fighters free of further risk. For now at least!

[ISHIDA]
It doesn't take Ishida long to surface. He's not a great swimmer, but he's not going to drown.

It's never a particularly -good- feeling to be the first one out in a free-for-all, but there are benefits. For one, the water feels pretty nice. And for another, Ishida happens to get a good vantage point of the action, if a bit skewed since he's looking up at the fighters.

For the time being he's more than happy to watch, treading water at a reasonable viewing distance. Naturally, he's hoping his mentor ends up being the last one standing. But... as long as it results in Zack Coins, he'd be fine with just about anything...

[KENZO]
If there's one thing that Kenzo has learned from this particular match up is that Roxana has shown herself to be a dangerous adversary. She's taken out one of the participants, unbalanced the most experienced among them and survived multiple assaults.

Kenzo feels the platform shake from the exchanges between the two and readjusts his footwork to determine where to go. As it stands, the more attractive of the targets is Roxana since she has yet to have her balance disrupted.

He moves carefully. After all, the things that made Roxana a target for him would as easily apply to him as well except for the elimination. He once again attempts to slam into her and once again meets resistance.

[COCO]
The aggression on display from Roxana has Coco reconsidering her approach in dealing with her apprentice. Anticipating a continued offensive, she swings her own hips to the side, mirroring the motion from Roxana. She spares a fleeting glance toward Ishida as he surfaces in the pool, smiling faintly, before frowning as she realises that she's misjudged her mentoree's intentions. Somewhere inside, she feels the faint urge to try and use her empathic senses to try and predict her opponents more reliably - but she decides inwardly that she has too much respect for the integrity of the sport to use such tactics. She'll win through her own merit, or not at all.

For now, though, she decides to turn her attentions to the remaining male competitor on the platform. She detects a violent collision between the other two, and shifts backward with a shout of "Coming through!" as she makes as though to join in her partner in slamming hips with the ninja, but rather than committing fully, she instead bends deep and arches to arrest her momentum and redirect it into a controlled booty-bounce - faking out her target in the process. "Only joking!" she adds in a taunting sing-song.

[ROXANA]
Roxana spares Ishida a wave, as he surfaces in the water but she's soon back in position, just in time for Kenzo to throw his force towards her tush. She matches him with her own assault, moving her hips in a rhythmic motion as they approach.

The duo both scored maximum points in the Odyssey event and now they are maintaining their flawless records. Not for long though, as Coco feints the ninja with her finesse, her keijo experience shining through. Roxana decides to try and capitalise on Coco's success, but this time she's going for a less direct option.

She swings herself towards Kenzo as if her booty is about to bash into him but instead she then rises upwards, balancing on one leg and then leans slightly to the side to evade any attempt of his own.

The tactic works terrifically. Her Japanese idol comes towards her on the attack but finding his target gone, he instead loses his balance!

[KENZO]
Kenzo had up to this point had managed to hold firm but things go horribly wrong very quickly. He sees Coco positioning as if she was about to strike. He bites on the fake hard and dodges right into the path of Roxana.

An off balanced Kenzo attempts to salvage the situation by trying to convert the momentum of his attempted dodge into an impact with Roxana. He overcommits and with Roxana no longer being there plus an already compromised balance, Kenzo tumbles into the pool.

With him being eliminated he just swims to the edge, presses himself out and then sits on the edge. With a shrug.

[COCO]
It could almost appear that Toxique have decided to use team tactics, but the truth is that both the opportunistic combination and the sudden shift in fortunes for Kenzo that sees him falling into the pool are a simple par for the course in keijo. Within a matter of moments, the three-way becomes a duel, with Coco now face-to-face - well, something-to-something, anyway - with her mentoree as her last remaining rival.

"You know, you could just jump in," Coco suggests as she shifts into position opposite Roxana. "Go out on your own terms, instead of risking embarrassing yourself. You know those jets? They have a tendency to cause malfunctions."

She drives her bottom backward roughly, resulting in another loud smacking sound as another cheek-to-cheek collision ensues. "I've got you downloaded, anyways. I'll have you in two moves. I'm sure no one would look down on you for taking a dive."

[ROXANA]
Roxana's dark eyes follow the progress of Kenzo as he plunges into the pool. He seems pretty relaxed about his fall from grace, so she focuses her attention back on the other girl, who is now her only opponent.

"I believe you are trying to pysch me out, Coco." Rox comments, a slight smile appearing on her striking face. "I have no desire to forfeit the match and I am not afraid of my clothes coming undone. I have nothing to hide, other than a human form. You have similar parts to me, I am sure, and Kenzo and Ishida are men of the world. They would cope with such a situation, should it occur."

As their butts batter each other again, Roxana nods, as if this outcome had been expected all along. With only the two of them left standing, there's no longer any mystery as to who she will target but Roxana's next move, despite Coco's claims, is less clear. Anticipating the pattern of the purple haired fighter's game, the scorpion-girl repeats the tactics she used on Kenzo, lifting her leg up and leaning, but this time to the opposite side. Like Rox, Coco is looking to give the other competitor a swerve and so the two Toxique females find themselves simply swirling their bottoms into space.

[ISHIDA]
Ishida draws in his breath through his teeth at each twist and turn. As he watches, he finds that staying close to the platform doesn't give him the best vantage point for making out what's actually going on, and so he eventually swims to the edge, mindful of the thunderous jets as he makes his way out.

When Kenzo is knocked off the platform, he recoils with shared remorse -- he was, of course, hoping that Shock and Roll would make it to the end, but alas. As the lone observer, he does offer a brief amount of clapping until Kenzo's head surfaces again.

"At least there is still entertainment value for us to enjoy," he comments with the barest glimmer of a smile.

[COCO]
Once again, Roxana's motions almost mirror Coco's, though the experienced amateur keeps both feet on the ground as she bends away from Roxana. The platform sways in both directions slightly before finding equilibrium as the pair match their centres at opposites.

"I'm just presenting some options," Coco says as she relaxes back into a neutral guard for a moment. "You know, thinking about your well-being. I wouldn't want a novice under my tutelage to be taken by surprise."

She feels the rhythm of the contest, sensing that at any second, the next move will be made. Feeling a disturbance in the platform, she tenses, then quickly bends her belly forward again, expecting her opponent to thrust. When Roxana doesn't, and instead matches her defensive stance again, Coco feels the tension rising inside her. Is Roxana a psychic as well? The continual mirroring is almost uncanny.

"This is a lovely little dance, isn't it?" she jokes, though her skin is starting to glisten just a bit more as perspiration beads on her bare neck beneath the sun's beating rays. It feels as though things are coming to an inevitable head, and for some reason Coco's heart is starting to beat rather rapidly.

[ROXANA]
Ishida may be entertained but Roxana is starting to take this silly game seriously.

"You're very kind to try and coach me that way, Coco." Rox responds politely, peeking over her shoulder to flash a sweet smile at her mentor. She too can feel that things are coming to a climax and that any minute now, one of the bikini clad babes is gonna be taking a dip.

The Nebraskan isn't psychic but she is very intuitive and makes a point of not ignoring her instincts. Despite her not using the tactic so far in the match, she makes a decision to play things more gently, seeking to rub her cheeks against Coco's, rather than hit them with her full force.

Something in her senses that Coco is going to try and duck out of the way, so this move might send the more experienced player into the water with a splash. As she prepares to pop her butt into action, the movement could be seen like a dance of sorts. It seems to happen in slow motion as Rox rotates her hips, pushing them first a little forward and then bringing them backwards to brush against the Brit's backside.

As she suspected, Coco starts to swerve away from the scorpion-female, anticipating a more brutal bash. The decision sends her flying and Roxana blinks her black eyes as she realises that she is victorious.

"Thank you, all of you." She says softly. "I was not looking forward to playing but it turned out to be very fun. I feel like that is due to you all being fantastic opponents."

[COCO]
Coco was not entirely bluffing when she claimed that she had Roxana 'downloaded.' Though the competition has been chaotic, she's locked onto what she sees as a crucial piece of information:

Roxana does not feint.

Her partner has performed impeccably, practically reponsible for both of Shock and Roll taking an early swim, but she has not, at any point, attempted a fake-out. Coco suspects that the enthusiastic and athletic first-timer doesn't even know how to perform a proper fakie. Perhaps she doesn't know how not to commit. If that's true, then the only sure strategy is to adopt a consistently defensive posture. If she sticks to the outside and Rox only shifts between aggression and defense, then she can't possibly lose.

It's thus that she confidently shifts her center to the outside once more when she detects another incoming attack - and only too late that she realises that Rox has sussed out how to do a fakie after all.

Did she know how to do that the whole time?!

"You sneaky minx - !!" Coco cries out as she topples forward into the pool. Bubbles burble to the top of the water as she rights herself beneath the surface - along with a familiar purple bikini top.

It appears that she wasn't entirely bluffing about the jets, either.

She breaks the surface with her hair around her face and her arm across her chest, groping blindly with her other hand for the garment until she manages to snatch it.

"Good grief. I can't believe I just got perfect-rounded by a so-called newbie. I'm not sure why we've been the ones in the water when you're clearly the shark here, Roxie," Coco calls out, wiping her dripping bangs away from her face.

And, mysteriously on-cue, there's a click, and a small previously-camouflaged door on a box on the wall of the poolhouse flips open, revealing what appears to be four faux-gold coins bearing Zack's likeness inside.

[ISHIDA]
Ishida's been entertained by the two Toxique fighters' struggle to make ends meet. It's certainly better than pretty much anything else he'd be doing -- like talking about the phoenix goddess, or the dearth of food she's created.

As soon as Coco's lost her balance, though, Ishida's springing to his feet. Everyone's shown themselves able to swim in the current, so he's not -especially- worried about a fit and trim woman about his age getting pushed under by the jets.

But when he sees the bikini top floating up, well... he knifes one hand up to block his eyes as he looks aside.

It's a good thing, then, that he's standing, so that he can hear that click. He looks over to it -- and now he no longer has to *pretend* to be distracted.

"Oh, there's the coins..."

Ishida stares at the box for a moment, wary. If the box -just- popped open, well, who knows when it will close?

"Four coins here, one for each of us..." Deciding to be better safe than sorry, he starts to take all four coins out of the box. If he weren't so darn trustworthy, that might be a problem, but as it is, he makes no sign of trying to hoard the fake gold: he holds the coins out to the others for display.

"I wonder what the exchange rate is."

[KENZO]
It turns out that Kenzo's elimination was the catalyst for the bodies to the pool. With a couple of moves, Coco hits the pool.

"Granted, I have more fun watching it and than playing but utilizing the platforms for fight training could be worthwhile as well."

Suddenly there's a wardrobe malfunction and Kenzo averts his eyes out of respect for Hawksley and as Ishida is going for the coins, Kenzo is going for the towels.

He quickly towels off and then hands Ishida a towel, tosses Rox a towel and holds out a towel towards Coco last known location unaware of her fixing her fashion predicament. He's a gentleman.

[ROXANA]
When Kenzo tosses her the towel, Roxana takes a moment to pat her face off before stepping down from the platform and making her way out of the water via the steps. Once safely on the side, she sets about getting the rest of her as dry as she can, squeezing some excess moisture from the bottom of her braid. It's only then that Rox turns towards her teammate to address her allegations.

"I'm a scorpion not a shark." She smiles serenely. "Take it as a compliment. You are obviously a very competent teacher, which is something that should serve us well for the rest of the competition."

She swiftly turns her head in the direction of the dropping coins and her face takes on an expression of delight. "Fantastic. Let's hope we get some food. I'm not holding out much hope for fresh fruit or steak but even a granola bar would be good right now."

Ishida collects the four coins and when he holds them out to the other fighters, Rox reaches for hers. She raises it up to the sunlight, inspecting it and studying the picture of Zack's face.

[COCO]
Coco turns her back to the cameras, shooing them away to focus on what Ishida is up to with the hand holding her top. It's not that she's particularly modest - she just doesn't want anyone profiting from her incomparable likeness if they are to ever escape from this island, and she has every intention of doing so. With the cameras distracted, she sets about casually covering herself again, tying the bikini in the same crossed halter style that she had it in before. Once she's finished patting everything back into place, she turns around to find a towel being offered to her.

"Oh, cheers, Kenzo. You're a gent," she says with a smile, taking the terrycloth and using it to ruffle down her hair before delicately applying it to her face, such as to avoid smudging her waterproof makeup before using it to dry her body and hips. She turns to hand the towel back once she's finished - though if Kenzo's not there to take it anymore, she'll just toss it onto the nearest available surface for the staff to collect.

"So, it's worked, then, has it? Lovely. Morgie! We're going to get some snacks! Or swimsuits. Do we have enough coins for swimsuits?"

She walks over toward what appears to be the nearest vending machine, peering a little at it. It shows a variety of different items inside, but strangely, there don't seem to be any buttons on it to indicate what the user wants to purchase.

"Umm... how are you supposed to choose, anyway? Maybe the controls appear once you've put the coins in? Or maybe there's an app? Obviously, we won't be able to download it, if there is..."

[ISHIDA]
Ishida distributes the coins to the other fighters with a pleased smile -- and with his own coin held tight, he accepts the towel from Kenzo and starts to dab himself dry. "Thank you!"

He nods quietly: "It would be interesting to use as training, yes! The positioning forces one to consider balance and promotes an economy of motion in ways that standing on solid ground might not..." Ishida seems a bit more comfortable discussing fight tactics than the finer points of co-ed glute jousting.

He laughs, softly, at Roxana's correction. "It is simply in the nature of the scorpion to sting -- which is something the fox in the one legend had to find out the hard way." He doesn't stop to consider that the two Westerners might not be familiar with the tale.

He takes a closer look at the vending machine's wares as Coco manages to get her wardrobe situation under control. Steak? Chances look a little grim there.

He shrugs faintly as Coco inquires as to the user interface. "... Most... Likely, I would assume. Though..." His eyebrows rise, with a thought. "Wait, not yet..."

He starts to turn around to address the others as he continues. "How are Bradley-san and Harris-san to verify that we have found..."

But then his eyes wink shut as the glare from a nearby camera momentarily blinds him.

"... Ah, right, we are on camera." He holds up his coin to the camera person, just in case his motions had obscured the fake-gold coin earlier.

"... Though, if the choice were between swimsuits and food, you would choose swimsuits...?" He pauses for a moment, and then asks, "... Was yours damaged in the jets, perhaps?"

[KENZO]
It's only through dumb luck that Kenzo moves away from Coco just as she's about to hand the towel back. Not through malice but just not happening to be looking her way when he moved.

"Plus the platforms would be a good way of training to control space. There's a lot less space than you have in most fight rings."

For a team with name based on a genre of music where the stereotypical performer was loud and rowdy, they were just a couple of fight geeks. A title that Kenzo would happily claim. There's no opportunity to muse on that because the conversation switches to the nature of scorpions and tales related to such.

"I've heard variations of that tale with the fox being swapped out for either a frog or the turtle who in that version is protected by the shell."

He glances at the machine itself and seeing that there are no controls on the machine, he starts looking for points of weakness on it because he's an engineer seeing how things hold together is part of the job description, and because he's a ninja and getting into places he's not supposed to is a required skill to fulfill multiple parts of his job description.

[ROXANA]
Rox has sympathy for her fellow female fighter when the jets play havoc with the upper half of her swimsuit. "Better than the bottom though, I suppose." She remarks. When she realises Coco has the situation under control, she turns her attention to other matters.

She moves over to join the Brit and the boys by the machine, still dripping a little despite her efforts to dry off. "I think I'd favour snacks but I can see why Coco would consider a new bikini. We might be fine at present and I suppose the chlorine will serve as a cleaner but at some point in the near future we're going to want some different clothing and without anything else to change into, we're gonna be washing out clothes whilst we're in the buff."

She considers the machine for a couple of minutes and then just decides to go ahead and pop a coin into the slot. "I guess let's just go with what happens. I don't see any indication of what's actually inside or see a way to select something."

She turns around to flash a grin at Ishida as he mentions stinging being in a scorpion's nature. "Yes, as well you know." She teases. Then to Kenzo. "Perhaps if he continues to compete at any point, I can test that theory on Kahuna." She's then focusing back on the task in hand, eager to see what will be her reward from the vending machine.

There's a clinking noise as the coin drops and then a hatch opens at the bottom, delivering its bounty. Roxana makes a quick grab for whatever the prize is and pulls out...a granola bar! "Oh, well it's food at least." She says with a shrug and then opens the wrapper before splitting the snack into four equal sections and handing one each to her hungry teammates.

[COCO]
"Yeah, I thought it was a frog," Coco says of the story that Ishida mentions, tossing her towel onto a lounge chair under the canopy. "And I didn't mean I'd choose a swimsuit over eating. I meant if we had enough food, collectively, you know, I would invest my coin in a swimsuit. After all, I've only got the one swimsuit to wear, so it would be hygienic for me to have another option to switch to. So everyone else can put their earnings toward food, while I put mine into clothes, while still getting to eat. I mean, it's the way the world works, isn't it?"

The machine appears to be surprisingly state-of-the-art and secure, as if significant investment if not R&D was put into making them difficult to penetrate - no mere matter of shaking or sticking a hand up the release hatch, as it quickly closes with guillotine swiftness after dispensing Roxana's prize.

"...Oh. What, did it read your mind or something? Is that some new tech that Zack was investing in? You mentioned granola bars, didn't you? Maybe it's voice-activated."

She takes her piece of granola bar before pushing her own coin into the slot and rubbing her hands together. "Okay, let's see... give me a strawberry daiquiri."

...And a moment later, a pink-and-yellow bundle of fabric drops out of the slot and into the receptacle.

Coco raises an eyebrow before reaching in and pulling one piece out, holding it up between her index fingers to reveal that it's clearly a bikini thong. A tag is attached, and Coco turns the garment to read it. "Strawberry Cream by Boogie Child. Okay, I guess it got confused," she says, before taking the top out of the receptacle as well. She puts on a smile as she turns to the others. "But, there we are! A swimsuit, like I wanted."

[ISHIDA]
Ishida nods in response to Kenzo. He's heard the tale's variation, too -- but has nothing else to add there.

He blinks in response to Roxana and Coco, though. In his mind, food trumps just about anything else that could possibly come out of the vending machine. But that's not a distinction he feels like forcing any further -- as the issue is mooted somewhat by Roxana both obtaining food in her vending machine pull, and offering to share it with the rest.

As he accepts his fourth of the granola bar, Ishida nods his head with a faint smile: "Thank you, Rox." It still feels weird not adding the honorific. But she -did- tell him to call her that. He doesn't dig in right away though, as he listens to Coco's discovery. So it's voice-activated? "Oh. You got... what you wanted more, it sounds like." He smiles, hopefully.

Ishida takes a moment to examine the contents of the vending machine further. His eyes light up as he spots one item in particular, and then hurriedly slots his coin into the vending machine. "Beef jerky," he says, with some measure of hope in his tone.

The vending machine whirrs and clicks, and... Then the dispenser goes *ka-CHUNK*.

Ishida frowns as he lifts the door to see a small package wrapped in clear plastic. As he pulls it out, he shows it to the others: an inner tube pool float, themed in the style of a certain cowgirl.

"... Lightning Spangles...?" The name sounds vaguely familiar, but he seems more disheartened that the beef jerky was -right there- and the machine didn't vend it for him.

"I do not suppose we found the inflators," he notes. "But I do have a volleyball, if we do not feel like blowing anything up right now."

He glances over to Kenzo. "Perhaps it is purely random. I hope that you fare better with your coin." With the barest hint of sullenness he starts to munch on his granola bar.

[KENZO]
Kenzo is the next to put his coin in the machine. He holds it up for the camera so there's documented proof of him having the coin before putting it in the machine.

The machine lets out a clunky noise as Kenzo's prize drops down. The ninja reaches down and holds up a Zack's Pina Colada-in-a-can. A dark look appears on his face as he struggles to keep his emotions in check. After all, other than the meltdown from being pissed about collateral damage in his fight with Raiza he has kept a tight lid on his emotions with most of his manifestation of his rage has been a cold rage as he attempted to disassemble Buford physically through combat and mentally through his haiku and lack of acknowledgement. His first words are delivered in a cold detached monotone manner as if struggling against the inevitable meltdown.

"Fuck Zack. Fuck Junko, Suzaku whatever the fuck it's calling itself. Winning the tournament let alone the season is only going to be a bonus. My goal this season is to have the ability to take the flaming shit bird demon off its fucking perch."

His fist connecting with the machine is the harbinger of the meltdown.

"WE'RE STUCK ON THIS ISLAND WHERE NECESSITIES ARE LOCKED BEHIND FUCKING GACHAPON ALL BECAUSE A PSYCHOTIC BITCH WITH A THING FOR ATTACKING DOWNED OPPONENTS DECIDED TO DESTROY OUR WAY OFF THE ISLAND!"

His fist slams into the machine again. His knuckles swell up. He doesn't care. He does it again. His knuckles bleed. He doesn't care. Over and over his fist connects with the shatterproof glass smearing more and more of his blood on it with his dignity about as much in tact as his hand. While it may change when he has a moment to calm down at least for now... He. Doesn't. Care.

[ROXANA]
Despite being an avid fan of season one of the NFG, Roxana doesn't yet feel she knows Coco well enough to be confident whether or not her assessment of how the world works is a joke or a genuine opinion. She hopes for all their sakes it's the former, given that teamwork is not only going to be essential in the tag-team tournament but also for their survival on the island.

Rox quickly draws her hand back from the machine to avoid it being damaged, leaving the muay thai fighter free to collect her prize. "Oh, a bikini." The Nebraskan blinks. "A very bright one too."

She nods towards Ishida as he recalls that Rox did indeed reference granola bars earlier. She hopes for his sake that he will get the meaty treat he craves. Alas for the lad, he wins some kind of pool prop. "Lightning Spangles. I believe I know this name too." Rox ponders, trying to remember from where. "Do you recognise it, Coco?" If anyone is likely to get a pop culture reference, she'd put money on it being the Brit.

She's about to tell the bass player that she'd love a game of volleyball sometime but then it's Kenzo's turn to put in his coin and things take a turn. Rox is initially pleased for the ningineer that he's got a drink to enjoy. After all, tropical fruit is her favourite food thing besides steak and some booze thrown in might be a way to get a bit of a buzz on in a difficult situation. Plus, it's all calories, which equals energy. It's soon pretty obvious that he's not satisfied with his reward though.

The scorpion-girl can't help but gasp when Kenzo starts to attack the machine. She had thought he was a fan of machines, considering how defensive he was of them in the arcade in Metro City. Of course she can see why he would feel frustrated though. He and the other more experienced fighters had faced Junko already last year and it's unlikely any among them would welcome the sight of her again, particularly now she's stranded them on an island and put them at risk of starvation.

In her calm and collected voice, Rox says softly. "This is good, Kenzo. You can use this anger to defeat all your opponents, be it in your matches or in more serious matters, such as survival. You are a strong man and a fierce opponent and I fear for all who face your fury."

She flinches ever so slightly as the vending machine vibrates in response to the violence. "Please don't hurt yourself in the process though. You're already bleeding."

[COCO]
Coco is distracted from testing the size of the newly-acquired bikini against her body by the mention of the words 'Lightning Spangles,' lifting her chin off her chest and turning her eyes toward Ishida's new acquisition. "Oh! That's so cool and vintage! She was on the original Trouble in Paradise, you know. Totally blown away by Tia Langray, but - oh, my God! I bet they have a Tia Langray floatie in there!"

She steps over to inspect the flotation device and the vending machine in turn before starting to nibble on her piece of granola bar with a renewed nervous energy. "You guys, we have got to get more Zack Coins. Think about how much memorabilia they must have!"

Her internal dialogue seems to turn external as she stares at the machine's display. "Spangles. Langray. Johnny. Ken Masters. Bonne Jenet! Angel! SAGAT! Sagat was on Zack Island! You guys -"

*WHAM*

Coco's speeding train of thought finally derails as Kenzo suddenly starts punching the machine. She turns her silver eyes toward the normally-composed ninja, staring with mouth agape as he starts beating his hand bloody against the surprisingly-impermeable display casing.

She starts to protest when he mentions psychotic bitches with a thing for attacking downed opponents. "Hey, I only did that the one time - oh, you mean her."

She doesn't say anything more until he finishes speaking and seems to have mostly ventilated his anger.

"Umm... do you not like pina coladas? 'Cause I'll trade you an eighth of a granola bar for one," she offers, holding up the remaining half of her quarter of the granola bar and suddenly feeling nostalgic about her high school lunches.

[ISHIDA]
It's clear that Coco treasures Ishida's vending machine's gift a lot more than he, Roxana, or Kenzo does. And that does bring a faint smile back to the Japanese man's face. He's quick to offer the inflatable to Coco in hopes that at least someone will get some use out of the thing. As for the subject depicted on the inflatable... well, didn't Lightning Spangles die in Aokigahara so many years back? Didn't -something- weird happen in a tournament, some years later, with her?

He turns in concert with Roxana to watch Kenzo for his turn at the vending machine. His hair and skin are still a little wet, even after toweling off -- though several of those drops are shaken loose with the shudder that rushes through him at the explosive fury that erupts from Kenzo.

He plants his heels firmly upon the ground. He feels the calm, reassuring chi of the earth beneath him -- having weathered the outrage of the phoenix goddess before, it has no trouble with the trembling of the fighter now. He calls upon that stalwart earth for guidance now.

He staggers, just a moment, when Coco presumes -she's- the bitch^H^Hgirlboss in question, the very hint of a smile creeping into an otherwise stoic expression.

He begins in Japanese -- not to be rude, but to reinforce the -connection- between himself and Kenzo.

"<...Please, Kuroiwa-sempai. We need to conserve our strength.>"

It's far too close for him to feel comfortable placing his hand on the shoulder of Kenzo in his current state. But he does, nonetheless, stand close -- so that his words do not have to be amplified to cover the distance.

He reaches out with a towel -- a dry part of it, to be fair -- as an offer to treat the bloody wounds. "Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to see how the other groups are faring in their searches...?"

He turns back to Coco and Roxana, offering a half-smile of hope.

[KENZO]
With the last of his explosive rage spent, he is only left with the cold rage that would probably be more familiar to the others, having displayed it in his fights with Buford though not to level of intensity he is displaying now.

"I apologize for you all having to see me like this."

He takes a deep breath and steps away from the machine and turns towards Coco.

"If I recall correctly, You have a score to settle with the flaming shit bird, right? In that case, you will need that so when either of our teams go to confront her you're at as close to full strength as possible. I also would like to suggest that since our teams are at opposite ends of the bracket we help each other with training so we are stronger near the end. Should we meet in the finals, may the best team win."

Kenzo then looks at the now bloody machine with a look of utter disgust.

"Either way, first order of business is minimize our dependence on gachapon bullshit to eat. That means seeing if we can find alternative means of obtaining food or determining whether we can break into the damn machines to get specific items out. As Mint-sensei would endorse, 'Improvise, adapt, overcome.'"

[ROXANA]
Roxana can't help but be amused by Coco's confusion. She obviously briefly thought that Kenzo was complaining about her. The dark haired female fighter has a flashback to the thrilling match between her mentor and Chevy when they'd fought at the car lot.

The American doesn't speak Japanese but she can tell by Ishida's tone that he is trying to reason with Kenzo. Again the boy is showing his kindness and compassion. Rox returns his half-smile and nods her head. "Sure, we can check on the others if you'd like."

She turns her attention to Kenzo now. "I love the idea of us training together. I feel comfortable with the three of you and you are all fantastic competitors. Toxique and Shock and Roll working alongside each other would help us to be fighting at the best we can be. As for apologising, thank you for doing so but it is not necessary. I am sure we all sympathise with how you are feeling and it's likely to be tougher for yourself and Coco after having to be around Junko last year. Especially with..."

Her voice trails off and she reaches a hand up to touch her own face. "Like you say, Coco has a score to settle. Together, all of us NFGers can defeat whatever evil plans the fire bird has though. There's a lot more of us than there is of her."

She looks around the group. "Do any of you know how to hunt or fish?"

[COCO]
Coco accepts the inflatable innertube from Ishida happily, looping it over her arm like a hideous oversized bangle for the moment. She speaks fluent Japanese, of course, being something of a polyglot, well-educated and well-traveled - and a bit psychic, for that matter, if all else fails. It doesn't really matter, though - Ishida has everything under control, and soon, so does Kenzo.

"Babes, I kick-boxed a cute baby dragon. I'll be leaving the stone-throwing to the saints. And yes, I do, in fact, have a score to settle with said flaming shit bird. I'd be doing the same thing if I hadn't already made a choice to save it for Junko. For now, we've just got to compartmentalize our trauma. I'm just treating this like some weird reality television show, like Breakers meets I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. Training, though? Definitely in."

She nods along with Roxana as her partner also expresses a willingness to sharpen skills with Shock and Roll, and again more grimly when Roxana references Coco's personal score to settle. Ironically, she had battered Junko's own body horribly in their match, but Suzaku had seen fit to restore the cursed miko's body to wholeness. Luckily, Coco had found her own benefactor whose capabilities bordered on those of the gods to balance the equation - but the less said about that, the better.

She nods at Ishida's suggestion that they check on the others. "Yeah, I'll come along. I just want to give this poolhouse a rummage to see if I can't find an air pump first. They've got to have one, really - and I'm sure I'm not the only one who could do with a bit of a float before tea."

She crinkles her nose at Roxana's suggestion. "I don't hunt, or fish. I'm veggie. I won't stop you lot, though - I just don't want to be there for it."

[ISHIDA]
Ishida bobs his head to indicate acceptance of the apology, but offers a mild shrug afterwards to show he's not concerned over the outburst.

"It is all right... we are not machines. We are in a tough situation, through no fault of our own."

He smiles at the notion of Coco and Kenzo exacting some sort of revenge upon Junko. He's got less of a stake than either, and besides, revenge isn't really the monk-wannabe's style. But, he can appreciate the sentiment all the same.

He does brighten as his suggestion finds favor with the three. Of course, he's in favor of the suggestions made.

"That sounds wonderful. Though, I might prefer at least some of our practice sessions to take place on dry land..."

Still not a fan of water. Even if it is good for balance practice.

At the idea that 'getting into' the machines is possible, Ishida seems hesitant to voice assent: the machine looks pretty durable. Drawing in his breath, he looks away for a moment -- wondering if there might be some tool that could be used for leverage. "... We would need a much bigger stick."

As for whether he could provide help in procuring an alternative food source, he's quick to volunteer.

"I fish. I have nylon rope in my bag, we could use it for line..."

... He falls silent, though, lowering his gaze as Coco admits her own dietary preferences.

The fighter from Nara had missed all the clues. It might have stopped him from asking so clearly for beef jerky earlier. Or in volunteering to fish.

But he looks up to Coco, raising her eyes to her in a tacit apology. She did say she wouldn't oppose -- and that's a good thing, in his view.

"... Ah," he says, once he thinks of something else. "... There may be some kelp in the reef that we may be able to make use of."

[KENZO]
With team Toxique seeming amenable to the idea of training together, that's one less thing to worry about. Now that Kenzo is of calmer mind he can address Ishida's idea as well as Coco's response to it.

"It is a good idea to check on the others but scavenging this area is a good idea. Good idea to have a pump especially if we need inflatables to get around certain areas or if we need to pump tires for the vehicles. We should also be on the lookout for plastic tubes or PVC pipes to use as makeshift snorkels."

Kenzo starts eyeing the waterslide as if considering utilizing the tubes for the improvised breathing apparatus.

"Wilderness training was included with my ninjutsu training. Tracking, hunting, and foraging was chief among it. Though hunting was mostly centered around humans some tweaking can be done to make it more suitable for obtaining food."

He glances towards Ishida, noting his particular dietary needs but also agreeing with looking for kelp. After that, he lets his vision rest on Roxana for a moment then addresses the group.

"I haven't done any fishing though but I prefer my chances with spearfishing here over rod fishing only because I at least have /some/ experience with staff and pole weapons even if I'm not..."

Kenzo stops before the sentence can be completed. It's unclear whether he was going to mention Chevy, Djamila or both. He has reasons to avoid mentioning one for Coco's sake and one for his own sake.

"As for getting into the machine, I think we'll need to look out for maintenance areas for the key to them. They would have to open the machine to put the items in. They also have to open it to get into the programs for randomization and vending. Either way, I'd need a key to remove R.N.G. That or a cutting torch. The key just has a higher probability of being found here."

[ROXANA]
Roxana is clearly impressed by Coco's linguist skills. She herself has only learned English, despite her first name and appearance suggesting there may be a hint of a Persian heritage.

"A float does sound pleasant." She admits. "But perhaps fishing would be a more useful activity. Kelp would be a fantastic find. It's full of vitamins and minerals. Maybe we can also forage fruit if there is any remaining on the trees. I've actually been hoping we could find coconuts too, as they act as a good source of calories, hydration, and are brilliant for beauty treatments."

Ishida's remark that they are not machines has Roxana recalling some past comments that have come her way. Not by anyone in the NFG, but from some of the other limited social interactions she has had in the last year. Mostly by men whose advances she has rejected.

"We may not be thriving right now but we are surviving." She states. "We can keep our bodies as active as we can and rest when able to restore ourselves. I think it could be fun to train on the beach, well away from the water." She quickly adds for Ishida's benefit.

Rox is reassured by the fact that she now feels part of a foursome rather than just a duo, even with as fierce a partner as Constance Coalbridge to have her back. Both the males seem to have experience with survival skills that will be very important when stranded on an island. She's intrigued by Kenzo's hunting of humans though. "What did you do with the people when you caught them?" She wonders with wide dark eyes.

[COCO]
"Whatever suits," Coco comments on the subject of practicing on dry land. She cocks a hip to one side and pulls a face when Ishida remarks that there might be edible kelp available.


"And I suppose I do like nori. Actually, I think I heard that Caribbean seaweed is an aphrodisiac, but I've probably heard the same about whatever the server's trying to push everywhere I've been. To be fair, though -" Noting that the cameras are still rolling, Coco stops herself in the middle of her point, mysteriously abandoning her train of thought with a flip of her hair. "- actually, I think I'll leave that observation."

She wiggles an index finger at Roxana at the mention of coconuts. "That is an excellent idea. If you find any coconuts, call me and I'll come running. I'm sure Tom and Lou have walkie talkies we can borrow. Meanwhile, I'm determined to be the first Brit in history to solve an inflation problem in a satisfactory manner."

She walks over to a closet door, tugging on the handle once before giving it a good kick. The door swings open, revealing its contents. "Oh, look! Bathrobes."

[ISHIDA]
While his suggestion to look for others was turned down, it was offered in the spirit of giving Kenzo something else to think about -- and because of that, Ishida is perfectly happy to let that matter drop. He nods quietly -- listening as Kenzo shares his thoughts. Including, well, the thought he didn't finish.

"It is a little more direct," he concedes gracefully. "And it is easier, as the water here is so -clear-." Generally. He hasn't taken a look at the reef yet, but it was certainly clear on their initial arrival to the island.

"An aphro..." He struggles with Coco's word for a moment, turning it around in his head for a moment until he's able to piece the meaning together through context.

"Coconuts would be good, yes," he answers quietly. He'd -love- some meat. But the protein from coconuts would be good for nearly everyone, even the folks with more carnivore appetites like himself.

As he talks, though, Ishida is more or less following his intuition here. And his thinking is -- any pool with clear water like this has to have some kind of machinery.

Which is how Ishida ends up at what looks like a low-profile building. There's a door -- but it's more like a cellar door, with a standard combination lock around the handle.

"Do you think there would be anything in the pump house, here?"

[KENZO]
Now they have a general idea of what things to target for food, he's willing to table that discussion until the group can actively do something about it. That doesn't mean he's going to let Coco's aborted comment go without at least one smart ass remark.

"Have to save something for the memoir, right?"

Of course the next topic is his hunting humans. While he's not going to outright lie, the whole truth might not be the greatest ideas in situation as tense as this.

"Usually a sparring session from ambush or turn them over to the sensei for intense workouts if they get captured. They trained us in evading capture by other humans but in order to do that, we also had to be trained in the methods to hunt humans."

Of course only has to look at the history of his art for the other reasons why. Kenzo will leave it to the others to read between the lines if they wish to do so. He is not going to openly say it.

He goes to examine the lock on the pump room door to see if he needs to use finesse or if he can take his Junko induced rage out on it to break in.

[ROXANA]
"Walkie talkies would be useful for communicating." Roxana nods at Coco. "Perhaps one of us can ask Lou." As the kickboxer does what she does and kicks open the door, the gear-girl wanders over to check out the said clothing. "Bathrobes are perfect." She muses. "Hopefully they are of the lightweight variety rather than the ones meant for staying warm."

Rox holds out a hand to finger the fabric and gives an approving smile. The garments are white in colour and made of high quality linen. They reach down to the ankles for someone of average height and have hoods attached. Checking the labels and seeing they are all one size, Rox takes a robe from the top of the pile and slips it on over her bikini before fastening the attached belt.

Wandering back outside, she's just in time to see Ishida approaching the pump house, backed up by Kenzo. "It's worth investigating." Rox responds. "I can come too if you want." Not before she's listened to Kenzo's hunting tale though. What he reveals seems like the edited version to her but she's not going to pry further. After all, each of them have their secrets.

[COCO]
Coco collects a bathrobe of her own, slipping it on over her bikini and cinching the belt securely yet comfortably around her waist. The garment has pockets, so she uses one of them to safely stow away her new collectibles, grabbing her sunglasses on the way past one of the poolside tables to tuck them into another pocket. She drifts on around to the pump house in the wake of Ishida and the others.

"Oh! Let me try," she says as she spots that the pump house is secured by a combination lock. "Let's see. Zack's birthday?"

She tries putting the combination in, tugging to no avail on the lock. "Okay. Zack's girlfriend Niki's birthday?"

She tries again, once again failing, and raises an eyebrow. "Tina Armstrong's bust, waist and hip measurements?" she posits, trying another set of digits out. "No, wait, this is for two-thousand and fourteen..."

Her revision doesn't work, either. "Damn. If only we had Google..."

She seems to have missed entirely that the combination is still on a sticker on the back of the lock.

"What are we looking for in here? An air pump?"

[ISHIDA]
Bathrobes, in this weather? While Ishida had been interested in what Coco might find, he didn't seem thrilled about the idea of adding another layer of cloth to his shoulders. The towel is, honestly, enough.

As Kenzo exposes the inner workings of ninjutsu training, Ishida spends a bit more time examining the lock. He's fascinated at the details -- though, he's all too familiar of the roles of the ninja throughout Japanese history. He can piece together the rest. Just as Kenzo and Coco start to approach, Ishida takes note of the back of the lock -- it's smooth, but not -metal-. He's about to take note of it, when Coco arrives to demonstrate her command of Trouble In Paradise trivia.

His mouth parts, as if about to say something -- and yet, he was raised not to interrupt. His brow shows increasing levels of concern, however...

One eyebrow arches high as she demonstrates Zack's birthday.
The other eyebrow joins it, as she shows Niki's.
His pupils dilate as she knows Tina's three measurements.

Before he can voice what he -was- going to say, though, Ishida responds to the question proffered him. "... An air pump, maybe a set of keys to the vending machine, anything that -normally- maintenance staff would have but would not want to clutter up space for visitors and partiers..."

He glances over to Kenzo, catching his breath for a half-beat.

"I suspect the sticker with the combination is still adhered to the back of the lock."

He pauses with a smile. "I did not get a chance to check it, yet."

[KENZO]
Kenzo will note the bathrobe if only so he can have something to wear when he inevitably has hand wash his clothes. As far as he's concerned, the pump room is what he would consider a now problem. Coco however jumps in, utilizing her Zack Island trivia. Where Ishida's about to say something, Kenzo remains quiet and lets Coco cook, as he's heard people say in Metro City.

Kenzo's eyebrow rises with Zack's birthdate. It goes higher with Niki's birthday. The raised eyebrow gets abandoned in exchange for a surprised blink of his eyes at the mention of Tina Armstrong's measurements.

Ishida mentions the sticker just as he gets barely a glance at it due to Coco attempting to open it. Now that there's a lull in activity, he can really take his time to really look at it.

"Any particular reason why 1 - 30 - 15 would be the combination?"

At this point, he doesn't give a damn about maintaining the security of the lock. If they were stupid enough to put it on the back of the lock, they deserve to have the pump room broken into.

[ROXANA]
Coco really is a fan of this reality television. Rox marvels at the information she has retained from watching it. Although, she has to admit she herself recalls a fair bit of what she learned about the New Fighting Generation in the first season.

Despite this impressive display from her mentor, none of the guesses pan out. Instead, something as simple as the combination code being printed on the lock lets them gain access.

"I don't recognise any significance to the numbers. "Roxana says, with a shake of her head. "I can't say I care much though as long as we can get inside and see if there's anything worth getting pur hands on." Some strange part of her is almost enjoying the adventure, now she's gotten over the shock of being stranded. Having to scavenge, steal and survive is something she associates with the freedom of the last year. A stark contrast to the way she lived her life before that.

"Now, who wants to do the honours of opening the place up?" She asks with a sunny smile.

[COCO]
"Oh, 'course. Well, hopefully there will be some keys. The Zack Coin thing is sort of fun, but it's not ideal circumstances, is it?" Coco says, before quirking her lips into a frown as Ishida mentions that the combination is on the back of the lock. She confirms the numbers, then looks up at the sky and taps her lower hips with one finger. "Hmm... oh! That was the opening ceremony for the original Zack Island tournament." She smiles at her own ability to remember the significance. She spins the dial a few times quickly, then pulls it open, removing the lock before stepping aside to let the others in first.

"After you!"

Is she growing as a person?

No, she's just worried that there might be spiders or something nesting in there.

The interior of the pump house will have, to everyone's delight, an air pump - as well as some chemicals and some spare cleaning nets for the pools. Mainly, though, it houses machinery for the maintenance of the pool.

"Smells a bit funky in here," Coco remarks, covering her nose with her arm.

[ISHIDA]
Ishida shrugs his shoulders -- he doesn't see any particular significance to the numbers beyond the purely mathematical. "Fifteen goes evenly into thirty..." He finds himself grinning along with Roxana's assessment. Though, out of deference to Coco, he remains silent on that count -- especially so as she seems so happy to be solving the puzzle herself.

As Coco opens the door, there is an expectant expression on Ishida's face -- as if the posh Brit might decide to walk in herself. But seeing as she does not immediately do so, Ishida takes that opportunity, resigned to the duty of taking on whatever antediluvian beasts lurk inside.

Ishida's face wrinkles up at his full exposure to the air, but nonetheless he proceeds forward, stepping inside far enough to flick on the light switch. A bare light bulb in the center of the room snaps on -- and those who have finer hearing might be able to hear -- or maybe even see -- tiny spider legs skittering back into the darkened corners of the room.

Ishida, for his part, doesn't seem to notice, and his calloused bare feet are indifferent to the accumulated grime and dust upon the floor. He spends a little more time examining the area around the light switch panel, noting aloud, "Usually if people have keys, they would keep them right here. Unfortunately..." He trails off, not having planned a predicate for that sentence.

As he turns around, he walks out into the center of the room -- and spies the air pump on a shelf mounted upon the wall. "Well, there is -some- good news," he notes, directing his open hand towards the air pump.

[KENZO]
Kenzo is the second to go in. He isn't using the visual enhancements of his specs since while he can power his tech up using his energy he still has to feed his personal engine in order to do so. Until they have a stable food supply, he isn't going to be wasting the energy in his gadgets willy nilly.

The first thing that Kenzo lays eyes upon is previously mentioned air pump. With Ishida already drawing attention to that, he feels no need to specifically go for that. His eyes then go to the skimming nets.

"It's probably less than ideal for it but could possibly be used for fishing, theoretically speaking, or a staff weapon in a pinch, and way of reaching something in high places if we don't necessarily want to climb to get there."

Finally, Kenzo's eyes go to the chemicals, more specifically the chlorine.

"I'm tempted to take a bottle chlorine over there as well since I can think of a couple of useful chemical reactions with things we're likely to find on this island. I don't want to risk over burdening the group as a whole."

[ROXANA]
Yet again Coco proves herself to be a fountain of knowledge for all things Zack Island related. Though it seems frivolous on the surface, her fandom may serve them well during their stay. Unlike her mentor, Roxana has no concerns about spiders. After all, they are arachnids and so is she, partially. She has the sudden thought that she could turn into her scorpion form and see what Coco would make of it at such close quarters but she will save that for when it's time for them to have a match, or at least for training.

"There are some strong scents in here." She agrees, as she enters the building third and looks around for the source of them. The Brit's use of the word funky has her thinking about Ishida's left behind bass and she looks at him with some sadness. "I wonder if it's possible to make a bass guitar out of materials found on the island." She muses. "Music would be wonderful for morale."

Even if not, then at least there's the pump, which should provide them with the chance to float. Rox is warming up to the idea of taking some time to do so, before they set off in search of more food sources. "Yes, grab the nets, Kenzo." She smiles at him. "One bottle of the chlorine should be fine too."

She scans the area for any signs of other useful objects but drawing a blank, she tilts her head towards the door. "Shall we take a dip in the cool water before we go and try our luck finding fish? We can maybe even share that can of pina colada."

[COCO]
"Oh, we should grab one of these for Chevy," Coco suggests as she steps in further, bending down to take one of the net poles. "And a couple of those buckets. She could probably slap them together and make one of those weapon slash peasant tool things she uses." She straightens up, smoothing her robe down before testing the pole's weight between her hands.

"That reminds me," she comments as Roxana mentions making a bass guitar, "somebody should try breaking into Zack-of-All-Trades. They used to stock all sorts of things there. There might even be guitars.

She smiles at the suggestion that they take a dip in the water. "Sounds good to me. Unless any of you guys want a rematch?" She looks between the others in the group. "Nobody?"

[ISHIDA]
Ishida nods along in agreement to Kenzo's and Roxana's suggestions -- both excellent. He's already taken the air pump under one arm by the time Coco makes the suggestion for her rival(?). His eyes widen for a moment, as he nods with a slight smile: "That is a very thoughtful suggestion." It's hard -not- to acknowledge the heartfelt gesture, in light of the notable rift that existed between Coco and Chevy in the previous NFG season.

"I am sure that is possible, but I do not know if I have the skills to accomplish such a thing..." He might have the -rope-, but making the body and the neck and the frets to pull it all off might take time away from... Well, everything else. Like gathering food.

But then there's the possibility of outright larceny. Or, charitably: borrowing, just as they're 'borrowing' things now. He... doesn't particularly want to commit crimes. But this is a matter of survival -- and he feels like a co-conspirator in this particular party. So he just... smiles, and nods. Though he does look to his mentor with a look of concern as the can of pina colada is mentioned.

Afterwards, between the lack of food, and the fumes, he wobbles a little on his feet.

Raising one hand to waft air in front of his face, he notes, "... All of those ideas sound good... but perhaps we should enjoy some cool water and fresh air for a bit, first...?"

[KENZO]
Kenzo then gathers the things from the pump room he plans on leaving here with. He grabs the pool skimmers (with one left over if someone wants to use the pool later) and the bottle of chlorine and places them right next to his drone along with the buckets. He then goes over to grab a bathrobe for himself and places the robe in the storage compartment of his drone.

"I think I'll sit out the next game of Keijo but I have no problem with lounging in the pool for a bit before we go."

He suddenly finds his mind wandering to how they could use the pool to aid with resistance training later on. He doesn't voice it now. They taken care of enough business for the time being and now it's time to look after the morale.

"You guys can have the pina colada."

Log created on 16:02:32 05/22/2024 by Coco, and last modified on 10:38:48 06/04/2024.