Exchange Students

[GoingBananas]

There’s still work to be done, but in Tomás’s mind, Valley has what it takes to do well with this stuff. He wasn’t expecting her to be a prodigy overnight. Going from one style to the other would take time. Wherever Valley keeps up with this is her decision, but at the very least, Tomás seeks to equip her the tools to round off her game. Tomás instructed and Valley followed, always taking notice of her form and how she does it, giving a few pointers along the way. There’s definitely a lot she has taken, but she’s been doing well to turn theory into practice.

And there would be no rush, or going to the next point until she got it. The first is always not so good. Second is getting there. Third? Very close.

Tomás let Valley do her thing, letting her find her way to connect all that she has learned. The way a Nak Muay maneuvers, throwing punches at her invisible opponent. “That’s right, so long as it all makes sense.” It may have been a crash course, but he’s happy with what he’s seen.

“Kinda young-ish when I started. Had I known the benefits of knowing how to fight when I was a kid, there would have been a lot of better decisions.” His answer was slightly vague, but Tomás hoped it would be satisfactory. “After that, I wanted to help a minha família. You hope never to use what you know, but it’s always good to be prepared.”

[BlackAkuma]

She was getting this—the mechanics of it.

Valerie didn’t like to think of her amateur wrestling as a martial art, but she supposed it was in a literal sense, even if it wasn’t what people tended to think of when it came to the term. She might not have had belts or learned katas, but she’d trained in her form just as much as any black belt and held her own against skilled jujitsu practitioners before. While she didn’t expect this to be easy, maybe it wasn’t as complicated as her overworked brain was making it out to be. She needed to find some calm.

She worked on her form as he spoke, doing her best to divide attention. She couldn't help but smile when he mentioned his family, though - at least, she thought that was what those words translated to. He seemed like a sweet guy.

”That’s cute.” She threw out a quick one-two, alternated with her knee, then tried it again. A little better the second time, in her estimation. ”How’s your family doing?”