Ah, yes, the approval he craves!! From a cool older girl!!! He is thriving!!!

"Keep going!" he calls up to her, feeling very cool and brave in this moment despite being left holding only a knife handle. He drops it and hops a step back, pulling his obsidian pendant from his neck and spinning it around by its chain.

Obsidian is a protective stone. And now it's an ass whoopin' stone.

He swings at the vine with it, hoping to wrap it around so he can strangle it and cut through it with the chain.