25th Teddy Bear [Voice/Action][TWO DAYS]

[asobouyo]

[[Nighttime; June 23rd]]

[Elicia had had a tough week.

Shuffle, shuffle—the sound of turning blankets and small feet moving back and forth through them. She's been rolling in her sleep for a few minutes now, flipping her hidden journal into a little book tepee, while it records the buzzing air and soft incoherent murmurings of a child dreaming. They're not happy dreams, after a while, and it takes but a moment before she's wide awake and horrified and crawling under her blankets with her mouth in a shaky near-crying line. The journal. That's right.

She reaches over and opens it up all the way, unable to see anything in the dark. Her voice is watery and lined with a sort of innocent, hurt desperation when she speaks.]

[Voice]

Please tell me a story. I wanna hear stories, if anyone... wants to talk... I like them a lot. I—I promise I'll go back to sleep, but I just wanna hear one...

[Pretty, pretty please...

But despite stories, sometime in the night, she rises up from her bed and patter-pitters quickly into her parents' room. Scary, they're too scary—and they could be real. Because she's seen scary real things like it before. And the last thing she wanted was a blue-eyed woman slowly creaking out of her closet, like she kept imagining, over and over and over again...]

[[Daytime; June 24th]]


[It was a cold snap, today. Elicia wore her poofy pink jacket for the occasion. Truth be told, she's had a very tiring night of trying to sleep, and she'd failed at it fairly well. There were a mesh-up of things. Scary things. She didn't want to draw any of them, so she decided on focusing her attention to playing. By the end of her short-lived playtime outside, she's laying on her arm on the front steps of her house, the fake pink sword Law gave her still clamped in her hand.

A good nap. There was nothing scary... Just good. That was important. It's a good thing children bounce back well enough, even if only for a while, because she's got a content air about her later on in the day. Anyone who wants to visit, now's a great time to; she'll be drawing funny circles all over the ground outside with a stick. Clapping her hands and smacking them. And nothing happens. :|

But she sure as hell is pretending something's happening.]



Bam!! Now you can't stand against my dirt alchemy!! [throws dirt up with her hands at her big teddy bear >:^(

HA, screw you, teddy, you've got dirt on your head!]

You'd better give up soon, or else I'll have to use my water attack next!!

[AND THEN YOU'LL BE MUDDY!!!]

((ooc: Just make it clear which day you're replying to and all that. I have faith in you. |Db))

Comments

[asobouyo]

[Well right now she's a fighter warrior who holds her sword improperly. Sue her, she's five. She takes the time to cut at the air, as if training, but we all know how long that would last, before she runs around yelling at imaginary villains.

TAKE THAT, TREE >:^C]

[deathsdoctor]

[The yelling gets a bit of a wince because he's still hungover from last night's misadventures with Romulan Ale.

But mostly he's just damn amused. Now what dastardly deeds has the greenery committed this time?]

Oh! I think you got him! There's one villian that won't be doing any menacing anytime soon!

1/2

[asobouyo]

[dfksjflkjdf NINJA PIRATE]

[asobouyo]

O-oh, you think so, Uncle Law?

[Mister Law, Elicia. Mister.]

I didn't want him to hurt no one, so I had to teach him a lesson, that the good guys'll stop people who do bad things!

[deathsdoctor]

[Yes, ninja pirate. Ssshhh! Don't let the Naruto-verse shinobi know they've been rubbing off on Law.

This will just be between us, savvy?]

And he's been lessoned well! Isn't that right Mister Great Tree?

[<<; >>;. There is no one watching him be silly. Excellent. Now he speaks with lips barely moving and Kipinn's magic throwing and distorting his voice so it's deeper and gnarled - tree-like, he supposes.]

'No, no, Miss Fearsome Warrior! You've gotten me! I promise I'll turn over a new leaf, I swears!'

[asobouyo]

[Oh, the giggling, it's commencing.] And let that be a biiiig lesson, Mr. Tree! You shouldn't kidnap all the squirrels no more!

[even if they take your acorns. :|a]

[deathsdoctor]

'Nuts.' [Sounds like a tree pout. He's good at mimicing Bepo's tones when the crew scolds him.] 'Yes, ma'am.'

Now, I think in light of such a big victory over such a mighty opponent, some super secret sword techniques should be handed down, don't you think? After all, there are bigger, more villanous opponents running about. Why, the other night, the Dread Mysterious Pie Thief struck. Pie gone - horrible!

[Needling Jack Sparrow? Yes. He has the foggy suspicion that last night he was calling himself the only pirate in the room.]

So Luceti needs its brave warriors to step up. And you're a strong fighter, Miss Elicia.

Are you ready to take it to the next level?

[asobouyo]

The next level? What's that?

[8U is it cool]

[deathsdoctor]

[It is awesome.]

The next level, [Like he's sharing some grand secret that no one else is supposed to know about, sssshhh!] is something every great warrior seeks to achieve. It's where they become stronger, more skilled, smarter, and better able to protect all those people that you care about.

[asobouyo]

I wanna be stronger, yeah! I wanna protect everyone, too!

[I wanna protect Sanji and Nami and the others next time, too...]

How do I do that?

[deathsdoctor]

[I wanna be stronger. Now how could any One Piece character refuse that?]

Train. Study. [A small smile.] And believe.

... and some pointers wouldn't hurt. Let me show you how to hold that sword.

[asobouyo]

[Ah! She holds up her sword, mouth an interested 'o' at the offer.]

You're really good at fighting with swords, arentcha', Uncle Law?

[deathsdoctor]

Yes. Really good. Not the best, but up there. [As far as things go in Luceti at least. He is nowhere close to Mihawk's level and he knows it.]

Alright. One hand up here, right up at the tsuba, [Or the guard as it's better known.] and one down here at the bottom of the tsuka. [Aka the hilt. And he'll guide her hands if she has trouble, like so..] They should never be together. Otherwise your wrists will hurt the more you practice and using the sword properly will be much harder.

[It produces a hacking motion with the hands together. It takes away the power of a slice and the range of movement. A sword is not an axe after all. But words won't get that across well with a five year old. It is better demonstrated so she can get a feel for how much easier the sword moves with the proper technique.]

[asobouyo]

Ruh—right!!

[Wrist hurting = bad. Good logic to live by.]

Why's it hurt your wrists if you hold it different?

[deathsdoctor]

Strain. When you swing a sword you have to flick your wrists in the process. Like in casting a fishing rod. [And he'll take a step back out of Elicia range to demonstrate. Then he moves his hands together and does it again, exaggerating the awkwardness.] Doesn't work right when you hold it wrong, does it? Kinda choppy. And since you have to work harder to make a cut and the cut's not smooth, [Putting down the sword, he never unsheathed it and touches the inside of his wrist.] everything in here gets all jerked around and stressed after a while.

Same when you block another sword. That sword will push your sword back, twisting it out of your grip. The more you hold it wrong, the more difficult it will be to hold on to your sword. And that will make your hands, and especially your wrists, smart.

[asobouyo]

Oooooh...!!

[She holds it precisely as demonstrated. Well, close enough, anyway.]

And then I hit--POW!!

[She slices forward at the air with her relatively harmless little sword, scowling like the good little actress she is.]

[deathsdoctor]

Very good!

[And once she stops swinging the sword, he'll just nudge her hands back into correct position again. It won't take very much of a nudge at all.]

Now copy how I stand [And he shifts into a balanced striking position] and let's try that again.

[And he'll demonstrate the swordstrike alongside her.]

[asobouyo]

[RIGHT.

She mimics his stance, and slices at the air as he does.]

Hiyah!!

[... her hand slips down just a teeny bit again.]

[deathsdoctor]

[She's just learning. It won't come immediately.]

Now let's try a block.

[Going into an overhead block slowly so she can follow along.]

[asobouyo]

A block! That's when you stop their sword, huh, Uncle Law?

[She quickly follows suit as she speaks, tongue out the corner of her mouth in focus.]

[deathsdoctor]

Yeah. We also call that parrying. [Going from that block into a diagonal slash.] But you have to be careful, because sometimes they try to trick you. [Now drawing back that sword for another strike at a copyable speed.] They want you to think they coming for you in one direction [Here starts the strike] when they're really going somewhere else. [And the sword direction and body positioning changes and the sword's moving somewhere else.]

We call that a feint.

1/2

[asobouyo]

A feint!

[...]

[asobouyo]

But I thought that was when you get all funny-headed and fall over when people feint?

[deathsdoctor]

[Chuckling. Oh god, his head. Ow. But totally not caring.]

That's a faint, then. [Grin.] Faint and feint are two different words. They just sound very much alike.

[asobouyo]

...Oh.

I didn't know words could be the same, but mean different stuff!