Dual Pokemon Quest

[Space Jawa]

Picking up on Archer not wanting to be outdone by Hex, Lee elected to take Archer's stubbornness in stride, trying his best to behave as if Archer were still just a Rowlett as he sat in Lee's lap. Not something that could continue for long, but he'd grant the bird the indulgence at least for the night.

He also tried to provide some attention for his other Pokemon, but alongside Hex it was Archer's night.

[X] Train Archer
-[X] Get a sense of Archer now compared to when he was a Rowlett
[X] Train Pokemon
-[X] Upkeep training for Crunchbite, Nova, and Fathom so they don't get complacent or rusty

[X] Practice Aura
-[X] Continue to train Form Shield

 

[Blacksheep]

As the days pass and the group travels it feels good to settle into camp as the day ends and everyone splits up to work with their teams. Well, Jasper at least is taking it seriously. Kai seems more involved in studying his pokemon and working with them to see what they can do than training them to become stronger. Whatever Kate is doing is far from what anyone would call training, but her pokemon at least seem happy to be doing it. Kai finally started asking questions about Pudding, which Kate is somehow managing to answer without revealing the fact that Pudding is a type of legendary.

Archer is stronger now that he's a dartrix. There's a stronger sense of aura to him too, it's easier for him to call it up. He seems more intensely aware of things around him, even when he's not directly looking at it. Archer has lost some of his agility, but he has become utterly silent except when he chooses to speak. How he manages to silence the wind is something that Lee suspects is a trick of aura, and perhaps one he could figure out for himself. His pokemon are cheerful to train, Nova reveling as always in the mock battle sessions.

For himself, Lee is getting closer and closer at not only creating a solid shield, but getting it up quicker. It's taking less for him to drop into that place within himself that lets him access his own aura and draw it out.

The arrival in Lilycove is different than Lee expected. It's not in anything he can just point out, either. The harbor city is just as busy as he expected, and the inns on the beach and museum look as inviting as expected. Still, something isn't how he thought it would be. It's like he's hearing a conversation happening just out of range, or a tug in his stomach. He finds himself more restless than he expected.

[ ]Train pokemon
[ ]Spend time with pokemon
[ ]Train Aura
[ ]Visit the Contest Hall
[ ]Visit the beach
[ ]Visit the museum
[ ]Shop the department store
[ ]Check the ships in the harbor
[ ]visit the Pokemon Fan Club
[ ]Visit the Pokemon Psychic Fortuneteller
[ ]Write-in

 

[Blacksheep]

"We're switching Sam! I need you on reserve," Jaden called out. He wanted to celebrate, but it wasn't the time for it. He sent Uri out as planned, and the kadabra lightly tapped down. Uri flashed his eyes and flicked the makuhita back with his psybeam. The makuhita did surprisingly well toughing out through the hit, and came in from the side to try to strike. Brawly cheered heavily half boxing alongside his makuhita. "That's it! Grab the guy and throw 'im!"

Uri flashed quickly doing his best to stay out of the grasp of the determined pokemon. A stomp on the ground had Uri's concentration flicker, and the makuhita managed to grab him. It just wasn't enough however, and the makuhita was thrown down. Uri bowed proudly and stepped back. Brawly laughed. "Well! This may only be your second badge man, but it's clear your pokemon are tough!" He came down and held out his hand clasping Jaden's. "Here you go!"

Jaden stared at the badge and grinned widely. "We did it! We really did it!" He got his second badge!

As soon as he was out of the gym he was releasing his pokemon to celebrate with them. Sam proudly came right up to Jaden and butted into him. His partner looked so amazing as a charmeleon, he couldn't believe he just evolved like that! They definitely all had to celebrate.

A major game of hide and seek tag was quickly started along the island clifftops. When Jaden finally dropped with exhaustion all of his pokemon piled up on him, their own love for their trainer warming the air. It felt like anything was possible.

[ ]Shop at the poke mart
[ ]Hang out at the beach
[ ]Practice psychic abilities
[ ]Visit the old caves

[ ]Train Sam
[ ]Train Oliver
[ ]Train Uri
[ ]Train Zahra
[ ]Train the entire pokemon team
[ ]Play with pokemon
[ ]One on one with Sam
[ ]One on one with Oliver
[ ]One on one with Uri
[ ]One on one with Zahra
[ ]Write-in

 

[Tascion]

[x]Congratulate Uri on his physical fitness in support of his psychic power
[x]Congratulate Sam. If Sam wants, do a training session around his newly evolved form. Test Sam against the other members of the team. Start strong, with Zahra. Work towards control, with Roni at the end of the pair trainings.
[x]Work with Roni, against Uri, on resisting psychic attacks

(Might be worth putting 'Gym 2 - Fighting', or something similar, in Jaden's most recent threadmark)

 

[Space Jawa]

"Anyone else hear that?" Lee asked, looking towards the source of whatever it was he was...'detecting'.

"Anyone else...feel that?" He wondered, though if it was really something only he was feeling then it was likely that no, he was the only one that noticed it.

[X] Does anyone notice what Lee is hearing/feeling?

[X] Start by going to the Pokemon Center
-[X] We're likely to be here at least a few days, make sure we've got our lodgings settled for until we leave.
-[X] Make a short call home (mostly just to update the family on where you are)
-[X] Get everyone's thoughts on what they hope/want to do as long as we're in Lilycove

 

[Blacksheep]

"Hear what?" Kai asked. He looked down towards the harbor like Lee was. "The ships?"

"It's not a hurt pokemon, is it?" Kate asked worriedly.

"It's not," Jasper assured her. "I don't hear anything like that."

The group migrated towards the pokemon center, the sense of something beckoning to Lee not leaving him as he went. They all booked in and began to talk about their plans. Kai was planning to visit the museum, and Kate was eager to spend time at the beach now that summer had really hit.

Lee took some time to call in to his family. His parents as always were delighted to hear from him, his mother more fussy about how he was doing while his father at least pretended to be more relaxed about it. His siblings were more than happy to share news about the farm and congratulate Lee on his pokemon's evolution.

[ ]Train pokemon
[ ]Spend time with pokemon
[ ]Train Aura
[ ]Visit the Contest Hall
[ ]Visit the beach
[ ]Visit the museum
[ ]Shop the department store
[ ]Check the ships in the harbor
[ ]visit the Pokemon Fan Club
[ ]Visit the Pokemon Psychic Fortuneteller
[ ]Write-in

 

[Blacksheep]

Uri was deeply pleased with Jaden praising him for all the work he'd put into his physical fitness. It was not something the kadabra enjoyed in the least bit, so he enjoyed every bit he got. Sam was even more chuffed by the praise and attention that Jaden gave him for evolving, and eagerly agreed to battling to test himself out.

The battle with Zahra was fairly straight forward. As tough as Sam was, he was a small fire type dragon going up against a massive water type dragon. Sam was never going to win in a battle of pure strength against her as a charmeleon. As a charizard there was certainly a chance, but Sam still had ways to go before then.

The battle with Uri went much better for Sam. He was more focused in his attacks, and as skilled as Uri was he wasn't nearly as combat driven as Sam was. Jaden was happy to give both tips through the battle of course, but Sam's sharper instincts carried him through. The battle against Oliver was once more a reversal of fortune. Sam was stronger, but Oliver was quick and clever with his tricks. It frustrated the charmeleon, and Jaden had to call a break for Sam to calm himself back down. Sam was apologetic about losing his temper once he had a cool head once more and was happy to take a short break before his final battle with Roni.

Jaden emphasized focusing more on control for battling the small fairy pokemon. Sam was ready to do that. He was surprised when he had more trouble doing what Jaden was asking for than he'd expected. He had wanted more power, and he had that, but he hadn't thought of what that would mean. Jaden was more than happy to work with Sam to get more control, and promised him that they'd keep training on it.

It felt right when they shifted over the week to training Roni to resist psychic attacks. It didn't quite resist attacks the way that Jaden had expected, by twisting against the psychic power or blocking it. No, the klefki seemed to make holes, and slip through gaps, and push the psychic attacks Uri used just to the side enough to miss. Uri was rather puzzled, his mind filled with calculations meant to seal closed the gaps and holes that Roni seemed to delight in using against him.

[ ]Shop at the poke mart
[ ]Hang out at the beach
[ ]Practice psychic abilities
[ ]Visit the old caves

[ ]Train Sam
[ ]Train Oliver
[ ]Train Uri
[ ]Train Zahra
[ ]Train the entire pokemon team
[ ]Play with pokemon
[ ]One on one with Sam
[ ]One on one with Oliver
[ ]One on one with Uri
[ ]One on one with Zahra
[ ]Write-in

 

[Space Jawa]

It was definitely just Lee, then.

It left him with an unsettling feeling. Lee had no idea what it was, but he was a little afraid to find out.

"Maybe it's like the Psychic pokemon at the Safari Zone?" He wondered hopefully, though something in his gut told him that probably wasn't the case.

Even if it wasn't, though, it did allow Lee an avenue to try to ignore it so he could turn his attention to other things.

[X] Try to learn more about the Museum, Contest Hall, Department Store, and Fan Club.

[X] Visit the Museum with Kai.

 

[Tascion]

[x]Visit the old caves
-[x] Ask Roni to lead the group, with Zahra being the rear guard
-[x]Bring some string and chalk, to practice exploring safely by laying down marks if ever out of sight of the entrance

 

[Blacksheep]

Lee put some time aside to look up the various things that were available to do in Lilycove. He liked to be informed before he went out. The museum covered art styles through the ages, speaking about shifts in genres. It had a comparison of local art with art from other regions. The Contest Hall was currently hosting a contest themed around Earth. It was open to anyone, but it was recommended that only experienced contestants entered. The show would be held at the end of the week. Of course, the usual option to bring pokemon in for dressing up and photos was available as well as information on how to get into Pokemon Contests.

The Lilycove Department Store was basically a high tech place. It had technology from basic storage units for backpacks to portable greenhouses to all the various types of TMs and battle items pokemon could use. In comparison to all of this the pokemon fan club was simple in comparison. It was just a place for people to hang out and share their pokemon and how much they loved them. Something meant for people who had a lot of love for pokemon but weren't necessarily interested in competing with them.

Kai was thrilled to go to the museum with Lee. They started out with art clearly depicting pokemon of good and evil, some marked as divine and others demonic. Then it shifted to the next era, with exaggerated features meant to link emotions and values to what was depicted. This art was focused on telling people stories and what to value.

Kai slowed down as they entered the Gothita era. "Look at these pokemon. Realism was in style, people were trying to capture more of a 3D feel, and yet these pokemon have markings and patterns we don't see nowadays. Historical patterns that pokemon no longer have, or a flair of expression?" he mused.

[ ]Write-in

 

[Blacksheep]

Jaden was eager for exploring the old cave with his pokemon. He'd planned out the trip, taking chalk and rope and everything else he thought they would need. Sam would lead in the front, with Uri sticking in the middle to be able to teleport everyone else back out. Roni was thrilled chiming as they headed down.

There was an odd pressure in the tunnel. It wasn't psychic. It felt more like Jaden was walking towards something gross. Of course he immediately checked in with his pokemon. He remembered what happened with the friendly shuppet. But no one else was feeling anything. Uri was fine, Roni was fine and happy, and Sam was fine. Oliver was maybe a little worried, but he seemed more concerned that Jaden was sick than that there was something bad in the cave.

[ ]Keep going
[ ]Turn back

 

[Tascion]

[x]Consult the glorious oracular sableye gem!
-[x]Try to figure out if it's gross like a Grimer or Muk, or meta-conceptually-corruptive, or some other thing.
-[x]Make sure Zahra and Roni get to see the jewel up close, if they're interested, for not having gotten to see Jaden do this before.

 

[Space Jawa]

"I...don't know." Lee answered. "Maybe it's both?"

He shrugged as he tried to be polite and hide the fact that deep down, he kind of regretting coming.

"I just think they look nice." Lee added as he tried his best not to ruin the visit for Kai or give away that he probably would have been happier elsewhere. "A lot of people with a lot of skill clearly put a lot of effort into their work."

Lee wasn't going to admit it, but he had jumped the gun in agreeing to join Kai in visiting the museum. The idea of an art museum hadn't crossed his mind, and art...wasn't really Lee's thing. He could certainly appreciate what went in to creating such works of art, but he could easily think of other things that he probably would have been happier looking at. Or doing.

But as long as Kai was there already and not by himself, he'd do his best to get through it in whatever way he could that would let Kai get the most out of it.

Who knew, maybe if he paid close enough attention he'd accidentally learn something that might actually be of value in the future.

[X] Continue the visit; it's basically Kai's side-trip and we don't want to ruin it for him.

 

[Blacksheep]

Kai grinned and kept on talking. They moved on to the next section and Kai perked up. "Oh, see, this part is interesting. Look at how some of the features begin to be exaggerated in the art. You see..."

It was hard to pay attention. Lee was doing his best. but he didn't think that the influence of pokemon contests on art was ever going to be particularly relevant. It didn't help that the quiet of the museum and his boredom made it harder to ignore the sense of something calling to him and wanting him to join.

[ ]Write-in

 

[Blacksheep]

Jaden was eager to get the chance to show off his sableye gem to his pokemon and use it to peer forward. He hadn't actually had many chances to use it. He seemed to have a lot of luck finding adventures! But this was a chance to check up on things, just in case. He did his best to clear his mind and focus on what he wanted to look into.

It was in fact tricky to figure out what the gem showed him when he got it to work. It hadn't been exactly super specific last time either, but what did a sense of drowning water and eroding earth have to do with what was here? And he got the impression that it was attached to him, not something about the cave. How did that answer what he was looking for?

[ ]Try to focus more on what's in the cave
[ ]Try to figure out what's attached to him
[ ]Shrug and move on
[ ]Write-in

 

[Space Jawa]

[X] Visit Contest Hall
-[X] Learn more about Pokemon Contests, and the Contest scheduled for the end of the week

 

[Tascion]

[x]Try to figure out what's attached to him
-[x]Maybe Jaden was the source of the contamination, if this was a pokemon-only cave or Jaden was sick with something that could be dangerous to some pokemon inside.
-[x]Maybe the risk is something neutral or good about Jaden, that would be a surprise weakness against something otherwise innocuous in the cave.
-[x]Groudon liked earth, Jaden liked earth, maybe there was something there?

 

[Blacksheep]

Pokemon contests are an interesting pastime. There are a couple different categories pokemon contests can fit into. There is the most popular one, with professionals only, where pokemon and coordinators work together to put on a stunning performance of ability, usually done to tell a story or show a dance. Tickets to such shows are considered worthwhile, and when humans mix in with their performing pokemon it can get even better. True elite class shows are expensive to obtain, and not what the average contest hall hosts. Lilycove's current performance could be considered to fit into the category of ones that are focused on putting on a show for the audience, over a more competitive endeavor.

Then there was the category of competitions and classes. This was for those interested in being part of the performances but were still learning. One could sign up to get tips on how to train a pokemon to perform, and what kind of things were looked for. Contests were also held where pokemon competed against each other to see who's performance was best. These smaller contests happened on a monthly basis, rotated to allow every class level to have a chance.

[ ]Write-in

 

[Blacksheep]

Jaden turned inward. There was something there, and he wanted to know what. It was a surprise to feel himself brush against Groudon. He had of course known about that connection, but he hadn't thought it would be what he was touching.

Even more surprising was the cave shaking slightly around them and an intense feeling of being dunked in cold water as a second presence roared with anger at Groudon.

[ ]Retreat
[ ]Try to communicate you're here peacefully
[ ]Write-in

 

[Tascion]

[x]Try to communicate you're here peacefully
-[x]Send images and feelings of swimming with Zahra, drinking water, splashing about in the ocean, and sweating. Focus on water, since this second presence seems pretty annoyed over thinking Jaden and his team are rocks.

 

[Space Jawa]

What word could best describe how Lee Hinsu felt about 'Pokemon Contests'?

'Hesitant', maybe?

He couldn't say that he was immediately drawn to them based on what he knew thus far, but there was enough about them that he was interested in learning more and see if something might catch if he dug deeper.

[X] Learn more about the Contest Process and any upcoming 'amateur' contests that Lee and any of his Pokemon could potentially participate in (provided that learning more doesn't actually dissuade him from doing so).
-[X] And how they might possibly align with shows that could be watched
-[X] See if the others might take any interest in Pokemon Contests
--[X] Contests sound like something Kate might really take a liking to (and possibly have a knack for)
--[X] Jasper maybe not so much but thus far we really don't have any idea what he's interested in doing while we're here (maybe he's just biding his time waiting for the rest of us to move on; it would be nice to know if it can be done without annoying him or getting in his business)
--[X] Don't know if Kai might have any interest but it would be wrong to just assume as much and ignore him
-[X] While we're at it, see if the idea of contests might 'speak' to any of Lee's Pokemon at all.

 

[Blacksheep]

The ocean seemed suspicious and wary of Jaden's attempts to send messages of peace and water back.

The earth shifted just as much in response to his actions, and Groudon's own fury began to rise and try to press down on Jaden. It felt like a growing pressure trying to push him down. Sam's cry could be heard behind Jaden as the charmeleon twisted and grabbed Jaden, lending his own strength to his trainer. He did not like Jaden being treated this way!

 

[Blacksheep]

The contests were simple, at the amateur level at least. One would design a short thirty second routine for their pokemon to perform fitting the theme of the chosen contest. The next amateur contest that was coming up was about "cute".

Kate was more than thrilled about that, and had to be talked out of putting Pudding out in the contest. As much as she adored the titan pokemon, setting a legendary that most people didn't know was real loose on stage seemed too far. She settled on bringing out her murkrow instead, fussing over the pokemon and talking excitedly about how everyone would love her. Kai seemed interested in at least watching a contest, if not participating.

Jasper when asked simply said he was there for Kate. That was it, nothing else. No further explanation, or suggestion of what else he might want to do. Well, the fellow never was particularly talkative.

Lee's own pokemon weren't so interested in contests. Archer expressed interest in the spotlight, but didn't seem interested in the process itself. And Fathom was just pleased for a chance to squirt water at more people.

 

[Tascion]

[x]Push back at Groudon, tell him he's being a bad friend for demanding that Jaden not associate with pokemon of different types. Remind Groudon that cool islands of dragon lava can't exist without water, it's in the definition of 'island'. Ask both Groudon and the ocean why they don't like each other. Point out that the world is clearly big enough for both of them, and that they don't have be friends with each other for Jaden to be friends with both of them.

 

[Space Jawa]

Lee Hinsu found himself in a bit of a difficult spot. He was interested in at least giving the contests a try, but unfortunately he was without a Pokemon who shared his interest in giving the contests a try, at least once.

He'd have to see if he could find a way of working around that.

Acquiring a new Pokemon for the purpose was out, Lee didn't want to hunt down a pokemon for something that Lee didn't know if wanted to do beyond a single event.

Crunchbite's didn't strike Lee as the right fit; Fathom was a 'no' since he mostly was just looking for an excuse to cause trouble. Archer wasn't an outright 'no' but Lee suspected it wouldn't go well since Archer was mostly just interested in attention.

Maybe he could try to sell Nova on the idea?

[X] See if Nova can be convinced to give the contest a try
-[X] Try to sell her on the idea by appealing to her competitive nature - victory by demonstrating she's the best (cutest) through other means that doesn't involved direct head-to-head combat