(no subject)

[worldofnpcs]

WHO: Everyone!
WHAT: Traveling to Aquacorde, and then Pokemon Catching 101!
WHEN: August 28th
WHERE: Vaniville, Route 1 and eventually Aquacorde!

Well, after that strange introduction from Professor Sycamore, and all the introductions being out of the way, the Aides pull out some Pokeballs and continue with their explanation.

"All Pokemon come from these Pokeballs. We are going to teach you how to catch a Pokemon, so that you may use this knowledge. Not all of you have to become Trainers. There are Pokemon Breeders, and all sorts of things you can do here. We will be taking all of you to Route 2, just past Aquacorde Town, on some larger Pokemon that you can ride so that we may get there faster. It will be a one hour ride."

The Aides tossed their Pokeballs, and multiple Pokemon appeared - including a large orange and black dog, a large fiery horse and a giant rocky triceratops-looking thing.

"Please do not be afraid, they will not harm you. Hop aboard, and let us get on towards Aquacorde!"

Comments

[unbroken_chain]

Before the Aides can launch into the explanation, Kotoha raises her hands in the air and claps three times.

"Okay, everyone, time to learn how to catch Pokemon! Today, you'll be learning from Special Guest Lecturer Kotoha and her assistant Kasumi!"

With a flourish of both hands, she indicates the Froakie standing next to her, who draws herself up and does a little bow in greeting.

[worldofnpcs]

[Oh... dear. Well, she did say she was from Unova, and she's had plenty of experience with catching Pokemon, so... the Aide that was going to explain steps out of the tall grass.]

[unbroken_chain]

Kotoha taps something behind her right ear and is suddenly wearing glasses. Striding into the tall grass, she is already speaking.

"Now, here's the deal: Wild Pokemon live in tall grass."

No sooner does she finish saying this than a Pokemon pops out!



As Kasumi somersaults into position, Kotoha adjusts her glasses and continues speaking.

"When they pop out like this, you send out your own Pokemon to battle them! In general, it's best to weaken them first - Kasumi, use Growl!"

As Kasumi Growls at the bird, it launches itself directly at the Froakie in a Tackle attack. Kotoha nods in satisfaction.

"Use Pound!"

As the Pokemon exchange blows again, Kotoha fishes a Pokeball out of her bag.

"And then, once it's been weakened, you go like this!"

With that, she throws the Pokeball at the Fletchling, which opens up and sucks the bird inside with a torrent of red light. The ball shakes once - twice - three times (a lady) - and throws off small sparks before lying still. Smiling, Kotoha steps forward and picks it up.

"This concludes Catching 101 with Kotoha and Kasumi! Any questions?"

[fastesthedgehogalive]

Okay battling doesn't sound too bad. Sure it's not as satisfying as battling robots, but he could get used to it eventually.

The throwing the pokeball and trapping them on the other hand, hit a little too close to home. Mainly that it reminds him too much of Eggman's capsules that he would use to trap small animals, and use them as fuel for his robot army.

"Yeah. Do we have to use those balls and keep them in there?"

Even if she said no, he was going to try to keep his out of them as much as possible.

[unbroken_chain]

"You can't catch them without the Pokeballs, but it's not necessary to keep them in there, no!"

[bunraku]

Sorry, Kotoha, have a very confused looking ninja staring at you with his litleo setting patches of grass on fire next to him. Ignore the odd facepaint, it's just a thing he does. For some reason. Puppet theatre and all of that particular kind of nonsense.

"So how do they fit in those balls? Like I can't see how anything could fit in them and that makes no... sense." As much as his sister carrying a giant fan and summoning a weasel from thin air totally does, okay.

Jouri on the other hand is quite content to keep setting the grass on fire, she's a bit of a firebug like that and paying no attention to the froakie or fletchling.

[unbroken_chain]

Okay, Kotoha will just invoke her Persona without summoning it and stick her hand in the little patches of blazing grass.

Absorb Fire: good for dealing with pyromaniacs.

"Well, the short answer is that the Pokeballs maintain an extradimensional space inside themselves, and the long answer is...quite a bit longer."

...she is remarkably blasé about glowing blue and sucking fire into her skin, isn't she?

[bunraku]

Wait, back up, what just happened there. He's seen people do that before, but those were shinobi and this girl is pretty obviously not a shinobi in his experience.

"... Extradimensional space." Nope, still not understanding this nonsense. But he's just going to calmly shrug it off before scooping up Jouri and letting her chew on his sleeve.

"Has anyone ever told you none of this makes sense and who the hell thought this was a good idea to give anyone creatures that can do, well, that?"

[unbroken_chain]

Good thing Kotoha's used to dealing with people from worlds without Pokemon!

"There are wild Pokemon that don't like humans - if we didn't cooperate with Pokemon, we wouldn't have a civilization at all."

[bunraku]

Good thing indeed, because he still find all of this nonsense. Even if his own pokemon was in a tiny ball, too.

"So basically these things are the animals of this world? I suppose it makes enough sense to that extreme."

[unbroken_chain]

"Yeah, I've been to a few worlds without Pokemon before, and I gotta say - they are super weird."

Kotoha grins.

"It is kind of incredible what they can achieve even without working together with Pokemon, though!"

[bunraku]

Did she just call his world weird? Rude. Rude. But he guesses he sort of just called her own world just as weird, oops.

"Kankuro, but the way." He managed to get out in a semi-friendly tone despite still being annoyed with this place existing, though very apparently not offering her a hand. Best not to do that where he's from.

"So why do you fight with them? I mean, why not leave 'em be? What kind of stuff can they actually do other than set stuff on fire?"

[unbroken_chain]

Hmm.

"Well, you know - it's easier to understand a person when you battle against them, right? And as for what they can do...a lot of it depends on the Pokemon! At the highest levels, there are Legendary Pokemon - Sinnoh is famous for having the three dragon-gods of Time, Space, and Antimatter, for example."

...dragon-gods.

[shutupdib]

"Yeah. What's the point?"

Gaz isn't too impressed by stuffing a tiny bird into a hi-tech ball with what she only assumes is some kind of dimensional pocket inside, suffice to say.

[unbroken_chain]

"Pokemon Training is the foundation of civilization, of course! If you're really good at it, you can make a lot of money, too!"

Sometimes the best way to motivate a kid is with the promise of money to buy shiny things with.

[shutupdib]

"Meh."

Unfortunately, Kotoha is talking to a kid whose father is pretty much the single most important scientist in their world, and who also doesn't know what a sane allowance looks like. Money is not something Gaz has ever had to put the slightest bit of thought towards, ever.

It's not the only question she has, though.

"They're all just dumb birds and frogs and fish and things, though. Aren't there any real monsters, like vampires or werewolves or ham demons?"

The Shuppet hovering behind her has the guts to shoot Gaz an offended look, so she raises an eyebrow at it.

"YOU'RE a puppet ghost or something. That's kinda cool."

[unbroken_chain]

...ah. She's a Hex Maniac, then.

"Ham demons smell terrible - and I'm pretty sure there aren't any in this world - but there are a lot of different Ghost-types if that's your preference."

Seriously, Kotoha has experience fighting demons, and any of them that even slightly resemble Tepigs smell like Poison-types most of the time.

[myheadisnotbig]

A pale hand waves in the air. The other hand is holding onto the tail of a quiescent and rather heavy-looking magikarp slung over the boy's shoulder.

"Yeah, uh... I don't think my pokemon can do any of those moves. Mostly it just flops around! What am I supposed to do?"

[unbroken_chain]

Kotoha blinks. This is Eikichi all over again, though at least this kid isn't into punk rock.

Hopefully.

"Well, most Magikarp start off with Splash, which, yeah - is basically just flopping around. But they can learn attacks...you might want to try seeing if it knows Tackle?"

Slight pause, as she remembers Eikichi.

"...also, I feel like I should warn you in advance: when Magikarp evolves, it becomes a twenty-one foot long rage monster. So be nice to it, okay?"

[myheadisnotbig]

Dib's eyes widen when she says that last part, and he actually takes the large fish from his shoulder and stares it in the face for a moment. (The magikarp stares back. >O.O<) He looks to her again.

"...Are you sure?" He looks a LITTLE incredulous.

[unbroken_chain]

"I've trained almost every Pokemon that exists. So, yeah. Pretty sure."

[myheadisnotbig]

Another long look at his fishy friend, (... .... ...>O.O<) and he addresses it himself.

"...You don't know Tackle, do you--"

WHUMPH!

"OOF!"

The single word seems to launch the large catfish against him all on its own, and he and the magikarp wind up in a scaly, carp-scented heap on the floor. From the looks of things, the Magikarp is just as confused as Dib is, but it's evidence to the affirmative anyway.

[unbroken_chain]

Ah, geeze. Definitely like Eikichi. Kotoha will just go ahead and help the kid up.

"You okay? Not hurt?"

[myheadisnotbig]

Dib gets to his feet easily enough, although the big red fish is still lying patiently on the ground and Dib doesn't look like he's going pick it back up for a while.

"I'm okay! So it really DOES listens to me... sort of. And it knows Ta--uh, I mean, it can actually fight!"

This means he won't have to swing it around like a huge scaled club to "tackle" other things, which was his ORIGINAL plan.

[unbroken_chain]

Grin grin!

"Good for you!"

Slight pause to shift her attention to the Magikarp.

"And for you, too, huh?"