6146/Toni And Cassie Throw Sharp Objects

Toni And Cassie Throw Sharp Objects
Date of Scene:	06 May 2021
Location:	Themysciran Arts Center
Synopsis:	Toni learns at least one thing while also meeting Cassie's mom, who is reasonably cool but a mega-nerd. Also, the future defeat of Dracula is foreshadowed.
Cast of Characters:	Toni Monetti, Cassie Sandsmark

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Toni Monetti has posed:
Antonia Monetti has helped out the people of Themyscria in a modest but extremely vital way through the exercise of her alien power. What she thought she would gain was thanks and a journey. What she has gained is an inspiration inside of her heart, the proud strength of a warrior.

She also learned that there was one aspect of things she really liked.

"WHOOO!" *thunk*

One aspect of War that sang to her heart, otherwise fairly peaceful if not, in fact, you know, into glamourous outfits and boys.

"HWAH!" *thunk*

A discipline.

"FFFFFWUH" *thunk*

An art.

"HAHAHAHA!" *thunk*

The javelin. Yes! Perhaps it is the lore of the pilum that rests inside of Toni Monetti - descendant, no doubt, if at a vast remove, from those who stood among the legions of Rome in its splendor and flower.

"Left hand!" *a distinct lack of thunk*

Or maybe it's just one of those things.

Toni has thrown like sixty javelins, or perhaps more accurately, the same five javelins twelve times. This took place in the halls of combat - thirteen paces from a stout target made of durable plastic materials from Man's world in recognition of the fact that big tree trunks are not to be wasted on this, and that cheap lumber isn't great either.

This is why Toni is still kind of sweaty, wearing vintage-aesthetic leggings and a loose fit T-shirt with a towel over her shoulders, even now, in the first floor's open-air exhibit and lobby space. She has a nylon bag that holds "HER" javelins, which she got on Themyscria and loves like she loves the infant Jesus and discount outlets. She has a big clay goblet of lemon-infused water, as plastic cups are pushing it even if athletic equipment might be justifiable.

She looks at the plain fired clay in her hand. Excellent but unremarkable; the kind of thing you sort of expect to break.

After this, Toni looks towards the collection of highly decorated amphorae. Some of them are ancient, painted before the aforementioned Infant Jesus. Others, quite obviously, are new. The style is consistent, loosely enough, but the subject matter--

"Is it because they got their chitons out? Is that why it's art? Like I'm not getting it," Toni says to her colleague, swigging some water from the cup afterwards. "I can tell it's SIMILAR, but like..."

"I'm not trying to put it down, I think I just missed the like explainer on pottery art," Toni adds.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
While Cassie likes to portray herself as laid-back, too cool for school paragon of teenage hipsterdom, the reality of her life is... actually kind of the opposite. She gets good grades at school (or her mother will kill her), saves the world on occasion, and volunteers at the Embassy on top of that. The latter can me anything assisting with Diana's whirlwind itinerary to making Amazon outreach appearances herself, often at schools or other events aimed at younger audiences. A veritable Junior Wonder, you could say, or some kind of younger version of Wonder Woman...

Not all of her extracirriculars are quite so glamorous, though. Sometimes, there's envelopes to lick, or other such busy-work best foisted off on the least senior member of the organization.

Any guesses who that is? Definitely not the millenias-old warriors!

Also, because the Art Center is a part of the Embassy, and her mother is one of the Art Center's... directors? Board members? Trustees? Whatever. Basically the point is it means her mom is also officially her BOSS, in a real world job work boss sort of way, as opposed to just in ALL the OTHER ways.

All of this is by elaborate remove the reason she's meeting Toni at the Art Center, rather than some suitably fashionable locale where cool teenagers would normally meet up. It helps tremendously that Toni has become something of a devotee to the Amazonian ways herself, or at least some subset of them: it means Cassie doesn't feel quite so guilty leaving her friend alone to pincushion a dummy while she handles a bunch of stuff. Eventually, though, she gets free!

"Actually, one of the emergent movements in modern Amazonian art has been a sort of classical revival -- 'classical' not to be confused with how the West referred back to Hellenic and Roman antiquity, but referring to their OWN earlier forms -- a trend where they have looked back into the geometric fascinations of early Mycenean pottery but taken both inspiration from modern forms and the use of new tools and techniques to create more refined and stylized shapes. And yes, when dressed figures are depicted-"

"Jeez mom, it's not a lecture! She was just curious."

This exchange occurs between the pair of Sandsmarks, Helena and Cassie respectively, as the abovementioned mom-boss has accompanied her daughter back downstairs from whatever slave-work she had her engaged in. Cassie looks eager to join in on the javelin'ing, but Toni has made the dangerous move of DISCUSSING ART and naturally an academic word salad results. Looking sheepish, the younger Sandsmark gives her friend a helpless shrug even as she ambles over to a rack where there are some more pointy objects.

Toni Monetti has posed:
The dread word spears through Toni like an axe through a sculpted loaf of butter.

ACTUALLY,

and the worst part is that it's coming from Cassie's MOM.

Toni glances at Cassie literally behind Helena's back as she gestures towards the pottery for a moment, then smiles a little bit as if to say 'what can you do' while raising her eyebrows and closing her eyes for a moment.

I can give my friend's mom like five minutes, Toni thinks, before answering, "Like I guess I get that but... I don't... GET it? Wasn't this stuff just like... cans? Buckets? Like yeah sure you gotta put a label on it or something, but they didn't have like advertising in Themyscria, did they?"

"Like I saw signs at the wine shops and stuff, and art, but it was just like... pretty."

There are other throwable objects! Although the exact javelinny things Toni got seem to have been some kind of craftwork, there are comparable ones, complete with steel tips that aren't TOO sharp.

Toni starts sidling nearer to the racks of pointy objects and the nearby space for throwing where you won't hit anyone: an open space, with "lanes" demarcated by thick canvas hangings, stretched and tied tight. Not enough to deter determined action, but enough that a snapped bowstring or (as Toni learned when trying to use a left hand throw) wobbling javelin still lands in the right general area, as well as making it less perilous to retrieve your ammo!

In fact, Toni sees an opportunity. "Hey Miz Sandsmark I wanna ask, actually, like, they had these hangings over here and they actually decorated them?" (Said between-lanes hangings do not have ELABORATE patterns but there are recognizable figures and abstract symbols, even very simple, almost primitive landscape spaces.)

"But like I think I popped... Medusa? Is that Medusa?" Toni says, gesturing to where she scraped the lane markers. "... Is that like... bad luck?" ("get your stuff and warm up," Toni asides to Cassie, in passing, before her attention returns to Mom Interception.)

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"These help you with your plasma aim, you think?"

Javelins are not Cassie's specialty, but compared to archery, which she frequently cites as her worst Amazon martial subject, she finds their more tactile nature better suited to her own occasionally brute-force approach to combat. While the Amazons definitely make superstrength bows, extra degree of separation of the weapon's mechanics proves overly complex. One might also theorize some kind of mythological symbolism to it, with Zeus' thunderbolts sometimes likened to the weapon. Mostly, though, she enjoys hurling stuff at things!

Regardless, she begins to prep, removing a long-sleeve shirt that is her concession to the inconstant spring weather in favor of the tank-top beneath, and then doing a few stretches.

Helena observes her daughter (and friend) in their would-be athletics with an inscrutable gaze that still manages to feel mildly judgmental. She has met Toni, on the trip if nowhere else, and always seems mildly disapproving of the young lady, although in no fashion she has ever put in words. However, her eyebrows do arch up slightly when the pottery is compared to 'cans.'

"They were functional objects, certainly. But your comparison is one that mistakes the norms of modern consumerism as something other than recent. Craftspeople made items of quality because things were not disposable nor easily replaced, and made them beautifully because they would be used in the home and thus had an aesthetic presence. And naturally, at least in the rest of the ancient world discounting Themyscira's unique circumstances, there were cheaper-made items and finer ones, and many items which survive to the present in good condition are often of the latter sort, given that they were accumulated, cared for, stored in temples or large homes that have survived to be unearthed, and so on. In Themyscira's case-"

Cassie has been able to use this time to get ready, and finally goes to gather some javelins from the rack. Unlike standard modern competition, they have different sizes, weights and styles, and she grabs several of the heavier sorts, hefting one as she approaches her lane.

"-obviously the unique circumstances of the island changed things. There was no need for commercial advertising, no, but consider: these women live forever. If you would pour wine every night for centuries, would you not wish for the vessel to be beautiful? If you had endless days in which to practice your craft, would you present your sister with something that was anything less than a masterwork?" Unlike how she looks at the two teens, Helena's words are full of wistful admiration as she speaks of this magnificent culture.

Cassie, meanwhile, gives a shout, takes a few running steps, and hurls!

Mr. Plastic Torso never knew what was coming!

Which is a good opportunity for Toni to turn Helena's attention to the decorations on the throwing range. "It's the same thing. If you're going to practice every day for those same thousands of years, why drape bland rags? And no, if there was an image that would be sacrilige to strike, they would not use it. I assume monstrous motifs are there to help reinforce the warlike nature of the activity."

Toni Monetti has posed:
"You know, they have," Toni answers Cassie. "Like it's weird, since it's not like there's weight and I don't even like, have to make them, though *I guess that'd be pretty bad ass*," ("sorry," this to Helena's powerful mom aura) "but it does? I guess it's like pitching."

Toni does not clarify how it is like pitching.

"Like this other weeknight I was watching out from this like computer tip we got, right?" Toni tells Cassie. "It was some kind of jealous ex after this one importer's jewelry box or something and I actually nailed her with like --" Toni throws the horns while making a hideous face, echoing the arachnid menace. "Like a NET, yeah? And I actually kind of HIT her even though she had like mutant backflip powers. It was nuts! I could've never done that kind of thing before I went out there. Or like, two tries out of ten, just kind of by luck."

Toni did not actually stop the 'jealous ex with mutant backflip powers'. She does not mention that part.

Toni then pays heed to Helena. Kind of. She is trying. It's a real, honest to god good faith effort. How well is it going It is hard to say. "I thought most of the old stuff came out of like Pompeii and stuff," Toni says, though it's more a parenthetical aside. (Helena has probably sussed out that Toni may have read as many as three books about Roman history, despite her usual ways.)

As she unfolds her own javelin pack again, Toni considers them again. Perhaps with new eyes. She picks one up and holds it up, the white-ash wood handle with its lacquer coating seeming vaguely appropriate in her hand. The head on hers is bronze, leaf-like. "... I guess. Wouldn't they get bored? Like that's what gets me to hear about all of this stuff, like..."

"I wanna add," Toni says, raising up a hand, "again, no insult, they're wonderful people, but... you're seeing the same people every day, right? ... OH," she says, before looking up at Helena, "/but you could change up the fashions/. I bet that's why it all got changed around!"

Having heedlessly dumpstered on intellectual theory, Toni says, further, "Still, it's all hand painted, right?" as she hefts up the javelin and takes a steady, still stance, looking downrange.

... "Oh, shit! Sorry," Toni says. "I totally just noticed. This has like a moon carved in it!" At this point, THUMP, the torso is slain. "Geez. I'm surprised they let me have this now."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"Well, there's some basic hand-eye coordination stuff that is pretty transferable," Cassie theorizes, although she quickly pauses at the end of this thought, standing with a javelin propped upright. "Well. Maybe not hand-eye exactly since you're not even physically throwing your stuff, right? But like, some basic spatial relationship stuff, I guess."

She does not inquire about the pitching because it seems logical to her!

Cassie is MORE curious about the other story, however.

"Mutant backflip powers? I feel like if your power is just backflipping, that's kind of a ripoff," the teen hero declares, with a grin. "Then again, I guess that's pretty much one of the main Robin powers and they do pretty well." She does not specify which Robin, as she has known a couple and they are, to a degree, interchangable. "That's cool though! Did you haul her in? Definitely there's a lot of practice makes perfect that applies. Like I was a total trainwreck when I started, haha just as my mo-"

Helena is on hand to ask, but she answers before the question is even fully finished by crossing her arms and frowning.

"Yeah so like that's why they dragged me off for Amazon bootcamp. It was a bummer missing that whole summer and the next schoolyear, mostly, but like, it really did pay off." Which is apparent in the fact that she is not such a trainwreck these days, and even fit in decently well when they were on the island with their Amazon taskmistresses.

"Pompeii provided a singular unique opportunity in preserving the site to a degree not often seen, but we have examples from many others," Helena goes on to answer, sounding a bit more like a bored schoolteacher and less like a lecturing professor as it becomes increasingly clear she's not going to make any great strides with Cassie and her friend. Nonetheless, she does manage to look... if not pleased, at least satisfied at the realization Toni eventually gets to. "Yes, that's right. They have spent those years creating and experimenting, changing and exploring their styles while still upholding their traditions. It is quite remarkable. The island isn't so much a time capsule as an isolated example of divergent history. Of course, now that they have discovered the world beyond, they are exploring how to incorporate elements from it into their own tradition."

Cassie makes another throw somewhere amidst all of this, not paying much close attention. She's heard all her mom's TED talks and doesn't find much fascination in them! Her aim continues to be admirable, again hinting at how she's more of a try-hard student than her slacker attitude lets on. However, she does find one part of the conversation interesting: "I don't think they ever get bored when they're all so close but... well, I think it HAS been a bit of a shake-up as they've gotten visitors. I felt like the most popular girl in class when I was there training!"

No one read anything more into that! Oddly, Helena doesn't frown this time around, but rather looks down slightly and adjusts her glasses on the bridge of her nose. Meanwhile, Cassie is curious of the fancy javelin, coming over to the other lane. "Heh, it's kind of how they are, everything is basically a masterpiece, but it's all made to be used, not like, to sit on a shelf and be pretty."

Toni Monetti has posed:
"Yeah, I guess," Toni says to Cassie in a tone that tells her that Toni trusts her assessment of the situation but has onboarded like a quarter of that. But then she says, "Well her other mutant power was lookin' like a -"

This seems to make Toni hesitate for a moment before embarrassment takes over. "Oh, uh... I'm pretty sure the cops got her, and like, she got a diamond necklace? That was it. She was able to dig in this safe a little but that was it. So if she sells it," Toni shrugs, "busted, you know? It was definitely insured."

She then twists abruptly.

THIS... is how Toni throws. It is not going for maximum distance, but the javelin flies pretty straight, pretty true, and THUNK: It lands in the somewhat battered Mr. Torso's Mr. Clavicle. Where it droops, threateningly, because Toni got two other hits right there and messed up whatever crap is on top of them.

"You know, I know exactly what you mean," Toni says. "It was like a really good day at high school but it didn't actually end. Like I realized they were probably putting on a good face for the guests a little, right, and I bet they'd like scratch their - you know, butts occasionally and slouch more when they know outsiders aren't there, but even so, it was really cool!"

"Did she really spend like a year there? Jesus. No wonder you're shredded," Toni says.

"So did they do modern history stuff like you, Ms. Sandsmark, or are you kinda like doing it for them?" Toni asks. "Since if they all live basically forever, like, wouldn't that take the edge off for making a big mark on history?"

("Cassie all of this talk also made me remember something cool for later. Remind me, also later.") (Perhaps this is a plan not suited for the presence of mothers.)

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"Well that's good, as long as she didn't make off with anything too important?" Knowing nothing of the situation, Cassie easily accepts that it went mostly-well. Why should it not? "It can be tough, keeping up with that kind of stuff. Like it feels pretty un-heroic to say that we can't always spare the time to chase down every little thing, but realistically, you gotta let the cops handle a lot of it. And especially the paperwork." Big grin! Replaced rather quickly by a suitably impressed look at the subsequent throws, that turns mildly goofy when the javelin just droooops.

"You're gonna wear out that spot!"

With the last of the javelins she brought over, she returns to her own lane after admiring Toni's work a bit, musing on the Amazon hospitality. "They definitely put on a show for us, because, well, it IS a rare thing to have visitors, but a lot of it's just pure excitement at being able to meet new people and start to rediscover the outside world. Even my mom and the Queen really hit it off." Which may explain the prior glasses-adjusting moment. "I always like bringing them things, or pictures, and of course they have places like this to come and see a little bit of the world without, you know, jumping in head-first."

As for being shredded? Cassie grins boldly, aims her next throw...

...and hits the target so hard that the javelin goes straight through it. Apparently this is not so uncommon or at least inconceivable an outcome that they don't have backstops setup! It also means she has to trek a bit further to finally go collect them all, which she leaves to do now that she's made all her throws.

Helena meanwhile looks predictably disapproving of the showing-off, but uses it as an excuse to comment on her daughter's extensive training time while ignoring any gossip of her and the Queen: "I wouldn't let my daughter drive without lessons, so why would I let her do something as dangerous as what you people do without making sure she was prepared for it? She spent the time she needed that would satisfy Diana and I that she was capable of handling the gift her father so /generously/ decided to bestow her with."

Eventually, Cassie comes back, carrying javelins and rolling her eyes.

"As for their sense of history, their agelessness does cast things in a different light. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by 'doing it for them,' but their very existence has made me recontextualize my own work." Helena gestures about. "It's why we have this place. They are no longer myths or relics, they are a living culture reflecting a sort of parallel history. So it is important to observe the unique way in which their society interfaces with the rest of the world, how their isolated history impacts their exchanges with our broader one. And since my daughter insists on adopting their mantle, I don't have much choice but to keep a close eye on their adventures."

The daughter-jab is maybe the last straw for Cassie, though. Plus, she's put in her time. "Yeah yeah," the young woman mumbles. "Mom I told Toni we'd meet here but not that we'd spend ALL NIGHT here, yeah? I finished everything upstairs, so we're gonna go change and go out." Independence asserted!