Match of the Millennium

Description: Fresh off their fight against Braun and Arisa, Chevy and Tanwen decide to hit the docks! Time and time again, fishing gives folks a chance to get to know one another -- though they might fish up more than they'd bargained for!

[CHEVY]
There were a lot of things going through Chevy's mind. Perhaps uncharacteristically for the hayseed, she wasn't blurting them out immediately, but trying to commit them to memory for later.

One thought does escape containment.

"... Where is Winn at, anyway?"
Chevy looks over to Tanwen with a weary smile.
"He didn't come to watch?"

The pace of the fight was very, -very- unusual. If Winn likes watching wrestling, he would probably have enjoyed the brawl between Chevy and Braun. But... perhaps he would have been too busy covering his eyes at the way Tanwen's idealistic, romanticized views of fighting clashed against the harsh realities Arisa brought to the fight.

"He and Dr Maeda both seem like they're gettin' real tired lately. I hope they're eatin' okay."

Eating is, of course, one of the reason Chevy makes a point to go fishing at least once a day. Which is why she's walking with Tanwen now to the docks outside Moonlight Reef. She's carrying two makeshift fishing poles -- one for herself, and one for Tanwen -- and her shoulder bag from before. For lack of any real opportunity to -change- her attire, she's still dressed exactly the same, aside from trading her ball cap for her floppy Cape Hatteras hat.

The freckled farm girl hasn't had a whole lot to say since the fight. Treating injuries, of course, was the first priority: she'd brought along a small travel-sized first-aid kit to deal with the urgent problems, and a set of piggy-themed bandaids for the cuts. But past the immediate concerns ... she's just been doing a lot of thinking. About the fight ... and in a larger sense, about ways she can help Tanwen cope with things.

For instance: -Does- she think Miss Arisa was angry with her for saying nothing was working? And what can even be -done- about that, if it happens in the future?

[TANWEN]
Tanwen is also dressed in much the same way as she has been since the start of their island adventure, wearing a Welsh flag-themed bikini, but also now sporting a white bedsheet that's been wrapped around her neck and tied off as a makeshift cape - or, more accurately, a cloak, as she would tell anyone who asks. After all, cloaks of protection are a staple of any adventurer's defensive toolkit, and the pair's recent battle with the Big Game Hunters spelled out the need for Tanwen to make sure that her back is protected. She's also wearing her indigo bucket hat, and privately enjoying feeling a bit like a hobbit, except for her hairless feet.

"Oh, he was going to help with cooking the tea," Tanwen explains to Chevy. "If we bring him back some crabs or lobsters, I bet he could make us all a lovely soup. Oh, and he'll probably need butter, and tomatoes, and flour, and maybe some basil or rosemary or garlic. Do you think they'll be growing those things on the island? I wonder if there's a supermarket deeper in the forest and we've just not found it yet, like."

Fortunately getting blasted over the poolhouse by a rocket launcher hasn't resulted in the kind of catastrophic injury that one would expect for a girl of Tanwen's stature. She's certainly needed quite a few bandaids, especially on her back, but she seems to be recovering surprisingly well - perhaps a benefit of her draconic metabolism.

"Chevy, if we catch any fish, does that mean we get to eat them? I like sharing, but it's just I've been very hungry, like. I keep daydreaming about the time I ate all of the fish in Winn's freezer."

[CHEVY]
Chevy definitely showed her approval of the cloak. The little dragon might not need to take as much care of her skin as the fair-skinned farm girl, but -anything- to make the island more tolerable is a win-win in her book.

"Cooking the tea, huh..." Chevy nibbles on her lip for a moment. She knows what kind of tea Tanwen was talking about -- but she's -really- craving some iced tea at the moment. Even if he manages to steep a pot of her favorite, it just... wouldn't be the same without a few scoops of sugar.

Which, naturally, means she's thinking about drink -and- food as Tanwen starts rattling off a few more ingredients the cooking enthusiast doesn't really have access to.

"I don't... think we'll be able to get a lot of those..." she starts. "We ain't got any veggie seeds, and we ain't got any cows to give us some milk for the butter." She laughs at the idea that there might be a supermarket in the forest. "Well, I mean, we never know! We didn't see one on the lil' tour, but there could be!"

Chevy's used to playing the role of big sister -- and that means she avoids trying to linger too long on a down beat. So, she has a smile on her face as she pulls some dry shrimp heads out of a small waterproof canister. (At one time, the canister had been where she'd stored her emergency pop tart supply. Alas!) Plopping herself down on the dock, she starts to bait the hooks -- or, more accurately, the metal scraps that are now serving as fishhooks.

"Oh, of course! Like, my -hope- is that we shouldn't hog -too- much to ourselves -- we don't want other folks to get sick, right? And if they like the seafood, then we'll have a much better chance to rope folks into helping us in the future."

She smiles a bit more cheerily to herself. "But it's only fair that we get to take first pick of the fish, right? Just like Winn gets his pick of which teas he's brewin' up. It's our reward for takin' initiative."

She lets that last word linger in the air for a moment. She's baiting more than just one hook, there.

[TANWEN]
Tanwen taps her fingers thoughtfully against her chin as she follows along after Chevy. She catches herself doing this, turning her eyes to her hands, and airs her distracting thoughts aloud. "You know, dragons might be the ultimate species, but humans are pretty cleverly made. It's a lot trickier to things like turning door handles or putting prawns on hooks for fishing or use the remote for the telly without fingers, it is. I mean, a dragon can just knock the door down or catch the fish with their teeth, like. Remotes would still be tricky, though. It's probably why you never hear about dragons having a telly in their lairs. Which is a shame, because I've tried sitting on my own in a cave before, and it's not as exciting as I thought it would be."

Tanwen plops herself down on the dock next to Chevy, reaching out in offer of assistance. "Ooh, can I do one too? I've been fishing before, you know. Winn likes to fish. Of course, he always did the hooks, because he didn't want me eating the bait. I tried it once, and got the hook stuck in me lip. It wasn't very nice. But I wouldn't do that now, though!"

Tanwen tilts her head a little to one side. "Do you reckon that the others are letting us take our turn because they've got low initiative scores? I know Albert's wasn't very good. He only rolled a two, like."

[CHEVY]
Chevy grins as she listens to Tanwen -- listening carefully so as not to interrupt too much. She's still -trying- not to just blurt out the first thought that comes to mind, after all.

"... Oh, uh... well, they -do- make remotes that are voice-activated. You just tell 'em what you want to watch, and it'll make that show up on the teevee. Er, telly." She grins hopefully. "... I never really thought about fingers like that, though...!"

In response to the prompting, she's quick to hand a hook to Tanwen, with a caution of, "Watch out! It don't look sharp but it really is." Chevy also opens up her bag so that it'd be easier for Tanwen to reach in and grab some leftover shrimp parts.

"Fish'll eat just about anythin' you put on a hook, generally. It's just, shrimp heads and tails are near 'bout the only thing folks don't want, haha."

She pauses, as she realizes that Tanwen just admitted to eating... well, darn near all the bait. -After- admitting to eating all his fish. "... And don't eat -these-," she says while pointing at the shrimp parts, "They're near 'bout rotten, so you might get sick."

She grins as Tanwen follows her initiative on talking about initiative. "Maybe! It'd be nice if we just -always- got to go first, right? ... But, I guess we'll see..."

With her hook finished, and Tanwen mostly set up, she sets about the task of threading her monofilament into the hook. "... Oh, Tan. I -have- been meanin' to ask you -- you're, like... -naturally- a dragon, right?" She looks a -little- guilty, as if maybe that was a thought that escaped containment early. But, as she draws in her breath, she decides to soldier onward with the rest of her thought.

"Fingers -are- pretty great, but... why do you fight like a human? Us human folks are all like... fleshy an' stuff, and we bruise easy..."

[TANWEN]
Tanwen is respectful in her handling of the hook, having learned her lesson as previously described. She reaches in to delicately grab a piece of shrimp, holding the hook and bait up close enough to her eyes that she starts to go a bit cross-eyed in her attempts to focus on it. "I don't know why they don't like eating the tails and the heads. Those are the bits that are fun to crunch. Winn always lets me crunch the shells, but he used to get a bit of a funny face when I'd do it. I suppose he's got used to it, he has. But don't worry, I won't eat these, because I don't want to get a poorly tummy, and I'd rather eat a fish."

She finally manages to get the hook baited, uncrossing her eyes as she pulls her face back and blinking a few times.

"Oh!"

She takes her own line to start feeding it into the hook, seemingly finding the task a bit trickier as her eyes start to cross again. "Yes, I'm really a dragon. I thought I was born a slow worm, but that was just because all of me mates were slow worms. Then I grew legs, and me mates didn't like me anymore. I was very hungry, so I tried eating sheep, but Winn caught me. Then I thought I fancied being a cat, because Winn was always giving his cat fish and cuddles. Then I got me wings and started trying to breathe fire on the sheep, and Winn sussed out that I was a dragon."

Tanwen takes a moment to refuel her lungs in the midst of her explanation, trying to progress her threadwork with a new tack of observing from a longer distance. "Winn said I had to make sure no one realised I was a dragon, or I'd have to get sent off the island. So, I decided to pretend I was a human instead. That was when I ate all of the fish in the freezer. I don't really know how I did it, it just sort of came naturally, what with dragons being magic, I guess. But once I was human, I could do all of the human things." She smiles. "It's loads of fun being human. You can read books and roll dice and do cartwheels. Well, other humans can do cartwheels. I'm still learning. The only thing more fun than being human is chasing sheep and breathing fire, but that's not allowed."

Tanwen looks resigned as she says so.

"I suppose I fight as a human because I'm only a very little dragon, honestly. Dragons grow slower than humans do. And I don't know if they'd let me do tournaments and things if I was a properly big dragon. It would be a bit like playing Biddies with Magic Cards."

The smile that the girl offers is almost apologetic. "It's okay, though. I'm tougher than I look! Don't worry about me getting bruises and all. I got bruised plenty when that Coco kicked me, remember?"

[CHEVY]
Chevy basks in the warm sun, nodding along with a smile. "Yeah. Fish are way better. Especially if you grill 'em up just right."

Of course, it doesn't hurt that fish are -much- more filling than shrimp around here. Without a boat and a -lack- of a gigantic curtain of fire around the island, there's just no way to catch enough shrimp to feed the island's current population. Fish will, at the very least, make an appreciable impact on collective hunger.

Chevy takes time to get her own line started, but once she does, she pays a bit more attention to Tanwen's technique, in case she needs to ward off any potential pitfalls. The hayseed seems to enjoy learning about Tanwen's early life -- though, there's that term again.

"What is a 'slow worm,' anyway? Is that, like, a..." She swallows her breath for a moment. Bolstering her confidence, she continues the question with a bit of hurriedness: "Is that like a snake?"

She nods along as Tanwen paints an image of her time as a younger dragon, and then as a human -- she can easily imagine Winn taking on that role in her past. "I'm really glad you were able to meet him. Winn sounds like he's been a great friend for you."

Chevy -does- start to understand. Which is good, because she would have felt like a real heel if Tanwen's disappointment had been localized to anything more than just an inability to terrorize sheep and burninate countrysides.

"... Yeah, I can see why you'd want to hang out with us, that makes sense." Chevy herself had isolated herself from many of her friends just by virtue of her own interests being so different -- it's not as if she wouldn't be able to ring them up on any given day if she were back home. So Chevy can definitely appreciate that Tanwen... doesn't seem to have any such draconic equivalent to her own Farmville community.

"Well ... Yeah. It -is- kinda hard to forget that. I really shoulda warned you about that."

Chevy pauses for a moment, lifting her nose slightly as she devotes a moment of attention to the breeze, and the flow of the waves. Waiting, waiting...

Suddenly, she whips her pole overhead, casting her line into the water, with a serene smile on her face.

"I -am- glad you're pretty tough, though, yeah. I warn't too sure how to help you with that fight jus' now. That Arisa looked to be a heck of a lot quicker than Coco, I tell you what."

The fishing line catches the light as it thrums softly in the breeze, the gentle waves of Moonglow Reef pulling it to and fro.

"Was she pressurin' you a little -too- much, y'think?"

[TANWEN]
Tanwen seems to have the basic idea of how to manage her line and hook - at least once she puts the thing into appropriate perspective.

"I like grilling fish," she says, smiling faintly. "The first time I tried, I almost burned down the house by accident, but I'm better at it now, I am."

She turns a questioning look toward Chevy when asked what a slow worm is. "Oh, I suppose it is a bit, like. I thought that snake was a slow worm. We've got them on Flat Holm. They're like snakes, but less bitey, and not as big. Or a bit like a dragon with no wings and no legs and not so many teeth. They're easy to confuse." She almost sounds defensive in saying so, but relaxes when the subject turns to Winn.

"Winn tells people I'm his daughter, and that my mum's died. It's a bit sad. I don't know what's happened to my real mum, though, and that's a bit sadder, I suppose."

Tanwen hesitates for a moment when Chevy pauses, looking around as if expecting some sort of danger. When it turns out that she's judging her cast, Tanwen snaps her own rod out hastily, as if she's missed her cue. She's breathing heavily by the time that her hook hits the water, but turns to Chevy and smiles. "Oh, that was exciting."

Then, looking out to the water, she says, "I think that Coco's more like a monk, and Arisa's more like a multi-class character that has loads of skill points and different abilities. They're both a bit scary, in different ways. I thought Arisa might be nice to be friends with, but I think I made her a bit angry. I'm not used to knowing what to do with new people sometimes. There's more people on Zack Island than Flat Holm."

She tilts her head a little to one side. "What do you mean about pressuring? You mean like, trying to make me do something I didn't want to do? Like dodging bullets?"

She lifts her shoulders a little. "I guess if bullets are allowed then it's okay. I get a bit worried that people will think I'm for hunting because I'm a dragon, though. I mean, I think they've already hunted all the other dragons, like."

[CHEVY]
"Well, when it comes time to grill these up, we'll do it together for safety. How 'bout that?" Chevy shares a gentle smile to put any potential fears to rest.

Though she'd been a little leery of the so-called 'slow worm' that was invading the cottages, Tanwen's description of the creatures as... well, legless lizards, that seems to pacify her to -some- degree. "Well, if they're 'slow' an' less bitey, then I guess that's all right..."

Chevy's smile fades as she hears about Winn calling Tanwen his daughter. And that her mum's passed on. It's sad -- and Chevy nods quietly, as she comes around to understand where Winn is coming from. "Ah... yeah. It is, a bit." She scratches her cheek, a bit melancholy in her expression as she thinks about just what that might -mean-. No mother... but a close companion who -acts- like a father.

Chevy's chest swells with emotion as she gathers her thoughts together, looking over to Tanwen with a reassuring smile. "... Well. I'm sure that wherever she is, your momma's proud of what you're doin' now. My momma's proud of me, and my paw always had been when he was around. You got a good heart, Tanwen -- and good things tend to happen for good people."

The first two casts go out. All is quiet, for now -- but Chevy smiles, occasionally giving her pole a little wiggle for the fish who may or may not be curious about the new arrival.

"Heh, yeah, it can be excitin'. Sometimes the breeze just feels -right-, and others... well, who knows?"

As the topic turns to Arisa, Chevy's... well, she seems to appreciate the comparison to character classes in the roleplaying genre. The freckled farm girl grins, nodding along.

"Well, to be honest, I wouldn't worry about her too much. She's a straight shooter, Tan, if she's upset with you she's just gonna up an' tell you so. Sometimes people just, y'know, get a little heated in the middle of a fight, and they ain't too true to one another."

Chevy gives a small snicker afterwards. "Makin' you do somethin' you don't wanna, yeah. But, yeah... I meant more like... at that time in the fight, you were frustrated 'cause you weren't able to land a good hit, right?" She reaches up to brush a stray lock of hair into her floppy hat. "Sometimes you gotta just let go of that frustration, let it drip off of ya. Arisa, I think she kinda knew that if she gave you time to think, that you might've been able to build up some speed and whallop her."

She puffs up her lower lip for a moment, nodding. "And, hey, you -did-, so that's fair, right?"

She narrows her eyes, flashing a little bit of a smirk as Tanwen tries to play it off like she was being -hunted-. "Naw. You're a rare find, Tanwen, ain't no way anyone thinks you're for huntin'. 'Specially not Arisa. She might've been tore out the frame with all that talk about nothin' workin', but 'sides from that, I think she's good people."

Chevy starts tugging at her line, slowly bringing it back to the dock as she continues. "... I mean, the way I see it, everyone in the NFG's got somethin' they're tryin' to get better at."

She lets that thought hang in the air for a few moments, before asking a follow-up.

"... Is there anythin' in particular you're workin' towards? Aside from the human thing, I mean."

[TANWEN]
"I think so, too," Tanwen says, looking relaxed as she lets her legs swing from the dock. "That good things happen for good people, I mean. I mean, sometimes the bad guys have to win a bit, but then the heroes win in the end. Except with Saint George and the poor dragon. Saint George should have picked on somebody his own size."

Her tone turns a little more bitter as the ancestral crime crosses her lips, though she simmers down a little as Chevy turns the talk back to the earlier battle.

"I suppose I was getting a bit frustrated, was all. I wasn't meaning to act like a wee whelp, but I'm not used to getting kicked in the head."

Tanwen starts drawing in her own line, quirking her lips and brows when there's a bit of resistance at the other end. "I suppose I'm trying to get better at fighting for real. I want to get some more experience so I can be higher level. I mostly joined because I'm hoping I can meet some other dragons, though. I want to get bigger, too! I should be hitting a growth spurt any year now, I think. I probably won't if I haven't had enough to eat, though. So I suppose the first thing is to either catch loads of fish or find a way back to where there's more food."

She gives another tug, then another.

"I don't think it wants to come back! Maybe I've caught something," she says, tilting her head curiously. "Should I give it a big pull, like?"

[CHEVY]
Chevy... doesn't really know who Saint George is. But it's not hard for her to understand that Tanwen is *not* a fan; she offers a light chuckle in commiseration.

Frustration is normal for getting kicked in the head. "Haha, yeah, I don't think *anyone's* used to that, Tan."

Chevy snickers a bit, giving her line a little tug here and there in hopes of catching some wayward fish's interest.

"Some fights can be real frustratin', yeah. You've lucked out so far, in that none of your opponents up till now have really *tried* to get you angry. Ain't Arisa, like, the first person to start gettin' you really riled up?" She laughs softly. "And she warn't even really *tryin'* to, I think it was just frustration on *her* part too."

Chevy nods along as Tanwen starts talking about... growth spurts, and meeting other dragons. "... Growth spurts, whoa." Her eyes bulge for a moment as she thinks about that. "I *do* think that if there's a shot of runnin' into other dragons like you, gettin' you up on the big screens with us will definitely go a long way towards that! So we're gonna do everything we can to get you better at fightin'!"

Chevy grins, adding as an afterthought: "And, yeah. We -want- to get more food, that's for sure. I'm missin' the Mermaid buffet lines somethin' fierce."

The tugs on Tanwen's line start to steal the show, though -- and Chevy *almost* jumps up to help, before reminding herself that she needs to be teaching and not doing.

"Awesome! Oh yeah, just... stay calm, first off..." Part of that is a reminder to herself. "Second, like ... keep the line taut. You wanna make sure you're givin' it even pressure." She pauses for a moment, making sure Tanwen has time to digest that specific piece of advice before she adds more. "... You don't wanna give it any slack, 'cause then it might change its mind and bail. But y'also don't wanna pull so hard you break the twig in your hands. Just give it nice, pressure -- and once you think you're *close*, give it a firm tug!"

[TANWEN]
"Well, I wasn't angry," Tanwen clarifies, eyes focused on her line in the water. Whatever it is doesn't seem to be particularly aggressive, but there's clearly -something- providing resistance at the other end of the filament. "It was just a bit much, it was. I was trying really hard, because I didn't want to let down Team Atlantis. Do you think that there are other dragons, then?"

There's a flash of hope in Tanwen's tone as her eyes shift to Chevy - and then, seemingly as if whatever is on the line sensed Tanwen's distraction, the rod suddenly bends, nearly falling out of her hand as something tugs Tanwen's bait toward the deeper part of the bay.

"Oh, no! The fish is being sneaky!" Tanwen declares, tugging back hard on the rod to try and counteract Mr. Fishy's sudden betrayal. And in response -

*SNAP*

- the string suddenly snaps.

"Cachu hwch!" Tanwen blurts out, before adding, "Sorry. It must be such a big fish, Chevy! I bet I can find it if I go in!" she declares, dropping the rod on the dock and standing up to lean over the water, trying to search the sea for her quarry.

[CHEVY]
"Oh! My mistake." Chevy hadn't realized she'd conflated frustration with anger in her head, and doesn't want to press the issue. "It was, a bit. I'd -wanted- to help..." she notes. With Tanwen fighting the mighty fish though, she decides to focus on the task at hand.

Which means she happens to glance over at Tanwen -juuuust- as Tanwen is turning to glance back at her. Catching her, Chevy directs her eyes back to the water...

And then the fish -- or whatever it is -- makes a break for it!

"Oh no!" cries Chevy, in perfect unison with the Welsh girl's initial statement. And then -- she sees the pole start to flex. Her lips curl back in anxiety as she leaps to her feet, tugging her own line out of the water so she has less to worry about...

When the string snaps -- and Tanwen decides to jump up as well, the waterbender looks out over the water with a degree of alarm.

"... It snapped the line? Wow! That -must- be a big mamma-jamma... "

Chevy grimaces at the thought of Tanwen jumping in -- but she convinces herself that some lessons are best learned the hard way. "Well -- if you think you can... just be smart about it, alright?! If it's bigger 'n you or me, I want you to let me know!"

Setting her baited but otherwise empty pole on the dock beside her, Chevy stands at the ready to leap in -- or to use her water-bending powers to help, if it comes to that!

[TANWEN]
"It's a mamma-jamma? Is that the sorts of fishes they have around here?"

Tanwen undoes the bedsheet-come-cloak around her throat, tossing it heroically aside as her tail swishes out from her lower back in anticipation of the upcoming swim. "Well, I hope that it's a tasty sort of fish."

With that, the dragonette dives headlong off the dock, kicking her legs as she propels herself down into the reef. The water might normally have been fairly clear, but sand has been kicked up, making it a little harder to see what's going on from the surface.

About thirty seconds later, though, the dragon girl pops her sopping copper-coloured hair above the water's surface and shouts up to Chevy. "Chevy! I don't think it was a mamma-jamma after all! I think it was a pirate chest! It's a bit stuck in the sand down by the pretty rocks! Do you want to help me fetch it?" she asks.

[CHEVY]
It's a big mamma-jamma, yes. But not a big...
Chevy winces visibly, the corners of her lips peeling back in distress.
"I'm just sayin' it's a whopper! A really big one!"

She can't argue that it won't be a tasty fish, though. Especially since it seems to be kicking back as much as it is. Though, in all actuality, Chevy can't really -tell-. She may be a good waterbender, but she's not good enough to identify things in the water that she can't actually lay eyes on. And jumping into the water from the dock doesn't seem like a particularly sound course of action at the time.

That changes, of course, once Tanwen delivers her report. And Chevy's eyes practically turn into stars at that notion.

"A -pirate chest?- Heck, yeah! Just gimme a jiff..."

In the next couple moments, she starts unbuttoning her shirt and working herself out of it: extra loose clothing will just slow down her swimming. Half-heartedly folding it, she drops the shirt and her hat on the dock, then kicks out of her shoes and uses them as weights for the clothing.

A moment later, the bikini-clad hayseed dives off of the dock with the grace of a swan, piercing the water with only a tiny splash. In moments, she's racing through the aquatic medium, allowing her bright blue eyes to catch sight of the sand, the pretty rocks, and the... pirate chest?

She may be a waterbender -- but time underwater -is- limited. She'll do what she can to pry the found treasure loose from whatever's holding it back -- though she'd be mindful of both her own air supply and Tanwen's, not wanting to stay down any longer than her mentee can manage. If she -can- break it free, she'd ask the water for some assistance in lifting the found goods to the surface without destroying them in the process...

The next question on her mind is probably not all that different from Tanwen's -- what's inside?

[TANWEN]
Tanwen leads the way down through the reef, past the 'pretty rocks' - coral, as it turns out - to where a wooden chest has indeed been left half-buried in the sand. It's not too hard for the two working together to get it loose. The container doesn't look quite as old as one might expect for a pirate chest, but it's pretty heavy - fortunately, the natural buoyancy of the water helps to make bringing the box to the surface easier than it could have been, particularly between Tanwen's physical strength, Chevy's hydromancy, and the swimming skills that both possess.

"Pfff," Tanwen splutters as the two break the surface. "I mean, this is amazing, isn't it? Do you think it's full of Zack coins?" Somehow, the prospect seems just as exciting to the girl as the idea that it might be full of /actual/ treasure. "Let's bring it up on the sand! I can't wait to open it. Oh! But first, we should check it for traps."

Once the chest has been delivered onto the shore with the assistance of the gentle tide, Tanwen starts crawling around it, peering at it from every angle. "I don't /think/ it's got any traps," she says with uncertainty in her voice. "I don't see my hook either, though. What if it's a mimic? It could have ate the prawn, and now it could be waiting to eat us! Maybe we should just give it a bit of a bashing to be sure."

[CHEVY]
Normally it doesn't take wood long to get completely waterlogged -- sometimes as little as a week for untreated lumber. But from the relative ease in which Team Atlantis is able to bring the chest to the shore, it looks like whoever built the box knew what they were doing.

Chevy may have been a little tired before, but her bright eyes show that the little dip in the water has done a world of good. The former hog wrestler shoulders more of the chest's burden as her assistive water runs out -- but she's quick to let gravity take over once the sand stops shifting beneath her toes. She sets the box down -- ensuring it's ground into the sand and thus anchored securely, in case they aren't able to move it before high tide.

"Uh... well, you got a coin from that fight, right? You're the DM, why don'tcha flip a coin and see if Evie notices any traps, hm?"

She grins cheerily -- letting Tanwen go through any DM-like motions as she sees fit. Which... may include crawling around on it. She's not entirely sure.

"... If it -was- a mimic, I'd'a thought it'd snap at us underwater when we least expected it. But yeah, go on an' give it a good whack or two just for good measure!"

She doesn't think it -is- a mimic -- but even as she reaches for the multi-tool clipped to her belt loops, the waterbender demonstrates that she's taking Tanwen's precautions seriously by swirling water into a little tornado-like vortex at her left side.

"Don't worry, I'll cover you if anythin' tries to jump out at'cha!"

If, of course, she needs -help- prying the lid open, she's ready to unfurl the tool's blade for that purpose.

[TANWEN]
"Oh, no... I don't think I've got a coin. I used me other coin in the machine already," Tanwen says as she straightens up and eyes the could-be-mimic with a healthy adventurer's paranoia. Her eyes narrow for a moment with suspicion before she takes a step back, then bounces forward, aiming a sharp kick at the chest.

*THUMP*

"Owwwwwieee!"

Tanwen topples over, cradling the toes of the foot she kicked the chest with. "I think it kicked me back, it did!" she whinges.

The chest did not kick Tanwen, but she's a little more familiar with Newtonian physics now. The chest doesn't fall over, as it seems to be full of something - but the latch does pop open, giving a glimpse of the contents gleaming inside as a thin bit of sunlight hits them.

"Be careful it doesn't bite you, Evie," Tanwen warns. "I mean, Chevy, that is. Is that treasure?!"

Forgetting her own warning, she lurches forward onto her hands and knees, crawling across the sand to push the chest open.

She gasps.

"Chevy, we're rich, we are!"

Inside, the box is full to the brim with dozens, if not hundreds, of identical...

Seashells.

It's full of seashells.

"Are these sand dollars? They look a bit like sand dollars, don't they?"

[CHEVY]
Chevy winces in commiseration as Tanwen kicks the box with her own toes! The hayseed covers her mouth to keep from adding a shout that gives even more cause for alarm. She also lets go of her hold on the vortex, for the moment, letting the water pool into a new hollow on the sandy shore

"Oh goodness, Tanwen, that ain't how you kick somethin' that ain't gonna budge..."

The Carolina girl sees the lock spring open, but the mentor feels she should demonstrate just to cooperate...

"See, you gotta use your -heel-, otherwise you'll break all your toes...!"

Chevy delivers a good stomp kick to the box, jarring it around and causing a clattering of the shells inside. But then she hops back with a sudden cry -- "Yeowch!"

As she hops back, she cradles her foot in her hand, wincing yet again and plucking a rather large splinter out of her foot. "... Well, I mean... maybe it ain't -perfect-, but..." she rationalizes.

She laughs gingerly as Tanwen points out the shininess of the objects inside. "... Well, I don't think Evie's gonna find any traps here. It's all seashells from the look of it, they're beauties, at that!"

Chevy joins Tanwen beside the box, shaking her head in response to the query. "Naw... sand dollars are flat, I say, they're about the size of sliced tomatoes but they're bleach white." She starts sifting through them, pushing a few aside as she makes her assessment... "These shells are mostly just sea scallops. They're pretty, but even the gift shop ain't gonna give you much more than about fifty dollars for 'em. 'Course they'll turn around and sell 'em for four bucks a pop, but that's how ol' Earl makes himself a livin', yeah..."

As she starts to push the shells out of the way, a curious glint catches her eye. "Wait, hold up a sec, Tan... I think we got somethin' here."

She pats Tanwen lightly on the shoulder for a moment, and then lifts up on one of the narrow sides of the box, partially upending it so a miniature landslide of shells dumps out onto the sand...

And, having done so, there's something that shines even more brightly than the damp shells in the sunlight. Chevy grins cheerily.

"Well, there's somethin' a -little- better than traps here...!"

[TANWEN]
Tanwen gawks as Chevy ends up hopping back in pain as well. "It must be a very angry pirate chest," she concludes on the matter.

When Chevy mentions that the shells inside are sea scallops, her eyes light up, though. "Scallops? You mean the sort that you can eat? This must be enough scallops for... for at least you and me and Winn! And maybe Max, too." She quirks her lips. "Max can probably eat the shells."

She picks up one of the shells and starts turning it over in her hands, trying to assess whether it's actually something edible. She's still doing so when Chevy partially upturns the box.

"Oh! Is that...?"

She reaches down and pulls the glinting object out of the pile of seashells. "It's a Zack Coin, it is," she says as she holds it up to the sunlight, revealing the glowing face of the island's mysteriously departed former owner. "Let's see if there's anymore! It could be full of Zack Coins, it could!"

Deciding to take a less painful strategy than kicking the box, she instead lowers her head and rams it into the chest, knocking it over so that the rest of the shells spill out.

"Ow," she says, sitting back and rubbing her head. "I think I forgot to use my horns."

[CHEVY]
Chevy responds with a laugh. "Oh, yep, It's 'angry,' alright..."

As Tanwen starts to examine the shells, Chevy shakes her head in response: "Naw, Tan, these are just the shells..." The Ocracoke girl laughs at the confusion, picking up two shells about the same size, and holds them together as if they're hinged. "Scallops live inside these shells, but they're long since gone if they've been lumped into someone's collection like this..." She winces at the thought of Max eating the shells all by themselves. "... I don't think eatin' scallop shells will get you anythin' but a trip to the dentist, where they ask you why you been eatin' scallop shells."

After tilting out the box gently, though, it seems Tanwen had a more rapid evacuation of the contents in mind. "H-hey, don't scatter 'em every which way..."

Sunlight glints around some of the contents -- though as Chevy's worried about Tanwen, she's only able to catch sight of one other coin tumbling loose. Crouching by it, she plucks it from amidst the shells with a grin.

"And here's another one! How 'bout that?" She grins for a moment, before turning her attention back to sifting through the shells in search of another glint of light.

Turning over shells, she asks, "You all right? It looked like that mighta hurt..." Thinking on that for a moment, the hayseed continues: "Is there some kinda... process you gotta go through, shiftin' forms an' all? Like, I know Buck just has to think about the animal he wants ta be, and -then- he puts some effort into makin' it happen -- but he cain't hold the form for very long. Is it somethin' like that?"

[TANWEN]
"Oh, sorry," Tanwen says with a slightly guilty expression as Chevy chastises her against scattering the shells all over. There's an audible gurgling from the crestfallen dragonette's stomach as Chevy shows her that the scallops have long since vacated their residences. The corners of her mouth recover slightly when Chevy shows that there is another coin in the chest, after all. It seems that Zack intended the couple that found the secret treasure should be able to share.

"I'll be fine, I will," she says cheerily, starting to pick up the shells and carefully dust the sand off of them before putting them back in the chest one by one. "I think it's sort of like that, but I've never tried to turn into anything besides a human before. I can stay as a human for a long time, but it makes me hungry when I do. I'm not really supposed to have big wings or a big tail or big horns, so it sort of takes extra energy to do those things when I'm a human, even though it's just normal when I'm a dragon. Maybe I'll get more used to doing them when my dragon size is bigger. Except then I suppose I'll be extra hungry all the time?"

She tilts her head thoughtfully as she considers the idea. "I wonder if we win if I'd get to use the buffets on the Mermaid all the time as a prize. That would be lush!"

[CHEVY]
"Okay!" Tanwen brushing off the head injury as a minor one sets Chevy's mind at ease. Making sure that the chest is fully empty first, she follows Tanwen's lead in dusting off the shells and placing them back within the chest.

"Yeah, I wish there was a good way for you to gobble up a bunch of energy at once. I didn't pay attention in science class, as to what dragons eat, but I'm guessin' that trees ain't too tasty."

Whereas she'd been fully engaged in fishing mode before, Chevy's fully shifted over to lazy tourist mode as she stacks the shells semi-neatly into the chest. Partly because, well, she's got such a friendly conversational partner in Tanwen here. The sun has already evaporated the water from her shoulders, and it's starting to leave her thighs and feet coated with a thin dusting of sand that's barely visible against her barely-tanned skin.

"Okay, so... you can stay as a human for a long time. So is it, like, the -changing- that takes a lot of energy? It sounds like that was an issue for Max, too..."

She smiles cheerily back at Tanwen. The hayseed hopes that learning more about her student's strengths and weaknesses may provide some insight for her fighting style!

[TANWEN]
"Well, mostly I like eating crabs and lobsters," Tanwen says as the deposited shells clack against each other inside the chest. "I've never tried eating a tree, but they don't seem very tasty. I don't mind a bit of salad sometimes, though. And fish, of course. I like mutton as well. And rarebit."

The discussion of what kinds of food she finds tasty elicits another rumble from Tanwen's stomach.

"I think it's mostly when I start using the wings to fly, or start attacking with me tail, or things like that. It's a bit different from doing other dragon-y things, like breathing fire. Sometimes I find it harder not to breathe fire. Like when I get an itch in me nose."

Tanwen rolls her shoulders and pulls a face as she tries not to think about sneezing. "Do you think that Max is a bit like a dragon, then? What about Miss Roxana? Do you think she's a manticore? Only I know manticores have scorpion tails, but they're not just scorpions."

[CHEVY]
"Crabs and lobsters *are* pretty good," agrees Chevy with a bit of remorse. As much as she's been wanting to collect the crustaceans, the little guys haven't been crawling into traps quite as often as the crab-craving population of the island would like. She adds with a hopeful smile, "And I really do miss cheese. I'm definitely gonna be hitting that up on the buffet once we get back."

She looks around on the chest as a thought occurs to her. The line had broken earlier -- and the wood's still soft enough to give her splinters, so there's a fair bet that the Tanwen's hook is still embedded in it somewhere. She looks around the chest as she listens.

"So it's just like... anything with effort. I mean, I guess that makes sense. I get tired when I'm liftin' things a lot, or when I'm fillin' up water jugs." She pauses. "It's hard to build up stamina to make those things -easier- when we're on such a strict diet, though..."

And now it's time for -Chevy's tummy to rumble. Maybe a topic change is in order!

Luckily, Tanwen's already on that. "... I think Max and Buck both are, a bit, yeah -- they burn through energy like all get out. It shows in how they move!"

She seems a little confused at the mention of manticores, though. "... I don't remember comin' across a manticore before. Is that one of the creatures in that other book?" She smiles helpfully, suspecting it's a mythical beast but not -really- sure.

"... Huh. I wonder, hmm." Chevy stacks a few more shells in, but stops to look at her protege. "Tan, how much of -my- fights have you watched so far? Not just... on this island, but in the Odyssey, and before?"

[TANWEN]
The hook seems to be mysteriously missing. Perhaps it drifted away after snapping on the chest? Unless it was something else that had caught Tanwen's bait, and the chest's appearance was a mere coincidence...

"Yes. I miss cheese as well. So, we'll definitely be getting back, then?" Tanwen seeks confirmation from her mentor. "Not that I mind Zack Island, except there's not enough food."

She nods her head once as Chevy asks about the manticore. "It's a bit like a lion and a scorpion with a man's head. In Dungeons and Dragons it also has wings, because that makes it cooler. It shoots darts from its tail. Actually, I suppose Buck is more like a manticore than Miss Roxana is."

She tilts her head at Chevy's question. "Well, Winn used to like watching them, but sometimes I would get a bit sleepy, or they would be a bit scary. Like when you fought Miss Zarine. That was probably the scariest one! Was it scary for you?"

[CHEVY]
"Of course we will!" Chevy beams back at Tanwen, as if she's never been more sure about anything else in her life. There's any -number- of reasons for the cheerful farmgirl to be optimistic; she puts her most faith in the determination of her many, many friends to stand tall in the face of adversity.

"She said she was giving us tests, right? We done passed the first one great, 'cause we made due without any of the coconuts she done torched! And then we're s'posed to meet her up on the mountain. She ain't gonna stand a chance against -all- of us."

Crossing her arms, she directs a confident smile in the direction of the volcano's caldera. "And if folks -still- ain't around to rescue us, it ain't no big deal to toss together a boat once the fire wall's down. So, it's really just a matter of time before we can eat whatever an' -whenever- we want again!"

She seems a little less confident about her chances of dealing with a manticore -- but only because she's not *crazy* about the prospect of dealing with scorpions. "... Oh, hmm, I see. Yeah, I think she's 'just' a scorpion. I figure it's tough for a human to shapeshift into more'n one animal at the same time."

Chevy finishes scooping up the last of the shells, putting an end to the chore with a clack-clack-clack of chitin. Dusting her hands clean(er), she hops back to her feet.

"Oh, lemme tell you, that was -terrifying- for me! Miss Zarine was the fighter who scared me the most! Gosh... "

Her face reddens a bit, as she thinks back to the particulars of that fight. A shiver runs down her spine.

"Well, the scariest part about that fight warn't just how she fights. She was usin' blood to fight, and blood's like mostly water, right? And I'm all about fightin' with water."

Chevy looks down for a bit, shivering yet again. "What got me shook was that she was usin' -my- blood to fight -me-. I didn't have any control of it any more. And I could -feel- her twistin' it out of my grasp."

She lifts her eyes again, nodding. "And I got real scared... and a lot of people told me they stopped followin' me right then and there, because o' how I lost control. But..."

She draws in her breath, dropping her elbows to either side, raising open hands as if slipping into a wrestler's ready stance.

"But then I remembered somethin' I heard once: you take that moment of bein' scared, right?"

Her forehead tenses slightly, and she wiggles her fingers at the ground. A few drops of water sprinkle out, darkening the sand where they land -- and then Chevy drags a line through the damp sand with her toes.

"Then you step past it."
The hayseed just takes two steps over the line.
And she grins, gesturing down at the line with her hands.

"You let that moment set right where it was. You do that, you show your opponent: yeah, I *was* scared, so what? What'cha got now?"

Chevy flashes a giddy smile for a moment. That -wasn't- where her train of thought was going when it started rolling, but it... felt good anyway!

[TANWEN]
Tanwen smiles and nods at Chevy's confidence. "So it's sort of like she's the Dungeon Master, really. She's not really trying to win, just give us something fun to do," she interprets aloud.

She screws up her brows in thought as they discuss Roxana's nature. "Do you think she's a human that turns into a scorpion, and not a scorpion that turns into a human, then?"

Biological musings aside, Tanwen watches with rapt attention when Chevy starts explaining how to deal with being afraid in a fight. Once the farm girl has finished her demonstration, Tanwen tries it, too - drawing a line in the sand with her toe, then stepping over it. She turns back to face the line, rubbing a hand against the side of her head.

"I think I get it. Sort of like when Arisa started shooting at me. I was scared of all the noise and the bullets, but I didn't keep thinking about it after she stopped. Except then I forgot she could still shoot me later in the fight, and then she did. That wasn't very nice."

She scuffs her foot across the sand, folding her hands behind her back. "Was there something else you were wanting to tell me about from your fights?"

[CHEVY]
Chevy blinks back at Tanwen. She feels like the young Welsh woman got the gist of what she was saying. And the hayseed realizes that Tanwen isn't really glossing over the true terror of what Junko's done any more than she herself has.

So, she laughs the kind of laugh that curls up her lower eyelids. "I mean, -basically?- If your party ain't even made it to the end boss, y'all probably ain't gonna -beat- the end boss. But if you got there, you stand a pretty good chance. Right? That sorta thing!"

It all sounds so simple when the pesky details are left out!

In typical Dunning-Kruger fashion, Chevy doesn't really think twice when Tanwen asks about Roxana's true nature. It's just... as plain as day to her. "... Well, yeah! I mean, if she was a scorpion turned to a human, she wouldn't care about lookin' purty or actin' nice, she'd just be stingin' people with her dealy-bob, right?" She laughs softly. "I mean, I know dragons are smart cookies, but I ain't ever heard of a scorpion that can talk. So that's where I'm comin' from, there."

As Tanwen puts Chevy's analogy through a number of logical tests, Chevy steps back with a proud smile on her face. It may not have been purely -her- idea, but it was something she happened to benefit from and she's happy to share.

Mostly. The part where Tanwen wanders away from the definitive 'line' into a tangent shakes her for a moment. But then she just says: "R-right, but it's like a habit, right?"

She continues the metaphor by stepping away, straddling the line and holding her hands out to suggest that she's teetering for balance.. "Your opponents are constantly gonna try and take you -out- of the zone."

Then she leans back, planting both feet on the 'good' side of the line. "So when that happens you gotta push back, and make sure you stay focused where you wanna be."

She smiles briefly -- and then she's ready to address the last, seemingly throwaway comment.

"I also wanna say -- it's hard to be 'nice' when you're fighting. Not everyone -can-. Folks like Hawksley have great 'fun' in popping people right in the face. It's fun for him. It's not fun to get popped." She grimaces a bit, rubbing her nose as if -she- had been the victim of the hypothetical popping.

"But, talking about who's nice or not, sometimes that can take you out of your zone too." Here, she steps back to the 'unfocused' side of her line from earlier -- though she's past the point of being overt about the metaphor.

"Or, it can take -other- people out of the zone. Like, Arisa was really gettin' mad about it, yeah?" She laughs softly. "And some people just don't understand roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons. Cain't make everyone happy," she adds with a dismissive shrug.

But then... The other topic. Chevy's eyes light up. "Oh! Right!"

She steps sideways -- out of the direct path of her 'line' in the sand. "I want you to throw a punch at me, *real* slow-like." She thumps herself in the center of her chest, right beneath her deer-antler necklace. "Act like you're poppin' me right here, I wanna demonstrate something."

She raises her hands in the same wrestler's stance from before, baring her teeth for a grin.

"There's bein' -direct- in a fight -- and there's bein' indirect. Some times you want one, some times you want the other!"

[TANWEN]
Tanwen nods slowly as Chevy expounds further on the idea of Junko as an end boss, rubbing at her jaw as she considers the aquamancer's words. "Right. Well, it's not very exciting if someone else beats the boss before you even get there, is it? So I suppose that that makes sense."

She narrows her eyes somewhat as Chevy explains why it's safe to assume that Roxana is a human that turns into a scorpion and not vice-versa. "Oh, yes. I see what you mean. You're saying that dragons are more clever than scorpions." She taps her nose. "It's okay. I won't tell Miss Roxana that you said so. You're probably right, after all. The Monster Manual certainly says so, I reckon."

She listens and watches closely as Chevy delves further into the metaphor, then talks about the niceties of fighting.

"I sort of thought it must be fun, watching Hawksley Moore. He seems to like getting hit almost as much as hitting. Maybe he's a bit like a barbarian. But, you're right - it's not as much fun getting hit for me, either."

She stares at Chevy's chest in surprise for a moment as it's presented as a target for pugilism. Then, she brings her hands up, looking closely at them as she carefully shapes her fingers into fists.

"I've never punched someone before, like," she says as she lifts her amber eyes back up to Chevy. Then, she brings her elbows in, cocks her right fist, and slowly starts pushing it forward in a slow jab toward the spot that Chevy indicated. "Is this right, Chevy?"

Even if it were sped up, it would be a pretty lousy punch, to be honest - it seems she's not lying about having never tried it before.

[CHEVY]
Chevy smiles as Tanwen agrees with her -- right up until the point at which Chevy's realized she may(?) be delivering an insult(?!) A shocked expression flits across her face; it's soon replaced with an expression of relief. Would Tanwen -actually- keep it as a secret?

"Oh, if you would, I'd appreciate it! I warn't tryin' to make anyone upset. 'specially not Roxana, she seems pretty cool!" Not to mention, she's both a high scorer and Coco's trainee, so it's clear the Scorpion is doing -something- right.

But, well, yes. Chevy slaps her hand over her chest once more for emphasis.

"It's just for pretend, I don't want you to actually haul off an' -deck- me."

Though -- as Tanwen admits that she's never punched anyone before, Chevy's eyes widen in surprise. And maybe even a little pity.

"... Yeah, for a first punch, just follow through with it. I won't even budge!"

She watches Tanwen's arm unfold into a punch, nodding appreciatively at the technique -- and as the knuckles 'impact' her sternum, she mimes flailing her arms and rocking backwards a little just for emphasis.

She grins, as she 'snaps out' of her flailing daze. "It won't always -feel- just like that, but there's a few things to note there! The main thing is -- when you punch for 'real,' you'll be throwin' more weight into it. And if you ain't careful and you ain't punchin' right, you could actually hurt -yourself-."

Chevy balls up her right hand into a fist, demonstrating the proper technique of placing one's thumb on top of the second knuckles.

"See, when your punch lands..." Trying to remember how her Paw had explained it, she makes a tiny circle with her left index finger and thumb, centering it around her knuckles. "It starts with the point of contact, and ..." Here, she spreads her fingers outward, making a bigger circle with her left hand. "... spreads outward! It works like that, because if you're striking -right-, you're hitting with your whole hand. Same impact -- more fingers to carry it."

She then lifts up her middle knuckle -- creating a smaller impact zone.

"If you'd had a knuckle out of the fist, it'd just be the one, and you could even break it."

She then raps her knuckles lightly onto her right temple.

"Now what happened when you headbutted the box without your horns?"

[TANWEN]
There's a mystified expression on Tanwen's face as she tries to follow along with Chevy's instruction regarding proper punching technique. Like she indicated, it's a purpose to which the dragon has never attempted to put her primate-style manipulators, and she has to be guided to properly protect her digits.

"That's amazing," she murmurs as she looks at her fist in wonder, tucking in her middle knuckle. "I suppose it's the same if I was going to do a proper punch as well, like? You know, a 'dragon punch,' instead of an ordinary human punch. Like this?"

Tanwen suddenly coils down, then pops up into the air - doing her sloppy yet enthusiastic impression of (a) certain school(s)'s famous 'dragon punch.' For some reason, she tries to put a bit too much torque on it, and ends up landing in a spin before toppling back onto her bottom.

"Oof!"

She returns her attention back to what Chevy is saying, ruffling her hair as she does. "Umm, it hurt a bit, it did. Lots more than if I do it with my horns."

[CHEVY]
Chevy beams as Tanwen follows along, balling her fist in much the same way -- and even making the minute adjustments she didn't think to point out yet. "Should be, yeah!"

The phrase 'dragon punch' does put a puzzled look on the hayseed's face -- it -sounds- familiar, but she isn't quite sure why. The expression's short lived, though, as the mentor can read the slight instability in Tanwen's spin, and steps closer with her arms wide to catch Tanwen if she'd gotten any further out of axis. She didn't though -- and Chevy's expression deflates somewhat as her student makes an awkward landing.

"I think you got good form on that, but the landing might take practice if you're gonna use it in a fight. It's good to have a backup like that, what don't need your dragon forms!"

Chevy nods slowly, as Tanwen explains how using her horns would normally hurt less. "Yeah -- that's basically what I was gettin' at. I remember what my Paw done taught me -- er, my Dad -- then it's real simple. Vibrations can hurt almost as much as the actual hit. So you want to put as much of your body between you and them as you can, to catch all the vibrations. That way you hit them harder, and it hurts you less."

She mimes throwing a punch to the side, then stops herself in the fully-extended position.

"When you punch your opponent, they ain't got any way to shake it off. It just shakes 'em right there and then, so if you slug 'em in the face, it's a big owwie for -them-."

She holds up a finger in the air. "But! If you punch right, the vibration of you smackin' em has to work its way all through your knuckles, your wrist, your elbow, your shoulder to get back to you!" She then bends each of these joints in sequence, as a demonstration. "If your form is even a little bit off, your joints hurt, because now it's like -they're- getting hit by your opponent. So if your wrist ain't straight, pow! It's just like your -opponent- hit you. If your elbow is sloppy, pow! Free injury, and they didn't even have to do a thing!"

She thumbs towards the 'angry' chest. "So when you headbutt a chest, and you ain't got horns to help spread out the vibration, ow! You just hurt yourself. So a big part of learnin' how to fight is figgerin' out how to bonk the other guy without hurtin' yourself in the process."

Chevy rests her hands on her hips, a smile that's bordering on 'smug' creeping across her face.

"So! A big part of my fightin' style is based around helpin' folks hurt themselves. Can you think of how I might do that?"

[TANWEN]
Tanwen picks herself up off of the beach as Chevy is speaking, slowly dusting sand off of what was still a relatively recently soaked bottom half.

"I suppose I could try it some time," she concedes on the subject of her 'dragon punch.' "I'd never really done it before now. Otherwise, I might have tried it when Arisa came to kick me. Maybe I wouldn't have got kicked in the head, like."

Then, Chevy starts explaining fights in terms of physics, and it's clear from the expression on Tanwen's face that this one is taking a bit more processing than anything else that Chevy has tried to teach her so far. She sits back on the chest in awe, one hand on her chin as she tries to understand what's being conveyed.

"So, it's a bit like how if you try to make an unarmed attack without the proper feat, the opponent gets a free attack of opportunity against you?" she says slowly, before nodding. "Oh, the fellows who wrote the Player's Handbook really knew their fighting, they did! I mean, they are Wizards, I suppose."

She looks thoughtful as Chevy poses her question. "Umm, is it by making them hit a part of you that's far away from the parts that get hurt easy... before their arm is all the way how it's supposed to be?" she muses. "So if they went to hit me, I could put my tail in the way very fast, and it would hurt them instead? Except you haven't got a tail."

[CHEVY]
Miss Beaumont does feel a -little- strange talking about... well, physics. She knows she's leaving gaps in her explanation wide enough to drive a truck through -- but she thinks that even a poor analogy can be better than no analogy in this case. That presumption is put to the test as she sees Tanwen's thinking expression; Chevy offers a desperate and hopeful smile in the moment she offers up for feedback.

Her blue-eyed gaze cants sideways for a moment as she considers what Tanwen offers as her own analogy. And, well... the pieces fit, so Chevy decides to give an enthusiastic nod. "Yep! That's pretty much it" She balls her fists up, as if she were a boxer for a moment and not a water-slinging wrestler. "You're gonna have a harder time sluggin' someone if you ain't been practicin' sluggin'."

The remark about the authors being 'wizards,' though, seems to be lost on the farmer girl. She's read the books on Tanwen's recommendation but in nowhere -near- as much depth.

She grins as Tanwen takes on her open-ended question. "Right again!" chirps the hayseed. "That's somethin' I try and do a lot. See, it's great 'cause you can just -turn-, and *wham*, here's your tail! In my case..." She pretends she's holding her pole with both hands. It'd be easier if she just grabbed her fishing pole, but she'd left that up on the dock. "... I usually got my pipe, so I don't have to let them get so close!"

She throws her right fist off towards Tanwen's left -- and then she taps her left forearm to the outstretched limb. "If you can move just a -smidge- ahead of your opponent, you can knock their attack aside. It might still hurt you -- but odds are, they're already chargin' forward like a mad bull. So one thing you can do is tag 'em while they're movin'."

Then she grabs her forearm and bends forward, twisting her arm in demonstration. "Another thing I try'n do is just... twist their forward momentum down so they hit the ground instead of me. But that's a bit more work!"

Chevy lets her arms fall back to her sides, dusting off her hips with a grin. "It could work with your tail, or a sword, or a shield, much the same way! Once you get their attack to where it won't hurt you, you get to surprise 'em with a... what'd ya call it? An 'attack of opportunity,' yeah?"

[TANWEN]
Tanwen dips her head in understanding as Chevy posits the idea of positioning her pipe in place of other prehensile appendages. "Oh, yes! That makes more sense than what I was thinking," she concludes without clarifying what she was thinking, exactly. "And I never even thought about using my sword or my shield the way you're saying, but it makes a lot of sense, too! I've tried hitting people first when they come to hit me, but I never thought very much about using the way they were already moving to try and make them hurt themselves. Mostly I've just tried to hit them on their soft parts with my hard parts. Like using my horns. I promise they work better sometimes."

She taps her lips thoughtfully with a forefinger. "This seems like a good thing to practice. I'll just need my sword and shield, so it would be like a real fight! I mean, my umbrella, I suppose. I sort of lost track of it when I got exploded over the poolhouse."

[CHEVY]
Chevy *thinks* she has a grasp on what Tanwen might have been thinking -- though, whether she guesses correctly is still up in the air. "... Well, I mean, you got other fighters that just brush aside attacks with their hands and feet. If you're quick you can just step sideways, brush the attack away with your arm and go for the gut." She demonstrates the process while relying on her copious knowledge of kung-fu flicks, which of course means lots of unnecessary mouth motions as she sweeps her forearm sideways and punches an imaginary invader in the stomach.

"Horns are great though! And since most people don't got horns, you ain't ever getting into an antler-bashing like when you get two big bucks clashin' together..."

For a fleeting instant Chevy smiles to herself at the thought of two Buck Finleys trading shots at one another. After which she's quick to add: "... The deer type, of course."

Chevy nods, tapping her own lips in a respectful mimicry of her student's expression. "Hmm, yeah, we should probably go back and hunt that umbrella down, hm? It might not be a bad idea now -- we might not have caught any fish, but we got us some new Zack Coins to spend..."

She grins cheerily. "Well, I've probably talked your ear off by now, huh? What all d'ya feel like doin' next, Tan?"

[TANWEN]
"Oh, yes. Actually, I was thinking you meant two Mister Bucks, but turned into stags," Tanwen says with a wide-eyed expression. She slides off of the box, grimacing a little when the careless motion earns her a likely sliver. Apparently the 'old school' rules of female fantasy armour don't apply when it comes to defending against angry, rotting treasure chests.

"Why don't we carry this big box of seashells up so we can share them with the party? Then, we can put our Zack Coins in the machines and hopefully get a snack, since we didn't catch any fish yet. And if we don't get any snacks, we can always come back fishing again."

[CHEVY]
"So, either way, two big bucks!" Chevy snickers as Tanwen closes the circle on that thought despite her clarification. Great minds think alike, or something like that?

The hayseed grins at Tanwen's suggestion. "Yeah -- that sounds like a plan! I'll go back and fetch our stuff -- and then we can see what goodies Mr Zack's got for us!"

Log created on 15:47:46 06/30/2024 by Chevy, and last modified on 16:49:00 07/11/2024.