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"Now, fighting isn't just about power."

Jackie was standing straight up in front of her, giving Dex her full attention.

"It's about flow, range, leverage, and direction." Dex was slowly pacing back and forth in front of the roach as she talked, her gently swaying crinoid tendrils emphasizing her points now and then. "Never let your attention waver." Dex didn't have eyes, but she could tell where her opponent was, she didn't doubt that for a second. "We both have six limbs - that should help." Jackie arguably couldn't afford to waste the time she was spending as her apprentice because of her existing debts alone, let alone what Dex's teaching was going to cost her. "There are moves and forms I won't have to reduce to adapt to four limbs." But Dex had saved the roach from a Renegade attack on her ship. "That would be doable, but it does save us some trouble."

"Good." Jackie was grateful to her, yet, more than anything, it made her want to learn how to fight back on her own.

"We have different kinds of legs, though, so I'll teach you footwork, but you'll want to learn to move your legs your own way." She might never get good enough to be able to rescue Dex herself, try as she might.

"I'll bear that in mind." But she never wanted to have to depend on being rescued again.

"You can't really grapple the same way I do because your arms have joints, and my tendrils don't." It was an investment, the roach had decided. "But that also means you can use your knees and elbows in ways I can't." She'd make up for it later, whatever it would take. "The same thing can be both an advantage and a disadvantage, depending on how you look at it." What she lacked in skill, she'd make up for with determination. "But you didn't come here for a philosophy lesson." There was no such thing as styles of martial arts in the System. There was just Hitting Things. "The real lesson is, everyone in the System has different strengths and weaknesses, so keep an eye out for details like that. They make a difference."

"I'll make sure of that." Her antennae flailed a bit as she nodded.

"There are five lines of attack: up, left, right, down, and through." Dex stopped pacing to show an example of each to Jackie with five limbs as she spoke. "Which means the same about defense, conversely." Jackie tried a punch. "Bend your knees, it grounds you." The roach tried again. "Keep your back straight, don't waste momentum." Again. "Hit with the first knuckles, the others will get hurt." Again. "Your arm should be straight when you hit." Jackie grunted, straining. "Don't tense up the whole time, just when you hit. Don't waste energy." Jackie punched again. "There you go!" Dex sounded happy with her! "You've got it." She was kinda proud of that. "Well done." Dex's patience was refreshing. It was an uncommon trait.

"What next?" This seemed a promising start.

"Hmm, let's see... I'm going to want to make you practice attacking and defending in all five directions, with the specifics of what to do and not to do in each case, I mean. It's one thing to see it but you really learn by doing. It's probably a good idea to go through it with each limb. A lot of people tend to favor one side over the other. Just don't leave yourself too open. I'll teach you how to move in and out of range, and how to string things together so you're not working against yourself. That's 'flow.'" The roach frowned.

"I'm not sure what you mean." She was still learning to read Dex's bizarre body language, but this seemed like a sign of approval, whatever it was.

"I'm glad you said something. It's always best to ask." Of course, Dex had more time to spare than she did, but her point still stood. "Maybe it'll be easier if I show you." Dex started showing Jackie the first 'form' of her 'style.' "You see?" She paused. "Each movement flows naturally into the next like that. It's easier that way." The roach tilted her head at her.

"Why are you moving so slow?" In the System, time was literally money. Everyone always did everything as fast as possible. Deadlines crept, interest on debts owed climbed, the clock was ticking, always. Jackie had never seen anyone do anything this slowly on purpose and couldn't understand why anyone would choose to. Didn't Dex want to get it over with, just as she did? Wouldn't everyone?

"It's been my experience that, to really understand a movement or a series of movement completely, it's best to start by doing it slowly a few times until you get it just right. Then, you can worry about trying to do it right as fast as possible. Does that seem to make sense?" The roach clucked her tongue.

"I don't know. I don't really have all that much time. Maybe I don't need to understand them completely? Would it really matter?" Dex thought about her question.

"I guess that's up to you!" Jackie had expected her to resist more, but she wasn't complaining.

"What's, like, the last thing we'd do, normally?" May as well skip all the way to the end.

"Normally, I'd wait until you've practiced everything we've talked about so far a few times, then eventually I'd give you a chance to try it out against me, if you feel up for that, so I can get a sense of how far along it got you." Jackie nodded, pointing an index finger at her.

"Then that's what we'll do." Dex turned the roach's request over in her mind a few times.

"... Sure! Why not." She'd have thrown in 'it's your funeral' for good measure, but of course there were no funerals in the System. "Show me what you've got." Jackie's heart raced as Dex sank into a casual fighting stance. Should she really have pushed for this? She couldn't help asking herself as she sank into her own stance. But she'd never be through with it if she didn't get started sometime, the roach told herself.

"Alright!" Dex dodged her first few punches, parried the next few with her crinoid tendrils, got her in an armlock and pushed Jackie behind her, trading places.

"Counters! Remind me to teach you counters, I just remembered." She dodged and parried the roach's next few punches again, then sent a few straight tendrils at her herself. Jackie dodged the first few, parried the next few, then tried the same arm lock that Dex had only to find it was easier to do with tendrils than _to_tendrils. "You can't quite grapple the way I do, remember," Dex reminded her, disentangling herself from her grip. After dodging a few more straight tendrils she barely ducked under a horizontal one, parrying a downward tendril and a kick before Dex had to duck under a hook of her own. "Very good!" The roach tried again but Dex grabbed her leg while ducking, tripping her. "Watch the legs." Jackie rolled to her feet.

"Starting to get that first part down, at least," she chuckled self-deprecatingly. She tried to get Dex going with a few straight punches again, waiting for her to retaliate with more straight tendrils for her to dodge and parry. When Dex came at her with another horizontal tendril strike, the roach ducked under it to go for her flamingo leg as well. But Dex's balance was unindictable - she did have those flamingo legs and years of practice. Standing on her other leg, she stretched out her targeted leg in front of her, then brought it back to push Jackie away with her foot, more pushing than kicking but still hard enough to almost knock her down. "You're always one step ahead of me," she grinned and shook her head, retaking her stance.

"You're a quick study," Dex complimented her.

'Just not quick enough,' the roach admonished herself. 'Every time I think I'm catching up, she's ready for it.' She slowly walked sideways around Dex on her guard, studying her. 'If I try knees or elbows, she'll probably be ready for that too.' Dex had just brought them up as one of her advantages - of course she'd be going to remember that conversation in-fight as well as Jackie did. 'No, to get to her, I need to step completely outside of what we - I know what I'll do!'

This time, Dex came at her first, to catch her unaware. After dodging a few straight crinoid tendrils, she attacked Dex for four hooks at the same time, forcing her to block and grab all four of her arms rather than ducking under them. All eight of their upper body limbs were now fully occupied, seemingly at a stalemate. Dex's advice about making the most of her advantages was good, no doubt, but she had to do more than simply taking her example of how to apply it at face value. Jackie had to expand on its general principle, to come up with advantages that Dex hadn't thought about. And what else did she have that Dex pointedly did not?

A head.

So she headbutted her.

It'd seemed like a great idea at the time. Dex really _hadn't_seen it coming - it was the most surprised she'd been in a fight in a long time, honestly. So she just panicked and, more as a reflex than as a conscious response, she backed a smidgen away and leaned forward, Jackie's head landing smack dab in the middle of Dex's lamprey maw atop her flamingo body where her neck would've been if she'd had one. She might not have been able to get the timing for it just right if she'd tried, but she'd been reacting in a much more instinctive state than that at that point. Righting herself without thinking, she ended up stuck with the roach hanging upside-down over her body, held aloft by her four crinoid tendrils with her head down her throat.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Dex started running back and forth flailing while Jackie's legs flailed over both their heads unable to break free. Finally, Dex slowed down enough to regain her focus and, bending her flamingo legs to lean forward again, released her crinoid tendrils' hold around the roach's four arms, allowing her to fall back out of her lamprey maw on the ground in front of her. Everyone in the System was different, indeed. The two of them spat and spat, Jackie running her arms all over her body trying to clean it from Dex's saliva that had gotten all over her, wincing when she touched her face.

"Jackie... Your face!" She cringed. That was definitely blood on her hands.

"Bleh, that wasn't very smart of me, was it?" The roach shook her head dejectedly.

"No, that... That had the merit of being original. I don't see that every day." Dex had to give credit where credit was due, unexpected results notwithstanding.

"I should probably just give up," Jackie sighed. "I should've known better than to think I could do this." She looked downcast, her train of thought taking her down a depression spiral. "I'm sorry for wasting your time, Dex." She held back tears, feeling stupid for even caring. "Every time I try to improve my life, I just... Ugh, I'm sorry. You don't need to hear that either."

"No, no, don't think like that!" The roach gasped. Dex had hugged her. If this had been a throw, Jackie might have seen it coming and dodged it, but being what it was, it took her completely off-guard. "I mean, you don't have to learn from me, obviously, that's all up to you, it's just..." The roach searched herself for how she should react. "Mistakes are part of learning." Jackie hesitated. "Just because you're not good at something right away, or because you get it wrong a few times, it..." She hugged her back. "There's nothing wrong with that. It doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. It doesn't mean you can't. It just teaches you not to make the same mistake again. It's how we all get good at what we're really good at... isn't it, Jackie?"

The roach tried to imagine Dex a long, long time ago, as someone who didn't know how to fight, as someone who had to learn how to do it, just as she did. It was hard.

"So you... You really think I can do this?" Hard, but not impossible.

"I really do. Like I said, you're a quick study. That wasn't bad for a first try!" Jackie smiled.

"Owch! Thanks." It looked like her face wasn't about to let her forget her mistake so easily.

"C'mon, lemme take you to Plague so we can get you fixed up." The roached gasped.

"I can't afford that!" Dex wasn't used to thinking in those terms as much as Jackie was.

"It's fine. She'll do it for me, she owes me." The roach tilted her head disbelievingly.

"You'd... You'd do that for me?" In the System, this sort of thing just wasn't done. "After everything you've already done for me?" No one did something without expecting something in return.

"Well, I'm not continuing teaching you with your face looking like that, I can tell you that!" Dex chuckled. "Not when I can afford it."

"Hey, Dex," she started as Dex helped her limp back to her ship, "you know what I'd like you to teach me next?" Had this taught Jackie the virtue of patience after all?

"Forms?"

"Ray guns." Dex laughed.