Just Some Friendly Dummy Destruction

CHLOE: The chiming of the school bell and the fall of the sun closer to the horizon signaled another school day's completion at Agatha Academy. The students poured out from the academy's halls and entranceways back into the outside world once more, their conversations and laughter drifting on the calmest of afternoon breezes. Chloe and Tamsin, meanwhile, had made their way to the gymnasium for a session of combat practice. Tamsin took her turn pummeling and pulverizing a practice dummy while Chloe watched with casual investment.

TAMSIN: The victim of Tamsin's hits was getting its stuffing punched in, but she always made sure to step away so it could magically reset itself. Always give the enemy a chance, after all!! She hopped around, even creating a few clouds she could spring from to circle it from above -- and when the dummy reformed, she was quick to dive from the air with an elbow drop. "WAHH! Didja see that?!?? I finally timed the clouds right!!" Creating them wasn't usually an issue, but forming them in time with her movements, getting rid of them so they couldn't be used against her? That was her current magic practice while she did her strength training. She hopped up, the dummy doing the same, and gave it another series of punches. "These things--" a grunt timed with another smack "--are so COOL! They don't break 'er anythin'!!"

CHLOE: "I guess that's lucky for you and for them," Chloe jokes with a hearty chuckle. "And for the school's budget too. My old school could never afford any of the stuff they got here." Chloe then gets up from her seat and heads to another dummy, socking it right in the kisser with a quick jab. "What about you?" she begins to ask. "What was school like back where you came from?"

TAMSIN: Tamsin giggles back. "Oh yeah!! They'd hafta get MORE if they just, like, stayed broken, huh?? Makes sense!" The idea of a school not being able to get the same was an interesting detail -- maybe something to do with money? "Because they don't have money? Shouldn't schools be able t' get whatever they need? They're teachin' KIDS after all!!" Tam grins as Chloe joins in the training, though her question makes her shrug. "School where I'm from? Nah, we don't have school! Well, there's prob'ly schools down on th' ground with th' humans, but we don't go down there! We gotta stay up in th' sky n' make sure it's workin' right, n' our families teach us how t' do that! No need f'er school!" Another kick to the dummy. "What's l'il kid school like, anyway?? Is it fun? Was y'er's fun??"

CHLOE: "Eh kid school was alright," Chloe shrugs before clocking the dummy in the mouth once more. "You go to school, you hang out with friends, you learn a buncha useless stuff, you eat lunch, you go home. It's no different than here except here you learn cool stuff like how to fight people with magic and all that. I'll admit I was worried about going here at first if only 'cause I didn't wanna leave my old friends behind. My mom saw this place when she came for my cousin's graduation and she fell in love with it. Luckily I like it too so I'm cool staying here." She turns back to Tamsin and asks, "So did your folks never let you go down to the surface world at all?"

TAMSIN: Tamsin hummed as she contemplated kid school. "Leavin' friends does sound sad. Do ya still get t' talk to 'em, though?? Like, online, 'n stuff? Plus ya made a buncha NEW friends here, too! Like me!! 'N we wouldn't've been trainin' partners, too." Another hum. "I guess there's a lotta good an' a lotta bad to it, huh?" An interesting thought as she tried the cloud-elbow-drop move again -- she failed making one of the clouds in time and fell to the ground, but hopped up immediately, perfectly fine! To Chloe's question about the surface, Tam stuck their tongue out the side of their mouth in thought. "I mean, there's a LOTTA stuff t' do with th' sky! Most'a us hafta keep workin' on it. But I think we're allowed t' go down there if we wanna, long as we aren't workin' an' stay hidden -- I mean, I'm here, after all! Though I don't gotta hide here, 'cause EVERYONE'S magic!" After dusting themself off, they snag a hair band from their pocket and pull their hair back, just sorta melding it into a ponytail. "What 'bout y'er realm? Is everyone all magic, like here??"

CHLOE: "Yeah I still keep in contact with them through, like, social media and stuff. It's just different from getting to see them in person," Chloe explains. "But yeah I'm glad I'm here and hanging out with all of you guys." She nods at Tamsin's explanation of her people's sky-bound nature. "Okay that makes sense. Sounds like you guys are important weather elementals so it'd probably be bad news if someone went awol. I getcha." She attempts a roundhouse kick on the dummy but manages only a meager hit to its lower half. Once regaining footing, she answers, "Well... magic's kinda frowned upon where I'm from. See I was adopted into a family of witches, and the thing about witches is that they're not particularly well liked by most people back in my home realm. People used to hunt witches back there actually, so witches had to go underground and assimilate into society to survive. My mom and her siblings were raised like and me and my siblings and our cousin were too. I had to be super careful about not letting my magic powers be discovered by normal people."

TAMSIN: "Oooh, okay. What about visitin' em?? Or, hm, I guess that's not th' same, either, 'cause it's just a visit." Tam looked deep in thought, like she wanted to find a solution that wasn't there. "But yeah! They call us sylphs there, 'n we do, like, EVERYTHING th' sky needs! Weather, wind, night, day! It's really fun, 'n pretty!!" She attempts another cloud-drop move, and succeeds this time! Tam dances around in celebration as the dummy fixes itself again. "Oh! Interestin'! Well, more sad, I guess, huh? It's not good t' hafta hide, 'n not be yourself around everyone." Tam awkwardly kicked at their dummy again, but it was half-hearted. "Bein' a witch seems super cool, at least? And ya don't hafta hide here!!" Hm, they were noticing the bad side of this part, too, though. It may be fun being a witch, but she has to hide because of it. "It seems...complicated? That's th' word, yeah?"

CHLOE: "Yeah it's super complicated," Chloe confirms. "Especially since I'm not technically a witch anyway. I... I don't know what I am to be honest. Sure my mom taught me some witch spells but I'm not a witch by blood. I was born with some kinda magic but I don't know anything about it. Everything from before I came to the states is pretty much a blur. No idea who my real parents are or anything like that." She pauses for a moment, rolling around the idea of divulging further details before pocketing said idea for later. "And to answer visiting my old friends," she begins. "Well I mean I could if I wanted to, but my mom wants me to stay in realm and focus on my studies, especially for this first semester. So I'm kinda locked in for now unless I wanna break my promise to her." She caps off that last statement with a dejected sigh before attempting another roundhouse kick on the dummy. This time she connects perfectly and knocks the dummy completely over.

TAMSIN: "Huh. Are ya gonna try t' find out while y'er here? Like, since this school's all about magic science 'n stuff?? I dunno what it's like, not knowin' what ya are, but if ya wanna find out then I can help!!" To show off her determination to help, Tam lifted the dummy over her head with both ands and raised it up and down, as if being strong would help with research into magical origins. With a grunt, they tossed it off to the side and did an over-the-top strong pose. "WAHTEVER ya need, lemme know!!!" "Mmmm, well I GUESS school jus'started, so it makes sense. We gotta settle in here first, yeah? But eventually!! F'er now, we can have fun with getting strong! 'Er do whatever ya wanna do t' have fun, really!!" Tam came to the conclusion that nothing could be done to solve Chloe's problems right now, which was a bummer, but she had the feeling that solutions weren't the answer right now, anyway -- which was also a bummer, since that seemed like the best way to help her partner feel better. "Sorry ya got all that, uh, baggage, though. I know I like t' talk, but if ya wanna talk instead, I can make sure to be quiet, if that helps!" She raised a foot and gave the dummy a solid stomp, as if to emphasize her point. Tam was going to help, somehow!!

CHLOE: "Dude don't worry," Chloes assures her. "You're totally fine! I'm not super bummy about any of this right now or anything. I'm just having fun enjoying the new school year, and you've been super super a part of the reason I am. So keep doin' whatcha doin' hahaha!" She socks the dummy once more in the kisser, watching it vibrate back and forth before returning to stillness. "You know what would be fun, though?" she begins to propose. "Another camping trip out in the woods! I had so much the last time we went with Mr. Bumble! Maybe we could even find some more hidden creachers in the woods together too!"

TAMSIN: Tamsin wiggled in delight, glad that she was being helpful, and in her own way! No need to follow specific rules to be a friend! "Ahhhahhahahaha!! Okay!!" She hopped around on a few more clouds, not sure what to do with her happy energy, but soon it was aimed toward Chloe's suggestion. "Oh oh!! Yeah totally! An' if we go in, like, a smaller group, maybe we could find other types o' creachers! Be able t' sneak up on 'em more!" She had already decided this was going to happen, even if it didn't actually. "Mannnn, wish I had a creacher!! People have 'em f'er like, PETS an' that's so cool! If ya could have any kinda the creachers, which one would you get f'er a pet??"

CHLOE: Chloe perks up at the question of pets. "I actually got a chatmeleon from my aunt recently. Hang on I'll show him to you!" She pulls out her smartphone and pulls up a picture of a nautical-themed, striped chatmeleon:

"This is Captain Bubbles," she explains. "He's so frickin' adorable!!!"

TAMSIN: Tamsin immediately scrambled over to see the picture on Chloe's phone, not expecting her to have a pet already. "WAAAAHAHHA HE'S SO CUTE!! The li'l HAT, the itty bitty blue feets, GAH ADORABLE!!" Her grin was fit to burst, it was so wide. "Captain Bubbles is the PERFECT NAME!! Wahhhhhh, MAN now I want one even more!! Whaddya do with him?? Does he play? Do ya take him outside?? How big is he?" She's quick to press her hands over her mouth as she realized she was gushing. "Sorry! Uhh, any o' those questions, heh."

CHLOE: Chloe lets out a hearty chuckle at Tamsin's enthusiasm and assures her, "Tam-Tam you're good! I'm glad you think he's adorable- because he is hehe. To answer your first question, he likes to hang out in the bathtub and pretend he's a sea monster. I'll fill up the tub with water and let him play with some lil' kid bath toys we had from when I was lil. He loves goin' Godzilla on this one yellow submarine toy of his. It's so funny! Hang on I got a video of it!" She fishes out said video from her saved files on her phone and shows Tamsin. In the video Captain Bubbles hides just below the surface, his tail cutting through the surface like a shark's fin. All of a sudden he leaps up from beneath and tackles the submarine toy, grabbing it in his mouth and shaking it around violently.

TAMSIN: "wAHH REALLY?? That's SO CUTE, augh, pretend sea monster oh mannnnnn." Tamsin wiggled in anticipation as Chloe pulled up the video. She cackled at the silly lizard playing in the bathtub with toys, thoroughly entertained. "Mannn!! I TOTALLY gotta get a pet soon as I can!! They seem so fun!! Oh, but y'er's is at y'er aunt's, yeah? So I'll hafta get a place t' keep it, hmmmm--" They were thinking very hard about this pet that they didn't have. They didn't even know where to find one to take in. But, well, that didn't stop them from thinking about it!

CHLOE: "Oh well actually my mom was gonna bring him to the dorm along with this creacher cubby thing my aunt found online," Chloe explains. "It's like this weird box that displaces space and matter so you can have extra room for stuff. I was gonna set it up on that spare wall in our room and just let him hang out there." She puts the phone and continues, "And if you want we could go check out some creacher adoption places nearby. There's a buttload of people tryna give creachers away to good homes."

TAMSIN: Tamsin pressed her hands against her cheeks, barely containing the squeal. "He's gonna live with US?? REALLY?? In th' fancy SPACE BOX?? That's gonna be AWESOME!! I'll get somethin' like that f'er whatever I get too!! Or they can live together 'n be roommates like US!!" This was a dream come true, if the dream was something Tam had never considered doing before. But still, their excitement practically electrified the air (though not really). "Ahhh, yes yes yessss then!! I'm so HYPE, I wanna meet ALL the creachers!! Thanks, Chloe, that'd be GREAT!" The dummy training was long forgotten by Tam at the moment, focused instead on the idea of getting pets for the first time. Well, it wasn't uncommon for that to happen, anyway, though. Still, the pair had accomplished their plan of getting STRONG for the day, and had even learned a bit more about each other along the way.