we live in a world someone else imagined
"Oh, I know," Ronin says with a sly sort of smile, shrugging his shoulders to her. And it does go poorly, just not quite in the way he anticipates; it's a difficult thing, to predict a small woman launching herself at you like a spider monkey. Indeed, it's not even something Ronin thinks would ever happen 'in the wild' (i.e. in a real assault) and that's probably why she pulls it off spectacularly. Instead of the grapple that he expects to pull her into, suddenly Sera is attached to him by all four limbs, and in his surprise Ronin goes down like a sack of potatoes.
He's laughing, though, and suddenly this combat has gotten even closer than intended, the Artificer atop him and the Star trying to get his elbows beneath him. "Okay, okay!" he chuckles. "You're kind of flipping this into a self-aggression lesson, you know. Remind me to learn a new way to defend against that, though." He raises his eyebrows at her, offering for her to climb off him any time she likes.
He's laughing, though, and suddenly this combat has gotten even closer than intended, the Artificer atop him and the Star trying to get his elbows beneath him. "Okay, okay!" he chuckles. "You're kind of flipping this into a self-aggression lesson, you know. Remind me to learn a new way to defend against that, though." He raises his eyebrows at her, offering for her to climb off him any time she likes.
the dark star