"Eager one, aren't you! I was going to give you a day to settle in and then send you a note to come on down and see me about a fishing pole, but you beat me right to it!"

Willy slaps a bamboo fishing pole down on the counter.

"There you go, in honor of yer grandpappy."

"As far as making money fast, a true angler knows that patience and a light touch are the key. If you try to rush it, the fish'll just give you the slip."

"And I fish in the pond behind my house?  How many fish would you say I'd expect to catch every, ah, hour, and how much does a fish sell for in the crate?  I assume there's no such thing as there being no fish left in the pond?"

"Oh, there's lots of places to fish, including right outside this very shop, in the ocean!"

"Let's see, there's also the river that runs through town and into the forest, the pond in the forest, the mountain lake, and, well, lots of other little secret spots that I don't want to spoil for you. Basically, if you see something wet, just go ahead and dip yer rod in, that's what I always say!" Willy winks at Oliver.

"As far as fish per hour, I can't rightly say, but I guess when I fish all day long I might come home with about three dozen fish, give or take? And the sale price varies from 30G up to 2100G, depending on the type of fish, the quality, and whether you've taken the Angler profession. Which of course I encourage you to do!"

"Don't expect to get forty iridium lava eels in one day, though, heh!"

That's... possibly encouraging about anatomy still existing around here.

"Do you both buy and sell iridium lava eels?"

"Naw, I don't sell fish, except for little tiny ones for bait. I'll buy fish, though."

"Well, thanks immensely for that fishing rod!  I'm sure my Grandpa would've appreciated it.  I'm still trying to understand exactly what sort of wet things exist around here, really, but I'm hoping to give some rods a try."  Oliver picks up the offered fishing pole.

"Have a good one! If you can't figure out how to use yer rod, let me know and maybe I can give you some pointers!"

Emily doesn't seem to have followed him in, so... actually Oliver is going to go for it.

"Actually, sir, if it's not an overwhelming amount of trouble... I'm wondering how metaphorically you mean that pointers offer, there."

"Uh... Well, people do often find fishing confusing at first..." Willy offers, in the way of a person who doesn't want to make the first wrong move.

"I've led a sad life, sir, and lack experience with more than just fish."

"I find that hard to believe, strapping young farmer that you are. I keep callin' you young, but if you're a day under thirty I'll eat my hat, and I ain't hungry."

"What's yer story, son?"

"My father was a strict man, sir, very strict."  Everyone who has ever known Oliver for longer than thirty seconds has said 'Clearly not strict enough' to him at some point.  "He told me a number of stories which I now suspect to be less than entirely veracitorious, aimed at discouraging me from getting into trouble, with the result, I'd say, that I've not had enough trouble to be nearly as strapping as I look."

"I see." said Willy.

Willy has decided to swallow this tale, because why not.

"So... you're looking for advice about the ladies of Pelican Town, is that it? Or is it the gents?"

"More like... I need to confirm in a very general way that some scary things my father told me are false.  I'm sure the lady in question would be able to handle the rest of matters herself, so long as it's not true that beneath her clothing is a... giant spider mouth."

"A what?"

Willy spits out his pipe.

"Good grief, man."

Willy squints at Oliver. "Yer havin' me on, aren't you. You've known me for... zero minutes. Why'd you pick me for yer little heart to heart about SPIDER LADY PARTS sweet Yoba's necktie."

Why did they have to pick NOW to upgrade the NPC model from GPT-3 to GPT-4?

"Because you're the first person here who has hinted that they can provide advice about man parts and lady parts, and I admit my father didn't tell me that but I also wanted to check whether you'd play along with anything my father told me the way some other people in my life have."

Willy heaves a deep sigh. This conversation has fallen to him, somehow.

"All right, all right!"

"So. When one little fishy loves another little fishy very much..."

Willy shakes his head. Fish stories are not actually going to help here.

"What is it you actually want to know, son? Spit'er out."

The conversation has frankly gotten kind of agonizing for Oliver too.

"Is sex in fact an act where a man has a part which grows into a shape like a rod, which then gets inserted into a correspondingly shaped and wet place inside a woman, and then there is a lot of motion which people are alive and alert and aware for, and nobody suddenly blanks out and finds themselves in a different mental state afterwards without a very detailed memory of what happened?  Or is there something else that goes on instead?"

"Yep that's about the size of it. I'd say you're all set."

It doesn't actually prove that reality won't fade to black because Willy would not necessarily remember things that way.

Still, it's at least an overtly good sign.

"Thank you, sir.  I owe you one agonizingly awkward conversation on the important topic of your own choice."

"It's going to be about The Legend and how I allllmost caught him and you're going to act interested for the whole thing."

"Er, uh... good luck. With everything."

"Fair.  I'll endeavor to have good luck."

Exit Oliver, kind of quickly.

"So, Emily, Robin's up next, right?"

Emily has been standing on the pier looking out over the ocean and enjoying the salty sea spray on her face for the last twenty minutes while Oliver was in the shop.

"Oh, the Mayor wasn't in there? Bummer. Sure, let's go to Robin's. It's a bit of a walk... we mostly have to retrace our steps and go completely the other way, up into the mountain."

"Can we talk about that thing you brought up before?"

Emily is in the mood for a Big Relationship Talk!