Chaah with a Pander on it!

John quickly spun round on his heels, arms up and formed into fists. He had no intention of throwing a single strike, but he just naturally got them up as he waited to see what she did. In fact, he was a little surprised that she didnâ€t make any sort of counter. Still, he wouldnâ€t underestimate her even as she got up.

“Heh…well I donâ€t know, youâ€re not insulting me randomly so thatâ€s a little more fun.” John teased a bit, sticking his tongue out slightly as he waited for her to come up. As soon as he did, he started to come up again, going for another close in lockup, but this time heâ€d take hold of her and try to sweep out her left leg so that he could trip her and bring her down. If he managed to land the move, heâ€d probably end up on top of her and pining her to the ground. But that all depended on her letting him get the drop on her twice.

Taylor met John in a collar-and-elbow clinch. She wobbled when he knocked her leg out from under her, but she adjusted quickly and hopped back on one foot to stay upright in front of him.

"Oh, a'right. You mean, like, you're so slow, that move would've got here quicker if you wrote it down and mailed it to me." She laughed. "Oh, and I got jokes! You didn't know I've got jokes, too! Now lemme try..."

In the blink of an eye, Taylor smacked John's arm off her collar and jumped up to wrap her legs around his neck and shoulder. She fell back and twisted her body in the air to flip John over onto the mat, and as soon as she landed she released her legs and spun to press her body across his shoulders. She spread her legs wide so that he wouldn't just be able to roll her over, unless he was strong enough to do it regardless of what she did with her legs. In that case... whatever.

"Oh, wait, wait, wait," she said, pushing up a little to look John in the eye. "You're a dude, right? Are you wearing a cup? You're not gonna, like, end up giving me the stiff one-eye if we keep rolling around like this, right? I guess maybe you're used to tangling with hotter girls than me, though." She laughed.

After their last attempt, John thought that, perhaps, Taylor wasnâ€t as fast as he was….though considering that John wasnâ€t exactly a marathon runner, that wasnâ€t very likely. Despite that, John thought heâ€d be able to throw her again, but this time she countered so fast John didnâ€t know what had happened.

Suddenly, Taylor was on him in a second. She was obviously very swift, even a faster fighter would have had trouble with that. John felt legs wrap around his neck, falling back and twisting his vody so that he fell to the mat. John strained as he tried to roll Taylor over, her switch to a pin. “Well sorry, not everyone…ngh…is as fast as you heh…”

John tried to flip her again, but she had her legs spread and was making that difficult. “Last time I checked.” He said back snarkily to her first question. “No cup and no promises. Little preoccupied with that, arenâ€t you? Not my first thought heh.” He laughed…then, suddenly, he heaved as he tried to pour all of his strength into trying to flip her over and pin her, exerting much effort as he tried to power out of the hold and reverse it on Taylor.

"Ew, gawd." Taylor wrinkled her nose.

The instant John tried to muscle Taylor over, she shoved off of him and slipped away. She rolled back over her shoulder and up to her feet. "Uh uh!" She wagged her finger at him and tossed back a pigtail over her shoulder. "You're not gonna lay on me, Mr Poor-Grappling-Etiquette. No one wants to feel your balls when they're rolling for a submission, a'right? Go buy a cup."

She backed up and paced around him a few steps before leaning down with her hands on her knees. "So maybe like, I'm no Ro, and you're no Johnny. This would probably be less awkward if we just admit that we're not, like, attracted to each other. Then maybe you can teach me shit like that first thing you did."

“I fucking have a cup.” John laughed as he rolled over and got back up onto his feet. Heâ€d managed to force her to abandon the pin, or otherwise convince her to abandon it before he tried and muscled her away. “One, I didnâ€t expect to be grappling with you….two no one in tension cares about that because weâ€re all batshit.” John smirked as he got back up to his feet, then faced Taylor again, as if ready to go at it, but instead he listened to Taylor talk.

“Hey, I wish you got to know Ro a little bit, she was really looking forward to meeting you. We were both very impressed with your re-debut.” John said, with a slight sigh, “But yeah, thereâ€s like no tension here, if youâ€ll pardon the pun. Iâ€ll gladly show you, itâ€s like the…ashi…itâ€s some Judo thing that means Leg Wheel, I saw it in the Army, itâ€s not hard. Come on here.”

“Basically, it looks like a leg sweep but it isnâ€t. Basically, you just sorta twist the opponent to the left, and your own foot comes up…it doesnâ€t sweep them, but it gives you an axis for your throw and sends them over your leg.” John got himself in a stance as if he was going to try and lock up with her. “Weâ€ll do it by the numbers first, Iâ€m not actually going to throw you, so letâ€s lock up then.”

Unless Taylor failed to cooperate, in which case he could not explain, one of his hands would softly take her arm, and the other her collar. “So I got you like this, 1, and now I want you to go in this direction. John gently tried to pull towards his left, not moving her but just indicating where she would go. “Thatâ€s two, now three, I spin my body to the right and pull you down, and you go to the left.” John then did that in a sort of slow motion. “Now I can bring my right leg up, it puts pressure on your leg.” John brought his right leg up, bringing it against the area between her ankle and he knee, closer to her knee. “And thatâ€s four, and five is obviously to bring you over the leg and complete the throw. It looks like Iâ€m tripping you, but really itâ€s just how Iâ€m pivoting to throw you. If I didnâ€t do that, Iâ€d still throw you itâ€d just be a lot harder, itâ€s not a leg sweep.”

John then released her and took a stance again as if to lock up. “Try to do that slow on me, then actually try to throw me.”

Taylor shrugged off his compliment. She'd like to think that beating Johnny was harder than beating Iron Maiden, so in the grand scheme of things it was no big deal.

"Okay," she said, and focused on John. She was barely listening, but she watched intently, making mental notes of as much as she could. This sort of thing, judo and stuff, was not her forte, but she'd spent plenty of time around it and was able to learn it. She might never get to try it in a match, though, given her style, but she'd take everything she could get.

"Okay, so..." She grabbed a collar and elbow clinch, one hand behind John's neck. She slid her hand down to grip his wrist as hard as she could, her hands weren't big enough to get a good grip farther up his arm. She slowly twisted her body and swung her leg into John's and tried to feel where the power would come from.

She nodded. "Okay," she said again. "So..." She started over, at the clinch. This time, she was moving faster. She gave John a shove back to make him resist so that when she pulled on him she'd have his own momentum to help, something Cassie had shown her. She twisted hard and kicked her leg into John's and torqued her hips around, and...

Nothing. "Fuck!" She protested. "You're so fucking big! I suck as this stuff. Okay, again..." She went right back to it, clinch, push, twist kick, nothing. Again. She didn't bother to wait for John, she went right back to the top, this time after pushing him, she stepped back and dropped down and yanked down on his head before kicking into his leg and twisting her hips.

"Ffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!" She threw up her hands. "What can I do better?" She asked, and went right back to the clinch.

John didnâ€t plan to offer active resistance, but once she understood the forms he didnâ€t just let her throw her either. Taylor tried once, but John was planted as a rock. She tried again, John could feel her put the pressure in the right spot, he could feel her leg coming up like it was meant to. He felt a shove, John almost pushed back, that was his reflexive reaction, but that only worked when the enemy (in this case, John) didnâ€t know why one was doing that. He planted himself again, and Taylor failed again.

“Well look, itâ€s your first time trying to get this.” John said, looking towards Taylor, “It was good what you did before, trying to attack my balance. But itâ€s hard when I already know what youâ€re going to do. Why donâ€t you try mixing it up, try some throw or takedown your familiar with and Iâ€ll bet you get more traction.” John could tell Taylor was discouraged, and he didnâ€t want her to be. Also, he himself wanted to see if she was able to throw him. He was sort of curious about it. “Just donâ€t telegraph it.”

Taylor snorted. First time? Who cares! She needed to get it right, she didn't care how new it was.

"Oh, yeah?" She said, and backed up a step. She placed her hands on her hips and responded with a lecture of her own. "Well here's a tip: even if the other guy knows exactly what you're going to do, if he can't keep up he can't do anything about it." Obviously, it was more complicated than that, but Taylor knew what it meant. "Lemme show you, c'mon."

She lifted her arms for another clinch and beckoned for John to come lock up with her again, but the moment he lifted his arms and took a step toward her she was in the air. In the blink of an eye, she launched herself into him, crashing into his chest with a flying knee, and when she landed she pressed forward to keep him moving back. Before he could react she seized his arm, yanked his head to the side, swung her right leg behind his, and at the same time she kicked her leg against his and twisted her hips to throw him down.

She lifted her arms for another clinch and beckoned for John to come lock up with her again, but the moment he lifted his arms and took a step toward her she was in the air. In the blink of an eye, she launched herself into him, crashing into his chest with a flying knee, and when she landed she pressed forward to keep him moving back. Before he could react she seized his arm, yanked his head to the side, swung her right leg behind his, and at the same time she kicked her leg against his and twisted her hips to throw him down.

John would have said something more, but he was more interested in seing Taylorâ€s demonstration. So, John smiled warmly and got back up into the lockup. “Just watch the face,” Johnâ€s tone was obviously a joking one. It was also soon interrupted as John was taking by complete surprise. He understood what was happening, but he just couldnâ€t move his biger body fast enough.

She slammed his chest hard, knocking the wind out of him and sending him back, pushed even more so by her shove. Johnâ€s arms tried to move up to stop her, which played right into what she was doing when she grabbed his arm. Next thing he knew, he was down on the ground.

‘Well….” Johnâ€s eyes rolled a bit as he reoriented himself, “That…was effective.” John said from the ground. “All right, all right, wana go?” John laughed again, getting back to his feet and sort of dusting himself off. “That was good, throws are fine to get them on the ground. You know not to let go after a throw but weâ€re just practicing…hey wana do submission holds? Or we could just go at it for a bit.” John asked about what to do next as he got to his feet.

Taylor raised her eyebrows. "Dude," she said like she was correcting him, "the last thing I want is to hold on to someone like you. I built my whole career on not letting people get a hold of me, like with Akashi and, well, Iron Maiden." She pounded her fist in her palm. "You gotta hit hard, move fast, pick the angles, rough 'em up so they can't ever just stand there and wait for you. That's when you're in trouble," she waved her finger in the air, "you don't ever want someone standing in front of you trying to figure out what you're going to do next. You've got to rattle the brain and move, move, move, take the advantage. You win fights with your feet, if you don't have that you can't hit, you can't throw... Unless you're Cassie." She smiled.

"But you have to be careful. Someone like you gets me off the ground, I'm in trouble. Submission holds?" She grinned. "Sounds like fun. I gotta warn you, though, I train with Cassie Fucking Elliot, so... I actually don't know how good I am. She still kicks my ass at that stuff. Come get it."

Without any further warning, Taylor darted in and planted a foot on John's hip, grabbed his wrist, stepped up on him and threw her legs up to try to wrap them around his head and shoulder so that her weight would drag him down into a triangle choke. It was worth a shot.